#holy crap why am i posting this shit

[kithtaehyung]

— ryen’s tumblr wrapped 2024 

i didn’t even know these were a thing but i did notice that tumblr wasn’t doing those wrapped posts, so thank you to @yoonia and @jjungkookislife for tagging me so i could join! fashionably late but i’m slidin’ through the door :D 

before we get to the stats, i just wanted to give a huge thank you to everyone that’s been here with me in 2024. many things happened, both on and off this blog, so to know who’s a real one and either stuck with me or trusted me makes me happy and at peace. there’s a lot i haven’t said, but just know that i love you all and am grateful for the kindness and support. all the messages, reblogs, comments, tags, etc. kept my spirit alive, and i hope anything i’ve shared has given you some modicum of love, hope, home. let’s get to it!

— kithtaehyung 2024 wrapped 

total posts — art posts: 55 | gfx posts: 13 | fic posts: 8 total word counts — posted: 69,200 | written: 100,000+ total asks — answered: 1,442 | inbox: also a number😅 milestones — 3 years with 3tan | 2_,___ followers | crossing 7,000 3tan asks (ho ly shit lma oo ?? ?)

FIRST FIC OF 2024: broken, pt. 2 (3tan) (myg) ; 240209 ; 1,728 notes  

the current, most recent part of the main 3tan storyline. this one broke me, put me back together, then broke me again. the mental strain of writing both broken pt. 1 and broken pt. 2 was one of the main reasons why i had to take this long of a break. but we’ll be back to the main storyline in 2025! 

series notes: idr but it's a number!!!!

MOST POPULAR FIC OF 2024: minted: part one (myg) ; 240805 | 2,835 notes

was absolutely nervous to post this one because it’s incredibly different from the rest of “the ryenverse” as y’all call it, but the reception? holy crap! y’all are amazing and have been incredibly kind and supportive. i’m so glad we can all scream about gangster mint-haired yoongi together now.

series notes: 5,163 total | part two: 1,321 | part three: 1,007

LAST FIC OF 2024: holiday (3tan) (myg) ; 241227 ; 536 notes 

the yearning for these two was hurting us so badly that i spewed out a whole 8.1k in a week lmfao. hope it was able to lift some end of year/holiday spirits. 

2024 IN SONGS: HUH?! - agust d ft. j-hope | HISS - megan thee stallion | LOST! - rm | heart on the window - jin ft. wendy | NISSAN ALTIMA - doechii | overnight - connor price ft. tommy royale | tv off - kendrick lamar | sticky - tyler, the creator ft. glorilla, sexyy redd, lil wayne | too much - kid laroi, jung kook, central cee | woke up - xg

2024 IN FIC RECS: (it's a goal to read more in 2025 omg.. these are all the ones from friends i'll plug for now, and all the fics sent to the artist drop channel in our server!) éffleurer (ksj) - @sugaurora not yet (myg) & substance (knj) - @newmittens obsidian (myg) - @sailoryooons cyberslut (myg) - @kimnjss party on you (jhs) - @here2bbtstrash in motion (jjk) - @yoonia lover to lean on (pjm) - @sketchguk no strings (pjm) & the holi-date (kth) - @kpopfanfictrash moonlit throne (myg) - @hobidreams miracle of the season (jjk) - @cybrsan midnight (jjk) - @leahsfavefics crystallized (ksj, myg) - @floralseokjin server artist drops: friendcation (myg) - @kingofbodyrolls i will come to you (ksj) - @/kingofbodyrolls whalien52 (pjm) - @/kingofbodyrolls end of the world (myg) - @/kingofbodyrolls i'm not sure?! (pjm, kth, jjk) - @melancholy-of-nadia infatuation (myg) - @/melancholy-of-nadia love you lately (myg, knj, pjm) - @/melancholy-of-nadia too high (myg, jhs) - @ysljoon whirlwind (myg) - @/ysljoon midnight snacks (kth) - @xiumya the moon goddess's chosen (myg) - @army93bangya gods of the dark (myg) - @/sailoryooons need you to be sure (kth) - @yoongimain route 613 (knj, myg, vmin) - @daegudrama elemental (jjk) - @/kpopfanfictrash txt - a night out at the club - @jettithink risky business (jhs) - @jaysdimples what the moon saw (myg) - @violetsiren90

2025 PROJECTS: 

ot7 releases: release at least one fic or drabble for every member!

open source fic rec form: a form for both writers and readers to submit their fics or recs so we can all have a centralized list. 

3tan physical copies: get these babies out in the world! i know y’all have been wanting them so i’ll try.

3tan finale: finish out the main 3tan storyline. this is gonna destroy me in every way possible, but i think i can do it. we’ll make it through. 

what a damn year! dunno how we managed to do all of this in 2024 but i'm grateful y'all are still here or ventured through the blog at some point. thank you all again!

this was so late so I’m assuming i’m the last to do it, but if you see this and wanna consider yourself tagged then be my guest!

[serenity--writes]

Doe-eyes | Peter Parker x Reader

You wake up and decide, as you cough and hack up god-knows-what, that today is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. You're right, but it's also the catalyst for the best day of your entire life. (Peter Parker is the brightest light in your life, and you're tired of hiding it.) //Originally posted on AO3. I'll get around to editing this one day. //5k+ words. Finished! Unedited!

It builds slowly. The lingering pressure behind your temples rears its head first, then your cheeks dip between too hot and too cold, and then ends with your eyes burning as coughs plough through your throat. An amalgamation of sickness. Your body really pulled out all the stops for you this time around.

You groaned—getting sick was the last thing you needed, but already you were digging out your phone to shoot your professor a quick email. Your fingers move mechanically, too familiar words springing onto the screen. You figured she’d call bull, but you were too groggy to care. You didn’t have much going on today—

Ah. 

Peter.

One of the few days he is free, today, and you’re sick as a dog. Figures. If it weren’t Peter’s borderline ridiculous excuses (he calls them “reasons” as though they weren’t absolute crap, the cute fucker) that disrupted your plans together, it was nonsensical whims of the universe. Perhaps both. 

“Shit,” you huff quietly. Your voice is scratchy, and you wince at the sharp pain that shoots up the back of your throat. Water it is, then. 

The walk to your kitchenette is longer than you want it to be, but you pour yourself a glass without any fanfare, briefly stopping on the way back to your bed to grab some cold medicine. It sucks, because the sun looks so warm and inviting, so reminiscent of Pete’s smile—not that you’d ever tell him that, God—and you feel horrible. 

Bzzt. Bzzzt—

You blink blearily at your phone. It feels like it’s miles away, so you deem whatever popped up unimportant and collapse back into your bed of sickness, your eyes slipping shut.

You need sleep, you think needlessly. Sleep is good.

.

.

.

You wake up hacking up your lungs. 

God, it hurts. It feels like thorns are getting cozy around your lungs and your throat, shredding both your vitality and dignity. 

“Woah, woah—”

Your head perks up against your will, but you’re forced back into a ball as phlegm bursts past your lips and onto your pillow. You’d wrinkle your nose if you could—gross—but you’re more concerned about not dying and panicking because why the hell Peter is in your apartment.

Not that he’s unwelcome. Just, you’re surprised. And flustered. All of the above. Holy shit.

Peter rushes out of the room and returns with a glass of water and a pack of something, probably medicine, and helps you sit up before shoving a pillow behind you for more support. 

“Thanks,” you mumble quietly. If you speak any louder, you might start coughing again. You know better than to set off another fit, no matter how confused you are; instinct tells you to hold as still as possible and breathe as shallowly as you can. Your curiosity will have to wait. Either until he explains, or you get a notepad to interrogate him with.

Actually… You raise an eyebrow at him, mustering up your best ‘what the fuck is happening and why am I not dying alone right now?’ look. 

It lands because he rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, setting down the packet of cough drops (oh, you love him) on your lap. “You missed lunch,” he pouts as you gratefully throw two drops into your mouth, one for each cheek. 

As if he hasn’t skipped out on lunch hundreds of times before, intentionally or not.

Your face must be a lot less neutral than it usually is because he groans. “I know, I know, hypocrite Parker, but c’mon—it’s super out of character for you. And, I was right!”

You’ll give him that. 

Now that you’re not actively wishing for death, your ears pick up on the sound of your TV—how long has he been here?—and the sound of your washing machine in the distance (it’s pretty close, actually, but the illusion of distance makes it feel like your apartment is bigger and more expensive—it’s all about your mindset. Ha. Ha).

“You had a pile,” your resident best friend and long-term, oblivious as fuck crush explains, taking a seat at the end of your bed. “Figured I’d throw ‘em in the wash before it got any bigger.” He looks good, disregarding the new cuts decorating his face. His eyebags look less like canyons and more like small pits, which makes something in your chest soften. 

Peter is a good man. You know this. Hell, most of the people who know him know this. Peter is also stupid as hell, self-sacrificing, and all around irritating when it comes to taking care of himself. You’re happy he’s gotten some sleep. You’re not optimistic enough to hope he’s had more than pizza since May last cooked for him, but more sleep is a good thing on its own.

You nod your head in thanks, your face more than likely too soft and open than you’d like it to be, but you're sick, for God’s sake, you can let go every now and then. 

His lips quirk into a smile, a soft upturn of pretty, plump lips that sends your poor heart stuttering from where it’s stuck in your chest. “I stopped by your class, too,” he adds quietly. He nods to your desk, and you can see a few folders sitting there, unfamiliar to you but decorated in your professor’s messy scrawl. 

Your cheeks heat up with the sheer amount of awe that surges inside you. He’s far more busy than you are, being a biochem major is already way more stressful than what you’re doing—though Peter always rolled his eyes and said stress was subjective, the dork—and the fact that he not only cleared his lunch schedule to spend time with you, but also went out of his way to get your assignments? 

Your heart beats traitorously loud in your ears, but the smile lighting up your face is more than enough to express your gratitude. 

Peter brings his hand up to your forehead, finger curling around a loose hair—damp with sweat and sticking to your forehead—to bring it back around your ear. Soft breaths dust over your nose, your cheeks, the smell of your chocolate ice cream making your stomach growl.

Your nose scrunches. 

“Peter Benjamin Parker,” you cough furiously. “You did not eat my ice cream!”

He pulls back with a small yelp as you bat your hand against his chest. He holds his hands up as if you were the police. “Nope! Just like you didn’t steal my brownies that Aunt May made for me a few weeks ago!”

You frown. You did steal them. And you know he knows you know that he knows—wow, that’s confusing—but if you say anything, he’ll actually start giving you shit over it (May’s brownies are worth it, you understand his ire), so you sigh dramatically and let yourself melt into your pillows. Ice cream sounds so good right now, though. 

You kinda hate him for putting that thought in your head, because you know he ate it all. You don’t know why his black hole of a stomach has persisted past highschool (you lied to yourself that he’d stop stealing all of your snacks as he grew older, but he didn’t, so now you just lie to yourself about the hopelessly fond feeling that stirs in your stomach whenever he does steal them) but it has and you suffer for it every time he comes over.

Pete snickers at your dramatics, which sends fireworks throughout your synapses—a pure shot of endorphins, his laugh is—and presses a gentle press of his knuckles against your too warm cheek before cupping it gently. “You want anything to eat, or are saltine crackers it?”

You attempt to think about it, but your stomach rebels against the thought of actual, warm, and filling food. Not to mention how your brain just practically shut down—when did Peter get so smooth? “Crackers,” you croak, subconsciously letting your head fall deeper into his palm. 

It’s so easy to just exist when he’s with you. 

There’s no need for words, not when you can read each other so well. You’ve been friends for so long, it feels like you know what he’s thinking before he even thinks it. And the same goes the other way around, for most things. Except your ever-lingering, downright obnoxious crush. He hasn’t caught onto that yet, thankfully. He’s still too hung up on Gwen to notice, and you’re too desperate to keep him that the thought of confessing and getting rejected makes you want to vomit. 

But… It's nice. Being with him. Laughing with him, gushing about nerdy stuff with him. He’s been into everything science-nerdy and pop culture-nerdy since you were kids in middle school, and it’s rubbed off on you like a particularly sweet yet debilitating disease. 

You hadn’t planned on the yearly Star Wars binge, but Peter was very persuasive. 

(He literally just batted his eyelashes at you for a few seconds, and you caved like a house of cards. You are just really in denial about how down-bad you are for him.)

Peter pulls back with a grin. “Take a sip of water, and I’ll be back with those crackers.” You do, and he returns with a slight jump in his step; the effect of whatever musical he’s playing now. After stealing a few of your crackers, and balefully ignoring your pout, he breaks one in half before throwing one of the pieces in the air and catching it in his mouth. 

“You’re not cute,” you lie unconvincingly, forcing the dry and tasteless food down your throat. It lingers in your throat, so you throw your head back as you down more than half a glass of water. 

“I’m so cute,” he protests, “the absolute cutest!”

You agree, very begrudgingly. “Very humble, Pete.”

He mock bows. “‘Humble’ is my middle name.” You open your mouth to continue your back and forth, but he straightens abruptly, head turning to your window, which is slightly pitched open. You frown. It was closed just this mor—

“I’ll be right back, okay?” Peter sends you an apologetic glance before zipping out of your room, stumbling back to peek through the gap between your door and the wall. “I forgot that, uh, I was supposed to turn in some paperwork—and—”

You wave him off tiredly. He’s always been a shit liar. It’s kind of endearing at this point. “Bring back some ice cream.”

He smiles in relief, saluting you. The warmth in your chest nearly bursts at the sight. “See you soon!”

See you soon!

.

.

.

He doesn’t come back. 

(‘See you soon’ you think, and hide your face in your pillow. It’s soaked with sweat. ‘See you—’)

.

.

.

You twist uncomfortably in your bed, panting and whining as more bile crawls from your throat. You grabbed a bowl after you puked on your carpet, thank God, but it’s a vicious cycle of vomiting, smelling the vomit, getting queasy from the smell, and then vomiting some more. 

You feel like death. 

Honestly, you’re not sure living is worth it at this point. You know this will pass—it always does—but your body doesn’t feel like it’s going to survive this. The nausea is overwhelming, and the puking hasn’t gotten to the point that it feels better once you��re done, because you can’t catch a fucking break. 

You feel like you’re going to hyperventilate and choke and die because what the fuck. It’s like being stuck in your own body, being able to do nothing other than vomit and pray that it stops sometime soon. 

You haven’t eaten anything other than that one cracker. 

The world hates you.

.

.

.

The night passes in a blur, and so does the following day, until it’s been a full day since you’ve seen Peter. You’ve taken so much medication that it’s a miracle you’re still awake (you got desperate, and may or may not have disregarded the six hours written on the bottle. Four isn’t that bad, right?). 

You feel marginally better, though a bit bored. Lonely. 

You toy with the idea of calling Peter, but you don’t want to seem needy—a sure sign that you’re getting better, you think with a sigh—so you let the device sit there as you use the small burst of energy to get to cleaning your carpet and bedding. 

Opening up the window half-way (which was still cracked open, oops!) lets in sounds you could do without but clears the air of vomit fumes, so you endure for the sake of your poor stomach. Hearing all the hubbub of New York beats the pounding headache that comes from emptying your guts through your mouth—courtesy of your nausea—so your headache can suck it.

You have to throw your clothes in the dryer, which sends a prickle of something down your spine. Whatever it is, it’s not pleasant, because you feel your eyes heat up in preparation for tears, and yup, that’s a firm no. 

Peter leaves all the time, and you know he’s busy. He took care of you for how long while you were asleep? Probably since your lunch plans at one, so at least five hours. He missed work for you, and forgot an assignment. Hell, he probably wasn’t lying about having to turn in an assignment, or maybe he just worded it so that you’d feel less bad. 

“I forgot to turn in my work,” sounds a lot better than, “I missed work to take care of you and now my superiors are mad at me and I have to go work to make up for the time missed.”

… 

Right. You’re cleaning. 

You can hear May as clear as the crystals you have in your bedroom—”Focus on what you can do, honey, don’t linger on what you can’t control.”

Peter was lucky to have her, you think, envious. But she always had love for everyone, and you never went without your share, whether you deserved it or not. 

(“She loves you,” Peter assured you as you panicked, clutching at your mom’s homemade cookies with a grip that could rival that of a crab. He looked nervous, though, probably because he was a person who cried because someone else cried, and that extended to your random bouts of anxiety. You felt bad, but your mind gets overwhelmed to the point that you can't apologize.

“How do you know?!” You were about to meet May for the first time, and your anxiety was causing your stomach to knot itself into a pretzel. You were going to throw up. Or at least, that’s what it felt like. 

Peter pulled the box of cookies from your hands and set it on the porch, gently wrapping his arms around you. You gulped and buried your face in his shoulder. His glasses dug awkwardly into your ear, but it was oddly calming. Uncomfortable enough that you could focus on it instead of the rolling of your stomach. 

