#wow its been a while whOops i need to post more!! sorry!!
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productivityplant · 6 years ago
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12 / 03 / 18 • Lately I’ve been loving working on art stuff in little cafés, sipping on matcha lattes while watching the snow fall 🍵❄️
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trashytummiez · 4 years ago
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A Stuffed Cinnamon Bun
This was inspired by @yummyinmytwistedtummy after their scenario posts.  Kalim’s too cute for words so I had to write something for the precious angel. <3
Yuu loved watching Kalim eat.  He was always so joyous when it came to food.  The young nobleman was already the most cheerful and friendly student in all of Night Raven but when it came to really good food he was an extra kind of adorable.  While other students just stuffed their faces Kalim was always smiling this bright impossibly cute smile whenever downing good food.  
But just like most of the other students, Kalim had an appetite.  And when he ate he didn’t mess around.  In fact, by the time Kalim was finished with the sizable meal Yuu had ordered for lunch today, Kalim’s usually flat stomach was bulging out to the point that shirt and vest barely concealed his middle.
“Ahhh, that was so yummy!” Kalim sighed merrily while he flopped onto the couch and patted his bulging belly with both hands.  
“You don’t say,” Yuu teased when she sat down next to Kalim.
She lifted Kalim’s shirt up and exposed his tan-skinned bare stomach, round and soft as it pushed the waist of his baggy Scarabia uniform trousers down.  
Yuu very gently rested her palm against Kalim’s exposed tummy and caressed it.  Kalim sighed in such a way where if he had a tail Yuu was convinced it would be wagging like crazy right about now.  She giggled in amusement and began to rub Kalim’s belly in wide circles.  Yuu leaned against Kalim while her right hand rubbed up and down his bulging tummy.
“Haaaaah, that feels soooo nice,” Kalim cooed gently and happily.  “You’re too nice to me.”
“Pot meet Kettle,” Yuu teased while she gingerly stroked Kalim’s glutted stomach.
Kalim tilted his head.  “Who are they?  Are they from Savanaclaw?”
Yuu rolled her eyes.  Kalim was a sweetheart but that didn’t necessarily make him a genius.  Not that it mattered to Yuu.  Even if he was a dope, he was her dope.  
She eventually rested her head against Kalim’s stomach, nuzzling the side of her face to his warm and soft bloated flesh.  With her pressed directly against Kalim’s belly Yuu could hear his stomach working vigorously to digest such a large lunch.  
“Wow.  Your stomach’s noisier than usual today.”
Kalim giggled and shrugged.  “Well you did feed me a way bigger lunch thna usual!  Of course my tummy is gonna be all noisy’n-unf-bubbly...” Kalim’s giggling was interrupted when a low burble made him wince and hold a fist to his mouth for a second.  
Then Kalim expelled a loud burp that could’ve easily been heard from outside of his dorm room.
BRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHPP!!!!!
Kalim covered his mouth and giggled anew.  “Whoops!  Haha~ s’cuse me!” Kalim apologized with that giddy smile on his face.
Yuu’s cheeks went red.  Kalim may have been a lot nicer and kindhearted than most students here but that didn’t immediately translate to having better manners than they did.  Not that Yuu was complaining about that.  Far from it.  In fact because her head was still rested against Kalim’s belly she could feel it rattle a little when he burped.
“You’re excused,” Yuu insisted and patted Kalim’s belly a few times which made the Scarabia dorm head hiccup cutely.  “Got anymore you need to get out?”
“Oh I can totally burp again!” Kalim said with a confident grin. “Wanna see?”
He truly made it way too easy for Yuu sometimes.  She legitimately almost felt bad about how little effort she had to put in to get Kalim teasing her kinks.  But that guilt was short lived.
Especially when Kalim put a hand on his chest and released another large burp.  Only he didn’t look satisfied by that one.  “Awww, that was so weak!” Kalim pouted.  
He gulped down even more air to burp up but when it came out, it sounded choppy and ended with a softer tiny after-burp.
Bwaurh-AaOOOOooorp!!!  Urp!
It was still pretty good and made Yuu’s cheeks grow red as a Heartslabyul Rose.  But it didn’t bring Kalim any relief.
Again he pouted and poked his tummy in an annoyed sort of way.
“Sorry, my tummy is being fussy for some stupid reason.”
Yuu shook her head and smiled in amusement.  He truly was too cute for words sometimes.  So she decided to help out.  Yuu held Kalim’s belly in her hands and pressed down into it.  There was a loud gurgling that erupted from his stomach that caused Kalim to lurch for a second until a massive belch exploded out of him like a bomb.
BWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRHHP!!!!!!!!!!
It was such a forceful eruption that Yuu felt Kalim’s belly practically jostle around from its release under her hands.  A little drool trickled down Kalim’s chin with that beastly Savanclaw-esque roar.
He slouched back against the couch which made his tummy stick out more while he caught his breath.  “Wow...haaaaaah...phew...that had to be a record...!” Kalim exclaimed between his labored breaths.  He wiped his mouth and chin clean and gently patted his belly.
Yuu was shaken in more ways than one.  Her face was completely pink.  She felt like there was steam coming out of her ears.
Kalim lazily looked at her and tilted his head in confusion.  “Say, Yuu.  Did’ja ever notice how your face gets all blushy whenever I burp or when my tummy gets all stuffed like this?”
Yuu froze in place when Kalim said that.  She grew nervous but Kalim quickly dispelled her concerns with his next remark.
“Does my face get all red too when I eat too much?  Or is that just you?”
She gave him a look.  But couldn’t suppress a smile at how cute and criminally innocent he was.  So Yuu leaned over and kissed Kalim on the cheek.
The young nobleman made a mousy squeaking noise and suddenly his face was even redder than Yuu’s.
“What am I gonna do with you, Kalim...”
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hurricanery · 4 years ago
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A/N: Hi! I felt like writing something slightly cute and wanted to get some requests done. This is inspired by this prompt, this prompt, & this prompt and a few others basically requesting Amelink/Scout first night home from the hospital/Amelia being super hormonal. This ended up being still a lil angsty whoops but thank you for sending prompts! And pt. 6 of If You Went Away will most likely be posted next <3
_______
hold me tight and I’ll sink in
i’m absorbed in your thinking
_______
“....I’m sorry, huh?” Amelia’s voice comes out in a stunned question. She glances up at Carina DeLuca from where she’s settled in her increasingly uncomfortable bed on the maternity floor.
“I said you can go home, Dr. Shepherd,” Carina repeats the words she’d spoken just prior, smiling optimistically. “You guys can go home today.”
Link smiles wide from where he stands near Amelia’s bedside. He rubs Amelia’s shoulder encouragingly, looking down at her with an expression of pure excitement. Amelia’s face does not reflect an equal sentiment.
“You’re sure….?” She turns her attention back to Carina, eyebrows pulling together as she tries to process this information.
“Yes, Amelia,” Carina laughs, implementing the first name basis in an attempt to comfort the new mother in front of her. “You’re healthy. The baby is healthy….” She smiles down at Scout, who sleeps soundly in the bassinet in the corner of the room. “It’s time to bring him home.”
Amelia’s frown deepens as she watches Carina leave the room. It had been two full days since Scout came into the world. Two full days of being surrounded by the people she loves. Two full days of constant support and visitors. And now it was back to reality. Her new reality.
She knows. In the back of her mind. That there’s no point in staying here in this hospital room. She’s a doctor. She’s prepared. Or she should be. And there’s nothing else left to do.
She bites the corner of her thumbnail anxiously as she re-visits her mental checklist. She pretty much has a handle on the feeding process. Link has basically mastered swaddling. And they were finally able to settle on a name. Which, as it turns out, was the toughest part. But they got there. And now there was nothing else left to do. The checklist is complete. Scout Derek Shepherd Lincoln is ready to go home.
Link clears his throat, raising his eyebrows at Amelia, who drops her nervous nail-biting to return his gaze. She smiles, despite herself, allowing Link’s calm demeanor to anchor her.
_______
Link is prepared, he thinks. For most things in life. Part of that he credits to not being an over-thinker. His preparedness is never a result of heavy planning, but more so an outlook that allows him to go with the flow. To take things as they come.
He’d only stressed momentarily before Amelia went into labor.
Will Amelia have an easy delivery?
Will we make it to the hospital on time?
Will the baby be scared of me?
That was the extent of his worry. So, what he’d failed to consider, was the aftermath. What to expect in the days and weeks after the birth.
“Ugh, god, stop,” Amelia whines. “Really, I got it.”
Link chuckles, bewildered, as he watches Amelia climb the staircase in Meredith’s house. He drops his hands from where he’d attempted resting them on her shoulders, in an effort to guide her up the stairs.
“You’re sore, Amelia. I was just trying to help.”
Link shrugs to himself defensively before following shortly after her.
“I don’t need help.” She mutters as they cross the threshold back into her bedroom.
They both peek into Scout’s bassinet next to the bed, and momentary relief floods them both at the sight of their newborn still sound asleep.
Link’s gaze remains glued to Scout adoringly, until he hears Amelia’s exasperated sigh from somewhere behind him.
He turns around in time to watch her lower herself onto the bed. She sits halfway up, leaning against the headboard and closes her eyes tightly. The grimace that twists across her face makes Link feel helpless.
“You okay?” He tries, slowly approaching the bed to sit down on the edge, near her feet.
“Ugh,” she groans her response, not even opening her eyes when she feels Link’s weight on the bed.
Link rests a hand on her shin comfortingly. And Amelia groans again, a crease forming between her brows.
“What can I do?”
“Nothing,” she breathes out impatiently.
And Link sighs.
“I can’t believe I forgot this part….” She continues, opening her eyes to look at Link. “There’s not really a handbook for what to expect after, ya know?” She laughs a little bit, apologetically. And Link nods understandingly. “I mean the last time…” Her voice cracks a bit on the sentence. “The last time….I couldn’t really separate the pregnancy from….from what else was going on with me….health-wise….” She trails off again as reluctant tears spring to her eyes. “I just kinda forgot about all this.” She laughs bitterly as she gestures to her own body between them.
“Well, let me help you-”
“What can you do, Link?! My uterus is quite literally shrinking back to its normal size. It’s just cramps.” She cuts him off angrily and Link recoils from her mood swing. She folds her arms across her chest and then immediately gasps at the tenderness there. “And, dammit, my chest is sore. That part….I didn’t have to deal with the last time.”
Link nods slowly. Breastfeeding was a new experience this time around.
“Sorry….” She mumbles, much quieter than before, glancing at the newborn that sleeps just a couple of feet away. “For lashing out. It’s not me, it’s the hormones.”
“Eh,” Link shrugs. “I’m used to it at this point.”
Amelia scowls. But it quickly softens into a slight smile as she leans back again and closes her eyes.
“You’ve known me as hormonal and pregnant more than you’ve known me as….not hormonal and not pregnant. I promise you, I’m not crazy.” She whispers.
“Sure, Amelia.” Link chuckles.
Her eyes shoot open. “Hey!” She mutters playfully. “I would try to be on my good side right now.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” He shakes his head amusedly, pulling her feet into his lap. He massages her feet and ankles and watches her relax into the sensation, while he thinks of his next plan. “How about a bath? That might feel good….?”
She blinks, thinking about it. She purses her lips, not wanting to admit to Link that he’s come up with something useful.
Link laughs at her expression.
“I’m going to start a bath, then.”
And Amelia pouts at the loss of contact when he shifts her feet away from him, moving towards the bathroom.
_______
“You want me to join you, or just stay in here, or-”
“No,” Amelia says sternly as she relaxes back into the tub, resting her eyes. She’s taken aback by the impatient tone of her own voice, though, and she opens her tired eyes apologetically. “I mean, no thank you. I’m okay.” She smiles. “And thank you for this.”
Link isn’t hurt by her dismissal. He smiles back at her. “That’s okay….I’m just going to go watch Scout sleep.”
Amelia huffs out a laugh at this.
“Okay,” she murmurs. “You do that.”
Link watches as Amelia unwinds completely. She sighs in bliss as she leans her head back and it makes Link’s heart swell. It makes him feel less useless to her. He’s still smiling to himself as he turns on his heels, walking back to the room to do exactly what he’d mentioned. Watch his newborn sleep.
_______
“Hey,” Amelia breathes as she rounds the corner back into the bedroom, wrapped up in a fluffy white towel. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to stay in there so long.”
“That’s okay,” Link responds, shifting his gaze away from the bassinet and turning around to meet Amelia’s eyes. “You earned it.”
Amelia smiles gratefully, moving forward to sit next to Link on the edge of the bed. She looks down warmly at the sleeping newborn in front of them. “You were serious when you said you were just gonna watch him sleep, huh?” She mutters quietly.
“Mhm,” Link’s eyes are glued back to Scout. “He hasn’t even stirred.”
“Don’t say that,” Amelia warns. “Let’s not jinx it. Can you imagine us actually sleeping through the night?” She grins up at Link. And Link shakes his head amusedly.
“But we should probably sleep, while he sleeps….” Link offers.
“Right….” Amelia mumbles. “But, wow. It is really hard to look away from him, isn’t it?”
Link laughs. And suddenly stands. He reaches a hand out for Amelia to take.
“Come on, bedtime.” Link pulls Amelia into a standing position, and they both take one last look at Scout.
“Can you believe we….made him?” Amelia’s voice is full of wonder. “We made that tiny little human.”
“Well, you did most of the work,” Link grins. Then turns to her with a more serious expression. “You still….do most of the work.”
Amelia’s heart swells. And she smiles, biting her lip, trying to shrug off the sentiment of Link’s words.
“And you should sleep in tomorrow,” Link adds, guiding them around to the other side of the bed. “Do you want to pump at all tonight….? So that you can sleep in a little bit when he wakes up hungry?”
Amelia groans, rolling her eyes. “That’s not a bad idea.”
“Here,” Link approaches the dresser, grabbing her sleep shorts and one of his oversized t-shirts. “Put on something comfy first.”
“Mhm,” Amelia nods in agreement, taking the clothes from him. But then she gasps suddenly, a sharp cramp twisting through her pelvis.
“What’s wrong?!”
“Just cramps,” she breathes, eyes shut tight.
“Okay, here. Sooner you get changed, sooner you can get back into bed.” Link takes the t-shirt back from her, encouraging her to drop the towel and lift her arms. And when she does so, Link guides the shirt over her body. He then crouches down, tapping Amelia on each foot in a way that signifies for her to step into her shorts. Link slowly rises as he pulls them up her legs, and the second the forgiving waistband is resting at her hips, Amelia collapses back down into the bed.
Link sighs. Not wanting to disturb her. “I’m….going to go get the breast pump.”
Amelia groans.
“Sorry,” Link whispers apologetically as he leaves the room.
_______
Amelia yawns desperately as she finishes pumping. She lays back against the headboard again, her head rolling to the side to look at Link, smiling lazily.
“This must be so attractive to you, sorry,” she mumbles sarcastically. “But I think I’m done,” she adds as she sits up.
Link frowns as Amelia settles herself from the task.
“Amelia….” He watches as she starts putting everything away. “Don’t say that.”
She just laughs dismissively in response.
“You’re literally providing nutrients to our kid, I mean….” He trails off, shaking his head in disbelief, trying to gather his next words. “I’ve never found you more attractive.”
Amelia rolls her eyes. Suddenly sick of the overly sentimental direction this conversation was heading.
“I was joking,” she replies shortly, her tone impatient once again. “Let’s just go to bed.”
“Alright,” Link agrees as Amelia quickly gets under the covers. He glances across, to the freshly pumped breast milk on her bedside table. He gets up and crosses the room. “I’m going to go put this in the fridge, I’ll be back.”
Her lack of response still doesn’t quite phase him.
When Link returns, a few minutes later, Amelia is seemingly sound asleep. He settles under the covers on his side of the bed and lays flat on his back.
He turns his head toward Amelia, who sleeps on her side, with her back to him. She makes no indication that she’s aware of his presence. Link sighs, turning over to face the opposite way. He shuts his eyes tightly, desperate to get some sleep before the inevitable. Before Scout wakes up and wreaks havoc on their sleep schedules.
Link begins to drift off quickly, only barely interrupted when he feels Amelia shift around in the bed. He successfully ignores the movement, falling easily back into the verge of slumber.
Until 10 minutes later. When he feels movement again.
Amelia shifts around in the bed, and Link can hear her sigh heavily. Her breath sounds closer to him than before. But again, he tries not to let it pull him from sleep. He grasps onto his exhaustion, willing himself to fall asleep.
But then 5 minutes later, he’s shaken from sleep again. Because he can feel the dip in the mattress as Amelia adjusts herself once more. Now impossibly close to him. Her breath against the back of his neck is the biggest indication of the lack of space between them.
Before he can even think about resisting, or think about grappling back towards sleep, he feels cold feet rest against his bare shins under the covers.
He gasps fully awake at the abrupt sensation. And turns over in bed.
“Amelia….” he groans sleepily, blinking as his eyes adjust. He can just make out her face in the dimly lit room. He’s immediately shocked by just how close she is to him.
Her eyes stare back at him widely.
“If you want to cuddle,” he smirks knowingly, “all you have to do is say so.”
“I don’t,” she deflects, brushing off the accusation.
Link’s smirk grows. Like he’s won some battle. And resent reflects all over Amelia’s face.
“Okay, then,” he announces matter-of-factly, beginning to turn away from her again.
But then her face falls. And Link pauses, scanning her eyes. And then he decides.
“Okay,” he mutters again. “Well I’m going to cuddle you anyway. Because it’s what I want.” He reaches for her, wrapping his arms around her until she adjusts so that her back aligns with his front.
Amelia sighs at the contact, relaxing into his embrace completely. Link’s hands move to rest over her lower abdomen and instead of retreating, the comfort actually brings tears to Amelia’s eyes. Link presses gently, applying soothing pressure, and Amelia gasps gratefully.
“Does that feel okay?” He murmurs.
Amelia quickly nods, letting out a quiet “Mhm,” instead of revealing the emotion that would likely be evident in her voice if she went the more verbal route.
But then she sighs again. Because even she can hear the level of desperation in her ‘Mhm.’
“It’s just the hormones,” she defends herself out loud, a revealing tightness to her voice.
“Sure, Amelia.” He chuckles, reaching forward to place a quick kiss to the top of her head. He relaxes back into their now shared position, finally drifting off to sleep.
//
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makeste · 5 years ago
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BnHA Chapter 272: (Directed by Michael Bay)
Previously on BnHA: The My Child Soldiers Academia arc finally started to live up to its name as Tokoyami became the first (but I assure you not the last) victim of traumatic mental scarring courtesy of Horikoshi’s sick games! So he and Dark Shadow showed up to stop Dabi from murdering Hawks and were all “please don’t kill our mentor.” Dabi was all “AH BUT YOUR MENTOR KILLED SOMEONE ELSE, AND ISN’T THAT JUST LIKE THE HEROES THOUGH, THEIR HANDS ARE SO STAINED WITH BLOOD” and then he tried to set both of them on fire several times in succession. Hawks was all “Tokoyami just run away while he’s in the middle of his five-hour sermon” and so they tried but Dabi followed them! But then Geten was all “ALL RIGHT EVERYONE... CHILL” and fucking froze everything for no discernible reason, and Tokoyami fled the building with an unconscious Hawks in tow as the battle raged on. The chapter then ended with Gigantomachia being all “I smell my master!” and standing up, hahaha oh fuck.
Today on BnHA: Well you guys are not going to believe this, but it turns out that Tomura waking up is actually a very bad thing. A “worst case scenario” if you will! Because, get this, he has a quirk that can destroy anything, which spreads from whatever he touches to fucking everything and everywhere else. Gosh, if only we’d known about this since like 35 chapters ago. If only we’d had a spy among the villains who could have warned us, and three entire months to plan our attack, and literally every single hero in Japan on call to help us when the time came. Anyway so you’re really going to be shocked by this I’m telling you, but it turns out that when a crazy powerful person who wants to destroy everything finally wakes up, he immediately starts destroying everything with his crazy power. So X-Less dies and Crust dies and everyone else runs, and meanwhile the kids, who are on the outskirts of the city finishing up the evacuation, stand there in shock as the plot rampages toward them ready to swallow them whole. The chapter ends with Deku powering up to FORTY-FIVE PERCENT YEAHHHHH, and oh shit. Finally we’re doing this.
I am not even remotely done with all the shit I’m supposed to be finishing up, but fuck it, I need a break and reading the new chapter is by far the funnest thing on my current to-do list, so!
OH SNAPS MY BOY HAS FINALLY OPENED HIS EYES
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IT ONLY TOOK HIM... OKAY LOOK I’M NOT GOING TO GO BACK AND COUNT ALL OF THE CHAPTERS, BUT LET’S SAY... FIFTEEN. ...HUNDRED. CHAPTERS TO FINALLY SNAP TO IT AND COME JOIN THE PARTY. BUT IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT! PROBABLY. AHH LET’S JUST READ ON
-- ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohm --
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[puts on glasses and unfolds map while poring through a mess of scribbles on post-it notes] -- hold up, if my calculations are correct, I’m pretty sure “somewhere a bit further from the hospital” is, in fact, where a certain THREE TROUBLE-PRONE DISASTERS ARE CURRENTLY HOLED UP. AHHH
can it really be true. are we finally rejoining our protagonist and his buddy cop friends after 97 years. how will everyone react to Deku reacting to Tomura waking up ahhhh
so Burnin’ is yelling at the civilians to let them know if they have any family or friends who need assistance evacuating
god I hate the fact that this is a fucking understatement
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they’re not taking any chances after Kamino and Fukuoka huh. fool them once, shame on you. fool them twice, oh shit. but there will not be a third time! no one fucking destroys three cities in the span of six months on their watch, no sirree
(ETA: ...)
lol the kids are trying to get the elderly citizens on a bus to evacuate, but a lady is trying to give them candy and Kacchan and Ochako are of two different minds on whether or not to accept
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Kacchan is absolutely right about Ochako’s motivations, but in her defense, who the fuck turns down free chocolate
IIDA!!
