#he's wanted on every government's most wanted list before he even learns how to tie his own shoes

[daydreamerwonderkid]

I wish I was as hypercompetent as an adult in the same way Tim Drake is as a 6yr old in all of his fics.

[unoriginalpun]

Sumeru's Grand Scribe: Seer of Light Alhaitham

Maid of Space Kaveh Analysis

Disclaimer: Just like before, this analysis may include my own personal headcanons about the character. Just a heads up! Forgive me too if its format is a little all over the place.

SPOILERS FOR HOMESTUCK TOO.

Since we already know a whole lot about him as well as having already cemented himself as an important character in Sumeru's storyline, instead of just focusing on predicting what kind of character he might be, I'll include some facets of how his surroundings affect him and his classpect.

Seer: Passive knowing class => One who sees their Aspect or one who sees with their aspect. Alternatively, one who understands their aspect or informs others of/with their aspect.

Light: Abstract => Knowledge, awareness, fortune, luck. Literal: Actual light (Brightness), Vision

The Grand Scribe of the Akademiya, a normal and ordinary employee for Sumeru's government, and most importantly; Kaveh's roommate. The irony of the both of them living together is that despite Alhaitham being the one to hold the light aspect, Kaveh's the one who has a title and fame while the former would prefer to stay out of the spotlight as much as he could help it. He even turns down the chance to be the Grand Sage, Sumeru's head official and leader of the Akademiya.

Alhaitham, even though time and time again has been told that he has potential to become someone of great renown, rejects attention and wants nothing to do with fame. He'd rather stick to his unassuming job of Scribing than live in the limelight; wanting to pursue his desire to learn about the world around him on his own terms. From this description alone it makes him an obvious light-bound, yet he makes it a point to hide from it.

So why is it that the one who sees and is encompassed Light constantly pushes it away?

Let's shuffle things up a bit. Instead of his aspect, lets start with Alhaitham's class: The Seer.

The Seer's role is to learn about their aspect and use what they've learned to help others and guide their party towards whatever goal they need to achieve.

Terezi Pyrope is a good example of a competent seer, despite not having to have gone godtier in any of her iterations. As a Seer of Mind, she informs her teammates (most notably John) of the potential outcomes of their decision as Mind is the Aspect of choice and its consequence. With John, she gives him a list of events and choices he has to reverse and change in order to guide their timeline

Then there's fellow Seer of Light Rose Lalonde, who's role couldn't have been described any more flawlessly than by Aradia:

I'll revisit this as I'll further explain Alhaitham's character and how Aradia's description of his classpect could also apply to him and how he acts throughout the archon quest and his character story.

Then there's Kankri. Well... It can be assumed that as his session's Seer of Blood he would've seen how his teammates would interact and bond with each other and in turn figure out ways to tie them together into a more cohesive unit. But it's know that that isnt the case.

Now lets return to Alhaitham and how he fits the Seer role.

Alhaitham has repeatedly showcased how he always seemed to be two steps ahead of his opponent through careful planning, putting up all the triggers in place for a chain reaction you could say. He was able to allocate every one of his teammates to a purpose that would in the end save their imprisoned god Nahida from her imprisonment in the Akademiya.

Specifically, Alhaitham knew how to divert attention away from his plan from the Akademiya . Primarily through distractions that draw the Akademiya's awareness away from the ones who were delegated to free Nahida, was Alhaitham able to bring his party to the most desired outcome of releasing their god.

So you can assume that while the action was happening, Alhaitham stayed in the background overseeing the whole operation from the outside right?

Wrong

I would be amiss if I failed to mention at least once that Alhaitham does actively participate in his own plan, being the nexus that ties all their plans together. Along with his personal motive of just wanting to keep his simple job as a scribe, it would make sense to place him in the Mage class.

I do plan on writing a section that expands on how both he and Kaveh are forced by Sumeru's society to act into different roles, for Alhaitham's case it would be having to act out the role of the Mage, so i wont get into too much detail.

But to put it simply: Alhaitham wouldn't want to be a Mage as it goes against his wants for an untroubled, comfortable life.

Also, he say outright that he'd rather take on a passive role:

Now, there's Alhaitham's personal story quest where he takes a bit of a back seat and exhibits more traits of a Seer.

Another role that a Seer could fulfill is to learn and understand their their aspect or through their aspect, and Alhaitham takes a great deal of his story quest investigating Ilyas and the Hivemind he was a part of due to Sirage.

It all accumulates into he climax where he reveals that all this time be had already figured out what Sirage was up to along with his his plot to overthrow him and position as Acting Grand Sage and had long figured out how to collapse his hivemind through helping Ilyas remember and divulging information out of him, learning more about him and Sirage. Alhaitham then was able to quietly plant seeds in the form of information that challenged the hive's perception of himself that would bloom and spread across the overmind and eventually take it down.

Although Alhaitham is still involved with this investigation, it can be noted that he does not take much action throughout most of the quest until the very end where he destroys the machine that controls the overmind. He mostly guided those around him through each stage of the investigation until they've reached the root of Ilyas' problem.

Finally, let's talk about the latter half of his title: the aspect of Light.

Light in homestuck represents not only Knowledge, but also fortune, luck, and attention; relevance.

One's who are bound to Light are knowledge-seekers that have the spotlight cast on them; wherever they go, the story follows. Sylph of Light Aranea Serket is a fountain of information that spouts up details of anything to anyone who listens. Her dancestor Thief of Light Vriska steals the show and always wants to have the story revolve around her, nothing is secret to her either as her Vision 8-fold reveals to her everything that's hidden behind a physical wall.

Then once again there's Rose, one of the first four main characters and someone who's curiousity for the unkown allows for Light to let her learn about it.

Indeed Alhaitham is a knowledge seeker, his introduction explicitly states this fact:

Yet attention and relevance are what Alhaitham strives to avoid. Does that not make him a true Light-Bound by ignoring half of what makes the aspect of light, or is there something more at play?

Well, I woundn't want this analysis to stop here and now and neither would you right?

First, I like to discuss that in order for Alhaitham to comfortably live in Sumeru he would have to roleplay as three different classpects:

The Aforementioned Mage of Light, which is forced upon by the Akademiya.

The Knight of Light and the Mage of Void. (also both classpects that I associate with King Deshret ;] )

To summarize a point that would need a whole other post dedicated to it: Just like Kaveh, Alhaitham has to switch between performing two roles if he wants to be able to live out his life in Sumeru comfortably. Acting as a Mage of Light in tandem as a Mage of Void so he can foresee and act on a problem that poses a threat to his lifestyle yet conceal his schemes in secrecy, as well as a Knight of Light where he uses knowledge to protect it.

Just like in the Archon quest, Alhaitham was able to uncover a plan that was void in the public's eyes and after bring it to light was he able to plan and act on it, using what he has understood through his findings to protect his country.

So let's come back to the question: With all this roleplaying and its proof, does that mean that Alhaitham isn't truly a Seer or bound to Light?

No, it just means that Alhaitham is really good at acting.

Though, this also could be a great metaphor for masking too. Having to act out certain roles in order to fulfill his society’s expectations of him.

But with that aside, Alhaitham's true colors shine when he is left alone along with the job that he chose for himself.

By himself without the noise of unexpected events, Alhaitham is in the background quietly obtaining information through Scribing; recording and being privy to gatherings and the data it could provide.

And maybe if he was a little less unburdened with Sumeru's problems then perhaps he could fit into that role a bit more snugly.

But how would there be a story if there wasn't any struggle.

Which brings me to my final point, The Seer's arc.

Seers are first deprived of their aspect and surrounded by its opposite. Their character arc is basically them dispelling what obfuscates their aspect in order to learn about it themselves before providing their judgement on it to others.

Rose once was shrouded in Void, first by Mom's drunken and unclear motherly acts of affections then by Doc Scratch through the horrorterrors so he can move the plot forward.

Terezi was clouded by Heart through her unhealthy black romance with Gamzee which rendered her unable to think for herself and left her feeling terrible.

And Kankri with Breath, as he was the only one of his blood color to exist on Beforus and thus began with a lack of any relation through blood.

With those patterns established, I'm going to start diving into headcanon territory and how Alhaitham's title shapes his character arc.

This will differ from Kaveh's as in his case we don't know much about either his past or what he's doing in the present specifically, but with Alhaitham we know a fair amount of both. BUT there are gaps between him in the present and in his past that could be filled in with a classpect's imagination.

Despite growing up in a city drowning in Light, Alhaitham was shrouded in a certain void while he was a child. This was partly self-imposed as the little scribe would rather stay at home with his grandmother teaching and learning by himself rather than using the Akasha system or by being a student at the Akademiya, which in turn deprived himself of Sumeru's light.

Even if he was surrounded by his grandmother's vast collection of books, he does admit that even they are subject to misinformation and can't possibly be relied on 100%. Yet this kind of void is something that doesn't harm him as it's through understanding this void can he starts to see its light.

But perhaps this void persists even after he admits himself as a student in the Akademiya, and it takes the form of the architect Kaveh. Kaveh and Alhaitham are two sides of one mirror: one driven by hard logic and the other driven by emotion. The saying opposites attract did in fact apply to them as during their Akademiya days did they become close. That void that surrounded Kaveh did not leave but Alhaitham once again did not mind.

It was only until a joint research project did the void become bothersome. Ideals and perspectives started to clash and this time Alhaitham wasn’t able to pick apart and figure it out why Kaveh’s point of view. He wasn’t able to find an explanation to why they were at each other’s throats now.

So they called off the project and went their separate ways, a fallout.

Although the source was gone, it’s fog still lingered in the back of Alhaitham’s mind. Many what-ifs ran across his head and scenarios in which he created multiple contingency plans that will never come to pass because they were always about what he should’ve done to avoid their separation. 

Now there’s a new emptiness that surrounds Alhaitham, one he could explain but not easily dispel.

It bleeds into how he interacts with others, only keeping people within an arms length and no closer, learning to adopt different behaviors in order to reach a favorable outcome that wouldn’t result into the same one that shrouded him in this unknown.

He would have an opportunity to rectify this as Kaveh becomes broke. Alhaitham offers him a place to stay the moment he hears the news.

Now with a new start, maybe this time Alhaitham could better understand his now roommate with everything he has picked up during his absence. The arguments that they have often is now new data about Kaveh’s personality for him to analyze and synthesize.

Aaaaaaand that concludes the deep dive into the Seer of Light! I’m totally not setting this up for a series of posts where the nexus is of a certain ship that involves these two (hehe).

[midasinc]

canon era feuilly/enjolras

-feuilly comes to paris without a sous in his pocket and only the clothes on his back. he's worked little jobs here and there for his whole life and he's doing the same. at twenty-one, he's matured too much for his young age. when he secures an apprenticeship under a fanmaker, he's overwhelmed to find himself with a small room to stay in and a place to put his hat

-two years into his apprenticeship, he's given a real job under the fanmaker he's been spending most of his days with and it's the closest thing he has with a family, honestly. but now he can pay them for rent and has a real job and the first day he can afford something real, he buys himself this shiny, shiny green cravat and it looks incredibly tacky with his worker's clothing, all worn and yellowed with age and sweat and stain, but he loves it and he wears it all the time

-one day in the winter, he's walking home from a delivery and it's too fucking cold and he can't feel his fingers or his toes and his skin burns from how frozen he is because feuilly can't afford a coat, and he has to stop inside a cafe to ensure that he makes it home alive and there's this couple of rich-looking students whispering about a meeting as they head into a back room and feuilly is curious by nature, so he follows

-turns out, it's a super politically charged group with lots of talking over each other and speeches and arguing and he sits back and listens and he slips back out after an hour. at home, he thinks about it in bed. feuilly's been in many different places, he's seen so many people in pain. he's been in so much pain- starvation, loneliness, oppression, he's seen it all and he's felt it all

-he spends his free time reading books from the fanmaker's collection: his atlas, his novels, and more. mixed with both his opinions and his experiences, feuilly writes his ideas on government and politics and society on the back scrap of an old list of paints he'd been sent out to buy and he ties his green cravat as nicely as he can and he returns to the cafe

-there's no one there

-and he goes again

-and there's no one there

-and feuilly gives up for a few more days before getting up on a sunday and going once more- cravat tied and list in his hands- and there are students there. the same ones as before, maybe. maybe they aren't, he can't remember. but he's there and for a moment his hands are shaking and he's afraid that these rich students are going to make fun of him, but something possesses him to stand and-

-enjolras is twenty years old. he's studying law and dawns his hat and coat the same as he does every sunday. he's got a particularly long spiel planned about workers' rights and he completely ignores the women passing by and whispering about him because he always does

-enjolras has never been interested in a woman and he does not intend to be- the only thing he truly loves is his country

-he greets combeferre at the door and apologizes for running a bit late, but he sets his things down and momentarily notices a new face in the corner. enjolras thought he mightve seen him at the last meeting, but doesn't recognize him from school, or the area, or anything. the only noticeable thing about him is the incredibly tacky green cravat tied around his neck, shining in the candlelight.

-enjolras asks courfeyrac to greet him and starts the meeting

-he begins to talk about the situation of lower class working peoples and the life of factory workers and low-paid artisans and he's cut off. the man from the corner stands abruptly

-"have you ever worked?"

-for a moment, enjolras is like (oh my fucking god we have another grantaire) but answers truthfully that no, he's never worked. he's never had to

-the young man doesn't berate him, however, but he corrects him in explaining in more detail what people go through and the limbs they lose and the sores on their fingers and the soot that stains their skin all for what? hardly anything. he's surprisingly knowledgeable about lower classes, more than anyone else. courfeyrac returns to enjolras's side and murmurs into his ear that he's actually working class and actually their first member who isn't a student himself

-enj gets stars in his eyes because this is the actually the opening they needed- they need more of this demographic

-after the meeting, he stops the young man with the cravat and asks him for his name. the man is hesitant to shake his hand but does so anyway and introduces himself as feuilly. enjolras takes the time to ask him about himself and his relations to the working community and that's how feuilly gets his first task of asking around for new members

-once again, he's hesitant, but he says okay. enjolras gets starry-eyed again and shakes his hands and thanks him very much and leaves

-feuilly sneaks back into his apartment and loosens his tie and lays in bed, drumming his fingers and unable to sleep. his hand still feels warm from enjolras's firm handshake. he's probably the luckiest guy alive- enjolras is. he's rich, handsome, smart. he's sure to marry well and be successful and have sons who will be the same as he was. feuilly can't really think straight, so he blows out the candle in his room and forces his body to fall asleep

-for the first time in his life, he dreams of having friends and having people his age look at him like a person, and not just a face in the crowd

-come the next week, he's got another couple workers in tow and enjolras greets them just as enthusiastically as he did feuilly. his heart sinks in his chest, thinking that enjolras might not want to be his friend at all. feuilly sits next to the workers and listens through the meeting and tries not to feel melancholy about still being alone

-after the meeting, a hand catches his arm. enjolras is asking if he could stay, maybe, and talk with him about politics. it seems like a loaded statement, but feuilly agrees

-they discuss governments in other countries and political theories and he learns that enjolras is very politically charged for a young man with his status- more than any other possible person. when he talks, his brow furrows and his eyes refuse to stray from the person he speaks with and he talks with his hands. oh he talks with his hands. feuilly can't possibly look away. listening to enjolras talk is like getting drunk off absinthe.

-it's just as addicting to talk back. feuilly wants to debate with him and correct him when he's wrong and say everything he thinks. sometimes, enjolras agrees. sometimes, he catches enjolras by surprise by what he knows. he taught himself to read and write and he isn't stupid. feuilly's intelligent, even if he hasn't been fortunate enough to afford a real education for himself

-simple post-meeting conversations turn to other nightly conversations, ones at enjolras's student lodgings and at cafes with combeferre and courfeyrac and feuilly finds himself excited to see him. as he's painting throughout the day, he thinks about what he wants to talk about with enjolras the next time he sees him

-one day, the madame of the house asks him which grisette has him with such a smile on his face and feuilly laughs it off

-but that cannot defy the fact that he's thinking about that serious look on enjolras's face and the smile that curls the corners of his mouths when feuilly says something smart and he's reaching a hand into his sleep pants and screwing his eyes shut and

-ah. that's it.

-enjolras doesn't notice when feuilly gets a bit more reserved around him. he still pulls him aside and asks him for his input and gives him looks, prompting him to speak when somebody says something he knows feuilly could refute. feuilly is a bit more quiet, however, and it's only after a week that enjolras thinks something might be off

-finding out where he works, enjolras walks downtown to the fanmaker's shop and steps inside. he sees feuilly with his cap and his sleeves pushed up as he details a flower on a fan, hand steady and strokes delicate. he bites his lip when he's focused, enjolras notices

-"feuilly"

-feuilly startles, thankfully not messing up his fan. he glances over at him with wide eyes and then back at his work and then back at enjolras.

-"enj...olras." -enjolras steps up to the counter and asks him if he's feeling ill or if he's working too hard. he says that he's been quiet and off and wants to know if something is wrong

-feuilly pauses and shakes his head. he apologizes for being that way and invites enjolras to talk like they normally should. he says his lodgings are here and if enjolras wanted he could come over. his face is pink, when he says it and enjolras really does worry that he might be ill

-nonetheless, enjolras says he'll come over

-feuilly is fucking sweating bullets. he's worried that he'll say something awful and enjolras will find him to be a degenerate and throw him out of their socialist club

-he's still unsure of how to go about this situation and puts on his green cravat for when enjolras is over and neatens up his apartment as much as he can and by the time enjolras is there, he's apologizing for it not being much and probably being worse than enjolras expected

-enjolras is nice about it, though, and has his notes and books as per usual and doesn't seem to think any differently of him. they talk like usual and after a while, enjolras asks him about his work. he knows feuilly has no family and worked under this man for a while, but he's never seen him at work. he talks a bit about his painting and his commissions with fans and offers to show enjolras what painting a fan is like, but he doesn't have any good fans or paper and he doesn't want to ruin enjolras's notes. enj sticks out his arm, though, and says he could always paint on him

-once again- sweating bullets

-enjolras is glad when feuilly wants to show him his talents. with small pots of paints and a delicate brush, he murmurs to himself about styles and paints an example of popular designs with flowers and more

-feuilly's fingers are rough and warm against his arm and enjolras watches the tip of his nose as he paints, the flutter of his lashes and the splatter of freckles across his face. he finds himself very fortunate to have a friend like feuilly: one who's intelligent, credible where he stands on his opinions, and so very talented.

-hm

-after a moment, feuilly finishes an orchid and he sets down his brush, admiring the pale flower on enjolras's forearm. he doesn't mean to, but his hand lags behind on enj's arm, thumb gently stroking against the skin

-enjolras is watching him very carefully, he notices and thinks that he should probably let go and apologize at this point, but enjolras's feet are pointed towards him and his finger curls inward to brush against feuilly's other hand and his eyes flicker down to the area above his chin

-it's the same at that meeting, when something possessed feuilly to stand up and address an unfamiliar crowd. he leans forward in his seat and presses a very, very careful kiss to enjolras's lips. when he gets nothing in return, he momentarily considers hurling himself into the seine, but then enjolras pushes back forward and kisses him back and it's clunky and their teeth clink together for a moment before they figure each other out

-enjolras doesn't like women or men, he likes feuilly and he loves his country. he spends the night in his apartment- and they don't do much else but kiss. enjolras listens to feuilly talks about poland and germany and presses gentle kisses to his temples and the side of his mouth and his jaw because feuilly is intelligent, overwhelmingly so, and enjolras finds it very attractive

[burnedbyshoto]

sex tapes

— Midoriya Izuku is an overanalyzer in every aspect; it shouldn’t surprise you that he’s into making sex tapes too. When you’re stuck at home for an indefinite period of time, it’s finally time to pull them out and watch them together. —

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pairing: midoriya izuku x fem!reader

warnings: 18+, smut, sex tapes, spanking, sir calling, fuck machine, bondage, choking, slight degradation, dom!midoriya

word count: 3,697

a/n: i’m sososooososoosoosooso tired.... I apologize for any and all mistakes i did this from 2 am to 6 am...........im so tired...... this is for the bnharem collab as always, check out the masterlist for the otherssss buhbye!

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“You want to see our sex tapes?”

Two hours ago, you had complained about needing something to do.

Two weeks ago, Japan had been closed down indefinitely due to a pandemic. A virus sweeping across the nation that had even medical professionals with quirks unable to help. As Pro Heroes, you were given leeway to continue working under specific circumstances. 

Until things improved, Pro Heroes were not allowed out unless circumstances changed. A particular unit of one hundred heroes was permitted to keep up their patrols throughout the entire country because of their immunity to this virus. Unfortunately for you, both you and your boyfriend were not apart of that group.

Thus that meant that you were trapped at home.

Izuku Izuku had been your sweet boyfriend for a little over a year.

Two years after graduating from U.A., you had found yourself falling for your old schoolmate who worked at a nearby agency. He was no longer the short, awkward teenage boy that he was, but instead this tall stupidly buff adult Pro Hero. On top of his flowering, good looks, the two of you began to have instances together. Instances where you would both find yourself running into each other during patrols, having each other backs during team-up missions, and the many parties your old classmates pulled. It was only a matter of time before you held the sweet boy’s collar in your fist, and despite the aggressive look in your grip, you pressed a loving kiss to mouth. 

The rest was history.

He was truly something else. 

But you also learned somethings about your boyfriend that you didn’t realize was a thing until you were far too into this relationship.

For starters, despite how kind he was, how calm, beautiful, altruistic, and self-sacrificing he was in and out of his hero persona, it didn’t bleed into the bedroom.

While there was no arguing that he was a true hero, his aftercare was most definitely the best care of your life, you were almost ashamed to admit that you thought he was vanilla in bed. Not that there was anything wrong with being vanilla, you just didn’t expect him to keep a straight face at the feeling of your breasts pressed against his chest. 

