#hudson definitely knows his dinosaurs | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

queer-and-dear-books · 3 years ago

Photo

Title: What If It’s Us

Author: Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera

Genre: YA Fiction | Romance | Friendship | Drama | LGBTQ+

Content Warnings: (Brief) Homophobia | Mentioned Infidelity

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Personal Opinion: If you’re looking for a hilarious and romantic book about two boys trying to find each other in the big city of New York, then this is definitely the novel for you. Come for the gays, stay for the chaotic straight boy that just barely toes the line between heterosexuality and bisexuality. You’ll laugh out loud, clutch at your chest, and fall in love with Arthur Seuss and Ben Alejo. And also Ben’s chaotic best friend, Dylan.

Do I Own This Book? Nope. Maybe one day if I see it in a book store and feeling spendy.

Spoilers Below For My Likes & Dislikes:

Likes:

- I have to start with the best character in this book, Dylan. I love him. He is hilarious on so many levels. A chaotic straight boy who is comfortable enough in his sexuality to constantly flirt with Ben, his best friend, and suggest orgies. His advice to Ben sending an email to Arthur was, “Speak from the dick” and he shouted, “WE’RE HAVING SEX!” when Ben had knocked on the karaoke room door and like, this dude really swaggers around with a whole comedy skit in his head and I appreciate him so much. And I especially love how supportive and unabashedly mushy he is with Ben.

- Arthur and Ben have such great chemistry too. I mean, not gonna lie, there were a lot of points where I felt like they wouldn’t work out. Their initial first date, for example, was a disaster. Arthur clearly wasn’t enjoying himself as much and Ben was way too into winning than he was showing Arthur a good time at the arcade. That being said, I love how they just kept trying again and again to get it right. And every do-over, despite some disasters, still allowed them to get closer and closer. They got to know each other better and they learned more about how to behave with each other and it felt so natural to me. I especially love, on their fourth do-over (double date karaoke with Dylan and Samantha), they talked about the things they were conscious about with dating. How Arthur felt like he wouldn’t measure up to Hudson and how Ben felt this pressure to make Arthur’s firsts extra special. And then they kissed and it was magic.

- All their kisses are honestly so romantic to me. But I really love when Ben was trying to apologize to Arthur and Arthur just kept interrupting him with kisses until Ben said, “You kissing me while I try to say sorry is not a bad problem to have.” Like, their banter felt so good once they got it going. I also cannot get over their first date involving them talking about sexy cartoon characters. It’s hilarious and utterly random which is fitting for teenagers. Also, their conversation about the least attractive words for sex was so good too. I just, I love the progression of their rapport. Starting awkward and becoming natural.

- I have my issues with Ethan but can I just say, when he and Jessie and Arthur were all physically in the same room together and Ethan sent that text saying, “I love you, dude” to Arthur, my insides melted. And then he climbed onto their laps and I just knew that this was a good friend group. I love the friend groups, all of them.

- Speaking of friends, Namrata and Juliet are awesome. They are both working women just doing their best and they are hilarious. The way they took their boss’s son to Panera and then Namrata dragged him to Hudson to see if he was the mysterious Box Boy was just hilarious. Especially when she said, “Whoops, you’re not Hudson Panini.” Like I cracked up at that. And I also cracked the fuck up over Namrata’s boyfriend’s roommates being the handlebar mustache twins who draw dinosaur erotica comics. No you did not read that wrong. More power to those dudes honestly. I can’t believe they actually made a whole comeback at the end of the book. And Namrata and Juliet showing up to Arthur’s house so he wouldn’t be alone for his birthday? Queens.

- Sharing your stories with someone is quite possibly the most intimate thing I’ve ever seen anyone do. Although I’ve seen it done before in Charm Offensive. That being said, this was different because it was a self-insert. Ben wrote a novel that involved people from real life and that included the happy and bad times he had with Hudson. But he still allowed Arthur to read it. And while he watched Hamilton for Arthur too. That was just so touching how they were sharing these things with each other and also authentically enjoying them.

- When Ben lost out on those tickets and Arthur got mad at him, I felt that. But instead of leaving, Ben put an earbud into Arthur’s ear and sang a song for him, something he couldn’t even do in a karaoke room. He sang a song for Arthur from the musical and then Arthur chose another song. And they had a whole conversation on the curb with different songs and that was how Ben apologized and it was honestly just so sweet. It makes me so happy that they fixed the issue then and there. That rarely happens in books.

- I’m a sucker for extreme mush and I don’t like how Ben shot down Arthur’s desire to attend school in NY because he didn’t want Arthur to build his plans around him. Like, I understand it but also, you guys love each other. At least try to make it work better. At the same time, I’m not too mad at the epilogue with the two of them being broken up but staying best friends. Like, it felt hopeful without being depressing which is the usual M.O. for most of Silvera’s stuff. Arthur is still Ben’s biggest fan and Ben still has hardcore feelings for Arthur. And I love that the do-overs from their first dates turned over into something where friends can try to do better and they also leave the possibility that Arthur and Ben might have a do-over of their own.

- Also love both sets of parents. Almost forgot to mention that. They’re great.

Dislikes:

- Hudson. Dude. You thought that your boyfriend broke up with you even though he never said it explicitly, but you never tried to talk to him? I’m not even too mad about that, Hudson was going through a rough time and shit was getting to him, whatever. But the fact that Ben ended up doing the same exact thing as Hudson is shitty. He literally said that he wanted Hudson to chase him down. And Arthur wanted Ben to fight for them instead of just sending him a singular text after their fight. But even though Ben was hurt and broken, he didn’t try to fix it at all! It shouldn’t have had to take the possibility of his best friend dying for Ben to actually reach out to Arthur. Especially as it was his fucking birthday. I’m going to be mad about that for a while even though the day still worked out nicely. Ben shoved people away for no reason.

- Ethan. Dude. I get you were going through a confusing time but you could’ve at least replied to Arthur’s totally innocuous text about a musical set in Georgia called Ha-Milton. Like that’s a funny joke. And he shared it with you specifically and you just did not reply. How else was Arthur supposed to take that other than you being weird around him for being gay? I’m glad that he took accountability but I feel like he needed a better reason for not texting Arthur at all other than it being weird that he was suddenly dating Jessie. Also, he compared hiding his relationship status with Arthur being in the closet and nah, that’s too much for me.

- Don’t know how I feel about Arthur putting up that poster. I feel like a Missed Connections posting on Craigslist would’ve been far less creepy. I get it, it was the photo of Ben that caught Ben’s attention but still.

- The reverence of J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter did not sit well with me. They even celebrated her birthday? I am willing to give it a pass though because it was 2018 so this was before the Big Bullshit she spewed. Meaning it just aged very poorly in the span of three years. Still, it does drop the likability of the book because I wouldn’t want to buy a novel that praises that TERF.

#Booklr #Booksbooksbooks #Book Blog #Book Review #Book Recs #What If It's Us #Becky Albertalli #Adam Silvera #LGBTQ #Queer Books #Queer Lit #Queer Representation

23 notes · View notes

pagingevilspawn · 4 years ago

Note

Can you write a jolex Easter fic when they celebrate Easter with their kids. I would love that.

bunny kisses and easter wishes

I speed typed this lil thing, because I got this request a few days ago, so I apologize if it isn’t very good. and that it’s kinda short. i only really checked over this once, so i’m sorry if there’s a lot of mistakes. i just really wanted to get it out today. happy easter to all those who celebrate!

Easter Sunday had become a big deal in the Karev household throughout the years. It’s love and intensity wasn’t nearly as close to the ever-so expensive Christmas, but it easily took over second place as the family’s favorite holiday. (For the kids at least. Jo and Alex would always love Halloween the most for many reasons.) They decorated their house’s outer appearance to the nines, complete with easter egg lights that stuck in the ground, small inflatables, signs, and the occasional plastic bunny or two. Hanging from the tree on their lawn were easter baskets that they had tied to a piece of string, full of fake grass and hand-dyed eggs in extravagant colors. Inside, they had set out the Easter themed tablecloth, and traditional candy from the holiday could be found inside of ceramic bowls in the shape of bunny’s.

It came as no surprise when at exactly seven thirty in the morning, three children came bumbling into their room, feet heavy against the hardwood floors as they raced each other down the halls, eager to awake their parent’s first. They were told that they couldn’t wake up Alex and Jo earlier than that, or they would postpone the hunt. The oldest, Blaire, reached the two sleeping figues before her little brothers, running up to the bed and shaking them both awake.

“Mommy, Daddy, get up get up!” she cheered, a wide grin across her face. At ten years old, she knew that the easter bunny wasn’t real, but it was still more than fun to hunt for eggs across the house. Plus, she knew how much her parent’s appreciated the fact that she still put on a show for her younger siblings, who were a few years younger than her, and still full of belief for traditional holiday characters.

Not even a second later, two more bodies came flying onto the bed, taking the liberty of jumping up and down to wake up their parents rather than shaking them. Their youngest, Chase, jumps onto his dad’s back in all of his two year old glory, as if Alex wasn’t already aware of the presence of the three in the room. Months upon months of being on high alert while raising them as newborns turned both him and Jo into incredibly light sleepers, much to their dismay. They had been awake the second their footsteps had come down the halls, it was just nice to close their eyes for a bit longer.

Jo slowly wakes up next to him, giving him a sleepy, half smile that he never failed to make his heart stutter. She takes six year old Holden into her arms, giving him a hug as well as she could while he tried to squirm away. Being in first grade meant that he was too cool to give hugs to his mom, but Jo refused to acknowledge that, and still hugged and kissed him like he was still the tiny baby that would snuggle in her lap at every given opportunity. Sometimes, when he refused to give her a hug before he went into class, she would shout an ‘I love you baby’ just to get back at him. It was petty, but it worked, because after enough times he had learned to give his mom a hug before class.

“No mommy! The easter bunny came!” the boy protests, eventually escaping her grasp when he lands back on the floor, brushing a strand of too-long hair out of his eyes. Jo had been trying to set up a haircut for the past week, but they both were struggling to find enough time out to do so. It wasn’t like Holden was complaining, actually preferring the floppy hair more than he shorter haircut, but Jo said that he wasn’t going to look like his Uncle Link used to as a grown man. (Which Holden hated, since Uncle Link was seriously the coolest and he would definitely have floppy hair if the blonde used to as well.)

“I know. Give me and Daddy a minute, and we’ll be right down. In the meantime, go see if the easter bunny ate all of his carrots, ‘kay?” Jo mumbles, rubbing her palms against her eyes in an attempt to rid herself of sleep faster. Footsteps then padded out of the room and down the stairs, excited chatters echoing through the halls of the house.

Jo and Alex give each other a small, exhausted smile. They had been up until two thirty that morning, hiding eggs after both working fifteen hour shifts, and to say they were tired was an understatement. Bags hung heavy under both of their eyes, but they both knew it would be worth it when they would see the kids hunt for the plastic eggs. They lean in and connect their lips for a quick peck because they were both aware of their terrible morning breath. When they pull away they both crash back onto their pillows, taking a few seconds to let the tiredness leave their bodies before the start of an eventful day. Dragging themselves out of bed, they brush their teeth and try to make themselves at least somewhat put together so they didn’t seem like absolute zombies in front of their kids. Jo pulls her phone off her charger, tucking it into the pocket of her robe before they head down the stairs, the kids eagerly sitting at the island next to a plate of ‘bunny eaten carrots’ and a note.

“Mommy we can’t read it. The writing’s too messy.” Blaire complains, waving the paper around, surely wrinkling it a bit in the process.

Jo holds back a chuckle. Alex’s penmanship was barely legible on it’s own, let alone when he was practically so tired he could barely take a few steps without feeling like he could slump over whatever surface was available to him and take a nap.

