#this is obviously when peter is a full grown adult

[your-stranger-halfblood-things]

Spideypool >>>>>>> Spiderpool

[justlikeeddie]

all of layton and nikita's strictly dances ranked CORRECTLY by ME

14. Samba, Week 1

unfair to have to rank this one really because nobody really knows what they’re doing in week 1. FASCINATING to go back and watch this though. obvs this is strong in the context of a first week dance! but knowing where they’re going to go from here… this is the one and only time you can see that nikita is dancing layton through the steps and keeping him afloat. they’re not yet a PARTNERSHIP here. they don’t KNOW each other!!! anyway good luck to these boys with navigating what they are going to experience over the next three months <3

13. American Smooth, Week 10

the infamous bottom-two dance. a result which i believe was undeserved!!! but the american smooth IS the most boring category on strictly unfortunately, so it’s a humble placing for this one. i did not love their outfits, for once! why don’t they go together. why does nikita look like peter pan. however, obviously i liked it when they both picked each other up and did a little skip in the air. also enjoyed how much craig enjoyed being bammed up by the ending.

12. Rumba, Week 12

controversial to place this so low in the ranking perhaps?? obviously this was a complex routine that they performed beautifully AND was very tender and intimate. but the rumba is the second most boring dance on strictly after the american smooth i’m afraid I’M SORRY. however, points awarded for nikita saying afterwards that dancing this felt like the rest of the world fell away and they were the only two people in existence. girl what

11. Salsa, Week 5

a great dance! fun! good vibes! their first lift! followed by a bit that i like where nikita has to sort of kick layton upright again. loses points ONLY for being perhaps their least homoerotic dance, which one of them, i guess, has to be.

10. Tango, Week 6

all the ingredients for greatness are here. TANGO. HALLOWEEN. layton is in high goth drag. nikita looks a bit like paul gross as geoffrey tennant as hamlet in the flashback sections of slings and arrows s1. but weirdly i don’t think this dance quite lives up to the level of drama i expected from it. having just rewatched it i think it’s because they’re ACTING like it’s a MELODRAMA, and it FEELS like they’re acting, as opposed to the way they usually totally inhabit the narrative of a dance. however. the switch from this vibe into the denouement - the BACKFLIP (fuck!!!) - and then the breathy, drawn-out final moment, which they suddenly ARE inhabiting, braced over each other and staring into each other’s eyes like they are ON GOD going to fuck in the middle of the dancefloor, is astonishing. once again i am asking the bbc if this is what they thought they were going to air

9. Cha-cha-cha, Week 4

okay. we are entering the section of the list where everything from here on down pretty much makes me feral. layton is everything in that jumpsuit. the THROW into the SPLITS. the raw sexual dynamism somehow contained within nikita taking layton’s coat for him. unbearable.

8. Charleston, Week 12

off the charts crazy. how can people move like this. they CARTWHEELED across the STAGE for what felt like YEARS. points only deducted for the fact that when nikita cried in the interview afterwards because he loved layton so much he had to do it in this extremely silly outfit.

7. Quickstep, Week 2

they danced the equivalent of a gay leyendecker illustration in week 2. IN WEEK 2 THEY DID THIS. they’re having so much FUN here. and to follow up on the week 1 ranking, the transformation from them feeling like a professional and a celeb to two people actually dancing together happens SO fast. it’s only a week later, but already something’s changed; layton’s totally at home in the routine and nikita’s REALLY enjoying it. it’s just so nice and i love them so much :’) also the quickstep is one of my favourite strictly dances because it’s inherently funny watching grown adults run full-pelt around a room and occasionally do a little skip. perfect 90 seconds of television.

6. Viennese Waltz, Week 3

ok so this is actually one of their lowest scoring dances on the show. but NOT according to my ranking. this ought to feel as faux-dramatic as the vampire tango but it doesn’t. something is HAPPENING between them in this dance and it’s real. i could write paragraphs about the eternities contained within the long, long seconds of them holding each other after it’s over, which goes on for long enough that the editor just has to like. give up and cut away from them. i’ve been linking to the bbc’s youtube clips throughout this post, but if you have access to iplayer i strongly recommend you watch this dance as aired (i have linked to the timestamp for your convenience) in order to see the full effect of this ending. there’s something about the combination of… the sincerity of the dance. the gender of it all. the refusal to break character. nikita’s slightly baffled-looking parents in the audience lending whatever the fuck is going on here a bizarre frisson. i’m completely obsessed with it

5. Jive, Week 7

the first thirty seconds of this dance genuinely make me feel like i’m coming up. overwhelming transition from the sexy sexy opening section (why are they dressed as little sailor boys? why are they touching like that?) into the supercharged beat of the side-by-side. people pay good money to feel like this. as has been pointed out, the jive is not a traditionally racy dance, and my question to nikita as choreographer is: why

4. Showdance, Week 13

cunt. cunt. cunt. cunt. the absolute fucking serve of the matching slutty magician elbow-length gloves. nikita dropping his hat while layton executes everything perfectly. obviously in the finale, homophobia won <3 but my god. they ATE. no notes.

3. Paso Doble, Week 11

i have said this before. but dancing to BACKSTAGE ROMANCE. in a show where i (facetiously) believe they may be experiencing a BACKSTAGE ROMANCE. seems illegal. anyway. this dance is insane. almost worth them being in the bottom two in week 10 in order for them to produce the unbridled energy of this comeback. as a category the paso doble has similarly melodramatic energy to the tango, but this performance is so unlike the slightly campy vampire number; they’re IN it, they’re living and feeling and breathing every moment. something about the mood of this dance, the power dynamics of it, nikita on the floor looking up at layton in awe as he emerges at his absolute fucking fiercest - happening in THIS week, rising above the stress of relegation and the overwhelming tide of online hate, is, like, pretty incredible, tbh. also the series of searingly erotic snapshot poses at the beginning of this routine are among the worst things i have been subjected to on this show, and as you may be gathering from this list, this is a crowded category.

2. Argentine Tango, Week 8

god it was a TOUGH GODDAMN CALL on these top two places. and tbh i think this is actually, truly, their best dance. the sheer SKILL here… whatever the move is where layton has to jump in the air and kick his little leggies around… stunning. i don’t really have a comical paragraph to write about this because i genuinely think it’s an incredible piece of dance and there’s not much more to add to that. however, extra points for the truly unhinged decision to do some dom nikita roleplay at the end? again, please watch this one on iplayer to experience the full unedited effect.

1. Couple’s Choice, Week 9

as i say. probably, technically, the argentine tango is better. but if i think about any element of this routine, i immediately black out. i cannot stress enough that he is standing on his back. he is STANDING. on his BACK. nikita choreographed this dance and he was like. i want you to stand on my back. PLEASE don’t worry about it. watching this routine is like looking into the sun. if i saw two men doing this in the club i would have to politely turn away to respect their privacy. also sorry to do this for a final time but i also need you to watch this one on iplayer because nikita stays on that pole at the end for so much longer than you are expecting and then does something sooooo unnecessary. this dance should be expunged from the internet so that i never have to contemplate it again.

[rubykgrant]

Dodgeball (2004) is not what I'd call a "good movie", and is in fact full of unnecessarily unpleasant "jokes" (major issues with ableism and fatphobia), however... if you ever want to practice spotting subtext/themes/tropes/story structure/and all that other stuff in movies, this stupid thing is actually oddly interesting-

-The two main gyms are Globo-Gym and Average Joe's Gymnasium; Average Joe's is, obviously, a pun on the term "average Joe", meaning a common person, not identical to everybody else, but not perfect either, and the members are all various odd-balls. Globo-Gym is meant to be "globolization", everything is connected and interdependant, but to the point that if you do not conform to the same set standards, you will be excluded/punished

-The guys who run the gyms are White Goodman and Peter LaFleur. While Peter is a bit more nebulous with the meaning of his name (it could, potentially, be connected to "Peter and the Wolf", a story about taking chances, compared to Dodgeball's Peter's apathy. also, perhaps a bit of the idea for Peter Pan, in that he is an adult who has "grown up" and "given up", losing any youthful sense of hope/determination. LaFleur, meaning flower, could possible imply a need to bloom/grow), White Goodman is OBVIOUS; he's a villain. He is very much the bad guy. He is a white man, who does whatever he wants, justifying his selfish and harmful attitude with his own "morals", so he considers himself "good". It's also all kinds of blatant commentary on his racial status (this man is white, whatever he does is seen as good, so even though he is HORRIBLE, he's thinks he's the hero)

-Within the Globo-Gym, TVs constantly run recordings of White giving random "encouragement" for gym members to work out, sometimes using names, saying "Don't slack, Trevor". He is not aware of any Trevor in the gym, There might not be a Trevor there at all. It still gives the impression to gym members that he is all-knowing and all-seeing, and just by playing the odds, he will EVENTUALLY say the name of somebody who is actually working out

-When the dodgeball teams are formed, White has a group named- "Blade, Lazer, Blazer". Yet again, their individuality does not matter, they are part of a set, just there for him to use for his own purposes

-A young member of the Average Joe's team is still in high school, and assists in his school's cheer team competition; they are called the "Virgin Donkeys". A very weird "biblical reference"... and ironic, because in the epilogue, the young man is seen happy with one of cheerleaders, now his girlfriend, who is pregnant

-One of the Average Joe's members is a man named Steve the Pirate; he dresses and talks like a cartoonish pirate character, often by saying "Gar!". Most people simply accept this. Near the end, he is told by an upset Peter "You are NOT a pirate", leading Steve the Pirate to have identity crisis. When he returns at the climax, he is dressed in modern clothes, his hair cut and with a clean shave. He begins to explain that yes, he knows he's NOT a pirate... which is when Peter explains that he needs somebody to help him with "all this treasure", revealing that the prize money has been delivered in a decorative treasure chest. Steve emotionally lets out an over-joyed "Gar!" at the sight

-The prize money itself is a twist; White had Peter sell the shares of Average Joe's to him, seemingly bribing Peter to just give on the tournament and the gym. However, peter bet that money on HIMSELF, at odds 50 to 1, resulting in a huge pay-off. Peter can now just buy total control of Globo-Gym, making it a new location of Average Joe's. When the prize money is delivered, not only is it in a pirate themed treasure chest, the words "Deus Ex Machina" are printed on the side (a "Gift from God", literally solving all their problems)

There is other stuff too, this is just what I remember off the top of my head (it has been... maybe 17 years since I watched it?). Like, this movie SUCKS, and some of the especially offensive language used is an just plain awful, but if nothing else; this shows even a stupid story has some form of substance hidden in there (seriously though, major warning for use of the r-insult and other hurtful terms, with some really bad fat-shaming throughout). Y'know what, you don't have to watch the movie, you aren't missing anything. These are the most interesting things in there, so enjoy that

[erigold13261]

Sorry for being snooty but I personally prefer the “Quida and Miguel friendship” route for how Miguel became CEO. Not gonna lie, I think if the kids in the movie are megaartists or indie rock bands, they should be older than 15 or 16… (but the last decision is on you)

When I gave that as an option I was only saying Miguel would have changed age, not everyone, but I get what you are saying.

Personally I would have had Gwen, Miles and Hobie in a band together (or at the very least Hobie and Gwen since they are already in a band) kind of like how the Sayu Crew are all together and (for me) they are 15-17.

Pav would be with Eve, with Pav being like 14-15 and Eve as she is in game at 27. If Peter B and Mayday are going to be in this AU then obviously Mayday has to be a bit older and could take on a similar age as Yinu at 9 (or around there) while Peter B as an adult is making her music (or if it's Miguel's own company to help with powers, I see is more like the Psychonauts and Mayday would be a young intern like Raz with the other kids as regular interns).

Like, in all honesty, keeping the ages of younger spiderpeople the same isn't as bad as you think, at least when you compare it to NSR who employs a 9 year old or Psychonauts who train kids to fight (granted the interns aren't supposed to be going on real missions until later after they are much more trained, it still doesn't excuse the fact that kids are fighting in very dangerous situations).

Which also goes into the fact that these spider people are in life or death situations all the time, having them stay their age in an NSR universe is hardly worse than their OG storylines.

But no, I get you. I have the same complaint for Yinu being so young and a Megastar (less so for Sayu's Crew as otherwise they would be in horrible family situations). I would say you can change the ages to help you fit these characters in the AU as you want, but I am probably going to keep them around their same ages.

Especially if they are being grouped up like how the Sayu Crew is grouped. If we are talking about Miles, Gwen, and Pav (and Hobie if you see him around the younger ranged of 16-19) all being SOLO Megastars, then yes, that's a problem. But if they are grouped up, like Miles Gwen and Hobie, and then Eve and Pav, with the other Megastars being full grown adults like Peter B, then I don't see as much of a problem with it.

Oh but again, when I was offering to change Miguel's age, it wasn't changing anyone else's. So whether he is in his 30s or 50s, I was planning on keeping everyone else's ages the same. Sorry for any confusion about that!

[lokipokey]

— masterlist ⊹₊ ✰ ⋆

the works within this masterlist are intended for adults only. you are in control of your reading consumption. please heed the warnings at the beginning of each work before you read.

my works can also be found on my ao3 as the user lokithot

loki laufeyson

9 to 5 | as otherworldly space creatures swarmed the high-rise and fought the rest of the avengers down below, you aren't surprised loki had the nerve to rile you up, but what did surprise you was how badly it got you going. you were usually the embodiment of calm, cool, and collected while doing your job saving the world, but this man was your vice.

better the devil you know | with loki and his chitauri army descending on new york with full carnage, you couldn't sit and watch from the sidelines any longer. and that arrogant, egotistical god atop stark tower was calling your name.

don't need candles or cake (feat. bucky barnes) | it was that time of year again. champagne popping, confetti flying, endless toasts and cheers in honor or you - your birth week was always a fan favorite amongst the avengers. but you simply couldn't shake the dull sting in your heart knowing you were simply so dispensible to loki... fuck reindeer games. you're not letting this arrogant fuck ruin your birthday.

doc ock

good fucking girl | working under nuclear physicist doctor otto octavius has you thinking about what it’d truly be like getting to work under him

peter parker

easy a | you had been reading a part of a dissertation to peter for your paired research when he had grown quiet, his occasional verbal cues of acknowledgement to your side of the conversation ceasing. you had simply continued until hearing him softly moan your name. you swore you misheard him, but once you craned your neck around to look at him, he was quite obviously lost in another world; his eyes were clouded over, and it wasn’t very hard for your gaze to be drawn down to the tent forming in his lap.

bruce wayne

kiss me thru the phone | his favor came quickly. you wear the contact lens to the lounge, the batman watches. turns out you know how to put on quite the show, and bruce has a front row seat.

© lokipokey, 2024.

[fortuositywritings]

I Said No (Wanda x R): Pt 4

Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3

Summary: You try to be friends with Wanda. Frankly, you could try a little harder. (Ice cream date, but it’s not really a date, but like it is but it’s not)

PS: There are like three swear words, mentions of exercise, and you eat a lot of pancakes but that’s cause you’re hungry. It’s not a problem. Also, if you are actually athletic, are fit, or like to exercise, you aren’t and you don’t. Not in this house.

You wake up the next morning with a sore neck. As you sit up, you see Nat standing beside the couch looking at you over her coffee cup scaring the life out of you. 

“So, how’d you sleep?” she asks.

“Like a princess,” you sarcastically reply. Stretching, you hear your body popping in all different places. Maybe you will take Pietro up on his offer.

“I know what will help. Some exercise. Get ready. We’re going on a hike.”

You finally take in Nat’s appearance and see her sporting the attire for a hike. 

You groan. “You say hike, but I know you really mean running at an incline.”

“Come on. Don’t be a baby. Exercise is good for you. When’s the last time you got any?”

You want to make a joke because of how she worded it, but your mischievous smile gives you away.

“Exercise, Y/N. When’s the last time you got any exercise,” she clarifies.

“The last time you asked me that.”

“A year ago?” 

“And my body is still sore. Ask me again in a few months,” you go to lie down again but she throws a couch cushion at your head. “Okay, okay. Jeez, woman. I’m up.”

When you return from your hike, you are heaving. You don’t ever really think about how unfit you are, which makes sense when you don’t spare 5 minutes to do any kind of exercise, but a hike with Nat will surely remind you. You are sweating buckets and just want to pass out when you enter the house. Everyone is awake presumably having breakfast. You can smell the pancakes from the living room. Your stomach growls. You want to eat but even chewing sounds like too exhausting at the moment. You just want to knock out. You head over to your sleeping quarters for the week, but before you collapse on the couch, your cousin says, “I don’t want any sweat on my couch, Y/N.”

“Ugh,” you complain but comply and go to take a shower. There is no warm water. You assume all the guests had probably had their turn while you were out. You don’t mind it too much. The cold water wakes you up and you feel refreshed. Soon you are sitting with everyone else making plans for the day, but unlike everyone else at the table you are scarfing down pancake after pancake, hardly chewing between each swallow. The conversation dies down as everyone starts to look your way. You’d be embarrassed at your table manners but honestly you’re too famished to care. 

“Woah, slow your roll there, Y/N. Where was this energy on our hike?” You hear Nat’s voice come up behind you. You don’t bother looking at her, showing her the middle finger behind your back so the kids won’t see. She chuckles as she sits on the empty seat beside you. 

“You might be faster than me,” Pietro comments.

“You know it’s not gentleman-like commenting on the way a woman eats,” you answer, mouth full and all. 

“It’s also not lady-like to speak with your mouth full of food,” Laura reprimands you.

“Cooper doesn’t care. Right, Cooper?” you turn to the kid in question still chewing on your food.

He answers you with a mouth full of food as well, “Right!”

Your cousin sighs as you reach over to give Cooper a fist bump. Wanda laughs at the interaction from beside Cooper. You give her a quick wink before settling back in your seat. She just rolls her eyes.

They all go back to their conversation and you go back to eating your delicious pancakes in peace. Once you are satisfied, you sink back in your chair letting out a happy sigh.

“Are you sure you don’t want another one? You hardly ate anything, Y/N,” Nat sarcastically says.

You roll your eyes in good nature. “Honestly, I do want another one but my stomach might explode. I’m going to be dreaming of these pancakes tonight. I’d wed whoever made these bad boys but sorry, cousin,” you turn to Laura, “you’ve got a husband and kids, and I just can’t tear a family apart.”

“Also, she’s your cousin,” Nat emphasizes.

“Obviously that was implied, Natasha,” you say her full name obnoxiously.

“I’d love to take all the credit, but Wanda actually made breakfast. So if you’re marrying anyone for the pancakes, it’s Wanda,” Laura says. 

“You hear that, Wanda? I’m going to make an honest woman out of you.” You wiggled your eyebrows her way.

“If anything, it’s the other way around, Y/N,” your cousin teases.