You didn’t expect Izuku to be a sadist of sorts, using his quirk to inflict pain on you. To hold you against ties, sex toys stuffed in every available hole in your body. You didn’t believe he would whisper such lewd things in your ears, taunting you to not cum again despite his cock ramming into you at such bizarre speeds that you were completely overwhelmed. You couldn’t begin to fantasize the way that he would force your body into different positions -- positions you didn’t think possible of yourself! At every instance, he surprised you, destroying all of the theories your old classmates and you had once put together during late-night gossip sessions. As you grew used to this new side of Izuku, the side that made you seriously contemplate if he had some type of split personality, there was one thing you should have noticed from the beginning.

For the most prominent thing that shocked you was the one thing you should have seen coming from the very beginning.

The thing that just made sense for your over-analytical boyfriend to be into.

Sex tapes.

It took a single month of your sexual endeavors to begin for him to ask. You could remember it like yesterday; the way his green curls plastered to his sweaty forehead, his muscles tensing with his heavy breathing when his cock pulled out of your abused cunt. His green eyes, nearly black in their lasting lust, a reminder that you were his, trailed down your body.

“Do you mind if we try something new?” he asked, fingers massaging warm circles into your body. You had nodded, always eager to please your boyfriend in bed. “Do you mind if I film us?”

Had you known what you knew now, you definitely would have said yes still. But maybe you wouldn’t have been so willing to put up with every single time you two fucked if you knew this is what was going to transpire from it.

With the quarantine in place, the two of you could do nothing but watch the news in anticipation for the government to call for more Hero backup. Two minutes under quarantines bleed into two days into one and a half weeks.

The two of you were restless, on edge, and near feral. 

Neither one of you wanted to be stuck indoors, and it was beginning to transpire into your daily interactions. Who knew you would miss physical interaction?

But you two find common ground in releasing this built-up tension through passionate love affairs. You had always believed you and Izuku had a healthy sex life, the both you always finding time to get a good fuck in despite your demanding lifestyle. But this was different.

All-day, the two of you were going at it like horny bunnies in heat. If you hadn’t fucked on every inch of your shared apartment yet, you most definitely have now. The liter of lube the two of you had was gone in five days, and you were beginning to cross off all the sexual fantasies the two of you wanted to try.

Pegging? Done.

Sounding? Done.

Upside down sixty-nine? Done.

Food play? Done.

Every essential role play in existence? Done.

Putting on his costume and fucking him? Done.

You two had definitely gotten a lot of the ‘let’s try it out to see if we like it’ kinks out of the way. As a matter of fact, you were still recovering from wax play gone wrong because you didn’t have the proper wax but were too impatient for the proper one to come in the mail. There was a perk in being a masochist, you guessed. 

If you were honest, you really wanted to watch the sex tapes he had of the two of you. There was something oddly hot about sitting on the couch in front of the T.V. and view the various shots of the two of you fucking. You wondered how different it looked like from an outsider’s position, or if it seemed as good as it had felt. However, you didn’t know how to bring it up without being embarrassed.

So after failing to bring it up, you were stumped on what new to try. To get past this, the two of you had resorted to a website that had over 500 kinks and were now going through it. Things took a turn when Izuku sat behind you on the couch, his hands holding your waist, lips pressing against your neck while you scrolled through the list, trying to find one you both could agree to at the time. But you were never good at paying attention when Izuku’s lips pressed sinfully against your neck.

It took no time for you to straddle his lap, fingers raking through his thick curls, ragged moans pouring from your mouth when you ground against his hardening cock. His fingers gripping your waist in the same spot so hard you wouldn’t be surprised at the time this was all over your skin would be permanently dimpled in that area. Mouths meshed together in wet lust, his tongue coercing you for louder noises, more dramatic reactions to his dizzying force.

It’s when he presses your shoulders against the cushions of the couch, his teeth imprinting against your sensitive skin, do the words slip from your mouth.

“I-I wanna see our s-sex tapes,” you stammer, heat flashing deeply through, burning through your core as if you hadn’t had sex in years. 

For months now, he’s kept the videos hidden from you. You didn’t watch them, they definitely weren’t leaked anywhere, and as you said, your sex life was healthy, so there was no reason for Izuku to be watching them for pleasure afterward. Especially not of late. Your need to watch them on your T.V. was too high, and with them plaguing your mind, it seemed to come out now. 

Thus the question that started this all poured from Izuku’s mouth when he pulled away from you.

“You want to see our sex tapes?”

His forest green eyes peered down at you, they weren’t their usual nearing black with lust eyes, but instead a light green.

Excitement.

Darkened eyes were almost universally known as a promise for something good to happen, but no, not for Izuku. A smile spread across his face, pink tinting his cheeks while he nods his head in that same boy like excitement.

“Such a dirty fucking girl, wanting to get off on watching us fuck? ...I’ll go get it!”

Light eyes on Izuku was a threat. A promise that you had no idea what you were getting yourself into, a sign that you were going to be nothing but an experiment for him to try out. 

Izuku stood up, his tall frame seemingly bigger than he was, and walked away. You let out a ragged breathe that you had no idea that you were holding in while he retreated to where his phone most likely was. 

You lay awkwardly on the couch, pushing up against the plump cushions you could only imagine what his plans for you were. You didn’t expect him to pull out popcorn for the both of you to eat while you watched this, not after feeling his hard cock against your crotch.

But what would he do to you?

You yelped when his fingers grabbed your wrists, tugging them upwards, forcing you onto your feet. Blinking rapidly, you watched while Izuku wrapped a silk tie around your wrists, attaching it to the hook on the ceiling most definitely not to be used to hold your weight.

“Izuku?” you whine when he appears before you in a flash of green electricity. 

“The thing about our sex tapes is that I take them for... educational purposes,” Izuku sighs, his thumb running against your lower lip. He coats his thumb lightly with your saliva, his eyes remaining bright when he pushes your mouth down. “I take them to make sure that I fuck you properly each time.”

You whimper when his fingers hook around the waistband of your shorts and yanks them down. Your mouth drops in a shriek because something cold and full enters your cunt.

“If you want to watch them, that means I expect you to learn to. I want you to be able to fuck my dick the way that I want you to,” he sighs in your ear, obviously pleased by the way you arch into him. “Don’t worry, y/n, if you do well, you’ll get the real deal. If not? Well, we have time to waste until you get it right, don’t we?”

“Izuku, I didn’t think you,” you try to form sentences, but your mind is already foggy when he places a stool between your legs. It dawns on you that this wasn’t just a dildo that he shoved into your cunt, it was a fuck machine. “Holy shit…”

Izuku chuckles, stepping away from you and turning on the T.V. You watch while he connects his phone to the T.V., your arms already feeling like lead above your heads, and nothing had even started yet. His phone connects, and you watch with growing shallow breaths when he makes his way back behind you.

“Don’t look away from the screen, baby girl. I don’t want you to miss anything.”

Your eyes shift to the T.V., a familiar scene of your naked, cum stained body showing up on the pixels before you.

It was the very first sex tape.

“Now, I’m going to be giving you instructions. Pass them, you get my cock. Fail them, and well, we’ll see how long you can last there until you get it right.”

Without a second delay, the video plays, and with it, the fuck machine is turned on.

You watch the screen Izuku, and you kiss sensually. Your body stiff under his, obviously tired from the rounds you’d already endured. Izuku’s arms wrap under your legs, quickly slipping his cock back into your cunt, and the pornstar moan that ripped through your screen you’s voice made you scarlet in embarrassment.

“See, right there,” Izuku speaks to you from behind, and you shudder. The feeling of the cock slamming up into you was something new, the new angle was something similar yet different from riding Izuku’s own. But the tension of keeping yourself was proving to be a challenge. “When you circle your hips, throw your ass out more. Don’t be a prude about it.”

Your eye focuses on your swiveling hips, and you see what he’s talking about. Your ears burn in embarrassment, and you stammer in your discomfort. But before you could genuinely get your opinions out, a heavy hand comes down on your ass. 

He slammed his right hand against your ass cheek, making you shriek while your skin throbbed in his wake. The sharp pain made your legs buckle, a hot pressure igniting in your core, and another loud slap repeated on your opposite cheek.

Fisting in your hair, you yelped loudly when Izuku yanked your head back. The arch in your back was dramatized by this action; your back ached as another heavy slap echoed against your wounded skin. His light, but still wild breathing hits the shell of your ear, chills shoot down your spine when he snarls.

“What did I fucking say?” he whispers in your ear. “I said to follow my instructions—” his hand comes down against your ass with every word, ignoring your growing wails— “I’m the one who’s keeping you from my cock, so you better start listening because my patience is already thin.”

The next spank that comes across your ass nearly sends you stumbling over at the strength and power behind it. Your arms tremble above you, the weight and struggle to keep yourself upright was a challenge as Izuku abused your ass.

“Answer me, baby girl.”

There was no stopping Izuku’s mighty hand against your tender ass, and you could not think of anything but how your cunt throbbed for the man behind you. Your sobs of pain had long ago become those of pleasure, and you could feel the raised prints of his hands on your sore cheeks. 

It delighted you.

“Y-Yes, sir!” You pant, your body trembling in your excitement and need for more.

“You like this, don’t you,” he laughs almost delightfully while he rubs circles against your heated skin. “I guess we’ll have to make this harder for you.”

And harder, he made it.

Izuku came for your speed, intensifying the machine that was currently slamming into your squelching cunt, insisting that you needed to outpace the machine. At one point, he even grabbed your waist and assisted you on your conquest of out fucking the sex machine, but it was overwhelming you. You could barely hear Izuku’s corrections, his demands for you to improve the dipping of your pounding hips, his advice of how you should be louder in bed, of how you should stop using your head so much.

But right now, you could no longer keep the focus on the POV video of you sucking his cock and were entirely mesmerized with the dildo thrusting into you and the way the recently placed gag felt in your mouth.

The fuck machine blows into your tight and slippery cunt, your eyes rolling backward at the mere sensation of the speed it was at, and a loud mewl leaves your throat. His fingers snuck behind your head, unfastening the gag, and was removed with a saliva string, and a sob croaked through your voice as your mouth was finally free. 

“Suck my dick just like that, baby girl,” on-screen Izuku pants, pleasurable noises following after only fueling the hot lava heat in between your legs.

You whimpered, watching yourself take his cock into your sore throat. The ever so eager on-screen Izuku wasting no time starting his face fucking.

You try to keep up with the momentum of the toy, pretending they were his viciously thrusting hips on-screen. Your hips fall against the toy despite its insane speed, keeping up with it according to the praises that now fall from Izuku’s mouth. Your breasts bounce with every thrust, and you moan, seeing yourself choke against his cock. Izuku chuckles, standing up behind you, his hands fondling with your breasts, his moans satisfactory and low, he was enjoying this a lot by the feeling of his cock pressed into you from behind. 

“Look at you, so desperate,” Izuku chuckles, his fingers tweaking your hard nipples. “So fucking needy.”

The words ignite a fire within you, and your legs tremble in unspoken glee. You wanted him to fuck you until you were nothing less than a mess. You needed him to give you his cock instead of this stupid fucking machine.

“IZUKU, PLEASE,” you scream, no longer satisfied with the fake cock stimulating your core. “PLEASE FUCK ME! PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR DICK! PLEASE, I NEED IT SO MUCH!”

Izuku chuckled, somehow pleased with your desperation, and with the sloppy noises of you sucking him off on-screen, and the machine billowing into your cunt, he let you free from the ceiling. 

He threw you against the couch, your tied arms moving over his head and pressing your sweating chest against his taut one. His fingers held onto his cock, teasing your entrance while he stared up at your pathetically needy form.

“Let’s see how well you learned.”

Without so much as a warning, his hips slammed entirely into you, and your mouth dropped into a silent scream at the way his thick cock pressed against your cervix. It was a familiar sensation now, and excitement you had grown to lust over despite the pain it brought you. 

You panted as he slammed into you, pulling you by your hips so he could get a rapid rhythm going. You kissed him, saliva, teeth, and tongue clashing together in this desperate clash, you clawed at his back, desperate to hear him snarl. Unsatisfied with his lack of response, you bit down hard against his lip, the familiar taste of iron filling your mouth. 

He let out his own pained moan as you sucked at his skin, which only coaxed him to drill harder into you, driving you further down into the cushioned couch that would have your back imprinted into it permanently.

His hand found your neck. “You’re a fast learner, huh?” he squeezed his hand around your neck, while he found the perfect soft spot above your breast to suck on, your choked moans a song in his ears.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” you managed to squeeze out, your eyes clenched shut when you felt the burning coil build up in your stomach. “Oh, fuck, Izuku, I’m… I’m so c-close!”

“Is that right?” He said through his own labored breathing. He sucked on his index finger before trailing it down to your sensitive nub and began rubbing it, making your hair stand up on your skin.

His hand against your throat tightened, and black dots littered your vision; the heat of his hands burned against your skin. His teeth sunk far into your shoulder, enough for you to feel your skin breaking as his tongue moved in heated wet strokes to calm your now irritated skin. Then there were his nimble fingers running against your clit, your spastic walls clamming around his hammering and throbbing cock. But your bouncing and swiveling hips-- his taught lesson -- held no value anymore. Izuku’s hips snapped upwards fast enough and powerful enough to overcome and overwhelm you, disregarding any improvement you had made. The only thing you could make out with the way that you were no longer able to keep your eyes open was that his cock was hitting your bruised cervix. The sounds of your sopping wet pussy crashing against his forceful hips rang in your ears in a primal yet excited fashion, and the familiar sound of him using One for All to intensify everything about this fucking.

Your pussy clenched around his cock, and you dug your nails into his back, crying out when an ecstatic wave shot out through you, causing your legs to shake more than before.

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful,” he growls, and once again slams into you.

Your scream is silent, your eyes rolling to the back of your head, your fingers digging into his neck, and your toes curl. His hips are driving, persistent, and have a goal in mind. You can barely keep up with him, your long overstimulated body wanting to collapse at the seams, but he doesn’t stop.

The couch creaks loudly under you, shifting against the floor until you swear you can feel Izuku having to take steps to keep with you against his powerful thrusts.

“Cum, Izuku,” you beg, your hips wildly thrashing against his. “Please, fill me with your cum!”

That’s all it takes, and a hot and heavy load shoots through you, and Izuku collapses onto you. His body twitching while his cock remains hard within you, the feeling of his cum swimming in your cunt, making your head spin with euphoria.

“Holy shit,” you mumble, unable to say anything but that. No amount of fucking had made you feel like this yet.

“I didn’t think you’d have such a… such a good reception to the sex tapes,” Izuku admits, pulling out of you and stumbling to his feet. 

“We are pretty hot,” you jest, trying to compose your sweaty and sticky self.

“You are,” he agrees with a sweet smile. “Give me a sec to clean you up!”

You could only hum when he presses a last kiss to your mouth before retreating to get you cleaned up. Your eyes fell on the camera that had been recording everything and was still recording. A smile perked on your face, maybe you did really like this sex tape thing he had.

[ladyeliot]

Fragile [2/3]

Part One

Based on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

Summary: Who would have thought that fate would bring you face to face with your father's killer? 13 years old, an orphan girl who was taken under the protection of the United States, who was educated to serve the nation and who was now assigned by the CIA to guard what was once one of the most dangerous men in the world.

Warnings: Mentions of murder, psychological problems, violence.

Word count: 3981

A/N: Post Endgame. Sorry for my spelling and grammatical mistakes, English is not my native language, I am learning.

The city of sin is empty, and so are you. There is no one around you to judge you. The rhythm of their heartbeat seems to take over your body, it seems to lure you into the darkness, into which you have already entered. You have been alone for so long that you can barely remember when you felt a caress. The lights seem to blind you as they fall on your skin through the window panes, you can't see clearly where you're going, or what your next move is going to be, but there's something that grabs you, that compels you to kiss his skin. You look into his eyes, offering yourself, inviting him to love you. You look around you, drowning in the night, but there he is, the only person who can ignite you with a caress.

The Japanese restaurant across the street from your building was the place selected for the date that Bucky had worked so hard to set you up with, but after you saw him show up on your doorstep with the most charming bouquet of orange tulips you'd ever seen in your life you didn't care where he planned to take you. The place was quite popular in the neighbourhood, so that night most of the tables were packed with diners, a fact that seemed to make your companion uncomfortable as you walked into the establishment.

"Would you rather we went somewhere else?" you asked when you saw his gaze sweep over the place.

"No, it's fine," he stepped forward, heading to a free table that was quite far away from the others.

"You know, I don't remember ever having tasted Japanese food," you said, sitting down across from him. "I guess you'll have to walk me through this."

A complicity intensified as Bucky flashed a smile, lowering his gaze in response to the comment you had just made. Your eyes lit up, creating a visual conformity as he raised his countenance again and focused his eyes on you. It was at that precise moment that you discovered that beneath the blue mantle of his iris were small greyish flecks. You had arrived in this place almost three months ago, in this Brooklyn neighbourhood full of charming Asian culture, and you had never felt more at home than you did at that moment. You knew every detail of the life of the boy sitting in front of you, every detail that the government had wanted to give you, but you realised that you didn't really know anything about him at all.

It was a long two minutes in which you spent inspecting the person in front of you. He was wearing a black denim-style jacket, a black T-shirt that seemed to match the jeans you remembered he was wearing, and of course his black leather gloves, the ones you assumed he wouldn't take off all night. You rested your elbow on the table and dropped your chin into the palm of your hand without taking your eyes off his for a second. Bucky's jaw was slightly stiff, his lips were pursed waiting for you to say something and his expression was highlighted by a frown. You held it in for a few seconds until again your mouth curved up in a smile causing laughter to erupt from within you, causing a blush to rise up Bucky's cheeks.

"What's wrong?" he asked doubtful of the cause of your smirking laughter.

"Nothing," you said sincerely, shaking your face as your laughter died down and you took the menu of dishes in your hands. "What do you recommend?"

"I don't know," he said repeating your same gesture and hiding his face behind the paper.

"I thought you were a regular," you commented ignoring the variety of dishes and put the menu down so you could look at him again. "What about the nigiris?"

"The truth is that whenever I come here it's always Yori who decides what to eat," he commented pulling the paper away from his face leaving you to stare at his uneasy countenance again.

"Wow... do you think we should call him for dinner recommendations?" you whispered making Bucky blush again as he chuckled.

"I think we can manage," he commented looking back at the list of dishes.

But really your attempt to make a varied selection of Japanese cuisine was in vain when the young waitress approached you both and you decided on a random selection based on the most curious names you had found, so that after she left you were once again alone in front of each other. You noticed that in those long weeks that you had unexpectedly coincided Bucky had never made a comment about his past, it was obvious that he took it for granted that you knew who he was, everyone seemed to know who he was.

"Can I be frank with you?" you asked, playing with the small vase in the middle of the table.

"Please," he replied, giving way to your question.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you seem nervous enough to have dated girls before, you know," you commented in a delicate tone avoiding scaring him away. "Is this your first date in... this long?"

Bucky's nostrils flared as he averted his gaze to the side and took a breath.

"Well... yeah, you could say that," he replied turning his focus back to you as his fingers played. "I've been trying... God, what's the name of the app?"

"Tinder?" you suggested arching an eyebrow.

"Yes, that," he nodded as his eyes widened in surprise. "It's crazy, that's not meant for me, it's like how am I going to find someone there? I don't know."

"I know," you laughed at his facial expression. "I tried it once, but I had a bad experience."

"What happened?" you inquired curiously as the waitress brought the first dishes to share along with the two beers you had ordered.

"I was supposed to meet a blond guy, curly hair, strong build, light eyes, about thirty or thirty-five, supposed to be British," you began as you took a sip of your beer. "All right, I was in the bar waiting for him to arrive, obviously we were meeting in a public place, we said to wear specific clothes so we could easily recognise each other, although I thought it was a bit absurd as I had seen pictures of him. By the time a completely different guy from the description I just gave you stood next to me, wearing a red tie and introducing himself as Matthew, I picked up and left."

"Are you sure that app is legal?" he asked when you finished telling the story.

"Sometimes I ask myself the same question too."

The atmosphere seemed to envelop you over the course of the dinner, Bucky tilting his face whenever you recounted any of your experiences, which were yours, not the character you had created to conduct your research. The comfort was so pleasant inside you that you even felt guilty on several occasions that he didn't know who you really were, a CIA agent sent to keep him under control. Even though it would have the worst consequences for you, for your career and you could never be willing to throw it all away, at least you had never been willing or thought about it until now. Although it had also been a long time since you'd felt like this.

"So...?" you arched your eyebrows with a lopsided smile, waiting for his honest answer.

"A hundred and six," he replied finishing his second beer.

"And I was complaining about the guy who showed me up on that Tinder date, because he was fifty-three," Bucky ducked his gaze somewhat nervously, as you shrugged. "You really are a fascinating guy, Bucky Barnes."

Those words were the most sincere thing you'd said since the night began, plus they brought with them a fresh batch of knowing glances between the two of you, where seconds ticked by, no one said anything and the din of laughter and surrounding conversations seemed to subside above you. You discovered that you weren't curious to find out if everything in those documents was true or not, if he really was the monster they were trying to make you believe. What really mattered to you and why you were curious about him, you wanted to find out for yourself who he really was, his experiences, his future plans, if he was lost, if he was afraid, you didn't want answers to the morbid questions they used to ask him, you wanted to know Bucky Barnes, not the Winter Soldier.

That was the first time you had ever been on a date, with all its letters, rarely had you reached dessert before you had slept with the guy in front of you, rarely had you felt so comfortable chatting with someone, rarely had you laughed so much and stayed until the place closed.

"You're in the 21st century, do you know that women can pay for dinner and we can buy if we want to?" you said approaching the bar and taking your wallet out of your purse.

"Please," he determined almost in a plea as he pulled his wallet out of the back pocket of his trousers.

"All right," you raised your arms, heading for the exit door. "I'll pay for the drinks.

As you stepped outside you could feel Bucky's eyes on you through the glass of the restaurant as he was waiting for the extra money/change. It was a pretty cold night in March, but no one really seemed to care because it seemed like everyone had gone outside to enjoy the Saturday night. You heard behind you the tinkling of a little bell and Bucky was perched next to you, putting his hands in his jacket pockets.