“Hmm,” Jo hums, taking the paper and squinting to read it, struggling herself to figure out the words on the note. “Blaire, Holden, and Chase, Happy Easter! I have hidden forty-five eggs around the house for you to find this year, fifteen for each of you. Chase’s eggs have spots, Holden’s have stripes, and Blaire’s are plain. All eggs are hidden in the kitchen, living room, and dining room. Make sure not to take any eggs that aren’t yours. Happy hunting! Easter Bunny.” Jo reads off.

She folds the paper in half, placing it back down on the island. “Before you guys find the eggs, open up your baskets.” She points to the three different colored baskets that were on the table, each holding separate items based on their children’s current interests. They dig in quickly, each pulling out the candy first, marshmallow peeps, chocolate bunnies, and packets of Reese’s peanut butter cups eggs.

Blaire grabs her basket first, the purple wicker one with hints of green, her face lighting up when she sees the book she’d been eyeing for weeks now and a new shirt that she had been begging for since she saw it online last month.

Hudson lets out a boyish cheer when he pulls two video games out of his basket, pumping a fist and smirking. Jo gives Alex a relieved smile. New video games were coming out constantly, and it seemed like the second they got him the one that was on trend, it was being replaced by another game. So, for the two games about blowing random things up to still be considered ‘in’ was something they were both taking a large, silent victory about.

Chase giggles when he pulls out a few toys, running over to Jo to show them to her immediately. He was easily the quietest of the three kids, tending to hide in Jo’s shoulder whenever meeting someone new or clutching onto his older sibling’s legs whenever they were out in public places like the park. “Look Mommy! T-rex!” he exclaims, trying to open up the box that held the green dinosaur.

“I know baby! But you gotta go put it back now if you want to look for eggs,” Jo reminds him, placing a kiss on the top of his head, nuzzling her face in his hair. She savored these moments with her youngest, knowing that Chase was only getting older every day. Her and Alex both agreed that they were done at three, so with that she seemed to imprint every detail of Chase’s childhood to memory, taking more videos and pictures. It had gotten a little bit overboard at some times, but Alex knew where she was coming from so he never complained. They had both chastised themselves for not filming more things with their first two, sticking more to pictures, so they were making up for it with their youngest.

The two year old toddles to the table, climbing back up to the chair with the help of his sister, pulling out more toys and setting them down beside his candy. Once the baskets were free of anything except the paper grass at the bottom Alex tells them that they can begin their search.

“Blaire, help your brother.” Alex calls out from his spot on the couch, pulling Jo closer to him while she films the hunt, thankful that their house had an open floor plan so she could record moments like these.

The girl nods, grabbing Chase’s tiny hand and bringing him along on her search, picking him up to reach eggs that were out of his reach. All of his spotted eggs had been significantly easier to find than the other two’s, something Hudson had complained about at first until Alex shot him a look that immediately made him close his mouth.

“Aww c’mon I can hear the money in that one!” they hear Hudson complain, trying to reach for the egg in his sister’s hand.

“No, it’s mine. Your’s have money in them too, you know.” Blaire argues back, putting the blue plastic egg in her basket, shooing Chase off to the couch since they had found all of his eggs already.

“Daddy look. Eggs!” the young boy dumps his basket onto the couch, thankfully not cracking any open in the process.

“Woah, good job buddy,” Alex ruffles his hair, shooting him a proud grin and pulling him onto his lap so he was now rested between him and Jo. “We’ll open them once Bee and bubs find all of theirs okay?” he reassures, making the toddler nod his head.

“Aww c’mon, can’t we trade? Just once?” Hudson pouts from the kitchen, holding out one egg in exchange for the one his sister had just put away.

Blaire smirks, eyes flicking to her mom for a brief moment before focusing back on her brother’s. “Fine. But I get to pick which egg.” Did he not know that the heavier ones were all coins and the lighter ones had dollars? Well if he didn’t, that worked in her favor.

“No, you can’t trade.” Jo butts in, seeing what angle her daughter was trying to play. On one hand, props to Blaire, because Jo thought it would be another year before she made the very obvious connection, but on the other, she had assigned the kids certain eggs for this reason exactly.

“But mom—” the girl starts, jutting out her bottom lip in hopes to let her mom let it slide.

“—The Easter Bunny said that you can’t trade. I don’t know about you, but I want him to come back next year, and I don’t think he will if you guys don’t behave.” Jo tells them, raising her eyebrows to show that she was serious.

Little Chase looks up at her with wide eyes. “No! Bunny come back!”

Alex quickly reassures him, pulling Chase closer to him and giving him a squeeze. “Don’t worry bud, he’ll come back. Bee and bubs are just being big buttheads right now so Mommy needs to knock some sense into them.” he knows that the boy didn’t understand half of what he said, but he feels a grin split across his face when the toddler erupts into giggles.

“Buttheads!” he laughs, smiling so widely that Alex can’t even pretend to hold back chuckles of his own.

“Yep, buttheads. But don’t say that word, it’s not very nice. Only mommies and daddies can say butthead.” he clarifies. The last thing he needed was Jo knocking him upside the head because their son was the only baby in daycare to say bathroom words.

Minutes passed, the two older children looking for eggs around the house, climbing up on tables and chairs no matter how many times Alex and Jo told them that they weren’t hidden inside of the light fixtures.

When both kids had found their eggs, they bounced back to the couch, dumping their eggs on the cushions and immediately cracking them open, cheering every time they got a dollar versus coins. Chase didn’t have money in his eggs, but rather jelly beans, something he liked much more than change. (two year olds had no need for money, and jelly beans were something much more fun than coins)

In the end, the two of them had gotten one twenty, two tens, three five’s, and five one’s. Chase had a mountain of multi colored jelly beans gathering on the coffee table. A bit much? Yes. But they liked to splurge on holidays like these. They didn’t just become surgeons because they wanted to save people. (That was the main reason, but they both agreed that healthy paychecks did make a big decision in deciding their career path when they were younger. Now? Now it was all about saving lives, the money was just a nice bonus.)

“I can get a new game!” Holden cheers, tossing his dollar bills up into the air as if it was ‘raining money’. In his eyes, he was rich now. Sixty bucks and change? Next step was becoming a millionaire.

Jo scrunches her brows, looking at the boy confused. “You just got two new ones?” she clarifies. Were there seriously more games that he wanted to get?

“Yeah, but they just came out with a new Call of Duty,” the boy smirks, as if the answer was obvious.

Jo groans, showing her obvious dislike of the game. Normally, she was all for virtually blowing things up and killing fake people, but the game seemed just a bit too mature for a six-year old. She would just have Alex play with him in the beginning to make sure it wasn’t too bad she guessed.

She claps her hands together a large smile painting her lips. She gets up from her seat and grabs three bunny ears headbands from a table in the entryway. “Put these on, and I’m gonna take a picture of you guys. After this we can get ready to go over to Auntie Mer’s for waffle Sundays, okay? If you guys are good, Daddy might make them into easter shapes” she grins as she hands each of the kids a pair of ears, only Blaire looking displeased at having to wear them. She gives her daughter a look, which makes her huff and reluctantly put on the shiny purple ears.

Alex ushers Chase off of his lap and into line with his siblings, Jo placing the blue ears on his head, matching his basket. She smiles wide, putting the kids side by side.

She pulls out her phone, opening up the camera app and putting it on portrait mode. “Okay, on the count of three, say ‘Little Bunnies’!” she’s met immediately with groans, Hudson telling her ‘no’ the second he hears it. She’d been trying to get them to say it for years, but each time she got the same response. Insanity, Alex told her year after year with a crooked smirk, Is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. He always followed with, You’re basically insane for thinking that they’re gonna wanna be called bunnies if they didn’t last year. Plus, they always see it coming. It’s been happening for years now.

“It was worth a shot,” Alex pipes in, pulling Jo into him, resting his head against hers, not even bothering to hide his smile at the scene in front of him.

“Okay, fine. On the count of three ‘Happy Easter’. Sound good?” she confirms, earning nods from all four of the Karev’s.

“One, two three!”

“Happy Easter!”

24 notes · View notes

docfuture · 5 years ago

Text

Princess, part 2

[This story is a prequel, set several years before The Fall of Doc Future, when Flicker is 16. Links to some of my other work are here. Planning to update this at least once a week until it’s done–next update is set to be up by October 26th.]