“I know because she’s been excited to meet you ever since I mentioned you,” he says softly. “And Aunt May is the kindest person you’ll ever meet. You could walk in there looking like a member of the mafia and the worst she’d do is raise an eyebrow—”

You laugh, disbelieving. 

He tightens his grip on you. You never noticed that he smelled like strawberries until now. Somehow, that makes your breathing slow just a smidge more. “I’m serious! She knows about how you stood up to Flash for me, and how you got me to watch her favorite musical—now she won’t stop singing that one, stupid song—”

You snort. “‘Popular’ is iconic, you nerd.” Your voice is nasally, but you’re smiling. If Peter Parker had a superpower, it was the ability to make you smile. Without a thought, your arms wrap around him, and you grin like an idiot in the crook of his neck.

“Anyway,” he continues, the segue as smooth as a brutal pileup crash, “Aunt May would rather you cry over uh—”

“Wicked,” you supply helpfully, the sound muffled by his skin. 

He shivers slightly. It’s cold out. December, and all that. You feel bad all over again, but shove the feeling down and clutch at him tighter. It helps a bit, settles the goosebumps rising on your flesh. 

Peter clears his throat. “R-Right, Wicked. She’d rather you cry over Wicked together instead of you crying alone, over meeting her. She loves you already, and she’ll love you even more after meeting you for real. Okay? I promise.”)

Meeting May was oddly emotional, mostly because she was the most important person in his life, aside from Ben, who you met that same night when he came home early, surprising all three of you. But May hardly ever spoke without a purpose, and she had wisdom on her side, so you trusted her words like gospel, almost. 

Focus on what you can do, you remind yourself, and get to work. 

.

.

.

An hour (two? You lost track of time) later, you’re lying down on your couch, beat, and fighting an upcoming cough with cough drops (that are running out worryingly fast) and dayquil. Your bedding is in the dryer, and your clean, unfolded clothes lay in a heap under your feet, but at least it’s done. Almost. 

Ugh. 

The vomit has been cleaned up, and though you kind of want to burn the newly-labeled ‘puke bucket’, you just cleaned it, so it’s staying. For now. And your teeth are freshly brushed, because you’d be crazy to leave them dirty for a moment longer. 

… Ice cream sounds fucking perfect right now.

Crackers sat stacked on the table beside you, pulled out of your cupboards by Peter more than a day ago, and it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. 

You’re acting like he’s your boyfriend, and it’s pretty pathetic. He’s your best friend, sure, but he’s… busy. He doesn’t live here, has no way of knowing if you’re even awake—

Oh. Your phone. You heard it go off earlier, not even ten minutes ago, actually, from inside your bedroom. You're drowsy enough that calling Peter sounds like an amazing idea.

Stumbling into your bedroom, you snatch your phone and go to open it.

Tap, tap, tap.

You freeze, bolting around to look at your window, suddenly wide awake. 

Peter stands breathlessly in the cold, awkwardly shifting as you stare at him. He’s… in your fire escape, having just knocked on your recently closed window (it got cold, sue you), and well, now you know how he got into your apartment. Maybe you should lock your windows in the future. That would be smart. 

You take too long just gaping at him, apparently, because Peter sags and mimes opening up the window. He dangles a Walmart bag in his hands like it’s an enticing treat, a pout forming on his lips.

You pitch forward, tripping on nothing, and he panics, rushing forward before remembering that there’s a wall in the way, but you catch yourself because you’re not that clumsy. What the hell. 

You’re muttering to yourself as you wrench the window open, ‘what the fuck’ being a prominent phrase amidst the rest. 

Crossing your arms, you wait silently. 

Guilt flashes in his eyes, and your resolve nearly crumbles at the sight of fresh bruises on his face, but he opens his mouth before you can reach forward to cradle his cheek. “I’m sorry,” he mumbles, shamefaced. “I—had to work, uhm, overtime, and I literally just got off a few hours ago, and—”

You didn’t notice before, too shocked by his sudden appearance, but as you drink him in, you see just how exhausted he is. His eyebags are back to canyon size, dark bruises that make your stomach churn, accompanied by split knuckles. He got into a fight, somehow, sometime in the past day, and you—

Unbidden, tears pool in the corner of your eyes. You’re not even sure why, really, just that you’re about to break down and neither of you are prepared to deal with that, so you wipe your eyes and try your best to ignore the sudden silence as Peter tries to figure out what to do with his hands. 

His bag crinkles as he places it on your bed, but it’s forgotten as he crushes you into a hug. “Hey, I got you, I got you,” he mumbles into your hair. “You’re alright.”

For a while, you two just sit there as you both attempt to calm down. His heart rages against his chest so fiercely that you can physically feel it. As calm as he appeared, he couldn’t hide everything, not from you.

“You’re hurt,” you whisper tearfully. Your Peter, who is so kind and wonderful, even if he’s late or never shows, or hell, even if he leaves far too soon, doesn’t deserve to be in pain. The unfairness of it all stings the most, you think, because he’s always getting hurt but he doesn’t explain why, so you can’t help.

His assurances die out as he searches for something to say. Eventually, he takes a deep breath and buries his nose in your hair. “Yeah. Got… mugged. I was grabbing stuff from Walmart and some dude—” he gives up half-way through with a mirthless chuckle. “Should see the other guy, actually, he turned out way worse.”

You pull back with a sniffle, willing yourself to toughen up. Sickness and medication and repressed emotions be damned. “Peter, don’t lie to me. Not now. Please.”

It feels awful, to use your tears in your favor, even if there’s only remnants of them, but you’re so tired of him getting hurt and lying about why. 

If he’s getting extorted, or—or something, you can help. You could get your cousin, who’s a police officer, on the phone in a heartbeat, and you’d corral the perps into a cell yourself if you had to. 

You just want him to be safe. To stop coming back from ‘work’ so exhausted, bloody, broken. It’s not right, and it doesn’t fit. It can’t fit, because that means he has to suffer, that the universe is right, and you just can’t accept that. 

Peter grits his teeth, the grind of it making you wince.

You purse your lips. Your voice is a whisper when you finally speak. “You’re always somewhere, getting hurt, and the first few times, I believed you when you said you got mugged or fell. But now…” You take a deep breath. “Now, I just can’t anymore. Peter, you—you mean so much to me, and I can’t do this anymore. Who’s hurting you? A-And why won’t you tell me? I can help, if you—”

“I’m Spider-Man.”

You fumble, pausing before peering at Peter, searching for a lie, or something. His face is stone-cold, and you shiver. It’s like ice has been dumped down the back of your shirt. You forcefully pull yourself away from him, feeling guilty as his face falls into something akin to despair.

“Prove it.”

If he’s lying… you don’t know what you’ll do. You love Peter Parker, no matter how infuriating he is, no matter how much he lies to you, and you know he’ll be your undoing. 

But if he’s Spider-Man—

Fwip!

A web shoots out at you, and you flinch as it lands on the wall behind you, inches away from your face. You look at it, then at Peter, then back at the web. Laughter bubbles in your chest and bursts from your mouth without your input, but it feels like release. 

Peter murmurs your name warily, because you’re acting like a nut (you’re at the very least, self-aware), and wow, your name sounds beautiful when he says it like that. You really want to kiss him. 

He’s still getting hurt, but he told you the truth. It feels like you’re on cloud-nine. 

You wiggle a bit, a mimicry of a typical happy dance, but it comes close, so you count it as a win.

…

… Peter’s looking at you like you’re about to collapse and have a mental breakdown. He’s not wrong to assume that, but you’re laughing out of sheer and utter relief at the fact that he’s not getting extorted or abused at work (or by some secret partner that he couldn’t tell you about). 

You smile at him, laughter petering off into soft giggles, then exhales, then silence. “I thought you were getting extorted,” you muse, “or abused. I’m glad you’re just, uhm, willingly—” you say it like a question, because you’re pretty sure that’s not the case but not one-hundred percent sure, “—getting beaten up by random people who sometimes dress up like a bird. Or become a lizard for some reason.”

He snorts, looking exhausted and tentatively hopeful. “Definitely not willingly.”

You frown. “You don’t want to be Spider-Man?” Who the hell is forcing him—

He raises his hands in a panic, shaking his head. “I meant the ‘getting beat up’ part! I chose to be Spider-Man!”

“Oh. Makes sense.” You are really out of it.

Peter continues on like he hadn’t heard you. “Like, who willingly gets beat up by criminals? You’d have to be a huge masochist, and even then, that’s like, insane. Beyond insane, actually. Just get like, one of those BDSM contracts from that Fifteen Shades of—something, and why am I still talking.” 

You snort-laugh, shaking your head. The fondness in your heart beats in tandem with your pulse, and you surge forward into his arms before it can overwhelm you like before. Spider-Man or not, Peter Parker was a masterclass on anxious word-vomit. 

It’s beyond adorable. 

His pout is too, but it disappears as you trace the curves of his lips with your eyes, until it settles on a shaky smile. You can hear him holding his breath, and wonder, out of nowhere, if it will smell like your ice cream. 

You look up to find him already looking at you. You always told him one of his best features were his eyes. ‘Big, brown, doe-eyes,’ you used to tease him. You called him ‘doe-eyes’ up until your junior year of highschool, a way to avoid spilling about how beautiful they were. He’d roll his eyes every time you called him that, but May secretly told you how much he enjoyed the nickname.

(“He doesn’t get complimented or appreciated enough,” she told you softly, watching Peter snore into the couch pillow. He was contorted into a position that had to be uncomfortable—it was a position only a teenager could pull off. Her lips twitched at the sight, and it was hard to imagine a world where one needed more than May Parker’s love, but if someone deserved it, it would be Peter Parker. “It’s easy to make him happy, really, but you’re one of his best friends, and it means so much more coming from you.”)

Oddly, when your heart flutters, it’s not because of anxiety, but because you feel right at home. Like you found your place amongst the stars, sitting in his lap, your hands in his hair and on his skin. 

His cheek is soft under your thumb, and you’re gentle as you brush past the bruises, so soft that you’re barely grazing his skin; you savor the feeling of him against you as he shivers before leaning forward, resting your forehead against his. 

“You’re not mad?” he asks shakily, running his tongue over his bottom lip. 

Maybe you are, but right now you can’t help but feel much more than a tingly happiness. “I don’t know,” you answer honestly, toying with the curls around his ear. “I just… really want to kiss you right now.”

You laugh a little at how silly you both are, how weird you’re acting. Pete exhales through his nose, and smiles dopily at you. His eyelashes are longer than you imagined. He looks…

“Beautiful,” you murmur, ghosting your lips against his, giving him a chance to back away. Your eyelids dip until you can just barely see him as he presses closer to you, his near-silent whine escaping into your mouth as his lips meet yours. He wants this.

Fingers dig into your waist needily, the warmth of Peter’s palms soothing the aches left behind by the strength of his grip. How you never noticed his super-strength before, you’ll never know, but now…

Your thoughts trickle out of your head as Pete murmurs into your kiss, the flush of heat on both of your cheeks making you feel so warm and hazy. Kissing him is like a drug—very, very addicting. You don’t want to leave his mouth, nor his lap, so you desperately press closer even after he pulls away, mouthing at the delicate skin of his neck as he pants into the quiet of your bedroom. 

He giggles, sounding as heady as you feel. “You taste like cough drops,” he mutters, giddy, tilting his neck to give you better access. You suck a small hickey onto the skin there, and he groans, hips bucking upwards with no real heat. 

You’re both too exhausted for more, but too drunk on endorphins to care about it. 

“I was hoping you’d taste like my ice cream,” you whisper into his neck, hopelessly fond—you remember him after getting his wisdom teeth removed, how he acted then, and it's like that day all over again, just better. His pulse beats in your ear, fast but steadily slowing. You wonder if you could wake up with this sound tomorrow, if he’d want to sleep in your bed and wake up with you, next to you—

“Oh shit.” Peter scrambles up, taking you with him. 

You'll deny the squeal that leaves your mouth until the day you die. Fuck you, Peter. “What the hel—”

“I bought ice cream,” he explains breathlessly, tugging the Walmart bag off the bed and hurrying you both into the kitchen. You dangle in his arms, the afterglow completely ruined, and can’t help but gape at your stupid idiot as he throws the carton of ice cream—chocolate!—into your freezer. 

He freezes after seeing the look on your face. 

“... It was twelve dollars, okay?”

You break into uncontrollable laughter. Despite the comedy of it all, you agree with him. Twelve dollar ice cream must be preserved. You still give him shit for it, though, because what else are best friends/potentially-a-girlfriend for? “Oh my God, Peter. You’re a complete disaster!” You tilt your head back to stare at your ceiling, eyes closed in mock repentance. As if God, or whoever was up there had anything to apologize for by allowing Peter into your life.

“Says the person who has had almost two mental breakdowns in the past fifteen minutes,” he snarks back. It doesn’t quite achieve the desired effect he must want, because seeing how frazzled he is just makes you want to pinch his cheeks and kiss him stupid. 

Or, well, considering how he acted earlier, it probably wouldn’t go amiss…

“Go on a date with me,” you demand suddenly. He goes still as you bury yourself against his chest. Hearing how fast his heart speeds up makes you feel better about how fast yours is pounding. “And no flaking for Spider-Man activities! Unless there’s like, a fire, then you should probably go—”

“Saturday,” he interrupts you. “At seven. I’ll pick you up, and we’ll go watch that new movie you’ve been wanting to see, and then I’ll take you to that one place you really like—the one near Forest Hills, and—”

You wiggle your eyebrows, the joke too funny to pass up. “Netflix and Chill?”

He flushes, groaning. “OhmyGod.” Then he thinks about it, restless as he shifts against you. He’s visibly imagining it, which makes you flush with so many different feelings, it’s kind of hard to focus. “I mean, if… you want to?”

You smile into his chest. “We’ll figure it out then,” you reassure him. 

“Yeah,” he breathes, words blending together in what you fondly call a 'Peter Word-Tornado', where all his words get jumbled up because he's so excited. Your knees feel weak at the thought of hearing that everyday. God. “Yeahyeahyeah, that works.”

Maybe getting sick wasn’t too bad, you decide. (It was pretty bad, but you're too floaty on ‘Peter’ to think straight. Being sick sucks ass. Getting together with the love of your life is pretty nice, though.)

Fin.

[maukree]

Masterpost with all parts Yay, here we are. Part 2 of my *not quite Civil War (616)—The Messiest Divorce in Superhero History specifically (or Civil War, which is mostly actual Civil War just for this part, with very little winteriron)—where everything gets dark, painful, and incredibly shippable for so many ships. Not gonna lie, the whole point of these posts is for me to catch up before I start working on my MTH fill for the 616-canon-heavy winteriron fic, and also to have a convenient resource to link to if MCU-only fans actually choose to read it and want to know what happened in canon versus what is complete bullshit for my writing pleasure. That said—this event is a goldmine for all kinds of ships. So I’ve snagged the juiciest bits for your reading (and thirsting) pleasure because every ship is valid, and I don’t discriminate. (Though, I have my favorites, so they’re gonna stand out.) Now—Tumblr has a 30-image limit per post, and I am not about to split Civil War into multiple parts here, so there is a lot of ground to cover in this. There will be more parts after this, so you get one post for Civil War specially, with as much crammed into it as I can, laid out as simply as possible—for me, and hopefully for you too. P.S. While my cover image lists the overall timeline and which series I discuss in terms of winteriron, Civil War and this part here hits the fan right smack in the middle of Captain America and The Invincible Iron Man (they each get a few issues inside), but there’s a lot of other crap happening too elsewhere. I’m not about to unpack every superhero’s massive tie-in series here in equal detail, but I will mention others before the first BIG fight and how they pertain to Tony, Bucky, Steve and Peter—because, obviously, that’s who we’re here for, and Peter is in the middle... 'cause he is kind of important here. If you want the full, issue-by-issue breakdown of every tie-in, crossover, and emotional kick in the nuts that happened, and you didn’t like the five-hour video I sent you to in Part 1, Marvel’s got you covered with their Complete Guide to the Civil War Event (or which order to read it at, which I am following here, sort of.) *visuals are after each arc/issue covered. Fair warning: this has a lot of food for irondad or starker, but this is canon, so just deal with it. K, click that Read More button, and let’s goooo into “holy shit, why are they like this?”

If you read this part you will know where Tony, Bucky and Steve are just after 616 Civil War is won by one side.

