#trying to figure out how and when trains were invented for a story where i have no plans for them to ever ride a train

[sylvanianfamiliez]

the inherent problem with trying to write fiction is that the real world is so infinitely complex and trying to find an answer to every possible question is impossible. your only option is to knowingly and willingly ignore a large part of the human experience. you can’t do anything else. you can’t simulate the infinite

[redheadspark]

Can i request 4 licking their lips with druig

thanks :)

A/N - YAS! This is SO good for Druig, thanks for requesting this!

Memorized

Summary - a simple tick from Druig makes you lose your train of thought.

Warnings - fluff with steam at the end.

It started with food.  As always when it comes to Druig.

There was no doubt he was a foodie, ever since you all came to Earth and he was introduced to human food, he liked eating the tuff.  From simple fruits and vegetables that were grown and harvested, to concoctions that Gilgamesh would make in the kitchen.  Druig found himself consistently hungry, and it became a running joke that he would have something in his hand to eat.  

You were talking to Sprite about that evening with the small gathering the humans were throwing in celebration of the recent defeat of the Deviants.  Sprite wanted to go over what story she was going to tell the humans when you noticed Druig licking his lips after eating a handful of Grapes.  Being perched on the bench near Phastos’s workstation, piping in every once in a while with the new invention that Phastos was creating, Druig didn’t notice that you were watching him, not listening to Sprite anymore who was mostly now speaking to herself and hammering out the stories she wanted to tell.

See the way he licked his lips nonchalantly, how plump his lips were, and how dark in color they were against his pale skin, it somehow took your breath away.  You only saw him as a friend, fellow Eternal and close friend really, but not in the way you were seeing him in that moment.

Butterflies in your stomach, your heartbeat quickening.  He looked….beautiful.

“Hey!  Are you listening?” 

You snapped out of your trance to look at Sprite, seeing her raise a brow at you.  You cleared your throat, focusing back on her as you apologized and asked her to tell you again.  She sighed, retelling the story she wanted to say as you were no longer focusing on Druig.

Yet you never saw him look in your direction.

The next time it happened, it was after a Deviant ambush.

This Deviant was rather large, and a bit brutal to take out compared to the other Deviants you have handled in the past.  Half of the Eternals were in charge of herding the humans to safety, leaving the other half to take care of the target.  You were one of the ones trying to subdue the Deviant, your own powers were able to subdue the creature to the point of Gilgamesh being able to eliminate it with his strength on his side.  But before he could, the Deviant’s rather large and nearly deadly tail was shipping back and forth.  Its sharp blades make it a bit harder to dodge and avoid getting hit by. 

You were in front of the Deviant, hitting it over and over with your power to have it lose its energy when you saw its tail swing so fast behind him.  You look, seeing in horror a figure in dark clothing getting hit by the tail and being launched into the wall.  You knew that figure and its dark clothing, and your heart stopped.

“DRUIG!” You screamed, the Deviant was about to turn around in that direction when you slammed the Deviant’s head to knock him out.  You had enough force behind it, the Deviant falling down in defeat and taking its last breath as you then bolted over in the direction where Druig was sprawled out on the floor.  

He was amongst the rubble, covered in dirt with a split lip that was oozing with blood already as you perched over him and framed his face in your hands.  He was slowly blinking, almost trying to breathe again as you both sighed in relief and looked at him in concern.

“Are you okay?” You asked him, hearing him cough a bit as you helped him sit up.  He went slowly, grimacing as he moved while you knelt next to him and looked him over, “What were you doing over here?  Weren’t you supposed to be with the humans?”

“I was...I was looking for the humans that ran over here,” He explained, coughing a bit and squinting from his split-open lip.  You moved your fingers, pushing some of the blood away with your fingers that were dribbling down his chin.  Druig carefully pushed you off, getting up on his feet fully while getting the blood off with his own fingers.

“I’m fine, honestly.” He reassured you as you were about to say something else.  But once again, you were lost in thought as his tongue slipped out and swiped along his wound.  It was quick, but it was long enough for you to notice and to once again get those butterflies that you had before. He was covered in blood and dirt, looking like he was about to fall over in exhaustion, yet at the same time, he looked…..what was going on with you?

“Did I get it off?” He asked out of the blue, gesturing to his lower lip.  You said nothing at first, seeing the still small wound that was there along his plump lip that was tinted red, and your stomach was free-falling all over again.  You cleared your throat, nodding your head a bit too rapidly as you gave him a small smile.

“Yeah…yeah you’re fine,” you replied, seeing him give you an uncertain look as you then gestured to the others that were gathering out by Gilgamesh and the dead Deviant, “Come on, let’s go find Ajak and she can fix you up,”

You walked away, thinking of yourself like a lovesick fool as Druig was once again watching you with a hint of intrigue in his eyes. 

“Come here, I’ve missed ya,”

“Dru, I was gone for only a few hours,”

“A few hours is too long,” 

You giggled from your spot on the bed, feeling Druig’s hands along your ankles and slowly inching their way up along your legs as you were perched on the bed in your room on the Domo.  You moved your book out of the way to see him slowly crawl up the bed in your direction, hovering over your body with a small smirk on his face and a glint in his eyes as you were staying still on the bed.  His body heat radiated off of him, the small scent that belonged to him now being inhaled by you, and now his fingers were inching along your highs and hips to finally make it to your neck to frame your face in his hands.

“Hello, my love,” He said to you in a murmur, his lips moving against yours as he finally kissed you.

Time has gone by since you two got together.  You and Druig finally got together after beating around the bush for so long, avoiding your feelings for one another and thinking that the other did not mirror the feelings of affection. Finally, after Druig finally mustered up the strength to show his affection, you two were an item and have been for years on end.

Being with Druig was like breathing fresh air for the first time.  Knowing that someone else adored you and found you perfect the way you were, showing Druig how much you care for him I return to make him feel loved and cared for.  You both complimented each other so easily and without resistance, both in softness and in passion.  Druig brought out a new side of you that seemed to be nestled inside for so long, and you never wanted to go back to your old self again.

Especially in how you two would be physical with one another.  Holding hands in public, leaning on each other during meetings and gatherings, and simply being in each other’s space when the other needed comfort.  Druig was no massive fan of PDA, but he would not hold back when he wanted to kiss your cheek or a peck on the lips.  It was almost like you were addicted to a new drug that would take over your life, but it was so sweet and filled with euphoria that you welcomed it with open arms.  

Druig placed your first in his life and in all he chose to do, whether it was holding his tongue against speaking against Ajak or Ikaris, or how he handled humans that were on his nerve.  You were the first thing on his mind, and he made sure to make better choices and not be rash.  In return, you were trying to be careful in how you fought Deviants since you knew Druig would worry over you.  He wanted you safe, away from the main fights, but he also knew that you would go head first to stop any harm to humans.

You both complimented each other so well.

Druig hovered above you as he kissed you softly, you leaning up to meet his kiss after kiss while your hands went up to frame his face in your hands.  You loved kissing him, bringing you pockets of joy as he finally pulled away and stared at you lovingly and cocked his grin at you.

“Wanna stay in tonight and miss the feast?” He asked in a light tone, though you smirked at him and gestured with your head over to the closed door that led out of the room.

“What about the others?” You asked him, though he shrugged.

“Like I care if they want us there,” he replied, “I want to spend some time with you since you are gone all day,” 

You pulled him in a bit closer, searching his eyes and seeing how blissfully happy he looked in your arms in your shared bed.  It baffled you how so long ago you two were pinning for one another and thinking there was a barrier holding you two back from one another.  Yet now, you two had each other with no signs of letting the other go.

He licked his lip, you grinning widely from the stunt and you reached behind to grip the back of his head with some of his hair between your fingers.

“We’re staying in,” You growled, Druig chuckling as you pulled him in for another kiss.

The End

February Prompt Session

tagged - @a-lumos-in-the-nox

[darsynia]

Just Right | Ch 3

(Steve Rogers x F!Reader, post-Ultron Multichapter)

Summary:

You’ve been in love with Steve Rogers for at least a year, but he treats you the same way he treats every other member of the team– with respect, but nothing more. It takes an inter-dimensional mistake and a whole second, more assertive, actually interested Steve for you to realize that you don’t want just any version of Steve Rogers– you want the one you’ve been pining for all this time.

Length: 3,119

FIC MASTERLIST | LAST CHAPTER | NEXT CHAPTER

Dedicated to @ronearoundblindly who is the bestest! This story will be I THINK about 5 chapters, but don't pelt me with chickens if I'm wrong please!

Excerpt:

“What if it were you, Tony? Would you accept staying home and ‘out of the way’ if you could help? Or would you be threatening to fly there yourself?”

It’s Steve’s voice, but the context tells you it’s Gold Steve.

“You want to waste all the time I’ve been spending inventing a dimensional portal? Your me already has one! I’m not interested in being invaded by a pissier other self who’s raring to kick my ass for losing you.”

“If it’s not safe for me, it’s not safe for him,” Gold Steve points out.

An almost identical voice responds directly afterward. “It’s plenty safe.” There’s more talk, but you need to pay attention to your own intense little meeting, so you refocus on that.

“Hey, Brigandine, you wanna c’mere for a sec?” Stark calls out, right as you’re following the others out the door.

“Go on, plan for an extra person,” you whisper to Aeronautics, and turn around. Multiple Avengers are looking at you expectantly. “No, no, and no,” you groan, taking in Stark’s stubborn expression. “You’re making me the tiebreaker, aren’t you? No.”

“It’s in your contract,” he says with the supreme confidence of a person who knows there’s no time to check his facts.

Chapter Three

You’re trying to figure out how to dodge Gold Steve’s question and reconcile your mix-up of the two Steves when an alarm goes off.

The alarm.

It’s a call to assemble, telling everyone in earshot something’s happened that some or all of the Avengers can help with. That it’s happening at all is a compromise with Secretary Ross, the culmination of a month-long excruciating negotiation that allowed Steve and Natasha to stay out of jail, that lets Clint be a part-time Avenger and not have to choose between his family and heroism (though if he knew you were even thinking of it that way, he’d punch you in the shoulder. Hard), and loosely soothed the gaping wounds between the team, for the greater good.

Basically, the Avengers have an uneasy truce with the governments of the world, and you’re grateful for it-- but this is the first time that alarm has gone off since that agreement, the Modified, Extended Sokovian Settlement, as Tony calls it. The MESS.

You whip the towel off of your head and see that Gold Steve’s alert and concerned. Everyone else at the compound will know what to do, you’ve all trained for it. Everyone but Gold Steve.

Swearing under your breath, you grab his arm and head to the door, scanning your badge to open it.

“There’s not a silence protocol that goes along with that, is there?” he whispers as he follows you through multiple corridors to a second door.

“Nope.” You reach the building with the gathering point, and the two of you wait in the line to go inside.

“Technically, we could get in faster if I picked you up and speedran to the back door,” Gold Steve muses. Out loud. Where other people around you hear it and turn to look at the two of you.

“Funny,” you say tersely, hoping the turbulent terror in your stomach isn’t outwardly visible.

The MESS protocol designates each employee a level, and your meeting point depends on that level. Your level happens to be the highest there is, with the actual team, so you’re prepared for the feeling of unreality when you walk in there and see all the Avengers who are currently on-campus arrayed around the table. What you didn’t expect is for you and Gold Steve to be the last through the door, meaning all eyes are on the two of you as he pulls out a chair for you and finds a seat of his own. 

As one of the high-level support team, you and a few others need to be present for the decision making, which made sense to you when reading the documents but now that you’re in the room, is both cool and intimidating. You’ve gotten to know most of the Avengers on a personal, friendly level, but individually, as they’ve met with you about their gear, but this? This is different. This is serious. You feel incredibly out of place.

You fix your gaze to the table as you hear some of the others in the room greeting Gold Steve before Maria Hill starts the breakdown of what’s happened.

It’s bad. In a combination of a radioactive event and possible HYDRA activity, local authorities in Romania have detected high levels of Cesium-137 in an abandoned factory that’s been doubling as a junkyard for years. They’ve contacted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for assistance, who are already on site. The underground complex they found on the site wired for electricity has set off alarm bells, and, well. Why overspend your containment budget when there’s a group of people who can take those risks for you? A group that desperately needs a win?

You’ve been sneaking glances at Gold Steve, feeling conflicted and guilty. There’s no way he would have wanted to be left out, but if this exists in your universe, does that mean your meeting reveals its existence to him prematurely? Assuming, of course, that he gets to go back.

“First, let me address the elephant in the room,” Stark is saying, gesturing towards Gold Steve. “I can see you making manfully conflicted expressions over there, but I don’t think anyone here doubts you would have made your way into this meeting as soon as you found out about it.” There’s some murmuring and many nods. “Frankly, I can’t bring myself to feel guilty if the first thing you do when I send you back home is show up at this place and mete out some justice.”

You look around the room, trying to get a sense of the general consensus. In the process, you catch the eye of your Steve, who was already looking at you. You offer him a smile, and he returns it, shifting his gaze away quickly.

After twenty minutes of debate, the group decides to send a team. Though Clint’s recon skills would be an asset on this one, he’s back in Missouri and this is time-sensitive, so they settle on Tony, Natasha, Sam, and Steve. Support staff is to immediately report to workstations to prep all equipment needed, so as soon as Hill calls an end to the meeting, you get up and head over to your colleagues. 

As the group of you confer for a few seconds about your own timeline (everything needs to be ready before the firm head-out), you can hear an intense conversation happening back at the table.

“What if it were you, Tony? Would you accept staying home and ‘out of the way’ if you could help? Or would you be threatening to fly there yourself?”

It’s Steve’s voice, but the context tells you it’s Gold Steve.

