#there’s like a parallel thing with Lorna

[lilia-calderus-pet-goat]

I noticed that Alice—the one who lost her mother—is very protective (ha-ha protection witch) of the older members of the coven. She pulls Sharon out of the mud and she goes pick her up in the kitchen. She's the most torn about Sharon's death and volunteers to dig her a grave, (with teen! the other edgy emo youth whose life changed at thirteen and who has an immensely complicated relationship with his family history, his ties to wanda, not knowing what she's sacrificed for him and holding so much anger just like alice didn't know what her mother sacrificed for her and holding so much anger. but i digress.) And she's also protective with Lilia, generally. She grabs her out of everyone when Rio starts crawling out of Sharon's grave. And during her trial, when the curse hits Lilia—after drawing the protection circle, she immediately goes and holds her close to check if she's okay. She obviously also protects Jen, twice, (both in her own trial and agatha's), and she saves Agatha, (Alice, who's alive only because of her mother's love and finally knows it, lays down her life to protect Agatha, who never had her mother's love as she instead had a mother who wanted her death even now.) And she protects Teen too, her best friend within the coven and main source of parallels as previously mentioned, during the broom-bonding-thing when he's attacked. Protecting people is what she does, period, as a protection witch. But I can't help but notice how very gentle she is with Sharon and Lilia. They share such sweet moments, between Alice telling her that her mom sold the catalog to keep the house when Lilia came to check on her and Lilia telling her the beautiful “sad is better than angry” in the bonfire.

Alice is a child who takes care of people, who puts others before herself, who matured too fast, who cares too much. Alice is a child who searches for maternity, who sees her mother—sho she couldn't save, or protect—in older women, but also in everyone else. And so Agatha might have been wrong in thinking that she was searching for her mother in the road—when practically she needed to be saved from the curse—but in doing so, didn't she “find” her mother anyways? didn't she find thr truth about lorna? and didn't she find in her coven the family that she was missing all these years, brief as it was?

The road healed her. And I think that—even if she knew that saving Agatha would have caused her death—sbe would have chosen it a thousand times over. Because that's who Alice is.

The Protection Witch.

[a-couple-of-notes]

I too loved everything about Agatha and Rio this week ("she is my scar"--that's my shit!) but I do want to give flowers for how efficiently that relationship is connected to and contextualized by Alice's story.

Alice has spent a long time dismissing her mother and being angry at her, not seeing that Lorna worked as hard as she could to protect her. Agatha and Rio both immediately see it--Agatha is the one to put the pieces together, and Rio's the one who answers the question of "what were Lorna's intentions?" with "to save her daughter"--because, in some way, they are Lorna. They would do the exact same thing to try to protect their child (as we see Agatha desperately attempt to save/protect Teen later).

At the same time, like Alice, Agatha has retreated into anger to avoid grief. She doesn't, or refuses to, understand it was Rio's job to (presumably) reap Nicholas' soul. Alice has to "face" the curse and her own grief by the end of the episode, and likewise, Agatha has to face both her feelings for Rio and the truth about Teen.

This is just really smart writing; it weaves the themes of mothers and children throughout, has two parallel narratives about bridging an impossible gap in a relationship, and furthers the larger arcs of every character involved. Plus it's super gay.

(And they even throw in the bit about Jen's backstory as a midwife! More thematic weaving of motherhood and children--it makes a lot of sense that Agatha specifically would consider midwifery "important work" worth leaving someone alone for, as she said in Episode 3.)

[magnetic-regent-magneto]

Do you focus on Erik’s Jewish heritage at all with your portrayal?

-- MUN ||:

(Let me try to keep this short. If you want to know more about an aspect, I would love to answer another ask! I will sometimes name only examples)

I Do.

But not every character gets to see as such and I get intervals where it is stronger or weaker represented in my writing. And I hate that I probably only scratch the surface.

I try to portray Magneto's Jewish heritage in a nuanced way, not always overtly-- not screaming it out, I admit. And I try to do good research. Please do not kill me.

I let it drive his actions and thoughts-- making it subtext. Let me try to break it down briefly.

SHORT VERSION

WHEN IT APPEARS:

with family

similar connections

reflection of conflict

children

plots

era dependent

HOW IT APPEARS:

him speaking more Yiddish

references and metaphors of art, quotes, writers, folklore, cultural events, traditions, music

his cooking

memories to his family, how he grew up, differences of Max vs Magneto, Polish and German influences

love languages and the way he loves

appearance

chaotic relationship with god

FULL VERSION BELOW

WHEN IT APPEARS:

Heavy Emphasis with Specific CHARACTERS: Some interactions draw out the Jewish influence more directly, making it less subtext. This happens with:

Obvious Examples for that are his family (Wanda, Pietro, Lorna, Luna, Billy, Tommy,...),

characters with similar believes (Moon Knight),

people who can be similar or oppositional (Dr. Doom, X-Men, Charles),

children like the New Mutants or children on Krakoa.

ERAS AKA. PLOT: Magneto's connection to his heritage fluctuates. Sometimes, it's at the forefront (90s, Krakoa/Arrako), with reflection on his history and family. Other times (2014), it's more detached or even betraying, creating an internal conflict. The eras also tend to turn to other aspects of his heritage. (Arrako - family, Krakoa - mythos, 2014 - historical trauma, parallels to dark times)

HOW IT EXPRESSES:

YIDDISH LANGUAGE: The first noticable thing is that I try to use Yiddish. Though rare, as I fear mistakes, he uses Yiddish names for his children, and occasional phrases.

JEWISH CULTURE: Instead of the predominantly Christian metaphors in the comics (Pieta), I reference Jewish writers, folklore, myth, music, quotes, and art. Golem, Leviathan, and creation myths are often referenced, alongside Kabbalistic ideas.

My FOLKLORE tends to always circle back to the Golem or Leviathan, or myths from creation and Kabbalistic doctrine. Some folklore aspects I love but lack to mention enough is gilgul (reincarnation until being worthy of god), Dybbuk (possessing evil).

Magnus also cooks Jewish food in my RPs. A lot. Food is a comfort language for him.

TRADITIONS AND RITUALS: Life cycle events or traditions and actions is something I try to add more and more. Just to name a few, this includes writing of Bar/Bat Mitzvah (Birthday celebrations) for his children, Sabbath, when the roleplay storyline is darker (referencing Genosha or similar events), I think back to traditions of shiva. Krakoa is related to Pentecost in my mind.

LOVE LANGUAGE: His romance is based on Yiddish romance writing and poetry and how it is viewed. Like, everyday acts of love mattering far more. His love is actions, constant, not bursts. (Also, I remember old Jewish love movies!) example source as this could be its own endless post.

FAMILY- MAX VS MAGNETO: I give his family a more significant role. A ground he can be based on-- because that is a core all of Magneto will always return to. There is more reflection to what Max was given-- taught how to make jewelry, stories he was told, how he grew up before Auschwitz and during it (fighting for survival, being a thief, having especially good eye-sight to spot gold in the pits,...).

Max, Erik, Magnus, Magneto-- Using different names reflects different aspects of him. Max connects him to his core, his family, and his youth. I use it more often. It's a return to his pre-Auschwitz self, similar to Al Ewing's return to the name in X-Men: Red.

Furthermore, he is more of a 'typical' Jewish dad to his kids, with predominantly German and Polish influence.

APPEARANCE: Though not noticable in my writing, I suppose, in my mind, subtle details like his nose, skin, and hands influenced by jewelry-making with his parents, or his naturally curly hair, hint at his Jewish background. I also like the idea of his helmet being kind of his Kippa (I do not remember where I read that once)

GOD: Magneto's relationship with God requires separate discussion. However, I do show him reflecting on his faith at times, calling upon God, even. And he tries to atone in the way his heritage has taught him to.

Add-on edit: Jewish heritage aesthetic influences.

[luminouslumity]

So anyway, I'm caught up! I say this as someone who isn't even a big comics fan, but I'm glad he was at least name-dropped. Anyway, I really liked the show overall (especially Lilia's episode), and as for the finale, well I guess you could say it really was... Agatha All Along.

I'm so sorry. But yeah, something something, Lorna and Agatha parallels. Something, something, the Ballad has always been a song about love. In all seriousness, this is definitely one of my favorite Marvel shows and I'm really looking forward to seeing where things go from here.

