#like she needs to know if they are helping the humans partly to save themselves

[multi-fan-dom-madness]

For the OC ship game, may I humbly ask for thoughts and/or thots on Ilani x Rex? 💕

Or! Ilani x Hunter? Whichever you're vibing with more 👀

deeja! love the way your mind works, friend. I couldn't choose (typical bi behavior, woops), so have HCs for both! everything below the cut.

Ilani x Rex

How they met: 

Through Anakin, as fate would have it. As the former Padawan of her best friend, Anakin considers Ilani like a big sister or an aunt and can’t wait to introduce her to his captain. “One of my best men,” he boasts, a proud smile on his face as Rex offers his hand for Ilani to shake. “One of the best men I’ve ever met, really.” 

Ilani raises an eyebrow at that. Not in surprise, but in interest. Anyone who earns the praise of Anakin Skywalker must be worth their salt. 

It’s not long after being introduced that they have a chance to fight together on the battlefield. Ilani immediately understands why Anakin praises Rex so highly; his strategy and care for his men is unparalleled among the GAR, and she respects him for it right off the bat. 

She honestly kind of fumbles the first battle, though. It’s still early enough in the war that she hasn’t yet adjusted to a bellicose existence, still preferring a negotiation over a firefight, and because of this she really only defends herself and the men. In this particular battle, she remains on the defensive until it is clear she must go on the offensive, and even then, it’s only after Rex has a close call that she is spurred into action. 

General HCs: 

Rex doesn’t begrudge Ilani for her actions in that battle, recognizing that the Jedi Order she was raised under instilled very different values from the soldier’s training he received on Kamino, but she’s not felt quite so embarrassed or inadequate in a long time as he tells her this. It makes her feel like a Padawan, and that more than anything forces her to reevaluate. 

In general, the two of them get along amicably. Partly this is because they spend most of their time together either strategizing, or in the heat of battle. Ilani initially shares some of Anakin’s wholly-positive praise of Rex. It’s only once Rex convinces her to spend time with him not thinking about the war that she realizes that she’s pedastalized him. Like the rest of the clones, he’s a whole human, with strengths, yes, but also deep flaws. 

Loyal to a dangerous fault, encouraged to think for himself but threatened with doing things by the book, the Rex that Ilani comes to know off the battlefield is frustrated, disillusioned, and short. She knows it’s not aimed at her; she’s not perfect, either, but together they work on themselves. 

They’re honestly platonic soulmates. They vibe well, they understand one another, and they help the other grow. Neither of them have had much romantic experience, so at some point Ilani confessed to him feeling something for him. They kissed, and immediately both decided, nope! This is weird, like kissing a family member. 

They’ve been close friends for years now, though.

Ilani x Hunter

How they met:

Through Cody. The Batch gets an assignment that requires a Jedi, and Cody can think of no one better than his general’s best friend. Cody rightly assumes that Ilani’s fierce loyalty and steadfast compassion will be exactly what the boys of Clone Force 99 need. 

This is, of course, the Bad Batch’s frat-era, and Hunter is as cocky as Ilani is stubborn. They butt heads nearly immediately. 

The tension between them nearly bungles the mission. Thankfully, some quick thinking by Tech and some truly impressive theatrics by Crosshair save the day. Ilani and Hunter spend the flight back to base in frustrated silence, sitting at opposite ends of the ship. But by the time they drop out of hyperspace, Ilani, having meditated on it, requests that Hunter remain so they can talk. The others dutifully file out and, once the ship is otherwise empty and the hatch shut, Ilani apologizes. 

Hunter is taken aback, but seems to believe her, and offers an apology of his own. “Truce?” “Truce.” In all honesty, they both realize that they disagreed so strongly because they’re highly similar: both are strong and competent leaders, both believe they know what’s best, and both want what’s best for their men. They just had very different ideas of how to fulfill all of those traits.

General HCs: 

From then on, whenever CF99 needs a Jedi, they (and by “they” I mean Hunter) request Ilani. She almost always obliges. The others aren’t stupid, they know that these two idiots have feelings for one another, but Crosshair makes sure that Tech and Wrecker don’t kark things up for their big brother. Hunter needs to come to the conclusion on his own. 

They’re constantly touching one another. Ilani rests her hand on Hunter’s back as she scoots past him in the Marauder; he bumps her with his elbow when he cracks a joke that she deadpans at. She casually brushes hair out of his eyes once and he nearly short-circuits. 

Hunter appreciates that Ilani doesn’t feel the need to fill every silence with chatter, unlike some Jedi (Skywalker). He often finds himself sitting near her when she meditates before and after missions. Studying her features, wondering what she’s meditating on, wondering if she can sense the way his heart leaps when he imagines just leaning over and— He gets up quickly, retreating before he does something stupid. 

They still argue, tempers flaring when they disagree on how best to complete a mission; these spats typically end with both of their chests heaving and funny feelings in their stomachs, like...butterflies? 

NSFW HCs: 

It’s actually after one such argument, about something pointless, that everything comes to a head. Hunter had gotten in her face, the pair of them nearly the same height, anger etched into every line on his face. Ilani had her teeth bared, but Hunter is closer to her than he’s ever been, and her eyes inadvertently drop to his lips for just a moment—but Hunter saw. And decided enough is enough. 

They are the most intensely passionate lovers on their own, and together every moment of intimacy is incredibly sensuous. Between his enhanced senses and her own (thanks to her montrals), they both learn the other’s body, reactions, and tells quickly. At some point, all it takes for her to work him up is a series of featherlight touches and one very pointed look, and then he can’t wait to pin her to the wall and fuck her senseless.

Their sexual relationship, like their emotional one, is rather give-and-take. More often than not, Ilani ends up on top, riding Hunter for all she’s worth—but when he feels like it, he can easily grab her hips and change the pace. It infuriates her as much as it makes her lose her mind, falling apart for him with little effort. 

It’s also not uncommon for their dalliances to oscillate between feverish, rushed fucking to slow and tender lovemaking, complete with eye contact and soft caresses of one another’s faces.

Ye Olde Ragu Liste: @the-hexfiles @thorsterstrudle @dystopicjumpsuit @clonemedickix @freesia-writes @littlemissmanga @wolffegirlsunite @anxiouspineapple99 @wings-and-beskar @sinfulsalutations @523rdrebel @sunshinesdaydream @moonlightwarriorqueen @sev-on-kamino @starrylothcat @deejadabbles @starqueensthings @mandos-mind-trick @idontgetanysleep @eyeluvmusic21 @wizardofrozz @mythical-illustrator @sleepycreativewriter @dreamie411 @bobaprint @imarvelatthestars @originalcollectionartistry @droids-you-are-looking-for @goblininawig @lune-de-miel-au-paradis @9902sgirl if your name has a strikethrough, I can't tag you so check your settings! (if you'd like to be added or removed, click here!)

[kame-writes]

Had some questions about the Radiostatic Vampire/Human AU on discord, so thought I'd post them here too incase anyone was interested

Again, this AU is up for grabs just tag me if you use it because I wanna see ^^ This means anyone can use these ideas, pick and choose what to use or discard if you do anything with it. These are just some ideas I had.

I might draw up some designs for this au later.

More info:

Obsessive stalker Vox trying to find Alastor is bordering on insanity, He's been searching for years and only just getting some leads.

The other Vees are annoyed at him, but also worried.

Velvette thinks Alastor is in a cult. She never met him, but gets that vibe from what she's seen and heard from the other two.

Valentino thinks Alastor is a serial killer because of all the disappearances when he shows up. He always gave him the creeps the few times they met. They hated eachother.

Vox probably eventually tracks Alastor down via Husk or Rosie, since they're more in the public eye. He probably also becomes very jealous of Rosie since Alastor keeps in contact with her and not him

He had no idea when they were friends about Alastor being a vampire

Alastor also doesn't need to kill, he can feed off people and leave them alive. He just enjoys the hunting and killing of his prey as a form of sport.

Humans hunt animals for sport and food, and Alastor is a step above humans, so why would there be a difference?

Vampires are able to make people not remember when they feeds off them, either a low-level hypnosis or maybe a venom that causes short-term memory issues

Alastor was probably feeding off Vox the whole time they were friends. Whether long term use of memory alterations or hypnosis affected Vox is unknown

The reason he didn't kill Vox could be either he was useful in some way. Or he was a target to kill, but Alastor realised that he'd be missed, therefore more chance of him getting caught.

Mimzy might be an old friend that Alastor turned into a vampire to save her life, so feels partly responsible for her when she comes to him for help.

Husk Q&A Under the cut

What does Husk being a familiar mean?

So, my basis/reference for vampire familiars are based on 2 different fandoms. 1 The saga of Darren shan books, and 2 the movie Renfield.

Basically, familiars are half-bloods. A vampire gives them enough of their blood to grant them abilities, but not enough to turn them into a vampire themselves. This meams they don't need to drink blood and aren't affected by daylight, they live as an enhanced human, but still need human fuctions ie. Food, drink, temprature control ect. To survive.

My idea was Husk was a human who was tricked/persuaded into making a blood pact to become Alastors familiar, because Alastor needed someone to work for him who could operate in the day and take care of little task for him.

Is he a shapeshifter? / Does he have cat qualities?

This is up to anyone who wants to do something with it honestly, I don't have much ideas involving this. He needs to be human passing to do his job, but shape-shifting could also be good/useful too. Could also have Alastor being able to transform into a bat, like some of the vampire lore to tie it in why he'd have these abilities.

How did he end up that way?

Alastor probably stalked him a bit first, saw qualities that he found useful/appealing, and then made Husk an offer. Husk probably didn't know the full weight of what he was agreeing too, but understood enough to agree.

I see Husk as a loner, no friends or family that are close to him, probably still having his gambling and drinking issues ect. So he had nothing to lose and more to gain by accepting a deal from someone like Alastor.

[danggirlronpa]

haiiiii :3 akane anon again. im off work now!

i agree w absolutely everything u said. she's been my fav ever for years and i have so many in depth thoughts abt how she could function on relationships w like. most of the girls. i could probably make a chart if i figured out a format.

chiakane soooo crazy. never been my main ship but ill consider anything. they r most interesting from a doomed standpoint to me...... akane as a remnant vs chiaki's existence as ai and (counting dr3 as canon which im not usually interested in doing) death before the tragedy. i think of them in almost a similar vein to the tragedy between madoka and homura except if homura was replaced by a kyoko who's a little worse w emotions. chiaki's entire being has become dedicated in one way or another to serving class 77 even if that means sacrificing herself over and over and akane has had every single meaningful relationship (or what SHOULD have been) ripped away or twisted and never having even really existed and she is so afraid of going through this again she doesn't even try and have relationships she cares about deeply (or at all!) that aren't w her siblings. so she would be PISSED to fall in love w chiaki who is already dead and doomed to die again. ive never believed the mastermind akane theory people talk abt at least fully but it IS interesting. i can make a killer chiakane au w it. w madoka magica parallels even. but ur right they can also be very very sweet. i think they would play super smash bros and akane would kinda suck at it (spams the buttons and thinks it's a pro strategy) but chiaki would let her win every once or twice. akane hears the rumours abt chiaki dating some random reserve course guy and sends the "im so happy for you and your ugly fucking boyfriend I'm serious" text after swearing to herself she doesn't even gaf

that's uh. that's a lot. im so sorry can you tell i have autism. this isn't even my favourite ship for either of them ask me about pekokane and i start growling like a rabid dog.

YES yes yes yes!! I am a HUGE Akane fan. She's the only character I have a real little collection of merch for (though that's partly just because so much merch excludes Mukuro). I didn't really attach to her the first time I played SDR2 but over time I've grown SO fond and defensive of her, she is such a sad and complex character who deserved to be treated better by her writers (and have less racist tropes associated with her. Spike Chunsoft. cough cough) and still deserves to be treated better by the fandom.

And I think you got it RIGHT on the money why I'm inclined towards Chiaki/Akane, actually. Akane has lived such a dark life that not only does she not know how to ask for help or rely on others, she doesn't even realize she needs to - for her, this is just how the world is. Akane, to me, is like the equivalent of a housecat looking at their humans and going, "They don't even know how to hunt. They're all so stupid. I have to go kill mice so they can eat. Are they even bathing themselves properly?? Licking time. Morons." She's incredibly resilient and smart within the context of the VERY SPECIFIC lifestyle she's lived.

And something really appeals to me about someone who solely exists to help people meeting Akane, thinking they can 'save' her, and slowly coming to realize that she is not dumb or unskilled just because she isn't skilled in the way they value. Learning that intelligence isn't a measure of worth and seeing & valuing Akane for who she is - and, at the same time, helping her see that some of the things she's gone through are truly, deeply traumatic, and helping her learn how to rely on others for the first time...that shit gets me. I Just Want Akane To Be Happy

[myinterestsvary-writes]

Rewatching the contentious beach episode again, like perhaps the third time this year hehe. I don’t know, maybe I’m just built different but I still really like that episode and wholeheartedly, unironically stan Tamaki and Kyoya without disregarding the episode or any of their character flaws that are usually effectively lampshaded and/or made fun of. But I do agree with a lot of people in that the manga portrays this much better.

I compared the Japanese and English Dub and the English voice acting does make it sound worse, even if I can still take away that Tamaki wanted Haruhi to be more careful and considerate because she’s a girl because of all sorts of biological and societal reasons. Many of which feminism directly counters partly by saying that “Haruhi doesn’t need a man to save her” and “women are capable to deal with things themselves/they shouldn’t be infantilized or belittled for their gender” but I’ve never been much of an outright self-proclaimed feminist anyway despite agreeing a lot with what they have to say so that probably explains my leniency with this episode.

The point is that it’s not only that she’s weak(er) because she’s a girl. He literally questions if she knew how to fight/defend herself, which tells me that it would’ve made the situation better for her to be in regardless of gender to Tamaki but because she can’t and to add on that she’s a girl as well, in Tamaki’s eyes she was being stupid. I still agree with that specific point, what can I say? Not with everything he said and did though like ignoring her for example, yet this episode still proves that Tamaki is an idiot yet well-meaning and serious/capable in the right situations.

Here’s the thing that’s hard for people to wrap their heads around because there’s so much under-explained ideas clashing with each other that confuses people into thinking it’s bad: Haruhi correctly counters what Tamaki says about her being a girl with someone (her) needing to do something regardless of gender. She sounds far more correct and reasonable in the English Dub—she’s presented as right and relatively calm in both versions actually, I’m pretty sure objectively in the context of the show because Haruhi is the reasonable one here still as usual, though given more character through her decision-making. Maybe it’s because I can understand the language Caitlin Glass is speaking, maybe that’s why there’s stronger reactions from me with it. I understand better in Tamaki’s head that he just wants her to act more like other girls and not be as troublesome, but the show never betrayed her into conforming to those ideas (in the manga, he eventually learns that it’s fine for her to be herself and she learns in the beach episode that still regardless of gender that it’s okay to ask for help which is a fine message to me to portray {“Alright, [Haruhi] you win.” - Tamaki} because…I saw her as being more reckless than brave in that confrontation with very noble intentions, she’s allowed to be flawed and humanized). Tamaki and Haruhi are coming from two different perspectives here, that’s why people choose sides in this episode when I don’t think that’s truly necessary.

It’s a thing that Tamaki idealizes and fantasizes about the perfect Haruhi of his dreams, supported by the fact that they are not friends who spend time together outside the club. It’s a thing that Tamaki is very much wrong (and weird) for doing that. That’s not talked about enough when analyzing that argument scene. What he says here is in character and his sexism/stupidity is not played up to the extreme, just made serious and actually understandable/not niche in that Tamaki’s only understanding of women has been presented so far in his encounters with women from similar SES in the Host Club. It’s consistent to what we know of him so far, his words don’t warrant deeper analysis of his general view of women and why he feels the need to treat Haruhi the way he does because of, for example, how he grew up with his mother. It’s as simple as him being stupid and yes, sexist but realistic. If he were real, there’s no excusing or reasoning away his behaviour excluding the beach confrontation. Since he isn’t, however, I’m pretty sure it’s fine to laugh at him as he’s usually very wrong when it comes to the politics of the show (and the leftist online world—not upset or judging you guys) and this episode is no exception in portraying him as such yet allowing us to find him endearing as he is allowed and should be presented for more than the clown for good character writing imo to avoid flanderization (plus, I do think that he does chill out and becomes more tolerable and understandable if you’ve always taken him seriously as a character because he gets dissected in the manga later on). I can’t explain this well right now, but Tamaki is more than just his incorrect opinions.

[whoficky]

A Bit of Everywhere - Chapter 4

Sequel to Neither Here Nor There. Definitely read that before reading this!

Rating: T

Pairing: 10th Doctor X Rose Tyler

Work Summary: Rose and the Doctor are eager to get back to their old life of travel and adventure, but it's not as simple as running off into the stars. They now have two different universes to call home, their relationship to figure out, and a lot of recovering to do.

Chapter Summary: Rose attends to some human business and wonders why things have stagnated between her and the Doctor.

Chapter 4

“Oi! I can do it myself, thank you,” Rose complained when the Doctor whisked her glass of orange juice from the counter to the breakfast table.

“No, love, you can’t,” he swooped back to kiss her cheek and run a hand across her upper back, “You need hands to carry a glass and those hands have a more important job right now,” he said, nodding at her crutches.  

“It’s just to the table,” she groused.

“And I said no weight bearing yet.  Tony Tyler, didn’t I say no weight bearing?”

Tony looked up from his tablet with the dazed look of a kid who had been fully immersed in a virtual world, “Huh?” 

“He did say no weight bearing, sweetheart,” Pete said over the morning paper.

“Ugg, it’s a mutiny,” Rose complained.  

“Like with pirates?” Tony perked up.

“Arr exactly like with pirates, ya wee scalawag,” the Doctor put on his best pirate voice and threatened to tickle the little boy with a crooked finger.  Tony roared with laughter and Rose found she couldn’t keep up her scowl in light of their antics.  

It was brilliant to see the Doctor like this, fitting in so well with her family.  They’d been here just over a week now and somehow the eccentric Time Lord had blended right in.  She supposed it helped that her family had a rather eccentric history themselves.  And perhaps domestics weren’t quite as tedious for the Doctor now that he’d spent the last several months trapped in a single room.  Boredom, like most things, was all relative.    

“You want toast or cereal?” Jackie asked as Rose hobbled to the chair the Doctor had pulled out for her.

“Toast ta,” Rose said.  She took a sip of her orange juice and turned to Pete, “How is the Jakaswil’s case going?”  

He folded his paper and sighed, “Slowly.  You know how they are.”

“Set in their ways?  Close minded?  Have the occasional cravings for kittens?” The Doctor offered.

“Er, yes actually,” Pete said, “You’ve seen them before?”

“Oh yes,” the Doctor said enthusiastically as he plopped down in a seat next to Rose and started dumping sugar into his tea.  “I saved one of their cities from a meteor strike back in ol’ Universe Prime.”

Rose let her mind wander as the Doctor and Pete launched into a discussion about the cultural quirks of the Jakaswils.  It had been a mad week, transitioning back into family life.  As she weaned off the pain medication and became more alert, she was surprised at how much she was able to immerse herself in the joy of it.  She’d loved time with her family before of course, but she’d always held back to some extent - partly from being distracted with her determination to get back to the Doctor and partly to protect herself from all she’d have to give up if she ever achieved that goal.  But now she was free to just soak it all in.  She had everything, her family and the Doctor.   

Or, she hoped she still had the Doctor.  It had taken her a few days to notice, but she’d slowly come to the realization that they’d become very…careful with each other.  He was still affectionate and just wonderful in general, but it seemed like what happened the last night on the space station had broken something and they hadn’t quite found their way back to each other.  They snuggled and bantered and made each other laugh, but something was missing.  

