#yes i know this is ironic coming from an american shut the fuck up

[wack-ashimself]

Know what I never want to hear again, not even ONCE, the rest of my life?

"Our government would never do that."

YES, THE FUCK, THEY WOULD. THEY HAVE. THEY DID. THEY WILL, EASILY, AGAIN.

If we could also include to avoid: "Our government never did that" and "Our government COULDN'T do that*" It would be much appreciated.

During #JFK: They wanted to do a #falseflag, and blame it on #Cuba. During #Nixon: Crack to the blacks.

In the 70s, the #CIA OPENLY admitted they had a gun with a dissolving bullet that could cause an undetectable, natural looking heart attack. NOW, they have radar dishes they can point at people to give them execrating pain, making them nearly immobile.

We started with a genocide to fund the #usa, had slavery for far too long, made concentration camps for Japanese-Americans during #WW2 where we stole BILLIONS from their houses and assets, and today? Today we have the largest #prison#slave population in human history; yes, more than when we actually had legalized slavery. The biggest military EVER, which, historically, has killed more than any other military with new age weapons. Yeah-can't deny the whole white phosphorus, regular ole bombs, and of course, NUCLEAR WEAPONS. What's ironic? Japan actually hates us more for the firebombs we used on them (more suffering instead of instant death). Didn't know about the #firebombs? MOST DON'T.

And then we get to 9/11. Ya know. When our government shut down all airports, but let a FEW special planes go out of #Florida just after it happened, containing some very unique individuals (proven). Or how about how not 1, not 2, but 3 buildings fell down perfectly straight, which is basically impossible from being hit on ONE side. Oh, and the 3rd building, building 7, which contained a lot of classified government documents was never HIT by anything!? Or how JUST before all this happened, the pentagon announced (not for the first OR last time**) they lost trillions of dollars, and had no idea where it went? OR how the guy who owned the #twintowers insured them for terrorist attacks just months before it happened?

Finally, today....where our #DEMOCRATIC president, brain dead #biden, is openly funneling guns, weapons, and worse to a terrorist colonizing state called #israel, against a nearly completely defenseless people in #Palestine? A #genocide, in real time, for MONTHS now, funded by our government. They're trying to pass another funding bill of billions as I type. Over 12k children killed in cold blood. MULTIPLE RAPES have been proven done by the israelis. You literally can not imagine a worse thing to happen due to a government (outside adding cannibalism).

SO PLEASE, never fucking god damn say again "Our government would never do that" when they have done it EVERY-FUCKING-TIME! <Forgot to mention the experimentation on their own citizens. That's a whole other post!>

Because when you live in an #oligarchy, you got to assume the rich in control will do ANYTHING IMAGINABLE AND UNIMAGINABLE to maintain their wealth and power. Historically, they always fucking do. WAKE UP!

*The technology they hold back and use against us may not come out to the public for DECADES. We have proven weather modification is real AND works. Not a debate. And Direct Energy Weapons (DEW) have been documented to being real just recently...You really think they can monitor, categorize, AND filter ALL THE DATA we say and do without AI? No. And they've been doing that for HOW long? Over 20 years? And when did we get access to AI? Side note-pentagon RIGHT NOW strong arming their way thru congress, trying to force them to allow the military to turn on AI's capabilities to choose what it kills. So that's...#terminator fun.

**The #pentagon, aka, the military, losing money has been a tried and true method of filtering money to the bad guys. It's kinda like how Tony Stark found out he was arming terrorists in Iron Man. You forget we helped for Al-Qaeda and #Isis? WE DID. Osama Bin Laden was a CIA asset! Why? To fuck with everyone in the Middle East all the way to Russia. Look it up if you didn't know.

<When we do physical or mental labor for taxes to be taken away, they usually go to murder. When you do your job, your taxes pay mostly for the rich to get richer and murder. Nothing else. If I'm wrong, look outside at how great it is, how free everyone is, and all the happy smiles. We allowed this to happen. We can create something better without them. What's the harm in trying? It can't get worse, sadly. But at the same time, inspiringly: we can only go up from here. :)>

No war but the class war.

[aceontheline]

CaliYork Fic (Part 6)

It does get NSFW after a certain point. I will put a text cut in case you want to skip it. Or just skip it for my horrible NSFW writing XD

York heard his phone go off, saying that there was to be a regular "Table Meeting" to discuss any and all news in the states. York couldn't really think of anything off the top of his head, so he could get away with not going. Until Cali woke up, saw the text, and thought about George Santos protesting drag shows. He took York along with him, since they did talk about in in brief not too long ago. York insisted that Cali was making a mistake in bringing it up, because nobody really liked Santos anyway. And the fact that no matter what, Texas wouldn't change his mind about drag queens anyway. Cali didn't pay mind to this & sat next to York at the table, ready to bring it up.  After everyone's jokes of Cali's mom being on the "No Fly List", Gov asked if there were any more official news they needed to bring up. York initially crossed his arms and looked away.

"Nope. Let's go home" York said in a semi annoyed tone. 

"Yes, we talked about this!" Cali said, his gaze directly on York.

"No, YOU talked about it" York reaffirmed, which was true.

Florida and Louisiana joked and asked if the two were married. York's face got a little flush, thinking about that. He kept his arms crossed, but he could feel his heart beating through his chest.

"No, we were just talking about how much of a blunder this whole George Santos thing is for Republicans!" Cali replied, him containing laughter.

"You're making a mistake…" York stated in a somewhat cautious tone, rolling his eyes. 

"Let me fight my battles!" Cali said somewhat angrily. 

Cali proceeded to explain how ironic he thought it was that Republicans have been "waging war" on drag queens, but now there was a video out about George Santos, dressed as a drag queen. Texas looked at him as if to say "so what?" Florida stated that Cali should maybe leave the more "funny" and "ironic" subjects to the professional, referring to himself. Cali asked Texas why he wasn't as upset by this. "Ain't nobody like him" Texas replied, as if to ask Cali how he didn't know that to begin with. 

"Tried to tell you, B" York said, subtly smirking. 

The other states then tried to smear Cali's name into the mud by twisting his words by saying that he didn't like George Santos just because he was dressed like a drag queen. Cali tried to argue but was mainly stammering his way through. He looked to York for a defense. York jumped on this opportunity for him.

"The only fucked up thing to ever come from a drag show is George Santos" York stated, arms still crossed & eyebrows furrowed.

"And also all those-" Texas started.

"Shut the fuck up!" York interrupted, eyes narrowed to a mean expression.

Texas did just that. He shut up. Flo joked that the whole encounter was a bit aggressive & that he was a little turned on. Loui took that seriously though and made a mental note of that in his head. After some Florida news about banning AP African American studies, which almost everyone could agree was done for a stupid reason, everyone was done for the day. Gov demanded that Flo stay behind for a couple minutes so that he could explain to Flo about precisely why this decision was stupid. Cali and York knew that Flo wouldn't listen, like he usually didn't. Cali walked out of the room first, arms crossed and a pout on his face. York sighed and knew that was kind of his fault. He needed to apologize because Cali was right. Regardless of the situation, unless Cali outright states it, York shouldn't try to fight Cali's battles. Cali was headed to the West part of the house, probably to go to his room & sulk. 

York opened Cali's room door slowly, to see him sitting on the edge of his bed. He was fidgeting with his clothes a bit, deep in thought. York knocked on the open door, asking if he was allowed in. Cali hesitated, then under his breath muttered "Come in". York sat down next to Cali and asked him if he was mad at York for trying to help. 

"No, I'm mad because I want to be able to stand up for myself. I think you like to jump in to 'help' someone, but I feel like you don't know how to actually do it without coming off as abrasive" Cali stated. 

"Oh. I'm sorry. You're right. I'll let you fight your own battles. But don't think for a second that I won't help you if you need it" York replied. 

"Is that all you came in here to say, basically a backhanded apology?!" Cali yelled. 

York shrunk a little, his primary instinct being to recoil. Cali realized this was happening, but his blood was boiling right now. Cali insisted that he didn't need help regardless, but York brought up the fact that Cali was stammering his way through the latter half of that argument with Texas and Flo. Cali promptly kicked York out of his room, stating that he didn't want to talk to York for a while. York sighed, leaving Cali's room & going outside instead. He put on his music and went for a walk to clear his head. York encountered Mass along his walk and wanted to immediately turn around and go home, but he also didn't want to appear cowardly. Mass saw York and asked what happened, as he looked a little worse for wear. 

It was true. York's clothes looked a bit dirty, his hair was a mess, and his face looked… Disheveled. York explained the situation as best as he could from both sides. After he was done, Mass sighed and shook his head. He insisted that Cali was mad because he was already sort of seen as a "joke" to the other members of the table. In this instance, Cali wanted to be able to carry himself in a "fight" for what he believed in. Mass understood that York wanted to help his boyfriend, which was sweet, but Mass also knew that Cali must've felt like he was incapable of defending himself if York was just going to step in like that unprompted. York nodded affirmingly, understanding the core problem now. He thanked Mass, then turned around and went back home, Mass following him. 

York reappeared at Cali's door, stating that he knew that Cali said he didn't want to talk to York right now. 

"But I need to talk to you, Cal. Please open the door" York said in a soft tone. Cali opens the door.

"And what do you want?" Cali asked, arms crossed.

"Cal. I'm sorry. I really am. I wanted to try and help you but it definitely didn't come across that way. Rather, it came off as me trying to aggressively change the subject, ignoring something you wanted to talk about. Then saying 'I told you so', even though that was not needed. I'm sorry" York replied, his hands in his pockets.

Cali smiled softly, hugging York. York was surprised by this response, but Cali stated that he forgave York. All Cali wanted was for York to make an attempt to understand Cali's perspective for a moment or two. Cali led York into his room where they laid in bed together for a bit, cuddling. York curled himself up into a ball, nestling on Cali's chest. "Mm.. Warm" York said, making Cali chuckle. He played with York's hair a bit to calm the cool state. The two ended up watching YouTube for quite some time before going to the kitchen to make some dinner. York insists on making dinner tonight as another part of his apology. Cali agrees, sitting back and watching York do his thing. 

York makes a excellent pasta with meatballs dish and serves it. The sly dog though… He only made one large bowl to split between the two of them. Cali thought about that for a moment then looked at York's smirking face. It all made sense. The two shared their pasta, then on one of the noodles… Indeed had a "Lady & The Tramp" moment. They locked lips & kissed. York eventually pulls away, looking at a blushing Cali. He chuckles to himself, giving Cali another bit of pasta. After the two were done with dinner, Cali asked York if they could go to York’s room for the night. York agreed, doing the cleaning first. 

And here's where things get juicy! The lead up for the NSFW stuff comes from @aceasadhd in part. Check out that post (Here). Proceed to read, only if you're okay with NSFW. Or just skip past it and find the other chapters down below!

Once the cleaning was done, the two went to York's room. When they arrived there… Cali took his shirt off. He gave York a seductive look, which made York blush immensely. Cali giggled contentedly to himself, going to put his shirt back on, until he realized that York took his off too. York even pulled an extra move: Flexing. Cali practically drooled over York, walking slowly toward him. The two proceeded to make out, before York pushed Cali onto the bed. York pressed his hand onto Cali's throat and squeezed. A major rush of euphoria hit Cali, along with other feelings. Once York thought Cali had enough, he gazed at Cali up and down. 

"Had enough?" York asked, a devilish smirk on his face.

"N-No… Do your worst" Cali responded, taking his pants off.

"You're gonna regret saying that, Baby" York replied, now on top of Cali. 

York began kissing and biting Cal's neck, moving his way down to Cal's boxers. He tugged on the elastic waistband before slowly removing Cal's boxers. Cal's erection popped up almost instantly, his member only becoming harder when York whispered in his ear, "Let's play then". York nibbled Cal's earlobe, then went to work on Cal's hardness. York began sucking on Cal's stiffened member, making Cal moan softly upon contact. York immediately found Cal's sensitive spot: Just under the tip. York played with that rather sadistically, making Cal moan and groan as he gripped the sheets tightly. York clawed at Cal's body, making Cal whimper and squirm. 

York hesitated, but Cal insisted he was loving this. York, instead of going back to his position, insisted that the two… 69. Cal agreed, taking York's hardening member into his mouth. It was almost eager for it and York could tell. Cali was doing this for the first time ever, but York had experience. York managed to use his free hand to rub & twist up and down Cal's shaft. Cal took York's full length into his mouth, York seeming impressed. He pulls away from Cal's shaft for a moment, still rubbing it.

"My God, you only get harder and harder. You're so eager, B" York teases, clawing down Cali's thighs.

"Are y-you happy? I took your whole shaft down my throat" Cal whimpered.

"Yes. You're doing wonderful, Baby" York said in a seductive tone, only further turning Cal on.

York went back to sucking on Cal's still stiffened member, sliding up and down on it with decent speed. York would still tug & slightly twist on it, because he enjoyed seeing Cal whimper & grab the sheets as tightly as he could. Eventually, Cal climaxed first. York pulled away while it was happening, chastising Cal for making a mess. York clawed at Cal's body, making him get up. York stood up & made Cal get on the ground, on his hands and knees. Cal knew what to do though, placing York's very hard shaft as far down into his throat as he could. "Good boy" York purred, taking his hand to the back of Cal's head. Cal sucked as fast as he could, stopping a couple times to catch his breath. Him and York were roughly the same length, but York's was a bit more girthy in comparison. 

York was about to climax soon, he could feel it. "Fuck!" York exclaimed while out of breath. Cal stroked and sucked York's member, making York's toes curl until… York pulled Cal off while he climaxed. The two cleaned up the mess shortly after, then put on their boxers at least. The two snuggled up against each other.

"That. Was. Amazing" Cal said, catching his breath.

"You bet, Baby. You were pretty good for it being your first time" York stated, holding Cal close & kissing his forehead. 

York chuckled at Cal's flushed red face. The two talked and snuggled for the rest of the evening until they passed out, dead asleep.

Prev (Here) ; Next (Here)

Masterpost (Here)

[crmsnmth-journal]

4/14/2024 9:00 PM

I had a really good Sunday. I didn't get much done at all, but I got to refresh my head. I went down to the river's edge and hiked to the bridge and back, about four miles all together. The woods are really waking up now that it seems spring is officially here. I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, we probably hit seventy degrees today. There's a tradeoff though, because now my room seems unreasonably hot. I won't open my window, because my screen has holes in it, and I really do not like bats in the house. I love to see them outside, but I do not like them flying around my house. They freak me out, and for some reason or other, rabies scares the absolute hell out of me. I don't mess with wild animals that can bite me and kill me with a disease that looks like something extremely horrible to go through.

I got my first negative "you suck" comments on one of my poems, and, maybe this is weird, but that makes me beyond happy. Sure, getting likes and reblogs, and nice comments are fun and all, but I was waiting until someone thinks I am so awful at what I love to do, that they need to tell me. If it's constructive, I'm all for it, and I will take those opinions with deep consideration, but to those who just tell me I suck, without really knowing anything about what I do, or more importantly WHY i do what i do, I feel sad for. Art critics. The idea of being a critic in any form of art fields is a laugh. Art is subjective. What I write means something different for someone else. What I see in my head is a totally different painting then the one hanging up on the wall. What I hear in music is far off from what someone else's ears hear. And that should be respected. I can't stand Taylor Swift, but I respect her place in the music world. I don't think Van Gogh paintings aren't all the beautiful, but I still consider him one of the masters but I'd put Robert S. Connet on that hill too. Memento dragged on, but Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors. And if you see something, and your thought is "wow, this sucks" and not "Let's try to make it better" maybe it's best you just shut the fuck up and let people have their thing. I will always love "You suck" comments, on the simple fact I've pissed one more stranger off.

But now, I'm sitting here, writing this and I'll write a few other lines while watching Melancholia for who knows how many times. I love me some Lars Von Trier films. The guy is a master at his craft. I need a break from Futurama anyway. As much as I love the show, after a bit some of the characters just irritate me and I can't do the show. I'm at a good spot to take a break anyway. The very beginning of the "movie" season.

Hopefully my brother turns up soon. They were headed into town so I sent them with some money to pack me up some soda and pop tarts. Yes, I know. I eat like a twelve year old. I don't care. I don't eat much, and when a strawberry poptart and a coke is all I can get down, it's healthier than not eating anything at all, right? Kind of ironic isn't it? A chef with no appetite. I can't remember the last time I ate something from where I work.

I did forget to take about Jolie yesterday. I've known her for years, as she used to run the kitchen in the American Legion at the same time I first took over the bowling alley kitchen. And we have always gotten along extremely well. It's always a good time when she's around. Just that kind of person. So she left the legion and hasn't done anything in the business since, but her and her husband are looking to buy a restaurant, and she offered me the job to come on has an actual head chef. I mean, I'd get to do menus again, and work with distributors and come up with stuff and have the actual fun parts of the job handed back. Of course, that means I'd also have to do the shitty parts too, budgets, scheduling, budgets, most maintence, did I mention budgets? Still, maybe it's a sign? I've been talking about how badly I want out of the alley, that maybe this is the universe giving me an option to do that, and maybe even re-light the fire and the passion for food to burn bright again?

[persephonesfill]

“the council has made a decision” the council can eat my whole entire ass

[queensoybean0724]

Succession Chapter 1 (Karl Heisenberg/female reader) Resident Evil Village fic

Here is chapter one of my new fanfic!

Title: Succession

Characters: Karl Heisenberg, female reader, OCs

Rating: PG-13 for language and intense scenes (for now, this is a slow burn, but it will get very hot and spicy in later chapters)

Summary: You discover a long lost relative from Moldova that you didn’t know existed has died and you are his sole beneficiary.  You are on board a plane to collect your inheritance when your plane crashes in a village in Romania.

Author’s Notes: I do not own the characters from Resident Evil Village.  This is a work of fiction.  Anything remotely similar to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental.

Chapter 1

The music blasted from the car speakers as you drove down the main road towards the highway.  You had your phone plugged into your car stereo, your favorite Spotify playlist on shuffle.  Despite the A/C being on full blast, beads of sweat formed at your brow and rolled down your temple.  You adjusted the vents on either side of you, making sure the cold air directly hit your body.  The song that was playing had you tapping your fingers on the steering wheel, your head bopping to the beat.

The fridge at home was close to empty and it was beyond time for you to go grocery shopping.  The grocery list was secure in your purse and you were determined to stick to the items on the list and not make any frivolous purchases.  Money was tight and you only had so much money left before payday next week.

The song shut off suddenly followed by your ringtone.  Looking at the screen of your phone, UNKNOWN stared back at you. Probably a spam call, you thought to yourself, reaching to press the red Ignore button.  Unfortunately, your finger slid at the last minute and mistakenly tapped the Accept button. You watched as the call came through and the seconds ticked off.  FUCK!

“Hello?” you greeted with a hint of exasperation in your voice.

“Hello, am I speaking with Miss Y/N?” a heavily accented male voice responded.

“Yeah, this is she,” you muttered, rolling your eyes.  You tried your best to avoid these calls, ignoring them and letting them go straight to voicemail.  Very rarely was it followed with an actual message, which was more than fine with you.

“Miss Y/N, my name is Ron M. Dathermi.  I am a lawyer residing in Chisinau, Moldova in Eastern Europe…”

You raised your eyebrows at that.  Moldova?  Who the hell was calling you from Moldova?  Chalking it up to a scam, you were about to interrupt the man when he continued.

“...I wish I was calling under better circumstances, but I’m afraid I have some bad news.  Your great uncle, Serghei Popa, has passed away from a short illness and has named you his sole beneficiary…”

You couldn’t help the amused huff that came out of your mouth.  This must be some very elaborate scam.

“Umm...sorry, but I think you have the wrong person.  I don’t have family from Moldova and I have never heard of this man in my whole life.” You were about to hit the End button when Mr. Dathermi continued.

“Am I speaking with Y/N, born on (your birthday) to (your father and mother’s full names) and the granddaughter of (your grandfather and grandmother on both sides of your family)?”

Your eyes widened at that.  “Yeah, that’s me…” you answered.

“I know this may sound unusual, but Mr. Popa was the brother of your grandmother on your mother’s side.  He was given up for adoption at birth and taken in by a Moldovan family.  He did not have a spouse and had no children, and according to the genealogy report I have before me, your grandmother and your mother are both deceased.  Your mother was an only child, yes?  It appears to me that you are the last of his living relatives.”

You pulled off the road and into an empty parking lot.  The information you were being given was a lot to handle.  You didn’t have that large of a family.  You were an only child and raised by your parents and both sets of grandparents.  Both of your grandfathers had died before you turned 10.  Both grandmothers died within 5 years of each other and your father and mother died of illnesses, cancer and pneumonia respectively, in the last year.  Grief was a feeling that you knew better than anyone.  You kept to yourself mostly and you didn’t have any close friends or a significant other.

“Listen,” you began, “you are correct about all of your information, but how do I know this is not some kind of scam?”

The man on the other end of the phone cleared his throat and the sound of shuffling papers met your ears.  “I can imagine that this information is sudden and unusual.  What I will do is send a copy of his will and a copy of the genealogy papers to your address.  I encourage you to take this to your lawyer and have them look over the information.  The reason I am calling is because I need you to fly to Moldova, sign these papers, and accept the monetary inheritance that he has left you.”

Your jaw dropped as you looked down at your phone.  Fly to Moldova?  Is this true?  The only thing you knew about the country was that a foreign exchange student from high school was born and raised in Moldova.  That about sums up your knowledge of the country. This seemed incredibly asinine and ridiculous.  But the word that settled in your train of thought was “inheritance.” What inheritance?

“Mr...what was your name again?” you asked.

“Mr. Dathermi, but you can call me Ron,” the lawyer responded.

“Ron...umm, how much monetary inheritance are we talking about?”

More shuffling of papers was on the other side of the phone, Ron clicking his tongue as he looked through the information.  “He has left you 53,806,746 Moldovan Leu...which translates to $3,000,000 in American currency.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!?!” you exclaimed before clamping your lips shut.  You heard Ron chuckle.  “I’m sorry, pardon my language. It’s just...wow...this sounds insane…”

“I can imagine it does,” Ron replied, “which is why I want to mail this information to you and have your attorney take a look at it so you know this is a legitimate will and testament.  If you would like, I can mail the information straight to your attorney if you are still leery.”

“No, no, that’s okay,” you said, shaking your head.  Your mind was whirling.  None of this sounded remotely true.  You felt as if you were dreaming.  This felt like something that only happened in books and fairy tales...a girl who had nothing and nobody suddenly inheriting millions of dollars from an unknown distant relative.  What are the odds of something like this happening in real life?  You gave Ron Dathermi your home address.

“Thank you very much, Miss Y/N.  I will send this as soon as possible.  I’ll also include my business card so your attorney can contact me and we can iron out the details.  Thank you very much, Y/N...I’ll be in touch.”

You thanked him as well and ended the call.  All alone in your car in the empty parking lot, you let out an excited squeal and started hopping up and down.

*

You adjusted the messenger bag that was slung across your shoulder as you heard the overhead speaker call for the boarding of your flight.  Taking a deep breath, you got in line, extended your ticket to the airport employee, and walked down the tarmac and into the plane.

Butterflies were fluttering in your stomach.  Your hands gripped your bag tightly as the flight attendant looked at your boarding pass and pointed down the aisle to where you were to be seated.  You had never flown before and your nerves were on alert.  Scenes from Final Destination flashed in your head as you walked down the aisle towards your seat.  Taking a deep breath and willing your body to relax, you located your seat next to the window and sat down, plopping your bag onto your lap.  