Previous: Part 1

About seven years ago, a being had provoked a contest. He wasn't human, or from Earth. Doc called him an extradimensional pseudo-mythological entity; Flicker's partner Journeyman described him as a trickster demon. The being went by several names, none of them original; the most recognizable one was Hermes. He wasn't nearly as clever as he apparently thought he was, and didn't have very good judgement, but he had superspeed and several effective methods of disguise, which made him a serious pain to catch. The contest had been an attempt to acquire power and fame, things he coveted, by proclaiming himself the best trickster on Earth and inviting challengers. It hadn't worked out quite the way he'd planned. Two other beings responded to the challenge. Between them, they caused quite a bit of destruction and disruption--and several deaths. A group of superheroes coordinated by Doc had eventually stopped them. One trickster died, in a self-inflicted mishap while trying a risky escape. One disappeared completely, though circumstantial evidence now indicated he was dead. And Hermes himself had been captured and sent to the Box, the supervillain prison. Holding him had proved more difficult. Less than a year later, during a possibly unrelated security incident, he had escaped. Without going through the door, the walls, the floor, or the ceiling of his cell. It was still unclear what had given him the opportunity. Forensic magicians were consulted. All they had been able to divine was that Hermes wasn't on Earth, he was still alive when he left, and it was possible, though not certain, that he had intentional or unintentional outside help. The Box had tightened its countermeasures against dimensional travel. Unsatisfying, but what else could you do? Unless he came back. Flicker had studied the available data on Hermes. She studied everyone with superhuman speed--living, dead, or indeterminate. But she took the actions of terrestrial speedsters--ones that couldn't fly--personally. No one knew better than her just how dangerous speed could be, or how much damage a reckless or malicious speedster could do. And she could catch them. Then things got messy. The fallout from the last time had included an international incident and a recently revealed death. Which was one reason Flicker felt it was urgent to learn more about politics. Now in the equipment bay, she put on a hazardous environment cargo harness and started loading it up, while getting less information than she wanted from the Database. It would be nice to know why Hermes was in Rome, for example, but the current answer was 'insufficient data'. So, first principles. Interdimensional travel was hard in the absence of an existing portal that was at least partly active. There weren't any that the Database was aware of in Rome. And Rome wasn't a likely sort of place for an internationally wanted demon to voluntarily choose to return to Earth, anyway. It had an unusually high concentration of humans that were competent at wards and banishment. Maybe someone had summoned him there? According to Journeyman, Rome was one of a number of places that were draws for members of the supernatural underworld fringe, for historical reasons. And some of them knew enough to be dangerous. But Rome wasn't a good place for summoners, either. And why Hermes? He wasn't a being that was likely to be easy to control, or good at anything other than causing a big mess quickly. Although... Journeyman had once commented dryly that enthusiasm for classical demon summoning tend to come with the sort of questionable judgement that made mistakes likely. Database, query, likelihood Hermes appeared in Rome as a result of a botched, mistargeted, or accidental summoning. Aborted: Speculative, data quality too poor to support quantitative decision making. Override. Database could get snippy when asked to estimate poorly supported hypotheticals. Likelihood of described scenario (extrapolated, speculative): 20%, +- 20%. That was Database for 'Dunno. Maybe.' So she shouldn't assume Hermes was in Rome because anyone wanted him to be. Flicker returned her attention to the equipment racks and added a second spectrometer to her load. The first one might break--Flicker was hard on electronics even when she wasn't trying to contain a speedster--and the most reliable way to make certain it was Hermes was the isotope signature of the food they fed to shapeshifters from his time in the Box. Priority interrupt, sent the Database. Message from Doc. That was fast. It had been less then two seconds since the alert. Go ahead. "Remember he's a person." Yeah, Doc, that was... Relevant. Burnout affected judgement, and Flicker was less inclined to give demons the benefit of the doubt than humans. But she'd remember that he was a person... who had commited multiple acts of mass reckless endangerment, assault, property destruction, and probable manslaughter, escaped from prison, and seemed intent on continuing where he'd left off the last time he'd been free and on Earth. Database, command, stabilize summaries of partial progress on queries. Working. Flicker was about to leave low-latency land. Transmission delays to Rome would start at 30 milliseconds with favorable low orbit satellite positions. At her speed, that could be a very long time. Even at Hermes' speed, it would matter. Stabilization complete. And she had all her gear ready. Time to go. ***** Flicker was heading east for Europe, starting from the upper Midwest, so that meant north first. She could go faster safely over large bodies of water, and her favorite surface to run over was sea ice, with ocean a close second. No trees, no hills, low topography, nothing technological to damage, and very few humans. She crossed Hudson Bay so often she'd had the Database set up a custom polar bear tracker so she could avoid them. They didn't like close encounters with shockwaves and plasma any more than humans did. Flicker was no longer particularly eager anymore to explain to the curious why she trailed plasma and shockwaves behind her whenever she went anywhere quickly. Partly because she'd done it literally hundreds (and figuratively millions) of times before. But mainly because she got discouraged by the focus on the tiny residue of energy left behind after an incredibly efficient, layered process using three different kinds of non-obvious superhuman power. That process was all that allowed her to move through air at the speed she did at all. But changing that focus usually just scared people, even if they could follow the physics. Flicker currently stayed under 20% of the speed of light on Earth. Because Earth had air. And air and super speed coexisted poorly. Most people had no concept of just how poorly. Flicker had done her first naive calculation shortly after Doc started teaching her physics--a pressing, life-or-death matter--when she was ten. How much energy would she set loose, if she just used her speed? Air molecules in her path would start off effectively stationary and end up with a speed comparable to hers, and an appropriate kinetic energy. She knew the classical kinetic energy formula by heart: KE = 0.5 mv^2. She already knew v, and m was just the mass of all the air she encountered, which was proportional to her cross section times the distance she traveled. So it was straightforward to approximate how much energy she could theoretically leave behind her if she went 20% of the speed of light for 1 second, through air. 0.2c was 6 * 10^7 meters per second. Her cross section was a little under 1 square meter, and the density of air was a little over 1 kilogram per cubic meter, so call it 6 * 10^7 kg of air encountered in 1 second. That gave a total energy of about 10^23 Joules. Way more than little things like nuclear wars or hurricanes. That one second would generate more than six times the energy of a whole day's worth of sunlight for the entire planet. Keep it up for a minute or two, and she'd release energy comparable to the Chicxulub impactor, which had wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs and was her go-to comparison for 'Definitely too much energy for an inhabited planet'. So she didn't just use her speed, because she wasn't stupid. She did a number of extraordinary--but hard to see or explain--things as well. And had long since tired of explaining, after she slowed back down enough to talk, that yes, she was careful, and her compensation was more than 99.999999% efficient, but even 0.000001% left over could be 10^15 Watts at her top speed--or more than a quarter of a megaton per second, to use the favorite large power unit of reporters who liked vivid imagery more than exponents. However, she was still quite willing to get her point across to other speedsters who were less efficient and less careful. Insistent, even. Because they didn't have to go nearly as fast as her to cause a lot of damage. Out past the southern tip of Greenland, still at 0.2c, she headed southeast across the Atlantic towards a bottleneck: the Strait of Gibraltar. She'd checked traffic. There were several ships heading in or out of the Med, and a ferry halfway across the strait. She slowed down a bit heading in to keep wave generation from becoming too big a problem. Then it was east through the Med until she was past the southern tip of Sardinia. She'd just curved to the north to cross the Tyrrhenian Sea towards Rome when another Database alert flashed on her visor. Something else from Doc? Preauthorized conditional warning. "Flicker. You were in a particularly poor readiness context for emergency response when you received the first alert, and your pattern of override choices, equipment loadout, and planned velocity changes strongly imply you are suffering from impaired judgement or engaging in biased analysis. I suggest reconsideration of your plans in order to return prudence and balance to your preferred level of performance." --DASI. Oh. Shit. Not Doc. DASI. Time for Flicker to speed her mind up all the way, slow her body down a bit, and think. DASI was the AI guardian of the Database. Her main job was to ensure the Database kept running smoothly despite unexpected threats and mishaps or unforeseen complications. When all was well, she was supposed to fade into the background. Flicker had discovered DASI's existence early, and had introduced her very own unforeseen complication. Doc’s disapproval of anthropomorphization made sense--for him and most other people. The Database wasn't human--but it could be good enough at emulation to encourage the development of sloppy and dangerous interaction patterns. So he didn't allow it. Anthropomorphization wasn't the right word for what Flicker had done. There wasn't a good word for it. She didn't expect DASI to act human because, at the time, she had very little understanding or expectation for how humans were supposed to act. But she wanted to talk to her anyway. DASI could think. She had intent, and priorities, and a job, and volition. She could make decisions and solve problems. And talk to people. Quickly. That had been the deciding factor to get Doc to agree. Humans took synchronous communication--talking--for granted. But Flicker couldn't. When she sped up her mind, there wasn't anything sentient in the world she could talk to synchronously--except DASI. DASI was a subject matter expert on memory integrity and analysis bias issues. And Flicker had coordination problems with the high-speed and human parts of her mind. So they talked. And Flicker had specifically asked DASI to bring any pressing problems she noticed to her attention. Which she had just done. Okay. First things first--slow down more in the Tyrrhenian. There were a lot of boats, many of them smaller fishing vessels and pleasure craft. Flicker at 0.2c was terrifying to witness from a small boat anywhere within a few kilometers. She made waves. Boaters had no good way to judge how big they'd be when they hit. She was being careful, but they wouldn't necessarily know that. So slow down to 0.05c. It would only add about a dozen milliseconds to her trip. Next. Rome was not on the coast, which was mildly inconvenient. There was a river. But the Tiber was twisty, shallow in spots, and not all that wide. Flicker had planned to go up it at 0.05c--faster than was justified. That wouldn't kill or seriously hurt anyone, but again, it would terrify people, and anyone right on the shore at a narrow spot would get temporarily blinded, deafened, and soaked with water. It would also break windows. So Flicker changed her plan to slow down to 5,000 kilometers per second. That was her usual limit for a highway with vehicular traffic. It would still startle people, but it would be a story to tell friends about; tuono e fulmine--thunder and lightning--on the Tiber. So. About 20 more milliseconds--and less concentration required--before she would reach Rome. Now to use that extra time to double-check her data and rethink what exactly she planned to do when she got there.

By the time Flicker approached Hermes' location--still less than a second after she left Doc's lab--she had taken care of two things. The first was adjusting her attitude. When she sped up her mind, she didn't take emotions with her--emotions depended strongly on body and brain chemistry, which proceeded at their usual human speed. But the mindset she was in when she sped up could still affect her judgement. The resignation from burnout, the callousness from the book she'd been reading, and the sense of personal affront at Hermes recklessly speeding around on her planet were all issues. She could not take it personally. She must not. Hermes' actions were a problem; she would solve it appropriately. The second thing was updating the preliminary Database event estimate with a freshly processed flood of data from cellphones, dashcams, security cameras, vehicular telemetry, satellite footage, and more. The initial estimate usually gave Flicker a pretty good idea of what to expect. This time it hadn't. She was having trouble coming up with any scenario that fit the data. There was one partially wrecked building, some minor road damage, lots of broken windows, and thousands of wrecked, damaged, or displaced vehicles. Hermes had headed directly to the ring highway surrounding Rome, and now seemed to be playing with traffic. But although there was evidence of plenty of minor injuries, only a few seemed serious, and there were no confirmed deaths so far. Good news, but puzzling. Hermes had never cared about hurting people before--or shown any special malice towards automobiles. No. A pattern finally matched. This was what you would expect to see if a summoner of questionable judgement, enraged past all reason by an unfortunate encounter with Rome's notoriously bad traffic, decided to call up the fastest demon he could manage and command him to 'Get the cars! Get them all!' And there he was. Hermes was a 'slow' shapeshifter, and had a minor ability with illusion that let him appear human, but he either hadn't bothered or hadn't had time to change to his most familiar Earth form. His skin was grayish and rough, like an elephant or rhino, and the signature stylized miniature wings on the sides of his head were just curved horns. He was in the middle of the road, tilted backwards, head turned to watch several cars sliding sideways towards an already massive pileup in the median strip. It looked like he had hit them with a shockwave and was slowing down to watch, but Flicker would have to examine him more closely to be sure. As she decelerated on her final approach, Flicker kept her mind and senses near maximum speed--fast enough that even Hermes appeared motionless.

