#ww2 is the main thing they teach in history classes here how do you miss that?

[sofipitch]

Just pick the most tasteless expensive things possible. I have never met a rich person, old or new money, who had good taste that was uniquely their own.

Skgsgjdjgdgjzjg TRUE

I'm mean so I guess I'll share this, my cousin was wearing a hideous sweatshirt to Christmas breakfast. He is really into designer brands and is launching his own with daddy's money (the side I'm not related to ofc lmao) (also how his dad gets his money? He owns a boutique in a big city, buys designer clothes that are like excess or haven't sold well for pennies in another city, flies his stock back down to his city, resells for regular designer prices, he makes a killing 💀)

Here is the sweatshirt in question:

Looking at other clothes on this website this shirt they ran over with a truck a couple times has to be ~$200 (it's out of stock so idk)

I wasn't there for the beginning of the convo but I overheard my cousin saying he hadn't known Warszawa is the capital of Poland, a fellow student told him, he had just bought the sweat shirt thinking it was a nonsense word 🫠🫠🫠

Anyways I'd like to believe none of my blorbos are that dumb (although if the city name was somewhere not in Europe or just even farther east it would probably have the same result 😂😭)

[whosemorales]

Heartbeat

IMPORTANT INFO Post Civil War and Spider-Man Homecoming. Infinity War and Endgame never ever happened cause no one needs that much sadness in their life. None of these one-shots are related unless it says otherwise. And I don't know when I'm going to post but I will try and make it weekly. I don't take requests, but you are free to comment.

Peter couldn't keep the smile off his face all day. It was Friday the last day of school for the week, but that wasn't why Peter was excited, he was excited because he was spending the entire weekend at the Avengers Tower.

Ever since he stopped the Vulture from stealing Mr Starks plane, he spent more and more time with Mr Stark and had grown a lot closer to him. He had met the Avengers a few weeks ago after the accords were sorted out they were welcomed back to the tower, it had been a bit awkward at first but they all grew closer and upon meeting Peter they absolutely adored him.

Peter was currently in his last class of the day, history, the only subject he didn't have with Ned, and he was bored. Don't get him wrong he loved history but they were learning about WW2 and Peter already knew heaps about it (courtesy of Steve and Bucky). So he decided to occupy himself with designing new Web formula, one that would be stronger than anything he's had before, hopefully, strong enough to hold down the hulk.

*20 minutes later*

Peter was writing down the last few equations in his book when the bell suddenly rang through the classroom, causing him to wince due to his heightened hearing, quickly grabbing his stuff he made his way out of the classroom and into the crowded halls of the school.

He met up with Ned on the way to his locker and they both started to talk about the new lego set Ned's mum had just bought him. While Ned was talking Peter was grabbing the books he would need and shoving them into his bag.

"What up losers." Both boys turned to see MJ standing there, but she wasn't looking at them; she still had her nose in her book.

"Oh hey MJ." Peter and Ned said at the same time, laughing the two boys grabbed their stuff and the three made their way out of the school. They spoke outside for a little while until a black Audi pulled up out the front.

"That's Happy I gotta go, bye guys!" Peter yelled as he walked over to the car.

"Hey Happy." Peter greeted as he tossed his bag onto the back seat and climbed in.

"Hey, Pete."

As Happy pulled onto the main road Peter began to ramble on about his day and the amount of homework the teachers had given them.

About an hour later they pulled into the back entrance of the tower to avoid the paparazzi.

Hopping out of the car Peter called out a quick 'goodbye' to Happy before getting into the elevator. When the doors closed Friday's voice rang through the speakers.

"Hello Peter, how was school?" The AI asked.

"It was good Friday. Could you please take me to whatever floor Mr Stark is on.?" Peter questioned.

"Of course Peter, Boss is currently on the Penthouse floor with the avengers. Would you like me to inform him of your arrival?" Friday questioned.

"Yes please." With that, the elevator started to make its way to the penthouse floor.

