#so maybe it's better that it doesn't exist

[imheretoreadafic]

Conversations of various Robins and Batman that the JL has overheard.

Dick as Robin:

Batman: "Don't touch that."

*gets ignored*

Batman (more desperately): "Don't touch that! Robin I'll ground you!"

Robin: *snorts and continues to reach for the very dangerous alien object*

Batman (floundering): "I- Catwoman's out of Arkham! And if you touch that I won't let you see her!"

Robin: *gasps and backs away from it reluctantly* "That's no fair! I wanna see Catwoman and touch the thing!"

Batman, crossing his arms and looking very stern despite the objectively ridiculous situation: "Well, you can only have one of those things."

-

Robin, starting to tear up and sniffle: "B-but I want to help other kids so t-t-they don't lose their mommy and daddy!"

Batman, deadpan: "That's not working on me, kid."

Robin, tears immediately drying up: "Was the mommy and daddy too much?"

Batman: *seesaw hand*

Robin, nodding: "I think I'll keep it to mama and papa - that usually works better."

//

Jason as Robin:

Batman: "Yes, Robin, your English teacher is an idiot when it comes to Shakespeare but that doesn't mean you can egg her car."

Robin: "What about her house?"

Batman: "That's actually worse than egging her car."

Robin: "Sooo, I should be allowed to egg her car because that's better than egging her house!"

Batman: "Should people be allowed to commit assault because that's better than murder?"

Robin, dead panned: "Isn't that literally what we do every night?"

(This one made Flash laugh so hard he pulled a muscle)

-

Robin: "B, I just met Toy Man."

Robin: "Is that REALLY one of Superman's enemies or was that a joke? Please tell me it was a joke. He's like a level two Gotham rogue - his shtick is toys, Batman, TOYS. And I thought the Riddler was stupid."

(Superman tried to defend his honor and was ultimately defeated by the meanest thing to exist - a teenager)

//

Tim as Robin:

Batman: "Robin, explain the voicemail I got from the school."

Robin: "Didn't they already tell you?"

Batman, frowning heavily: "Humor me."

Robin: "My math teacher was being a bitch so I took apart her calculators and hid the pieces around her room and in her stuff."

Batman: "Including her salad."

Robin: "Including her salad AND protein shake."

Batman: "She's could have choked and died!"

Robin: "But she didn't! And anyway in my experience, people are SO much more tolerable when they almost died recently! Take my dad for example-"

-

Batman: "Stop it."

Robin, grinning over his laptop: "I'm not doing anything."

Batman, exasperated: "Don't lie to me! That's your hacking face, Robin."

/

Steph as Robin:

Robin: "It's only glitter!"

Batman: "Three tons of it."

Robin: "... Did i mention that it's biodegradable so it's like totally okay for the environment! See, i DO think ahead sometimes!"

Batman, mumbling: "Maybe I should start putting glitter on your case files so you'll focus..."

-

Robin: "It's because I'm a girl isn't it?"

Batman: "Me telling you to stop putting sprinkles on your pasta is completely unrelated to your gender."

Robin, taking a bite of her pasta monstrosity and pointing the fork in his direction: "Misogynist!"

/

Damian as Robin:

Robin: "But i only THREATENED to stab him. I didn’t actually stab him."

Batman: "..."

Batman: "That's definitely progress but still-"

-

Robin: *cape starts to make a hissing sound*

Batman: "Robin.... What is in there?"

Robin: ".... Her name is Daffodil."

Batman, growing dread in his voice: "And what exactly is Daffodil?"

Robin, without misisng a beat and completely serious: "A beautiful young lady."

[kinardsevan]

who am i (to know)?

had this drabble in my head for a hot second. enjoy. post-s8 shenanigans.

-

"I owe you an apology."

Tommy looks up from his coffee with wide eyes. Maddie is standing across the kitchen from him, her own fresh cup in her hands. She'd come out from getting baby Bobby down, having fallen asleep in the rocking chair in the nursery while he'd been left in the house with Jee-Yun when the girl had wrangled him into a very convoluted pretend play of princesses and dragons. Evan was outside with Howie, working on a landscaping project that Tommy was supposed to join him on before his attention had been taken over by Jee.

"You really don't," he tells her, glancing out into the other room. Jee had fallen asleep on him—literally—about ten minutes before Maddie had come out, and he'd been so heartened by the fact that he hadn't wanted to move her. Maddie had shifted her over once she came out and offered him coffee.

"I do, though, "she states, stirring a spoon inside her coffee cup to mix the flavored creamer in. Her indulgences with the drink aren't very different from Tommy's, always seeking the sweetness instead of the caffeine.

She takes a deep breath, sips rom her drink before setting it on the counter.

"I wasn't very nice to you during round one of your and Evan's relationship, much less during the…off season," she comments.

Tommy lets out the slightest chuckle, the corner of his mouth pulling up as he acquiesces a nod before taking a sip of his own coffee.

"I'll give you that one," he responds. "But he's your brother. And as I understand it, maybe even more than that, given the situation with your parents," he comments as he sets his own coffee on the counter and leans back against it, wrapping his fingers over the ledge.

Maddie nods. "I recognize that he's an adult, and that end of the day, we're siblings-.."

"But for all intents and purposes, he's still your baby in some contexts," Tommy finishes for her. Maddie nods at the statement.

He's never said much on the subject, but he's always seen the way that Maddie has looked at Evan when they were in group situations. He still remembers the way she had kept watch over him at her own wedding reception—both the impromptu one thrown at the hospital, and the one that Bobby and Athen had held for them weeks later when schedules finally lined up and they were able to do something small at their condo. Maddie had been cordial, at the very least, but she had always kept a watchful eye on him, always waiting for…something. She never commented on whatever it was that she was waiting to see take place, but it seemed obvious once the breakup took place—she was waiting on him to end things.

"The thing is, for as complex as Evan's trauma is, he doesn't know it the same way we do," Maddie states. Tommy inhales sharply, staring down into his coffee mug.

It's not that he's ever expected Evan to not tell other people about the things he's shared about his own life—he knows that keeping secrets isn't healthy, and it directly affected the downfall of their relationship in the first go around. It wasn't at all that Tommy didn't want Evan to know him, either, or that he didn't want to know Evan in deeper ways. But when they had finally taken the time to sit down and really talk about the dark stuff that they'd avoided during the first year, it was more than clear that the trauma they both held wasn't light or easy. He fully understood Evan's urge to cling with a life filled with abandonment, including an entire quarter of his life in which he didn't speak to a single member of his family—and none of them had bothered to reach out to him. Adding to that he fact that he was 29 before he knew about his dead brother, and the fact that his entire life existed because he'd been intended as a savior sibling—so much about the younger man had come into focus for Tommy. He had no problem assuming that the same could also be said for Evan in relation to him.

"I think he's got a bit of a better grasp on it now," Tommy answers, still staring down into his coffee cup. He can't actually be entirely sure that the younger man really does understand the urge to bolt, but in the face of Bobby's death, while he urged to cling and stay close, Tommy needed time alone to process. It wasn't even that he didn't appreciate the comfort of being with Evan—he very much so did—but in the same breadth, he had only ever known a life where processing loss came hand-in-hand with loneliness. He needed the silence to figure out his own thoughts. But it was also that need for separation—short as it may have been—that ultimately led to the fighting that brought them back together.

"I imagine he does," Maddie states softly. She stares at Tommy for a time, and when he looks back up at her, the expression on her face is one he's only ever seen in his direction as a young child. It's the way that his mom used to look at him before she died. A layer of emotions, usually some mixed level of both pride and annoyance, but always covered in love. It makes a wave of something unfamiliar rush through his chest.

Well, maybe not unfamiliar so much as so distantly memorable that it doesn't feel right at first.

"Anyway, my point was…" Maddie trails off after a moment, and Tommy glances over at her again. There's something familiar in their shared gaze, but whether her statement is too loaded to put into words, or she doesn't fully have a grasp on it, she's not sure. He lets out another soft breath of a chuckle and nods.

"You didn't think I was going to change my mind," he states, not questioning. "Come back."

"I wasn't entirely sure," she admits. "I just knew that I recognized something in you, and I didn't like it. It took me a while, when you came back around to really grasp what it was that I was ambivalent about, but when you showed up and helped with saving Howie, a-and stuck around for Evan…" She glances back down at her coffee, touching the cup anxiously while also trying to keep her emotions together. "Well, anyway, I've seen Evan's life be a revolving door, in the kind of way where people come and go. They don't really come back. And I knew he loved you, but I wasn't sure if you loved him. Before then, I mean."

"Figured I was just along for the good times with the hot sibling," Tommy comments, just a hint of his bitchy tone and a smile on his face. Maddie scoffs.

"He is not the hot sibling."

"He kind of is," Tommy answers with a slight tilt of his head, and then they're both laughing, and it feels good. It feels warm and safe, and he has just the slightest pang of anxiety about letting himself really sink into it. No matter how much Evan tells him that there isn't anyone else and he doesn't want someone else, the fear of letting himself believe in another future that he won't actually get is still terrifying.