[scarlet--wiccan]

Does Pietro have any notable villains for him particularly? I feel like he’s more involved with both mutants and inhumans so he kind of has a wider general pool, but I can’t think of anyone specifically, especially not with a more unique relationship to him than any other character. The best Lore equivalent I can think of is Luminous, but, she’s as much Wanda’s as his (though I am kind of picturing a SW issue where the twins and Lorna team up against Luminous, Lore, and Zaladane)

I feel like he arguably has the most antagonistic relationship with Magneto of Mag’s kids (bio or otherwise) which is something, I guess?

He definitely has the most consistantly antagonistic relationship with Magneto, although I'd argue that Lorna comes the closest to having an actually toxic parent-child relationship, but I'd have re-read a lot of X-Men material to defend that argument, so that's a conversation for another day.

He's got a few special enemies-- Maximus Boltagon put a psychic whammy on Pietro that turned him crazy and evil for a while in the 80s. Exodus and the Acolytes targeted Pietro and endangered Luna a few times in the 90s, and like I said, Modred and Chthon came after him when Wanda was missing in the early 2010s.

Anyways, Pietro's equivalent to Lore is actually this weird dude named Nestor.

Quicksilver (1997) #13

Nestor is a mysterious. older version of Pietro from an alternate/potential future timeline, who emotionally and psychologically torments Pietro throughout the Quicksilver solo series. His main goal is to push Pietro to achieve the full potential of his powers and follow the necessary path to maintain Nestor's timeline. So, he's not a totally evil world-destroyer like Lore, but he is a very creepy, sinister variant of Pietro from a presumably dark timeline.

Nestor urges Pietro to forgo his relationships, particularly with Crystal and Luna, and really lean into the violence and rage that Pietro believes he inherited from Magneto. Fortunately, Pietro ultimately defies his influence. This story is really interesting in contrast to Quicksilver: No Surrender, where Pietro actually expands his powers and defeats his sinister doppelgangers by slowing down, practicing mindfulness, and grounding himself with love and acceptance instead of rage.

In addition to Pietro's super speed, Nestor appears to possess some degree of Magneto's power (yet another thing that makes no sense after the retcon) as well as time-travel abilities. It's not clear if his time powers are connected to his speed or not, but several years later, Pietro's powers were artificially expanded to include time travel when he was dosing himself with Terrigen mist during Son of M. It's kind of a parallel to how Wanda accesses reality-bending powers through external augmentation, but it usually causes her to become evil or "go crazy," as is unfortunately common in superhero comics.

[salarta]

I said in another recent post how people on CBR being too focused on what Lorna wears and who she fucks kept me from really digging into meaningful topics for Lorna with her upcoming Fall of the House of X moment. I feel like delving a little more into the core issue of that matter.

There's nothing inherently wrong with either topic in isolation. Both topics can take things in interesting directions and bring interesting insights. There are story and development possibilities for both.

But here's the problem: over there, both topics have been done to death. I literally cannot count how many times people on the Polaris thread on CBR decided to spend pages talking about these things. And whereas I do talk about Genosha and its importance for Lorna a lot, I do so because a) the comics keep refusing to even acknowledge that part of her history, and b) that matter is pivotal to understanding who Lorna is and how she thinks.

What she wears and who she fucks is neither of those things.

Someone who hasn't had to deal with this stuff will understandably think "What's the big deal if people talk about those topics even if it's over and over and over again?"

To that, I have to explain that when your conversation is almost entirely about those two topics, the message you're sending to the company and to other fans is that those two things are where the character's focus should be.

Not on more pertinent things like how she would respond to Orchis and other attempts at genocide based on her own past experience with it. Not on how her long history with the X-Men would play into her perception of current events.

The focus ends up being aimed at superficial things. And in the case of sex and potential partners, it brings with it a huge risk of just repeating all the same problems of how she's been depicted around Havok.

When someone focuses mainly on her looks and sex, what they're suggesting is that the best approach to writing Lorna is a very shallow one where nothing of deeper substance needs to be explored.

When you get down to it, this is part of why her treatment over the past decade has been focused on those two things too, including the coffee cup deal. Coffee was a neat quirk when it first appeared, but ended up being a problem once it took the place of doing anything truly meaningful with the character.

Ultimately, the topics of clothes and possible romance are like filler episodes of a TV show. They're fine here and there, to add a little flavor to the characters and bridge gaps. But people don't watch your show for nothing but filler episodes. People don't watch the baseball episode of an anime and think "Oh man I wish they would stop with all the demons and powerful fighting moves and deeper themes of this show to focus entirely on baseball."

The chicken dinner joke from the movie Inside (2023) is another way to put it. Wish I could link a clip or good text for it, but can't find either so I'll just relay.

The movie itself involves Willem Dafoe's character, Nemo, trapped in a high tech condo after a botched art heist, slowly losing his mind from the isolation. He tells a joke about a girl who loves chicken having that for dinner... every single night. Her mom decides to make that for dinner every night, nonstop. In the beginning, the girl is ecstatic to have her favorite meal. But after over a week of eating the exact same thing, she ends up first not caring, then loathing it, then reaching the point of sarcastically saying she loves chicken again cause that's all she ever gets.

That's the "what could Lorna wear and who could she fuck" discussion when it constantly comes up.

It's worse right now, because we're on the cusp of what's shaping to be an excellent story for Lorna having a huge moment. There are so, SO many things that could be discussed about the character and what could be done with her. What parallels we can already see (e.g. bringing Knowhere to Earth being like flinging Krakoa into space in the 70s), which could happen.

But instead, they're once again talking about what she could wear and who she could fuck.

What kind of message does that send when such a huge moment for Lorna leads not to deeper discussion on themes and character, but on superficial stuff? Far more importantly, what does it mean when the superficial stuff actively prevents deeper discussion from happening in any meaningful way?

That's a big part of why I don't mind skipping out on the CBR thread at this juncture. Right now, it really doesn't represent Lorna and why people voted for her to win the X-Men vote. It represents a minority of people who would rather talk about superficial things, and for some people, revert her to past poor depictions.

[cinnamonghost]

YOU WATCHED OVER FGE GARDEN WALL?? WHAT’S YOUR THOUGHTS 👀👀 fav character/s?

it was SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOODDD AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH i cried at the end I WAS SO SHOCKED LIKE 😭😭😭😭😭i literally JUST finished watching it like 5 minutes ago and i was like. okay time to go on tumblr to see fanart. i watching a watchalong of it and the person who watched it had watched it at least 5 time now and mentioned you notice hints after your first viewing which IS SO COOL ..... (will defenitely be watching youtube video about the hints lol) i want ....to draw them now ... they are so ... i love them so much.

LIKE I DIDNT EXPECT TO CRY AT THE END . i seriously had never known anything about this show and went in spoilers free without knowing ANYTHING(not even the voices)

Im so glad i finally was able to experience it. I was so invested to it !!!! And to see what would happen !!! I was not expecting to enjoy the characters as much as I did since it is SUCH a short mini-series !!! JUST ARGGHHHH now I want to draw them.

I have . Many thoughts . Was it real. Was that place between a place of life and death . It was .. real to an extent right ..????? Because George Washington still had the bell in his stomach.

AHHHH so many things to think about !!!

My brain is ... so very full ... but I will still talk about my fav characters

OKAY OBVIOUSLY my favorites are the main 3 Beatrice, Gregory and wirt BUT I was really liked Lorna! She was a really sweet girl BUT the person I watched said it was also kind of screwed up how she locked them in the closet with her that one time when trying to run away for auntie? Maybe she didnt actually know what would really happen to herself .... I mean she seemed like she had no idea that side of herself and just assumed that the aunt was making her constantly do task for .. some reason.... ANYWAY all the characters are soo good like the reveal with woodsman made me cry 😭😭😭😭 the trees . Learning about the trees he were cutting . 😭😭😭😭😭😭 like he just wanted to protect the kids and didn't want them to get involved with the beast

BUT that does make me think about him and his daughter. It's like kind of parallel to wirt and Gregory right ? He was the most recent person to BE the next woodsman because he was with the person who succumbed to the woods . so that's why if Wirt let the beast take Gregory then he would become the new woodsman . So did the other people who succumb to giving up had no companion ? They were by themself ? Or the person they were with just didn't take the offer.

I have many other things to say but I'm done for now I need take a nap so then I can wake up in like 4 hours so I can study for a major exam for tomorrow q___q

TYYYYY for asking me this like I'm so happy this show is awesome . I need to draw them now . Hope you have a good day pigeon for real for real!

[katatonicimpression]

If you are still doing the character ask meme, how about Monet?