When the elevator stopped Peter thanked Friday and made his way out, he dropped his bag on the kitchen counter and walked into the main living area. Peter saw that all the avengers were watching TV (Everyone except Thor who is in Asgard with Loki). Steve, Sam and Bucky were all sharing the couch closest to the window, Tony, Bruce, Rhodey and Nat were on the middle couch directly in front of the TV and Wanda and Vision were sharing a chair together. Mr Stark was the first to notice Peters presence.

"Oh, hey kid, how was school?" Mr Stark asked.

"It was good but boring I already knew most of the stuff they were teaching anyway, but I did get time to design a new formula for my webs," Peter announced taking a seat on one of the empty chairs.

"Well if you want we can go down to the lab and start working on them." Mr Stark offered.

"Really!! That would be awesome Mr Stark!"

The billion air sighed. "Kid how many times do I have to tell you, it's Tony, Mr Stark makes me feel old."

"I know," Peter smirked, "But I'm going to keep calling Mr Stark because you won't stop calling me kid."

"Touché."

The others laughed at the duo's interaction. They were going to turn back to the TV when Fridays voice stopped them.

"Boss Miss Potts would like me to inform you of her arrival."

"Peppers back?" Peter chimed in, a wide smile taking over his features. Pepper had recently been on a trip to Tokyo to help strengthen the company.

"How come you call her Pepper but me Mr Stark!" Tony grumbled, Peter just rolled his eyes making the others laugh. Just then the elevator dinged drawing everyone's attention. Now Peters hearing is amazing meaning that he can hear things that not even Steve or Bucky could, so when Pepper walked out of the elevator he was confused when he heard two heartbeats.

"Hey everyone." Pepper greeted, receiving numerous hi's and hello's from everyone in the room, everyone except Peter that is, who was still trying to figure out what he had just heard.

"Um, Pete you wanna so hi?" Wanda asked, looking at the boy with furrowed eyebrows.

"What? Oh yeah um hi Pepper how was Tokyo?" Peter smiled deciding to ignore what had just happened.

"Tokyo was amazing but the people well they were draining," Pepper laughed, "What have you guys been up to?" Pepper asked taking a seat next to Tony.

"Not much," Natasha replied.

"Miss Potts," Fridays voice rang through the room, " Miss Pierce would like me to inform you that she finished all the paperwork you asked for and she also needs your signature for one of the documents."

"Who the hell is Miss Pierce?" Tony wondered aloud.

Pepper rolled her eyes, "She's the new assistant I told you I was hiring her name is Freya Pierce." As soon as Peter heard her name he got a tingly feeling in the back of his neck. Something wasn't right.

"Tell her to take it to my office and I'll meet her there please Fri," Pepper answered, getting up from her seat.

"Um, Pepper could I come with you?" Peter asked quickly.

"Of course." Pepper smiled.

The two made their way over to the elevator and got in, as soon as the doors closed Peter frowned he could still hear the sound of three heartbeats and then his brain suddenly clicked, Pepper was pregnant.

"Um, Pepper? This is going to be a really weird question but are you pregnant?" Peter asked sheepishly.

Peppers eyes went wide, "H-How did you know?"

"Heightened hearing." Peter shrugged.

Pepper facepalmed, "Of course I totally forgot about that, it was supposed to be a surprise I was going to tell everyone at dinner."

"I won't tell anyone, " Peter assured, a smile slowly growing on his face, "Is it a girl or a boy?"

Pepper laughed, "It's a girl."

"Yes!" Peter triumphed.

Then the elevator dinged cutting off Peters celebrations and he remembered why he was really here, the doors opened to show the hall leading to Peppers office, standing out the front was a young girl round about Peters age, she had brown curls that descended past her shoulders, she was wearing black jeans, black boots and grey shirt with a black leather jacket, in her hands was the paperwork Peter assumed Friday was talking about.

"Thank you so much, Freya, come in here and I'll sign the documents." Pepper gestured to her office. Opening the door the three of them walked inside, as soon as the door closed Peters spider-sense went haywire.

"Just place them on the desk please Katherine." Pepper smiled, Freya nodded and walked over to the desk placing them on the edge.

