#where a lot of people turn into gamma monsters

[jademight]

A Planet Hulk movie really isn’t as hard to pull off as you think

MCU never does straight adaptions anyway

Have Brulk return to a Sakaar now ruled by a tyrant called the Red King in Grandmaster’s absence, Caeira (a gladiator Hulk knew pre-Ragnarok) is running a rebellion with a kid that looks suspiciously Hulkish 

yadda yadda yadda Hulk liberates them and becomes the Worldbreaker, ten gammillion bucks at the box office 

#;ooc tag #or you adapt world war hulkS #where a lot of people turn into gamma monsters #I don't think you can do WWH itself because hulk no longer has beef with Earth lmfao #UNLESS caeira gets merc'd by humans somehow

[shuunnico]

She Hulk

I don’t get people saying She Hulk needs to be as jacked as Banner. Jennifer isn’t just Hulk 2.0.

Now, yes, this is the MCU so comics continuity doesn’t mean much, but since the comics are all we can draw upon:

In the comics, Jennifer Walters is a small, shy, unassuming woman who works in law. After she gets a blood transfusion from Bruce, she becomes a gamma mutant like her cousin.

Gamma mutants are not just variations on Hulk. The mutation reflects the psychology of the person involved, in particular their subconscious desires and inner self.

Bruce Banner had a lot of repressed anger and rage simmering under the surface before he became The Hulk. When he was dosed with gamma radiation, his desire to express that anger exploded and he became The Hulk; the monster is a reflection of what Banner wanted in some way, deep down inside.

The Hulk-Variants; Cho and Ross, look like Hulk because they desire, on some level, to BE Banner. And so this power manifests as appearing Hulk-like.

The Leader didn’t become a hulking monster. Samuel Sterns had an inferiority complex and yearned to stand above his much smarter brother. This mutated him into the hyper-intelligent, big headed villain we see now.

Leonard Samson always wanted to be a superhero. So when he was dosed with gamma radiation, he basically became a super-soldier with green hair. And Gieger, another gamma mutant, basically manifested as a female version of Samson, given her contact with him.

The TLDR is if you think being dosed with gamma radiation is supposed to make you a muscle-bound hulk, then you’re incorrect. It can, but it can just as likely not. It depends on the person.

She Hulk is Jennifer’s idealized self. She’s confident, powerful and outgoing, in contrast to who she was before. That’s what the mutation turned her into. And that’s reflected in her design, where she’s conventionally attractive and fit.

That was She Hulk’s design for decades, nearly her entire run. Recently they attempted to subvert this by turning Jennifer into just a female Hulk monster and the change was reviled. Not only was Jennifer not a replacement for Banner, the character had decades of history that was ignored to facilitate it. It’s telling that She Hulk is now back to her traditional design.

People who wanted a jacked Jennifer just don’t understand what is going on with the character. She’s not supposed to be built like Banner.

Still not watching the show though. It’s probably going to be terrible and the CGI is uncanny valley as heck.

#MCU #She Hulk #Jennifer Walters #I say this as someone who is more than okay with buff ladies

[daydreamerdrew]

I really liked how The Incredible Hulk (1968) #255 started off with emphasizing that a lot of what the Hulk does that creates problems for himself come from him not understanding the world that he lives in.

And then has him find a brief little respite in a positive interaction with a homeless person.

The way that Don Blake is brought into the story is because he’s working as a doctor in a freight yard to treat the homeless men who end up there while they’re riding trains.

The way that this story approaches societal issues interests me. It is a problem that the men are “kicked around by trainyard guards,” but while they’re in prison “they receive a hot meal and a bed” and the issue there is “they can’t stay forever.” That this manager of this freight yard wants to take care of the homeless men that turn up there is unique, but that other managers at other freight yards don’t care to do that isn’t highlighted, and actually this project is being funded by the city. Similarly, that other doctors aren’t interested in treating homeless men is limited to the vague comment that “most doctors no longer make house calls” and that Donald Blake specifies that he’ll treat the men regardless of if they can pay him.

And when Bruce arrives at the freight yard, he flees from a police officer in fear of how the stress of being jailed would transform him into the Hulk, but Bruce’s fear was unfounded as the officer was only going to direct him to the YMCA.

This misunderstanding being used to jumpstart the conflict reminds me of how back in the 60s when the Comics Code was stronger, Hulk comics were a lot more reliant on misunderstandings. An example I’ve used repeatedly because it’s such a great emblem of it is a story where the Hulk tried to help Gamma Base when it was being attacked by a monster, but he jumped at it just as Gamma Base was firing a missile at the monster and coincidentally collided with it in the air, which General Ross took to mean that the Hulk was intentionally saving the monster from the missile and that they were working together. It seems to me from my Hulk readings that Hulk comics gradually moved away from misunderstanding-based plots but never completely because that would necessitate putting authority figures in too much of a bad light.

And that the Hulk doesn’t understand the world he lives in is brought up again in the middle of his fight with Thor when he interprets a man honking his car horn as that man trying to upset him, as well as another moment with a sympathetic framing of a police officer.

Of course the Hulk fights with the police at the beginning of this issue, but that’s, as always, framed as the police being incredibly brave and noble that they would take on the Hulk who definitely outmatches them because they’re so dedicated to protecting people.

I just thought this was an interesting context, the association of the Hulk with homeless men and that Donald Blake was treating homeless men, to place a Hulk vs. Thor fight in that ends with Thor realizing that he had misjudged the Hulk and made the situation worse by assuming the worst of him. It implies that the Hulk is worthy of compassionate care too, but also sort of treats that homeless men are considered worthy of compassionate care and aren’t treated poorly as a given.

#my posts

[makiruz]

Back in 2011 I had a phase in which I was really into Hulk (thank Greg Pak), and I got to learned a lot about Hulk lore, but then I stopped and I have no idea what’s happening there anymore (apparently some people were taking the DID seriously)

However, I kept one thing: I decided that there’s an universe where Bruce didn’t got in time to save Rick from the explosion, so Rick is the Hulk and Bruce is just a dude; however, he was close to the blast plus the guilt of having turned Rick into a green gamma monster was traumatic enough to cause him to loose the grip he had on his alters and now they’re popping out and acting liked their hulked-up counterparts except they’re just guys; and of course they’re at war with each other because Bruce Banner has no chill (that’s Mr Fixit)

#The Hulk #my post #headcanon #Bruce Banner #fanfic #this system needs therapy and stop resenting each other

[lazyevaluationranch]

On a post about the Blue Haired Girlfriend's quixotic citrus breeding experiments, @voidingintotheshout​ asked:

I mean, if you wanted a hearty citrus relative, why didn’t you just grow Osage Orange? They can grow as far north as Michigan which is surely further north than anyone could reasonably expect to grow a citrus tree. They’re not edible but then hearty orange isn’t either. Osage Orange are so cool and such a interesting historical plant from the Shelterbelt era of American agriculture. Apparently they do smell like citrus.

This is part three of three. Part one. Part two.

Now you've done it! It's time for A Very Brief (But Also Insufficiently Brief) History of Twentieth Century Hardy Citrus Cultivation! Growing citrus trees this far north is kind of nuts, it's true, but I promise you it is not even close to the weirdest things people have done to grow citrus in places where the citrus doesn't think it should grow.

A note: This post will written using the Swingle citrus taxonomy system, including things that are definitely wrong. The citrus taxonomic tree looks like that one box of orphaned computer cords I keep moving with me to new houses "in case I need them" except some sort of adorable five-dimensional kitten has entertained herself with them and some of the resulting knots are not technically possible in our space-time continuum. 

The powers that be gave us citrus because nothing pleases them like seeing a geneticist cry.

1. The Migrant Trees

The Soviet Union wanted lemons for tea, and they wanted to be independent enough not to have to trade with anyone else to get them, which meant they wanted to grow their own citrus. That part of the world is not a great place to grow plants that die when the temperature goes below zero, but at the foundation of the Soviet Union, there were citrus orchards in the warmest part of Georgia, along the Black Sea. Specifically, there was about, uh, one and a half square kilometers of somewhat implausible citrus orchard.

Hang on, it is about to get way less plausible.

This is the great citrus migration: any tree that did well in one spot, they'd try planting its seeds a few kilometres further north, or a few kilometres further east. Prizes were offered for breeding hardier citrus. Slowly the orchards spread, but they were extremely weird orchards.

It's usually a few degrees warmer at ground level than up in the air, and there's way less wind. So as the trees grew, they were bent over and tied along the ground. Some of them had the central trunk run in a straight line along the ground, with branches spreading out from it like the leaves of a fern, like an espaliered tree on its side. Others were starfish shaped, with the central trunk looped down until it ended up next to the base, and the branches sprawling out along the ground from the centre like starfish legs. The citrus trees were no taller than particularly vigorous strawberry plants, but they survived the winters, and you could throw a blanket over them to help them stay warm.

None of that helped if the ground froze solid, so they needed Underground Citrus. You'd dig a ditch, down below the lowest area where the ground froze, and you'd plant flat Starfish Trees or Flat Frond Trees running along the bottom of it, too deep to freeze. In winter, you'd just cover the ditch with boards any time the temperature was expected to go below freezing - citrus would tolerate the lack of light, but not the cold. Mandarins (Citrus reticulata) seemed to do best, so that’s most of what was grown.

It is a nearly unimaginable amount of work to grow citrus this way, along the bottoms of pits and trenches. We are experimentally trying to grow a Soviet-developed mandarin breed of unknown parentage, Shirokolistvennyi, but we will definitely not be putting in that level of effort.

2. The Mixed Up Trees

There are a couple species of citrus that tolerate cold well, but taste awful. A lot of effort has gone into crossbreeding them with more edible citrus. The results are ... mixed.

The Ichang Papeda (Citrus cavaleriei) generally survives temperatures down to -18 degrees C. It is stoic and calm and has mastered emptiness. Unfortunately, it has mastered emptiness too well. The fruit smells like lemons, with maybe a hint of rose, but there's nothing to eat here. It has a rind and seeds. No juice, no flesh.

(Photo by Michael Saalfield)

The Ichang Papeda is the parent or grandparent to several delicious, extremely sour Asian citrus types. Yuzu/yuja smells like grapefruit and clean wet stones from the bottom of a fast-flowing stream. Sudachi smells like grapefruit and leaves with dew on them. (I haven't met kabosu or any other papeda hybrids personally, but they are numerous.)  They're all too sour to eat plain, unless you really need to turn your face inside out for some reason, but make for excellent flavouring. 

(We have a yuzu tree and a sudachi tree and they're surviving, but no fruit yet.)

Trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata) can survive temperatures down to -30 degrees C. This may be partly because, uniquely amoung citrus, they can drop leaves in autumn or winter and regrow them in spring, like a maple tree. They also produce an internal antifreeze. They are angry, twisted, thorny little plants that yell swears when you walk past them. They make a great hedge. The fruit is furry, smells like flowers and pine trees and taste like burnt, bitter plastic. It may or may not be possible to breed the horrible taste completely out of trifoliate oranges without losing cold-hardiness, if it's due to their antifreeze chemicals. Here’s Stabby:

(Photo by Rob Hille)

Even the least terrible trifoliate crossbreeds are bitter enough to qualify as “acquired tastes.” There are recipes for trifoliate marmalade: put a dozen trifoliate oranges, a kilogram of sugar, and a kilogram of pebbles in a pot, cook until it gels, then sieve out the oranges and eat the pebbles. 

We are growing a trifoliate orange / minneola orange hybrid. And, of course, someday our own trifoliate hybrids. The Blue Haired Girlfriend planted 200 trifoliate oranges a couple years ago. There are fewer now, but the survivors have lived through two winters of snow and frost, and they might have somehow gotten more stabby. We're going to breed them, to each other or to less angry fruit, try and make something new and good from them.

I've limited this post to twentieth century hardy citrus breeding, but I have to give a shoutout to somatic hybridization, a decidedly twenty first century technique, where you take a cell from each of two different plants, remove their cell walls, put them next to eachother, and shock them with electricity until they merge into a single cell whose nucleus contains all genes from both plants. Then the new plant is like, "Wow, I guess these are all my genes? It seems like a lot, haha, but it's not like somebody made me from dismembered body parts and electricity, that is not how science works. Anyway I guess it's time to do some plant stuff now."

3. The Mutant Trees

In the 1950s, people started using radiation to randomly scramble the genes of plants. You'd irradiate seeds enough to change the genes somehow, and then you'd have to plant them to see what had happened. Maybe it was people horrified by the atomic bomb desperately wanting to find some life-supporting use for atomic fission, maybe it was government-supported cold war "atom bombs are good actually, look how many we have, USSR" propaganda. Probably both. 

This time period also saw serious plans for Orion, a spaceship with a huge metal plate for a butt, intended to be propelled by exploding atomic bombs under it, which I am not actually making up.

Thousands of people in Europe and the US signed up to receive seeds with random mutations in the mail, plant them, and report back on what they heck they grew into and if it had any useful weirdness. (The gamma radiation used to mutate the seeds did not make them radioactive themselves - the seeds were completely safe.) There were also more formal and carefully controlled university research programs in China, Japan, and the US, where plants where grown in a circular research garden with a coverable radiation source at the centre, so that the farther you got from the centre, the less radiation the plants got. Radiation breeding is less popular than it used to be, but Japan still has a very productive citrus radiation breeding program.

The most popular radiation-bred citrus is the "Rio Red" grapefruit and its offspring, which has a much deeper red than non-mutant red grapefruit.

There aren't many radiation-developed citrus breeds noted for cold-hardiness - with radiation you get whatever you get  - but there are a few, and I want one just because I think they're neat, a monument to that lovely human vision that looks at terrible weapons and somehow sees glossy-leaved trees with bright fruit.

4. The Monster Trees

Citrus are usually grown via grafting. That is, you plant a seed from a fast-growing sturdy breed, you let it grow roots and all that, and then you cut the top off and replace it with a branch from a more delicious breed. The two citruses grow together, and you end up with a tree that's disease and cold resistant in the roots, below the graft, but makes tasty fruit above the graft.

Occasionally, this process goes Wrong. 

The first recorded instance is the tree called Bizarria, discovered in 1640. Someone attempted to graft a sour orange branch onto a citron. But instead of a clean line between sour orange branches and citron roots, the graft was damaged somehow, and the two different species of cells got tangled and mixed through the whole tree. It has branches that produce citron fruit. It has branches that produce sour orange fruit. And it has branches that produce, uh ... these:

(Photo by Labrina)

Most graft chimeras are made accidentally, when the graft site is damaged. Trifoliate orange is often used as rootstock, so there are many reported chimeras involving trifoliate orange and a nicer fruit. The mixed-up cells can be arranged a lot of ways, but it's possible to have the outside layer of the tree be trifoliate orange, and the core of the tree be the other citrus (periclinal chimera). This means you could theoretically get a tree with frostproof trifoliate leaves and branches, but fruit that doesn’t taste like burnt plastic rolled in quinine.

This lucky monstrosity has, in fact, reportedly happened. Twice. There is the Prague Citsuma, discovered in a greenhouse in Prague and suspected to have been created by a Soviet breeding program. And then there is the Hormish, discovered in China and thought to have been made by frostbite messing up the clean lines of the graft. The Blue Haired Girlfriend has managed to track down budwood from the Prague Citsuma - I’m so excited! - so we'll see how the fierce thorny monster tree with a heart of gold, or at least heartwood of gold, does for us.

5. Conclusion

Humans have been trying to grow citrus trees where they don't belong for nearly two thousand years, at least since the Jewish Diaspora and people trying to grow holy etrog trees - trunks gnarled as barnacle stones and the whole tree scented like the best dream you can't remember - in Europe. Maybe longer.

The Blue Haired Girlfriend's citrus-breeding schemes aren't going to singlehandedly transform Canada into a net citrus exporter. But history shows us: it might be possible to have a little gleaming sweetness from the stony ground here, with the ravens and the fir trees and the auroras. A sweetness we made ourselves, that exists nowhere else. 

Or maybe we'll just have a bunch of weird inedible fruit. I don't know, but it's worth finding out, worth weaving together leaf and thorn and stone and the light of our hands as the years unwind. Worth it to have a quixotic project we can expect to spend decades on together, hands and hearts. This is how home is made, sometimes, with a balcony full of angry thorny little trees that shout swears at passerby.

#part three of three #so much doesn't fit in this post #fog gardening #how lemons started the mafia #etrogs in diaspora #citropsis and the african citrus species #we are still discovering new citrus species in oceania! #who knows what we'll make? #and one day we'll scoop up hydrocarbons from Titan's stormy seas and polymerize them and make huge bubble greenhouses filled with citrus #small children will fling squishy citrus at their siblings by the coiled light of Jupiter #which is as it should be #thank you voidingintotheshout for an excuse for all sorts of ranting

[waitimcomingtoo]

touch

chapter four: closure

Synopsis: you love him but you can never touch him

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Series Masterlist and Regular Masterlist

“Op. Timers up.”

You rolled off of Peter and reached for your phone to turn your alarm off, sighing sadly as you did.

“I hate that sound.” Peter groaned as he rolled onto his back. “That sound should be illegal.”

“Well if you feel that strongly about it, you can gather a group of strong willed individuals and start a petition.” You teased him as you sat up.

“Are you sure that was 20 minutes? That went by really fast.” He pouted as he rolled onto his side. He lazily played with your fingers as he looked up at you with puppy dog eyes. You sighed deeply, eyes filling with regret as you pulled your hand away.

“Pete.” You said apologetically. “It was 20 minutes. No more touching.”

Peter nodded in understanding and withdrew his hand, letting it rest on his chest instead.