The small window was close to the wing of the plane and looking beyond that was a long expanse of grass that met a vast forest.  You were thankful that you had the window seat and your headphones so you could tune everything out and relax in your own little world.

Once the papers from Mr. Dathermi arrived a week prior, you immediately called the attorney that helped you with the probate and will from your parents’ deaths several months back.  He was more than happy to help, knowing that you were all alone in the world after your parents had passed.  Two days later, he called to inform you that all of the paperwork was, in fact, legitimate and that Mr. Serghei Popa was the brother of your grandmother.  He showed you the adoption papers, confirming that your great uncle had been put up for adoption and the family that took him in had relocated to Moldova when he was two years old.  He had remained in the country until his death.  Your attorney contacted Mr. Dathermi, who in turn secured a round trip plane ticket in order for you to come to Moldova to finalize the paperwork and collect the inheritance.

At the thought of the money you were about to acquire, another surge of excitement flowed through you.  Your parents hadn’t left you much after their death and you worked at a dead-end job that had no room for advancement and no possibility for raises.  All of these recent events sounded like something out of a fairy tale.

“This is your captain speaking,” the voice sounded from the speaker above your head, “we will be departing in the next ten minutes.  Please make sure your seatbelts are secured, your tray tables are up, and all electronics are off until we are at the appropriate cruising altitude.  I will inform everyone as soon as the coast is clear.  Thank you for flying with us and enjoy the ride.”

You fastened your seatbelt and laid your head back, closing your eyes and taking a deep breath.

“Don’t be nervous…” a voice sounded next to you.  You opened your eyes and looked over to see an older gentleman with wide rimmed glasses and a nice smile.

“Is it that obvious?” you asked, returning his smile.

“It’s pretty obvious,” he chuckled, “my name is Bruce Williams.  I’m the air marshal on board this flight.” You told him your name and shook his hand. “Just relax,” he assured, “we’ll be flying for the next 10 hours.  There are lots of movies and tv shows to watch on the screen in front of you, or you can listen to your music and read a book if you brought one.”

You patted your messenger bag.  “Yeah, I have a few books to choose from.  Thanks,” you smiled.

Within minutes, the plane had backed away from the tarmac, turned towards the long expanse of runway, and increased speed before leaving the ground and soaring up into the clouds.

*

The steady hum of the plane’s engines provided a relaxed soundtrack as you slept.  It was close to early morning, according to the clock on the tv screen, but your watch was still on your regular time zone.  It read early afternoon and that threw you through a loop.  You had heard that jet lag could be a bitch and you wondered how bad yours would be once you landed.  Bruce had passed you a pillow and blanket once you were ready to sleep and he assured you that your bag and belongings would be safe while you slept.

You were so thankful to be seated next to him.  Not only was he the air marshal, but he was a really cool person as well.  You two talked about movies and actually watched a couple of them on the tv screen in front of you.  Bruce was kind and nice to talk to.  The crinkle of crow’s feet around his eyes, his laugh, and his hair color mixed with hints of gray reminded you of your father...maybe that’s why you liked him so much.

You shifted in your seat and let out a soft yawn.  Stretching your arms above your head and arching your back, you wondered how much longer it would be until you touched down in Moldova.

“You weren’t asleep that long,” Bruce murmured.  You looked over to see a book in his hand and his glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose.

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom and then go back to sleep,” you replied, standing from your seat.  Bruce stood up and allowed you out into the aisle.  You made your way to the bathroom towards the back of the plane.  The cabin was dark with little lights dotting either side of the aisle on the floor. Soft lights were shining here and there from people reading, watching the tv screen, or messing with their phones while most of the passengers were asleep.

Once in the bathroom, you did your business, flushed the toilet, and began washing your hands.  The mirror in front of you showed a tired and weary version of yourself.  Some of your eye makeup was smudged.  You told yourself once  you returned back to your seat, you’d retrieve the makeup remover wipes in your bag and do away with the dirt and oil.

Just then the plane hit an air pocket and dropped several feet, throwing  you forward towards the sink and mirror.  You let out a shriek as the plane quieted and went still.  “God dammit,” you muttered, putting your hand over your heart, “that scared the shit out of me!”

Once out of the bathroom, you slammed the door shut and walked back to your seat.  You tapped Bruce on the shoulder and he moved aside.

You lifted the window shade and looked outside.  Natural light from the start of the day began to show.  The plane was amongst the clouds so it was fairly cloudy and hard to see.

“How much farther do we have?” you asked Bruce.  He shifted the book to his left hand and looked down at his wristwatch.  “We should be there in three hours.  I think we are flying over Romania right now…”

You nodded your head and thanked him, turning back to the window.  The clouds gave way momentarily and provided the opportunity to see the ground below.  Tall, snowy mountains came into view.  You smiled and marveled at their beauty, wondering what mountain range this was.  You cursed yourself for forgetting the basics from your World Geography class in high school.  Hell, all you knew about Romania was that it was the setting for Dracula and the real life territory that was once owned by Elizabeth Bathory, who allegedly killed upwards of 650 maidens and bathed in their blood.  You shook your head and smiled to yourself.  You really did enjoy some morbid and fucked up stories.

Your train of thought stopped short when a large and spacious castle came into view.  Your eyes widened and your jaw dropped.  It looked like something out of a Disney movie or from ancient castles that still sat throughout Europe.  The place looked like it stood on several acres of land and who knows how many square feet.  What a gorgeous and breathtaking place it was.  You wondered just what was inside a monstrosity like that and who was lucky enough to inhabit such a place.  Maybe there were castles in Moldova that you could explore and visit while you’re conducting your business.

The castle fell out of view and not far from it stood what looked like a village.  You were too high up to see any people or any traces of lights or torches.  You took everything in with total awe and appreciation.  It looked like a small and sleepy storybook town.

A sudden movement close to the village caught your attention.  You squinted your eyes and tried to look closer, pressing your forehead to the window.  What the fuck is that, you wondered.  It looked like a black tree, naked of leaves or any type of growth...and it was moving.  It looked to be swaying in the breeze, but the size of it looked way too sturdy for any kind of gust to move it with such fluidity.  As you focused on the tree, it appeared to be growing...getting closer to the plane.  Was the plane descending?  Were you getting closer to Moldova?

One of the branches of the tree slowly drifted to the ground before extending long and rigid, slinging itself up into the air like a bullwhip, hitting the wing of the plane.  The plane suddenly tilted as the slithering limb wrapped around the wing and broke it off.  You let out a loud scream as the plane turned on its side, Bruce falling against you, squishing you to the wall.  “WHAT THE FUCK??” Bruce screamed as yelps, shrieks, and screams echoed in the cabin of the plane.  Dozens of people were knocked from their seats, flight attendants falling into the aisle and rolling towards the cockpit.  The plane shook and quaked as it dropped several feet in a matter of seconds.

“OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!” you screamed, grabbing hold of Bruce’s arm.  The air masks dropped from overhead and Bruce grabbed yours, making quick work of putting it over your face.  “HOLD ON TO IT! HOLD IT OVER YOUR MOUTH, Y/N!!” he commanded, reaching for his own mask.

“THE WING OF THE PLANE HAS BEEN DAMAGED!” the pilot yelled from over the speakers, “WE ARE LOSING ALTITUDE! BRACE FOR IMPACT!”  People screamed and panicked, holding on to whatever it was they could.  Panic surged through your body as your fingers dug into Bruce’s arm.  The plane shook as it fell.  Your stomach dropped and it felt as if you were seconds from impact.  You looked out the window one last time before the ground came into view and everything went black.

*

He leaned over the body on the metal table in the lab of his factory.  He fastened the bolts with a wrench and tested the strength of the metal against the rotting flesh.  A soft horn sounded in the distance along with the various turns of chains and clangs of steel against steel.  He wiped the sweat off his brow and walked to his desk, looking over the blueprints and sketches he had devised the previous day.

Despite the different array of sounds, nothing could mask the loud crash that sounded off in the distance.  He lifted his head, silently trying to figure out what the fuck made that noise.  Leaving the body laying on the table, he exited his lab and made his way down the stairs and to the factory doors.  

With a grunt, he slid the doors aside and looked off into the distance.  Black smoke billowed from an area that looked to be close to the village.  Other than the crows squawking and flapping their wings in retreat, everything was dead quiet.  He looked off to the right just in time to see the long, spindly limbs of mold retreating back towards the earth.  Karl Heisenberg’s face tightened in a disgusted grimace.

“Mother Miranda...what have you done?”

[charmed-asylum]

RUMOR HAS IT

DARK STEVE ROGERS X OC MINI FIC

Reqested by  @sage1998c request: Hi I was wondering if you would please consider doing a dark Steve high school au story starting Kat Graham as the main oc/face claim. I would really appreciate it if you would think about it.  

WARNING: ALOT OF CRAZY SHIT!!! I never did a dark fic I am going to miss a few but let start with the basics NO ONE UNDER AGE OF 18 SHOULD READ THIS. BLACK MAIL/ SEX/ YANDRE/ RECORDING OF SEX WITHOUT SHARE AGRREEMENT/ ETC ETC

 SUMMERY: Life was perfect for American boy, aka Steve Rogers. Great friends, hot cheerleader girlfriend, love and adore by everyone. Everything was perfect till senior year when Angelina came around and an anonymous gossip column, Rumor Has It, threatening to expose everyone's dirty laundry. 

~ MASTERLIST~ 

SNEAK PEEK // Angelina OC 

TAGGED: @geralt-jaskier20 @hypersonicxd-blog @muralskins @readermia @muralskins@david-winters-93@alagalaska @SAGE1998C

Thick FOG COVERED Rear WINDOWS of his navy blue 1967 Chevy Camaro. A deep moan came from his mouth as he digs deeper into her wet centerfold. His colossal hand holds tighter to her tiny neck, trying to take all his thoughts else were. “OHHHH FU FUCK. HARDER,” Jane shout from behind his thick fingers. His eyes squeeze tighter; he was close still but so far. Think think think of something Peggy beast No. Jane wet means you sure hit new heights with her. She is enjoying it. He opens his ocean blue eyes and gazed back at Jane; her back was arched, moving closer to his cock. Trying to get more. Greedy bitch. 

He couldn’t wait until he was destroying her. By the end of her fifth orgasm (pushing her fourth ), she would know to never mess with him again. She ends this fuckin blog once together. Finally, end his bad luck streak. All this was messing with him mentally and psychically. Maybe after this, he can finally get in with Angelina. Fuck now; she was a piece of art. Body carve from god himself. He thought Peggy was an angel, his perfect dame, but then Angelina came back into his life. Right when he needed her. It’s been forever since he saw her. Just then, Jane let at whining cries for him. That and imagining it Angelina and her virgin pussy finally help him release. God, that’s it, he thought to himself. It has been happening a lot. Lately, he felt he was in love. He knows it even though he is young. No matter what it is, he was thinking about her. He can’t sleep, eat, think.

Whenever he had a chance to stop thinking of her, it’s about this FUCKING BLOG. RUMORS HAS IT. STUPID SHIT! It already got a few of his friends, and even though he is unstoppable invisible. His fears he was going to be next. That’s why Jane has to be the person behind it. No one else knows Thor secret besides him, Thor and his family, her, and that child’s family. So stupid. So Thor was involved in an accident and drunk and got a child in a fucking coma. With one peek at the camera, he stares back at the feedback, good he is still out of frame. 

Jane utters another whimper. Almost there, he thought to himself. Jane’s sparkling baby pink cat claw nails scratch deep into his pecks and across his ample shoulders. The sight of her nail polish reminds him of a dress Angelina once wear. The last time he saw her, matter of fact, was 12 years ago. She was only three years younger than her. He can taste the chunky chocolate chips that melted into the cookies. He can hear the playful voice she uses when she would pretend to play house. He was daddy, and she was mommy. No matter what he did, she always looked up at him like he was god-like. He was the only one who could ever make her feel safe. Even as a weak, pathetic boy like him. Maybe she was that high he felt once and had been trying to get ever since. He can remember like it was yesterday when they share their 1st kiss. She wanted it; she kisses him sweet dreams of a cloud 9 type of kiss. He would have relished that kiss if he had any common sense instead of screaming around like an idiot. He accidentally pushed her away and made her hurt herself. Even though he was the cause of that pain, it was him she looks at to save her. Make her feel better. Fuck, where did that pretty brown eye with pink tails in tutu little girl go? 

She turns into a fuckin unstoppable beast, a storm of everything that drove him crazy. Everything he saw was wrong with the world. Still, he wanted more. Man, he had to get Jane to understand she was messing up his chance to be with his little angel. God’s gift to him for what he has done what he has accomplished. 

“OH STEVEEEEEE” Jane shouted, her legs clenching tight around Steve waisted her mouth in the notch of her neck. Five 

“I told you I could make you come at least five times. Having the best sex you ever got, huh. Tell me I’m better no one can ever fuck you. Not even your stupid boyfriend, Thor,” Steve said breathlessly.

Jane nods and whimpers softly. It’s you. 

“A no. Doll, I need you to shout it louder for the camera,” he whispered into her ear.

So far into her sexual bliss high, she did not hear him say that but instead agree with him. 

He smiles, now holding the camera close to her wet fold. Jane lay back, eyes close, dazed. With a flash, her eyes peak open to see the phone filming her. She pushes up only to be pushed back down with one finger by Steve, still holding the camera. One hand holds down her arms above her head. A Pitch of Steve’s sweat drips onto her.

“Come on, Jane Baby. Say hi to the camera. Man, I made many sex tapes, but you are the first girl I made come without much effort. That is how much of a gold digger slut you are. Your boyfriend hasn’t even cleaned out his locker, but you are already begging to suck my cock. Tiss. Now now, what are we going to do, huh? One-click, and this goes quicker than one of your rumors. By the time you get out of this car, everyone will know what a dirty slut you are. No more Thor, no more ivy school options. The only thing you can do is give yourself to homeless people. Right, where you belong” Steve chuckle watching Jane cry, begging him to stop. 

“But why Jane baby, you were holding me with an iron fist singing my name to the high heavens. Haha, you bitch. It would be best if you had someone to teach you—the right way. Don’t worry; I do that. Mmm. Would you like me to show you the right way? Show you how to be a lady, not trashy dirty whore” He said, proceeding close, sniffing her dark locks. Could Angelina still smell like sweet sugar and honey? Wonder if she uses a different shampoo than whores like Jane or Peggy. I bet she sounds different too. 

“Please don’t. Do this I. I. I do anything. Please don’t post the video,” Jane said between each sob. Her tiny wrist was starting to burn from the tight grip. 

“Oh, no amount of tears or begging to go to stop me. No. You are going to shut up and listen to me bitch. One-stop your blogging, shut it down, and then redact it all. I don’t care what you say, but you end this shit. THEN you’re going to be Thor’s slave. Do whatever he wants behind closed doors, and in front, you will hold tight to his arm to every court hearing throughout the trials. I don’t care if you miss school; I look or hear you miss anything. I’m posting this gem here. Understand,” He said, tilting his head to the side.

“Bu Bu bu it was not me I not the person behind it. I promise I got mad at Thor yes, he was flirting with girls at all the games. But I promise Steve I never do that. But I admit it if that what you want me to do,” She said, crying with chubby tears. He looks deep into her eyes, trying to see if she was lying. Maybe she didn’t. She was like him in a way, using Thor to better herself. He loosens his hold but remains on top. He savors this for future use, but he won’t tell that. Yet. No, he was going to have a bit of fun with this one.

“Not enough. Huh, I guess that’s bye-bye to a bright future. Or else. You come here and show me just how much you want me to keep this little homemade video a secret. Huh. Make it quick. I got a date with destiny, or should I say, little angel. Remember, you use those pearly whites teeth, or don’t swallow all of it up. Bye-bye future, “Steve says with a huge grind and dark eyes darker the midnight sky. 

[tenthgrove]

La squdra with black s/o and somebody was being racist towards them? Only if you are comfortable with that. If your not, could you just do one with la squdra with black reader who has natural hair.

How La Squadra Responds when Someone is Racist to you

La Squadra x Reader (GN), Platonic/Romantic (interpretable), SFW, TW: Racism

(A/N: Since we’re talking about racism here I think it’s best I state for the record that I am white. While I don’t go into detail about the specifics of the racism in these scenarios it might still be triggering to some so a warning applies.)

Formaggio- I headcanon that Formaggio has both African-American and South Asian ancestry, so unfortunately, he’s no stranger to the sort of abuse you’re facing now. He has a simple solution that always cheers him up when it happens to him, and he’s more than happy to give it a go with you. Simply put- you steal the aggressor’s wallet with Little Feet, high-tail it out of there by any means necessary, and spend the cash on whatever the hell you feel like. It’s a nice way for the bigot to pay you back for the hurt they caused, whether they want to or not. Fair, no?

Illuso- Similarly to Formaggio, Illuso’s first thought is to use his stand to get back at the aggressor. Instead of going after their money however, he has a different idea. With your approval of course, he’s going to go down the route of scaring them shitless. There’s nothing that could make them question your sanity more than wondering around a desolate world for a few minutes before inexplicably finding themselves back where you were before. Illuso then continues to spy on the person a bit longer to see if they do anything bigoted again in which case, guess what? It’s back in the mirror world they go! The goal is to form an association between their behaviour and being trapped in the mirror world, ensuring that they never repeat their shitty actions to anyone else again.

Prosciutto- He isn’t one to jump into action without planning, but at the same time, he knows that something like this can’t go unpunished. Consequently, his first port of call is to get you somewhere safe and ask what you’d like to do about this. You were the one being victimised, after all, so it’s only fair you get to decide what happens to them. He’s really okay with anything you say. You can leave and choose to ignore it or you can find the aggressor again and force them to apologise by any means necessary. If, theoretically speaking, it were entirely up to him however, he would most likely choose to covertly make clear to the bigot that the two of you happen to be part of an organisation more powerful than anything they will ever be involved in. Surely they’re willing to give such people the respect they deserve, yes?

Pesci- If there’s one thing that Pesci wants you to always know it’s that he thinks the world of you, and he hates the thought of anyone else potentially making you see yourself as less than he does. There aren’t many things that will anger Pesci enough for him to take a stand, but seeing someone be racist towards you is definitely one of them. He gets you behind him and tells the aggressor just how wrong they are in as many words that come to his mind. After that he whisks you away somewhere private to check on your emotions and offer you reassurance if the event has left you shaken.

Melone- Provided there’s no threat to your safety, he gets out his phone and starts filming. The threat of accountability for their actions is often enough to make someone shut up at once, but if it doesn’t, he absolutely will go through with his threats of making sure the video ends up in all the wrong places. It’s up to you exactly where it goes, but provided you’re okay with it, Melone’s happy to send it pretty much anywhere. How would they like their boss to know that this is how they behave? Their family? Their partner? He’ll back up these threats with educated guesses about the person’s life situation that often prove frighteningly accurate. He might not have the physical strength to endanger a life without his stand, but he can sure well ruin one.

Ghiaccio- Without hesitation he immediately snaps around at yells something to the effect of ‘EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUCK?!’ He absolutely will not stand for this kind of behaviour, towards anyone but especially towards someone he cares about, and he isn’t afraid to get all up in the aggressor’s face about it. If the person isn’t prepared for a fight there’s a high chance Ghiaccio’s explosion will send them running or at very least backing down. If they are prepared for a fight, well, they aren’t going to win, that much is for sure.

Risotto- If anyone dares be racist to you in his presence, Risotto will simply crank up the intimidation factor until your aggressor comes to understand you’re far from the easy target they mistook you for. Most of the time all he has to do is look over, stand closer to you and put his hand on your shoulder while staring menacingly for the bigot to stammer their excuses and hurry off with their tail between their legs. Failing that (or if the person in any way made you feel physically threatened- in that case there are no second chances) he isn’t afraid to get violent. He doesn’t even have to cause a scene- all it takes is a tiny little hunk of iron careening around your aggressor’s insides while he stares them down, for them to make the most profound apology of their life.

Sorbet and Gelato- My version of Sorbet is Korean, so couple that with his and Gelato’s status as a very overt MLM couple, they are unfortunately very common targets for bigots who see them around town, especially when they’re just trying to enjoy a date. The years of putting up with this have only increased how rightfully angry they feel about this, and the first time they witness someone behave that way to you as well, they both see red. They’re going to make it very clear to the aggressor that if they ever speak to you like that again they might very well pay in blood. This isn’t an empty threat either- Sorbet and Gelato are never not armed.

[midethefangirl]

Captain America: Civil War - My Thoughts

I know this is like 5 years late but for this, I’d like to resurrect a barely dead discourse that succeeded in not just dividing the Avengers but also dividing the fandom. Before we start, content warning for spoilers and let’s dive into this mess.

So, basically, the entire conflict of civil war stemmed from General Thaddeus Ross (who is a hypocritical dick, btw) coming to lecture the Avengers on being destructive despite conducting destructive experiments (ahem, the Abomination and the Hulk) but I digress. Then, Ross presents the Sokovian Accords which is really lengthy and we see Steve reading like a few chapters(?). Now, let us note that the Accords were presented to the Avengers after a mission-gone-wrong killed about 11 people in Lagos (lay-gos, not lah-gos that pronunciation gave me headaches as a Nigerian).

So, the Sokovian Accords were written by 117 countries and vetted by the UN asking for the Avengers to be under oversight (which SHIELD would have done if HYDRA hadn’t infiltrated it in the first place but it is what it is). Somehow, Steve made it about “our right to choose” (how?! Cause I’m not understanding) and decided to not sign*.

*he later got back to sign, then backed out when he learnt that Tony had placed Wanda under house arrest (even though it was for her protection. I do believe Tony should have fully informed Wanda about keeping her in the Avengers’ Tower)

My issues with the plot of Civil War are:

1. The Sokovian Accords were not read out loud or placed on some kind of PowerPoint slide for the audience to understand why Team Cap is against the Accords. No, the fandom wiki is not a source because that one is from Agents of SHIELD and not a lot of MCU fans are familiar with that show (yours sincerely included). Assuming the contents were read out loud or discussed by the Avengers, I’d have understood why Team Cap refused to sign the accords but since none of that was given, I’d remain Team Iron Man for this one.

2. The Sokovian Accords is not the American Constitution. Then again, the MCU fandom tends to be American-centric and most Americans seem to have this belief that the world revolves around them (and it manifests itself in Civil War discourse).

3. Contrary to popular opinion, the Sokovian Accords were about 117 (mostly third-world) countries asserting their sovereignty and boundaries, not taking away rights from the Avengers. If we go by what the MCU wiki claims about the accords, yes, some parts are absurd (like asking for blood samples and using trackers, why are those necessary?). However, when 117 countries state that they want you to respect their boundaries, I think it is best to comply. Unfortunately, respecting boundaries is one thing the USA has a problem complying with and guess who happens to represent America?

4. The Accords affected only their hero lives, not their lives as a civilian. I doubt the UN would limit the Avengers’ movements as civilians

5. Let us not forget how Steve and Clint protect Wanda from accountability and responsibility. Wanda in the MCU is like y/n in many fanfics where everyone (except for the “big bad villain” who in this case is Tony and 117 countries) seems to love her and want to protect her from facing the consequences of her actions. Anyone *ahem Tony* who has a bit of problem with her is suddenly the enemy. Not to mention how Wanda seems to have a knack for causing destruction in African countries (Johannesburg, Lagos, Wakanda)

6. And fandom behaviour from the Team Cap stans

7. Also, why is Civil War not an Avengers part 3? It’s better than making it a Captain America trilogy and then trying to frame Steve as being right.

