#imagine the I have red in my ledger scene with the | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

blaxcunicorn · 11 months ago

Text

Diaboli's Angelus

Chapter: 8

Length: 6.9k

Authors note: Heeey, it's me again! sorry for being inconsistent. I sometimes struggle to post as I am rarely happy with my work hehe. Hope you have an amazing holiday and hope you enjoy the chapter❤️

Content warning: SA, parental neglect, death and depression

Tag: @okaystopwhore

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Zeke’s story starts fifteen years before Eren is born. At that time, Grisha was only the crown prince of Eldia. While sitting in the throne room with his parents, the rulers of Eldia a shaken, beautiful blonde, is let into the room. Her clothes were clean but you could tell that her clothes were worn out. The ladies of the court giggle behind their fans which Grisha responds with a deathly glare. The young woman turns red while shakenly curtsy. “What’s your name, love?” The queen asks the poor girl. Her heart ached for the young woman. She looked like a scared dog. “Dina, Your Majesty,” she says not daring to look at the Queen. “I can tell by your accent that you are not Eldian. What takes you to Eldia?” The Queen continues. “I escaped the growing poverty in Marley. I ended up in Eldia in hopes of finding a job as a maid for the royals.” Dina says, looking up in hopes of finding any form of kindness in the rulers' eyes. That’s when Grisha gets a proper look at her beauty. He is quickly taken by her beautiful soft blue eyes and grace.

Grisha quickly turns his attention to his father’s sigh “We would have loved to take you in, but there are just not more positions for maids in the Castle.” His father says with a heavy heart. “I-I understand, thank you for your time.” She says softly while turning around in humiliation. “W-Wait!” Grisha shouts as Dina is on her way to the door. “My main maid is old and might need some assistance.” He says quickly, a bit embarrassed of how everyone was looking at him. His father nods “Thinking about it. Margaret is getting quite old. She has been working in the palace for the past fifty years. Getting her a little support wouldn’t hurt.” The King smiles. “Thank you so much” Dina curtsies for Grisha and his parents.

Dina Settled into the work immediately and grew quite close to Margareth, who has taken a maternal role in Dina’s life. Grisha is taking a stroll around the palace when he sees Margaret and Dina hanging up clothes. “Are you settling in, Dina?” He asks with a smile. “Yes, thank you, Your Highness.” The young maid blushes.

One day Margaret fell a bit ill and tasked Dina to clean the Prince’s chamber. While dusting around, she finds a door. She thought it was an extension of the chamber that needed to be cleaned as she opened the room, she saw that it is a bit office hidden behind that door. The office, unexpectedly spacious, was adorned with an intriguing array of artifacts that vividly showcased the prince's intrepid nature. Richly coloured tapestries graced the walls, portraying distant landscapes and enigmatic terrains, imparting an air of exoticism to the room.

At its heart lay a majestic oak desk, impeccably organised with scrolls, maps, and ledgers. A collection of antique globes graced the desk's surface, offering a visual narrative of the world's diverse continents and vast oceans. Shelves were adorned with captivating trinkets and treasures from distant realms—a display of delicate seashells, finely crafted figurines, and small chests filled with vibrant gemstones.

Maps of varied sorts bedecked the walls—an assortment of meticulously detailed charts revealing intricate trade routes and unexplored territories, alongside weathered parchments evoking ancient lands lost to time.

The sight captivated Dina, transporting her imagination to realms of wonder and adventure, a stark departure from the confines of her routine within the palace. The scene before her instilled a profound sense of admiration for the prince's ventures, kindling within her an earnest longing to venture beyond the castle walls and explore the unknown. She takes a close look at the maps before hearing footsteps behind her. She quickly turned around and apologised to the prince. “Don’t apologise. It is a big world we live in. Are you interested in travelling?” Grisha asks with a soft smile. “I-I never thought about travelling. I have never been travelling as I grew up in the Marlian internment zone.” She says, a bit ashamed and embarrassed. “How was it like? Your childhood.” Dina’s eyes widened as no one had ever taken any interest in her and her story. She tells him about her being a bastard andabandoned on the streets but was luckily taken in by a poor woman that she considers her mother. Her mother died in a robbery while bread shopping. Dina feels her heart arch thinking about her mother “Have you heard about the seven seas?” Grisha quickly says tochange the topic as he notices the sadness washing over her. That night they stayed up talking about the world and Grisha’s travels. It was that very night Dina and Grisha fell in love.

Dina became quickly known for being a beautiful flower in the castle, always respectful and kind. She caught many admirers' eyes, especially a knight by the name of James. He has proposed to her at least three times but she declines them every time as her heart belongs to Prince Grisha. James, however, did not take it lightly. One night after a long shift, he traps Dina as she is on her way to the maids' courter. He quickly pushes her onto the wall, trapping her while trying to slide down her underwear. Dina’s screams were quickly shut by his hands. “If you don’t want to marry me, I guess…I have to impregnant you to get what I want” he growls in her ears. Tears are streaming down her face as he rips her top exposing her bare breasts. Luckly her short scream was heard by Grisha who were taking a short walk through the palace. He rushes over to find the two of them, all Grisha sees is red as he punches the knight. James was about to fight back only to realise who hit him knowing that putting up a fight will lead to his execution the very next morning. Grisha on the other hand punches him in anger none stop, not realising the vlood dripping of his knuckle. Dina pulls his arm away from James bloody face“Your Highness, it's enough, please stop”, she cries, bringing him back to reality. Grisha tells him to leave tonight or else tomorrow will be the last day for him to see the sunlight. Grisha leads Dina to his chamber and wraps a blanket over her to cover her exposed chest. They sit in front of the fire as he comforts her, that very night they shared their first kiss. Their relationship started blossoming from that night. Grisha would leave Dina love letters, making her blush like a school girl. Dina would spend the night at Grisha’s chamber and leave early right before sunrise. Margaret grew suspicious of them as Grisha would under breakfast squeeze Dina’s hand while thanking her for serving him. The old maid pulls Dina to the side “You need to be careful, my dear” she says concerned. “There is nothing to worry about Margaret” Dina responds giving her an reasuring smile. As the blonde servant was on her way out of the room she collapsed. “Dina!” Grisha shouts rushing to help her. Hisparents gave each other a look as their son’s action was a bit weird. “Margaret, please take her to a doctor!” He orders. Margaret is next to Dina, she was only allowed into the room by because she told the doctor that she is her mother, which the doctor finds a bit strange since they have different accents. “Contratulations Dina, you are with chid.” The doctor smiles. Silence filled the room and the doctor leaves due to the awkward nature of the situation. Margaret grabs Dina’s shoulders and whispers “Who impregnated you?” Dina cries and reveals that Grisha is the father of her child. “My dear, you need to get rid of the child.” Margaret says stroking Dina’s back. “I-I can’t do it. The child is innocent” She hulks. The elderly maid sighs and tells her that she needs to tell Grisha, gather her stuff and leave before the king and queen finds out.

Later that evening, Dina tells a shocked Grisha that him that she is with child. “We could run away together and raise the child.” She says hopeful. That dream got crushed quickly by Grisha that tells her in a shaken voice, that he is going to marry the daughter of the head of the Shiganshina province in order to settle the ongoing civil war.Dina cries as reality hits her, those precious moments she shared with Grisha clouded her logic. He is going to be the next ruler of Eldia while she is just some poor girl from the slums of Marley. “I assume that you wish to keep the child as you suggested that we…” Dina responds with several short nods. “I will fix a house for you in Marley. No one can know of this pregnancy because if my parents were to find out, they would force you to terminate the pregnancy, with or without you being alive. In addition to that, it might ruin the marriage deal with the Shiganshinas.” Dina nods as tears are streaming down her face. Grisha raises her head with his fingers under her chin. “Come back once I’m King, and I’ll try to see if I can sort out some agreement for you to live safely here in the Kingdom. It might take a couple of years, but I wish also to raise our child,” he says, touching one hand on her stomach. The night after was Dina’s departure, Grisha had not come to bid her farewell as he didn’t want to bring any suspicion onto Dina’s disappearance.

Dina felt miserable in Marley, don’t get it wrong, she had everything she needed and more. Grisha installed loyal Marlian servants to assist Dina with everything she needed. She didn’t have to lift a finger. However going through her first pregnancy alone is something no woman wishes upon herself. They were seven lonely months, and Dina was not in any circumstances, allowed to communicate with people from the outside. The servants were strictly told by Grisha that no one could know about Dina’s pregnancy. Her depression vanished on August 1st when she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He had her blue eyes and blonde hair. He was perfect. All she could do was sobbing and whisper, “I’m so sorry, you have just taken your first breaths and already is your life going to be a living hell because of me…Zeke…however, I promise you it will get easier”

Zeke was a quiet child, and he preferred to play within his mother's proximity. Many of the servants pity him as it might have been a result of the two of them being isolated from the outside world. Dina sent Grisha several letters regarding Zeke’s birth and their well-being, but she never received any letters back. Dina was still hopeful, and he might not respond in fear of his parents. As soon as Grisha becomes King, they’ll be able to move back to the Eldian palace. Zeke will be able to get freedom, have friends and get some proper education. She looks over at her son reading a book.

Zeke on the other hand was a smart kid, he has several times overheard his mother talk to the servants about this “Grisha” and how she is desperately longing for him and can’t wait for him to meet Zeke “his son”. He didn’t know anything else about his father, but was smitten by his mother's positivity and patiently awaited his father’s arrival along side his mother.

However, when Zeke turned eight did his impatient crumble. He saw a bunch of kids his age playing outside the house. This is the first time Zeke has every seen kids around his age, as the house was isolated in the middle of the woods. The kids however were shooed away by some of their servants. “Mother, who is Grisha?” Dina’s eyes widen and tears are streaming down her face. “Honey, where did you learn that name from?” Zeke looks down in a mix of guilt and shame. “I-I have overheard you talk about him, i-is it true? Is he my father.” Dina embraces Zeke in a hug and sobs “Y-yes.” She sniffs causing chills down Zeke’s spine. “Mother, why am I not allowed to play with other kids?” Dina freezes. She has not prepared for this conversation as she hoped that their lives would go back to normal sooner than this. “W-we are waiting for your father to let us out of the house.” Zeke was confused but trusted his mother’s words.

However, those words would be in vain as she fell ill right after his ninth birthday. Zeke never left his mother’s side as he prayed and hoped that his father would show up to get them out of the prison of a house. The last thing he wished was for his mother to die, lonely.The doctors suspected that Dina felt ill due to her being isolated for so long. Dina died three months later. Zeke was rushed out of her bedroom one morning after tiredly trying to wake his mother for breakfast. One of the maids came out with tears in her eyes. Her name was Fanny, and she had taken care of Zeke while Dina was ill. She was also Marlian, and she grew fond of both Zeke and Dina. Her husband, Ksaver used to throw ball with Zeke from time to time. “Z-Zeke…I’m so sorry,” she hulks, embracing the little boy into a hug. Ksaver comes running up the stairs and is in disbelief. They all thought that Dina was going to be better, they rensured Zeke all the time. The married couple, however, are shocked to see no tears running down Zeke’s face. He was more furious than sad he killed her. He killed her, is all Zeke can think. “Zeke, can I talk to you for a minute?” Ksaver says, escorting the young blond out of the house to talk. “Here, Zeke, these are three envelopes from your mother.” Zeke stares at them in confusion. They are addressed to three people. To himself, to King Grisha and to Queen Carla. “King Grisha? Queen Carla?” Zeke says, confused. He rips open the envelope addressed to him

To my dearest Zeke,

As you probably have seen the title of the other envelopes is it true, you are the illegitimate son of King Grisha of Eldia. His Majesty and I met when I was a young servant at the royal castle. We fell in love, but life as its twisted ways. Which resorted in you being born and us having to isolate until His Majesty called for our return.

Zeke, from the bottom of my heart, I apologise for getting punished for my mistakes. I’m sorry that I couldn’t provide you a happier and better childhood, with lots of laughs and friends. However, I want you to know that you are my greatest achievement in life. I couldn’t have asked for a better son, the cold loneliness of being isolated was hard on my but you brought warmth and sunshine everywhere you went.

My final wish for you is to live a happy life with lots of joy.

Love,

Mom.

Zeke can feel the letters fade as tears are streaming down his face. “Zeke, you are the heir of the Eldian throne”, Ksaver says, kneeling in front of the young boy. The other Marlian workers kneel as well. “Zeke, I want you to meet King Magath of Marley. He’ll help you with the next steps, as being an illegitimate King is borderline impossible. However, remember that your father owes you that after what he put you and your mother through.” Ksaver finished, standing up. Zeke gives him a firm nod “Tell me, when can I meet King Magath?” he asks Ksaver. “I’m right here.” One of the men stood up, and he was dressed like a farmer in order not to draw attention of his subjects. “Prince Zeke, it will be an honour to assist you in taking the Eldian throne. Having a Marlian raised King in Eldia would strengthen Marley’s position.” Zeke gives the King a firm nod “I appreciate your help”, The boy says. What he does not know is that the Marlians want to use him as a puppy. They will use Zeke as the face of the Eldian regime but control everything from the shadows.

It's been a year since his mother’s passing, and during that year, he went through an intense preparation for this day by the Marlian courts. They taught him how to behave in the courts and what was expected of him as a prince. He is currently sitting next to Ksaver on their way to the Eldian palace. As they arrive outside the castle, Zeke takes a deep breath admiring his castle. They are eventually let in by guards as they explain that they are here on behalf of the Marlian throne. They enter the Court hall, and there he sits, the devil himself, Zeke grits his teeth Just looking at his father makes him wanna vomit. Next to Grisha sits a highly pregnant Carla stroking her belly. Zeke’s stomach sunk at the view. He mentally prayed that the child was a girl. “I present to you, Prince Zeke Jeager of Eldia” Ksaver announces. The whole Court gasps and Grisha looks like he has seen a ghost. To Zeke’s surprise, the King runs down from his throne and embraces him. “Oh, Zeke…how I wanted to meet you.” Zeke remains stoic as his father cries. Everyone was shocked except Kenny Ackerman. Kenny was furious as he had spent the last nine years hiding the letters Dina wrote to Grisha and replaced them with a letter stating that she wanted nothing to do with him or Eldia and how she felt it was best if she raised Zeke by herself in Marley. “Father, I have these letters from my mother.” Grisha takes a good look at his son, and he is as beautiful as his mother. Grisha takes the letters but is confused, “Isn’t she here as well?” He asks. “She is dead,” Zeke says short gritting his teeth. “Dead?” Grisha almost lost balance. “Your Majesty!” Kenny shouts, catching the King and leads him back to the throne.

Grisha takes a look at the two envelopes, one addressed to himself and another addressed to Carla. He nervously hands over Carla the envelope. Carla has known of Zeke’s existence for years. Grisha was nervous to tell her, but he owed the woman he loved the truth. You read it right, Grisha fell for Carla the second he saw her. She was the opposite of Dina, loud and witty but he loved it about her. They bonded over their interest of travelling and aspirations of the future. Carla understood him in ways no other human being on this earth did, which led him to fall for her. He didn’t forget about Dina, but he wanted to respect her wish to be left alone. Grisha looks over at Carla, who is staring at him, waiting for him to open his letter.

Dear King Grisha,

I hope this message finds you in good health and prosperity. It is with a heavy heart and a sense of urgency that I pen these words to you, knowing not if they will ever reach your eyes. As I write this, my time in this world draws near to an end, leaving behind a longing for what could have been.

Our shared past is one of secrets and whispers, hidden away from the scrutiny of the court. In the clandestine whispers of our love, a beautiful son was born, a testament to our youthful passion and affection. He is the embodiment of our fleeting moments of joy, and he carries within him the blood that binds us.

My days in this realm are numbered, and it pains me deeply to leave our son behind. As a mother, my only plea to you, my beloved Grisha, is to embrace our child with the same fervour with which we once embraced each other. I beseech you not to let the circumstances of his birth cloud your perception of him.

He is your son, borne of our shared love, and he deserves the warmth of your protection and guidance. Please, in the name of the love we once shared, grant our son a place within the kingdom. Let him not be tainted by the stigma of being illegitimate; let your love and grace be his sanctuary.

I entrust his future into your hands, praying that you will watch over him and nurture him as your own. I implore you, do not let our son suffer the ill fate of being marginalised for something beyond his control. He deserves a chance at a life worthy of his lineage.

In my final moments, I find solace in reminiscing about the happiness we shared in our time together. The memories of our love are etched in the fabric of my being, and they shall forever remain the source of my fondest moments.

I bid you farewell, my beloved Grisha. May our son find favour in your heart, and may your love and compassion shield him from the trials of this world. Know that I was at my happiest when we were together and that love will forever endure in my heart.

Yours eternally,

Dina

Grisha’s heart felt heavy, she is dead? He shakes the feeling of as he sees Zeke stare at him. He needs to be strong for his son and his wife who is currently staring at her who is looking down on her envelope. “D-do you wish to open it?” He asks her. She just nods and shakenly opens the envelop addressed to her.

Your Majesty Queen Carla,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and high spirits. As I write these words, my heart weighs heavy with an immense burden that I am about to place upon your gracious shoulders. Please, I beseech you to hear my plea with an open heart and mind.

In the shadows of the past, a secret was buried, one that I must now unearth before I depart from this world. It is a secret that carries both the weight of love and the burden of responsibility.

I address you with the deepest reverence, fully acknowledging your role as the Queen and wife to King Grisha. It is not without the utmost respect and humility that I convey my earnest request to you.

In the fleeting days of my life, my thoughts are consumed with the welfare of our son. The child borne of a love once shared between King Grisha and myself. I am acutely aware that this revelation may place an unexpected burden upon you, and for that, I offer my sincerest apologies.

My only wish, Queen Carla, is for you to extend your graciousness and compassion to our son. He is innocent, blameless for the circumstances of his birth, and my deepest prayer is for him to live a life of happiness and safety.

I beseech you to consider him as one of your own, to embrace him with the same love and care you extend to your royal children. Allow him to flourish within the warmth and shelter of your heart.

I understand the complexities that such a situation may bring upon your household. Therefore, I solemnly promise that our son, Zeke, will not seek to assert any claim to the throne. His aspirations lie elsewhere, and I implore you to nurture his dreams with the same kindness you bestow upon your own offspring.

Please forgive the weight of this request, Your Majesty. It is made with the purest intentions, solely for the well-being of our son. I entrust his future to your benevolence and grace.

With the deepest gratitude for your understanding and compassion,

Dina

Carla’s tears are dripping on the letter, how could she shun away this young boy. “I promise, I will Dina” she whispers quietly to herself. “Darling, we should take him in and hire him a tutor. H-he can stay in the prince chamber next to the great hall.” Carla suggests. Grisha smiles as he squeezes Carla’s hand. “Would you like that, Zeke?” The blonde boy nods smiling. He looks over at Ksaver that gives him a thumbs up, as they are now closer to the throne than ever. To Zeke’s disappointment did he end up getting a younger half brother. He had love for his brother but envied how attached Grisha was to him and how he is the heir of the throne. Zeke and the Marlian royal court have a secret meeting fiftheen years later about the issue of Eren and the throne. “He is still young, we need to take him out before he is of age.” King Magath suggests. Zeke refuses to take part in killing his brother, but rather suggests that they find a way to make the Eldian court believe that he is unfit for the throne. They never came to an agreement and the Marlian court decides to try and take out Eren and the royal couple behind Zeke’s back while they are going for the annual trip to Stochess. This is still unknown to both Zeke, Eren and the rest of the world. The murder of Carla is what caused the rebelling in Shiganshina as they suspect Zeke taking part of the murders.