For one thing, she’d have thought they’d’ve jumped each other’s bones by now.  With the TARDIS moved to her bedroom, they had more than enough privacy, and the Doctor had given her a shot that took care of birth control for the next three years.  Sure she was still recovering and that complicated things, but they’d hardly even had a proper snog.  Their causal touches brought comfort, but no spark.  She missed it, missed him, even though he was rarely far from her side.  

Maybe the distance had something to do with how they’d slipped back into their pre-separation status quo of avoiding talking about anything of substance.  All of their conversations tended to be centered around whatever was in front of them in the moment.  “Please pass the sugar” and “Tony, why don’t you tell the Doctor about the treehouse you and Dad are planning?”  Neither of them dared bring up what happened on the space station - Not even when one of them woke from nightmares or they caught the other quiet and staring off into nothing.    

The whole family had taken their lead and had been carrying on like the story Pete’s press team had come up with to explain her disappearance was the truth.  Sometimes, Rose even thought she was starting to believe it herself.  And who could blame her?  That explanation was so much better than reality.  It was neat and thrilling and painless, the type of thing she’d read about in one of those paperback books they sold in airports.  Rose Tyler, mysterious Vitex heiress staged a dramatic kidnapping as part of a top secret mission to save the country from a domestic terrorist plot.  Her family and friends had been in on it the whole time and should all get a BAFTA for their supporting roles covering for her heroics with manufactured grief.  

Rose had been outed as special ops at Kimmy’s birthday party already, so the team had just decided to run with that angle.  It didn’t hurt that the story would continue to be useful in explaining her lengthy absences when she was off with the Doctor in her home universe.  It wasn’t like she was going back to school or working for Torchwood, so she didn’t really care what the PR team came up with as long as it allowed her to come and go as she pleased.         

As optimistic as she was about the usefulness of the story, Rose was dreading going live with it early next week.  The press was going to have a field day.  She’d never warmed up to being a media darling and she wasn’t looking forward to being back in the spotlight.  Rose always worried that some little slip-up would highlight her humble beginnings and make her the subject of distain and ridicule.  It was ridiculous that even when her life was full of much larger problems, these silly little human insecurities still got to her.  But they did.  So much so that she’d gone to school on a whole other continent to escape it.  Now, with her still feeling so raw, she wasn’t looking forward to entering back into the public eye.   

At least Pete’s PR team were excellent at their job.  They were always very thorough when prepping her before official interviews or appearances.  She had a meeting with them this morning to go over everything for the upcoming press conference, and would have several more prep sessions as follow up.  She could do it.  For her family, she could do it.  One week from today and the worst of it would be over.              

With the date of going public rapidly approaching, and a trickle of people now being allowed back into the Tyler mansion, it was time for a very important phone call.  Rose would never want Kimmy to hear about her return from a rumor that some NDA-ignoring PR intern started.  It was still the middle of the night in New England though.  So for now, Rose focused back on her breakfast and the happy chaos of her family getting ready for their day.

She was just in time too, as Tony had looked up from his tablet long enough to notice her orange juice.  The little sneak had swiped it and was bringing the glass to his lips, eyes sparkling with delight at his heist.

“Oi!  Give that back, you little monkey.  You know the rules.  No juice until after school,” she said, bracing herself as Tony’s face scrunched up in indignation.  Oh the Doctor was about to see quite the show, she just knew it.

“But I waaaaant some!” he bellowed, slapping his now empty hands down on the table, making their plates and cups rattle.  “It’s no fair you get to have juice.  Why can’t I?”

“Tony Tyler, you are much too smart and grown up to act like you don’t know it interferes with your medicine,” she said firmly.  Her mum gave her a little pat on the shoulder as she hurried by to thank Rose for upholding the family rules and putting herself in the line of fire.    

Her little brother was turning a shade of red that would have terrified her if she wasn’t used to it by now.  Well, guess the honeymoon period of her being back was over.  She pondered whether it would be Tony’s breakfast or his tablet that would end up dashed onto the floor sometime in the next few seconds.  

“Tony!” the Doctor cut in with enthusiasm, “Have I showed you my sonic screwdriver yet?  Look, I’ll heat up that porridge you’ve been neglecting.  Nobody likes cold porridge!”      

The ruse worked.  Apparently the Doctor’s novelty hadn’t quite worn off yet, even if her’s had.  The little boy’s face morphed from a look of rage to one of awe as the Doctor leaned across Rose and pointed his whirring sonic at her brother’s breakfast.  Then he shrieked in surprise and delight as the bowl shattered with a loud pop and soggy cereal sprayed in every direction.  

Whether or not the china in this universe must have a different molecular structure like the Doctor claimed, a milk-and-cereal-doused Tony was definitely going to be late for school today.  At least the kid was laughing.   It certainly beat a legendary Tony Tyler meltdown.     

*******

Rose sat on the sofa between the Doctor and her mum worrying at her thumbnail as she waited for Jackie to gently break the news to Kimmy that she was back.  They had decided this was the best way to go about it, fearing that suddenly hearing from Rose out of the blue would be too much of a shock for her ex-roommate.    

This morning Rose had felt ready, even eager to talk to Kimmy again.  But now, as she waited for the call to connect, she was suddenly not so sure. 

Her mum looked over and gave her leg a little pat, “It’ll be fine, love.  She -” Jackie switched her focus when Kimmy picked up, “Oh hi Kimberly!  It’s Jackie Tyler, Rose’s mum.  How are you doing, sweetheart?  It’s been too long.  About ready to head back to school?”  

Rose might have rolled her eyes if she wasn’t so tense.  Her mum could never just get to the point without a little chit chat first.  

“Oh, I know…Yes, us too…Well, that’s actually why I called…Yeah, there’s been some news…Oh no, it’s good, I promise…Yeah, really good.  Rose is back!”

Her mum waited a few breaths, eyebrows knit, “Kimmy, you still there?…Oh good, thought we lost connection.  Cell service is rubbish these days…Yeah, she’s back…Just a few days now…No, no one knows yet, just family and a few staff…Oh Kimmy, yeah take a minute.  I know.  It’s a lot.”

Her mum beamed at Rose who offered a weak smile in return.  This was all so strange.  The different aspects of her life in Pete’s World were all getting very enmeshed.  By next week there would be no divisions between Rose the heiress, the student, and the field agent.  And while that was strange enough when it came to the public at large, it was deeply uncomfortable when it came to the people she actually knew and cared about.  She didn’t know how to be all these different Rose Tylers at once.  

She felt the Doctor’s cool hand slide into hers.  She looked over at him and he gave her a little grin and nudged her shoulder playfully.  It reminded her that of all the Rose Tylers, the one that was his was the most important.  The smile she offered back felt a bit more natural as it spread across her face.    

Then Jackie was handing her the phone and, oh god, she had to say something, didn’t she?  

“Kimmy?” Rose finally managed.  

“Oh my god, it’s you!  You’re really back!” her friend sobbed.

“Yeah,” Rose squeaked, not sure what else to say.

“Are you…are you ok?”

“I…” Rose struggled with that.  She hadn’t had to do this with her family or Mickey.  Either the Doctor or her mum had handled everything.  And she hadn’t seen a hair of a single PR person until they’d been fully briefed - and probably threatened - by Pete.  But she had wanted to be the one to take charge this time.  It was just…the words were getting all tangled up.  After a breath she was able to manage, “Well, I’m a bit roughed up, but, yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“Oh Rose, thank god!  We were all so worried about you!  You just vanished!  Where did you go?  It’s been so long…”

“I was…,” Rose squeezed her eyes shut and refused the memories that were trying to sneak through.  She’d prepared for this.  She’d gone over it so many times in her head.  Why was it suddenly so hard?  The Doctor rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb and she looked up at him.  He gave her another little smile and dipped his head in an encouraging nod.  

Right.  She could do this.  And just like that, Rose found her way to the person she needed to be in that moment.

“Well you know I was taken.  Kind of embarrassing, that.  I’m supposed to be this big shot field agent.  But,” she sighed dramatically, sounding more the girl who went to frat parties with her mates, “They got me.  You already know that part though.”

“Yeah,” Kimmy sniffed, “Your mum said it had to do with - with aliens?  Like that guy you lost?”

Rose laughed.  “Yeah, mad as that sounds.  But he’s not lost.  Not anymore.  I found him, Kimmy,” Rose met the Doctor’s eye, knowing the look they shared would have made Tony gag and run from the room.

“Your Doctor?”

“Yeah, I’m…he’s right here.  Sitting right next to me.”

“Oh my god, Rose!  Well I can’t even be mad, then can I?”

Rose laughed, “Naw, you can be mad.  I am.”

“That you got him back?” Kimmy sniffed, confused.

“No, not that.  Course not.  It’s more the why and the how of it.  They took him too.  Trapped us in a room on a space station somewhere so far away even the Doctor didn’t know where we were.”

“But why?  Was it like a ransom thing?”

“No, not ransom,” Rose took in a deep breath, “Oh god Kimmy, you aren’t going to believe this.  They wanted us to mate.  Like bloody show dogs!”

Rose could hear Kimmy huff a laugh on the other end of the phone and she grinned herself.  Take away all the horror, and the basic premise did have a sort of humor to it.  

“No really, Rose.  What actually happened?”

“I’m serious!  He’s…his people are sort of a rarity and -”

“Oh my god, stop!  You’re serious!” Kimmy cackled, “I can’t even!”

“Right?!” Rose exclaimed.

“And I suppose it was such a hardship for you,” Kimmy snorted.

“Actually, uh, we sort of refused.”

“What?! Why!?  Haven’t you been pining for him for like years?  Is it…oh my god Rose, does he not have the right parts?  Does he want to do weird alien sex stuff?”

“No!” Rose shrieked, suddenly wishing the Doctor wasn’t sitting right there, hearing all of this with his bloody inconvenient super hearing.  She could feel him shaking with silent laughter next to her.  “I just didn’t want to get up the duff!”

“Oh, yeah forgot about that part,” Kimmy admitted.

Rose snorted, “Yeah, I almost did too a few times.”  She felt heat flush her cheeks at the memories of the few times her self-control had wavered. 

“Alright so you didn’t mate, then,”  Kimmy said, “What did you do all that time?”

“Tried to escape, mostly,” Rose stretched the truth nearly beyond recognition, “Finally had to be rescued by some friends.”

“That how you got hurt?”

“Yep,” Rose popped the P like the Doctor often did.  

“My god,” Kimmy said, “The whole thing is freaking crazy.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Rose agreed, leaning her head on the Doctor’s shoulder.  “Anyway, we got back to the TARDIS, that’s the Doctor’s spaceship, and once I was feeling up for it, we hopped back to my family’s place.”

“Here I was giddy over Brian’s Mustang,” Kimmy sighed, “And your man has a spaceship!”

Rose laughed, eager to introduce her friend to the concept of parallel worlds and time travel.  

“Oh Kimmy,” Rose grinned, “It’s even better than that.  I have so much to tell you.”

With one last pat to her knee, her mum got up to go about her afternoon as Rose and Kimmy caught up.  

[wwpia]

Sydney’s parents, can you tell where he got his death glare? Lol his mother isn’t especially short, his father is just a GIANT of a man. Mhmm. Syd your daddy hawt.

I need to come up with names.

I imagine they both were extremely passionate/dedicated in their respective roles. Sydney’s mother being a healer/teacher of other healers and chairwoman/head of an institution that is kind of like the governing body for doctors? She has her pentagram on her right hand because… she’s right handed. Obviously Sydney chose to have a pentagram on his own hand - partly in dedication to her. aww.

Sydney’s father is not especially magically inclined and works as a kind of travelling priest that deals with more serious metaphysical threats. Much more spirit haunting/possessions. Unfortunately he has also been asked to eliminate particularly threatening HPOs too. He has a whooole slew of blessed weapons. He doesn’t especially work for/with the WWPIA - he works more for the church, or rather a knights Templar/military type offshoot of the church which in this world is an extremely powerful organisation.

That said, he does cross paths with Sydney on a on a very infrequent basis and encounter is pretty much always extremely tense. I can just see them both so frosty with each other you could practically measure the ambient temperature go arctic.

Sydney’s parents were together all of his childhood- albeit in an increasingly strained relationship as their respective roles made the, drift apart quite a lot. (Not sure if they were married tbh). Syd’s father was a fairly reasonable if somewhat distant father and his mother very much did much of the parenting.

The incident of Syd mothers death is a bit of a grey zone morally wise - witches invoking/binding themselves to a demon is kind of a massive no-no in this world? For the fact that so much can go so, so very wrong. It’s basically summoning an entity from a completely different plane of existence and kind of hoping they’ll help you out… at the cost of your soul. Some demons are very ‘human’ like on their goals and motivations, others are ‘let’s completely mess the world up!’. The idea of pulling out some Bill Cilpher-esque demon for like… money or something is horrifying.

So yeah, I mean that’s basically what Sydney’s mother does anyway in desperation to save Syd’s life - essentially starting to summon a demon (haven’t decided which one yet) before Syd’s father stops her. His intention was obviously not to kill her but to interrupt her summoning circle - unfortunately the result is the same. But not before managing to persuade the demon to save Sydney. The demon kind of turns out to be fairly nice, waives off the transaction as a simple transfer and not an actual bargain. What a sweetie! Lol

The whole situation understandably causes (or rather deepens) the rift between Sydney and his father. Neither are… particularly good at talking about the event but deep down they both know the overall mess it was. Really didn’t help that Syd’s father really wasn’t that great at being a parent or… great with kids. Then he just parented how he had been parented, with a load of generational trauma! Oof, poor Sydney.

Eventually Syd/his father do somewhat come to a better relationship, after Sydney basically dying to save the world and after the birth of Syd/Faustus child. Both these things kind of prompt his father to actually… quite emotionally admit he couldn’t bear it if Syd had actually died and finally acknowledging the regret of causing Syd’s mothers death. Syd also very unequivocally explains how he does not want to be like his father and to his surprise, so does his father! It’s kind of heartwarming in a bittersweet way.

As for his attitude towards Faustus, that does change quite starkly from ‘begone, foul freak of nature’ to begrudging respect. Not to mention acknowledging the fact that Faustus does make his son pretty happy.

I can see him meeting Faustus’ family and it being so…. so awkward as they mostly think he’s a horrible arsehole and he’s honestly not sure what to make of a gaggle of werewolves from Yorkshire living on a farm. Although when meets Ahan, Faustus’ brother it’s kind of instant rapport and they’re both as stoic as each other whilst secretly actually being like ‘lol, I like this guy’. Then Ahan deadpan asks if he help exorcise some spirits from sheep and Syd’s father is ALL about that.

[captainwidowspring]

No need to apologize! It is quite nice to be able to have a respectful conversation about our disagreements. And sometimes one quite simply needs many words to make their point. Honestly, my response is probably going to be a lot longer than yours.

So, here are my thoughts on the points you brought up.

John and the Serum

I must disagree with the assertion that John was obsessed with the serum. What you see as John being obsessed with the serum, I see as John being desperate for something that would make the fight more even. John was a normal human tasked with dealing with a group of hostile supersoldiers, and Sam and Bucky were stubbornly refusing to help him. @battletrio put it well: "And with the way everyone had basically pushed him around and outmatched him physically at nearly every turn, how can he protect everyone if he couldn't even protect himself or his best friend? Is it any surprise that he became desperate for something, anything, that could help him level the playing field when he's got no powers or tech like most other heroes do? He might as well have been thrown into a war armed with tin cans at this rate and no one thought to give him a hand. They just poked at him until he broke."

(And while yes, Sam wasn't enhanced either, he had his wing-pack. Imagine if he didn't.)

That's why John was like "They weren't even supersoldiers" when he got his butt kicked by the Dora Milajae. He was like, if I can't even fend off non-enhanced people, how am I supposed to defeat eight supersoldiers?

Honestly, it's kind of weird that the government didn't try to give their new Captain America any kind of boost, especially since they were sending him out to fight supersoldiers.

And as for the scene with Bucky where he said, "This is all really easy for you, isn't it? All that serum runnin' through your veins."—first of all, him saying that was probably partly motivated by resentment, as Bucky didn't have to worry about being physically outmatched by the Flagsmashers, and he did. But what he said after this was, "Barnes, your partner needs backup in there. Do you really want his blood on your hands?" This shows that John was terrified for Sam's safety, since he is also a normal human and he wasn't wearing his wing-pack, and John felt that Bucky as a supersoldier wasn't comprehending the danger.

What also indicates that John is not obsessed with the serum is that, when he did finally obtain the serum, he didn't immediately take it. Some time passed, and he first asked for Lemar's advice on the matter:

John: If you had the chance to take the serum, would you do it?

Lemar: Hells, yeah.

John: You wouldn't be worried about how it might. . .How it might change you?

Lemar: I mean. . .power just makes a person more of themselves, right? Karli Morgenthau. Steve Rogers.

John: And me?

Lemar: You already have three Medals of Honor. You consistently make the right decisions in the heat of battle.

John: Yep. Three badges of excellence to make sure I never forget the worst day of my life. . .We both know that the things that we had to do in Afghanistan to be awarded those medals felt a long way from being right. Being Cap is the first time I've had the chance to do something that actually feels right.

Lemar: But God! Imagine how many lives we could have saved that day if we had that serum.

This conversation reveals many things. It shows that John is considering taking the serum, but he is afraid that it will corrupt him, so he wants Lemar's advice. Lemar expresses his faith in John, but John is still clearly torn, as he doubtlessly does not want to mess up the opportunity he has been given. However, then Lemar brings up the point that they would have been able to save more people in Afghanistan if they had had the serum, and this is what evidently sways John to take it.

Nico's death scene

Here is the way I see that scene. John yells, "Where is she?" at Nico. Shortly afterward he finally gets into a position where he has the upper hand, but then before John can interrogate him, Nico yells, "It wasn't me!" This is when John attacks, so it seems like John lost it when Nico said that.

The assertion that John is stronger than Nico and Nico doesn't stand a chance against him is quite simply not true. He is clearly just as strong as John, as he was able to hold John completely immobile a few minutes ago. Heck, he probably would have been able to kill John if John hadn't enhanced himself. John simply managed to get the upper hand for a moment, as Nico had had the upper hand before. This idea that Nico was some sort of meek, innocent, powerless victim seriously needs to go away.

And as I went over above, Nico was not surrendering. Yelling "It wasn't me!" and waving your arms is not surrendering. And considering that Nico is a supersoldier, and Lemar had just been killed without a weapon, the fact that he is unarmed does not mean he is not dangerous, and would be no great comfort to John.

I don't know where you are getting the idea that John enjoyed the kill. John killed Nico because he lost control of his emotions, not because he wanted to see Nico suffer. And John killed him quickly, he didn't try to prolong his suffering like Thor did with Thanos. Then he steps dazedly backwards, gazes unhappily at Nico's corpse, and then takes in the reaction of the crowd. The next time we see him, he is agonizing over Lemar's death. None of this indicates enjoying the kill.

I agree with you that we expect heroes to be better, and I mentioned above that John shouldn't have killed him. But here's the thing: heroes aren't always perfect. Yes, John made a mistake. But the issue is that people act like he is some sort of irredeemable monster for doing this, when in fact it was completely understandable. (It's the exact same problem we often see with Wanda.)

And no one seemed to have a problem when, back in The First Avenger, when Steve thought Bucky had been killed, he vowed not to stop until "all of Hydra is dead or captured" even though it was only the one Hydra agent who was directly responsible for Bucky's supposed death. So it's unclear why people flip out so hard at John for killing one Flagsmasher, who was directly responsible for Lemar's death.

Sam and Bucky's hatred of John

John did say Steve felt like a brother to him, but he never pretended that he personally knew Steve, as he directly specified, "I followed his career very closely as an Avenger." And based on his subsequent words—"I like to think that I modeled my work after his. . . .I liked that what I was doing would make people feel safe. Steve Rogers was the kind of guy who could do that, he gave me hope."—it is clear that John looked up to Steve as a role model, so him saying that Steve felt like a brother was simply him expressing admiration.