“Don’t egg Y/N on, Laura,” Clint quips.

“But then who is going to make me pancakes like these, Barton?” You pout.

“I can,” Pietro pipes up. “I’ll even bring them to you for breakfast in bed.” He winks as Nat and Clint wrinkle their noses in distaste and Wanda stifles a laugh.

“What?” Pietro asks his sister.

“Pietro, you can’t boil an egg.”

“Yes, I can. I can make many things. I even helped you with this breakfast,” Pietro insists.

Everyone watches the siblings squabble in amusement, especially when Wanda turns to you to stage whisper, “He burnt two pancakes.”

“I did not!”

“Ask Peter. He had one,” Wanda says in turn. Peter shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

“It was a little crunchy,” Peter says after much hesitation. Sam pats his shoulder, shaking his head. “Poor kid. No one should have to eat crunchy pancakes.”

After breakfast the kids decide they want to play basketball with the hoop Clint had placed over the barn doors. You break into teams of 3. It’s you, Lila, and Peter versus Sam, Cooper, and Pietro. Nat and Wanda sit on the sidelines watching and cheering. Your team is not doing so great. If it wasn’t for Peter pulling the team, you would cry in embarrassment. The guys on the opposing team start to get cocky. Sam rubbing the score in your team’s face, Cooper repeating whatever Sam says, and Pietro begins making flirty remarks about teaching you one on one and so on. You want to ignore his remarks but you kind of also want to wipe the smirk off his face. You do just that a few minutes later when you finally make a shot after Peter screens him allowing you to shoot. You look to see if Wanda saw but frown when you notice she’s not there anymore. You play for a few more minutes but you are quickly getting tired.

Laura comes up beside Nat and yells over to you, “Y/N, I need you to run to the store for me.”

“Oh, thank god.” You sigh in relief as you go over to your cousin and take the list she holds out to you. “Nat, sub me in?”

“Gladly.” She walks confidently over to take your place. You hear Sam and Pietro whine behind you when they realize Nat is playing in your place.

You chuckle as you read the list. “Are we having hamburgers tonight?”

“Gosh, you really were not paying attention while eating those pancakes. Clint wants to grill tonight.”

“Can you blame me? I’m getting that pancake recipe,” you say with complete determination. “Speaking of, have you seen Wanda?”

“Y/N.” Your cousin gives you a look.

“What?” You say innocently, knowing exactly what that look means.

“Clint told me about that little talk he and Nat had with you.”

“So, what now? I can’t be her friend?” you scoff.

“Friend. Mhmm, sure,” she laughs in disbelief and shakes her head. Why does no one in this damn house believe you?

“Mhmm,” you repeat as you are walking back to the house.

“Check the guest room,” Laura says last minute. Well, at least your cousin’s got your back. You give her a thumbs up in thanks.

Sure enough, Wanda is in the guest bedroom. She’s sitting in bed with a book in her hand. You softly knock on the door. She looks up, notices it’s you, frowns, and goes back to reading. You tilt your head wondering what has her in a mood. Is she back to thinking about her ex? Maybe you can help distract her as a good friend would do.

You walk over to the bed before deciding to sit in front of her cross-legged, elbows on knees, chin on the palm of one hand. “Whatcha got there?”

“A book. Ever heard of one?” she replies without bothering to look up.

Sheesh. “Oh, my god. Is it real? Can I, like, touch it? I’ve always heard about books but I’ve never seen one in person,” you say sarcastically, hoping to get some positive reaction from her. You see a slight upturn on the corner of her lips before it disappears. Though it was miniscule, it was a step forward no less. You sit there for a minute staring at her and thinking of how to proceed. You don’t want to worsen her mood with one of your dumb jokes.

Wanda can feel your eyes searching for some kind of sign from her. She gives up trying to read her book, having been repeating the same paragraph over and over again. She puts the book down and huffs. “Can I help you?” 

“Actually, you can,” you say. “I’m going into town to get some stuff for the hamburgers and I was wondering if you wanted to come?”

Maybe you are simply confusing Wanda’s boredom for an unpleasant attitude. 

“Didn’t you ask Piet? There’s no way he refused going with you.”

 Or not. 

Her sardonic tone is not lost on you. So, it’s about the brother and not the ex. You want to scream. This is why you have the twin rule. Though you want to bang your head on a wall for not listening to your own rules, you keep your composure as you stand to leave the room. Before you go, you tell Wanda, “I haven’t asked Pietro. I thought of you first, but if you’re not feeling it, I’m sure he would say yes like you say.”

You turn and head out to the hallway dejectedly, but you perk up when you hear Wanda stop you. “Wait! Let me put on my shoes.”

You wait for her in the hallway, smiling to yourself in part because you would not have to spend hours with Pietro’s constant advances but mostly because you got to spend time with Wanda without supervision. You are a grown ass adult, eh, not really, but legally you were an adult. You don’t need to be supervised. It’s not like you needed someone to watch you else you throw yourself at Wanda. Sure, you like to tease here and there but it’s not bothersome. Is it? Oh, god, were you annoying Wanda?

Those thoughts are quickly dispelled when Wanda meets you with a smile. “Ready.”

No, Wanda wouldn’t have agreed to go with you if you were really a bother. You’re sure of it.

It’s a 20 minute ride into town. With Wanda’s mood having done a full 180, you find yourself enjoying your time with her as she recounts a slight hiccup on Steve’s behalf on a mission. Soon enough you are driving up the main street looking for a parking spot. Luckily you find a spot not too far from the store. You head inside and grab a cart. You and Wanda wander around the aisles looking for what you need. Wanda takes over cart duty when you keep bumping into things because you’re distracted with either looking over the list or looking over at her. You say a quick hello to a few people you recognize.

“Well aren’t you popular,” Wanda comments as you both turn into the frozen food aisle to look for hamburger patties. 

“Yeah, that’s not always a good thing,” you say when you spot a woman you know in the same aisle. You move to walk real close behind Wanda, trying to hide your face. 

“What are you doing?” Wanda asks when she feels your forehead resting between her shoulder blades.

“Shhh, just keep walking,” you command without any explanation. Your really sad attempt at hiding was all for naught when you hear your name.

“Y/N? Is that you?” 

You take a deep breath, plaster a fake smile, and leave Wanda’s space. “Hi, Mrs. Townsend. How’s it going?”

“I thought that was you. You can’t hide from me, you know. Not that you were ever any good at it,” she says knowingly. You cringe at the memory of her finding you in her daughter’s closet. This woman disliked you from start to finish, which made sense given that her daughter had broken up with her boyfriend for you only for you to break things off a few weeks later.

“Yeah, I know,” you smile sheepishly. She looks over your shoulder at Wanda. She looks curious but not in the best way.  “And who is this?”

Wanda introduces herself with a polite smile. “Hello, I’m Wanda. Pleasure to meet you.”

“You look familiar. Have we met before?” Mrs. Townsend asks.

“No, I guess I just have that face,” Wanda responds with no hesitation having practiced that line so many times on missions. Mrs. Townsend’s stare weighs heavy and Wanda begins to feel uncomfortable.

“A very pretty one at that. Y/N sure knows how to pick them. Is that an accent I hear? Where are you from, dear?” Mrs. Townsend asks, with faux intrigue. Now you’re uncomfortable too. 

You know you shouldn’t speak for Wanda but you don’t want to subject her to be in this woman’s presence any longer. “Actually, she’s just a friend visiting from New York. She and a few others are staying with Laura. And actually, she’s expecting us to return soon. So, have a good day, Mrs. Townsend. Come on, Wanda. Let’s go.”

You lead Wanda away by pulling the cart behind you. When you’re nearly clear of the aisle, Wanda stops and reminds you that you never got the patties. You tell her to go ahead and get in line to pay while you go back for the patties, them being the last thing to get from the list. Mrs. Townsend is still in the aisle now talking on the phone very displeased. “Yes, she was right here and with another girl-” she cuts herself off when you’re in her vision reaching to get what you need. 

You give her a sarcastic smile. As you pass by her for the last time, you smirk and lean in to say, “Tell Abby I say hi.” Then you wink, leaving Mrs. Townsend very angry, and head over to the checkout area where Wanda is waiting. Wanda doesn’t say anything other than “Well, she was lovely” to which you laughed. Apart from that, she stays quiet at the checkout and as you put the items in the car. Before she has a chance to open the door to get in the passenger seat, you stand in front of the door blocking the handle. 

“Hey,” you begin, but Wanda is looking at her shoes, her hands fiddling with the rings on her fingers. You take her hand to shake her arm in an attempt to get her to look up. “Look at me.” 

You wish you hadn’t asked that of her because when she does look at you, it tears you apart. If you did not think your presence was needed more here, you could storm right back into that store and give Mrs. Townsend a piece of your mind. 

“Mrs. Townsend is an asshole. You should never take what an asshole says to heart cause it’s all shit,” you say in all seriousness. Wanda giggles and raises her free hand to rub her face. You pull it away from her face. Holding both her hands you continue, “She’s just a grumpy lady holding a grudge over something I did like two years ago. It’s nothing to do with you and all to do with me. So don’t listen to anything she says, okay?”

It takes a moment but she finally nods. “There we are.” You pull her into a hug, one she accepts easily, hoping to give further comfort. You can’t help but think how nice it is to hold her, moreso, when she hugs you tighter. 

“So, she was lying when she said I was pretty?” Wanda tries to joke, adopting your method of lightening the mood.

“Oh, absolutely,” you answer. She quickly pulls back from your hold but you don’t let her go too far, holding onto her elbows. “Cause you are breathtakingly gorgeous,” you finish.

She smiles and a blush takes over her face. You decide to add, “In fact, I can’t even breathe right now standing so close to your beauty.” You dramatically gasp for air making Wanda laugh and smack you. 

“Ow, if this is how you Avenger women treat your adoring fans, I’d hate to see how you take down the bad guys.”

“Oh, so you’re a fan?” Wanda asks adorning a sly smile.

“Mhmm, since day one.”

“Is that so? Because from what I remember you called me Crimson Witch just yesterday,” she teases you.

“And I stand by what I said,” you respond. You cut her off when she opens her mouth to argue. “But if I have offended you, let me make it up to you.”

She narrows her eyes, looking at you skeptically as if you were up to no good making you want to laugh. “How?” She asks warily.

You lean into her space once more to say, “I know a place.” You wink and without allowing her to respond, you take her hand dragging her along behind you. “Come on.” 

Your destination is just two blocks away. Wanda speeds up to walk beside you but she never lets your hand go. Not that you mind it in the least. You stop her when you arrive and reluctantly let her hand go to make a grandiose gesture with your arms. “Ta-Da!”

“An ice-cream shop?” she asks you, clearly unimpressed.

“Not just any ice-cream shop. The Ice Cream Shop!” You can’t help but say enthusiastically. Wanda on the other hand does not look enthused. You can’t believe she’s not excited for ice cream. “Oh, come on, Wanda. Don’t tell me you don’t like ice cream. The only excuse I’ll take is that you’re lactose intolerant or vegan. Just don’t tell me you prefer frozen yogurt. Oh, god. You do, don’t you?” You gasp dramatically, your hand clutching your chest. 

She shakes her head and rolls her eyes in a light hearted manner at your antics. “You’ve made your point. Just open the door.”

“Bossy,” you laugh, but do as she wishes though you make a show out of opening the door. You bow and motion for her to enter as you hold the door open. “After you, m’lady.”

She sighs. Passing through the door, she mumbles, “I could be in bed reading right now.”

“Ah, but then you would’ve missed the opportunity to hang out with someone as cool as me,” you say as you and Wanda go to stand behind the group of teenage girls ordering their ice cream.

“Oh, are they meeting us after? Do you think they’ll buy me frozen yogurt?” she retorts, amusement shining through her eyes. You generally find quick witted remarks annoying. Mostly because you’ve always been surrounded by smart-alecks all your life. Your cousin is one. Then she married one who had one as a best friend. Somehow, you find the same quality in Wanda kind of attractive. Oh god. This can’t be happening.

“Quit being so grumpy. You’re gonna thank me when you try it. It’s only the best there is.”

“You should listen to her, but hey, I may be a little biased,” the woman working at the counter backs you up. The teenage girls are long gone.

“Thank you, Tanya,” you reply, stepping forward to the middle aged woman you know to be the owner of the shop. She was actually the one to give you your first job at this very same ice cream shop. Maybe you were also a little biased. 

“I wasn’t expecting you to be in town so early, Y/N.”

“Well, I just missed you so much, I couldn’t wait to get here,” you explain.

“Uh, huh. I’m sure that’s it.” Her voice is full of disbelief. You laugh.

“Actually, I got here yesterday. I wanted to come earlier to help out Laura now that she’s phwwt,” you whistle and make a belly bump gesture like it’s a scandalous secret.

“She’s married and this is baby number three, Y/N. You can say pregnant,” your old boss laughs.

“But that’s no fun,” you pout.

“And who is this little thing?” She turns to Wanda, who timidly smiles still two steps behind you.

“Come on, I don’t bite, hun.” Tanya gives her a sincere smile, one much different from Mrs. Townsend’s. Wanda slowly approaches after you wave her over encouragingly. When she is close enough, you hold her forearm to introduce her to Tanya, trying to ease her nerves. It seems to work. You feel her relax and lean into your side as she says, “Hi, I’m Wanda.” 

“Pleasure to meet you dear. I’m Tanya. See, no need to be shy.”

“She’s not usually like this as far as I can tell. She’s actually quite chatty. Sometimes I don’t know how to get her to stop talking,” you joke. Wanda scoffs and bumps your hip with hers.

“Whenever Y/N begins to annoy you, just put on some earphones and hide them with your hair. It works wonders. She can talk to herself for hours,” your old boss advises Wanda.

“I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

“Hey!” You interject. “Tanya, where is your loyalty? So quick to team up against me.”

Wanda giggles beside you. You turn your head to playfully glare at her, missing the way Tanya smiles at the interaction in front of her. 

“So how’d you two meet? I don’t think I’ve seen you in town before, Wanda.”

“She’s a friend and um, coworker of Clint and Natasha. She’s here for the week.” You hope Tanya didn’t catch your little hiccup there. However, you miss the implication of her question. Tanya tries to remember who Nat is.

“Natasha. Is she the intimidating red head always wearing tight jeans?” You and Wanda laugh. You affirm with a finger to your nose. “Didn’t you date her sister?”

You let go of Wanda’s arm to throw your head into your hands. “Ugh, how could you possibly know that?”

“Small town. Word gets around fast. People are probably already talking about you two, especially when you’ve got someone as beautiful as Wanda with you.”

Wanda blushes at the insinuation. “There’s nothing to talk about,” you tell Tanya. 

Tanya raises an eyebrow, “You mean, you’re not dating?”

“Please, Wanda here is way out of my league. I mean, funny, polite, pleasant, and gorgeous. Maybe even a little pretentious. I caught her reading a book… for fun. Who does that? Ow!” Wanda smacks your arm and Tanya laughs. “Did I mention violent?”

The bell above the entrance door chimes informing you three that other customers are coming in. “Okay, so what can I get you?” Tanya asks, moving this along.

“I’d like two scoops of rainbow sherbert on a cone, please.”

“And for you, hun?” Tanya asks Wanda after handing you your cone. 

“Um, may I have two scoops of strawberry, please?”

“Of course, you’d get red,” you taunt.

“Here you are.” Tanya hands Wanda her cone. You take out a ten dollar bill from your pocket to pay but Tanya won’t have it. “My treat, ladies.” 

“But this is sort of an apology cone I promised Wanda,” you try again.

“Y/N! Apologizing with a three dollar ice cream cone is not a real apology. You can do better.”

“It’s like you read my mind, Tanya,” Wanda says. You want to laugh at the irony.

“It wasn’t for anything serious,” you try to argue.

“Whatever it was, you can treat her to something nicer,” Tanya reprimands you.

“Well, what am I supposed to do?”

“The fair is in town. Take her to that. Now shoo, I’ve got customers waiting. Nice meeting you, Wanda,” she says.

“You too. Thanks.”

You exit first, holding the door open for Wanda without thinking about it. She smiles and loops her arm through yours as you both head back to the car at a leisurely pace. You look to see if Wanda likes her ice cream. There is no doubt about it as she begins to hum in happiness. You want to say something like “ I told you so” but she warns you before you have the chance to open your mouth. “Don’t.”

You smirk and turn to your ice cream. You try to savour it, but you demolish that ice cream. You pout when you see it all gone. Wanda still has half of hers.

“Quit being so grumpy,” she says, throwing your words from earlier back at your face. “Here, you can have some of mine.”

She lifts her cone to your mouth. You happily go to take a bite when Wanda shoves the rest of her cone in your face. It wasn’t much but you can smell the damn strawberry ice cream as it drips from your nose. You’re too shocked to move for a minute. She laughs as you try to process what just happened. You hear the shutter noise of a camera. You see Wanda holding her phone up. That snaps you out of your daze. Wanda takes off running the second she sees the look that settles on your face. She doesn’t have to be a telepath to know what that look means. You chase after her. 

She gets to the car before you but can’t open the door. She turns around, hands out in front of her body which is shaking from nervous laughter. “Wait, Y/N. I’m sor-”

You pull her into a hug and shove your ice cream riddled nose to her neck smearing the strawberry flavored dessert on her. “Stop, okay. I’m sorry. Stop, that tickles!” She bursts out laughing. You take pity and let her go, but your feet stay planted where they are. You both quickly sober up when you see how close you are. You feel the tension from yesterday return. You know what you want to do but you know you shouldn’t. Wanda is not making it easy looking at you the same way. Before either of you make a decision, your phone rings ruining whatever that was. You awkwardly clear your throat and back away. You give Wanda a smile before reaching for your phone. You answer it without looking at the name of whoever is calling. It’s Laura asking if you are on your way. You tell her you’ll be there soon. 

You unlock the car and open the passenger door for Wanda. She gives you a quiet thanks. The drive to the house is awkward to say the least, a total contrast to the ride into town. The music in the background does nothing to alleviate your discomfort. In fact, you think it might have made it worse. 

You let out a little sigh of relief once the barn enters your line of sight. Wanda on the other hand can’t take it anymore. She turns off the radio and turns to you expectantly. You take a deep breath knowing what was coming. Having a feeling this conversation could get loud, you slow down the car to a stop before you could pull up to the barn. You’d rather not let anyone overhear knowing how nosy they all are.

“What was that back there?”

“You started it, shoving the ice cream in my face.” You play naive.

“Don’t do that.”

You don’t know why you thought you could get away with lying to her when you know she can literally read minds.

“I’m sorry. I wanted to. I did. I do.”

“Well, I do too,” Wanda says.

“You do?” you ask. You don’t know why you sound so shocked. You had a gut feeling already, but it surprises you hearing her say it aloud anyway.