Freya stood back giving Pepper room to sign the documents, Peter kept his eyes on her the whole time making himself ready for whatever she was planing. A sudden grunt from Pepper made him whip his head around, Pepper had just cut her finger on the paper, but a few seconds was all Freya needed, realising his mistake Peter quickly turned back around only to be face to face with a gun barrel.

"There, all done." Pepper smiled, oblivious to the gun being pointed at Peter.

"Um, Pepper."

"Yes, hun?" Peter would normally smile or blush slightly but now wasn't really the time.

"You might want to turn around." Turning around Pepper gasped in surprise, she slowly put her hands up.

Freya smirked. "It's been wonderful working for you Miss Potts it really has, but I'm afraid I won't be able to make it in tomorrow," she fake pouted. God Peter really hated this woman, he slowly put his hands behind his back preparing to shoot his Web shooters only to realise that they weren't on his wrists. Crap! That might be a problem.

"What are you doing?" Pepper asked.

"I'm getting my revenge," she answered.

"Revenge for what? We haven't done anything."

Freya let out a bitter laugh. "Because I used to have a family, a loving caring family and then our village was attacked with the same weapons that were made in this very tower. I watched my entire family get killed with one blast of a bomb, the only reason I survived was because my mother and father shielded me from the blast, but I didn't get away unscathed," She took off her jacket to reveal burn marks covering her skin, shrugging her jacket back on Freya then turned to Peter.

"And you, not scared? Trying to act brave by not putting your hands up?"

Peter just shrugged. "Not the first time someone's held a gun at me. And quite frankly you're just being dumb I mean seriously, you pull a gun on Miss Potts and don't think that she would have some way of contacting all the avengers with just a push of a button." Peter asked raising his eyebrows, but he was only buying time and praying to the gods that Friday had alerted the avengers.

Freya's facade faltered but she quickly replaced it with a smirk.

"It doesn't matter whether or not they get me, it's whether or not they save her on time." Freya suddenly turned the gun on Pepper and fired. Peter silently thanked the gods for his enhanced reflexes as he jumped in front of her not wanting to hurt her or the baby by pushing her out of the way.

Peter felt the bullet pierce his skin and embed its self in his flesh, he let out a cry and dropped to his knees but still stayed in front of Pepper ready to protect her again if Freya decided to fire another bullet.

Freya was shocked but decided not to dwell on it turning around she ran as fast as she could trying to make it out before the avengers got there.

"Friday call the avengers now!" Pepper yelled as she ran to help Peter, who was still on his knees trying to stop the blood flow with his hands.

"Are you ok? Is the baby ok?" Peter asked looking over at Pepper with worry.

"I'm fine Pete I'm not the one who just got shot."

"Sorry." Peter winced, as Pepper pressed a towel on the open wound.

"What are you sorry for?" Pepper asked trying to put enough pressure on at the same time.

"I'm getting blood everywhere."

Pepper sighed this kid was too good for his own good. "Pete right now that is the least of my problems."

"I'm fine, it's just a bullet wound, I've had way worse trust me." Peter laughed slightly but stopped when he saw the expression on Pepper's face.

"What-" Pepper stopped herself, "That's a question for another day right now I need to get you to the med-bay."

Pepper put Peters arm over her shoulder and hers under his and started to lift him up. Peter winced a couple of times until he was standing up fully straight, or a straight as you could be when half of your body is leaning in the other direction.

"Friday tell Bruce to set up the med-bay," Pepper called out as she helped Peter make his way to the door.

"Bruce is currently in the med bay setting up and the rest of the Avengers are on their way," Friday responded, as if on cue the elevator opened up and the avengers ran out decked in full gear. Peter would have laughed if it wasn't for the pain in his side and the fact he was starting to see two of everything.

"What the hell happened?!" Tony exclaimed as he grabbed Peters other arm to help with the weight.

"We don't Have time for that right now, we need to get him to the med-bay he's losing a lot of blood."

Clint ran over and took Peppers place and helped Tony take Peter to the med bay all the while trying to keep the young spiderling awake.

