#i need to get designs ironed out for the rest of the team though

[stargazinglesbian]

being hyperfixated on my own ocs is like. great. i made up this fucking girl in my head and now im irrevocably obsessed with her and her freaky little friends. what the fuck do i do now. i haven't even written any of this down

[princelylove]

OMG Your Highness Fugo canonically wears a thong!! i can't believe it nbjdukjdsnf i just read it and was like huh? 😭 i searched it and it is truee

Pannacotta wearing a thong has always made total sense to me for his character, and for his design. You don’t wear cut-outs riiiiight below your belt and wear briefs with them, you’d be showing the world whatever pattern you chose this morning. 

What about the rest of Team Bucciarati's underwear, though?

I’m very big on ‘fem Giorno is canon and the cast just doesn’t realize it,’ although I’ve only publicly written for masc Giorno, which is a shame. Giorno is the type of girl whose bra always matches her underwear, she normally buys sets or pairs that match her bras. Her bras are wired, without padding, lord knows she doesn't need it. (DIO's genes wouldn't allow for a small chest, even if Giorno's ballet experience has made her thin, they're still There, just not absurdly big either.) The patterns are usually- you guessed it- roses and solid pale pinks or whites. Her underwear is just as ornate and delicate as you’d think- tons of lace, lots of bows, and a feeling like you're about to sell your soul if you remove them.

You can see the band of Guido's underwear when he stretches. He normally alternates between boxers and tight fitting trunks. Guido is the type of guy to be in absolute heaven if his fem darling were to give him her underwear- he'd wear them. It's like a special secret, and you're touching, even if it's not direct.... He's such a simple man. Guido normally buys high end clothes (my source is the very same interview that this anon cited, but I can link it as necessary), his philosophy naturally extends to his underwear. As for patterns, solid grey and black are fine, but he likes a little animal print too.

Trish is a victoria’s secret kinda girl, although she has some dolce & gabbana lingerie that she deeply treasures, and often wears as regular tops. Either Trish canonically wears push up bras, or Guido mistook her sizing whatever other bra she had on down for a push up, because of the tightness. Guido is not a reliable source, but I'm going to say that she likes push up bras because it's a very classic victoria's secret choice. As for her underwear, she probably favors bikini cuts or brazilians. She likes animal prints, stripes, and underwear with words on it. A pair with 'EAT ME' on the front is her favorite.

Narancia wears loose, non-clingy trunks. He gets upset if you tease him for wearing 'short' underwear, but doesn't exactly stop. Narancia likes breathable underwear, which is ironic, considering he prefers his tops to be tight fitting. He likes silly patterns, but he doesn't realize it doesn't come off as super mature. His favorite is a pair with cookies and crumbs on it. Narancia isn't the type to hand wash his delicates, he just throws them into the wash regardless of their material.

Leone either wears clingy trunks or trunk briefs. I'm not sure if that's the proper name for it, but I mean the one that looks like women's hipsters. He's fond of compression underwear, just without padding. He's got too much pride for padding, and doesn't really need it. Leone likes a little bit of lace on his hips, but finds it annoying to have them on his legs. Most of his underwear is pure black, but some of them have white lace instead. A few pairs have veeeery small ribbons on them in the front, with little charms on it. Yes, the charms are normally a small, metal 'A.'

Bruno is the type to switch between women's lingerie and very basic men's boxer briefs, depending on what he's going to do that day. For the women's lingerie, he likely prefers cheeky underwear or just thongs, as long as they're similar to the tattoo on his chest. For the boxer briefs, he prefers clingy types that go to his mid thigh. He wears the thongs significantly more than the boxer briefs.

[popculturebuffet]

More than Meets the Eye Retrospective: Dark Cybertron Part 1

Hello all you happy autobots and welcome back to my long look at Transformers More Than Meets The Eye. When we last left I looked at the sister comic, Robots in Disguise.

But a necessary one for Today's review: Dark Cybertron, a crossover between both books.

Dark Cybertron is the cumilation of a plot that had been slowly building in the background of Robots in Disguise while Bumblebee dithered, Prowl tried to install a dictatorship long before he got a bug in his brain telling him to keep going with that, and Starscream was awesome. Shockwave has been up to SOMETHING over the issues, working with his mentor Jhiaxus.

Chasing Jhiaxus in the best part of RiD was Optimus Prime, redubbing himself Orion Pax out of disgust with the legacy of the primes, alongside his friends Hardhead, Wheelie and Garnak, who soon found themselves chasing Jhiaxus. Mr J eventually lured them to a dead planet, where he and Waspinator, yes the boy himself, ignited a titan and made tracks for cybertron while leaving our heroes to their deaths as Shockwave held back Soundwave and his decepticons , igniting his final plan.

It's here that mystery plan comes to fruition as the lost lighters split up gang to help save the unvierse, while Bumblebee and his Cavlcade of Fuckups, and also Arcee try to stop the apocalypse and Starscream gets a new paint job as he tries to hold on for dear life to his throne with a big ole event.

This crossover's notable for a few reasons: it's the first proper event comic for the transfomers: While there had been previous event style arcs with All Hail Megatron and Chaos and crossovers with the IDW wide Infestation and the marvel crossover Transformers/New Avengers, which also means the new avengers and likely all of marvel exisit in this unvierse.

But this is the first crossover between books within the line, something that would become a tradition as IDW liked money and Hasbro liked free advertising for whatever they were doing in the toys at the time, either threading in designs from their current lines or in the case of combiner wars and titans return, just straight up having IDW model their events to match the toyline. . This lead to the ambitious and failed Hasbro Universe with Revolution, and the universe even ends on one with Unicron.

Ironically though.. this is the ONLY one to loop in more than meets the eye. And thank Primus for that. Look i'm not anti-event comic, sometimes an event can be a total banger. For a recent example see Marvel's Judgement Day. But the big two tend to do events and crossovers EVERY damn year, not giving books a chance to rest or status quos to breathe for a bit. So having More than Meets the Eye sit that shit out is a fucking relief.

It's also from a practical standpoint as this crossover shows both creative teams had trouble meshing the two together: the narrative splits into four plot threads, one in the dead universe with Optimus, Rodimus and CO, one with the rest of the lost light , one with the cavlcade of fuckups and one with god emperor starscream. the latter two evnetually intersect and the two casts DO interact towards the end of the crossover.. but in the six issues i'm covering today the only ones to interact with the lost lighters are Starscream in a brief video call and Optimus in one of the main plots. It's clear that while the two writers liked each other.. they may not of known entirely how to make the two casts function together, and thus kept them to their corners.

The result isn't a bad story but a fractured one. I will say upfront I won't be able to judge the story as a whole till next time, but I needed to do it in two parts as it's a big boy and there's a lot to go over. So join me under the cut as darkness falls over cybertron, titans rise, and rodimus gets a new toy so stupid it will bite him in the ass for the rest of the comic. IT's Dark Cybertron and it's under the cut.

We open with Nova Prime's crew. Nova Prime was a prime who was seen as a great one.. but in reality was an supremacist piece of scrap who wanted to conquer all other forms of life. He will not be missed. Among him are our boy Cyclonus and Jhiaxus, who tells Shockwave to FINISH MY WORK.

In the present.. Shockwave almost has, having seeded ores aroudn the galaxy and experimenting on a titan, both the same one that declared Starscream chosen one and then vanished.. and that Waspinator just brought home. It starts screaming in terror and bleeding out it's eyes

Elsewhere on Cybertron, Starscream woke up from a nap to find a few hours ago the sun rose.. and hasn't gone down. He also has a new all red everything paintjob, a familiar one

As i've been told and found out.. this is Starscream's look from Transformers Armada, which I did watch when it was coming out but entirely forgot this is what Starscream looked like because my memory is quicksand and only few things escape it like X-men trivia.

It's.. not my faviorite. It's almost ENTIRELY red and whlie it does look better in later shots, it's just not as fun to look at as his classic look and while he'll keep this look for the windblade mini series, i'ts telling the artists reverted to his old standby as soon as they could. The Armada look isn't bad and looking at stills from teh anime it loks GREAT there.. but it's a bit too one note for the page, at least these pages.

Starscream decides to call the autobots for help.. not the ones he exiled, an I told you so from prowl is death in it's purest form, no OUR autobots.

For now though we cut back to Optimus. Since we last left him he and his crew are trying to escape.. and luckily run into some old friends

I love this so much. Unsuprisingly Swerve made it his ring tone. Naturally Rodimus dove in anyway to save his old friend/boss/dad.

Rodimus shows his dad around, which really feels like a teenager accidently exposing his dad to all the stuff his dumbass friends do while trying to be respectible. The wind's taken out of his sails by Ultra Magnus who asks if Optimus is taking command with all the tact and grace he's known for.

Optimus isn't, he's only here for the guest spot , he's got his own leading roll to play in the other books, but he is happy to get the tour. .until Starscream calls. Screamer of course can't help but passively agressively brag about how he was elected in by popular demand after bumblbee fucked up hard

Then asks Cyclonus for help since he knows the dead universe better than anyone. The Dead Universe is a parasite, a universe that should fucntion right but is instead both sentient and EVILLLL. And it's hungies.

Back on Cybertron, Team Fuckup is starring in horror and the Dinobots want to punch the fuck out of the sun. Bumblbee tells them to wait for it... and granted he's telling them not to punch a bright light on the horizon, something even prowl can tell is stupid which tells you something, but honestly after the last two years worth of comics, the bar for Bumlebee's competence is low.

He ends up being right as the necrotitan lands. Meanwhile Shockwave goes into a whole rant about hwo this is all ineveitible that has a bunch of vauge images and two optimus primes about ot throw hands for some reason. none of this is relevant to the rest of the crossover, it's a clear misdirect and it sure does exist. The real point is who he's talking to: Nova Prime and Galvatron, who somehow returned. Also Galvatron and Megatron are two seperate people in this continuity, happens a lot, moving on.

Onto chapter 2 and Team Fuckup's strategy is now suns out guns out.. though Bumblebee's redemption arc continues as when the Autobots want to punch the giant, Bumlebee tells them no and tells them to either get in line or fuck righ toff, which actually gets them to listen. Seems Bee got a spine with his new form and I like it. After 20 some issues of him listening to whoever yelled the loudest while ignoring the people he's supposed to be serving, this is nice. It's clear field command fits him better.

He does have a bit of an exestial crisis wondering if this is the titan that choose starscream and I THINk it is. I'm not sure. But either way it's here and i'ts big.

Back with Team Rodimus, Brainstorm tells Optimus the dead unvierse is alive and that's why going into the dead universe is tricky: it'll kill anything it senses shouldn't be there. Luckily he has a plan.. and a weird creepy parsite in a jar. It's also so fun seeing the straightlaced optimus interact with the lost lighters. So dang good seeing Chromedome resisit the urge to condescend to Optimus.

Back with Starscream he's doing what any sensible cybertronian would do in this situation: GET HIS GUN. Or a lot of them hidden in a closet Rattrap is telling him to come out of. Please everyone knows Starscream as pansexual as fuck. Rattrap urges caution.. which is like saying it's tuesday but still when Starscream is whiffing it you know it's .. also tuesday but also probably an issue.

Back on the lost light we get a great scene as Rodimus, Magnus and Optimus hit swerves. Magnus is curious if they should be having command discussions in a bar but Rodimus for once isn't snippy, which tells us deep shit is a comin: he simply wants to be by his men.. granted he regrets that when he finds Swerve taking photos but for once Swerve is also not as flip: it's three of the greatest autobots of all time, on the preciipce of SOMETHING happening, something they call feel.. that shared feeling of dread. Something's coming and it ain't good.

The trio get a text from brainstorm: He's ready. This being brainstorm the most he has is a palm thing that keeps the dead universe from killing you using the venom of a monster from there he keeps in a jar. Granted this is only because it's short notice.

So our heroes come up with a plan: split up. Rodimus, Optimus, Hardhead and Cyclonus (Since he has experince) will go into the dead universe to plug whatever stygian hole is leaking. Wheelie and Garnak will stay by in Optimus' ship to pick them up after. Meanwhile the Lost LIght will head after Jhiaxus. Magnus is doubtful he can lead.. but Rodimus perks him up, assuring him he can do this: he may of been thorugh a lot.. but this is his comfort zone: "You're chasing a war criminal and i'm leaping into the unknown"

Back on cybertron Starscream talks with Scoops, a cybertronian ratrap framed for him and who belivies in screamer's prophecy. And as it turns out Screamer REALLY shoudl've payed attention to what that prophecy was or asked or.. anything other than accept it as face value as it turns out he's pegged as a "false leader" one who will bring on the coming darkness... "The stars shall scream and the symbol of the uncreator shall become clear" and said symbol is.. not encouraging to screamer or us

Anyways back to Shockwave: he's talking to Nova, and reveals the space bridge in the Necrotitan isn't working.. but luckily he has a backup plan: megatron.

We end the issue with two more cut tos: in the dead unvierse, Team Rodtimus fight some parasites hoping to snack on them since the signal their using reads "FOOD' to them and while they get away from them fine.. someone else notices. more on him soon. Back with Team Fuckup, the Calvary arrives: SOUNDWAVE BABY.

Part 3 begins with Starscream, whose assuring his adoring public.. only for a meteor to apparnetly land near the titan.

Speaking of shooting the Autobots wage a war to destroy the not so evil forces of Soundwave, only for the metor thing ot distract them too.

Before our next plot point let's talk about this series pacing as you might of noticed the last paragraph or two was just "this plot point, now this". And that's because the series likes to jump around, jump around, get up get up and get down. It has FOUR plots it's juggling and rarely do the issues just.. focus on one or two, especially early on. So each issue is bouncing around several subplots often for just two pages at a time. I don't mind a big story having to move around, but you have to let things settle for a minute. Let a plot point marinate a bit. I shouldn't feel rushed in a 12 issue crossover. 12 issues is a LOT for a story, again why this is a two parter. We do get some good character stuff like Bee growing a spine, a lot of it feels like a reahash. For instance did we need the starscrema going to get his gun scene? no we coudl've had rattrap suggest talking to scoops earlier. None of this is bad and some of the character stuff is necessary: Rodimus showing optimus around both moves the plot along with starscream's call and is objectively hilaroius. But a lot of it feels like thumb twiddling to get to the next plot point. We probably coudl've compacted most of team fuckups scenes into half an issue, if that. It feels like their cutting to each plot to make it seem important instead of carring how a story should progress. It feels like the writers took turns with scenes instead of truly colaberating on the crossover an das a result we just jump jump jump.

So we jump! Jump for the plot to our next point: the lost light where their being pushed off course... turns out Metroplex's thumb what got embedded in the ship after the annual is alive again.. and Getaway knows why: Tyrest, for all his madness, once said you can find a titan with a titan.. and figures Metroplex is trying to reunite with itself.

At the Necrotitan, Team Fuckup sadly gets back to buisness as usual.. arguing with each other. Fortuantely this time, Bumblebee.. is still a compitent leader. He's still on "wait for it" mode.. because they really CAN'T do anything and attacking a giant statue is a death warrant, and he's taken Team Soundwave's help as while they aren't on great terms, they have the same goal: Stop Shockwave. Prowl takes this with the grace, dignity and cool he's known for

God it's good to hear ANYONE, especially Bumblebee, tell Prowl to "shut up for once". And Bee's not wrong. While wait and hope things go well was a TERRIBLE strategy when Bee was running the planet and all it did was get starscream on the throne and all of them exiled, in this case.. their facing a giant cybertronian with weird glowing eyes who they can't really understand. As we'll learn shortly titans function SORT'VE like regular transformers, but are so giant, massive and ancient their hard to parse. A small band of semi-reformed fuckups, an asshole, and a bunch of casette tapes and their player/dad isn't REMOTELY enough to stop that thing and interacting with it might just piss it off.

And sure enough Starscream seemingly prooves that hypothesis as he tries to manipulate it by talking to it.. only for it to explode into 2 or 3 pages of purple light. And This.. I like> it lets the MAGNITUDE of this thing's power play out, it's sudden, and it's shocking, and the effects afterwords aren't good as Arcee is out, the death wave having taken down their forces. once again Prowl won't shut the fuck up, wanting them to attack... and bee brushes him off essentially asking

He points out the death wave, his words not mine, is heading towards the city and despite Starscream's efforts.. it goes off. Shooting the titan would've eithe rdone nothing or set this off SOONER. There is NOTHING they can do and that.. works for me. As douchey as Prowl's being which, par for the course and all that aside, you understand his want to do SOMETHIGN.. but their in a situation where all they can do is just sit, wait, and HOPE they can figure something out. Shockwave said it best as Starscream tried talking to the titan. "We were all too late from the beginning". Unlike the bulk of the comic thus far sitting and reacting is all they have. .because they don't know the full scope of what's going on here. WE as an audience don't know what the hell the necrotitan just did: I only have it's name thanks to the wiki.

The wave not only hurt the living.. but wakes the dead as Metalhawk is back, on the bad guy's side now.. and pisssssseeed. Starscream to his credit reacts more with "Oh goody another cherry on the shit sundae that is today." but he still gets stabbed and Metalhawk is taking Megatron, bye. While Scoops goes to help people, the citzens surround starscream, his star falling.

On the lost light thei rleft with a decision: follow Jhiaxus.. or follow the severed thumb. Ratchet dosen't wanna as he feels their back in the "autobots mainstream" again... but Brainstorm disagrees.. and Perciptor shockingly AGREES: an ancient god has asked them to come find him, and given the end of days is going on back at home, an ancient god could REALLY come in handy right now. Magnus agrees and they head to a planet full of blood red water. At least I hope it's water. THey go deep into planet danzig, and find a horde of microbots ready to tear them apart. These are the amonites from the 25th issue adn they aren't happy.

Closing out the issue Shockwave prepares to make Megatron into a spacebridge. It's very impressive and not at all healthy.

Chapter 4 begins back with the lost light and with good art for those portions again! Yeah while i've glossed over it because this is a LOT of comics to go over and i'm already behind, the art for the lost light sections of parts 2 and 3 is once again by James Raiz, who has a very sketcyhy lifeldian style.. and not bein ga fan of those styles in general, I like it even lest on the quippy, weird lost light. It dosen't fit at all and the lack of expresssion dosen't really work with characters who thrive on expression even when they got no mouths.

It also works as we get bits like Brainstorm trying to hop onto Perciptor's exposition and Magnus announcing himself as "duly apointed enforcer of the tyrest accord" before remembering "Oh yeah the horrifying events of the last arc right. Just an autobot now". I'ts a bit funny but also very sad. All it gets is the super combinining amonites blowing up their window.

Back on cybertron the mob turns on starscream, with Scoops rightfully calling him out for dooming them and pointing out the black mark on him as a sign.. whne really he just tried to schmooze an elder god of a robot, but semantics. poitn is time is running out for our faviorite boy.

Back on planet Danzig, Skids remembers the amonites and wonders why their pissed.. forgetting they you know, ended their forever war and one of them tried to kill thunderclash, something the lost light prevented. Take your pick.

With the Lost Light too big a target the crew decides to split up: they have a few water vechiles and half of the aquabots, so they should be fine, but they still need more... so Magnus gets an idea: they'll take the rodpod. Like the audience Getaway wonders "what the fuck is that" before we gaze on it in all ti's glory.. or as glorious as it is as for some reason we're suddenly back to raiz art.

Yes the rodpod, which Magnus was worried about as naturally Rodimus loves this stupid fucking thing as mucha s I do. But Skids is banking on Rodimus' short attention span.

The important thing here, besides this very hilariously stupid thing happened in a major crossover and that's awesome, is Getaway's reaction. His disguist, his sheer confusion.. for now it just comes off as most people's reaction to this ego piece who aren't used to Rodimus shit by now. But true to roberts.. this bit is one of the MAIN REASONS why we still had to cover this crossover. It's not the only one but this one small character moment.. ends up changing the entire course of this entire comic and our heroes lives forever. Yes the RODPOD is so rediculous and breaks a man's brain so bad, it has deep lasting conseqeunces that will last to the finale of this comic. I love that more than words.

Our heroes take the rodpod out for a spin, and while Rung kills a guy, and it's awesome, our heroes blow up a giant super combined amonite as they apparently have no upper limit but no upper limit dosen't mean "can't blow up real good"

Back to the dead Universe where Optimus deals with some squabbling from the kids

See this.. really shows the contrast between the two styles: the bickering over with Team Fuckup is annoying at times, bette rin this series but still annoying. The banter between the lost light on the other hand feels both more genuine and funnier. And I get the quippy style isn't for everyone: The MCU has gotten some fatigue fo rthat.. but I like a bit of back and forth. it shoudln't be the whole thing, and MTMTE succeeds largley because the characters are deeply made as well as deeply hilaroius, but a little humor helps. It breaks up the dark exesntial terror of everything to occasoinally have things like Rodimus' stupid headship he built for his own amusment or Optimus being about 5 mintues from turning this dead universe around so help me god.

Yet the questions he brings up .. arne't unfair as his next cuts deep: if Optimus had asked him to stay, would he have? And the answer.. is yes. Yet what cuts deeper.. is optimus response: He has the utmost faith in Rodimus and the progress he's made.. and it's clear form his silence he both regrets he's hardly made any and the choices he HAS made. He saved the world, something he rightfully rubbe din Hardhead's face as he was one of the many who nearly died thanks to Tyrest's attmepted genocide, but it's clear the thigns he's done weigh on rodimus: Would staying have helped? Could he have made a bette cybertron?

And the hard answer is.... no. Him staying wouldn't of been a good thing: he didn't want to be there, none of the bots who left really had ideas for a new better cybertron and MORE autobots wasn't going to fix a situation where autobots being there at all was causing tension with the nails. The sad truth is Bumblebee failed not because Rodimus left, but because he didn't have any plan other than "We want to retain power" , and with a throng of people crying for a better government and something NEW that was never going to happen.

