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resowrites · 2 years

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Sherlock Holmes And The Book Of Rhymes - Part 3

Summary: When Cora Beauchamp begins receiving extracts from a book of nursery rhymes by post, the police dismiss her which leaves her only one way to turn. But with no clue as to the sender or the meaning behind them, will the case prove too bizarre even for Mr. Sherlock Holmes?

Characters: Sherlock Holmes (I envisioned Henry’s version but the story could apply to Rathbone right through to Cumberbatch), OC!Cora Beauchamp, Dr. Watson, Mrs. Hudson, OC characters.

Warnings: adult/dark themes such as adultery, occasional threat of violence/danger, some period misogyny/victorian attitudes, angsty, lightly beta’d.

WC: 2393

My work must not be copied, reposted, or translated elsewhere. Likes, follows, reblogs and comments are thoroughly welcome and appreciated! No copyright infringement intended, gifs/pics not my own. I hope you all enjoy and thanks for visiting!

Part 3:

Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson only just made it to the platform in time. The detective had to help his friend up onto the train as it quickly picked up its pace and was exiting the station. Luckily, the carriage was mostly empty and they quickly found a free compartment. Mr. Holmes threw his deerstalker to the vacant seat beside him and wiped the sweat from his brow. It was promising to be an unseasonably warm day and he regretted not having dressed in lighter layers. Dr. Watson of course was thrilled about the prospect of visiting rural Oxford on a day like today. He'd half hoped they'd have time to do a spot of fishing, though he couldn't imagine why they needed to visit Marsham Hall so quickly. Still, he busied himself for most of their journey reading a newly released medical textbook. Eventually, however, his curiosity got the better of him and he at least wanted to know what Mr. Holmes had been up to that morning. When Dr. Watson had returned from a brief visit to his club, he'd had business to discuss with an old friend, Mr. Holmes was nowhere to be seen. "So… what prompted you to leave Baker Street so early this morning? Even Mrs. Hudson had no idea where you'd gone…" the detective was sitting with his head back against the chair, his eyes shut.

"Oh… I just wanted to check something with the post office. They gave me a name of someone I could speak to in Oxford though I hardly think it will be necessary. Any unmarked post is reserved and eventually destroyed…" Dr. Watson glanced up at his colleague whose eyes remained closed. He took a closer look at him but decided he was in his usual health. Perhaps the rocking of the carriage was unsettling his stomach.

"So you're still of the belief that someone at the house must be responsible?" Mr. Holmes finally opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He certainly looked no paler than usual.

"Well… unless Miss Beauchamp simply desired to meet me, I can't imagine who else would be responsible…" Dr. Watson rolled his eyes and tutted.

"Really Holmes… I fancy you're getting quite the large head. But if the situation remains largely unchanged, why must we hurry to Oxford so quickly?" The detective had now pulled out his pipe and was lodging a thick wedge of tobacco into the fatter end.

"Because when we telegraphed Miss Beauchamp agreeing to an appointment, gossip probably spread throughout her staff, who will be anticipating a visit sooner or later. We don't want to give anyone the chance to get away before we can question them. Though it seems we may already be too late…" Dr. Watson looked in the direction his friend was pointing and could see the approaching platform was mostly empty apart from one particularly striking figure. It seemed Miss Beauchamp had been waiting for them. Dr. Watson couldn't help but look her up and down. She looked especially lovely this morning, dressed in layers of delicate muslin and sashed at the waist with a thick, peach coloured bow.

"Oh, gentlemen, how glad I am to see you both. Though in truth I wish you could have followed me back yesterday…" It seemed as though she'd been crying, and Dr. Watson was quick to take her hands in his own.

"What is it, my dear? You seem most put out…" she did indeed look on the verge of tears, which prompted Mr. Holmes to look about hastily for a cab.

"It's our housekeeper, Lorraine, she went missing sometime last night. We've searched the whole grounds, alerted the police as well… oh I do hope she's alright!" Cora began weeping into her handkerchief and Dr. Watson hurriedly led her away from the platform and to the entrance of the station. Luckily, there was one coach left and Mr. Holmes managed to flag it down before it pulled out of the road and onto its next fare. He helped Dr. Watson bundle her inside and told the driver to get to Marsham Hall as quickly as possible. The journey proved to be most uncomfortable as the roads were either pebble dashed or roughshod. Mr. Holmes wondered if his stomach was ever going to settle that day. They pulled up to the house to find it mostly calm despite the presence of police. Mr. Holmes had hoped she'd wait for them to arrive instead, police out in the home counties often proved to be a bigger hindrance than a help. He recognised the green bowler hat of Inspector Lindsey almost immediately. Luckily he was one of the more reasonable Inspectors he'd crossed paths with, and with enough reassurance, he left Mr. Holmes to do as he pleased.

"Ah, Inspector Lindsey… how good to see you again." The Inspector looked up languidly from a discussion with one of his officers. It seems Miss Beauchamp had warned him of Mr. Holmes's involvement ahead of time.

"Mr. Holmes, Dr. Watson, I'm glad to see you both. We've quite a pickle on our hands it seems…" the Inspector pulled a pipe from his pocket and motioned for both men and Miss Beauchamp to follow him back into the house. Cora had them all sitting in the drawing room, a large airy place bathed in the morning light. Still feeling somewhat queasy, Mr. Holmes contemplated asking her to draw the blinds. But Inspector Lindsey was quick to get down to business. "Well gentlemen, it seems between the hours of midnight and three o'clock this morning, Mrs. Hornbeck went missing from the house. Now, Miss Beauchamp here has confirmed that Mrs. Hornbeck definitely locked up the house and retired to her room at about 11:30 last night. There's no sign of forced entry anywhere near the house, and the front door was found locked this morning as usual. Therefore we assume Mrs. Hornbeck locked the door after her…" Mr. Holmes interjected immediately.

"And how do we know someone from inside the house hadn't taken her? Miss Beauchamp, did you hear anything at all? I recall you saying you're a light sleeper…" Miss Beauchamp, who was sat next to Dr. Watson, her hand still in his, blushed furiously at the mention of her sleeping habits.

"All I heard was footsteps below my bedroom at about 2 am this morning… though I didn't hear the front door being opened or closed at any time." Mr. Holmes nodded, deciding to continue his line of questioning. Inspector Lindsey gave Dr. Watson an exasperated look as he took a seat on the last chair available.

"And were you awake before then or did the noise disturb you?" Cora cleared her throat, determined to stop her whimpering and focus on the question at hand.

"No, I'd been sleeping." Mr. Holmes nodded again and directed his next question at the Inspector.

"And why do we assume Mrs. Hornbeck locked the front door herself, are her keys missing?" The Inspector smiled, pleased that he'd already sought the answer to that question.

"That's correct Mr. Holmes, according to Miss Beauchamp, Mrs. Hornbeck kept the only set." The detective looked towards the young lady, who nodded to assert that what the Inspector had said was correct.

"And how did you find the house this morning? Was everyone else in their rooms as usual?" Cora sat up straight, knowing that she had to answer this question more carefully.

"The house was quiet as a grave when I woke up at six… in fact, I had to wake up Mr. Hornbeck, who's usually awake by that time." Mr. Holmes lept from his chair slightly.

"You say he was still asleep? You actually saw him in the room he shared with Mrs. Hornbeck?" Cora nodded briefly but couldn't imagine where the conversation was heading. "And what of the room itself? Has it been left undisturbed since?" Mr. Holmes shot a wary look at Inspector Lindsey, who was quick to put the detective at ease.

"I ordered my men to keep out of it, though I conducted a brief search to see if any note had been left behind. Of course, I left everything untouched. The room is free for you to examine though I've not been able to lock it, Mr. Hornbeck assures me no one else has another set of keys." Mr. Holmes pursed his lips at the development. The room could since have been cleared of the evidence he sought.

"And what of Mr. Hornbeck himself, have you questioned him about his wife's disappearance? What about the rest of the staff?" The inspector nodded, fiddling as he did so with the cuff of his jacket.

"Yes… he seems just as surprised and distressed as the rest of the house. He can't imagine where she might have gone. He uses laudanum to sleep, something to do with a back injury, so he heard nothing last night either. The rest of the staff were apparently sound asleep." Something about that account didn't sit right with the detective.

"And Miss Beauchamp, though I'm loathe to ask such a question, what would you say the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Hornbeck was like?" At this, Cora blushed, not having been raised to indulge in gossip.

