#this isn't TECHNICALLY a vent silly!! i think.

[angeltism]

"haha why would I ever actually post on my vent account I'm not that miserable and can keep it inside enough to not have to worry too much about bothering others with my issues!! right?"

uhh yeah hey aqua from like whenever you posted your urls. uh. bad news for you.

[inksword]

One thing I wish all communities of Worm (reddit, tumblr, the forum who must not be named, etc.) would do a bit more frequently is acknowledge Lisa's asexuality. Like, okay you can still ship her with all your favorite ladies but she could be ace about it ya know? This isn't even WoG aceness it's in the actual text of Ward from her own mouth. It's not totally unexpected just sort of a bummer that an extremely rare asexual character in a piece of media that I like gets almost uniformly cast as a lesbian without a nod to her canon sexuality.

She could still date girls! I personally think she's aro not just ace but since that wasn't explicitly mentioned she could still date girls within her canon characterization!

And before anyone throws a "Wildbow totally wrote her bi/lesbian he just doesn't know it, disregard canon statements of sexuality" like they do with Taylor:

Asexual people can have incredibly close friendships

Asexuals can make sex jokes or observations, sometimes certain jokes seem even more absurd or silly to us because we're asexual!

Asexuals can be hyper aware of how they are perceived in terms of affection

You know if Wildbow had confirmed her canon lesbianism in Ward people would cite that shit and not brush it off "because it's Ward and bad and I haven't read it" (okay some straight-dude spacebattles fanfic writers would ignore it but I don't think that's who I'm talking to here.)

IDK if I can remember every argument that people use to justify headcanoning her as lesbian but please please please just believe her own words and her own reflections on her life and feelings. Yes it's a Watsonian argument but I don't think there's a good Doylist reason to doubt her about it either.

I am not here to take away your ships just... venting a little I guess haha. Yes yes I know that technically every shippy drawing of her could technically be her being ace but when that's every shippy drawing with no acknowledgement it doesn't hit ya know? Like getting bi representation and seeing a character 99% shipped with one gender. I seriously don't want to dampen anyone's enjoyment of Tattletale or say you can't relate to her if you're not ace however!

Ughhh I totally feel like a wet blanket complaining considering I pretty much only contribute a drawing every four years to the fandom. I'll admit I don't voraciously read worm-fic so I may be totally off base and she gets acknowledged all the time in places I don't see. I guess anyone got any good explicitly ace Tattletale fics haha?

[raayllum]

I’m sorry how is arc 2 not about aaravos? Everything about the show leads back to aaravos. The whole lore of the show is centered around aaravos. And it is absolutely titled the mystery of aaravos because it does plan on dealing with the mystery of aaravos in every possible way, and that has infact been confirmed by the showrunners on multiple instances. Aaravos is just as, if not more of a main character than rayllum in the ways that count because everything going on revolves around him. 

And since he’s an EXTREMELY important character, how is it not justified for fans of him to want more screen time of him? 

I’m sorry but not everything about the show revolves around rayllum and you shouldn’t call people out just for wanting to see more of their favorite character.

God forbid something about aaravos is actually about aaravos and not rayllum for once 💀💀

Actually I can and do call people out for wanting to see more of their favourite character when it causes them to be entitled / unfair to the broader story they want to tell. If you haven't been doing those things, then that post wasn't about you, but given the way you put your best foot forward here, I might go out on a limb and guess this might be behaviour you display sometimes, and it may be worth reconsidering.

As a bit of background:

My favourite character in a TV show was once a side character who was in 1/4 seasons, and one episode in the final season, and then he never showed up again. which was Okay, because he was a Side Character and it would've been pretty silly for the show to bend over backwards to include him more. Granted, there were opportunities (him and another character were travelling together, then she showed up at a Plot Relevant location without him and it was never addressed) but the show wasn't bad or wrong for not including more. I wasn't owed more screen time just because he was my favourite character, and while any character can Technically be Levelled Up for more screen time and plot relevance, sometimes characters are just there to serve more minor specific purposes, and that's Okay. It's all about adjusting your own expectations and not being an asshole.

Furthermore, given that I posted my personal opinion on my personal blog and only used my personal tags for it, you had two options for finding this post:

It got sent to you, presumably meaning you had someone else to be salty with in a private manner that would've been far more appropriate

You follow(ed) me, in which case you are more than encouraged to unfollow or block me if I have a post/opinion you find annoying or uncouth. Please do so rather than doing whatever This Is in my inbox in the future, it'll likely save you not only time but also embarrassment

The fact you thought going into the inbox of a Virtual Stranger and getting upset about me not thinking your favourite character is the Most Important Character in TDP Ever — because he isn't — in one (1) post is truly baffling to me in terms of 1) curating your internet experience and 2) interacting appropriately with strangers directly online. I've seen a lot of shit opinions in my day, and I vent in private to my fandom friends about it 99.9% of the time, thank you very much, or post about it in my personal tags on my own blog rather than making it someone else's problem.

In the nature of analysis / debate, though, let me clear what I meant considering 4+ people got their trousers in a twist about the idea that Aaravos isn't a main character.

That said, a few quick disclaimers: Aaravos is a very interesting character to me, and I like him a lot. I've written a fair bit about him in regards to how he's a thematic opposite to Harrow, his view of children, what I think happened to his chest piece, speculation on his banishment, his parallels to Finnegrin, his mythic connections to aspects of the Fae + Egyptian and Greek mythology, his foil relationship to Rayla, his characterization and motifs/symbols. So it's not as though I don't enjoy him or don't think he's important to the story. He is, he's just not a main character nor the most important. Moving on:

Secondly: it seems maybe my meaning of macguffin is getting misconstrued. A story Macguffin is a plot device that drives the story forward. Sometimes it's a character (R2D2 in star wars has to be transported from one dangerous location to safety because he has blue print plans), sometimes it's an object (the one ring, fetch quests, etc). Either way, the story is centralized around 1) characters competing for ownership or safe guarding of said person/thing and 2) through that competition or competing needs, the characterization of the main cast is revealed.

In Arc 1, Zym is the plot Macguffin. He overall has very little personality even once hatched beyond being sweet, occasionally helpful, and scared. He is the titular character, and his existence matters, but mostly because he serves as a motivational point for the characters. Claudia, Soren, and Viren want to stop Zym from getting back to Xadia; Rayla, Callum, and Ezran, want to help him get back.

Zym himself does not drive episodes forward. He rarely makes decisions that impact the main group. His existence or fears cause them to make decisions (they go looking for help because they dropped his egg; Rayla and Callum have to go after Nyx because she stole him) but he is not likewise making decisions for the group. S4 definitely levelled Zym up into him making 1) more independent decisions and 2) having more of his own interior feelings, particularly about his father, but Callum is the one who decides to send him up into the trees; Ezran is the one calling the meeting for Zym to come to Katolis. A couple of exceptions (he has a mini arc about his mom for 2 eps, he has an arc in s2 with Ezran) do not suddenly make Zym a "I'm making decisions that heavily push the plot forward every episode" kind of character.

You'll also note, if you actually read said post you're referencing, that I specified "'the mystery of aaravos' (esp these past two seasons)" and that I never mentioned lore, either, even if I have likewise written about lore extensively (one of my more recent metas on it was about 4.8k words on lore alone, for example).

Aaravos' plot impact was a lot heavier in S2 and particularly S3 than it is in S4 or S5, as he influenced Viren's decisions more heavily and eventually came into more direct conflict with the core protagonists. This is likewise reflected in Aaravos in S2 and S3 being in multiple episodes (half the season in s2, and almost every episode at least a little in s3).