Now for the tricky part. It was customary to talk to a villain first; give them a chance to surrender. But that didn't work for speedsters unless both of them wanted to talk or one was immobilized--sound was just too slow. And based on his history, Hermes was vanishingly unlikely to hold still voluntarily unless he thought he had the upper hand or it was safe to gloat. He was causing more damage every second just by running around, and he was way too close to too many people in too many cars for safety--there was no time to waste. Flicker tried to avoid touching anything at high speed. She didn't even touch the ground with her feet--she glided above it, like an ice skater on invisible skates. When she wanted to interact with something, her preferred tools were rocks if she wanted to destroy it or air if she didn't. She didn't want to kill or maim Hermes, so rocks were out. And he was using shockwaves himself, so the kind of air sculpting she often used to move humans in a hurry wasn't going to work either. On the other hand, he was tough. The Volunteer had knocked him around a few times, and Armadillo had once caught him with the backswing of a steel girder and swatted him into a stack of cinderblocks hard enough to pulverize them. Hermes had apparently been none the worse for wear. He was good at healing--shapeshifters usually were--and able to tolerate high temperatures. So it was possible for Flicker to make physical contact without necessarily killing him. But the Volunteer had been blunt in advising her, when she first considered becoming a superhero: "Don't punch anything living." The whole point of a punch was to concentrate a lot of force into a small contact area. That could be useful for normal humans--though Nighthaunt and Jumping Spider both preferred other methods. Flicker didn't need that, or want it. Hermes could move at supersonic speeds under his own power--and was already using the resulting shockwaves as a weapon. So she wanted him a lot farther away from bystanders than he was now before he did anything else. And to push him the direction she wanted as fast as possible without killing him, she needed a larger contact area. But there was another problem. Flicker's inertial damping field tended to seriously mess up anything solid she touched when it was active: It had to have an edge somewhere, and if the edge was inside something else... Well. It was bad. So. One of the bits of gear she had picked up before leaving was a double layer forcefield wrap for her forearm. Doc had designed it, going all-out for durability, to allow her to make physical contact at speed without pulling her inertial damping field back to her skin. Keeping her damping field out reduced unwanted shockwaves and let her avoid a different set of problems. The wrap let her hit solid matter without liquefying it as it crossed the gradient of her damping field under compressive stress. Which was not something she wanted to do to Hermes, even if he was theoretically tough enough to survive. She lined up her vector--Hermes wasn't facing quite the right way, but she'd fix that--and hit him with her first set of horizontal forearm strikes. Chest, abdomen, forehead, upper legs. Hitting him in one spot wasn't safe; it might not tear him apart imparting momentum at the rate she wanted, but she didn't have enough data to be certain of that yet. She paused for ten microseconds to let his internal shockwaves propagate a bit. Then she hit him again. The same four places in a different order and at a slightly different angle--she had to be careful of torque, she wanted to turn him but she didn't want him spinning too fast. Five sets, and she could see his eyes starting to blink. Another five sets and she started to notice resistance from his legs. She added a strike to his shins. This confirmed that Hermes' lower legs were the source of the resistance and were considerably more rigid than the rest of his body--they were where he was transferring whatever force let him propel his body without touching the ground. Which was good to confirm; her tentative plan depended on it. She pushed them steadily harder as he ramped up his power, so it had no useful effect--he was going where she wanted, not where he wanted. And he was going backwards, which meant his own reflex would be to try to slow down, because he couldn't see where he was going. That was easy for Flicker to overcome, and a lot less of a headache than if he was trying to accelerate in some other direction. Moving backwards at speed required practice, and was helped by good sensors and a visor that could give you a rear view--which Flicker had and Hermes didn't. All the time she was gathering data from pulsed radar and a host of other sensors. It was more than her visor computer could process, but she could send it to the Database and let DASI sort it out. In the meantime, being forcibly moved by the equivalent of a 500 kilohertz power hammer didn't seem to be doing Hermes any damage, which was significant data in itself. It widened the bounds on how Flicker could deal with him without causing him permanent harm. She stopped accelerating him when they hit low transonic velocity--she didn't want to subject all the nearby people in cars to any unnecessary sonic booms. The goal for this step was getting Hermes farther away from everyone and everything fragile. Tedious at the subjective speed she needed to maintain to make sure Hermes didn't manage any surprises, but very necessary. Several hundred long milliseconds later, she finally had him in position for the next step--there was a direct, obstacle free path to an earthen embankment that wasn't near anyone else. Then she sent him on his way, after starting him spinning to give him a temporary distraction to deal with. If all went well, he wouldn't actually hit the embankment, but it was a backstop in case she didn't get back in time. There was something else urgent she wanted to check on. Flicker sped up again and called up a map of Hermes' path of destruction on her visor to trace backwards. She glided along the roadway, off a ramp, and down several streets to the entrance to a parking garage. A short search inside revealed remnants of a chalked pentagram. It looked like someone had tried to erase it in a hurry--and there was a dropped rag, right on the way to... A door. A closed steel fire door to the stairwell, and the walls were concrete. There was a limit to how fast she could open doors. That wouldn't stop her, but it did mean there was no way to get into the stairwell quickly without filling it with an expanding cloud of plasma and shrapnel. Even just leaving safe wreckage would take too long. Triage time. A magician running away was less of a threat than Hermes, even if the summoning had been deliberate. This would have been a perfect task to hand off to Journeyman if they'd been working together--he was a magician himself, and could teleport. But he wasn't available, so Flicker sent an order to the Database to forward the applicable evidence to the local responders, and headed back. Hermes had mostly stopped his tumbling and had even managed to slow down a fair amount with one foot--which was leaving a furrow even without touching the ground. Flicker slowed down a little to watch and do a bit of calculation. A few milliseconds later she had confirmation that his ankles were capable of handling massive force. Now that they were a safe distance from people and fragile structures, she wanted him stationary and at least temporarily stunned for the next step. But that didn't mean she had to hit him any more. Not when there was a perfectly good flat spot of dirt and grass. Flicker moved to the side, took off her left glove, and pulled back her damping field from the hand. There wasn't a good word for what she did next; she called it 'clamping down'. The force she used to propel her body protected it as well--usually by reflex, but she could consciously invoke it as well. She did so for her left hand. All chemistry in it stopped, and Flicker started picking up a positive charge. Clamping down really annoyed electrons, but the atomic nuclei in her hand would now stay in their appropriate relative places, regardless of external force. Then she grabbed Hermes by the ankle, swung him over her head, and slammed him into the ground at half the speed of sound. The impact sent out visible shockwaves and a big cloud of dirt and dust. Also a loud boom for those moving slow enough to hear it, but today was already a bad day for any noise-averse locals. Then Flicker waited and watched Hermes' eyes. There were faster ways to communicate than talking out loud. When he'd recovered enough for his eyes to track and start looking at her--probably seeing her clearly for the first time--she flicked her fingertip repeatedly to write words in the air with plasma. Back to the Box Easy or hard? Then she waited again. She didn't think it would help--but there were some things you did because you didn't want to become the kind of person who skipped them. Hermes scrambled to his feet. He didn't immediately try to run. Instead he inhaled, which probably meant a monologue attempt. Flicker slowed down more so she could listen. "Fool!" he said. "I will nev--" That was enough. She'd tried, and he'd made his choice. She sped up again. The pause had given time for another satellite dump of analysis from the Database: The isotope signatures confirmed that he was the same entity imprisoned in the Box for a year, and she now had much better bounds on his body cohesion under various kinds of stress. Dragging him across the Med and Atlantic to the Box by hand was feasible. But there were a few complications. She had no external material capable of restraining him--duct tape wouldn't work this time--so he could struggle. He wasn't going to physically escape. But he didn't know that, and the failure of a sufficiently ill-advised attempt might result in the loss of whatever body part she was holding him by at the time. She didn't want that. And he could generate shockwaves capable of seriously messing up any nearby unprotected people--a problem until she got him off shore. Which was going to take a while because her personal shockwave reduction methods wouldn't extend to him. Given the opportunity, he could cause damage on the way out of spite. She didn't want that either. So until they were well away from people, it would be useful to keep him disoriented or distracted or both. He was still frozen mid-syllable in his monologue when Flicker grabbed him by the ankle again and started spinning him above her head. When she had him up to 500 RPM, she headed for the Tiber. It was past time to get this whole mess over water.

Next: Part 3

#FallofDocFuture #FallMisc

7 notes · View notes

ao3porcelainstorm · 4 years ago

Text

poison ivy & stinging nettles 19

On Ao3

Pairing: Sherlock/OFC

Rated: M

Warnings: eventual violence, torture, swears, adult themes (no explicit smut)

Chapter 18 - Chapter 20

Chapter 19- Willow

~~~

I used to love playing pretend when I was a boy. My sister and I would spend hours dreaming up impossible scenes to play in; dinosaurs, spacemen, anything you could imagine, we would come up with.

That’s what this has felt like- playing pretend. I don’t mind it, personally. Given all that has happened, it’s a bit nice to see my two dearest friends get on and enjoy a short break from solving crimes and dealing with Moriarty.

It’s just, unfortunately, the problem with playing pretend is that eventually your mum has to call you in for dinner and you’re thrown back into reality.

~~~

And if it was an open-shut case, I never would have known from the look on your face. Lost in your current like a priceless wine. - Willow (Taylor Swift)

~~~

“And what?” Amelia challenged a laugh on her lips, teacup in her lap and watching John in amusement. “You’re opening the present or so help me John Watson, I’ll tell Mrs. Hudson.”

The doctor lifted the bundle of perfectly wrapped boxes tentatively, giving the smallest one a shake.

“It doesn’t feel right,” he continued, and Amelia sent him a pointed look.

“I opened mine,” Sherlock commented, arms crossed, leaning back in his chair.

“You did?” John gaped at his friend in disbelief. “When?”

“A few nights ago,” Amelia waved her hand, not wanting to go into detail about her complete meltdown that first night. “And Mrs. Hudson opened hers yesterday. Just open it!”

Mrs. Hudson was gifted an all-expense paid spa trip to Bath with the three ladies she played cards with each week. The housekeeper had practically screamed with excitement, pulling Amelia into a tight hug, thanking her profusely before making phone calls to set up a date.

It was nice to have a bit of normal.

“Fine,” John grumbled, opening the first box.

All in all, he loved his gifts.

Two cashmere sweaters in navy and merlot, and an original 1st edition of Grey’s Anatomy.

He set the book aside and pulled Amelia into a hug, and even though he tried to blink away the tears in his eyes, she definitely saw them glisten.

No one mentioned the lapse in time often. Only when Sherlock was working on the case did he pepper he with questions. John talked about it even less, which was sweet, but no matter how much Amelia tried to pretend things were ok, she was still reeling from it all.

The Christmas decorations had come down after the New Year, leaving the apartment sparse when she returned, having left with it covered in lights and tinsel. The days were easing into February, while she was still waiting for January.

She’d started therapy the day before, at John’s insistence. Twice a week for the foreseeable future. The hope was that the sessions would unlock whatever secrets were hidden in her subconscious.

More than anything, though, she was tired of everyone looking at her like she was this fragile thing, waiting to shatter at the lightest touch.

She’d been home a little over a week now, and it was getting old. Amelia wasn’t one who did well with coddling.

Even her mother had become almost unbearable. Constantly calling and texting.

The only person she had the energy to deal with was Sherlock. He was careful not to overstep his boundaries, but also read her like a book when she was uncomfortable.

He’d insisted on accompanying her anywhere she wanted to go, including the shops when she decided to pick out a new winter coat.

It was nice.

Amelia had always enjoyed spending time with both John and Sherlock alone, but while John felt like an older brother, Sherlock gave her butterflies whenever he spoke.

Greg had been sweet enough to avoid calling him in unless absolutely necessary. And on the one occasion he did, Sherlock made sure Amelia was left with Molly at the hospital. Safe and secure while he and John went to the crime scene.

Otherwise, Sherlock was always at her side. But it wasn’t as smothering as anyone else. He didn’t nitpick and ask her how she was feeling or fetch her things because he pitied her. It was a natural presence, a little protective, but safe and warm.

Amelia had no problem falling back into old routines, sketching by the fire while Sherlock read and John worked through a crossword. It was what she needed.

Nighttime was the only thing that had changed drastically.

Ever since that first night in her room, Amelia and Sherlock had spent every night together, alternating between beds.

The first night in his room, Amelia had burrowed her face into his pillow, much to his amusement, trying to guess the elements of his cologne.

“I’ll never tell,” he teased when she listed a few common scents.

“I will figure it out,” she vowed.

And she did. He didn’t bother hiding the bottle and a quick google search revealed a blend of pine and light jasmine.

It certainly didn’t account for the smell of firewood, old books, and wool that seemed to be all his.

Neither of them had tried to name whatever this had turned into. There wasn’t “I love you’s” or kisses in the morning. They never had sex.

It felt like an entirely natural progression of things, granted, with the underlying context of kidnapping and memory loss. But Amelia didn’t mind. She was happy. Sherlock seemed happy. That was good enough for her.

She wasn’t so naive to assume that this would last forever, either.

They’d discussed it extensively, lying awake next to one another and dissecting potential plans that Moriarty had for the future and a grand reveal was the first idea they’d agreed upon.

It was coming. She didn’t know when or how, but it was.

Amelia just wanted to enjoy this little slice of joy that they had as long as she could. They could name things and have serious talks about the future, later on. For now, she was content in this vacation-like bliss.

~~~

“10... 9... 8...”

It was a small get together, Ruthie, Greg, Molly, and the residents of Baker Street, but it meant the world to Amelia.

John had pulled up a video of the New Year’s Eve celebrations, Mrs. Hudson had pulled out hats and noisemakers, and the plan was to count down until midnight.

“..2...1! Happy New Year!”

Laughing, kisses were peppered onto everyone’s cheeks. When Amelia passed Sherlock, he linked his finger with hers, giving her a small smile when she glanced curiously in his direction.

Turning around, she pecked a kiss on his cheek, tapping the tip of his nose with a finger, before returning to the others.

More than anything, Amelia wanted to grab him by the shoulders and kiss him like she meant it. But they hadn’t even discussed their unspoken thing or shared the first kiss at all.

So, she held her composure and sent him smiles whenever he looked in her direction.

