#spider-man trolley problem when

[razzledazzle-pop]

Okay Okay Okay—More Samder Slides headcanons time..You’ve opened Pandora’s Box…

Personal headcanons/design things:

Keeps food in his pockets and then forgets it’s there. The way I know the amount of crumbs are insane.

Re-attached his logo with haphazard stitching so it matched Virgil’s :]

Always loses one sock in each pair. ALWAYS.

Has THE most insane takes. Leads to a lot of fun Patton and Logan discussions actually (*Hits them with the Trolley problem*: DISCUSS)

Patton would take the Utilitarian approach I think…Would think you should always sacrifice the one person in the trolley problem instead of the five because it minimizes the most suffering).

To that point, I really do think all the sides would enjoy watching The Good Place. Probably also The Magic School Bus.

All film media in Patton’s room is on VHS. Even if it came out recently. He made them that way.

I know we’ve literally seen his room in canon but in my heart it looks like Howl’s Room in Howl’s Moving Castle (insane levels of eclectic).

Has set the kitchen on fire 237856 times. It will happen again.

Has hand-made bracelets (themed each of them around one of the other sides).

Also has a hand-made doll collection…Roman’s doll is kind of like a traditional princely doll, Logan is probably a cube craft doll, Virgil’s is Coraline style (later redoes it with Remus’ help to add Virgil’s extra legs and mandibles (they’re articulated. He’s very proud)). Remus is a finger puppet and Janus is a sock puppet (those last two might change later)…

To that point: he still has a spider phobia, but he’s working on it (mostly for Virgil. A lot of it is him being like “could you please describe “x” to me, or draw me a picture before you revert so I know what to expect? :).” It’s going well.

One time they tried theorizing what kind of spider Virgil was. Patton immediately threw in Jumping Spider (he’s not) but Logan was happy to hear Patton had done some kind of research into something.

He’s Roman’s test audience/proofreader. He may be a Yes Man, but he’s good at spotting when character motives are unclear in a story/just generally to bounce ideas around with. They have days where they parallel play. Patton does his arts and crafts and Roman does his writing. At the end of it, they swap and critique.

Me throwing my takes at you (thank you for coming to my TED Talk):

[jewish-elphaba]

explain ~newsies~ pls

*kissing you on the mouth /p*

also I've listened to audios of newsies so much that I have most of the show memorized :p (thanks mike faist)

also im warning you this is super long so um yeah i’ll do a part two for the second act just send me another ask lmao

the show opens with a killer overture like I swear that shit fucks SO hard. and then crutchie gets up and tries to go downstairs (they're on top of the newsies lodging house) and jack is like bro. slow your roll. it is the buttcrack of dawn. and crutchie's like but jeck I wanna look strong so I don't get thrown in the refuge. and then he almost dies bc he falls down the ladder.

and then jack is like slow down and look around. guess what. I'm going to move to santa fe, and all my problems will be solved. if you come with me, all your problems will be solved.

ok so now it's ~actually~ time to wake up.

albert: I had the most amazing dream; my lips are still tingling!

race: a pretty girl??

al (gay gay gay): a leg of lamb *snatches cigar*

race: hEY thats My cigAr

and then all the newsies sing a nd dance about how they are newsies and they sell newspapers and sometimes it's hot and sometimes it's cold and sometimes it rains and sometimes it's very hard. and then they see the headline for the day and it's the trolley strike for the third week in a row. which is. boring. also jack tries to flirt with a girl on the street and fucking crahses and burns lmao

then all the newsies make fun of weisel and then a new kid rolls up wait sorry what did you say? oh, woops, sorry, he’s new too :)

lo and behold, its davey and les jacobs! davey asks for 20 newspapers, but oscar accidentally only gives him 19 on account of he can’t count to twenty with his shoes on. then jack offers to buy him more papes and davey goes I am NOT a fucking charity case. oh and also they become selling partners and then they do the spit handshake thing and davey’s gay ass is like “thats d i s g u s t i n g”

SCENE CHANGE!!!!!

pulitzer is losing money bc the headline fucking sucks and so he’s like, ok business assossiate, token female, and queer coded hairdresser, how can we sell more papers. and when none of them get the answer right, he reveals that the best way to do it is to ✨exploit the children✨ so they raise the newsies’ paper price by ten cents, which is a Lot. and he has the audacity to say that they’ll thank him.

ok we’re back to the newsies nwo and david is trying to sell a pape and he is Not Good At It. so jack grabs it and just fucking lies about the headline and sells the paper. and then les also sells a pape by pretending to be a poor orphan boy and being cute and shit (oh btw hes nine (almost ten) did i mention that?) and then they’re like jack do you wanna come eat with us and our parents? our dad got fired bc he got hit by a car, and this is exposition! adn jack is like oh um no thanks i got a date with a guy (in a totally straight not bisexual way ofc) adn les sees a spooky man and goes IS THAT HIM!? and the answer is nO

so they run away from spooky man and wind up at a theater, and then they exploit the new kid trope to give exposition to the viewers that that was sneider the spider, and he runs a jail for underage kids called the Refuge, and for every kid he nabs, he gets money straight to his pocket. woooo new kid trope

and then medda larkin arrives and is like i spy with my little eye a bunch of fucking children get the fuck out and then jack is like even me??? and she goes Oh. nvm. sorry love.take your time. also, thank you for painting very pretty picture i am saying this because the author needs a way to introduce you as an artist who paints backdrops for me <3 and then she sings a song about how shes so rich that whatever she touches rises (thats a dick joke by the way) and jack goes up to watch from a private box.

so he gets to the private box and there is someone in there and its the girl he failed at flirting with earlier and she’s like ...what the hot and crispy fried fuck are you doing in my private box you bitchboy i am a reporter who is doing reporting things and i am Not in the habit of speaking with strangers. and jack is like then why the fuck are you a reporter. and then he draws her on a newspaper while he sings a very bisexual song about love at first sight, and then he leaves the pape in the box and splits.

ok so it’s the very next day and oh good lord look at the new newsies price

so the newsies are like ya no that aint gonna fly and so jack is like lets do something! and davey goes oh shit you mean a strike? and jack is like fuck dude what an idea lets have a strike and davey’s like WOAH WOAH WOAH I SAID LIKE A STRIKE WE ARE NOT FUCKING GOING ON STRIKE. also you’re not a union :p

davey: you arent a union

jack: waht if i says we is

davey: you need to do things to be a union. you need a membership

the rest of the newsies: so are we fucking chopped liver?

davey: well you also need leaders n shit

crutchie: jack said gather round and everyone listened. do you know what it takes to get finch to listen to instructions?

davey: umm. how about a statement of purpose

jack: guess fucking what. if your dad had a union, he would still be employed

davey: oh shit your right. guess we’re a union now

okokok so now they’re a union and they sing a song about how they will make the world (hehe get it bc the planet and also the newspaper lmao) know that they are not taking any of this bullshit and there’s a whole thing about not having hats but they literally. all have hats. so umm. yeah.

ok so they’re now at jacobis for water and jewish representation and they’re like ok now we gotta spread the word. and it turns out that everyone is afraid of brooklyn bc spot conlon. so jack is like ok me and davey will do it and davey is like tf we are and then girl from before is back and is like why tf are yall afraid of brooklyn. and its because they are all homosexual for the brooklyn newsies. and because its the third largest city in the world. and she’s like okie dokie. so.

reporter girl: i’m a reporter. may i pplease... report you???

all of the newsies: no we want a man 

reporter girl: there is not a man on this earth who is going to give a fuck about this rn so take what you can get. 

newsies:

reporter girl: pwease :3

newsies: ok cool

and then the newsies leave and jack and the girl stick around for a sec and jeck is like what even is your name bro and she goes I'm katherine. plumber (?). and he's like you do not sound too sure of that miss girl and she's like its my pen name. you'll need that information later in the story *wink* and jack is like ok. write it good. :) and then kath has like a whole as breakdown where she's like this kid is a fucking tool but I gotta write it good.

ok so it's the next day and none of the other newsies are showing up to the strike bc brooklyn wants to wait until the manhattan newsies have proven they won't be scared cats. but they still do the strike, and they get the scabs to do it too. and then kathy gets a really nice picture, and then the police show up and fucking demolish them. and they get crutchie and drag him off to the refuge :((( and then jack makes it back to the lodging house and he's so fucking pissed and he sings about santa fe and how he deserves better (he does fyi)

okie dokie I think it's pretty clear I am incapable of being normal about newsies, so I'll do a part 2 if you like :) for now tho, this is really fucking long...

[oakantony]

why didn't it work for you?

cracks knuckles. (this post contains spoilers)

my biggest issue is with characterization: they really got spider-man entirely wrong.

the movie presents a literal trolley problem--either uncle ben/captain morales/aunt may/gwen staci dies, or else the multiverse explodes and kills thousands.

the thing that makes spider-man spider-man is that he looks at the trolley problem and goes, "i'm going to fucking stop that trolley before it kills anyone on the tracks--or die trying." that is it, period. that's how he operates. he's good in a very simplistic, self-destructive, and often unsuccessful way. because the thing with the trolley problem is that you CAN'T stop it and someone WILL die. but fuck if spidey is not gonna try. HE ALWAYS TRIES.

this movie proposes that not only is there one spider-man who isn't this way--a spider-man who thinks "well, sacrificing one life is okay if it means many people will be safe"--but that there are hundreds. THOUSANDS. of spider-mans who think this way.

this is SO at odds with his characterization in the first movie, in all the other spider-man franchises, that i legitimately sat with my jaw agape in the theater when miguel explained the situation at the 3/4 mark.

it doesn't make sense. like i said, maybe one. maybe two. hell, maybe, in a world of infinite universes, there are a few hundred spider-mans who think, "sacrificing one person is cool."

not this many. absolutely not.

it's not surprising that hobie was my favorite character in the movie. i went into this expecting to hate him (based on the spoilers i'd encountered online, i really thought i'd roll my eyes at his "stick it tha MAN" schtick and his sorta "love triangle" situation). but no, i loved him. and why? because he was the only fucking spider-man in the movie who ACTED LIKE SPIDER-MAN.

okay, and some of the other complaints i have:

the pacing was actually kind of poor.

i get why we started with spider-gwen--but jumping from her to miles was the first of many "jarring" beats in the plot. we spent so much time on some things and not enough on others--

the chase/swinging around town/look at him goooo sequences were too many. and they were too long. we had...what, four? five? six??? I think we had six chase sequences in this movie.

but for peter b parker--we get a literal ten second reintroduction to his character ("haha look at me in a bathrobe with a BABY, aren't I a GOOFY GUY with ZERO DEPTH because we don't have time for that this movie?!?"). insert marge grumbling noise

and, yeah, it's only half a movie. the other half comes out next year. i really dislike that, generally, and i don't think it works here. the movie just...ENDED. it was so unfinished, lol.

peter b parker is another complaint. he gets his own section right here.

they went to great lengths in the first movie to demonstrate that he was--maybe IS--the most powerful spider-man to exist, despite his depression, his not-traditional-spidey physique. he's still incredibly capable and great at his job.

this movie dumbed him down to a single, lazy trope. this is definitely partially a pacing issue, as mentioned above, but i also think it's a characterization issue--they couldn't make him more capable, because if they did that, there'd be NO excuse for why he was following miguel. a smart, capable, well-characterized peter b parker never would have been in that position.

also, they mention he's miles' mentor three times, but he doesn't actually do any mentoring in the film. at least not successfully. (again, i suspect this is because they had to sandbag his character to make the miguel plot make any sense.)

okay, let's talk about what i did like, for a sec, just so everyone knows i'm not a hater-ass bitch.

obviously it is the most visually stunning movie i've watched in YEARS. absolutely blown away by the art.

miles morales is an angel. well-written, well-established, and i love his lanky growin' boy design. ANGEL

spot is an amazing antagonist. wow

i DID enjoy seeing all the different iterations of spider-man, though i do think it got boiled down to a punchline rather than a fulfilling experience... (ahem, this is supposed to be things i enjoyed......AHEM)

spider-gwen is a trans icon and we stan

okay that's all. thank u for asking ily. bye!

[direwombat]

🍧🙈⚾ for Syb and 🍼🕷️🚆 for Etta, please <3 - fourlittleseedlings

ahhh thank you so much!

🍧 SHAVED ICE - do they still have any objects from their childhood? what significance does it have to them? what would their reaction be if they lost it?

at this point i think everything left from her childhood could fit in a metal lunchbox (also from her childhood). but i think her zippo lighter (something she's had since she started smoking at fourteen) and her saint medal of st. andrew (patron saint of fishermen (among many other things)) her mom had given her after she had dropped out of school and gotten her first job at sixteen working on a fishing boat. she hasn't worn it in years (not since the night her parents died/the night she lost her faith), but she was so relieved when she was able to salvage that little lunchbox after john torched hers and augustine's place in fall's end. the zippo, while she would have been sad about losing it, she'd get over it. but the pendant? she'd be devastated since it's the last physical memento she has of her mother.

🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL - whats a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people?

ooooh. she does her damned hardest to hide anything that even hints at what she thinks of as a selfish desire. she's under the impression that her time is better spent helping or providing for others, to the point where she feels guilty any time she even entertains the idea of taking care of herself. my girl has a massive martyr complex </3 like there's a point where she's being held captive and being interrogated by jacob and he asks her "What do you want?" and of all the questions he's asked her that's the one that gets her to break

⚾ BASEBALL - can they play sports? what is their best position if they play a team sport? what's their strong suit (speed, power etc.)?

she did track and field in middle school and was hoping to get onto the high school varsity team, but due to life circumstances, she had to drop out before getting there. she kept up with running though and during her time in the military, she had the fastest times of her entire unit. she also enjoys swimming but that's always been a more recreational thing for her. and the combination of speed and endurance are her strongest athletic points. she's strong too, but she employs the "strike fast and outlast" method in combat situations (and because i think jake is a "strength and endurance" guy, it makes their encounters fun because it really is a challenge for them both :)

🍼 BABY BOTTLE - what are their thoughts on children?

lmao she thinks children are gross and really doesn't like them. UNTIL she ends up getting pregnant and having her own son. then, she thinks all children except for him are gross. her little man is the bestest most handsomest and prefectest little boy who she absolutely spoils.

🕷️ SPIDER - what is their biggest fear? do they have any irrational / mundane fears?

god. tbh her biggest fear is being unattractive and -- ultimately -- aging. if she bothered to read it, the picture of dorian gray, she would agree with every choice mr. gray makes in the novel. she puts so much effort into her appearance, and while she mostly killed her two previous husbands for their money, a much smaller (but no less significant) part of her killed them before they had a chance to see her age. It was instilled into her that "wealthy and powerful men only like pretty young things" and she internalized that. if she can't be a "pretty young thing" then she's worthless.

🚆 TRAIN - what is their answer to the trolley problem?

asfldkjadfs she got bored halfway through listening to someone explain the problem to her and stopped paying attention, so her answer is literally just *waving her hand* "just run over whoever's crying the loudest; i don't care."

[greatwyrmgold]

I'm not sure whether a single show having multiple directors would actually mean each director's creative interests/specialties would get leveraged in episodes that could take the most advantage of them. To start with, there usually aren't big shifts in tone or focus between episodes of a TV show with different directors for different episodes (most TV shows), so obviously there's some other creative force at play.

From people who work in the industry (admittedly, I haven't heard many), I get the sense that dividing directorial duties between different people doesn't empower them to use their unique talents so much as it moves creative control towards the people who are present for every episode—the actors, and showrunners for shows that have a "runner".

And this makes sense. The whole reason films have a single director, given so much creative control over the project, is to make it easier for a coherent "creative vision" to emerge from the collaborative filmmaking effort. Which is, I feel, a good thing! Bringing on different directors and telling them to do their own thing is good for an anthology of separate vignettes—for instance, it worked for the Animatrix and would work great for a World War Z film—but doing that for separate parts of a single narrative would render it incoherent.

It's possible for a team of creatives with diverse strengths to utilize those strengths to build a stronger coherent story, but divide-and-conquer isn't the way to do it. Either the creatives would need to work together, listening to the Sadfie Brothers when building tension and Cronenberg when doing body horror or whatever; or they'd need a "director of directors" assigning directors to scenes which play to their strengths, while ensuring those scenes are stylistically consistent with one another.

That said, I do think a TV-style series would fit Worm (and other Wildbow serials) better than a film series or something. The reason is simple; pacing.

Film is a very...temporally strict medium. A novel can be less than a hundred pages or more than a thousand, a season of television can be 10-11 episodes or dozens (and while most have episodes 20-25 minutes long, some are ~10 minutes and some an hour or more); but theatrical films shorter than 90 minutes feel like a scam, and films three hours or longer impose inconvenient limitations on screenings per theater per day.

Using some back-of-the-envelope math and assumptions based on anime adaptations of light novels...you could probably make a theatrical-length movie out of one "average" Worm arc without much issue, or two if you cut some stuff (or if light novels pack more Essential Stuff per word than Wildbow serials, as some redditors have alleged).

Getting from the start of the story to the bank in one theatrical-length film would require cutting a lot of scenes deemed "nonessential," like the ones that establish her relationship with her dad, or develop her relationship with these villain kids, or show just how consistently shitty her school experience is (and how her teachers are complicit in enabling her bullies). And it would still feel incomplete in a way most origin stories aren't, because Worm is obviously not the story of Taylor gathering the courage to rob a bank.

Spider-Man (2002) sets up a character arc where Peter Parker needs to learn to take responsibility with his power, and ends with him using that power to beat the Green Goblin's trolley tram problem, instead of taking the safer but less responsible action of just saving the person he cares about. There's still room for Peter to grow in future movies, but what he does in the first movie forms a narratively satisfying arc.

Even if we restrict our focus to Taylor's initial fall to villainy, we'd need to at least get to the cutting-Lung's-eyes-out fight. Maybe the next arc, but that would put Leviathan's attack in a really awkward place in part 2, and arcs 6 to 11 (less the Nine interludes) feels like a vaguely coherent part 2 about Taylor falling out of villainy before deciding to stick with her friends, starting with Taylor realizing that taking the ABB out didn't help anything.

Anyways, that would take 3-4 Avengers Endgames of screentime, and theaters were concerned about how long that ran, even though it was the sequel to what had been the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time. It wouldn't work as a single movie, unless you butchered it so badly that it made The Snowman look complete.

However, according to my calculations, it would be just about the perfect length for a 26-episode season of television (or a nine-episode miniseries, if each episode was an hour long). Whether each episode adapted a couple chapters or half of an arc, it would work better than a film ever could. An episode of television (or streaming equivalent) needs to be complete the way a chapter of a novel (or web serial) does—it needs to have a beginning, middle, and end, but it doesn't need to contain an entire dramatic arc of its own. Great if it does, but audiences accept that it's just part of a larger whole.

And, of course, there's the fact that Worm was initially serialized. It structurally needs several "beginnings" and "ends" per arc, ones which would need to stand on their own. He can't stretch a plot point over an entire arc without also stretching it across a month, which distorts the audience's understanding of it. Oh hey, what's this copy of Ward doing here?

It's certainly possible to iron this out of awkward structure in the process of adaptation. Lots of series do it well! But some do it awkwardly, and keeping a serial structure makes that less awkward.

TL;DR: Worm does too much subtly important stuff between dramatic plot points to be cut to theatrical length without disemboweling it. A TV show or Netflix series which mimics the structure thereof would suit it better, even if it didn't let different directors lend their.

What directors do you have a good enough handle on that you can imagine how they would handle Worm?

I’m flattered that you think I’m worth asking that kind of question, but I’m not really a film guy. The reason I have such strong opinions about Snyder is because I saw what other people saw about his filmography, thought back to the Snyder films I’d seen, and went “That tracks”. (I structured my argument as basically “Here’s a summary of what this person explained about Snyder, here’s how it applies to Worm”.) And Snyder is pretty much the exact right kind of director to maximize the number of YouTube videos about him that I’d want to watch.

I don’t know nothing about other directors, but I don’t know much about them. I don’t think I can say much about Michael Bay’s Worm that you can’t think of, nor Joel Schumacher’s, not Benioff/Weiss’s (assuming you know they’re the Game of Thrones guys).

Guillermo del Toro could probably do a pretty good adaptation. He’s good at understanding monsters and making the audience understand them, he seems good at nuance. He’s done spectacle-heavy action films and more thoughtful ones. Someone who knows Hellboy could probably judge whether he’s good at faithful adaptations.

[waspenned]

congrats on 200 followers!!! <3 i'm loving scenes from italian restaurant

🎵 born on a train - samia

god if i had time to write i'd just use

i'll have to go when the whistle blows, the whistle knows my name

just for the responsibility of being spiderman dragging peter parker away from who he loves but i'll let you analyse the rest of it yourself haha

penn's 200 follower celebration

BYE SAMIA CAME UP ON MY RECCOMENDED BEFORE AND I PANICKED BC I THOUGHT IT WAS THIS GIRL I HAVE BEEF W AHAHAHA but it was a diff spelling so we move. analysis under cut!!! thx for the degree practice LMAO it's all been """"theory""' so far this year I haven't been able to do the bits I like lol

anyway this song is so beautiful and twinkly the sad music girlies are rlly doing their jobs recently like its giving devastation... also the warm lighting rlly reminds me of like.. campfire light so I think we're seeing smith reminiscent of honey dont feed me(i will come back) in terms of setting/sad factor

this song is soooo Peter btw like the opening imagery is rlly evocative of nyc at least in my experience. also the idea of 'ghost roads' in terms of getting lost in the city and "paths not taken". the idea of missed opportunities/the you that made a different decision as dead/a ghost is sooo interesting to me, esp in terms of Peter as a person (think John Locke's theory on personal identity which was super interesting when I studied philosophy and was also used in the good place!!). I write a lot abt peter's separation of the self and spider-man, and I think his essence as a character really resonates with the idea of the past self being 'dead' or maybe even murdered. it's a common trope in superhero media for the protagonist to mourn or 'kill' the person they were before they put on the mask but I won't wax lyrical abt it LMAO I just think there's some interesting ideas in there in terms of character.

the chorus is v similar actually - esp in terms of the train imagery which reminds me of the nyc subway, which in turn relates to the working class, and routes peter's character in the poverty that is a huge part of his identity AND also in terms of not being able to 'belong' anywhere/having to constantly be moving so people don't know his identity. Peter and the idea of 'responsibility' also take up. so much space in my head in the way that he treats debt - esp to other people and to the city as a whole. I read a rlly interesting article actually abt Peter and an 'unpayable debt' which I cant find rn but I'll have to go looking for lol... Peters commitment to the 'job' and/or guilt that comes with it is a huge part of him and what he considers morally "right" - which the line about not being able to keep promises rlly reminds me of !! 'The whistle knows my name' is SOOO spider-man tho like maybe in terms of Peter not really knowing who he is without spider-man, and particularly tom!Peter in that he doesn't have anything OUTSIDE of spiderman ; the 'whistle' (aka the call to responsibility) really would know his name in this context bc 1. no one else does and 2. spiderman is perhaps the only thing of his former life he has left. THIS IDEA IS ALSO IN THE BRIDGE WHERE THE SPEAKER TALKS ABT BEING FORGOTTEN.... omg so sad I cant

I know that you were never young And I know you probably won't get old But, honey, nobody's gonna hurt you anymore And nobody's gonna make you want to die

the 2nd verse is where things get interesting for me bc there's the introduction of a new voice and the pov changes if I was to convert this to fanfic... this ( for me ) is the reader talking to Peter. this idea of never being young (his youth was proverbially 'robbed' by grief/the responsibility of being spider-man) and never growing old (spider-mandom is dangerous asfuck youse...) as well as this theme of protection is smth u dont see much in s-m films. The hero is the protector and the love interest is the protected, we dont get to see the reverse which is a shame bc it would be super refreshing (@ marvel u see zendaya 's hand on toms hip give us that in the films pls). I write a lot of the reader taking on the 'protector'/caretaking role bc I just think it's rarer than the whole 'damsel in distress' cliche u get w the films and this verse is exactly the vibe I would go for ???

SORRY FOR WAFFLING I JUST RLLY CONNECTED W THIS ONE ANYWAY IN SUM: id write smth sad asf along the same lines as 'honey dont feed me' but while hdfm(iwcb) is more angry on the reader's part and their relationship is more dysfunctional - I think this would work well earlier in that relationship, before their break up. I'd go for a classic "reader patches up s-m" fic but with more on the side of wishing things were different for Peter. ive looked at Pete's relationship w s-m and quitting in drown it out, but I think if this was in hdfm(iwcb)-verse he's more inclined to bury his head in the work and treat it more like a Kantian duty?? yes a heaping pile of angst >:) I'd be more likely to use tom!Peter tho I think , I write a lot of universal/"penn cinematic universe" Peter but tom's circumstances would fit better imo

[david-talks-sw]

Do you think Anakin did the right thing opening the Jedi Holocron for Cad Bane (the one with the location of all the force sensitive infants) to save Ahsoka, or is this another example of his character flaw of not being able to let things go and sacrificing the greater good for his attachments?

Anon is referring to this scene, from the TCW Season 2 episode "Cargo of Doom".