“You want to waste all the time I’ve been spending inventing a dimensional portal? Your me already has one! I’m not interested in being invaded by a pissier other self who’s raring to kick my ass for losing you.”

“If it’s not safe for me, it’s not safe for him,” Gold Steve points out.

An almost identical voice responds directly afterward. “It’s plenty safe.” There’s more talk, but you need to pay attention to your own intense little meeting, so you refocus on that.

“Hey, Brigandine, you wanna c’mere for a sec?” Stark calls out, right as you’re following the others out the door.

“Go on, plan for an extra person,” you whisper to Aeronautics, and turn around. Multiple Avengers are looking at you expectantly. “No, no, and no,” you groan, taking in Stark’s stubborn expression. “You’re making me the tiebreaker, aren’t you? No.”

“It’s in your contract,” he says with the supreme confidence of a person who knows there’s no time to check his facts.

You glare at him. “Okay, but don’t tell me who’s on what side. Steve?”

Gold Steve smiles and looks away, obviously knowing you aren’t referring to him. Your Steve looks at him, then at you, before he says, “Yes?”

“Do you think he should go?” It would just waste precious time to make them tell you the stuff you already overheard.

“Why are you asking him? I’m your boss!”

You’re so determined to explain yourself you forget everything else. “Because Steve’s the one with the most at stake, here, Stark. It’s Steve who’s focused on the team as a whole, Steve who always has everyone’s locations in mind, Steve who’s constantly running calculations in his head about whether what you’re about to do might put someone in danger!” You point somewhere behind you, picturing the other universe out there that’s missing their version of Steve Rogers. “And it’ll be Steve who feels the worst about it if he doesn’t bring himself back home, because every single person back there who is missing him feels guilty that they can’t just set off an assemble alarm to go get him back!”

Stark says a sullen, “Yeah, okay,” but the rest of the room is dead silent. Your throat hurts, which means you were yelling, and there’s zero fucking chance you’re going to look up at anyone to see if they’re showing expressions of dawning comprehension, because that? That was pretty damned revealing, right there.

“I need to go set up an extra set of gear,” you say in an admirably calm voice as you turn on your heel and walk swiftly toward the door. Once through, you rush.

Because you’ve done your job right, no one has to come pick up anything they’re missing for the mission, because it’s all at their ‘muster station’ in the armory. No one but Gold Steve, that is. When he shows up, you’ve already delivered some backup items for the Quinjet, and are running back through Steve’s checklist to ensure there’s a copy of everything for his copy.

“Thanks for that,” he says when he walks up, a clear look of admiration in his eyes.

You’re all business. “All right, this is the alternate to Steve’s usual uniform. It used to be the primary, but he ripped it a little while back doing an event with some first responders, and I had it in for repairs. Truth is, I haven’t done the whole round of testing to make sure it’s got the right integrity to go back in--”

“I’m sure it’s fine, I don’t need a run-down. I trust you.”

“That’s good, because the upshot to Stark making me a symbolic tiebreaker is I’m gonna feel responsible if anything does happen,” you sigh, avoiding Gold Steve’s eyes by packing up his things so he can get going.

The door opens behind him, but you don’t see who it is before he replies with, “I wish the guy in charge of our gear back home was half as diligent as you are. You should give yourself a break.”

Beside him, your Steve walks up, shooting a look between the two of you. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” he asks. Given Gold Steve’s Serious Eyebrows and the way you’re wringing your hands, you suppose it’s a reasonable question, but it sends your stomach through a trapeze routine that tangles up your tongue, as well.

“She’s stressing out about the suit you’re graciously lending me,” Gold Steve answers smoothly. “Said something about not sending it through all the testing protocols, but--”

Steve reaches over for it, holding it up with a critical eye. “I don’t even remember where it ripped, ‘Dine, I’m sure it’s fine. Thanks for being careful, though.” You get the feeling that he was only looking it over to reassure you, and the thoughtfulness of the gesture warms your heart. “You’d better get moving, wheels up in fifteen,” he tells Gold Steve.

The two men nod respectfully at each other, and once Gold Steve has left, you take stock of your workspace, just in case you forgot anything. Satisfied you haven’t, you start toward the lockers to check over there.

“Wait, ‘Dine--”

Steve catches your hand. He catches your wrist first, actually, but your momentum carries the gesture through to your hand. It’s as close to a caress as you’ve ever felt from him, and you suck in a shocked, delighted breath, freezing in place for a few seconds.

“Yes?” Your voice is breathy, and you feel hot embarrassment thick in your throat.

He doesn’t let go. “Can I talk to you later? When I get back?”

You can’t not look at him now, so you do, nodding as you turn your head, totally normal, your besotted heart isn’t doing cartwheels in your chest or anything. As you thought he might, once you make eye contact, Steve lets go, but it’s gentle, a pulling away, again like a wanted touch.

“Okay, then,” he says awkwardly, flashing you a brilliant smile before turning and jogging away.

Minutes later, you’re still bemused, repeating tasks, distracted. “Okay, maybe this was why there were fainting couches. Not because our predecessors were weak and flighty, but because they needed a minute to collect themselves. Things were too expensive back then to screw them up with your head in the clouds!” you mutter to yourself.

It’s late evening. The team’s expected to stay overnight tonight, and you’re in the ‘rec room’ area waiting for news. The tv is on, and Wanda’s showing Vision one of her favorite episodes of a vintage show. You’d seen the weapons master Carl pass through at one point, but you don’t know where he is now. You’re at one of the computer desks poring over a scan of some old SSR documents, trying to calm your mind so you can sleep tonight.

“Is that Howard Stark’s handwriting?” Vision asks from behind you.

“Yeah, good catch!” you say, sharing a wry look with him. He’d probably recognize a lot of more obscure people’s handwriting, but it’s the thought that counts. “I like to go over his notes sometimes. No need to reinvent the wheel.”

“Yes, I imagine certain observations would be already documented,” Vision agrees. You feel his hand light on the back of your computer chair as he steps closer. “‘Rates of Metabolic Healing After Exposure to Low-Level Ionizing Radiation in Subject Rogers, Stephen Grant,’” he reads aloud. “Ah.”

There’s an uncomfortable level of understanding in that single word, and it makes you want to note that Wanda Maximoff probably didn’t need to drift quite so close to him as she walked past on her way to the restroom. That would be unkind, however, and there’s a non-zero chance that Vision might genuinely not understand you if you did try to rib him about it.

You go with, “Yes. ‘Ah.’”

“I hope you find the peace of mind you’re seeking,” Vision says quietly before walking away.

In your head, you answer, Me too, Viz. Me too.

They come back three days later, arriving in early morning New York time after having left Romania in the afternoon. You’re already at work when one of the Steves comes in wearing the full kit, clearly having come directly from the Quinjet. Your heart does a dull, frightened flip-flop when you realize you literally cannot tell the two of them apart anymore. Not since they’ve both favored you with a look of warm appreciation that sent your whole body into shivers.

“I owe you an apology,” this Steve says, turning around with a blush-cheeked wince. Three inches under his ass is a gap in the fabric wide enough to show a swathe of muscular thigh. “Good news is it gave way when I got antsy to get out of there, mid-leap onto the Quinjet. I came here because I don’t want to make it worse, trying to take it off without speaking to you first.”

You’re not picturing that.

You’re not.

Not.

“Thoughtful of you,” you say, rushing to add, because your tone could be described as caustic, “Not mad at you, I promise. I took a risk with this fabric. It doesn’t really repair, which is why I’d hesitated putting it back into rotation. Might be back to the drawing board for materials.”

He’s still basically presenting his ass, looking over his shoulder to say, “So no problem if it gets worse taking it off, then?”

“None at all."

“Got it. Thanks!” Gold Steve says, leaving without pressing you for further conversation. You try not to take it personally-- he’s got a hole in his pants, after all. Still, every time you talk to him, you feel like you get a little glimpse of what it might be like if you and your universe’s version of Steve ever felt more comfortable with each other. It’s like a hopeful little time machine. Future Steve, almost.

That would, of course, require Now Steve to do something more than just look at you like you’re someone special that one time.

And grab your hand.

Say he’d like to talk to you when--

“Brigandine!”

You startle out of your lovesick reverie to see Steve standing in front of you in regular clothes. He looks full-on exasperated, and you stammer out an apology.

“I’m sorry, I-- honestly, the other Steve was in here and the uniform ripped again, meaning I’m going to need new fabric, if it won’t repair, and--”

“He was in here already?”

Crystalline regret precipitates from every blood vessel as you see actual disappointment in Steve’s eyes, and maybe something else. You don’t dare speculate on what it is, not when your careless words may have implied there was more to Gold Steve’s chair-pulling than mere politeness. Your frantic thoughts are racing faster than the horse second in line at Preakness. Is this Steve’s typical gallant leadership, defensive of ‘his’ team at the imposition of a stranger? Would he react that way when the stranger is himself?

Your innate truthfulness proceeds to make everything worse.

“He didn’t know how to take it off without making it worse, and since it’s yours-- ”

Steve actually starts pacing around away from you, and you have a split second of confusion as you go back over your words before you realize.

“Steve, I promise you, your other universe counterpart didn’t come in here to have me help him take your clothes off, okay?”

“Well, when you put it like that--”

“Oh my God, Tony’s got a recording of me saying that!” You slump into your seat, throw your arms down on it, and bury your head onto them, entirely embarrassed. You’re both terrified and elated at the idea that Steve might be in any way jealous of Gold Steve’s influence on you, mostly because of what that might mean about his own feelings. There’s nowhere to run to, no way to go back to the way things were before, and the yawning chasm of what ifs ahead scares the hell out of you.

“Somehow this whole visit got turned around,” Steve says. You let out a little noise of distress, and he chuckles. “How about a redo? Lunchtime?”

“You’re on, but my face is puffy and I’m hiding from Tony’s all-seeing eye,” you say with your head still buried, popping him a thumbs up.

“I can have a talk with FRIDAY if you want me to?”

His tone is so gentle that you sit up, desperate to know what his expression could be. Steve’s eyebrows are lifted, his head tipped to the side with a slight smile that grows broader on seeing you lift your head. If these subdued reactions are enough to intoxicate you, how on Earth would you survive anything stronger?

Before you can say anything, though, Steve heads for the door, pausing once he’s got it open to say, “Flustered looks good on you.”

He leaves without looking back.

Next chapter...

[specialagentartemis]

#wait is there something wrong with the history hates lovers song? I read the linked post and now I'm worried D: (via @gardenofarson)

I thought I explained pretty straightforwardly in the linked post why I hate the "History Hates Lovers" song: It takes the explicit stance that you, ordinary citizen of the world with no special training, are actually smarter than the experts by virtue of being gay.  It assumes that historians are all old ivory-tower eggheads and homophobic clueless idiots and only they, youtube user Oublaire, know the REAL truth. It's smugly anti-intellectual in a meme way, rather than historically curious in any serious way. "Too afraid to call it what it is / It doesn't take a scholar to understand this" like oh Come On.

Other reasons I hate it:

"Who's gonna tell us the stories, that our textbooks don't?" Gosh I don't know, maybe Actual Historians? Believe it or not, "writing high school history textbooks" is not the sum total of what historians do. There are so many books about queer history written by queer historians out there. Aside from narratives about Stonewall, AIDS, and various worldwide rights movements in the 20th century, of which there are Lots, how about any of these books or these ones or these or this book about Sappho or these biographies of Oscar Wilde or this study of homosexuality in Ancient Greece - by a historian from the 1970s! Wow!!! Maybe historians have been thinking about this for a While! - and all the various articles written by academic historians about homosexuality in history. Untangling histories that were either treated as derogatory, hidden in shame, or ignored is important... and people are doing it. This is such a dismissal of the work that a lot of historians - especially queer historians - are doing these days!

Have you (Oublaire) ever read a biography. Even once. Historians and biographers LOVE to speculate about historical figures' sexualities. You can't get away from it. Especially when someone never married, biographers and writers looooove to speculate about the love affairs and heartbreaks they must have been having. Gay or straight. History loves lovers to the point where it's hard to find a discussion of a perpetual-bachelor-or-spinster figure that doesn't dip into trying to imagine them as Being A Lover. Yes I'm vaguing at American Bloomsbury's treatment of Thoreau (and Margaret Fuller, who she soooo wanted to be having torrid romances with both Hawthorne and Emerson) and The Fossil Hunter's insistence on imagining Mary Anning as secretly being in love with her male friend despite no evidence of this.

The haughty amatonormativity. "'Just friends' don't live like that / They don't look at each other / With love in their eyes" Deeply sorry to all Oublaire's supposed friends for learning via this song that Oublaire doesn't care about their friends, I Guess. The assumption that anyone who cares about each other has to be In Love. Fuck off.

"How many decades of hiding? Twenty-one centuries of hate Some things may not've been okay back then But it's sure all right today" This is what proves that Oublaire doesn't actually care about history. Back when? Are they implying that homophobia was invented with the birth of Christ? Was history just the same for 2,100 years, until a switch flipped in the 21st cenntury and now everyone is chill with gay people? What a narrow-sighted reduction! "It's a rhetorical flourish" well I hate it anyway. Get better rhetorical flourishes.

People who really like the song keep applying it to Achilles and Patroclus, who are, notably, fictional characters, and not historical figures.

The scansion and rhymes are terrible.

[silvernyxchariot]

Hi, hello. I'm tossing and turning while staring at the walls in a dark room when I should be asleep yet again. So, here's another late-night headcanon.

Modern AU

Kars would be a bioengineer/biomedical engineer.

Esidisi would be a restaurant owner and 3 Michelin 🌟 chef.

Wamuu would be an anthropology or philosophy professor.

And Santana, although the black sheep, would eventually be a vet tech, veterinarian, or in some way shape or form work with animals.