Zeke’s arrival to the palace caused a divide in the palace. One side you have the “Zekers” they are a minority that believe that Zeke is the rightful heir to the throne as he is the oldest son of Grisha and that the oldest always takes the throne. They also trust in Zeke as he has shown great intelligence. On the other side you have the “Erens” that as you can guess, supports Eren. They believe that he is the heir as Grisha wished for him to success him. Eren is also the glue to keep Shiganshina calm because of ancestry from his maternal side. They also argue that he is the legitimate son of Grisha and has shown great leadership skills after the death of his parents, he is a natural born king. On top of that has his aggressive foreign policy transformed Eldia to the current hegemon of the world.

“The aftermath of all of this, is what you saw on the tea party” Historia finishes. Both you and Darcy are speechless, is this what’s being going on in the castle. “One thing I don’t understand is, why are they involving Her Majesty?” Darcy asks looking over at you. You nervously swallow as Historia says “Her Majesty is now his Majesty’s strongest trumpet card. The alliance between Eldia and Capri has boomed our economy as Capri is a well respected nation.” You respond with a nod “It’s that why Pieck was acting all weird? It doesn’t explain why she defended me, when E- His Majesty was confronting me.” Historia takes a deep breath, which is scarying you. Her eyes looked as almost. “They, want to turn you against Eren by making you believe that they are your allies.” She finishes. “What about Lady Pieck?” You say gulping heavy, playing with your fingers. You grew fond of Zeke’s wife and after the fiasko of a teaparty you hoped that the two of you could sort of the problems as sisters-in-law. “The Fingers aren’t the highest ranked nobels. Nobel families get their rank up through marriages to the crown. That’s why Lady Leonhart and Lord Arlet are of the highest ranked nobels, since their ancestors married into the Jeager bloodline.” Historia says. You nod as you do the same in Capri. It is a tool that helps making allies in the courts in order to prevent coups. “The Fingers offered Pieck to Eren when they were 12 years old. The Jeager’s refused as they wished to give Eren the freedom to choose a wife of his own. They knew that he would refuse to settle down with someone who were not of his choice. Zeke on the other hand wanted to marry Lady Pieck when She was of age. It’s speculated among the courts that Zeke promised the Fingers that he would make her Queen.” Historia finishes. “Why did he decide to marry a lower ranked nobel, if he wants to be king? Aren’t the odds higher if he married a higher ranked nobel” Daisy asks. “No high ranked nobelman wishes to disgrace his family by marrying their daughter off to some bastard. The Fingers aren’t that well respected snd put their bet on Zeke. It is also speculated that he wished to marry Lady Pieck because of her great intelligence.” Both you and Darcy are speechless.

“I-I see, thank you for telling us Historia.” You finish. The blonde girl curtsies and excuses herself as she needs to help the others clean up after the teaparty. “Shit, I never imagined that the Eldian royal family was that messy.” Darcy says helping you out of your dress. “Me neither” you sigh feeling a bit tired.

You are currently sitting in a political meeting with the Eldian royal Court. Eren is sitting on the right end of the table while you are seated at the left and of the very same table. Pixie is reading out the suggestions made by the court as to where the governmental fundings should go. “Better roads in Wall Rose” he says and everyone responds with nods. It was intimidating as you are the only woman in the room, but you had to suck it up since you are there to guarantee that the Eldian court won’t backoff any deals they make with Capri. “Invest money in…orphanages?” Pixies says confused. You wanted to slide down of your seat as you nervously raised your hand. Your underarms are sweating and your cheeks are on fire. Pixies looks at you confused, “Your Majesty I-” Eren is quickly woke up from his boredom as you rose up from your seat. Your legs are shaking but you need to stand your ground, how are you else going to be able to fight for Capri’s rights when you can’t fight for your own ideas. “I believe that we should invest in the orphanages as children are roaming around the kingdom with no place to stay. The current orphanages are overwhelmed and underinvested. How can we neglect the future of this kingdom?” You finishes sitting down, seeing your heart pound from your chest. Pixies looks down in shame, so do the other court members.

“I believe its an amazing idea.” Your husband grins and nods at Armin. The blonde advisor quickly finds the paper with the overview of the spending allowed for the year. “According to our finances can we afford this as we profited a lot from the war with Neglanian Empire.” He says giving you an assuring nod. You smile at the two men before looking around at the Court men “Are there any objections?” All the men shakes their heads, which brings calmness to your heart as you were able to keep your promise to Beatrice. As the meeting is wraps up and all the men leaves you stop Eren. “Thank you for helping me out there.” You say chuckling. “Don’t thank me, it was all you. The idea of investing in the orphanage was a good idea. You are like the mother of the nation.” He smiles. A familiar burning sensation reaches your cheeks and you take a deep breath to calm yourself down a bit. “Well, that makes you the father of the nation…huh.” You teasingly say elbowing his arm. His cheeks turns pink, he wanted to respond but is called by Armin. “I have to go love, I have a lot of boring paperwork to finish up. I’ll see you tonight.” He says lifting your cheek to give you a peck on the lips. If he knew that this was the last time he’d kiss you in a while, he’d make it last forever. As he leaves you feel someone standing behind you. You turn around to see a maid curtsying “Sorry for the disturbance, your Majesty. Lady Pieck sent me.” She says giving you an envelope. “Thank you” You say nervously and walks to your chamber. In there is Historia making your bed. “H-Historia?” The blonde girl drops the bedsheets on the bed and comes rushing. “I got this letter from Lady Pieck.” You show her the envelop addressed to you. She swallows heavy while looking at the letter. Your fingers shake as you open the envelop and you read out loud.

My Dearest Queen Y/n,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and spirits. I write to you today with a humble heart and a sincere desire for reconciliation and understanding between us.

I must express my deepest regrets for the chaos I inadvertently caused at the recent tea party. My words and actions may have caused discomfort, and for that, I am profoundly sorry. Criticizing King Eren's ruling method was impulsive and inappropriate, and I deeply regret any offense it may have caused you or your esteemed guests.

In light of this, I extend an earnest invitation for tea at my chambers this evening. It would be an honor to host you, to share apologies, and to bridge the gap that may have arisen between us. I hope this gesture will serve as a humble attempt to mend our relationship and set aside any differences we might have.

As sister-in-laws, I believe it is essential for us to foster mutual respect and understanding. I value your wisdom and grace and hold a sincere desire to establish an amicable relationship between our families.

I eagerly await your gracious response and hope for the opportunity to extend my apologies in person.

With the utmost respect and sincerity,

Lady Pieck

Historia rushes to find you a dress the second you finish reading out the letter. “You must go Your Majesty, Zeke and Pieck view you as an innocent third party in this saga. If you decline, they’ll know who’s side you are on and with this you might get valuable information from Pieck.” You slowly nod as you feel an uncomfortable knot in your stomach. You know Historia is right, in order to help Eren you need to get on Lady Pieck’s good side and try to suck out any information from her. You nervously twist on the gold ring Eren gifted you on his proposal. Historia pulls out a beautiful baby blue dress with white flowers on it. You tilt your head in confusion as Historia seemed nervous. “Y-your Majesty, do you wish to wear this dress? Forget it I can find you something else I-” You place your hand on her shoulder “It’s beautiful, I really want to wear it.” You smile. Historia’s cheeks turns red as she says “R-really?? I made it myself”. You look at the dress, the white flowered details are amazing “Oh, wow Historia. You are really gifted, I’m honored and grateful that you made me this dress.” You touch the soft fabric, and feel an exitement brewing. Historia curtsies as a sign of gratitude as she picks up a white laced bow tie and gently grabs a couple of braids from the front and ties it on the back of your head. “There, let’s get you in this dress” She says excitedly. You make a little twirl to show your dress to Historia with a big smile. Your smile slowly fades as you remember your teaparty with Pieck. Historia must have noticed your nervousness as she says “If you want, I can come with you? I can help out cleaning after the teaparty.” She gives you a warm and assuring smile. Historia is too kind, she has really been your support system through out your stay in Eldia besides of course Darcy and Mikasa.

Historia squeezes your hand as comfort when the doors of Pieck’s chamber opens. You were stunned her chamber had distinctive dark aesthetic. The walls are draped in luxurious dark velvet curtains, deep shades of navy or burgundy, which gracefully frame tall arched windows. The windows allow thin streams of soft, muted light to filter into the room, casting an enchanting glow that enhances the chamber's ambiance. A grand mahogany writing desk stands prominently against one wall, adorned with intricate carvings and embellishments, a testament to craftsmanship. The desk is accompanied by an ornate high-backed chair, upholstered in a rich velvet fabric matching the curtains.A collection of old books lines one side of the chamber, filled with leather-bound volumes and ancient tomes. In the middle you see the table itself is an exquisite piece crafted from polished dark wood, with intricate carvings and embellishments along its edges. Adorned with an ornate tablecloth in deep shades of broqn, it drapes gracefully over the table's surface, adding a regal touch. At the center of the table sits a magnificent centerpiece, a bouquet of velvety dark roses interspersed with delicate black orchids, carefully arranged in an intricately designed silver vase. Each place setting is meticulously arranged with fine porcelain dinnerware, elegantly accented with delicate silver trim. The dinner plates, edged with a subtle floral pattern, are complemented by polished silver cutlery arranged on either side. A selection of treats are arranged beautifully on a silver serving tray at her place setting. Delicacies such as exquisite pastries, dainty finger sandwiches.

You could tell that she really planned this through. Pieck stands up at your arrival “Thank you for accepting my invite Your Majesty” she says while curstying elegantly. You are stunned by her grace, no wonder Zeke choice her as his wife. “Thank you for inviting me.” You say short with a nervous smile. Historia rushes over to stand next to Sasha and the other helpers as soon as she helps you settle down. Sasha gives Historia a nervous but the blonde responds with a reassuring albowing on her arm to indicate that you won’t fall for Piecks plan. However, that did not reassure Sasha at all as she is aware of what is awaiting.

One of the maids pours you some tea and you give her a small thank you as you take a sip. A single tear falls from your eyes as you realise what type of tea it is. “I got Darcy to bring me some after her visit in Capri, I have heard that you Caprians take pride in your herbs.” Pieck says with a smile. “This tea is Johan’s favorite. I used to force him to drink tea with me back when I still used to live in Capri. He used to hesitate because he felt that it was “unmannly” but he always gave in. I used to offer him all the herbal teas I could get my hands on but he always loved drinking the hibiscus tea, which was the first tea I ever offered him.” You sniff with a smile. Pieck became very invested in your little story. “Who is this Johan? A Lord?” She smiles. You shake your head “No, he was my knight.” Pieck takes a sip to hide her mischievous smile. “You knight, as in your royal knight?” You nod starring down at the tea’s beautiful dark red color.

Historia’s eyes widen as she quickly remember seeing you emotionally hugging a tall blonde knight right while cleaning after the wedding ceremony. She also remember seeing Eren starring intensely at the two of you. Now it hit her, she remember cleaning up cigarette buts in the hall way and there is only one person she knows that would throw cigarette buts inside. “Were you in love with him?” Pieck asks with an innocent smile. The tea you swallowed ended up in your air pipe and grab the brown napkin covering your mouth as you cough intensely. “No” you rasp out as you take the same napkin to dry your tears. “Come on Your Majesty. I know that it is prohibit for us nobel women to be with someone with a title, but they can stop us from innocently loving them. We are practically sister, your secrets are always safe with me.” She is right and you did have a small crush on Johan when you were kids. He was funny, charming, brave, protective and the only person that saw you for you, no title, just you. “I-I used to have a small crush on him when we were kids.” You say low, not revealing that they are some unexplored feelings left. “That’s very cute…now, let me tell you my little secret. I believe that as your sister, you must know the truth.” She could read the panic in your eyes as she makes an apologetic face. Pieck actually felt bad for you, as you were clueless on what has been going on in the palace. She takes a deep breath and what she told you would change your world from now on. “Your Majesty!” Historia shouts as you drop the tea cup on the floor. “T-thank you for having me.” You curtsy quickly before rushing out of the room.

#eren jeager x reader #eren jeager x you #eren yeager x black reader #eren yeager x reader #eren yeager x you #eren jeager x y/n #eren x reader #eren x you #eren jeager x black reader #attack on titan eren #attack on titan x reader #attack on titan x black reader #eren yeager smut #snk x reader

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autismmydearwatson · 2 years ago

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"What have you done with Agent Barton?"

"I would say I've expanded his mind."

"And once you're done, once you're King of the mountain, what happens to his mind?" You can see how tight her suit is by how stiffly she moves, poor girlie.

Ok this scene is a lot more interesting now that I've actually bothered to examine it? The "Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" "Love is for children. I owe him a debt." Exchange is so weirdly personal?

"Tell me."

"Before I worked for SHIELD, I...Well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELDs radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call." She actually tells him her backstory? Why the trust? I understand that she's interrogating him, but it's so weirdly intimate? They're both sitting with their shoulders bowed, they almost look like FRIENDS at a glance. But while Natasha glances down or into the middle distance, Loki is looking at her almost apprehensively.

This is how he looks while Natasha is talking about her bond with Clint. His head is bowed but he's still watching her, and he's doing his nervous habit where he's fidgety with his hands, the same tic he shares with Frigga

"And what will you do if I vow to spare him?"

"Not let you out."

"No, but I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man."

"Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian. Or I was."

"And what are you now?"

"It's really not that complicated. I got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out." Now she's standing, arms folded, sort of closed off.

"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red?" GODDDD his FACE when he says this!!!!! This here is definitely a "you and me we're not so different" moment. "Dreykovs daughter. So Paulo, the hospital fire? Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping. It's gushing red." The way Natasha's face changes when he says Dreykovs name oughhhhh....

And when he says "and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. Pathetic! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers." HIS OWN REFLECTION GROWS CLEARER WITH HER FACE. Man, I miss this old Marvel dialogue, it feels almost SHAKESPEAREAN, today it feels insincere and uncharacteristically quippy. Lokis fierce confrontation with Natasha is as much a soliloquy as a monologue. "You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are part of you. And they will never go away.

"I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams I'll split his skull. This is my bargain, you mewling quim."

I don't think people realise how big of a switch this is. I cannot imagine Loki saying this over a year ago, in Thor 1. This isn't lashing out like a cornered animal (which we actually see him do in the first scene of this movie), this reads like a self-deprecating back-and-forth between two traumatized criminals about "is God real?" until he flips her over the coffee table without warning and starts tearing her eyes out. She's trying to bargain, or at least she appears to be, and he responds with a metaphorical bullet.

"You're a monster."

"Oh no. You brought the monster."

"So, Banner. That's your play."

"...what?" I think he's sincerely confused, because (hear me out) I don't think he was referring to the Hulk. I think he was talking about Thanos. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Vision says "our very strength invites challenge." And in the opening monologue, it's actually the awakening of the Tesseract that drew Thanos to earth. So the Hulk wasn't actually part of Lokis game. But if we do consider that Loki wasn't actually referring to the Hulk, then his "plan" to make Bruce go haywire would have been a spur-of-the-moment grab at opportunity. Or maybe something else, depending on whether the theory (the theory that Loki planned for the Avengers assembling, hoping they would defeat thanos) is sound.

Liveblogging my descent into hyperfixation Hell (watching the Avengers (2012)

#ok ok im down now (red lights disappear from my chest as the snipers shuffle away)#marvelposting #sorry for marvelposting :(#the avengers 2012 #god bless natasha romanov

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gabe-wallace · 7 years ago

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AVENGERS AU - Or Miki sensually takes a sledgehammer to the fourth wall, inelegantly crams Jessica Jones into the Avengers, and adds more holes to the already swiss cheese like MCU. ACTION/COMEDY/SUPERHERO AU

The Tesseract has awaken... It is on a little world, a human world. They would wield it’s power... but our ally knows it’s workings as it never will... He is ready to lead. And our force, our Chitauri will follow. The world will be his- the universe yours. And the humans... what can they do but burn?

In the middle of a desert, a secret government facility sprawled. Normally it dwelled in silence, the coming and goings of its agents a tightly controlled secret. This night, urgency overcame the need for silence. Flood lights blazed, voices rose and fell, helicopters and all terrain vehicles left in noisy droves, and trained SHIELD agents moved like an overturned anthill, organized yet frantic. A man intoned over a announcement system, his calm voice at odd with the rising tension- Attention all certified personnel, the evacuation order has been confirmed. Please proceed to your designated vehicles for the compound wide evacuation. This is not a drill. The air thrummed with something electric and alive, fueled by the panic it had incited.

A helicopter landed in an otherwise abandoned air field, where a lone figure stood waiting, clearly expecting whoever was on board. Lydia Starling’s omnipresent smile was tense as Warren Porter climbed out, her warm welcome lost under the whirl of helicopter propellers, and wasted on the Director, whose face was as vaguely annoyed as ever as he strolled past her.

“How bad is it?” He demanded, in lieu of returning his agent’s greeting.

“Well, that’s the thing.” Lydia sighed, nervously adjusting her tight ponytail. “We don’t actually know.”

“Tell me everything.”

“Dr. Jeremy Godfrey read an energy surge from the Tesseract a little over an hour ago.” Lydia reported, following the director as he made his way towards where the energy source was being studied. She had to half run to keep up with him, as she was a rather short woman and Porter was in too much of a rush to make an allowance towards that fact.

“God dammit, NASA didn’t authorize a testing phase!” Porter snapped, walking even faster and causing Lydia to huff. Of course she understood it was an emergency but really.

“Oh no Director Porter, Jeremy would never! He wasn’t even in the room when it happened! It was completely spontaneous- turned itself on.”

“Ugh, of course. What are the energy levels like now?”

“Climbing.” Dr. Jeremy Godfrey’s voice called from where he was intently studying a computer screen, eyes darting to the bright blue Tesseract now and then. “When we couldn’t shut it down, Lydia ordered an evac.”

“That’s right.” Lydia intoned, beaming at her friend and coworker. “Campus should be clear in about a half hour, maybe less. We’ve drilled everyone pretty hard on evac, knowing that this might happen.”

“Do better.” Porter growled, and Lydia visibly wilted. Several passing SHIELD agents paused their evacuation fueled panic to scowl directly into Porter’s eyepatch and pat Lydia on the back.

Jeremy glared. “Lydia’s done an amazing job here, actually. Evacuation may be futile anyway. If we can’t control the Tesseract’s energy there may not be a minimum safe distance.”

Porter rolled his eye heavenwards, wondering what he ever did to deserve this shitty, shitty job and the subordinates who constantly shat all over his authority. “Oh my god, I’m so very sorry Agent Starling. Do you think maybe if it’s not too much of a hassle you could make sure the Phase Two prototypes are shipped out?”

“Is that a priority?” Lydia asked, eyes wide.

“Did I fucking say to do it? That makes it a fucking priority! Until the world ends, I’m going to pretend it still intends to spin on, god dammit!”

This time, Porter’s yelling incited a scowl, and Lydia turned briskly on her heel, tossing a insubordinate. “Oh, yes Sir!” and a sarcastic salute over her shoulder.

Porter fucking hated his job.

“You.” He said, pointing at Jeremy, who didn’t raise his eyes from the screen where figures and numbers sped by at a dizzying pace. “Talk to me.”

“Ugh, okay. The Tesseract is misbehaving.”

“Is that supposed to be funny? Because we could literally die right now, in case you weren’t fucking aware.”

“No, it’s the opposite of funny actually. The Tesseract is active and behaving independently. We can’t pull the plug because it’s literally an energy source- we turn off the power and it turns it back on. If it reaches peak level...” Jeremy trailed off meaningfully, meeting Porter’s eyes for a solemn moment before returning the the screen.

“I know.” Porter sighed, his anger sapped away. “Where is Agent Lowell?”

Jeremy snorted. “The hawk? In his nest, as usual.”

“I told him no more air ducts!”