Meanwhile in Arc 2, Aaravos could effectively, unknown to his pawns drop dead after giving Claudia her final instructions pre-S4, and nothing would be affected plot wise, because Arc 2 thus far has mostly been characters fearing his impending release (the main cast) or dealing with the fallout of his actions from S3 (the Sunfire elf plot line). The only thing we'd lose on that level from a "Claudia believes Aaravos is alive and is trying to free him, but he's not actually" is Callum and Rayla's possession plot line, ironically enough given your apparent dislike of them, until the very very end of 5x09 in which he tries to goad Viren into killing SS.

I'm excited for and expecting that to change in S6 and S7, but that doesn't change what S4 and S5 currently are, either. Same thing for Amaya and Janai more so being main characters, Janai in particular, in S4 and S5, but they were not main characters in the first three seasons. That doesn't mean they're not good, meaningful, and important characters for the story, but I'd be a very poor meta writer / have very poor media literacy if I tried to claim that Janai is a main character in arc 1 over say, Callum.

For another example: everything in Avatar: The Last Airbender revolves around Team Avatar wanting to stop Ozai, but Ozai is not a main character in the show. He's there to be a minor character, an endgame big bad, and to affect his children / embody the conflict the characters are up against. The fact that TDP has so many antagonists that are also Main Characters throughout the whole show (Viren, Claudia) is actually pretty rare in media, particularly for children.

The Legend of Zelda games usually revolve around Link wanting to save or free Zelda, and while certain games flesh her out and make her more developed into a main character, the central character of the narrative is Link, because he's the character we follow the most.

Additionally, the Importance of a character in a narrative has no bearing on whether they're your favourite, or even necessarily whether they're a 'good' / 'well written' character. Rayla, for example, is my personal #1 favourite character in TDP. She is a main character; she is not The main character. That's not an insult to Rayla; she's there to be a foil, one hell of a narrative lancer, and our main elven character. But I can't (nor do I want to) magically change her role in the story to claim that it's something it isn't.

The central main character of TDP is Callum. It always has been, it always will be.

He is the character who shows up in every single episode, he's our central mage character in a show all about magic, he has the most developed relationships out of everyone, he is the POV character we follow the most. That doesn't mean he's your favourite, that doesn't mean he has to be your preference, you don't even have to like him. But he is The Main Character. The majority of the story revolves around him and the people in his life. No amount of liking another character more is going to change that, whether you're clamouring for Rayla, Aaravos, Sol Regem or anyone else.

While there are shows where I think the side lining of characters feels off (Gus and Willow in The Owl House come to mind) that's mostly because 1) that sort of side lining usually happens to characters of colour, as it did there and 2) there's no real reason for the story to sideline them considering everyone lives in close proximity and there's a s1 emphasis that the main character has never had friends before and that she desperately wants some. Therefore, she should be thrilled to have best friends for the first time, but we barely see them. See the disconnect?

Aaravos is a minor character and big bad who is well utilized in the overall minimal screentime he has, especially thus far in S4 and S5. That doesn't mean he's not important to the story, and that doesn't mean he can't or shouldn't be your favourite, but your assertion doesn't miraculously make him our main core protagonist of the entire show, because 1) he's not our central pov character and 2) that's about the only requirement a main protagonist has to have, and 3) that's just not how stories work.

I also have no clue why you brought up Rayllum as a ship, given that I didn't mention them in my OG post at all, but given that you seem to think "this character isn't a main character" is a moral or value statement, I'll assume you said it to ruffle my feathers — that doesn't really work, given that I agree with you that not everything in the show is about Callum or Rayla individually or as a relationship, because it Isn't. Even if I hated them as characters or as a dynamic, however, that wouldn't change the fact that they're two of the core 3 characters (alongside Ezran) and that their relationship has the most screentime out of anyone in the show.

And if the show decided to tone down their screen time to give other characters more time, I'd be okay with that — because I don't need my Personal Favourite to be the most important character in the source material / screen time ever in order to feel secure in liking them, thanks.

[sunny6677]

APOLLO AND SUNNY'S RELATIONSHIP DETAILS!!!

I don't have much for them—but ehhhh

@rebootgrimm

- So I still don't know I'd he'd fit better as an uncle figure or brother figure—but for now I'm gonna say Uncle figure since he's kinda like brothers with Hermes jensns. He's like the cool uncle to Sunny though, and constantly talks with her about different things that catch her interest. He's probably played a few games with her a couple times—and likes to mess with her a lot.

- Apollo probably likes patting Sunny's head a lot. Just a feeling I get./silly

- Apollo and Hermes like to play games with Sunny, or prank her a lot together (which of course usually aren't too bad—they just like seeing her silly reactions). They both like talking with her a lot though, and do their best to make her laugh.

- In the Olympus AU, Apollo probably allowed Sunny to go out on his balcony with him one time, and played some piano with her to distract her from her situation. She struggled with keeping up with him, obviously—but he wasn't mad about it and just found it very endearing. He kept kinda giggling at her the whole time as it happened.

- Apollo likes playfully throwing Sunny around a lot or grabbing her for some reason. He probably held her up circle of life style one time too lmfao.

- Apollo isn't technically related to her through soul, but he sees her like family anyway.

- Aphrodite usually scolds Apollo when she thinks he's being 'too rough' on Sunny.

- Apollo has probably appeared to Sunny several times when she wasn't doing well, and has let her vent to him before. Which he's also been great at comforting her during since he's quite literally the God of Healing./lh

- Apollo has likely told her about the after life before?? Haven't decided on this one yet./lh

- Apollo knows Sunny is sometimes embarrassed by being babied by so many God's, but he likes to fuss over her anyway and just teases her for it./lh

- Sunny once got sick while on Odysseus' ship, and while miserable in bed, Apollo appeared to her. She tried to speak to him, but she was feeling so bad she couldn't speak properly and it came out as tired gibberish. Apollo just kinda softly giggled at her without understanding, before he decided to help heal her from her illness.

- Apollo has likely held her before so she could sleep during one of her more bad nights.

- Apollo probably proudly refers to her as his niece when speaking about her./lh

- Apollo usually makes it VERY obvious that he's there whenever she asks to see him. Like the sun gets suddenly brighter, crows appear (one of them likely being him in disguise) and as do swans, etc etc.

- Not sure if it would happen, but maybe Apollo kinda pranked Sunny so hard by accident one time that even Hermes got mildly upset and either scolded Apollo in his own way, or decided to teach Apollo a lesson by messing with him back./lh

[lurkingteapot]

2023 post round-up/summary

Lovely @twig-tea tagged me here, so I'll try my hand.

I'd abandoned tumblr for about 4? 5? years 2016ish through 2020, had a short stint with it again in 2020, took peeks and vehemently disagreed with much of what I saw in 2021-2022, and grudgingly settled back in in 2023. I wasn't going to interact. I wasn't.

Jan-April: *crickets* I was being strong!

Then, I saw people moaning about how they'd learn Thai if only it was on Duolingo, and you know how spite can be funnelled into positivity? I did that! Result:

May

Popular: Free Thai Language Learning Resources, most popular by a landslide. This pleases me greatly, as I put a lot of work into it and always hope more people start picking up this language.

Favourite: maybe my thoughts on Ming, piggybacking off @kenmakaashi's post?

June

Popular: my musings on translation and how it relates to fannish reception of media, which was my most popular post of the year and 'broke containment', if only in a very small way. Some of the additions in the tags and reblogs are fantastic, do go have a look if you like!

Favourite: toss-up between my attempt at showing a parallel between a silly moment in Our Skyy 2 x BBS and a scrapped shot from BBS proper and this rant about Romanisations of Thai and why G**gle translate is the devil (that bit is in the conversation downthread), which let me meet @plantsarepeopletoo.

