#read his whole run and it’s wildly entertaining

[stargraev]

BLACK PANTHER V1 #2

Words/Art Jack Kirby

1977

[bcyhoods]

TO BE SAFE. EDDIE MUNSON

synopsis: you ask to sleep over at eddie’s for the first time, and he undoubtedly is head over heels for you

word count: 1.2k

authors notes: somebody requested this before i started my blog over! if this finds u, im sending you a cookie and a kiss, as promised x

warnings: fem!reader, use of gendered pet names (princess, pretty girl), dialogue is…….cheesy cringe a little😔, clueless eddie, kissing !!!

“Goddamit.”

Eddie hisses beside you at the jumpscare on screen. It was the quietest sound, drowned underneath the blood-curdling screams in the film. It probably would’ve gone completely unnoticed. Unluckily for him, it didn’t. Luckily for you, your legs were draped over his lap, so the mechanical jolt of fright sent your own legs jumping into the air.

His head is thrown against the back of his couch as he slaps his free hand over his eyes. You giggle as you watch his skin flush scarlet underneath your stare.

“Eddie, it’s okay,” you coo, voice shaky in between your laughter.

The embarrassment doesn’t quite subside, but the sound of your infectious giggle and the feeling of you moving into his lap to pry away his fingers is enough to have his chest rumbling with mirrored joy. He gazes up at you as you hold his hands.

“You scared, Eds?”

You don’t mean for it to sound like you’re teasing, but he laughs anyway. With a grin, he shakes his head wildly and clasps his hands around your back.

“Nope, I’ve got a princess to protect me.”

He pushes you down into the couch so that he’s hovering above you, and you respond with a squeal. Your legs are locked around his waist as his hands dig into the plush of the cushion beside your head. He leans down with a proud smile to press a kiss to your mouth.

The kisses are sloppy. He litters your face and neck in open-mouthed love bites, none hard enough to leave any mark. When he reaches your lips, it’s more smiles and spit than any real kiss, but neither of you seem to mind. Not when the smell of his citrusy shampoo wraps around your figure to make you dizzy. Not when your hands roam along his biceps and up to the nape of his neck like you’re the only thing keeping him from floating away.

It’s a mess of hushed teasing and giggles and clashing teeth, and it’s perfect.

As he pushes himself up for a moment of air, he looks off to the side before releasing a displeased sigh. “Shit, it’s getting late,” he observes solemnly.

He sits back on his heels, just far away enough for you to hold yourself up. You follow his line of sight and find that the digital clock on the shelf reads 11:15. Your shoulders deflate and your heart sinks.

“It is kinda late, isn’t it?”

Once you turn back to him, his eyes are stuck on you. Gorgeous, dilated pupils run across the high points of your cheekbones and back down to your lips. His gaze commands a rush of heat to caress your skin until your insides are set ablaze and your mouth is painfully dry.

The utter lack of urgency may as well have been a weighted blanket.

One of his arms snakes around your waist to pull you into him further. He leans forward, tilting his head ever-so-slightly to catch your lips.

This one is less playful than the ones you shared just seconds before. His movements are languid, purposeful. Like all the air had been stolen from his lungs and you were oxygen.

Your elbows threaten to buckle underneath your weight. Though, you’d happily sink back into the couch cushions and let them swallow you whole, if it meant you got to kiss him all night. And he’d just as eagerly take up the opportunity to have you underneath him for as long as he could entertain.

But he’s pulling away. Your foreheads rest together as you wear matching expressions of bliss: eyes closed, and slick, kiss-bitten lips parted. His thumb sinks underneath the hem of your shirt to dance across your skin. Another weighted blanket.

“I’ll drive ya,” he whispers reluctantly.

You watch as Eddie stands to stretch, and the warmth follows. A pensive wrinkle makes home between his brows as he slowly moves to grab his jacket. This, along with the nagging feeling in your chest, was routine whenever you spent the day at his place.

It’s not that he hasn’t offered for you to spend the night before, because he’s suggested it quite a few times. It was just so scary. The nerves bubble and spill over and it’s just all a mess inside your head whenever you want to ask.

Today is something different, though. All that occupies your mind is Eddie, Eddie, Eddie and suddenly, you think it’d be impossible to spend the night without him.

“Really? You’re not tired?” The questions run off your tongue without a second thought.

“Well, I’m wide awake now,” he jests, running the metal of his rings over his bottom lip. He pats the pockets of his jacket for his keys, and when he comes up empty, he searches the kitchen counter.

The fear creeps back into your head as you watch him rifle through drawers. It makes you shrink in on yourself as you trudge over to your shoes that lay haphazardly by the door.

“Are you sure? I don’t want you to drive if you’re tired,” you ask softer.

Noticing a change in your demeanor, he looks up at you to see your teeth worrying at your lower lip. “I’m sure,” he insists sweetly, “Can’t let my pretty girl drive alone in the dark.”

He finally finds his keys and moves over to where his own pair of shoes rested beside yours. He sends you an easy grin and it makes it all the harder to swallow down your anxieties.

“It’s foggy out,” you mention faintly. You don’t know what the weather is like outside. It was merely you grasping at straws to freeze him in his motion. You’re sure it’s blatantly obvious at this point, expecting a light tease from the wavy-haired boy.

But oblivious as he is, Eddie peeks out the blinds anyway to scan the trailer park. He hums. It’s a little gloomy, but hardly anything to worry about. Just as he’s about to reassure you again, he pauses when he spots your fingers fidgeting with a loose seam in your sleeve. You’re staring down at your shoes — which you’ve purposely done a poor job of putting on, as they’re only halfway on your feet — with your tongue bitten between your teeth.

“Maybe…” you pause to take a deep inhale. “It’s probably better if I stay? If that's okay with you, I mean.”

Then, does Eddie freeze. And he feels like an absolute fool.

He feels like an absolute fool for being the one to get up first. For not getting the totally conspicuous hints you’ve been trying to give him for the past minute and a half. For being so focused on trying to find his damn keys that he hoped he’d lost in the first place. And for standing in shocked silence for so long that you’ve begun to frown and properly shove your ankles inside your shoes.

“Yeah,” he replies abruptly, reaching out for your arm.

“Yeah?” The hopeful rise in your inflection makes him gently squeeze your elbow.

“Yeah, of course you can stay. I want you to.”

You nod. You duck your chin to your chest to hide the shy smile on your lips, but to no avail. Eddie can spot your bright grin from a mile away and makes him go weak in the knees with a blush that he’s sure is making its way to his cheeks.

“Just to be safe, ya know,” you add before toeing off your shoes and pushing them closer to the wall.

“Right. To be safe.”

[highdreaming]

Eyes off her

💢 All the works are pure fictions, for entertainment purposes only so please, read it at your own will.

Summary: Your boyfriend gets jealous when someone flirts with you and a fight follows.

Find more at: Masterlist

Gavi x (female) reader

AN: Please like, reblog and give me feedback!

--

You twist your hands with nervousness as you wait for Gavi in the corridor.

The whole stadium vibrates with the loud cheers of the fans, everyone is excited for tonight’s big game and you feel the same way, wishing Gavi’s team to win. You wait for your boyfriend to show up, wanting to wish him good luck before the game. 

And he finally appears, pulling you towards him for a hug, a huge grin decorating his face.

“Hey. Good luck, babe. I hope you guys win.” you say, kissing his cheek. Gavi’s arm suddenly tightens around you and as you struggle to pull away, you notice the sudden tense expression on his face as he looks to the front.

You turn your head, catching a glimpse of a tall man from the other team staring at you, more specifically at your lower back with a cocky smirk on his face.

Your eyes meet his for a second and he provocatively winks at you before turning around and walking away. 

That explains Gavi’s reaction. You hold back a sigh, knowing how riled up your boyfriend gets, especially during games. 

“Babe, just ignore him.” you mutter, placing a hand on Gavi’s arm. Your words don’t seem to convince him but he gives you a rushed kiss before leaving to join the other boys for the game. 

You only hope he doesn’t let jealousy get the best of him. 

The game is dominated by Barcelona, your boyfriend’s team clearly being the best and it shows as they’re the ones leading, marking several goals. 

Your hands constantly pick the material of your Barcelona’s number 30 jersey, the excitement and nervousness of the game giving you a hard time.

Especially when Gavi keeps committing fouls, all of them directed towards the player that had checked you out earlier. The referee keeps showing him yellow cards and you’re already dreading the moment Gavi gets a red card.

Just as that thought crosses your mind, whistles erupt wildly across the stadium with everyone pointing towards a commotion on the field. 

Your eyes widen with horror when you notice that Gavi is in the center of it, violently pushing the other player. Both teams and its players get in the middle, attempting to stop it, but they’re unable to prevent Gavi from punching him in the face. 

You gasp in horror, your heart crazily beating as the referee pulls out a red card, showing it towards Gavi. His face is contorted in an angry frown, face glistening with sweat.

He stomps the grass, leaving the field under intense boos. You hurry up leaving the stands, running towards the inside of the building. 

Once you get to the locker room, you push the door open. Inside Gavi is sitting on a stool, throwing his shirt to the floor with a violent movement. 

You hesitate for a moment, seeing him so angry but slowly take small steps towards him. 

“Hey, are you okay?” you whisper, letting your hand stroke his hair. His shoulders slump and he looks at you, fury and jealousy burning in his gaze. 

“He was fucking talking about you! Like you were a piece of meat, like you weren’t my girlfriend.” he growls, brown hair falling down to his eyes as he literally vibrates with anger.

You hold back a sigh, already knowing that the player only did so to upset Gavi. Everyone knows that your boyfriend easily loses his cool. 

“He did that to make you upset, Gavi. You shouldn’t have listened to him. Now you’ve got a red card.” you say with a sad smile. 

Gavi meets your eyes, intently looking at you, brows furrowed. 

“So I was just supposed to let him talk like that about you? That wasn’t gonna happen.” he blurts out, hand reaching to grab your own, pulling you against him.

He wraps his arms around your waist, face pressed against your stomach. You take the chance to keep touching his hair, massaging his scalp as he takes deep frustrated breaths. 

You're not sure how long you remain in this position, but Gavi eventually gets calmer, his breathing getting steady. 

“I just love you too much.” he quietly whispers, pushing his face upwards. You meet his stare, his beautiful brown eyes holding an array of emotions. 

“And I love you back.”

---

AN: I also think I'm gonna start writing for Haaland, what do you think?