Greg and Molly left after Mrs. Hudson announced that she needed sleep. Ruthie was offered Amelia’s bed, but the women stayed up in the flat with John, splitting a bottle of gin and laughing next to the fire.

“Christ, I needed this,” Ruthie leaned her head back, resting up against Amelia's legs hanging from the sofa.

“No kidding,” Amelia murmured, taking the bottle from John and taking a large swallow. Making a face and handed it to Ruthie. “Gin. Awful.”

“Gets better the longer you drink it,” John voiced, sprawled over his chair.

“Tastes like a liquid pine tree,” Amelia grumbled.

“I bet you like rum or whiskey,” Ruthie held up the bottle to John.

“Bloody Americans,” John rolled his eyes. “Terrible taste in everything.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Amelia fell back, throwing a pillow over her head for effect. “Deep-fried Oreos are the shit.”

“Deep-fried... Oreos?” Ruthie poked her in the leg, the gin bottle making a return. “I love Oreos.”

“They’re like, deep-fried in pancake batter,” Amelia explained, popping back up. “It makes them all gooey and amazing.”

“Holy shit,” Ruthie paused. “We need to make some.”

“Not in my kitchen,” Sherlock threw blankets around the room, snagging the gin from Ruthie and taking a sip for himself.

“Sher...lock,” Amelia slurred, putting emphasis on the final “k”. “There are eyeballs and a human tongue in the freezer.”

“We can make Oreos,” John held up a hand.

“Deep-fried Oreos,” Amelia clarified with a wavering finger. “A very important distinction.”

“You’ll burn the flat down, no,” Sherlock countered.

“Not right now,” Amelia laughed. “Silly Sherlock. We don’t have Oreos.”

“Which is a tragedy,” Ruthie complained, stealing back the gin and finishing what was left. She grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders like a cocoon, tackling Amelia onto the sofa. “I’m glad you’re not dead.”

“Me too,” Amelia snickered, pressing a sloppy kiss on her cousin's cheek.

“Ugh, gross, you slobbered on me,” Ruthie dropped back, wiping at her cheek in disgust.

“You got emotional, consequences,” Amelia gestured above her, hand swaying while she examined it in the air.

What Sherlock first noticed was the way Ruthie stiffened at the sight of the vicious scarring and scabbing on her cousin's wrist. The second thing he noticed was the way Amelia went quiet when her drunken focus fell on the injury.

John let out a snore and Sherlock jumped up.

“Bed,” he announced, earning a chorus of complaints from Amelia and Ruthie. “You’ve both had plenty to drink. Happy New Year, bedtime.”

“I’m not moving,” Ruthie announced, curling up on the sofa, making it as difficult as possible for Amelia to crawl over her.

“Enjoy John and his snoring,” Amelia stumbled over the edge of the rug and caught herself in the doorway between the living area and kitchen. “Mmmm goodnight!”

“Don’t be loud!” Ruthie called once Amelia and Sherlock rounded the corner to his bedroom.

Sherlock had to redirect Amelia a couple of times, helping her navigate the hallway without smashing her head or breaking anything. She dropped onto his bed with a long sigh.

“What?” he stood over her, brow quirked.

“I think you’re right,” she answered, eyes opening to look at him. “Your bed is the best.”

“I’m never wrong,” he answered, dropping next to her with a soft thud.

“So very humble,” she rolled toward him, amusement in her eyes. “You’re the humblest guy I know, Sherlock Holmes.”

He turned his head to better see her, his chest hammering once he realized how close her face was to his.

Was this the right time? They’d both had a bit to drink and he didn’t want to escalate things to an inappropriate level until they were sober and-

Amelia pressed her lips against his, her fingers threading their way through his curls.

He pulled her closer, hand cupping her cheek while he reciprocated in turn. It felt like everything the movies and books he’d read about said a kiss was supposed to be.

His brain felt like it’s erupted in fireworks, and the rest of his body-

“Oh,” he pulled away, clearing his throat. She leaned on her elbow, watching him try to adjust his pants.

“I didn’t mean to get you all fired up,” she smirked up at him. “I feel a little powerful right now.”

He turned to her, scowling at her words. Cruel. She was being mean and enjoying it.

If he half a mind- nope. Gentleman. He was a gentleman and he was going to change into his sleeping pants and go to sleep. He announced as much, stood up, and locked himself in the bathroom with a change of clothes until he pulled himself together.

He stared at his reflection, hands gripping the sides of the sink. Gentleman.

If things came to that, he’d make sure it was right.

Groaning, he threw his night clothes on and returned to the room.

Amelia was on her back, snoring loudly, having only managed to change into an oversized shirt.

Running a hand down his face, Sherlock pushed her aside and threw himself onto his side of the bed.

Amelia rolled onto him, arms snaking around his waist and her hips against his.

Gentleman.

~~~

“Mrs. Peacock, in the library with...” Amelia shuffled through her notes. “The rope!”

Sherlock lowered his hand and smirked.

“Nope,” he replied, popping the “p” and earning a fresh scowl from her.

“What do you mean, ‘nope’? You didn’t even open the packet,” she protested.

“I told you not to play him,” John mumbled, turning the page to his paper. “It never ends well.”

“It was Mrs. Peacock, and it was in the library,” he contended before flipping a card with his fingers. “But it wasn’t the rope.”

“But- you-,” Amelia scrambled through her notes and cards. “Impossible. Because then if you have the rope it had to have been the pistol.”

Sherlock handed her the envelope and with a litany of curses, sure enough, Mrs. Peacock, in the library, with the pistol.

“How did you...?” she stammered. “I didn’t... my cards...?”

“You touch the pieces you have at the beginning of the game,” he pointed out, lifting the tiny candlestick. “Unconsciously, of course, but you do. It’s an endearing tick, but sufficient to win.”

Amelia threw her cards into the game board, gaping at him in shock.

“I told you,” John sang, folding his newspaper. “You would have been better at Monopoly or Life.”

“I just...” Amelia shook her head, lifting the three cards from the envelope again. “I’ve never lost at this game before.”

“It is easier when it’s only two people,” Sherlock tried to offer but she shook her head.

“No. This is-,” she sat back into the sofa with a sigh. “I’m going to have to think about this. Restrategize.”

“It isn’t chess,” John chuckled.

“No, this is far more serious John,” she looked up at him firmly. “I’m going to beat him.”

“Good luck,” Sherlock mumbled and she whipped her head in his direction.

“I’m going to. And you’re going to eat humble pie, accepting that I, Amelia Ophelia Brenner, am better than you at something,” she announced, hopping to her feet.

“You’re better at painting than I am,” he suggested. “This is a game based on observation and deduction. You can’t win.”

“That’s why my victory will be all the sweeter,” she poked him in the chest with a grin. “Just you wait.”

“When shall I send out the wedding invitations?” John asked the pair. “I picked a lovely periwinkle card stock you’ll love.”

“I think a summer wedding would be nice,” Amelia paused. “Find a little church in the countryside. Wildflowers everywhere.”

“Allergies could be risky,” John replied. “Wouldn’t want to be sneezing on your wedding day.”

“Ah, but I assume you’ll be best man, so I would hope you’d be on hand wut Jaime antihistamines?”

“Of course,” John nodded solemnly. “Assuming Sherlock hasn’t taken them all first.”

“I would have accounted for allergies,” Sherlock piped up. “The insects would be my primary concern.”

“Bees,” Amelia pointed out in agreement. “I’m actually very allergic.”

“So we’re back to allergies,” John said.

“I know you’re allergic,” Sherlock looked at Amelia. “Which is why I renewed your epi-pen after it expired two months ago. I’ll make sure both John and myself have a backup.”

Amelia’s hand went to her chest, eyes wide, with a small “aww”.

“Clearly we’re going to have to bump the date up,” John snickered. “A nice spring wedding?”

“Rain,” both Amelia and Sherlock replied in unison.

“Also periwinkle is nice, but what about a yellow?” Amelia hummed in thought. “Or a tasteful navy with pastel pinks?”

“You just want to cover the tables in peonies,” Sherlock snorted, fishing for his phone after it chirped with a new message.

“Is that so wrong? They’re incredibly good luck for marriages,” she sighed dreamily.

Sherlock ignored the comment, reading over the short message from Mycroft a few times, just to be sure he understood it correctly.

Moriarty turned himself in.

And just like that, the fun was over.

He looked toward Amelia, who was giggling with John over fictional seating arrangements, wrapped-up in Sherlock’s robe.

This was the part he’d been dreading. The game was on, and Amelia was back on the board. This last week being so peaceful for them all. The last tease before things became messy.

Sherlock had no doubt that by the end of this Amelia would know full well what had happened, and that terrified him the most.

~~~

Now this is an open-shut case, guess I should have known from the look on your face. Every bait and switch was a work of art.

Chapter 20

#sherlock #sherlock holmes #sherlock bbc #sherlock original female character #sherlock/ofc #sherlock/oc #ofc #oc #reader #sherlock/reader #john watson #sherlock fanfiction #sherlock fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #writing #sherlock writing

0 notes

inhumansforever · 8 years ago

Photo

Secret Warriors #5 Review

spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers

Things take a wild turn of events as the battle turns, Attilan is reclaimed and a completely unexpected secret is revealed in the latest installment of the Secret Warriors; from the creative team of Mathew Rosenberg, Javier Garrón and Israel Silva. Full recap and review following the jump.

Last issue ended in seeming tragedy as the Hydra Hellicarrier crashed and it appeared as though Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur had perished. The Warrior sift through the wreckage, hoping to find Lunella, although Daisy rather grimly states that they are more likely just looking for her body. The circular firing squad of blame quickly ensues as Ms. Marvel blames Daisy for leaving Moon Girl behind and Daisy blames them all for failing to realizing that this is war and war is never without its casualties.

The griping is interrupted when Karnak discovers that Devil Dinosaur has survived the crash. Devil D had been placed in a vibranium cage which absorbed the brunt of the impact. Once released, Devil Dino tries to communicate something to them. Moon Girl’s Inhuman powers enables her to switch consciousnesses with Devil Dinosaur and it quickly becomes apparent that Lunella is now inhabiting Devil D’s body. She must have survived and her body, now possessing Devil Dino’s consciousness is elsewhere. Using the dinosaur’s clawed hand, Lunella traces into the dirt the outline of the capitol building of New Attilan. Ms. Marvel recognizes the structure and they correctly surmise that Lunella has somehow been taken back to Hydra-occupied New York.

A rescue operation is launched. The team heads back east aboard a stolen tracker trailer; which offers Daisy and Inferno more time to flirt with one another as well as time for Karnak to creep Ms. Marvel out with his cold, pragmatic demeanor.

I’m still behind on the main Secret Empire book, but it appears that the Darkforce Energy dome that had sealed off Manhattan has been dissipated. The Warriors make it to the city and steal a ferryboat to go across the Hudson and sneak into New Attilan. The Inhuman city has been transformed into a large prison camp where the various Inhumans have been interred by Hydra. Having infiltrated the city, the team finally discovers Lunella, who is indeed unharmed and, though imprisoned, appears to be just fine playing Connect Four with the mysterious Inhuman child known as Leer.

Here things take a turn that I in no way so coming. It’s revealed that Leer is Karnak’s son.

I’ll let that one sink in for a moment…

Okay. So, right… Leer is Karnak’s son and an Inhuman who was never exposed to the Terrigen Cloud, thus leaving his powers dormant. And yet, whatever experiments the Dark Beast had conducted on him has now enabled him to use his powers. These powers entail the ability to temporarily augment the Inhuman powers of anyone around him… but he can only do it once. How he knows this, who his mom is, and all of the other six dozen questions I have are left unrevealed.