Reasoning below the cut ⏬️

I know some people like to focus on the Pillarmen's fighting and physical capabilities, they come from the part of JJBA literally called "BATTLE TENDENCY " and subsequently base the Pillarmen's modern au job after that. But what about their overall personalities and interests?

Kars is presented as a prodigy of the Pillarmen and strives to "overcome the sun and overcome his/the Pillarmen's fears." Not only is he strong and capable, but he also invented and created the stone masks that set the entire series into motion. He strives to better himself and his kin, so why not a bioengineer? I mean a simple Google search yields, "Bioengineers and biomedical engineers typically do the following: Design equipment and devices, such as artificial internal organs, replacements for body parts, and machines for diagnosing medical problems." I think his intelligence is neglected by the fandom in favor of "he's a gigachad that's also kind of a God-complex dick." Definitely does martial arts on the side because he likes to drop kick people. It's good for when he's stressed or angry.

Esidisi is deemed (or self-proclaimed, idrc, I'm too tired) the "Burning King" or "Esidisi of the Flame," but instead of burning people to a crisp, he's in the kitchen. Able to slice apart meats or whole ingredients without damaging a single item. Do you know his nervous system form? Think of it that way; he's good at separating the skin from meat from fat from bone from ligaments and so on. I definitely think he can be a television and social media personality, like Gordon Ramsey and. . . Yeah, that's it, that's all I care to remember. 😂 He's openly condescending, but don't let that fool you. Encouraging father figure in those kid chef shows on FoodNetwork and is really passionate about what he does. He could have denied Wamuu's request to let Joseph live, but he followed along with it and even added his own ✨️spice✨️ to the equation (the ring on Joseph's windpipe).

Someone on this website made a point about how the Pillarmen's culture, stories, and heritage were all wiped out because Kars and Esidisi pulled a near genocide. Due to Wamuu's sense of honor, I think he'd work well in a historical or anthropological career. . . . . . Did I just describe Jonathan?/rh Anyway, trying to help others grasp their past and heritage while also understanding the past himself because he and Santana are adopted by their gay dads 💅. He'd also make a great teacher because he does care. He cared enough to let Joseph live and train so they could battle again.

Santana, still the "guard dog" and the one left behind by fathers that favored his older brother over him, is the "black sheep" in the sense that he never really knew what to do with his future in such a successful family, feeling inferior or overwhelmed living in everyone's shadow. He even found himself in juvenile detention a couple of times. After graduating from school, he kind of just disappeared into the world to travel before coming home and getting his life back together where he eventually decided to work with animals because "humans suck." [insert cheesy ass fuck Hallmark romance movie where the MC falls in love with the buff guy who likes animals, I'm thinking horses specifically for Santana but doggos are good too]

Not to say that they're not BUFF Fucking Gym Rats in modern au. They definitely are, but I wanted to focus on their personalities and overall vibes as characters. And Wamuu is the sweetest boi that will help you with your sets or get you to open up if you're really shy about going to the gym. He also joined a boxing club. Kars tends to scoff at people when they don't know how to use the equipment.

[pbandjesse]

We are on the train!! We are getting to Minnesota soon and I'm in a great moon. I'm a little sleepy but mostly I'm just having a blast. Today was so fun. It's been such a grand adventure.

Sleep last night came pretty easy. Which was nice. We all finished watching the weird anime and while it was beautiful it was a very hard story to follow and was a bit confusing. We were all yelling at the TV trying to figure it out.

But then it was sleep time. And it was good sleep. I did wake up an hour early because my body wasn't used to the time shift. So I was able to get back in bed for a bit. James had gotten up at 6 because that's just how their body is.

I was happy to see them in the morning. I would go and get dressed and felt really cute. This is a great outfit. I'm going to repeating pieces a lot but it's all good. I felt super cute today.

Very soon after I was dressed Jonathan and Ellen got up too. They would get dressed while I packed up the bags. They got a little mixed up but we still had everything pretty well sorted. I'm very pleased that our bags still fit our jackets if we expand them a bit. I prefer to not hold anything so I am glad this worked so well.

Ellen and Jonathan talked to James about where to go for brunch, which was apparently invented in Chicago. And they landed on a place called Honeybear Cafe and it was very cute. They gave us little cheesecake pieces to start which were excellent. Apparently Chicago style cheesecake is a thing. Me and Ellen bonded over getting upset bellies because of anxiety. And I was able to eat most of my breakfast but mostly I just enjoyed the company. We talked about lots of weird stuff. My weird internet interests, like 9/11 forums and getting groomed online as a teen. And we talked about visiting again soon. I'm glad they are our friends. Also I'm excited for them to get married!! Ellen showed me the collages she made with our stuff from our wedding which was so sweet.

And then it was time to go to our next thing. We dropped Ellen off at home, hugs all around. Her friend, Elyse, who we met when they were in Baltimore for our wedding, came out to say goodbye too. Hugs there as well!! And then Jonathan drove us back to Lake Michigan.

He dropped us off at the feild museum. And after even more hugs we were on our own again.

We fixed up our bags outside and then we headed in. We checked our bags for $3 a piece. I felt a lot better without our stuff. I could focus.

And the museum was awesome. It's entirely to big. But we knew we wanted to see the dinosaurs, taxidermy, and Native American stuff. I set an alarm for 130 so we would know when we had to get out of there. And thankfully my anxiety around the transitions to the next place would stay away for a while. And I could just really enjoy the exhibits and taking pictures with James. We got to see some really cool stuff!! We got to see Sue, another non-binary icon, who is the most complete trex skeleton. I really liked the prehistoric swamp exhibit. I also really liked the Polynesian exhibit we happened upon. The taxidermy was fun but by the time we got there I was a little anxious. So once we got to the Native American stuff I couldn't really read anything. So I took pictures and will look later.

I did have a blast though and I really just felt super connected to James. We were learning together! We were telling each other about things we know and care about. We got to see three mold-a-ramas! Which I love and thought were so cool. I also got a few more squished pennies. And an older gentleman who worked there approached us after and offered me 4 more and it just made me feel so good inside. What a nice man.

We finished up in the gift shop. Which was very large. We didn't get anything but I was very tempted by a bunny plush. Which ended up being $55 so I did not get it but man was it cute.

We got our bags next. I was texting with Jess about my stress. That we would be late to the train. That it didn't exist or was canceled. Just completely being a big baby about it. I knew I wasn't being rational but I was upset and worried.

James would call a Lyft and she was a lovely lady. I enjoyed our conversations with her. She also worked on museums and had so many things to share with us and was very kind. And got us safely to the station.

I almost crossed the street unnecessarily, but James stopped me and we went inside. James checked the map and figured out where we needed to be and lead the way.

I wanted Starbucks but we wanted to make sure we knew where to go first. And that ended up working super well. They told us to go to the lounge! I've never been in an Amtrak lounge before. James would leave me there with our bags and went to find us drinks and me a little sandwich.

Something nice about the lounge is free soda and snacks. So I loaded us up and waited patiently. And James would soon be there. I got a fun pineapple drink and a sandwich. James got a coffee and would have some pretzels. And we waited.

At 240 they called us to go line up for our train. All of us first class passengers (isn't that crazy??) walked in a line to the gate, which I thought was very cute. And then we waited for a bit before they figured out who was going to which car and then we were able to get loaded on.

We are the you gest first class passengers by 3 decades. And everyone has been so lovely. The people who checked us in, our attendant in the car, just everyone. There are a lot of Mennonite! Babies too! And in the sleeping car with us there are a lot of English people visiting from overseas. Our direct neighbors are English and are a lovely couple. They were pretty stressed at first because their luggage went to the wrong car and then the husband went to try to find it and we thought he may have gotten off the train but thankfully everything would come back up and worked out just fine.

And I am having the best time. We got on the train and out room is right at the top of the stairs. It's small, no doubt about it. But it's cozy. And once I figured out where to put thing it felt great. I wish it was just a little wider, but they have a luggage storage area downstairs so it's all good. It worked just fine for us.

We stayed in our car until dinner. Just enjoying the scenery. Chatting. I downloaded all my prints to work on and it took a little bit to get comfortable with the movement of the train but over the next few hours I got 4 illustrations finished! I'm very pleased with that. And honestly it's just been super fun to have a project. I am not tempted to scroll on my phone because I'm occupied. I have my husband, and so much beautiful land to watch.

We had the first slot of dinner and James rushed us out to go andy phone was still plugged in so I got pulled back and our neighbors laughed and I laughed and it was so silly because I was getting thrown around by the movements of the car but it was just so fun.

And we got to eat dinner with a lovely older gay couple from the UK. A former teacher and a former manager of retail stores. They were fun to talk to. The food was pretty good overall! The first course was a caprese salad skewer. The tomatoes weren't great but that was fine. I liked chatting and watching the farm lands.

James got a steak for dinner and I got vegetarian chili in a baked potato. These were excellent. And I enjoyed them a lot. And then for desert James got a lemon cake and so got a blueberry cheese cake. It was excellent. Our attendant said we're going to get fat on this trip because all the food is so good. She's probably right.

After dinner me and James went to explore the observation car. It has windows that wrap around the roof. Not a total glass roof like I was picturing but still really neat and I'm sure when we go by big beautiful native it'll be great. But we stayed there for a half hour. Just giggling over overheard conversations. And then we went back to our cabin.

We would play games. And I drew. We saw good water and a beautiful sunset. We seem to have the good side of the train. And it was quiet. We have been doing nothing and it's just felt good.

After the sun went down we started thinking about getting ready for bed. But first a fresh air break!

The train stopped in Winona Minnesota and we got to stand outside for a little. Me and James stretched. And then back inside to wash up and put on jammies.

Our attendant, Jackie, would come by and make the bed for us. We have two small bunk beds. Me and James are sitting on the bottom one together. James thinks they'll sleep on the top bunk but it's shorter and I think they will be more comfy down here. So we'll have to fight over that. But I just feel so happy right now.

Tomorrow we are on the train all day. In about two hours we'll go through Minneapolis. I hope I can show it to James some day. But it's really nice to be out here. I miss the Midwest a lot. But I wouldn't have found James if I didn't leave it. And James is worth that.

Now I am winding down for sleep. I am a little warm but that's alright. Tomorrow I hope we have fun being together. Let's hope we stay on time. I have been told sometimes this train can be 12 hours late which would not be ideal. But we are prepared either way.

Sleep well everyone. And if our train passes you wave towards Amtrak.

[the-firebird69]

A Quiet Place | FULL Bridge Scene | Paramount Movies This man is highly delusional nobody runs towards where these creatures are nobody not even seasoned fighters or veterans and our guys stand clear even though they can take one on they can't take a bunch on there's no reason to. is a nut case jason is supposedly the father of the people inside but it doesn't look it. But you never know. And it's happened in other movies preachers like this were really them come by and grab them and save them that's what they're kind of doing. And the train bridge looks like a train bridge and it more or less is where train bridge was and it is the bridge from there against it and it is not as wide and they modified it and put it up there and it is the macaroni's and they're telling them we don't like what you do and it's hard to tell what it is and usually it's lost on them and their son says that they were me they know who I am and they're looking right at me doing it and they sucked come to think of it he says Tommy F was the guy who ordered it to be screwed up and he took the platforms down he got me in trouble because I didn't want him to do that and he was sabotaging the bridge. And Tommy F is mad 'cause he got in trouble and he'd get in fully trouble when he should've gotten trouble as a terrorist. And it would have stopped a lot of stuff from happening. But he screwed around with our son several times at work in a big way and this is one of my kiwi. The guy who came in and he ruined the bridge job for our son 'cause our son had to tell the engineer because that's his job. And it told management too they said I'm doing my job and when he drives messed it up and he said that it's kind of sabotage and illegal and they'll be hearing about it and they said we can't believe we're just saying I said that's OK you don't have to and he left and the cops came down and it's because one of the idiots called and said it sounds like you're threatening us and they told the story about how he screwed the bridge out and the cop says let's see your ID because he's pointing at the one whose flash and he said we know who you are and we know what you're doing and we know you screwed the bridge up so you can call it and said we'll be back by to arrest you later and you said to the manager that you're an idiot and the guy is an idiot. And they sort of felt really bad and Tommy F keeps doing it over and over is a big **** and metal fatigue would have ruined it and it did and they had to take it out and that's where they put it and it's Trump going over it so Tommy F is the one moving them because he's an idiot. He was also the boss at reborn cabinets and he was terrible and he got a sun fired from complaining about somebody's method and it was Trump who pushed him out and Trump figured it out later but more importantly the character he was at Kewit is the one who had our son dumped the ashes out. When our son said do you think he's gone or something or you want me to make people think that I mean you're poor he's looking down kind of crying and the other said this we know he invented and you're a **** **** this makes it worse for you and BJA was saying he said you screwed up that job on the bridge now you're doing this stupid ****. And they investigated and they found out that he was trying to harm him for real. He says what exactly after you have you trying to harm him for real you're stupid you need to concentrate if anything and he says wow this blows I said boy you **** stupid. When will trump hears about this **** ****. And you're imitating a Mac so he got really mad and he says I don't have any time for it said Tommy F you're not a friend anymore in any way and I'll start beating on you. This kind of **** is just psychological torture and you're asking for it and you are the guy from the hospice the Egyptian so is that all about not like I don't know. So they started to put it together the guy's a big **** and he had to buy this dumb thing and this stuff in New York comes after the first two movies when he captures them and super 8 too and he's a fool. Thankfully

Thor Freya

Olympus

Zues Hera

[halfcrackedguru]

