#is still WORLDS away from a BILLIONARE

[caspercryptid]

You know frankly at this point if you don't understand that the screen actor's guild isn't just A-Listers who can ""afford"" to be exploited then like. That's not only a You problem but You're not even worth arguing with. Trying to make the case that it's okay for like, Margo Robbie to have her image AI exploited until the end of time because she has a high net worth is a morally indefensible position even before the actual fact that most actors are Not rich, and not only do the A-Listers have the right to participate in the strike but they actually NEED to participate, because if it was just the collective background actors striking Hollywood would replace them all with scabs by exploiting Different young people who want to make it in the industry. The A-Listers aren't replaceable. By joining the strike they aren't being Greedy, they're helping protect other actors. But also they had the right to good working conditions in the first place!! They have a right to control their image and for their work to be treated with respect!

[alyana-luvs-u]

teddy

bruce banner x avenger!reader

🤎🧸🍂♡

Summary: Bruce is just a big teddy bear with anger issues

word count: 2047

song: love story - taylor swift

🤎🧸🍂♡

The quinjet buzzes with quiet murmurs as you walk tentatively around, eyes glued to your phone. You grunt suddenly as you bump into something, looking up immediately apologetically.

“oh I’m sorry!” a gentle-looking stranger stares at you curiously, before giving you a small, shy smile.

“oh, no it’s all good.” He clears his throat, before sticking his hand out as you pocket your phone, taking in the small details of his thick, black unruly curls which were slightly greying, and the small freckles dotted among his face like stars among the night sky. “Bruce Banner.” You grasp his hand, his large, calloused one enveloping yours like a warm blanket.

“Y/N Y/L/N,” You grin awkwardly, as you stand like that for a few moments, before Bruce glances down and realises he’s still holding your hand. He quickly withdraws it, red flushing from the nape of his neck.

“I, uh,” His nerves are cutely amusing, as you touch his arm, soothing him subtly.

“I’m a big fan of your work Dr Banner.” He grimaces, likely remembering about his green alter ego.

“People say you’re a genius.” Ducking his head, he seems to fold into himself.

“That’s all that people say?” He mumbles, as you reach out an arm, tilting his chin up. Tingles seemed to erupt from where your fingers were placed on his skin, as he stares mesmerised into your eyes.

“That’s all that matters to me.” Your voice is soft and encouraging as you reach out an arm to your new colleague.

“So why did Fury drag you here?” He questions as you begin to walk towards the meeting room, and you chuckle softly, shaking your head.

“I’m enhanced. I have y/p (your powers), and he thinks that’s beneficial, apparently to find the Tesseract.” Bruce smiles down at you, the corner of his eyes crinkling affectionately.

“I think you’ll be a great asset to the team. Have you met the others?” As you turn back, you’re met with the looming shadow of the glass meeting doors. Conversations drift through the door as you swallow nervously.

“I’ve met Tony and Nat before.” The door is pulled open before them and there stands Tony in all his smug glory.

“come in. the meeting is just starting.” He says smirking, eyeing your interlocked arms with mild interest. Flashing the billionare an uncomfortable smile, you step into the room, conversation dying away all eyes turn towards the monitor. You sit at the head of the table, staring down at it as Fury stands menacingly at Loki, who looks nothing less then intruiged as the camera glares into his eyes. Bruce is leaning in, observing intently as Loki begins to speak again, a sneer curling at his lips.

“The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?” Your eyes slowly drift to Bruce.

“How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control.” Fury spits, walking slowly towards the glass container holding Loki captive.

“You talk about peace and you kill ’cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.”

“Ooh. It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what?” A smirk spreads across his face slowly.

 “A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is.” His eyes are cold and calculating, surveying Fury with a superior air.

“Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something.” The SHIELD Director says with a scoff, before walking out of the frame. You lean forward, trying to glimpse where he had gone, eyes narrowed as you focus on Loki’s clenched jaw and determined gaze. The screen zips to black as you lean back in your chair as Steve lets out an airy chuckle.

“He really grows on you, doesn’t he?” You remark, turning a sympathetic eye towards Bruce.

“Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?” You turn towards the muscly Norse god, eyeing as he simply stands there in stunned silence.

“He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.” His booming voice declares, as you shift uncomfortably in your seat.

“An army from outer space?” Steve says incredulously.

“So he’s building another portal. That’s what he needs Eric Selvig for.” Bruce speaks up, removing his glasses. You rub your head, trying to nurse the ache that was building up.

“Okay, I’m too tired for this. Goodbye.” You stand from your chair, flashing Bruce a smile before walking out the door. The breeze is cooler and inviting, as you begin to make your way to the room you were to stay in. As you flop onto the bed, the comforter seems to pull you into the white plush. Kicking off your shoes lazily, you close your eyes, letting sleep pull you under.

“Mummy!” You squeal, chasing her upon your little legs. She turns, her eyes worried as she gasps.

“Darling! Why aren’t you with Daddy! It isn’t safe, you must go now!” Her voice is soft and urgent as she ushers you along. You cross your arms as she picks you up, and begin to cry and kick.

“I don’t want Daddy! I want mummy!” You pout, sniffing miserably as she groans, letting you go. You begin to sob as you hit the ground hard. A thick arm wraps around you as she walks away briskly, not turning her head.

“whose that Lisa?” A sinister voice remarks as you stand still, puffing out your chest.

“I-I’m Y/N Y/L/N.” The man is around thirty, and he gives you an insincere smile, showcasing the rotting teeth that lay in the gums. He turns to your mother, walking towards her menacingly as she seems to cower into herself, pivoting around to face him.

“Well, why didn’t you say you had a daughter? She could be beneficial for the cause!” He says, tilting her chin up as tears begin to stream down her cheeks. You frown. Suddenly, this guy didn’t seem so nice. He seemed mean and scary. He bends down, his hot breath sour in your face.

“P-Please don’t do this! She i-is only 5!” You mother screams as the man picks you up, walking away.

“Don’t worry Lisa, we’ll take great care of her.” Tears dribble into your mouth as you screech as your mother hurries after you. Her heels click against the marbled floors as she runs after the retreating, burly figure.

“Y/N! Y/N!” She yells, sobs caressing her body.

“My baby! Don’t take my baby!” A loud band echoes around the hall before the voice falls silent. Her eyes are widened in shock as she rocks slightly from side to side, before crumpling to the floor, red staining her abdomen. She does not move.

“Mama!” You screech, kicking around upon his shoulder, reaching desperately for your mother.

“shut up you little brat!” the man roars, shaking you as you break down upon his shoulder.

“Mama! Mama!” You wail miserably, as the man rolls his eyes irritably. You make no notice as he shifts you, reaching into his pocket, and pulling out a syringe. It is filled with thick, yellow liquid, the needle point and sharp as he injects it into your neck. Your eyes lull into the back of your head, as you shudder, before sucumbing to the unconciousness.

“hail hydra.” He whispers in your ear.

“rest well little one. You’ll need it.”

You wake up in a sweat, the distant, distraught cries of your mother still echoing in your head. You sit there for a moment, replaying her trembling screams and desperate, frantic grasps for you. You were the reason your mother was dead. Rubbing your eyes, you sat up and slipped out of bed, opening the door and shutting it quietly. Murmurs erupted from the lab as you padded towards it, squinting your eyes, attempting to adjust your eyes to the bright light. All eyes turn to you, as Steve pauses in his step, running a hand down his face. “just…find the cube.” He sighs, giving you a polite nod as he passes. Bruce furrows his eyebrows at you and your drowsy state.

“You should be sleeping.” He says in a concerned tone, absent-mindedly taking a step towards you. You yawn in response, croaking out an answer.

“So should you.” Your voice is raspy and deeper, and Bruce just loves it. He wants to wake up to it every morning, and to hear your sweet little-

“I’ll leave you lovebirds to it.” Tony interrupts Bruce’s spiralling fantasies, who flushes red even though he knows nobody can hear his thoughts. Tony flashes you a lazy smirk, winking.

“Use protection kids.” You groan at the implication as he slips out of the room, whistling merrily in his step and turn to the beet-red doctor in front of you.

“Tony is a pain in the ass.” His throat feels dry, as he merely nods in response.

“so whatcha been up to?” You watch intently as he immedietaly switches into nerd mode, rambling about gamma radiation and physics. Honestly, you don’t understand a word he says, too focused on the way his eyes shine adorably, and his brow crinkles ever so slightly, the way he uses his hands to animate the scenarios.

“And when the light rays come into contact with-” He pauses as you simply stare at him, spaced out, as he panics internally.

“Sorry am I boring you, oh its just nobody asks me about it, and when I’m nervous I start to just talk and I can’t stop-” He blurts, running a hand through his hair frantically. You laugh at his demeanour, smiling at him softly.

“No, it's just, you’re adorable.” He blushes, ducking his head as curls flop onto his forehead.

“You know Bruce, I think Loki’s wrong.” Buce sighs, rubbing his eyes as you tilt your head, taking a step towards him. The tension seemed to crackle in the air, causing anticipating silence to erupt around the empty room.

“How? He was completely right. I am a mindless monster. I’m nothing but dangerous here.” Your brow furrowed as you shook your head slowly. “How can you say that? Bruce,” You stepped forward once, more, so you were face to face with the doctor, touching his cheek tenderly.

“If anything,” You let out a fond chuckle.

“You’re just a big softie,” You grin tenderly, poking his brawny flesh. Bruce scrunches his nose as a little girl would.

“Softie? Me?” He puffs out his chest playfully, crossing his arms. You roll your eyes, smiling.

“Yeah!” You poke out your tongue.

“Like-like,” You pause for a moment, thinking dramatically as you tap a finger to your head.

“A big, soft, plush, teddy bear!” You squeal as he picks you up, his fingers securing onto your waist, levitating you off the ground. Your faces were mere inches apart, your breath fogging up his glasses as time slows, his lashes fluttering slightly. Your cheeks has flushed to a deep red at the close proximity as you fought the edge to squeak.

“still a teddy bear?” His gruff voice rumbles, the vibrations from his chest sending shockwaves throughout your body. You hum, your mouth to dry to form coherent words. Without a word, you lean forward, fingers grasping his chin and tilting his chin up.

“can I kiss you?” He whispers, chocolate eyes boring into yours. His gaze betrays flickers of nervousness and excitement, as you nod slowly. Bringing your lips closer to his, he pauses for a moment, as if double-checking for your confirmation. You groan, before pulling him in, lips connecting and molding together in one, joyous, electrifying kiss. He smiles against your lips, lowering you slowly onto his work table, pushing screwdrivers and papers out of the way, still attatched to you. As you reluctantly break away, gulping in fresh air, you beam at the man in front of you, his eyes still closed in escatasy.

“You’re my favourite teddy bear.”

[heavenlymorals]

Hey there!! I would like to know what your opinion is about Arthur's redemption and what it is based on and what Arthur's big change was in terms of his mentality at the end. Do you think he died being a bad person despite having done good things in the end? Do you think he hated the old Arthur and all the violence and the outlaw life he had lived?

On Objective Morality

Hi anon and thank you so much for the ask ❤️❤️

The thing about Arthur's redemption is that it is different for everyone. Some people think that despite everything, Arthur is still a bad man. Others believe in the opposite.

My perspective is a little different in the sense that I don't really believe in objective morality for MOST things. There are always exceptions and there will always be things that are evil no matter what, but what I've come to notice is that most crimes can become "good" if the reasoning behind it is acceptable to our morals standards. This can go for murder, assault, robbery, etc. Hell, one time, I read a story about a man raping another man for wanting to rape a girl and people were reluctantly praising him for his actions.

I guess my point is that in the vast majority of cases, no crime is evil just by the action. No, crimes are evil by the intention of them.