8. I do believe that the accords were sped up which left little time for the Avengers to discuss and compromise on certain issues. If they were given more time to discuss, compromise and negotiate, I think the movie would have ended better than it had.

9. In addition, I also agree with Team Cap stans on how the UN arbitrarily deciding to shoot Bucky on sight is a human right violation.

10. “The safest hands are our own” why does this sound like a white saviour talk point from Steve? The accords is about 117 countries wanting you to respect their boundaries and the best you can come up with to refute that is saying something a white saviour would say?

11. “Even if the whole world is telling you to move...” just shut the fuck up, this is no way comparable to 117 countries trying to assert their sovereignty.

12. Look if I have to choose between surrendering a few rights as a hero and just dismissing that of civilians as potential damage, I’d go with the former because the people whom I’m suppose to protect come first. For me to dismiss their deaths as “we can’t save em all” is just not it.

13. “She’s just a kid”, a few years later and I still hate that term. One, it’s infantilizing an adult white woman (something white men have historically done and we all know how that went) . Two, while Tony was obviously wrong for not informing Wanda about her house arrest, he was right to keep her in the Tower when they were people who would harm her with every chance they could find. **

** after watching WandaVision, some people might find every reason to want to harm her.

14. Let us also discuss the motivation of those in Team Iron Man vs Team Cap

Team Iron Man

Tony: feels guilty for the events of Age of Ultron, believes that he’s stepped out of line and the Avengers need oversight.

Natasha: believes that the Avengers should listen to the public and the UN after all, if they had one hand on the wheel, they can still steer.

Vision: believes that the Avengers as a whole bring challenge which brings conflict and then catastrophe.

Rhodey: a soldier; believes in following orders especially when it is from the UN and 117 countries.

T’Challa: dude is just there to kill Bucky. I’m sure if Bucky was on team Ironman, my guy would have joined team cap, lmao 😂.

Spider-Man: not really there for a reason except to bring in Steve to Ross. I do agree that Tony shouldn’t have dragged him to the fight without Peter making an informed decision.

Team Cap

Steve: didn’t want to sign because it takes away his “right to choose”. Idk what that means or how it is relevant to the Sokovian Accords but okay. However, I understand his mistrust considering a few movies ago, we found out HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD and as much as I believe governments are corrupt and the UN is shit, you cannot just enter a country anyhow without warning ahead of time.

Bucky: was his motivation given? I mean, I believe he joined Steve’s side to stop Zeno from unleashing the other winter soldiers. Not that that’s a bad reason, it isn’t.

Sam: again, I don’t think the movie gave us a reason for him being against the Accords. Did he also believe it was taking away his “right to choose”?

Wanda: undecided as of moment of discussion. Joined team cap because Tony placed her on house arrest. While I agree that Tony should have informed her that he was putting her under house arrest and stated the reasons why, I believe it was for good reasons especially when some people might decide to carry out witch hunts (you get it, witch hunts? 😅)

Clint: only joined because Wanda was placed under house arrest. We aren’t given any reason why he would oppose the Accords.

Scott: fan boy of Captain America, need I say more?

15. Also, to Team Cap stans blaming Tony Stark for Team Cap being imprisoned, grow the fuck up. The people in Team Cap are all adults who made their own decisions yet Tony is to blame for them breaking the law (because they did break the law), wtf.

16. “Are you capable of letting go of your ego for one damn second?” Like Steve’s ego didn’t play a part in all this too, lmao.

17. Okay, the final battle was intense and while I believe Bucky was also a victim, I can understand why Tony lashed out at him. The one to blame here is Steve because even if he had no clue Bucky was responsible for the Starks’ death, he still lied to Tony by not telling him who was responsible. It is more appalling to learn that Steve, in an attempt to “protect Tony and Bucky”, was actually covering for HYDRA!

Also, the way Steve stood emotionless while Tony watched a footage of his parents being killed. Yet, he could shield Wanda from watching the news because of how it affected her, okay.

“I can do this all day”, fuck you, Steve

18. Clint exploding at Tony is so fucking hilarious. Tony is right, Clint has a family yet he decided to fight in a war that didn’t concern him. Also, his comments about breaking backs is so tone deaf after Rhodey just broke his back!

19. If Sam was Captain America, I think Civil War wouldn’t have happened at all, from the dialogue in the Raft.

20. Overall, this movie is a fucking mess and I hate it for dividing both the Avengers and MCU fans.

Before I close with this, I want to add that I am not anti-Steve but Civil War really made me hate him. I get, Steve is supposed to be a Boy Scout and shit like that, but he’s a Gary Stu in the MCU, let’s be honest about it. Civil War should have been an Avengers movie, rather than a part of the Captain America trilogy. The Avengers should have been given more time than three days to discuss the Accords and make necessary amendments; after all that went down in Lagos, Wanda should have been made to sit out missions and maybe we could have had someone like Doctor Strange help in training her; Crossbones would have made a great villain but it is what it is; Peter’s introduction to the MCU could have been as him actually interning for the Stark Industries and forming a kind of acquaintance with Tony Stark before Tony finds out that he’s Spider-Man; Steve should have told Tony about HYDRA‘s hands in his parents’ deaths. Anyway, I’ll go read Civil War fix-it fanfics and fanfics where the Avengers are more like family. Fuck Civil War and I’m outta here.

Edit: okay this was a thought I had when I was trying to sleep but it was too good to ignore. Rhodey has a point about Steve arrogance (if that’s the correct term) in saying “the safest hands are our own” and here’s why:

Like he stated “this is not the World Security Council...neither is this SHIELD nor HYDRA” (paraphrased). This is the UN as well as 117 countries. Look, I am as anti-government as one can go and I don’t believe that the UN are reliable (plus, if we really want to go by the AoS version of the Accords, the Accords are flawed and they need amendments), however, given the US records on disrespecting boundaries in many third world countries, I can understand why 117 countries are wary about a bunch of superpowered Americans entering their country.

To us, the Avengers are saving the world. To these 117 countries and the people who have families who were killed in the crossfire (Zemo is a good example), the Avengers are a bunch of nuisances who leave destruction wherever they tread.

I am still neutral on the whole Accords as I don’t know exactly what it entails but for Steve to go “we are surrendering our rights to choose” (again, how is the Accords threatening the Avengers’ right to choose?) when asked to be under oversight is tone deaf.

[popculturebuffet]

Static Shock: Shock to the System and Aftershock Review

“You know what? 13 years ago, me and some friends sat in a restaurant all night and daydreamed about the kinds of stories we would tell if we had the chance. We wanted to expand the concept of superhero to include characters that kind of looked like us, who had some of the same background, experiences and dreams as we did. We wanted to create something fun that a new generation would respond to the same way we responded to our childhood heroes -and damn if we didn't succeed beyond my wildest dreams. Today, Static Shock is a household name with millions of fans of all ages (Is there stuff I'd do differently? Yeah, almost all of season four but why nitpick?) Static is the most successful thing I've ever helped create and I'm both proud and gratified that people have taken it into their hearts. “ 

Dwayne McDuffie, Co-Creator of Static and Writer for Static Shock

This review is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III.                                                        Rest In Power Static Shock is awesome. I grew up with the show watching it both first run on the WB and second run on Cartoon Network and loved it as much as I did other large parts of my childhood courtsey of DC like Batman the Animated Series, Teen Titans and both Justice League Shows. What makes this unique among the DC Properties is that Static wasn’t really a big name when he got a show. He wasn’t even part of the DC Universe. 

See as I had no idea for probably a good decade, Static actually came from Milestone Comics, a company ran by and focused on african americans. The goal was understandable: While black heroes existed at the time, and there were some fantastic ones like Storm, Jim Rhodes and Steel... these guys weren’t the center of their universes. The big faces of the big  companies, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash.. were white. So milestone was a shakeup of that with the main teams and heroes all being black, from Icon, an alien who’d lived among man but rather than end up in kansas like say superman ended up imprinting on a slave woman centuries ago and has been with us since, who was encouraged by an energetic teenager named Rocket to put on a costume and do something with his powers and his community, Hardware, a tech genius who had his work stolen by a white asshole and wanted to fight back and BLood Syndicate, a group of gang members all caught in the “The Big Bang”, a huge fight between all of Dakota, the midwest city where the comics take place, that ended when the police released a bunch of experimental gas that gave them all super powers. 

As most of you who have watched the show already know, this is where Static comes from. Static was the company making their own Spider-Man, i.e. a nerdy teenager who suddenly gets super powers, in this case Virgil Hawkins who at the prodding of a friend took a gun to The Big Bang to get revenge on a bully. .but ultimately couldn’t go through with it, decided it wasn’t him and got rid of the gun and ran.. and still ended up in it, becoming Static, a young hero dedicated to using his powers to fight other “Bang Babies”.. a term that dosen’t really sound that great and they really should’ve thought through. But Phrasing aside the character was great and I look forward to reading more and only haven’t because I have to buy the issues gradually, but DC is currently re-releasing the individual issues of Static, Icon, and Hardware weekly in anticipation of a reboot of Milestone Coming in May digitally on Comixology at only 2 bucks a pop, and rereleased the original print collections that were long out of print for 10 bucks each, though i’m getting static on it’s own since i’ts really not that much less expensive as it only collects four issues while Icon and Hardware both collect 8, so I can wait a bit there on Hardware and already own Icon: A Hero’s Welcome.. and really need to review it at some point. 

While Milestone’s output was good, at least from the two books i’ve read, with Robert Washinton III, who sadly not only ahs also passed but was fucking homeless for a while  in the 2000′s.. what the actual hell, writing Static alongside Dwayne McDuffie, whose later moved onto animation writing tons of Static episodes all of them classics including the school shooting episode, the first three rubberbandman episodes and both Anasazi episodes. Point is it had good writers and artists and even had a distrbution deal with DC, so they had a leg up on the glut of other comic book companies.. but happened to start at the start of the comic book crash, a huge downturn in sales in the 90′s as the speculator boom, i.e. a bunch of people assuming every number one would be worth golden and silver age money, forgetting a character has to BUILD INTREST and this stuff takes time, and whose attempts to sell fast flooded the market with comics no one wanted,, caused the roof to cave in and with a bunch of assholes pegging milestone as a “Company for black people” rather than you know, a company trying to add fucking diversity and represntation to the comics industry, and that simply wanted a unvierse that was centered around people of color instead of white guys. The company eventually had to shut down, and was left to lisencing.  This is where the show comes in. Producers HAD been trying to make shows based on Milestone for a while, as far back as the mid-90s and the company was was all for it but the closest it got was an x-men style team series using various characters whose first draft was terrible and whose second draft by Alan Burnett, a producer on various DC Animated shows who’d go on to produce Static Shock, that McDuffie and others really liked but sadly did not get picked up. eventually though with presistance Static ended up getting a series and as I said McDuffie went on to write for it though he did not develop it. Some changes went into place naturally to make it work for an early 2000′s kids show and while i’ll probably miss so since again, only read one issue as we go. But due to Milestone coming back my intrest was peaking, hence finally reading the copy of Icon I had to buy from the library years ago due to keeping it overdue but am now EXTREMLEY glad I own as i’ts incredibly rare and really damn good, and wanting to read static, doing so lately since it’s finally on digtiial and again not too expensive. So join me as I give you a shock to the system and revisit this hell of a series to see if it holds up.. which just to cut that short it does and i’m only holding off binging MORE because I want the first two eps to be fresh enough in my head to review properly.. and also go over the various voice actors because that’s a thing with me now and charcter co-creator dwayne mcduffie because he’s awesome. 

As I like to do when covering a series first episodes, let’s run down the voice cast. 

First up is an UTTER LEGEND, and I use the term voice acting legend a lot, and mean it every time and have good reason to use it when I say it, and Phil LaMarr is a GOD in the buisness, having done a metric ton of voice acting roles, and being easily the most proflific black voice actor in animation. He’s also done some acting work, mostly in pulp fiction which I have not seen, but his true staying power and talent is in animation so here’s just the roles I feel are most notable or may not be very notable but i’m bringing up anyway because it’s my list. 

His roles besides Virgil include Lester Payton the Texas Ranger who showed up for one very good episode of king of the hill to be badass and show up the hickish, stupid and very punchable local Sheriff, Gearld’s obnoxious older brother Jamie O on Hey Arnold, Hermes Conrad from futurama, Carver from the Weekenders (PUT IT ON PLUS DISNEY), Axel Foley for exactly one bit in Clerks the Animated Series, but anyone whose seen it will know exactly which one, Micheal on the Proud Family, Black Vulcan on Harvey Birdman (In His Pants), Hector Con Carne and Dracula on Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne, Jack on Samurai Jack something I didn’t know for decades (and I didn’t know about the carver thing till today though i’ts obvious in hindsight), John Motherfucking Stewart on Justice League and later Steel and Adult Static in the Unlimited seasons, Osmosis Jones on Ozzy and Drix, Bolbi Strogofski on Jimmy Neutron (And yes i’m just as shocked as you are.), Wilt on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Marcus on Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Bull Sharkowski on My Gym Partner is A Monkey and Also a Sociopath Please Help God My Life is a waking nightmare..... okay the rest of that title is implied but we all watched the same show, we all know in our hearts that was the title

Moving on, he was also, and yes there’s MORE: Maxie Zeus on The Batman, Philly Phil on Class of 3000, Both Robertsons AND Fancy Dan on the Spectacular Spider-Man, Jazz on Transformers Animated, Kit Fisto and Bail Organa on Star Wars the Clone Wars, Gambit and Bolivar Trask on Wolverine and the X-Men, Aquaman I, L-Ron and Green Beetle on Young Justice, J.A.R.V.I.S. and Wonder Man (Simon Williams) In Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Gabe and Carny on Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (Really miss that game and have been snapping up what cards I can get lately), Baxter Stockman in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (And there’s also an awesome photo of him with 2003 Baxter... the two best together in one place. I got chills), Dormammu (I’ve come to bargin) in various Marvel Shows, Noville in Mighty Magiswords, Zach’s dad Marcus in Milo Muprhy’s Law, Craig’s Douchey Brother Benard on Craig of the Creek, showing he’s clearly come full circle, And Mr. Scully on the Casagrndes. And given It took about two paragraphs to cover all of this, yeah, I MEANT legend. 

Next we have Kevin Micheal Richardson as Virgil’s Dad Robert, and it’s the first time since I started introducing Voice Actors on a show that i’ve overlapped. I already covered him during the second episode of legend of the three caballeros, but for the short version he’s also very acomplished, very damn good and I somehow missed he played the old blind guy in hey arnold> Needless to say the dude is awesome. 

Virgil’s Sister Sharon is played by Michele Morgan who was in the rap group BWP and did some smaller roles outside of this the one exception being Juicy on the PJ’s, which I have not watched much of but REALLY do not like, though i’ll at least give it credit for being a decently long lasted black claymation sitcom at at time when there were, and hoenstly still aren’t, many black animated shows. 

Back to long casting sheets, next up is Jason Marsden, who is one of my faviorites as i’ve realized recently as Ritchie. As I also found out only recently he started on the Sitcom Step By Step and while that show is .. ehhhhhhhhh, he is great in it because he’s great in everything. He also apparently has his own internet variety show which I have to watch now. His roles include Max Goof, ironically given I was just talking about that role a few days ago, Haku in the english dub of Spirted Away, Micheal, the kid being yelled at by a bunch of 80′s cartoons characters not to take drugs in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!, Nermal in the DTV Garfield movies and The Garfield Show, Tino on the Weekenders (SERIOUSLY DISNEY), Snapper Carr on Justice League, Rikochet on Mucha Lucha! for the last season (Why I do not knkow and while I love the guy he was not the right choice), Felix on Kim Possible, Chase Young on Xiaolin Showdown (WHich I did not realize was him and now I do easily his best role and I REALLY should’ve), Red Star and Billy Numerous on Teen Titans, Speedy on Batman Brave and the Bold, Impulse/Kid Flash II on Young Justice, and Fingers on Kaijudo. He hasn’t done as much lately which is a shame but hopefully i’tll pick up again. 

Next up is Hotstreak, Virgil’s brutal bully turned unhinted pyromancer played by DANIEL COOKSY, another actor i’m happy to talk about and another faviorite I haven’t seen much of lately. Daniel was an actor from childhood, playing Budnick on Salute Your Shorts, but he quickly gained a long and storied catalogue of VA Work: His first big roll was as Montana Max on Tiny Toon Adventures and if there is a god he’ll be back for the reboot, Stoop Kid on Hey Arnold, the incomprable Jack Spicer on Xiaolin Showdown, far and away his best role and part of why Chronicles sucked so bad was he was he didn’t get to reprise the role, The titular Dave the Barbarian, Django of the Dead on El Tigre (Had no idea), Kicks utterly insufferable big Brother Brad on Kick Buttowski and apparently he’s back at it again after laying low for a bit as he’s voicing Snag in Long Gone Gultch.. which I already really needed to watch but hot damn, I missed him. Sign me up. 

Frieda, Virgil’s crush and close friend who in the comics was his main confidante and love intrest but here is eventually pushed aside, is voiced by Danica Mckeller whose work didn’t seem all that familiar.. until I found out she was Ms. Martian on Young Justice. Hello, Megan. Very talented and she did get a major role in a dc show eventually so good for her. Can’t wait for season 4. 

So with our major players out of the way,  let’s talk about Dwayne. McDuffie is an AWESOME man and my respect has grown for him more and more with time. A writer and editor at Marvel, McDuffie has a decent resume doing smaller but awesome books, which I got most of for free last year when Marvel was giving out free digital collections due to the lock down, like Damage Control, a sitcom set in the marvel universe about the company that picks up after superhero battles and the logistics and antics that insue and Dethlok, about a pacfist trapped inside a cyborg zombie. He was as mentioned one of Milestone’s founders, and wrote Icon, Hardware and co-wrote the first few issues of Static. He’d go on to a pretty stacked career in animation, writing on this show and Justice League before becoming  story editor and show runner for Unlimited , even making a return to comics as a result writing the Marvel miniseries beyond and an arc of Fantastic Four in which Black Panther and Storm filled in for Reed and Sue while the two of them worked on their marriage after Reed did.. pretty much everything he did in Civil War. He also became head writer and show runner for Ben 10: Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, revamping the franchise a bit, and Alien Force, at least the first two seasons are awesome and I feel people overreacted on the changes. Ultimate Alien is okay, but has it’s problems but the finale was awesome and left the man’s legacy on a high note.. as he sadly passed in 2011 due to heart complications. He is truly missed and produced some utterly amazing stuff whlie he was alive. So on that melacholy note let’s see what happens when his creation hits the tv screen shall we?

Shock to the System:

This episode is written by Christopher Simmons, who is apparently a huge art designer guy.. but i’m not sure that’s the same chirsptoher simmons. Much more notable is the writer of the episode after this Stan Berkowitz, who was showrunner for season 1 and has done a LOT of DCAU work and is suprising talent, having written a lot of awesome Justice League episodes including Secret Society and The Royal Flush One. Point is we’re in first class hands.  Before the episode itself I want to talk about the intro and how it’s unique among DCAU shows. Like most Western Animation the intros for DCAU shows didn’t change much over the seasons with the most I can see is JLU changing up the footage to preview the current episode and later adding Hawkgirl to the intro after her return to the team. I THINK superman the animated series changed some of it’s footage too, but I can’t confrim it and may of just been imagining it. As i’ve talked about on my blog it’s normally a pet peeve of mine, mostly because shows you know, change after season 1, characters get added some one shot characters used for the intro never return, and after a while it can feel dated especially in more recent shows where the status quo is not at all set in stone and things change quite a bit. But sometimes it can be good enough that either the dated elements don’t matter or general enough that you don’t need to change it and i’ts just that good.. and given Batman the Animated Series has both in spades, you can see why i’ts probably my golden standard for intros and after superman the animated series DC mostly followed suit. But being part of the teen superhero boom of the 2000′s Static is unique in that it splits the diffrence: It’s intro gets the character across perfectly like a good intro should starting with Virgil getting out of bed and running a comb across his head before showing off to his sister to bug her and literally running into his dad who hand shim his bag and smiles, silently showing off his family. He then runs to school and runs into some trouble.. and said trouble changes for each intro, with Rubberband Man for season 1, Kanga (Whose name I only know because I happened to run across it) for season 2 and your guess is as good as mine for seasons 3 and 4, though Hotstreak is a constant. They still save some money for seasons 1 and 2 by recycling some animation.. but that’s alright with mea s it was good animation, and the improtant thing is cycling out old villians for new ones, while Season 3 is the only out and out redo to show off Richie taking on the Gear identity, adding about 10 seconds of intro to let him show off.  Seriously it’s an utterly great intro and like the other DCAU intros outside of superman, stuck in my brain. 

The other change that’s ENTIRELY diffrent from the rest of htem is that the music changes each time. The first two have the same formula just with a difrent vocalist and backing track: a superhero theme but with some hip hop beat boxing over it. The first intro is fine enough, not specattcular but stilll god. The second song.. is eh. Not really great and feels like a marked downgrade from season 1 and just dosen’t blend an ocrehstiral superhero theme with the beatbox elements NEARLY as well. The third song though is my faviorite.. even if I HATED Little Romeo as a  kid because I really did not like his nick show, it’s more a straight up rap song, but it has a faster beat that fits the intro better, and Romeo’s bragging fits Virgil’s character and penchant for Spidey quips perfectly. I also find it ironic that the theme that blends in with the dcau the most, the first season’s, is the one from BEFORE they decided to put it in the same universe. Still this season’s intro slaps, I just like the LIttle Romeo one a bit more.  The opening scene is picture perfect. Some masked crooks looting a warehouse are loading some stolen TV’s into a van when suddenly the lights come on one by one above one of the crooks before his tv switches to various channels before going haywire. Cue our heroes’ entrance. Let’s tak ea good look at him

Static’s Costume is awesome. While I prefer the season 3 redesign, and clearly DC agrees as the redeisgn was used for both pre and post new-52 when they used him, and while he’s getting a fresh design for the reboot, said design takes a lot of cures from said outfit. As for how the outfit differs from the comics itself  this is the design he had in the comics

It didn’t change much from the first issue, with the exception of his now iconic big puffy jacket which was added pretty early into the character’s history but I was unaware of that and just assumed he had the bodysuit the whole time. The more you know. But as you can see outside of the cool puffy jacket over a costume the two couldn’t be more diffrent. While the Dakotaverse outfit is more a standard superhero outfit, with some regular clothes touches on top the first cartoon outfit comes off more realistic, looking fantastic, but still coming off as something two teenagers could realistically have thrown together with what clothes they could buy, while still looking awesomely superheroy. IN short it’s perfect and only topped by the season 3 onward look...

But the slicker look, with an even cooler jakcet and the new colors all fitting the lighting ascetic better, but fits: not only has Virgil come along farther since he started, but with Richie now having a genius brain as Gear, he can provide a far slicker, far more professional superhero outfit on the budget the two have.  This show is just great  at costume design. 

So getting back to the episode at hand, Static puts up a huge sign in elecrticy saying “Bad guys here”, PFFFT, and then hides away and narrates that a few days ago he’d be the last person anyone would’ve expected to be a hero. Cue Flashback. 

We meet Virgil Hawkins on an average day: rapping into his razor, getting into a petty argument with his older sister Sharon, as a younger brother myself I relate to this, and talking to his dad who tries to get them to cut that out. We find out his mom has passed via his sister making really terrible eggs and saying that’s how mom made them. Exposition! Though we do get a great bit through this as when his sister gets distracted by her boyfriend calling, he uses the opportunity of her leaving the room to dump the eggs.. after having earlier jokingly prayed to his mom for a way out of breakfast. “Thanks for looking out for me mom” That’s both very sweet and very hilarious. 