"The important thing is that you believe that," Maddie states, still laughing a little. As she finishes talking, though, just a smile remains on her face, and Tommy knows she means it.

Tommy glances out toward the back patio as Evan and Howie work on moving a bag of mulch into large pots, and his expression softens.

"He still scares me, if I'm honest," he tells her. "I've put faith into relationships in the past that didn't work out, and that hurt. But falling in love with him, and then telling myself that I couldn't have him…" His eyes get that overly dry feeling as he feels the edge of them brim with moisture. He glances back over at Maddie briefly, and she has that look on her face again, and it makes his heart twist. His gaze falls to her hands wrapped around her coffee mug as he drags his teeth against themselves, bites the side of his cheek. "He feels like a home I haven't known since…and I couldn't let go of him the way I should have. S-so even though he tells me otherwise, I still wake up every day convinced just a little bit that he will actually destroy me."

Maddie sets her cup down and Tommy looks away, suddenly feeling as though he needs to pull himself together in the right way. He forces a breath out and pushes a smile across his face as she walks over to him, wraps her small hands around his bicep, leaning into his side a little. The height difference is a little ridiculous, but he finds he doesn't mind it.

"I think you've figured this out, but Evan loves big, and in grand gestures. He has a penchant for missteps and overcorrection, but he means only the best with all of it. And in the midst of all of that, I have never seen him love the way he loves you, even if it took him a while to piece all of that together."

Tommy glances down at Maddie, his gaze narrowed just slightly.

"You don't think he's going to change his mind one day?" He tries to make it sound like a joke, but the trembling in his voice gives him away, and Maddie squeezes his bicep.

"Believe me when I tell you, Evan doesn't see anyone else," Maddie tells him. "Also, if you tell him that I've told you this, I'll deny it because of how disgusted I was when he said it to begin with. But I have heard him make the statement that if it was humanly possible, he'd have your children." Maddie narrows her eyes at Tommy. "Truth be told, I wouldn't be surprised if he did a deep dive to see if it is possible."

Tommy blushes at her statement, lets out a laugh, and it makes Maddie laugh too. For a solid two minutes, they lean against each other and the counter, laughing until it hurts to keep doing so, at which point the patio doors open and Evan and Howie come walking in, pink and each covered in a sheen of sweat. The center of Evan's tank clings to his chest, and it makes Tommy feral just looking at him.

"Might have to do a google search of my own," he mutters toward Maddie. She slaps his arm and steps away as Evan and Howie both mutter some version of 'what?' Maddie walks over to her husband and wraps an arm around him, pulling him away as Evan approaches Tommy. The pilot watches his boyfriend as Evan drapes an arm over his shoulder, fingers grazing at his hairline as he smirks at him.

"You are so dirty right now," Tommy tells him. "And sweaty."

Evan nods. "We were going to shower. The master bedroom has its own. And besides, you like me all sweaty and worked up." He trails a finger down the center of Tommy's chest, slipping it in past the button the fastened button in the center of Tommy's chest. The pilot glances down at what he's doing, can't fight the smirk pulling on his face. Evan leans into him, tilts up toward his ear. "Shower with me."

"There are children here," Tommy murmurs back to him, glancing toward the hall. He hears the bedroom door shut down the hall, and Evan presses his heated, sweaty cheek into Tommy's. "And I didn't plan for this."

"I did," Evan whispers, turning his head more and biting down into the space below Tommy's ear as he leans closer to him. Tommy gulps. Evan's free hand slides down his torso before his fingers curl into the waist of the pilot's jeans. "I have clothes for you. Shower with me."

Tommy opens his mouth to respond, but Evan's fingers dip lower, and the pilot gasps as the tips of Evan's fingers brush against him.

"Quickie in the shower," he whispers, his throat tight with need. "Quiet like a mouse."

Evan grins against his neck, and he can feel it.

"Sure," he answers gruffly. When he pulls away, the grin is still plastered on his face as he tugs Tommy forward by the hand still in his jeans. "Bag's already in the bathroom."

Yeah. Tommy definitely needs to get on that Google search.

[agustmylove]

mxtx crossover-what if after his death in burial mounds wei wuxian transmigrate into sha hualing pre invasion to cang qiong sect.

for the sake of mental peace lets have wwx's trauma disappear for a while or he himself buried it in classic sqq fashion and is very confused with transmigrations and systems. he gets the hang of it after some days with his system being lenient to him and all and he sees this as whole second life and tries to be okay with the new body (again he mostly ignores the implications)

Now wwx doesn't know pidw or its plot and doesn't really care. He does what system tells him to sometimes, train with his new demon powers, blend demonic cultivation a bit more to his fighting (his new body is much better vassal compared to his old coreless one) in general just chills and looks after shl's troops. And one fateful day system chims in demanding that he invades cq sect and failure to do so would have consequences. wwx is not opposed to this and infact is interested to see and meet new people so he drags his ass up the mountain

The plot progresses as it does it svsss with wwx mouthing some words that system offers in its script and him being cheeky with sqq (sy) challenging them to three matches (system asked)

When sqq fought wwx keenly observes the fight impressed by the immortal master and loudly muses out his appreciation with the peak lord fight without arms against his opponent (sy having internal monologue asking shl to not praise him out loud because maybe in the future bh would punish him for that (he is ridiculous honestly)) shl/wwx again surprises sqq when she doesn't berate the elder for loosing against sqq and give the demon a head pat and better luck next time (that was clearly ooc!!! System are you seeing this)

System alerts that shl has to fight next and its crucial for the plot that she has to win it. wwx does his theatrics and proposes himself as the next fighter and asks for the opponent. And thats when he sees liu mingyan. Her veiled face promised a pleasent face behind it and the sharp features and eyes reminded him of lwj. wwx was taken aback by his own thoughts of second lan master as since his transmigration he has been suppressing all the thoughts of his old life. How can lwj who hated him to his core leak out the fissures that he didn't knew existed.

shaking his head he watched lmy get ready for the fight. Unlike the male gaze fight that they had in svsss surprisingly shl and lmy here goes all out fierce battle that leaves the audience in awe (sqq is screaming inside with excitement) wwx is so engrossed with the fight and it reminded him of the time he crossed with lwj especially the first night they met. Since he lost his core wwx killed all the hopes of having a equal stand with lwj again in sword fights. at some point in one of lmy's strike he says, "nice one lan zhan"

lmy freezes for a moment and wwx takes the opening and defeats her. He doesn't notice his slip or the shift in demeanor of his opponent and as the demons roar for their saintess he happily joins them. Before that he bows to lmy with complete respect "lets do that again some other time young miss"

system grants him points for his feat and wwx silently watches the next match with a elder and a young boy named lbh (he felt bad for sending the elder against the boy but system picked not him and besides why did his shizun picked this boy. It was cruel) wwx excitedly watched the fight not noticing a pair of eyes closely watching him.

When lbh won he groaned our words that system script provided. He tried not berate the elder for loosing against the boy but somehow his words made the demon lash out and attack the boy with the poisoned armor. wwx couldn't stop as he watched sqq take in the poison.

he realised things were going against him and decided to bail. With lqg suddenly appearing the wwx roared out orders to retreat with system giving him points to complete. Before leaving he cheekily turned behind, give a theatrical bow and see you later and disappeared.

Midst of the crowd of cultivators fretting over poisoned sqq and damages that the invasion made stood liu migyan who ignored his brother taking up the peak lord to mqf. She was looking up at the place the saintess stood before and whispered, "wei ying, is that..."

[threegoldfish]

As expected, Harrow recognizes him; It doesn't surprise Marc, not at all, because he knows that there are differences existing between him and Steven - he's been watching the other for long enough, after all, aware of Steven's way more expressive features and his rather thick, British accent.

So is Harrow, definitely. The smile that appears on his face feels less odd than it has back before Marc had... well, seen all of this - witnessed it first-hand, how careful and kind the doctor handled the other one living inside his body. And while he does not offer a smile in return, he does acknowledge it with an exhale of air as he moves over to take a seat on that by now well-known chair, shoulders lifting as he takes a deep inhale of cold, sterile air.

"...Yeah, I... got some. Helps. It's... a bit better." A nod, dark eyes flicking away from that doctor - hands folding on top of his lap as Marc leans back a bit, spine molding against the chair's backrest; He blinks, then spots the two bottles of ice tea sitting there, on a tray, as if being presented to him - labels visible and all.

Damn, Marc hasn't had an iced tea in... years. Decades, maybe. Can barely remember what it tastes like, but know he's been a big fan of it ever since getting to try his first one back when he'd been a child. ---Peach flavor, one bottle says, and... shit, that's his favorite. Marc loves anything and everything peach, cursing his own sweet tooth coming through here...

No, he does not reach for it. He just ... stares at the bottle for a bit too long, then blinks and glances to the side, clearing his throat again. The urge to fold his arms across his chest is starting to overwhelm him, the discomfort pulsing through his veins finally too great to ignore - so those folded hands move, and there they go, sliding under each armpit with another sigh leaving through a now much less swollen nose.

