#holy crap I follow too many people

[wontmindd]

THE SMITHS | Adam x fem!angel!Reader

SECOND PART

plot. in which Adam, after bumping into you listening to music in the elevator, gives you unsolicited music recommendations.

tags. first meetings, Adam being Adam, flirting, concerts, music, getting to know each other, rockstar Adam (still takes place in canon).

taglist. @call-me-nyxx

a/n. Adam is my muse at this point, he's directing all my creative energy lmao. This came up to me as an idea last night, kinda different from my usual Adam content! Might do a part 2, we'll see about that, enjoy!

«Take me out tonight, where there's music and there's people who are young and alive»

The elevator doors slide close, the few heavenly beings have exited, leaving you alone inside the cubic space. Absentmindedly, your foot starts tapping on the floor. A faint melody can be heard from outside your earbuds, the volume of the music set on max. You bumped music in your ears every chance you got, including when you were on bureaucratic duty for the Seraphim's.

«Driving in your car, I never ever want to go home».

As the elevator stops at the upper floor, the doors slide open and reveal who called it. Immediately, you adjust your pose, clutching your paperwork against your chest with arms crossed. Adam, the First Man, just entered the elevator.

He's loudly sipping what seems to be a sugary beverage from a large cup, positioning himself next to you. You've seen him many times, from a distance. At meetings, where you worked as an assistant, walking around Heaven, on posters advertising his band, in court. But you never interacted, there was no reason to. He was one of the big heads of Heaven, while you just hoped that nobody would yell at you for not adding enough milk to their coffee. Of course, this is what makes you nervous. But when the doors close again, you take a deep breath and let the music envelope you again.

«And if a double decker bus, crashes into us»

You relax, forgetting that Adam is next to you. You just stare at the elevator doors, unbothered. You just let yourself get lost in the sad, indie rock tunes that paradoxically raised your spirits. That's until, with the corner of your eye, you see Adam turning towards you. He's saying something, but music muffles your hearing.

«Ihatethasmiths»

You remove one of your earbuds, and you turn around with a gentle, sweet smile.

«Mh? Sorry?» you ask, the corner of your lips curling upwards.

«I said I fuckin' hate The Smiths!».

Your smile fades out immediately, your eyes go wide and your eyebrows shoot upwards. Adam goes back to look straight in front of him.

«tO dIe By YoUr SIdE iS SucH a HeaVenLy wAY to DiE! Ugh, fuckin' hate 'em » he mocks.

Dumbfounded, you just stare at the First Man in shock. Your mouth is slightly open, and your earbud is still pressed between your thumb and index as you can still hear There Is a Light That Never Goes Out playing. Then, the elevator doors slide open with a ding! and Adam just exits, slurping loudly his drink as if nothing happened. You follow him with your gaze, still in shock. The doors start closing again.

«Holy shit» that's all you can say, before disappearing behind them.

—

Next week, you're still in the elevator, a cup of hot coffee in your hand and your earbuds religiously plugged in your ears. Today you're in a good mood. The Heaven Headquarters offices weren't too packed with work and you were rising to the highest floor of the palace to spend time with your co-workers. That's until the elevator stops and the First Man Adam comes in. Again. You stiffen, your wings twitch and, hoping to not be noticed, you roll your eyes. Now that you think about it, it's the same day and hour you two met last week. When he, not-so-kindly, expressed his disappointment in your music taste. Suddenly, you realize something else. That you're...

«You still listenin' to that crap?» Adam says, pointing a finger towards your earbuds.

You sigh, resigned. You're still listening to The Smiths. This time around you heard Adam loud and clear, but you turn the volume down anyways. And, not caring about being all dignified and reverential in front of him, you roll your eyes in front of him.

«Yeah, I'm still listening to The Smiths. Heaven knows I'm Miserable Now».

Adam, scoffing, symbolically brings two fingers towards his mask and pretends to throw up.

«The Smiths are the bane of rock, I swear! Who wants to listen to a man being all whiny about love, vegetarianism and shit. Rock 'n roll is something else, I tell you»

«I disagree on that»

How did you even end up in this situation? Discussing music in an elevator with the First Man on Earth, one of the most important authorities of Heaven. It's just unreal, so much that going on doesn't bother you that much.

«You're into rock music?» Adam asks, shaking his usual drink in his hand, ice making a crisp sound inside the cup.

«Safe to say yes» you say, a collected but confident smile on your face.

«Okay, okay» Adam smirks, mischievous «and who are you rocking out to?»

«Oasis» you reply.

«Ugh»

«Radiohead»

«Nahh»

«Arctic Monkeys»

«Ew»

«Joy Division»

«For fucks sake woman, are you gonna give me a real rock band or keep naming your emo fest-»

«Guns 'n Roses»

Adam's breath stops for a second. You stare at him with a challenging look. His LED eyes digitally burned on his mask squint.

«Okayy miss...?»

«(Y/N)»

«(Y/N). Name 3 Guns 'n Roses songs»

You raise a finger in front of him, your eyes wide in a sort of prohibitive look.

«Nuh uh, don't you try to pull that move on me, I'm not gonna name anything».

«Tch, as I thought» Adam says, before sipping on his cup of icy soda.

You emit an annoyed groan, before sipping on your coffee yourself. As you're about to press start again on your phone to replay the music and metaphorically cancel Adam's presence from the elevator, he speaks again.

«Listen, girlie, if you wanna listen to some real rock music you should, first of all, give up on that sentimental bullshit that people call rock nowadays. Second, you can start by coming to one of my concerts. I'm-»

«Adam, The First Man. I know who you are» you interrupt.

You move your weight from one leg to the other, as Adam playfully smirks at you.

«Of course you know who I am, you probably heard of me from my band»

«Actually, I work as an assistant for the Seraphims meetings» you say.

«Oh, nah I never noticed you. You sure you don't know me from my band? We're pretty sick»

It's not like you expected him to know you from meetings. You mostly worked behind closed doors, preparing paperwork and only handling it to Seraphims last minute. And Adam wasn't really a necessary presence at meetings. He was important, an authority holding a great power for sure, but you don't really understand of what kind.

«I heard that you got a band but sorry, Christian rock is not my genre» you reply, nonchalantly.

Adam jumps a little in surprise, an appalled sound escaping his lips.

«Oh no sweetie, you got it all wrong. Didn't you listen to me when I said that we're a real rock band? We sing about all things rock» he says, theatrically.

«For example?»

«Sex, drugs and bitches of course».

You let out an ironic chuckle, not thoroughly convinced.

«I heard your venues are like, really crowded. I don't know if I feel like tip-toeing all night long to see anything»

«You can always tell security that you're with me»

His statement surprises you, so much that you turn around with a frowned forehead. The scrunch in your face says it all about your uncertainty. Adam looks chill, confidently leaning on the elevator's mirror and looking at you. How long have you been riding this thing?

«You think they'll believe me? Not even in a 100 years»

«Listen sweet cheeks, I'll meet you at the queue between sound check and the start of the show and I'll directly tell em that you're with me».

«You want me to play groupie?»

«Aren't you already?» Adam grins with a wiggle of his eyebrows. A very shit-eating grin.

You let out a playful and sarcastic chuckle «No, but I accept your offer, Mr. Real Rockstar»

«More of a real rockstar than Morissey»

The elevator doors open, it feels like you've been there for an eternity but not necessarily in a bad way. It's Adam's floor, the one just beneath yours, and he waves at you goodbye with a hand.

«See you Saturday, you'll be my number one fan».

«You wish»

How was that one of the most annoying, yet weirdly entertaining conversations you ever had?

—

You've never been to an Adam's concert, because you never had the chance to get into his music even if he was really known all around Heaven. But it was true that his gigs were packed. The line is infinite, and the venue probably won't even be enough for all these people. Suddenly you start to regret your decision. Damn, you even dressed up for this! You nervously start shifting your weight from one side to the other of your body. Security is already telling some people to just go home because it's likely that tickets just ran out. One titanic of a bodyguard goes up to you, arms crossed.

«I'm sorry miss, but we're out of tickets»

«Oh it's fi-»

You can't finish the phrase, distracted by the feeling of a stranger arm wrapping around your shoulders. You straighten yourself, and turn around alarmed. Adam had appeared from behind a portal, which immediately closed behind him. All the people left in the queue turn around, shocked to see the frontman appear right there.

«Don't worry dude, she's with me» he says, confidently.

How can someone be such a loser and so charismatic at the same time? This is what you ask yourself while wrapped around Adam's arm. The security guard nods, and Adam opens the portal back with a snap of fingers. Soon, you find yourself in the front row. Did he just transport you there? Adam has already let go of your shoulders, standing behind the barrier. Fans in the front row start going crazy at the unexpected sight of the frontman. As they scream incoherent, adoring gibberish to him, Adam stays focused on you.