This is a change from the comics it turns out as I was utterly flored to find Virgil’s mom alive and well when reading the first issue of Static. Turns out this was a change made during development and one Dwane McDuffie admitted in the interview I got the tribute quote from to not liking as he had a good reason for having Virgil have a nuclear family, as most black families in media at the time were just one single parent and a kid or two with the other having either left or died. He wasn’t too bothered by it as while he preferred what he came up with in the first place, the show DID get some really good stories out of her being gone and didn’t just have her be absent because shut up. Virgil is still working over her death and the way HOW she died ends up playing an important role in this episode and gives Virgil a dislike of guns, as she died to gang violence. So the change wasn’t for stupid or racist reasons, but likely both to keep the character count down while giving them something to work with for storylines. Or it could’ve been for stupid reasons and the writers simpily made lemonade out of that very dumb lemon, either way it ended up working.  Virgil also plans to ask his friend Frieda out. Frieda was a bigger deal in the comics, being Virgil’s friend and confidante as well as his ocasional love intrest, but here while she was inteded to at least be his love intrest here, that sorta fizzled out. As for the best friend role we meet her replacement in Richie, which McDuffie conceded was the kind of change a studio would make swapping out a female character for a male one. That being said the crew made the best of it and Richie is awesome, a bit of an overcompensating dipstick at times, but a good sounding board and pal for virgil and funny as hell too. He was also gay, something only revealed post series by McDuffie.. but unlike say Dumbledore, it’s a bit easier to swallow here: The early 2000′s were an even worse time for gay characters in tv let alone cartoons, and if they couldn’t kiss or have sex scenes on regular tv, there was no way we were getting any representation in a children’s show. So it was largely just hinted at by Richie overcompensating in how “into girls” he was and i’m once again fine with this being word of god as it was literally the best they could do and his counterpart in the comics was also gay, if not as relevant.  Ritch encourages Virgil to work on his opening to ask her out as it’s awkward as heck, hits a bit close to home.. but I do appricate the show just .. having him try and ask her out from the first episode. They likely would’ve drug thigns out a bit granted had they used Frieda more, i’m not blind to the convetions of the time. .but as someone who got the very wrong idea from tv that just waiting around meant a girl would like you eventually, when no you need to actually try even if rejection happens, I honestly wish we had more of this in media than the other garbage morals at the time. 

So he prepares to , not helped by her mentioning guy after guy is asking her out.... but before he can F-Stop, the future hotstreak, shows up.  F-STOP

That being said...... it’s not as bad as the original gangster name for the comic’s version, Biz Money B. Yes BIZ MONEY B

So yeah while F-Stop is no more intimidating, it at least means I can stop laughing. Francis, because I can’t type F-Stop without laughing and this review is already behind, shoves Virgil out of the way and agressively hits on Frieda, even saying “you smell good”, the international sign your a douchebag and also to call the police. Virgil steps up to the guy and gets PAINFULLY slammed into the lockers, something I give the animation team a lot of credit for, as you can FEEL how fucking painful that was. Virgil is saved by Wade, another local gangbanger who in the comics was a close friend of Virgils but here saves him seemingly just because.. seemingly. 

On the way home though Virg’s problems don’t end as naturally, the giant sized asshole with nothing better to do has his goons corner virgil before VIOLENTLY beating him.. off screen but the noises, and the clear brusies including a black eye, on virgil afterwords.. just holy damn i’m suprsied they got away with this but it shows just how horrifing it was and that this is a step above regular bullying, which make no mistake is absoluttley terrible and the series would later do an episode on it and school shootings, into straight up gang violence. Wade shows up again and gets the bastards to flee.. but also makes it clear he can’t keep doing this.. and forces Virgil to meet him at his base under the bridge. And it’s a tense sequence, with Virgil KNOWING this is a bad idea but having no real choice and Wade making it abundantly clear that he wants Virgil to join his crew, and makes a chilling point: while Virgils dad RIGHTFULLY dosen’t want his son to join a gang as Virgil points out.. he can’t be there for him all the time and eventually one of those times, Francis will be around. And he may not surivive that. Virgil nods noncomittaly.  At home it gets even more grim as he dosen’t open up to his family, understandably as his dad would jsut say to call the police and well.. we’ve seen how the police treat black people. At best they’d just try and use Virgil as an informant and that likely wouldn’t end fucking well for Virgil. Ritchie points out he can’t join a gang, virgil’s mom died that way.. see told you it’d be important to the plot.. but I like how the story dosen’t offer an easy answer.. well okay he gets electric powers soon enough but without the fantastic element this is just an innocent kid caught between either joining the very thing his mom hated or hoping a system not built to protect him will keep him alive. It’s utterly saddening and chilling and holy shit is it amazing a cartoon in the early 2000′s was able to get away with.. ANY OF THIS, and they handle it great, paired down a bit from the comics but even then it’s still incredibly balsy they got THIS much in. 

Naturally Wade calls in his favor and our hero is forced to come running.. and soon finds out Wade’s brought him in for a massive gang war. Welcome to the big bang, baby. He hands Virgil a gun as things get started and Virgil.. drops the thing and tries to escape, in a harrowing sequence.. and runs into Francis because god apparently REALLY hates this kid today. As if to prove that the police show up and while that prevents a beating, they demand they disassemble. then release untested gas on them because of course they do. 

As a result the big bang truly begins, with the various gang members getting mutated.. and naturally so does virgil. Though he wakes up the next day seemingly fine. How’d he get home? Does his dad know where he was?

I don’t know and we’re not getting any answers, but Virgil soon finds weird stuff happening like his clock shorting out, change being attracted to him and his razor going wild. It’s only once he get sback to his room he gets an inkling of what’s going on and calls Ritchie to meet him at the Junk yard.. though it is a bit of a dick move as he dosen’t you know, tell him anything about Wade or Francis right away. He does at the yard though.. and that he has powers, having finally figured out how to use them to a point. And the series does provide a decent justification later as to why he’d get this so quickly: Virgil is a smart kid, gets great grades at school and apparnetly there’s even an episode later where he gets a scholarship to a fancy genius school. So him getting how elctromagntisim works or being a quick study on it makes perfect sense. 

Richie suggest the obvious.. to become a superhero. And the thought.. hadn’t occured to Virgil. It’s honestly a nice twist on the old trope. That he hadn’t thought of it, not because he’s selfish or any of that or needs to learn a hard lesson, those have been done.. simply because the rush of getting his powers, and implicitly of having a way out of his current predciament, a way to keep Francis off his back and keep Wade from pulling him in further. His own path. But once i’ts brought up.. he jumps on it. Part of it is being a nerd like you or I, of course he wants to.. and being a good intetioned one, he knows this is the right thing to do. It’s waht makes a superhero a hero: Anyone can get powers in a universe like this, esepcailly the dcau, but it takes true courage and heart to use them selflessly and knowing you’ll be in danger. It’s why I love surperheroes: they often didn’t ask for this but they do it anyway because somebody’s gotta. We also get an intresting wrinkle is superman is, at least I think in this episode I could’ve missed it or misremembered things, mentioned as a fictional character. That’s because originally like the comics this wasn’t part of the DCAU.. but eventually the crew decided it shared staff from it, shared a network, both first run and on reruns, why not just make it part of the DCAU proper. I fully support this decisionf: While i’m midly annoyed unlimited never really used anything from static shock outside of Static himself in the time travel episode, despite you know Static and Gear having BEEN to the tower and not being much younger than Kara and defintely older than Courtney, I chalk it up to weird rights issues or something like that. But having Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, Green Lantern and the Justice League itself all guest star was a good idea, and expanded both static’s universe and gave the DCAU something differnt as most heroes in it were older and more experinced in contrast to the up and coming virgil. Again really would’ve been nice if he and gear could’ve been a part of the expanded league but production might of just been too far ahead or, given he had his own series, they might just have wanted to stick to toher characters. Also begs the question why Icon or Hardware wasn’t adapted for the expanded League but hey, questions for later and the tricky logisitics of the milestone rights might’ve been the issue. I don’t know I wasn’t in the room. 

So we get a costume montage, including Black Vulcan from Superfriends, who again ironically would be voiced by Lamarr not too long after this, though weirdly they DON’T use his outfit from the comics for this montage. I mean why not? It fits the gag and would’ve been a good second to last choice.But what could’ve been aside we get our winner and cut back to present day...

Thanks boys. Static finds out one of the things in the warehouse is a shipment of computers for the school and can’t help but show off, showing up to the school, where Frieda and Richie are setting up for the dance, and dropping off the computers, and even saying his catchphrase for the first time “I’ll put a shock to your system” (Which Richie chimes in with awesome line and I agree, great catcphrase), before helping set up and flirting with frieda. 

Though as Richtie says he’s a natural. He’s not wrong as he can work a crowd. .but back it up too as his first run out had him easily taking out the crooks, and as many teen superheros and fans of heroes of hte type, myself included will tell you, getting it right in one is not easy. Not even Miles MOrales was immune. All Static needs now is a villian. 

And the end of the episode provides one as we see, in horrifc and once again damn suprising detail most of hte new metas aren’t doing so good and are melting and other stuff and we catch up with Francis whose burning up.. and naturally given that hair, though given he named himself F-Stop it’s the least of his problems, he’s got fire powers and escapes to “Have me some fun”

So with that we end episode 1. And it’s excellent, a great way to introduce the hero and while the warehouse opening is a bit superflous, it is a decent addition, showing our heroes first outing in costume and giving us a bit of an action scene to get us through the very heavy rest of the episode. But the rest of the episode is no less grippping, telling the tale of a teen caught in an unwinnable scenario who suddenly finds a way out. And speaking of which waht of Wade? Will we see him again? Is he perhaps Ebon, the series big bad as I thought when I was a kid? What comes of the man who directly caused static’s origin?

Yeahhh that’s the one mistep I think the pilot makes. Frieda is understandable as that was likely a simple change in creative direction. This though? Why build this guy up if your not going to bring him back. I mean where he went was probably the grave, as he probably did due to his mutation, but it’s still VERY weird to spend a whole episode focusing on this guy, building him up as a big personal threat to our hero.. and NOT have him become the series big bad. And maybe he WAS supposed to be ebon and they just changed their mind. I don’t know but it bothers me it bothers me a lot. Otherwise though flawless. ONe more to go. 

Aftershock: We open outside an electronics store, as our heroes watch the news reacap what happened in the first episode, with the media dubbing it the Big Bang and revealing their could be hundreds of “Metahumans”, as Virgil dubs after deciding the media’s term “Mutant” dosen’t fit, a nice wink to the fact that that’s the term used in dc comics and I believe milestone but could be wrong there. Me I like the term, has a nice ring to it. 

At the store while Richie mulls over waht this means Static finds out he’s a human CD player.... this was before mp3 players and streaming on your phone made them horribly obsolete mind you and if you don’t know what one is congradualtions you live in some sort of bubble and you made me feel really old junior. 

Frieda happens to be there and Virgil quips “What’s the matter they run out of britney cds”. Dude she’s not bad. Also be careful what you wish for man. Nickeback returned the year after this. You have not truly suffered through bad music yet my young friend. They spot a kid looking feverish, and he soon turns into a purple werewolf, as you do. It’s a bang baby.. those are richie’s exact word and you may not want to start a panic there bud. Just saying your best friend is one. THeir not all like this. Our heroes book it only to run into Francis who naturally refuses to let them leave and only doesn’t try to beat up Virgil because Virgil points otu the werewolf and nonplussed, he goes to fight it, scarring it off by revealing his own powers. He’s now dubbed himself Hotstreak which points for getting an actually good name kid. No points for what happens next as unsuprisingly getting powers did NOT mak ehim a better person and he attacks Virgil who blocks with a garbage can lid and thankfully is blasted into an ally. Richie tries to guard frieda for damn obvious reasons but gets hsi shirt burnt up because shut up Thankfully Static shows up, and we get our firsdt full on superhuman fight as both fight each other with aplomb, and it’s a damn good fight.. and one that goes pear shaped for Virg as he’s caught off guard when he finds out Hotstreak can use his powers to fly, and tackles him and his previous trauma causes him to freeze up. Thankfully , as Frieda put in a call earlier, the fire department arrive and HOt streak has to retreat, though Virgil is bummed that he “Choked”. And I love this as it not only shows Virgil’s inepxerince, as this is his first time fighting a bad guy but that just because he HAS power now dosen’t mean trauma and his previous fear of Hotstreak goes away or you won’t freeze up from time to time. It dosen’t make him weak or anything like some assholes would call it .. it makes him human. Humans make mistakes, and it makes him all the more relatable that he’s not pefect and that he did freeze up as I know I certainly would at last once in the circumstances. 

Things don’t get better at dinner as Sharon and Pops argue over the bang babies with Pops calling them a meance and Sharon pointing out Static exists so they can’t all be bad. See assuming a group of superhumans are bad because a handful of them ar edick sis why the x-men had to get their own island nation. You can only save an ungreatful populous so many times before you say “fuck it i’m getting my own island, pay me for life saving drugs, save your damn selves and stop doing genocides on us. Kay thanks”. But he does bring up a valid point that rattles his son: We don’t know anything about the Bang Babies or their biological structures and it’s likely they might further mutate into monsters, Static included. 

Virgil, understandably, wants to check this and thus he and richie compare blood samples in science, to no real conclusion. She he checks out with his doctor who assumes he’s sexually active in a great getting crap past the radar bit and a bit of realisim, but he agrees to the test though if something came up he would have to tell Virgil’s dsad and is up front about this. Nice dose of realisim.

That night City Council has a meeting and the Mayor TRIES to deflect Papa Hawkins questions about the bang babies which again, while being a judgmental ass as not every person hit was a gang member (Virgil, and as we discover later some others), and not every gang member is there by choice, some by circumstnace some, like virgil almost was, because they HAD no other option. Again years of reading x-men may of just made me a bit touchy on assholes admitely assuming superpower people bad. But it’s clear the public is upset and while she says an investigation is underway... Virgil and Richie are not only not convinced, but figure she’s actively covering it up. And unlike everyone else there who probably suspects the same, they can do something about it and tail her.  It’s during this, and cleverly as I didn’t realie till writing this using similar skills to his human cd player act, Virgil listens in and discovers whose behind it: Edwin Alva, whose apparently richer than bill gates and a beloved phinarophist Alva, as it turns out, was actually the arch enemy of Hardware in the comics, taking advantage of the guy in his civiliian idtentiy and thus casuing him to launch a war on the asshole. He does transition into this series well though, being the one behind the gas that caused it and with the mayor agreeing to back off, planning to simply dump the info about the big bang on a disc then destroy everything for now till the heat dies down. Yup sounds like a corprate douchebag. 

Static tails him, finds the lab and infiltrates it, stealing the disc.. but getting caught by Alva’s goon, and trapped in a glass prison, forced to use ALL his power to escape and barely getting out alive, but not before bouncing off alva’s car. Still he now has the proof.. and meanwhile Hotstreak, who I was wrong did get captured, is forced to take pill sbut spits them out once the orderly is gone. Dude.. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH HIM. Make sure he swallows that shit especially since, as he has no powers right now and can’t harm you. 

Hotstreak escapes off screen and our heroes discuss the disc before he shows up, and we get a REALLY fucking amazing scene: Virgil ducks into an Alleway and ritchie is worried.. and Virgil disarms him with just one word responses Ritchie: Virg you can’t take him.  Virgil: Gotta. Ritchie: Well at least wait for the fire department Virgil: Can’t.  It’s simpile but it gets the point across: This is his fight, he can’t wait for help, and people need him. And this is what makes a true hero: It’s easy to be a hero when everythings going well.. but it’s the true ones who stick it out against the odds and fight anyway. And he’s going to.  So we get one hell of a fight, though naturally Hotstreak burns up the disc. And I do like this as it dosen’t feel contrived.. yes Static could’ve left it with ritchie.. but he wasn’t thinking in the moment and dind’t really have time to think abotu the disc, only that people were being hurt and he was all they had between them and Hotstreak. It was no choice at all. Still that pisses Virgil off that the last night’s work is now worthless, and he fully charges up and curbstomps francis who retreats into a clearing. Hostreak brags when static follows, as even he’s figured out Static needs to be around metal, as he’s usually on his disc or the street, and in the park there suppodsidly isn’t any. But he’s not THAT smart as Virgil points out two things: one, he hoped to do this on PURPOSE so they wouldn’t be around people and no on e would get hurt and 2).. this is a city, there’s metal everywhere.. and he awesomely and cleverly proves it by unlodging a sewage pipe with his powers and dousing his foe, winning and proving his stuff. I love this solution, it’s a clever spider-man type way to disarm him, using smarts and the einvroment instead of just brute forcing it. Though the sewage part wasn’t intetional our hero still won and gets praise from the people dumb enough to follow the fight. 

However at home Virgil points out it was  Pyrrhic Victory and shows off his smarts by telling the tale behind it, which I didn’t know,because tv tropes didn’t exist yet: king pyrhus fought the romans and WON.. but had so little armies left that he still lost overall. That’s what this feels like to Virgil: he beat hotstreak but any chance at a cure for Bang Babies and Alva going to jail for causing them is gone. His mood does get a boost though as the doctor calls and reveals he’s fine, he just has a bit too much elctrolytes and just needs to lay off teh salt. He celebrates, we get a quick gag and the episode ends

Aftershock is another stellar episoe, giving us Virgil’s first super foe and a personal one at that, while showing some growth. As richie tells him he’s not virgil anymore he’s static and he can’t let his past get to him.. and he does’nt going from cowering in fear to easily beating his foe with simple logic. It’s a good followup that answers questions you may have from the first ep, like what does this do to virgil’s body, who supplied the gas, and why has no one done anything about this, and sets up another villian for Static in Alva. Great stuff. I highly recommend these episodes and the show as a whole: it’s fast paced, grounded and enjoyable, having just enough levity to not be too dour but just enough tension and stakes to be intresting. A throughly fantastic superhero show and one that i’d certainly love to revisit on this blog If you have an episode of static or the dcau in general you’d want me to cover, my comissions are open and details are on a tab on my blog or can be gotten simply by asking me via ask or dm. Tommorow we’re going deeper underground, there’s too much damage in this town as the Lena Retrospective continues. So expect gay ducks, straight ducks and some terrfirmains. See you next rainbow. 

[marmolady]

There Was This Girl

Main Pairings: Estela x (f)MC

Summary: Rourke Ending. Estela Montoya is a loner. She keeps herself to herself. But there's just something about the girl in her Chemistry class....

Word Count: 3738

Chronology: This the first part of my Rourke ending series.

Tagging: @saivilo, @edgydepressedchoicesthot, @sceptilemasterr, @greengroove @mauvecatfic

There was this girl. Blonde… electric blue eyes. Not all that tall, not all that short. Just another average blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl in your average American college. The girl… Taylor she’d said she was called, looked to Estela to be just an ordinary anyone. Which was why she bothered Estela so. The way that girl played upon her mind after bumping into her just the once; that was anything but ordinary. After that… well, Estela didn’t seem to be able to keep herself from bumping into Taylor. It was almost as if that girl, that average, ordinary girl, had been seeking her out.

Estela had made a point of keeping to herself in the days since beginning her studies as a freshman at Hartfeld University. Though she’d been raised by her uncle in San Trobida, away from the trappings of her lineage, she was certain that it wouldn’t be long before she was known here as the daughter of the Emperor and the Second Empress. It was a connection she’d long despised. That she and her uncle had spent the last however many years fighting against a dictatorship was laughably ironic when it was none other than a cruel dictator who’d sired her… who still kept a hold over her mother. Had it been down to Estela, she’d never have come to this place, but at her uncle’s insistence that she arm herself with the best education they could give her, she’d relented. Quite an achievement in persuasion on his part. It was not every day that Estela Montoya backed down.

There must have been a reason she was drawn to that girl, Taylor. Maybe it was the simple fact that people tended not to talk to Estela. She liked it that way, for so long as she was left alone, her identity never seemed to be an issue—despite her striking resemblance to the Second Empress. Other students would whisper—or rather, not bother to—behind her back, mulling upon the reasons for her enforced solitude, for the scarring that marked her serious face. Their speculations were frequently cruel in tone. Perhaps that was why the openly friendly way that Taylor had greeted her; no hesitation, no mistrust, had stuck with her.

“Hey-- you mind if I sit here? It’s kind of crowded everywhere else; I don’t think I can handle the noise right now.”

A frown darkened Estela’s face, born of suspicion that had been drilled into her since she was small, but she nodded. It was hard to resent Taylor a simple desire for peace and quiet-- the new food court was for the most part a headache waiting to happen.

Taylor sat down with an exhale-- relief?-- and began to eat. After a moment, she looked back up, meeting Estela’s eyes before they could pointedly dart away.

“Thanks,” she said quietly. “I… I get the impression you like to keep to yourself.”

Estela’s frown deepened. Maybe… maybe she did. She felt lonely sometimes, but solitude was now second nature; it was easy.

“Let’s just say it’s better that way. For me… for anyone who doesn’t want to wind up hurt.”

Taylor studied Estela’s face, and a couple of times opened her mouth as if to start talking, before reassessing and remaining quiet. Estela looked back, unblinking, mirroring the curiosity before her. She’d never much been drawn to blue eyes. Used to the cruel, icy gaze of her father, that coldness was anticipated. But Taylor’s weren’t like that. Not at all. They were bright, sparkling and warm like the sun on the sea. They were kind. And when Taylor’s smile reached them, they made something both alarming and pleasurable bubble up in Estela’s stomach. Then, Taylor finally managed to get her words out; shaky, unsure.

“Well, if you ever feel like… you know, some company, you should know that I enjoy being in yours. And I wouldn’t mind just… hanging out sometime.”

Estela averted her gaze, painfully aware of the heat blossoming upon her cheeks, spreading rapidly to her ears and the back of her neck. She could only hope that Taylor didn’t notice that fierce blush. Was she attracted to Taylor? Like, really attracted to her. Was that what this was? Intensely focused as she’d been on the family business in San Trobida, she’d never had the time for foolish crushes. Any such feelings had been trifling, fleeting. She might have looked at a person and thought the nice to look at, but it hadn’t been like this. There hadn’t been the butterflies. There hadn’t been the throb between her legs, nor the goose-bumps rising up her neck. Agonisingly uncomfortable, Estela took her food and strode off without a look back.

And then, that night, everything changed.

She was on a hillside, overlooking a sparkling sea. Smiling beside her… Taylor.

“I’ve seen a few sunsets,” Taylor said, but this is something else.”

It was. The colours upon the vast sea were sublime.

“My view is better,” said Estela. She stared into Taylor’s lovely face, taking every feature in.

Taylor blushed a little, and deflected. “I think you found your light too. We should take some pictures while we’re up here.”

For a moment, Estela said nothing, unable or unwilling to tear herself from simply basking in the glow of the beautiful person beside her. Oh, how her stomach fluttered.

“Something like this is hard to capture,” she said at last. “It’s more special if we have to remember it.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s ours alone that way.”

Together, they sat down in the cool grass, knees touching, and watched the shift of colours across the water and sky.

“I…,” said Estela, “used to avoid getting this close to people.”

“I remember,” Taylor said… somewhat sadly. “There was a time when it was hard to talk to you.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I was afraid of hurting you… of losing you and everyone else.”

“Believe me, I worry about it too. We’re gonna find the others though. We’re all in this together.”