“You know I do. So what’s the problem?”

The problem is you can’t. The problem is you promised Nat, Clint, and yourself you wouldn’t. The problem is what Nat said at dinner struck a chord with you. Sure she could have been a little nicer about it and maybe not say it in front of everybody, but she was right nonetheless. The problem is your habit of touch and go, the one you never wanted to admit you had, only hurts people. You are the problem and you‘ve decided to fix it, starting with Wanda. You won’t allow yourself the chance to break Wanda’s heart. You don’t think she deserves that.

“You don’t get to decide what I deserve. Neither does Nat. Neither does Clint. I get to make that decision for myself. If I put it all on the line and end up heartbroken, then that’s on me. I make that choice.”

You nod, “You’re right. That is your choice and I can respect that. But it’s also my choice to decide I can’t be the one to break your heart. Can you respect that?”

A heavy silence settles in the car, but you have said all you needed to say so you wait for Wanda to respond. When she realizes your mind is set, she nods. After another minute of silence, she asks, “What now, then?”

“Cliché, but friends?” you suggest. When Wanda scoffs in disbelief, you have to ask, “What?”

“You and me?” Wanda asks as if for clarification.

“Well, I don’t see anyone else in the car. Yes, Wanda. You and me.”

“Have you ever been just friends with anyone before?” Wanda asks, placing no kind of faith in your ability to maintain platonic relationships.

“Are you asking if I can keep it in my pants? Not to bruise your ego, but I can be in a room with you without wanting to jump your bones, Maximoff. I have plenty of strictly platonic friends. Like... Nat.”

She laughs at the choice you made for an example. “That’s only because Natasha doesn’t want to sleep with you.”

“So, what you’re saying is this friendship won’t work because you can’t keep it in your pants?” you counter and watch with amusement Wanda’s face flush and her try to defend herself.

“N-no,” she stutters weakly.

“Great,” you say cheerily. “It’s settled then. We can be friends.”

“There are rules though,” Wanda warns you as you start driving toward the house again.

“Already? Had I known this friendship came with terms and conditions, I might have never suggested it. Fine, lay them on me.”

“No more flirting with my brother.”

“I have never flirted with your-” you start to deny, but when she gives you a knowing look you quickly agree. “Okay, but if he’s putting in all the work, who am I to keep him from living out his dreams?” You jest. She punches your arm.

“Alright, new rule! No more hitting me.”

“No.”

“Okay.”

You were beginning to see the rules to this friendship were not going to be in your favor.

_____________________________________________________________________

So, I lied when I said this was going to be most likely 5 chapters. It turns out I really like dialogue. I'm hoping max is 8 chapters.

Your assignment in preparation for the next chapter: pick a nice outfit cause you're going to the county fair.

Extra Credit: Name the county. (I'm prob going to pick one from the comments)

taglist: @madamevirgo @marvels-writings @gayarchnemessis @myperfectlovepoem @purplemeetsblue @magicallymaximoff @b0mbdotc0m @helloalycia @ironscarletwidowsoilder

[boop-le-snoot]

BUTT-DIAL? NO, BOOTY CALL | tony stark

explicit, 5,4k words. wrong number text, family shame & wedding drama that isn't even his and a ruined first date. despite the implications of the situation, both reader and tony are very entertained. meet-ugly series, part three.

[no y/n, no "you", no name, no reader description - race/age/body type neutral, she/her pronouns]

💚 masterlist ☀️ taglist & faq 💚

Another sunny day spent wasted in a conference room full of boring, old, conceited chairmen. Tony Stark vehemently refused to commiserate with them, their boring speeches and blunt, straightforward thinking. Sitting through a meeting was like walking on nails barefoot: painful, pointless. Mind-numbing.

His phone beeped loudly and he reached into his pocket, pretending to not see Pepper's disapproving look. Both of them knew he was hoping for a sudden Assemble call - that would surely get him out of the meeting - but as much as he hoped, they never struck at the right time.

Except, this time it wasn't a call for assistance, and neither it was an automated spam message with Pizza Hut promo codes. Tony's eyebrows drew close and his lips upturned as he read and re-read the obvious rant written on his screen, typing up his answer before he managed to resist the morbid curiosity that was fueled by his boredom.

Whoever it was, they were justifiably angry and the whole situation was almost too comical to be true, except he'd known people exactly like the runaway bride, selfish, greedy and stupid. He totally understood the woman's desire to just go and load up on tequila shots somewhere - so he bid her a haste farewell, all the while snickering to himself.

"It's Rogers," Tony offered in the way of explanation to a glaring Pepper, locking his phone away and settling in to continue pretending he was listening as another old, crusty white man offered his input on topics he was too much of a dinosaur to even really know about.

He couldn't stop thinking about the incident over the days, the story making him snort more times than he could count as the memory randomly crossed his mind in the lab, at the coffee pot or during dinner. So when a message came through from that very same number, the smirk snuck up onto his face before he even read its contents.

A brief crash course in memes from Parker had turned out to be more useful than ever. Irritating Rogers with pictures got old very fast, however, in moments Tony got rendered speechless they proved to be the perfect substitute for trying to articulate all his thoughts on the matter.

Celebrity appearance, she said? More likely than one would think. The engineer had nearly doubled over in a fit of laughter when she'd texted him that; obviously, the woman had no clue who she was texting with and he decided to further indulge in his curiosity by asking for her name: Friday did the rest.

A phone number and a name, ten minutes, and all her social media were free for him to stalk. Investigate- uh, observe. With little effort, Tony found both her and her brother, the unlucky groom, and the runaway bride and even her step-dad. On paper, they all looked like average middle-class families. Nothing seemed amiss.

It didn't mean anything, but Tony caught himself thinking about the woman. Perhaps it might have been the mischievous gleem in her eyes that was easily spotted in every picture or perhaps the raunchy sense of humour not much different from his own. Pretty, witty and smart - what's there not to like?

"So that's why you've been going around, smiling like a middle-schooler with a crush," Natasha's voice whisper-shouted in Tony's ear as the spy discreetly peered over his shoulder into his phone. He had the chat pulled up, debating on starting a casual conversation-

"Jesus Christ, Romanoff, somebody needs to put a bell on you," Tony snapped, startled, pressing the button to lock his phone immediately.

"Uhuh," The redhead replied, side-eyeing a snickering Barnes. "Who is she?"

Tony rubbed his face, feeling the beginnings of a blush starting to creep in. He felt like he was caught doing something he wasn't supposed to and the rest of the team acting like children wasn't helping the matter. "I got a butt-dial text about some wedding drama. Some chick's brother's fiance was fucking her own stepdad and ditched the wedding for her old man."

Stunned silence settled briefly into the room as Romanoff's eyes widened and Barnes choked on his orange juice. Serves him right, Tony thought, and continued his coffee-making process in quiet irritation.

"Wait, wait, hold on," Wilson half-laughed half-yelled. "You gotta spill the tea, man, this sounds too good to be true. Stories like that just don't fall into your hands."

With a sigh, he recounted the woman's story and read the texts aloud, silencing his snickering enough to be able to keep a straight face - but not for long, Rogers decided it was the time for another one of his Captain America Is Disappointed In You speeches and Tony himself couldn't even disagree.

Now that he thought about it, he came off as a kind of asshole. She and her family was going through something traumatic and he went and treated it like free entertainment. Which, to be fair, it was, but she didn't deserve to be treated like a circus clown. She actually seemed like a good sister and friend.

"Just text her," Natasha rolled her eyes at him, grabbing the coffee pot out of his frozen hand. "You're not Steve, you can keep a decent conversation via text."

Being compared to Steve and his pre-historic messaging habits really did a number on Tony's ego; the eyeroll he gave Romanoff was truly out of this world, all but teleporting him to his lab where he tried to find a way to approach the woman without coming off as incredibly creepy, as if the fact that he'd stalked her on social media didn't already put him firmly into the weirdo category.

Most likely, Tony would have spent many many days on overthinking before just grabbing one of his suits to make a truly impressive landing on her small balcony downtown; thankfully, fate had intervened and saved him from making another epic mistake. He'd made a note to ask Thor about it sometime, settling down with his tablet and popcorn bowl to watch TV on the team's movie night.

Or, more precisely, Tony settled in to watch the drama unfold as the various members of the team fought tooth and nail for the film that they wanted to watch. He never cared about it much, dozing off halfway through most of them - his teammates had the worst taste in movies - so he didn't bother joining the scuffle except when it was Peter's turn to pick. For obvious reasons.

"If you can't decide I'm gonna have someone else pick a movie," Natasha rolled her eyes, equally fed up with fully grown adults acting like spoiled toddlers.

With a stutter of his breath, Tony's hand reached for his phone as he had an Idea.

Seconds tickled as the "typing..." bubble appeared and disappeared multiple times. She must think he's just a thirsty frat boy; Tony's brow furrowed, but the curiosity was far too strong in him. Something about her vibe, her feisty nature captivated him and kept him thinking about her.

The agreement came as a surprise. In the two minutes the woman had spent thinking up her answer, Tony prepared himself to be rebuffed gently, or, worst case, be called a creep. But no - she agreed, but not before vehemently insisting that if he would end up being a creepy serial killer, she would haunt his ass for the remainder of his life.

Friday couldn't come soon enough. Tony spent most of the day loitering between his lab and the penthouse, glancing at his phone every now and then to make sure she wouldn't cancel on him last minute. The engineer wanted to see the witty, no-filter-having woman in the flesh.

And see her, he did. He'd pulled up in front of the hole-in-the wall Ramen&Bar place Clint had been raving about weeks prior - contrary to popular belief, Tony was perfectly fine with going to places that didn't have Michelin stars - and leaned against the door of his Audi R8, eyes immediately taking note of the figure calmly walking down the street, head tilted down where she was typing up a reply to him.

Tony smirked as she lifted her face up to see him, mouth immediately falling open. The shock was obvious; it lasted mere seconds until her shoulders dropped and she sighed almost... In disappointment. He frowned.

"I jinxed it, didn't I? Here's my celebrity appearance," The laugh was a little nervous and quite sardonic. "Hi, Tony, nice to finally see you."

He smiled, unsure, quipping back easily. "Let's face it, I'm not the worst famous Tony out there." Opening the door of the building for the woman, she stepped in eagerly enough, eyes immediately falling on the bartender and the few dimly lit tables in the back.

"Not by any means," She turned towards him, walking backwards. Tony met her stare; it was just like he'd imagined it to be, curious, mischievous and a little daring. She didn't even attempt to play subtle, raking over him from head to toe. "Not at all, I think," She gave another teasing smile, finally turning around, addressing the bartender and rattling off her order without as much as looking at the menu.

Tony couldn't stop staring. He was aware it was creepy, she was aware of his clever brown eyes barely paying attention to their surroundings or the beer or the food. The woman just quirked an eyebrow every time she caught him. His curiosity couldn't wait any more. "Why aren't you freaking out?" He blurted out, cursing himself out almost immediately after the words left his mouth.

"My almost-sister-in-law was fucking her own stepdad," The woman deadpanned. "I ran out of fucks to give, sorry." She thoughtfully chewed her food, briefly looking to the side. "Not to sound like an asshole, but don't you have enough people fawning over you? Doesn't it get old?"

Tony nodded, choosing to stay silent on the matter besides offering an amicable, "That's valid."

The mischief lit up again in her eyes. "You look taller on TV," She snorted, immediately falling into a fit of laughter at his face full of outrage. He sputtered, muttering something about audacity of some people, which made her only laugh harder. "Here's a pro tip from my 4'11 bestie: when someone calls you short, you snarl at them and say you're fun-sized. She swears by it," The woman remarked conversationally, grinning a two hundred watt smile.

Tony was glad at least someone was enjoying their little... Date. "And you know all about fun, don't you?" He aimed for grumpy; it came out as teasing. His famous smirk made a return appearance as he watched her throat bob.

The atmosphere between them had changed at some point; the same old routine of teasing and dancing around each other, but this time, Tony all but purred in satisfaction, finally meeting someone who was an even match to his wit and charm.

"I do," She replied with that cocky confidence, her devil eyes lighting up, lingering on his face. "Got a problem with that?"

The plate was pushed away, napkin falling into the food carelessly as he gestured for the waiter to bring the check. "As a scientist, I cannot confirm whether a theory is true until I have direct evidence," The bullshit flowed easily from his mouth, but the woman appeared to be amused by it - for a change. "M'fraid I'm gonna need that evidence," His fingers drummed on the table, impatiently, inches away from her hand.

"Of course, Mr. Stark," Her voice dropped, she was fully aware of what she was doing by calling him that. That, and those deep, magnetic eyes made Tony's trousers feel a little too tight for comfort.

His phone rang loudly, dissipating the atmosphere they had created with a shrill noise. Captain Cockblock struck again.

Fumbling fingers, Tony tapped the green icon, shooting an apologetic look to the woman. "Rogers, there better be another alien invasion or I'm revoking your phone privileges," The woman chortled, taking a sip of her beer, trying hard not to seem like she was listening in and failing spectacularly at it. "Today, out of all days? Can't Strange fill in for me?" The engineer palmed his face, running a hand through his neatly done-up hair. It would be covered in soot and sweat in an hour anyways. "Fine, I'll be there in twenty minutes. Romanoff better be hauling Barton's lazy ass out of Bed-Stuy." With a frown, Tony poked the red icon and stuffed the phone back in his pocket, looking for all and all, like an angry adolescent.

The woman, however, didn't indicate any signs of displeasure. Her hand timidly reached out for his, giving it a brief squeeze. "Go, save the world, Mr. Stark," Her smile was sympathetic. They both stood up at the same time, Tony watching her incredulously as the woman untied a scrap of red fabric from around her neck and placed it around his wrist, tying the fabric with a loose but, frankly, pretty knot. "I like that bandanna, would be a shame if you didn't return it," She explained, shrugging her shoulders.

Tony snorted, fondly rolling his eyes, before beelining for the door, activating his Iron Man suit on the way out. Turning around before take off, he noticed her throw a couple of crumpled bills to the server who was too busy ogling him.

He forgot to pay for dinner, Tony realized as he made his way to the other part of the city. Well, fuck, he would definitely have to see her again.

---

An alien invasion during her first good date in ages - scribble, scribble, sigh. She couldn't do much more than that - just as she thought her string of bad luck had ended, the world turned around and flipped her a juicy bird, all but laughing straight in her face. Like that already wasn't enough, oh no, she groused as she spied the debris and random abandoned cars on her way home - it looked like some portion of the battle had been close to her home and only the sheer mental exhaustion that resulted from her life being turned upside down during the last month prevented her from having a full-on freak-out in the middle of the eerily quiet street.

Truly, the fucks she had to give had been expired.

The gloomy mood was interrupted by a cry - for help or of outrage, she didn't know, but the kindness in her, the very values she'd been raised with didn't allow her just to walk by, and with another resigned sigh, she tucked the nice blouse she'd put on for the date under her warm sweater and set off in the direction of the sound, finding the culprit in little under a couple of minutes.

Freeing the trapped civilian wasn't easy but, thankfully, neither it required super-strength or any kind of heavy machinery. The man thanked her and with him in tow, both of them set off to inspect nearby nooks and crannies. Logic won that day - if there's was one person, there could be more.

Hours later, sweaty, sore and bruised, the woman greedily chugged the water bottle someone had passed onto her as the amount of medics and firefighters had finally reached the threshold of when her help wasn't needed anymore. While her date and his colleagues fought whatever nasty that thought NYC was a sandbox battleground for their amusement, the woman found herself helping out with retrieval & evacuation of the civilians that didn't make it out of the neighborhood before the heat of the fight reached it. There were no deaths registered as of then and deep inside, she felt proud, knowing that she had contributed to the statistic at least a little.

Her phone was dying, her body was covered in dirt and scratches from head to toe and the bruises were beginning to ache. Tony's worry-worting was cute but the tiredness overcame her, making her brain sluggish and her demeanor short, so she hastily pocketed the phone, trailing over to the closest man in uniform she could spot.

"Sir?" She addressed him, eyeing the unfamiliar logo on his jacket. "Can I go, please?" She pointed to the yellow tape surrounding the makeshift medical station.

"I'm going to have to see your ID first," He replied apologetically, tapping away on his tablet.

With a sigh, she dug through her purse, giving it to him and using the brief moment of respite to smooth back her hair and dust off her clothing. There was a cloud of concrete and dirt surrounding her.

"I'm afraid I can't let you go just yet, Mr. Stark left strict instructions for you to be picked up by him personally," The agent gave the ID back with a suspicious glint in his eye.

"Oh c'mon," The annoyed whine escaped her lips before she registered it. "It was our first date," She offered to the puzzled agent, only succeeding in making him lean back and inspect her with a raised eyebrow. "Bye," She replied none too kindly, walking off to find a place to sit down.

The time passed in a strange way. The aches and pains and exhaustion made it stop, and if someone would have asked her, she wouldn't know how much of it has passed until her eyes reluctantly cracked open at the sound of a familiar voice, coming to see a pair of expensive shoes covered in dust. At least she wasn't the only one that looked like she'd taken a roll through someone's gritty attic.

"Morning, you Tasmanian Devil," Tony sounded jovial, all things considered.

"Hello to you too, Tin Can," The woman greeted him on par, without missing a beat.

"Now, now," He offered her his hand, which she took gratefully, before pulling her to her feet. "I come with peace offerings. Your building is under quarantine and I've got a perfectly good bed and a shower with thirty settings on it at my place. Whatcha say?"

She only pretended to think about it. Her reply was haste. "I don't make a habit of going into strange dudes' towers but I'll make an exception this once." A shower and a bed sounded heavenly.

Finally getting the chance to look at him, Tony appeared to be unhurt but equally exhausted and dirty. A few scrapes on his face and arms, he was missing his blazer, and had a weary tone to his face. Some parts of his Iron Suit were still on him - like the chest plate - but besides that, he was whole. The red of the bandanna she gave him was equally dirty but still neatly tied around his wrist, just like she left it.

"How's your relationship with heights?" He asked her and all she could do was blink, watching curiously as his body was enveloped by the red and gold, crawling over his skin like a swarm of shiny termites. That was all the warning she got before the metal arms - quite literally - sweeped her off her feet. "Faster this way," She could hear the nonchalant shrug in the metallic voice coming from the helmet. "Now hold on."

Awe and fear culminated inside the woman but the weariness had long since surpassed comfortable levels and all she did was give a weak nod and close her eyes as Tony lifted off, gusts of wind making her skin break out in goosebumps and her hair stand up wildly on her head. During the short trip her eyes fluttered open only once just to close back up immediately - all she saw were clouds, white and fluffy, like marshmallows, and the shining beacons of NYC skyscrapers somewhere far away.