When they got to the med-bay they quickly but carefully placed Peter down on the bed that Bruce set up, Peter winced at the movement and bit his lip to keep himself from crying out. Bruce quickly ushered everyone out of the way and began to take the bullet out before his enhanced healing covered it. Unfortunately one of the downsides to having an enhanced metabolism is that it eats through the sedatives way too quickly, meaning that Peter had to be awake while Bruce took the bullet out. Bruce was halfway through taking the bullet out when Peter finally passed out. *******

The others were anxiously waiting outside the room, praying that Peter would be alright. Bucky, Steve, Wanda, Rhodey, Sam and Pepper were sitting on the chairs out the front of the med-bay Vision was floating close to Wanda and Tony was pacing back and forth running his hand through his hair over and over again.

"What happened?" Tony asked suddenly stopping and turning to Pepper.

Pepper sighed and began to tell them exactly what happened.

"-And then I heard the gunfire and I closed my eyes waiting for the bullet to hit me but instead I heard Peter cry out and when I opened my eyes he was in front of me with a bullet wound in his side, and then Freya ran so I tried to stop the bleeding and helped him up and that's when you guys came in."

"Well Freya didn't get very far, security stopped her before she could get out," Sam smirked.

"Of course the kid would try and save you, but why didn't he push you out of the way," Tony asked, "I mean if he pushed you out of the way then you both would have gotten out unscathed and Peter would have been able to catch her, so why did he stand in front of you?" Tony asked mainly to himself.

"I-I don't know." Pepper cursed herself for stuttering.

Tony frowned slightly. "Pep why did he jump in front of you?" he asked again this time to Pepper.

The others were listening in closely for her answer.

"I don't know," Pepper repeated.

"Tony just leave it and come sit down." Rhodey pipped up gesturing to the seat beside him.

"NO! No, I will not just leave it my kid is in there with a bullet wound that he wouldn't have got if he had just pushed Pepper out of the way so why didn't he?" Tony demanded.

"BECAUSE I'M PREGNANT!" Pepper finally yelled.

Everyone went silent, their eyes grew wide and small smiles started to form on their faces.

"What?" Tony asked his voice barely above a whisper.

"I'm pregnant," Pepper repeated with a soft smile. Before Pepper could even register what was happening she was being enveloped in a hug, Tony held her tight his face nuzzled into her neck and pepper could have sworn she felt something wet fall onto her shoulder. When Tony finally let go he brought Pepper in for a passionate kiss.

When they pulled away Tony frowned. "Wait how did Peter know, did you tell him before me." He gasped bring his hand up to his heart in mock hurt, making the others laugh.

"No, it's because of his enhanced hearing, when we were in the elevator he asked me, I was shocked at how he knew but then he told me it's because he could hear a second heartbeat."

"Wow, that kid really is something," Bucky said.

"Yeah, he sure is." Bruce agreed, startling everyone as he came out of the med-bay.

"Bruce, how is he?" Tony asked quickly praying to gods it didn't hit anything important and that Peter was going to be ok.

"He's fine," Bruce assured, "Actually he's better than fine, his system I-I've never seen anything like it before. I mean Steve's and Bucky's is good but Peter's is amazing the way it works is fascinating. Normally when Steve or Bucky get shot it takes a little while to heal, but Peters system is working at a phenomenal speed, meaning when he wakes up he might feel a bit sore but it will only feel like a bruise." Bruce explained.

Everyone was shocked, they knew Peters healing was good but they didn't know it was that good.

"Can we go in?" Tony question, Bruce gave him a nod and Pepper and he rushed in.

When they got to Peters bed they saw the bandage wrapped around his waist and the heart monitors finger clip attached to his finger, the monitor was beeping in a steady rhythm, indicating that Peters heart rate was normal.

They both took a seat on either side of Peter and took his hand making sure that they would be the first ones he would see when he woke up. They sat in the med-bay for half an hour before the little spider started to wake up.

"Mmhm." Peter moaned trying to open his eyes, but once they did open he regretted it because a bright light blinded him. He waited a couple of seconds before opening them again.