«I'm happy you're here. Trust me, your ears will thank me for blessing them with some real rock» he says, his playful smirk permanently printed on his mask.

You roll your eyes, but you're betrayed by your own smile «We'll see»

«Trust me, you won't be disappointed» Adam replied.

Then, he winks at you before turning around and heading towards the backstage.

When the concert is over, you can confidently say that no, you aren't disappointed. As much as you hate to admit it, Adam can get it. He knows how to play guitar, he's vocally a beast in every good sense possible, and he's a stage animal. He's an idiot for sure, an arrogant one, but he quite literally fucking rocks. It's the way he plays guitar solos, his finger picking technique flawless and effortless. And how he knew how to talk to the crowd, how to move on stage. And you also saw him for the first time without a mask. You didn't know what to expect, but you have no complaints whatsoever. Brown, messy hair, dark but charming circles under his eyes, a fierce grin on his face. You felt your stomach fluttering when he obviously looked at you during Stick It To The Man. As people are leaving the venue, you're about to do the same. Maybe you and Adam will talk about it on your next random encounter on the elevator. But, before you can turn around, you see a security guard gesturing you to come close. He opens the barrier for you, and, confused, you shuffle your way through it.

«Yeah?» you ask.

«Adam wants to see you» the bodyguard says, moving his head to invite you to follow him.

Your heart skips a beat. This is some groupie shit. But you don't mind. You follow the security guard to the backstage, hugging yourself slightly out of nervousness. Adam, who was talking to the drummer, immediately stops the conversation when he sees you approaching behind the security guard. A wide smile extends on his face.

«So, (Y/N)! Did you change your mind about The Smiths?» he asks, opening his arms.

You place your hands on your hips «No, but...you weren't half-bad»

«Not half-bad?» he says, almost offended.

You decide to give up the tough girl act «Okay, I'll admit it, you know how to rock. You were really good».

«HA! Told you! Ladies love my band and you're no exception. And THIS is real rock»

«I'll still bump the shit out of The Smiths next time we meet on the elevator» you protest with a smirk, crossing your arms on your chest.

Adam drags a hand between his messy hair «Instead of meeting in the elevator, me and the rest of the band are going to the after party. It's in a club near the venue. Why don't you come? I still have to recommend you some real music»

Oh this is bad. Adam's teasing smile, the way he got closer to you and is now staring down at you without a shade of awkwardness. And the fact that one of his skilled hands is now placed on your waist, again, without any form of hesitation. Is he hitting on you? You feel your face burning, pressing your lips together. Would accepting make you a groupie? And soon, you realize that you don't care.

«Okay, First Man, I'll come with you. But only if you don't ask me to name 3 songs of a band»

«Deal»

[archerdepartures116]

Holy crap I saw your all transmigrators au and immediately followed because that's just. genius, genius work.

I really wanna see their reactions to SQH being the author of PIDW and I'm also curious to know if Ming Fan and Ning Yingying are also transmigrators. It would be so funny if Binghe is only actual important book character that from the original novel, love how you made him travel back in time too.

(Sorry for rambling haha, I just rlly like ur au)

Haha thank you for the support! I love it when people ramble and getting asks makes me very happy lol

Airplane better cook up a believable sob story, I mean not every fellow transmigrator has an ice cold heart like cucumber-bro!

As for other transmigrators, yes Ming fan and Ning Yingying are definitely part of it, I’m going off the idea that named characters in PIDW are transmigrators (also with so many modern ppl transmigrating to xianxia, imagine what inventions they would bring) and all of the peak lords, not just seven of them (cause imagine a half of the ppl you knew since disciple days suddenly became buddy buddy with each other after being indifferent or been unfriendly for years)

As for lbh, he’d be the only one non transmigrator in this au because having a bunch of ppl team up to be nice to him so he doesn’t blow up their afterlife would be funny

[specialagentlokitty]

Negan x reader - insanity comes and goes

Hands stuffed in your pocket, you grinned a little bit at the man who was stood in front of you, bat over his shoulder while his people fixed their guns in you.

“So, (Y/N), are you gonna tell me why you’re skulking around home? How’d you get so far?”

“Why would I do that? Takes all the fun out of the game Negan.”

He hummed a little, walking over and he looked at you, reaching up to brush some hair from your face.

“Why not join me? You could have anything you ever wanted here, that prick can barely offer you any food. You tell me what he’s planning and I’ll let you keep your shit, and give you more.”

This had been his play the entire time, Negan was sure that he could turn you against Rick and the others and use you as a double agent.

The issue with that is that was boring, and you didn’t feel like selling out your friends just for some stuff that didn’t even matter in this world anymore.

You smirked a little, and in a swift motion took the bat from his hands.

“Give Lucille back!” He roared.

“Aw is this special to you? You want it back you big baby?”

You raised your brows in suggestion then you moved your hand, flinging the bay across the fence, out into all of the walkers.

“Oops.”

He stormed over, grabbing you by the collar he landed a punch on your face, and he slammed you against the fence.

He sneered, clenching his jaw.

“Whatever game you’re fucking playing, I’m done with it. I’m going to have tour god damn bones sent back to the prick…”

“And I’m gonna haunt your ass until you go insane.” You smirked.

You tossed you aside, and you heard a loud bang before everything went black.

“Get me Lucille!” He snapped.

He looked down at your body, bullet in your head, and he walked past you over to his men and back inside.

He ordered somebody to take your body and throw it to the walkers, and he began gathering a company to pay Alexandria a visit, less than impressed with your visit.

He walked outside, and he was stopped by Simon.

“She’s gone.”

“What the fuck do you mean she’s gone? She wasn’t exactly fucking going anywhere Simon!”

“She’s gone Negan, someone came outside to move the body and it’s not there, there isn’t even a blood trail.”

Negan yelled, slamming his fist into the side of the truck.

“Then they find it!”

He got into the truck, balling his hands into fists in pure rage.

He stayed silent as they made their way to the community, and the gates were opened when they arrived.

“Rick!” He roared.

Said man came jogging over, slowly down to a walk.

“That bitch of a friend of yours, you send her to my home?”

“Who?” Rick asked confused.

“(Y/N), because I hate to break it to you but I put a bullet in the middle of her pretty little head, but now her body is missing, so how many did you send?”

“I never sent anyone.”

Negan grabbed Rick by the back of his shirt, dragging him towards his house and the people followed to see what was going on.

He tossed Rick to the ground and Negan took his gun, aiming it at Carl.

“You tell me the truth, or I put a bullet in your goddamn son too.”

“Oo scary.” You mocked.

“What the fuck?”

Negan turned around to see you sitting on the curb, and you grinned, offering him a little wave.

“Holy crap, now either you’re dead and I’m seeing shit, or there’s more than one of you.”

You hummed a little bit.

“No, just want. I don’t think poor Rick here could handle more than one of me, I annoy him enough.”

“Now I remember watching a bullet go through your brain.”

“Oh yeah? What it look like? Was there a lotta blood? Cause that’s always a fun way to die.”

“Let’s fucking find out!”

Negan took Rick’s gun and aimed it at you, pulling the trigger and a few people screamed.

Negan looked around at them all, noticing the lack of horror or sadness on their faces.

“Come on! What’s wrong with your people I just killed your friend!”

You pushed yourself up, rubbing your forehead, and you looked at your blood on the floor.

“Damn, that is a lot of blood.”

“What the fuck?!”

Negan walked over, shooting your again, and he grabbed his bat, hitting you a few times for good measure.

Your blood splattered his clothes and the ground, and he just stood there looking at you, watching you.

“(Y/N)s just going to wake up again.” Carl called.

Negan looked to him, and Carl shrugged a little bit.

“Apparently out of all the people in the world, death just don’t like me.” You said.

You sat up, wiping the blood from your eyes and you watched Negan spun around with a mortified look on his face.

He’d seen some shit, and done some shit, but this? This was something different compared to anything he had ever seen or done.

“What the shit is wrong with you? Why won’t you die?!”

He swung his bat again, this time keeping an eye on you, and he could see the blood stop flowing from your wound, and you grinned a little bit.

“Please keep going, maybe I can actually get a good night sleep for once.”

He took a few steps away from you, and you sat in your own blood, just grinning from ear to ear at him.

“I told you I’d haunt your ass…”

Negan looked to Rick.

“Tell me this shit ain’t real.”

“No, it’s real. Apparently there’s just no getting rid of (Y/N) at this point.” Rick sighed.

You pushed yourself up, wiping your hands on your shirt.

“Nope, you’re stuck with my ass until you die!” You beamed.

“This is fucking insane. You’re fucking insane.” Negan said.

You gave a half shrug.

“Maybe just a lot, yeah. Sanity comes and goes.”

You took a step forward and he subconsciously took one back.