"Well, where..." you started to say before a voice cut you off.

A whistling sound coming from somewhere near you tried to get your attention, but it wasn't until you looked up that you saw a tiny face peering through a window on the first floor of your building.

"Hey!" you exclaimed, tapping Bucky's chest and pointing at Yori who was waving at you.

"Oh gosh..." commented Bucky raising his hand in greeting.

"How was the date?" your neighbour asked raising his tone so he could reach you.

"Great Yori!" you exclaimed trying to let him hear you from the first floor of your building. "Bucky is such a gentleman! They don't have men like that these days!"

You didn't see it, but your companion had no idea where to put himself at that moment, his hand on the back of his neck and his uncomfortable glances around as he blushed gave him away. You raised your arm to wave goodbye to Yori who was saying goodbye as he said something, but it barely reached your ears. Bucky simply nodded showing an awkward smile on his face.

"Come on," you laughed tugging on the lapel of Bucky's jacket causing him to start walking aimlessly.

"Where are we going?" he asked walking beside you.

"I don't know," you shrugged without stopping walking. "I'll remind you that I'm just a tourist, I've been in New York for three months and I've barely left the neighbourhood. But I think you know it a lot better than I do," you bumped his body with yours in a friendly way.

"I don't agree. You may be a tourist in New York, but I'm a tourist in the 21st century world," he commented, hitting you back with his elbow.

"In that case... let's discover New York together," you smiled, and he smiled back, letting you know that he was enjoying the evening as much as you were.

"There," your companion raised his chin, gesturing slightly towards the narrow building looming above you.

"There?" you asked, arching your eyebrows in surprise at what he was telling you.

"Fourth floor," he continued speaking without looking at you, resting his eyes on the place he was describing. "It was a tiny flat, I could get from the kitchen to the bedroom by just jumping up and down. If I opened the window at night, the smell of mozzarella from Nicollini's came in. It was an Italian restaurant," he paused thoughtfully, perhaps wistfully. "Wow... I didn't come here until now."

You stood parallel to Bucky, his eyes seemed to appear brighter than usual, the light from the streetlight allowing you to take in every feature of his face. You were silent for a couple of minutes while he seemed to be distant from the place, obscured in his thoughts, in his past. The time you had spent with him had not allowed you to see him like this at any time, he used to keep his emotions very much in check, not allowing anyone to glimpse them, only letting you see the shame or confusion when he spoke to you.

"So... when was the last time you were here?" your volume was soft, trying not to interrupt him too much, but upon hearing your voice, he fell into your presence and began to pace.

"Maybe... in 1943, just before I left for Europe," he cleared his throat, undoing the knot that had formed in his throat.

It was in that precious moment that you realised how hard and complex his situation must really be. Bucky Barnes was all alone in the world, all his knowledge of his old present was of little use to him now, it might be the city where he grew up but nothing was the same anymore. He also had to live with his legacy, the legacy HYDRA left him. Silence flooded around you, however, it was not a complicit silence, it was an uncomfortable silence, caused by the situation you had just lived.

"My father died when I was thirteen," you didn't know why, but that confession came from inside you, Bucky turned his face and focused his attention on you. "My mother had abandoned us when I was five, so when my father died I was all alone."

"I'm sorry," Bucky whispered making you realise he was really sorry when you looked at his face.

"It happens," you shrugged. "I guess that makes us feel luckier when we find someone we connect with."

That was the first time you looked away blushing as you met Bucky's smile, but he kept his eyes fixed on you. The two of you had made your way to an aimless spot, letting the night fall on you by the riverbank.

"Answer me something, when was the last time you enjoyed the New York night?" you said looking at him, as behind him you could see a wonderful view of the island of Manhattan.

"New York night..." he said looking down thoughtfully. "Well, I remember the last night I spent in New York, my best friend Steve and I went to see The Stark exhibit along with two girls," he turned his gaze to the horizon, "Connie and Bonnie, I think their names were."

"Your girlfriends?" you asked curiously delving into the story.

"Not exactly," he laughed looking at you, "it was like a double date, but they weren't our partners. Those times were more complicated, you know," you nodded and waited silently for him to continue the story. "I had planned for the four of us to go dancing, but Steve was not very receptive, he had other things on his mind, so I ended up going dancing with the two of them by myself.

"Wow, what do you know..." you arched an eyebrow causing Bucky to blush with laughter, gazing at the lights coming from Manhattan. "That means you're quite the expert dancer."

"Not exactly, I mean, maybe in... in the past, it's possible, but..." he didn't know how to express himself, his words were hindering him.

"Show me," you interrupted taking him by surprise.

"Uh?" he asked stopping his steps and frowning.

"Come on, it's time for me to be the one to get out of your time. I have no idea how to dance..." you pointed out, making him understand that you didn't know how to dance in a couple. "Please."

Your companion took a breath as you presented him with the palm of your hand inviting him to take it right in the middle of a small riverside park. Bucky was hesitant but your lower lip bitten by your teeth and your pleading eyes made him definitely decide to hold your hand and accept the challenge. The triumph was depicted on your face, which made it easy for Bucky to oblige by flashing you a smile.

"You're really testing me tonight," he murmured, slowly approaching you.

You first felt the roughness of his leather gloves as his left hand took yours to mark a closer position. Your bodies were close, too close, you could hear his raised breathing and see the mist of your breath connecting. Bucky gently placed his hand on your waist, but nothing else happened, you looked at each other, with a very uncomfortable smile.

"This is weird," he muttered, wrinkling the expression on his face.

"Why?" you looked around you, it was lonely. "There's no one."

"I know," he looked up. "There's no one, there's no music."

"Sing," you said quickly with a laugh, making Bucky laugh too as he shook his head. "I would, but I don't know any songs of the time."

"I don't plan to sing," he decreed without barely moving an inch away from you.

"Then use your imagination," you whispered lowering your gaze for a second, meeting his neck at eye level.

As if time had rushed backwards you were caught in a completely different place, the yellowish light of the street lamps above you and behind you a Manhattan skyline set the perfect mood for the moment. The hand that was perched on your waist began to subtly exert pressure, guiding you to imitate the movement of his feet that he had begun. Embarrassed by your clumsiness you quickly lowered your gaze to his feet to try to imitate what he was doing more accurately.

"Look at me, don't look at my feet," he sentenced with a small laugh. "Look at my eyes."

And you did, so much so that you did, letting yourself be enveloped by their blue, making you blush because of the proximity to them. It was strange, perhaps it was much stranger to you than it was to him, as you bit your lower lip hard trying to escape the awkwardness and embarrassment. How could a moment that could look completely ridiculous from the outside feel so intimate on the inside?

"When was the last time you danced with a girl?" you whispered, trying to keep the situation not too intimate.

"I think it was in London," he replied without stopping his movements. "When I was on leave."

But as he finished his answer you again found yourself under those piercing blue eyes trying to maintain eye contact with you. Again you caught your lower lip between your teeth, thinking of a new question to ask him. Bucky had taken control of the situation, something you weren't used to, and that made you feel alert, he knew it, for the first time he seemed to be in control of the situation, and that was your fault, you had given it to him when you said to teach you to dance.

"Are you alright?" he whispered in front of you with a half smile to which you nodded forcing a smile.

Just as you finished your nod you felt Bucky press harder against your waist and pressed his body against yours leaving your forehead pressed against his cheek. His scent wafted into your nostrils, drifting into your brain, projecting a pleasure that made you close your eyes and let yourself be completely carried away. You accepted that you wouldn't last an hour in the 40s in a dance hall, the second you'd fall at the feet of any young man like Bucky. You didn't know if it was your imagination, because right now you had entered an alternate universe, or if Bucky was humming some tune, but you heard it, you heard how your subtle movements had music.

"And..." you parted your lips, pulling your forehead away from his cheek, trying to formulate a question that didn't come because you felt the melody stop, realising that it was Bucky who was asking it.

His face with a sweet smile on it paralysed you, making you come out of the bubble that had been created around you, feeling guilty for the situation that you yourself had provoked. What the hell were you doing? He was your mission, everything was getting out of context, it had gotten completely out of hand and you needed to stop it as soon as possible. You shook your face, trying not to be too rude to him, and you broke the proximity between the two of you. Bucky didn't understand what had happened, because within a second the happiness was wiped from his face, showing some concern for your actions.

"I'm sorry," he said, raising his hands subtly by way of caution. "If I've done anything inappropriate..."

"No!" you exclaimed shaking your head smiling at his apology. "It's just... I think we should get back, we still have a long way to go and I wanted to get up early tomorrow."

"Of course," the disappointment you saw on Bucky's face almost broke your soul.

The walk home was too stealthy, and that made you uneasy. You couldn't stop replaying over and over the moment in your mind, the feel of his hand on your waist, the proximity to his body, your scent, and the warmth of your forehead against his cheek. It was torture, because on the other hand you felt extremely guilty for violating all the clauses of your job by entering into this kind of relationship with Bucky. It was suffocating, you felt almost breathless inside. Firstly, you should have started by refusing the proposal to go out for dinner, and secondly, if you did go out for dinner, you should have gone straight home, no dancing and no further conversation. In the midst of all these thoughts, you arrived home.

"Please," he said, offering you first the way into the building.

"Thank you," you mumbled without looking at him.

The walk to the third floor began, you had never realised that there were so many steps and so steep until you reached the door of your house, it seemed like a climb up Mount Everest and the worst thing was that Bucky lived right in front of you, on the same landing. You amused yourself rummaging through your purse for your house keys, avoiding having a conversation until you arrived right in front of the door.

"Well..." you started to say by way of an awkward goodbye.

"Again, if I've done anything to upset you..." Bucky repeated again with a gesture of concern.

"Really, Bucky, it's been... great," you concluded, smiling kindly at him. "I promise."

"All right," he ducked his face, not entirely convinced by your answer. "So, good night Susan."

"G-good night Bucky."

Susan? Of course, that was you to him, all a lie.

Taglist Open (DM)

MAIN MASTERLIST

[yogi-thee-bear]

Improving Writing Style

Our writing can be flat sometimes. It’s the worst thing that can happen to us. If the writer is bored, then the story is boring. We need to spice up the recipe. Once writers brush up on their writing style, they’ll find more motivation and inspiration. How the project reads and floats is what gives your story life. Writers have to roll out a red carpet before revealing their main character. Style is a complicated concept to learn. In school, I never covered these kinds of topics; instead, I looked through Youtube videos. After days of research, I’ve found 5 fundamentals that writers need to keep in mind.

Metaphors:

For me, metaphors are the most difficult parts of writing yet the most important. Metaphors connect us to the scene, the character, and even the villain. Readers will understand the situation more once you compare whatever it is you are writing about. But how do we do this?

“Maven is more desperate, surprising himself as much as me. He knows I’m sinking fast, a stone dropping through the river. And he wants to drown with me. Excerpt From: Victoria Aveyard. “Red Queen.” Apple Books.”

Mare is comparing herself to a stone. The connection points Victoria Aveyard makes are; 1.) She is sinking in her situation, 2.) she’s sinking into her steamy kiss with Maven, and 3.) the setting takes place near a river. Metaphors don’t always need 3 connection points, but the more power the connection, the more influential the metaphor. I’d also like to point out this example has a lot of the build-up to it, so don’t think you have to start this strong. The best place for a metaphor is when you’re facing an obstacle, or you’re trying to describe something the senses can’t capture. Yes, the sense could capture Mare’s kiss, but the metaphor gave it meaning.

Sensory:

I’m sure you know of the five senses, but can you work them into your writing. We sometimes forget readers can’t see what the writers see. They are a blank canvas ready to be splattered with the bright colors of paint. You shouldn’t overwhelm us with several senses but instead just explain two.

““I was just trying to watch the game.” Scarlett wrapped herself deeper into the curtains, but Legend pulled her away. His hand was as cold as snow, his youthful face concealed by a shadow. Frost nipped Scarlett’s naked shoulders. Legend laughed and wrapped both hands around her waist. “I didn’t invite you here to watch, precious.” His mouth moved closer to hers, as if he was about to kiss her. “I want you to play the game,” he whispered. Then he threw her off the balcony. Excerpt From: Stephanie Garber. “Caraval.” Apple Books.”

We see and feel what Scarlett is experiencing along with deceptive dialogue. Knowing how the scene looks and feels causes the audience to be sucked in. We feel the frost nipping at her shoulders. Next, we see Legend pull Scarlett out of the curtains. Finally, we experience the fall and fear Scarlett is witnessing.

Word choice:

Denotations vs connotations. Curiosity vs nosy. Denotation is the dictionary definition. Connotations have a different tone of the word. Nosy has a more negative depiction, and you would NOT use it if you were writing about Sherlock Holmes. ( Well, maybe you could)What you should focus on is your word choice. Keep in mind your sentences require clarity and simplicity. Don’t overload the reader with unnecessary words.

““Don’t touch me!” I jerk away, glaring, clutching the foot of his bed like it might be a weapon. “I should shoot you all over again for doing that to me! I should — I should — ” “What?” He laughs. “You’re going to throw another pillow at me?” I shove him hard, and when he doesn’t budge, I start throwing punches. I’m hitting his chest, his arms, his stomach, and his legs, anywhere I can reach, wishing more than ever that he weren’t able to absorb my power, that I could actually crush all the bones in his body and make him writhe in pain beneath my hands. Excerpt From: Tahereh Mafi. “Ignite Me.” Apple Books.”

Juliet is trying to fight her love interest, and from the sound of it, she’s angry. The words she uses to describe her movements make sense. We have a sense that she is fighting aggressively but failing at the same time.

Show vs Tell

Show me, don’t tell me your character is in pain. Instead, show me your character crying in the corner. The show sees your character using her power. This part of the writing style brings your story to life. Every writing professor emphasizes with this in their teaching. This fundamental is like adding frosting to the cake. In fiction, you have to show the scenes. Other than words, Readers have no other visual. This is how you experience the final battle or explain the first kiss. Show us.

“Her hands felt guided. She didn’t fully understand, nor was she completely in control. But she trusted. Kyoshi braced her stomach, filled her lungs, and slammed her feet into the Crowding Bridge stance. Echoes of power rippled from her movement, hundredfold iterations of herself stamping on the ice. She was somehow both leading and being led by an army of benders. A column of gray-stone seafloor exploded up from the surface of the ocean. It caught the hull of Tagaka’s cutter and listed the ship to the side, tearing wooden planks off the frame as easily as paper off a kite. Excerpt From: F. C. Yee & Michael Dante DiMartino. “Avatar, The Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi (The Kyoshi Novels Book 1).” Apple Books.”

Kyoshi, the GOAT Avatar, is bending earth she can not see. From the words we are given we are able to see the picture of the earth bender using her extraordinary strength

Descriptions

Descriptions can make or break your story. Either you can set the scene, establish a problem, or overload readers with exposition. We have moments where we stop and absorb how the character looks and why the things the way things are in the description. I would try to avoid dialogue for as long as I can when writing these. Get your description out before or after the conversations.

“Principal Falcon has a bronze sculpture of a falcon on the edge of his desk. I stare at it, wondering if it’s the sole reason he became a principal. No other office would have held this sculpture so well. Maybe a government office, like Governor Falcon. I’m sitting between my mom and Olivia. My mom got dressed up and insisted that I dress up too. I didn’t, per se, but I’m not wearing sweats. She sits on my left in her attorney clothes — wide-legged black slacks that tie at the waist, silk white blouse tucked in, black pointed-toe stilettos. Her legs are crossed, the bottom foot bouncing. Excerpt From: Joya Goffney. “Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry.” Apple Books.”

This example Establishes the scene. We observe the thought process of the main character Quinn. It’s simple and to the point, paving the way for more dialogue. We learn how Quinn views her principle, how serious her mother can get, and how anxious she feels.

[mrsmaddiebobaddie]

MCYT High School Teacher AU

I don’t know if this has already been done but with student teaching on the brain this was invading my subconscious.

Phil: Principal

The most chill admin you’d ever find (He kind of has to be with the staff at the school)

Will let most things slide if you ask nicely

Has a quiet space in his office for students to take a moment to calm down after acting out. He’ll offer them candy and talk through the situation with them. 

Started out as a counselor at the school, so he still holds a similar mentality when it come to talking with students and staff. 

Always takes the side of his staff. The district is usually in the wrong anyway.

He knows the teachers are the experts, screw whatever requirements the state has, he lets them run their classrooms whichever way is best for the students’ learning

Technoblade:  Literature & Composition

One of the most engaging teachers at the school

Most students love him because he’s real and he’ll tell it like it is. 

Has a coffee machine in his room. It’s rare that he’s not holding a mug in his hand while he teaches

Has high expectations for his students

Rarely gets angry. Even when he’s upset he still comes across as calm.

Usually stays at the school late making sure to give the best possible feedback on papers and reports. He genuinely wants each kid to learn something from his class.

Tommy: Speech and Debate

It’s only his second year of teaching

The students would run the classroom if not for Tommy basically being a student himself

There’s a strong chance his class will be off topic at any given point. It’s always an adventure walking past his door, you never know what you’ll hear

Somehow still gets high scores on average from his students

Keeps students after class when he notices them struggling with school or life in general to talk with them. The conversations are always beneficial.

Will 100% fall asleep during professional development meetings.

Karl: Biology

Tries to act hip, fails most of the time.

Always has the most energy in his lessons, finds unique ways to teach the concepts other than slides and worksheets.

Usually the first one in the building each morning

Will give students different options for final projects so they can chose the best method of showing their evidence of learning. 

Gets lower scores than he should on observations because he doesn’t do well under the pressure. One year Phil didn’t announce when he’d be coming in and watched from the door to give a more accurate review. 

Wears a sweatshirt to class more often than he should

Quackity: Spanish 

Hands on learning whenever possible

Uses the home ec. room to make authentic Mexican dishes with his students when they cover the food and restaurant unit

Will just forget that the kids don’t speak Spanish fluently and ramble on until someone interrupts him.

Slow grader, you get your scores when you get them.

Known to be a bit chaotic with his teaching style, it works for some kids but he does need to reteach certain sections every now and then

One time a kid feel asleep in his class so he had all the other students leave and they had class outside to freak the kid out (They were right outside the classroom window, he could still see the sleeper, he told Phil)

Skeppy: Algebra

Like’s his job, pretty much your average teacher

Can’t stand freshmen, but tolerates them since that’s half the students he has. He prefers teaching advanced algebra to upper classmen

His lessons are always formatted the same, starting with a lesson on how to do that days math, with the remainder of the period being free work time

Holds math challenges with his class and gives out prizes. It’s usually candy, though one time he gave out cash. He made his kids promise not to say a word about it. 

Very good at teaching the same math concepts in different ways to help struggling learners

Always one minute away from being late for first period, but makes it just in time every morning.

Dream: Health/Football and Assistant Basketball Coach

Took the teaching job mainly to coach sports

Still cares about making connections with his students, he uses his class to teach life skills and promote positive social and mental health.

If any of his players are in his class he will pick on them. He has no mercy.

Dreads sex education because no one can be mature about it. He gets revenge by making the students film a “how to say no to sex” video with someone in the class.

His wheeze laugh is iconic. You can hear it from down the hall.

If you meet with him and are honest when you’re struggling, he’ll work with you to pass his class. He isn’t going to ruin your GPA over a project on the negative effects of smoking.

Wilbur: History & Geography/Theater 

The teacher who sits on his desk when he lectures

Is very sarcastic with his students, but knows who can take the teasing and makes sure not to make anyone feel uncomfortable.

Prefers class discussion over solo work time, he likes hearing student’s perspectives and ideas.

Turtlenecks

One of the teachers most likely to be the crush of teenage girls. 

Not afraid to mark you down for sloppy work. You use a black ink pen and draw precise lines when turning in maps and graphs or you redo it.

Speaks in musical references 

George: Physics

The chillest teacher by far

Due dates? Don’t worry, he’ll accept an assignment literally months after it was supposed to be turned in

Makes difficult topics seems simple when he describes them

He doesn’t really care if you have your phone out in class as long as you’re paying attention and learning the material

The students straight up call him George, he doesn’t seem to care

Placing near the top for the most crushed on teacher

King of multiple choice questions

Eret: Economics & Government

Makes any student in his class feel welcome

One of few teachers who can lecture the entire period without students falling asleep. He always has interesting stories

Let’s kids chose where they sit

Freshmen are always caught off guard by his voice when they hear him for the first time

Spends too much of his own money on supplies for his students and classroom (Honestly most teachers have to spend their own money on necessary supplies, he just goes about and beyond.)

There’s always a group of students who eat lunch in his classroom 

The Union Rep at their school, will fight tooth and nail for the staff members

Tubbo: Band Director

Super cheerful whenever he’s teaching

He rarely has any free time before or after school because he has so many one-on-one lessons and meetings with students

Likes to have practice outside when the weather is nice

Does his best to make his students feel comfortable and relaxed whenever he does performance based assessments. 

He’s also a new teacher, but you honestly wouldn’t be able to tell

He will be in tik toks if you ask him to, and he’s familiar with all the pop culture trends

Let’s the students chose a song to play at the last band concert. Some years have been less chaotic than others, the worst (or best, depending on who you ask) being when the students voted to play Deja Vu from Initial D.

Fundy: Computer Science/Coding 

Begins each class with a cheesy computer joke. Every class.

Everyone knows you can’t get anything past him technology wise. He can see that headphone in your ear from across the room.

Isn’t afraid to assign extra work when students are disrupting class

Once took up an entire class period showing his students how he coded different difficulties in Minecraft. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that he plays the game in his spare time. 

About half the students in his class aren’t really interested in computers, they just want to have him as a teacher since everyone says he’s cool.

Known to hack school computers to bypass restrictions

Sucker for pizza parties. Has at least one per semester  

Sapnap: PE/Basketball Coach

Hella competitive 

Abuses his power of having a whistle. Someone should really take it away from him

Gyms shorts every day. Even in the winter. Sometimes he wears sweats, but never jeans.