Julian Lowell perched on a railing from the second story of the lab where the Tesseract was being kept- his eyes darting over every detail that the scene offered. He had seen Porter’s lips shaping his name, seen him yelling at Lydia, but he didn’t have his hearing aides in, and honestly didn’t have time for that right now. He was desperate to see something- a detail he could offer that would save all of their asses. He was good at that- seeing the big picture.

Unfortunately he made eye contact with Porter, who made a rather annoyed come here motion that Julian was pretty much required to address.

“I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things, dammit!” Porter said as Julian crossed the room. Julian had a talent for reading lips- most people didn’t know he was deaf until he told them.

“I see better from a distance.”

“Well, did you see anything from the air ducts that I strictly forbade you from being in?”

“First off, I wasn’t in the air ducts-” -Today anyway. “Second off, nothing on this side has changed or triggered it in any way. If someone’s done something, it must have been from the other end. This thing is a doorway to the other end of space right? Doors open from both sides.”

As if prompted, the Tesseract let out an ominous cracking that Julian could sense rather than hear- beams of light like lightening shooting out from the complicated piece of machinery it rested in. A high pitch humming started, slowly building and building until even Julian could feel it thrumming in his bones. Just when the pressure felt as if it would split his skull, a beam of energy shot out and formed a blue portal so bright it hurt to look at.

Out of the portal walked a man.

Julian and Porter crouched into ready positions while Jeremy watched unblinkingly. Several staff members pulled handguns out of holsters and desks, edging closer to the stranger, who did not move but smiled mischievously, waving a scepter which glowed with the same blue energy as the Tesseract itself.

“Sir!” Porter’s voice rang out in what was no doubt an eerie silence. “Please put down the spear!”

The man looked at the weapon in his hand as if he had never seen it, studying the way the light reflected off the polished metal, and the alien way the blue energy swirled at the top. Without warning, he shot a beam of energy towards Porter, who Julian bowled over inelegantly to save him. The agents around them open fired as the man lunged across the room, the bullets bouncing off him harmlessly. Julian watched in horror as he coldly dispatched every agent who came his way, either blasting them with the deadly beam of blue light or else doing so physically with the wicked edge of his weapon. It was only when he was done that his eyes fell on Julian.

Julian Lowell had been a SHIELD agent for a large portion of his life- his teenage years were spent running missions, working twice as hard as the other agents in training to make up for his disability. There had only ever one agent who could beat him in a fight, and her training had been longer and more brutal than was was decent to do to a child. It was only these sharply honed skills that had him able to jump to his feet, weapon in hand before the man, the alien, was standing before him, tip of his deadly spear pointing into his chest, just enough to draw blood. A terrible cold flooded his entire body, rooting him where he stood.

“You have heart, thought it has been corrupted in the past. I have use of you, Agent. I am Quinten Van Horn, of Asgard, and I deeply hate your world.”

Every emotional connection that tied Julian to his life- the fierce loyalty towards his coworkers and friends, his determination to make up for the mistakes he made when he was still drinking, the distant memories of his mother, the bright joy he felt every time he came home to his apartment in New York and felt the vibration of terrible Russian pop music coming from inside his apartment for the first time in months. Nothing mattered, nothing but Quinten’s plan. Nothing but the Tesseract. In his last moments of clarity, dread flooded his system before he holstered his weapon.

Julian... understood.

“Get the Doctor, and then retrieve the Tesseract. Kill anyone who would stop you.”

Julian complied.

Gabriel Wallace was flying in his Iron Man suit, dodging clouds that seemed to be made of cotton candy, candy rock mountains looming in the distance. There were gummy bears chasing him with eerily advanced suits, similar to the ones Hammer Industries had tried to put out a few years ago. His battery was on low, and he was losing altitude fast. The graham cracker ground was getting closer and closer, and he was pretty sure that there was a lake of diet cola up ahead.

"Gabe."

What? How did the gummy bears know his name? They hadn't spoken English a moment ago.

"Gabe."

"How do you know my name?" He demanded, his voice oddly amplified.

"What? It's- are you still sleeping? Gabriel!"

"That's dirty pool, you gummy bastards!"

Suddenly, a loud, blaring siren started, and Gabe startled awake, blearily baring the wrench he'd been using when he fell asleep. "I didn't mean to eat your high priestess!" He blurted, disoriented, his eyes landing on a black stiletto and traveling up until he was looking up at Samantha Miller.

"Thanks BEKAH." Gabe's former-assistant-turned-business-partner sighed, crossing her arms as she looked down at him. Peering against the bright ceiling lights, Gabe looked around his cluttered workshop, finally landing on the odd piece of technology laying at his feet. “What even is this?”

“Considering you’re the mad scientist here, I’m sure I wouldn’t know. BEKAH, can you inform the person waiting in Conference Room Three that Mr. Wallace is going to be a few extra minutes?”

"Of course, Ms. Miller.” The AI intoned cheerfully. “Mr. Wallace, I've taken the liberty of starting you a pot of coffee. I've also asked a Wallace Industry Employee to bring you a clean pair of clothes and a hot washcloth, as you have oil on your face again."

"I love you BEKAH." Gabe called in the general direction of the ceiling, sitting down what looked to be a solar powered thruster and blowing a kiss towards the nearest camera. The Biometric Efficient Assisting Kenetic Humananiod system was truly the best AI he had ever created, at the tender age of ten, and had been with him- in some form or another- ever since. "Seriously. I love her- what kind of gift basket can you get an AI? Oh! I should make her a body!"

"Or you could not. Ever. That just seems like a giant Joss Whendon-esque clusterfuck waiting to happen."

"True enough. So what did I ever do to deserve the glory of your presence, O mighty and extraordinarily busy Wallace Industry CEO?" Gabe asked, as one of his robot assistants U carefully handed him a mug of straight espresso. Mmm, sweet sweet life giving caffeine.

“Warren Porter is here.” Sam informed him as Dum-E whirled forward with the promised clothes and washcloth, no doubt taken from an employee at the door.

(Employees were absolutely not allowed within his personal workshop, if only because Gabe didn’t think they’d respect him if they found him passed out on the floor spooning a Iron Man prototype... which totally had never happened. Ever. And Iva Zotrova absolutely didn’t have pictures of it from her brief stint as his personal assistant, and most assuredly had never used them to blackmail him before. Noooope.)

Gabe groaned. “Please tell me you looked him dead in his eye patch and told that dick to hit the bricks, because you’re my friend and you care about my sanity.”

Sam laughed in a way that told Gabe that no, she hadn’t done that at all. “Conference Room Three. You have oil in your hair too, by the way.”

Fantastic.

Iva Zotrova was no stranger to being tied to chairs. There hadn’t been one able to hold her since she was seven, but the people who had tied her didn’t know that. Yet. The Red Room’s training had been... excruciatingly thorough on that point. But no time to lose herself in that particular traumatic can of worms. She was working.

The higher level Russian military official was fondling a set of bolt cutters, no doubt intending to intimidate her. Perhaps if she was still playing the roll of a high class Russian gold digger, she would plead and cry for his benefit. However, her cover had been blown, (intentionally, though he didn’t know that yet either) and so she held her head high, let her breathing appear to be slightly ragged, slight fear to show behind her eyes. Like an agent in a bit of a tight spot. The Red Room beat fear out of me while you were still scrubbing military mess halls and working for your first promotion, you complete idiot. It shouldn’t irritate her that he underestimated her, that was the point of a Black Widow, and yet...

Iva’s concentration on the man’s villainous monologue- the ways he intended to maim her, how she had almost fooled him, and more importantly the juicy details of his illegal export dealings with the mob- was interrupted as one of his guard’s phone began to ring in the silence of the abandoned warehouse.

"It’s for her...” The guard muttered uncertainly in Russian, holding the phone out to his boss. “I don’t-”

Iva’s would-be assailant took the phone, angrily starting “You listen here-!” Only to stop. The fear on his face might not have been noticeable to the untrained eye, but Iva's training on such things had be as extensive as any other detail of espionage, and she knew what was happening before the phone was shoved to her ear. She pinned it awkwardly between her head and her shoulder, sighing in annoyance. “No.”

“Sorry Agent Zotrova, we need you to come in. Please!” Lydia Starling’s voice- bubbly in even the direst of situations, was a grate on her nerves.

“Are you kidding me? I’m working right now, cracking a case I’ve been working on for months. You can’t pull me out!” The men around her were shuffling uneasily, and she eyed them.

“Well, we kind of have to. It’s an emergency, or else I wouldn’t have called. I’m sorry!” Lydia had a way about her, like she said things so sweetly so that you didn’t have it in you to argue.

Iva argued anyway. “I’m in the middle of an interrogation, This idiot is giving me everything right now.”

“I’m not... I don’t give everything...” Iva glared to silence the older man’s indignant English, turning her attention back to the phone.

“You can’t pull me out of this right now. I won’t go.”

“Iva...” Lydia’s voice had taken on a gentle quality, as if she hadn’t wanted to say what she was about to, but Iva had forced her hand. “Lowell’s been compromised.”

Outwardly, Iva’s face didn’t change, she didn’t move a muscle, if the fools surrounding her had been privy to her conversation, they would have thought her utterly indifferent to this development. Internally however, Iva’s heart had begun to pound, and her head was racing a mile a minute. Of course she was coming in. She would leave here, have Lydia send a jet to get her, tell her the details on the way... If Julian were dead- She said compromised, not dead- Iva would kill whoever had done it slowly, using every torture technique she had ever had done to her or been forced to do, she would make them beg before she ended their miserable lives-. She cut off that line of thought, and the emotions that threatened to have her making childish mistakes. Julian wouldn’t like that train of thought anyway.

“Don’t hang up.” She told Lydia severely, absentmindedly noting the other agent’s chipper agreement as she smashed her knee into the groin of the goon who had come to take the phone from her.

They hadn’t tied her feet. Idiots.

Several minutes later, surrounded by three unconscious or groaning bodies, Iva grabbed her favorite pair of Valentino stilettos, the gun she had stashed in her clutch earlier that evening, and the phone.

“That’s what you get for slapping me, bitch.” Iva cooed in Russian at the groaning military official, kicking him in the balls again for good measure before turning her attention back to the phone.

“Details.” She said coolly. “Where is Lowell now?”

“Ohmygosh, that sounded soo cool!” Lydia gushed. “I always love listening to you beat the hell out of men who deserve it.”

“Starling!”

“Right! We don’t really know.”

“But he’s alive?” Iva confirmed, her voice as impassive as if she were asking about the weather.

“Iva I would have told you straight out if he weren’t. Someone will tell you more when you get back. There’s a car waiting for you outside. I’ve got to go talk to the big guy.”

“Wallace? Starling, you’re not prepared for the simultaneous idiocy and genius that is Gabriel Wallace. Call Samantha Miller, see if she can deal with him. I’d go myself but Gabe trusts me about as far as he can throw me ever since my brief stint at Wallace Industries.”

“What? Oh no, Warren Porter himself went to deal with Wallace, I think he’s going to talk to Cap too? I mean, he’ll be in New York anyway, might as well. I’m on my way to talk to the BIG big guy.” Was Iva crazy, or had Lydia’s voice taken on an uncomfortably flirty tone?

“... Why do I get the feeling you’re looking forward to it?”

Iva didn’t think a SHIELD agent should be allowed to giggle like that.

Dr. Finn McGee ran after the tiny girl who had grabbed him during his last house call, barely keeping sight of her through the gloom. He was exhausted- he hadn’t slept in going on 30 hours, running from one home to the next, trying to treat the spread of aggressive sickness that had mowed down over 200 people so far. Following this little girl for what felt like miles hadn’t helped. He knew he needed to rest, he knew that the other guy was so much harder to control when he was tired. But he hadn’t had an incident in over a year, he was doing good, and these people needed his help.

“Slow down, please!” He called in the girl’s native language, almost sagging in relief as he saw her heading into an isolated house- more of a shack than anything. Maybe after he helped her father, he could catch a few hours sleep here- he’d take the floor at this point. He pushed open the door, glancing over the cuttered room, only to see the curtains on the opposite side shuffling as the girl crawled out the window.

“... Huh. Should have gotten paid up front, I guess.” Finn muttered.

“You know-” A cheerful voice spoke from the overlooked table and chairs. “-for someone who’s looking to avoid stress, you sure picked a heck of a place to settle.”

Finn whirled around to stare at the pretty young woman perched on the edge of the table, who was beaming at him as if he were an old friend. His tired mind whirled with several possibilities before landing on SHIELD.

“I uh, yeah. Avoiding stress isn’t the secret.”

“Really?” Honestly, this girl sounded more like a Kindergarten teacher asking about his show and tell project than a secret agent. “What is? Yoga? A healthy diet? I’ve heard those do wonders, and you are looking good.”

“Oh- what? No. Thanks?” Was she... flirting with him? That seemed unwise, given she knew his- situation. “So. You brought me to the edge of the city. Smart. I assume the whole place is surrounded?”

She shook her head, hopping down from where she’d been perched on the table and talking towards him. “Honestly? I don’t like lying, so yes. But it’s all precautionary. We know you’re a good guy, but even you have to admit my safety was a concern here.”

“Fair enough. Though pardon my saying, I think you’re in the wrong profession if you don’t like lying.” Finn said flatly, peering through the windows.

“And what profession is it that you think I do?” She asked teasingly, edging closer towards him. He couldn’t help noticing once again that she was gorgeous, clad in a sari that would blend in on the crowded streets of the city, yet suited her perfectly.

“You’re a spy right? For SHIELD?” He said, wondering if he wasn’t wrong as soon as the words left his mouth and she laughed. She didn’t seem very spy like.

“Me? Oh no, I’d make a terrible spy. I am here on behalf of SHIELD, however. My name is Lydia Starling, it’s a pleasure to meet you Dr. McGee.” She held out a hand for him to shake and he did so cautiously, waiting for her to pull out a taser, or handcuffs, or something.

“Uh, yeah- nice to meet you. I’m Finn Mc- You already know who I am. Right. So. SHIELD... How did you find me?” He’d been so careful to cover his tracks, too.

“We never lost you.” Lydia told him kindly, giving his hand a gentle squeeze before letting it go. “We’ve been keeping our distance, trying to let you live your life. We even kept several other interested parties off your trail.”

Well. That was disheartening. What was he supposed to do now? He wasn’t interested in being a lab rat again- certainly not for the U.S government. He didn’t want to fight, but if it came to it, he would. He’d go underground again, keep fighting every time they found him. He’d already proven there was no use trying to contain the other guy, and that there would be a multiple million dollar cleanup every time they tried.

“But now-” Lydia sighed, and Finn sensed they had finally gotten to the reason she, and by extension SHIELD, were here. “-we need you to come in. Please.”

Yikes. “And if I say no?”

Lydia’s smile turned devilish, and she stepped a bit closer than was entire comfortable for him, her hand going to his elbow and guiding his hand to her waist. “I’ll persuade you.” She purred, and Finn shook his head, stepping back slightly with an apologetic smile.

“No. I mean- not no, but I- uh? I’m sorry. I don’t.. Not because of you, but because I can’t- you know?”

“Oh. I guess I probably knew that, but you can’t blame a girl for trying.” She sighed, crossing back to the table and looking put out. She was either an extraordinary actress, or had little to no common sense. He could kill her! Without even meaning to!

There was a beat of silence, broken only when Finn ventured a few feet back towards her, trying to sound threatening, but not to her personally “And, what if.. the other guy says no?”

Lydia smiled at him warmly as she sat down at the table. Apparently he had succeeded, or else he hadn’t sounded threatening at all. “You wouldn’t want to break your streak. It’s been over a year, hasn’t it?”

Finn groaned, rubbing the back of his neck wearily. He would kill for a shower and a nap, he didn’t have the energy to argue with a SHIELD agent. “I don’t always get what I want.”

“I know.” Lydia told him sadly as she pulled out her phone, pulling something up on the screen. She’d read his file then. Of course she had. “But we’re facing a potential global catastrophe-”

“Well, those I actively try to avoid.” Finn interrupted, alarmed.

“This is the Tesseract.” She said, holding up her phone and forcing him to come closer to see the image on the tiny screen. It looked like a glowing blue shoebox to him, but it was only a picture, after all. “It’s got the energy to wipe out the planet, if in the wrong hands.”

“And what does Warren Porter want me to do about it? Swallow it?” He asked incredulously, wandering closer.

It was Lydia’s turn to look alarmed, leaning across the table towards him. Very kind too, if it all wasn’t an act. “That was- dark. And no. He wants you to find it. It emits a gamma signature that’s too weak for us to trace, and no one knows gamma radiation like you, Doctor.”

Finn was annoyed. This was an obvious, stupid ploy to get him to come quietly. The pretty girl, the upfront attitude, the subtle flattery of coming to him for his mind. ‘Gamma signatures’? There were dozens of other scientists who knew gamma radiation almost as well as him, and then didn’t have an alternate personality that leveled boroughs when they were angry. He had multiple Doctorates, was a widely credited scientist- did they think he was a complete idiot?

“So Porter isn’t after the monster?” He asked in a dangerous tone. He dared her to lie to him again. This little imbecile-

“Not that he’s told me.” Lydia murmured, looking at him worriedly. Pathetic, stupid. Did they send a rookie, straight out of her training? More than a bit of overacting,

“He doesn’t want to put me in a cage?” His voice was an unfamiliar low growl, a sign that he needed to withdraw and collect himself, meditate- How can you withdraw when you’re surrounded by armed gunman?

“Finn, no one wants to put you in a cage.” She was reaching for his hand across the table, her face a mask of concern, her voice dripping with false sincerity. Fake, fake, FAKE!

“STOP LYING!” Someone roared using Finn’s voice, and his hand slammed into the table a mere foot away from Lydia’s. His heart was pounding, teeth clenched. It would be so easy, so very easy- he could tear this entire shack apart on top of her, crush any and everything they had sent to take him down, prove to them they were better off leaving him to the shreds of his life that he’d carefully woven together. Make them pay-

With an effort, Finn jerked back to himself, only to notice there was a rather large handgun pointed at his head, and the cheerful, concerned girl in a sari was at once a secret agent looking as if she could put a bullet in his head and only feel mildly guilty about it. She looked every inch a spy now.

“I- Okay. Wow, I’m sorry. That was mean. That was unforgivably mean. I’m a little paranoid? Ad my temper- I mean, you’ve read my file, obviously you have, you know about it- uh. How about we do this the easy, better way, where you don’t shoot me, and the other guy doesn’t make a mess? Okay, Lydia?”

Lydia didn’t move for a moment, her expression wavering only slightly, before she slowly raised a hand to her ear, murmuring stand down into her earpiece. After a moment, she flashed him a rueful smile, and he saw that it wasn’t so much that the kindness was an act, but that she was able to put it away when she needed to. “Sorry. So. Will you come with me?”

Seems as if there wasn’t much of a choice.

Liliana Sanchez pounded her fists into the punching bag in front of her, again and again, as fast as she could, in an effort to block out the images racing behind her eyes. If she exhausted herself until she couldn’t sleep, if she kept hitting and moving until there was nothing but a meaningless roar in her head and the slam of her fist against leather- maybe she could forget the dizzying future she had found herself in.

Thump, thump, thump.

Running through a battlefield in Germany- the sound of artillery shells bursting around her, the Howling Commandos at her back. Her true and loyal friends, with the bond only a battlefield could form. They hadn’t cared that she was a woman, or Latina- that normally the U.S army would never had let her see a firefight, let alone lead her own unit, or that she was super soldier made in a lab. They cared that she was a damn good fighter- that she had their back when it mattered.

Thump, thump thump, thump.

“I’ve got to put it in the water.” Lili’s voice sounded thin and terrified even to her own ears. The roar of the plane’s engine was almost as loud as her heart. The water outside of the window looked icy cold, and the tightness in her chest and wetness in her eyes was reminding her painfully of an asthma attack. There was no choice, none. Her life would save millions- save the world. It was a cold comfort, but nothing would be colder than that first collision, oh god-

They would call her a hero. She wondered if heroes always felt so terrified.