Earlier in the episode, Cad Bane tortures another Jedi, Bolla Ropal, to death. Having seen that Ropal - like any other Jedi - was willing to die rather than endanger children, he decides to use a different tactic.

Bane says it himself: the bond between a Jedi teacher and his apprentice is strong.

So he lures Ahsoka into a trap, takes advantage of her impulsiveness and captures her, then makes Anakin choose between her and the Holocron. Anakin saves Ahsoka, because of course he does... and in doing so exposes countless Force-sensitive babies to Cad Bane, and, indirectly, Darth Sidious.

Normally… a Jedi should've put the mission first.

Then again, the Jedi believe all life is sacred.

Any Jedi would've done their best to save both.

But the question becomes which do you save first?

So, in theory, it's a tricky situation because you need to choose to prioritize one of two selfless acts. It's sorta like the classic "trolley problem" thought experiment:

You gotta pick between two choices knowing they'll both have terrible, awful consequences.

But this type of choice is also a very common storytelling trope.

When a protagonist is faced with two choices, they'll usually pick a third out-of-the-box option. An example off the top of my head:

Spider-Man saves Mary-Jane first and then the ferry in one swing.

Now, upon first glance, it seems like Anakin chose to do something similar, but failed. In reality, though... Anakin didn't choose at all.

Instead, he surrendered and obeyed Cad Bane's orders because he can't lose Ahsoka, as he states out loud. Bane cornered him and Anakin went along with it out of a selfish fear of loss, rather than selflessly putting duty first.

Dave Filoni had this to say on this moment:

"I mean, [Anakin's] angry, he’s intense. He’s willing to kill everyone in that room to save his Padawan. In a way, we’re seeing this dark side of Anakin, and in a very real illustration of why Jedi should not have attachments, we see that attachment issue get exploited before our very eyes." - Dave Filoni, “Cargo of Doom” Featurette, 2010

That's the issue.

His decision-making abilities were compromised and he complied with the villain. He went from an active position to a passive one.

Sure, later, he tried to fix it and recover the Holocron, but by then the damage had been done and Bane was holding all the cards.

Other Jedi would've gone for the Holocron or, hell, gone for Ahsoka, but they would've acted, they wouldn't have given up their advantage because that would've been irrational.

Ahsoka herself told Anakin not to do it, and we saw moments later that she was so resourceful that she hung on long enough for Anakin to press the button. Chances are, if he hadn't given in to Bane's demands and cut him down... he would have still managed to press the button and save Ahsoka too. We'll never know, because Anakin was emotionally-compromised and refused to roll those dice.

Again, it's a verrrry tricky situation. As Bane points out, some other Jedi would've hesitated too, nobody is perfect.

Anakin's action (or lack thereof) is understandable and it doesn't make him a bad person.

But, according to the episode's narrative, it was a failure nonetheless.

[elius-learns-to-write]

The one with a plan:

Being friends with Nat goes sideways when you remember that she is a trained spy who is not against forming a plan to get her two favourite people together. @i-writes-things

I took this a little bit out of the request hope you still enjoy!

If someone would’ve told you 2 years ago that you were going to become an avenger then you would’ve probably believed them. I mean you had superhuman abilities so stranger things had happened. You had been scouted for ‘The Avengers Initiative’ by Fury himself after you had been put on their radar  after a little accident including an old woman, a shopping trolley and some fire (in your defence that was an accident and if she would’ve had moved and not stolen out of your cart then it wouldn’t have happened). That was how you met your now best friend Natasha Romanoff. 

Inseparable. With all the words the others could use to describe your friendship with Nat, that was the one that sprung to mind first. While you might have been younger that didn’t mean you were any less of a dynamic duo! After 2 years on the team doing missions that ranged from starting fires in the basement of a Hydra base to destroying information to making sure that some rich man had proper security for an event, you could safely say that your makeshift family was very very close. Way too close if they asked you. However no one did. That’s why you would continue to sit on Nats bed for at least an hour a night as you swapped stories about new recruits and how much you hated them.

That was how you had learnt about Peter Parker or Web Boy as Nat affectionately called him. You had been talking to Nat about the usual things; the one new agent who couldn’t keep his mouth shut, that one girl who constantly ‘got lost’ and wandered into the living quarters on nearly a weekly basis, and that one person who just didn’t know what they were doing. You aren’t too sure what they’re doing here if you’re being honest but that’s above your pay grade so that makes it someone else's problem. 

That was until she decided to bring the new web slinger into the conversation. “Tony is obsessed with the kid, it’s endearing in a strange way” Nat sighed as she flopped herself onto the bed “Nat you think everything is strange about Tony, anyway I’m sure he’s sweet enough. At the very least he won't be totally clueless” you laughed. How have you become the level headed one in this friendship? “I wouldn’t be so sure,” she paused, taking an overly dramatic breath “you know he’s about your age, it’d be nice to finally have someone your age hanging around the compound” another pause “no pun intended”. You had to laugh at that, how could someone with a kill count larger than even the richest man's bank account be making puns without trying?! “Natasha, whatever you are thinking, I want you to stop. I have you guys! I don’t need any new friends” you spoke fiddling with the edge of the fluffy blanket you had stolen from Natasha the second you entered her room. “I wasn’t thinking about anything!” Oh you definitely didn’t like that look on her face.

Coincidentally you had met Peter a few days after your conversation with Nat. Well, more slammed into him as you turned a corner but first impressions aren’t everything. “Whoa hey I am so so so sorry” the boy stuttered, the tips of his ears turning a red that you were pretty sure matched the colour of Nat’s hair. “It’s nothing really,  I should've been looking where I was going, it's not your fault”. It was his fault but when a stuttering cute boy slams into you, you don’t tell him that he is in the wrong. You had been on your way to a training session with Steve that you would’ve rather avoided anyway. “Are you the new arachnid on the team?” you questioned. You knew the answer, you just wanted to see how long you could put off turning into super soldier soup. “Uh yeah I am Spider Parker. I mean Peter man. I’m sorry Peter Parker nice to meet you” he chuckled, rubbing a hand nervously behind his neck, finding a very interesting stain on the cold tiles. “Y/n. I’ll see you around bug boy”.

From there your relationship with Peter flourished. You quickly found yourself seeking out his company whenever he came to visit (which did result in a semi permanent ban from Tony’s lab after a freak screw driver accident). The seeking out of company wasn’t just one way though, Peter found himself gravitating towards you whenever you were near. He also found himself thinking about you a whole lot more than he should’ve. There was no chance in hell that he was going to do something about it though, why would he? This was his first ‘super hero gig’, his first time joining the big guns. Why would he jeopardise that? He was also deathly afraid of Natasha which certainly didn’t help. 

“Earth to Peter Parker” you shouted, throwing a pillow at his head, giggling a little as he jumped “sorry off in my own world” he replied, the same blush you saw on him when you met coating his cheeks once again. He had come to your room for your now weekly movie nights (which had all started after you confessed you hadn't watched any of the starwars movies) but honestly he had spent more time thinking about you than he had spent time watching the movies. It had become obvious when you let the credits roll and didn’t get his normal summary of the movie. “Right Parker, what are we doing now?” you asked more to yourself as you debated on whether to paint his nails or make him put a face mask on with you. “Do not think about putting a face mask on me, I don’t need Captain America hearing me cry” he warned, which would have seemed a little bit scarier if it weren't for the plethora of pillows piled around him. “Fine then nails it is”.

If only you would’ve seen the look on Nat’s face as she walked past the room to see you in a fit of giggles after peter spilt nail polish on his joggers. She couldn’t stand to watch you idiots dance around each other anymore. This called for a team intervention. Operation ‘Get the idiots together’ was officially in action.

People would’ve thought that being an avenger meant that you were on high alert every minute of every day. However, put someone's crush in front of them and they apparently forget every ounce of training they’ve learnt. That was how you ended up getting shoved into a utility closet from the red head you loved most. With the boy you had a crush on nonetheless! “Right you two are not allowed out until something happens because looking at the both of you makes me want to tear my hair out” her muffled voice came through the door. Groaning you both knew that unless one of you admitted your feelings (that you were entirely sure only went one way) you were not getting out of this. “Parker I swear I have no idea why she’s doing this' ' you pleaded with the boy, who when forced into a confined room with you didn't seem able to look you in the eye. “I- I might have some idea as to what she’s referring to” finally he looked up at you, you could see something in his eyes, an emotion that you didn’t recognise on him. “Parker if this is some prank I’d pay very close attention to your shampoo bottles for the next couple of months” you gritted out. Although there was no way that you thought he would do something like this to you it wouldn't be the first time hair remover ended up in the wrong bottle. Just ask Bucky. “No! It’s not I promise” he stopped “the other day Mr stark asked me to order some food to the compound, we were working on this new suit of his and we hadn’t eaten in a while and well we were kinda hungry” one thing you would say about Peter is when he went on ramble nothing would stop him. Well almost nothing. “Peter, your point?” you cut him off, listening to small spaces did nothing for your heart rate and you wanted out. “Right sorry, I went onto his phone and he hadn’t shut his messages, he was on a group chat started by Nat called ‘Operation get the idiots together’ and well yeah” oh. OH. Nat was so dead when you got out. “Look Peter I am so so sorry that you were forced into a cupboard, I swear I didn’t want you to find out like this and if you never want to talk to me again that’s completely fine by me, well it’s not fine but I’d respect it” it seemed the both of you were as bad as each other when it came to word vomit.  “You feel the same way?” Now that is how you effectively shut someone up. “Yes- hang on, did you just say the same?!” your exclamation was soon cut off by F.R.I.D.A.Y’s voice “operation ‘get the idiots together’ complete. Lock-down lifted”

[libertybri]

FALLOUT OC EMOJI ASKS!

I wanted to make one of these based off of ones I’ve seen before but with some more fallout centered questions since that’s my thing. There’s A LOT here, so enjoy!

smileys & people

👶 BABY - what is their age / age range? do they get mistaken for another age?

👁 EYE - what is their eye color? do their eyes change color?

💇‍♀️ HAIRCUT - what is their hair color / length? how do they like their hair styled?

💪 FLEXED ARM - what is their build / shape?

🧔‍♂️ BEARDED MAN - do they have any facial hair? (if so) do they prefer to grow it unruly or keep it trimmed / clean?

🧏‍♀️ DEAF SIGNING GIRL - do they have any disabilities? (if so) what are they?

👨‍👨‍👦 FAMILY - what is their family like? what is their relationship to their family? do they have any siblings?

clothes

👓 GLASSES - do they wear glasses?

🧢 HAT - do they have designated / prominent headwear?

👖 JEANS - what is their most iconic outfit?

👜 PURSE - what other accessories do they wear (jewelry, backpacks, belts, etc)?

animals & nature

🐶 DOG - do they have any pets?

🍁 MAPLE LEAF - do they have a favorite season? what is it and why?

🦉 OWL - are they an early riser or a night owl?

✨ SPARKLES - do they have any prominent features (freckles, moles, dimples, etc)?

🪨 ROCK - do they make friends easily? (if not) why?

🔥 FIRE - what angers them easily? how do they handle their anger?

☀️ SUN - what can easily make them happy or brighten their day?

☁️ CLOUD - what is their biggest dream / wish?

🌵 CACTUS - what is a sore subject for them?

🕷 SPIDER - what is / are their biggest fear(s)?

🍀 CLOVER - do they believe in luck? are they lucky?

food & drink

🍦 ICE CREAM - what is their favorite treat?

🎂 BIRTHDAY CAKE - when is their birthday? do they like to celebrate it?

🧀 CHEESE - do they have a favorite joke? (if so) what is it?

🍾 CHAMPAGNE - how do they like to celebrate after a big accomplishment?

🍿 POPCORN - do they like being the center of attention or more in the shadows?

🍲 SOUP - do they like to cook? are they good at it?

🍺 BEER - do they drink / use chems?

activity

🥊 BOXING GLOVE - what is their go-to fighting style (hand-to-hand, short range, long range, etc)?

🏀 BASKETBALL - do they know any pre-war sports? do they like to play any?

🏊‍♂️ SWIMMING - do they know how to swim? are they afraid of water?

💃 DANCING - do they know how to dance? do they like to dance?

🎤 MICROPHONE - do they like to sing? are they good at it?

🎬 ACTING - are they a good liar? what are giveaways when they are lying?

🎸 GUITAR - do they know how to play any instruments?

✏️ PENCIL - do they like writing / drawing? do they write / draw often?

travel & places

🗽 STATUE OF LIBERY - do they travel? have they traveled? would they ever travel?

🎢 ROLLER COASTER - what types of entertainment do they like?

🚆 TRAIN - what is their answer to the trolley problem?