Doesn’t let anyone sit out of activities

Tries to set up fun tournaments for each activity they do, makes sure to balance the teams so no one has too much of an upper hand.

He’s usually the teacher who mans detention, he tries to make it as positive as it can be though.

Keeps extra sets of gym clothes to give to students who forgot or can’t afford to buy them

Schlatt: Calculus and Stats/Business  

You either love him or are terrified of him

One of the only teachers who can have an “aggressive” teaching style and still connect with students

You will learn something from his class, he makes sure of it. 

Doesn’t accept late work unless you have a really good reason why you couldn’t turn it in

Wears a tie every day

If another teacher needs a last minute sub during his prep period he’ll cover them. Doesn’t matter what subject, he can wing it

He was the reason the school started offering business studies as an elective due to some vague threats towards the district

Niki: Art/German

Teaching voice is so soft

You can’t tell whether or not she’s giving you constructive criticism because everything she says sounds so positive 

Let’s her students lead learning for the most part, she will cover topics that most interest them while still trying to hit the district required standards (luckily teaching electives gives her a bit more freedom with her curriculum)

Her classroom always smells lovely

Will bring in homemade goodies each Friday for the staff room

Holds art galleries at the end of each semester to show off the arts since they often go unappreciated. It has turned out to be a super popular event for students and staff.

Bad: Special Education

This man has endless patience. It’s crazy

Even after the longest days when none of the students are cooperating, he still has a smile on his face

If he hears cursing in the halls he will call you out in front of everyone. Teachers included. 

Makes sure to keep a list of all his students favorites so he can surprise them with gifts on their birthdays or around holidays

He works closely with the other teachers to make sure his kids can be as involved in general education as possible.

Always wears something fun, be it a tie, socks, shirt, or even a full outfit. His students love seeing what new wacky garment he’ll be wearing that day. 

More Head Cannons

If someone brings food for the staff room Tommy WILL take it. Sometimes he’ll come back for seconds, there will be none left by the end of the day. He’s not as bad as Skeppy though, who will literally pack it up to take home for later.

For the past few months the staff members have been receiving anonymous email chains with photoshopped pictures of each other. Everyone was sure Fundy was behind it, Eret thought he saw him teaching his students how to use the program by editing their favorite teachers into stupid situations (they’ve all been school appropriate of course). Fundy did in fact start it, but now so many other teachers have joined in that it can’t be traced back to one person anymore.

All the teachers love going to sporting events. They’ll join in with the student section to cheer on the teams. If they know there’s a kid who doesn’t have family that will come to watch them they’ll make shirts with that players number to show support for them.

Wilbur, Niki, and Tubbo work together on musicals. Niki does the sets and costuming, Wilbur directs, and Tubbo leads the pit. There are plenty of long nights during tech week that devolve into chaos (especially when Niki isn’t there)

Spirit week is very intense, to say the least. The teachers are assigned a grade to be advisors to, and they get into it. For the duration of the week they practically become rivals with whoever isn’t in their assigned grade. They’ll pull pranks on each other constantly, especially when the students can see. It’s all playful of course, but it gets the kids more excited about spirit week when they can support their teachers and watch the amicable rivalries carry out.

Technoblade once joked that he knew every detail about every classic novel. His students took this as a challenge, and tried to find the most obscure and specific trivia questions they could ask him. He has yet to be stumped.

Dream and Sapnap had a running streak of about four weeks where they made everything into a competition. Who could enter their grades into the computer fastest? How many cups of coffee did they drink that day? Who got to school first that morning? There was a tally board in the staff room and the teachers had a betting pool going. Phil finally ended it when they accidently broke the school’s copier trying to see who could scan the most documents in five minutes. Dream was ahead by three points, Sapnap never lived it down.

In service days are incredibly boring, so the staff tries to make those days a bit more entertaining. They order in pizza or sandwiches for lunch. Since there aren’t any kids in the school they’ll do everything they’re no supposed to, like racing office chairs down the hallways and blasting non-school-appropriate music in their classrooms.

Wilbur accidentally started a black market of sorts when he took all the new whiteboard pens from the supply closest. He used this to his advantage, getting people to do him favors in return for the good supplies. When Dream found out he not-so-jokingly threatened to slowly steal everything from Wilbur’s classroom until he released the pens. The next day the closet was replenished once more

Quackity and Tommy are co-emcees for the school assemblies. They hold class competitions between the grades, including spirit chants and ridiculous games. Think minute to win it style, but way crazier. Everyone gets super into it, the upperclassmen usually win. The two have good chemistry and a fun energy.

George has a unit where students make bottle rockets and launch them outside on the soccer field. And every year Karl brings his class out to watch claiming that “it’s science, I teach science, I’ll have them write a paragraph about what they learned”. Really he just wants to watch rockets go brrr

For Schlatt’s birthday one year, Wilbur and Techno printed off shirts with his face on it for all the staff to wear. Schlatt was super confused when he came into work and all his colleagues were walking around with his face plastered across their chest. He got back at Wilbur for it by putting salt in his coffee for a week straight, but Techno never got his comeuppance. It’s debatable whether Schlatt just didn’t know he was in on it, or if he knew better than to mess with Techno.

Lesson planning and curriculum building is quite the process. Some departments can stay on task better than others. Schlatt and Skeppy get in, plan out the term, and get out. The math department has everything on lock. Social studies are also pretty good at getting pre-planning done. They tend to spend most of their time having discussions that aren’t necessarily related to the tasks at hand though. The English department is a mess. It’s really Tommy who’s a mess, he just projects that onto everyone else. Karl and George work well together to map out science curriculum. Even though teachers who teach electives aren’t required to collaborate with each other, they still get together and bounce ideas off each other and get feedback.

I have plenty more if people want a second part. I also only listed the MCYTs that I’ve watched enough to know their personalities at least a little bit, but if you wanted to see another person I may expand the staff list!

[disneydeb1928]

One Piece Theory: The SWORD Initiative

The SWORD Initiative 

SWORD first appeared in Chapter 956 when it was discovered that X Drake, a member of the 11 Supernovas was, in fact, an undercover Marine. Not much is known regarding this organization other then Drake is the Captain and Koby is also a member.

Storytelling: Oda is not a newbie when it comes to storytelling. I’ve said it a million times, but I will say it again: Oda has mastered a very unique type of storytelling. Many others will tell you the same thing. He is a man who values how you feel about characters above how you may feel about his organizations overall. This is why, he always introduces characters, allowing you to make your own judgements before revealing more information on them. With that being said, some people may believe that since this is a recent addition to the plot that this organization must not have been around long. However, that just isn’t true. Oda would never create something this relevant to the story that isn’t routed deep in the past. He loves to make his reveals and have us gasp because suddenly something that happened 200 chapters ago now makes sense. With that being said, I think it is safe to say that there is more to this organization that meets the eye. Therefore, let’s first establish their existence within the established timeline.

Timeline:

X Drake was born on October 24, 1491. We know that he was taken in by the marines when he was 20 years old (in 1511) after the incident of Rosinante stealing the Ope Ope no Mi from his father’s pirate crew. The wiki says that “He [would] eventually enlist as a Marine himself” indicating that he didn’t join right away.

Drake doesn’t appear in the story until chapter 498 (in the year 1522). That means that there are 11 years unaccounted for. In that time, we know he apparently rose to the rank of rear admiral before defecting (Ch. 509)  – again no timeline specifics have been give (but I don’t doubt we will get them in the future).

However, me may be able to speculate based on other Marines.

·         Tashigi was able to go from Master Chief Petty Officer to Ensign (skipping Warrant Officer) in the couple of months that took place between the Loguetown Arc and the Post-Enies Lobby Arc. After the timeskip, Tashigi was a Captain (skipping 4 positions). Therefore, overall, for her to go from Master Chief Petty Officer to Captain, it took roughly 2 years and a couple of months.

·         Similarly, Smoker was able to from a Captain to a Commodore and then to Vice Admiral in the same time period (2 years and a couple of months).

·         Therefore, one could speculate that to go from Master Chief Petty Officer to Vice Admiral it would take around 4 years and 6 months. Since Rear Admiral is only one rank below Vice Admiral I’m going to say that the times are probably similar. [Disclaimer 1: I say this recognizing that there are probably 1000 different things that go into promotions within the Marines (such as accomplishments, age, etc) and that not every person is going to advance at the same pace. With that being said, I do think that we can still learn a lot from it – He’s not a background character after all]. In conclusion, I think 4 years and 6 months is a decent ballpark to aim for and I am willing to speculate that it would have taken Drake at least 4 and a half years to reach the rank of Rear Admiral, putting his age at around 24 (placing this in the year 1515) [Disclaimer 2: This age is completely based off the possibility that Drake joined the marines during the first year he was with them]. All this means, is that at the earliest Drake was a Rear Admiral by 1515.

We are led to believe that his defection has always been staged, and that from the beginning, everything he did was towards advancing SWORD’s goal. So that means SWORD has existed since before the beginning of the series.

We do not know how long he was a pirate before he made his appearance, however, by the time he did, he already had a full crew and a bounty of 222,000,000. We know that Cavendish became a Supernova in 1521, so I think we can make that the latest that Drake could have possibly left the Marines.  

Flashing forward, I think we can pretty much conclude that Koby joined SWORD at some point during the 2-year timeskip.

The Creation of SWORD

If that is the case, that we can conclude one of two things. Either:

1.      Drake created the SWORD organization and began his own mission alone

2.      SWORD already existed before that point and someone approached him to join and start his mission

There isn’t enough information available at this point to really say either way. However, I would speculate that SWORD wasn’t Drake’s idea.

Possible SWORD Members

1.) Issho / Fujitora & Ryokugyu

Issho and Ryokugyu are both new Admirals to replace the positions that Kuzan and Akainu left open during the 2-year timeskip. From what we’ve seen of Issho’s personality, I think he is probably one of the more likely options for SWORD members. He intentionally blinded himself when he became disgusted with all the evil and corruption he had seen in the world (Ch. 799). Some might say that he joined the Marines to fight that evil but perhaps the Marines are the evil he wanted to fight? We’ve seen multiple instances where he put the good of the people above capturing Luffy and the Straw Hats. So much so, Akainu and him got into a heated debate that ended with Issho being band from any Marine base until Luffy was captured (Ch. 801).

Outside of personality wise and evidence of him going outside of Marine orders, there is another reason he is on this list, as well as why I grouped him with Ryokugyu, who we know almost nothing about. And the answer to that is: The Folklore of Momotaro.

An excerpt of the Folklore of Momotaro:

“When he matured into adolescence, Momotarō left his parents to fight a band of Oni (demons or ogres) who marauded over their land, by seeking them out in the distant island where they dwelled (a place called Onigashima or "Demon Island"). En route, Momotarō met and befriended a talking dog, monkey and pheasant, who agreed to help him in his quest in exchange for a portion of his rations (kibi dango or "millet dumplings"). At the island, Momotarō and his animal friends penetrated the demons' fort and beat the band of demons into surrendering. Momotarō and his new friends returned home with the demons' plundered treasure and the demon chief as a captive.”

It has been said before that Aokiji, Akainu, and Kizaru’s Admirals alias are based on the three animals that helped Momotaro (pheasant, dog, and monkey). A fan wrote to Oda in the recent SBS (Vol. 76) and theorized that Fujitora and Ryokugyu (The tiger and ox) are based on the oni (demons) that Momotaro had to face during his adventure, which would imply that they could be against the World Government. Oda jokingly responded, “I’m not saying a single thing about whether this theory is correct or incorrect, okay? (cold sweat)”. If this is true, I think this could serve as proof that they are either members of SWORD or even the Revolutionary Army.

2.) Kuzan / Aokiji

Kuzan, very similar to Issho, has had multiple instances where he has deviated from what Akainu refers to as “absolute justice”. For starters, he was the once responsible for allowing Nico Robin to escape from the Buster Call on Ohara by providing a small boat while also a trail of ice for her to leave safely. Another example is when he (similar to Issho) didn’t arrest Luffy because he defeated Crocodile, saving Alabasta.

However, I think a big reason why many people speculate that he may be a part of SWORD are the parallels between him and X Drake. After the timeskip, we discover that after losing the Fleet Admiral fight between him and Akainu, Kuzan resigned from the Marines. Afterwards, he became affiliated with the Blackbeard Pirates, just like how Drake resigned and created the Drake Pirates. I will say, that these similarities give just as many reasons as why he would be a SWORD member as for why he isn’t. It’s possible these stories are too alike for Oda to tie them to the same cause. However, it is possible that the SWORD initiative is all about going undercover as pirates. But if that was true, then why is Koby not undercover? Just food for thought.

3.) Smoker & Tashigi

If we were to make a list of likeable Marines, Smoker would probably slotted right behind Koby. From the moment he comforted that crying little girl in Loguetown, he gained a lot of fan-fare. I think a lot of people hope that Smoker is a member of SWORD. Like the previous two Admirals above, he has had his fair share of compromising the Marines’ belief in “absolute justice” in order to do the right thing. In fact, out of all of the Marines mentioned on this list, he has done this the most. All of those moments have served as an example of his character. Outside of that, I think it is interesting that Smoker decided to request transfer to G-5 at the beginning of the timeskip, a place known for having difficulties. I think it is definitely possible Smoker is a member.

4.) Rosinante

Very similar to Kuzan and Drake, Rosinante placed himself undercover in order to stop his brother, Doflamingo. It is very possible that this was a very early SWORD mission. Or it could have what led to the creation of SWORD.

6.) Sengoku & 7.) Monkey D. Garp

Like Smoker and Tashigi, these last two are an example of ‘we like them, so we want them to be a part of this good organization’.

Honestly, I have tried to wrap my mind around why the heck Garp is even still involved with the Marines. The only other ‘D.’-bearer we know that was in the Marines, was Jaguar D. Saul, who ended up defecting in order to save Nico Robin during the Ohara Incident. If Garp is not a member of this shadow organization, then there is a deeper reason for why he joined the Marines and stayed.

[noctomania]

I want you to understand the cause and effect of what has led to what is going on in texas at least re: abortion laws.

First off let me clarify: Roe v Wade was not law...yet. When you see a ___ v ___, that is an opinion. Not in the sense you may think. It's an opinion decided through litigation which means it's a powerful opinion that has been hammered out through the judicial process of a lawsuit being drawn up, and worked out in court. It could be a local, state, or federal court. Typically the ones that are most significant are federal, or ones that have come before the US Supreme Court - either because it is the federal government that is being challenged, the defendant petitions to move it to federal, or that the case has been elevated through appeals.

There are particular circumstances that determine if a case can go federal level:

"Federal court jurisdiction, by contrast, is limited to the types of cases listed in the Constitution and specifically provided for by Congress. For the most part, federal courts only hear:

Cases in which the United States is a party;

Cases involving violations of the U.S. Constitution or federal laws (under federal-question jurisdiction);

Cases between citizens of different states if the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000 (under diversity jurisdiction); and

Bankruptcy, copyright, patent, and maritime law cases.

In some cases, both federal and state courts have jurisdiction. This allows parties to choose whether to go to state court or to federal court."

Federal courts may hear cases concerning state laws if the issue is whether the state law violates the federal Constitution.

In the case of Roe v Wade, the attorney's filed to the Supreme Court since the argument was that the state law was a violation of a federal law - specifically the 14th amendment assertion of right to privacy. That is what determines the jurisdiction in this case.

RvW was decided in 1973 with a 7-2 ruling in favor of Roe's right to privacy and ultimately right to choose how to treated her pregnancy. Why hasn't it been turned into law? Obvious reasons over the years include what party is in power in executive, congressional, or even judicial circles. Right now though we have a D in the executive and congress, but something many are overlooking is the critically important and understates judicial branch - which holds significant changes Trump installed.

Also regarding congressional, though there is a stronger hold on the house (even with 3 vacancies), the senate is just barely D majority with 50 R, 48 D and 2 independent as shown in the charts below. The two Independent Senators, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, caucus with the Democrats which brings it 50/50 and the US VP - Harris (D) in this case - is the President of the senate and ultimately serves as a tie breaker for votes as well as situations like this even divide of party members. Were the VP a republican than republicans would still have a senate majority.

I will dive more into what's going on with the senate and why even with a D majority it isn't where it needs to be as it's a bit less straight forward.

So how the hell are abortion rights being challenged? Why aren't the all powerful democrats doing anything?!

Well, they are and have been doing a lot - and I urge you in moments when you are frustrated by feeling as though "dems aren't doing anything" to dig deeper to understand how our government operates. It's very clear there is a poor comprehension of our civics system by the general population which is why I'm using this as an opportunity to not only inform but also to learn more myself. I was educated primarily in Texas public education system. I was privileged enough to have decent teachers, but there is still much to learn. I'm doing research as I write this. I've already learned a lot. Come learn with me!

Alright, you're on board with learning more? Great choice! Let's get into it.

So with dem control of executive and congressional branch, all that is left is judicial.

"Trump appointed 54 federal appellate judges in four years, one short of the 55 Obama appointed in twice as much time."

Trump also had a major influence on the nation’s highest court. The three Supreme Court justices he appointed – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – are the most by any president since Ronald Reagan (who appointed four) and the most by any one-term president since Herbert Hoover

Donald Trump has appointed and the Senate has confirmed 220 Article III federal judges through November 1, 2020, his fourth year in office.

The average number of federal judges appointed by a president through November 1 of their fourth year in office is 200.

Judges are supposed to be neutral impartial parties who use only what is presented in court and through the judicial process (which involves looking at current standing laws) to determine their decisions in court instead of using their personal opinion or political sway to inform them. However, as we saw all too often, trump was not interested in impartiality. He was interested in control, asserting his own personal opinion, even on occasion insisting he himself as president had more control than the constitution actually allows. So with that conflict and the fact he installed so many judges really makes huge impact on the judicial branch of our government. Since every branch is supposed to be fair and equal this causes a lot of road block when one branch is neither fair nor equal. You can't simply use the other two the gain up on the third - though in this case that would be convenient for dems, it would be much less convenient when the parties were reversed. It's also important to acknowledge the reality that D are not always impartial either - which again we will get to after judicial chat - nor are all R unfair. This can be a hard pill to swallow, even for me. Reality is not always easy to accept.

So of course appointments made by trump, of which there were many, can not be trusted to actually be acting in good faith, but in favor of personal or political interests (which also often come down to personal interest of a financial persuasion). When judges are not impartial, they may make decisions that ultimately contradict what was presented in court or what the law of the land says. Typically if a hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee (you can see an example here of the first day of Amy Comey Barrett's hearing day 1/3) determines that there is a conflict of interest or that they are illgitimate, then ideally a judge will be blocked from appointment. This clearly also depends on the makeup and impartiality of the Senate and thus the Committee. The Committee will debate and vote on whether or not to confirm every nomination made by a President. (it used to require 3/5 of the senate or 60 votes but since 2017 only requires a "simple majority" or 51 votes for confirmation)

I want to take a quick aside here and go a little philosophical in understanding judicial impartiality, because I hope it will help you have some perspective on how it's an inherently difficult matter. Ultimately the court's impartiality comes down to checks/balances and faith. Not religious faith, but faith in humanity and honesty. Trusting that there is no hidden motive or lies or manipulation at play. We tend to have to rely heavily on the checks and balances part since faith in humanity can be easily manipulated with lobbying and politicians eagerness to look bipartisan for popularity in elections (appealing as more bipartisan is considered a way of winning over more votes like centrists and those just left and right of it). Checks and balances allows oversight of the 3 branches over one another and attempting to keep the scales balanced in order to prevent any one branch being too powerful and ultimately to avoid the US being something more like a monarchy - which was a primary goal at the time of forming the constitution and government since it is what we had fought to escape in the first place.

"So judges aren't allowed their 1st amendment rights?!"

Humans are merely humans no matter what title they have or role they play and humans are inherently flawed and partial. Nobody is perfect and some make mistakes as well as bad faith decisions for ulterior motives (could be a matter of loyalty to well funded lobbyists or even general unchecked and ultimately supported ignorance or a power grab). After and throughout checks and balances, that is where the faith part comes in that we hope we can trust judges to put their personal opinion aside and go with what the evidence presented in court and the law and super precedents tell them. We trust the Committee to do their due diligence in researching nominees and asking them tough questions. Realistically everyone can and likely will have some kind of opinion on any major issue, so it is not that anyone expects a justice to not have a personal opinion, only that they not use it to determine their decision in court. So, say i was a judge looking at a defendant accused of a civil rights infringement and i personally felt that they were guilty but there was no or not enough "valid" evidence to prove it, I couldn't assert they are guilty just based off my own opinion. I would have to depend on the evidence shown in court proving that it has infringed on precedents or existing law.

(All the appointments made by trump can be viewed more in detail here.)

"BLAHBLAHBLAH WHAT ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT"

It would be too tumultuous for me to dig into each of the 3 Supreme Court judge appointments by trump in regards to current issues around Roe v Wade, so I'm going to focus on one that is likely most relevant in particular: Amy Coney Barrett. Barrett was an appointment made when Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing caused a vacancy in the court. (Why didn't she retire under Obama? The Senate was GOP controlled which made the odds of a pro-choice appointment being confirmed low). RGB was well known for being a strong advocate for the right to choose and for a long time was a stronghold in the court to ensure Roe v Wade was upheld. Since trump wouldn't want to lose too many votes from women and allies to women, he made the clear choice to appoint a woman which is what i would call performative in the case that though Barrett is a woman she does not particularly stand on the side of women's rights.

In day two of Barrett's confirmation hearing, Senator Klobuchar honed in on Barrett's opinions regarding Roe v Wade - especially as to whether it is considered what is called a "super precedent", an important matter when talking about codification. Klobuchar makes it clear that Barrett has said she finds Brown v BoE to be a super precedent despite the Supreme Court never impressing that opinion, but refuses to consider Roe v Wade a super precedent despite that being a Supreme Court opinion. Barrett's argument is that "scholarly literature" she has read has asserted it is not a super precedent because calls for its overrule has never ceased, where as cases such as Brown v Board "nobody questions anymore". Klobuchar digs in again asking if US v Virginia Military is a "super precedent" and Barrett refuses to answer - or as she phrases it "grade" - because it wasn't one of the cases Barrett spoke about in an article she had written.