It is wrong that the government lied to Sam, but Sam was the one who gave the shield up, and none of this was John's fault. (And it's worth pointing out that they were the ones who came up with the Captain America title in the first place.)

When John said, "Kinda the government", he didn't mean that literally, he just meant that he was working for the government. That is just an extraordinarily bad faith interpretation of his words.

As for John calling Sam and Bucky "Cap's wingmen". . .What's wrong with that, exactly? How is that insulting? That's what they are. It's no different than Sam calling Riley his wingman. Sam and Bucky literally are Steve's wingmen. If you look up "wingman" in a dictionary, you'll see that one of the definitions is "a friend or close associate". That perfectly describes Sam and Bucky's relationship with Steve.

And the full sentence was, "It’d be a whole lot easier if I had Cap’s wingmen on my side." John is pointing out that working together would make everyone's lives easier, and him referring to Sam and Bucky as "Cap's wingmen" is him trying to convey the idea that he would be honored to work with his role model's close friends. There is literally nothing wrong with what he's saying. Sam storming off because John tried to convey his respect for him and Bucky is just as ridiculous as Bucky storming off because Lemar's superhero name is Battlestar.

As for him calling off Bucky's therapy, considering that it wasn't helping Bucky at all, and was clearly just the government keeping Bucky under their thumb, the fact that John called it off was a good thing. Considering that, based on reactions to the show, plenty of military therapists are like that, there is a good chance that John would know exactly what Bucky was going through in that regard. He also bailed Bucky out of jail for missing his therapy, and did not require anything in return for any of this.

But I'll be honest, I'm completely stumped as to where you got the idea that John only wanted Sam and Bucky to be his sidekicks.

Sam and Bucky attacking John

Alright, here is what happened in the fight for the shield. Yes, at the beginning Sam and Bucky were talking to John. And Sam did say the quote you provided, but then shortly afterward he said, "You gotta give me the shield, man." John said, "Oh, so that's what this is," which is a reasonable conclusion for him to draw, since considering how hostile Sam and Bucky had been toward him up to this point, and how they hadn't previously tried to help either him or Lemar, their sudden apparent sympathy was a marked change. And Sam doesn't even deny it (which, he did when Karli made the same accusation), he only continues, "You made a mistake." John, correctly guessing that they're about to come at him, says, "You don't want to do this." Bucky then replies, "Yeah we do," and attacks, and Sam joins him. John makes no move until Bucky does. So yes, the fight was completely Sam and Bucky's fault. John was simply fighting back.

Yes, John was somewhat wild during the fight. But this is completely understandable. He just lost his closest friend, and then right after he tried to pull himself together, Sam and Bucky attacked him in order to take the shield back.

And John clearly doesn't want to fight them. During the fight he screams out in frustration, "WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME DO THIS???" which is a completely valid question because, again, Sam and Bucky started it. John was just trying to fend them off. And that one instance with Sam is literally the only time he ever goes for the kill. This is a testament to his sheer self-control, as it is easy to tell how furious the fight was making him, and this was on top of everything that had just happened. It's also important to note that Sam and Bucky made the deliberate choice to attack a person who they knew full well was already off-balance.

Honestly, what Sam and Bucky did was really disgusting. They didn't even care that Lemar had just been killed, they just suggested that John give them the shield, and when he didn't they attacked him, even going as far as breaking his arm. Considering that they wanted the shield for the whole show, it seems like they chose this moment to attack John simply because they felt like they had gained the moral high ground. But they didn't, what they did was extremely reprehensible. They didn't even give John time to process his loss, they just immediately went for it.

Zemo

I'm not trying to say that Sam and Bucky worked with Zemo because they particularly trusted him. What I'm saying is that when Zemo killed Dr. Nagel in cold blood, Sam and Bucky just moved past it: but when John lost it and killed someone who was culpable in the murder of his closest friend, minutes after the fact, Sam and Bucky were very unforgiving, and were only nice to him as a means to get the shield back; once he refused they attacked him.

Accountability

What exactly gave you the idea that John got off scot-free for Nico's death? He was publicly stripped of his title as Captain America, and the senator told him that, "It's only because of your previous exemplary service to this country that I'm recommending against a court-martial." John was also given an other than honorable discharge from the army, which meant, as he was told, that he would "hold no rank in retirement and receive no benefits." And when he tried to explain why he felt this was unfair, he was threatened with a life sentence to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks. How is this "getting off scot-free"? Unless you're just upset that John didn't go to prison?

(And yes, if Sam was in John's position, they would probably do something similar.)

Also, regarding the scene where John was given his punishments, I found a comment on Youtube that expresses a lot of the frustrations those of us who like John have: "A bunch of people are here ripping on Walker and not listening to what he is saying, just like the senator. He made a damn good argument too that this is all he’s ever been told to do and Captain America was no different. Don’t believe that’s something Cap would do? Clearly you forget the first movie where he uses a gun after breaking through a door. Not only that, but why is killing terrorists being treated as bad now? Where was this type of support for them when Tony was mercilessly blowing them up and setting them on fire? John left a bad taste in the mouths of the public but this scene is essentially showing that he is being used as a scapegoat for the government. It doesn’t matter if he deserves the title or not, he did the job that was asked of him and he did it well (and no one cried when Zemo’s Butler or the 'Power Broker' killed any flagsmashers so this deep rooted hatred for Walker is undeserved)."

Framing

I also think John's saving of the van was framed as a sort of redemption, as based on the fact that the show consistently treated him like he was a terrible person even though he wasn't, as well as the way they framed his killing of Nico as an unforgivable sin, they clearly thought he needed it. But as I said before, him saving the van was not him acting any differently than he had throughout the rest of the show; it was just him acting like the good person he was shown to be.

I assume by "lying to Lemar's family" you mean when, in response to the question from Lemar's dad, "He's the one who killed our boy?" he answered, "Yes." This is not lying, however, because again, Nico is partly responsible for Lemar's death. He helped create the circumstances that led to it, and he is the reason that John was unable to defend Lemar from Karli. John simply didn't mention that Nico wasn't the only person responsible, and his subsequent words—"I would never let the person who did that get away. And I hope you can find some measure of peace in that."—make it clear that he was affected by the pain Lemar's family was in, and he didn't want them to have any extra stress from knowing that the other person responsible for their son's murder was still at large. And it wasn't a given that he would survive the fight with Karli, so he wanted to make sure that if he ended up getting killed by her, they would still be able to have closure.

As for the funeral, he wanted to "Go in fast, take her by surprise," specifically because he was aware of the high risk of civilian casualties, as he said this in response to Lemar's statement, "That means civilians. High risk of casualties." And if she was taken by surprise, she might not get a chance to fight back and so be able to harm others. And honestly, John's subsequent reaction to Sam's pushback—"I think we're way past reasoning with her, unless you forgot the fact that she blew up a building with people still in it"—is entirely justified. Sam's insistence on talking to Karli is ridiculous. An amazing John Walker defense video that I really like explained why: “Karli is the leader of this organization. She has avid supporters all around the world. She killed innocent people already, and she still has that support. Does Sam really believe that he could change Karli’s mind? From her view, things are already going in her direction. With a few hiccups from the GRC and two Avengers, but otherwise, she’s getting what she wants. Why would she stop when she already crossed the line? And if she gets away, she will kill again.”

While preventing civilian casualties is always desired, we've established that sometimes villains quite simply don't give the heroes that opportunity. And the talking didn't accomplish much, as it's not like Karli was showing any signs of being swayed by Sam, even before John interrupted them. It's also important to note that, if Bucky hadn't suddenly held Lemar back at the last second, and instead helped John with Karli, they could have arrested her then and there, and taken her away without much of a fight.

Yes, John was certainly framed as unstable from the get-go. That doesn't mean he actually was unstable, however, and there are plenty of indications he wasn't. And while there were a few times he got overly frustrated, considering that Lemar specifically told him, "You consistently make the right decisions in the heat of battle" it's clear that he's not always like this, the stress of the situation was just getting to him in those moments. Honestly, John's treatment in Falcon and the Winter Soldier is extremely similar to Steve's treatment in Civil War. In both cases, the framing was set against someone who did not deserve it, and they were consistently portrayed as unreasonable even though their judgements were completely sound.

Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do.

Credit to the original Ms. Marvel comics for that quote

A sentiment that is sadly lost on the current MCU

That quote is perfect 👌

I'm afraid Phase 4's core message is the exact opposite of that. You're good if we frame you as good regardless of your actions. And if we frame you as bad no matter what you do, you will be considered a villain.

Loki is the only one in the series who doesn't do anything wrong, who doesn't commit any crime or who doesn't abuse his power. Mobius and Sylvie murder people and commit awful crimes, but those are swept under the rug while Loki is condemned.

John Walker abuses his power, he murders a surrendering and unarmed man in plain daylight, he's willing to risk the lives of many to get Karli.... but he saves a van. He was "good" all along.

Ikaris betrays his team and kills Ajak but he goes on a tirade about how hard it was for him to know the truth as if Ajak hadn't known it for longer than him and carried the weight with her for years. But hey, he gets a lot of compassion while she gets none. Poor thing, he wasn't all bad.

And sometimes the movies handle things right, like what Wakanda Forever did with Namor, but the fanon misses the point completely and justifies his every action.... surely influenced by the way Marvel is treating a lot of their characters lately.

Dunno, I'd rather have movies that judge actions regardless of 'who is doing what' because that's how you make stories interesting. In the past, Marvel would write imperfect heroes and relatable villains who had a point.... but now the heroes act like villains and the bad guys have more morals than them.... but they're still framed as evil 🤷‍♀️

[captains-simp]

Wanda Maximoff ~ Fake It Till You Make It

Wanda version of this fic as requested by @yeetus-thyself

7.7k words

Warnings: shitty family and homophobia

[ masterlist ]

Buy me a coffee ☕

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Pleeaasse, Wan" You pouted once again. You had been begging Wanda for the favour for an hour now; her stubborness was proving hard to overcome.

"I'm busy." Wanda said, her accent strong as she walked around her appartment to collect things for her next mission.

"But will you be busy on the 10th?" You asked from the couch where you watched her disappear into various rooms as she talked.

"I thought you said it was a few days." Wanda quipped, seemingly only giving you half her attention.

"It is." You confirmed with some hope.

"So I'd need to clear my schedule for more than just the 10th." You huffed and rested your head on the back of couch.

"Yes you would. I'm sure Natasha can manage without you for a few days."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." She muttered.

"Please, Wan." You tried. "I need a win." Wanda stopped by the kitchen counter and gave you a long, considering look. You had long given up on your puppy dog eyes and instead copied her expression as you chewed on your bottom lip.

"I'll think about it." Wanda finally said before grabbing something from the cupboard. It was the best response you had gotten all night and you knew you wouldn't get anything more. So you accepted it and hoped for the best.

Your parents had invited you to their cabin for a few days just like they did every year. It was a beautiful place. You could spend your whole visit in the forest along the back. Or swimming in the clear lake that was a short walk away. The cabin itself was the cosiest place you had ever been and had been where some of your best memories had happened as a kid.

As you got older things changed. Being around your family, especially your parents, wasn't as enjoyable. They had high expectations for their children, expectations that your siblings had met without a problem but ones that you had struggled with. You enjoyed your life. You had the kind of relationships you had always hoped for, you loved your job and you had the perfect balance of the two. But you could never shake the feeling that you had failed.

Your brother was a surgeon who always told you all stories of the lives he saved and the close calls he had swooped in to save people from. One of your sisters was some hot shot lawyer who had done great things like help people wrongly convicted but still put dangerous people back on the street. And your other sister was the CEO of an energy company that you never quite understood. They even all had equally successful partners who loved to talk about themselves as much as your siblings did. You didn't have any of that. But you did have Wanda.

Knowing the Avengers was the only thing about you your family took interest in. They were always subtly hinting at wanting to meet your friends. But you knew the Avengers had to endure enough fan service and didn't want to push your family onto them, especially with how annoying they all were.

However as your family's unrealistic expectations reached their all time high you were sure you wouldn't be able to handle another trip with them without a win, and you were far too petty to take the moral high ground and just not go. Not to mention that was a huge part of you that was dying to see what the Wanda girlfriend experience would entail. Yep, that was what you were asking of Wanda. To pretend to be your partner for the duration of the trip.

You knew it wasn't a smart choice. That if Wanda agreed your crush on her could get out of hand. You knew you would end up getting too caught up in the act. You could have, no - should have - asked Natasha or Yelena or even Carol if she was around. But your family knew you were the closest with Wanda and she would be the one it felt the most natural with, and the most believable. At least, that was what you told Wanda.

"When are you going?" You asked, changing the subject in hopes that Wanda wouldn't suddenly conclude she didn't want to do it (then you really would have to ask one of the others).

"Tomorrow." She answered, keeping her focused tone.

"When will you be back?" You attempted to keep the concern out of your voice but the glance the redhead gave you told you you hadn't done a good job.

"The day after." She said, softer this time. You nodded as you looked down at your lap and tried not to think about everything that could possibly go wrong on her mission.

"Be safe." Wanda strolled over to you and placed her hand gently ontop of yours and gave it a quick squeeze.

"Always."

*

"Got any plans Saturday night?" Natasha smirked knowingly at her friend as they preped for their mission.

"No." Wanda replied as she adjusted her earpiece.

"Nothing with y/n then?" Nat asked, partly genuinely but mostly knowing Wanda would still say no.

"Nope." She said again, biting the inside of her cheek in consideration before speaking again. "Not this Saturday."

Natasha raised an eyebrow in surprise and interest. Wanda rarely made any kind of special plans with you as you would always hang out casual and it was never anything fancy or different. She had always wanted to though.

"Plans for another time?" Nat continued as she double checked her pack.

"Maybe, I'm still thinking about it." The redhead turned fully to her friend at her words, confused at why Wanda was hesitant to spend time with you. "She wants me to go to the cabin with her and her family." Nat had heard all about the infamous cabin and your family.

"That sounds fun." Nat nodded. The cabin sounded fun. Your family did not.

"As her girlfriend." Nat's eyes widened excitedly but before she could speak Wanda clarified. "Her pretend girlfriend."

Nat paused and looked as though she was going to speak for several seconds until she stuck to just giving a confused look.

"Yeah." Wanda sighed. "Thinks it would seem impressive." Wanda had tried not to be hurt over that. She knew you weren't just friends with her to show her off to people, because you never did. But it hurt her to think the only time you could see her in a romantic way was when you were pretending.

"Well," Nat muttered as she adjusted the zip along the front of her catsuit. "Fake it till you make it." It was Wanda's turn to give Nat a questioning look. "Maybe it'll be an eye opener for her."

"You think I should do it?" She asked, fully open to hearing and accepting her friend and mentor's advice in that area.

"Definelty." Nat confirmed. She wasn't sure about it for the reasons she said though. Wanda's crush on you was obvious to everyone except you, just as it was vice versa.

*

You had been overjoyed when Wanda told you she would come with you to the cabin and play along as your girlfriend. She had told you when she came back from her mission, in fact it was the first thing she said after she had let herself into your appartment. It was never really brought up after that, but you couldn't deny you were incredibly anxious on the week leading up to the visit.

On the drive up to the cabin you and Wanda stayed in a comfortable silence most of the time, clearly both lost in thought. You had the radio on for background noise more than anything else, but you would occasionally lightly tap the steering wheel if there was a tune you recognised, oblivious to Wanda's acknowledging smiles.

"So what's the plan?" Wanda asked as she looked at you expectantly. Right, of course the Avenger wanted a strategy.

"Keep things simple, I guess. They know how we met already so we can just say at some point we took things a step further than friendship." Wanda didn't seem convinced at the simplicity of that. "Look they're not going to want to hear about us, not much at least. They prefer the sound of their own voices, they'll be trying to impress you is all."

"Impress me?" Wanda asked.

"Yeah, hope you warm up to them so one day they can invite you to their snobby parties." Wanda chuckled her heart warming laugh as she glanced out of the window, knowing there was a lot of truth to what you said.

"And what are those like?" She enquired curiously.

"I wouldn't know, I've never been invited." You said simply. You had gotten over that a long time ago, gotten used to being forgotten. Wanda clearly hadn't though.

"It will be an honour to turn them down." Wanda said. You shook your head and smiled at her. That did sound pretty nice.

When the cabin came into sight between the trees your nerves spiked. You figited in your seat and bit your lip when you saw some of your family gathered outside, their attention instantly on you. You shot Wanda a quick smile which she returned before you got out of the car.

"Y/n! So nice of you to come." You mum said as her eyes flickered to Wanda more than you. She opened her arms for the shortiest hug in human history before turning to Wanda. "You must be Wanda, we've heard so much." You mum insisted as she brought the redhead in for a hug too. She raised her eyebrows at you over your mum's shoulder and you bite back a laugh.

The others came over to greet you and mainly Wanda in a rush, overwhelming both of you.

"You two will be in the upstairs bedroom on the left." Your mum told you as you went to grab your bags. You did a double take, convinced you had heard her wrong. That was the best room in the house. A big difference from being in the small room in the basement every other time you had been there.

"First one on the left." Your dad confirmed. There was no way your parents were going to be in the basement so you wondered who else had been moved around but didn't ask, knowing whoever it was wasn't going to be happy.

You and Wanda made your way up to the room and you couldn't help but smile at the sight of the spacious room and the door you knew led to your en suite.

"That was...a lot." Wanda summarised as she said her bag under the bed.

"I would tell you it gets better but I don't want to get your hopes up." You sighed as you got a couple of things out.

"It's just a few days." Wanda said despite the fact you should have been assuring her.

"Yeah." You nodded and stared down at the floor. "Now c'mon." You suddenly said as you took ahold of Wanda's hand and laced your fingers together. You missed the startled blush that crept onto her cheeks when you turned around.

Your family were sat outside whispering amongst themselves when you returned. Their interested gaze fell to your entwined hands in an instant.

"So you work with the Avengers?" Your brother, Dalton, said as soon as you both sat down.

"I do, I'm one myself." Wanda said as she continued to hold onto your hand.

"Must be crazy, what are they like?" He enquired.

"They're good." Wanda said simply. Everyone clearly expected something more but Wanda pretended not to notice making you smile.

"I almost did business with Stark once, decided against it in the end." Claire announced proudly. You and Wanda exchanged knowing glances. Stark had told you all about his encounter with your sister, it definetly wasn't her turning him down.

"I was invited to one of his parties." Anna said quickly. "I was busy that night unfortunately."

Bull. Shit.

"Yes I remember working with Doctor Strange when he was still in the medical profession." You gave Wanda an I-told-you-so look as your family erupted into conversation over who had the most contact with the heroes. That had to be a new record of how quickly they started talking about themselves.

They continued like that until your mum called everyone in for dinner. The food smelt undeniably amazing as you took your place at the table next to Wanda and eyed the dishes infront of you. Your parents efforts to impress the redhead weren't all that bad.

Your family continued to catch up and and you and Wanda half listened as you ate. They were all doing as well for themselves as ever and still hadn't learnt any modesty.

Although you were proud of your siblings for what they had all achieved, Wanda had contained four potentially devastating bombs from going off in the space of half an hour a week before but she wasn't going to bring that up anytime soon. Eventually though, the attention turned to you to bring you out of your silence.

"And you're still working in that little café, y/n?" Your mum asked curiously.

"I own it, mum." You corrected quietly as you stabbed some pieces on your plate.

"Ah yes, quite the contrast though, isn't it. Between you two." She said as she pointed at you and Wanda with her fork. You didn't say anything to that because you felt there really wasn't anything to say in response. It wasn't like you hadn't thought that exact thing every now and then.