The paralyzing anxiety fully dissipated only when her feet found purchase on the tiled floors, Tony's arms never ceasing to support her swaying frame until the breaths she took were her own and not the result of her fluttering heart and muted panic. "You with me, Wonder Woman?"

"Yes, Weird Science," She mumbled. "Thanks for the heads up," The annoyance had to find a way out and that it did.

"You're welcome," The cocky smirk returned to Tony's face as his suit receded, leaving him barefoot, dirty jeans and a torn tee. He stretched with a sweet groan, gesturing towards the door. "Friday will direct you towards the showers. Feel free to grab a t-shirt from the closet."

The woman nodded, too awestruck by the man and his hospitality, eyes darting all over the tastefully decorated room, the expensive knick-knacks scattered everywhere, the absolutely enormous sloppily made bed. Tony Stark liked to live luxuriously - even the shower was a state of the art technological wonder.

Dirty pants and dusty blouse went flying somewhere in the back of the bathroom as the woman stood up on her tippy toes, reaching for the sky, stretching her sore muscles. The glass wall of the shower had began to fog up from the hot water. The knock went barely noticed by the woman who jumped as Tony's voice startled her out of her daydream.

"Forgot I ran out of towels here..." He trailed off, voice dropping as he spotted her only in her underwear. She turned, responding with a lopsided grin, spying the stack of fluffy grey in his arms, the arc reactor in the middle of his bare chest. He smirked, "Damn. Can I join you?" Giving her what only could be described as a respectful once-over.

Tired as she was, her sense of humour and wit didn't go down for a much needed nap just yet. "I don't know, you tell me. Can you?" Turning back around, the woman made a short show of unclasping her bra and tossing it in the general vicinity of her dirty clothing pile. She'd worn a cute matching set of undies that day and the fact didn't go over Tony's head, she was sure.

The door clicked shut just as she raised her face to the stream of water, feeling calmer with each second, muscles relaxing themselves as the hot stream washed away the dirt and the dust off her body.

"And I thought this evening was ruined," Tony's voice insinuated from behind her. A hand reached for the soap, his body heat scorching compared to the steaming water. He stayed just a few inches away, enough to feel him, enough for her body to respond and crave more. "It's nice to be wrong for a change. Refreshing."

The woman hummed, reaching up to run her fingers through her wet, knotted hair. "First decent evening in ages. I wasn't gonna let some uninvited Predator knock-offs ruin it for me," She was more than a little peeved at the space invaders interrupting her nice date. Tony was a great conversationalist, it was easy to talk to him and he had a brilliant sense of humour. Not to mention the obvious, he was easy on the eyes.

"That's the spirit," The voice was closer now, almost in her ear. Even though her eyes were closed, the woman was aware he was reaching for something, letting him butt her hands out of the way to lather her hair, scrubbing at her scalp meticulously, until the sounds that left her mouth bordered on embarrassing. Once that was done, Tony moved onto her body, running his hands over her back, the outside of her hips. "M'not stepping over, am I?" He asked quietly, touch faltering every time he brushed over a scrape or a bruise.

"No, you're doing great, Tony," It wasn't exactly conventional - sharing a very intimate shower after an interrupted first date, but then again, nothing about this man was conventional and her life had already been turned upside down no less than twice recently. The woman didn't lie, the gentle, caring touch felt soothing.

Arching her back, she lifted her arms to repay him with the same, raking her fingers through his hair, leaning into the shudder that ran throughout his body. It was nice to bask in whatever they had going on, so the motion to face him was almost reluctant. Water droplets stuck to his eyelashes and his eyes were tired but not in a way that suggested he'd kick her out first chance.

Their kiss was sweet, slow, like they already were familiar with each other in a special way. The woman tugged on his lip with her teeth - such was her character - and he pressed closer to her, raising a hand to hold the side of her face. In muted curiosity, she couldn't help but wonder if there ever had been someone that waited for him once his battles were over.

Tony's eyelashes, the very same that had no business being this long on a man, fluttered against her cheek as they stood under the shower, letting water wash away the day.

"I've always wanted to kiss in the rain, like they do in the movies. This is the closest I've gotten," She whispered, gently kneading the arch of his shoulders. "Feels better than it looks, to be honest."

Tony snorted, reaching for the knob to turn it off. "Cheesy," He teased her, wrapping a warm, fluffy towel around her body. Both people made quick work of drying themselves, exiting the fogged up bathroom, making way into the bedroom, padding soft on the carpet and falling down on the bed carelessly.

"I'm the queen of cheesy one-liners," The woman raised her eyebrows, scooting under the sheets next to Tony who opened his arms wide, a smirk on his face. She didn't give him the chance to reply, slotting her lips over his instead and groaning as their heated bodies once again rested against each other.

She ran her hands over Tony's defined pecs, glossing over the arc reactor, raked nails over his tummy, eating up the sighs leaving his mouth at the gesture. He was a beautiful man, she wasn't going to lie to herself. The warmth that settled low in her belly grew, spreading throughout her limbs and temporarily overshadowing the exhaustion.

The engineer, too, was quite excited - his erection poked her hip - and content to be steered to her wishes by the hand in his hair. Groans and sighs left his moist, parted lips as his eagerness bled into his hands, grip firm and steady on the panting woman's hips.

Adrenaline did something to her body, caused it to ache sweetly, a hunger to be satisfied only by a lover's touch. And touch she did; her mouth tasted him, alternating sucking gentle marks onto his throat and nibbling on the skin stretched thinly over his collarbones. Tony's sighs grew in depth and volume with every silent action of worship.

No inch of his body was left untouched, the woman was an all-hands-on-deck kind of lover, happily making her way down until soft lips wrapped around the crown of his cock, making his hips arch into it, hands fisted in the soft white sheets. "You devil," Tony gasped out, limbs turning to jelly, watching the woman all but devour his cock.

She popped off minutely, a trail of sticky saliva running down her chin, sticking to his glistening cock. "The power of Christ compels me?" With a smirk, her tongue trailed from his balls to the very tip, paying extra attention to the frenulum, making Tony shudder and gasp out an embarrassed laugh.

"Uh-uh," Stripped of his usual snark, he was but a man at her mercy.

"It's not very compelling," The predatory stretch of her lips widened as she took mercy on him, giving his cock a few slow tugs with her hand. Her mouth, her hand and his cock were dripping. "Gonna let me do all the legwork, Mr. Stark?" She sat up straighter, inadvertently drawing his eyes to the apex of her thighs where the woman's sex glistened in the dim light, lips swollen and inviting.

It sounded like she was mocking him, teasing him, egging him into a lustful frenzy none of them had the energy for but craved anyway. Tony Stark wasn't the one to back down from a fair challenge so he relented, flipping them over with ease, landing between her spread legs, eyes drawn to the momentary bounce of her breasts. Tony wasted no time in suckling a hard nipple into his mouth, humming in response to her choked-off moan of surprise.

"Tony," Her body arched into his touch, tender skin hot under the callouses on his fingertips.

"Yes, demon, dear?" A lopsided grin and laughter in his eyes preceded the wet stripe Tony licked down to her navel. "Wasn't there something about not telling demons your name? Guess you have power over me now," He trailed off cheekily, soft breaths puffing over her mound.

The woman bit her lip, peering down to rake a hand through Tony's hair, snagging a fistful to gently steer him towards her pussy. Tony's smile was one of satisfaction as he obediently followed her silent order, nosing along the line of her cunt, dipping his tongue to run slow, sloppy lines through the soaked folds.

"Fuck," She mumbled, spreading her legs without shame. "Yeah, right there," Her fingers turned white at the agility of Tony's tongue on her clit. He was swift and relentless in pursuit of the spots that made her moan and clench around nothing. The moisture of her sex soaked his goatee but he couldn't care less.

He growled when she attempted to withdraw, wrapping his muscular arms around her thighs to keep her still for his pleasure, wringing noises that increased in volume with every stroke of his tongue on her sex.

"Tony- please, Tony, I'm gonna-" The warning was brief; her back arched as a broken moan found its way past her moist, parted lips, her pussy spasmed, dripping all over his face and the sheets.

The engineer hid his smile against her thigh, discreetly wiping the obscene amounts of moisture she produced. It wasn't very long until her hands, slightly shaky, were tugging him upwards to meet his face in a rushed, graceless kiss. There was an equal lack of finesse in the glide of his erection along her sex.

"Okay?" He mumbled into her ear, lining himself up with her fluttering cunt.

"Please," She gasped, her hands pushing his hips onto her, eagerly lifting up to accept the sweet intrusion.

There was a quiet stutter in both of their breathing, hearts thudding against their ribs as he finally bottomed out, the thickness of him nestled snugly inside the rippling muscle. The pace he started out was agonizingly slow and inexplicably sweet, neither of them wanting to end their coupling prematurely but not being able to hold back the need that consumed them both.

"Fuck, you're so good to me," Tony's mumbling was overshadowed by the slick sounds coming from the place they were joined. "Gonna fill up this pretty pussy."

The woman keened at the idea, digging her nails into his ass, pulling him further into her.

"You'd like that?" He picked up the pace, blunt tip of his cock catching up with the tail end of her previous orgasm and re-lighting the fire in her belly anew.

"Yeah, Tony, please," No trace of the previous coyness in her voice, the woman was more than ready to beg, murder and steal to feel the man come undone in her arms.

It didn't take long, not with the adrenaline making their blood sing and the chemistry they shared. The brutal pace of Tony's hips quickly grew sloppy and erratic, the tightening of her inner muscles egging him on. He chased his release with deep, powerful thrusts that had the bedsheets rustle pitifully and beads of clear swear drip down his forehead.

As soon as her body arched once more, Tony let go of his control, slotting himself deeply into her spasming heat, cock throbbing as he painted her insides white with his seed, groaning incomprehensible compliments and profanities through his teeth. Chest heaving, the engineer couldn't do much more but let himself carefully fall onto her chest, aftershocks making him twitch when the woman began running a gentle hand through his hair.

"We're doing this again," He decided, still breathless but already a step ahead. She laughed.

Tony Stark taglist: @pilloclock @mikariell95 @letsby @sleep-i-ness @toomanyrobins @mostly-marvel-musings @persephonehemingway @downeyreads @schemefrenzy @lillsxd @slothspaghettiwrites @bluecrazedandbeautiful

[ashdumpsterpile]

Ohmygod YES Susan Pevensie is awesome please talk to me about Susan i want to know everything you have to say

Literally THANK YOU for asking me this bc Susan Pevensie is a character I never get asked about and I have So Many Opinions.

I'm going to start by saying that Susan used to be my least favorite character in the series. This goes for the books and the movies. Some of it was for personal reasons--she reminds me of a couple of annoying ppl I know irl--but it was also bc I watched Prince Caspian which shoehorned her into a relationship with Caspian which I hated.

HOWEVER. I ended up rethinking this position after interacting with Susan fans and realizing that there are so many wonderful things to love about her!

(putting under the cut bc this got long)

Things Ash Loves About Susan Pevensie

Aight I'm not going to do a formal analysis yet on her, but instead rant about some of the unrelated things I adore about Susan Pevensie.

Susan the Archer

Look we all love archery here. I don't have anything more to say.

Okay, I actually do have more to say. I love the fact that Susan is a complete badass with the bow. You get the general impression that she's one of the royals in charge of public relations, traditions, foreign policy, etc. and yet she's the most competent archer in the series. One of the few things I liked about the movies is how they didn't downplay this. They actually let her be a badass and show off her skills.

Also the part where she kicks Trumpkin's ass was awesome.

Susan the Gentle

Susan being the most passive Pevensie was something I definitely underappreciated as a teenager. I think my non-ability to see past "I'm not like other girls" narrative and the combination of Susan being described as the most traditionally feminine woman in the Narnia series is what initially turned me off from her.

HOWEVER, now it's one of my favorite attributes! I love that Susan is a badass and the most beautiful woman in Narnia. She has hair down to her feet, every man and woman in the kingdom want to fuck her, and she's still a fucking badass who will not hesitate to kick your ass.

Susan the Sister

Most of my thoughts of Susan as an older sister mostly stem from my own personal headcanons, but she is an awesome sister to her siblings. She's Peter's voice of reason, Edmund's sass partner, and Lucy's big sister.

Susan the Mom-Friend

She is a literal mother-figure for Corin.

"[...] the most beautiful lady he had ever seen rose from her place and threw her arms round him and kissed him, saying: "Oh Corin, Corin, how could you? And thou and I such close friends ever since thy mother died. [...]"

-The Horse and His Boy, 33-34

Most everything I have to say about this ventures into headcanon territory, but I love the idea of Susan basically adopting Corin after his mom dies. The way she trusts Cor--who she thinks is Corin in this chapter--is really sweet and I wish we could've seen more of that relationship.

Susan the Flawed

Something I notice from the fandom is a lot of people who hate Susan tend to because of her flaws. On the other hand, most Susan stans like to wave away these flaws and blame C.S. Lewis for being misogynistic or Aslan for being a "cruel god" and ignore the fact that she is a deeply flawed person.

Susan gets something of a "reverse redemption arc" in The Chronicles of Narnia. This makes her not only a fascinating foil to Edmund--as both are analytical, logical people--but an interesting character by herself.

She starts out in TWW as very skeptical of Narnia and it's whole deal and also very condescending to Lucy throughout. She ultimately does admit that Lucy was right and does get on board with the whole prophecy at the same time Peter does, and ends the book being crowned "the Gentle Queen."

In The Horse and His Boy, she has a very interesting dynamic with Edmund and in even more interesting relationship with Rabadash. They don't even interact on-page with each other, but it's highly implied that she was interested in him when he was a guest in Narnia. His behavior obviously changed when she visited him in Tashbaan, but you have to wonder what their dynamic was like before for her to travel all the way to his home when relations between the countries were strained at best.

Prince Caspian is where the cracks start showing through. Susan has lived an entire life as an adult in Narnia, gets thrown back to England with her siblings, and is yet again in Narnia as a child. This book is what really emphasizes her one fatal flaw: convenience.

(Put a pin in that thought, I'll get back to it.)

Susan denies once again that Lucy saw something that the rest of them can't seen. She continues this narrative until every other sibling finally acknowledges Lucy in the right and only then does she apologize.

The last mention of Susan is in The Last Battle, where all of her flaws rise up against her in the worst way possible. I have a lot of controversial opinions on this that I'm going to address later, but I just want to say that Susan's reverse-redemption arc is something I actually like about her.

(There is also evidence that Susan does get a full redemption arc, just as Edmund and Eustace did, but C.S. Lewis was pretty much done with The Chronicles of Narnia at the point and instead encouraged fans to write their own version of how that went down.)

Okay, back to convenience being Susan's fatal flaw. So the one thing that comes up time and time again in the series is that Susan is very focused on material comforts. I believe it's implied that she's vain, and it's canonical that her own personal comfort spurs her to make decisions.

"[...] I really believed it was him — he, I mean — yesterday. When he warned us not to go down to the fir wood. And I really believed it was him tonight, when you woke us up. I mean, deep down inside. Or I could have, if I'd let myself. But I just wanted to get out of the woods and — and — oh, I don't know [...]"

Prince Caspian, 81

Prince Caspian has the strongest examples of Susan doing this, but certainly there's evidence elsewhere. There are a lot of fans who are distressed by this, claiming that Aslan and the others are too hard on her and shouldn't judge.

Honestly, I like that she's written with this flaw. Not only is it very relatable--(my own personal comfort and convenience is something I highly prioritize too)--but it humanizes a character who otherwise is ridiculously op and basically the Helen of Troy of the series. It may sound like I'm using this as an excuse to rant, but I really wouldn't have her any other way.

Susan As Portrayed by Anna Popplewell

Movie!Susan is a fucking delight.

She's sarcastic and badass and awesome and I could spend hours heaping praise on Anna's acting and her portrayal of Susan, but I can already tell that this post is going to be long so, I'll just stop here.

(10/10 want to be stabbed by her tho.)

Personal Headcanons

Let's talk about my fanon thoughts. I have many.

Susan is Aro

There's canonical evidence for this! Susan is a character who is heavily pursued by suitors everywhere, and even lets herself be courted by many of them, but chooses not to settle down. Even when she gets back to England and is described as only having interest in parties and material things, boys aren't mentioned.

I like to think that in The Horse in His Boy Susan was interested in Rabadash at first because he was a brilliant conversationalist. Nothing she says about him implies romantic interest, before and after she realizes the truth of his intentions.

Susan and Edmund Were Best Friends

This might be my love for The Horse and His Boy showing itself, but I think Susan and Edmund were thrown into circumstances where they interacted the most with each other.

Edmund is the ruler in charge of politics. Susan is the ruler in charge of Cair Paravel's public image. I imagine they spent time as ambassadors to other countries and planning royal functions.

They're also the most level-headed and logical out of their siblings, so they probably found a lot in common.

Susan Fancast

I literally just said I loved Anna's potrayal of Susan's (and I love what they gave us of older Susan too in LWW!), but I read the books in 2008 and my parents didn't let me see the movies bc I was like...nine years old and they thought it would be too scary.

So I had to headcanon my own interpretations.

Queen Susan the Gentle:

For some reason Merlin wasn't too scary for me to watch and I fell in love with Katie McGrath in like. Two episodes so. (On an unrelated note, I also fancast Bradley James as Peter at the time.)

Anyway, fanon Susan is basically Morgana Pendragon pre-evil arc. Sassy as hell, hot as fuck, and can kick your ass.

Unpopular Opinions

Yeah, feel free to skip this part if having controversial fandom opinions is a deal breaker for you.

The Problem With Susan Isn't Actually A Problem

I'm about to start so much discourse in the Narnia fandom, but C.S. Lewis's choices with her in The Last Battle weren't misogynistic. Bear in mind, I'm not saying that all of his writing choices in the series were A++ or excusing away certain racist/sexiest bits, but it's honestly baffling to me that people are so up in arms over Susan's exclusion in the final book.

So the part that everyone loses their shit over is as follows:

"My sister Susan," answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia."

"Yes," said Eustace, "and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says 'What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.'"

"Oh Susan!" said Jill, "she's interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up."

"Grown-up, indeed," said the Lady Polly. "I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she'll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can."

The Last Battle, 83-84

There's a lot to unpack here and I first want to say that everyone's opinion on this part, no matter how different than mine, is valid. I'm going to be quoting some other ppl's opinions on here and by no means am I bashing them. I just want to address my feelings on the matter and the best way to do that is to cite the thoughts of ppl who have opposing ideas.

Here are some arguments on Tumblr I've heard regarding "The Problem of Susan":

"How about we talk about what might have happened if Narnia hadn't deserted Susan? [...] What if we didn't tell Susan she had to go grow up in her own world and then shame and punish her for doing just that? She was told to walk away and she went. She did not try to stay a child all her life, wishing for something she had been told she couldn't have again."

