#quentin fell in love with peter when he was older obviously so

[lemonpeter]

Secret Identities- chapter 9

Had the chapter from last week out yesterday. Still wanted to get a chapter out today. So here it is! And it's much longer lol

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Quentin knew who this particular dancer was. Peter Parker. He was some employee for Stark that he knew could never do half of the work that he had been able to. It was probably why the boy had a second job as a sex worker of all things. He wasn’t good enough to actually get paid enough to pay the bills, but Stark liked his company to be filled with pretty people who could make him feel smart by comparison. It was why Quentin had gotten fired. He was actually too smart and the boss got intimidated. That, and the fact that Stark wanted to take his ideas and pass them off as his own. What an asshole. 

He also was aware that the man himself was sitting behind him. Probably jealous that Quentin got the boy to come to him and Stark was ignored. Beck just thought it was karma. Tony finally was being put in his place. Shown that he couldn’t always get what he wanted. Other people were allowed to play too. 

So there was a clear smirk on his face as he let Silk, or Peter as he knew, dance for him. He even kept up the expression as he leaned in close, whispering in Peter’s ear. 

“You wanna get out of here and let me take care of you?”

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Peter was so ready for the song to be over. He had what he wanted. Tony was clearly jealous. That was all he cared about. He wanted to be as far away from this annoying man as he could be. 

Then Quentin was leaning in and talking and Peter didn’t know what to do. On one hand, he could say yes and then just ditch the guy before they even got out of the building. On the other hand, he really didn’t want the man to actually think Peter was interested. 

Beck must have seen the conflict on the younger man’s face. “Come on, princess. I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

Peter actually almost gagged. He really wanted Quentin’s hands off of him and to be as far away as possible. But instead he put on his fake smile he had been working so hard to keep up. He leaned close to Quentin to whisper in his ear, looked over his shoulder to make eye contact with Tony, and replied, “Then let’s go.”

Beck stood up without hesitation, wrapping an arm around Peter’s waist. 

Peter didn’t fight it, no matter how much he wanted to. He didn’t bother making an attempt to argue that he needed to change into actual clothes before leaving, because he wasn’t really planning on going at all. So he just smiled, cuddling into the older man’s side as they walked. 

Once they were outside the building, he pulled away slowly. “Hey...I’m sorry. I just remembered that my friend asked me to cover her shift. I can’t leave.”

Quentin looked downright offended. “What, you just wanted to get my money and act like you were interested? That’s a really shitty thing to do.”

“That’s what being a stripper is,” Peter answered, rolling his eyes. “And I’m serious, I just remembered. I need to stay.”

“Then I’ll wait until you can leave.”

Peter tensed up. He hadn’t expected the man to put up a fight. “N-no. It will be really late. And I need to actually get some sleep tonight. I can’t go with you. Sorry.”

“Fuck you. You know what, I wasn’t really interested. I don’t want someone who’s a whore for money, anyways. I know Stark is still in there, he loves that. I bet he’ll give you a nice bit of cash for your time. I’m sure that’s all you do when you work for him during the day, anyways,” Quentin spat, red in the face.

Peter froze. “How do you know I work for him?” He asked, trying not to show how afraid he was suddenly. 

“I keep a check on all his pathetic employees. I need to make sure none of them are trying to do what Stark Industries has done for years and pass off my work as their own.”

The younger man looked horrified. “That...get away from me, creep! You’re a stalker! Why would we want your work…”

Quentin didn’t dignify that with a response. “Have a good night, Peter. I hope you have fun being a cheap bitch.”

With that, he walked away. He was angry, already coming up with ways to humiliate Peter. It was what the dancer deserved. 

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Peter got back inside, trembling a little and visibly shaken. He did a quick glance around the room to see if Tony was still there. He didn’t see him, which he figured was a good thing.

He went backstage, seeing Christine and smiling weakly. 

The woman looked surprised to see him. “I thought you were long gone. I saw you leave with that guy.” She was obviously confused. 

Peter sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I ditched him. Well, tried to. Then he got all creepy...knew my name…” He shivered.