"...I... woke up in my bed this morning. ---Guess I was allowed to leave the infirmary?"

There's no accusation lingering in his words, not at all - if anything, Marc sounds curious; This is just him testing the waters, because of course he knows what has happened - remembers every bit of it. However, Harrow isn't aware that he is, and... Marc doesn't really know how to breach the topic, so he starts with what's the most obvious; The other's aware of it as well, after all - the fact that Marc must've fallen asleep back in that infirmary bed, just to now be here, supposedly not aware of anything that has happened in between.

A blink of those brown eyes, irises back on the man sitting on the other side of that desk - watching, taking in the sight. But, again, there's no real heat existing within his pupils. Nothing that indicates that he feels offended, or angry in any shape or form. If anything, he appears hesitant, a little uncertain. Shy, almost.

Arthur arrived early, the same way he always did. The quiet hours of the morning suited him, he liked to think; before the halls grew loud with footsteps and questions, before the patients began to stir, before his own thoughts had the chance to tangle around him. The office was still dim when he entered, only lit by the soft morning spill of light through the blinds. 

He didn’t flip on the overheads. He just turned on the lamp in the corner, low and warm, balancing out the light on the other side of the room. 

He spent a few minutes just adjusting everything. Straightening the chairs, straightening out his books. He had ended up buying a succulent, in the end; it was the smallest one he could find, the most symmetrical. It looked vaguely alien, like a fistful of green thumbs sprouting in a tight circle, but he had stared at it long enough to come to terms with it.

The woman he’d bought it from had been a bit too cheery about it - water it once a week, she’d said. It doesn’t have to be perfect. 

It wasn’t perfect, he’d wanted to point out - but he didn’t. He’d placed it next to the lamp on his desk, in the small space it had for a pen cup; he’d moved it around two or three times, but had found he could tolerate it there if he put another pen cup on the other side of his desk. (Something that was still shifting around, though everything was an adjustment). 

His day had gone smoothly enough, with only one meeting having left him frustrated - Marc was the one up next, which caused some sense of relief. From the small refrigerator tucked into the corner, he had pulled a chilled bottle of iced tea; something simple, crisp. Hopefully something that Steven wouldn’t hate him too severely for - it could lead to offering to go get a more ‘proper’ cup of tea. And if it were Marc who came in, well - hopefully he liked tea, as well. 

Marc didn’t ask for things much, Arthur had already noted - but he stressed himself out too often to not be staying hydrated. The tea was cold, sharp - soothing, he liked to think. 

Arthur balanced out the bottle with his own, an identical tea. Both of the labels faced the door, and he didn’t open his yet; he just let them both sit on coasters, briefly going over the notepad in front of him before the familiar face appeared at the door. 

He looked up, smiling only a few moments after seeing the man; “Marc,” he greeted. “It’s nice to see you. Has your nose been bothering you? They should have offered you painkillers, around breakfast.” If they didn’t, then Arthur had some that he could offer - though he trusted that Jenny would be on top of things. 

[bluehourbucky]

Office Siren

congressman! bucky x asisstant!reader

summary: its summer which means office attire slightly changed and buckys professionalism is on thin ice

a/n: tbf bucky is THE office siren but oh well. OOP AND THIS IS SO LONG AND FOR WHAT????

