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simsadventures · 3 years

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Panopticon: Chapter 27: War Path

Alpha Steve x Omega Reader

Summary: Steve is livid and tries to find you but somebody keeps putting obstacles in his way. You, on the other hand, get to meet the devils and learn some harsh truths.

Warnings: a/b/o dynamics, angst, abduction, slight mentions of torture, life in captivity, lying, swearing, mentions of violence against women, shitty people in general, loads of feels, I would hope, mentions of suicide, mentions of death

Word Count: 3800

A/N: Du dun… Who is ready for some angst? Many of you weren’t happy that we’re taking this route, but it needed to happen because the world is full of assholes who try to make people unhappy. Anyway, so excited about this one, and I can’t wait for you to tell me what you thought. Love you all!! xx

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“That won’t help to find my Omega, so no!” Steve yelled across the whole room, and even the experienced Alpha fighters gathered in the room couldn’t help but shudder at Steve’s authoritative voice. They were trying to help, coming up with new ideas to try and bring the Circle down, or at least make somebody from the inside communicate with them to tell Steve and his team the location of his Omega. But no idea was good enough for Steve.

It had been four days. Four days without his precious Omega, and Steve felt like he was slowly losing his mind. He desperately needed you next to him, just to feel your warm, soft skin pressed against his, or to see the light in your eyes whenever you looked at him. But he had nothing.

He often saw broken Alphas after all that went down on Earth a few years ago, and while he couldn’t really imagine what they must have been feeling at that time, walking like dead men, some of them on the brink of death because they just couldn’t handle their lives without their loved ones, Steve understood it all now.

He knew he had to concentrate because he felt you in his veins, felt that you were alright considering the circumstances and, most importantly, that you were still alive. That was the sole reason why he didn’t end it yet. But he was hanging on a thread because each day and night he had to spend without you, his mind was going just a little more insane. He was hearing your voice and this morning, he even saw you standing by the bed. He was elated, but when he blinked a few more times, he realised that it was his brain playing tricks on him and that none of what had happened was just a nightmare.

Moreover, he had to orchestrate a funeral for Peter and Gamora. The sadness over their loss was embedded deep in Steve’s soul, and he knew he would never get over it, even if he got you back. When he got you back, he scolded himself every time he thought of it, but it was to no avail. The desperation and pain seeped deep into his bones, and the once positive Alpha, who used to be full of life was just a walking shell of numbness.

Sam and Bucky tried to pick up the mood in the room now and then, but they knew all too well that there was nothing they could say or do to make the situation better. The only thing Steve really needed was to get you back, and they empathised with him. Moments after the realisation hit them that you were indeed gone, they rushed to their own huts to check on their own mates. Their bonds felt fine, but the fucked-up situation got into their heads, and they needed to see their loves for themselves. Both Meera and Tina were sitting comfortably in their houses, unaware of the terror going on just mere meters away from them. They all spent the afternoon scenting and crying, their hearts clenching for their friend who was lost in his thoughts and his pain.

But Steve tried to come up with a solution. He knew Rumlow would take you somewhere far, but not far enough not to brag about it. The circle was almost a day drive so Steve would have bet Rumlow’s hiding place was somewhere between his own house and the hell house they called the Omega haven. But that was still too much land to cover just by foot or by car, since there were so many abandoned houses and warehouses, not even talking about all the hidden places deep in the forests. So, just going somewhere blindly was not an option.

Then, he thought of using what was left of the functioning camera system between the city and his lands, trying to see if he could pinpoint at least the direction where Rumlow and his team went. But he came up with nothing since most of the cameras had been destroyed soon after the war had started.

Steve even thought of taking some military dogs and making them sniff your clothes to find you, but that would mean hundreds of kilometres to search, and that was just impossible. Every single thing Steve came up with was a nonsense, and the longer he couldn’t figure out how to find you, the more desperate and angry he had become. His people knew it was nothing personal, but his yelling and blaming was sometimes too difficult to bear for any of them. Steve knew he was being a dick, and he apologised every time his nerves got the better of him, but it was like he couldn’t do anything about it.

It was when Bucky spoke up with a guilty look that Steve finally got a good idea from somebody. Not that he particularly liked it, but it was something useful at last, and Steve was actually quite angry with himself for not thinking of it sooner. The idea was to call Peggy because she was always able to find Rumlow a little easier than the rest of the world. How that worked exactly Steve never asked, because Peggy was one of those who kept their work pretty shut, and she wouldn’t brag or even talk about it, so Steve had barely any idea of what Peggy really did. There used to be times when he minded when it drove him up the wall, but not anymore. He didn’t care how she did it, the only thing Steve needed was to get you back.��

He called her almost immediately, listening to her smooth voice as she assured him that she would devote a majority of her time to help him because, after all, she still cared for him very much. Steve thanked her from the bottom of his heart and resolved to wait for her to come back to him since there was literally nothing else to do for him but to wallow in his pain.

Surprisingly, it only took a few hours for Peggy to reach out and tell Steve that she might have found him. His heart started beating like crazy as if feeling that he might be getting you in his arms sooner than he expected. Peggy told him that she got the memo that Rumlow was hiding in an old warehouse south of the manor, around 70 kms away, and Steve just growled, knowing he was kind of right in his assumptions. He quickly gathered his team, not really speaking much, but they all understood. This was a life or death mission because most of the team was sure Steve wouldn’t survive that if they didn’t find you.

Steve pretty much jumped out of a moving car when they neared the building, and he got to work immediately, going into the commander mode, assigning roles and talking strategy for when they would come in contact with Rumlow’s team. Everything was meticulously planned, and Steve had a good feeling about that. The only issue was that he couldn’t smell you. But he simply thought that he was still far enough to be able to do that and that they were probably keeping you in some shutoff room.

The closer to the building they got, however, the weirder the whole situation felt. No men were standing outside on the lookout, there were no specific smells to tell the team that there were indeed people hiding inside, and when they finally got in, they found the place completely empty.

They rummaged through all the rooms, even in the basement and on the roof, but the only thing they got was some cloth lightly smelling like Rumlow, but not enough to tell them how long ago he was at the warehouse. Steve screamed in frustration because there was no sign of you, not even a hint of your smell that he so helplessly craved.

Bucky and Sam shared distressed looks before they each grabbed Steve from one side and brought him back to the car, hollering at the whole team that the mission was over and that they needed to come back home. Steve didn’t speak the entire ride back, just staring out of the window, thinking of all the times you two would take such rides to and from the city, always discussing new books or just sharing stories from your youths. Steve now found that he took these moments for granted. He enjoyed them, sure, but not enough. There was the nagging voice telling him that he should have done more, that he ought to have taken you with him to that fucking meeting, and none of this would have happened.

“Stop it, punk. None of this is your fault so stop with the self-blaming and call Peggy to tell you what the fuck happened that her tip wasn’t true,” Bucky interjected Steve’s thoughts, and as many times before, Steve wondered whether Bucky could just read him like an open book or if he had a direct link to his brain. Steve shook his head and dialled the number.

“So, happily ever after?” Peggy said smugly, and if she stood anywhere near Steve, he swore he would have hit her.

“Nothing and nobody’s fucking happy, Peggy. Nobody was there except for some piece of cloth that was supposed to smell like Rumlow. Who the fuck gave you this tip? I need to find my Omega, and I don’t have the time to drive around the city and march into every single abandoned building just because you have a hunch. I need real information, Peggy, and if you can’t give that to me, then you’re just wasting my time,” Steve said more tiredly than anything else, but Peggy’s face contorted in annoyance on the other end of the line.

“I never waste your time, Stevie, you remember that. Look, I thought the info was top-notch, but I’ll keep looking. How about I come to your place, and we can think of a plan together?”

“Yeah, yeah whatever, it definitely can’t harm us. I’ll be expecting you,” Steve sighed and hung up, nodding at Sam who was watching him through the rearview mirror.

“Peggy said she’d come and help from the mansion. I mean, I’d rather have the whole fucking team together looking for Y/N, but I can’t fly everyone here from god-knows-where, so anyone who wants to join in is welcomed.”

Sam nodded but didn’t like it one bit. He understood that Steve was desperate, but Peggy was and had always been bad news, and Sam had a hard time trusting her even back in the days when they had to fight side to side. All the secrecy surrounding her just stank, and Sam was sure he’d keep an eye on her, just in case. He wanted everything to go over smoothly for Steve, and nobody needed a sneaky bitch who would throw them under a train the second she got a better deal from the opposing side.

You let your hand slide on the ground underneath you. It was rough with what felt like small rocks that were cutting you in the palm. You were seated, and your whole body hurt since you have been in this position for hours. Nobody talked to you since they killed your friends and abducted you. They just blindfolded you and tied you up, changing positions every few hours probably to disorient you since you doubted anybody really cared how comfortable you were. All you could do was rely on your senses and learn as much about your surroundings as you could. You weren’t even sure why you cared, but your brain couldn’t take thinking about anything related to Steve, so you busied it by making sure you knew everything you could.

You learned that there were three places they would keep you in. You presumed that they were all in one room, but they changed whether you were sitting or lying down. You weren’t even sure what time it was and slept when they put you laid you down. Nobody ever touched you inappropriately, and that’s how you assumed not one of those people was Rumlow.

The first place they would let you sit in was in an old crinkly chair made of rough wood as you had a few splinters from rubbing your hands against the arm-holders. It had four metal legs, and from the sounds, it made every time you shifted, you thought it was a rather old and overused piece of furniture.

The second place was where you were sitting now. It was by the wall, which was cold and smelt of moss, and you even though you sensed death a few times, you knew that was just your exhausted brain playing games with you. The ground was full of rocks and shards of glass, so it was your least favourite place to be of the three. The ground was colder than all the other areas, and every time they made you stand up, there was a wet patch where your ass touched the ground as the coldness accumulated against your hot body, making you wish you could just change. But your abductees would never answer to your pleas, so after what you assumed were a few days, you just gave up asking them altogether.

The third place was a makeshift bed, created out of a few pieces of wood pushed together and an old and smelly mattress. You tried to ignore all that the smell evoked in you, but you sometimes choked on your own saliva as you shifted and changed position, getting another whiff of what smelt like a hundred of butts and sweat. But it was a mattress, and you could get a few hours of sleep, so you couldn’t dwell on the details.

When you found out everything there was with your surroundings you tried to pay attention to your abductors. And while you couldn’t say precisely how many there were, you had a pretty good idea. As you were an Omega, blindfolded and cuffed, they always came alone, and you recognised each of the people by their steps. There were four of them, each of them having differences in their weight, the length of their steps and the carefulness with which they handled you. That’s how you came up with the number of four.

Number two was by far your favourite. They (you assumed it was a he but you couldn’t be sure) would always leave you alone even when you needed to use the bathroom. You knew they were in the room, but they had the decency to at least not physically touch you, and, in your mind, you created this picture that the person even turned around to leave you to do your business. They would also give you the biggest amount of water, seeing how you were parched because number four was a complete asshole and would always allow only a gulp before he drastically took the cup away from your mouth.

And that was your days, filled with diverting your brain from thinking about the graver questions, like where were you, would Steve ever find you, what did they want from you, etc. Every time any of those popped up in your head, you choked up, and had to start touching your surroundings or else you’d have gone insane by now.

It was when number three was supposed to come and let you sleep that you heard it. It was faint, but your ears perked up at anything that wasn’t your own breath or the sound of boots of your abductors hitting the ground. And this was neither. These were human voices talking about something behind the door. Your heart-rate picked up immediately because, while you hated the routine of four guards and three positions, you also knew that routine was good. Anything that was out of the routine could possibly mean death to you, and you tried to do anything to avoid that. The voices grew nearer, and you shuddered involuntarily, bracing yourself.

When the door opened, the cold air hit your face, and you hid it between your shoulder blades.

“Well, well, well, here is the famous Omega the world is searching for. You look so pathetic, it’s actually quite funny,” you heard a female voice say, and your brows knitted together. You heard it before, you just couldn’t place the voice for the life of you.

“Yeah, well, the sooner she stops pining for that pathetic excuse of an Alpha and becomes mine, she will look much better. I mean, not that anybody’s gonna see her since she is just an Omega pussy, but she is my Omega pussy, so,” the man trailed off, and you didn’t have to think to place this voice. This voice haunted your worst nightmares, so you were pretty familiar with it.

Rumlow

“Whatever, Rumlow. All we need is to get rid of her mating mark, and we’ll be good. Steve called me and found the warehouse where I sent him empty, and I, as a devoted friend, told him I’d help him from the mansion so I’ll have easy access to him and I will divert him from here if need be. You just need to do what you must so that I can have him back,” the woman spat, and it was as if a light bulb switched on. God, you felt stupid for not suspecting she had her ugly fingers in this. Fucking Peggy who obviously wanted Steve back even when she visited him all those months ago.

And while it was nice that Steve didn’t feel the same, this woman was clearly a maniac, and she wouldn’t stop at anything to get what she wanted.

But, there was one more thing that caught your attention. They wanted to get rid of your mating mark, and the thought paralysed your whole body. There were only a few ways to do that to any mated couple, and none of them was humane or accepted by most people. You’ve heard of Omegas trying to sever their bonds as they didn’t like who chose them, and so they cut a clean line across their mark, but even then the bond couldn’t be severed completely. There was also the option of just biting an Omega hard enough where their mates’ mark was, and trying to beat mark with a mark.

You also heard that true mates were inseparable, and while Bruce told you that you were true mates, you could never know for sure. The inseparableness of true mates could just as well be some old maid tales, it was one of the things your mother used to tell you, but you had no idea where the truth was.

The only thing you did know was that however they wanted to do it, you would go through hell, both physically and mentally, and that there was a more than likely chance that you would die in the process.

“You’re not afraid she’ll die on you?” Peggy asked more curious than concerned because, for her plan to work, your ties with Steve had to be cut. She would have preferred killing you since it was easier, quicker and with long-lasting results. But Rumlow had been obsessed with you ever since he lost the fight with Steve back at the Circle. When Peggy heard about it, she just scoffed and told him he was an idiot, because if he would have called her, she could have just snuck you out without anyone knowing and they wouldn’t have been in this mess.

“I mean, there’s always the possibility, but I’m not letting her run around with his mark. I wouldn’t like pounding a pussy marked by somebody else. Besides, she’s stronger than she looks, isn’t it right, pussycat?” Rumlow asked, for the first time addressing you. But you knew better than to talk, so you just remained quiet, and from the low hum coming from his mouth, you assumed it was a good decision.

“And what if that bullshit about true mates is real?”

“Oh, please, not you too. Nothing like true mates exists, Peggy, I told you. Some just smell nicer to particular individuals than others, that’s it. I don’t even know why we’re losing time talking about this. Go and do whatever you want with Steve and his estate and I’ll just do what I want with this one,” Rumlow rumbled, and the next thing you heard was the clicking of high-heels against the hard floor, leaving you alone in the room with the devil.

“Now, sweetheart, I think we should begin, hm?”

“Oh, Stevie, you don’t look good. Here, let me bring you to your bedroom so you can rest and the team and I will search for your mate in the meantime, hm?” Peggy suggested nicely, and Steve nodded, happy there was somebody who could possibly save you. But before she put her claws on his arm, Sam appeared out of nowhere and stopped her hand. She hissed like a cat and Sam gave her an are-you-fucking-kidding-me look.

“I think it would be better if you stayed down here, Peggy, as you said, you are such a valuable asset to this team that I wouldn’t want to you to waste your time by going with Steve here. I will accompany him to his bedroom so that he can get some sleep, and, meanwhile, you can work with Bucky,” Sam smirked but didn’t wait for her response as he led Steve towards the staircase and up to his bedroom. There was no fucking way in hell Sam would let Peggy be with Steve alone. And since he shared his worries with Bucky, there were two of them looking out for their best friend, which left Peggy in a tough position.

She watched Sam and Steve leave the room, and Bucky would laugh hadn’t it been such a delicate situation, because Peggy really looked like the Goddess of Revenge. That just further proved Sam’s theory about Peggy being fishy, to say the least, and Bucky was starting to question whether she didn’t have something to do with your disappearance.

Peggy saw right through them, and she smirked to herself. If they wanted to play games with her, so be it. She would get Steve alone and inject the serum in him she had been making for so long, and they would finally live happily ever after. Just like they were supposed to. All she needed was to stay close to Steve for a couple of days, get him alone enough times, and he would be all hers.

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differentkettleoffishalltogether · 3 years

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I’m On Fire [Chapter 2]

With her sister’s wedding fast approaching and her Mom hounding her about finding a date, Y/N makes a terrible decision that lands her and her least favorite genius in a confusing situation.

Chapter Summary: Y/N and Spencer start to put a plan together.

A/N: I’ve got a head cold at the mo’ but I had to get a covid test just in case so I’m not allowed leave my room till I get the results! So enjoy a bonus chapter while I wallow on my own for like 36 hours :( On a positive note, thank you guys all so much for the response to chapter 1 I really didn’t see that coming! I’ve tagged everyone who asked, let me know if you wanna be added

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem Reader

Category: Fake Dating, Enemies to Lovers, (Eventual) Smut, Fluff, Angst, it’s a Slow Burn Baby

Warnings: Cursing, some NSFW language/themes

Word Count: 6.1k

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"Are you coming up or what?"

The question was still ringing in my ears. It caught me completely off guard. 'Up' as in up to Spencer's apartment? Where he lived? I knew he lived somewhere in theory, just like I knew deep down that he wasn't made in a test tube.

Without noticing I've undone my seatbelt and I'm hopping out of the car, following him around to the front door. I guess I am coming up.

Spencer's apartment is more cosy than I thought it was going to be. It's warm and lived in. It's not big, but I think that might be what makes it homely. Something about the way he behaves had me thinking it would be fully decked out in stainless steel or glass or something. But it wasn't pristine, it was messy.

There were books bursting from the shelves that lined the walls of the apartment, along with books laid open over nearly every surface in the place, it looked like he was in the middle of reading all of them, and honestly, I didn't doubt it. Maybe I'd misjudged him. He even had some photos of what looked like his family, and maybe friends, even some of the BAU, lining his walls or propped up on his mantle. He had little trinkets and souvenirs on his shelves too, evidence that he'd been around the country for reasons other than a case. I would never admit it to him but there was a real charm to the place.

Once we got inside he took off his bag and suit jacket, tossing them on the desk just inside of the door. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do, and he seemed to pick up on my awkward energy.

"You can make yourself at home" he said, his confident streak remaining. I had no idea what to do with that. What would even make me comfortable in Spencer Reid's apartment? I took a seat on his sofa and just sat with my hands resting in my lap. Really not even sure where I should look without feeling like I was invading his privacy. Even though I wanted to. I think it was morbid curiosity, looking for clues on who this man might actually be outside of the BAU. What I really wanted to do was stand up and walk around, soaking in every bit if this place as if it would help me decipher our messy relationship.

He returned to the living room a few moments later, two mismatched mugs in his hands. He places one in front of me on the coffee table. I pick it up and take a sip. It's lemon and ginger, how did he know what kind of tea I liked? I held the mug in my hands inhaling the steam in an effort to relax. When I look up he's watching me, arms folded across his chest.

"So, how does this thing work. What's the game plan?" I honestly have no real idea. This evening really got away from me, I was still expecting to snap out of it and wake up in my bed at any moment.

"Well I can't say I've ever been in a Sandra Bullock movie before either so this is uncharted territory for me too" I say with a chuckle, trying to ease the tension. Even a little. I can see him crack a small smile but hides it almost instantly, his face hardening again.

"My sister, Margot, she's getting married in like 4 months." I can feel myself tense and I shake out my shoulders, I have to remind myself that he's agreed to this already, "Fuck it, I'm just going to be honest with you. My Mom's mostly freaked out that I'm too attached to this job and that I'll just never find someone again." I shouldn't have said again, fuck. I hope he didn't pick up on that. Who am I kidding. "Even though, I'm not sure I care if I do or don't?" he doesn't say anything, like he's waiting for me to continue. I know I've shared a little too much already but I keep going.

"Margot's 2 years younger than me, I introduced her to her fiancé Philip, we met in college, he's a sweetheart. But since they've gotten engaged Mom's gotten exponentially weirder. I think she's convinced I'm fully going to die alone, as if that would be the worst thing that could ever happen? Anyway, she's been trying to auction me off to all these guys, using this wedding as an excuse. I'm not sure how much of that phone call you actually heard earlier but Mom was trying to sell me on this guy, David, and I just… snapped." I look up at Spencer and he unfolds his arms, leaning in ever so slightly coaxing the story out of me.

"David, he uh, he worked for my father for a while back in high school, filing documents and stuff, busy work mostly. He used to make out with me when he was at our house after school, but then he'd ignore me in the halls the next morning. I know it's because I was a pariah back then or something but I didn't want to think about it today and I just got worked up. I shouldn't have let on that you were my date, I was just going to ask if I could bring Garcia or something, and I'm sorry." I cover my face in my hands, "I'm insane, you can back out if you want to."

I can hear him move from his spot on the opposite side of the sofa, he takes my wrists and gently pulls my hands from my face. He looks into my eyes, "I'm in this now Y/N, what do you need me to do?" he asks, and there's a genuine earnest in his voice that I think I've only ever heard a handful of times. And it's never been directed at me.

"Okay, well we've got a few months before you ha–, wait, fuck!" I throw my head back, there's already a complication, "shit" I curse under my breath. His eyebrows knit together, sitting upright.

"What's the matter?" he asks.

"I forgot about my Mom's 50th, it's next month. They've got this whole huge party planned back home in upstate New York. I've gotta go and they'll probably want to meet you, or they're gonna have a load of questions for me at least. I can try and get you out of it I'm sure"

He gets that cocky look again, he shakes his head "I don't know, I've always liked a bit of competition" he reclines back into his corner of the sofa, taking a satisfied sip from his own mug before speaking again. "You know, if I've got to learn enough to pass as your boyfriend in a month, surely that means you've got to learn enough to pass as my girlfriend within the month, no?"

Oh god. What have I done, why didn't I think this far ahead. "I mean, yeah I guess you're right." I had to remember he was doing me a favor. I had to get over myself. "Okay, if you're sure you're up for that?" I ask, and he nods, and I think he looks excited, or maybe he just finds the whole situation funny.

"If anyone's up for the competition it's you" he says, and I'm not sure if that's a compliment or a dig but I nod in agreement.

He takes another sip of his tea, collected and relaxed. I can't help but notice how at ease he is when he's in his own surroundings. I'm so used to seeing him sitting at a desk surrounded by paperwork, or combing through file after file in the make-shift office in a small-town police station, usually flustered or anxious, or antagonizing me whenever he wasn’t. This was a different Spencer. Completely in control, at ease.

"Alright, shall we get started then, we can't really afford to waste any time can we?" he was actually sort of right, so I nodded. It was only now occurring to me that I'd have to share parts of my personal life with him if I wanted this plan to work. We already knew the basics about each other, I'd read his file when I started at the BAU, I'd read everyones. And I feel like it was safe to presume he'd done the same.

His eyes bore directly into mine as he leaned forward, I think he was enjoying how uncomfortable I must've looked.

"How about I ask you some rapid-fire questions and you have to answer 'em?" he asks, and it's as good of a plan as any, and I can't think of any other suggestions, so I nod.

"Okay, shoot." I say, unsure and nervous, so I brace myself. I'm just grateful that he's making my life easier rather than harder for what feels like the first time since I met him.