July

Popular: Summary of James Welker's 2006 essay "Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: “Boys’ Love” as Girls’ Love in Shōjo Manga"

Favourite: the offerings are slim here … let's go with the one in which I once more was salty about the way folks talk about BL

August

Popular: Only Friends' Ray isn't just The Drunkard, but also The One Who's basically Given Up On Himself, as per his title card (this one was so popular it got stolen and reposted – without credit or permission – to twitter 🙃)

Favourite: Thinking about Drama, the Romance genre, and tropes, and how those relate to our perception of BL (good additions from various folks in the notes; conversation with @visualtaehyun in reblogs and @twig-tea in the replies).

September

Popular: IFYLITA Ep 6 poem context notes

Favourite: toss-up between complaining about badly machine translated content in Love in Translation and musing on the name of Khun Yai's favourite bar

October

Popular: my long-winded answer to @zimmbzon's ask "Hi, how would a non-binary person (me) get around the binary gender rules and vocab in Thai?"

Favourite: uhhh … maybe my musings on honorific translations in kimi ni wa todokanai? (yes, technically a reblog from sideblog, shh)

November

Popular: most popular was this throwaway therapy vent containing food for thought and while I guess this meme is mostly fannish I'm linking it anyway because it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to (or something)

Favourite: when I called out the resemblance between the Last Twilight trailer and Intouchables (2011). Literally no one cared, but then @my-rose-tinted-glasses independently came in strong with receipts as soon as the actual first episode aired and made me feel validated af.

December

Popular: Why I'm pretty sure Last Twilight's "fried rice/false rice" joke was funnier in Thai

Favourite: the saga of the songs in Ep 4 of Last Twilight

I didn't do any round-up posts, but I'll include the other category @twig-tea added:

Five other posts that I want to highlight because I can:

BL Favourites Tag Game (July 2023)

Link to fujoshi.info with information on WHY you should check out that site if you're interested in having an informed opinion on BL and the genre's history.

contemporary issues in Thailand as mentioned in Only Friends ep 1

Thoughts on code-switching in Step by Step

Reply to @mynameisnotthepoint's comment-via-ask on my anti viki rant

I'm not going to tag anyone because I'm completely lost – I was mostly off tumblr for nearly three weeks; if you made a post like this you'd like me to see, please link me/tag me! <3

[spockandawe]

People I'd like to know better

Tagged by: @sunderedstar

Oooh an opportunity to talk about me, don't mind if i do

Last song: AJR - Burn The House Down (I'm still not fully started on my ToT reread, but wheelfic was what introduced me to this song, so I've already been getting anticipatory cravings 😆)

Favourite color: Red! Deep, saturated red my beloved

Last book read: Well, I'm currently bouncing between 'I Became A God In A Horror Game' and 'Evil As Humans' because I'm super reluctant to finish either of them and have no more of them left (they're both so good). But let me check what i last finished. OH. 'How To Feed An Abyss'! That was fun enough, nothing brain-rewiring. It was outside my usual wheelhouse, but I had a nice time, and I do love me a nonhuman protagonist.

Last movie: Transformers One! I had to see it before I went to tfcon. Guys, I'm dormant in the fandom, but I love these silly silly space robots so much. I think the bumblebee movie was probably a better movie, but this is my favorite of the transformers movies. Just aesthetically, i was eating WELL.

Last show: Show.... boy, I don't really television. A friend asked me to watch once episode of tv by Friday and I was like 'I'll try, but we both know this is Unlikely.' oh, wait, progress has been slow, but a different friend and I are working through 'Love Between Fairy and Devil', and I'm LOVING it so far!

Sweet/savory/spicy: Oh no, that's hard. I think... spicy

Relationship status:

Last thing I looked up: 'transformers one iacon gif' lmao. Earlier today I spent some time trying to look up the difference between redis and rest api interactions between software services, but I'm fighting my own deep apathy towards programming, so i forget what i learned

Current obsession: oh god. SVSSS, GHG, and EAH are all jockeying very hard for attention, and ffvii, raksura, and transformers are all making noise too. This isn't sustainable, at least not with all the work/home pressure I've been fighting, but I'm not sure what will slip

Looking forward to: I'm so close to having real hobby time back. I'm SO close. I'm rapidly losing my mind from lack of Making Things, but I am doing a really good job at work, apparently. If I can update a word doc draft, excel sheet, and make sysml progress tomorrow, then pick up fence brackets, dryer vent thing, and scope out fridge at home depot before work... That's technically a lot, but if i can do it, I'll be SET for free time tomorrow evening

[ezra-iolite]

Some OC Facts to Fill the Void...

.... Still figuring out if I wanna give Swift a new bio or not, so have this for now.....

A list of what Swift would be like with the other Transformer OCs of my mutuals~

Swift with Starhawk, on the Lost Light: (@dimorphodon-x)

.... Siblings. They got that sibling vibe, for sure~ ~*~

Her nickname for him is Hawkie or Ndugu (Swahili word for Brother) ~*~

When they first met, her first impression on him was... memorable, to say the least. She joined at the start of the quest to Cyberutopia, and when she entered the bar for the first time and was about to greet Hawk.... She immediately tripped on the much shorter Rewind and fell face first, Blitzø from Helluva Boss style, right in front of him. Never one to feel ashamed for such things, Swift simply laughed and rolled over onto her back, apologizing to Rewind.... before simply offering her hand to Hawk from the floor and introduced herself in a playful tone, "Nice to meet you, darling. I'm Swiftwire, but people call me Swift.... The floor is surprisingly comfy." ~*~ But in due time, after a few shared drinks with him and exchanging trauma stories, she'd see him as a big brother she loves to annoy... But she would 100% protect him from harm and be there for him when he needs her, especially as a babysitter. ~*~

Her main expression around him is a smug grin... She definitely pranked him somehow. He doesn't know what it is yet, but he always knows she did something. It's ALWAYS something with her~ ~*~

Swift's accent is something Hawk would definitely try to tease her on the most, for the first half of their prank wars~ Purely because her Kenyan accent makes her pronounce Rodimus as "Roddy-Moose" with a rolled R, and Starhawk's own name as "Star-Huckoo". And thus, the nicknames began... with Rodimus becoming Roddie and Starhawk being Hawkie. ~*~

Is Rodimus innocent in their pranks? Naaahhh~ He's the one who plotted half of them, at least, allowing Swift to carry them out in his stead, when captaining takes up most of his time. But the pranks are never big or humiliating, only silly~ ~*~

The common types of pranks she'd most likely pull would be to put big chunky eyebrows on his baby/babies or dress them up in funny costumes to surprise him, jumpscare him by popping out from the vents above his head and dangle from her dreadlocks Spiderman style, or switch his drinking glass with an empty one to make him think he drank too much without realizing it.... like stealing a toy from a dog without them noticing~ She mostly loves to confuse him. ~*~

Thunderclash is the mediator to Swift and Rodimus's pranks. He makes sure they don't give poor Hawk a heart/spark attack, and he mostly does this by plucking Swift out of the vents or holding her up like a cat in air prison to carry her away and scold her. Megatron is the main one to do this when Thunderclash isn't around. He is immune to her pranks towards him, when Swift wishes to make Hawk laugh.... since she knows her pranks towards Megatron always end in a chase or her being plucked and tossed out of a room~ ~*~

The moment Swift hears an inkling about children, she'll be giddy and eager to provide her services and aid to Hawk and the papa trio. If she meets Elbent and Verglaust in this AU with their own kids, Ferrous and Indicolite, then Swift would definitely be taking notes on how to be a Mom and Aunty from both families and eagerly offering to be a babysitter to ALL the kids~ She's surprisingly good at managing a whole hoard of them, and thus would easily become the Lost Light's daycare person.... ESPECIALLY after having her own daughter, Sira. ~*~