warnings: yearning, slow burn, bucky in a suit, office misbehaviour, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it) bratty behaviour, dom bucky

~~~~~~

Bucky never expected to be stuck in the office looking at emails, answering them, mostly because in his time computers didn't exist and also being a HYDRA weapon didn't help.

It took a lot of time to get used to it, and he so desperately needed help with the technology that they had to hire someone to teach him basic things, which happened to be you. Well not at first,as they had to hire three people before you because all of them lost patience after day two. But you? You stayed, you took your time explaining things, you didn't rush him, showed him the same things hundred times, and with a smile.

After Bucky somewhat managed to work independently he expected you to leave, there must be better opportunities than to help a 110 year old ex assassin, apparently for you there wasn't.

And so you stayed and worked with him for over a year.

He doesn't know when, but somewhere along the way or maybe it was at the beginning, Bucky started admiring you in a not professional way. At first it was professional, he admired you organisation skills, politics knowledge, work ethic, how you always come 15 earlier to do some preparations for the day ahead.

But then he started noticing things about you, the way you always have scrunchie on your wrist even though your hair is almost always tied, you say it's in case you lose the one on your head, or if you forget to tie your hair at home. Or how you always drink cold coffee, no matter the season, and always put insane amount of sugar since you hate the bitterness, or how you subtly steal pens from other tables because you somehow lose them daily. Or how you have perfume for every day of the week, but you only carry Friday perfume in your purse and then have a battle with yourself if you should use it when the smell of the one you put at home faded.

And then it's the little things you do for him, like turn on his computer just before he comes in the office, or bring him coffee from the same place where you get yours but you always draw something different on the cup, or how you always print out his schedule and color code it so he doesn't have to rely on his phone because you know he hates it, or how you leave him paperwork in three piles, most important, less important and not important (he had gotten in trouble when he skipped this pile once.)

And Bucky knows it's wrong, it was wrong in the 40s and it's wrong now, but he just can't help it, you're just breathtaking. It doesn't help you take your office outfts seriously. You're always dressed professionally but the outfits always have a personal touch. You also love putting pins on your suit jacket, the ones that you always have are your pronouns and a pride flag and you absolutely love showing them off to bigoted old men.

But Bucky is suffering, not only because of summer heat but your outfits are getting more and more revealing each day while still technically appropriate according to the rules.

However today's a different story, this is definitely not appropriate.

The second Bucky walked in the office and saw your outfit he froze. He changed a lot and has come to terms with modern fashion but he has no idea how he'll be able to have a single thought today.

You're wearing a skin tight white shirt, two top buttons unbuttoned as well as the last one, framing your hips perfectly and the replacement for gray pants you usually wear is an extra short gray skirt that barely covers your ass. The black stockings leave nothing to imagination and the black stilettos make your legs look extra delicious.

Luckly you hadn't noticed him in the office hall, so Bucky quickly ran to the toilets to refresh himself and calm down or his 110 year old heart would stop or he would be one od those creepy bosses with a boner and neither of those options sounded good to him.

Bucky walks back slowly to his office and when he opens the door he is met with you standing on a chair your hands in the air your skirt riding up dangerously up.

"Mornin'. May I ask what are you doing?" Bucky tries to keep his voice normal but the "morning" comes out huskier than intended.

"Good Morning, Mr Barnes! Well of course you can ask, I am fixing our air conditioning because there's no way I'll be sitting in this heat without it!" you turn and smile as you answer. Bucky thought he's used to you calling him, Mr Barnes but apparently not.

"How about you let me fix that and you come down from that chair so you don't hurt yourself?"

You look at him, amusment in your face hands on hips but still standing on the chair.

"And sorry to ask but do you know how to fix air-conditioning?" you teasingly say making him smile.

"No but I'm sure I can figure it out." his statements earns him a laugh from you.

"Alright" you say but before you even start stepping down Bucky is there beside the chair holding out his hand, which you look at surprised at the offer, but something changes in your expression and instead of taking his hand you put your arms around his neck and start stepping down. Bucky reacts fast and puts both his hands on your hips helping you down.

When both of your feet touch the ground, you don't move your arms or step away, but Buckys hands don't move either. So you stand there closer than necessary looking at each other for too long. A knock at the door makes two of you jump away from each other.

"Come in" Bucky says after coughing nervously.

A guy around your age in repairman uniform walks in.

"Hello sir. I was called here to check the air conditioning some other aircons aren't working since there was an outage." Bucky glances at you and you just shrug.

"I'll be really quick!"

You two let him do his job and you sit at your tables. Your table is in his office right next to his own, the assistants usually aren't in the same room but Bucky still sometimes needs help so this was just easier than you coming in and out of his office to help him.

Bucky tries hard not to look over to you, but he just can't. He watches you take a sip of your coffee, your lips covering the top of a straw, lipstick staining it. And images wash over him. The ones of you on your knees in front of him, lips swollen, hands on his-

An annoying beeping sound wakes him up from his fantasy.

"There now it's working!" The guy announces, and puts the remote on your table, Buckys pulse quickens when he notices the boy taking in an eyeful of your cleavage.

"Thanks you can leave now." Bucky harshly says making the guy jump and leave in a hurry. While you haven't even taken your eyes off of your screen.

Bucky can't relax even with air conditioning working so he takes off his jacket, and when that wasn't enough he took off his tie but that still wasn't enough so he rolled up his sleeves.

Throughout the day he kept glancing at you but you didn't even once look at him, eyes stuck to the screen. And he was losing composure because every time you moved he would flinch, especially when you leaned down to catch a pen that had fallen.

As the day was coming to an end, your focus was slipping.

"So does your hand ever overheat in the summer?" you ask turning your chair to face him making Bucky chuckl at your sudden question.

"It does actually, but not like it won't work its just too hot to hold it next to my body because it burns. And yes it does get too cold in the winter." He unconsciously flexes the arm.

"How did you know I was going to ask?" you laugh and Buckys heart does a flip.

"You work with someone for a year, you tend to learn a thing or two about them. How come you never asked a out it? The arm I mean, so many people did?" Bucky is curious about it.

"What more can I ask you get asked about it every day and all the questions I have are not appropriate for someone who's my boss."

The tone of your voice changes and he hears your heartbeat pick up.

"And what would you ask if it was appropriate?" Bucky fully turns his chair so now your legs are touching. It takes you a couple of seconds to consider the reply.

"I would ask if you have the same feeling in your fingers, do you feel the temperature difference in your fingers when you're using them on someone. Does it have any special features or something? That's what I would ask. If it was appropriate so I won't ask." You hold eye contact with him and bite your lip.

"Maybe you don't have to ask maybe I could show you."

Bucky stands up suddenly and walks to the door and locks them.

"You made today living hell for me so maybe I should torture you now."

you look at him through your lashes acting all innocent.

"Mr. Barnes don't act like you haven't been teasing me all day too? First you took off your jacket and then tie and rolled up sleeves. You might be from other era but you're not stupid Sergeant . You know what you're doing." you walk up to him and start unbuttoning his shirt, Bucky grabs your hands and stops you.

"You're a brat you know?" you give him a smug smile, which only makes him push you to the edge of the table by the throat. You moan and throw your head back.

Buckys baby blues are now darker and full of desire.

"I need you to tell me in words if you want to stop now."

"No please, touch me, please."

"Safe word baby girl?"

"Staples. I once stapled my finger it hurt I didn't like it." Bucky smiles softly at your explanation.

"Good girl." he places soft kisses on your neck and nibbles your ear as he unbuttons your shirt, making you arch your back.

"Please." you say breathlessly grabbing onto Buckys biceps for support.

"Patience." Bucky says as he removes the shirt and looks at your chest that are covered with white lacy bra. He pinches your peaked nipples over the bra, as you let a small desperate moan.

Bucky takes off your bra with ease.

"Beautiful absolutely stunning." He caresses your breast with his flesh hand and the metal one stayed at your hip. You look at him with desperation and need, and when he meets your eye he grabbs the back of your head and kisses you. The kiss is needy yet soft, his tongue explores your mouth, and you keep trying to grind on him but he won't let you

"You're so beautiful. I've wanted this for so long and you're evil. Wearing this small piece of clothing that barely covers your ass? Been wanting to throw you over the table the second I saw you this morning. You think you can take me now? Been close since morning."

"Oh god yes Sir. Please I'm so wet, I can take it. Please, just fuck me. Fill me up please."

Bucky didn't need to be told twice. He quickly moved your laptop on his table and pushed all the papers on the floor and before bending you over he put his jacket on the corner so your hips didn't get hurt. When Bucky pulled your skirt up he then ripped the stockings off of you.

"Oh god Bucky!" you moan, as Bucky smacks your left cheek.

"Fuck you're dripping." he says as he slides his metal fingers down your thigh collecting the wetness.

"Shit you're so tight." Bucky groans as he watches his fingers easily slide into your folds.

"Please fuck me." You cry out, your pussy clenching on air.

"Oh my god." Bucky smirks at your reaction to his cock. He might not be the biggest out there but the grith.

"Please, you're so big, I need you."

Bucky pushes your back down and spreads your legs by pushing them with his own. He takes his cock and pumps himself a few times before lining himself with your cunt.

"You okay?" He ask, and you reply with an eager nod.

He slowly pushies his tip and it already has you shaking.

"Fuuck me, you're so fucking tight." Bucky moans, and then slowly pushes in just a bit more giving you a couple of minutes to adjust.

"I'm ready please fuck me." Buckys self control is slipping but he starts slow, the room is filled wet sound your pussy makes every time Bucky thrusts, your breaths are short and erratic.

"Harder Bucky. I can take it, use me." and Bucky breaks. He fucks into your mercilessly, his balls hitting your ass. You're holding onto the table so hard your knuckles turning white. Bucky holds your hip with one hand and hair with the other. The room is filled with his groans, your moans, skin slapping and if it wasnt sound proof you would've definitely been caught.

"yes right there Sir. dont stop please im so close. please let me come, I need to come I cant oh god I think im going to die." you beg shamelessly.

"Such a good girl for me. Asking for permission, let go pretty girl." and you do and Bucky is not far behind, he lets you ride your orgasm out before he finally let's himself cum, your pussy squeezing him incredibly tight.

"Shit we made a mess." He slowly pulls out looking down a where his and your release slips down your legs to the office floor.

"Baby you okay?" Bucky asks as he turns you gently and sits you up.

" Damn; give a girl a second to recover after having the most earth shattering orgasm." Bucky laughs breathlessly taking hair that's fell on your face putting it behind your ear.

Bucky lifts you up and sets you down in his massive chair covering you with his shirt and brings you a glass of water.

You watch him as he quickly cleans up the office.

"You okay now? Enough to talk?"

"Yeah"

"I'll start, I want you to know that this wasn't just a fuck for me, you're really dear to me and I dont want you to think you're replacable but its okay if this means nothing to you. I can live with that and if it makes you uncomfortable to work here I'll even write you a recommendation letter with your skills Im sure people will be fighting for you."

"No, stop that, this wasnt nothing for me either. I wanted you for so long and yeah maybe we skipped a few steps but we're not strangers and before you send me off to someone else take me to dinner."

Bucky is relived to hear that and the weight on his shoulders lifted, he really cares about you and you have become his friend over the past year and he would be devastated if he had ruined this whatever it is.So this makes him really happy.

"I can do that, I promise I'll do this properly like a gentleman."

"And maybe after dinner you can show me what that arm can do since we didn't have time for that today."

"You're really impatient." Bucky jokes.

"God forbid a girl wants to ride vibranium arm that's literally one of a kind that's attached to the sexiest soldier to ever exist."

~~~~

The end or is it? Kind of wanna write more for them tbh... even though this is a lot of words for me ahaha

[sgiandubh]

Just so stories: the invisible man

I get it, we seldom see S & C doing things together outside the dreaded fan service and promo drama. Both moments which conveniently serve as main points of talk in some other corners of this community.

That's called privacy and a life going on. Outside of fans' and the media (who could not care less, at this point in time) scrutiny, I believe.

However, why don't we ever see McGill too, when this happens? Like, at all. Zero enthusiasm, apparently.

How the hell is this completely elusive (and even contemptuous, if we apply common sense and real life criteria) attitude deemed to be the nothing to see here, normal behavior that is being touted ad nauseam and believed by many? Doesn't he approve of the 'special friendship' they have, according to the household trolls? And if so, how can this not cause strife and (at a minimum) tensions, on that endlessly rose-tinted firmament, which - fun fact - doesn't even exist?

This is why I think the 'special friendship' point of talk would better be immediately abandoned. There is nothing else to clearly suggest there is something more than meets the eye there, than this lazy retconning, which takes everyone in the audience for a fool, shippers and stans alike.

Also, it is not the first time the lucky fans were probably gently asked not to disclose the identity of the totally not mysterious lunch companion. And it would seem nobody noticed the fact that the now famous brunette pic was taken by a woman in the group who was not an OL fan and had no idea who S was.

In Mrs. Flores' own words:

'We decided to stop at this pub. What @juguerra did not know, was who she was going to bump into there.'

Also, this - it sets the record straight forever, I think:

[Source: both pics taken by Mrs. F and then shared by the lucky fan on her own IG account stories on 3.05. 2025]

'She bumped into "Sam" (Don't even ask me this guy's surname, since I don't know it).... but she is a suuuuuper fan of this actor of the Outlander series and simply met him like that, sitting in the pub'.

Not enough time to thoroughly explain the situation to a very talkative friend, I suppose and [later edit] maybe she didn't even notice the detail herself, in the moment's excitement.

[nikethestatue]

The problem that I have around the Tamlin narrative in general is that I feel like people who are obsessed with him and view him as a victim don't really understand SJM's world building. Especially when it comes to High Lords and what they are.

i'll preface this by saying that I am not a Tamlin hater. I think he is somewhat of a confused dude, but I feel like he is genuine, if unforgiving.

But let's examine what High Lords are in plain terms.

These are currently the 7 richest people in the world:

Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Warren Buffett, Bernard Arnault, Larry Page/Sergey Brin

That's what the Seven High Lords are in terms of wealth and influence. They essentially hold the wealth of Prythian in their hands.

Now, add incomparable magical abilities, and powers which can control the elements (fire, water, darkness, air, earth, mind control, etc.) weather, sustain entire courts, mist entire armies, transform into beasts and when it comes to Rhys, actually heal the Cauldron (though dying in the process). When they put their minds together they can bring people back from the dead.

Outside of the mega ultra super duper powerful daddy that is Rhysie, all other HLs are pretty much evenly matched. What Tamlin has which for example Tarquin doesn't, and even Helion, is actual experience. He's been a High Lord for at least a couple of hundred years. He also wasn't Under the Mountain for 50 years. He still had his powers, and though it was a messy situation, he was given an option to find an out from this predicament.