“It’s not long enough.” He mumbled as he stared out the window. “No amount of time is long enough.”

“I know.” You agreed with him. “But it’s better than how we used to be. At least we get to touch now.”

“For less than half an hour a day.” He grumbled as he sat up, his mood entirely altered now.

“It’s for the best. You don’t even know what I’d do to you if I could touch you all day.” You smiled coyly, trying it bring him back to a good mood as you stood up on your knees and crawled towards him. Peter perked up with a curious gaze as he turned his body to face you.

“What would you do?” He cocked an eyebrow as he leaned towards you but didn’t make contact.

“I’d tell you, but you wouldn’t be able to handle it.” You teased him before swiftly pulling away. Peter groaned and threw a pillow at you before his mood shifted.

“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful.” Peter said apologetically as his eyes softened. “This is so much better than what we were doing before. I would prefer if I had all the time in the world to touch you, but I’ll take my 20 minutes. I’m lucky I get even that.”

You bit your bottom lip and checked your phone, seeing that it was two minutes past your allotted 20 minutes.

“We still have a minute.” You lied, focusing all your self control on not hurting him as you leaned in to kiss him. Peter eagerly kissed you back, rising on his knees to hold you closer to him.

“I love you so much.” He whispered against your lips. “I’m never going back to what we did before.”

“Me either.” You smiled fondly at him as you stroked his face with your thumbs. “Okay, times really up now. No more touching.”

Peter pouted and let go of you before flopping on the bed with a huff.

“No pouting either.” You teased him as you rubbed your aching temples.

“It would be a lot easier to stop touching you if you weren’t so pretty.” Peter chuckled as he watched you get dressed.

“Sorry about that. It’s all my fault.” You sighed dramatically as you pulled your shirt over your head.

“It is.” He nodded repeatedly. “It’s unbearable trying to resist kissing you every time you walk into a room.”

“I know the feeling.” You told him as you looked at him through the mirror on his dresser.

“Don’t look at me like that, peaches.” He warned. “The 20 minutes are up.”

“I know.” You smiled a little sadly. “I’m just looking.”

“I have to get to training.” Peter sighed as he checked his phone. “I’ll see you after, okay?”

“I’ll see you later, lover.” You blew him a kiss. He caught it, despite how corny it was, and held it against his heart.

“You make it so hard to leave.” He whined as he walked up to you, leaning his hands on either side of you but never touching you.

“Go. You don’t want to be late.” You reminded him playfully. “I’ll see you soon.”

“All right.” He jutted his bottom lip out. “Bye.”

As soon as Peter left the room, you ran to the connected bathroom and threw up in the toilet. You brushed your teeth with the toothbrush he had left there before sliding against the wall and putting your head in your hands. Your brain was pounding in your head, as if it had a heartbeat of its own. You rubbed your temples as hot tears of anguish rolled down your face, the pain worsening before going away.

~

“What’s wrong?” Bruce asked once he noticed the pained look on your face in the living room.

“Nothing.” You shook your head as you sighed. “I just have a headache.”

“Again?” Bruce began to worry. “You’ve been complaining of one all week.”

“Yeah. I don’t know, it’s probably just a cold.” You lied as you adverted your eyes. Bruce didn’t buy into your lies and pressed a hand against your forehead. You immediately jumped back, fearful that you’d hurt him.

“Y/n, you’re burning up.” He really began to worry now.

“Careful, Br. Banner. It’s not safe for you to touch me.” You reminded him as you kept your distance.

“Could I run some labs?”

“Is that necessary?” You asked. “It’s just a headache.”

“You’ve only been using the stun gun once a week right? Like I told you?” He asked making you stop in your tracks.

“Yeah.” You lied. “Just once a week.”

“Alright, good.” He sighed in relief. “I made it with gamma radiation, you know. Too much of that will kill you.”

“Kill me how?” You wondered as your mouth went dry.

“Well, you were born with your powers.” He explained. “Your abilities are a part of your nervous system. Temporarily taking your powers away for 20 minutes holds up with nervous system. Too much radiation will slowly weaken you until you die.”

“Oh.” You nodded slowly. “I see.”

“But once a week is fine.” He assured you. “That shouldn’t do too much damage. It might give you a headache though. Would you mind if I ran some labs?”

“Sure. Whatever you need.” You said quietly as a panic set it. You used the stun gun 7 days a week and you we’re finally feeling the consequences.

“Let’s go.” Bruce escorted you to the lab.

An hour later, you left the lab with an anxious feeling in your tummy. You ran into Peter in the hallway and plastered a fake smile on so he wouldn’t worry.

“There you are.” Peter smiled as he approached you. “I burnt my hand on the oven again.”

“You did?” You worried as you tan to him. “Let me see.”

You took Peters hand in yours and squeezed it but didn’t feel his pain transfer to you.

“That’s weird.” You blinked in confusion. “I don’t feel anything.”

“Hm.” Peter fought a smile. “Weird.”

“You’re such a liar.” You playfully hit him when you realized his trick. “You didn’t burn your hand.”

“No. I just wanted to hold my girlfriends hand. I’m sorry.” He looked at you with his puppy dog eyes, still holding your hand.

“I forgive you but don’t do it again. This isn’t a game, Peter. I could seriously hurt you.” You reminded him. You began to worry he was gonna make a habit out of tricking you to touch him. You were feeling horribly sick, and you were a fast healer. You had no idea what would happen to Peter if you accidentally transferred your pain to him.

“I know.” Peter smiled apologetically. “I think I have a paper cut, though.”

“Where?” You raised an eyebrow, not believing him.

“My lips.” He said sheepishly.

“Uh Uh.” You shook your head teasingly. “Not fooling me, Parker.”

“I thought that would work.” He whined. “Fuck me.”

“Aw, I so would but we already had our 20 minutes today.” You teased him, making his jaw drop.

“That is not what I meant and you know it.” He narrowed his eyes at you. Before you could respond, you heard your name called from behind you.

“Y/n.”

You turned around, your smile immediately fading when you saw Bruce standing there with a frown.

“I’ll catch up with you.” You told Peter before jogging over to Bruce.

“Hi Dr. Banner.” You smiled weakly. “Is everything okay?”

“I’m so sorry.” Bruce whispered, looking incredibly guilty as he held your lab results in his hands.

“What happened?” Your mouth went dry.

“There must be something wrong with the gun. I must’ve calibrated it to disperse more gamma radiation than I intended. Your whole body is full of it. There should not be this much. I don’t know how this happened.” He apologized as a sick feeling settled in your tummy.

“Dr. Banner, it’s okay.” You assured him. “It’s not your fault.”

“It is. I must’ve gotten the calculations wrong or left out a variable or-“

“I use it everyday.” You blurted, cutting him off. Bruce’s face twisted in confusion as he processed what you said.

“What?”

“The stun gun. I use it everyday so I can touch Peter.” Tears came to your eyes as your confession came out. “It’s not your fault. It’s mine.”

“Y/n, your body needs at least a week to recover from a blast of gamma radiation.” Bruce told you. “That’s why I told you to only use it once a week. Your body can’t heal in just a day, even with your enhanced abilities. Every time you use the gun, you make yourself sicker. Your ability to heal quickly is the only thing keeping you alive right now.”

Your jaw locked in fear as the tears fell down your cheeks. You didn’t say anything as you sucked in a shark breath.

“Hey, it’s all right.” Bruce rubbed your shoulder. “My body is full of it too.”

“I’m so sorry. You told me it was dangerous and I did it anyway. I’m so stupid.” You whimpered as you wiped your face on the back of your hands.

“You’re not stupid. I’ve been here before.” Bruce sighed. “I pushed people away, even when I really loved them, because I was scared of hurting them. You’re not a monster for wanting to be loved.”

“Am I gonna die?” You whispered.

“I don’t know.” Bruce answered honestly. “How long have you been doing this?”

“Everyday for the last three months.”

“You should stop for at least 6 months then, and we’ll reassess then.” Bruce advised. You felt the air get knocked out of your chest when Bruce told you you wouldn’t be able to touch Peter again for 6 months.

“Dr. Banner, I can’t go back to how I was before.” You protested. “I can’t do that to Peter.”

“The only other option is poisoning yourself with the radiation until you die. I think Peter will understand.” Bruce told you.

“What about me?” You shrugged sadly. “What if I don’t understand?”

“Go talk to him.” Bruce advised. “Just have a calm, adult conversation.”

“Okay. Calm and adult.” You nodded. “I will.”

You immediately went to Peter’s room and knocked on his door, waiting to enter until he told you to.”

“Hey, peaches.” Peter smiled brightly as you shut the door behind you. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Peter we have to break up.” You blurted out, making Peter sit up and go to the edge of his bed. So much for your calm and adult conversation.

“What?” Peter’s face fell at your words.

“I…I did something really bad.” You shook your hands as you began to panic. You paces around his room as the guilt and anxiety ate away at you.

“Peaches, it’s okay. Talk to me.” Peter reached out to touch you but quickly withdrew his hands when he remembered he couldn’t.

“I lied to you.” You confessed as tears came to your eyes.

“About what?” Peter asked slowly as you stopped pacing.

“Dr. Banner told me I could only use the stun gun once a week. I knew it was dangerous to use everyday but I did it anyway and it’s killing me.”

“Killing you?” Peter’s eyes darkened.

“The radiation. Dr. Banner said if I keep using it, it’ll kill me. I’m so sorry.” You began to cry, wishing more than anything that you could reach out and touch him.

“Then we just won’t use it anymore, peaches.” Peter said calmly. “Not if it’s killing you.”

“But we can’t use it for at least 6 months.” You cried. “You said so yourself, you hated the way we were before. You don’t want to go back. So I’m letting you go. I’m not gonna make you stay in this relationship if we can’t touch each other.”

“Peaches, I don’t love you because I get to touch you.” Peter chuckled softly. “And don’t get me wrong, I love getting to kiss you and hold you, but just being with you is my favorite part. I can go another 6 months without touching you if it means you’re still my girlfriend.”

“But…but you said you’d never go back.” You calmed down long enough to realize Peter wasn’t mad.

“I’d never go back to us being just friends. I can go back to us not touching if it keeps you safe. That’s all that matters to me.” Peter promised you.

“Really?” You asked hopefully.

“Really.” He nodded. “I love you in any way I can have you.”

“I love you too.” You smiled gratefully at him before pulling him into a kiss. In the heat of the moment, you didn’t think about the pain you were holding inside and kissed him deeply. Peter kissed you back for just a moment before you heard a small gasp emit from the back of his throat. You felt him slid off your lips and opened your eyes to see him collapsed on the floor.

“Peter?” You asked as you knelt down beside him. You rolled him over and let out a gasp when you saw how pale he was.

“Peter?!” You shook him aggressively. “Peter?!”

When Peter didn’t respond, you let out a guttural scream for help.

“Dr. Banner!”

Bruce rushed into the room when he heard your scream, stopping shortly when he saw Peter.

“What happened?” He asked as he knelt down beside you.

“No no no the radiation.” You cried as you shook Peter. “I just gave him the radiation.”

“Okay, calm down. Let me get him to the lab.” Bruce instructed as he grabbed Peters feet. You hooked your arms under Peter and helped Bruce carry him to the lab. You laid him on the table and stood anxiously as Bruce hooked Peter up to a monitor.

“You said the only thing keeping me alive was my healing abilities.” You worried as you chewed on your nails. “He doesn’t have that.”

“But he has something like it.” Bruce reminded you. “He’s still enhanced. He might not die from this.”

“Might?” You whispered at the little hope he was able to offer you. Bruce gave you an apologetic look as he continued to work on Peter. You felt useless as you stared at Peter’s lifeless body until you got an idea.

“Wait.” You spoke up. “Let me take his pain. I’ve done it before.”

Bruce was quiet for a minute as he stared at Peter’s monitor.

“He’s not in pain.” He said quietly.

“He has to be. He has to be if I was.” You reasoned.

“Y/n, Peter isn’t in any pain.” Bruce repeated. You realized he had stopped working on Peter and felt a sinking feeling in your tummy.

“Why?”

Bruce looked away from the monitor and took his glasses off for full dramatic effects.

“Because he’s dead.”

“What?” You shrieked as all the color left your face.

“I’m kidding. Was that a bad joke?” Bruce grimaced as you gasped for air. “You can take his pain. It’s just gonna hurt a lot.”

You gave him a frustrated look before placing your hands on either sides of Peter’s face.

“Come on, Peter.” You willed him. “Come on, Spiderman.”

It took a minute, but his pain slowly drew out of his body and into yours. Your veins darkened to a jet black as the radiation seeped back into your body, making you let out a scream.

“Y/n, be careful.” Bruce warned as Peter’s vitals began to improve.

“It’s killing me.” You screamed in agony as the color began to return to his cheeks.

“Because it’s three months worth of radiation at once. You’ve been building it up.” Bruce grimaced when he saw the toll it was taking on you.

“It hurts so bad.” You cried.

“It’s almost all out.” Bruce told you. “Just hold on a little longer.”

“Dr. Banner, I need you to do something for me.” You said breathlessly, your body beginning to shut down.

“What is it?” Bruce asked.

“I need you to recalibrate the stun gun to permanently remove my powers.”

“What?” His eyes widened. “Why?”

“So nothing like this ever happens again.”

“Then you can’t be an Avenger.” Bruce protested.

“But I can be a human being.” You shouted. “I want that more. I want that most.”

“But-“

“Please.” You cried. “Just do it.”

“Okay.” Bruce agreed. “I will.”

“Thank you.” You nodded. “I’m gonna pass out now.”

“Okay.” Bruce told you, but you had already hit the floor.

~

Once Peter’s vitals were stable, Bruce transferred him to his own room. As soon as he was awake and responsive, you went to visit him.

“Hey.” You greeted Peter in a soft tone as he woke up from a nap.

“Hi peaches.” Peter lit up when you sat on his bed. “I’m surprised you came to see me. I’m…I’m really glad you did.”

“Why wouldn’t I come to see you?” You smiled teasingly

“Dr. Banner told me what happened.” Peter admitted. “I thought you were going to blame yourself for what happened and be too scared to come near me.”

“Are you scared that I’m near you?” You asked him softly as you kept your eyes down.

“No.” Peter shook his head immediately. “I want you to be near me.”

“Good. I want to be near you too.” You chuckled as you laced your fingers through his. Peter looked at your hands in happy shock before giving them a squeeze.

“You’re touching me?” He asked happily.

“After what happened, I had two options.” You explained. “I could’ve shut you out to ensure I never hurt you again, or I could make sure I never hurt anybody again.”

“What do you mean?”

“I had Dr. Banner remove my powers.” You smiled sheepishly. “I told him to take them all away, but he found a way to let me keep the healing aspect. I can still heal, but I can’t hurt.”

“You had him take away your powers?” Peter asked in shock as he sat up straighter. “Why?”

“Because human beings need to be touched.” You shrugged. “I didn’t want to live without that anymore. I didn’t want to be allotted 20 minutes a day to touch the boy I love.”

“You did this for me?” Peter asked fondly as you stroked his cheek with your thumb.

“No.” You shook your head. “I did this for me. I didn’t want to worry anymore. I wanted to be free.”

“So this means…” Peter raised an eyebrow. You nodded a little before leaning in to kiss him, feeling weightless as the fear of hurting him was long behind you.

“It means we get to do this all the time, lover.” You whispered against his lips. “Anytime we want.”

“Anytime we want?” He asked for comfirmation.

“Yup.” You popped the p for emphasis.

“In that case.” Peter raised an eyebrow. “What were you saying before about what I couldn’t handle?”

Tag List 🏷

@awesomebooklover17​ @thebookwormlife​ @imanativeofswlondondahling​ @weirdr-artiest​ @serendipitous-amor​ @dummiesshort​

@foreverxholland​ @lavender-writer​ @captainmandeestudent17​ @whatareyouhidingpeter​ @takenbyheartstrings​ @ultrunning​ @imyourliquor-youremypoison​ @theolwebshooter​ @andreasworlsboring101​ @waiting-to-be-myself​ @letsloveimagines​ @peterparkoure​ @a-villain-vying-for-attention​ @justcallmehitgirl​ @averyfosterthoughts​ @jackiehollanderr​ @tiny-friggin-human @mara-twins​ @iamaunicorn4704​ @maryjanee23​ @geeksareunique​ @emmamarshmellow​ @unbelievableholland​ @rebekkah4766 @flixndchill​ @sovereignparker​ @thisisthebiplace​ @spideydobrik​ @every-marveler-ever​ @undiadeestos​ @caelestii-e​ @eridanuswave​​ @itscaminow​​ @fiantomartell​ @solarxmoonchild​ @where-art-thau-romeo​ @canyouevencauseicant​ @illwritetomorrow​ @thehappygrungelife​ @saysomethingspiderman​ @parkerboop​ @smilexcaptainx​ @quaksonhehe​ @kelieah​ @kickingn-ames​ @babeyspidey​ @seasidecrowbar​ @lovelessdagger​ @love-sick-blues​ @electraheart-3174​ @unbelievableholland​ @yourtypicalhotmess​ @spideyanakin​ @horanxholland​ @thesuitelifeofafangirl​ @anapocalypseinmymind​ @marshxx​ @heyheycharlatte​ @nooneinvitedfascistbarbie​ @tomshufflepuff​ @cookiemonstermusic258​ @maybemona​ @young-romanoff​ @alexxcorona113​ @spideyspeaches​ @lethal-wisdom​ @xo-spidey​ @im-still-tryin-to-find-it​ @big-galaxy-chaos​ @pandaxnienke​ @theincredibledeadlyviper​  @thestylestour​  @officialsimppage​ @mrvelscaptains​ @peterspideysstuff​ @reemusluupin​ @perspectiveparker​ @itsemohours​ @satanswitchings​ @okkulta​ @parkerlovebot​ @sarcasticallywitty15​ @mati4188​ @geminiparkers​ @jungkxxkk​ @friendlyneighborhood-mendes​ @whatthefuckimbisexual​ @olixerwxxd​ @starkbrain​ @creatorofthegalaxy​ @far-from-holland​ @f-hollands​ @ilovefrogs1000​ @itstaskeen​ @dreamedforu​ @itmatteredatthetime​ @rockyrogers @catkeeperthetall @thebloodrobin @florencxs @hermayone @patricks-fabulous-face @tom-holland-is-bae @captainmarvelnerd @owenniasstars​

#peter parker x reader #peter parker x y/n #peter parker x you #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker imagine #peter parker fluff #peter parker angst #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland fluff #iron man #tom holland fanfiction

[ask-tssb]

A question to all pokemon: what are your favorite spells?