What triggered Civil War for real / Was used as an excuse for registration? Basically, the U.S. government has been side-eyeing caped vigilantes for years—tolerating their sometimes helpful, sometimes catastrophic crime-fighting because, well, they weren’t technically employees. Things had been escalating for a while, but the final straw was when a group of young, reality-TV-era superheroes (The New Warriors) tried to do their thing, and—shocker—it went terribly. Some guy called Nitro (not part of the New Warriors, just a villain doing villain things) exploded next to an elementary school during a fight with that chirpy young group, killing over 600 people, including a lot of kids. There was a national outrage, and nothing gets the government’s attention quite like untrained superhumans causing massive collateral damage in broad daylight that people complain about. Suddenly, Congress, the media, and your grandma had an opinion on whether superheroes should be running around unchecked, which has resulted in the Superhuman Registration Act (SRA or, sometimes SHRA)—which most people are probably more familiar with from the X-Men movies and whatnot (where it was basically “Mutants, go register”), or as the comic book equivalent of the Sokovia Accords in the MCU. The SRA demanded that all superheroes:

Register with the government.

Reveal their identities.

Undergo training.

Operate under official oversight.

Which… totally sounded reasonable to some people. But only some people. Sure, about half of the superhero community saw it as necessary law and order, but the other half saw it as the death of personal freedom. And that is how this Marvel Civil War came about in the comics. (They did have a second one waaaay later, but I am not getting into that.) The easy comparison with MCU here is:

Team Pro-Registration (led by Tony).

Team Anti-Registration (led by Steve).

Where it gets VERY different:

It has very little (nothing, but he's around) to do with Bucky.

It's long.

A lot of people are involved.

Fighters on each side die.

It gets twisted and very much downhill from here as far as Tony's bromance with Steve goes (or on the up, depends on how much you like your angst). And, yes, there is a possibility some of the characters would've remained alive (but, like, a lot of Marvel characters die and come back even more often in the comic books) if Tony and Steve had just fucked it out, honestly. The Amazing Spider-Man (1999): Mr. Parker Goes to Washington (#529-531) (Not actually released in 1999—the series itself started in 1999. Marvel’s way of naming shit and constantly renaming it will break your head, I swear.) This specific three-parter covers Tony dragging Peter into the most emotional relationship drama to ever drama. For clarity (and because I think I’m too funny and can’t resist commenting along), while Civil War is gearing up, Tony starts making deeply emotional decisions under the guise of strategy, and his first move is to recruit Peter and make sure he is on his side. Because obviously, if you’re about to start a massively controversial government-backed superhero initiative, the first person you want in your corner is the kid with no money, another tragic backstory, the worst luck in the history of caped crusading, but a very good sense of right and wrong. At this point in the timeline, Peter is living with Tony in the Avenger's tower, Tony is already acting like his chaotic billionaire stepdad while Peter is hitting it off with the Avengers on the daily. For real, Peter even calls him “Dad” once or twice, although mostly, he calls him “boss” and, what, do you know, he is actually his intern. MJ is staying with Peter, but you can ignore that. So what actually happens here relevant to Civil War beginnings: Tony takes Peter to Washington, D.C., where he’s testifying before Congress about superhero accountability. While in D.C., Tony gives Peter a new version of the Iron Spider suit (like two days after another new version ’cause he can’t stop spoiling him or, like, gearing him up for war or something, idk...) and starts laying the groundwork for making him his right-hand. There are a lot of father/son vibes, mentor/protégé vibes, and if you’re reading this through a Starker lens, well—Tony spends a lot of time complimenting Peter, and putting a hell of a lot of emotional weight on his presence.

Fact: Tony genuinely cares about Peter in here (not looking at it through starker lens right now, trying to think winteriron long game here), but he’s also desperate for allies as the political pressure builds. Because Peter is not just a good boy for Tony but good in general, he is clearly conflicted from the beginning about the government stepping in to control superheroes, but Tony reassures him that it’s the right thing to do and that he is actually working on stalling it and making sure it stays under control (he is being hella shady). Peter also trusts Tony implicitly (big mistake, buddy), and because this is the road to Civil War and not just Fun Congressional Trips With Tony and Pete, we also get some early signs of how badly this is going to go for everyone involved. So, Peter backs Tony up (as Peter, hiding his identity and later as Spider-Man, refusing to reveal his identity at the meeting), showing loyalty to Tony despite his own lingering doubts. This whole arc is really about Tony starting to make moves to secure the Pro-Registration side, and Peter—bless him—doesn’t fully grasp what he’s getting into yet. This is an awesome arc to read for anyone who likes Tony and Peter in any capacity, but it’s so clear that Tony doesn’t just care about Peter here—he needs him. He is also the guy who will, very soon, break Peter’s heart, and it’s very gutting. Like, they kick the whole event off with this, and you can feel your heart bleed in advance. Why this Matters for Civil War: Tony starts Civil War with Peter at his side, which will make it all the more painful when it inevitably falls apart. Peter’s trust in Tony is absolute at this point, and that will change—violently. Tony also secretly hires a bad guy to attack them in D.C. to make a point, and this should really be one of the many signs on how seriously Tony's starting here from the very beginning.

In Fantastic Four #536-537, Thor’s hammer crash-lands on Earth. This is a big deal because, at this point, Thor is 'not around', but everyone is trying to get their hands on his nutcracker. Naturally, Doctor Doom shows up, because if something cool falls from the sky, he’s contractually obligated to try and steal it. The reason the hammer is important is because Reed Richards is around for this, so while he’s not fully immersed in Civil War beginnings yet, he’s about to be. Also, Thor and his hammer specifically play a massive part in Civil War (stick a pin in that mental note). Doom doesn’t get the hammer, obviously, it just chills there because nobody can lift it. Following the Fantastic Four issues (but also technically happening before them—just go with it), we have New Avengers: Illuminati (2006) #1, which is basically a bunch of rich, powerful men sitting in a room and making decisions that will screw over everyone else. This issue gives us the Illuminati’s response to the SRA, aka a lot of self-important posturing. The Illuminati (Tony, Reed Richards, Namor, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, and Charles Xavier) gather to discuss how this whole registration thing is about to go down. And—shocker—they do not agree. Everyone except Reed and Tony, who tend to agree on more things than people give them credit for, thinks that the SRA is a massive disaster waiting to happen. T'Challa is there too, and while he loves being complemented on how pretty his country is, he still tells them to fuck off. Politely. Namor flips off Tony too and nearly drowns him. It's a cool action sequence. So, nothing too exciting, but good to know. That said, this is side content I don’t personally care about, but will splash in here and there for basic understanding as needed, and not spend image limit on it (unless it extra cool).

Civil War (2006) #1 This is where things aren’t just leading to the breakup of Tony and Steve—this is where everything fully hits the fan. I’ve already covered the tragedy and the public outrage/last trigger for SRA, but let’s talk about a lovely parallel happening in the aftermath. During the funeral for the folks who died, Tony gets spit on. A grieving mother blames him personally for the deaths of all those children, since he's kinda bankrolling Avengers and stuff, and while Tony was not even remotely involved in this paticular Nitro-exploding and killing kids mess—just the cleanup—he takes it HARD. (Yeah, remember how badly he took everything in the movies? It's worse in the comics, and the woman is aggressive about it.) And regardless of whether it’s comic books or movies, if there’s one thing Tony cannot handle, it’s being told that his inaction led to innocent people dying. This is where his shady, kind-of-sorta “leaning” into supporting registration cements itself into a full send. Unfortunately for both sides of this war, Fury is nowhere to be found to smack some sense into people, because he pissed off the U.S. government (again) and is currently persona non grata. So instead, Maria Hill is running S.H.I.E.L.D, calls in Steve for a little chat, while a bunch of other heroes are off in various places having their “Should we let the government own our asses?” powwows. Hill, naturally, expects Steve to be the poster boy for the Superhuman Registration Act, because, you know, Captain America = America, right? Big mistake. Huge. I don’t know if it’s the way she talks to him in her “I’m in charge now, shut up and do what I say” tone, or the fact that she basically says, “Hey, so here’s the deal—there’s a new law coming down. You’re going to help us enforce it, and we’re going to use S.H.I.E.L.D. to make sure every superhero signs up. Cool? Cool.” Either way, Steve's response is HELL NO. Hill, in her usual charming manner, reacts to being blown off by trying to arrest him. Which is hilarious. Steve then proceeds to beat the crap out of some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, escape the Helicarrier, and go underground. But not to hang out with Fury who pops up at a later stage. Just underground, officially becoming the face of the Anti-Registration movement. Now, I’m probably not being fair to Hill (I actually do like her), but I am also Switzerland when it comes to comic book Civil War (and MCU Civil War), because both Tony and Steve are being absolute fucking idiots about literally everything in either canon. Frankly, Bucky is the only smart one when this takes place, and mostly 'cause he’s nowhere to be seen yet after ghosting Steve in London. He’s out there somewhere, probably drinking whiskey in a safe house, brooding about his past crimes, cleaning his guns, and for now busy NOT giving a single fuck about what's going on. While the love of his life that he hasn’t met yet (reminder: this is a winteriron timeline) is going out of his way to become the most hated man in the superhero community. Sad.

She-Hulk (2005) #8 is mostly a pointless tie-in to Civil War in the context of what I am trying to do here, but we do get a peek at Tony’s methods and how he’s running his “Collect ’Em All” campaign for Pro-Registration allies. Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk), has a bunch of things going on somewhat related to the main event, but the only one you need to know here is that Tony makes an appearance to give her information she needs for a case she is working on—“for free, not asking for anything, no strings attached” of course (which, lol, sure, Tony). This is a good look at how Tony operates. He’s not exactly strong-arming people right away, but you’d have to be blind not to pick up on the “Pick a side or get picked for one” vibes. In general, his methods vary through the Civil War, but you have to give it to him, he is very creative and approaches each person in a wickedly unique way. Crafty. He's crafty. In Wolverine (2003) #42, Logan is seen catching some heat and getting the “You’re not welcome here anymore” treatment from randoms, demonstrating how the baseline folks are reacting to what’s going on (although, when does he not get this heat, honestly?). He gets into a few debates with fellow supers about how the SRA is giving Nazi vibes, all while side-eyeing the Sentinel parked outside the X-Mansion pretending to be a lawn ornament and suspecting it’s not actually there for their “safety”. Wolverine isn’t my favorite in general, but he slaps in this, because instead of sitting around and yapping about whose side he’s on, he’s one of the few people actually making sense and decides that Nitro—the asshole who kickstarted this and exploded all over the place, killing all the people—hasn’t been rolled over by an avenging tank yet and it should probably be done. Right? The man has a point. Avengers. Tony tells him to drop it because “we have bigger problems”, but Logan is like “Yeah, nah” and sets off on a mission to gut Nitro with a fork (or, well, six of them), since someone here has priorities and actually takes being an Avenger (which he has been for a few months only tbh) seriously. I am not gonna talk about Wolverine much after this, so feel free to hunt down his issues on your own.

Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #532 This is one of my favorite issues, honestly, because this is the moment Tony asks Peter for everything, and Peter realizes what his loyalty to Tony actually means. In short, they visit the White House together (Tony brings him along to all the cool places, as you can see), and Peter’s life as he knows it gets irreversibly fed. This issue is a massive turning point because Tony wants a lot. And I mean, a lot. Up until this point, every time Spider-Man’s identity has been revealed, it’s been because a villain unmasked him—never voluntarily. But now, with the SRA officially getting signed by the president, the rules are clear: If you don’t register, you and your entire family become fugitives. Your assets will be confiscated, your safety will be gone, your life will be over, etc. AND if you do sign up, you might also have to snitch on others and hunt them down. Like… tough. Very tough. Tony, being the dramatic bastard that he is, casually admits to the President that he is Iron Man right there in the Oval Office, while Peter is completely missing this historic moment because he’s looking for a bathroom, checking out Secret Service agents, and admiring priceless art. (I respect his priorities.) Then comes the Big Ask. Tony wants Peter to do the same—to stand beside him and publicly reveal that he is Spider-Man to the world. Peter, reasonably, is not down for this plan at all initially, but Tony, ever the master manipulator with a heart, leaves Peter with a choice. (Sort of. Which is really no choice at all, if you think about it, since, if Peter refuses, his entire life crumbles.) MJ and Aunt May (especially May) help him process the decision, and while they ultimately support him, Peter himself is still torn right up until the last second. Even when he’s about to go to Tony with a YES, he still considers running. He even makes the arrangements to run, but doesn’t. The issue ends with Tony and Peter standing side by side at a podium, about to make this announcement. This issue slaps for both irondad and starker, honestly.

Civil War: Front Line (2006) #1 While superheroes are busy picking sides, Front Line follows the journalists stuck in the middle, trying to cover this mess—specifically Ben Urich (Daily Bugle, professional shit-stirrer) and Sally Floyd (indie journalist, professional snarker). The two of them are trying to make sense of the SRA fallout, tracking how the government is spinning the Stamford disaster (all those dead kids). In the same issue, Speedball—one of the good guys who accidentally got a school full of kids blown up when he was fighting Nitro—gets arrested, which is awkward as hell and also the first time on the page where someone flashes their S.H.I.E.L.D. badge to start arrests, signaling that things are starting to get really serious. Speedball has a VERY bad time after his arrest and is often used to remind us all that the places where supers who didn't fall in line go are not a spa. At all. Since this is essentially a press room issue, it ends with the reveal of Tony’s identity—that same press conference where we last left him with Peter. And LOL, DUDE, you do not begin this shit with “Hello. I am Tony Stark, and I am an alcoholic.” This. Is. What. He. Says. YES. While Peter is next to him, shaking in his boots and waiting for his very private life get gutted into pieces to support Tony's agenda.

Civil War (2006) #2 Following the first arrest, things are properly rolling downhill now. More arrests, the first betrayals, and the first real punches are about to happen. Tony, still fully committed to the government’s golden boy arc, is working with S.H.I.E.L.D. to form his superhero task force to hunt down the noncompliant capes. Steve has been AWOL since flipping off Hill but there is a resistance going on. I mean… it sounds good, right? For now, Tony looks like a total dick, and Steve is the hero. As a note, however, Tony is not being a complete blind asshole here, and does struggle with hoping they are doing the right thing just before SRA officially becomes law. Because comics don’t release in a neat timeline, the end of this issue is also where we get some lovely art of Peter unmasking during that press conference (the art shifts between comics, enjoy it and deal with it).

At this point, Civil War is fully spiraling, and the “oh shit, this is getting worse” moments are stacking up. In Thunderbolts (2006) #103, Tony and his team sign up the Thunderbolts—a group of villains-turned-government-enforcers (not to be confused with the MCU version, and no, Bucky is not here yet). And what is their job is to hunt down villain holdouts and then recruiting them to hunt down more holdouts. Yes, the plan is literally “let’s get criminals to enforce the law.” Things are just getting plain weird and scary and in Civil War: Front Line (2006) #2, the press and civilians are starting to get real nervous about how Tony is taking down people who used to be on the side of good with very little prejudice for not complying. Essentially, the whole “this is about protecting people” argument is starting to look flimsy AF when actual normal people are watching buildings collapse and their heroes get thrown into Superhero Guantanamo. Nobody is having a good time at this stage, but, to lighten the mood, Peter gets fired from the Daily Bugle via headline: “YOU’RE FIRED!”

New Avengers (2004) #21 is where we properly get into Steve’s headspace, and IT IS HILARIOUS. This issue is basically Steve being alone and sad after flipping off Maria Hill and instantly regretting everything, including his own existence. He angsts for most of it, because of course he does, and at some point, Bucky makes a 0.5-second flashback appearance, because it wouldn’t be a Steve issue if he wasn’t feeling sorry for himself and reminiscing about people he’s lost. The vibe here is “I should draw my feelings or write a book” (multiple panels on him trying to do that), but instead of actually dealing with his trauma of being a fugitive, which he is very upset about, he just… keeps brooding. Then S.H.I.E.L.D. sends Dum Dum Dugan to bring Steve in, and that’s when the paranoia kicks in. Suddenly, Steve is feeling betrayal from all angles (fair), and even Falcon catches some suspicion, even though they are best buds in this, since Bucky is out there gallivanting somewhere, not getting involved yet. After Steve and Falcon reunite, they set off on a noble quest titled: “Let’s Make Civil War About Peter Parker, Because He’s the First Pick for Everyone.” They gently stalk Peter to see if he’d be down to join Team Cap, but they are very late. Steve is devastated, because Peter once called him cute, and now Peter is already firmly on Tony’s side, kinda-sorta-but-actually-yes. And if that wasn’t enough betrayal for one issue, Hank Pym tries to help S.H.I.E.L.D. to arrest Cap, which really just solidifies the whole “Steve is having the worst week of his life” situation. Maybe if Steve had actually talked to Peter instead of stalking him, Peter would have called him cute again, and Civil War would have ended right there, since our sunshine babydoll can make everyone see light. But alas.