Speaking of Sira.... Since Swift would technically die for a short while after the birth, I have a feeling she would have Sira after the birth of Flareblaze, once she's gotten to know the full depth of child rearing from Novabird's experience and getting to babysit him. The day that happens, and Swift dies from the pregnancy becoming ectopic but allowing Sira to be delivered safely at the cost of her voice.... Yeeaaaahhh Hawk gonna be traumatized seeing Swift all bloody and grey, only to come back after being patched up and healing a bit. But...... If Cybertronian births occur through the spark chamber.... This would be the day Swift's secret about her spark would be revealed~ And here, if Hawk was present or came after the birth of Sira.... He would see Asya's brutally destroyed corpse within Swift's spark, the only true sign to show that Swift is dangling between the edge of life and death. ~*~

And finally.... If Swift was around after Hawk's death, she would be there to help raise the kids as a supportive family friend, or Auntie/Shangazi Swifty to the kids. But because of her past brushes with death, Swift would DEFINTELY have a weak but consistent ability to sense Hawk's ghost~ She would mourn him massively and paint her plating white (the colour of mourning in most African cultures) for a full month. In turn, Swift would happily babysit little Nova, and through the constant presence of being there for the family, she'd be able to tell where Hawk was.... And perhaps see him like a flickering shadow when he interacts with objects. Due to this, she would keep it a secret and subtly help him out using her dreadlocks when anyone is around, until either Hawk assures her that it's ok to know his secret, or Thunderclash tells her himself. ~*~ In turn...... Hawk would most likely be able to see a small, lingering light in her chest constantly only after his death, like a ghostly presence that embodies Swift's spark. This white light would flicker weakly like a star in the distant night sky, but would grow brighter subtly when Swift becomes nostalgic of her human past or is encouraged to teach the kids or anyone about her culture and mother tongue of Swahili. And should Hawk ever touch this light....... He would experience a very quick but brief flash of her memories as a child, of her time spent with her mother Gasira. All Hawk would see is her mother's face, maybe a whisper of her gentle voice praising her and calling her "my darling rose", before he'd jolt back into the present.... Both him and Swift shivering from the sudden chill up their spines. She'd have some trouble explaining THAT to Rodimus~

................. Will update when the brain decides to brain properly... For now, THIS is what I mean by Swift falling when meeting Hawk:

Just immediately.... plops. XD

[aimmyarrowshigh]

also, what is "Please Stand By"? The MCU one!

OKAY (this is the "tell us about your WIP documents" meme from the other day) --

This is prrrrobably going to be my longfic after I finish and post Lent From Tomorrow, and it's the "Bucky follows Wanda into the Hex" fic inspired by this amazing gifset. SWORD realizes that they can't negotiate with Wanda through terrorizing her, so they bring in Sam and Bucky to try to reason with her. Instead, Wanda's offer of happiness is too tempting for Bucky and he follows her into the Hex to exist in a universe where Steve really stayed with him until the end of the line.

But.

Bucky doesn't remember doing that, because he's in the Hex. His reality is what's happening inside the Hex.

It starts with either a The Honeymooners or an I Love Lucy chapter in the 1950s -- I can't decide whether I want the shenanigans to be more working-class Honeymooners/their actual life in Brooklyn-ish or if I want the sitcom fantasy of I Love Lucy. But either way, it's very chaste and 1950s and they sleep in separate beds and are just Happy. Nothing is wrong! Everything is a shenanigan! More silly than scary! Everything is perfect!

Then there's an Odd Couple 1960s chapter. Technically The Odd Couple was 1970-75, but the Dick Van Dyke show was WandaVision's 1950s inspo even though it was on in the '60s, so whatever. ALTERNATELY: Hogan's Heroes, because uh, Bucky was literally a POW of the Nazis for 70 years, and this would be the first clue that Something Is Amiss Because Life Isn't Perfect, but I think that's too on the nose. And I like the idea of Stucky being The Odd Couple for a chapter. I think it would be a subtle way to start letting Bucky vent his anger with Steve for leaving him without actually remembering why he's so angry with Steve.

The 1970s is Starsky & Hutch, so we're moving out of sitcoms and into mystery and also Slashy Content. Steve and Bucky are partners trying to solve [idk some Hex-related mystery, maybe seeded by Agatha?] and exchanging Heated Glances and innuendo. And then... Bucky is injured, either while mystery-solving or just cuts his left hand while making eggs or a drink or something. But his left hand doesn't bleed. It's the opposite of the Dottie moment from episode 2 of WandaVision. Something is wrong with Bucky's left arm. It's--it's not actually real.

INSERT FLASHBACK CHAPTER of Bucky getting the call from SWORD and entering the Hex, a la episode four of WandaVision.

The 1980s is Miami Vice. It's darker, sexier. A lot of exposed chesticles for both Steve and Bucky. Steve and Bucky have conflict about Lady Of The Week romance subplots being privileged over their relationship to each other, probably. Bucky's metal arm is back.

The 1990s, I'm tempted to have just straight-up be Law & Order as they try to figure out what the fuck is happening with the Hex and with their relationship to each other, but also -- and I'm sorry @therebeccaw -- very few TV shows are LESS sexy than Law & Order, and I want Steve and Bucky to bang at SOME point, so IDK. Also I'm torn about the mystery angle and I sort of want it to be Full House and have Bucky get to have one last chance at a Happy Perfect Life With Steve before he admits that none of this is real and returns to reality? Unsure.

2000s/2010s -- You know what? I'm tempted to make this one Psych, which is like a cross-section of sitcom and mystery show. Steve and Bucky are good, they're happy, Bucky is resolving his feelings about what happened in Endgame and just... wants to enjoy what time he has left with Steve, because he can feel in his bones that this will be ending soon. Even if Steve isn't real, Bucky wants to have his best friend back, wants to have the love of his life by his side. He knows, like Shawn knows that he's not a psychic, that none of what's happening in Westview is real. But it's okay. He can keep pretending.

Possible flashback chapter of their whole life experience together, from being kids in Brooklyn through the War and into the MCU stuff, a la Previously On, which is one of the best TV episodes of all time imo.

And the big ending -- IS Steve not real, and just made of Bucky's sadness and hope and love? Is he just Bucky's grief persevering?

Or, is Steve also hiding out in Westview, having given the mantle of Captain America to Sam?

I'm genuinely undecided which it'll be, so we shall see. Please stand by.

[whim-prone-pirate]

agree!! if i am ever correcting typos or other technical errors (for instance, once i was reading a chapter of a harry potter fic minutes after it was posted, and they accidentally wrote "mrs. ron" instead of "mrs. weasley" when addressing molly), i always make sure to tack on a compliment as well, even if i'm only partway thru. it can be simple! "i am loving this chapter so far, thank you for the update!!! btw, i think you may have meant to say "he had" instead of "he have" here: [copy and pasted bit of the passage with the typo so it's easy for the author to find)." they always respond gratefully, as do i when my typos are corrected! i HATE finding out months after i've posted a fic that i missed a word or made a silly typo, even after rereading it myself tens of times.

but always save concrit for friends who are requesting it, authors you are betaing for, or authors you don't know who specifically accept it. a fresh set of eyes on your work can be helpful, yes, and working with someone who has concrit for your work can improve your writing, yes, but sometimes? the author just doesn't want it. and that's fine. fic is meant to be an outlet for creativity, not a graded assignment.

and honestly, if you are reading something that is CLEARLY a vent fic, probably save your thoughts all around. writing something and putting it out there can be cathartic and oftentimes the writing isn't meant to be very good, the author probably isn't even looking for typo corrections.