1: sexuality headcanon

This is going to sound weird given my answer to the next one, but I kind of think she's straight. Or, like, mostly straight. Heteroflexible, if you will.

2: otp

Jubilee. They're just charming together. Although I will say I would love it if she got some new romantic options just in general in canon. Let her date.

3: brotp

Penance (like, the actual Penny after she and the twins vacated the body), also Theresa. I'm also here for whatever she had going on with Dom in that infinity comic - the way she pretended to not know him and then used his first name. Like, Honey, who are you kidding you are soft.

4: notp

Sabretooth. I've talked about it to death at this point but I can't stand it. Also throw in Guido and Darwin, not that anyone was rooting for those pairings but they weren't healthy choices. Guido literally murders her.

5: first headcanon that pops into my head

Dark, but when she crucifies that anti-mutant guy in X-Factor (she doesn't kill him), it was motivated by what happened to Angelo. I don't know/can't remember if the parallel was deliberate but it feels real to me.

In general, she shows more than she tells. When Everett dies, we're shown that Monet is suicidal over it. With Angelo, we don't get anyone's direct reaction, but I think this moment in Paris could be seen as Monet hurting.

6: favorite line from this character

Also super dark. Off the top of my head, there's that therapy scene with Doc Samson in X-Factor that always sticks with me.

Also her resurrection House of X. Hickman deserves some rights.

7: one way in which I relate to this character

There are three instances in canon that I can think of (possibly more) where Monet is in a position where she's arguing, begging even, for her pain to be taken seriously. This happens with her dad wanting to forgive Marius, with her talking about being bullied in that awful storyline from the early 00s with fantomex, with her yelling at Lorna after Pip possessed her body. There's something in that, where something horrible has happened to you and you're hurting and no one cares because they don't want to see you as a victim, as someone who's capable of being hurt.

It's kind of there in the therapy scene too. She has to push hard to be recognised as suffering.

I've never been through anything like what she has, but I still relate to this so hard. Like, it honestly makes me cry.

8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

She lived in the sewer for a few months. That's pretty rough.

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

Maybe not a cinnamon roll per se. Something fancier, like a gourmet French pastry.

[formerheroeswhoquittoolate]

Break down you Gerry Dugan hate for me please (if you’d be so kind)

that's so fair of you actually. and I want to start off by saying: I don't think he's actually a bad writer. his hawkeye vs deadpool is one of my favorite limited series ever, sam alexander nova (which he wrote a decent chunk of) is one of my favorite characters, and aside from my grievances about the stepford girls, I absolutely loved his cable run from a few years back. he can and does write well!

when you give him things he knows how to write.

and the problem with that is marvel... kind of hasn't been doing that. his marauders was good, except for kate pryde's sudden, random bi arc that started and basically ended with her kissing a female tattoo artist. and his x-men was fine until it turned out he had to write a female character with mental illness and another female character with an extremely complicated and trauma-ridden relationship with her own autonomy (and a ton of queercoding). not to mention the reduction of a fairly functional polyam relationship to just scott and jean. and he definitely doesn't seem prepared to be handling so much of the fall of x -- he's never been responsible for an event to this degree before, it's really just been tie-ins before this.

you'll notice that two of the series I mentioned in the beginning (nova and cable) are very similar -- teenage guy Figuring Out What The Hell Is Going On with the unfortunate shadow of an older version who does the same thing and a lot of space shenanigans. and the third involves deadpool, and duggan has been a deadpool writer for at least as long as I've been reading comics, probably longer. these are things that gerry duggan can definitely do! he is good at them! they are enjoyable and make me feel things!

but I don't think he was prepared to branch out from that when marvel dropped krakoa in his lap and said "figure out how to kill this." I definitely don't think he was prepared for writing multiple characters who were Weird Kinds Of Queer, or who had mental health issues that went beyond your standard heroic ptsd and angst, or who would have to have some pretty complex feelings about the questionable homeland they're defending. writing a lot of comics at once is really difficult, too. and so I think he fell short, and he fell short hard, and his writing suffered for it.

what could have been a story (or even a side arc) about laura and her previous history with self-harm instead became a remix of the tried-and-true Logan's Memory Sucks storyline. and then what could have been a story about the dynamic between laura and talon and which one was real instead became a heterosexual romance with laura completely jettisoned from the x-men. what could have been a very relevant and pressing schism within the team after lorna puppeted laura while laura was unconscious was instead played off as a joke. what could have been an emotionally fraught and complex arc about scott and alex reconciling was instead a five minute conversation with the endgoal of a fight instead of a conclusion, and then alex was completely jettisoned from the x-men. what could have been an interesting, complicated, and nuanced conversation about the idea of exterminating all the brood that paralleled the broader conversation humans were having about mutants instead became scott summers advocating for genocide. and that's just within his x-men (largely because that is the series I'm most familiar with and the characters I'm most familiar with outside the context of the series) and pulled out of my ass at eight in the morning. I have so many thoughts on the way he's been handling his portion of the fall of x.

it's not so much that I hate gerry duggan as it is that I hate what he's doing. he's been put in a situation where he has too much to write and so he's resorting to the easy stuff, even if it means he has to resort to tropes and oversimplifications and sentences like "I didn't go to the gala because I have depresssion." and it fucking sucks! because I love a lot of the characters he's writing and I think he could do so much better under different circumstances. maybe just with less to write so he can give the characters the time and attention they deserve, maybe with series that are more suited to the things he's good at. I don't know. but what's happening right now is not working and I don't like it.

[scuttle-buttle]

Psychopathia Sexualis - Chapter 1

Sequel to The Interpretation of Dreams

Pairing: Modern AU Professor Laszlo Kreizler x Fem!Reader

Summary: After experiencing a whirlwind enemies-turned-lovers romance with the imposing Professor Laszlo Kreizler, things have been wonderful for you. Your studies are coming along, work is enjoyable, and you are in a stable relationship with the man you believe to be the love of your life. Suddenly, everything threatens to come crashing down with the arrival of a face from the past. Will jealousy and desire consume you and destroy the love you finally found?

WC: 1116

Rated: M (will increase in later chapters)

Chapter Tags: domestic fluff, age difference, technically student/teacher relationship, mentions of daddy kinks & sugar daddies

🧠

Time passed quickly since the day you and the doctor finally admitted your feelings for each other. After that you were practically inseparable. You resumed work as his TA, only occasionally getting distracted, but the term was over after a few short weeks anyway. You had agreed to keep everything rather low key, so as not to encourage the wrath of the university. There was no actual rule against graduate students coupling with professors. Nevertheless, the practice was often frowned upon, and you didn’t want Laszlo to get in trouble. If anyone asked, you were just ‘friendly coworkers that sometimes ate meals together after work’. Most didn't pay attention to you anyway since you weren't friends with any underclassmen. Despite the fifteen year age difference you were both on the same page with the seriousness of the relationship. You knew how you felt about each other.

Sara and John found out right away. Because they had expected it to happen anyway there was no reason to hide it from them. The two were beyond happy for you. Whether Laszlo had noticed John slip a twenty dollar bill into Sara’s hand after the admission you’ll never know; at your raised brow John just shrugged and said that it was "about damn time". Bitsy was equally as delighted for you. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was also glad you would be out of the house more often so that she could spend time with her own boyfriend, Lucius.

Now, you are laying on your Laszlo’s bed scrolling through social media. The wintery weather outside his bedroom window gives you a chill despite the warmth of the fireplace he has burning. You were still not over just how nice his place was. It was in a rather upscale part of town and was roughly three times the size of your place. The townhouse style was similar in fashion to his office at the university - full of dark ornate wood and books and even a chandelier in the foyer. When you had asked how he afforded something like this in the heart of the city, he had just said a wealthy great uncle or other had left it in the family. With Laszlo being the only surviving member he inherited it.

Your love was getting himself ready in the bathroom. He had a department meeting to attend on campus in an hour. Tomorrow the new spring term would begin, and you were to resume your post as his TA. An errant thought crosses your mind as you admire the expensive looking painting hung on his wall.

“Laz?”

“Yes, Bärchen?” his response echoes in the large bathroom. You smile at the nickname, little bear. He’d given it to you because he said your presence was like that of a bear, ready to fight to protect herself and those she cared about.

“Are you my sugar daddy?” You can see his reflection in the mirror. He looks scandalized by the implications of your question.

“What would prompt you to ask that?” A blush forms on the apples of his cheeks.