Myu: Ohh, I... I don’t know very many, but Transform is so versatile! I suppose it’s my favorite because I could potentially use any spell through it!

Atticus: My favorite’s Flamethrower! I lava’d to use it so much that I, uh... Well, um, I’ve burned things in the house before. Roxie really laid into me those times. But it’s the first move I ever learned!

Topaz: I really like the Transforming!! I wanna use it to turn into a big, huge monster! Or, or — I wanna turn into Atty!

Gamma: I’m hoping my favorite will be whatever brings Clara back to life. As it stands, though, I can see the, uh... Dark Beam being useful.

Clara: That is Dark Pulse, Gamma.

Hm... “Favorite” spell? That seems a bit frivolous. I would suppose Psychic finds its uses; it is a very powerful technique, and if one so wishes, it can simply be used to retrieve things.

Matt: Oh, I ain’t got much use t’ be usin’ techniques where I’m at. I’ve been enjoyin’ teachin’ Marie how to use Fusion, though.

Caroline: Not many people can withstand one of my punches. Thunder Punch, Dizzy Punch, it’s all the same to me.

Marie: I like zapping people! Try ‘n get away from one of my Thunderbolts!

Sandy: Well, um, I haven’t learned a lot of spells, but my mom’s gonna teach me Pay Day. For now, all I know is Scratch.

Opal: Outside of the incredible ability to summon this gun I’ve been granted, Shadow Ball sees it’s uses.

Dr. Steele: You should see the look on my interns’ faces when I test them in the chambers with Play Rough. It’s the most worthwhile spell I’ve learned, I think! It’s fun outside the test chambers too.

#the stars shine bright comic #asktssb #myu #atticus #topaz #gamma #clara #matt #caroline #marie #sandy #opal #dr. steele #mew #zoroark #raichu #kangaskhan #meowth #purrloin #mawile #pokemon #scientist #Anonymous

[krinsbez]

Infinite Four, Refurbished: A Marvel Fanfic Concept

Here is the complete-as-of-now, refurbished version of Infinite Four, my attempt at envisioning an FF version of the eXiles or Web Warriors. Comments and suggestions welcome.

On Earth-9499729, Victor Von Doom has finally defeated the accursed RICHARDS! and assumed his rightful place as ruler of the Earth. Unwilling to rest on his laurels, Emperor Doom has begun studying the Multiverse. And when he finds out that in most realities, a version of himself is repeatedly defeated by a version of RICHARDS! he reacts….poorly.

Meanwhile, on Earth-75845525, Victor Von Doom, smarting from his latest defeat at the hands of the accursed RICHARDS!, decides to distract himself by studying the Multiverse. And when he finds out that in most realities, a version of himself is repeatedly defeated by a version of RICHARDS! he reacts….poorly.

Meanwhile, on Earth-34373402, Victor Von Doom takes a break from planning his latest attempt to defeat the accursed RICHARDS! by studying the Multiverse. And when he finds out that in most realities, a version of himself is repeatedly defeated by a version of RICHARDS! he reacts….poorly. Yeah, so in an infinite multiverse, there’s an infinite number of Dooms throwing an infinite number of shitfits over the fact that in most realities, the Richards family wins and he loses. And because Doom is often kinda bad at recognizing and/or caring that his actions can have negative consequences for everyone else, this gets very, very bad, and needs to be dealt with.

Someone has to clean up the mess, and that responsibility has been taken on by the Baxter Brain, an artificial hyper-intelligence housed inside a massive arcology that began as the combined uploaded consciousnesses of a version of the FF. But, even it’s astounding intellect and power can’t cope with ALL of the various Dooms (and Wizards, and Mad Thinkers, and Diablos, and occasionally an evil Reed) screwing things up for everyone with their egomaniacal disregard for everyone else. So, it has to recruit agents, and what better agents could their be than alternate versions of it’s previous selves? There are four teams: Alpha Team and Beta Team are each made up of an alternate Ben, Johnny, Reed and Sue; in the former case, they have additional power-sets from the "baseline", in the latter, they have additional skills or alternate powersets. In both cases, the individual team-members come from realities where they lost their version of the family. Gamma and Delta Teams are made up of versions of allies of the core four, and serve as support for Alpha and Beta. I only have two members of either ATM, help please? Alpha Team: -Reed Richards, Dr. Fantastic; from an Earth where, instead of Ben being the only member of the Four who was mode-locked, Reed was the only one who wasn’t; obviously, the celebrity adventurers thing didn’t wasn’t going to work. Desperate to find some way of curing his friends, Reed turned to magic, and eventually ended up becoming Sorcerer Supreme…which unfortunately led to the Dread Dormammu killing his family. -Johnny Storm, Ghost Torch; from a world where Reed’s guilt over turning his friends into freaks caused him to commit suicide. Unsurprisingly, this made things even worse for Sue, Ben, and Johnny, the latter of whom ended up being so lost that he joined a Satanic cult and found himself bound to a demonic Spirit of Vengeance… -Ben Grimm, Wolf-Thing; from an Earth where Reed’s moonshot wasn’t canceled, meaning that when it went to space it had adequate cosmic-ray shielding, and Ben managed to make it to the Moon without any problems whatsoever. Whilst on the Moon, however, he found a certain red gemstone…Fortunately, Reed figured out the wolf-monster stalking NYC was his best friend and built a gizmo to restore him to sanity, albeit by blasting him with cosmic rays that turned him into a rock monster. Unfortunately, he ended up dead in the process of using it (I can’t decided if Ben mauled him, or if some triggerhappy cop or something shot him by mistake) -Susan Storm, the Invincible Woman; a version of Sue who was forced to become a Herald of Galactus. Beta Team: -Dr. Maggie Wingfoot, the Human Torch; a female version of Johnny (named after her Aunt Marygay), who left the team to marry Wyatt Wingfoot and go to college, eventually earning a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Unfortunately, at some point, something went wrong and the Baxter Building was destroyed, killing the rest of the family. Convinced that, if she’d been there she could’ve prevented it, Maggie’s marriage subsequently fell apart. -Susan McKenzie, Sub-Mariness; from a world where Reed died, leading Sue to take up with Namor; she was subsequently given an infusion of Atlantean DNA to enable to her to live underwater, and ended up with same mutations as him and Namora, but lost her cosmic-ray induced powers. -Ben Grimm, Juggernaut; during his service in the Korean War, got shot down and ended up falling in with a bunch of of Army grunts, including a pair of bickering step-brothers named Charles Xavier and Cain Marko. When they stumble onto a hidden temple, it is Ben who finds the crimson Crystal of Cytorrak and is transformed by it’s power into the Juggernaut… -Reed Richards, Director of SHIELD; from a world where the FF got caught trying to steal the shuttle. Fortunately for everyone, Nick Fury stepped in and offered his old OSS buddy a deal he couldn’t refuse; if Reed came to work for him at SHIELD, he’d make the charges against the other three go away. Not wishing to ruin his friend’s lives, Reed agreed, and became one of SHIELD’s top operatives, ultimately taking over the organization when Fury eventually went down. Gamma Team: -Victoria Von Doom-Grimm, Dr. Grim; female version of Doom, fell in love with Ben when they were in college, and subsequently married him. Unfortunately, having her genitalia on the inside didn’t make her less of a narcissistic megalomaniac, and their marriage was…rocky, with them constantly separating and getting back together. During one such separation, the fateful trip to space happened. Victoria was…displeased that her handsome husband had been turned into a monster, and was so determined to fix it, that she did not adequately test the cure she concocted. On the plus side, inadvertently making herself a widow forced her to take a good hard look at herself and try to change her ways. -Namor McKenzie-Richards-Storm, Sub-Mariner. From a world where Reed and Namor were both bisexual, resulting in Reed, Namor, and Sue all getting together. Unfortunately, this led to Reed and Sue being assassinated by one of Namor's political rivals. Also, presenting two teams of recurring sometimes enemies/sometimes allies: The Brides of Doom (women who had been married to their local version of Doom, who have dedicated themselves to cleaning up his mess): -Susan Von Doom (duh) -Ororo Von Doom (again, duh) -Victoria Von Doom (female clone of Victor. Honestly, given how egomaniacal Victor is, it’s astounding this isn’t a thing in canon) -Natasha von Doom, it’s happened in a couple weird alternates, so might as well. (thanks to Xero Key for this suggestion) A Natasha who made some different choices after the USSR fell apart, and ended up working for Doom instead of the new Russian government. -Jennifer von Doom, because a Hulk is required here. (ditto) Haven’t quite worked out how this one happened. Suggestions? -Shuri Von Doom, owing to a political marriage in order to obtain Doom’s aid in fixing the mess that resulted when one of the many attempts to oust T’Challa that failed in 616 worked. Was not happy about it, but accepted it for the greater good of Wakanda. -Anelle von Doom, likewise owing to a political marriage, albeit rather different. Anelle was even less happy about this, but her father was on an enemy-of-my-enemy kick and thought he could handle Doom after the FF were eliminated. Suffice to say, this didn’t work out so well for him. On the plus side, Emperor Victor I is actually doing a good job running the Skrull Empire, which as a bonus is a lot more work than running Latveria, reducing the amount of free time Doom has to scheme. -Emma Von Doom, from a world where the Hellfire Club thought they could get away with manipulating Doom. Unsurprisingly, they were wrong. Emma still ended up making a Heel-Face Turn eventually, though. -Loki Von Doom, from a world where the whole Cabal thing went very, VERY differently. The Token Evil teammate. The Stormborn, a collection of sons and daughters of Johnny Storm, from timelines where everyone’s favorite matchstick was killed by Doom. Said folks have therefore dedicated themselves to avenging their parent by hunting down and killing every single Doom in the Multiverse. -Namor Storm, the Human Geyser; leader of the team, son of Johnny and Namorita, named for his uncle. Has the standard human/Atlantean hybrid powerset, plus steam powers. -Agatha Evans-Storm, the Fantastic Witch; Johnny’s daughter with his OG girlfriend Dorrie Evans. Despite having a kid together, the issues that caused them to break up in 616 remained, and they separated, retaining joint custody of their daughter (who was named after her cousin Franklin’s nanny, who had recently died). Unlike her cousins she appeared to be totally normal. When she turned 13, however, she was kidnapped by Dr. Doom, who was on a magic kick and had discovered that being named after the old witch created a slight but distinct mystic connection that he could exploit as part of a plan to become the God of Witchcraft by ritually sacrificing her. She was saved, but at the cost of her father’s life. Also, she became a witch, and was subsequently apprenticed to Wanda. -Luna Storm, She-Serpent; from a world where Johnny left the FF to be with Crystal. Like her cousin Franklin, Luna is a mutant, with the power to control the weather, though it took people a bit to figure this out what with living on the Moon and all. Obviously, the subsequent history of the Inhumans was rather different, but a Terrigen Bomb was eventually released, and to everyone’s relief Luna managed to survive. She did turn into a winged snakewoman who breathes poisonous gas though, which kinda sucks. -Wyatt Storm, Speed-Hulk; Johnny and She-Hulk’s kid, named after Johnny’s BFF and Jen’s ex, Wyatt Wingfoot. As the name suggests, is a Hulk, and also a speedster. -JJ and Jeannie Storm, the Mutant Torch and Firebird; Johnny’s twin son and daughter with Rachel Summers (or Rachel Grey, whichever you prefer). They’re both Omega-class mutants like their mom; JJ is a teep, Jeannie is a teek, and they’re both pyrokinetic. Also, they can do that thing Aurora and Northstar or Fenris do, where they can become even more powerful by holding hands. -Jimmy Storm, the Human Robot; from a world where Roberta the Robot Receptionist was upgraded to sentience, and she and Johnny fell in love and got married. The one flaw in their marriage was the obvious inability to have children, and so for their second anniversary, Reed presented them with a child-form robot (named after the OG Human Torch) with an AI that was initially simple but designed to learn and grow in the way child would, albeit somewhat faster. The plan was to periodically upgrade him to simulate physical aging, but when he was two years old (though emotionally, intellectually, and in physical appearance being more like ten), Doom decided to launch a frontal assault on the Baxter Building, which involved destroying Roberta. Driven berserk by rage and grief, Johnny subsequently killed Doom, but was himself killed when Victor’s armor self-destructed, leaving Jimmy orphaned. That was ten years ago, and he has refused to change his appearance since. Like his mother, despite his harmless appearance, Jimmy is super-strong and tough, and possess a small arsenal of built-in weapons. -Ramonda Storm, the White Wolf; Johnny’s daughter with Shuri. Has no inherent powers (unless you count being able to consume the heart-shaped herb safely), but is a tactical/strategic genius on par with her Uncle T'Challa. When said uncle was injured and her Aunt Ororo killed by a Sentinel attack, she donned the long-abandoned ceremonial garb/vibranium-laced hi-tech suit of the White Wolf to assist her cousin Azari in tracking down and bringing to justice those responsible. You can imagine how she reacted when her own father was killed by Doom.

#Infinite Four #Fantastic Four #Marvel Comics #Fanfic #Marvel Fanfic

[valeriethepussycats]

Assemble

Chapter 2

Pairing- Loki x Reader x Steve (one side)

Warning- cursing 

Your thoughts and other characters are in italics.

Flashback in Bold.

At night, a slum in India it attacked by a sickness. A little girl runs into the middle of a makeshift hospital in someone's home, pushing through the crowd frantically. She runs up the steps inside to greet the only doctor, Bruce Banner.

“What are you doing here?! Get out! You shouldn't be here.”  The Women scolded.

“I have to see the doctor. It's my father.” The little Girl explained.

“Calm down. What's wrong?” Bruce Asked.

“My father...” she looks to the other sick people, laying down and moaning in pain.

“Is he like them?” Bruce wondered.

The little girl holds out money, crumpled and looking desperate. “Please.”

Banner and the little girl run quickly to the edge of town. She leads him quickly through narrow passageways, and is proving too fast to keep up with. Banner spots a nice car, and looks around, worried. He runs into the girls house, when she leaves through a window, untraceable.

“Should have gotten paid up front, Banner.” Bruce scoffed.

Natasha entering the room behind him, making Banner turn around. “You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle.”

“Avoiding stress isn't the secret.” Bruce started.

“Then, what is it? Yoga?” Natasha said sounding unduly curious.

“You brought me to the edge of the city, smart. I uh... assume the whole place is surrounded?” Bruce wondered.

“Just you and me.” Natasha say trying to convince Bruce.

“And your actress buddy, is she a spy too? Do they start that young?” Bruce  wondered.

“I did.”

“Who are you?”

“Natasha Romanoff.”

“Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanoff? Because that's not gonna work out for everyone.” Bruce explained.

“No. No. Of course not. I'm here on behalf of Shield.” Natasha replied

“Shield. How did they find me?” Bruce questioned.

“We never lost you, doctor. We've kept our distance, even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent.”

“Why?”

“Nick Fury seems to trust you. But now I need you to come in.”

“What if I said no?” Bruce stated.

“I'll persuade you.” Natasha said in a voice soft.

“And what if the... other guy says no?” Bruce said uncertainly

“You’ve been more than a year without an incident. I don't think you wanna break that streak.” Natasha replied.

Bruce gently pushing a cradle. “I don't always get what I want.”

“Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe.” Natasha commented.

“Well, those I actively try to avoid.” Bruce mumbled.

“This is the Tesseract. It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet.” She shows him a photo of the Tesseract on her cell phone. Banner takes a closer look.

“What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it? Bruce said in a sarcastic voice.

“Well, he wants you to find it. It's been taken. It emits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that's where I'd be.” Natasha explained.

“So Fury isn't after the monster? Bruce hesitated.

“Not that he's told me.” Natasha replied.

“And he tells you everything?” Bruce queried

“Talk to Fury, he needs you on this.”

“He needs me in a cage?”

“No one's gonna put you in a...”

“STOP LYING TO ME!” Banner slams his fists onto the table.

Natasha grabs a gun hidden under the table, pointing it at him. Banner stays still, grinning.

“I'm sorry, that was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do. Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use that, and the other guy doesn't make a mess? Okay? Natasha...”

Natasha, still wary, doesn't lower her gun. She lowers her gun and speaks into her earpiece.

“Stand down. We're good here.”

Dozens of soldiers armed to the teeth have surrounded the small house, but at her signal they back off a bit.

Bruce smiles back at Natasha. “Just you and me?”

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

This isn’t real that’s all Y/n could think about as she walked home. The rain hammered against the roof of a nerdy houses, thunder rumbled as The dark sky was lit up by lightning flashing across.All she wanted to do was believe that Magneto was lying but she knew he was telling the truth. She knew it her mother is alive, has been this entire time.