I really should've known better.

He leans in, "So Y/N, first question, when did you lose your virginity?"

I almost choke on the mouthful of tea I just took, that can't be what he just asked, and he looks like he's savoring my shocked expression.

"I uh, I don't think you need to know that?" is all I can get out.

"Really? You think that's something your boyfriend wouldn't know about you?" he's right, but I didn't want to admit it outright.

"I feel like I sort of already hinted. It was that same guy David, I was 18, he was 19. We had sex on the couch while my parents went out one evening. I kept my bra on the whole time, he came, I didn't. It was all very standard stuff." I wasn't sure what compelled me to add that last part. I think I was giving in to the open honestly thing. "So what about you Doc?" I challenged.

He didn't seem embarrassed, or even shy. "I must've bloomed little later than you" he admits with a soft chuckle, "Vivian Stewart, I was 21, she was too. It was the last semester of my last PhD and I figured I must be missing out on something. And I sure was" he smirks to himself. "I came, she did too, 3 times. I did a lot of research ahead of time" he mirrored my story and I rolled my eyes. It was hard not to feel a little impressed but I tried with everything I had to stifle it so he couldn't tell. I wish it didn't make me feel something but it did. I gulp down the mouthful of tea that's been sitting in my throat.

I have to shake myself back to reality. I can't give him the satisfaction of throwing me. "My turn." I command, "When was your last relationship Dr. Reid?" I ask, "I mean like, serious one, not like hook-up" I clarify before he can ask. He thinks on it for a moment.

"I'm not sure what you classify as fully serious, but I guess it was this girl, Rebecca, we dated for a while when I first joined the BAU but it didn't work out. What about you?" he flips it back.

"So that was what, like 6-ish years ago?" I ask, he just nods.

"Mine was like 3 years ago now I think. I met this guy Nathan on my first week of college, we dated for like 4 years. He moved here for me when I got accepted by the BAU." I had to stop myself from delving into the detail. It was a long time ago now but it still hurt. "Long story short, the hours were demanding and they got in the way more than I would've liked. We ended up splitting a couple months after I got the job." I tried to play it off like it wasn't one of the more devastating things to happen in my life. But something told me he’d registered that, so he didn't push.

His energy picks up and he looks at me with a grin, but there's something a little sinister behind it. "I've got a more fun question for you." he leans in closer to me, "Y/N, when was the last time you got laid?" I just looked at him in shock.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, I can go first if you really need me to?" his voice didn't waver,

"Fuck you Reid, I know when it was!" I snapped back at him. I did have to think back a little farther than I'd like to pull up the memory.

"Met this guy in a bar when I was out with Pen one night, we went back to his place and hooked up." I say as deadpan as I can make it.

"Well that's not very exciting is it?" he jokes, "Did you at least cum that time?" I know he's just trying to rile me up, but I answer anyway.

"As a matter of fact I did" I earn back a little of my confidence.

"I'm so happy for you, but you did manage to avoid my initial question" fuck "when was this exciting night of yours Y/N?" he probes, like I really, really wished he wouldn't. I could lie, but I'm sure he'd be able to tell. I cringe before I can say it.

"About 8 months ago" I mutter, just low enough for him to hear.

"Sorry, did you just say 8 months ago?" He nearly shouts in disbelief, he seems to find it funny.

"Hey fuck you Spencer!" I go on the defensive, "When was the last time you even got laid?"

"Like two and half weeks ago" he says, confident, and still laughing, "Wait wait, when was the last time you got yourself off? I know you're not waiting 8 months!" he giggles and I think I could kill him. I know I kept giving him outs but was it too late for me to just get up and leave?

"I'm not doing this with you if you're just gonna make fun of me Reid, I get enough of that at work" I get out, my voice is serious but I'm trying to hide how awkward all of this is making me feel, and I don't know that I'm doing a very good job.

I can tell that's gotten to him, he relaxes and eases up on the giggling. "Look okay wait Y/N. I'll stop, I'm not actually trying to make fun of you. I was being serious, I think stuff like this is important if we're gonna have to be comfortable around each other enough to seem like a real couple. Plus, it'll just help break the ice?" he shrugs. "But you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

I soften, because I agree, even thought I hate that he's right. "Fine" I collect my thoughts, "2 nights ago I'm pretty sure." I regret it almost instantly, but breaking the ice is supposed to feel awkward.

"Same here actually," he chuckles, "what'd you do?" I'm so startled by the question I almost forget how to answer.

"I, uh, my, my vibrator? I just felt like uh, I watched some..." I still can't force out a whole sentence. It's not like I was always awkward about sex or anything, I could talk to Garcia, or honestly probably any of the other team members about it. But with Spencer it didn't feel as comfortable. He still sat calmly, smiling just a little.

"Same here, 2 nights back, but with my hands I guess. I wonder if we were doing it at the same time?" he mutters the last part gently and my head goes a bit fuzzy. My eyes drift away from his face and settle on his hands, the mug he's holding looks so tiny with his fingers wrapped around it, I wondered how they'd look wrapped around my-

"Okay I think that's enough for one night, don't you think?" I jump up off the sofa and turn, mostly so that he doesn't catch the blush thats creeping from my neck up to my cheeks. And because I don't know what I'll say, or regret saying, if this conversations continues on its current trajectory.

"Sure," he says, standing up next to me, and I want to move further away instantly, "you're probably right, and it's getting a little late now anyway" he glances at his watch. Ushering me back towards his front door and opening it up. Before I can walk out he lightly touches my shoulder to turn me back to face him, and I wonder if he can feel the heat radiating from every part of me.

"So are you free next Friday after work?" he asks, and I'm so flustered I almost forget why, I just nod. "Perfect, how about we come here again and we can dive into preparing? You could also make a start on getting these onto a hard drive?" he gestures to the antique looking hardbacks adorning the shelves.

'Sounds great!" I perk up, feigning enthusiasm, "See you then!"

"Well, see you Monday morning actually Y/N" he smirks as I walk out the door. Fuck, he was right.

I really hadn't thought this through.

——

The weekend was a bit of a blur. I decided to try and put some useful information into a document for Spencer. It felt strange to try and condense my life into as few pages as possible. I knew Reid had an eidetic memory, and nothing would necessarily overwhelm him. But I also knew that he was someone that the team relied on to fill in a lot of the gaps in the rest of the our knowledge. So I felt bad about dumping a load of information on him, especially considering it was a favor he was doing for me.

I'd complied the majority of my life into a 15 page document and printed it out. Hopefully that would address most of what my family could guerrilla attack him with. There was also something unsettling about the imbalance. I was going to give him so many of the intricate details of my life in a little file, whereas all I really knew about Spencer was what I'd taken it upon myself to learn about him throughout the past few years.

I'd read all of his work while I was in college, given how he was the gold standard of getting into the BAU at a young age, I wanted to know who this guy was. I think I'd pictured something different. And I couldn't deny there was something enticing about finally getting to know him after all of these years of working together. Maybe this could actually be fun, or interesting at least.

----

I arrived early on Monday morning. I thought I was first into the office as usual but Garcia was sitting in my desk chair waiting for me. The second she saw me walk in she tensed, she must've known we were the only people in this early.

"What happened! You've been avoiding me all weekend?" she asked, and she was right. I'd drafted enough texts to her, trying to explain what the plan was, mostly without wanting to admit that she was right. Maybe I was stubborn.

"Alright okay, I drove Reid home." I admitted, dropping my bag by my desk. She rolls her eyes at me, dramatic as always.

"Well I knew that already Y/N damn! What happened next?"

"Fine, we went into his apartment and talked for a while. Trying to sort out the details, get a handle on things I guess?" I said, unsure of how much I should actually give away about our conversation.

"What things!?" She shouts, standing up from my desk,

"I don't know Pen, like logistics and stuff, I still haven't decided how I feel about that little stunt you pulled on Friday night!" I let my frustration get the better of me, and maybe that's why I haven't talked to her. It could also be because I know she's able to read me like a book and I'm not even sure how I feel about this whole situation.

"I call bullshit." She counters, "I know you were relived as hell when I sorted that whole thing out. You would've had anxiety tummy all weekend if I hadn't called Spencer!" I just go silent, she was right. I'd gotten so caught up in the whole, 'how to have a fake boyfriend' that I'd almost forgotten about how stressed I was about Spencer hearing my call in the first place.

"Okay, shit" I sigh. "Maybe you were right Pen. We're actually meeting up again this Friday after work to make a plan for the next while, so I guess that's progress?" I shrug, trying to play it off like this whole situation doesn't make my stomach flip.

"Ohhhhh! So like a date?" She probes, her enthusiasm rising drastically.

"Oh my God Pen no! Like an appointment at best" I diffuse the situation

"Ugh that's no fun" she says, not even trying to disguise her disappointment.

As if on cue Dr. Reid walks through the double doors into the bullpen. Both Garcia and I wave, overall awkwardly, but making an attempt pretend like things were completely normal and like nothing had changed since the last time we were all in the office together.

Penelope heads to her office as the bullpen starts to fill up quickly. Less than an hour later though Garcia's back at my desk and there's a new case that needs the teams attention in Boston. I follow her into the conference room and wait for the rest of the team to join. Spencer follows a moment later with 2 cups of coffee in his hands. I can see my mug in his hand and my automatic response is that he's messing with me. But he places my mug in front of me in the circular table before taking the seat next to me, listening to Garcia's briefing. I don't know if he's ever sat next to me in this conference room, at least not by choice.

I barely had any time to finish my coffee before I have to say goodbye to Garcia and hop on the jet to Boston.

----

The case was grueling. More so than usual. It was wrapped up late on Thursday night and the team decided to fly back home first thing on Friday morning. I was exhausted. Even if there was enough time to get sleep each night it wasn't like I got any. Whenever a case got on top of me like this it made it hard to rest, or get it off my mind at all until it was wrapped up. So even though it was over, that didn't mean I wasn't exhausted.

Hotch gave the team the rest of the day off, given that we have until submit our paperwork by Monday. I wasn't sure if Spencer's invitation from the following week still stood. I didn't want to ask, partly because I was so tired, but also because I was scared. I wasn't about to show up at his house in an effort to have a heart to heart, or hand him a condensed version of my life story on a manilla envelope if he was as drained as I was.

Standing by my desk I packed up everything I'd need to get my paperwork done over the weekend, I was just about finished when Spencer snuck up behind me, perching himself on the edge of my desk. "So, you almost ready to go?" he asks, like it's the most obvious question in the world. I couldn't really hide my surprise.

"Oh yeah. That's fine, I mean, if you're still cool with that?" I ask, and I hate how flustered I sound, like he makes me nervous.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" He chuckles, standing up straight.

"Cool, gimme a sec and I'll be good to go."

I pack up the rest of my stuff quickly and we make our way out. There's something that feels a little eerie about the two of us being in an elevator together alone again. It was a different kind of awkward to how it felt a week before hand. It almost felt like a kind of tension rather than a hatred or a rivalry. Either way we rode down in silence.

Once we got to the basement Spencer walks out of the elevator and walks straight to my car without having to ask. I unlock it and he hops into the passenger seat. Like this is a natural interaction. Something we do all the time. And I don't hate it as much as I thought I would.

"So," he says, buckling up his seat belt and breaking the silence, "do you know how to get to my place from here or do you need directions again?"

"Well I've got to turn on the engine first" I tease, hoping he picks up on the reference to our last car ride, he chuckles like he does.

"Are you hungry?" he asks

"Starving."

The delivery guy get's to Spencer's apartment at almost the same time we do.

---

Once the food's been demolished the two of us finally sit on his sofa, the same sides as the week before. "So, shall we get back into this?" He asks, sitting forward slightly to pull a notebook out of his satchel on the floor. It's small and lavender, and it's got a pen clipped into the spine. He cracks it open and flips to a specific page.

"Sorry, what's that?" I ask, pointing to the book, he looks confused,

"They're my notes?" he says, like it should be obvious

"Your notes?" I ask,

"My notes on you." he smirks, again like I'm silly for even asking.

He had notes on me? He had a whole notebook on me? What was even in that thing?

"You've got notes on me?" I ask, my hands reaching out to grab it, but he retreats faster than I can catch him. "What have you got in there that's so serious?"

"Nothing." and his tone's a bit too stern and I don't really want to push it when he's being so uncharacteristically nice to me.

"I've actually got this ready for you" I pull the file out of my own bag and toss it to him. "I'm not sure exactly what you need to know but that should be the majority of it at least."

He opens it up and glances over the the pages. It takes him all of 2 minutes to get through the whole thing. It feels unsettling that he's taking in a boiled down version of my life while I'm just sitting on the opposite side of the sofa. Trying to avoid the attention I pipe up.

"Um, hey, maybe it would be a good time for you to show me where to make a start digitizing your books over here?" I stand up and make my way to the shelf. He jumps up off the sofa and walks toward me, visibly excited.

"That's actually a great idea, I thought that the theses from my degrees could be a good place to start, since I'm pretty sure they're not backed up anywhere." he guides me to a section of the book case by the window. There's a series of leather bound hardbacks, the same gold font embossed on the spines. I recognize all of them, pulling out the first one.

"This is my favorite" I say without thinking about it and he does a double take, clearly thrown.

"You've, uh, you read my work?" he asks, completely puzzled. I'm sort of proud that I've managed to make him this awkward, and I nod.

"Mmhm, back before I joined the BAU actually. Before I really knew you" I regret saying the last part, it comes out a little meaner than I really wanted it to so I back track. "Spencer, I read all of your work while I was in college, you were like the gold standard. I don't think I slept more than 2 hours a night throughout my PHD because I was just trying to get as much done as you." and his face softens at the admission. But it takes him a moment before he responds. Leaving the two of us in silence a little too long.

"I had no idea" is all he says.

"I think this one was best" I say propping up the one in my hand, "you get a bit cockier as you move on” His eyebrows shoot up in surprise, "but I'll start with all of these I guess" I grab the matching books and stack them in my arms. Walking over to his desk and setting up. Glancing at the clock it was only 7pm so I decided to just make a start.

Spencer didn't contest. Letting me just get settled at his desk, I pull out my laptop and begin work on transcribing the first volume. After a few minutes he silently places a cup of tea down beside me and goes to sit on the sofa. The time rolls in quickly after that, each time I look up at Spencer he's carefully combing through the file I'd given him. Re-reading it and making little markings in his lavender notebook. I'm not really sure what I put in there that was worth making a note on but clearly he was reading between the lines on some things. That little notebook was like a profile of me.

When he seemed like he'd finished writing he pulls out his phone, scrolling through it aimlessly like I'd never seen him do before. It made him look so normal. His eyebrows knit together as he's looking at something on his screen and he stands up. Making his way over to me at the desk and shows me what he was looking at.

"Who's this?" he asks, "This guy you're with?"

I recognize the photo instantly. It's from a few years earlier, Nathan and I on the beach, my head resting on his chest. He'd taken it while we were on vacation celebrating our anniversary. That was about a month before I got into the BAU, I had no idea that was going to be our last anniversary. I gulp down the emotions that it stirs. I'm mostly over the whole thing by now, but looking at old photos like that, photos of happier times, it can still sting.

"That's uh, the boyfriend I was telling you about last week. Nathan, we broke up not long after I joined the BAU?" he nods, but he's smart, and I kind of figure he already knew that.

"Ah alright" he takes out the hardback and jots another note down. Maybe he's trying to get a read on me.

"What are you doing?" I gesture to the phone,

"It's research, do you not think that if you and I were really dating that stalking your social media profiles would be on my agenda?" he's smug, and he's right. But I guess I just didn't expect it from him.

"Well that's not really fair now is it? I can't reciprocate, you've got no social media presence whatsoever!" he finds that funny, letting out a deep chuckle and tucking his phone away in his back pocket.

"Maybe so, but that imbalance is hardly my fault. Besides, you've read all my dissertations apparently..."

"Bastard" I joke, slamming my laptop shut and throwing a pen from his desk at him so that it lightly bounces off the top of his head.

"Hey, there's no need for violence Y/N!" he rubs the spot beneath his curls, "Maybe it's time you took a break actually?" he says, sitting himself back down on the sofa.

I was reluctant to admit it but he was right. My eyes were starting to go a little fuzzy after looking at the screen for so long. I stand up and stretch my arms out above my head, feeling my spine stretch out after sitting for so long, letting out a low groan. Spencer waves me over to the sofa and I join him.

"How about we go back to basics?" Spencer asks with a small grin, and I can't help but let out a long sigh.

"I thought I was taking a break, no more questions" he just laughs at me,

"Relax, you're not that interesting, it's just a simple question." he states, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to find it funny or offensive

"Ugh, fine, shoot"

"Well, actually it's two questions" he corrects, "what's your favorite movie, and what's your favorite snack?"

I'm confused mostly by the fact that it actually is a simple question, I was expecting something a lot more contentious, but also because he looks eager to know the answer.

"I'm not really sure what my favorite movie is to be honest, one of them is Night of the Living Dead?"

He nods to himself, and jots it down in the notebook again, "Alright, I can make that work" he stands up off the sofa before turning back to me, "and snack?"

"Peanut butter cups I guess?" I respond and he grins ear to ear, which is a completely new sight, and I like it way more than I thought I would.

"Perfect, gimme 2 minutes!" he leaves the living room and wanders towards the kitchen.

Spencer returns a few minutes later with a DVD, a packet of peanut butter cups , and a thick knitted blanket gathered in his arms. He drapes the blanket over me and gently places the peanut butter cups on top of it before popping the DVD into the player and sitting down beside me. I'm not really sure how to process any of the situation. Am I about to watch a movie on Spencer Reid's sofa? Sitting next to Spencer Reid?

"I... I, uh, thought you were just asking for your notes?" I ask, pointing at the notebook resting in his lap. He picks it up and throws it onto the coffee table.

"Sometimes I find experience is the best teacher, don't you?" he asks before pressing play, “And besides, it should keep you quiet for a whole 96 minutes” of course.

I can only nod in agreement, I'm not really sure what I'll say if I try to speak. I get myself cosy under the warm blanket and we watch the movie in near silence.

Once the credits roll Spencer finally speaks up, "I actually went to see a screening of this last month downtown, there was this little old horror movie fest-" I cut him off without really realizing, I'm just strangely excited that we've genuinely got something in common.

"Holy shit, I was there!" I say, more enthusiastic than the situation calls for.

He laughs at my excitement, "Well, I guess we have more overlap than I thought, that should probably help with the whole charade." he stretches his arms up over his head and let's out a small, gentle yawn. I'd been enjoying myself more than I thought I would, or would ever tell Spencer, that I'd almost forgotten that we'd both been on a case for almost every waking moment of the past week. I really should feel a lot more drained than I do.

I was just after midnight when I suggested that I head back home. I offered to take some of the books home to work on throughout the weekend but Spencer insisted that I just work on them whenever I came over again. I sort of felt like I should thank him for the evening when I was on my way out the door, or give him a quick hug, no that felt wrong. In the end all I could really muster was a lousy, "goodnight" and a meek wave on my way out the door before I drove home. And couldn't get to sleep.

— —

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spencerhotchner · 3 years

Text

Alternative {spencer reid}

Chapter 1

summary: Since quarentine was announced, Y/N decided to rewatch all seasons of Criminal Minds. On a lonely night she wished she could be in that universe instead of this. What happens when she wakes up in 2008 in Quantico?

warnings: angst, a very confused reader, regular cm stuff and my grammar (if you find anything else pls lmk

word count: 2k

a/n: i have this idea while watching a movie about parallel universes and all, so i just wanted to try this out. it will be a 10 parts series! im not really sure about this, i think i kinda hate it but im posting it anyways lmao. i hope you gonna enjoy!

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part 1 | part 2

You woke up feeling dizzy and with a major headache. At first you thought it was because you drank a whole lot of wine last night but then you saw yourself in a room you never saw before. You stoop up quickly trying to understand where you were and how did you end up there. You were sure that you have never been in this place before, and it was scaring you that you showed up in there.

There was a mirror nailed to the wall in from of you almost forcing you to look at your own body, that made you notice that you were still wearing the same clothes from last night, but you weren’t home. Not being home was odd given by the fact you stayed there with your family and two friends you invited over, since there’s a whole freaking pandemic going on and you for sure did not want to get sick or get other people sick.

“Did I get kidnapped?” you think out loud. “No, I just watch too much Criminal Minds.” you tell yourself, trying to calm down.

You reach for the face mask placed on the nightstand, getting ready to leave this random place and go home. You tried not to freak out when you realized your phone was gone and the only cellphone in there was probably as old as your grandmother. You dialed your moms number about five times and all of them went on voicemail, making you curse mentally.

This can’t be happening. Not to me.

As soon as you leave the apartment you were in you realized you weren’t in your hometown, definitely not. It was crowded, like, really crowded and no one was wearing any face masks. Where did the freaking pandemic go? You wondered while you felt like a misfit for being the only one wearing it.

“Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?” you ask an old lady walking by.

“You’re on Main Street, sweetheart.” she says.

“No, um, I mean the city.” you watched as the old lady looked at you with a funny face, as if she was calling you crazy on her mind.

“We’re in Quantico, dear.”

“Quantico?” you repeat, mostly for yourself then for her. The lady started at you like you were an alien. “Thank you so much, ma’am.”

The air started to go low on you, how did you get to Virginia, anyway? That was across the country from where you lived, Bellevue in Washington state. You started lost walking, trying to understand what the hell was going on. It felt like you were on a parallel universe, like you were in a dream but couldn't wake up and it sure felt very real. You stoped a jornal shop taking a lot at the last newspaper in there, trying to figure if something happened that you were missing. However, nothing reported there shocked you, what did, though, was the date.

July 1st, 2008

You were about to ask someone about it when you bumped into a blonde woman, falling on the ground. As soon as you looked up, you almost chocked yourself. If the day was already weird, this was even weirder. A.J Cook was standing right in front of you with a concerned look. You couldn't really say anything, just staring at her like she wasn't real. It was weird seeing her in front of you after only seeing her through screens.

“I’m so sorry!” she said as she offered a hand for you to get up. “Are you ok?”

“I- um, yes! I’m fine.” you san, getting the dirt out of your outfit. “I’m a big fan of yours! Wish I had my phone here to take a picture but- sorry.“ you stoped talking, realizing she probably doesn’t care.

“Big fan of me? Wow, howcome somebody’s a fan of me?” she sounds surprised.

“Well, you’re on Criminal Minds.” you say as it was obvious.

She looked at you as if you were out of your mind. Not that you weren't thinking otherwise at the moment, anyways.

“I’m on what now?” she asked.

Maybe you got confused and she was the wrong person, but she looked so much like her to not be her. If they were not the same person, then definitely twins. This was so weird, once again, you found yourself asking ‘what the hell’ mentally.

“You’re JJ, Jennifer Jareau, FBI Agent and all.” you say, trying one more time. “Behaviour Analysis Unit...”

“Yea, that‘s me.” she let a nervous laugh comes out of her mouth. “How do you know me?”

‘This is weird’ you thought. How does she not understand where you know her from? Literally Criminal Minds, like you said at first. ‘Maybe this is all a dream.’

“I saw you on tv” you try.

“Oh, I see! You like law enforcement?” she asks you.

“Oh yes, I’m in law-school to be a judge someday.” you answered. “The show, all of it just makes me wanna put all them bad guys in jail.” you say, laughing a bit.

“The show...? What?” you hear her whisper, but decide to ignore it. “What’s the mask about?” JJ asks, making you look at her surprised.