🏠 HOME - where are they originally from? do they live there now?

🏝 ISLAND - if they could go anywhere, where would they go and why?

objects

📏 RULER - what is their height / height range?

🎞 FILM - what is their greatest / happiest memory?

🧲 MAGNET - do people find them attractive?

🪓 AXE - what is their go-to weapon?

🩹 BANDAID - do they have any prominent scars? (if so) how did they get them? do they try to keep them covered?

🖊 PEN - do they have tattoos? (if so) what and where are they?

🧹 BROOM - how clean or messy are they usually? do their cleaning habits (or the opposite) annoy the people around them?

🧸 TEDDY BEAR - what are their thoughts on children? do they have any / would they ever have any and how many?

🪞 MIRROR - do they like the person that they are? do they have any regrets?

📚 BOOKS - do they know any other languages? (if so) what are they?

📖 OPEN BOOK - do they open up easily to others? (if not) why?

symbols & hearts

☢️ RADIOACTIVE - are they ghoulified?

✝️ CROSS - are they religious?

♍️ VIRGO - what is their zodiac?

🏳️‍🌈 PRIDE FLAG - what is their sexuality?

💍 RING - are they in a relationship? (if so) with who?

❤️ RED HEART- are they easy to love? (if not) what makes them so difficult?

💛 YELLOW HEART - what do they seek in a relationship?

💚 GREEN HEART - how do they know they love someone? what usually are the signs for them?

💙 BLUE HEART - what is / are their love language(s)?

❤️‍🩹 INJURED HEART - what could their partner do that would hurt them?

💔 BROKEN HEART - do they have any past relationships?

❤️‍🔥 FLAMING HEART - what are their turn-ons / turn-offs?

💓 BEATING HEART - what gets their heart racing?

random

🦷 TOOTH - do they have straight or crooked teeth? do they like to keep them well-maintained?

🧶 YARN - do they know how to sew? can they patch clothes?

🦖 TREX - what is the biggest creature they have ever seen?

🐍 SNAKE - have they ever been stabbed in the back or stabbed anyone else in the back?

🍒 CHERRIES - a random sweet headcanon.

🧼 SOAP - are they clean? do they try to shower often?

💎 DIAMOND - are they rich?

🚬 CIGARETTE - do they smoke?

🧨 DYNAMITE - a random angsty headcanon.

[immortalecstasy-blog]

The Man From Willow Creek - PART ONE Pairing: Mountain Man! Dean/Author! Reader

Y/N isn't in a good headspace, so her publisher sends her off to a remote cabin in the mountains in an attempt to rid her of all distractions and produce the highly anticipated first draft of her last book. But as she battles with snow, word counts, and surprise visitors, she learns that not every battle needs to be won, and that happy endings aren't always what we'd think.

WC ≈ 35,000 Total A/N: Thank you to@redweddingsandbowties for helping me to churn out over 25,000 words in a week and filtering out my typing fails. Warnings: Violence, Recreational Drug Use, 18+ Smut, Pet Death

Read on AO3 or...

“Miss, your total is $426.54. Miss?”

Y/N blinked and looked up at the cashier before taking her credit card out and handing it over.

“Are you stocking up for the end of the world?” The cashier asks as he runs her card. Y/N glances at the trolley loaded with a months’ worth of non-perishables and a dozen crates of beer.

“Something like that.” She tells him as she scribbles her signature on the store receipt.

The trolley is a bit on the heavy side as she heaves it across the car park towards her truck, but she manages it. When she’s got everything all loaded up beside the bags and bags of logs she’s worked up a sweat and has to unzip her coat as she climbs up into the driver’s seat. The truck feels empty without her little border terrier, and she finds herself wishing Harley could have been with her for this new adventure.

It had been her publisher’s idea to go on this little escapade, to get her out of the city, away from all the distractions. He cared more about the lack of pages than her deteriorating mental health, but for the sake of her sanity she had agreed that a month-long retreat into the mountains might do more for her writer’s block than being in her too quiet apartment. Her creative juices had bit the dust around the same time she’d had to make the heart-breaking decision to have Harley put to sleep.

His other idea had been to get a new dog. She’d used some extraordinarily strong language at that suggestion, so… mountains.

She feels fairly well prepared. Provisioned. Whatever. The cabin her publisher had found had been empty for a few years, and she had been warned that it may take a bit of work to get the generator working, and that there would be no mobile signal out there either. But she had been equipped with a satellite phone and the publisher had done some technological whizz-bang magic that meant she would be able to send and receive emails via satellite. She’d also done her own extensive research, which hopefully meant that once she arrived, she wouldn’t have to make the drive back to civilisation until her month was up and her first draft was on its way. She had churned out three books a year at some points, she could manage this.

She reaches over to the passenger seat to pick up one of her many notebooks, this one was her ‘survival plan’. “Snow tyres, check. Firewood, yes. Socks, hundreds…” She went down the whole list, covering everything from dry shampoo to copious amounts of candy and snacks. She’d even found a repair manual for the generator online, and had both printed and laminated it, just to be thorough.

“Okay, let’s do this.” She says aloud, still not used to Harley’s absence. The truck’s engine whines a little as it starts up, and she takes a moment to put the map (also laminated) on top of the paperwork piled up on the passenger seat. She still had a few hours until noon, plenty of time to get to the cabin while it was still light and make some sort of order out of it before dark.

The first two hours of her journey went as expected. She didn’t even miss the hairpin turn she had been dreading, but as the bare trees began to curl over the road and block the sun, she felt a prickle of unease. Wishing again for Harley. What was she thinking? A woman, on her own, hiding out in a run-down cabin in the middle of nowhere, all for a book she was contracted to write but had no heart for.

The last four years of her career had been dedicated to her high fantasy trilogy, the world, its characters, its mysteries. Mystery solved and arcs resolved, her baby was done. Before that she had spent years churning out a crappy serial romance saga before a well-earned break funded by selling the rights to turn them into a television series. That was until the inspiration for The Fallen had hit her. But of course, the publishers were keen to squeeze out more profit, and had coerced her into signing another book deal. They wanted a revival of the romance saga, but after over twelve years of being free from churning out two or three contentless books a year, it wasn’t something she wanted to revisit. Besides, it felt ridiculous to be in her early thirties, and turning back to something she started when she was only seventeen. Something different. She didn’t know how to write different. She had planned to save the existential breakdown until she’d arrived and at least got a fire going, but apparently her brain hadn’t got the memo, and she had to pull over to stumble from the truck and put her head between her knees. She focused on her breathing, in through the nose, out through the mouth, in through the nose… “C’mon, you can do this.” … out through the mouth.

As she climbed back into the truck sometime later, she heard an engine and slammed her door shut just in time to see beaten up chevy truck thundering past, black smoke sputtering from its exhaust. The driver beeped their horn at her, and her panic was replaced with annoyance. She’d picked a safe place to pull over, she wasn’t blocking the road. Hell, that dick didn’t even have to move positions from the centre of the road.

Apart from the short break at the side of the road, and a five-minute detour down the wrong lane, Y/N was making good time. The only problem came when the cabin was actually in sight. A tree was blocking the drive, and nowhere on the map could she pick out any way to go around. The cabin looked to be only a ten-minute walk away, but everything was blanketed in thick snow, and she had a months’ worth of wood, food, water…not to mention all her writing stuff, clothes, blankets… beers. It would take an insane number of trips and eat into her daylight. But the tree was huge, and even if she had a chain or ropes to try and pull it out of the way, she had no idea how she’d do so safely. That wasn’t something she had researched how to do.

She climbed out and her legs disappeared up to her knees in the thick snow. Not to be put off by the first hurdle, she found the keys for the cabin, gathered up the only valuable things in the truck (namely her laptop and the satellite phone), and locked the truck behind her. The tree had a tangle of roots, so it seemed to have fallen naturally. Not that she really knew what she was looking at. She skirted around the edge and stomped through the snow towards the cabin, which was bigger than she had imagined. The ‘ten minute’ walk took closer to fifteen minutes, hampered by the snow, and then there was the issue of trying to get the door open. The wood seemed to have swelled, and she had to throw her shoulder against it several times before it burst open in a cloud of dust.

It stank. It had that unlived in smell, like stagnant water, and she kept the door open – not just for the light – but for the fresh air.

It was much as she expected really, a small kitchenette (which really was just a log stove and a cobweb infested sink with a single section of worktop) with a small dining table and four chairs. A mismatched armchair and leather sofa tucked close to a log burner. Two doors stood off the one side, presumably to a bedroom and a bathroom. “Right.” She said, setting her laptop bag down and wondering what to do first.

The owners hadn’t been sure that the water supply would still work, which is why she had lugged her own plastic barrels up here, but if it was working, she wouldn’t have to carry so many.

The pumped the lever over the sink a few times, still flushed from the hard walk. After a few tries, the tap sputtered out a dead spider and rust coloured liquid, followed a moment later by clear, precious water. The initial horror at the colour of the stuff still had her deciding to get some water from the truck, however.

“Okay.” She said to herself, stepping back. “Water, oil, logs, clothes for the night, bedding, cleaning stuff. Food.” She ran through her list again and then nodded, satisfied. On her way out of the door she spotted a big old wooden sled propped up under the window. “Perfect.”

Her second trip took longer than the first, fighting the sled the entire way and almost losing the barrel of water. It slid off the sled and looked for a moment like it might roll clean of the mountain, but the packed snow stopped it in its tracks.

Catching her breath for the next trip, she checked the other side of the two doors. Discovering to her horror that both led to bedrooms, then – to her relief – that the master bedroom had a rather basic en suite. It contained one of those giant clawfoot baths you only ever saw in movies, though this one was an old-fashioned green colour and a bit rusty around the plug. She hoped she could get the generator running to enjoy a soak at some point.

She tested the double bed in the master bedroom, and then checked both the twin beds, testing which of the three was the most comfortable, and therefore the one she would be using. The other bedroom, she would use as storage for all her supplies. The big bed in the room with the en suite was fortunately the comfiest, which meant she could pile all her stuff into the room with the twin beds.

She found an old oil lamp in the kitchen cupboards and a little paraffin heater in the cupboard under the sink. It was the ancient kind with no warning labels. Though common sense filled in the unwritten ‘use in a well-ventilated space or you will suffocate’. She set it up, just to take the edge of until she could get a fire going and put the lamp on the dining table next to her laptop, deciding there and then that this evening would be electricity free. She didn’t want to have to deal with the frustrations of the generator, and it seemed encompassing of her new mountain persona to forgo some of the basic necessities.

Two trips later and her hands are blistered from the friction of the sled rope, even through her gloves. Her legs are screaming at her, and despite the three thick pairs of socks, she would put all her royalties betting on frost bite setting in. There’s one last trip to make sure she has everything she’ll need for the night and most of the next day, and then she covers the flatbed of her truck with its waterproof cover and makes sure it’s stupidly tight. None of her things will enjoy a night in the freezing cold, but as long as nothing gets too damp, everything will be fine.

The door had been open all this time, so the cabin is now just as chilled as outside, but at least it smells fresher now. Her phone – devoid of all signal – becomes a glorified sound system. The oil heater starts to inject a little warmth, and as soon as it’s warm enough to abandon her coat and gloves, she gets to work on making the place fit for habitation.

“…As long as my heart's beating, and these old lungs keep breathing, the highs and the lows, yes and the no’s…” She sings loudly as she sweeps out the log stove of half burnt longs and powdery grey ash.

By the time the sun is setting, the whole cabin is as dust free as it can be without a hoover, the log fire is roaring, the bed is made, and the only lingering issue is the draft from the front door, which – having been forced to open – is now refusing to close properly. Having decided that the back and forth from the truck was enough work for one day, Y/N simply snacks instead of making a dinner and then sits by the fire with her notebook and pen. The flannel patterned throw she’d bought from home depot thrown over her legs.

Nothing comes. Not even a silly doodle in the margin. True, she usually wrote on her laptop. But the charge wouldn’t last long, and she’d been prepared to write this book by hand.

Even with the fire and the blanket there seems to be a wickedly cool draft, and she makes a note to put a makeshift draft excluder together in the morning. Finished with her bag of chips, she stands to select another snack and grab a beer, missing Harley weaving between her legs. She twists the cap of the beer bottle and walks back to the sofa and freezes in surprise.

On the sofa, is a pleased looking black Labrador.

The beer bottle slips from her fingers and shatters on the floor. The dilemma of broken glass and soft paws snapping her out of her shock.

“Hello…” She says slowly, answered by a thumping tail on brown leather. “You stay there. Okay?”

thump thump thump

“Okay, good boy… girl… good dog. Stay.”