"The team loves it." Wanda said suddenly making everyone, including you, look at her in slight surprise from speaking up. It hadn't taken your family long to learn Wabda wasn't much of a talker, not to them anyway. You couldn't get her to shut up half the time. "At least one of us goes everyday. If we're lucky we all can. Nothing beats it." She defended simply before turning back to her food to show she wasn't going to say anymore. You smiled down at your plate at her words and the truth of them.

No one said anything in response, clearly shocked from this new information until Dalton spoke up.

"But doesn't Stark like fancy, top of the line, restaurants? I can't imagine him in some random coffee shop, no offence sis." He nodded towards you though you knew he didn't mean it. He couldn't let you have just one win.

"That random coffee shop has catered some of Stark's parties. Not that many though." A smug smile crept onto Dalton's face as he opened his mouth to make a snarky remark but Wanda cut him down again. "Because y/n's invited to the rest as a guest and a close friend." Your family stared at you with open mouths.

"You've been invited to Stark's parties?!" Anna exclaimed. In your defence, your family never wanted to hear about your life so you never got the chance to tell them anything.

"It's not really my crowd." You shrugged. "I just go to hang out with them after." Dalton's jaw clenched in annoyance and he didn't say anything for the rest of dinner. It was only really your mum who kept talking. Telling everyone about her latest travels that fell on death ears.

It was certainly a first for your family.

When everyone had finished their food you and Wanda excused yourselves and said goodnight before retiring to your room. Wanda shut the door gently as you collapsed onto the bed on your back and glared at the ceiling. The redhead shuffled around quietly to get her toothbrush and toothpaste and some other things you weren't really paying attention to and went into the bathroom.

When she came back out she was in her bedclothes and lifted your feet off the floor to turn you so you could fully lay on the bed. You smiled at her weakly.

"You should go get changed." Wanda said as she got her laptop out her bag. "Then you can pick a movie." She announced when she had gotten under the covers and started her laptop. You smiled more and nodded.

You tried not to think about your family and everything they had said at dinner as you got changed but it proved difficult. Everything they had said echoed around in your head but most of all you couldn't shake the disregarding ways they said it. It was as though you could do no right with them. Maybe they would never be proud no matter what you did.

You placed your toothbrush back I'm the holder and rinsed your mouth before heading back into the bedroom to an awaiting Wanda.

You got under the covers next to her and rested your head on her shoulder as you glanced at the Netflix screen and pointed to one of the comedy movies.

About ten minutes into the movie Wanda spoke. "You okay?" She whispered as she continued to look at the screen although that wasn't where her focus was.

"Yeah." You whispered back.

"You can talk to me." She said after a second." You moved your head away so you could see Wanda clearly.

"I'm so glad you're here." You said honestly. She smiled and nodded as her eyes searched yours.

"I'm glad I'm here too." You knew Wanda wasn't glad she had to spend the time with your family. She was glad that she could support you despite their efforts to bring you down. You were incredibly lucky to have her.

You rested your head back on her shoulder and neither of you spoke for the rest of the movie. Or the rest of the night. You must have fallen asleep about half an hour in.

*

Wanda was one of the most intimate people you had ever met. It was mainly something she aimed towards you and Natasha but didn't refrain from comforting others and giving hugs to anyone who would take one. She never held back at all with you, as far as you knew. But when you woke up and couldn't tell where your limbs started and Wanda's ended, you were still surprised to find yourselves like that. Butterflies flew around in your stomach in a way you knew was dangerous but couldn't help but love.

You were resting your head on her rising chest and had your arm slung across her stomach. Your legs were tangled together and her arms were holding onto your waist. A warmth spread through you and you decided to settle back into her hold and closed your eyes with a content smile.

You had about ten minutes to enjoy that before Wanda woke up. You could feel the moment she realized you were so close, she physically froze. You waited in anticipation for something for several moments until your friend very slowly unhooked her legs and guided your body to lay against the mattress and pillows as she slipped out of bed towards the bathroom.

You sighed when you heard the door close and rubbed your eyes slowly, knowing you should get up but wishing more than anything that you could return to how you woke up.

"Morning." Wanda croaked when she left the bathroom and saw you sitting up in bed.

"Morning." You said back with a smile and tried not to focus on how ridiculously attractive her voice sounded.

You gathered some random clothes into a bundle and went into the bathroom to change again and brush your teeth. When you came out Wanda was pulling her shirt over her head and gave you a generous view of her toned stomach. That training with Natasha really was paying off. Your face heated up when you saw it and you turned away to pretend you hadn't seen when Wanda noticed you.

"Don't make a sound." Wanda warned. You glanced up at her with some confusion. "I don't think your family's awake yet, that means we get the kitchen to ourselves." She grinned and you did too.

You and Wanda had gotten so used to getting up early for your jobs you forgot other people would still be sleeping. It was hard to break out of the habit but it proved useful.

The pair of you made a quick breakfast and ate it outside thanks to the warm weather even at that time. But soon enough your parents came downstairs and ruined the peaceful atmosphere with the clanging of pots and loud convosations.

You wandered around the side of the house and saw the old table tennis table that bad been folded away years ago and hadn't been set up since. You went over and started setting it up when Wanda joined you and eyed the table with a glimmer of mischief.

The redhead wasn't all that competitive, in fact you were pretty sure she let other people win games on the regular to make them feel better about themselves. But there was an undeniable spark of mischief in her eyes when she saw the table.

"You played this before?" You asked convosationally.

"I have." She said as you both automatically took up your positions of opposite ends of the table.

"Me too." You said confidently. "A lot." Wanda hummed in acknowledgment and swivelled her bat in her hand and stood ready. You smiled at her seriousness for the game.

You served surprisingly well for someone who hadn't played in a few years and Wanda was able to hit it back with ease. Once you had developed a steady pace you started hitting the ball more daringly to Wanda who was caught off guard before she started doing the same.

The moment you missed the ball a small smile tugged at the corner of Wanda's lips, her celebration was short lived when you suddenly sent the ball back her way until it was too late.

"That wasn't fair!" She exclaimed childishly.

"That was tables tennis." You said seriously but started smiling again.

Wanda huffed dramatically and flipped you off as she trudged back to the table and served the ball with force. You managed to send it back but took a step away from the table in caution.

You continued like that for a while. The competition tension rising as you picked up the pace, one of you occasionally getting a point before the other evened it out.

At one point you were vaguely aware of Dalton sauntering over to see what you were doing and arched his brow at the sight of the table.

"We still have this thing?" He questioned and you hummed quietly in response, too focused on the game.

"Hey Claire! Get over here, we're playing table tennis." You rolled your eyes at the intrusive and could sense Wanda refraining from doing the same until an idea popped into your head.

You caught the ball in your hand and smiled at Wanda's protests as you moved round to her side of the table just as your sister came out.

"I didn't even know we still had this." Claire laughed as she picked up another bat from the box.

"Maybe we should take it back with us." Wanda whispered to you and you bit your lip to contain your smile because yes, yes you should.

Inevitably, your siblings sucked at table tennis. You had suspected as much you just never thought they would be as bad as they were. They missed almost every hit and everytime they did they got increasingly angry, which meant they ended up flaring their arms around like idiots. It was a memory you would be sure to treasure.

"Stupid game" and "probably broken" kept echoing across the table until your siblings finally stormed off to throw a tantrum.

The rest of the day went by quietly. You and Wanda sat by the lake for most of the afternoon to enjoy the sun and heat. You reveled in the most recent memories of your siblings embarrassment and had to keep hushing down to childish whispered whenever one of them was nearby.

Surprisingly, dinner went by peacefully too.

You weren't asked anymore questions at the table. Instead, your family were content with talking about their upcoming plans between stealing glances at you and Wanda that the redhead never failed to notice.

The pair of you slipped off to your room the first moment you got and easily fell into bed besides one another. Wanda picked out a DVD from her bag of an old Sokovian show she used to watch as a child and had you hooked on as well as teaching you the language.

She settled down beside you and within the first few scenes she wrapped an arm around your shoulder so you could sink into her further like she did sometimes when you watched things together. You were barely paying attention to the series after that.

Despite trying to keep your focus on understanding what was happening in scenes of the show, you couldn't help but want to melt under the warmth of your best friend. You hoped it was something you got to experience more, you felt safer than you ever had in Wanda's arms.

Little did you know that having you in her arms was the most comforting feeling Wanda ever experienced and she always tried to do it as little as possible to refrain from falling for you more. It never worked.

*

You had thought waking up in Wanda's arms the morning before had been the best thing to awake to. But that day when you woke up not only were your legs tangled together again but the redhead was slowly stroking your hair while your head rested on her chest.

It was a gradual gesture that maintained a perfect rhythm and made you want to fall back asleep. But you were afraid you would mistake it for a dream later on. No, it was definitely real.

Luckily, your head was already tilted upwards slightly so when you secretly opened your eyes to risk a peek at your friend you saw her staring out the window as though she was in a trance. She was clearly so deep in thought she hadn't noticed you wake up, you had never seen her like it. But the feeling was too good to ignore, too compelling.

Soon enough, you found yourself drifting off back to sleep.

*

When you woke up again Wanda was gone. Her absence left an emptiness you knew wasn't good for you. As the days of your visit went on your fake relationship with Wanda was going to effect you even more when it was over.

Over...you couldn't think about that.

Once you got up and got changed you found Wanda in the kitchen looking at the news on her phone as she sipped her coffee.

"Morning, honey." You grinned. Wanda blushed slightly into her coffee, something you thought was undeniably adorable.

"Morning yourself." She tried to play off smoothly making you grin more.

You made breakfast for you both just as your mum came into the kitchen and greeted you both with an overplayed smile, already talking to Wanda about an upcoming party that she should go to. Wanda mumbled something about a busy schedule as you managed to whisp her away outside with your food.

Eventually, you and Wanda became bored with sitting around in the house when you had such amazing surroundings on your doorstep. You declared that you were going on a walk with the redhead and left before any of your family could invite themselves to go with you. Especially as you had told your friend to wear her swimwear underneath her clothing as you had a surprise for her.

You made a point of holding Wanda's hand as you left and once you were far away from the house went to take it back only for her to hold on tighter.

"You never know where they could be lurking." She joked as an excuse, so you starting swinging your arms playfully as to assure her you wanted your hands to stay linked together too.

You spent hours in those woods and was thankful for having a spy best friend who of course knew to pack the essentials like food and drinks so you could stay away from the house as long as you wanted.

The redhead brought so much you were able to have a small picnic on top of a hill that overlooked the large lake that stretched out all the way back to the house. You remembered thinking up stories as to explain the strange shape and curves to it as a child.

"It's beautiful here." Wanda said as she picked some grapes from the bunch between you.

"It is." You agreed with a fond smile.

"I used to want to live in a place like this." She muttered, sparking your interest.

"In the woods?" You asked curiously and she nodded.

"I thought I could retire to the woods and get a small cabin and I could grow my own food and that was all I needed." You hummed with a smile as you studied Wanda's features.

"Sounds lonely." You thought aloud.

"I'd have a cat." She said simply making you laugh. "I never used to think that but now when it crosses my mind and I picture that life... I picture someone else there with me." You knew she was imagining it as she spoke and you wished you could see exactly what it was she wanted.

"We could always downgrade the holiday house." You half joked as you nodded in the vague direction of the house. "Make it a simple cabin."

"We?" Wanda asked hopefully, the emotion clear before she had a chance to conceal it.

"There's no one I'd rather run away and live in the forest with." You joked although there was a lot of truth to your words. The redhead considered you for a while before smiling and nodded as though she had reached her own internal conclusion.

"Come on." You said suddenly as you stood up and dusted yourself off.

"You want to go back?" Wanda asked and you grinned.

"I'm going to show you that surprise." You declared and packed the remaining food away. Wanda did the same, eager to see the surprise you kept secret the whole way.

It was quite a way back to the house. The whole time Wanda kept asking more questions about it but you wouldn't say. She could only make guesses based on the swim wear which should have left only a few options, non of which she got right.

Finally, you arrived where you wanted to and grinned at Wabda before starting towards the edge. The redhead frowned as she watched you approach the ledge and became worried when she invisioned the steep slope that didn't always lead to water straight down. If you were to fall... your friend didn't have to wait long to see that. You slipped along the edge and disappeared from her view as she gave a startled cry and sprinted towards the edge and knelt over with wide eyes, expecting to see something that could haunt her forever but instead she saw you on a wide ledge but seven feet below her.

To your left was part of the ledge that had been dug into randomly and acted as perfect aid to get back into the woods above.

"Come down here." You beckoned as you starter to take your top off. Wanda's eyes widened more and quickly turned around and dropped down next to you steadily.

She glanced over the side of the small ledge to glance at the fifty foot drop into the water. There was nothing in the way to fall onto but there was no telling how deep that water was.

"You can't go in like that." You laughed as you kicked off your shorts and pushed them to the side.

Wanda's face heated up at the sight of you in your y/f/c bikini as you assessed the view. But even in her flustered state she was able to put it all together.

"You want to jump down there?" She exclaimed making you laugh.

"I've done it tones of times." You assured. "It's fun."

"It's a death wish! What if the waters not deep enough?" She questioned making you laugh more.

"Are you scared, Wan?" You teased as you took a step towards her making her avert her eyes from your form. She scoffed to play it off.

"Of course not." You hummed in faux belief.

"Well then I'll see you down there." You grinned and took a couple of steps back until your feet were no longer on the platform and you were plummeting down towards the water where you landed with a splash.

Wanda held her breath as she waited for you to resurface for a few agonising seconds. When you did with a gasp and started kicking around frantically to keep yourself afloat with your built up adrenaline the redhead sighed in relief and started taking off her own shorts and shirt and placed them next to your things.

You've jumped from higher. She told herself as she rocked on her feet. And you have powers! She argued back before she shoved those thoughts aside and threw herself off the ledge and into the water below. You laughed as she came back up and pushed her hair away from her way. You swam closer to her and saw her wide smile.

"Fuck." Wanda whispered with a laugh as she looked back up from where you had both come.

"Told you it was fun." You teased as you tried not to focus on the low cut on her bikini bra.

"Yeah yeah." She laughed and paused when she looked past you and saw you were surprisingly close to the house. She could see the outline of your family sat outside.

"They're looking." Wanda muttered. You could tell by the look on her face who she was talking about. It wasn't like there was anyone else around either.

"Do you think they've caught on?" You asked nervously as you stared at Wanda's brown eyes to stop you looking at your family.

"Maybe..." She considered and glanced around. "It's not like we've been acting like that much of a couple." You scoffed at that.

"At home everyone assumes we're dating and the one time we need it be believable it isn't." You rolled your eyes but couldn't help the smile.

"I know." Wanda laughed for a second but then paused. "Then let's give them something believable." She gently placed both her hands on your waist and pulled you slowly towards her. You let her guide you and took extra notice of the water droplets across her face. You almost trembled when your bare stomachs pressed together in the water lightly.

Wanda's soft hands left your waist and gripped your thighs to pull you up to wrap your legs around her own waist. You couldn't help but giggle at the gesture as you wrapped your arms around the redhead's neck and held onto her waist with your legs in a lock.

"Can I?" Wanda whispered when she lifted your chin with her finger and her other hand came round the back of your neck.

"Just shut up and kiss me." You demanded with a playful smile and leaned in to do it yourself.

You smiled into the kiss and felt Wanda do the same. It was everything you had ever imagined it to be. Her lips were soft and fell into place perfectly against your own as they moved together. Your mind was hazey and your stomach was doing flips at the realisation that you were actually kissing your long time crush. You forced yourself to remember that it was all a show. That Wanda didn't mean it. But she put on a believable act and kissed passionately, even slipping her tongue through your parter lips to explore your mouth further.

When she eventually pulled away you rested your foreheads together to catch your breath and grinned as you closed your eyes.

"You're a really good kisser." You blurted out making Wanda chuckle.

"Not too bad yourself." She teased.

"I hope not, we're gonna have to do that again." You smiled and instantly realized that sounded like a confession you desperetly wished you could claim. "You know because...Once probably wasn't enough to make it entirely believable." You rambled and Wanda nodded somewhat stiffly and let your legs drop back down. You wanted to say something to her, anything but it was all stuck on the tip of your tongue.

Just as you opened your mouth to speak, a small murmurarion of starlings flew across the lake, some of them skimming the water then gaining height again as they got closer to you and Wanda. You both ducked instinctively as they flew over your heads and off towards the forest again as you watched them in awe until they disappeared. You glanced up at the sky and noticed the sun had gone behind a cloud, ableing you to continue looking up at the other birds higher up.

You kicked your legs up slightly so you could lay on your back and outstretch your arms to keep you afloat in the water so you could stare up at the sky without hurting your neck.

You didn't realise Wanda mimicked you until her hands brushed against yours. She withdrew it as soon as you touched and went to murmmer an apology but you smiled and held onto her hand as you both lay watching the birds.

Neither of you had to say anything. It was a comfortable and peaceful silence that was occasionally filled with birds chirping or the sound of a calm breeze. Of all the things you expected to feel on that trip, relaxed was not one of them.

You stayed like that for a while until you were both snapped out of your daydreams by the distant yell that declared dinner. Well, you had to go back to them eventually.

Both of you took your time swimming back to dry land and only felt a shiver when you left the water and the breeze hit you. Wanda spotted and reached the towels before you and wrapped yours around you tightly. You thanked her with a small blush as you both sauntered up to the house where the mouthwatering smell of a barbecue greeted you. Your dad was leaning over it while shooing your brother away as he tried to offer his 'help'.

You and Wanda went inside to change swiftly and came back outside as the food was being placed on plates and your mum finished setting up the buffet. Everyone starter helping themselves and you piled as much food as you could onto the plate. You parents had asked what food Wanda liked and when you gave them a brief list you added in a few things you knew you both loved.

"You gonna eat all that?" Anna asked as she eyed all the food on your plate. Guilt and insecurities washed over you until Wanda purposefully grabbed a large handful of small sausage rolls and put them on her plate that was piled with a considerable amount more food than your own. You smiled at the reassuring gesture as she sat down with a satisfied grin on her face when she saw Anna close her mouth to stay quiet.

"Thanks." You whispered to her as you sat down.

"If you don't eat all that I will." She declared. You were pretty sure she went back for seconds.

Instead of disappearing back to your room like you did the previous nights, you and Wanda stayed with your family for a while after dinner. It wasn't to do with their company, more the mesmerising fire in the firepit you all sat around. You were cuddled up into Wanda's side with a blanket over both of you as you stared at the flames, smiling at their small flickers and dances.

"So Wanda," one of your sisters began, "are any of the other Avengers...you know." She nodded her head in the direction of you both.

Oh boy you though.

"I don't think it's my place to say." Wanda said because yes, a lot of the Avengers were queer.

"Oh come on, you can tell us." Anna encouraged as she sat forward eagerly.

"I could, but I'm not going to." Wanda continued to defy.

"Lay off it guys." You mumbled but was ignored. Your family took it in turns saying her teammates names in hopes of sparking a reaction, clearly forgetting they were facing someone who had been trained by Natasha Romanoff.

"Stark!" Claire said but was instantly shut down by the others.

"He's married!" Dalton objected.

"Could still be bi though." Claire tried but Dalton just scoffed.

"I suppose there's going to be more surprises."

"What does that mean?" Wanda asked with narrowed eyes, feeling protective of her teammates. Dalton met her gaze with his own challenging one.

"I just never thought one of the Avengers would be a dyke." You felt Wanda stiffen as you all held your breath. There was no way to tell what was going through the redhead's mind, especially as after all those years of friendship you still didn't even know what team she batted for. She was an ally at least, but would she see this as her battle to fight?

Upon getting no reaction, Dalton continued. "It makes sense why you'd hang out with y/n though, we always knew something was wrong with her but-"

"That's enough." Your mum snapped with a guilty expression she failed to mask. You swallowed hard and moved to get up, deciding you had heard enough.

"Then you're idiots." Wanda stated as she glared daggers at your brother while you sunk down.