"Well… it's no secret they weren't always on the best of terms. Though nothing out of the ordinary for a couple married as long as they've been. There… there was talk of some infidelity on Mr. Hornbeck's side, though that was some years back. I don't know who was involved with him though." Dr. Watson patted her on the hand and gave her a soundless 'well done.' Mr. Holmes had no time for such frivolity, however. Instead, he jumped to his feet and demanded Mr. Hornbeck be bought to him at once. About ten minutes later, the man shuffled into the room, looking haggard and rather wary of them all. Miss Beauchamp quickly took him by the arm and led him gently to a chair that had to be bought in from the kitchen. Dr. Watson smiled at her giving, unpretentious manner.

"Now Mr. Hornbeck, I wish only to ask you a few questions. I will attempt to make them as swift and painless as possible. Perhaps you will excuse us Inspector Lindsey, and take Miss Beauchamp with you, she doesn't need to be present for the moment. Dr. Watson cast a somewhat disappointed look at his friend but Cora seemed grateful to be given a break and she quickly led the Inspector from the room, offering him a lunch of sandwiches and cake. "Good… now that we're alone we can speak more freely. Mr. Hornbeck, are you quite sure you heard nothing last night?" The butler cast him a suspicious look.

"No sir I didn't. I take Laudanum of a night, helps me with my back pain." He gave a righteous nod, as though that somehow cleared him of all suspicion. Mr. Holmes narrowed his eyes, there was something rather unpleasant about the man sitting in front of him. He also seemed even more dishevelled than Mr. Holmes expected. His hair had recently been wet and left to its natural state rather than styled. His suit also seemed mismatched, as though an outfit had been thrown together in haste. Perhaps he needed to discard his usual one…

"I see… how often do you take such a substance? It's rather difficult to consume the right quantity… it's a most finicky chemical to take for something as trivial as lack of sleep Mr. Hornbeck…" the butler seemed rather annoyed at the insinuation.

"For a gentleman perhaps, but I have many a job to do around this place. I also have to assist the gardener, which is how I injured my back in the first place. Miss Beauchamp is reluctant to hire more staff though God knows why… she has enough money." The butler quickly cleared his throat, aware he'd overstepped.

"What Miss Beauchamp does with the estate is surely her business Mr. Hornbeck…" Mr. Holmes quickly held up a hand to his friend, now being an inopportune time to defend Miss Beauchamp's honour.

"You didn’t answer my question Mr. Hornbeck, how often do you take the laudanum?” Mr. Hornbeck gave a small sigh.

“If you must know, I go through about a bottle a month…” Mr. Holmes gave a small smile.

“And what was the current state of your relationship with Mrs. Hornbeck? According to the house, you weren't always on good terms…" the butler scoffed.

"Nonsense! We've been married 35 years and never had a cross word! Of course, we bicker… but if you're insinuating I had anything to do with my wife's disappearance, I'll have to stop you right there. I love Lorraine, and I hope she's found safe and sound very soon." He then began sniffling, although Mr. Holmes wasn't sure whether the reaction was genuine. Either way, their discussion was at an end.

"Very well Mr. Hornbeck, be about your business, we'll update you the moment we have any news…" the butler quickly looked up and seemed grateful to be excused so quickly. It wasn't lost on Mr. Holmes how quickly he scurried from the room. Even Dr. Watson seemed to notice something was off.

"How about that then… seems a rather strange fellow." Mr. Holmes nodded as he rose to his feet, encouraging his friend to join him.

"One thing's for certain… he shouldn't take to the stage anytime soon."

Sometime later that day.

So far Mr. Holmes's investigation proved to be rather fruitless. A quick inspection of the Hornbeck's room turned up nothing at first, though Dr. Watson noticed his friend removing the bottle of laudanum from the bedside drawer and placing it in his coat pocket. The windows however were sealed shut and there'd been no sign of a struggle. As all the drawers and closets held nothing suspicious, Mr. Holmes played a hunch and dived under the bed. He let out a whoop when he climbed to his feet again, although Dr. Watson couldn’t see whatever it was he’d placed into his coat pocket that time. His next step was to pay a visit to the gardener. If he worked closely with Mr. Hornbeck, he'd be the best person to shine a light on any gossip.

A/N: Hi guys, as a huge Sherlock Holmes fan of both the original stories and the many series/films, it’s my pleasure to present this new short series. Any feedback is appreciated and Part 4 will be out Wednesday at 6pm EST - so I hope you’ll continue to stick around and enjoy more to come!

To be updated on when I post please follow @resowrites and turn on post notifications.

#henry cavill #henry cavill sherlock holmes #sherlock holmes #henry cavill fandom #henry cavill fics

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pinky-the-polar-bear · 1 year

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I posted 760 times in 2022

350 posts created (46%)

410 posts reblogged (54%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@northerngrail

@zombiedeers

@treetownconfessions

@ghostys-originals

@pan-fried-autism

I tagged 705 of my posts in 2022

Only 7% of my posts had no tags

#pinky rambles on - 332 posts

#roadkillerz - 331 posts

#friend shit - 142 posts

#good shit - 107 posts

#dr. doogood - 92 posts

#malcolm murphy - 92 posts

#theo cottontail - 71 posts

#devin ray o'sunshine - 56 posts

#grover cottontail - 47 posts

#hey that's me - 41 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#'murica should just say they hate anyone who doesn't suck their dick and isn't a straight white man free from physical and mental issues

My Top Posts in 2022:

Fun Fact: Doogood was born in Mayberry Town, a town notorious for being stuck in the 50's and for its aggressively conservative beliefs. He was banned at 14-years old for using science to better the lives of his fellow citizens. His likeness is still used for their propaganda to this day.

Fun Fact #2: Doogood was born with a curse. He is doomed to eternal life and a painful reanimation process every time he dies. You can thank one of his ancestors for that.

18 notes - Posted February 1, 2022

what do you think dr doogood would think of grem? (@pan-fried-autism's oc, dunno if you ever heard of him)

Doogood is used to Peng's shenanigans by this point. Why not add another bizarre doctor to the mix?

19 notes - Posted August 1, 2022

…[offers you disco bear] him…gib me ur disco bear

Excellent choice!

Disco Bear isn't his birth name. That honor (or dishonor, if you're Disco) goes to Barry Honeysuckle. He legally changed it to his stage name at the height of his fame.

Why? Because his home life sucked. His parents never approved of anything he did, let alone disco music. They saw it as a stupid fad that would fizzle out and leave Disco without a job. Plus, they never believed he would be a successful musician. But did that stop Disco? Nope! He pursued his dreams and became a one-hit wonder.

The one hit he managed to get was massively successful. It hit #1 on several charts all over the world, including his home country. To this day, he still earns royalties every time his song is played on the radio. Thanks to this, he quickly earned himself a spot amongst the hot disco singers. This man used his newfound fame and fortune to party like the animal he was.

Beautiful women would have one night stands with him, he'd get higher than a kite on cocaine and booze, and he'd pull all sorts of crazy stunts in the midst of his drugged up stupor. But just like every other celebrity, his days in the spotlight were numbered. Disco music fizzled out of popularity and was replaced by the next hot genre. On top of this, Disco developed a nasty addiction towards cocaine. In fact, he needed to go to rehab after he nearly overdosed on it.

Sure, rehab fixed his dependence on cocaine, but there was now a void in his heart where cocaine used to be. He took his loss of relevance poorly. Prior to his worsening addiction, he had a woman who actually loved him for more than his fortune and fame. His feelings towards her were mutual. Sadly, his obsession with drugs left her no choice but to burn this bridge permanently. After she walked away from Disco, he never saw her again. By the time he conquered his addiction, he knew he fucked up majorly. Knowing he'd never have her love or affection again killed him inside.

That's when he moved to Happy Tree Town. Almost dying to cocaine was a rude awakening for him in more ways than one. As an effort to hold onto as much of his net worth as possible, he sold everything he didn't need anymore and moved to Happy Tree Town. But living in a small town hardly improved his life. He ended up spending over a decade going through the motions. He'd hit on women, get rejected, and drink his sorrows away. Because of where he resided, he also had to deal with the curse placed on Happy Tree Town. However, just like everything else, that merely became a part of his routine.

Suddenly, Pop decided to befriend Disco out of nowhere. I'm sure you guys know the rest, but in a nutshell, they bonded over being middle-aged losers hanging on by a thread. In a twist of fate, they even fell in love.

Nowadays, Disco is much happier with his husband and spiritual son. As a result of growing more confidence in himself and his identity, he became a drag queen on the side, much to Fuzzy's embarrassment.