Is it just me, or are there less comments being written on fics nowadays? I get to a fic on AO3 that was posted weeks ago, and it has like 30 kudos but no comments yet. It happens more and more now. Why is that?

I don't like it.

[erigold13261]

Been thinking of Failed Revolution AU a few years into the future where 1010 is no longer working for NSR and are living in the UK trying to overcome their trauma and basically start life over.

The idea that each one has their own baggage to deal with but slowly gets better is something I love to think about, but it also made me realize just how much Green had suffered.

Like yes, all of 1010 suffered, but they all had someone else to help them out or at least hang out with. Green had no one. Like technically he had Yinu, but she wasn't always able to visit because of Mama's hatred for 1010. Not to mention Yinu would just use Green as a person to vent to and so wasn't really someone Green could rely on.

Red and Yellow had each other. Blue and White had Neon J. Green could kinda rely on Blue, but both Yellow and White would constantly harass Green. Red was a total flake and even helped Yellow in this harassment (mainly because he was scared to be in Green's situation so he went along with Yellow's asshole-ery).

I just love the idea that 1010 try to move past the pain they had, but Green is the only one not healing. He doesn't have the energy or care to try and move on, even if things are objectively better for him now than they ever were working under NSR.

Yellow and White (not Sun and Silver) do their best to make it up to Green (not Fern), but it's just not working. Fern just stays in the rooftop garden or cleaning the shop/machines in their little family run candy shop.

Unlike the rest of 1010 who are trying to get educations, better jobs, make friends, Fern is just isolating himself and going throught the motions of life. Not caring to even try and heal (honestly if anything, he is still holding a lot of anger and pain towards the rest of 1010 for everything that happened, even if he isn't showing it).

Like Green didn't even have Neon J to fall back on. J was too busy wrangling Yellow in, scolding White, calming down Red, and putting more and more responsibilities and teaching moments onto Blue, that he just never even had time for Green (who for the most part seemed the most self sufficient and well behaved of all of 1010 in Neon J's eyes).

There's also the fact that if Neon J did have time to spend with Green, he was instead spending it either drinking or with Nova. To Neon J, there was no need to spend quality time with any of 1010 as he wasn't supposed to actually care for them (he did, but didn't want to admit that). And since Green was well behaved and not lashing out physically or emotionally, then Neon J didn't need to actually spend time with him (he did, but it was very rare and mostly cut short by the jealousy of the other 1010 members).

Anyway, I'm just rambling at this point. But I love the idea of exploring how each member of FRAU 1010 tries to heal from their time at NSR. I also like the idea of how White/Silver and Blue/Sky end up becoming friends with Ex-Jay and B2J in the future.

It is nothing like how the OG versions are, but it is something that helps them all get to a better place. Like closure (something that Green will definitely need at some point).

So yea. Just wanted to type this out. Been thinking about it for a few days (honestly probably a week now). I have 2 versions of this whole thought process.

One where there was a multiverse merge, where almost all my AUs combine into one like pocket of time universe. There my AUs meet and they see the different versions of themselves and learn how to be better people from seeing their flaws either reflected or called out. (and years down the line from this event it happens again just so the AUs can meet and see the progression everyone made lol)

The other is just where FRAU naturally continues without any silly multiverse shenanigans. Less self reflecting and a bit more serious, but still a bunch of good ideas.

Okay. Rambling basically over. Just really wanted to talk about Green and how his neglect and abuse will be something he doesn't get over for years, much longer than the rest of 1010 took to seemingly "get over" what happened to them.

[hojiteaversion]

Vlad x Laia x Leo headcanons

Vlad and Leo exchanging a Look and kissing Laia's cheeks simultaneously while she's super focused on her paintings

Washing dishes together. Leo technically isn't allowed to help cause he already cooked, but, I mean, it's Leo. ofc he's gonna help. Laia washes, Vlad rinses, Leo dries/puts them away (btw, Leo has a "Kiss The Cook" apron that they gave him and that he uses daily)

The three of them having date nights out. Laughing over something Vlad said. Laia resting her head on one of their shoulders while holding the other's hand

I was gonna say they fight to see who'll be in the middle of the bed but lbr, most times, I think they just put Laia there. They definitely give the middle to Vlad when they feel he needs a little more touch than usual. Leo gets the middle too, but especially when he's upset about something 🥺 (sorry bby)

Laia doodling them when she's stuck in a boring meeting. Laia leaving post-it notes with her doodles around the house (castle?) for them to find

With two lovers, Leo's self-neglecting habits have their days counted. There's always someone to take care of him the way he takes care of everyone else. He always has a shoulder to rest his head on, always has someone to rub his shoulders and drag him to bed and bring him water and food and to listen when he needs to vent

Vlad and Leo are the Stupid Chaotic Drunk type. The type that would try to bake the cookies at 4000ºF for one minute. They lk regress to the silly boys they were

Regular afternoon naps. A bonus of dating two people: there's always someone to use as a human full-body pillow, but really, it's always best when it's the three of them

Leo and Vlad teaching Laia how to use the sword!! Or maybe other, lighter weapons 😅 still, just, teaching her how to fight. I think they're gonna have decades of peace, so she won't actually ever have to use this knowledge, but she still likes having it. In any case, Leo and Vlad regularly practice/spar together because it's hot

Waking up in the morning and lazily going at it

[chihirolovebot]

a huge smile on face(s) when the kiss ends from the kiss prompt for shuichi and hajime? ty :)

— 𝐇𝐀𝐉𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀 + 𝐊𝐈𝐒��� 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓.

word count: 1.6k

content: gender neutral reader, hinanami friendship my beloved, light cursing, flustered hajime <3

notes: will do shuichi in a separate post bc this got away from me. what can i say im a hajime simp thru and thru. thank you for requesting!!

"ah... you should just tell them you like them, you know?"

hajime's hands slip on his console; it goes clattering, unheard, to the ground. he stares at chiaki with wide eyes and silent lips, but the girl doesn't even have the grace to look up after telling him something so ridiculous.

he'd just been venting! he didn't expect her to call him out like this! face burning, he retrieves the console with a mutter of apology. there's a crashing sound from chiaki's, and then the familiar chime of a game over. with a small sigh, she slumps against the back of the bench and regards him with gentle, knowing eyes.

"i can't." hajime's mouth moves before he gives it permission. "it's - they're - you know."

"what?" chiaki says demurely. "too good for you? is that what you were gonna say?"

"w-well!" hajime dithers uncomfortably, hot under the collar. "it's true, isn't it? i mean, they're an ultimate, and they're in the main building surrounded by all the other talented people, and..."

"and what?" chiaki blinks. "i'm an ultimate, aren't i? and i like hanging out with you just fine. besides, y/n likes you too. don't say i told you so, but they're always talking about you. fuyuhiko is just about sick of you and he's never even properly met you." as she speaks, she's fiddling with the buttons on her console, rebooting the game to try the fight again.

meanwhile, she has effectively knocked the wind out of hajime. he gapes at her, game forgotten on his lap. "what?" he croaks. "they - they actually talk about me?"

"all the time," chiaki confirms. "they're a pretty simple person, you know. i doubt you'd have to go all-out with your confession, or anything. maybe flowers."

"chiaki," hajime says seriously. "i'm not going to confess. i can't."

for the first time, chiaki frowns. hajime's stomach flips; he hates seeing her upset, because it happens so rarely, and it makes him feel like maybe the worst person alive. she pauses her game and turns to look at him.