Thump thump thump, thump thump, thump thump thump!

“Lili, no. We can find another way!” Matthew Drake’s voice cracking over the comms. God, he had been so strong- but she had been able to hear the tears in his voice. She knew what that meant for him- to show that weakness in a world that searched for any reason to denounce him. They had bonded over that- the racism and hatred that was just as hard to overcome as the sexism she faced. He had promised her a dance-

Thump. Thump thump thump, thumpthump, thump!

“Lii!” Celia’s scream as she careened off the the train into the icy ravine. Celia’s arm thrown over her bony shoulders back in New York, the desperation she had felt when she had heard her unit had been captured. How distant Celia had seemed after, the deep shadows under her eyes. The secret press of lips in a Brooklyn apartment, in a bed too narrow to fit two- no matter how small Lili had been before, the sigh of Lili’s name as she pressed her mouth against smooth skin.

Thump. Thumpthumpthumpthump. Thump.

Celia had hated Matthew, and Lili wasn’t stupid enough not to see why. How could she explain to her that she loved them both? Now Matthew was old, confined to a bed with a fading memory in D.C, and Celia was dead. Lili was alone in a new century she should never should have been alive to see, with no one she knew, no one to relate to. How was she going to live out the rest of her life this way?

T H U M P.

It was the rattling of the chains that had held previously held the punching bag to the hook on the ceiling that alerted Lili to it’s falling, rather than the lack of surface to hit. She had barely been aware of her surroundings, so immersed was she in her memories. Sighing in agitation, she crossed the room, kicking aside the third torn punching bag of the evening and easily picking up another in the row of half a dozen she had laid out earlier. This strength was still strange to her. She half expected a coughing fit every time her breathing got too fast.

She was rearing back for another punch when a voice called out across the empty gym- “Trouble sleeping?”

Liliana looked over her shoulder, rolling her eyes when she saw it was Warren Porter. What did he want now? She was honestly tired of SHIELD checking up on her. And if they thought she didn’t know they were spying on her- well then Lili was disappointed with the organization Matthew Drake had started- they had obviously let their standards fall. (Did they really think Matthew hadn’t shown her pictures of his family? His nephew- Martin Drake or whatever fake name her new ‘neighbor’ had introduced himself as- wasn’t fooling anyone.)

“Yeah well, I slept for 70 years. I’ve had enough for a lifetime.” Lili shouted back, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder and trying out a few test punches. Her knuckles were bleeding- maybe she should switch to kicking for a few minutes until they healed.

“Then you should be out. Celebrating, seeing the world.” Warren mused as he came closer, arms crossed behind his back.

Lili scoffed. “This isn’t my world, my world is an antique you young folk like too coo over as ‘charming’ and ‘quaint’. Leave us old folk to our hobbies and mourn our simpler way of life, why don’t you?” To demonstrate she whirled around, issuing a roundhouse kick to the punching bag, which wobbled dangerously. “It’s not knitting or shuffleboard, but it’s something.”

Porter huffed a laugh, holding out a folder, which she snatched, wiping the sweat off her forehead and offering him a withering look. “Another mission?”

“Yes.”

“To get me out in the world?” Lili sneered as she opened the folder.

“Trying to save it actually, if you’re not too busy being dramatic.” Porter intoned dryly. Lili figured he would roll his eye if it wouldn’t ruin his tough-guy-in-leather image.

“I already did it once, isn’t it someone else’s turn yet?.” Lili muttered as she looked at the first page, her breath catching as she caught sight of a familiar blue cube. “HYDRA’s secret weapon.” She gasped.

“Matthew Wallace fished that thing out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think- the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That’s something the world sorely needs, in case you didn’t know Grandma.”

Lili flipped him off as she skimmed the file. It all looked like a bunch of idiot future technology to her. “Who took it from you, you goddamn whippersnapper?”

“His name is Quinten Van Horn- he’s from a different universe called Asgard.” He said, taking the now sweaty folder from her disdainfully. “There’s a lot we’ll have to bring you up to speed on. If you’re done moping, that is.”

“Ahaha fuck you.”

“I’m telling you, the world has gotten even stranger.” Porter warned, tossing the folder aside and none-to-subtly wiping his hand on his trenchcoat. (A trenchcoat! What a drama queen.)

“You all have tiny portable phones that fit in your pocket that are also a calculator, a computer, a gaming device, a calendar- I could go on. Gay people can get married, segregation is over, there are polio vaccines and some people actively decide not to use them because of politics. Nothing I’ve seen can surprise me anymore.”

“Wanna fucking bet?”

Rolling her eyes, Lili crossed the gym to gather her bags, taking a drink of water and then pouring some on her for good measure. “I assume my ‘neighbor’ has left a debriefing packet in my should-be-locked-and-private-apartment-but-apparently-I-sold-my-right-to-privacy-back-in-1920-when-I-climbed-into-Erskine’s-machine?”

“... Yes.”

“Alright, then see you after I shower.” She said, heading for the door.

“Wait!” Porter called again, and Lili turned, raising her eyebrows impatiently. “Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract, Captain? Anything we should know?”

“Yeah bitch, the next time I throw something into the fucking Atlantic Ocean- leave it there.”

Lydia Starling blinked in confusion as Captain Liliana Sanchez, Warren Porter, and another unfamiliar raven haired woman climbed aboard her jet. She didn’t quite understand the energy between the three. Porter seemed grumpier than usual, the woman angrily resigned, and Liliana..? She seemed absolutely gleeful.

Nevertheless, she recovered quickly, offering them all a smile and a wave. “Director. Captain. Miss...?”

“Fuck off, that’s who.” The woman sneered down at her from where she practically towered over all three of the other passengers before plopping down in a seat in a way that reminded Lydia of a sulking teenager.

“Oh shut up. This is Stella Belmonte. The good captain insisted we drag her along, despite my trying to explain that this is a highly classified mission and there will be no use for her where we’re going, and Miss Belmonte’s own unwillingness to accompany us.”

“... I see!” Lydia said after a moment, voice overly cheerful. “Well uh, let’s get going- Pilot? We’re ready.”

The jet whirled to life, taking off and flying at an impossibly fast pace towards their destination.

“Oh come on Porter! She picked up your giant ass super security jeep and threw it in the dumpster after you hit her with it! You think we can’t find a use for that? Besides, I think she’s funny as hell.” Lili laughed, lounging back in her seat and looking exceedingly smug.

“That’s only because she spent nearly ten minutes straight cussing me out in the middle of Time’s Square and saying very rude things about my mother.”

“True.”

“Um, well, Miss Belmonte, I’m sure you’ll be invaluable. Especially if you have the Captain’s seal of approval.” Lydia chirped. Stella’s only response was to flip her off.

Now that she had a name, Lydia realized she recognized Stella’s face- she was a mutant running her own P.I service in New York City. Last year there had been quite a ruckus as she took down her former abuser- another mutant with the power to bend anyone to his will. She didn’t remember his chosen name (Killsomething?) but remembered his birth name had been Ethan Anderson. Stella had snapped his neck with her bare hands.

“I don’t actually know your name, I’m sorry.” Liliana extended her hand across the aisle for Lydia to shake, snapping her out of her thoughts. “And you can go ahead and call me Lili.”

“Oh, I totally know who you are!” Lydia exclaimed, ignoring Porter’s extremely audible groan. “I mean, of course everyone does. It must be pretty odd- waking up and you’re a historical figure.”

Lili’s smile wavered slightly. “You could say that.”

“Oh sorry, I’m Agent Starling. Not to make things weird, but I’m actually kind of a huge fan of yours. I wrote my thesis on you and the Howling Commandos with a focus on- uh...”

Lydia cut herself off with an awkward laugh, and Lili looked at her expectantly. “You’ve already said it,” Lili reasoned in the uncomfortable silence that followed, “Might as well go for broke and see if you make me laugh.”

“withafocusonyourromanticrelationshipwithCeliaPerez.”

Lili didn’t laugh, in fact her face pulled down in an uncomfortable grimace. Warren Porter was looking at her with an expression that clearly conveyed what the fuck are you doing?

“That was absolutely fucking painful.” Stella spoke up for the first time since the plane had started up, smirking. “Do you have any whiskey on this shitty tin can?”

“Forty minutes out Miss Starling.” The pilot intoned, and Lydia barely resisted the urge to put her head in her hands.

Iva Zotrova watched the plane land impatiently, watching impassively as Warren Porter jumped out almost before the engines stopped, striding off towards the bridge with a halfhearted middle finger her direction, which she returned with a smirk she didn’t feel. Starling, Sanchez, and someone she didn’t recognize followed at a more sedate pace, Lydia cheerfully pointing out the various agents and machinery- though neither of the dark haired women following her looked like they cared in the slightest.

“Agent Starling!” Iva barked, making her way towards them. “They need you on the bridge, Dr. McGee is helping start the face trace.”

Lydia’s face brightened even further, and she jogged off, leaving Iva staring at a national icon and...

“Who are you?” She asked bluntly.

“None of your fucking busin-”

“This is Stella Belmonte, a superhuman from New York.” Liliana Sanchez interrupted in a bored tone. “Seriously, that’s getting old. Who are you?”

“That is Satan herself.” A voice behind her said, and Iva pasted on a bright service-industry smile, wrapping her arms around Gabe Wallace’s neck, a big tighter than constituted a friendly hug. He was absolutely terrified of her and didn’t hide it very well. It delighted her.

“Oh Любовник, I know you missed me.” She grabbed his tie and pulled him down to her level to kiss him on the cheek, hissing I will fucking end you Wallace in his ear before releasing him. “Ignore him, he’s mad I haven’t called him in awhile.”

The industry titan, billionaire, and actual superhero cleared his throat, trying not to look as disquieted as he clearly was. Something wicked in Iva cackled, despite the severity of the situation. She always had time to fuck with Gabe.

“Anyways. Nice to meet you Cap.” His eyes fell on Stella, and Gabe clutched his chest in that melodramatic way of his that pissed her off. “Oh my god, who let the supermodel on a restricted military hover ship?”

Stella Belmonte glared dangerously. Gabe- predictably- didn’t notice. Iva didn’t understand how a billionaire genius was so goddamn stupid. It was amazing some conniving woman hadn’t taken him for everything he was worth already. She credited Samantha Miller, honestly.

She smacked him upside the head. “This is Stella Belmonte. Stella Belmonte- this idiot is-”

“I know who he is.” Stella said, shoving up to him. She was so tall her and Gabe were practically eye to eye. “Listen, are you going to make me kick you in the balls?”

“No-”

“Because I have super strength, and if you make me kick you in the balls, I’m going to shatter your goddamn pelvis.”

“.... Noted.” Gabe said in a mild way that almost made up for the fact that his voice had come out an octave higher than was normal. Stella shoved past him without another word, striding towards where Lydia and Warren had gone to. Liliana, cackling, followed her.

Iva liked this woman.

This was going to be a total shit show.

“I am so weirdly turned on right now.” Gabe muttered.

#Literally just posting on Gabe just because #BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS A POV HERE.#Also I decided not to do the whole movie #namely because I lost inspiration HARD #There was going to be a really touching Julian and Iva scene #imagine the I have red in my ledger scene with the #And Lydia was going to die!!!!#I weep #some other time #I'll do a part 2 #sccu; tasksix #action #comedy #superhero #we didn't get to Tina being Thor #but Tina is Thor #also her fiance is Jane!!!! Because I couldn't think of anyone to be that old scientist dude friend of Thor's

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silverhallow · 3 years ago

Note

Oh definitely pre kathony for the jealousy

Jealous Bean Anthony…

It’s below the cut as it’s more Drabble than headcanons 😂 I couldn’t help myself…

Anthony had been lusting after his colleague in the last few weeks, it was maddening, it was infuriating, and it was downright galling.

The woman challenged him over everything, she had stormed into the office on her second day at Bridgerton and Rokesby Family Law having been hired by his cousin Henry to work alongside them both as he had decided it was time to add some women to the company again, they had argued over taking a pro bono case for a young woman who had been done out of her inheritance and cheated out of her home.

Anthony had seen the application and seen the opposing legal counsel and said it was career suicide…

She had stepped on his foot and said she was doing it anyway.

And irritatingly she had won. It had been a slam dunk and he had sat in the courtroom and watched Kate Sharma walk up and down like she owned the place and by the time she presented her closing arguments… the only thought on Anthony’s mind was “well fuck” and he desperately wanted her to stand on him again.

And that was nearly 18 months ago…

Honestly, it was becoming ridiculous whenever he heard her using the commanding voice, he was stuck behind a desk with a raging hard on for at least an hour and usually her ire was pointed at him but that afternoon it had been at someone else.

“No Edi. I am not covering for you. I don’t care… I am a fucking solicitor not a model… no…” the voice floated through. He could see the look on her face and somehow his brain had gone and formed a visual of Kate in lingerie… and well… he was lost to the rest of the conversation.

He wasn’t even able to formulate more than a grunt when Kate came in 30 minutes later and said she was taking a half day and was telling him why, his brain was gone, and he hadn’t heard a single thing.

Anthony had no idea what he was about to walk into 4 hours later when he went to meet his brother for a pint after work. He needed something stronger than a pint of larger but if he ordered Whiskey then Benedict would have known instantly something was up and picked and needled at him until he caved and told his brother everything and he wasn’t in the mood for that tonight.

It was a Friday night, he wanted to go out, get drunk and maybe find himself a woman to bury himself into to make him forget about the dreams he was having of her…

But when he opened the door to his brother’s photo studio, and he saw her covered in a red silk dress with a slit up the side that showed long long legs that dear god he wanted wrapped around his head…

Honestly he was sure he was about to have an aneurism…

He just stared at the scene in front of him with an open mouth, honestly, it wouldn’t be a surprise if drool was coming out…

“Fucking hell” was what did come out of his mouth and the two other occupants in the room who had previously not noticed his arrival whipped his head around.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Kate had bellowed “are you stalking…” then she saw the resemblance and looked at Benedict with furious eyes “wait are you two related?”

“Well… yeah? I thought Edi would have told you” Benedict said as it was the most obvious thing in the world

He didn’t take photos under his family name, he didn’t want people to use that as the reason to hire him, so he had used his mother’s maiden name and was known, in the photography world as “Benedict Ledger” Kate just blinked.

“So, this is what you took the afternoon off for? To come take your clothes off for my brother?” Anthony managed to snap back, something throbbing in his temple, anger, and something hot and possessive in his throat.

“Do I look like I’ve got no fucking clothes on?” Kate snapped back.

Good god… Anthony felt his entire body heat up, not now, please god not now he tried to tell himself, now is not the time to imagine her in nothing but red underwear… he did not need the stiffy to make this all the more awkward.

“You might as well not…” He said, wishing the words never left his mouth.

“Ant…” Benedict said, trying to diffuse the situation “she’s just helping me out with the shoot for Penwood… Edi was sick today and the photos had to be in before the end of the week..”

“No, they don’t you just want to impress Sophie…” Anthony snapped. The fury in his brother’s eyes he knew he had gone too far but the jealous monster in him was raging that his brother got to take photos of Kate like this.

Wait… jealous?

Dear god…

He shook his head missing his brother calling him a dick as Kate chuckled “I don’t pay you to come do this! You’re a fucking solicitor”

Kate rolled her eyes “it’s fucking day off, so you aren’t paying… I don’t judge you when you take half days or come slouching into the office two hours late, looking like you’ve rolled out of someone’s bed”

“Jealous?” he smirked, unable to help himself and he delighted in the little blush that crept over her cheeks.

“Oh, you wish” Kate said, snatching up her bag from the floor. “I’m getting changed and going to meet Sophie. Ben you’re welcome to come join us… You… not so much” she snarled at Anthony.

Anthony glared but Kate stalked off.

“You know you could just get your head out of your arse and ask her out like a normal human being” Benedict said shaking his head as he put the camera away

“What… no… fuck no…” Anthony stammered, “besides… pot… kettle” the thought of a date with Kate… he shook his head.

Benedict glared “that’s different!”

“How? You’ve been pining over her for 12 months… since she took over her father’s business. Just ask her” Anthony said.

“I work with her company but tell you want… I will if you do” Benedict said, the edge of competition in his voice.

Anthony glared “you know for a fine fact I’d rather…”

“Rather what…?” Kate said standing at the door, dressing now in her office clothes, her pencil skirt and blouse hugging her figure and her stockings back on. Honestly Anthony wasn’t sure what was sexier.

“Erm… erm…” he stammered lost for words.

“You coming?” she said to Benedict “I know Soph will want to see you”

“I’m supposed to go for a pint with this arsehole” he said gesturing to his brother.

Kate sighed “fine. You can come but honestly… if he so much as breathes on me…”

So, 40 minutes later the three of them were in the pub with Sophie who had been waiting for them and Anthony never felt more out of place in his life, or uncomfortable.

They had laughed and joked, and it felt almost… normal… Anthony had told Kate and Sophie about the time he held Benedict upside down by his ankle and honestly, her laugh… dear god it should be Illegal the way she laughed

She had taken herself off to make a phone call , Benedict and Sophie were practically pressed up against one another in the booth and Anthony let his eyes roam around the bar. It could have been a double date.

He was starting to wish it was…

He glanced at his brother and decided at the glare he received , that he needed to get up, he needed to give his brother a bit of privacy to at least grow a pair of balls and actually ask the petite blonde out and he couldn’t well do that with him sat there.

So, getting up he decided to go get some air, Kate had gone out to make a phone call and he thought maybe he could keep her company. He just wanted to talk, maybe apologise for being an arse earlier and ask if he could buy her a drink… or dinner…

But when he got outside he saw something that set that jealous monster off inside of him again, his blood raced, and his body seemed to tingle and reverberate with something…

This little beast inside of him screaming she’s mine… he wanted her to be his so badly… and he was just realising that tonight

A man stood so close to Kate it was indecent, his hand on her lower back and his lips so close to her ear and he saw her straighten, her spine stiffen in the way that she usually reserved for him when he walked into a room. “No” he heard her say, that commanding voice “I told you I am not interested” and the man tugged at her a little and Anthony could see the come on, it’ll be fun on his lips. He hadn’t heard it with the blood rushing in his ears and he did the first thing he thought of…

“Babe! There you are” he called out, and Kate hearing the familiar voice whipped her head around and gave him a smile that Anthony was sure could have lit half of London…

Kate shoved the man out of the way, her eyes glittering with thanks as she moved over to him and she pressed a kiss on his cheek and Anthony felt it right down to his soul as he put an arm around her protectively. “Is this man bothering you?”

“You… you didn’t say you had a boyfriend” the man said, taking in Anthony’s tall frame, Anthony wasn’t ashamed to say he had bristled a bit like a peacock as he stood there, protective and a little jealous.

“You didn’t give me a chance” Kate said stubbornly

“Clear off mate before I break your nose” Anthony said. The man blanched and ran for it before Kate seemed to sag into him.

“Are you alright?” he asked her, genuine concern in his voice

“Yes I am fine” she said, looking at him with bright eyes “you didn’t have to do that though” she said letting go of him, taking the look of fire in his eyes to mean something else.

“I did, he was harassing you” he said “I’ve got far too many sisters to not do something”

“But you didn’t have to pretend to be my boyfriend” she said, her voice quiet.

“Oh… right… probably not but…” he said trailing off.

“We best get back; Ben and Sophie are probably wondering if we’ve killed each other” Kate said.

Anthony muttered “I wanted to…” but Kate didn’t hear it but as they re-entered the pub and saw the table they had one occupied was gone, and Ben and Sophie were nowhere to be seen Kate let out a “Oh… they’ve… gone”

Anthony frowned but the monster in his chest was growling with some triumphant “I think Ben finally got his head out of his arse”

“Good for them I guess. But if they’re gone… I should… we should…” Kate said awkwardly.