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FUCKING CHRIST JAPAN IT’S 200 YEARS IN THE FUTURE AND YOU STILL HAVEN’T SWITCHED TO DIGITAL RECORD-KEEPING? WHY IS THIS THE MOST REALISTIC THING IN THE ENTIRE MANGA TO DATE. MY GOOD SIR, IIDA IS LYING THROUGH HIS TEETH, ALL RECORDS AND BUILDINGS ABSOLUTELY CAN AND WILL BE COMPLETELY OBLITERATED IN THE CARNAGE TO COME. I’M SORRY TO BE THE ONE TO INFORM YOU OF THIS, BUT DAMN IT SOMEONE HAS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
(ETA: I sure hope these poor bastards had good insurance.)
also. this man here who looks like Beaker from the Muppets, who presumably has the power of Doing Anything Those Wacky Flailing Inflatable Tube Men That You See Outside Of Car Dealerships Can Do. ...yes. that’s it. that’s an intentionally incomplete sentence with a subject but no predicate. I just feel like we should all sit and stare at him for a good thirty more seconds before continuing on with our lives
OH MY GOD
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THEY’RE EVACUATING THE PETS TOO AHHHH. EXCUSE ME CERTAIN SOMEONES WHO THINK ALL HEROES ARE “DIRTY.” I SEE YOUR ARGUMENTS AND RAISE YOU THIS ONE SINGLE PANEL. YEAH THAT’S RIGHT. NOW WHAT DABI. AT A LOSS FOR WORDS I SEE. YOU JUST SIT AND PONDER THAT FOR A WHILE
is... this... a space shuttle man
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is this literally just a man with a Boeing for a head. FUCKING QUIRKS THOUGH!!!!! ~*~wild~*~
OH MY GOD AND WE’RE BACK
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time for some HORCRUX SHENANIGANS!! IS YOUR LIGHTNING BOLT SCAR BURNING DEKU. I CAN’T BELIEVE HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED IS BACK AHHHH
so now he’s slightly hunching forward with his hands pressed together and Todoroki is immediately sensing that something is wrong ahhhhh
(ETA from like 5 days later: I had that as “Tokoyami” instead of “Todoroki” for the better part of a solid week you guys. SHOUTO YOU WERE GONE FOR SO LONG I FORGOT YOUR FUCKING NAME whoop.)
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here come dat angst. here comes Horikoshi’s hand beckoning the trio closer and welcoming them to the pain parade ahhh. from now on that’s how I’m ending all my sentences btw. it just seems right. ahhh
OH MY LORD OH MY
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ladies and gentlemen, YOU WERE SAYING DEKU DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT LATELY? HE’S NOT INTERESTING ENOUGH AS A PROTAGONIST, IS HE? well maybe that’s because Horikoshi has been saving this one juiciest of plot nuggets for a rainy day precisely like this! BRING ON THAT CHOSEN ONE ANGST AHHHHH
anyway so yes it is indeed OFA speaking to him in the form of Lil Bro a.k.a. the first user
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lol I’m trying to think of commentary but it’s difficult seeing as I’M ALREADY SCROLLING DOWN TO IMPATIENTLY READ THE NEXT PAGE
lmao the fuck
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okay Princess Zelda. can you get any more flowery with those descriptions though. A TRANSCENDENT BEING. A SUPERLATIVE ENTITY. A SUBLIME, PREEMINENT ORGANISM. FREED FROM ITS SHACKLES. UNFETTERED BY ALL EARTHLY LIMITATIONS
OH MY GOD
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it absolutely boggles my mind that this guy is somehow still alive. ??! how many chapters and panels has it been now. he’s like the goat in the t-rex pen in fucking Jurassic Park. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GET EATEN ALREADY
...
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do you... want a blanket. ...?
(ETA: do you ever just. wake up and you’re like “ah shit it’s cold”, and then you destroy an entire city. mm.)
do you all suppose X-Less is fully aware that he’s about to die though? he hasn’t even moved. I imagine that sitting next to Tomura actually is much like sitting next to a giant t-rex. like he has to know there is no getting out of this alive. poor guy
damn Mic isn’t even looking back he’s just running back into the main room where all the rest of them are
wow this fight is still going on
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I don’t know why, I just expected it to all magically be over all of a sudden now that we have bigger things to worry about. do you guys remember when we were all worried about the High End Noumus being the biggest threat. hahahahaha
(ETA: moment of silence for ALL OF THE FUCKING HIGH ENDS lmao. that did not go how I expected that plotline to go AT ALL, but at least we got the best fucking battle in the entire manga out of it.)
jesus CHRIST ENOUGH WITH THIS
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WE GET IT TOMURA IS DANGEROUS AND SCARY AND EVIL AND AWAKE!!! JUST PLEASE GET TO IT ALREADY GOD I’M BEGGING YOU
FINALLY
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goddammit. my reaction to this should have been much more “!!!” and “OH SHIT”, but he dragged it out so much that my initial reaction was one more of relief than horror. maybe it’s because of the way I read the chapters, constantly pausing to do commentary as I go along, but whenever a chapter has a ton of panels of people just staring into the distance awash with dread, it really stands out to me lol. there’s only so much I can write about that kind of thing. ah well at least we’re finally getting to the action
I genuinely can’t tell if Ujiko is frightened that he’s about to be disintegrated by Tomura’s quirk, or excited that Tomura is awake
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maybe both lol. well don’t worry you’re not gonna die that easily, much as you would not catch me complaining if you did
thanks Gran
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lol where was all this speed throughout the rest of this arc though. “we’re only competent when the plot necessitates it” huh. is that right
oh shit it’s destroying the rest of the lab
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those are all of Ujiko’s collected quirks, right? someone please tell me if this is a good or a bad thing. on the one hand if they’re all destroyed it means Tomura can’t get them and Ujiko can’t make any more Noumus. but on the other hand this means they won’t ever be able to give them back to the original users (if any of them are even still alive). and also that’s a lot of evidence that’s being wiped out as well
oh shit they didn’t know about this?!
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even after Deika City, you didn’t put two and two together?? even with all of Hawk’s intel?? what the hell did you think happened there?
well this explains why everyone was so la-dee-da-no-rush about capturing him though. well that’s on you guys. next time maybe don’t waste 20 minutes uselessly battling redshirt Noumus while Mirko has to do everything herself
anyway so I feel like people other than X-Less are almost certainly going to die here, and fuck. I’m not ready for any of this
AHH THE KIDS
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BIT SLOW ON THE UPTAKE THERE KACCHAN LOL. FOR A MOMENT YOU HAD ME WORRIED THERE WAS SOMEHOW A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THREAT APPROACHING FROM THE OTHER SIDE, BEFORE YOU TURNED AROUND TO LOOK WHERE THE OTHERS WERE LOOKING
ALSO JUST A FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT SHOUTO’S DAD IS IN THAT HOSPITAL, ALONG WITH THEIR TEACHER! HERE. COME. DAT. ANGST
LOOK AT THIS CONSPICUOUSLY INTACT BUILDING AS IT STANDS THERE ALL OMINOUSLY WITH THE NEARBY BIRDS AND CRITTERS FRANTICALLY FLYING AWAY
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I want to see it crumble so bad. now this is the kind of foreboding cinematic disaster movie bullshit I can get into
FFFF WHY IS THIS PANEL SO HARD TO SEE
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THERE’S TOO MUCH CHAOS AND TOO MANY PEOPLE LOST AMIDST ALL THESE SHATTERING AND FALLING TUBES, BUT I NEED TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE IS SAFE AHHH
...okay so I see Ryuukyuu in the top right, and I think that’s RockLockRock on her back. Thirteen is clearly there in the bottom center, but I don’t know who that is next to them. and then of course Gran and Mic on the left. and a bunch of others spread out in various other places, but... where the hell is Aizawa??
OH THANK GOD
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FUCK YOU HORIKOSHI, I KNOW FULL WELL YOU’RE NOT JUST GOING TO KILL OFF THE WORLD’S PREEMINENT DAD STRAIGHT UP OUT OF THE BLUE HERE, AND YET I STILL FELT ANXIETY AT THIS LAST PANEL. HOW DID YOU EVEN
BITCH YOU BETTER LET THE FUCK GO BEFORE I --
!!!
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oh my god I gasped in real life. stop making me fear for the lives of main characters!!
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he. he --. crust. he. ...
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I literally stopped reading and had to stop and cover my mouth with both of my hands I’m
silence. no screaming. no flailing. no freaking out. just silence
shit. rest in peace you old sedimentary bastard. respect to you for saving the father of my children in your last fleeting moments. I still have not the slightest idea how you rose through the ranks to somehow become the sixth fucking highest rated hero (HERO BILLBOARD CHART, IS EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT. ARE YOU FEELING OKAY), but you sure did go out with style though
also this may be tacky of me to point out during such an emotionally charged moment, but one second Aizawa is wearing his goggles like normal, and the next they’re suddenly pushed up onto his forehead so we can see the anguish in his bloodshot eyes. there was no reason to do that other than angst and we all know it. so yes Shouta you dramatic bitch, I am calling you out. why Horikoshi felt he had to add to your many accumulated traumas is beyond me. you don’t deserve this and I am so, so sorry
OH GOOD I WAS JUST ABOUT TO ASK WHERE THE FUCK ENDEAVOR WAS
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seeing as we just went over this with Gran, I will take the high road here and won’t ask why you’re only this fast now and couldn’t have been this useful this ages ago back before Tomura woke up. oh wait does sarcastically saying I won’t bring it up count as bringing it up. well whatever. middle road, then
sob I’m getting flashbacks to the end of Return of the Jedi when they’re all frantically flying out of the Death Star as it explodes
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friendly reminder that Ryuukyuu, clearly the fastest one here despite carrying like 20 people, was number 10 in the rankings for some unknown reason. again, r.i.p. Crust you well-meaning geriatric soul
also just a stray thought, I hope it’s clear now why it was so important to give Deku those additional quirks. at a minimum he needs Blackwhip and Float just so he doesn’t instantly die the moment he’s in Tomura’s general vicinity. sob I’ve joked so much about flying quirks and here they are becoming fucking prerequisites now
anyway so Ujiko is mourning the loss of his lab, which again, good riddance mostly. but r.i.p. that evidence though
(ETA: nah the “total loss” part is referring to how the heroes fucked up so soundly and thoroughly. anyway no one would blame Mic if he accidentally dropped Ujiko in the midst of all this chaos, I’m just saying. I guess they need any intel he could still provide now more than ever though.)
OH MY GOD!!
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LAUNDRY HERO WASH?! THIS SUDSY BOI CAN ACTUALLY KICK ASS WHAAAAT
oh my god oh my god it’s still spreading??!
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fuck fuck fuck at this rate it’ll reach the kids
(ETA: that happened really fast actually.)
-- oh FUCK NO you had better NOT FUCKING TOUCH FUCKING PIXIE BOB, I WILL MAIL MYSELF TO JAPAN PANDEMIC OR NO PANDEMIC. DO YOU NOT SEE THE SIGN THAT SAYS “OFF-LIMITS.” RESPECT THE SIGN
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SOB SHE’S SO BADASS BUT IT LOOKS LIKE IT’S STILL DISINTEGRATING FUCCCCCK. FUCK MY LIFE, FUCK EVERYTHING
AHHHHH
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I can’t tell if her earthbending was able to stop it or not?? god help us all if it didn’t, I’m not even sure what else could stop it at this point
SHUT UP UJIKO!!
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they really did. only to fuck it up completely at the finish line. well, the man most singularly responsible for it is dead now, again r.i.p. Crust you useless old legend
lmao despite myself
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“by a miracle, or maybe through sheer will” even he acknowledges that Tomura waking up was basically complete bullshit. yes blah blah yadda yadda got zapped by some exposed wires explanation science. because we all know that getting electrocuted will fix you right up when your heart has stopped and you have completely flatlined. you can definitely trust Horikoshi on this and there’s absolutely no need to google how defibrillators actually work
also is he somehow wearing a cape now. again by a miracle or maybe through sheer will
YESSSSSSS
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(ETA: one has to wonder what Ujiko’s plan was, assuming this scheme had actually played out. were they just banking on Tomura not waking up cranky and disoriented and wanting to test out his power. his quirk doesn’t exactly distinguish friend from foe here I’m just saying.)
the part of me that goes all “ooh ahh” when all the buildings explode in Independence Day is singing inside. but never fear, the rest of me is appropriately horrified though. what was that Burnin’ was saying about the city becoming a large-scale battle zone? sob
also this page sure serves as a nice refresher for exactly why Tomura Waking Up Was Bad, which was inexplicably a topic of some debate in recent weeks. yes in spite of everything the villains are still the bad guys who’d have thought. almost as if the purpose of humanizing a character is to show that they’re human, not that they’re right
WHAT’S THIS NOW???
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WELL I’LL BE. IT’S BEEN AN EVENTFUL THREE MONTHS, APPARENTLY!??
HOOAHHHHHHHH
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IT’S A BIRD IT’S A PLANE IT’S A BADASS OH SHIIIIITTTTTT
finally finally finally!!!!!!
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THE SHIT HAS HIT THE FAN, REPEAT, THE SHIT HAS HIT THE PROVERBIAL FAN. THE PLOT IS FINALLY HAPPENING, REPEAT, THE PLOT IS FINALLY FUCKING HAPPENING AHHHHHH
and there is no one coming to save them this time. no one to arrive at the last second and say “it’s all right now because I am here.” they have to save themselves. they have to save everyone. the training wheels are finally coming off. the safety net has been removed. after 272 chapters, the story has finally reached a point where these kids, these children, who in spite of all they’ve been through have been protected and shielded from the worst of it up till now, will finally have to be the ones to save the day all on their own
and they are not ready. but also maybe they kind of are??! but they definitely are not. and oh god oh god oh god, FINALLY WE’RE REALLY DOING THIS. TIME TO FIX THE MESS THOSE SILLY GROWN-UPS MADE, CHILDREN. YOU GOT THIS
321 notes · View notes
tradgicworks · 4 years ago
Text
Heartfelt:P-1 A World of Sorrow
When a student of a private school disappears during stormy night, three strangers come together to look for her and end up discovering the dark secrets of the world around them. WORD COUNT - 3134
The light of the setting sun peered into the old diner. Black clouds dotted the sky. Sophie took a long sip from her milkshake and stared wistfully at the horizon. Her golden bangle bracelet slid down her arm as she did.
“What’s wrong?” Gwyneth asked as she noticed her gaze.
Gwyneth brushed her bangs aside. Her dark brown colored eyes were filled with concern. She had voluminous long black hair that covered her shoulders like a fluffy mane. She wore a uniform which consisted of a long skirt, a simple tucked in blouse, and a blazer- all in different shades of purple.
“Nothing’s wrong, I’m just thinking about some stuff,” Sophie said with a meek smile.
"What kinda stuff?" Gwyneth asked.
"Midterms, winter vacation, piano practice. The usual," Sophie replied.
“Wow, not even trying to hide the fact that you weren’t paying attention to my story, huh?" Gwyneth gave an exaggerated sigh.
"I'm sorry," Sophie awkwardly smiled.
 “It's okay, I forgive you. Anyways, remember that girl that went missing a couple months ago, she was a freshman, um, vice president of the chess club or something. Well some of the older students have been talking about how this isn’t the first time that it has happened,” Gwyneth ate one of her few remaining fries. “Near the end of last year’s spring semester a different freshman suddenly moved away. This normally wouldn't have been seen as strange except for the fact that it was right in the middle of finals. Supposedly, one of her friends decided to call her parents to ask about what happened only to be told that the phone number had been out of service for weeks.”
“Spooky,” Sophie commented simply.
“Mhm. So, the older girls started talking and it turned out that a lot of students went missing over the years. They say that it's been about fifteen students in total that have suddenly disappeared. For every single one of them there was a convenient excuse for why, but all of it just seems too coincidental,” Gwyneth leaned in for dramatic effect. “Me thinks there’s a conspiracy afoot.”
“Really? I suppose it is strange, but it could just be that the seniors get overactive imaginations with how much free time they have during finals,” Sophie sighed.
“Aw come on, humor me at least," Gwyneth leaned back. “Don’t you think it’s weird that the academy has a dedicated security team that answers directly to Capital City’s police department? We even have a creepy name for them- Wardens- that’s not normal!”
“Well, given the kind of students that attend it’s not that strange,” Sophie said.
“You really are playing devil's advocate today, huh?” Gwyneth gave a friendly smile.
“Sorry,” Sophie lowered her gaze.
Gwyneth’s smile turned to a face of concern. 
“Hey, are you sure you’re okay-'' Gwyneth started before she was interrupted by the chimes of their phones.
“Curfew,” Sophie swiped at her smartphone. “It’s time to head back.”
“Right...” Gwyneth gazed at her for a few seconds as she packed up her things and got ready to leave before following suit.
The two left a tip for the waiter and headed out into the cold air of the coming winter. The sleepy sky matched the energy of the few students that remained outside, all of them in a quiet hurry to get back to the main campus of Dorothy Elaine Atham's Private Academy for Young Women, or “the academy” as the students plainly referred to it. It was originally constructed in the early 1940s, yet it managed to remain one of the most prestigious high schools in Capital City. This was mostly due to the academy having the support of the Capital City Police Department. They would employ off-duty officers to act as the academy’s security team, or ‘Wardens’ as they were officially referred to. As a result the academy set itself apart as one of the safest private high schools in the entirety of the United States. Strict curfews, no relationships, mandatory dorms, quarterly inspections by the Wardens, uniforms and an arduous curriculum were some of the measures taken to keep the students safe. Wealthy families from all over the country enrolled their children with peace of mind that they would be safe, allowing the school to afford top of the line facilities, staff, and to further its reputation even more. It was said that the academy was so stern with its policies that even the lightest violation could lead to expulsion. Of course that was just a rumor.
Sophie and Gwyneth eventually found themselves back at the main entrance of the academy. Tall walls made of brick and black fencing led to two large half open gates. A flower bed filled with wilting violet roses that matched the student’s outfits sat underneath them. A tall Warden stood at the side of the entrance. Her bright green eyes filled with overwhelming sternness locked with Sophie’s. Sophie averted her gaze and made her way in alongside Gwyneth.
“W-Well, see you tomorrow,” Sophie said to Gwyneth as she took out a pair of wireless earbuds.
“Wait,” Gwyneth gently grabbed her arm before she left. “How about we walk back to your dorm together? I got some more spooky stories I want to tell you about.”
“You won’t make it back to your dorm in time if we do that, you’re on the other side of campus.” Sophie replied.
“I could just stay at your place, y’know like a sleepover,” Gwyneth doubled down as she let go of her arm.
“We both know you can’t do that,” Sophie let out a long breath and held Gwyneth’s shoulders. “I’m fine, really. I know you’re worried about me but I just haven't been getting a lot of sleep. That’s all.”
“Are you sure?” Gwyneth asked.
“I’m sure,” Sophie looked her in the eyes. “I promise that I’m okay.
“Breakfast?” Gwyneth asked dejectedly.
“Of course, breakfast sounds great,” Sophie gave a convincing enough smile. “Now let’s hurry, before the dorm doors lock.” She said as she let go of her.
“Yeah, goodnight,” Gwyneth smiled slightly.
“Goodnight,” Sophie replied before putting in her earbuds and selecting a classical music playlist.
The sun was halfway nestled into the horizon by the time they split. Night was rapidly approaching. The pitch black clouds moved as a mound, thunder rumbled in the distance. The academy resembled a small college more than a high school. Four buildings took up the majority of the campus, each housing their respective grade. A well decorated plaza rested in the middle of the four buildings, where the freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors could interact with each other during lunch or after classes. The dorms sat a few hundred feet from their respective buildings. Wilting but mostly green grass took the majority of the empty space in the campus. Trees and flower beds stood beside the lamp posts that lit up the sprawling walkways. The campus barely had enough room for everything that was built on it, but it was efficient nonetheless.
Sophie’s brows furrowed as the freshmen dorm came into view. It was tucked away in the farthest corner of the campus. While the other dorms enjoyed a nice view of the academy, the freshmen dorms were greeted with the old auditorium. It was by far the oldest building on campus and in a desperate need for renovation. Unfortunately, the construction was inexplicably postponed until the end of the semester- leaving the freshmen with the sight of an ugly, half finished, and decaying building.
Sophie glanced at the front doors. A girl leaned against the doors as she chewed gum. Sophie overlapped the ends of her blazer together and averted her eyes. The girl stopped chewing as Sophie walked to the entrance. Sophie quickly took out her ID card and pressed it against the door’s scanner. The girl swatted her ID to the ground as it finished scanning.
“Whoops,” The girl, Eva, leered in a pretentious tone as she put her arm around her shoulder. “Didn’t see you there princess.”
Eva blew a bubble with her gum and popped it with a sharp snap. Her dyed ash blonde hair was tied into a messy bun. Her hazel colored eyes were flecked with dull orange blemishes. She wore a thick black hoodie and a short skirt which barely fell within the academy’s dress code. A faint but irritatingly smug smirk stretched across her face.
“What do you want, Eva?” Sophie said meekly.
“Nothing much, nothing much at all. I just wanted to talk to my dear friend for uh,” Eva glanced at her wrist watch. “Five minutes.”
“We’re not friends,” Sophie kept her gaze glued to the floor.
“It hurts me to hear you say that,” Eva squeezed her shoulder until she winced from the pain. “Listen, I need a little favor. As you know, winter break is in a week and I’m running low on funds, so I was wondering if you can help me. It’ll run you about five thousand dollars, but of course that’s nothing compared to all the allowance money your mommy and daddy are giving you, right?”
“No,” Sophie muttered.
“Excuse me?,” Eva tilted her head until she met her gaze. “You need to speak up, I can’t hear you through your teeth.”
“I’m not giving you anything,” Sophie pushed her off of herself. “Leave me alone or I’ll report you to the Wardens!”
“Oh, really now?” Eva chuckled dryly. “I think you and I both know you can’t follow up on such a threat, not without putting that friend of yours in a whole lot of trouble…Well you do have a point, I can’t take what’s not in my hands after all…” She glanced at her watch and gave a sadistic smirk.
“But neither can you,” Eva said before sweeping Sophie’s legs and causing her to trip backwards.
Sophie yelped in pain as she just managed to catch herself. By the time she got up Eva was already inside of the dorm with her ID in hand. She rushed to the doors only to find that they were already locked. The sound of a grandfather clock chimed through the PA system signaling the start of the curfew. 
“It’s a good thing you managed to scan the door before you dropped your ID, huh? That way it's on record that you got in here before curfew. Your perfect attendance is not in danger, though it was a real shame you lost your ID. Don’t worry though I’ll turn it in to the lost and found in the morning. Have a nice night, princess! I hear it's going to be a dark and stormy one,” Eva laughed while waving Sophie’s ID in the air. 
“Wait!” Sophie pleaded as she desperately tried to open the door, but no matter how much she pushed against them, the doors refused to budge.
She froze as she felt a cold drop of rain fall down her neck. She looked up at the rumbling dark sky. It began to pour. Sophie clung to what little shelter could find at the side of the building. She took out her phone and tried to call Gwyneth, only to find that her screen had shattered completely from when she tripped. She looked around for a Warden but found none. She yanked out her earbuds and angrily threw them into her bag in frustration. Pathetically faint music leaked out of them. She leaned against the wall and sunk until she was sitting with her knees to her chest.