[hippielittlemetalhead]

Never Took The Time (To Forget) part 4.1 : With a Capital 'P'

Part 4.2 (Hey Dingus? Idk, the title for that one is up in the air.) will be up as soon as I have it somewhere I like (doing a different character's pov instead of Hop so it's giving me some trouble). Felt really bad that I hadn't updated in a while and this one was getting longer than I expected and I hadn't even gotten Robin really talking yet so... Happy Valentine's Day?

Part 1 (Hop Fucks Up), Part 2 (Pride and Prejudices: Joyce Edition), Part 3 (One of Us)

Family Video and the Arcade were two of the few businesses still operating after the inter-dimensional earthquakes that had tried tearing their town to pieces. Hop knew the kid who used to run the place for his uncle, Keith, had split town with his folks (said uncle in tow) leaving the store and arcade in the care of whatever employees had been willing to stay on payroll while the world fell apart.

He watches as Harrington's (more banged up than never remembers it being) car stops in front of the video store, parked parallel to the curb across at least 3 parking spots, as a wildly gesticulating Robin rolls herself out of the idling vehicle, jabbering loud enough that Hop can hear her voice from down the block. With most cars owned by the folks of Hawkins being commandeered by Owens' government goons to fill the gaps left by lost military vehicles it doesn't much matter but Hop can't help a bit of an eye roll at the kid's audacity.

But then again, he catches himself thinking, Steve was one of the only 'civilians' in-the-know and was well-known for carting around and protecting proven assets to the War Of The Worlds shitshow going on. So was there really an issue if the kid was one of the only cars on the road anyway and because he was even more read-in on the situation than even local law enforcement? If he was not only transporting and protecting people the government had a vested interest in but had proven himself more effective than even Hop and Joyce in wrangling the kids who had basically been saving the world for the last 4 years? If he kept them safe and out of harm's way in the thick of it but also kept them entertained and out from underfoot during the downtime?

Hell, the kid being one of the only employees left at some of the last businesses in town these brats would have any interest in almost guarantees the whole lot of them are continuously stocked in movies, snacks and quarters to distract them from even the most world shaking of calamities.

It hadn't occurred to him until just now what it meant for The Party that Steve and Robin seemed to be the only ones willing to hang around behind the counter at the arcade and sell and rent movies to shell-shocked townsfolk and tight-lipped government goons alike. Fuck, Lucas and Mike were right. He was an asshole.

He's pulled out of the slow spiral of realizing Mike Wheeler of all people had been right about something by Steve hollering one last "Love you, Bobby!" at a grinning and waving Buckley as she flung open the video store door and stumbled inside. He waits for the car and it's driver to round the corner before he gets out of his own government-issued station wagon. Fuck but he missed his truck.

"Welcome to Family Video, I literally just got here so you're gonna have to give me a minute before I can help you."

"I'm uh, I'm not here for a movie." He can tell she recognizes his voice (and it's a little impressive how quickly she clocks him since he's spoken only a couple words anywhere near her maybe twice in his memory. Girl has a good ear) from the way her entire body stills for a split second before whirling back into the hurricane of motion he's come to associate with her.

"Afraid we've only got movies round here, officer. You want any other medium of entertainment I'd suggest the arcade or the distribution yard." She's still not looking at him, hands busy shuffling papers and flipping open VHS cases. "Sorry, guess we'll have to catch up another time."

Hop sighs, running a hand over the short growth he's slowly getting used to again. He'd almost shaved it down again but El had been so happy when she'd realized they were growing out at about the same rate. He couldn't ever say no to her.

"Look, I know you don't like me. And it has been brought to my attention just how much I fucking earned that. But I- I need your help here, to fix it."

The flurry of movement doesn't stop but it's tighter, she's fiddling with something shoved up her shirt sleeve and tapping at the casing of a button connected to a wire leading into her green vest. Bright blue eyes are focused on him and he's almost reminded of the no-nonsense look Nancy Wheeler gets whenever they're faced with the world ending, but the girl in front of him is colder. He has no doubts that where Nancy Wheeler would tear down giants for what she believed is right, Robin Buckley would burn the world if it meant saving her people.

"Fine. He'll be back from his patrol-" He didn't remember assigning a patrol schedule and he's not sure if this is Steve's own initiative or if he's been roped into something by Owens' people. "in about twenty minutes. You have fifteen. Now why should I help you?"

The tag list below. Let me know if you want to be removed or if you go by a new/different tag you want on the list let me know which one I'm replacing and what I'm replacing it with please.

I've had some people ask to be tagged in this series who should already be in the list? If you see your name/tag but didn't get the notification that you were tagged please let me know so we can figure it out.

As always; like, comment and feel free to ask questions in the replies or my ask box.

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Tags that are not working on my end. Most of these Tumblr acts like they just don't exist and others I see accounts similar but 1 word, letter or number off. Please let me know if I put any of these down wrong!!

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[thoughtspresso]

Oshi No Ko was about Arima Kana all along.

And I think there’s a real possibility she may die at the end.

Or be placed in the way of grave danger.

I was reading some AquKane shippers say something about how they don’t understand AquaKana, and why the writers and directors keep clearly pushing Kana towards Aqua when they barely share any chemistry. Whereas, in their belief, his relationship with Akane is more honest, deeper, whatever. I’m not here to argue about that. But I get where they’re coming from. And the simple explanation is this:

It’s because this whole story was written for Arima Kana.

I’ve seen some Youtubers talk about how this whole story was meant to be fulfillment for Ruby/Sarina’s dream to become the next great Idol, something about Amaterasu favoring her.

And that’s near what I thought of it. But I really think if the God of Entertainment wanted to bless a child with cancer a second life as the world’s great idol, they’d also give her a great singing voice, y’know?

Spoilers for the manga, of course as we go along on this explanation. So anime onlies, get caught up before you start reading me ramble.

Here we go:

1. Arima Kana is the embodiment of Amaterasu, not Ruby.

Or at least, Amaterasu’s appointed representative, or her favorite daughter.

To give you a run-down of some of the core Shinto/Japanese Mythology that is important for the story, the Creator God Izanaki had three children:

Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun.

Tsukuyomi, the Moon.

Susanoo, the Storm.

The story goes that Amaterasu and Susanoo had a competition about who could create better gods. So Amaterasu took Susanoo’s Totsuka-no-Tsurugi* (longsword) and split it into three, from which she birthed the three Munakata goddesses.

And woncha knowit, there are three great actresses born in that year?

*A reminder that Kana plays the character Tsurugi, which literally just means Sword. And Akane’s character Saya-hime just literally means Sheath or Scabbard Princess.

In this bet, Amaterasu got clever with the rules and won on a technicality. Susanoo went on a rampage, destroyed Amaterasu’s ricefield, and flayed Amaterasu’s favorite divine horse*, and then threw its body at her loom.

*The name Arima is spelled with the Kanji of Horse & Exist/Live. 

Amaterasu, in her grief, flees into a cave, believed to be Amano Iwato cave, right in the town of Takachiho, Amamiya Gorou’s hometown, and the death place of  Tendouji Sarina.

The being that draws Amaterasu out of there was the Goddess of the Dawn, known also as the Goddess of the Revelry & Arts, a being that Aqua says he knows well, and believes there’s a grain of truth to:

And how does Ame-no-Uzume draw Amaterasu out of her grief?

By throwing an absolute rager, and dancing really wildly that it catches her attention and makes all the gods around them laugh so hard. Just like:

Ame-no-Uzume will later on marry a diety who tried to block her passage before, Sarutohiko, who in Ise is worshipped as the god who illuminates the world.

That’s some divinity-level AquaKana shipping right there.

Just like how Aka Akasaka wrote the story of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War about two lovers who couldn’t be together just like in the myth of Kaguya, but having his characters overcome all odds to defy divine fate, I do believe that apart from the parallels to the mythology like he did in Kaguya-sama, there is very literal divine intervention this time in Oshi No Ko.

I think what’s happening is that the gods, particularly Amaterasu and Susanoo are quarelling again about who could create better gods, just like before, but now more of whose favored child will shine the brightest and be worshipped by the most humans. But just like last time, Susanoo may have been enraged, especially at the sexual assault of his chosen Hikaru Kamiki, that he possessed him with a corrupting force that urges him to destroy shining stars before they reach their peak, hence the murders of Himekawa Airi, Hoshino Ai**, and Katayose Yura.

Which by the way, the name Hikaru means Radiant Light!

And Hoshino means Field of Stars!

Whether it’s because Amaterasu is angry that every daughter she sends to earth is slaughtered by Susanoo’s chosen, or just because she wants to win their competition, she appoints Ame-no-Uzume to assist in safeguarding her new favored one from Kamiki’s clutches. Her new favored one being Arima Kana.

And therefore, Ame-no-Uzume takes the souls of two motherless humans who had passed before they could shine and sent them to become Hoshino Ai’s twin children. It was all anyway happening in her territory of Takachiho at the most opportune time.

Ame-no-Uzume is also known as The Goddess of Dance, as well as The Great Pursuader. And wouldn’t you know, that’s exactly the gifts that the Hoshino Twins received.

An energetic performer who takes the stage with dance:

And a deceptive, persuasive, extremely believable actor, who:

fooled his own sister into believing she had been rejected from an audition

pretended to scout an idol from a competing agency to research them

get Director Gotanda to raise him and train him

make Akane not just date him, but follow him down a destructive path

convince Kana and Mem to join IchigoPro

impersonate Pieyon for several days straight

Anyway, I truly, truly believe that unbeknownst to Aqua, his true mission is just to keep drawing Kana out of her darkness until she shines the brightest. Which is what he keeps doing anyway:

2. The Timing of the whole Oshi No Ko plot is aligned with Arima Kana’s rise to unprecedented stardom.

The story of Ai Hoshino’s pregnancy and meeting of Gorou Amamiya in a quaint hospital occurs at the beginning of Arima Kana’s life, just after she is born.

She meets Aqua Hoshino around age 4, already talented, and already extremely arrogant which could have easily been the demise of her career. But meeting Aqua and seeing his acting was a necessary wake-up call for her, that it brings her to tears. She never forgets this experience that she brought that lesson with her to her adulthood: that she can’t be satisfied and keep working harder, and to be a better communicator with her colleagues. At their first point of contact, Aqua already becomes the reason why Arima Kana’s acting career survives the slump.

They meet again in high school, when Arima Kana has one acting job in a lackluster production of Sweet Today. The ratings had plummeted, if not for the fact that Aqua came onto the set to draw out the best acting Arima Kana could deliver. After this, Arima receives much more respect and recognition from her colleagues in the industry beyond just being cast to bring some legitimacy to their production.

