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echoing-gravity · 1 year ago

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MLB X MCU AU in which Marinette gets revealed as Multimouse to the entire world

Because Alya cant be trusted to be responsible with a camera.

Every-fucking-one knows now. hawkmoth. her PARENTS. Hell even TONY fucking STARK knows she was a hero.

and then her parents make/force her to take Style queens offer to intern in NYC, because, from their perspective she is not safe in paris. and like- the AVENGERS are in new york so surely it must be safe there. so they pack up and move their entire bakery business.

and she ends up going to midtown high-school, where not to her knowledge, fellow teenage superhero Peter parker aka "Your friendly neighborhood SPIDER-MAN" goes to school.

Cute adorable shipping commences.

peter is all like "omg another teenage super hero???!!! like me???? i thought i was the only one???? transferring to MY school?!!! SO COOL!!"

"marinette is super smart, marinette is pretty, she was one of THE Miraculous Ladybug's sidekicks how cool is that??!, marinette is COOL!! maybe we can be friends? how am i gonna talk to someone that cool though?? i cant tell her my secret identity!!!"

insta-crush. peter is a marinette SIMP

(and yo, dont get on my case about marinette being super fucking smart, this is the girl who figured out she was getting a birthday party from just seeing one of her friends holding a bike pump. that girl is a tactical genius! she just has self esteem issues. they are both nerd, their just nerds about differnt things, let the nerds date!!!!)

of course Marinette still has the ladybug miraculous -even tho everyone thinks she doesn't have the rat miraculous anymore- and the miracle box. so she can still fight hawkmoth because the horse is basically fast travel irl, Space miraculous super conveintent.

(also concerning the mirsacle box, im going with my headcanon/Unlucky 13 AU on what that looks like post "ladybug becomes guardain" because that egg thing from canon? fucking lame

These ones^^^)

It would be canon compliant till season 2 and most? of season 3? but like fuck miracle queen, season3 finale + truth made me stop watching the show. so like in this au, lets just assume Fu is dead, and ladybug has had the miracle box for some time now. and that they got the miraculous when they were 13, and are currently 15? yeah? okay.

(also prolly chat salt, it doesn't HAVE to be chat salt, but like- He. Keeps. Trying. To. Quit. And leave all the work to marinette!!!! its happened like 3?? times now? Marinette CANT quit!!! its literally "do this or lose all your memories!!!" she is being held hostage by a fucking magic box full of responsibilities no 15 year old should have to deal with.)

I headcanon that marinette stress-bakes, so like cute scene number #1 after peter and marinette become friends, could be something like "marientte stresses for a test, and then bakes to much food so her parents make her take it to school to share with her peers, and she ends up giving like- 1/2 of them to parker, becuz of his super high metabolism.

and how marinettes got her whole "i'm RESPONISBLE!!! for the whole fucking universe now, omfg i'm the reason fu is basically dead" angsty shit going on which kinda parallels peters whole "i have super powers, and if i dont do something to help then its my fault if someone gets hurt, like how my uncle died. With great power, comes great RESPONSIBLITY!!!" angst. maybe they could trauma bond. who doesn't like a good hurt comfort trauma bond fic?

marinette likes designing fashionable but also functional clothes.

peter likes designing gadgets and techy things. let them be nerds together!!! in love!!

i feel like they would be the kind of couple/friends to just ramble on about their passions and they would listen to each other even tho they dont know much about each others interests yet. (also hey what if marinette and peter co designed one of peters early suits pre-stark suit??? the fucking writing potential this ship has omfg c'mon ppl!!! why are we sleeping on this??)

oh! and maybe peter figures out that marinette is also ladybug -but later on- cuz like, he has superhearing? and tikki isn't as subtle as she thinks she is.

and then he's all in awe like "Wow holy shit!!! she made her ladybug secret identity FOOLPROOF!!!! no one would ever fucking suspect!! maybe she can help me with mine???"

Fox miraculous shenanaigans insue????? The daily Bugles next headline be like: "SPIDER-MAN SAVES SI INTERN PETER PARKER FROM ETC ETC"

( the media thinks Ladybug and Chat are 1000+ years old due to that thing alya found in that museum that one time. and the fact that people know that Thor and Loki are super old.

Ladybug's excuse to the public for letting a teenager, Nay! for letting a THIRTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD use an extremly dangerous magical artifact for a little over 2 years, goes something like this: "Marinette was the ONLY person in france- maybe in the whole world! that was compatible with the Rat miraculous, it takes a very smart person to be able to multitask like that, and marinette has a photographic/phonetic memory."

i headcannon that marinette photographic/phonetic memory, and that the Rat Miraculous is the math miraculous that was mentioned in the comics that one time, and that if an incompatible person were to try and use it they would at BEST develop a severe case of split personality disorder/ or schizophrenia, and at WORST their brain would- just- melt out of their ears. )

Also he calls her "Spots" or "LuckyBug" when shes in hero mode.

(i cant think of cute nicknames for peter, ugh "web head" is just something i cant picture marinette saying. what's the french word for spider? what's the french word for cobwebs??)

She prolly just calls him "Webs" or "Spidey"

#miraculous ladybug #spider man #marinette dupain cheng #peter parker #MLB X MCU #if i ever write a fic about this its gonna be called #spectacular miracular #SpideyBug #the ship name is SpideyBug im deciding this now.#there are only like 30 fics on A03 about this ship and we dont have a name for it yet.#me over here trying to convince the maribat fandom to write mcu crossovers #gonna start a fucking renaissance #Ladybug x Spider-man #Unlucky 13 Au #mlb #rat miraculous #mullo #multimouse #bamf marinette

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whatwenthereagain · 1 year ago

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Hello! My username is whatwenthereagain but thats long and hard to type, so you can call me Red.

I'm just your friendly neighborhood nerd!

Pronouns: He/They

Timezone: EST

Likes: Aliens, art, writing, cryptids, tea, winter, Canada, liminal spaces, nuclear reactors, Chernobyl, reading, bugs, reptiles, Meteorology, forests, music,

Dislikes: Summer, bigots, people who pronounce Chernobyl as Chair-no-bill, and red bananas. (they taste gross)

Fandoms: Hollow Knight, SCP, Heartstopper, The Backrooms, Rain World, and Blunderkinder. (dead fandom for two really good books)

Extra:

I am Transmasculine and Genderfaun.

I am Panromantic and Aegosexual.

Also, Gay rights!

(And trans rights!)

((And Ace rights!))

#intro post #intro #introductory post #introduction #introducing myself #I really like Chernobyl for some reason #Expect lots of rambles about Chernobyl and other nuclear disasters

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aravas-writing · 8 months ago

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Let us continue.

By introducing more characters! This is a gacha, of course there's loads of characters. You will not escape it, no matter where you go.

Shiraishi Utaha

Don't ask why the pic is bad I just didn't feel like downloading high res every single fucking time

Super science nerd

Built her own auto turret "thundergun"

She uses it as a seat sometimes

Uses her gun, "Meister Zero" as a hammer sometimes

Most serious person of the engineering department

Still a massive nerd, wanted the railgun for space battles

Toyomi Kotori

Can talk forever

Autism

Infodumps over fucking everything

Can give you a several hour lecture over the origins of corned beef

Queen of Trivia night

Gets depressed when ignored

Still an excellent engineer

Minigun "Professor K", also called "EX-plain" (do NOT ask for the origin unless you want a lecture on firearms history)

Nekozuka Hibiki

Has cat in name, is dog girl

Amazing engineer, bad with people

Bit shy

Can nerd out with the best of them

Weak to peer pressure

Mortar (yes, really) "Fancy Light" (yes, really)

These three build Aris' future gun for funsies but enc up giving it to her because they can't do space battles and it's too unwieldy for most people. Aris is not most people.

She promptly blows the roof off the engineering hall.

The entire roof.

I call it a railgun, but it's really a high-strength energy weapon of undeniable power.

Anywho, Aris has her gun, so off the GDD goes back to their friendly neighborhood hackers to decrypt the G.Bible. Said hackers, thankfully a group of White Hats, helpfully inform them that decrypting this thing is only possible by using contraband from the sealed storage, meaning they need to break in, which will spawn a host of problems.

However, the hackers be hackers, for the are Veritas

Kagami Chihiro

Veritas vice president

Extremely competent hacker

Big sis to the others

Often hired as cybersecurity expert

Does not abide by sloppy security

Will kill you if your password is shit like "123456"

AR "Backdoor" (not that kind, you filthy animals)

Omagari Hare

Subsists off energy drink

Built her own support drones

Tends to do all-nighters

Socially awkward

AR "auto-aimer" (actually has an aimbot)

Otose Kotama

Loves to eavesdrop

Specializes in wiretapping

Would wiretap Schale if she could

Likes to listen to white noise

Loves the sound of Sensei's voice

"common sense? The fuck is that?"