Now let's look at the VDL gang. The VDL gang started as these Robinhood figures. They stole from the rich and gave to the poor. They tried to stop the destruction of industrialism and unregulated capitalism. They only became desperate AFTER the Blackwater massacre.

"And here I was believing in Dutch's bluster about helping folks." Arthur to Strauss.

And even after the massacre, look at the people who they actively rob. They are either criminals, rich people, robber barons, industrialists, slavers, the government, and/or the army. They target those people because they hate them and what they stand for.

Does this not sound familiar? We hate them too. On the Internet, I always see things that are anti-capitalism, anti-industrialism, anti-billionares, anti-government, etc. Pretty much the same things that the VDL gang fights against but is the VDL gang evil because they actually fight by force? Is violence more evil than the systems that grind people to dust? So many historical figures become controversial because they use violent means to reach their end goals, but people end up condemning them more than the system they fight against because of the violence. Think people like the Luddites, John Brown or Malcolm X.

It's a complicated question. Some people will say yes. They will say that violence against such systems is sometimes the only correct and honorable way to change the world. However, those same people are also very likely to shy away from the same violence once they see it in front of them.

And no doubt about it, the VDL gang is violent. We know canonically that they try their best to not have people die during the jobs they pull and we can also make the argument that the vast majority of kills in the game are for gameplay purposes only and they don't actually kill that many people, especially if you play high honor. But despite it all, the VDL gang was violent.

But those ideals that they had is what separated them from other gangs and what made them "good" or at least better than the other gangs and Arthur believes in this morality too because of his redemption. Arthur's redemption isn't realizing that the outlaw life is bad or that violence is bad or that pacifist mindsets are superior.

No, his redemption was about the same humanity that the gang was started for. Arthur's apathy is what made him so violent to debtors. Arthur's apathy and bitterness regarding himself is why he was so against people leaving the gang to live their own lives.

His redemption was doing a 180 and chosing humanity and the original ideals that Dutch lost in his insanity. That is what his redemption is about because he lived and died a fighter.

I don't think Arthur hated the violence of his life. He hated himself for letting the bitterness of the world get to him and not have him care.

So do I think Arthur died a good person? For what it's worth, I go back and forth. Did he redeem himself? Yes, he redeemed himself from his apathy. Did he die a good person because of that redemption? Well that depends on whether or not you believe or don't believe in objective morality. I usually don't, so in the world that Arthur lived in and the philosophy that he believed, be died becoming a Robinhood once again and that made him better than what he once was.

The question of Arthur's redemption is one of philosophy. Does violence destroy a cause? Does redemption actually exist? Is forgiveness real? Do I need to shut up (I do know the answer to that, it's yes)?

In any case, Arthur's redemption is just as complex as he was.

(Also, to all my other anons, especially the Arthur x reader anons, trust me, I will answer them, but I'm busy and depressed lmfao 😭😭)

[canmom]

baited by (what else would it ever be, sigh) that discussion of AI art, I found my way onto the forum for readers of Scott Whateverhisnameis's blog, the Slate Star Codex guy - a corner for a particular overtly right-wing flavour of rat.

the first thread I landed on after the AI shit was a discussion of the claim that the reason the US is failing in its various COIN wars is that its rules of engagement are not cruel and brutal enough, and should be relaxed - explicitly, more civilians need to be killed. like many forum discussions, it mostly involved people who agree with each other jumping down the throat of a lone dissenting voice. I won't give the blow by blow, but the way these people think frankly fucking disturbs me. rather than 'temporary embarassed billionare', here we see the 'temporarily embarassed colonial overlord'.

when it comes to observing geopolitical shit, if we want to understand the world around us, it is certainly relevant to try to ask, what do this and that actor want to achieve, what strategy are they pursuing, what do they believe about the world and does it square with reality. but the thing that really gets me is when people start talking about what 'we' should do - a more sinister version of when a football fan talks proudly about how 'we' beat the other team, despite never setting foot on the field. of course, the US military being such a big organisation, perhaps some of these people actually are members of it. but they are not, I strongly suspect, actually involved in making big decisions about military strategy. they're commenters on the sidelines.

and yet, any strategy of, say, Hamas or the Houthis, is considered only so far as they must surely exploit any reticence to kill civilians on the part of their enemy. there's no reason to discuss why they might have carried out the October 7 attacks, what they might have sought to achieve by it and whether it succeeded or failed, it's just crazy muslims doing crazy muslim things. but it is the strategy of the US and to a certain extent Israel that bears rational analysis, where everyone has a suggestion.

the possibility of a single democratic state in the Levant is mentioned (when I read this thread last night) exactly once, described as a total capitulation and surrender on the part of Israel that would certainly lead to a bloodbath. rather than, say, Apartheid-era South Africa, the most-discussed historical analogy is Rome's laying waste to Carthage, followed by the second world war.

and perhaps, if we can really claim there is something like a 'mind' of the state of Israel (whose neurons are its government, press, various smaller groups within it etc. etc.), that is how it seems the stakes lie. but is it what we believe, when we weigh up our capacity to intervene in this situation, or just try to understand it from a long way away? I don't think it should be. seems daft. at some point we need to try another angle.

what gets me about all this - and to a certain extent when I see leftists doing it for the other side, the This Is How Hamas Can Still Win genre of posting - is to wonder why people feel the need to pick a team to cheer for, rather than viewing all these "geopolitical actors", these giant country-egregores, as something like dangerous animals, largely unpredictable forces which slurp up human lives and lay waste to massive populations as they roll around and wrestle each other? why do you need to imagine yourself in the driver's seat, as if you're playing a game like Civ or Europa Universalis? when do you forget that countries are social constructs?

in other words, why do people who are not governments, not involved in making decisions on behalf of governments, and whose relationship to their game-theoretic rationality (which leads them to routinely do things like blow up hospitals, detain random people in prison camps, fling missiles at each other to make a point, and stockpile nuclear weapons) is largely the relationship of a tick on the skin of a deer hoping it will be able to continue supping on blood and not get randomly thrown off into the snow, feel they must advocate on behalf of governments? or for that matter, political parties etc.?

why do you start saying we?

anyway that's enough of a dose of rat-interaction for the rest of the year. computer-goddesses help me, I want to spend my time drawing pictures, not taking bait like this. shit just gets under my skin.

[lettingthoughtsflow]

lab rats 🤝 chappell roan

inspired by @imasimpcentral

this is going off 97% vibes at 3% character analysis (i love chappell but there's def a 60/40 chance that some of these takes are not good interpretations)

femininomenon: tasha and bree fs

"stuck in the suburbs, you're folding his laundry" omg tasha my girl you deserved so much better than the man child billionare

if the boys kept up with playing instruments, bree def would've got them to learn this song

red wine supernova: literally everyone this song is so addicting

after midnight: also addicting and i want to say everyone but donald bc he doesn’t deserve it

I imagine chase playing this to hype himself up when he has plans to go out

coffee: omg adam, bree, and chase without question

"nowhere else is safe, every place leads back to your place" I know it's alluding to the couple ending up together but in the context of lab rats, abc can never get away from davenport and the bionic life. they never even get the chance to consider something

"you'll say that your sorry, I know it's a lie"

"if i didn't love you, it would be fine" omg this post by @texanmarcusdavenport

casual: Bree, Leo, Chase, and Douglas

basically anyone who struggled with relationships in the show tbh

someone would catch douglas singing the song and join him like that scene from friends

super graphic ultra modern girl: bree has this on repeat

adam brings just enough girly pop energy

leo too

one day tasha walks in on the kids dancing to it and joins in

chase walks in and slowly joins in like that scene from abott elementary

tumblr won't let me post another video so i made an extra post for the video

HOT TO GO!: obviously this goes to our two cheerleaders, adam and bree

davenport would be the person who tries to changed the dance routine

tasha would try to add to it or build a routine for the rest of the song bc she likes to be invovled

omg tasha would make them cheer outfits just so they could wear them for these songs

My Kink Is Karma: both davenport brothers tbh (mainly Douglas)

i didn't want to give donald one but if we ever saw him actually process the fact that his brother faked his death just to come back to attack his family and then get a parner and be more evil, this would be his song

douglas listens to this after leaving his partnership with krane

omg wait he would think about giselle too

Picture You: all of the siblings

"do you picture me like I picture you" -> am i the child you wanted? are you the dad I wanted?

are you the dad I deserve?

this is def me just interpreting this one line

Kaleidoscope: tasha, bree, chase, leo, and adam

tasha deserved to be treated better and fully acknowledged

bree, chase, and leo all had those messy coming-of-age relationships

adam doesn't relate to this song in the sense of romantic love bc he didn't have relationships (and i fully support the aroarce!Adam head cannon)

this still applies to the familial love and relationship with davenport

Pink Pony Club: @imasimpcentral put it best here but this is all the siblings

they're literally trapped in mission creek/bionic island

they can never leave the bionic life

they were all trying to prove themselves

leo the most during the bionic island season honestly

Naked In Manhattan: this song is so first relationship so all of the kids

bree basically modeled her life after high school movies after she was allowed out of the lab so this song is like nostalgia for her

adam vibes with the song but again he's aroace in my mind

i feel like chase would blush like crazy when he actually listens to the lyrics

i don't have a clear mindset with leo but i like to think that he vibes with chappell

California: all siblings – adam, bree, chase, and leo OH MY GOD MARCUS

specifically in the bionic rebellion for abc

they were thrown into the world of mentoring and then their top students rebelled

i think by that season they stopped caring about davenport but i feel like a small part of them has a lingering feeling of failure

when it comes to leo i just think about every time he tried to do something alone

"i'd make you proud. to think I almost had it going, but I let you down."

marcus literally did everything douglas asked him to and then came back to essentially complete his mission

and when he came back, he was working to make giselle proud just a bit

Guilty Pleasure: bree and chase

bree ached for normal life the most of all the siblings

she also fell for the bad guy

chase wanted friends so badly he could resonate with this song

[faint-kitten]

FK infodumping about Tony Stark in Midnight Suns (spoilers)

Tony.

Tony.

TONY.

Tony stark cannot stop being Tony in this fucking game. ||I taught him magic and his first instinct is to patent it and fucking sell it, and nepo hire me in to run the R&D Division.

I love this run of Tony Stark, because it's very much: Yeah he's a billionaire, he's trying, I know you're trying tony, and you don't get it. Everyone tolerates/likes him because they know he's trying and thinks he means well.

But he's a fucking billionaire. He's like when rich people just want's to be a little guy, hey I'm just a little guy like you! And then he just moves in and he's the worst.

Robbie and Peter start Shop because they want a place where they can get creative together without Know it all perfectionists leaning over their shoulders (Strange and Tony) and tony invites himself in, and proceeds to just run the little guys out because HE feels anxious and HE needs to feel like he's doing something. When you call him out, when Robbie calls out how he bought up a steel mill in his home town and just ruined everyone's jobs there because he never broke ground: Tony reveals he was in a pissing match with Oscorp, he bought it to beat oscorp, then found out the company was going under anyway and decided to cut his losses, and turn it into a PR spin. He fucking didn't know because it made his numbers go up, and everyone cheered, then he had a drink, and fucked off and assumed it would all be okay. He then apologizes saying he's trying to make up for it. This is AFTER telling Robbie and Peter that he liked making things as a kid and no one understood him and that's why he wants to be there. After literally being like: "pfft I can do this better, how hard could it be."

He joins the Midnight Suns and IMMEDIATELY takes over operations and muscles out Blade and Nico and Magik and robbie for control of day to day operations.

He's a fucking big rich prick, who just comes in and fucks it up without thinking about the little guys. He's so up his fucking ass.

There's so many little moments where they charactarize him as a rich guy who's just out of touch with normal ass people. It's so perfect. He can't process the world like everyone else, he can't imagine how they feel because he's so fucking rich and out of it, he can't fucking stop himself from just DOING Billionare shit.