21 notes - Posted February 12, 2022

Guess who paid @pastelprince18 to draw their angsty teenager? If you ever need a wonderful commission done, Ray's got you covered.

31 notes - Posted February 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

If Sprigatito evolves into a femboy furry, I will sit back and watch as the fandom spontaneously combusts, laughing at its suffering for years to come. Then I will ship him with Incineroar and make these boys hella gay.

219 notes - Posted February 27, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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fullmtal · 3 years

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EDWARD ELRIC OF FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST EST. MAY 2021, studied by lily, 25+ she/her.

‘ the story of brilliant icarus and his triumphant return to the sun. ‘

THIS BLOG NOW USES BETA EDITOR.

1. i will not write with anyone below the age of 18. i am here to write with friends, close mutuals and selective on fandom pals. safe to say i will be highly selective in general.

2. i am not unfamiliar at all with fullmetal alchemist, as it is at the top of animanga for me in terms of storytelling in that field, and i have seen both 2003 and the canon / manga-based brotherhood of 2009. my portrayal will be /primarily/ based off of first and foremost the manga / brotherhood. that hardly means i won’t be reblogging / reviewing 03 as i love both.

i will reblog / write 03 content / have an 03 verse / conqueror of shamballa too, but you’ll 97 percent of the time see fma:b content! i do love them both!

also, i will be incorporating own personal headcanons, as i will sprinkle them into writing.

3. pinned posts / asks / headcanons / were made by saphyrus . please don’t steal. my psds i used years ago, so i don’t know the sources on tumblr anymore, but the psd coloring is #4 from animeresources and a mix of idclwyld and the blockquote editing was done by belacedia. do not steal or imitate. manga psd by @acgorecs . and second psd template by @farginen !

4. the usual rules of basic decency apply. no transphobia, homophobia, bigotry, discrimination, petty drama wars or problematic behavior or you know, not being humane or at least practicing humanity. if i see it i’m hard-blocking and not looking back. i have no time for that, frankly, and won’t have it here whatsoever.

5. shipping is not the focal point as most of the series edward is underage. i generally tend to follow the canon ending for him, which i will not force, but his relationship with winry, who he harbors feelings for is pretty blatantly the person he is interested in, and the one who i can see most involved with him in terms of a romantic relationship, due to how natural it feels writing wise and how subtle it is also. if you don’t ship it that’s fine with me just respect my preferences / how the story unfolds as i do tend to follow canon for fma manga.

this does not mean if a winry interacts with me that it starts with romantic implications on my edward’s end.

IMPORTANT: in terms of shipping with winry i will only do romantic threads / relationships with her with with a lot of development and not just every winry in sight, i have to have a connection and a shared vision with the mun. i really want to interact with every fma chara good OR bad. not just the ones that make his life better. but worse, too.

so, basically, that is the character that ed has feelings for, both in canon and in my portrayal. shipping obviously, is neither this blog nor edward’s priority, all the same. i don’t really see this changing, as like i said, the priority is not to ship but to explore edward’s whole entirety of relationships, and as of now i am ship exclusive with a winry as is, but every type of bond is absolutely welcomed here!

6. i am first observe then see if i click with a character. for example, my only request is have it make sense. edward for example is a literal prodigy, a genius in a 1 to 5 ratio in ten million people on the planet. it would not make much sense if every person had lightning fast speed / skill like edward or his brother do to just magically do things just for the sake of them being op or having power.

i want both the surreal and i want realism in my writing and in who interact with, and also respect of the cast who has a wide variety of skills and intelligences unique to them just as important as edward himself!

this does not mean i won’t interact with them, by any stretch, i just want substance, and quite frankly i think ocs are just as canon as ‘public ocs’ aka edward who is arakawa’s oc lbr! for any character tl;dr? have it make sense, especially considering how rare alchemists of ed and alphonse’s character are and that is entirely narratively intentional. they are on an entirely different level by canon in intelligence, capability, adaptability etc. tl;dr they’re v talented and one is a gremlin unfortunately. but! they are still only 15-14 most of the story so that’s something also to keep in mind. one thing i love about fullmetal alchemist is that no one is impervious to well, anything! so i really do like reading about characters with verses for it or are handmade which i have massive respect for. you do your thing!

7. on that note do not underestimate edward by any means. due to being a genius / prodigy, but above all his sheer willpower and ability to learn at a lightning speed, he is an absolute threat despite his youth and has proven it by passing the state alchemist exam as only a child, just as much as it implies his intelligence by coming close to the truth at the gate as an even younger child, though at a price for his hubris.

he is constantly improving and learning, both in martial arts and in alchemical abilities. there is a giant list in a giant sea of reasons why edward is not normal in terms of his skills and abilities / intelligence but we’ve all seen the series. yes he can be a goof, a comedic hero, but never underestimate the infinite potential / ability he can acquire. that said i will never disrespect your muses abilities either!!! equal footing in partnership of writing imho! basically...

things that others might learn in a week he may learn in a day or two hours.

8. if i don’t see us mixing well rp wise, i may unfollow to keep things organized, and while these rules are blunt and to the point? i am never against having castmates / people from the fma rpc. my goal and role here is to explore edward in all his flaws, strengths, and in-betweens, and not sugar-coat or step away from realism and development as he grows in my writing and from the story of fullmetal alchemist itself.

9. i don’t genuinely take mains unless we click and i usually make tags for relationships without having a requirement for mains / exclusives. say i have an alphonse i really can’t see myself interacting with another? doesn’t mean i’ll be exclusive because you never know what’s ahead. so i will only do mains and very rarely, say a close friend, an exclusive.

i am not possessive and you’re welcome to write with all kinds and i’ll always if we’re mutuals be here on the sidelines rooting! if you don’t want to be mains and still want a tag? hey i can do that because tag making is fun and we still can make fun things together! tell me all about your muse!

10. on different portrayals. i generally do not follow as a rule, as while i do not have any desire for competition and view all duplicate / variations of different eds as equal like we all should, i do want to keep my own portrayal and others separate. if i follow you it’s likely that i have talked to you or are familiar with you, and nothing more.

it isn’t a very common occurrence, but that hardly means i dislike you or wanting to vie for dumb competitive spots. i’m just here to have fun, just like any edward, and like any portrayal, some are more others cup of tea than others and that should be /respected/ and not judged. basically if you write ed too? awesome! i might not follow but i sure as hell am glad he’s so loved.

11. due to the absurdly massive trauma edward has faced, and as someone who has her own and empathizes / is working on research on things i don’t know!, as i’m sure we all can see some of ed or any character in us a lil bit, (!) so i do not take these subjects lightly though i do not know all of them, there will be dark themes present so please keep yourself comfortable okay? edward suffers from severe post traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorder, anxiety attacks / nightmares and survivor’s guilt, self-hatred and repressive behaviors and the exploration of grief in unhealthy / unaddressed ways as well as anger and pain.

again, please read at your own discretion. edward is packed with trauma and grief and heartache, and i will not sugarcoat that for anything but approach it with the respect our fullmetal pipsqueak deserves!

12. promo graphic by @7theaven check her out! profile page picture by @kazeoto ! theme coding by @farginen / my girl cherry! bio banner and theme icon also by cherry! go follow them, my mutuals are p neat! 13. if you got this far thanks for reading! please leave a like only if you want if you did it helps me know that my rules have been read but it isn’t a endgame mandatory thing. otherwise a head’s up works too, or if you’re shy, don’t worry about it all. hope to have fun writing with you! take care of yourself ok? seriously thank you so much for reading! - lily!

#𝐎𝐎𝐂 * ── revving at full throttle!#watch me edit this another two times bc i just woke up #𝐏𝐒𝐀 * ── a lesson without pain is meaningless.

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official-weasley · 3 years

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Telling Bill - (The Irreplaceable Charlie Weasley AU)

Warnings: Charlie & Bill being excited and emotional beans 💙

Word count: 3,002

Characters: Charlie Weasley and my OC Nova from TICW which you can find here

Nova

"Your name?" The woman at the window asked.

"Nova Blackwood. I have an appointment with dr. Nightingale."

"And him?" The woman nodded toward Charlie.

"He's my fiancé."

"Okay. Go down the corridor and up the stairs to the third floor. You take a left there. The second door to the right. It has a number 14 on it."

"Thank you." I nodded my head and felt Charlie grab my hand.

"Are you nervous?" Charlie asked as we walked up the stairs.