A Message from the Universe ~ Creativity and Resourcefulness

, Sufi Wisdom Oracle Cards Today's Message from the Universe advises you to get creative! It is said that necessity is the mother of invention and that is the overall feel of today's message. You may be trying to figure out a solution to a particularly difficult problem or you may just feel stuck in general. This is where your creativity becomes your best friend. I know there are far too many of you that don't think you are creative but we all are. We just use our creativity for different things, not just the creation of art. Our creative brains are too often used for things like worry and anxiety. It takes a lot of creativity to tell ourselves the stories of worst case scenarios and create reasons (excuses) for why we are unable or even unworthy of doing great things. Using you creativity for the good gets better with practice just like anything else, and today we're putting it to use in the form of resourcefulness. You might not even realize just how resourceful you are! Many of my single parents out there can probably list a zillion ways they created something they needed when they didn't have what they thought they actually needed. Have you ever needed a specific tool to fix something and found something around your home that was close enough? A butter knife instead of a screwdriver or a shoe in place of a hammer? Maybe you were missing an ingredient for the dinner you planned and changed things up a bit to use what you had on hand. This is called creative problem solving and, no matter what the problem is, there is almost always a way to, at the very least, make it a little easier on you. Don't be afraid to discuss with others either, different perspectives are extremely helpful. There is a big element in this message regarding your state of mind. "I can't" is a copout and that sort of thought poisons your whole outlook on your self and life. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you think you can't then you're definitely not going to. Start training your brain to look for the possibility instead of excuses and doubt. TODAY'S CRYSTALS: - Apache Tears - Jade - Pink Banded Agate - Amethyst - Zebra Stone TODAY'S DECK: - Sufi Wisdom Oracle CHECK OUT THIS DECK: - Gateway of Light Activation Oracle TODAY'S MUSIC: - "Godsmack, Awake" - "System of a Down, Kill Rock 'n Roll" Read the full article

[hms-no-fun]

georges melies made dozens of classic trick movies before 1900! the astronomer's dream is fantastic and it came out in 1898!

but also, let's not just throw the lumiere brothers under the bus so nonchalantly. take a film history class that spends at least two weeks on silent cinema and you WILL come to appreciate the subjects and compositions they chose for their reels. they didn't just set the camera down any old where, they sought out pleasing lines of motion that highlighted depth of field and contrast. just because they're primitive doesn't mean they aren't enjoyable, and in fact i find their work to be immensely interesting precisely for how many principles of film-making were already bubbling under the surface even when it was still a glorified tech demo. here's one of a girl feeding a cat with commentary that helpfully points how this image is clearly being directed

take a look at the following montage of early lumiere films and tell me there's no art here, nothing to appreciate or think on enough to say "i enjoyed this." note the topics of interest: youth and family on one side, factory and industry on the other. study the compositions and reflect on the fact that there's more to shooting a single shot than merely setting up the camera. a good image requires a good eye, and a good moving image requires an understanding of reality over time. imagine setting up this camera in environments where no one's ever seen a cinematograph, inventing and experimenting with this new grammar based on portraiture and early photography as a reference. now imagine someone without that eye trying to do the same thing. imagine how easy it would be to get flat, boring shots if the creators were just a little less precise, a little less careful in their choices. there's a reason the lumiere experiments so quickly gave rise to cinema as an international form of mass entertainment, and it's not because audiences back then were dumb and thought the train was gonna hit them. it's because these images are genuinely compelling and tell their own (short, simple, rudimentary) stories, enough so that georges melies himself saw the first screening on december 28 1895 and immediately wanted to buy one of the cameras (they refused, and melies turned to other inventors in the space, of which there were many). there's actually a lot to chew on here if you sit with it long enough to get past the "i could shoot this on my phone in five seconds" impulse!

then there's alice guy-blache, arguably the first woman film director in history and a key figure in the establishment of the Gaumont film company, the oldest still-running studio on earth. she made her first film in 1896, though admittedly most of her surviving work is from the 1910s.

anyway, don't be so quick to write off the films of the late 19th century! everything you love about movies started there, after all :)

[empiressmpheadcanon]

Random roseblings swap au time! featuring lots of angst because it's me <3

~

We all know the story.

In a land of technology, twins are born. The elder is given the duties of the heir and the younger is expected to serve as an advisor at her side.

But then the elder discovers magic, and after a fight with her parents, flees her home in the dead of night to study it. The younger is promoted to heir and the elder is treated like she doesn't exist.

But this is not that story.

~

When Gem fights with her parents, demanding to know why the mere mention of magic is banned in the Grimlands, she doesn't stand her ground. She backs down under the ire of her parents, and that night instead of sneaking away she simply cries herself to sleep.

Fwhip, ever overlooked by those who only focus on the heir, notices this and gets mad. His sister is in pain, and it's all because of the Count and Countess. (He doesn't refer to them as their parents. Not anymore.) That night he leaves without even a note. If they reject magic to the point of hurting Gem over it, he will make sure magic will be their downfall.

Gem is told he died. That wizards from the Crystal Cliffs heard of her desire to learn magic but grew angry when they were turned away and said they would take at least one twin, one way or another. When he resisted, he was killed.

Her screams of sorrow echoed throughout the manor.

She was made to move on quickly, given even more lessons and restrictions. A hatred for magic greater than any other grew in her, and she threw herself into inventing with a passion.

She molded herself into the perfect heir, perfect future Countess, and she swore on Fwhip's memory she would avenge him.

Meanwhile Fwhip's doing pretty good, thriving under the freedoms learning magic offers him. While he still misses tinkering (magic and redstone do not mix) his dedication quickly rises him through the ranks.

When the Count and Countess die he tries to go visit Gem, but urgent matters always call his attention away. Being the Grand Wizard comes with responsibilities after all.

Gem refuses any meeting requests coming from the Crystal Cliffs, burning the letters as soon as she notices the origin. She doesn't meet their leader until a trade meeting of every ruler is called.

Fwhip runs up to her for a hug as soon as she touches down, but she instantly pushes him away, tears in her eyes as she screams that he's dead. When he tries to figure out what's going on she just keeps yelling that he's dead and this must be some trick. It draws a crowd and soon Sausage shows up to lead her away.

He sits them both down in a private room and Fwhip explains what happened, horrified when he hears what Gem was told. He promises that none of that happened, and that her parents knew that.

(She unconsciously rubs long healed bruises as she thinks about how much of their behavior she had previously excused as grief.)

The pair are inseparable now, Gem being especially clingy and protective. Sausage quietly explains the situation to the other rulers so no one questions or comments on it.

In some ways, they slot back into each other's lives like they never left. They can still talk in sync in the way that creeps everyone out, they can still follow the other's train of thought perfectly where others are left confused. (She's still the only one who can tell when a project is overtaking him and force him to eat and drink. He's still the only one who can help her out of frequent panic attacks when her brain overworks itself.)

In others, they could never be more different. Fwhip hasn't touched redstone in years, and Gem still hates magic, the mere mention enough to get her mad. She's trying to unlearn it, but he still notices how warily she eyes his staff and how she bristles at any demonstrations.

They're not perfect, but piece by piece, they're working to become as close as they once were.

~

Woop woop au time lets go

In terms of appearance I was thinking:

For Gem her hair's in a messy ponytail and she's constantly stained with soot and redstone, her clothes are pretty similar to what Fwhip wears in canon.

Fwhip wears trousers and a vest with a long flowing cloak in Cliffs colours with a few small black and red accents to remind him of his homeland. Canon Gem doesn't have these because she forsake everything to do with the Grimlands when she left.

so yeah feel free to do anything with this lol I am just procrastinating on finishing my fic (which is very close to being done btw >;3)

angst angst angst

-🦊

chanting *ANGST ANGST ANGST*

I LOVE THIS.

[starshipsofstarlord]

Hi <3 I'm not sure if you're comfortable writing this but I'll try :) Smth where Buckys girlfriend suffers from a lung illness and normally he supports her whenever she feels bad, but one time he's on a long mission where he cant be there when he struggles breathing. Then the other Avengers at the compound take her to the hospital and call Buck who immediately rushes home to be by your side and it's all cute and fluffy in the end? :) Thank you very much <3

Trapped Air

Pairing | Bucky Barnes x reader

Summary | whilst on a mission, you suffer with your breathing problems, leaving all to panic as you have air trapped in your lungs.

Warnings | breathing problems, angst, mentions of death, swearing, mentions of torture

Quick link to my masterlist, if you’re interested in reading more of my crap 😬

There had been no call back from Bucky; he was on a mission far away, and deep undercover, and the fact that you had no response did not surprise you, however, it was impossible not to feel overcome with worry.

From what you knew, he was somewhere in Austria with Steve, and most likely irritated by the company of Sam. The thought of them together, waiting for further intel made you smile, and so you sat up on the sofa; the place where you had fallen into a rural slumber late the previous evening. That thought also made you lightly snicker to yourself, and had you grasping your chest in agony at the action.

You adjusted your seat on the sofa, kicking the blanket under your legs as you tried to relax your entire body. To subdue the worry for your love that you had and were experiencing, you and Nat had watched a movie, your head running with thoughts of the danger that your boyfriend was possibly under.

It was no doubt that James Buchanan Barnes, the White Wolf and former Winter Soldier was a fine fighter; he had endured and survived wars, achieving victory in the vast majority of his battles. But still, he was nothing more than a man, with a veil of serum coursing through his veins, and whilst it made him much stronger, he was still sustainable to injury, and worse.

Countless times had you seen him braised in bruises, and kissed along the seam of his scars, and though he had lived through decades, and still appeared unscathed considering the circumstances, he was a mortal man, able to die and it was far too clear for your scared eyes that he wouldn’t be able to survive every fall.

An emptiness peeled away inside of you as you placed the phone down, resting your head upon the arm of the sofa of where you had done so priorly. Taking a deep breath, you wheezed, feeling nothing more than internal pain, and it was not just for your longing to see Bucky again. It was indeed something else, a condition that you had grown used to over the years.

It had taken everything from you; the job that you had so well partook in was diminished to being unsuitable for your health. Being an avenger had once been your only purpose, but it had been the one thing that had broken you. From all the rubble and other pesticides that you had breathed in, it had tampered with your lungs, and made you to be nothing more than a victim, a fallen hero.

The worse thing about being fallen in such a way was that you had not died on the job, instead, you were being tormented every time you watched your friends leave the compound, carrying a duffel bag that had all the necessities that they could possibly need for the gruelling months ahead on the missions that they had been sent on.

Knowing that if you weren’t so inwardly broken and that if that were the case, you could have easily accompanied Bucky and the others on their uncover op made you feel worthless, and disposable. As your chest raked the air that surpassed its roots, it waded a feeling through every limb that was attached to you.

Large gulps from the air machine that was beside you usually helped, but as your brought the medically introverted oxygen mask to surround the lower half of your face, the torturous sensation failed to fade. It remained, stuck in the collapse of your airways, refusing to allow air into your defined bloodstream.

The factor alone had you panicking, and as you went to stand, there was a pounding fire coursing through your head. Your eyes got dreary, fluttering as you reached out to grasp for the side of the seating area to stabilise your steps. But it wasn’t enough, all of your weight leant to one side, and a loud and colossal smash echoed through the room.

You helplessly laid there, having no ability to get up, as the shards of the glass table that had tried to break your fall, and had ended up breaking instead, stabbed mercilessly into the canvas of your back. It made you feel like a dartboard, free to the attempts of anything that put a bet on to try. This was your final fall from greatness, and if you weren’t to survive this, that would be o-

“Y/n.” A voice rushed out, as footsteps scrambled to come to your side. The silouhette of a blurry man knelt beside you, sickened with their own scheme of panic. “Nat!” He called out towards the kitchen, you hearing the pitter patter of her assumed footsteps that were toed in competent heels.

“Clint, what happened?” She asked, but giving him a break to compose his answer as she called warily out for FRIDAY, relieved when the AI answered her order. “Get one of Stark’s cars ready to go to the hospital, inform who needs to know. Y/n’s just had a nasty fall, and I assume more.”

“She was like this when I got in here.” Was the archer’s delirious response. His hands raised your head out of the cracked pieces, gently picking the sharp crystals out of your hair. He was sick with worry, he knew that you were touring a difficult road, one that no one else on the team could fathom to understand, but despite all that, he was still there for you, as were the numerous others.

Wearing his priceless suit, Tony rushed into the room, his brown eyes blown wide as he scoped the scene. “She’s losing consciousness.” Nat informed the pair, focusing on how your eyes barely had the strength to stay open. Your breathing was laboured, and the choke emitting from it was audible, making all witnesses wince from the threatening sound.

“My car is ready, on our way to the ER, give Barnes a call.” He held the keys to his vehicle, swinging them around his finger, as he watched Clint and Natasha hoist you up, and support you through the journey to the front of the compound. Nat stroked your hair as she bit back her own tears, combing tenderly through the slightly bloody tresses to soothe her own present anxiety.

The mission was turning out to be a bust, they were tracking Zemo after his great escape; hence why their departure was classified. It was unknown why the once Baron of Sokovia had fled to the country, but all prior intel had supported the idea that he was searching for a partner to help finish his work, if he were to ever get caught by the American government again.

Bucky hated being away from the place that had slowly become his home. It made him feel lost, but if he wanted to remain within said area to continue his life, he had to follow Fury’s orders, or else the panel that had granted him freedom for all his past actions, may happen to change his mind.

The gig of being an avenger was more of Steve’s expertise, he was loved by the country, and had never tried to break its order down piece by piece. Before he was cleared to join the team, and the debate that lead to Steve and Tony siding against one another, he was nothing more than a tense ghost story.

All knew he was real, but most were too scared to admit that the Winter Solider was an assassinating figure in existence. To everyone’s dismay now, following rule number two, he was no longer HYDRA’s pet weapon. He, for the first time in his life, had some kind of clarity on who he was.

His identity, was James Bucky Barnes, the White Wolf, the protector of the world and a renounced ally of Wakanda. And he was happy to be known as such, in a way, the new him cleared his red ledger, and that faded away with that damned red book.