"why not?" she asks slowly, as though trying to puzzle it out in her own head. "i mean. you like them, and they like you. if you don't confess, isn't it just going to torment both of you?"

"but." hajime's mouth is dry. "i'm nothing. right? i - i'm just some reserve course student. i can't..."

"sure you can. i think you're being pretty silly about this," chiaki tells him gently. hajime grimaces. chiaki is soft about it, but she always speaks her mind. it's one of his favourite and least favourite things about her. "sorry if that was rude. i just... well, i think it would make everyone happier if the two of you were together. including me. i'd like to see two of my friends happy together, you know?"

hajime's heart stops. "friends?"

chiaki's wide, amber eyes blink slowly. "of course we're friends," she says mildly. "you play video games with me." and with that, she turns her attention back to her console, and hajime is abruptly forgotten.

he can't even go into the main building to find you. how pathetic.

he has to wait outside, getting eyed and scrutinised by security who see his reserve course uniform, who plainly want to rag at him but can't because he isn't technically breaking any rules. he glares over at them whilst simultaneously hiding the bunch of flowers wrapped in cellophane at his side.

he hopes you like them. you're nice enough that you'll pretend to even if you don't, but he wants you to actually like them. wants you to have them in your room with pride. his eyes sting, suddenly. he's so stupid. drooping flowers wrapped in cheap cellophane. you literally have the ultimate chef, mechanic, photographer in your class. he's sure any of them could come up with a better gift than this. this is an awful idea, why did he ever listen to chiaki? he'll dump the flowers now, and—

the doors fly open, and a sea of brown-uniformed students come pouring out. hajime, flustered, nearly drops the flowers in shock. he keeps an eye on the crowd; most of them give him odd or disparaging looks as they flit past, but he barely sees them. chiaki wanders past, absorbed in a game already, but she pauses when she spots the flowers at his side before he can whip them out of sight. she stops only long enough to give him a brief, encouraging smile before carrying on with the crowd.

is he sweating? the hand clutching the flowers is slipping on the cellophane. he can't do this, he can't do this can't do this can't do this—

"hajime?"

he yelps; one of the last students out, you walk alongside akane owari and nekomaru nidai, who pause to eyeball him. they're not judgemental, at least - mostly curious. akane's eyes zip from you to hajime, as if wondering what on earth he's doing here.

"y/n." he can only thank his lucky stars that he didn't stammer. his face is absolutely burning. "do you - i mean - can i talk to you for a minute?"

you blink, surprised. it's not unusual for the two of you to hang out, of course. he suspects the only reason akane hasn't throttled and questioned him is that she already knows who he is. but he's never waited outside the main building like this before, and certainly not with flowers in hand. your heart skips a beat. "um. yeah, of course. hang on." you turn to akane and nekomaru, who have split identical shiteating grins. "you guys go on, i'll - i'll catch up with you tomorrow, okay?"

nekomaru claps you heartily on the shoulder as he moves past, which almost sends you flying into the asphalt. akane cackles and bellows, "use protection!" over her shoulder, which, great, now the both of you are blushing like fools.

"uh," hajime says eloquently, realising he should speak. "i. uh. shit. this already feels like a bad idea and i haven't even - okay."

"hajime," you say patiently. "don't rush yourself. i'm not gonna get annoyed, or whatever it is you think."

his eyes are a lovely shade of olive-green in the sparkling sunset, you realise unhelpfully when they widen a little in surprise. he's visibly nervous, picking at a stray thread on his jacket, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. you can't stop staring at the flowers, and your heartbeat picks up. are they... is this... is he possibly...?

mouth suddenly dry, you wait for him to gather his thoughts.

"okay," he swallows after a minute. "okay. i'm just gonna do it. y/n." and his gaze nudges up, and he's suddenly staring you straight in the eyes. it's strangely intimate, makes you feel as though he's looking right through you, and your whole body is flushing under the contact. "since we started school, you've, erm, you've always been so nice to me. i mean, more than nice, that doesn't seem like the right word, but. you know what i mean, right?" he doesn't give you a second to answer, beginning to pick up speed. "and - and at first i didn't really get it. i mean, you're an ultimate, and you're surrounded by all those talented people, and i'm just me, so i thought - i don't know, but i just really didn't get it at first. but i think i see it now. like, you're just kind. to everyone. and, uh, what i'm trying to say is - fuck. shit. okay. you know what i'm trying to say, right?"

he's bright red in the face, more flustered than you've ever seen him, even more than the time you accidentally fell asleep against his shoulder whilst the two of you watched some horror movie. it seems to be a great effort for him to look at you, but he's making himself do it because, you know, he's brave. even if he doesn't admit it to himself, he is brave. you look from his flushed cheeks, to the flowers in his hand, to the barely-concealed sparkle of hope in his lovely eyes.

and suddenly you can't not kiss him. it seems like the strangest thing in the world that you aren't kissing him right now. so despite the lurking fear that he might genuinely have a coronary if you do so without warning, you tug him forward by his tie and slot your mouth against his.

the reaction is instantaneous - he yelps, muffled against your mouth, and his hand flail like a distressed octopus. thanks to losing all motor function, the flowers go tumbling out of his grip, landing in a morose, colourful puddle at his feet. the kiss ends before he can figure out what to do with his limbs, and when you pull back he's gaping like a fish, so red that he's in real danger of overheating.

a beat. you think you may have made a mistake. and then, like waking up from a dream, hajime blinks slowly --

and then he smiles.

you rarely see him smile so genuinely. it's as if you've let the sun into a dark room; his eyes lift up, and his mouth lilts, and the violent blush on his face cools somewhat into a mild, lovesick pink. your hajime is practically glowing in the dying light; you've noticed that he's handsome before, sure, but here in the sunset with the taste of him on your mouth, he's practically ethereal.

"oh," he says absently. he's still smiling.

"oh," you echo, and you realise that you're smiling, too.

[thyandrawrites]

Sorry this might be a silly question and mqybe really obvious, but I have a question. Why does Dabi have stapples on his skin? To hold the patches? To hold the dead skin in it's place? Isn't it burned already, like a scar it would stick there, like Endavour has the scar or even Deku on his arm. Like why does he have those stapples?

It's not a stupid question! I wondered about their purpose too. Now, take what follows with a grain of salt because we have no canon explanation for them and I'm no doctor.

As far as I know, staples are normally used to stitch a wound closed to facilitate the healing. Dabi's ones though seem too far apart from each other to do that effectively. And while that might be explained as lack of medical realism (Hori is known for sometimes taking liberties with it), I don't think that's the case because Jin's sutures are drawn realistically and do a much better job:

So, if not to heal, Dabi's staples must serve another purpose (beyond fitting a certain aesthetic for character design reasons). Well, personally I've come to the conclusion that they are just there to keep him whole.

you'll notice that when he stretches the skin too much (like when he's smiling too widely), the healthy skin and the scarred one tend to spread apart and reveal the muscles underneath. The only reason why his skin doesn't flop everywhere is because those staples are straining to keep it together. There definitely is no healing going on there, as confirmed by the way smoke gets out from his seams when he overheats:

I think that should classify as an open wound.

I wonder if the fact that they haven't healed is by design or not. I mean, irl it wouldn't make sense not to treat them, but maybe in the fictional world of bnha where you can grow engines from your legs, it made sense for Touya to try and find some relief from all the internal overheating by letting... his smoldering insides... "breathe" through his seams? Idek, I'm not even sure why he has seams in the first place. There was a theory circulating years ago that he might've done the cuts himself. Technically, his quirk only burns him.