“I mean think about it, I spend time with you - an older, exceedingly handsome, wealthy man - and in return I get orgasms and nice things.” Truth is, you are joking entirely, you know the relationship is conventional. You just like to watch him squirm with teasing like this.

He walks into the bedroom and picks his sweater off the bed next to you. “You're teasing me," he accuses with a grin. "I hardly think it can be considered as that sort of arrangement when you get paid because you are employed to work for me. It is merely happenstance that the other characteristics should parallel themselves to that of a…” he searches for the words, “financial benefactor.” You laugh at his unwillingness to say ‘sugar daddy’. “As for the orgasms…” he smirks and drops a kiss to your head.

He finishes dressing as you bury yourself under the duvet. “What are your plans while I’m detained?”

“I don’t know, figured I would just take it easy today. I need to be well rested for my first day at work tomorrow - I hear some pretty ruthless things about this German doctor I’m going to be working with.” You get off the bed and wrap your arms around Laszlo’s waist. “But I don't know, I think I’ll like the guy.” He leans in to give you a chaste kiss.

Checking his watch he sees that he needs to leave lest he be late for the meeting. “You’re welcome to stay here while I’m gone. It shouldn’t be more than an hour or two at most. Perhaps we will go to Delmonicos for dinner to celebrate the beginning of a new term.”

“Sounds great, daddy,” you wink. Normally you didn’t tease him this much, but you were in a playful mood.

He rolls his eyes. “Remind me why it is that I tolerate you?”

“‘Cause you love me,” you retort with a broad smile.

He brings your hand up, kissing the back of it as he turns to leave. Softly he whispers “Indeed I do.”

_

Laszlo fiddles with the pen in his hand. The upcoming semester was no different than previous ones. He had stopped taking ‘notes’ long ago as the head of the department continued to drone on. Laszlo would admit, the meeting had drawn on longer than anticipated and he had lost focus on the last few minutes. He would rather be at home in your company than here.

“Before we end the meeting I do have one last exciting announcement - many of you have been around long enough to remember, but we are pleased to be welcoming back Dr. Stratton as a visiting professor this semester!” the department head cheered. At the mention of a Dr. Stratton Laszlo perked up.

“Dr. Karen Stratton will be conducting outside research in the city, so I have asked that she grace us with her presence in teaching an elective on her speciality: sexual deviancy. Unfortunately, she is on a flight to the states as we speak, otherwise I know she would be here to greet you all herself.”

Karen was coming to New York?

The thought excited him, as he hadn’t seen her since he moved to the States four years ago. He and Karen had followed each other's work for years before meeting at a symposium in Vienna almost six years prior. The two remained close until he accepted the current position and fell out of touch.

Meeting over, Laszlo sent you a text to be ready for Delmonico’s when he got home. He had much to look forward to this term.

Tag list

@hardlyinteresting @lorna-d-m @livvyshmiv @somethingthatsaysbubbles @greeneyedblondie44 @unbeatablecurlgirl @apparrio @marchingicenotes7 @anteroom-of-death @bruhidaniel @lemairepstuff @thehuiabird @zemosimp05 @alindeluce @iamnotthecatladynextdoor @laura-naruto-fan1998 @trelaney @boneheadduluc @i-am-dead-inside-666 @fictionlandslanddreams @thatoneartgalsstuff @hb8301 @fandom-princess-forevermore @foggycandywitch

[decennia]

okay so I would love to know anything about Lorna in The Batman specifically definitely not for Atticus crossover purposes… no…

she really has been reduced to a cameo appearance in this film, but with a definite promise of more to come in the future.

at this point in lorna's story, she's already done her time in arkham and has been released for about a few years, wherein she left the city and has been working for the military. it is suggested that crane's experimentation on her has already provided the cracks in her psyche.

alfred mentions her in passing to bruce a few times throughout the film prior to the funeral:

first, when bruce returns to the batcave following his investigation of the mayor's murder. alfred tells bruce that a "miss lovestrange" had called, but it is quickly brushed over as they review the footage from the camera contact lens.

she is brought up again when alfred reminds bruce to call lorna back during the blueberry scene. he doesn't.

her third mention comes when bruce is getting ready for the funeral, a newspaper on the table announcing lorna lovestrange's return the night prior. as the lovestranges were greatly influential, and lorna was kept out of the public's eye for most her life, a sighting such as this was a rarity. alfred notes that lorna's return is likely linked to the funeral, and that if bruce should encounter her, that she could do without the cold shoulder he often gives alfred. bruce chuckles a little at this. the chuckle dies down, however, when alfred reminds bruce that lorna has been through enough. bruce shows genuine remorse, perhaps hinting at a role he may have played in her having been committed to the asylum.

at the funeral, their reunion is brief and crippled with awkwardness. the conversation is stilted, bruce's mind otherwise occupied, while lorna is very clearly trying. it is the first time her time in arkham is brought up, clueing the audience in on where we are in lorna's character arc.

she helps the masses evacuate the building, but the first signs of cannonade come when lorna is on the verge of returning inside to disarm the bomb threat herself (her fearlessness being mistaken for stupidity by police chief bock) before the batman makes his entry.

lorna is later seen watching the news of thomas wayne's sin scattered history as well, visibly shaken by what she is hearing. she turns away from the television as soon as the word HUSH arises on screen, something cannonade's die-hard fans cling to as ironclad evidence of lorna's future decline and thomas elliot's arrival.

an interesting addition to this iteration of lorna is her obvious distaste for the batman. she believes that his presence makes gotham worse, and finds herself justified during the riddler's final act.

she is present during the final battle against riddler's men, but rather than assist batman, she watches him be brutalised, all while wearing a faint smile on her face, before selina steps in to help him.

she remains in gotham for the martial law being put in effect, though her relationship with bruce very much is left unknown.

i had initially toyed with the idea of the lovestranges being one of the riddler's targets, too, but the only thing they're truly guilty of is covering up lorna's time in arkham and the cause.

lorna's history very much parallels martha wayne's past, which could perhaps earn her some softer words and an ounce of sympathy from bruce. i can imagine bruce finally returning her call while waiting for alfred to wake up in the hospital, a whispered sorry being all he can bring himself to say.

[howdoidecidethjs]

Sort of agree. All his kids hold up some really painful mirrors to him that make it hard for a man as emotionally damaged as Magneo to reconcile.

Throughout his life he has suffered so much, and has severe PTSD as a result of his treatment by the Nazis as a Jew and then humans as a mutant. He lost his family very young to being powerless, and then when he his mutation manifested and he realised how powerful he could be, his daughter died and his wife abandoned him and literally chose to die rather than be with him. He then went on to become a mutant terrorist because i think in a lot of ways he felt like he had nothing else to live for. At least he could be the big bad that made life better for others.

Now i know timelines are a bit wack sometimes but if he first learned about Lorna when she was a girl and rescued her (or his robot-that origin is so convoluted at times), then Im guessing he was still pretty new to being ‘Magento’ and whatnot. He would still be absolutely traumatised after losing his first daughter and wife, and probably didn’t think he could take care of another child, especially not one with the same powers as him. (Tbh I’ve always found this a bit weird because in my mind, it would have made so much mores sense for him to want to take her in and love her and train her but idk he’s wack don’t think about this man’s mind too much, there’s a reason most telepaths don’t bother with him lmaooo) He was busy terrorising the world and at least at the decency to say nah a child doesn’t belong here.

The Brotherhood would have started a bit after that, and we know that Wanda looks just like Magda, and Pietro is just like Erik. She reminds Erik of the families of his past that he lost and will never get back. He reminds Erik of all his rage and the fact that they keep failing to win the mutant cause.

I read another post about how Wanda and Pietro just have too much previous baggage with Magneto that makes them not want to pursue the relationship with him too. He may have wanted family once, but he’s become someone who couldn’t even care for loved ones if he had them.

Lorna is the golden child because she is (at her best) everything Magneto wants from mutantkind. She’s kind and intelligent, and so so powerful. I firmly believe that she has the potential to bridge the gaps between Xavier and Magnetos ideas, to allow mutants and humans to coexist without giving up rights. But she too has his struggles with mental health and relationships (please for the love of God never let her anywhere near Havok again) and has done some awful things. I think this too has made her a kindred spirit to her father, but it also detracts from her being the ideal mutant in his eyes. She’s only his favourite when she’s performing well and helping his causes.