“Right…” he said as Kate turned to leave

“It’s… I’ll see you Monday” she said to him as she turned to leave.

“Kate wait!” he said, coming to a decision, the monster in his chest yelling at him not to let her go just yet.

“What?” she said, looking at him. Something had shifted between them tonight, something was different. He was different. He needed to seize this moment.

“Let me buy you a burger or something? Before you go… as… as I guess an apology for being an arsehole earlier” he said,

Kate looked at him for a moment “I think you might have done that before when you helped me out… but…” she said tilting her head in the way he noticed she did when she was thinking “a burger does sound good. I’m starving”

Anthony grinned.

And two hours later, when he was giving her a very tentative and gentle kiss on her lips, asking if he could take her out properly the following night… he had never been more thankful for his jealousy in his life…

#ash’s drabbles #ask ash #anthony bridgerton #ash’s asks #bridgerton #ash’s asks and answers #kate sharma #benedict bridgerton #jealous Anthony

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rosesloveletters · 4 years ago

Text

Simplicity.

pairing: Heath Ledger Joker x Reader

word count: 1,336

warnings: language, violence (mentions of blood) and some sexual themes.

summary: short sentence prompts revolving around reader’s relationship with J.

notes: Hello! I wanted to share something different with you all this time, so I chose a prompt I have not done in a very long time. I used a random word generator to generate 50 words and I would write one or several sentences including and/or inspired by each individual word. If you would like to try out this prompt, visit this link for the random word generator I used. Please enjoy this fun little prompt I fulfilled with J in mind.

unedited.

Quit

“I think I’m starting to get pretty good at this ‘committing heinous crimes and random acts of violence’ thing, aren’t I?” “uh-huh.” You fix him with a look of disbelief, to which J’s only response is, “don’t,ah, quit your day job, toots.”

Anger

The anger you feel doesn’t hold a torch to the rage within J every time that you disobey him.

Distance

The nights when you fall asleep next to J are the ones which make you feel miles apart.

Braid

You tentatively clutch the braided rope in your hands, wondering how long had it been beneath your bed and why J had hidden it there.

Steep

Being in a relationship with J is like trying to climb a mountain that is too steep for you to find any generous footing; if you cling too tightly, the surface gives way and you slide all the way back to rock bottom.

Quota

Guns are too quick, J reflects, but he’s got a quota to hit and so he reloads without another thought on the matter.

Bet

You would’ve bet that J would eventually have to sleep, but never would you have thought it would take this long.

Crystal

“No more blood on my sheets that isn’t mine or yours, J, do I make myself clear?”

“Mm…crystal.”

Hot

Blood oozes from the open cuts which litter your skin like tiny scratch marks and you wince in discomfort; nothing a hot bath, or tongue, can’t fix.

Moving

Imagining a life with J means taking into account the amount of times you’ll have to move to remain one step ahead of the Gotham Police Department.

Biscuit

J trying to stuff several biscuits into his mouth at once inspires you to make a mental note never to bake him any ever again.

Nonsense

You could not make heads or tails of some of the things J tells you and you wonder if perhaps it really isall nonsenseand there’s no ultimate meaning behind any of it at all.

Scene

Most days, you refuse to turn on your television for fear of another crime scene making its way onto your screen; you always know who’s to blame.

Bubble

The color of blood has always been J’s favorite and he has to concentrate not to smile fondly as the warm, sticky liquid bubble’s from his victim’s throat.

Possibility

When you were younger and more naïve, you used to believe in life’s endless possibilities, however, life on the run with Gotham’s most wanted criminal only has one viable outcome.

Basket

You follow the trail of dark red droplets all the way to your bedroom and the sight that meets you is enough to make you drop the basket of clean clothes you were carrying.

Literacy

J often leaves notes behind on the little doodles he scatters throughout your home. The first one you ever kept was written after he begrudgingly watched a nature documentary with you, inspiring him to leave a drawing and a note scrawled across the margins of the morning newspaper: ‘I hate bees’.

Step

To step up against J was to end your own life; even though you are still breathing, today is the day that you have officially died.

Distort

Your relationship with him was about as distorted as J’s grip on reality, but that was what made you love him the most.

Brown

J’s brown eyes contain the only bit of humanity within him.

Light

J’s face is illuminated by the flames, his stark white face paint glowing a pale orange by cause of the dying embers, and the sight makes you wonder what elsehe is keeping from you?

Beat

Should anyone lift a finger against you, J would not hesitate to deliver a beating they might never recover from.

Commitment

Much to your chagrin, the only thing that J is committed to is his work.

Patience

It might take some time for you to warm up to the idea of sharing a house (and a bed) with Gotham’s most notorious criminal, but J knows he can wait you out.

Shower

It’s the first time he’s had a shower in weeks and J’s expression remains indifferent as the water visibly grows darkin color from the grime that rinses off his body.

Preference

It is true that J has no preferences when it comes to who he is sleeping with, but he would be damned if you didn’t check all the boxes he would have had if he’d been anyone else.

Fool

Perhaps it was foolish of you to think that J could muster emotion of any depth in association to you.

Knock

You could have lived with polite knocking, but whenever J returns home it sounds like he’s about to break the door down.

Curl

J’s body encircles you, curling protectively around yours as you embrace each other in the pale lamplight.

Protection

Under J’s protection, you throw caution to the wind and allow him to do what he does best; you would never have daredto walk the streets of Gotham by night, yet now you travelled them carelessly under cover of darkness beneath the ever-watchful eye of your ever-present bodyguard.

Sow

“Ever since you came into my life, I’ve had nothing but bad days!” “Ya…reap what ya sow, huh, doll?”

Key

You gave J a key, but he somehow manages to get inside your house without ever using it.

Film

J doesn’t ever utter the ‘I love you’ words, but without fail does he watch every film you’ve ever picked even if it does not interest him; actions speak louder than words and in this case, you never would have needed him to say a word.

Digital

You really would’ve liked to know why J had such strong opinions about digital clocks.

Short

The first time J snaps at you for coming a bit too close when he’s in a foul mood shows you just how short of a fuse he has.

Second

A second’s glimpse gave you the impression that there is more beneath the surface of J’s hardened exterior.

View

“Quite a plea-sing view, ain’t it, doll?” J asks as you both admire the burning building.

Depression

You never see the side of J that is tender except on the days when it all becomes too much and you physically cannot get out of bed.

Check

Ever since J had come into your life, you have not felt the need to check underneath your bed and inside your closet before climbing into your bed.

Shelf

J intentionally puts everything you need on a high shelf and won’t ever retrieve it for you when you ask.

Switch

A switch to the other side gave you a taste of sweet adrenaline and you finally understood why J loved the chaos.

Trap

Every word you utter becomes another bar in the cage he traps you in and throws away the key; you cannot win an argument with J.

Damn

That damned clown is going to kill you, either out of love born from you’re your own misguided emotional ties to him or with a gun to the head in the middle of the night; you did not care which.

Relinquish

J will never relinquish control even if his life depends on it and, sometimes, it does.

Delete

You wish that removing emotions is as easy as pressing ‘delete’ on your keyboard, but nothing in life is that easy and J is determined to teach you that.

Incentive

Watching you undress in front of him was morethan enough of an incentive to keep J in line for now.

Swallow

“It ain’t polite to play with your food, sweets,” J growls, a smirk of superiority on his face as he watches you finally swallow your mouthful.

Relief

You are unable to express the amount of relief you feel on the night J returns from yet another unexplained period of extended absence.

Front

He puts up a good front, but you are aware of how much it bothers J every time they call him ‘crazy’.

Adventure

Sharing a life with J is a daily adventure and you never know what direction it will lead.

#heath ledger #the dark knight #the dark knight joker #joker #the joker #heath ledger joker #ledger joker #joker x reader #heath ledger joker x reader #the dark knight imagine #biblio :: 📖

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dimigex · 3 years ago

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Whumptober Day 5 - Sakura, Kakashi, and Sasuke

Prompt: I've got red in my ledger (betrayal, misunderstanding, broken nose)

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing/Characters: Sakura, Kakashi, and Sasuke

Words: 588

Rating: T

Notes: @chaosandwonder requested this prompt with Sakura, I hope this fits even though it's written from Kakashi's perspective! (Also, @birkastan2018 I think you'd like this one too <3)

STORY BELOW THE CUT

The kunai against Kakashi’s jugular should have been trembling with uncertainty, regret, or sorrow, but it remained steady. An ounce more pressure and it would slide through the skin, into the crimson flow beneath. His heart pounded erratically in his ears, roaring its disbelief at the scene before him.

“This is the real one.” Sakura sounded familiar and foreign. The anger that weighed her voice like lead hadn’t been there three months ago. The bitterness that twisted her words into a sneer had been absent as well. Gone were the soft pleasantries and gentle tones, replaced by the hard reality of betrayal.

Sasuke turned from a dozen feet away; his red eyes spiraling with deadly intent. Kakashi met his former student’s gaze unafraid; there was no genjutsu worse than this reality. No imagined world in which he’d failed worse than he had here. The boy must have seen it; the sharingan faded to inky darkness that threw Kakashi’s reflection back at him. Sasuke turned to Sakura. “How do you know it isn’t another clone?”

“Because he always underestimated me.” Bitter disdain dripped from the words. Sakura’s accusation hurt more for being true, but Kakashi didn’t flinch away from it. The tip of her weapon pushed forward enough to elicit a pinprick of pain. A trickle of blood worked its way down his neck, absorbed by the fabric of his mask.

“Tell me why,” Kakashi snarled, anger bleeding into his hurt and confusion. If he were going to die here, he wanted an answer. He deserved that much after everything they’d been through. After— “How could you betray us?” How could you betray me?

The woman holding the kunai scoffed, and threw her head to get sticky pink strands of hair from her face. “You betrayed me long before I returned the favor. You never even noticed me.”

You’re the only thing I saw, that’s why I pushed you away, the words rose and lodged crossways in Kakashi’s throat. He'd never admitted that thought, even to himself. You were everything.

“And killing me will solve that?” Kakashi’s body felt heavy, chakra exhaustion looming on the horizon. He’d pushed beyond his reserves, again. The rest of the recovery team was hours behind him now, too far to make a difference. If he couldn’t talk Sakura down, there wouldn’t be a second chance.

Sakura’s lips curled into a feral grin that he’d never imagined her capable of. The hatred turned his stomach as she pressed closer. “Killing you is a bonus.”

“He’d be a valuable hostage,” Sasuke cautioned, sliding his sword back into its sheath across his back. Kakashi almost laughed at the idea that the Uchiha would be the voice of reason.

“I’d rather die, you cowa—” Pain erupted through Kakashi’s face, sudden and sharp. Sakura too a step back and shook the sting from her hand. Blood gushed from Kakashi’s nose and lip from the savage backhand. It took him a moment to realize that he’d fallen to his knees during the encounter.

Sakura glared down, an angry goddess about to take her vengeance. She leaned close enough for her lips to almost brush his ear. “Shut up, and you might live through this.”

Confusion and hope bloomed in Kakashi’s chest. Had her voice changed? Was there a tenderness in the words, or was it only his imagination? He raised his head to see her expression and caught the glint of metal as she drew her arm back. Kakashi didn’t flinch as the blow threw his world into darkness.

#Whumptober2021 #No 5 #Betrayal #Fandom: Naruto #fanfic #Sakura Haruno #Kakashi Hatake #Sasuke Uchiha #Actual angst #This wants to be a proper story #but who has time for that #I love the dynamic between these three #like so much #Requests #My writing

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dimigexwrites · 3 years ago

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Whumptober, Day 5 (take two) - Tenzo and Anko

Prompt: I’ve got red in my ledger (betrayal, misunderstanding, broken nose)

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing/Characters: Tenzo, Anko, and Orochimaru

Words: 657

Rating: T

Notes: This pairing was requested by @cinlat and this may or may not be the right prompt, but we're going to pretend that never happened lol

“You cannot be serious,” Tenzo growled, struggling to hold the mokuton bonds around his captive while dodging to the side. Sweat dripped from his chin, turning clammy in the chill of the underground hideout when he landed in a crouch.

Anko ran her tongue across red lips. At some point during the scuffle, Tenzo’s elbow had connected with her nose and mouth, breaking the former and bloodying the latter. The woman hardly seemed to notice, spitting pink saliva to the side. “Don’t make me choose,” she hissed.

The words were enough to stun Tenzo. He shook his head as if he could shake off the insanity unfurling before him. Fury swelled hot and sudden in his chest; that was easier to focus on than the betrayal that lurked beneath the surface. They had known who would be waiting at the end of this mission. It made no sense for her to back out now. “You know what he did, to both of us.”

“That was a long time ago,” Anko countered, circling toward the left with kunai drawn. Tenzo held his weapon at the ready as well, but he wasn’t certain that he could convince himself to kill her if it came down to it. “You have to stop living in the past.”

“He destroyed our lives.” Tenzo bit off the words and wished that he’d never allowed himself to grow close to Anko in the fist place. He had known that she’d been damaged by someone, but he hadn’t known the full extent until recently. Discovering her past had only made them closer; they were broken in the same ways, by the same hand. But now, Tenzo saw a stranger.

Anko shook her head, flipping a kunai halfheartedly. “He didn’t destroy us. He made us stronger, into something we never could have been otherwise.”

Tenzo stumbled and dropped to one knee. He’d lost more blood then he thought, or maybe the poison from Anko’s serpent attack had finally worked its way into his bloodstream. He stared at the woman in stunned silence fpr a moment. “You can’t actually believe that.”

Anko opened her mouth to respond, but a polite cough interrupted her. Orochimaru stood immobilized by thick vines on the side of the cave. “If you two are done squabbling, I have places to be.”

“A prison cell in Konoha to pay for your crimes,” Tenzo supplied, glaring over his shoulder at Orochimaru. The man had committed unspeakable acts against the village and its inhabitants. He couldn’t imagine how anyone could pardon him, much less believe that it was better to let him go, especially Anko.

“I owe him,” Anko whispered, almost too soft to hear.

Tenzo heard the undercurrent of iron in Anko’s voice, though. He saw the decision in her eyes and lunged, hoping to catch her off guard. He couldn’t let her compromise their mission. Thick snakes wrapped his legs almost instantly, immobilizing him. Tenzo watched in horror as the woman squared her shoulders and faced Orochimaru. “This is the last time, I mean it. ”

Sinuous white bodies wrapped around Tenzo’s wrist like a vice, preventing him from making hand signs. The strength flowed out of Tenzo’s body like blood from a wound, and chakra fell from his grasp. The mokuton around Orochimaru disappeared, and the man straightened, dusting off his shirt as if the capture had merely been an inconvenience. Tenzo snarled when the corpse white hand came up to caress Anko’s cheek. “You always were such an obedient little—”

Orochimaru hissed and jerked back as a snake latched onto his wrist. Anko nodded toward the door. “You have an hour, and that’s more than you deserve.”

“You said the same thing last time, but you will always owe me,” Orochimaru tipped his head to study Anko, a smile curling his lip. Tenzo blinked, trying to cling to consciousness. The scene doubled, tripled, then went dark as the poison pulled him under.

#Whumptober2021 #No 5 #Betrayal #Fandom: Naruto #Fanfic #Tenzo #Anko #Orochimaru

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dreamsmp-au-ideas · 4 years ago

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It’s time for more Marvel SMP brainrot. This time I got some ideas on how the first Avengers movie would go. A.K.A, all the adults (especially Schlatt) get fucking heart attacks as Tubbo and Tommy keep on sneaking on the dangerous shit they get into.

For what already happened, I’d imagine that Tommy was found by SHIELD because of some digging and we already got him moving in with Wilbur and becoming his younger brother.

Tubbo is the nephew of Schlatt that he has to watch for a little and Tommy and him hit off instantly.

Fundy just met Wilbur and is now living with him and is about to be adopted.

Niki regained her goddess status and Punz is now working for Dream.

Techno already met Tommy and Tubbo after Wilbur and a very reluctant Schlatt stopped a rather messy explosion from happening caused by one of the Dream Team members.

Right so now that’s out of the way, we can get onto the movie. Long post ahead so sorry about that. It under Keep Reading.

So we’re going to get the beginning like how the first Avengers started. We got the whole experiment and Eret, Phil, Sam, and Puffy noticing that the Space Stone is getting really unstable and that someone is opening a portal from the other side.

Out comes Punz, George, and Sapnap. Yeah we're going to have three antagonists in the first movie. Punz may be the Loki of the au but I want Sapnap and George be there so we can show the character development between that and when we get to the El Rapids side of the au.

But back to the main story, we got those three coming out and obviously Sam, Eret, Puffy, and Phil are all on guard. Sam, Eret, and Puffy recognizes Punz’s from Niki talking about him when she was on Earth.

Meanwhile Phil immediately recognizes Sapnap from the footage Techno gave him when he first started trouble in the second installment in Wilbur’s arc. He has caused so much arson in the time he was there.

So you got all of them being cautious around the three while they just argue about what to do. George is holding the spear and when people try to shoot them, you got Sapnap, George, and Punz immediately take them down like they’re nothing.

We then get the usual bit, Eret gets brainwashed because of the scepter and several other SHIELD members do as well. Puffy, Sam, and Phil escape while George, Punz, Sapnap, Eret and some other SHIELD agents take the Space Stone.

Sapnap then causes some minor arson despite Punz and George telling him no and there is a huge explosion.

Phil then calls Techno to come back from his mission and Sam comes in to tell Wilbur about going into the SHIELD base because this seems like a reason to call the Avengers initiative Phil. It doesn’t matter that you still have some family shit to work through, you got to go and call in Wilbur.

Fundy was also there so Sam pretty much killed two birds with one stone when he visited. Both Wilbur and Fundy both agreed as long as Fundy won’t be detained the moment this is all over.

Tommy and Tubbo unfortunately are there as well and overhear the adults talking about this. They want to help too! They got cool powers and they could totally beat up bad guys! Course Wilbur and Schlatt would object to that. So they did the one reasonable thing everyone should do! Sneak into the airship using Tubbo’s cool magic and their extreme stealth!

Wilbur only finds out that Tubbo and Tommy snuck on after getting a panicked phone call from Schlatt saying that the kid is missing. Cue panic from Wilbur and Fundy.

Phil, Wilbur, and Techno do not have a great relationship with each other now so it’s rather tense between all of them. Tommy tries to ease the tension by making jokes and stuff but that just leads to the three of them saying that he’s a child and that he shouldn’t even be here. He shouldn’t go and concern himself with these and let the adults do their job. (Tubbo and Tommy is definitely going to sneak on the Quin Jet)

Fundy tracks where the Tesseract is and we cut to Punz, George, and Sapnap being contacted by Dream using his god powers. We get some praise to George and Sapnap while Punz just looks at Dream with nothing but suspicion.

Dream then requests a private talk with Punz and the tone completely changes. We got Punz being pretty indifferent on the outside with Dream’s threats of punishment if he fails this but you see some signs that he is indeed nervous. You got him pulling on his sleeve a little and wincing a little sometimes.

Straight to Germany and the gala. Punz decides to be the one who does the little eye disection while George and Sapnap be the defense and take down the guards to have as much of a distraction as possible so that Eret can get some Iridium to make the portal.

Meanwhile on the Quin Jet we get Techno about to drop in with Sam manning the wheel and Tubbo and Tommy somehow snuck on board again. This gives Sam, Wilbur, and Techno several heart attack because what the fuck. How do you keep sneaking on to everything. Please just stay in here.

We get Punz, George, Sapnap terrorizing a few people to be a distraction and then we get Techno dropping in all badass like.

(Punz speaking a language only Techno would understand and wincing a bit: Please don’t tell me those are children right next to you.

Techno looking and seeing Tubbo and Tommy in good disguises and armor: Oh my god.)