Fortunately all the cleaning supplies are in easy reach. Y/N focuses on sweeping up the broken glass as a priority, ignoring the beer sloshing around the stone floor and seeping into the rope rug. Glass sorted; she gets a cloth to wipe the beer up. The front door in ajar, which explains how the dog got in. But it doesn’t explain what they’re doing out here in the middle of nowhere. They seem happy enough, well fed, shiny coat, wet nose. So they’re obviously being cared for by someone.

“Okay, it’s safe.” She tells the Labrador from the floor once she’s sure all the glass is up. They seem to be a pro at broken bottles, because with the all-clear, they jump from the sofa and come greet her properly.

“Oh, yes, hello. Nice to meet you too.” She tells them, trying to shove their face away as their tongue makes a beeline for her mouth. She giggles, giving their neck a good scratch. There’s a chain collar, but no tags. “Where are you from, huh?” She asks, attempting to stand, her knees protesting against the stone floor.

There’s a tremendous bang and the front door flies open. Halfway to her feet, Y/N loses her balance and topples onto her back, staring up into the doorway.

Where a bearded man in a Stetson and a heavy coat is pointing a shotgun at her.

PART TWO

[kraviolis]

i think the eternals movie wouldve done way, way better pre-pandemic when the majority of people weren't entirely emotionally burnt out and could more easily emotionally invest in and empathize with these new characters.

on the other side of the coin, this is why no way home did so well-- they brought back characters that so many people have been emotionally attached to for like 20 years and they gave us an extremely cathartic story about second chances and fighting to do the right thing and the importance of giving a shit about other people even when it seems like the whole world is against you. the entire reason people love spider-man so much is because his stories are always so cathartic.

with the eternals, the ending didnt feel cathartic. it felt like a hollow victory. they won but they also lost so much. and also because you have to work harder to relate to these characters because they're basically all gods, and if you can't relate to a fictional character easily then you'll struggle to care about them. especially now when it's hard for anyone to care about anything.

eternals makes you think, too. it's a whole movie basically about a bunch of characters living inside the trolley problem. which is fucking depressing! thats not the fun mindless superhero stuff people want right now.

i still think eternals is a good movie and definitely doesn't deserve the hate it gets, but i also completely understand why it didn't do as well as it could've. the story was simply told at the wrong time in history.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Batman and Spider-Man Re(re)-Visited: Jake and Marco’s Ethics

I had an interesting discussion in one of my classes today, and the tl;dr is that when it comes to ethics, Batman’s more deontological, and Spider-Man’s more utilitarian.  Just like Jake and Marco.  AKA, my latest theory about why Jake thinks Batman would win that hypothetical fight but Marco argues for Spidey.

Deontological ethics is about setting codes and principles that one tries ones’ best to follow regardless of situation.  Batman doesn’t kill.  He doesn’t use guns.  He studies and actively avoids the tactics of people like the Joker.  His ethics are most evident at times when someone challenges them, like Red Hood trying to force the issue of Batman killing Joker to prove that Batman’s a hypocrite.

Utilitarian ethics is about using math and logic to maximize gains, regardless of overall morality.  Spider-Man is concerned with stopping that one mugger, that one car-jacker, that one killer, not with saving all of New York.  He doesn’t try to fix the root causes of crime, but to be the “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” who helps people one at a time.  He’s largely indifferent to his own “menace” reputation, in contrast to Batman’s obsession with “becoming the villain.”  When Green Goblin tries to expose him as a hypocrite, it’s through trying to force him to sacrifice the lives of 20-odd strangers to protect Mary-Jane.

To be clear, these two viewpoints don’t actually contradict each other 99% of the time — often you have to use a stupid trolley contrivance to force a disagreement.  However, there are always times when principles run out, and there are always times when the good outcomes can’t be maximized with any degree of certainty.

Jake is focused on means, on morals, on deontology.  He’s the one who asks questions like “Is human life worth more than animal life?” (#11) and “Is there greater harm associated with failing to act, or with acting wrong?” (#46).  He’s principled, and when in doubt he tries his best to follow his principles: He doesn’t morph sentient beings without consent.  He doesn’t kill hosts if he can avoid it.  He regards unhosted yeerks as noncombattants.

Marco’s attitude is “fuck means; let the ends justify them or not.”  He sets his sights on a Point B, and then he does whatever it takes to get there.  He’s calculating while Jake’s moralizing.  He wants to free humanity, no matter what he has to do to see that happen.  His only guiding principle is “protect my family,” and he very consciously throws that away when he joins the Animorphs.

Deontological ethics are sometimes called “hot” or “heart” ethics, while utilitarian ones are “cold” or “cerebral.”  Utilitarians endorse sacrificing the few to save the many.  Deontologists endorse avoiding killing if it’s still possible to find a different way out.

Maybe the place this is most obvious: #30, The Reunion.  Marco strikes a huge blow against the Yeerk Empire, and he does it by ignoring all principles along the way.  The book starts with Marco breaking one of the team’s biggest codes by morphing a human without consent, and he does so with the line “what Jake doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”  Its whole second half is about him breaking the unwritten Animorphs taboo that Visser One calls out (not killing humans whenever possible) because Marco plots out, and does his best to execute, his own mom’s murder.  For the greater good.  He does it because he thinks Jake is dead, and in the end it’s Jake who tries to stop him.

Marco quickly jumps to the conclusion that they should kill Jara Hamee (#13), and later Cassie and Karen (#19) because, by his way of thinking, both of those sacrifices are worth it if the alternative is the yeerks discovering the Animorphs’ identities.  In both cases Jake advocates a wait-and-see approach to try and avoid those harms, and in both cases Jake proves to be right.  But then Jake could probably benefit from Marco’s callous approach to Eva when dealing with Tom, preferably before the yeerks end up with the morphing cube.

They both break their own ethics sometimes — Marco describes his decision to rescue his dad in #45 as “the end of smart and the beginning of right”, while Jake tries and fails to fit his morality around his decision to flush the Pool ship in #53.  But they nonetheless have clear default frameworks for approaching ethical problems.  Marco’s is about being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man who focuses on concrete outcomes, regardless of what it all means.  Jake’s is about being the Dark Knight who is capable of brutality but consciously works to hold himself to a higher standard.

[goldenretriever-nicknelson]

can you do 39 & 40 with tom?💙

Yes! TY for requesting lovely! I went a bit over the word count but I really enjoyed this one! <3

Wc: 1k (oops I got carried away because this was so cute!)

Warnings: some jealousy but that's it. 

The keep reading cut isn't working so... blame tumblr

~Prompts are in bold

A trip to the supermarket was often mundane, routine and uneventful. Follow the list, put the item in your basket and look for a good deal or two along the way. That was until your husband insisted on coming shopping with you. Usually it was just one of you doing it whilst the other was busy with work or something similar.

“Ooo! And we need this!” Tom put another thing in your basket, a novelty large sized bar of chocolate. You rolled your eyes with a laugh.

“Tom, we don’t-.”

“Oh look, they have these!” Tom had picked up some American sweets that he hadn’t yet seen over in the UK yet so of course they went in the basket. You couldn’t help but let him because he’d brought you the candy home once and ever since had had a craving for it.

Thankfully, you managed to divert long enough to get the stuff you actually needed including something that you were glad Tom didn’t see you buy because it would only lead to questions you weren’t ready to answer. 

The only problem was that Tom was nowhere to be found when you were finished. You sighed and started to walk along the last aisle where he had been and that’s where you heard his voice from the next aisle over.

“You’re so cute, you know that?”

You paused before you could turn the corner. You shook your head of ridiculous thoughts because Tom was probably talking to a dog and there was absolutely no need to be jealous. Until another voice spoke.

“Aw thank you.” 

A woman this time and you could hear the smile in her voice. Tom laughed at something and whilst you had no doubts about your husband that didn’t mean you couldn’t feel jealous. He was usually oblivious to people hitting on him and he was a very attractive guy.

They started to chat a bit more and that’s when you turned the corner as the woman said in the most flirtatious tone you had heard, “So are you here alone?” She obviously hadn’t seen the silver wedding band on his finger, so you made it clear.

“Hey babe.” You walked up to Tom and leaned in to his side. Tom smiled and returned the greeting. The woman’s previous smirk faltered as you rested your left hand on Tom’s chest making your ring evident. “I was just saying hi to this little guy with the cool hat.” Tom leaned down to the woman’s trolley and you noticed that behind her was a little toddler sat in the front, a Spider-man hat on his head.

You released a breath and sighed in relief at the realisation. Tom held up his hand for a high five and the little boy laughed as he returned the gesture. Tom made a little cheer and smiled at him. You watched with a smile as your husband interacted with the infant.

“Babe, we need to get going.” You hated to pull him away because seeing Tom with kids made your heart beat faster than you thought possible and made you want to start a family with him even more. Tom nodded at you and waved goodbye to the boy and his Mum before taking your hand and leaving the aisle. He noticed that you were slightly tense still and thought back on your actions in front of the woman.

“Y/n, you weren’t jealous where you?” Tom smirked, you knew he sort of loved it when you were jealous. You rolled your eyes and shook your head very unconvincingly with a scoff. Tom stopped you from walking any further by pulling you into him. You blushed as a few people turned to look at the two of you but then you met Tom’s eyes and they were so soft and puppy dog like with the slightest hint of darkness to them. “I’m flattered that you’re jealous.”

You looked down to the ground and gave a small smile that had the slightest hint of embarrassment to it. Tom cupped your jaw and you could feel how rough his hands were from working on set yesterday with the amount of stunt work he had to do. But you loved the feel of his touch. He raised your head up so he could kiss your lips.

When you finally got home you sighed in relief and started to unpack the shopping with Tom’s help. There was just two things left at the bottom of the bag and before Tom could see one of the items you put the bag behind the door but took out the other item. You looked at the candy Tom had brought with a smile as you stole on of them. He made you jump as his hands wrapped around your waist and his head rested on your shoulder. You thought he was about to playfully scold you for stealing his candy but instead he came out with something completely different.

“I want a baby.”

You felt yourself freeze on the spot as Tom pressed a delicate kiss to your neck. You tried to fight off your growing smile as Tom held you closer. You turned around fully so that you could kiss his lips but before it could escalate into what Tom was hoping you pulled away and let your smile widen on your lips.

“I’m so glad you said that.”

Tom gave you a confused look before you pulled out the last item from the bag. His eyes widened as he read the label on the box. “You’re pregnant?”

“Well I don’t know yet.” You gave a pointed look as you held up the pregnancy test box again and Tom nodded, but there was no mistaking the hope in his eyes and the way his smile was larger than yours. “Wanna find out with me?”

Tom nodded and kissed your lips, his smile still lasting as he pulled away and you took his hand, walking to the bathroom with the box that held your much needed answer in your hand. 

~Blurb Night~

[epickendall]

The Thrilling adventure of Spider-Man and Harley Quinn VOL 2: Sirens part 4

The song for this chapter Zebrahead-Feel this way 

In the Marvel Universe in New York City, there was a massive clean up and reconstruction in the city after the defeat of Doctor Doom, who was trying to rule the world with the aid of a robotic army and newly made symbiotes soldiers that Doom created from Venom and Toxic. Nevertheless, the New Avengers and the Fantastic four put a stop to his plan and arrested him on the spot. Right now Spider-man, Johnny Storm, aka Human-torch, and Rouge were moving around the city while Spider-man had on a self-made webbed up backpack.

“So Webs what with the webbed backpack?” said Johnny

“There newly born symbiont on my back,” said Peter

“And why do you have it isn’t that supposed to be destroyed or captured by Shield,” said Rouge

“Yeah well, I found this thing in an alleyway and Fury really wanted this thing in Shield custody,”

“What Shield even wants all these symbiotes for anyway?”

“I’m thinking they are making own symbiont soldiers for the future or keep them locked up in some underground facility,”

“That would probably make Reed freak out a bit after what happened this past few days,” said Johnny

“Let’s see what Steve think about this,” said Rouge

“He not going too happy either,”

“Have it touch or try to bound to you Peter?” said Johnny

“No, I won’t let it touch me by the time I webbed it up,”

“Good now since that question out of the way, do you guys have any plans for tomorrow?”

“I have to talk to Logan and Storm about Charles,” said Rouge

“Then Spidey I invent you to my housewarming party tomorrow,”

“A party the last time you had a party you cause about 20 thousand dollar worth of damage,” said Peter

“That wasn’t exactly my fault some idiot thought it was a good idea to drink and drive a sports car and he almost crashed into a trolley,”

“Still, you think Sue going to happy about it?”

“Nope but she and Reed are going on their anniversary vacation for the next few days so they would not notice,”

“And what about Ben?” said Rouge

“shit I knew I forgot someone about this party,” 

“Anyway even if you had the party I’m not going,” said Peter

“Why not?”