The ironic thing is while Rodimus is on a quest for the old... his going out, exploring, doing daring due war or no war.. IS something new. He's letting his bots be who they are, having down time, movie nights, open bars. Sure he's also shoved some of them into very bad situations, the whole overlord mess was a waking nightmare and should never have happened and swerve shooting rung is ENTIRELY his fault. Rodimus, like Bee, often tries to lead like this is war time instead of a shaky peace. Yet despite also operating from that style.. he's casual enough and caring enough deep down that his bots.. get to have lives. Be who they want to be. He's not yelling tat them for daring to want to not shoot people or trying to create infastructure, he's just like "when I need you, do your fucking job bro". He may be embarassed around optimus.. but his letting his crew be people instead of weapons is better than Bee trying to lead like this is a war of attrition and not "what comes after" or Prowl acting like the war neve rended and a shiny new police state is better and not what caused the war in the first place.

OUr heroes soo seen Cyclonus is bleeding.. and soon have bigger issues as Nightbeat has arrived.

Back on cybertron Prowl sucks suprising no one wanting AGAIN to attack the giant robot that just wiped out hal fof them despite having no plan other than "shoot it REAL hard" Bee once again calls him out

He brused Prowl's ego enough to actually get him to pause.. well huff like a child but Prowl does have soundwave scan the city, which picks up something bad: Megatron SCREAMING as Shockwave both turn shim into a bridge and tries to get him to join. He naturallyr efuses ESPECAILLY since the primes are involved, so instead of joining in the new world order.. he gets prime coming out of his chest.

We end the issue on Team Magnus as they find Metroplex.. and end up in his eye socket.. which is hollowed out. Which is impressive but horrifying. And also not very healthy.

Onto part 5, and Shockwave is helping his pawns out of a screaming megatron's chest

When Team Fuckup arrives... Bumblebee has no idea what Shockwav'es doing but it end snow.

It dosen't though because Metalhawk is here, and Bumblbee's attempts to pull an "I know your in there somewhere fight", failed as Metalhawk is consumed by vengance and purple stuff. Skywarp attempts to just free megatron but his teleporting fails.

Prowl questions WHY Shockwave is helping nova.. not getting that maybe, just maybe the One Eyed Two Horned Grounded Purple Plotter whose already manuvered you all like chess pieces.. is using them as pawns for something much worse. Either way he gives Nova time to escape and his best buddy Waspinator time to bring him the staff Waspinator used to awaken the titan and summons it as if it were one of his x-men.. and has it crush them as if it were his juggernaught.

Back to the dead universe, let's talk about Nightbeat: Nightbeat is an autobot detective. During Nova Prime's previous plot, he had a thing installed in Nightbeat's head to turn the poor guy into his sleeper agent. Unfortunately for him he again picked a detective and one of the best at that so while he coudln't do much, Beat at least figured out he was being brainwashed and after shooting Hardhead had enough will to beg heardhead to shoot him.

So naturally his sudden return is a lot for everyone to process. As for how the shore he died on WAS connected to the dead unvierse, Optimus correctly guesses he got swept in with the tide. We get a sense of Nightbeat's personality too, as doing a simple look at Cyclonus tells him about Tailgate's near injury: he has facial scars, they were self inflicted, and they were patched recently. Cyclonus responds to this invasion of privacy mixed with genuine sympathy by trying to choke a bitch.

Back with team fuckup they TRY to count up their wounded.. but they hav ebigger issues: Megatron is craddling Ironhide crisis on infinite earth's style, before Galvatron rips him the fuck in half, starting his streak at one and declaring WHOS NEXT.. and somehow that's not their biggest issue as the titan is still active and shockwave is now in control.

Back in the dead universe, we find out how Nightbeat survivied: he was dead going through the portal and sense dead equals alive in this universe, he's spared. Sorta like how a healing spell usually hurts a zombie in an rpg just reversed.

At any rate he has some bad news for cyclonus: his hand generator thingy broke nad the Dead Universe has reclaimed him.. and he also has time to ominously say "your all home now" before triggering a giant force field around them. Turns out his death didn't undo his sleeper agent brain thing and Nova has come for them.

Before we move on to our final chapter for this batch, let's look at this cover. Which I rarely do for tim's sake but this one well

It looks like Nova Prime is playing with his dolls again.

At any rate we're back with what's left of Team Fuckup: bumblbee' smissing while what's left is running from the titan. The Dinobots plan to lead it away.. but it was already going this way they just were running away from it and are only pulling a prometheus because their genuinely not fast enough to get out the side, especially with some of them carrying wounded.

Back with Team Magnus, they notice Metroplex is decaying... partly due to age as getting spare parts is hard for titans and partly due to the weird blood water all around Planet Danzig. Theya lso find that Metro's BRAIN is missing: he's still alive but without that he's clearly dying. Getaway notices something in the water and calls Swerve for help but h'es a bit busy getting his groove on

They do however find a place to drydock. Back in the dead universe, Hardhead tells his friend he's going to rekill him while Optimus fakes a fight with rodimus to tell him there's a hidden barrier. While Hardhead tries to reach him Nova arrives.

Back on cybertron Starscream's no good horrible very bad day continues as he finds not only is his mark of shame spreading, but he's not the only one dying. After getting yelled at by his second tankor today he finds the titan heading right for him and the wounded

Back on Planet Danzig, our heroes find some arrows in the dry dock.. but it takes them around in circles.. then an Amonite blows up the ship, leaving them stranded.

We end this issue and the first half of dark cybertron with Nova Prime megomanically gloating... Hardhead escapes to shut him up.. only for it not to go well> Turns out PRime is not only crazy strong, but he CRUSHES Hardheads fist in his hands and then watches the poor guy desintgrate. He has plans for those left though: he's taking them to see a new friend he's made: bumlbee whose the shiny new space bridge.

So that's where we end it? Can Team Fuckup somehow save cybertron? Did any of team magnus survivie? Can Optimus shut this dude the fuck up. Find out in april folks! Thanks for reading

[z0urcherri]

Not really a full review but just the thoughts at the forefront of my mind If they'd of just cut some horror references (Shining elevator especially) down into shorter scenes (it'd also work as an unobtrusive background element) AND made it easier to tell apart future and past characters that happen to be in the same scene together, this film would honestly be damn near perfect. It was still an enjoyable experience, though. Alot of scenes genuinely come close to freaking me out, like the respawn terminal failure. Having a fully voice acted cast and some custom models was a treat, i just don't see why some were custom and some were just Scout with a mustache slapped on. Plus, in the funeral scene, it's too noticeable how detailed Redmond and Blutarch are compared to everyone else in the room. I joked at one point that they blew the character budget on those two and couldn't afford to detail everyone else. The voice direction also felt lacking, with certain actors (excluding Scout's and Soldier's bc DAMN i actually asked a couple times if they got Rick, posthumously, and Nathan to do the voice work) focusing more on sounding as much as they could like the original mercs than the actual performance. Mind you i'm not saying they did a BAD job, they did after all do a fantastic job with the emotional line deliveries. Usually, you would complain about the cartoony art style of TF2 clashing with someone's high-end attempt to make the shots photorealistic or so, but since Fortress Films went to all the trouble of touching up everything with grit and keeping it consistent throughout scenes, it honestly works well even if non-TF2 models end up being used. The contrast actually fits. The plot...honestly, again, this is where i wish certain horror tropes got cut way down. Did we really need a whole scene of zombie mercs doing stereotypical zombie things? I don't even think it added anything to the plot, it just happened and was pretty easy to forget right after they're all killed. It's just how it never gets referenced again once it's over. I'm...also not really a fan of the shoehorned Christian imagery around the end. It's basically another trope and again it added pretty much nothing. It's also fun trying to figure out who can and can't actually die. This, ironically, might be the only thing from the zombie scene worth any salt, if the implication is RED mercs zombify after some time while BLU just infinitely respawns (Jules wouldn't be dead and therefore would not need saving if this were the case, which is inch resting) The attention to detail otherwise is fantastic. I keep finding parallels i didn't catch the first time. Along with shots that are legit drop-dead GORGEOUS, or even cutting-edge as far as cinematography goes and are incredibly rare to see in other SFM animations, the mo-cap is some of the best i've seen. It's rough sometimes and makes for some funny facial expressions, but when it works it WORKS. The theatrical feel is just...unmatched. You almost wonder if Valve themselves produced this because of how good the scenes look. I was also really impressed with the sound design, and also the fire and water effects, prominent throughout the film. Obviously, i think the film was really, really good, it's just that some parts feel like this project started as a shitpost animation, before getting stitched together with the parts where the team decided "no, we need to put actual effort into this". I also don't understand why, if the soundtrack is an original composition, the artist couldn't be credited anywhere. Anyway, go see Emesis Blue and come back with your own thoughts.

[thetacticalproducersjournal]

The Great Overlay Debate: How Greed and Vitriol Transformed An Essential Tool Into The Industry’s Punching Bag

    Overlays, are without a doubt, the most controversial tooling/technique in professional web accessibility today. Overlays are a simple website addition, which provide visitors to a website with free, helpful tools such as increased text size or reading text aloud. Overlays do not and can not cover every specific disability, as medical ailments can vary widely in their affliction and resulting assistive technology needs.

     About 5 years ago, a cottage industry of self-styled “Accessibility Experts”, of varying actual qualification, collectively put Overlays into their crosshairs. Rather than engaging in pro-bono website consultation for charity websites, or engaging in legislative lobbyism to make a difference in the community, these individuals began devoting their Sunday afternoons, and time between Big Tech contracts, towards taking down what they viewed as an existential threat to their livelihood- and publicly characterized as an existential threat towards public access for the disabled. The only problem, well there are many problems with this entire scenario, is that hyperbole and unsubstantiated assertions became the currency of communication… and dunking on overlays to the fanfare of a tightknit circle of allies selfcongratulatory backslapping each other has crowded out pro bono work, public protesting and legislative lobbying as valuable uses of one’s freetime. Ironically, overlays never threatened the jobs of these experts nor “damaged” accessibility in the slightest. It’s the other way around. 

     Traditional web design colleges and the increasingly common learn-it-yourself bootstraps method, barely teach Accessibility. As a direct result of the educational pipeline delivering entry level engineers, integral  and baked-inWeb Accessibility is unfortunately NOT the norm. Nor is it legally required to be in most places. Recently the 11th Circuit federal appeals court not only joined several other Circuits, but took things a step further in ruling websites aren't a place of public accommodation beholden to the ADA and don’t need to be Assistive Technology-friendly (I disagree vehemently, but that is irrelevant). Those are the facts and this is the reality we live in. 

     a11y is a specialty engineering position that costs $100,000-$130,000 USD per annum to hire and fill. If you are a small business, and can only pay $10K onetime for website setup and occasional hourly billings for sporadic troubleshooting, $130K isn't an option. Spending one thousand dollars on an overlay license shows you care, are trying your best, and at the same time reducing some legal exposure- it's a sound small business move.

     While I'm moderately-severely disabled and an impassioned activist myself- even though I wish things were a bit different, I get it.

     Overlay use should be applauded for awareness and investment, not derided, but when people believe their honeypot is threatened they tend to act unscrupulously and have forever tarnished a valuable tool. That’s why I want to address a handful of I.T. urban legends.

     NO overlays do not do "nothing". They increase perceived value among consumers, demonstrate corporate accessibility awareness, provide some level of useable consumer tools, and provide a massive amount of risk mitigation via reduction of legal exposure in regards to a jury trial.

     NO overlays do not make your product "worse". How does a couple of accessibility tools actually de-accessorize the rest of your content? Which part of the overlay kidnapped your Product Owner/Program Manager and accessibility engineers? While overlays alone is never the answer, the assertion that inclusion of overlays directly teleports your development team to the dark side of the moon and/or causes webpage WCAG compliance remission doesn't carry water now, and it never did. Making this statement is the fastest way for an "accessibility professional" to advertise their inexperience, lack of bigger picture and absence of critical thinking.

     While the product does not fit all requirements, we’ve ended up in a situation akin to doctors marrying medical malpractice lawyers, and then jointly villainizing scalpels and their manufacturers. Are scalpels appropriate for a cancer patient who needs chemotherapy, not surgery? No, but the scalpel may be a useful tool for a different patient with a surgical need, or even that same patient should chemotherapy fail. And as a result of their internal biases that doctor is committing medical malpractice themselves by prescribing chemotherapy to patients whom DO need surgery, all while supporting their ambulance-chasing lawyer-spouse in running a racket sending Demand Letters to scalpel users everywhere- even when they were used correctly.

     Overlays are not a be-all endall solution for the multidisciplinary gray areas of accessibility metascience. They don’t fit all software apps or particularly gadgets reliant on firmware.  But they are an amazing tool for specific budgets and scenarios, and the only “controversy” is selfgenerated by compromised non-experts lobbing increasingly nonsensical and habitually unsubstantiated bombs.

     Overlays are a great way for small and large businesses alike to project a sense of accessibility awareness to the user experience. Large businesses with an enterprise-style budget should also hire permanent staff of accessibility engineers under a program manager to correct inherent flaws in the educational pipeline that delivers our web designers and application developers. Overlays are a wonderful tool with little drawback other than a little bit of uninformed and selfinterested sniping.

     Anyone not televangelizing their use is simply harming their own career development, swindling their clients with novice engineering, and doing direct damage to the World Wide Web as a place of ethical, if not legal, public accommodation. THAT is the kind of thing that actually makes accessibility worse. 

[scolpimpisdiary]

Team Bucciarati Home HCs!

How would their homes look like?

Guido Mista🔫

His house probably wouldn’t be that big or have a lot of things, but would somehow still be messy anyways. He’d also be in denial about how messy it is.

The main culprit of it all? Random things just piled up in random places. Mista’s probably the type of guy to put something down and completely forget about it.

I could imagine Bruno coming over to his apartment and just trying to help him clean up as much as possible while scolding the hell out of him in the process

“Jesus Christ Mista! How could you let your place get like this?” “Oh come on Bucciarati, it isn’t THAT bad!”

Sex Pistols are responsible for half of the mess, especially number 3. Destructive lil bitches

But once the place is clean it’d actually look really nice and rustic! Wooden wall panels, carpeted floors, etc

Yes mista and Sex Pistols will probably mess it up again

Narancia Ghirga 🌼

He’d probably live with one of the team members and split the chores with them, so his living space wouldn’t be that bad overall

But Narancia would spend lots of times trying to get out of the chores or bribe someone into doing it for them.

I can also see him having a LOT of posters and also video games just scattered all over his room. And yes, he’d never let anybody play on his gaming console. Including Mista, which ironically shows the most interest in it.

“Come on Narancia just let me play on the console for 15 minutes!” “No way man, buy your own!”

Bruno would def make them share like the good momma he is

Narancia would also hold on to a lot of things that he literally doesn’t need whatsoever, but will still keep them because it looks cool. Like, no Nara you don’t need an entire set of miniature airplanes!!

Bruno Bucciarati 🤐

Bruno prides himself in keeping up appearances. We can see this in the way he treats and decorates his home. He’ll have sculptures, paintings, and a lot of antique things in his home most likely passed down from his family.

The home would be pretty neat in general, maybe some misplaced items here and there but nothing noticeable.

Even though his home is very warm and welcoming, I don’t see Bruno inviting anyone over. Being the capo of a highly influential criminal organization puts a huge target on his back, and he can’t risk having anyone follow him to where he rests his head.

He DEFINITELY encourages his teammates to do the same thing as a safety measure. But considering that majority of them are angsty teenagers, he probably knows a good chunk of them won’t listen.

Giorno Giovanna ⭐️

Ah my lovely golden boi! Giorno’s place would be clean also. Before becoming the don, his dorm lacked a lot of decoration in VA. I could imagine that once he gets access to all of the riches and property that Passione brings him, Giorno would probably splurge more on designer items to decorate his home in.

He’d also have a lot of greenery around his house as well. I see Giorno being a huge plant dad, even having his own private garden that he’d stroll through to clear his head (as a don obvi)

Giorno is a pretty neat person in general, so mess wouldn’t be too much of a concern before or after becoming a Don. If anything being a Don would make any messes easier to deal with, hiring a maid or cleaning service to just clean up for him.

Surprisingly I could see Giorno actually being more open to inviting people over than Bruno, and by that I mean mainly networking with other powerful figures in Passione. Even throwing dinner parties as well! But the people that are invited are very important people, and are in likely in tight-knit groups. He could also probably afford to have guests escorted to and from his place as well. Before becoming a don, he probably never had much people over.

Leone Abbacchio 🫖

His house would be a mix of messy and neat. Abbacchio would probably want to be productive and tidy his house, but if it’s taking a long time and he just came home from a long ass mission, he’d just give up halfway and neglect/ignore it until he builds up more energy which is literally me in a nutshell but anyways

He wouldn’t really invite anyone over, not because he can’t but because he just doesn’t want to. Abbacchio is very much like a cat, he likes naps, peace and quiet, and is grumpy. I could also say that these are reasons he probably wouldn’t have roommates either. He doesn’t like dealing with other people and the issues that come with them.

I don’t think he’d have much decorations outside of some photos? But his house would be pretty moody and have a lot of dark neutral colors. And yes, he’d definitely have those lil LED light strips on his walls too (if they existed in 2001 ofc)

Pannacotta Fugo 🍰

I can see Fugo’s home being tidy, like eerily tidy. He seems to be the type of person that would be easily bothered with filthy or unhygienic things, so he’d most likely stay on top of his chores unless he were to come back from a long mission and needed to relax.

Similar to Abbacchio I don’t see him having a lot of decorations either? Fugo would probably feel no need to have a decorated house and prefer to keep things minimalistic. Now this man would have a lot of books, and I mean a lot. Textbooks, notebooks, or just reading books honestly. Mainly to preoccupy/entertain himself tbh.

Fugo doesn’t have many people over but wouldn’t be outright unwilling to invite people. He’d invite maybe Narancia to help him study. Even Bruno or Giorno if they really had a reason to go over there. But he’d get very upset if anyone were to cause damage to any of his possessions ( which is why he doesn’t let Mista go over there lmaoo)

For some reason I could also see Fugo having a tiny aquarium in his house with pet goldfish. It just seems like something he’d have, just to be able to watch the little fishes swim around peacefully after a long day would definitely bring Fugo joy. He’d probably even name them after his favorite author or something (which would be so cute byee)

[heliads]

Would you do one where stark reader has such terrible night terrors and sleep paralysis episodes and Tony has run out of options to help her since therapy and med treatment aren’t working. So Thor suggests Loki to help. Even though Tony is reluctant he gives in to see if Loki can help. Lokis able to get into her mind while she sleeps to see why she’s having these episodes and finds an entity tormenting her. He’s able to defeat it and free her.

not sure if stark reader meant sister or daughter but to make the ages work i did sister, hope that's alright lol

masterlist

You really, really need to get some rest.

You’re fairly sure that you’re only a few seconds away from the whole world spinning, before your body gives up and just knocks you out itself. You haven’t been sleeping well, not for a while, not for months. This lack of sleep isn’t because you haven’t been able to force yourself into unconsciousness, quite the opposite. It’s because you’re too afraid of what you’ll see when you close your eyes.

You don’t know how to describe it. If what you saw when you went to bed were just nightmares, you’d be able to handle that. Everyone on the Avengers has nightmares, ranging from manifestations of guilt or an endless parade of their worst nightmares. Your brother, Tony, has them just the same as you.

However, your night terrors are different. It’s like you can feel yourself being ripped to pieces, but every time you wake, you’re hypothetically fine, other than the horrifying visions that refuse to leave your memories. You wake up in different places from where you went to sleep, and the amount of times when you’ve opened your eyes to find your hands dashed with blood is frightening, especially because you have no idea whose blood it is.

After a while of this, you’d gone to Tony for help. Surely, he’d be able to come up with something, right? Yet no matter how many medical studies or treatments you undergo, ranging from therapy to sleep assistive drugs, nothing seems to work. Every night, sleep still waits for you, and it terrifies you every time.

The worst part is that you’re not entirely sure that the other Avengers believe that this is truly happening. You tried to explain it to them, how you swear you can feel your mind trying to fight itself, that you feel so much pain and fear and paranoia that it’s probably going to drive you insane, but it wasn’t until J.A.R.V.I.S. was able to turn up security footage of you screaming your lungs out and trying to break out of the Avengers Tower at night while still asleep that they realized something was more wrong than just typical nightmares.

Now, they’re trying to wrack their brains, thinking of some way to fix you. You’re an invaluable member of the team, or at least you’d like to believe so, and therefore there are some pretty good reasons to solve this problem other than the fact that you’re a friend of theirs.

Besides, you want to get back to the field as soon as you can. Usually, you fight with the Avengers wearing your own modified version of the classic Stark suit. You helped Tony make his first model of the Iron Man suit, but in the time since you’ve designed your own. It’s less bulky than his, a little easier to move in. In fact, it’s more like panels of armor independently attached instead of a full on suit, which is less protective, but it still works out for you.

You love your suit, which is why the Avengers grounding you until you manage to figure out whatever is going on with your head is absolutely crushing. You can’t begin to name how many missions you’ve led, sprinting headlong into danger with your own inventions keeping you alive.

Now, though, you’re too far gone for them to trust. The only way you can keep the nightmares at bay is to simply not sleep at all, but it’s not like that’s a sustainable outcome. You’ve started hallucinating during the day, too, seeing enemies around every corner and trusting no one.

Your hands shake as you pour yourself the billionth cup of coffee in the past week. You’ll need to pay attention today, as Tony’s leading yet another ‘Find Out What’s Wrong With My Sister Or Else’ conference amongst the Avengers. The last few haven’t amounted to anything, but the thought counts.