As you probably picked up on already, Peter is right smack in the middle of this, as mentioned about 10,000 times. In Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #533, they fully cover how much his life went to absolute shit after that press conference. It wasn’t just getting fired. Everyone wants a piece of him now. Some people want to kill him, a lot of people want to fuck him, and the internet is absolutely losing its collective mind. (For real—his unmasking breaks the internet, including the porn sites. FACTS.) At the same time, Peter is deeply uneasy about everything, and Tony is “comforting” him while simultaneously sharpening his betrayal knife. The same knife where Tony does not ASK Peter if he wants to be part of his superhero-hunting strike force and instead, he just signs him up publicly without permission. Peter, already on his WTF is going on subplot, doesn’t even get time to process any of this properly before Tony cranks the drama to 11, piling on on top of his little 'favor' to reveal his identity and says: “Hold my beer, meet your new teammates, and get ready—because the dying is about to fucking start tomorrow.” Whelp.

Things don’t actually escalate to full-on hero-on-hero-we-give-a-crap-about murder aka THE BIG WTF MOMENT just yet (patience), but people are getting hurt just for trying to not pick a side, and crime is skyrocketing because, shockingly, when heroes are too busy planning on punching each other, villains thrive. In Fantastic Four (1998) #538 Johnny is in a coma because a mob beat him within an inch of his life just for existing as a super, the Fantastic Four are already crumbling and even Reed’s own family thinks he’s being a dick. (And they are correct.) He is so firmly on Tony’s side that it’s almost embarrassing, and I suspect some consensual touching is involved to be this stupidly on board with Tony, but I digress here too, since I don’t even know if this is a ship. There’s some setup happening for later events, but we’re not going Mariana Trench deep here, so let’s move on. Oh, someone does pick up Thor’s hammer. I wonder who that is. Over in Civil War: Front Line (2006) #3, the press is still deep in the trenches, and there is a lot of talking happening. Everyone is talking. Some folks are being interviewed. Nobody is doing shit. It's getting... boring. It's also getting very confusing.

BUT.

We are FINALLY, at least in this ‘brief’ (ah, who the fuck am I kidding here) recap, at the stage where I am mentally prepared to talk about The Great Civil War Standoff (aka, Please, Just Start Punching Already) and promptly skip to HOLY FUCK NOT THIS MUCH PUNCHING, boooooys, what are you doing??? (I rock myself in the corner.) As mentioned, the whole thing sorta stalls while each side is staring at each other with deep, unspoken yearning, waiting for the BIG fight, while smaller fights start breaking out all over the place. And because event comics are an actual nightmare, I am going to stop talking about the tie-ins here. I’ve set the scene, now just assume there’s a TON of random skirmishes happening, Cap and Spider-Man have already thrown hands (yo, this pretends to be a winteriron timeline, go look for your shippy business elsewhere, I am hungry), a bunch of unimportant extras are getting hurt or worse, and at this point, it’s just Tony vs. Steve and their twisted moral compasses playing an extremely violent game of chicken. I know, I know—I am taking a big skip after I just dropped an obscene amount of lore on you. But listen. Event tie-ins, and I cannot state it enough, are so messy and out of order while… being in order, sorta. You get to one good bit, and then Marvel chucks another 2,000 issues between you and the next good bit, and suddenly, you’re sitting there, waiting for the cliffhanger to be explained while trying to remember why the hell you should care what Quicksilver was doing five minutes before it happened and why you can’t just skip ahead to the yummy shit. Headache material, honestly. So, anyway. The scene has been set. Yay. Civil War is in progress. What we know now and what I am desperately trying to remember here:

Bucky is still in the wind.

Steve’s resistance is being annoying and resisting, but occasionally making sense, gaining traction, and also getting innocent people hurt left and right.

Tony is entering his “I am a very scary man” era and is also getting people hurt left and right, both physically and emotionally.

Peter is still with Tony but is having a minor existential crisis every five minutes on the account of emotional hurt, and barely any other Marvel issue in this timeline doesn't have an opinion on why he is still with Tony, is he sucking his dick or what, 'thought he was the good guy'/'ah yeah, this is why Tony needed him', etc.

The X-Men are staying out of it, mostly, because they’ve seen this movie before.

Deadpool and Cable, as well as about a gazillion other supers, have their own shit going on, but I refuse to get into that.

The Thunderbolts are being shady, surprise surprise, and they only get an honorable mention here ‘cause I’ve mentioned them earlier to demonstrate Tony’s spiral into being not just a bit of an asshole but very much an asshole.

Reed is so into Tony that he’s about to do something crazy. (I don’t even know if the touching is consensual at this point, since he is absolutely whipped by Tony, and it stinks of Stockholm syndrome.) So, now that we have decided on where we are and had a cup of tea/smoke, let’s have a look at the actual Civil War issues as they proceed, Captain America Civil War issues and Iron Man issues, skip a bunch of other important shit after, but ultimately, get to where we need to be before Part 3 of me posting (some other day) because I want to talk about Tony and Bucky and not about Civil War.

Civil War (2006) #3 Alright, we are finally here, because Civil War #3 is where shit gets real. Tony, being the tactical genius and emotionally constipated mess that he is, decides that it’s time to spring a trap on Team Cap. He and his Pro-Reg team set up a fake distress call because Steve is Steve, and if there’s even the slightest chance someone needs saving, he’s gonna show up. Boom. Steve does, of course, and Steve and his Underground Resistance walk straight into it. This finally gives us the most tense superhero standoff so far, with S.H.I.E.L.D. hovering overhead, a ton of supers on both sides locked, loaded, and ready to throw hands, and Peter right in the middle, not knowing how the fuck he got stuck with this lot. Tony, to his credit, tries to be the adult here. He actually reaches out, extends an olive branch, and tries to talk some sense into Steve before this escalates into full-out war (okay, okay, he tells him to chill the fuck out and comply, in slightly different words, but there is an actual amnesty Tony has worked out if Steve goes willingly, so he did try). Steve, being the absolute icon of stubbornness that he is, nods. Agrees to talk, at least. And immediately tries to take Tony down using some sneaky tech. Which gives us Tony vs. Steve, and it is GLORIOUS. These two beat the absolute crap out of each other, while everyone else on their respective teams also starts brawling (dozens/hundreds), with caped bodies flying, punches being thrown, and Peter still mostly blinking, but also fighting, while being upset that he failed to mediate between his two extremely stupid super dads and is not enjoying the whole “exhausted child of divorce” role they’ve been trying to pin on him. The fight between Tony and Steve is brutal, but Tony actually has an edge, since he’s Extremis-enhanced, a tech genius, years ahead in strategy, bla-bla-bla—so Steve is struggling. It goes on for a while, this fight, and then, the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers. Because Thor (codename “Lightning”—this is important) shows up to backup Team Tony. Which shouldn’t be a big deal, right? We suspected it, since hammer and all, but... christ.

Civil War #4 is where we go from “Oh shit” to “OH FUCK NO.” The Thor that shows up at the end of Civil War #3 is not… actually Thor? Only in comic books, folks, since he’s a clone that Tony, Reed, and Hank Pym cooked up in a lab. While Team Cap is a bit shook, (they take Thor being a god of thunder seriously, he’s also been presumed dead for ages), Tony is trying to get Steve to give up, but Steve is having none of it. It seems largely (ha!) in favor of Team Tony right now, until Goliath (a massive giant person, can shrink down, used to be buddies with Thor, actually) shows up for Team Cap and Thor… kills the fuck out of his nice buddy, making everyone, Tony included, freeze in a “what the actual fuck just happened?” terror, since innocents getting hurt and extras getting hurt are sorta… whatever, but this is one of their own, technically, biting it. Team Cap calls for a retreat, very shook, and Reed’s Sue Storm is the first important superhero to straight-up bail on the Pro-Registration side right this moment because she is DONE with this bullshit and with Reed, who has been such an asshole to Fantastic Four, honestly—not giving a crap about Johnny being in a coma and possibly (at the very least emotionally) cheating on her with Tony. Sue is so done that she shields Team Cap long enough for them to get away, and after the fight writes Reed a dramatic “I’m leaving you, please feed yourself, there’s oily fish” note, and takes Johnny (who is no longer in a coma, yay!) with her to fight the good fight, or a fight, as long as it's not on Reed's side. And on both sides, folks on the sideline are starting to really question leadership and what kind of fight it really is. Peter is actually asking, “Wait… are we the baddies?” having massive doubts about Tony, and Steve doesn’t seem to give a shit how many of his friends get hurt, and it’s all very fucking gutting and not even a little funny. In general, this looks bad for both Steve and Tony, because Steve is throwing his side against Tony’s like cannon fodder and doesn’t seem to listen to anyone’s opinions on the fact that amnesty is at least worth discussing at this point, and Tony is after causing massive (ha!) death with a faulty clone, so a lot of superheroes are—if not outright bailing and changing sides now—at least considering it. Tony actually pays for Goliath’s funeral, since he was a cool guy and didn’t shrink down after dying. Had to buy him a massive amount of plots because, well… giant. Has a gutting interaction with his widow that tries to remind him what Tony is doing this for to begin with. For me this is a very important issue for Tony's character in this. He pays for Goliath’s funeral, because that’s who Tony is—he genuinely does care. But instead of acknowledging that this is the moment to stop, to rethink, to pull back, he keeps going, because, sadly, caring doesn’t stop him from marching forward and getting deeper and deeper into this.

Captain America (2004) #22 – The One Where Steve Gets Laid (and Sharon Gets Therapy for related reasons)

While Tony and Steve are busy emotionally wrecking each other on a public stage, we take a brief (very) detour into the mess that is Steve Rogers’ love life. Hill, who has been on a power trip ever since Fury went underground, decides that since Steve is still out there resisting like a stubborn bastard, someone needs to bring him in. And who better than his kinda-ex, kinda-current, definitely-in-love-with-him S.H.I.E.L.D. agent girlfriend?

Sharon is not thrilled because she’s really not here for the double standards. Like, Tony liaises (👀) with half of the superhero community, according to her, and the better half of S.H.I.E.L.D and nobody gives him shit, but the moment she has a little love crisis and starts questioning where her loyalty actually lies, suddenly, it’s a whole thing.

But fine. Mission accepted.

Sharon sets out to “bring Steve in”—by which I mean she tracks him down, immediately bangs him, and then quotes dead presidents at him in the post-coital glow. And because it's also Steve's love language, he also starts quoting dead presidents back. (If you’ve ever wondered what Steve’s pillow talk is like, now you know.)

Now, in case you were still wondering whether Sharon is truly down bad for Steve, let’s talk about how she sabotaged her own mission by giving the strike team (cape-killers) the wrong address. On purpose. So she could a) bang Steve and b) display her undying passion for those dead president quotes.

And this is why Sharon is in therapy. Because, as it turns out, this is how S.H.I.E.L.D. traditionally deals with traitors.

For those who remember what I talked about in Part 1 of this pre-civil war, here is something: Red Skull and Lukin are still out there, watching all of this unfold like it’s their personal Netflix binge, and they are THRIVING. They love that the heroes who should be stopping them are too busy punching each other instead. And because they are absolute dickheads, they are also actively manipulating Sharon’s emotions to make her feelings for Steve even stronger.

(Which explains the banging. Though, let’s be honest—she was into it.)

Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #535 (and half of the next Spider-Man-specific issue, sorta) – The One Where Tony Officially Breaks Peter’s Heart (And Ours) Alright, kids, this is it, and you should be thankful I made you crack a smile over dead presidents (hopefully), because this is crying-level shit.

This is where Peter starts realizing that maybe, just maybe, signing up with Tony was a colossal fucking mistake— and not just sorta feeling it.

Tony, still deeply entrenched in his “I Am the Government Now” phase, still has a soft spot for Peter (awww, tragic) and when Peter demands to see where the prisoners he is bringing in and not loving it are kept, Tony decides that it’s time to give Peter the full tour of the Negative Zone prison (a very dodgy place, tbh).

And our science nerd, all-around good guy, man with a conscience—takes one look at the absolute nightmare Tony has built and goes, “Wait. What the actual fuck is this? You can't be serious.” Tony: “Oh, yeah, this? This is where we’re locking up heroes who don’t register. Indefinitely. Without trial. In a literal alternate dimension, so no lawyer can ever get them out.” Peter, blinking hard, possibly resisting the urge to throw up: “…Excuse me?” Peter tries to confront Tony about it, he does, but very quickly catches on that Tony is not above implying he can do the same to him. Which is… whelp.

The whole conversation goes something like this, if you want a slightly longer version (see visuals for the full one): Peter: “Hey, Tony, quick question—what the fuck?” Tony: “Ah, Peter, my boy, don’t worry about it, this is for the greater good.” Peter: “The greater good? Again, what the fuck?” Tony: “You’re being dramatic.” Peter: “Am I? Am I though?” Tony: “Peter…” Peter: “Dad?” (happens) Tony promptly tries to ship Peter off on some other business to get him to cool off, but Peter is finally on board with the fact that this man has cracked, and he no longer feels safe around him. He doesn't even trusts MJ and Aunt May with Tony anymore (threats have been made) and tries to take them and go on the run. And then… He and Tony end up exchanging punches. God, it’s so bad and upsetting, you have no idea. I have no jokes for this, and ship it, don’t ship it, but this is the ultimate betrayal on Tony’s part. Peter is falling apart after, barely escaping, not knowing where to go, and Tony… is also feeling heartbroken, equally as gutted. I’m gonna leave this here for now, since we need to go into some other issues before we continue with this plotline. But you get me, yes? I need tissues when I think about this.

Captain America (2004) #23 - BUCKY!

Alright, everyone, take a deep breath. We are finally getting to the Bucky part of this winteriron timeline.

Bucky is officially entering the chat, and he is looking DAMN FINE while doing it, got a new hair-dew + arm and everything. He also has a lot of feelings while breaking into a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility to pull some spy shit for Fury, because of course he is, and I am devastated I am running out of image limit here soon.

He’s absolutely judging Steve for leading a resistance movement and somehow not inviting him... and sorta doing it the way he's doing it.

He’s also side-eyeing Tony for being a government stooge, even though that’s neither here nor there, since they don’t actually know each other at all (yet), but awareness is awareness, and it still doesn’t stop him from forming an opinion.

Bucky is, in fact, just generally pissed. And sexy. Always sexy. But the best part—and why Bucky really should be shaking hands with Peter here (another shoutout to winterspider)—is that Bucky is watching Steve and Tony’s breakup in real-time and judging both of them.

His basic thoughts on the matter boil down to “Wow, I left you two alone for five minutes, and this is what happens?” since while Steve and Tony are out here making Civil War everyone’s problem, Bucky is off-screen, forced into being hot and competent, actually doing something productive by hunting real villains.

He has zero actual desire to get involved in the war itself, though he does seem to be more pro-Steve, obviously, and is way more concerned about Red Skull and Lukin than he is about whatever the hell Steve and Tony are doing.

Speaking of villains, Red Skull, who we find out is using Doom’s tech but not actually working with him, is under the impression that the whole Civil War was his big, evil, successful plan. (It wasn’t, everyone contributed, but let’s humor him.)

On the slightly more angsty side—because Bucky never misses an opportunity for angst, picked it up from Steve—he does blame himself a little bit for Civil War, since some of the shit he did when he first got defrosted was cited as part of the long-ass list of “Why the SRA Needs to Exist.” Not that he’s spiraling over it, but he’s self-aware enough to recognize he helped fuel the fire. But mostly, he’s doing what Bucky kicks ass at—being hot in shadows, judging everyone, avoiding Steve’s nonsense, avoiding Tony’s nonsense, and handling actual problems. God, I want his babies.

Civil War (2006) #5

Where we swing back to Tony being a massive dick about almost everything—except for the fact that he loves Peter, one way or another.

At this point, they are sorta in the process of arguing/fighting (there is some timeline overlap), Peter is trying to run away from him, and when S.H.I.E.L.D. is about to take it too far, Tony absolutely panics because he cannot see Peter hurt.

But Peter is now technically a fugitive, and Tony’s side has recruited some deeply unhinged people, so it’s open season on Spidey, with very specific instructions that Peter is to be brought in alive and unharmed—no matter what.

That would have been great… except Peter is now running on pure panic and heartbreak, immediately realizes he is completely fucked, ends up in a stinky sewer, and gets his ass kicked into next week.

He almost dies but gets saved by Punisher of all people, who promptly brings him to Steve and the Resistance (where Sue and Johnny are pretending to be a married couple for a mission, which is weird—let’s not talk about it).

Meanwhile, Tony is spiraling. Again.

His entire strategy is falling apart, Sue Storm has already dumped Reed over this bullshit war, Steve is still out there leading his resistance, and now his own protégé—his son in all but name—has turned against him.

Tony is visibly wrecked over Peter’s defection, but since he has the emotional processing skills of a brick, he just channels all that heartbreak into “fine, let’s get Daredevil arrested next” energy, which he does—for which he is given a piece of silver and called Judas. (Brutal.)