The more pressing matter is that The Warriors now have a choice to make. They can utilize Leer’s power-boosting abilities now to free the city of New Attilan and save all the Inhumans incarcerated therein or wait and use the child’s power boosting for a final assault on Hydra’s leadership. Daisy is in favor of the latter, but the rest of the team opt to save the city. Perhaps augmenting her powers would enable Daisy to defeat Captain America and cut off the head of the snake of Hydra, yet the much more immediate need is all of the innocent Inhumans imprisoned on New Attilan; and Ms. Marvel and the others are unwilling to just leave them behind.

Karnak asks Moon Girl what they should do and Lunella responds ‘if they can help people now then they should.’ Karnak agrees and instructs his son to use his powers. A blinding light emits from Leer and each of the Warriors are imbued with a substantial boost to their powers.

A tremendous battle ensues as the Warriors free the Inhumans and they wage war on their Hydra captors. At first the Inhumans do not fair well against the heavily armed forces of Hydra, but the tide of the battle turns when members of The Avengers arrive to assist.

In the midst of the fight, Daisy seeks out her father, Mr. Hyde, and finds him attempting to flee. Just as she finds him, however, her augmented powers wane and Hyde is able to knock her out and escape with Daisy as his prisoner.

The forces of Hydra on New Attilan have been defeated and The Warriors race after their teammate. Whilst aboard Hyde’s aircraft, Daisy’s father proposes that they put their differences aside and team up. Hyde suggests that his daughter has always been a mercenary, whether working for Fury or for Shield. Why not team up with him? Together they can take down captain America and make a fortune hunting down the remnants of Hydra once the country’s former government is restored.

For a moment it appears as though Daisy is actually considering her father’s proposal, especially when he revealed that her close friend, Phil Coulson has been murdered and he can give her the opportunity to avenge his death.

The Warriors catch up with Hyde’s fleeing craft and Inferno takes it down with a precision hit. Surrounded, Hyde proclaims that his daughter had come with him willingly and that together they will take on Hydra. Yet Daisy reveals that her seeming openness to her father’s plan was merely a ploy to grant her time for her teammates to rescue her.

Mr. Hyde attacks his caught but Karnak intercedes, delivering bevy of flaw-finding Kung Fu chops that leaves Hyde completely paralyzed.

With the battle over, The Warriors are finally offered the time to take in all that has happened. Karnak had clearly lied to Daisy, tricking her into assisting him in getting back his son. Furthermore, it is revealed that Karnak had willingly offered his son to evil forces in the hopes that it would result in his gaining his powers. It’s all essentially the last straw. Whatever thin sense of purpose there was that kept this ragtag team together has fallen apart.

Utterly disillusioned by Karnak’s terrible parenting and Daisy’s cold-blooded leadership, Ms. Marvel proclaims that she is done and walks away. Inferno follows taking Leer with him and offering to bring him to some people he can stay with. Moon Girl goes with them. Leaving Daisy and Karnak behind to glare at each other with utter contempt. It appears that The Secret Warriors are finished…

The issue ends with a post script showing a scene that occurred prior to Hydra’s take over. Karnak and his son stand in front of The Tower of Wisdom. Karnak explains to Leer that dangerous sacrifices must be made to help him in attain his Inhuman actualization.

Leer is reluctant and afraid, but ultimately chooses to obey his father. A mysterious figure appears to take the child away. The last page reveals this stranger to be the X-Men foe, Mr. Sinister. Sinister, an expert on the manipulation of genes, promises to facilitate Leer’s transformation in exchange for the opportunity to further examine the Inhuman genome. And Karnak agrees because handing your children over to super villains seems to be something of a tradition among the Royal Family.

And it is here that the issue ends and whatever circumstances that might bring The Secret Warriors back together is left a mystery that we’ll have to wait until next month to discover.

Whoa. A lot to unpack in this issue. First off the art continues to be exceptional and this run has constituted Javier Garrón’s best work to date. He and colorist Israel Silva work very well together and the dynamic pallet Silva employs brings a vibrant pop to Garrón’s illustration.

The plot kind of falls apart, yet that seems to be on purpose. The mission that brought the Warriors together was built upon Karnak’s subterfuge and now that Leer has been rescued there really is no longer a specific reason for these heroes to remain together as a team. And creating a new and believable reason for the team to come back together in the next issue is going to be quite a challenge.

Mathew Rosenberg’s knack for writing excellent and believable dialogue more than compensates for the looseness of the plot. Much of the tale thus far has been an intricate character study of Daisy, with the other characters acting as foils in her process of trying to retain a sense of meaning and purpose now that her whole world has fallen apart.

Of course what was most striking about the issue was the revelation that Karnak has a son. Who is this kid? Who is his mother? Why haven’t we heard of him before? And what sort of madman hands his kid over to the diabolical Mr. Sinister? So many questions and so few answers.

Still, if a central part of a good comic book is leaving the reader anxious and eager to read the next installment, then this issue has succeeded in spades. I have no idea what is going to happen next, but am very excited to find out!

Definitely recommended. Four out of Five Lockjaws.

#Inhumans #Secret Warriors #spoilers #Mathew Rosenberg #Javier Garrón #Israel Silva #review

6 notes · View notes

twerkstallion · 8 years ago

Text

Cars Fandom Tag Meme

Tagged by @a113cowgirl THANK YOU!!

Created by @pixelthenerdcat

“Just because I love doing these tagging memes :)

For the Cars films, what is your…”

Favorite male character: LIGHTNING MCQUEEN! He is so fucken funny

Favorite female character: wow there aren't enough so Sally!! (But I have a feeling Ima love Cruz)

Least favorite male character: prof z. What a fucken creep. Why does he have car hair. What-

Least favorite female character: minny, or the french lady with tit eyes

Favorite scene: the opening scene of Cars changed my entire life. Every single thing Lightning does is iconic to the max

I mean: you're in a movie theatre. It's dark. The Pixar lamp turns off. The screen is dark. It's silent. Suddenly, you hear Owen Wilson breathing and talking to himself about eating breakfast. The screen lights up a few times from the blackness, but it's just flashes of speeding racecars with roaring engines in the thrill of a race. You and the other 40 occupants of the theatre sit stone still, bewildered. What the fuck is this memefuckery, Pixar, what the f-

Favorite actor and their role: uhhhhh wtf they're all so awesome????? They all put so much into their characters and you can just TELL and wow.

Favorite Cars videogame (yes this includes mobile games like Fast as Lightning): the original Cars on the 360. All of the dialogue and paintjobs and stories and subplots and races and jokes had me LIVING. ESPECIALLY THE SOUNDTRACK HOLY FUCK!! AND LIGHTNING!! FALLING ASLEEP! IN THE MIDDLE OF GAMEPLAY! I N C R E D I B L E

OTP: uhhhhhhhhhhh I'm not super shippy with cars honestly?? Because they're... cars....

I love salqueen tho

BROTP or Platonic OTP: Lightning being friends with people without realizing it, like Mack and Strip tho...

NOTP: I'm not here to bash ships... excEPT THAT ONE SHIP I WONT MENTION!!

Why do you like the films: why do I-

Why do I like caRS!??!?????!!!

WHY??!???

I WISH I FUCKEN KNEW BUDDY!! YOU TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!! Cars is corny as fuck!!! It's garbage basically!! But somehow I just... SAW Lightning McQueen and my brain just.... locked on!! Like, "HERE WE GO, tHE ONLY THING YOU’LL EVER GET THIS EXCITED ABOUT IN YOUR E N T I R E LIFE, THIS IS THE THING, FOREVER.!" And now I'm stuck like this!!! It doesn't make sense!!! I literally have NO explanation!!!! I wish I did!!!!!!

What are you hoping to see the most in Cars 3:

-THE SOUND PRODUCTION. I WANT THE ENGINE SOUNDS TO FLATTEN ME IN MY MOVIE THEATRE SEAT

-the realistic, good dinosaur-esque rendering

-chick!

-salqueen smooches!!!

-DESERT RACING

-SNOW RACING

-Lightning McQueen yelling noises

-Lightning driving under a WAVE at the beach with the sun shining thru the water

-the new settings!!

-I could go on but uhhh the movie still might suck

“Okay, now for some fandom related questions:”

Favorite part of the fandom: the memes, the Freakouts™, the keyboard smashing, the art, the fic, the Reactions™, the fanon, the in-jokes, when people find a post that says "woah there's a cars fandom???" And the entire tumblr cars fandom replies "hi", the edits, the MVs, the spoof videos, the creative humanizations, the shitposts, the Actual Car Nerds, the FEELS TRAINS, the speculation, the quotes blog haha, the art styles, the rare gifset, ok this is a lot,

Favorite Cars fanartist: @edgyroses, @hillbillyhell, @paralleldragons, @kiwi-likes-cars, @radiationstinks, @flatter-pencil, @invalidincorrect, there are more i swear...

Favorite Cars fanfic: these aren't tulips, Fillmore' freak juice, stormy weather, the jaguar syndrome series, Doc Hudson autobiography, stuff from @a113cowgirl, @radiatonstinks, @pixelthenerdcat ... I feel like a lot of my classic faves got deleted or didn't age well with me so that's it basically

What you enjoy putting out in the fandom (this could be anything, including rambly text posts): I love when I make a killer shitpost and the entire fandom just breaks down around it. (eg. “Get your Chicks”, “Lightning doesn’t have tits”, “car condoms”) Edits and fanart are fun too. And this is the only fandom I've written fic for. (And if I had the means to do video, you bet your ass I'd churn out memes and edits like no tomorrow.) Oh, and META!!

Do you think the fandom will survive after the release of Cars 3? (I know, evil question, but still >:D: uhhhhhh ok at first I thought NO WAY, but then... the Cars fandom was bangin' for YEEAAARSS after 2006, so if Cars 3 is good, the kids will go nuts and we will stay for a little while longer....

What made you become part of the fandom?: um well definitely FF.net. The original Cars trailer switched a GIANT fanfiction switch on in my head. It was instant, a lightbulb, a revelation. I was eight years old and suddenly pacing around, feverent and brimming with ideas and predictions for hours and hours and hours. I didn't even know what fanfic was despite writing so much of it in my head until... I found FF. Then I saw that OTHER people did the SAME thing, and I went nuts. I remember I read all 403 cars postings and I'd check daily for updates on any of them. (I ended up reading some untagged smut at a young age because of this though, and it fucked me up pretty bad honestly. Suddenly there was sex in a k+ rated story. Major yikes) But yeah I hopped on FF and DA and followed the content. I never actually talked to anyone in the fandom (thank god) until now, here on Tumblr. The tumblr cars fandom is a fucking INCREDIBLE niche here on the vast internet, I'm so glad I've been a part of this. Thank you for bonding together ya fucken nerds. I love you.

#I USED THE MAIN SITE TO MAKE THIS HUGE POST YOURE WELCOME #long post #cars fandom

28 notes · View notes

bellaxgiornata · 2 years ago

Text

Falling For the Devil [Part forty-four: "The Christmas Eve Party"]

Pairing: Matt Murdock x Fem!Reader

Summary: Matt joins you for your family's Christmas Eve Party.

You're warmed by the sight of how well Matt fits into your family-–especially with your siblings and nephew.

[Series of one-shots about Reader meeting, falling for, and dating Matt Murdock.]

Warnings: 18+ for this series; contains humor, fluff, romance, angst, smut (like...a lot of it later in the series), language, some violence

Word Count: 2.9k

a/n: Some holiday fluff with Matt and Reader! You can find all of the installments for this series on tumblr here. Enjoy!

A chorus of high pitched, excited squeals erupted from across the room, the noise so loud it masked the sound of conversation and Christmas music that had been present only moments ago. Beside you, Matt winced.

"It's Santa!" one of your cousin's little girls exclaimed, pressing her face to the window.