Despite its claims to security, the reality is that the school can’t keep everyone safe. With the majority of students coming from wealthy backgrounds, treating one too harshly could lead to the parents withdrawing their donations. Without those funds, the school would cease to function- something the academy avoided at all costs. As such, there was an unwritten rule that the wealthier the family, the more lenient the punishment. Though many students did not take advantage of this reality, after all attending the academy was a privilege. All except for Eva. Nobody really knows why, but the school would turn a blind eye to her many misdeeds. Some speculated that it was due to her role as one of the academy’s star athletes, others thought that she was secretly related to the headmaster. Regardless of the rumors, the reality was that she was cruel, spiteful, and above all, manipulative. She made a habit of harassing students that had unfortunately drawn her attention. Whether it be through blackmail, harassment, or slander, she would abuse her victim until they were forced to do whatever she wanted. No matter how much students tried to retaliate she always seemed to have the upper hand and the academy would turn the other way. As a result she had gained an infamous reputation amongst the freshmen and sophomores as someone to be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately for Sophie, Eva seemed to be obsessed with making her time at the academy as miserable as possible. Eva’s persistence was so overwhelming that Sophie ended up being isolated from the rest of her class out of fear of Eva alone. The only person brave enough to still talk to her was her closest friend Gwyneth. She did her best to make sure that Sophie was rarely alone and felt safe. However, even that backfired. Eva had somehow managed to take a photo of Gwyneth that would lead to her expulsion if revealed to the public. Ever since then, Eva has hung that threat over Sophie’s head and she couldn’t let anything happen to her best friend. As such, Sophie felt so alone. She felt as if she was left to fend for herself against the clutches of a monster.
Sophie pressed her face against her knees, frustration weighing at her heart, and began to cry. Harsh winds began to pick up and slam waves of rain against her. Sophie took a shaky deep breath and slowly rose to her feet. She looked at her surroundings to try to find better shelter. Her gaze eventually lingered on the auditorium. She choked down a cough before grabbing her bag and heading towards the unfinished building.
. . .
The outside of the auditorium was a mix of moldy wood and peeling paint. Its towering size gave it the imposing essence of a Victorian mansion. Overgrown vines and unkept leaves dressed the entirety it’s walls. Sophie steeled herself as she approached the entrance. She stopped under a small awning that hung over the front doors where no rain seemed to fall. Lightning followed by thunder struck as she gripped her rain soaked skirt and wrung out the excess water. She shivered from the cold as she dried herself the best she could. When she finished, she leaned against the door. 
“The dorms open up at 6 am, I’ll be able to get my ID back then,” She thought to herself as she stared at the hole riddled awning. “Maybe father will buy me a new phone, it was pretty old anyways.”
She grabbed her wrist and felt for her bracelet, her only reminder of warmth. A wave of sadness surged through her.
“Mom, Dad, I want to go back home,” She whispered to herself.
Chills spread out through her entire body as the door she braced herself against suddenly flung open with a sharp clang. She regained her balance and turned around. The door’s handle laid on the floor completely broken. The darkness of the auditorium greeted her with a gust of musty, but warm, air. She took a step back only to have the freezing rain fall on the back of her neck. Sophie looked at the entrance with an uneasy face. After a few moments she hesitantly walked in.
The building was much larger than it appeared. A few work-lights left turned on lit the auditorium with sheets of inconsistent light. Door frames to rooms that were used for the construction’s storage lined the walkways. The long hallways on either side of Sophie curved out of view. In front of her sat two large doors. She pushed the heavy doors open and stepped inside. She found herself in the academy’s theater. Rows of weathered red fabric seats stepped down into the center stage. The stage’s walnut flooring was scuffed from years of use and subsequent neglect. Two large maroon curtains blocked the view to the backstage.  A small podium sat at the front of it, its paint flaking off to the bare wood. She climbed onto the stage, its visage faintly lit by the work-lights that peered through the half opened doors.
Sophie stared at the seats in a silent awe. She imagined what the theater would look like if it were full of people and wondered why the academy refused to finish renovations. As she pondered, her gaze lowered to the podium. Her eyes narrowed. Faint scratches lined the bottom of it. She wiped a layer of dust off with her hand and revealed a string of faintly recognizable letters.
“Save me?” Sophie slowly read out loud.
“Heard.” A breathy and raspy voice that stretched out every syllable echoed through the theater. “You.”
The doors slammed shut, snuffing out the work-lights and leaving her in complete darkness.
“W-Who’s there?” Sophie stammered.
A bittersweet melody of hums snaked through the dark and into Sophie’s ears in reply.
“Show y-yourself,” Fear gripped at her heart, she clutched her school bag ready to swing it whatever was lurking in the darkness.
“Heard,” The voice repeated, this time more strained. “You.”
“T-This isn’t f-funny, please stop!” She said with a slight whimper.
“Save. You. You. Want. Me. To. Save...” The voice called from behind her causing her to jump in fear.
She swung her schoolbag wildly but it collided against nothing.
“Go. Somewhere. Safe. You. Want. To. Go. Somewhere. Safe. Somewhere. Home...” The voice grew louder.
“Stay away…” She said silently.
Her breaths grew frantic. An overwhelming dread welled in her gut. Panic coursed through her entire body.
“I. Can. Help.” The voice whispered.
A raspy strand of flesh wrapped around her feet before she could react. Her horrified scream was cut short as another strand that gagged her mouth shut. More and more threads wrapped around her body until she was stuck in an airtight cage. She shrieked in muffled terror as she was yanked behind the curtains. Lightning flashed illuminating the theater in a pang of white before decaying back into darkness. Silence followed. The night continued as normal as a stormy night could. Though a few freshmen swore that they heard strange noises coming from the old auditorium that night. Screams of struggles, pleads for help, and a blood curdling shriek to name a few. Of course nobody took it too seriously. It was just a rumor after all.
11 notes · View notes
robron1609 · 4 years ago
Text
Robron Week 2021 - Day 1
Meet-Ugly + "That's not an explanation."
New Beginnings
(ao3 link)
Aaron’s eyelids fluttered like a candle in the wind, the hustle and bustle of the city pecking away at his head with a sledgehammer. The bitter taste of ale, the fruity taste of wine and all the combined spices of every spirit known to man were stagnant on his tongue as he peeled his damp limbs off the leather sofa beneath him.
He let out a dry cough and it felt like someone had shot him in the brain during his sleep. But other than that, he was as right as rain.
It took him longer than he would care to admit to remember that he did, in fact, not own a single item of furniture that had even an inch of leather on it, and he lived in the in the middle of bloody nowhere where the only thing (apart from his mother) that made him shake a leg in the morning was the bellows of Moira’s cows when their troughs were being topped up.
So, there’s that.
His brain caught up and he bolted upright, his whole face moulding into a sculpture of what, where, when, how and why. He took in his brand-spanking-new surroundings; a lavish penthouse overlooking London’s skyline, decked out from head to toe in a fusion of ultra modern and industrial pieces. Not really his style, to put it nicely. It looked like something straight off the front page of one of those overpriced interior design magazines on the top shelf of David’s shop that no one ever bought.
Aaron could only hope that whoever lived here was some bloke he’d pulled in the haze of last night, if it wasn’t then… what the actual fuck was he doing here?
When the room had stopped spinning on all its axis and Aaron was eighty-nine percent sure that he would be able to hold his vomit in if necessary, he braved the hallways in search of other life. He detoured to stand in front of a back-lit mirror that had beckoned him over, and he was introduced to his reflection. It gawked right back at him, dressed in nothing but a pair of neon yellow boxers and a Scottish flag that he was wearing as a cape. The flag was fastened loosely around his neck with a frayed shoelace and there was a big tear down the centre of it.
Jesus fucking shit. Absurd didn’t even begin to cover it.
Sweat dripped down his top lip when he heard a deep voice through the wall. He teetered around the corner until he was close enough to pick up most of the words.
“I won’t be in today.” There was a pause. “Does it fucking matter?” Nice manners, then. “Look, unless you want me hurling all over the new contact, I suggest you grow a pair and attend the meeting without me.”
Aaron gripped the glossed door frame, his clammy hands squeaking on the wood as he snuck a look at who the voice was coming from. The man was stunning. He was all sun-kissed skin, choppy blond hair, and a gorgeous mouth that dipped dramatically in the corner.
“Shit!” With a jolt, the blond dropped his phone and it landed on his face with a mocking smack.
“Sorry-”
“Why are you in my house?!”
“I’m Aaron.” No shit, Aaron.
“That’s not an explanation!”
“Sorry.”
Aaron cringed. All of a sudden he was big on apologies, apparently. Blondie was now sitting up, scratching the fluff on the nape of his neck as he shuffled out of bed and adjusted his duvet accordingly whenever it slipped below his waistline. He just glared at Aaron, waiting to hear something that made sense.
“I was kinda hoping you could tell me,” Aaron said, using all of his self-control to stop his eyes from drifting downwards. “My head’s mashed. I remember being on the train with Adam and Vic, and then-”
“Vic as in my sister Vic?”
Aaron just stood there, catching flies. “I- I dunno, I think so. Sugden?”
“Uh-huh.”
Ohhhh, Robert Sugden. Aaron finally put a name to the face and felt like giving himself a pat on the back.
…..
“Here you go. Extra strong.”
"Ta."
Aaron warmly accepted the cup of coffee, the steam flying off it and dissolving in his pores. He used the piping hot liquid to swamp down some paracetamol before tightening the strap on the dressing gown that Robert had lent him a little earlier with a side-eye and a grumbled, “Make sure you give it back.”
With the current cycle rumbling the machine into the ground, Aaron glanced at the digital timer displayed on the appliance. Just forty-eight minutes until he could grab his screwed up clothes, slap them on, and leg it to the underground with his tail between his legs. The longest forty-eight minutes of his life, no doubt.
Hoping to make a crack in the ice, Robert led Aaron to the scene of last night’s crime. Through the sliding doors, across the patio and up the spiral stairs, secluded in the corner and illuminated by the steady flicker of the firepit. Robert was surprised that it hadn’t burnt out in the early morning under the April showers.
The rooftop terrace was what sold this place for Robert. It was his haven, complete with everything that made his superficial heart weep. This morning, however, it looked how he felt.
He absorbed the aftershocks of his party (shards of glass littering the outdoor table, remains of finger foods welded to the deck, and a pair of nude stilettos abandoned on the bar) and sagged. Turning thirty was dismal enough without having to clean up after his colleagues. Or, as he liked to call them, a bunch of wound up, hoity-toity pen pushers who didn’t even know his middle name—just a sniff of free booze and they were squeezing into a Ralph Laurent polo that still had the label on, and patting him on back with a bout of boisterous laughter as if they were best mates.
Wow, he was in dire need of some proper friends.
Aaron propped himself up on the bar. “Bet you don’t get tired of this,” he said, looking out at the sparkling city.
“It’s a great hangover cure,” Robert said, nursing his Americano and watching the ripples dance over the surface as he lightly blew it. “It can be lonely, though,” he admitted, unsure as to why. This handsome and hungover stranger was just waiting for his ticket out of here, he didn’t want or need to become Robert’s agony uncle to fill the time, that was for sure.
“Why’s that?”
Oh. Perhaps Aaron, for one reason or another, cared. Or he’s got nowhere else he needs to be and Robert’s left him with no choice but to sit and listen because it's the polite thing to do. Aaron looked at Robert all doe-eyed and Robert wanted to stay here until he’d told Aaron every single intricate detail of his life up until this point. But that seemed a little crass.
“Don’t know, really. I just… don’t like to be alone with my thoughts, I suppose. And being up here, well, it’s a whole lot of that.”
“I know what you mean,” Aaron said. “How long have you lived here?”
"Nearly two years on the whole." Robert calculated, Aaron giving him an amicable nod in response. Robert licked the coffee froth off his lips, clearing his throat. "I've lived in London a while, though. Since I left the village, pretty much."
"And you never thought about going back?"
"I couldn't." That would mean looking back. And after the trail of destruction he'd left in his wake, that was never going to happen. They were better off without him. Or at least his Dad and Andy were. Vic and Dianne never stopped reaching out, however, offering their support through texts and unanswered voicemails.
Aaron changed the topic, sensing that Robert's internal trip down memory lane wasn't a smooth ride. "You heard anything from Vic and Adam?"
"They were both flat out in the spare room last time I checked," Robert answered. He'd been less than pleased to find them entwined together on top of the duvet, dead to the world as Adam slobbered away on the satin pillowcase like an excited dog, and Vic let out a mishmash of unconscious sounds from sniffles to whistles, her makeup crusty and her outfit dishevelled by a night's sleep in it.
"Vic had a whole itinerary planned. Some museum, Leicester Square, and then this ridiculous hipster coffee shop near the station," Aaron said with a dreary eye roll. "Even though our train leaves just after two."
"She's just excited. She doesn't come here often."
"'Suppose not."
"Anyway, I recommended that coffee shop so you better not miss it," Robert said. Aaron snorted because of course he did. "Come on."
Robert rose, perking up a bit as he stretched his arms until they clicked with satisfaction. Aaron followed in his footsteps, literally, but they stopped in their tracks, coming face to face with a rumbled Victoria.
She looked dead and alive all at the same time as she swung her phone about. "There they are, the newly engaged couple."
Robert choked on air and Aaron gave him a splash of side-eye before snatching Vic’s phone. "What are you on about?" And Aaron had to check that the digital date displayed in the top left corner of the screen wasn't April the 1st. Nope, it was indeed the 23rd. And under that was a Facebook post on his profile; a blurry, backlit photo of him and Robert flashing the camera with two rings that didn’t even match, accompanied by a slurred caption.
yayy ENGAAAAAGED! whoop whoop!! hears to many many many many many year <3
Aaron groaned, throwing his head back in sheer embarrassment when Vic grabbed a hold of his and Robert’s left hands. Sure enough, the rings were still there. “Oh my God,” she cackled, her voice like a siren in the middle of the night. “This is brilliant. A few more of those cocktails and you’d be halfway to vegas, ey?”
Robert massaged his temples, kneading roughly at his dry skin. “Whatever’s in them is lethal,” he grumbled, peering over Aaron’s shoulder as he watched him scroll through the comments and squeeze his eyes shut in disbelief at each one.
“It’s your bar, mate. You should know what it’s serving,” Aaron said. He had a point. “Let’s just pray we left it at cheap rings.”
(Aaron couldn’t even begin to fathom at what point during the party he and Robert had fled the penthouse and ended up at a jewellers of all places. Who’d thought a proposal was the perfect end to a not-so-perfect night? Who’d taken that photo? And who in their right mind was selling giant fabric flags in the early hours of the morning? It would be a miracle if he becomes sober enough to answer at least one of those questions.)
Robert pouted. “That’s a shame. I’ll cancel the tickets to Vegas, then,” he teased.
“I dunno, I could do with a holiday just to get over the shame.” Robert grinned at the younger man’s flirty tone.
“Cheers,” Robert scoffed. Aaron handed the phone back to Vic who watched the pair with a knowing glint in her eye, her head bouncing back and forth between them.
“Only joking,” Aaron said. “Could be worse.”
Vic pocketed her mobile with a yawn and tightened her ponytail. “Right, I’m gonna drag my lump of a boyfriend out of bed and start gathering our stuff. I’ll leave you two to plan the wedding of the century, shall I?”
Vic left the rooftop, her flats scuffing all the way down the metal staircase. Robert gulped down the remains of his coffee and turned to Aaron with a smirk.
“So, fiancé,”–Aaron shot Robert a fiery glare which, if Robert didn’t know any better, would leave a bruise on his ego–“I know a great place where we can get some brunch. Why don’t we ditch Vic and Adam and I’ll drop you off at King’s Cross after.”
Aaron pulled a face. “ Brunch? I’m not paying £8.99 for a plain scone.”
“My treat.” Robert offered, hoping that would seal the deal.
“Like a date?”
“If you want it to be.” Aaron paused for a beat, not that there was ever much to contemplate.
“Fine.” Robert didn’t miss the bashful smile taking over Aaron’s face. Robert bit the inside of his cheek when Aaron began to descend the stairs. He crammed his hands in his pockets, his heart going into overdrive as he kicked his feet into gear.
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thebibliomancer · 4 years ago
Text
Essential Avengers: Hawkeye #1-4
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September, 1983
Listen to the Mockingbird
Now for something completely different.
-OR- Further justifying why the posts are titled Essential Avengers when I’m just going to put a colon and then an Avengers to get Essential Avengers: Avengers. Its because sometimes its not Avengers!
Sometimes its Hawkeye.
Since I’m doing four issues in one post, I’m not going to go as in-depth as I usually do.
So, last times on Avengers as related to Hawkeye: Hawkeye was cut from the Avengers due to a limited roster. He eventually got a job as the security chief at Cross Technological Enterprises with the same lack of restraint that got him a job with the Avengers. He’s been doing that for a while, since pre-200. Recently the Avengers needed beef up their roster and Cap and Iron Man convinced him to rejoin, which Hawkeye has done while also keeping his security chief job.
During an Avengers mission TO RESCUE THE PRESIDENT, he broke his leg and was put on medical leave from the team. He got one of the CTE people to build him a rocket-sled that he could putt around in. Judging by the lack of cast, his leg is better but he’s still using the cool rocket-sled.
And that’s where we are. Hawkeye has a cool rocket-sled and is actually holding down an actual job at Cross Technological Enterprises. He’s seems to still be on leave from the team despite his leg being better.
The miniseries starts with Hawkeye congratulating himself on getting a cool rocket-sled, even though it cost all of his money.
Hawkeye: “‘Bad guys beware -- Hawkeye’s in the air!’ Hmmm, not the worst slogan an aerial archer could have... but close.”
At least he’s self-aware. Some days that’s all you can ask of Hawkeye!
He spots three suspicious characters suspiciously sneaking and swoops down on the rocket-sled, taking them out with ease with his totally sweet trick arrows.
Hey, note to comic makers of our modern day. Trick arrows are sweet. I don’t need to see people getting shot in the eyes with arrows when I can see like a net arrow or whatever.
The three suspicious characters are actually CTE employees that Hawkeye asked to come in on their off time to help him get a hang of archering from the rocket-sled. Including the scientist, Jorge, who built it for him!
Wow, Hawkeye!
Jorge at least was happy to do build the thing because he feels like his talents are wasted at CTE and Hawkeye encourages him to go into business for himself.
Which is probably the kind of thing that’s going to get Hawkeye a reprimand but hey, good looking out, Hawkguy.
One of the other CTE employees asks why Hawkeye uses a bow and arrow instead of... a gun. Why not just shoot people with a gun.
Hawkeye: “The bow is quieter, more versatile, and in my hands the deadliest weapon in the state. Or hadn’t you noticed, Howie?”
He doesn’t mention that its also more believably non-lethal than if he were going around with a gun. Because Hawkeye says its the deadliest weapon in the state but he’s also a huge proponent of “superheroes don’t kill!”
But point being, you can buy a comic book guy pinning people to walls with arrows or using trick arrows or shooting weapons out of their hands without killing anyone way more than you could if Hawkeye was just using a magnum.
Also, this:
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I believe he is literally flexing on that dude.
CTE’s new public relations lady Sheila Danning shows up for a date with Hawkeye because I guess there’s no rule about dating co-workers. Or at least if they’re not in the same department?
Having a woman showing positive attention to Hawkeye is his cue to have a little internal monologue that’s a little bit sad.
Hawkeye: Man, this is the life! A ridiculously high-paying job, a fast machine between my legs, and a foxy lady who’s nuts about me. What more could a guy want? Until Sheila came along, I thought I was put on this world for women to dump on. Women... like the Black Widow and Scarlet Witch. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t get them to care for me like I did for them. Sheila’s different. Even though we’ve been seeing each other for only a month, what we have is special, real, like nothing I’ve ever known.
I don’t want to ruin his good times but I will remind the audience that he once rage-quit the Avengers because Scarlet Witch didn’t want to kiss him.
Anyway, Hawkeye is pretty enamored. He’s even thinking maybe it’s time he settles down.
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He takes her back to his place and they start dancing to some Mantovani as he recaps his entire backstory to her.
In fairness. In faiiiirness. She asked.
But you should know the drill. Clint and Barney ran away from the orphanage to join the circus. Swordsman saw potential in Clint and trained him in archery and Clint began seeing Swordsman as a father figure so threw himself into training in hopes that Swordsman would be proud of him.
Which is funny in an odd way because there’s some same-face going on and Swordsman looks just like Tony Stark!
I wonder if Clint ever slipped up and called Tony dad and had to cover it up by continuing into a daddio.
Anyway, he caught Swordsman with stolen money and Swordmaster left him in a broken heap and skipped town when Clint wouldn’t promise to keep quiet.
Later, he saw the adulation that Iron Man got when he flew over the circus and thought wait I can do that. Got a costume and tried to become a hero. Oops, tripped into being a supervillain and enemy of Iron Man. Annd then joined the Avengers.
Hawkeye: “I’ve done many a stint with my Avenging buddies, but I think I’m finally ready to wing it solo for good. Much as I like ‘em, they cramp my style a bit too much.”
Sheila: “Fascinating story, Clint. Looks like I’ve got a real self-made man. How about if I try to unmake you a little?”
And then they’re about to do sexy times when Clint’s emergency beeper goes off. Because somehow the emergency always knows when you’re horny or mid-ablution.
Hawkeye has to suit back up and head out back to work
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Hah.
But anyway, he catches a lady in a very sleevesy costume prowling around and during some back and forth and further back and forth pinned you no pinned you action, she introduces herself as Mockingbird, an ex-shield agent and freelance crimebuster (I think that means superhero?).
Some underworld contacts of hers led her to investigate Cross Technological Enterprises under suspicion that CTE is manufacturing mass mind control technology right under a certain Avenger slash archer’s nose. I.e., Hawkeye.
She wants him to lead her to warehouse 10 but their conversation is interrupted by a security night shift who rush in and surround Mockingbird despite Hawkeye ordering prior to the action scene to let him handle it.
They cuff Mockingbird and take her away but oddly claim that they thought Hawkeye sent the signal for them to charge in.
Hawkeye is perplexed and vexed wondering if there’s anything to Mockingbird’s story. He doesn’t know the full extent of what CTE manufactures and there was some shady business in Marvel Fanfare #3 where a vice-president was using CTE facilities to manufacture a bomb.
Mockingbird’s story bugs him so much that he returns home to Sheila and tells her that there’s something he has to take care of and sends her home in a cab.
He returns to Cross on his sweet rocket-sled and investigates warehouse 10, finding it empty but with a lot of fresh tracks in the dust, like something was moved in only the past hour or so.
Also, a bunch of security staff show up and point guns at him.
That’s also a red flag.
When reminding them he’s their boss doesn’t settle them down, he rolls to the floor to shoot out the lights like a cool action guy and then starts taking them out in the dark just by shooting whenever he hears one of the idiots make a sound.
But one of the guards has Sheila hostage even though she was supposed to have gone home so Hawkeye has to surrender.
The guards toss him into a pit with Mockingbird. Just an oubliette that CTE has on premise, as ya do.
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Hawkeye demands to speak with Sheila so he knows she’s alright and whoops she’s in on it.
Sheila Danning, heartbreaker: “Barton -- you stupid fool! Why did you have to be so conscientious? It was my job to keep you distracted so you’d have no time to notice the operation Cross had been contracted for -- a very costly, deadly operation.”
Hawkeye, heartbroken: “What are you talking about, Sheila? Are you saying they paid you to -- to --”
Sheila: “Yes, they paid me. I was pretty convincing, wasn’t I? You never had the slightest idea that I could sooner love a dog than a cornball Romeo with delusions of adequacy like you.”