That’s not to say Tony doesn’t care. He very clearly does, and this issue makes it obvious that he still sees Peter as a kid who needs protection, even when Peter himself doesn’t want it. But his way of showing it is, unfortunately, locking up Peter’s friends in a pocket dimension and putting a hit out on him (technically), so, uh… yeah.

Meanwhile, Steve is also getting more extreme, starting to questionably recruit people he normally wouldn’t, and letting Punisher into his little rebellion. (Which is definitely going to end well. Totally.) He is also over the moon Peter is on his side now and announces it to the others while... Peter is still unconscious. Now tell me both Steve and Tony are not simply fighting here over who gets to read him a bedtime story? Come on.

The Invincible Iron Man (2004) #13 & Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #536: (Tony’s Possible Career Change & Peter’s “Fuck You” Tour)

Alright, so The Invincible Iron Man (2004) #13 is technically Tony’s first solo Civil War issue, but fuck all actually happens.

It’s mostly a lot of “Tony, what the fuck are we doing?” meetings, brooding with some old friends, chatting to Happy while being deeply unhappy, and simultaneously spiraling, yet still, and committing war crimes in the name of national security. (Multitasking, sure.)

But one major thing does happen here, and while it’s just an offer at this point, it’s HUGE:

They start floating the idea of Tony taking over as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

At this point, S.H.I.E.L.D. is still running itself into the ground under Maria Hill’s special brand of leadership, but someone suggests that maybe, just maybe, the guy who is single-handedly running the actual show anyway should just be in charge of the whole thing.

And while that doesn’t happen just yet, it changes EVERYTHING for what happens post-Civil War. When it finally comes, is going to be a game-changer for his relationship with Bucky later on. (Yes, we are keeping our winteriron priorities straight, thank you.)

So, while this is happening and I am yawning 'cause Tony's first issue is so fucking underwhelming, in the Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #536, we pick up from Peter’s dramatic escape and near-death sewer experience, and things are finally coming to a head.

Peter, now officially 100% done with Tony’s bullshit, does something that could not be a bigger middle finger if he tried.

He digs out his old, classic Spider-Man suit (because fuck the Iron Spider, fuck you, Tony, I called you Dad unironically, you were my family, WTF), goes on national TV, and gives a full speech dragging the entire SRA, the Civil War, and Tony himself.

And as a helpful reminder here… Peter is not a “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” in these comic books—he is a fucking legend, a bright, shining beacon of good for so many people (while still a menace to others, of course), and what he says actually matters.

For all of my shippy jokes and the subtext, there is a real reason why both sides want him. And it’s not just because he’s hella adorable and can kick things really hard.

When he talks, people listen. And when he does start talking, he absolutely obliterates the SRA, calls it unconstitutional, publicly calls out the people supporting it, and tells the world that he refuses to be part of it anymore. Tony loses his shit.

Okay, okay, some food for thought here, for once not related to ships I see everywhere (I have a sick mind and you are somehow still reading this, so don't ask me what's wrong with me and I will not ask you what's wrong with you).

Now, before anyone grabs their pitchforks, this is not me defending Tony’s actions (man makes a LOT of mistakes, obviously), but it is also worth remembering that he’s not a total monster here. He genuinely believes that what he’s doing is necessary, and unlike in the MCU where it’s all “let’s get a leash because one building blew up and we might have destroyed a country” the 616 version of Tony actually has a more thought-out (if deeply flawed) reason for being on the Pro-Reg side.

So, what is Tony trying to sell people on here?

Superheroes need to be trained. The trigger event for the SRA was a bunch of untrained, reality-TV-era heroes going up against a villain way out of their league, and as a result, a school full of children exploded. From Tony’s perspective, this was preventable. If these heroes had been properly trained, those kids (and some other people, but I mostly say kids, this is me not being nitty-gritty accurate about everything) wouldn’t be dead. This is not entirely wrong, but his method of fixing it is basically turning superheroes into government employees and locking up anyone who doesn’t comply, which is… less great.

The public has lost trust in superheroes. And Tony, unlike Steve, actually cares about public perception, comes with his brand and all. He sees this as a way to restore faith in the superhero community by offering transparency and accountability. The problem is obviously the way it’s being enforced is, again, deeply flawed and increasingly authoritarian.

The alternative, in his mind, is worse. He is absolutely cracked as far as Peter is concerned (fair), but here’s where Tony’s futurist brain actually screws him over—because he is not wrong when he says that if the superheroes don’t regulate themselves, the government will do it for them, and it’ll be worse. He thinks he’s getting ahead of the inevitable, but instead of negotiating and making sure the law is fair, he enforces it like an actual jackbooted stormtrooper.

So yeah, Tony is still a mess, and he’s still doing a lot of fucked-up things, but his core reasoning isn’t as evil as some people paint it in here and maybe even not as bad as I paint it overall in this recap.

He truly thinks he’s saving lives and making the world safer. He’s just doing it in the most morally questionable, emotionally compromised way possible, and at some point, even he knows it’s spiraling. That doesn’t excuse the Negative Zone prison or bounty hunting his own allies, engaging in shady business and, Jesus Fuck, cloning Thor, but it does explain why he started down this path in the first place. Tony is also on the side of the law and, for the most part, public opinion here (mostly, since actual normal public is scared AF right now). The problem is, the law isn’t always right, and Tony, in all his genius, somehow keeps forgetting that.

Now let’s hop over to Steve (“Oh No, Babe, What Are You Doing?” should be the title of his entire movement) and talk about how his ideals are great but his execution is a trainwreck. Look, Steve is not wrong—but he’s also not right in the way he thinks he is. And the biggest issue with Steve in Civil War is that his entire approach boils down to “Fuck No.” That’s it. No. No compromise. No alternative plan. Just hardcore, unwavering, freedom-loving NO. Steve’s Core Beliefs in Civil War:

"This is about freedom." Steve believes heroes should have the right to make their own choices about when and how they act, and he fundamentally rejects the idea that they should be forced to register. (Fair point, buddy, but maybe think of a Plan B? No? Cool, cool.)

"If the government can force us to do this, what’s next?” Steve has read a history book before and is fully aware that government overreach never stops at just one bad idea. And considering how mutants have already been treated (X-men and mutants are a very persecuted group here), he is not about to wait around and find out what comes next.

“I will not be controlled.” Instead of seeing if there’s a way to meet halfway or at least slow things down, Steve immediately goes, “Fuck this,” ditches his government job, and starts an underground resistance movement.

Which brings us to Steve’s biggest flaw in Civil War. Where Steve Screws Up:

Steve doesn’t even TRY to negotiate. Tony, for all his shady billionaire manipulation tactics, at least pretended to be open to discussion. Steve refused outright. Instead of using his influence to propose a better system when he still absolutely can, he straight-up vanishes into the night like Batman with extra patriotism.

His resistance is a mess. Unlike Tony, who is (somewhat) organizing a structured system, Steve’s team is basically “whoever wants to punch the government in the face” with no real plan beyond “resist.” He takes Punisher in, for crying out loud. There are no rules, no real discussions about alternatives, and no clear path forward with Steve's movement at all. This means his resistance is a bunch of scared, desperate heroes who are putting civilians in danger while trying to evade capture and kinda... all want to go home.

He is willing to let people get hurt for his cause. People are getting hurt left and right, not just his own team but also civilians caught in the crossfire. Instead of adapting or trying to find a smarter way forward, Steve just keeps doubling down, because this man went all-in on a bad bet and refuses to walk away from the table.

He does not listen. To anyone. A lot of people would have been on his side if he had actually tried to talk about a solution instead of running headfirst into a guerrilla war. Even when his own people start to question him, he digs his heels in and refuses to budge. Fuck them and the horse they rode in on is basic response to any "Emm... dude?"

Steve vs. Tony: The Real Tragedy

Steve sees Tony as a sellout, Tony sees Steve as reckless and the reality here is that they’re both kind of right.

Steve is fighting for freedom, but his method is chaotic and ultimately very dangerous. Tony is trying to prevent chaos, but his method is authoritarian, ruthless, and deeply problematic. And this is why Civil War is what it is. And why it is a lot more fun than the MCU one, if you properly get into it. At the end of the day, comic book Civil War isn’t just about laws and the SRA—it’s about two men who genuinely believe they’re doing the right thing, both completely incapable of seeing the middle ground. And, well… it all ends in disaster, obviously.

Captain America (2004) #24: In which Steve takes a page out of Bucky's book and punches the right people (for, like, 5 whole seconds) for a change. Finally! A break from all the Civil War emotional trauma to remind us that, yeah, Steve is a hero first, war criminal second. I am gonna guess it’s because we’re getting close to the finish line here (you are nearly free, yay!), so they just had to show Steve fighting someone other than his own friends for once. Progress. For… reasons.

He’s still knee-deep in Civil War Resistance mode, but he remembers for one night that there are actual bad guys in the world and focuses on a real threat: Hydra. (Or Hydra-adjacent assholes. And explosions. Lots of explosions.)

So, in this quick issue, Steve teams up with Sharon, who is now secretly working with Fury (who is still underground being an off-brand James Bond with a cigar budget, doing his own resistance thing much better), and together, they take on some good ol’ Hydra goons. Well, Steve takes on Hydra goons by blowing them up (probably killing them, but let’s just say “off-screen unconsciousness” for the sake of the PG-13 rating), and Sharon rolls in with her flying car to rescue him from S.H.I.E.L.D.

And, oh yeah, Red Skull is still lurking in the background, thriving on the fact that the Civil War is keeping everyone too distracted to stop him. He’s over here cackling like a Scooby-Doo villain, making sure Steve and Tony stay too busy ruining each other’s lives to notice he’s playing puppet master behind the scenes. (Smart move, honestly. Props to him for being the one guy who actually planned his shit out properly.)

Look, the details might be fuzzy (it’s getting late for me here), but the core takeaway is this: Cap is actually being Captain America again for an entire issue—stopping real threats, foiling evil plans, and protecting people instead of just yeeting his side at Tony’s.

The Invincible Iron Man (2004) #14

A good Tony issue following a good Steve issue… I wonder why that is. Not a good issue in the sense that Tony’s thriving—oh no, this man is drowning in consequences—but good in the sense that we finally get a proper deep dive into the emotional wreckage that is Tony Stark, destroyer of friendships, king of bad decisions, and certified government tool (actual fucking tool, honestly, but I love him and he can have Bucky’s babies, though I am not into mpreg).

This issue is actually packed.

Happy is dying in a hospital bed, Steve is still actively resisting arrest, Peter is on a fugitive road trip, and Sue Storm is ready to rip Tony’s head off for ruining her marriage. The government is still offering him more power, because sure, let’s give the stressed-out man on the verge of a breakdown full control over the most powerful intelligence agency on Earth.

Anyhow… not to go into too much detail here, but Tony cannot resist one last chance to talk things out with Steve and arranges a stadium meeting with Cap. You might think, “Oh, good, they’re going to try reasoning with each other like adults!” HAHAHA, NOPE.

The meeting lasts about five seconds before it devolves into a fight, which Steve… starts again. The emotional tension is through the roof, Peter is there too (aww, hurts), and they’re not just fighting over the SRA, they’re fighting over their entire broken relationship. If someone played “It’s Time to Go” by Taylor Swift over this sequence, it would fit perfectly.

Though Tony actually mostly fights with Peter here and still manages to pay him a compliment in the process, giving us hope that not all is lost, which we desperately need. But overall, the whole thing is still a disaster. Life is fully kicking Tony's ass from all directions, the temptation to drown it in whiskey is creeping back in, he is considering hitting the bottle, and… Tony is at a crossroads. He’s losing everyone who ever mattered to him, his side is looking increasingly shady, and the weight of everything is crashing down on him. We actually get some raw, human, vulnerable Tony, instead of just “mustache-twirling villain” Tony. So yeah, finally, a good Tony issue.

In case you were wondering, Peter is in fact fully on team Cap now, not just for the stadium fight, and in the Amazing Spider-Man (1999) #537 still has his morals intact (bless him), and this issue is about reinforcing that.

So, Steve—who is now basically Peter’s new/old father figure, 'sits' him down and hits him with the big speech.

And, my GOD, does he deliver it.

He drops one of the most iconic Captain America monologues in all of comic book history:

“Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mob say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences.”

And you just know this wrecks Peter emotionally, because this is exactly the kind of moral backbone that made him idolize heroes in the first place. This is the moment where Peter fully solidifies his stance. He’s not just on Team Cap because he got burned by Tony—he believes in what Steve is saying. Tony is having an emotional crisis over Peter leaving, which I completely understand, and... Peter also throws some flirty one-liners at the Cap, since our babe can't help it.

Civil War (2006) #6 and we are at maximum endgame (ugh, still hurts) mode now.

At this point in the war, neither side is even pretending to be civil despite moments of personal growth, slash remembering who they are, and both Steve and Tony have fully committed to their respective roles as Head of the Underground Resistance (Steve) and CEO of Government Overreach Inc. (Tony).

We start off with Tony and Reed in full villain arc, sipping coffee and talking about how crime rates are dropping (I have no idea how, since all the superheroes are busy beating the shit out of each other instead of fighting crime, but never mind me), and immediately move on to the Punisher deciding today is the day for homicide.

He sneaks into the Baxter Building (as one does) to steal information on “Number 42” which is not Tony’s latest suit model but instead the name for his prison in the Negative Zone where they’re throwing unregistered heroes indefinitely and that caused Peter and Tony to block each other on Facebook.

Totally normal, non-dystopian behavior, nothing to see here.

Sue Storm is out here making power moves too, pulling up to Atlantis and trying to convince Namor to get off his fishy ass and help Team Cap. Namor, in true “I am too sexy to care” fashion, basically shrugs and says, “Surface problems? Sounds like a you problem,” before dramatically flipping his cape and walking away. (Sue, girl, I admire the effort and only mention it, cause you are one of the very few truly likable characters in this Event.)

Back at Team Cap’s HQ, Steve unveils his master plan: an all-out raid on the Negative Zone prison to free their captured allies. The team is hyped, ready for action—until Punisher casually murders two villains in cold blood right in front of everyone because they dared to ask if they could help. Steve, who may be a war criminal but still has standards, absolutely loses it and beats the hell out of Frank before throwing him out of the rebellion.

Tony on his end is having an emotional meeting with Miriam Sharpe (aka, “Tony’s #1 Fan Who Also Made Him Feel Like Shit at That Funeral”). He throws some cash at a pretty garden with angels for the dead kids, she thanks him for all his hard work but also makes it clear that, yeah, this war is costing him everything. (Gee, thanks for the reminder, Miriam, I’m sure Tony didn’t notice he’s lost literally all of his friends by now.)

The issue ends with Steve pulling a classic Uno Reverse Card on Tony. The Pro-Reg forces think they’re about to stomp the rebellion once and for all, but—surprise, bitches!—Team Cap knew there was a mole in their ranks (Ragnarök, I’m looking at you, you Dollar Store Thor knockoff), and they had Hulkling impersonate Hank Pym to sneak in and free all the captured heroes before the fight even starts. So, yeah. Big-ass battle incoming, and I can nearly go to sleep.

Civil War (2006) #7 You’ve made it! (I low-key question if anyone actually did make it this far, but I am very into this now, so…)

This is the big one. The final battle. The moment where all this superhero divorce drama comes to a head, and oh my God, it is so much.

So, after about a million issues of emotional devastation, betrayal, and Peter collecting father figures like infinity stones, we finally get the massive all-out brawl between Team Cap and Team Tony. And when I say massive, I mean half the Marvel Universe is throwing hands in the middle of New York City. Superpowered beings are crashing through buildings, explosions are going off everywhere, and don't ask me why they thought “protecting civilians” and “obliterating the city” were compatible ideas.

Steve and Tony really do go at it like two exes who just found out they were sleeping with the same person (Peter, doll, what are you doing? Kidding, kidding).

Steve is beating the absolute shit out of Tony, and Tony—who is running on the fumes of guilt and exhaustion—lets him.

Because Tony is ready to die. That’s right. Tony, who has been holding onto control like his life depends on it (because it literally does), just gives up, drops the metaphorical gloves, and basically tells Steve: “Go ahead, finish it.”

And Steve almost does.

(Not to draw parallels here, but Bucky tried to pull the same move with him and proceed with murder-kill when he was brainwashed. What's Steve's excuse here?)

Like, Steve almost wins. The Resistance might not have, but Steve does. He is seconds away from beating Tony to actual death in the middle of the nightmare they’ve caused—but then. Civilians. Regular-ass, non-superpowered, completely terrified people tackle Steve to the ground.