The problem with being human was that no matter how big and tough you acted, if you saw something that wasn’t natural, your immediate response is to stay away from it.

So Negan pulled Rick in front of him and you stopped walking.

“What the actual fuck…? Now I got some psychos in my lot, but you? You’re a whole new level of fucked.”

“I know! It’s great!” You laughed.

You bent down, picking up a tree branch and you looked at Negan.

“So, who do you think will win? Me or you? Cause I’m kinda wondering how long it’ll take me to beat the shit outta you with this branch before it breaks.”

“You come any closer and I’ll paint the ground with his blood.”

You hummed.

“Yeah, okay.”

You tossed the stick aside.

“Oh by the way Negan, you should probably evacuate your base.”

“What the fuck did you do?”

“I maybe have rigged some explosives. I was bored waiting for you.”

Some of his men began running back to their cars and trucks.

“You should probably find them before someone triggers one.” You smirked.

He clenched his jaw, pushing Rick to the ground.

“Run…” you whispered.

You grabbed the stick and ran after them all, yelling as they jumped into their vehicles to try and get away from you.

It made you laugh loudly and you swung it at the door of Negans truck.

“You fucked it Negan! You can’t kill me but I can kill the shit out of you!”

He stuck his middle finger up at you as he drove away and you grinned proudly at Rick and a Michonne.

Daryl put his arm around your shoulders.

“See, this is why we need a crazy immortal son of a bitch.” He said.

“Yeah, what he said.”

“Well, at least that’ll make him rethink his next plans for a while.” Michonne said.

And it did.

Negan was now rethinking what he had been doing there.

People were a resource, he didn’t want to kill them, and apparently no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t kill you.

So he had to find a way to get around that if he wanted to keep doing what he was doing, but a voice in the back of his head was also warning him not to cross paths with you again.

But he wasn’t one to back down from a fight, and this just made things a whole lot more interesting

[maukree]

Link to part 1 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.

[mechanoize]

First of all, I love your most recent post, he looks so elegant

Second of all, I am very much intrigued, and would enjoy a ramble, if you are up to it :)

copy pasted from my other ask.. :P

BUT.. so basically what I had in mind was…

(big fat big ramble incoming…)

prowl is a sorta crime boss,, big guy, big name, big money yk. and so there’s this big ol’ masquerade getting hosted… not by him, he doesn’t care for them, but in his name. whole buncha other big name guys are there too, ‘nd OUUUU jazz is an enforcer who specializes in undercover work. he recently got transferred to praxus yk. and this is his first real dangerous assignment.

hes done lotsa research, he’s a smart guy. and so they set it up so he’s working as a lead singer for a little live music/entertainment sector of the masquerade. he was meant to be in the least compromising position, whereas Mirage was actively invisible and snooping around the premises, and Tracks was meant to act as a distraction more than anything, keep the attention more so on her. (I need to design her so bad for this,, and ‘raj :P )

but worst comes to worst, Jazz ends up being a little bit TOO good at his job and many mecha are attracted to the music he and others are providing. causes complications, of course, but jazz is quick to reassure they’ll be fine. and they can’t really withdraw, because Jazz is too far cemented into the scene at that point.

the night draws to a close and there’s a sort of (probably traditional) dance that Prowl is kinda forced into. Not really, there isn’t many people who can force him to do anything, but a little but of persuasion from bluestreak and he crumbled. He didn’t have anyone TO dance with, and though not an inherently romantic performance, it’s still.. demeaning, in his eyes. Too much so to do it with anyone familiar.

so he chooses a partner at random, and as per protocol, many if not all the mechanisms present at least loosely knew the choreography. jazzs commlink is on fire, they think oh crap, our guys cooked. we didn’t know OR cover this. but surprise,, Jazz loves culture, loves learning. he loves dancing, music and all that stuff, and though he didn’t learn it to benefit his mission, he knew it. HOORAY!

so that’s settled, and it goes better than anyone (mainly prowl) could have imagined.

this is getting too long but Prowl is also smart. He actually is very much aware of Jazz and Track’s position, and he’s ran into his cities law enforcement many a time. he’s started threatening, yk, trying to shake them off. not because Prowl is hiding some big twisted secret, but because their enforcers are being met with increasingly harsher repercussions when caught within his vicinity. hes trying to spare them the trouble. they’ve also never even gotten close to uncovering anything beneath prowls jurisdiction so 😭 but they keep trying. And prowl is genuinely baffled that they keep sending their agents directly into danger, and this was their dumbest idea to date.

Because Prowl had known from the moment they stepped ped in the venue, and the bots present were not all dumb. And to be uncovered would result in things that not even he could stop, lest he shatter his own reputation. And that is something he’s unwilling to do; he has mechanisms of his own to protect.

so Prowls actions are all calculated, and he sorta has an idea to fake a liking towards Jazz and book him again, the following orn. Implications get twisted, yeah, but he just wants to speak to him one on one so he can relay a message to his superiors, tell them to back off cus though he is merciful many others are not.

Jazz sees this as an opportunity. and with little input, he accepts. of course, immediately reprimanded, but not discouraged. the mechs overseeing his mission see this as a needed win. a chance to finally crack down on the crime empires or whatever, starting at the heart of it all, Prowl.

ILL CUT IT SHORT NOW but !!! Prowl makes Jazz aware of it all, Jazz is like holy moly. And at that point Jazz is too involved for Prowl to send him on his way and forget so he sorta keeps an eye on him, something Jazz is more than aware of.

yaddah yaddah more interaction that i do have ideas for but are not major enough to send here 😭

+ a bonus wip sketch! very messy rn but I’ll actually render this one when i get the time LMFAO

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Some Boy-Scout-isms

Home from work sick today, and I wanna share something with ya'll that I feel is a fairly unique experience: My scout-isms. SO many of the things I say is language I picked up in Boy Scouts, but it's subtle enough that I don't think people realize that's why I'm saying it.

I'm an eagle scout, right? I was in the BSA for 5 years, all throughout middle and high school. I made some of my closest life friends there, was mentored by a ton of truly incredible people, had some of the worst challenges and experiences of my life, and ultimately came out on the other side as a better and deeply changed person. It was critical to my development as a human being, to the point that the name I use online (Abby) is my nickname from scouts.

It was also a BLAST. My patrol was like my second family and we were all a bunch of chaotic little shits who spent WAY too much time around each other. The BSA organization in general is also just a great structure to do a lot of really fun things.

One of those really fun things is the BSA vernacular. This is one of the things that is SUPER off putting to "outsiders." It's sort of like walking into a tight knit group of friends who speak in a lot of movie quotes, but you haven't seen any of the movies.

Today, I am here to "show you the movies" or let you all in on some of the jokes that you can find in scouts. While some of these are found in hust about any troop, some of them are inside jokes that were specific to my troop.

This will be subsectioned and cut because it will get long, since I'll have to explain scouting culture along the way. This is also by NO MEANS a comprehensive list because HOLY CRAP there's a lot.

Call and Response:

Being an organization that had it's roots in military training, there are a lot of call and response phrases in scouting. The typical way you're introduced to these as a new scout is simply hearing everyone say the response in reaction to the call phrase without telling you anything. Eventually you'll catch on and start adding your own phrases. Here are some of the most common ones from my troop:

Call: "Everybody stand up!"

Response: "STAND UP? I LOVE standing up! It's my favorite thing to do!"

Common Permutations:

"STAND UP? I LOVE standing up! It's my THIRD favorite thing to do! After laying down and sitting!"

"STAND UP? I HATE standing up! Screw you [caller's name]"

"SIT DOWN? I LOVE sitting down! It's my favorite thing to do! No seriously, thank goodness!"

Call: "I liked it"

Response: "WE liked it! A lot!"

Call: "Fashion Show! Fashion Show!"

Response: everybody joins in on the chant, but half the group inevitably splits off into "SHOW THE FASHION! SHOW THE FASHION!"

Call: the buzzword "delegation" which would inevitably get interrupted with

Response: "DICTATORSHIP! In fact---communism! The best choice I ever made!"

Response to the response: "No, you mean the best choice WE ever made!"

Notes: This one is troop specific and part of an ongoing and long-winded series of jokes about whether our scout troop was a democracy or a dictatorship and whether or not delegation was code for "I don't want to."

Call: "We're gonna sing a song!"

Response: "A song! A song! We're gonna sing a song, HEY!"

Notes: almost always immediately followed by the "stand up" call

Call: You are all "DIS---"

Proper Response: "MISSED!" This makes it so the full phrase is Dismissed.

Common Permutations:

"MISSED SIR!"

"MISSED MARCY!"

". . . ." ". . . ." "StrACtEd sIr!" *voice crack required*

"ASEMBLING!" Followed by running in different directions like a rat swarm.

"MEMBERED!"

"COMBOMBULATED!"