Again, Estela fell quiet, thoughtful; then…, “Yes.”

It was getting too much. She had to be nearer to Taylor. She edged closer, reaching for her hand, and utterly powerless to look away from those gentle blue eyes….

Then Taylor moved in and was kissing her. So soft and tender. Estela closed her eyes, letting herself know nothing but for the feel of Taylor’s lips as they caressed her own. She let her arms wander, feeling, knowing every inch of Taylor’s body, and the kisses became harder, more urgent.

She shifted back, a fire in her raging wildly… an aching need.

“I want you, Taylor…. Now.”

And Taylor whispered back, “I want you too.”

Clothes were torn off, Estela’s heart pounded like a drum, and not for a moment did her eyes leave Taylor until they were both bare in the glow of the sunset.

“Come to me.”

Estela sat bolt upright in bed.

Holy fuck. What the fucking fuck was that?

What was this-- some sort of gay awakening? Never before had Estela felt  so… so… intoxicated by another person. It was all at once frightening and addictive. Her heartbeat quickening, Estela let her hand delve into her pyjama pants, feeling. She shuddered to her own touch as her mind’s eye showed her Taylor’s lips… blurring out of focus… drawing her in until she was moaning against them. Then, as if zapped by an electric shock, she pulled her hand back up. Shit, shit shit… you can not feel like that! You don’t even know this girl!

But you want to.

Damnit, she was aching for that woman. That couldn’t have been a normal dream. In a normal dream, she wouldn't have woken up with the memory so vivid that she could practically feel the ghost of Taylor’s breath against her lips.

You could actually try talking to her. Maybe if you weren’t so fucking repressed it wouldn’t explode out of you like… that.

After an age, Estela managed to shut out her thoughts long enough to drop back off to sleep. But there she was again…. Taylor.

“I brought you a blanket… if you’re cold.”

Estela recoiled, eyes narrowing. “…Why?”

“I don’t know. To be nice?”

Though Taylor looked confused, she kept holding out the blanket. And Estela took it, draping it over her shoulders.

“Thank you.” She looked up to the stars-- stars that seemed to be… in the wrong place? “Where I’m from, people don’t do things for you without expecting something in return.”

For a moment, Taylor didn’t appear to quite know what to say to that. “Well…. Maybe people just want to be liked in return.”

“Isn’t that pathetic?” Estela quietly scoffed. “How lonely we all are?” She shifted her gaze from the night sky and smiled at Taylor. “But at least you’re honest about it.”

Again, she woke up. What the hell was going on?

________________________

The next week was unbearable. Estela wasn’t sure what it was-- was she putting out some kind of signal to the universe?-- but she couldn’t seem to keep herself from running into Taylor. If her presence had felt inescapable before, it had been nothing compared to this. In the halls. In the cafe-- which after a few days Estela had simply started avoiding completely. In Introductory Chemistry, in which of all the people she could have been grouped with for their practical component… of course, Taylor. Even just walking across campus between lessons, their paths would inexplicably cross. And each night, Estela would find herself lost in visions too vivid, too real to be dreams in the sense she knew.

Taylor holding her hand as they prepared to step through a mysterious portal with a group of other students. Taylor kissing her passionately while they tumbled, weightless in what looked to be some kind of space station. Taylor reaching desperately for her as she fell out the gaping side of a helicopter.

Whispered ‘I love you’s, exchanged huddled in a tent beneath the starriest of skies.

Awakening with tears streaming down her face was fast becoming Estela’s normal. Some weird crush, maybe she could’ve been able to handle, but the loneliness… it sent an ache down to her bones, a sadness that engulfed her whole body. She’d felt Taylor’s arms around her… the warmth, the comfort. She’d experienced some higher plane of bliss. But in reality, she hadn’t. And that hollow space left behind when she opened her eyes each morning hit like a slap in the face.

She lay in her bed, closing her eyes and trying to think of anything that might distract her from imagining Taylor spooning against her back-- why couldn’t she just be kept awake stressing about exams like all the other students? It would be better than this. Anything would be better than this.

With a groan, Estela hauled herself up and switched on the light. She poured herself a glass of water, and rubbed her temples.

I’m losing my fucking mind….

A piece of paper scrunched on her desk drew her eye. She’d thrown that thing out twice already, but somehow she couldn’t stop herself from rescuing it from the waste-paper basket within an hour. Taylor had given her a scribbled note of her details; where her room was, her phone number. ‘Just in case you ever need a friend’ she’d said.

It was too late to call. Estela downed her water in a single long gulp. Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’m just gonna face her head-on.

What was the worst that could happen? This was just some girl she had a crush on, after all.

It was nothing but a very strange, very intense crush.

______________________________

The lecture theatre always filled up quickly for Introductory Chemistry. Estela never had to worry too much about finding a seat; as long as she didn’t leave it too late, all she had to do was move toward the area of her choice, and people would usually scatter. There was no denying that it hurt. Estela had gotten used to being alone; throughout her life, the only person who’d ever wanted to give her the time of day had been her uncle. And… well, the gentle-eyed blonde that she now found herself making a beeline for.

Painfully aware that her cheeks were burning hot and no doubt had flushed a bright red, she approached.

“Hi.” It wasn’t smooth. Estela tried to look anywhere but Taylor’s face. How was she supposed to look her in the eye when the things she’d been dreaming had been so… so… well, there hadn’t always been many clothes involved. “You don’t mind if I…?”

Taylor’s face cracked into a smile, big and broad and genuine. And the guy next to her-- Diego, Estela was pretty sure his name was-- looked, for some reason, almost as happy.

“Sit with us!” Taylor cried. “Maybe you can explain some of this crap to me. I swear these equations just go in one ear and out the other. Sorry-- I don’t think you’ve met properly? Diego-Estela, Estela- Diego.”

Estela nodded stiffly. It seemed that Taylor was around Diego a lot. A mortifying thought occurred to her… were they together? She couldn’t just assume Taylor was single. And… not straight. She certainly didn’t seem especially heterosexual in those blasted dreams….

God, my cheeks must be so bright-fucking-red you could probably see them from space. Joder.

“Hi,” she deadpanned.

“Hi,” said Diego, a little awkwardly.

And then, as if struck by a bolt from the blue, it dawned on Estela-- she knew his face. Not just from around Hartfeld; Diego had been there in the background in the dreams. He’d been one of the students. It wasn’t random… it was, aside from herself and Taylor, nine other people who were definitely Hartfeld students Estela knew by sight. Always those same students. And some other guy… and, uh, some tall elf-like man with blue skin, but that was probably just her dream-mind being creative.

All right. That’s very, very weird. Why those same nine people?

With the lecture beginning, Estela pushed those thoughts from her mind. She could ponder over her dreams later, when she didn’t have the woman who’d been on her mind all week sitting right there next to her.

As it happened, sitting with Taylor through a lecture turned out to be surprisingly comfortable. Perhaps because their focus was not directly on one another, Estela found she could relax a little. Taylor just slipped into her companionship as if it were natural, as if it were something they did every day.

As if they knew one another.

Taylor dropped her pen, and instinctively, Estela ducked down to pick it up. For a moment she hesitated, tucking a loose strand of hair behind hair, then handed it to her. Their fingers brushed, lingering there… and Estela felt a pleasurable flip-flopping of her stomach. When their eyes met, Taylor’s smile was sweet and soft.

“You dropped this,” Estela murmured.

“Thanks,” came the whispered reply.

Okay, Estela thought to herself, maybe… maybe getting to know Taylor-- actually getting to know Taylor, not some dreamland bullshit-- wouldn’t be the worst thing.

___________________________

In the days to come, Estela would sit by Taylor for their shared lectures. It became easy; she’d just sit and quietly just enjoy the company. If Diego was there, he’d usually chatter on about something or other that meant nothing to Estela, but it was hard not to be happy when Taylor was laughing along with her best friend.

The dreams didn’t stop. If anything, they were getting stranger. She dreamed herself pummelling some woman from Rourke International into the snow… punching the ever-living daylights out of her. Why? Taylor had been there, standing by. And then… a great, lumbering beast staggered out of the trees.… And she woke up. Then there’d been sea monsters, and pirates, and a hulking sabre-toothed cat…. What was consistent, though, was Taylor. Always Taylor.

During their next Chemistry lecture, Taylor seemed oddly… uneasy, as if something was on her mind. She was twitchy, and stared off into space as if oblivious to every word the professor was saying. What was more, Diego was quiet. Estela felt a sinking feeling in her stomach; something was wrong-- was it her? Of course it was her. It only made sense that Taylor got with the program eventually; no one wanted to be around the scary loner.

When the lecture finished and all the other students filed out, Taylor lingered, even after Diego had hurried off to his next class. She looked so lost and confused.

Estela spoke quietly. “Am I, um… am I making you uncomfortable? You don’t have to be polite if you’d rather I sat somewhere else….”

Taylor jumped, jolted from her clearly troubled thoughts. “No! No, I… I’m sorry. My head’s a mess right now.” She offered Estela a shaky smile. “But I do….” She took a deep breath. “I so need to talk to you about something. Not here-- the next class will be in here soon.”

Estela followed Taylor to the shade of a big tree, out of earshot of the crowds moving between lecture theatres. Every instinct in her told her this was bad news. Something was wrong… really wrong. She waited for Taylor to speak, not having a clue what to expect to hear.

“So, what is it? Are you okay?”

"This... isn't going to make much sense, okay? But it's the truth. I swear, I'm not lying to you." Taylor looked as if she was on the verge of tears. “You don’t know me,” she said simply after a tense pause, her tone at odds with the pain behind her eyes, pain that made Estela’s drop, “but you did once. Not in the past-- in the future….” Frustration played upon her face, and something like… desperation? “The world wasn’t meant to be like this. Rourke wasn’t meant to be ruling over everything. It was everything; all of history, hell maybe even time itself-- he bent it to his will and made it his plaything. You… think I’m crazy.”

Estela’s face clouded over as she digested what she was being told. Slowly, word by word, letting it sink in.

Yes. Yes, Taylor was clearly crazy. Fuck. Is that why she’s got me so wigged out? She’s obsessed with Rourke; no damn wonder she’s been trying to stalk me.

“Do you remember, ‘Stel? You’ve got to remember something-- La Huerta? We were on Rourke’s private island--”

“Listen.”  Estela spoke with an ice-cold edge to her voice. She’d been taken for a fool. As if anyone could have wanted to be close to her simply for her. ‘Just want to be liked in return’?-- bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. How could she have been so stupid?

“That bastard is nothing, nothing to do with me. And if you come around talking insane conspiracy theories, it is not going to end well for you.” It wasn’t a threat, so much as a warning. Rourke was dangerous, and this weirdo was playing with fire. Whatever was wrong with Taylor, and clearly something was, it was messing with Estela’s head. She couldn’t be swept up in that bullshit. If she drew Rourke’s attention to herself, her very freedom could go up in flames. “Now, if you know what’s good for you-- if you don’t have a goddamn death wish… you stay away from me.”

She hadn’t been prepared for the look of utter devastation in Taylor’s face as it crumbled at those words. It threw Estela off-guard, and even through her anger, some inexplicable protective urge flared up within her. As if Taylor’s hurt was a knife twisting in her own chest. It was more than she knew what to do with. Her heart drumming furiously against her ribs, Estela pierced Taylor with a hard, lingering stare.

“Stay,” she growled, even as the effect of her words was terrible pain. Pain so all-engulfing that she could fall to her knees on the spot. “Away.”

And she fled.

[willddheartt]

24 Days | Wilbur Soot

30 days to fall in love with someone? Sounds easy right? It would be if that person wasn’t so unbelievably annoying in almost every sense.

You’re not sure how you found yourself in this situation, but you were positive there was no backing out now…

Series Warnings: Mostly fluff and angst, and a very poorly constructed enemies to lovers plot.

Word Count: 1685

Masterlist Series Masterlist

24 Days

It was Friday, you were in the middle of doing your two-hour-long stream that you did every Friday. Since you took weekends off from your own streams you did a long one every week. It worked out, you seemed to get a lot more views on Friday anyways.  All the donos seemed to ask about you and Wilbur, you forced a smile to tell everyone you guys were well and that you’re very happy together. The viewers seemed to be happy with your responses and didn't catch you falter.  You were on the DreamSMP cleaning up things and repairing things from any creeper explosions, as having holes in the walkways annoyed you to no end because it didn't look pleasing to the eye. Many ties you were passed by Fundy, Tubbo, and even Tommy.  The in-game chat stated to be spammed by Tommy, VC 2 VC 2 VC 2 over and over again. 

“Well chat, let’s see what Tommy wants,” You giggled and switched to discord.  “Hello Tommy,” You smiled, wondering what type of shenanigans he was up to today, you noticed he was also streaming so you knew it was something that was going to be very entertaining to the stream.  “Y/N!” He yelled  “Tommy!” You yelled back, matching his energy.  “How do you do?” His sudden calm tone almost made you burst into a fit of laughter.  “I do well, Thomas. What are you up to tonight?” You asked, smiling to yourself when using his full name.  “Well, you see, Y/N. See here’s the thing. I am out of supplies, I don’t even have iron to my name Y/N-” “Do you want me to help you get some?” You offered, cutting him off  “Well, actually I was hoping you could just give me some.”  “Tommy,” You laughed, “That’s- unfortunately, that not how it works my friend.” You paused, taking a sip of your water, “I am more than willing to help you go mining, I know a pretty good spot actually, but I’m not going to just give you stuff for nothing.”  “C’mon Y/N you could write it off your taxes as a charity donation,”  You had to give it to him, although Tommy could be annoying at times he was so effortlessly funny, you were almost certain that he didn't even have to try. 

“Ah yes, hang on let me see what I have to give to Tommy’s charity fund,” You laughed, looking through your inventory, pondering for a few moments, making it look like you were going to give him half your stack of iron only our stream before clicking to the three seeds you’d picked up some time ago and throwing them at his feet. His character's head went from looking at you to the seeds, then back to you and back to the seeds again, you pulled up his stream on your other monitor so you could see his face, trying so hard to not burst out into laughter when you saw his unamused look. 

Feeling bad you pulled up a donation, giving Tommy Five bucks so the text-to-speech would work, “Tommy Charity Fund.” You sent and waited for it to go through.  He paused, hearing the dono tts voice, before looking back up at you in the game.  “Fuck you,” He said running away. You couldn't suppress your laughter any longer and it all fell out at once, chat exploded into laughter and emotes, everyone found it hilarious.

A few seconds after you were still in the voice chat with Tommy, he had ventured off to go mining, I guess stealing from people wasn't going well. Since the last war, nobody has really been gathering supplies, taking a break from the lore to just get things done around the server. Tommy still bringing up the ‘charity fund’ you found it hilarious. 

“You’re a bitch you know that,” He mumbled, you knew he was only joking, with Tommy you never took anything to heart, if he had a true problem with you, you know he would message you privately.  “Tommy,” Wilbur's voice came over discord, making you jump slightly.  “Hi Wilbur,” He said, sounding like a little kid when their mom gets them in trouble.  “Apologize to Y/N.'' Wilbur's voice was playful, yet stern, sounding exactly like the older brother who was put in charge of his younger siblings. 

After a second, you could see Tommy bow his head on his stream that was still pulled up on your other monitor.  “Sorry, Y/N. You’re not a bitch.” He said  “It’s okay Tommy,” You chuckled  “Thank you.” Spoke Wilbur before leaving the voice chat. 

You and Tommy stayed on call until his stream ended. You were left alone, talking to your chat. Without anyone else there to keep a consistent conversation you started to daze off, forgetting you were on stream, yawning and leaning forward onto your desk. Your back hurt from how long you’d been sat in front of the monitor. 

Your discord made a noise again, but this time you didn’t bother tabbing out to see who had joined.  “Hey, Y/N,” Wilburs soft voice came across your headphones  “Will,” You smiled, sitting up  “You look tired, how long have you been up?” He asked 

You looked at the clock, it was only 11 PM but you could have sworn it was later.  “Since one,”  “AM or PM?” Will asked  You looked down, “AM,” You mumbled. “You should go to bed,” He said You sighed, knowing he could break you eventually, as your eyelids were drooping shut and your eyes were burning. “Its not even that long, Wil, I’m fine.” You argued 

“How long have you been streaming?” Wilbur asked  “I’m almost at my five hour mark, I’m like forty-five minutes away,”  “End your stream early and get ready for bed than we can chat,” His voice was soft and warm speaking over your stream, your chat exploded, loving Wilbur and you together.  “But I’m so close, just a few more minutes,” You sighed, tabbing out of your game and switching the stream to a full face cam. “I’m sure they wont mind if you end a little early, you've been streaming for a while, love.” He continued, slowly wearing you down. “I can even entertain your chat for a bit while you go get ready for bed, or even make yourself a cup of tea, then when you come back, it will be close enough that you can end the stream, how does that sound?”  You sighed, knowing he had won. You looked at chat and back to the timer of how long you've been on stream, “Okay.” You nodded. 

“Alright Chat, I’m sorry for ending early but you heard the man. Next week will be extra long to make up for this, I promise.” You said, looking at the chat, everyone was spamming ‘goodnight’ and ‘goodbye’  “It was nice spending this fine evening with you all, but I must go now, I will see everyone Monday. Bye!” You ended stream 

“Hi, Wilbur,” You smiled to yourself after ending stream  “I’m going to call your number now, and you can go get ready for bed, okay?” He said  “Alright, Wil,” you nodded, closing all the windows you had open on your pc. 

After shutting everything off you grabbed what you needed and went to the bathroom. Wilbur called you halfway through taking your makeup off, you had eyeliner smudged all around your eyes when you answered his facetime.  When his face popped up on your screen, he was wearing his glasses and a big smile, his hair was a mess and he was already in bed. 

“Getting ready for bed?” He asked, as if he didn't already know.  “Of course,” You shook your head, leaning closer to the mirror making sure you had all the bits of makeup taken off before washing your face with warm water  Picking up your phone you held up a peace sign, making Wil laugh and attempt to take a sneaky screenshot.  “Hey, no, delete that, I look terrible.” You quickly argued after hearing the noise.  “You do not.” He was fast to respond. “You look refreshed, you're glowing.” you shook your head at him as you walked back to your room through the dark house. 

Your roommate had already gone to bed, close to an hour ago. You were always the last person up, being an internet person with many American friends who are in a different time zone and a night owl at heart. You flopped down into your soft pillows, pulling your duvet over yourself and propping your phone up on your laptop so you could still see Wilbur and he could see you. You pulled the corner of the blanket up to hide your face. 

“Don't do that, I want to see your face,” Wilbur frowned.  “No you don’t,” You shook your head  “Yes,” He spoke, “I do.” You moved the blanket so it wasn't all the way covering your face but it was still pulled up enough that your shoulders were covered.  “You realize next week you’ll be here for your stream?” Wilbur said.  “I do now,” You pinched the bridge of your nose, “I’m sorry, I didn't think of that,”  “Its okay, you can stream from my computer,” He smiled. “It will surprise chat,”  “Oh my god, can you imagine, they're going to go crazy,” You chuckled  “They will,”

Wilbur continued to tell you about how he was truly getting excited to have you meet him in person, but his soft voice had been lulling you to sleep, your eyelids struggling to stay open and your warm bed weighing you down. Eventually you were out. Wilbur didn't notice until he asked you a question and did not respond. Your laptop screen was still shining light on you, and he saw you were asleep against the black screen, smiling at you. He snuck another screenshot, making sure the sound was off this time. 

“Goodnight, Y/N.” He said sweetly before getting comfortable in bed himself and slowly drifting off. 

[cooloddball]

Hi I went through few cons and I actually got my heart broken a little bit. Every one of them had Jensen denying the idea of Destiel or Dean being anything but the American male fantasy.

Vancon 2012 J2 panel he avoids the fan who is screaming Destiel. I understand that because he was going through something Misha shaped during 2012. Destiel was the last thing he wanted in his life then.

The controversial NJCon 2013 where he pretty much rudely avoids the Bi Dean question. I mean come on there were so many ways to back down there but just giving into that crowd like that and shooting down that girl who asked the question? I know she actually explained what happened there but he is saying things to convey he is unhappy where that question is heading. JP who is considered the immature even is considering answering the question the girl is continuously apologising it is a horror show there while Jensen is just being plain rude.

Jib 2014 solo panel where he is asked if Dean will ever get his pie. And he denies Cas ever being there at the end of the line. And ironically at the end, he was only there with all kinds of pie but no Cas. Amazing how life worked out for him.

Jib 2015 solo panel where he again denies both CasDean and Destiel from Fan Fiction episode. JPad was not there and Jensen was in a bad mood so maybe it had something to do with that.

Chicon 2016 he again invalidates Cas when a question is asked about him Cas and Mary.

TorCon 2016 where both Js are denying Cas's importance saying there's no necessity for him.

JaxCon 2017 he pretty much shoots down Destiel by saying Destiel doesn't exist.

In JaxCon 2018 he wrote NO infront of Bi Dean research paper a fan showed him.

Jibcon 2019 he asks audience Where does Destiel exist. but I think he was much like teasing the audience there tbh. No major harm but it still hurts.

I just.. I truly believe he knows what he and Misha were doing in the Destiel implied scenes. And now the cat is pretty much out of the bag. But still Jensen is pretty much staying on his ground and it is nice he is now more open for interpretation but the strength this fandom should have to forgive him for all he did...

I believe in Karma. I think Karma got to Jensen eventually for all hurt he did by those words to the fandom. I don't hate Jensen in fact I really adore the guy. But it doesn't mean I am not upset by his words. How I think Karma worked here is that he never embraced what he was portraying as a character and Karma finally said "Okay Dude enough foreplay.. You want pie okay here's pie and your car now die and be in heaven and your character arc is in garbage but your brother gets to live. There goes your male fantasy.."

I understand if he had internalized sexuality issues of himself that he didn't feel like exposing by talking about Dean and Destiel but still there are much better ways to shoot down fan opinions without being so rude.

In 2014 he pretty much says that at the end of the series Dean might get all kinds of pie with no Castiel and...Geez Is it not what exactly happened? No Cas and Pie on his face. Accidental foreshadowing spoilers..

I think he got Karma for hurting so many fan hearts and denying something he evidently portrayed in his character. At the end he didn't get a happy ending he got robbed by his own show. While the shippers actually got something out of it Thanks to Misha.

I don't need Jensen to embrace Destiel in an open hug because not in any universe that's gonna happen. I actually hoped he would eventually be open to it. He actually might be, considering his reaction to episode 18. But there's no proof actually footage of him saying anything positive about Destiel. It just... is such a bummer.

I know Jensen is hurt for his own reasons by his own show which actually hurt him in ways no fan ever did. I hope he understands how fans feel now being betrayed by a show they love.

May be he had the Karma coming..

Wow. I-

Hmm. This was super long and I read each and every word of it. However, I feel like maybe you are a Jensen anti. Maybe you are not but that's the vibe I got as I read all this.

First of all I am a Dean girl since the pilot. I love Dean. I watched the show because of Dean. Even before I knew about Destiel, I loved Dean. When Cas showed up, I still loved Dean and to me, Cas was a part of Dean somehow, it just always felt that way.

Secondly. I love Jensen and Misha. I know some people don't like Jensen because of Destiel but I like him and I know he has said something's about the topic but truth is, I get why he did that.

Thirdly, I don't think Karma has anything to do with Dean's death. What they did to Dean was fucked up. Jensen doesn't write the show or control the direction that the show went. That is up to the network, the producers and the writers. Period. So, No. Karma had nothing to do with Dean's end. Jensen protested a lot about the ending. We all know why they did it. It's been talked about x10000000000.