The air vent theory is a bit of a stretch, and idk how much I believe it myself, but the "keeping him whole" explanation is my safe bet for their actual purpose

What's for sure is that we're missing a big chunck of his backstory, and the explanation of how he survived Sekoto Peak is definitely going to shed some light on the remaining mysteries about him

[trashcatsnark]

i think the reason you're being put on blast is cause you said you were gonna write fem!V fucking Kerry out of spite which, cause people are dumb and have no reading comprehension, got interpreted as you're gonna have V fuck Kerry out of spite in your fic and not that you're gonna write the fic to spite the biphobes

Honestly, I don't think if I had worded it differently, the outcome would have been any different. They were out to get hurt. Because again, my post was untagged. So, they either benefit of the doubt somehow managed to find it through one of my followers or tumblr's shitty search tool. And still thought it was worth getting pressed over.

Like, was my og post a little vulgar and petty? yeah. This is my personal blog that I've had since I was 16-17. I don't have a super high amount of active followers and sometimes I get frustrated, I post vent shit and I leave it untagged so I get it off my chest but don't force anyone who isn't following me to engage with it.

I also think in general these people conflate reality and fiction too much. They seem to think Kerry is like... real???? Its very weird.

Now, I'm not gonna say fiction exists in a bubble and has no real world impact, that'd be silly.

But to say shipping a bi man with a woman who technically he rejects. Is akin to conversion therapy or rape? Real fucking trauma that has hurt real people, is downright a slap in the face to those people. That's so fucking belittling.

Plus they seem to be convinced that they've polled and spoke to every bi/gay man in the fandom and that all of them agree with them. Which, no, bi/gay men in your little circle of the fandom all agree. All of the bi/gay men within the fandom who I talk to on a regular basis agree with me. Yet, their voices were ignored by these people, because it didn't fit their narrative that we're all big scwary wamen who're trying to rub our cooties all over kerry.

Also, apparently they're caught up on another fandoms shit??? I never played the game, so I won't say much but apparently there was an issue of an explicitly gay character being written with women despite their entire narrative being about them not being ladies. Which that's fucked up, don't rewrite explicitly gay/mlm characters to be into women.

But they seem to think Kerry is in that same wheel house and he's not.... because he's bi, I'm not making a gay man bi, I'm writing a bi man being attracted to women and men, ya know, as tends to happen with bi people.

This is long as fuck, I'm sorry.

tl;dr: Kerry is bi and also doesn't is real, some people desperately need to go touch grass.

[cliponpotara]

I've still been slowly but surely devloping my Saiyan oc, Beeta. This is redesign 3 of her main outfit, which feels less bulky than the one with blue/green/white armor I gave her a while back. I also made the shoes less bulky as well! I feel like this is a more balanced and fun design. It's original while still retaining those Saiyan stylistic traits. I took a lot of inspiration from Fasha, if you couldn't tell by the thigh-highs lol.

I'm almost not even sure I want to give her any armor. I'm sure I could find some way to elegantly work it into the design - I love Fasha's one-strap armor, but I worry that would make Fasha's influence too obvious in my design. Maybe a cropped armor with one strap so that the green cloth belt can still be shown off? That sounds alright.

Forgive me, because I'm gonna ramble a bit more now. As for backstory, I was originally going to go with her being a typical low-class Saiyan. All my years of learning how to make a "proper" fandom oc has taught me to make them as unassuming and inconsequential to the main role as possible, so I didn't want to make her anything super strong. But that gets boring quick! My boyfriend had a great suggestion: she could be a high-ranking Saiyan to King Cold, similar to Bardock's position. That way she can be both strong and nonintrusive to the main DBZ lore! It'd be fun to explore Cold's reign as well. I don't want her to be a copy of Bardock and his gang so she won't be threatening Cold anytime soon, but I'm sure like many other Saiyans, she didn't fully trust him either.

In terms of powers, I'm not sure I want her to go SSJ canonically. Maybe a close form of it at her peak where her eyes go blue, but that'd be the highest she'd get. I had a really genius/dumb idea of connecting her periods to her power. Kinda silly, right? But hear me out, I've got a little theory. As someone who gets periods and deals with PMDD, I know all too well how it can just fuck you up. Assuming Saiyans are mammals, they'd have a menstrual cycle too. And for those who get emotionally and physically painful cycles, maybe a zenkai boost can be attached to it. The more painful the period, the bigger increase of energy they'd get after each cycle. Beeta would get some pretty hardcore periods (and have some PMDD as well so I can vent my frustrations through her lol) that give her a pretty decent boost each time, which would be a source of her power and part of the reason why she's so strong. Hell, beets are even a pretty deep red color - it's fitting, isn't it?

Oh, and there's also the name thing. Right now she's Beeta, but I kinda also like Beets. It just sort of rolls off the tongue better than the former, I think. Beets is technically already a canon Saiyan character too. I was thinking maybe Beeta could be a feminine form of the name, but also, I feel like Saiyans didn't care about that and just named their kid whatever the hell they wanted. And it's not like two people can't have the same name, either.

If you got this far, thanks for reading my funny little ramblings! I'm putting a lot of work into the creative process of Beeta. :) Writing it all out helps me brainstorm, too.

[blushing-starker]

Having a boyfriend that's a natural rule breaker becomes even more tedious because now it's two people conspiring together, itching to shatter social norms. Sure, they won't pull the fire alarm stunt to get out of a quiz (that's more Rocket and Groot's style), place mirrors on front steps to confuse Fury and nearly give the principal a heart attack (Loki with an exasperated Thor and cackling Hela) or hire a mariachi band to follow hall monitor Alexander Pierce (Steve had joined Bucky and Sam in that one); they'd never sneak into the air vents, fill them with glitter so the haughty board of directors would be covered in pink sparkles when they cranked the ac (Clint and Nat).

Ok, they did help with that last one, buying the shimmering stuff from T'Challa's sister and slipping five jars into Clint's backpack, but they didn't actually go into the vents.

But that's not the point. The point is there are limits to their rule breaking; Tony's spot on the football team and Peter's participation in the art club too important to risk on something as silly as skipping a quiz. No, they thanked their best friends, unhooked the window lock and slithered out only after finishing and handing in the quiz. They weren't amateurs.

Still, Peter knows Tony literally couldn't have chosen a worse time for their impromptu lunch date. (Luckily, he'd expected this exact situation.)

"Tony, they don't even have bad food today. We could just wait until the bell rang to meet up and eat at the bleachers. Like we always do a day before a big game."

His boyfriend swivels around, hooks nimble fingers into his belt loops to pull Peter closer, never once stumbling even while walking backwards. The grin he shows is manic, just this side of wild to let Peter know this isn't about haunting nightmares and bouts of anxiety. This is normal, too high on a feeling Tony Stark. Which means he won't head back to school unless Peter pulls out all the stops...

He's too exhausted from last night's art project to use up energy on the puppy eyes. So he sighs, tugs on the blue varsity jacket Tony loves to show off, kisses a dimple before turning this untamed creature around.

"Come on, I found a new route to that shawarma place with MJ and Ned last week." It sounds exasperated, but Tony knows Peter will do anything to keep him happy. Well. Not anything. There's only so many times they can discuss Star Wars before simply agreeing to disagree on whether Han and Luke are pan or bi.

"What, and you tell me this now?", Tony squawks indignantly from Peter's left side, freezing nose nuzzling into Peter's neck as revenge.

Like a robber caught sneaking into a vault, he raises his hands instantly before shoving Tony away.