No one had the power to control his mind again, all of his actions were now completely up to him. At first, with the reign over himself, he had been unsure on how to start with this new and invented soldier that he had become. He was no longer taking refuge behind the facade of T’Challa’s country anymore, for he was no a wanted man of the state.

But Sam enjoyed prodding at his ‘cyborg brain’, driving him to certain frustration. Though, it did not matter as much, for he found the peace he had been searching for after that little bit of calm that he had experienced on his hideaway.

You. A retired avenger, that had kicked his ass, and continued to brag about it to this day, when he was under Pierce’s demeaning orders. Though, it saddened him, to have the knowledge that you no longer had the ability to pin him down on a training mat, or throw his best friend’s shield in his silent face.

There was no longer an ignition of strength to fight left within you, you were weak from the condition that had and was holding you hostage in its devastating grasp. The debts of your god deeds had wormed their way through your body, destroying it bit by bit.

Whenever he was away, missing the presence that you had once accompanied him with, he was unable but to do anything but worry about your struggling health. He feared that one day, he would get a call claiming that you had experienced a traumatic accident, and as he sat in the small and cluttered motel room, the vibrancy and life that his phone was off putting had him nervously on edge.

“It’s Fury.” He claimed to his rugged partners, putting the man that had regained control of his empire on loud speaker, awaiting for the patch wearing associate to respond to his acceptance of the call. A moment of silence had him standing, the next, caused him to pace. Steve frowned, well aware that Fury only went silent, and did not barking affirmative orders when something had happened.

That man was an absolute whore for the dramatics, he had even faked his own death on multiple accounts. There was nothing the man could fathom not to do, and this sure as hell, in the name of Goose, was not the first instance he had informed his recruits of shocking factors. Steve remembered when the dark clothed man informed him that he was in the 21st century, and to this day, it remained to be the greatest shock that he had experienced.

The second had got to be the reveal of Bucky’s survival, that heart stopping moment had gone in slow motion, as the soldat whipped his unmasked face around to face his opponents, and he was quickly recognised. You had been there to ease the confusion and the humongous shock that wired his brain. And not to mention, to soothe the wave of emotions, you had prompted at jokes at about kicking his best friend’s fine ass.

That had only been the start to a long road ahead, it had all seemed like your quad of rebelling would go on forever. Sam Wilson was your best friend, and the first to be told of your failure to continue your raids on missions, and to say that he was holding back fountains in his eyes, was a casual understatement. The Falcon had felt angry at himself for not realising the increase in coughs that fled from your sassy mouth, or how quickly you would get tired.

He put some of that blame upon himself, claiming that he should have been the first to notice the signs. It was his idea, before your struggles were revealed to anyone else, to refuse your aid on missions, which lead to conspiracies from the team. For a couple of weeks, the members that you had fought alongside for so long had speculated that you were pregnant,and even Bucky had even began to fall for that idea.

In the end, they had all wished for that to be true, a child would be a gift, whereas instead, you were bestowed with a curse. Sam had offered for you to stay with Sarah and the kids, but upon your insistence, you remained in the compound, organising files and watching cinematic classics for the thousandth time.

But anyone could see, that every time they discussed the missions, of left to endure them, your face fell, appeased by the thought that you’d never share that experience again. They all tried to distract you, Thor had even taken you on a vacation to New Asgard so that you could relax and play video games with Korg, yelling frustratedly at Noobmaster69 as the kid tried to spite your friend and his gaming skills.

That though, had not ended well, and instead, the noise had brought you insufferable pain, and you had to be taken home. But what was home anymore? You hardly felt as though you belonged upon the army of your friends, or the guardians that they were aligned with.

And so, it was very understandable why Bucky was inclined to worry. All his dragged our life, he had watched people die, or awakened from cryo to find them gone, and the split moments that he were required on missions, was another moment that he had lost with you.

He gulped as he waited for Fury to say something, anything! And when he did, he wished that he could go back in time, and stop you from ever having been an avenger. “It’s agent Y/L/N, something has happened...”

It had been hours of no news, and Stark tapped his well dressed foot. He had requested, - no, insisted the best doctors to tend to your internal and external injury, claiming that if your condition was made any worse, he would personally make sure that they never tended to another patient again.

He was not usually one to be so aggressive, but he feared loss, it was a great flaw and attribute of his. Possibly, in some people’s judgemental eyes, he cared too much, but he never thought so. To him, the billionaire was human, no matter what the citizens over the world thought of him.

Sure, he wore an iron suit to protect the world, but beneath all the metal, he had a heart. And he’d be damned sure that he used it, and that it beat for a purpose. Natasha and Clint were either side of him, the assassins on her phone as she read the captain’s well written message.

“They’ve entered the country.” She spoke, referring to Sam, Bucky and Steve. It was a relief that they were going to be here soon, then they’d all look sane in comparison to Barnes. It was doubtful that he was holding himself together well, these hours had been torture to all of them, but he had actually been tortured in multiple gruelling occasions, but it was nothing in comparison to this.

One of the country’s best and devoted doctors opened the door to the room that you were being stabilised in, leading to all eyes waiting outside to stare hopefully at him. It was an intimidating thing, to have three avengers leaving him with one of their owns lives in his hands, he was not a hero. But to them, he was to be, they trusted him and the various recommendations that had suggested that he would be best suited to the deed.

The fact that he was the man in charge in this situation was to be great steak in his career, though, he would never be able to anyone, not even family, that he had saved the life of an avenger. Due to doctor patient confidentially, he was bribed into silence by the philanthropist himself, who was certain that he was fine for paying for the entire service himself.

Money had no importance to Tony, not as his friend was the patient that could have died. The man removed his sunglasses, sternly looking up at the kind doctor with pleading and urgent eyes, wanting to scoop every detail that he could from the eccentric medic. “How is she?”

The doctor gulped, well aware that there was a weight apparent on his shoulders, even when delivering any news. But this, was a whole new experience, he knew that you, the woman hoisted up in the hospital bed, had saved his coursing during the battle of New York. He was grateful, for everything that you had done, but simultaneously, felt the need to be careful with any tactic that he used to save your life.

“Well,” he licked his dry lips, watching as the Black Widow herself stared into his soul, “she’s stable, for now. And it would be okay if one of you went in, she’s currently in the midst of waking up. However, she is going to be unable to give much in the verse of a conversation, the oxygen mask that she’s wearing has to stay on, and it will not be a good if she tries to waste the breath she’s being given to talk.”

He was interrupted by the sound of competent running down the hall, it was as though the men dressed in their gear ignored the no running rule. But it was understandable, seeing as Bucky’s eyes were wild and wide, as he came to a stop and asked what was going on. Clint stood, bracing a hand upon his shoulder, before informing him the details they had just been given. “I think you should be the first to see her.”

Bucky didn’t argue with Clint, and instead, walked into the room, ensuring that he shut the door behind himself. He smiled painfully at the sight; there were so many tubes, and all the surrounding machines were lit up with statistics that he did not understand. Nevertheless, he looked towards the vacant seat beside your bed, and claimed it for his ass that you had once kicked.

Your eyes watched as he looked down upon you, your hands reaching to remove the mask, but he placed his hand upon your own, and replaced them to be upon your chest. “Shush darling, no talking, doctor’s orders.” He spoke, rubbing your cheek with his right hand, feeling the corner of the mask against the inside of his palm.

“Had me so worried doll, thought I was gonna lose you.” At the thought, a grimace presented itself of his woeful face, and to comfort him, you placed your fingers around his own, absentmindedly playing with them as you listened to his sincere voice. “On the way here, I spoke to Shuri, we are going to see if she can help you in anyway, as long as you’re okay with that. Does that sound good baby?”

Fluttering your eyelashes as you looked through their webbed curtain to stare lovingly at him, you nodded your head, ignoring the spiteful pains that emitted from where the glass had shallowly penetrated your scalp. “Alright, I’ll let her know. And I was thinking...” he waited for a moment to continue, being encouraged by the crease between his brow line.

“What if we stay in Wakanda, and we leave all this behind? We can still see people when they visit, and we can just, have some calm to ourselves. No missions, no aliens to fight, and no Zemo to chase. Or I was thinking, we go and live by Sarah, you love those kids, they’re basically your nephews, and we could take boat rides during the middle of the night, and help the people who live there, and...”

At his rambling, you smiled beneath the plastic system that was around your mouth, listening to him talk and talk about your future together. Yes, you missed missions, but you would give all that up for a normal and easy life, with Bucky Barnes.

[panlight]

i think one of meyer's biggest problems (i mean aside from the obvious) is that to her, the characters in her book that aren't bella and edward are just set dressing. she doesn't understand that anybody could see esme, for example, as a tragic character whose human life was defined by loss and abuse, because to her, she's just a plot device. she's The Mom, full-stop. jacob's imprinting doesn't register as horrifying because renesbait is the perfect daughter who deserves the perfect happy ending (a doting husband and probably kids), and jacob is just perfect for her! he's big and strong and loyal, and he won't age and die on her! she doesn't seem to get that people could see these characters as anything other than vehicles for bella and edward's story (and renesbait's, down the line). she has exactly one (1) story that she wants to tell, and anything else is just flavor text.

though to be fair, this started as her personal fantasy. when she got a book deal, she then had to go and beef up the story, which i think is where a lot of the worst stuff comes from.

Yeah, pretty much this.

And this is why romance novels and rom-coms that focus on just one couple (vs an ensemble like Love Actually or something), usually have a pretty limited cast because, who cares? The point is the relationship between the two leads, you don't really need or want anything else. Maybe a quirky or sassy friend (Alice) and a rival (Jacob) or some sort of inconvenient girlfriend/fiancee/ex (sort of Tanya? but not really) and that's all you really need. Family might exist for funny meeting-the-parents scenes but you don't need a backstory on the parents. You don't need a backstory on the quirky friend.

But after she invented Edward, she said she couldn't imagine him without a family. He MUST have a sister like Alice. But that's not enough. SM is from a big family, Edward deserves a big family, so then she invents all these other characters to be The Mom and The Father Figure/Mentor, then The Big Brother. Then oops, Quirky Sister and Big Brother need romantic partners, so here comes Mean Sister and The Vampire-y One. And now you have this huge cast with thinly sketched (but interesting!!!) histories that she doesn't plan to actually DO much of anything with, they just exist to be The Family. None of them have a story arc of their own. I mean I guess there's sort of "Rosalie learns to like Bella" but that's still Bella-centric and is more about Bella's fantasy of a perfect forever family. Does Jasper improve his control? Is Alice vicariously living through Bella's human experiences meaningful? Does Carlisle successfully convince others to try vegetarianism? Who knows, who cares, not the point.

And then she just keeps adding more characters! The cast of the Twilight novels is huge; it's like a Harry Potter universe of characters when the storyline is a pretty insular romance. She invents all these fascinating characters who can turn into wolves and then again, doesn't follow through with anything. Does Leah find peace? Do she and Emily mend their friendship? Who is Embry's father? Doesn't matter. Not relevant to Bella's story.

There's the Volturi, who at first to seem to be about world building and lore, but then they just sit on there thrones so much they've started to petrify. They literally don't do anything! And again, to tell this story you maybe need like one leader and one scary weaponized vamp, but we get THREE leaders and a whole bunch of named vampires with different powers who again, never really get to do much of anything. What's the point of the history between Amun and Demetri when it's never mentioned at all?

Then all the visiting vampires. She obviously LOVES Garrett and Benjamin, you can just feel the "aren't these characters SO COOL?!" pulsing through the page. But other than Garrett's big speech [which feels weird because we only just met this guy. Usually a character who had been there since the beginning would have this moment, a moment that we had been building up to for four books. Maybe Carlisle gets to make his final plea for vegetarianism. Maybe Esme, always quiet, always on the sidelines, steps forward and surprises everyone with her defense of her family and their way of life. Maybe Jasper, the one who wasn't totally sold on this diet, who wouldn't have tried it at all if not for his gift basically forcing him to, gives an impassioned speech from the POV of a former human-blood-drinker that appeals to the other vampires better than any of the veggie-from-the-start Cullens could. But no, it's Garrett, whom we met like 50? 100? pages ago, but since we're told he's a Revolutionary, and a Patriot, that's all the weight we need], none of them really matter or do anything. Benjamin could have left Amun in the end and that would have been something, but, no. It's still Bella's shield that gets all the credit for saving the day. It's still her story and her fantasy. And that's fine! Certainly there are plenty of male-centered power fantasies where some average guy turns out to be the chosen one and better at something than the people who have trained for it for years and gets love and power in the end.

It's just weird that the story she wanted to tell was pretty much just Bella and Edward Fall in Love and Get Married and Bella is the Best Vampire and yet she invented all these other characters without giving them any larger purpose. They have backstories that SEEM relevant but never go anywhere. Esme having met Carlisle when she was a human teen never comes up. Carlisle's mother dying in childbirth is never mentioned during the debates over Bella's pregnancy. Emily's scars are clearly supposed to be a warning about the dangers of being involved with supernatural beings, but it's a warning Bella ignores (and that's not even getting into using the suffering of an Indigenous character to teach a white girl a lesson). Leah's dad only died so Edward could be confused about 'the funeral' and think it was Bella's; it's never really brought up otherwise. There's no reason the rest of the pack has to be so crappy to her, it doesn't go anywhere. How much would the main story really change if Edward were the only vampire and Jacob the only wolf? Sure, some plot beats would be different without Alice to predict things, or without the tension between the Sam and Jacob factions in BD, but overall you could tell basically the same story without literally everyone else.