"I'll have you know I have a doctorate-"

"Your idiots." She repeated. "There's nothing wrong with y/n, which is impressive considering she's grown up around you lot." You looked at your friend in awe as she continued.

"She's the most amazing person I've ever known, including any of the Avengers. She's everything that you're not and I'm lucky to call her my girlfriend. It doesn't matter what any of you think of her, I love her and I always will." She declared as shot daggers at each individual family member who had fallen silent. She took your hand and pulled you up from your seat to take you inside.

You couldn't get her saying she loved you out of your head. You reminded yourself over and over again on the way to your room that it was just an act. That the redhead was making her point. But God, how you wished it was real.

She was so gentle with you as she guided you through the house. When you got to your room and broke down sobbing she held you on the bed for a long time until your cries turned to sniffles. The thing was, you weren't sure what you were crying over. Sure, what Dalton had said had hurt. As did the confirmation that your whole family had always looked down on you. But you had known that was the case for a long time, you had moved on from it.

Instead, you may have being crying over what you didn't know and didn't have. How much of what Wanda said was true? It was all based off of something that wasn't real. What if she saw you the same way your family did?

When you stopped crying you became aware of Wanda gently stroking your hair as she rested her head on yours and held you close to her. You remembered the memories you had accumulated over the past few days with her. The kisses, the hand holding, the nights together, how she stood up for you like no one ever had. You loved her so much.

"I think we should go tomorrow." Wanda mumbled and you nodded into her shoulder.

"I'm not going to leave you though, you know that right? You can stay at mine and we'll watch more of those crappy American movies you like." She mocked lightly making you chuckle against her. "Whatever you want."

"I just want you." You said honestly. You knew you shouldn't have said that, but you were too emotionally drained to care.

"I just want you too, y/n." You pulled away from the redhead to look at her clearly.

"I don't think you know what I mean." You sniffed and she smiled at you fondly.

"I mean what I said earlier, around the fire." Your eyes widened slightly and you held your breath.

"It was all an act though." You whispered and Wanda chuckled as she exhaled sharply.

"No y/n." "I think I am inlove with you." She said as she took ahold of your hand and searched your face for any signs of a reaction to her confession.

"Me?" You questioned, not quite believing it.

"Yes you, idiot." You smiled and sighed in relief, not being able to find the words to express your overflowing happiness and numerous other emotions you couldn't quite pinpoint. You let go of Wanda's hand and brought them both up to cup her cheeks. You had done a lot more handholding than kissing in the previous few days. It needed to be evened out.

You closed the gap between you and kissed Wanda with just as much passion as you had in the lake, except all hesitation and questions were gone. Because you knew she loved you. Oh God she loved you. You grinned into the kiss at the thought and felt her hand fall to your hip while the other caressed the side of your neck in the most gentle manner you had ever seen from her.

When you eventually pulled away you rested your forehead against hers, a smile still playing on both your lips.

"Told you we'd have to do that again." You said and and laughed. "I love you too."

"Well I hoped that wasn't a pity kiss." She joked and you smacked her arm playfully.

"It definetly was not and I'll prove it to you by taking you on a date when we get back." You promised as you sat back to look at her clearly.

"Oh yeah?" She asked with a playful smirk and leaned over so her face was inches away from yours.

"Yeah." You said back.

"Well until then, my real girlfriend should definetly just keep kissing me." She said as she pushed you down gently and kissed you again. You smiled against her gleefully.

"Your girlfriend would love to."

[k-s-morgan]

Hi! I've been in the Hannibal fandom for two years now. Rewatched the show many times and yet Will Graham still confuses me like no one else. Hannibal's design is complex but somewhat understandable after watching the show again again. But Will's design is like a loophole. He can empathise with the killers. That means he can understand them. If he can understand them then why does it feel good for him to kill them? How does it work for him exactly. Does he feel for the killers? If he felt for the killers then what about his violent tendencies towards them?

I've always thought that he is like a God. A God of the killers. The killers offer him their design and he takes sacrifice in return of understanding. But how does his psyche work exactly?

Hello! Oh yes, Will is a very confusing character - it’s his defining trait, and I think that’s because he lies to himself, to others, and to us as an audience. He wants one thing, wants to want another thing, does the third thing, and making sense of it is a complex process.

I think Will’s empathy is a big red herring. I agree with Freddie here: he understands killers because he’s one. He has an almost supernatural gift that helps him recreate the situations almost exactly as they happened. He understands what motivates killers, he might sympathize with them, but I think he might also envy them their freedom to be what they are. They are a reminder of what he is and what he can’t allow himself to have. But most importantly, they are a way for Will to find a compromise with himself and feel better about his true self. Killing bad people is an excuse to justify his darkness, but I don’t think it’s a part of his design per se. 

I agree with you that Will is like a God - he and Hannibal both are. That’s one of the things that separates them from others and elevates them above everyone else. Let’s make an overview of Will’s victims.

1) Hobbs. Hobbs was a monster and Will killed him. But it wasn’t about justice and righteousness, not according to him. Killing a person and feeling pleased that you saved someone versus liking the act of killing itself are drastically different things. Many police officers have to kill in their line of duty. Very few of them get off on the act of murder. Those who do are killers, and they are especially dangerous if they immediately try to follow it up with another murder. Will never once says he liked killing Hobbs because he made this world better. When asked, he says that he felt a sense of power. This is a motivation of many actual serial killers. If Will was just glad that he saved Abigail, he would know it's normal. He wouldn't have been almost on the verge of a break-down and haunted by Hobbs. So it’s not about helping others, it's about murder, even if the victim was a monster.

2) Stammets. Will had no reason to try to kill him (which he admits to doing). Based on his and Hannibal’s talk, he understands that he just wanted to feel what he felt after killing Hobbs, and this makes him panic. So again, no someone. He’s chasing the high of killing someone, and Stammets is the most appropriate victim. 

3) Ingram. On the surface, it looks like Will wanted to avenge Peter and himself by proxy, hence pulling the trigger on Ingram. However, after Hannibal manages to stop him, days later, Will complains about losing a chance to feel how he felt when killing Hobbs. Murder high is his main motivation again - everything else is background or an excuse, depending on your reading.    

4) Randall. Will threw away the gun on purpose to make the murder more intimate. This is not about justice and this is not about protecting himself because by doing this, he reduced his chances. Will also beat Randall up until he wasn't moving. There was no reason to snap his neck. Mutilation, cannibalism that followed, keeping his suit, admitting he enjoyed the murder and calling it his design - this is about murder and WIll’s love for it primarily. The design part is especially important: based on it, we can conclude that Will loves a performance just like Hannibal.  

4) Chiyoh and her prisoner who Will set up. Chiyoh was innocent and didn't deserve to die. Her prisoner might not have been guilty - in fact, Will was the one to suggest that, and yet Will still set him up. It was a game and he was an observer - he lied in waiting for Chiyoh’s scream. He then turned the body of a losing party into art. Very creepy and very like Hannibal.

5) Chilton. Will clearly explained his motivation: he wanted Chilton to pay just because he wanted to be famous and messed with Hannibal by writing his ridiculous book. Will showed no remorse and admitted he did it on purpose.

6) Police officers he set up to be killed by cooperating with Francis. The ones he stepped over without a second look. They were innocent and they were a collateral damage. Will is a cruel God who doesn’t bother with mere mortals as long as it fits his purpose. In this case, his purpose was freeing Hannibal. Everything else was still a blur in his mind. 

7) Francis. Enjoyed the murder, admired the blood, called the situation beautiful.

8) Bedelia. She's innocent in comparison to Will and his body count. If Will faced no repercussions and continued getting more and more people killed, she had every right to go free. But God doesn’t have to be fair, and Will proves it by targeting her. 

What does it all say about Will’s design and philosophy? Apart from Godlike attributes and indifference toward collateral damage, I think Will is led by his bloodlust - he just tends to control it and direct it at specific targets. 

Will might prefer to kill “bad people” in the first two seasons, but it’s the process of murder that excites him. So I see his righteous choices as a preference that helps him justify his dark nature partly, not the core reason for his violence. Hannibal seems to be moved by his interest in human nature and his hunter instinct, but Will, I think, is a truer killer because he actually feels drunk on murder. Unlike Hannibal, he looks downright euphoric when/after he kills Randall and Francis. In TWOTL, Hannibal is more focused on the fact that his dream came true and he and Will killed someone together, but Will seems primarily caught up in the murder after-shocks themselves. Hannibal thinks about Will, Will thinks about how beautiful blood looks under the moonlight.

So, post Fall, I believe that at first, Will will stick to killing bad people like murderers, but once some times passes, his need for justifications will fade. He’ll move on to rude people, only his rude will differ from Hannibal’s. Hannibal doesn’t differentiate between genders and ages, but I think Will will. He’s interested in a feeling of power, like he himself says, in a sense of dominance, so he’ll look forward to a fight. He won’t be interested in attacking a teenager like Cassie, for instance, because the power imbalance is too prominent. But as soon as someone more equal does something Will heavily dislikes, something that wakes his bloodlust (a personal insult, physical or verbal abuse toward other people/animals, etc.), he’ll attack. He’ll be careful - he knows how to avoid being caught, but it will still be unpredictable and passionate. Will is a storm to Hannibal’s calm.

Then there is unpredictability. Hannibal tends to plan everything methodically. The only times we see him being impulsive is in Europe, where he’s descending into self-destructive mode, so it’s not a norm for him. For Will, though? Will consists of unpredictability, and Hannibal is fascinated by it.I think Will is going to kill when an impulse strikes. For example, he might go shopping, without having any dark plans, and end up murdering someone because the circumstances pushed some unfortunate soul onto his path. Will might or might not display the body depending on his mood. Today he can be in an artistic mood, but tomorrow he’ll be in a violent and impatient one, wanting to destroy the body entirely and leaving a total mess behind.

How Will would prefer to kill? In my opinion, in an intimate way. It doesn’t mean he’ll be weaponless, but something like a knife would fit his tastes well. He’d be able to feel it plunge into his victim’s body, tearing through skin and muscles, etc. - personal and intimate. Akin to what he did with Francis - his feral half-snarl, the way he paused after stabbing him before opening him up - it was dark and mesmerizing. Will might get into strangling, too, because it takes a lot of time and it is even more intimate. It might end up being his favorite. So, I can see him using his hands or small weapons to fully sense what he’s doing to a victim. This is something that he has in common with Hannibal because from what we saw, Hannibal also enjoys more intimate and prolonged murders that give him a glimpse into a person’s pain and struggle for life.

[willsimpforanyone]

Hey there hope ur having an amazing day/night :D

-> Angel!Reader saving Wanda by taking their wings out for the first time since the avengers knew them and jumping off a building to get to Wanda.

Wanda X Reader obviously :)

ooo very cool request!

side note i adore getting asks it makes me feel like a real blog lol

---------------------------------

Really, I shouldn't have been there.

I'd only technically joined the Avengers about three weeks ago, I wasn't meant to be going on missions and things. Heck, I hadn't revealed half of my skills yet- I allowed people to think I was stronger, more agile, and more... perceptive than the average human. No need to let them know I could see auras just yet.

And up until the mission, there had been no need for them to know about my wings.

An angel's wings are a precious part of themselves, and I wasn't quite ready to show them to these people. I'd heard tales of wings being cut off, plucked, crushed, even ripped off to be experimented on- and while I didn't think the Avengers would do that, it was natural for me to be hesitant.

There was only one person, I believed, who I could trust. Her name was Wanda, Sokovian by nationality, red aura twisting around her like vines. It wasn't a threatening red, but it was powerful, angry and gentle at the same time. I was drawn to her, first out of curiosity, then out of a need for companionship, then, if I dare, romantic interest. She was kind where others were hesitant, a friend where others were just my trainers.

It was she who recommended me for this mission, as they needed to infiltrate a building; some would go from the roof down, the others would walk straight in through the entrance under the guise of a business deal. I was suggested to accompany the latter group as I was a 'good judge of character' and would know if we were about to be double-crossed. In reality, I could spot a liar from the subtle changes in their auras, but I kept that to myself.

How we ended up in a fistfight with every bodyguard in the building is somewhat of a mystery, but I believed it had something to do with knowing the second I walked into the building that we were in trouble and being ignored.

Wanda and I were directed to the roof where Captain America and a few others were having some trouble with the overwhelming number of people attacking them. I barely had time to blink before Wanda grabbed my hand, dragged me outside, swept me up into her arms and launched us at the sky. I squeaked in surprise and swung my arms round her neck. She laughed slightly, winking as we flew up to the roof, and deposited me into the fight.

Careful not to kill anyone- I was still an angel, just an aggressive one- I assisted my fellow Avengers in their endeavours. I took down five, six, seven people and they kept coming, surging forward like they genuinely thought they could get one up on several of the most powerful people on Earth. It was almost cute, despite the sickly, corrupted yellow state of their auras.

There were just... so many of them. This couldn't be natural, and I began to realise that these people were not entirely human. The darkish yellow of their auras wasn't normal; perhaps they were clones?

I whipped my head around, searching for Wanda to tell her my theory. I found her by the edge of the building, using her magic to push people- if they were people- away from her. I zigzagged my way over to her, and was within two metres of her when I saw the butt of a gun smack her on the back of her head.

I froze. She hadn't noticed anyone behind her. Neither had I. Time seemed to slow as Wanda crumpled like paper.

She lost her balance.

She was unconcious.

And she fell over the edge of the building.

Every thought about the people-clones, about not killing them, about withholding my power was doused with this powerful protective instinct. It took a split second to unfurl my wings and hurl myself over the edge with the witch.

I shot like an arrow towards her, matching her descent speed and catching her in my arms, holding her the way she had held me a little while ago. I swooped up into the sky, determined to get her as far away from harm as possible. Sparing a glance over my shoulder, I saw that the rest of the people-clones- reminder to myself, talk to someone about that theory- were almost completely dealt with, and I felt no guilt landing on a roof a few blocks away.

I was gentle in laying Wanda down, careful to keep her head on my lap and not on the gravel surface of the roof. After a few seconds, her eyes fluttered open. The adrenaline from the fight must've still been in her system as she bolted straight upright, narrowly missing my face, but immediately clutched her head, crying out in pain.

I moved so I was crouched at her side. "You got hit on the back of the head, I suggest you don't make any sudden movements." I reached out and placed a reassuring hand on her knee. "The others have dealt with the threat, I suggest we get back to the compound as soon as possible."

She didn't respond, staring at something over my shoulder. For a moment, I considered severe concussion before I realised I still had my wings out. I smiled gently at her. "Would you like to touch them?"

Eyes wide and childlike- concussion perhaps a factor- Wanda nodded. I sat cross-legged by her side and stretched a wing towards her. She was so careful, touching the feathers so lightly as if she thought them porcelain, fearful of breaking them. I shivered when she ran her hand down the top, stopping when she reached just above my shoulderblade.

"Wha- when..." Wanda curled her legs under her, sitting on her calves to reach up to my wings.

"I've always had them." I shrugged. "I apologise if this appears a betrayal of your trust- but an angel's wings are personal. They exist partly in the astral dimension, appearing only when the angel wishes them to. For example," I poked her cheek. "-when someone they care about is in danger."

Wanda laughed, and I smiled. She stood up, and held out a hand to help me off the roof. "Well, they're beautiful. As much as I would like to admire them longer, however, we should get back to the compound."

As if on queue, the pocket radio Wanda had crackled to life. "Wanda? Where are you? Are you okay?"

Wanda pressed a button, and spoke into the radio. "Yeah, I'm okay," she met my eyes again, and winked. "I was saved by an angel."

From the muffled radio, we gathered that everyone was okay, they were heading back to the compound to regroup- the mission hadn't been what you would call a success, but they'd got what they needed. I rolled my eyes when my name came up, preparing for reprimands for not being involved enough, but to my surprise, Captain America said I did a good job. Wanda grinned at me. "You have no idea, Cap."

I held out my hand as she put away the radio. "Shall I carry you? Or are you alright on your own?"

Wanda took my hand and tugged me closer. My wings instinctively curled around our bodies slightly, protectively. She wrapped her arms around my neck. "You know, I think I need you to carry me."

I swept her off her feet, a grin manifesting on my lips. "Only for the sake of your health, right?"

She nodded sagely. "Of course, I did get seriously bumped on the head after all."

I moved my head slightly closer to hers. "I think I can help with that."

"Oh yeah?"

"Oh yeah." I caught her lips in a kiss, holding her close. I could feel her lips curve into a smile as she kissed back, one hand moving up to cradle the back of my head. She was fire and magic and warm and soft and oh god I never wanted to stop kissing her. I laughed internally- I, a holy being, was enchanted by a witch. I'd never been so glad to have fallen.

We broke apart, the witch in my arms gasping for breath. "So," she panted. "...home?"

I grinned wickedly, and shot up into the sky. And if anyone worked out it was just so she'd hold onto me tighter, it was none of their business.

-----------------------------

i'm not joking when i said this was one of my favourite requests to write- the reader is gender neutral, of course, but it feels gay so i'm very very on board

thank you so much for this request!! i am prepared to do a part 2- it feels like it might be leading to a smut but that's up to you!

[permafusion-stevonnie]

So this idea isn’t leaving my head. While I’m not going to get it started for now, since I want to concentrate on my current Stevonnie comic, ideas are still ticking away and I just really wanted to draw this cover for the idea.

Maybe I’ll get its own page started in time. I’ll let you know if I do. But even if I did, I wouldn’t expect regular updates to it, not while I’m working on Together Forever.

I want to quickly say something that I think some people may have gotten confused about when I was talking about the Fallout Universe before:

Crystal Gems are still called Crystal Gems, but their role is similar, but not the same as the Brotherhood of Steel. In that they are isolationists, who will try to protect humanity from dangerous gem technology, and corrupted gems. they aren’t bothered with human mutants, human problems, or human technology. But I feel that, ove time, Steven will help their character growth away from this and help them, at least, start opening up to the local comminuty and helping where they can.

Homeworld Authority is still called Homeworld, or The Authority, but take on a similar role to the Enclave. They view themselves as the rightful masters of earth and they’re automatically more superior to any other lifeform by birthright.

I have been thinking over what could have occurred to create this world, how’s this for a (work in progress) backstory: (ended up a lot longer than I thought it would, so I’m space saving by putting in this break)

The Gem colonisation of earth happened later than it did in canon. A couple of thousand years, maybe. Unlike the 6000 years ago in canon, it was perhaps 5000, or maybe 4000 years ago. Enough for a bigger human civilisation to take part in the gem war for earth.

Pink still gets her colony started, still changes her mind about it, and finally chooses to become Rose Quartz to lead the rebellion. I think the human zoo will still be made, because I like the idea of that being around to give a mash-up of the human zoo and the mother ship zeta dlc from Fallout 3.

What really diverges from the timeline is when the rebellion starts fighting back with larger groups of human allies. 4000 (or 5000) years ago we are talking some good military strategies, chariots, bows and arrows, cavalries and tactics, etc. Some research will be needed to really flesh out the lore.

Homeworld, facing a bigger threat than a hundred or so rebels, puts a little more effort into research and development of newer technologies to counteract the human strategies. Nothing develops technologies quite like war.

Rose and the others start capturing some technologies from Homeworld and start studying them to not only understand them, but even attempting to reverse engineer them. They obviously won’t be able to replicate the weapons in form, but hope to do so in function.

This is where Scribes would come in for the Crystal Gems are the replacement for the Brotherhood of Steel that I’ve talked about before. Some Gems and some clever humans, would dedicate themselves to trying to understand the newer Gem technology they’re starting to see.

With inventive people like Bismuth to build their own version of it.

The actual Gem Technology will be locked away in the temple- or whatever name I may give it- but the remake versions that the Crystal Gems turn out will be spread far and wide.