"Narnia is filled with metaphors (often not very subtle ones) that are supposed to teach us how to be, and the most glaring one for any young girl to absorb is that it's okay to be a girl like Lucy, unthreatening and cheerful and valiant and faithful, but to be a girl like Susan gets you punished - in fact, you aren't just punished, you're destroyed."

"why do we call it ‘the problem’ where’s the problem about a young woman dealing with her trauma and choosing her own path, actively making the choice to keep living and to stay and to carve a life out in England when her siblings couldn’t? what is the problem about susan forgetting to somehow cope with what she’s experienced? why is it ‘the problem of susan’ that she recontextualised her faith?"

And then there's JK Rowling who said this:

There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found sex. I have a big problem with that.

It's weird how I'm still finding new ways to hate JKR in the year 2021. Again, there is absolutely zero implication that Susan had sex when she came back to England. ZERO. Did she actually read the books? IDK. If someone shares this opinion pls reply with actual canonical evidence.

Back on topic, I'm a firm believer of death of the author and interpreting art via your own experiences. Which is why I'm also going to share my own interpretation by saying y'all are wrong.

Susan Pevensie was not abandoned by Narnia. She was not barred from Narnia because she is traditionally feminine or because she "owned her sexuality" (another opinion I didn't have time to condense down for this post) or because she recontextualized her faith or even because she deserved to be punished.

I also fail to see how Susan recontexualized her faith, as the entire point of it all is that she has none. Bringing this back to Susan's fatal flaw (personal convenience/material comforts), her prioritizing herself over her own faith is the reason she is "no longer a friend of Narnia." Not...whatever fanon y'all are imposing on her character.

Susan is not being punished for liking lipstick and looking pretty. Susan's not even being punished. Y'all read Neil Gaiman's The Problem of Susan and forgot it wasn't canon.

There are many reasons Susan is not in Aslan's Country (one of them being that she's not actually dead yet), but the main one has to do with this:

"[...] But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 215-216

Yeah, okay that's why Susan is no longer a friend of Narnia. The implication when the Pevensies are told that they can no longer enter Narnia is that they are to find Aslan in other places. Susan doesn't do this, instead choosing to focus her life on material things. It isn't the lipstick, it's that she only wants the lipstick.

Susan Had Sex In The Books

Oh and not in the context y'all are thinking. (Again, there are no implications that Susan was barred from Narnia for having sex or that she had sex when she came back to England.)

So there's actual canonical evidence that Susan and Rabadash had a sexual relationship. Sort of.

"What think you? We have been in this city fully three weeks. Have you yet settled in your mind whether you will marry this dark-faced lover of yours, this Prince Rabadash, or no?"

-The Horse and His Boy, 35

Edmund calls Rabadash her lover. Not her suitor. I don't know if the word had a different meaning in 1954, but it feels like C.S. Lewis is saying that they're fucking. I'm not really happy with the idea of Susan sleeping with an abuser, but really proud of her for Getting Some as a woman born in a time period where having premarital sex was a big no-no.

This also invalidates the weird opinion going on that Susan was barred from Narnia because she had sex.

Suspian Is The Worst

I haven't really talked about Movie!Susan much, but as long as we're talking unpopular opinions, it's worth noting that I hate Suspian. Some of it is the "Susan is Aro" headcanon screaming inside of me, but it's also the fact that it's written poorly, does nothing interesting for either character and generally comes across as awkward.

I feel like they were trying to make Prince Caspian sexy and relevant to teens. It came across as super heteronormative and unnecessary.

It also gets really really weird bc the next movie then gives Caspian and Edmund mad chemistry and we're all just like........ok.

Final Thoughts

Susan may not be my favorite character in the series, but she's grown on me over the years. I have many issues with fanon interpretations of her--which definately fueled some of my disdain for her initally--and I don't identify as a Susan Apologist.

I do however adore Susan and have many headcanons for her not mentioned here. I love reading fanfic, writing fanfic and meta, and generally having conversations about her and would love to talk more about it.

I welcome criticism (CONSTRUCTIVE) and conversation on all of my opinions and observations. Please drop into my inbox. <3

[plus-size-reader]

Basement Dweller

Peter Maximoff x Plus size!reader

Word Count: 1260 words

Warnings: none 

Summary: Peter and reader don’t get along too well but Logan is amused by their  bickering because in his time, they’re a couple as adults.

———————————————————————————————————

Peter had never really been one for new people. 

They often treated him poorly; sometimes treating him like a total loser, and other times acting as if he were a criminal. It was never the same reaction twice, but it was always negative. 

Naturally, because of that, when you two first met, he was guarded and reserved. 

It was bad enough that you showed up with two grown men, at least double your age but then you wanted to talk about his ‘gifts’ acting as if he’d somehow chosen to be a freak. 

The whole thing wasn’t ideal for him and that made the relationship between you rather tense.

You could tell that he wasn’t your biggest fan and since you were no stranger to rejection also, you took it offensively. You were only asking for his help, having gotten onboard with the strange story Logan had spun from the very first word. 

Even if he was full of shit, you were always in for an adventure and these two men were offering you just that. 

However, you didn’t really know that there would also be more people involved in the little plot to break into a prison and that was where the trouble came in. You were a gifted individual with the power of suggestion and an aggressively high IQ. 

You could have gotten into the prison all by yourself but for some reason, Logan said that you had to stop and pick up someone else. Someone who just happened to be Peter Maximoff, a basement dwelling dork who used his abilities to rob convenience stores. 

...It was very clearly a waste of his potential. 

With a gift like his, he could have really helped a lot of people but instead, he chose to be selfish and break the law. You weren’t even going to pretend to have respect for someone like that, even if Logan did think you needed him. 

“What are you doing here?” Peter asked, turning around to see the three of you standing in his basement, obviously here to get something from him. At first, he thought that he was in trouble again but not one of you had any form of law enforcement badge or identification. 

Meaning that you were here for something other than his theft. 

“Yeah? What are we doing here?” you repeated, your question directed at Logan, who only rolled his eyes at you. You had been asking that since he told you that you needed to pick up a kid who called himself ‘Quicksilver’ 

You clearly weren’t a fan of the idea of working with him. 

“We need your help” he started, choosing to ignore the dirty look you were shooting into the side of his head. He wasn’t scared of you in the time he came from, let alone seeing you as a teenager. 

If only you could get past whatever it was that was bothering you. 

After a few moments of both Charles and Logan trying to convince Peter to join your little team, he was still dragging his feet. There was no reason for him to be so hesitant and it was frustrating you. 

What kind of man would rather play pong all day when he could actually make a difference in the world?

“You know what? We can do this without you...let's just go” you groaned, over trying to convince him. 

You made it halfway up the basement stairs before someone stopped you but it wasn’t Charles like you thought it would be. Instead, it was laughter from the grey haired teen on the couch. 

He was actually mocking you. 

“We can do this without you” he repeated, trying to make his voice a higher pitch to better mock yours but it didn’t work all that well. It was a juvenile attempt at bothering you but it worked. 

For whatever reason, your blood was boiling.

“Coming here was such a bad idea. Like some loser like you could actually help us” you spit back, rolling your eyes at how childish he was acting. You had never met someone who just got under your skin like Peter did and it was obvious. 

In fact, no one was loving this as much as Logan was. 

If you weren’t on such a time sensitive mission right now, he probably would have watched you two go back and forth all day. If only you knew that in approximately thirty-two years, you two love birds would be inseparable.  

He just wished that he could tell you that. 

...It would shut you both up for sure. 

“Oh I could help alright, If you could ever get that stick dislodged from your ass” he shot back, flicking his Popsicle stick in your direction, chuckling at himself. 

He didn’t understand why you were so serious, but what more could he expect from someone so uptight and prissy. You were just like all those girls at school who thought he would never amount to anything. 

“You are such an idiot!” you yelled, stomping up the stairs before you actually did something you would regret. You couldn’t get over the fact that Peter would talk to you like that. 

Who did he think he was?  

No one ever talked to you like that. 

“I don’t think she likes me much” Peter grinned, watching your frame disappear up the stairs, addressing the two men who were still just waiting for you to finish up.

They had things that needed to be done and as much as you hated to admit it, you knew that you needed Peter to break into the prison. There was only so much mind control could do. 

Not that you would ever tell him that. 

Peter’s ego was big enough as it was, and you wouldn’t want to risk inflating it. The two of you wouldn’t be able to fit in the backseat of the car if he couldn’t get his big head through the door. 

You assumed that Logan and Charles could convince him themselves, which left you standing out by the car, doing your best to calm yourself before they showed up with that arrogant pig. 

It only took a few minutes before all three men emerged through Peter’s front door, a smug smile on his face. Part of you wondered if he had agreed to tag along just to bother you more but you didn’t say that. 

Instead, you did your best to plaster a smile on your face. 

“You gonna make it kid?” Logan teased, opening the backdoor for you with a huge smile on his face. You really wished he wasn’t having so much fun with this but you didn’t really care. 

You just wanted today to be over. 

“I’ll do my best” You replied, sliding into the backseat with a heavy sigh. You got only a moment of solace before Peter slid in beside you, making a point to shove you further into the car to make room for him. 

He was doing it on purpose. 

In fact, when you looked at him, you saw that he had a huge grin on his face, making it abundantly clear that making you angry was his new favorite thing. You could have slapped that look off of his face, but you were sure he’d enjoy that too. 

Still, maybe it would make you feel better. 

“Admit it babe, you like fighting with me” he hummed, his words just above a whisper so only you could hear. Damn, today was going to be a lot longer than you originally thought. 

[alexandrinav0605]

Talking to Strangers

Multi-Chapter 2/? LINK TO AO3

We learn more about Penny’s past and actual home life. Another group meeting and Penny gives Steve a piece of her mind.

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TW: Implications of Rape at the end of the chapter.

English is not my first language, therefore, I'm not from US and I do not know how the foster system works, as well as group therapy

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The walk from the therapy place to the Sullivans’ house was short, shorter than Penny would want. Although they weren’t as bad as Skip and the Preachy couple, those were very low standards to go by. Mr. Sullivan basically ignored her while Mrs. Sullivan just talked to her to hand her the chore list and on her first day to explain the rules. She didn’t like them, but to be honest she liked no one.

The thought sink deep, she misses Ned and MJ. The three of them along with Peter were inseparable before May’s dead, before having to move around the city, jumping from one foster house to another. She didn’t miss a single grown-up. She had stopped trusting adults a long time ago; the only adults she once trusted were either six feet under ground or made something to harm her. Ned and MJ told them, Penny and Peter, to trust their social worker, because she was in charge of them and was the one that would take care of them. Surprise, she care about nothing besides her paycheck.

She tried to clear her head, even if the Sullivans hadn’t made a move to touch her, in anyway, she still tried not mad something to made them angry. Besides what Penny wanted for people to see, she still was scare. Scare of her foster parents, scare of finding Skip or the Preachys, more so that her foster parents turn out to be like Skip or the Preachys. If someone ask her what would be preferable, she will say neither, but she knew that was impossible; another Mr. and Mrs. Preachy would be better. Not only because she was terrified of even thinking about her time with Skip, but also because this time the Peter in the equation will be a Penny. Entering the household, she said a quit good evening before going to her room. There weren’t any other children on the house, so she got a room for herself. She left her things, hiding her brother’s ashes under a tab. A month after Peter’s dead, her social worker has come in and began searching for the ashes, tired of Penny carrying around; she didn’t find nothing because Penny already hide it constantly. Now she was very careful not to let them alone and had them with her at all time. She also wasn’t shy to tell them how they took her brother from her and now they want to take his ashes, the only consolation she has left.

She went down to the kitchen, one of the infinite list of chores was to make breakfast, when needed, lunch and dinner. She try to do everything without annoying anyone, she was already on thin ice, and pissing her foster parents won’t do anything to help her.

Looking up to the living room, where Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan were, she wondered what bad she had done in another life to deserve this. At first, she hadn’t believed in bad luck, or any luck at all, but now, there was no other logical explanation for her awful life, in her opinion, everything had gone downside the moment her family left London, her beloved Great Britain and arrived at the United States. They should have never boarded that plane. She tried to concentrate on the food and not in the What If’s. They would change anything, what is done is done. What would change anything was if she were stupid enough to burn the food.

Next Wednesday was awful. First, her school tormentor, Flash, decided it was good to make fun of her the most today of all day, as if therapy wasn’t enough. His teasing was mostly innocent, mostly about her accent and her dead parents, which was a long time ago, so it was relatively okay, and her accent was something she was used to as she moved to New York at five and her accent has never decrease. Today was different, today Peter was the main source and Perter was still a delicate spot for her. Flash knew Peter, but the details of his death were left for her to be tell and she wasn’t about to do it, not to him. So school was hell, and her day was about to get worst.

When she arrived at the therapy building, she entered immediately, finding the Avengers already seated. She took her own sit between Black Widow and Iron Man. Tyler was nowhere to be find and the tension could be felt in the air.

Obviously, it had to be Captain Righteous who had to speak about the vents of last week.

“Listing, kid.” If this was an apology, this wasn’t a good beginning. “I know it was wrong f me to judge you the other day, but you had to understand that you were really good to the mediator the other day.” Now that was the worst apology she had ever received, note that she had receive a very bad one about putting her with a murderer and a rapist before.

As it turns out, his team members also thought that wasn’t the best apology. “Really, Steve?” And that was Natasha Romanoff.

Tony Stark decided to make the next remark. “Hate it to break it for you, Capsicle, but just because you put the word sorry in a sentence doesn’t mean that will be an apology.”

“Let me get something clear, Captain Righteous.” Penny sometimes wonders why she can’t keep her mouth close. “The other day you made a mistake of judging me without knowing what I had been through, now you know that my last foster parent, Mr. Preachy, abused me and my brother to the point where he kill my brother, throwing him to the wall, after hitting him repeatedly and then continue to hit him even though he was already dead.” Now, Penny didn’t cry, but her voice broke at the end. “If I decided to be rude, as you say, to Tyler that is because he was the person that certificated that asshole to be a foster parent and as you can hear he was a shitty foster parent. He fail to protect me more than once.” Rogers was just looking at her. “You know shit about me, you know nothing about what has happened to me and what made me hate people. I don’t treat social workers bad just because I want to, I treat social workers bad because some of them just want to place kids on fosters homes so they can receive a commission without caring about the child in question. So, you can go and put that apology down your ass because I don’t want it until you learn how to deliver a proper one.” Barton, Rogers, and Banner looked shook, Romanoff looked neutral, while the others just had an amused face at Rogers misfortune. “Let me give you a piece of advice, don’t judge people you don’t know or even better don’t judge people without knowing if they have a past that mad them the type of person they are.” The last part was a full hate scream, she had enough people judging her that knew what happened, the last thing she needs was to people to judge her without even knowing. “I don’t need to ask forgiveness for being the person I have become when the people that made possible for me to turn into this never ask me for it.” She look at Steve Rogers straight in the eyes and the man just shiver under her gaze. That girl was terrifying.

He wanted to say something, but before he could, Tyler came in. Tyler being the idiot he was, didn’t notice the tension that could be feel in the room, and continue to introduce the session topic. Penny didn’t participate in today’s activity; she was tired and simply ignore Tyler when he ask her to participate. He let it go, probably to not make a scene like last week. Although she acted like she didn’t pay attention, she did notice the Avengers looking at her, especially Captain Rogers. She hoped they didn’t try to approach her.

Tony Stark wasn’t someone you could impress easily, but when he saw that little girl that seemed like a breeze could destroy her, shouting at Steve, he really was impressed. With honestly, he thought Steve deserved it, after the incident of last session the others try to convince him to apologies and they thought they had succeeded, but they didn’t. Steve’s apology was crap, and he deserved to be put on his place. He wasn’t just impressed by this girl; he was also curious. Penny obviously had a dark past that she try to put behind. Her dead brother was something, the fact that somehow, she had ended in the foster system was another thing, but in between all those things she said to Rogers, she did say this Tyler guy fail her more than once. One time was obviously him placing her and her brother with those foster parents, but the others? Where the other foster parents that hurt her? He didn’t think she had other siblings that die. It could be anything, abuse, neglection or without having to go very far, the girl deserved loving parents, not some decent one, good ones. He would like to think that, that the guy’s mistake was just placing her with decent parents and not good ones, not that it was okay, but seeing this girls history and how much she flinched when she thought no one was looking, Tony thinks that he would be making a right assumption when saying the worst had happened. You name it, punches, starvation, rape? As he said it could be anything.

Contrary to his nature, he decided not to search the girl´s history. That was what therapy was about, right? Maybe at one moment she would open up and if he made any signal that he already knew whatever had happened, she would trust any of them. He knows Penny would notice; he had met the girl in 2 occasions, and he notice she was as observant as Natasha. Another sign of an abuse child.

Finally, the session had ended. He hated those; he was only there because it was required by the government so they could be a team again. He notice the girl didn’t make a move to participate and she also ignore Tyler when he tried to make her say something, so when they were out and Steve started to walk towards her, he tried to stop him. To no one’s surprise Capsicle didn’t care.

Penny lift her eyes from her phone, when Steve was in front on her, eyeing him suspiciously and taking a few steps back. Tony suppressed a flinch, another sign of an abuse child, rejection of nearness.

He began talking before she could go away. “Penny, I just wanted to say how sorry I am. You are right, I don’t know you or what you’ve been through. I’m sorry I judge you, your actions and attitude. It was something unfair from me.” She looked unfazed. Steve let out and sigh and looked at her with an ashamed expression. “Just wanted you to know that I’m really sorry.”

He began walking towards the Avengers when Penny talked. “Thanks.” She look at Steve at the eyes and then she walked away from them, the acceptance to Steve’s apology clear.

Natasha move to stand next to Steve. “That went well.” Then Sam decided to make an apparition. “Can we just talk how terrifying that girl is? Like, man, can she be intimidating if she wants to.”

Tony was the next in the line of let’s tease Cap. “Spangles, that girl looked like she could be carried by a breeze and yet she managed to shut your mouth. I don’t think any of us ever managed to do that.”

Steve just look around, not amuse, and say under his breath. “Yeah, yeah, I get it.” And with that all of them began walking to the car. Tony had the feeling this girl will shake their lives.

Penny woke up to the familiar weight over her, Skip was here. She tried to suppress her whimpers, so he didn’t know she was awake; he made her participate when she notice she was, and she already felt dirty enough as it was. Peter had died 3 moths ago, and it was in days like today that she missed him the most. He would have done something; he wouldn’t paralyzed like she did. If that weren’t true at least she would have a companion.

“C’mon Einstein, I know you’re awake” His voice made her have nausea. She wondered how she was so stupid to trust him.