After Klobuchar asked Barrett if Roe v Wade is a super precedent, Barrett asked Klobuchar how the Senator defines a super precedent. Reasonably so, Klobuchar - who is a senator and not a judge - scoffs and puts that responsibility back on Barrett who was nominated to be a Supreme Court judge. Barrett obliges and asserts a definition that she uses is of (supposedly not conservative) ONE scholarly opinion which depends on a case being "so well settle that no political actors and no people seriously push to overrule"

In a scholarly opinion in 2006 by Michael J Gerhardt at University of North Carolina School of Law defined a super precedent in many ways one being "decisions whose correctness is no longer a viable issue for courts to decide; it is no longer a matter on which courts will expend their limited resources."

However:

in the Roberts hearings, Charles Fried, a prominent conservative legal scholar at Harvard, agreed explicitly that Roe was a superprecedent. As solicitor general under President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Fried had asked the court to overturn Roe. But testifying on behalf of Judge Roberts, he said that Roe had become a super-duper precedent that would not and should not be overturned, because it was reaffirmed in 1992 and extended in subsequent decisions protecting gay rights and the right to die.

Here is a good example of what happens in academia and why i take "scholarly research" with a heap of salt since I have experience in doing scholarly research. When you are doing research, your audience is trusting that you have run through all the hard work of researching both sides of a specific matter - not just looking up opinions based on whether they are from a conservative or a liberal as that is not supposed to be what determines their opinion on any particular matter.

You are supposed to be actually looking into all the differing opinions on the specific subject matter. While it does help to have a context of the profile of the one giving the opinion, it is the evidence they present in their argument that is what should be prioritized in research. The audience is also trusting that the sources the researcher uses are valid, researched, and impartial and that any studies they use are peer reviewed and use proper methodology and are also impartial without any sway from funders. Since many academic resources that would elaborate on these details are often gatekept through paywalls or language or other accessibility barriers, it can be difficult for the general population to do their own research - the majority of which do not have access for one reason or another - they are left with nothing but to choose to have faith the researcher they are reading did their job earnestly.

Barrett focusing on opinions from scholars (actually it seems she is more dependent on one particular scholar's opinion - Gerhardt as seen in notes 128-132) based on whether or not they are typically conservative scholars is basing it on an irrelevant matter when she should have been taking on all opinions about super precedents and digging into comparing and contrasting them based on whether or not they hold water. It seems more like she sought a defense for her pre-determined opinion and insulated it from challenge by excluding any other assertions despite their significance. She ultimately failed at her responsibility as a researcher.

On Wednesday 9/2/21, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to not block Texas SB8, a decision that weakens Roe v Wade.

Now this has been a very long form way of spelling out just SOME of the impact that trump has had on the judicial branch. I want to now go back to 2016 when he was elected, and try to extrapolate why what happened in that election was a serious failure in regards to those responsible for casting their votes: The People.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

"We the people" is every single resident and/or citizen of the nation at any time. The constitution is essentially a contract drawn up between every single one of us including those born and raised here, those who move here, those who's communities were here before the formation of the nation, and those who may be a citizen but living elsewhere. The diversity of The People in every faucet of human life makes this document necessarily complicated and amendable. In consequence the way in which our government is also complicated but also amendable. One matter that has been a point of contention since the dawning of the nation is the right to vote.

Who could vote & When (.):

1776: white men over 21 who owned land

1870 Racial barriers eliminated tho 15th is not enforced by states

1920: white women can vote

1924: Native american's given voting rights

1964: Civil Rights Act - all above 21y/o may vote regardless of identifiers such as race - ensures Black people's right to vote

1971: Voting age lowered to 18

1984: Accessibility extended to disabled americans by setting accessibility standards

In between all of these are other matters that challenged the accessibility to voting for one population or another such as literacy tests, naturalization, and polling taxes. Many of the challenges were directly challenging to People of Color particularly Black Women. To this day there are still many who must fight to assert their right - a right that should never be denied, never be thought of as less than inherent. Access is less a concern for the wealthy and well to do as their needs are never on the line the way it is for people who are poor, Black, disabled, immigrant, or even just have a primary language other than English.

For those of us who have never had to fight to utilize our right to vote in our life have too often shown that we do not respect the power in this right. Or rather know exactly how powerful it is and choose to use that power in a destructive way because we aren't getting our faves. For the first many many years I was eligible to vote, I refused to at all because I do not like how our government and politicians conducts themselves. As soon as I learned about the filibuster I was so pissed I didn't want to partake at all. Have I be impacted by this personally? To an effect, but not in a way that impacts my life significant enough for me to really notice. But in congruence with other privileged decisions not to vote, it has certainly impacted many lives. In a nation where communities are still fighting to have the law meant to protect them properly enforced, it is entirely a privilege abused to choose not to vote.

Though I was 18 in 2007, 2016 I cast my first vote.

Why? Because it was finally looking as though I may face personal consequences if I didn't. Prior to 2016 i wasn't worried bc there was obama, i wasn't old enough to vote when bush was up for relection and seeing him win again embittered me further. by the time I was 18, I saw how unreliable 3rd party was despite my parents being all in that gambit, and otherwise it all felt like nobody was paying attention to the issues only on popularity contests. All i thought of though was my perspective on the matter. It was all me-centric, my choice to withhold from voting in any election. When trump started to look less like a joke and actually got traction, I saw my neighbors trump signs and i looked at where i was in life. I had also began to actually do the work and stop letting apathy guide my decisions, but to rather listen to my humanity and my responsibility as my neighbor's neighbor.

Quite literally. At the time my neighbor was a Black woman. I only spoke to her once and it was when she came by to selflessly make sure I was going to be ok when our landlord was kicking us out to sell the place out from under our feet - something I hadn't even considered doing yet seemed like second nature for her to do (to be fair i was struggling to find a place but i've no idea about her life). I wish i had gotten her name and stayed in touch, it's kind-hearted people like that that are hard to come by. I'm still working on being as selfless.

I was and am proud to have not only voted in 2016, but for my first vote to have been for a woman. I was scared and for someone other than myself for once in 2016. I had high hopes for Clinton based on name recognition and basic common sense.

Humans are not perfect. Nor are they inherently humble.

Trump encouraged arrogance among the most ignorant leaning right. Sanders encouraged arrogance in the most ignorant leaning left. Clinton seemed to always get the most dramatic fire though from both sides, which signaled to me some kind of mess was going on. My own parents tried to sell me on Sanders, but by this point I had a better concept of how to properly research and untangle the mythologies that were parroted by my own parents about Clinton. Even when I proved their parroted lies wrong they were unwilling to concede, only to move the goal post or deflect.

Now, I get to my point.

Which is to really smack upside the head of anyone who chose not to vote in 2016, everyone who is left or liberal but voted for trump, everyone who wrote in someone else. If trump hadnt made it in as POTUS, paired with the republican majority senate, the landscape of the judicial branch would not have faced such a conservative shift, it wouldn't have given mcconnell so much influence, it wouldn't have resulted in the pandemic being so much worse than it needed to be. Many lives would have been spared. You can only blame the government for so long until you realize we are the government, we install the government, and we hold power we must use wisely. We the People.

Many who voted for clinton have been critical of her. As we always should be critical of those we choose in any level of government. We the people hold responsibilities that build this nation from the ground up, and without adherence to those responsibilities it puts other's rights in danger. When we decide that something doesn't matter that much to us or weighing it against the consequences we may personally face - you're failing in your responsibility to your neighbor who is likely doing far more justice to you than you are extending to them.

Yes my white people i look at you.

Yes my white men I look at you.

Yes my white queers I look at you.

Yes my white degree holders I look at you.

Yes white youth I look at you where I once was. When I was younger and arrogant and naive and apathetic and bitter and I let all that guide my choices instead of my concern for the neighbor who was looking out for me.

I still matter in the formation and function of tomorrow's government and I'm going to make sure I let my impact be constructive for all my neighbors who have extended such courtesy to me by not shirking my main duty to make an informed vote in every election i may partake in from local to national.

The differences among us in this nation may seemingly tend to fall along party lines, what the real metric is:

Do you give a fuck outside your own home?

Or is it just about what you want, what you think, what you feel? Nothing in this nation is just involving you or your bestie or your family, we're in this together whether we like it or not. Trust me as someone who struggles daily to find the humanity in others, I know how toxic that can be to your perspective when you give into it. Believe in benefit of the doubt, believe in change, believe in your power to do good for others. Believe and invest in your humanity.

While i can be mad at conservative votes for trump that was to be expected. I'm far more disappointed in the right AND DUTY to vote being given up by so many on the left simply because their fave didn't make it to the finals. That is not how establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, or secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. AOC and Pressley and Porter did not make it where they are by their supportive constituents abdicating their right to vote.

I accept my faults in never having voted before 2016 even in local elections. It was stupid and selfish and 2016 woke me up to that reality. You don't go from 0 to trump overnight. Do you accept your fault in not voting in 2016 when one of the most detrimental candidates was running and won?

[eldritch-elrics]

this summer, me and my brother watched four whole shows. at long last, here is my comprehensive review of all of them!

in the order we watched them, these shows were:

avatar the last airbender (ATLA)

mob psycho 100 (MP100)

demon slayer / kimetsu no yaiba (KNY)

fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood (FMAB)

they were all very very good!

i’m not going to try to rank them, but, as is probably obvious by the state of my blog, my favorite was FMAB :) if i had to pick a least favorite, then, it would probably be KNY—not by any fault of its own, but just because it didn’t appeal to me quite as much as the others. still a very good show!

i will review each show by:

giving a quick plot-based pitch discussing the show’s hook or appeal

discussing one element that i believe it does better than any other show on this list—in other words, a quality that i think it stands out for

discussing one element that didn’t appeal to me or that i had issues with—a criticism

putting forth my favorite character and favorite episode or arc, just for funsies

including various other commentary. mostly positive, as, again, i did really like all of these!

(i’ve tried to make this whole thing free of specific spoilers, but if you’re planning on watching any of these shows and want to go in more-or-less blind, it might be best not to read this.)

first of all, i’d just like to discuss all four of these shows as a whole! it was definitely interesting watching one after another and noting similarities between them.

all of them have siblings in them! which is, perhaps, fitting, as i watched them with my brother

two include a pair of siblings in which one has powers and one doesn’t (at least at first), and part of the narrative involves getting better at using those powers (ATLA, MP100)

two include a narrative centered around a pair of siblings and something tragic that happens to them, resulting in the older one being traumatized and forced to train to become a soldier, and the younger one turning into something (arguably) inhuman. the protagonist’s major goal is to return his younger sibling to the way they were before (KNY, FMAB)

ATLA and FMAB are both fantasy political dramas, which is rapidly becoming a favorite genre of mine

most of these are historical, or historically inspired in some way, which is interesting!

all of these shows are really really good at character building. all the main characters are interesting and complex, and the relationships between those characters are similarly nuanced and very well written. they make you really care about both the protagonists and the side characters!

avatar: the last airbender

pitch: as the ever-growing imperial force of the fire nation threatens the earth and water nations, a kid from the long-lost air nation turns up and it turns out he can control all four elements and he has to save the world and all that. sorry i tried to write this pitch like five times and realized that well at this point i think everyone reading this will know the plot of avatar

stands out for: avatar has possibly the best worldbuilding i have ever seen in a show—it takes the time to introduce us to so many places and aspects of its world, both explicitly and subtly. the main highlight of this is the magic system. by creating a magic system based in body movement, the process of using magic and learning to use/control it better becomes immediately obvious to the viewer. combine that with the philosophy behind each type of bending and the way that characters take bending inspiration from types different than their own, and you’ve got a system that is complex, flexible, believable, internally consistent, and just plain fun! it makes action sequences a blast. i especially liked the moments when bending was stretched to its limits in totally logical ways (metalbending, bloodbending). not to mention the way that bending is seamlessly integrated into the world of avatar! the example that comes to mind is the earthbending-powered transport system of omashu. a whole essay could be written on that topic alone!

criticism: i know this is a sentiment shared by many people, but the first season was kind of boring to me. some of the humor and the plots felt hit-or-miss. of course, it needed to take that time to establish the world, and it does a great job of doing that. it just didn’t hook me until the second season.

favorite character: i love toph she’s so much fun :) iroh is a close second! and zuko is great, too, of course

favorite arc: i loved ba sing se a ton, especially the episode when they get there and everything feels off. it felt so resonant with real life, in a very fun way. there’s a reason “there is no war in ba sing se” is a meme…

other commentary: what can i say? it’s a classic for a damn good reason. the plot is tight, and it does a great job raising tension and introducing new elements and twists. i also love the care put into the antagonists, especially azula, who has a fascinating arc.

mob psycho 100

pitch: a middle schooler and a charismatic con artist team up to smite ghosts using extrasensory powers. thing is, only the middle schooler actually has ESP, and it happens to be really, really powerful. can he navigate the difficult world of middle school while also getting a better grip on his powers—and his bottled-up emotions?

stands out for: the way that MP100 uses animation is excellent. it takes a little getting used to but it’s just so fun, combining all sorts of different techniques to create an experience rich with drama and emotion. it’s playfully exaggerated and self-parodying, adding to the show’s fantastic sense of humor as well as its truly emotional moments.

criticism: the way that ESP works makes suspension of disbelief tricky. it’s a great feat to introduce a character who is essentially all-powerful and still make them interesting (even in fight scenes), but at times (especially the second season finale) it felt like a magic system with too much breadth and too few limitations. this might just be my bias for hard magic systems talking, though.

favorite character: other than mob and reigen? probably teru. he’s loads of fun AND all the season 1 episodes he’s in slap hard

favorite episode: the one where the girl asks mob out on a date as a dare.. it’s super cute

other commentary: thank you mp100 for being the leftist propaganda we all deserve <3

in all seriousness though, this show is a blast!! it does a great job switching between silly and serious in the blink of an eye. i also really appreciate the way that it balances comically huge stakes with much smaller, more personal stories. for example, the conflict between mob and reigen in season 2 is especially well-done. in general the emotions just feel so real? characters whose emotions tie into their powers are an excellent trope, and mob is a wonderful protagonist who exemplifies this really well.

finally, on a more critical note—there are so many characters in this show! and it feels like only a handful are fleshed out? however, this may be due to the fact that it’s not an adaptation of the entire manga (which i haven’t read). there’s a lot more to go! more characters to dive into! so i probably shouldn’t try to critique it in the same way as a finished work.

demon slayer / kimetsu no yaiba

pitch: demons kill a boy’s family and turn his sister into a demon, so he decides to try and figure out a way to turn his sister back into a human. what follows is a demon-killing adventure that’s in equal parts harrowing, poignant, and hilarious.

stands out for: there’s not much i can say about this other than “please just take a look” but the art and design is phenomenal. it does a much better job of integrating 2D and 3D than a lot of other animated series, and overall it is just so so pretty! all the character designs are complex, memorable, and fit the characters perfectly. the color choices are interesting and satisfying. i also really like the sound design? not often that i notice that in a show. i’ve watched so many KNY amvs by now lol it’s just amazing animation

criticism: the narration style leans too heavily towards tell instead of show. this is mostly an issue with the first few episodes, but i got super annoyed by how much the show would narrate every single one of tanjirou’s thoughts instead of letting us infer those thoughts through his actions and reactions—the latter, i think, would have been more emotionally impactful. sometimes silence speaks louder than words! tanjirou was also not the world’s most compelling protagonist in my opinion, though i think that mostly has to do with my own tastes.

favorite character: *holds up zenitsu* I Just Think He’s Neat. i actually kind of lost it when he first used his powers, like… damn i love characters with weird relationships with their magic like that. i also think the narrative about how having a solid foundation is sometimes more important than knowing a ton of different moves was really powerful. and he’s just funny! pathetic boy i love him

favorite arc: really just the whole spider arc. fucked up man… i love it. they pulled off that last twist so well, and all the family stuff was so weird and complex and emotional…

other commentary: it’s just a really solid and very well-written show! the team of tanjirou, zenitsu, and inosuke is so much fun… bro bonding :) i also quite like the horror elements; it’s fucked up but in a good way. finally, this is very specific, but the demon that can alter buildings/rooms through drumbeats? appealed to me very much. it’s a cool and unique power!

fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood

pitch: two kids do some fucked up alchemy and end up getting parts of their body stolen by god. now they’re on a quest to get their bodies back, but find themselves wrapped up in crazy government conspiracies and alchemy more powerful than they ever could’ve imagined…

stands out for: plot. by this i mean less overall concept (though the overall concept is pretty great too), and more that the pacing and progression of the story is extraordinarily tight. for the most part (the first few episodes are a little weak but i’ll let it slide), it does an excellent job establishing its premise and building on it logically, adding layers and layers that extend naturally from what we already know. everything has a reason for happening; everything is revealed in good time and all the twists are super satisfying. there’s great balance between exciting moments and quiet moments. it’s just very good at being a story!

(fun fact: i’m reading the manga right now and so far it’s even better paced than the show, which is super interesting! it’s especially good at how it lays out pieces of the backstory and then fills everything in later in a really satisfying way.)

criticism: this is incredibly specific but it’s what comes to mind as something that bothered me: winry’s character arc was really disappointing. for most of the series she’s a pretty strong character, but in the end it feels like she gets pushed aside, defined only by her relationship with ed. what happened to her wanting to take action more? that was a specific desire she expressed—wanting to be less passive! since she’s such an important character, i wish she could have had more presence in the last season other than as a sounding board for the elric bros’ emotions. (even though her one scene in the last episode was really good and emotional…)

favorite character: other than the elric bros, absolutely ling. he fits into multiple of my favorite character archetypes (fun, silly, bastard, gets possessed…) and he’s just overall a delight. plus his relationship with greed is really really good. bro bonding at its peak!! (my other favorite is pride. i will not say why because spoilers. but if you know me.. you know)

favorite episode: this is really really hard to choose but i’m gonna go with envy’s death because. holy shit.

other commentary: i’m a really big fan of the complex and nuanced way in which FMAB breaks down militaristic, imperial regimes from the inside. many of the characters have done awful things, and the story forces them to grapple with that and accept that all they can do now is be better in the future. the moral complexity is just really good! characters with flaws—we love to see it!

finally, parts of this story seem so so catered to Me Specifically that it’s no wonder i got so into it. like just the entire premise? the way that so much of the conflict is built out of identity crisis and exploring the nature of consciousness and human vs inhuman? beautiful. i love ed and al so much

*

if you made it all the way to the end, thank you so much for reading!! glad to have finally gotten this done (3 months late…) and put all my thoughts down. i hope this inspires someone to try watching one of the shows i discussed!

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 16

Into the Woods

We rejoin our Bad Kids (minus Riz, who we’ll get to in a bit) who are still on the Goldenrod while chaos happens around them. Fig adds to the chaos by successfully (with a 30!) pretending to be one of Goldenhoard’s minions to no real plot significant effect. I just feel the need to mention every time Fig rolls a 30+. The kids get Gilear out of his hiding place--a sarcophagus--right before it’s launched out as ammo. His safety proves short-lived however because, when Ayda pings that Riz is no longer on the same plane as them, Fabian recklessly sails the Goldenrod directly into Riz’s last known location, instantly killing both himself and Gilear. So he’s for sure back to his old self. 

Kristen brings them back up and passes some heals out generally while she’s at it. Meanwhile, with a Nat 20, Adaine fully Oracles out and knows exactly where Riz was being held. There, they find a smear of blood (which they taste???? even though they know the disease is communicable by blood???) and Riz’s briefcase, but no body. Plus Tracker smells Celestial energy and Ayda senses conjuration magic. But all that subtle sleuthing is made pointless by Kristen getting a Nat 20 (of course) to just stumble into the next room and find a room full of footage of exactly what happened. Wild. 

Bill can’t get them to where Riz is. The best he can do is get them to the Astral Plane. Fig remembers to check on the stuff she stole from Vraz. Baby just got a to-do list but Fig conveniently grabbed a scroll which will create a portal back to Arborly. Then, they cast Zone of Truth on Goldenhoard who gives them this information before they get to the Astral Plane:

Arianwyn was never working with him.

He repeats what we already knew about the NK giving him a coin as part of them working together in the past. He adds that his money being spent would mean it would come back to him 5 fold and also increase the spread of the NK’s power. 

He thinks the NK is a creep and says he never talks and only appears in weird dreams. At Fig’s prompting, he says he does look a lot like the skeletal figure in Adaine’s Scry on the Shadowcat. He also says he never dealt directly with the Shadowcat and can’t see her in the photo. However, the Shadowcat did put him in touch with Aelwen. 

The NK had more followers in Elmville but Goldenhoard doesn’t know who else was because he refused to join the Shadowcat network, which was a requirement. (I wonder if they include whoever the couple in Sandra-Lnn’s past was)

He let the NK have Sylvere when he was taking over the world because he didn’t care about it. 

Meanwhile, our little Angel Riz is en route to heaven with his dad who is happy-shocked to see him. Pok calls in that he’s coming in with a “good aligned, possible CI,” and it’s immediately clear based on the reaction of the person on the other side of the call that Pok talks about Riz all the time in glowing terms. They arrive in heaven and Riz sees that he has a little chair set up at a copy of his grave so he can sit and listen when Riz and Sklonda come and talk to him. Ally is almost crying. Lou is almost crying. I’m almost crying. 

Heaven--or at least this version of heaven--is set up like an office but outside. I’m picturing the classic Window’s XP background. We learn that Pok is a part of a special force called the Lower Planar Recon Task Force. Basically, it’s full of traditionally evil aligned races (like goblins and gnolls) who are perfect for infiltrating places like Hell. We also see that Pok has a plaque for getting his death avenged by his son.

Anyway, we see where Riz gets his attitude from when Pok kicks puts his gameface on (“Clues first, friends later.”) and has an extended puzzle solving scene with Riz (sprinkled with some father/son stuff). Highlights:

Heaven actually didn’t know about the Kalina=Disease thing. Riz and the gang cracked that for them. Kalina doesn’t ping a Detect Good/Evil but Pok thinks she would ping a Detect Poison/Disease.