I’m just thinking off the top of my head, but it’d be like- if they tried to make their own version of the gem destabiliser, it would be like a giant tuning fork hooked up to something similar to a large Baghdad Battery (google it, it’s kinda cool) that they would carry in a backpack.

The war would carry on like that, with Homeworld making new tech to combat the threat, sooner or later the rebellion captures some, they make their own version of it, and Homeworld makes new tech to combat the threat.

This drain on resources does take its toll on Homeworld though, and their war against earth is perhaps much shorter, between 300 and 800 years, I haven’t decided yet.

Things do play out similar to canon though. Homeworld decides to abandon earth as a lost cause, implant the Cluster so they’ll get something out of the deal and the three Diamonds blast the earth with their powers as a final middle finger to the rebels.

Gems are destroyed, except for the original Crystal Gems, and Bismuth! Canon Bismuth made a lot of regular weapons and armour and the rebellion was still losing. She was driven to making the Breaking Point because she didn’t think they had a chance of winning any other way. In this new canon, however, because Bismuth was working on newer and newer weapons all the time, each one she was confident would help turn the tide of the war, she never had chance to work on the ultimate weapon of the Breaking Point. She may have designed it, or may have the idea kicking around the back of her mind, but never got around to building it. 

Rose does her thing of finding somewhere isolated to live in both peace and regret for the war. This is where the Crystal Gems become isolationists

With the Gems gone, humans are left to their own devices with all this more advanced technology than they should have in this point in history. Tech continues to develop with this head start.

Fast forward to the year 1929 and people are living lives as you’d see in the Fallout universe in the 2070′s. Nuclear fulled cars, robot assistants, laser rifles and power armour and all that other stuff.

The reason I chose 1929 is two-fold. The first Fallout game was set 84 years after the nuclear war, and 84 years after 1929 is the year 2013; the year Steven Universe first aired.

The failing of the world is the same reason the Fallout universe failed. Resources started to become scarce, wars started over what remained and the whole thing was escalated by a race that may have been too young to fully understand the forces they were really dealing with, having come a long way, but still too fast, thanks to the ancient interference.

Nuclear hellfire rained down and some people took their shelter in the vaults, while everyone else had to find ways to survive outside.

Rose and the Gems stick to their isolation as humanity all but wipes itself out. Rose is heartbroken to see the beautiful world that she fought so hard for, so easily destroyed. There can be a lot to explore there. Maybe Rose will leave the group, maybe she’ll just wander off and be alone a lot but still return to the temple eventually. I haven’t decided yet.

Perhaps all the gems will have some additional guilt, knowing that their old tech is what pushed humanity so far so fast.

Fast forward 70 years and Rose meets a travelling wastelander named Greg. They fall in love. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here mostly because I haven’t really thought too much about it, but partly because I know I want it to be explored within the story itself to show how different from canon it would be. Not just the flashback elements from “Story for Steven,” and "We Need to Talk," with a Fallout flair. I want to work out some other nice adventures to bring them together.

Rose and Greg come back to Beach City with Rose expecting their baby.

Steven is born and the Gems immediately take custody, with the logic that their secure base is a better place for Steven to grow up than the harsh wasteland. Greg is allowed to visit as often as he likes, but not stay there. Nor is Steven allowed off the base. They want to protect the legacy of their leader, Rose.

I’m going to say that Steven starts showing hints of Gem powers around 10 years old. Nothing he can control. Perhaps his Gem glows when he’s really happy, if he falls down some steps his bubble forms but immediately pops so it’s just enough to save him from injury. Little things like that.

But this serves as a point where The Gems start “encouraging” Greg to visit less and leave the raising of Steven to them, as his upbringing has now become “Gem Business”

Steven may have snuck off the base once or twice to see the world beyond the base, but after this he’ll do it a lot more often to see his dad and the Beach City settlement.

I think Bismuth suspects he sneaks off but both can’t prove it, and doesn’t want to try and prove it, Garnet knows but says nothing, both of them are letting Steven have his fun, and Pearl has no idea he does it.

Amethyst is not part of the group in the beginning, she’s out as part of a raider gang somewhere. Thank you to theyarheeguy for giving me that idea, and many others, to work with.

A total of 84 years after the bombs dropped, Steven is now 12 years old, sneaking off the base for another visit to town, when he spots a pretty young girl dressed in a strange blue jumpsuit, emerging from a hidden trapdoor that was underneath the old Beach City water-tower.

Steven is 12 because I believe that’s how old he was when the show started. Based on the timeline, the passing of the seasons and so on, he has to have a 13th birthday that we don’t see on screen, before we do see his 14th birthday.

[livethinking]

«Poetry is not a luxury»: Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker and poetry as resistance

«Poetry is not a luxury»[1], Audre Lorde said. Poetry is not a game, another amusement to dampen the boredom of a humdrum life but it’s a need, a necessity as instrument to the battle against oppression, to self-determination and to identitary resistance because «poetry is power»[2]. And this is as much true and confirmed when poetry becomes activism, when lyricism expresses, and thus bears witness, a discomfort and makes it universal, fathomable through the poetic language; when writing in verse is the only way to express ideas and makes sure they’re recognised in their own dignity, thus it’s necessary in order to save and let respected the existence of that human being who has thought it, in order to this existence can be recognised as such, can arise from oppression and systematic hate, can give voices to those whose lips were ripped off, such as women, for whom «[…] poetry […] is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we [women] predicate our hopes and dreams towards survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought»[3], so, poetry’s place where they can expresses opinions, needs, dreams, hope, in other words themselves, where the cultural system gives preference to other voices, wherein censorship is not official, i.e. perpetrated by an organisation or a law, but it’s cultural because it’s the culture that systematically chooses (a given social class) what creative expressions are more or less are in line with its own values or strengthen them. That’s why for centuries poetry (but also the whole literature) has been place wherein affirm ourselves and the individuality of our own identity, or express pride for a communitarian identity; as it was for women, who found in poetry an instruments they can express their real self through, getting out of the patriarchal control and out of the role they were bonded to by society and came less to the expectations of this one. In this way, women could so analyse her being woman, dreaming to choose who are and what to do, self-determinising and exploring their femininity beyond believes given by a certain historical moment; as it was for black community, wherein black poets could express the a beauty, the varieties, the complexity of their subculture, their traditions, history and so express the pride of being part of this ethnicity, fighting against racism and networking against the oppression perpetrated by a system that privileges white citizens (and more often men). These two concepts converge into the poetic experience of black women poets, for whom poetry became a place wherein speaking of their experience as women and black citizens, wherein they can exist and affirm their existence, «The white father told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mother within each of us – the poet – whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free. Poetry coins the language to express and charter this revolutionary demand, the implementation of that freedom»[4]. Let think of great poets like Maya Angelou, whose poems «often respond to matters like race and sex on a larger social and psychological scale»[5], or like Gwendolyn Brooks, whose poetry, especially the latest, is a political and civil poetry, taking as cultural reference heroes and subjects of the battle for liberation of black people (such as Winnie Mandela, wife to the anti-apartheid activist), but also like Margaret Walker who «through her work, she “[sang] a song for [her] people”, capturing their symbolic quest for liberation. When asked how she viewed her work, she responded, “The body of my work… springs from my interest in a historical point of view that is central to the development of black people as we approach the twenty first century”»[6].

1. Maya Angelou: I know why the caged bird sings

«The poignant beauty of Angelou’s writing enhances rather than masks the candid with which she addresses the racial crisis through which America was passing»[7]. That of Maya Angelou is a lively and melodic voice, her poems can talk even when there’s no human voice to give them sound, they have as mode,s the language of the intense, brave speeches of the great activist of the battle for black people’s rights like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Angelou was able to bring together all temporal planes in her writing: both in her poetry and autobiographies, she managed to give voice to the last, to make it a new present, part of the hic te nunc of the existence in action and not anymore as something disappeared with time, but as something that is still here partly, that is still a being. A past that is personal, her life, her youth, her terrible traumas, the beauty of growing before as a girl than as a woman; a pat that is of her community, the troubled story of afroamericana and who that the lyrical I becomes a We, the collectivity becomes a person. The personal experience is thus an exemplum for the common one and becomes even global. The present meets the past, that of when a given poems was born, that of readers, of the poet, it’s the daily battle which becomes memory, it’s the journey to the self-determination in a place where is hostility but also the future, it’s the caged bird that sings and whose song is heard by the free birds, the future is a song overcoming its own time: «The caged bird sings/with a fearful trill/of things unknown/but longed for still/and his tune is heard/on the distant hill/for the caged bird/sings of freedom»[8]. “The caged bird”, dr, Maya Angelou’s favourite metaphor, taken from Paul Laurence Dunbar, famous afroamerican author, is a symbol for the inner freedom that wins ones the oppression of the external, is an eternal song that’s heard until now and if it’s clearly listened, one can hear the thousand of voice from the past and here we can find the beauty in Maya Angelou’s writing: the ability to speak through not one but a thousand of voices, voices of both the present and the past, giving relevance to the last ones, and consequently she was able to tell the future, to be understood by who’ll be after her.

2. Gwendolyn Brooks: writing poetry that will be meaningful

The poetic voice of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first afroamerican woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, is raw, bitter when the language gets filled with political and cultural meaning, when brings a message without forgetting the sweetness, the beauty of a poised, refined style. Worked, studied poems, perfect verse and rhymes, but also intense, hard, which don’t take away to be tough, to tell the truth on oppression, pain, on the battle to re-humanise her own identity in a culture where it was deprived of its otherness, of being an Other Ego, an Other Truth. This happens especially with the her most famous poem collection, In The Mecca, a turning point for Brooks’s poetics. «I want to write poems that will be non compromising. I don’t want to stop a concern with words doing good jobs, which has always been a concern of mine, but I want to write poems that will be meaningful […]»[9] and this was so. Brooks managed to delineate a world, give multiple meanings to the words she used, to the poems, to speak with the voice of her great gallery of characters. In her poems, there’s her Lyric I, but also her characters. Such a polyphony that only few, even among novelists, can make it in such little verbal marks. «The words, lines, and arrangements have been worked and worked and worked again into poised exactness: the unexpected apt metaphor, the mock-colloquial asides amid jewelled phrases, the half-ironic repetition – she knows it all»[10]. A poetry that can speak to its people, community, that hopes, fights for a future where Gwendolyn Brooks «[…] envisioned “the profound and frequent shaking of hands, which in Africa in so important. The shaking of hands in warmth and strength and union”»[11].

3. Margaret Walker: poetry as hope, poetry for the people

Margaret Walker’s poetics is the voice of a whole people, is culture that becomes creative work of a lonely person for the universality and becomes bringer of values. It’s the song of a choir, a choir for the last, of the story of slavery, of that community that still fights for the right to exist; it’s a choir that still sings and never stops to sing the lines of this wonderful poet.

One of the most loved and praised poem of Margaret Walker is “For My People”, which contains all the characteristics that made unique Walker’s poetry and it’s an excursus through the past and more recent history of US Black community, from the tragedy of slavery, to civil battles still fought nowadays in the heart of the New World; «poems in which the body and spirit of a great group of people are revealed with vigour and undeviating integrity»[12]. She uses as reference cultural elements of her community, recalls heroes, events that form that culture as vast as unheard by those who spit poison to not lose the position of privilege, and if this culture isn’t heard, then Margaret Walker addresses also to the deaf. She speaks to them as well, making universal a history that’s particular. Walker speak to everyone through her rhymes, she speaks to the humanity; her poetry talks about tragedies but is full of hope because she knows there will be always someone who still listen, fight, defend, doesn’t forget, «[…] the power of resilience presented in the poem is a hope Walker holds out not only to black people, but to all people […] “After all, it is the business of all writes to write about the human condition, and all humanity must be involved in both the writing and in the reading”»[13]

Viviana Rizzo

References

[1] LORDE, A., “Poetry Is Not a Luxury”, in Audre Lorde, Sister outsider, Trumansburg N.Y., Crossing Press, 1984, p. 371

[2] TODOROV, L’arte nella tempesta. L’avventura di poeti, scrittori e pittori nella Rivoluzione Russa, trans. ita. by Emanuele Lana, Milano, Garzanti S.r.l., 2017, p. 120 (iBooks)

[3] LORDE, A., “Poetry Is Not a Luxury”, in Audre Lorde, Sister outsider, p. 372

[4] Ibidem

[5] EDITORS, “Maya Angelou”, in Poetry Foundation, web, 2021, (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/maya-angelou, retrieved on 24th February 2021)

[6] EDITORS, “Margaret Walker”, in Poetry Foundation, web, 2021 (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/margaret-walker, retrieved on 24th February 2020).

[7] HOLST, W.A., “Review of A song Flung up to Heaven”, in Christian Century (giugno 2002), pp. 35-36, cit. in EDITORS, “Maya Angelou” in Poetry Foundation

[8] ANGELOU, M., The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou, New Work, Random House Inc., 1994, p. 194

[9] EDI TORS, “Gwendolyn Brooks”, Poetry Foundation, web, 2021 (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gwendolyn-brooks consultato il 24 febbraio 2021)

[10] LITTLEJOHN, D., Black on White: A Critical Survey of Writing by American Negroes, New York, Grossman, 1966, p. 91, cit. in EDITORS, “Gwendolyn Brooks”, in Poetry Foundation

[11] EDITORS, “Gwendolyn Brooks”, in Poetry Foundation

[12] UNTERMEYER, L. “New Books in Review” in Yake Review, vol. XXXII, n. 2 (inverno 1934), p.371, cit. in EDITORS, “Margaret Walker”, in Poetry Foundation

[13] EDITORS, “Margaret Walker”, in Poetry Foundation

[kintatsujo]

LoZ AU- The Courage of Running Away Part THIRTY

Previous Post Is HERE

This is the last outline post!  But like I said before I’m probably gonna take a run at NaNo with this story this year because of how thoroughly it got out of hand lmao and probably will keep doing smaller art posts and shit at this point.

And again there’s already ideas for a sequel in the works, although that’ll probably trickle in MUCH more slowly for the time being.

Next week I’m probably going to take a break from Tumblr altogether bc of Real Life Stuff and the fact that this project turned So Big.  Maybe.  Possibly.  Don’t take me at my word lmao

This is a text heavy post and I apologize but there was a lot to cover; each section is separated by headers.

Content warning for mention of hanging used as a metaphor.  

#AU August

#LoZ AU: The Courage of Running Away

Astramorus’s Sentencing 

Astramorus is stripped of his rank within Hylia's Church, although he's allowed to keep his home at the sky commune since he and Catena had shared it since before her death and Zelda isn't cruel. She assigns him a Shiekah escort-and-therapist on Impa's recommendation, someone he's not allowed to leave the Sky Temple Commune without until further notice, and Astramorus tells her it's generally much more generous than he expected even considering the help he'd offered.

Link doesn’t go home with him, at Astramorus's insistence.

"Listen to me, Link," he says, touching Link's face gently. "For all that I'd LIKE to undo the last twelve years of our lives, do it better, you're still healing from everything I did wrong."

"Uncle Seren was-" Link starts.

"Giving me the rope with which to hang myself," Astramorus finishes. "I still took it in hand, son. We both need a little distance to start, you to heal and me to sort my own head."

Link frowns at him. "You need to heal too," he says. "You wouldn't have taken that rope if Mama had been here to stop you."

"Probably not," Astramorus agrees. "But that's why her Majesty is assigning someone to follow me around, isn't it?"

[Image Description: Link throws his arms around Astramorus, to his father’s surprise.  When Astramorus hugs him back, looking like he’s ready to collapse into the hug, Link opens one eye and tells him sternly, “Take CARE of yourself, Father, or we’re gonna have WORDS.”  “Mhm,” Astramorus mumbles. End ID.]

(Hilda, it should be noted, tells Astramorus and Link that they’re both welcome to visit Lorule Castle at any time, trying to hide her eagerness until finally admitting; “You both know what having Serenumbra in your head is like.”  And Astramorus and Link agree with that and promise to meet there in a few months, once they’ve had that time to sort themselves out.)

As for Serenumbra, for now Eltani decides to let him “enjoy” some solitude in the Gerudo City prison while she deliberates more thoroughly on what to do with him.  He did quite a lot, after all.

What to do About Ghirahim

Eltani and Zelda Sr discuss what to do about Ghirahim more privately, with Aldway, Impa, and Vaba (Eltani's oldest advisor) there to offer input.

"You say he froze upon being presented with the mere image of his old master," Aldway says. "I'm not sure I trust that."

"It wasn't like-" Zelda starts, then starts over. "He was like a frightened child, darling." She pauses, reevaluates. "Or like a dog expecting to be beaten."

"Like Link?" Aldway asks mildly.

She shakes her head. "Much worse than even that, my dear."

"Even knowing he's half mortal he has trouble stilling his tongue towards me," Eltani notes. "Faced with his former master, he was struck silent."

Vaba speaks up. "You say that Serenumbra called the thing he summoned a god's nightmare, correct?"

"The boy Link saw a figure he couldn't hope to live up to. Your Majesty saw a figure from history you've tried to avoid being since you were her age. Whose nightmare was Demise? Dinravi didn't know his face, and you tell us Ghirahim stepped in the way. Dinravi only faced a copy of Ghirahim's master because he was reflected from Ghirahim's half human heart."

They decide to let him stay.

What Dinravi Would Like to do About Ghirahim

And in the meantime Dinravi and Ghirahim are having their own discussion somewhere else in the castle, partly because Eltani asked Dinravi to keep Ghirahim away from where they're discussing and partly because of course they are, it's been a lot, the last day and a half or so, between Ghirahim saving Dinravi from assassination and Dinravi punching Nightmare Demise in the face. And finding out that Ghirahim is definitely around half human now, there's also that.

There's a bit of an awkward silence, at first. It's so, so much. Ghirahim is stealing a lot of glances and Dinravi seems to be collecting himself.

And then Dinravi asks: "Can I kiss you?"

Ghirahim stares at him for a moment, eyes wide, mouth small in surprise, bright red, and then he smiles a little and looks away and says "You still don't... my prince, you don't need to ask PERMISSION to do whatever you PLEASE with me."

Dinravi goes quiet. "... Is that how it was with him? Demise?" he asks. His face is gentle and open, nonjudgmental, but Ghirahim sputters.

"Of course it was," he says, "is there a problem with that?"

Dinravi studies him. "Apparently there is," he says. "Because you're shaking."

Ghirahim jolts in horror and stares at his hands, which are indeed trembling, almost as badly as at the sight of Nightmare Demise, and he screams: "DAMN this frail useless human body!!"

Dinravi takes a step backwards, watching him, and says, "Ghirahim." And at getting his attention, he asks, "Does this mean that you came to me, tried to seduce me into conquest... Knowing that might mean you, too?"

Ghirahim stares at him for a breath, vulnerable, then looks away, frowning. "Of course I did," he says.

Dinravi sighs. "Of course you did," he echoes.

"I was FORGED for this," Ghirahim says helplessly. "To serve Master Demise, or the one who inherits from Him. Whatever that might mean."

"Ghirahim," Dinravi says gently. "You're almost half human now. I believed in your choice before, when we were thinking you entirely demon, but... Being human means getting to choose."

Ghirahim is adrift and he looks at the floor, the ceiling, out the window, and finally back at Dinravi, trying to find solid ground.

His voice is small. "Please kiss me?" he asks. Dinravi smiles and steps forward, leaning into him, brushing his lips tenderly with his own. Ghirahim whimpers and surges forward, and Dinravi puts his arms around him and steadies his stance, chuckling, soothing him, kisses him again. Ghirahim gasps as his knees buckle and he slides downward, almost ragdoll as Dinravi catches him again.

"Are you okay?!" Dinravi asks, holding him against his chest.

"I'm fine," Ghirahim whispers, hanging on for dear life. "C-can- Can we take this somewhere your MOM won't stumble on us, or worse one of the BRATS running around the castle? I'm about to become very embarrassing if we keep this up." He gives Dinravi a significant stare, face crimson. "Maybe with a bed?"