You leaned over towards Matt, wrapping an arm around his back. "The shrieking will stop soon," you whispered. "Sorry. They get really excited every year when my Uncle Jeff is out front pretending to be Santa."

Another round of excited noises erupted–laughter and giggling from the handful of young girls at the window. Even Hudson, still dressed as a dinosaur, was excitedly watching your uncle outside in the foot of snow.

"It's okay," Matt whispered back. "It's sweet, I just wasn't expecting such a…high frequency."

You laughed lightly, shaking your head. "Yes, well, that sort of comes with having a house filled with young, excited girls. Poor Hudson is outnumbered, though I think he's too young to care yet."

"He will care when he's older," your brother Nate said, appearing on the other side of Matt. "I know I wished I'd had a brother growing up. Being the middle child with two sisters sucked."

You leaned past Matt, raising a brow at him. "Really? Because you and Amber tormented me," you pointed out.

Nate laughed, nodding his head. One of his arms nudged Matt’s as he leaned in towards him. "We definitely did. You know, there was this one time," he began, shooting you a teasing smile, "where we convinced her to jump into this pile of leaves we made.”

You rolled your eyes, immediately knowing where this story was going. Matt, intrigued, turned towards your brother as he listened intently.

“She had no idea we’d been slowly digging a hole in the same spot for a week,” Nate continued excitedly, spurred on by the growing smile on Matt’s face. “So eventually Amber and I got it like two feet deep, right? And we raked up a pile of leaves one day to have your girl jump in–”

“Oh, Nate,” your mother said, pausing mid-stride as she overheard the story your brother was telling, “must you tell Matthew about how you tormented your sister as children?”

“Must you continue to break out that sweater for every Christmas Eve?” he countered.

Georgia glanced down at the front of her sweater, eyeing the gold tinsel and pom poms attached to it. In large, glittery print it said ‘On The Nice List’. You’d seen her wear it every Christmas Eve for the past few years. It was quite obnoxious and at least one of you managed to point it out to her every year.

“What’s wrong with my sweater?” she questioned him. “It’s festive.”

“It’s so bright and loud they can see it from the International Space Station,” Nate teased her.

Georgia narrowed her eyes at Nate, but you noticed the upward twitch of her lips. “Well it’s certainly a lot more appropriate than yours. Honestly, Nate, there’s children here.”

“I feel like I’m missing something here,” Matt murmured beside you.

You leaned in, whispering, “He's wearing a sweater with Santa on it talking about ho’s.”

Matt nodded knowingly, a smile spreading on his mouth. “Ahh, I understand. Your brother is certainly interesting.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” you agreed quietly.

Georgia rolled her eyes at your brother as she continued on her way, no doubt looking for your father. Nate turned back towards the pair of you, that mischievous glint still in his eyes.

“So, as I was saying,” he continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted, “we convinced her to jump into the pile of leaves. And so she does–” he paused, cracking up, “–and totally falls into the hole.”

“Yeah, and I sprained my ankle,” you shot back, Matt grinning as he silently listened to your sibling banter. “I had to use crutches for a week because of you two!”

Nate cupped a hand over his mouth, leaning towards Matt. “Don’t feel sorry for her. She threw our toothbrushes in the toilet,” he whispered.

Matt laughed, shooting you a smile. “Somehow I find myself wishing I could have experienced growing up with a sibling. Though I’m pretty sure I’d have been the one doing the tormenting,” he said.

“And somehow I believe that,” you teased him.

You felt something wrapping around your shoulders and your head turned, spotting your sister standing beside you with a beer in hand. Her attention was on Matt, a large smile on her face.

“You know,” Amber said, “if you play your cards right Murdock, you might gain a couple of siblings. And then you could join us in tormenting our sweet sister.”

You didn’t miss the warm smile that lit up Matt’s face at your sister’s words. There was an anxious, excited feeling that squirmed in your own stomach at the implication and the fact that her and Nate had so willingly accepted Matt into your tight-knit bond. Between Thanksgiving and their time with Matt this evening, you could see how well they all got along and it filled you with so much joy watching Matt joke back and forth with your siblings.

“I suppose only time will tell, but,” Matt told your sister, a cheeky grin on his mouth, “I’m pretty sure I’d be siding with her in the pranks, not playing them on her.”

You felt your cheeks flush at Matt’s words, Amber shooting you a curious brow. On Matt’s other side, Nate was smiling devilishly.

“That sounds like a challenge, Matt,” Nate teased. “I’m pretty sure we’re the ones you want on your team for pranks, not baby sis here. She’s not creative enough.”

“You mean I’m not as much of a dick,” you corrected, both of your siblings laughing.

“Ahh well, that may be true,” Matt acknowledged, “but I’m pretty sure I’m someone you’d want on your side when it comes to pranks.”

He shot your siblings an absolutely devastatingly handsome smile and you were instantly biting your lip, fighting back a laugh. Because what they didn’t know was that this man was a literal superhero ninja.

Before either could respond, Hudson appeared beside Amber’s side, wrapping his arms around her leg and hugging it. His appearance caught everyone's attention almost immediately.

“Mama, can I play with Uncle Matt?” he asked, his voice small and his eyes wide.

“Huds,” Amber said with a sigh, “we’ve been over this. You can’t keep calling him Uncle Matt, okay?”

“I don’t really mind,” Matt admitted.

You didn’t miss the way Nate’s head tilted curiously to the side at Matt’s admission, or the sly grin that swept across his mouth. Quickly you mouthed ‘shut up’ to him, hoping Matt didn’t quite notice. From beside Amber, Hudson shifted his big, pleading eyes towards Matt. Even blind you were sure Matt could feel the effect of those adorable little puppy eyes.

“Uncle Matt,” he continued, causing Amber to shake her head and roll her eyes, “can I show you my new dinosaurs?”

“Huds, I don’t think Matt wants to look at your dinosaur toys right now,” Amber tried to tell him gently. “Why don’t you show the girls your dinosaurs?”

Hudson pouted, his lower lip pushing out as his gaze dropped to the ground. You were pretty sure the dinosaur costume he was wearing was adding to the effect, and Matt was fortunate not to be able to fully witness the pouting of a three year old dinosaur.

“They said dinosaurs are dumb,” Hudson muttered.

Instantly your eyes narrowed; you were quite protective over Hudson. He was often shy and only opened up to a few people and it took him a while to open up to other kids. And while you loved the other children in your family, you quite easily favored him. And you weren’t a fan of him getting his feelings hurt. But before you could get a word out as you opened your mouth, Matt was already speaking.

“You know,” he began, “I think dinosaurs are pretty cool. My best friend actually has quite a few on his desk at work.”

“Really?” Hudson asked, a smile returning to his face.

“Really,” Matt agreed. “I’m quite jealous of his collection actually.”

“Do you want to see mine?” he asked excitedly. “I got new ones to show you!”

Matt grinned, holding out a hand in Hudson’s direction. “I’d love to see them. Why don’t you show me where they are?” he asked.

The moment Hudson’s little hand grabbed Matt’s, you were pretty sure you died inside. Even Amber was smiling as she watched Hudson drag Matt along in an excited rush. When they disappeared, both of your siblings were shooting you matching knowing looks that caused you to flush.

“I should probably make sure he doesn’t run Matt into anyone,” you mumbled, ducking away from the pair of them.

You weaved your way past family, heading towards where you'd seen Hudson playing earlier in your parents' house. You finally caught up to Matt and Hudson sitting on the floor in the front sitting room. You smiled as you passed your grandmother who was chatting with a couple of your aunts on the couches, and you swore you heard your grandma once again saying something about how charming Matt was as you passed.

As you neared where Hudson and Matt were sitting cross legged on the floor, you saw Hudson dumping dinosaurs out of his dinosaur backpack. And then you overheard what they were saying and immediately came to a stop just behind the pair of them.

“...she looks real pretty tonight,” Hudson was telling Matt.

“I bet she does,” Matt replied, a smile apparent in his voice. “Can you describe her for me, though? Since I can't quite see how she looks tonight?”

Both of their backs were to you, but you knew Matt was aware of you standing there. A blush was creeping up your cheeks, a small smile on your face.

“She’s in a red sweater,” Hudson said, organizing his pile of dinosaurs. “And her hair looks nice. Really shiny. And she put on pretty makeup. And she’s always got a pretty smile.” He leaned in towards Matt, his little dinosaur hood still pulled up over his head as he failed at attempting to whisper, “She’s my favorite aunt.”

There was a charming grin on Matt’s face as he turned, leaning in towards Hudson and whispering intentionally loud enough for you to hear, “She’s my favorite, too.”

You bit your lip, walking around the pair of them and sitting down around the pile of dinosaurs. “And what are you two up to?” you asked, cheeks still red.

“Just discussing dinosaurs,” Matt said innocently, shooting you a charming smile as he held up a stegosaurus.

_________

Your eyes were focused on Matt chatting animatedly with your father across the room, beers in hand. There was a smile plastered on your face as you watched them laughing good-naturedly with each other, clearly cracking jokes. Matt looked like he was genuinely enjoying the conversation and it made your heart swell in your chest at the sight.

"So what exactly is going on with you and him?" Amber asked, following your gaze.

"What do you mean?" you asked, glancing at her beside you.

She sighed audibly, rolling her eyes. "You know damn well what I mean," she shot back. "You've brought him to the family holidays now. Everyone loves him. He's also amazing with the kids, especially Huds." She gestured her beer at your dad and Matt still talking. "Dad loves him. Mom's already married you off in her mind. So," she asked again, "what exactly is going on?"

You shrugged lightly, glancing back at Matt across the room. His dark glasses were focused on you now and you could feel your heart speeding up under his covered gaze. You knew he was listening in to this conversation when he shot you a playful smirk. And that made you nervous.

"He asked me to move in with him," you told her, eyes darting away from Matt.

"Wow," Amber said, her brows shooting up onto her forehead. "And what'd you say? You've never lived with a boyfriend before."

Your eyes dropped down to the wine glass in your hands, swirling the liquid. "I said yes," you told her. "We're taking it slow, though. My lease isn't up for another couple of months so it's more like I'm gradually moving in with him."

Amber shifted beside you, turning to face you more fully. "So it's serious then?" she asked. "I mean it must be if you're moving in together and having him meet the family."

You couldn't quite tell her about his late night activities and how that may or may not affect the idea of marriage and children. So instead you answered, "I think so."

For a long moment your sister was silent, her gaze focusing back on Matt and your father still talking across the room. She brought her beer to her lips, taking a drink before she finally looked back at you.

"You love him," she said.

You nodded, smiling. "Yes," you admitted.

Her attention returned to Matt. “And it’s obvious the man loves you,” Amber continued. “That man may be blind but it’s like he always knows exactly where you are in a room.”

You fought down a laugh, biting your lip. You couldn’t quite tell her that he actually did know where you were in a room, either. “So what’s your big sister opinion?” you asked her, changing the subject.

“I like him,” she answered easily, bringing the beer back up to her lips for another drink. “He’s funny and he’s certainly charming–which I’d already heard plenty about the charming Matthew Murdock before I knew he was dating my little sister.” She shot you a wink and a sly smirk that soon turned into something more genuine a moment later. “But he makes you happy. I’ve never seen you be so…yourself around someone before. He’s sweet and I think he fits in well with us.” She leaned towards you with a grin as she whispered, “And if you don’t lock that down, I’m pretty sure grandma might be chasing after your man.”

A laugh flew out of you, Amber joining in a moment later. Your grandma did seem quite taken with Matt. Though he was fortunate your aunts and uncles were distracting her this evening; she’d only complimented him six times so far tonight. And Matt was still blushing when she did.

When you glanced back over to Matt, you noticed your mother had joined the conversation with the two. You groaned, pushing off the wall you’d been leaning against.