So Tamlin, in fact, is an ultra powerful High Lord, chosen by the Power, imbued with immense abilities, and who possesses natural magic, which allows him to actually maintain his Court. His Court literally exists because of him and his power.

Which brings me to my first point.

Feyre destroyed Spring!!!! OMG. That thoughtless bitch!

The Court cannot be destroyed. Especially not by Feyre. Maybe by the Cauldron. I am not even sure that a Court could be taken over by another HL, because if it's a seasonal Court, the other HL would have to have the power to sustain it as such. So I am not sure how Beron, for example, could take over Spring. Because Spring is tied to Tamlin's power.

Unless the Power abandons a High Lord, he is always a High Lord. So Tamlin is fully empowered and is a High Lord just like Thesan or Beron.

Rhys is responsible for the downfall of Spring! He treats Tamlin terribly!

Rhys, is general, is not obligated to treat Tamlin with any special deference. They have a painful and violent history together, but Rhys was the one who took Tamlin under his wing back in their youth, and he also maintains that Tamlin should be in charge of Spring. He doesn't have to like him. But Rhys didn't go to the King of Hybern demanding that he find a way to eliminate Tamlin. Tamlin went to the King to have him break the Feysand bond.

Tamlin needs a redemption arc!

No he doesn't. Tamlin was redeemed in ACOWAR when he saved Feyre during the Hybern rescue and then when he helped bring Rhys back from the dead.

Tamlin has had his arc.

What Tamlin needs is a responsibility arc. Where he picks himself up by his bootstraps and becomes that High Lord that he is supposed to be, not for himself, but for his people. His girlfriend leaving him for another man is not reason enough to completely go to pieces. He needs to move on and find the will to change his life and his behavior.

For the record, Elain isn't the gal to make him do this. It's on him. It's not on her to stroll into Spring, make a flower crown and make it all better for him. That's not any woman's responsibility.

Tamlin is not the victim of people or circumstances. Everyone in Prythian suffered the same as he. He is currently the victim of his choices.

The only redemption arc that he has is to redeem himself.

[urautismdiagnosis-wistie]

Ramble about when dashi first joined the octonauts and some kwazii because I'm biased okay- AKA DASHI IS AUTISTIC TO ME

(Also I used ur screenshots @hers-underwraps 👉👈 uhhhh hope ur school stuff went well

(I think itd be a really cool thing if she was really nervous when she first joined but gained confidence and a sense of belonging after a bit)

she was lowkey kinda anxious in general when she first joined (esp in my au since she sorta ran away from home to become an octonaut but like she was an adult so does it rlly count)

Anyways, she was like yes I can do this job but I also wanna like show how passionate and serious I am but ALSO I wanna be friends 🥺👉👈

she tried to do the thing where u act a little playful so that you can, you know! Remove any awkwardness and make some gateways into conversations and getting to know people- especially since most of the crew kinda already knew eachother (other than peso he was new as well)

I'm gonna cut to the chase and just say she didn't realize that cats wagging their tails was a sign of annoyance and not happiness 💀👍 cuz like dogs are like oh! To make a friend i must show we may have fun together! So like she was tryna look all friendly with a wagging tail and lil jumps n sht and kwazii was like 💀 yo why is she being so passive aggressive thoooooo .... also dang girl personal space 💀

like kwazii WAS tryna be welcoming and yapped a bunch, and even helped her navigate the octopod since kwazii had a hard with that at first-

but like bro wasn't prepared to get playfully punched by someone he didn't know that well 😩 (she was doing that thing where u overcompensate friendliness when ur nervous 💀🙏 and also dogs playfight alot sooo).

or her joking about getting to the good food first cuz imma be so real there's no way kwazii isn't like a little territorial about food (being stranded on an island trauma) like hes totally willing to share but do NOT suggest ur gonna TAKE his food under any circumstances even if ur playfully joking 😩

She took the initial friendless and then tried to return it in a playful way.. only for it to backfire 😔

Anyways she (AUTISM) did NOT catch that...she was like OMG im doing such a GREAT job. And kwazii was like. ..Too polite to say anything cuz he tried subtly hinting he didn't like certain stuff but, but ur honor shes autistic she ain't picking up on anything 💀👍 and then she was like 🥺 👉👈 why is he avoiding me????????????????

His pupils are big and happy and his tail is wagging so why doesn't wanna play ping pong with me anymore 🥺🥺🥺 maybe I should do more little hops to show how excited I am to be here, surely it shant be perceived negatively by a cat 🙏 (its bad in cat body language 😩😔)

anyways she totally wasn't sulking in the library when professor inkling noticed her and asked her to help her organize some of his books. Then he disappeared and she was like 🤡 well I SURE HOPE I DIDNT MESS UP AGAIN hahaha better at least finish doing the books-

Then he returned and was like 🥰🥰🥰 ah! Thank you dashi! You seem to have done quite a splendid job, sorry I took a moment to return! You see I had gotten rather distracted, you see i found some extra copies of some books! Hmmm... oh! You know, perhaps you'd enjoy them, I insist you take them! You did mention feeling as though your room was a bit empty after all, dear 🥰

And then he basically (politely) shoved her out the library and when she got back to her room she just found like 3 manuals on reading other species body language. Peso admitted that he found the same book randomly appear in his medical bag. Perhaps.... even a few other octonauts had received the book as well... (lol they all did, kwaziis adhd *ss just forgot it existed 💀)

Dw tho, it all turned out fine. Dashi had heard that kwazii was in the kitchen and went to apologize but then found him trying (and failing) to make cupcakes for her 😭😭😭 cuz he thought he wasn't bein a good matie 😔 they laughed it off tho <3

[belit0]

Ugh, I have been eating your HS AU up!! It's good, and I'm planning to read the Ao3 collection soon. Do you think you could write something for Obito where he's obsessed with a girl and is possessing every aspect of her life but instead of feeling suffocated she doesn't mind his actions and is still loving toward him because she's been kind of ignored by her family and doesn't have much friends at school bc people think shes a teachers pet for getting good grades. She's just so welcoming and sweet to him he can't he but want to eat her up! Could you maybe also throw in how Obitos' cousins react (specifically madara and indra) to him having such an obedient and loving girl. (Could you also make it suggestive or maybe somewhat smutty, pls)

You pips are feral for HS! Obito

(Y/N) didn’t ask questions when Obito started showing up at her classroom door between every period.

She just smiled, like it made sense for someone like him, dark hoodie, bruised knuckles, half a scowl on his face, to be waiting for her like a stray dog.

She didn’t even blink when he pulled out a cigarette and lit it beside her locker, daring anyone to say shit.

Didn’t care that teachers whispered. That the girls who used to ask to borrow her notes now crossed the hallway just to avoid looking at her.

She just kept walking beside him like she belonged there.

Like he was part of her day now, part of her routine, part of her bloodstream.

And maybe he was.

Because Obito was obsessed, and obsession had no brakes.

He knew her schedule better than she did.

Every class, every shift, every walk home.

Her phone? His thumbprint unlocked it now.

Her bedroom window? He climbed through it more than her family opened the front door.

Not that they noticed. No one did.

That’s what gutted him most, the way her eyes softened when he showed up with her favorite drink, or a charger, or nothing at all.

Like the world had ignored her so long that she didn’t care if he stole everything from her. As long as he kept coming back.

He started showing up at her house before sunrise. Pretending he was just checking if she was awake.

Truth was, he couldn’t sleep knowing someone else might talk to her.

Look at her.

Touch her.

Even exist near her without her looking away first.

And she welcomed it.

No resistance.

No fear.

Just that quiet, sun-drenched smile that made him feel rabid inside.

-You don’t have to do all this for me, Obito,- she whispered once, curled into his chest after school, head tucked under his chin.

-I know,- he murmured back, pressing a kiss into her hair, hand low on her waist, clenching like she might vanish. -But I want to. I have to.-

He meant it.

He had her passwords.

Her scent on his clothes.

His toothbrush in her bathroom now.

There wasn’t a single piece of her life he hadn’t claimed or planned to.

And still, it wasn’t enough.

So when Madara and Indra caught them one afternoon in the backroom of the abandoned gym—door barely shut, her legs across his lap, her body soft and warm and smiling up at him like she didn’t care they were no longer alone—Obito didn’t stop.

Madara leaned against the wall, arms crossed, gaze sharp and cold like a blade that hadn't drawn blood yet.

Indra said nothing, as always. Just stood there, unreadable. Like a black hole in human form.

-You serious with this shit?- Madara scoffed, flicking a lighter open and closed. -She's that sweet, and you’re already playing house? Thought you were just pretending to be the golden boy. Didn’t think you actually went soft.-

Obito didn’t answer right away.

His fingers were still brushing her hip under the hem of her skirt, slow and possessive. Not to tease her. To remind her. Of who she belonged to. Who watched over her. Who made her feel seen in a world that treated her like wallpaper.