However, today it seems as if you might be getting somewhere. Thor just arrived in town from another job up in Asgard, and his face is brightening with realization.

“I may have an idea. My brother, Loki, is well versed in the arts of the mind. He has some magic of his own, so he may be able to look around in Y/N’s mind and see if he can find anything unusual.”

Tony scoffs. “Yeah, right. There’s no way I’m letting that guy mess around in my sister’s head. I trust Loki about as far as I can throw him.”

Thor frowns. “Loki weighs 525 of your mortal pounds. I do not believe that you could throw him at all.”

Tony sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. A moment later, Thor beams. “Wait, I get it. It’s a joke, because you can’t trust him as far as you can throw him if you physically cannot throw him. You mean to say that you do not trust him at all. Very nicely done, Stark. That made me laugh.”

Natasha, who has been watching the proceedings with a barely concealed grin, steps forward. “Disregarding your analysis of Tony’s joke, I kind of understand what you’re saying, Thor. I mean, Loki’s history with the mind stone means that he’ll be even better at using his magic to understand the human brain. This might be one of our best shots.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Loki only has that experience with the mind stone because he stole it, brainwashing Clint in the process and trying to take over Earth. I mean, can we really trust him to not change my internal wiring while he’s in there?”

Thor shrugs. “No, but you cannot continue like this. You have to sleep at some point, and I believe my brother can help you before it grows too late. Besides, if he messes up your head, I will talk to him harshly about it.”

Tony snorts. “Not sure that punishment would really match up with Loki destroying Y/N’s brain, but alright. Y/N, what can we do to make this easier for you?”

You tap your fingers on your mug of coffee absentmindedly. As the days progress without sleep, it’s getting harder and harder to focus on long conversations.

“I don’t know that there is anything we can do. As much as I don’t like this, I like what’s going on in my head even less. If Loki can help me, I think that’s my only option. Nothing else has worked, why not this?”

Thor claps his hands together. “Excellent. I will alert my brother immediately. Do not fear, Y/N, I believe he will prove most useful.”

Loki does not feel like being most useful.

He was minding his own business, keeping to himself as instructed by most of the Avengers. In return for not being watched constantly both by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Asgardians, Loki has sworn to lay low and not trouble anyone. He was perfectly fine with this, and was assuming that Thor and his party of mortals would not bother him anymore.

Or, he believed that until his brother showed up at his door, clamoring about how he needed Loki to look inside some woman’s head and figure out why she couldn’t sleep. It sounded like a grievous misuse of his powers, Thor refused to leave until Loki agreed to come with him, and now Loki’s standing outside Avengers Tower, completely regretting most all of his life choices and wondering why he’s now become a somnologist without ever going to medical school.

He has, of course, been treated to the usual round of warnings by just about every Avenger there is. Tony Stark has single-handedly sworn to wring Loki’s neck himself if he so much as blinks when he’s not supposed to, and is glaring at Loki as he walks down the halls of the complex. Y/N insisted that no one else be there while Loki uses his magic, but that doesn’t stop Tony from resenting it.

Loki knocks on the door, and lets himself in a moment later. Y/N Stark seems nice enough; he’d never really had a chance to get to know her during his ill-fated attempt to conquer New York with the assistance of the Chitauri, but that’s likely for the best. She seems just about as excited about this as Loki is, but he can’t entirely blame her for that.

There are two chairs in the room. Y/N sits in one, so Loki takes the one opposite her. “Are you ready for this?”

Y/N shrugs. “No, but that doesn’t matter. Go work your brain magic.”

Loki smiles in spite of himself. “Well, with that stellar introduction, I can’t wait.”

She glares at him before letting her eyes flicker shut. Loki reaches out a hand to rest gently against her temples, and then looks. He’s not looking at her, he’s looking inside her, at a mind that is far more carefully regulated than most. He can see abstract emotions, distinct thoughts. Most of all, though, he can feel that there are a great many walls up, so many that it’s hard to get anywhere.

Loki sighs and pulls himself back out of her mind. “You do realize that I can’t do anything for you if you don’t let me, right?”

Y/N opens her eyes, frowning. “What are you talking about? You’re here, aren’t you?”

Loki gives her a pointed look. “Not the same thing. You’ve got so many mental blocks up that I can’t get anywhere without fighting you. If we want to find your problem, you have to let me find it first. I can’t battle both you and it.”

Y/N groans. “I thought you were supposed to be some great magic guy. Can you actually do this or not?”

Loki needs to curtail this situation now, because if Tony hears any more arguing he’s going to storm in and probably try to kill Loki without a second thought. “Yes, I can do this, but you have to relax.”

Y/N’s lips flatten. “I am relaxed.”

Loki arches an eyebrow. “You look more stressed than Thor whenever I pick up a knife.”

To his surprise, Y/N’s mouth twitches up in something almost like a smile. “I can’t blame him for that. Haven’t you stabbed him like a hundred times?”

Loki waves a hand dismissively. “Oh, way more than that. Now, can I do this or not?”

Y/N takes a slow breath in and out. “Okay. No more fighting.”

Loki leans towards her again. “Thank you.”

This time, Y/N’s eyes aren’t closed, but regard Loki curiously as he again reaches into her mind. She’s true to her word, and most of the mental blocks are gone, although a few remain to guard memories she’d probably prefer to keep secret.

Loki sifts past work stress and Avengers disputes until he reaches something, in between an emotion and a permanent memory. It’s dark, and brutal, and makes him rear back when he gets to it. “I think I found whatever’s causing your nightmares. It’s kind of awful.”

Y/N’s face contorts briefly with pain as she remembers it. “Yeah, that’s it.”

Loki’s shaking his head. “This can’t be right. There’s no way any human mind should be able to go through this kind of hurt. It’s unnatural.”

A memory is embedded deep within the dark shadow, and suddenly Loki realizes that he might know what this is. “Did this start at the same time as a mission? Roughly three months ago, you were out with the rest of the Avengers and when it ended, you started having these sorts of nightmares?”

Y/N frowns. “Yeah, actually.”

She knows what this is, Loki can sense it. Still, he presses on. “What happened on that mission? Talking through it might help.”

Y/N laughs, although it’s not a pleasant sound. “I already went to therapy, Loki. Please, do some spells instead of making me share how I feel.”

Loki’s fingers twitch at her temples as he tries to make sense of the foreign mess in her head. “This isn’t therapy, I’m trying to figure out what happened. Did you have to fight something magical?”

Y/N stills. “Yes. There was some kind of ancient witch, it had been reawakened when the Chitauri touched down and it was starting to destroy a town. We had to stop it.”

Loki nods. As Y/N talks, the mental storm changes, as if thinking about it helps draw it out. “And how did you stop it?”

Y/N’s eyes are filled with a sadness that makes Loki’s own heart twist in his chest. “We needed a way to contain it. There was an effigy resembling the witch buried in the ground, and it was unearthed when we were fighting. I found it and destroyed it.”

Loki knows now. “The spirit of the witch must have gone into you. That would be incredibly painful, though, and it’s surprising that you even survived. Did no one notice this happen?”

Y/N looks at Loki, and the truth in her gaze startles him. “Why would they? I solved the problem, they didn’t have to do anything more. No one thought twice about it.”

One of Loki’s hands drifts down from her temple to take Y/N’s, the only sort of comfort he feels he can provide. “They shouldn’t have done that. They should have noticed.”

Y/N lifts a shoulder. “Many things should have happened. We can’t afford for all of them to come true.”

There are many more things that Loki wants to say about this, but he doesn’t have time for it now. “At least now I can do something. I think I can pull the witch’s spirit out of your head, but we’re going to have to destroy it immediately before it manages to take complete form once again.”

Y/N nods, jaw set. “I’m ready.”

Loki nods. “I hope you are.”

He reaches into Y/N’s mind in earnest now, searching for the witch’s spirit. It doesn’t want to come easily, but eventually he’s pulling it out, forcing it from Y/N’s head. Flashes and sparks of green dance around Loki’s fingers, the corners of his vision, but still he continues.

Eventually, he gives one last great burst of effort, and Y/N’s eyes flash black briefly as the witch leaves her mind. Smoke pours from her mouth, and coalesces into a column of shadow in between the two of them.

“Now!”

Loki reaches for his knives, but he doesn’t have to go to the trouble. There’s the sound of something powering up, and then the shadow disappears in a blast of light. When the last of the smoke clears, Loki stares at Y/N, whose hand is up, encased in the familiar Iron Man metal that she and her brother had designed.

She glances over at him, registering his surprise. “Sorry, I probably should have told you that I was going to blast it. I wanted to take care of it, though. It was in my head, I wanted to destroy it once and for all.”

Loki isn’t judgmental, though, just proud. “I understand. You can rest now, Y/N.”

She smiles, looking utterly relieved. “Thank you, Loki. I mean it. This means more to me than you could know. I was so terrified that this whole problem was just me that having a concrete excuse like the witch is better, somehow.”

Loki takes her hand again, he can’t seem to stop. “It was no trouble. You deserve to be at ease, and even if there was no witch, it still wouldn’t be your fault. Not all mental troubles have to have an evil cause. Sometimes things just happen. That doesn’t make you any less of a person.”

Y/N laughs. “Careful, Loki, you almost sound like you care about more than my brother not killing you.”

Loki’s gaze is gentle. “Maybe I do.”

The look of quiet surprise on Y/N’s face is wonderful. Loki decides then and there that he might have to come back to Avengers Tower more often. There’s someone here he’d like to see again.

marvel tag list: @thatfangirl42,  @rogueanschel, @mycosmicparadise, @ellobruv-blog, @caswinchester2000, @with-inked-solace, @sher-lokid7

[soulmate-game]

Harley’s Plea for Help: Chapter 2

Chapter 1

“How long do you think it’s gonna take before she decides to sneak out?” Nightwing asked over his comms, lazily leaning against the balcony railing in front of him with his head resting on one hand.

“Dude, I started sneaking out almost twenty minutes ago,” a girl’s voice made Nightwing squeak and turn around, to reveal a teenage girl leaning against the door that led to the balcony he was on. “I didn’t want to draw attention to myself by doing unnecessarily showy gymnastics down from my hotel room’s balcony, no matter how much fun that would be, so I just snuck out one of the hotel’s back exits. Then I looked up to admire the moon and saw you here, staking out what is clearly my suite, and decided to come pay you a visit.”

“How long have you been there? And how did you even get behind me? I hope you didn’t break and enter, that’s an actual lived-in apartment behind us right now,” Nightwing asked, turning around to analyze the daughter of Harley Quinn for the first time in person.

She looked just like in her pictures, of course. Jet black hair like her father’s, except it seemed to have a bluish shine in the light. And her eyes were definitely Harley’s— thank goodness for that —vibrant blue and clearly analyzing him with the same amount of intensity as his did her. He had to bite back a chuckle. In a turn of complete irony, she really did look like a Wayne kid. Fit all of Bruce’s usual criteria to be adopted. But she was tiny, even smaller than Harley’s lithe form. He, Bruce, and Tim were of the hypothesis that the exposure both her parents had to Ace Chemical’s vats of acid likely had an effect on her DNA that stunted her growth. Perhaps there were other effects that they wouldn’t be able to figure out until they got to know her better, too, though it was clear that her skin was a likely one. It wasn’t unnaturally pale like her parent’s after their acid dips but it was paler than normal for sure, just a shade or two shy of being paper white.

And he could see, now, what Harley meant when she referred to Marinette as a powerhouse. It wasn’t very noticeable in pictures, but up close Dick could see the carefully honed muscle of an acrobat curling over her otherwise slim build. Combined with the knowledge that Marinette had been taught at least some serious self defense from a young age, he could see how such a tiny package could be a remarkable threat when necessary.

Marinette grimaced as the other Batfam, who were all nearby staking out her room from different angles, dropped onto the large balcony with them.

“Uh, well. I didn’t break and enter, I rather not get off to a criminal-ly start on my first night in Gotham, you know? But I realized that even though I was able to figure out the exact room you were staking me out from, I realized as soon as I got into the first floor of the building that I had no idea how to actually get to you. So I just climbed the stairs all the way to the roof and scaled my way down to this balcony, and pretended I’ve been here for a while when really I was barely able to hear you ask when I was gonna sneak out. I’m still out of breath, actually,” she put a hand on her chest and sure enough her breathing was still slightly fast. But not enough to be worrying or even all that noticeable. Yet another piece of evidence to show that she was a very active individual and had resistance built up to physical activity.

“Yup,” Robin groused grumpily, crossing his arms. “With all that rambling, you couldn’t be anyone else’s child but Quinzel’s.”

Marinette’s face immediately flushed pink all the way to her ears. “I’m sorry! I’ve been trying so hard to quit that habit, too!” She grumbled a bit to herself, putting her face in her hands. They all chuckled at the display. Red Hood ambled over, draping his arm over her shoulders (he nearly had to bend in half to do it, the height difference was that bad).

“As adorable as your freak out is, why’d you even come up here anyway? There’s no way you’d scale down a ten-story building just to say hello.”

She let out a heavy sigh at that, slowly peeling her face out of her hands. “Yeah, I recognized you guys right away. And honestly, as much as Momma Harley would be super proud of me for managing to give an entire group of vigilantes the slip, she’d also ground me for life if she found out that I saw you guys and still snuck away even though she probably swallowed her pride and asked you guys to babysit me, right? Self preservation. Contrary to popular belief, I do actually have some.”

“Wait,” Red Robin held up a hand, brows clearly furrowed under his cowl. “You expected her to ask for our help?”

“Well,” she made a so-so motion with her hand. “I didn’t think of it beforehand, but it all clicked once I saw Nightwing. I know how much my mom is worried about me, especially since you-know-who broke out a few days ago. She is more than worried enough to ask you guys for help. Even if she does complain about you guys, a lot actually, she also has made it clear that she trusts you guys with the stuff that actually matters.

“‘You know who’?” Batman repeated, arms crossed. If Marinette squinted, she thought there might have been a grin on his lips. “Is that how you always refer to him?”

“What else am I gonna call him?” she asked, face going deadpan. “Sperm donor? Source of a large amount of my self doubt and depreciation? The prime reason I haven’t been able to see my mom in person more often over the years? Oh, I know! How about I just always refer to him as ‘that bastard I wanna punch,’? That sounds good!” she rolled her eyes sarcastically. “Only one person in this world has the right to be considered my father in any capacity, and it sure as hell isn’t him. Genetics notwithstanding.”

Red Hood straight up guffawed at that, landing several rough pats on her back that made the girl stumble a bit. “Yep, I like this one! But as fun as it would be to see you give that jackass a mean left hook, it’s better if he never finds out who you are or knows that you’re here,” the vigilante’s voice got dark and serious very quickly. “He doesn’t forget people he finds interesting easily, and if he ever finds out about the connection you have to him, he’ll be a constant threat in your life.”

“I know,” Marinette agreed with a nod. “And if this conversation was happening two years ago, I’d say that my mom’s concerns aren’t unfounded. That I am too easily emotionally compromised and despite my deep seated issues and hatred for that man, I couldn’t guarantee he would be unable to get to me.”

Batman straightened up, as did all of his sons around him. None of them had missed the ‘if’ there. Batman’s voice went from charmingly deep to it’s usual gruff grumble. “What changed in two years?”

They all watched as Marinette gulped, taking a deep breath as she stalled for time, looking out at the view on the balcony before seeming to steel herself and return her gaze to Batman’s. When she did, it was suddenly full of iron will.

“I didn’t lie when I told Mom that I came to visit her— but that isn’t the whole truth, either. If I just wanted to visit her in Gotham, I would have waited until I was eighteen like we agreed. But I can’t wait, Paris can’t keep going on like this. I entered that contest because it was the fastest way to see you. I didn’t know if I would win, but… I had to take the chance. There was no way I’d be able to get to Gotham behind my mom’s back otherwise.”

“What are you talking about?” Robin hissed, stepping up to his father’s side. “Paris has been silent. If anything were happening, we would have heard about it by now.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Marinette corrected, never losing that ironclad look in her eyes. “Because a combination of magic and politics is keeping it quiet. No news about Paris’ situation is able to leave the city limits. Magic makes any non-native who leaves Paris think that everything they experienced was just a crazy dream. Natives won’t forget, but politics has all of us under very strict NDAs if we leave city boundaries, and all of our local news and social media is blocked from being accessed by anyone outside the city. But, I figured a little breaking of the rules wouldn’t exactly put a stain on my family’s reputation or anything, so,” she dug in her pocket and pulled out a thumb drive, holding it up for all of them to see. She swallowed again, but never stopped her eye contact with Batman. She held out the thumb drive.

“I came to Gotham to ask for your help. This sped things up, I didn’t expect to see you on my first night here, but two years in Hawkmoth’s Paris has really taught me how to roll with the punches. This,” she shook the thumb drive. “Holds videos of every fight since HawkMoth first showed up. It has all the information I’ve gathered over two years, tracks his movements and lists all his targets and— everything. But I’m not a detective, I’m a designer. I make clothes, I spar on the weekends, I am not good at getting evidence to prove that someone is a magic-abusing villain holding an entire city hostage.”

“We’re gonna need some details, Little Q,” Red Hood finally removes his arm from around her shoulders, instead crossing his arms and looking down at her sternly. “If your city has a villain holding it hostage, is anyone fighting him? And if you do have someone fighting him, why don’t you need our help, or why didn’t they call the Justice League? The JLE should be in Paris, right?”

Marinette snorted, face scrunching up in obvious distaste. “I’ll have to answer those a little out of order. First; the JLE was kicked out of Paris. They moved their headquarters to Italy about five years ago, I’m just surprised they apparently kept that secret from you,” she gestured to all of them, who indeed seemed very caught off guard by that tidbit. But Marinette just sighed and continued. “Though that’s a good thing, actually. We do have heroes, it started out as just a pair but it’s grown into a small team out of necessity. They didn’t call the Justice League because the last thing we need is any powered heroes coming in and making it worse— your league doesn’t have the best reputation for letting newer heroes take the lead even on their home turf, you know,” she pointed out, which made Batman shift a bit guiltily. He knew the JL was often a bit… heavy handed in their methods.

“What makes the situation so bad that you don’t want to bring experienced heroes into it?” Red Robin cut in, sounding as if the whole situation was a puzzle he was determined to sort out. Which, really, was exactly what Marinette had been counting on. She shot him a finger gun, grinning.

“That’s exactly the point! Hawkmoth uses a magical artifact, like I said— but this artifact can brainwash anybody who experiences even the slightest negative emotion. Sadness, anger, fear— anything negative. And it gives them powers, but puts them largely under his influence,” her expression twisted again, this time into a wry little grimace. “I guess you can say that my momma’s psychiatry background has secretly come in handy a lot over these past two years. And Hawkmoth is exactly why I try to tell Momma Harley to stop visiting me— I have worked my butt off to keep her from finding out about his attacks or getting Akumatized. Every time she shows up it gives me a heart attack!”

“Akumatized?”

Marinette waved a hand dismissively. “It’s the term used for when someone is turned into a super powered villain because of HawkMoth. The brainwashing— really it’s more similar to a straight up corruption. The person usually lacks their usual moral compass, and just seeks to soothe whatever set off their negative emotion in the first place. Usually, that means they seek a bloody revenge. And if someone who already has extensive training or extremely strong powers gets Akumatized, guess what?” She made jazz hands even though her face was deadpan. “Extra powers, or amplified ones, for the metas or superheroes who are Akumatized. And imagine what someone with, say, Batman’s level of experience could do if he had powers and no moral compass,” the silence that followed her words was deafening. She just nodded, knowing she had gotten her point across. “I’ve been working my butt off to stay positive, because if I’m Akumatized…” her shoulders fell, and she had to swallow a lump in her throat. “... I have no idea what I’d turn into, but if you take into consideration both my training and my family history… it’s really best if we never find out what kind of magic-powered supervillain I’d make.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Nightwing said after another long moment of silence for that to all sink in. He gestured at her with an open palm. “You’ve been dealing with a terrorist for two years who targets emotional vulnerability, you apparently have never been corrupted by this magic at least to present day, but your mother still worries about you being very emotionally fragile. And your heroes are not detectives, which is clearly what you need or you wouldn’t have asked us for our help.”

Marinette nodded. “I used to be very impressionable. At the start of all this, I was a huge people-pleaser. I got attached to new people in a matter of minutes. My mom always said I reminded her too much of herself— but two years of fighting off a guy trying to get into my head—“

“Wait,” Batman nearly barked, taking a step forward. “He’s been targeting you? You specifically?”

Marinette nodded grimly, mouth a straight line. “Not from the beginning, but this past year it’s been painfully obvious. He might be able to sense the strength of people’s emotions, and unfortunately I don’t exactly experience my emotions very… gently. All of my emotions tend to the much more intense side of the spectrum. If that’s true, then he might know that any negative emotion I feel will make an extremely strong Akuma. Either that, or he’s going by process of elimination. All of my friends, except for one, have been Akumatized already. So has my Papan and my grandmother. But it’s obvious when he’s targeting someone, I’ve felt him try to override my will on several occasions. But I can’t just repress all of my negative emotions forever, so consider us working against the clock right now. That thumb drive has all the details you need about our heroes, how exactly Hawkmoth’s powers work, and so on.”

“Do your heroes know you’re asking for our help?” Red Robin asked, gaze burning a figurative hole through Marinette’s face. “Better yet, if this drive has as much information as you say it does, how did you get it?”

Marinette handed the drive over to Batman, who finally took it and tucked it in his belt as she answered.