"A little bit. Are you?"

"A little bit." He giggled.

We didn't get a chance to say anything else as the door with number 14 on it opened.

"Miss Blackwood?" The healer's eyes scanned me up and down.

"That's me." I grinned.

"Come with me." She gestured for both of us to follow her inside.

"Is this your first pregnancy?" The healer asked.

"Yes."

"Alright. You can sit there, Mr. ...?"

"Weasley." Charlie cleared his throat and awkwardly sat on the spot the doctor pointed at next to the examination chair.

"Miss Blackwood, please sit there and pull your shirt up and it would help if you unzip your pants so that we don't get the gel on them." The healer smiled softly.

"The gel?" Charlie and I questioned together.

"We will use this Muggle machine to check on the baby. It will be able to tell us when approximately you conceived, we will hear the baby's heartbeat and if you're far enough we can even find out the gender if you'd like to know, of course."

"We discussed it," I turned to Charlie, "and we'd like it to be a surprise."

"Okay, I will write that in your file. Are you ready to begin?" She looked first at me and then at Charlie.

"Ready." Charlie and I locked eyes and nodded.

“It’s going to be a bit cold, don’t get startled.” Dr. Nightingale said.

A surprised gasp left my mouth despite her warning when the object touched my belly.

“It might take a few seconds for us to find it... oh, there it is.”

Both Charlie and I looked at the screen the second a noise started to come from the machine.

“What is that sound?” Charlie was awestruck.

“That would be your fiancée’s and your baby’s heartbeats.” The doctor said, looking at the screen.

“The...the heartbeat?” Charlie’s voice shook a little as he found my hand.

“Yes, Mr. Weasley.” The healer grinned. “Now do you see that spot over there? It looks like something's moving.”

“Mhm,” I mumbled, while Charlie stood up and got closer to the screen, squinting his eyes to see what she was pointing at.

“Mr. Weasley?” The doctor said after giving Charlie a moment.

“I...I think I see it.” Charlie couldn’t hide the disappointment in his voice, not sure what he was looking at. “What is it?”

“It’s your baby.”

“What...you...we can see our baby?” Charlie jumped in the air, his voice high-pitched.

“That’s what I was showing you.” The doctor giggled.

“That’s...that’s...Nova, that’s our baby!" Charlie’s breaths were getting quicker, his chest rising and falling fast as if he’s about to hyperventilate. “It’s so tiny!” He exclaimed.

“That’s our baby.” I pressed my lips together, trying to keep it together, my eyes already glistening with tears.

“Somebody’s excited to be a dad.” Dr. Nightingale winked at me with a smile on her face.

“Yes.” I breathed, looking back to the screen to see her, I mean it, one more time.

“Whenever you’re ready, Mr. Weasley.” The doctor said gently, chuckling at Charlie who was pacing excitedly up and down the room, stopping every time he passed the screen to look at it again.

He took a deep breath, sat down, grabbed my hand, and nodded to the healer.

“So, the fetus is about 6 centimeters big, meaning you are between 12 and 13 weeks. We can’t determine the exact date of conception but today is the 30th July which would mean it had to be around the first week of May.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right.” Charlie blurted out, the skin on his cheeks matching his hair.

“The heartbeat is strong and everything looks alright, but we will be able to determine more in the coming months.” The doctor took the object off my belly and wiped the gel off it. “I will give you a list of dates with your appointments and this is for you.”

She handed, what looked like a picture, to Charlie.

“Thank you.” I smiled at her and cleaned the gel off my stomach with the paper towels next to the chair.

I zipped my pants and pulled down my shirt.

“Along with the list, I am giving you some brochures you can read to better prepare yourself for the rest of this journey. You’ll be in the second trimester soon, meaning you will start to show and your breasts will grow. If you experience any discomfort it’s completely normal and if you have morning sickness it should stop in the next week or so. If you have any worries, don’t hesitate to stop by or send us an owl.”

I nodded, thanking her again, and stood up. I looked at Charlie and giggled – he was still staring at the picture the doctor gave us.

“Char. Come on, it’s time for us to go.” I nudged him gently with my elbow and pressed a kiss on the top of his head.

He got up slowly, not taking his eyes off the photo, and allowed me to lead him outside. I thanked the doctor again and closed the door behind us.

“Nova,” Charlie finally found his voice as we were sluggishly moving down the corridor due to him still staring at the picture, “this...we’ve made this.”

“I know, Char.” I chuckled. “It’s our baby!”

“It’s our baby.” He whispered more to himself than to me.

“Come on, you’re going to make me cry.” I sniffed. “I have to meet Bill and you can stare at our child at my mum’s.”

“I...I’m sorry I’m so emotional, it’s just...it’s...”

“Beautiful?” I finished his stuttered sentence.

“Yes!”

“Don’t apologize. I was hardly keeping it together in there and I can’t wait for us to come home so I can lay down on the sofa and look at that picture until we get a new one.” I pulled him into a hug.

“Oh, can I please join you when you’ll do that?” His eyes sparkled with hope.

“Of course. We’ll cry together, I promise.”

He let out a long sigh and kissed me so hard that I stumbled backward a little.

“I love you so much!” The breath with which he said the words brushed my lips that curved into the biggest smile.

“I love you too, Charles.”

—

“Nova, I love you very much, but why am I here with you and not Charlie?” Bill asked with a raised eyebrow as we were walking down the street away from the house I used to call my home.

“Well, even though I am with Charlie, you have been closer to my dad than he was, you spending a summer with him in Egypt.” I smiled softly at him. “And I have something to tell the both of you and Charlie doesn’t mind if he’s not the one to tell you and I have...I have to ask you something.” I bit my lip nervously.

I have been putting this conversation off ever since Charlie and I started to talk about the wedding. I have no idea why I was so nervous and perhaps the cemetery wasn’t the best place to ask him something like this but since it would otherwise concern my dad, I decided to do it here.

“Okay, so two things.” Bill rubbed his chin, making a mental note of it.

“Did Charlie ever come here with you?” He asked gently, as we stopped in front of my dad’s grave.

“The last time he did was when we got engaged. He wanted to be the one to tell him. And when he first knew that he was going to propose, he came here without telling me to ask my dad’s permission.” I gave out a silent chuckle, reminiscing on the moment when Charlie and I came here together and he thanked my dad for giving his blessing.

I remember staring at him as if he has gone mental not knowing what was going on and I burst into tears when he told me. I know it might sound weird, but it meant a lot to me that he still considered him to be a part of my family, despite him being gone and passing away before he ever got the chance to see us be together.

“Hi, dad.” I sat on the ground next to his tombstone, wrapping my arms around my knees. “I brought Bill with me today.” I sniffed.

It didn’t matter how much time has passed, talking to him like this has always been hard and always made me cry. Ever since moving to Romania, I don’t have the chance to come and visit him often – mum and I usually do it together when I come to visit her – or I go alone when something big happens.

“I have to tell you both something – I have to tell you two things actually and both concern you and Bill.” I looked from the tombstone to Bill, whose jaw was shaking.

He carefully stepped toward me and sat next to me on the ground, pulling me in a half hug. He has never come here with me before so I understood that the way I talked to my dad startled him a bit.

“I miss you, dad, so much. So many things are happening to me, good things, and you won’t be around for any of them.” I buried my head in Bill’s shoulder. “Charlie and I told you that we don’t want a big wedding. You out of all people would be glad we decided on that.” I giggled. My dad was never big on social events.

“We are keeping it simple. I still don’t know who my maid of honor will be. Bill will be Charlie’s best man, of course.”

“Of course.” Bill sniffed, pressing me harder against him.

“We’ll have a simple ceremony, only our closest family and our friends from Egypt. Mum was joking and said that I should invite your relatives from America. Can you imagine?” I laughed. “You would protest so much at that!”

“You know that I don’t care about the whole thing that much, I just want to be married to Charlie but there is one thing that,” my voice broke and Bill started stroking my hair to calm me down, “that I wanted to be according to tradition and I can’t because you’re not with us anymore.” I sobbed, letting go of the tears completely.

“I...I know I can’t have you give me away. Maybe it’s for the best because we would both be a crying mess by the time we would finish walking down the aisle.” I giggled between my sniffs. “So I brought Bill here with me because I was hoping that you would allow him to take your place instead.”

“What?” Bill breathed and pushed me away.

“Will you, Bill? Will you give me away? I know that you’re Charlie’s best man and I did consider your dad but in the end, there is no one else I would rather walk down that aisle with and I don’t want to do it alone and...”