"Hey, you were focusing on practice! If I told you, you'd bring Rhodey, he'd bring T'Challa and then Shuri would pop up and who goes where she goes? Bucky, which means Steve and Sam, who'd already be there thanks to Rhodey and of course Clint would somehow appear with Nat. We'd be together so Ned and MJ are gonna be teasing with Betty and half the guys in our grade have a crush on Nat, or MJ or Shuri or Betty or you. So what's the end result? The entire football, soccer, basketball and swim team eating shawarma a week before the games. I am not hearing Coach Coulson scold me for you guys breaking diet again. I'm already on his list, another situation like that and I'll have to run fifteen laps around the field."

"Oh come on, you can do those in your sleep." He could, but again, not the point.

"With a weighted backpack, Tony."

"Yeah, I can see why you wouldn't want that."

"Before cycling fifteen laps and then swimming fifteen laps."

"Jesus, why would he even do that?" Tony looks at him then, disgruntled at the thought of his boyfriend doing all that.

He shrugs, doesn't want to explain Peter had done it once when it all got too much and he'd needed to release the pent up energy. He hadn't noticed Coach watching him, ready to come help if he hurt himself. They'd talk afterwards, Coulson making him promise to never do that alone. Now it became a reward and a punishment. Peter won the art contest? Fifteen everything to focus his mind and not go jumping off walls in his excitement.

His students wolfing down a thousand calories before a game? Fifteen everything so Peter would at least "time it so it's not during the season, Jesus". To be fair to Peter, Tony participated in almost all the sports teams so scheduling was hard.

"Listen, just don't eat a whole animal, ok? We can split it, eat enough," he glares at Tony, pushing through even as the puppy eyes come out, "and then head to the movies. They're showing Aliens for a few days cuz of Halloween and I already texted the guys to come during lunch."

His boyfriend, smart and sharp and witty, just blinks at him. "But we have class after lunch."

"Technically, but I convinced Mr Pym to let the class out of lab so we could all hang out. It's the one class we share so now the whole group can see it together."

Tony stops, eyes wide and mouth open.

"You, what, planned this?"

"Yeah, something fun before tomorrow to take it off your mind for a while. Or, you know, not make it stand out as much. I know how focused you get, and it's really great, having that as a goal, strategizing and taking it seriously. But I also know it can be a lot, so I thought we should all hang out since each of us has something coming up and we aren't spending much time together. Which I get, responsibilities and family and school; I just missed it and I can't be the only one, right? So yeah, this was planned. Like, two weeks ago. When MJ found the new route, it was like a sign. And I really want you to relax and enjoy the whole, I have friends that care for me and a boyfriend that loves-"

He slaps a hand on his mouth, eyes impossibly wide and cheeks flaming. Tony and Peter stand immobile, the world reduced to beat up sneakers breaking the simplicity of yellow lines on black, a flickering neon sign telling them the shawarma place is open and two hearts slowly starting to beat again after that confession.

Ned would say it's romantic. MJ would bluntly remind them it's a bad idea to stand in the middle of the road even if they're saying I love you. And with good reason, since there's the telltale roar of a car bursting with teenagers, voices howling out the lyrics to an AC/DC song. And of course Peter notices the noise of rubber swerving against gravel, the screeching of old brakes and a few terrified shrieks harmonizing with a sharp wind blasting into him out of nowhere. Before he can react, Tony is there, wrapping his arms around Peter and shoving them both into the little patch of grass that grows from a crack in dirty pavement.

There's a moment where his whole world flips, tumbles until he screws his eyes shut and prepare himself for whatever the fuck caused that noise. But nothing comes. Only a sigh blowing a stray curl away from his forehead. But a sigh? Why would?

Tony.

He gasps, jolts upright and apologizes when that just serves to jostle his boyfriend further into the ground. His boyfriend who'd flip them so Peter wouldn't be hurt. Tony is peering at him through half shut eyes, discomfort clear on the grimace he tried to transform into a sheepish grin.

"So, you love me, huh?"

It's the stupidest thing Tony Stark has ever said.

"What the fuck were you thinking? You could have gotten hurt, you could have shattered a wrist, dislocated a shoulder, torn an ACL, bent a leg-"

"This is not what I expected. Also it was a three foot leap forward on grass, I'm fine, Peter."

"Or bashed your head, or busted an arm and then what would you do for the game tomorrow? Who the hell does that?"

"The guy you love, apparently."

"That's not the point, Tony, that's unimportant because you nearly got hurt. Christ, Coulson will slaughter me if there's a scratch on you, and then your mom would be sad and I'd be sad because, what would I do without you? And don't you ever do that again, I can't take it. I am not losing you, Tony. God, why would you do that, risk so much on-"

"On you? Babe, I'd do it again. Ok, not the right thing to say based on the whole face thing you got going on right now. But just hear me out. Don't, stop hitting me, ow, why are you hitting, how are you this strong, Jesus. Ow, stop it. Peter, for fuck's sakes, I love you, you animal. Now please let go of the jacket, it'll get wrinkles."

His hands unclasp the soft cotton, Tony falling back with a groan and Peter's unhinged jaw snapping shut after fifteen seconds of letting the flies in.

It's a wonderful thing, hearing the guy he's loved for so long say it back, say he loves Peter.

It's also fucking stupid since there's even more reason to not do stunts like that.

"You're an idiot. I'm in love with a guy that has one shared brain cell with Steve. You could have been hurt, Tony. And what would that have done, huh?"

His boyfriend sighs yet again, wraps an arm around Peter to push them from the ground and heads to the car where their friends are gawking. He waves them off, offers a "Yeah, I know I'm amazing, no, I didn't break anything, T'challa, yes, I can play, Jesus, Rogers, I can read you like a book. I appreciate the worry, Bruce; Nat, thanks for calming him down. Rhodes, excellent driving. No need to hog the seats, Sam, we need to settle in. Peter, you can keep cursing me out if you, yeah, see how it's nice being fun size when you fit in my lap in a car full of people. What, I'm not walking after that, I don't care if it's til we reach the parking. Let's go, Rhodes. Pepper, I'm fine. "

Clint offers a high five. Tony responds and that's that. Out of sight, Ned gives him a fist bump and MJ keeps on reading her book. It could just be his imagination, but Tony's sure she's smiling, approval clear on her face. He preens, glad to have her blessing, and settles his head on Peter's fluffy hair.

-----

When they're all laughing in a booth, smashed together and picking food off of everyone's plate, Peter nuzzles the crook of his neck, holds his hand and squeezes it. Tony smiles, lights up and shoves at Sam's face when the trio of best friends tease him for puffing his chest out when his boyfriend ever so softly says, "I love you."

"I love you, too." The table whoops and calls for another round of food and Coca-Cola, their family grinning at them and fondly teasing the new couple. Tony grins back, high on this feeling of warmth and happiness and safety and love.

And then Peter presses ice cold lips onto his neck and he lets out a shout, pain coursing through him when a knee slams into the table. His eyes water and through the haze of agony he sees their friends exchanging cash, some grumbling and others smirking. Rhodey and MJ, he notes, are the ones that win the most. They high five before pocketing the cash and ordering dessert.

Peter kisses his cheek, smile innocent and eyes wicked. It's his own fault Tony snatches an ice cube and slips it below his Nirvana shirt. He only has five seconds to lord his victory over Peter before there's ice cream being smeared on his cheek. They battle then, accidentally sending food into Wanda's lap, Clint's hair and Bucky's face.

In less than a minute they are all covered in shawarma and participating in the fight. Peter shrieks when Tony pulls him into his lap, gets chicken on the varsity jacket and tries to wriggle away. But Tony kisses him, tastes ice cream and joy, thanks whoever decided to give him a break and find this incredible person dozing on the roof of the school with Ned and MJ one spring afternoon. Peter kisses back and, at the same time, they say, confidently, honestly,

"I love you."

This is dedicated to @drarryismyshit07