We taught him how to do a little mysticism and he's like: "new department! new products! It's gonna be big. We'll sell it and you're gonna run it." Like, that's not why the Hunter taught you Magic. We didn't teach you magic for capitalism, we taught you because it's what we're fighting, we taught you because you're scared in a spooky house and you said you just wanted to understand, we fucking taught you because you had a mind and wanted to expand it, and were too embarressed to ask Doctor Strange. We taught you because for a BRIEF second you were a human being, and we wanted to help you and be your friend.

Like TONY we're trying to save the fucking world here. Magik invited me to limbo and I helped her with her trauma and she called me her friend. Robbie offered to let me crash on his couch, and meet his brother and hang out with him and Peter. Doctor Strange is learning to get over himself, and realize he's still worth something even if he isn't all knowing and all powerful. Blade and I discuss dealing with our darker halves and urges and made a pact to kill each other if we ever go bad, and he's trying to teach me there's more to life than "The hunt" the caretaker has drilled into my head.

Your idea of 'we're friends now' is making me head of a fucking department. Talking about taking what the Hunter taught you, and turning it into a project, a product, one of HUNDREDS of new ventures he can just piss money away on, get all excited about. One of hundreds of ventures he shits out a week in his excitement and like Peter fucking Molynuex you're pitching it and who fucking knows if it will actually go anywhere?

I love this game's approach to Tony even as it makes me hate him. Like what a way to sympathize with a human being, while also illustrating why rich people can't fundamentally be our friends. ||

The approach of: what if a Billionaire was sympathetic? He's just a little guy trying to do his best to undo his father's legacy, and he doesn't MEAN to hurt everyone's feelings step on the little guy and make billions. Can't you see he's trying soooo hard?

And the game's response is: "Great backstory, you're still a Billionaire."

Even if you turn him down and tell him that's not what magic is for he goes "Np I never take no for an answer :) " Like stop. You're the worst. (for the record, I am praising the game's take on tony, I think the writing, and acting, and themes they're working with are perfectly executed.)

[arkytiorwrites]

Day 2: If You Love Her

Tony Stark x Reader

We love Tony no matter the year, but 2008 party animal Tony has a special place in my heart.

He’s also the least traumatized, but we don’t talk about that.

Looking around the area that had once been the backyard, I heaved a sigh and shook my head at the shenanigans of the rich., They gave party animals a whole new definition.

Picking my way through the passed out, drunk, and high bodies littering the deck and lawn chairs, I toed off my flip-flops, pulled out my guitar, and sat down beside the pool.

Tony and I had been friends for years, and seeing someone I loved throw himself away like this broke my heart. Yet, when he had invited me to play at a party he

was hosting, I had thought it would be a small, private event. Not... all of Hollywood.

Absently swishing my leg through the cold water, I swiftly tuned my trusty old guitar to play the song that had been looping through my mind for days.

…

Tossing back a finger of bourbon, Tony watched his closest friend begin to play their guitar.

The wild artist had managed to capture his attention in ways no one had ever managed before. They had never cared that he was the Tony Stark, all they wanted was to know Tony. The man behind the genius, billionare, playboy! philanthropist; and for that, he would never be able to repay them.

Just as he was about to call out to them from inside his home, they began to sing.

"Take it,

If he gives you his heart don't you break it.

Let your arms be a place he feels safe in.

He’s the best thing that you'll ever have.”

Their voice resonated off the water, and the guitar added to the soft calm they emitted.

"He always has trouble falling asleep.

And he likes to cuddle under the sheets.

He loves rock songs and dancing, and bad trash TV.

There's still a few other things."

Ever since he had met her all the way back at MIT, the billionaire had struggled with his feelings for the wanderer. The fact that they could go when they chose, and could do anything with little to no repercussions made them all the more alluring.

"He loves love notes and inventions, and likes giving gifts,

Has a hard time accepting a good compliment.

He loves his whole family, and all of his friends,

So, if you're the one he lets in…”

Wait. They couldn't possibly be...

"Take it,

If he gives you his heart don't you break it.

Let your arms be a place he feels safe in.

He's the best thing that you'll ever have-“

Oh, dear God. They were. They were singing about him.

Stepping out onto the patio, attracting their attention to move from the water to him. As their eyes met, everything somehow clicked into place as they continued the lyrics.

"He’ll love you if you love him

On days when it feels like the whole world might cave in.

Stand side by side way and you'll make it.

He's the best thing that you'll have.

He'll love you if you love him like that."

They smiled at him gently as they kept going, clearly intending to get their point across in song. Tony wasn't complaining. Messy hair shifting in the cool ocean breeze, the image before the inventor brought him to the only logical conclusion for the image before him. He had fallen in love with a fae creature of old; and they returned his feelings, and was using their magic to show him.

"Kiss him with passion as much as you can,

Run your hands through his hair whenever he's sad.

And when he doesn't notice how pretty he is,

Tell him over and over so he never forgets!

Take it,

If he gives you his heart don’t you break it.

Let your arms be a place he feels safe in.

He’s the best thing that you'll ever have.

He'll love you if you love him

On days when it feels like the whole world might cave in.

Stand side by side, and you'll make it,

He’s the best thing that you'll ever have.”

Tony didn't want to waste another second, Following the same path that Y/N had taken, he sat down next to them and didn’t pull his gaze away from them for a moment.

“He'll love you of you love him like that

He'll love you if love him like that.

He'll love you if you love him, he'll love you if you love him like that.

Just to love you, just to love you, just to love you

He’ll love you if you love him

On days when it feels like the whole world might cave in.

Stand side by side and you'll make it.

He's this best thing that you'll ever have.

He'll love you if you love him, like that."

They fell silent as the last notes echoed through the yard.

Holding out his hand, Tony wiggled his fingers in invitation, and Y/N accepted. Slotting their fingers together perfectly like they were designed to fit only each other’s.

"How long?" Tony finally asked after a long moment of peaceful silence.

“After I graduated," they admitted softly.

“Really?"

“Yeah, you?"

“Umm…"

Well now he was embarrassed. He'd loved them years before they felt the same. Of course, he had gone and fallen in love with some one who could read him like a large print book.

"You liked me way before that, didn't you?“ they asked. No judgement, just curious if they were right.

"Yeah," Tony admitted.

Y/N just smiled and rested their head on his shoulder; and he knew, come what may, they would stay by his side.

[asmoviespace]

Dumb Money movie review

This review is delayed, by almost a month after its release date. Yet it is better to be late then never, especially as a now review can still be beneficial to some who are waiting for it to come to a online streaming service.

Now, dumb money is based on a true story of the 2021 game stop short squeeze. This was led by Keith Gill, at the time he was a stock market reddit senstion that inspired many people to also invest in the game stop company. As the film starts we see the peek of the stock moment, where the billonares was becoming threatened yet Keith was only becoming a millioniare. At the start we have wap by Cardi B playing which makes the moment being shown more funnier, as well as having a sex joke in the first 5 minutes of the film just before the movie name came onto screen.

After the movie name screen was shown, we are taken back six months to where we see one of Keiths friends labelling the idea of him investing in the stock market as dumb. Yet as it progresses we learn the pros and the cons of how investing in the stock market can be. Especially for both sides of Billionares and working class. How its in away to earn easy money, yet the more you buy stocks the more addicting it can become.

Even in Keiths case he shared his investing with the world, on reddit and on youtube, which led to a court case of him being fined 4 million for violation of the massachusetts rules. Which he mentions he did not violate, and it is found that he stayed investing after the case, only becoming richer. Yet the billionares involved such as Vlad Tenev, Kenneth Griffin, Gabe Plotkin and Baiju Bhatt, lost billionares both before and after the court case, becoming sued for bailing each other out.

Overall, this film teaches a great deal in stock market investing, just like the wolf of wall street did (also based on a true film), as well as showing the down falls and greatness of investing. The film also shows alot of tiktok based nostalgia from the era of 2020/2021 and its trends. Despite its comical humour and the sexual jokes. The story of this movie is educational to watch without becoming bored.

Over all I rate this movie a 4.1 out of 5.

[yellowstonewolves-main]

This is a good post but like, we do still need to be able to articulate opposition to a class structure, not just individual billionaires.

You know who used to be a prime example of a ~good billionare~? Jk Rowling. She donated enough money to school and children’s causes to knock herself off of “richest” lists, a prime example of a philanthropist. And you know what? She still donates money to causes she believes in. And boy had she had an impact on the world with that. It’s not enough to criticize her point of view specifically, I’m also mad that she gets to shape public policy around her favorite pet bigotry. I’m mad that one person’s personal deterioration had such an outsize impact. And why is that? Oh yeah she’s a billionaire.

Which is to say, yes sometimes you should be saying “the koch brothers campaigned against this” instead of “billionaires are trying to keep this from you” but you can’t just throw away class consciousness for individualized criticisms. We need to say “lets get big money out of politics” and “1% of people hold half of the entire world’s wealth” and even “no one should be allowed to have a billion dollars” None of that is antisemitic.

me a few years ago: its so weird how right wingers always wanna blame the "elite" given that alot of them are in the global 1% of wealth and therefore almost by definition the same "elite" they claim to hate. weird right? lol right wing logic makes no sense

me now: oh my god they mean Jewish people. its always been Jewish people. and the insistence of online leftists to use words like "elite" and "cabal" (to refer to a handful of ultra rich people who dictate a lot of how our lives are run) kinda makes them sound like antisemites too. maybe this whole idea that the world is run by a select few is a gross oversimplification which only serves to reinforce antisemitic stereotypes... oh no. maybe i have a lot of shit to unlearn. maybe i need to start vocally defending Jewish ppl. also local community building is the only way out of this

[sweetish-original-story]

Chapter 5

However, as the evening unfolded, Sammy's moment of triumph was interrupted when her mother entered the picture. Her mother, Eleanor, approached her daughter and introduced herself to Dulce.

Eleanor, the business woman. Eleanor the Billionare. Eleanor the witch. According to Dulce though, she's Eleanor the who?

She was all clad in a shimmering sequin dress, redder than blood, with lipstick and snakeskin kittenheels to match. Her hair was put up into a clean bun with not a stray out of place, and while very obviously smaller than her daughter, was somehow able to consume all the light in the room with a simple glare. Her pearls had tapered to a point, almost teeth-like and she had this slit in her dress that was just enough to make Dulce have to look away.

Eleanor Giovanni, with her strong-willed nature and a penchant for overbearing advice, couldn't resist introducing herself and embarrassing Sammy.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your little friend Samuela?" Sammy prayed to be run over by a flying ice cream truck. "Dollie, you should be careful with all those sweets. You have a problem. Cavities are no joke, and your getting a little, hm. You've been off the diet haven't you? Don't worry dear, I know plenty of gym coaches..." Eleanor advised with a sweet but sour, motherly tone.

Wow. What a bitch.

Then, Eleanor turned her attention to Dulce, with a hint of matchmaking in her eyes. "You must be Dulce- eh, Pescado? Odd. I've heard so much about you and your business, I think Samuela here should settle down and start her own business. I could fund it all, you know," she suggested with a knowing look, implying that she might think Sammy has a crush on Dulce. She had to be doing it on purpose, trying to sell her off like some sick puppy she doesn't want anymore.

Every. Single. Time.

Sammy's cheeks flushed with embarrassment. She was livid. She was horrified. She could boil over right now. She doesn't know what brought it on, but in a moment, in that single, stupid, insignificant moment she barely registered, made a decision that will demolish her whole world. She stammered, "I...I don't like to be the face of my own work, MOM. Why are you LIKE THIS? I HATE YOU!!!"

With a furious and mortified demeanor, Sammy sprinted, leaving her mother confused and worried. On the outside.