Hawkeye: “You can’t mean that! They must’ve brainwashed you, poisoned your mind against me! Or -- or maybe you’re not Sheila at all, an imposter, or a robot -- !”
Sheila: “Don’t kid yourself, Barton. I’m the one and only. The woman who could barely keep from snickering when you told her your carnival story this evening.”
Ouch.
I like to mock Hawkeye because he deserves some light ribbing but ouch, she slipped a knife right between those ribbings.
That poor dolt was thinking about proposing and she was paid to distract him by feigning interest. Oof ouch.
Anyway, since CTE has suddenly become Bond-esque, they start dumping liquid industrial waste into the pit to drown and/or melt Hawkeye and Mockingbird.
The stuff is like acid but Hawkeye is kind of wallowing in being dumped and doesn’t care.
Hawkeye: “I ain’t moving. All my life I’ve been dumped on. I’m beginning to enjoy it.”
Mockingbird tells him that if he lets himself be melted by industrial waste because he feels sorry for himself, his ex wins. But that doesn’t move him so she has to mock him into action. This is what she was named for!
Mockingbird: “So this is what they taught you in the Avengers? What a bunch of jerks! They should see you now. I’ll bet you let them down in a pinch, too. Whenever your feelings get hurt.”
Hawkeye: “SHUT UP! I’m gonna get us out of here, lady. Then I’m going to kill Sheila for what she did to me. Then you’ll get yours, too.”
Mockingbird: “Sure, sure. Get us out first.”
Hah, I like Mockingbird.
And I like Hawkeye too. He makes good use of what he has to escape this Bond-esque trap. He doesn’t have his bow or his arrows but he keeps a fifty foot length of cord in his boot and spare arrowheads in his tunic. He calls his rocket-sled with the remote control, ties the cord to a spare rocket arrow-tip and rockets himself and Mockingbird out of the pit and up to his rocket-sled.
Then Hawkeye says he has to go attend some private business and Mockingbird is like cool, I’ll wait for you and hops onto a roof.
Hawkeye rams the rocket-sled through the window of Sheila Danning’s office and jump kicks the guards she has with her and confronts her.
Hawkeye: “You hurt me, Sheila... More than anything ever hurt in my life.”
Sheila: “Stay back, Hawkeye! I - I --”
Hawkeye: “I could kill you for what you did to me. But I won’t. I... can’t. I just don’t care anymore... about you or about whatever scheme Cross is up to! Give me my bow and quiver back and I’ll go.”
Tangentially, like an anime, his shirt is a lot flimsier than his pants and melted off in the acid while his pants are tattered but intact. If only they made shirts out of pants...
And if only they made any outfit out of lady outfit. Mockingbird’s outfit has a few holes and tatters but her whole top didn’t dissolve like Hawkeye’s did!
Sheila does give Hawkeye his archery stuff but warns him that he Knows Too Much and Cross will come after him.
Kind of a weird flex to pull on AN AVENGER WHO KNOWS THOR but you do you, Cross Technological Enterprises.
Hawkeye just takes off on his sweet rocket-sled without responding, zooming past where he left Mockingbird who has to jump onto the moving rocket-sled because he does not slow down for her.
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Mockingbird: “Got your business taken care of, sport?”
Hawkeye, crying a little: “Shut up, just shut up. If you hadn’t shown up, none of this could have happened.”
Oof.
That’s the hurt speaking buddy. Ignorance wouldn’t have been bliss here because as soon as Cross didn’t need to distract you any longer, Sheila probably would have found some excuse to dump you.
Also, their scheme was asinine! They don’t have other facilities? Just build the mind control doohickey somewhere else instead of paying someone to distract Hawkeye with horny!
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October, 1983
POINT BLANK!
So after having his heart broken and wallowing in some acid sludge in the last issue, Hawkeye is in a bad place. Emotionally. And also geographically.
He’s standing on some abandoned railroad tracks under the West Side Highway and shooting arrows at a bullseye he crudely drew on a cement block.
And Good Archer Hawkeye has not hit a single bullseye because of all the emotional turmoil. Also, since he’s shooting at concrete, he’s breaking all of his arrows.
He’s also wearing his no-shirt acid-tattered costume.
And he’s been here for 42 hours without sleeping, eating, or managing to hit a bullseye.
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He’s in a bad place.
So he passes out and he’s eventually found by some random street toughs who recognize him as an Avenger (although they think his name is Nighthawk womp womp) and decide ‘hey lets kick his ass and do him a murder maybe.’
Hawkeye comes to, as one might when people are kicking them in the head, and manages to nail three bullseyes on the three toughs he didn’t kick unconscious.
Hawkeye: Three bullseyes. Two kayos. Five sleezos in dreamland. Thanks, creeps. You gave me a reason to go on living. I’m just not sure what it is!
But now Hawkeye is at a loss of what to actually do. He refuses to go to the Avengers for help because blah blah blah muh pride. He can’t go and “mooch” off of them. So he decides to go check out the apartment he had through Cross Technological Enterprises and see whether they’ve cleared him out or not.
They have.
Everything he had to his name except the clothes on his back and bow in his hand gone. Arrow-making tools and spare costumes gone too.
But he also finds Mockingbird waiting for him.
Mockingbird: “Hello, Hawk. Can I buy you some breakfast?”
Hawkeye: “MOCKINGBIRD! Lady, you’re not one of my favorite people, but I know a good offer when I hear one.”
A free breakfast is a free breakfast.
Mockingbird takes Hawkeye back to her apartment and apologizes for blowing up his life but also says that it would have happened eventually anyway even had she never come along.
Which, yeah, you can only pay a person to pretend to love someone they hate for so long before the mask slips.
She also offers to mend his costume. Not sure how she’s thinking. Its not torn. Its half gone.
Hawkeye says yeah sure but hey why don’t you narrate your ENTIRE BACKSTORY.
So Mockingbird introduces herself as Barbara Morse, Bobbi to her friends.
She was a biology whiz at Georgia Tech and went with her favorite professor when she signed on to a government project to recover the super-soldier serum that made Captain America so super.
SHIELD was one of the sponsors of the project so Bobbi got to know several SHIELD agents and realized ‘hey being a spy sounds AMAZING’ and signed up with SHIELD’s spy school.
She graduated top of her class and was sent on a mission to track down Ka-Zar who SHIELD wanted to hire.
Mockingbird: “I found the jungle man all right. Even got involved with him, if you know what I mean. But things never quite worked out between us.”
Oh my god, what a power move to brag about nailing discount-Tarzan while recapping your life story.
Later, she investigated SHIELD itself at the request of a Congressman under the identity as the Huntress. But not the crossbow one. But because of her actions, she gained the reputation as a traitor to SHIELD.
So she changed her name to Mockingbird and took the evidence of corrupt agents to Nick Fury. And got shot a couple times in the attempt.
She had to spend six months recovering and after turned down a SHIELD promotion to go solo.
Mockingbird: “Not that I had anything against S.H.I.E.L.D... I just got used to operating alone. It wasn’t long after I got back into circulation that I came across the lead that took me to Cross Tech and I bumped into you. So that’s my lifestory in a nutshell, Hawk.”
I don’t know why I thought Mockingbird debuted in this series because she has a lot of backstory here. She showed up in Astonishing Tales #6 unnamed, was introduced as Dr. Barbara Morse in Astonishing Tales #12, was introduced in her Huntress (but not that one) identity in Marvel Super Action #1, and even Mockingbird debuted in Marvel Team-Up #95! Geez, Bobbi!
Annnnnd then Mockingbird realizes that Hawkeye fell asleep on her while she was recapping her entire life!
Bobbi doesn’t hold it against him, realizing how exhausted he must have been.
She tucks him in and heads off to go pick up some supplies to fix his costume.
Later, someone picks the locks to the apartment door and silently comes up and puts a gun to the sleeping Hawkeye’s head.
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Perhaps it is instinct -- a survival sense honed in hundreds of life-and-death struggles... But somehow Clint Barton feels the cool gun metal at his temple, instantly recognizes it for what it is -- and reacts.
(We actually see a hint of this dingus at Hawkeye’s apartment when he meets Mockingbird there. Implying that he somehow followed them from there to Bobbi’s apartment. Somehow. Even though Hawkeye and Bobbi took Hawkeye’s sweet rocket-sled. Good tracking, this guy.)
Hawkeye manages to dive away from the guy’s gunfire and hide behind one of those tables that looks like a giant spool. He weirdly realizes that the assassin’s gun isn’t making any sound when he fires and the bullets aren’t making any noise when they hit.
He’s in a tough spot unable to reach his bow in time when Mockingbird comes back to save Hawkeye, flipping the assassin and telling Hawkeye to grab his gun.
The assassin jumps out the window rather than deal with the both of them (Bobbi speculates its because she’s not on his hit list).
Hawkeye tests the gun after and discovers that its not silenced which means that the silencer was all in the guy’s suit, muting all the sounds he makes.
He dubs the guy Silencer and he has a pretty neat gimmick but doesn’t seem to ever appear again after this issue.
Shame. Imagine this guy against Daredevil.
Anyway, Mockingbird also managed to make Hawkeye a new outfit while she was gone.
Mockingbird: “Here -- better put this on. Half-naked men with guns make it hard for me to concentrate.”
Hawkeye: “Sure.”
God. Hawkeye’s non-reaction to that blatant flirt makes me laugh. He may as well have Saitama meme’d.
So the new outfit.
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The blue is a lot darker now. The dangly part of the tunic is a lot less dangly now. And the outfit has some asymmetrical sleeves. Also, its not entirely clear on this shot but the gloves are weird. They don’t cover the sides of his fingers. I don’t know if that’s an archery thing or what and I don’t know if that’s going to be a detail that lasts once other artists start drawing this costume.
All in all, not a bad looking new outfit. Its better than that time he didn’t wear pants.
Later that night, Hawkeye figures that they need to return to Cross and figure out who hired them to build that mind-control thing. But, they’ll need help getting back into Cross.
(Hey, I just realized. Hawkeye was double Cross’d by his employer. Hah.)
They go to visit Jorge Latham, the guy who built a sweet rocket-sled for Hawkeye so probably the guy he trusts the most now.
Jorge: “What happened to you, man? We got a memo two days ago that you were fired for incompetency, and I haven’t seen you since!”
Aw man, insult to injury! They told everyone that Hawkeye was fired because he sucked too hard!
Hawkeye tells Jorge the story, in brief, about how Cross is up to something, gets information on where the special projects are done, and tells Jorge to maybe get his resume in order in case he accidentally shuts the whole company down in the course of blowing this thing wide open.
Jorge is a lot more chill about learning he might be unemployed soon than I think a lot of other people would be. Although he had already expressed he wasn’t really satisfied in his job.
Hawkeye: “The info he gave us is going to save us a lot of hassle. Sure is good to have a few folks you can trust.”
Mockingbird: “You still don’t quite trust me, do you, Hawkeye? Even after I saved your life.”
Hawkeye: “No offense, lady. But it’s going to take me a while before I can fully trust any woman again.”
Geez, really hope that doesn’t last. He already teetered into disrespect of women without becoming a full-on misogynist.
Drink your respect women juice, Hawkeye.
The two return to Cross Technological Enterprises and Hawkeye uses his electronic security neutralizer arrowhead to neutralize the security on a window so they can jimmy it open and get inside.
.... Why do you need an electronic security neutralizer arrow? The way he uses it is tracing the circuit in the window and I don’t think you could shoot an arrow in a way that did that. And if you did shoot an arrow at a security system in a window, I think you’d break the window and set off the alarm?
What a mystery.
Hawkeye has never been in the special projects department but it doesn’t take a genius to find some filing cabinets.
Mockingbird: “Locked, of course. It also doesn’t take an electronic gizmo to open a locked file. Just a hairpin. See?”
Hawkeye: “Showoff.”
This would be banter if Hawkeye didn’t look so somber.
But Hawkeye gets to be useful too when he pulls out his....... penlight arrowhead?
WHY WOULD YOU EVER NEED TO FIRE A FLASHLIGHT? WHAT PURPOSE DOES THAT SERVE??
Mockingbird: “I just don’t know how I ever got along without you and your handy tools, Mr. H.”
DON’T ENCOURAGE HIM
The Silencer guy sneaks up on the duo as they’re snooping the files and something cues Hawkeye in to swivel around and fire an electro-stun arrow. Couldn’t have been a sound so lets say air flow?
The electro-stun doesn’t stun the Silencer so him and Hawkeye end up grappling right out the window. Because that’s the kind of life Hawkeye leads.
Luckily the rocket-sled (although he’s changed the name to sky-mobile by this point) was hovering right outside so the two wind up grappling on it as it rockets around the CTE compound.
The two wind up falling off the sky-mobile and onto a smokestack... God, its starting to be like one of those giant chicken fights...
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Anyway, the Silencer catches the edge but Hawkeye misses and goes plummeting into a smokestack, hopefully not to find a Spider-Man skeleton.
The Silencer drops his guard to try to figure out how the heck he’s going to get down from here and Hawkeye reemerges, yanking the Silencer down and pulling himself back up.
Not sure if the implication is that Hawkeye killed him. Hawkeye is famously vehemently ‘Avengers don’t kill!’ and the Silencer isn’t confirmed dead but also never shows up again.
Hawkeye summons the sky-sled (the caption changed the name on me again) and rockets back to where he left Mockingbird and in the meantime she’s found all the information they need to find who hired Cross to build the thing.
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Hawkeye: “Run into any trouble?”
Mockingbird: “Not really.”
Hah. Apparently she beat up a room full of guards while he was gone. Good on you, Mockingbird.
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November, 1983
Beating the ODDS
Pretty neat cover.
Also, pretty neat logo. I didn’t mention it earlier but yeah you have a neat logo, Hawkeye.
Mockingbird and Hawkeye return to her apartment after breaking into Cross Technological last issue.
Something that they may have done well to ponder is whether maybe it wasn’t a safe HQ anymore if that Silencer guy was able to track them there.
What I’m getting at is that there are two more assassins - Oddball and Bombshell - watching from an adjacent rooftop as the heroes head inside.
And then the apartment explodes.
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Hawkey and Mockingbird manage to escape the explosion though because Mockingbird never sweeps and noticed footprints in the dust and Hawkeye used a thermite-tipped bomb-sniffing arrow.
... Okay, that gimmick arrow is valid.
Mockingbird watches her apartment burn “in increasingly sullen fascination” for two hours before Hawkeye suggests maybe coming back after everything is cooled down.
Alas, the sky-mobile was destroyed in the explosion. Alas, alas, we barely knew ye and now you’re gone.
Mockingbird has an odd sense of what’s romantic because she decides that her apartment burning down and losing all of her possessions is.
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Wow, she’s been friendly and flirty with Hawkeye but she’s downright into the lug. Right during the one period in his life when he wouldn’t enjoy that. How’s that for bad timing?
Also, someone is clearly shipping these two.
Mockingbird has assorted appearances before this miniseries so I wonder who got the idea to throw her together with Hawkeye. I’ve heard rumors that it was to copy the Green Arrow/Black Canary pairing. I don’t know if that’s true or just an assumption.
Anyway, Hawkeye also finds an 8-ball in the wreckage which is odd and a clue because Mockingbird didn’t have one of those.
The two heroes realize that Cross obviously sent more hitmen after them so they got to figure out this plot before they get got.
Mockingbird withdraws the rest of her money from an ATM (only $97. Freelance superheroing just doesn’t pay...) and Hawkeye insists on spending some of that money on some arrows since he’s down to his last one.
Mockingbird: “I thought you needed specially made arrows.”
Hawkeye: “My new modular arrowheads fit on any target arrow... get ‘em at any sporting-goods store.”
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This issue is a gift.
And since they now don’t have enough money to take a cab to where they’re going, they get on the subway.
Where in one of those amazingly contrived comic coincidences, Steve Rogers Captain America happens to be riding the same car!
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Cap recognizes that Hawkeye is on a mission and offers to drop everything to help him.
You’re a cool guy, Cap.
Hawkeye has concerns.
Hawkeye: Aw, no. Cap is Mr. Avengers himself. I know I’m at the end of my resources, maybe way out of my depth, but if I let Cap in on it, he’ll wind up running the show... and I’ll end up on the sidelines again, just like it was back in the Avengers.
Pride goeth before something, Hawks.
Although, knowing vaguely what I know is soon upcoming, its a very timely time for Hawkeye to worry about running the show.
Hawkeye: “Ah, it’s nothing I can’t handle, old timer. Just the same old bopping the bad guys stuff.”
Cap: “I read you, soldier. Anyway, you know how to reach me if you get in a jam.”
You’re a really cool guy, Cap.
Hawkeye and Mockingbird get off at the next stop and Mockingbird grills Hawkeye about the hunky stranger, recognizing that he was probably in the superhero biz. Adding some context to Hawkeye not wanting Cap involved perhaps. Although its still a lot of dumb pride.
Hawkeye: She meets Cap in his civvies and is bowled over. No wonder I always looked like a piker around him. You know, I never realized how second rate Cap makes me feel. I’ve just go to solve this whole mess on my own. If I don’t, I may never be able to stand on my own two feet.
Anyway, then an 8-ball rolls and bonks into Hawkeye’s feet and he sees one of the assassins lurking around the corner doing him a taunt.
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This issue is a gift for out of context panels. I swear.
Hawkeye realizes Oddball is baiting him but also is the exact kind of impulsive person who takes the bait. So he runs off after Oddball.
Oddball is..... apparently a juggling based assassin. Dunno why that’s such a common thing in comics. But here we are. He’s a juggling based assassin.
Hawkeye runs on ahead after Oddball and Mockingbird gets ambushed by a nun as she follows.
Its that kind of book, I guess.
Also, the nun is the other assassin Bombshell.
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She’s got a Black Widow style wrist launcher for incendiary charges.
Hawkeye and Oddball get into an archery vs juggling based standoff, yes really, and then Oddball jumps onto a subway train, further luring Hawkeye. Who should really know better but ignores the part of his brain that some call common sense.
Oddball, by the by, is somewhat of an oddball. He’s just giggling and joking his way through this mission to kill an Avenger. He’s definitely following the maxim that if you do what you love, you don’t kill for money a day of your life. Or something.
When he jumps on the train he goes with “We’re having fun now, all rightee! Care for another shot, sport? I’ll match my speed to yours anyday and twice on Sunday. Time’s up, gotta go. Ta-ta!”
Hawkeye jumps onto the back of a departing subway train to keep up the pursuit and you know what, he seems like he’s having a good time too?
Hawkeye: Man, there’s nothing like a good chase to make me feel great about myself again. Wonder if Oddball would consent to be my regular sparring partner? Cap’s got the Red Skull, Iron Man has the Mandarin. Me, I never had anybody all my own.
He must be feeling some chemistry with this dude if he wants to make him his archnemesis after only one fight.
Although after this
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Hawkeye decides that Oddball is way too much to be his nemesis. He’s got standards, dammit!
Oddball runs off the train, pursued by archer.
Oddball: “I could pick him off any time I want. I know I can throw faster than he can shoot. But I’m having just plain too much fun to cut it short.”
Sure, guy.
Oddball and Hawkeye wind up having a stand-off in the rafters of the subway station because that’s the kind of guy Oddball is.
Hawkeye manages to pin the guy down with an arrow to his throat but while he’s been chasing an oddball, Mockingbird got her ass kicked by a bombshell.
So a distracted Hawkeye gets knocked out via bomb to the back of the head.
Bombshell catches Hawkeye as he falls from the rafters and Oddball wonders why not just let him die.
Bombshell: “I just got a call from [the boss]. He wants these two birds brought to him to use in some kind of experiment.”
And so the third issue ends with Hawkeye and Mockingbird being carried off to the perpetrators which saves some time but being brought in as prisoners is less than ideal.
Shoulda taken up Steve on his offer, Clint.
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December, 1983
“TILL DEATH DO US PART...”
I guess Hawkeye fuckin’ dies.
He sure has a lot of friends but Johnny Storm looks like he’s annoyed that he has to attend. ‘What the heck, I barely knew the guy!’
Anyway, between issues, Oddball and Bombshell have dragged Hawkeye and Mockingbird to a place and strung them up on a thing.
The place is apparently a mortuary.
And they’ve been strung up for hours judging by how their limbs feel.
The man behind it all shows himself and guy knows how to make an impression.
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Not necessarily a good one.
The cross shaped codpiece is killing me.
As is Oddball juggling in the background to remind us that he is a juggler.
Crossfire: “I am Crossfire -- master subversive, brainwasher, and entrepreneur.”
Credit where its due, that’s a funny line.
Crossfire: “In the typical fashion of someone who holds all the cards, I’m going to divulge to you more than you will need to know about me and my business...”
I want to question this but he’s too self-aware about how stupid it is. I have no room to operate here.
Here is something I WILL make fun of.
Crossfire’s real name is William Cross. He is related to the guy that founded Cross Technological Enterprises. So them screwing over Hawkeye was like a family activity.
But he’s using Cross in his codename. Like if Hawkeye was instead Bartonman. It’s a choice.
Anyway, Crossfire was a CIA agent but when he realized that his real interest lie in fomenting disorder for profit, he decided him and the CIA weren’t on the same path.
Which. Guy. Dude. Fella. No.
Crossfire also realized that superheroes would eventually get in his way so he decided that his first goal is to eliminate all costumed superheroes.
Moon Knight and the Thing thwarted a prototype over in Marvel Two-in-One #52 but Crossfire managed to get away to refine his plan.
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(For bigger)
His plan is pretty ingenious actually.
He’s going to kill Hawkeye. So far so good. Then dump his body in Central Park where it will be easily found.
The Avengers will find out about his death and have a funeral for him. And Crossfire made sure they’ll use Restwell Funeral because it has the best name! But more seriously because its the funeral parlor the superheroes used for Whizzer’s funeral and because Crossfire will make sure every other mortuary is booked.
HE’S PLANNING EVERY ANGLE.
Then at the service, he’ll activate the Undertaker machine which will send a subliminal RAGE signal to all the superheroes and they’ll fight to the death.
Crossfire: “Yes, I fully expect my lovely chapel to be thoroughly demolished. Don’t worry -- insurance will cover it.”
This is such a hilariously mundane concern.
Anyway, probably the whole funeral party won’t kill each other but it’ll thin the numbers, the survivors will forever be traumatized at what they did, and the government will crack down on superheroes.
And as for why he chose Hawkeye?
Crossfire: “I would think it was obvious, Hawkeye. You are the weakest, most vulnerable known costumed crimefighter in town.”
Ouch.
There’s planning to kill a guy as part of a larger scheme to kill all his friends and then there’s just being hurtful.
Further insulting injury? Crossfire is not just going to kill them. He’s going to make Hawkeye and Mockingbird kill each other by testing the Undertaker device on them.
That settles it. This guy is a dick.
The Restwell mortuary has a super sealed room for testing the device. Twelve inch thick concrete and steel walls and a door sealed with electronic lock. It would take even the Hulk some effort and Hawkeye and Mockingbird don’t even have their weapons.