Christine frowned. “That isn’t good. You need to have someone look into that. Because I know you keep your name under wraps here.” She hummed softly, going around the room and gathering Peter’s things to help him get ready to leave. “Y’know, Stark stormed out of here right after you...’left’. Seemed really pissed.”

Peter grabbed his things, changing into some comfortable clothes to leave in. “I can’t imagine he was very happy to see me leaving with one of his ex employees...but at least I got the desired effect? I wanted him to be jealous…”

Christine snorted. “Yeah, I think you achieved that.”

Well, at least one good thing came from that night.

Peter said goodbye to her, calling a cab before heading back to his apartment. He didn’t want to risk walking if Quentin was still lurking around somewhere. 

He was still extremely nervous when he got home. If Quentin had his name, could he have other information? His home address? Frequently visited spots? Work hours?

He fell into a restless sleep, plagued with anxieties.

What he didn’t know was that a plan was already in the works.

#secret identities #my writing #peter x tony #peter parker #tony x peter #peter x quentin #quentin beck #hes still a bad guy #sorry lol #tony stark x peter parker #tony stark #stripper!peter #jealousy #angst #starker #starker fic #spidersterio #sort of

[darkwinterchild]

Arrow: how season 1 set up the world

Originally posted on Reddit

Warning: a lot of words, as usual.

Worldbuilding is an important part of storytelling, so I wanted to talk a little about one of the most important pieces of worldbuilding in Arrow: Starling City itself. Because I think it has been neglected after the first seasons. The city used to be so full of life back in the days. It felt whole, it felt real and it felt grounded, and there are two major ways the writers managed to accomplish that: first, they introduced characters from all walks of life, both mains and minors; second, they set up a social background, the issue of class, and used that background to frame, color, compare and contrast their characters from the get-go - give them more depth and complexity.

So first, let’s look at season 1’s array of characters

The main character belonged to Starling City’s elite: that was our point of entry, our main point of view. On the one hand, we had Oliver, Thea, Thea’s friends, Tommy, Max Fuller and Carter Bowen to represent the privileged youths of the city. On the other, we had Walter, Moira, Malcolm, Frank Chen and the people on the List (Adam Hunt, Martin Somers, etc.) to introduce us to the older generation and their shenanigans.

Middle class? The Lance family used to be at the center: Laurel, Quentin, Dinah and Sara (dead but certainly not forgotten). From there, we had Laurel’s friends and colleagues at CNRI (Joanna in particular), and we had Quentin’s friends and colleagues at SCPD (Pike, Hilton, McKenna). We also had Diggle and Carly, poor Rob, and Felicity Smoak.

The people of the Glades were given a voice via Laurel’s storyline as a lawyer: Emily Nocenti, Peter Declan, and Eric and Nancy Moore with their son Taylor. Roy, our main boy, was introduced in episode 15. Raisa, the Queens’ Russian maid, left an impression in spite of only being featured in episode 1. Others were antagonists, but they were still given depth and motivations: the Restons and the Savior in particular.

Organized crime in Starling City used to operate at every level. At the very top, we had Malcolm Merlyn and his organisation. Then, among the lesser rich, we had the Bertinelli family (Frank and Helena). Ted Gaynor and his disgruntled veterans belonged more or less to the middle class. Finally, down at the bottom, we had the Triad, the Bratva, and Count Vertigo’s drug ring.

Throughout the first season, the main characters also mostly all had their own distinct narrative space. Just to cite some of the most important ones: Laurel shared separate storylines with Oliver, Lance and Tommy; Felicity shared separate storylines with Walter and Oliver; Tommy shared separate storylines with Laurel, Oliver and his father; Thea shared separate storylines with her mother, Oliver and Roy. There were so many different factions with different opinions and different agendas, doing completely different things - which made it all the more exciting whenever these storylines intersected (and they all came together in the big finale). This was a way to breath life into their world: Starling City used to be more than just a bunch of vigilante saving nameless faces. It used to be Laurel and the lawyers at CNRI fighting the city’s corrupt elite; it used to be Tommy trying to find his place; it used to be Quentin Lance and SCPD fighting crime and chasing after the Hood; it used to be Walter, a good man trying to solve a mystery; it used to be Moira, trying hard not to drown in her conspiracies; it used to be Roy and Thea figuring out who they wanted to be; etc.