Dulce, on the other hand, was left baffled by the exchange. He turned away from the exhibit to find Sammy, his artistic collaborator and newfound friend, to offer comfort and understanding in the midst of her momentary distress.

In the bathroom, after the uncomfortable encounter with Sammy's mom, Dulce finds Sammy curled up in a stall. He never noticed how frail she looks before. She never noticed that he naturally smells like sugar. Dulce, in his own moment of weakness, decides to have a have a heart-to-heart conversation with the odd woman. He gently reaches out to Sammy, hands lovingly holding hers, still sticky with syrup, and a voice filled with understanding and empathy.

"Sammy," he begins, "I know that talking to your parents incredibly hard. Trust me, I've been through it. It's not your fault she did that she just... sometimes moms are rough. You don't have to do it now, you're NOT to do it alone. I know we just met a little bit ago but your my friend now. You helped me and I'm ready to help you. I'll be right there beside you, no matter how things go. I promise."

He promised. Nobody ever promised anything like that to her. Everything in her world was based on supply and demand, and here he was not wanting anything. In fact, he never did, did he? He just wanted her around for her, not for money or fame. Here with her, no if ands or buts.

Sammy's eyes well up with a mixture of relief and vulnerability. She admits, her voice trembling, "I've seen my mom angry before, but I've never gone against her advice like that. I never yelled at her like that. Being around you I guess, made me feel braver for a moment but...I'm scared, Dulce. She's a snake."

In that moment, the illusion of grace and stoicism shatters for both of them. Dulce, always seen as a model of visual artistry, and Sammy, the epitome of professionalism, admit to each other that they have no idea what they're doing in life. In a sea full of stars, somehow found each other: a gourmet marshmallow treat and a hardened candy rock. As they spoke and the hours passed, they forgot which one was which.

[awindylife-writes]

Voyage of the Damned Part 3

Relationships: the Doctor x reader, Astrid x reader (platonic), Astrid x Doctor (platonic)

Summary: Voyage of the Damned rewrite. The Doctor and you find yourselves on the Titanic, space edition. You meet Astrid and get ready for a wonderful day, but then a meteor shower hits the ship and it starts falling towards Earth.

Author's notes: There was a number of things l didn't like about this Christmas special so again, l rewrote it.

Warnings: a ship crashes, multiple mentions of dearth bc a lot of people die, Astrid dies

"It's for the Doctor!" Astrid yelled at Midshipman Frame over the comms. She needed to teleport NOW. "Y/n and him are down on deck thirty-one, alone, against all the Host and Gods know what else and they're doing it for us!" Silence on the other end. "It's time we did something for them," she ended her speech with a finallity.

A moment passed and she feared she'd failed.

But then, "Giving you power," came through the comms.

~

"Only one person could have the power and the money to hide themselves on board like that. And l should know, 'cause..." the Doctor trailed off. You stared at the strange compartment you had found on deck thirty-one.

"My name is Max," a voice finished for him. A strange machine with a head in it came through the smoke.

"Who the hell are you?" it demaned.

"I'm y/n, and this is the Doctor," you pointed at your friend with false cheerfulness, "Hello!" you wiggled your fingers in greeting.

~

"You wreck the ship and the board find their shares halved in value." The Doctor was spelling out Capricorn's plan.

"But that's not enough," you interjected. From what you've learned about them, mad billionares who were losing all their money didn't do things half-way.

"Oh yes,"  the Doctor went on. "'Cause if a Max Capricorn ship hits the Earth, it destroys an entire planet. Outrage back home!" he growled. "Scandal! The buisness is wiped out!"

The billionare's head nodded. "And? The whole board is thrown in jail, for mass murder!" His eyes shone with revenge.

"While you sit here, safe in the- what's it called?" you turned to the Doctor.

"Impact camber," he filled in.

"I have men," Capricorn gloated now, "waiting to retreave me from the ruins. And enough off-world accounts to retire me to the beaches of Enhaxico Two where the ladies, so l'm told, are very fond of... metal."

You were going to puke.

"So that's the plan," the Doctor growled in rage. "A retirement plan. Two thousand people on this ship, six billion underneath us, all of them slaughtered and why? Because Max Capricorn is a loser."

"I never lose," the billionare's head scowled in threat and your voice immediately rang out, mocking, "You can't even sink the Titanic!"

"Oh but l can, pretty girl!" he laughed. "I can cancel the engines, from here!" Red lights and alarms were suddenly flaring everywhere before you could spit in his face.

The Doctor yelled behind you, "You can't do this!"

"Host, hold them!" Caprocorn ordered in turn and began the Gloat 2.0. "Not so clever now, are you? Shame we couldn't work together, you two are rather good. All that banter and yet not a word wasted." The head sighed. "Time for me to... retire."

Ugh, you thought as you furiously tried to get free. That pun alone would be enough to kill a buisness.

"The Titanic is falling, the sky will burn, let the Christmas inferno commence!" Capricorn yelled in victory and called his minions. "Kill them!"

The robots brought up their halos and went for the Doctor's neck.

"NO!" You fought with everything you had but you were late, you'd be too late!

"MISTER CAPRICORN!" a voice you knew cut through your fear.

And it ignited terror. It was Astrid, sitting in a forklift. "I resign," she told the head and drove forward, ful throttle.

"NO!" the Doctor and you screamed, "ASTRID STOP!" "ASTRID DON'T!"

She didn't listen and rammed into the life support system, but its engine was too strong. They were equal and couldn't move each other.

You bit, kicked and screamed, anything to get free.

But then she caught your eyes with hers and everything stopped. There was an eternity in her face. She looked at the Doctor too but you still stared at her.

Then she turned away and stepped on it. The life support lifted and she drove on.

There was no sound. The world was mute as you watched Astrid go over.

You were suddenly at the edge, looking at her disappear into the fire. Someone was screaming. Someone was screaming and you wanted to calm them, help them.

Then you realized it was your own voice.

The world came back into focus. The ship was falling apart and the Doctor was silent at your side. He was staring at the spot where Astrid had disappeared. His face was pale and his eyes blank. You laid your tears aside and took his hand.

"We need to go," you told him, your voice wet with tears. He didn't move.

"Doctor, we need to go,"  you told him again calmly. You thought that was why he looked at you suddenly, and then stood up.

He rewired a Host with lightning speed. It took you each under one arm and off you went.

When you broke through the ceiling of the bridge, you were still in one piece. Arms you had used to shield your head were a bit bloody and you were sure there were at least two splinters in them. You don't look the gift horse in the mouth, even though you would prefer a different Christmas miracle.

"What's your first name?" the Doctor asked the injured Midshipman Frame.

He answered in confusion, "Alonzo."

"You're kidding," the Doctor breathed as a shocked smile spread on his face. You didn't know. You just didn't know anymore. You were drowing in the emptiness inside you but his name was Alonzo.

"Allons-y, Alonzo!" the Doctor yelled and you held on tight. You didn't scream. You didn't even open your mouth. There was nothing anymore.

The Doctor whoohooed when he managed to right the course of the ship and you were just there. Were you there? Astrid wasn't. And that was what mattered in the end.

~

"TELEPORT!" the Doctor yelled and it didn't matter. "Y/N, SHE WAS WEARING A TELEPORT BRACELET!!!"

That woke you up. You ran faster than ever before, to the main deck where the teleport was.

"Brixton, sonic," the Doctor demanded from the billionare and caught it as it was thrown. "Mister Copper, the teleports, have they got an emergency setting??"

"I don't know, they should have?"

"She fell, Mister Copper, she fell!" the Doctor told him while pulling apart the machine like a madman. "What's the emergency code?"

The billionare interjected, "What the hell are you doing?"

"We can bring her back!" you yelled with everything in you.

The historian explained, "If a passenger has an accident on shore leave, their molecules are automatically suspended so they're in stasis, so if you just trigger the shift..."

"THERE!!!" the Doctor screamed and flicked the switch.

And there was your Astrid.

"Falling..." You could hear her voice!

"Only halfway there, come on!" The Doctor wasn't finished with the teleporter.

"I keep falling!" She was scared. Your friend was scared and you wanted nothing but to calm her. You carefully walked up to her and took hold of her hand. It felt like holding warm smoke.

There were tears on your cheeks already, again.

"If l can find the molecule grid, boost the restoration matrix and-" The computer snapped and threw sparks. "NO-NO-NO-NO-NO!!" the Doctor screamed in desparation, "need more phase containment-"

You sobbed, but you knew what was coming. You just looked at your Astrid Pith, into her crystal blue eyes and sushed her. "Hey, hey Astrid, it's alright. It's me, it's y/n, remember? You're alright. l've got you," you promised with a voice as soft as sunlight.

She didn't look as scared as before. Then, so slowly you thought you were imagining it, she looked at you.

"Let her go," you could hear the historian and you sobbed again.

But then Astrid's voice cut through. "Stop me falling?" she asked and you nodded. You found her gaze with yours and promised her, "Anything."

"She's just atoms," you heard Mister Copper from behind you. "An echo with a ghost of consciousness."

"She's stardust," you concluded as your voice broke. "You hear that Astrid?" you asked, still looking into her blue eyes."You're stardust."

She didn't seem to hear, so you did the only thing you could think of.

"There's an old tradition," you told her and softly kissed her cheek. Then you kissed the other, and then her forehead.

"You dreamt of traveling," the Doctor came to stand beside you. You were still sobbing when you pulled away from her and you didn't try to stop. There was no one there you needed to save face for.

"Now you can travel forever," you told her. You knew what the Doctor would do, and your eyes didn't leave hers for a moment.

You heard him soothe her, "You're not falling Astrid."

"You're flying," you both said in one voice.

You watched as she floated away, through the window into the universe.

Then you turned to the Doctor and buried your face in his chest as you both cried.

~

"I transferred all my shares to Max Capricorn's rivals. It's made me rich," the billionare Brixton admitted, disbelieving.

You were empty, and you were tired. That was the only reason why you didn't tear this man limb from limb. Astrid was dead.

"Mister Copper," the Doctor's voice woke you up. "I think, you deserve one of these."

You turned around and saw him holding a teleport bracelet out to the historian. Then, after the latter took it, he slipped one on your wrist. He took your hand and suddenly you were standing in the snow.

~

"But l can have a house, and a garden and-" You couldn't help but smile a little. At least Mister Copper would be alright.

The Doctor yelled after him, "Where are you going?"

"I have no idea!" the man replied in joy.

"Well, we don't either," your alien smiled gently at you and you tried to smile back, you really did. He looked at you, his brown eyes full of sorrow, and pulled you to him. You held onto him tightly as he hugged you.

"But! Y/N!" the historian yelled and you turned in his direction.

"I won't forget her," he promised you. You were tired, so so tired, so you just nodded. "Thank you," you told Mister Copper for her. "We won't either."

"We won't," the Doctor assured you softly, just to be sure.

Then he opened the TARDIS door and stepped into your home after you. You walked up the way and then stood in front of the controls, lost.

The Doctor walked up behind you and decided he would do anything, anything to keep away the blank look in your eyes. He turned to you and pulled you to him again. You let him, your movements sluggish and dazed.

"I've got you," he assured you. "I've got you, y/n. You aren't alone, and you aren't lost. You've got me." And that was enough. You sobbed into his chest, you didn't know for which time today.

But this was different. This was yours, and you clung to the Doctor as everything in you came to the surface.

His tears joined yours. He'd lost Astrid too, and he hated seeing you in pain. He slowly brought both of you down to kneel when you were too tired to stand.

And that was it. That was what you needed and that was what you had. You would be alright. In time, you would be alright.

[kineticpenguin]

Mr. Penguin. I need help trying to understand this. but I notice that some Hard-Right/Alt-Right/Blatant Fascist used to call themselves libertarian. I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact how they went from Thomas Jefferson to Lincoln Rockwell.