“I’m kinda busy making up some work for Jamieson,” 

“Oh still pissed that his best photographer suddenly disappear for a couple of days and making you do tons of work,”

“Yep,”

“Sucks dude won’t be on your shoes,”

“So are going to explain why you disappear in those days without a word or message?” said Rouge

“It’s complicated to say at least,” said Peter

“Is there a girl involved in it,” said Johnny

“Why would a girl be involved in it, Johnny?”

“Peter I know you, and I know there was a girl involved in it,”

“So is there Peter,” said Rouge raising an eyebrow

“Okay about we stop and explain what happened to me,” said Peter

Johnny smile “there is a totally a girl involved in the story,”

Peter sighs as they stopped on a rooftop “yes Johnny there a girl in my explanation,”

“I knew it,”

“So what happened?” said Rouge

“Basically I got sucked up into another dimension that full of vampire that I had to help save with a crazy but niece clown girl,” said Peter

“Um, Peter did Deadpool put something in your coffee to have this adventure,” 

“No, I know it sounds crazy,”

“It’s Crazy Pete but how hot is this clown girl you made up?” said Johnny

“Johnny,” said Rouge

“What I’m just asking,”

“That’s all I’m going to explain now. Let me hand this over to Fury before anything stop me,” said Peter, then a blue portal appears in front of the trio.

“You were saying web-head,”

Then the portal started to suck up the trio as they try to get away from it, and they all get into the portal and get knocked when they go through it and land on rocky ground.

The sirens looked on the ground to see three people coming out of the portal as it closes, and they were unconscious on the ground. The first was a man in a blue and red Spider theme costume with webs on his back. The second was a woman in a white and green costume that had a hoodie on it, and her hair is brown and white. The third-person was a blonde guy in a blue and black outfit with the number four on his chest.

“Um Harley isn’t that portal suppose to bring one person?” said Selina 

“Yes I got no idea why it brought two other people here,” said Harley

“And which is Spider-man?” said Ivy then looking at the knock men that a Spiders webs all over his costume “I’m guessing his Spider-man,”

“Yep, that is my Spidey,”

“Good now get the other two back in the portal,” said Selina

“Right,” Harley was about to reopen the portal, but the device started to spark, and smoke came out of it “we may have a problem,”

“Can you fix it?” said Ivy

“Nope,”

“This just getting better and better by the minute,” said Ivy sarcastically

“Don’t worry Red we can handle a little setback,” 

Then Selina notice the three people starting to wake up “girls they’re getting up,”

“Oh boy this is going to be interesting,” Harley can’t wait for what happens next

Author note: Sorry if you guys wanted Black cat in this story, but I would’ve some writer’s block with her and Catwoman

[hymn2000]

Chiquitita - MCU AU fanfic - C10

Story summary: Something strange is happening. Someone from space has made their way to Earth, armed with a strange weapon. Targeting teenagers, their ray gun, when fired, turns the victim into a toddler. The Avengers set out to stop this, and find a way to reverse the effects. However, they don’t all come out of the battle unscathed.

Previous chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Part of my Frostiron and Spiderson series.

Warnings/themes: de-aging, family stuff, corporal punishment (early chapters only), mental health stuff, hurt/comfort

Chapter 10 - Try Once More

-

Peter chatted excitedly to the lady at the till. She talked back to him happily enough, but she did mention to Tony that she’d seen the news, and knew about Kindsprengen and the strange de-aging situation. Tony didn’t say much in response to her comment. He was glad when they’d paid (the damage wasn’t as bad as Loki had expected) and were on their way back to the car. 

Loki put Peter into his car seat while Tony unloaded the bags from the trolley into the boot of the car. Finally, it was time to go home.

-

Loki fed Peter while Tony unloaded the car. The trolley and boot had seemed so incredibly full, but the pile of toys in the living room now seemed to be almost modest. Tony decided to just leave everything for now. Loki would no doubt be putting Peter down for a nap soon, and Tony rather liked that idea himself. 

-

Tony and Loki fell asleep together for much longer than they’d planned. When they finally dragged themselves up off the bed and went to the back room to get Peter, the toddler was already awake. He lay on his back on the futon, clipping and unclipping the shoulder straps of his dungarees. 

“Hey kiddo” Tony said. “How are you doing?”

“I couldn’t open the door” Peter said, not looking at them.

“Oh”

“Never mind, chick” Loki said. “Why don’t we go and open all of your new toys?”

Peter jumped up quickly, grabbing his rocket. “New toys!”

“Yes” Loki said, clipping the shoulder strap the boy had left undone. “You’ve got lots of lovely things to play with now. Let’s go and get everything set up”

-

Tony proved very good at getting things out of their boxes and removing tags and twist ties. Loki was very good at sorting thing out, moving all of the arty kits and such out of the way until he could find a suitable place for them. 

“What are you gonna play with, kiddo?” Tony asked, squashing the last cardboard box. 

“I want my baby!” Peter said.

“Really? Why not your trains? Or your dinosaurs?”

“BABY!” Peter shouted, picking the doll up and hugging it close against his chest.

“Ok, ok! Whatever. I’m gonna sort these boxes out and stuff” he raised an eyebrow at Loki. 

Loki rolled his eyes at him, and helped Peter organise the nursery furniture for his new baby. Peter got bored watching him, but soon discovered the bottle that had come with his baby. It was a simple milk bottle, which, when tipped up, made it look as though the milk had been drunk. He spent a good while tipping it up and down, watching it refill and empty over and over. Loki ruffled his hair. It was good to see him discovering something new.

-

Peter had a great afternoon playing with all of his new toys. He went between all the different toys and play-sets, playing funny mixed up games between cars and dinosaurs and plastic animals and cuddly toys. He didn’t need his parents playing with him when he had so many new toys to keep him busy. Tony and Loki sat on the sofa talking quietly together.

“Is that my phone or yours?”

Loki checked. “It’s mine. I’ll just be a minute”

Loki stepped out of the room to answer the call. Tony watched Peter, who was setting his Noah’s Ark play set up on the coffee table, lining all the little animals up two by two, his tongue sticking out with concentration. He’d barely looked up from his toys all afternoon. It was quite nice to watch him without having to actually do anything - although he felt slack for thinking it.

Loki came back into the room. “That was Li Allen”

“Oh. What does she want?”

“Well, we should have expected this. She’s seen the news, of course, and she was due a visit anyway, and now she wants one more urgently”

“I see. What did she say?”

“She said everything she wants and needs to ask are better off doing in person. She also asked if we’d taken him to the doctors yet, which we haven’t”

“Do we really have to do that?”

“It’s highly recommended” Loki said. “The dentist is probably a good idea too”

“Ok, ok. I’ll try to get an appointment soon”

“Good” Loki nodded. “Soon, darling. Sweetheart... She’s coming on Friday”

“What?! Loki! Why didn’t you consult me first?!”

“Because it was easier just getting it booked in straight away. We should try to get all of the medical appointments done before Friday”

Tony looked at Peter. “Are we doing the usual thing?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m the one who always takes Peter to his medi-appointments...”

“Well” Loki looked at the toddler. “If you’re ok with that...”

Tony nodded. “Sure, ok. I’m, uh, I’m gonna step outside and ring our GP and dentist. You know they rush me through sometimes”

“Thank you. You’d better be quick though: it’s starting to get on a little bit”

Tony stood up, getting his phone out. “I’ll do it now. Why don’t you think about what we’re having for tea while I’m busy?”

Loki knelt down by the coffee table while Tony was out of the room.

“What’s going on here, sweetheart?” he asked.

“All the animals are going on holiday” Peter said, walking a pair of giraffes up the drawbridge into the ark. 

“Oh, how lovely. Where are they going?”

“Antartis”

“Antartis?” Loki repeated. “Do you mean Atlantis? Or Antarctica?”

“Yes”

“I see” Loki ruffled the boys hair. “I’ll leave you to it, snugs” 

“No, wait! My animals are thirsty. They need lots of juice”

Loki laughed. “I’ll see what I can do”

-

Loki fetched a sippy cup of juice for Peter. Tony joined them in the living room once more.

“Appointments are booked. They all seem to understand the situation, which is more of a relief than I expected it to be. It’s kinda good knowing they understand, yknow?”

“Yes, I know” Loki said. “Tony, I’ve been thinking about what you said, and I think maybe I would like to go back to the hospital, just a day or two a week. Half days”

“Oh, ok”

“I won’t though, if you’ve changed your mind about it”

“No, come on, it’s fine. I’m starting to get used to this, I think. I swear the last couple of days have gone on for about a week”

“I knew toddler Peter would need a lot more looking after, but I didn’t realise just how much more looking after he’d need. It’s a whole other kind of difficult” Loki said. “It’s easier in some ways, but not in others”

“Yeah, I get that. But... what, exactly?”

“Well, it’s easier emotionally, I think. Teenager Peter is so mixed up and poorly; he’s been through so much, and he’s got the problems that come with having been through such traumatic events... Toddler Peter doesn’t have those problems. He doesn’t have the outbursts and the nightmares and all of that stuff” Loki said. “How he is now, he’s just a normal toddler. He doesn’t even have his spider powers”

“Yeah, that’s a weird one. I don’t know why he lost them. Or those cuts he had on his forehead just before it happened” 

“No, I don’t know either. So, he’s just a normal toddler. I think he’s more difficult physically this way”

“As in?”

“As in, we have to get him dressed and washed and get him up in the morning and run about after him to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself or anything like that. It’s a very different type of parenting”

“You’re so good at it, though” Tony said. “...He’s not a bad kid”

“No, he’s not. He’s a good little boy. I love him”

Tony quickly changed the subject. “What do you want for tea?”

“I don’t know. Anything”

“Pizza!” Peter said, throwing down a pair of plastic horses and clapping his hands. “Pizza, pizza, pizza!”

“How many slices of Domino’s pizza would a toddler manage?”

“I don’t know. Three? Maybe four?” Loki said. “I’d rather he had something proper, though”

“Make a suggestion, then” 

Loki thought for a minute. “I don’t know. Just do something with vegetables”

“You’re not giving me many clues” Tony sighed. “Pizza sounds pretty good, actually”

“I don’t want him have anything too unhealthy” Loki said.

“Darling, he’s always drinking juice, and he had apple slices and carrot sticks with his lunch today. That’s at least three of his five a day right there. Let’s give him a treat. You know you love Domino’s too~”

“Don’t. No, I don’t agree with this” 

“Spoilsport” Tony stuck his tongue out at him. “If you don’t have any other suggestions, I’m ordering pizza”

“I WANT PIZZA!” Peter shouted.

“You want to keep your neb out” Loki clipped. “Daddy and I are talking”

“Loki, come on”

“No! I want him to eat properly. Something-”

“How about a compromise?” Tony interrupted. “Pizza for tea, but fruit or a smoothie for pudding?”

Loki frowned. He thought for a moment, sighed, and nodded. 

“Fine, but this isn’t going to become a regular thing”

Tony smiled, and got his phone out. Pizza sounded great.

-

Tony kept to his word, and gave Peter a smoothie and a handful of grapes for pudding after he’d had his pizza. 

“Ok, young man, it’s bath time” Loki said after tea, picking him up. 

“No! I wanna play!” 

“You can play in the bath with all of your ducks and boats” Loki said. 

“Do you want a hand?” Tony asked.

“No, you’re fine. Come on, little boy; let’s get you sorted”

-

On Wednesday morning, Tony woke up with a note beside him.

Tony, 

I’ve gone out. It was short notice, sorry about that. See you this evening.

Loki xxx

Tony checked the time. It was just barely half nine. He hauled himself out of bed, pulling his dressing gown on. He rubbed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair as he went to get Peter.

“Morning, kiddo” he yawned. “What are you doing?”

“My rocket is being held hostage by the monkey”

Tony stared at him for a moment. “...Right. Ok, go and do your teeth, and I’ll get your clothes ready”

“I need a wee”

“Well, have a wee as well, then” Tony said. “Off you go”

Peter got up and went to the bathroom obediently. Tony found him some clean socks and underwear, and dug out a cute little denim romper set, white with little blue whales on it. It was a warm day, and he was going to the doctors today, so Tony thought he may as well wear something nice. 

Peter fussed a bit when Tony tried to get him dressed.

“I’ve done my teeth; what more do you want?!”

“You’re definitely your father’s son” Tony said, raising an eyebrow. “Stop being so dramatic. Stop wiggling, and let me dress you”

“I’m already dressed!”

“Pyjamas don’t count” Tony said, quickly stripping the boy. 

Peter stood shocked for a moment, and then opened his mouth and squawked. 

“NOT FAIR! NOT FAIR AT ALL!”