[elizabethemerald]

I wanted to make a scenario where Jazz would be willing to be trained by an assassin. In celebration of this story breaking containment so thoroughly I wanted to share this. Part three eventually. TW: Lots of Violence, Minor Character Death,

People always Jazz was a good kid. That being blatantly untrue and usually said condescendingly didn't help Jazz's association with people who tried to call her "good." Her teachers called her a good student, and that had been at least partially true, for a time, but now she couldn't care less about her grades. The kids at school, including Danny and his friends, called her a goodie-two shoes. That was only true from the surface. She obeyed rules because they made sense to her. Once they stopped making sense she stopped following them. Including the rules her parents had set for her.

All Jazz cared about now was being a good sister. For a long time she hadn't been. She had nagged Danny constantly to try harder in school without even noticing why he wasn't able to excel like she was. His ADHD was different than her autism, he needed different motivators, different help. Of course their parents were all but useless in helping him, but she hadn't helped him either.

She hadn't even noticed he had died. Her own brother had died because of their parents' invention, which she always had been terrified would happen one day, and no one had noticed. Thankfully she paid enough attention to him after the accident that she shortly realized something had happen and was able to get to the bottom of his secret. She vowed, after she was done throwing up from the horror Danny had described of his death, to be a better sister to him.

Jazz had started by helping him in ghost fights. She wasn't the best at first, her aim was terrible and she panicked when he was in danger. She had hit him more than she had hit the other ghosts, but at least she hadn't hurt him as bad as their parents had, or on purpose. She trained herself, visited Aunt Alicia to learn how to shoot, then spent every day practicing. She had Tucker download more material for her to learn. First Aid, Escape and Evasion, The Anarchist's Cookbook, detailed weapon diagrams from twenty different countries.

She felt she was finally able to actually help her brother.

Then came the trip.

Jack and Maddie insisted that she go on backpacking trip once she graduated high school. A family tradition her dad had boasted. An incredible learning experience her mom had crowed. She didn't trust them, but decided it couldn't hurt right? Only two weeks hiking in Europe then back to pack Danny's things up to move with her to her college of choice.

It had been fun at first. A last bit of relaxing before she had to take over the role of parenting her brother because their incompetence and bigotry towards ghosts. Until Danny didn't respond to her check in. She sent message after message with no response, she moved her flight up and left as soon as she could and raced home. She was still too late.

They had figured out Danny's secret. Caught him mid transformation, but they had hidden that they knew until she was out of the country, maybe some part of them realized what they were doing was wrong. Maybe some part of them realized she would stop them.

Jack and Maddie had done everything they could to pull her brother apart. They had cut into him again and again, pulling out pieces and tearing off limbs. There was no science there, only torture.

She stunned them both and pulled Danny free of his restraints. Before her eyes he shrank down, his core pulling the remaining ectoplasm that made up his body until he was a toddler of maybe five years old. She grabbed her pack from her trip to Europe and Danny's go bag that she had helped him pack months ago and told him to fly to Gotham. She would meet up with him there.

She sent him away and returned to face the people who had once been their parents. Jack was always hard headed and managed to shake off the stun first. He helped Maddie recover. Between the two of them, their fury at what had become of their son and what their daughter had done, and her horror at what they had become they were over power her and it was her turn on the dissection table.

They took her blood, pulled her hair out of her scalp, took skin samples and drilled into her bones to get marrow samples. She screamed and swore at them. But they still cut into her ruthlessly. She didn't have Danny's healing factor. Her body was more flesh than ectoplasm. She wouldn't be able to deage to recover from the atrocities they committed.

When they unchained her to sell her to the GIW she struck. She didn't stick to stunning strikes this time. She used all of the ectoplasm infused strength she could. She drove a ecto-pike through her father's shoulder and pinned him to the wall. She broke her mother's leg with a vicious kick to keep her from chasing her. She didn't take the time to grab anything from the house other than a long thin black case from under her bed before she fled into the city.

That had been two weeks ago. Danny had been tortured for two weeks. Then it had been her turn for a week and a half. Then she took the next two weeks to put her plan into place. She absolutely could not risk anyone following her or chasing after Danny. He was vulnerable right now and she would protect him.

Jazz sighed as she adjusted the sights on her rifle. It had been a gift from Vlad. It was even registered to him, not that the doofus actually knew how to use it, but he was rich and had been able to circumvent the rules to get it for her. Of course now the registration would work in her favor. When the police and inevitably the GIW would investigate, the evidence would point right to Vlad Masters. They would be after him immediately. After everything Vlad had done to her and Danny, she honestly couldn't care less what they did to him if they caught him.

Of course just pointing fingers at Vlad wasn't enough. The man could always just disappear, use his own portal to vanish into the Zone or his wealth to leave the country. She needed to have something that would send him after the GIW just as ferociously. The anti vehicle mine hidden next to the traffic light in the intersection in front of her would do perfectly. The design was stolen from the GIW labs and was specifically designed to counter one and only one vehicle. The GAV. Nothing would set of Plasmius' fury like a threat to his precious Madeline.

She moved her finger to the trigger guard as the siren from the GAV careened closer. If anyone other than Jack Fenton was driving the mine down below would be useless. But Jack had no care for safety of others, so he crashed the GAV right through the traffic light and over the mine. The explosion destroyed the treads of the GAV, while the ectoplasm laced inside took out the weapon systems.

Jazz inhaled slowly, then exhaled, her finger moving to the trigger as one door burst open. Jack and Maddie Fenton had tortured their children, committed countless crimes against a sentient species, and were willing to commit even more in the name of their depraved sense of science. If she and Danny were to be free and happy. There was one thing she had to do.

Jack managed to hobble and limp around the vehicle to Maddie's side. He pulled open the door and lifted the heavily casted and concussed Maddie from the passenger side.

Jazz squeezed the trigger.

Maddie screamed in pain as she dropped from Jack's limp arms.

Jazz pulled back the bolt, ejected one casing and thrust the next one home.

Maddie tried to claw her way out from under Jack's bulk, screaming for her husband to get up.

Jazz squeezed the trigger a second time.

The street was silent.

Jazz left the rifle behind, broken and hidden, but not too well. She collected the casings and her own go bag that she had hidden at the school. She had carefully mapped a route that didn't pass any of the few cameras the city had. She straddled the stolen motorcycle and settled her bag on her shoulders. Then she pulled a detonator from her pocket. She thumbed the trigger.

She pressed it.

Even from this distance she could hear the explosion that destroyed the former Fenton family home, including the portal to the ghost zone in its basement. That explosive had actually been there for months. Just in case.

She dropped the detonator into the sewers and started up the bike. It was an almost thirteen hour drive to Gotham. She could probably cut it down to ten. Jazz peeled out leaving the city she had grown up in forever.

Don't worry Danny. Your sister is coming.

Don't Sneak up on People with Swords

@im-totally-not-an-alien-2 made a prompt about Danny sneaking up on Jason Todd and @sky00asara made a comment in the tags about what would happen if Danny did that to Talia. So here is my version of that! Enjoy.

Talia al Ghul watched her beloved from afar. He was out, again patrolling his city for those he considered wrong doers. Her son was by his side. She scowled at how Damian’s fighting style had changed, softened in the company of her beloved. Despite her love for the man under the cowl, he had a tremendous ability to take even the most ruthless of killers and change them to spare the undeserving. He had even tried it with her. 

She was hidden on the roof of an abandoned tower nearby. The tower had succumbed to fire and was now condemned until the city got around to destroying it properly. For now it made the perfect place for her to observe her beloved and her son work undisturbed. 

“Excuse me?” 

Talia whirled, drawing her blade as she spun. Her blade moved fast enough to almost cut the air itself yet the small shape ducked under her stroke and back-pedaled quickly to move out her range. 

“Jeez! Why is everyone in this city so jumpy!” 

The voice more than anything made her realize that the person who had somehow snuck close enough was an actual child. Their black hair and blue eyes made her wonder if this was another of her beloved’s adoptees. Except surely this boy was too young to catch Bruce’s eye? 

“Well maybe you should not sneak up on people?” Talia hissed, her voice soft yet stern. To say nothing of how a child who couldn’t be older than five had snuck up on her at all. 

“Well maybe you shouldn’t brood on the roof of my home!” The child snarked back, just like one of the Bat’s brood would, completely unafraid of the blade still in her hand. Talia raised an eyebrow at him then looked around at the burnt skeleton of the building they were standing on. 

“This building is not fit for human occupation.”

“Neither was the last place I lived.” He said dismissively. “This place hasn’t even killed me yet, so it’s practically a paradise.” 

She was tempted to take the child’s words as sarcasm, yet something in the way he spoke made her think he meant it more truthfully. 

“You’ve died before?” Talia asked. She relaxed her hold on her blade, allowing it to rest at her side. 

“Oh yeah, I die all the time.” He said, then he looked at her curiously tilting his head first one way, then another. “You’ve died too, huh?” 

She nodded, now examining him closely, looking for the signs she would recognize. She could see the hint of a scar on the boy’s palm that might have caused a death. 

“What is it with this town that so many people have died and come back?” The boy asked, apparently rhetorically as he didn’t let her answer. “First the stabby Robin, then the stabby Batgirl, then Batman, and even Red Hood. It’s like everyone I run into is contaminated.” 

Talia’s eyes widened. 

“You can sense those who have utilized the Lazarus Pits?” She would have to inform her father about this child. He could put the entire League of Assassins at risk. The child before her just shrugged. 

“I have no idea what that is. Red Hood mentioned some kind of pit as well, but I’ve never seen anything like that. I just know y’all are contaminated with ectoplasm, though not enough to make a core.” 

“What is this… ectoplasm?” Another name for the Lazarus Waters? Had there perhaps been a Pit outside of League control? In the midwest somewhere based on the boy’s accent. 

“Oh it’s this stuff.” He held his hand out and Talia couldn’t help keep her expression of shock withdrawn despite all her training as his hand filled with the glowing green light of the Pits. He held the Pit Water in his hand then tossed the glowing orb to his other hand in a half juggle as if he weren’t carrying the League's greatest secret and weapon. 

Nevermind telling her father about this child, he could never learn of him. If Ras had the power this child had under his control the world would never survive. There was only one option. She needed to train this child to wield this strength. With the stealth he displayed in sneaking up on her and his power over the Pits themselves he could make an assassin like the world had never seen. He could be the next Head of the Demon under her guidance. She knelt down to the boy’s level, slipping her sword back away as she did so. 

“Tell me, young one. Are you living in this death trap of a building all by yourself?” 

“Yeah, but don’t worry, I’ve got it taken care of. I know I’m little, but that just means people are less likely to notice me. I’m able to steal all the food I need from that big box store down the street.” 

“Oh of that I have no doubt. My name is Talia al Ghul. What’s yours?” 

“Hmm. I’m Danny.” The boy seemed hesitant to trust her, which to be perfectly honest was probably a very smart thing to do, but at least she had a name for this gift of Lazarus. 

“Danny, how would you like to come live with me? You won’t have to steal any more, or worry about food ever again, and I could train you how to fight even better than the Bats.” 

He narrowed his eyes at her, looking her over closely. 

“Would I get a sword?” 

“If a sword is what you want, then once you were trained in its use I would acquire one for you.”

Danny looked like he was about to nod, but then he froze, his head tilting to the side as if he was listening to something. His eyes widened and Talia tensed. 

“Uh-oh. Fruit Loop incoming. I gotta go.” 

Talia half turned as she heard the sound of one of her beloved’s grappling lines catching on the building’s edge. By the time she had turned back to face him, Danny had completely vanished. She hadn’t even heard him leave. She stood and scowled as her beloved landed on the rooftop next to her. 

“Talia.” He grunted at her, glaring all the while. 

“Beloved. Must you ruin every nice thing in my life?” Talia snarled back. The boy, Danny, had the gift of Lazarus at his beck and call and Batman had scared him off. 

Bruce looked momentarily stunned at her fury, but quickly hid it behind his mask. However Talia couldn’t care less about her beloved right now. She just needed to lose him so she could return to find the boy. The boy who would change the world with his power. 

[buckybarnesdiaries]

; i'm coming home

© gif credits to the author, i found it on google. if you own it, send me a message with your @.

bucky barnes x reader ⎢ masterlist.

bucky and you met six years ago in romania, but he disappeared. now, he's back.

word count: 1.8k.

warnings/tags: none.

author notes: none of my stories contain reader’s body descriptions to be inclusive.

Join the tag list here.

requests are open.

Six years had passed since the last time he was with you, before disappearing overnight. He didn't give you any explanation, he didn't even leave a note. He needed to protect you, but he also knew how stubborn you were and that you wouldn't let him take that decision for both. So Bucky simply left, breaking your heart in one thousand pieces. You wanted to understand his reasons, but you couldn't. He promised you eternal love, a life together, moving out of New York —maybe to a remote place where anyone could recognize him and have peaceful days, without having to be worried about someone coming after him. About someone trying to hurt you.

Since the very first moment you met in Romania, Bucky fell in love with you. Sometimes you still remembered how he started talking to you in Romanian, guessing you were from there until you laughed and replied in English. The next few weeks were like a daydream. Walks, romantic dates, nights of stargazing. Then, you came back to New York and kept in touch by letters, as in the forties or fifties. Until one day. Your friends invited you to a museum and what you discovered there was unbelievable. James, your James, was Captain America's best friend. And he was supposed to be dead.

You wrote to him. You told him you knew it. You told him you didn't care, that you could figure out how to escape from that situation. Together. But he never sent you a letter back. You weren't able to forget him after all that time, still sleeping every night with his red shirt, stupidly fantasizing about the idea of Bucky coming back to you. And your hopes increased when you watched him on TV. The Avengers found him and, even if you tried to contact them somehow to defend your James, you never got it. Nobody believed you, not even when you showed them the letters, not the only picture you conservated of both of you in Bucharest. You prayed to God to help him. You begged God to the world seeing him as you did.