“Momma Harley might have a lot to say about your detective skills, but you are all still strangers to me. So consider this a test of your abilities— I expect that you will all go to extreme lengths to verify all of the information I gave you anyway. After all, I’m still the daughter of your most hated enemy. Right?” She met each of their gazes, one by one, with a challenging one of her own. “You’ll just have to figure out my connection to the heroes on your own. And how I got the information, too. It shouldn’t be too hard for the so-called world’s greatest detectives. And maybe this can double as a trust exercise. I fully expect you guys to scour through every inch of my past, and dig up everything you can on me. I encourage you to try to find everything you can, so that hopefully you can decide to trust me on your own once you have all the details laid out in front of you. By the way, for your own sanity? I’d start with reading about all of our heroes’ powers and abilities before you watch any footage of past attacks.”

Red hood rocked back on his heels, trading glances with the other vigilantes before they all shared a nod. Apparently having decided their course of action, Red Hood leaned down and hoisted Marinette up into a princess carry. All traces of her previous iron will melted away in favor of the high pitched squeal of surprise she gave, and once more she became an overly flustered teenager.

“Alright, little cutie. Let’s get you to your mom’s place before she and her crazy plant lady fiancé come hunting us down.”

“I can walk! I can freerun on my own! Mon dieu please let me down! Eeeeek!” She squealed again as Robin slapped a domino mask over her eyes and Red Hood wasted no time jumping over the balcony railing with her still in his arms. The fact that they were lowered down by a wire wrapped around Hood’s waist didn’t seem to take away any of the fright that came with a sudden drop over an eighth-story balcony.

Part 1

@emotionalsupportginger @alysrose-starchild @emistar0 @kibastray @justanotherfanficlovinbitch @alyssadeliv @blackroserelina @blackstarlight-co @readingalldaysleepingallnight @maanae @aespades @jaybird-and-co @fleursroses @probably-a-hologram @misterpianoman (didn’t work sorry)

[austarus]

HR Wells x Reader - Reversal of Denouement

*A/N: The picture/edit/gif does not belong to me. It belongs to its rightful owner.

**Please don’t forget to comment, like, and reblog. It means a lot to content creators of all kinds!

***I’d also like to thank @grimtamlain-writes​ for being my beta reader.

Word Count: 8251

MASTERLIST

A low groan left HR's lips. His body felt numb, his chest ached - tingled as his heart beats steadily. Is it beating? The darkness of his eyelids eased the stinging coming from his mind – it wasn’t so bright. The headache formed there. His body screamed at him as the novelist made the slightest of movement. His left shoulder in particular had protested in desperate agony. He couldn’t move it very much, the area succumbed to restraints of some sort. HR’s throat felt raw as his body throbbed, the blood coursing meticulously through his blood vessels. The sound of a soft voice greeted his ears, but his eyes refused to open.

"I... you, HR... even if... see it." The voice was so familiar, so gentle. So sweet. "Should... better." A drop of water hit his numbed hand, static still prominent there from the little movement his body had done. “I wish…” The dark-haired doppelganger could only understand fragments of what the speaker was saying. He felt a pressure on his hand, tender skin holding onto his before something tickled his forehead. Feather-light. What was it? Who was it? A few moments passed and he heard nothing, the novelist only assumed that the voice’s owner had left. He didn’t want to be alone right now though, not with the darkness.

It had become unbearable.

Since... Since when did…? How...? Oh. Right. Savitar... Am I dead? Is this where spirits wait for their turn to pass into their designated afterlife? Have I really...? Events from earlier resurfaced to his mind, his senses coming together. Right, had to protect Iris. For Barry – it was my fault Savitar had gotten to her. My big mouth. Even if Barry didn't really see me as a helpful friend. At least... At least I proved Savitar wrong, who ironically is a version of Barry. That's hella twisted. He huffed out a breath before venturing back into the calmness of sleep. Maybe a little more rest will help?

***

HR cracked an eye open: this time, harsh filtered light had greeted him. The novelist grunted in pain, adjusting himself slightly to assess where he was. What day was it? What was the time? How long have I  been here? A yawn left his lips this time, his throat and mouth as dry as a desert.

“Well look who finally decided to wake up?” HR’s eyes met Cisco’s, who stood with a tablet in hand. “How’s sleeping beauty feeling?”

The Wells doppelganger cleared his throat. “Like I’ve gotten assaulted by an Amtrack bus, and not the good kinds.” HR’s baby blue eyes scanned the room, landing on the flower vase that was set on a table near him. Blue forget-me-knots and pink hydrangeas stood proudly in their vases, nurtured well. HR felt his heart swell, his eyes not daring to leave the delicate petals that accented the med bay in better tones. Cisco handed him a cup of water to which HR downed it immediately.

“Amtrack does trains.”

“Not on my Earth, Francisco.” The author couldn’t help but ask, his eyes lingering on the flowers once more. “Did Tracy bring those?”

Cisco pursed his lips, an odd look present on his face. He wanted to tell HR, but… “No. Um, she didn’t.” Tracy had been visiting, though it had become some sort of a nuisance to all her complaining at this point. She hadn’t even known HR for that long, anyway.

“Oh?” His shoulders dropped subtly in disappointment. “They’re beautiful, I was just wondering and…”

“Let’s just say, a special someone’s been… dropping by and bringing a new flower each day. That’s all you’re getting from me, Aurora.” Cisco reasoned with the Wells doppelganger. The mechanical genius knew, but it wasn’t his place to say. It killed him, but… “I wouldn’t move around too much, if I were you. You’ve got a fractured shoulder and that chest wound. I’ve been told to relay the message that you’re to be on strict bed rest until that shoulder further heals.” HR lowered his gaze to see the cross-body sling. He clenched his slinged hand and unclenched it to bring some feeling into the limb.

“What about my chest?”

“Miraculously, that’s been healing really well since day one.” Cisco kept the talk real, showing the injured doppelganger the schematics and pictures. “You got lucky that it missed your heart by a centimeter.” A stab wound like that should have… I wonder if she knows that I know.

HR blinked at the seriousness in his injury, the looming idea of death from his decision. “How long was I out?”

“A week and a half.”

“What?” HR’s eyes widened in disbelief. “I-”

“HR!” Tracy’s sudden voice pierced the room, stunning Cisco and triggering an ache in HR’s head. The grad scientists shuffled over to him, both forgetting that Cisco was in the room. “HR, my love, how are you? Are you feeling okay? Is there any pain?” He continued checking his friend’s vitals and adjusting dosages to the IV and morphine administered – as per your request. The room was growing ever louder with HR and Tracy. Tracy embraced him, minding his injuries as she continued to fuss over him. It made the Wells writer smile, yet… his heart didn’t swell as much as it used to.

Odd.

Cisco sent you a quick text while the two were preoccupied, but you were already at the Labs. You stopped just outside the entrance, the wall and dimly light hallway obscuring you from who remained in the med bay. They wouldn’t be able to see you from where you stood.  A shaky breath left you as you clutched the Freesia flower in hand. Your heart shriveled in your chest as you backtracked. Hearing his voice is enough. After all, with Tracy around you couldn’t be near him – those dirty and hateful looks she’d send you. Best to keep my distance, I guess. You couldn’t help but sneak a peek at him though, the man who had unknowingly captured your heart and would never reciprocate your love. You pushed down the lump in your throat. Hastily, you sent Cisco a text to check on the flowers. Silently, you trailed away from the med bay and to the upper levels of STAR Labs. I wonder if he liked the flowers. Standing at such altitude with the wind blowing lightly had calmed you a bit. Looking down at the flower, you gripped it tightly before you began to pick off the petals one by one. The little moments you had with the goofy novelist surfaced to the forefront of your mind with each petal you held. Your little curious escapades. The little talks. The nights you’d visit him when Tracy wasn’t around.

“He loves me, he loves me not,” You murmured, a stray tear trickled down your cheek. The freesia symbolizes unconditional love and honor. “He loves me, he loves me not,” Your voice cracked as more tears fell. “He loves me, he loves me not…”

***

A frown presented itself on HR’s lips as he tilted his head to crack his neck. The crack relieved him tremendously. It didn’t make sense. The novelist mused to himself, setting aside the current chapter draft he was working on. The voice I heard was… different. It didn’t sound like Tracy’s. HR couldn’t get that voice out of his mind – the tenderness that was laced in the tone of that voice. Nothing like the slight shrill in Tracy’s. He eyed the flowers once more that day, their presence was prominent. If Tracy hadn’t brought those, then who had?

The team had helped situate HR in his room in order to vacate the med bay should another imminent event occur. He had overheard Cisco tell Wally that you were preoccupied with something in Star City – a bit of disappointment twinged inside him. HR had taken up doing bits of physical therapy for the rest of his body without moving his shoulder as much. His shoulder and arm remained in a crossbody sling. The flowers sat on his bedside counter; he tended to them as best as he could with the limited movement he had. Tracy protested that they don’t need to be around, but the novelist was vehement on keeping the plants. HR won’t deny the fact that he had gotten annoyed several times with her around when he needed thinking space for his writing. He couldn’t write with noise and nonsensical chatter, especially if it’s mainly coming from someone who doesn’t want to really listen to his input. She’d go on and on about her scientific research and such, but wouldn’t hear a word from HR regarding his writing. The longer the novelist was confined to his room for rest, the more he had time to think – to contemplate. Yes, he liked Tracy, but… it just seemed that she didn’t really see HR. She does all the talking; she doesn’t really ask about how I feel about things or ask me about my life, even things about Earth-19… It’s like she doesn’t see me for anything other than a pretty face. It’s not even my face that Tracy sees, just Randolph’s. Was I too quick to jump at the first person who showed interest in me? Had I rushed into ‘forever’ with her?

He tabled those thoughts for now. HR reached for his laptop; one hand opened it to start it up. While the device loaded, he grabbed his black-clear glasses and set them on his face. If anyone saw him as such, they wouldn’t be able to tell the physical difference between him and his handsome, yet grumpy doppelganger. Except for the eyebrow scar, but that was obscured by the glasses. HR did a couple of searches with a concentrated look. Surely, it was the person with that… angel-like voice.

“Hydrangeas,” HR whispered as his eyes skimmed over the text that had popped up. “The hydrangea represents gratitude, grace and beauty. It also radiates abundance because of the lavish number of flowers and the generous round shape. Its colors symbolize love, harmony and peace.” The Wells doppelganger scrolled further. “Pink hydrangeas symbolize heartfelt emotions.” Interesting. HR continued his research, glancing at the other flower type that resting in the vase. “Forget-me-nots symbolize true love and respect. When you give someone these tiny blooms, it represents a promise that you will always remember them and will keep them in your thoughts. They are also considered a symbol of fidelity and faithfulness.” A particular link caught his eye, he clicked on it. The novelist read to himself the text once more, “Based on Christian lore, the story about forget-me-nots is that God was walking in the Garden of Eden. He saw a blue flower and asked it its name. The flower was a shy flower and whispered that he had forgotten his name. God renamed the flower as forget-me-not saying that He will not forget the flower.”

HR swallowed thickly; contrary to popular belief around here, he wasn’t stupid. Sure, he wasn’t a science-based genius, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t an expert on other aspects of life and had basic common sense. The author was emotionally intelligent and intact with the world around him. These flowers weren’t picked out on accident. But who would do that? Who doesn’t want me to forget about them? The dark-haired man shook his head slightly as he shut his laptop. A surge of sadness welled inside him at the notion of ‘being forgotten’. Who had he done that to? He’d get to the bottom of this mystery in due time. Right now, I need to jog my memory on what I was writing. A hand found a rough draft paper, his eyes scanned over the words he had typed out. His brows creased as the written notes he’d made on the paper as well. (Y/N) … I had… What had I been writing about again? The novelist read each line, each note he had made no drafts and scratch paper.

The hairs at the back of his neck stood up as realization hit him the more he had read on. The drafts, the notes, all of it – the little novel he had been writing regarding his adventures. But this particular part of his story – the ‘angel’ in his story. The one who stuck by him since coming here, the one who had given him a safe space… And the one he hadn’t seen since waking up. How could he forget? HR lowered the paper; his eyes became half-lidded as guilt shot through him. Before Barry had gone to the future and gotten hints of Tracy with her Speed Bazooka, HR had been working on his book. A book that he had pushed off to stick with Tracy and help in any way that he can to make the speed weapon possible. He had gotten distracted from doing the things he loves. A few conjectures arose in his mind as he slipped his glasses off, one arm end pressed to his lips. His heart hammered into his chest; you were among the last faces he had seen before passing out that night.

The irony. How could I forget that (Y/N) was the ‘angel’ in my story?

***

“Look at you, up and at ‘em.” Cisco strolled into the lounge with a cheeky grin. The mechanical genius didn’t take HR for granted anymore, not with the stunt he pulled. No, Cisco willingly checked up on him – not just for you, but for himself. HR had truly become one of his close friends in the end, especially with all the advice about Gypsy. “What are you cooking up this time?”

“Just an omelet with a side of bacon and toast, Francisco,” HR turned to the mechanical engineer who continued to tinker away at the schematics to get Barry out of the Speedforce. He offered Cisco some with a gesture only for the scientist to politely decline. “I haven’t seen (Y/N) anywhere. Um, is she also…?”

“Oh, you know how she’s like. Either up in the vents or chilling in her birds’ nest on the roof. And on that note, our resident hummingbird has become quite the firecracker.”

HR raised an eyebrow at his friend. “How so?”

“She punched Savitar square in the face then decked him multiple times over when Barry brought him in. Harry had to be the one to pull her away – well, more like carry her away kicking and screaming bloody murder at him. It sounded badass; wish I had been there to see it.”

The Wells doppelganger gritted his teeth at the mental image of Harry carrying you – touching you. The thought ruffled his feathers for some reason.  HR expertly masked his irritation, turning the stove off and assembling the food on his plate. “Why?”

“Because he hurt you, HR.”

“…”

“He almost killed you.” And that was unforgivable, especially to her. “We almost lost you. She almost lost you.”

A rough sigh escaped HR as Cisco had sent him a knowing look before exiting the STAR Labs lounge. The Earth-19 man chewed on the inside of his cheek. Only a fool would misunderstand Cisco’s subtle intentions. HR knew what he had to do �� he’d been reflecting on his time here, thinking about the people around him, about the relationships he’s formed. The novelist glanced outside – the sun shined, the birds chirped, and the trees rustled with the wind. 

And the world continues to move on.

***

“When are you going to tell him?”

“…” You tensed at the abrupt voice. You snapped your head up, eyes darting to find Cisco approaching you with pocketed hands in his gray-black jacket. He wore a Bulbasaur shirt. The clouds surged by with the intensity of the breeze. Your hair blew over your shoulders slightly. Tilting your head, you turned back to watch the city. Days had passed and you refused to see HR, content on what Cisco had been telling you. He’d been recovering tremendously well, but… you didn’t really want to hear about what he and Tracy were up to. It wounded you. “Tell who, what?”

“You know exactly who I’m talking about, Ms. I’m-going-to-put-my-feelings-in-a-box.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Ohohohoho, no. I am tired of the love eyes, the lingering gazes, the pining. It ends.” Your best friend came to sit down next to you with that frustrated look on his face. “I know you have powers.” Your heart stopped in your chest at his accusation. “I know you used your powers to heal HR.” You bit down on your lip, not wanting to validate his statement. Cisco saw “I analyzed the wounds, looked at his healing at a microscopic level. I’m not Caitlin, but even I can pick up a few things. His cells were excelled to heal, but there were residues of your genetic markers at the wound point. You stitched his wounds together, cell-by-cell. My point is: why didn’t you say anything? Your powers are a-”

“-A curse.”

“What?”

“They’re a curse.” You threw a hard look at Cisco, making sure your hands wouldn’t touch him. “I can’t be playing God, Cisco. And… it’s unpredictable, volatile. I could either heal the life in my hands or take it away. I could rip someone ‘cell-by-cell’, Cisco. There’s no ‘in between’, not this time. He got lucky with my powers. He got lucky I didn’t make things 100% irreversible.”

“But why didn’t you say anything?” Cisco eyed the gloves you wore; it wasn’t the season for leather gloves.

“Because I didn’t want to give anyone false hope.”

“You don’t want to give yourself false hope, you mean.”

“…I can’t even heal a plant, Cisco. No matter how hard I tried, it wilted further. It’s a curse.”

“That’s not guaranteed every time, you know. It takes practice – discipline to get your powers to work with you instead of for you.” He nudged your shoulder with his, turning his gaze to the flock of birds drifting through the wind. “You know, he broke up with Tracy.”

“Ok?”

“Happened a week ago. She didn’t take it well and let me tell you. Tracy Brand was livid – the rage and yelling were off the charts. I think she has Harry beat. I knew it wasn’t going to last anyway, it was too superficial to begin with.”

“Uh huh.” You tried to sound uninterested, but deep down you were relieved. You heard a little ring in your ear. You wondered…

“She’s gone, won’t be coming here anymore.

“Ok.”

“So, go make your move.”

You turned abruptly to face him. “Cisco, have you thought that maybe HR doesn’t want to dive into a relationship right away? That… maybe he needs space to focus on himself?” All were things you had contemplated for yourself before.

“And what better way to do that than with a new roommate.”

“Excuse me?”

“Surprise, you’re getting a temporary roommate while we fully fix up things around the labs. I volunteered you since you have the space and the patience to deal with HR.” Your blood froze in your veins.

“Francisco Ramon, I am going to-”

“-Thank me, you’re going to thank me.” He had already breached away before you had the chance to strangle him. Heat rushed to your cheeks at the idea of HR living with you, even if it was a temporary living arrangement. You scolded your heart for beating loudly in your chest. One hand gripped tightly to your other. An audible sigh escaped you as your mind played with the idea.

Shit, what am I going to do?

***Day 1***

Cisco blew out an exhausted breath, setting down another box on top of a box in the guest room. You and the mechanical genius had been breaching back and forth with HR’s things as said novelist was crippled. His arm would take about another four weeks to heal. About 20 percent of shoulder fractures are displaced and may require some type of manipulation to restore normal anatomy. Occasionally the rotator cuff muscles are injured or torn at the same time as the fracture. Fortunately for HR, his rotator cuff muscles weren’t as damaged. This can further complicate the treatment. Therefore, in that time, HR would just be handling the lighter stuff, bless his heart. The novelist entered the room with his black backpack slung over his functioning shoulder – it was the last thing that he could carry.

“I think there’s one more box left,” HR pointed with his thumb towards his back direction, the breach closing behind him.

“I’ll go get it, not a problem. Why don’t you two get started on unpacking, huh?” HR shrugged with one shoulder and stepped away to set his bag down by the bed. Cisco threw a cheeky look your way when HR had his back turned, his eyebrows wiggling. ‘Have fun love birds,’ the scientist had mouthed at you. You flicked him off with a deadpanned look. Instantly you dropped it when the Wells doppelganger turned as Cisco snickered before he breached away. He gave you a confused look, but you waved it off.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For allowing me to stay obviously. And for all the help since I’m, well, a bit tangled up at the moment.”

He was referring to the cross-body sling that clung onto him like a spider. HR rubbed the back of his neck, and you didn’t miss the way his bicep flexed at the motion in that gray short-sleeve shirt. Calm the fuck down, it’s just a toned muscle. You’ve seen things like that before.  The puppy-like smile HR sent you had your cheeks warming up. The gentle smile that made your heart melt all over again. You cleared your throat as you reached for a box. “It’s no big deal, HR.” Undoing the tape seal with scissors, you opened the box- and the first thing you see are a pair of handcuffs accompanied by a silky black blindfold.

“What’s in the box?”

A little noise left you as you shut the flaps of the box, trying to seal it again. The flaps remained downward in the box. “Nope, nothing. Just some clothes here. I’m going to get that one box from the living room.” You had backtracked right into the door, your nose throbbed in response at the collision. “Ow,” you muttered to yourself, rubbing the skin.

“You ok?”

“I’m fine,” your response was quick, but not rude. A deep chuckle made its way to your ears as you scrambled out the room, your heart hammering in your chest. Your thoughts scolded you for being so awkward and flustered around him. Be cool, just chill out… The man you’re hopelessly in love with is just living with you temporarily, it’s not like anything will amount from this. You picked up the last box in the living room, hoping that just clothes would be in here and not anymore kink toys. I mean… I have toys, too. AW SHIT, I HAVE TO HIDE THEM!

HR’s eyes never left you as you made your panicked exit. He let out a little breath before shuffling over to the box you had been attending to. Immediately, he face-palmed hard when he had opened it with one hand. His face felt impossibly hot at what you had seen. She must think I’m an idiot or something. His mind thought back to when you helped him shop for some new clothes then it had gotten ruined from a meta. His hand fell away from his face, the image of your kind grin imprinted in his mind. I am an idiot, though. A fool.

Once Cisco returned, you three continued unpacking HR’s things for the time he’d spend here. The labs were still in ‘piss-poor’ shape according to Cisco and that he’ll need to consult with Harry and Wally regarding repairs.

“HR, how are you showering?”

“Um, like a normal person?” A dumbfounded look crossed HR’s features as he set the plate of sandwiches down. The novelist had knitted his eyebrows at Cisco. He had taken up to experimenting in the kitchen when he wasn’t writing. The tea and coffee were still brewing in your kitchen.

“No, I mean with how your shoulder is injured,” Cisco snuck an evil look at you, you returned it with a glare, “must be hard handling it alone.” You knew exactly where this dumbass wanted to take this conversation, so you stayed silent as to not get caught in the crossfire.

HR thought to himself for a moment. “Just a bit, but I’ve gotten used to the mild discomforts and pain. I can mostly reach everything thanks to my long limbs. But I think the nice thing is that it’s an internal issue, not an external one. An external injury or wound would require me to really have help with showering that way the area doesn’t get infected or irritated with the contents of soaps.” A laugh fell from his lips, but his mind wondered what his friend was playing at while you were around.