“It’s not raining either” Tony said. “Stay still, or there’ll be trouble”

Peter squawked again, and then went quiet, pouting, and let himself be dressed. Tony straightened his little outfit.

“Oh, sweet” he said. “Where’s that little white sunhat? You’ll look pretty as a picture” 

Peter stuck his tongue out at him. Tony stuck his tongue out too. He stood up.

“Do you want breakfast?”

Peter nodded.

“Grab your rocket and come along, then. You’ve got thirty seconds before the offer’s off the table”

Peter quickly freed his rocket from his monkey’s grip, and trotted after Tony. 

-

Tony took Peter with him to his room after breakfast, sitting him on the bed while he had a quick shower and got ready for the day ahead. Peter was quite happy lounging against the pillows and flying his rocket above his head. He did watch Tony when he came back into the bedroom and got dried and dressed and put his sprays on.

“What’s that stuff?”

“It’s just cologne”

“What’s that?”

“It’s basically perfume for men” Tony said. “Do you like it?”

He held his wrist out for Peter to smell. Peter wrinkled his nose.

“Bit strong?”

Peter nodded.

“It gets a bit weaker as it dries” Tony said. 

“Can I wear some?”

“Uhh. Hold on, I think I’ve got a vanilla one somewhere” he hunted through his basket of sprays, and found the little vanilla one at the bottom. It was quite dusty from lack of use. “Ok kiddo, you can have a bit of this one, just on your neck”

He tipped Peter’s chin up, and sprayed a little spritzer of the perfume on Peter’s neck.

“There, you smell simply delicious now” Tony said, kissing him on the nose. “Ok, I’m gonna get my shoes on and grab my stuff, and then we’ll sort your bag”

“Do I have to wear shoes as well?”

“Yeah, we’ll stick your little white plimsoll-y type shoes on, and we’ll find that little white hat”

“No! No!!”

“Yes, yes!!” Tony insisted. “You’ll be cute as a button with a coordinated outfit. Ok little kid. Let’s get ready for action!”

“SUPER HERO SUIT UP!” 

“Woo! Yes, quick, get all the supplies! We’re leaving for the next mission in ten minutes!” Tony said. “Plimsolls, hat, sippy cup, rocket. Ready, set, go!”

“I’M GO!” Peter shouted, and shot out of the room.

Tony chuckled to himself. It worked every time.

-

Peter grew upset and distressed once they reached the doctors office. The waiting room was mainly full of elderly people, and many of them made a fuss of Peter with his chubby cheeks and curls. Some of them also wanted to fuss Tony, knowing his work and reputation. Peter didn’t mind at first, but then he started to feel very crowded and closed in, and he started crying.

“Oh dear. Listen, you’re all very charming, but this one needs a little breathing room” 

Tony smiled at everyone but spoke firmly enough that they stepped back and gave him some space. He rubbed Peter’s back firmly.

“There now, kiddo. There’s no need to cry”

Peter buried his face in his rocket, and soon went quiet. He leant against Tony’s chest, daydreaming. It wasn’t long before Peter’s name was called.

-

Tony sat with Peter on his lap in the doctors office.

“So, how are you coping?” Doctor Manning asked. 

“We’re getting there” Tony said. “It’s been tricky. It’s the weirdest situation”

“It’s a shame your boy got in the firing line. There’s been a lot of discussion about it in the local medical community” 

“We were told we should get him checked. We haven’t noticed anything wrong, but... Well, Loki insisted”

“If you haven’t noticed anything wrong, there might not be anything to find, but we’re taking a look at these children anyway - just to be safe. I’ve not seen any myself, but I know some colleagues who have seen them. So, how has he been? Is he eating properly, drinking plenty? Is he ok in himself?”

Tony nodded. “Yeah, Loki’s been real good making sure of that. He’s been fine, I think. I haven’t found any reason to worry. I mean, I’ve worried, but not because he’s seemed ill or anything”

“That’s understandable. Good. Now then” the doctor stood up, and knelt down in front of Tony’s chair. “Hello, Peter. Is it ok if we put you on the bed and have a proper look at you?”

Peter looked up at Tony. 

“It’s ok, kiddo” Tony said. “He just needs to check you over”

Peter still didn’t seem sure. Tony stood up and sat the toddler down on the bed.

“There, stay still, kid” 

“Ok little one, let’s have a good look at you” Dr Manning said, putting his stethoscope in his ears. “I’m just going to have a little listen to your chest”

Peter wrinkled his nose, but he let him do it. He didn’t fuss when the doctor peered in his ears and shone a light in his eyes. 

“Good boy. Now, open your mouth and say ‘aaah’”

Peter did as he was asked, but then squeaked and pushed the doctors hand away when he put a tongue depressor in his mouth. 

“Sorry, sweetheart”

“Kid, you don’t push the doctor like that” Tony chided.

“He put a stick in my mouth!” Peter scowled.

“I need to do it, Peter” Dr Manning said. 

“Why?”

“It keeps your tongue out of the way so I can see your mouth and throat properly. Shall we try again?”

Peter looked at Tony, who nodded at him. He looked back at the doctor, and opened his mouth. He didn’t fuss this time, but he was still glad when he was done. 

“Good boy. Ok, now, do you see this?” he said, bringing out a blood pressure cuff. “I’m going to slip this onto your arm and strap it on like so.. There, now I’m going to squeeze this pump here, and it’s going to hug your arm while I check the dial and listen with my stethoscope. Ok?”

Peter started crying when the cuff tightened on his arm. It was uncomfortable and almost painfully tight. 

“I don’t like it!” he cried, trying to pull the cuff off. 

Tony grabbed his hand and held him still. “Let the doctor do his job, kiddo”

It felt like hours before the doctor let him go and took the cuff off his arm. Peter cried harder and scrambled into Tony’s arms. He didn’t trust that horrible doctor one bit.

“Oh kid. Come on; there’s nothing to cry about” Tony sighed. He looked at the doctor. “How’s he looking?”

“Everything is perfect so far. I’d just like to check his reflexes”

“Kid, you need to calm down” Tony said. “Just-”

There was a knock at the door, and it opened.

“Apologies for interrupting. Here’s those results you asked for”

Tony stared. “Loki?! What are you doing here?”

Loki glanced down at himself. “Locum work? They needed some cover and asked me”

“Sorry Tony, I didn’t realise he was in, otherwise I would have told you” Dr Manning said, taking the folder from Loki and setting it on the desk. “Good to see you again, Loki”

“Good to see you, doctor. Hello, Peter, darling! Don’t you look cute?” he said, taking Peter from Tony and giving him a cuddle. “What’s the matter, darling?”

“Turns out he’s not a fan of having his blood pressure checked” Tony said.

“Well, you should have known that one, my love” Loki said, kissing Peter on the cheek and shushing him. “Teenage Peter hates it too”

“I forgot”

“How’s he doing?” Loki asked, sitting down on the bed and sitting Peter in his lap.

“Nothing to worry about” the doctor said. “I just need to check his reflexes, have a discussion about vaccines, and then he’ll be good to go”

“Vaccines?” Tony said. “But he’s up to date”

“We’re recommending boosters for those who came under Kindsprengen’s gun. There now, Peter. Now you’ve calmed down, let’s finish your checks”

Peter wiped his eyes and snuggled against Loki. He couldn’t be too scared of the doctor, not when his daddy was there to protect him.

-

The doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with Peter. He let Loki stick around for the rest of the consultation. They got Peter booked in for his booster jabs, and the doctor told them to keep up the good work and to come back if they needed any further advice.

“Aw, I bet you don’t want to go back to work now” Tony said once he was out in the corridor with Loki. 

“Not especially, but I’ve got things to do, and I’ll be back by the evening” he said, kissing Peter on the nose. “You be good for daddy, darling” 

“We’re going to another doctor” Peter said.

“Is that so?”

“We’re going to the dentist” Tony said. 

Loki kissed him and gave him a hug. “Well, good luck. Love you lots. I’ll see you tonight”

-

Peter didn’t like the dentist, but the dental nurse kept talking to him and making him laugh, so he got through the check up without incident. The dentist said everything looked fine, and Tony was relieved that they could go home without anything to worry about.

“Daddy, I’m hungry” Peter said as Tony strapped him into his car seat.

Tony checked his watch. “Well, it is nearly lunchtime. See if you can hold on for a little bit longer, kiddo. We’ll get you fed real soon... Hold on, how about we go to McDonald’s? Just don’t tell your father”

“McDonald’s!” 

“Yeah, let’s go and find a McDonald’s, kiddo. Have a think about what you want to eat”

“McDonald’s!” 

“Ok kiddo, sit back now” Tony laughed, shutting the door and climbing into the drivers seat. “Let’s get those cheeseburgers”

-

Tony decided it would be easier to eat in, but he encountered some autograph hounds as soon as he walked through the doors. Peter didn’t mind Tony talking to them at first, because there were lots of pretty young ladies making a fuss of him as well as his father. It was only when the young ladies moved away and some rather boisterous lads moved in that Peter started getting scared. He wriggled and whimpered, burying his face in Tony’s chest.

“Sorry guys, I’ve got a hungry toddler to get fed” Tony said, flashing them all his trademark smile. “Give us a little space, ok?”

The crowd respectfully parted, leaving Tony free to order and calm Peter down. 

“Nuggets or burger, kiddo?”

“Um...” Peter blinked up at him.

“We’ll just get you the same as daddy, then” Tony kissed him on the cheek. 

“I’m hungry”

“Yeah, I know. Just hold on a few more minutes”

Peter nuzzled against his rocket and stayed quiet until they were sat down at a table. There, he carefully set his rocket aside and quietly ate his cheeseburger and drank his chocolate milkshake. It was even nicer than he’d expected.

“How’s that treating you, kiddo?”

Peter nodded. “I like cheeseburgers!”

“Me too, kiddo. Aren’t you eating the rest of your chips?”

Peter shook his head. “Too full”

“I’ll finish them for you” Tony said. “What’s your toy?”

Peter picked up the Happy Meal toy, which was still in its plastic wrapper. He looked at it, brows furrowed.

“I don’t know”

Tony took it from him, having a look himself. “I don’t know either. Do you want it?”

Peter shook his head.

“We’ll just leave it here then” Tony said, putting it down on the table. “Finish your milkshake: we’ll have to make a move soon”

“What kind of move?”

“I mean, we’ll go home once you’ve finished”

“Can we go to the park?”

Tony stopped for a moment. “We’ll go home first”

“But can we go to the park?!” Peter persisted.

“We’ll see”

-

Forty minutes later, with Peter’s football on the front seat, Tony parked up at the park. He got Peter out of the car, tucked the plastic football under his arm, and took Peter’s free hand.

“Probably do us both good, this. Bit of fresh air, bit of exercise” Tony said. 

“Why isn’t daddy here?”

“He was at the doctors office, remember? He’s working”

“Oh” Peter said. “Why?”

“Well, because that’s what he does. He’s good at it, and he enjoys it. He’ll be back at home later today” Tony said. “I’m not really so bad, am I?”

“You’re not bad at all!” Peter said, shocked. 

Tony chuckled. “Thanks, kid. You’re not bad either”

“I know”

Tony laughed again. “Good. So, why don’t we go and find a good bit of grass so we can play a game together?”

“I wanna feed the ducks!”

“Oh. We don’t have any bread with us kiddo. We can still go and have a look at them though, if you want”

Peter nodded enthusiastically. “Ducks! Ducks, ducks, ducks, I wanna see the ducks!”

Tony lead him down to the pond. There weren’t many people about, so he let go of Peter’s hand and let him wander about untethered for a little while. Most of the ducks were out in the middle of the pond, but there were a few asleep on the bank. 

“Daddy! Look!”

“Aww, aren’t they cute?” Tony said, adjusting Peter’s hat. 

“I love them. Can I have a pet duck?”

“No”

“Oh. Why?”

“Because ducks are wild animals: they’re not supposed to live in people’s homes. Unless they live on a farm, I guess” Tony said. “Are you finished round here?”

“No” Peter said. “I wanna walk aaaaaall the way round the whole entire pond!”

“Well, alright. We’ll walk round”

Peter trotted along quite happily, cuddling his rocket against his chest and humming to himself. Tony walked a few steps behind him, admiring his cute little outfit and thinking about everything that had been said at the doctors and dentists. 

-

They walked all round the pond without incident (although Tony had to guide the boy away from the edge a couple of times to stop him falling into the water). They walked on and found a good stretch of empty grass. There they spent a while kicking the ball about before having a game of catch. But then Peter started to get tired, and he started whining. Tony took his hand and tried to head back towards the car, but Peter went all silly and let his legs go limp, refusing to walk.

“What are you playing at? You can’t stay on the floor all day”

“I’m too tired to walk!” Peter whimpered. “I’m too tired!”