But when Bucky was released on parole, he never tried to look for you. He did know you lived in New York and, with his resources, he'd have known in less than five minutes. One year had passed, and you ended up losing the most minimal hope wrapping your heart. All those things he told you once, were just lies. Lies to inventing a parallel life until you left Romania. Only replying to your letters to have something to lean on for his own good. That's what he demonstrated to you.

bucky's pov

Like every night since he earned part of his freedom, Bucky stared at the windows of your apartment, from the opposite sidewalk hidden behind a tree. Like a ghost. Like he was trained to see but not be seeing. Every night, he wanted to cross the road, call to your door, kiss you, hug you, feel your touch and your love —hold you, and never let you go again. But he knew it was risky, he knew he had to wait for the right time. And it came. Tonight it came. His year of therapy had ended and he was free. Bucky was free to come back home.

He had been watching you since it started, making sure you were safe and sound. He also was aware that you never rebuilt your life with another man, that you tried to find him. That you slept every night with his shirt. Bucky was also aware of all the times you cried for him, that you always walked the same way from your job to your apartment expecting to meet him in some street close to it. He knew you better than you knew yourself.

Taking a deep, deep breath, keeping his hands inside the pockets of his coat, the soldier put a step on the road. The first step to happiness. And then, no one could stop him. He continued to the front door of the building, not needing more than a push to open it. Third floor, fifth door at the right of the corridor. Bucky licked his bottom lip nervously, swallowing as he took a master key from one of his pockets and a small metallic stick to force the lock of your house. He needed to be fast and stealthy, ringing the bell wasn't an option for very obvious reasons. Breaking into the apartment, he closed the door quietly behind his back.

The lights were all turned off a couple of hours ago when you went to sleep, after sitting on the window of your living room waiting for someone who wasn't going to show up, as every night for the last six years. The whole place smelled sweet like you used to. Bucky never forgot your scent, using it as the encouragement he needed to continue fighting for his freedom, for a life together. Now, his heart was racing so quickly that the whole city could hear his beats.

Slowly, he toured the entrance, the living room, the hallway straight to your dorm. The door was half-closed. Not a single noise coming from the inside. Bucky walked towards it, pushing it in slow motion, trying to not wake you up. And if he knew before that could be that easy to watch you sleep —for creepy that it sounded— he would have watched you every night since he landed in New York.

Bucky wasn't sure about what to do. If he should wake you up, if he should let you sleep and come the next day after you finished your work. When he wanted to realize, he was running the nail of his index finger on your soft cheek. Your skin was still warm, which meant you fell asleep crying again. And that broke his heart, his soul. Being conscious of all the pain and the suffering he made you being through all that time was killing him from inside. And he wished he could have handled your relationship in another way. But there wasn't another way without you being collateral damage of his past.

Bucky was about to leave when he suddenly felt a hit to his collarbone, stumbling to the bed. He didn't have time to react when your right leg was beneath his cold arm and pinning down his neck, as your left leg was laced around it. Your hand gripping his wrist, immobilizing him, pointing at him with a loaded gun between your free fingers. Your breathing became erratic, your pulse was beating faster than ever, but you were ready to shoot if the occasion required it.

In the middle of the gloom you glimpsed at those deep oceanic blue eyes you had been craving to look at for years. The same eyes on the picture on your nightstand. It has to be another dream. Another nightmare where Bucky came to tell you that everything was going to be okay. But his touch felt so real that it hurt like a million flames burning down your body to ashes. You were paralyzed. Your brain collapsed. In a very slow motion, James —your James— raised his right hand from the mattress to above his chest, bringing it to the gun aimed at his head. You couldn't stop him. You tried with all your strength. But the commands sent by your neurons never reached the finger supported against the trigger.

His flesh digits made their way to your trembling hand, as the tears started to sprout out from your eyes. Bucky took the weapon, not needing to ask you to release it, to put it away from the two of you.

“It's okay, draga mea, it's me…” He whispered with such an angelical and melodic voice, over your dolorous sobs. “May I, uh… get my arm back?”

Bit by bit, you obeyed as if it was some kind of polite order, loosening the grip around his arm and over his neck. Stepping back till your body collided with the headboard, you curled up your knees to your furious chest rising and falling, hiding your face between the gap of both. Your cry became louder, agonic, painful, ripping your throat.

“No— Not again… Not again, please… I c— can't”. You implored sorely.

Bucky didn't need to be a genius to understand you firmly believed it was just part of another of your dreams. Another of your nightmares. He sat upon your bed, coming closer to you and landing his cold metallic hand on the back of your head, urging you to raise it. You did. You did raise your burning face because of the tears falling, running down your cheeks. Your blurry gaze focused on his pale blue eyes, begging you silently to forgive him.

“I'm here… I'm back”. Bucky murmured, gently touring your skin until reaching a side of your neck, caressing your throat by using his thumb. “This is not a dream, draga mea. This is real”.

His intentions weren't to scare you, speaking to you with such a honeyed tone of voice as he shortened the distance between his body and your legs yet curled. You pouted unconsciously, watching him leaning above your legs to press his lips on the bridge of your nose. Slowly, fondly. Wanting to transmit to you that the flame of his love for you never went out. Resting his forehead against yours, your right hand flew straight to the back of his neck. You had never needed more than you needed him at that precise instant, trying to believe that that wasn't a trick of your subconscious.

“'M so, so sorry… I had to protect you… I had to protect you”. Bucky explained while closing his eyes, lacing his free fingers with yours. “But, uh… I know you still drink black coffee with mocha and a stick of cinnamon every Thursday. I know you… rent a book from the library and sit on the stairs in your free evenings… I know you sleep with this same shirt every night”.

Discovering he had been watching you all this time provoked your lips to shiver, as your cry became lower and your breathing was calmer. He guarded your days, in the shadows, till the right moment. And it came. Tonight was the right moment.

“I'm free. I'm not an enemy anymore… I'm not a target”. Bucky couldn't help but chuckle to hold back his own tears. “I'm so sorry”.

“Will you…? Will you stay now? With me?” At first, you doubted asking, being afraid of his response for a second.

“No one will ever set us apart again. No one”. He promised you, his heart speaking, telling the absolute truth. “Everything I told you in Bucharest; everything was true. And I… I want it”.

Bucky leaned forward enough inches to make disappear the less distance between both of you, pressing his lips in yours, tenderly caressing your jawline with his thumb as his tears met yours in the corner of your lips. Neither of you could believe that you were reunited after all these years, after all the pain, the loneliness. And like James, your James, said so: no one would ever set you apart again.

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[bogwitchchichi]

Okay, so I've been thinking of this story idea where the reader is a novelist from Zaun with a penname in Piltover and rides the popularity train when Hextech becomes popular.

They made their first romance novel already, with the ML of the first novel being based on Jayce. They're able to acquire information on him through all the media at their disposal since he is the face of Hextech.

Their novels fly off the shelf in Piltover and fans want another one. The reader's manager suggests maybe base the ML on Viktor this time. Try something different they say.

Problem is, there is barely any interviews with just Viktor, he's only mentioned when it comes to the technicalities of hextech.

No anecdotes, or even photos to base the ML off of in comparison to Jayce.

Lo and behold, the reader enters a cafe or bar in Zaun to help with their writer's block and strikes up a convo with our boy Viktor, only they don't know it's him and they're basically telling him all about how their next novel's male lead has to be based on him.

Viktor decides to help them, only he's chosen to keep his identity a secret from them throughout the whole ordeal by pretending to be "Viktor's lab assistant".

He strikes a deal that if the novel is published, he receives part of the earnings, so as to help with his own personal inventions without the limitations of the academy.

Or something along those lines. I don't have the ability to eloquently write this out. But, I think it would be a fun thing to write.

Like, can you imagine Viktor having to tell Jayce to keep his identity a secret while bringing the reader to the lab for reference material and Jayce holding his laughter in while calling Viktor by his fake name or making snide jokes and comments.

Or Viktor stumbling over his use of first person and third person because he's talking about himself to the reader and the reader is listening attentively. Then reader sharing their drafts with Viktor to have reassurance it's in line with "Viktor's" character, and Viktor in turn is moved by their writing.

Or reader falling in love with Viktor through the time they spend together and writes a personal piece about him to profess their love, and Viktor falling in love as well, but having to figure out how to tell them the truth because it's not like hextech, formulas, and equations. Those were calculable. This wasn't.

Oh no! I hope nobody writes this into a fanfic~

[goldenavenger02]

Pillow Fights and Long Nights

5 Times Kai was in the hospital for Lloyd, 1 time Lloyd should have been in the hospital, and 1 time Lloyd was in the hospital for Kai.

Dedicated to @rosiehunterwolf

•••

1.

'I should've been watching him.' Kai thought to himself as they all stood in the waiting room of Ninjago City hospital. Since there were multiple doctors in Ignacia, he and Nya had never needed to be here.

However, hearing Jay's horror stories about multiple failed inventions landing him in here for days at a time, or hearing about Cole's failed dancing resulting in at least two different injuries, not to mention the Triple Tiger Sashay incident, was definitely not calming his nerves.

He shouldn't have left Lloyd alone with the training equipment he didn't know how to use, when there had been multiple other people who could've been checking where they were while waiting on a Serpentine sighting.

When he had been forced out of the Bridge because of Jay screaming, saying that Lloyd was bleeding on the deck, Kai had only ever felt that sinking feeling in his stomach twice before.

When Nya was taken by Garmadon, and when Lloyd nearly sank into the lava inside of the Fire Temple.

Which led to where they were now. The hailed "protectors of Ninjago" leaning against chairs and the wall of the hospital, staring at the door that Sensei, Lord Garmadon and Lloyd had disappeared behind, and pretending that they were not there at all in order to keep their heart rates from getting out of control.

"-which is why I stopped trying to climb the piles of junk." Jay's voice rang back in his head, snapping him out of his thoughts and he could feel fire against his hand.

"Kai, calm down," Nya's voice perked up, gently setting her hand on his arm, and Kai allowed himself to take a deep breath, the fire extinguishing from his hand, "I know you're upset, but if you burn down the hospital, you're going to be in a lot of trouble. This is probably a place we don't need to get banned from."

"Yeah, I'm just worried. He's been in there for over an hour and we haven't heard anything," Kai explained, letting his eyes flutter closed with worry, "I shouldn't have left him alone."

"You didn't know he would get hurt," Cole explained, putting his hand on his other shoulder, "you can't put that on yourself."

"But I knew that he was still getting the hang of the training equipment, and I knew that you guys were standing by and waiting for the Serpentine sighting." Kai argued, but Zane just shook his head before speaking up.

"We've gotten hurt multiple times using that equipment, and it wasn't this bad. You were probably just expecting a bump or bruise at the most, even if it was more so an instinct than an actual thought."

"Yeah, no one blames you, dude." Jay added, putting his hand against Kai's back when finally, the door opened and Sensei came out.

"He's going to be alright," he assured before any of them could say a word, and Kai couldn't keep his sigh of relief in, "He has a concussion, and he has to stay overnight so he can be monitored, but he's going to be just fine."

"Can we see him?" Kai asked, and had to swallow when Sensei shook his head "no", because while he knew Garmadon wouldn't hurt Lloyd after they just got him back, he still felt uneasy with him being around Lloyd by himself.

"He's sleeping now, and his father is with him. We'll come back in a few hours, but we still have to stay vigilant and make sure that Pythor doesn't get the last Fangblade."

"Yes, Sensei." All six of them groaned and made their way back to the Bounty, and Kai had to force his feet to go and avoid disrespecting Sensei yet again, no matter how tempting it was.

2.

"Well, the good news is that Cole's going to throw out expired spices now." Kai joked, sitting on the edge of Lloyd's hospital bed, phone in hand as he updated Nya on Lloyd's condition.

Due to a flu going around, only one person was allowed to visit at a time, and Sensei had decided that Kai should stay with him while he went to stock up on healing teas for this exact scenario in the future.

"Not funny, dude," Lloyd groaned, curling up on his side, "my stomach still feels like it's going to explode."

"I think it already did." Kai chuckled, immediately regretting it when he saw the look of pure misery on Lloyd's face, which had him shoving his phone in his pocket before looking right at him, "sorry, I'll stop. Can I get you another ginger ale?"

"I'm just going to throw it up," Lloyd sighed, rubbing a hand over his face before turning on the TV.

Unfortunately, they were immediately greeted by Gayle Gossip talking about how Garmadon had seemingly gone missing, which Kai reached over and turned off, seeing Lloyd put his head in his hands, "on second thought, I'd rather throw up."

Kai couldn't help but smile sympathetically at him, gently squeezing his hand. "You've got us, Lloyd," that's when an idea popped into his head, "let me text Zane, see if we can figure out a way to smuggle some of his chicken noodle soup in here."

"Don't let him use the expired spices," Lloyd groaned as Kai pulled out his phone again.

"It'd probably taste better than the food in here." Kai teased with a smile, receiving a glare from Lloyd; and in hindsight, the pillow he received to the face from Lloyd was most likely well deserved.

3.

"Just a sprained wrist, Kai," the doctor smiled softly as they wrapped bandages around the cut that covered his left arm, "you're very lucky."

Kai nodded, although he wasn't focused on the pain in his wrist, and more so on the fact that they maybe had two minutes of peace before Lloyd had passed out against him due to the absolute exhaustion from the final battle.

And while he knew that he had his uncle and parents, he couldn't stop the worry from clawing at his heart as the moment replayed in his head.

•••

"There's no way of knowing what's around the corner, but as long as there's something worth fighting for, there's always a need for a ninja. And we'll be ready." Kai insisted to Sensei, watching as his team approached him.