She began sobbing, begging for him to stop. Aunt May always told her and Peter that if they didn’t like something, they had to tell them to stop; she was doing that, why wasn’t Skip stopping? She wanted Peter, her Aunt, Uncle, and her parents. She wanted to be happy again. She wanted to go back to London where she knew the foster System was better. She wanted to go back in time to when her parents were alive and so was Peter. At least, she begged in her mind, let me have Peter with me.

As Skip continue doing what he was doing, she look at him through the tears in her eyes. No, Skip wouldn’t stop because of Peter, he would probably do the same that he was doing to her. She couldn’t be that selfish, Peter was dead, murder by the hands of a monster. The only lucky thing was that he didn’t met a worst monster. She would get over it, she would rise, and this will be just a bump. She will get over this, she always did.

[quicksiilver]

In My Fathers Eyes

All Parts: Here

Also now on AO3: Here (I’ve wanted to do this from the start!  Finally did it.)

Part Four: The People In the Dream

Word Count: 4k.

Chapter Summary: Rachel reencounters the boy from downstairs.  A familiar piece of art is brought up, and her uncle identifies their type immediately, which gives Rachel just a taste of what she’s really in for.

Getting off the elevator I followed Thors directions and went straight down to the end of the hallway passing by rooms that were full of scientific equipment and important things that I wouldn’t understand.  This must’ve been the science fair Natasha was talking about and I smiled to myself thinking about it, shoving my hands in my hoodie pockets.

She seemed so cool and so chill.  I wondered if she was the only girl on this team because she’s the only girl Avenger I’ve heard about so far.  Black Widow, I thought, how cool it would be to be Black Widow.  I smiled again and shook my head.  Just wait until I tell Shaun that that thought just crossed my mind.

“Yeah, downstairs,” I heard a voice say as I reached the end of the hall.  Peering into the room I found Tony, Steve, Bruce, Thor, Natasha and the guy I ran into on the first floor who was the one talking.  I cleared my throat to subtlety announce my arrival and sure enough everyone's heads snapped to look at me.  Natasha and Steve were smiling at me, but Thor got up and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.  I gave him a smile.

“See?  Told you there was no need to rush.  Everyone is here, everyone is patient,” He gestured toward the group.

They were all sitting around different tables that used holographic computers or something.  Tony was using a touch screen but it was in midair.  I broke away from Thor and weaved my way through the tech, admiring it all.

“Yeah, patient,” Tony muttered fiddling with three different sets of codes, his eyes not leaving the screen, “Rachel we gotta talk.”  Turning to look at Tony I shrugged my shoulders to let him know I was ready and then I looked to the boy next to him who was already looking at me.  He seemed a little nervous so I smiled.

“Hi,” I said quietly before my face twisted with confusion, “Wait- how’d you get up here so fast?  You were on the stairs...”

“Uh, yeah,” He started and shrugged his shoulders twice, waving a hand at me as if to tell me to ignore him.  The boy clearly had trouble with words, but he was cute if I had to admit it.  He was as tall as Tony and gave off a sweet energy.

“He’s Spiderman,” Tony said flatly, still not looking away from his screen.  My jaw dropped only a little in shock, “Peter, this is Rachel.  Rachel, this is Peter.” He waved a single hand between us before returning it to the table.

“So you’re just going to give me up like that, then?  Again!?” Peter raised his voice, annoyed by Tony.  I laughed to myself, gaining Peter’s attention again.  He gave me a small smile and laughed with me.

“Nice to meet you,” He nodded.

“Nice to meet you, too,” I said.  We shared eye contact for another moment, just taking each other in before Steve started to speak and took me away.

Behind my back Natasha was watching Peter, and once Peter noticed her stare he pulled a face of disgust.  Natasha rolled her eyes, flickered her eyes between Peter and I, and then winked at him.  He was flustered, and looked away, but then turned back and shook his head trying to throw her off.  She nodded her head slowly and raised her eyebrows pointing at me once before giving her attention to Steve.

“Now that you’ve gotten to know Uncle Thor-“ He began, but Peter quickly cut him off.

“Uncle!?” He exclaimed, his eyebrows were raised so high as he watched Thor seeming more shocked than I had been.

“No Uncle,” Thor smiled, but squinted his eyes and we both shook our heads trying to dismiss the name we both decided didn’t fit.

“Okay, not Uncle Thor,” Steve said unsurely quizzing me with his eyes, “We figured now that you know some information we could possibly get started on what we need to do to... you know, save the world,” He sighed and sat down in a chair beside Natasha folding his arms across his chest.

“Funny, Cap,” Tony said as he stepped away from his tech, “You said you didn’t want to take the reins on this one.”  Steve took a deep breath looking at Natasha before turning to Tony.

“Then be my guest, Tone,” He said saltily, turning the air bitter.  Somewhere in my heart it felt unfitting for Captain America, a man who lived in the 1940’s, to treat someone with a little disrespect like that.  I glanced to Peter who was pressing his lips in a firm line obviously holding back a laugh.  My lips slowly grew into a smile even though I tried my best to repress it, and Peter’s did the same.  Not even a second passed before we both burst into laughter, the adults in the room turning to look at us.

“Children? For one second can you let the grown-ups have a moment?” Tony threw out a hand and talked with it.  Peter shut down quickly, but I let out another giggle as Tony turned back to face Steve.  He glanced at me only once more at the sound, and when he did I lowered my chin and narrowed my eyes watching him do a double take of disgust.

“Can you, please!  Please do not look at me like that,” He brushed his shoulder off with his hand as if to brush me away.

“Look at you like how?” Peter asked.  Keeping my chin low I faced Peter to let him have a look.  From Tony, to me, to Tony, to me, his eyes were dancing.

“I don’t get it,” He shook his head.

“He doesn’t know who that is?” Bruce spoke up.  Peter shook his head again.  I sighed and crossed my arms, copying Steve who looked to me humorously rolling his eyes in agreement.

“Listen, Cap,” Tony caught him in the act, “I wasn’t about to involve the entire team in this yet,” He gestured to Peter vaguely, “Let alone Peter, when we have no idea what this mission is going to do to us.”

“What mission?” Peter asked, getting no answers to any of his questions.  Tony and Steve broke into an argument that Natasha did her best to break up, and when she failed Thor stepped in and pushed Tony backward with a giant metal hammer that seemed to appear out of nowhere.  The Asgardian had business written on his face as we all watched the two of them stare at each other.

“That is my brother's daughter,” He spoke softly, but the strict tone was eminent.  After he said that Peter looked at me, still confused.

“If you all are not going to treat her with respect and thank her for coming here to help us, then I will take her home myself and make sure she lives the happiest life now that I know who she is,” Thor tapped Tony’s chest with the hammer again, “And I’m talking about you, Stark.” Tony looked between the hammer and Thor with minimum expression on his face.

“What will you do?  Lightning strike me into oblivion?  You guys need me, you wouldn’t do a thing,” Tony said. Thor pressed the hammer against him completely.  My mind was blown, it was as if this hammer weighed thousands of pounds yet Thor was able to just carry it around.  Tony let out a few noises to alert us that he was uncomfortable, and Peter looked concerned, but I watched with content.  Tony had been nothing but rude to me since I met him, I didn’t see anything wrong with giving him a little push.

“I could do it,” Thor agreed, “But I won’t,” He turned to me and I gave him a thankful smirk, then he looked to Tony once more, “Without you we won’t be able to find Loki.  We wouldn’t have found Rachel.  I need my brother to be safe, and she needs her father to come home.  Loki... Loki needs to be here,” His voice fell soft at the end, “He needs to be with her.” The room was silent for not even a minute after Thor’s touching speech, that did pull at my heart a bit.  Hearing that my father could be in danger if Thor said he wasn’t safe, and hearing that he needed to be with me, something stirred inside of me.  It felt like a longing, a need to know someone, a need to help someone.

Now it was Peter’s turn to get the attention.

“Loki?  You’re his daughter?” He asked me.  Nodding, I shrugged my shoulders.  My go-to for when I didn’t feel like admitting anything out loud, or apparently when the Avengers were driving me nuts.  I waited to see if Peter's face gave any hints as to how he felt about that information, but he just looked down to his hands and messed with them.  His eyebrows were pushed gently to the center of his forehead as he looked up at me, but he didn’t expect me to still be watching so he quickly looked back down.  Turning completely toward the adults I found Natasha watching me with a small smile.  Returning it I sighed and took my hoodie off completely, tossing it over a table to my left.  The white tank I had beneath it would do, I was comfortable being chilly anyway.

“Okay,” I said gesturing my hands around at them, “I’m ready.  Use me.” I said sarcastically.  Thor eyed me curiously, but proudly as I offered myself to them.  He had a plan of keeping me away from this tonight, but I decided now that I was going to get this over with.  Bruce stood up and held out a hand.

“Bruce Banner,” He said.  I shook his hand and nodded.  Hulk, I said to myself in my head, big green guy.  I mentally noted to always be nice to Bruce.  There was something about knowing he could turn into a monster in a split second that just freaked me out to my core.

“Rachel Andrews,” I said and let go, holding my hands behind my back.

“Nice to formally meet you, Rachel,” He said with an emphasis on the word formally, getting a quiet rise out of Tony, “You’ll be doing a lot of work with me... and Tony to start out with.”  Thor released the man who came a few steps closer to us.

“Hi, Rachel,” He said in the same tone he’s been using, “Yes it’s been great to meet you, but I’ve just been stressed the hell out.  These superhuman’s don’t understand that I can’t punch or break something to simply figure out how...” He paused and internally seemed to tell himself to stop talking.

“Can I tell you what we need to do?” He asked me and I gave him the famous shrug, “You know you do that a lot.” He mumbled and turned around motioning for me to follow him.  Just when I thought Tony could’ve redeemed himself in the slightest, he ruins it with a snide comment.

“Guys, Steve and I are going to go meet Wanda downstairs,” Natasha said, starting for the door with Steve behind her, “Peter?” She paused for a moment looking to the boy who was still standing there quietly.  He looked up to her.

“Are you going to come with us?” She asked him, her tone insinuating something.  Peter shook his head and then cocked his head toward Tony.

“Nah, I’m going to stay and help,” He said.  Natasha eyed him, then left with a grin on her face.  

Tony brought me over to the table he was standing behind when I first came into this room and he started to explain what I was looking at on the screens.  It was insane, when I was behind the screen I could see right through it, but looking at it from here it was like a solid page.

He told me that he and Bruce needed to, ‘explore the valleys of my hippocampus’, to see if they could find any leads on my father and where he could be or what he could be doing.

“You realize I’ve never met the guy?” I said, stating the truth.

“Seems as though you’ve met something related to him,” Tony said and I pulled a face.

“Yeah, Thor-“ I started to catch an attitude, but he shut me up.

“Not... Thor,” He held out a hand before reaching for his phone in his pocket, ��Banner, I didn’t show you this yet.” Tony scrolled on his phone for a minute and then flipped the screen around for Bruce to see.  His eyes nearly bugged out of his head, and Tony vocally agreed with him.

“What is it?” Peter asked coming close to peer over Tony’s shoulder, “Whoa, is that paint?!” He exclaimed.  Reaching out a hand without thinking twice I snatched Tony’s phone from him with force and saw a photo of my painting from this morning on the screen.  I could feel my blood start to boil.  Nothing made me anymore angry than non consensual art being flaunted around, especially if it was mine.  In sixth grade a drawing of a girl I had a crush on was spread around the school and I was made fun of for weeks, so I’m pretty sure that’s where this trauma stems from.

“You think this is okay? Stealing peoples art and hard work?” I spat, sliding his phone back to him on the table, “I worked for hours on that.”

“And it’s great, really,” Tony praised, “I didn’t take the picture to steal your art, kid.  Can I ask what it is?  Who are they?”

I peeked at his phone again, looking at the blue figures I had painted onto an icy background.

“I know who they are,” Thor said, making us all jump, because I think we all forgot he was here.  He walked toward us, stood behind me and reached over my head for Tonys phone.  I looked up at him genuinely shocked.

“What!? You do?” I asked, “These are things I’ve seen in my dreams my entire life.  How do you know who they are?” Thor looked to Tony who looked to Bruce.

“Go ahead, she’s going to need to find out anyway,” The scientist rolled his eyes.  Thor placed a hand to my shoulder as usual and walked me away from the table.  Once we were across the room he showed me my own painting again.

“Yes, I know,” I nodded, “Blue people, red eyes, ice world.” Thor laughed under his breath.

“This is a place close to Asgard,” He began, his words freezing me in my place, “We used to be at battle with them, the Jotun’s, for millions of years until my father... ended it.  It’s called Jotunheim and these people are called Frost Giants.” My eyes were glued to my painting and my stomach was starting to feel nauseous.  My entire life I had believed that this was a made up place that my six year old brain created, and then continued to create when I needed something to get me away from what is now my traumatic backstory.

“You’re looking like him again,” Thor whispered, mentioning the clear discomfort I was wearing on my face, “The place was silent for a long, long time after my father created peace, the Jotun’s leaving Asgard alone, however... today battle is on the horizon.  It has been for a while now.” I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked up to my uncle.

“Are you alright?” He asked genuinely, a hand touching my cheek.  I started to nod slowly.

“I mean... yeah, if you consider the fact that I have no idea who I am anymore,” I said at merely a whisper, “This has to do with my dad, right?  All of it?  Why else would I be dreaming about another planet?”

“This is why we’d like to explore...” Tony sang out from the other side of the room, letting his voice trail off obnoxiously after his little song.

“Maybe, possibly, somehow some of it wasn’t a dream... It was real,” Bruce said.

“I’ve NEVER met my father,” I clenched my fists and watched Tony flinch, my voice raising a bit as I stared Bruce down.

“Maybe it wasn’t your father,” He said simply, not even reacting to my state.  Squeezing my eyebrows together I quickly crossed my arms over my chest hoping to physically fix the emotional hole that was just opened.  My body was turning warm, I could feel the heat rising from my bones and it started to make me shake.  I turned to Thor and shook my head nearly pouting my lips.  He rested a hand on my arm and pulled me in to hug him.  His hold was strong, but comforting, and as he hugged me he told me quietly that he was not going to let anything or anyone hurt me.

“And I mean here, too,” He lifted a finger to my head implying mentally.  Bruce and Tony had turned away and were talking to one another focused back on a screen.  Peeking out from under Thor's arm it seemed as if they didn’t care that this day has been the third most overwhelming day of my life.  They both just tapped away at their work with their fingers and spoke a second language of smart people’s lingo to each other.

“Hey,” Peter said from behind Thor and I.  Suddenly realizing that he was still here I stepped back from Thor rubbing my eyes clean of any subconscious tears that may have fallen before turning to look at him.  I took a deep breath as he stepped close to me.

“I don’t really know what you have to do,” He started, and I nodded in agreement because I had no idea either, “But Mr. Stark and Mr. Banner can be nice sometimes.  They can even make me laugh sometimes,” He spoke lightheartedly, watching me curiously.  Then he spoke quieter, keeping his words between us, “If you wanted, I could totally stay here, if that’s okay with you, and maybe even help them and you, of course.  You barely know me, but somehow I feel like I get you.”  Tucking my dark hair behind my ears I glanced to my feet feeling something stir in my center again as I stood here in front of Peter.  

It was a feeling I had felt for the first time in sixth grade, and another time when I first met Shaun.  Shortly after getting to know Shaun and who he was it was settled that I’d have to get over what I was feeling, fast, or else we wouldn’t have become the friends we are today.  I had never dated anyone before, and I wasn’t sure that something along those lines was even written in the stars for me.  The thought of someone coming into my life and disrupting the way I live it made me uncomfortable.  I work too hard to be able to survive the way I’ve been, and any time Shaun asks to set me up with someone I decline.  He loves to tell me I enjoy shutting people out, and have a talent for not opening up or speaking my truth.  Although for Shaun that’s never truly an issue.  Our other friends however couldn’t tell you a single thing personal about me.

As I looked back up to Peter these thoughts washed away and all that remained was my gut instinct to shut it down as fast as possible and run the other way, but then I figured I could use a friend while I was here.  Shaun was at home, possibly still at mine, and I was here by myself completely vulnerable to a handful of Gods, superhuman’s and shape shifting human beings.

“Sure,” I answered Peter with a small smile, “You can stay.”  He smiled in return, his eyes looking to me happily.  Flutters in my stomach.  Breaking my gaze I sighed and turned back to Thor who was waiting attentively.

“You can do this.  In the end everything will be fine.  Even better than fine,” He said grinning, “Peter, Spider-boy,” He said.

“Uh, Spider-man... Thor, sir,” Peter said too respectfully.

“Right,” Thor laughed, “You’ve always been someone I trusted these few years you’ve been with us,” Peter’s smile grew, “Can you promise me something?”

“Of course,” Peter nodded quickly.

“Good, now, please,” Thor paused and closed his eyes.  I turned to Peter for a moment, both of us questioning him, “Please promise me that if I am not around... if I am not in sight, and this one is in danger,” Thor pointed to me, “Promise me that you will protect her.  Whatever it takes.”  Peter stepped around me and held out his hand for Thor to shake, and when the god grabbed it he nearly lifted Peter off the floor.

“I promise,” Peter said genuinely.  Thor nodded and looked between the two of us satisfied with himself.

“Good, good,” He mumbled, “That is my niece,” He said to Peter who nodded, understanding, “And this is my friend,” He said to me, gesturing toward Peter, “Don’t get too comfortable.” He whispered harshly, laughing at the cringe reactions he got out of both of us.

“I will be leaving for a moment, will you be alright?” Thor then asked me.  Nodding my head I glanced to Peter, then to Thor and smiled, “Great.  Take care of her, please.”  He said to Peter before heading out the door.

“Rachel, can we do a test run to see if we have everything working right?” Bruce called over to Peter and I.

“Sure,” I said knowing that I didn’t have another option, but Thor's threat to Tony about him taking me home did sound pretty nice.  Walking toward the geniuses I say down in a comfortable chair right beside the table Tony was working at.

He handed me two tiny earbuds and explained to me that I needed to put them in my ears like I was wearing headphones to listen to music.  I hesitated at first, questioning Peter with my eyes, but he just gave me a shrug, so I stuck the little oval shaped beads into my ears.

“Alright,” Tony’s tone turned to excitement, “Let’s see how well our four month prototype works out, Banner.”

“Prototype?!” I nearly shouted and lunged forward in the chair making Tony jump and stumble backwards.  The sight of his frightened face confused me once again, yet it always seemed to bring me a but of joy, “You’re really scared of me, aren’t you?” I asked quietly, my voice lowering immensely, some humor detected behind it.  Tony came back close to me and ignored the question, giving me the answer I was looking for, and started tapping away listening to Bruce’s instructions.  Peter had himself sitting criss-cross on a table top when I looked back to him.  His hands were in his lap and he was watching the guys work with interest in every move they made.  His eyes found me and he smiled again, shooting me a look that was asking me if I was okay.  I sat back against the cushion once more and nodded as I rested my forehead on my fist, the feeling of a headache brewing and on its way.