Honestly anything you could add a "dis" prefix to, but my favorite is definitely the one I always used when I was in charge directly after a campout:

"GUSTING all of you go shower!"

Call: "Ooooooh!"

Response: "Aaaaaaah! Neato!"

Alt Response: "Aaaaaaahhhh! Dang, that's a hot unit!"

Call: "SHHHHHH"

Response: *rhythmically, while holding a three fingered scout salute up to your mouth with each beat* "SH SH SH SH SH SH"

Notes: Only ever employed by my patrol (the girls patrol). One time, when the whole troop was getting lectured by the scoutmaster, the 7 year-old younger sister of one of my patrol members (who was also the scoutmaster's daughter) took it upon herself to keep us all shut up. She did so by holding the Spirit Stick and marching up and down in front of us going "SH SH SH SH" with the scout sign to her lips like some sort of drill sergeant. It was so cute we all started doing it, and also really distracting from the whole lecture.

Patrol Cheers:

So for those of you who don't know, this is how BSA is structured:

Every subset of scouts in the same geographic area with the same chartered organization functions as a big group called the "unit." You all share the same number on your uniforms, and it includes the cub scouts, the boys troop, the girls troop, the venture troop, and the sea scouts (most places only have the first three). You'll all usually attend awards ceremonies and expos and parades and whatnots together, but each group usually doesn't interact much beyond that.

This is with the exception of the girls troop and the boys troop. While most locations that have a girls troop usually also have a boys troop, that's not true 100% of the time. It's up to each unit's discretion on how much the boys troop and the girls troop interacts, and it usually depends on how big those troops are. My girls troop had an average of 5 members and never had more than 8, so we functioned as just a patrol of the boys troop.

Patrols are what the troops break down into. These are smaller groups, usually sorted by age and skill level consisting of 3 to 8 members (hence why the girls troop was just a patrol of the boys one). These are the people you share tents with, share meals with, attend merit badge classes with, buddy up with, do skill levels and breakout groups with and are generally just Your People while in your scouts.

Generally, a troop will hold annual re-elections of their leadership. This re-election time also gives the patrols an opportunity to shuffle around in reaction to gaining or losing members or changing skill levels and whatnot. So like, if you got 10 cub scouts who graduated to the main troop that year, you're gonna have to make some new patrols. Similarly, if 5 of your members just graduated high school and aged out of scouting, you're gonna have to merge some patrols.

Whenever a patrol is formed, it needs a name! This name can be pretty much whatever you want, and lots of times, the patrol will get renamed at re-elections, even if the members don't change. The name is usually accompanied by a patrol patch though, so they can also stay fairly static throughout the years, so that the patch can be reused. It also comes with a patrol cheer and a patrol flag. While our troop never got around to making flags, we DID do cheers. You would yell your cheer whenever your patrol name was said in a meeting. These were all the patrols and all the cheers throughout my years in scouting:

The Book Thieves Patrol:

My patrol/the girls patrol! We made this name in honor of fact that we were all avid readers when I was 12, and it stuck. For all I know, it's still the name for the girls patrol even though all the original members have graduated!

Our cheer was a chime-in style with specific parts assigned to specific members. I'll just use their scout nicknames for this. Perhaps someday I'll explain them all.

Bob: "WE'LL STEAL YOUR BOOKS!"

Whole patrol: "AND YOUR MONEY!"

Me: "AND YOUR LEFT SHOE!" (Lilo and Stitch reference for those of you who are lost)

Eventually, the boys decided to get in on the action, and added their own parts:

South: "WHAT ABOUT THE RIGHT SOCK?"

Human Garbage Disposal: "YOU'LL DO YOUR BEST!" always followed by my patrol-mate:

Eugene Fitzherbert: "I'LL DO MY WORST" in the cowboy gun duel stance.

The Pakana Patrol:

This was always the name given to the oldest and most experienced boys patrol. They're named after the world war ii rescue tugboat that was operated by our founder's great grandfather. Subsequently, their cheer was:

"Pakana Pakana PAKANA PAKANA GUIDING YOU TO SAFETY!" Followed by a foghorn sound effect.

Eventually, because our scoutmaster's name was Karl, which led to copious quoting of the "KAR-EL that KILLS people" line, South (you're gonna notice him popping up a lot in my scout stories) would swap the foghorn for "KAR-EL"

The Fallout Duckies Patrol:

Not in formation for a particularly long time, and very seldom employed their cheer. This is because their cheer was a bomb sound effect and then dropping on the floor like they'd just died, which nobody has the energy for like 90% of the time.

The Samurai Patrol:

This patrol was "the other boys patrol" for my majority of time in scouting. They named themselves this in reference to getting their original scout skit "Mortal Kombat" banned---it was a truly riveting number where they just had a lightsaber fight with very big sticks for like 10 minutes.

Anyway, their cheer was to the tune of the Bill Nye Theme song and they'd all go: "Bill Nye the Samurai! BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL---" and they'd keep chanting Bill until whoever was leading the meeting cut them off like a conducter.

The Airborne Patrol:

This is what the Samurai renamed themselves to about halfway through my scouting tenure. This was around the time the Book Thieves had the startling revelation that we had surpassed the Samurai in terms of experience and skill, even if we were still behind the oldest Pakanas.

Their cheer was "Tally Ho and look out below!" Which was very cute and fun.

The Crispy Bacon Ninjas or the CBN:

This is what the Airborne patrol became after pretty much all of the Airbornes had graduated to Pakanas and the patrol was now populated by 10-12 year old recent graduates from Cub Scouts.

They were also colloquially referred to as "The Beans" by my beloved patrol mate Captain Jack Sparrow, since they were all but 3 apples tall, which eventually caught on with other troop members.

Their cheer was "CRISPY BACON NINJAS! *ssssssss*" However, there was a running gag amongst other patrols where we came up with other things CBN could stand for. Since we were a bunch of teenagers, a lot of them were cannibalizm or dead babies jokes (or both), but the one that was used the most got it's own response to the regular cheer:

*stage whisper* "Creepy backyard neighbors! Shhhhhh!"

Odds and Ends:

Some other scouting vernacular that doesn't really fit into the call and response category.

The Announcements Song:

I think this is probably the most widely known outside of scouting. Basically, the word announcements reached such copious overuse in meetings that the BSA made a little annoying song to react to it. And then we added more verses. And then more verses. Someday, I will sing it in it's entirety. That will be the same day I get a good microphone and camera and can con like 4 or 5 other people into helping me sing scout songs, which I will record and publish for posterity.

Anyway, the first verse that everyone knows goes:

Announcements, ANNOUNCEMENTS, A-NOW-OUNCE-MENTS!

A horrible way to die!

A horrible way to die!

A horrible way to be talked to death, a horrible way to die!

Announcements, ANNOUNCEMENTS, A-NOW-OUNCE-MENTS!

It should be known I am INCAPABLE of hearing the word announcements without singing all 7 verses in my head. Thanks for nothing scouts!

Karl's Death Marches:

This one is troop-specific. Basically, the first time our troop ever went backpacking, there was rain and snow and hail and there wasn't a trail where there was supposed to be a trail. It was in the middle of July. It was a bona fide disaster that left us all completely worn out physically and emotionall. No, we did not get where we were supposed to be going.

Eventually, South started calling it "Karl's death march 1.0," and the name stuck. When we attempted the trip again the next year with MUCH better planning, that one was "Karl's death march 2.0." Subsequently, any time we went backpacking, we started referring to it as a Karl Death March. Karl's Winter Death March, Karl's Black Mountain Death March, Karl's Death March Day Hike, etc.

This got to the point where scoutmaster Karl actually carved us little turtles with custom shell patterns for each of us, strung them on paracord, and rewarded us with a skull bead for each death march we'd survived. Which, yes WOW, that was amazing! This is mine:

(It's got a giraffe with a music note because he knows me Very Well).

Various Scouting Cheers:

Instead of applauding like regular human beings, scout troops employ various hokey cheers instead, which is usually dictated by the Cheermaster. Some of the most common ones:

The ROUND of appluase: clapping your hands in a big circle

The Big Hand: Shoving your hand forcefully in front of you

The Clap and a Half: self explanatory

The Watermelon Cheer: You take your imaginary watermelon slice, you suck up all the fruit, and then you spit out all the seeds

The Banana Cheer: A little chant accompanied by miming the actions. The chant goes "PEEL bananas! PEEL PEEL! Bananas! EAT bananas! EAT EAT! Bananas! GO BANANAS! GO GO BANANAS!" and then the cheermaster runs off stage like a hooligan.

"RA RA REE! KICK EM IN THE KNEE! RA RA RASS! KICK EM IN THE OTHER KNEE!"

That's all for now! Like I said, this is far from a comprehensive list and have SO many fun scouting stories I could tell. Come and pester me about it on this post or anywhere else you like, and please chime in with some of your own troop vernacular!