So in short

Wanda - parallels his desperate love and loss of family

Pietro - reflects his anger and temperamental nature which he hates because he sees how futile it is

Lorna - mirrors own power and mental struggles, falling short of his own ideal

I think fundamentally all it comes down to is wanting to mould each of his kids into a perfect and idealised version of what he wants, and none of them can be that, causing serious tensions because Magneto sees their deviations as betrayals and does not handle grudges well

My theory on why Erik doesn't seem to care much about Wanda and Pietro is because of their mother. Erik ADORED Magda, only for her to abandon him when his Mutant powers were revealed to her. And we all know that Erik holds grudges, so it wouldn't be surprising to see that he resents the children who came from the woman he loved.

AND I fully believe in "seeing yourself" in someone and hating them. Pietro and Erik could be TWINS! So Erik seeing Pietro definitely manifests into some twisted self hatred that then is plastered onto his son.

Therefor, Lorna is his favorite and she can do no wrong in his eyes.

[hamueltobin]

behold! i didn't see any otgw icebergs, so i made my own :)

if you think i should add something, lmk!!

Explanations under cut :)

First layer:

▪︎Beast!Wirt au - very popular au in which Wirt stays in the Unknown, possessed by the Beast to some extent.

▪︎Bad End Friends - Crossover AU of Beast!Wirt teaming up with Ice Finn from Adventure Time and Bipper from Gravity Falls; sometimes other 'bad end' au characters are thrown in such as a glitched Gumball from TAWOG

▪︎Irl Copies of the For Sara tape - Limited copies of the For Sara tape were sold at two points. They have yet to sell for a third time. (🤞🤞🤞)

▪︎Tome of the Unknown (pilot) - The Pilot of the series. Can be watched on YouTube.

▪︎Wirt Staying in the Unknown - In a scrapped ending, Wirt was to stay in the Unknown, saying that facing your real problems was scarier than staying there.

▪︎Mystery Kids - Crossover AU with other child-late teens aged characters from sources based on mysterious and supernatural themes such as Gravity Falls and Psychonauts.

▪︎Quincy Endicott's grave - Quincy's grave can be seen in the graveyard that Sara and the others are hanging out in.

▪︎Original Beatrice Voice Actress - Beatrice had a different VA in the pilot, Natasha Leggero. Melanie Lynskey voices her in the actual series.

▪︎The Woodsman's Daughter is Named Anna - The comics have several issues focused on his daughter, in which her name is revealed to be Anna.

▪︎Jason Funderburker's Ax Murderer Story - At the gathering in the graveyard, Funderburker is telling a story about a man with an ax; this story is believed to have influenced the existence of the Woodsman.

▪︎Full Versions of Songs in the OST - A handful of the songs are cut down for their appearances in the series and can only be heard in full on the OST. The most notable example is Old Black Train , which is actually 2 minutes and 15 seconds long, but is only in the series for about 15-20 seconds.

Second Layer:

▪︎Sara is named after the Fleetwood Mac song - Listen to it here :) it is notable that it includes lyrics about "drowning in a sea of love" and that Sara is "the poet of [the singer's] heart."

▪︎OTGW Reanimated - a reanimated project for the first episode. Got taken off of YouTube, but can be viewed on Dailymotion.

▪︎Baby Wirt Audio - In the For Sara cassette, there is a small section of audio that can be heard in about the middle of the recording of Wirt's father talking to him as a baby.

▪︎Funderburker/Funderberker - The two Jasons's surnames are spelled slightly differently to avoid confusion.

▪︎The Brothers Never Ate or Needed to Rest - Although Greg expressed being hungry, neither of the boys actually ate anything (outside of one spoonful of bland potatoes and inedible items such as dirt and leaves) and never laid down to rest, only sleeping when night came.

▪︎Book on Interior Design in Wirt's Room - In Wirt's from, a book on interior design can be seen laying on the floor, backing up the knowledge he displayed when analyzing the interconnected mansions.

▪︎Mad Love was Based on a Dream - The plot of Mad Love came from a dream that Pat McHale had about house hunting. In the dream, while exploring one of the houses being shown, he ended up wandering into someone else's home.

▪︎Beatriceoftheday - A blog dedicated to our lord and savior Beatrice, known for its strange shitposts and intense praise of the titular bird girl.

▪︎Wirt is Jealous of Greg's Popularity - Shown in the Circus Friends issue of the comics, Wirt is jealous of Greg's ability to make everyone laugh and have fun. This may factor into his dislike of his brother.

▪︎Greg was Feeding Fred at the Tavern - At first watching, one may be confused as to where all the food Greg was gathering went, why Fred was wearing lipstick and why he was refusing to talk to Beatrice. Shown in a deleted scene, this all explained, as Fred tells Beatrice that he didn't talk to her because Greg was feeding him.

▪︎Elijah Wood Voiced the Crazy Driver - Exactly what is says on the tin, the nutty driver was voiced by Wood.

▪︎Cloud City is Heaven - A popular theory that Cloud City actually represents Heaven.

▪︎Greg is Greg Universe - A headcanon/theory that has mostly died out that Greg is the same Greg in Steven Universe.

▪︎Bee Beatrice - Beatrice was originally cursed to become a bee, but was changed into a bluebird to match better with the seasonal autumn theme.

▪︎Pat McHale Voiced Wirt's Voice Crack - Wirt's voice crack when asking the Beast Are You? was actually done by McHale, not Wood.

▪︎The Other Actors Harassing Elijah Wood When Singing Wirt's Song - In order to make the performance as awkward as possible, the other actors were asked to yell and demand Wirt to sing. This can be heard in the episode.

▪︎Come Wayward Souls Has the Same Melody as O Holy Night - The song shares a cadence with "O Holy Night", and can be sung to its tune.

▪︎Black Turtles Origin/Purpose - No one knows why the black turtles exist, and McHale has said that they're just one of the unexplainable things of the Unknown.

▪︎Anna Never Left the House - In the aforementioned comics, it is shown that Anna had never left the house, living on her own until the Woodsman's return.

▪︎Sailor Suit Greg - Greg originally wore a sailor suit, but was changed later on to his current, Johnny Appleseed inspired outfit .

▪︎Beatrice Missing Being Able to Flip People Off - In the Art Book, Beatrice's introduction states that one of the reasons she hates being a bird is because she no longer has hands to flip people off with.

Third Layer

▪︎Jason Funderberker is Visually Based on a Teen Pat McHale - As seen here, Funderberker was designed after McHale.

▪︎Babes in the Wood is Based on an Old Alice in Wonderland Cartoon - You can view the original 1923 cartoon here! Starts at 4:25.

▪︎Wirt and Sara are Dipper and Mabel's Parents - A popular AU/hc where Dipper and Mabel of Gravity Falls are the future kids of Wirt and Sara.

▪︎The Tune of Wirt's Song is Improvised - In addition to the aforementioned harassment, in a further attempt to make the performance as awkward as possible, Elijah Wood was not given a tune to sing, only the lyrics.

▪︎Wirt's Costume Origin - As said in the art book and on his tumblr, Wirt's cone and cape come from an attempted rock and roll persona from McHale's teen years.

▪︎Greg is Based on Pat McHale's Son - It has been claimed that Greg is based on McHale's son, but Greg existed before him. The similarities are simply coincidental.

▪︎Old Scratch - The original name of the Beast.

▪︎The Beast Killed the Woodsman's Wife - Shown in the comics, The Woodsman's wife was mortally injured, with her attacker implied to be the Beast.

▪︎Wirt and Greg Staying in the Unknown Until Christmas - Another scrapped ending, in which the brothers stay in The Unknown until Christmas, with their absence unexplained.

▪︎Tome of the Unknown (original plot) - Early concepts had the Beast ( then known as Old Scratch as mentioned earlier ) scattering the pages of the titular book for the brothers to collect. Each page would come to life and the brothers would explore each story.

▪︎Dante's Inferno Comparisons - Check out these videos for full analysis!

▪︎Wirt Panty Shots - In the aforementioned Circus Friend comics, Wirt dons a dress as part of a disguise. Later on, he rips off the bottom half off, revealing that he is wearing bloomers.

▪︎The Beast's True Form was Inspired by Trypophobia - As stated in the art book, The Beast's hole-filled appearance was inspired by Trypophobia, the fear of many small holes.

▪︎The Fight is Over is About Drowning - Give the lyrics another read.

▪︎The Beast Last Minute Design Change - The Beast had a very different design, and it was changed into the current one at the last minute.

▪︎Gnome in Cloud City Representing Wirt - Many people believed that the Gnome with the lantern in cloud city was a parallel to Wirt, or a glimpse into his future. However, this was debunked.

▪︎Send Me a Peach - This song is included in the ost, but isn't in the actual series.