"What happened?" Peter mumbled, but he suddenly sat bolt upright scaring the daylights out of Pepper and Tony, "Is Pepper OK! Is the baby OK!" He asked quickly looking around still waiting for his eyes to adjust properly.

Tony and Pepper laughed softly. "She's fine kiddo, and so is the baby," Tony answered.

"Oh, hey Mr Stark," Peter waved slightly before his eyes went as wide as dinner plates, "OMG! I just told him about the baby! I promised I wouldn't tell because you were going to tell them all at dinner. I am a despicable human being." Peter gasped, putting his face in his hands.

Pepper laughed, "Pete it's fine I already told him."

"Oh thank the gods." Peter sighed.

Just then the vent swung open and Clint fell out.

"Ow." He groaned, but a smile quickly took over his face when he saw that Peter was awake.

Getting off the floor he gave Peter a hug ruffling his hair making Peter growl. Soon all the avengers were in the med-bay they all gave Peter a hug, glad that he was ok. And Peter loved it he loved them and sure they were a very dysfunctional family but they were his dysfunctional family.

"So Pepper, what are you going to name the baby?" Natasha asked.

"WAIT YOU PREGNANT!!!" Bruce yelled.

[blairtrabbit]

Writing Good World building

I get alot of nice compliments about the world building in my writing so here. I wrote down all my secrets. They aren’t very good secrets but they’re all I got.

1.       Do not info dump all at once. Even if it’s tempting as fuck and you just want to talk about everything cool in this world your’re creating in the first chapter. DON’T DO IT. Space it out. Reveal things a bit at a time. If possible have your discoveries build on one another. Have a character mention something they would know about but the audience won’t in an early chapter then reveal it later. Reward your audience for paying attention. If you info dump everything in the first few paragraphs of your story then the reader gets bored. World War Z (the book for god’s sake not the movie) is possibly the best example of this particular brand of world building. In early interviews Max Brooks will masterfully introduce a concept (feral children or The Battle of Yonkers for example) and later on they will be mentioned in passing by another person being interviewed. This connects the world together and gives it depth. Always remember that all the characters in your story share this universe and speak the same cultural language.

 2.       Always have a character who is also unfamiliar with the setting be your main. If your story stars someone who is completely familiar with the world of the story your gonna get info dump problems. The lead will either look like a crazy person talking to an invisible audience about things they encounter everyday or they won’t explain anything at all and the reader will become frustratingly out of the loop. Your lead should be as clueless are your reader. This is a good rule of thumb for movies too. Luke doesn’t know anything about Jedi so the people around him explain and when he learns the audience learns. It feels natural and leaves room for discovery and growth.Don’t have someone explain TOO much however or you head straight back into TMI issues.

 3.       Commit to it. Even if your world has some insane bullshit thing going on if everybody takes it seriously your reader will too. Harry Potter gets away with some utterly ridiculous spells but they have life and death consequences so no matter how goofy a scenario or idea might sound when you say it out loud? (flying brains/death curtain/unicorn eating) Given the right build up and complete seriousness by the characters its going to feel concrete to the reader. Pacific Rim or Neon Genesis Evengelion-…really anything in the big robot fighting genre Is another good example of this. Big robot fights might seem stupid but to the characters/reader involved in the un-ironic struggle the foreign elements have to feel genuine otherwise the world doesn’t feel real so the stakes aren’t real and there's no tension or conflict.

 4.       Read/watch documentaries/ learn about everything. BE FUCKING CURIOUS. Pay attention to world history and politics.  Have at least a passing idea of how economics works. If your world is based on a time period then research EVERYTHING about that time period. Like research what kind of socks people wore and what fruit was available and what the weather was like. If your world is based on mythology then for the love of god research the culture it came from. The small details can make everything so much more interesting.

 5.       If your premise has one focus (Magic is real/soulmates exist/Aliens attack) think of it as a web. That premise is the center but how is it going to affect everything around it? How will it affect world governments? Climate? Growing crops? Will children learn things in school differently? Will different class systems exist? How will countries interact?  I like to think of it as the domino affect of world building and while it doesn’t seem important it IS. There are two ways of examining this. The Macro world and the Micro world.