Praying I get better, and peace out!

[divineerdrick]

Homestuck: Beyond Canon Upd8s for June 26, 2024 and July 6, 2024

The peak of my convention season is almost over, and I'm taking a break to liveblog some Homestuck. It doesn't help that we've had two upd8s since I last checked the site. I'm also not feeling well, and I like browsing Homestuck stuff when I'm not feeling well.

When last we left off, I predicted that Calliope is using the Plot Point to influence the Candy Timeline through their connection with Roxy and her/their Void powers. If I'm right, this is the worst thing to have anywhere near a Serket. So I'm really wondering what's going on. Perhaps they think Vriska's ability to influence the narrative can give it a boost?

We don't get a news post for either of these upd8s, so we're going to jump right in!

Trippy . . . Though this seems considerably less seizure inducing than Homestuck's prior stuff. Perhaps the HICU are working on that a bit.

Okay, so I might be way off! So the Plot Point itself is the singularity at the center of the machine. The machine itself just stabilizes it, perhaps preventing it from expanding Big Bang style or sucking anything into it. And the fact it has both Calliope and Roxy's colors means they probably just worked on it together. I'm gonna go stand in the corner and turn into a sheep now.

Oh boy. Vriska is not having any patience for this . . .

Calliope said they needed authenticity, and Vriska following someone else's plan wouldn't exactly do that. Vriska would actually get as much info as she could normally though. So she thinks she has all the information she needs, she doesn't believe she can get accurate info from anyone in the Candy Timeline, or she's being affected by the Plot Point too. Possibly a combination of the three.

Either way, no we get an [S] page! Maybe this will be a substantive one.

So Vriska just got spaghettified into the Plot Point, and that seems to have changed the machine. That music was really creepy too. I'm continuing to have a bad feeling about this . . .

Oops . . . Roxy is not happy about this.

"Grumpy Exposition Creature: Exposit." lol

Oh shit! They have attracted some attention I don't think they're ready for.

Whelp! Even Dead Calliope isn't able to do much beside reveal what's going on. We've got another [S] page too.

Well this is eerily familiar . . .

Wait! That's Vriska's hive! But it's just Vriska's hive, no sign of Equius's. This has some dream bubble vibes, but it's definitely not that.

More God Tier art!

Uh oh. Ominous call back is ominous. And the narration here is driving that home even further. But what do they mean by "hungrier?" What other forces can be called into play here. The Horrorterrors perhaps? Something new? Us being hungry for more?

Yeah, I was already pretty sure this was a bad idea. Calliope might be many things, but they're not a liar.

Davepeta jumpscare!

Um . . . that's a lot of sprites . . .

Yay! Fefetasprite is here too!

Apparently this is an infurvention.

Holy crap it's SBAHJification time! I'm not gonna spoil that. You can see this masterpiece for yourself.

Okay. So the sprites seem to want to set Vriska straight. Emphasis on "seem." So why is this a bad thing? Is this simply bad from Calliope's perspective and her goal of trying to stabilize everything and end Dirk's influence on the timelines and the narrative? Is this a trap? Is this a previously unseen force or a new angle on one we know about?

So I'd previously blogged about how powerful the Plot Point could be. It is well within the realm of possibility for Vriska to be forced through a redemption arc. And there are definitely people out there that are hungry for that. As a god, this could put Vriska on the path to ascend, which might give her even more control over the narrative than Dirk.

But even with all the bullshit that's been going on in the Candy Timeline, even with the potential power of the Plot Point, even with all of Homestuck's prior ridiculous shenanigans, this feels a bit too convenient. Too contrived. Vriska, her Hive, the sprites. It all strains any kind of credibility.

And while there are people who are hungry to see Vriska redeemed, there's another outcome that I think far more people are hungry for . . .

"welcome to hell"

[askgremlinspls]

An Intro

Hello to all, I am new to this "Tumblr" thing you humans love to flock too, recently, me and my fellow brethren have been brought back from the dead.

Unfortunately, we were once in captivity in █████ ██ ████ ██████████, on the bright side, we had escaped and are now hiding in ██████

I will have to thank Juniper for allowing me to access the world wide web through her com̴͚̻̘̹̫̣͐͂͘͠p̶͎͚͊u̶̧̹̲̦̻͖̐̄̈̓̈́̓t̴̪͔̭̗͈̬̊͂͛̌̐e̶̝̓͑ŗ̵̝̙̦̖̒̑͊ͅ ̷͖̎̾̕͜

Holy crap, how did that happen!? must be Brain trying to get access to this blog!? uh... anyways... yeah...

Made a deal with him to make this blog so that, YOU, the people, can ask him and many other gremlins in his horde many questions, from oh lets just say: How they eat, how they sleep, or the occasional off kiltered question a thing or too.

And i also got into contact a few individuals who have mogwais as pets so that way, you can ask the mogwais and their owners a few questions too! So far, i only got full contact with Mr and Mrs Peltzer, and their mogwais, Gizmo, Grace, Spike, and Elle.

I've set up a gremlin translator too so that way you guys can understand what some of these Gremlins and Mogwai are saying.

Here are the following Gremlins/Mogwais you can ask!

Note: Sometimes they can become unavailable due to alot of reasons, some of those reasons can be weird sometimes too, so please be aware of that fact!

Gizmo

Grace

Spike (recently found out his real name is Sam)

Elle

Gaptooth

Algernon (Noggin)

Snout

Claw

Bucky

Duckface (Or Duck/ Ducky for short)

Snout Jr

Warbler

Lucky

BoBo (i found both him and Lucky outside my door)

Stripe

Haskins

Earl

George

Lenny

Mohawk

Daffy

Sebastian (Brain)

Greta

Benny (That one bat gremlin gargoyle, he was alive the entire time)

Vincent (Veggie gremlin)

Erik (That one Phantom of the Opera gremlin dude)

Steve (Brains personal secretary)

Rules

Don't ask/say racist/sexist (misogynistic/misandristic) homophobic, and/or disturbing questions. also, if you ask any suggestive comments, they will have a content warning, and a community label (Mature content). as for NSFW questions, they will be on a separate website all together as Tumblr doesn't allow extreme sexual content.

that being said, ask away!

Note: This blog is ran by @disgustinglittlerat

If you are under 18+, get offended easily, or just don't like suggestive content, DO NOT INTERACT!

[anim-ttrpgs]

Holy crap we went from 90 to 106 followers over the weekend!

Thank you all so much for sharing our posts around! We definitely want to reach as many people as possible and at least get them playing the upcoming demo version even if they don’t spring for the full version. (which you can get for $5 right now on our Patreon; you don’t even have to commit to a subscription, you can just pay the $5 and then cancel after you download it. The subscription just ensures you get all the subsequent updates too as the game continues to be playtested, tweaked, and developed.)

Also, I can’t give you an exact figure set in stone, but based on our calculations it will only take 100 Kickstarter backers to get Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy to its base goal on Kickstarter when we launch it early next year. So, if all of our followers backed it, we would hit the base goal instantly, and move on to the stretch goals which would mean more art by the lovely ladies @chaospyromancy and @qsycomplainsalot. Check out their tumblr pages for an idea of the quality you can expect if we meet our stretch goals.

Once again, thank you all for your support. Now I’m going back to work on those updated monster character creation rules and the the Grievous Wound rules, plus a couple of tweaks based on feedback from the very, very successful playtest where the characters of @kawaiite-mage, @thepleasuregoblin, @kalichnikov, and @horseabortion69 solved a low-stakes “murder mystery” in a haunted house attraction. Only one of them had ever played the game before, but even the new players were able to take to it right away both because they're good players and because Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is easy to pick up but hard to put down.

The October update is gonna be a big one, as it should be for a horror-mystery game. TRYING to get it out before Friday but I can't make any promises.

[hungry-skeleton]

Typing this at nighttime at my place in a cold sweat thinking:

Considering your criteria on what makes a good mascot horror... mascot... you're telling me that someone like this guy:

... has the potential to fit at least half of your criteria?

Many people are already afraid of clowns to the point where the fear itself has a name (coulrophobia)

He has features that... kinda look terrifying in a different context? Including a lack of a mouth and just an overall somewhat uncanny look

He's from a pretty obscure and small video game series from around 1993 to somewhere in the early 2000s. The series includes the first one made for him (which is actually an English port of a Mickey Mouse game), the second is more original, followed up by a sequel, two... spin-offs? And a remake of the second game.

"But Rayman Chibi," I hope you say despite us only interacting at least twice now, "isn't this clown your son?"

To that I say, "... yeah, but like... I'm mothering a child who could have the potential to scare people, holy crap O_O"

To be fair, there are others that could also be potential horror mascots (Hello Kitty with her beady eyes and lack of mouth (similar to Kid Klown) and I think that one comic character named Boing Kid that tried to get up to Sonic's level and failed due to some immaturity on his creator's part), but I digress...