So, this diversity of POV wasn’t a coincidence, but a consequence of the choice the writers made when they incorporated class as one of the thematic pillars of their show. Once they made that decision, it was obviously very important to have both main and minor characters at every social level through which we could explore life in the city. Note also the variety of professions/life styles within the same social class: in terms of worldbuilding, it is doubly important, because of course that leads to a variety of locations. The city didn’t just feel different in season 1 because of all the characters, it also looked different because of all the different sets associated with these characters.

How class was used to ground Starling City and bring it to life

The class issue was an integral part of the story. For a show based on a liberal superhero (from what I’ve heard), it is the one social justice issue they chose to tackle (racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. basically weren’t addressed at all), and they obviously put some effort into it.

Most characters and relationships during the first season explored class dynamics to some extend. When you look at romance, for example, class was the most essential element of Thea/Roy, a core element of both Oliver/Laurel and Tommy/Laurel (Quentin resenting these rich bad boys for what Oliver did to his daughters, Moira telling Laurel that her son loved being at her place because he didn’t feel like Robert’s son there, just himself; Tommy being cut off being an important part of the development of his story with Laurel; etc.), and definitely colored the way Moira/Walter as a high-end couple was written. Concerning characters, the fact that they were billionaires was a defining characteristic of both the Queens and the Merlyns, just like the fact that he was poor was a defining characteristic of Roy. Actually, we can’t just talk about a defining characteristic: their social standing was basically one of the driving character traits in their storylines, for all these characters.

Class used to be at the very core of show. Oliver’s story started when he realized his family’s fortune was built upon the suffering of others - when his father shot himself in the head and left him with the mission of righting the wrongs he committed toward the lower class. On the outside, the Hood was designed to be a champion of the people, an avenger going after the corrupt elite: he was the monster they created, karma in a way, consequences for all those who thought they could abuse their power and get away with it just because they had money. On the inside, the Hood is a deeply personal story about redemption and legacy, it is about an ex- billionaire playboy making amends for not only his father’s cruelty and indifference, but also his own mistakes - the entitlement that made him hurt his girlfriend horribly and irreparably, and left her sister dead at sea.

The Hood going after the List grounded the show in so many ways. First, it made his story different than all the other superheroes out there. Second (and particularly relevant to this post), it allowed the writers to explore the city in so many different angles: these people were not only businessmen but also accountants, investors, financial advisors, etc. By telling us their stories, the writers were also telling us how the city worked in all its complexities, who were the many different players. It made it more whole. Third, it meant the Hood had a justification for being a vigilante: he wasn’t there to replace the police back then, he was there to do what they couldn’t because they weren’t allowed to. Go after the guilty that eluded the law, that fancied themselves above it. His targets and his M.O. meant Oliver couldn’t do what he wanted to do by legal means. Each operation was carefully planned in advance, complete with detective work. This added a layer of believability to his story and the world they lived in that completely fell off in latter seasons.

The class issue wasn’t used to ground just the hero’s story into something real: it’s the same deal for the big bad’s plot. Everything about the Undertaking is a commentary on class, from Malcolm’s motivation (the crime-infested Glades that killed his wife), its execution (using his power as the most successful businessman in Starling to persuade or bully the other powerful players into joining his cause, take control of the corrupt first class via blackmail, infiltrate the law-enforcement, etc.: all of that to have a hand of command over every important chess piece in the city), to his end-goal (the annihilation of the poorest part of town). Actually, I’ve always found the diversity of Malcolm’s main group, the team that orchestrated the Undertaking, striking: he was the only white man, the others were two women, an Asian man, and a black man (Robert was killed right after they switched objectives so I’m not counting him). The only thing they had in common was their social standing, so you feel like it was deliberately constructed not to be a gender or race issue, but specifically a class one.