It’s because of Aqua and Ruby that Kana joins IchigoPro’s Idol Division, and her career is reborn anew. Such that, even after quitting B-Komachi, Arima states she never regretted the decision to join, because otherwise the career of Arima Kana would have been already over. 

It’s because of Aqua’s presence that Arima trains to become better and better as an idol. Aqua kept drawing out the light from Kana’s eyes, to the point that it catches the attention of the crowd who previously had no interest in her.

It’s because of her experience as an idol that she regains the confidence and sense of greed necessary to grab the attention of the audience when on stage, such that even Akane recognizes this change in her when Arima takes the stage as Tsurugi for the 2.5 Adadptation of Tokyo Blade.

And it’s because of all of these that she captures the attention of award-winning Director Masanori Shima, who lines up some roles for her when her acting schedule had dried up. It’s once again because of Kana’s dedication towards Aqua that Shima D finds her so interesting that he was most willing to promise her the best role possible.

It was as if Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto appointed Aqua and Ruby to come draw Arima Kana out of her Cave, and bring the Sun out again, just like how the deity drew out Amaterasu.

If you think about the title of the show, Oshi No Ko, it literally means The Favorite Child. God’s favored child. Arima Kana had been born chosen by Amaterasu from the very beginning. And Ame-no-Uzume is sending Aqua and Ruby to aid on this quest.

Which explains why it seems like there had been a mission communicated to Aqua from the very beginning. And why Ai was never going to be reincarnated at all.

You would think that if The Crow Girl, which we assume is the divine guide Yatagarasu, was communicating with Aqua about his revenge plan or helping him find Kamiki, that Aqua would hold a more favorable relationship with The Crow whenever it appears to give advice, no?

But it’s exactly the opposite. Because The Crow is guiding him into something that is different from his personal goal that Aqua doesn’t understand.

And this is where I think Arima Kana could be put in danger.

3. Arima Kana is Hikaru Kamiki’s next target.

There were earlier theories that thought Kurokawa Akane was the one to die next, because of what people have now learned of Kamiki’s serial murderer profile targeting big celebrities before their peak, and because Akane had received a bouquet of white roses from him when she won an award.

The chapter when it was expected to happen was a fake-out from Aka Akasaka, and some people think it’s still possible that she’s the target. In fact, I keep seeing recent theory videos who discount Kana and say she’s “the safest”. Hah! If only!

The scenes with Shima D weren’t just a mere plot point to bring scandal to Arima’s name, and threaten her career and life enough that it pushes Aqua to reveal his mother’s secret in exchange. But it’s there because this is the upward path for Arima Kana. So far, the only people who have witnessed her dazzling star power have been fans of the Sweet Today manga, idol otakus, and people who attended Tokyo Blade. That’s not really masterpiece-of-the-century, performing-at-the-dome level. None of these gigs have placed her center stage in what could be Film of the Year, and a Best Actress spot. Now, the chance is here, and it’s real:

I think, The 15-Year-Lie will attempt to draw out Hikaru Kamiki, or that Aqua intends to reveal himself in the movie looking like him, and reveal the identity of his father.

But I also think what would happen is that they would be unsuccessful at taking him down completely. Instead, from the movie, he would be interested in Arima Kana, and target her through the course of her Shima D movie, and plan to kill her before an important awards night.

Alternatively, now that Kana is changing her focus to film, she may consider moving agencies, and ask Frill Shiranui about her agent. And if we’re right, she is likely represented by Kamiki Productions.

Either way, Kamiki will pay attention to her and try to kill her just before she reaches her highest.

But I don’t think Arima Kana will die. I think instead of being saved by Aqua, it’ll be Kana who takes Kamiki down. Echoing back to her getting mad at Aqua for thinking that avoiding her was protecting her, and Aqua believing that Kana doesn’t need help since she’s strong enough to take care of herself.

And then maybe, it’s Arima Kana who draws Aqua out of the darkness too.

And, just like with Kaguya and Shirogane Miyuki, Aka Akasaka is once again writing a story about two people who will defy a fate of divine tragedy, and come out of it being more truthful with each other than they’ve been with themselves all along.

[penny00dreadful]

This is so fucking stupid and I'm not sorry. Inspired by this video of the two guitarists from DragonForce taking the piss out of Sabaton(affectionately).

Jeffington: Just ended your whole career on live 😘

Eddie scrunched his eyes closed then wrenched them open again, trying to make sense of what he was seeing on his screen. It was too early in the fucking morning for this shit. 

Whatever.

He buried his face back in between Steve’s shoulders and allowed himself to fall asleep once more.

Corroded Coffin had only started making it big in the early 90’s when they split right down the middle. As time went on they started to drift towards different subgenres. Jeff and Grant had wanted to explore a more international sound, while Gareth and Eddie were happy to stay in the power metal scene with just a touch of neoclassical. 

They had tried to make it work, but the sounds were just too different and while Eddie and Grant wanted to continue on with lyrics full of fantasy and gothic romance, Jeff and Grant had wanted to focus more on ‘the human condition’.

So they separated. Eddie and Gareth had kept the Corroded Coffin name while Jeff and Grant travelled, exploring their sound.

There was no animosity. They were all still the best of friends. Even as Jeff and Grant had settled in Stockholm, where they had quickly shot to stardom with their new band members, Eddie and Gareth made their home in California enjoying their own success. They met up as often as they could, whenever tour dates aligned or they were booked into the same festivals.

Eddie and Steve were godfathers to Grant’s youngest daughter.

He and Gareth had been groomsmen in Jeff’s wedding.

They were solid.

Which was why the text from Jeff was more exasperating than worrying. 

Plus it was like… nine in the morning which, granted, wasn't early, early but Eddie was a damn rockstar.

And he might have lost track of time reading last night and stayed up until four but that's besides the point. 

But then Steve was handing him his morning coffee with a kiss, saying Robin had sent him a link to something and fine. He’d go watch whatever stupid shit Jeff pulled.

Eddie settled back into bed because he could and it was a Sunday.

Sue him.

But he couldn’t decide if he should be fake-mad or wildly entertained because the link Robin had sent opened the VOD about an hour into the stream, just in time for Grant to say “Should we do Corroded Coffin?”

Both Jeff and Grant were sitting in Jeff’s studio space in front of Jeff’s computer with a range of instruments behind them, grinning at each other.

“Oh shit, definitely!” Jeff stood and seemed to think about it for a second before picking up one of his guitars, a bright acid green with black tendrils running throughout. “The most dramatic of the bunch,” he leaned into the mic, gesturing at the guitar before taking his seat again, “just like their frontman.”

Eddie rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. 

“You think you can shred like Munson?” Grant asked, leaning forward and starting to tap out drum beats on the laptop.

Jeff scoffed. “Yeah right. Let me just play at five-fucking-thousand bpm and sing at the same time. It’s gonna be an approximation at best.”

Surprisingly enough the music they came up with did sound very close to Corroded Coffin’s sound. Grant relied heavily on the kick-drum and high hat to a ridiculous degree for Gareth's part and yeah, fair.

Gareth did love his high hat.

Jeff played the fastest guitar riff he could muster which honestly wasn’t that bad. He couldn’t go quite as hard as Eddie could but guitar was always Eddie’s first love and he was a master at his craft. Jeff gave the camera a cheeky wink as he used the computer to speed the guitar solo up, making it sound far more complex.

“I swear to god,” Eddie muttered to himself, “if they insinuate that I do that, I’ll fucking-”

“Eddie would never.” Jeff said, responding to someone in the chat who’d asked that very question.

Grant looked up with a sly smile. “Oh, god no. He’d never. He’s too proud for that.”

Cheeky bastards.

“You know what this needs?”

“Female backing vocals?”

“Yes!" Jeff snapped his fingers. "Exactly. Like something pulled from Jackson’s Lord of the Rings!”

“Oh come on!” Eddie pouted, but even still he could tell they weren’t actually making fun.

A notification popped up on Eddie’s phone.

Gare-Bear: Have you watched the stream?

Eddie: Watching right now. They’re starting on the lyrics.

Gare-Bear: Did Robin send you the link?

Eddie: Yeah.

Gare-Bear: Okay, keep watching.

Eddie: 👍

By the time the guys had hashed the lyrics out, punctuating them with high falsetto points that freaked Jeff’s cats out, Eddie was giggling into his coffee. The lyrics were so comically bad but they were so Corroded Coffin at the same time.

I wear armour and I am sad. I'm all alone and I am sad.  Such a lone wolf am I.  Except I'm not because here comes this hot man who's totally not my husband. Bats and demons and darkness and death. Bow down to me.  Kneel before me.  I am your master.  This is about sex. Oh, look, a dragon! I'll suck your blood then I'll fuck you through the wall. Except I won't because you're an allegory for my husband again. I'll fuck him instead. Every song involves him in some way. Because I'm a big fucking sap.

And then it happened. That crafty wench.

A message popped up in the chat.

BuckyBirdie: Needs more dick sucking lyrics.

“Holy shit.” Grant whipped out his phone. “R- Birdie? Is that you? Stay right there, hold on.”

While Jeff continued to play through the guitar, Grant disappeared, raising the phone to his ear before coming back a few minutes later and whispering something to Jeff.

Jeff’s whole face split into the most mischievous of smiles and Eddie only had time to think oh no before Robin’s face appeared, joining the stream with a tired if not slightly manic expression, all topped off by her yummy sushi pyjamas.

The first thing Grant said to her was “What fucking time is it over there, Birdie?” 

“I dunno.” She shrugged, looking down at her watch. “Like half six in the morning?”

“Oh. Could be worse then.”

“I haven’t slept yet.” She said with a bright smile.

“Dude! Why not?”

“I got into cryptography again last night and I haven’t stopped. Don’t tell Steve.”

Oh, I am so telling Steve. Eddie thought to himself.

“God. What a fuckin’ nerd.” Jeff punctuated his statement with a loud strum of his guitar.

Robin stuck her tongue out. “Takes one to know one.”

“Ouch. Right in my middle schooler heart.”

“Anyway, a little birdie told me you boys need some backing vocals?”

Eddie didn’t know how he was going to get her back for this, but he was sure he’d be able to figure something out eventually.

Like banging pots and pans in her hallway while she slept off her cryptography binge.

Though it was almost worth the hilarity because noted lesbian Robin Buckley happily sat there, singing about dick and tongues and assholes in a high ethereal voice that was then layered behind Jeff's.

By the end, the chat was going wild asking when it was going to be available to stream because even though it was a parody song, it was annoyingly catchy. Just before they signed off, Jeff and Grant let their audience know they’d ask Eddie and Gareth for permission before they’d do anything.