Anyways, that's my rant on why I'm scared that Kid Klown would probably be too good of a horror mascot. Thank you for reading, this was stupid of me.

Too cute for me personally lol but I get it

[combeferres-mothematics]

2024 Stories

Tagged by @lemurious Ty :D

Leitmotif of the year: I'm not actually sure what this means, and google is being so little help, but probably Joly XD I've written a lot of Joly POV fics this year. A LOT. (Like, maybe up to a third of what I posted)

My best story of this year: My favorite and/or truest story of this year: The Sweepings of the Street, otherwise known as the one where Combeferre impulsively adopts a baby XD. This was the first fic I posted this year, and it continues to hold a soft spot in my heart even though I haven't updated it in uhhh.... since May- (It's coming, I promise, it's just going slowly XD)

Story of mine most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: What's a Little Undoing Each Other's Pants Between Friends? I love this one so much, (I was convinced to keep in the one very niche Joly headcanon I have, ty LMIFHAG discord server) and it's one I'd love to hear people's thoughts on, but I've gotten no thoughts yet. XD

Story with the single sexiest moment: Of Goats and Petticoats Bini doing Musichetta's laundry together?? That sounds pretty sexy, right?? (We're just gonna ignore that it gets eaten by the end of the fic, okay?)

Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story // Hardest story to write // Best Title Even the Darkest Nights Will End (And the Sun will Rise) This took me nine-ish? months to write, so it takes the title of Hardest to Write I think.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Probably Magical Museums, the debut of my NATM au. It's my shortest fic of the year at just over 650 words, but it was interesting to figure out how the characters would interact coming from not knowing each other :P

Biggest disappointment: None of them really! :P Les Mis fandom is forever one of the best fandom's I've ever been in, and much to my surprise, I've gotten interactions on 99% of the fics I've posted here (I may be skewed though, coming from teeny tiny fandoms before now, LM fandom seems huge XD)

Biggest surprise: I think this one has to go to Beyond the Barricade! I'd been writing it for a year by the time I first posted a chapter for Barricade Day this year, and I wasn't really expecting a lot of interest in it. And now it sits at the top of all my Ao3 stats except wordcount (Which it's going to surpass my other chapter fic in about two more chapter's time).

Most unintentionally telling story: ....Probably every Joly POV story I've done, there's four? of the 12 I wrote this year, a solid third XD (Five if you count the Joly POV chapter in BtB, but since everyone has their POV chapter there, I'm not counting it)

The four, for reference, are, starting with those mentioned above XD

Goats and Petticoats, Even the Darkest Nights, What's a little undoing each other's pants, and Rough Nights (I THINK these are all Joly POV)

Story I haven't yet written, but intend to: An au where the Barricades magically make you younger, brought on by a conversation had in the Les Mis Letters sever over the past month or so, that uhh... Well, it's being plotted now, so Barricade Day 2025 maybe?? XD

Also the one I've started about Joly dealing with invisible disabilities (I know I've talked about it on Discord a little, but I don't think I have here?) Ofc, I don't know if I'll ever post that one, but I certainly intend to write it :P

And to finish some of my many, many WIPs XD Tagging any/all of my writer followers :P (I forgt to tag before posting so I don't want to edit in all the @'s because it'll take too long)

[squadxx4392]

HARRY POTTER RANDOMNESS EPISODE 5

Draco : EVERYONE BACK IN THE CAR WE GOTTA GET BACK TO HOGWARTS WE HAVE LESSONS TOMORROW!

Blaise: *gets in the car*

Harry : Drive bitch!

Blaise : *starts going 300 mph towards Hogwarts*

Draco: *smiles while looking at Harry*

Luna : Ewww Gin help they're being sappy!

Pansy: Leave them be Luna

Ginny : Draco, how many fingers am I holding up? *holds up 4 fingers*

Draco : 8 fingers. When did you get 10??

Pansy: Is he drunk?

Theo : He's either really fucking tired or he's high off tattoo ink

Draco: Shhh I'm busy admiring the outside

Neville : Draco, that's Harry, not outside. outside is right there, not there

Draco: OML SAME DIFFERENCE

Blaise : We're back mfs!

Pansy: Hes tired for sure

Molly Weasley : WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?? *stomping angrily towards the car*

Draco: At um

Draco: Somewhere

Ginny : She can see every new piercing, Ron mum looks pissed, we should get back in and start driving. all of us. now. get in go go go!

Blaise : *Starts the car up and starts going 700 mph somehow*

Draco: *opens car door*

Pansy : DRACO LUCIUS MALFOY GET YOUR ARSE BACK IN I AM STRAPPING YOU DOWN RIGHT NOW

Draco: *falls asleep*

Blaise : I'm driving so fast we're flying, we're gonna land on the Astronomy Tower, I'm gonna shrink the car and we are going to RUN to the room of requirement!

Draco: *asleep*

Blaise : JUST LEAVE HIM HE CAN LIVE! REDUCIO! RUN!!

Draco: *wakes up* Oh

Pansy : SORRY YOU'RE SO TINY! YOU WERE ASLEEP AND WE ARE BOOKING IT RIGHT NOW

Molly: RONALD AND GINNY WEASLEY GET YOUR ASSES OUT HERE

Ron : THERE'S THE DOOR COME ON!!

Draco: can someone make me my normal size

Ginny : WHEN WE GET IN THE ROOM

Blaise : *just shut the door behind all of them* Okay, we're safe! Here, Engorgio!

Lucius and Severus: Oh- FUCK sake 😨

Pansy : *immediately follows the sound, covers her eyes and gasps* HOLY SHIT, PROFESSOR???

Lucius: Its not what it looks like-

Pansy : Well what is it then?? *still covering eyes*

Severus: Uh- We were trying on suits-

Luna : You're fucking stuttering!

Severus: Am NoT!

Harry : You sounded a little too confused to be telling the truth honestly, professor

Lucius: WHY ARE YOU EVEN IN HERE!!

Ron and Ginny : Escaping our angry mum

Lucius: THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER ROOMS AND YOU CHOOSE THE ROR

Draco : Also, that wasn't the fuckin question!

Severus: *clears throat* Then what was the question

Hermione : The fuck were you both doing that was bad enough for PANSY OF ALL PEOPLE TO COVER HER EYES AND GASP

Severus: Trying um on suits..

Lucius: We were cuddling and um eating Chinese food also..

Draco : disgusting, get out we're waiting on shit to cool down out there before we die

Lucius: Yeah no seriously we are more scared of Molly than you guys..

Pansy : But you won't get in trouble. Out!

Lucius: *turns light on holding a bowl of teriyaki noodles* We took her left over food.

Ron : Oh shit- well, she's more mad at US now, so just, out please

Severus: No thanks, she'll end up beating all of us to death somehow...

Pansy : Just- out! You'll live, she's definitely forgotten about you!

Severus: I'm about to give you all detention if you keep telling us to get out.

Harry : 😐

Lucius: Why's she mad at y'all anyway?

Draco : Uh- *lifts up sleeve*

Blaise : We hijacked a car, burnt down an entire muggle town in America, got a crap ton of tattoos and we got piercings!

Lucius: *takes a deep breath in*

Lucius: Okay Draco when I said you could do dumb shit, I DIDN'T MEAN BURN DOWN HOUSES

Pansy : Yeah it was fun. And after what I just saw, I wanna kms so come on! let's hand ourselves over to Molly!

Everyone Else(minus Sniv and Lucius) : All for it, let's go

Lucius: We were eating Chinese food- and hugging- WDYMMMM

Pansy : YOU WERE HALF NAKED NOW BYE!

Molly : About time. Care to explain why I got a frantic letter from McGonagall about you lot running off?

Draco: Not my fault blame Harry they dragged me into this

Harry : Hey! Prude!

Molly : Harry James Potter, Ronald Billius Weasley, Ginerva Molly Weasley and Hermione Jean Granger, you ought to know better!

Draco: So you aren't mad at my father for taking your food-?

Molly : Of course I am! Where is he?

Draco: Room of Requirement

Molly : We will talk about this when you get back this summer! *Walks into the room of requirement*

Pansy : Welp, they're dead. Let's go!

Lucius: *eyes widen* WE BETTER RUN

Pansy : *starts dying of laughter as Sniv and Lucius start streaking across the corridor followed closely by Molly*

Lucius: CAN WE HAVE SOME PEACE PLEASE MOLLY

*Narrator's voice* WILL THEY LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY?? HOW WILL THE MAIN 8 GET THROUGH TOMORROW?? FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON HARRY POTTER RANDOMNESS!!