We get a rather cool fight between Sapnap v Tommy, Techno v Punz, and George v Tubbo.

Wilbur then comes in and they “capture” Punz, George, and Sapnap. Wilbur, Techno, and Schlatt on the phone then lecture the children and that’s when Niki comes in and grabs Punz. Cue Wilbur and Tubbo jumping in to get them. Techno then has to calm a panicked Schlatt as he hears Tubbo jump in after Wilbur.

You get Niki trying to get Punz to come home and stop the little invasion on Earth but Punz just refuses. Saying that it’s what he’s paid to do and that it has to happen now.

Wilbur interrupts that conversation and we get a brief fight scene between them before Tubbo comes in and shoots magic at Niki. Niki then stops because wait, you’re a child. Why is there a child there. Wilbur is slowly just getting more grey hairs as he sees Tubbo there.

Some talking later and we get Niki joining the team at the base and Punz, George, and Sapnap getting imprisoned in the glass thing.

We get Wilbur, Tubbo, and Fundy hacking into the SHIELD systems and digging deep into what Phase 2 is, got Tommy deciding to do it manually, Niki talking to Puffy, and Techno deciding to talk to Punz, Sapnap, and George separately about their plans.

Now Punz, Sapnap, and George aren’t as manipulative as Loki was in the first Avengers but Punz will go and point out how him and Techno and him aren’t that different. They both have red on their ledger and yeah.

We get the argument between the SBI family, Fundy, Niki, Tubbo. We get Eret attacking the airship and we get all the usual stuff that happened on the airship.

Wilbur reluctantly lets Tommy and Tubbo help fix the airship, Niki gets sent down by Punz, Fundy crashes to the ground, Techno and Eret fight, and we get Sam almost dying. :’)

Punz, George, and Sapnap escapes but this time we get Punz telling the other two to get back to Dream’s main fortress and that he can handle it here. Totally not because he knows there is a big chance of them losing and he doesn’t want Sapnap and George to be punished for it. Shut up. He isn’t soft.

We get the usual pep talk by Phil and him slightly pushing them to the right direction using some planted cards. Niki picks up her spear and heads to the city.

(Phil: You guys are Avengers.

Tommy: Ew. That sounds gross.

Wilbur: Got to admit Phil, he’s got you there.

Tommy: We should be called the L’Manbergians! Since like most of us here are European. Sorry Techno.

Techno: Don’t include me in the naming scheme.)

Fundy meanwhile is in a tower of bricks and sees this dude in a multicolored hoodie who give him a bit of pep talk and a pants and shirt. Fundy was about to thank him for it but then when he looked back, only particles of green remained.

Tubbo and Tommy are now allowed to go with the L’Manbergians on the condition of having an adult near them at all times. So Techno is babysitting the children and trying to not let them get killed.

Eret and Puffy gets to talk because I want them to talk. Please let them talk. And Eret talks about how it felt like when he was being controlled and man that’s a lot of trauma. They’re all in on joining L’Manberg and kicking Punz’s ass. Along the way they grab some goggles to cover up his eyes since they still have the unnerving show of no pupils.

We get Wilbur confronting Punz about it and it goes well. It goes surprisingly well. Punz knows he’s going to lose but it’s still his job. Wilbur points out how Punz seems so ready to give up and tells him to surrender right now.

(Punz: Look this is my job I can’t just surrender to you guys. That would piss my employer off.

Wilbur: Sounds to me that you’re scared of this employer. Are they threatening you and your friends and family?

Punz: ...Okay I think that’s enough talking now.)

Wilbur gets thrown out of window, new suit on, portal opens. Alien invasion time.

What happens is what basically happens in the first movie. Cool fighting. Some banter. Awesome scenes and more.

Techno and Eret are all just making sure that Tommy and Tubbo won’t get severely hurt and then you just see Tommy suplex someone and Tubbo being impressive with his magic. Tubbo specifically was saying how Schlatt and the Captain are going to get heart attacks when they see this.

(They did. they absolutely 100% did. Even with the disguises they immediately recognized Tommy and Tubbo. Schlatt screamed in his pillow while the Captain is just freaking out.)

Fundy comes in, we get the regular stuff. Just stuff that happens in the first Avenger movie. Punz vs Niki is awesome. Punz gets punched by Fundy when he comes up through the tower.

Nuke gets sent out by World Council and Wilbur has to send one of them up through the portal. This is where we get Dream and Wilbur encounter. Yay! The green manipulative bastard is going to traumatize the musician!

Dream then goes on this little talk about how this isn’t even it. That this isn’t even a fifth of his actual army. You though that was an invasion? Please. That was a raid at best. He can just keep on attacking and there is nothing Wilbur can do to stop it

(Wilbur: We’ll stop you. We stopped Punz before. We can stop you as well.

Dream: Can you though? Soot, look around. I have armies at my disposal. George and Sapnap got away. You only got one of my generals and he was a fucking mercenary. You won nothing.

Wilbur:

Dream: I think it’s time for you to leave. The others must be waiting. Have a nice decent down to Earth.

*Wilbur then falls down through the portal again

Dream: Also, Soot, tell Tommy that Dream said hi.)

Regular stuff happens again. Wilbur lives and Punz is now being brought back to Asgard. L’Manberg tower is made and everyone promises to go and move in it once they get their stuff.

Wilbur is now thinking about what Dream said. What if they get a threat they can’t handle? That mindset is interrupted by Schlatt going up into the tower, telling that Tubbo's grounded and asking Wilbur very nicely where Phil is. No Wilbur I won’t commit murder, I just want to talk to the man nicely. With a brick.

So first movie ended off great. The heroes won and Punz is imprisoned on Asgard. We’re going to get Found Family stuff between arcs and we’re going to get some fluffy moments. We are also seeing hints of Wilbur’s paranoia growing but that’s not important now. That totally won’t be plot important in the future. Right?

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keelywolfe · 4 years ago

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FIC: Drifters ch.4 (spicyhoney)

Summary: Edge is still puzzling out this strange new world. His brother is not helping.

Tags: Spicyhoney, Violence, Rescued Child, Medical Experimentation, Babybones

Read it on AO3

Read it here!

~~*~~

Edge didn’t know what time it was when he woke again. It had still been morning when they arrived and there was still artificial daylight creeping around the curtains. It could either be late afternoon or early tomorrow morning for all the help that his internal clock was giving him.

He ignored the internal clamor that was pleading for him to go back to sleep, forcing his gritty sockets open. Rest could only replenish his magic so much, what he really needed was food, another slice of charity begged from the Swap brothers to add to his ledger, at least until he could find something resembling a job here.

(What could he even do here, would the denizens of this world look at his LV and only see a murderer, certainly Stretch had at first sight and—)

But there would be time to begin that daunting task tomorrow. Right now, something else had his attention.

Stretch had been correct about, well, actually, several things and one of them was that he was incapable of sleeping through any nearby movement, especially when it was with him on the mattress.

A glance next to him on the bed revealed that the baby was also awake and this time there were no screams to be had. Instead, she was inspecting her own feet with great interest, lying back on the bed with her oversized t-shirt puddled around her as her little fingers clumsily clutched at her wriggling toes.

Edge leaned up on an elbow, propping his skull in one hand as he watched her. “I suppose we were all that flexible once. I doubt Red could reach his toes now if someone tied a bottle of mustard into his shoelaces.”

The baby burbled something that might have been an agreement and managed to maneuver her foot into her mouth on the first try, gnawing on her own toes with slobbery vigor. She was obviously a genius, he decided, figuring out how to chew on her feet all on her own, and at her age…whatever her age was. He couldn’t be sure, there hadn’t been time for any of the niceties or paperwork, and whether it was measured by hours or days hardly mattered when it came to such an unusual method of creation.

The door bursting open made him jump, halfway to summoning an attack before he recognized his own brother. Then he nearly summoned one anyway as Red stalked across the room, crawling unceremoniously across the mattress and Edge to reach for the baby.

“all right, ya been hogging her long enough,” Red announced.

“Hog-we were sleeping!” Edge sputtered. He curled around the baby, hiding her beneath him as Red struggled to crawl around him.

“yeah, ya both sawed enough logs to fill the woodbox fer now,” Red panted. “lemme have the little crotchfruit.”

Edge struggled to keep the baby away from his brother’s child-thieving hands. “You’ll need a new insult, you know as well as I do that she didn’t come from anyone’s crotch.”

“good thing, too, don’t even wanna think about how that’d work with the size of her noggin.”

The child didn’t seem to mind the moniker. She crowed happily as the two of them wrestled around her, the mattress groaning threateningly with their struggles.

“c’mon, give it up,” Red whined. “i gave up all my shit to come here, too. ‘sides, i saw her first.”

“And left her!” Edge bit back a yelp as Red jammed a hard knuckle into his floating rib, the pain blinding him long enough for Red to scramble around his defenses.

“can’t have a rescue without bringing in the cavalry.” Edge could only watch, resigned, as his brother nimbly scooped the baby up then crawled back across the mattress to make his escape, managing to knee Edge directly below the crotch with a casual sort of accidental that could only be deliberate. He grunted in pain, doubling over, as Red sauntered out of the room to the squealing delight of the baby.

Lovely, she found the pain of others to be amusing. That was all the proof necessary to show that she was indeed from Underfell.

Edge sighed and fell back on the mattress, contemplating what charity he might beg first. Food? Or a shower, his bones stank of smoke and burnt plastic. He should be able to trust Red to watch the child long enough for him to clean up, he’d managed to raise him, after all…

…on second thought, perhaps he should check on the two of them first.

By the time he dressed and made his way downstairs, Red and the baby were sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. The baby was propped up again by the pillows and Red was piling wooden blocks into haphazard towers for the baby to gleefully knock over.

Edge gave his sockets a hard rub and looked again, hardly daring to believe what he was seeing. This was not the brother he remembered from his childhood, although to be fair, even if they’d had any sort of toys, they couldn’t have risked making noise with them. A strange sort of ache rose in his soul and Edge firmly ignored it. Obviously, he was getting hungry, time to head into the kitchen to see what sort of food was available.

The scene in the kitchen was enough to stop him in his tracks again and he couldn’t help but wonder if this was some sort of hallucination, that perhaps they were still back at that lab and he’d failed, he was lying there as his life bled away, lost in a fantasy and—

The prick of his fingertips in his palms from his clenched fists was enough to convince him this was reality. Such as it was.

Stretch was standing at the stove, spatula in hand and the eye-searingly pink of his frilly apron offered dubious protection to his clothes. He flipped the pancake effortlessly, only sparing Edge a glance. “hey. you didn’t sleep very long.”

“I slept enough. Can I borrow something to wear?”

Stretch waved him off. “sure, sure, mi armario es tu armario. get cleaned up, dinner in about fifteen.” Despite the splatters of batter splotching his apron, the pancakes looked delicious in a way that had nothing to do with his burgeoning hunger.

Even with the promise of clean clothes that didn’t reek of char, Edge didn’t move, only watched as Stretch added the pancake to a pile that was already on the counter, buttering it lavishly and pouring out another round of batter into the pan. “I didn’t realize you cooked,” Edge said slowly.

“someone had to keep us from starving until blue decided to take over on kitchen duty,” Stretch shrugged. His smile was wry even as he expertly flipped the cake, “always tried to help him with it, but he can be pretty determined when he wants to be, insisted he needed to learn it on his own.”

And he’d obviously never pressed the point, despite however long he’d spent gnawing gamely at some of Blue’s more…imaginative…dinner creations, until Edge came to this world along with Papyrus and the three of them began to learn together. He liked to think that they were doing quite well, they hardly burned anything these days, but nothing they’d ever presented to their brothers had smelled quite as good as those pancakes did right now.

Edge gave himself a little shake and turned away. “I’ll go get cleaned up.”

After quick detour to the closet, Edge made his way to the shower with haste. He didn’t mean to linger, his magic was gnawing at him to wash quickly and get back downstairs, but the hot water was glorious, with no unexpected icy bursts or rattling groans from the pipes. He stood in the stream, letting it pour down on him in a steamy, numbing waterfall, a pounding echo in his skull that allowed no space for thinking whatsoever.

That was his excuse for what happened next.

“wet is a good look on you, edgelord.”

Whirling around to face the threat was automatic, but normally he was wearing boots with heavy slip-proof soles, not his bare bony feet against a wet mat. His feet went out from under him and he flailed for anything to hold him up, half-ripping down the curtain before the sudden tinge of blue magic seized his soul, holding on only long enough for him to get his feet back under him. He blinked water out of his sockets to see Stretch sheepishly standing by the tub, a towel in hand.

“whoops, sorry, thought you heard me come in,” Stretch said, wryly apologetic. “i don’t normally get the drop on you. literally.”

Normally, Edge wasn’t foolishly trying to avoid his own thoughts. He switched off the water, fruitlessly swiping at his face with his bare fingers.

“Hand me the towel,” Edge said brusquely, ignoring the embarrassed heat in his cheekbones as he snatched it away from Stretch, briskly drying himself off.

The temperature of his face only grew at the appreciative look that Stretch gave him, his eye lights wandering over Edge’s bones with enough weight that it was nearly a touch of its own.

“you know, red is watching the baby—” Stretch began, slyly. He yelped as Edge pushed roughly past him to the commode where the clothes he’d borrowed were sitting.

“You said dinner was ready,” Edge reminded him, dragging on the sweatpants he’d found in a pile of laundry that smelled reasonably fresh. A t-shirt followed and he’d resigned himself to whatever slogan was scrawled across it. His only defense was to not read it and he would simply have to base how awful the pun on it was on how hard his brother laughed when he saw it.

“hungry, huh.” Stretch slouched down, casually tucking his hands into his pockets, but there was nothing casual or sedate about the way he ran the tip of his tongue across his teeth, slow and invitingly. “me too, baby, i’m always ready to eat you ou—”

“Let’s get downstairs,” Edge interrupted, and his bright flush was no longer strictly from embarrassment. In spite of everything, the temptation to take Stretch up on that offer was absurdly strong. This was…he didn’t know how to handle this strange flirtation. This was not how their relationship was. They baited each other, antagonized with insults and banter, they didn’t do this, except it seemed that they did.

The urge to kiss him right now was nearly stronger than his ability to resist, to press his tongue between those blunt teeth and taste the sweetness of his mouth. He shouldn’t, he couldn’t, not right now, but…

Thoughtlessly, Edge reached out, watched Stretch’s sockets widen in confusion as he ran a careful fingertip down his cheekbone. The bone was not so sharp as his own, Stretch’s skull was set with delicate angles that left him far prettier than he had any right to be. His looks were probably the most appealing thing about him, and yet, here Stretch was, stepping directly into cooking and childcare, and putting that assumption to shame.

Softly, Edge said, with a sort of pleased jealousy, “You’re handling all this so well.”

A shadow crossed Stretch’s face, gone almost before it was seen. He reached up and took hold of Edge’s hand and gently drew it away from his face. “you think so, huh?” Stretch asked, with brittle politeness.

That gave Edge a pause. “I did until you said that.”

Stretch exhaled slowly. “okay, so, my fuckbuddy, who is also sort of an evil clone of me, just showed up at my house with his brother and kid science experiment, and they need food, lodging, and a lot of fucking help. sound about right to you?”

Brutally phrased, but nonetheless true. “I believe that’s the basic summary, yes.”

“yeah, well, not a lot of room to fit a panic attack in, now is there. give me time.”

Guilt rose in a heavy throb. He’d dragged Stretch into this without once considering what it might cost him, knowing that he wouldn’t refuse. He wouldn’t change his choice if he could, but Stretch certainly had the right to resent him for it.

“I’m sorry,” Edge began, haltingly, already considering the ways he might repay for what he was taking.

“noooo,” Stretch shook his head, “no, no, you stop right there, no. no apologies, none of that shit.” He sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. “look, make you a deal. we are gonna be all up in each other’s faces for a while, so how about both of us get to bitch and moan to each other whenever the mood strikes, about anything at all, and the other person doesn’t apologize or snark or anything. they can either listen or add some of their own bitch to the batter. agreed?”

Edge could only nod. It was more than a reasonable bargain, he’d be a fool to refuse it.

“come on, then,” Stretch gave him a nudge with his elbow and reached for the doorknob. “let’s rescue the kid before red starts teaching her how to pickpocket.”

tbc

#spicyhoney #papcest #keelywolfe #underfell #underswap #underfell papyrus #underswap papyrus #drifters

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anna-pixie · 4 years ago

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obsession

Summary: The Joker saves your life during his heist of Gotham Bank. Now you owe him one. This marks the start of a deadly obsession.

Pairings: Ledger!Joker x Reader

Warnings: Violence

PART ONE

Anxiety is a funny thing, isn’t it. Here I am, standing in a line in Gotham bank, in the midst of 100s of people who couldn’t care less what I’m doing. Yet, my brain is telling me that every single one of these people is judging me. For what? Could be anything, how loud I’m breathing, what I’m wearing, the way I styled my hair this morning. My hands shake slightly by my sides and I dart my eyes from side to side to see if people are really looking at me like I think they are.

It has been worse lately, I haven’t been on my medication for the last few months because I simply can’t afford it anymore. It was a vicious cycle. I got a pay cut at work, so I had to sacrifice my meds, then as my mental health started slipping, I was too anxious to work and ended up quitting.

So here I am, about to withdraw the last of my money from my bank account so I can pay my shady new landlord 6 months rent in cash. I’ll have about $200 left for groceries and other things and then I’m fucked.

I prepare what I’m going to say to the bank teller for the 100th time in my head, but just before I step forward to the desk, gunshots rain through the air. I squeal, dropping my bag on the floor as I duck down, shuffling towards the far wall of the bank to try and evade the gun shots. I only realise my mistake when I take a moment to look around and realise literally every other person is hiding behind a desk or some form of protection, yet here I am completely out in the open.

I pull my legs up to my chest, thankful I didn’t decide to wear a skirt today as I look over my knees, trying to decipher what on earth is going on. I’m used to hearing about things like this, I made the mistake of coming to Gotham to study last year, and now I’ve used up all of my funds and am stuck here. I’m lucky I’ve never been caught up in any of the serious crime in the city. I was mugged once but compared to some of the things that happen here I was lucky.

My eyes follow the men who are clad in clown masks, as they disperse around the bank, probably going to the vaults to find money. Two clowns remain in the main hall with us and there is a moment of calm before more gun shots ring out and I whimper once more. My brows furrow as I survey the scene and realise that neither of the clowns, who have now shielded themselves behind a desk, are shooting.

I realise with a chill shooting down my spine that one of the clowns is staring right at me, gaze unwavering, since the way they have shielded themselves leaves them facing me. The mask this particular clown wears is kind of grimy, a permanent frown painted on. His head tilts to the side ever so slightly as he gazes at me, I don’t even want to imagine who lurks underneath the mask. I’m relieved from his gaze when his partner speaks to him, the two of them attacking the man who is shooting at them.

I close my eyes, rocking back and forth slightly as I try to block out this situation. They’re clearly here for the money, so if I don’t bother them then they won’t hurt me, right? I ignore the confrontation occuring, only opening my eyes again when a shadow falls in front of me.

The other clown stands in front of me, his back to me as he points his gun at the frowning clown. Huh, I thought they were working together? The frowning clown doesn’t seem too concerned by the gun pointed at his head, and he lowers his gaze to meet me once more. My eyes widen and I can’t drag them away from his. He raises his hand suddenly and I flinch, thinking he is going to pull out a gun but instead he gestures to the side with his thumb, eyes still fixed on me. I quickly realise he’s telling me to move to the side, I pause for a second and he gestures more aggressively.

I don’t know why but something deep inside me tells me to listen to him, and I quickly crawl as far away as I can. “Oh, no, no, no. I killed the bus driver.” I shiver at the sound of his voice. It’s light and dark at the same time, menacing yet childish. Why do I like it?