Now, you might wanna take all this with a grain of salt. This is all based on my anecdotal observations and a couple historical things I've learned. Far more qualified people are still scratching their heads over the current state of American politics, so bear with me.

I think that there are a couple reasons for this happening. It's important to remember that throughout the 2000s and early 10s, there was this heavily pushed narrative that the political spectrum is linear, and it goes from left wing (most government) to right wing (least government). This is of course nonsense, but it can be pushed on an audience that doesn't know better, and it's really handy when you want to convince a bunch of people that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were pretty much politically identical. A lot of billionare-funded propaganda like PragerU pushes this one pretty hard. This is particularly useful for convincing Americans, who generally believe the Nazis were ultimately defeated forever by the good guys in 1945, while Communism is an insidious threat to this day that will take over the world the moment you let your guard down.

Also, white supremacist rhetoric in America being wrapped up under opposing encroaching socialism/communism/etc goes back way further than this, at least to the 1920s. On top of this, far-right politics being labeled as "libertarian" was a deliberate effort to move the term away from leftists like anarcho-communists and more towards Objectivist-style politics.

So, building off of that background, you have an online environment with:

1: Far-right propagandists. People from groups like Stormfront would deliberately infiltrate online communities and start pushing manipulative talking points to cajole people further and further towards extremist right-wing politics, couching their white supremacist propaganda in nice Republican buzzwords. Neo-Völkisch groups were quite active on Tumblr.

2. Crypto-fascists: When you want to signal that you are further to the right than your average Republican and everyone assumes that means you're just more mad about taxes and the ATF, you can call yourself a libertarian. How convincing this is depends heavily on whether you can restrain yourself from posting fantasies about bombing refugees, defending the CSA, or lamenting the US joining WW2 on the side of the Allies.

3. Trend-followers. These guys care more about owning the libs than anything substantial. Your average "anti-SJW" youtubers, discourse bloggers and their hangers-on, for example. There's a Ron Swanson reaction .gif for everything, after all.

4. The tiny minority of honest-to-God right wing libertarians, who are generally too busy fighting for the right to own a ferret in California while smoking weed to notice a damn thing going on around them.

So, y'know, all these people call themselves libertarians and more or less speak the same political language. The thing is, calling yourself a classical or Jeffersonian liberal could mean you're pro-democracy and anti-aristocracy, or it could just be used as a vague "return to an idealized past" fascist buzzword. And I think that in 2016, a lot of extremists felt comfortable enough to stop pretending.

And now that we had out-and-out fascists and various types of white nationalists out in the open, this was a godsend to the "trigger the libs" types, because the political mainstream was completely unprepared for this and could only react with incredulity and mounting horror. Ultimately, Donald Trump getting elected seemed to be the "okay, masks off everyone" signal. In more ways than one.

So, yeah. As far as I can tell, that's how it happened.

[7soulstars]

hey there. I don't know if you are taking requests rn so if you don't just ignore this one. I was hoping if you could do various avengers x reader .. reader has the ability to manupilate emotions , she can take away emotional pain, negativity and sadness from anyone and replace them with relief, positivity and peace, by simply hugging the person! every avenger turns to her after a mission for cuddles and comfort, you can take it from there if you like! thank you💞

 Hey darling ! Thank you so much for requesting! I really really love this request it’s really so adorable oof- I made it into a fic and I hope you like it! Anyways, lets get straight into into it !!

Euphoria

Pairing: Avengers x Avenger! Reader

Warnings: Little like really little angst, Hydra, Overwhelming fluff, Half the Avengers act like literal babies around Y/N . I HAVE ALL THE AVENGERS SAFE AND ALIVE IN THIS AND AVENGER LOKI !! Ooc characters??

Summary: Sometimes even the empath needs empathy but she refuses to say it

............

Euphoria ; the experience of excitement and intense feelings of well-being and happiness.

A silent motion walks down the streets, a silent motion called The Empathic Soul that was involved with them, The Avengers. While the rest protected, she distracted, like a guardian of the common folk who had never seen her. They wouldn’t know, but they praised, thanked and loved. Every time there was pain, there was war, there was casualties, she was there and they just knew it. They looked around but couldn’t guess. The sudden wave of calmness replacing their sorrow and panic distracting their attention from her, their silent protector.

That was what the world had named Y/N, The Empathic Soul as she watched the title flash on the TV screen at Stark towers as she sat beside Vision who was failing to crochet no matter how hard he tried. Y/N wouldn’t consider herself a hero, she didn’t fight bad guys although she was very capable of doing that, she didn’t go and almost get herself killed for the sake of getting rid of ‘pests’.

But she was an Avenger ? Yes. She was, but she didn’t consider herself a hero. 

She was behind the scenes, away from common eyes just there to clean up the mess and to take the worry of the mess out of everyone’s head. The Avengers had a polarising reputation. Although it got better after they won against Thanos there were still those who disliked them. But there was not a single civilian who would speak out the title of the Empathic Soul in despise. Y/N would like to keep it that way she had told Fury. She didn’t really have the best life growing up, the strain had given her the powers and she wouldn’t dare use it for anything other than the good of the people. She knew protecting someone came with a cost. Her powers can be used for things unimaginable, wrong things and that’s why she needed to stay anonymous.

Though not all praises about Y/N may be true, one thing was for sure. She was a gem, one of the most selfless person anyone had ever met. With or without knowing about her powers. She couldn’t stand seeing someone sad and that is what made her the sole person every single Avenger was ready to get along with each other for.

Y/N had been a part of the team for 3 years now and she had made all the trauma dissipate and had even managed to make the most unapproachable team mmates open up. She had made sure Stark Towers was always warm and fuzzy no matter how cold the world seemed.

The meanest of all things Y/N has done is manipulate the emotions of people like Zemo to make them confess and feel the pain of the people they caused pain to reflect and repent whenever Agent Everett called her in for.

The robotic voice of Vision snapped her out of her zone as she looked at him as he pointed at the elevator. As Y/N turned to look she felt an overwhelming level of tension.

Oh. It’s one of those days.....

The door opened to a familiar multitude of spandex and metal clad people filling into the living room all making an aggressive beeline at the empathic. 

“I CALL DIBS ON Y/N !”,yelled some simultaneously as they glared at each other and argued. Some went straight to the bar pouring themselves a drink and another very specific non alcoholic one along with it. Some stood frozen, colour drained off their face, to be more specific, Wanda,Peter,Bucky and Bruce. Peter walking straight into Y/N’s arms as she held them open as soon as she saw them. Wanda and Bruce following as Vision looms and floats behind them.

“That bad huh ?”, Y/N asked as she tried managing to drag the four towards the couch and plopped down with them. Bruce parted away from her and Wanda followed suit a pleasant smile slapping onto their face.

“18 casualties ”, she heard the blonde star spangled man as he wrapped an arm around her waist moving to hug her by the side as Natasha’s arms wraps around Y/N neck from behind the couch, her head plopped on top of Y/N’s for a few before she whispered a thank you and left to go find Bruce. “And 5 completely decapitated buildings you always forget the buildings Steve ! Now move I need a hug from our gal !”, Sam complained as he agressively made motions for Steve to move away from Y/N as he nearly tackles her. “Careful Sammy, it seems like Peter’s fallen asleep”, the empath notifies as she carefully rests the Spiderboy’s head on the couch from herself as Tony lays a blanket on his body. 

“Kid was really hard on himself today, he froze mid battle and was thrown right onto a car, the injury was not that bad but it sure was something. He kept asking if he could call you the whole way back”, Tony said as Y/N stroked Peter’s hair as she got up. “Made you a drink as I poured myself one”, he said offering the glass to her which she took and set back down on the table and then proceeded to take Tony’s glass away from him before he could even sip on it. “This is your third glass and I can sense your annoyance, come here ”, Y/N scolded him as he opened his arms for a hug. “My suit broke down halfway through the fight”,complained Tony into Y/N’s hug as she patted his back, concentrating on pushing the positivity strain in the man.

“I need to be back at the sanctum.... Y/N ?”, came a voice making Tony groan why is it that every time I hug her that you need a hug? The sanctum can wait ! Isn’t Wong there?” “Tony...”, warned Y/N earning a eyeroll from the billionare as he made her promise him hugs later as he sauntered away. Y/N let out a soft laugh before taking Stephens hands into hers and a gentle smile . Stephen placed his hand on her cheek as a smile plastered on his face. “You should have come with us......they-......I and the rest of them needed you.....”,he mumbled making sure no one heard. “I’m sorry, I would have joined but I had to get some Hydra agents to spill some secrets.....”,she reasoned. “If I did not have to return I would have loved to talk to you more about how I feel.....although you will feel it before me and-” “I come visit tomorrow”, she stated simply earning a sigh of relief from the other as he stepped into the portal still hesitating to leave your hand.

There were three left Y/N knew. And she knew where they would be. She walked down the hall that leads up to all their rooms, a door opened and before she could react she was lifted into a bone crushing hug who’s only culprit could be the golden retriever god. “Thor! I was looking for you! How are you feeling!” “Pretty usual Lady Y/N ! I suppose you are visiting my brother ! I couldn’t join today’s mission, I was visiting Asgard ! Anyways I shall let you be !”, and with that he went back into his room. He wanted stay but he knew so needed her more than him he decided he could bother her later.

“They were children ! Can Midgardians stoop this low, they were experimenting on children !”, Y/N could hear as she got closer to the door at the end of the corridor. She opened the door slowly and softly, right after knocking it once.

She saw a flash of black and and overwhelming sense of anger and sorrow before she was tackled by two bodies that made sure her head didn’t hit the floor.

“Hey calm down wow what the hell Loki? Buck? What went THAT wrong?” , Y/N asked the two who had gotten quite close to each other with help of her involvement throughout the years. They realized their similarity and now shared quite of lot of things with each other that they could never tell others. Well, other than Y/N. Y/N slowly replaced their emotions as they let out an appreciative grunt. Before sitting back up. “The people taken hostage by Hydra were children. They were beaten badly, hell some were flinching even when we tried getting them out. I may have done some questionable things in my life but I would never think of doing anything to children. This why this planet needs to be ruled !”,spat Loki in frustration as Y/N rubbed his back soothingly. They were silent for a while before Bucky spoke up. “Those kids were being trained, like Nat. Easier to manipulate, easier to make into soldiers like me.” Y/N sighed, her face dropping as she tried not to hiss in pain. “You saved them though right ? I will probably be called to rehabilitate them. I promise I’ll make them feel better”, she tried to assure them. “ It is not about that darling, I just wonder how many children might be there in Midgard that are being forced into things like this out of their will.” 

Y/N never said anything after that but what happened was bothering her and was clear as water. But every time they would try asking her she would quickly change their mood to a Euphoric state and distract them. It felt as if matters were getting worst and Y/N looked sicker and sicker. The team had no choice but to ask Fury.

“ I suppose she has not informed you about her mutation.”

“ What about it ?”

“Well it is not as easy as she makes it seem. You see, every time she replaces an emotion, she feels them. The malice, the pain and everything stays inside her and will stay that way until it is not given to other people. Y/N grew up in an abusive home. Empathy was never shown to her and it got worse by the time she was 15. She first started experiencing immense pain and one day it became intolerable. The pain, without her will got transferred to everyone in that house. No normal human could handle it the way she could and they eventually died because of it. She blames herself and that is why she is not allowed to go on missions with you because we fear that might happen again.”

Everyone was  bit shocked by the story they were bombarded with. The felt guilt. All this time it was her who was comforting them and never once had they asked her about how she felt. In fact, if Y/N had not interfered with certain things they might have regretted their actions or may have committed unforgivable acts.

She was their hero. And sometimes the hero needs to be saved to.

Y/N was startled to say the least when her bedroom door burst open and several bodies jumped on her making her feel a sudden high and the pain in her head trying to leave She closed her eyes and tried as hard as possible t not let go of it.