He started seeing Kalina about 22 years ago after a mission with the Third Ring (see below). No, he didn’t cheat on Sklonda. If it happened via sexual contact, it would have been pre-meeting her.  

Kalina can’t pick things up but she can create the sensation of weight and substance by hijacking your nervous system. So, to his knowledge at the time, Pok had touched her.

He was introduced to Kalina by someone he already knew and trusted from the Third Ring (Falinel government agency). 

Kalina doesn’t have godly intelligence or omniscience. The way she blew her cover was accidentally mentioning seeing something firsthand she would have had no way of seeing (a river being in a certain place). He didn’t call her out then but he clocked it and started looking into her extra-governmentally.

Kalina got Sklonda her job in Elmville--which directly put Pok in the path of Goldenhoard, who ate him. He also strongly suspects that he got Pok’s citizenship revoked--an action that allowed Goldenhoard to harm him.

Pok thinks that, despite the Bad Kids’ focus on the sex aspect of the Shadowcat plague, it’s a lot more general than that (see eg: the life transference spell moving it from Sandra-Lynn to Tracker). 

Father/Son Interlude #1: Riz mentions that all of his friends are super horny all the time and he’s not about that. Pok says that he was a super late bloomer so it’s fine if he’s not into that now or if he’s not into it period--though he selfishly does want grandkids. 

Father/Son Interlude #2: Pok also shares a story about his own relationship with his superficially distant but actually loving 1st gen immigrant dad the twin theses of which are “People show love in different ways,” and “Work is an act of love,” a sentiment that workaholic Riz appreciates. 

Most demons can see Kalina. 

Pok was in hell undercover to try and figure out how devils had been successful in keeping Kalina at bay. He showed up in the Bottomless Pit but he was trapped there for a while--presumably because Gorthalax was in a gem at that time (also Riz mentions for the first time that Sklonda is dating him which he takes OK). 

Pok has a new body so Kalina can’t tap into it. Kalina must have learned where Pok was because Sklonda infected Gorthalax once they started dating and she got the info from him. And since Kalina spurred him to come rescue Pok than she probably wanted him to blow his cover. 

Kalina avoided having her picture taken. Once it was taken, she wasn’t able to do certain things she was able to before.

Pok says that Riz probably won’t be able to visit him again without pretty powerful magic, but Riz isn’t too concerned because he has some pretty powerful friends. And, with that, Pok offers to hire Riz as a consultant for heaven which, you can imagine, he is very here for. He takes his son to get suited up. 

Back with the other Bad Kids, they look at the assorted things Bill has looted and find some Holy Water, which they pocket, and a birthday present for Fig, which she is pretty easily convinced to open early. It’s a sick new bass which doubles as a literal axe (OK, not an axe, it has serrated edges, I just like the idea of an axe-axe) and can shatter rubies. They then say bye to Bill and get back to Arborly (with the Hangman who is still knocked out, but not destroyed like before).

The group collectively decides to leave Gilear in Arborly for both his safety and the safety of Kristen’s high level spell slots. Adaine takes some of his blood so she can Scry on him if necessary. Sandra-Lynn and Gilear exercise their parental rights to make their daughter feel awkward about her love interest. Speaking of said love interest, we learn what Ayda was working on in secret: a spell for Adaine! It’s called Adaine’s Furious Fists and it essentially lets her magic punch people. Adaine can punch people now! I mean, she’s been doing it since S1 but now she can do it effectually! Love that for her!      

Back to Riz. He’s in with an angel called Isosceles (think quasi-eldritch horror Biblical angel, not Halloween costume angel) who is like the Q of the squad. Riz gets hooked up with some new gear:

Trick bullets (like how Green Arrow has trick arrows)

A grappling gun attachment for his gun

Arcadian Watch: Equipped w/ a saw, laser (1d4 radiant dmg) and lockpick 

Seraphim Vest: Basically a wingsuit (temp fly speed of 40 but only laterally and down, not up)

Gregorian Tie: Equipped with a spy camera 

Once he’s suited up, Pok calls up a door that will get Riz back to the moment in time it was called. But, since they’re in no rush now, he asks Riz to take a walk with him and fill him in on some of the boring, mundane, unimportant stuff he missed from RIz’s childhood. It’s very sweet.

Afterwards, Riz pops back up in Arborly and everyone is super happy to see him. Riz almost blurts out what he learned about his dad but wisely moves the conversation to the Van where he tells them everything except the personal family stuff. Based on the info from Riz, Adaine thinks that Kalina was probably introduced into eleven society a couple hundred years ago by Landrynn Lear (fake cleric spreading the Kalina virus they learned about a few eps ago) so it’s not super weird Aelwen and Arianwyn would have been working with her. It’s less weird than Pok working than them. 

Kristen latches onto the part about the picture being taken of her taking away some of her power and they all do checks to puzzle that out. Adaine (with Arcana) realizes that Kalina has to maintain herself in all these people all the time and, if a picture is taken of her--has to make it so that she can be seen by all of those people at all times which is a permanent spell effect which is-as we learned earlier this season--very hard to pull off. Her not being able to do certain things once the pic was taken was probably just her losing power from the strain of this extra magical effect (my takeaway: don’t let her destroy that photo--or, use it as a bargaining chip). Kristen (with Religion) thinks the 4 transubstantiations (familiar to plague and spellbook to curse and so on) are curses which overlap and create synergy (my takeaway: take them out one by one and watch them exponentially drop off in effectiveness). Gorgug (with a Tinkerer’s check) surmises that the way to take the most pics of Kalina and weaken her would be to take a video of her and broadcast it to as many people as possible.    

Gorgug also has another thought: He wants to know if them having and spending their cursed money is actively endangering him. At the prospect, he decides to give all of his money away to the Tinkerer’s Hall (without telling them it’s dragon money, which means the curse won’t get passed on). Kristen, Fig, and Riz follow suit, much to Fabian’s shock and horror. Adaine opts to keep her money since she has no caring family to fall back on. 

They also--I’m just gonna bluntly say this insane thing that Ally conceived of--have another shrimp party which they livestream in hopes that it will go viral, gain a following, and then when they have video of Kalina, they can get lots of people to watch it. And you know what the craziest part is? It’s not a bad plan. It’s c r a z y, but not illogical. To quote Mr. Lee Mulligan, “The charity shrimp party goes super viral.” Amazing. 

The next day, Adaine brings back Boggy (who poofed in the last fight) as an owl so he’ll be a little safer while in Sylvere. Don’t worry, he’s still spherical as ever. The Hangman (now healed) stays behind, as does the Van--but they do take it actual gem out and take it with them. Baby is there and does come with them. Ayda and GaF also come at Fig’s request.

Fig is able to open a passage into Sylvere and they can instantly feel the ambient badness. They decide to start looking for the three things they need to make the Kalina Vaccine: Starmoth chrysalis, Herrowgray nectar, and Lundgreen pollen. The jocks and Boggy go for the chrysalis, Sandra-Lynn, Fig, Adaine, and Ayda go for the nectar, while Kristen, Riz, and Tracker look for the pollen.

The boys don’t find anything but, suddenly, there’s an image of a super creepy witch’s cottage in the gem, and Zathriel (the Celestial inside) bugs out before the gem goes dark. And Ragh is suddenly gone.   

In her group, Sandra-Lynn flies off on Baxter in search of the nectar but the flapping noises that should be happening suddenly stop. Ayda offers to fly after her but then also becomes distressed, asking why they’re in a house (the others can’t see it) before also vanishing.  

Kristen, Riz, and Tracker are looking around stagnant water for the pollen and they see Kalina’s reflection in the water. Kristen starts to film her on her crystal. Kalina (who they can all see at the same time for once) says that in Sylvere, nightmares are real, something demonstrated when Tracker fully wolfs out without the presence of an actual full moon. Kristen tries to Dimension Door out but they're too far in. They try to subdue her but Trcker vanishes into moths (?). Kalina says that Tracker is chasing down what she thinks is Kristen to kill her (which would make sense as being her nightmare). She says that she said she’d kill them if they got into the forest and here they are. She does a little damage to Riz to underline the statement and Riz starts recording her secretly. Kalina is doing small bits of damage (like 1-4 I think) but it’s enough that it will kill them before they have the chance to make tinctures. 

The jocks find the chrysalis and then look for the others. Fig tries to use Ada’s feather to find her but, like the sapphire, it’s dead. Through Boggy, Adaine can see the jocks are flipping out and find the nectar and go find them.

Kristen casts Greater Restoration of Riz and tells him to find Tracker. The attacks stop on Riz and double on Kristen. She’ll be dead before she can employ any kind of healing mojo than can help significantly and the other healer is MIA. Everyone is running to find each other and then they suddenly hear, emanating from every corner of the forest creepy laughter and they all see a crowned skull. Concerning! 

Detention

Fabian for Crashing the Goldenrod

This was almost like the ribbon dancing sequence except Kristen had something to potentially gain from that and this was an absolutely insane course of action for no particular reason. 

Honor Roll

Kristen for Using Her One Greater Restoration on Riz

What a quintessential healer move. Having one heal and giving it away to your party member. Listen, she may have rejected Helio, but he picked her for a reason. Girl is a BAMF.  

 Random Thoughts

“You can't make these things up. You can. We did.”

Actual Crazy Person Bill Seacaseter: I had to kill Gilear as a matter of course but I love Gilear!

Bill tells Gilear to kill any man who looks askance at Hilariel. Fig (mirroring a comment to Bill from last season) questions what he should do if any woman looks at her. An enthusiastic, “Dealer’s choice!” is the answer.  

"If you die in hell do you die in real life?"

Is the message of this season just “Vaccinate your kids”?

Fabian offers to threaten someone who’s bullying Gilear. You know what that is? Growth.

Bill brought the Bad Kids to the Astral Plane but they wanted to get back to Arborly ASAP. I wonder if there was something Brennan expected them to do there and they didn’t.

Fig ripping the scroll was wild but, honestly, I might have thought that was how it worked too. It’s for sure a thing sometimes. But, in a similar vein, very concerned Fig is going to accidentally shatter Gorthalax’s gem prematurely with that bass. Feel like she’s not 100% clear on how that works.   

“I don’t have a crush one anyone. I just want to be rich.”

Riz took over from Adaine this episode in unpacking my high school experiences, lemme tell you.

Wondering where Baron fits into all this. It seems like the kind of effect that Sylvere would be able to produce but he wasn’t in Sylvere when that happened and I feel like that wouldn’t be Riz’s nightmare (unless it represented anxiety about his not dating or s/t like that). What was that about? Who exactly caused it and with what ability? Is that just a standard demon power?

Not important but last week when Brennan said a halo formed around Pok he distinctly motioned around his head and not over his head so I felt happy to have interpreted that correctly when he said this ep that the halo was one of those you see in old pics of like the Madonna and Child and not a modern-traditional angel halo.

The idea of a lower plane task force is extremely dope from a world building perspective. Like, that makes total sense. 

“Don’t even talk to me until my death’s avenged.” I knew that was going to be a real mug as soon as it was said. 

The stuff with Pok and Riz was so unbelievably sweet. Him having a chair set up to listen to his family talk at his grave? Him clearly being the proudest dad and talking about Riz all the time? Him wanting to just talk about unimportant stuff with Riz because it’s his important stuff. Ugh, my entire heart. And Riz immediately reverting to full, “My dad could beat up your dad,” mode. I love them so much.  

I feel like Siobhan took coming up with a spell for Ayda as an actual out of game homework assignment which she should because Brennan *will* let her do it and then Ayda will save the party with it. That’s how D&D works baby I don’t make the rules. Hit me up with your best ideas.

Adaine actually asked Gilear for some of his hair in order to Scry on him and he’s the one who offered blood instead because he couldn’t spare any more hair. Feel like there’s gotta be a spell for that

Siobhan just casually says the phrase, “Mycelium web,” once again just being Adaine.  

Couldn’t Kalina just say, “Screw it,” and stop showing up in pictures if the strain gets too much? Like, if your cover is blown, it’s blown. Or is it set up in such a way that it’s gonna screw her before she has the chance to turn it off?

It’s funny that Zac is playing such a low Int character because he’s actually figured out a lot of stuff this season and he’s the one who remembered that dragon madness won’t get passed on if the person who gets the money has no knowledge that it’s dragon money. I wonder if we’ll get to see him play a non-Himbo next season.

Adaine, predictably, has no social media presence. Speaking of social media, I love the naming convention of just sticking the word “fantasy” in front of things like Twitter and Google--as in, “You guys are all over Fantasy Twitter.” Like, why even complicate things? You know what this is. 

Goodbye card for Gilear: Outside--Gilear I need you/Inside--to get me a cortado.

I had a stray thought that Riz could possibly use the door to come back after having done angel training for like a month but (1) that’s a little meta-gamey and (2) they were making an exception for him to be there that short time as it was. Anything else probably would have been pushing it. 

Is Pok’s heaven affiliated with any deity or is it just where all the good workaholic secret agents go? To me, it seems like it liaises with all the other heavens more than being it’s own main heaven, you know?

Oh man. Ayda disappearing and Fig clutching her powerful feather, begging her to come back after indirectly putting her the situation she’s currently in? Heartbreaking dude. 

I wonder why the people who disappeared disappeared beyond just getting rid of the NPCs.

Edit: Forgot to mention the part where Kristen rolled a -1 with her trash Dex so Ayda had to give her a portent roll to not instantly blow everything. 

The Bad Kids are in a very precarious position right now. If I trusted Kalina to be someone of her word, I might try to bargain with her--destroy the picture in return for letting us leave. From a DM standpoint, I think it’s probably a good time for an Abernant Ex-Machina. They’re in the forest too as far as we know and they gotta come back into the story somehow. This could be the time. 

Everyone going off about how Riz is a little angel and he could have told them if he was a Celestial and how much he loves Gilear while he’s not in the scene and can’t say anything is peak D&D. 

Bill Seacaster saying a bunch of insane nonsense and then Adaine being like, “Nice seeing you Mr. Seacaster,” is also peak D&D. 

This episode, Adaine, Fig*, Kristen and Brennan (as Sandra-Lynn) each rolled a Nat 20. Adaine and FIg each rolled one Nat 1 that was canceled by disadvantage and Riz rolled one Nat 1 that stuck. 

*I actually am not 100% Fig rolled at Nat 20. Kristen did for sure but I don’t have a Tally for her so I might have flipped those by accident.  If you happen to know for some weird reason, lemme know. 

[duhragonball]

Oh, Shit,I Just Remembered Pete Wisdom.

I started looking into Warren Ellis a little more, to see what he accusations against him were, exactly.   So much has come out about so many people that it’s hard to keep it all straight, but I’ve been a comics fan since 1993, and Ellis has been in the industry for about as long, I think, so I wanted to know more.  

The quick version, from what I can tell, is that Ellis would offer to mentor fans who wanted to break into the comics industry, and with the women, he would start to segue that relationship into something more physical.   It would get to the point where he’d want to have sex with them, and they felt like they couldn’t refuse him, since he could torpedo their careers before they could get off the ground.   A few women must have spoken out about it, leading others to do the same, and eventually it started to become clear that there was a lot of similarities in their stories.   

As I was thinking about this, it suddenly dawned on me that I first heard of Ellis from his work on Marvel Comics’ Excalibur, where he introduced Kitty Pryde’s love interest, Pete Wisdom.    And then a bunch of stuff started to make a lot more sense in hindsight.  

The X-Men franchise is overrated trash, but probably the wankiest, most usless, most overrated part of the X-Men mythos is the spin-off series Excalibur, which was basically a splinter group of X-Men operating in Great Britain.   Fans loved this book, I think because it featured popular characters like Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler, and the book (mostly) managed to steer clear of the mega-crossovers that dominated the rest of the franchise in the 80′s and 90′s.  When I finally sat down to read my X-Men collection in 2015 and 2018, I did so confident that I wouldn’t need to bother with Excalibur, because it rarely had anything to do with the main books.   The message Marvel sent me with this book was that it doesn’t matter and it never did.

Anyway, around 1995 or so, Warren Ellis took over as the writer, and he introduced a new character named Pete Wisdom, who quickly became romantically involved with Kitty Pryde.   This was somewhat controversial for a few reasons:

1) When Kitty was introduced in 1980, she was stated to be only 13 years old.    “Thirteen-and-a-half”, to be precise.    They actually threw in the fraction, just to make her seem even more like a little kid, if that was possible.    Comic book time moves slower than real time, but it wasn’t entirely clear to anyone how old Kitty was by the time she relocated to England and met Pete.   Later stories by other writers would attempt to set Kitty’s age as being 16 or 18, which makes Kitty’s relationship with Pete a continuity error at best. 

2) In spite of Kitty being very young, people had been shipping her with Colossus for years, and it annoyed them that there was yet another obstacle for their extremely problematic-but-much-desired relationship.   

3) People accused Pete Wisdom of being a Mary Sue, since he seemed to just pop in out of nowhere and work himself into the team, win the heart of the most popular female character, and he’s supposed to be this super cool secret agent type.  The implication here was that Ellis only invented Pete as a self-insert OC for the purpose of getting it on with Kitty Pryde.  

I think there were two schools of thought on how Kitty was supposed to be portrayed in comics.   The first was that Chris Claremont had insisted on keeping her eternally 16 or whatever, this plucky kid prodigy who was always too young to get into these kinds of relationships.    Ellis’s supporters felt that this was too restrictive, and it was foolish of Claremont to think that other writers would be beholden to his wishes, especially after he left Marvel Comics in 1991.  Ellis seemed to be allowing Kitty to grow and mature as a character, and it didn’t matter if it messed around with “comic book time”, since no one knows how that works exactly anyway. 

For my part, I always thought Pete Wisdom was a fucking tool of a character.    He was yet another government spook riding on the popularity of “The X-Files”.    Plus, the conventional wisdom among comics nerds in the 90′s was that U.K. writers were better somehow, just because they liked to write snarky dialogue and deconstruct the superhero genre.   Pete Wisdom was a mutant, and he joined the Excalibur team, but he wasn’t gonna wear any poncy tights, innit?   No, he went into action with a suit and tie, smoking cigarettes and constantly drinking shots, because that’s more bloody realistic, mate.   Ellis gave him an eyepatch in 2001, because of course he did.

The point I want to make here is that Ellis came up with this big idea in the 90′s, and fans ate it up because they were X-Men fans and had no taste.   You have to understand that in the 90′s, the big overused cliche was giant guns.   The second biggest cliche was nostalgia references to the 1960′s.   So when someone trotted out “Fox Mulder, but he’s sarcastic and British”, people actually thought it was kind of fresh by comparison.  Surely this bold new concept could only take Kitty Pryde into amazing new directions...

But no, Excalibur got cancelled in 1998, and they moved Kitty back to the X-Men.  Did they even break up Pryde and Wisdom on panel?  I have no idea.   All I know is I read a bunch of her post-Excalibur appearances and she barely mentions the guy, probably because a lot of people in Marvel probably wanted to forget the time she got aged up just enough to sleep with a skeevy-looking older man.  

Looking back on it, I always sort of assumed that Ellis only did the Pete/Kitty thing because he was just looking for something interesting to do with the characters, and he wasn’t going to let tradition or continuity stand in the way.   But in 2020, the whole thing starts to feel more autobiographical, since this resembles the sort of thing he was doing with young women through his online community.   Ellis’ “apology” states that he didn’t notice the power imbalance when he was involved with these women.   “I have never considered myself famous or powerful.”   I find this insulting to my intelligence, since I used to see fans worship every stroke of his pen like he was some kind of genius.   News would come out that Warren Ellis would be taking over the writing duties of a book, and fans would say “Good, they finally fixed it.” They just trusted him to do right by whatever project he was given.    So I can only imagine how overwhelmed they might have felt when they signed up for his mailing list fan club thing and he would offer to help some of them become professional writers.  

So maybe the critics had Pete Wisdom figured out from the beginning.   Whether Ellis realized it or not, Pete was his power fantasy, an older guy just impressive enough to get the attention of a (very) young woman and take her under his wing.   And he teaches her how to drink whiskey and smoke and how to know all this black ops horseshit, and-- well whaddya know?-- they’re having the sex.   

And to a point, maybe that’s human nature.   I always wanted to be a writer because I liked the feeling of power it offered.   Imagine being the guy who could put words in Captain Picard’s mouth, or decide exactly what kind of music Superman likes.  And yeah, if I could make a name for myself in that kind of field, maybe the ladies would start to notice me, and then I’d be doing pretty well for myself.  

The thing is, I eventually learned that writing for comics is a real bullshit thing to get into.   You can’t just submit scripts, and there’s no set of steps to follow.   I remember reading stories of writers breaking into the comics industry, and they were all different, usually involving some improbable meeting with someone who was already there.  A comics writer I respect once wrote that it takes some creativity to figure out how to break in, and if you can’t find your own way, then maybe you’re not creative enough to be in the business in the first place.  

And that’s how these women got pulled into Ellis’s nonsense, I assume.    They had similar aspirations to my own, and at first he seemed to be offering them a lifeline, but then it led to something they hadn’t bargained for, and what could they do?   If they refused to have sex with him, they might have to start from scratch.   

Which sort of confirms my suspicions that writing for comics is just a bullshit job, because maybe it’s only hard to get into because of all the gatekeeping that goes on.    Why bother accepting submissions and hiring based on merit, when a handful of writers can just vouch for friends or fans willing to do anything they ask?   All I know is it’s relatively straightforward to get a job in chemistry.   I got a degree in chemistry, and then I sent out some applications, went to some interviews and they offered me a job.    Maybe if Marvel worked the same way, guys like Warren Ellis wouldn’t have the sort of unfair influence they have over their fans. 

[asarsgyan]

Chapter 9 - Extraditable Tits!