“Um, covid-19?” you say like it’s obvious, because it is.

“Oh, sure...” she smiles as she says it, almost like she's only agreeing because she won't discuss it. “Great talking to you, really, but I gotta go, FBI duty calls.” she jokes.

You smile at her watching carefully as she picks up her phone from her pocket and pick up a call. That phone looked awfully old, like 2000’s old. Why would a famous actress have that kinda of phone? Then, you looked around trying to understand more about what was going on. It was all too out of place.

First, nobody wearing masks, not even a single person but you. Second, you were in a city in which is miles away from your own. Third, a famous actress acted like she’s nobody. And fourth, the date on the calendar said 2008.

If it wasn’t just impossible I would say I time travelled into Criminal Minds universe.

After standing there for literal 10 minutes trying to figure it out what you were going to do, you decide to go to the police department. After all, you may have been abducted, right? Because you didn’t have any knowledge of the place, you took quite some time to get there. As soon as you got there you sigh in relief, that has been quite a walk and damn, you were tired of this situation.

“Excuse me, ma’am, can you help me?” you ask to the lady standing behind the counter.

“Sure, dear. What do you need?” she looks up at you, taking her glasses of her face.

“I think I might have been abducted?” you start. “I woke up in this random apartment.”

“Maybe you had a one-night stand.” she said putting back her glasses.

“No! I am sure I didn’t because first of all, there’s a pandemic going on, second of all I was in Bellevue in Washington state when I went to sleep.” you yell, involuntarily, desperate to make her believe in you.

“Miss, I’m gonna need you to calm down or you will be escorted out of the building. You’re probably on drugs, there's nothing we can do for you.”

“Fuck you.” you say as you watch her face get all red.

Frustrated. That could define what you were feeling, scared and worried could do the work, as well. What were you going to do now? Go to the FBI to see if they could freaking understand why you simply appeared in Quantico? Didn't sound like a bad idea in your mind as you decided to just try it out. After all, you were already pretty screwed up, it would worth a shot.

You reached for your back pocket, hoping that the money you shoved in there more than a week ago would still be in there. Bingo! You pull out a 20 dollar bill out of it and the next thing you know you’re getting into a cab asking him to take you to the FBI. Now that’s something you never thought would happen. The travel was quite quick, in 20 minutos you were standing in front of that big isolated building. It looked like it was taken straight out of your favorite show, that was insane.

The wind blew hard on you when you got out of the vehicle, making you shiver a little, that reminded you that you did not have any clothes nor money to buy more. God, you did not even have where to go. You didn't even get the chance to get into the building as a big man steps in front of you, blocking your way.

“Miss, you're not allowed in this building.” he said without much expression.

“But, sir-” you started, as you saw he was about to interrupt you, you go on. “Ive been abducted and I don't know where or how the hell did I get in here, I’m completely hopeless... Please.” you beg him.

He started at you for a couple of seconds, that felt like centuries for you, just to sigh at you.

“Ok, follow me.” he said. “Do not make me regret this.”

“I-I won’t, sir.” you were quick to answer.

The agent asked another man to cover up for him as he led me into the building. Once again you found yourself admired of how much it did look like a Criminal Minds episode in there, if you weren't totally desperate you'd be amused. Soon, you two were out of the elevator on floor 8, leading with the words Behavior Analysis Unit quite big.

“Can you take her to Agent Jareau, please?” the man said to someone who passed by, who simply agreed.

Now, that's a funny coincidence, there's actually an Agent Jareau in the BAU.

You followed the woman with questioning trying to stay calm when you saw Matthew Gray Gubler sitting on a desk reading some book in Reid style, almost like he was Spencer himself. If you had any doubts you were going crazy, that was the final proof. You stoped walking, taking a stare at him and then at the Agent that stared a you like you were an alien.

“Is there something wrong?” she asks you. “Miss, are you ok?”

You were unable to answer for a few seconds when you finally opened you mouth, still trying to figure it out how to say what was on your mind without sounding completely insane.

“Is that Dr. Spencer Reid?”

And that was all you’re able to say because as soon as you let his name out of your mouth he looked up at you, trying to somehow recognize you. You were sure, that time, that you never looked - and sounded - as insane as right now.

“Yes, that's me.” he answers.

His voice was the last thing you could hear before everything go black. Maybe you were finally going to wake up. Maybe.

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onlydylanobrien · 3 years

Text

Dylan O'Brien - NME Magazine Interview

Dylan O’Brien: “I was in this transitional phase – close to a quarter-life crisis”

From YA heartthrob to legitimate leading man – how the 'Maze Runner' star hit his stride after a whirlwind decade

Definitely!” hoots Dylan O’Brien when NME asks if he still has to audition. “I’m not Tom fucking Hanks, bro.” He’s clearly amused by our question, but forgive us for thinking the 29-year-old actor gets cast on reputation alone. A decade into his career, and he’s making an impressive transition from teen TV star and YA franchise hero to charismatic leading man.

New York-born O’Brien cut his teeth on MTV’s hit Teen Wolf series, before landing the lead in the Maze Runner film trilogy based on James Dashner’s hugely popular novels. Leading a band of bright young things that included ex-Skins tearaway Kaya Scodelario, Game Of Thrones’ Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Will Poulter, he honed his craft while racking up nearly a billion dollars at the box office. “My career is a constant acting class,” says O’Brien. “To be able to do the Maze Runner movies simultaneously with Teen Wolf was amazing in terms of getting in reps and working my [acting] muscle.”

Now for the sometimes tricky bit. Many actors struggle with the post-breakout period, but O’Brien is making it look easy so far. This year’s Netflix hit Love and Monsters proved he can carry an old-school family adventure, and new film Flashback (out next week) reveals an appetite for weirder, more cerebral work. He stars as Fred Fitzell, a young man reluctant to buckle down to life as a nine-to-fiver with a boring corporate job and a long-term girlfriend (Mindhunter‘s Hannah Gross). When he runs into a freaky-looking acquaintance from his teenage years, Fred becomes obsessed with finding an old high-school friend he used to drop a mind-bending experimental drug called Mercury with. It’s difficult to say any more without entering spoiler territory, but Flashback is a wild ride underpinned by the idea that we can exist in several realities at once. Even if you follow every plot twist, you might not fully understand the end. “Oh, it’s definitely a headfuck,” O’Brien agrees. “There’s not totally an answer to figure out. There’s a lot of different things that people can take from it.”

Speaking over Zoom from his LA home, O’Brien is bright, thoughtful and really good fun to talk to, especially when he relaxes into the interview, but he clearly knows where his line between public and private lies. When he first read the Flashback script, written by the film’s director Christopher MacBride, his “mind was blown” by just how much he related to Fred. “I felt like I was in this transitional phase of my life that was, you know, sort of close to a quarter-life crisis type thing,” he says. “For whatever reason, it was like me and this script were meant to be. I remember reading it and thinking: ‘I am this guy right now.'”

“There were a lot of things in my personal life that were neglected for a while”

When we ask why O’Brien felt as though he had reached a “transitional phase”, he gives an answer that’s vague but not exactly evasive. For understandable reasons, he doesn’t mention the incredibly traumatic motorcycle accident he sustained while shooting the final Maze Runner film in March 2016. O’Brien suffered severe trauma to the brain and said in 2017 that he underwent extensive facial reconstructive surgery after the accident “broke most of the right side of my face”. Tellingly, he’s never really revealed what happened on set or how it affected him.

Today, O’Brien dances around the details of the accident and other issues he was dealing with at the time, but doesn’t shy away from discussing his inner conflict. “You know, it was a lot of personal things combined with at-a-point-in-my-career things,” he says after a brief pause. He says he’d have been going through some of this stuff anyway, simply because of his age, but it sounds as though success intensified it all. “It was like this whole fucking storm of shit,” he continues. “I was simultaneously so fulfilled and happy about these, like, otherworldly and surreal things that I had experienced in terms of where my career had brought me. I had all this confidence and fulfilment and beautiful people [in my life] – such amazing things to experience at a young age. But at the same time, there were a lot of things in my personal life that were unchecked and sort of neglected for a while.”

O’Brien says that in time, he realised he had to “stop for a second” and “re-explore how I wanted my life to look going forward”. In fairness, you can see why he needed a breather: his career took off while he was still a teenager. After his family moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles County when he was 12, O’Brien contemplated a career as a sports broadcaster – his Twitter bio still bills him as a “no longer suffering Mets fan” – then began posting YouTube videos as moviekidd826. A funny, slickly edited skit titled ‘How to Prepare for the SAT in 45 seconds’, shared when he was just 17, shows he was a born performer and storyteller. YouTube success led to him getting a manager, but his breakthrough role in Teen Wolf still came out of the blue. At the time, he was treading water at a local community college and taking auditions on the side.

Still, he has since taken a rather fatalistic view of this career-making moment. “It’s totally weird because, when I think about it now, I don’t see how it could have happened any other way. I can’t picture myself doing anything else now,” he told Collider in 2011. “It was really sudden and a little random, and not provoked by anything. It was just out of nowhere. It wasn’t my intentional doing.” Today, O’Brien summarises his skyscraper career trajectory succinctly. “I guess I just graduated high school and started acting,” he says. “And then I felt like I was just flying by the seat of my pants and never got a chance to stop.” Thankfully, straight-out-the-blocks Hollywood success hasn’t taken away his sense of perspective. When I say how easy social media makes it to compare yourself unfavourably to others, O’Brien jumps in: “Yeah, that’s very true. I was watching the Billie Eilish doc the other day, and I was like, I’ve done nothing. I’m not an artist at all!”

“No one thought ‘Love and Monsters’ was going to be good!”

O’Brien is also self-deprecating when he talks about being cast in Flashback, suggesting it happened because he had such an intense connection with Fred. “I was honestly like, ‘Who is watching me right now?’ That is the best way I can describe how I was feeling when I came across this script,” he says. “Chris [MacBride, director] and I had this conversation that went so well in terms of [my] understanding this script that I think he’d sent around a lot and [that] very commonly wasn’t understood. I think Chris has even said that the night before shooting, he suddenly had this thought, like, ‘Wait, do I even think he’s a good actor?'”

Though O’Brien has firmly ring-fenced elements of his private life, he’s actually pretty frank about his acting vehicles. He readily admits he was expecting a snobbish response to Love and Monsters, a CGI-heavy hybrid of post-apocalyptic action and romcom that dropped on Netflix in April and topped the streamer’s daily most-watched list. “It means so much that Love and Monsters has gotten the response that it’s gotten,” O’Brien says. “No one thought this movie was going to be good.” His blunt honesty makes me laugh out loud. “No one did though!” he says in response. “And so, fuck that. You know, most of the people who say something to me about the movie, they’re like: ‘I watched Love and Monsters, and it was… good?’ And honestly, that just cracks me up.” For obvious reasons, we hastily decide not to share our response to the film – namely, that it was a whole lot better than expected.

In Love and Monsters, O’Brien plays Joel, a survivor of a so-called “monsterpocalypse” that has bumped humans to the bottom of the food chain. Though he’s known in his colony as a bit of a coward, Joel sets off on a treacherous 80-mile journey to find his high school sweetheart Aimee (Iron Fist‘s Jessica Henwick), which means evading the hungry clutches of various supersize grizzlies including a giant monster-frog hiding in a suburban pond. It’s a simple but pretty out-there premise that wouldn’t work if O’Brien’s performance was even slightly condescending. Instead, his unselfconscious sincerity really sells a film that has as much in common with the family-oriented Robin Williams movie Night at the Museum as darker fare like The Walking Dead.

His obvious affection for the project really comes across during our interview today. “When I read the script, I just thought it was so sweet and funny and smart and unique, but at the same time reminiscent of all these movies that don’t really get made any more,” he says. That’s a fair point: Love and Monsters is neither a fail-safe superhero movie nor a slice of classy Oscar bait. “And when they were talking about how to market this movie, it was so funny hearing all these conversations like, ‘How do we actually get people to watch it?'” he adds. “But that’s a big part of the reason I wanted to do this movie: because it felt like something I missed seeing.”

“I’m lucky to be surrounded by people who want to make something out of love”

So in a way, Love and Monsters was a risk for an actor seeking to establish himself outside of a bankable movie franchise and a hit TV show. O’Brien has only made four films since his final Maze Runner outing in 2018, and insists he hasn’t been tactical with his choices. “I don’t have anyone saying, ‘We need to get you in an Oscar vehicle’, or any of that kind of shit,” he says. “I’m really lucky to be surrounded by people who think like me: that you should do what you’re drawn to, and make something out of love.”

He’s recently finished shooting a mysterious crime thriller called The Outfit in London with Mark Rylance. Directed and co-written by Graham Moore, who won an Oscar for his screenplay to Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game, O’Brien calls it “quite possibly one of the most special pieces of writing I’ve ever experienced”. He first read the script on a plane and says he “actually stood up and clapped” when he got to the end. Considering O’Brien probably wasn’t flying Ryanair, this reaction presumably attracted a few baffled glances.

Anyway, it must be pretty intimidating walking onto set with Rylance, a multi-award-winning actor revered by his peers – Al Pacino once said he “speaks Shakespeare as if it was written for him the night before” – but it sounds as though O’Brien took it all in stride. He says he’s confident in his abilities, but admits to having a slight wobble whenever he begins a new project. “I’m always sort of re-questioning everything – like, ‘Can I even act?'” he says. “But I think there’s something very natural about that. I think even Rylance could relate to that feeling. Acting is like starting a new year at school every single time.”

At this point in his career, O’Brien has made peace with the fact that some people will have preconceptions about him based on what he’s known for: Maze Runner and Teen Wolf. “People will put you in a box no matter what,” he says. “There was definitely a time when that would get to me, especially when it felt like somebody had a perspective on me that in my soul, I just felt wasn’t accurate.” Still, there’s no doubt he wants to show us what’s really in his soul with more films like Flashback. “If anything,” he adds bullishly, “it just makes me think: ‘Right, I’m really gonna show them now’.”

‘Flashback’ is out on digital platforms from June 4

#dylan o'brien #love and monsters press #flashback press #the outfit press

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hiddennerdworld · 3 years

Text

Homesick (pt 4) with Hanta Sero

Note: This is a long one 😅 sorry I just love him. This is probably the last one of the ‘series’. I hope to do some more fluffy stuff like it tho. Also, I absolutely adore the idea of Latin Sero but didn’t know how to write it in, so we’re just gonna pretend lmao. And sorry for the abrupt ending. Still hope you enjoy it :) (I added a little reference to one of my favorite songs too ;) )

———————————————————————

The best place to just sit in think is outside staring at the stars. That happened to be exactly where you were. On the roof of the dorms just looking at the stars while you’re laying on the ground. It was a beautiful fall night with a little breeze and the smell of autumn in the air. The sky was crystal clear and you could see tons of stars twinkling back to you. Most may find this a relaxing situation to be in, but you were definitely not relaxed. You had this little pit in your stomach ever since you moved into the dorms and couldn’t quite describe what it was. Being outside was better than just lying in bed, at least here there’s a beautiful view, but its presence was still lingering. While fighting with yourself on whether you should try to think it through or try to ignore the feeling, you heard the roof door opened. You quickly sit up and look over to see Sero.

“Oh, hey Y/N!” He said while rubbing the back of his neck not sure what to say at first. But after looking around for a bit, he collected himself and stepped forward. “Sorry I wasn’t expecting to see anyone up here. I definitely wasn’t expecting to see such a beautiful babe such as yourself.” He said jokingly and started moving his eyebrows.

You couldn’t help but blush and giggle at his goofy nature. You always did. Whenever you would be hanging out with your close friend Mina and her friends, you laughed at Sero’s jokes everytime. Even if they were bad, there’s just something about the smiley boy.

“Yea? Well, what were expecting then, pretty boy?” You also found it easy to banter with Sero. It could be awkward at times but it never mattered.

“Just an empty roof and a starry sky, but it looks like tonight I get an extra treat. Can I sit with you?” You nodded and then he took a seat next to you. “What’re you doing up? I thought everyone turned in for the night.”

“Ah, you may have thought that, but you see I’m not like everyone else. My brain doesn’t allow me to sleep. At least recently.” You said while pointing at your head.

“Can I ask why’s that?” He asked softly.

You shrug. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve just had weird vibes ever since we moved in.”

Sero lit up and said “Dude, I totally know what you mean!” He then calmed down and continued, “Sorry, I just thought I was the only one. It’s just so different ya know?” He asked lying down to look at the stars and you did the same.

“Different from living at home? Yea I know exactly what you’re talking about. I thought it would be a lot more normal.”

“I didn’t know what to think really. I was excited about getting to see my friends everyday. Believe me I still am, but a part of me is missing. I actually came up here to swing around. Maybe get rid of this empty feeling.”

You turn towards him “Really?”

He looks back at you and nods. “Yep, but this is much more relaxing don’t ya think?” He said as he looked back up at the beautiful night sky. You hummed in agreement. The both of you just sat in silence for a bit until Sero broke it with telling you about his family. He told you about how he would watch soccer and baseball with his dad and telenovelas with his mom. You told him about how you and your siblings would play Mario Kart.

You guys kept going for who knows how long. Laying on the cold, hard concrete ground, but didn’t pay any mind to it. You were both to busy laughing and being deeply ingrained in conversation. Time had been frozen and the weight had been lifted off your shoulders. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay like that for long. As the night went on, it the temperature dropped a lot. You had your arms wrapped around you, but didn’t really notice. However, Sero did notice and didn’t like the idea of you being cold. He sat up and asked “Hey, why don’t we go back to my dorm and we can get more comfortable?”

You quirked your eyebrow at him.

He just laughed and replied, “Not like that, but it’s funny to see that’s where your mind went. I just meant we can continue to chill in a place where it is not so chill so maybe you can warm up. I’ll take the hammock and you can lay down on my bed if you want.” You agreed and went to his room.

———————————————————————

It was a challenge to stay quiet on the way there. You didn’t want to wake your friends at such a late hour BUT you and Sero found everything 100 times funnier when you had to remain quiet. The walk consisted of you two giving each other looks, snickering, and then shushing each other. It just looped until you eventually got to his dorm. The fun didn’t stop there though. Once you got to his dorm, you tried multiple times to get into his hammock and fell out each time causing the two of you to cry laughing. Was it sleep deprivation or just the way you two made each other? Both, the answer is both.

Soon though you both calmed down. You got comfortable in his bed, already wearing your PJs from earlier. And Sero was swaying in the hammock while his music played quietly in the background. You guys continued to talk and talk. At times you got deep and others you would talk about complete nonsense. However, you both started to slowly drift off at around 4 in the morning, not even processing what the other was saying. So you decided to call it a night.

“I can’t even keep my eyes open anymore. I should probably go back to my dorm. Goodnight, Sero.” You said in a hushed tone while slowly getting out of bed.

“No, you don’t gotta go. Just stay in the bed. It’s late and I don’t wanna make you walk allllll the way back to your place.” He totally sounded out of it. There was a sleepiness in his voice.

“I think I can manage the walk down the hallway and then to my bed. I don’t wanna make you sleep in the hammock.” You said but you weren’t even sitting up yet. Just propping yourself up on your elbow as you continued to lay in bed.

“Pfff don’t worry about it,” Sero said using his hand to swat away your concern. “I have slept in this baby more times than I can count. I probably can’t even get out of it at this point anyway. Just stay here and we can make it a fun sleepover night.”

You went back to getting comfortable in his bed. “Well if you put it like that. For real though, if you get uncomfortable let me know. There’s plenty of room here if you’re okay sharing.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Sweets. Sleep well, Y/N”

———————————————————————

The next morning you woke up in a strange place. It took you a few seconds to remember you had fallen asleep in Sero’s room when you inhaled the scent of the incense he had in his room. It was weird not being in your room. It was even weirder was that you felt a weight on your side. You turn to look over and see Sero holding onto you. You never thought he would actually take you up on your offer. Seeing him there made your heart warm and a pink blush rushed to your cheeks.

As you were about to go back to the position you were in Sero stirred awake and moved back a little, not knowing that he decided to get so close in his sleep. It leaves you with a little disappointment, but you’re still happy just being around him. “Good morning, hun.” He said in the middle of stretching and yawning. “How’d you sleep?”

“Pretty great thanks to you. I definitely wouldn’t have gotten much sleep if you weren’t so sweet and let me talk your ears off.”

A little smile grew on his face. “Hey, I can’t take all the credit. You did the same for me. If you weren’t here I’d just be talking to a wall and they’re no fun.”

His smirk grew head hearing you giggle at his jokes. “Yea last night was pretty fun, wasn’t it?”

“Yea, it was,” Sero said and then sighed while flipping over to look at the ceiling. He rested his head on his hand and had his other arm lying across his stomach. He seemed tense. On the outside, he looked totally relaxed still because that’s just how he is, but you can tell something is off.

“You alright?” You asked leaning closer to see his face.

He sat there for a sec thinking. “Yea, yea it’s just... last night got me thinking.” He paused again seemingly trying to find what he wanted to say. You just looked at him with kind eyes ready to hear him out. “Y/N, I really like you.” He turned to you then scoffed, “Well I mean I haven’t really been hiding it from you, but I’ve never said it straight up either. To be honest, I wasn’t sure about it. I just thought it was a little crush and I didn’t wanna scare you off because we were just becoming friends and just moved into the dorms.” He placed his hand on yours, making you blush, and then continued. “But last night was the happiest I’ve been in a long time. I’m not depressed all the time or anything, it’s just different with you. I didn’t want it to end, which is why I asked you to stay. I’m sorry if you don’t feel the same. I don’t wanna weird you out, but I think you do. Things between us are just so natural and I’ve never felt awkward with you. You must feel it too, right?” He finished his speech staring at you with pleading eyes.

“Sero, I-“

“Oh no!” He flipped over and covered his face “I knew it! I’m so s-“

You just grabbed his face and turned it towards you. “Will you let me finish, you dork? Of course, I feel it too. It’s weird but you’re the closest friend I’ve had since we got to UA, hell maybe the closest friend I’ve had in a long time, even though we haven’t been talking for long. You make me really happy, so yeah I like you too, Sero.”

“Really?!” You nodded in response and his shocked face turned into the biggest smile you’ve ever seen on him, which is saying a lot. He grabbed you and you let out a little yelp. He pulled you on top of him and gave you a big hug. “You have no idea how happy I am.” He said as he rested his head on yours.

“I think I do. I can see it all over your face.” You said as you looked up and squished his cheeks.

Sero grabbed your hands of his face and intertwined his fingers with yours. “Yea but I still don’t think you reeeeally know. Could I show you?” He asked as he slowly brought his hand to cup your cheek, running his thumb across your bottom lip.

You managed to whisper a “yes please” and were then met with his lips on yours. The kiss was gentle and sweet. It took a second but you guys both melted into the kiss, cherishing the moment together. It only lasted a few seconds but it left you with more butterflies in your stomach then you’ve ever felt before. You both pulled away and looked each other in the eyes leading you to giggle and hide your face in his chest. His arms returned to your waist and gave you a small kiss on the top of your head. “So I guess you know now.”

———————————————————————

BONUS: You were suddenly awoken by running muffled footsteps and a banging on the door. Mina swings Sero’s door open and wakes you guys up from your nap.

“Hey, Sero have you seen Y/N? It’s like noon and I can’t find-“ her eyes bounce between you and him snuggling in bed.