Eddie minimised the video and opened up his chat with Gareth.

Eddie: You wanna let them release it?

Gare-Bear: Fuck yeah!

Eddie: Awesome.

[gallusrostromegalus]

Hi, if the asks for AEIWAM are still open, can you share some more regarding the 12th division transitioning to taking over R&D, thanks to Urahara? Did the other divisions take it well, were there fights over boundaries/responsibilities/secrets? Individual divisions holding onto research directly relating to their remits? And how did Mayuri taking over from Urahara impact relations with other divisions?

Urahara proposing a dedicated research and development branch was not a particularly unexpected move, and a wildly applauded one.

His predecessor, now-Royal-Guard Hikifune, had done extensive research and development on her own when she developed both the modern Gikon and the Mod Souls like Kon. The 4th was massively overworked but still doing their own medical research. The Kido corps had been doing their own R&D writ: spells for ages. The 7th division had been tracking death and soul statistics like where souls reincarnated in the Rukongai and who went to hell and why for centuries. "Science" is a very strong word for what the 11th was doing re: destruction, but by golly they were doing a lot of it.

So Urahara's idea to develop a cross-division group dedicated to connecting existing research and developing new lines of inquiry from there was an extremely logical step and one pretty much everyone regarded as a good move.

---

Everyone, except Aizen.

See, Aizen had been doing his own little experiments with creating and perfecting the Hogyoku and those experiments involved a shitload of murder and other crimes, not to mention the whole treason thing, and Aizen was worried that if Kisuke managed to say, actually collate and look over the Rukongai crime stats Aizen had been hiding or read up on the Kido corps work, he might be JUST smart enough to figure out what Aizen was up to.

So Aizen made sure that when they got caught, that the experiments he'd been running would look like Kisuke's work :)

I think Aizen also had a significant hand in making sure it was the literal clown Mayuri who got the job after Urahara fled. There were definitely better candidates to become the Gotei-13's quartermain, but I think Aizen either discouraged them, or figured out how to make Mayuri look way more sane than he actually was to the other captains when the vote came.

Mayuri was a disaster for R&D. Not only were his scientific methods dubious at best, none one the other divisions trusted him with their work, and all of them became a lot more secretive and paranoid.

The 4th resumed it's own medical research, which was slow because of all the other work the 4th needed to do as well. The 7th kept its statistics under lock and key lest Mayuri get funny ideas about killing people to measure things faster. This new cloaked way of doing business allowed Mayuri to engage in horrors that actively got in the way of progress. Like recruiting the top 10% of the academy's graduating class for his division and then using them as guinea pigs and/or explosives.

Aizen: All According to Keikaku :)

---

In AEIWAM, not all hope was lost.

Before he was a shinigami, Kaname Tousen was a Librarian.

It was all he ever really wanted to be- when he came to the seireitei it was entirely to investigate his sister's death. He had no intention of enrolling in the academy, or pursuing rank.

Aizen has a way of derailing people's lives.

By force, when necessary.

By pounding 44 magical nails into Tousen's spine and carving command kanji into his shoulders and inflicting a vile curse on him to force Kaname into being his co-conspirator, his own personal R&D, and his entertaining puppet, if necessary.

Well,

Maybe Aizen is having a little bit more fun than strictly "necessary".

Aizen might have cursed Tousen into silence and obedience, but he can't stop Tousen from keeping his own records. Meticulous notes about every excursion he is made to take, every crime he is forced to commit, every horrific act Tousen does through tears- everything is recorded, documented, and safely stored in triplicate in several locations and formats.

In fact, Aizen comes to rely on those records- Aizen is very good at Lying and Kido and Hubris but that is the extent of his intellectual prowess. He relies on Gin to keep track of what everyone else is doing, and on Tousen to do all the scheduling, lab work, provisions and actually keeping the aarancar in line.

And Kaname takes advantage to press the curse whenever he can- he was close, he was so. Fucking. Close! To getting the whole scheme exposed during Turn Back The Pendulum.

He tried. He tried and tried to say it when Yamamoto interrogated him, to confess his sins and bring Gin and Aizen down with him, to make himself understood.

-Who did this? Who killed captain Hirako?

-I know them! I know, but I can not say!

It's all Kaname can manage before the curse retaliates, and almost strangles him to death to keep his silence, invisible to Yamamoto because of Aizen's illusions.

---

...after the nature of the curse is revealed, Yamamoto listens to the recording of that interrogation and weeps. The captains are the closest thing he has to children. Yamamoto hears this man who is almost his son, screaming, begging him to understand -

Not "I don't know"

Not "I will not say"

"I know, but I can not say."

---

So Kaname bides his time, keeps his records and tries to distract himself form his situation by drawing what conclusions he can.

After the Winter War, there is some debate as to what's going to happen to R&D.

Mayuri is in a jar, battling for control of his body.

Nemu refuses to admit he's out of action. Akon refuses to be promoted.

Kisuke or whoever does run the 12 will be too busy shovelling leftover war crimes out of the basement to actually run R&D.

Yamamoto has a long-standing agreement with Unohana that if he makes her take on One More Thing, he will not get the privilege of dying.

Ukitake is running the Kido corps, but he's also already got a foot in the grave.

Yamanoto isn't sure he can trust anyone else with lab equipment.

" ...Tousen." he says, nonchalant, visiting him in the hospital. "You seem to be rather accomplished at record-keeping and lab work."

"Last time you promoted me while I was in the hospital after a catastrophe, it extended my recovery by a solid five years and lead to an even greater one. No. Tell Kisuke to buck up and run R&D, it was his damn idea in the first place."

"Yes, obviously." Yamanoto says as though he had been planning that at all. "-but the court guard still needs to be supplied, so if Kisuke is running R&D, who is running the 12th?

"Muguruma."

"Pardon?"

"Kensei Muguruma might be the second-worst boss I've ever had but he is rigorously punctual, has an incredible work ethic, and can be trusted to stick to rules and regulations to the letter. He's a rigid, grouchy, hard ass, and a terrible match for the ninth, but he'd make an excellent quartermain." Kaname sighs.

Yamamoto ponders that for a bit.

"Also, he's running the newspaper over my dead body." Kaname elaborates. "He's contracted horoscope brainrot from Mashiro, I'm afraid."

"He may attempt to dispute that he should be running the Ninth as his prior demotion was unlawful, as is his right." Yamamoto nods. "It would be resolved by some kind of combat."

"I've gutted him once, I'll do it again." Kaname grunts and Yamamoto barks a laugh.

"I believe your judgement is sound, and will abide by your recommendation." Yamamoto nods, patting Kaname's hand. "I will inform Urahara and Muguruma of their new responsibilities."

"...Thank you, sir." Kaname mumbles, listening to Yamamoto open his notebook and write something down. "For your trust in me, and not promoting me again."

"Hm." Yamamoto nods.

To-Do: Update last will and testament in regards to successor choice. He writes.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I asked my mom not to invite my sister on vacation with us?

(submitted 5/26/24)

I (22X) have a lot of anxiety about politics (namely the upcoming presidential election and its potential consequences regarding my access to healthcare, among many other things). It started in 2016 and then just kept getting worse and worse as the years went on. I know that if I try to go about my day as normal on election night, I’ll most likely end up obsessively refreshing polling results and worrying myself into a panic attack (or several). So, I did a lot of research and planned a week-long vacation on and a bit after election day. It’s at a nice cabin a short drive away that’s all about disconnecting from phones and technology and reconnecting with nature. I figured because everyone in my family votes absentee already, me and my mom (56F) could go up together while my dad and my oldest sister (63M and 25F) would stay home because of work obligations and take care of our pets. My mom was really enthusiastic about the idea (especially because I went on a vacation with my dad last year, and it’s been a long time since her and I have had a parent child bonding trip), and she helped me finalize the dates and pay for the cabin. I’m in college and haven’t been able to find a summer job, but I’m still trying to save money to help cover the cost of food/entertainment/gas for the trip.

When we were booking, she talked about potentially inviting my sister (24F) on vacation too, as a family bonding thing. She moved out a year and a bit ago and is living with a friend, so my mom doesn’t get to see her all that often. But I really don’t want my sister to come along. Me and her haven’t gotten along since elementary school, and now whenever she visits I’m on edge the whole time. Plus, she has a very old special needs dog that she would have to bring with her that needs constant supervision, and his energy wildly varies between “sleeps in a ball all day” and “blindly runs around screaming and peeing everywhere and getting stuck like a roomba all day”. Which again, that’s very stressful to me. In addition, whenever my sister is over at our house, she always finds a way to bring up politics and wants to talk about current events (never the good ones, only the bad ones). Thankfully we agree on the important things (even if she leans a tad more towards the center than I do), but still. The whole point of this trip is to avoid having to worry about politics, and she always finds a way to bring it up. Plus, I just genuinely think she’d go stir crazy being cooped up in a cabin with me and my mom and poor cell service. There’s not a lot to do in the surrounding area besides hiking (she’s got a heart condition), a small Main Street with some shops that’s a 15 minute drive away, and a diner. It’ll probably just be reading, board games, and cards for a week straight.

Why I think I’d be TA: my mom and her don’t spend a lot of time together, and my mom is the one paying for the vacation. Even though I think she wouldn’t like glamping with us, my sister could still want to be invited and want to come along.

Why I think I wouldn’t be TA: I don’t think my sister would like being in a cabin with me and my mom for a week straight with no TV and poor cell service. My oldest sister is also not going on vacation with us due to work obligations, so they could have some sisterly bonding time while we’re away. Plus, the entire point of the vacation is to have a few days where I don’t have to dread election results, and I know my sister is going to want to talk about election results as soon as they start coming in.

So, would I be the asshole if I asked my mom not to invite my sister on vacation with us?

[meteor752]

What I would have done

If you have been keeping up with my posts for the last week, you may have noticed that I fucking despise the new Descendants movie

There’s a lot of reasons behind this. One, nostalgia, I love the original ones (Harry Hook is one of my all time favorite characters lol I think he’s fun). Two, I expected more of the franchise, because it’s fucking Disney, and while I know Kenny Ortega wasn’t the director this time, there would at least be people who worked on the original movies involved in the process, so I thought they at least knew what they were doing. Three, nothing in the movie makes any fucking sense, and I’m not usually a person who gets hung up on nitpicks, like if you entertain me then do whatever you want, but my god it’s impossible to ignore.

But most of all, the story they were trying to tell just isn’t interesting.