Lastly, on the issue of Jensen and Destiel.

Jensen has on numerous occassions that he doesn't think Cas feels things the way human beings feel things. I believe Dean was on love with Cas but he wasn't sure whether Cas felt the same way because he's an angel.

Bi Dean. Not to discredit anyone but the notion that Jensen would deny that Dean was bi because of his own sexuality crisis irl feels like an insult to Jensen as an actor. I saw once an anti Cas/Misha person say that the way Dean hugged Cas in 12x09 was because Jensen hates Misha. Make it make sense. That is an insult to Jensen. There are directors and writers involved. Jensen doesn't get to decide how he wants to hug Cas or Sam. Yes, they have a right of input sometimes but it is very rarely. And thinking personal feelings would affect his acting or portrayal of Dean is truly a moot point. There are so many actors with feuds irl but when they are performing you would never know. Please let's not insult Jensen like that. He deserves an Emmy for playing Dean so well all these years.

Jensen denied Destiel and Bi Dean because it was never explicitly said he actually was bi or was in love with Cas. However, it is there in subtext. I could list all those instances but I'm guessing you already know all those instances from your research on various cons as indicated in the ask. I believe Jensen knew how he played Dean as bi and as in love with Cas. However, if he said "Yeah, Dean is bi and is in love with cas" then the show doesn't explicitly confirm it, then what. You would all start call him a liar and a panderer like many have called Misha. So he just said what was there. Do you remember Metatron's monologue in s9? What makes a story great, is it the text or the subtext? To me, it's both. To others it's the text while for others it's the subtext.

The network and producers. These are I believe the people who decide what the fans want and how to make money from the show. So if they believe textually confirming Destiel canon or bi Dean would've lined their pockets they would've done it. If watched the show, s12 was pretty gay. It's the gayest of all seasons followed by s15.

Anyway, I have a feeling that you might be an anti destiel or anti Jensen person trying to pose as destiel shipper. I honestly don't know. All I can tell you is that I am a Jensen Ackles apologist and I believe he did as much as the network would let him in terms of letting us see that Dean was in love with Cas.

12x23, 13x01-13x06,15x03,15x09,15x18. There's so much but I am neither a destiel meta writer or a film/tv critic so there's not much I can say. But please Jensen is a good man and I think people asking him over and over again about Destiel when he knew he couldn't give them the answers they wanted got to him and he had to shut it down. Maybe sometimes he was rude but he's only human.

[depressedtransguy]

if you’re not @thedragonemperess or @angelwiththeblue-box and you read this I’ll send you to the warrior cats to trap you in their confusing politics and eat you alive

Loki had no idea what drew him to it.

After closing up Quill's Tattoo Parlor just as the clock struck midnight, the man crawling into his thirties planned to just stumble home and collapse onto his bed with no more than a wave to his probably also passed out roommate. The plan was quite simple, and basically what he did every night when he had the late shift at Quill's, but consistency was an important part of his life. Besides like... prison. But that had been pretty consistent too ever since he moved to England. Maybe that was why he wasn't afraid to walk the dark and looming streets of the city of smoke.

But it didn't explain why he got stopped at London's largest church that happened to be halfway between his apartment and where he worked. Inconvenient, but it wasn't like he had any money at the time he first gained both of those things to move or get a new job. Most of the time he managed to just ignore it. But... something about that night was different. Something in the air... or maybe something in his heart. And for some reason that made him stop dead at London's Catholic Chapel for Latter Day Saints and stare up at it as if he had been locked in a trance.

And even worse it started to speak to him.

Yes, buildings cannot speak. So yes, it was impossible. But Loki had spent half the night at the nearly closed shop with the head of a wine bottle in his mouth, that of which was currently half full and still gripped tightly in his fist. He had correctly predicted that no one else would be coming to the tattoo parlor after 10 PM on a Sunday. But anyway Loki was drunk as fuck and the church was talking to him.

Come back to me, Loki, it purred in some deep American accent that made a shiver go down his spine. Remember how it used to be when we were together? You were happy. You didn't go to prison every month. Your family was together. Everything was fine. Don't you miss that?

The grip he had on the wine bottle tightened. "Of course I miss that!" he yelled into the night. "But it was all smoke and mirrors! I was only happy because I didn't know the truth! I didn't go to prison every month because I didn't know the truth! Everything was fine because I didn't know the truth! But as for my family- that family, they're still together. Nothing has changed for the negative. The parasite has left, and they're free to be happy in the stupid Catholic antisemitic household they all love to live in."

The building lightly tut-tut-tutted. Still so repressed, aren't we Loki? After all these years. You even changed your last name to that boy you were obsessed with in high school.

"You shut up about him," Loki hissed as he stumbled forward and slammed his open hand on the front door. "You're the one who took him away from me. And you're the reason why I still hate myself so much. And, this might be a huge fucking stretch but I'm drunk so who cares, you're the reason I changed my last name. So STOP bothering me and let me live my goddamn life! I have a roommate waiting for me, you know." That was when Loki finally tore from the invisible grip it had on him and began to storm off as best he could in his overly intoxicated state.

But the building had to have the last laugh. Still so selfish after 13 years of being 3,383 miles from where this all started.

Loki's wine bottle shattered against the white painted wood. The mixture of red liquid and glass on the church wall brought him right back to the night he left. "Selfish? I spent the first 16 years of my life crushed under Odin's iron fist of Christianity, to which I obeyed as best I could, until I finally got one year to be free from it- and that happiness I got then was only under a dangerous blanket of secrecy and lies. And Christianity punished me for that one year of freedom. And I am still being punished every single day that I continue to exist on this god forsaken planet. So please fuck off and let me live the life that you have ruined until I eventually die either being shanked in prison or beaten to death by cops. Both of which situations have I made my peace with. Do me a major favor and never bother me even past my death. Let me float in atheist purgatory."

Once more did he intend to storm off. But that time he was stopped not by the fake building voice, but by a British police car pulling up before him and making him fall backwards onto his ass. "Oi, mister!" the cop called after stepping out, taking out his baton and moving up to where he sat. "We got a noise complaint from a nanny on the dog about some bloke screaming bloody murder in front of the church. That you?"

In response, Loki only fell on his back in defeat. Another charge for public intoxication and public disturbance was inevitable. And he'd rather not have to argue with a guy whose accent made him want to rip his ears off. "Fucking pigs."

That remark was all that was needed for the officer to aggressively hoist him up and cuff him, as it usually was. At least he wasn't hit with the baton. The 'pigs' comment usually got him struck at least once per cop.

The rest of his night followed as usual. Driven to the local police station, recorded, recuffed, and thrown into a cell with only one other person inside. She was assumed to be a prostitute.

Loki'd no doubt be out by morning. Nebula would wake up to realize that he wasn't home, know exactly what happened, and come to the station to bail him out. But there was still at least eight hours until that happened, so that meant he had plenty of time to let his religious trauma torture him as he sat there, sleepless in a jail cell, with a half naked prostitute to keep him company. Wonderful.

<pastttt baby>

Loki's leg bounced up and down as he sat outside his high school on the small wooden bench dedicated to the retired gym teacher, waiting for Stephen to escape from the clutches of the debate club. The lingering student wasn't part of any clubs himself, preferring to draw by himself than join any team of fellow judgmental teenagers, so he ended up sitting outside for an hour, sketching on his notepad while he sat patiently for his friend. Stephen constantly insisted that he didn't have to, and that he could just meet up with him at his house, but Loki honestly loved nothing more than seeing Stephen walk out of the school and grin warmly at him, curling a piece of hair behind his ear with a soft thank you for waiting.

He always looked stupidly attractive when he came out. Sure it was true that they wore the same outfit since the school had the same uniforms, but he just pulled it off in such a different way. Like how the sleeves clung to his biceps and flexed the fabric to its limit, how the buttons stretched over his chest and looked like they were about to pop, and the way his dark pants were just a little tight around the crotch.

The pencil he was using scratched to a halt when he realized that he was tracing Stephen's face as he thought of him and his body in such a sexual way. He tore off the page and crushed it into a ball as he cursed himself for his thoughts. Lately, his brain had been deceiving him. Pretty much ever since he had befriended the gray eyed beauty he was sitting on a bench for. Hail Mary's had basically been a part of his life for the past few months. Even though he consistently lied to the priest he was forced to confess his sins to by saying his thoughts were about a girl, who he had named Stephanie, in fear of being shunned.

Priests weren't allowed to repeat anything that was said in the confession box to anyone else, Loki knew that, but just the pure fear of what his father would do if he even got the slightest whiff that his son was having thoughts of another boy was enough to make him lie to the church. Those were some bruises that he didn't want to explain.

Besides, as he grew up, Loki was beginning to question Christianity and the iron grip it had on his life, so lying to them didn't even make him feel bad. Only the homosexual thoughts. Ever since Loki was a toddler had every Bible verse imaginable been pushed into his head, but 'man shall not lie with man' was one that his father shoved in the most. Especially after he asked if he could grow his hair out when he was a young teen. 'Long hair is for women and queers, son' were his exact words. 'And if you are either, feel free to see what it's like being homeless.'

That cut deep. Loki never asked again. It stayed at slicked back medium length. And Loki from then on always verbally abused himself after doing anything considered 'feminine' or 'gay'.

At least until Stephen came along. Stephen. Along with triggering all his same-sex romantic thoughts, Stephen encouraged his typically feminine interests: like painting his nails black for him or giving him a flower crown, and then comforting him through the guilt. And even though Loki had to scrape off the nail polish before he got home and he had to hide the flower crown until it withered away, it meant the world to him. Stephen meant the world to him.

Yet he didn't hear him calling his name until he gently shook his shoulder. "Loki! Are you okay? You seem... distant."

The force made him snap out of his Stephen-related trance in order to look up at the gorgeous man he's lucky enough to call his friend. "Oh... sorry. I got a little distracted in your absence."

Stephen grinned at him in response and curled a loose piece of Loki's hair behind his ear as he always did before sitting down next to him with their thighs brushing. Loki was doing his best to not flush a dark red. "That's alright darling. You're already kind enough to wait for me for an hour after school, I have no business dictating what you do in the meantime. Hell, you can burn down the building for all I care, just be here for me when I run out," Stephen comforted with a gentle hand on his knee that did not help with Loki's color. "But anyway, now that I'm out, do you want to go back to my house? My parents are out and we do have a science test tomorrow."

Loki being alone with Stephen in an empty house for hours, studying science and bantering playfully? He might die. And he was already pretty close to dying. "That sounds wonderful, but it's so nice out today-" he said even though there were clearly storm clouds above them and the sky was quickly darkening "-maybe we could walk through the park."

His leg was bouncing once more after he finished speaking, worrying that Stephen would question him on why he wanted to walk around when it was clearly about to rain, but, to his relief, he said nothing of the sort. "Sounds perfect," Stephen responded with his unfairly hot smile and a comforting squeeze of his thigh.

In a pretty bad attempt to hide his blush, Loki turned to the side to try to shove his sketchpad into his backpack so they could leave as quickly as possible, but in the process the ball of paper on top fell to the cement below. And Stephen was faster than him.

"What's this?" Stephen questioned as he slowly uncrumpled the ball with a small eyebrow raise to Loki's obvious nervousness. "...Me?"

Most of the page that Loki had crumbled was filled with miniature drawings of assorted animals, but the most obvious sketch was the one that he had subconsciously done of Stephen when he was actually trying to draw a book character. And Loki was extraordinarily nervous that Stephen would think he's creepy.

But he didn't. "It's phenomenal, darling. I can't believe you drew this. I mean- hh -not that I didn't think you had the talent, but- I-I mean you are an amazing drawing I just-" Loki lightly slipped his fingers onto Stephen's bicep to try to calm him down. Was Stephen blushing? "You're incredible. Is what I mean. Even though you decided to crumble this up."

That time Loki's redness came from embarrassment rather than being flustered by his friend. "I- I just didn't think it was very good and didn't want you to see it," he murmured in a half truth.

"I can't tell if that's a dig on your skills or my appearance, but if I assume the former, then that's completely ridiculous. I adore everything you create, and call me self-absorbed, but this is some incredible work," Stephen genuinely complimented while he gorgeously smiled once more. "But if it's about my appearance, then ouch Odinson."

Loki couldn't help reflecting his teasing grin. "Well you are definitely self-absorbed, Strange, but I'll still accept the compliment. Now give me that back so I can burn your pretty face."

"Even though that might be the sweetest thing you've ever said to me, I'm going to have to say no," Stephen rejected as he yanked away the paper from his reach. "This is my property now."

After a loud gasp Loki attempted to grab it back from him once more, only for it to prove futile as Stephen folded it into a square and shoved it in his shirt.

"Get it yourself then, Odinson," Stephen said with a bit of mocking lacing his tone and patting the place where it was pinned between his shirt and his chest.

The young Catholic's brain practically short circuited on the spot. He couldn't grab it, because he'd either be shoving his hand down the man he thought about way too frequently's shirt or unbuttoning said shirt and grabbing it off his chest. Both made him shiver at the thought- both from the action and from the sin he'd most likely be committing. There had to be one about touching hot guy's chests. So he was forced to give up. "Alright, alright, you win!" Loki exclaimed, dramatically throwing his hands up before symbolically grabbing his backpack and walking off defiantly.

As predicted, Stephen was quick to follow. "Well that's surprising. I don't think I've ever won an argument against you."

"That's because I don't lose. Just because you 'win' now doesn't mean you get that. You have to sleep sometime, Strange. You're going to be home alone and vulnerable sometime. And you can't do anything then."

Loki's threats had always scared people off before, making them think he was a creep instead of the reality being that he had a very weird sense of humor. But that was why Stephen was incredible. He didn't even blink at the threats, only raising an eyebrow and lightly patting him on the lower back in response. I'd like to see you try, Odinson usually followed along with a smirk at his predictable blush. And that time was no different. "But what if I keep it in my boxers? Are you going to search me?"

"Are you telling me you don't ever shower?" Loki rebutted. "Because that might explain some things, but I can't say that it's been years-"

Stephen laughed as he elbowed his friend a little off of the path to the park, confirming that he did in fact shower. "But you're not getting it then either. No matter what, I promise you."

To be honest, it did touch Loki that Stephen wanted to keep his work so much. But Loki also loved to argue.

[pettyprocrastination]

Rip Out Our Seams and Stitch Us Together

Chapter One Word count: 1.9k Warnings: Uhhh brief talk of race, some language.  Chapter summary: You’re a seamstress in dc, with a tiny but successful shop run by your and your spunky cashier. Today you get a visitor that is far out of your usual demographic.

tag list: @captainsamwlsn @ithinkhesgaybutwesavedmufasa @readsalot73 @zeldasayer

(yes that’s a marilyn monroe pic she’s a major look for Valerie alright.)

Many believed that the eyes were the window to the soul, your father disagreed with that. He believed the truth of somebody's character was in their hands. 

“Shows a lot about them, little bee.” your father showed his own hands to you, wrinkled and scarred with tiny nics from years of work as a tailor. You were nine at the time, just last week you had completed your first sundress! You spent your afternoons after school in the shop with your father, doing whatever he asked. “-If they're a hard worker or if they don’t do anything at all. These little fellas will show you just that.” He wiggled his fingers at you before poking at your stomach, causing you to burst into a fit of giggles.

Twenty five years later and his words still ring true. When you first meet somebody, you don’t look at their clothes, or their smile, or even their eyes. You look for their character in their hands. 

So the moment the tiny bell rang at your shop door, your eyes were taken away from the pinned gown in front of you and towards the lithe fingers wrapped around the door handle. 

Manicured nails painted a deep red, fingers daintily curled, skin unscarred and void of all blemishes. Absolutely perfect. 

Who would expect any less of Maxwell Lord’s wife?

Your only other employee, Cassandra, a sweet sixteen year old girl you hired to watch the register and sweep floors, squeaked. 

“Hello,” She lifted the sunglasses from her face and set them utop her blonde curls. Her eyes zeroed in on you with an analytical gaze. In comparison to her floor length  fur coat and satin blouse, you suddenly felt flushed in your ripped trousers and patterned button up. “Are you the owner?” She put such infliction on each word you couldn’t tell if she was judging your store or the fact that you owned it.

Either way you felt like you were supposed to be offended. 

“That I am.” 

She slid her coat off, looking at your coat rack with a wrinkled nose before finally setting it on the hook. She walked around your store, taking in the little knick-knacks that lined the counter and the racks of clothing with a judgmental eye. 

Her eyes flicked to Cassandra, who still stood behind the register with her jaw dropped open. 

Mrs.Lord smiled and tapped the underside of her chin and she snapped her mouth shut. 

“You made all of these yourself?” Her voice was smooth like silk, but had a sharp edge to it. You felt as if you were waiting to embarrass yourself in front of her. She took a white sundress into her hands, feeling the fabric between her fingers. 

“Most of them.” You answered. She froze and raised a sculpted brow.

“Most?”

You shrugged your shoulders. “Some of these are thrift store finds, just altered and restyled.” Her ruby lips bent into a frown, glaring at the dress she held with disappointment. 

“That one is an original though.”

She stared at the dress for a moment, face scrunched up in thought before she regained her cool composure and tossed it to you over her shoulder, which landed on your face. “Be a dear and hold that for me, would you?”

You didn’t get a chance to answer. By the time you lifted the lace that obscure your vision, she was already looking at another dress. You followed behind her. 

Why the hell not? You thought to yourself as she handed you a satin blouse. You didn’t have any other customers at the moment, and you aren't being met with for a design consultation for another three hours. 

Besides, how often is it that Valerie fucking Lord walks into your store like a frequent customer?

She continued to walk around your store, red heels echoing throughout as she stopped at certain dresses and tops (mostly those of silk or lace) to admire them, before either adding them to the growing pile in your arms, or setting them back on the rack with a sour look. The entire time she did, you wondered what it was that drew in her to your tiny shop. 

The woman before you had been a big deal since she was born. Before she was Valerie Lord, she was Valerie Ackkerman. Her father had been a Hollywood director in the fifties who married an up and coming actress hot to the scene. The couple dominated the big screen and became a loved pair to America, that is until her mother got a baby bump, got demoted to supporting roles for the rest of her career, and her father continued to go on and  make films many to this day still consider iconic. 

You considered most of them to be a racist and misogynist, but you suppose they were simply a product of their time. 

And a shitty director. 

Valerie Ackkerman became Dr.Ackkerman, psychiatrist with multiple books surrounding a vast majority of subjects that can affect one’s mental state. Such as greed, fame, and the lack of proper paternal figures to shape your childhood.

Which made her choice in marriage all the more ironic. 

Maxwell Lord the fourth was a man as American as apple pie and the corporate greed that came as a table side. He’d taken over his father’s company at the ripe age of sixteen at his passing, having been groomed for the position since he was a child. 

Maxwell Lord was known as a ruthless tycoon, a tech mogul who will smile wide in his commercials before making a grown man cry in his boardroom. His wife was just as feared as him and seeing her before you now, you perfectly understood why. She was prettier than sin itself and just as rich. Which begged the question…

Why in God’s name was she in your shop?

“How long have you been sewing?” A floor length skirt with a slit up the leg was tossed in your arms. 

“Since I can remember.” Her fingers ghosted along the hangers before plucking a pink slip dress off the rack and holding it up against her body. “My father was a tailor. He taught me everything he knew.” She turned to the mirror on the other side of the room and looked at her reflection while smoothing out the fabric of the dress. “When he passed away I took over the shop, but I basically ran it already.”

She chuckled, shaking her head as if your father's death had tickled her so. “Sounds like somebody I know.”  Mrs. Lord turned to you, the dress pressed against her body. “Thoughts?”

Your eyes roamed over her body as you tried to form sentences, but nothing came out in fear of saying the wrong thing in front of a woman so powerful, she could burn your shop to the ground with a single call to her husband. 

Beautiful. You wanted to say. And terrifying. 

“It suits you.” 

She turned back to the mirror, her eyes focused on your reflection instead of her own. She tilted her head to the side and hummed. You felt like you were on display, being examined, picked apart and analyzed by the prettiest blue eyes you've ever seen in your life. 

“I know.”

When she walked past you to the register and you got a waft of her perfume, something sharp and citrusy, most likely belonging to a brand you wouldn’t dream of wearing. 

Cassandra rang her up in silence, nervously looking up from each item to the woman standing in front of her. Her hands trembled so bad you could see the fabric shake when she picked them up. 

You would have taken over for her, but  you were trying to ignore the burning sensation in your face at her judgmental gaze. You’d seen it all before, from women like her. Rich, white, beautiful, and privileged as all hell. You knew the way her eyes scanned your clothes, critiquing your curls, the cut of your jeans and the pattern of your button up that lay partially open against your chest. 

You wish you could say you were sick of it. But mostly? You just didn’t give a shit. 

Cassandra’s shaking hands dropped the bag into the floor before it reached Valarie’s, she looked about ready to cry before you stepped in. 

“Oh god I’m so-”

“It’s fine Cassie.” Her red lips snapped shut at your interjection and blase tone. 

You swiped the plastic bag and held it out to the woman with a neutral face.“Eighty-nine fifty.” You told her. She looked at you as if you had grown a second head. 

She must not be used to being treated like something other than royalty. 

But that look was replaced by a coy smile. She took the plastic bag full of clothes from your hands and handed you a thick wad of cash that was well over the amount she owed. Red, manicured nails trailing down your palm as she did. 

You suppressed a shudder. 

“You know-” She took the lace sundress out of her bag, thumb trailing along the seam. “-Your work is on par with some of the brands I wear.” You weren’t sure why the sight of her stroking something you made felt so damn intimate, but you felt like you needed to look away as if you were interrupting something.“-Maybe even better than them.”

Christ, you needed to get out more. 

“Well yeah.” You shrugged matter of factly and crossed your arms. “That’s because I’m driven by artist integrity. Not making some shoddy dress and slapping a fancy brand on it, in hopes that some trust fund baby will wear it to her next yacht party.”

The moment those words left your lips you realized you had said them to the wealthiest customer you ever had. 

Who laughed. 

Cassandra went pale as a sheet while you spoke, looking between you and the woman worth more than your entire store like she expected an explosion. 

Mrs. Lord smiled at you. “We’ll you're right about that. I have to agree.” Her hands ran down the side of the dress and stopped when she felt a fold in the white fabric. “Are these-”

“Pockets?” You grinned, like it was your greatest achievement. Honestly? It kind of was. “Sure are. Decently sized ones too, can fit your whole hand in and everything.” To prove your point, the heiress stuck her entire hand into the pocket and wiggled it with a laugh. 

“There’s still more room in it!” She sounded so in awe and excited, it reminded you of a child on Christmas. 

Her joy was infectious. 

“Every dress I make has pockets, it’s sort of like my signature.”

“Every dress?”

You drew an X over your heart. “Stitches guarantee.”

Mrs. Lord grinned. “You're certainly one of a kind miss...”

You told her your name, and she repeated it back. The way she said it made it sound like the brand name of a thousand dollar purse. 

“But you can call me stitches.” You said simply. “Everybody does.”

Cassandra looked at you with wide eyes, shocked that you went from accidentally insulting her to being chummy enough to share the silly nickname you got from customers. 

“Do they now?” She walked to the coat rack and slipped her jacket on. “Well tell me this, Stitches-” Mrs.Lord took the glasses off the top of her head and slid them over her eyes. “Do you do commission work?”

You blinked for a moment. “Well I do, but-”

She squealed and clapped her hands. “Oh perfect! We’ll be in touch then.”