Pistol "Echolink"

Konuri Maki

Hobby artist

Spray painter

Bit of a rebel

Minor mischievous streak

Loves to paint

Came up with the Veritas Tag

MG "Auto-Lacquer"

And those are the known collaborators with the GDD! They are about to do something very illegal, but Sensei is with them so it's fiiiine.

Except not really, because someone blabbed (not Kotori) and now the Spec Ops are waiting for them to come for the ominously dubbed "Black Mirror".

And to think this all started because they wanted to make a video game....

And now

A funnyman's recap of Blue Archive

Volume 2 Chapter 1

We begin by being summoned to a Game Development Department at Millennium Science Academy! That's right, we're going to be real gamers now! Of course, the GDD doesn't ask for Schale willy-nilly, as they have a good reason.

That reason being that their club is on the verge of being dissolved. Catastrophe! Not only do they only have 3 members instead of the usually required 4 (exceptions apply, but not this time), they also haven't put out anything worthwhile. Their only achievement being a game they made.

It got "Worst Game of the Year" award.

We got our work cut out for us...anyway, the cute and funny cast (I SINCERELY HOPE THAT THIS IS THE ONLY TIME I MAKE THAT JOKE BECAUSE I DIED A LITTLE INSIDE)

Saiba Momoi

Pure of heart dumb of ass

Mario, but loud

Catgirl gamer

Good at Games, but gets overshadowed

Nyoom cat

Writer

(not gonna look up real life weapons anymore no one gives a fuck)

Her gun is called "Unique Idea"

Saiba Midori

Yes they are twins

Luigi, but calm

Better at games than Momoi

The artist

Also dumb, but hides it way better

AR "Fresh Inspiration"

These two implore the Sensei to aid them in their gamer quest to find the artifact of power, so that they may make the greatest game of all. They seek the G.Bible, something that houses the secret to making a good game, authored by a legendary game developer.

To do that, Sensei must accompany them to the abandoned district, teeming with rogue machines and danger. Within the ruins they find...

A girl.

And the G.Bible, but mainly a girl who has no idea how to human. It's pretty fucking clear that she isn't, but nobody questions the existence of an android, and they got the thing, so what the fuck ever.

Momoi has to sacrifice her saves on her handheld to download the G.Bible, which end up becoming unable to be retrieved. Sadness was had, but educating a clearly confused android girl comes first. And how do they do it?

Why, in the best way of all: Video games! Specifically, a marathon of retro RPGs, which Sensei leaves them to because ain't no way someone wouldn't dome him for fucking around like that.

This marathon ends up creating the glorious creature that is

Tendou Aris

A baby

Daughteru

Speaks in RPG

Does her dailies and gets snacks

Very headpattable

See that thing on her back? That's a railgun

"Supernova - The Sword of Light"

It weighs 120kg (~265lbs)

Strong widdle babbi

Too pure

The legend of Aris the hero starts here, as she becomes the much needed fourth member of the GDD.

....fourth?

Hanaoka Yuzu

Head of the GDD

Programmer

4head

Shy as fuck

Has a locker as a safe space and napping spot

Cutie patootie

Literal god gamer

Grenade launcher "Nyan's Dash" (take a wild guess)

Thus, the fourth member comes out, just as it is stated that they have a slight issue: the bible is encrypted. Naturally, there's only one department in the school that is able to help them out, but not before visiting the Engineering department, where Aris actually gets her gun.

(ending it here BC it's been a longer day than expected and I'm sleepy)

#blue archive #otose kotama #kagami chihiro #konuri maki #omagari hare #nekozuka hibiki #toyomi kotori #shiraishi utaha

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kryptona · 6 years ago

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got out my telescope for the eclipse. need gloves if I wanna take more pictures since it’s like 8*F and this one is a little blurry since my hands were so cold trying hold both the telescope and my phone steady thanks to the wind.

#your friendly neighborhood space nerd #✧ —— ⟨ ooc; ⟩ ✕ sacred text on post it notes.

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natalieironside · 3 years ago

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Hey it's cool transgender erotica time

Hey space cadets it is I award-winning speculative fiction author Natalie H. Ironside and I've got a dark fantasy erotica collection coming out on February 13th that u can pre-order for five American dollars. Follow that second link for details, plot synopses, content notes, and all that good stuff.

So right now (January 19th) In the Court of the Nameless Queen is sitting at #30 in the "Transgender Erotica" section of the Kindle store. As I'm sure you can imagine, a lot of what's represented in that section is, ah . . . well, you get the idea.

Not to effortpost but I think it would be very cool and good if smut written by and for trans people sat higher in those rankings, if only for a few glorious moments.

Your purchase goes to help your friendly neighborhood disabled transsexual nerd queen keep a roof over her head, and also everyone who buys one of my books automatically gets into Heaven when they die. It's the Heaven from Happy Birthday, Wanda June where you eat cotton candy and play shuffleboard if that sweetens the pot at all.

#lemon #in the court of the nameless queen #bookposting

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ladyvesuvia · 2 years ago

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peter parker angst where both peter and reader feel insecure about their relationship???

by nine

PAIRING: peter parker x gn!reader

WORDS: 1.6k

REMINDER(S): wrote this to get out of reading slump. kinda messy. not my best but wtvr anw relationship insecurities. angst no comfort no happy endings i hate happy endings boo hoo go cry about it jk i love my fluff lover babies

A/N: imagine any peter u want life is short be a delusional little bitch

It’s so easy to love a hero. Being with a masked one has its own charm; one being the constant feeling of gratitude and positive disbelief because, after all, you were loving the hero. And he loved you back. You.

But sometimes, the cons outweigh everything else where you’d sometimes find yourself sitting on a chair you forced yourself to carry from the small space you could call the dining room all the way out to your apartment balcony, waiting for a little figure somewhere in the distance swinging from one building to another.

The cake you ordered for yourself had started losing its spark that you took three spoonfuls before deciding your appetite had disappeared.

There was still no sign of the same masked ‘hero.’

“I’ll be there by nine,” he had told you yesterday.

About a couple minutes ago, just a few seconds before nine, you closed your eyes, hoping that when you opened it, a little jumpscare would bring back your appetite.

Nothing had happened. And it’s been quite some time now.

You checked your phone, hoping that maybe, just maybe, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man could be a decent enough boyfriend to send a text.

You stood up from your chair, leaning on the railing and checking left and right, looking for any sign of him.

“I’ll be there, alright?” he had told you just the day before. He’d been on the railing you’re now leaning on, and you so badly had wanted to take the mask from his sweaty palms and rip it up. “I promise.”

“Do you really?” The sun was only starting to set yesterday during this exchange, and his smile looked a lot more promising in that light.

“I really,” he nodded aggressively. “Oh, I really, really, really really.”

“Nerd.”

“A nerd who makes promises.”

And here you are, waiting for him to fulfill that promise. You opened your phone, begrudgingly ringing his phone.

“Shitty promises,” you thought to yourself as you checked the time. 21:39.

Are you expecting anything? you asked yourself, slowly antagonizing your own motives and his. Expecting what? For him to press pause on screaming damsels and tell perpetrators to stop their crimes just so he could answer some random person’s phone call?

You ended the call before it could head straight to voicemail. What even was the point anymore? You moved away from the railing, pulling your chair along with you while staring at the other empty chair across the tiny patio table you’d also carried hours ago.

You had come back to pull the other chair you’d brought out for him, but he had just landed on the railing you had just been leaning on a second ago.

He had his mask off, but he still had it crumpled in his hand. You stared at him for a solid three seconds before deciding it wasn’t worth your time, yanking the chair away and carrying it with one hand while using the other to open the door.

“[Y/N]—”

“I can carry it just fine,” you said with no entertainment whatsoever.

“I know it’s late, I’m sorry, but I—”

You dropped the chair as gently as you could so as to not wake anyone. “Was saving the world, what else could it be?”

“I mean, it’s just the city. Sorry. I mean—”

You crossed your arms. “You said you’d be here by—”

Peter scratched his nose with the hand he was holding his mask with, adjusting his seat on your railing. “—Nine, I know. It’s just that—”

“Some cat got stuck up in a tree? Some— I don’t even know anymore! And frankly, I don’t even care. I just want you to be here when you say you will.”

“And I’m here,” he said, his brows furrowing. It’s so strange seeing his face to that thing where he’s at war with himself.

It was the one of the many things that got you all head over heels for him the first time you knew there was more to him than his charm. It had been so funny seeing him get all confused and agitated at the same time for a second in class and looking all genius the second he got the right answer.