They’re not protecting Tony (maybe a little, it's up for debate, see the panels)—they’re stopping Steve. Because holy shit, Steve. Look at what you’ve done. Steve does. Look. And finally sees it.

The destruction, the sheer chaos, the city that’s half in ruins because of this war. He sees the fear in their eyes and realizes that this isn’t about freedom anymore. He’s lost the plot. They’ve all kind of lost the plot, and someone has to give up, and he will not let Tony beat him to it.

So, Steve. Fucking. Stops.

He takes off his mask, drops his shield, and says, “It’s over.” He turns himself in. He turns Steve Rogers in specifically, essentially following the law, and Team Cap officially loses the war.

At the end of this, Tony—bruised, in desperate need of a good fuck (hey, Bucky, where you at?), and still internally monologuing about how the fuck his life turned into this—is appointed Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. And this is how, after so many words, christ, the Civil War officially, techically ends, and the winteriron timeline can properly begin. Happy tears, I am crying happy tears right now.

So, Part 3 of this ‘brief’ (lol) timeline is coming ASAP, and it does deliver on some juicy Bucky and Tony interactions—actual on-page moments, not just me connecting the angst dots with wishful thinking, promise.

And if you’re thinking things might slow down now—oh, my sweet summer child. We are only just getting to the fun part, since Captain America essentially becomes Bucky’s comic book. The stakes are different, the players have shifted, but Tony and Bucky finally start existing in the same space.

If Civil War was crazy, what happens next is the part where we go off the rails entirely in the best possible way.

To confirm, where we are:

Bucky is in the wind but possibly smoking cigars with Fury.

Bad guys who were ignored for this Event do have some plotty evil planned.

Tony is in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. and he still has to keep hunting down anti-registration supers.

Steve is alive and in jail. For now.

And Peter—oh God, I have to mention this, because I must, and this just further confirms that some of the editors were shipping Peter with someone other than MJ.

So, Peter is an absolute disaster, thanks for asking. And if you know comic books and reading this just to laugh at me getting shit wrong and are wondering, “Wow, does she about to mention One More Day?”—yes. Yes, I am. And I don’t want to talk about it. But I will, just for a second.

One More Day (2007) is Marvel committing a crime against humanity.

It’s a four-issue arc where Marvel editorial decided Peter was too happy and needed to suffer more, so they erased his marriage to MJ from existence. (Ah, yeah, he was married to her this whole time, in case I didn’t mention it, but I was too busy pushing Starker on people if the winteriron angle didn’t work out.)

Basically, after Civil War, Peter’s life goes to absolute hell. He unmasked, so every villain with a grudge is coming for him, Kingpin puts out a hit, and Aunt May gets shot.

Peter, being the absolute hero of a man that he is, tries everything to save her. He begs Tony for help (doesn’t work). He tries to make a deal with Doctor Strange (doesn’t work). And just when it looks like May is going to die, the literal devil (Mephisto) shows up and is like, “Hey, Pete, what if I saved your aunt, but in exchange, I erased your marriage to MJ from existence so you two never got married and will never be happy together?”

And Peter and MJ actually say yes. BOOM. Years of character development and one of Marvel’s most iconic relationships is GONE, conveniently removing all that pesky guilt when Peter flirts with older men.

So, Aunt May lives, but now Peter and MJ were never married, and no one remembers he unmasked during Civil War. The comic book fandom hates it. The writers regret it. Everyone pretends it didn’t happen. Marvel did make a movie about this though, kinda. Also kidding. But for real, it’s one of the most infamous and universally despised retcons in Marvel history.

And on that cheerful and very nerdy note, thank you for reading.

Masterpost with all parts

[wrenthewriterishere]

MCYT Future Posts

!!THIS IS MCYT DIRECTED!! (Give me requests)

I’m trying to get better at writing smut so I decided to do this, best it will be is a blurb and maybe headcannons. 

I WILL NOT write for minors, the best you’re getting is a freshly 18-year-old!Reader. (If it is a minor x minor ship I will consider it depending on the character) I won’t write for the DreamTeam as they make me highly uncomfortable (I’ll consider Sapnap). I wont write for Phil just because I physically can’t do it. 

Minor x Adult = No.

Why: I’m not comfortable with it and it’s a crime, I get fiction is fiction but it’s a personal preference and boundary. Respect it. 

Minor x Minor = Maybe.

Why: Lets be honest, most teenagers don’t wait till their adults to have sex and it’s very normal in my opinion. I—legally—am not an adult yet I have had sex with my boyfriend on multiple occasions. 

Adult x Adult = Yes. 

Why: Most common, love love love it. It’s so sweet and gives me an excuse to slip in domestic couple crap. 

Who I prefer getting requests for:

SleepyBoisINC

Jschlatt 

Quackity

I will attempt to write for Charlie and James and a few LoveJoy members but I don’t write them a lot so bear with me if you request them. 

Fair warning, I STRUGGLE with getting my writing out but I will do my damn hardest to write something good (I also am going to have to look a bunch of stuff up because I’m somewhat still mentally a virgin.)

1. “Do I look like I’m messing around? Do I look like I won’t punish you?”

2. “Fucking is a reward, but you haven’t been good.”

3. “Move an inch and you won’t be coming tonight.”

4. “You look just about good enough to eat.”

5. “Take your clothes off. Right now.”

6. “We’re really going to fuck here? What if someone sees us?”

7. “Hands behind your back.”

8. “Open your mouth for me, baby.”

9. “Is it good when I touch you here? Or maybe here?”

10. “Beg for it.”

11. “Be a good girl/boy for mommy/daddy.”

12 “I’m going to fucking ruin you.”

13. “You’re so in for it when we get home.”

14 “You can take it, you’ve done it before.”

15. “Just a little more.”

16. “I won’t apologise for marking you up, everyone should know you’re taken.”

17. “Suck on my fingers.”

18. “You look so good with my hands around your neck.”

19. “Keep your eyes open, look at me, baby.”

20. “Kiss me properly.”

21. “You’re so wet.”

22 “Look how good you take it.”

23. “My baby, you did so well.”

24 “God, you feel amazing.”

25. “Swallow. All of it.”

26. “Faster! Please, let me come!”

27. “Do think you deserve a reward/punishment?”

28. “Don’t make a mess, baby.”

29. “Come one more time for me, I know you’ve got it in you.”

30. “Stay still, don’t move your hips.”

31. “How do you want it?”

32. “I don’t care if it takes all night, you will submit.”

33 “Show me how much you missed me.”

34. “Did you come already?”

35. “Can you use your hand?”

36. “Harder.”

37. “It’s not too tight, is it?”

38. “I want to see you, want to watch you come.”

39. “Enough, please, I can’t take anymore!”

40. “That’s so fucking hot.”

41. “What makes you think I’m going to fuck you?”

42. “Spread your legs for mommy/daddy, I want to see you.”

43. “Slowly, baby, I’m not going anywhere.”

44. “Holy shit, you came pretty quickly.”

45. “Do you need to use your safeword, darling?”

46. “Do you know what happens when you misbehave?”

47. “Are you holding back? Don’t.”

48. “Shall we put that mouth to better use?”

49. “You’re going to come untouched, do you understand?”

50. “I want it. I want to taste you.”

51. “Don’t think so much, just let your body take control.”

52. “Won’t you help me? Please?”

53. “I don’t like getting off on my own.”

54. “Oh, baby, you’re drooling everywhere.”

55. “It’s my thigh or nothing, I’m not helping you get off.”

56. “I want you so bad.”

57. “You seem more sensitive than usual.”

58. “No one’s ever touched me like this, fuck.”

59. “Turn over, baby.”

60. “Come for me, you’ve done so well.”

61. “Again! Please, again!”

62. “Touch yourself.”

63. “I said I’d take care of you, did you think I wouldn’t follow through on that?”

64. “I don’t want anyone else. No one else can make me feel like you do.”

65. “I know, baby, I know. I’m right here, just breathe.”

66. “Please! Give it to me!”

67. “So good for me, look at how much you came.”

68. “Shh, just look at me, baby.”

69. “I’ll take care of you.”

70. “Where did this attitude come from?”

71. “You like it that much, hm?”

72. “I need it! Please!”

73. “God, you love it like this, don’t you?”

74. “Don’t tease me.”

75. “Please, I can’t sit still.”

76. “You know I’m holding back from fucking you over this kitchen counter, don’t push your luck.”

77. “I need you. I need you both, right now.”

78. “You know, I could always get you off right here, right now.”

79. “I can be good, so good! I swear!”

80. “You didn’t come yet, let me-”

81. “Do you wonder what it is that makes me scream?”

82. “We have to make this quick.”

83. “You’re easy to please.”

84. “Why not tonight? I’m even wearing something pretty.”

85. “Why are you being so gentle with me? I like it when you’re rough.”

86. “Does it make you nervous when I stare?”

87. “It’s hot when you talk back.”

88. “You’re so messy.”

89. “Your thighs are shaking so much.”

90. “I know what I like, I know my limits.”

91. “Be good for me and I’ll untie you.”

92. “I can’t- please- I can’t-”

93. “That’s good, baby, keep doing that.”

94. “Just relax for me, I’ll make it feel good.”

95. “Quiet, baby, the others will hear.”

96. “I had this dream and- fuck- you couldn’t keep your hands of me.”

97. “I was good while you were gone! I didn’t even touch myself.”

98. “I never thought I’d hear you say that, fuck, that’s hot.”

99. “I want more, please, give me more!”

100. “You’re still horny? Didn’t I fuck you hard enough last night?”

[xiaobaosnoona]

So, no one is talking about Tibetan sea flower on my side of tumblr and it's making me nervous. It's so freaking good!? I might be the only one sitting here all bug eyed about the queer yearning Wu Xie has for Xiaoge, or the incredible chemistry between Pangxie, but shit on a stick am I entertained.

So far it's my favorite out of the ones I've watched (I still have reunion, mind you) and that says a lot from someone who adores Cheng Yi/Hou Minghao Pingxie like her life depends on it. This version of Wu Xie gives me such major feels. I relate on a different level. The pace is more than decent. The Xiaoge backstory, holy crap!

This has been a post. I love this show to bits atm. If it suddenly starts to such after 20 eps I might understand why it's been quiet about it.

[azamitetsuya]

Hey all! So here's a small introduction before I get into the post. My name is Azami Tetsuya! I'm a author on Wattpad and this is my first official chapter posted on here. So now for the warnings.

~WARNING~

SMUT, STALKING, YANDERE BEHAVIOR, GASLIGHTING, DRINKING, SMOKING, R@PE/MENTIONS OF R@PE, Manipulation, FORCED RELATIONSHIP, BLACK MAIL, TOXIC MASCULINITY, TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS, DRUGS/DRUGGING, NONCON/DUBCON, CURSING (It's Tokyo Revengers 💁), CHARACTERS ARE AGED UP!!!, Cannibalism (Yes the real deal and....... That *shivers*), GORE, MURDER, VARIOUS KINKS/FETISHES (I'm kinky and so are they 😉), OOC BEHAVIOR CAUSE WHY TF NOT?, POSSIBLE KNOWLEDGE OF BEING AN ANIME ALREADY (Don't come for me I forgot the term and can't look it up cause Google is stupid), KISAKI TITTY ❤️, READER IS A DENSE SIMP!!!, FINNA BE CRINGY CAUSE I AM IN FACT CRINGE!!

So without further ado~ I present! The first chapter of Stay! Y! Tokyo Revengers various x fem short reader!!

(This banner is by the lovely cafekitsune so please check them out thank you~ ❤️)

CHAPTER 1-

Y/N L/N was a normal girl, living a normal life. She had a job, friends and plenty of responsibilities like any other person. She was currently sitting in front of her computer with a black butler throw blanket on her shoulders, naruto themed booty shorts and a fairytale sports bra that didn't cover as much as needed. She was watching her new favorite anime, Tokyo Revengers!

"Gah!! How can Mikey go from cute to smexy in the blink of an eye?!" She said when said male's face came on her screen. He was one of her favorite and most relatable characters. As the episode ended, Y/N looked at the time on her laptop, only to see it was nearly 4 in the morning and she had work later on.

"Crap...... Well there goes my health...." She mumbled as she closed her laptop. She made her way to the mini fridge in her room and took a monster from it. She turned while opening the can only to find her laptop open. "What the-" A sudden blinding light came from the device, interrupting her sentence. "GAH!! MY EYES!" She yelled dropping the monster on the ground. The light grew brighter and brighter until...... It just stopped.

Once it was completely gone, Y/N opened her eyes, only to see she wasn't in her room but in a parking lot. 'When the hell did I get here?' She thought, surveying her surroundings. She looked down to the ground and saw her monster spilled. “AYO MY MONSTER!!!!” She screamed, not noticing the blonde male looking at her confused.

"Um..... Miss?" A familiar voice said out of nowhere. Y/N flinched as her eyes widened hearing the voice.

'That voice........ It couldn't be...... could it?' Y/N thought as she slowly turned around, coming face to face with the protagonist of her all time favorite anime...... Takemichi Hanagaki. Y/N was at a loss for words, while Takemichi was a blushing idiot. The piss blonde male took in Y/N's appearance.

(H/L) (H/C) hair that was (Hair style for relaxing). Her eyes were a beautiful shade of (E/C), almost looking like the night sky with how her eyes shine. He lowered his gaze and found she wasn't wearing much. The shorts she was wearing looked more like underwear and the bra left little to the imagination. The poor boy blushed profusely and looked away as his blush reached all the way to his ears.

'Woah! What the hell?! Why do I feel my pants getting tighter?! I don't even know this girl's name! Plus I've seen Hina in her underwear and was able to control myself!' Takemichi thought as he stood there awkwardly. He glanced at the beautiful girl and saw she was still staring at him. 'Shit! She's still looking at me! What do I do?! What do I do?!' Takemichi thought, panicking. He couldn't understand why he was acting like this.

The way she looked at him made him feel something....... like he wanted her all to himself. As for Y/N, she stood in front of the man in awe. 'Holy fuckin shit! TAKEMICHI HANAGAKI?!?!?! I can't believe this! He looks animated too, which means he's not 3D! WHICH MEANS I'M REALLY IN TOKYO REVENGERS!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!!' Y/N thought while internally freaking out. 'Wait....... I wonder when in the anime I am........'

"U-Um...... Miss? You do realize what you're wearing right?" Takemichi said, causing Y/N to snap out of her trance-like state. She looked down, only to see she was still in her skimpy PJ's. Y/N's eyes widened and tried to cover up when she felt something wrap around her smaller figure. She looked up and saw that Takemichi put his uniform jacket over her shoulders.

'She's so small and cute........ I have to help her.' Takemichi thought as a small amount of blush crept on his face. He loved how she looked in his cloths. Like she was made to wear his stuff.

"U-Um.... Can you tell me where I am... Um?" 'I have to Play dumb for right now until I figure out if this is him from the future.' She thought, nervously. Takemichi was all too excited to give her his name.

"T-Takemichi. Hanagaki Takemichi. And your in Shibuya Japan. What about your name?" He asked, scratching the side of his cheek. 'This feels weird. I'm already going crazy over some girl while I have a pretty girlfriend....'

"Y/N. L/N Y/N. N/N is just fine though." She said as a soft smile spread on her lips. Hina was really lucky in her eyes, having a guy like Takemichi.

'Woah~ Nicknames with a hot chick? Awesome!' Takemichi thought as a small blush spread on his cheeks. Though he was confused as to why no memory of meeting this girl came to mind, Takemichi had an overwhelming need to protect her.

"It's nice to meet you Hanagaki-"

"Takemichi....... Please." He said cutting off her greeting. Y/N nodded with a smile that made Takemichi's heart skip a beat. "S-So um do you live around here?" He asked, awkwardly trying not to look at her out of fear he'll stutter more. Y/N hesitated trying to come up with a plan.

"U-Um....... I-I um...." She stuttered, making the blond in front of her blink in confusion. Finally thinking of something, she thought to kill two birds with one stone. "Hm! I live near Hanma-kun's house. Do....... you know him?" 'If he doesn't then it's before the fight on August third so I'll at least have a time frame to work with.' She watched as the taller male racked his brain.

"No...... I-Is he a...... friend?" He asked, worried he'll lose her already. 'What am I thinking? Why am I getting protective of her already?'

"No. I've seen him here and there. Haven't talked to him much." She lied. Takemichi nodded, hiding his relieved face and sigh he let out. "Well....... I have to go now....." Y/N said and tried to leave but a strong grip wrapped around her wrist.

"Wait!!........" Takemichi yelled, which made the (H/C)ette's eyes widen. "I-I mean um..... How about I walk you home?" He asked, trying to save their conversation. He wanted to know where she lived, but he also didn't want her to leave. ‘Her hand is so soft~’ He cooed in his head. Y/N let out a sigh and looked down in slight disappointment.