“You can go to sleep for a bit when we get home, but first, you need to get to the car”

Peter stayed on the floor, whining and refusing to move. 

“You’re getting yourself dirty”

“TIRED!” 

Tony sighed heavily, and hoicked the boy up onto his hip. He quietly cursed himself for deciding to leave the buggy at home.

“Stop that squeaking. Hey, careful! You’re gonna drop your rocket” 

“No!” Peter shouted, clutching his rocket. “Mine!”

“Yes, so keep hold of it. Let’s get home”

He kissed him on the cheek, and headed back to the car.

-

It was late afternoon, but Peter had been so grumpy in the car that Tony put him down for a nap anyway. Tony felt refreshed after the walk in the park, so he put his energy into giving the main living areas a good tidy and clean, and then got started on making shortcrust pastry from scratch, deciding to make something a bit different for tea. Loki would be home soon. He wanted him to come back to something nice.

*

[heartsunholy-a]

☪ five times our muses almost hold hands, and the one time they do. (MORRIS/BETTY ENJOY)

Five Times Drabbles // Selectively Accepting // @tomorrcwsnews​

Aka: Morris yanks Betty around by her wrist a lot and they end up protecting each other a lot more than either of them will ever admit

i.

She can barely see where she’s going - which, admittedly, makes everything worse since she’s only lived in Manhattan for a week or two. But she knows the way to the butcher’s, at least. Problem is, she’s carrying too many packages. Chic said he would take them when he finished his shift but the butcher was close enough to her school that Betty figured she’d lighten her brother’s load - as much as a 12-year-old girl could. But the stack of groceries in her arms makes it difficult to navigate the busy Manhattan sidewalks.

It’s all a blur. The noise of a trolley car rings in her ears as an unseen hand reaches for Betty’s wrist and yanks her backwards, away from the curb. Her groceries fly everywhere but she’s safe. Still a little dazed, she moves to gather her belongings, sparring a look up at her savior. A boy, roughly her age. He makes no move to help gather her things and perhaps Betty’s confusion looks like something more ungrateful to him.

“I saved ya from being tomorrow’s headline. ‘Girl Crushed By Trolley.’ Yer welcome, by the way.”

Betty huffs in annoyance and brushes the dirt from her skirts as she stands with the stack of groceries back in her arms. Just as precariously stacked as before. She’s mostly annoyed he didn’t give her a chance to thank him in her own time - she would’ve. He was right, she very nearly could’ve been hurt. Instead, not appreciating his attitude, the Brooklyn-born blonde peeks around her belongings to shoot the boy a sugary sweet smile. “My hero,” she coos, insincerity dripping from her words. He scoffs and turns on his heel, clearly no longer interested in her thanks. 

She misses Brooklyn.

ii.

Hiram Lodge is kind to them but Betty wonders if it’s only because of her friendship with Veronica. She had been friends with the heiress practically since moving to Manhattan and she sometimes forgets how powerful and wealthy the Lodges truly are. With Hal Cooper laid up with a leg injury he got at his construction job, Betty’s connection to the Lodges has been invaluable. She and Chic need jobs of their own and Hiram will ensure they find decent work.

He’s offering Chic a distribution job, showing him around the World’s distribution center, introducing him to Mr. Wiesel. Betty’s left to her own devices. Hiram’s already promised to introduce her to THE William Randolph Hearst, to be a secretary or maybe a columnist herself! So the blonde thumbs through a stack of papers, bound and ready to distribute. Well…if she tied them back up, what was the harm in taking just one to read for now?

She unties a bundle and moves to grab the paper on top when a warm, rough hand slams atop her own and Betty glances up. There’s…something familiar about this boy.

“And whaddya think you’re doin’, Blonde?”

…Oh god.

“Baking a cake, what does it look like I’m doing?” She’s not winning herself or Chic any favors with her sarcastic retort, but Betty swears she can hear her brother, Hiram, and Mr. Wiesel laughing in the background, so she doubts anyone else has heard her.

“It looks like you’re tryina steal from us,” he presses, hand still warm atop Betty’s but his gaze icy cold. 

“Steal a paper, are you kidding? Do I look like I can’t afford a dime for a paper?” She’s no heiress like Veronica but her family is doing okay. Or at least had been but with Betty and her brother joining their sister in the workforce, they’d be fine again soon enough.

“Then cough it up. Put ya money where ya mouth is.”

“Ah! Betty dear, I see you’ve already met one of Chic’s potential work mates!” There’s something sly in Hiram Lodge’s smile and Betty’s cheeks burn at the implication. “Chic, my boy! This young man is Morris Delancy. He and his brother Oscar run most of the day to day operations here. And Wiesel, good man, this is Miss Betty Cooper, Chic’s youngest sister and my Veronica’s best friend.”

Betty uses the distraction to slip her hand out from Morris’s hold - with her paper clutched victoriously in her grasp. She turns back to Morris, that same sweet smile in place from years before. “Thank you for the paper, Morris. It was really very sweet of you to offer.” Her smile grows smug as Hiram escorts the Coopers to the New York Journal’s offices, away from the seething Morris.

iii.

Chic doesn’t take the job at the distribution center, instead opting for a security officer position at City Hall. But Betty finds herself back at the distribution center before she knows it. She’s chasing a story, with dreams of writing something other than a vaudeville review. The trolley workers are striking and she’s trying to get a quote from the Delancys, about rumors that they were paid to harass the strikers. As per usual, there are raised voices and arguing - Betty’s never seen eye to eye with the Delancey brothers - but Morris cuts himself off when his attention is stolen by a more pressing matter.

Rough fingers curl around Betty’s wrist, tugging her into the nearest alley. His other hand clamps against her mouth when she starts to protest. Only then does the blonde hear the noises from further down the block. She tries to plead with her eyes, assuring him that she’ll stay silent. Morris seems to get the message as he lifts his hand from her mouth. Betty peers around the corner, taking in the shadows. She’s only heard whispers and rumors like he’s some sort of boogeyman but she knows what’s going on. Snyder the Spider taking in an unsuspecting victim to the Refuge.

It’s sometime later when the sounds die down and Snyder doesn’t appear to be nearing their location. Morris’s grip on her wrist is loose, calloused fingertips barely brushing against her skin. He doesn’t protest when she pulls her hand out of his hold entirely. 

“Um…Thanks. For that,” she murmurs, gaze flickering back to the street just in case Snyder was about to show up again.

Morris nods and it’s the most civilly they’ve spoken since they’ve met. “Yeah, well. Shoulda been home anyway, Blondie. Next time, I might not be here t’ save ya.” 

Maybe it’s because she’s seen someone far scarier tonight, but there’s less malice in his voice than usual.

iv.

The newsies are striking and it’s Betty’s chance to get a real story published!

When the newsies successfully stop scabs from delivering the papers in their places, Morris and Oscar try and muscle them all out. Betty has no problems going toe to toe with them. She doesn’t mind being the thorn in their side if it gets her the story - especially not when they treat other kids like crap. They don’t really hit the girls back, just sort of cart them off to the side, but Betty contents herself to being a distraction, for some of the other boys to get somewhere safe.

Then the bulls arrive. And relief lasts for only a second before a nightstick swings back and strikes Romeo’s face. And then chaos returns, a hundredfold. 

The next time Morris scoops Betty up, he doesn’t try to carry her to the circulation gate. He moves to an alley, a side street. A way out. And when he sets her down and Betty tries to rush past him, he stands his ground. 

“For a smart girl, you’re really fuckin’ dumb. It’s suicide, goin’ back there!” His voice is loud but not louder than the heartbeat thumping in Betty’s ears.

“They need me! Not everyone’s a selfish prick like you!” She struggles, hands pressed against his chest, knees lifting but he stands strong, even when she can tell her blows are substantial.

One of Morris’s hands lifts - not to push Betty back, but to hold her in place. His hand around her wrist causes her to freeze. She’s confused and angry and the battle rages on behind them and she just wants to help, hates hearing the way the newsies are crying out, she needs to help!

“Cooper.” 

It’s the first time Betty can ever remember Morris calling her by name. And there’s something urgent, almost pleading in his voice. “It’s gonna get ugly. You don’t wanna go back there. Use that big ol’ brain o’ yours and do the smart thing.”

Oscar approaches, corralling Katherine and Veronica - but he appears less like he’s shoving them and more like he’s guiding them. Veronica, with one hand twined in Katherine’s, reaches for Betty’s. 

They’ll regroup. They’ll find the newsies who’ve already escaped. Snyder and Pulitzer may have won a battle but they haven’t won the war. Katherine and Betty have their articles to finish, after all.

Morris lets go of her wrist, his face unreadable, and he watches for a moment as the girls - hands clutching each other’s desperately - flee into the night. Betty swears his eyes haunt her dreams for the following nights as much as the fight does.

v.

“Honestly Delancy, what would you ever do without me?”

“Stop havin’ so many damn headaches a day, pro’ly.”

She chuckles but doesn’t stop her work, wrapping cloth around bruised and bleeding knuckles. She hasn’t asked what Morris was doing before she found him, resting in an alley on her route home from the Journal’s offices. She’s learned the hard way she doesn’t always want to know the nitty gritty details of Morris’s life. Not like he’ll tell her anyway. They may have formed some sort of tentative truce now that the strike’s over but she knows the Delancey brothers don’t trust a nosy reporter as far as they can throw her. (And Betty wagers they could probably throw her a fair distance.)

But she can’t leave him like this, struggling to bind his injuries with his non-dominant hand. So she takes his wounded hand and rests it in her lap, her fingers working to tie her handkerchief as a makeshift bandage. The banter is short-lived for once and a silence falls over the pair as the blonde continues her work. Once completed, Betty pats his palm gingerly with her fingertips, as if to punctuate the end of her work. “There. That should hold for the night, at least.”

He curls his fingers experimentally but doesn’t remove his hand from her lap. Betty pretends not to notice.

“…Why?” Morris finally speaks up, gaze aimed at his bound hand and ignoring the blonde beside him. His question’s so quiet Betty barely hears it. 

She too is silent for a long moment, only shrugging in reply at first. “I don’t hate you, you know. You and Oscar seem to think I do but…I don’t.”

“Coulda fooled me,” he grumbles and Betty finds herself chuckling softly.

“I mean, you’re an absolute prick, don’t get me wrong. But I’m not gonna just let you bleed out on the street. No one deserves that.” He falls silent and Betty risks a glance in his direction. Something she can’t quite name worms its way into her chest and she hates it but she doesn’t ignore it. Instead, she pats his palm once more before standing up. “…G’night, Morris.”

She almost swears she hears a “G’night, Cooper” as she returns on her path home.

vi. 

She really hates having to do this. But the headlines had all been talking about the borough-wide streetlight repairs being done and she knows it’ll be dark on her walk home tonight. Chic’s home with the flu, meaning he can’t pick her up from the Journal’s offices. She doesn’t want to bother her father - he’s still easing back into work after his leg had healed and walking across town and back wouldn’t be good for him.

She leaves the offices while it’s still light and tries to rush to the World’s distribution center. She figures there still oughta be some of the newsies around getting their pay. Maybe she can ask one of them to escort her home. But when she arrives, all she sees is Morris, stacking empty crates. None of her friends, not even Oscar or Wiesel, though Betty figures they’re inside.

Shit. She glances at the horizon, watches the sky turn dark. She could probably make it to the Tribune to see if Darcy was still there, but…

“Hey! Beat it, Blondie. Ya ain’t got nothin’ better t’ do than hang out around here? All ya newsie pals ‘re gone.”

…Great. So much for getting away without dealing with Morris.

Betty sighs, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her face. “Yeah, I’ve noticed. Don’t worry about it, okay? I was just trying to see if Jack or Davey or someone was still around and could walk me home. You know, since the lights are down and all?” Her gaze refocuses on the sky, trying to calculate how dark it would be by the time she walked somewhere else to find an escort home. “But forget it, I’ll go back to the Journal and-”

When Betty turns back around, words died in her throat at the sight of Morris’s outstretched hand and expectant stare. “…Are you serious?” she questions, skepticism all but dripping from her tone.

“D’ya see anyone else around here? C’mon Cooper, the sooner I get ya home, the sooner I can go t’ bed. You ain’t the only one who had a long da-”

It’s Morris’s turn to go speechless when Betty takes his hand, fingers lacing between his. Her smile is a little too smug to be aimed at someone doing her a favor. But Morris deserves it. He doesn’t really retaliate, only scoffing. He tugs on her hand, urging her to walk. And she does, falling in step beside the boy. 

It’s dark enough to mask any heat that dusts Betty’s cheeks, allowing her to focus on the warmth of Morris’s hand in hers.