[professional-benaddict]

Hi! Love your writing! Prompt if you feel like it - Littles universe but where Littles and CGs also have animal traits (ie kitty ears and tails and fangs). CGs Tony and Stephen have been searching for a Little of their own to match their feline pride and meet kitten Little Peter. Fluff please - not in the mood for angst right now...

🐾 Felines AND ageplay? Hell, yes! Okay, so, the people in this verse would have ’cat-girls and dog-boys’ features. So, a human frame, but with feline/canine tails, ears, fangs and claws. Oh, and purring for the felines.

🦁 Tony’s a lion, obviously. He has stunning mane-like hair, brown eyes that look golden in the sunlight, and a voice that rumbles. His whole frame just screams pride and power, and whenever he speaks, everyone else falls silent and listens. His skin is tan and golden, and warm to the touch. He doesn’t purr, but his favourite activity is sunbathing.

🐯 Stephen is a tiger. His eyes are fierce, his voice low and intimidating, but he purrs and loves cuddling. He is more of a silent predator compared to Tony, but he is just as deadly. His skin has more of a cool tone, and he is a bit bigger and taller than Tony. He is the biggest cat, after all, and he gets respect from everyone.

🐱 Peter, is a Scottish Fold, and even when full grown, he is still smaller than the cubs of the biggest cats. His skin is the softest thing you will ever feel, and his little ears flap on top of his head whenever he moves. With wide brown eyes, and a pink little tongue peaking out from between his thin, black lips, Peter is simply the cutest thing Stephen and Tony have ever seen.

🦁 Tony and Stephen find Peter at a feline shelter, since they have for a long time wanted a smaller cat to take care of since they cannot have children. But, an ageregressor little Scottish Fold is perfect for the two bigger cats. Peter falls in love with his new caregivers in an instant and purrs the whole way to his new home.

🐯 But, Stephen and Tony quickly find out that Peter is not house trained at all. He scratches at the furniture, he spills his food and drink everywhere, and well... He doesn’t know how to use the bathroom either. So, the two big cats have to teach their little kitten on what to do where and when.

🐱 Also, Peter meows, which domestic adult cat breeds to not do, and Stephen and Tony do not meow either. They only roar and growl at one another now and then (and during sex). But, that is just Peter’s regressed state of mind and his way of expressing himself. Stephen and Tony have to be fast learners to adapt to Peter’s needs and ways of expressing himself.

🦁 They are all cats, at the end of the day though. So, after a long day of bossing their employers around and establising dominance with their growls, Stephen and Tony love nothing more than to cuddle up with their kitten in front of a fire with some good whiskey. And a ball of yarn for Peter to chase around and get tangled in.

[theadorablespderman]

Everything to love about Far From Home not in this order:

Literally seeing that opening with all our loved avengers that are no more.

Whitney Houston “I will always love you” made me cry because damnit Tony’s face was right THERE! NOT OK!

The blip footage was pretty damn funny not gonna lie.

Peter’s cute ass plan to tell MJ how he feels.

MJ’s favorite flower being a Black Dalia because of the murder. Literally a girl I can relate too. Murderinos for life sister. Idk but it just made her sooo relatable!

The fact that Brad is a kid grown up from the blip and that made him seem all the weirder for MJ.

Jealous Peter was so freaking amazing! Oh my gosh! That face he’d get. I’m a sucker for jealousy and they did it so good.

Making MJ this awesome character she was before but also obviously has this softer layer where she does have flaws and insecurities and she’s really sweet but also so badass. That was amazing.

The starting relationship between Peter and Beck. It was cute and so I was sad knowing that Beck was somehow going to be the villain.

Also let’s talk about how Beck is basically Syndrom from the incredibles.

That scene with Peter and Brad....the pure terror when he snapped that picture

Also seeing how big of a dick Brad is and how unhealthy jealous he was.

“Nick Fury” getting ghosted, showing up in Venice, tranquilising Ned (don’t touch him you monster) and then promptly highjacking Peters Summer trip.

Showing the emotional trama Peter is going through. The anxiety, the greiving. It was very reminiscent of Iron Man 3 when Tony suffers from PTSD after the battle of New York. I loved that they showed Peter reacting as any kid would, many adults too, which is to just try and forget anything happened but being faced with the reality every day. So well done.

Happy and May’s relationship. Enough said 😂😂

I feel cheated we didn’t see Mr delmore again.

Addressing all the problems the Blip/Snap created. High school aging, school, drinking ages, homelessness and housing issues. That’s just the start of it I’m sure but they covered those pretty well and I love that.

The technology that made Beck into Misterio was so well done. Instead of some frankly, kinda far fetched story that he came from an alternate earth (which I was willing to believe but felt it was a cop out in terms of plot and character) they showed the real world issues that superhero’s can create. The Enemies that have a real deep rooted hatred for hero because they’ve personally been betrayed or wronged by them. Because marvel has always made clear, everyone is not on the hero’s side.

Steeping Misterio’s powers in tech which is classing marvel but again, so brilliantly done in this movie. I loved the development. Because at first glance, half way through, I was thinking “wow this is really kinda weird and unexplained and too witchcraft for what marvel usually brings to the superpower backstory” I know it’s weird to say after everything marvel has done. But it seemed just a tad out there without being too hard to grasp. Which again was brilliantly done because that was the whole point.

The nod to Misterio’s helmet even when Beck was in the hologram suit watching everything play out. I guess it was his screen? But I loved the staple of even without his big over the top suit he still had the trademark helmet. Great costume design.

Peter’s soft gazes towards MJ. Nearly gave me a cavity they were so sweet! Ahhh sooo cute

Mr. Harrington’s marital problems nearly made me pee my pants....we all knew here in the fandom that shit like that would half to happen but my god lol

The opera scene was sooo freakin cute and that one step Peter took when he saw Brad move in was so freaking cute and hot!

MJ running after him and finding the critical peice of information to crack the case wide open. Loved it.

Betty and Ned’s Sicily sweet romance that you knew couldn’t possibly last. They really nailed the realistic high school romance. But I still ship it.

The bus scene was epic. And when Peter knocked Flash out...god it was amazing.

Mj obviously having love eyes towards Peter same as he does for her.

THE FACT THAT HE ACTUALLY BOUGHT THAT NECKLACE FOR HER OH MY GOD! I CANT GET A GUY TO TEXT ME BACJ LET ALONE BUY A NECKLACE LIKE THAT WHICH PROBABALY COST A GOOD CHUNK OF CHANGE IT WAS SO FREAKING AMAZING AND CUTE AND TOUCHING.

All the iron man images got me feeling depressed as hell

“are you being serious because I was only like 67% sure?” That was amazing. Seeing MJ get so excited and trying to keep that hidden was awesome

The fact that she was so pleased with herself but also played it hella cool when Ned walked in and she said she figured it out. Literally that is me.

The shirtless Peter trope that we all wanted and freaking got! So freaking cute how she tried to peak at his abs. Like understandable girl.

The fucking illusions. Turning our sweet trusting Peter into a ball of mess. I was too.

God when he had to tell himself it wasn’t real but it still totally feels like it is.

Him trying to save MJ when she’s “thrown off the Eiffel Tower”

Every traumatizing thing Beck shows and tells him during the illusion. So shitty.

Seeing Tony’s grave, seeing iron man come out. That was awful and we all felt it in the movie because we’ve lost him too. We could FEEL that slap same as Peter.

Beck telling Peter that Tony’s death was his fault. I was abouta hurl myself at the movie screen.

Every illusion done in a way that just when you think it’s over, it’s never stopped. You forget what’s real and you feel trapped in it same as Peter does.

WHEN HE GETS HIT BY THE TRAIN!!!!!!!!!! Nearly had a damn heart attack!!!! My mom had to look over and ask if I was ok because I literally stopped breathing for a solid 30 seconds.

Showing gradually just how insane and evil Misterio was.

HAPPY BEING CONCERNED FOR PETER! LIKE SINCERELY AND HONESTLY CONCERNED! It’s good to know he’s got Happy to take care of him and May but that Peter still has a father type figure he can count on after Tony. Because you know Tony wouldn’t have put up with any of that getting hit by a train shit.

Also where the hell was Karen? We missed her. We got Edith but Karen wouldn’t have let Misterio take her over. WHERE WAS KAREN!!

Peter crying and needing to know Happy was real. Broke me heart

That hug between them was so sweet and you can see the concern on Happy’s face

Happy and Peter opening up to each other was so awesome considering their relationship in Homecoming.

ALL THE TONY and PETER PARRELLS! All of them!!!!!!!!! Not the people saying “Spider-Man’s the next Ironman” no the actual hints and glimpses at how similar him and tony actually are. The hologram gauntlet shot, a straight parallel to Iron Man when Tony is building his first real suit. Obviously “Back in Black” by Led Zeplen (formally known as AC/DC) playing. Another obvious hint toward Tony. The Stark sunglasses. Peter falling with the parachute and it literally looks like Ironman with his jet stream behind him from a distance. There’s so much more I’ll do a whole other post on.

Of course: “I love Led Zeplin!” Hahaha it’s such a kid thing to say! I’ve said it before I knew the big differences between AC/DC and Led Zeplin. It was so freaking perfect.

Peter making his suit and Happy’s face. Bittersweet and I live for the affection he holds for Peter now.

The Netherlands Holding cell...must I say more?

Brad’s downfall and MJs amazing comment about him taking pictures of people in the bathroom. Ep-ic. Even flash was like “bro that’s so weird”

Mr. witchcraft was hilarious and I loved his aside with Brad “I’m gonna be the cool teacher and tell you you can’t do that anymore.”

Flash is definately Gay or Bi and I’m so here for it. That wink he makes to Peter proves it.

All the near death truths in the vault of the tower.

MJ BADDASS COMES SWINGING WITH THE MACE AND IT WAS LEGINDARY OH MY GOD! YES GIRL! She’s my idol I love her so much.

Peter and his “Peter Tingle” And while we’re on the subject the banana he gets to the face while packing.

Important. His amazing skills at the end trusting his instincts (which is great because May says in regards to MJ, but it applies to this too) May tells Peter to trust his instincts and don’t think too much. And that’s what he does when he defeats Beck.

The bad ass “you can’t fool me anymore” after redirecting the gun away from his head at the end. Literally was so intense and well done.

Peter and MJ’s kisses! I loved how awkward it was at first and the slightly less awkward one. They really accurately captured the awkwardness of teenagers in love. Like that’s what it’s like guys.

Show me MJ’s parents you cowards, or show me something. Anything. I just want to know the nature of the situation.

Ned and Betty’s breakup. So funny and honestly not surprising at all. But still I ship them.

The hand hold. So cute.

May and Peter still being the cutest aunt and nephew duo there ever was.

I totally thought Peter was going to end with telling the world he was spiderman....BUT SOME OTHER ASSHOLES DID IT FOR HIM AND MADE HIM INTO A VILLAN AND IM PISSED. LOOKING AT YOU MR JAMESON YOU PEICE OF SHIT.

The movie ended and I have no idea what’s next.

Mid credit of MJ swinging through New York. Home girl doesn’t like and neither do I. Looks full on terrifying we don’t blame you hun.

After credit where the skrulls have been playing Maria and Nick fury for the whole movie. Honestly it made more sense because Nick fury seemed just a bit off. ALSO WHERE IS THE REAL NICK FURY at and I’m so psyched to see where this new movies are gonna go!

Alright that all for now folks!!!! Everything about the movie was great!!! I will have to watch again ad see if anything more pops up. Sorry for any spelling errors I’m on my phone.

[kittybellestark]

Hi guys I’m nearly at 100 followers so I think it’s time we discuss something important. I know I’ll probably lose followers for posting this but I think it needs to be said. I’m not going to add any tags and I don’t want any of y’all to get the wrong idea here, okay? So please read this through. I’m not trying to hurt anyone or come after them. I just want to give my personal opinion on this topic because as much as love the Irondad fandom and all the work here, there is a lot of drama too.

So let’s talk about Starker for a second.

First things first. I do not ship starker.

Obviously our fandom is most based on mcu canon. Where Peter is a minor throughout the universe and still is. I know that he is technically 21 in ffh and endgame, but we know because of ffh, that those who were snapped are still considered minors. (Flash ordering alcohol on the plane and them not serving him when it became known he was snapped)

For those who aren’t mcu but comic shippers, while I’m not certain on all the universes, I know there are a few where Peter is a full grown adult, so maybe he met Tony as an adult too. I’m not sure. Obviously that is a different story then mcu, so I’m not going to touch on that.

I personally do not ship the idea of Peter and Tony being together romantically or sexually. I don’t want them together or hope for them being together. I don’t think they’d be good together either.

But on that note, not everyone who writes or reads starker fanfic ships them. They are aware that it is wrong. Dark fics exist, non-con fics exist. For those who have followed me and read my work they know I canon that Skip sexually abused Peter at some point. There’s a rape scene in Peter Parker Went Silent, Straightening Things Out’s plot revolves around this unhealthy non-consensual relationship that Peter doesn’t feel he can escape because Skip is in a relationship with May. I don’t ship Peter/Skip but I use it to work through trauma and to create stories that others will read.

There are also so many people who are anti-starker but will also ship spideypool. Again another minor/adult situation. I know it’s canon established that Peter and Tony have a father-son relationship as it’s been confirmed multiple times over by RDJ and Tom Holland. But guys. Spideypool. In the MCU (as he is to be introduced soon, Ryan Reynolds is on the cast list for Dr Strange) DeadPool is an adult.

Again though, if you’re shipping based on comics where they are introduced as adults it’s a different story.

But to get back to my point, as writers we use these characters to project sometimes. I’ve projected on Peter in nearly all the fics and headcanons I’ve written. I’ve read dark fics too. At the end of the day it’s all art. People still read Lolita and the Handmaids Tale and all these other actual published works of fiction that have these terrible no good, should never be shipped relationships.

As a writer I use Peter to explore myself. He is based off what I am feel at any given time. While most of the things that I write about Peter don’t actually happen to me in real life, I use those situations I’ve written to deal with what has happened to me.

So maybe the people who write and read starker are also working through things. Maybe as a minor they were in an unhealthy relationship with an adult who should have known better. And maybe they see Peter and think ‘this character is relatable to him and I am processing things so this is what I will write about.’

The beauty of this app is we don’t know the people behind the screen.

I don’t ship Starker. I will never write starker. I don’t read Starker. Because I use mcu Peter and Tony and it makes me uncomfy.

We don’t know these other people. We cannot judge them. And we should never ever be rude and use words that can harm someone else, especially when we don’t know. We will never know what the writer is going through so we shouldn’t judge them.

If people actually, genuinely want Peter and Tony in and actual sexual and romantic relationship, that bothers me. But people who are writing things just to write and expand their abilities as a writer, or someone reading something because it shows up on their feed? I’m not going to attack them for it.

I don’t like Starker. I don’t ship it. People who do genuinely want them together sets off a red flag for me, especially when it’s mcu. To me it’s like wanting Lolita and Frank La Salle. Or June and Fred.

But guys. Not once have I ever been attacked for writing about Peter being assaulted by Skip. No one has sent me hate messages or wished the worst on me for writing Straightening Things Out, where Peter literally thinks Skip is helping him and doing the right thing. Not once have I felt unwelcomed to this fandom because I use Skip where another writer might use Tony instead.

So please, please do not wish harm on others. You can have your opinions. That is okay. We all have them. But don’t jump to conclusions that you don’t have any information of other than a tag. People pay and consume dark media, here people don’t pay and consume or write dark media.

I know it’s easy because you can’t see the other person. But please think before you post because sometimes ya’ll are saying things that are uncalled for.

I’m not condoning minor/adult relationships in real life. That is pedophilia and if you are a minor please know that adult who is telling you how mature you are and how much they love spending time with you and wants to be in a relationship doesn’t have your best interests at heart. No adult should ever call you hot or be turned on by you. A 22 year old should never be attracted to a 14 year old or 17 year old. That relationship is not consensual and please please please find an adult who can get you out of an unsafe relationship. And also a 14 year old and a 16 or 17 year old in a relationship genuinely a problem. Adults know relationships with minors are wrong. Even large age gaps in relationships can be extremely unhealthy

Leonardo DiCaprio never dating anyone over the age of 25, and knowing his last girlfriend since she was a minor for example. That is obviously very unhealthy pedophilic and of course grooming. Hugh Hefner having wives that are so much younger than him too. That’s not healthy, it’s scary.

But for those of you who have been in those situations as I know way too many people who when we were in highschool were in relationships with adults, you are allowed to write about it with any character you want, however you want. If you’re a person who hasn’t ever been in a relationship like that but wanting to expand on things you write and learn new skills to see if you can properly convey what is happening in a relationship such as Peter/Tony, you can do that too.

Wanting Peter and Tony together is the red flag, writing Peter and Tony together because you’re a writer and it’s hard to write a relationship where it’s obviously not healthy and Peter doesnt see the problem with it? That’s just writing. There’s trigger warnings and tags.

But let’s also be aware for those of us who canon Peter being Bi, there is also a pretty good chance that Tony Stark™️ was Peter’s sexual awakening. Like before he ever met Tony. I was 12 and in love with older male celebrities, it’s just a reality and maybe this was something that happening with Peter, it’s fiction who knows.

And on an unrelated thought if this irondad thing was real life we wouldn’t be romanticizing it. If this was Elon Musk who took on a personal intern, despite not being known for that, the intern is a child still in highschool, gets picked up from school by Elon to go to Tesla 3 days a week and then sleeps over at his house on weekends we would all be scarred. We would either think oh this child is Elon’s family, or we would think omg Elon is a sexual predator. Irondad is a weird thing for us to like. It is. We wouldn’t like it very much in real life. That’s a fact. But we are projecting. As writers and readers it’s what we do.

At the end of the day this is fiction and fan fiction. I’m not going to attack someone for liking something I don’t. I’m a full grown adult it makes my adult brain feel weird about the whole situation. That’s me. When I was in highschool I read adult/minor relationships even though I knew they were wrong and unhealthy because that’s what would show up on my dash. If any of my followers read/write starker it’s their business not my own, they like what they like and I like what I like. We interpret things differently and that’s okay.

Please stop attacking people, especially when you don’t have the full story. And also someone expressing their dislike to a ship isn’t an attack on those who do ship the relationship. So take a moment and breathe and think before posting anything.