Like, if I would tell someone what the best part of Descendants is, it’s not the songs, or the cast, or the costumes, or even really the characters. Don’t get me wrong I love all of those parts, and I doubt the movies would be even close to as good as they are if you removed one of these things. But the best and most interesting part to me, and to a lot of people in the fandom as well, is the concept of The Isle Of The Lost.

The concept of taking all of these classic Disney Villains with wildly different aesthetics, motives, ideologies, and overall moralities and placing them all on an island and make them build up a society, that shit’s fascinating, but the core movies do next to nothing with it cause they spend all their time on Auradon. The second one focuses the most on it, and guess what, that one’s the best one!

(I know the books exist, I read them, but they just weren’t that good, like it felt like I was reading bad fan fiction)

So what would I do for Descendants four?

Well, I’d set in on the fucking Isle.

Actually, I think this would genuinely work better as a series. Not that long of a series tho, maybe like eight episodes, each episode like 40 minutes long.

Each episode would focus on a different VK, set a few years before the first movie, and have a short composed story about their general life.

I don’t know which VKs exactly, but I think Harriet Hook could be interesting, her episode being like four or five years before the first movie so we can see preteen C3, I think that would be cute, also a young CJ.

Possibly the Gaston twins, though Lefou Deux could work too. Whichever it would be, the other would feature.

Jade, Jay’s cousin, could be a lot of fun, maybe have like a rivalry between the two.

Freddie and Celia, I think it’s insane that they never mention Freddie in D3, but like I wanna know what their relationship is like.

And of course, Red! Queen of Hearts is a villain, she should be on the Isle. And if any of you dare tell me that she’s from wonderland and they couldn’t like, capture her or whatever, they got fucking Hades on the Isle, they resurrected some guys to place them there, Queen of Hearts is not a problem.

(Also like, Morgie could be there, but this time as a real VK)

But yeah, lot of options lol.

Every episode would show just the grim reality of what these kids would have to live through their whole lives, the complicated relationships they would have with their parents, and really emphasize that fact. D1 was the only one that really focused on how the Isle kids were kids who were all victims of insane abuse their whole lives. I mean, in D3 they all like happily run to meet them once the barrier is down, which is crazy.

Also, the show would be rated PG-13. Like, I’m not asking for graphic scenes of abuse, but I do want it to be kinda gritty and grim, with some more psychological and mental abuse taking place. Also, we’re told multiple times about gang wars, but we aren’t really shown any. Maybe one episode could focus on that, like idk Clay Clayton (insane name btw) and his gang.

But most importantly, we’d have all the Disney villains in cool new leather outfits, which is what I think everyone wants tbh. I have gotten that one part of ‘Life Is Sweeter’ where the villain comes up more than any part of the movie, like people like the villains more than anything. And yeah I know they wouldn’t be young and hot anymore, but like we can have some extreme Milf and Dilf looks, it will even out.

Descendants is one of, if not the most popular franchise Disney Channel has made, it deserves a better continuation than Rise of Red.

Also, if the show is popular then we could have a season two/sister series, about the kids of Auradon, that could be interesting too, and also have some dark shit in it, idk. The way that Queen Leah spoke to Audrey in D3 had some dark undertones, so I think her episode could be interesting. Could also feature the political implications of The Isle, potential protests and propaganda, idk.

Also, Chloe can get an episode, so boom we got them both!

So what I’m trying to say here is this:

Disney hire me

[stevethehairington]

i watched a movie last night about this couple that goes on a hiking/camping trip and on their way to the site they stop at this little roadside restaurant called "bigfoot's burger shack" and my brain immediately went omg but what if wayne and eddie owned a little diner off the side of the road on the way to a forest famous for "bigfoot sightings" and their restaurant was like totally cryptid themed. and then my brain spiralled...

it's dustin's birthday and he's in his cryptid era right now, so of course he is desperate to visit the forest best known for having the most bigfoot sightings.

robin is just as interested in cryptids as dutsin is (she's not a full blown conspiracy theorist or anything but she DOES get wildly entertained by them, and she loves to read up on them even if she doesn't necessarily believe/agree with some of them).

and because robin and dustin are so into it, steve gets roped along. although, is it getting roped along if you're the one that offers to drive and also plan the whole camping trip while you're at it? (plus, hey, steve's curious too.)

so steve robin and dustin head out to "bigfoot forest" or whatever fun name the locals and tourists alike have given it.

on the drive there they pass this little diner on the outskirts of the nearby town and decide to stop for a bite to eat before they finish the last stretch of the drive to the campsite. this place is one of those like cozy diner style places that's full of like locally handcarved furnishings and every square inch of the walls is covered in framed photographs and various signage and knick knacks of all kinds. except this place has fully capitalized on the nearby forest, because it's basically like a cryptid cafe - those photos on the wall are various "bigfoot sightings" and newspaper articles and clippings about bigfoot and other various cryptids. it's fun and it's very clearly a good business model lol.

this place, of course, is owned and operated by none other than wayne and eddie munson.

(i'm thinking the place is maybe called "benny's bigfoot buffet" and they took it over for benny hammond after he either died or mysteriously disappeared or just moved on.)

but anyways, steve robin and dustin stop there for lunch and they meet eddie and wayne and they all get to chatting and blah blah. eddie and wayne tell them plenty of stories of sightings - both ones they've heard from other people as well as their own (because of course they're believers).

eventually, steve robin and dustin have to leave because it's getting later and they want to make it to the campsite before it gets dark so they can set up.

blah blah blah. the first night is relatively normal, they hear some sounds and steve teases robin about it being bigfoot, and dustin gets excited about that. but they make it through the night. the next day they explore a bit. then when night falls, weird things happen. more sounds, only closer, louder, and they sound... like something. like an animal, like a creature. dustin and robin obviously go bigfoot but steve isn't so convinced. but then dustin runs out of the tent because he wants to try to get a photo or something and steve and robin chase after him and. and. annnnnnd.

he goes missing.

steve and robin comb the forest that night calling for dustin, searching for him. they don't find him though. but steve sees something. he sees bigfoot. (or what he is absolutely convinced is bigfoot now.)

they head to the munson's diner so they can use their phone to call the local police, and hopper callahan and powell roll up onto the scene and ask what happened and steve and robin tell them, and at first steve doesn't want to tell them about what he thinks he saw because he knows how that's going to play out. they're going to think he's crazy. but robin convinces him to maybe? or maybe she just tells them herself. but, as expected, they laugh at that. they tell them that bigfoot isn't real. blah blah.

of course, during all of this eddie and wayne were listening, they heard it all. and after hopper and co talk to them, eddie corners steve and is like tell me what you saw and there's something about him that makes steve feel like safe almost? like he can tell eddie and he won't laugh like the cops, he won't judge steve, he won't call him crazy. so he tells eddie and eddie looks spooked, but also excited and he tells steve yeah. that sounds like bigfoot.

and blah blah they end up taking things into their own hands and doing the investigating themselves, steve robin and eddie. (maybe they call in some reinforcements in the form of eddie's friends from town? local journalist nancy wheeler, photographer jonathan byers, max mayfield, fellow cryptid enthusiast)

and i literally have not thought of anything past this or what actually happened to dustin or how they find him or if bigfoot is actually real in this or if they end up unconvering some huge government conspiracy instead or something lmaoo. but yeahhhhhhh. oh and also ofc steddie happens along the way lol.

just. cryptids. bigfoot. spoooooooky. pacific northwest forest vibes. appalachian munsons. yeahhhhhh.

[auspicioustidings]

Haven’t been able to stop thinking about this!

-you’re not the puppy they wanted but they’re good boy deserves a reward but it also takes care of you. The only one on the outside still looking for their boy.

-on one hand the kidnapping and not buying you new toys is punishment enough but on the other your stubbornness had to annoy them.

-BUT ALSO! You’re loyal! You refused to give up on their good boy even though everyone else had and kept telling you too. Surely that’s worth something?

- after you comfort their boy when he’s ill does reader get a small reward, like positive reinforcement to tell them being a puppy is good?

-brat reader chasing her tail because they want it out? 👀

NEITHER HAVE I! (In relation to this btw)

I don't know that everyone was home when you went into puppy mode to comfort good boy. In my mind only Ghost was there, the others had went out to basically buy out an entire fucking pet store to try make their boy feel better. When they get back Ghost gets up from the couch where he has been sat watching you, ruffles your hair with a 'good girl' and then says he's going out to get you something.

The other 3 are flabbergasted but Gaz recovers first and is wildly happy to get to pet you without you snapping at him. You're a little shy around Price because he tends to be strict and even puppy brained you remember the shade of black he turned your ass last time you spoke back to him, but he's ok to wait and just takes up the seat Ghost left, watching from a distance. Soap is out of sorts, you have been bad girl for pretty much the entire time you've been here. You're the most ill behaved pet any of them has ever seen. So for Ghost to have called you good girl? It's sort of melting his brain.

Ghost comes back with two things. A pretty, delicate little collar that's all yours, it'd be too small to fit good boy. And a book. It unsettles everyone a bit to be honest, because that's a reward for a person, not a dog. Price is the most disturbed by it, but he relents when you're so immersed in your little bit of human entertainment that you curl up at his feet to read and don't notice the little positive noises you are making when he runs his fingers through your hair (sounds like purring if you ask him, maybe the problem this whole time was that they got a queen instead of a bitch).

CHASING HER TAIL YOU ARE SO BIG BRAINED THAT'S DELICIOUS. Soap takes a video and sends it to the gc because look at that, he's managed to get you so frustrated and annoyed that you've forgotten about being a person entirely. Like you're not in mitts, you could just use your hands, but he'd been playing with you and edging you for hours and has the remote to control the vibration of that tail so he's driven you fully out of your right mind.

[bonny-kookoo]

Hey Bonny💕 I have this idea of Idol!JK with hybrid!reader and Jungkook's recent livestreams. Just her playing with Bam and Army’s being curious about her, maybe. Maybe she has the night zoomies. It’s just an idea. I hope you have a wonderful day💜

I've made this so it basically belongs to the whole BTS x Husky!Reader idea!

---

"oh? 'Who's in the background?' you ask?" He reads a comment out loud, before looking behind him, spotting Bam dropping down to a playful invite, before you run after the pup playfully, the dog chasing you in exchange seconds after into the other room. "Ah, yes! I got two puppies at my home currently!" He laughs into the camera. "The members are a little busy right now, so she's staying with me." He informs the fans, who all spam hearts in the chat, as well as requests to see you. "Hm she's a bit shy, but let's see if she wants to say hi." He chuckles, turning around on the couch. "Snowball!" He chuckles, earning an immediate reaction from you at the nickname.