“Oh.” She giggles and winces. “My bad! I didn’t know there was something goin on. I’ll leave you too it.” She said as she back up slowly and then dashes down the hall “GUYS YOU’RE NOT GONNA BELIEVE THIS!!!” You hear her voice and footsteps fade as she rushes to tell everyone.

Sero scoffed and flung his tape to close the door. Then he returned to cuddling you. You guys had some sleeping to catch up on.

#my hero academia #mha headcanons #mha fluff #hanta sero x reader #hanta sero #sero fluff #sero headcanons

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not-close-to-straight · 4 years

Text

Soul Bonded (Two)(Spideypool)

PART ONE HERE

SERIES MASTERLIST HERE

************

“Oh hey, I know those guys.” Clint peeked over Pepper’s shoulder when he saw the video playing on her tablet. “How’d you get that video footage? Not even the Daily Planet manages that good of a look at them.”

“You know, I’ve learned not to ask where or how JARVIS comes up with surveillance videos.” Pepper took her eyes off the screen only long enough to kiss the other Omega’s cheek and to lay a gentle hand at the non existent bump of Clint’s stomach. “How are you and my next favorite niece and nephew doing today?”

“I dunno why everyone thinks I’m having twins.” Clint complained mildly. “We all see how big Steve is with baby James. If a super soldier can barely handle just one kiddo, what makes you think I can handle two?”

“Cos you already handle one set of twins so well!” the sweet Omega laughed at Clint’s disgruntled expression, and lifted her fluffy pink wings to brush against his darker ones. “Tony says the young mutant with webs is named Peter Parker and the bigger one is Deadpool. He wants me to try and get a hold of them and bring them by the compound.”

“Peter’s younger than Wanda and Pietro, and Deadpool’s real name is Wade, but trust me, he’s not the type to share his Omega.” Clint pointed out, and then immediately after, “Oh but with our Alpha starting to step aside with the Iron Man thing, he wants two more mutants on the team and around the family to keep us safe. That makes more sense than the other thing.”

“Exactly.” Pepper rewound the footage to the spot where the admittedly beautiful Omega showed off sheer jaw dropping strength as he shoved the Alpha off him. “They seem rough, together. I’ve never seen a pair wrestle like that before. Isn’t the Alpha worried about hurting his mate?”

“Wade’s mutation keeps him halfway to feral all the time, but Peter’s got some spider thing going on, so he channels predator half the time anyway. They’re fine. It’s like violent flirting, but best I can tell, neither one ever gets hurt.”

Clint pulled a chair up next to Pepper and snuggled in under her wings, soaking in every bit of the love she so readily gave. Tony might be the family Alpha, but Pepper was the family’s matriarch, kept them all together and fed and clothed and made sure Stark Industries stayed successful so Tony could afford to give their always growing family everything.

The pretty Omega exuded pure comfort right along with unwavering resolve and underlying steel that made her a powerhouse in both the business world and in front of the press. Simply put, Pepper was perfect and even with her layers of suppressants, she scented like home and like love and all good things so Clint curled in closer and purred low in contentment.

“Sweet Omega.” Pepper dropped a kiss on Clint’s head and ran light fingers through his feathers. “Have you started craving anything? Getting over tired yet?”

“Not too bad.” Clint promptly yawned and she laughed at him. “I’m only like three or four weeks out, you know? Tony figured it out right away so we are still ages away from me even starting to feel pregnant.”

“Hmmm.” she kept playing with the feathers closest to his shoulders and Clint sighed and relaxed into the familiar touch. “You called this Alpha Wade. You know him personally?”

“We have lunch together like once a month.” Clint mumbled. He was honestly lulled halfway to sleep right there on Pepper’s shoulder but he startled when she jumped and cursed. “Sheesh! What?!”

“You have lunch with him?” Pepper’s pink wings ruffed up in concern. “Clint! If our Alpha knew you were out there with such a volatile mutant, he would lose his mind! Deadpool is dangerous!”

“I think you’re forgetting that I can take care of myself just as well as anyone else in this compound.” The Omega said firmly, almost irritably. “Do you really think I’d hang out with someone I was scared of? Wade’s got a rough past, but he’s okay now.”

“Clint, that’s not what I’m--”

“Pep.” Clint pulled away entirely now, dark brown wings lifting above his shoulders as his irritation grew. “We live in the same building as the Hulk and I regularly share a bed with the former Winter Soldier and the stabbiest, scariest ballerina in the world. How is Wade any different than them?”

“Don’t be angry with me darling.” She tried. “It’s just--”

“Cos he’s a little closer to feral?” Clint interrupted. “Because his bad days are a hell of a lot worse than ours? Cos his wings aren’t pretty and perfect? Since when does anyone have to be pretty and perfect to fit into this family? You’re about the only one in this place with no blood on her hands, Pep. Don’t turn your back on Wade because the blood on his hands is a littler newer than what’s still staining--”

“Clint.” Pepper cupped the Omega’s chin and forced him to look at her. “Clint, I wasn’t going to say any of that. I was just going to say that if our Alpha found out you’d been meeting with someone so dangerous, he’d put an immediate stop to it until he could do some research and make sure Wade’s worst days are behind him. Tony never tells you no about anything, but he would say no to this until he knew you and the babies weren’t in danger.”

“...oh.”

“I love how quickly you stand up for everyone.” Pepper coaxed Clint back into her arms, put the tablet down and turned so she was facing him better. “You did it with Bucky when Natasha wasn’t sure about him, you stepped right in with Thor and Loki to welcome them to the family, and I’m not surprised you’re doing the same for Wade. But honestly, it’s weird enough that you have friends outside our family and it’s even weirder that none of us know about him.”

“And this isn’t about who Wade used to be, or what he’s done and good god, you know it’s not about his looks.” she continued. “It’s about making sure our loved ones are safe before bringing anyone home. Steve didn’t bring Bucky home until he was sure the Winter Soldier was gone. Thor came with Coulson’s personal recommendation and Thor waited to bring Loki along until he knew they were settled and had worked through some of their anger.”

“And now?” the Omega glanced pointedly at Clint’s stomach, then motioned upstairs where Bucky and Loki were napping with Baby Maria and where Thor and Tony were currently putting the last touches on Baby James’s nursery. “Now it’s not just a houseful of super powered or otherwise capable and scary people we’re thinking about. Now there are babies to think about too. Tony would want to meet Wade before he let the Alpha meet anyone else only because our family has grown to fourteen and soon--”

She patted at his tummy again. “Sixteen. Our Alpha will soon have sixteen people to look after. Finding out that you have been hanging out with one of the most astonishing and breathtakingly dangerous Alphas...well we all know what happened with Director Fury when Tony thought he was trying to recruit Bucky, right? The last thing we need is our Alpha going toe to toe with someone like Wade because his initial reaction to his mate spending time with Deadpool would be to go and rip Wade’s wings right off.”

“I guess I never thought to say anything.” Clint frowned, wings drooping, and Pepper immediately crooned at him comfortingly. “We used to run into each other when I worked at Shield, and I’ve told him to bring Pete up for dinner a few times, he’s just never accepted the invite. He’s a good guy, Pep. I promise. I wouldn’t bring anyone into our home who wasn’t.”

“I know you wouldn’t.” She reassured him. “But how about I break the news to Tony that you know Wade personally, hm? I’ll promise I’ll phrase it better than ‘your pregnant Omega regularly has lunch dates with someone who carries two katanas, three different guns and has the unnerving ability to regenerate everything’.”

“Fine.” Clint finally smiled again, leaned in and bumped their noses gently. “I’ll let you tell Tony about Wade.”

Clint cuddled up for another few minutes then wandered off to see if Sam would take him for ice cream-- the Beta was helpless against babies and expecting Omegas and Clint fully intended to take supreme advantage of it for the next eight months-- and Pepper went back to taking notes about the footage of Wade and his mate, Peter.

“JARVIS?” she called and the AI’s system clicked just once to show he was listening, a feature Tony had installed when he realized Bucky had a hard time with J just speaking out unexpectedly. “Let’s get some of the material ordered that Tony used to create Bruce’s room. Not the safe room below the laboratory, but his actual living quarters. Weighted blankets, the daylight lamps instead of the usual lighting, the higher security on the doors, all that sort of thing.”

“The Alpha Deadpool will need similar accommodations due to PTSD?”

“I’m not sure.” she admitted. “But it’s probably a safe bet, and even if Wade doesn’t need those things, I’d rather have it all on hand than need them and have to go get them. Turn on the systems in one of the adjoining suites like Wanda and Pietro have, one of the rooms can be for his mate. Order materials to construct some perches and higher up places for the Omega. Apparently he’s got a rather spidery inclination.”

“Ms. Potts, a rather spidery inclination doesn’t necessarily mean the Omega wants to sleep in the corners.”

“No, I suppose not.” the disapproval from JARVIS was nearly tangible and Pepper laughed softly, “But it couldn’t hurt, right? What if he webs up in the corner and naps?”

“Honestly, ma’am.”

“Order additional high protein foods as well. We’re already getting to the point of needing to raise our own food just to keep up with the soldiers, but the addition of two more metahumans will strain our pantry to about breaking.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Thank you.” Pepper finally gave up rewatching the same videos over and over and went to find their Alpha, trying to figure out how to tell an increasingly protective Tony that his newly pregnant mate had been spending time with a mercenary.

She’d have to make sure he was holding Baby Maria just so he wouldn’t shout.

Sigh.

Their life was absolutely crazy.

************

School buses weren't supposed to blow tires and careen wildly around the freeway at sixty plus miles an hour and then plummet off the overpass into the traffic below, but that’s exactly what happened.

It could have been an error of judgment when the tires had last been filled, it could have been a less than motivated operator who rushed the vehicle inspection before the kids loaded on for their field trip, it could have been something unexpectedly sharp on the road that hit just right and sent the relatively calm day into chaos.

Whatever it was, it was terrifying and Peter didn’t so much hear the screams as he felt them clang around his head when his spidey sense went haywire. The Omega dropped to his knees with a quiet cry, hands over his ears and maroon wings wrapped around his body as he tried to limit the sensory input and figure out what exactly was happening.

“Pete?” Wade dropped to the ground right by the Omega, dark wings up and around them to fend off any prying eyes. “Hey baby boy, what’s up? What’s going on?”

“Something is really really wrong.” Peter gasped, scrambled for his mask and jammed it on. “Something’s wrong, Alpha. I gotta figure out what it is.”

He pushed away from Wade and bolted for an alley, shouted, “Keep an eye out for me!” then threw himself up the wall. Wade couldn’t do much more than watch helplessly as the Omega webbed his way towards the roof so he could try and see what was happening

“Oh shit.” Wade saw the bus right when Peter did, and he took off running for the nearby crowd, pushing people out of the way and shouting for the others to move.

“Get out!” He shouted, snapping his wings out to try and rush pedestrians out of the area, growling in frustration when people just glanced at him and glanced away. “Damn it! Move your ass there’s a goddamn bus heading this way! Fucking move!”

Peter as Spider-man jumped down into the crowd and the pedestrians panicked when he started simply webbing slower moving people and yanking them out of the way. Wade ran around trying to help, shoving Alphas and Betas off into the side alley’s, trying hard to gently but quickly force the Omegas off the street, both of them screaming for someone to call the police, to call an ambulance, to call for help---

-- the noise the bus made as it crashed through the barrier was unbelievable, the echo of screams inside horrifying and the Alpha had only a split second to register a flash of maroon wings --

--and everything came to a stop.

The world came to a stop and all Wade could see was his mate his mate halfway to crushed beneath the front end grill the bus, legs braced and arms straining to hold the weight and not for the first time the Alpha remembered that Peter wasn’t just pretty, he wasn’t just funny, the Omega was damn near supernatural.

And then Peter screamed, cried out because everything hurt and he might have been outrageously strong but he was still human and it hurt and Wade went scrambling to figure out how to take some of the weight off his Omega. He wrapped his wings around Peter’s slim frame and braced his arms on the underside of the bus too so Peter had at least a little bit of support. When the Alpha let his strength surge, he could take on close to half a ton which didn’t even touch the amount his Omega could hold, but at least it was something.

“I’ve got you, baby boy.” he hissed out between clenched teeth. “Let’s get this thing down, huh?”

“Slow.” Peter gasped, sweating through his mask, through his clothes, his honeysuckle scent burned bitter with fear and pain. “Slow, Alpha. I gotta-- I gotta move towards the back so it doesn’t crush when it lands. You got this part?”

“Not even a little bit.” Wade stated calmly. “But we both know I’ll regenerate from being squashed flat, and no one on the bus will, so you do what you gotta do.”

Christ it was excruciating trying to hold onto even just part of the bus as Peter inched his way further down the underside of it, holding it as steady as he could and having Wade scoot along behind him until the front wheels touched. It was easier after that without all twelve tons on their arms, but Wade’s arms were still shaking by the time they made it to the back wheels, his back aching and wings trembling with the effort of holding what his Omega made look so easy.

“Out.” Wade ordered when it was just him underneath the rear wheels. “Get out from beneath this thing and hold it from the other side.”

“I’m fine, Alpha.” Peter shook his head. “This could drop on you the second I let go and I’m not doing that.”

“I’ve come back from being splatted by far worse.” The Alpha said firmly. “One day I’ll tell you about my first run in with fuckin’ Colossus, but first you need to get out from under here. I’ll hold it for a few seconds while you get situated and if you have to vacuum me up and let me reassemble in the apartment, that’s just how it’s going to be.”

“God, you’re gross, some days I don’t know why I like you..” Peter’s feathers shook uncertainly as he tried to time the maneuver. “Okay, I’m only going to let go for like three seconds alright?”

“Get going before the kids start screaming again.” Wade retorted, so the Omega dashed away and for three endless seconds he really thought his back was going to shatter, he really thought his legs would give out or his arms would fall right the hell off. It was the longest three seconds of the Alpha’s life and just when he thought he couldn’t take it half a breath more, Peter was holding the rear bumper again, shouting for Wade to roll out from beneath it so he could put it down.

Freedom.

The kids inside the bus started cheering the second the wheels were down, but Wade wasn’t listening and even if he had been listening, he didn’t care.

All he cared about was the way Peter was looking at him right now. The Omega had set the bus down then ran for the shadows of the alley where he could tear his mask off and stare at Wade, chest heaving and feathers flutters and fingers pressing at the side of his neck where a bonding bite should go. When Wade met his eyes, the Omega tilted his head and parted his lips and dropped his wings submissive for just a split second in a clear invitation.

And a split second was all it took.

Wade’s entire body snapped to attention, and when his Omega turned and fled, the Alpha took off after him, tucked his charcoal wings back and tore through the shadows after his mate as Peter laughed and trilled and egged him on.

They headed east towards Peter’s apartment to get to familiar streets, and once they made it past the park, up to the roofs they went. It wasn’t really fair of Peter to use webs to get so high so fast but Wade would never complain about being able to watch his Omega fly, the beautiful body soaring through the sky, the wings stretched out and catching the sun as he swung between the buildings.

It wasn’t fair that Peter had webs, but Wade wasn’t complaining, and the Alpha just doubled his pace tearing up the stairs to get to the rooftop, bursting through doors and vaulting railings. His heart was pounding, scarred skin itching and veins crawling with feral rising red behind his eyes as Wade raced up and up and up.

His mate had almost died. His mate had almost died. My mate almost died---

“Omega!” Wade burst through the rooftop door of Peter’s building, dented the steel as he rammed into it and skidded to a stop. “Peter!”

“I’ve been waiting for you.” Peter jumped from the utility shed and landed with a light thump, tore off his mask and shucked his jacket and spread maroon wings open in an excited welcome for the Alpha. “What took you so long? Where have you been? I want you.”

Wade met him halfway across the roof, charcoal colored feathers hitching high and aggressive, eyes snapping scarlet as he grabbed for his mate and yanked him in for a brutal kiss.

“Where have you been?” Peter asked again, gasping through the kiss and scrabbling at Wade’s clothes, shoving his hands beneath the Alpha’s shirt to get to skin and moaning low, anxious when he could finally feel Wade’s heartbeat against his palm. “God, that’s good. I missed you. I know it's only been a minute but I missed you. That was incredible, we are incredible, you are incredible, I want to eat you alive.”

Peter was talking a mile a minute, walking backwards towards the wall and dragging Wade with him, crushing kiss after greedy kiss to Wade’s mouth and hissing in excitement when the Alpha’s teeth stung at his bottom lip. “Yes my Alpha, yes more of that. More of you.”

“Settle.” Wade rumbled, a damn useless word when he was no where close to settling, the liquor heady scent of turned on Omega like a shot of adrenaline to his heart, his soul, his cock. “Settle.”

“Make me.” Peter’s hands went sticky at Wade’s side and he grabbed too tight, too greedy as they kissed again and again. “Make me settle. Bite me.”

“Peter.”

“Bite me.” The Omega half purred, half growled, turning his head to bare his neck even as he used that ridiculous strength to shove Wade against the wall. “Bite me, you know you want to. You want me just as bad as I want you and we just did something incredible together and I’m half outta my mind needing you.”

“Settle.” Wade ordered again, dark feathers waving warningly in a display of dominance and a fight for self control that made the Omega whine in pleasure. “Slow down, Omega.”

“Make me.” Peters eyes were bright, his smirk nearly devious, but his honeysuckle scent twisted longing when Wade’s hands settled at his waist. “Make me settle, Alpha.”

“I—“ Christ, sometimes Wade loathed himself. “I’m not your Alpha.”

“The fuck you aren’t.” The Omega ran his tongue over his teeth, then tipped his head to the side to show off the line of his throat, lush and inviting and practically dripping with want and need and mineyoursmineyoursmate. “Bite me, you coward.”

“Bed.” Wade said, instead of saying everything else, instead of just jerking forward and cutting into the Omega’s neck to finally bond. “Bed. Now.”

“I shouldn’t let you knot me until you bite me.” Peter whispered, but he was already backing up towards the edge of the roof, already readying himself to web backwards and then twist into his bedroom window that was only a few feet below them. “I shouldn’t let you knot me until you say I’m yours but fuck, Alpha. I’m gagging for it. Gagging for you. So empty I wanna scream. Need you so bad. What we just did was incredible and I need you so bad---”

“Bed!”

*************

It was always like this.

Always Wade wondering what he’d ever done to have such a sweet Omega, such a pretty perfect Omega curled up and purring on his chest, wholly content to lay over Wade’s heartbeat and rub his adorable nose over the myriad of scars on the Alpha’s skin. Always one hand resting low on Peter’s hips and the other buried in the ridiculously fluffy hair, breathing in Peter’s pure honeysuckle scent and letting it calm the fire in his veins.

It was always like this, always Peter straddling Wade’s waist and stuck tight on his knot, rocking that gorgeous body just lightly, just enough to keep the Alpha swollen so he could stay full as long as possible. Slim fingers tracing the rougher patches of Wade’s skin, the scars and ruined pieces, then drifting up to coast gently, almost tenderly through the feathers Wade had kept away for so long, and Peter breathed in deep and exhaled slow of his Alpha’s scent as it mellowed from brittle need to caramel thick possessiveness.

I love you. Peter thought, and he knew his scent must have changed when Wade shifted beneath him and murmured, “Pretty, perfect Omega.”

It was always like this.

Always so close to enough but just not quite.

“Clint invited us to dinner at the compound tonight.” Wade said a few minutes later when he thought his Omega was maybe drifting off to sleep. “You wanna go?”

“I feel like it’s going to do ridiculous things to your ego if I tell you I’d rather get knotted again than go have dinner with the Avengers.” Peter mumbled, and the Alpha’s wings shook with his laughter. “So I guess we better go. Clint’s been asking for months.”

“Yeah, he really has.” Wade smoothed his rough palm down Peter’s back and patted lightly at the Omega’s rear. “Should we put some clothes on?”

“Definitely not. Let’s definitely go naked to meet my personal hero Iron Man and his harem of demi-gods and super soldiers and non powered but still terrifying mates.” Peter yawned and snuggled in closer. “Definitely not putting pants on for that.”

“Brat.” Wade left a quick swat on Peter’s butt, but he couldn’t help an adoring rumble when the Omega only kissed over his heart. “...I guess we could be pants-less for a few more minutes.”

************

From the outside, the Stark compound upstate looked like exactly that-- a compound. Towering gray walls and not one but two different fences that ensured no one would risk a climb over or cut through without suffering serious electric shock and probably a dangling appendage or two. A deceptively grassy campus with a landing pad that came up from beneath the tennis courts, an underground tunnel system that led to the pools and a state of the art laboratory buried in a bunker that would withstand a nuclear blast. A security system that scanned Wade and Peter not once, not twice but three different times before they even made it through the initial foyer and to the bolted security doors that led to the living areas.

But past the foyer, past the security systems and uncomfortably prison like appearance, through the windowless hingeless doors that either slid back into the walls to welcome someone or slid shut on their bodies to crush them flat, past one more full body scan that ended with a palm imprint machine that collected fingerprints and most likely a trace DNA sample--- past all that, the Stark compound transformed into a gorgeous home full of the scent of happiness, of love and affection, and of family.

“Ho ho holy shit.” Wade breathed as they suddenly stood in an entry way that arched up at least thirty feet, beautiful windows and graceful, artistic architecture lines, and a running length of carpet so plush he sort of wanted to lay in it. “Look at this thing. Who knew Upstate Alzatraz was a posh palace inside?”

“This is crazy.” Peter picked up a picture from the mantle, wings lifting curiously when he saw Black Widow super spy Natasha Romanoff hanging off of Captain America, laughing and clearly drunk, wearing a ridiculously sequined tux for what was apparently the ball dropping party in Times Square the last New Years Eve. “This is Natasha Romanoff drunk with Captain America. This one is Air Force Colonel James Rhodes wearing the worlds ugliest Christmas sweater. Here’s Tony with the Winter Soldier and uh--”

The Omega peered a little closer at the picture, “The prettiest baby I’ve ever seen, look at her Alpha, she’s adorable.”

“That’s Maria, the prettiest girl in any room anywhere in the world, and the tiniest thing capable of bringing Iron Man, the former Winter Soldier and an actual God of Mischief to their collective knees with one gummy smile.”

Pepper Potts was ridiculously pretty as she hurried towards Wade and Peter, her pale pink wings surrounding her like a halo as she reached to shake first Wade’s hand, then Peter’s. “Honestly, it’s almost embarrassing. She rumbled in her diaper the other day and then laughed about, and I thought Loki was going to faint. You’ve never seen a Trickster God fumble to magic up a camera and take a picture so fast in your life.”

“Right.” Wade wasn’t sure if he was dumbfounded because of the unexpected information, or dumbfounded because Ms. Potts was just so elegant. “Sure that’s-- yep. Trickster god, cameras, that all makes sense.”

“It doesn’t make sense.” She corrected with a quiet laugh. “But stick around and you’ll see Lo and Bucky and Tony going absolutely ga-ga for Maria isn’t even the most unbelieving thing to happen on any given day with our family. Now come along, it’s just about time for dinner and you still have to meet everyone, come on.”

The beautiful Omega turned around on sky high heels and hurried down the hall towards the rest of the compound, and Peter and Wade trailed along behind her, eyes wide as they took in the myriad of family pictures on the wall, the intricate AI system control panels set out on a platform by a set of stairs, and as they neared what was apparently the dining room, Peter reached for Wade’s hand nervously as they drew closer to an astonishing amount of noise coming from behind the huge double doors.