Get it under control calm down. Come on remember what Gambit said “don’t let it control you you control it.”

Y/n was slowly starting to lose control. She was starting to hear what everyone around her was thinking and then Y/n starts to hear a ringing noise. Can deal with a sound Y/n place her hands around her head in a way to stop the voices.

“Excuse me, Miss are you alright?” Someone asked Y/n as he gently grab her on the shoulders.

Y/n looks up to the person in front of her and see red eyes. “Remy?”

“Is that someone I can call for you?” The man that looks like Remy asked.

Y/n finally comes to she realizes that the man in front of her is not with me not even trying to hide her disappointment she nods no, then walks away then her phone begins to ringing and vibrate in her pocket. She fishes her phone out of her pocket and then pushes answer.

“Hello?”

“Where are you because I know you’re not in Sydney, Australia.” Said Coulson.

“Walking home.” Y/n answered  honestly. “Why?”

“There’s someone I need you to pick up tomorrow. Is that some thing you can do?” Coulson voiced.

“I’ll be bright eyed and bushy tail.” Y/n said Tightly.

“I’ll send you all the information.”  Coulson replied. “Is something wrong?”

“You’re supposed to ask questions because I’m an agent and you’re my superior officer.” Y/n said in a dry tone.

“I’m asking this question as a person who’ve known you since you were ten.” Coulson replied.

“No it’s not.” Y/n answered. “But um..I’m gonna go home and watch some Y/t until I fall asleep.”

“Ok i’ll see you tomorrow.”

Y/n hangs up the phone.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Inside a Shield analytical room, filled with monitors of partially silhouetted people. Fury stands in the middle, frowning. They make up the World Security Council.

“This is out of line, Director. You're dealing with forces you can't control.” Council Member 1 commented.

“You ever been in a war, Councilman? In a firefight? Did you feel an overabundance of control?”  Nick said in a level tone.

“You saying that this Asgard has declared war on our planet?” Council Member 1  wondered.

“Not Asgard, Loki.” Nick corrected

“He can't be working alone. What about the other one? His brother.” Council Member 2 Chimed in.

“Our intelligence says, Thor is not a hostile. But he's worlds away, we can't depend on him to help. It's up to us.” Nick answered.

“Which is why you should be focusing on phase 2, it was designed for exactly...” Council Member 1 trailed off.

“PHASE 2 isn't ready, our enemy is. We need a response team.” Nick stressed.

“The Avengers Initiative was shut down.” Council Member 1 told Nick Fury.

“This isn't about The Avengers.” Nick Remarked.

“We're running the world's greatest covert security network and you're gonna leave the fate of human race to a handful of freaks.”

“I'm not leaving anything to anyone. We need a response team. These people maybe isolated, unbalanced even, but I believe with the right push they can be exactly what we need.”

“You believe?” Council Member 2 Chimed in.

“War isn't won by sentiment, Director.” Council Member 1 noted.

“No, it's won by soldiers.”  Nick replied.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

A brooklyn gym at night. Occupied by one man, beating a punching bag in the gym lights, alone in the floor, lost in the fight. The gym is old, as old as the man inside, Steve Rogers. Steve punched the bag, easily a hundred pounds, across the room with one swing snapping the metal chain and pummeling it back a dozen feet, sand spilling out from where he cracked the fabric. He stands up, breathing hard, and grabs another bag, resuming a more normal routine. Fury walks in.

“Trouble sleeping?” Nick Announced.

“I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill.” Steve answered.

“Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world.” Nick replied.

Steve stops punching and walks over to the bench, unraveling the tape off his hands. He sits down.

“I went under, the world was at war, I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost.” Steve explained.

“We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently.” Nick commented.

“You here with a mission, sir?” Steve wondered.

“I am.”

“Trying to get me back in the world?” Steve supposed

“Trying to save it.”  Fury hands Steve a file on the Tesseract, along with other files on Hydra’s  projects.

“Hydra's secret weapon.” Steve disclosed.

“Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs.” Nick explained.

“Who took it from you?” Steve wondered.

“He's called Loki. He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know.” Nick shared.

“At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me.”  Steve put forth.

“Ten bucks says you're wrong. There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment.” Nick started.

Steve turns and picks up a punching bag. Fury starts walking out of the gym.

“Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?” Nick finished

Steve without missing a beat. “You should have left it in the ocean.”

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Out in the Atlantic Ocean, Tony Stark, in his Iron Man suit, is cutting a pipeline transport with a laser cutter coming from his hand. He then places a Stark Energy Reactor. It lights up. Iron Man rockets out of the water and flies towards Stark Tower.

“You're good on this end. The rest is up to you.”

Pepper Potts on the other line. “You disconnected the transition lines? Are we off the grid?”

“Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy.” Tony grinned.

“Wow. So maybe our reactor takes over, and it actually works?” Pepper supposed.

Inside the Suit, Pepper appears on his hud Monitor.

“I assume. Light her up.” Iron Man flies to the Stark Tower Building, the power is switched on the Stark sign lights up.

“How does it look?” Pepper asked.

“Like Christmas, but with more... me.” Tony answered.

“Gotta go wider on the public awareness campaign. You need to do some press. I'm in DC tomorrow. I'm working on the zoning for the next three buildings.” Pepper revealed.

“Pepper, you're killing me. Remember the moment? Enjoy the moment.” Tony proclaimed.

“Then get in here and I will.” Pepper requested.

Tony arrives at his skyscraper penthouse and is in the process of taking off his Iron Man suit through a hi-tech gauntlet of gadgets.

“Sir, Agent Coulson of Shield is on the line.” Jarvis informed Tony.

“I'm not in. I'm actually out.” Tony remarked.

“Sir, I'm afraid he's insisting.” Jarvis stressed.

“Grow a spine, Jarvis. I got a date.”  Tony teased.

Pepper Potts stares up at the monitors of the reactor device. “Levels are holding steady... I think.”

“Of course they are, I was directly involved. Which brings me to my next question: how does it feel to be a genius?”  Tony asked.

“Well, ha, I really wouldn't know now, would I?” Pepper replied.

“What do you mean? All this came from you.”

“No. All this came from that.” Pepper Said Pointing to the energy in his chest plate.

“Give yourself some credit, please. Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself... twelve percent of the credit.” Tony disclosed.

“Twelve percent?” Pepper voiced.

“An argument can be made for fifteen.” Tony pointed out.

“Twelve percent? Of my baby?”

“Well, I did do all the heavy lifting. Literally, I lifted the heavy things. And sorry, but the security snafu? That was on you.”

“Oooooh.”

“My private elevator...”

“You mean our elevator?”

“Was steaming with sweaty workmen. I'm going to pay for that comment about percentages in some subtle way later, aren't I?” Tony wondered.

Pepper pours herself and Tony a glass of

champagne. “Not gonna be that subtle.”

“I'll tell you what. Next building's gonna say 'Potts' on the tower.” Tony disclosed.

“On the lease.” Pepper murmured.

“Call your mom, can you bunk over?” Tony asked.

“Sir, the telephone. I'm afraid my protocols are being overwritten.” Jarvis stuttered.

“Stark, we need to talk.” Coulson Announced.

Tony picks up his phone and looks into it at Coulson. “You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message.”

“This is urgent.”

“Then leave it urgently.” At that moment the elevator door opens and Coulson appears. “Security breach.” Tony turns and looks a Pepper “That's on you.”

“Mr. Stark” Coulson started.

“Phil! Come in.”  Pepper beamed.

“Phil? Uh, his first name is Agent.” Tony remarked

“Come on in, we're celebrating.” Pepper

“I can't stay.” Coulson told Pepper.

“Which is why he can't stay.” Tony agreed with Coulson.

“We need you to look this over.”  Coulson said as he holds out a file towards Tony. “Soon as possible.”

“I don't like being handed things.” Tony voiced.

“That's alright, 'cause I love to be handed things. So, let's trade.” Pepper said as She pases her glass of champagne to Coulson, takes the file from him, then takes Tony's glass of champagne while passing the file over to Tony. “Thank you.”

“Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday.” Tony disclosed.

“This isn't a consultation.” Coulson replied.

“Is this about The Avengers? Which I...I know nothing about.” Pepper lied.

“The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify.”  Tony pointed out.

“I didn't know that either.” Pepper lied. Again.

“Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others.” Tony explained

“That I did know.” Pepper commented.

“This isn't about personality profiles anymore.” Coulson stated.

“Whatever. Miss Potts, got a minute?” Pepper walks over to Tony who places the files into his own databases. “You know, I thought we were having a moment.”

“I was having twelve percent of a moment. This seems serious, Phil's pretty shaken.” Pepper replied.

“How did you notice? Why is he Phil?” Tony questioned.

“What is all of this?” Pepper asked ignoring Tony’s previous question.

“This is, uh....” Tony expands his arms and different profiles appear in holographic form floating in the air in front of Tony and Pepper.

Screens appear of Captain America in action, the Hulk roaring as he attacks the army at Culver University, and Thor and Y/n fighting the Destroyer in New Mexico. Another is of Loki and the Tesseract to which Tony and Pepper look at in awe.

“I'm going to take the jet to DC tonight.” Pepper Announced

“Tomorrow.”  

“You've got homework. You've got a lot of homework.”

“Well, what if I didn't?”

“If you didn't?”

“Yeah.”

“You mean if you finished?” Pepper asked and Tony nods his head. “Well, um...then.” Pepper whispers something into Tony’s ear making him gasps. While Coulson looks away in embarrassment.

“Square deal. It's the last date.” Tony answered.

Pepper kisses him.”Work hard.”

As Pepper leaves with Agent Coulson, Tony grabs the Tesseract in holograph form, worried.

part 3

#loki x reader #loki x black!reader #steve x reader #steve x black!reader #thor x reader #marvel x reader #avengers x reader

[mst3kproject]

The Ship of Monsters

Check me out, I’m being topical!  I had another review almost finished for today, but when I saw the news I knew I had to set that aside and find a movie about life on Venus.  This one is a ridiculous Mexican film starring Lorena Velazquez from Samson vs the Vampire Women (looking only slightly less like Cher) and one of those amazing cardboard robots you only get in the very worst of late 50’s and early 60’s sci-fi.

An atomic war on the planet Venus has killed off all the males, so an expedition is sent out in search of replacements, consisting of a native Venusian named Gamma, her Uranian navigator Beta, and their robot Tor.  After promising the Empress that they will bring back only the most manly of men, they wander the solar system a while collecting creatures with penises before an engine problem forces them to land on Earth.  The first human they meet there is Laureano Gomez, a singing cowboy with a well-earned reputation for telling tall tales.  One might assume one could predict the rest of the movie from there… but then Beta turns on Gamma and reveals that her true mission all along was to conquer a planet to feed the vampires of Uranus!

I gotta say… I did not see that coming.

The Ship of Monsters is supposed to be a comedy.  It’s seldom funny when it’s trying to be, although it mercifully avoids being the kind of desperately unfunny a lot of bad comedies are… possibly this is because it’s in Spanish, and by the time I’ve realized something is stupid there’s another subtitle to distract me. The jokes, such as they are, are pretty standard.  Tor the robot was created by an alien race, who were aware of Earth but never bothered exploring it because they thought the inhabitants weren’t very intelligent.  Laureano is in the habit of telling ridiculous stories to his drinking buddies, so of course when he claims the Earth is being invaded by space monsters they don’t believe him.  That sort of thing.  The movie is much funnier when it’s just showing us absurd situations, but to nobody’s surprise, The Ship of Monsters is at its funniest when it’s trying to be serious.

This hilarity comes in many forms, covering just about all the possible bases for a dirt-cheap 1960 sci-fi film.  We have spaceship sets made of cardboard, covered with buttons that don’t actually press and levers conveniently placed so people can bump into them during fight scenes.  We have Tor, with his tin can body that’s always a little dinged up but never in the same places, giving us clues as to what order the scenes might have been shot in.  He also has wiggly spring antennae and makes a little whirring noise every time he moves. We have space babes in silver bathing suits and glittery high heels.  Vampire-Beta, sporting plastic fangs that look like they came from the bottom of a cereal box, could be the female counterpart to the guy from Dracula vs Frankenstein, and the puppet used to represent her in flight is nearly as bad as the one from The Devil Bat.

The ‘monsters’ of the title are a bulging-brained Martian prince, a scaly cyclops, a spidery creature with venomous fangs, and the mobile skeleton of what appears to be a *damn worwelf (he tells us that his race has Evolved Beyond Flesh... apparently not Beyond Bones, though).  The costumes are all terrible, particularly the warwulf puppet, whose backbone extends into his mouth and who has to be carried around with his feet dangling in any shot that’s not a close-up.  It’s nice, though, that a little imagination went into them, and somebody gave a bit of thought to the idea that a monstrous appearance is relative.  The Martian tells Beta that he admires her ambition and might even marry her if she weren’t so ugly by his planet’s standards.

At the end, naturally, this alien invasion is defeated by Laureano, his twelve-year-old brother, and a cardboard robot, while Gamma just stands around and screams.  With a movie like this I expect nothing less.  The denouement contains my favourite intentional joke in the whole thing, in which Gamma stays on Earth with her True Love, and Tor the robot takes his, the Jukebox, back to Venus with him!  Tom Servo would have given a speech to congratulate the happy couple, and I can just see him breaking down into happy tears before he got five lines in.

(The wirwalf skeleton is not present at the climactic fight, by the way… no explanation is offered, and I strongly suspect that they broke the puppet trying.  I rather enjoy this omission, because it lets me imagine him getting lost or maybe buried by an enterprising dog, and finally finding his way back to the landing site only to learn that they’ve left without him.)

I called Laureano a cowboy but he only has one cow.  Her name is Lolobrijida and she is the very first time I have ever seen a movie spur a hero into action by killing his cow.  She gets a proper Teenagers from Outer Space death, with her skeleton left behind propped up by metal struts like a dinosaur in a museum!

I also called him a singing cowboy, which he is – there are several songs, including one in which he tries to explain to Gamma and Beta what ‘love’ means.  The songs have pleasant but forgettable Mexican pop melodies, and none of the lyrics make a whole lot of sense.  Being translated over-literally from Spanish probably didn’t do them any favours (my own Spanish tops out at yo no tengo dinero), but I still can’t imagine that the What Is Love song clarified anything.

Laureano himself comes across as kind of a fool, but he’s not actually a full-on idiot, which is quite important.  If he were the kind of one-dimensional ‘comedic nitwit’ embodied in characters like Dropo, or the janitor from Reptilicus, he’d be insufferable.  Laureano is no genius, but he’s got personality traits besides being stupid – he cares deeply for his little brother Chuy and for his animals, and he doesn’t treat Gamma and Beta’s appearance as two women for the price of one.  Very quickly he decides that Gamma is the one he loves, and he sticks to that, doing his best to let Beta down gently even when she offers to make him a king.  He’s also smart enough to trick Beta into dancing with him so he can steal the device she uses to control the rocket and Tor, and to listen to Gamma when she tells him about the various monsters’ weaknesses.

Gamma and Beta, on the other hand, don’t have a lot to them besides the basic fact that Gamma is the Nice One and Beta is Evil. Gamma starts out in the story with a strong sense of duty, and it’s a bit disappointing to see her abandon that because of Tru Luv.  I would have liked the ending better if she’d taken Laureano home with her so that the two of them could be the Adam and Eve of the new Venusian race.  Meanwhile, Beta shows no sign of any loyalty except to herself and her own ambition.  Her original mission, to secure Earth as a blood supply for the Uranians, falls by the wayside as she decides she’s going to conquer and rule the planet herself.

So The Ship of Monsters isn’t exactly a feminist manifesto, but neither is it complete misogynistic garbage like Project Moon Base.  The whole premise, after all, rests on a planet of women being able to develop space travel all on their own!  This is a fairly surprising plot point, because in many ‘planet of women’ movies like Fire Maidens of Outer Space or Cat Women of the Moon, the ladies need the virile Earth Men to come to them.

There’s also a little bit of actual science peeking out of the cracks.  The moment for launch of the rocket from Venus is determined by when ‘the elliptical orbits coincide’.  Launch timing is, indeed, a delicate art depending very much on what’s orbiting where. There’s also the moment when, trying to land on Earth, Gamma and Beta worry that the friction, combined with our oxygen-rich atmosphere, will set their ship on fire.  This stuff is pretty impressive coming from a time when the moon landing was still nearly a decade away.  There are even a couple of scenes in zero gravity that honestly aren’t totally terrible.  I mean, I’ve seen better, but I’ve also seen much, much worse.

There’s also one weirdly prescient moment when Laureano, telling one of his silly stories in the pub, describes being surrounded by dinosaurs – only to get a laugh a moment later when he mentions that they had beautiful plumage.  I’m not sure whether this is meant to be a joke in that Laureano is exaggerating an actual encounter with an angry bird into something more fearsome (I think we’re to assume that the whole story is totally made up), or whether it’s just supposed to be funny that Laureano thinks dinosaurs had feathers instead of scales.  Either way, it’s the equivalent of the moon Fornax in Menace from Outer Space being so reminiscent of Io.  There’s no way the writers could have known that, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

The Ship of Monsters is very cheap and very dumb, but it’s good fun for those of us who like crummy old alien invasion movies, and I recommend it to anybody in that demographic.  As for actual life on Venus… I feel like a lot of the people getting excited are too young to remember when Bill Clinton told the world that we had totally found life on Mars.  Humans have been discovering life on other planets for about two hundred years and every single one of those ‘discoveries’ has turned out to be either a mistake or an outright lie.  We have plenty enough to panic about this year without a Venusian invasion.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #the ship of monsters #cows in fridges #60s #tobor is robot spelled backwards

[enchantedlokii]

The New Generation

Chapter One

Rating: PG

Warnings: none

Characters: Peter Parker, Cassie Lang, Shuri, Lila Barton, Harley Keener, EDITH, Morgan Stark, FRIDAY, James Rhodes

Mentioned: Nick Fury, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Thor Odinson, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Scott Lang, T’Challa, Wanda Maximoff, May Parker, Ben Parker, Pepper Potts

There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people. So when we need them, they could fight the battles that we never could. This idea was known as the Avengers Initiative; the brainchild of a man named Nick Fury. The Director of SHIELD.