“You said to your dad that you would both be a crying mess and what do you think we’ll be?” His shaking jaw finally gave in and tears started running down his face.

“Is that a yes?” I asked with hope in my voice.

“Of course, it’s a yes but I don’t feel worthy of the honor. Nova, are you sure?”

I just nodded, too overwhelmed to find the words to reply. We sat there, embraced, both crying for what seemed like 15 minutes.

“Is that why you brought me here?” Bill’s voice barely audible.

“Was it inappropriate?” I pulled a bit away from him.

“No. I think it was perfect. Now come back here.” He pressed me back onto his body, ruffling my hair.

“You said that there are two things.” He whispered after a moment of silence.

“Yes.” I bit my lip and lifted my head away from his shoulder, my eyes on the tombstone again.

I needed a moment to compose myself, knowing full well that what I am about to tell them both will bring the tears back. It was enough that my dad didn’t see me start my life with Charlie, or me getting a job, or me graduating and getting engaged. Not having him at my wedding is going to be hard and was a part of why I didn’t want to make a big celebration out of it. I wanted it small and intimate as I knew my dad would want it and it suited me and Charlie better.

“Mum already knows about this, so don’t be mad that I didn’t tell you first.” I chuckled. “I know that the last time I was here I told you that we don’t have any big plans after the wedding but something changed that.”

Bill pulled away from me a little, tilting his head and listening attentively to what I am about to say.

“We didn’t exactly plan this but it happened and we are so grateful that it did and if we got the chance to do it again we wouldn’t hesitate to forget the second time around.” The biggest smile painted my face, my eyes switching from the tombstone to Bill.

“Nova...” Bill didn’t know whether he should smile or start crying again. “Are you...”

He was too overwhelmed to finish the sentence as I nodded.

“I’m pregnant.” The tears, I so desperately tried to hold in, escaped my eyes.

“Merlin’s beard, how many times are you going to make me cry today?” Bill wrapped his arms around me again and started crying into my shoulder. “I’m going to be an uncle!”

“Yes!” I exclaimed.

“How do you always manage to get me so emotional?” He shook his head, squeezing me tighter.

“I have my ways.” I giggled.

“How far along are you?”

“We were at the doctor’s today and she confirmed our suspicion that it happened in May, so about 12 weeks.”

“Suspicion?” Bill pulled away, raising an eyebrow, us sitting normally again.

“We forgot the protection spell on our anniversary.” I bit the inner side of my cheek.

“How does Charlie feel about this?” Bill asked.

“You’ll see when we get to the house. Let’s just say that you should be prepared to cry again.” I chuckled and brushed the dry tears off my cheeks.

“Yeah, he was always big on family. I can imagine he is over the roof about it.” Bill rubbed his nose with the back of his hand.

“He’s going to be a great dad.” The memory of us jumping around our living room when we saw that the test was positive, rolled in front of my eyes.

“And how are you?” Bill nudged me with his shoulder.

“I panicked at first. Mostly because I didn’t know how Charlie would feel about it but I couldn’t be happier.” I couldn’t stop the grin from spreading all over my face.

“You both secretly wanted this even though you said you wanted to wait a few more years.” He winked at me.

“We feel ready.” I nodded.

“I presume you told our family?” I nodded again. “How did mum take it?”

“She...she came around. Charlie will probably tell you all about it.” I sighed.

“Yeah, I thought it didn’t go smoothly. Nothing ever does with her.” Bill rolled his eyes.

“All your siblings and your dad made a bet though.” I laughed.

“Yeah? What about?”

“The baby’s gender. Fred and George started it.” I giggled.

“Of course, they did!” Bill joined me.

“3 Galleons,” I added.

“I want in!” Bill exclaimed. “What did Ginny bet on? She always wins the bets.”

“Ginny, your dad and Fred think it’s going to be a girl.”

“And what do you think? You seem to always be right about stuff like this too.” Bill teased.

“I...I keep calling it she.” I smiled shyly, looking down at my belly.

“Then I bet it’s a girl too.”

“What do you think my dad would say?” I turned my head to the tombstone again.

“I think he would be more than happy and proud of you.” Bill smiled. “And he would definitely bet on anything opposite of what your mum would say.”

I laughed wholeheartedly.

“You’re right. They did love to bet on things.” I felt tears gathering in my eyes again. “You’re going to be a grandpa, dad. Would you call your grandchild Pumpkin, as you did me?” I rubbed my eyes, feeling Bill’s hand making gentle circles on my back.

“I think he would have all sorts of cute nicknames for them.” I turned to Bill, his gaze on the grave.

“He loved to give nicknames.” I chuckled.

“Did I ever tell you that he called me a rising star?” Bill questioned.

“No, but Robert said that my dad wrote that you are a rising star in the Curse-Breaker community when he sent you the letter, do you remember?”

“I do. I still have that letter.” Bill lifted his chin proudly. “He was the best mentor I will ever get to have.”

“He was the best dad, too,” I whispered.

We sat there, me listening to Bill talk about the summer he spent with my dad for another 2 hours. I heard all the stories more than once, but I still loved listening to them and I couldn’t wait for mine and Charlie’s child to be big enough to listen to their uncle Bill telling them stories about their grandpa.

#harry potter hogwarts mystery #harry potter fanfiction #hphm charlie #charlie weasley #charlie weasley fanfiction #hogwarts mystery mc #the weasleys #hphm fanfiction #hp imagine #charlie weasley x oc #hphm imagine #charlie weasley imagine #harry potter imagine #weasley fanfiction #the burrow

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wiypt-writes · 3 years

Text

Stark Spangled Destiny

Ch 3- Fuck You, Mr Stark.

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

hapter Warnings: Bad Language words.

Chapter Pairings: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

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

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Stark Spangled Destiny Masterlist // Main Masterlist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Oh.” Tony replied.

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

“The what?” Katie asked.

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

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

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

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

“Banner?” Katie frowned. “Who’s that?”

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

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

“What do you mean?” Katie asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I won’t.” Tony said simply.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Can I have your attention?” Stern asked.

“Absolutely.”

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

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

This was going to be fun.

“You do not?” Stern looked at her.

“We do not.” She repeated.

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

“The Iron Man weapon.”

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

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

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

“As?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You can’t have it.” Katie shrugged.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tony arched an eyebrow a Hammer continued.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What?”

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

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

“Look, it’s me, I’m here. Deal with it. Let’s move on.”

“I just…”

“Drop it.” Rhodey instructed as they walked towards the bench.

“All right, I’ll drop it.” Tony conceded.

Rhodey made his way behind Katie, squeezing her shoulder and she smiled at him

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

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

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

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

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

“Yes, sir.”

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

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

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

“So if you could just read…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“ …to fold Mr Stark…”

“That’s enough”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What is he doing?” Stern asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“For what?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tony grinned, before he sighed, looping an arm round he shoulder. “It was fun, huh?”

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

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

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

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

“Good times.” “Yeah, not so bad. Until we brought it all crashing down.” Katie sighed, peering up at the place she had once-upon-a-time worked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Useful.” Natasha mused and Coulson nodded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“He’s not my type.

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

Natasha shrugged “Either.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What the…” Her mouth dropped open, looking at Fury as he stood up. “Natalie…what…” And then it dawned on her and she let out a groan. “You’re one of them? You’re SHIELD?” “Miss Stark, allow me to introduce Agent Natasha Romanoff. One of the two I was telling you about.”

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

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

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

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

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

“Yeah, yeah, you had bigger problems in the Southwest, I remember.” Tony examined the cuff of his sleeve. “Namely Point Break.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“She’s right. It’s not.”

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

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

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

“What?” Tony sat up straight.

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

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

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

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

“I think I got it, yeah.”

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

“Good”

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

Katie let out a sigh and sank into a chair, running her hands over her tired eyes.

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

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

“Without that you would have died.” Katie stated simply.

“I did.”

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

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

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

Katie looked down at her feet and swallowed.

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

****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Natasha shrugged.

“I always thought it was because of what I did in New Mexico that I got offered a position but it was you all along!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Read on.” Fury replied.

“ ‘Tony Stark not… not recommended”? That doesn’t make any sense.” He dropped the file to the desk. “How can you approve me but not approve me?” Katie’s eyes tracked Fury as he got up out of his chair with a heavy sigh as Tony continued. “I got a new ticker. I’m trying to do right by Pepper. I’m in a stable-ish relationship.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Consulting on what?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Imagine what that would mean for man-kind going forward.