“Don’t be nervous.” the Alpha sounded nervous even as he pressed at Peter’s palm. “It’s fine. Clint invited us, the apparent Queen right there seems to think we’re welcome so--”

“Any friend of Mr. Barton’s is welcome in our compound.” came a voice from the ceiling, and Wade instinctively grabbed for a gun at his waist, Peter instinctively clamped his hand down on the Alpha’s wrist so Wade wouldn’t fire at the hidden speakers, and Pepper turned around with a knowing smile and comforting trill of her tongue.

“Ah, sorry about that. JARVIS is just as much a part of our family as everyone else and if you aren’t listening for the click before he speaks, it can be quite startling.”

“Mr. Wilson I suggest you think twice about a weapon.” the AI continued, and the Alpha immediately put both hands up to show that he had reached for the non existent weapon purely out of habit. Peter had insisted on no guns and Wade never told his Omega no about anything other than heat, so he was here gunless and the AI needn’t need worry.

“The last person to pose a threat to my family died in quite horrible fashion, and in the time since my systems have been upgraded to be un-over-rideable.” JARVIS intoned, and Peter turned wide eyes towards Pepper, who only lifted one slender shoulder in a shrug. “Rest assured I will decorate these walls with you and your mate should you think to bring any danger those who reside here.”

“When Clint extended the invitation, he was very adamant that neither Mr. Wilson nor his Omega mate would bring a weapon to our home.” Pepper assured the AI. “But thank you all the same, J.”

“Christ.” Wade had to work hard to get his wings down by his shoulders again, the instinct to shove his Omega behind his back and outright challenge the machine for inadvertently threatening them hard to ignore. “I thought robot butlers were supposed to be polite, not homicidal.”

“JARVIS’s algorithm allows him to change and adapt to new scenarios that present themselves and with this family, a new scenario presents itself daily.” Pepper typed in a code and the double doors swished open. “With the recent addition of Baby Maria, the soon to be addition of Baby James and our Omega Clint so newly expecting, JARVIS is picking up on elevated stress levels from our Alpha and adjusting himself accordingly. He sprayed Thor with fire extinguisher foam the other day because the God of Thunder has one volume setting-- loud-- and Baby Maria was napping.”

“The AI sprayed the God of Thunder with foam because the baby was napping?”

“Tony has an Allowable Decibel Protocol and Thor is in constant violation. It wasn’t the first time he was sprayed and it won’t be the last.” Another one of those shrugs, and Pepper adjusted her always perfect hair and smiled, sweeping her arm out to encompass the dining area and living room of the compound. “Welcome to our home, gentleman. You’ll have to forgive our chaos, I’d say it’s unusual, but it’s really really not.”

“Uh--” Wade raised non existent eyebrows as an absolute beefcake of a blonde strode with golden wings strode by with a wing-less scientist at his side. “Sure?”

“Thor.” Pepper reached out and snagged the blond’s arm and tugged him back. “Thor, come here and meet a new friend of the family.”

“My Lady Pepper.” Thor was massive, purely Alpha from the incredible golden wing span to the lightning flashing in his eyes, but he was downright delicate as he bent and kissed Pepper’s hand. “How are you today?”

“Wonderful, darling thank you.” Pepper turned a little pink, then motioned to Peter and Wade. “These are friends of Clint’s-- the Alpha Wade Wilson and his mate, Peter Parker.”

“The one even Hel rejects, and the child with webs!” Thor nearly crushed Wade’s hand in an enthusiastic shake, his greeting for Peter quite a bit gentler but just as boisterous. “Of course! Our Omega Clint spoke highly of you! You must meet my love, Bruce.”

The huge wings flicked out and just lightly brushed against the scientist, who came forward enough to just nod at the two of them. “Mr. Wilson.” Bruce adjusted his glasses and took a closer look at Wade’s skin, then turned to Peter. “Mr. Parker. Tony showed me the video footage of your abilities. If you don’t mind, I’d love to ask you some questions over dinner.”

“Sure.” Peter was staring even as he took a step back into his Alpha and sheltered beneath Wade’s tattered wings. “You’re Bruce Banner.”

“Ah.” Bruce cleared his throat. “Yes, I am Bruce Banner. The uh--”

“I’ve read every paper you ever wrote on gamma radiation theory and particle physics.” the Omega blurted. “and when I first got my powers I actually used one of your equations to measure the absolute mass of my strength considering my relative size to that of several different spiders and the potential effects if could have on my metabolism and regeneration abilities. Your study into meta humans and mutations as a force of nature and not a mistake is incredible. I know you don’t tour and teach anymore, but now that you’ve set up virtual classes, I’ve subscribed to as many as I can afford at a time. You are incredible.”

“Indeed, my love is incredible.” Thor’s feathers flicked forward again, but this time it was towards Peter in gratitude, a hand over his heart and head bowed in respect to Wade as Peter’s Alpha so the gesture wouldn’t seem flirty. “I tell him in Asgard he would be worshipped as a deity of intellect, but he refuses to return home with me to find out!”

“It’s nice to be appreciated for more than ah--” Bruce adjusted his glasses again and sent another curious look towards Wade, his expression dimming towards empathy and sadness when he saw the ruined wings. “For more than my ability to level an entire city. Welcome to our home, Peter and Wade. I look forward to further conversation.”

“Thor, is there any word on when the Queen Mother will arrive?” Pepper queried, and the Alpha shook his head, let his wings out so they rested gently over Bruce’s shoulders. “I am trying to prepare, but to be honest I’m not sure how to prepare for the queen and goddess of Asgard and her Valkryie guards to touch down here in the compound.”

“My mother will arrive when she decides it is time to arrive.” Thor declared. “She was raised by witches, and her grasp of time eludes me. She knows the exact moment Steve will require her healing, and that is when she will arrive.”

“You’re no help.” Pepper sighed and blew them a kiss, then grabbed for Peter’s hand and pulled the pair further into the room. “Tony is absolutely beside himself with excitement to meet a Valkyrie. I’m still wondering if I’ll have to have a stable built for a Pegasus!”

“Right.” Peter sent his Alpha a disbelieving look. “A Pegasus. That’s normal.”

“Oh Bucky, my love!” Pepper waved and switched directions. “Come meet someone new.”

“Oh I think Bucky and I are fine knowing the people we know.” the Omega that spoke for the former Winter Soldier was shockingly beautiful, pale skin and jade green eyes, long black hair and a tunic cut clear to their navel. A deep voice and near sneer on ruby red lips, but oddly enough their expression was full on adoring as they stared down at the chubby baby in their arms, waving their right hand above the baby’s head to make snowflakes dance in the air. “Why would we want to meet anyone else when our entire world rises and falls with this beauty?”

“Be nice, Lo.” Former Winter Soldier and 1940′s super soldier Bucky Barnes was all soft smiles for Pepper, his left arm gleaming as he reached to pull her into a hug and accept a kiss from the other Omega. “We gotta teach Maria to be acceptin’ of others, you know that.”

“I know that I will raise her to be treated as a Queen and to accept nothing but pure adoration from the lesser, unwashed masses.” Loki sniffed, but their multicolored wings raised high in interest as they looked Peter and Wade over. “You must be Clint’s friends, then?”

“Where is the ol’ Bird Boy?” Wade wanted to know, quickly cataloguing any danger present in the two potentially volatile Omegas and just as quickly deciding that neither Loki nor Bucky were going to make any threatening moves. “He invited us up and now he’s nowhere to be seen?”

“M’sure he’s up with our Alpha gettin’ spoiled.” Bucky pushed shoulder length hair out of his eyes and tucked dangerous looking wings back out of the way before he shook Peter’s hand, and then Wade’s. “Good to know you. Clint talks about you alot.”

“All bad I’m sure.” Wade joked, and the big Omega’s eyes flickered with something almost irritated before he answered, “Nobody talks bad about anybody here.”

“He was kidding, Omega.” the newcomer to the conversation was one Beta Natasha Romanoff, tiny but unbelievably fierce, red hair and snow white wings that she brushed over Loki, over Bucky and then extended warily in welcome to Peter and Wade. “The Alpha was only kidding, weren’t you Wade?”

“Natasha.” Wade had ran into Natasha once or twice, events that usually ended with him getting his ass handed to him courtesy of the most terrifying ballerina in the world. If he hadn’t loved Peter so damn much, the Alpha was sure he’d be head over heels for the notorious Beta. Hell, maybe he was head over heels and judging by the smirk of Natasha’s perfect mouth, she was well aware. “Uh, sure I was kidding.”

“Pretty Omega.” Natasha’s smirk slid into a genuine smile as she opened her wings further for Peter, and the other Omega opened maroon feathers in a greeting as well. “Welcome to our home. The twins are excited to meet you, Pietro is crawling out of his skin ready to have another boy to talk to. Your company will give poor Wanda a break, she wants to dote on Clint all the time and Pietro is hilariously terrible about sharing any sort of attention.”

“Twins.” Peter repeated. “Right. Wanda and Pietro Maximoff--”

“--Barton Stark.” she finished. “And if you think the house is chaotic now, just wait till the Queen Mother arrives with her Valkyrie guard.”

“Yes, Natasha is very excited to meet the Valkyrie, aren’t you love?” Pepper’s suppressant muted scent lightened with teasing and happiness and Natasha play growled at her, ducking in close to kiss her full on the lips and murmur, “Never as excited as I am to kiss you, darling.”

Bucky just smiled at the display and with one last wondering look at Wade, led his Omega partner and Baby Maria away to find a place to eat.

“Pep, glad I found you.” Before Natasha had even pulled all the way away and before Wade or Peter could ask if the Trickster God and former Winter Soldier were honestly raising a baby together, United States Air Force Colonel James Rhodes came to join them.

The Alpha was a sight to behold decked out in military dress, royal blue wings held high as he bent to kiss Pepper on the mouth just as enthusiastically as Natasha had. Wade sent his Omega a curious look, and Peter just shrugged a little, but his smile stretched wide as the air soaked with happy Omega scent and protective, content Alpha as the Colonel rumbled something soft and sweet to Pepper.

“You’re leaving before dinner?” Pepper asked when they parted, and James sighed through an explanation of, “I have to run. I’m supposed to be halfway across the country right now, and I got caught up trying to help Tony string light in Baby James’s room. I’ll be home again tomorrow.”

“We spent all day yesterday stringing lights!” Natasha threw her hands and wings up and the Colonel only laughed, “Apparently they weren’t the exact right shade of not quite white, so Tony ordered more!”

“Of course he did.” Pepper sighed and patted at the Colonel’s arm. “Alright love, I’ll see you tomorrow. Text me tonight.”

“Of course.” Rhodey straightened back up, sent Wade a quickly discerning look but didn’t so much as tense up before offering Peter a smile. “Sorry to run out like this, I usually like to be home whenever someone new comes along but the world needs saving. Another time, Mr. Wilson. Mr. Parker.”

“Colonel.” Wade snapped a salute just because his days in Special Forces had left some deeply ingrained habits. “Another time.”

Pepper watched with an endlessly fond smile as Rhodey hurried out the door, and turned back to Peter and Wade with an expectant smile. “Shall we move on? This is only half the family.”

“So this is normal chaos for you?” Peter finally asked as they picked seats out at the huge table, and the other Omega just scrunched her nose and nodded. “So what’s un-normal chaos for you?”

“If you come by next week, you’ll find out when Frigga arrives.” Pepper reached for a bottle of wine and passed it to Wade to open. “She insisted on coming to be there for Steve’s labor and delivery. Baby James isn’t Thor’s child, but since that Alpha is hopelessly in love with the Captain, he’s been just as bad as Tony with fussing and preparing.”

“That was an insane sentence.” Peter said slowly, scooting his chair closer to Wade and snuggling in under the Alpha’s wings. “You know that’s an insane sentence, right? Thor the demi-god’s mom the Queen of Asgard is coming to help with Captain America’s baby even though it’s not Thor’s baby, it’s Iron Man’s baby and also, Bruce Banner the Hulk hangs out too?”

Pepper muffled an understanding smile. “Just wait till you meet everyone else. That isn’t even the weirdest sentence you can say about our family. Not even close.”

And the beautiful Omega certainly wasn’t kidding.

Dinner in the oversized dining room was the sort of crazy that usually only happened in holiday comedy films, with everyone reaching over everyone else, a truly insane amount of food and an even more insane amount of desserts.

The almost comically pregnant Steve was doted on by Thor, by Bruce, by Tony and Clint, and then Clint in turn was doted on by Natasha and the gorgeous Beta Sam, Tony and Bucky, who kept turning to make sure the mercurial Loki was settled and happy and playing with Baby Maria who was being snuck sweet treats by no less than half a dozen people, including the astonishing twins Wanda and Pietro and an elderly gentleman the twins affectionately called grandfather.

The Alpha Tony was handsome enough to make both Peter and Wade sit up and take notice, and even though the massive wings flickered curiously in Wade’s direction, Tony had nothing but smiles and welcoming words for the newcomers before he moved on to see his family.

The entire event was overseen by Pepper who quickly and efficiently dished out plates, made sure there was always a wine bottle open and plenty of water and juice for the expecting Omegas and in between doing everything, she also managed to answer each of Peter’s questions about their family, and also to assure Wade that they weren’t intruding, honestly this wasn’t even a full house for them yet, they should see it at Christmas time.

It was wild and chaotic and homey all at the same time. Almost overwhelming with all the combined scents but almost unbearably cozy too. Wade couldn’t hardly breathe through the scent of so many Alphas, but the sugar sweet contentment from the Omegas and the balanced but happy Beta’s lessened the deluge until he could finally relax his shoulders and take a few bites.

Peter was fascinated by it all-- by the expecting Omegas and their over attentive mates, by the way everyone looked to Tony for answers and approval while the family Alpha himself looked to all of them for guidance and opinions and help.

There was so much laughter, ringing around the room as they ate from each other’s plates. There was so much love, showing through every interaction and quick smile. And more than that, what brought Wade to almost uncomfortable and uncertain, wings fluttering and eyes flicking red if he wasn’t careful--

-- there was so much acceptance. So much acceptance and adoration between everyone at the table that it was almost too much.

Wade had been shunned his entire life, first by his abusive father and then by society in general when his tendencies ran towards feral. It had made him an excellent soldier but after Vanessa and after the accident that ripped his mutation out from beneath his skin and tore his wings to shreds, Wade was only an excellent monster, used to hiding in the shadows and turning away from too prying an eye.

He didn’t hide from Peter though, and when Clint finally did see them and came running over to excitedly sign through an also spoken conversation, Wade thought maybe he didn’t have to hide here either.

There was just so much acceptance and it showed through in thousand different touches between the family members. No one shied away from Bucky’s dangerous wings or silver fingers, no one looked twice when Loki magicked a knife out of mid air to cut the baby’s food into smaller bites. Thunder literally rolled around the room when Thor laughed at something Steve said, and in the same motion the huge Alpha shifted only the barest bit closer to Bruce who clearly was mostly touch averse.

Pepper was wearing suppressants, Natasha’s eyes flared wide in a moment of panic when wine spilled blood red on her hands but Sam grabbed a napkin and cleaned it up before kissing her gently, and where Clint lay snuggled up against the family Alpha, he kept one hand lightly over the blue reactor sat in Tony’s chest.

They were a family of misfits, of odd edges and unwanted souls but here gathered in the dining room there wasn’t a single person out of place.

Incredible.

“There’s room here for you and your mate.” The Alpha Tony found Wade sometime after dinner when everyone had helped carry dishes away and then the entire family made its way to the common area to relax. Wade was still brooding, still watching every interaction with narrowed eyes, his shoulders set and wings tense as if he was just waiting for the pin to fall, the other shoe to drop, someone to snap and start a fight because isn’t that what family’s did?

“If you’d like to stay, I mean.” Tony finished, and the other Alpha tore his attention back from watching the room.

“Tonight?” Wade couldn’t help shifting a step away from Tony, tucking his wings in closer out of habit and pulling his sleeves down a little further on his wrists. “Uh, thanks. I’ll think about it.”

Tony’s dark eyes flicked down to track Wade’s movement, then warmed in sympathy and before Wade could wonder why, the Alpha pulled his own shirt down a little and showed him the devastation over his sternum and around the bright glow of his arc reactor. “You know, one thing you’ll figure out pretty quick about this family is that we are all scarred. We’re all messed up one way or another but we don’t have to hide, alright? I’m sure there’s more years than I can imagine of you hiding your skin or keeping your wings away from people, but you don’t have to do that here.”

Wade’s eyes flickered red uncomfortably, and Tony shook his head. “I don’t mean to put you on the spot or anything like that, but my Omega mate Clint told me quite a bit about you and your mate and I just want you to know, you don’t have to hide here. Pepper might do that thing where she gets nosy and overly helpful and tries to find the perfect lotion to help with your skin, and Natasha gets super protective over the more vulnerable people in our family, but the last thing anyone is going to do is judge or stare or--”

Tony waved his hand idly. “--or anything like that. Thor’s mother Frigga is considered a great healer, he already suggested maybe she might help if you want. If you want. Or if your mate wants.”

“Peter isn’t--”

“I used to try and figure out how to change my feathers back to their original colors after my accident.” Tony continued on, brushing off Wade’s token denial. “But my Omega mates practically rioted over me changing anything about how I looked, so I let it go. They wanted me for who I am now, I’m sure Peter is the same way with you.”

“Uh--” Wade just kept staring, cos out of all the things he’d expected from dinner with the Avengers in their cult-compound-thing, full acceptance and quite a bit of warmth from Tony freaking Stark wasn’t really it. “---okay?”

“You still look sort of shell shocked, and I get it. We can be a lot to take in.” the other Alpha said mildly, then smiled and motioned to where Peter was talking excitedly with Wanda and Pietro, and laughed out loud when Pietro let his electric blue wings out and Peter fell off the couch in shock. “And I know Peter has his Aunt May as family, but I’m serious. You and your mate are welcome here. There’s room, plenty of room and if there isn’t room, I’ll just build on. It’s not a problem.”

“Th-- thank you.” Wade said slowly, and this time he meant it. “I dunno how I feel about your team, but I know Pete really wants to give this whole thing a try. He always complains about being a lone web slinger, so we could give it a shot. And at least if we start coming around, you guys will look out for him if anything happens to me.”

“According to the most recent rumours, nothing can happen to you.” Tony cocked a knowing eyebrow and Wade shrugged it off. “Along the same subject lines, I heard you and your mate caught a bus today.”

“Peter caught a bus.” Wade corrected. “I was just there to look pretty.”

Tony chuckled softly. “That’s how I feel half the time with my family. I feel like I’m only dangerous with my suit on, but everyone else is incredible. Even the non super powered members of my family are super heroes in their own right.”

And then softer, the Alpha’s scent warming with adoration, “It’s humbling to realize our mates could literally choose anyone in the world as theirs, and for some reason, they chose us.”

“Yeah, I hear that.” Wade ran his hand over his bare scalp self consciously. “Feels like that every day with Pete.”

“Clint says you don’t refer to Peter as your mate, but I noticed you haven’t really corrected any of us who assumed and Peter didn’t seem to mind.” Tony raised his wings curiously. “Should I spread the word that you have a preference?”

Wade nodded, then shook his head, then hunched his shoulders and cleared his throat, cleared it one more time before he managed to ask, “How uh-- how did you know it was time to make your bond official with your Omegas? I know you’ve got something with everyone in here, but your Omega mates specifically. How did you know it was time?”

“I don’t know how much you know about what happened to me in Afghanistan?” Tony paused, and Wade shook his head. “Well it wasn’t great. I went overseas one man, came back a different man and it took a long time to feel like myself again. I knew it was time to bond with my mates when I looked at them and saw home. Bonding with them was like Coming Home, and that’s how I knew it was right.”

“Coming home.” Wade repeated. “That easy?”

“It was that easy.” Tony said emphatically. “The day I looked at them and felt like I was home, I knew it was time to bond with them. Everything else after was just making it all legally official. Adopting the twins, drawing up beneficiary paperwork-- details. It was about finding our broken edges and fitting them together and calling it home and then everything was alright.”

“Huh.” Wade thought back to how broken he’d been after Vanessa, how his wings had shredded, his skin destroyed as the mutation progressed, how the darkness had crept in tinted red at the edges of his vision--

--and how meeting Peter had been like sunshine and fresh air and like home in the middle of a storm he used to pray would kill him.

“But.” Tony reached out and put a friendly hand on Wade’s shoulder, not shying away from the dark feathers, not flinching over the roughness of the other Alpha’s skin beneath his shirt. “You and Peter are clearly soul bonded, so there’s no rush. That Omega isn’t going anywhere, it’s obvious in the way he looks at you, the way his scent changes.”

“Soul bonded.” Wade tried for a smile. “Never thought I’d be taking mate advice from Tony Stark.”

“Trust me when I saw weirder things have happened.” The other Alpha raised his wings in response to Sam calling for him. “Think about what I said, alright? There’s room for you and Peter here. Clint knows and trusts you, and I trust him to only bring the right people to our home, so consider yourself welcome. I mean it.”

Welcome.

Home.

Acceptance.

The later evening found Wade in one of the recliners in the huge common area, his Omega half asleep on his lap as a movie played quietly in the background.

Tony’s unorthodox family was scattered all around the living room-- Pepper tucked into a sofa with Natasha, pink and white wings mingling affectionately. Thor took up an entire couch with Steve on his lap and only a few of his feathers resting on Bruce’s leg. Wanda and Pietro sat on either side of Clint, signing through their conversation and teasing each other like only siblings did. Tony was already asleep with his head in Sam’s lap, the Beta’s wings spread protective and close over the family Alpha, while Bucky and Loki lay on the floor so Baby Maria could crawl between them and babble and wave her fists at the television. Yinsen was working on his tablet, Colonel Rhodes was the reason Pepper’s phone kept lighting up with text messages, and the entire room was full of the scent of family.

Of home, of acceptance, of mates and love and open adoration.

It was…. beautiful… in a way Wade hadn’t expected to find, and the unexpected beauty gave him the courage to nudge his Omega just lightly, just gently.

“Wade?” Peter blinked those big eyes up at him, shifted so his maroon wings covered them both a little more. “What’s up? Are you ready to go?”

“No.” Wade swallowed hard and brushed his rough fingers over Peter’s cheek, melting to his very soul when Peter turned his nose into his palm and purred sweetly. “But um-- I’m ready.”

“Ready.” Peter repeated. “Ready for what?”

“I’m ready.” the Alpha pressed his thumb purposefully into Peter’s bonding spot. “Ready.”

“Oh.” The Omega’s honeysuckle scent flooded with pure happiness, and his voice was whisper soft as he answered, “I’m ready too Alpha my Alpha. Always.”

-- and across the room, Pietro elbowed Wanda sharply and hissed/signed, “Does this mean I have to listen to bonding sex through my wall!? Their room is right next to mine! It’s not fair! I won’t get any sleep at all!”

Wanda put her head in a pillow to muffle her laughter, and Pietro just crossed his arms and huffed at her.

This family was crazy.

*************

Chapter Notes:

It’s general canon that Peter Parker Spidey can lift between 10-12 tons easily, and a standard sized school bus weighs about 12 tons so that’s why I chose that particular scene. That and the scene in SM: HC where Peter complains about Tony treating him like a kid and Ned is like “you are a kid” and Peters like “yeah, one that can catch a school bus!” I just thought it was funny.