[julielilac]

Yesterday was the anniversary of the trial in which Biu was a plaintiff and won the case. No matter how disgusting antis tried to twist the narrative, that bitch never filed a lawsuit, because all her "evidence" was from Pinterest and her goal wasn't "justice" (the abuser who blames her victim for her own crimes seeking justice, of course, of course 🤡), but to ruin his life and career so that he returns to her and she continues to torture him mentally and physically. This vile creature, whom I cannot call a woman, beated, threatened, blackmailed, coerced, gaslighted him that no one loved him, stole his gifts, extorted money from him (10 million for fake compensation for Netflix 🙃), insulted him in every possible way, wrote the most vile things on her social media (vulgarity, racism, homophobia, mocked widow, wished death to fans). She is absolutely disgusting, but even after a year and a won trial thai pseudo-feminists still consider her a victim when she is a lying narcissist and abuser in its purest form.

After the trial, this bitch hired an anti-account to which she leaked their correspondence, taken out of context, edited and mistranslated into English so that even ordinary slang sounded like insults. She leaked many photos of him that were taken when he was unaware of it, in a vulnerable state and even half naked. This is revenge porn. But disgusting antis grabbed onto the CRIMINALLY leaked correspondence with the wrong translation, and all just because his vile ex-colleagues, who sold their souls to the devil for money and fame, unfollowed the VICTIM (but still follow the criminal until today 🤡), which they NEVER supported, even when he sued his abuser for deformation, blackmail, extortion and coercion! These are the people the fans decided to support, and not the victim, who was kicked by his ex-colleagues even when he was already lying on the ground and bleeding. NONE of his ex-colleagues told their fans to stop, but for some reason their fans want Beyourluve to respect and praise them. I will NEVER respect nor praise the people who helped an abuser ruin the life of their "friend" (as the antis believe, although this friendship never existed, not between these jealous bastards who hated to see that Biu received more attention than them AT EVERY concert in that damn tour).

His ex-partner is one of the worst people in this story and the reason for the biggest regret of my life that I ever loved him. If anyone wants to argue that he is a holy little angel who has done nothing wrong, then I want to save your time and tell you how everything will be: I will give you a whole list of his crap actions, which you will try to justify with the standard excuse of all Bubbles "the company forced him to do all this, but they have love/friendship behind the scenes and he privately supports Biu" (yeah, mythical "private support" when he need PUBLIC support), after which our dialogue will end, because we live in completely different realities.

CEO of the company who tried to sit on two chairs, first showing a video of him hugging Biu (because he needed his fans to buy concert tickets 🙃), then saying that he "doesn’t know what kind of person the actor played Pete is" and that his Nong-abuser is "hurt too" and how he feels sorry for her and this whole smear campaign to ruin the career of his former employee is simply a "lover's quarrel", oh, and the fact that he could sue him for damages, but will generously not do so. The same CEO blocked Biu's fans when they asked him if Biu was alive when all this slanderous mess broke out. And the same company liked the anti-tweet from their COMPANY account that "he deserved what was happening to him" (or something like that), and then apologized from a burner account that followed to all the media that wrote slanderous articles about him (the company paid them for that, sorry for ruining your imaginary world if you were naive to think that they didn't do it).

The screenwriter of that minutes project (she's Apo fan and BBJ shipper, by the way) never wanted to see Biu in her project. The same screenwriter who, in response to accusations of plagiarism (and it wasn't even her who was accused, but him) talked to the accuser and said that it was just a "misunderstanding" (and the CEO called it a "coincidence"). 🤡

The last couple of days have triggered me so much that I decided to write it all down (actually there are many more things that I want to say, but one post will not be enough for this). When people who claim to love Biu try to defend all these vile creatures, try to rewrite history to justify their desire to watch a porn series that ruined Biu's 10 year career and he had to start all over again in ANOTHER COUNTRY, it makes me want to do… ugh… A LOT OF THINGS.

I have never hated someone that much: this abusive bitch, vile ex-colleagues who support the abuser, disgusting antis who, even knowing the truth, write slanders about Biu to denigrate him and make victims of their faves, fake Bubbles who continue to use him as a shipping tool in order to keep their real fave relevant and use his words in vulnerable moments (when that bitch gaslighted him and extorted money by accusing him of plagiarism when he's not even a screenwriter, and when that CEO threatened to sue him and forced him to write words in his defense) only to watch how two men who looks like brothers would pretend to fuck on screen and not feel guilty about it.

I'm so done.

P. S. Biu is currently suing the person/people who are behind the publication of his personal information from that anti-account and I hope that he will sue that psycho bitch again because she was the one who leaked all this to third parties and then stated that her phone was hacked. Yeah, and it wasn’t money or bank information that was stolen, but Biu’s photos and his correspondence with her. 🤡

P. P. S. When I talk about their correspondence, I don't claim that it is real, because many of the screenshots could be fake (they were posted by an anti-account, why should I believe it? 🙄). And even if all are true: 1) it was a PERSONAL correspondence that NO ONE should have seen; 2) complaining about his job where he was mistreated (he literally had no work for a whole month when he was forced to go on hiatus, while the company were making his scandal bigger instead of hushing it up like they did with all Mile and Bible scandals 🙃) and venting about his colleagues (we can now see how "good" they treated him and there is a lot of evidence that they bullied him when at the same time his abuser gaslighted him that no one loves him and he is not needed by anyone except her, that's why he only smiled when they mocked and physically harmed him, they especially liked to kick him) to the person he trusted is NOT A CRIME.

[mechanoize]

Masquerade au ramble PLEASEEEEEEEEEE :3

WUAHHHH so basically what I had in mind was!!!

(big fat big ramble incoming…)

prowl is a sorta crime boss,, big guy, big name, big money yk. and so there’s this big ol’ masquerade getting hosted… not by him, he doesn’t care for them, but in his name. whole buncha other big name guys are there too, ‘nd OUUUU jazz is an enforcer who specializes in undercover work. he recently got transferred to praxus yk. and this is his first real dangerous assignment.

hes done lotsa research, he’s a smart guy. and so they set it up so he’s working as a lead singer for a little live music/entertainment sector of the masquerade. he was meant to be in the least compromising position, whereas Mirage was actively invisible and snooping around the premises, and Tracks was meant to act as a distraction more than anything, keep the attention more so on her. (I need to design her so bad for this,, and ‘raj :P )

but worst comes to worst, Jazz ends up being a little bit TOO good at his job and many mecha are attracted to the music he and others are providing. causes complications, of course, but jazz is quick to reassure they’ll be fine. and they can’t really withdraw, because Jazz is too far cemented into the scene at that point.

the night draws to a close and there’s a sort of (probably traditional) dance that Prowl is kinda forced into. Not really, there isn’t many people who can force him to do anything, but a little but of persuasion from bluestreak and he crumbled. He didn’t have anyone TO dance with, and though not an inherently romantic performance, it’s still.. demeaning, in his eyes. Too much so to do it with anyone familiar.

so he chooses a partner at random, and as per protocol, many if not all the mechanisms present at least loosely knew the choreography. jazzs commlink is on fire, they think oh crap, our guys cooked. we didn’t know OR cover this. but surprise,, Jazz loves culture, loves learning. he loves dancing, music and all that stuff, and though he didn’t learn it to benefit his mission, he knew it. HOORAY!

so that’s settled, and it goes better than anyone (mainly prowl) could have imagined.

this is getting too long but Prowl is also smart. He actually is very much aware of Jazz and Track’s position, and he’s ran into his cities law enforcement many a time. he’s started threatening, yk, trying to shake them off. not because Prowl is hiding some big twisted secret, but because their enforcers are being met with increasingly harsher repercussions when caught within his vicinity. hes trying to spare them the trouble. they’ve also never even gotten close to uncovering anything beneath prowls jurisdiction so 😭 but they keep trying. And prowl is genuinely baffled that they keep sending their agents directly into danger, and this was their dumbest idea to date.

Because Prowl had known from the moment they stepped ped in the venue, and the bots present were not all dumb. And to be uncovered would result in things that not even he could stop, lest he shatter his own reputation. And that is something he’s unwilling to do; he has mechanisms of his own to protect.

so Prowls actions are all calculated, and he sorta has an idea to fake a liking towards Jazz and book him again, the following orn. Implications get twisted, yeah, but he just wants to speak to him one on one so he can relay a message to his superiors, tell them to back off cus though he is merciful many others are not.

Jazz sees this as an opportunity. and with little input, he accepts. of course, immediately reprimanded, but not discouraged. the mechs overseeing his mission see this as a needed win. a chance to finally crack down on the crime empires or whatever, starting at the heart of it all, Prowl.