Another scream rips through me as the wall I was previously sitting in front of is obliterated as a bright yellow school bus crashes through it. Oh my God… this is why he told me to move. Did he just save my life? The man pointing a gun at him is unconscious, dead from the impact I assume and the frowning clown ruthlessly shoots the man who crashed the bus into the bank. No sounds escape me this time, I think I’ve gone numb to what is happening. I vaguely note the clown talking to the gunned down bank manager and as he stands up, I’m not prepared for the sight that greets me.

He’s removed his mask, yet he’s wearing another one underneath in the form of bright, messy face paint. The majority of his face is painted a harsh white, the black circles around his eyes contrasting sharply and making his eyes seem like neverending pits. His lips are painted a deep red, but it extends further than that and I quickly realise he is covering up some mangled scars. I can’t tear my eyes away from him as he walks back towards the bus. He has a strange walk, he’s skipping slightly, but he looks as if he is trying to run away from something without it looking obvious that he is running.

As if feeling my eyes on him, his snap over in my direction and he pauses mid step. He changes course and to my horror, walks over until he is standing directly in front of me, towering over me as I gulp. He grins, baring his yellow teeth at me and reaches forward. I squeal, quickly becoming confused when he grabs my chin, tilting my head back so I’m staring right at him.

“I, ah, saved your life, toots,” His gloved thumb rubs over my chin, brushing against my lip slightly, “You owe me one.” He winks, and then as quickly as he came, he is gone. Leaving nothing but destruction in his wake, I can’t help but wonder why a part of me wanted to climb into that bus with him.

#joker x reader #joker imagine #joker x oc #the joker imagine #the joker x reader #the joker x oc #ledger joker

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fuckingthefictional · 4 years ago

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Runaway Lovers

Pairing: Finn Shelby x reader

Warnings: Swearing, suggestions regarding to sex, crap writing?

Requested: yes, part two requested by @hamdehlesmis

A/N: for the part where Finn writes a letter, I’ve made it so the writing is more phonics based. Because I find it unrealistic to have a character who is illiterate to suddenly start reading and writing with the knowledge of perfect grammar and spelling.

Alfie Solomons was a name that struck cold fear into some on the toughest of men.

His cool and calculating gaze was enough to send uneasy chills up anyone’s spine.

He was a man who had red on his ledger and the mighty hand of God on his side.

To most he was a cold and calculating gang leader- with the proclivity of making violent, rash decisions that mainly benefited himself and anyone lucky enough to be considered a friend.

And most were not lucky enough to have that benefit.

Y/N Y/L/N was lucky to be considered a friend- more accurately she was a close relative of the Jewish gang leader.

Alfie’s Mother, was the sister of Y/N’s mother. The two women were close, but drifted apart after they were married to their respective husbands. Only to reunite during the Great War.

That was the first time Y/N had been in proper contact with her mothers side of the family- and thank God she continued to stay in contact with them.

Otherwise her and Finn would’ve been rendered homeless and well and truly fucked.

Y/N forced herself to drag her thoughts away from what would have been, and instead focused on the passing green pasteurs that sped past the train cars window.

The lack of pollution was obvious and made a huge difference. She was able to see the colours of the night sky, along with the scattered stars- such things that felt as if they didn’t exist in Small Heath.

Y/N felt a soft kiss on a stray patch of bare skin below her ear and at the top of her jawline. Finn.

“Stop stressing love, we’ll be okay.”

It was like he had read her mind, “‘m not stressing.” She mumbled into her palm.

“If you aren’t stressing then how come your leg is bouncing?” Finn chuckled as he pressed another kiss to her temple.

Y/N rolled her eyes. Of course he would pick up on the finer details, it was just another reason why she loved him.

It wasn’t long before the train pulled into Camden Town Station. The whole station seemed to be rather empty- apart from one man who seemed to be waiting for the trains arrival.

He was an older gentleman, who had a scraggly beard and clutched a cane. His face was partially covered from the hat that topped his head. But on his chest, he proudly bore a necklace that held the Star of David.

It was Alfie.

He had changed a lot, the pictures that Y/N had been shown of him depicted him to be younger, lacking a beard. But the face was the same.

“Y/N Y/L/N?” The older man addressed her, a slight smirk on his face, “My god ‘ow you’ve grown- I remember when you were a bloody babe.”

She turned to Finn, a soft smile gracing her features, “Love this is Alfie, my cousin.”

Both men shook hands, each of them sizing the other up.

“Thank you for letting us stay with you.” Finn nodded at the older man, “we really appreciate it.”

“‘S nothin’ alright?” Alfie boomed loudly, “any person whose a friend of our Y/N/N is a friend of mine- now let’s get your stuff back to my ‘Ouse ‘ey?”

The two teenagers followed the older man, out of the station, their hands interlocked- ready for this next chapter of their lives.

It was difficult not knowing what their future held. And what they would face in this grey part of their lives, but Finn and Y/N knew they were lucky.

Lucky to have a place to stay, lucky to be in London. And most of all: lucky to be with each other.

Two months later Y/N and Finn were still as strong as ever, and the pair of them had both gotten jobs in Camden Town.

Finn working down at the docks, where he loaded Alfie’s spirits into the boats that would travel across the Atlantic.

Finn had been clear with his girlfriend’s cousin that he wanted no part in the extremely illegal parts of the business. In other words he didn’t want to be a front runner, Finn was quite happy working behind the scenes or on the sidelines. Doing the smaller less risky jobs that helped boost business.

Thankfully Alfie has agreed with him, saying, “If I got you in trouble yeah, or you got fuckin’ hurt- then my cousin would have my balls hanging up above the fuckin’ fireplace.”

Y/N however had a different job role. As she helped run the books, Y/N had her mothers brains, math was her forte and not to mention her and Alfie were close, and her older cousin kept her well protected and safe.

Their jobs weren't particularly high paid and they’d told Alfie that they didn’t want special treatment when it came to their pay- either way they made enough to pay their part on rent at Alfie’s house (which usually meant paying for the food and occasionally the hot water bill).

But neither Finn or Y/N were disappointed, they were employed and bringing in an income. That was more than they’d done in small Heath.

“Y’know, I finally feel like I’m apart of something,” Finn mumbled as he kissed down Y/N’s bare back, “I finally feel wanted by others, that aren’t You, Ada or Pol.”

“Finn,” The girl sighed as she turned over to face him, “You have no idea how much purpose you bring to other people.” Y/N stroked his hair softly, feeling the bouncy curls slip between her finger tips, “Finn because of you, Alfie is finally reconnecting with his blood relatives- he said that if this hadn’t happened, then he was willing to give up on family. And by coming away from the life you had in Small Heath you’re making Ada feel better about her role as a big sister.”

Finn was in a semi state of shock, he had no idea he had made that much of an impact, “And you?” He asked.

“God Finn,” Y/N pressed her forehead to his, “ever since you pulled me back from that drunk driver, I knew that my life was going to be flipped upside down- that I was going to fall in love.” She licked her lips, “I can’t imagine my life without you- you’re my constant, my everything, the love of my life.”

The auburn haired boy pulled his girl close to his chest, peppering sweet kisses to her hairline, “I love you pretty girl.”

“And I you, Freckles.”

“D’you think we should come clean to Alfie- about my family I mean.” Finn chewed on his lips nervously.

Y/N sighed, “I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow, but for now my love we should get some sleep.”

Knock, knock, knock

It was one of those rare days that Alfie was working from home, Y/N had overheard his doctor telling Alfie that he needed to take it easy and rest more.

So of course Y/N forced him to stay at home. It was odd really, the pair had only reconnected a few months ago. But already it felt as if Alfie was coming into the older brother role in Y/N’s life, whereas she was the persuasive younger sister that Alfie never had growing up.

Their dynamic was one that many had never seen, there was constant teasing and banter between the two. And Y/N had been the only one to make demands from the big scary gang leader and live to tell the tale.

“Come in.” Alfie’s muffled voice came from behind the other side of the door.

As Y/N entered the office while balancing a tea tray on her arm, when she looked up she noticed her cousin sat at his desk with his specs on, Cyril layed down at his feet.

“Morning, Alf.” Y/N smiled warmly, “I’ve brought you some tea and biscuits.” She sat down opposite him, as he started across the desk accusingly.

“What do yer want aye?” Alfie squinted his eyes, “you only ever bring me stuff when yer tryna butter me up.”

“Well Is it working?” Y/N looked at her cousin as he poured himself a cup and necked down a biscuit.

“Depends that dunnit.” Alfie responded, raising his brow.

“Well I have some news,” Y/N started fidgeting with her hands, “Some news you might not take too well.”

“Fuckin’ hell- you’re not up the bloody duff are yer?”

The teenager promptly felt herself choke on her own spit, “What?” She shouted, her eyes as round as saucers, “No!” Y/N attempted to recompose herself, “Look What I was trying to get at is that Finn belongs to a family that weren’t good to him, he ran away from his old life after his brother tried to force us apart. And we talked last night about finally coming clean to you Alf, because we appreciate all you’ve done for us and we don’t feel like we’re being truthful and-“

“Y/N!” Alfie cut off her ranted speech, “I know that Finn is a Shelby.” He stated simply, “Do you really think I don’t do background checks on my workers Y/N/N?”

“And you’re okay with him?” Y/N was still in a state of shock,

“Well,” Alfie leant forwards, “ma always taught us to not judge a book by the pissin’ cover aye? Sometimes that shit also includes certain family names.” He paused, pondering what to say next, “Look I kept an eye out for the lad in the first few weeks yous stayed ‘ere, in case there was some spyin’ goin’ on. But there wasn’t, it was just a lovestruck boy who’s willin’ to do anythin’ to make ‘is girl happy. So as far as I’m concerned Y/N/N, he’s a new branch in the Solomons family.”

Y/N could feel happy tears brimming in her eyes, she finally saw what Finn meant. She felt like she mattered, like she had purpose for the first time in a very long time.

Two months. It had been two months since Finn had just up and left. Tommy didn't think that his youngest sibling what actually hold to his word- he didn't think that Finn of all people would actually quit the family buisness and leave small heath.

And with all of that considered, Tommy didn't know where the fuck Finn had gone. And that was a first in Tommy’s experience- he didn't know something.

It was incredibly frustrating and not to mention Polly was in bits since Finn had just gone missing in action. It wasn't hard to see that there was a soft spot in his aunts heart for the youngest Shelby.

He’d had men search every major city in Britain, knowing Finn couldn’t have strayed too far off the beaten path.

The youngest Shelby never was one for spontaneity, he was too much like his mother for that- he liked to have a plan set out in front of him.

But what made the situation all the more complicated was the war Tommy had made on Sabini, if Finn was in London then there was a large chance that he was in danger.

Tommy didn’t want more blood on his hands, he didn’t know if he could handle more blood on his hands.

Dear Pol,

This leter wil onlie be short, but its a leter non the less. All you need to no is that I am safe and happie, and hav started a new life for myself. If you want to meet, then go to Ada’s on Saterday and i will meet you there.

Lots of luv and take care,

Finn

P.S- Y/N is teeching me to reed and rite, it is a work in progres- but I am lerning!

Polly grinned at the letter in front of her, it was most definitely her nephew. Despite it being in letter form, his mannerisms and language hasn’t changed.

The older woman could feel her heart swell with pride for her youngest nephew, deep down Polly knew that the Blinder lifestyle wasn’t for him.

Finn was like Ada in that way- he followed his heart. And his heart has chosen a different path than his brothers.

Polly set the letter down on her desk as she pondered what her next course of action would be, obviously she was going to Ada’s to meet her nephew on the Saturday.

However she was met with the dilemma of how she could get it past Tommy.

One one hand, Tommy was the patriarch of the family- Polly knew that she was practically obligated to tell her older nephew her plans and whereabouts.

But on the other hand, Finn was safe. He was free from a dangerous life, he was happy and he had started a new path.

And that was more than anything Tommy could offer the lad. Polly knew that Finn valued his freedom and happiness over all the money in the world.

Pulling out a cigarette, Polly fiddled with the small stick of tobacco. After igniting it, she took a deep inhale, allowing the smoke to fill her lungs.

Every piece of her heart and soul was telling her to keep Finn safe. Maybe that was just the mother hen in Polly- but she was certain on one thing.

Thomas Shelby was going to learn to live with his actions and consequences of his words, because Polly had no intention of saying a word about Finn’s whereabouts.

Peaky blinders taglist:

@simonsbluee

#peaky blinders #peaky blinders x reader #peakyblinders #peakyfookinblinder #peaky blinders imagine #peakyblinder #peaky blinder fanfic #finnshelby #finn shelby x reader #finn shelby #harry kirton

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five-miles-over · 4 years ago

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Joaquin Phoenix Characters as Comfort Foods

(Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters or images. This is just a fun listicle, not designed to offend anyone. As always, please feel free to leave comments and/or constructive criticism below. I’m always happy to learn more about various dishes and cuisines. Thank you, and without any further ado, please enjoy!)

Characters in this List: Arthur Fleck, Joker, Theodore Twombly, Jimmy Emmett, Doug Holt, Doc Sportello, Freddie Quell, Johnny Cash, Max California, Merrill Hess, Ray Elwood, Bruno Weiss, Abbé de Coulmier, Joe, Lucius Hunt, and Emperor Commodus.

Also, most of the foods in this listicle are savory, so let me know if you want me to do a listicle with sweet comfort foods too!

Arthur Fleck from Joker: Fairy Bread

Fairy bread is a treat from Australia, made with white bread, butter (or margarine), and sprinkles (or as they call them in Australia, hundreds and thousands). Just like Arthur, this comfort food is quite simplistic but it’s extremely cherished. Plus, the colorful sprinkles would appeal to the inner child inside of Arthur Fleck.

The Joker from Joker: Prawn Mee

Prawn mee (also called hokkien hae mee) is a spicy street food from Malaysia made with prawns (of course), pork slices, noodles, and water spinach.

Much like Joker’s antics, this noodle dish is never dull with its spicy and savory flavors. In fact, there are many variations to this dish, with some adding eggs or squid along with different kinds of vegetables.

(Plus, I chose this dish keeping in mind a scene from The Dark Night Rises in which Heath Ledger’s Joker eats a piece of shrimp while crashing a party.)

Theodore Twombly from Her : Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese (aka Cheese Toasties)

I’ve mentioned before how the color red seems to be quite significant to Theodore in this film - he wears it a lot, many of his things are red. So the tomato soup is a good fit.

Also, the warmth of this dish (and the gooey cheese) is a perfect analogy for the way Theodore wears his heart on his sleeve. He can be quite a mushy romantic, and often feels nostalgic for a simpler time of love.

Personally, this dish also brings nostalgia because I used to love it when I was twelve.

Jimmy Emmett from To Die For: Chili Dogs

It’s quite ‘grungy’ in appearance, much like Jimmy Emmett. And the intensity of the bold meat flavors and cheese do quite represent the intense obsession that Jimmy has with Nicole Kidman’s character.

(And I’ve heard it’s a great hangover/munchies food best served with potato chips)

Doug Holt from Inventing the Abbotts: Matzo Ball Soup

Matzo balls are soup dumplings made of unleavened bread flour, that are usually added to chicken or vegetable broth. Just like Doug Holt, they are absolutely wholesome and comforting no matter what.

Doc Sportello from Inherent Vice: Omurice

Omurice is a Japanese dish that combines an omelette and fried rice, which sounds like a nice representation of someone who combines the best of both words, being a private investigator and a hippie.

Also, out of all of Joaquin’s characters, I’m pretty sure Doc would be totally down to try this as an alternate breakfast or snack.

Freddie Quell from The Master: Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao)

One of the running storylines in The Master is Freddie’s interest in alcohol - and getting drunk off of it. He mixes various chemicals and substances to create concoctions (that may not be for everyone) to get a buzz. So it only makes sense that his comfort food comes from the word for ‘drunkard’.

These noodles don’t actually contain any alcohol, but the flavors of black pepper and red chile give it a distinct hotness. (Kind of like how Freddie’s hot-headed nature can be quite dangerous at times.)

Johnny Cash from Walk The Line: Fried Catfish

Fried catfish is quite popular in Kingsland, Alabama - Cash’s hometown - so it would be a nice choice to represent this iconic singer. Also, the movie showed fishing as one of Johnny Cash’s hobbies.

Max California from 8 MM: Poutine

Emerging in the 1950s, poutine is a Canadian dish made with french fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy (usually beef or turkey-flavored). The word ‘poutine’ itself comes from the French word ‘poutine’ (meaning “pudding”) and was used to describe the “sloppy” appearance of this dish.

Much like Max California’s job as a porn vendor, poutine can look quite messy on the outside. However, it has a comforting, warm taste that matches how genuine Max really is on the inside.

Also, I can imagine Max’s work costing him some long nights that call for fast food (meaning fries!).

Merrill Hess from Signs: Philly Cheesesteak

Philly cheesesteaks are named for the American city Philadelphia, which is quite close to Bucks County, Pennsylvania (the location for many of the scenes filmed for Signs).

This greasy sandwich made of steak, onions, peppers, and (lots of!) cheese is an integral part of American cuisine, just like how baseball - Merrill’s passion - is fondly known as “America’s pastime”.

Also, I can imagine Merrill having quite an appetite, so a cheesesteak would satisfy him.

Ray Elwood from Buffalo Soldiers: Beans on Toast

While being a staple in the United Kingdom, beans on toast would probably suit a soldier like Ray Elwood. Given that the ingredients are nothing more than canned beans and bread, it would be the best choice of comfort food for someone always staying in an army bunker.

(Not to mention, it’s pretty easy to make - he could make this while taking a break from shipping illegal drugs around Berlin)

Bruno Weiss from The Immigrant: Schnitzel with Mushroom Gravy

Bruno Weiss may seem like a hedonist on the outside, being a ruthless pimp and entertainer who will do anything to make a profit. However on the inside, his character craves for warmth and affection.

Schnitzel is a German comfort food consisting of a piece of meat (or cheese) that is breaded and fried before being coated in a flavorful gravy. Much like Bruno himself, schnitzel has quite a hard, distinctive exteriors and a tender interior.

Abbé de Coulmier from Quills: Ratatouille

(This dish has a fun name, I’m not going to lie) What better choice for a French priest than a summer entrée that originates in Nice, France? Ratatouille is a vegetable stew made with various types of squash, tomatoes, zucchini (or courgette), and eggplant (aka aubergine).

Much like Abbé, this dish may seem quite simple (based on its ingredients, which are primarily vegetables) but it is quite filling and comforting. This dish is surprisingly warm during cold nights, just like how Abbé’s presence brings warmth to Charenton.

Joe from You Were Never Really Here: Spaghetti Alla Norma

Spaghetti is already a popular comfort food in itself, but Joe’s maturity as a character definitely calls for a slightly elegant version of pasta. Spaghetti alla Norma is made with fried eggplant, cherry tomatoes, and basil to garnish. The eggplant definitely adds a meaty component to this dish, just like Joe’s complicated past makes his storyline in the film quite compelling.

Lucius Hunt from The Village: Minestrone

Minestrone is an Italian vegetarian soup usually consisting of carrots, celery, beans, and pasta in a tomato-based broth. The herbs (thyme, rosemary, oregano) flavoring it definitely offer a rustic type of taste. Not to mention, a warm bowl of this soup does wonders after a long day of walking through the woods.

Emperor Commodus from Gladiator: Chicken Tikka Masala

As always, my favorite is saved for last. *sighs* Honestly, I think the rich, creamy nature of the gravy, along with the blend of spices, makes this perfect for an emperor’s lavish and robust palette. Also, it is by far one of the most popular dishes around the world (especially in the United Kingdom) - just like how Commodus is one of Phoenix’s most iconic roles.