She leaned against him more fully.

Obito smiled without humor.

-She’s not sweet. She’s mine. That’s all that matters.

Madara rolled his eyes. -Fucking pathetic.-

Indra tilted his head just slightly, voice low. -You sure you can handle it? All that obedience. That kind of softness? One day she’ll want more. She’ll want space. And when she pulls away—

-She won’t.- Obito cut in, something ugly curling under his words. -She doesn’t need anyone else. She doesn’t even want anyone else. Not after what I give her.-

(Y/N) looked up at him, doe-eyed and trusting, like he’d just said something romantic instead of something that sounded like a threat wrapped in devotion.

Madara exhaled smoke and walked out first, muttering something cruel under his breath about “puppy love with a body count.”

Indra lingered longer. Stared at the girl, at the way she leaned into Obito’s touch like it was instinct. Then at Obito, the wreck of a boy clinging to her like his lungs needed her more than air.

-You better hope she never learns to run.

The door shut with a low click behind Indra.

The sound felt final.

Not loud, but it echoed anyway.

Like everything outside that room had disappeared. Silence washed over them, heavy and full of breath.

His hands were already on her, one hooked possessively around her waist, the other still resting just above the bend of her thigh, where his fingertips had paused mid-trace for a second. Now, they resumed their path with aching slowness.

Knuckles brushing fabric.

Then skin.

Light, barely there, like he was touching something sacred.

(Y/N) didn’t look away, didn’t ask, didn’t breathe wrong.

She just eased her legs apart by an inch. Maybe two.

Like muscle memory.

Like obedience.

Like belonging.

It wasn’t about sex.

Not really.

It was about proximity.

About closing every inch of space between them until there was nothing left untouched, unclaimed, unseen. Until every fold of her, every breath she took, was shaped by him.

Tied to him.

Dependent.

He leaned forward until his forehead rested against hers, their noses brushing, their exhales shared.

-You don’t care if they see it, do you?- he asked softly, voice low and hoarse, like gravel soaked in honey. -What we are. What you are to me.-

She blinked, lashes slow and soft.

Then nodded. Tiny. Absolute.

-I want all of them to know,- she whispered, the words threading through his veins like a drug. -That I’m yours. That you take care of me.-

Something cracked inside him. Or maybe it was him solidifying. Cement hardening around the edges of his obsession.

He shifted lower, his mouth trailing down her jaw, then her throat.

Slow. Reverent. Like he was praying, but to her.

His fingers skimmed again, a breath higher on the inside of her thigh this time. Still not touching where she burned for him. Just hovering there. Drawing warmth out of her with the nearness alone.

She trembled, not with nerves, but with relief. Like every second he wasn’t touching her felt too quiet, too separate.

-You always open for me like this,- he murmured against her skin. -Like your body already knows who it belongs to.-

Her eyes fluttered closed. The way she tilted her hips forward said it all. The way she breathed deeper, pressing into his chest like her bones only settled when he was near.

She wasn’t begging for more.

She was inviting him.

Because she wasn’t scared of the dark parts of him. She curled into them. Welcomed the shadow like it was her missing half.

And Obito was worshipping her.

Not the way gods are worshipped.

But the way madness worships quiet.

The way the forgotten worship being seen.

And in that cramped locker room, with the scent of old sweat and tobacco in the air, and the ghosts of his cousins’ judgment still hanging in the silence, Obito didn’t care about anything else.

Not school.

Not family.

Not rules.

Only her.

Legs parted.

Chest rising and falling.

His fingers moved over the thin fabric of her underwear, indulging in the addictive cruelty of it, the power of making her ache, making her shiver and moan, without even touching bare skin.

The tension between denial and control turned electric.

He knew every reaction was his to command, every inch of her mapped and memorized. The way her body opened for him wasn’t chance; it was learned, rehearsed. He knew exactly how to make her legs tremble, how to coax her pussy to part, aching and obedient, without ever rushing.

He’d come to understand the way she liked it: innocent in appearance, but laced with a quiet depravity. Subtle. Tethered to the weight of her own ghosts.

She needed to be guided, handled like something delicate, not because she was weak, but because she craved the feeling of being wanted with care.

The school uniform, the skirt hitched just high enough, her ruined underwear clinging damp to cunt for the rest of the day; Obito knew all of it thrilled her.

The risk of being caught, the press of fingers where no one should dare.

She wanted to be held like she mattered. Like she could break. And he gave her that, always, until the darker edge of him started to stir.

His fingers moved in tight, relentless circles over her clit, the friction of the soaked fabric and the rawness of the moment tightening the air around them.

It was obscene.

Her breath hitched, moaned in that high-pitched voice, sharp enough to spike through his spine. She came hard, body twitching with one last grind of her hips, and let out an innocent giggle that felt like surrender.

He owned her without chains, without orders.

Just choice.

And that made her his kind of dangerous.

Obito stayed still for a long time after that.

Breathing her in. Holding her close. Hands unmoving.

Just there.

She touched his jaw gently, coaxing his eyes back to hers.

-I’m not going anywhere, you know,- she whispered, a kind of sad certainty in her voice. -Even if they don’t get it. You do. That’s all I ever wanted.-

And that’s when he knew.

She wasn’t the one who’d get devoured.

He was.

[lonely-space-ace]

Tbh so much of this would've worked better if they had Poppy as part of the plot from the very beginning

(This got long so it's under the cut)

Like we meet Belinda, have the robot episode like normal, and then at the end when she wants to go home she says it's for her daughter.

And then throughout you could even have Belinda beginning to enjoy the travel (also make it less rushed bc wow that was a quick turnaround) and maybe even have her feel conflicted or guilty about enjoying it because she knows she has to go back.

Because like, we saw Donna in the specials. You can have a companion who is a parent and who's desperately trying to get back to their kid, and they can still enjoy the adventure a bit, but they can also be angry. and they can tell the Doctor off when he gets it wrong.

AND wish world still would've made sense, because even if Poppy was supposed to be there, the doctor is very much not, and you could still have that tension.

(and if you really want to go for it, have a moment like with john smith in family of blood when he really doesn't want to remember because he's so desperate to believe that she's really his daughter. Give him remembering some emotional weight! give him something to loose!)

OR

Alternatively

Do something similar to Amy's parents falling through the crack in time.

Belinda doesn't have a daughter, she doesn't think Poppy exists, but maybe things don't add up. Maybe she lives in a big empty house. Maybe she knows she needs to get back but cant remember why.

Anytime she tells a story from her life, whenever she mentions her parents making her laugh or letting her stay up late, have her trail off and be unsure, like there's someone else she should remember. In Story and the Engine have the screen flicker for a minute, like there's a story that's been erased.

And then in Reality War have Belinda realize that this is really her daughter, and suddenly we care a lot more because this is something Belinda has unconsciously been missing.

Either way, If they had you know, made Belinda a consistent character instead of twirling her around willy nilly then it would've been better, and it wouldn't feel like she was being rewritten and shoved into a box.

But no, RTD had to have his "plot twist" of Poppy being real and the Doctor's daughter, introduce new plot threads at the last minute, and confuse everyone (and waste the Rani and Omega)

A simpler story, of a Belinda fighting her way back to her kid, woud've also been a great parallel to last season with Ruby desperate to find a mom.

(Not to mention the whole "It actually would have been Belinda's OWN FUCKING CHOICE to have a child instead of it being forced upon her" thing. no I'm not mad about that, why do you ask?)

[radiomogai]

im hypomanic so maybe this won't be phrased the greatest but since you're an archive and have been here for years.. does it feel like this place (mogai community) has just become a place of mass production?

i don't know. viewing this place back in 2021 it felt homely and comfortable, being here now feels like walking into an office where everyone's sat at their computers ignoring each other. the community feels so distant and the coinings feel so forced in a way, like they're just appealing to trends and need to fill up their queue. maybe im just a pessimist but.. i was gonna say it feels like capitalism is slowly taking over the community but that's definitely not what im looking to say, just something similar to that. feels like we lost what made this place, well, this place, a long while ago

Yeah, we feel it too. We've talked about it before, but not on this blog.

Some of our biggest critiques of the MOGAI community have to do with individualism. We despise how individualistic it is. We dislike new flag designs just because someone doesn't like the original flag because we think that degrades the point of flags as a community symbol. We dislike it when people don't check to see if something has already been coined when they recoin things, as it feels diminishing of the work and words and experiences of others. We dislike it when people declare that those they disagree with are barred from usage of terms or flags they made. We dislike the treatment of flags and terms as... for lack of a better word, as original characters, rather than as terminology made for describing and discussing identity and experiences.

We get confused when people coin things just for the hell of it, without them being requested or applying to themself (though likely part of this is our own autism and difficulty understanding experiences outside of our own). Sure, I suppose coining is just putting a word to a pre-existing experience, someone out there must have that experience, but it does feel like it's coining for the sake of quantity rather than quality. It feels like it's representative of having lost sight of why people started coining microlabels, of the very real people and experiences and ways of navigating through the world that these words and images represent.