ILL CUT IT SHORT NOW but !!! Prowl makes Jazz aware of it all, Jazz is like holy moly. And at that point Jazz is too involved for Prowl to send him on his way and forget so he sorta keeps an eye on him, something Jazz is more than aware of.

yaddah yaddah more interaction that i do have ideas for but are not major enough to send here 😭

[flowerbloom-arts]

The Clockwork Muddler

(another fanfic idea/concept/AU by me that other people can use, just please @ me and stuff I would love to know if you do)

Summary

Stumbling upon the aftermath of an accident never meant to be seen by anyone, a young Moomin(pappa) finds out that the Muddler is some sort of... Mechanical being. Moomin is completely horrified by this discovery, but before he could do anything the Muddler grabs him by the arm and tearfully begs him not to tell anyone, and that he'll do anything he pleases if it keeps him silent about the whole thing. Moomin, not being one to pass up an opportunity, agrees to this on the condition that the Muddler follows his every whim.

Tensions rise as Moomin sees him as far less of a person and Muddler tries to please him as best he could, and although they don't say a suspicious word of the incident, everyone else notices the strange change in their dynamic. It's only a matter of time before tensions rise to their heights; and that Moomin discovers another devastating truth.

Concept explanation

So basically this whole thing is an allegory that can apply to many things and it has alot of literal metaphors but if one were make too much of a detailed lore/explanation of the central concept then the need for logic would supersede the central message of the story.

To simply describe Muddler I would say he's basically a steampunk/clockwork android but not in a super literal techy way. It's kinda like the gems in Steven Universe, they are technically light robots but they still have bodily fluids and human emotions and the ability to digest food and stuff, you know?

Muddler's been adopted by Hodgkins since ages ago, they're not biologically related, but Muddler and Hodgkins still call the people who took care of him previously his "parents" and "uncle/nephew" are like petnames for eachother because they grew such a close bond.

Muddler is really janky on the inside, alot of loose ends and problems that cause him to be clumsy and overemotional and fixated on his collection. He also lost the lid for his chest a long time ago (probably back when he was still with his parents) and so his insides are constantly exposed but hidden under the layers of clothes he always wears.

The story takes place like... some time after Muddler's wedding. Moomin(pappa) is a very dumb and naive kid with a huge ego (I'd say he's around 16-17 while Muddler is atleast perceivably 21), and Moomin has alot of inexperience with the concept of sympathy or empathy due to his upbringing and what little he does have is relegated to Hodgkins, because Hodgkins is Moomin's favorite and most important person in the world while everyone else is just, whatever.

So when he finds out about Muddler with his gut gears spilled and trying to fix himself up quickly he freaks the heck out because holy crap did his reality just shatter right that moment. When Muddler begs him not to tell anybody he's still trying to process but gives into his offer because he's an egotistical brat with an unstable, warped self-image and who doesn't care about anybody but himself and Hodgkins.

Moomin gets progressively bitter towards Muddler because Muddler has this really cool uncle who's really nice to him and Joxter is also really nice to him and he already has a wife while Moomin doesn't get anywhere near the affection Muddler receives, even though he thinks Muddler isn't a real person but he himself is the realest person he's known his whole life. He is slowly inching closer to telling on Muddler anyway, and he doesn't even know that Hodgkins already knows. He even starts calling him a clock in his head to further dehumanize him.

During the height of this tension, Muddler and Moomin have a private conversation/argument which culminates into the reveal that Hodgkins knew, Moomin asks why in the world because he's already built up this bigotry towards Muddler in his head and Muddler starts getting all sentimental talking about his backstory. And then he looks at Moomin sadly;

The Muddler reached out for the Moomin's chest.

A click rung out in his head.

"Hodgkins always had a fondness for machines, you know. He seems to have this sixth sense for finding one," the Muddler said kindly. "The broken ones, most usually, we seem to be easier to spot with those ears of his."

No no no this can't be, the Moomin thought, he can't be like him!

The Muddler continued softly and sadly, "You told the Hemulen Aunt you were found in a seashell padded with velvet, yes? Excuse me, it must've been nice to be treated so gently and elegantly as a small one."

A shopping bag padded with newspaper...

The Muddler opened the Moomin's chest to reveal the dusty and rusty clockwork in him, "Oh dear," the Muddler covered his mouth, "I thought since you were so clean... Perhaps your Hemulen didn't bother..."

A thousand 'no's repeated themselves in the Moomin's thoughts, this cannot be true, he has to be a real person himself. He has to be! Because if he wasn't, then...

They locked eyes. Sincerity and concern met with earth-shattering terror. A pause.

"Oh," said the Muddler finally, "I'm sorry."

-

Moomin himself is made of clockwork, that's why he was different from the other Moomins and had those clicks in his head when he got ideas. His old Principal didn't even bother figuring out what he even is, let alone take care of him properly, his insides are all rusted and somewhat malfunctioning.

Moomin spirals and thinks that all the things he thought about Muddler applies to him aswell, that everything he tried to do since his escape are rendered null because he's not a real person and fake people can't become Famous Adventurers, they can't be liked or belong anywhere if people knew.

Moomin starts denying everything but he knows it won't do anything and he breaks down crying.

The Muddler looks down at him, feeling pity wash over him. Despite the cruelty and bitterness Moomin treated him with he can't help but feel bad for this child who had his whole world crash down on him. Muddler pats his head, and then Moomin receives the first hug he's ever had in his life.

[totaldramafan-lauri]

Hi Lauri! It's me! And it seems you found out my actions! Technically I was surprised you even figured it out it was all me, yes all the long ask was me? Are you disappointed now? Do you hate me a little because of that? If you do, I'm sorry. I just wanted you to have something to talk about because without the ask, you don't have anyone to ramble about, but don't worry! There are also many ask that was not sent by me!

I was pretty bit active those past months because I currently don't have any schedule to do, so I was free to ask you everyday, well it's entertainment for me to ask you everyday, it almost became a hobby, and also wanted to know facts and stuff, are you mad?

The reason why I was being inactive is because I forgot my password, someone came and hacked my account because I keep opening strange links that unfortunately hacked my account and there, my account got deleted by the hacker, I don't know why they deleted it or something. I don't really care, I'm really thankful I didn't do anything there or start a blog there, or put some private stuff.. fortunately I found your account after I made a new one, you can tell me to leave if you want me too..

Sorry to disappoint too that I made you believe that you have followers asking you alot of stuff.. sorry that I took this long to speak about why I'm being so inactive.. anyway are you happy about my return, or are you angry at me because what you thought you believe that you have anons asking you dozen of stuff but it was.. me? The point is on this ask, I want to say, sorry for everything. Even if I did it for entertainment and hobby asking you everyday, you must have thought that you have different anons askings you? Still fortunately enough there are also anons asking you that was not from me. I can confirm that the rest except the long asks was not from me.

I just thought that it was weird if I was the only one noticing those details, and no one was speaking up. so I made up a scenario of different anons noticing the details because I can't just leave those unnoticed can I? Welp..this was all the information I can give you. Sorry again Lauri and thanks for making me happy and entertained.

HHHHOLY CRAP- *falls over* HIIiiiIIIiiiiiIIII?????

G-geez, this was....n-not expected, but I-I'm not complaining either! Hi....! Holy crap, you're still here....? I-I thought you were busy, and that's why- y-y'know.....I-I wasn't gonna guilt you into staying if you had nothing left to say.....But I'm so sorry about the hacking! That sucks....! S-so...does that mean you WERE here reading all my posts this whole time, y-you just didn't have a blog to use....? O-oh my god.....

D-don't worry! I'm not mad at you! Not at all! Technically, you didn't even lie to me! I-it was all just....me assuming things! I-It was me assuming that one anon wouldn't message me so often, so they're probably different people. It was me assuming that I had more anons here than I really did cuz of that, and getting all panicked and stressed out about scaring "everyone" away, pfff......S-so, it's fine....I-I'm not mad at all....

I-if you really are gonna stick around, then....I don't mind at all.....I-I even welcome it.....Y-you don't have to send me stuff as often, I don't mind that, either....! Y-you don't have to constantly ask me stuff, but I'll be grateful for the stuff you do send....Wh-whatever you wanna do.....

I-I'm really glad you finally "came clean" about this....I-I had a lotta questions, and this answered close to all of them, so I really appreciate it....Don't worry, no hard feelings, I missed you, and I'm happy to see you be willing to come back! ^^

O-oh, and.....uh.....I'm not sure if you know this is how Tumblr works, but....uh....wh-when your old blog was deleted....all of the art you sent me, that I didn't post publicly to respect your privacy.....It was all deleted. It vanished from my inbox. A-and I didn't save any of it, cuz, I didn't know that was how things worked here...I had no idea that unpublished asks/submissions from blogs that get deleted are deleted as well.....S-so.....yeah....I-I'm really sorry.....I lost it all......(Th-the picture of her hands was one I looked at often....)TT///////TT

A-and, also, I'm REALLY sorry this took so long for me to answer! I've been off Tumblr almost all day, after getting an ask yesterday that upset me....! I-I hope you end up seeing this! Th-thanks for reaching out, really.....!