The world saw the Avengers in action for the first time in 2012 when an alien army known as the Chitauri attacked New York City. It started with six heroes whose names will never be forgotten.

Steve Rogers. Captain America. The World War II super soldier had been frozen in a crashed plane for seventy years when he was found by a SHIELD team. He’s known best for his shield, and only a few know that he is one of the few that have been deemed worthy to wield Mjolnir.

Tony Stark. Iron Man. Born into a wealthy family and given ownership of a multi billion dollar company at a young age. For years he manufactured weapons before seeing the war zones in Afghanistan. Instead, he started making suits to help fight against those who wanted nothing but war.

Thor Odinson. God of Thunder. An Asgardian warrior with the power of lightning. His hammer, Mjolnir, is one of the most powerful weapons in all the nine realms. His new axe, Stormbreaker, is even more powerful. Making him stronger than before.

Bruce Banner. Hulk. He was changed on accident after exposure to gamma radiation. For years he was seen as a monster, but he was deemed a hero after being recruited to join the Avengers. Over time, he’s learned to control his strange power and can finally trust himself.

Natasha Romanoff. Black Widow. The Russian spy trained in a place known as the Red Room. She became their master assassin, earning her mantle and following their orders until she was rescued by a SHIELD agent who was sent to kill her but decided she should be given a chance.

Clint Barton. Hawkeye. He was the SHIELD agent who decided Natasha deserved a chance. Skilled with a bow and having perfect eyesight and aim, he never misses his target. He watches from the sky, keeping his teammates safe from the enemy.

Every kid wanted to be an Avenger when they grew up. It was the dream of so many to fight by their side and help protect the world. I got lucky enough to be one of the few who will ever have that dream come true.

“Cassie, where you at?” Peter called over his communicator. He was stuck to the side of the Empire State Building, watching as his friends fought with the army of drones. It was always drones.

“Right here!” Cassie grew larger, kicking one of the drones out of the air before waving at Peter. There was only a second before she shrunk down again, flying away to the next enemy.

That’s Cassie Lang. Stinger. Her father is Scott Lang, Ant-Man, as you can probably see from her Pym Technology. She was just a kid when her father gained the mantle, but says she knew immediately that she wanted to be like him when she was older. Now, she’s a valuable member of the Avengers.

“I’m going to have to add wings to this suit,” Shuri huffed as Peter swung down beside her, shooting a web at the drone she had pinned to the ground. He couldn’t see her face because of the Black Panther suit, but he guessed that she was slightly annoyed but also thinking about ways to make that idea a reality.

“Pretty sure cats don’t fly, Shuri,” Peter chuckled as she stood up, the claws on her hands retracting into the suit. “But I would happily help you make that happen.”

Queen Shuri. Black Panther. Sister of King T’Challa. Shuri was already a warrior as a princess, helping fight alongside the Dore Mijae and her brother when Wakanda was in danger. When her brother died, she took over his mantle, promising to make him proud.

“Hey, I want wings,” Lila protested. Peter actually had no idea where she was at the moment, but he would see an arrow flying through the air every now and then and knew she was fine. “Shouldn’t Hawkeye get to fly before Black Panther?”

That’s Lila Barton. Hawkeye. Daughter of Clint Barton. Clint was not happy when he learned that Lila wanted to join the Avengers, but he knew he couldn’t stop her. In a lot of ways, she was just like him. She was determined and stubborn, and this was something she had always wanted. Even before she picked up her first bow.

“How many drones ‘re left, Parker?” Harley called. Peter could hear the whirring of his repulsors through the comms. He was a bit farther away, chasing drones that had gotten past them.

Harley Keener. Iron Lad. An engineer from Tennessee. You can probably tell from his accent he comes from Nashville. He lives in New York now, but I doubt his twang will ever fade completely.

“Hey, EDITH,” Peter murmured, glancing at the screen on the inside of his mask. He could still see dozens of red dots on the map, signifying battle drones. He was silently grateful that he had his AI with him this time. And his teammates. “How many drones are left?”

“I’m seeing around fifty active drones,” EDITH replied. “Are you sure I don’t need to call in Ms. Maximoff for backup?”

“No, let Wanda have her vacation,” Peter told her, shooting a web at the nearest drone. “She deserves it.”

And that’s me. Peter Parker. Spider-Man. I was only fourteen when I was bitten by a radioactive spider that gave me these crazy powers. I kept it a secret for six months before I came home from school and found my Aunt May talking to Tony Stark in our living room.

Being an Avenger had been my dream for years. I remember watching them fight on TV as a kid, begging Aunt May and Uncle Ben for more and more toys and Avengers pajamas. I never imagined that I would have that I would not only meet my hero but be asked to fight alongside him.

Peter heard a repulsor blast and a nearby drone exploded. He looked up, planning to see Harley’s white-and-orange suit, but frowned when he saw the faceplate of a gold-and-red suit lift. “Hi, Peter!”

Morgan Stark. Fourteen year old daughter of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. My pseudo sister. She started working on that suit when she was eight. I helped her in secret, knowing that Pepper would kill me if she ever found out.

“Morgan! What are you doing here?” he asked, shooting a web at another drone and bringing it to the ground. He heard Morgan firing up a repulsor again and groaned with frustration. “Your Mom’s going to kill you. Go home. Now.”

“I know what you’re gonna say,” Morgan started.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Peter told her. He suddenly found himself trying to go back to a spaceship on its way to Titan and shook his head. Not now.

“I was gonna stay home—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Peter said sternly. He knew that the girl would just keep talking. She always did, especially when she was nervous. Usually he would just tease her for it but in the suit she already reminded him so much of her dad that it hurt.

“But FRIDAY said that you were fighting with the team and I couldn’t stop thinking about you. . .”

“And now I gotta hear it,” he sighed.

“And, I mean, you helped me make the suit.” Morgan looked at one of the gauntlets before shrugging. “So if anything, it’s your fault I’m here.”

Anyone would think we’re actually related. God, was I really this annoying? “What did you just say?” He asked, voice stern. He could imagine Morgan’s eyes widening behind the mask like his had.

“I take that back,” she said quickly. “But seriously. I’m here now, so just let me fight. Please, Petey. I want to fight.”

“No, Morgan. Go home,” Peter growled, turning as his Spider-Sense warned him of a drone coming towards them. He shot a web and threw it to the ground. “You’re fourteen. You can’t just come out here and fight. You’re not an Avenger.”

“You were only fourteen when Dad asked you to fight!” Morgan protested. “And you weren’t an Avenger either. So why is it any different for me?”

“Because I have powers to keep me safe and I had practice fighting everyday criminals before I fought anything like this,” Peter told her. “As amazing as these suits are, you can still get hurt in them. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen. I don’t want you to end up in the hospital or paralyzed because you’re so stubborn.”

Peter heard a repulsor firing up at the same time as his Spider-Sense went off. He looked over to see a drone coming at Morgan, then saw an orange beam blasting it away. The only problem? It didn’t come from Morgan’s suit. He winced and turned to the side. Sure enough, he saw a familiar silver suit. “You kids have some serious explaining to do.”

#mcu #marvel #avengers #peter parker #cassie lang #shuri #lila barton #harley keener #edith #morgan stark #friday #james rhodes #spider man #stinger #stature #iron lad #war machine #young avengers

[bebraveridethedragon]

I’ve Got No Fucking Clue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Warnings: There are no warnings for this chapter.

Chapter 3

All of the Avengers, plus Thor although he might be considered an Avenger now, were standing in a room with a monitor in it. They watched as Fury threatened Loki.

“In case it's unclear. You try to escape. You so much as scratch that glass.” Fury pressed a button that opened up the space beneath Loki’s glass cage.

“Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?!” Fury asked. “Ant,” Fury points at Loki, “boot.” He points at the button.

“It’s an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me.” Loki smirks.

“Built for things a lot stronger than you.” Fury says.

“Oh trust me I know.” Loki’s smirk turns towards the camera. In the observation room Douxie and Bruce tense up. Archie starts growling at the screen, at Loki or Fury, Douxie doesn’t know.

“The mindless beast and the last master wizard on Midgard. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost beasts to defend you?” Loki asks, no longer looking at the camera.

“How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill ‘cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.” Fury responds.

“Ooh. It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is. You would’ve come closer to power if you had used the wizard, his magic is extremely powerful.” Loki taunts.

“We thought about it once, I’m glad we didn’t, he’s a good kid. Let me know if Real Power wants a magazine.” With that Fury walks out of the room.

“Not a kid.” Douxie mumbles as the screen turns black.

“He really grows on you, doesn’t he?” Bruce asked sarcastically.

“Oh yeah, definitely.” Archie answers with even more sarcasm.

“Shit! I forgot you could talk.” Tony startles.

“Loki’s gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what’s his play?” Steve asked.

“He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.” Thor uncrosses his arms.

“An army? From outer space?” Steve looks incredulous.

“Wouldn’t be the first one I’ve seen, although the last one was fighting for us not against us.” Douxie says.

“Ignoring what Douxie said for a minute, this means Loki’s building another portal. That’s what he needs Erik Selvig for.” Bruce says.

“Selvig?” Thor asks.

“He’s an astrophysicist.” Bruce answers.

“He’s a friend.” And oh, Thor must’ve met him when he came to Earth a few years ago.

“Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours.” Nat says, she gets a regretful look on her face. The only ones who notices are Douxie and Archie.

“I want to know why Loki let us take him. He’s not leading an army from here.” Steve says.

“I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him.” Bruce says.

“Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother.” Thor says.

“He’s killed eighty people in two days.” Nat points out.

“He’s adopted.” Thor defends. Douxie gives out a little snort that cause Nat to look at him. She gives him a soft smile before looking away again.

“Iridium, what did they need the iridium for?” Bruce asks.

“It’s a stabilizing agent,” Tony says walking in, he turns to Coulson, “I’ll fly you there. Keep the love alive.” He turns back to everyone else, “Means the portal won’t collapse in on itself like it did at SHIELD.”

Tony turns to Thor, “No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants.”

Tony turns to the crew on the Helicarrier before speaking again, “Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails. That man is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did.” Tony put a hand around one of his eyes and looks around.

“How does Fury do this?” Tony questions.

“He turns.” Maria Hill says causing Douxie to snort.

“Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube.” Tony waves his hands around.

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Maria asked.

“Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?” Tony asked.

“I read them, I understood most of it but some things were confusing.” Douxie said. Tony looked at him with approval.

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Steve asked.

“He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier.” Bruce answered.

“Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect.” Tony contradicts.

“Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet.” Douxie says.

Tony smirks, “Finally! People who speak English.”

“Is that what just happened?” Steve asks.

“Yes, although you probably don’t understand it because your old.” Tony says.

“I don’t think age has anything to do with it, I think it has to do with the fact that he was trapped in ice for 70 years.” Douxie says.

“You think an old man could keep up with what we just talked about?” Tony asks.

“I mean I did, and I’m the second oldest person in this room.”

“Your like 19, that’s not old.”

“I’ve been 19 for 900 years.”

“What?!” Multiple people shouted.

“Wizards can choose to stop aging at any time.” Everybody but Nat and Thor looked surprised at this.

“Holy shit that’s so cool.” Nat rolled her eyes at Tony’s antics, even if it was a bit cool.

“Can we get back on topic? We can question the wizard later.” Bruce says.

“Right, it’s good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.” Tony shakes Bruce’s hand.

Bruce looks uncomfortable while he mutters a thanks.

“Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him.” Fury says walking in.

“Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.” Steve says.

“I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys. That’ll be Hisirdoux’s job though.

Douxie nods, ignoring Tony’s snort of amusement when he heard his full name.

“Monkeys? I do not understand.” Thor says.

“I do! I understood that reference.” Steve exclaims. Tony rolls his eyes while Douxie claps his hands sarcastically.

“Shall we play doctor? Harry Potter your coming with us too.” Tony says before he grabs Douxie’s bicep and drags him out with Bruce following.

“Let’s play some.” Bruce says as they walk out.

“I can walk myself thank you.” Douxie says while taking his bicep out of Tony’s grip.

“I know, but we wouldn’t want the old man to throw out his hip while walking.” Tony smirks at him.

“I’m technically still 19, I’ve just stayed 19 for 900 years.” Douxie glared.

“Wait, so you’re physically 19 but mentally you’re 919?” Bruce asks.

“No, he’s physically and mentally 19. Even if he has acquired a lot of knowledge over the past 900 years he still has the maturity of a 19 year old.” Archie says.

“Excuse you, I am very mature.” Douxie tried to defend himself.

“Just last week you were arguing with Seamus and Claire about who had the coolest special magic.” Archie deadpanned.

“I was born with the ability to control fire and to see the future, that’s one more than either of them have by themselves.” Tony and Bruce looked confused as the wizard and familiar argued.

“Who’s Claire and Seamus?” This was Tony that asked.

“And what is special magic?” That was Bruce that asked.

“Claire and Seamus are my apprentices, they’re also like my little siblings. And special magic is magic that you have to be born with. Every wizard is born with regular magic, but there’s also certain magic that you have to be born with to do.

“There’s shadow magic, necromancy, elemental magic, healing magic, and future seeing magic. I was born with the ability to control fire and see the future. Claire can control shadows and even create portals with them. Seamus was born with healing magic.” Douxie said. They had arrived at the lab and were sitting down now.

“Wow, that’s kinda cool.” Tony says. He and Bruce start working on finding the Tesseract. Douxie walks over to the staff and holds his hands above it.

“This is weird.” Douxie states.

“What is?” Bruce asks.

“It doesn’t feel like magic, it feels more like raw energy.” Douxie looks confused. Bruce walks over with a scanner thing in his hands. He holds it out over the staff and moves it around. Tony hasn’t moved from where he’s solving equations.

“The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process.” Bruce says.

“If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops.” Tony says.

“All I packed was a toothbrush.” Bruce states. Tony smiles at Bruce and Douxie.

“You two should come by Stark Tower some time. Top 10 floors, all R&D. You’d love it, and we could use magic to make the best inventions ever.” Tony says.

“If I come, I’m bringing a friend. He’s only 16 but he’s a genius when it comes to technology.” Douxie says.

“What’s his name?” Tony asks.

“Krel Tarron.” Douxie tells him.

“Hmm, I’ll have to look him up.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not? Has he done something terrible.”

“He’s not from around here.”

“Is he an immigrant?”

“Kind of.”

“I don’t think it’d be a good idea for me to go, the last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem.” Bruce says, ending their conversation.

“Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises.” Tony says right before he pokes Bruce with a mini electrical rod. Right then, Steve walked in, looking pissed.

Bruce yelps in shock when Tony zaps him. Tony looks at him closely.

“Nothing?” Tony asks.

“Hey! Are you nuts?” Steve exclaims.

“You’ve really got a lid on it, haven’t you? What’s your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?” Tony continued to question.

“Is everything a joke to you.” Steve asks Tony.

“Funny things are.” Tony deadpanned.

“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offense, doctor.” Steve says.

“No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things.” Bruce says.

“You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut.” Tony tells Bruce.

“And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark.” Steve says annoyed.

“You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables.” Tony says.

“You think Fury’s hiding something.”

“He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging them too, isn't it?” Tony points at Douxie and Bruce.

“Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and...” Stammers Bruce.

“Doctor? Douxie?” Steve asks.

“I’m kinda with Tony on this one, sorry Spangles. He knows everything about me but all I know about him is his name.” Douxie shrugs his shoulders. Steve looks disappointed.

“A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube.” Bruce begins.

“I heard it.” Steve cuts him off.

Bruce points at Tony, “Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news.”

“The Stark Tower? That big ugly,” Tony gives Steve a look, “...building in New York?”

“It’s powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?” Bruce turns towards Tony.

“That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now.” Tony says with pride.

“So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?” Douxie asks, catching onto the point Bruce was trying to make.

“I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files.” Tony says to himself.

“I'm sorry, did you say...?” Steve asks.

“Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?” Tony holds out the bag towards Douxie and Bruce. Both of them take a couple and Douxie hands some to Archie.

“Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?” Steve says.

“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible.” Tony retorts.

“I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them.” Steve, the good soldier he is, says.

“Following is not really my style.” Tony says.

“Not really mine either.” Douxie states.

“And you're all about style, aren't you?” Steve smiles condescendingly at Tony, completely ignoring Douxie.

“Of the people in this room, which one is; A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use?” Tony asks annoyed.

“Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?” Steve looks hesitant at Bruce’s question, but quickly shakes it off.

“Just find the cube.” Steve says before leaving.

“Well that was fun.” Douxie says sarcastically.

“That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice.” Tony says.

“The guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us.” Bruce points out.

“What he’s got us an ACME dynamite kit. It’s gonna blow up in his face, and I’m gonna be there when it does.” Tony says.

“And I’ll read all about it.” Bruce says back.

“Uh-huh. Or you’ll be suiting up like the rest of us.” Tony tells Bruce. Douxie’s starting to get bored of this conversation so he starts picking at his chipped nail polish.

“Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare.” Bruce mutters.

“You know, as awesome as this conversation is, I’m getting bored. So I’m going to go repaint my nails and call Claire.” Douxie sticks his tongue out and flashes devils horns before leaving. They wave at him as he leaves before starting their conversation again.

Douxie walks to Nat’s room. She’s just getting ready to leave when he walks in.

“Can I borrow your nail polish, I left mine at home.” Douxie asks. She nods and hands it to him before they both exit the room.

“Where’re you going?” Archie asks.

“To talk to Loki, see if I can get information out of him.” Nat replies. Douxie and Archie nod before they split paths with her.

Walking to his current room, Douxie sits down in the desk chair. He unscrews the bottle and starts to paint his nails. He also gets his phone out and calls Claire before putting it on speaker.

“Douxie! Finally, it’s been two days since you left. What happened to calling?” Claire asks as soon as she picks up.

“Sorry C-Bomb, it’s been a busy few days. We’ve captured the guy that stole the Tesseract but we still don’t know where it is.”

“Who stole it anyways?” Claire asked.

“Loki, Norse god of mischief. He plans to use it to make a portal and summon an army to take over Earth.” Douxie didn’t think he should be telling her this but he didn’t care.

“Shit, your not hurt are you?”

“No Claire, I’m fine. Although this team does not get along very well.”

“I’m fine too, thanks for asking.” Archie says.

“Oh! Sorry Archie I wasn’t aware I was on speaker.” Claire apologizes. Archie just chuckled.

“What are you doing right now?” Claire asks.

“I’m painting my nails, Archie’s trying to take a nap on my pillow I think. What are you doing.” Archie purred in response.

“Homework. Me, Jim, Krel, Seamus, Steve, and Toby are having a study session because we have a test tomorrow. They all say hi by the way.”

“Tell them I say hi too.”

“I did, Toby also needs an answer for his history homework and he can’t find it in his book.”

“What’s the question?”

“Hey Douxie!” Toby says over the phone.

“Hi Tobes, what’s you’re question?” Douxie smiles.

“How did the Black Death start? I can’t remember and I can’t find it in the book.”

“Have you tried googling it?”

“Yes! All it tells me is the number of deaths it caused.”

“Well, people think it was transmitted from rodents to humans by the bite of infected fleas.”

“Oh thanks! Your a life saver.”

“No problem Toby.” Douxie finished painting his last nail before using magic to dry them. He goes into the bathroom, taking his eyeliner pencil with him. He continues to talk to Claire for a few more minutes before they ended the call.

He looked into the mirror and sees bags under his eyes. He sighs before leaning forward and applying the eyeliner.

“How did you forget nail polish but remember eyeliner?” Nat asked. Douxie jumped, luckily not poking his eye or messing up his eyeliner.

“I’ve got no clue.” Douxie says before going back to his eyeliner.

“Hurry up we have a situation.” Nat says.

“What’s going on?” Douxie asks.

“Loki plans to unleash the hulk.”

“Fuzz buckets.” Douxie mutters. He quickly finishes his eyeliner before putting his pencil down and picking Archie up.

Archie yawns before going back to sleep in Douxie’s arms. Nat and Douxie walk out of his room and make their way to the lab.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

This fic is also on AO3 if you want to read it there.

I do not own anything other then the parts you don’t recognize.

#wizards #tales of arcadia #douxie #hisirdoux #hisirdoux casperan #marvel #avengers #tony stark #steve rogers #clint barton #natasha romanoff #bruce banner #nick fury

[melyaliz]

Chapter 2 Enter the SandMan

Masterlist 

Fandom: Marvel / X-men 

Pairing: Peter Maximoff x OC 

Summary: No matter when she goes to bed Gemma always feels exhausted when she wakes up. 

Notes: special thank you to all the support I have gotten so far on this fic. Gemma has been an OC I have had for some time now but always seem to struggle to tell her story (for some reason)

Also, I feel like not a lot of happening but I promise it will pick up.  

All Masterlists @melyalizarchive​

Connect with me! AO3 / Instagram / Pinterest

--------

They had been dealing with these mutants for over a year now. Not consistently but every once in a while they would pop back up. Only stealing weird stuff from power cells. Once they had stolen a whole truck full of household batteries (like AA and stuff). Another time they had broken into a string of car dealerships but only took the engines  

Regardless they would strike and then disappear just as quickly. 

Xavier had said that it was possible they had been causing crimes for longer but the X-men had only come upon them recently. 

Because of their mutant powers he had been worried they would ruin all the hard work he was doing to build a better world where Mutants and Humans could co-exist. They weren’t shy about using their powers both in a fight and when they were busy taking whatever they wanted. 

Peter had never really thought much about it. 

They were just more baddies they needed to fight. 

Until he met one of them on the bus.

Gemma

-----------

Gemma yawned again rubbing her eyes as she turned on her boombox letting the music pulse through the room. James Hetfield’s gravelly voice filled her small bedroom as she changed from her work clothes into something more comfortable for bed. 

It was soothing, the energy pulsing from her speakers. Not that many people would call the tunes of Metallic soothing but she wasn't many people. Sitting down in front of the boombox she hummed along letting the manic sounds flow through her like sparks from a current. As weird as it was to say the fast-paced rhythm was calming she couldn’t explain it any other way. 

Getting up she threw herself down onto her bed letting out a low moan as she buried her head in her pillow. Closing her eyes letting sleep overcome her. Praying it would be a peaceful night. That her body would just rest. Just let her have one good night’s sleep. 

Was that too much to ask for? 

Apparently

Her dreams were filled with weird lights flashing behind her eyelids. Yelling and screaming. Flickers of energy flashing like lighting across her face as monsters with human faces she didn’t recognize danced around her. Their deformed bodies flickering back and forth as if the lighting itself was summoning them. 

And a silver-haired boy. 

Running around her faster and faster. Her headphones on his head.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up.” 

Gemma found herself laying flat on her back on the hard floor of her bedroom, her body unable to move as she looked up at her ceiling blinking a few times. Reality slowly seeped into her consciousness images from her dreams fading. 

All but one, a silver-haired boy.  

Well man really, but you know. 

“Maybe I need to stop playing music before I go to bed” she muttered sitting up rubbing temples trying to bring some feeling back into her body. It felt so numb and exhausting. As if she had just run for miles. Getting up she turned off the buzzing alarm on her clock before dragging herself into the bathroom to try and get herself ready for the day. 

“Morning!” Drew said as his older sister stumbled down into the kitchen looking like death itself. He would never say it to his sister but later she really didn’t seem… herself. “I made coffee,” the 12-year-old said, holding out a mug.

Gemma smiled gratefully taking it in her hands letting the warmth fill her body before taking a sip. “Ok but why are you the coolest brother ever?” 

Drew shrugged “It’s my gift.” 

“Oh, if only I could be as cool.”

“Maybe someday my young padawan”

“Teach me your ways yoda” Gamma chuckled already feeling the effects of the caffeine bringing her back to life. 

“Speaking of the best movie that has ever been made, are we still on for marathoning tomorrow?” 

“Don’t you have like, cool friends you want to hang out with?” 

“Yeah but my sister said she would make her sugar popcorn and I got a bunch of star wars themed snacks with that money you gave me.” As he said this he pulled out a box of C-3PO's cereal out of the cabinet. “I mean look at this,” 

“I mean, I know I want to hang out with you and quote Star Wars ad nauseam until our sweet dear parents make us turn it off or at least speak with inside voices but I assumed you had like… you know kids your own age you wanted to hang with.”

“It’s the summer we hung out all week. Weekends are our time.”

“Sounds perfect to me. I literally can’t wait.”

After a hearty breakfast of sugary themed cereal and coffee Gemma grabbed her bag and rushed off to the bus stop while Led Zeppelin cheered her on through her new headphones.  

Normally Gemma wasn’t one to really pay attention to the other patients on the bus. Keeping her head down and enjoying whatever mixed tape she had made that week. But as she walked onto the bus that morning she couldn’t help but notice a silver-haired boy sitting at the back. 

Was he stalking her? 

Naw probably just had the same route. 

---

Peter was stalking her. All night he had rushed around unnoticed by the small family that resided in the house Gemma had entered.They were your classic American family. Two kids, a boy and a girl (if not a bit of an age gap) with loving parents. They said grace and talked about their days over a roast. 

Picture perfect. 

Besides the constant yawning, Gemma seemed happy. Smiling and engaging with them. Very polite and even seemed to care about the work story her father had to say or what drama Karen was causing in her mom’s sewing circle. 

Shit that Peter would have bashed his head in if he had to listen too. 

Shit, a villain like the woman he had fought wouldn’t sit through. Or at least with a genuine smile like the one Gemma wore. It was like she actually enjoyed family time. 

After dinner, they all watched some TV but Gemma had chosen to rest early. Going to her room where she blasted some music from her stereo turning around letting her hands hover just a few inches from the speaker. This was the first time he noticed any non-normal action from her. Just her standing there, eyes closed, head tilted back, mouth open slightly letting the music wash over her with her hands so close to the sound it was as if they craved it. 

After a few moments she removed her hands then walked toward her bed face-planting on the bed and promptly fell asleep. 

Which was his cue to leave. Yes, he was stalking her but he wasn’t a creeper. Time to find out who this weird girl was. 

A quick break-in and a couple photo books later and he learned she was a VERY average girl. Normal grades, all comments in her yearbook generic like “good luck” “rock on” with a few quotes from songs, all heavy rock and metal. (At least she had a good taste in music) 

There was one thing though, it looked like in her early years she had dark brown hair and eyes which slowly through her teens faded into the white hair and bright blue that she had now. Probably had something to do with her mutation. 

This also confirmed she was one of the four mutants.

Which was almost impossible to believe considering how generic and bland this girl’s life seemed.

It was a puzzle. 

---------

Their eyes met in that awkward “so should we act like we know each other or not’ look. In the light of day and (in the loosest term possible) rest, the silver-haired boy wasn’t bad looking. Large brown eyes and that laid back “whatever” attitude that Gemma had always fallen for in high school. 

But she wasn’t in high school anymore and he was just some weird guy on the bus.

Deciding to not engage she flashed him a half-smile before taking a seat in the middle of the bus. Ok, maybe she shouldn’t have smiled. But it was that christen upbringing engaged in her. 

Be kind to others.

Or some bullshit like that. 

“You forgot your headphones yesterday.” 

Gemma basically jumped out of her skin when the boy appeared out of nowhere now sitting next to her in the empty seat. Holding out small headphones in one hand for her to take. 

“I…” she checked behind her to confirm that the seat he had been in was empty, it was. “I didn’t forget them,” she said, turning her attention back to him. He smelled good, was that bad for her to think? But he did so maybe it was just more of a fact. Kind of like fun. He smelled like fun. Which shouldn’t have a smell… but if it did it would be how this boy smelled. 

He was still sitting there holding out the headphones for her, a look of confusion on his face. 

“I gave them to you.” she clarified, “So you could listen to some better music than Pink Floyd.” 

“Outch, what do you have against Floyd?”

She chuckled, shrugging, “Honestly I don’t, I just felt like razzing you.” 

The boy shrugged fighting back a smile, (was it ok to like this girl if she was a bad guy?) “Fair.”

Both of them sat in an awkward silence for a while. 

“Well this is my stop” the boy said as the bus slowed.

“Cool, bye” 

And like that he was gone. 

Weirdo.

Cute, but still a weirdo.

Not that she was really one to talk. She was VERY far from being normal. 

Turing up her music she leaned back in her chair letting it play as she held the cassette player in her lap trying to make sure she didn’t touch it with her hands. Sometimes her powers would drain electronics when she wasn’t paying attention, especially when she was tired. 

Tired. 

Why was she always so tired? 

Music playing through her head and thoughts of a silver-haired boy played around in her mind as the world rushed past her.

And that was the last thing she remembered. 

-GET TAGGED!- 

Forever tag:  @the-shadow-of-atlantis​​ @coffee-randomness​​ @0hmydeku @xx3fsxx @daisyboobear​​ @  @jason-redhood​ @hello-i-lovespiderman-blr @ocelysium @pinkwitch21 @tomhncharliep  @cdwmtjb8 (Let me know if you too would like to be tagged) 

#Peter maximoff #peter maximoff x reader #Peter Maximoff x oc #Peter Maximoff fanfic #x men oc #X men reader #X men fanfic #ocaap #my fic #my oc #my writing #Gemma #Thief and the Outlaw

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x10: Stalker - Details

Let’s talk some details! I’ll start by mentioning all the little things we’ve noticed, and then I’ll get into connecting it all. You might want to grab a beverage. This will be kinda long.

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x10. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

So, we start by seeing Beta jump into the pit via the RV. Both of those are huge symbols. The RV is a symbol of time that we’ve often associated with Beth. And Beta pretty much went into a dark tunnel…and emerged through a grave. Hmm. No better resurrection symbol than someone digging their way out of their own grave, Dean Winchester style

Then there’s Rosita’s dream. Seriously creepy, no? I knew from spoilers that it was a dream, but if I hadn’t, I definitely would have been freaking out. The thing is, it foreshadowed Beta walking around Michonne’s house, looking for Gamma. That part LOOKED just like Rosita’s dream. So that was a foreshadow of what happened later.

I couldn’t help but notice that when Daryl is following Alpha, he starts out in the dry riverbed. He gets up out of it, but then Alpha comes and he hides in it again. Then later, he attacks Alpha and the other Whisperers right next to the river. I’m wasn’t sure exactly what to read into that at first, but I’ll come back to it.

And Alpha actually led part of the horde out of the caves. It’s not very many—maybe a dozen or two dozen walkers—but they’re with her and the other Whisperers when Daryl attacks them by the river. Again, that’s important.

Also important to note that this season is moving relatively slowly. They made a point of saying in this episode that it’s only been 2 days since Siddiq died.

When Gamma tells FG to get her a map and she’ll point to where the caves are, I slowed it down to look at the map. It pans by very fast. I notice some Xs, but there are lines through them, which makes me think they might be train tracks. I can’t read all of the writing, but near the cave location, it says “unsafe zone.”

I also noticed the caves are 14 miles away. On the one hand, I thought of episode 14s through the seasons. Often Sirius/Beth related characters die in those episodes (i.e. Lizzie/Mica, Noah, Denise, etc.). Or this could be pointing toward ep 14 of this season. We’ll have to see what that brings us. But I looked it up in terms of biblical symbolism, and I found this:

All sound like Beth related stuff to me. And if the caves are 14 miles away, and that represents salvation and deliverance, that’s just another indication to me that Connie and Magna are just fine. They’ll survive the caves. Perhaps be “saved” by someone. ;D

My fellow theorists and I have been discussing the whole Rosita/FG/Eugene dynamic. At various times, we’ve felt that one or all of them might die. I felt that way this episode, too.  The symbolism around them is so muddled, and they’re all so interconnected, that’s it hard to say. For one thing, when FG leaves Alexandria at one point, he gives Rosita his hat. 

He does return to her after that, but it kind of felt to me like when Carl passed his hat to Judith, you know?

A group leaves Alexandria at the end for Hilltop. Rosita goes with them so she can see the doctor (apparently there’s still a doctor there) so I’m assuming when she arrives, that’s when we’ll get the scene with her and Eugene. But she also keeps talking about her fear that both she and Gabriel will die, leaving Coco an orphan. I don’t know if that’s a foreshadow or not, since it’s very on-the-nose, but it may be.

There’s also a part where Rosita looks up at the windmill and the camera focuses on it for a moment. People are speculating it’s a death omen because Siddiq woke up on its platform not long before he died. I think they might be onto something there, because in the opening credits, we see three turns of the windmill along with Rick’s bridge scene. And while we know Rick isn’t dead, the characters in the show believe he is.

I was also thinking that it might indicate a Whisperer trick. When it happened with Siddiq, Dante was in Alexandria, messing with his head. And in this episode, the Whisperers lured Gabriel and many others out of Alexandria so Beta could enter and get Gamma. But this is still conjecture. We’ll have to see how it plays out.

The gas station:

Everything is red, yellow and blue. There are “wings” on the main sign that look a lot like the Phoenix wings in the moonshine shack. And Alpha passes and old, analog gas pump with some interesting number on it. I’m seeing 32, 8 and 26. Not positive what to make of those, but 3+2 = 5 (for S5, perhaps?). 2 + 6 = 8, So that’s two 8s, which might indicate 16, or just the 8 years it’s been since Coda.

@frangipanilove​ noticed a rack full of car air fresheners. Just the kind of thing you’d find in a gas station. But what shape do fresheners often take? That of CHRISTMAS TREEs. So yes, there are Christmas trees in this scene. We also noticed some old soda coolers (think of @frangipanilove​’s blue cooler theories. It indicates the Sirius/return symbolism.)

Also, there was a yellow mop bucket behind Daryl at one point. 

And one of the walkers had fungus growing on its legs. We saw the same thing in Still and with Morgan in 6x06. I don’t know if I’d ever researched this before, but I looked it up and found THIS article that makes for interesting reading. This kind of fungus on trees suggests that the heart of the tree is rotten. That makes sense because each time we see them, the characters are in an emotionally bad place. Daryl, after the prison fell. Morgan, before Eastman helped him. And Daryl here, as also evidenced by when Alpha asked him if he could see past the darkness, and he answers, “No.”

He also uses a fire extinguisher to kill one of the walkers, which is also a Beth symbol.

Overall, it also reminded me of the burnt out greenhouse we saw in 6x06.