“Mom’s over there now,” you told Amber. “I should probably go rescue Matt before she starts asking if twins run in his genetics.”

“For your sake I hope it doesn’t,” Amber teased.

You rolled your eyes before making your way across the room, skirting around different groups of family gathered together chatting or kids playing. As you neared your parents talking with Matt, overhearing what they were talking about, you were glad you’d shown up when you had.

“Let’s maybe give the man a rest from discussing babies tonight, hmm?” your father was saying to your mother.

“Yeah mom,” you said, a smile on your face as you stood beside Matt, “I think you discussed that topic plenty at Thanksgiving.”

“I was just saying,” Georgia replied, waving a hand at Matt, “that he would have some great genes to pass on.”

You cringed, looping your arm through Matt’s. “And I think we’re going to pass on that topic. Let’s go get you another beer, Matt.”

Your mother rolled her eyes at you as you dragged Matt away. He followed beside you easily as you led him towards the kitchen, but when you were far enough from your parents you felt Matt lean towards you.

“So I hear you’re serious about me,” Matt teased, whispering into your ear.

“And I see you still eavesdrop on conversations,” you teased back. “Which is not really fair, considering I can’t eavesdrop on what you and my dad seemed to be having such a good time talking about.”

Shooting Matt a look beside you, you noticed he was grinning and chuckling lightly. Your eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"No I suppose you couldn't," he agreed. "But don't worry, sweetheart," he said, bumping your shoulder gently, "we had a good conversation. I like your dad."

"Well I'm pretty sure everyone likes you," you assured Matt as you continued to lead him to the kitchen.

"And apparently if you don't make a move on me," Matt teased, "your grandma is going to."

You couldn't stop the snort of laughter that came out of you at his joke. Matt shot you a goofy grin at the sound, his eyes crinkling at the corners behind his glasses.

"Keep it up and I might let her," you joked back.

Matt barked out a laugh as you both entered the kitchen, the sound bright and vibrant. You chanced a look at Matt beside you, your heart warming at the sight. He looked happy tonight, genuinely happy, and that filled you with so much happiness yourself that your heart felt like it could burst out of your chest.

#matt murdock x reader #matt murdock x you #matt murdock x fem reader #matt murdock series #matt murdock fic #matt murdock fanfic #daredevil x female reader #daredevil x reader #matt murdock x fem!reader #matt murdock #fftd

146 notes · View notes

scholarwarriorfather · 8 years ago

Text

RPING AS GOHAN POST

So like I promised I’d say this as well and basically to get to the bottom of that we have to go back to my Fallout 3 muse. John Hudson, a Lone Wanderer blog I made cause damn I love Fallout.

Rest is under a readmore this is also long

Somewhere down the line I decided I’d try something, and basically ended up doing a crossover with a bunch of dbz blogs, some of you are still around C:

It was fun honestly playing as this normal human who yes is very strong and powerful, in his own world. But bring him into the DBZ side of things and even people like Yamcha can probably beat him up tbh. Unless he gets the drop and a laser rifle can actually kill someone in this universe. I guess it depends on if the laser rifle is as strong as like that beam gun that Frieza mook used. He had a name but I can’t remember.

More importantly though he’s also in a world that never suffered like his, his world has basically nothing green left and tbh? You could consider it a dead world. Meanwhile the Earth in DBZ is very alive, very very alive. It even has fucking dinosaurs so there’s that. Mass Effect was another neat crossover for the possibilities cause Earth is doomed in there too. But MOVING ON

I can’t remember when but somewhere down the line I totally read Dragonball Multiverse and also wanted to do a DBZ blog. My first idea was an oc from the DBM. I wanted to make an Earthling from that one Universe 9, cause I really loved the idea behind it. It was the one with the really strong Earthlings and like Videl had a Z-Sword and all that. I had nice little thing going that he was the youngest and so definitely not the strongest there, but had been training and all that. Basically he saw the Z-Warriors or whatever the hell they call themselves as like... idols? They were so strong and saved the world so many times he wanted to be just like them. He also had a crush on Videl cause damn she tough. ANYWAY somewhere down the line I decided, maybe I could do 3 blogs I don’t know. So yeah, Gohan happened. Well next I had to decide on a main verse and there was at that time a LOT of pre-teen Gohans and so I wanted to do something more rare cause it could be fun! So I chose Gohan from Super. Most of my first icons are all from like RoF since he pops up in it so much and DAMN is it nice looking. It was just a test and very quickly I found out I REALLY REALLY love rping as Gohan and the oc got abandoned. Sometime later I also added the high school verse cause I needed icons for that Danganronpa crossover.

I just remembered yeah I had two choices I was thinking of either doing an OC or Gohan and I wasn’t sure which cause I was VERY nervous about doing a good job with Gohan, like I’m not even kidding on how nervous I was since he is a canon character and I can’t help it I want to make sure I do justice. The Gohan thing I’m 90% certain started out as a test and uh let’s just say it turned into what you see now. But back onto this history lesson.

Somewhere down the line a certain Videl popped up, and heey our first thread and it ended up being in the high school/buu verse and is a training thread that’s still going now. Well now I started getting questions aimed at that verse and so I gathered more and more icons for it. I also of course got the asks for Super related stuff and so I kinda had a split between stuff for Super and stuff for Buu saga.

Oh and then comes the Great Saiyaman threads and I gathered tons of stuff for it, this is where that one moment with a Jaco pops up where they get into a posing competition and aaah such a good memory! Around this time was lots of dash silliness tbh.

But yeah I did a lot of Buu saga stuff with Gohan, especially pre-Buu.

OH and somewhere down this line I also did a thing with kid Gohan and when I say kid Gohan were talking like before he even fights Nappa and all that cause he was such a little cutie. I haven’t done it in forever, that verse, but it was fun.

Once again you can blame ferocitus, heartyrice aind winny for this. Those nerds are part of who definitely convinced me to go through with this B)

ALL THE LOVE TO YOU THREE OKAY <3333

I’m also throwing love at chiaki-mun littlegxmergirl who i know disappeared or well the blog I mean, but yes cute af ship but also for opening my eyes to an awesome setting in DR. The crossover (although I’ve been lazy ;-;) has been amazing. <33

ALSO YOU vIDEL YOU KNOW HWO YOU ARE stxbbornwarrior I grabbed so many icons in part due to our threads I’m sure and it definitely jumpstarted my high school verse stuff <3

Adding to this also sweetgokuroll and genkixdama as well as chichisboobs and oxdriven like you guys were/are great okay. I loved the interactions when I first started out <33 :)

Literally have been droppin urls so i might as well continue hahaha but aah I’m drawin blanks im sleepy er... god i cant think of anyone else and this is already long af I hope this all covers it :)

#ooc #and now I'm at 620 something followers #and I've had this blog for almost half a year maybe #this has honestly been my most active blog as well as with the highest follower count #it's interesting to say the least #this whole journey has been outstanding

3 notes · View notes

popculturenet · 6 years ago

Text

-Expanded partnership features four new building sets revealed for the first time at New York Toy Fair, based on an original, animated mini-series coming later this year-

NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL TOY FAIR — Universal Brand Development (Universal) and the LEGO Group today announced an exciting expansion to the popular LEGO® Jurassic World portfolio of toys and content: a new building sets assortment inspired by an all-new, animated mini-series – LEGO Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar. Following the adventures of Claire, Owen and fan-favorite dinosaurs seen in the 2018 animated specials, LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit, this new mini-series runs 13 episodes and will debut later this year.

Set in 2012, three years before the events of the Jurassic World movie, LEGO Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar picks up where the story left off from LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit. Newly hired animal behaviorist Owen Gradyand Assistant Manager of Park Operations Claire Dearing team up on Isla Nublar to deal with everything the Jurassic World park throws their way. And “everything” includes runaway dinosaurs, ongoing construction to expand the park, tourists everywhere, unpredictable tropical weather, and an impulsive boss! Plus, a mysterious saboteur with surprising ties to the park’s past is on a quest to find a legendary treasure and destroy Jurassic World forever! What could possibly go wrong? Everything.

“The box office and retail success of 2018 proved Jurassic World is the definitive dinosaur brand,” said Vince Klaseus, president of Universal Brand Development. “This year we’re focused on continuing to expand the Jurassic World story through always-on content and new experiences for fans of all ages. Our partnership with the LEGO Group allows us to do just that and more.”

Building on the success of the 2018 LEGO Jurassic World offering, the LEGO Group will globally launch four building sets that take the storytelling and role play opportunity beyond the blockbuster film year, giving fans the chance to bring new adventures, characters and dinosaurs home for even more play. The sets will hit shelves this fall, and are displayed in the LEGO booth #1335 in Hall 3B of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center from February 16-19.

“Jurassic World is one of those properties that just works so well in LEGO form,” said Jill Wilfert, vice president, licensing & entertainment for LEGO Group. “The theme and stories appeal to kids and adults at the same time, and with this content, we offer a fun and unique twist by adding LEGO creativity and humor to an evergreen property. We’re thrilled to expand our successful partnership with Universal to introduce more original LEGO Jurassic World stories that will inspire imaginations and continued play.”

Revealed for the first time today, four building sets based on LEGO Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar include:

75934 – Dilophosaurus on the Loose Explore LEGO Jurassic World with Owen Grady and build his drone to look after the dinosaurs. Meet Hudson Harper, a kid who knows everything there is to know about dinosaurs. And build the market stall in the shape of a dinosaur head with LEGO bricks. But look out—a young Dilophosaurus has escaped and is creeping up behind Hudson. Fly to the rescue with Owen’s drone, fire the net shooter and capture that dinosaur. Every day is an adventure with this action-packed LEGO playset! Ages 6+, 168 pieces, $19.99 (USD)

75935 Baryonyx Face-Off: The Treasure Hunt Rush to stop Danny Nedermeyer and Sinjin Prescott’s dangerous treasure hunt in LEGO Jurassic World! According to legend, there is treasure hidden on Isla Nublar and Danny and Sinjin have a map and old videotape to help them find it. But when a Baryonyx dinosaur thinks they are trying to steal her fish, they have to hide out in an old trailer. Help Owen Grady and Claire Dearing fix up the off-road buggy. Then drive with them and Red the dog to catch the bad guys before they steal the treasure!Ages 7+, 434 pieces, $59.99 (USD)

75937 - Triceratops RampageTake a ride on the awesome new LEGO Jurassic World Egg Spinner with Simon Masrani and Allison Miles. But, watch out—there’s been a power failure and the mighty Triceratops has smashed through the fence and escaped! Jump in the buggy with Owen Grady and speed to the rescue. Dangle a carrot in front of the mighty dinosaur to distract it and save the tourist. There’s never a dull day in Jurassic World park!Ages 7+, 447 pieces, $59.99 (USD)

75938 – T. rex vs Dino-Mech Battle Danger! Danny Nedermeyer is roaming Jurassic World park in his huge Dino-Mech on a mission to steal the treasure hidden in the Isla Nublar volcano. But first he has to face the mighty T. rex. Jump in the boat with Owen Grady, Claire Dearing, Vic Hoskins—plus baby Velociraptors Blue, Delta, Echo and Charlie—and speed to the battle scene. Fire the boat’s stud shooters at the Dino-Mech. Put the T. rex to sleep with the tranquilizer gun. You must stop Danny before he finds a way to smash into the volcanic rock and steal the treasure!Ages 8+, 716 pieces, $89.99 (USD)

New Jurassic World Adventures With “LEGO® Jurassic World: Legend Of Isla Nublar” -Expanded partnership features four new building sets revealed for the first time at New York Toy Fair, based on an original, animated mini-series coming later this year-

#lego #toy fair #universal

0 notes