Plus, there’s three cameras watching the room and the Undertaker speakers are hidden and durable.
Alas, Crossfire wouldn’t make a good Bond villain. He’s too not leaving a blatant way out of his death trap out of arrogance.
Hawkeye and Mockingbird get up close with their backs to the camera so they can whisper and make a plan.
Unfortunately, they can’t really think of a plan other than ‘try to resist brainwashing I guess?’
Mockingbird knows some SHIELD techniques and Hawkeye just promises he’ll try really hard to resist.
Hawkeye: “I really don’t want to hurt you. In the last couple days, I’ve actually kind of started, well, liking you.”
Aw.
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Aww.
But Crossfire is a dick still and activates THE UNDERTAKER right after they kiss.
They try to resist but yeah that plan wasn’t a plan and wasn’t even a concept. They start fighting to the death. Ironically, Bobbi “I know SHIELD techniques” Morse throws the first kick while Hawkeye is still trying to resist.
And Mockingbird is a lot better at martial arts than Hawkeye whose muscle memory keeps tripping him up into using a bow that he doesn’t actually have.
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This issue is a gift.
But yeah, Mockingbird beats the crap out of Hawkeye. Not that he doesn’t get some hits in. He even manages to surprise Crossfire who was heavily betting on Mockingbird to easily trounce his ass.
Also, during the fighting, Mockingbird manages to kick one of the cameras, jarring it so it points at the ceiling.
And then double kicks Hawkeye in the dick.
Oof.
Watching two people fight to the death, Oddball has a question. How long does the brainwashing sound effect last after being turned off?
Crossfire decides hey actually that’s an interesting thought and turns off the machine to see. Plus, for dick reasons, giving them a brief respite will “make their plight all the more poignant.”
What a dick.
The brainwashing ends almost as soon as the sound does and the two heroes stop beating the crap out of each other to be disgusted by what they were doing.
In desperation, Hawkeye finally comes up with a plan.
It’s not a good plan but he had only a couple seconds and its impressive that he has a plan at all in that brief period of lucidity.
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Hawkeye huddles into the corner that the jarred camera no longer covers and goes through his spare (mispelled as space for some reason, shrug) arrowheads and finds a hypersonic arrowhead.
And if he puts the arrowhead in his mouth and activates it, it will be really loud and drown out the ultrasound! Also, shooting hypersonic frequencies INSIDE HIS SKULL will probably be bad for his hearing but what can ya do.
Crossfire reactivates THE UNDERTAKER and Hawkeye activates the mouth arrowhead with his tongue. Which feels like a “dull knife lacerating [his] brain” but at least he doesn’t want to murder all the time.
That’s something!
(Also, it’s a neat touch but the EEEEEE of the hypersonic arrowhead covers the NNNN of the ultrasonic signal. Good SFXing.)
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With his wits about him, he can actually beat Mockingbird by using his strength advantage, closing in, and not letting her use her fancier jumpy techniques.
After beating the shit out of Mockingbird and feeling like shit for having to do it, Hawkeye tosses her to misalign another camera, and then feigns that he collapses from exhaustion.
Crossfire thinks that there’s no way that Hawkeye could play dead under the effect of the RAGE NOISE so he’s really down. He sends Oddball and Bombshell to retrieve the two heroes to examine.
While being carried like a potato sack, Hawkeye grabs one of Oddball’s odd balls and knocks out the juggler and then bonks Bombshell unconscious as well before she has a chance to react.
Then, he runs to get Crossfire before the guy has a chance to figure out what’s going on.
Except, Crossfire has cameras all over the dang place and knows what happened and decides that Hawkeye is such a resourceful, worthy foe that he deserves to die by irony.
(Hawkeye has no idea what the guy is saying because he can’t hear a thing after sticking a hypersonic arrowhead in his mouth)
Crossfire tries to kill Hawkeye with his own bow but whoops, remember when Hawkeye was flexing on that guy earlier about his bowstring having an absurd draw weight?
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Yeah.
The dingus got irony’d by his own ploy at irony.
Hawkeye ties up Crossfire, grabs his bow and arrows because they make him happy, and runs back to check on Mockingbird.
Hawkeye: “Mockingbird -- ? You with me, sweetheart? We won. I beat them. Every last bloody oen of them. Mock -- ?” She’s not breathing. I - I killed her...!
Mockingbird: “Those tears for me, sport? Aw, shucks.”
Even beaten to hell, Mockingbird gonna sass.
And then they kiss. Which strikes me as... not a good time for it? Her face is all bruised up and she’s got a little blood going on. Ah, whatever.
Awww.
An hour later, the police show up to arrest Crossfire, Oddball, and Bombshell. Presumably Mockingbird called them as Clint still cannot hear a single thing.
Which is unfortunate because Mockingbird comes over to talk and Hawkeye is like ‘geez what is she saying right now? I hope it’s not important’ and decides to get out of the conversation ASAP before she finds out he’s gone deaf and gasp pities him!
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Mockingbird: “Look, I’m not much of a joiner or anything. But I must admit that the two of us made one heckuva team. I was thinking... maybe we ought to become an item, you know what I mean? After all, you are one of the cutest --”
Hawkeye: “Yeah, well, see you around then.”
Hawkeye, you absolute fool.
THANKFULLY
Thankfully, Mockingbird isn’t the type to just go ‘wow what a jerk’ without going and ripping a person a new asshole, verbally.
So she did do that. She ran after Hawkeye and ripped him a new asshole, verbally, forced him to explain himself, probably rolled her eyes, and then dragged him to get a hearing aid.
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And one week later, they’re married and relaxing in a heart-shaped tub!
Wow, they operate fast!
I mean, in fairness, we knew Hawkeye was like that. He’d known Sheila Danning for like a month before he was contemplating marriage. And we can assume Mockingbird was like that too considering she knew Hawkeye like a minute before waggling her eyebrows and insinuating sex at him.
Mockingbird: “You owe me, pal. Sure, you saved my life. But what I’m going to do to your life is more than just a one-shot deal. I’m not just talking about helping you get a hearing aid. Or the blood test, or the license, or even arranging for a quaint little cottage in the woods. I’m talking about the rest of your life, and the difference having me around is going to make in it. Maybe eloping was my idea, but I’m going to see to it that for the rest of your life, you believe that it was the best idea you didn’t quite hear.”
Hawkeye: “I hear you, Mrs. Hawkeye. I hear you.”
Awwww. They’re a cute couple. And I do like their chemistry.
So that was the Hawkeye limited series. And it was pretty good!
It introduces some lasting changes like ‘being deaf’ and ‘being married’ to the character. Of course, because comics, both of those things will come and go. And in some cases come back. Lets enjoy them while they last.
Next time on liveblogging: something a little different.
Follow @essential-avengers​ because I just covered a miniseries. And then I had to redo the fourth issue in just an hour because tumblr didn’t save it. Please reward me. Also, like and reblog if you’d like to reblog.
8 notes · View notes
yami-writes · 4 years ago
Note
yk those tik toks were parents rate famous tik tokers? y/n is doing this with bakugo, kirishima, todoroki and they show them pics and let them rate & say their first impression but like when y/n show them a pic of charli or dixie the boys start crushing hardly, secretly hoping they make their s/o jealous but it turns out the completle opposite & y/n also crushes on the sisters, bc the reader is a closet bisexual & they basically come out then. fluff & crack pls i hope it's not too messy lmao
I LOVE THISSS GHJHLGUKL and i love writing crack its so fun!!!  these turned out longer than i though whoops
rating Tiktokers w/ Kirishima, Bakugo, and Todoroki
(🏷️) paring(s): Kirishima x reader, Bakugo x reader, Todoroki x reader (⚠️) warning(s): just crack and fluff here (💌) note from Yami:: I don't think I added enough fluff but I hope this is good (just know they accepted your bisexual ass with open arms 😌👏)
~*~*~*~*~*~*
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Kirishima
Ok, I know for a fact Kiri knows what tiktok is
But he’s never on there 
Nor does he have an account
So making him rate tiktokers without him knowing who most of them are sounds like a good idea
But anywayssss
You saw the video a while ago and decided now would be fun to do it
The two of you are in his room after training for a few hours 
Yall were just chilling ✨v i b i n g✨
“Hey, Eiji”
“Hm?”
“Come! I have something for us to do”
He came and sat beside you on his bed
“Rate these tiktokers from 1 to 10”
“Wait why?”
“Why not?”
“...fair enough! Let's go!”
His enthusiasm is exactly what you wanted
You started with some pretty famous tiktokers 
He surprisingly knew who most of them were 
and gave them pretty high ratings
“What's his name?”
“Oh, that's Chase Hudson”
“I give him a 10”
“Why??”
“That name sounds manly!”
Pppffttttt
Then you finally get to the big one
Charli & Dixie D'amelio
“Oh”
“What? You gonna call them manly too?”
“N-no…”
You watched as YOUR boyfriend’s cheeks became the same color as his hair
“their uh- pretty”
“CHARLI AND DIXIE!?”
Not what you expected
You just thought you would brush over this one
Like all the other tiktokers
“I rate them a 10”
“Wow! Really? I would rate them a 100.”
“Huh?”
He’s so confused
“I love them so much! their tiktoks are so nice! Plus…. there pretty..”
“Huhhh???”
“Oh, I've never told you?”
“Huhhhh???”
Stawp ur gonna break him!!!!
“I'm Bi- I guess I never told you… I hope you don't see me-”
“What? No!!! I love you no matter what y/n! You really amazing, and strong, oh, and manly-”
“Ok ok! that's enough! Thanks Eiji”
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Bakugo
Ok you convinced him to get a tiktok acc
Not for any particular reason because you know he’s not gonna post
And the only person he follows is you
But it's not like he uses it regardless
So he doesn't know any tiktokers
Now he’s a victim hehe
You just felt like doing something with him
And this was the first idea that came to mind so-
“Hey, suki!”
“What?”
“Come rate tiktokers!”
“Hah??”
“You know what tiktok is! Just come do it! I'm bored”
“Find something else to do.”  
Jeez
You just have to bring out the big guns-
“Fine then. I'll go have mido rate them with me.”
“Hah?? What could that shitty nerd do that I can't?? C’mere!”
Before you knew it you were sitting right beside your boyfriend
“So you wanna do it?”
“Let's just get this over with.” he scoffed
You went through a surprising amount of tiktokers
All of which getting low ratings
As in from -100 to 3
As the two of you went on the tiktokers got more famous
Until you reach them
“10”
“You rate them a 10???”
“Yea.”
You hate how he’s just staring at the photo of them
Not even bothering to glance at you
“Why do you rate them a 10, suki?”
“They're better than the rest of those other extras”
“How are they better?”
“they’re better.”
“Bakugo Katsuki.”
‘Shit’
“I love them too! They're so good at dancing! I just wanna- ahhhh”
‘Huh?’
“You love them?”
“Well, not as much as you, suki haha! But if I didn't love you I would love them…”
Katsuki_bakugo.exe stopped responding
“W-what's that supposed to mean??”
“Yes, I'm Bi.”
“Oh”
That's the only thing that comes out of his mouth for a while, which worries you
“I- I hope you don't think it's-”
“Hah?? No! I don't care! As long as you love me more than those shitty women.”
“HEY!”
“It's not like I'm wrong.”
“Hmph”
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Todoroki
You introduced him to tiktok
But never told him to get an acc
He actually made it himself
Baby thinks it's interesting
So he’s fairly aware of the tiktokers on the platform
But anywayssss
The two of you were in your room
He was studying 
smart boi 
While you were, of course, scrolling through TikTok
“Hey shou! I have something for us to do!”
“Im studying”
“But you're already top in class! No need to study so much”
“Just a few more minut-”
“ you have been studying for 3 whole hours, shouto.”
“Hm….. 2 more minutes?”
“...”
You didn't bother to try and reason with him
Instead, you took advantage of the fact that he's weak to your touch
You dragged him on your bed
And you swear you him go
“Oh, ok”
GHUKHLJU
You didn't hesitate to start showing him the tiktokers and expecting him to answer
“Sorry love, but what are we doing?”
“Rate the tiktokers from 1-10”
“oh, Okay”
He didn't rate anyone too high
But then again his ratings weren't low
“Okay, how about this one?”
As you pointed to a picture of Charli and Dixie
Which you debated putting as you lock screen
“Oh, I like them, I give them a 10”
“a 10?”
“Yes.”
“10???”
“Yes?”
He honestly didn't know if something was wrong with his rating
Like~ poor boy was doing what you told him to do
“Wait I'm sorry, did I do something wrong-”
“I'm disappointed, shou”
“What?”
“I thought you knew better than this.”
He’s so confused 
He just rated them like he did with every other tiktoker
“They deserve 100, not 10.”
“...”
“Look at them, shou! You've seen their tiktoks!”
“Uh.. yea I have. Is there a point, y/n??”
“I'm just saying they deserve more than a 10. Their content is so good! Plus they're so pretty!”
a long period of silence
yet you could practically hear cogs turning in his head
“...is this what they call being bi?”
“I see you've been watching a lot of tiktok... But yes, i hope you don't mind”
“Why would I?? Am I supposed to? Is that bad? You know I'd love you regardless.”
Not where you thought that was heading but that's fine
“I- nevermind, let's just keep rating, yeah?”
“Okay”
PRECIOUS
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Masterlist
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floralamongtheclouds · 4 years ago
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Hi! Can you please write headcanon Riku x male!reader? How would Riku react that sora’s brother(same age as Sora) is gay but everyone thought that he’s straight (and Sora be like: ‘I thought you were american’ lol) and how riku tried to confess him his feeling but Reader just kissed him and says that he always knew that riku love him back? Maybe with comedy and fun but also with fluff UwU
Oh wow! My first KH request, I’m so excited! I haven’t really written for Riku before (a lot of my past stories usually centered around Roxas), so I hope this turned out like you wanted it to! Also, I’m so sorry about the wait for this, like I’ve stated before, I’ve been out of power for about a week and with my internet constantly going in and out, its been hard to post anything as nothing has been going through. Enjoy!
Warnings: None
RikuxMale!Reader
-You coming out to your brother, Sora, didn’t go... exactly how you wanted it to. You just needed someone to listen to your woes about the guy you liked; you didn’t actually intend to come out during the process.
-While you were ranting, he kept begging you just to tell him who it was stating that he couldn’t help you without knowing who the “lucky person” was. Eventually you grew tired of his insistence, so you blurted out that it was Riku that you liked.
“Ah,” he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, “Then you should talk to Kairi about this.”
“What, why?” You asked incredulously. Either he wasn’t computing that you were gay or he felt uncomfortable with it, both options worried you equally.
“Because she’s into guys, she’d have better advice for you.”
-Well, the cat was already out of the bag at this point, you had to tell the rest eventually, so you sent a message to Kairi asking her to meet you on the beach. Your brother wasn’t going to be of much help anyways, regardless of the circumstances.
-”Oh, I had no idea,” she said, slightly surprised, “N-not in a bad way, of course. I’d love to help confess to him though!”
-You were surprised that everyone was taking it so well, but it made you were filled with love because of that.
-However, it was when Kairi had told you to just tell Riku out right that you liked him sent you into a frenzy. There was no way you could do that! Just the thought of confessing to him made your stomach do somersaults.
“Oh come on,” she encouraged, “Text him right now to meet you here! There’s no better way than just being forthright with you feelings!”
-It took a bit more goading, but you eventually asked Riku to meet you on the beach. Somehow along the way, your brother got pulled back into the whole situation so now he and Kairi were hiding behind a large stone nearby as you nervously waited for Riku to arrive.
- “Hey Y/N,” Riku greeted once you two saw each other before he lightly jogged over to where you were waiting, “You wanted to talk about something?
“Uhh, yeah...” You drawled out. Unable to meet his eyes, you peeked over his shoulder to where Sora and Kairi were hiding, only to see them poking there heads out with almost comically large smiles and a thumbs up. You resisted the urge to roll your eyes, clearing your throat instead. “Listen, there’s something I’ve wanted to tell you for a really long time now. Now, I wanna do say before hand that I don’t want this to change anything, or like if you don’t feel the same way then that’s totally okay, because you’re still one of my best friends and I don’t want to make this weird or anyth-.”
-Before you could continue anymore of your (now turning into) nervous ramblings, Riku surprised you by taking your hands in his and quickly leaning his head down to lightly press his lips against yours.
-You couldn’t even fully process what was going on before he pulled away to meet your wide eyed stare.
“I’ve kinda known that you’ve liked me for a while, you’re not exactly sly at hiding it. I want you to know that I really like you too, I just never said anything because you haven’t come out to anyone else and I didn’t want you to feel pressured about it by me confessing to you.”
-You were so overcome with happiness that you couldn’t say anything and instead opted to sling your arms around his neck and kissing him deeply.
-However, your kiss was lived short once again when you two pulled away in surprise when you both heard Sora and Kairi whooping and hollering from behind.
- “Woohoo! I knew you could do it, Bro!” Sora pumped his fist in the air.
“You two are so cute!” Kairi followed.
-You and Riku just laughed at their antics, ending with you locking eyes and him giving you a light peck to the top of your head. 
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master-sass-blast · 4 years ago
Text
Release.
Hmmmmm... this thing is solid projection. Whoops.
Summary: You're exhausted. No matter what you do, you can't get enough rest to save your soul. You try to keep up with everything, try to not let the fatigue hinder you
--And then it all comes crashing down.
Pairing(s): Piotr Rasputin x Reader.
Rating: T for depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, and general angst-hurt/comfort vibes.
Set after “It’s Truly Magical,” but this one is special in that it doesn't directly impact the canon. It's sort of a special one-off.
Author’s Note: So, as some of you may have gathered from the tags and preamble, this fic is basically me venting my own frustration.
I've been dealing with some pretty wicked chronic fatigue for the better part of... coming up on a year now, actually. Wow. I didn't realize it'd been that long.
It's made life really hard for me, from everything to eating to doing chores to hanging out with friends to writing. We don't know what's causing it, and we're trying to take care of it through lifestyle changes and making sure I don't exert myself too much (we meaning me, my family, my fiance, and my doctor). There's been a few things that have helped, but by in large it's still been kicking my ass.
I know I was gone for a long time. Part of that was the fatigue making it impossible to write or post. To those of you who are still around, thank you -and I'm sorry. I'm trying my best, I promise.
If you're dealing with chronic fatigue or think you're dealing with chronic fatigue, just know that it's okay that you're tired. You're not lazy. You're not a failure. You're not going crazy. You're not a burden. Your body needs rest, you need rest, and you *deserve* to rest.
Here's a resource on chronic fatigue syndrome and what it looks like.
I hope you're all doing well. Stay safe and wear your mask.
Taglist: @marvel-is-perfection, @chromecutie, @girl-obsessed-with-things, @super-darkcloudstudent, @dandyqueen, @leo-writer
It creeps over you. It starts as a wispy, soft cloud, hanging over the horizon of your existence.
And then it grows. Larger, more oppressive. Until you’re fully immersed in it, with no sense of direction or how to get out.
 ***
 You’re not really sure you remember when it started. You’ve always been tired to some extent –anxiety, nightmares, and running on the X-Men schedule will do that to a person.
Exhaustion hits like a brick one day after training. You slump against the tiled wall in one of the shower stalls in the locker room. Water streams down your sweaty face and body while you struggle to make your eyes focused. Shit. I must have pushed too hard.
You manage to get yourself cleaned up and trudge back to yours and Piotr’s home at the back of Xavier’s property. You collapse onto the couch in the living room. Your limbs are stone, too heavy to drag another step. Your body throbs in time with your heartbeat. I need a nap. Just for a couple hours.
You only want to sleep for a couple hours.
You only mean to sleep for a couple hours.
You wake up at nine in the evening, to Piotr gently nudging you.
He tuts, fussing over you like a worried mother hen. “Are you feeling well, myshka?” He presses the back of his hand against your forehead. “You have slept for long time.”
“I’m fine,” you mumble, mind still cloudy with exhaustion. You force yourself to sit up. You jaw cracks when you yawn. “Just overdid it in training today.”
Your husband gently chides you, ushering you into the kitchen so you can eat. “It is important to replenish energy.”
You go straight to bed after eating and sleep for another ten hours.
 ***
 Part of you wonders ‘how did I let this happen? How did I let it get this bad?’
The other part of you wonders if you had any say in it at all.
 ***
 The fatigue starts seeping into other areas of your life as well. Training, grading, hanging out with friends, eating…
You’re so tired. You chalk it up to mission stress, to going too hard during training, to running on weird hours all the time.
You start sleeping through the day to cope. No matter how well you sleep at night or how much sleep you get, you’re always so fucking tired.
Piotr notices the change in your sleeping habits. Because of course he does. It’s ingrained into his very DNA to be an observant, loving nurturer.
He brings it up during dinner one night. “Are you doing alright, myshka?”
“What? Yeah. Of course.” You’d woken up from a nap a couple hours before, and you feel good for once. (You’ll crash a couple hours later.) “Why? What’s wrong?”
“You have been sleeping at odd hours,” Piotr says, stirring his soup with his spoon. “I just want to make sure you are not having mental troubles.”
“I’m fine, baby.” And, on that front, you are. You’ve got your meds, your support system, a home, creative outlets, and a fulfilling –if occasionally dangerous—job. “I’ve just been tired lately, is all. I think it’s the weird mission hours just putting my body clock out of whack.”
“You should try to stay on normal schedule, then,” Piotr points out. He frowns, concerned. “Is not good for mental health to keep odd hours.”
You bristle. You are trying, dammit. You push through training and grading and your obligations every single damn day, even if all you can do is collapse in bed afterwards. Who the hell is he to say that you’re not trying?! “I am, Piotr. You don’t have to micromanage me. I’m not one of your teens.”
Piotr recoils, blue eyes widening. He holds up his hands. “Easy, dorogoy. I am not trying to micromanage. I just want you to be healthy.”
You drop your gaze down to your bowl of soup. Your heart races in your throat. “Sorry.”
***
 It’s like being one of those houses infested with termites. You’re being consumed from the inside out. On the outside, you look fine. On the inside, you’re crumbling away like a sad, dry cookie left in the bottom of the cookie jar for five long, lonely months.
You’ve always been weird. You oscillate between outgoing and reclusive like nobody’s business. You’re a lot like Wade –somewhere between amusing and a nuisance to most of the adults, though most of the teens and kids like you.
(Piotr insists that it’s not true, that everyone likes you well enough, but you’ve never quite had the full faith to believe him.)
No one notices that you’re hurting. No one notices that something’s wrong. No one notices, no one notices, no one fucking notices—
But, to be fair, you hardly notice it yourself.
 ***
 You kind of start to lose your mind, if you’re being honest.
It’s hard enough to keep up with your workload with the mission scheduling –but being tired all the time slams the nail in the coffin. You manage to drag yourself to training on time because it’s mandatory, because it’s important, because it’s for the good of your team, and—
And everything else falls apart.