And I do have to say that I found the amazing things Daryl did with his leg injury to be…less than realistic, lol. Really not bashing anything, but he was putting all kinds of bodyweight on that leg with the knife still in it. And when he pulls it out, the thing spurts as though he’s obviously hit an artery. We don’t see that he has any way of bandaging it or treating it, yet somehow he lasts the night like that without bleeding out. Yeah, injuries like that REALLY don’t clot all by themselves.

But hey, it’s Daryl and obviously I don’t want him to die, so I’m cool.

And of course the other option is that it’s purposely unrealistic for symbolic reasons. That’s the kind of thing I’m trying to figure out. Like maybe this is meant to be a symbolic parallel with Alpha being Dawn and Daryl being Beth, and the spurt of blood represents her getting shot in the head and—against all odds—surviving. I’m not sure that entirely works out. Just throwing the possibility out there. But if it did, then Lydia could dually represent Beth saving Daryl and also someone else—like maybe Morgan?—who saved Beth after she was shot.

There’s another really interesting shot that instantly jumped out at me. At one point, we see FG preparing to leave Alexandria. He gets into a box and unwraps two, red shotgun shells. It was really the color that caught my eye at first. Next to it is a silver pendant with a cross on it. It’s not in the shape of a cross. The pendant is round but has a raised cross etched into it. (It’s actually the crest from his original church in S5, which is probably purposeful.) So it reminded me of the cross Beth wore around her wrist in Coda and of course there are those bullets. Annnddd… FG is a Sirius character. So once again, does this portend his death? I’m not sure.

What really caught my ear in the scene where Gamma talked to Judith was that she used the words ‘remember’ and ‘forget’ very close together, and I wondered if we would hear all the titles from 5b/Dale’s time speech. We didn’t, at least not in this scene, and I didn’t notice them anywhere else. But it still struck me as interesting.

There’s an “echo” theme in the episode. The other outpost that tells them there’s horde coming, but it’s a ploy and all the people from that station are actually dead, is called “Echo Station.” And when Gamma talks to Judith she says she has only echoes of memories of her previous life. I’m not entirely sure what that’s all about but I just thought that we’ve had nothing if not echoes of Beth over all the seasons since S5.

She also says that she and her sister made very bad decisions after the virus broke out, and then met Alpha (evil) and Judith says that if they’d met her mom or dad, Gamma wouldn’t be in this situation. So that’s just another way that Gamma and her sister are opposites of Beth and Maggie. They ended up in a good place because they met Rick, rather than following an evil, brutal leader.

Judith also says, “you don’t look like a monster to me.” Seems like we’ve had the monster theme in past several episodes.

When Beta goes into get Gamma, he says something kind of interesting. She’s arguing with him that Alpha lied about what this place was. He says it doesn’t matter. She’s Gamma’s Alpha and needs to be obeyed. Then he says, “You think you’re still alive. You were dead the moment you came to us.” 

So the Whisperers actually believe they are dead. They don’t want to live as the living do. But we could relate that back to Beth’s theme of “you call this living” and a few others.

Later, when he gets her outside of Alexandria, taking her back to Alpha, he says, “You will fall. You will rise. You will walk with your sister again.” Yikes. Talk about a resurrection/sister theme. And you know, Maggie is returning, so… ;D

I gotta say that Judith shooting Beta was pretty damn awesome. You know, in the way Judith is pretty damn awesome.

There’s also the fact that Alpha wanted Lydia to kill her. So, we could call this a suicide arc of sorts. And when Alpha wakes up in the morning, she says she’s no longer weak, which is a parallel to Beth. I thought of that while watching it. Just the fact that she talks about not being weak anymore and Beth’s “I am strong,” you know?

People in my group noticed that they used some Dutch angles (with the camera askew) when Lydia walked in. Another reason to believe she’s a proxy for Beth returning.

And then there’s also Alpha singing. I don’t have tons more to say about that, but we all know why her singing is significant. And again, all the dialogue just jumps off the screen at me. “Kill me.” Lydia says no. Then Alpha sings. And says “They’re waiting for you to lead.” Beth anyone?

Lydia carved into a table, “your way is not the only way,” right? Well, the shape of the letters looked a LOT like the graffiti from S5 that says, “Wolves Not Far.” We’ve already talked about how the Whisperers were forerunners to and foreshadowed the wolves, but I started thinking about that idea more deeply. Like maybe that writing, while it did foreshadow the wolves (cuz obviously) also foreshadowed the Whisperers.

And think about that. We first saw that that graffiti in 5x09, which Beth was in, and there was an 8 next to her. Now, 8 years later, the Whisperers are here. So, by extension, Beth should be too. Back to that in a minute.

I thought it was interesting that Alpha says to Lydia “I want you to…” And then she passes out. She doesn’t get out the word, “stay” until morning. So, Lydia never heard her mom ask her to stay. Lydia would have just heard the first part of the sentence and assumed it would be a negative request, like “kill me and lead the whisperers.” But she wakes up and says “stay” and Lydia and Daryl are already gone. It just struck me as very tragic. And at first, I didn’t see it as a TD thing, but I’ve reconsidered.

Even when Daryl wakes up and talks to Lydia at the end, it struck me as a possible Beth parallel. Daryl says, “You just been out here this whole time?” Sounds like something he might say to Beth.

Finally, at the end, when Alpha starts reciting her end-of-the-world chant, it pans out. This is the top of the gas station from a birdseye view, with the road next to it. I immediately felt like maybe we should be reading into this shot somehow. I just didn’t know exactly how. The blue colors and greenery might indicate Beth. But I had to put together more thoughts about episode before it really made sense to me. It’s part of the hell theme, which I mention below but won’t go into in a lot of detail here. (The gas station = hell or dark tunnel, and the curving path shows that the character’s arc changes course because of the hell they endure.)

Okay, so this is most of the details I noticed. But the thing is, the details are actually incidental. Or at least, they’re just there to prove the bigger parallels.

I feel like this entire episode is one big foreshadow/parallel. 

And it’s probably not possible for any of us to put our fingers on everything it points to, but the more I think about it, the more interesting it becomes. I’ll try to lay a few of them out for you.

1. So the most obvious thing this represents for me is what I talked about yesterday. It’s a replay of Coda and sort of a re-telling of Beth and Daryl’s arc. Daryl stabbed Alpha in the shoulder and then sustained an injury to the head, just as Beth stabbed Dawn in the shoulder and then was shot in the head. Also notice how this happens by the river (water = Beth). So Daryl represents Beth in this analogy and we then see him staggering around, injured, and in a very dark state of mind. I’m willing to bet Beth went through something similar after being shot and left behind. Or it could be literal, as we know there was a walker horde involved. So Daryl fighting off Alpha’s walkers and trying to survive could literally represent something Beth went through once she woke up, surrounded by walkers.

In that case, Lydia represents someone coming to help/save Beth. We don’t know who that is, but I’m sure we’ll find out eventually.

2. This also represents Daryl’s arc after losing Beth, though in that case, it’s emotional. After she got shot, he was sort of stumbling around in the dark emotionally, and unable to come out of his depression for a long time. With this interpretation, Lydia sort of represents…herself. Because Daryl didn’t truly start to come out of his depression until he started parenting her. So Lydia did help save Daryl emotionally.

3. I still think this represents something for the future as well. I think Lydia represents Beth returning and saving Daryl in some way. Will it be physically? Emotionally? My money’s on both. I think one thing this foreshadows is Daryl going into a dark state of mind again for some reasons, so even if she saves him physically, she’ll also save him emotionally by default.

And that brings up some interesting questions about Daryl’s crossbow, I gotta say. My group has been discussing this the past few days. We thought it was odd that Daryl dropped his crossbow before going into the cave in 10x08. Because he still had arrows and he had no obvious reason not to bring it with him. Now, of course it would have been VERY cumbersome when crawling through the tiny passages of the cave, and the writers knew that, which is why they had him drop it. But DARYL couldn’t possibly have know that, so it didn’t make much sense. It was obviously something the writers had him do with something in mind. And now Lydia has found it and brought it back to him.

A lot of us have had head canons about Beth doing something like this over the years, so again, this makes me…kinda happy. ;D

4.This obviously represents the hell/dark tunnel arc. I may end up doing an entire, detailed post about this, but here’s the basic gist. We already know the gas station represents hell, because in S4, the gas station Daryl and Michonne’s group went to had the word “hell” written on the marquee.

So I often talk about the dark tunnel symbolism representing the characters having a great trial, and that’s true, but you could also describe it as them going through their own personal hell.

So no matter how you slice it, we once again have a representation of what happened at Grady (stabbed in shoulder, injured in forehead) followed by the trial/hell/dark tunnel. For Daryl, for Beth, for Alpha… it works across the board.

It always starts with either a terrible injury, a death or a death fake out. Or sometimes literal imprisonment to a villain (i.e. Negan, Alpha, etc.). That’s followed by a period of time in which the character struggles through deep emotional darkness. (The dark part, as Maggie said.) Then, when the sun rises again, everything is okay. And what that “okay” looks like depends on what the first event is. If it’s an injury (think Carl’s eye in S6) then the person finally recovers or starts to recover, but it’s obvious they won’t die. If it’s a death fake out (think Glenn in S6) they show up alive. Other times, it might mean the death of the character themselves. (I’m thinking of Sasha. Yes, she died in S7, but she died so the group would have a fighting chance to win the war. And she was okay with that sacrifice. So we saw a sunrise.)

And let’s just appreciate that, if Lydia in this episode does represent Beth’s return to Daryl, she arrived in the night, kind of during his darkest hour. By the time the sun rose, they were away from the darkness, away from Alpha, and…together in the sunlight.

And the more I thought about and put together all the components of this sequence, the more I realized just how MANY times we’ve seen it. Like I said, I’ll do a more detailed post later, but it’s amazing to realize we’ve been seeing this all along, but for the most part only picking up pieces of it at a time.

(The reason I said the thing above about Alpha not finishing her sentence until the morning being a TD thing is that it’s a representation of someone “falling asleep” as it were and waking up along. You could say that this was Alpha entering the dark tunnel, much as Beth did--through injury--and when she wakes up, her family (Lydia, in this case) has left her behind. Right after that, we see the graffiti-like writing. We saw it with Beth in 5x09, right after Coda. And we’ve already seen plenty of parallels/anti-parallels between Alpha and Beth. Just saying.)

Let’s talk about Beta invading Alexandria for a moment and then I really need to shut up for today.

This is obviously a different sequence than the gas station, but I feel like it foreshadows something yet to come. First of all, it reminded me a lot of the Wolves invading Alexandria in S6. And I’m not saying that foreshadowed this (overall, this thing with Beta was less epic than the wolves) but I feel like both of them perhaps point toward something yet to come.

Let’s look at it with some distance. We have a major resurrection symbol (Beta crawling out of the grave) followed by an invasion in which Judith and RJ were in danger and many people died. So, I wonder if there will be a larger invasion where this is the case.

And honestly, it looks like this might happen with Alpha’s horde next episode, so maybe it just points to that. We’ll have to see.

But there’s also the resurrection symbol. So, I’m wondering if it points to a resurrection happening during this invasion. (And understand I’m just making observations here. I have no idea what it’s pointing to.) And maybe, given that Beta is evil, I’m making this symbolism too positive. I don’t know.

Also remember though that Beta is an anti-parallel for Daryl. (We saw him fighting with two knives in this episode, like Daryl does, so I was reminded of that.) And when Beth is resurrected physically, Daryl will be emotionally too. So there’s that.

So this is super conjecturey (totally a word) but remember what I said above: the first episode in which we saw “Wolves Not Far” was 5x09. Beth was in that episode, along with tons of symbolism about what might have happened during that missing 17 days, and what we think was trying to say that she would return in 8 years (in other words, now, in TWD timeline). And now, the Whisperers are here, which is probably what the wolves foreshadowed. (There were also interesting clocks in that episode, and the deeply foreshadowing radio voice broad casts. Yes, I need to do another post to show you guys this stuff. It’s just too much to put here today.)

So I guess what I’m thinking/hoping for is that at some point, the Whisperers will invade Alexandria en mass (or one of the communities; if this does point to next episode, pretty sure that’s happening at Hilltop) and during that invasion, Beth will show up to “save” everyone.

Now, here’s hoping this totally goes down next episode. My good friend @frangipanilove​ would be ecstatic, as ep 11 is the one she always focuses on, and here’s hoping she totally right. (Cuz, you know, that would mean Beth’s return next week. ;D)

But it’s also possible this is bigger than what’s happening in ep 11 and it will be more of a season finale sort of thing. Or… I could be interpreting this totally wrong and it won’t go down this way at all. This is just the stuff rolling through my head since watching 10x10.

One other thing: my fellow theorists and I talked about how we think this is setting up for three returns. Father Gabriel made the three reference to Gamma, and you could argue that Lydia got a return in this episode. She wasn’t really presumed dead or anything, but we hadn’t seen her in a while.

We also know Maggie will be back sometime soon. So that would be two returns. The third would of course, be Beth. But then there’s also Connie to consider. So who knows?

Yeah, this episode was totally packed with stuff. I doubt I’ve even truly hit on everything here. Lots of hidden gems. And next episode just looks, you know, totally badass. So I’m excited to see what comes next. 

Thoughts?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

[nonbinarylatula]

Gunnerkrigg's Ether, the Hope and Rage aspects, and Kat's and Zimmy's classpects

Spoiler warnings for the webcomics Gunnerkrigg Court and Homestuck.

In the webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court, there are several characters who are literal deities from human mythology. They interact directly with humans, and are able to provide concrete proof that the myths about them are true. For example, Coyote created the stars, and is able to interact with celestial bodies by plucking them out of the sky. The main character Annie is even able to touch the moon when Coyote demonstrates this, permanently leaving her fingerprint there for anyone who observes it later in the comic. However, there are multiple myths about the creation of the stars, which can’t possibly all be true, and in addition to that, we have a character (Jones) who had existed since before the birth of life on Earth, and can vouch for the presence of the stars from the very beginning. We find out that these deities’ existence is sustained by the Ether, a force which reflects the collective belief of many humans at a time, and can put in place a kind of “dual truth.” I think this is a really cool cosmology, and many works of fiction which I really like use it to great effect. Two which I think are particularly cool are Niel Gaiman’s American Gods and the Tumblr blog @zuckerberg-for-president.

In Homestuck, reality is constructed from twelve aspects, which exist in six complementary/opposing pairs. One pair I find particularly interesting is Hope and Rage. They both deal with faith, truth, and the story’s relationship with the fact that it’s fictional. Hope, with it’s whole “believing hard enough makes it slightly less fake” thing, mirrors the phenomenon of suspension of disbelief. When humans are following a story, we get swept up in it. Even though intellectually we know it’s composed almost entirely of outright lies, we suspend our disbelief and can feel very real emotions about its characters, almost as if we knew them.

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit. Bilbo Baggins is a human.

Both of these sentences are false. But by reading a story, or even absorbing secondhand cultural knowledge about it, we construct in our minds a universe where one of them has the ring of truth to it. And in Homestuck, the Hope aspect allows that imaginary truth to interact with the real (or, less imaginary?) truth. In Gunnerkrigg Court, the Ether serves the same function.

Zimmy has a unique connection to the Ether. She’s plagued by hallucinations, except that if they get bad enough, other people start to see them, too. And if they get even worse, they become real. As a Mage of Hope, this relationship she has to the Ether makes sense, as it gives her a unique understanding of the magical world, especially later in the comic. But, as a Mage, she of course has to suffer for her aspect.

(https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=461)

The guiding/knowing classes are characterized by the narrative pushing them to the background. While they aren’t necessarily irrelevant characters, their biggest impacts will usually be actions taken by other characters. The Mage, though, is an active class, so there’s some tension there.

(https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2263)

This is very late in the comic, where she’s come to terms a bit with her role. She and Gamma, I think, are very similar to Sollux and Aradia in terms of their placement relative to the rest of the plot. They’re sort of just doing their own thing, only occasionally intersecting with our main narrative, but just begging for a spinoff that focuses on them. Zimmy and Sollux have a lot in common, actually, in terms of general mannerism, though that wasn’t the reason I originally pinned her as a Mage. Her conversation with Annies in the pages surrounding this is what made it click for me.

It’s actually pretty wild how well it all comes together in this conversation. I don’t think a Homestuck fan could possibly read something about the fakeness or realness of magic without getting flashbacks. It almost makes you wonder if it’s intentional.

For more Hope symbolism surrounding Zimmy, look no further than her biggest fan Jack. What a creep, am I right? One really, really big motif in Hope characters is romantic feelings, specifically those that go unrequited or turn sour. So a Mage of Hope, in being directly spoken to and given information by her aspect in a negative way, would only naturally have a stalker like Jack.

The aspect Hope is paired with Rage, as both its opposite and complement. Where Hope tries to fool you into thinking a story is real, Rage tries to remind you it’s fake. Its symbols and motifs include puppets, masks, clowns, face paint, stages and their curtains. All objects which signify what you’re watching is a farce, displayed for solely your amusement. If Hope is the suspension of disbelief, Rage is a Lampshade.

Kat Donlan is effectively the second main character of Gunnerkrigg Court. (Well, she was, until the main character Annie got split in two, taking up the first two spots instead of one.) And, like Zimmy, she has a very interesting relationship to the Ether which I think shows that she’s a Seer of Rage. This is first called to our attention when we visit the Realm of the Dead, and the comic shows it to us from her perspective instead of Annie’s.

(This is one of my favorite sequences in the comic. I’ve selected some more relevant pages in it, but I suggest you ready the whole thing, starting at https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1304 end ending at the end of the chapter.)