▪︎Fred and the Highwayman's Backstory - The comics expand upon the story of Fred the Horse and his involvement with the Highwayman.

Fourth Layer

▪︎Babes in the Wood Title Origin - The name of this episode comes from an old story of a pair of children getting lost in the woods, dying, and being buried in leaves by robins.

▪︎poorlydrawnotgw - This was a blog created during the poorly drawn series meme period. It consisted of poorly drawn and very strange shitposts and has since been deactivated. I was a part of it as mod Goopy Wirt and only have a handful of images saved from it.

▪︎Read and Listen Book Lost Audio - A read and listen book was created, with the book being read by Greg's Frog, who would stop every now and again to talk about being a frog. The pages can be found online, but the audio is currently lost.

▪︎Skinless Witch - A scrapped episode concept involved a skinless witch that kidnapped Greg and rode him like a horse.

▪︎Gentleman Burglar Wirt - A scrapped concept in which Wirt breaks into a woman's home, who is charmed by this young man who has come to visit her.

▪︎Animal Transformation - It was originally planned for Wirt and Greg to be turned into a bear/dog and a duck and remain that way for several episodes. This was later used in the comics.

▪︎The Unknown is influenced by Wirt's mind/interests - The Unknown is influenced by those who walk in it, in this case, Wirt. This includes the old timey mystical nature of it, as Wirt has been stated to have an interest in old folk tales.

▪︎Good Guy Beast/Black Train Scrapped Concept - In an earlier draft, the brothers were on a train, heading to what they assumed was death. They jump off, ending up in the Unknown. The Beast tries to get them back on the train, which turns out to be heading back to life.

▪︎Evil Woodsman - At one point, the Woodsman was intended to be under the influence of the Beast and tried to sabotage the brothers's attempts to return home.

▪︎Lorna Reading the Tome of the Unknown in the Epilogue - In the epilogue, Lorna can be seen reading the titular book from the aforementioned scrapped plot.

▪︎The Beast was Originally the Devil Himself - The Beast was first designed as a devil-like character, the aforementioned Old Scratch.

▪︎The Brothers Never Went Home/The Hospital is Part of The Unknown - a theory based on the fact that the edges of the screen are still blurred at the end of chapter 10, the rushed narration, and the lack of consequences of nearly drowning.

▪︎Beatrice Seeing Wirt Nude - In one of the comics, Beatrice accidentally sees Wirt while he is washing his clothes in the river.

▪︎Sara is a Descendant of Lorna - A theory that Sara is a distant relative of Lorna.

▪︎Exists in the Same Universe as Clarence and Home Movies - The most well known piece of evidence is the overhead shot of the town matching the town that Clarence is set in. Wirt and Greg also have a cameo in another episode, and one of the final episodes shows Brendon Small of Home Movies runs a movie rental store in the town, connecting all three series together.

Final Layer

▪︎Beast x Wirt - Also known as Poetree.

▪︎Candycone - Greg x Wirt.

[fangirl-hell]

🔅 all the fandoms I’m in + the ships I ship 🔅

MARVEL

~ probably my main fandom and the fandom I spend the most time in and have been in the longest

~ by far my favourite fandom

~ joined the fandom before I really knew what a fandom was

Ships MCU:

~ Stucky ( slightly ship it, used to be my OTP BEFORE STEVE WENT AND-)

~ Ironstrange ( I used to ship it more but people move on yk )

~ Thorbruce/gammahammer ( love it. So much chemistry in Thor Ragnorok! )

~ ThorQuill ( it’s cute )

~ Scarletwidow ( I think they would be a cute couple if gay relationships were normalised and they were a bit closer age-wise )

~ Blackhill ( it’s cute. I wrote a Blackhill oneshot once. They would be cute shield-wives <3 )

~ Blackpepper ( Natasha deserves a strong independent woman like Pepper! )

~ Frosthawk ( not proud of this one- but it is one of my OTP’s and first ever ships )

~ Winterhawk ( it’s cute )

~ Hawkdevil ( god bless shipping wiki for introducing this to me. I love the deaf/Blind dynamic there )

~ Hawkant ( the family men <3 )

~ Lokius ( they r so gay- )

~ Frostmaster ( don’t really ship it I just think they did it )

~ sambucky/winterfalcon ( rollin’ in a field of flowers~~ )

~ Hawksilver ( HOW COULD I ALMOST FORGET THE ONE I SPENT HOURS LOOKING AT TUMBLR POSTS ABOUT- )

~ Parley/Parkner ( it could be romantic or brotherly- I know that sounds weird but it’s like how Hawksilver could be father and son or romantic and I don’t mind it either way )

~ Shuri/MJ ( I swear it was one fic- )

~ Valcarol ( still have hope for my gay space girls <3 )

~ Drax/Mantis ( AHA!! A STRAIGHT ONE! I ship this one on a strict platonically romantic basis tho- )

X-Men:

~ Cherik ( 😫 CuBa BeAcH dIvOrCe || PaRiS cHeSs PrOpOsAl 😫 )

~ Scogan ( in the original universe, alt reality Scott is 2 young )

~ Kurt/Peter

~ Scott/Peter

~ Bobby/Pyro ( gay )

The Gifted:

Lorna/Marcus ( THE CHERIK PARALLELS ARE INTENSE )

Runaways:

Gert/Karolina ( ik….I’m being selfish. I can’t be happy with Karolina and Nico being gay 4 eachother )

Alex/Darius’s sister in-law

MCYT FANDOM:

~ been in it for the second least amount of time

~ I like it but not unconditionally

Ships:

~Dreamnotfound ( a classic- can u blame me? )

~Dreamnap ( aNd ThEy WeRe RoOmMaTeS )

~ Sapnotfound

~ Sapnottaken?

~ Karlnapity ( OT3 )

~ Sapity/Quacknap ( adorable. )

~ Karlnap

MHA:

~ Totally forgot I was ever in this one

~ quite watching it when it made me watch it in Japanese

~ in and out

Ships:

~ BakuDeku ( classic! Only one-sided though or one side w/ acceptance and the other with strong denial )

MAZE RUNNER:

~ loosely in the fandom

~ mostly there for one ship

Ships:

~ Newtmas ( god bless my random YouTube recommendations )

SOUTH PARK:

~ admittedly I was kinda obsessed with this one for a while!

~ Kenny

~ I was 11 when I got into the fandom so this is worrying

Ships:

~ Crenny ( adorable dumbasses. Limited fics though…)

~ Style ( they were gay. Gay in a slightly homophobic but also anti-homophobic way )

~ Tyde ( cute. They obviously had their gay awakening when Craig started dating guys. They were like: “oh shit- if our mutual bestie is gay- are we gay?” And then: “are we gay 4 eachother?? )

~ Butters/Scott Malkinson ( the badass softies <3 )

~ Christopher/Gregory ( don’t question me )

~ Michael/Pete ( gay, goth and gender-non-conforming )

~ Bendy ( they’re both basic bitches ofc they deserve eachother )

~ Cryde ( cute )

~ Stylenny

~ Creek ( I don’t really ship this one but it’s not bad. They are a cute couple and they’re canon! )

IT:

~ almost forgot this one aaahahaha

~ luv it

~ make horror gay 🌈

Ships:

~ Reddie ( YESSSS YESSS YESSS I MEAN JUST YESSS- SHIPPING WIKI SAID SEMI-CANON )

~ Stenbrough ( they would be cute lol )

~ Benverly ( get outta here with that Billverly crap- I mean....Bev is pretty but she was a bit annoying. She depended on a man all the time it was infuriating)

STRANGER THINGS:

~ again! Forgot this one!

~ i didn’t know what the hype was about till I watched it

Ships:

~Max/El ( gay girls go shopping 🛍)

~ Mike/Will ( I mean they’re a little eh but it’s a good ship! )

~ Dustin/That Girl from Utah ( they were kind of cute yk )

~ Steve/Jonathan ( jk jk jk....unless? )

~ Nancy/Jonathan

BONUS FOR THAT ONE IT/STRANGER THINGS CROSSOVER FIC IM READING:

~Max/Bev

~ El/Bev

~ Stan & El are siblings

^

That fic is called “The Losers Party” it’s on ao3

It’s by: WhelmedBirdie_319 and it’s fvcking awesome

[earnestly-endlessly]

Could you please rec cherik fics where they still have powers but being mutant is well accepted? (Kind of like the Daycare Verse by brillingspoons) THANK U SO MUCH YOURE INCREDIBLE

Hi anon, of course I have a list for you. I am so sorry for the delay. I have been super busy lately with work and home renovations, but I’m back and I have a looong list for you. Now, the nature of x-men as a parallel of the very real fight of minority groups for civil rights makes it pretty hard to find fics where everyone accepts mutants.That’s actually why I love the x-men, because they represent the fight of those who are ostracised. So, some of these might have some social commentary, but the main focus does not lie there. Also, if you love the Daycare Verse check out pocky_slash’s fics (who actually wrote the majority of the Daycare Verse). 