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

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

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

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

Natasha nodded.

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

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

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

**Original Posting**

#stark spangled destiny #steve rogers #Katie Stark #steve rogers fic #steve rogers x ofc #steve rogers x original female character #steve rogers fanfiction #mcu #mcu fanfic #chris evans #chris evans characters

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wcamino-confessions · 3 years

Text

Time for chatty Ori 2.0 lmao, this time about the ""scamming"" situation.

I am hardly an acquaintance of Jasmine, we've talked once or twice in a group chat, so I have no personal reason to defend her, but I am going to defend her anyways, because I 100% think Wildpine is in the wrong after carefully reading those screenshots, the notes and also hearing a few things from Jasmine (a few days back). If I get anything wrong, let me know.

Firstly, there was no reason for that ask to be posted. If someone is actually scamming, for goodness sake you shouldn't have to have an entire argument and tumblr ask about why they're scamming to prove your point. I understand a beware, but that was a mess of screenshots with almost zero context in the ask itself. It also makes Jasmine out to be a scammer when lots of evidence points to the contrary. Let me analyze why I think Jasmine didn't really do anything wrong (and didn't "harass" Wildpine either, I can't believe they said that).

Point 1: Wild was going to spend their money BEFORE paying Jasmine.

Jasmine mentioned a few days back in a group chat I was in that Wild owed her 3k points for an OC, however Wild was not paying her even though they had points. I didn't get into it as I didn't know much, but then I saw Wild ordering a commission from Father. Jasmine politely asked them to avoid ordering any more commissions before they paid her the money they owed, and I also put in a "Hey! Father's commissions will open again, you should probably pay that person back first and wait until next time." They snapped at me with something and I think I replied back (idr though) and they said something else to me and that was that (can't recall the whole convo as it was deleted).

Point 2: Wild was pestering and name-calling Jasmine, Jasmine wasn't harassing them.

Wild, through the argument on Jasmine's wall (as shown in Snikaroo's screenshots), falsely claimed she was "ignoring [Wild]", called them a "scammer" and acted extremely passive-aggressive the entire time. I can see no such show of behaviour from Jasmine in those screenshots, except for one sarcastic response to being called a scammer (and to be honest, I'd be fed up too).

Point 3: Jasmine TRIED to call the deal off, it was Wild whom wasn't complying and tried to get them to transfer a character anyways.

Wild was being very difficult, I absolutely do not blame Jasmine for calling off a deal with someone who was avoiding paying her points and telling her she overcharged for a character (a price I am assuming Wild literally had to have known about and agreed to or else the deal wouldn't be happening). Not only that, Wild demanded Jasmine transfer a character even after she told Wild she wanted to cancel the deal. If I were Jasmine, I would have called off the deal a lot sooner. In my mind she was actually being very patient with Wild despite their immature and unkind, and flat out petty behaviour.

Okay, that's my take. If I somehow missed context or recalled the story incorrectly, or Jasmine has done something else I should be aware of, let me know!

TL;DR: Wildpine was acting very badly in this situation. Jasmine is not a scammer nor did she harass Wild. Wild name-called and guilt-tripped Jasmine, and somehow Snikaroo was convinced Jasmine was in the wrong and posted an ask about it on WAC. Jasmine should not be blacklisted by anyone who saw Snikaroo's ask or be labelled as a scammer.

#submission

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datastate · 3 years

Note

If you're up to it, I'd really like to know more about your ocs (especially the clones)! What are their personalities like? How did one of them get that scar on their forehead? Why was another one holding that lightsaber? Do their tattoos have a meaning?

TYSM FOR ASKING ME THIS !!! sorry it took a while to get to it! whenever i’m asked abt my ocs my brain kinda blanks lmaooo, also sorry in advance if some of this doesn’t make sense, i keep forgetting what context is needed sometimes.

(this is my art w the appearances)

the one with the scar above their right eye is void! they are the clone commander of the 406th. they’re generally a really collected person, which can come off as uncaring a lot of the time, esp because they don’t often try to emote. their scar is actually the reason they went through a point where they felt really isolated from their other vode - the tl;dr was that they were attacked while trying to confront one of the... nastier trainers, who was about to out sky as being force-sensitive as a way to bargain themself away from the planet. they also have a large scar on their lower stomach because of it. in battle, it’s often sky who has to take lead because, despite their treatment, they can’t strain themself too much without worsening their injury. (their closest vod is flicker; who carried them through this and reassured them they’d be safe from the kaminoans threat of decommissioning. void... didn’t like letting themself be comfortable around her, but they still ended up finding solace in her, which remains through the war.)

void was. a really awful person in the beginning of the war, they took their siblings’ lives as objectively as the kaminoans did because they felt like they had to prove their efficiency to make up for their physical limitations - which the kaminoans were still keeping track of to see if they needed to be replaced. they did care for their siblings, but they felt like they needed to fulfill their duty first and foremost, which was especially easy to prioritize when they hardly had a connection to their vode anyway. it only took about a month before they realized, wait, shit i don’t want to be this way, i don’t want to make my vode uncomfortable and i don’t... want to see them die and have to mourn each other just for the sake of some republic victory. it was from there that they began forcing themself to associate more with the other commanding officers on a personal level, who quickly realized their change and began to slowly leading them into being closer to at least a few - specifically sky and dawn - before actually fixing their interpretation with the battalion. there’s a lot of character growth, and they no longer want to come off as someone who doesn’t care abt their vode, because their main realization is that they care more for their vode than they do for themself, which is another thing they end up finding balance in later on in the war with the support of people who genuinely want to see them heal and be better. just. fambly.

the clone with shaved sides + hair tied back is dawn! she uses she/her and he/him, often alternating. despite eventually becoming one of void’s closest vode, he started out only really being involved with them through the commanding officers and their general, otherwise often preferring the company of other, more light-hearted people instead of void’s stiff and more serious demeanor. she’s a fairly “open” person, in the way that you hear him talk a lot of shit or be fairly social, but she won’t really reveal much of herself other than the person she’s projected for other people to see and make fun of as they please. she’s more comfortable hearing people tease her when he knows it’s not really him that they’re going after, but the comfortable persona that she’s crafted, you know? obviously she has depth, it’d be stupid to think otherwise, but he’s still going to keep that simple, 2d reflection of her most basic traits, because it will ease the tension in some ways to revert to that image.

she... has a rough time during the war, which is unfortunately what ends up bringing her even closer to void other than ‘oh shit you’re having a rough time. i’m going to affectionately annoy you and lead you out of this.’ (which also ended up leading into them returning that interest in how she was really doing, which was. hard to get into because, despite both having traumatizing moments on kamino, dawn’s is a lot more. Personal. but they do learn to trust each other with this.) and then just dawn getting involved with xiriel (the jedi general, who’s polyam and also married to vynara (the twi’lek in the post)) which also means talking with the commander a bit more. Anyway, the rough time during the war comes with sky leaving them to train under vynara, marked as dead by void themself. in her place, dawn becomes a captain. it’s... a Lot.

sky is the one with the lightsaber! even tho she’s nonbinary, she uses she/her. she was the captain of the 406th for the first few years of the war, someone that was level-headed and generally ‘realistic’, but managed to make you believe things would turn out alright. it’s her who really gathered the 406th and gave them reason to be confident, especially important when void sort of. retracts :/ from them (whether it be bc they’re overwhelmed or, like the early parts of the war, they just don’t feel like they are allowed to speak with the people they once betrayed); she’s someone that a lot of the battalion feels that they can trust, and the one you’d probably go to if you knew you needed to hear objective truth. she will present her advice as it is, and then reassure you / soften it from there depending on your state - she also will know when to just listen and just offer comfort if you ask her to do so. really, just be clear with her and she’ll be clear with you. she hates concealing things, which really pains her when her force-sensitivity becomes more obvious around the jedi. she knows she shouldn’t, but she begins trying to copy some of what they do to try to strengthen her own moves. she wants to be able to use this force stuff for something, and ultimately just wants to help her vode out.