I will never not love Wade seeing whole hearted acceptance and unconditional love and finally realizing “I am deserving of this” and I will never not love Peter being so happy and willing to give Wade absolutely everything.

Also HEY Let’s talk about literally terrifying Jarvis! I feel like he’s been getting more and more human in my stories lately and I regret nothing. If this Tony was going to design an AI to protect his family, I don’t think issuing threats about blowing baddies’ brains out would be that out of character, yes? Yes.

SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE FIC!

***************

@ships-galore @ceealaina @izziebladez @cwar1864 @hausoffro @tonystarkisanangel @multishippinglife @girlnic @iam93percentstardust @paranormalmoonlight5 @igotloki @moosette05 @wayward-student-philosopher @kaz-brekkers-gloves @atomicfandombomb @1fuckingshitup69 @agentlokii @livewire28 @tulipsnbigcats @kimstark @alex-stark-rogers @bibbarnes @heeeyitskay @goindownshipping @quietgayguy @nanita90a @justaniche

#ncts fics #spideypool #peter parker #wade wilson #abo dynamics #poly avengers #alpha wade wilson #omega peter parker #alpha tony stark #found family

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alicia-kingdom · 3 years

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Outsider

Straight from my new obsession, the tv series “Outlander” only weirder and with less sense.

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The mission went wrong, extremely wrong. Great! Another thing her father would hold against her.

It was a pretty simple mission, just recognition and search if possible, an old temple where rumors said people have gone missing, both civils and shinobis alike. The latest was a Nara woman and a little Yamanaka girl. While not entirely serious, they were part of Konoha, which means the search was on the list even if the Hokage didn't explicitly say so.

So...how a simple mission turns this fucking deadly? Well, it seems Konoha citizens weren´t the only ones going missing. A few Mitsu ninjas were giving the same orders, and of course, there had to be a fucking fight. God forbids a simple and peaceful encounter.

What is wrong with men and their need to prove superior? Was it so hard to just ignore one and another?

Oh! but that's not all! May the heaves fall upon them for wishing a little bit of normality. While Mitsu ninjas were dangerous, they weren't entirely hostile towards them...but then Iwa ninjas had to come, and...well...they couldn't miss the chance to kidnap the useless and weak Hyuuga ex-heiress, Hyuuga Hinata.

"I do hate that" thought bitterly Hinata. Her whole life those words follow her without mercy. Useless. Weak. Scared.

Well, know what?! FUCK THEM ALL! SORRY FOR BEEN HUMAN!!

She was tired, her chakra was almost nonexistent and her body arched like never before. Those Iwa-ninjas sure give honor to their village name. Hard as rocks. She had to hide NOW. She can't fight but she can't surrender either. She was in her last wits and that annoying vibrating sound was just making her more annoyed. What the hell was that anyway? Somehow, that sound was annoying and disturbing...but it felt like it was calling her. Demanding her to reach for it.

Well, today she did not care for prudence or shyness. She is tired, hungry, sleep deprave, menstruating, and annoyed. That was a VERY bad combination for a Huuyga. Actually, that was a very dangerous combination for ANY women.

Sending her inner sweet voice straight to hell, she followed that annoying sound.

Why?

She may have many reasons as she may have none of them.

This may be a mistake just like the solution. After a few minutes of search, she found a strange circle of rocks. Huh? She has never seen those before. These rocks were located on top of a hill, tall enough to see all the land surrounding her, and yet have enough trees to keep her hidden from Iwa. If she ignores that sound, then this could be the perfect place to hide.

But again, her eyes keep her chain to her clan. If she was any other person, she personally would give her own eyes to this god-damn ninjas. Maybe this way she can find her so much desired freedom.

This place was truly beautiful, around the hill, purple flowers grow without restraint. They were free, giving the place a more peaceful aura. The perfect place indeed. She kneeled to touch those lovely and curious-looking fowers. They were so funny, looking like taken from a fairytale. Those told by her mother a long time ago, wherefrom a flower a small creature appeared to be your companion, your friend, your guide and, the face of your true soulmate. A soul center. Ah, such fairytales she still remembers, wishing so much she could find her own, to have someone loyal by her side, tide to her by her or his own wish and not by her father's orders. Have evidence that she was worth something to someone out there. That she was loved.

Of course, everything was just a fairy tale. Life was cruel and hard. Everything must be earned, nothing is for free.

Suddenly, she felt a strong grip on her arm, forcing her to turn around and her body slammed hard against one of the rocks. Damn, that hurt like hell. She was truly getting tired of been shoved off and slam against shit.

"So, this is where you were, little princess". said one ninja from Iwagakure. He had red hair, blue eyes, and a nasty scar that runs from his left ear all the way to his right eye. She could tell, a little more and he would have lost his eye. "So much trouble to find you...such a shame, such a beauty had to go to waste. If things were different, I would certainly...enjoyed you a little more." said creepily the man, his smile lewd and his blue eyes shining with raw lust.

They had fought a fucking Ninja War side by side, and yet these greedy bastards can't get the fucking message of peace. His hand touched her cheek sweetly but his hands were hard, like all ninjas, including hers. That hand personally offended her.

Out of nowhere, a chilling and cold aura appeared, surrounding them, suffocating them. Sending shivers down her spine. This thing, this sensation...was killing intent, demand blood be spilled but not her blood. It sound funny, but it seems this...thing was angry at the man and not her.

Fight. Demand. Survive.

What?

Fight. Demand. Survive.

She doesn´t get it.

Fight. Demand. Survive.

FIGHT. DEMAND.SURVIVE.

In a second, her body felt so full of energy and adrenaline, her mind wild as a lion, hungry for freedom, for power, for recognition.

She was Hyuuga Hinata. From the Hyuuga Clan. Daughter from Hyuuga Hikari. Sister of Hyuuga Hanabi, the Hyuuga Heir. Byuakugan Princess. Descendant from Hamura, the Shinigami.

She fought and survive the Fourth Ninja War. She was acknowledged by Uchiha Madara himself (not important he acknowledge more Naruto's impressive usage of Kurama Chakra than her own power, but still counts).

She REFUSES to let a lowly iwa ninja hurt her, touche her. She DEMANDS respect. She WILL FIGHT.

From her hands, the huge amount of purple chakra surfaced, forming lion-shape fist. Her famous gentle step: Twin Lion Fists. She attacked without mercy, she will show no mercy.

So surprised by the killing intent on the air, the man did not stand a chance by the wild chakra Hinata had been knocked down by a simple hit. Once assured the man was unconscious, her body fell to the ground, on her knees. Suddenly, all her adrenaline and energy disappeared...it was as if she just borrowed it and now she had to give it back. Well, at least she was sure this man would not cause trouble for another 48 hours, enough time for her to recover a little enough to tide him up later. She allowed her body to rest in the stone wall, she was truly tired.

Sleep, my moon. I will watch for you.

That voice again. This time it was warm and soft, secured and kind. Well, she was going made by exhaustion. Another thing for her father to have against her. This time, she did as ordered, her stubbornness locked away again. She had more things to worry about. She felt her body relax, her breathing even out slowly and her eyes closing. She could swear she saw another figure coming towards her. Maybe it was her team to rescue her, or the man's team to kidnap her. At this point, she doesn´t care.

So tired, she could swear she felt a warm, soft hand touch her cheek with kindness, like if she was made out of glass.

Sleep my moon, soon we will meet again.

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#indrahina #Indra Ootsutsuki #hinata hyuuga #fanfic #naruto shippuden fanfic #Indrahina Fanfic #time travel #alternate universe #adventure #romance #comedy #future ships

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elenajohansenreads · 3 years

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Books I Read in 2021

#83 - Shadowmarch, by Tad Williams

Mount TBR: 69/100

Beat the Backlist Bingo: Cover features your favorite color prominently

Rating: 1/5 stars

Well, that was a slog.

So I have a history with this piece of intellectual property. I was introduced to Williams as an author in college (1998) because several of the friends I made my first year were big fantasy nerds--no surprise there--and I was perfectly ready to move on from my high-school-era love of less sophisticated fantasy authors. I borrowed The Dragonbone Chair from one of those friends and off I went.

So in 2001 when news about Williams writing an online serial went around, and I saw the $15 price tag...well, I was a perpetually almost-broke college student still, and sure I spent money on books, but that was a high gateway, because a) I didn't own my own computer yet, I was borrowing friends' or using the computer lab to write papers and such; and b) sure, a chunky fantasy novel might be $7 or $8 in paperback, but it was portable, easy to reread whenever, and nobody had tablets or smartphones or e-readers yet, so an online serial publication was definitely not portable. Even fifteen dollars seemed like too much for the inconvenience of a book I could only read sitting at a computer, and couldn't read all of at once.

I was genuinely angry about this shift away from the paradigm, and much like Williams vowing this serial was online only and would never be published traditionally (which I distinctly remember but don't actually have a source for) I too vowed that I would never read it.

I held out much longer than he did, if my memory of that claim is even true. But I'm wishing now that I hadn't bothered.

This is bad. Not even close to the level of quality I expect from Williams, based on the earlier Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, as well as War of the Flowers--which was weird but I enjoyed it--and the Otherland series, which was even weirder and not always good, but yeah, I still enjoyed that too, for the most part.

Who am I supposed to care about in this book? I'm no stranger to multiple protagonists, but there are simply too many here, meaning none of them get the development time they would need to be interesting. I'm trying to wean myself from the complaint that protagonists need to be "likable," because a character can be a jerk and still be interesting, but few of these protagonists are particularly likable either!

1. Barrick is a whiny jerk who folds under pressure and abdicates responsibility to his sister, and then makes a spectacularly bad decision for no reason other than to set up some tension at the end, and his future arc. If it's because he's "mad," bad plot reason, and if it's because he's affected by the more general shadow-madness, well, I guess he could be vulnerable to it like anyone else, but that's pretty flimsy too. 2. Briony is a fairly standard "if only I weren't a woman, people would take me seriously" princess who doesn't fold as much under pressure but is dealt a really raw deal. I'll give her credit, she does legitimately try her best to rule her lands, but she's also kind of a whiny jerk like her brother, too. 3. Quinnitan is...pointless. Sure, I see how the end of her arc in this book echoes those of the Eddon twins, but there is no direct connection between her plot and anyone else's. And I mean that literally, if there's anything that ties her story to any other single part of the book, I simply do not see it, it's buried in lore or foreshadowing that was lost on me amid the sheer weight of nearly 800 pages of plodding narrative. I read all of her scenes constantly wondering why I should care, and the fact that her arc is a very basic harem plot, "I don't want to be a token wife but really what choice do I have?" sort of thing, doesn't help, because on its own it's incredibly unoriginal. 4. Chert is marginally likable, because he's arguably got the most defined personality and most personal growth in the book, as a person of a "little" race who is distinctly not human--I get a mix of gnome and dwarf, with a faint whiff of Podling from The Dark Crystal--and who deals with an unexpected foundling by taking him into his family and trying to make it work, even when that foundling is really a big blank space in the story who still manages to get into trouble. 5. Captain Vansen gets points from me for being the guardsman deep in unrequited love, which is a trope I would absolutely eat up with a spoon. The problem is, the object of that love is a protagonist I don't care for (Briony,) leading me to question what the eff he's thinking that he can even admire her from a distance, let alone be in infatuation/love. And his plot arc is mostly "something goes wrong that's not really has fault but everyone blames him anyway." Which got dull.

Chert and Vansen are most of the reason this book gets a second star*, honestly. Chert's scenes with the Rooftoppers are generally pretty excellent, even if they're mostly tied to a plot arc that I don't care for.

The other thing that's getting me about this is that it feels like a deliberately grim-dark retread of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. You've got a castle that's the seat of current government but used to belong to the enemy--the enemy that no one is sure even exists anymore, that lives in a land far enough away to feel distant but also somehow close enough to be threatening, once people believe in them again. That castle is perched upon magically important ruins/caverns, and that enemy has forms of magic/communication that affect humans and can cause or appear symptomatic of madness. There's a race of small likable people who aren't quite dwarves or any other "standard" fantasy race, but are still somehow cute/appealing. There's a crippled prince who's not really well-liked. One of the primary female protagonists is a young woman who laments the limitations of her womanhood under the patriarchal feudal system of the world.

And to someone who's never read either of these series, that list of similarities could mostly read like fairly common fantasy tropes, and I forgive anyone who reads this review and thinks that. But I've read MSaT probably ten times all the way through in the twenty-plus years since I was introduced to it, and I feel like I've just been handed the same story again, with a thick coat of gray paint slathered on it and a few details changed--and those changes are basically always for the worse. No one in this story can be said to be a direct equivalent to Simon, who gets a very clear hero's journey, but if I'm supposed to slot Barrick in as a Simon/Josua mashup (that crippled prince problem) then it takes the entire book to get Barrick out of his comfort zone and on his journey, where Simon got booted from the castle at the end of the first act of the first book.

And that gets at the underlying problem that is at least partially fueling all other problems--this book is clearly just the first act of the larger story, and yes i know! that is what first books do! but this also doesn't have a lot of forward motion on its own, and it doesn't resolve anything aside from the mystery of a single murder at that happens near the beginning. Seriously, all other plot threads get kicked down the road with the "and now they're exiles" theme that the ending has assigned to most of the protagonists. Chert doesn't suffer that fate, but the ending of his story line--also the end of the book itself--is the foundling reasserting that he doesn't know who he is, which is not new information. We've literally not known who he is the whole time, except that we do find out who his mother is, but don't find out how he was taken or why he apparently hasn't aged as much as he should have or what the Qar intended by sending him back "home." The identity of his mother is basically the least important question surrounding him.

I truly feel like I just read a 750-page prologue, and that is not a good feeling.

*Yeah, I told myself this was a two-star book, but by the time I wrote the whole review, it's not and I can't pretend I still believe that. This is a one-star book. This is so bad I don't want to go on with the series, even though it almost has to get better, now that most of our protagonists are out on their journeys. And because it could hardly get worse, right? But this already took up so much of my time (I had to take a week-long break in the middle to binge some romances, as a relief from all this grimdark toil) and even though I've managed to collect secondhand copies of the rest of the series, and they've been sitting on my shelves for a few years waiting for me to invest my energy into them...I'm giving up. Not worth it.

#booklr #book review #tad williams #shadowmarch #book photography #my photos #my reading challenges #mount tbr 2021 #beat the backlist 2021

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steve0discusses · 3 years

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The Fullmetal Alchemist Live Action Movie Part 7: More Philosopher Stones than their PC Farm Can Possibly Render

So last we left off, a bunch of weird stuff was happening. Mustang just set Envy on fire, Lust and Gluttony kind of walked up from stage left, and Ed and Hawkeye just broke out of bougie jail and barged through a chain link fence on some Jeep. Good thing Mustang is here to explain it all to us:

(FYI I am so bad at spelling homunculus. I don’t even know which way is real anymore.)

What is incredible about this movie is just how much everyone else already knows, while Ed knows freaking nothing. Also, if you know about homunculi, then you know about sorcerer stones, and you’d know about...most of the things in Fullmetal Alchemist. Assuming that Mustang, who can look at a homunculus tattoo and be like “yep that’s a homunculus” doesn’t know anything else is kind of a big leap.

This actor had fun. I legitimately enjoy the actor who plays Mustang, I really do.

Anyway, we do get a little bit more explanation at this point by going back to the part where Hughes dies and just...showing it a second time but with this extra reveal:

(see Hughes die yet again under the cut because this movie did it not just once but twice)

It’s at this point that Hughes turns to the phone and in his dying breath is like “It’s lab 5, go to the old POW camp, at lab 5” but not only did I think that the person on the line was the general (Because Hughes originally said it was the general) apparently now the person on the line is...Mustang? And that’s why Mustang knew about lab 5?

Like it’s...it’s just kind of confusing. I know this plot because I’ve seen the anime, but if you have not seen the anime beforehand or read the books, you’d be so freakin up a creek right now about why we saw this scene twice, and why it was completely different both times.

To make things even more confusing, that whole Tucker side plot is so random, that not even our baddies know what is going on with that whole Tucker side plot.

Anyway we have to give Gluttony and Envy have to do something in order to make their presence make sense. Honestly Gluttony just needs to have a single line in this movie.

Just everything is that same shiny neutral Phong. Look at all that Phong. Like other parts of this movie are passable, this was just so hilariously overlooked.

And like I dunno if this was a teeth harness or not but damn. Damn that looks stupid from the back, hahaha. He kind of lumbers slowly after these 9 dudes (same extras we’ve seen everywhere else, ps—this is still just the same guys) and it’s not all that scary because like...they can easily outrun him. The only way you can die to Gluttony is if you trip and then take a nap for a little bit.

Mustang gets hurt and it’s kind of funny how they shot it. It was actually rough to cap because they have to do so many tricks to not show us exactly what is happening, so they rely on sounds, on zooming in on people’s shocked expressions, because they Do Not Have The Budget to do more than this.

I don’t remember if this happened in the anime, too. Like from this point forward everything is kind of like “can you spot the source material?” because it’s just become so jumbled at this point.

Ed, who as you can imagine is a bundle of emotions by default, suddenly gets really protective of his mean Dad although like...we’ve barely made Mustang seem like a Father. Hell, we’ve barely made Ed seem like a kid. Why would he get weird and conflicted now?

Just the awkward teenage energy that only occasionally stems off of Ed is very unpredictable.

This is a full grown man.

Finally, we make it to Lab Number Five, the correct one this time. It’s got an alchemy circle…

It’s got a ceiling full of...zombie corpses, if you squint real good because I have to shrink all these images (Yes, they fit in the zombie corpses, but could not fit in the North or Father or Ling Yao or like anything Armstrong) It’s got everything that we need to put that nail into that Fullmetal Alchemist coffin, but ran out of time to fully explain or do.

It’s even got Al!

Yep, this is happening now, this part of the show. Ed is just having a WILD TIME trying to keep up with it and so are we.

So apparently Shou could just turn Al “off” this whole time. This explains why Al was just chilling under a blanket for 36 hours, but like...doesn’t really explain how Shou can do this or why he is bothering to do it right now.

But we need Shou because...well someone has to tell Ed what the plot is and what he should be doing at this very moment.

(Winry is here too)

So, with the threat of Winry getting shot in the head, Shou Tucker demands that Ed make it impossible to do any magic, because magic is very expensive and hard to animate. I could be wrong...but I’m pretty sure he also took off his right arm in the show at some point nearish to the end...I think? Forgive me, everything before 2020 is kind of a haze in my memory.

PS him ripping his hand off with all these sparks everywhere gave me serious Star Wars prequel vibes that I can’t explain. Something about the CGI, something about this contrived mess was like “Ah, I’ve felt this insanity before...long ago in a simpler time” and it was kind of nostalgic for me.

GOL LOOK AT THAT.

This Mickey Mouse glove just hot chilling on that sparking end. Hahaha I love it so much!

Shou just...delivers one of the most important reveals, sending Ed on a bit of a spirit journey because the stones he’s wanted for so long are actually very bad.

As you can imagine, because Ed likes to freak out, he has a big ass freak out, to top all freak outs. This actor spent like sooo much of his time just screaming at the ground. Which, I mean this is a shonen, so that checks out.

I’m just letting you know in case you decide to watch this movie and you have some epilepsy issues--skip this part. Just skip it. I don’t personally have it, but like...they went kind of extra in this part.

Now unlike the show, this movie has like...no apology for Dr Marcoh. Freakin stabbed him through the chest and was like “I don’t care if it means we can’t have the original FMA ending I freakin hate this guy” and you know...good on you, movie. Dr Marcoh was a really bad person. Thank you for not even attempting to justify this godawful man.

This crazy ass fanfiction movie.

Anyway, Shou directs Ed to look 10 feet up to get the rest of that juicy content. That Juicy FMA DLC that was within eye distance this entire time but youknow...cropped offscreen so it just didn’t exist.

Can’t believe this wasn’t the FIRST THING you’d notice when coming into this room, since Ed has been hardwired for red stones for like 10+ years. But youknow.

Anyways, we’re getting a ton of visual elements from FMA, just checking off that check list here in the last 1/3 of the movie. But wait, it gets weirder.

What I love about this is that Shou tells us all of this stuff because I guess Ed asked for Philosopher stones once, and even Shou is like...heyyy I figured it out! But like...hell would anyone even want to do this though?

Because that’s what happens when you have Shou freakin Tucker reveal the big master plan when he is not the big master. Like this explains nothing about Father, about Ed’s Dad, about the homunculi, about the corpses in the ceiling, like there’s just no explanation, other than just –“hey! Look at this atrocity I found just now!”

There is actually a horror element to that, where you don’t need to explain everything if you’re doing horror. If this were a horror movie, this would probably...be fine. You could have a fully explained movie by just saying “they turned POW camp people into rocks and now the zombies are here!” and that would be fine.

But it’s just...that isn’t this movie. I had so many expectations. And honestly...I expected way too much from 1.5 hours of content.

So Shou pulls a gun on Ed, which makes sense. Ed is lookin to make stones, and if stones are made out of people—then it’s time to kill Ed. First thing that make sense in this movie, but I don’t know if it makes sense coming from Shou freakin Tucker who made it seem like he just wanted to kill Ed because Ed got him arrested that one time.

It may have been just the translation on my end but like...Shou’s reason for pulling a gun out here was a little nonsense. But Shou himself is already a little nonsense anyway.

So we say goodbye, for the last time, being honest—he’s fully dead—he’s not coming back—to Shou Freakin Tucker. You were a mess Shou. I won’t miss you.

And if I forgot that this guy comes back, I fully apologize ahead of time, but I am 99% positive that I remembered that this guy never comes back.

(He might come back.)

And then Lust is like “Hakuro why did you do that? Like what are you even doing???”

And everyone else is like “Oh, the General. Of course. Why didn’t I uhhh….see that coming?”

Because they had to condense a whole bunch of corrupt Generals for this movie into one character, and so I guess Hakuro took it for the team?

Also these guys are here.

Just every single person standing in this room is pretty confused, as you can imagine. No one really expects to open up Volume 2 of FMA and it’s accidentally printed the last page of the entire series.

Anyway, that’s all for this 15 minutes (It was actually a little short 15 because there was ton of caps) I’m very tired because I did this workout routine with bro that was like 300 squats and I don’t know what day it is. I wrote “update blog” in my bullet journal (because it’s January, so I’m bullet journaling) so I’m just gonna do that because I want to use this green sparkly jelly pen and cross off all of today. Mm. Satisfying.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/fma/chrono

#FMA #Fullmetal alchemist the live action movie #live action #fullmetal alchemist #recap #photo recap #ed elric #al elric #though putting al as a credit in this one seems like a stretch cuz he just freakin sat there the whole time #hawkeye #colonel mustang #maes hughes #shou tucker #just can't have enough shou tucker #Can you even believe that this went so quickly when I finally just did it? Amazing. Amazing how little productivity I had last year wow.#Hopefully this year I can get this blog back up to old productivity #we'll see what happens because it's still a bit of a weird situation outside

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crasherfly · 3 years

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What the Hell is a Fumo Anyway?

So how did you learn about Fumos?

I don’t know when I first became aware of Fumos. I’d guess it came up in a stream at Spriteclub.tv, where many of the users are fans of the Touhou series, or at least its characters.

Streams tend to be ground zero for memes, and Fumos have quickly become the flagship meme of the rapidly growing Touhou community. I’m sure what happened was that one user mentioned the word Fumo, and me, being the curious soul that I am, googlged it, and the rest is history.