“Y/N I swear to god let it all out ! Were a lot of people we can handle it ! Be a little less harsh on yourself !”, nagged Wanda leaving the empath speechless over the fact that they found out her secret. After more perstering she let go. “Jesus Christ !/Oh my god!/How do you live with this!”, yelled different people simultaneously as they felt what Y/N has been holding to herself for all these years. “Lady Y/N I take back what I said about being the strongest it seems like you are the strongest one to be able to do this and take care of all of us with a smile”, Thor declared.

“You know we love you right miss Y/N ?”,Peter questioned.

Y/N couldn’t say anything if she did she would cry. Her heart swelled even more and for the first time in her life she felt like she truly belonged. The soft tune of Euphoria by Jungkook played in the background the lyrics etching the end of this story.

“Take my hand now, you are the cause of my Euphoria”

--The End--

....... I have never written such an intricate fic on this app. I do not know if it is good or not anymore because I am in too much feels. I really really hope you like this *crosses fingers in anticipation*.This was really fun to write! I did delete the draft like 7 times though because I wasn’t confident about it😅.. I really hope you like this🥺🥺.....Please like and reblog my posts if you like them! Feedback is highly appreciated and please do not plagarize my work. I really work my ass of on them! Thank you so much for supporting me darlings !❤🥰

~Love, Hri

[chimswae]

BTS Caretaker CH43

Summary: She may think she has Bangtan Sonyeondan wrapped around her fingers. She may think it is easy to love the members equally without hurting any soul. She may think the boys wont fall head over heels for her. She assumes it is okay to show a little love and affection towards the boys, what if she gets it all wrong? What if it only brings more complication to her already complicated life? Can she survive their charms? Will she be able to resist them? What if they just wont let her go?

- Pairing: BTS x Oc ( Yoongi x OC, Jungkook x OC)

- Genre: Fluff, Slight Angst, Romance, Idol!au

- Word Count: 3,043

- Author Note: Happy Musters i hope i am not too late <3 But yes i have bene busy with Musters and BTS 8th anniversary in general! i hope u guys had a blast while watching! it is day 2 today so yay!

Previous | Next

Chapter 43

“Can you reach her Yoongi?” Jin’s voice brought him back to reality. Slowly, he shook his head in dismay. The crease on his forehead was evident causing the older man sighed in frustration.

“I wonder where she is” Jin muttered as his eyes scanned the area diligently in hope to catch the girl between the huge crowd.

Supposedly today, Seul would be joining the team to USA for Billboard Music Awards. However, she didn’t show up even until now. The plane would take off in thirty minutes but she’s nowhere to be found. Yoongi clutched onto his phone helplessly, hoping to hear a single ring at the end of the line. Then again, he was greeted with a small beep and the usual robotic woman asking him to leave a message.

Frustrated, he stroked his hair back with a small groan. He tried for the umpteenth time to reach Seul again but to no avail.

“Hyung, maybe something come up. She’ll be alright” the leader reasoned.

“This doesn’t sound like her, Seul would never bail on me without words. Something happen to her, I can feel it” he got up, resting his forehead against the cold wall.

Namjoon heaved a heavy sigh “Maybe she needs to take care of Ahjumma?” “Impossible- her mother is in Jeju with Hoon. Something is off. I need to find her” he exclaimed with so much determination.

“You can’t do that. We need to get into that plane in few minutes. You can’t bail the award Min Yoongi for a mere girl” Manager Sejin stern voice sounded as though he’s challenging the older guy. It somewhat triggered his anger.

“That girl happened to be my girlfriend” he hissed lowly, offended by their manager’s remark.

Yoongi shot his manager a dissatisfied glare “Are you saying I should ditch my girlfriend and pretend this never happen? You got to be kidding me” he scoffed.

“Min Yoongi, she will be fine. I have asked someone back in the office to check on her, so please don’t do something stupid” he warned.

“Sejin hyung is right. Let’s not jump into conclusion first. I trust Seul” the tall guy gave his shoulder a light squish in attempt to calm piss off Yoongi. “Please, hyung.. Trust Sejin hyung’s words, Seul is okay. We’ll know what happen once we touch down. It is enough time to find Seul” Namjoon continued.

For some reason, that didn’t sound like an assurance. He couldn’t help this uneasiness inside him. “This isn’t right. I need to find her” he mumbled with a hint of desperation.

“And, they will find her. Let’s be positive for now” their manager patted his back-signalling others to get ready to board the flight.  Seeing how Yoongi make no effort to move from where he stood, Jungkook approached the man stealthily “If Seul were here she will go berserk if she finds out you are planning to ditch our schedule for her. So, trust Sejin hyung, someone will help to find her alright?”  if there’s one person would do stupid decision like Yoongi then it would be Jungkook. For now, the youngest in the group tried to reason before they ended up regretting their rash decision.

Sighing in defeat Yoongi grabbed his black leather bag and went to line up following others. There’s no way he could betray his own bandmates, his only hope lied with his company to make sure Seul was safe and sound.

 ---------

“Shall we begin?” his rough voice brought the timid girl out from her daydream. She stared at him in daze as if trying to read through him but no avail. Glancing at the clock, she chewed her lower lips feeling guilty for bailing on the boys and her job. What was she supposed to do? Amidst all the crazy things happening to her today, she couldn’t ignore the fact that this nasty old man was trying to ruin her family.

Gathering her courage, she looked straight into his eyes “You don’t expect me to agree doing this just because I am related to you. Your name is not on the paper. My birth certificate doesn’t have your name” she scowled.

He pressed his lips into a thin line, tugging a small smirk at the corner of his lips “ Yes I don’t see my name on the paper when your mother carelessly put Ji Hoon’s dad name on it. You do realize you are not related to Ji Hoon or his dad by blood, right?” he chuckled.

Seul curled her small hand into fist feeling the anger sipping inside her. If and only she could murder this man right away, she would do it in a heartbeat.

“And..” she heard him continued. “No matter how hard you try to deny me, it is a matter of a fact that I am still your father Ji Seul. I bred your mother, well technically” Seul hissed harshly.

“Don’t you dare to use those filthy words on my mother! I might be your daughter by blood but never by heart”

“Don’t flatter yourself young lady. You are not my daughter by heart either. You still need me though if you don’t want your boyfriend to suffer. I bet it won’t only hurt your boyfriend but also the whole band” he was so shameless when it was down to professing his intention in making Seul to agree on the terms he had just offer her.

Sighing deeply, she shook her head weakly “Don’t touch them, even a strand of their hair. Leave Yoongi alone” her voice turned rougher emphasizing her warning. There was no way she would allow Mr Kwon to ruin their career after all they did to get here. As selfish as it may sound, she’s willing to stay away from Yoongi and the rest of the members if that’s the best for everyone.

“Alright, now we are talking. I will keep the video for now. But if you try to back off, I will release it to those thirsty medias. I am sure they would enjoy to see the downfall of Bangtan Sonyeondan. Everyone does anyways”

Shivering in fear, she understood exactly what she meant by that. The release of the footage of Yoongi and her would shake entire country not only it could tarnish Yoongi’s image but also Bighit reputation as now they are at the peak of their success. What a perfect time to crash one’s happiness wasn’t it?

“So are we in the same boat?” he leaned forwards, rubbing his chin with a proud smug.

Hesitate with the decision that she’s about to make, Seul took a deep breath before nodding in agreement. This was the best for now, she will figure out how to get out from this mess later.

“Good” Kwon arose from his seat making his way to his secret vault holding a brown envelope before throwing it on the coffee table startling the girl. “The address to the private party and money. Use the money to buy you a dress. Doll yourself up, we don’t want the heir to the greatest billionaire in the country fall for another woman. I want you to grab his attention” he shoved his hand inside his pocket looking arrogant as always.

“How is that even possible? I am nobody!” bewildered by his demand, Seul couldn’t fathom the idea of grabbing someone’s attention with her look and status. Moreover, they’re talking about a son of a billionare.

He laughed half-heartedly “You are not nobody. You are Kwon’s and you will be surprised to see how influential I am. I don’t care how and what you do to get his attention, just do it” sipping his whiskey from the glass, he eyed the dumbfounded girl sternly.

“Will you be there tomorrow night?” she murmured under her breath.

“Yes I will be there. Make sure to not cause scene if you don’t want me to release the footage”

She cringed at the thought of the dangerous footage that he possessed. The idea of how her most personal life with Yoongi to be revealed that way to the world made her nauseous. Kwon was a freaking creep, like how was it possible to install cameras in Yoongi’s private studios just to catch a glimpse of their most private moment there.

Seul knew she screwed up big time for doing this without asking Yoongi or anyone, but like she had a choice. Yoongi was off to something big out there and nothing could top it. She wasn’t planning to ruin his moment, their moment because of her problem. Even though she wanted to go to Bang PD to seek help considering this had something to do with his artiste, who’s going to trust her? With all the evident in Kwon’s hand, he couldn’t manipulate and used it against her. Because after all, she was told that his reputation would surprise her.

“You can go now, you don’t want to be late”

‘Why am I doing this. This is not right’ she didn’t dare to take one last look at Kwon afraid that she might threw her fist around carelessly considering the amount of anger bottled up inside her was enough to trigger such violence.

Before she could push the door open, his voice once again halted his action “By the way daughter, I enjoyed the tape. Yoongi really know how to fuck. I get it why you are willing to do anything for him” Seul jaws clenched in anger upon hearing his rude remarks.

Pushing the door hastily, she stormed away before she started a nasty cat fight which might turn into murderous.

 -----------

Three hours since their plane landed. But, still nothing from Seul.

Yoongi couldn’t even sleep during their flight which worries everyone. They knew how Yoongi took things too hard on himself sometimes that could jeopardize his health in the end. Namjoon on the other hand was trying his best to talk it out with their manager, finding possible ways to exclude Yoongi from the award shows at least until he’s in the right mind.

Namjoon knew Yoongi was not irresponsible when BTS name was in line, but he also wanted a healthy work environment for his bandmate. Plus, they’re only human. Sometimes unexpected things happen, though how much they tried to endure it whilst they tried to get into their roles as BTS members, it wasn’t healthy.

If it was possible to get Yoongi back to Seoul as soon possible, that would be the best decision for everyone.  Yoongi might refuse to blow up this one chance for everyone to perform on AMA’s stage but Namjoon didn’t want him to feel remorse over his decision if something happen to Seul.

After a deep discussion he had with his managers, they finally came to a decision that if they couldn’t reach Seul until tonight, they’re sending Yoongi back to Seoul.

“I don’t agree with this idea! Whose idea is this?” his eyes widened upon hearing the news from Manager Sejin.

“It is my idea. Hyung, you know I want what’s best for you and everyone right?” Yoongi’s eyes snapped right towards the tall man who stood across him with a concern look plastered across his face.

“Kim Namjoon” he hissed. “What’s best for me is to stay here and not to hurt the band. Are you fucking serious right now? This is my life and I get to decide!” his deep voice raise one octave causing the younger members including Jin to seal their mouths tight.

It was intense considering Yoongi and Namjoon barely got caught into a serious argument these days. Namjoon pushed his glass at the bridge of his nose while emitting a deep sigh “This is important, but Seul is important too. If..if anything happen to Seul, I don’t want you to blame yourself for not be able to do at least something to find her. We promote self-love hyung, however you are yet to find a way to love yourself. Seul is part of your self-love” the young man really preached it this time without fail awing everyone in the room.

“I cant do this just because you put that idea in my mind. This is crazy” the pale man looked ten times paler ever since they reached USA three hours ago. Looking as if his soul was sucked out from his body, they couldn’t ignore the fact that Seul was part of the colours in Yoongi’s life.

Yoongi mumbled before Namjoon could even reply “I was overreacting, I am sure she’s fine like you guys said. She’ll be fine…” his voiced faded away showing his faith was shaking by the belief he projected.