“Yeah, like, an hour later. I just want to sleep right now, alright?”

“No, no, let’s celebrate your birthday.” Peter hopped off the railing, his hand on yours before taking the chair with him. He sat down on it, looking at you with those god forsaken terribly convincing eyes you just wanted to be convinced by.

“I don’t even get to hold your hand anymore,” you muttered under your breath. He heard that still.

Peter drew closer, looking up at you as he took your hands into his, and you could only feel the texture of his suit. It feels like a stranger’s.

You looked back at him. He’s waiting for you tk say something, and it took you a long time to realize you’d been waiting for yourself to say something, too.

You obliged. “Do you want to end things? You can just say so.”

“What? No! Why would you—? Do — er — do you?”

“I — it’s not that — it’s just that you say that you’re going to do this but then you don’t and then you say all of this is worth your time and yet you can’t even give me ten minutes—!”

His brows furrowed even more. “I am giving you—”

“No, let me finish,” you say with a louder voice than you had intended before realizing you hadn’t gathered enough words to continue on. You look everywhere else but his eyes. You weren’t gonna do that now.

He’s waiting, and he’s letting you talk. So talk, you told yourself.

You cleared your throat, looking up. “It’s just that” — you swallowed the lump in your throat, your pride staying up, threatening to burst — “you tell me all these . . . these great things and make all these hopeful promises but you’re . . . you’re Spider-Man, y-you know?”

“What do you mean?” The moment his bright demeanor dropped, you knew this wasn’t going to end well. Was this even him? Or is it some other Spider-Man? Some other Peter Parker, perhaps? You looked at him, taking a tiny glimpse to make sure.

It is him. Only that his eyes were shining, and not in the way you wanted it to. Yours were probably shining, too.

See, dating the masked hero of the city is great. Wonderful, even. Nobody knew, of course, but it was the tiny little secret that kept it alive. But it’s also the same one that would kill it.

You saw it coming. Heck, he probably saw it, too.

You took a deep breath.

He stood up. “Let’s just celebrate your birthday, [Y.N], okay?”

You pretend not to see him raising his hand only to put it down.

It was your turn to take a breather. You leaned against the railing, the hum of the busy city doing nothing to relieve you from any of this.

Do I read too much into everything you do? Do you think of anything I do at all? Do you want to end things? Are you just waiting for me to do it?

“No, I can’t— I can’t just get some cake and ‘celebrate’ with you right now, Spi— Peter.” Even his name feels like uncharted territory. You pretend not to have seen him flinch at the uncertainty. “Are we really cut out for this?”

You expected him to try and find his words, ask what it is you thought the two of you were not cut out for, or at least assure you that you were, and that he’d make it up next time.

Anything but “I don’t know.”

You should’ve been angered, you knew that. But you didn’t know, either. “Me too.”

Silence.

You didn’t even realize he was leaning on the railing right beside you, looking out at the city. The only light right now was the inconsistent pattern of condominium room lights open; at least, those not covered by thick linen curtains.

There were also the countless cars passing by, but you paid no mind to the city at this moment because this could be the last time you’d ever see his face again.

“I don’t think we are,” you managed to confess. He only nodded in answer, but there was constant bickering in his head. “I’d say I need more time to think but I . . . I’ve had quite a few to do so and maybe it’s better if we just. . .”

You waited for him to cut you off and disagree.

He didn’t.

He’s made up his mind, hasn’t he?

You took a deep breath once more. “It’s better if we just stay away from each other.”

“For a while?” Peter asked, hopeful.

“No.”

“Oh, I. . .” He looked away. “I’m sorry. Okay. That — that makes sense. I understand.” He didn’t.

You changed your mind. It was easy to love Peter Parker. But loving Spider-Man? Oh, what a tragedy it was. The sometimes reeked of always.

It was always waiting for something, and it was always more tiring than exhilarating. You so badly wanted to ask him why can’t things just go back to the way it was, cry into his chest and deliriously confess that you just wish that spider hadn’t done everybody else in the city a stupid favor and that you just wanted your Peter back.

But that would be too selfish, and so you waited.

“Do you want me to go?” Please tell me no, he thought as he said so.

No. “Yes.”

And just like that, the anonymous hero was gone and with him your best friend.

poosi tight poosi clean poosi fresh ty for getting me out of the slump a bit nonnie i love you

#ves.writes #ves.writes peter parker #peter parker x reader #mcu #marvel #peter parker #spider-man #spiderman #spiderman x reader #peter parker x gender neutral reader #peter parker x gn!reader #peter parker fanfic #peter parker oneshot

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landothemuppet · 3 years ago

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Far Longer Than Forever (p.p)

Word count: 4737

Pairing : peter parker

Request: YES! ANON I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. The Swan Princess is one of my childhood movie and this was so fun to write. I can’t stop listenning the soundtrack now ! I’m so sorry for the time i took to write this, i had so much work to do with school. But it’s over now and i hope you will like this !

N/A: First, gif not mine but i don’t know who i’m gonna credit on this, i have no clue...This is my first Peter Parker x reader and i hope you all will like it! As always, I remind you that English is not my native language. Don’t hesitate to tell me what you think of the fic! Like, reblogs to support. You can Love you all! xx

Taglist: @angeliquekalampoka @harryhollandsgirlfriend @cedricdiggorysimpp - if you want to be notified of all my future writings you can add yourself in my taglist : here

______

As far as you can remember, you've always hated summer. Well, it was partly a lie. You loved the sweltering heat of Queens, the cherry popsicles from Delmar's, not having to worry about what time you had to get up. You liked it but hated the idea of the last two weeks of August.

This year was no exception. You looked at your half-finished suitcase, a grimace on your face. August still meant the same thing, the same routine: having to spend the last three weeks of his vacation with Peter Parker.

summer 2009

Peter Parker had lost his parents very early on, two years ago. He had lived since then with his aunt May and his uncle Ben. It was your mother's idea to introduce you to each other. Aunt May and your mom were friends from college and luckily, they lived in the same neighborhood. Your first meeting with the one who, many years later, would become Spider-Man, took place on his eighth birthday. You were invited to the party when you weren't even at the same school. Aunt May had simply shared his fears about Peter's difficulty making friends after the trauma he had experienced. Your mother, as the perfect friend that she was, had suggested that Peter and you spend time together.

There were 3 kids in total at that birthday party, you, Peter - obviously - and a boy from his school whose mother had forced him to be there, too. It was a fact; you were the only girl and you didn't know Peter at all. Your mother walked up to you, got up to your eye level and whispered

"Can you be nice? May told me she invited Peter's whole class and only this boy came"

You wanted to please your mother so you nodded before approaching the two boys. Peter and his friend were in the corner of the room, their backs turned to the adults. When you tapping the young boy on the shoulder to make you notice by him, he turned to you with a guilty expression. He had buttercream all over the corner of his mouth and he was holding a cupcake in his hand that looked delicious.

“My Aunt May tried to bake a cake, but Uncle Ben bought some cupcakes in anticipation. Do you want one?” Peter asked you in a friendly voice

“Why? Is May's cake not good?

“Uncle Ben says that she is not very good at cooking.”

You let out a little laugh and nodded your head before grabbing the cupcake with a smile. You thanked him and began to taste the little pastry with envy. It was so good! The buttercream was lemony, the cupcake was slightly lemony too but there was a taste you couldn't recognize. You were almost sure you had tasted it before, but you couldn't tell what it was. Peter and the other boy suggested that you go to Peter's room. He wanted to show you the LEGO set his uncle Ben had given him ahead of time and you followed them even though you weren't more excited about the idea.

And you were right. For several minutes, you were pushed aside while the two young boys spoke spiritedly. You complained several times that you wanted to do something else but Peter didn't seem to listen to you, too excited to finally be able to chat with someone who appreciated Star Wars as much as he did.

So you were annoyed and slightly angry with Peter but what broke the camel's back is that you started to not feel so good. Your throat was itching and you felt like your tongue was taking up a lot more space in your mouth, getting drier. Peter gave you a distracted look before his eyes widened. He let go of everything he had in his hands before running to his aunt.

"Aunt May, Aunt May! Y/N's tongue looks like a big, desiccated steak!"

"Peter, don't be rude!" she exclaimed, shocked by her nephew’s words

"No, no come see, she has a huge tongue! I think something is wrong"

Meanwhile, you ran into the bathroom at Peter's reaction. You weren't sure why he had looked at you like that, but you felt that a few things were wrong. In addition, you were more and more thirsty, your eyes also hurt. And that's when you saw your reflection. You were puffy, your tongue had tripled in size, hence this feeling of dryness and discomfort. It was the same with your throat. You started to cry and when May called you through the bathroom door, you fervently opened it.