"I don't live here....... I'm not exactly..... from here...." She said, making the blue eyed male confused. "Sorry.... But I have to confirm one more thing before I can tell you." Takemichi was needless to say nervous about what she was about to say. Shuffling in his stance the poor man stood awkwardly, waiting for the young beauty to finish her statement. "Do you..... know about time travel?"

Takemichi went stiff. How did she know about that? Was she a time traveler too? Questions rang through Takemichi's head as he tried coming up with a suitable answer.

"I know everything..." She said, making the blond male flinch. Y/N looked in his eyes with soft sincere (E/C) ones as if knowing the pain he's been through, which in a way she had. "I know about Mikey. I know about Naoto, Hina...... I even know about Kisaki and your special ability." She continued while walking up to him. Takemichi stood there shocked and dumbfounded, his thoughts running wild with questions.

"You see," She continued, stopping right in front of him. "I'm..... not from here. I'm from a world where your life is a manga and anime series....." Y/N finished explaining everything as the poor man stood there quietly, trying to process everything he's been told. There was no reason not to believe her. She knew everything….. From his power to the way he “died” in the future. This was all insane to him. Letting out a sigh she finally finished her explanation. "So yeah....... But hey! You saved your girl..... and got ptsd...." She muttered the last part while grinning nervously.

Takemichi was in pure and utter shock. He knew there was something up with her but he wasn't expecting this..... "So..... You don't live next to that Hanma guy?" He asked, making the young girl shake her head. He nodded slowly as a response, still trying to process everything.

"Takemichi...." Y/N spoke up again. Takemichi looked up and saw she was even closer, a determined grin plastered across her face. "If you let me stay with you, I'll help save Hina." Takemichi blushed slightly as he thought for a minute.

'S-She wants to stay with me?......AWE HELL YEAH!!!' He thought before nodding with a determined look. "Alright. It's a deal then." Takemichi took her by the hand and started walking to his apartment. Tho she was a bit scared to see his apartment, Y/N needed a place to stay. It wasn't an option, unless she wanted to live under a bridge like the gremlin she is.

“S-So…..” Takemichi started, “I…. Saved Hina?” He asked. If he was being honest with himself…… he didn't really care anymore… Can't exactly say that out loud but…. ‘Wait…. What if Hina tries to take her away from me? No… no that won't happen…. Right?’ He thought but snapped out of it when a sudden loud clap rang through his ears.

“Are you even listening to me Michi?” Y/N said with a worried look. Takemichi flinched but nodded, not really listening. Y/N deadpanned. ‘He wasn't listening at all…..’ With a sigh, she decided to start over. “Yeah. You saved Hina…… you actually saved her twice….. Technically three times but…. She wasn't the only one that needed to be saved.” She confessed to him, making him look at her.

“Huh? What do you mean?” He asked, concerned and confused. Y/N just shook her head, letting him know she'll tell him later and he nodded.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Takemichi closed the door to his apartment and took his shoes off following the (H/C)ette to the living room. “Wow Michi. I'm surprised it's so clean.” She said, bluntly. Takemichi sweatdropped.

“Was it not in the anime?” Y/N shook her head at his question. This made Takemichi cringe slightly. The thought of having a dirty apartment made his skin crawl. “A-Anyway… this is a one bedroom apartment so…. I can take the couch if ya want-”

“No way! This is your home! I'm the freeloader staying here. I'll take the couch.” She said as she continued to snoop. Takemichi sighed but smiled.

“We can always….. share?” He said, leaning against the wall next to her. Y/N side-eyed the blonde next to her.

“Right…… and what would Hinata think?” She said making Takemichi flinch slightly.

“R-Right….” He said with a sweatdrop. “Still. I wouldn't feel right leaving you on the couch or the floor. That's not my style.” Y/N smiled at this and nodded.

“Hai. We can share then.” She said causing the blonde to perk up. A grin spread across his face as his eyes shined.

“I promise I won't be weird! You won't regret it!” He said, knowing full well it was a lie. Something about this girl in his kitchen, that just dropped in his life out of nowhere, it made him feel things. Way different from how he felt about Hinata Tachibana. Maybe it was the fact they shared a similar ability. Or he could finally talk to someone about his but whatever it was, this girl had him wrapped around her pretty little finger. He watched Y/N move gracefully through the kitchen as if she was made for his home and his home alone.

‘Shes so pretty in the kitchen. I wonder…..’ A sudden image of Y/N pregnant made it's way to his mind. He shook his head, getting rid of the nasty thoughts he was having. ‘What the hell is wrong with me?! I just met her!’

“Ne ne. Can you pass me the Milk?” Y/N said getting his attention. Takemichi nodded and grabbed the milk from the fridge.

“W-What are you making?” He asked peering over her shoulder.

“Alfredo pasta with homemade sauce. I'm sure your used to more Japanese cuisine so I thought to give you something else.” She said shocking the blue eyed male.

“Sugoi. You know how to cook that?” Y/N nodded while she stirred.

“I know how to cook all kinds of stuff. I had a restaurant/bakery back in my world so……” She trailed off while puckering her lips.

After dinner, Y/N got changed in one of Takemichi’s shirts and a pair of his boxers for underwear. It was comforting knowing (thinking) he won't do anything. She and Takemichi laid in bed and just stared at the ceiling.

“So….. I save everyone…..” Takemichi said still trying to process everything. Y/N hummed in confirmation. “And….. who's everyone?” This made the girl sit up in shock.

“E-Eh?! What do you mean?! Have you not met Mikey and Draken yet!?”

“Mikey and who? It's Mikey and Tetta Kisaki I need to meet…” This changed everything for Y/N. She was starting off in the second episode. She sighed and laid back down, a headache forming in her temple.

“Ugh…. Nevermind. I'll tell you in the morning….” She said and with that, the two went to bed. Takemichi holding her tight in his arms and snuggling into her neck.

Hey!! Hope you liked this first chapter! This is your lovely author Azami Tetsuya signing off!! *Bows* Bai Bai!!!~

[theoddest1]

Holy shit man imagine people are literally giving you free money just for a chance to ask you a single question and you have the audacity to be like "sorry we have to reschedule. I need to go spend the money you guys are giving me on a musical instead of fulfilling my responsibility and watching a taping of said show instead"

Like I get she wants to do shit, everyone does. But you've got obligations to your patrons girl. You don't need to see every single show live. You aren't going to die if you just want a recording of the show instead.

It screams entitlement and disrespect and I hope Viv's fans stop putting up with this crap soon because I'm honestly starting to feel bad for them at this point.

Sorry for taking so long to respond to this one! I sometimes forget to tackle the older asks first but for a refresher, I had posted pics screenshots of Viv pushing back a call for her oatreons for a show she wanted to catch. Now I get WHY someone would wanna catch something like a show since apparently shit is hard to catch once it's passed, but Viv, as far as I know, has CONSISTENTLY left her patrons kinda hanging for awhile, even now.

Correct me if I am wrong, but when was the last time she has updated her patreon? Maybe I made a mistake but it seems like it's been awhile. So when she pulls stuff like this WITH THE ADDITION of the info given in QnAs being either unreliable or straight up outdated, it looks like she is straight up scamming her fans.

[carmendeiact2whenplz]

I'm going to sound a little schizo here but hear me out:

The anemo gnosis venti gave signora is fake, and we will be returning to mondstadt at some point in the story

My reason for saying this is in the scene where venti has the gnosis taken is around the gnosis there's this weird windy pattern that is almost identical to the animation around the holy lyre when he "fixes" it. Suspicious, no?

My second reason for this is signora has the only example of a gnosis actually being held physically instead of the weird floating thing they normally do.

There's some other small reasons (venti is SO sus)(I do not buy the weakest archon crap) but this is already getting long so I'll just move on to why I think we will return to mondstadt

There are a few mentions of the travellers story finishing where it began, but those aren't the point rn

The main thing I think is due to what I just said about the gnosis being fake, and mondstadts proximity to snezhnaya being a good location to either return there briefly before snezhnaya, or have something going on after then.

The thing that really massively hits the nail on the head for me tho is that mondstadts archon quests are actually referred to as the prologue, which strongly hints to me that we are not done with mondstadt. Especially since it's currently smallest on the map, I wouldn't rule out the idea of maybe a map expansion of some kind, and even more so considering how much suspicious lore there is around mondstat like omg with the hexenzirkel being related to imaginarium theater, old mondstadt, mare jivari, and venti likely being related to istaroth, weird shit with durin, I swear there's so much weird shit going on omg

Also (this part is getting insanely copium now) this might also explain why there's no second venti story quest so far

What if they're holding off because they have other information they want to release about him or about mondstadt or any of that? This is majorrr copium but think abt it fr

Sorry for filling your inbox with this wall of text but oughhhh I am so normal about this (lying) and you seem like you'd find it interesting

I have very good news for you :) You aren’t the only one with these theories, in fact there are countless others who share the same theories about venti- other than the part about signora holding the gnosis physically only for the anemo gnosis (which is some really interesting information that I will be rotating), i’ve heard everything multiple times

Venti (and mondstadt as a whole) is extremely suspicious and I’m glad to see so many others who hope the same. Surely hoyo is saving venti’s second story quest for later, where the information in it will have a bigger impact on the lore. (do not look at my username /j)

I greatly appreciate the wall of text, thank you so much (and if you aren’t in it already, I would recommend to join the Old Mondstadt server linked in my pinned post, it’s more about specifically Venti’s backstory but it is still a venti-based server for people to theorize about him :)

[chaotic-orphan]

Found fictional story/novel

So... I have found a fictional novel that I wrote over the last ten years that I had completely forgotten about, and then, once I found it again, I realised there is so much of it - like 90,000 words much of it - and it is a lot to comb through and I kind of shut down mentally when I found it but I am working more now on updates for the WIPS I have on Tumblr!

So you can Expect updates soon in:

Delirious Villain x hero caretaker,

Heroic betrayal,

Intoxicating fear (updates every Saturday) (from now) :)

Vendetta,

and, A Benignant Mischief

which are all started in the drafts!

Updates continued under cut

(*not necessary* to read as it is mostly rambles and ranting about the novel I found (and others), but I want to share some fun revelations I found while skimming it)

There are some whumpy scenes from the novel that I may post as I find them, cause some of them are very whumpy, and I enjoyed reading them~

The plot has a lot of male characters which is both interesting and annoying— interesting because I love the two brothers dynamic, even not even blood related, like two brothers joined together by fate, blood, prophecy etc. Annoying because it’s obvious that I looked at the media I was surrounded with and was like “nobody wants to read about women, if they did, there would be more women centric things” so I’ll write about boys!

Point 2 Contd. (Rant!) Obviously discounting the genre of YA dystopian fiction which was great, and populated by mainly female protagonists, and which I enjoyed, but then, were shit on by the mainstream media because GIRLS CAN’T FIGHT? Girls can’t be the main driving force of a novel? Girls suck, boo girls, unless they’re tom boys or men. Ahem, thank you for your input on teenage girl’s book choices FORTY YEAR OLD WHITE MEN :D WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT YOU

Part 2+3 contd. (the brightside!) However, the good thing about this is that I can populate the rest of the novel with strong female characters! There are a few dotted through who i dote on a bit, I love them, like come here my little beautiful minority <3

The plot centers around two brothers who get torn apart when outlaw's raid in their coastal village - actually, my newest Medieval WIP was inspired by the novel!! Same setting/vibe (as in the coastal village) so very fun

This to say that actually I think the new Medieval WIP is my brain trying to flesh the world out more and see what the average people would do in the world… but it’s a story in its own right too!

There are magic, gods, good gods and bad gods ofc, ancients, bloodlines, descendants, royalty, soldiers, outlaws, magic schools, political intrigue - like it is a mix of everything I have loved over the years which is so funny to see because clearly I haven't changed...

The dialogue?!?!? I don't think I have written like that ever, but the dialogue is so much better than the dialogue I write today and idk why? Maybe because I wrote it off a sudden throng of inspiration or something? But, fuck, how do I write like that again? I mean, without editing, because the amount of editing I had to do to make the novel READABLE wasn't funny, it took so long... it's finished now though, just the editing, NOTHING else - give me strength, I need it

Also, realised that I hate editing - is it something new? Not really, but holy moly... editing sucks, but it also?? Improves the story and fluidity so much, I should start editing my pieces before I publish and come off as far more eloquent than I do

Planning... is also so difficult - 90% of the novel is like this:

Scene X: completed Me: ah, good, that scene is written, I can move on to the next one Me, still staring at Scene X: ...move on now My brain: but what if it happened like this? PROVIDES SEVEN DIFFERENT ALTERNATE ENDINGS TO THE SCENE THAT WEREN'T NECESSARY AND NOW I HAVE TO CUT SO MUCH CRAP BUT MY BRAIN'S STILL LIKE - BUT WHAT IF?

My brain's literally like the writer's brain from Hush, such a good movie... ANYWAYS!!!!

That's the end of all my ramblings for today, was this post necessary? No, but like, I clearly wanted to get it off my chest and vent so we live, laugh, love... I hope all your days are going well :3

~ Orphan,

(P.S. - I'm toying with the idea of dropping my nickname in the bio, or doing a whole overhaul of the blog - the name, the layout... get rid of orphan, or maybe just become "nickname_the orphan", or something. But, see orphans are just so whumpy though I love a good orphan story... thoughts, ideas, waste management? I'm just dunking all my overflow of thoughts on this update today, but sure, look, be grand — I’m truly sorry if you read this far, I am having an ✨episode✨)

[antiradqueer]

god I'm currently undercover within a rq group (this tumblr I'm using to post this is a part of that disguise lolol which is why I can't come off anon) as a social experiment and holy fucking shit this crap is so insanely racist, ablest, and just generally insane. I've looked through a lot of the flags (a rq I managed to fool gave a whole ass list to me) and they're so either dumb or horrifying. What do you mean "transdyslexic". What the actual fuck. What do you mean "permagroomed". What the hell what the fuck. "TRANSHARMFUL"????? "TRANSRAPIST"?????

anyways if you want gossip on what the hell is happening in this shitfuck of a group I'm your guy 🙏 Jesus Christ taking them down from the inside I am 🙏

thats just surface level stuff anon, but if you have more it would be interesting to hear

[igneouswyvern]

The funniest thing about the zelda series to me is the way that the Great Fairy designs differ so WILDLY from game to game like

We got everybody's favorite ocarina of time design:

Nice and sexualized, skimpy clothing, weird ass hair, fucking massive in relation to link. Always hated this design, 1/10

(didn't intend to rate them when I started this post but here we are now ig)

You got the alttp and albw designs:

In the first one she looks all right, second one she looks like a child for some reason? Tiny. Barely any larger than link himself. How am I supposed to take her seriously 4/10

Breath of the wild design next:

Girl you are. HUGE. Hi????? Pretty oversexualized too like oh my god she is fantastic porn bait but like. I respect this design I'm ngl. Fucking massive sexy bastard could probably crush my head with her thumb and forefinger. 7/10

Twilight princess design:

Uh.....huh. Hey girl, how many wings you got there? Also would you mind putting on a shirt? Please and thanks? 3/10

Then we got wind waker:

????? Hello girl, may I ask, what the hell? Why do you have so many arms. Where are your legs. Fi lookin ass, kinda? Barely even looks like a fairy. 5/10

NOW. I JUST STARTED PLAYING MINISH CAP AND I FOUND OUT WHAT THE GREAT FAIRY'S DESIGN IS IN THAT GAME. AND I ALSO LOOKED AND FOUR SWORDS DESIGN IS THE SAME. MAY I PRESENT TO YOU:

Four swords/minish cap design:

Holy crap?????? Absolutely gorgeous. There's three and they're all based off of insects. But holy shit they look amazing. They're so regal and dignified, they don't look like children like the albw design, they're not oversexualized like oot and botw, they're beautiful. My jaw dropped when I saw the butterfly fairy in minish cap I was like holy fucking shit. THIS is what a great fairy should look like. So fucking beautiful. My wife I love her so much easiest 10/10 of my life

[t0ast-ghost]

S2 Episode 9 (Metamorphosis) Wait wait wait. I'm watching this episode on April 5th, this is so special (I know this won't be posted till days later but holy crap):

- I like hows there's just a mission that somehow requires the captain, first officer, and head medical officer to be on the same shuttle escorting one person

- I will not blame McCoy for anything (sorry. not sorry actually)

- They always take the Galileo

- Oooh pretty lighting

- "I'm not imagining you am I?" "We're real enough." Kirk what kind of fucking answer is that?

- "Food to a starving man. All of you." Saying this after he just shook Spock's hand is crazy…

- They’re conferring

- So the companion wants.. companions?