Since then I’ve obtained 4 of these precious plushies. I’m in the process of obtaining my 5th. I’ve posted hundreds of pictures and a few videos. I’ve dug up my old lighting kit for the first time since my old film days. I’ve made cross country trips and visited landmarks in pursuit of getting pictures of my fumos in unusual or interesting places. And in the meantime, I’ve been learning via trial and error how to become a digital personality in a way I hadn’t before.

What’s the reaction been like?

The results have been decidedly mixed- amongst the Fumo community, my pictures have traveled pretty far, racking up tons of likes and retweets, especially recently as bigger accounts started picking up my work. More engagement means I create more Fumo content, which reached a point where this was pretty much ALL my main account was dedicated to.

The negative side of this is that my IRL friends and mutuals have all but dropped off my Twitter map with the exception of a select few. Weirder still, not only have they not engaged with this latest hobby of mine, but they won’t even like, acknowledge it exists. Like, you’d think there’d be questions about what a grown dude is doing taking pictures of dolls- but nope. Nothing but silence- and a likely place on their mute lists.

But I don’t think I can blame this entirely on Fumos. The same irl people who ignore my Fumo photography also ignored my film work back when I made movies and ignored my writing when I was working on Alice and the Pale Horse. While Fumos are a bit more off the map than those hobbies were, it just goes to show that the first people you should count on for support of your art are total strangers- and the last ones you should be worried about liking your work are the people you actually know irl.

What IS wild to think about is that my fumo work has been shared more widely than anything I’ve ever written or directed. I’m finally being sorta seen! -just...not in a way I ever expected.

So why did you decide to start playing with dolls???

I’ve always liked cute stuffed things. When I was a kid I had baskets full of stuffed animals. As an adult I have tons of plushies- everything from Club Mocchi Mocchi to pillows. I like soft, smushy things that are in the shape of things I enjoy! So Fumos were an easy sale for me, aesthetically.

But from a more serious, psychological standpoint- I’d say depression was probably the driving factor. I don’t see many people IRL- I’m a bad initiator, I’m deeply introverted, I don’t have many social skills, I’m not neurotypical and I didn’t make many friends in adulthood. When I started looking into Fumos, I saw this vibrant, deeply positive community that rallied around taking wholesome pictures of plushies out in the world- a world I was pretty scared to get into because of my aforementioned emotional problems as well as the pandemic.

Fumos gave me an excuse to find courage to get out there and see the world again. Whether it’s a walk down the street or a trip to New Orleans, it is no exaggeration to say that if not for the Fumos, I’d likely still be at home.

But what’s more, Fumos also woke up a creative impulse in me that I’d thought had been dead since I quit making film. I found myself behind a camera again, lighting shots and keeping an eye out for interesting moments to photograph. I kept a Fumo with me everywhere I went just in case I’d find an interesting shot. I felt creatively alive for the first time since maybe college.

So to sum it up, Fumos became a framing lens for me finding the courage and creativity that depression and anxiety had robbed from me during my 20s.

I hear you made a Fumo alt. Why make an alt when your photos were JUST taking off and doing numbers?

Honestly, I was toying with the idea of doing a gimmick account for a while. I just didn’t want to put in the work of managing two accounts.

A few bigger Fumo accounts found my content this weekend and started RT’ing me, and that’s when I started doing bigger numbers than I’d expected. At first this was fine- the Fumo community, by and large, is really chill, gentle and kind. But like any community, there are fringes that you’d rather not have within a few degrees of separation of your personal life. So Sunday night I decided to lock down my personal account and finally do the thing and create a new alt handle for Fumo-only content called @FumosOfCrash.

The alt is already pulling in decent numbers and followers. I’m reposting a lot of my old content and finally getting it some attention. It’s been fun to watch the numbers go up. I’m a big RPG fan so you know I love that stuff. And I also have the pleasure of not stressing too hard about who is following the alt- I don’t feel like I have to check everyone’s credentials at the door, ya know?

I guess I just got really, really nervous Sunday night about some of my new follows. I’m normally a very private person, and the sudden deluge of followers felt very overwhelming. I try to keep an open mind and stay off of controversial topics in the interest of welcoming all sorts of new people into my life, but there are some places I just can’t travel, and my work was reaching some parts of Twitter I just wasn’t comfortable with. So I took action to protect my personal account while creating a new handle where I could be more public-facing without having the worry about anything goofy carrying over into my real life.

I’ll probably keep my personal locked down for a while until things chill a bit. If you’re a current mutual of mine reading this- don’t worry, we’re good, we’re cool. I have nothing against you or anyone else in the Fumo community. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my new pals on Twitter and there’s a handful of accounts I’d even go so far as to call my “friends” now, even if we’ve never talked IRL.

So what’s next for you and your Fumos?

Well, currently, we have Sakuya, Marisa, Meiling and Alice. We are currently trying to track down a Reimu, but it hasn’t been easy.

I’ll be reposting my old work to my alt with a few updates a day, as well as retweeting work from my mutuals. I may also start doing videos again. From there, it’s just a question of how high the numbers go. I’d like to think I could get to a thousand followers, even if that number makes my head spin.

But the truth is I’ll post Fumo content for as long as its fun. And then someday, when it stops being fun...I’ll just stop. Who knows, maybe there will be a day where I won’t need the dolls to confidently go out in public or visit a new city? Or maybe this trend will die or the engagement will totally die out. I hope it doesn’t, ‘cuz I’ve really enjoyed it to this point, but all good things have to come to an end.

Until then, I’m just going to have fun, take breaks when I need them, and enjoy wherever this ride takes me!

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sandalaris · 4 years

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20, 35 for aLiN, 50 and 54 for the writer asks!

Thanks! XD

I answered 54 here!

20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on.

Completely unedited, but a snippet from the Kate-centric, post season 3 fic. (although this has been edited for here because it holds some potential spoilers for later on in the fic and at least one misleading line)

“You need to find a way to reclaim your body for yourself,” Kisa continues as if Richie had never spoken.

“Is that what you did?” Her voice sounds lost and she doesn’t like it, but she can’t stop herself from clinging to the thought that she won’t always be like this, the hope that she can get better.

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I had sex with Richard.”

Seth chokes on his drink, coughing loudly into the suddenly silent kitchen. Kate can’t see Richie’s face, can’t take her own stunned gaze from the woman before her, but he must be doing something because Kisa looks past her with a softened eyes and parted lips, before returning her attention firmly back to Kate, effectively ignoring both brothers.

“I cared for him and wanted him. But most importantly I trusted him. Physical connection with someone you trust can be a very powerful thing.”

“I don’t trust a lot of people,” Kate blurts out, clinging to the last part like a lifeline as her cheeks burn.

“Now hold on,” Seth cuts in, words spilling forth in a rush to take control of the conversation. “Let’s just take a fucking breath before we make any rash decisions here.”

“Kate?” Richie says quietly, a warning and a question and a promise all at once. And Kate knows, has seen the darkest depths and bright, blinding edges of Richard’s tortured soul, has the taste of it etched into her very existence.

Kisa must hear it too, because she almost freezes, thoughts shuttering behind her dark eyes as she carefully holds her body in a practiced state of relaxation. Seth’s protests grow louder.

“I don’t think sex is what I need,” Kate says slowly, and the room goes quiet, Seth tapering off from where he’s been holding a one-side argument against the whole conversation with the room at large.

35. Tell some backstory details about one of your characters in your story ________.

Let’s see, who have I not given background details on yet? And that won’t also give away future spoilers....

Scott still sets a party with his lacrosse team in this, but since Kate shows up a day later in this fic than in canon, it happened before she gets to Bethel. Under all that desire for revenge (a lot of which is misplaced anger from being a kept chained up at Narciso’s feet for three months) the core of what Scott wants is acceptance so the party goes a bit different. Scott leaves, for starters, when his hunger starts to threaten his control, snagging a neighbor’s pet and then hiding from the sun at home. So while Scott hasn’t killed quite so many people that Kate personally knows/knows about, he’s still the angry little murder bean he is in canon.

Mild-ish spoilers: Kate’s return to Seth has had positive ripples (Seth doesn’t keep Sonja around, Richie is forced to take off his blinders and see how actions affect other people, Kate has someone else backing her for her confrontation with Scott), because Kate is observant and sees the good in people. But a less-than-positive result is that Freddie’s still all alone in his own journey and will be worse off for it.

50. Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had.

Hmm, gotta think about that.

Probably my weirdest-yet-serious fic is a body swap BtVS fic with the whole scooby gang. I actually wrote a good chunk of it out before I lost it all in a computer death and decided not to rewrite it. It got weird in how I decided it was more of a conscious swap over a soul/body swap and so Xander (who was in Willow) had to figure out how to do the spell to get them back to normal, and Dawn (who was in Spike) had to deal with not having a soul, or rather everyone else had to deal with her not having a soul, etc. I’m sure I’ve probably had weirder ideas, but if I can’t write something for whatever reason (like it being too weird) I typically just leave it be.

I did write a The World Ends TBBT fic, which I suppose can be seen as weird, but I think that has more to do with my love of post-apocalyptic stories. (I’ve written a lot of them, lol)

Less serious, but I don’t know how “weird” it is vs plotless and cliche and an utterly self-indulgent FDtD “fic” (it’s more of an exploration in What If) involving time travel that I’ve never written a single word of, letting it exist entirely in my head, but will also happily ramble away about because, like I said, its a very self-indulgent story and I’ve thought about it a lot.

Happy rambily mess that just skims over it while still being really long:

Post-series!Seth and Kate find themselves at the Dew Drop Inn inside the RV moments before a very human Richie comes in with a very human Scott at gun point. Confusion abounds all around and all seven of them, including past!Seth and past!Kate, end up traveling into Mexico with bickering and arguments and everyone’s confusion over how comfortable and familiar future!Seth and Kate are with each other, but Richie’s the one that notices his brother’s new tattoo and puts two and two together, which leads him to decide that he’s Making That Happen. Future!Seth immediately declares they are not going to the Twister and past!Seth does NOT react well to having anyone, even himself, barging in and trying to take charge and becomes a stubborn irrational bastard over it (they may come close to blows on several occasions). Richie and Scott have a bit of geek out over timelines and alternate realities, and future!Kate decides they still need to go to the Twister but she is going to do everything she can to protect her family.

Once at the Titty Twister they find future!Scott and future!Richie (because my brain went humans at the Inn and culebras at the Twister for semi-justifiable reasons), and a big debate begins on who is going in and who is staying in the RV, which is an entire scene that reveals a lot all around. (Jacob notices future!Kate and Scott’s reaction to seeing him and realize what it means that there’s no future him popping up.)

Before all hell breaks loose, things go a little different, with future!Seth sticking by Jacob’s side and past!Richie still playing matchmaker with his time’s Seth and Kate (no Richie and Kate kiss here, which I actually don’t mind in the show, but for some reason do end up getting rid of a lot in season one AUs. But it just makes sense that a Richie that’s trying to hook a girl up with his brother would not kiss said girl), etc. Once the culebras come out, things go much the same as they did the first time, only this time future!Scott rats out Tanner for being on Carlos’s payrole and future!Kate lets slip that he tried to sacrifice her after past!Kate says that he hit on her, and future!Seth decides the future doesn’t really need him anyways and shoots him.

Future!Seth insists he’s the one who’s going to go into the heart of the labyrinth after past!Richie (who still gets shot and bit, but he expects it this time) since he knows how to handle that shit, and since they don’t need to find Scott this time, the Fullers, Freddie, and past!Seth all end up in a different area that still shows them moments of truth/their past, but makes everyone else witness it too (because self-indulgence!) which gives a nice glimpse of the future and insights.

Meanwhile, future!Freddie left the Dew Drop Inn and is with his family trying to explain what’s about to happen to Margaret and fix his marriage before his past self fucks it up. Because Freddie/Margaret have my heart.

#asked and answered #fdtd #sethkate

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twiststreet · 3 years

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Stuff done in 2020

Work: I’m a little worried how this year’s chaos reverberates for the next few years. Rough, strange, rough year. But it was at least nice to be classified as “Essential labor” though throughout all this-- I’d have fallen apart completely if I’d been stuck at home-- I really don’t know how people have managed.

Politics Stuff: I did more this year than I have since high school-- going door-to-door, calling people on the phone, etc., which meant I spent the middle of the year drinking and taking pills and I don’t know what, trying to do stuff to feel okay when it all went how it went. (Like, the whole world shutting down in some ways was good for me not getting weirder with it... I’d have misbehaved...)

Not that I was super-convinced it could work out, even when things were going well-- I was cynical enough to know it could go badly-- it wasn’t like “Oh I got my hopes up” because I’m not a child but... The alternative was so obviously going to be (and is) so awful. You could see so much of this coming. The alternative was just so ghastly that I hoped we could push against it.

Anyways: couldn’t.

There were points in trying that at least felt really good, at least. A lot / most of the DSA-type candidates I donated to did well-- I had a pretty good track record on donations! You can already see the District Attorney race in LA meaning something; winning at the City Council level felt meaningful; there are people out there who seem to get that the establishment has abandoned them that are building their own thing-- it’s not hard to find good charities lately haha oh wait.

But boy, things got kind of dark around March-to-August and/or March-to-Next-March.

Write ‘Em Ups: Oh god. So. Haha. So, yeah: I started the year in January writing about Scott Adams for the Comics Journal print edition. I think I’m okay with how that turned out-- I think it could’ve been clearer in the point of the architecture of the piece, and I think using a world event as a pivot point was a mistake in retrospect. But given the limits on space and how much craziness there was to talk about, I can live with how it turned out. Not a fun one, on the process side. It’s weird to spend all January writing about civilization disintegrating and then have the rest of 2020 happen. And an absolute misery on the research side-- all the research plus I read four years worth of Dilbert comics on top of that.

Bringing us to the summer! Hhhhh. I don’t know. I wrote five days of essays (four? five?) and conducted a series of interviews, for the Journal on the online side, which came out shortly after a brief spate during the summer where people wanted to talk about abusive and unprofessional conduct in various nerd industries. That one was an experience, though one that was not entirely unanticipated, so. (Though there are always surprises haha oh god!). There’s not a lot I would allow myself to say there. I’m a believer in “don’t engage in the subsequent conversation” as a rule-- I think there’s no good that can come of it, regardless of what you agree with or what you disagree with, how kindly you might see something, how valid, or how much under-diagnosed mental illness is transparently being manifested (.... *wink*); you put out whatever you put out and, then let people have at it. It’s the only way to do things, even if I think it has its consequences.

I like some of the work itself (loved and am grateful for the interviews); the process was not a good time (spending that much time just thinking about how people are is baseline not-healty); there is a core of it that I feel was necessary; not a lot I will allow myself to say besides that.

Special Projects: Bringing us to the fall and the Kickstarter for Gangland Allstars, comics I helped make with other people in 2019. Money was lost; laughs were had; people were hired and paid to do things that I had to tell them we weren’t going to do because I didn’t want them to get mixed-up in all my crazy, after the Journal stuff happened (there was more planned, not a ton, but). I still have to re-format the comics for a Comixology release which is taking me a while (Comixology, it turns out, has standards!). And i have a behind-the-scenes financial bit I have to finish up on. But: I think that went well...? The comics could be better written (or when I did the colors, colored) but when I look at them, I think I can say, they were as interesting as I could make them when I made them. I don’t see a lot of What If’s there.

And then the Kickstarter itself was a really joyous thing, just that as many people were willing to give it a chance as gave it a chance. God only knows how many people looked at what they got, but no one complained. Though I did kinda feel like I was doing a bait-and-switch because... you know: the comics present as “normal genre comics” and I talked about them in that way, but I don’t think that’s what they’re actually built to be. It’s just you can’t tell people that without giving away the game and spoiling them. I don’t know-- I had my head up my own ass on the project a little-- I got pretty high-falutin’ in terms of what I wanted to do, but when it came time on the sale side, it was like “oh, people just want to hear it’s about a robot solving a mystery and then you give them a robot solving a mystery and then they’re happy”-- it felt a little bad that I wasn’t doing that. I kept the money, though. Vegas after the vaccine,baby!

Anyways: in the “now what” place again after that wrapped up, even with finishing touches. The “now what” place is never any good. I could make more comics like Gangland Allstars but I already made Gangland Allstars, so what’s the point? Or making comics is already negative-rewarding in so many ways, that after the Journal thing, making more comics or just being comic-facing, when I know the audience online is a certain way... I don’t know about that. Obviously most dudes just put that out of their heads but I’m not there yet. I still want to try to make a computer game but I really don’t understand the language of those-- I’m not a writer on top of that, so that makes making anything hard because you always need something written, to start with. I don’t know. Struggling there. Feels bad! I do have another special project, though, kind of, but that one’s just for me and kind of not really the same thing and that’s going along slowly...

This time last year, I thought having the Adams thing wrapped up and GA out in 2020 would make this year feel like a really fun one. I guess... I guess it didn’t hurt, but. It added at least some color. All the “good parts” just kind of felt muted though just, which I think is given ... everything else. Or I hope... Otherwise I am very depressed, ha ha. Ha. Hrm.

Cooking: I feel like everyone got better at cooking during quarantine and I got better at ordering food, and spent all my money this year doing that. Can everyone bake things now??? I don’t know how to bake anything-- I was scared of grocery stores-- this is bullshit.

Physical Self: I was getting in shape in 2018, then 2019 kind of went wrong on me because liberals were like “your expensive gym does bad politics” and I stupidly was like “I guess I should care about that” and cancelled my gym but then those same exact people were like “Me Too doesn’t matter if it’s Joe Biden, and people who want their student loans cancelled are selfish” so it’s like I should’ve kept giving that expensive gym all my money. But they’d have been closed anyways, so anyways, I’m a shambles. My whole body area is basically a shambles. Sometimes I still see hot people on the street though because Los Angeles, and that’s... pretty remarkabe to me... I guess people are doing body things off Youtube?? I just watch video essays about Metal Gear-- there’s not a lot of workout tips in those...

Being a Jock: I decided to be a jock who read all the Spawn comics in 2020. I didn’t manage to read all the Spawn comics, but both my teams won their respective world series. Being a jock is easy and fun! 10/10.

Consumer of Culture: I feel like everyone in quarantine started watching all the Criterion movies but I’m not welcome with Criterion after I said a bunch of R-rated angry things at them one time (I snapped after a long day once), so I’m watching, like, Dark Shadows reruns on Tubi, and am almost through the first season of the hit CW show Hart of Dixie, which I’m watching slowly because I’m “savoring” it. Things are not going great. I just paid for the extremely-broken HBO Max though so I might end up watching Weird Science again at 2 in the morning; I got that to look forward to. HBO Max has both Casablanca and Meatballs 4 on the service-- for a man for all seasons.

I also started taking photographs inside videogames, which is slightly less acceptable behavior for a man of my age (or success!) than running through an elementary school naked. (I liked the Last of Us 2, I was really happy KR0 ended in a satisfying way, and I didn’t think the Keanu game was good at all even past the breaking constantly-- the pretty-racist game that inexplicably has a lot of Jesus Christ-related content that somehow went unremarked upon also has very messed up ideas about sex, though I did like riding the Akira bike a lot).

I tried to make a Top 10 movies of the year list and it was just an embarrassing collection of movies. I’ll try again after I watch some prestige movies this week. Every movie I’ve really liked has been an old movie this year that I hadn’t seen-- and even there, like, I really liked Adam Sandler’s The Week Of, but I’m not sure it’s a classic end-of-the-year list choice. (The worst movie was I’m Thinking of Ending Things-- I didn’t fuck with that). I sent a best list for comics to the Journal for their year-end wrap up (it was Stages of Rot, though, easy); worst comic for me was ... I didn’t really dig the Department of Truth but I didn’t hate it-- I just thought it was very boring; nothing else coming to mind, really. Maybe I’ll try a TV list but I don’t even remember anything sticking out. The best thing I saw this year was a Helder Guimaraes magic show on Zoom-- but magic’s weird and those tricks still fuck me up to think about...

I mostly spent the year doomscrolling. There was a lot to doomscroll.

I’m not expecting much of 2021.

#year in review

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Reviewcaps: X-Men Evolution: Strategy X

I take my first look at X-Men Evolution the second and less famous, but no less loved, cartoon about everyones faviorite mutant outcasts. In our first episode Scott blows up a gas station, Nightcrawler finds what it feels like to have a home, Toad tries to join the x-men and both of the latter two end up nearly dying because Chuck forgot to teleport proof the one room in the house with deadly lasers. All this and football under the cut.

A few days ago I realized something weird: I hadn’t reviewed any superhero cartoons on here. What makes that weird to me, is that I realized when writing this that Superhero cartoons are what MADE me a superhero fan in the first place. I grew up as a little kid watching the spider-man and x-men animated series, and watched most marvel shows that came about as I grew, and became a lifelong fan of Green Lantern and the Flash thanks to Justice League , the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles thanks to the 2003 cartoon (another franchise I absolutley adore I haven’t covered on here for some reason) and the Teen Titans thanks to well.. Teen Titans, not to mention all the great original superhero shows at the time like the legendary Danny Phantom (even if butch heartman can take a short walk into a cave full of bears lately), My Life as a Teenage Robot, El Tigre.. the list of good shit goes on. So being on an X-Men kick again lately, I decided to revisit what turned out to be one of the first of this wave, and a show I’d had the opporoutnity to binge for a while , first on hulu and then on D+, and wanted to revisit to see how it holds up, while, if not as fast as I watch them, reviewing them here to combine my two intrests. And it probably wont’ be the last marvel animated series I binge or cover here, nor the last superhero show I cover so if you have any, Marvel, DC, from other companies or completely original, shoot me an ask or reply to this and i’ll see if I can get to it. For now we’re starting the evolution. Evolution was the first X-Men cartoon, and somehow one of 5 overall not counting the hulk vs wolverine movie, pryde of the x-men pilot and various crossover apperances in other cartoons, to follow the 90′s one, which as you probably know was a huge hit that defined the x-men for a generation of young fans, was a huge sucess and launched the mostly great sorta shared cartoon universe with classics like Spider-Man the Animated Series (Which not concidentally is what made me a lifelong fan of the webslinger), The Incredible Hulk, and the second season of Iron Man and Fantastic Four.. and yes only the second as the first seasons were both by entirely diffrent creative teams and gave us things like this.