“We’ll wait until tonight. If there is no news from her, we’re sending you back to Seoul Yoongi. End of discussion” Manager Sejin frowned patting the sombre man’s back making his way out the room.

Namjoon took a step closer to Yoongi, squishing his shoulder “Trust me, this is the best decision for everyone. Get some sleep hyung, you don’t look yourself. We’ll keep an eye on our phone in case we heard something from Seul” he gave him a small smile as an assurance.

He made his way weakly into his room, shutting the door behind him before throwing his tired body on bed. Yoongi knew this was unprofessional and very childish of him for letting his personal feelings got into the way, yet what else he could do? He’s too tired to deal with this shit by his own till he needed Namjoon to jump into the scene to make decision for him. Pathetic.

‘Just where on earth are you Seul? Why can’t you just say something?’ he slid his thumbs across the screen in hope to hear Seul’s voice at the end of the line. To his dismay, he was greeted by the robotic woman once again.

 -------------

“Yoong, wake up… Why are you so sleepy?” his eyes fluttered open at the sound of the familiar voice. He loved the way her fingers moved in between his hair, smoothing away all the worries inside him.

The smell of her intoxicated him ‘Just like us’ like he usually described it.

“Mmmmm.. I miss you and I am sorry that I didn’t show up” her lips pursed into a pout, fluttering his heart like she always does. “But, I promise to make it up to you okay? Don’t worry about me, I am fine” her lips move at its own accord across his soft skin.

“I miss you too” he reached out to stroke her hair, making the girl to lean her cheeks against his palm liking the warmth that she gave him.

“I am no longer scared when you are here with me” said Seul sweetly along with her bright smile.

Confused by her statement, he tilted his head in confusion “What do you mean by that babe?” she only laughed it away saying it was only a random thing coming from her mouth. Liking their close proximity, her confusing words slipped off his mind.

Seul returned to leave fluttering kiss at the corner of his eyes and ended up on his lips. He was about to move their lips together as she quickly pulled away glancing around in fear. “Babe are you okay?” he sat up, reaching for her shoulder.

Her fast reflex halted his move, as Seul arose to her feet with her tears cascaded down wetting her rosy cheeks without warn scaring the shit out of the man.

“Seul-ah what happen? Tell me!” Yoongi followed her action, and he didn’t back down, taking few steps closer to his lover. His heart ached to see how scared she appeared to be “Baby girl, tell me please” she raised her palm to stop him from coming close.

“I am sorry Yoongi. I am sorry Yoongi” that’s all she abled to say in between her sobs.

She took a step backwards before sprinting away making Yoongi restless, he tried to chase after her with all his might. The image soon fades, and darkness engulfed the area.

“SEUL!” he called out her name looking around in daze.

“JI SEUL!” Yoongi never gave up until he could find way to her again.

“Hyung. Yoongi hyung, wake up!” another familiar voice rung in his ear but this time it is not Seul. He shut his eyes together using his strength to shrug away the painful ring in his ears. He clasped his ears kneeling in pain, while his world started to spin around.

“MIN YOONGI. YAH WAKE UP!”

“HYUNG ARE YOU OKAY? HYUNG…”

 “MIN YOONG-“ panting heavily, he sat up abruptly causing Jin to stand up.  Yoongi touched his head, groaning in pain after the confusing dreams that he had. “Yah, are you alright? You’re calling for Seul’s name non-stop” Jungkook and Jin eyes were puffy from the lack of rest.

“Hyung, we’re trying to wake you up. Are you seriously okay? You are scaring us!” said the golden maknae, as he handed a glass of plain water to him which him gladly took it. Steadying his heavy breath, he drank the water and broke the silence “Seul. I dreamed of her, she looked s-cared…She seemed-“ “Yoongi hyung you need to hear this” Namjoon barged into the room cutting off his sentence.

All eyes were on the leader, and stood behind him was Jimin, Hoseok and Taehyung looking as anxious as Yoongi. “What is it?” he gulped hoping to hear something good instead of bad one. After what he experienced few minutes ago, he feared it was a sign to this news that he about to hear from Namjoon.

“It came through your voice mail. I am sorry that I go through your phone. But I wanted to make sure that I keep an eye on it while you are resting in case Seul contacted you” Namjoon voice sounded different almost like he’s hiding something big from him.

“Namjoon.. what the hell is happening?” he got up from his bed, making his way to him.

The leader pressed his lips together in fear, as he slid his thumbs across the screen.

“Y..oongi… H..elp..me..I ..am scared..Please..help me” Seul’s voice filled the room halting Yoongi’s step towards Namjoon.

“Yoon..gi..I am s..cared”

This work belongs to  Chimswae © 2021. All Rights Reserved

[popculturebuffet]

The Legion of Super Heroes Reviews: The Legion of Substitute Heroes or Unsung Heroes

Happy 29th Birthday to Me! Yes it’s my birthday which means it’s time for reflection, griping about getting older and cake. And after an exausting weekend of grappling with a growth, i’m not going to go into anymore detail, I can finally, relax celebrate and get back to reviewing. And since i’ts my big day, that means I decided to dedicate today’s reviews to things that mean a hell of a lot to me and in one way or another shaped me as a person. A self indulgant way to reflect on my past, look to the future and show y’all some stuff I really like. So with that out of the way let’s talk about the Legion of Super Heroes.. and their oddball sub team I love dearly. 

This is also my first chance to talk about DC Comics on my blog. I’m honestly shocked that in the year i’ve been reviewing stuff regularly, the other half of the big two superhero comic publishers hasn’t come up. While I do tend to lean towards marvel, in part because Marvel is simply better at collecting their stuff and putting it on sale more often, it’s still the home of some of my faviorite properties: Justice League International, The Green Lanterns (Minus Hal), Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, Oracle, Batgirl (All of them, particularly Steph and Cass), Young Justice, Supergirl, my personal boy The Martian Manhunter.. the list dosen’t go on by much but it indeed goes on. I”ve been reading dc comics since I was in middle school, and I haven’t stopped since and don’t intend to stop now and maybe in the next year I can get around to tackling some of their awesome cartoons and comics more eh? But yeah among these titans, including the actual titans, are the Legion, one of the most unique and awesome super team concepts in my humble opinon and , even for DC, one of the teams with the most tangled up histories. 

First created in the Silver Age by writer Otto Binder and Artist Al Plastino, The Legion of Superheroes is DC”s first successful teen superhero team, predating the titans by a few years, though I dearly love both wildly diffrent teams. The Legion is defined by their high concept: A thousand years into the future, three super teens from diffrent worlds who happened to be on the same ship with billionare RJ Brande, saved Brande from some goons hired by his crooked buisness partner. 

And exposed him. Inspirired by their courage, heart and skill, Brande latter called the three together to form them into a super team, one inspiried by the legends of teen hero Superboy. 

No not Conner though it was nice to get to show off my poster of him. While he was part of the second continuities legion, we’ll get to that, he’s not the superboy we’re looking for. He is damn great though and it’s good to have you back bud. 

Not Jon either, though I do miss this kid’s pre-bendis version and he was the inspiration.. for another version of the legion. (SIGH). Try. AGAIN IMAGE SEARCH. 

...... 

No not the cool bad boy turned troubled good boy, not the child who was inexpciably aged up by that bald smeghead, and not the great idea turned into a editiorial mouthpiece. I”m talking about THIS superboy. 

This is where the name came from: From the silver age till crisis on infinite earths, Clark Kent was active as a kid in smallville, and thus was Superboy, superman when he was a boy. He dealt with similar stories just with Lana replacing Lois, and Luthor as a ginger teenager. And it was these deeds as a teen hero on his own, one of the first honestly, that inspiried the legion and brande and forged the team. 

And it was naturally a super boy story where they were first introduced as the legion’s founders went back to recruit Superboy after putting him through some trials, and were intended as just one of many silver age one off concepts.. but caught on with the readers so much they were brought back, and had their ranks expanded and eventually not only added supergirl, yes the one your thinking of this time, to their ranks, and yes sometimes she and superboy were in the same place at the same time, Clark willingly had founding member and telepath Saturn Girl put a mental block in his head for any info he’s not supposed to know yet so it’s cool . But yeah not only that but they eventually became their own feature in Adventure Comics, where Superboy’s stories were published, but overtook him in popularity with time.  Over time a number of distinct aspects were established: The roster eventually got as large as 20 plus legionarres, almost all from diffrent worlds, and they eventually set up bilaws. Some are silly and dated such as “Legionarres marrying means they retire” which was eventually done away with in the 70′s, but others were simple logic: each member must have a unique power, no using weapons and such which rather than be super power snobbery is so said tech dosen’t fail and the legion later fully allowed Karate Kid, a martial artist, to join, no killing.. just common sense stuff that adds to it. And one of those is the centerpiece to today’s story, which we’ll get to in a moment.  Obviously given they’ve been around since 1958, there is a LOT more to the Legion’s history I will dig into at a later date: The short version is that Crisis on Infinite Earths, Dc’s first big reboot, fucked the team up badly by retconning superboy out of existance and dc editorial made it worse by shooting down EVERY solution the team came up with to fix the issue. So eventually things got so messy they nuked the whole thing during the event Zero Hour and rebooted fresh with Mark Waid taking the helm and updating the concept for the 90′s and being a more lighthearted, if still not without weight, comic in the sea of 90′s edge. Waid would reboot the team again due to sagging sales, a far weaker reason this time, with a more rebllion slant, the original team would be reinstated, and then ended for a while before recently being rebooted by Brian Micheal Bendis... who sadly is long past his creative prime from books like Ultimate Spider-man and alias and is instead stewing in his own toilet dinner these days and thus it’s not pretty.. well okay art wise i’ts VERY pretty, it’s just story wise it sucks dirty ass in thunder storms. There was also an awesome cartoon that sadly lasted only two seasons that I will DEFINTELY be digging into, especially since unlike x-men evolution, it’s not you know 50 some episodes and me biting off way more than I can chew but a slim 26 that still has fans to this day. I”ll get into ALL OF THIS, some ohter time hopefullly and I mostly outlined it since some of you might be familiar with another version or “Sigh” the reboot and this helps clear things up.  So yeah with all that out of the way we’re going back to the silver age and the first story I ever read of hte team, how I met them with “The Legion of Substitute Heroes” and a later subs story I genuinely love. I first read this story in one dc’s old expensive archives collections I got from the library. Oh how I miss the library. Your probably wondering who the legion of susbstite heroes are.. but since the first story covers that we can jump right in after the break!

So we open with a teen in a parka uniform disembarking from a spaceship from another planet, which a passerby notes is just like the airplanes people used to ride from country to country. 

But we meet our hero, Polar Boy, whose in a winter themed outfit and has come to try out. This is the tradition I was saving for now: The Legion Tryouts. Like a club or sports team would, but I like it because it makes sense: The Legion NEEDS to be as big as it is because while their headquartered on earth, their mission scope is anywhere in the united planets which spans GALAXIES. They could be called on any time and need their full force or need to have severa l members on a smaller mission and frequently having members away on a mission was cleverly used to reduce the cast to whoever was needed for the story. 

So it only makes sense to frequently look for new membbers to help strengthen their ranks... but given their teens and are recurting teens they need to be careful and need a logical way to reduce crowd flow. I mean you saw how many people used to line up for american idol before that died a justified death, people will do anything to be famous and they need to weed out those whose powers and skill just aren’t up to snuff yet, or those who are just dicks as, unsuprisingly, several stories have been built on assholes who applied and were rejected turning evil and attacking.. even though the Legion wasn’t even paticuarlly harsh. They also are more than fair as applicants CAN try again or if they prove themselves in other ways can be let in, as Bouncing Boy, my favoirite legionarre, was intially rejected for his power of .. well...