You spend countless late night hours on the couch cramming through your grading, because you needed to sleep earlier, and the deadline’s only looming closer, and you have to be productive, dammit—
More than once, you drag yourself up to bed when Piotr’s just getting up for the day.
He frowns, forehead creasing. “Myshka—”
“I had grading to do,” you mutter as you crawl back into bed.
He finishes buttoning up his shirt, then sits down next to you. The bedframe groans under his bulk. “This is not healthy, moya lyubov’.”
“I’m fucking working on it, Piotr!” you snap, glaring at your husband. “Just –leave me alone!”
He swallows hard, blue eyes shining with hurt. He looks like a kicked puppy.
You huff and slam your face into your pillow, mostly to hide the fact that you’re crying.
Piotr smooths your hair down, then kisses the back of your head. “Ya tebya lyublyu, myshka.”
You bite down on your pillow and cry harder.
 ***
 It’s more than just being tired.
It’s guilt. It’s enough guilt to fill an ocean. No amount of effort you make is good enough; no matter how hard you try you wind up failing. Or snapping at someone you love. Or being unable to do even the simplest shit.
There’s so much anger, too. At the world, at anyone who points out that you’re not doing well, at yourself. There’s a scream constantly behind your lips, trying to crack its way out of your chest.
You’re failing. You’re trying to scoop up handfuls of sand to keep an entire dune from consuming you, and the grains keep running through your fingers; it practically looks like you haven’t done anything at all, and you’re so fucking tired…
 ***
 The ‘house’ collapses over a load of dishes.
One load of fucking dishes.
It’s ridiculous.
You manage to drag yourself out of bed one morning, trying to get the haze that seems to be a permanent fixture in your mind to clear. You trudge downstairs, energy sapping out of you with every step you take.
You see last night’s dishes in the sink, waiting to be rinsed and loaded into the dishwasher.
It’s an easy task. The dishes aren’t all that dirty, and there aren’t that many of them.
And you can’t do it. You don’t have the energy. You’re just too fucking tired.
You failed.
You crumple to the floor, weeping against the wooden floorboards as the dam you’d been trying so hard to keep stable gives way. You scream, anger and guilt and frustration and self-loathing washing over you, crushing you beneath their weight. You clutch at your hair, seething as the past few months finally come to a head—
And then Piotr’s arms are around you. (Later, you’ll learn that he stopped back at the house to pick up a gradebook, which is why he was even around during the day in the first place.) He scoops you up, cradling you against his chest. “Myshka, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
You sob into his shirt, beyond words.
“Okay, okay.” He checks you over to make sure you’re not visibly injured, then carries you upstairs to bed.
You whimper when he tries to tuck you in. “No –I’ve got stuff to do—”
“It can wait,” he says, loving but firm. He gently tugs the comforter over you, then toes his shoes off before laying down next to you.
“It can’t,” you cry, even as he tugs you into his arms and tucks you against his chest. “It’s already waited for so long.”
“And it can wait longer.” He kisses your forehead. “It is okay, myshka. Rest.”
You snuffle and sob and gasp—
And, eventually, you fall asleep.
 ***
 You wake up to Piotr stroking your hair. You inhale sharply, blinking to cast the bleariness out of your vision. “What time is it?”
“About noon,” he says.
Your heart sinks. “Shit. I’ve got grading—”
He places his arm over your waist, holding you in place. “It can wait.”
“But—”
“You had breakdown this morning, myshka. Health comes first.” He gazes into your eyes, brow furrowing. ��Talk to me, moya lyubov. Please. What is wrong?”
Your heart rips into infinitesimal pieces at seeing him so worried –and then you start crying again. “I can’t…” You squeeze your eyes shut and buy your face against his chest. “I can’t. I can’t do it. No matter how much sleep I get, or I don’t get, or how much I exercise or don’t exercise, or what I eat or –any of it. I’m so tired, Piotr.” You let out a choked sob. “I’m just so tired, and I keep failing—”
Piotr rubs your back and kisses the top of your head. “It’s okay, myshka. It’s okay.”
***
 Eventually, you settle again. You’re snuggled against Piotr’s chest, sniffling and sighing while he strokes your hair.
It’s not a bad place to bed.
“How long?” he asks, voice quiet and gentle. “How long have you felt tired?”
“I don’t know,” you mutter, lulled to a state of near drowsiness by his ministrations. “A few months? Maybe a little longer? I’ve always been kind of tired, what with anxiety and nightmares and all that shit.”
He ‘hmms,’ kissing the top of your head. “Have you eaten yet?”
“…does leftover pizza at three in the morning count?”
He sighs, exasperated and amused. “Okay, time for food.”
“I can’t,” you whimper, tears coming back as frustration swells in your chest. “I’m too tired to eat.”
Piotr shushes you, gently drying your cheeks with a tissue. “What if I bring you something?”
You stomach churns with guilt and self-loathing. “I’m not a baby. I don’t… I shouldn’t need people to make food for me.”
“No, not baby,” Piotr agrees, kissing your cheek. “But you are unwell.”
“I’m not sick!”
“Unwell is unwell,” Piotr states, voice brokering no room for debate (though it never loses that gentle intonation of his). “If I bring you food, will you eat?”
You hesitate, then manage a small nod. “Something small, please. I don’t want, like, a whole meal.”
Piotr nods. He heads downstairs, then returns a few minutes later with some toast, fruit, a glass of milk –and some Cheetos.
You giggle when you see the fluorescent orange cheese-snacks on your plate. “You do love me.”
“Navsegda.” He hands the plate to you, sets the glass on your nightstand, then waits for you to start in on your toast before speaking again. “I think you should see Dr. Mccoy about fatigue.”
“But I’m not sick,” you argue after swallowing a bite of toast.
“That you know of,” he corrects. “Lots of things can cause fatigue. Is best to check, to make sure more serious problem is not happening.”
“But…” A lump rises in your throat. “What if this is just me now? What if… what if I’m just broken?”
Piotr takes your hand in his. He presses his lips against your knuckles. “Then we know, and we make life suited to your brokenness.”
“I can’t slow everyone down, Piotr,” you insist. Your eyes burn with unshed tears. “I can’t –I can’t be a burden. It’s not fair to everyone else if I’m getting some sort of special treatment because I’m tired.”
“You are not burden,” Piotr declares, gaze boring into yours. “You are never burden. Understand?”
“Piotr—”
“Things happen, myshka. Sometimes, our bodies just… do not work right anymore. You still deserve comfortable, happy life. Nothing is unfair about that. Nothing.” He kisses the back of your hand again when you sigh, then pats your leg. “Finish eating. We go to doctor afterwards.”
 ***
 The only way out is through.
Who would’ve guessed.
 ***
 Dr. McCoy runs a series of comprehensive tests. Thyroid, allergy, iron deficiencies, vitamin deficiencies, glucose levels—
It comes back negative. All of it.
On one hand, it’s a good thing, given that you don’t have some sort of life-threatening condition that needs treating.
On the other hand, you just feel worse. It’s like proof that you have no excuse, that you’re tired for no reason, and that you just need to try harder.
“You are trying,” Piotr says when you admit as much. He draws you into a hug and kisses the top of your head. “We just need to find tools so that trying isn’t so hard.”
“What if there’s nothing?” you ask in a horrified whisper. “What if we try everything and nothing works?”
He kisses the top of your head again. “Then that is okay, too. However you are is okay, myshka.”
 ***
 “How’s the tai chi going?”
You shrug. “It’s fine.” Nathan had switched you over to low impact exercise the second he got wind of your fatigue issues. “Wade likes to do it with me; we like to try and incorporate lame dance moves into our sets to see if Nathan’ll catch us doing it.”
Alyssa chuckles and shakes her head. “And does he?”
“He definitely did when Wade started doing the worm.”
The two of you laugh together.
“And how’s your task setting going?” Alyssa asks when you both settle back down. She grins when you scowl. “Ooh, I knew that’d be your reaction. I knew you were not going to like it one bit. You keep trying to eat the whole whale, sweetheart. You’re gonna choke!”
“I know, I know.” You sigh, frustrated and dejected in equal measure. “It’s just… hard. I used to be able to do so much more. And now –it’s like my body was stolen away from me.”
“I know, sweetheart. And I’m so sorry. But it’s important that you learn to readjust your scope for what’s reasonable and what’s not. Otherwise, you’re gonna keep spinning yourself in anxious circles –and you’re gonna keep making the fatigue worse by overworking yourself.”
You groan and rub at your face with your hands. “It just… it feels wrong! Like I’m being lazy! I don’t have a reason to be so tired.”
“Sure you do,” Alyssa says, as if it’s that simple. “Your body is healing. You spent a lifetime being traumatized and abused. Your body put itself on hold to help keep you alive. You’ve dealt with your anxiety, depression, and trauma to the point where you’re stable, so now all those years of stress and pain are finally catching up. This is your body’s way of saying ‘hey, it’s my turn!’ So, now you need to listen to it.”
“But what if I don’t get better?” you ask, voice fraying. “What if I’m like this forever?”
She shrugs, tucking her braids over her shoulder. “That could happen; the amount of trauma you went through would be more than enough to result in a permanent presentation of chronic fatigue syndrome. But it could also get better, too. There’s no point in trying to predict the outcome.”
“But if I don’t get better, I’ll have to step down from being an X-Man.”
“There is more to this life than being an X-Man, honey,” Alyssa says, smiling warmly at you. “You have an entire world to discover. You just might have to do it at a different pace than everyone else. Your goal isn’t to get back to being an X-Man. Your goal is to take care of yourself.”
You tuck your knees under your chin and wrap your arms around your legs. “That doesn’t feel like enough.”
“How come?”
“Because it’s me. I have to do more to make up for the fact that it’s me.”
Alyssa points her pen at you. “That’s the anxiety and depression talking. You are more than enough, just as you are. Your worth is not based on your productivity or what you can offer to society. It’s based on your existence as a human being, that’s all.”
You drop her gaze, opting to look down at the ornate, ocean blue rug she keeps in her office instead.
“I want you to keep working on adjusting your goal setting,” Alyssa says as she jots down a few notes in your file. “Three things a day, whether it’s chore, work, or self-care related. Nothing else goes on that list unless you need to remember to do it, like taking your meds. Okay?”
You mutter your assent.
“Attagirl. I also want you to do your positive affirmations. Three times a day, plus whenever you get caught in negative thought patterns.”
You groan and slump down on the couch. “No! Positive affirmations suck!”
“They’re wonderful,” Alyssa fires back, chuckling. “They’re so good for you, so good for your brain…” She laughs when you retch, then closes your file and stands. “Alright, sweetheart. Keep at it. I’ll see you next week.”
Piotr looks up when you walk out of Alyssa’s office. “All done?”
“She’s making me do more positive affirmations,” you grumble (you can hear Alyssa laugh at your admission).
“Ah, is good for you,” Piotr says as he ushers you down the hall. “Good to say truth out loud.”
You retch again. “Not you, too. I need to go find Wade. He’ll understand.”
Your husband chuckles and shakes his head. “Come on, myshka. Back home with you.”
“Why does it have to be so far?” you groan. “It’s so much walking.”
“Are you feeling tired?”
You sigh. “Honestly, yeah. I’m really wiped out.”
Piotr puts an arm around your shoulder in a one-armed hug. “I am sorry, moya lyubov’. Would you like me to carry you?”
“I shouldn’t need carrying.”
Piotr stops. He cups your face in his massive hands, making you look up at him. “Is not about ‘should’ or ‘should not.’ If your body needs help, then you need help.”
You hesitate, but ultimately nod. “Yeah. I’d be nice if you carried me.”
He nods. He waits until you two are outside, then kneels so you can clamber on his back. “Hop on, myshka.”
You loop your arms around his neck. You wait until he has his arms looped around your legs, then point in the direction of your house. “Home, Jeeves.”
Piotr chuckles. “I am transport service, now?”
“Damn right.” You gently slap his burly chest. “Mush. I want Poptarts.”
Piotr laughs again, then sets off across the lawn.
 ***
 You’re not alright. Not technically. Alyssa’s right that you’ve been hurt. Healing takes time, and you’re just beginning your journey.
But you’ve got Piotr. Your family. Your friends. You’ve got Dr. McCoy and Alyssa as professional support. You have a home to rest in when you’re weary.
You’re okay –and on the days that you’re not, you will be.
And that’s more than enough.
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juli3113 · 4 years ago
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How are you so cute ??!
Here’s a Saida fanfic I posted on ao3 (my @ is dawsydawsy). I hope anyone that sees this enjoys :)))
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Dahyun is in desperate need of coffee and noise-cancelling headphones. The local coffee shop might have a little more in store.
I'm so sorry I suck at summaries but basically, cute girl meets cute girl and cute ish ensues :)
(This is my first fanfiction so constructive criticism is very much welcome)
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Wow.
Dahyun had never had such a terrible morning.
Ever.
It was honestly impressive how everything went as badly as it could've.
Class started at 10:45. Dahyun's alarm goes off at 9:00. Under normal circumstances she would've heard it, gotten out of bed, had breakfast, get dressed and leave, no problem. Only issue was that Dahyun had been working on a late assignment till 4:00 am and her sleep-deprived brain decided to interpret the alarm sound as a beautiful melody to accompany her dreams. And so, it's 10:10 am, Campus is 30 minutes away and Dahyun hasn't even brushed her teeth.
Shit shit shit shit shiiiiiit !!! I'm so fuckeddddd !
In a record-breaking 7 minutes, she's out the door in an oversized hoodie and tracksuit bottoms, with too many art supplies to carry. Could've been worse... right ? Nope. Running is not Dahyun's strong suit, especially not with what felt like 4 golden retrievers in her arms, so she gets to the station absolutely dead, breathing like someone just punched her in the guts, only to see that there's been a delay, the next train is arriving in 15 minutes which will get her to class 10 minutes late. Could be worse ? Fuck. Today starts with Mr Lee. Dahyun really wasn't in the mood to be chewed out in front of her class for a good part of the lecture.
I could just... not go.
Tzuyu's in that class with her, she could just... ask for her notes. She wouldn't be too mad...
Nice one Kim Dahyun, avoiding your problems one day at a time.
...
.............
..............................
Ugh................................................................
No.
Not this time. "I'll go and get my ass kicked, but at least I showed up."
And with this brave, newfound confidence she sat down and patiently awaited her almost certain ass whooping.
**********************
Yep.
She was right, and what an ass-whooping it was.
After a long gruelling 2 hours of pain and intense disapproving stares from a pissed Mr Lee, it was over. The hard part was done.
It wasn't the best start to the day but Dahyun's an optimist, things could get better... Boy did they.
Dahyun didn't have any more classes that day so she figured she could just grab a coffee and sketch for a while. She didn't go to the campus coffee place much but it was close and convenient so why not ? Dahyun opened the door to the small brick building protruding out of the Science block's side. She was instantly hit with the smell of beans, soil, citrus and something sweet. It had a calmer atmosphere than she had expected and looked reasonably comfortable.
Walking up to the counter Dahyun is greeted by one of the most beautiful smiles she had ever seen. The girls in front of her seemed to be a little taller than her, bright orange hair in a low ponytail. Her eyes seemed to gleam a gentle shade of brown that made Dahyun want to melt on the spot. How was this girl so pretty and why had she never seen her before ??
"Hi, what can I get you ?" She sounded like Dahyun had been the person she was waiting to see all day, and it made her want to scream into a pillow or something.
"Uhm... Can I get a matcha green tea please ?"
"Yep no problem, anything else ?"
"Nope that's okay." Dahyun gave her a small smile she was praying came out alright.
"Okay great, name please ?"
"Dahyun."
Alright ! Go ahead and take a seat I'll bring it over in a sec."
Dahyun nodded and smiled, as she turned away she could feel the violent thumping of her heart. How in the hell did that small interaction make her gay panic to this extent ? Get it together man.
She found a table that was decently secluded and sat down after what felt like years, she opened one of her bags, pulled out her biggest sketchbook and got to work, earphones at full volume. She had been working on a portrait of her friend Jihyo, whom she truly believed to be one of the most beautiful people alive.
After a few minutes, she saw the pretty barista walking towards her with her matcha in hand. Mentally preparing herself to say thank you without stuttering she took our an earphone from her ear but got surprised at how loud the music coming from it was. Before she could lower the volume she was there, in front of her.
"Oh my god is that dreamcatcher ?" Dahyun looked at her with surprise.
"Yeah, I'm a big fan."
Ah that's so great ! No one I know listens to them its so frustrating."
"Haha I get your pain, I managed to get my roommate to listen to them tho. She's almost more of a fan than me now." Hearing her laugh at that made Dahyun feel like she was made of static.
"Nice !! I'm Sana by the way."
"I'm Dahyun."
"I know, I got you your drink" she said with a light airy laugh.
"Oh yeah..." Dahyun chuckled and looked down at the cup, when she looked back at Sana she was beaming at her, she looked as bright as the sun to the point where Dahyun felt a little warmer.
Was this real ? Was this really happening to her right now ? A beautiful stranger starting a conversation with her ? Thank god for dreamcatcher.
"My morning shift is almost over, is it okay if I come sit with you after ?"
"Yeah of course ! I've got coursework to finish, you're welcome to join."
"Great, see you later" she added with a wink.
If Dahyun looked as red as she felt she must have looked ridiculous, but it didn't matter. Whatever dream this was, she didn't want it to end.
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qrovidcore · 4 years ago
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hey what’s up tumblr i’ve now seen hbo’s watchmen all the way through Three Fucking Times and i very well may go for a fourth if given an excuse whoops and apparently i can’t stop thinking about Laurie’s joke in She Was Killed By Space Junk, no i’m not the first person to analyze this and i’m sure i won’t be the last but i sure do have some Thoughts^TM,  so here’s some meta let’s go.
major spoilers ahead for the entire series:
Hey, it’s me again. I’ve got a joke. Stop me if you’ve heard this one. There’s this guy, he’s a bricklayer. He’s really good at it. He’s a real master of his craft. Because he’s precise. Every brick has its place. Anyway this guy has a daughter and he’s gonna teach her to be a bricklayer because after all, all a man has is his legacy. So dad decides to build a barbecue in the backyard. He does the math. He figures out exactly what he needs and he shows the daughter how to do everything. Step by step. And when he finishes, it’s a beauty. It’s a perfect barbecue. Just the way he drew it in blueprints. Only one problem. There’s a brick left over. One single brick. The guy freaks out. He must have done something wrong. He’s gonna have to start all over again. So he picks up his sledgehammer to knock the thing to pieces and his daughter suddenly says ‘daddy wait! I have an idea.’ She picks up the orphan brick and throws it up into the air as high as she can. And then…shit. Messed it up.
Okay forget that joke. Can I tell you another one?
As I said, I’m not the first to break down that Laurie is referring to specific people who have an influence on the story, there’s plenty of meta posts online that’ll say the same thing. I just think this is a Really Clever way to introduce us to her, to the major players in this story, and to the events from the comic that are going to end up being referenced. Anyhow, the bricklayer here is The Comedian. Laurie’s father. I’ll get back to this and how it connects later, but given that one of Watchmen’s major themes is the concept of legacy - who carries it and how, and what happens when that legacy is painful - this is a neat little hook into that idea. Laurie’s dad’s legacy. What she’s done with it, what she’s going to do with it, how she feels about it. Again, coming back to that.
Okay. Forget the brick. New joke. Three heroes die and they all show up at the pearly gates. God’s there and he’s going to decide what their eternal fate shall be: heaven or hell. Our first hero is dressed up like a big owl. God says to him “I gifted you the ability to make fantastic inventions. What did you do with this amazing talent?” Owl guy says “I made this really awesome flying ship and lots of cool outfits and weapons so I could bring peace to the city.” God asks, “So how many people did you kill?” Owl guy seems offended. He says “Zero. I didn’t take a single life.” God frowns. “Sorry owl guy, your heart’s in the right place but you’re just too soft.” God snaps his fingers and the hero goes to hell.
I'm not super into the comic so it took me a while to get that she's referencing Nite Owl. I think this is strange since he doesn't appear in the show himself, whereas everyone else she talks about does, but I suppose it gives a more rounded-out view of the different approaches to heroism, and what exactly constitutes it, and also ties in another one of the original Minutemen. They did cut this over her arrest of Mr. Shadow in the bank, which makes me wonder about his role and why he appeared, and I still find it strange that this part of the joke wasn't about someone who had more of a presence in the show. (Though that being said, DC making fun of Batman, their own big-ticket character? 10/10 thank you for this).
Where was I? The pearly gates await our next hero in line for Almighty judgment. Our hero number two is confident he can game this out because that’s his God-given talent: smarts. Some might even say he’s the smartest man in the world. “So what did you do with that big brain I gave you?” asks God. “As a matter of fact, I saved humanity, ”says Smarty Pants. “Well how’d you do that,” asks God.” “Well I dropped a giant alien squid on New York and everybody was so afraid of it they stopped being afraid of each other.” “OK,” says God. “How many people did you kill?” Smarty Pants smiles. “Three million, give or take. But you can’t make an omelet without breaking a couple of eggs. “Christ,” God says. “You’re a fucking monster.”  “Am not,” says Smarty Pants. God snaps his fingers and our hero goes to hell.
GOD YES PLEASE DRAG OZYMANDIAS. GET THIS FUCKER’S ASS. Though the line that’s sticking out to me here is “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a couple of eggs.” Watchmen’s got an egg motif - and that’s an entire post on its own - and wow this is a place to drop it. I find it interesting that it’s given to Adrien here. Especially since it comes back later, when Will tells Angela that that’s what Jon said in justification of giving his life to stop the 7th K/Cyclops and Trieu. Eggs are used for a lot of things, but this line ties the motif solidly to a value of life here - how Adrien is the way he is because he refuses to value other peoples’, and maybe how Jon is the way he is because, when you can see the future laid out before you and live knowing how you’re going to die, how do you learn to value your own?
Okay. We’re down to the nitty gritty now. One hero left. God cracks his knuckles ready to administer the final reckoning. Now Hero Number 3 is pretty much a god himself. So for the sake of telling them apart, he’s blue and he likes to stroll around with his dick hanging out. He can teleport, he can see into the future, he blows shit up. He’s got actual superpowers. Regular God asks Blue God what have you done with these gifts?” Blue God says “I fell in love with a woman, I walked across the sun, and then I fell in love with another woman. I won the Vietnam War. But mostly I just stopped giving a shit about humanity.” God sighs. “Do I even need to ask how many people you’ve killed?” Blue guy shrugs. “A live body and a dead body have the same number of particles so it doesn’t matter. And it doesn’t matter how I answer your question because I know you’re sending me to hell.” “How do you know that?” asks God. Blue God sounds very sad when he softly says “Because I’m already there.” And so, a mere piston in the inevitable of time and space God does what he did and will do. He snaps his fingers and the hero goes to hell.