Dinravi's eyebrows shoot up. ".... Would you like me to carry you?" he finally asks.

"I think you're going to have to," Ghirahim admits.

We're going to give them some privacy. XD

[Image Description: Dinravi is tilting Ghirahim into a kiss, the sun setting through the window behind them.  Ghirahim’s eyes are open but he’s pliant in Dinravi’s arms, one hand curled against his chest.  Dinravi is smiling, eyes closed and his grip gentle but rather thoroughly in control of the situation.  End ID.]

Back At the Sky Commune

Maurice and the other priests/monks at the Sky Temple Commune had some word of what was going on by the time Astramorus returns, and Maurice has more or less been put in charge now, in recognition of his years of service and care of the commune’s day to day.

He’s a bit annoyed at Astramorus about the whole thing, if he’s honest, which he is, but he also does care about his former superior, and once Astramorus has settled back in and the Sheikah escort is being shown around he approaches him in his quarters, finding him by the window thrown open, chin resting in his hand, looking out of place in the kind of civilian clothing Astramorus has barely worn his entire life.

“So what are you going to do with yourself, Astramorus, once the Queen’s man has decided you’ve moped around here enough?” he asks.  Maurice is kind but he’s also gruff.  Birds don’t tend to care about your word choices, and Maurice spends much more time with pigeons and cuccos and loftwings than with people.

Astramorus shrugs, not turning from the view of the blue sky.  “Honestly Maurice, I was raised by Hylia’s Church.  Mayhap I’ll find something else, but.  Well, it was kind of the Queen to let me keep these quarters for more reasons than memory of my wife.”

Maurice bristles his mustache, and then he says, “You know... she stripped your rank.  There’s nothing about your sentence as I read it that says you can’t start over from the beginning.”

Astramorus finally turns to him, and Maurice is struck by how... well, how much happier the other man looks.  He’s lost nearly everything, and yet it’s like a great millstone’s off his neck.  And Astramorus smiles:

[Image Description: “Maybe,” Astramorus says, smiling against his hand.  He looks relaxed and happy, and maybe like he’s considering it seriously.  The sun shines on him gently.  End ID.]

What Now, Link?

And perhaps at the same time, now that he’s said his goodbyes and everything’s settled down, Marla finds Link sitting on a balcony rail of Hyrule Castle, looking out at Castle Town and looking pretty peaceful himself.

She comes up behind him and folds her arms against the rail, smiling up at him.

“So, Link, we finally got your father to listen to you,” she says, and she’s thinking of that conversation at the Shrine of the Furious God when she says it.  “What now?”

Link shrugs.  “I suppose I’ll stay here for a little while,” he says.  He wants to see Gray recovered, and to spend more time with the Royal Family, and it’d be nice, if he’s honest, to rest a while himself.  “The Queen says my mother’s family are probably still running around the continent somewhere, so I might look for them after that.”  Adventuring runs in the family, apparently, because Zelda Sr. only has some idea of where his grandparents have gotten off to, only some idea of where to find his mother’s younger siblings.

“Sounds like a plan,” Marla says.  She looks out at Hyrule Castle Town for a quiet moment, enjoying the sound of Link breathing.

“Do you think,” she says, “That we could take a few weeks to check back at Windfish Isle?  I have this horrible suspicion that the Mayor has filled Tonbo and my house with fishing nets and I’d like to let him know to find someone else to live there before the walls take on a permanent stink.”

We’re staying with you so we should let them know goes unspoken, but Marla has known for a while she’s tying herself to Link for the rest of his life the same way she’s tied herself to Tonbo for the rest of his life, and the world’s a bit wider than it was when she and Tonbo left with Link, and if Link’s going to be in the wide world, Marla and Tonbo should be too.

And Link knows what she means.  Because family means the people you don’t need so much courage around.

He smiles.  “Yeah,” he says.  “We can do that.”

[Image Description: Link and Marla.  Link is sitting on the balcony rail while Marla is leaning on it.  They’re giving one another fond smiles.  The sun shines on them gently, giving the image a slightly faded look.  End ID.]

[bitterepiphany]

the bodyguard situation

archive of our own

@zuzusexytiems enjoy ;))

ooh also partly inspired by @amy-r-k's aa first kiss hc <3<3

warning: contains spoilers for 139

If somebody had told her during her days in the Southern Training Corps that Armin Arlert would become the 15th Commander of the Survey Corps, Annie would have scoffed in their face. There would be no way in hell that a boy that soft and weak, a boy that struggled to even complete the Training Corps program, would become the leader of by far the most dangerous branch of military here on this island.

But times had changed. Times had changed so drastically, so mind-bendingly, that Annie almost longed for those days, those simple days when the only troubles worrying her mind was the location of the Founder, and the guilt over all the destruction they had wrought on the people within the walls. Funny, how something so enormous could become so simple in hindsight.

Something hadn’t changed, though, in Annie’s world. It surprised her sometimes, how much she had come to rely on that soft and weak boy from training, how just the sound of his voice could ground her, reminding her of all the years she spent in that crystal with only his and Hitch’s words to keep her sane.

Things had happened slowly, softly. There was so much aftermath to deal with, so much death, destruction, and fear to manage, that for at least the first year after Eren’s death, they barely had time for one another. Fragile, temporary stalemates disguised as peace were made between surviving humanity and those of Paradis, and work began to salvage and rebuild what was flattened.

Armin had been forced to take up his role as the new Commander, and for a period of time, stood at a similar rank to Historia as the only surviving military leader after the rest had been turned into titans and subsequently killed. While Historia stayed on Paradis, Armin and their surviving group - Annie, Reiner, Connie, Jean, and Pieck - who were dubbed, ‘The Heroes of Paradis’, stayed in Marley, negotiating with their surviving leaders and helping the cleanup and rebuild effort. Levi remained in Marley to recover from his injuries with their more advanced technology, and Mikasa chose not to go with them, opting to instead retire from military work to instead mourn her loss in peace.

But after things had settled (or as settled as they could be after eighty percent of the world was crushed), the unresolved tension between them couldn’t be ignored through their various distractions anymore. From lingering looks, hands brushing each other for a little longer than it to be accidental, and making constant, see-through excuses - if the looks Pieck and Jean gave were any indication - to spend time with each other, it became almost unbearable for Annie. She began to think about his confession on the boat on a daily basis, thinking it over. What if he didn’t feel that way anymore? What if he realised that she was a monster, and that she didn’t deserve someone as good as he was? What if - and this thought made Annie feel physically sick - he found another girl, and she was everything Annie couldn’t be?

It was only after Pieck had cornered her after she was caught staring openly at him for the umpteenth time that she sucked it up and decided she would confront these feelings. That was, until an incident on Paradis where a group of rogue Jeagerists decided that the current Commander of the Survey Corps needed to be replaced.

Now, it was known to those that knew him through training and the subsequent years that Armin didn’t excel physically. Though he had improved and filled out into himself in the years since he inherited the Colossal Titan, he would never reach the prowess of his other male comrades like Reiner, Jean, Connie, or Eren.

Though this information was never made ‘public’, it must have gotten out somewhere, and during an orientation for some new Scouts that Armin was overseeing, a group of young men broke away from the group and rushed him. Luckily, Armin was quick to react and defended himself until they almost overwhelmed him, but at that point, Jean and Connie reacted and dragged the attackers off him. Annie herself wasn’t with the group when it happened, instead away with Reiner discussing Marley things with Historia, but when she was notified of it, she was furious. Needless to say, the decision to give Armin a constant guard was non-negotiable, and it became clear to everyone else who wasn’t budging on being the one for the job.

Armin tried to protest the decision, saying he didn’t need a ‘babysitter’, but one look from Annie shut him up pretty quickly. He did confide to her later that he was grateful she was doing it, instead of some upstart young Scout, or even one of the boys in their group, claiming that they could become a bit suffocating in their insistence that he couldn’t defend himself at all.

The words left unsaid between them seemed to take a backseat as they now spent basically all their time together. Armin let his guard down around her, and she had to admit to herself that she couldn’t imagine her life without him at this point. There were some realisations within herself that she was scared to look at though. Once, Armin questioned whether she wanted to leave the group to go live with her father, since that seemed to always be her goal ever since she left for Paradis Island all those years ago.

Annie had spent time with her father early on in the months following the Rumbling, but had found herself drawn to working with Armin and the others, though was reluctant to leave her father initially. He assured her it was okay though, and encouraged her to get out and do something she enjoyed with her life. She still visited him regularly in Marley when she could.

They never openly acknowledged it, but the intimacy between Armin and Annie slowly began to increase. Armin had a couch in his study, and sometimes they would sit there together, Armin reading some book too boring for her to be interested in, and Annie would just relax. One afternoon, the sun was falling just right over her body, and she allowed herself to close her eyes. The next thing she knew, she had awoken to her cheek pressed into the fabric of Armin’s shoulder, one of his arms resting loosely around her shoulders. He was still reading in the fading dusk light, and when she shifted, he looked at her, a small smile on his lips.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” he whispered, smirking slightly. “Poor form of you, sleeping on the job, huh?”

He was teasing her. Annie pushed herself upright, fighting a yawn, failing to do so, all while shooting him an icy glare.

Armin just laughed.

Fuck.

Annie couldn’t maintain her icy demeanour at that. That damned laugh of his always broke all of her walls. She just huffed and turned her head, heat creeping up her neck. Armin’s laugh faded, and Annie glanced over at him. She was surprised to see him glancing at her sheepishly too.

“You know,” he mumbled, blushing, a hand coming to rub the back of his neck, “Uh, I don’t mind if you, you know, do that…”

Annie’s breath caught. Armin blushed harder, eyes averting.

“Uhm,” he continued, still resolutely not looking at her, “Hitch used to always say that you looked scary when you slept? But… you… don’t really, I think you look kinda cute actually and- oh?”

Annie had scooted closer to him during his ramblings, and, without a word, rested her head back onto his shoulder.

“You talk too much,” she grumbled, curling up beside him.

Armin huffed out a laugh, his arm returning to its spot around her shoulders.

They stayed like that until Annie fell asleep again, and the both of them had to be shaken awake by an amused looking Pieck, who smirked at Annie mischievously when the latter discovered Armin had wrapped her up in his arms, his cheek pressed up against her hair.

***

Some invisible barrier had broken between the two of them since that afternoon. Annie found herself sleeping on Armin in various different places whenever they sat together for extended periods of time, and he became more touchy, often grabbing onto her hands to lead her places and show her things, and being quite cuddly when she fell asleep on him, leading Annie to wake up pressed tightly against him, trapped by his arm.

They found themselves in a unique situation, and neither Annie nor Armin were oblivious to the rumours and giggles that followed the two of them around at Scout Headquarters. Their close friends wisely chose not to mention their growing intimacy, but that didn’t save them from the badly disguised stares and whispered speculation that erupted from Junior Scouts as the pair did their daily business around the grounds.

It didn’t help that Armin and Annie did absolutely everything together after the attack. The two didn’t say anything to each other, the only indication Annie got that Armin noticed it at all was his telltale habit of rubbing the back on his neck and hair when he got flustered or nervous when the whispers got a little too loud for comfort.

Things reached a peak one night after a long meeting negotiating new regiment leaders and discussing the rebel Jeagerists that seemed to be grouping up together again.

It was raining hard after a sudden downpour, and Armin and Annie were faced with the newly treacherous task of making their way across the grounds to their adjacent rooms in the Commander’s and Captain’s dorms.

They stood under an awning, peering through the darkness, trying to route a path that would result in the least amount of drenching. It didn’t seem possible.

“Well,” Annie said, “I suppose we can just have a shower after…”

“I guess… let’s go!”

Annie cried out in surprise as Armin grabbed her hand and yanked her along with him, and then they were off, running through the sheets of water and getting thoroughly soaked to the bone. Annie let herself go, and began to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, and soon Armin joined her, their laughs getting lost in the roar of the rain.

Just as they reached their barracks, Annie’s foot landed in a particularly slippery patch of mud and she toppled over, gasping. She squeaked in shock as a pair of arms wrapped around her and saved her from a faceful of mud. Armin pulled her into him, and her palms flew up to grip his shirt at his chest. They stood there for a second, staring at each other, far closer than they had ever been before, chests heaving with exertion.

Armin’s arms tightened around her slightly.

“Are… are you okay?” he breathed.

Annie could feel his heart racing beneath her hands, and she suddenly became acutely aware of how fast her heart was going too. She nodded, breathless.

Armin didn’t seem to want to let her go. Annie found that she didn’t want him to either.

All of their interactions since his damned confession on the boat ran through her head. Annie took a breath. She had made up her mind. Enough of this dancing around one another. Just as the words building up in her head for months passed her lips, Armin spoke.

“Annie,” he said, eyes intensely focused on hers. “I think I’m in love with you.”

Her chest caught.

“I…”

Feeling as though her entire life had led up to this moment, Annie abandoned any response she might have had on her tongue, gripped his shirt harder, rose on her tiptoes, and kissed him.

She could feel the tension leave Armin’s shoulders, and he almost slumped into her, leaning down so she could stand flat-footed, kissing her back, hands sliding up her body to cradle her face. They broke apart, lost in their own little world, eyes locked.

“Wanna get married?”

Annie let loose an elated giggle, sure that this high she was on was never going to let her down. It was all too incredible to even describe.

“Yeah.”

***

Rumours about the Commander and his female companion had been the hot topic of Scout members for months. A set of questions regarding them circulated.

“Who’s that scary-looking lady who’s always with the Commander?”

“Is she some kind of new captain?”

“I heard she was his bodyguard!”

“No surely not, she’s too small for that, maybe she’s his assistant.”

Another smaller, more knowledgeable section of older Scouts found the pairing to be unbearable.

“She’s the Female Titan!”

“Why haven’t we killed her yet? You know how many Scouts she killed, right?”

“Why on earth does he seem to be friendly with her?”

“They look like some sort of couple! No way am I serving under someone fucking a traitor!”

The Commander and his female companion were very aware of the whispers, but they didn’t care. Let them think what they wanted, they thought.

One afternoon, an amused-looking Reiner was lounging about, supervising some of the younger recruits in their training. He heard some of their whispers, and laughed aloud.

“You guys don’t know?” he scoffed, rolling his eyes, “She’s no bodyguard. That’s his wife .”

Rumour has it the squeals of shock could be heard from across the grounds.

[anika-ann]

A Cup of Truth (S.R)

Type: One-shot, a bit of coffee shop AU

Pairing: Steve Rogers x fem!reader    Word Count: 3000

Summary: Your favourite pretty blond comes in every day to get a cup of good ol’ joe. You flirt on occasion; mostly you, because your suit of armour – which people boringly call an apron – and his smiles give you confidence.

When the band of dumb goons picks your damn workplace to attack, your confidence flies out of the window. Well. Good thing that the resident Avenger heroes save the day including the one in his all-American star-spangled glory.

Prompt: “You can’t mask that ass. I’d know it anywhere.” (Bold in the text)

Warnings: hostage situation, violence, non-consensual drug use/injected, hospitals, slightly crack-ish humour (?) and some fluff

A/N: For marvelcapsicle’s challenge. Thank you for letting me participate, darling, may you gain more and more sweet followers in the future ♥

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Here’s a thing: Steve Rogers had a lot of fight in him. Before or after injected with the serum, no matter his shirt size, no matter if he could swing his fists effectively or not, he would punch bullies in their face.

When it came to people close to his heart, that rule amplified tenfold. No one touched the people he cared for. And while he would not necessarily call all of them friends, he would go rabid should any harm come their way.

To be fair, the list of ‘his people’ who were still alive wasn’t long; he could almost count them on the fingers of one hand. Tony. Natasha. Clint. Thor. Bruce. Probably Fury. Really, his circle was a bit monotonous, people who could protect themselves just fine at most times, but simultaneously with high-risk job of being the first defence line for the world’s greatest threats.

And then there was you.

You, with your inviting smile whenever he appeared at your counter at the café he had discovered during his endless walks.

You, handing him a drink different to his usual ‘boring’ cup of joe once a week, because that was the deal you had offered and Steve, caught in his curiosity about today’s world and your adorable challenging expression, agreed.

You, with your pretty eyes, irises twinkling at his attempts at flirting, no matter how awkward and out-of-time they sounded, graciously returning the favour… if he was reading the situation right.

You, always grinning wide when discovering a doodle he had left on his napkin, taking it with you back to the counter.

You, blissfully unaware of his double life, genuine in your demeanour, dealing with plain old Steve Rogers, and perfectly safe; at least as safe as one could be on Manhattan.

You in a headlock, as five rogue SHIELD agents decided to crash into the café you worked at of all the damn places, choosing it with deadly precision and nearly driving the poor Captain America into a cardiac arrest.

Not that you had any idea your life mattered to the proclaimed Star-Spangled Man more than anyone else’s. You were the exception to the rule; you were the precious outsider Steve caught feelings for, the one that was not supposed to learn about his other persona for at least a while longer and sure as hell was not supposed to get herself in a mess like this one.

Steve stood frozen as Natasha had two men at gunpoint, Clint fighting another, the last one having been already knocked down by Steve himself. The only injured people were the few customers, scarce at the hour, and the employees; some bruises and insignificant bleeding wounds between all of them.

The worst problem still remained; Perez had his arm around your neck, visibly squeezing your windpipe at least partly if the colour of your face – one stained in tears and Steve could kill at the moment, kill with no remorse – was anything to go by.

He gripped his shield tighter, staring the man down with his jaw clenched and his heart beating its way out of his chest, the syringe at your carotid scaring him more than the reduced airflow to your lungs.

“It’s over, Perez! Let her- let the woman go,” Steve howled, knees slightly bend in posture allowing him to spring forward at any second, to throw his weapon, to punch the living daylight of the bastard that not only betrayed SHIELD, but put his hands on you.

Big, big mistake. He really shouldn’t have done that.

“I like her exactly where she is, Cap,” Perez snarled, a wicked smile on his bloody lips, only his eyes giving away a fraction of his fear. “Move and she gets a ticket straight to hell.”

Perez was outnumbered and he knew it; even if he managed to escape, they would find him easily with Tony Stark’s system of surveillance. Yet, he tightened his grip and with you involuntarily acting like a human shield for him, he started backing away, gaze flickering between the three present Avengers.

Natasha’s right arm twitched as if she wanted to shoot him on spot – but she didn’t want to risk leaving the other two without the threat of immediate death for even a second.

And then several things happened at once; Clint knocked his opponent down with the construction of his bow; Perez who saw it lost his nerve and swiftly slammed the needle into your neck, piercing your skin easily, as easily as Steve’s panicked shout ripped from his throat.

The next second, an arrow was sticking from Perez’ shoulder as he jerked back with a cry of pain and Clint put another arrow through his hand, adding one to his thigh for a good measure. Two gunshots sounded in the background, Natasha’s aim as unmistakable as ever.

Perez fell to the ground with a scream, not even reaching for the gun in his holster before Steve was there to knock him out with a brutal hit straight to his face with his vibranium shield. The crack sounding at the impact was like music to Steve’s ears, the blood spurting from Perez’ nose a pleasant visual.

Yet, it didn’t feel half as satisfactory as Steve hoped as you had stumbled and toppled over your own feet. He barely managed to slow down your fall, gloved palm shooting up under the spot between your shoulder blades, his other hand holding your shoulder. He supported your enfeebled weight as you practically lied over the unconscious man.

Steve didn’t bother paying attention to his surroundings, knowing that the noise around him was Romanoff and Barton apprehending the remaining thugs. Instead, his gaze scanned you head to toe, focusing on your face and neck when he couldn’t find any other injury.

You were pale, eyes misted, unfocused, skin worryingly cold to his touch.

“Hey-- hey! Can you hear me?” Steve demanded urgently, lightly patting your cheek.