“Wait-” You faltered, trying to run from behind the counter after her, but all you succeeded in doing was banging your hip against the corner. “Fuck! Who’s we?”

“Oh don’t you worry about that.” She opened the door and looked over her shoulder. “One more thing though, do you make suits as well?”

A/n:SHE’S HERE BABY WOOOOO. Iv’e been talking headcanons with @ithinkhesgaybutwesavedmufasa for like a week and a half now about this bad boy and im so excited to get the ball rolling! I love max and i love poly ships so HERE WE ARE Valerie lord owns my ass yall. Anyways please don’t feel shy to send me messages about these babes, asks, critiques or just come say hello! Let me know if you’d like to be added to the tag list, i hope you all have a good and safe day <3

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Destiny

Ch 3: F**K You, Mr Stark...

Chapter Summary: Katie’s whacked out journey through her subconscious continues and she’s taken back to a time full of Hammer Drones, Senate Hearings and a Pirate Goth…

Chapter Warnings: Bad Language words.

Chapter Pairings:  Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

A/N: So these chapters contain flashbacks of sorts- but they’re not flashbacks as Katie is watching the events unfold in front of her-a “Time heist” of sorts. However, to keep it clear and hopefully not confusing, the events she is watching are depicted in itallics instead of me trying to keep calling her 2010 v 2030 Katie…

Please let me know what you think- comments and re-blogs muchly appreciated.

“Oh come on Kiddo…” Tony sighed as Katie got out of the car, slamming the door behind her. “You hardly spoke two words to me over dinner. I thought by taking you for your favourite double cheese and chilli fries you might have calmed down by now.”

“Well you thought wrong.”  She seethed as she turned to look at him. “What the hell were you thinking? Why didn’t you just stick to the cover that Coulson gave you?”

“Why should I?” Tony looked at her “It’s my suit. I made it, I own it…”

“God, you are so fucking arrogant.” she glared at him, storming up to the door of the mansion. “Look, will you just chill out!” Tony followed behind her “You saw the reaction, everyone loved it.” “Oh get your head out of your ass Tony!” she wheeled around, blazing as she pressed her hand to the entry pad to the side of the door “You just painted a huge Target on our heads!”

“On my head…” “Yeah, and by proxy that includes ME!” she shook her head, walking into the house as the door clicked open “Jesus Fucking Christ.”

She stepped into the entrance hall, Tony following her. “JARVIS.”  he called.

“Welcome home Sirrrrr.” JARVIS’ voice distorted and trailed off. Tony paused and looked at Katie, the two of them standing side by side as they glanced around the room. Tony stilled, his arm going out to the side in front of Katie to stop her walking any further into the room as they both spotted someone stood in the dark behind the couch, looking out of the large glass windows over the ocean.

“I am Iron Man.” The person spoke, not moving “You think you’re the only Superhero in the world.” The man, dressed in a long black trench coat turned and began to walk forward a little as Tony did the same, Katie following. “Mr Stark you just became part of a bigger universe, you just don’t know it yet.” Tony looked at his sister, then to the mystery man, frowning “Who the hell are you?” The man walked forward into the light of the lamp by the sofa and Katie looked at him. He was tall, black and bald, an eyepatch covering his left eye “Nick Fury, director of SHIELD.” He said simply.

“Oh.” Tony replied as if someone breaking in to their home was a regular, every day occurance.

“I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative.”

“The what?” Katie asked.

“An initiative that SHIELD has.” Fury looked at her “An idea, to bring together a group of people with powers and abilities to keep the world safe.” “Powers and abilities?” she dead panned, arching an eyebrow. “What, like…Superman?”

“No, he doesn’t exist.” Fury shook his head simply, unperturbed by her blatant sarcasm “I’m thinking more along the lines of extraordinary people, if you get my drift.”

“Like who?” Tony asked, his tone clearly disbelieving.

“2 of my agents, the best I have” Fury said “And I am considering you and Dr Bruce Banner. If we can track him down that is.”

“Banner?” Katie frowned “Who’s that?”

“He’s a scientist.” Tony replied his eyes not moving from Fury “He injected himself with some version of the serum the SSR used on Steve Rogers back in the day but it gave him a few side effects”

“And unlike the ones Captain Rogers got they’re not permanent.” Fury finished

“What do you mean?” Katie asked.

“9 times outta ten he’s Dr Bruce Banner.” Fury continued “But when the Hulk as they call him takes over…well he’s big, green, and he struggles to control himself.”

“And you clearly have no idea where he is.” Tony spoke “Which isn’t surprising” he turned to Katie “The story I heard is that he found out the army wanted to use him as a weapon so he went underground.”

“Right.” She nodded, turning to Fury “And now you guys at SHIELD want him as a weapon? Along with tony and these 2 other agents?”

“Not weapons, no.” Fury shook his head “As a last line of defence.”

“Defence from what?” Tony looked back at Fury.

“Threats you couldn’t even begin to understand.” Fury said simply

“I’m pretty good at understanding most things, being a genius and all so try me.” Tony demanded.

“I’m well aware this all sounds a little crazy, Mr Stark but believe me when I say you simply have to trust me on this.”

“Erm, you break through my security, which I’m kinda disturbed about, then sit there like some kind of…” he waved his hand up and down, gesturing to Fury’s appearance “…spooky goth pirate and you want me to simply trust you?” Tony held Fury’s gaze and shook his head “Sorry, no can do.”

Katie looked down at the floor, biting her lip at Tony’s summary of Fury’s appearance before she raised her head to see the Director was looking at her brother, an almost amused expression on his face.

“Alright.” He shrugged, and with that he walked towards the pair of them, pausing as he reached their side. “Just give it some thought.”

“I won’t.” Tony said simply.

Fury sighed and turned his attention to Katie “Agent Coulson was impressed with you yesterday. SHIELD could use someone of your calibre.”

“Me?” Katie frowned “For what? I don’t have a suit…” “Not all superheroes wear fancy outfits” Fury said simply, “And not all heroes are super.” Katie blinked “Like I said, give it some thought. You have Agent Coulson’s number.

And with that he turned and headed through the door, leaving the siblings looking at one another in stunned silence.

Katie turned to Tony “Goth pirate…man, the first time you said that I nearly died. Did you see my face?”

Tony grinned and Natasha smiled “You know, it was actually one of his favourite nicknames.” “No kiddin’?” Tony turned to look at her. Natasha nodded and Katie snorted at her brother who simply gave a huff of laughter. The three of them left past Tony and Katie who were furiously in discussion about their encounter with the Director and the door shut behind them as they strode into the dark Malibu night.

“Ok, so where’s next on this whacked out, fucked up dream trip?” Katie asked as Tony pulled the car out of the gate and onto the freeway.

Tony looked at Natasha in the rear view mirror, simply winking and Katie rolled her eyes. Again, she blinked and found herself looking up at Capitol Hill, in the daylight. Tony once more pulled the car to a stop, abandoning it basically in the middle of the road and they strode out, heading straight past the security guards at the gate as if they didn’t exist.

Which, Katie had to remind herself, they didn’t.

She followed Tony, taking in the familiar décor of the inside of the building, before she stopped as she looked at the large set of double doors at the end.

“Oh my God…please tell me this is the Senate Armed Services Committee meeting?” she turned to her brother, a smile on her face.

“Yup, welcome to the Weaponized Suit Defense Program Hearings…” Tony grinned as he yanked open the doors and they walked into the large senate room. She spotted herself and Tony sitting on the rows of benches at the front, the row of 8 senators all raised slightly higher at the front of the room, Stern perched in the middle.

“You know what…this has to be one of my favourite Tony Stark moments ever!” Katie turned to look at her brother.

Tony looked at her, smiling “Yeah, you’ve said that once or twice.”

“Mr and Miss Stark, could we pick up now where we left off?” Senator Stern spoke, banging his gavel down and Katie nodded at him, but Tony wasn’t paying attention. He was facing the opposite way, trying to speak to Pepper who was simply giving him a furious look telling him to turn around. There was more banging and Stern spoke again “Mr Stark. Please.”

Katie elbowed Tony and he turned around “Yes dear?”

“Can I have your attention?” Stern asked.

“Absolutely.”

“Do you or do you not possess a specialised weapon?” Stern looked.

“He does not.” Katie shook her head, looking at the Senator who was trying to keep his face straight at the fact she was answering, not Tony.  As part owner of Stark Industries she was also under scrutiny too, but she was both Legally and Commercially trained, and Stern knew his. He was going after Tony, because he was known to be the flashy, flamboyant one, the one that in their opinion would slip up. But she knew Tony. Well. Better than anyone. And for that fact she knew that Stern was seriously underestimating him.

This was going to be fun.

“You do not?” Stern looked at her.

“We do not.” She shook her head.

“Well, it depends on how you define the word weapon.” Tony added. Katie turned her head to look at her brother, narrowing her eyes as the cameras from the various press members in front of them continued to flash.

“The Iron Man weapon.”

“No, my sister is right. My device does not fit that description.” Tony shook his head.

“Well… how would you describe it?” Stern asked, leaning forward.

“I would describe it by defining it as what it is, Senator.”

“As?”

“It’s a err, it’s a high-tech prosthesis.” Tony said. The people in the room laughed and Tony looked around before turning back to look at the Senate “That is… That is… That’s actually the most apt description I can make of it” Tony said, looking at Katie as he placed both hands on the table in front of him.

“It’s a weapon. It’s a weapon, Mr Stark. And we’re here today to...”

“Please, if your priority was actually the well-being of the American citizen…”

“My priority is to get the Iron Man weapon turned over to the people of the United States of America.” Stern spoke simply, looking at Tony.

“Well, you can forget it. I am Iron Man.”

“The suit and Tony are one.” Katie shrugged “To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over Tony.” “Which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending or what state you’re in.” Tony shrugged as more laughter rang out

“You can’t have it.” Katie shrugged.

“Look, I’m no expert…” Stern began but Tony cut him off.

“In prostitution? Of course not. You’re a senator. Come on.” He slapped the desk and turned round, holding his hand up waving as the room laughed. Katie looked at him, then to Pepper exasperatedly. Pepper was glaring at Tony. He mouthed “no?” and she shook her head slowly, with the manner of a mother telling off a small child.

“I’m no expert in weapons.  But, we have somebody here who is an expert on weapons. I’d now like to call Justin Hammer, our current primary weapons contractor.”

Katie looked at Tony who raised an eyebrow and leaned forward to the microphone as Justin took a seat at the end of the bench. “Let the record reflect that I observed Mr Hammer entering the chamber, and I am wondering if and when any actual expert will also be in attendance.”

The room let out a little ooooh and Katie fought back a chuckle and looked at Tony as he shot her a small wink. Stern hammered on the desk once more as Hammer raised his glass of water to Tony, smiling a little as he took a sip before he laughed as he pulled the microphone towards him

“Absolutely. I’m no expert. I defer to you, Anthony.” Hammer looked at Tony, gesturing to him with his hand “You’re the wonder boy.”

Tony arched an eyebrow a Hammer continued.

“Senator, if I may…” the man stood up. “I may well not be an expert, but you know who was the expert? Your dad. Howard Stark.” He looked at Katie and Tony. “Really a father to us all, and to the military-industrial age. Let’s just be clear, he was no flower child. He was a lion.”

Tony took a deep breath and Katie gently dropped her hand onto his, giving it a discrete squeeze as Tony looked up at Stern, before his eyes flickered back to Hammer.

“We all know why we’re here. In the last six months, Anthony Stark has created a sword with untold possibilities. And yet, he insists it’s a shield. He asks us to trust him as we cower behind it. I wish I were comforted, Anthony, I really do. I’d love to leave my door unlocked when I leave the house, but this ain’t Canada. You know, we live in a world of grave threats, threats that Mr Stark will not always be able to foresee.”

At that Katie rolled her eyes as Hammer moved to take a seat.

“Thank you. God bless Iron Man. God bless America.”

There was muted applause, the most of it coming from the Senators and Stern leaned forward again

“That is well said Mr Hammer. The committee would now like to invite Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes to the chamber.”

“Rhodey?” Katie frowned, looking at Tony who was also frowning.

“What?”

 The cameras started flashing again and they both turned to see Rhodey walking towards the front.  Tony got up and headed down the aisle a little to greet him, shaking his hand.

“Hey, buddy. I didn’t expect to see you here”

“Katie didn’t catch the rest of their hushed conversation, but she watched as Tony and Rhodey approached the bench, Rhodey smiling softly at her.

“Hey Kiddo.” He greeted as he took a seat between her and Hammer.

There was a little introduction to the room about Rhodey being the USAF Weapons Procurement Liaison, before Stern finally got to the exact reason he’d called Rhodey to the hearing.

“I have before me a complete report on the Iron Man weapon, complied by Colonel Rhodes. And, Colonel, for the record, can you please read page 57, paragraph four?”

Katie felt herself grow cold as she glanced at Rhodey who was frowning.

“You’re requesting that I read specific selections from my report, Senator?”

“Yes, sir.”

“It was my understanding that I was going to be testifying in a much more comprehensive and detailed manner” Rhodey said calmly.

“I understand. A lot of things have changed today.”

“I bet they have.” Katie said loudly. Stern turned to glare at her and she folder her arms, her gaze never faltering. Eventually he turned away and looked at Rhodey.

“So if you could just read…”

“You do understand that reading a single paragraph out of context does not reflect the summary of my final…”

“Just read it, Colonel. I do. Thank you.”

“Very well” Rhodey opened his report to the relevant page and took a breath “As he does not operate within any definable branch of government, Iron Man presents a potential threat to the security of both the nation and to her interests.” 

He glanced then to Katie, the pair of them looking at Tony as he was lounging back in the chair, his face devoid of any humour as Rhodey started to talk again.

“I did however, go on to summarise that the benefits of Iron Man far outweigh three liabilities and that it would be in our interest…”

“That’s enough Colonel” Stern but in but Rhodey continued.

“ …to fold Mr Stark…”

“That’s enough”

“…into the existing chain of command, Senator.”

Katie glanced at Rhodey who looked at Stern, his face passive. She smiled, loyal to a fault, her brother’s best friend had done his best to ensure the full picture was seen, trying to curtail the attempted hatchet job from Stern.

“I’m not a joiner, but I’ll consider Secretary of Defence, if you ask nice.” Tony said, to laughter form the crowd. “We can amend the hours a little bit.”

Besides her Rhodey sighed, reaching for his glass of water, taking a sip

“I’d like to go on and show, if I may, the imagery that’s connected to your report.” Stern ignored Tony and looked a Rhodey.

“Imagery?” Katie asked, as Rhodey shook his head.

“I believe it is somewhat premature to reveal these images to the general public at this time.”

“With all due respect, Colonel, I understand. And if you could just narrate those for us, we’d be very grateful”

Rhodey shrugged, defeated and waved his hand at the screen to their left “Let’s have the images.”

“Intelligence suggests that the devices seen in these photos are, in fact, attempts at making manned copies of Mr Stark’s suit….”

Katie kept one eye on the images and then noticed Tony lounge in his chair as he pulled out his StarkPhone as Rhodey continued.

“This has been corroborated by our allies and local intelligence on the ground…indicating that these suits are quite possibly, at this moment, operational.”

“Hold on a second buddy. Let me see something here.” Tony said, leaning forward and holding his device in front of him, tapping at it. As he did so, a separate box on the screen full of small lines of code, and the words “Welcome Mr Stark popped up. “Boy, I’m good. I commandeered your screens.” Tony said as voices began to chatter. He turned to the right and did the same to the screen at that side. “I need them. Time for a little transparency.”

He leaned back in his chair, still looking at his device as he lay it flat on the desk. “Now, let’s see what’s really going on.”

“What is he doing?” Stern asked.

“Adding a little objectivity.” Katie smirked as Tony took a breath.

“If you will direct your attention to said screens, I believe that’s North Korea.”

Tony tapped a few times and a video of a crude suit began to play. The suit didn’t work very well at all and fell over, its guns cracking the camera screen.

“Can you turn that off? Take it off.” Stern said loudly as talking broke out behind them, and Justin Hammer stood up.

“Iran…” Tony switched the footage to show another suit, this one could fly…for all of five seconds before crashing, judging by the smoke, probably on fire. “No graved threat here…” Tony mused and Katie nodded at the screen which was now showing a familiar face.

“Is that Justin Hammer?” she said, grinning, because it was clear it was, compounded by the small Hammer Advanced Weapons Systems logo in the bottom left hand corner. “How did Hammer get in the game?”

Tony grinned as the room started to mumble as the footage of Hammer, with a suit that didn’t really work played. “Justin, you’re on TV. Focus up.” Tony said as he looked at Katie, giving her a wink before the pair of them turning to Rhodey, almost identical smirks on their faces. Rhodey hastily hid his own smile behind his hand, rubbing at his top lip with his index finger.

“Okay, give me a left twist. Left’s good.” Hammer’s voice sounded from the TV “Turn to the right. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.”

“Language Justin.” Katie grinned as Hammer found the plug and the screen went dark.

“Wow. Yeah, I’d say most countries, five, ten years away.” Tony nodded “Hammer Industries, twenty” “I’d like to point out that that test pilot survived.” Hammer hastily clarified into his mic as he sat down.

“I think we’re done is the point that he’s making.” Stern spoke as he stood up “I don’t think there’s any reason…”

“The point is, you’re welcome, I guess” Tony said lazily, waving his hand.

“For what?”

“Because I’m your nuclear deterrent. It’s working. We’re safe. America is secure. You want my property? You can’t have it.” Tony said, his last few words punctuated by his hand slapping the desk. “But I did you a big favour.” At that he stood up and Katie looked at him, grimacing as he smirked “I’ve successfully privatised world peace.”

Both his hands made the peace signs and everyone in the room stood up, all talking at once and applauding. Katie looked at Pepper who was shaking her head, her face stony.

“What more do you want? For now!” Tony clapped as he turned around, gesturing to the members of the committee “I tried to play ball with these ass-clowns.”

Katie groaned and then her head whipped to Stern as he sat down and spoke into the mic, his professional front completely gone.

“Fuck you, Mr Stark. Fuck you, buddy.” He seethed. Tony cupped his hand round his ear, mockingly as he smirked and picked up his sunglasses. “We’re adjourned. We’re adjourned for today.”

Tony put on the glasses and grinned at Stern “Okay.” he gave Stern the thumbs up.

“You’ve been a delight.” Stern snarked as Tony began to blow him kisses.

Present day Katie was doubled over, tears pouring from her eyes as she watched Tony flounce down the aisle in the courtroom towards the doors at the back. Her eyes strayed to her past self who was sat, looking at Rhodey, biting her lip trying hard not to laugh. She remembered thinking at the time how she should be as pissed, as Rhodey and Pepper where, at the fact Tony never took serious things seriously but this had been a hatchet job from the start. And Tony had outwitted them all, as usual.

“Fuck you, Mr Stark…oh, it’s a classic.” She wiped her eyes, turning back to her brother.

Tony grinned, before he sighed, looping an arm round he shoulder. “Fun times huh…”

“Fun might not be the word I would use but…it was certainly entertaining.”

“Which is why I thought we could see it again.” Tony grinned “A little reminder of just how you were by my side, once again.”

“I hate to break it to you but this next bit isn’t quite so hilarious.” Natasha said, moving forward so she was at the side of Katie.

“That’s because it doesn’t involve me.” Tony quipped and Natasha rolled her eyes as they walked out of the courtroom and made their way to the car. As they drove, Katie waited as long as she could before she blinked and then, to no surprise, their surroundings had changed again and she felt a pang of nostalgia wash over her as they drove over the bridge towards the Triskellion. She turned to Natasha who flashed her a smile.

“We had some good times” “Yeah, until we brought it all crashing down.” Katie said, peering up at the place she had once-upon-a-time worked.

Natasha gave a huff of laughter as Tony drove through the magically opened barrier at the end of the avenue and into the car park.

“I’m sitting this one out.” Tony shrugged, looking around “Hmm, maybe I’ll take a walk, try and find a cheeseburger. Man I miss those.”

Katie looked at him, snorting as Natasha nudged her, signalling for her to follow. They headed into the familiar building and over to the elevator, the same one Steve had some 16 years previously catapulted them out of.

“Least I’m going up, not out the side and down…” She mused.

They exited on the floor where Fury’s office was located and headed inside. The director was sat at his desk, Coulson and Natasha stood opposite him. Natasha’s hair was long and curly, just as it had been the first time Katie had met her.

“Natalie Rushman…” she quipped and Natasha looked at her, her eyebrows raised, smiling slightly.

“Stark is drawing un wanted attention to himself. As the Senate Hearing last week proved.” Coulson stated “I don’t think that’s the last we’ve heard of that particular issue either.” “Yeah, well, I don’t trust Stern, as you know. There’s something about him…” Fury took a breath and stood up. “Ok. Romanoff, I want you in Stark Industries so you can get me a detailed appraisal of both the Stark siblings and let’s see how far this illness Tony is suffering goes.”

“Both of them?” Natasha looked at Fury who nodded.

“Coulson likes the girl.” Fury stated and Coulson turned to Natasha, handing her a manilla file with Katie’s photo on the front. “She’s smart, brave too as I saw a few months ago.”

“What’s her background?” Natasha asked, taking the file and opening it.

“It’s all in there, but the quick version is she’s been working in the UK since graduating from Oxbridge in 2006 with a first in English literature and mythology. She published a number of papers on Greek and Norse mythology and from what I’ve seen she has good analytical skills, she can read people.”

“Useful.” Natasha mused and Coulson nodded.

“She currently heads up the Legal and Commercial team for Stark Industries International.  She’s not a bad shot with a gun either, she hit a water pipe straight where she aimed at from almost 200 yards out” Coulson shrugged “With a bit of training, I think she’d be a real asset.”

“You got 48 hours to come up with a plan on how to get in and a cover.” Fury spoke to Romanoff and Natasha nodded. Fury then looked at Coulson “Is the fact Miss Stark seems to be, err, romantically involved with Ward going to be a problem with this?”

Coulson shook his head “Ward has no idea that we’re even considering recruiting her. And I’ll ensure its kept that way.”

“Ward’s sharp enough to recognise that if he does encounter me whilst I’m in position he won’t blow my cover.” Natasha nodded “He knows the script.”

“Good because that is a complication we do not need…” Fury levelled her with a look and Natasha smirked, as she glanced down at a page in the file.

“From Jonny Storm to Grant Ward…” she closed the file “bit of a difference.” She grinned “Suppose you can’t blame a girl for wanting something a little hot every now and then.”

“You sound like you’re speaking from experience.” Fury looked at Natasha who shook her head.

“He’s not my type.”

“Which one, Storm or Ward?” Coulson asked.

Natasha shrugged “Either.”

Coulson smiled, his eye twinkling as Fury looked at Natasha before he met Coulson’s gaze, shrugging.  

“By the way, have we any idea on the whereabouts of Dr Banner?”

“Not yet.” Coulson shook his head “But we’ll keep looking.”

Natasha turned to Katie “I wanted you to see, that even before that little business with the Hammer drones we were thinking of recruiting you. Coulson saw something in you. Something special, that I saw too. Despite your constant protests to the contrary.”

Katie blinked, her eyes filling a little with tears as she shook her head “I was nothing special, SHIELD made me what I was.” “Bullshit.” Natasha shook her head, gently squeezing Katie’s arm as they watched Fury dismiss Coulson and Past Natasha. “You were our Supernova from the start.” Katie looked at her, sniffing a little as Natasha pulled her in for a hug “And you’re still a goddamned superhero, suit or not.”