He can see your tail wagging wildly, and he can't help but smile when Bam jumps up at you, licking your face. "Bam, careful." He gently commands his dog, who pants heavily after his play-session with you. "You wanna come to me, say hi to Army?" He wonders at you now, and you hesitate a little, out of view of the camera for the most past. The room you're standing in is dark, your outlines barely able to be picked up by the stream, only your wagging tail occasionally.

You decide to go closer though, well aware that nothing can happen. Everyone knows you're with the guys all the time, and you know most fans actually adore you a lot. So you walk towards the back of the couch where you lean over, waving at his phone. "Pretty Puppy' Yes, I agree!" Jungkook laughs at the comments, while you're suddenly more interested in the food he's got on the table. "You wanna have the leftovers?" He asks, noticing the way you've started to lean over the back of the couch, and you nod. "Come here then." He pats the sofa, and you climb over the couch instead of walking around it, making him laugh as he holds a hand in front of the edge of the table so you won't accidentally hurt yourself. "Here, I'll get you something for that.." He mumbles, getting up to get some protection for your hands so you won't stain them with the grease. He knows you'll be licking your fingers for hours otherwise.

While he's gone, you shyly wait in front of the eyes of thousands of fans, many hybrids now spamming compliments and hearts in the chat for you to see, making your tail wag, especially when the shipping tag for you and Jungkook is used. "There you go." Jungkook offers you the gloves, so you can eat while he continues to entertain the fans for the rest of the livestream.

He's happy even when turning of the camera- well aware that his situation with you is something rarely seen in the industry. He's glad you're so well liked and even loved by many, having feared in the beginning that they all would have to hide you away like a secret. But they don't have to, they can show you off like you deserve to be; and for him, you also provide some comfort in times of the band being a bit split apart.

He really loves you, not only as a friend. And he hopes you love him too, one day.

[laundrybiscuits]

Hah, thanks @beansthekid for giving me a chance to ramble a bit more!

I think there are many different and equally valid ways to interpret Eddie’s relationship with the Corroded Coffin crew; we really do not get very much canon material at all, which means it’s all very open to interpretation. However, I personally tend to read them as friendly acquaintances more than friends, because Eddie doesn't seem to treat them with any true closeness.

In the few scenes they share, Eddie sort of treats them like undifferentiated sidekicks/minions/audience. He seems basically fond of them, and I don't think his attitude comes from any sort of disrespect or dislike. Rather, I think it’s more about Eddie’s own comfort level: in general, I read Eddie as very skittish about relationships. He likes to keep people at a certain remove, and he likes to be in control of that distance.

We don't see him confiding in anyone or being intentionally vulnerable...right up until Steve and "guess I got a little jealous." Even with Chrissy, though he was definitely trying to present himself as friendly and harmless, he was absolutely putting on a little performance the entire time. He was taking on an entertainer role. He's willing to be seen as ridiculous, because that's the class-clown side of him, but it's not the same thing as letting down his guard. People laughing at him for his antics can't hurt him, at this point. Admitting he's fond enough of Dustin to make that a weakness, and being honest about feeling inadequate—that is vulnerability.

I do think it's plausible that that little jealousy confession was prompted in part by guilt over the whole broken-bottle thing. To be clear, I don't think Eddie's boatshed reaction was wildly out of line; at that point, he had zero information/context that would lead him to conclude that anyone out looking for him was on his side, much less Steve Harrington.

He was also scared out of his mind and literally shaking with adrenaline and fear, but he still didn’t actually hurt anyone. He could have shanked Steve and made a run for it, but I read him as someone who fundamentally does not want to hurt or scare people for real. He wants to make them uncomfortable, sure—or at the very least he doesn’t really care if they’re made uncomfortable by how he looks and acts. But actually being the villain of a story? That doesn’t fit with his values or his self-image.

So it would make sense if afterwards, he felt an outsized and misplaced sense of guilt about that little encounter, and let that spur him to offer up a little bit of honesty. It’s an intimacy he doesn’t extend to anyone else in the entire show.

I mean—hell, I am fully fixated on this little exchange:

Nancy: Hey, it’s Nancy.

Eddie: Wheeler, hey!

It would be way, way more natural to mirror her intro and call her Nancy, but instead he does this weird surname thing (and continues to call her by her surname) despite the fact that he already knows another Wheeler who is presumably also potentially tuned in. Why on earth would he do this. There are so many siblings in the group. The only way I can make sense of it is as a distancing mechanism that he leans on.

By the end, he does start addressing some people by their first names, some of the time. I haven’t done a full accounting, but I’m pretty sure it’s mostly just Dustin and Steve (not counting the “this is for you, Chrissy” moment).

But back to the Corroded Coffin lads: the biggest tell, for me, is that they had band practice without him. They knew he was missing, and either they knew he’d be a suspect/in trouble or they didn’t know him well enough to recognize his trailer on the news. They’re just kids, so it’s fairly reasonable that they wouldn’t be trying to take any action to find/help Eddie, but it seems unbearably callous that they’d just be having a normal band practice. I still don’t really know how to fold that into my understanding of their dynamics, but one possible interpretation is that they aren’t used to thinking of him as someone who ever really gets hurt, so they figure it’ll all just blow over somehow.

Eddie’s obviously taken on a leadership position in their little group. He’s the DM, he runs the show. But we don’t have a sense that he’s got a second-in-command or a trusted advisor that he confides in, much less someone he sees as a true peer in a give-and-take way.

Again, I don’t think any of this means he doesn’t like the Corroded Coffin boys. On the contrary, I think he probably cares about them very much in the same way he loves Dustin. My read on Eddie is that he sees himself as a protector who is in some way responsible for them and their well-being, cultivating an interdependent community that he doesn’t really get to partake in. His sense of self-worth lies in his ability to be a shield, standing between his lost little sheep and the wolves of Hawkins. He draws fire and takes the hits, and that’s a very lonely position to be in.

And then…Steve Harrington.

[highdreaming]

He returns home from the WC

💢 All the works are pure fictions, for entertainment purposes only so please, read it at your own will.

Summary: Your boyfriend finally returns from the world cup.

Find more at: Masterlist

Pedri x (female) reader

AN: Please like, reblog and give me feedback!

--

Incessantly tapping your feet against the floor, you take another look at your watch. You can’t wait to see your boyfriend.

It’s only been a few weeks since he’s left for the world cup yet it feels like it’s been a whole year. You missed him too much.

“Pedro!” you scream as soon as Pedri enters your vision camp. His tired face contorted into a wide smile, his hand leaving the handle of his luggage and you forget about all the people watching you at the airport as both of you run towards each other. 

You crash into each other, his arms wrapping around your waist and pushing you infinitely closer to him until you feel out of breath with the strength of his hug.

But you don’t mind, too busy burying your face in his shoulder. Now, it feels like home, like the missing piece has finally returned back to you. 

All the background noises, the fans screaming for Pedri, the loud noises of the cameras flashing, all of it fades away. It’s just you and Pedri, and no one else. 

When you finally pull away, tears run wildly down your face as Pedri presses a light kiss to your forehead. 

You’ve never been happier. 

[ntshastark]

With the first issue of Spencer Ackerman's Iron Man run coming out this month, I guess it might be time for me to finally post this essay I wrote for university back in 2020, so here it is! It's definitely not anywhere near as informed and polished as anything he'd whip out in half an hour and with a headache, but I really liked it, so I hope you do too <3

(Obs.: There's a lot of direct quotes, it's on purpose - it was a whole thing - and I didn't want to rewrite the entire text so I kept it and just changed up the referencing system instead, both in the text itself and in the bibliography. I also added images and videos because I can now. And there's a P.S. after the bibliography, please read that as well)

Iron Man:

How the general public's view of war and the military influenced Tony Stark's status as a weapons-maker

Introduction 

Arthur Asa Berger wrote, "there is a fairly close relationship, generally, between a society and its heroes; if a hero does not espouse values that are meaningful to his readers, there seems little likelihood that he will be popular"¹⁰. The 2008 film ‘Iron Man’ (dir. Jon Favreau) was responsible for launching the billion-dollar franchise now referred to as the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ — which definitely marks it as popular.

A huge theme in the film is the relationship between the main character's company (Stark Industries) and the U.S. military. But what is shown on screen is wildly different from what was first seen in 1963, when the comics character of Tony Stark/Iron Man was first created. The aim of this research is to trace how Stark’s status as a weapons-maker changed through the years, shaping itself based on his readers’ opinions, and how the film translated the real-time struggle of the comic writers into an integral part of Tony Stark’s own character development. This analysis is heavily based on the 2015 book ‘The Ages of Iron Man: Essays on the Armored Avenger in Changing Times’. 

Contextualization 

In 2008's ‘Iron Man’, leading man Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark — the CEO of Stark Industries, a defence contractor he inherited from his late father. The film starts in Afghanistan, which Stark is visiting for a weapons demonstration. The second after a joke about how he would be "out of a job with peace", the convoy carrying Stark and the soldiers tasked with securing him is attacked by Afghan paramilitary units — ironically using what, as he soon finds out, are his own weapons.

Stark is wounded and captured by the attackers, who want him to build them a weapon. Instead, he makes a suit of armour and uses it to escape. Back home in the United States, he immediately stops his company’s production of weapons, and goes on to further develop the metal suit, turning it into the one he will be using as the titular superhero Iron Man.

Iron Man, the character, first appeared in 1963, on the 34th issue of the comic book ‘Tales of Suspense’. Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber and Don Heck, his debut story (‘Iron Man Is Born!’) tells a very similar, but also very different tale. Most notably, it is set in Vietnam, not Afghanistan, and Stark’s captor is a man named Wong-Chu, who is known as "the Red guerrilla tyrant".

After his escape, instead of ceasing weapons productions, Stark is praised on the very next issue as "a military genius" who doesn’t "neglect America’s Cold War struggle against the communist menace". It wouldn’t be until almost a decade later, in the 45th issue of his own comic, ‘Iron Man’, that Stark Industries would stop accepting military contracts. 

Cold Warrior 

"Iron Man stories created during the Cold War are very different from the Iron Man stories in a post-9/11 world, in part because the creators and readers have different expectations for what issues a hero should be facing in those distinct eras. [...] Audiences are not static, and if the entertainment they consumed did not evolve to reflect their tastes it would become a relic of a previous era"¹. As a character directly related to the military-industrial complex, the effects of time on Tony Stark’s stories were made a lot more apparent than it would be on most entertainment. "All of Marvel's new heroes of the early 1960s somehow reflected and contributed to American perceptions of its Cold War enemies, but none more explicitly than Iron Man"². 