May and your mother's expression of horror was instantaneous and your mother knew exactly what was causing your condition.

"What did she eat?"

"Nothing..." he tried to escape from being grounded

"Peter, this is very important. What did you eat?"

"We just ate the cupcakes Uncle Ben brought back"

Ben looked at May with guilty eyes. May had put so much effort into Peter's birthday cake and she felt hurt that they had bought some pastries in anticipation. Your mother was impatiently stamping her foot. It was important to know exactly what you had eaten and above all, you shouldn't waste any more time. Peter felt completely helpless. He had only given a cupcake to his guest, that’s all. What was wrong with giving someone a cupcake?

"What were those cupcakes flavor?" your mother said impatiently ...

"With lemon and almonds." he said in a very small voice.

You were panicked. And the eight-year-old that you were was not coping well with stress. Plus, your feeling of being sidelined by Peter and his friend made you feel even worse. So you frowned. You couldn't see a thing but you could feel the torrent of tears escaping your cheeks. You pointed at Peter with rage

"You tried to kill me !!!" you said somehow with your tongue as big as a little tangerine.

"It's not true!"

"Yes! You are a murderer"

And you cried even more before your mother takes you to the emergency room as quickly as possible, apologizing for the scene.

The week later, May forced Peter to apologize for giving you a cupcake, while justifying that he didn't know about your allergy. Your mother forced you to apologize for insulting Peter "a murderer" and accept his apologies.

But you spent the rest of the vacation arguing with the little guy. After all, you didn't want to be friends with a murderer.

Summer 2013

Aunt May and your mom didn't let go, however, and every summer you spent three damn weeks with Peter. The summer of your twelve years, you did not thus escape this eternal masquerade but this year, the tide had turned in your favor.

From the start, you never liked Star Wars. It really wasn't your world. You had always preferred Harry Potter and although Peter had read the books and enjoyed them - which he would never admit to you as that would amount to listing the commonalities you had - he was much more invested in the galactic universe. But on that day, Peter had particularly bothered you. He had first replaced the sugar in your hot chocolate with salt. He kept chanting silly nursery rhymes about you and the downstairs neighbor, insinuating that you were in love: which was not the case. Yes, Peter had been extremely annoying. This time Peter was getting on your nerds by bouncing a small ball against the ceiling as you tried to read your book. Uncle Ben was in the living room watching the sport - you weren't sure exactly which one since it didn't matter to you - so you couldn't go anywhere else to be quiet.

"Peter, stop it."

"Stop what?" he asked by bouncing the ball once more off his ceiling. You could even make out the smirk on his lips.

"That. Stop it! I can't read."

"This is nothing new."

You threw him the first thing you found on his desk, c.e, a banana, which he easily dodged. You groaned in frustration. May and your mother didn't understand when you talked about Peter's attitude towards you. He was a calm child, far too shy at school and interested in everything, especially science. He was looking forward to entering Midletown High School in two years. You hated that nerd side about him. Secretly, you were a little jealous of him for being the smartest in the room.

“I'm gonna hit you so hard you won't know your name anymore”

“ try me, dumbass.”

A few minutes later, he had finally stopped throwing that damn ball, but obviously Peter's boredom was driving him to find everything the most boring thing than the previous one to drive you crazy. This time, he had simply taken his favorite lightsaber - because he had several - and he was poking your shoulder to get your attention.

"Parker, stop!"

"Don't you want to drop this book and watch a movie?"

"What do you want to watch? Star Wars? No thanks ..."

"Oh come on, Y / N! I'm sure you'll like it!"

He patted you on the shoulder once more with his lightsaber.

"Do you want to play this, Parker?" you said before grabbing one of his other lightsabers

"What are you going to do? I'm sure you don't know how to fight with" he mocked.

You have lit the glowing plastic stick and you are placed in the guard position.

"Do you want to bet, knothead?"

He smiled at you and attacked you first. Strangely, this is what most resembled a moment of bond between Peter and you and deep down, you appreciate it. But you also appreciate that possibility of kicking his ass after he's been so irritating. You responded to his lightsaber attacks with ease and joy. It was playful, childish, but it was one of the few times you had fun with Peter. And you really appreciate it. Your two laughs mingled, echoing in the room.

But suddenly, as you were trying to dodge an attack from the brunet, your elbow made contact with his face. Peter's muffled cry of pain echoed and you froze. He was holding his nose with a grimace and when he took his hand away you both noticed in horror that he was bleeding.

"Fuck…"

"Pete..." you started talking

"You blew my nose!" Peter shouted

"I did not do it on purpose!" you defended yourself.

"Of course, you do! You fucking blew my nose!"

"Peter, I swear ..."

But Peter interrupted you by rushing out of his bedroom looking for his aunt who was in the office as she tried to file the important papers, that Ben and her had received this week. You were livid. First, because you didn't mean to hurt Peter on purpose. Second, you couldn't stand the sight of blood and it was literally everywhere. Peter was leaving trails of droplets on the floor of the apartment.

"Aunt May?!? Y/N blew my nose! Damn, I'm bleeding!"

After a brief stint in the ER, the rest of the stay was peaceful as you and Peter avoided each other until the end of the summer.

Summer 2017

Peter was not the Peter you had always known.

Since the death of his uncle Ben, the young man had closed in on himself and was even further away. Always so intelligent and discreet but much more distant. He had stopped teasing you or doing things that got on your nerves. He was minding his own business. And even though you had tried to be there for him, not denying him any of the offers he made to you during your stay ... you found him really ... overwhelmed. Which was still understandable.

But this year was worse than the last. May told your mother that last year Peter got an internship at Stark Industry and attended a seminar in Germany but came back with a black eye. He had been acting most weirdly ever more since then. And you could have witnessed it. In the afternoon, when you were busy, and when it was too hot, when you tried to rest, Peter would disappear for hours. When you caught him sneaking back several times, he made you promise not to tell Aunt May.

And you were starting to have theories about his nighttime getaways. After all, you were 16 and you too had started dating a few boys. But it never really worked. who knows why?! And when you wondered if Peter had a girlfriend, and who she was - he had to have one in view of all his sneaking out - your stomach twisted in a strange feeling. You didn't understand why the thought of Peter having a girlfriend bothered you so much. Over time, you had learned to be friends. It still happened sometimes that you quarreled but the events of the life made you grow up. Your parents had divorced, Peter had lost his uncle. You could tell yourself that you both had grown.

And it was one night when Peter was sneaking back in again that you discovered two secrets.

The first one: He was Spider-Man.

It was around midnight when you heard the sound of the window opening. Since your childhood and this Machiavellian plan of your mother and Aunt May, you had always slept in Peter's room during holiday and more recently in his bed. The noise alerted you and you got up in a sitting position. But the only thing you saw was a foot, placed on this said window, closing it gently. How the hell was that possible?

You were ready to scream but your gut told you to look up at the ceiling. A figure hung on it and you were paralyzed. Were you having one of those weird experiences called sleep paralysis? Delicately, silently, you grabbed the first blunt object within reach. A chemistry book that Peter seemed particularly fond of. The figure stepped on the ceiling as you were paralyzed. The form turned to land on the ground and then stood up, still with its back to you. You got up gently from Peter's bed and walked over. The man in the suit whose color you couldn't see took off his mask and you hit the air in an attempt to shoot him down. Peter turned around so quickly and blocked your gesture easily, like a reflex.

"What the ..."

"Bloody hell".

You both said at the same time. Your big surprised eyes mirrored Peter's. The curly man let go of your hand with an apologetic expression as you walked away from your friend. You turned on the bedside lamp before you discovered his blue and red costume. A very recognizable costume since it was that of Spider-Man. You winced, a look of judgment and incomprehension on your face. Not bothering to look at his face covered with bruises and traces of blood.

"What the ... are you sneaking out to go to a costume party?"

"What?! No…No Y/N I’m…”

“Spider-Man? Great costume by the way” you joked.

For a moment, you completely forgot that you just saw your friend glued upside down to the ceiling. Peter looked at you a little jaded, by the tone of your voice your guess was far from a sincere question but more of a mockery. And right now, the young man needed to be honest with you. He needed you.

"But, I am."

"Yeah that's it. And I slept with the Winter Soldier. You can't imagine what he can do with his metal arm."

Peter cut you off by pulling a web with his web shooter, tying your hands. The feel of the canvas was unpleasant, sticky but above all resistant. You let out a little cry of surprise, not powerful enough to pass the walls of Peter's room. Your eyes looked like two big golf balls, realizing that your friend was telling the truth.

"Omg, You're Spider-Man" you almost spoke too loud.

"Yes and don't make me web your mouth. May doesn't have to know"

"damn, peter. What happened to your face!"