Catalina did not know it, because in her house television was destined for novels and they never watched the evening news, but in one of them and with a scoop quality, the United States Ambassador to Colombia appeared announcing that the DEA, In coordination with the Colombian state security agencies, a rigorous investigation had just completed that resulted in the names of the new drug lords responsible for shipping more than 200 tons of cocaine a year to the United States and Europe.    Among them were Morón, Cardona and "El Titi", in that order of importance.    The next day the newspapers headed their front pages with the names of Pablo Escobar's successors, the Rodríguez Orejuela, Carlos Ledher, Santacruz Londoño, the Ochoa and Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, emphasizing that these new bosses belonged to a more intelligent generation, in the sense of not showing off too much, more elusive, with greater capacity for bribery, more educated because some of them even studied at large universities, something that their relatives from whom they inherited the business had not done. In short, they were less visible.    Of course, the news that spread like wildfire and reached the ears of everyone, except Catalina and Yésica, put the members of the new Cartel into disarray.    Some said they were sheltering in guerrilla camps to evade the action of justice. Others said that they were negotiating with the paramilitaries who were negotiating peace with the Government at that time, so that they would pass them off as commanders and thus achieve a political status that could free them from an extradition request that the United States he did not deny any drug trafficker. Other sources claimed to have seen them fly to Venezuela, Panama and Cuba in their private planes. The truth is that when Catalina and Yésica arrived at the building where Cardona lived in order to ask for the money, they only found uniforms from the Police, the Prosecutor's Office, the DEA, the Army, the Interpol, the Sijin, the Dijin and the DAS and , at least a dozen journalists armed to their glasses.    They did not worry, because many characters of national life lived in the building and they thought it was their bodyguards, but they knew that something serious was happening at that moment when they were stopped at the door, by an officer, with the face of an inquisitor, who He asked them where they were going. Neither of them was able to answer and they were expelled from the place without explanation.    Catalina began to suspect that her luck was playing a new trick on her when Yésica asked one of the police officers, who was a friend of hers, about what was happening. The policeman who belonged to the cartel's payroll, told him in a code that the bosses had been taken by the whores and almost the police, so they had to leave before a DEA plane took them to the other side. He was referring to the fact that they were to be extradited to the United States. Catalina once again felt the world collapse at her feet and panicked when she learned that Cardona and his cronies had disappeared in disarray. Yésica marked them several times to their cell phones and found them turned off. Catalina was convinced of what the Policeman had just told her and felt, once again, the same desire to die that she felt the day that "El Titi" rejected her or the night that Albeiro told her that if she had bigger tits it would be the queen of Pereira.    —Parcera, we screwed up! —Yésica told him, very scared and she began to walk from one place to another, scared to death because this new situation was going to kill her with hunger and Catalina with sadness.    -And now? The petrified Catalina only managed to say while, inside, she vanished little by little. Yésica said nothing and went with her to find a list of her Mafia clients, but the only one who answered and with a changed voice was Mariño. Yésica asked him about Cardona, but he was scared, he told her very nervous that he did not know any Cardona and that, surely, she was wrong. Then he hung up on him. They dialed him again but his phone was already off. Without extenuating circumstances and painting the things the color they were, Yésica only managed to express with regret to her pale friend: "    Sister, we screwed up." Those guys left and left us sucking.    To capitalize on the anger she felt at this new disappointment, Catalina looked for Orlando Correa's phone number and made an appointment for him in the central park, under the statue of "Bolívar Desnudo" where "Caballo" had left her planted with the illusion in tow that afternoon rainy that never came. He congratulated him in code for having "made the return" as he was, that is, for having killed "Caballo" without being "caught" and summoned him at four in the afternoon, because he needed to see him to tell him how much he loved him and to ask her for the favor of making love to her.    Immersed in a fairy tale, knowing himself desired by a woman as beautiful as Catalina, Orlando Correa arrived at the meeting place at four o'clock and greeted her with effusiveness and enthusiasm. It was scented and wearing beige denim pants and brown suede shoes. The white shirt with green and brown stripes, which was already worn, looked very clean and neat. Catalina also looked beautiful and made enormous efforts so that the hatred she felt towards him or the sadness she felt for the rout of the drug traffickers, and especially Cardona's, was not noticed.    With anguish, Orlando wanted to finalize Catalina's main proposal during his call and invited her to a motel. The girl told him that she gladly accepted, but, weaving the web of her revenge, she exploited her billy goat weakness and asked if he would like to be with two women at the same time, because she had a friend who was also in need of a man and that she was sorry to leave her alone, in that state, being, as she was, his soul mate. Orlando responded with a lump in his throat that yes, of course, of course, of course, that there was no problem. I could not believe it. He was about to realize his sexual fantasy and even more so with the woman he was beginning to love. They then went to pick up Yésica,    At the generous request of Orlando, they settled in the most luxurious room they found in that place decorated with bad taste and a series of strange architectural expressions that combined columns full of channels and monumental pedestals copied from ancient Babylon, large postmodern windows to gardens with pots hanging from the windows of coffee farms. In the room they found a triple bed whose railing served as a support for two bedside tables without any grace, two lamps anchored to the wall and a car radio embedded in the main drawer of one of the nightclubs. Near the door was a comfortable striped fabric sofa and a table with three chairs and a thick, heavy glass vase. The curtains were red like the rug in the room and a television set against the wall, it projected the usual pornographic images: a woman sucking a man's penis. Before the incredulous and anxious look of the honoree, the two women began to remove their clothes with a high dose of premeditated sensuality, while the naive bodyguard only managed to undress with clumsiness and anguish, without taking his eyes off them.    According to plan, from one moment to the next the women stopped the show and asked Orlando to let himself be tied up to make the moment more exciting. Correa, as his colleagues and bosses called him, accepted the irresistible proposal without objection. The women proceeded to tie him hand and foot to the bed with ropes that they brought in his bag. Emotion did not make him suspect anything. The truth was that as soon as the innocent man was reduced to impotence, the women began to dress to his total amazement and they climbed on him with the desire to make him pay for everything he and his two friends had done and also everything he had not they had done. They beat him ruthlessly, in a kind of summary judgment, while reminding him of his crimes.    He was beaten to death, especially on the genitals, so that it would never occur to him to take advantage of a girl again. Catalina fiercely hit him on the penis and testicles with the vase that adorned the room. Orlando's screams competed with the radio, which Yésica turned the volume to its highest level. The hostage shouted for forgiveness, but his pleas were useless. The women were ready to take away forever the weapon with which he raped the girls and they did. Orlando lost a testicle, the sensitivity of the glans and the possibility of reproducing again.    Before fleeing the place, Catalina forced him to tell her the name of the third man who abused her that night and poor Orlando, beaten as he was and threatened with losing his penis and his remaining testicle forever, had no choice but to tell him that his name was Jorge Molina, while gave his phone number.    Jorge Molina was summoned in the same place. Catalina told him that she remembered him with desire, that of the three he was the one she liked the most, that if he had any problem making love to her and that if she was upset if she brought a friend to her love affair who was in need of a man Well, she was sorry to leave her wanting and even more after telling him that he was the best fuck in the world. Jorge Molina, the most lustful of the three, didn't bother. His omnipotent male ego soared through the roof.    He felt that the sky was not that set of white and gray clouds with blue backgrounds that he saw every morning from his window but rather the fact of making love with two beautiful girls like Catalina and Yésica. He took it so hard that before taking them to the Motel he went to a sex shop and spent a fortune buying Chinese stimulators, perverted thongs, ejaculation retardants and even a waitress apron that made them look more provocative than what they already looked.    On the way to the motel, he had all the illusions in the world. The most important was to propose that they both marry him. He was thinking of telling them that he loved them deeply and that the three of them go to live because wherever they saw him, in a borrowed car and everything, taking care of the bosses' backs, at all times, he was going to turn into a tough one in a short time. That he already knew the business, that he already knew how to make coca, that he already knew the routes by heart, that he already knew where to find the contacts in Mexico, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Madrid and that, very soon, When he reported his bosses to the DEA, he was going to have a lot of money to put both of them to live as they deserved, as the pair of queens they were.    She also thought that it was not a bad idea to spend the last of the fortnight taking them to a mall after leaving the motel and buying them a nice pint, with shoes included, so that they would become familiar with his broad and disinterested manner. to be. Entering the room he managed to tell them that they were going shopping when they left the motel. They thanked him with a simultaneous kiss on his cheeks and advised him, to calculate how much money he had, not to bother because they were very demanding, which is why the detail could be very expensive. Jorge Molina, who all his life had trachetal airs, told them not to worry because if he promised something it was because he could.    They did so before tying him up on the pretext of wanting more emotions and an hour later, poor Jorge Molina lay on the bed, bloody, about to lose consciousness, with his genitalia in a sorry state, his face bruised from blows and saying the code of the debit card that, along with 300 thousand pesos, was the only thing that supported his gossip. In an ATM in the center of Pereira they took out 860 thousand pesos, which was all that poor Molina had, and they went to get drunk twice. One to celebrate revenge against the three men who prevented him from selling the virgo to Mariño and another for the disbandment of his tracheo friends whom they missed with pain.    Orlando Correa and Jorge Molina found themselves in very similar situations during those days with broken faces and manhood, but they were ashamed to admit that they were in that sorry state thanks to the anger of two women, so one of them invented that a A taxi had run him over when he got out of the boss's truck; and the other, Jorge Molina, the most chicanero of all, that a man tried to kill him, probably because he did not want to pay extortion to the guerrilla group that blackmailed him. He said that because of his appearance, the cars in which he walked and how well dressed he kept, a front of the Farc often confused him with a rich man. Neither of us believed each other, but for the others,    But the drug stampede did not only affect Catalina's ego and dreams for the third time, nor Yésica's pocketbook, nor the occupation of the surgery room of the aesthetic clinic, nor Dr. Bermejo's plans to buy a BMW. It also affected the intra-family relationships of Ximena, Vanessa and Paola, whose mothers, accustomed to receiving large markets and money as a result of their daughters' work, dedicated themselves to singing them, day and night, until they made a desperate and denigrating determination: to work in a whorehouse where, for much less money, they would sleep up to three times a night with strangers of all kinds.    None of this was told to Catalina and Yésica who ended up filming in Bogotá, from aesthetic clinic to aesthetic clinic, and from friends 'houses, whom they bored in a week, at other friends' houses who did not know that they were going to them. to bore in a week.    The formerly listed Paola was assigned as the first client to a public official. Well scented and very well dressed, not so good lover. The bureaucrat agreed to an hour of pleasure with her for 200 thousand pesos. Once the deal was finished, he went to the bathroom, took a box of viagra from his jacket and took a pill with water taken from the sink and held between his juxtaposed hands.    Paola who was waiting for him in a damp room full of bad out of the six energies that the house had, all she did was think and think about "El Titi" and what he was going to say to her when he found out that because of her protective fault she had had to become a whore.    In those, the good-natured man with a corrupt face appeared and began to outline a nervous and stupid smile with which he asked for a kiss. She told him that the kisses were only for the boyfriend and he managed to upset him so much, to the point that, without a word, he got on the bed, got under the sheets, took off his pants and underwear, maniacally folded them, put them on on the nightstand and pulled her with his arms to make love to her later, in complete silence and without taking off his shirt or his black, thin, thin and knee-length stockings. Paola cried with rage, in silence and without perceiving any pleasure.    At that moment he did not feel his dizzying fall into the abyss of misfortune so much as when the smiling man with a corrupt face took out of his wallet two 50 and five 20 thousand bills and threw them at him slyly, on the rolled bed and wet, and then leave without saying goodbye.    It was worse for Ximena because she had to go to bed, the first night, with the owner of the establishment, with all his record of at least 500 women, most of them prostitutes, and without receiving a single peso for their services.    Vanessa didn't fare better than her two friends, either. Beginning because she had to fight with a client who refused to possess her using a condom. She said she didn't want to do it with a condom, that she didn't feel pleasure that way, and that she paid her double the rate if she allowed herself to be penetrated without that disgusting and uncomfortable rubber lining. Vanessa, who needed that money, was tempted to do so, but she began to think that if this guy did the same with all the prostitutes in the city, surely he was already a carrier of AIDS or at least venereal. That is why he resisted the urge to say yes and, in return, he suggested that he let himself do very tasty things without the need for penetration.    The guy reluctantly agreed and reluctantly undressed. He was even tempted to leave the room in search of another woman, but Vanessa asked him not to leave, to let her try something because she did not want him to leave with a bad image of the women of the place. The man who had the face of a serial killer, the look of a madman, bushy eyebrows, raised cheekbones, a pronounced jaw, and thick black-framed glasses, told him he had two minutes to show him why he didn't have to go.    But it only took Vanessa a minute to show that she was the best. In the end, the anonymous character in mourning was so pleased with the versatility and imagination of the little woman that he decided to pay her double for her services anyway. Simple, for meeting the rate and double for having taken it to the stars. He also asked her to become his concubine, but Vanessa, imagining that life next to a depraved like him was not going to be easy, took him out of the box with a very intelligent argument. He told her that he couldn't do that because she had to be very honest with him and she had to confess the reason for her reluctance to do it without a condom. He asked her why and Vanessa had no qualms about inventing that she was infected with the HIV virus.    The strange character laughed and pushed her affectionately and then told her not to worry, that there was no problem with them living together since he also had AIDS. An intense cold ran through Vanessa's body as the madman, dressed in black, explained the new functioning of his short life. He told her that he was infected by a boyfriend she had, without denying his bisexuality, and that when his partner died, he made up his mind to take revenge on the whole world by infecting everyone he could, women and men alike. That already a dozen prostitutes and another dozen youngsters in the city were infected by him and that his goal was to reach the fifty victims before he died.    Vanessa, who was about to become the twenty-fifth victim of the unbalanced, panicked and tried to get rid of him as soon as possible. He told her that all of this was wonderful. That it seemed good to him that others felt firsthand what they were feeling and that from now on he was going to suggest to his clients that they do it without a condom. The mentally deranged man even suggested that if the clients insisted with the condom that she sneakily pinch the end to make them "bitchy." They arranged to meet the next day to go shopping and the murderer disappeared with a happy face.    When she calculated that the depraved man was already far from the room, Vanessa began to tremble with fear, with the certainty that she had been on the verge of death and ran, in disgust, to bathe with a scrubber and then go out to ask everyone world if AIDS could be spread orally.    Vanessa, Paola and Ximena's mothers did better. The three of them did have their souls returned to their bodies, and also the market to the refrigerator. Happy with the return of the money to the house, none asked questions and all three began to scold their siblings for not letting them sleep during the day.    The truth is that with the arrival of the skinny cows, thanks to the rout of the drug traffickers, all the women who derived their livelihood and their ostentation from their unlimited checkbooks had to resort to different strategies so as not to deteriorate their standard of living and income. . Paola, Ximena and Vanessa became sex workers, Catalina and Yésica went to try their luck in Bogotá, many others who did not know, became they got into reigns of one thing and another and, the most beautiful and intelligent, entered television. Some of them, the least talented, slept with directors, librettists and producers to win a role, sparking a wave of outrage among actresses who burned themselves for years studying performing arts to deserve a second-rate role in a novel.

[cblgblog]

I have just…so many problems with Irondad, some of which I’ve seen expressed already, some not, and I need to say this at least once.

I don’t believe the common anti-Irondad thing that says Tony never cared about Peter. He did, in his very Tony, very problematic way. He loves Peter, I think, very much the way Howard loved him. We only got glimpses of Howard as a dad, mostly from Tony’s perspective, but we can make assumptions here. Howard probably thought Tony was the greatest thing in the world, and a blast to hang out with. Whenever Howard wanted to be a dad. He would’ve loved teaching Tony things, showing him off, having fun with him. But when Howard didn’t want to hang out? When Howard was working on something important? No, sorry, dad mode off, go away, Maria come get him. We see that with Peter and Tony. All Peter wants is acceptance, another mission with Tony. He wants validation. But he can’t even reach Tony because Tony’s put Happy in charge of him, and Happy doesn’t want to deal with some stupid kid in Queens, at least during Homecoming. It’s a very Howard move, parenting/mentoring when it’s convenient.

Which, you know what? Not in and of itself horrible. Tony would learn what he lived, and follow it. It makes sense, generational patterns and all that. It could’ve led to an interesting story, about Peter or someone else in Tony’s life pointing out the parallels, and then Tony has a moment of realization and tries to correct. I wouldn’t have loved that story, because Peter’s storyline being so connected with Tony’s at the expense of his own has always bothered me, but it could’ve been done decently.

What do we get instead? We get Tony paying lip service in Homecoming to wanting to break the cycle, and then totally failing at that 5 minutes later. He was mad, he was scared, that’s legit. People say unfair things when they’re reacting out of fear. But he tears Peter down for what happened on the ferry, and makes him feel like shit. Why? Because Tony had the FBI involved, Peter was meant to stay away, and he didn’t. Well how the hell was Peter supposed to know that? He can’t talk to Tony at all. Happy’s been ghosting him for months. The last time he thought Tony was there for him, it was one of the suits, Tony was still off in Tony’s world. How would Peter ever think that Tony had heard him this time, and was taking action? Tony didn’t tell him as much. Happy didn’t. All either of them would need to do is send a text saying hey, I hear you, I’m on this, I have people on this. But Tony is Tony, he can’t tie his shoes without Pepper, and he has either a hyperfixated attention span, or none at all, depending on the day. He either forgot to tell Peter, or worse, didn’t think it necessary. And if he was a proper mentor, if he knew Peter at all, he would know that Peter’s sense of responsibility was going to kick in there, unless he had reason to believe things were going to be okay without him.

Tony doesn’t know Peter. He puts an instant kill function on a 15-year-old kid’s suit because he thinks it’s a cool feature, and he enjoys building cool things. If he knew Peter at all, Tony would know that Peter’s a no kill hero. You can argue that those advanced features weren’t meant to be hacked into, so it’s not Tony’s fault. Except it is. Tony admits in CW that he hacked the Pentagon in high school on a dare. He knows that genius boys do stupid things. He knows teenagers don’t follow rules. He knows that if you tell a kid not to do a thing, you’re just guaranteeing he’ll want to do it more now. Tony may not know exactly how smart Peter is (I’m sure he doesn’t), but he has enough of an idea that safety measures, actual measures, should’ve been in place. Instead of a hackable training wheels protocol? Just keep those features off his first suit, save them for the next model, when the kid’s ready. We know Tony doesn’t mind building new models of suits. But Tony doesn’t do that, because Tony.

Yeah, the instant kill came in handy in Endgame against Thanos’s army. Still doesn’t make it okay.

Again, it reeks of Howard style parenting. You didn’t use this awesome thing I gave you right? Here then, I’m taking it away. No talks, no explanations or compromise or Tony training Peter to avoid the mistakes he so wants Peter to avoid, just, we’re done. Which is exactly how Howard probably would’ve handled it. I let you in my lab once and you broke something you didn’t know how to use? Okay, well, never doing that again.

To be clear, I don’t blame Tony for yanking the suit, exactly. It was a very human, kneejerk reaction. And more importantly, it allowed Peter to show that he did not need Tony’s toys to be a hero. The problem is that Tony, as usual, never gets to realize his mistakes. Peter yells at him a little right before the suit gets taken about not being listened to, but Tony doesn’t retain any of it. It doesn’t matter. He never has a moment of, what I did here was not okay and this is why. What do we get instead? Him telling Peter at the end of Homecoming how Peter screwed up, but hey, you fixed it. You were dumb, but you fixed it. No acknowledgement that Tony screwed up anything. Because, of course not. The lesson for Tony isn’t hey, I went too fast with this kid, he wasn’t ready, I didn’t prepare him. There is no lesson. Tony, as in basically every appearance since Iron Man 3, learns nothing.

Oh, and the Homecoming ending. Yeah. Tony sees no problem with having a 15-year-old move into the mansion and go full-time Avenger. His aunt, his guardian? Nah, why would she mind that, it’s fine.

I’ve talked elsewhere about my problems with Infinity War Irondad, but basically, most of Tony’s interaction with Peter there involves telling him to shut up, the grownups are talking, you’re not supposed to be here, you’re too young and dumb. Even when Peter absolutely helps the team. Also, too young and dumb? He wasn’t 5 minutes ago, when you were going to make him an Avenger, and he was the one smart enough to realize this was a bad idea. Tony’s so mad Peter didn’t listen to him and go home. If he’d truly listened, he’d have been an Avenger at the start of the film, so he’d be there anyway.

The dusting scene with him and Peter? It hurt. It was brutal and beautiful. That’s because Tom Holland, and yes, RDJ, can act, not because it was earned by the narrative of the last three movies.

As for Endgame. That photo Tony has of him and Peter goofing off. So cute, right? Probably taken at some point before May knew the truth, as a hey, we need a cover story for your aunt, but, you know,  it’s fine. I don’t doubt Tony loved Peter. That he grieved Peter and felt his loss for 5 years, and maybe that’s part of why he’s such a good dad to Morgan. But he didn’t love Peter the right way. He did it selectively. He missed him when he was gone, but didn’t pay enough attention when he was alive. The hug near the end was beautiful, but unearned.

And then there’s May and Ben. May does not deserve to be villainized, killed off, or flat-out ignored the way she is in so many fanon interpretations just so Irondad can be a thing. May helped Peter prepare for his homecoming dance last minute. She got him dressed, taught him how to tie a tie, taught him to dance. All while Tony was back to ignoring him. But assume for a second that this had happened earlier, when Peter was still technically in Tony’s good books. Assume for a second that he’d been able to reach Tony and ask for advice, because he’s scared and excited and needs help. Tony would’ve made a few jokes about spiked punch, a few more crude, sexist jokes about Peter’s date, and signed off. May dropped everything and spent hours helping this kid, reassuring him. May is so unappreciated and flat-out abused by some of the fanbase, and it’s gross.