And now, we’ve got Jon. Dr. Manhattan. It's a neat moment of insight into his actions, motives, and how those are perceived by others (namely Laurie), and it's a nice thread of introduction to his previous actions to drop for audiences who haven't read the comics (actually, I can make this point about Adrien’s part of the joke too). Especially because most of what we get of Jon in-show is his relationship with Angela, his entire character arc really revolves around her and we don't see him portrayed as the contentious, unfeeling figure the world sees him as. So this sort of contrast between him as a figure and him as a person is very telling, doubly so coming from someone who it's clear knew him. And I really appreciate that there’s just as much stiffness as there is warmth to the Jon we the audience see - he’s kind, he’s loving, but he’s also very matter-of-fact and deterministic, and that bit of characterization really spans the gap between these two versions of him.
And so it’s been a long day at the pearly gates. All the heroes have gone to hell. His work done, God’s packing up to go home and then he notices someone waiting. But it’s not a hero, it’s just a woman. “Where did you come from?” asks God. “Oh I was just standing behind those other guys the whole time, you just didn’t see me.” “Did I give you a talent,” God asks. “No, none to speak of,” says the woman.  God gives her a good long look. “I’m so sorry. I’m embarrassed. Seriously, this almost never happens but I don’t know who you are.” And the woman looks at God and she quietly says “I’m the little girl who threw the brick in the air.” And a sound from above, something falling: the brick. God looks up but it’s too late. He never saw it coming. It hits him so hard, his brains shoot out his nose. Game over. He’s dead. And where does God go when he dies? He goes to hell. 
Into some Thoughts^TM that I haven’t seen anyone theorize yet(?): I think God is meant to be Lady Trieu, and even if Laurie wouldn’t know this yet that’s some brilliant fucking foreshadowing. It's not as exact, but enough parallels are there that I think they're purposeful. It makes Trieu out as the ultimate judge of everyone - and in a way, she is. She sees herself as the most deserving of power of everyone, and it's her who kills Dr. Manhattan - sends him to hell, you could say, and he knows she's going to do it. It also hints at how she's going to die too, crushed by her machine falling from the sky like the brick, because she didn't expect anyone would be capable of stopping her. And where does God go when he dies? He goes to hell. Trieu isn't ultimately above the others, and she's subject to their justice as they are to hers. 
Fitting too that Laurie is involved with the plan to stop Trieu, since, as I said I’d come back to, the girl who threw the brick is Laurie herself. Her depiction of herself in this way is representative, perhaps, of Laure's own feelings on vigilantism and what justice is, and that she's the force that's going to bring down these overblown personalities and their many incorrect uses of their abilities. Given this, it's interesting to think how the "failed" joke at the beginning connects, given that Laurie's dad is the bricklayer, and he's definitely... not a good person, or at least not in this continuity. But I wonder if it's indicative of what Laurie mentions about her parents training her up to do vigilante stuff (especially since she’s based in part(?) on a member of the Minutemen from the comic), and how she feels about her father and his work. If the brick is symbolic of his work as a vigilante, is Laurie throwing the brick in the air, and ultimately taking down the threat at the top, meant to indicate how she sees herself using what she learned from him, or - maybe and - a disrespect for his work based on her justified hatred of him?
Roll on snare drum. Curtains. Good joke. 
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edwardslostalchemy · 4 years ago
Note
the thing that kills me about bakugou is when the plf go "having a powerful quirk means i'm better than you"and basically advocate for eugenics, it's horrible and corrupt, but when bakugou does it, it's lol funny and 'oh that gremlin.' in a recent chapter he made fun of the past OFA holders for having 'weak' quirks and dying and he said these things in front of Toshi, who has himself given so much. just...what was the point of him knowing about OFA if he was just going to be a disrespectful ass?
I have no idea why it was necessary for him to know, tbh. I think it was a waste of an opportunity to give him growth by NOT telling him. And honestly, I agree that k*tsuki and the plf have similar ideals because they’re elitists. :/ They think they’re better than others. Unironically, the lov wanting k*tsuki on their side would have been like, them all sharing this same thought. Idk, I just don’t like him. The things he says and does are played off as comedic relief now and it’s honestly so annoying. He needs to be brought down from his pedestal. 
(I have multiple messages so I am putting them all in one post under a read more, I hope it works, but if somehow it doesn’t, I’m really sorry. My computer says it works, but mobile doesn’t show it. This will be a long post.)
Anonymous said:
You know... I wouldn’t mind Bakugou winning vs Ochako so much if his blast had simply redirected enough rubble for him to make it though the pelting, and the fight had ended with an actual visible inflicted injury on his part, like a cut on his face, that stuck around for the rest of the tournament. Make the close call have more concrete, visible consequences for him then his arms aching a bit.
I agree with this completely. That thing about his arms aching doesn’t show much of the consequences at all. And he gets over it rather quickly. I hate that he has so much plot armor.
Anonymous said:
Ngl i dont ship Todo/deku (dont really ship Izuku with anyone lol) but its such a nice ship like?? People can ship what they want but why ship Baku/deku when Tododeku is RIGHT THERE. I would rather have todo/deku be the twin stars like.. Todoroki having to overcome his fathers legacy and be a better hero then his father ever could be while Izuku perpetuates all mights legacy and carries the legacy of One For All?? Poetic cinema
+ I SENT AN ASK ABOUT PREFERRING TODO/DEKU TO BAKU/DEKU AND I WANTED TO ADD SOMETHING SKSKS. we could totally have an "its your power" moment. Izuku getting Todo to accept his left side and Todo getting Izuku to remember that OFA is his power now.
Todo/deku is really the poetic cinema we need and deserve. Idk why people like b*kud*ku, that’s what they prefer, but the ship itself is not healthy in the slightest and I find it pretty disturbing. I agree with you, nony. Everything you said is correct.
Anonymous said:
If I'm gonna be honest the whole "he was raised in a household of screaming and abuse" isn't a good enough reason as to why Bakugo has no chill. Like we've seen people like Todoroki raised in a household much worst but he didn't come out as a jerk or bully. I'd like to see more of Bakugo's interactions with his parents but for the most part the dad seems like a pushover and his mom is just loud at times. But no where close to Endeavor. So yeah Bakugo shut up challenge
Yeah, idk how their dynamic works, it’s just mitsuki screaming at k*tsuki while his dad tries to intervene, but doesn’t do a good job about it. I don’t like that she smacked his head. But I think people really stretch it to give him a tragic backstory when in reality, he doesn’t have one. He is a spoiled brat. Shouto has proven how to be a better person. He’s just a better character in general.
Anonymous said:
This might be long but I want to get something off my chest and I love your blog so I used to like bk//dk. If you asked me why. It's because I was enamored by the fanon ver of this pair with a better bkg and the whole appeal of childhood 'friends'/reconciliation trope it had going on and some fans have convinced me that their relationship wasn't as bad as it's portrayed before UA and that bkg was only like that because of society and thinking Izuku was "looking down" at him. 1/3
Thinking about it. it's really stupid and the verge of victim blaming but anyways. What stopped me from liking it and instead hating the pair is that after dk vs kc 2 I was expecting the improvement in their relationship, for a moment I thought we got it. But in reality it's just bc we haven't seen them interact much after the overhaul arc and before the joint training arc.Then the joint arc came and the 2nd internship arc came and whoo boy, I feel like I was cheated on. 2/3
Rather than making bkg's behavior improve towards Izuku, He's still as much of an asshole who belittles him, mocks him ,acts like he can't stand him but less threats of killing him combined with Izuku who just takes it because he's a nice person. But the narrative acts like their good friends now and I have been feeling so frustrated with this, I wanted a mutual relationship with mutual respect on both sides and bk//dk hasn't reached that part and it shouldn't take this long for it to be. 3/3
Thank you for sharing this with me, nony!! I appreciate it. It’s really sad that their relationship hasn’t improved at all. It’s so long overdue and now things are played as comedic relief like him hurting Izuku with his spike and also being extremely disrespectful during the ofa meetings. Their relationship isn’t healthy and it isn’t friendly, no matter how canon wants to paint it that way.
Anonymous said:
the only reason bkg gets to know OFA is because he guilted Izu into telling him a half truth in S1 then guilted AM and Izu with his tantrum in S3 He also had the privilege to know Izu since childhood and saw AFO so he had the advantage Izuku would have never told him otherwise. Same time Izuku's friends don't "deserve" to know about OFA, rather, Izuku deciding to tell them himself will make the revelation to them more special since its Izu deciding to tell a piece of himself than being forced to
HOT TAKE
@havocsss said:
i just wanted to say i appreciate your opinion on bnha about bakugo (bc someone finally said it 👀) and you put into words for me how i feel abt that character - and that's partly why i just can't watch it. he's the bully that everyone idolises and gets let away with murder and naaaah mate that's not how it works
Thank you, I’m glad to hear it. I don’t like that he, a literal bully who has suicide baited Izuku and has hurt him with his explosion quirk, is the fandom’s favorite and the most popular character. Literally any other character would have been better to stan than him. He’s everywhere and I can’t enjoy part of the series because of him always being there. It’s so annoying. I will continue to yell about why he is not a good character until horikoshi gives us the development he desperately needs AND an apology to Izuku for being so abusive to him. And yes, bullying is abuse.
Anonymous said:
I know that feeling. I also greatly dislike Bakugou. He almost ruins the manga for me at times. I can't even think of a plot with Izuku where Hori won't try to include him in some way. I tried reading metas abt him, tried to look at him in a different light but I realised that I really hate his personality, combined with his overhyped popularity just makes me can't stand him. I wish I could even just be neutral for him but that's being a challenge.
Yeah, he’s not a good character. Very infuriating and annoying. We do not stan him in this house.
Anonymous said:
I feel like if Aizawa actually knew that Bakugou used to bully Izuku he'd probably whoop Bakugou's ass
OOF I’d like to see him expel him.
Anonymous said:
I like how it's framed like I'm supposed to feel sorry for Bakugou because he feels manpain for not being the strongest in the class. Like the dude went from a regular school to the best of the best and he still expected to be the strongest person there is with no challenge?
Awww, is the spoiled brat sad? Good. He can die mad about it.
Anonymous said:
If Aizawa did the combat training instead of All Might he would've stopped Bakugou the first time he used his gauntlets and automatically failed him and I really wish that would've been the outcome
Tbh he should have been expelled for trying to kill a classmate.
Anonymous said:
Oh yeah I remember that character entrance when he just basically I insults his partner for training. Look I love the kid but if I was a teacher I would've flamed him so hard like there could've been a hostage, that weapon could have went off, his partner could've been captured. That's how you ended up failing the license exam
OOF. When will he learn.
Anonymous said:
Um excuse the ever living fuck out of me but I just saw a fic that was bakugou/consequences where Izuku attempted suicide and you know what the ship was?? My pure green son who deserves the world and his literal bully/abuser are you SHITTING ME???? I try very hard not to hate ships I do really try but I just CAN'T with this ship it disgusts me
It's not a healthy ship. I am disturbed by this fic and I don’t even know what it’s called and I don’t want to know. Eww.
Anonymous said:
I see myself as Izuku cause I relate to him a lot and I just read something where Bakugou does what my abuser did to me to Izuku and now I'm having a very hard time stomaching the thought of him and like I really loved kiri/baku too but now I can't even think about it cause someone who shipped my notp thought it would be a good idea to make Bakugou an abuser and give Izuku Stockholm syndrome ☹
Oh nony…I’m so sorry to hear about that. That really sounds rough and I hope you’re feeling better. That sounds awful. I’m just…I’m appalled. Also giving Izuku Stockholm syndrome with this ship is just. Wow.
46 notes · View notes
chaotic-noceur · 4 years ago
Text
regarding pragma.
read it here
Dear @softpedropascal
wow this took so much longer than I thought it would whoops.
So, first off- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope you have the bestest day ever cuz you deserve it!
I’m incapable of forming coherent thoughts so um...here’s a cumulative post of my running commentary because my binge reading plans got disrupted so this seemed... neater? Idk. anyways, here you go. 
Part 1
No matter how many meetings and mediations you two went through, he still found a reason to keep dragging this out.
I read this as ‘meetings and meditations’ and was very confused for a sec 😂
That hat. You got him that hat. He still wore it?
omg u gave the hat a backstory. adkgadflhg 😍
He was tempted. God, was he tempted, but he shook his head and stood up straight. 
This just. Yes. We love a respectful man. 
I love all the little hints that you’re dropping about the reader and Frankie’s backstory. 
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 2
He told himself long ago that be would never forgive her for what she did,
WHAT DID I DO OMG.
“Can’t you, I dunno, sign for him?” he asked.
😂😂Frankie. Sweetheart. Who do you take me for? I can’t forge someone’s signature. I don’t have the skills for that. 
There was a reason he didn’t say goodbye. He was afraid to. He was afraid that if he said them again, he would have to go another five years without seeing her. Or has it been longer?
mY hEaRt
Pope and and Frankie’s ENTIRE interaction. 😍 I love that he can see right through Frankie’s bs, loves him anyways but will give it to him straight. 
He was too busy thinking about how if he had gotten his shit together, he could be living here with her, taking walks to his favorite lake every day.
asdfgadfkglhdf!!! Boo it ain’t all your fault 😢 (or is it 😏)
It’s funny how the simplest touch can cause the most complex feelings—feelings that he had sworn he buried deep inside of him somewhere. It was a complicated thing trying to be angry at her because in that moment all was forgotten and forgiven.
the DEPTH. in these sentences. oml. I’m so ready to learn about this complicated backstory.  
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 3
“I can make him sign ‘em,” he offered.
YES. I love a low key threatening boi.
“Yeah, until you decided I wasn’t good enough,” 
“Did you want to show me what I could have had with you if I wasn’t such a fuck up.” He sighed and put his hands on his hips.
AFGHSKF OMG MY HEART.
“I’m trailing water and mud all over the place but just remember that I saved your life before getting mad, okay?” 
“Nothing. Just like saying your name.”
ahhhh these are precious!!  
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 4
“Yeah. People do that right? Day dates?” He honestly wasn’t sure. Dates weren’t his forte.
🥺 someone help him. He’s so cute omg. 
“We might’ve made out a little too,” he mumbled.
aksfhksdfg look at him turning into a flustered boy!!!
“No. I just…stopped looking up,”
Babes. Idk if the double meaning was intentional but like. Wow. That hit hard. 
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 5
and has a name like ‘Bill’ or ‘Tom’.”
oop. We love a subtle Redfly dig 😂
!!!! IDK WHAT TO BLOCKQUOTE BUT OMG FRANKIE BEING PROTECTIVE. THE READERS BACKSTORY. FRANKIE KISSING AT THE PAST BRUISES. ANGRY FRANKIE OMG. 😭
I’m sorry there’s probably some more amazing stuff after that but t’was not a good ace day so i skipped the smut
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 6
You hid your body from him at first and when he moved your hands, you covered your face. Then he told you to never hide from him—he would always think you were beautiful
🥺🥺 this is so soft omg
sorry skipped the smut but im sure it was beautiful
“I’m not going anywhere.” You moved his arms so you could kneel in front of him. “I’m staying.”
*incoherent screaming*
“You can ask me for anything. I would give up everything I for you.”
The whole ending scene was AMAZING okay but this. This line right here. Big hurt omg. He knows the weight of what he’s saying. He knows how hard the road to recovery is and how many things are gonna try push him off that path. But he says it anyways. And it really really shows just how much she means to him. Brava! 
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 7
lmao I really need to start reading the warnings 😂
She was never going to be sad longer than necessary if he had anything to do about it.
WHERE CAN I GET A FRANKIE OML 😭
“That no matter where we were, when we look up, we’re looking at the same moon.” He looked at her though she was still looking up. “That always kept me going, you know?”
THE SOFT. AHHHHHH
The moonlight seemed to shine directly on her and make her glow like some ethereal being. She was an angel. She had to be. The stars twinkled above them but he had his own right here right now.
eXcUsE mE. wHo gAvE yOu tHe rIgHt tO wRiTe sOmEtHIng tHiS bEAuTiFul
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 8
“Stop ruining my romantic moment, please.
HAHAHAH I LOVE!
I can’t even- Omg. This whole chapter. I have no words
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 9
“I can’t,” he said, voice broken. “Please just let me…let me hold you. Let me…”
IDK THE FULL CONTEXT TO THIS (really hating my ace-ness rn cuz this last line is so heartfelt) BUT OMG BROKEN FRANKIE I JUST. ARGHHH
you realized that you were embracing your entire world right then and there. Letting it go would be the hardest thing you’d ever do.
take my heart and crush it why don’t you omg. 😭😍
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 10
She was hurt again. And it was his fault again.
I can’t do it. I can’t be alone anymore.
asdfghjk GURL. WHO HURT YOU OMG. LEMME HURT THEM BACK. 
His world spun and he felt like he was falling. He fell and fell into the abyss with no one there to save him as the bag felt like it was burning a hole in his hand. Is it hot? He felt hot. Burning up. Had he finally died and gone to hell? God knows that’s where he belonged.
No. It’s just an overwhelming darkness. Nothing. And that’s what he wanted, right? To feel nothing.
*VERY INCOHERENT SCREAMING* This is beautiful writing omg. The raw emotion in this. Holy hell. 
oml. That transition from pure pain and angst into love just *chefs kiss*. Frankie deserves so much 😭
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 11
“It wasn’t supposed to make you cry,”
wHat eLsE wAs iT sUpPoSeD tO dO omg. 
This whole chapter was SO CUTE!!! The way that Frankie just knows things about her. UGH. 
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 12
“What if it’s big and pulls me in?!”
MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY OMG
“I don’t wanna die,” he whispered.
His life felt as though it was falling apart all over again and he realized it was because she was the one that held him together and now that he was leaving, everything was one big mess again.
*inaudible screaming*
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 13
That ending tho! I love that you gave them their own little thing with the moon. Its so sweet 🥰and the Pope-Frankie friendship moments. *melts*
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 14
okay i was gonna blockquote but there was too much to quote This whole chapter felt so raw omg. If you’re pulling from real experience then I’m so sorry you ever had to go through that *pulls you into the biggest hug ever* (assuming you like hugs, if you don’t... i send you an affectionate ‘rubbing my forehead into your shoulder’)
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 15
“You could’ve walked in here with your head shaved and I’d still love it…but…please don’t.”
😂 yessss give me the humour in this sad
still haven’t learnt to read the warnings oml 🤦🏻‍♀️
ahhhh the soft reassuring Frankie content!!!!
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 16
“Probably because it’s Wednesday,” he said.
“It is?” you asked.
“Yeah. What day did you think it was?”
I FEEL SO ATTACKED OMG. What even is time anymore.
asfadsdfgdhk Its so SOFFTTT. Is this what it’s like to fall in love??😭
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 17
hallelujah i’ve finally learnt to read the warnings
ngaww Frankie being all excited and soft 🥺🥺 are they going camping?? are we gonna get Frankie in his element??
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 18
I’m as flat as a board back there.
I feel attacked and this wasn’t even directed at me oml 😂😂
tHeY aRe sO iN lOvE oMg 😍
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 19
I get it, it’s embarrassing, but I’m not judging you for it.
YES. In this house, we don’t judge people who are struggling to find jobs!
“I wouldn’t say them if you didn’t deserve them. You deserve good things, Frankie. You may not feel like you do but you do. Always.”
He sighed and rubbed your back. “If you say it then it must be true.”
*incoherent screaming* we all deserve good things okay 😭
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 20
thank you for the warnings that i’ve finally learnt to read before reading the fic
What if I’m a lost cause? Just some pathetic druggie who can’t get his shit together…mooching off his girl.
NOOO You’re not just some pathetic druggie Frankie😭😭
“Sleepovers? Do I get to paint your nails? Do your hair?”
Our love has aged gracefully kinda like us.
THE SOFT OMG 🥺🥺
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 21
“With all due respect, sir, I’m not and have never been an addict. Yeah, I did drugs. Yes, I hurt your daughter and she had to leave, but you know what, we’re together now and nothing’s gonna change that. She’s forgiven me and she loves me and that’s all that matters.”
YAS. I love this change from nervous wreck to confidence! 
This is so happy and soft and sweet oml. My angsty soul doesn’t know how to deal. 😭
⫷⫸ ⫷⫸ ⫷⫸
Part 22
Sweet baby jesus. It was soft. And then it was not. And then it was soft again and I just. *incoherent screaming* GURL. 
❖❖❖❖❖
ludus
I’m gonna have a house right on the other side of the lake.
asdfgI I Have Feelings.
GURLLL. This was so innocent!! They’re both so young and cute and asgalsfjghsd. 
❖❖❖❖❖
eros
“Are you running away from something?” she asked, and he bristled. “From me because you love me and don’t know how to say it?”
*incoherent screaming* well shit. you go gurl! you call him on his crap!
I skimmed the smut but like Frankie being a nervous wreck is 🥺
If you wanna see someone else while I’m gone, you can.
*more screaming because OMG if only he knew what that would lead to*
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ania
O damn. I kinda loved his slow descend into darkness... The fact that the reader still clings on to hope and love and just, damn. I’m lost for words. 
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coda
... 
...
that’s all my brain feels right now. that was dark, but like. a good dark. It was heart wrenching but beautiful and- “I won’t be able to find you if I’m lost myself,” THIS. I just. *chefs kiss* but also, *ugly sobbing*. 
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shadedrose01 · 5 years ago
Text
Maybe There's a Reason (To Believe You'll Be Okay)
Relationships: Harley Keener & Tony Stark (platonic), Harley Keener/Peter Parker (at the end)
Summary: Harley has a crisis, and Tony helps him through it (with a hint of parkner at the end).
Tags: Remix, Parkner Remix Event, Even though its barely parkner whoops, Emails, Letters, Phone Calls & Telephones, Tony Stark Acting as Harley Keener's Parental Figure, Sexual Identity, Identity Issues, Coming Out, Kinda?, Sexuality, Gay Harley Keener, Crushes, Harley Keener Needs a Hug, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Acceptance, Self-Acceptance, Love, Parental Love, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, tony stark is a dad, why is that not a tag, Parkner is only at the end, for like a paragraph, Just so yall know :)
For the Parkner Discord Remix Event!!
A remix of @official-impravidus ' fic "Sincerely, Me" (which you can read here!)
This is longer, so ao3 link is here!
Hope you all enjoy! Love you lexie!!
--
Wednesday, May 8, 2013, 1:24PM 
Subject: Relationships and Mark V
I don't understand dating. Like, my friend Bryan started dating Rachel today, and that's fine, whatever, but I just don't get it. All they did was hold hands and kiss each other all day. Is that all a relationship is? What even is the point of it? I mean, I know humans are animals and our instincts give us our need to reproduce so we need to find a viable mate and all that stuff, but why do you need to always be together, and hold hands, and do all of that gross stuff too?
Either way, I finally got around to building a mark V for my potato gun! It's just a few upgrades up from the mark IV, for faster shots and farther range, but I think it'll be cool once it's done. 
I hope your day is going okay.
-Harley
 
~~~
 
Wednesday, May 8, 2013, 10:43PM 
Subject: Re: Relationships and Mark V
Relationships are complex, and complicated. Humans are born to reproduce, yes, but dating, and finding a partner is more than that. It's finding someone you're compatible with, who can be there at your best and at your worst, and a bunch of other deep seeded emotions that are hard to explain.