“yeah about that…I need you Y/N, please…”

And without warning, Peter squeezed the spider in the middle of his costume, at chest level. He winced at the action revealing his bruised chest. He staggered a bit from the action, unsure of his legs and the pain in his sides fierce. You might see several bruises and cuts on your friend's body. You were having difficulty swallowing before you told him you were going to the bathroom to get what you needed. Before leaving the room, he made you promise to be discreet and not tell May anything if she ran into you. When you walk back into Peter's room, he's sitting half-lying on his bed, grimacing. You sit next to him, your heart pounding. You never noticed that he was so built. After all, as a superhero, he had to keep fit. But you couldn't deny that it intimidated you. Your cheeks were burning with embarrassment and a desire you never knew before. He had his eyes closed, as if trying to make the pain go away. And there, looking at him, you found him pretty. he was so cute that you couldn't help but run your hand through his curls to signal your presence and soothe him a bit. But Peter already knew you were there. He had heard your footsteps, he had smelled your scent, a sweet scent he had grown used to in his later years. He sighed softly, more relaxed. You started to clean the few shallow wounds.

"Does it hurt?" you asked quietly

"Mhmm no, not really."

"Did you win?"

"Ouch..No. Not tonight."

"Sorry." you said more for your gesture rather than the fact that he didn't win the fight against the bad guys.

"No, it's perfect ... it's just a little sensitive"

You smiled but something was wrong. A feeling you've never felt before. You've finished cleaning up Peter's wounds, but your gaze has darkened. As you were about to get up, the brunette gently grabbed your wrist to hold you back. He could hear your calm breathing and yet your heart was racing. He could feel the heat on your cheeks. He too felt that the tension was at its height. Your mind was muddled, he didn't know why, he wasn't a telepath, but he could see it, feel it. Your body betrayed your mind.

"Y/N, what is it?"

"I..I don't know." you lied.

"You can tell me everything."

"I ... Well…Seeing you like this ... makes me ... makes me realize that I ... I'm afraid of losing you."

"You won't lose me ... I promise"

You are ashamed of your vulnerable state. How did you go from hating this boy to having an overwhelming fear of losing him? You looked at those chocolate eyes in confusion and distress. You were now fully aware that the little neighborhood spider was none other than your childhood friend. The one you once loved to hate, tease, fight with over trivia. He was also on the youtube videos, who stopped cars with his bare hands.

“Y/N… you won’t lose me, I promise.”

Peter dared to walk slowly towards you and in a surge of courage, one of his hands circled your burning cheek, his lips rested on yours. The brunette had always had a crush on you without actually admitting it. After all, you had known each other since you were children but... your relationship had been rather confrontational. But for two years now, everything had changed for him. He appreciated more and more your little arguments, your teasing. His thoughts would sometimes turn darker when you lick your lips or when your fingers scratched that point behind your ear, when you were a little stressed.

Your lips moved between them in a harmonious dance and you were now clinging desperately to Peter's slightly sweaty brown curls. Your heart was pounding at a speed close to the point of no return, reluctant to stop suddenly in the face of this overstimulation. But all good things came to an end and you slowly walked away. You bit your lip to get the taste of Peter's back. Your mind wandered, lost in the haze of rushing feelings.

"You..you should rest ..."

You ended up pulling away, swallowing hard. That night you didn't sleep. You have studied every facial feature of Peter, thinking of every event since your friendship. The next day, you fooled that nothing had happened. Too scared of what that kiss meant to you.

Summer 2025

It all happened so quickly. After that summer, the summer of your kiss, you promised yourself that you understood your feelings towards Peter. You weren't going to the same high school and even though you were both on social media, you never dared to contact him. You needed time.

But you haven't had this time. Peter became full-time Spider-Man and then the aliens came to earth, again. The threat of Thanos hovered and within moments, days, hours ... you were gone under his snap.

When you returned to your childhood apartment, you were alone. Well, alone in front of the family who lived in this place now. The man in his forties simply believed you were a drug-hunting teenager squatter. Five damn years had passed. 5 years where your mother had a new life when you had been eclipsed. You were distraught, alone and it was by happy coincidence that you found May at the F.E.A.S.T project. It was a relief for you to find a familiar face again. She had suggested that you come and live in her new temporary apartment, allowing you to finish high school without having to move to the other end of the United States, with your mother. You declined your offer. You wanted to fend for yourself. And surprisingly, you did pretty well.

To be exact, Mr. Delmar was looking for a student to work in his store and was kind enough to greet you in the bedroom of one of his daughters who had gone to college. By the greatest of luck, you've never seen Peter. Or rather, you managed to avoid it for an entire year. You had caught a glimpse of him one day, trying to speak Italian to get a travel adapter and a dual headphone adapter. Did you feel foolish thinking that after so long - could we consider those 5 years to be 5 concrete years? - would it still focus on the kiss you shared? After all, you got away from him after that. And then, everything went in a state of madness.

Every time you turned on the television, you learned that elemental monsters had attacked a different country. They had first started with Mexico and then moved to Europe. Italy, Prague and then London. A certain Mysterio seemed to be taking care of this matter, but you couldn't help but think of Peter. May told you he was supposed to go to Italy. In fact, every time she went to Delmar's for a sandwich, she gave you an update on her nephew's trip. But it wasn't the craziest.

Upon his return ... Spider-man's identity was revealed. You had watched in horror the video of Mysterio, which appeared on the Daily Buggle newspaper, accusing Peter of wanting to be the new Iron-Man. You were listening to J. Jonah Jameson falsely accusing Peter of being a murderer. You knew Peter, and there was no way he had done such an act. The video was bogus, you were sure. When you tried to reconnect that summer, you noticed Peter's girlfriend. Michelle Jones and ... and that's what kept you from approaching him. He was already supported. He had his best friend, Ned. His girlfriend, MJ. And he had May. It was enough, wasn't it?

It was the following year, after a new incredible adventure that you met again.

You worked at the store in the evening. Mr Delmar had asked you to help him out urgently because his youngest daughter had a health problem. You accepted with pleasure. You had offered to babysit his daughter but the loving father he was wanted to be with her. And it was precisely this evening that a thug decided to steal the fund from you.

You were at gunpoint with your hands up in the air when you saw a red and black mass fall behind the thug.

"Hey buddy, I think the bank is across the street"

Spider-Man tapped the thief on the shoulder and dodged a punch.

"But I think I'll arrest you anyway if you went to the bank. You don't seem like a nice guy." Peter joked.

You were paralyzed as your friend, your best friend if you were honest, chained or avoided them with agility. You swallowed hard, unable to move or run away. A gunshot rang out and you smelled a scared little vintage. Peter squeezed the barrel of the gun in his hand, deviating from his course. It made sense now to say that he had simply defended himself against the assault. After a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, Peter stared the offender against a fridge door, immobilizing him. He then turned to you, oblivious to your identity at the time.

"Are you okay there?"

"Peter!"

You didn't give him the chance to realize and you rushed into his arms, hugging him so tight to feel the comfort of his body against yours.

"Uh, yeah, you're welcome. Cuddles are nice but ..."

He paused for a moment and his automated eyes widened. He knew his perfume. The flowery, sweet scents that he had missed so much. Is this possible?

"Y/N?"

You let go of him and immediately put his mask back on. Adrenaline was controlling your actions and god damn it, you needed that touch. You kissed him, bluntly. Your lips crushed against his in impatience, in ardor, but too bad. You needed to feel it against you, to regain the feeling that you had felt, years ago. After a few seconds, you felt Peter's hands encircle your waist, pulling you closer to him. Your heart was exploding, the ardor was present in your kiss. You were even frustrated that you couldn't grab her brown curls with full hands, settling for only the base of her hair. You let out a moan before pulling away abruptly. He had a girlfriend.

"I… I'm sorry. I… Sorry, I didn't mean… MJ… and… please don't blame me."

Peter silenced you with another kiss, shorter this time but so good.

“There is no MJ .... Just you and me ... Far Longer Than Forever”

You looked at him hopefully and then burst out laughing after his words.

"I didn't know you were so romantic, Parker"

"Shut your mouth."

"Make me"

"You are impossible."

"But obviously, you like"

He was going to say something to nag you, he was looking for it but you caught him off guard, placing your lips on his again. You could feel his smile in the kiss and you couldn't help but do the same. Anyone living in the neighborhood present in the street would have a view of Spider-Man kissing the student cashier from Delmar. But you couldn't care less. You had waited too long and the joy you were feeling now was so intense, you didn't want to stop feeling this. It is reluctantly that Peter moved away from you apologizing for the fact that he had to go on patrol again.

"Go save the Spider-Man neighborhood"

"Only if you promise me you'll be there when I get back."