When he was first conceived, Tony Stark’s role as a weapon maker wasn’t something seen as needing to be redeemed — quite the opposite, it made him even more heroic. In the middle of the Cold War, "Americans thought that the military-industrial technological innovations were an aggressive yet antiseptic means to battle communism and establish global hegemony"⁴. So, instead of putting off readers, a "businessman and iron-clad communist killer combined was the perfect superhero for the new America"¹². 

Those early Iron Man comics were not "apolitical so much as unobjectionably mainstream"⁵, as based on the idea that "the two faces of the consensus mood" were "confident to the verge of complacency about the perfectibility of American society [and] anxious to the point of paranoia about the threat of communism"¹⁴. And the writers of the time took full advantage of this paranoia. "Often just revealing a character to be a communist, or a citizen of a communist nation was a narrative shorthand establishing each issue's nemesis. The communist enemy would either be temporarily defeated or reformed by Iron Man at the end of each 13-page issue, signifying America's victory over the reds. Each month Iron Man appeared, extolling the virtues of American patriotism while denouncing the tyrannical communist governments."³ 

Meanwhile, far from being painted as villainous, Iron Man writers at the time "portray Stark as possessing the best qualities of the modern American man: tolerance, ingenuity, broadmindedness, and the profit motive. [...] [He] is a capitalist, but hardly rapacious. Instead, he is a liberal's ideal: a benevolent boss, environmentalist, and hard-working scientist as concerned with enhancing mankind as he is with the bottom line. While some critics in the comic cast doubt on the benefits of Stark Industries, they are usually revealed to be malevolent or naive; the writers make clear that Stark is above reproach"⁴.

The Wrong Side of History 

But, of course, this sentiment wouldn’t last forever. With the Vietnam War becoming increasingly unpopular, "the morality of [Stark’s] role in the Vietnam conflict or his close relationship with the U.S. military [would no longer] be taken for granted, as it was early on"². "From March 1963 through October 1967, Iron Man fought a series of brutal bullies who sought to enslave humanity under the mantle of International Communism. But in the late 60s this formula broke down. [...] What's more, though, the war was increasingly being blamed on the ‘military-industrial complex,’ envisioned as a shadowy network of vested interests that dealt in death and dismemberment for the sake of corporate profits. And this otherwise faceless abstraction found a readymade personification in Tony Stark"⁵. 

"Iron Man, once a symbol of what would lead to victory in Southeast Asia, gradually represented the country's arrogant overkill. Critics made the connection between the comic and the bloodshed in Vietnam, and urged writers to see the error of their ways. [...] As the casualties mounted, some readers urged Stark to forgo defense contracts"⁴. Marvel’s response was to shy away from political stories, "moving from fantasizing about success in South Asia to a James Bond fantasia of secret organizations equipped with wondrous devices but no motivation beyond the cripplingly vague ‘world domination’"⁵ for the remainder of the decade. 

"Marvel's creators were slow to educate themselves on the nuances of the Cold War, as their superheroes remained committed to fighting long after many readers had misgivings or were openly protesting"¹³. Stan Lee would later say the following of the writing of the time: 

“Now it's important that you bear in mind that this yarn was written in 1963, at a time when most of us genuinely felt that the conflict in that tortured land really was a simple matter of good versus evil and that the American military action against the Viet Cong was tantamount to St. George's battle against the dragon. Since that time, of course, we've all grown up a bit, we've realized that life isn't quite so simple, and we've been trying to extricate ourselves from the tragic entanglement of Indochina.”¹⁶

This same conflict and learning experience can be seen happening to Tony Stark himself in the ‘Iron Man’ film. In it, the announcer of an award claims that "Tony Stark has changed the face of the weapons industry, by ensuring freedom, and protecting America — and her interests — around the globe". Stark himself has statements such as "The day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals"; "Do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs, military funding, honey." and "I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Dad did it. That's how America does it. And it's worked out pretty well so far". He also refers to the people his weapons will be used on as "the bad guys". It is clear that, not only does he think his position as a weapons designer is a necessary evil, but the world around him validates this perception. The only time in the film where, prior to the kidnapping, this assumption is challenged, is by a reporter who then abandons the discussion to, instead, sleep with him.

In 1971, the elephant in the room of Iron Man comics finally started to be addressed. On the 38th issue of ‘Iron Man’, Marvel published a letter from a reader inquiring "When are you going to admit that Tony Stark produces devices to kill people?" and saying "He needs to start converting from military to civilian uses". The reply was simply "Good points, well taken, Paul. We'll try to explore those problems in the place where they should be explored — in the pages of our mag. Stick with us. We're trying, pal, we're trying."

Months later, on issue #45, it’s finally stated that Tony Stark has made a decision to refuse all further military contracts.

But this didn’t instantly redeem him from all those years as a military contractor. Fifteen issues later, Stark is told "No amount of well-publicized 're-ordered priorities' will wash away the Asian blood your weapons shed — not merely once or twice — but for a decade".

This guilt would be the theme of a pivotal issue later on. Written by Bill Mantlo in 1975 (roughly coinciding with the final U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and the Fall of Saigon) and titled ‘Long Time Gone’, the 78th issue of ‘Iron Man’ finally shows us the moment Tony Stark decided to stop producing weapons — and much of it would later be incorporated on, and made into an integral part of, Iron Man’s origin story in his cinematic debut. Pondering over how he "didn't do much soul-searching back then" and "beat the commies for democracy without ever questioning just whose democracy [he was] serving", Stark leads us into a flashback set years earlier, in Vietnam.

Much like the beginning of the film, we see him (but now as Iron Man) engage in friendly conversation with U.S. soldiers, minutes before a surprise attack by local forces leaves him the only survivor. In a fit of despair, he screams that "they were out here because a weapon I’d built gave them the promise of a faster kill, a well-oiled war!! I did this!" — a sentiment echoed in the film, when Stark says "I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them".

 

We then see Iron Man meet a blind Vietnamese boy, "who most likely didn’t understand the meaning of words like communism and democracy". He takes the boy to his village, only to find it completely destroyed by the weapon he made, with no survivors left.

In the film, we see this moment paralleled on Stark’s first outing as Iron Man, which was motivated by seeing his weapons used to destroy a town near where he was kidnapped.

The issue ends with Stark vowing that he "will live to avenge those whose lives have been lost through the ignorance of men like the man [he] once was — or [he] will die trying!", and a note from the authors saying the comic was "dedicated to peace".

 

While "the writers seek to partially redeem Stark by describing his shame, agony, and soul searching", the sentiment portrayed in the issue also "reflected how many Americans responded to the national humbling in Southeast Asia". Now, both "Stark, and America, have seen the light and will not repeat their mistakes, as Tony transforms his operations from military hardware to alternative energy and space exploration"⁴. This is the issue that cements Stark's weapons-making past, narratively, as not "a drawback but a central asset, a character flaw on par with Spider-Man’s guilt over the death of Uncle Ben"⁵, and this is clearly seen in how the film deals with the theme. 

9/11 et al. 

Of course, the world saw plenty of changes since 1975 — and so did Iron Man comics. No longer making weapons became a staple of the character, in fact, "during 1979, [security agency] S.H.I.E.L.D. were actively working to take over Stark International in order to get it to produce more munitions and military grade materials"⁶ — but there was still a problem to tackle: his extreme connection to "anti-communism" in a world where this dichotomy grew more and more irrelevant. "Not-Communist was enough motivation to be a superhero in the 1960s" but "Iron Man [could] no longer be defined solely by what he is not"⁹. Some of his old "classic Cold War villains" had already been "rewritten as independent actors"⁵ in the late 1960s, but too much of his character was still stuck in time. 

The 1980s give a big step away from that, when the ‘Armor Wars’ story arc "moves away from the early Iron Man tales that presented the idea of inherently superior American technology and describes the difficulties of the hero battling complex, equal armored supervillain competitors"⁸. "While the character had been anti-Communist to the point of pure propaganda, he was now being presented as a businessman who happened to also be a superhero in order to protect his capitalistic endeavors"⁹. But the final move wouldn’t happen until the 1990s, when Iron Man, already in the 267th issue of his solo comic, had his origin story updated to remove its connections to the Vietnam War and communism. Darowski describes the change as following: 

“In this updated version, Vietnam and Communism are not mentioned once. When Stark is disembarking from his plane his colleague welcomes him only to "Southeast Asia" where Stark is coming to address a situation with one of his factories. There is no ideological battle line being drawn, rather this is a "direct attack on Stark Industries" as someone is stealing shipments out of Stark's new factory in the region. It is revealed that Wong Chu, the local warlord responsible for disrupting the factory's output, is only acting under the orders of [classic Iron Man villain] the Mandarin. None of the democracy versus communism or America versus Vietnam rhetoric that existed in the original origin story is present in this updated retelling of the tale.”⁹

But then, of course, everything changed again in September of 2001. "September 11 forced comic book makers to step back and reevaluate the place of their industry in American culture"¹⁷. And, if regular characters were affected simply by having their stories set in the U.S., Iron Man, with his long and complicated history with the military, suffered a huge impact. "In the context of the United States' "War on Terror," Iron Man's traditional emphasis on national defense and military technology was given renewed emphasis and visibility across the Marvel Universe"⁷. 

During the Cold War, "the U.S.S.R. had been a threatening and stable adversary for over four decades that had provided a consistent "them" as a mirror to better clarify the American "us"." With the fall of the Soviet Union, "how would the U.S. define itself and what would be its new mission?"¹⁵. The World Trade Center Attack answered that question. After it, not only was Iron Man’s origin story changed, again — now being displaced from the jungles of Vietnam to the Afghan desert; but Stark’s work as a weapons designer was moved up to much more recent times, as seen in the first issue of 2005's new Iron Man comic.

He would also, even if reluctantly, sometimes work with the military again — agreeing with his best friends James Rhodes, in the first issue of 2011's Iron Man 2.0, that "If Stark doesn't supply Iron Man to the military, someone else will supply an Iron Man to the military. Better us than them." 

Though the majority of the U.S. population had initially supported the war in Iraq, by the time the film started production it was opposed by sixty-seven percent. And the lack of evidence for weapons of mass destruction led fifty-four percent to believe that the war was not morally justified¹¹. This put the general public’s reaction towards the military-industrial complex at roughly the same state it had been when Iron Man writers were first bombarded with letters asking them to redeem Tony Stark for his role in it. Having gone full circle, it seemed like the perfect time for his live-action debut. 