We've also made the capitalism comparison haha. It's not a 1-to-1, but I do think capitalism affects the way people go about making things. A pressure, subconscious or otherwise, to constantly produce, to constantly labour. People apologizing when they haven't coined for a while (we're guilty of this also, unprompted apologizing when our work is slow), coiners getting burnt out. The heavy skew of people valuing coiners over all others in the community, especially over lurkers/collectors/those who don't perform some sort of labour.

So, yeah. You're not the only one.

[evilmagician430]

in terms of queer identities i think

actually some of these are paragraphs so im putting it under read more

sally is aroace 💯

gertrude is lowkey a butch lesbian but given a certain definition that includes being attracted to papa acachalla (he's also a butch lesbian)

speaking of papa acachalla i think he is transmasc but he always forgets he isn't a cisgender man #memoryloss

sue is transfem and a butch lesbian (like mother like daughter)

spencer is probably bi but it would take him a long time to come to terms with being not straight. he is also transmasc but doesn't remember most of his childhood as a girl or at all so he only knows he isn't a cis guy because. he's like 12-15 and lives in north carolina bro has NOT medically transitioned he does NOT pass (or atleast to his own standards. most others can tell he's atleast supposed to be a boy if not just assuming he is one)

billy is the token cishet white male of the family except not really i think at some point deep into adulthood he would realize he would genuinely be happier as a girl and just repressed it for a long time because he wasn't actively suffering under his current identity. and it's easier to stay the same than to purposefully change. so cishet until she's not. cis. also as a girl she would be straight but doesn't really get into relationships because she's not used to it. billy always shyed away from any sort of romance because a. maddiefriend exists and that affects things in various ways (he's scared to invoke her jealous wrath, traumatized to the point of not wanting to pursue romance for a long time, too busy running away from one girl to meet someone new) b. billy isnt attracted to women really at all (he thinks he is but it's compulsory imo) but being attracted to men would make him gay and he's just not gay idk it doesn't feel right and he's not aro or ace either for some reason that doesn't feel right to me. he would say that he took a vow of celibacy or something at med school (they don't even make you do that i don't think.)

the dinosaur is gay 💯

i originally headcanoned ghost as bi and toast as homosexual because it "felt right" but looking back that doesn't make too much sense and sort of flattens their characters into stereotypes a little too much for my liking XO so if i flip them around it works better. ghost is a bear. spooker is aromantic homosexual and chris/colon is aroace

maddiefriend is intersex (idr if being intersex is considered queer in and of itself but if i remember correctly her being intersex and identifying as a woman is a form of transfeminity? so she's trans in that way)

mabeline is transmasc and if she were to further label herself he would be bigender and/or gender fluid something like that but she's just transmasc and a girl and uses she/he pronouns and likes males which maybe makes her gay. probably

im nooottttt as expert on the letsplay series...es... but i definitely think cywren caster is a butch lesbian and time bomb is too (he/him) but they're not really a thing together romantically unless you count like alternian moirallegiance .

that's all i can think of rn thank you for reading my yap session

btw what's your pride headcanons.

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Talia found Yasmin's hide out only two days after the bomb.

It wasn't easy. Yasmin had hidden herself well - her monthly reports had never mentioned an acquaintanceship with Vladimir Masters, the absolute gall of that girl - in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin. She bypassed the few security measures with ease, eventually finding her daughter sitting at a kitchen table, hyperventilating.

"What happened?" Talia's voice was cold and demanding.

"The-" Yasmin gasped before stealing herself. "The Fentons are dead."

"I know the Fentons are dead." Talia circled the girl. "One split navel to throat, the other strangled. What. Happened?"

"The Fentons discovered their son was a Meta. Specifically, they thought he had been replaced with the extradimentional species they study." She took a deep breath. "By the time I had discovered their actions, Daniel was... dissected on a table."

Talia closed her eyes. She knew from Yasmin's reports that she'd been acting as the Fenton child's primary caretaker since her adoption and a fondness had developed. "Yasmin-"

"Don't, Mother." She snapped. "Don't act like this is anything less than a tragedy."

"I know-"

"He was a child-"

"Everything's been taken care of," Talia said. "As far as the authorities are concerned, Jasmine Fenton died in that explosion you caused. You need to return now-"

"No!" Yasmin bolted to her feet, glaring at Talia. "He's dead, Mother! An innocent child, the child I raised as my own, is dead because I couldn't protect him! Don't you dare try to sweep this under the rug like... like Danny was something shameful! I'm not leaving! I have to-"

Time Out.

Yasmin shut her mouth mid-sentence, giving Talia time to convince her off her self-destructive path.

"What happened to Daniel is a tragedy, Yasmin. But wallowing in grief and what-ifs only leads to further pain." Talia sighed. "The Fentons and the research you were so fascinated with are gone now. You made sure of that. It's time for you to return home and put that knowledge to use."

Yasmin stared down at her hands. Odd that Talia hadn't noticed, but Yasmin's hands cradled a small, dark blue jewel, polished into a smooth, oblong oval. It glittered under the candlelight, like stars in the sky.

Yasmin swallowed the rock and spoke, refusing to acknowledge what she'd just done. "You are right, Mother. The time of Jasmine Fenton is gone now." She stared straight at Talia, no trace of fear in her gaze. For a moment, Talia wondered where her child had gone. Yasmin never met her eyes unless prompted to when she was growing up. Now she was met with a younger version of herself with cheap dyed-red hair, with the same level of determination that made Talia the Right Hand of the Demon Head. "I will mourn for Danny... on my own time. For now, what is my mission?"

Talia studied her daughter. There was a reason why she'd hidden the girl so far out of the way of her Father and her son. Yasmin was a strong fighter, but had her father's heart, despite her willingness to kill. She'd always reminded Talia of a bodyguard rather than an assassin, but Yasmin wanted to go her own way, wanted to study everything. For years, Talia had indulged her daughter, but now it was time for her to return to the fold.

"For the next month, you will be training to remove any weakness the Fentons may have left in you. After that, you will be guarding an ally for me."

"Which ally?"

"A boy a few years older than you, a son of the Bat." Yasmin didn't react to the mention of her father. Good. "His mind is infirm, but by the time you finish your training, he will be ready to strike a blow against Gotham. You will act as his guard during his training and act as my spy while he's in Gotham. Do you understand?"

For a moment, Yasmin's hand brushed her stomach before she forced her fists to her sides. "Yes, Mother. I will do as you ask."

[tarditzgrade]

"ALL THE REDESIGNS ARE BAD!"

...all the redesigns?

[rei-ismyname]

Papa Giuseppe

Oh boy is my face red - I can't believe I missed that Joseph was standing right there during the 3K meeting. In my defence, he looks nothing like Magneto's depiction in this very book and there's only context clues to go off. In retrospect it seems obvious but I assumed the face closeup in the bottom right panel was Astra, you know, because it looks nothing like Magneto - Joseph's most famous trait.

I'm pretty sure Astra and Joseph fuck btw

I have to disagree with The Chairman tbh - cloning Max Eisenhardt a bunch is a great idea. Planet Magneto let's go. Philosophically, he's super attractive and deserves a brat summer. As for Joseph themself (give us an X-23 style Magneto!) - simply being a clone is an existential nightmare. Standing there while some jerkoff called The Chairman describes your existence as a 'dead end, philosophically' has got to sting. Maybe if he had a second Joseph to play with he'd be better socialised, like a cat. The Brotherhood of Evil Josephs would be more like a support group, or they'd slay each other. Hard to say.

We have seen Joseph very recently in Scarlet Witch late 2023, resurrected by Hexfinder to fuck with Wanda. His intention was to betray her but he ended up sacrificing himself instead. At the time the real Magneto was dead at the hand of Uranos the Undying, so Joseph's Mags impression wasn't very convincing. I don't think he threw a single vehicle, but the story and book was pretty good nonetheless. The time before that was dying by Kwannon's blade in 2019's Uncanny X-Men. He'd been a free-range Joseph since the fall of Utopia when Danger let him out of the brig Mags put him in (Magneto: Not a Hero.)

So technically this Joseph is the fourth to exist but only Astra's third. A lot of people, myself included, have been wanting more Magneto. Joseph doesn't count in my book, generally being annoying, obnoxious and opposing Magneto. It's better than reverting Mags to cackling megalomania, but The Chairman does speak for me metatextually. Three goddamn times this dipshit clone has been killed for being a nuisance only to return again in an era that's already dangerously stale. Hopefully the fourth take of 'let's clone Magneto' has a new angle, hey? 3K seems to have pretty potent internal propaganda, but I suspect Joseph has his own thoughts behind that stinkeye. It's pretty safe to say that he's going to start killing people soon enough; Josephs usually can't help themselves. I wonder if he remembers being killed by Kwannon or beat down by Magneto? He could be salty about not being invited to Krakoa. If yes, that's some personal conflict with the Alaskan X-Men at least. Mags has strayed even further from where he was the last time Joseph called him a sellout, or experienced character growth as I like to call it.

What do you think?