“I’m just saying, if you ever need a hand well,” Cisco trailed off with a smirk, chomping on his third sandwich.

Oh, I see. Devious, but a futile effort. “I’ll make sure you’re the first one I ask for help,” HR teased with a smirk of his own for Cisco to drop his in disgust. A cough escaped you, which had HR’s eyes land on you. Your eyes met for a moment before you deviated your gaze. HR felt hypnotized for a moment. Hm… The engineer quickly recovered from HR’s snide remark.

“Alright kids, I’ll be going now. The labs require some diligent work that I, a capable and distinguished engineer, could only do.”

“Yet, we still have the occasional security issues,” You sipped your tea once the snarky comment was out. HR stifled a chuckle, but you heard it. The corners of your mouth lifted slightly at the notion.

“Hey, that’s not fair. They always come up with something new to invade our space by.” Cisco pointed a finger at you, mocking a hurtful expression on his face. It dropped into a sneaky smile. “Make good choices and always use protection, you two!” He breached away before you could throw your cup at him.

***Multiple Days Pass***

Through his time here, you noticed HR fueled to write what’s on his mind in the guest room. You could only assume that he continued his adventure story. Sometimes he would venture out for some coffee or take a walk to give his creativity a break. Keeping that in mind, you gave HR the space he needed as well as all noises to a minimum. You knew he liked the quiet atmosphere to pour his heart and soul into words as he did research for a scene. Pulling your jacket on, you compiled a list of groceries before you stepped out of your apartment. Locking the door, you headed out to the store picking up a few necessities as well as some snacks for HR. Like Harry, the novelist can easily lose himself in his task – which meant that he tended to forget about eating and such. You found a bag of Jitters coffee beans, adding it to your cart of items. Buying some snacks and fruit, you’d leave a note in the kitchen of the snacks when he emerged from his writing cave.

On the way back, you stopped by at Iris’ studio to check up on her. A few groceries for her as well were in hand. Cecile and you did your best to visit Iris. But you can’t deny that you blamed her to a certain extent. Had she spoken up once she had left Savitar’s place disguised as HR, HR wouldn’t have been hurt that night on Infantino Street. Surely, she could have contacted her father or Cisco or something. The transition could have been smoother. HR wouldn’t have been… The journalist was faring; she pushed through the pain and as Barry had told her ‘to keep living’. So, Iris did. She hadn’t been herself since Barry went into the Speedforce – she pushed too much, the smile wouldn’t reach her eyes sometimes. You sympathized; she lost the love of her life. But you almost had too.

“How are you?”

“I’m fine, just… taking it one day at a time.” You nodded at her response, a small smile on your face. “How are things with you and HR? I heard of the temporary living conditions.”

“It’s fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. I’m in my bubble and he’s in his doing his writing.”

“Right. Nothing going on whatsoever?”

“Iris.”

Iris set her cup of hot chocolate down and raised both hands in mock defeat. “We all saw it. We all see it.”

“See what?”

“How smitten you are for him.”

“I’m not-”

“-Don’t say you’re not. If you weren’t you, Harry wouldn’t have to pry you off Savitar before you clawed his eyes out.”

“…” You just looked into your tea, the honey that settled at the bottom. Iris placed a sympathetic hand on your shoulder, but you didn’t look at her.

“The heart will want what it wants, (Y/N). Pushing your feelings into a box and denying it out loud won’t change things.”

“I know.”

And my heart wants him, over and over again. Even if he can’t see me.

***

HR tapped his pencil against the desk at a steady pace. His mind wouldn’t focus on the words in front of him, on the scene he wanted to set. Instead, it kept drifting further from it. Further towards you: your eyes, your smile, the kindness that you held; the serenity that your existence held as the world continued to turn and chaos had unfolded at each turn. HR didn’t see much of you while he was here, the novelist missed your company. You were here, but you weren’t really here. You were either in your room or at the balcony with a book or on the couch with your Switch. He didn’t want to bother you, but… sometimes HR just wanted to sit beside you and pull you close to talk. To hold you in his arms and ask you about your day, to understand what you were thinking. HR cracked his back in a stretch from where he sat on his bed, being mindful of his injured shoulder. It didn’t hurt as it had originally done a few weeks back. The Wells doppelganger noticed that you were careful to avoid touching him or him touching you. Not even a hug that you used to graciously give him. You were especially guarded with your hands. A rough sigh left him as he threw his pencil down. The frustration was setting in, he was getting nowhere. You consumed his thoughts. HR wondered if you were revolted by him but doesn’t verbalize his thoughts to you. He didn’t think you’d give him your truthful answer. Maybe she is revolted by me. She did find the cuffs and the blindfold… No, she knew about the cuff stage thing well before that.

The sound of the front door greeted his ears followed by the soft tune of music. A frown made its way onto his face. Might as well take a break. HR stretched once more when he fully stood up, a little noise of relief left his lips. He cracked his back once more before smelling himself. For safe measure, the novelist sprayed a bit of cologne on himself and turned off the candle he had on. He mentally noted to take a shower after dinner since his last was yesterday. He liked the feeling of being clean, to be honest. HR carded a hand through his hair. I need a haircut soon, too. Yeesh, I feel like I’m letting myself go. Once I’m all healed it’s back to proper cuts and the labs’ recreation room. He wanted to go back to lifting weights and doing yoga for body stability purposes – especially now because of his shoulder. HR rested a hand on his chest, the wound had healed completely, but a scar remained. Upon entering the kitchen, he saw the groceries on the table and heard you whisper along with the lyrics. The music was set to a low level that your whispers were audible enough. He watched you sway a bit with the tune.

So please don't break my heart

Don't tear me apart

I know how it starts

Trust me I've been broken before

Don't break me again

I am delicate

Please don't break my heart

Trust me I've been broken before

The guitar tune pulled at his heart, feeling the raw emotion behind the lyrics. He eyed you for a moment. HR cleared his throat to make his presence known, he knew you didn’t like to be snuck up on. However, a little gasp left you from where you were. “You went out shopping?”

You looked up from where you crouched to put away the cereal. “Uh yeah, we were running low on some stuff.” You shut the cabinet and went to the other items you had bought. The music continued to delicately play.

“Need any help?”

“Um, sure. Uh, just set these into the cabinet on the left.” Normal, be normal. He’s not going to eat you or anything. Distance is good. Distance keeps you safe. You didn’t meet his eyes, the eyes that’d pull you in and never let you out – your heart shook with him here and the song that played. You were hoping HR wouldn’t come out while you prepped dinner to have a sort of peace of mind. The next song played before you could stop it-

My last made me feel like I would never try again

But when I saw you, I felt something I never felt

Come closer, I'll give you all my love

If you treat me right, baby, I'll give you everything

“I like this song,” HR started as he was finishing up with putting his side of the groceries away. Another guitar-like song that brought out the soft feelings of love and rejection. HR mused to himself if fate had planned this out. If this was some sort of sign or a cruel joke… You had stopped yourself from clicking the button to skip the song at his comment. You don’t know what possessed you to let him indulge in another song that you’ve cried to late at night. “Hey, I can cook dinner tonight. I have something I’ve been wanting to try. I’m not that crippled so I can manage with a few cookware.” HR chuckled to himself, a goofy grin on his face. Your heart leapt in your chest; his grin caused a small smile to pull at your lips. “You can wash up first?”

You swallowed thickly, your eyes meeting his icy blues. You felt your cheeks warm up slightly as the nerves crawled up your spine. “Oh, ok. Cool, yeah. Can’t wait to see what you cook up.” You nodded, ducking your head away and shuffling out of the kitchen with that shy smile on your face. You missed the longing look he had sent you as you fastened your steps to head to your room.

God I love that smile. What goes on in that little head of yours? We used to be so close… before Tracy came into the picture. HR pulled out the spices and the chicken breast. He shook his head and proceeded to prep the food with his one useful hand. I need to consult Francisco.

***

“We need to talk,” HR’s voice broke the silence in the side lab of the Cortex. He had breached to the labs using the Breach Extrapolator after he had showered and such. His damp hair was pushed back in HR’s normal style.

“About what?” Cisco raised a concerned eyebrow at the writer, stopping what he had been doing.

“(Y/N).”

A nervous laugh left Cisco as he went back to attempting to make the necessary modifications to the Speed Bazooka. Tracy was reluctant to help the mechanical engineer after the breakup. “What about (Y/N)?” Cisco put down his screwdriver. “Did you do something weird to her?”

“What? No! I- we used to be closer. We always talked, we’d hang out after a long day here at the labs.”

“Uh huh.”

“And, maybe it’s just me, but things have changed.”

“How so?” Cisco was wondering what conclusion HR was leading himself to.

“Things changed when Tracy came into the picture.”

Cisco made a little ‘o’ with his mouth with a little nod before closing it. He pushed a rough sigh past his lips, he was getting really tired of this puppy love game. “Why do you think that?”

“Francisco, she flinches when I get close – almost when I touch her… Does she hate me?”

“I think you and I know the answer to that one. But I think the real question should be: Why do you care so much? Why does it bother you? Do you love her, HR?”

The novelist tensed a bit. “…” HR pursed his lips as Cisco walked around the table that the speed weapon was mounted on. Blueprints were scattered on one table while the glass board held variables and equations he could not decipher. “What?”

“I said what I said,” the mechanical genius smoothly responded. One look at HR and Cisco knew that he was baffled by his forward words. But they needed to be said. “Now run along and use that head of yours to think about what your heart wants. Barry isn’t going to get himself out of the Speedforce.”

***

Cisco’s words mulled through HR’s mind as he breached back to your apartment’s living room.  Only the lamp light on the side table was on. HR’s eyes landed on you, who laid on the couch with the book you had been reading on the back ledge of the couch. The novelist took off his shoes and set down his bag. He had detoured to the bookstore, looking for the next installment of your current book. The Wells doppelganger had assumed you didn’t buy it yet as it was vacant from your bookshelf. The gentle giant stepped silently closer to you; the dim light cast over you like a glow. There were slight bags under your eyes. She hasn’t been sleeping well lately. Spotting a large and fluffy blanket near, HR grabs it and lays it on top of you. He remembered you mentioned to him prior that you easily get cold, especially at night. Chewing on the inside of his cheek, HR contemplated something before his body moved impulsively. The novelist placed a gentle kiss on your forehead; his lips lingered for a few more seconds. Pulling back, HR watched your chest rise and fall.  He turned the light off and stumbled over to his room with his phone light guiding him. He knew what he was going to write. Cisco’s question pestered him enough though.

Do you love her, HR?

HR took one look out his door before shutting it, his heart squeezed tightly in his chest as he whispered, “Goodnight, my angel.” Only the shadows that lingered were a witness to the fondness laced in those simple words.

***

You woke up with a start, you hand instantly smacking right into your chest. Heavy breaths left you as your nerves were in overdrive. Cold sweat beaded your skin as you gasp for air. It was another night terror – the same one for a few weeks now; a new way in which you caused HR’s death. Swallowing thickly, you screw your eyes tightly shut and whisper the mantra that calmed you down. After a few minutes, you started to regain control of your breathing – the thoughts that ravaged your mind finally ceased like the tides subsiding after a tsunami. You blinked languidly, hating nights like these. They weren’t rare, but they weren’t an uncommon occurrence. Deciding that you needed to step out for some air, you did so with the intent of getting a glass of water from the kitchen. Your fingers found the lights for the dimmers in your room, setting it to its lowest setting for you to see yourself out.

Cracking the door open, you were instantly met with the scene of HR passed out on the couch again. He’s been doing that for around two weeks now, the couch his new base of operations. His mouth was slightly open as little snores escaped him. A lovestruck smile crossed your features at the sight. Papers were littered around him, on the ground, and on the tables. Must be the manuscript he’s working on for his final draft. I hope I can read it at some point. Coming back from the kitchen with the water in hand you couldn’t help but stop to admire the sight. You noticed the glasses still perched on his face. Moving as silent as a ninja, you inched closer to pull off the glasses from his face. They’ll break if he keeps them on while he sleeps. Then he won’t see for shit when reading things. You nibbled on your bottom lip as your eyes drifted to the papers. One peek won’t hurt anyone. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

Seating yourself on the ground, you leaned your back against the foundation of the couch. You were opposite to where HR’s upper body was. If there were any telltale signs of him waking, you’d hightail out before he could fully wake up and process what you were doing. Picking up a small stack, you started sifting through them. Your mind became engrossed with the words – the beginnings of the story he had spun about his adventures as to how he came to Earth-1. Then… mentions of an angel eluded you. It couldn’t be Tracy, could it? I know they broke up, but… on the other hand, it doesn’t mean that he can’t say that she was his angel at the time. Like a character development thing leading to their break up?? Well fuck, I don’t even think he’d mention such a personal thing in his book. I know I wouldn’t… would I? I don’t know. A little smile danced at your lips while you read on about the synonymous things regarding Team Flash that you failed to notice HR rouse from sleep.

“Do you like it?” Lethargy intertwined his words. A stunned noise left you as you clutched the papers. You turned to see HR rubbing his eyes before gazing at you.

I could get lost in those eyes if I stared too long.

“Uh, yeah, its- it’s really good,” you stuttered, setting the papers down in your lap. Embarrassment of getting caught gripped you. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I don’t mind you taking a peek. I don’t have anything to be ashamed of in it.” HR shifted his lithe body to sit next to you on the ground.

“Oh.”

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“No.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“It’s not that important, I’ll be ok.”

“If you say so,” HR’s shoulders sagged slightly. “I’m here if you want to talk.” You nodded at him, whispering a little thank you. HR ran a hand over his knee, he took a glimpse at you who stared at the papers. He noticed what chapter you hand been reading – the angel was making an appearance in the story. The hair at the back of his neck stood while you thumbed the words on the paper back in forth, just lost in your mind. Your hair was messy from sleep, the bags under your eyes were still there. It killed him how you wouldn’t confide in him anymore. But he didn’t push you. You would open up to him if you wanted to or not, even if he wanted you to do so as so his mind can be at ease with knowing what’s going on with you. Cisco’s question sprang up in his mind once more before he licked his lips, his eyes watching you. “I do.”

You gave HR a strange look. I do, what?

“Tracy wasn’t her.” Realization struck HR the more you whispered with him.

“Huh??”

“I heard this voice before I woke up.” The novelist fully turned to you with intense eyes, the enlightenment in them – the fire that burned brightly. “The tenderness in it could rival any tasteful delight in the multiverse.”

“A voice?”

“Mm, it made me think that only a heavenly deity would have such a voice.” You remained silent as he spoke. “I never got to hear that voice since my coma… until now?”

You tensed at what he was insinuating. “Now?”

“How could I forget?”

“I-I don’t understand.”

“How could I forget about you?” The baritone huskiness in his voice made you melt with the way he said those words. You swallowed, trying to calm the butterflies that raged in the pit of your stomach. “The flowers that were left – beautiful, delicate, yet meaningful. You left those after visiting me.”

“…”

She didn’t deny it. “But you never visited when I was awake because of Tracy.”

“She hates me.”

“And I was too blind to see that until I broke up with her, she threw quite a fit.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?”

“Because you must have loved her so much that it would be hard to let go.” She was your angel, after all.

“She didn’t even know me. Truly know me.”

“… Did she hurt you?”

“Slightly, but the bruise is gone.” You and he were silent for a moment. Only the sound of a distant car horn was heard from the streets. “You didn’t deny it.”

“Deny what?”

“The flowers, the visit…” HR licked his lips as a rough breath left him. His nerves were climbing, but he needed to do this. “Cisco told me what you did to Savitar when you saw him. How angry you were that Harry had to pry you off him – I was so angry.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t know then… but I know now.”

“And?”

“Tracy was never the one written in my story – she didn’t care. She didn’t see me for anything other than a pretty face obsessed with coffee. You did.” HR tucked your hair behind your ear, carefully gauging your reaction. He saw how you tried not to flinch away from him. “Do you hate me?” He asked as he retracted a hand from you, happy that he was at least getting through to you.

“Never could I feel such a way towards you.” You hesitated for a moment before testing the waters. You started to explain, “I- the night you were stabbed by Savitar I… I just broke. I pushed Tracy away, I had Barry rush you back to the labs. You were dying, unconscious on the gurney and… I got to work trying to resuscitate you. I had Cisco take care of Tracy while I worked, I needed space to think clearly, but I couldn’t. When- when the others were preoccupied with Iris’ appearance, I used these powers.” It was now or never. “I was desperate. Your life was hanging by a thread- I didn’t think it was going to work, but nothing else was working. You were bleeding so much. But I had to try. I…” Your glassy eyes locked back on his, your hands pulled close to your body. HR understood now why you never tried touching him. Why you are avoiding getting too close. “Cisco found out, he confronted me. But these powers, life isn’t guaranteed. They’re volatile, unprecedented – regardless of how I feel in the moment the balance can tip between giving a life and taking one.” There was a tightness in your chest as your voice cracked, “I’m cursed, I could hurt you.” I’m dangerous.

“I don’t think you will.”

“You don’t know that!”

“But I do,” HR reached a hand out to hold yours. Tension filled your heart as panic started to settle. “You wouldn’t let yourself hurt me. It would pain you too much.” HR squeezed your slightly shaky hand, his other hand still bound by the cross-sling. “My life is in your hands.”

“How can you trust me so much?”

“Because love cannot be built without a foundation of trust.” He placed a sweet kiss on the knuckles of your hand. “And understanding.” He took the other and kissed it, baby blue eyes shifted back to yours with such intense emotion. The adoration that filled the author to the brim for you. Just for you. Only you. The one who saw him for everything and anything that he is. His safe space – the one other thing he wanted to be for you as well. He wanted to eliminate any fears that resided in your heart, the pain and doubt that remained.

“Do you hate me?”

HR cupped your cheek tenderly as he leaned close, your heart wanted to stop as blood rushed to your cheeks and ears. Your half-lidded eyes shut slowly as his lips skimmed over your own. “Never in my life, angel,” the novelist whispered as he captured your lips in a tender and sentimental kiss.

Never in my life could I hate the one who my heart has yearned for.

[lizzie-is-here]

acta, non verba

iron man three- part i

summary: after 7 months, you get dragged into another mess. this one being a terrorist taking up the mantle of an old enemy.

wordcount: 2.3k

warnings: cussing, terrorism, bombings, iron man three tony “dying”, violence, caffeine addiction, reader being done with life

series masterlist

The world was abuzz after the Battle of New York. The public now knew of alien forces, and of the team created to protect the people. AKA, they were asking questions, which was your job to handle. After your vacation, you had immersed yourself in your work, doing interviews and articles for any news outlet curious.

Over seven months, you’d become famous worldwide. Your intent had originally been to stay unknown, but that was impossible with paparazzi up your ass every time you went to Starbucks.

You were arriving at Tony’s Malibu home from another press conference before you got a notification from JARVIS.

“Ms. (L/N), Mr. Stark is in his lab, he hasn’t slept in 72 hours.”

“Of course he hasn’t,” you sighed. You took the elevator down to the lab. The house was quiet at this time of night, full of empty rooms. Your heels clacked against the concrete as you opened the door, catching his attention immediately.

“Hey, kid. Did J rat me out?” he asked, stumbling over the scattered remnants of a suit. Ever since seven months ago, he’d been pushing himself to make better suits. You caught the stamp on the side: ‘Mark 42’.

You decided to give him the silent treatment, flashing a pointed look before making your way over to the TV. Big mistake.

“C’mon, I don’t need sleep. I need to improve my suits, and-”

“Shut up, Stark,” you muttered, watching the TV, “we have a problem.”

The TV broadcast had clearly been hacked, and although you recognized the symbol, you didn’t recognize the man. You didn’t flinch when the screen showed a public execution, any moment you looked away could be a moment you missed a vital detail.

The sentient prune mentioned that the terrorist attack on a church in Kuwait was him. Your press conference an hour ago was discussing that church, looking for possible suspects. You’d never expected that he would turn up on live TV.

Even so, you were confused. Why was this man using the Ten Rings’ logo? Had the original head of the group passed away? Before you knew it, the broadcast was over, and the news was viral within minutes.

They were calling him the Mandarin, perhaps a reference to the design of the symbol. At any other time, you’d think the name was dumb, but the nation was horrified.

In response to the threat, President Ellis had renamed Rhodey. Today was a day for bad nicknames, and the War Machine was now the Iron Patriot.

“Jesus,” Tony sighed, “This is gonna be another mess for us, isn't it.” You nodded before shutting off the TV. “It’s gonna be a problem for us in the morning, because I’m going to my apartment, we’re both going to go shower, and go to sleep.”

You practically had to drag him to his room before requesting that JARVIS alert you if he stayed up. Your apartment was only a few miles away, so you had arrived safely showered within the next hour.

You threw on an oversized shirt and asked JARVIS to dim your windows, before plugging in your phone and climbing into bed.

Checking your phone, you had multiple requests from the New York Times, the Herald, and a few smaller sources asking for you to answer questions. You scheduled some interviews throughout the upcoming days, prioritizing the bigger names. Proceeding to turn off notifications, you then decided to stay away from your phone for the rest of the night.

————————————————————

The next day, Tony left to have lunch with Rhodey whilst you stayed in your office. Ever since you’d been promoted to the lawyer and PR manager for Stark Industries and the Avengers, you’d been swamped with work. The giant office and flexible hours made it a bit easier, though.

Today, you’d rushed to finish your daily work and had spent the majority of your time researching the Mandarin. “Researching” may have included reading classified files, but what no one knows wouldn’t hurt them.