 Thinking in the Macro

Example: My basic premise…uhhh mermaids exist. That works. Questions: How will mermaids existing affect the fishing industry? Do mermaids own tracts of ocean? Do mermaids have allies or enemies on land? Do they trade with humans? Do they believe in currency? How long have we known they’ve existed? Ideas from questions: Let’s relate things to the real world to give our story grounding on the familiar. So like…Oh man! wouldn’t it be cool if mermaids boycotted Seaworld? Or if they were on bad terms with Japan because of the shit that goes down there like the documentary the Cove?  Oh man that would be pretty cool. Man Japan eats a lot of fish. If they had some kind of tiff with mermaids that lead to an all out war what would that be like because I know from my research Japan doesn’t really have its own army after WW2 so would allies be involved? Story: Japan (and its allies) are at war with Mermaids.

 Thinking in the Micro OR Taking my Macro idea and shrinking it.

The Macro idea is just the world now you need a premise that rests within the larger story. Love stories are great because everybody roots for a love story. Let’s do that.

Example: Mermaids are at war with Japan and a hot merman and a Japanese guy fall in love. Oh NO! What will they do?

Questions: How does the Macro situation affect the micro situation? How can the macro influence the couple in interesting ways? What are the positions of the characters in this universe? What jobs can they have? How will the war affect them on a personal level or their families? Ideas from questions: Well the Japanese guy has to be near the water to meet hot merman so maybe his dad was a fishermen but when the war happened he had to stop so now his family hates those darn ole mermaids. Situation--> cause for conflict. Hooray! Maybe the merman is caught stealing something…what’s something that would affect him? Maybe hes sabotaging something? Is he part of the war effort? Maybe hes a scientist. Aww lil merman scientist. Story: A fourth generation out of work fisherman’s son stumbles on a hot merman scientist and his families stereotypical portrayal of mermaids don’t fit so he must acquit…or kiss kiss fall in love??? Aww yiss I would read that!

6.       One of my personal hero’s when it comes to world building is Paul Verhoeven. Yeah the guy who made Showgirls. That guy. But two examples of straight up amazing world building can be found in Verhoeven’s films Robocop and Starship Troopers. Are they dumb? Yes. Yes they are. Are they masterpieces of world building? Also yes.

In the first 3 minutes of Robocop you learn everything you need to know about the world our characters live in. How dire the situation is and what kind of tone you can expect. They briefly mention a strike they bring up the villain and they introduce our hero. All in one beautiful swoop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PNi2nC5iLA  (warning bewbs)

 Verhoeven also uses news clips, commercials and other cultural hallmarks to give a natural sense of the world. At no point in the movie does anyone need to explain a single thing. We can gather everything we need as an intelligent viewer just from context clues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LKQ3eX9pEg (warning insane shit)

This great scene in Starship Troopers not only establishes our villain in an interesting almost clinical way. It gives the viewer a cool visual and shows another teacher/vet suffering horrible damage from the war. It also shows our main has nerves of steel. It accomplishes all three goals flawlessly and you didn’t even realize you were learning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMuRm70JlDM (warning alien gore)

In Starship Troopers all of the war vets suffer horrendous damage/missing limbs and scars. In Robocop there is a commercial where a woman is selling sunscreen with an impossible spf because of global warming. Is it ridiculous? Fuck yes. Does it tell you something about the world these characters live in? FUCK YES.

Although there is a big difference in written language and film language there is still a huge lesson to be learned from the Verhoeven method of world building. How are the circumstances of my world affecting the cultural language of my characters? How can I use that to my advantage? How can I teach my reader using something that doesn’t make them feel like they’re doing homework? Can I establish multiple things in a single scene?

7. Learn from the masters. Read alot of sci-fi books like Dune or Riverworld. Watch alot of great worldbuilding movies like Bladerunner or The Fifth Element. Don’t copy them but examine and think about why they are good and how you can use what they teach.