At that, your pupils zeroed on him, wide with disbelief, and to his immense shock, a lazy smile spread on your lips.

“Steve?” you breathed out his name and blood crystalized in his veins, his heart, already panicking, speeding up. How did you know his name? Perhaps the drug, the whatever liquid in the syringe was taking effect and you were turning delirious? Shit, they needed a doctor-- “You’re the pretty blond. Steve. My flirty Steve… my hero. Everyone’s hero.”

Steve’s horror escalated with each word. Good news: you were still breathing and apparently quite lucid, even if your speech was more of a mumble. Bad news: his secret identity just blew up.

Luckily, he considered the good news much more important; and lucid he would like to keep you, so he shot Natasha and Clint a meaningful glare, wordlessly asking them to call help. He wasn’t sure whether it registered because both of the spies were staring at him wide-eyed as the woman in his arms just outed him like the café’s regular… one that flirted with her, no less.

Steve cleared his throat, focusing on his mission – to keep you talking. There was no much point in denying it, was it?

“Eh... yeah, it’s me. How-how did you know? I wear a mask-“

“Muscly… real muscly… and that ass,” you muttered and Steve nearly choked on his spit, certain that he just turned red all over, including the area you pointed out.

Wait, did that mean that you had been checking him out?

So not important right now.

“Oh, uhm- how are you feeling? We have to-“

“You can’t mask that ass. I’d know it anywhere,” you continued babbling as if you hadn’t heard him and Steve gulped, feeling his teammates, who still hadn’t called a doctor, what the actual hell- watching you with interest. ”…could bounce a penny off it… no, that ain’t right, a quarter off of it, that’s it… Dream of it sometimes… biting-“

Clint coughed loudly to cover his laughter, finally springing into action after that uncomfortable remark that gave Steve quite a visual he wasn’t sure how he felt about just yet.

“Alright, as amusing as this is, we should get her some medical attention…”

Steve only took his eyes off of you for a moment, shooting Barton a look that screamed ‘You think?!’

“I want to touch it… please lemme touch it—just once,” you pleaded quietly, swaying even in your practically horizontal position, straining your neck to catch a glimpse of the object of your interest. “The best I’ve even seen-“

“I think it’s ethanol she got injected with…” Natasha announced, sniffing the syringe with disgust in her voice. “High concentration.”

And Steve felt like he just got hit by Thor’s hammer… in his head. Seriously?

“…alcohol?” he asked, dumbstruck and utterly relieved, the heavy weight in his stomach lifting a bit. “You think she’s merely… drunk?”

“Well, alcohol straight to the bloodstream is seriously nasty on its own, S-“

“Alcohol nasty, yesss. And this really hurts,” your voice interrupted Natasha and Steve’s heart clenched uncomfortably when the surprised grimace appeared on your face, your eyes indeed clouding in pain, looking up at him, doe-eyed, so vulnerable and trusting.

“Hey, no sad Steeb! Your eyes pretty too. Little pictures you draw… so suuuper cute. I like your hair. You came in the day, wind blew, so messy-- like bed hair, wanna try top that-- I betcha I can do better-“

“Sounds drunk enough to you?” Natasha hummed casually and Steve didn’t even have to look at her to know she was smirking, while he was both fretting over your state and blushing to the roots of his hair because of your blunt compliments and unfiltered fantasies.

You turned your head slowly to Nat as she spoke, a crooked grin curling up your lips. “Hey, you’re pretty too-“

Much to Steve’s annoyance, the Russian spy had the audacity to chuckle and wink at you.

“Why thank you-“

“But prefer blonds,” you babbled again, lowering your voice conspiratorially. “He’s real nice. His biceps are like… huge. Bigger than my head-- ow, my head… spi-spinning- I think-? Whoa— oh… “

Steve called out your name in panic as you went limp in his arms, your body pliant, folding like a house of cards.

“I like her,” Clint noted as he jogged to Steve’s side, kneeling to take your pulse on the unharmed carotid with a furrow to his brows. “The medics are on their way, she’ll hold on until then.”

Steve sighed in relief when Clint nodded in affirmation again, feeling your heart still beating.

Steve’s grip on your tightened, hand sliding behind your head to cradle it gently rather than letting it dangle in such unnatural angle. He manoeuvred it so your cheek rested against his chest, his newly free hand sneaking under your knees so he could lift you with ease as he stood up.

“Nice, Rogers. Keep going like this, squads with weights, and you’ll keep that exceptional ass of yours in shape,” Natasha teased him, but when he turned to glare at her, she gave him a soft smile and beckoned towards your nearly motionless body. “She’ll be okay. Let’s go get her some help.”

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Your head was pounding. The right side of your neck was itchy as hell and felt extremely stiff. The beeping sounding in your ears was a thing from nightmares, echoing in your aching skull.

You felt like shit and honestly, you could cry when you tried to open your eyes and the sharp light hit them, making you swiftly close them again.

A realization slowly crept at you that there was a presence of an intrusive smell too, making you want to puke— or was that just the brutal hangover? Because you felt unbelievably hungover on top of everything. The world seemed to be spinning even behind your closed eyelids and you couldn’t but groan, deciding to only curse the universe mentally since your throat resembled a Sahara Desert.

“Oh, hey gorgeous,” a female voice greeted you from your left and you snapped your eyes open with a startle, staring with shock at the beautiful redhead sitting by your bedside.

For few long seconds, you wondered if you died and went to heaven, because there was a non-descript angelic-like creature watching over you.  You quickly brushed that thought aside, because there was no way Heaven looked like a hospital room and provided you with such shitty sensations attacking your poor body.

So you asked the only logical question, ignoring the dryness of your mouth which soon cause you to cough.

“…who are you?”

A plastic cup with a heavenly cold liquid landed in front of you, the straw sticking from it directed to your lips as the stunning woman frowned discontentedly.

“Oh, you don’t remember?” she asked, seemingly hurt. “My heart is breaking! You told me I was pretty.”

You blinked slowly, finally adjusting to the light, finally able to talk without pain (that much pain, that was) and your head started pounding some more, embarrassment filling every fibre of your being.

What the- oh god, you had really got drunk, hadn’t you, and now you had a total blackout on what you had been up to in your questionable state.

“Eeeer… I did? I mean, you are… but-“

“But you prefer blonds, yeah, I know,” the mysterious woman finished your sentence to her liking and your eyes went wide. How did she- and who was she again, sitting in your hospital room like that? Had you really got so smashed that you didn’t remember her when you should have? When had you met? Shit, your mind was so foggy… “And you think Steve’s a bit prettier. And his ass is the best you’ve ever seen, so I get it…”

“The hell?!” you squealed in utter horror, sitting up straight as the words registered, a flash of blue, red and white flickering in the back of your mind, followed by a sharp stung in your temples. A nauseatingly strong pain resembling an intense cramp – only like ten times worse – shot up your neck as you moved so quickly, ripping a startled yelp from your throat.

A hazy image of the café you worked at blended into a picture Steve’s beautiful eyes – did this woman know your regular, your handsome flirty blond regular? –, sensation of gentle hands cradling your jaw, a sting in your neck—

“You need to be careful with how much you move. Your neck took quite a hit, they had to perform a surgery on you, you got a transfusion. They worried about your brain too. They’ve been monitoring you for four days now and this is the first time you’re awake,” your stranger explained patiently, voice full of compassion.

Your hand involuntarily rose to massage the incriminated place, still unsure of what the woman was talking about, the images in your brain confusing the hell out of you. You still had no idea who she was, but her face was starting to feel a bit familiar – you assumed that whatever had happened, she had been there too, possibly helping you.

And there was something in her green eyes, cautious yet somewhat calming, making it easy to trust her for some inexplicable reason.

“Steve’s gonna be pissed at me for missing it,” she added and grinned. “I made him leave to take care of himself before he could actually start taking roots in here. He’s been worried too. A lot.”

The amount of question marks in your head just doubled, but at the same time, your heart fluttered. Steve had visited you? Often, apparently? That was really, really sweet of him. The thought of him guarding you – and didn’t he have a physique of a bodyguard, once mentioning he was in private security when asked –, brought a dreamy smile to your face.

Perhaps it wasn’t only about flirting for him either…?

“Keep looking so lovestruck and I might forgive him that he hasn’t mention you before. Though I guess I can’t blame him, wanting to keep— anyway. I’m Natasha. Nice to meet you,” she extended her hand towards you at last and you automatically accepted it, telling her your name in return.

Even though that was probably beside the point seeing as she had been found at your bedside in a hospital.

“Hi, Natasha. Nice to meet you too… I think.”

The redhead burst out into a quiet laughter at your hesitance. “Fair enough. After Steve comes back and explains what exactly happened – because it’s not quite my place to tell you –, call me back for the good details. It’s fun to make him blush.”

Despite just only having met this woman, you decided that you kinda liked her and nodded in acceptance of her offer. Steve might be sweet – perhaps even sweet on you it seemed – but some harmless teasing could never hurt. Not when it apparently had something to do with his glorious ass.

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Here’s a thing: Steve Rogers had a lot of fight in him. Before injected with the serum or after, no matter his shirt size, no matter if he could swing his fists effectively or not, he would fight for what mattered.

His teammates and friends certainly fell into the category. The somewhat relationship he had been trying to build with you was right there with them, definitely worth fighting for.

So, after revealing his identity – an action which become inevitable at that point, really – he had a delicate confession to make and a bold question to ask in an almost shy voice. He still asked it, because he would be damned if he gave up on you.

You said yes, your confession about certain harboured feelings matching his.

You said yes, you would like to go out with him very much, because you liked him too.

And no, it wasn’t just because he owned the best backside you had ever seen. Steve Rogers was, according to you, quite memorable and worth fighting for in general too.

(Steve, over time, might have developed a bit of a love-hate relationship with the fact you were getting along with Natasha so well. It was good news and bad news at the same time, seeing as it often resulted in the two of you teaming up against him. Once again, the good news won him over… because he simply loved how easily you fit into his world and how surprisingly well he fit into yours.)

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S.R. masterlist

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Thank you for reading :-*

It’s once a again a bit different from my usual writing; it’s short (like wtf me? short?) and it’s with a quote that is hard to do justice to... so I hope you liked it at leats a bit. Feedback always appreciated :-*

[mymadmedleyw]

Portal

Summary: It represented something like hope, something unearthly, something worth examining, but now, for Maddie, it was nothing else just a reminder, telling that she failed.

(ao3 | ff)

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Maddie was staring at the swirling green madness, trying to recall the days when it wasn't a curse or seemed more than an acidic green-ness of doom, but- she shook her head, she couldn't tell. Now, at the present, she couldn't remember those days.

Her son was dead, and partly she had made it happen. And she called herself a good scientist! But, after all, she called herself a ghost-huntress too, and...

She bit her lips. She had been both at a certain moment of time and also a mother, who should have been a support to her little boy, but- now, who she was? But this damn thing couldn't answer her question either, it was wordless and- and just the shifting swirl was speaking in silence, telling a tale that she hated to hear, it told that- that she had failed. As a scientist, as a ghost-hunter, and as a mother too.

Maddie took a careful step closer, wondering. Had it been painful? Surely, it had supposed to be. It had killed her boy. But- she almost could imagine him, shrieking in pain and falling to the floor, unaware yet that his life had changed and that- that it never would be normal again. She had made it. She had let it happen. She had killed her baby. Just as-

"Mom!" a sudden shouting voice made her stop to take another step. And then, in the corner of her eye, a bright green light slowly was flying closer. "Come back, it's dangerous."

She had to laugh at the note – if she could have been able to crack a smile on it. Dangerous, he said, dangerous! It had been dangerous, a hazard too at the first place and-

Suddenly something grabbed her shoulder and then in a blink of an eye she was at the other side of the lab, being pushed down in a chair. A glowing green gaze locked her eyes, worried. "Mom, you're okay?"

Maddie had to blink a few, realising what had just happened, that she was placed – by flying obviously – away from the portal, because- because she had been standing too close to it, that- that she had been too close to harm herself with it, just like-

A little shake got her out of the thinking. "Mom! "

Maddie shook her head, trying to concentrate. It took a huge effort, but then she looked back at the bright gaze, nodding. "I'm okay, sweetie, don't worry, I was just thinking there."

Her boy – now in ghost form – moved backwards, giving a sceptical look, crossing his arms and floating in the air with spectral tails. "It's dangerous, mom. You can't just walk into the Ghost Zone. For humans, it's better to wear something like uh- sort of protection or else who knows how it could affect the body or even hurt you. It’s not safe for you, to walk in, just like that.” he lectured, but the only word she heard was the word ‘hurt’.

Hurt … not safe… just like that… dangerous. Fatal maybe even – not maybe, literally, because- because- Now, it reached the edge, Maddie buried her face in her hands, breaking out weeping. What had she done? He was- he was worried over her that she would get hurt by the portal and- and she supposed to be the mother, to take care of her son and- who was she now? Nothing else, just a failure.

For a moment there wasn’t anything else just her quite sobbing, and then something made a bright flash of light and a nearly uncomfortable cold something embraced her, flinching by the touch, but not releasing her otherwise. It took a second to realise what it was, what – who – was hugging her, comforting her. Maddie pushed him away.

“Danny, change back immediately!” Her son, confused and surprised blinked at her. Maddie stared at him seriously. “Now, sweetie!” The boy raised his arms in the air, giving up, but wincing in pain by the movement, only confirming by it, that him, being ‘human’ caused him indeed trouble.

“Okay, okay, gee!” rolled the human formed boy his bright blue eyes that were still dimmed by the hurt he still was in. “Ancients, if someone had told me a week ago, my parents would force me to stay Phantom, I would have thought they were too long in the Thermos and lost their mind.” he mumbled under his nose, but then the white rings appeared and his form changed back into the ghost-state. Maddie gave a sigh of relief and wiped off the remained tears on her face.

“Honey,” she turned to her baby, “just because I am still processing this whole, it doesn’t mean, you have to change back to human and comfort me, just because you assume I’d be less freaked out.”

The boy in embarrassment scratched the back of his neck, this time with a lack of frowning by the movement. “I thought- I thought…” but then, he stayed wordless.

Maddie reached out for him, slowly grabbing his uninjured hand, looking straight into the glowing green gaze. “Danny, you have to heal, and you said, you heal faster as Phantom. Staying ghost is obligatory till then, got it?” the boy sheepishly nodded, she continued. “I might not be able to protect you from everything, but I am your mother, and as a mother, I have to take care of you as much as I can.” she gave the explanation.

The boy pursued his slightly trembling lips, visibly near to crying, but he didn’t say anything, he was just quietly floating in the air, rubbing his upper arm uncomfortably. “Okay, but-“ he gazed at the floor, but then lifted his eyes, letting out a breath. “Just don’t go into the Ghost Zone without protection, okay? If you want to explore it or something, tell me and we’ll figure out how I can show you around safely later.”

Maddie stared at her son, shocked, he was- but after all, he was the hero of the town, the Ghost Boy, protecting Amity Park from the other ghosts and… even if she was his mother, she didn’t have a word who was in charge connected to ghosts. She nodded.

“All right,” he accepted it, and moved a bit backwards, giving a quick glimpse towards the portal. “You don’t might if I shut it off now, do you?” he flew towards the panel. Maddie shook her head, slapping herself mentally why didn’t she yet do it, after the other ghost had appeared and disappeared, and…

“Uh-“ she facepalmed, cursing herself that she hadn't been thinking at all. The ghosts were coming to Amity Park from the Ghost Zone, through their portal and- and if any showed up right now, Danny was still weak and healing to fight them and- she was so stupid not shutting it off immediately back then.

“Mom?” came suddenly a questioning voice. Maddie raised her head towards her boy, the lack of swirling green made the lab almost dark.

“Sorry, sweetie, I- I really need to get used to it. So, uh- if the portal is off, there wouldn’t be any ghost issues?” she wondered, the answer was a soft chuckle.

“No, unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.” her son explained. “But I guess, it can keep them away for a while, but for example for Cujo… well, he could slip out even if it is closed.” Maddie’s brows raised up, he continued, reading by her expression. “He is a ghost dog, harmless, mostly.” her eyes widened, by the last note, the boy waved in the air. “I mean, mostly, as a little puppy, mom.” well, that didn’t calm her down, but- after all, what she could do.

Maddie stood up from the chair and walked towards the stairs, but then she turned back to her baby who was now, floating thoughtfully next to the portal in his ghost-form. She had to admit, even if they were scientists studying ghosts, they would have never ever thought they would once actually meet with spectral beings and not even imagining that their town would turn out the middle of paranormal occurrences, and- and not even conceiving that their son would turn out half-ghost by their-

Maddie let out a shaky breath that grabbed the boy’s attention, making him fly next to her, examining her worried. “Mom, are you sure, you’re okay?” she couldn’t tell it or put it into words, but then seemingly she didn’t need to, namely suddenly he wrapped his arms around her. “I’m sorry, I know how hard it can be for you, but I- I don’t blame you, okay? I’m okay like that. And if- if I once had to do this again, giving up being Phantom or living a normal life, I still would choose this, no matter what.”

Her hands started to tremble, but then she squeezed her boy, realising that partly, he had been hiding this part of his life – or afterlife – because he felt it would upset them, blaming themselves for it, creating the portal and… then it clogged together. The portal. Now, it all became clear. Not only her son turned half-ghost but-

“This Wisconsin Ghost…” she started, recalling the ghost who had been helping her, patching her boy, keeping him alive and things – god, how many breakdowns she had had in one day…

Her son released her, suddenly, facing her. “You mean Plasmius?” Maddie nodded, yes, after all, only her husband called the spectre ‘the Wisconsin Ghost’, and in real, they hadn’t ever given a chance to ghosts to introduce themselves... They shot first and asked questions never, especially if that was about- about… Phantom. She buried those disturbing thoughts rather right now, in the back of her mind, only focusing on the current issue.

The boy ran his hand through his white hair. “Yeah, I should definitely thank him, saving my life…” he whispered, and then, his lips curled into a half-smile. “Gee, actually, I hadn’t even thought, he would help me, but-“ his expression fell into an unreadable one. “After all, he was right, if things turned bad, he would be the only person to understand me…” he pursued his lips to that note. Maddie was sure that note meant something to him, something deep, but she didn’t push it, just as he forced himself to leave that thought behind, turning to her suddenly. “Sorry, what you wanted to ask about Plasmius?”

Maddie had to think, what she wanted to ask, but then, it reappeared in her mind. “It’s Vlad Masters, isn’t it?” she voiced, her son’s mouth opened and closed a few times, putting together what she was saying.

“I- I didn’t- I don’t suppose to-“ he stuttered. “We- we have a pact not telling- well, not telling- I-“

Maddie put a hand on his shoulder, giving her a look, tilting her head. “You didn’t tell it. I figured this out myself.” she calmed her, and indeed it seemed his ghostly body released the sudden tense. “It was the Proto-Portal, right?” he didn’t need to give a nod, she knew it. Now, she started to understand the man too, not everything, but slowly, the things began to clear up. Especially the expression that had been readable on the ghost-man’s face as he had spotted the injured boy, and Maddie had asked for help. That had been fear, horror, if she had hurt the ghost-boy, because Vlad was aware of who her son was. The Wisconsin Ghost that had once attacked them, the man who had a clear obsession over getting her, had been worried over the other part-ghost, because- because even if they were each other enemies, they still shared the same fate, bonding over their state.

Maddie gave a quick glimpse towards the now shut-off portal, she wasn’t sure when she would be capable of stepping over it, but then she turned to her boy, making up a convincing smile. “Pizza?”

Her half-ghost son smiled back at her. “Pizza sounds good, I’m starving.” he said, phasing excitedly through the door of the lab. Maddie stared back at the cursed invention, but then, followed her boy, concentrating on preparing lunch instead and somehow making a promise to herself to never ever create another portal. She couldn’t even tell if she was once able to survive the guilt over this, or either the previous one.