And Ben. Who’s Ben? Have we even heard his name in any of the movies Peter’s appeared in yet? Oh, we got his initials on a suitcase in FFH, not even a verbal acknowledgement. Great. I am not advocating an origin story. We’ve seen it, we know the basics, it’s fine. But Ben has been shown, for almost 60 years, to be the most influential person in Peter’s life. Losing Ben the way he did shaped Peter’s whole life afterward. And we have yet to see a photo? An old video? A 30 second flashback scene? We don’t know any of the MCU’s version of how Ben was killed. At all. Are they for some reason going with a rewrite where Peter had nothing to do with it? Don’t know, because it’s been 5 movies so far and they’ve given us nothing. Ben’s death regularly tops lists of the most influential deaths in comics, and we have nothing. Instead we get scene after scene of Tony perpetuating a dysfunctional relationship with Peter, and never facing consequences, or even realizing it.

By the way? Ben, if he’s anything like any canon version ever, would hate Tony. Ben is consistently shown before his death to be a very hands-on parent. He doesn’t understand most of Peter’s science stuff, but he encourages it, and stays involved as much as he can. He, barring a truly monumental canon rewrite that we know nothing about if it happened, taught Peter that great power means great responsibility. Contrast this with Tony, who as stated, pays more attention to building Peter cool suits than he does Peter. Who, on being confronted by a mother about the death of her son, caused by him, does what? Immediately wants to shift all responsibility to the government, so that the next time he screws up, he can say he was just following the law. Who was confronted by a grieving mother, and then 5 minutes later came into May Parker’s home and lied to her face. Something he continued to do, and would’ve continued, if May hadn’t found the truth on her own. He lies to her, takes her underage son (yes I’m saying son because she and Ben raised that boy, not Tony) out of the country without her knowledge. He threatened to reveal Peter’s identity to get him there. He does not tell Peter that the Accords would’ve done that anyway. He doesn’t tell Peter much of anything about why he’s there or what he’s fighting for. Either because he knows that telling the truth means not having Peter on his side, or because he simply doesn’t care to. Either way is gross, manipulative, disgusting, and would have Ben Parker rolling in his grave.

Yeah, it was fun having Peter in CW. Some of his scenes with Tony are genuinely fun. The above points though? Still stand.

So yeah, Irondad. in theory, okay. It makes sense that Peter would want guidance, a mentor after Ben died. It makes sense he’d look up to Tony. They could have addressed Howard’s shitty parenting via Tony’s shitty parenting, and maybe told an interesting story with it by contrasting Tony’s parenting style to Ben’s. Irondad in actual canon? There’s no parenting. There’s child endangerment, verbal abuse, and no payoff to any of it. The most we get is Happy admitting in FFH that Tony was a mess, but not for all the right reasons. He gets called out for other things, if you can even say he’s called out. Not for his awful treatment of an impressionable minor who’d lost his real father (Ben, assuming they stick with comics and have Peter lose his parents at a very young age).

I will never stop saying that Peter deserved better. I hope he gets it now that Tony’s gone.

[notmyrick]

General Arc 3

/She had a Rick once, but she also had a Diane. Then she had a Beth. / Roxanne came back from a small business trip cross country and was in front of the house in Michigan. It's been only 3 months and she opened the door to the one-story house. As soon as she opened it a little blonde tornado came running at her screaming her name. She jovially picked her up and spun her around before placing her back down. "Missed me I see." She smiled at the child. Beth nodded and dragged her to the living room to show her what she was reading. The redhead nodded her head as the child rehashed the entire child's book to her. "You're welcome." A male voice said as he dropped her luggage on the floor of the living room. She looked a Beth and said," Truly, poor service, when did we hire this rude butler of ours?" Beth giggled as she ran up to her father and asked politely to take her luggage to her room. Rick glared at Roxx as he couldn't refuse his daughter and lugged the rectangular storage to her room. She high fived Beth in the process. Diane came out and smiled at both. Roxx got up and hugged Diane, before asking about her day. At dinner she dropped the figurative bomb on them. "We're moving to Washington." After a heated discussion when Beth was asleep, they (mostly Diane) caved in, and they were off to Washington with a two story house in the suburbs. /She had a Rick once, but she also had a Diane. Then she had a Beth. / The transition was smooth and to be honest, the relationship between the three was at an all-time high, until Roxx got busy with work again. Although Beth didn't witness her biological parents fighting, she still suspected something wrong. When Roxx was gone for relatively long periods of time, Beth would notice some tension between her parents, but couldn't figure out why. The redhead herself was tired. After a long day at work, or after a company trip, or some government bullshit she somehow got tangled into, she would come home with a 50/50 chance at either coming home to a loving family or be a mediator between Rick and Diane. In addition, she tried to distract Beth as much as possible from her parent’s arguments. Typically they try to do it when she's asleep, but some arguments were spilled over to the next day, god forbid the rest of the week. It was one of those arguments that bled to the next day when Roxx finally got a day off. She was tired but could hear the angry whispers of the two in the adjacent room. She got up and dragged Beth away from the house informing the two of them of their departure. She refused to play mediator today and decided to be the fun-loving aunt for Beth. Rick and Diane can have a brawl at the house as she distracts Beth. "Why do mommy and daddy always fight?" She asked. The redhead sighed, this child was either perceptive as hell or Diane and Rick suck at hiding their arguments around her. "People in general fight over disagreements, big or small. This is common, unhealthy, but common. It will be fine; your parents love each other. They can sort things out." She replied. "They don't fight as much when your around though? I mean maybe in the beginning, but in a few days, everything is fine, and we are one big happy family again!" The older woman didn’t give her a reply. She knew Beth was smart enough to understand her own words. "Where are we going?" the child asked. "Visiting some friends." She took Beth to a hospital dedicated to army vets. Due to her political, government bullshit, she invested into a hospital for Veterans for whatever reason. She watched as Beth filtered through the vets making each one smile a bit brighter. "And this limb right here, your aunt gave me!" "No way! How? Did she grow a leg for you like a lizard! I learned from my dad  that a lizard can grow its tail back when it's cut off!" The army vet laughed and told Beth multiple stories how Roxx and her "friends" helped each person in this hospital. Roxx rolled her eyes, she just threw money at morally ethical geniuses. They weren't her friends, but employees. However, she can still see the joy and happiness all these vets feel toward her and the staff here. She brought Beth along so she can be in a happy and carefree environment. "I've decided! I want to become a surgeon so I can help just like my aunt!" Beth proclaimed. Roxx smiled walked up to Beth and gave her a hug, not letting her out of her arms even as they walked home. /She had a Rick once, but she also had a Diane. Then she had a Beth. / The fights got worse and Roxx was tired of playing mediator. The long business trips she dreaded became her savior from coming back home to another argument between Rick and Diane. She only came home to spend time with Beth as a momentary distraction for the both. Rick and Diane started yelling at her to stay out of their arguments or start blaming her for not meditating between them. She got so many mixed signals that it caused her to break down more than once in her office. She spent more time with Beth at the hospital because that seemed to be their safe haven. Beth's interest to become a surgeon grew and she grew rapidly smart under her colleagues. Since they have been spending more and more time at the hospital, Roxx also got interested in the medical field and learned from them as well and befriended some the of nurses and doctors. One night got particularly bad at home. It was late night and Beth was asleep. All three were in the living room with a dim light casted over them. As usual, Rick and Diane where whisper arguing while Roxx tried to diffuse the situation with a different tactic other than booze. "You are never home anymore, you're always drunk, and when you do come home it's in the early hours in the morning!" "Where I go, what I do, it's my business! You're not my guardian, you are my wife, and I don't need to tell you what I am doing with my life every second of every day!" "It is because I am your wife that I have the right to know!" "Well it is my right to choose if I want you to know or not!" They finally bothered to looked at the redhead wanting to put her cent in. She looked at both, tired as all hell. "Okay, let's - on second thought, let me be Paris and we will all agree on a compromise. Sound good?" Initially she wanted to say, "let's all calm down", but she knew that just adds fuel to the fire and she really didn't want Beth to wake up. They both gave her a look. Really, this is where they agree! She had to pick a side for this argument to end because of the 2:1 vote they implemented way back when. She was not going to pick a side because the fighting only got worse. She tried to mediate between them again. "Fine! You want sides, then I'll be Switzerland. I am not picking any of your sides!" "So typical of you to be "neutral" Roxx." Rick said. "And what does that mean?!" "You never "pick" a side because it never concerns you. You say you want to help us, and self-proclaimed yourself as a "mediator", but you haven't done anything!" Diane also argued. Fuck being Switzerland, she'll be Germany! A war on both fronts! "Excuse me!" "Yes excuse yourself, just like the last time and the time before that, you have an entire list of excuses you've used under the guise of compliancy and compromise!" Diane continued. "Son of a bitch, you know what! Both of you are in the wrong! Diane, I have told you time and time again how Rick is, but you never heed any of my advice, you think because you’re some top-grade psychologist you know the human psyche better than anyone! Well news flash, Rick and I don't fit your cookie cutter mold! You're trying to fit a god damn square in a circle! And you, Rick, should know better than anyone else how it feels for their spouse to be gone for copious amounts of time! Coming back at ungodly hours, having so little contact with them to the point you look for someone else to fill the void. For fucks sake, you got lonely, banged this bitch, and got hitched! Only until you realized you were going to be a father that you told me! And it wasn’t even on your accord, you told me mid argument to piss me the fuck off!" "Did you ever thought of how I felt moving across the damn continent for YOUR job!" "I ASKED you! You had the option to say no!" "And what! Wait 5 years for you to come back!" "The ONLY reason we stayed 5 years in Michigan was because YOU banged Diane and had a child! The most time it would've taken for my trip was 2 years max!" "2 years for you to bang your coworkers while I'm in Seattle!" But that accusation was drowned out when Diane began to talk. "Don't you dare blame me! I didn't just go to the bar, saw the first man there, and seduced him!" "Might as well done it! As soon as you figured he was "married" you plotted to remove me from the equation!" "Your so called "marriage" wasn't even real! And by Rick's stance at the time, your relationship was hanging by a thread, if not already cut off!" "And so you thought "this motherfucker is single, well why don't I spread my legs and tie him down by his dick!” Did you honestly thought you could've had a Hallmark ending!" "Whoa, wait a fucking second! I never said my relationship with Roxx was hanging by a thread! I was pissed and I was angry, and all I wanted to do that night was get drunk!" "So you went to the bar with a hot blonde psychologist!"  "I went to the bar alone! I met with Diane by accident! I was already drinking by the time she recognized me! She also had a rough day so I bought her some drinks-" "Don't you dare say you bought me drinks out of courtesy, I saw you eyeing me through our entire conversation and you were sober enough to know what you’re doing!" "Stop! You cannot play innocent with me, princess! I know you calculated your fucking encounter with Rick so don't even try! Then you, Rick, thought with your dick and blew a load in her!" The conversation took a turn for the worse, opening up multiple cans of worms. "FUCK YOU, admit this is all your fault!" Rick exploded. "You KNEW your job was going to take long nights in the office! And you knew Rick was going to be lonely for majority of the day! You set him up for separation anxiety!" Diane jumped in.  Rick and Diane ganged up on her, alternating their arguments so she couldn't get a word in. "Not only that, but every god damn time I went to your office, your receptionist ALWAYS said you're TOO busy to see me!" "You ignored him for essentially a year! In addition, all our arguments are about YOU!" "Whenever there is an argument, you are the first one to dip out!" "You grab MY daughter early morning and don't come back till dinner time! You are never present in our arguments! It is not only Rick and I that have problems. We also have problems with you!" "You only come to us individually to play "angel" and get us to trust you more, not each other!" "You call me a manipulator, but you've been orchestrating this entire marriage to fail!" "If you weren't here we would not have these arguments! We wouldn't have these conflicts! We would be living happily with our daughter Beth!" "GET OUT!" Roxx yelled, anger contorting her expression. "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" "WE ALL LIVE HERE DIPSHIT!" "WELL, GUESS THE FUCK WHAT, THE HOUSE IS UNDER MY NAME, UNDER MY PROPERTY, UNDER MY TAX PAYABLES. SO, GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY SIGHT. BOTH OF YOU!" Rick threw his hands up in the air and walked out through the garage, while Diane left through the front door. Both left in their respective vehicles to find shelter. Roxx stumbled to both exits and locked the door behind them when she saw their vehicles leave. As soon as she accomplished that, she collapsed. Ugly broken sobs ripped from her throat while she dug her nails to break her skin. She tried to stop the sobs by slowly decreasing her intake of oxygen. Her hands trailed from her shoulder to her neck as she wrapped them around her flesh. It was working, but the tear production increased. When the tears ran down her face, over her hands and soaked her neck she started clawing the tear stains in disgust. She crawled herself to a dark corner where the light wouldn't hit her as she broke down as her breathing increased. Her heart wouldn't stop beating and it annoyed her greatly, she wanted to feel pain, she wanted to numb herself, she wanted to die. However, at the same time she wanted comfort. And she was uncomfortable when she curled into a ball. She knew that being curled up into the ball was her safest position when she broke down, but she wasn't in the sanest of minds right now. She felt more comfortable twisting her limbs in odd directions, uncomfortable positions, dangerous arrangements. The feeling that her bones may snap felt comforting. Like she was a marionette on a string and once that string was cut, it will finally be free. She didn't like the pain in her heart, but she knew it was just chemicals in the brain making her believe there is pain in the heart. She was healthy, but at the same time she was not. She banged her head against the wall wanting her brain to stop fucking around and make her function normally. However, the pain she was in was translated in the brain like serotonin. It felt good. It felt nice. She cried some more knowing this was not normal, but it felt right. She was about to hit her head harder against the wall when some mass stopped her. "Please... please... Aunt Roxy stop hurting yourself. Don't... don't leave me as well." As if a lightbulb went off in her head, she grabbed the small mass into a hug and clung onto her like a life preserver. Roxanne held her gently and finally felt the pain of her own ministrations. Her head was dazed, her neck was scratchy and red, her shoulders were slightly bloody for breaking skin, and her limbs were sore. She barely recognized the clock hanging over head. 3am.

[hamilton-one-shots]

I'll play the prompts game. I'm using the colorful list- #2 "Not you again." And #184 "Can I touch you?" You know what ships I like but you can feel free to surprise me as well. :) Have fun and thank you!!!

Monday morning office hours.

Those were the words that would make a student laugh, but to Thomas Jefferson, it was a way to get his exams graded while on the metaphorical clock. It was almost always quiet, just him and the US government essays without having to spend his own personal time taking care of it.

Unfortunately, there was one student who just didn’t understand this.

“Morning, professor!” Philip Hamilton called out as he walked into the lecture hall. Jefferson shared his office with another professor and he’d rather stay in there than take a chance of running into the other.

“Not you again..” Jefferson muttered to himself. “What are you doing here? Do you need some help studying?”

Philip laughed at that. “You clearly haven’t reached my essay.”

No, he hadn’t, but he could guess that it was going to be near perfect, as usual.

“Nah, I’m just here to hang out with my favorite professor.” Philip let himself fall into a front row seat and watched as the other man turned back to the stack of essays. “Don’t just ignore me, I called you my favorite professor! And I’ve seen my grades, aren’t I, like, your favorite student or something?”

“I don’t choose favorites. And, if I did, the student who interrupts my grading time would not be them.”

Philip tutted and spent a few minutes scrolling through his phone. He could admit that was fair, but it did get boring just sitting there. So, Philip watched his professor’s face, gauging his expression until he was sure the other reached his essay. The annoyed look on the professor’s face, but not one red mark being made, Philip knew that look.

“How does my essay look, teach?”

“I’d fail you if I didn’t have a moral code to keep up.”

Philip laughed. “Oh, come on, I’m not that bad.” He strode over and sat on the table beside Jefferson’s desk, crossing his legs. “I may be annoying, but at least I’m smart.”

“That’s what makes you more annoying. I can’t cut you down to size by docking off a few points or calling on you in the middle of class.”

Philip shrugged. “Okay, true, but I’m not sitting here begging for extra credit because I don’t feel like showing up to class.”

“You not showing up is my dream.”

“Oh, come on!” Philip sighed dramatically, moving to lean against the desk. “I know for a fact you don’t hate me as much as you say you do. Look me in the eyes and say that you hate me.”

Jefferson hesitated for a second before simply returning to his essays.

Philip grabbed his professor’s tie and forced him to turn and look at him, staring into surprised brown eyes. “Well? I’m waiting?”

Jefferson put his hand over Philip’s. “Let me go.”

“No because you don’t hate me as much as you say.” With his free hand, Philip grabbed his essay from the desk and held it up. “I loaded this with bad spelling, grammar errors, things you hate, but there’s not one red mark. Even if you don’t take off points for it, you always mark up my friend’s papers for the same thing, so what’s up?” Philip asked, moving his hand farther up his professor’s tie. “Is it possible that you find me as attractive as I find you?”

Jefferson pulled Philip’s hands off of his tie and pushed them away. “Philip, this isn’t okay. I could report you for harassment, you know.”

Philip shrugged. “I mean, you could, but then I could report you back for failing to give me proper criticism and a fair grade.”

Jefferson rolled his eyes, knowing that Philip was right. But… What, was he supposed to just admit that?

Philip shifted so he was sitting directly in front of Jefferson, leaning towards him. “You should know, I’m not leaving without an answer. You like me, don’t you?”

“So what if I do?” Thomas responded, knowing that he wasn’t getting out of this easily.

Philip’s mischievous grin only grew wider. “Then why didn’t you say so earlier?” he asked in almost a sing song tone. He leaned in a bit, only to be stopped, once again, by Thomas.

“Nobody can ever know about this..”

Philip smiled and grabbed his hands. “I promise you, nobody will ever-”

He was cut off by the sound of the door opening in the back of the lecture hall and, before he could be seen, ducked down into the hidden space below the desk.

“Good morning, professor!”

Oh, god, Philip knew that voice.

“Good morning, Georges. It’s not often I see you in here. What brings you in on a Monday morning?”

Georges, Philip’s dorm mate and closest friend, laughed sheepishly. “This is going to sound silly.. But Philip was talking with me about the way you grade him and I got a bit paranoid.”

“How so?” Jefferson asked, trying not to think about the boy beneath his desk.

Georges simply shrugged and took a seat. “I don’t know.. He pointed out some errors that you didn’t mark and compared them to my paper. Mine was full of red marks and, even though you didn’t take away any points, they were still helpful.”

“Well, of course. I’ve told you multiple times, I don’t mark off for grammatical errors, even if I do point them out. This isn’t English class.” It sounded more like a high school policy, but- That wasn’t important. What was important was Philip’s hands resting on Thomas’s knees.

Thomas glanced down at him as Georges grabbed his things from his bag and Philip looked back up at him, mouthing a few clear words.

“Can I touch you?”

There was a voice in the back of Thomas’s head screaming that there was something wrong with the situation and that he should get Philip out of there, but… If it was such a small voice, how important could it really be?

Thomas gave him a subtle nod and looked back up as Georges began speaking again.

“I know it sounds stupid, but he started joking around and said that you were waiting until a huge assignment to let it all out and destroy his grade and I completely think you are above such a childish action, but my mind would not drop the idea.. I know you hate him, but he is a good student.”

“I don’t hate him, he can just be a bit frustrating sometimes.. And I’m not going to tank his grade.”

Georges seemed to visibly relax and Thomas hoped that he would just leave, but, instead, he just opened his laptop to work.

But rather than focus on his own paranoia, Thomas was distracted by a pair of hands running up his legs and slender fingers quietly opening his pants zipper as Philip attempted to get to his hardening erection with as little movement as possible.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I needed somewhere quiet to study.. The library was packed and the guys in the dorms next to us are always loud..”

“Of course not. That’s what office hours are for.” It took most of Thomas’s willpower not to yell out a few curses, both at the situation and at the feeling of Philip’s hand wrapping around the base of his cock.

“Good. I promise I’ll be quiet, you won’t even know I’m here.”

Thomas already hardly acknowledged his presence, sneaking glances below his desk instead as Philip moved his hand up and down his length. It was nearly impossible to bite back the moan that threatened to rise in his throat as Philip’s thumb ran over the sensitive underside of the head of his cock, but he couldn’t just blow his own cover then.

Philip didn’t seem to care, trying to elicit some kind of response. He may have been the one hiding, but Thomas was the one who had him under the desk. He sped up his hand and god knows he would’ve used his mouth if he had done anything like that before, but the last thing he wanted was to rush into it and end up doing something stupid, like accidentally using teeth. That would’ve definitely been more embarrassing than getting caught.

Only a minute later, though, Thomas was gripping the edge of his desk with one hand, feeling pressure building up in the pit of his stomach as he neared his orgasm. He took deep, quiet breaths and bucked his hips forward a bit to let Philip know he was doing nothing wrong.

Philip took that as a sign to speed his hand up, his own face turning bright red from anticipation as he watched Thomas’s cock twitch in his hand. Unfortunately, it was a show he couldn’t watch for too long. The second he saw Thomas tensing up beneath his touch, he closed his eyes and quickly learned that he was right to do so, feeling something warm land on his face in streams. The feeling somehow managed made Philip’s blush go darker, but the last thing he was feeling was embarrassed.

Thomas bit back his moans and did his best to control his breathing, staying as quiet as he could. And while Philip didn’t manage to get a sound out of him, he couldn’t stop the low groan that arose at the sight beneath him. No matter how much time would pass after that moment, he knew there was no way to explain how Philip managed to look just as playful and silly as he usually did with stripes of cum covering his face. Thomas quickly gave him a pack of tissues that he kept in his bag before being reminded that they was being sneaky for a reason.

“Everything okay?” Georges piped up from behind his computer, his head down and his face hidden behind the screen.

“Uh- Yeah. Sorry, I just don’t know how some people have gotten this far without knowing the difference between communism and dictatorship.”

“Yeah, some people don’t study at all.”

Thomas nodded and realized Georges’s bent over posture. “Everything okay with yourself?”

“Yeah, just.. Calculus II is killer.”

And Thomas accepted that excuse, thanking every force he knew for the fact that he didn’t get caught.

Georges just hoped he wouldn’t get caught laughing. Philip actually did it. Georges was sure showing up would’ve made him back out, but, evidently, he was too late to scare Philip out of asking the professor out. Sure, it meant that Georges lost fifty dollars to him, but he couldn’t deny that that moment was worth much more than their stupid bet.