this is why it’s so easy for vynara to offer to train her once xe realizes that she is force-sensitive. xe essentially told her that it would be too dangerous to train while in xiriel’s vicinity because of his loyalty to the jedi council, and xe swore xe wouldn’t tell the kaminoans abt her and possibly put her in danger - she just needed to temporarily get away from the war so vynara could properly train her without needing to hide her, xe would bring her back after she already knew how to protect herself and those around her and then talk to xiriel abt keeping his mouth shut from the council. the lightsaber that sky was given is vynara’s old master’s one, someone who died before the clone wars even began. vynara promised her xe would bring her to find her own kyber crystal after the war was done (xe isn’t any sort of general or anything, just someone who occasionally helps out the 406th bc of xyr husband.) unfortunate that xe was stolen just before order 66, essentially leaving sky on her own with unstable contact with her vode that she had to craft herself, and without any master to rely on. she only had her training, and a single message abt her location before shit hit the fan... she’s eventually reunited with a few of her vode, but she has to figure out how to neutralize the chip in all of those she finds with only 37 (a clone medic) as her help, whose chip was damaged and couldn’t be activated.

sky’s tattoo under her left eye used to have a stable meaning but tbh i’ve forgotten most of its story ahbvsmdg something like a single symbol for one of her old batchmates’ names, affectionately given by one of the mandos they trained under, something abt their determined state of mind. they,,, were one of the first people she lost.

the twi’lek is vynara! xe only uses xe/xyr/xem. xe’s polyam, but more attached to xiriel (the jedi general of the 406th) than xe is with any other partners, though xe’s still going to show xyr kindness and affection to people like dawn who earn xiriel’s love. xe was already on shaky grounds with the jedi council, but almost completely left the order once they sided with the republic and the war began - it was only with xiriel’s plea that xe stayed and occasionally helped with the war, and from there got attached to the clones themselves. xe was one of the more outspoken ones on how they sided with the republic who did this and the jedi just abided, though xyr opinion was often disregarded from past conflicts that’s just eroded the weight they put in xyr words. some of their beginning conflicts with xiriel, before xiriel really gets attached to the clones (esp dawn), was just that the council still had faith in him, but he wasn’t saying or doing anything! it was only after he started standing up and trying to ease their treatment between battles and guarantee them a life of peace once the war was done with, that the clones were actually like dang he’s actually trying and began Kind Of opening up to him. void was one of the first who dropped formalities, which is weird considering How They Are, usually prioritizing that - from there, there was some comfort and eventually appreciation for the thought they found. congrats, xiriel, ur a decent person ! gd.

anyway, like i said earlier, vynara doesn’t take the war as xyr fight, though xe will step in in the more stressful battles bc xe still doesn’t want the clones to suffer more than need be. but.. xe has a family of xyr own to care for. xyr nephew, fierjin, just a few years younger than xem, is the only one who can really watch over their family while xe’s off fighting in tcw. xe saw some rascal twins ayrin and antaki when they were younger, and since then ended up taking care of these two. xe’s also taken temporary custody of ash, as his parents, vynara’s friends, ended up getting wrapped up in shit they couldn’t easily pay off or escape, so they had to go to another planet for proper work until they knew they were safe enough to return - they still occasionally message / call ash, but ultimately it’s vynara who had taken care of him for years. these last three are in their late teens/early twenties, so it’s fine to leave them at home, esp when fierjin’s there, but vynara still feels uncomfortable leaving them - it was bad enough for xem when xyr older sibling (abt 10 years) was killed, and xe hardly knew them because xe was raised alongside the jedi. xe couldn’t imagine what xyr death would do to xyr family, and didn’t want to leave them with that. so xe’s careful.

it stresses ash the fuck out when vynara brings sky home to train. people on their home planet r already getting antsy enough with careless jedi (tho ofc vynara isn’t often openly a jedi while on this planet; xe’s just chilling) And it doesn’t help that, while working with transports, there’s a lot of stress on watching out for rogue clones. he’s wary, but eventually he and sky become close. human solidarity. they help each other out when vynara’s captured, which really does mean a lot to ash bc, altho he has fierjin, it’s. weird talking w someone older abt your grief sometimes. antaki and ayrin have each other, they always have, but ash only recently got sky and. idk. yeah. they’re good

the human mirialan is selinn! he/they/it genderfluid. love that dude. he’s xiriel’s padawan, and vynara’s essentially his other parent tbh. it was raised thinking that violence should be the last resort, but bc of the war... it is the first one who accepts that it’s not the best at fighting for that reason, and openly asks the clones if they could teach it how to use a blaster just in case. they also end up showing void and sky how to use their lightsaber in turn, how to be careful abt not cutting your own limbs off when you don’t have the force and all that, as well as the stances possible with his lightsaber. despite being a real quick learner and often finding it easy to adapt to things, he understands that it’s not always the case and is patient when void esp is having trouble with the lightsaber. obviously void tries to keep up that professional attitude or whatever, and they do look unfazed for the most part, but they still have small tells that they’re anxious with it. unlike sky and selinn, they’re. not force-sensitive, and it’s difficult for them to have a weapon that’s not entirely. ‘physical’? in a way, y’know. the light part of the lightsaber is a bit scary when you aren’t comfortable with using it, as is the same with all possibly-harmful tools. but he helps them out, and later on it does help them both out that void learns how to use it. Plot Points <3 one of these days i’ll write a timeline out lmaooo

anyway, back to selinn himself ! they’re a really social person and have an easier time connecting with the clones than xiriel (or vynara tbh) does, he has a closer bond with them bc he does fight alongside them, often by sky or void’s side leading and protecting them. outside of battle, he’s a really curious person, but bc of his consciousness over social situations, he realizes when his questions are making people uncomfortable and quickly try to move on / apologize, depending on what feels right. it’s easier for it to gather information from others, than tell others abt himself and its thoughts. he’s kind of a hoarder of information, and often makes stuff up on the spot, which makes small convos easier, but deep conversations difficult to go through with, especially near the beginning before he’s completely comfortable with himself. he does learn tho, as he grows, and he does form close bonds w the clones too. eventually, later in the war, to the point where he trusts them more than he does vynara (esp after what xe did to void), or.. even xiriel. which. augh. and they’re only given the chance to repair these relations after their parents almost die - xiriel was alone with a small group with dawn, someone selinn knew he would let his guard down around when order 66 went off, vynara was kidnapped before this. he was with the majority of the battalion when the order was given, and escaped alone solely because they were on a dense planet. he was familiar with vynara’s home planet, and just hoped to see vynara there, somehow, but was instead met with sky and, they went on from there.

during the war tho, he grows to dislike the jedi and loathe the republic because of their treatment of the clones, but stress often draws out his. natural? inclination to mirror his master’s trust in the council and lean on them for more important decisions. he was raised to believe in the jedi and it’s difficult to break from that, esp when he feels like he’s betraying them and he doesn’t want to be treated as vynara was bc he often thinks of the jedi as his only home.

i don’t really know who the togruta is :] that’s just someone i made up on the spot. might use them for some side character tho!

thank u if you read all this!!! ik it’s a lot ahbvmsdg

#many thoughts.... head emptee #tysm again for this :] <33 #it's nice being given opportunities to talk abt my ocs... they r always on the mind #ask #timefire25 #cc void #ct dawn #ct sky #vynara lusi #selinn aineya #xiriel kunai #mentioned but yknow #long post #old ocs tag #sw ocs #clone ocs #force ocs

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shnowbilicat · 4 years

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How kids ruin the internet

(This could get kinda long soo yee :’3)

It didn’t get past me that Sonic93, the famous/infamous ranter who did videos with Amy-Chan calling out DA peepz, got themselves in a huge drama of their own. Little Fun Fact: I actually wtched all of those vids and even liked them alot back in the day. Back then they were interesting, entertaining and I even started to stalk out Jane’s, previously known as Akai, Ink Bunny page to see what she would be up to.

But I always had a weird feeling in the back of my mind; I mean, alot of the things Sonic93, Amy-Chan and many more on YouTube said about Jane were ... weird to me.

For example, the thing about Sonic being not in character is confusing to me. People pointed out he’s not acting like the Sonic from the games ... so? Neither is my Sonic, he never really did back then, nor does he now and that’s totally fine. Everybody has their own Universe, if they like it or not, some things are different, even if you ‘stay in the canon’.

Or the fact that her own Sonic OC, formerly called Akai Dalia, looked like Amy. Bruh ... do you need glasses? Want mine? Cuz I can see the similarities, Akai is a female hedgehog with a magenta fur and green eyes... aaand that’s it.

I’m not really going much more into this, since that’s not the point of this here post. What I AM focusing on is the aftermath about all that.

This is speculation, so don’t take these things as fact, but due to the rants on the following people, their lives changed very bad.

Jane changing her own character, left DA, before returning and having a huge warning that says that she won’t allow the name ‘Akai Dalia’ to be used on her.