------

Cherik ´Still Have Powers Modern AU´ Fic Recs

irreconcilable differences (make for surprisingly good bedfellows) – pocky_slash

Summary: Tonight on The Evening Report with Malcolm Stevens, noted geneticist and mutant equality proponent Dr. Charles Xavier faces off with the infamous mutant rights activist Magneto in a live televised debate over the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act.

(At least, if they can stop flirting long enough to stay on topic.)

Words and Pictures – pocky_slash

Summary: When Lorna's powers manifest early, Charles Xavier's mutant picture books are the perfect teaching tool. Erik just hadn't expected the author to be so young. Or attractive. Or available.

For the Record – endingthemes

Summary: As prominent figures in the mutant rights movement, activists Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr are pretty much household names. When a romance scandal between them breaks, their celebrity reaches new heights, and though the increased exposure is great, there’s a big problem -- the two of them are just friends.

Too bad no one believes them.

Runs in the Family – Anonysquirrel (chibirisuchan)

Summary: Alex knew his own reputation. Hell, he'd started some of his own reputation, because it kept some of the smarter thugs off his back. Everyone knew Alex's reputation. There was no way Hank didn't know his reputation, but he'd brought Alex into a house with some really expensive things and a lot of innocent little kids and his too-friendly, too-harmless dad.

But clearly Hank hadn't told his family anything about Alex, just like he hadn't told Alex anything about his family. At least, not about the brain-breaking parts of his family.

"I didn't know where to start," Hank said, for the dozenth time.

Featuring mpreg!Charles in a Kiss The Cook apron, overprotective!Erik in wet black leather, and baked goods. Lots and lots of baked goods.

(Another segment of this series is posted under the Cookie Cutter fic collection - thanks again, Takmarierah!)

Impulse Decisions – listerinezero

Summary: Erik wakes up in Las Vegas with a hell of a hangover, a telepath in his bed, and a ring on his finger. Now what?

You Show Me Yours - endingthemes

Summary: When Erik receives nudes in the middle of the night from an unknown number, he's confused and mildly amused. He doesn't expect it to turn into an actual conversation...with feelings.

As if that's not baffling enough, his friend's brother ends up crashing at his place, further complicating everything.

Some Such Place (The Big Screen Classics Remix) - Pocky_Slash

Summary: Erik's spent the last eighteen months having lengthy socio-political conversations and casual sex with Charles Xavier after seeing Monday matinees at a dingy little independent movie theatre in the Village. That doesn't mean they're friends. Or that Erik should have any say in what Charles is going to do with his future.

(At least, that's what Erik keeps telling himself.)

Into Your Tar, Honey  - tomato_greens

Summary: Really, Alex doesn’t know why he’s in the damn class.

(Or, the one in which Charles teaches an online Introduction to Biology course, and Alex reads more than he expected to.)

Heli Cases - Black_Betty

Summary: "Heli Cases" is a program on PBS whose aim is to educate on the rapidly increasing occurrence of genetic mutation in the general populous by breaking the complex science down into palatable, easy to digest pieces.

It is also the only thing that helps Erik get his fussy daughter to fall asleep.

(Featuring Dadneto, baby Lorna and the struggles of single fatherhood, and Charles as the host of a late night show about genetics.)

Bound - FuryRed

Summary: Is there anything worse than someone else’s wedding? Well, perhaps your sister’s wedding- where the groom just has to invite his boss and that man just happens to be your ex-boyfriend; a person you had an extremely passionate and tumultuous relationship with that ended badly.

Charles hadn’t seen Erik for a year by the time Raven had told him about the wedding. He wasn’t looking forward to the occasion, particularly when Raven explained that they would be celebrating the event with a two-week extravaganza at a luxury hotel, meaning that Charles would be forced to spend a whole fortnight with the man who he’d given everything to; the man who had ultimately broken his heart…

An Exercise in Frustration – ikeracity

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr's latest critically-acclaimed film Shame features a full-frontal nudity scene. His long-suffering husband Charles is really very peeved about it.

Eyes on Fire - Black_Betty

Summary: Every once in a while, fashion tycoon Emma Frost invites her favourite male models over to entertain her. And by "entertain", I mean she makes them have kinky consensual sex in front of her....Emma never touches herself when she watches, but she always has a glass of wine with her. Emma likes it best when they eventually forget that she's watching.

Charles and Erik meet each other through Emma...

(I've taken some liberties with the prompt, but all the sex is still there, and it's wholly consensual...and gradually, becomes more than just sex...)

Order Up - ikeracity

Summary: Charles has a terrible habit of multitasking, and that is probably why he absentmindedly tells the pizza man that he loves him when hanging up.

Then the pizza man says it back. And Charles is pretty much smitten from there.

Some Assembly Required - manic_intent

Summary: "Alex and Hank were two teenagers who frequently fight in school. One fight got so bad that the principal called in their fathers (as both came from single-parent families)/ guardians for a conference. This was how Charles and Erik meet."

Limited Release - rageprufrock

Summary: When Alex Summers broke out of supermax to rescue his stupid kid brother, he had no idea it was going to be so fucking complicated.

Math Reasons – pearl_o, pocky_slash

Summary: "Mom says Erik always knows what he wants, it just sometimes takes him a little while to actually realize it," Ruth said.

Charles fell in love with Erik the first night they met, the first week of freshman year. Two years of friendship, adventures, arguments, hijinks, secrets, and summer visits later, Erik is starting to catch up.

It’s kind of our whole thing – pearl_o, pocky_slash

Summary: After two years of best friendship, Charles and Erik thought they knew everything there was to know about each other. They're surprised, then, when their first summer as a couple reveals that they have a lot to learn about each other and themselves.

PART 2 of Math Reasons

A Nice Boy (The Family Matters Edition) – pocky_slash

Summary: Erik's not sure whether the problem is that he doesn't want his parents to meet Charles or that he doesn't want Charles to meet his parents. Either way, he never invites Charles to brunch. Why should he? It's not like they're dating.

apple season – pocky_slash

Summary: "You know," Charles says while they're sitting around the kitchen table reading the paper, "You should take Anya apple picking."

"Don't you mean 'we?'" Erik responds. The silence that follows is enough to make him re-examine his own apple picking memories a little more closely. Uneven ground littered with apples, tree roots, holes, and narrow passage between rows of orchard trees. "Oh," he says.

rooms/shares – pocky_slash

Summary: Erik is single, working a cube job he hates, letting his master's degree in mutant studies collect dust, and living on his best friend's couch. When she kicks him out, he's forced to trawl Craigslist for the least-offensive rooming option within his meagre budget. He never expects a response from the persnickety, high maintenance ad he replies to as a joke, but it's possible this too-nice apartment and mysteriously absent roommate might be the answer to all four of his problems.

Continue firm and constant – aesc

Summary: Moira hasn't seen her old partner in saving the world from threats human and intergalactic, Erik Lehnsherr, for a few years. When she finally does see him again, she finds a man different from the one who's been with her down in the dark and the dirt and the blood... or maybe he isn't so different after all.

Tough little baby telepath – aesc, pearl_o

Five Part Series

Summary: Teenage telepath Charles Xavier takes a job as a consultant, working with prickly police detective Erik Lehnsherr. Charles is used to being on his own and taking care of himself; he has no reason to think that his relationship with this stern, icy man is going to change any of that.

Frosted hearts – aesc, palalife

Summary: Emma Frost has 99 problems, but a date ain't one. Specifically, she has no time to play the dating game--which is fine with her, because she'd much rather run it instead. From a set of sleek, silver and white offices on Fifth Avenue and with her trusty, stylish, and silent partner Janos Quested, Emma has built Frosted Hearts into New York City's premiere dating service, built on the principle that money, and a sufficiently rigorous psionic scan, can, in fact, buy you love.