Even if you exclude the hero and villain’s plots, most storylines during season 1 had a relation to class in one way or another. The Savior? Fed up with the gangbangers in the Glades and the executives who let them run around free. The Huntress? Couldn’t stand her father oppressing the poor anymore. Ted Gaynor? Resentful over having to babysit rich kids. Firefly? He was created during the Nodell Tower fire, a tragedy that only occurred because the construction company that built it used substandard material to save a few bucks. Etc. Every single one of these storylines served to flesh out Starling City and its citizens a bit more.

Season 1’s most iconic quote is probably “You have failed this city” - the vigilante’s tagline. These words are directly related to the class issue, and what made them powerful was how thoroughly the writers set up the city’s social background, how full of life they made Starling feel.

The current situation

Since season 1 was, well, the first season, it was its responsibility to set up solid foundations for the show, notably a believable world. A city in which the show could grow into something more. I think it did a good job, but the seasons that followed didn’t really respect that work with the exception of season 2.

The class issue was dropped somewhere after the first third of season 2, which was busy trying to introduce more comic-booky elements. Season 3 and on didn’t pick it up again. I feel like season 3 was trying to do something worldbuilding-wise w/ the League of Assassins, but failed miserably (they succeeded in destroying one of DC’s most legendary mythos that’s all, and I’m very bitter about it).

So what does Star City look like today? IMHO: boring. You’d think Oliver being Mayor would mean it gets more development, but it’s more bland and empty and dead than ever.

In terms of point of views in season 5 and 6, mostly all we get is Team Arrow in the Arrow Cave and Team Arrow in the Mayor’s Office. They killed, wrote off the show, or forgot about most of the characters that added layers and diversity to the city. Apart from the masks and their allies, mostly all we have now are some villainous POV here and there, most of them not even originally from the city but just coming around to cause mayhem for some reason (I do think the character of Susan Williams was a welcome break for that reason, but she wasn’t particularly well-received). I don’t even know how the city looks like anymore, empty warehouses is all I can see in my head.

It’s actually a joke how the background of the characters, wrt the totally dropped class issue, simply doesn’t matter now. We were left wondering where Oliver, the main character, lived for an entire season. Most of Team Arrow doesn’t have a job, and it’s only recently been addressed. Curtis, well-off genius who used to hold a good job in a giant tech company, can say stuff like “as a black man I’m 80% more likely to get shot than you” (/paraphrased) to Rene, poor latino guy from the Glades who has actually been a victim of random gun violence and used to be a marine - because the history of these characters barely matters anymore, it’s just superficial.

In terms of believability, all the work season 1 put into making it all seem grounded has been thrown out the window. Revolutionary tech is invented on the fly in a matter of minutes. Felicity can hack into anything in a matter of seconds - her and Curtis basically have God-like powers, I swear. I still don’t understand how Oliver manages to be the Mayor and also moonlight as the Green Arrow. Also he’s good at being the Mayor and Thea was an awesome Chief of Staff despite them having zero credentials in politics because our heroes can now be absolutely anything they want if the plot demands it (or just if it pleases the writers). He can pass magical bills on controversial issues that everyone is happy with because Star City is now just a bland simple-minded mass. The Arrow cave is more technology advanced than the NASA and honestly, since they don’t kill and only go after common criminals, I don’t even know why they haven’t simply joined the law enforcement - as a special unit or something, Marvel style. The whole vigilante thing seem pointless at this point, just another hurdle.

(I mean, for real, last episode, Dinah, instead of confronting Vigilante in her capacity as a cop, had to go put on her costume first - that I have no idea where she hid since FBI lady was snooping around. Seems inconvenient and a giant loss of time when people’s lives are at stakes, yk?)

Tobias Church can just show up and take control of Star City’s organized crime (which, btw, I’m surprised to see is even still around) in a matter of… what was it? Two weeks? Which completely undermines these guys, in addition to being unrealistic. It’s another thing that makes the citizens of Star City look stupid or useless, just like the fact people haven’t figured out Oliver and his little gang are the vigilantes makes them look stupid. The writers destroyed any credibility the city had as a whole.

So, yeah, the world of Arrow’s latter seasons is a senseless one, and Star City feels like it has lost its soul.

This is all my humble opinion. Thoughts?

#arrow #a1 #a5 #a6 #oliver queen #mp #my commentary #so i totally forgot to post this here too #i wanted to put pictures so