Yeah.. on paper inflating like a ball and bouncing around is kind of silly. In practice he can ricochet off enemies, walls, and obstacles and is fairly durable in that state. It’s why I don’t really brook mocking the guys power: yes it’s goofy.. but say that again when he hands you his ass. It’s the same with matter eater lad who yes is an actual character: While being able to eat anything is gloriously goofy.. it means he can chew through ANY substance and digest ANYTHING. Hell in the cartoon episode intorducing the subs they used both of these guys to great efffect: Bouncing Boy, who in the cartoon had to try out multiple times in his backstory, encouraged the future subs while Matter Eater Lad got in by EATING A FUCKING BOMB. He also had shades which I dind’t know he was missing but now I do. My point is the process is fair and well thought out and leads to some really fun scenes. 

But yeah joining the legion is naturally Polar Boy’s dream, as he walks down the avenue of heroes, basically a series of statues honoring the legion and hopes all his hard work paid off. We then cut to the auditions, where he apparently waited all night. What I like about this story is that unusually for the silver age legion where it was mostly a sea of powers attached to a bunch of cardboard, really the dc silver age in a nutshell and why marvel broke out so much for having more dynamic and realistic characters, Polar Boy has more of a personality. It’s not MUCH but he’s a dedicated, hard working kid who just wants to join his heroes and seems really in awe of htem, a feeling we can all relate to. We’ve all had people we’ve looked up to, admired, and we’ve all had groups we wanted to join as kids, teens or what have you. And of course.. we all know what it’s like to be rejected by someone or something you badly wanted to be a part of.  And that’s what happens to poor polar boy, who comes from a world with an intense sun thus his people developed super cold powers.. but he can’t control them well so while their impressive, they also freeze the legion. HIs powers are good... but due to their strength and radius he’s also a liablility. They give him an consolation anti-gravity belt.. they had these before eventually compressing them into the much cooler flight rings.. which I still desperatly want one of. I have the flash’s costume ring and a green lantern corps ring, but still no legion ring. 

Naturally this devistates the poor boy and he wonders around dispondent till nightfall, convinced he’ll never be one of them. He soon meets Night Girl, a fellow reject with super strength given to her by her dad’s formula.. but only in darkness as she’s from a world without sunlight. She also faces a “hopeless future” but it’s then Polar Boy’s true strength reveals itself: he decides screw giving up on their dream and if they can’t be in the legion they’ll start their own Legion. 

Though not to compete but to serve as a subtistute, in case the legion is ever incapacitated. So Night Girl gathers the other rejects the next morning. Cleverly one of them, Chlorophyll Kid was seen with Night Girl herslef at the tryouts behind Polar Boy. We soon learn about them and each of their origins: Stone Boy can turn himself into an immobile stone statue, as his world has half a year long nights and thus his people hybernate, Fire Lad who can spit hot fire literally and set anything combustable on fire and Chlorphyll Kid who can make plants grow rapidly. Each were rejected for resonable powers: Stone Boys powers too static, Fire Lad’s is too dangerous and Chorlpyl Kids toos pecific. But upon seeing all of this Polar Boy says they STILL have fantastic powers and still can help people and the legion. 

Thus the Legion of Substittue Heroes is born. And I love them as much as the originals. As a bit of a misfit myself I relate to these guys: They have strange specific powers, got rejected by the big team.. while that trope is nothing new at the time it was unique and even now it’s a nice and inspiring message. Instead of giving up they form their OWN team to do what htey can anyway. They might not be the best like the legion but they can still help and still do what’s right even if not on their scale. It’s a great concept and really makes them endearing. Again I have a thing for the underdogs but I still really like these guys. It’s why it annoys me they got kind of spat on with time: While I love Keith Giffen and Paul Levitz run on the legion, and feel it’s the best of that contnuinty it’s not without fault and the two basically spent a full issue mocking the team and split polar boy off from them before making their own subs with only ONE of the originals. It just felt.. disrspectful. And so far no continuity has used them again until the recent bendis run, which has them announced for the Future Slate special. It took BENDIS, who dosen’t get how to use the team properly and is up his own ass, to bring them back in a new continuity and I find that obnoxious. The subs are a great concept and deserve to be honored as such and as such are one of my favorite superhero teams. 

But their careers don’t start well as they doubt themslves, except for Polar Boy who boisters them along, and constnatly just end up going to missions the legion already has covered and when the legion go to fight some robot ships, they refuse the subs help.. which is fair though, as Brainy puts it they can’t risk putting untrained volunteers in harms way. Their about to just quit, in a really sad moment.. when CK, because I can’t spell cholophill and hate having to use spell check notices some odd seeds spread about.. and when he grows one a horrifying tree man shows up. They struggle with it till the setting son finishes it’s job, meaning Night Girl is at full power and whollops it and the subs spend the night destroying the seeds.  They  find out the next day the seeds came from the same planet as the robot ships, meaning the ships are a distraction for whoevers doing this and since they can’t just call earth, as the full force of the legion is needed with the robots and all it’d do is cause a panic, it’s down to them. Night Girl however is scared.. and I like that. It shows that while their regaining their confidence.. it’s sitll risky. Their a bunch of barely trained fanboys, and girl, going up against an alien invasion, with it down to them. They CAN save the world but it’s alright to be entirely terrified when your thrust into it this fast. 

They make their way to the planet, having built a ship earlier and lie low, finding out what’s going on: The plant men are fully intellegent, and grow themselves..though how they know to attack and go to the bathrom and what not out of the seed I don’t know but I assume it’s a genetic thing or they might be some form of hive mind. point is the seed plan is to grow troops all over the world via rockets for an invasion, and it’s a brilliant concept for one too. Aliens who simply GROW the troops right into battle, born with the knowledge to do so, and right where they can ambush them. It’s down to our heroes and Stone Boy, whose been the most pesemistic, valiantly dives in to provide a distraction so they can destroy the factory and the seeds. Turns out he is useful as the most the treeple have is a space lead pipe.. yes really. I love the silver age. But they’ll bring ray guns soon, so Stone BOy knows it’s a suicide mission and now our heroes have a timer. But luckily.. our heroes are stronger than they think. Night Girl punches a way in till Night passes, while Polar Boy and Flame Lad use their powers in concert to make an opneing.. but with time running out Polar Boy finishes things by having CK grow all the seeds now they have acess.. thus exploding the planets population, destroying several cities from the number of bodies, and thu discourguing the treeple from trying again. Stone boy is able to flee with the rest of our heroes and the day is saved. 

The heroes opt not to tell the public, as to take away glory for the Legion. It’s a noble gesture.. they do DESERVE credit, but they choose not to take it, preferring to let the legion get theres for stil lsaving the world from the robots. They stand firm, now confident they may someday make it to the big leagues.And it’s this that really makes me love them: Thier not the strongest or best, but they try anyway for the reasons a hero should: to help people, and not for the glory. THey remain unsung heroes and are fine with that.  Eventually the Legion WOULD find out about them, but naturally instead of being dickheads about it, fully accepted them, even offering them some contests for membership, but that’s a story for another day. THey’d remain stalwart allies and valuable backup in crisis situations for years to come until the bollocks outlined above. But they’d never leave my heart and thanks to them.. the legion never left either. 

Final Thoughts:  While I do love the story for it’s personal signifigance to me, It’s stilll a really good story for the time. A bit stilted as was the style, but still good, well paced and with an endaring cast of underdogs who prove themselves in the end. It’s something diffrent from the usual clean cut ahead in life wasps these stories usually followed at the time. While the team’s still all white and all that, their outcasts and misfits who just want to help and have trouble beliving in themselves. Their a good standard to live up to.. and a good inspiration for me and my constnatly self hating self doutbing self. And I hope you enjoyed htem too.  If you’d like to comission your own review, just dm me. It’s 5 bucks for individual issues. Later days. 

[saintheartwing]

Do You People Not Get How Superheroes Actually Work in Comics?

“lily-orchard:

lily-orchard:

When you really think about it, most superheroes aren’t performing vigilante justice. They’re just stopping criminals and incapacitating them until the police arrive to drag them through the regular criminal justice process.

It’s just a really fabulous citizen’s arrest.

Thinking about it, the real reason police tend to dislike superheroes isn’t because they’re “vigilantes with no accountability.”

It’s because their immedaite, non-lethal takedowns make it a lot harder for them to justify extrajudicial murder. Hard to claim “I feared for my life” when the criminal in question is already completely immobilized in webbing by the time you arrive.

The FURTHER pile crap onto this, in Into the Spider Verse toward the end of the film, Jefferson Davis says to Spider Man “I don’t approve of your methods, but we’re just going to have to agree to disagree.”

What methods? The non-lethal weapons? The No-Kill policy? Actually saving people? NOT LETTING A BILLIONARE DESTROY THE WORLD ON AN IMPULSE?!

THOSE SHOULD BE YOUR METHODS JEFFERSON!”

Uhhh...no. I can’t believe I have to point this out, but plenty of villains have GOTTEN OFF by pleading that, say, Batman beat a confession out of them or the like. And then there’s the fact that because a superhero isn’t licensed under the law, any evidence they collect is going to be considered tainted by the police, so they need to be careful. Like, just going to a judge and saying “this house down the street is full of drug dealers”...a cop isn’t just gonna take your word for it. That ain’t admissible in court!

On top of that, cops in the Marvel universe or even in OUR universe DON’T HAVE ADVANCED WEAPONRY. They don’t have SPIDER POWERS. They can’t just, for example, lie in wait on the ceiling and listen in as crooks talk about their master plans, then swing down and beat them up. They can’t race across the city in a few seconds like the Flash and take the bullets out of every single cop’s gun. They can’t be like Superman and just blow some ice breath onto a crook so they can’t run away and can’t fire on a civilian. 

Normal cops don’t have any of that. For the average superhero, normal crooks are pretty easy to handle. I mean, cops in the Marvel universe can’t handle idiots like the “Shocker”, and all he does is like a super version of a taser on both hands to blast people back. You think the cops in the Marvel universe gonna be able to handle bigger fish? Like the Red Skull? Or the Prowler? Or the KINGPIN, who’s so big and huge that even Spider-Man’s punches barely faze him a lot of the time? Like, friggin’ SHIELD couldn’t figure out HYDRA was infiltrating it.

In fact, lemme quote GWENPOOL, who summed up the issue PERFECTLY. Ah-hem.

So in other words, Lily...again...doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Neither do her fans who reblogged this without thinking for TEN SECONDS about this. Or her girlfriend, evidently. I mean, it’s the SAME SORT OF ARGUMENT I saw with MY LITTLE PONY and the CONVERSION BUREAU, where the ponies would argue “Oh you humans are so violent and you have so many issues, you should learn from our example!” And the counter-argument was always “You ponies can FLY, do MAGIC, and got super strength, and your princesses can literally control night and day, and you don’t want for food or shelter and you live in a land FILLED with magic where the forces of friendship are living totems that can blast the beejebus out of ANY serious threat, AND you’ve got a chaos god who can snap his fingers and make anything happen!” 

It’s easy to be a saint in paradise! It’s easy to lambaste other people when YOU’VE got it easy, easy for you to go “why can’t you just be like me” when you don’t have to put up with ten times the crap the other side does on a daily basis. I remind you, KANG NUKED WASHINGTON DC in the Marvel universe. The place is REGULARLY INVADED by aliens. How are the cops supposed to handle all that? It’s not that easy to just “not resort to lethal force” in a comics universe. All of that totally ignores the fact that the cops are SUPER outnumbered AND outgunned when it comes to superpowered threats to the world. Heck, most of the time the heroes who DO have powers are outnumbered or outgunned and barely pull off a victory and tons of civilians STILL end up dead despite the heroes doing everything within their power to stop said threats!

Good lord. Will people not  use some common fucking sense?