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Yes that is Johnny Storm doing an objetivley terrible hip hop song, no it dind’t cause that building to sink into the earth, and yes it is so bad it’s delcioius. Sadly the rest of hte series is more flat and boring than “bwahahahaha” but my point is made. The point is Evolution had a steep hill to climb, and with the previous cartoon compressing most of the decades long Chris Claremont era and some of what came after into 5 seasons of good if cheesy stuff, the creators clearly, if only because Ic an’t find a making of, decided to go in a diffrent route, making their own unique take on the characters and world of the x-men instead. For starters rather than being vetrans with years of experince, either from being an x-man or just from general life experince like the comics were since the 70′s aside from the ocasinal exception like Kitty Pryde and Jubilee, they’d be teens, grappling with hormones alongside blue fur, head lasers and not being able to touch anyone. This wasn’t something x-men had shied away from, New Mutants and Generation X existed, but it was the first time in decades the X-Men themselves were kids. Sure Storm and Wolverine weren’t aged down, but there were just as many missions that were just these teenagers hoping to surivive the experince and keep mutants a secret till the world was ready.. and then dealing with the fallout when an unready and hateful world found out anyway. And I honeslty like the direction: The previous series had done the mostly straight adaptation bit, there wasn’t anywhere to go and aging scott and jean back to teens, and having nightcrawler and rouge get to be ones for the first time though, was an intresting idea, as was having Kitty Pryde be a teen alongside them instead of their plucky teenage member Another intresting direction was, while Xavier’s still existed and was where the cast lived and learned to use their powers, the X-Men also went to regular high school. While it’d take till season 3 for them to actually have to deal with being out mutants in the setting, it was still an intresting tactic: The X-school in the comics, while no less studious is still an isoalted boarding school and when the New Mutants met some friends in town, most had only heard whispers about the old Xavier Mansion and were delighted to visit for a slumber party.. granted this being an x-men schindig our heroes ended up having to deal with an alien who eventually became one of their closest friends that night but still, for the x-men having the robot, or technoorganic in this case, NOT try to murder them on purpose and be a loveable 80′s sidekick instead is an easy night. While i’ts not done perfectly here from what I can remember, the main human characters we see are nightcrawlers love intrest amanda (who is thankfully NOT his adopted sister this time around thank christ), local stock blond football bully and flash thompson impersonator Duncan, and Scott’s nondiscript friend paul, who I can’t think of without thinking two things; one , what do you WANT paul:

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I mean a man so vauge just can’t be trusted. The second is that paul looks a lot like Doug Ramsey and i’m suprised they didn’t just.. make him Doug and have him go through a similar arc from the comics:A crush on kitty and the rest of the team finding out he’s a mutant and eventually bringing him into their world. For those unaware Doug Ramsey is a mutant with the ablility to translate any languge, including computer code from the get go and body laungage when he came back, an easy fix to him being the non-combatant of the group no one thought of, who died tragically in story sacrifcing himself to save his girlfriend’s life and out of story because the artist tricked the writer into killing him off. Thankfully he did come back about two decades later, took a level in badass thanks to a combination of the body language thing above meaning he could anticipate moves and dodge and computers having advanced to the point that part of his powers was now 80 times more useful, and has recently become a key part of the dawn of x relaunch. He’s also a faviorite of mine as you can probably tell and given how much the early 2000′s loved their computers, it’s weird to me they didn’t think of this and it’s even weirder he didn’t show up with the lions share of the other new mutants next season, along with Karma and Warlock which somehow has become a recurring theme thanks to the movie saving them for sequels that ended up not happening because fox stupidly put the movie in Limbo where it remains until maybe next month. But yeah even if muted a bit the idea of the x-men going to a public school alongside their training is a decent one.. sure a hero going through high school is again a cliche, but it’s a thing the x-men hadn’t done in this way before or sense, and was intresting to see in action. Most high school scnees in x-comics are usually some poor mutant having their powers manifest and either hurting someone by accident, being treated like crap for it by their class or hunted down for accidently hurting someone before the x-men show up to kick their asses and welcome this youngster. Or getting rejected by family and friends then coming to the x-men.. there’s a lot of angst directions to go in. My point is we’d never seen the x-men try to blend in and have a more standard school experince, and combining that with them hiding their powers instead of being out in the open at first made for a unique dynamic for the x-men that makes well tread ground nice nad fresh even 20 years later.

So that’s our basic setup going in: The X-men wake up, go to school, then save the world or train to save the world while harnesing wonderful and dangerous powers and protecting the helpless agaist less charitable mutants. The basic x-setup with a 2000′s era superhero high school show flavor. Good stuff. But we’ll see what it does with this premise, how good it holds up and what’s still delightfuly cheesy about it as I take a nice look at the first episode Strategy X

We open at night and

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Yup Scott and Jean are at the football team where the aforementioned Duncan, guy voted most likely to peak in high school in last year’s yearbook poll, is playing some foot ball and trying to flit with Jean Grey whose the first X-Man we meet and is somehow receptive to this despite his radaiating douche and is lucky this Jean’ , unlike say the time transfered one from the comics who thought the best approach to helping Bobby Drake come out of the closet so he could help his older self do the same and be his best self, was to just blunty say he’s gay and refuse to let him explore thtt for himself or get someone more quliafied to help her. And yes that did indeed happen and yes the original x-men were brought into the present for a while and yes it was weird Moving on. Still i’m pretty sure duncan’s thoughts would read like “Man she looks good.. I want to bang her so hard she uh.. wakes up sideways.. yeah that’s it. Your a legend duncan, a total legend. “. As you can probably tell I don’t have fond memories of this character or this sorta but not really love triangle, and question why they couldn’t of just had spyke be the other man in the triangle if they wanted to do this. Granted Spyke himself is kinda annoying, but it still makes more sense to have him fill in for angel or wolverine in a jean-scott love triangle than this walking burnt end. The warren, scott one worked, as much as a 60′s love triangle could because warren was conventionally handsome and had angel wings while scott has to keep glasses on just to not murder anyone he looks at, so there’s a bit of contrast there, while with WOlverine it’s straight laced dependeble scott versus unhinged manly man Logan. You know before recently where they just decided to all bone in a pile and wolverine even goes on vacation with them. And that’s not a joke I made up, that’s actual canon. Both make logical sense while Jean would be intrested in both in the former case, as Scott was still a kind and dependable leader, and tempted in the latter case if never acting on it before recently and with her husband’s full consent and either watching from the closet or taking one up the ass for jean to watch. Duncan in contrast is just wholly unlikeable and it makes me question why use him as the third in this love triangle, ESPECIALLY since the show would later introduce another scott and jean based love triangle with Rogue wanting scott that’s way more intresting, and even people wanting those two to hook up don’t want Jean with Duncan! Instead of creating a vitable alternative to make a later love triangle more intresting or create some shipping wars or anything of value any hint jean may be intrested just wastes screentime and tests my patience and is thankfully breif here. As for why Jean’s here sh’es taking pictures for the school paper since the Daily Bugle wasn’t intrested in photos that weren’t of spider-man and they already had a teen photographer for that. Porker or something. Anyways this episode ofa low rent friday night lights knockoff is interuptted when one of duncan’s buddies on the team spots local trouble maker and ,judging by context, bully punching bag Todd Tolansky, aka Toad which is a cruel nickname turned slightly lesss cruel code name here, pick pocketing the people in the stands, and sensing a flimsy context to punch a nerd, Duncan goes to tell the coah he’ll be busy for a moment totally not carving someone’s face in again. Coach says as long as he leaves him breathing, and through a straw still counts and since their so far ahead as long as he’s back for the celebratory rampage anything goes. Also spotting Toad’s stan pines approved sticky fingers is Scott Summers, leader of x-men and all around cool guy. Scott here is a bit more emotive than he was int he comics at a time, a trait he’d have later on in the late 2000′s and even currently and a version I prefer to the “has something shoved so far up his ass you can see it when he opens his mouth” boring straightman of the 90′s cartoon. He’s a bit more impulsive, a bit more emotivie but still a good and well thought out leader and the tactical genius, at least as far as I can remember, that he’s known for being. IT’s a good portayal so far, it reminds me of 2k12 leonardo: he’s still growing into being a leader in some way but clearly has the talent and drive for it and a deep sense of heroism> That deep sense is shown here as Scott leaves to go confront toad.. and then confronts Duncan and buds when he finds them about to squish Toad. Unlike Duncan, whose “heroism” consits of a filmy excuse to beat a third hole into todd’s head, Scott wanted to stop Toad because it’s the right thing to do, and wants to stop Duncan because his actions are just as wrong: Sure Toad is stealing stuff, but it’s clear from the way he and his buddies grin widlly at seieng toad pick pocket that they just want an excuse to pummel the kid and not get in trouble for it. It’s confirmed when Scott makes a resonable offer: Since Toad still has the money and most of the lifted wallets, he can return what he stole, which Toad not wanting to die today agrees to, but Duncan refuses. Scott however gets the three thrown to the ground and while Toad escapes, with the two other idiots in persuit, an enraged duncan attacks. But since Scott Summers, even teen scott summers has batman level judo, it’s an even fight despite Duncan being bigger and more muscular.. until Jean runs in shouts scott no.. despite you know Duncan starting this and Scott merley defending himself, distracts Scott long enough for him to get shoved to the ground.. and loose his googles, sending an optic blast out before he can clamp his eyes shut, knocking duncan over and igniting a nearbye propane tank. Toasty! Also yikes. Cue the opening theme and credits. While the opening Creidts are very 2000′s, they aren’t half bad but the main draw is the theme song which.. honestly I feel is great and very close to the 90′s x-men theme in quality, only not being AS good because that one’s one of the best theme songs period. but this one’s no slouch as it’s fun, energetic and will get stuck in your head. Good stuff. After the theme we cut back to the credits where Scott is closing his eyes despeartly holding his powers in. It was a good opening and a great way to show off the premise of the show and just how dangerous mutant powers can be even accidnetally, with this followup showing it’s not inetentional. it was even shown before as while scott’s eyes flash, he notably never uses his powers in the fight and they only came about accidnetally. We also get some JeanScott ship tease as she finds his glasses ,and with Duncan having a concusion and not remembering anything, a bit that hasn’t aged well, things seem well.. except the cop seems to notice something supscious.. before help arrives in a rolls royce. Charles Xavier, voiced by the icomprable David Kaye who I feel is one of the best daviers and does a great job here and quickly makes the guy see nothing supscious, a classic use of his powers and an understdanable one: while yea going into someone’s mind isn’t a great tihng to do.. scott being possibly outed as a mutant this way would only land the poor boy in a jail cell, as it did for Bobby Drake in the comics when his own powers activated and hurt someone. We also meet storm who unlike the others isn’ aged downa nd is one of two senior staffers for the school, a touch I like as she was a great mentor figure to kitty pryde and the comics and the roll suits her, while evolution also tones down the ham 80 degrees so she’s even more like the comics; reserved but utterly confident and badass and a good #2 to xavier. Xavier also likely wiped Duncan’s memory of scott’s power triggering I figure.. I mean he could’ve got concussed but I wouldn’t be suprised if chuck manipualted that too. Jean comforts Duncan for.. again some reason. Like he was just in a fight with her best friend and she’s a telepath.. I get she’s being respectful but time and place. Scott is naturally Jelly, but Toad.. genuinely thanks Scott for the help while Scott brushes it off. It was the right thing to do and Toad is still a creep, but it’s still a nice gesture. Also toad eats a fly to show that yep he too is a mutant. Xavier and Storm go to the train station and pick up a mysterious teen clad all in robes. Ohohoo hominus. Meanwhile somewhere in the westchester area, Wolverine comes in! Snkity sknikty snoik. He’s voiced by, and dresses exactly like, Scott McNeil, a vetran and awesome voice actor who I honestly think does a better job than his prdecessor. Not that 90′s wolverine is bad, it’s just McNeil has more of a range even while keeping the gutteral growl of hte former and can tur it off at times while his previous acto rwas pretty much on snarl mode constantly. He wasn’t bad, all the 90′s voice actors were at 100 most of the time and undersndably given the hamm nature of that cartoon, but its’ still a ncie change of pace and one we’d see again with steve blum in the next cartoon. More on that obviously when i inevitably cover Wolverine and the X-Men He picks up a paper about the explosion, and sensing he must go his people need him, cuts the top off the water he ordered, because you can’t get beer on a childrens cartoon, and thanks the clerk who wonders what the fuck just happened. And it’s a weird ass scene especially because in this series the x-men are trying to keep a lid on mutants and Logan’s just .. causally cutting off a water bottle because fuck it. It fits the character a LITTLE but it’s still just weird and out of place. Speaking of weird and out of place sabertooth is stalking logan on a mountaintop because..

Thank you wrestlecrap. He dosen’t show up again and is apparently introduced several episodes from now, and sports a design similar to the 2000 movie which isn’t a terrible look apart from the long lead singer from Creed haircut. The next morning at Xavier’s scott’s annoyed at jean taking her time in the bathroom because “women amirite?”.. yeah...

On that gag. Before the two dart off for school Xavier calls them in to meet the new kid: Kurt Wagner, aka Nightcrawler, whose blue and fuzzy as ever, though without the fully yellow eyes he usually sports, though I figure it’s less because they wanted to make him more humanoid, though his Kelso from that 70′s show hair certainly helps with that too, and more because that way his human disguise he’ll get in a bit can just be an easily just recolor and redres his civlilan design. Though why he couldn’t just have the yellow eyes in elf form and give him regular ones in transducer form, epsecially since they had to make a whole new outfit and ears for his non elf form anyway is beyond me, but whatever. At least he’s a full part of the team here and oh so adorkable. As you can probably wager by the fact there’s only 3 x-men and one asshole here, Evolution takes it’s time introducing everybody, the first few episodes using the debut queue style of storytelling and introducing the main cast about one or two per episode.. which I like a lot as it gives each of the x-men room to breathe and get a proper introduction, while usually doing the same for the latest addition to the brotherhood. IT’s a godo way to ease us into a decently sized main cast and let each get their own origin story of sorts. Good stuff.

Jean and Scott are shocked by the poor boys three fingers, but Charles helps asuage kurt.. by pointing out scott’s fuckup then berating him. Both don’t come off great: Scot whines about having two cannonballs under his eyes, which while fair is something he knew going into a situation where they might get knocked off and didn’t prepare for, while Charles lambasts him for “not having more control”.. and his tone implies it’s more about his POWERS. If it was about self control fine, that’d be godo character stuff but if it’s of his powers.. Scott didn’t use his powers at all during the breif scuffle and was only let loose by pure shock, and something you easily covered for minus the explosion part. It could just be both having a point but I dunno. But with that Xavier does show kurt that even human passing mutants like Scott have huge struggles and he no longer is alone. Jean is curious what his power is and Kurt demonstrates his teleporting, impressing both and bonding the three a bit. Xavier sends them off to school, and they’ll talk more about kurt tonight. At school Toad is getting dressed down by principle darkholme, aka mistque whose apparently also his boss.. yes while the founding x-men are two upstanding well trained, if one a bit hot headed youths, Mystque got.. a guy who pick pockets because as we later see the house she got for them looks like the ghosts of the frat who used to live there did a number on the place. Yeah easy to see why your guys later become the comic relief villians Raven. Anyways she plans to have Toad use his newfound leverage with scott to try and sneak in with the x-men before shapeshifting into a knockoff brood to scare him because she’s a dick. Also how the hell would she explain that if someone walked in and DIDN’T comically walk right back out and just explose her posing as a monster for the student body to see. Not a bad show of her powers but a really goofy and nonsenical one. Also yeah unlike the comics raven can change her shape further than just humanoid.

Back at the school Kurt is excited to see his spacious and luxrious room, his parents, whoever they were, having sent him here, and is even more excited when Xavier gives him a gift; an image inducer. This is something that actually comes from the comic: it’s a device disgused as a watch that holographically makes Kurt look like your standard human. Kurt in the comics of course used it to look like errol flynn. Naturally Chris Claremont eventually realized the implications of a person of a minority who looks diffrent masquerading as someone else to blend in and Kurt later decided to go without it, as he shoudln’t have to hide himself. Evolution does use it better though: For starters when Kurt says he’s finally normal, Ororo assures him he always was, this is just to help a bit and the idea of him needing to blend in makes sense since the x-kids are going to public high school and mutantkind is more hidden to avoid prosecution. It’s sitll a BIT shaky, but it’s at least trying to avoid a lot of the pitfalls of the concept and modernizie it a bit and I can give them credit for that.

Back at School scott’s preparing to lunch, telling paul to save him a seat. Good old Paul, when Toad comes up to him thanking him again and revealing his own mutant powers and stealing Scott’s glasses because that’s how you charm someone. Toad offers to hang but Scott wisely refuses and moves on though he does use the cafeteria pay phone to call Charles, who already found out about todd via Cerebro and despite Scott’s understandable reservations about letting a literally slimy pick pocket who talks like goddamn j-roc , know what i’m sayin, into the team, Charles in a very charles xavier move says they can’t turn their back on ANY mutant, even the assholes. Now read that in a patrick stewart voice. Your welcome. Scott wonders if he should ask Todd over to play fooseball and ask about joining his teen militia but Chalres said no need, he’ll take care of the audition himself. He then explains Cerebro to a curious kurt, global telepathic mutant tracker basically, and prepares for the audition.

That night Toad goes to the mansion.. with a costume already. And rather than evaluate all the costumes up front i’m going to do so as they show up in series. As such.. toad’s is REALLY good, a nice armor look with a small part peaking up resembling a collar of some sort , a nice update of his silver age costume’s collar. It really feels frog like and really is neat. Storm, who is watering her garden a detail I like, heads out and rains on his parade. Her costume is fine, a standard storm outfit, nothing really outstanding but still not bad. Storm then sends lighting at him to see what happens when a Toad is struck by lighting.. probably the same as everything else before he runs inside and runs into kurt.

Kurt then shows up, and while I’d forgottten this, he was already in costume from earlier having gotten his at the same time as the inducer. His costume.. is about the same as the comics except hte gloves and boots are yellow, i’m somehwat eh on it but I get doing so to have him fit with the black and yellow color scheme of most of the other x-men in some way. Though i’d love to see a black and yellow redesign of his classic oufit someday that’d look spiffy. But yeah it’s pretty good and one of the standouts of the evolution costumes. The two trade barbs thanks to toad being kind of a dick about nightcrawler and end up having a petty squabble and tussle for a bit around the mansion. Xavier still considers Toad x-men material while Storm considers not missing with lightning this time. In all seriousnes this is more good character stuff for Charles, as it shows that no matter how troublesome, he’ll welcome any mutant child in with open arms. Though I question why neither questions the fact that a mutant they just met somehow brought his own top of the line uniform, but I chalk it up to that probably not having been written into the episode and either being an error or execs wnating to show off his battle suit to have a proper superhero tussle to close out the episode. However said tussle, which is really more a hilarious fight between an asshole and a dork, is interupted when Kurt accidnetly ports them into the danger room, an x-men staple.. no really “new mutant accidently enters or finds the danger room” is old hat at this point, most iconically with Kitty in the comics shortly after she joined.

Naturally not wanting to have to clean up another set of teen corpses, he just got the Vulcan smell out of there, Xavier dispatches Cyclops and Jean to go deal with it.. since Jean dosen’t have a code name here since marvel forgets to try and get her a non phonenix one better than marvel girl and it annoys me. Anyways fashion show time again, and yes i’m aware these aren’t from strategy x, but I didn’t want to just use hte model sheet shots from the wiki so I combed for decent action shots. Scotty’s costume is decent, a bit bulky with the very 90′s shoulder pads and boots, but otherwise looks pretty good, a nice combination of his 90′s uniform and his second x-factor uniform. Even with the bulk it looks really good. On the oppsite end.. we have Jean, who easily has the worst outfit of the main x-men by a mile, with a weird lime green stripe for some reason. Maybe they were going for phonenix colors I dunno, but it just looks half assed in comparison to the rest of the gangs outfit. The gold rings and fingerless gloves are a nice touch, but this one’s still just bland in comparison. Like they couldn’t figure out how to update jeans 90′s outfit so they put her in a jassercise outfit instead.

Scott and Jean arrive with Jean saving nightcrawler, Kurt asking if sh’es an angel, she asking if he’s a demon and me asking if I can get a trashcan to vomit in. It didn’t work for George Lucas a year before this why did you think it’d work here? Anyways Kurt realizes their not in xavier’s snuff dungeon, as far as he knows and it’s simply a trianing room and tries to disarm it, but it instead nearly blasts toad who nopes outta htere, scott too injured to follow. And while when watching the episode yesterday It hought it was a bit abrubt.. it really fits. Toad is a bit of a coward from memory, bosatful and cocky.. till reality reminds him he’s freaking toad as seen with the bullies earlier and mystique after that. So of course he’d run the minute things looked dicey and it looked like xavier reguarlly put his students through the hunger games to thint he herd. Xavier bemoans that Toad simply isn’t ready.. sure he’s a mutant and xavier likely senses mistque’s involement.. but he genuilly WANTED to help todd and give him a real home and support.. its just Toad/Todd dosen’t WANT it or to put in any real work to be better, and you have to WANT help to get it. Kurt blames himself and ports out feeling he dosen’t deserve to be there and Scott goes after him while out front Toad runs into a returning Logan, whose ready to add another dead teen to the pile out back when Xavier insists he let him go... he’s not an actual threat, and as we find out later Xavier removed the schools location from his mind and probably gave it to toad in the first place, so while Logan says he’ll be back.. he has no way of coming back and there’s no sense roughing up a teenager, when that’d just draw more attention to them and give Toad an angle to work. That being said Charlie still gladly welcomes Logan back though both smell trouble on the horizon.. and also toad. He tends to leave a scent that one.

We then get what I feel is the best scene in the episode: Cyclops finds Kurt in the room with the blackbird, which this show remembers is an actual type of plane and that the x-mens is simply a souped up version of , though I can’t tell you what version he’s saying it’s superior to because I don’t know planes THAT well. But Scott comforts Kurt, saying it’s OKAY to fuck up: the entire point of this place is so they can afford to make the mistakes they can’t make out there and learn and grow as people. Everyone screws up, as Scott himself did rushing in without a plan at the start, but the point is you learn from it and do better next time and Kurt decides to stay. Welcome to the X-Men Kurt, hope you surivive the experince. Also Scott decides to show him where they hide the sodas.. which either Chuck is a dick about their pop or that’s code for booze.. or possibly both. I could see Logan really liking root beer alongisde his nightly 6 pack.

We close out with Mystque berating toad for running the hell away and for you know, getting mindwiped.. the latter is far from his fault, but the first part.. yeah Toad kinda sucks at this and Raven screams for him to get out, with her turning back into her natural form for the first time.. and then being confronted with HER boss with Magneto, from.. somewhere.. he appearas as a spooky projection but I don’t know if he’s using a device to amplfy himself or he just hides in the closet of her office all day for when he needs to consult her on their evil schemes. Probably the latter. Anyways Erik wisely consults her to be a bit easier..while toad is a bit of a dipweasel.. they can’t afford their ranks being thinned.. and really he’s not wrong. The x-men currently have them 6 to 3. Even if he’s the weakest of the three of them, they can’t afford to spare him. He then ominously says htis is only... THE BEGINING.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Strategy X is a decent start for the series but not without it’s problems, with one or two questionsable moments like the whole angel and devil exhcange or the entire “Storm stalks toad as he goes to the mansion” scene as a way of testing him, which makes both her and charles come off bad and makes me wonder how the hell that was an actual test of anything. But it’s held up by good character: While Jeans kind of a bit of wallpaper here, the rest of the x-men and our three villians are all given great character moments that show them off to the audience well and really show the writers get the characters while taking their own spins on the younger ones: Nightcrawler, who could be a bit of a dork in the comics, see here his seduction tequnique.

I mean damn if that shit isn’t still Sexy but still. They just ramped it up a bit since this version is younger and more naive, while Scott is likewise a bit more rambunctious and likely to question Xavier, while still being a good hearted guy who knows how to lead. It’s good stuff. While the quality isn’t PERFECT, it’s a good start and I look forward to watching more and EVENTUALLY reviewing more on here. If you liked this be sure to let me know and like I said above if there’s any other marvel show or any dc ones you want me to cover, and any specific episodes at that, lemme know. Comics too. And until we meet again, courage. PS.. what the hell is up with the title of this episode? No really it has nothing to do with anything. Is it Mystuues’ inflitration plan?

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