Everything about the terrorist seemed off to what you knew of the Ten Rings. Firstly, you knew it was based in China, so the new leader with an American accent was throwing you for a loop. On top of that, there had been nine bombings, and none of them had an identified device.

You were confused, which you hated. Patience was not a virtue you had much of, and not being able to find answers was driving you mad. With multiple articles projected around your office chair, each having highlighted portions and countless notes, you definitely looked insane to any employee that walked into your office.

After a few minutes of getting nowhere, you decided to get another coffee from downstairs. Your minifridge had plenty of cold coffees and energy drinks, but maybe a steaming cup of mediocre coffee would wake you up some more.

You made your way to the cafeteria and poured yourself a cup, opting to take a walk around the building. Wandering absentmindedly, you came across Happy and Pepper.

“Happy? Okay. I am thrilled that you are now the Head of Security. Okay? It is the perfect position for you.” That was a debatable statement. He’d been up everyone’s asses about wearing badges, and as much as you cared about him, you couldn’t take much more.

Pepper tried to politely get her point across, and eventually blatantly stated that staff complaints had arisen 300%. Which was true, you’d been one of them. He immediately got defensive, but was cut off by an assistant informing Pepper of an upcoming meeting.

You were extremely proud of the woman. In such a short period she’d taken her new position in stride. She radiated confidence and poise, perfect for a female CEO heading one of the biggest tech conglomerates in the world.

Speaking of strides, you made it over to the two of them in under twelve, handing the very annoyed Ms. Potts a coffee.

“Thank you, (Y/N). Happy, we’ll talk about this later, but right now, I have to deal with this very annoying thing.” Her 4:00 meeting, you presumed.

As you and Happy trailed after her, she explained that the man she was meeting with used to flirt with her often. When Happy tried to stick around, you shoved him out of the door, giving Pepper an encouraging thumbs-up before leaving her to negotiate a business deal.

You left Happy sitting on a bench, then started heading back to your office. You saw a younger man lounging in a chair, and furrowed your brows. He seemed oddly relaxed, his tie was loose, and his posture was far too informal. You decided to ignore it for now, and asked JARVIS to keep an eye on him.

You arrived back at your office without interruptions, and proceeded to fling open your double doors with a flair of drama. Pulling up the countless articles and sipping on scalding coffee, you settled in for the second half of a long day.

————————————————————

You were still awake when you received a call from Tony, who flew into a frantic explanation fo how he’d fucked things up with Pepper (no surprise there, you’d warned him about the stuffed rabbit), and how Happy had been seriously injured in what looked like another Mandarin attack.

There was another broadcast released soon after, leaving you with no option but to head back to New York. Managing conferences and furthering investigations would be easier from the Tower, but first, you wanted to stop by Happy’s hospital room.

He was hooked up to at least three machines and had multiple cuts from the debris. You were just thankful it hadn’t been any worse. As you left the room, you received a text from Tony, notifying you that he was at the hospital.

He met you in the lobby, patting you on the shoulder before staring into the darkness outside. You could practically see the thoughts racing through his head, but left any concerns unsaid. Any attempts at consoling him wouldn’t get very far.

Tony was extremely torn up, already in a rough emotional state due to what sounded like a PTSD attack. You felt bad leaving him alone, but you knew that you could do your best work across the country. You knew he would likely be here for a few hours at the least.

“Don’t crash my plane, kid,” he sighed. You knew he wouldn’t care even if you did. He’d destroyed much pricier things for lesser reasons.

“Good thing JARVIS’ll be flying, then.” He nodded, shoved his hands into his pockets, and wished you safe travels. You stepped outside and caught a cab, arriving at the airport without delay. You tipped the driver and grabbed your bag from the back. You made your way through security easily, perks of having saved the world.

Tony’s private jet would fly itself. No assistants, no pilots. No room for human error. Maybe Happy was onto something with replacing janitors with robots.

————————————————————

After the long flight to New York, all you wanted to do was sleep. It was still morning and you were tempted to fall into your plush bed. Tony had given you a room in the newly named Avengers Tower, decorated to your tastes with a giant bed that was far too big for one person.

You decided against a nap, however, knowing that the jetlag would only be worse. As you grabbed an energy drink from the fridge and your laptop from your bag, you walked out onto the large balcony area of the Tower and sat down on the ground. You figured that the sounds of the city would keep you awake until the caffeine kicked in.

All of this traveling was doing a toll on your sleep schedule, not to mention fueling your addiction to Monster energy drinks. You wouldn’t be surprised if the next tabloid of you was written about that very addiction.

Opening your laptop, you were immediately bombarded with dozens of new articles.

‘Tony Stark Threatens the Mandarin’

‘Tony Stark’s Address Made Public in Mandarin Threat’

‘Has the Iron Man Gone Mad?’

“What the fuck?” Opening the first article, you clicked on a video filmed right outside of the hospital, showing dozens of reporters and paparazzi surrounding Stark.

“Here’s a little holiday greeting I’ve been wanting to send to the Mandarin. I just didn’t know how to phrase it until now.” Oh no.

“My name is Tony Stark and I am not afraid of you.” Considering this was the Ten Rings, maybe he should’ve been.

“I know you’re a coward. So I’ve decided, that you just died, pal. I’m gonna come get the body.”

“JARVIS,” you muttered through gritted teeth, “Phone Tony for me.”

“There’s no politics here. It’s just good old-fashioned revenge. There’s no Pentagon, it’s just you and me.”

“Yes, Miss.”

“And on the off chance you’re a man, here’s my home address. 10880 Malibu Point. 90265. I’ll leave the door unlocked.”

You hadn’t been this pissed since you got grazed on a mission to Volgograd, Russia. The wound had long since healed, but the knife was serrated and hurt like a bitch. You itched the scar on your arm as you impatiently waited for Tony to pick up the line.

“What’s up?”

“Tony…”

“I’m working a crime scene, what?”

“TONY!”

You could hear your voice echo through the lab he was in, and he took a deep breath before continuing.

“I know, bad move with the address bit. Can you blame me though?” Was he serious? Of course you could. And Fury would blame you if Stark turned up dead.

“Don't call me when your expensive-ass mansion gets blown to hell.” He hummed from the other side, focused on whatever crime scene he was viewing. When you asked, he explained that he was trying to find the device that injured Happy, but even his high-tech gear wasn’t discovering anything.

“Read me what you’ve got on file, Stark. I may be able to help.” You were slowly calming down. Still worried, of course, but choosing to focus on a problem you could solve instead.

“The name is an ancient Chinese war mantle meaning ‘advisor to the king’. South American insurgency tactics. Talks like a Baptist preacher. There’s lots of pageantry going on here. Lots of theatre.”

“None of those things sound like the Ten Rings,” you said hesitantly. If there was some sort of trickery here, some hidden game, it wasn’t by just one group.

“How would you know?” he asked, sounding suspicious.

“Well,” you began, “I did an infiltration mission into the Ten Rings a while back. I don’t remember anything from the mission itself, but the leader wasn’t some random American.” From the other end of the phone, you heard Tony scoff.

“What do you mean, you ‘don’t remember anything’?” he asked, incredulous.

“Classified. Also, it doesn’t matter. All I know is that there’s more than one person or group pulling the strings here.”

You were saved from further interrogation by a call from a woman at Washington Post. Groaning, you reluctantly turned back to Tony.

“Shit, I’ve gotta go, the news calls are starting.”

“Good luck, kid.” Yeah, as if he wasn’t part of the reason you were being phoned. Answering the call, you agreed to answer a few questions and spent the next several minutes dodging invasive queries revolving around Stark and his stance on politics.

When she finally hung up, satisfied with the limited responses she scrounged out of you, you slumped onto the concrete. The sun was high in the sky and you made a halfhearted attempt to shield your eyes before giving up and trudging back into the heated lounge.

You made your way through another call and energy drink, struggling to keep your eyes open. When your phone started ringing again, you were tempted to just ignore it, but when you saw that it was from Pepper, you picked up.

You were met by a frantic voice, straining over the sounds of helicopter blades.

“(Y/N)! It’s Tony- he’s… he’s- I think he’s dead.”

With that jarring sentence, you suddenly felt a lot more awake.

a/n: sorry about the delay on this one, plus the shorter piece! i’ve been kind of swamped with schoolwork lately, but I think i’ll have the next part out sooner! <3

[crescentsteel]

Burns

pairing: Suna  x f!reader genre: fluff with slight angst (childhood friends to lovers) wc: 3.8k summary: you planned to confess to Suna on Valentines day. Unfortunately for you, he finds the holiday stupid.

[a/n]

Did this in one sitting, brain went zoom zoom

Not really comfortable writing for Inarizaki for some reason. Suna and Miya twins stans, don’t come for me. 

Thank you @tokyosdawn​, @luvnami​, @fayeiparis​ (my ride or die ily) for the betaread. 

ngl. I almost wrote smut after the fluff 

Happy Valentines Day! 🖤

This is it. This is the day. 

You’re finally going to confess to Suna. 

You have been close friends for so long, and for the whole duration of it, you have tried your utter best to feel only as such. 

You became friends with the rest of the Inarikazi team because you were always present in every game, with you being the loudest person to cheer for Suna leading everyone to pester him until he introduced you to them. Knowing Suna, he wasn’t fazed by his team’s persistent request and never mentioned to you that the team wanted to meet you. 

It had been Atsumu that day who approached you during lunch break saying that Suna asked him to ask you to attend their practice after class. 

You’ve been asking him non-stop if he can come watch them practice but he strictly prohibited you from going to the gym at all, so you were thrilled that he finally let you watch.. only to find him unpleasantly surprised that you were there. 

Apparently, the whole team thought you were dating. As much as you wish you were, you could only agree with Suna when he said you were just a long-time friend. 

But that changes today. Hopefully. 

You already know what confessing to him means, and you’re not ready to lose Suna as a friend in case this doesn’t work out. However, with the  both of you being third years already, it was now or never. You keep asking him what his plans after graduation are and he’s infuriatingly very consistent with his answer - a shrug and an apathetic ‘dunno.’

While you’re not ready to lose your friendship, you’re probably going to after high school — which is why you spent almost all of your allowance to buy ingredients to make homemade chocolate. It’s not actually that it’s expensive — you wasted so much ingredients making them that you ended up having enough for only three pieces. 

But you’re satisfied because they were of three different designs. Three cute fox-shaped chocolates of different colors. They weren’t perfect but you tailored them according to Suna’s taste - just mildly sweet so he can actually enjoy it.

You smile into the February air. 

You really aren’t sure about his feelings for you, but you know that you’re special to him. 

You’re his only female friend and despite his aloofness, he actually spends time with you outside of school. It was you who he spent New Year’s with. He celebrates your birthday even if you know he’s not really into that kind of stuff. He walks you home when you stay late from club activities. 

Being his friend since elementary school, you know he’s not the kind of guy to be nice to someone just for the sake of being nice. 

So instead of dreading for your confession, you’re actually excited. 

On your way to your first class, the chaotic twins block your path with a mischievous grin from both of them, except Atsumu’s way too obvious and upfront about it. 

“So, y/n. Anything for me?” Atsumu asks as he cocks an eyebrow at you. 

“Why would she give you any, idiot?” Osamu glares at Atsumu before turning to you with a smirk that makes you wary for some reason. “When she’s obviously giving them to Suna,” he adds.

You try to not look affected at his spot-on statement, but shit, you can already feel your heartbeat just a bit faster. Are you that obvious?

“Don’t you have hoards of shit from other girls? Why the hell are you ganging up on me?” you ask instead of answering Osamu’s speculation. 

“I want to show them to Suna during practice. His pretty little childhood friend givin’ me homemade chocolates,” Atsumu teases animatedly. 

Your eyes widen from what he said. “Wait, how did you know they were homemade?” 

The two give each other meaningful looks before Osamu leans down a bit on you. “So there really are chocolates, huh?”

You go rigid when you realize you’ve exposed yourself to these two. Shit, they’re going to tease you non-stop about this. Worse, they might tell Suna before you even get the chance to do it yourself. 

“Those are some burns on your hands, y/n. Have you treated those properly?” Atsumu eyes your hand that accidentally touched the hot pan yesterday. You tug the sleeves of your uniform lower to cover the purple-pinkish marks. 

“I’m going to be late for class, bye,” you abruptly bid goodbye and hurriedly escape from the two. God knows what else they’ll get from you if you stay longer. 

--

You erase your encounter with the twins from this morning. You can’t buckle down now. You worked hard for this day, both in body and in spirit. You’ve already had more than a fair share of doubts and second thoughts up until last night when you successfully pushed any cynicism away. 

You won’t back down, especially when Suna is just a seat away from you now. 

“Got any chocolates yet?” You prod at the topic as you put away your used cutleries. 

“Yea,” he answers lazily. “It’s so dumb.”

“What is?” you ask with a frown.

“Valentines,” he deadpans.  “Atsumu’s gonna get a fucking diabetes from the amount of chocolates he took from me because I was about to throw them away.”

You try to not let it get to you and breathe steadily to strengthen your resolve. You’re special to Suna. Surely, he won’t treat yours like that.

“What’s more idiotic is confessing this day,” he rambles on. “If a person really likes someone, why wait for Valentines to say it?” He asks rhetorically while putting away his own finished lunch. 

You feel your stomach lurch, like riding down a rollercoaster at full speed unexpectedly. You try your best to mold your face into an impassive expression to not give anything away.

On the inside though, you’re a mess. Your head feels too loud and the air feels too heavy. You want to close your eyes and disappear.

Then he looks at you. “What about you? Did you give chocolates to anyone?”

You vaguely hear his question. You feel like you’re in a bubble and every sound is muffled -- your classmates chattering, the chairs scraping against the floor, the laughter all around you feels distant.

You planned to give him the chocolates you worked so hard on, but definitely not anymore. He hit two things right (Or wrong? Who knows anymore.) on the marks and right now, you do feel idiotic for trying so hard. 

You should’ve known better. Of course, he’d find it stupid! He’s never the person to be all excited with events like this. What were you even thinking, spending all that money and effort when he obviously thinks the whole thing is a farce?

Did you really think this was going to go well? That he’d accept your chocolates and everything would be fine and you would go on as friends? In hindsight, there is never going to be a way out of this where you win. It is a stupid idea, and you’re stupid for even thinking about it.

‘Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb,’ you chant in your head. 

“Y/n?”

You flinch and find him staring at you, waiting for your answer. His golden eyes are studying your face carefully. You think you see a little bit of concern there but you brush it off.

“Oh no,” you laugh hesitantly. “No way I’d waste my time on some boy on the very rare chance that he actually likes me back, pfft.” Your laugh turns ironic and bitter. “Like you said, it’s just a dumb holiday,” you respond with a forced smile.

“Anyways, I have to go back now. Later, Rin.” You quickly stand up and head to a comfort room because you feel like shit and you need to cry it out before your classes start again, else you’d be tearing up during lecture.

“Wait.” He grips your hand firmly, adding salt to the injury as you wince when he presses the burn you got from yesterday.

“Ow!”

He’s startled by your sudden reaction, but doesn’t say anything. 

He loosens his hold and moves his grip to your wrist as he pushes up the sleeve of your uniform, revealing the burn on your hand along with small others on your arm. 

“What happened to you?” he asks with muted concern while his eyes are trained on your arm, fingers gently skimming over the burns.

You aggressively retrieve your arm and pull your sleeve back down while you come up with a lie, “Oka-san needed help in the kitchen yesterday.”

He furrows his eyebrows with suspicion. “Why? Everyone knows you’re useless in the kitchen.”

Yeah, but you wanted to do something for him, and the burns would have been worth it if he at least accepted the chocolates you worked so hard on. 

“Honestly, I don’t even know.” You try to laugh it off, but you’re losing it already, so you just give him a quick wave with whatever smile you can muster and saunter away from him. 

After a pathetic sobbing session in one of the cubicles, you make your way back to your classroom looking as normal as you possibly can. 

Thank goodness it’s Valentines. You’re not the only girl with eyes puffy from rejection. 

“Hey.” You feel a hand on your shoulder and solely from his voice, you can tell it’s Osamu. “You okay?” 

Maybe it would’ve been better if you had fallen for Osamu instead. Despite being always teased by him and Atsumu, he’s actually a nice likeable guy. Unlike Suna. 

God, why did it have to be Suna Rintarou?

“Come with me,” you say without looking at Osamu and drag him with you back to your classroom. 

“Uhh, okay.” He sounds unsure but he goes with you anyway. 

You ask him to wait for you just by the doorway of your classroom and grab the stupid box of chocolates you made from your bag. 

You practically shove it to him when you get back to where he is. “Happy Valentines, ‘Samu,” you greet with a dead expression. 

Osamu gapes at you then at the box in hand, an expression of disbelief spreading across his face. 

“Weren’t you asking for chocolates this morning?” 

“That was ‘Tsumu. Also,” he looks closely at the box. “It says ‘Rin.’

You immediately rip out the wrapper where you wrote Suna’s nickname and tuck the crumpled paper in your pocket.

“There. It doesn’t anymore,” you announce passively.

Osamu scratches his head with discomfort. “I can’t accept this, y/n. I can give it to Suna if you want,” he offers kindly.

“Miya Osamu. Either you accept it or I’m throwing it away right now.” Your voice is dead serious and so are you. If Osamu won’t accept it, it’s going to the trash where Suna would’ve tossed it in as well. 

“Okay, okay!” He surrenders with panic and opens the box slowly. 

“Holy sh-,” he clears his throat. “I mean, wow. These are so cute, the cutest I’ve received today,” he comments appreciatively before returning his gaze at you. “You sure about this, y/n?”

You nod, more convinced now that you saw his reactions towards it. “Yeah. I figured I’d want to give them to someone who’s going to actually like them.”

The soft ring of the bell alerts you that your next class is about to start. 

“Thanks Osamu,” you utter with a grateful smile before sauntering back to your classroom. 

--

“Oy ‘Samu, why are these chocolates so cute? How the hell can I eat these?” Tsumu whines.

“You shithead, those are mine!” Osamu rushes to where his twin and grabs the box protectively.

Suna just watches the two and silently waits for another fight to erupt.

“You’d just taste them and give them to me anyways. What’s the deal?” Atsumu asks with a frown.

“If you must know, ‘Tsumu. Y/n gave this to me,” Osamu announces with a condescending grin as Astumu gawks at him in disbelief. “No fucking way, you stinking liar,” Atsumu retorts.

Suna looks at the tiny box Osamu is holding and agrees with Atsumu. There is no way you’d give those to Osamu. You said so yourself this morning.

‘No way I’d waste my time on some boy on the very rare chance that he actually likes me back.’

Did you lie to him and made some for Osamu? Do you like Osamu?

Suna’s mind wanders back to the burns on your hand and arms and how your mom ‘supposedly’ asked you to help out in the kitchen. He knows something is off. You’re never asked to help out with anything that involves cooking, so why did you lie about it?

So what is going on? There’s just no way in hell you like Osamu. Not once have you mentioned liking his teammate enough for you to  venture into the ‘horrors of the kitchen’ (as you put it). And more importantly, why Osamu?

It is true that Suna doesn’t give a shit whether or not  he gets a mountain load of chocolates on this superficial holiday. He’s not eating them. 

However, he’d make an exception only if they come from you. He wouldn’t mind if they’re just store-bought ones as long as they’re from you. 

So why the fuck would you go to the troubles of making them for Osamu and not him? You can’t possibly like Osamu. He won’t allow it.

He marches to where the twins are and turns to Osamu. “Did y/n really give you that?”

Both the twins face him and while Osamu looks pensive, Atsumu wears a shit-eating grin. “Aww, Suna. Are you jealous that your beloved y/n gave us chocolates?”

“‘Tsumu, shut up for the love of God. And she didn’t give it to us. She gave it to me.” Osamu pulls the box closer to him possessively which ticks Suna off even more. 

“Did she say why?” Suna tries to sound calm despite the stupid jealousy bubbling up the pit of his stomach. 

“Obviously because-” Atsumu starts, but Osamu grabs his twin’s face with one hand to halt his babbling as he sighs to face Suna. 

“Actually, the box had your name in it,” Osamu admits. “She just ripped it out and said she’d rather give it to someone who’ll appreciate it.”

“-mmmmff Samu!” Atsumu successfully removes Osamu’s hand. “You shouldn’t have told him that! Do you realize that y/n didn’t want him to know?”

“Duh! Of course, I know. But I really can’t accept chocolates that’re supposed to be for another guy,” Osamu sighs before handing Suna the box. 

He opens it and sees the fuss Tsumu was making about it. They really are cute and are obviously made with care and precision. If someone else had told him that you made these, he wouldn’t have believed them.

But there’s something about the chocolates that he can’t ignore. 

“Why are there bites on the two pieces?” He asks as he lifts his gaze up from the chocolates. 

Atsumu puts his hands behind his head and starts whistling as he avoids Suna’s gaze while Osamu smiles apologetically. 

“Sorry, I wanted to see if they taste as good as they look,” Osamu confesses. As for Atsumu, Suna can already tell that the piss-haired setter just couldn’t help himself despite receiving so many already.

“They’re a bit bland, Suna. Tell y/n she needs to improve her baking skills,” Atsumu comments shamelessly which makes Suna scowl at Atsumu’s ungrateful ass. The fact that you made something look edible is already something commendable.

“They’re okay. Just needs a bit more sweetness,” Osamu backs his twin up.

He brings the remaining chocolate that’s still untouched to his mouth.

“What are you two talking about? It tastes perfectly fine,” he states truthfully. It’s just the right amount of sweetness that he’s able to finish it despite not really being a fan of chocolates. 

Osamu laughs softly before speaking. “She really did make them for you, Suna.”

--

That night, you toss and turn in your bed while trying to keep your focus on the movie you played. As entertaining as it is, you can’t fully enjoy it with constantly wanting to smash your head against the wall of your room.