"I was thinking of going to say goodnight to May instead ... But if you want, I have a sleeping bag in the storeroom."

"You are incorrigible .... See you later ..."

"See you later."

You smiled, in a misty state of bliss as Peter disappeared from view. This time, you weren't planning to escape, you wanted to fall into the webs of Peter Parker. You closed the store after the police visit and headed to May's flat. It was late but with her kindness she welcomed you with open arms.

This summer ... was the best in years but the others to come were going to be even more wonderful.

#peter parker #peter parker x reader #peter parker fic #tom holland #tom holland fic

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androgynousbirdtale · 1 year ago

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MyCn 18: The Engraved Hourglass Planetary Nebula

Do you see the hourglass shape -- or does it see you? If you can picture it, the rings of MyCn 18 trace the outline of an hourglass -- although one with an unusual eye in its center. Either way, the sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a Sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf. In 1995, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to make a series of images of planetary nebulae, including the one featured here. Pictured, delicate rings of colorful glowing gas (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the hourglass. The unprecedented sharpness of the Hubble images has revealed surprising details of the nebula ejection process that are helping to resolve the outstanding mysteries of the complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulas like MyCn 18.

Image Credit & Copyright: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing & Copyright: Harshwardhan Pathak

#2023 #astrophotography #your friendly neighborhood space nerd #space #galaxies #nebulas #MyCn 18 #hubble #hubble space telescope #engraved hourglass nebula

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friendofspidermannedleeds · 3 years ago

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Fictober Masterlist

Fictober is complete! I finally did it, friends! Here’s a comprehensive list of all of my ficlets and one-shots with the Ao3 links.

May & Peter Parker Unforeseen Circumstances (prompt #1, "I need you”) Avoiding the Issue (prompt #5, “I’m not saying I told you so...”) It Comes with the Territory (prompt #10, “it’s so quiet”) A Safe Space (prompt #12, “you keep me safe” Remembering Ben (prompt #16, “not this again”) The Mario Cart Cure (prompt #22, “no promises”) Countertops to Skyscrapers (prompt #27, “you could have died”)

Michelle Jones/Peter Parker Unmet (prompt #3, “I’ve waited for this”) Back to Reality (prompt #6, “didn’t we already have this conversation?”) Remembering Ben (prompt #16, “not this again”) Drawing Lessons (prompt #23, “this time, do what I say”) A Demonstration (prompt #24, “is that supposed to impress me?”) New Lockers, New Feelings (prompt #26, “this has never worked, ever”) Nothing’s Changed (prompt #30, “don’t ruin this”)

Ned Leeds & Peter Parker Nothing Like the Movies (prompt #2, “you have no proof”) No Right Side (prompt #9, “there’s no right side to this”) Shared Grief (prompt #13, “the things you make me do” Some Setbacks, For Sure (prompt #18, “this was not part of the plan”) Spider-Man Attends a Party (prompt #19, “I feel strange”) Be My Edna Mode (prompt #31, “take me with you”)

The FOS Squad (Peter & Ned & MJ) Evidence (prompt #4, “fine, I give up”) The FOS First Aid Squad (prompt #11: “I swear, it’s not always like this”) Practice Interrupted (prompt #14, “your information was wrong”) New Lockers, New Feelings (prompt #26, “this has never worked, ever”) A Safehouse Birthday (prompt #29, “why are we whispering?”)

Flash Thompson & Peter Parker Spider-Man Attends a Party (prompt #19, “I feel strange”) Paired with a Nerd (prompt #25, “do you know what time it is?”)

Happy Hogan & Peter Parker Not About the Room Design (prompt #17, “I’m with you, you know that”) Help (prompt #28, “I don’t need to explain myself”)

May Parker & Michelle Jones Caught in Their Own Web (prompt #7, “that could have gone better”)

Ben Parker & May Parker & Peter Parker We’re All Stories in the End (prompt #8, “this is it, isn’t it”)

May Parker/Happy Hogan A Summer Fling (prompt #15, “I like that in you”)

May Parker & Ned Leeds Who is May Parker? (prompt #21, “what did I say?”)

Solo Peter Parker Friendly Neighborhood Failure (prompt #20, “that’s what I’m known for”) Help (prompt #28, “I don’t need to explain myself”)

#fictober21 #spider-man fic #spider-man fanfiction #peter parker #may parker #michelle jones #ned leeds #guys i am never doing this again #but i am quite proud of myself for finishing year 2 #and there are a few stories here i am particularly fond of

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fictionadventurer · 3 years ago

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I can’t stop thinking about the Superman AU where Kara doesn’t get lost in the Phantom Zone so both children are raised by the Kents.

Kara’s ship was set up to teach her English (and possibly other Earth languages) during the trip, so the Kents learn the whole story of Krypton right away. Both kids keep their Kryptonian first names.

Kara’s extremely protective/possessive of Kal at first. She was sent across solar systems to take care of this kid, and it’s hard to step back and let anyone else fill that parent role.

Right away, the Kents notice that Kara’s stronger and faster and more durable than a human, but she doesn’t start developing outright superpowers for at least a few years. Kal starts showing signs of it by the time he’s in kindergarten, though extreme powers don’t really start to develop until his teenage years.

Kara’s homeschooled for a few years, but she does attend Smallville High for, yes, the socialization. (And to quell some of the rumors about the weird kids the Kents adopted).

The Kents have a swingset that’s the site of tons of terrifying acrobatic stunts from two children who are developing powers of invulnerability and flight.

Kara never quite loses her Kryptonian accent. In high school, there’s a running gag where she claims the accent is from more and more ridiculous places. Metropolis. France. Antarctica. Mars. Middle Earth.

(One time someone joked that her accent was from Alderaan, and it hit way too close to home).

(The official story from the Kents is that Kara was adopted from parents who did a lot of traveling and her mixed-up accent was worsened by a mild hearing/speech impairment).

The Kent household is bilingual. The kids are both fluent in Kryptonian, and Martha and Jon made sincere efforts to learn, though they’ll never be really adept. About half of the conversations in the house occur in a pidgin Krypt-lish.

For Kara’s sake, they try to adopt Kryptonian celebrations into their family traditions, but it’s difficult when a good chunk of Kryptonian holidays celebrate celestial events that they can no longer see or family connections that no longer exist.

Kara = Jock Girl. Kal = Nerd Boy.

Kara’s smart, but her early education on a different planet makes it harder to adapt to this world’s knowledge system, so she doesn’t put her focus toward academics.

She’s somehow both a tomboy and the girliest possible girl. She’ll be shoveling manure one minute and buying mascara the next.

She’s also got a very practical, no-nonsense personality, but she’s devoted to her carefully curated selection of stuff animals. She may have made one or two based on memories of Kryptonian animals.

Kara’s on a couple of athletic teams in high school. I could see her being on a dance team because good performance requires her to work in sync with the entire team, so her superpowers don’t give her that much of an advantage. And she’s in volleyball because she has a volleyball girl vibe.

Kal’s more introverted and sheltered (especially with two protective mother figures hovering over him), but he grows up comfortably human while fully acknowledging his Kryptonian heritage. He really does need glasses as a kid, learns to read young, and overall slots comfortably into the role of Friendly Neighborhood Nerd from his early elementary years.

(”What’s Kal short for?” people ask him. “Kaleidoscope”, he replies.)

Both kids are close with both Kents, but Kara has a particularly strong bond with Jonathan while Kal is more similar to Martha.

Kal bonds with Martha over her collection of pulp sci-fi books. (Kara finds their depictions of other worlds too unrealistic). They’re also both Star Trek fans--Kal prefers the original series, while Martha prefers Next Gen.

Kara stays on the farm after graduating high school. She still feels a strong duty to stay and care for Kal, and though she won’t say it out loud, she needs to cling to the sense of home that Smallville provides after losing her home planet.

She helps out with the farm work, and also works as a paramedic and/or firefighter. The job serves her caretaker strengths, and also provides a lot of opportunities to use her powers to rush to the rescue. It doesn’t take long for the “Smallville Angel” to become a local cryptid.

Her love interest is a down-home Smallville boy. Possibly a high school sweetheart, possibly someone she meets on the job, whether working alongside him or helping to rescue him. He has a very hands-on job, whether it’s as a firefighter, construction worker, or a farmer.

By the time Kal’s a high school freshman, he takes over the Smallville High paper and transforms it from a sports-scores-and-lunch-menus fluff page into a hard-hitting investigative paper. Within his first few months on the paper, he uncovers an embezzlement scandal at the school.

Kal is far more at home in Smallville than Kara is, but because it’s the only home he’s known, he also feels more of a drive to explore the world outside it. He does some traveling after high school, goes to Metropolis for college, and though he visits Smallville frequently, he never lives there again after leaving.