X-MEN #17 Review

"I am Magneto and I do not give speeches."

The X-Men vs fake X-Men rodeo in the snow continues as Xorn searches for Quentin and the twin rampages on Merle. There stands Magneto, full of gumption and dexies, the only thing between a monster and a town full of ingrates. 3K yap on and reveal the identity of another member, a D-lister Mags knows well. Spoilers for all issues and solicits of adjectiveless X-Men.

RIP The Marauder, probably

Surprise! Quentin ain't dead. I don't think a single person thought he was, but a few minutes rest will be great for his health especially after falling out of the sky. I'm not sure how I feel about technobabble making its way into X-Men, as we get a flashback to Quentin writing 'code' to protect his body when he's unconscious. It's something Jitter in Uncanny does occasionally when her powers give her technical mastery - the mall fight was especially egregious for just shouting medical terms that few readers could understand, let alone The Outliers. I think it mostly achieves the intended effect here, highlighting Quentin's impressive capabilities and the 'levelling up' he's been doing since Cyclops gave him a talking to back in issue #9.

Kid Omega has been yapping about his mighty brain for decades, so I'm happy to call it payoff for all the 'supercomputer/10 million thoughts a second' stuff. As someone who coasted without effort on natural ability then hit a wall hard in high school, it's a bit of a power fantasy to see that potential as unlimited. 'Hey brain, make my body do exactly this at exactly this time' even more so.

X-Men are like communists - they spend too much time fighting each other. The 3K X-Men accusing the real ones of being fake sellouts just makes that hit harder. Honestly I'm over this fight with the amount of combatants standing still. I know it's meant to be a delaying action preventing the X-Men from backing up Magneto, but a team vs team fight lasting 3 issues is decompressed to the point of barely moving. Feels like AvX or similar stalling in an eternal second act.

I figured out what seems off about Magneto - his angles! He's usually chiselled and angular, even gaunt at times. Rounded features looks odd on him. I'm not even nitpicking there, I just needed to elucidate the nagging feeling I've had. In a word, he looks ugly. I enjoy Stegman's pencils in general but Diaz does a better Magneto. Just quietly I'm a little salty that Uncanny is getting Valerio Schiti - they do a stupid hot Magneto and I'd love to see it again. Anyway, Mags sounds like a fool here, as he makes a speech about not making speeches. I hope he's lying, because this motherfucker gives so many speeches. They're one of his best features.

Heard you the first time dude.

Another is that he's a mutant menace, a term that's been thrown around a bit lately. Mags and the twin go at it but he's not trying to kill her and it's unclear if he actually could. Either way, when they speak Mags responds with cutting regret and an implicit challenge. With Quentin still knocked out there's nobody to counteract Cassandra Nova's influence on the twin. Cassandra refers to the twin as a '13 year old girl' so add 'forcing gender binary on a non-corporeal entity' to the list of her crimes.

You used to be somebody, man

It's implied that Nova is laying it on thick here, or otherwise the twin has a really good grasp of race war concepts and rhetoric. If it's the former, I think something is lost by Cassandra Nova giving them a script to follow and basically puppeting them. Mags is trying to appeal to agency - the ability to choose, and they're actually having a back and forth.

The twin repeating Nova word for word raises questions about the degree of agency as they smash Magneto, who was just answering the question. The hope spot of his words staggering them is brief but suggests that this crisis will eventually be solved non-violently. I do have to laugh at Mags getting called out for betraying mutantkind by driving a sentinel to protect flatscans, especially as it's Cassandra Nova saying it. There's a real opportunity to show how this propaganda sits with the mutant on the street, so to speak. These X-Men are very mutant focused yet Graymalkin still stands. They have a history of being establishment lackeys and beating down/imprisoning mutants who step out of line. They failed the Morlocks and Xavier killed Krakoa. It's not that simple but propaganda is a powerful tool especially when life sucks. Cassandra Nova might be the worst spokesperson there though - Genosha was not an act of mutant solidarity.

I love Ben Liu and Beast cheerleading Magneto. Get these boys some popcorn! Ben's finger pointing is unfair but hilarious, 'hooptie-ass sentinel' is not a phrase I expected to hear in the year of our DOOM 2025. Ben running off to help Magneto is a beat that really works, especially if you take Magneto's mentoring allusion seriously. We haven't seen Ben use his powers since issue #2, so anything can happen. The flipside is any kind of success is going to feel a bit unearned, but fuck it - jab my boy with dexies too and get out of the way!

Wyre talks a huge game with not a lot to back it up. I kinda want someone to kill him for being cringe, a sentiment Cassandra Nova seems to agree with. There's a production joke here - Mackay wanted to use Sabertooth for his role but he was killed off in Sabertooth War. Creed is certainly more impressive than this dipshit and Quentin has nightmares about the guy. It's a beat that can work, giving Wyre something to prove, but we'll see how that plays out. Right now he's delivering exposition and stating his feelings plainly like it's 1975. He's not alone in that...

Me too, Astra, me too.

We get a better look at 3K, as the third member is revealed to be... Astra. *sad trombone noises* If you're not familiar she's an old Magneto worshipper and the one who created Joseph, thrice, I think. Bit of a one trick pony, though she does teleport. I can't say that she's particularly interesting or threatening, but I do like her 'clone an army of Magnetos, sorry Josephs, and flip the magnetic poles' idea purely for its unhingedness. The idea that she keeps bringing it up is pretty funny, these meetings must be so tense. Like I said, one trick pony even if it is a great trick. Her being an F lister with minimal development might actually work in her favour, as aside from being obsessed with Magneto she's a blank canvas. That she was last seen in House of X #5 suggests that 3K itself is fairly new. If that's their #1 reason for not inviting Sinister they're idiots. Like there's a very good chance he'll subvert your project for himself even if you don't invite him - MF does mutant science crimes for breakfast lunch and dinner. He blew up the universe with cloning!

More interesting is 3K's agenda - mutant supremacy taken to the extreme end point. It's very blatantly a great replacement conspiracy theory, which is a really uncomfortable idea to put to print. Turning humans into mutants has been done a lot, though the proposed scale is new. Another way to look at it is 'give everyone superpowers, kill the rest' though we don't know why they want to do that. 'Hating humans' is pretty dull but maybe more will be revealed next issue when we find out who the chairman is. I wish they'd just get it out now, this slowrolling is tedious. I'm almost positive it will be the cliffhanger next time, but like, just fucking spit it out! Let's get the plot moving, yo! We've been fighting in the snow for 70% of the run at this point, just tell us who you are and do your thing. Some C-list genetics bad guy from the 90s/00s? Thought so. It took 17 issues to reveal Astra, for fuck's sake, which doesn't exactly hype me for who's under the helmet. At that point, why bother? Just get on with the plot.

Magik's Soul Sword keeps getting wider, right?

In a lot of ways these 3K X-Men and their masters are The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants with some ORCHIS scraps and a bigger budget. Extremists coming at the X-Men with accusations of failing mutants is one of the oldest X-Men tropes in existence. It can be interesting, but it needs to have something to say. I want to see a pamphlet on their beef or something, see if they've got anything fresh or if they're just another extremist mutant group. The thing is that a mutant who decided 'fuck humans. I'm done with these genocides' is a pretty reasonable position right now. Fighting the X-Men like every other group before? Not so much. Go destroy Graymalkin or something, you know? If you really want to show the X-Men how it's done, do that. Do their job better.

Ben spearheads Jen flying Piper to her mother, ideally to help convince the twin to cut it out. It's a solid plan, though there's a very high chance she gets reduced to a smear real quick. Mama Cobb is a mutant hater and is culpable for this mess, and she's terrified. We'll see how that wraps up next time, or maybe the issue after that with this fucking pacing. It's great to see Ben and Jen coming into their own, and Beast looks like he'll have to fight Wyre. The greasy weirdo has snuck into their base, and while it'd be great for Beast to fuck him up I kinda hope Glob bonks him with a frying pan or something. Why not both? Solicits have told us that agent fuckface comes to jail Scott in the wake of this second Iron Night, and something about Revelation/the artist formerly known as Doug Ramsey, I think. That sounds fun, I just wish it didn't take so long to get there. Not out of impatience, I just object to the padding and repetition plus slowrolled mysteries that don't land. Or impact the plot/characters even. That's probably not happening, so this book will remain fun but very frustrating.

Also... Why is Tom Brevoort answering all the letters for this book and Uncanny? That strikes me as really weird. Really fucking weird. Does that seem odd to anyone else? We're still seeing letters about Raid on Graymalkin and Chuck Hunt, all answered by TB. If I was writing anything and the editor was handling the forward-facing fan interaction in a book with my name on it I'd be like 'all due respect but what's the deal here? Maybe stay in your lane.' He is the 'conductor of x' but this feels like clearing the orchestra to be applauded solo. I admit I'm super biased against him but it really sticks out to me.

Thanks for reading and much love! 💓

[wildstar25]

MiqoMarch Day 20 - Memory

Rare is it to see you so shaken. I can only imagine what thoughts must be consuming you at this moment, my love.