For a good while, you really thought everything would go smoothly and that by the end of today, you and Suna would be more than just friends. 

Maybe today is a sign that you shouldn’t push it anymore. Suna said so himself: if someone likes a person, they don’t need the holiday to confess.

So why hasn’t he?

The answer is clear as day and you wish you were blind to see it, but you aren’t. 

There had been too many chances for you two to move your relationship forward, but not once had he shown a sign that he wanted to. 

He doesn’t like you like that. It’s just you and your delusional head. He doesn’t love you the way you love him. Even with the cute, romantic scene playing before you, you start tearing up. 

You grab one of your pillows and bury your face in it, effectively silencing the sob and stopping the tears that are coming as you remember your folly attempt to confess today. 

You should’ve been satisfied with the comfort of your friendship. If you hadn’t been so greedy, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt like this. 

You hear a text alert from your phone. You open it and see a text from the source of your misery.

‘Come out’

You don’t want to. Tomorrow you can be back to normal around him, but not tonight.

You hurriedly respond with a lie.

‘Went out zzz’

You throw your phone somewhere on your bed and lie down with your pillow still squeezed between your arms while you space out at nothing.

Your thirst brings you back to your senses so you stand up and get to the kitchen. When you come back to your room, you almost scream when you see Suna sitting slouching on your bed. 

“What the heck, Rin?! How did you get here?” 

“Your mother let me in. Why are you even asking obvious questions?”

You massage your temples as you plan to tell your mom later not to just let anyone in your room even though it’s someone she knows. You might be childhood friends but you’re no longer kids. He can’t just pop in and out of your room anymore like he used to.

“Why are you even here? I said I was out.”

“Your lights are open, dumbass,” he answers, to which you respond with a sigh.

“Didn’t it occur to you that I don’t want to see you?” 

He stands up from your bed and although his expression doesn’t change, you feel alarmed from how he’s towering over you without saying anything.

“W-what?” Your stutter betrays your attempt to sound fine.

“Why the fuck would you give Osamu chocolates that are supposed to be mine?” 

You gawk at him. He isn’t supposed to know that. That bastard, Osamu! You don’t have a prepared excuse for this kind of confrontation. 

“What’s it to you even? You would’ve thrown them away anyways,” you snap back with an accusatory tone.

“Not if they’re from you,” he discloses as his usually austere eyes soften up, holding your gaze. You feel like you’re about to melt.

You feel your heart beat wildly against your chest. Not long ago you had said that you didn’t want to see him, but now that he’s here, you don’t feel like moving. You don’t feel like going anywhere. Everything could be on fire around you but you’d still stay by his side.

But… this is not right. Did you already know? He doesn’t love you back.

You try to turn away to hide the gnawing pain in your chest, but he’s faster. He grabs your arm to pull you closer. When he dips down to claim your lips while his arms snake around your waist, you melt within his hold. 

His lips are so warm and uncharacteristically tender as he moves them intricately against yours, causing you to place both hands against his chest to feel him even more, to feel that he is real and not just a dream induced by how badly you yearn for him.

He pulls away a bit and finds a bewildered look on your face that just makes you look adorable. There had been many times when he thought about doing this, especially whenever you’re staring into nothingness with parted lips as if coaxing him to fuck everything else and just cross the boundary of your platonic relationship.

But to be honest, he didn’t like the complications of being in a romantic relationship with you when you already have this comfortable friendship. At the end of the day, he knows you have him and he has you. 

Yet, he absolutely despises the idea that you might have liked someone else. He’s never felt any resentment towards his teammates, not even to Astsumu who’s a fucking handful most of the time.

Only today.

Only when he saw that box of chocolates in Osamu’s hands that he realized that he didn’t want to share you with anyone.

It was selfish of him, wanting to keep you to himself but not really doing anything to actually make it happen.

That changes tonight. 

He removes one hand from your waist to hold your hand that’s resting on his chest.

“I love you, y/n.”

You blink twice at him, evidently surprised with his confession, but immediately recover when you look down and giggle softly. 

When you look back at him again, your eyes are a mixture of content and mirth. “I thought you said it’s idiotic to confess on Valentines Day,” you remind him with a wide smile.

His loving stare becomes a cold glare when you point out what he had said this morning. He didn’t plan to do it today. He just couldn’t wait until tomorrow, thereby forgetting that he had actually told you that. Although, he still believes people shouldn’t wait for the holiday to confess, it just so happened that today is when he decided to do it.

“Fine. I take it back,” he says out of petty spite.

“I’m kidding!” you respond defensively before intertwining his fingers with yours. “Actually, I was about to confess earlier, but you said the stuff about Valentines being dumb.”

“It still is,” he says, undeterred. In his defense, he really hadn’t been expecting you would. 

“Right. Yet, here we are,” you state as a matter of fact as you grip his hand tighter.

“Can you answer the damn confession already?” he asks exasperatedly which makes you laugh out loud. 

You settle down with an affectionate smile. “Yes, Rin. I love you too.”

He loses his stern expression as he takes your hand to his mouth and kisses it, rubbing the minor burn with his thumb, a reminder that he does appreciate what you did for him. 

“Happy Valentines, I guess,” he says before he goes for your lips again.

mlist of other stuff I wrote

taglist (those crossed out can’t be tagged)

@ameliaxo @suikrem @akaashisslave @tsumurai  @babythotshq @loving-unicorns106 @flairlust @geektastic84​ @anaiss97 @hqbeesun @megatron-1199 @lovershaikyuu

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #12: THE ATTRACTION BETWEEN TWO BODIES!

September, 1986

Zzzax!

Quantum!

Halflife!

TROUBLE!

Oh ho, ah ha! I see we’re still doing random super goons for the West Coast Avengers to fight.

I won’t lie, I kinda like it.

Considering the meta plot is ‘Tigra needs to kill Master Pandemonium so the cat king will make her less horny,’ this string of random tricky goobers for the team to fight is entertaining. The wheels sure are spinning on the meta plot but we’ve got some good, dumb fights. It feels like a throwback to the simpler storytelling of the silver age Avengers.

Meanwhile, Stern’s Avengers is killing it on the more serialized style.

I know Zzzax as ‘when an electricity guy is needed but Electro is busy’ but the other two are new to me. Although Quantum looks like he should fight Captain Mar-Vell. He has the look of the kind of guy Mar-Vell would punch.

Halflife is clearly a bride of Frankenstein.

So let’s get into it.

Last times in West Coast Avengers: The Thing almost joined the team but then didn’t. The team fought Griffin and Headlok. Then, Mockingbird and co went to visit Nick Fury so she could give her sympathies for the poor, maligned intelligence community which was even then being compromised as hell. Then the team fought Shockwave, Zaran the Weapons Master, and Razorfist. And now, this:

I take back every nice thing I’ve ever said about Simon Williams.

That costume is an abomination.

The fact that the rest of the team repeatedly reassure him that it’s a great change proves that the West Coast Avengers have no taste whatsoever.

Shame on all of you.

Shame.

This isn’t a situation where I’m going to go ‘lol jk’ under the fold.

That costume bad.

Apparently one of the designers (costume designers? Set designers?) for Bladerunner (legally distinct from Blade Runner?) designed this outfit for Simon.

Bladerunner is probably a shit movie if this is what unnamed designer came up with.

I do like that Simon is just flaunting his Hollywood connections though. He wanted a new costume, he just went up to a guy who worked in movies and told him to design him one.

I hope you paid the man for his eyesore, Simon.

There’s some other bits that go in this discussion of his new costume.

Simon was letting his hair gray without much complaint. Now he’s dyeing it black again. He claims that his hair is prematurely gray because of that time he spent dead and anyway, he’s in movies now. Its an industry of vanity.

He also ditched the goggles or glasses because he’s not going to hide his eyes anymore.

Wonder Man: “I’m not Cyclops of the X-Men! The ionic energy in me isn’t dangerous! And once I decided to make that change, I figured -- why shouldn’t I look my age?”

... What IS your age though? You were the CEO of your own company before you drove it into the ground by being less good than Tony Stark and also embezzlement.

How old are you, Simon? How old are ANY of you??

Actually, my favorite part in this parade of bad taste is Tigra asking if moving the jets up to his shoulders will toast his buns.

Tigra: “But won’t the jet-flames shoot down your back and burn your, uh ---”

Wonder Man: “Not if your ‘uh’ is invulnerable!”

Fair point, fair point ipreferredthebeltjetspersonally but fair point.

Is the ass of your pants fire-proof?

I guess we’ll find out one way or another soon.

Mockingbird tells everyone to hold that thought and runs off.

Because Simon isn’t the only one that has a new costume to show off.

God. I don’t like, love, or tolerate Wonder Man’s new costume but I kinda love all these idiots just proudly showing off their fashion disasters to each other.

Anyway, Hawkeye points out that he and Mockingbird have been using the costumes they wore in New York but whoops New York climate is not L.A. climate.

So Hawkeye removed the sleeves from his costume to rock the sun’s out, guns out look.

Wonder Man: “Yes, and we’re glad you stopped there!”

Iron Man: “Just as we’re glad Tigra didn’t!”

Iron Man, please. If you make the West Coast Avengers need an HR department, you know its just going to be Hank Pym and that’s going to be awkward for everyone.

Also, I can’t prove it but I’m like 52% sure that somehow Wonder Man found out about that time Hawkeye’s costume had no pants and he’s been waiting to bust his chops about it.

Speaking of no pants,

Mockingbird’s new costume doesn’t have any pants.

Her fighting style requires the long, wide sleeves, I think. So, yeah, off go the pants.

Also, she’s letting her hair grow out a little. The never ending drama of her haircut continues.

Iron Man refuses to change his armor because this is his new iconic armor dammit. This isn’t the modern age where he can just slap on a new suit every time there’s a new run. The Silver Centurion has to last a while!

Speaking of looks, Iron Man says changing the subject, Tigra has a magical amulet that lets her look like her old human self that she never uses.

Why is that?

Tigra, looking confused at the question: “Huh!”

It’s something she hasn’t thought about lately! She’s just super comfortable in her Tigra skin.

Wonder Man asks if she’s changing her mind on which of her two souls she’s going to keep.

Tigra: “Me? Don’t be silly! But with all this glorious sun, I can’t stop with uncovering just one part of my glorious bod! Might as well be comfortable, right? Changing my mind -- ? No... I’ve made my decision...”

Good for you, Tigra?

It might be an empowering affirmation but this book is gonna be a creep about it.

Also, this creep is gonna be a creep about it.

Using mysterious superpowers to bend reflected light so you can creep from a distance is sure putting a lot of effort into being a creep, mysterious creep.

Mysterious creep is so horny that he decides “I can wait no longer! I must have her, and I must have her now! The plan begins at once!”

So, that’s going somewhere.

Back at the West Coast Avengers Compound, Mockingbird asks to speak to Tigra who agrees “just so long as we stay outdoors!”

Mockingbird reminds that Tigra asked her to help with her two-soul problem however long ago but recently she seems pretty contented sooooo....

Tigra yells at Mockingbird to get off her back about it.

Which is an interesting reaction considering Mockingbird hadn’t even gotten around to asking her question yet.

Tigra: “Everything’s okay with me, Mockingbird! The cat-people promised they’d cure me, no strings attached!”

And then she storms off.

Leaving Mockingbird suspicious that Tigra mentioned strings unprompted. Using her keen intelligence work training, she now suspects that Tigra isn’t telling them everything!

Very insightful, Bobbi.

But Tigra is sure that the Avengers may suspect that there is a string attached but they’ll never guess that she has to do a murder on Master Pandemonium.

Tigra: Not that killing a crook like Master Pandemonium is anything to be ashamed of -- he’s tried to kill us twice -- but they might not understand! They don’t share my sense of the hunt -- for prey, or for passion!

So Tigra goes to try to make out with Wonder Man.

Tigra: “Long time no petting, big man!”

Whoa!

Pretty forward!

But Wonder Man tells her that though he really enjoyed making out with her on the beach, there can be no more casual petting between them.

He thinks that he might have a chance with Christy, from the movie set. Since they’ve been working pretty closely.

And Wonder Man was under the impression that Tigra was with Hank...?

Tigra: “What about me and Hank? We’re not an item, if that’s what you mean!”

Wonder Man: “He thinks you are -- !”

Tigra: “Pfui on what he thinks! NOBODY OWNS ME!”

And she storms off again, yelling that women with glasses aren’t attractive.

It’s a matter of opinion, really.

So, Tigra finds Iron Man instead.

He wanted to relax in the sun as much as everyone else but the most he could muster is... just taking the helmet off.

I don’t remember whether Tony has a secret identity here or not. I know that Tigra knows who he is. And he was walking around with Hawkeye and Mockingbird out of costume so they could visit Fury.

Okay, so probably the team knows.

Don’t know why he’s only taking off his helmet. Because he says he wanted to duck into his personal bungalow so he could take off his helmet. Like he’s hiding his identity.

Whatever.

Anyway, Tigra tries to hit on him too.

But despite all of Tony’s light inappropriate comments during his time on this team with Tigra, he was just being friendly.

Apparently Tony is one of those people who is just always flirty.

But he still feels too guilty over dating Jan after she divorced Hank. He could never do anything with Tigra while she’s with Hank or while Hank thinks she is (because of her making out with him). Especially when Hank is still messed up over losing his robot son.

Since Tony tried to soften the blow by saying he’d be all over Tigra if Hank weren’t involved, Tigra storms off to break up with Hank.

Geez.

She finds Hank inside the main compound building talking to Joachin, apparently the manager of the grounds crew.

Huh! The West Coast Avengers have a support staff!

Anyway, Tigra basically yells ‘beat it nerd!’ and Joachin excuses himself.

Tigra doesn’t get the chance to give Hank a piece of her mind because Hank “aware of what women are thinking” Pym sees her mad face, assumes that it’s because he hasn’t been paying enough attention to her, and asks if she wants to kiss.

And she does.

Tigra: “Sure! Who could turn down a kiss...?”

Tigra, this is just kicking the problem down the road...

Anyway, IN SPACE

Near THE SUN

That Quantum dude from the cover who looks like he should fight Captain Mar-Vell pops out of the Sun and heads for Earth.

In fairness, the Earth shot first.

He’s not the only introduction.

At Horesham Nuclear Plant, alarms suddenly go off, signaling a meltdown or maybe a meltout.

Does that make any sense? No? Too bad.

The bride of Frankenstein like lady melts out of the reactor and kills the nuclear technicians with a touch as she strolls out of the plant.

As she’s on her way out, the high-voltage lines leading from the plant snap, revealing Zzzax, the man-shaped electromagnetic energy field. He was introduced in the Hulk book and has apparently died at the end of his every appearance.

Doesn’t seem to have slowed him down.

Anyway, he joins bride of Frankenstein (Halflife) and the two hike south towards Los Angeles.

Huh. Weird.

Seems like some kind of gathering of some kind of group.

But whyyyy?

Also, according to marvel wiki, this group is sometimes called Trouble, as on the cover, and that’s a stupendously stupid name.

Back at the West Coast Avengers Compound, Hank Pym briefs Hawkeye on his findings on the deed book that was mysteriously burned.

Annnd he doesn’t have a lot to report. There were heavy sulfur compounds and evidence of extremely high heat which didn’t singe the adjacent pages. So its obviously magic nonsense.

Hawkeye: “Sounds like Master Pandabear, all right!”

But Hank has some other ideas.

Since Master Pandemonium was a movie star, Wonder Man could ask around the studios to see if anyone knows anything. And Hank can pick up where Firebird left off and check with any local occult bookstores.

Business out of the way, Hawkeye asks how Hank and Tigra are doing.

Hank, a poor dolt, thinks things are going just great!

Unaware that elsewhere, Tigra is kicking herself “why do I melt any time any man wants me?”

Cat soul, probably.

Maybe you should see about having that looked at?

But she suddenly decides that she doesn’t care about self-control (which is saying no, self-control is saying that’s enough) and that when she kills Master P and gets one of her souls yanked out, she’s going to stick with being Tigra and just Tigra. Goodbye human worries and inhibitions.

And then while jumping around the trees, she comes up short and painfully bellyflops to the ground.

Tigra, if you’re still alive, I want to ask what good is a cat soul if you can’t even reliably land on your feet?

... I’m pretty sure she’s still alive.

She has so many more degrading plot points to be part of.

=|

Anyway, Quantum appears above the city yelling in an alien language and blasting out heat.

The goofy bystanders guess that what he’s yelling is probably a challenge and probably for the (West Coast) Avengers since they’re the only superhero team “this so-called town’s got!”

Oh, and Zzzax and Halflife show up too.

Unlike Quantum, they can speak.

Zzzax apparently wants to eat the electrical energy in people! That’s distressing!

The LAPD calls the (West Coast) Avengers (and gets Hank since he answers the phones) because “this is what you’re supposed to be for!” and Hank summons the (West Coast) Avengers.

Tigra doesn’t show up, due to her probably non-fatal bellyflop but Hank says there’s no time to wait for her.

Hank Pym, non-superhero: “There are three major menaces on Sunset Boulevard!”

Iron Man: “Sounds like a set-up for a punchline -- but I still don’t know L.A. well enough to know what it is!”

... Hah.

Anyway, the West Coast Avengers minus Tigra pile into the Quinjet and about seven minutes later, Iron Man and Wonder Man are jumping out of the Quinjet over Sunset Boulevard.

Wonder Man: “Every time I go into action, I get to be a real, live Wonder Man! What could be better than that?”

He punches Quantum and whoops now there’s lots of Quantum.

Wonder Man assumes that lots of Quantum won’t be strong but whoops, he made an ass out of him and him.

Iron Man: “I think that was the set-up to a punch line, Wondy!”

Wonder Man: “I know! I know!”

With Iron Man and Wonder Man dealing with excessive Quantums, Mockingbird squares up against Halflife (designated girl fight?) and Hawkeye against Zzzax.

In fairness to that last one, Hawkeye has fought and beat Zzzax before. He’s pretty sure he can beat him in no time flat just by shooting an arrow with a wire through him into a water source.

Except... Hawkeye doesn’t know where to find water in Los Angeles.

I think there’s an ocean somewhere westward. Does that help, Hawkeye?

Mockingbird similarly thinks she’ll be done with her opponent “this refugee from Frederick’s of Hollywood” pretty quickly and then she’ll come help Hawkeye find water.

Halflife: “Quiet, woman! Your raucous bravado disturbs the tranquility of -- Halflife!”

Huh, so that’s what she do.

That answers one question about this bridge of Frankenstein. But her statement here raises more questions.

Why is she getting involved in superhero fights if she doesn’t like raucous bravado and would prefer the tranquility of living in a nuclear reactor? Also, why was she living in a nuclear reactor??

(For the tranquility, probably)

Anyway. She makes people age. Probably halves their life, if I had to guess.

A Quantum knocks Wonder Man to the road and Hawkeye asks if he’ll find (and break) a water main while he’s at it.

Wonder Man rips up a water main and sprays the water all over. Hawkeye shoots a wired arrow and shorts out Zzzax just like he said he would.

Wow, Zzzax lasted no time and got to do zero things.

That’s why when villains with a super easy way to beat them come back, they’ve usually made some personal changes so that super easy way doesn’t work anymore.

Otherwise you wind up like Zzzax here.

With Zzzax there taken care of, Hawkeye runs to help Mockingbird who has aged terribly but Iron Man lands between Halflife and Mockingbird and Hawkeye, figuring he’s better suited to take her on.

Halflife: “And you think Halflife cannot speed the process of decay within you, metal man? My touch takes you halfway to your death  -- and each subsequent touch takes you half the remaining distance!”

That makes me curious whether she can age Iron Man’s armor or not but probably not but it doesn’t matter, even touching Iron Man’s armor is aging the man inside.

Iron Man still has a point that he’s better suited to fight Halflife though because he can up the power of his armor to compensate as the man inside ages.

But he’s not actually... doing anything with keeping his power up. He’s not fighting back because he’s spending all his effort adjusting the armor’s power.

So now three Avengers are tied up with Halflife which is fairly non-ideal when the other villain in the fight is a lot of guys.

Wonder Man actually realizes this. That Quantum is strong and numerous but that Halflife is taking Avengers out of the fight.

So he just swoops down and whisks her away from his three teammates.

She threatens that she’ll just age him the same she did his teammates but whoops. Can’t age energy.

Wonder Man: “I’m not flesh and blood! I’m ionic energy -- I don’t ever have to age or die -- and you can’t take me halfway to nowhere!”

And then he knocks her out in one punch. I guess she doesn’t have a lot going for her other than that aging trick.

Wonder Man: All those years of fearing death -- and all the time, I was essentially immortal!

Irony!

Anyway, there’s no ontological inertia here. As soon as Halflife was knocked out, the aging effects vanished from Mockingbird and Iron Man.

Speaking of easy victories once you figure out their deal...

Hawkeye just pulls a theory out his butt that Quantum is solar-powered and uses a smokescreen arrow to make him take a beddy-bye.

I seriously have no idea how he came to this conclusion but I guess I shouldn’t discount the archer.

Remember, he’s the scientific genius who invented anti-gravity just for fun.

With all three Troubles down for the count, Hawkey congratulates the team for good teamwork.

They did a less obvious CHANGE PLACES “and fought what would have seemed the other guys’ enemies!”

I mean. Kinda.

Wonder Man fought the girl who had been designated for the girl fight. And Hawkeye fought the flying brick enemy. But Hawkeye also took out the electrical guy which was his opponent at the start. Mockingbird got olded and then didn’t get to do anything. And Iron Man didn’t do much at all except buy time.

Geez, I keep getting the feeling that Iron Man doesn’t do a lot in this book.