Kara gets married (to the above-mentioned love interest) around the same time that Kal graduates high school. They settle down in Smallville.

Kara has at least one biological kid, but she also becomes a stepmother/adopted mother. Could be that her love interest is a widower with children from his previous marriage. Maybe they adopt a couple of his brother’s kids. Maybe they adopt some kids from a rescue situation Kara came across. But I want Kara to have to deal with some of the “You’re not my real mom” stuff that she put Martha through.

(And it’s even more interesting from the perspective of the kids. When do you tell them? How do they deal with “my stepmother is a space alien who shoots lasers from her eyes”?)

Kal takes up hero work in Metropolis, but has a harder time keeping his identity secret with so many eyes around. With his imagination primed by pulp sci-fi, it doesn’t take long to come up with the idea of a costumed alter ego. Kara thinks it’s a bit silly, but her heart soars when she sees the costume’s focal point is the House of El crest, and she loves that it becomes a symbol of hope for this world.

It’s a big step when Kal brings Lois home to meet the parents, but the real test is when she meets Kara.

“She’s my big sister. Well, really my cousin. Also kind of my mom.”

“I didn’t think you were that kind of hick, Smallville.”

If she’s being completely honest, Lois is intimidated by the idea of meeting someone with all of Kal’s abilities and a mother-wolf instinct to protect him. But the Kents are intimidated by Kal getting involved with an investigative journalist who’s the daughter of a military general.

They hit it off great, though, and both sides quickly realize they have nothing to worry about.

There’s also a huge Kent extended family that was involved with these kids from the moment that Jon and Martha found spaceships in their cornfield. The Kents are exactly the clan you want at your back when you need to hide two alien kids from the government. Need fake identification and adoption papers? Someone to steer the Men in Black off the trail? The Kents will pitch in with enthusiasm.

Not everyone in the family knows about their abilities or secret identities, but they’re a close-knit clan anyway. They have a harder time adjusting to having city-gal Lois among their ranks than two space alien kids.

It’s a crazy, chaotic, blended and adopted family that’s growing and shifting over the years and always provides a place for Kara and Kal to belong.

#superman #supergirl #this is awesomebutunpractical's fault #i started thinking about kara raised by the kents and then kal decided to show up anyway #kara's not built on anything canon #i'm just building off of teenage girl from an exalted family sent to raise a kid on a farm #but i'm still flashing back to my days watching supergirl's early seasons #the great thing about this franchise is that it's built on so many fragments that there is no canon #and even an au can be just as canon as anything else #i'm sorry this is long #even if no one else cares about this extremely mundane au i'm attached to it

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weirdlandtv · 4 years ago

Text

Vintage mall interiors.

(This is a follow-up to THIS post.)

My parents were used to the old-fashioned familiarity of neighborhood shops. Local clusters of friendly retail and service establishments, where every shopkeeper knew your name. To them, malls were ominous abominations. Dark terrestrial city-caves of the future. My mother would say something like, “Welcome to Depression Valley” whenever we stepped inside the large new mall that had sprung up a few miles from where we lived. I heard her say it, but I didn’t feel it. Malls, like airports, felt like home to me. I had fantasies of living inside a mall.

(Heaven, to me, is a huge labyrinthine mall designed by Piranesi.)

I feel this is going to be a long post. Whenever I mentally transport myself inside that mall, I just don’t want to leave anymore. I’m not going to edit anything, it will all come out the way it comes out, tangents and all.

I was browsing a bookstore when I picked up a copy of Bridge of Terabithia. I had never heard of it, just something about the cover drew my attention. Suddenly this woman who seemed to have been following me around said, “That’s a really good book. My kids love it.” She didn’t look at me, just sort of glanced in my direction. There were no kids with her.

The blond elf-like girl who fascinated me so much. A sighting of her always was the biggest reward of the day. I didn’t know her name, nor did I know where she lived. But I knew where to find her. Not just her hair was blond, her skin was too; head to toe, she seemed to have been sculpted out of pure blond sandstone. One late afternoon, most people had gone home, she was sitting on one of the stone benches that ran alongside the sunken sitting area, alone. A filtered sunlight came in through the skylight above her, lighting up the thin fuzz on her bare legs. She was like a white vision in the dark space of the mall. A fleeting creature made out of thin phantom light. As I walked past her she smiled at me. It lasted less than a second, but I’ll never forget it. It wasn’t personal: she would have smiled at anyone walking past. But right now she smiled at me. I nodded, maybe I smiled back, like an alien trying to mimic human behaviour. Our paths crossed and then they diverged again.

(Years later I did learn her name. It was an ugly name: a crooked combination of harsh sounds that didn’t befit this shimmering being.)

My cousin was a nerd. The real thing, not the ironic kind. I was feminine, strangely angelic, and considered pretty with my long eyelashes and bright blue eyes. I was always kind of embarrassed to be seen with my cousin. I was underweight, tall, he was overweight, small, and there wasn’t a second I wasn’t aware of the comical difference between us. We were like the reflections of two funhouse mirrors that had come to life. But then I was always overly, ridiculously aware of myself and of everyone and everything around me anyway. I couldn’t take one step without seeing myself taking that step. We went to INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE at the mall, and the opening, young Indy with his heavy friend, reminded me of me and my cousin: there we were on the screen, having adventures. My cousin went to visit the comic book store afterwards, I tagged along. I loved going there, but not with him. He kind of lumbered through the store, buying comics, apparently against his will. Everything he did seemed to be against his will. He was alive against his will. He didn’t lumber just through the store, he lumbered through life. Back home, he didn’t seem to be happy with the comics he bought. He stored them somewhere and went on to play a computer game, against his will.

Evening at the mall. The weak twilight, the empty cars in the parking lot, gloomily reflecting the street lights, the people with their nondescript faces, everything seemed hollow to me. Like a shadow world that never sees daylight. We went to see BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II: me, my brother, and his friend Marcus. Marcus, who was black, was a movie buff. He was always going on about Spike Lee. He told me once that the Emperor from Star Wars was a clone, he said it like everyone knew that except me. He pronounced “Jedi” like “Jay-dee” for some reason. He could be outrageously funny, but whenever you tried to remember afterwards what exactly had been so funny, you could never really pinpoint it. Marcus’s humor didn’t manifest as specific jokes or quotable oneliners, rather he provided a general air of hilarity, where everything around you suddenly seemed like the absurd products of pathetic human endeavour. He saw right through hypocrisy. He was one of those people who could have become anything they wanted: surgeon, rockstar, landscape architect, comic book artist.

BACK TO THE FUTURE II. We were waiting for the movie to begin. In the row behind us, there were three girls. Who knows how those things start exactly, but suddenly Marcus and my brother were turned around in their seats and talking to the girls, teasing them, flirting maybe. One of the girls said “smartass” to my brother, he grinned. I hadn’t said a word, but as the friendly confrontation wound down, and Marcus and my brother turned to face the screen again, I felt a tap at the back of my head. It was the girl who sat in the middle. She had tapped me with the point of her boot. She looked like she might be a somebody at her school, not because of her looks, which were robust, but because of her confident attitude and her two wingmen. She looked at me and said, “Hey. You.” It sounded like a challenge. Or like she couldn’t really figure me out. I didn’t reply, and she left it there. Her friends laughed now and then during the movie, but she herself remained silent throughout.

All of this took place in the year of Our Lord 1989. These stories don’t go anywhere, they don’t conclude with a funny punchline or a weary sigh and words of wisdom. They are merely fragments of the Cubist jaggedness of life, where things just happen, or not. We all carry a mental library of such images and scenes, some random, some significant, and when we die, they die with us. These however, these 30-year-old glimpses, have now been saved from sure extinction, as, like everything we do online, they will be digitally stored forever—they will outlive all of us, and it amuses me to think that someone in the year 2137 might come across this post and read these very words with a kind of puzzled interest.

#malls #interiors #vintage #tales from weirdland #weirdland tv

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cassiopeiasara · 3 years ago

Note

Westallen 52+70

Marriage of Convenience+Locked in a Room (so this def got away from me and turned into a full fic that’s also on ao3 here).

Here’s the thing about Iris West, she never breaks a promise. Even one made at nine years old before Barry loses everything.

They’re at his house. His mom smiles from the kitchen telling Iris of course she can stay while her dad works late. She likes Nora’s smile, it’s bright and warm just like the Allen’s home.

They’re in the middle of math worksheets when Barry asks.

“Iris?”

Iris tilts her head. “Yeah?”

Barry fidgets with his pencil. “Do you want to get married one day?”

Iris laughs. “Yeah but dad says I’m not allowed till I’m 35.”

Barry’s eyes go wide. “That’s a long time.”