He couldn't keep the grin off his face as they looked to the brightness, one hand on Sensei's back and the other on Lloyd's shoulder. 'Little Lloyd Garmadon saved the day.'

However, just when they looked away from the sun, and the others started to spread out, that's when Kai noticed just how pale Lloyd was, even with a smile on his face. "Lloyd? You okay?" He asked softly, nudging his shoulder.

"My leg hurts…" Lloyd mumbled, his words slurring slightly, but before Kai could alert the others, Lloyd was already unconscious and slumped against his chest.

"Sensei!" He called out, gently maneuvering Lloyd so he was on his back, watching as the others ran back towards him, "Sensei, a little help!"

•••

Kai made his way to the waiting room with instructions to avoid using his left wrist, and kept back the disappointment when he didn't see Lloyd, but he couldn't hold back his relief to see Nya and immediately engulfed her in a hug which she returned just as tightly. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"I'm glad you're okay," she smiled before pulling away, glancing down at his arm before looking back at him, "well, mostly."

Kai couldn't ignore the bandage against her cheek, and when he looked back at his other teammates, it seemed as though Zane and his father were the only ones unscathed.

Cole was absolutely littered in bruises nearly everywhere that there was bare skin, both of Nya's eyes had bruises around them along with scratches that covered both of her arms, and he could tell that Jay's ribs were at least bruised by the way he was breathing, not to mention the stitches that were peeking out from the neckline of his gi.

"How's Lloyd?" Kai asked softly, unable to stop holding onto his sister, watching as her face switched from a smile to a soft frown. 'That was never good.'

"He's absolutely drained, not to mention his ankle was nearly shattered. The doctors think that it was the adrenaline that kept him from feeling it. They're not letting anyone who isn't family see him until after they do surgery on it."

"They don't have the right to call us anything other than his family." Kai scowled, pushing past Nya as his chest burned, determined to find Lloyd even if he burned the whole hospital down around them.

Luckily for the staff, Lloyd's room was easy to find and Kai immediately walked in, resulting in the turn of Sensei, Misako and Garmadon's heads.

"Kai, calm down." Sensei insisted firmly, holding a hand out towards Kai but he couldn't stop him from going to Lloyd, which forced him to swallow.

His skin was the palest he had ever seen, even compared to when he had gotten food poisoning a few months back, his ankle was wrapped up, but Kai could still see the bruises stretch up his leg, and his under eyes were dark, like he hadn't slept in weeks.

"Kai, it might be best for you to wait with the others." Sensei suggested softly, putting his hands on his shoulders, but he shook him off and grabbed Lloyd's hand instead.

"I made a promise to protect the green ninja, to fight beside him; with all due respect, Sensei, I can't do that in a waiting room. And if any of you try to make the argument that I'm not family, I'm going to fight you tooth and nail," Kai stopped for a moment to look at Lloyd's sunken face before turning back to his three parental figures, "Lloyd's my brother, just as much as Nya is my sister. I'm not leaving him."

To Kai's surprise, Garmadon was actually the one who approached him and set his hand on his shoulder before he spoke, "no one is going to kick you out, Kai. And if they try, they'll have to go through me."

Kai nodded, and despite the fact he was no longer evil, he was still a little shocked that he was agreeing with Garmadon.

But at the same time, as he held Lloyd's hand in his, he had never been happier to have him on his side.

4.

"I can't believe how awesome your powers are, Nya." Jay admired, resulting in a smile from Nya, which Kai watched from afar.

He knew that Nya viewed them as friends, but with the way Jay looked at her, he had a flicker of something telling him that they would get together again someday

"I can't believe that I'm still being put on the pediatric ward," Lloyd mumbled, throwing a crumpled up piece of paper at the trash can, "I'm one of Ninjago's protectors and I'm still being treated like a kid."

That brought Kai back to the present as all five of them had crammed themselves into Lloyd's hospital room after the events of what had happened in Stiix.

After all, nearly losing Lloyd to Morro was nerve wracking for all of them, and after the events of the battle against the preeminent, Lloyd had all but passed out on the way back to Ninjago City due to being sleep deprived and malnourished.

"In their defense, Lloyd, you are under the age of eighteen, which means unless there were special circumstances, you are required to be put with other minors." Zane supplied, which only received a sarcastic response from Lloyd.

"Thanks, Zane. Real helpful." And with that, he threw another piece of paper at the trash can.

Kai shot a glance towards Cole, silently telling him that he needed to talk to Lloyd alone and hoped that he got the newly turned ghost's attention, even though they were all still coming to terms with the change.

Luckily, Cole was still Cole, and got the message loud and clear before turning to the others; "Hey, let's go check out the cafeteria, see if we can find anything worth smuggling up here to Lloyd."

After Zane, Jay, Nya and Cole left, and Kai could no longer hear Jay's questions about if Cole even needed to eat anymore, he turned to Lloyd and sat next to him on the bed, taking in Lloyd's condition.

His under eyes were very dark, his skin was way too pale and Kai could see just how much muscle mass Lloyd had lost, and how he seemed like a shell of the lively kid who loved candy and pranking his brothers.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kai asked softly, gently squeezing Lloyd's right shoulder since his hand had an IV in it that was currently pumping him full of fluids and electrolytes.

"My dad...is really gone," Lloyd stopped to wipe the tears that started running down with his left arm, even though more followed immediately after, "I-I don't know what to do anymore."

Kai didn't stop himself from pulling him into a hug, feeling the warm tears leak through his gi as Lloyd gripped onto him tighter. "I've got you, Lloyd," he felt the tears against his cheek while squeezing his brother tighter, "You've still got me."

5.

Kai couldn't keep his foot from tapping on the ground as he waited for Lloyd and Misako to get to the waiting room.

After Cole had become human once again, and Morro had disappeared, the majority of the group got to work on emptying out the Airjitzu temple, except for Kai, Misako and Lloyd.

When he saw the fact that Lloyd had a massive cut running from his left cheek to his jawline, and heard that Misako was taking Lloyd to the hospital despite his protests that "he'd have the coolest battle scar", Kai had offered to drive them to the hospital.

The only thing he knew about their Day of the Departed was from the hushed whispers that they had shared on the drive, which had the key words like "Pythor" and "my father", so he knew it was just as bad as what he and Nya had gone through with Chen, if not way worse.

The hospital was nearly empty, so his foot was tapping on the floor and he had his phone open to social media, trying to keep himself from losing his mind.

"Mom, I'm fine." He heard Lloyd insist as two sets of footsteps approached him, and he put his phone in his pocket, smiling when he saw the two of them, the younger of the two sporting a giant bandage against the left side of his face, which Lloyd seemed to take offense to as he snapped, "don't even start making jokes, Kai."

"Hey, hey, relax, Green Machine, I'm smiling cause you're okay," Kai insisted, wrapping his arm around Lloyd's shoulder as they made their way to the car before whispering, "if you need to talk to someone besides your mom, I'm here for you, okay?"

"I don't need to talk, but…" Lloyd trailed off, glancing at his mom before returning eye contact with Kai, "it'd be nice if I wasn't alone tonight."

"We'll figure it out, kid," Kai smiled, shuddering as they were met with the freezing air, feeling Lloyd get closer to him, "I swear."

5.5

"How could Lloyd be so...so stupid?!" Kai shouted, his hands going to his hair in anger, "he should've waited for us to come up with a plan!"

"You know that you did this once too, right Kai?" Cole piped up, and Kai couldn't respond with anything but a glare, because he was right.

Kai himself had fought Garmadon without a plan and even locked his team out of the room, but he thought that the golden weapons were being stolen, as for Lloyd…

Well, now that he thought about it, Lloyd had good reasoning as well; he wanted to bring his father, all of his father, back, and with how many nights he had fallen asleep in his arms, eyes full of grief, Kai couldn't even blame him.

He let out a frustrated sigh, the worry striking his heart like a loaded cannon that had just gotten new ammunition. 'I can't lose Lloyd, not now. Not after everything.'

Kai felt a cool, soft hand against his shoulder, and he didn't stop himself from clinging onto Zane while starting to chew on his lip, feeling his teeth start to make small indents against his skin.

"That's him!" PIXAL's voice rang in Kai's head as the Bounty slowed to a stop, Jay, Cole and Nya immediately rushing out, but Zane continued to hold onto Kai.

"Let me go!," Kai shouted, his vision going red as anger burned in his chest as he started to fight against Zane's hold, "I need to see Lloyd!"

"It would be unwise for you to see Lloyd until he's back on the Bounty, as we are trying to get out of here as soon as possible," Zane explained, the tight hold still feeling gentle against his shoulder, "they'll bring him aboard soon."

"Nya, how is he?" PIXAL asked over the comms, bringing Kai's attention to them as he focused in on his little sister's voice.

"We need the gurney, he's… He's in really bad shape," she explained, a sniffle cutting her off before she continued, "Kai, Zane, be ready to take him to control; it's still set up from where we fixed Zane."

"We're on it." Kai insisted, his heart beating so loud that he could hear it as he and Zane sprinted outside as the gurney was lifted on deck while the others climbed the ropes; Kai couldn't keep his gasp in when Lloyd's face hit the light.

His nose was definitely broken, both of his eyes were black, and the rest of his face was covered in scratches and bruises; he didn't even want to know what was under Lloyd's gi.

As he and Zane lifted Lloyd, the hot skin against their hands, he let out a groan that made Kai wince. 'Lloyd is the level headed one, he doesn't do this. He doesn't run off into danger.'

But as the two of them laid Lloyd down, Kai swallowed harshly, because Lloyd had in fact run into danger before...for his family.

As the others ran into the room, minus Nya who was calling Misako, and started to patch up Lloyd's injuries as best as they could, Kai couldn't help from speaking up. "He needs to be in the hospital. He's way too hot, and way too injured."

"Where would we even go? Harumi and the Sons of Garmadon are patrolling the city like crazy, we'll be lucky to even make it in, let alone get him inside of the hospital." Cole explained, gently wiping the sand off of Lloyd's face.

Kai relented; he knew Cole was right, there was no way to get him professional medical treatment, and he just had to hope that Misako had some idea of where to take him, cause he also knew that there was no way that Lloyd was going to live if they only used their limited medical knowledge and supplies.

Lloyd's wheeze was what brought Kai out of his thoughts and he instantly wrapped both of his hands around his left one before whispering in Lloyd's ear.

"It's going to be okay, we're going to save you. Just focusing on staying alive."

6.

He had pushed himself too far.

As Kai sat in his room in the burn unit, looking at his fully bandaged arms and wrists, he knew that. He also knew that he was extremely grateful for the pain medication that kept him from feeling both the burns and the frost bite.

"So this is what the normal ward looks like." Lloyd remarked as he got up from the chair and sat on the end of Kai's bed with a smile.

"Yeah, not as many fun decorations, squirt," Kai joked before going serious, "I don't wanna see you in here unless you're visiting someone else, you got that?"

"Unfortunately for me, being the "prophesied green ninja" doesn't give me that luxury," Lloyd lamented before glaring at Kai, "and don't call me squirt, I'm finally gaining up on you."

"You could be six four and I'd still call you squirt, it's my job as an older brother, ask Nya. As for staying out of the hospital, you're supposed to humor me, chosen one," Kai snorted, receiving a pillow to the face, "hey, I can't retaliate!"

"I'd prefer being a kid over being the chosen one and you know it." Lloyd explained, glaring daggers at Kai, to which he raised his hands in surrender before asking.

"Alright, I'll stop. Where are the others? They usually don't let you walk around unsupervised."

"PIXAL and Zane are on a date, Nya insisted that they hang out together after we got back from the Never Realm; Jay and Nya are working on some upgrades to the Bounty, and Cole and my uncle went shopping, something about chicken feed," Lloyd explained before smiling at Kai, "besides, I'm not unsupervised, I'm hanging out with you."

Kai couldn't keep the smile from spreading across his face as he managed to sit up and ruffle up Lloyd's hair, even though it was immediately followed by a rush of searing hot pain from the movement.

"Alright, hot head," Lloyd laughed, gently pushing Kai back against the pillows, "leave my hair alone and get some rest; for once, let me take care of you."

"Pretty sure that's illegal." Kai retorted, immediately being smacked with another pillow, although not as hard as the first one, "can you stop doing that?"

'You better think of a creative threat against him.' He thought to himself.

"What're you going to do about it?" Lloyd challenged, picking up a third pillow, which led Kai to smirk before putting on his best pouting face.

"I'm going to tell Nya that you were being really mean to me when I'm injured and weak, and have her deal with you accordingly."

Whatever punishment Lloyd had thought of Nya giving him was enough for him to drop the pillow immediately with a look of terror on his face, and Kai couldn't even blame him; Nya was never a force to be reckoned with, whether you were an enemy or family.

The room went silent for a few minutes after that, until Lloyd sniffled, which made Kai's ears perk up as he sat up again, wrapping his upper arm around Lloyd's shoulder so his wrist and hand wasn't touching anything, "hey, hey, what's wrong? If it's about throwing pillows, I-"

"No, not that…," Lloyd's voice shook before he turned slightly and hugged Kai around the stomach tightly, nearly knocking the wind out of him, "I can't lose anyone else. Not anymore. I almost lost you and Zane, and I… Not again."

Kai pulled Lloyd towards him closer so he could cry against his shoulder, despite the fact that it sent the same searing pain through his body again, "I've got you, Lloyd. You're going to have a really tough time getting rid of me, you know that."

After a few moments, Lloyd emerged from his shoulder, now glaring at him again, and Kai knew exactly why this time; might not be best to joke about loss to the kid who had been abandoned by his mom and lost his dad twice now.

"Yeah, throw the pillow at my head, I deserve that this time."

Kai didn't expect the hit to be so hard that his head almost spun all the way around, but seeing the smirk on Lloyd's face made all the neck and jaw pain worth it.