Hawkeye: “We really are what I’ve always wanted us to be -- a team!”

He says as Tigra is missing.

‘Wow, we’re really clicking today for some reason!’

I joke. But its a weird thing to pat yourself on the back for when the team isn’t all there, isn’t it?

With all the back patting accomplished, Iron Man realizes something is poking his brain about the specific guys that they just fought. Poking his SCIENCE brain.

And as waves of gravity bring the team to their knees and then flat on their asses, Iron Man realizes too late what the group theme was.

THE FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES!

Graviton, you giant nerd.

... And he was the one creeping on Tigra and now has her on a leash. Graviton, you consistent creep.

Now, I’m not a very science person, unlike Tony Science-Brain Stark.

But the four fundamental forces are gravity, the weak atomic force, the strong nuclear force, and electromagnetism.

I don’t think Zzzax was very magnetic but was very electric. But he’s dispersed so this group never got to be all four forces together.

Do Halflife and Quantum represent the weak and strong forces?

The weak force is responsible for particle decay and Halflife talked about decay a lot but it was more aging decay so... did Graviton just go ‘wtfe close enough’?

And the strong force is what holds an atom’s nucleus together. Does it make sense that the guy that represents it splits like an RPG slime if hit?

Science side of my audience, let me know.

The important thing though is that Graviton is back even though the last time he tangled with the West Coast Avengers, they drugged his drink and then kicked his ass.

Can’t wait for them to kick his ass again and I hope Tigra doesn’t make out with him.

Follow @essential-avengers​ because. Like and reblog too. Going minimalist this time.

[abbabycchio]

Flowers based on how they feel about you/ think of you. P2

This time with La Squadra! Thank you for the attention I got on the Bucci gang! I love being able to talk about flowers and my favorite characters💕💕 sorry for the long wait!

Risotto Nero: Since you met him he’d fallen in love with you, you were amazing and perfect, and in his most vulnerable moments he’d tell you. Unfortunately being the Capo and the strongest of the traitorous team La Squadra ment it was too high a risk to pursue a relationship with you. So for your safety he had to reject you. 

Magenta Zinnia: Lasting Affection

Striped Carnation: No, Refusal, Sorry I Can't Be With You, Wish I Could Be With You

He’ll send you these flowers along with a note apologizing for any pain it brings you. He sees it as his final interaction with you, but still lets you know how much you mean to him. 

My carissimo. I couldn’t stop the tears that fell onto my legs as I sat and rekindled my feelings for you. The comfort of your voice, you telling me “you’re gonna be alright” always mends my broken heart. There’s something about your voice that gives me the comfort I need. I’ve learned so many things from you. I’ve never been with someone who makes me laugh as much as you. You taught me what a real relationship was by having pillow talks with me before we went to bed. I wish life had a more simpler game plan. I love you so much. Til the day I die I’ll remember you forever.

-Risotto Nero. 

Prosciutto: He sees you as so much more than you could ever see yourself as. That being said he knows how cruel the world can be and makes it his mission in life to protect and love you for the rest of his life. He’s also the only one in the group that goes all out when it comes to buying gifts. 

Red Amaryllis: find incredibly beautiful, value beyond their beauty

Yellow Snapdragon: Gracious. Fascinating. Protection from evil

Dahlia: the lasting bond and commitment between two people

Very silently shoves these flowers towards you and walks away. It’s only until you gain control over your beating heart that you notice an elegant ribbon wrapped around the bouquet with a note attached.

The time is now to believe my promises and trust me to shelter you from the storms that will come in this life. I am truly the knight in shining armor your heart longs for and I am the one who has already given his life for you. I know your hidden fears, but you must learn to look to me when life is hard. I am the rock on which you can stand when all around you seems to be sinking. So stand on my word and hide it in your heart and you will never sink in hopelessness again.

-Prosciutto.

Pesci: he’s like a big puppy, he easily fell in love with you and in the most innocent way. Just seeing you smile brightens up his day and makes him excited to spend any days to come with you. 

Yellow Tulip: cheerfulness and sunshine

Coral Honeysuckle: I love you 

He replaces these flowers anytime he sees that the ones he already gave you are dying so the bright colors are always illuminating your days. 

I’m writing this to tell you that I love you. You’re my first thought when I wake up, and my last when I got to sleep. I need your love more and more each day, like an addiction of some sort.

-Pesci.

Ghiaccio: He sees you as the calm to his storm, he is so thankful for you, and although he doesn’t say it much you know that. Everyday he does his best to learn more about you and create a bond deeper than flesh. 

Purple hydrangeas: EMOTION, UNDERSTANDING, a desire to deeply understand someone

Black Bryony: Be my support

He doesn’t actually give these to you an a bouquet, he likes to place them in your hair, of behind your ears. Sometimes he even makes little flower crowns with the Black Bryony vines and places the Hydrangea flowers around it.

My love, just a moment ago I thought about you and my heart was filled with gratitude. So before another moment goes by I want to say thank you. Thank you for the late night laughs and the early morning kisses. Thank you for holding my hand throughout this life. Thank you for your love and friendship, and most of all thank you for the pleasure of calling you mine.

-Ghiaccio.

Melone: He thirsts for you so hard! After he met you everyone else was nothing compared to your beauty. He physically can't keep his hands off you. After he saw you he immediately pined for your affection.

Black Orchid: ADMIRATION, INNOCENCE, strength, virility, sexual desires, and success

Lavender Rose: enchantment and love at first sight, blossoming romance.

He sends a very professionally designed bouquet of these flowers, bringing more than one bundle a day to the point where you don’t know what to do with all those flowers.

I want you more and more. I often have erotic memories of you and I hurry to get home. I love to feel myself inside you; I love to feel my virile member slashing your skin, like burning iron teasing your desire. I have visions of you on top of me, riding my hips, making me moan with pleasure with your vigorous and precise movements. I love to feel the dense and warm liquid of your pleasure run down my body. I love to feel that you are mine. vigorous but at the same time, defenseless, relying on my arms and the warmth of my body. I love when you fall asleep in my arms, resting your head on my shoulder for countless minutes, after I irrigated your flesh with my abundant semen. I like the taste of your saliva when you kiss my mouth and I like the warmth of your heat when I kiss you between your thighs... I love your kisses more and more, your cuddles and your strength. And I’m writing to you to tell you I miss you too much.

-Melone.

Formaggio: He is smitten with you. Probably the most obviously loyal out of all of the boys, not that all of them aren’t, but you are 100% sure that you are his entire world. In your relationship he tries his best to be as romantic as possible any time that he can. 

Pink Peony: ROMANCE, PROSPERITY, love at first sight

Lemon Blossom: I promise to be true, Fidelity in love

He’s the kind to see these flowers in shop or on a bush, and just takes it and gives it to you. 

To my forever, I think we make the perfect couple. We understand each other so well. We listen to each other. I cannot wait to spend eternity with you, because there’s no place I’d rather be than with you. You’re stuck with me cara, You better remember that! I love us! 

-Formaggio. 

Illusio: Although he is usually a little raunchy by nature, but he loves you delicately. Which surprised the entire gang. His personality switch between seeing you and working is drastic. It’s more of an innocent, refined love. Fancy dinners, passionate nights. He puts his entire ego into making the best dates for you two. 

Cornflower: Refinement, Delicacy

Daisy: innocence, loyal love, and purity.

You would be standing or sitting somewhere in base and suddenly a hand would come out of the mirror near you and drop a bouquet of flowers in your hand.

My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you. I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again, my Life seems to stop there. I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving. I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you.

-Illuso.

Sorbet & Gelato: Sorbet and Gelato were so grateful when you came into their lives, they were already in love with each other but finding you made their already love filled lives more special. When you got the news from Risotto you were heart broken, one day you were happily in love with the two most special men in your life, and the next you were mourning the loss of both of them. 

FORGET-ME-NOT: True Love, Memories

Delphinium: a first love, strong bonds of love.

You had gotten a bundle of flowers at your door step with two notes attached, one was from Risotto telling you that Sorbet and Gelato had sent you a note, along with a few wishes in their Will. The other was the note Sorbet and Gelato had written, only to be read by you after their death.

This is not a goodbye my darling, this is a thank you. Thank you for coming into our lives and giving us joy, thank you for loving us and receiving our love in return. Thank you for the memories we made together. But most of all, thank you for showing us that there will come a time when we will be together again.

-Sorbet&Gelato.

[wither-rose-circus]

*slides into DMs*

Hello there, I would like to hear about your Listener Jimmy ideas

Disclaimer: this got really long I am So Sorry

So I’m not skimming through Jimmy’s entire series to get his full relationship with either entities it’s 100+ episodes long like Jesus fucking Christ but I did skim through a handful of videos to get a basic understanding

And I noticed they did mention Jimmy in the end credits, but I think what’s noteworthy is that they didn’t specifically praise him for anything like the others, only scolding him.

I assume that’s partially why the Listeners chose him.

For context, though, I wanna clarify my general Listener headcanons

• The Listeners are to the Nether what the Watchers are to the End

That is not to say they are from the Nether, but that it is their domain. Both the Nether and the End are (or were, in the Nether’s case) total wastelands. From what I understand, the series hinted at some sort of war between the two factions. That is what I believe caused these two lands to be destroyed. Prior to 1.16, the residents of the Nether were diseased and undead, hinting that some kind of disaster happened (Even now, the achievement for finding a bastion references some war among the Piglins, the End Cities have airships and are decked out with leftover enchanted diamond armor, etc). Now, what in the Nether has to do with the Listeners?

• The Listeners are related to Ghasts

Now I know that sounds weird, but hear me out. The description for the achievement Uneasy Alliance goes as follows: Rescue a ghast from the Nether, bring it safely home to the Overworld... and then kill it. This directly implies that ghasts are not native to the Nether, but to the overworld. Now what are ghasts obviously inspired by? Ghosts. What is the Nether obviously inspired by? Hell. What do you get when you put that together? Ghasts are player souls trapped in the Nether. How does this related to the Listeners? The Listeners had their souls trapped within the Nether in the form of ghasts in an attempt to wipe them out. Only some were eventually able to regain their senses and escape the Nether via players’ portals. But why were they trapped?

• The Listeners oppose the Watchers because they believe the Watchers are taking away players’ autonomy

This is less headcanon and more directly reading into the series. The Listeners tell the evolutionists that they need to take back their freedom, that the Watchers are controlling. My personal interpretation of the Watchers is that they are “Awoken,” which is based on how the credits poem references players awaking from dreams. They are essentially the end goal of that process. When a player passes through the portal in the End, the Watchers judge their soul and decide whether or not to awaken them. This leads to them ascending to the Aether (yes, that Aether), which they believe is the “perfect” version of the game (everyone being in creative and thus unable to fight or be hurt, constantly daytime so no mobs, access to the creative inventory to do whatever they please, etc). Now, how did they know what the Watchers were doing in the first place?

• The Listeners are former Watchers

Due to their similar designs, I believe Listeners are simply rebellious Watchers who believe no one group should have control over a player’s life. After the war, they were subsequently banished to the Nether, which has only recently begun to recover. However, this separation left them stripped of the Watcher’s all seeing eyes. This led them to utilize sound to more discretely convey their messages. They have dedicated themselves to “freeing” players from the Watchers’ grasps and recruiting whatever souls they can still get their hands on. This is where Jimmy finally comes in.

The Evolution server was unique in that the players brought to it were specifically chosen to be tested. It was essentially a recruitment effort. The Watchers state that choosing to take Grian was a difficult decision, likely meaning they assessed each one individually. Due to their dismissal of Jimmy, I take it he was not heavily considered. This negligence is what allowed the Listeners to latch onto Jimmy.

Jimmy arrives in the Evolutionist’s old spawn before any of them arrive. We know it was before because Jimmy placed the enderchests the Listeners gifted the rest of the team and because, upon returning in his next episode, the Listeners’ symbol is replaced with that of the Watchers. However, when the evolutionists show up, he’s nowhere to be found, only making his way back with the signs they left. But Jimmy’s videos imply he never really left the main area, so something happened to him between that cut. This is where I believe Jimmy was “marked” by the Listeners.

So now, tumblr user Harley the Pancake, I am so sorry I’ve rambled for like 3 pages without answering the question, but these are my headcanons for pseudo-Listener Jimmy, specifically in the context of 3rd Life:

• Jimmy has bouts of auditory foresight. They’re not consistent, but tend to happen in relation to bad things. This is why he got so defensive towards the Red Army. He foresaw them, specifically Ren and Martyn, killing Scott. However, these flashes are purely auditory, so he had no context as to how or why they killed Scott. His own paranoid imagination applied the idea of Scott being sacrificed (Ironically, this actually sealed Scott’s fate, as neither of them would’ve been killed the way they were had they joined the Red Army). Jimmy is not fully conscious of this ability and tends to chalk it up to gut feelings.

• Jimmy has Nether traits. This comes from more general evolutionary traits you would expect from having lived in a place like the Nether. Not being very affected by heat, more resilient to lava (yes I know that’s ironic for his first death to be lava but I said resilient, not immune), piglins are less likely to aggro on him, etc.

• Jimmy can understand both Standard Galactic and, to a lesser extent, Piglin. Standard Galactic is something he can read fluently while Piglin is something he can vaguely understand. He can’t speak Piglin because Piglin is a very guttural language and few players have the vocal cords for it. If you asked him how he knows these languages, he wouldn’t have an answer. (I also headcanon Scott to be inhuman in different ways, though, so he also knows Standard Galactic. Jimmy just kinda assumed it must’ve been a normal thing to know.)

• Jimmy vaguely remembers past dreams/lives, most notably sounds. He tends to remember sounds specifically so he gets this intense feeling of deja vu when several server members talk to him.

• Jimmy has incredibly conflicting feelings towards Grian for reasons he can’t explain. On one hand, Jimmy vaguely recognizes Grian as a friend from Evo. On the other, he has this instinctual discomfort due to Grian being a Watcher. He can’t tell Grian is a Watcher, he just gets this strange gut feeling around him. (Grian, on the other hand, is very aware Jimmy is part Listener.)

And that’s all I’ve got for now, sorry for how long this was!

[cellsshapedlikestars]

Robot Jon! ☺️

(ok, I've been off tumblr for a few days, but I went on early this morning and had an ask with a bunch of prompts because I said I'd be taking a break from my Bachelor fic - which is true, if not for another 3 chapters yet. I haven't answered that ask because I'll lose it and therefore the prompts, but it reminded me that I still had two prompts left from when I asked for them back in... December? I'm the worst. Anyway, I re-looked at those prompts, saw this one, and then couldn't stop thinking about it. So I'm coming out of my vague tumblr hiatus to write this.)

Thank you, as always, for the prompt!

.

Sansa has never liked amusement parks.

The sun that always burned her, no matter how diligent mom was about reapplying sunscreen; the fried food that always made her sick; the crowds and the noise and having to walk everywhere. But the worst part was the rides – oh, she didn't mind some of them, like the Ferris wheel or the teacups; she could even handle the swing ride. The problem was that the rest of her family wanted to go on the horrible rides – roller coasters, haunted houses, swinging ships; the ones that go fast and drop you from a million feet in the air. And since it was hard enough wrangling the amount of children in their group to begin with, it was impossiblefor one adult to split off with Sansa, who alone wanted to ride the gentler ones.

And so, it's sort of ironic that she works at an amusement park now.

She may not have a taste for most of the rides in the park, but she is good at designing them – not the actual rides, but the aesthetics of them. It's her (and her team's) job to come in after the engineers and the builders and take a bare-bones ride and turn it into an experience. She loves her job – she loves watching children exit one of her rides with glowing faces and excitement in their eyes.

Today, she also gets to do one of her favorite aspects of the job, which is costume design. The animatronic models have already been installed, and when she enters the new Dance of Dragons ride, she can already see the scene taking shape in her mind. The concept art has already been drawn up, it's already being advertised – a medieval world that everyone knows is meant to capitalize on the stunning success of the Aemon the Dragonknight series (which her employer does not own the rights to, much to their dismay). But concept art is one thing – reality is another, and it's not until the ride is complete that she can start to truly see it come together in her mind.

“Oh good, you're here,” Margaery Tyrell sighs dramatically as she comes to meet Sansa's team. Margaery is in charge of Marketing and PR for this ride and Sansa knows it's a big responsibility, so she's been even more high maintenance than usual. Margaery walks her through the ride that Sansa has seen so many times in drawings.

“This is our Aemon,” Margaery slaps a hand against the shoulder of one of the animatronic models. “Although we can't call him Aemon. Copyright and all that.”

Sansa looks at the robot and she's struck for a moment how lifelike he is. A lot of the animatronics aren't this detailed, though she guesses this one is because of how close to the ride it is.

“He's handsome, right?” Margaery flashes her a grin and there's something in her eyes that Sansa can't quite place. (Well, she can, it's mischief, Sansa just can't tell why it's there.)

“I guess, in the way that cartoons can be handsome,” Sansa laughs and takes another look at the model – the somber grey eyes, dark curly hair, and an equally dark beard. “You even gave him abs,” she points down at the robot's chest which does, indeed, have a very detailed set of abs. “Am I supposed to leave him shirtless?”

“Oh, no, obviously we want realism, like we talked about,” Margaery waves her hand dismissively. “We just couldn't help ourselves when we put in the order.” Sansa shoots her a confused look, which only gets a delighted laugh out of Margaery. “I'm guessing you don't recognize him?”

“Recognize who?”

Margaery gestures at the animatronic. “Jon!” At Sansa's blank stare, Margaery rolls her eyes. “Jon Snow?”

The name sounds familiar and it takes her a second to place it. “The engineer?”

“Duh! Seven hells, don't tell me you've never actually seen him?”

Sansa shakes her head – she usually comes in well after the engineers have done their part.

“Mormont let him take the lead on this project and he's so... ugh,” Margaery makes a noise that's half frustration, half delight. “So serious all the time. But somehow likable? It's infuriating, really. And no one should be that attractive for a nerd.”

“So... does he know you made him into a robot?”

“He does not,” Margaery grins. “We're all just dying for him to come in for an inspection and see it. In fact,” she pulls out her phone and checks the time, “if you wait around for a bit, you'll get to see it happen.”

Sansa shakes her head and they continue on through the set, Sansa writing down notes in her trusty notebook that she always carries with her. Lists of costumes, set pieces. She'll need to bring in Asha later to discuss the lighting options (right now the dark ride is lit with spotlights, giving the whole place a surreal atmosphere).

Margaery eventually leaves her to it and Sansa loses herself in going over the set inch by inch with Gilly and Mya following along with her. She's so lost in thought that Mya has to shake her arm to bring her back to reality, and they turn to see a group of what has to be engineers standing in the main Great Hall set.

“Oh come on, Jon,” Margaery is giggling as a man who must be Jon stands, staring at the animatronic. He's scowling at it, hands tight around the pile of binders in his arms that are... well, ok, Sansa can understand now why Margaery made the robot so well muscled.

Sansa edges closer to the scene, and she can see that his fellow engineers are laughing – one of them is red-faced from trying to hold it in while another is actively wiping tears from his eyes.

“It's already made,” Margaery says in response to whatever Jon had grumbled to her. “Replacing it would be an irresponsible waste of funds. Oh! And here's the team that will be styling you... I mean, styling not-Aemon because that's copyright infringement.”

Jon looks up and the scowl drops from his face.

“This is Sansa, Mya and Gilly are over there.”

“Hi,” Sansa greets and Jon shifts his binders into one arm and then holds out his hand for her to shake (she can feel her face heating up and she hopes the dark hides it). “I promise to try and do you justice.” She regrets her words immediately, especially when she sees a slow grin spread over Margaery's face. “Though it doesn't totally look like you,” she continues on to try and backtrack. “It... doesn't have glasses?”

She wants to sink into the floor in embarrassment, but the gods are not that kind. At least she doesn't spout out how much she likes his glasses. Maybe Margaery is right – no one who clearly cares so little about their appearance should be this attractive. His beard needs a trim, his outfit is painfully unstylish, his hair is pulled back into a bun. All of it should add up to something she hates, but she just... doesn't.

(And honestly, Margaery's description of nerd isn't so far off the mark, but Sansa finds this isn't a detriment – in fact, she might be more attracted to him because of the glasses and the multitude of thick binders organized with labels and tabs that he's got tucked under his arm.)

“I'd also hope real Jon isn't built like a Ken doll,” one of the other engineers barks out a laugh and points at the animatronic, which, yes, does not have any reproductive anatomy.

“Gods,” she hears Jon whisper, and the hand that he had used to shake hers comes up and covers his eyes. “This is a nightmare.”

“Stop being so dramatic,” Margaery sighs and pats him on the shoulder. “Now, why don't you take Sansa around and make sure she's really taken care of, hmm?” At the words, Sansa feels her face heat even further and Jon drops his hand from his eyes and glares at Margaery. “I just mean,” Margaery grins, not even trying to pretend the innuendo wasn't on purpose, “it might help the design if she has a good understanding of the mechanics. I know there's some new things on this ride we haven't had before, you could show her.”

Jon opens his mouth, but doesn't get a chance to speak, because Margaery barrels on. “Sam, Grenn, you can chat with Gilly and Mya while that's happening. And I... well, I'll just be over here, minding my own business.”

With that, Margaery walks away and the other two engineers – Sam and Grenn, she guesses – head over to where the rest of her team stands, watching from afar.

“You don't have to,” Sansa starts, but Jon quickly turns from glaring at Margaery's back to her and his face settles into something less... scowly.

“I don't mind,” he says quickly and maybe it's the low lighting in here, but she thinks the tips of his ears are red.

“Perfect,” she gives him her best smile, which seems to throw him even more off balance and... and she thinks she could get used to throwing Jon Snow off balance.