***** Katie sighed as she entered her hotel room, reaching for the lights. That had been a fucking nightmare. Once Tony had effectively blown a hole in their home after a showdown with Rhodey he had taken off. She’d then, along with Natalie and Pepper spent fuck knows how long dealing with the emergency services. She had no idea where the hell her brother was, and at that particular point in time she didn’t care. He’d behaved like a prize prick.

She walked through to the main living room and gave a little yell of surprise as Natalie was sat on the couch, along with a familiar face.

“What the…” she looked at Fury as he stood up. “Natalie…what…” And then it dawned on her… “You’re one of them? You’re SHIELD?” “Miss Stark, allow me to introduce Agent Natasha Romanoff. One of the 2 I was telling you about”

“Well...” Katie blew out her breath “Fuck me.” “Yeah, it was kind of a shock.” Katie looked at Natasha as they watched the scene in front of them evolving as it changed again to reveal Agents now moving around their Malibu home in the daylight which was a little bit broken from the events of the party. “But at that point I was kind of past the point of disbelieving anything. Especially after Monaco.” “In my defence…” Tony piped up as he appeared besides Katie. “I was dying.”

“Yeah…which is why we found you inside a huge Randy’s Donut sign, eating a real donut without a fucking care in the world.” Natasha looked at Tony as Katie sniggered.

“Sir! I’m gonna have to ask you to exit the doughnut.” She mimicked Fury’s voice “Man...you still wouldn’t come down, it took me threatening to climb up there myself for you to listen”

Tony shrugged “I’d already told him, I didn’t want to join his super-secret boy band.”

“Lucky for you we ignored you.” Natasha shrugged “Well, I say ignored…it was quite the opposite actually. You’d become a pain in our ass.”

“Yeah, yeah, you had bigger problems in the southwest, I remember.” Tony said “Namely Point Break.”

“If they hadn’t given you that lithium dioxide you’d have been a nightmare.” Katie looked at him. Tony eyed her for a moment, then nodded to the scene in front of them, Tony, Katie and Fury sat in their home, the wall completely blown away whilst two agents stood on the balcony looking out through binoculars.

“You told Tony that he hadn’t tried everything.” Katie looked at Fury “What do you mean he hasn’t tried everything? What hasn’t he tried?”

“He said that Tony was the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started.” Fury looked at her, then to her brother as he took a sip of his water.

“He said that?” Tony raised his eyebrows, clearly not believing a word Fury was saying.

“Are you that guy? Are you? ‘Cause if you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart.”

Katie looked at Tony as she shook his head. “I don’t know where you get your information, but he wasn’t my biggest fan.”

“What do you remember about your dad?” Fury asked and Katie took in a deep breath and looked at Tony.

“He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me…”

“Tony…” Katie started to protest but he ignored her.

“…so it’s a little tough for me to digest when you’re telling me he said the whole future was riding on me and he’s passing it down. I don’t get that. You’re talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school.”

“That’s not true.”  Katie sighed, and Fury pointed at her

“She’s right. It’s not.”

“Well, then, clearly you both knew dad better than I did” Tony leaned back in his chair and Katie’s attention was drawn to two Agents who walked behind Fury, carrying a silver, metal box of sorts.

“As a matter of fact, I did.” Fury placed his glass down and glanced at his watch “He was one of the founding members of SHIELD.”

Katie blinked and looked at Agent Romanoff who had appeared behind her

“What?” Tony sat up straight.

“I still don’t know why he never told us…” Katie looked at Tony as they watched their past selves bombarding Fury with questions which he deflected.

“Beats me…” Tony shrugged “But he was a man of many mysteries, as this proves…”

Katie’s eyes tracked Fury as he left before she turned back to look at herself, her brother and Agent Coulson.

“I’ve been authorised by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on premises.” Coulson looked at Tony “If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will tase you and watch Supernanny while you drool into the carpet. Okay?””

“I think I got it, yeah.”

“Wait, do I need to stay here too? Katie looked at Coulson “Because just to warn you, I’ll likely end up killing him before any blood poisoning does.” “Err, I can hear you.” Tony glared at her

“Good”

Coulson shrugged “That’s up to you Miss Stark” he then turned to Tony “Enjoy your evening’s entertainment.” He nodded to the box as he left.

Katie let out a sigh and sank into a chair.

“You heard what he just said. You can go.” Tony looked at her. “Yeah, well, as much as I would love to jump on a plane and head to New York right now, I can’t leave you like this Tone.” Katie ran her hands over her face “What kind of sister would that make me?” Tony looked at her taking a deep breath before he glanced at the box again and grimaced. “Think I might burn that.” “Don’t.” Katie said gently.

“Why not? I don’t care much to see what dearest daddy left for us.” “For you.” Katie looked at him. “What he left for you…” “You know, that was the only reason I opened that damned box.” Tony said softly and Katie turned to look at him “Like I said, I didn’t care and I didn’t believe a word Fury was saying but you, that simple phrase, reminding me that he left it for me specifically spurred me to do it.”

“Without that you would have died.” Katie said gently

“I did.” He grinned, shrugging.

“I mean then” Katie glared at him “Man I was so angry at you when I found out the palladium was poisoning you and you hadn’t told me.”

“I didn’t want to worry you.” He shrugged, watching as their past selves both took a hold of a handle of the box each and picked it up “Looking back on it, now I realise I was doing that anyway with my erratic behaviour.”

“Are you getting it yet?” Natasha said gently and Katie looked at her “All these seemingly small decisions you made and these apparent innocuous little statements…they all formed something so much bigger than you could ever have dreamed of.”

Katie looked down at her feet and swallowed.

“It isn’t about being Supernova, or an Avenger, or a perfect human.” Tony smiled “It’s about being Katie Stark, the person you are.” “Yeah, hold that thought because this next memory we’re gonna visit…” Natasha smiled “This one was kind of a big decision…”

****

“So she’s worth a shot?” Fury lounged in his chair, looking at Natasha as she sat opposite him. The pair were sat in an abandoned warehouse that appeared to be serving as some kind of temporary housing facility for SHIELD. There were 3 large displays in front of them, all being projected from the same type of metal box Fury had left at the mansion, and nothing else in the room bar a desk and a few chairs.

“I believe so. But, the thing is, I don’t think you’ll get one without the other…and my assessment of Tony isn’t quite as favourable.”

“Then we’ll just have to pique her interest so to speak…” Fury shrugged.

Natasha frowned “New Mexico?” and Fury gave a little smirk, causing Nat to snort “Good luck with that.”

“You make your own luck.” Fury said simply “In the meantime, I have another assignment for you. I need you to trail Dr Banner. If this item in New Mexico is what we think, then things are starting to get a little…weird shall we say.”

Natasha nodded “I’ll get right on it” and with that she stood up, nodding to the files on the desk. “Let me know how you get on.” “When do I ever need to let you know anything?” Fury looked at her “You know more than me half the time.” Natasha laughed “Now we know that isn’t true, don’t we Nick?”

“You absolute shits!” Katie looked at Natasha, tearing her eyes from the past version of the red head who was leaving Fury’s office. “That whole thing with Thor’s hammer…it was a ruse to get me into SHIELD.”

Natasha shrugged.

“I always thought it was because of what I did in New Mexico that I got offered a position but it was you all along, not Coulson like I thought!”

Natasha smiled “Coulson stuck you on the radar, but it was my decision to put you forward. A decision I’m proud of and would make a hundred times over.” “It was a shit decision.” Tony sniffed “You knocked me back.”

“That was more of an ego check than anything.” Natasha shrugged “I think deep down Fury always knew the way it would go.” She looked back at Katie “You proved me, and Coulson for that matter, right with your actions in New Mexico. Showed the exact level of compassion, bravery and initiative that we expected.”

Katie blinked and shook her head “I was just a normal person.” “You were, are a Stark.” Nat said simply “And SHIELD was all the better for it. It was your dad’s legacy after all.”

The scene in front of them faded and then, in the same offices, Katie saw herself and Tony sat at a desk.

“Should you be looking at that?” Katie asked as she sat next to Tony who had picked up the manilla file which was emblazoned with the words “AVENGERS INIAITIVE PRELIMINARY REPORT. Before Tony could reply a hand pinned the report down and they both looked up at Fury who was leaning slightly over the desk.

“I don’t think I want you looking at that.” He levelled Tony with a look as he sat down opposite them at the other side of the desk. “I’m not sure it pertains to you anymore. Now this on the other hand…” he said, picking up another file off the desk “…is Agent Romanoff’s assessment of you. Read it.” He instructed, handing Tony the file.

“Errr….” Tony scanned the page “’Personality overview. Mr Stark displays compulsive behaviour…’”

Katie snorted and Tony looked at Fury “In my own defence that was last week”

Fury looked at him and Tony gave a small sigh and continued “’Prone to self-destructive tendencies.’ I was dying. I mean, please. Aren’t we all? ‘Textbook narcissism’?”

“Agreed.” Katie jumped in and Tony turned to look at her as she shrugged. He arched an eyebrow, holding her gaze for a moment before he looked back at the report.

“Okay, here it is. ‘Recruitment assessment for Avenger Initiative. Iron Man? Yes.’ I gotta think about it.”

“Read on.” Fury replied.

“ ‘Tony Stark not… Not recommended”? That doesn’t make any sense.” He dropped the file to the desk. “How can you approve me but not approve me?”

Katie’s eyes tracked Fury as he got up out of his chair with a heavy sigh as Tony continued.

“I got a new ticker. I’m trying to do right by Pepper. I’m in a stable-ish relationship.”

Fury perched on the edge of the desk by Katie and looked at Tony. “Which leads us to believe at this juncture we’d only like to use you as a consultant.”

Katie knew that despite her brother declaring he wanted nothing to do with this initiative, that was going to be a blow to his ego and sure enough, Tony simply took a breath, stood up and offered Fury his hand to shake. Fury obliged, and Tony clasped his other hand on top of Fury’s. “You can’t afford me.”

At that he turned to leave. Katie made to follow but Fury signalled for her to stay in her seat.

“Then again…” Tony turned back round “I will waive my customary retainer in exchange for a small favour. Rhodey and I are being honoured in Washington and we need a presenter.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Fury said simply “Now, if you would be so kind, I’d like 5 minutes with your sister.”

Tony looked at Katie who nodded. “I’ll be in the car, Kiddo.”

Once he was gone, Fury turned to her “Miss Stark, like I said to you 6 months ago, SHIELD could use someone of your calibre.” Katie smiled and shook her head “I’m sorry Sir. I’m flattered, I really am but…” she took a deep breath “This, well it really isn’t for me.”

Fury sighed, “I thought you might say that. In that case, would you, perhaps, consider also joining us as a consultant?”

“Consulting on what?”

“You’re fairly knowledgeable on Mythology, am I right?” “I did a degree and had a few papers published.” She frowned “Why?”

“This pressing issue in the South West.” Fury said, walking to one of the screens and pressing a button. “I’d like your take on it.”

Katie’s eyes fell open as she glanced at a picture of a huge crater, and inside it looked like…

“No…no way.” She mumbled, standing up. “That’s…no, I mean…what the hell is that?”

“The official story is its part of a satellite.” Fury shrugged “Does it look like a satellite to you?”

“No, it looks like Mjolnir, the fabled hammer of Thor…” she said, before she scoffed, shaking her head “This is a plant. A fake, a hoax…” she looked at Fury “There has to be some kind of explanation.”

“Yes, you’re right.” Fury shrugged “But the thing is, when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how utterly ludicrous, has to be the truth…and, well, we’re running out of impossible to eliminate”

Katie looked back at the photo, shaking her head “No, no way…” “Miss Stark, when I said I’d seen things you couldn’t even begin to imagine I meant it.” He looked at her, and Katie swallowed as she stared back at him. “Now. I’d very much like for you to take a look and confirm that I’m crazy.”

“Where is it?” she asked after a short pause.

“New Mexico, about 30 miles South of Santa Fe.” “There’s a professor I know, based in Seville” Katie looked at Fury “He’s an expert I consulted a few times over my degree. Elliot Randal his name is. It’s probably worth giving him a call.”

“I’ll get onto it.” Fury nodded “And as for you, well, I can have a jet ready to fly you out there within the hour.”

Katie glanced at the photo, everything inside of her was screaming that his was ridiculous, farfetched, down right ludicrous…but there was just that small part of her brain that was niggling. If it was what she thought it was, then she couldn’t pass up an opportunity to be part of the team that identified it. Imagine what that would mean for man-kind going forward.

She inhaled, letting the breath out of her nose before she gave Fury a curt nod. “Ok. I’ll go.” “Really?” Tony scoffed as Katie watched herself, shaking hands with Fury “It was that easy?”

“I was curious.” Katie shrugged. “And I’m glad I was. That decision to go to New Mexico…without it, I would never have joined SHIELD. Might never have met Steve….I’m guessing that’s what this little flashback is about?”

“Hmmm, possibly not but one thing is for sure, you wouldn’t have been the one sent to that Boxing Gym. And whether or not Steve has ever told you this, you were the reason he took that mission inadvertently.” “He would have done it anyway given the Tesseract…” “But he trusted you right from the start, and that swayed him.” Natasha pressed. “And then when you fought alongside him in Stuttgart, captured Loki, then the battle in New York...all of that just solidified the fact in his mind you were a good person. It might not have been love at first sight but he trusted you, confided in you. You worked side by side, grew close both in and out of work, and he fell in love with you. You understood him, could cope with his lifestyle because you lived it.”

Katie blinked as what Natasha was saying began to sink in. “So this…” she waved her hand “Me seeing this now, isn’t simply a reminder of me making a decision that in the end led to me becoming an Avenger. It’s about me making a decision that meant Steve and I made it.?”

Natasha nodded.

“Because we never would have done if I didn’t understand what SHIELD and the Avengers were about on a simple day-to-day basis.” Kate finished.

Natasha beamed, “You made it easy for him to love you and possible for him to envisage a future with you because you lived the life he was all about. Shared life experience, so to speak.”

“And all that stems from that simple decision to get on a plane to New Mexico because you were curious.” Tony smiled and Katie looked at him, once more the tears stinging her eyes “Actions have consequences Kiddo and nine times outta ten it’s the consequences we don’t ever dream of at the point of acting which are the ones that shape our lives.”

[ms-rampage]

The New Trainee

Summary: Paige, Kate and all the other hunters show Felix how to kill monsters. Monster Hunting 101.

Word count: 1.7k

Warnings: Some language

Note: OC Felix Miller belongs to @the-chaos-siblings (also requested by him)

“Okay so the monster you saw us killed. That was a Wendigo, they’re pretty much humans that resorted to cannibalism, and turned into monsters” Paige tells Felix.

After he witnessed a Wendigo, and saw how they killed it. Paige and Kate along with everyone that lives on the compound showed Felix how to hunt, and kill monsters. 

“Humanoids that are tall and pale. A huge part of Native American mythology” Kate adds. 

“So fire and silver bullets kill them?” he asks. 

Both sisters nod, “Yep, they’re usually in groups, but they’re more likely to be by themselves” Paige tells him. 

Her husband Kenneth, along with their hunters friends/family Adrian, Cody, Mark, Martin, Nate and their mother Mandy walk into the living room.

“That Wendigo was living by itself, but I’m sure there’s more lurking out there in the woods” he tells them. 

“So what other monsters exist?” Felix asks, “Do vampires exist?! Werewolves? Demons?! The loch ness monster?!”. 

“Yes, yes, yes, yes and maybe” Paige answers, “Unless it's freakin' Godzilla, it real!”. 

There were some “animal” attacks in the wood areas of Hope County, Montana, and everyone including forest rangers have concluded them as either bear, or cougar attacks, but the local supernatural hunters say differently. Because after Wendigo’s attack they leave nothing behind, and the campsite had some blood evidence, but no bodies of campers. The site was “too clean” for the Cult to have kidnapped any innocent “sinners”. 

“So I kinda know how to kill vampires” he tells them, but he has an unsure tone in his voice, “A wooden stake to the heart, holy water, sunlight and garlic”. 

They all exchange looks, knowing that’s how you kill them in movies, and it's a huge misconception. 

Kate awkwardly clears her throat, “Well umm, Felix, that’s actually a huge misconception. We all know in movies and tv shows. Killing vampires with a wooden stake or repelling them with garlic is actually false”. 

He looks at her confused, “Then how do you kill them?”. 

“Decapitation” Kenneth tells him, “You chop off its head, and that’s it”. 

Kate takes a seat next to him, “So we’re gonna start off with vampires, and how to kill them, and how they originated”. 

Paige clears her throat, giving him a lesson in Monster Hunting 101, “So as you may know, vampires live forever. Never age. Up until you give them a nice clean head cut. Vampires originate from the Alpha vampire, the very first of the kind. Progenitor of vamps. Killing them is easy, decapitation, but those bastards are fucking strong and fast. Sneaking little bastards”. 

“You can “cure” a vampire” Cody tells him, “Dead man’s blood. The blood of a dead person. It sedates them”.

“It doesn’t really cure them, it just makes them weak, and causes them pain without actually killing them” Ken adds. 

“Next!” Paige exclaims, “Demons! Corrupted human souls!. Twisted, perverted evil spirits! Ghosts with an ego!”. 

“Abominations” Adrian mutters before taking a sip of his whiskey. 

“There are many, different types of demons” Kate tells him, “There are the typical, everyday black eyed demons. Then there’s red eyed demons, white eyed demons, and yellow eyed demons. Princes of Hell, Knights of Hell. Crossroad demons. It’s all a goddamn hierarchy!!”. 

“Basically demons are human souls that were sent to Hell for whatever reason, and were left in the fiery pit to be tortured until there is no humanity left in them” Mandy tells Felix, “Turning them into demons. Direct opposites of angels”. 

“Killing them is very easy, depending on who and what type you’re dealing with. Holy water, salt and iron. Holy fire, hex bags and exorcism” Kenneth explains, “Are all all you need to deal with those bastards”. 

“A Devil's trap” Nate tells him, “Is what you need to trap a demon. It imprisons, binds and overpowers them. Most demons are unable to cross a salt line, but it can be used to harm them”. 

Felix is trying to process all this information, not even 10 minutes into “Monster Hunting 101” and he already feels confident on killing monsters. 

"Okay I'm starting to feel confident in this!" he tells them, "Where do find these monsters?!?".

“You may feel confident now, but these evil sons of bitches? They’re the worst!” Adrian says, before taking another sip of his whiskey, and filling his glass up again, "They're everywhere! Any small town. Like Hope County for example". He takes another hit of the alcohol, drinking it like water.

“Hey, hey cowboy shit, easy on the whiskey” Paige tells him, "Drink water for once!". He gives her a mocking look before drinking again. 

“Anyway! Werewolves are pretty simple to kill, silver bullets” Kate says loudly “Now ghosts are also very easy. They hate salt, and iron. If you want an evil ghost/spirit out of your house. You find the bones of the person, salt em and burn em”.

“Now if the person was cremated, you have to find something they love, something they held dearly to, and you destroy it” she adds. 

“We’re just teaching you the basics on killing monsters because there’s a lot of information on this crap” Paige tells him. 

“Okay so how did all of you get into this stuff??” Felix asks them, “How did you all discover these creatures??”. 

All the hunters exchange looks, “It’s a very long story, but to summarize our story. Our family has been a part of this whole game for 5 generations” the eldest Winchester explains to him.

“My family’s been doing this for 3 generation” Cody explains to him, “I’ve been hunting monsters since I was 5 years old”. 

“My family’s been loyal members of the Men of Letters” Martin tells him, “They do the same thing, track and hunt down monsters”. 

“Well in your case it's British Men of Letters” Kate tells him. 

“Pretty much all of us come from 3-5 generations of monster hunters” Mandy explains to him.

After getting to know everyone in the household, and now having the acknowledgement on hunting monsters. but Felix knows he’s gonna have to learn a lot from these people, and get used to the special weapons they use to kill these creatures. Learn how to speak, and read Latin and Enochian.

“Pretty much Halloween will be an everyday thing for you” Kenneth tells him, “Our lives are a horror movie”. 

With that all said, Felix has one hell of a journey into this life ahead of him. 

“Actually for great practice, we actually summoned a demon” Paige tells them, everyone looks over at her. 

“You did what??” her husband asks her, “You summoned a demon?? When we have our toddler and infant kids in the house?!?”. 

“Yeah but it’s fine. I have him trapped in the bunker. In the torture chamber” she tells them. 

Kenneth was always strict when it came to summon monsters in the house for training, or for getting information.

They go down to the bunker, into the chamber where they keep monsters and interrogate them. 

“Before I open the door Felix” Paige turns to him, “No, you can’t fuck it because its an evil entity”. 

He gives her a bummed out expression, “Then what has all this training been about??”.  

“Killing monsters” Kenneth answers. Patting his shoulder.

She opens the loud metal door, and they see a man tied to a chair, inside a devil’s trap. 

He lifts his head, with a smug smile on his face. “Well hello there red” he says to Paige with a teasing and cocky tone in his voice. 

“Shut up demon trash” she responds, throwing holy water in his face, making it burn. 

He growls in pain and also in annoyance. “Stupid human!”.

“She said shut up!!” Kenneth orders him, throwing holy water in his face again. 

Paige gets into the killing demons lesson. “Okay, so this thing on the floor is a devil’s trap. If the trap is broken, then this fucker right here will smite all of us”. 

“I will boil your flesh!” the demon growls at her, his eyes going black. 

“Anyway!” she says loudly, ignoring him and his threats, “There are many ways to torture demons. Like for example throwing holy water in their faces. It burns them, and they can’t cross a salt line”.

Kenneth goes to a table on the other side of the chamber, and brings over a variety of weapons, setting them down on a table next to his wife. 

“Demons also hate iron. Like holy water it burns them” she continues. 

Kenneth hands Felix a knife that can kill demons. A knife with a wooden handle, and a sharp blade. It looks like an ordinary hunting knife, but it can do great damage to demons. 

The blade can’t kill all demons, it can’t kill Knights of Hell, and Princes of Hell. Like Abaddon, Alistair, Samhain and Lilith.

“Now what you’re holding is an Ancient Demon-Killing Knife of the Kurds” Kenneth tells Felix.

“Or, you can just call it a demon killing knife” Paige corrects him, taking less time on saying the name, "Or just simply a demon knife".

“Ohh I see. He’s the new trainee!” the demon mutters, “How cute!!”. 

“Demons are cocky little bastards” Kate tells them, leaning against the chamber's doorway. 

“Oh Katie how ya doing?!” he asks, eyes blackened “I heard about your little boy toy Johnny Seed getting possessed by Saleos”. 

She scoffs, rolling her eyes “Yeah and what happened to Saleos afterwards?? He got casted out and sent back to Hell. He knew he fucked up when Lucifer punished his ass". 

“So you all do this for a living??” Felix asks them, "Do you ever tell people about this sort of stuff??"

“Yep! And nope because people tend to freak out if they were to ever find out about this stuff” Paige answers, “And now we’re showing you how to kill evil sons of bitches”.

“So take the knife and stab douchebag” Ken tells him, “Stab him right in the chest, or stomach. Wherever you’d like”. 

The demon starts to laugh, “He doesn’t have the guts to kill me!. He doesn’t-”. Getting cut off by Felix without hesitating, stabs the demon in his abdomen, doing a knife trick before stabbing him. Making the redish orange light come out of his eyes, mouth and the stab wound. They all look at him like proud parents. 

“Well shit” Paige chuckles, with a smile on her face. 

“I didn’t think you were gonna stab him” Ken tells him. 

“I think he’s ready for a real hunt” Kate tells them.