- SPOCK ITS BEHIND YOU

- The companion snap crackle popped the shuttle and Spock

- “It attacked you?!” Bones is shocked. “I’m not a scientist or a physicist, Mr Spock.” He says this with a smile and it’s such a moment between them

- This episode is like “if you love me let me go” and it’s such a deep love between them and holy shit

- hey siri what’s a “Judas Goat”?

- THEY FUCKING SHOT HIM

- McCoy watching his boyfriends die and begging the companion to stop

- “It isn’t your fault.” “I’m in command, Bones. It makes it my fault.” “How do you fight a thing like that?” “Maybe you’re a soldier so often that you forget you were also trained to be a diplomat.” Bones advice!

- Okay it just violently goes back to Scotty’s log. YESS UHURA AND SULU CONTENT!

- “It’s a big galaxy, Mr. Scott.” “Aye…”

- McCoy’s just standing there looking pretty next to Spock and Kirk in this episode, isn’t he?

- “The idea of male and female are universal constants, Cochrane.” Bull fucking shit, mate

- “You’re not a pet. You’re not a specimen kept in a cage. You’re a lover.” “I’m a whut!?”

“For all these years, I’ve let something as alien as that crawl around inside me, into my mind, my feelings…” So he wasn’t upset when he thought he was being treated as a caged animal/pet by a male or non gendered entity, but as soon as it’s a woman who’s in love with him... (its fair that he’s freaking out but like…what?)

- The boyfriend’s explaining why this guy should continue to date the cloud of sparkles. McCoy and Spock can agree on smt at least

- “No. I- I don’t want to die. I’ve been good at my job. But… I’ve never been in love. Never. What kind of life is that? Not to be loved. Never to have shown love. And he runs away from love.” This is such a heartbreaking and beautiful scene from the Ambassador

- “Companion, do you love the man?” “I do not understand.” “Is he important to you? More important than anything? Is he… as though he were apart of you?” SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP WHAT IS THIS

- “But you can’t really love him. You haven’t the slightest knowledge of love— the total union of two people. You are the companion, he is the man. You are two different things. You can’t join. You can’t love. You may keep him here forever. But you will always be separate. Apart from him.”

- Jim just poured his fucking heart out and we know it was about them I’m dying and crying about this

- “What did you hope to gain by that, Jim?” “Try to convince her of the hopelessness of it. Love sometimes expresses itself in sacrifice. I thought maybe if she loved him… She’d let him go.” Oh my the parallels of it. This is about Spock and McCoy. He wants to be with them, but he knows he can’t let them go and so he sacrifices himself for them. Leave me alone in this hole of misery and self deceit.

- Loneliness, oh god the loneliness. Her eyes show so much in this scene

- I love when bones stands there like a NPC or lego character (oh my god I want a Bones Lego figurine)

- I’m just going to say it. I think this guy is bisexual. And it’s not just because of the colour of the sky.

- “As long as you grow old together.” You know who grows old together…. I’m fucking going I’m going off. Spock, McCoy, and Kirk grow old together (is what I’m getting at)

What.. what happened to me. This episode.. bye…

(Edit: I know canonically they’re not dating but I like to take all the evidence I can to support it. So if some of this stuff is a bit nonsensical… I’m sleep deprived as shit and it’s finals)

Masterpost

Episode written by Gene L. Coon

[absentlyabbie]

reasons i may not have reblogged the post but did like it:

that's a lot of text and i'm super tired and i crapped out without finishing reading it

i am super tired and the brainmeat is slow and sludgy and it seems wiser to not reblog if i'm not sure i'm understanding/parsing it correctly

i am super tired and there are things i'd need to research or fact check and holy shit that's a whole other tab and a lot more reading

i can't quite parse how i feel or what i think about it

i agree with a lot here but am not sure i agree with all of it and need to percolate on it for a while (high odds i'll forget before i ever see the post again)

there are things i feel like i'd wanna add in the tags as a response or commentary or just thoughts but uhhh i am super tired and suddenly cannot synthesize any of that into typed words that mean things

that's a whole lot of words, friend, why are there no/so few paragraph breaks, i am adhd and super tired, this is no longer language to me, it is a wall of squiggles, i comprehend nothing

i am so so so so super fucking tired

honestly i meant to and probably thought i did but i fucked up the button click and kept scrolling

[inevitablemoment]

My Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Experience

First, I just want to say.... HOLY CRAP, I had so much fun! I have waited for this movie for so long, and while there are a few things that I were waiting for that didn't happen, it still lived up to the hype.

Spoilers under the cut.

So, my parents and I saw this in an MXC theater at our local Marquee. The seats were recliners that went back and forth with a button, and I loved that. But the sound system was... very loud. Let's just say, it's like if an audio version of 3D and THX had a baby. It was cool, but I didn't like that. And there were a lot more room in the aisles than their standard theaters.

The previews were surprisingly short, which was a relief. I have been waiting for this movie for MONTHS!

So, first, THAT CHASE SCENE AT THE BEGINNING!

It's no secret how much I love Callie, and seeing her as a Ghostbuster makes me so happy.

When Phoebe called her mother "Callie," my heart dropped a little and I just knew that we were in for a rocky ride.

Hearing that familiar staccato motif just put a smile on my face... which then turned into tears when Egon was mentioned.

But knowing that the music video for the title song is in-canon as well is fucking hilarious.

Ah, Dickless. I did NOT miss you.

Also, how did Peck get elected mayor? He is probably the most unlikable character in the Ghostbusters universe. But then again, a certain someone involved in many legal battles was elected President, so why should I question it?

I LOVE the domesticity of the firehouse scene; dinner, movie night, laundry, all the background.

Also, there's something hot about Callie wearing her flightsuit as pants with the top half tied up.

"GHOST DOG!"

"We both got some action." "Yeah, we did." Okay, already, this film has solidified my love for Callie and Gary as a couple. I am soft for them.

Gary trying to be tough and then apologizing instantly.

Callie Spengler laughs and it cleared my acne.

I know that they're trying to stop the containment unit from blowing, but PHYSICAL CONTACT!

Also, Callie is surprisingly BUFF. Can she hold me, please?

RAY STANTZ, MY SWEET BOY!

He's all but adopted Podcast, he just needs the paperwork.

"The hammer gets the views."

Honestly, I think the Stay-Puft company should just go defunct, with all of the paranormal shit.

JANINE, MY GIRL! SHE'S BACK!

Callie lounging on the couch, scrolling through her phone while sipping a drink is a whole ass mood.

Poor Trevor... but goddamn, it's still as funny now as it was forty years ago.

That longing look on Ray's face as the Ecto passed by the shop...

I did not have "Phoebe Spengler likes girls" on my bingo card for this movie, but... I love it.

Part 2 will be coming soon. I just don't think that I can fit in everything that I loved about this movie into one post.

[lazzarella]

Every episode is over too quickly, even though they're mostly getting longer ;__; anyway, back again with my rambling nonsensical notes!!!

- Aww! Baby!Dee!

- Gah, they're so sweet (visiting the little boy)

- "At least it reminded me I hadn't been forgotten" Ouch!! Guessing Dee's parents were quite absent when he was a kid? (Though I guess we don't know yet when they died)

- holy crap, these two gazing at each other when they're taking a photo with the little boy lmao at least Yak was paying attention

- How can Yak still be Dee's patient when everyone knows they're dating?

- "One month, five days, etc." DUDE!!!! Are you— I just can't...

- lol @ Dee not remembering Yak's birthday! But I did! XD (really should have posted that screenshot of his file that I've had saved in my drafts since ep 1... Sigh)

- "Find joy in becoming someone else in your own way"

- I love Kao <333

- Yak sulking and taking Dee's drink was so cute :3

- bloody hell, Yei just pulling Cher onto his lap like that O_O

- "You wear size 56?" I LOVE YOU, GRANDMA!

- Ahhhhh! Yak's face when grandma says he must be the reason Dee's watching boxing now!!! He's so pleased!!!

- lmaoooooo the giant dick plushie!!! (That bloody thing haunts me on aliexpress btw!!!! I can't search for anything without it popping up, as it were)

- look, I know I always gush over how soft Yak is but seeing him cuddling Ice Bear was almost too much for me

- "I've gotten used to having you in my arms" WHO SAYS THAT, YAK?? WHO???? Not fake boyfriends that's who!

- And now he's pouting because he wants to cuddle!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhh

- And then he brings up Taem. Well done! lol

- (Okay, it's clear—or, well, likely—he's just clinging to his crush on Taem any time his feelings for Wandee rear their pretty head(s), but... Jeez, dude!)

- And Dee's face? His response??? He's not talking about Taem

- "Let's find something fun to do!" I love you, Grandma!

- Yak taking a video of her ;__;

- Okay, her all black outfit is super cool! And she's wearing creepers!! I think...

- Yak referring to himself as Dee's boyfriend at the cemetery... *pinches bridge of nose* I can't handle much more of this. And Dee's deflection! Ahhh. The way they're both dealing with their developing feelings is so interesting and delicious to watch

- oh that outfit does not suit Yak…

- I wonder if Yei is doing underground fights for $$$ to help the gym??? And that’s why he didn’t get physical with Cher. Idk

- Yak offering to help Dee again <33333

- There really is purple and yellow everywhere! (The cardboard Taem was carrying)

- I need a comparison between Taem's reaction when Yak grabbed her hand (not really comfortable) vs when he grabs Dee's hand!!!

- And Yak could be spending more time with Taem but he already had plans with Dee! Gosh, he's just... Oh, that boy!

- Ahhh! They're baking! They're having a flour fight! They're flirting over food again!!

- (Is this the first time we've seen Dee in the elephant pants too?)

- Holy shit, the audacity of Ter taking Kwan to the same restaurant and are they sitting at the same table???????

- so many short shorts and cut off tees and I'm not complaining

- awww! The tiny drink buddy dude has a name!

- The TENSION when they're listening to Fluke's song though??? JFC. You need a ginsu to cut through that

- YOU HAVE SWEET EYES??!!! No comment. I just can't lol

- smooch blocked by the oven timer! lol they really were going to kiss that time, though

- Ahhhhh, Dee looks so happy!!!!

- Yak taking and posting a photo of Gooddy on his glass was adorable :3

- (ngl, with them standing so close to the edge of the balcony, I was envisioning Gooddy going over the side lol)

- love them plugging the new line stickers in the toothbrush bit

- YoryakWandee vs WandeeYoryak is giving me duck season vs rabbit season lol

- Ahhhh! Next week's preview!!! How am I meant to wait???

[simulation-machine]

SIMS RELATED PROJECTS/UPDATES

My spring break is coming up in a week and holy crap do I have plans on plans on plans, especially since my summer is gonna be full of school + internship + HOPEFULLY friggin' graduating with a BA in Psychology so that I can start applying to grad schools.

Read more iffin' you'd like! It's long! Here's a picture of my golden retriever napping on her brother's food bowl to entice/entertain you:

god she is so precious i would literally kill for her

GOAL 1: MASTER GSHADE/ReSHADE

I know that some people are sticklers for this but my thing is that I had no gee-dee clue what I was doing with ReShade, whereas Gshade just kinda clicked and worked for me? That said I have a bunch of resources for learning ReShade so I might end up moving back to it at some point.

My main issue is figuring out the order of all the different effects. It obviously matters, I'm sure people smarter than me have tried to use presets only to be like "why tf does this look absolutely nothing like the baller screenshots this one cool Simblr has?" Annnd it turns out it's order + remembering to turn off certain graphic settings. Also photoshop, but that's gonna take a lot longer for me to figure out lol.

Like I'd been struggling to figure out why @gunthermunch's gorgeous Lithium preset wasn't looking as sexy as it did before annnnd it's because I forgot to turn Edge Smoothing off when switching to it. Jesus wept at how dippy I am sometimes.

Eventually, what I would like to do is maybe make my own preset at some point? I would be kind enough to show the effect order too if I did so. But this requires so, so much more shader knowledge than I currently have.

FUN FACT: My first ever degree was in art, I even went to a very fancy and private art school (School of the Art Institute of Chicago if you're curious)- I dropped out after one semester because uhhh that shit is expensive. Ended up finishing my degree at a much cheaper location in MN. That said, my art was 100% analog and 2D, and it turns out it did not translate super well into trying my hand at graphic art.

It's funny because I've been gifted really neat stuff for graphic art (like a really nice Wacom tablet and Adobe subscriptions), like people just expected my mixed-media ass would know what to do with it. NOPE! But yeah, Sims is sort of my excuse to try my hand at this stuff again, especially since I have a bit more energy now that my soul is not regularly being drained out of my body by customer service and tech support jobs.

GOAL 2: GET CRACKIN' ON ANOTHER DOOR

This one is hard because I am only on Gen 2 of the Orsons and it's sort of hard to justify starting up another story while that one is less than 1/5 of the way done.

THAT SAID, I don't plan on posting Another Door until I have a decent chunk of it done. Since it's not a casual gameplay story nor a legacy challenge, I plan on editing the bajeez out of the screenshots for it, really honing in on the aesthetic. I want it to look and feel very different from my random legacy challenge.

Fortunately, this story has been fucking up my sleep schedule for *months* now and I have a lot of the writing for it done. The hard part is translating that into the Sims, making sure I get the right poses and stuff, maybe even learning how to make some super easy CC (like, posters and stuff), and stuff related to GOAL 1 above.

What I'm saying is that it's going to take a bit. But I'm super serious about sharing it because it's my obsession and honestly the first time a story of my own design has possessed me in literal years.

Also, I want to make sure I have a significant backlog of the Orsons before I start seriously simming for it, because I don't want to screw over my favorite little pixel babies. This legacy challenge is going to be the one, I have done so much to keep my save files to keep it safe from harm (ask me how many backups I have of the save files. JK don't, the number is frankly silly).

GOAL 3: START YET ANOTHER MASSIVE CC PURGE

Y'all, my CC folder for this game is honestly an embarrassment. I go so hard on CC shopping because this community is stupid-talented and I like giving my pixel babies nice things and cool looks. When I'm bored and not quite in the mood for gameplay, I just like making neat-looking sims that I do absolutely nothing with because I love fucking around in CAS.

I have built my own PCs since I was 17 years old, and when I first built COMPUTERMACHINE (current rig) back in the autumn of 2018, it was with the goal that it would run Sims 4 flawlessly no matter what I did to it. It's got ridiculous amounts of RAM, I religiously update parts for it. And to be fair, even with the current 6,907,907,890 TB of CC I have atm it runs better than Sims 3 ever had with a measly 50 GB of CC.

But for me, it comes down to finding all the stuff I wanna use. Making myself get rid of the stuff I don't wanna use. Straight up yeeting the CC that I thought was going to look incredible that uh, didn't deliver.

I do CAS CC purges about once a year but have literally never done it for Build & Buy stuff, because OMG some of this shit I've had since 2014. Like when Sims 4 first came out. YIKES. My CAS CC obsession is notable but it's honestly nothing compared to my Build & Buy. Even before For Rent made building lots slow af, my PC was starting to take a solid minute to switch to different buy categories.

It would take a long af time so I want to make sure I have a bunch of content in the queue before I do it. It's gonna be a whole ass thing and be so, so boring to do. So I'm putting it off for when I have a ton of time to do it. Like, oh, my entire Spring Break?

GOAL 4: MAKE A FRIGGIN' RESOURCES LIST ALREADY

This would obviously need to wait until after GOAL 3 is completed, but I wanna make sure the awesome creators whose stuff I use get credit, and that people know where they can grab neat stuff. It would include not only CC but mods, Gshade/ReShade presets, and maybe even lots and sims I've downloaded from the gallery?

(Since I am super anti-paywall and very unapologetic and rude about it, I will also share where one could perhaps get some of these CCs without paying some dip a Trenta Starbucks Unicorn Frappucino amount of $$$)

It's ambitious as hell because *gestures vaguely at GOAL 3* but it would make things like doing WCIF asks and lookbooks so much easier.

Somewhat relatedly, I wanna make a navigation post, especially once Another Door starts getting posted. That story is gonna be a bit huge with multiple arcs that take place over the course of like, 14 years. Plus once the Orsons get to the 4th+ generation, it would be easier to track things down.

IN CONCLUSION...

I have been having so much fun sharing my silly little Sim adventures on Tumblr, so much more than I ever thought I would! You all have been so great to me, and all of this stuff is sort of a way for me to repay that. Ever since I stopped being able to be artistically creative ever since a really nasty depressive spell in 2017, Sims has been my #1 artistic outlet. And having people who are even somewhat entertained by my pixels is incredibly motivating.

Basically, if you read all of this, DAMN would you have been a rad livejournal follower of mine circa 2007. On the seriousness, however, thank you all so much for being rad and encouraging and sweet. I promise to do you all, if not proud, then at the very least not disappointed.

Time to hit the bong and take some pictures of Lou and Tatertot before taking my IRL doggos on a walk~