Somewhere in Frosted Hearts's server is one Charles Xavier, genius and geneticist, with the kind of nicely-starched good looks that sell well on brochures for New England prep schools. He's also a telepath who's decided to give up pursuing serious relationships and instead spend his thirties doing what he should have done as a teenager: have a lot of sex with random people. Fortunately for him, Erik Lehnsherr, metallokinetic and engineering executive, has absolutely no time in his heart or his schedule for anything more serious than... well, absolutely nothing romantic at all.

Mercy of the Fallen (the AirDrop Security Update 2.0) – pocky_slash

Summary: Erik Lehnsherr feels defined by his past sins and after years of acting against his own moral compass, he's finally struck out on his own. He's his own boss now, and determined to work hard to help the mutant community and make up for years of doing someone else's dirty work.

Complicating this is Charles Xavier, mutant advocate, genetics professor, unfairly attractive telepath, and owner of the coffee shop below Erik's office. Erik may not think he deserves to be a part of the community he's thrown himself into helping, but Charles has other ideas on the matter, and he's determined to do everything in his power to make Erik see himself as a force for good.

you follow and i’ll lead – pearl_o, pocky_slash

Summary: When Charles discovers how frustrated and self-conscious his best friend Erik is about his ignorance about sex, he's eager to volunteer to help teach him and practice. Charles might not have any more direct experience than Erik, but he does have a telepath's mind full of accidentally picked-up fantasies and memories, as well as knowledge of a few dirty books - and more importantly, he's been madly in love with Erik for years. This seems like a brilliant, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that he can't pass up.

Now he just needs to manage to keep his feelings in check, and not ruin their friendship forever.

Snail Mail – pocky_slash

Summary: Alex isn't thrilled when his boss, Erik, starts sending him to hand deliver notes to Erik's husband up at the university--that is, until he sees the Professor's hot new TA, and suddenly, the notes can't come fast enough. If only Alex could work up the guts to ask him out....

this is life (and everything’s all right) – pocky_slash

Summary: Edie Lehnsherr came into Charles' life long before he ever heard Erik Lehnsherr's name, and her death left a gaping hole in the lives of everyone in Charles' family. As the first Purim without her approaches, he begins to get creative in his efforts to bring everyone out of their grief. Kitchen creativity, however, is not quite his strength....

Watching the Detectives – Clocks

Summary: Detectives Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr are good friends and colleagues. However, when they go undercover at a Christmas party to nab a prime suspect, Erik keeps reminding himself to stay professional and ignore feelings of unexpected jealousy.

Student/Teacher Relations – PoorMedea

Summary: As a TA, Charles knows he can't get involved in all his students' lives. He needs to keep professional boundaries, to make sure that he's an authority figure. But when he accidentally finds out how complicated Erik Lehnsherr's home life is, he suddenly finds that distance hard to maintain.

Fill for the prompt: Erik is the teen dad of adorable baby!Lorna. I just want teen!Erik being a dad, with adorable interactions between him and his baby. Angst is good too since there's always going to be some in such situations, but mainly I want to see teen dad Erik being an awesome dad who loves the hell out of his daughter despite whatever else may be going on.

Conspiracy of Kisses – Alaceron

Summary: Seven-year-old Erik needs to keep his telepathic best friend Charles from finding out that he wants to kiss him. But that's okay, because he has a plan - he'll put on a tinfoil hat.

Favorite Mistake – endingthemes

Summary: Charles Xavier doesn’t think anything of it when he sneaks out without even saying goodbye to his latest one-night stand. What he doesn’t expect is to walk into his new position in the Xavier Industries marketing department and find that his latest hook-up is now his new boss.

Never Take Biology for Granite – ikeracity, pangea

Summary: Charles is an internet celebrity who garners his fame from posting educational, in-depth videos about a different animal every week, though for some reason his viewers are always more interested in his sex life with his geologist husband, Erik, who happens to frown heavily upon all living things.

Except for Charles, of course, whom he's missed these past couple days while attending a geologic convention--though considering the subject material of Charles' newest video, he's wishing he would've stayed away longer.

This Is Not Comedy – baehj2915

Summary: Written for amarriageoftrueminds' prompt for a Cherik version of Louis CK's tangent about the fuckability of Ewan McGregor.

Naturally the similarities end there. I made this about Erik's full on public lust-filled gay revelation, and the chaos that spirals from there.

Snowed In – dedkake

Summary: Charles and Erik have a one night stand, but a blizzard traps them in Erik's apartment afterward.

[thatwritergirlsblog]

Dealing with time in your writing

This is going to be quite an eclectic post, but I've received a few questions relating to time in creative writing. So, I thought I'd just make a post to address a few things.

1. Keeping track of narrated time

You as a writer need to keep track of the time that passes in your story and what happens when. Inconsistencies and incontinuities will pop up if you don't have a good knowledge of your WIP's time-line.

The easiest way to do this is to keep track via a visual time-line. If you outline, you can use that to make a rough time-line ahead of time. If you're a pantser, then you can fill in the time-line as you go along.

Use this time-line to keep track of holidays, seasons, lunar cycles, healing time, travel time etc.

This is especially crucial for parallel storylines, where you might want to draw separate time-lines that you can hold up next to each other to ensure that everything matches up.

In certain instances it might also be necessary for the reader to keep track of the passing of time. You can either ensure this subtly within the writing (by sprinkling in little references to the season/date/time) or expressly by getting creative. Maybe each chapter starts with the date or the phase of the moon. Maybe your book is divided into seasons etc. If you do something like this, though, you have to be sure that the information plays a crucial role in your story.

2. Time-lapses between scenes

Time will inevitably pass in-between your scenes. But how do you communicate that time to your readers?

Firstly, you have to ask whether it's relevant. If all your character did in the in-between time was brush her teeth and put on a nightgown, you don't have to tell the reader that. You can use a simple sentence at the start of the next scene to familiarize your reader with the time of that scene e. g. "The next morning" or "After a night of tossing and turning". This way the reader knows that time passed, but that nothing particularly important happened during that time.

If there are important points that you don't want to dedicate an entire scene to, you can use the technique of telling. This should be used with circumspection, but can be a great way of relaying lots of information in a few sentences. E. g. "That morning after breakfast she had decided to head to the library to continue her research. She'd combed through shelves upon shelves of manuscripts only to end up back at square one." Then, you can truly start the scene with the character sitting in the library, despondent. This way, the reader gets a quick catch-up as to where the story is at that moment, but you don't have to spend too many words on it. You can also use this technique for deeply emotional events that the character may not want to spend a lot of time talking about e. g. "Lorna did not wake up that afternoon. She would never wake up again. And all Nancy had done all evening was weep."

Comment if you guys want me to do a post about showing vs telling.

3. Flashbacks

I love flashbacks, but they have to be done well and they have to be necessary.

Flashbacks are a great way of telling a long, complex story in less words. It's also a very valuable tool for revealing plot twists and character backstory.

Ensure that your flashbacks are adequately separated from the rest of your scenes. I don't mean that they have to exist in a separate chapter (although this is an option), but at least use a different formatting style so that it's clear to the reader when they're dealing with a flashback.

Make it as easy as possible for the reader. Achronology can be disorienting and confusing. So, if you're working with different timelines, make sure the reader knows which timeline they're reading at the moment. You can do this by clearly indicating the time of the flashback at the beginning or woven into the writing of the scene.

Remember that these flashbacks should be relevant to your story/character arc. Don't just throw in flashbacks for the hell of it. These scenes should reveal something important about the character or the plot.

4. How do the characters tell the time?

This is a bit of a weird one, but it should be taken into account nonetheless.

If you write contemporary fiction or historical fiction set in recent(ish) history, you don't have to worry about this. However, those of us writing in made-up worlds or ancient/futuristic times have to think about this shit.

Have wathes/clocks been invented? Do your characters have micro chips in their brains that have them knowing the time automatically? Do they use a sundial? Are there calendars (and do they differ from the contemporary one) etc.

If your characters live in a Stone Age world, but they know when it's 13:45, you're gonna have to explain how the hell they know that.

Keep historical accuracy in mind if you're not writing your own world e. g. if you're writing a book set in Ancient Rome, you should do some research to figure out how they told time.

5. Consistency in time periods

This cannot be stressed enough. Keep healing time, travel time, seasonal changes etc consistent and realistic.

If you're writing something set in the real world, you should research how long it takes to heal from certain wounds or how long it takes to travel between places etc.

Even if you made up your own world, own creatures and own laws of physics, you should keep the times consistent throughout the work.

That's all I have for you on time. I hope that this very random post can be helpful.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment with your own questions/ideas around time in writing. Follow me for similar content.