To reiterate: this is just my opinion on things. Ships are complicated. I’m not trying to attack anyone or saying all people who write/read starker are doing it because they have trauma, there are many different reasons why a person may do so. There are also many different reasons why someone might ship starker. I don’t know these reasons but I don’t agree with the ship and that’s my own business. As a person who doesn’t ship starker I will never know some of these reasons and that’s okay. Just because I see shipping starker as a red flag doesn’t mean it is for everyone. Treat People With Kindness and please don’t attack or do anything that can be harmful just because someone’s views does not align with yours.

[blacknight1230]

Second Star to the Right - Chapter 3

Part 1, Part 2

Peter’s POV: 

It was the night after the fiasco with my shadow. At least it was a new night here in London, as time was different in Neverland. Once I was at the Darling house, I scoped out the area for the black dog that ripped my shadow away from me from the previous night. Luckily, he or she was locked outside, sleeping soundly in the dog house in the backyard, a chain linked to its collar. Now, all I had to worry about was if anyone in the room was awake. 

“Tink, could you go in first to check if the girl is asleep?” I asked my fairy friend. She saluted me and sped away, a stream of fairy dust trailing behind her as she became nothing but a tiny ball of light. I watched as she knocked things over, rummaged through clothes in the wardrobe, and basically made a mess of the room, before she came back a minute or so. “The coast is clear,” she told me, a proud smile on her face. I thanked her and I flew into the room with her at my side, planting my feet on the window sill and peered at the room. 

Somehow, despite all the noise and the light, the girl was still asleep in her bed. I carefully roamed around the room, looking for my shadow, eyes getting caught on the young girl sleeping soundly. I noticed she was still clothed in clothes from the day, wearing denim jeans with holes in the knees and a simple (f/c) t-shirt. 

As I was studying the sleeping girl, Tink was looking around and through the keyholes through the drawers. She flew up to me after looking through one and told me, “I think I found your shadow.” She led me to the drawer and I flew towards it. The drawer was jiggling around, something obviously stuck in there that wanted to be let out. I looked at Tink, who smiled and nodded, silently telling me to go ahead. I quietly counted to three, a smile on my face, then ripped the drawer door. My shadow immediately flew up and out of the drawer, trying to get away when it recognized me. I subconsciously slapped the drawer of the dresser quickly, speeding towards my fleeing shadow. 

I chased it around the room, oblivious to the fact that I was creating a commotion. I eventually caught it, proud of myself as I tried to stick the black mass back onto me. But my shadow wouldn’t stick, regardless of what I did. After a failed attempt to attach my shadow by tying it around my ankles, my shadow started to tease me. Frustrated, I started to cry, hiding my head in my arms, as bad thoughts filled my head, making believe that I would never get my shadow to stick to me again. 

My crying was interrupted by a soft voice. “Boy, why are you crying?” it said. I looked up from my crossed arms with tears in my eyes. The young girl that was previously sleeping soundly in her bed was now looking at me with sleepy eyes over the edge of her bed. I quickly got up and dried my tears, not wanting her to see me in such a pathetic state “I wasn’t crying,” I told, refusing to admit my moment of weakness. “Are you sure? It looked like you were crying,” the girl pestered, looking at me with a curious tilt of her head. “I said I wasn’t crying. Boys don’t cry!” I protested, crossing my tan arms across my chest. The girl just rolled her eyes, but didn’t fight with me on the matter. 

She looked down at the shadow on the floor, which was trying to sneak away from me. I stepped on one of its legs, successfully able to stop it from escaping. “What are you doing?” she asked, when she saw the small interaction between me and my shadow. “I’m trying to make my shadow stick. But no matter what I do, I can’t get it to,” I explained, while rubbing a bar of something sticky on one of my feet. “Well it’s never going on like that. I think I have a way to help you,” she told me. 

Without another word, she got up and went to a drawer in a nearby dresser. She rummaged around it it for a bit, then pulled something out. “I’m not good at sewing, so I’m going to have to use super glue,” she said, holding a small plastic stick full of a clear liquid. I gave a small breath of relief; I did not enjoy  having my shadow sewn back onto me the last time I lost it. 

I gave the feet of my shadow to the girl, who after a small thank you, opened the cap of the tiny plastic tube and squeezed a significant amount onto it. I stuck out my feet for her and she quickly stuck my shadow onto the soles of my feet, making sure it was completely flattened to skin. I shifted around uncomfortably at the feeling of the super sticky glue on my bare feet, but tried not to show my discomfort. “Ok, I think it's fine now. Try walking around a bit,” the girl suggested, after holding my shadow on for minute or so. I did as she told me. getting up and walking around the room a bit. To my delight, my shadow followed my every move, acting as if it never fell off in the first place. 

“Thank you!” I exclaimed happily, turning to the girl and giving her the biggest smile I could muster. “You’re welcome,” she replied, a kind smile on her face. She got up from her position on the floor and put the stick of glue back in its proper place. While she did so, I got a good looked her, silently studying her appearance. Her wavy brown hair was a little messy and her brown eyes were a bit red, as if she was crying at some point. “What’s your name?” I asked her, curious about the nice girl who happily helped me. “What’s your name?” she asked back. “I’m Peter. Peter Pan,” I introduced, giving a polite bow to her.  “I’m Brianna,” she replied. Instead of curtsying like I thought she would, she stuck out her right hand. Confused as to what she wanted me to do, I left her hand hanging in the air. “What are you doing?” I asked with brows furrowed. “Oh, sorry, did you want me to curtsy? I never done one before as I���m used to greeting someone with a handshake,” Brianna explained, a faint blush on her face. “It’s ok. Bowing and curtseying is for stuck-up adults anyway,” I told her, ignoring the fact that I was the one to bow first. 

“By the way, why are your eyes red? Did you get something in your eye? ” I asked, slightly worried about the young girl. “Oh, no, nothing like that. I was actually crying before I fell asleep,” she told me shyly. “Why? Are you okay?” Who made this kind girl so sad? I thought. Maybe I can do something. 

“Not really. You see my mother is really mad at me for something that happened at school,” Brianna started to explain, taking a seat on her bed. “Why is that?” I moved to sit on the foot of her bed, sitting Indian style on top of the purple comforter. “My new teacher doesn’t like me and caught me doodling in my notebook. She gave me detention and lied to my mother about why I was in trouble.”  “That’s not fair! Your teacher has no right to do that to you!” I shouted, already hating her mean old teacher. “It doesn’t matter. Adults don’t believe or listen to children. I only finally realized that now that my mother and father have separated,” Brianna said sadly. I could see tears gather in the corner of her eyes as she looked down at the floor in despair.  “Separated? what do you mean? Where’s your father?” I asked, confused yet again. “He’s in America. My parents got a divorce because they weren’t happy being with each other anymore. I’ve had very little contact since we left my old home.” I didn’t know what a divorce was, but I could tell it was bad. Especially seeing how Brianna looked as she told me this terrible news. 

After learning about the reasons that have made her so miserable, I felt sorry for her. The final nail in the coffin was what she said next. “My mother wants me to grow up. I’m already fifteen, too old to believe in fairytales or sleep with a teddy bears and so on. I’m starting to think she’s right,” she said, hugging her legs to her chest. “No way! I won’t stand for it!” I exclaimed, jumping to my feet. Brianna turned to look at me, shocked, as I continued. “Brianna, come with me to Neverland! You’ll never grown up there!” “Neverland?” Brianna got up from the bed, moving to stand in front of me. “Where is it? I’ve never heard of before.” 

I quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her to the bedroom window. “You see those two stars out there,” I said pointing to the two shiniest stars in the night. “Second star to the right and straight on until morning. That’s Neverland. A land of endless adventure and magic, where time stands still and no child ever grows up!” I excitedly told her. “It sounds amazing Peter, almost too good to be true! But if I go there with you then I’ll be leaving my life here behind,” Brianna pointed out, a frown growing on her face. “Please come with, Brianna. You’ll never have to deal with mean old teachers and parents forcing you to grow up. Think of all the adventures you’ll have with my Lost Boys, the mermaids, Indians, and even the being able to face pirates,” I tried to persuade her, softly whispering into her ear as I stood behind her as her brown eyes gazed at the starry night sky. Brianna turned around to face, looking me dead in the eye. “You promise I’ll never deal with grown things again?” she asked. “I promise, I would never lie to you,” I told her, acting serious for once. 

Brianna thought for a moment, stuck deep into her thoughts. I almost thought she wouldn’t except my offer, until aher pink lips uplifted into a big bright smile. “I’ll go with you, Peter, just let me gather some stuff,” she told me. I couldn’t help but jump up and spin in the air as I let out a happy crow. From the top of sky painted ceiling, I saw Briana gather a small bag and started to fill it with stuff she wanted to bring with her. “Peter, I have a question. How will we get to Neverland? It almost seems impossible,”she asked apprehensively. “Why we’ll fly there of course. I’ll teach you to soar through the night sky, just like me,” I boasted, floating in the air above her. “I’ve always wanted to fly. You’re almost like a gift giving genie with the way you keep making my dreams come true,” she complimented me. I laughed at her silly comparison, getting a kick out of bringing her so much joy and happiness in such a short time. 

Brianna finished lacing up her sneakers, jumping to her feet. “Alright, what do I have to do?” “Fly is easy. A you need is faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust,” I explained. It was then when I finally notice I was missing my little fairy friend that was always at my side. “Wait a minute, where’s Tink?” I asked, turning my head around to look for her. “Tink? Who’s that?” “Tinkerbell is my fairy. She should be somewhere. She was just here,” I continued, now rumbling through wardrobes and dressers to find her. “A real live fairy? This is wonderful!” Brianna exclaimed, hands clasped together in happiness. I went over to the drawer where I found my shadow in, as that was the last time I saw her. The drawer door was glowing from the inside and jiggling around as high pitch bell sounds came from inside. I hurriedly opened it up and Tink immediately flew out and into my face. “Tink, there you are. Almost lost you for a moment there,” I sighed in relief. Tink was already yelling at me, several foul words mixed leaving her mouth as she wagged her finger in front of me. Brianna laughed at the scowling I was getting. “I may not know what she’s saying but I would be mad too if you shut me in a drawer and forgot,” she grinned. I just stuck my tongue at her in response as Tink angrily flew away. “Come on, Tink. I need you to help Brianna come to Neverland with me,” I pleaded. Think stubbornly refused, turning her back to face me as she sat on a little knick-knack on top of a dresser. 

“I think she doesn’t like me that much,” Brianna pointed out. “Really? But why? Sometimes I just don’t understand her sometimes,” I wondered. "I think she’s jealous,” Brianna teased. Tink didn’t like that, flying towards Brianna and grabbed a chunk of her hair then started to pull it harshly. She ended up dragging Brianna over to her bed and knocking the side of her head tried to hit  a bedpost. Brianna started to yell out in in pain and discomfort, trying desperately to get her to stop. “Tink! Stop that!” I shouted, lunging towards the green clad fairy. I grasped Tink in my hand, pulling her off of Brianna and threw her against a pillow on the bed. Fairy dust went everywhere as she made impacted with fluffy cushion. 

“Are you alright?” I worried, watching as Brianna gathered her long locks in her hand. “I think so. Just a bit sore. I’ll be fine,” she reassured me as she rubbed at the spot where Tink pulled her hair. “Quite strong for such a tiny thing, isn’t she?” Tink was back on her feet now, standing on top of the purple bed comforter, making rather rude comments about the brunette in front of me. “She’s not very polite,” I admitted, giving the fairy side glances as she made not nice gestures towards Brianna. “She says if you say something like that about her again ...” I trailed off. Tink grabbed the top of her head and pulled to the side, making a cracking noise and sticking tongue out, as if someone broke her neck. “She’ll kill you.” “Oh lovely,” Brianna said sarcastically. “I see she’s really charming.” 

Tink continued to grumble from her position on the bed, allowing me to successfully grabbed her while she was distracted. I gently shook her above Brianna’s head, tiny golden grains of pixie dust falling around the girl. “Now all you have to do think happy thoughts.” Almost immediately, Brianna started to rise into the air. She gasped as she hit the ceiling, laughing as began as light as a feather. “That was fast. You’re a natural,” I acknowledge. “I just hope I can concentrate enough to make it all way to Neverland. I might get distracted,” Brianna distressed. She faltered in her flying, dropping a bit before rising back upon as she focussed back on happy thoughts. “I can guide you by the hand if you would like me to?” I offered, gently reaching for one of her outstretched hands. “Thank you, Peter. LEt’s get going before anyone finds out what’s happening.” 

I nodded my affirmatively, grasping Brianna’s hand tightly into mine and leading her out of the window. “Off to Neverland!” I shouted as we started to soar above the homes of Bloomsbury. 

Third Person POV:

As Peter and Brianna soared off into the night sky, someone walked into the room they left behind. Wendy Darling couldn’t help the smile on her face as she watched her first childhood love guide the young girl at his side to a new adventure, just like he did for her. “Thank care of her, Peter,” she uttered in the wind, hoping it would take her words to his ears. “I hope she will be what you wanted me to be.” And she watched on for longingly until she could no longer see their figures on the horizon. 

[couldnt-think-of-a-better-name]

Why is timeskip Norman drawn so grown up?

I have seen this question floating around a lot, and I know there is plenty of speculation going on about it, but I thought I would share my two cents as well.

Obviously, spoilers for anime only readers for future content, before you read on. Not all my posts are spoilery, but most are 😜

So timeskip Norman looking like an adult is pretty much an aninomous observation by now. I know that plenty of people have suggested growth experiments, and I have argued against that in my Norman is a Ratri genetic experiment born at Lambda theories, but I am not here to talk science today.

Haha, I guess I do enough of that in my day job.

What I want to talk about is the symbolism and poetic meaning behind making Norman look older than he is. There is an artistic purpose, and it's not the first time Posuka-sensei uses this tool.

The same thing, though the opposite way (and much more drasticly) was used in these panels:

We all know that both Yuugo and Lucas are definitely grown up, and there is no logical reason why they would suddenly transform into children for mere moments, just before their death.

In my opinion, it's a visual tool to invoke that feeling of, "Ah, 15 years passed, they grew up physically, but in their hearts they are still the same children" without having to use a narrator spell it out to us.

I think there is also a secondary purpose of making this statement just before they fall to their death. After all, this is a manga about Neverland, a place where children can never grow up... because in this promised Neverland children die before they grow up.

By reminding us that Yuugo and Lucas are still stuck in that past, that they are still those bright children at heart, the message is that they couldn't escape this cursed, promised Neverland, even if they physically grew up: they died as children at heart.

I am sorry if I have made you sad with that thought, but I wanted to make the point that the way Norman is portrayed is with this theme in mind. And it's all because of this part:

Norman intends to break the Neverland curse, but it isn't just a literal destruction of the farm system. There is an added layer of symbolism in the fact that him CHOOSING to GROW UP already breaks the theme of this Neverland.

The irony of the situation is that while this 13 year-old barely teenager is literally surrounded by a group of adults, he is the one who actually behaves the most adult out of them. Experiment or not, they are all physically grown up, yet Zazie seems hardly capable of more thought than a toddler, then Cislo and Barbara pretty much behave like small children, shown when talking with Emma and Ray, with Vincent acting like a snarky teenage brother who was left in charge by the parent to babysit them...

If you look at those panels again, you can actually see how the art illustrates those behaviours: the baby toy tiger on Zazie, the childish expressions on those two’s faces and Vincent’s deadpan expression as they squabble with him.

Well, it’s no surprise that Norman ACTS so GROWN UP, after all, he is literally and figurately trying to fit the clothes of James Ratri, and carry the mantle of William Minerva. (If you ask my friend @vobomon about the topic, I bet you will hear a really good explanation of how this parallels Peter Pan in scarlet, the sequel to Peter Pan, where Peter Pan tries to wear the coat of the gown up, James Hook... and ends up with an identity crisis. I won’t comment on it more though, since I don’t know it well enough).

Both of these roles are that of an adult, so Norman can’t afford to be seen as a child by others. Technically there is no way for him to age his body, but body language, mannerism and clothes can do wonders, and Norman, ever the perfectionist goes to town on this with a full blown business suit that literally couldn’t scream more ADULT and RESPONSIBLE visually speaking. 

He is so successful at it actually, that he manages to convince a full crowd of children, and even his followers that they should see him as a depenable adult, rather than the teenager he is in reality. Actually, it goes as far as him getting compared to a god... and being viewed as a superhuman being, or having all those expectations of a saviour piled on someone must be an awful lot of pressure even for an adult, and Norman is only 13...

I don’t want to dwell too long on this, but I do want to comment how super unhealthy this situation must be for his mental health, how it must make him feel isolated and under an insane amount of pressure to succeed and keep this image up... The only way I see it heading is a mental breakdown, possibly with a full on panic attack followed by anxiety disorder... yes, unfortunately I’m speaking from experience.

Guys, seriously, the ominous thing about Norman isn’t that he might be evil, but that he is trying to do too much, trying to do humanly impossible things, trying to not make any mistakes, all by himself, without an emotional support system, and we are basically watching in slow motion as he heads towards a car crash once things don’t go his way... Just look at his expression when he finds out Mujika is alive despite his calculations... That expression isn’t just simple fear, but a full blown punch in the gut by anxiety that HE WAS WRONG AND WHAT ELSE COULD HE HAVE GOTTEN WRONG OH NO... HE CAN’T AFFORD MISTAKES NO NO NO...

Right, but lets get back to my original topic, and to the fact that Norman can act as adult as he wants, he can’t actually change that on the inside he is still basically a child, and certain situations make his adult mask crumble and revert him back to a child. One of the best examples is how when Emma sees him after almost 2 years, he appears at first, calm, collected, ADULT, but as soon as he calls her name, he can’t hold himself back from actually breaking, and crying like a KID, as he hugs her for dear life (not illustrated here, cause I have enough pics lol).

Posuka-sensei chooses to visually illustrate the contrast, and this is what some of you have observed as an “inconsistency” in her recent Norman art. However, the truth is that she is VERY CONSISTENT. Every time Norman is shown looking older than his actual age, he is behaving as if he was older. E.g: while talking politics he is drawn like a middle-aged politician.

But every time his adult mask breaks, or every time he allows himself to relax around people (which is mostly just the Gracefield kids, and especially Emma and Ray), he is drawn like a child. Like in the panel that everyone loves, it goes as far that it almost looks like those adult clothes are too large on him, and don’t actually fit him...

So that’s it. In summary, I think Norman is only symbolically drawn as older than his age, and only as a visual emphasis when he is actually acting adult, and trying to look grown-up. But in situations where he acts like a child should, we can see the real him drawn by Posuka-sensei.

Just look at these two panels side by side, they are even the same pose, but one of them shows Norman with his walls down around the GF kids, and the other is of him among demons he knows want to eat him.

(P.s: I tried writing this post on the PC to be able to include more than 10 pics without reblogs, but now I don’t know how to format the pics to not be so giant... D,: yes, I know I fail, sorry...)