As Mort takes Annie to a massive, mystical library, populated by strange eldritch creatures and terrifying gatekeepers, Kat steps into a shitty haunted house filled with nonsensical beaurocracy and guys in half-assed Halloween costumes. Basically, in a place constructed entirely from this universe’s equivalent to Hope, Kat is perceiving it via the visual language of Rage. Later, when Annie is trying to free an Elf from a massive Etherial labyrinth, Kat is able to go in, see only Annie standing next to the elf locked in some handcuffs, and free him with nothing but an ordinary set of lockpicks. Meanwhile, Annie sees a massive, terrifying entity become part of the labyrinth’s landscape. She can’t even tell it’s not part of the structure at first.

(https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1756)

By the way, Zimmy sees Kat as a creature like that 24/7.

In the symbolic language of Gunnerkrigg Court, robots are associated with Rage. First, to enter the robot-only sector of the Court, Annie wears a pair of fake antennae as a disguise, and it works completely - so, by participating in a Rage-associated activity, she is seen as a part of the robots’ world. Second, much later in the comic, she and Kat find a secret basement with some of the first models of Court robots, who begin to fight each other when activated. But they quickly realize the fights are all choreographed, as part of a play designed by Diego - the creator of the robots and likely a Page of Rage - as some sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy. Third, while most robots have no faces, the King of the Robots has a blank plate which he draws on with a white board marker to display different emotional expressions. It’s definitely remeniscent of Rage’s symbols of masks and face paint, especially the two smiling and frowning masks of comedy and tragedy. Finally, Rage is the aspect in the comic most associated with religion, especially if it’s more cult-like, and the robots do form a sort of cult around Kat.

Kat has a great affinity for the Court’s robots. She understands them better than the Court itself, and can even read their language - one designed to be read by machines, which can’t physically be written on a 2-dimensional surface, and which humans shouldn’t even be able to comprehend.

Rage is associated with emotions, and Kat is probably the one who can tell Annie’s emotional state best. Even when Annie has physically splintered all her negative emotions off of herself, in the form of a fire monster, and is proceeding as though she’s completely fine, Kat can tell she isn’t.

When Red (in a fit of Rage) breaks ties with Annie, she justifies it with an unfair narrative which, while technically accurate, interprets all of Annie’s actions in the most uncharitable and bad-faith light imaginable. Kat sees this for what it is - bullshit.

Again, in the Realm of the Dead scene, it’s only because of what Kat can see that Annie and Mort find what they’re looking for.

Basically, Kat uses her knowledge of and unique ability to percieve the Rage aspect to help her friends and guide them to victory.

Please send me feedback, I’d love to hear what people think about this! 

#Gunnerkrigg Court #Homestuck #Zimmy #Mage of Hope #Kat Donlan #Seer of Rage #classpect #classpect analysis #long post

[ironman2point0]

have a drink. or 10.

WHO: Bruce Banner @doctorrbbanner and Tony Stark @ironman2point0 WHERE: Tony’s lab/penthouse WHEN: April 29th late night/May 1st early morning WHAT: Bruce discovers particularly alarming about the power inhibitors.

Tony: Even though most were quick to assume Tony was oblivious to other people’s emotions, he noticed immediately when the situation in the lab spiraled. He took Bruce out of the lab and into the penthouse, directing him into the home itself rather than down the hall to the exit. What he’d just seen was unsettling and Tony was doing his best not to react.

He was always quick to look for solutions during times like this. Those were tangible things that he could comfortably offer. Bruce was different. He was one of the few who brought out that less aloof, sarcastic response Tony was prone to giving whenever he was placed in situations that seemed to require sensitivity. There was something calm and even gentle about the way he sat Bruce down with a hand on his shoulder, his brow furrowing as he looked at him. “Do you want a drink? I need a drink. What do you want?” The questions were quick fired, as if that might force Bruce to focus on him and nothing else. Bruce: It wasn’t as if he’d expected NOVA to be doing something wholesome and kind, and after a little tinkering they’d already discovered that the camera taken from the library had been emitting low levels of gamma radiation, but the way the inhibitors seemed to be working was...alarming. Irresponsible. Bruce knew better than anyone on the planet just how badly it could go, even if he didn’t fully understand yet what else was making the inhibitors work exactly the way they were. Had Tony not coaxed him away when he did, he would have spent the whole night down there (and likely longer) trying to figure it out. What NOVA’s tech did was insanely irresponsible and, frankly, stupid. The more he’d looked at the data, the more angry he’d felt at the blatant disregard not just for good science, but for the potential consequences that could follow. It was going to hurt people. It was already hurting people.

He could still feel it burning through him as he sat down. “No, I-“ he frowned and worked his hands back through his hair. He didn’t drink often. Not unless he knew with a certainty that he was in some kind of controlled environment while he did it, that things weren’t going to get out of hand. Tony’s place was controlled though, wasn’t it? They weren’t going to leave. “Whatever you’re having.” Tony: Tony knew and understood the importance of dealing with the situation. However, he also recognized when to stop. At some point they were obsessing over the same details and it was becoming cyclic. If he left Bruce in the lab on his own, there was a risk of him being there for hours and still not being any closer to a resolution. Tony reprogrammed one of his detectors to make it more sensitive, but it would take all night to upload. His hope was that they could figure out the source of the radiation. Finding and disabling the inhibitors was first priority. He also considered the (perhaps unrealistic) approach of making a faraday suit for every member on the league, but that was something he'd have to ask Shuri. If they couldn't eliminate the existence of the inhibitors, the only approach was guarding themselves against them.

Amused, he straightened and raised his eyebrows. "I applaud your bravery, but if I gave you what I'm having, you might go into a coma." He did retreat to fetch the whiskey from a nearby cabinet, along with two glasses, and he filled his own nearly to the brim. The second he offered Bruce contained an inch's worth of alcohol. "Here. You can have 1/10th of what I'm having." Bruce: “The Big Guy won’t let that happen,” he pointed out as he took the glass. The metabolism he had as Hulk would render absolutely anything Tony could hand him into a joke; it took straight up poison to take him down even temporarily. But he didn’t want that to be a factor. The whole point of letting Tony drag him away was so it wouldn’t be. Bruce finished the glass in a single swallow, winced, and sat back on the couch.

It wasn’t lost on him how much Tony was drinking. He’d wondered if being in Star City, if being part of the League and having Iron Man again, might give him some other kind of outlet. A better one. Tony wasn’t as low as he had been, and Bruce knew that sometimes you just had to contain a monster if you couldn’t get rid of it entirely, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to contribute directly to it. Tony would’ve drank anyway, but should he be doing it with him?

Bruce sat his empty glass aside and ran his hands down his face. “I mean, I knew it wasn’t going to be quiet forever, I guess. I’ve had a few good years.” Which was more than he’d expected. “I can jump back in.” He’d only halfway agreed to the “team” even after Tony decided he was on it. Tony: "The Big Guy isn't home right now." That was the rub, wasn't it? Tony knew the inhibitors they had up and running were apparently not only affecting mutants, but metahumans and aliens alike. The solution was to get out of the city, obviously, even though he knew he would never seriously contemplate it. "But we'll see if you kept your metabolism. Worth a try." Even though he'd gotten his hands on one of the inhibitors, the technology wasn't like anything he'd ever seen before. He recognized it well enough to understand where the readings Bruce had were coming from, however.

Picking up Bruce's empty glass, he used the excuse to return to the kitchen to refill it even though he hadn't been asked. It was just so he could top off his own. He was already half finished. "Getting rid of them might give you a few more. That's why we do it, right?" The question as half-mocking, but he was smirking as he handed the glass over. "What are you worried about? The pressure? The work? The people?" There were a lot more of them involved this time, that was for sure. Tony wasn't entirely optimistic about the outcome. Bruce: Bruce wanted to point out that it wasn’t that simple, that even if something in NOVA’s inhibitors kept his body from changing, The Big Guy didn’t actually go anywhere at all. He was just in the place in Bruce’s mind where he kept him. They all had one. All the big guys. As Tony walked off with the empty glass, he ran both of his hands down his face and decided not to say any of that.

“No. It’s not any of that.” He took the glass from him again and held it clutched between his knees so that he was staring down into it. There was a clip of silence before he finally looked back up with a humorless smile. “I’m just not so sure that I’m ready to lean hard into the possibility of accidentally looking like one of the bad guys again instead of the good ones.” Unlike Tony or Steve or most of the others, that wasn’t always something within his control. He hurt people. For a long time that had felt like all he was good at, that anything else he tried was lost in the giant shadow of the Hulk, and for the first time in decades he was just barely starting to break away from that. Tony: Tony's comments often had a casual, flippant way about them that made them sound insensitive, even rude, but there was always more going on underneath that instinctive deflection. He just rarely chose to share it.

Oddly quiet, he sat across from him, his arm slung over the back of the chair. He was no stranger to Bruce's struggles and why he was so reluctant to rejoin the team. When Tony had volunteered him, he'd done so with the idea that they were working... well, behind the scenes, even though he knew better. It never ended up being just anything. There was always more. "You aren't one of the bad guys. Doesn't matter what it looks like if it isn't." He understood Bruce's point, but it wasn't something he could subscribe to. "Intent matters, Bruce." Bruce: “To you, maybe.” But how much water was that really going to hold if (no, when, probably) he hurt someone again? Or worse. There was always the possibility for worse. At least with SHIELD, they knew what they were getting when they asked for Hulk. It was on purpose every time. Bruce had some real control over the situation. The unpredictable nature of heroism, though...it removed so much of that.

He finally took another drink and did it more slowly than the first time. “I probably sound like I’m making excuses, don’t I?” Excuses not to really be part of anything, excuses to stay on the outskirts of what was happening. Tony: "No." It didn't come off as an excuse to him, anyway, but Tony was familiar with Bruce's struggled. "It's not that simple. My head isn't so far up my own ass that I don't get that." He'd also slowed down. The whiskey was hitting him and everything was a little slower, even the typical frenetic pace he usually had when analyzing a situation. "Limited scope involvement. I don't think Cap would mind." Even though Tony personally doubted that could be maintained once things got down to the wire, it was worth a try. Bruce: “It probably doesn’t look the best that I turned down his offer.” Bruce struggled off and on to reconcile the idea that people were capable of actually being his friend, rather than simply wanting access to something he could provide. He broke through that once in awhile when cooler heads prevailed, but he found himself always coming back to it. Did they want Banner or did they just need Hulk while he tagged along?

He sat his glass back down and restlessly pushed back his hair again. “I really did just want you to look at the data, not watch me tailspin.” Tony: "His mistake was offering," Tony said pointedly, but his tone was lighter. He hadn't exactly made an offer to Bruce, after all. There wasn't much choice involved. It did make some difference that they were working in a lab, he imagined, because Hulk wasn't involved. The atmosphere was relaxed. He spent more time talking to Bruce than discussing league business.

He shook his head and finished off his drink. This time he didn't get up to get more. "If that happens, I'd rather be here for it. It's not like I haven't been before." They'd known each other for a long time and not always in the same capacity as they did now. Bruce: “You know, most people aren’t the type to just waltz in and call every shot to be called,” he pointed out, but it was with a small smile. By then, he knew why Tony did it, or at least partially. It was a waste of time to hit all the stops if the end destination was the same, so while someone like Steve checked in all of them along the way...Tony didn’t even bother to look at half the signs.

That comment quieted him for a little while. “No, I guess that’s true.” He liked to think he’d paid some of it back, that he’d been able to make up for some of those times, help Tony right back, but it was hard to know. He’d tried. Tony: Tony knew he'd be able to convince Bruce to help eventually, if he took the less direct route, but he didn't want to overestimate the time they had. There was a lot to get done. If he were going to be on this team again, then he wanted to work with people he trusted. There weren't a lot of those.

The last few years were spent at a low point of his life. Even though he'd maintained contact with Bruce during that time, Tony's behavior and attitude had a marked change. It was as if he were a different person entirely. The past year he came back around, Bruce had been one of the first people he had an actual conversation with. He still hadn't truly talked about anything. "There's nothing more we can do right now. The download will take at least three or four hours." He tapped his watch. "Have a timer." Bruce: Bruce was quiet again, but his mind kept spinning as he tried to direct it somewhere specific. Three or four hours. He couldn’t focus on the damn gamma radiation and inhibitors for that long without new information. He had to just put it somewhere and open the door again when they had the data.

He leaned forward far enough to rest his elbows on his knees and looked sideways to Tony. “You want to hear something dumb?” Maybe it wasn’t really, but at the very best it was going to sound like he was oversimplifying - something he could not often (if ever) be accused of doing. Tony: One quick scroll through his phone made it clear the inhibitors were still up and running. It was hard not to keep refreshing the page for news. Tony considered calling Steve, but decided against it when he saw how late it was. Apparently they'd spent much longer in the lab than he realized.

The question made him laugh, but it caught his attention. "From you? Well, it would certainly be novel. Tell me." In their younger years he felt intimidated by Bruce's intelligence, but that competitive drive had all but faded by now. Bruce: Bruce ran a hand along the back of his neck and gave a quiet, humorless laugh. "It's because of you that I'm trying to keep my head down with the team. Not like- not like how that sounds," which he realized after he'd said it. "But it's just that...even when we were young, you had the chance to change the world. You had the name and the money and the brains, and I was always trying to catch up to one of those." It wasn't scientific intelligence that Bruce lacked, but he'd never had Tony's charm or the easy way he could talk to people, and even in their line of work, that mattered. It wasn't like all he did was interact with other scientists. Most people didn't have a clue what he was talking about, and he'd never been great at getting to their level in a social sense. It had cost him jobs and grants and who knew what else in the beginning, and it was certainly why he'd ended up working for the military, originally. It had only got worse from there.

Bruce leaned back, trying not to act as restless as he was starting to feel, and raised his glass to his lips. "I've lost decades to my monster in the mirror, and I'm just now finally back to where I wanted to be way back then. I'm getting to work on what I think is important. I'm getting to help. Me. Banner. Not..." he sighed and dropped the whole line of thought. "Dumb, like I said." Tony: Coming from Bruce, the words almost didn't make sense. Tony stared at him blankly, taken aback, and he didn't know what to say at first. It was something he couldn't completely understand. Bruce was one of the most intelligent people he'd ever met and certainly one of the few who could follow his thinking, no matter how abstract or convoluted the topic. There was a lot he wanted to say, but every time he thought of how to form the words, it didn't sound the way he wanted it. It came off apologetic or dismissive. Ultimately he said nothing and frowned down at the glass in his hand.

He shook his head when Bruce cut himself off. "It wasn't dumb." Setting the glass aside, he leaned forward so his arms rested on his knees. "Is it dumb that I think your help is more valuable?" Bruce was more valuable, was what he meant, but it wasn't something he thought he should say. Bruce: He wished that he could believe it outright when Tony said so, or when anyone said so for that matter, but he always had his doubts. The only thing he had going for him, sometimes, was that Hulk was as much liability as asset, and Banner on his own was a more minimal risk. Usually. Tony didn’t just say things to placate people, though, and he could at least believe that. It meant there was at least some measure of truth there.

“Well, I’m trying to give it my best shot.” Maybe it wasn’t as good as it might have been a couple of decades earlier, when he’d been knocked in the head fewer times (to put it mildly), but he was trying to recapture what he could. “I just don’t want to lose this again.” He was getting somewhere, or at least it felt like he was, and if he could just hang onto all of it maybe things could be...good. More than one thing. Tony: Even though Tony was aware that Bruce harbored certain insecurities, he didn't know the breadth of them and he was still a bit caught off guard by the admission. There was no doubt Hulk had been an asset to the team in the past, as well as a liability, but Tony found it difficult to place value in Hulk at the expense of Bruce. It was a differentiation he could normally make in his usual pragmatic fashion, but not this time.

"I'll take your best shot." They were already making headway in some areas. Tony didn't think that was something he wouldn't have done without Bruce, but it would have taken him much longer. Bruce had a way of streamlining things while Tony overcomplicated them. He reminded him of the task and often made suggestions that cut out useless tangents. Bruce: After finishing the rest of the drink in a single swallow that made him wince, Bruce sat the glass aside and pushed both hands back through his hair. It desperately needed cut, but every time he remembered the fact that it needed cut, it was at some hour or some time he couldn’t do anything about it and then the idea got abandoned. Rinse, repeat. It wasn’t a priority in the face of everything else.

For a long few beats he just looked at Tony, but eventually reached over far enough to squeeze the side of his arm. He thought about just saying nothing, but finally came up with a very articulate, “Thanks.” Tony: Tony’s gaze flicked down to the hand on his arm and he snorted softly. It seemed like a strangely formal show of gratitude, all considering, and he pushed himself up so he could sit next to him on the couch instead. Instead of answering, he pulled Bruce against his side with an arm around his shoulders in a quasi embrace.

It wasn’t something Tony did often - not anymore, anyway - and without the whiskey it likely wouldn’t have happened at all. He started to pull his arm back after a second or two, but his hand paused against the back of Bruce’s neck and he smirked. “You need to cut your hair.” Bruce: Bruce wasn’t often one for physical affection, not at all because he didn’t enjoy it but because he could never fully figure out when the right time for it was. It also never quite felt right to initiate it. The combination, along with his general avoidance of people for a whole host of reasons, left him going long periods without it. He never realized it until he...well, realized it, like he was right then. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had more contact than just shaking someone’s hand. That was reason enough to lean into Tony.

“Probably. Maybe I’ll use your stylist. Lend me $500.” Did he pay five hundred bucks for a haircut? He truly wouldn’t have been that surprised if the answer was yes. “Maybe I’ll get a,” he gestured at his face in the general shape of Tony’s goatee and gave him a little smile.

#c: discord #tony stark #bruce banner