Iris nods. “It is, but I’ll probably find someone before that.”

Barry nods in return. They’re silent for a little while longer before he speaks up again. “If you don’t find anyone, would you marry me?”

Iris considers him a moment. “That’s forever from now, Barry. What if you find someone?”

He shrugs. “If I don’t? And you don’t?”

Iris holds out her pinkie. “I promise.”

Barry’s cheeks go pink as he links his pinkie with hers.

A year later when he’s crying in her lap and she’s stroking his hair, he whispers “would you still marry me one day, Iris?”

She wipes his cheeks. “Sure, Barry.”

Neither one of them expects their thirty-fifth birthdays to arrive with no spouses or children but as with many other millennials, the future never quite looks how they expected.

Barry is over one evening helping repair Iris’ kitchen sink because her super is useless and Joe’s back won’t allow him to do tasks like this anymore.

Iris blames the latest lifestyle article for why she brings it up at all. CCPN has been running a series on women and how much their lives have improved but also the struggles of modern times. Though thirty-five feels nowhere near old, Iris has been made all too aware that her statistical odds as a well educated black professional are not as much in favor of a spouse as she would like.

She swings her legs on the counter after she hands Barry the wrench he asked for. “Hey, Bear?”

There’s a small grunt of acknowledgement below her.

“You remember that time we were nine doing homework at your house and you asked if I’d marry you?”

There’s a clang of tools and a curse as Barry slides out from under the sink. She feels bad as she watches him rub his forehead, a small red spot appearing.

“Yeah,” he says quickly. “W-what made you think about that?”

She shrugs. “Well we’ve hit our time limit.”

He shakes his head. “Iris, we were nine. Thirty five feels ancient at nine.”

She crosses her arms and peers down at him. “You backing out on me now, Barry?”

He stares at her a moment. “Are you serious?”

“I don’t give out pinky swears lightly.”

He tilts his head up at her and she thinks, not for the first time, that he’s grown up to be so much more than the scrawny nerd she knew in school. He’s still a nerd of course but he’s filled out and can actually throw a punch almost as well as she can. Not to mention, he’s the director of the CSI division and often travels to consult for departments in other cities. He volunteers in the summers at various science camps, laughs at all her jokes and is so useful at trivia night. He’s still her best friend, she could do a whole lot worse.

“What about that Eric guy you were seeing?”

She rolls her eyes. “It only took one drink to realize he’s not worth my time. What about Tina?”

He scoffs. “She left with our waiter.”

Iris hops off her counter and pats Barry on the shoulder. “Look, I know we actually have time but why waste it on these losers when we could be with our best friend?”

Barry looks at her a long time and she’s sure he’s going to say no. In fact, she resigns herself to it when he slips back under her sink to finish fixing it. She shouldn’t be disappointed nor surprised really. Maybe it was a stupid idea anyway. Barry has always been a romantic and Iris’ practical appeal isn’t exactly the most enticing.

She wonders if he’ll leave as she opens the door for the takeout she promised in exchange for his labor.

“I’m assuming you’ll come live with me then? You’ll have a handyman at your beck and call and you’ve already waxed poetic about my floor plan.”

Iris drops her chopsticks. “Really, Bear?”

Barry smiles bright and warm and Iris can’t help but think of Nora. “Yeah.”

***

Barry really should have warned her about the laundry room. It hadn’t occurred to him of course because the faulty lock always meant he kept the door open.

She’s in the middle of pulling on his Millennium Falcon t-shirt when a breeze slams the door shut.

“Damn,” he whispers.

“What?” She asks as she flips her hair from the collar of the shirt.

It’s curly today. CCPN is under new management and with the recent round of legislation around hair styles, Iris has opted for more time with her curls both at home and at work. Barry, of course, has no complaints. He’s loved her hair ever since he heard the soft clink of the beads at the end of her braids when she approached him in kindergarten.

He points behind him, trying hard not to linger on the vision that is his wife in his clothes. Wife, he’ll never get over that.

“The door. It doesn’t open from this side.”

Her eyes go wide as she rushes to pull the handle to no avail. “Damn,” she mutters.

“Yeah,” he says as he scratches the back of his neck.

She knits her eyebrows up at him. “What are you doing home so early?”

“I had court this morning,” he gestures at his suit, “and I haven’t switched out my bag with fresh clothes yet so I swung by so I could have something for the lab.”

Her eyes linger on his tie, a hint of a smile playing at her lips and he hopes she doesn’t read too much into his choice. Six months into their marriage and Barry is still terrified Iris might guess the depth of his feelings. There had been countless times over the years he wanted to share how he felt.

That night on her dad’s couch as he cried and asked if she might still marry him. Middle school when he had the good fortune of a foster family that lived in Iris’ neighborhood and didn’t judge him for his anger or his desire to see his dad. High school when he broke up with Becky and hoped Iris’ concern was less friendly consideration and more because she’d prefer to be his girlfriend. The time she confessed she thought no one might love her the way Eddie had.

Yet, he’s stayed silent, sure that if Iris felt anything close to him, she’d say something. He never forgot his childhood proposal but he’d been so sure Iris had.

Call him a fool for settling but no woman could ever match his best friend so when she’d called him on their old promise, he couldn’t resist. Thus here he was locked in a room with the woman he’d always dreamed might be his wife and nervous she might finally see the truth.

“I’ll call Dad,” she says before she looks around and sighs. “My phone is in the kitchen.”

Barry pats his jacket, thankful he finds his phone there. “He got called to a scene but Cecile was on her way to pick up lunch for the both of them, I’ll see if she can swing by.”

Iris sighs in relief. Cecile thankfully picks up but it’ll be two hours and Barry’s phone dies shortly after. He leans against the wall while Iris hops up on one of the machines. Barry tries not to think of the activities they’d get up to if they had gotten married for more typical reasons but it’s hard when Iris is drowning in his shirt and pouting her lips as she looks around the room.

“So, what should we do?”

He shrugs. “Well, um-“

“What was your case about?”

He relaxes slightly, thankful for a subject that will definitely distract from his irrespirable wife. He starts to explain the case, leaving out any confidential details and Iris gets that look on her face where he knows she’s listening but slightly lost in the science of it all. He used to think it annoyed her but she confessed a couple years back that while she didn’t understand it all, she did find it fascinating.

“Barry?” She whispers after he’s done and a comfortable silence settles between them.

“Hmm?”

“You think we should have kids?”

He stumbles slightly against the wall. “Um, do you want to?”

She bites her bottom lip and he finds that after an hour in such a small space, he can’t resist the image that pops up in his brain of kissing it free. “I think so. I know there’s always adoption and I think I’d be down for that if you are but we could try the biological way first.”

He assumes that like their marriage this might be a practical arrangement. After all, they sleep in separate bedrooms, careful not to let their family see that part of their house often. They decided the particulars of their marriage were no one’s business but their own and they let their family and friends stay blissfully ignorant.

“So did you want to try a fertility specialist or something? When did you—“

“Hey, Bear?”

He watches her slide off the washing machine and inch closer to him, fiddling with the edge of his tie. “Yeah?”

She smiles in a way he’s always dreamed of but never seen. She tugs at his tie to bring him closer and leans up bringing them close enough to kiss. “Why don’t we try it the traditional way first?”

Barry raises his eyebrows and squeaks out “you mean like now? Together? Here? Like right now?”

She chuckles darkly. “Yeah, we could—”

“Barry? Iris?”

“In here!” Shouts Iris. He expects her to jump away but she waits until they hear Cecile jiggle the doorknob and only then does she step away slowly.

Barry can barely catch his breath as Iris thanks Cecile and sends her on her way. He walks into their living room on shaky feet and wonders what to do next.

Iris leans against the door after seeing Cecile out and winks at him. “Why did you wear that tie, Barry?”

He tilts his head. “B-because you gave it to me.” And told me I look nice, he thinks. And smiled at me.

She smiles and saunters toward him. “Why did you marry me?”

His heart races as he considers denying the truth. The same truth he’s been so afraid to reveal for years but Iris wants children and is looking at him as if he should hope and so he does the brave thing. “Because I love you and I’ve never wanted to marry anyone else.”

Her smile melts from seductive to just soft. “Yeah?”

He nods.

She leans up and kisses him, chaste but lingering, the second kiss since their wedding day. “Me too, Bear.”

His heart leaps in his chest as he leans down to kiss her the way he’s wanted to for years.

When they part, she whispers, “you’ll be late for work.”

He shrugs and wraps his arms around her waist. “They’ll live.”

#trope mashup #westallen #iris west #barry allen #my fanfiction #I can’t believe I wrote so much but hopefully someone likes it?#definitely an au but also pretty close to canon just minus powers and Barry growing up in the west house #anonymous

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