Conclusion 

Much changed between Iron Man’s creation and his first appearance on the big screen — and much had to be changed in the character’s history to accommodate him to this. The socio-political climate in 1963 not only allowed, but encouraged a hero who aided in "America’s Cold War struggle against the communist menace". But, as the real nature of the conflict in Vietnam came into perspective, the blind confidence and self-righteousness turned into regret and guilt, compromising the existence of a character that so heavily embodied the ideals of this now bygone era. 

After much trying to ignore or sweep under the carpet Stark’s part in the Vietnam War⁵, though, writers finally realised that the shame they, and the rest of the country, felt could be translated into Tony Stark. In making him carry with himself the guilt of his past, they made him a lot more relevant, relatable and interesting; and this eventually became a staple of the character. When, after 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Iraq, the sentiment of guilt and disgust towards military action overseas was rekindled in the U.S. population, Stark was, once again, the perfect mirror for the audience to see themselves in. 

By turning his realisation, rebellion, and quest for atonement into a key point of his beginning as a superhero, the ‘Iron Man’ film presents its audience with the message that your past mistakes don’t have to define you. Stark’s tainted history makes him the perfect hero for a world so conscious of its own wrongdoings, and so desperate to see significant change for the better. Iron Man is now, just as he was in 1963, a product of our time. 

Bibliography 

From Marvel

Iron Man. (2008) Film. Directed by Jon Favreau. USA: Paramount Pictures. 

LEE, S. & LIEBER, L. (1963). Tales of Suspense. Issue 39. New York: Marvel Comics.

LEE, S. & BERNSTEIN, R. (1963). Tales of Suspense. Issue 40. New York: Marvel Comics.

CONWAY, G. & BRODSKY, A. (1971). Iron Man. Issue 38. New York: Marvel Comics. 

FRIEDRICH, G. (1972). Iron Man. Issue 45. New York: Marvel Comics. 

FRIEDRICH, G. (1973). Iron Man. Issue 60. New York: Marvel Comics. 

MANTLO, B. (1975). Iron Man. Issue 78. New York: Marvel Comics. 

BYRNE, J. (1991). Iron Man. Issue 267. New York: Marvel Comics. 

ELLIS, W. (2005). Iron Man. Issue 1. New York: Marvel Comics.

SPENCER, N. (2011). Iron Man 2.0. Issue 1. New York: Marvel Comics. 

From 'The Ages of Iron Man'

1. DAROWSKI, J. J. (2015). Introduction...

2. PATTON, B. (2015). “The Iron-Clad American” — Iron Man In The 60s...

3. SHEPPARD, N. R. (2015). "Gorgeous new menace” — Black Widow, Gender Roles and the Subversion of Cold War Expectations of Domesticity... 

4. COOLEY, W. & ROGERS, M. C. (2015). Ike’s Nightmare — Iron Man and the Military-Industrial Complex...

5. HENEBRY, C. (2015). Socking It to Shell-Head — How Fan Mail Saved a Hero from the Military-Industrial Complex...

6. SACKS, J. (2015). Demon in a Bottle and Feet of Clay — David Micheline and Bob Layton on Iron Man...

7. CHAMBLISS, J. C. (2015) War Machine — Blackness, Power and Identity in Iron Man...

8. ZANCO, J. (2015). From Armor Wars to Iron Man 2.0 — The Superhero Entrepreneur...

9. DAROWSKI, J. J. (2015). Cold Warrior at the End of the Cold War — John Byrne’s “War Games” in an Era of Transition...

...In: Darowski, J. J. (ed.). The Ages of Iron Man, Essays on the Armored Avenger in Changing Times. Jefferson: McFarland.

Others

10. BERGER, A. A. (1973). The Comic Stripped American. New York: Walker and Company.

11. COSTELLO, M. J. (2009). Secret Identity Crisis: Comic Books and the Unmasking of Cold War America. New York: Continuum. 

12. FELLMAN, P. (2009). Iron Man: America’s Cold War Champion and Charm against the Communist Menace. In: Journal of Popular Culture 40.6. 

13. GENTER, R. (2007). “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”: Cold War Culture and the Birth of Marvel Comics. In: Voces Novae: Chapman University Historical Review. vol. 1, no. 2. 

14. HODGSON, G. (1976). America In Our Time: From World War II to Nixon — What Happened and Why. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. 

15. JOHNSON, J. K. (2012). Super-History: Comic Book Superheroes and American Society, 1938 to the Present. Jefferson: McFarland. 

16. LEE, S. (1975) Son of Origins of Marvel Comics. New York: Simon and Schuster.

17. WRIGHT, B. W. (2003). Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. The Johns Hopkins University Press.

P.S.:

I was going to put this on the tags, but I got just far too big. This is a weird text to post in the middle of the Palestian genocide, by the hands of Israel and the United States. Even weirder so soon after the strikes in Lebanon. What motivated me to finally get on with editing it was actually Spencer Ackerman's newsletter about said strikes, more specifically this post on bluesky about it, but honestly I'd forgotten the essay ended in such an optimistic note.

It was also weird to first write it, anyway. I had basically the whole thing outlined when I was reminded that 9/11 happened. It honestly never impacted my life directly. I'm not from the USA, I'm not from the Middle East, I've never even met a muslim person irl. I've never felt the guilt I describe in the text. My country has been in exactly 2 (two) wars after WW2, both of which happened before I was born. My current president has always been an ally to Palestine, and has publicly called what's happening in Gaza a genocide. My main source of anger towards it isn't "my country is guilty in this, my tax money is funding this", it's "it doesn't matter how much my country opposes this, because there's only one country that can actually do something, that holds all the power, that acts as if they're the rulers of the entire fucking world, and they're not stopping it - they're funding it".

But anyway. Iron Man. When I first started writing this essay, back in 2020, it was all about how the writers' real-life struggle was turned into Tony's, and how this became so integral to the characters that it was turned into his origin story in the film. So I had two things to work with, the comics from the 60s-70s, and the film from 2008. I outlined this. And then there was a decades-long gap, and I went "well, I should probably have a section talking about what happened in between those, like retcons and such, just to bridge it". Then I remembered 9/11 happened. So now I had to write about 9/11. And, in my defense, the whole "War on Terror" thing really seemed to be in the outs (they left Afghanistan and Iraq the year after I wrote this!! I know I didn't really follow international politics back then, but I wasn't pulling it out of my ass either ok).

So, I apologise if this text sounds flippant and dismissing, especially towards the ending. It's from a different time - which was still bad, but when I genuinely had hopes things were getting better. To be honest, until earlier this year I still did.

In keeping with the analysis here, though, because - as I have to keep reminding myself - this post is about Iron Man, the 'Conclusion' section now has basically become a premise. If we're really living through a post-9/11 2.0, will future Iron Man comics reflect this? I would expect so, considering this is what the current writer was doing earlier this week:

And maybe this paragraph from his latest newsletter:

(I couldn't really tell if the "impact" he mentions is on the writing or the schedule)

So, if Spencer Ackerman does want to let those current events inspire his writing, and, maybe most importantly, if Marvel allows it, might we see the exact opposite from the post-9/11 comics? How different is the current opinion now from in 2001? Does it only seem so much more negative because I'm in a progressive bubble and/or wasn't really following international politics at 4 years old? Who knows. Plus, Marvel nowadays seems way more interested in pretending comics have nothing to do with real life politics (don't look at the military-funded cinematic universe behind the curtain), and they have the plausible deniability to act like the US isn't just as involved in what's going on right now as it was in the invasion of Afghanistan (and Iraq, and Yemen, and-

Anyway, I don't think I have anything more to say for now, at least not about Iron Man. Hope you enjoyed the essay. I'm not actually that knowledgable in politics (though I've been trying to fix this) and this was written from a media studies POV, so if you have any corrections to make (or just want to talk about the subject) feel free to reblog, reply, send an ask, make your own post and tag me, anything.

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[museumgiftshoperaser]

80s NYC art scene AU

“I just don’t get it,” Steve says and he tilts his head from left to right as if a new perspective might reveal the painting's secrets. The canvas looms so large it casts a blue glow over his skin. Thick, syrupy air spills out of the canvas, with just a thin brown strip of paint at the edges to hold the whole thing together. You could reach your arms all the way in there, disappear into the depths and never look back. The fully abstract shit isn’t really his thing, but it’s a little mesmerizing nonetheless.

Fine. Eddie will play along. It’s not like there’s much else to do. “What don’t you get?” he asks Steve. “I could do this myself.” He gestures wildly at the ocean of paint in front of him, but keeps his voice down. As if he’s worried the artist is somewhere close, listening in on his opinions. “It’s just colors?”

He can’t even hate something with his full chest. 

Eddie rolls his eyes, does it so Steve can see him. He’s not afraid of the repercussions of his thoughts. It’s the least original opinion someone could have on art. Steve sounds like he got it whole cloth from a conservative newspaper. Something his dad likes to read, definitely. “Then do it.” Eddie says. Steve frowns. “Stop being a pussy, then.” Eddie takes a tiny step toward him, crooks an eyebrow. “I’ll get you some fuckin’ paint. Just do it.” 

He expects Steve to come closer, to stitch the distance between them and take Eddie up on his little threat. He wants to argue for the hell of it, a bright spark of entertainment, a familiar frustration, but instead Steve takes a step back. 

“No… But…” He shakes his head, quickly and sternly. “I couldn’t…” 

There’s that crack again, a small one this time, and Eddie wants to rip him open. “I’m not kidding.” He takes another step forward, reveling in the inch he has over Steve. “We’ll do it right now. You pick the color, see how you like it.” 

Steve’s mouth twitches and his lips turn lilac under the phthalo glow of the canvas. Like he’s deprived of oxygen. Like he’s freezing.

Robin is so soft with him. Careful explanations, hands guiding hands over malleable clay. Eddie knows he responds well to it. But Eddie doesn’t do soft. 

“What are you scared of?” He taunts and takes another step closer. Steve turns away then, so he’s fully facing the canvas. “This isn’t funny.” “I’m not joking.” 

“Yellow.” Steve says and he sounds a little breathless. “What?” “If I could pick a color.” He looks at the floor and his cheeks flush a complementary shade. “I’d pick yellow.” 

Oh?That’s not at all the color Eddie would’ve expected. Sunny and pleasant and uncomplicated yellow. Fucking fascinating.

They’re close now, with Eddie’s face blocking the blue hue from the painting.

“We can do yellow,” he dares. “Studio’s just a short subway ride away from here, what do you say?” 

Steve runs his teeth over his bottom lip. His eyes scan Eddie’s face like he’s searching for the catch. There is no catch. Eddie would fucking love to see him try. “Let's do it.” His voice is almost a whisper.

On AO3