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gamergirl929 · 5 years ago

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Head Over Cleats For You (Christen Press x Reader)

Anonymous Request: Do one with christen press pleaseeeeee

In honor of Christen Press being Tumblr’s Top Athlete of 2019, I thought it was only appropriate to post this today. <3

I got a lot of free reign with this one. I saw a video the other day, of a girl singing a country song to her girlfriend and it was just too adorable, I couldn’t pass up writing an imagine about it with the adorable Christen Press, I hope you enjoy it! <3

The song is Head Over Boots by John Pardi

The bus is full of chatter as it rolls down one of the many roads on its way to its destination.

Across the bus, Christen is sitting with her usual bus buddy, Tobin, while on the other side of the bus, you’re sitting next to Becky, who’s in the process of showing you a video.

“I love this movie so much.” You smile as you watch Heath Ledger running along the bleachers as he sings to Julia Stiles.

“It’s adorable.” Becky grins.

Suddenly, your eyes widen and you smirk, glancing across the bus at your girlfriend who is sitting beside Tobin.

“That’s like, a huge romantic gesture yeah?” You say and Becky turns to you, brow furrowed.

“Yeah I mean, that the ultimate I love you.” She shrugs and your smirk splits into a grin.

You hum, staring across the bus at Christen. She eventually turns your way, her grin massive as she sends you a wink.

Your heart flutters in your chest as you think about the scene from 10 Things I Hate About You.

A familiar tune starts playing from someone’s phone, Sonnett or Lindsey's you think, seconds later you’re singing along out loud.

“I want to sweep you off your feet tonight. I want to love you and hold you tight.” You sing, aloud gathering the attention of the bus.

Becky’s eyes widen.

“What are you doing?” She asks chuckling.

“Spin you around on some old dance floor. Act like we never met before for fun.”

“I didn’t mean to really do it.” Becky whispers, though you can see her fiddling around with her phone before she holds it up to record you.

You move to your feet, blowing a kiss across the bus at Christen, whose cheeks are tinged pink and growing darker.

“Cause you’re the one I want, you’re the one I need. Baby, if I was a king, you would be my queen.”

You point across the bus and smack your palm against your chest over and over again.

“You’re the rock in my roll you’re good for my soul it’s true. I’m head over cleats for youuuuu!”

Christen covers her face with her hands, though she can do nothing to hide her beaming smile as the bus fills with laughter.

“The way you sparkle like a diamond ring. Maybe one day we can make it a thing.”

It’s then you realize that everyone on the bus has their camera out as you serenade your girlfriend.

“Test time and grow old together. Rock in our chairs and talk about the weather.”

You bob your head swaying back and forth as you again point across the bus at your tomato faced girlfriend.

You beckon Christen over with your index and middle finger but she shakes her head as she giggles, Tobin wearing a megawatt smile as she turns towards her, phone in hand.

“So, bring it on in for that angel kiss. Put that feel good on my lips...”

Christen’s green orbs lock with your Y/E/C orbs as she blows you a kiss across the bus, one you immediately catch before you continue to sing.

“Cause you’re the one I want, you’re the one I need. Baby, if I was a king, you would be my queen.”

You continue to dance, busting out a dance move that makes the bus full of women fill with laughter, the loudest of that laughter being from Ashlyn and Megan.

“You’re the rock in my roll you’re good for my soul it’s true. I’m head over cleats for youuuuu!”

You jump up on your seat as the music plays, all the girls recording you as you dance.

“Yeah I’m here to pick you up. I hope I don’t let you down.”

The music slows as you stop your silly dancing, only swaying slowly back and forth as you place a hand over your heart, the hand you’d caught her kiss with, and point across the bus at your girlfriend.

Sonnett turns the camera to her face, the thousands watching you live on Instagram as you serenade Christen commenting as fast as they can type.

“This is sickening.” She whispers and Lindsey leans towards her.

“Sickeningly adorable.”

Kelley pops up over the seat behind them, along with Alex and Allie who are sitting behind her.

“Amen.” Kelley says, the other women nodding in agreement.

Sonnett and the others quickly turn their cameras back towards you when you start to sing again.

“Cause you’re the one I want, you’re the one I need. Baby, if I was a king, you would be my queen. You’re the rock in my roll you’re good for my soul it’s true. I’m head over cleats for youuuuu!”

“You’re the one I want, you’re the one I need. Baby, if I was a king, you would be my queen. You’re the rock in my roll you’re good for my soul it’s true. I’m head over cleats for youuuuu!”

You smile lovingly across the bus at Christen, whose eyes sparkle as she returns that same loving smile.

“I want to sweep you off your feet tonight. I want to love you and hold you tight. Spin you around on some old dance floor.”

The song ends and everyone on the bus erupts, cheering, clapping and wolf whistling as you blush, giving the bus a few dramatic bows.

“Why are your cheeks so red Chris?” Tobin asks with a laugh and the brunette grumbles as she gives her best friend a nudge.

“Shut up.”

Christen grins, the grin you love so much, the grin you’d do anything to see, the grin that was one of the many reasons you’d fallen in love with Christen Press.

“I love you.” Christen smiles and of course, the bus coos and awes loudly, phones still in hand and camera’s recording.

“I love you too.” You grin.

“Okay, now that your 10 Things I Hate About You reenactment is over, get down.” Becky says as she smacks your leg.

“Yes mom.” You grumble as you sit back down.

“You could’ve gotten hurt.” She chastises and you throw your head back with a groan.

“But still, it was sweet.” Becky smiles as you stare across the bus at your girlfriend.

“Only for the sweetest girl in the world.” You wink at Christen who blushes bright red.

“You two are so gross.” Ashlyn rolls her eyes playfully, only to be smacked in the chest by Ali.

“Why have you never sung to me?” She asks and the goalie’s eyes widen.

The couple bickers and the women around you begin chattering again, mostly all about your performance, but you’ve tuned out as you stare across the bus at Christen. She bites her bottom lip to stave off a massive grin.

“I love you.” You mouth and Christen giggles.

“I love you too.”

#christen press #christen press x reader #christen press imagine #christen press imagines #uswnt x reader

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rockislandadultreads · 4 years ago

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Holiday Horrors: a reading list

Full list can be found here via Electric Literature

Sherlock Holmes & the Christmas Demon by James Lovegrove

It is 1890, and in the days before Christmas Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson are visited at Baker Street by a new client. Eve Allerthorpe - eldest daughter of a grand but somewhat eccentric Yorkshire-based dynasty - is greatly distressed, as she believes she is being haunted by a demonic Christmas spirit. Her late mother told her terrifying tales of the sinister Black Thurrick, and Eve is sure that she has seen the creature from her bedroom window. What is more, she has begun to receive mysterious parcels of birch twigs, the Black Thurrick's calling card... Eve stands to inherit a fortune if she is sound in mind, but it seems that something - or someone - is threatening her sanity. Holmes and Watson travel to the Allerthorpe family seat at Fellscar Keep to investigate, but soon discover that there is more to the case than at first appeared. There is another spirit haunting the family, and when a member of the household is found dead, the companions realise that no one is beyond suspicion.

Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom

Santa Claus, my dear old friend, you are a thief, a traitor, a slanderer, a murderer, a liar, but worst of all you are a mockery of everything for which I stood. You have sung your last ho, ho, ho, for I am coming for your head. . . . I am coming to take back what is mine, to take back Yuletide . . . —from Krampus The author and artist of The Child Thief returns with a modern fabulist tale of Krampus, the Lord of Yule and the dark enemy of Santa Claus One Christmas Eve in a small hollow in Boone County, West Virginia, struggling songwriter Jesse Walker witnesses a strange spectacle: seven devilish figures chasing a man in a red suit toward a sleigh and eight reindeer. When the reindeer leap skyward, taking the sleigh, devil men, and Santa into the clouds, screams follow. Moments later, a large sack plummets back to earth, a magical sack that thrusts the down-on-his-luck singer into the clutches of the terrifying Yule Lord, Krampus. But the lines between good and evil become blurred as Jesse's new master reveals many dark secrets about the cherry-cheeked Santa Claus, including how half a millennium ago the jolly old saint imprisoned Krampus and usurped his magic. Now Santa's time is running short, for the Yule Lord is determined to have his retribution and reclaim Yuletide. If Jesse can survive this ancient feud, he might have the chance to redeem himself in his family's eyes, to save his own broken dreams, . . . and to help bring the magic of Yule to the impoverished folk of Boone County.

A Midnight Clear by Lindy Ryan (Editor)

Six stories of not-so-merry Yuletide whimsy from the authors of Black Spot Books. A woman so cold she hardens to ice on a winter's eve. Risen from his grave before his time, a winter god alters the balance between seasons. A wolf's holiday season is interrupted by a strange curse. From a murder at the Stanley Hotel to demons of Christmas past, present, and future, and a mad elf and Santa's Candy Court, the authors of Black Spot Books share their love for winter holidays in this collection of dark winter tales, destined to chill your bones and warm your heart for the Yuletide season.

Snowball by Gregory Bastianelli

A group of motorists become stranded on a lonely stretch of highway during a Christmas Eve blizzard and fight for survival against an unnatural force in the storm. The gathered survivors realize a tenuous connection among them means it may not be a coincidence that they all ended up on this highway. An attempt to seek help leads a few of the travelers to a house in the woods where a twisted toymaker with a mystical snow globe is hell bent on playing deadly games with a group of people just trying to get home for the holidays. Flame Tree Press is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

Hark! the Herald Angels Scream: An Anthology by Christopher Golden (Editor)

Eighteen stories of Christmas horror from bestselling, acclaimed authors including Scott Smith, Seanan McGuire, Josh Malerman, Michael Koryta, Sarah Pinborough, and many more. That there is darkness at the heart of the Yuletide season should not surprise. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is filled with scenes that are unsettling. Marley untying the bandage that holds his jaws together. The hideous children--Want and Ignorance--beneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The heavy ledgers Marley drags by his chains. In the finest versions of this story, the best parts are the terrifying parts. Bestselling author and editor Christopher Golden shares his love for Christmas horror stories with this anthology of all-new short fiction from some of the most talented and original writers of horror today.

Christmas Curiosities: Odd, Dark, and Forgotten Christmas by John Grossman

Oh, by gosh, by golly. It’s time for . . . rowdy bands of drunkards roaming the streets, lighting firecrackers, and firing off guns? Gangs of masked youths invading people’s houses, demanding food, drink, and money—and threatening to break the windows (or worse) unless they’re given what they want? Welcome to Christmas, circa 1800. Yes, the season of light, joy, and gift-giving was once regarded as a time of darkness, danger, and dissipation—and celebrated with all-too-public displays of noisemaking, inebriation, and gluttonous overeating. (Well, maybe not everything has changed.) And though we tend to imagine Victorian-era Christmases as sentimental gatherings around the candlelit tree, blazing hearth, and festive punchbowl, the 19th-century evidence tells us quite otherwise. Drawing from his extensive collection of antique postcards, greeting cards, advertising giveaways, and other ephemera, author John Grossman presents a picture of Christmas past that, frankly, looks a lot more like Halloween. Broomstick-riding witches and vampire bat–borne cupids deliver New Year’s greetings. Fur-clad fairies gather ’round a campfire to roast their Christmas dinner—a huge dead rat. And Saint Nicholas? He’s that skinny guy in the bishop robes who arrives with his dark companion, the Devil-like Krampus brandishing switches to punish the badly behaved. With Christmas Curiosities, STC wishes you a very merry, very scary Christmas.

#horror #fiction #horror books #christmas books #christmas horror #reading recommendations #recommended reading #book recs #booklr #booklist #tbr #currently reading #reading recs #library

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veliseraptor · 5 years ago

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What're the top lines* in the MCU that you think form the core of Loki's character? It's something I was thinking about when I saw a "I never wanted the throne..." gifset. (*For arguments sake, you could go with top 3 or 5 or WHATEVER)

oh boy I like this question. what a good question thank you for asking

(couldn’t narrow it down to 3 or 5, though, so I’m going with 8.)

1. “I never wanted the throne, I only ever wanted to be your equal!”

You mentioned this one, but it is absolutely a central piece of Loki’s character - the idea of wanting to be Thor’s equal, of his feeling of being lacking, of being less, and how that has shaped him, beyond what we see on screen. The throne isn’t an end in and of itself - it is symbolic. Its meaning is of finally reaching the place that Thor has automatically. Of being equal, because the marker of that is Mjolnir and the kingship, and since Mjolnir is an impossibility at least he can be worthy in another way.

It ties into Loki’s illusion in the deleted scene from The Dark World - he’s not imagining himself as king, there, so much as he’s imagining himself as Thor, down to the red cape and the hammer. Loki doesn’t want to be himself on the throne - he wants to be Thor. Because anything else means he will always be less.

2. “Trust my rage.”

There’s two reasons I chose this one. The first is Loki’s anger - Loki has a lot of anger, a lot of rage, through the first three movies in which he appears. Again and again it’s there, the seething fury just barely suppressed most of the time (more on that later) but still very much present.

The second is the choice here that chooses “rage” over “grief.” Loki’s decision to go with Thor comes just as much from his grief over Frigga’s death (and guilt) as it comes from his anger and desire for vengeance - but that’s not the road he chooses to take. Because that would involve a vulnerability that Loki is never willing to show. It would involve giving Thor a genuine emotional piece of himself that Loki refuses to give.

I’ve talked a lot before about how the Odinfamily in general (specifically Thor, Loki, and Odin) transforms their emotions into anger because it’s an acceptable feeling (as opposed to sorrow or depression). That’s part of what I think is going on here: the assumption that Thor will more readily accept Loki’s thirst for vengeance as a foundation of trust, however tentative, than he would accept their shared grief.

3. “I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness.”

This kind of lines up with the first one above, but it shades a little differently - fitting to where it falls in canon, it’s more bitter, it’s darker, it’s less plaintive (”this isn’t what I want”) and more ferocious and angry. It encapsulates Loki’s perspective on their places, once again underlining that sense of being a shadow, being cast in Thor’s wake as the lesser. And it has weight, too, in the sense of…not just a shadow in that he’s obscured from view, but as in a shadow as the counter to Thor’s light. You only get a shadow with sunlight - as the sun shines on Thor, Loki gets cast as his dark counterpart.

If I push this a little further: dark, distorted, blurry, and not a constant - Thor is always there, but Thor’s shadow isn’t.

And that’s the role Loki has cast himself in in The Avengers: the villain, Thor’s shadow, his dark counterpart. If Thor is the hero then Loki is the monster. Because that’s his role. Thor’s shadow, both in following him and in making him look brighter by comparison.

4. “Your ledger is dripping, it’s gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer… pathetic! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code. Something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!”

Okay, so, multiple people have talked about the ways in which Loki is talking as much about himself here as he is about Natasha, and I think that’s absolutely accurate, from “basest sentimentality” (Loki’s repeated references to ‘sentiment’ throughout this movie are very ‘doth protest too much’) to “they are a part of you, and they will never go away.”

But almost more than the words themselves what’s telling to me about this monologue is the way that Loki absolutely loses it. Because the thing is that we don’t see Loki like this very often at all - really flipping out, losing his control, displaying the kind of violent anger that he does to Natasha here. Even in other places when he’s angry, he either doesn’t raise his voice this much or doesn’t get physical. The other place I can think of it happening is in Thor, at the end, with the fight on the Bifrost when Loki is dissolving and basically trying to goad Thor into a fight with him (for about six different reasons).

And it is very, very interesting that it happens here, during a speech that’s seemingly just oriented toward scaring Natasha. Because, yeah, the other place it happens is when it’s Loki having a full mental breakdown and identity crisis.

Something here snaps. And I think it has to do with the way that, when Loki starts in on Natasha, it starts a resonance with his own feelings of monstrosity. And that’s still a very, very sore point.

There’s almost a satisfaction when Natasha confirms that. When she calls him what he is.

5. “It hurts, doesn’t it? Being lied to. Being told you’re one thing and then learning it’s all a fiction.”

This line is…it fascinates me because of the way that it, like a lot of the things Loki says (and another later entry on this list) has two edges. On the one hand, Loki’s gloating: “now you get it, now you know what it’s like to be me, how about that, Thor, how does it feel.” There’s still an anger and a bitterness there, a vindication.

But at the same time, and almost in the next breath, it is also, under that edge of spite, an extended hand. This is where Loki makes his offer to Thor to join him, to work with him and be allies on Sakaar. Loki has no interest in going back to Asgard or fighting Hela. But he’s willing to bring Thor with him as he tries to gain a foothold of power there.

And there’s an element of being pleased that he can do that - in being in a position, finally, where he has the edge on Thor, the superiority to Thor, where he can be the one to offer a helping hand. That’s power, and Loki likes feeling powerful. (He’s spent a lot of time feeling powerless.) Simultaneously, though…I think it’s also what Loki wanted someone to do for him, when his life fell apart. Would have wanted Thor to do for him, though he’d never have asked.

All this happening at the same time, and in a few brief moments - and that’s a big part of how I conceptualize Loki. There are a lot of things going on in his head at the same time, all the time. And sometimes he doesn’t even know which is foremost or most true.

6. Thor: “Why have you done this?” / Loki: “To prove to Father that I am a worthy son! When he wakes, I will have saved his life, I will have destroyed that race of monsters, and I will be true heir to the throne!”

I feel like…people who think Loki’s motive in Thor is just “usurp Thor and the throne” really are not…paying attention. Because this line really says, right out, what Loki wants. “To prove to Father that I am a worthy son.”

And on top of that…it’s that inward-pointing self-hatred, there, implicit in “that race of monsters” - Loki has already referred to himself as such once (”the monster parents tell their children about at night”) and here he’s distancing himself from that but at the same time…he knows he’s one of them. And yet it’s like if he kills all the rest that won’t matter.

He’ll still be the true heir, he’ll be worthy (and what a weighted word that is, in the context of Mjolnir), and Odin will see him as more than a potentially useful trinket.

And in some ways everything Loki does after this ties back to a reaction to this line, here, and his failure to prove that he is worthy. A reaction against that failure. A determination to, if he can’t be a worthy son, at least be a better monster.

7. “You’re my brother and my friend. Sometimes I’m envious, but never doubt that I love you.”

Like above, this is another line that’s double-edged - it’s both sincere and not. Loki means it - he’s envious, but he does love Thor, very much, terribly much, and that never changes even when he hates him.

At the same time…Loki is planning, in this moment, to ruin Thor’s moment of supposed triumph. He’s already set things in motion for the Frost Giants to invade, and for Thor to retaliate and disobey Odin and therefore show that he’s not worthy of the crown.

Definitely didn’t plan on them actually making it to Jotunheim, let alone starting a fight there. At that point Loki’s plans went thoroughly sideways.

But basically…it’s the way that even as Loki’s telling the truth about loving Thor, he’s setting him up for failure. And that is very Loki - for both those things to exist side-by-side in the same moment.

8. “Satisfaction’s not in my nature.”

This line!! I come back to this line so much as something that defines my understanding of Loki’s character, because it says so much in five words. Because Loki is someone who is perpetually unsatisfied, who is restless and can’t settle and doesn’t know what he wants and doesn’t know who he is, who is always chasing something and never happy when he gets what he’s chasing.

Because what he keeps doing is chasing the wrong things.

Loki spends so much of canon twisting on a hook of his own making, looking for one thing after another - Odin’s approval, the throne of Asgard, mastery of Midgard, spiting Thor - and none of those things make him really happy. Because on the one hand, Loki doesn’t know what he wants, not really. And on the other hand there’s always a thirst for more.

Loki scrabbles and struggles and fights, and almost never stops. Complacency is anathema. On a good day, that’s drive and determination; on a bad day it sends him spiraling.

#led lite #conversating #long post for ts #loki trashblogging #loki's a goddamn mess #loki laufeyson #i'm proud of this ok

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