You don't need to worry about that now, though. You'll understand more when you're older, anyways, so I wouldn't worry about it.
My day has been good. More of a lazy day today, Pepper and I ordered some take out and watched movies in our pjs. I didn't have my phone on me per Peppers request, or I would have answered sooner.
As for the Mark V, the updates sound good. Keep me posted, kid.
  -The Mechanic
 
~~~
 
Monday, September 8, 2014, 4:57PM 
Subject: Middle School!!
I started middle school today!! And honestly? It wasn't as exciting as I thought it was gonna be. I knew that movies and tv shows oversell the wow factor of middle school and high school but I didn't think it'd be this dull. I'm still in the same class, with all the same classmates, and my classes are still crazy easy. I had hoped that the increase in grade would make it even a little bit harder, but I knew everything on the outline they gave out before the teachers even started teaching!! It's bonkers!
Apparently this middle school also has a STEM, or "gifted" kid program for kids like me though, so hopefully that'll be harder. I'm still gonna be so bored in my normal classes though. Ugh.
I have the STEM classes tomorrow, so I'll tell you how it goes. I know you've been stuck in those awful meetings lately, but I hope your day is going better than mine.
  -Harley
 
~~~
 
Tuesday, September 9, 2014, 5:04PM
Subject: STEM Program
I had my STEM class day today, and it went a lot better than yesterday did! My teachers are all super nice, especially my math teacher, Mr. Trevor. He immediately starting teaching today, which was awesome, because all of my other normal teachers had a Ice Breaker class first (which I hate, we all already know each other, why do we have to say our names and something about ourselves??), but he just went right into it, and started teaching us trigonometry. I haven't learned any of it before, and I'm super excited to dig into it and find out how it works. It's seeming pretty simple so far, just formulas and using calculators right.
The only bummer is the class I got put with. They all seemed to click and get along well together, but none of them really talked to me much. I don't mind though. I'm more focused on my education anyways.
Also! I saw that Captain America and Black Widow took down SHIELD's headquarters on the news. What was that about? Do you know?? Apparently they leaked files too or something???
I hope everything is okay.
  -Harley
 
~~~
 
Friday, September 12, 2014, 10:27AM 
Subject: Re: STEM Program
Hey kid. Sorry for the late response, things have been hectic here, as you probably know. It's been a PR nightmare, with the whole "Cap took SHIELD down" fiasco. I can't say more than that though. Legal things, NDAs, you know how it is.
I'm glad the STEM classes are testing your abilities more. I know the regular classes can be boring for someone of your intellect, but try to enjoy them while they last, okay? Soon you'll be an adult, and doing adult things, and trust me, it isn't as fun as they make it out to be in the movies either.
Don't worry about those kids too. Give it time, they'll come around.
  -The Mechanic
 
~~~
 
Friday, September 26, 2014, 9:02PM
Subject: Update?
Hi. Just emailed to give an update on me. Everything's been pretty normal, I guess. Abbie's loving elementary school, her teacher, Mrs. Millar, is really nice. I did my trig test today, and I think I did well. Mama's working late again tonight, but that's just normal at this point too.
Have you ever, I dunno. Felt like you were weird? Or strange, or broken? Like, all of your friends are one way, and doing some things, but you aren't, and everyone looks at you weird, and treats you differently?
I don't know. I don't know where I'm going with this. I just feel off tonight. Think I'm going to go to bed early.
I'm sorry.
  -Harley
 
~~~
 
Friday, September 26, 2014, 9:48PM 
Subject: Re: Update?
 
You don't need to apologize, kid. You did nothing wrong.
I used to feel like that, quite frequently if I'm being honest. When I first went to MIT, I felt weird. I stuck out like a sore thumb, and had people talk about me behind my back because of how young I was. But then I met Rhodey, and things got better.
And then Afghanistan happened. And the invasion. Let me tell you kid, I've never felt more broken and alone after that. I had panic attacks, as you know, but I also struggled with a lot of paranoia. Lack of sleeping or eating properly, mixed with trauma does that to you. I was a wreck, and I was so certain I couldn't be fixed. That I'd be like that forever.
And to an extent, I will be. I'll always struggle with it, but it's much, much better now than it used to be. I went to therapy, talking about my feelings, which sucked ass (don't tell your mom I said that), and learned mechanisms to help myself. Learned breathing techniques, practiced meditation, focused more on self care, and now I'm doing so much better.
So, moral of this long, way too personal story. You aren't broken, kid. Whatever is going on, whether it's similar to me or not (I hope not), it'll be okay. You will be okay. Things will work out. And don't worry about what other people think. Focus on yourself, and do what makes you happy, no matter what.
I'm always here if you need to talk, Harley. I might not be much help, or be very good at this whole hormonal preteen emotions thing yet, but I can try.
I'm glad things are going okay outside of that though. I'm glad your sister's settling in well, and I'm sure you aced your test. You're a smart kid.
Goodnight.
  -Tony
 
~~~
 
Tuesday, October 7th, 2014, 3:38PM
Subject: Call
Hey, can we call? I know you're probably busy, and we don't normally do that but I'm kinda freaking out about something and I don't know who else to talk to. My number is (___)  ___-____
  -Harley
 
~~
 
Tuesday, October 7th, 2014, 3:41PM
Subject: Re: Call
Nevermind, ignore that last email. I was being overdramatic, and stupid. I'm fine, everything is okay.
Sorry for bothering you.
  -Harley
 
---
 
He didn't expect anything from the emails. He assumed the older man would've read his last email, and shrugged it off, pretending the previous didn't exist like Harley longed for him too. As he said, he was being dumb. It didn't matter that his heart was pounding, that his brain was screaming at him that he was a freak, and dirty, and so so so wrong , that he was shaking like a leaf and on the verge of tears. It didn't matter. It was stupid. It didn't matter.
He didn't expect that Tony would actually still call him.
He stares at his vibrating cell phone through teary eyes, blurry vision, the number unknown but he knows who it is, knows it because nobody else calls, because when his friends call, they call the home phone, not his phone, so who else could it be?
He blinks the tears out of his eyes, rubbing them away quickly when a few escape, swallowing down his fear and panic and self hatred as he scrambles to pick it up before the call ends (he doesn't think Tony would appreciate it very much if he let it ring to voicemail), stuttering out a shaky, higher pitched "H-Hello?"
"Hey, kid." Tony's voice, much lower and rougher than his, rings through the phone, and Harley braces for the questions, the interrogation he knows is coming, knows Tony's gonna ask him about it, about what's bothering him. Why, why did he email him? Now he's gonna have to tell him what's wrong, now he's gonna have to admit it, admit how wrong and messed up and broken he is- "How was your day?"
Harley jerks back slightly, mouth gaping and eyes wide, caught off guard by the unexpected tame question. "Huh?"
"How was your day?" The man repeats calmly, tone smooth, even, relaxed, like it's a normal conversation on a normal, boring day. Nothing like how Harley is feeling, nothing like the swarming thoughts in his mind, like the flood of emotions in his chest, like the churning in his stomach, the burning ache in his lungs. 
"U-uhm," Damn his stutter, he had grown out of it years ago, why was it suddenly coming back now? "I-it was good." He lies, trying to keep his voice from wavering, trying to keep it steady, trying to stay composed as the tsunami of emotions tries to pull him under. "Yeah."
"Yeah?" Tony prods lightly, voice softening slightly, and Harley shakes his head in a nod, firm, even though Tony can't see it, even as tears start to burn at his eyes again, even his chest winds tighter and tighter and tighter .
"Mhm." He forces out, not trusting himself to speak anymore, his throat closing as his feelings start rising up his esophagus, a sob clawing its way up his throat, trying to escape.
There's a pause, then, a moment when everything freezes. A moment right before the iceberg tips, right before everything crashing and burning down around him, right before the beginning of the end. And then, time starts again, as the mechanic asks, quiet, hushed "What's going on, Harley?"
And Harley crumbles .
The sob rips from his throat, echoing loudly in the large emptiness of his garage, a trembling hand covering his mouth as soon as he does. But the floodgates have already opened, tears are streaming full force down his face, his body shuttering through shaky gasps and shattered sobs. "I-I-Im sorry ," He chokes out as he sits down heavily in his old, pachy wheely chair, curling into himself as his body shutters again. He rubs his eye with the hand on his face, sniffling and coughing through a whimpered, "I-I know you're- you're probably b-busy, you- you don't h-have to-"
"I have nowhere else to be." Tony murmurs simply, cutting off Harley's poor attempt at waving him off, at delaying the inevitable for any longer. Harley lets out a small whine as the older man speaks up again, soft, soothing, repeating gently, "What's going on, kid?"
"I-I dont-" He hiccups, running a hand through his shaggy, too long blond curls, tugging slightly as his knee bounces rapidly. "M-My friends, or my classmates, they- lately, they've been, I don't know, they've been talking- talking more about crushes and girls and stuff." Harley sniffles, tugging his hair harder as his vision starts to blur again, the words tumbling out of his mouth now. "And- and I never really c-cared about it, you know? I never really- really unders-stood it, didn't see the appeal, s-so I didnt m-mind it. But they- they just keep talking about it, and getting g-girlfriends, and-and talking about their bodies and I didnt get the- the i-interest, so I thought maybe something was wrong with me-"
"There isn't." Tony chips in, but Harley just runs right over him, keeps blabbering. He knows it's rude, knows his mama taught him better, but he can't seem to stop talking now that he started, his words getting more and more wobbly, panicked the longer he goes.
"But there is , there is something wrong with me, I- I know there is now, be-because when I-I went to school today, the- the past few days really, I started- started noticing that I started f-feeling weird, and- and it sounds- sounds similar to how the- the others say they feel, but it doesn't make sense , it can't be that, I dont- I cant-" Harley's breath catches, and he grinds his teeth together, refuses to speak another word, refuses to accept it, refuses to admit the god awful truth, refuses to utter the words. Because it can't be right, it can't be true, it can't be-
They sit in silence for a few moments, when he assumes Tony thought he would continue speaking but he wont, he refuses , until the softer, calmer voice returns, slightly staticky through the speaker, but barely more than a whisper, as if he spoke any louder, Harley would shatter. He probably would. "So, if I'm understanding correctly, you think you have a crush, and you're... scared?"
He doesn't sound patronizing, just honest, if a bit curious, but it doesn't help calm Harley any, a higher pitched, frustrated noise escaping the back of his throat, his free hand going out of his hair going back to rubbing at his face, rubbing off the tracks of tears, trying to rub away any sign of upset, until his skin is red and raw. "No, I-I mean, kinda- its not- I can't- god , this is so stupid."
"Its not stupid. I get it." The man responds, and Harley wants to laugh, feels the bitter feeling bubbling in his chest, because does he? How can he get this? Harley doesn't even get this, it doesn't- he shouldn't- "What's her name?"
The sound erupts out of him at that, but instead of laughter like he thought it would be, it's just another pitiful whine, another loud, agonizing sob. Because that's the thing, the thing that's been haunting him ever since he figured it out earlier that day, the issue that's been plaguing his mind and freaking him out, winding him up more and more and more as the day went on until he got home and sent those messages. 
Because- because when he thinks back to earlier that day, he thinks of lunchtime, of sitting at his lunch table with his "friends", of them talking and laughing, of Harley feeling those weird feelings again, especially when he looked across from him, and saw big, forest green eyes, saw a big, toothy grin, saw two small dimples and scattered freckles, saw short, short black hair, saw a sharper, thinner jaw, saw male male male, felt butterflies flutter, and realized he was wrong, wrong, wrong .
Because- "It's not a girl." His voice is small, defeated, barely a whisper, his whole body tensed up in fear, waiting, waiting for his reaction.
There's a pause, before a faint, quiet, sympathetic, "Oh, kid." That Harley immediately the wrong way, because he hates him, oh god he hates him-
"I'm sorry!" He gasps, jerking upright, sitting ramrod straight and the apologies spilling from his mouth. "I'm so sorry, I didnt- I dont mean to, and I-I know its wrong, and I shouldn't, and I-I know I'm weird and- and a freak , and-"
"Hey, hey, woah!" Tony's voice is louder now, stronger, and Harley hushes up immediately, his mouth slamming shut, even as his body trembles with a silent sob. "It's okay, kid. You aren't any of that."
"But- but I am!" Harley whimpers. "I'm w-weird, and everyone else isn't like this , and-"
"Am I a freak?" Again, the random question sends Harley for a loop, trying to grasp onto any of his quickly scattering thoughts.
"W-what?"
He can hear a faint smile, faint amusement in Tony's tone as he asks again, still so so calm, so reassured, "Am I a freak?"
Harley narrows his shining eyes, still full of tears, staring down at the wooden table in front of him, at the chips and nicks covering the side of it, wondering if this is a trick question. "N-No? Of- of course not, you're Iron Man."
He can hear some noise in the background of the call now, squeaking as if someone's leaning back in a chair, before Tony speaks up again, voice full of warm amusement now. "Well, Iron Man has had a few rendezvous with men in the past, and still likes them to this day. Does that make him, and therefore, me, a freak?" When Harley doesn't answer, mostly out of pure shock than anything else, Tony keeps going, tone going serious again. "Kid, I'm gonna get this out there right away. There is nothing wrong with you for liking boys, you hear me?"
He swallows, and wants to agree, longs to agree, but- "But- but my friends, they all like- like girls , and mama, she- she said that traditional marriage was what God wanted and-"
Harley cuts himself off this time, and Tony only waits a few beats before murmuring softly, "Is that what you think?"
He just shrugs, picking at the table, sniffling, whispering quietly, "I don't know what to think anymore."
There's a soft hum and another pause. "You're different, Harley. I'm not going to beat around the bush, you are different." Harley stomach drops. "But," Tony continues, "Kid, you've always been different. You're so smart, way too smart for your own good, if I'm being honest. And there's nothing wrong with that. People may try to bring you down, or kick you while you are down, but you've gotta remember that, okay? There is nothing wrong with you."
Harley waits a few moments, let's the words wash over him and wrap him in a blanket of warmth, of security and comfort, but there's still one little thing that keeps rearing its ugly head, that's still making him antsy. "But, what if I'm just- overreacting? And I don't actually... y-you know." He finishes lamely, still not ready to completely admit to everything yet.
Tony doesn't seem to mind. "Then that's okay too." He says simply, a bit of shuffling coming through the line. "Kid, how old are you again, like twelve?"
He can hear the teasing in his tone, and rolls his eyes as he huffs out, "Thirteen." 
The older man chuckles for a second, before his voice goes back to calm, quiet. "Seriously though, you're thirteen , Kid. You don't need to have everything figured out right away." He snorts, then. "I sure didn't. I think I was a mess at your age, wasn't even thinking about relationships. At least, not long term." There's a pause. "Point is, you don't need to know right now. This might be a fluke, and you might end up liking only girls from here on out. You might end up just liking boys, liking both, or neither, who knows? But you've got time, kid, and that's the key. Give it time . And whatever it ends up being, whatever ends up happening..." His voice softens at the end, a smile prominent in his tone. "It'll be okay. You will be okay." 
For the first time all day, Harley finally takes a deep breath. His shoulders finally relax, his body practically melting back into his chair, and a smile grows on his face, warmth blooming in his chest. "...thanks, Tony." He whispers, hoping that the amount of pure, unfiltered gratitude he's feeling can be heard in his tone.
He thinks it can, as there's a hint of embarrassment and awkwardness in Tony's voice as he responds with a simple, "Don't mention it, squirt." 
Harley just chuckles at the sudden discomfort of the older man, before his eyes widen. "Oh! While you're here, did I tell you I passed my trig test?"
"Hey! I knew you would, kid, I had no doubt." Harley's grin widens, before he throws himself into another story, feeling warmer, safer, and happier than he has in a while.
A few years later, Tony was getting off of the elevator to his penthouse with a huff, having just gotten back from a rough meeting, when he freezes. His heart warma and a smile grows on his face when he notices Harley, now 17 years old (almost an adult, god he was so old ), curled up into Peter's chest, his face pushed into his neck, seemingly fast asleep. Peter's head rests on top of Harley's, eyes open but hooded, as if keeping them open was getting difficult. They glance over to Tony immediately, though (damn his spider sense and increased hearing), and a faint blush forms on his cheeks even as he smiles lightly, his eyes softening as he glances back down at his boyfriend and presses a firm kiss onto his head. Tony watches the interaction with a soft grin, before quietly stepping away, his chest full of mostly warm, sappy feelings, but also full of pride and joy, knowing his pseudo son is accepted, happy and loved.
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shhhhyoursister · 5 years ago
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Hey what are you favourite davenzi scenes/moments and what are your favourite Matteo scenes/moments? Hope you’re well!
okay okay okay this has been in my inbox for a lil while and i feel like ive been building up to it but im going to watch some clips and gather some thoughts.....i asked @theyellowcurtains to give me a number limit for each and he said 3 so im gonna do 3 of each otherwise id just write a frame by frame analysis of all of season 3 (im so sorry for how long this post is i have so many thoughts all the time)
im gonna start with matteo moments and im gonna list the season/episode/clip just for clarity okay?? okay (im doing matteo moments that dont include david because i have to go off about that later on)
1. s3ep10cl2- okay okay so the morning after clip is perfect in every single way and i could go off about it for years but beyond all of the davenzi stuff there is the moment when matteo leaves davids room and hes wearing the gray sweater, when laura is dancing??? which is also iconic all on its own but im talking specifically about matteo here, so you know he sits down on that stool thing and hes smiling SO big and hes blushin really hard and then laura sees him and they LAUGH??? and then he claps for her???? if i had to pick id absolutely say that that whole sequence is my fave matteo moment and also kind of interesting and makes me think about the fact that matteo is definitely very shy and quiet but he also has that like,, brat confidence?? i could make an entire post about that but ANYWAY yeah that is the fucking best matteo moment hes so cute and nervous but also totally fine being obvious about the fact that him and david fucked which i think is hilarious but i digress and i MUST move on
2. s3ep8cl2- i do have to say that while im not a HUGE fan of the explanation the video he watched gave of like,, what being trans is, im really glad they included this clip?? like its so obvious that matteo wants to talk to david but doesnt really know what to say, and i love that his first instinct was to start looking stuff up?? like if i was into a cis guy and he told me that he didnt really know about trans stuff but he did RESEARCH?? like thats just really sweet and shows that he really fucking loves david already and just wants to be more informed about what hes,, not to say signing up for but i cant think of a better phrase but yall know what i mean ya know??? its just very very sweet of him!!!!!
3. s3ep8cl4- i think people know about my deep love for hans so of course this clip is going to be one of my favorites?? im going to narrow it down a bit though because the part of this clip that hit me the fucking hardest was when hans asks “what do you like about him?” because the way matteo reacts is just?? so sweet?? at first he looks a little unsure but then when hans repeats himself matteo licks his lips and goes “well, i love his smile” like????? is that not the cutest fucking shit?? he literally swoons and collapses back into the chair cause hes probably imagining it and then he goes off about it being “beautiful” with david and im sure hans is trying not to cry?? and hans ending it with “thats the only thing that really matters, everything else is secondary” and matteo going “thats true” and then laughing a little bit?? i feel like that whole thing was a bit of a turning point for matteo and wow i am,,, so emotional about it
oh my god im so sorry im going off but im about to go off more cause,,, im gonna talk about davenzi moments now
1. s3ep10cl1- okay im just gonna start strong even though i feel like everyone talks about this clip i REALLY wanna talk about it because??? the fact that they showed a fucking sex scene between a trans boy and a gay cis boy is still so fucking iconic and legendary?? while this whole season really changed my life, this scene in particular is so.......it just feels so good to see. like its so nice watching that and seeing someone who looks like me ya know?? not that i look like david god i wish i was that lucky but like,, someone wearing a binder?? someone whos body looks more like mine than any other trans rep ive seen?? and seeing that body being portrayed as DESIRABLE??? i think thats one of the things that gets me the most is just how like,, just how much matteo is into david lol it just feels good feels organic but im gonna stop myself here before i talk for 1000 years about a less than 4min long clip lmao
2. s3ep10cl4- okay so this clip really just highlights the cute beginning flirting stages of their relationship?? like matteo doesnt want to host the party but then he sees david and smiles and then hes smiling like a fool when he hands david the beanie back and theyre both just so awkward but obviously crushing?? and he wants to keep talking so of course hes gonna bring up the time they hung out, and he looks a lil shocked after david says “it was cool with you” and then he like,, stutters through inviting him to the party cause hes probably so nervous!!! theyre both just such big losers with such BIG crushes on each other its really just the cutest fucking clip and also kinda shows that david isnt necessarily just this,, cool dude?? hes also a stuttery blushy dork with a crush?? wow wow its just such a good underrated clip WOW
3. s3ep9cl7- okay okay okay okay okay im sure there are like lenghty analyses about this clip already but i dont care because holy FUCK??? something i didnt really notice about it before was once matteo finally goes up to david hes like “are you fucking serious” but then he sees that david is fuckin spiraling so his voice gets softer and he asks him like “hey whats wrong” and its just a really good set up to the conversation?? and its nice to see that despite matteo probably being kinda angry hes mostly just worried about david?? and then matteo just lets david go OFF at him and only talks when hes trying to tell him that it isnt going to be the same as it was last time but then once he sees that david is getting angrier and louder hes like okay how am i going to get him to listen so of course matteo, the quietest boy in the world, yells back!!!! and yeah thats the thing that finally stops david from working himself up!! and matteo realizes that hes gonna need to be a lil loud and pushy to make david listen to him and then he goes back to being soft once david is paying attention to him!!! and then he talks and he says so much, like much more than he usually does at one time, and god GOD the way they did that was jsut so GOOD!!!!! and the fact that matteo, who appears to be either depressed or apathetic like 90% of the season, is the one that says i love you first??? and during such an emotional and important moment like?? like after going off about how david isnt alone and that hes really great and jsut needs to stop hiding himself away LIKE???? guys its jsut so so good its just so good i could talk for years but im gonna cut myself off here
honorable mentions cause i cant shut the fuck UP:
1. when theyre looking at davids sketchbook and david is like “these are private actually all of them are private” and matteo is like “well you already showed them to me it doesnt matter” and then he giggles like damn no question why david had such a huge crush on him immediately hes such a cutie
2. “its not a girl”
3. ill just say the whole cuddle clip?? the tender/feral dichotomy?? absolutely *chefs kiss* just fucking perfect
4. THE FIRST KISS??? also gotta say i noticed something for the first time the other night but matteo SMILES and i hadnt seen it before its right after david says “i bet i can hold my breath longer than you” and then the angle changes and he smiles before holding his breath and it killed me when i saw it whoops
5. final shout out along the same lines as ^^ that one but just?? anytime matteo smiles?? fills me with serotonin. the smile in the final clip right before david runs over to kiss him?? the smiles when hes fuckin around with the boys?? every single lil nervous crushy smile with david??? i could go on but im going to stop this now before i say any more this is already too long
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