Then there is Brandon, or YoshiWii1 for those who remember. After the rants he pretty much left the internet as a whole and had to deal with his mental health. Bruh, this dude can’t look at anything Sonic related anymore and that’s just sad.

Amy-Chan herself had to deal with Sonic93′s abusive relationship with her.

And Sonic93 has dug her own grave and refuses to think or learn about her mistakes. Her obsession for a fictional character is going to be her downfall, espacially if she lashes out on people because of her love for said character

Please make sure to look up any videos about this situation itself, since I’m horrible at sharing information :’3

In any case though, this really felt close to home actually. If anybody remembers my breakdown on DA about the Purple Man drama-situation-thingy.

tl;dr a very popular artist left the FNAF community because their version of the Purple Man got so popular and glorified that people started sending creepy and sexual messages towards their character,.

This though got even bigger and more horrible when people started to harrass other artists about their version of the PM. Mind you, alot of people really liked that version, which was a simple design considering that it hardly was any different than the sprites we see in the games, and started using it.

I was one of these artists. Now, I didn’t get harrassed exactly, though I wasn’t allowed to upload my own PM art to the biggest FNAF group on DA and got a couple of comments saying that Vincent ain’t canon or whatever. There was also that one time when someone grabbed a crossover AU thing, featuring Vincent as a skeleton from Undertale and putting it into a Reddit that’s all about making fun of ‘cringy’ stuff ... I can distinctly recall someone saying something along the lines of ‘ Why must failed abortions ruin the things I love?’ (I seriously looked up the post I made back then on DA and it’s still there, yay~, though now the Reddit seems to have called their tits and do some nice (???) stuff idk o3o)

At that time of all the PM stuff I was severly depressive, because of my own IRL reasons, so this ... this was heavy on me. Being scared to be called out, cancled for having a Purple Man,

I admit whole heartedly here; my Purple Man was based on that popular PM. I didn’t get around him afterall either, so inspiration was a requirement pretty much. I took the aspects of long, tied up purple hair and the name from that PM and of course alot of inspiration got to Vinnie’s Ghost design. But that’s it, after I made Vinc, I concentrated myself on my own FNAF AU, so I don’t even know what all happened in the fandom.

But I do see alot of people in fandoms going up to others and try to cancle them, say how much their wrong, without thinking or talking it out. Nobody, and I say NOBODY talked it out with me back in the day. The Admins of the DA group said to me that if I wanted my PM art on there, I had to change Vincent’s design. That’s it, no talking, no figuring out anything. It hurt that artist that people were creepy to this specific character and the rest, the innocents that are merely associated get to suffer for it.

Just back in June 2018 I got someone who argued with me about ‘Vincent’ being a nickname for William Afton, because they were very adamant that William is confirmed canon. I admit, I was really nervious talking to them and probably got really defensive too, but I tried to explain to them that I’m an old fan and about AUs being a thing, but no, no resolution sadly.

And all of these things come down to this: Kids are stupid.

I’m positive that most of these people were and are kids. Kids who didn’t and still don’t know any better. Kids who follow their favorite creator without question, who don’t want to be part of the problem so they side with spreading the drama, kids who don’t understand that having canon characters act or look different is OKAY, kids who don’t know about AUs, kids who weren’t there, back some years ago when the community and fandom started.

So ... all my ramblings aside, I think this is unacceptable. Not trying to be understanding, being adamant, agressive and refusing to open their mind is killing fandoms and is one of the reasons any kind of fandom is toxic af.

After everything that has happened to me over the course of 11+ years on the internet, I ended up being anxious of talking to people, literally getting my anxioety and depression triggered by Purple Man art or just mentions, not being able to look up any fandom stuff of fear getting beaten down and much more.

Just little things can break down a person, so please be mindful and talk to people you think are ‘toxic’ or get ranted on or you think they made a mistake.

I’m still working on my own anxiety towards ‘negative’ comments about my Purple Man, even if it’s really tough for me. But I really REALLY don’t want anybody to go through things I did, or the things Jane and Brandon went through, or anybody else who got cancled because of their passions.

And to make my points clear one last time;

Let people have their own Universes. Let people have their own Characters. Let people enjoy themselves. Have an open mind.

Be NICE in your fandoms!

#vic rambles

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today-only-happens-once · 5 years

Text

With Great Power - Chapter 8

Title: With Great Power - Chapter 8

Word Count: 3474

Fic Summary: Thomas Sanders is just a regular social media personality. But when he gets bit by a spider during filming one of his YouTube videos, his whole life is about to turn upside down—whether he (or the aspects of his personality) want it to or not. Platonic LAMP/CALM + Character!Thomas. Spider-Man AU.

Catch up or Read on AO3 here!

Chapter Warnings: arguing, science that isn’t real science, arguing, violence/robbery/hostages mention, a couple of OCs make an appearance this chapter, let me know if I forgot anything.

A/N: It’s been a minute on this fic. Sorry for the delay! Always a joy to work on this fic, but real life was pretty busy for a while there. Special thanks to @creativenostalgiastuff for helping me out so much with this chapter. The science of this chapter is based in the lab notebook page we get a glimpse of in Spider-Man: Homecoming for Web Fluid 3.0. I found a picture of it online and used that as my baseline for the science of their development of this formula. I am not a chemical engineer. If you are, I beg for suspension of disbelief. Also.... please let me know what ya think! We’re starting to get more and more into character stuff, and I’m always interested in knowing how it’s coming across. ^u^ Love you all.

Three days later, Thomas makes his way down the hallway of the third level of the engineering building of his old college.

It had been a little odd being on campus so long after graduation. So much had changed from when he’d thought he’d be a chemical engineer; he’d gotten famous on Vine. He’d started YouTube as a full-time gig. He hadn’t done any chemical engineering work since his first job out of college, and he’d only done that for a few years. Thomas remembered the late coffee-fueled nights of studying in the library, the stupid adventures with friends for donuts at midnight, the tears shared over failed tests and where their lives would be going …

So much had changed for Thomas in the years since his graduation. The campus, however, seemed to be exactly the same except for a few updates to the old brick buildings he’d spent four years walking past.

Thomas approaches the lab down the hall and can hear music floating from under the wooden door. He’d sent the email to his old engineering professor, Dr. Washington, the same night that the Sides had given him the idea for the suit and webshooters. She’d responded the next morning, telling Thomas that she’d be doing research work with her lab assistant most of Wednesday and to drop by whenever he was free. Thomas spent most of the day in-between working with Logan to come up with some ideas for the formula, however incomplete it clearly was. At least he would have notes to give Dr. Washington as a starting place.

As Thomas raps a knuckle against the door, he can make out the suddenly familiar song. “And they’re gonna see what stop the presses really means! And the old will weep and go back to sleep—”

Thomas opens the door, smiling. “You’re listening to Newsies, Dr. Washington?”

The lab is relatively spacious; black tables are filled with various vials, beakers, and equipment that takes Thomas back to his own lab assistant days. The tiled linoleum floor reflects the fluorescent lights above. On the other side of the room, Thomas sees Dr. Washington—in a lab coat and goggles—look up at the sounds of his entry. Beside her is a man with blonde hair and glasses with something like a laser pointer attached, who looks a few years younger than Thomas, seated in an electric wheelchair.

She grins, sliding the goggles up over her cropped hair. “I told Andrew he could choose the music today.” She nods to the man beside her. “As long as it wasn’t Les Mis.”

Thomas laughs at the affronted look on Andrew’s face. He looks at a board attached to his wheelchair, and Dr. Washington leans over, reading. “I S-T-- still don’t know what you H-A-- have against L-E-S Les Mis.” She quirks an eyebrow at him. “Nothing, the first eighteen times we listened to it.”

Thomas smiles. “Only eighteen? Then you’re fine. When you get into like, the thirties is when you maybe consider listening to a different musical.”

Dr. Washington points a finger at him. “Don’t encourage him, Thomas. Having one thespian in my midst is enough. I feel outnumbered now.” Andrew looks at the board again and she leans over to read. “I like him. He G-E-- gets it.” Dr. Washington rolls her eyes. “Of course you do.”

Andrew and Thomas grin at each other.

Dr. Washington screws the lid onto a petri dish and scribbles something on it. She sets it aside. “I can’t win.” She pulls her gloves off and tosses them into the wastebasket underneath the lab table. “So what brings you in, Thomas? Your email was pretty vague.”

“Right. Well…” The internet personality swings his backpack around from his shoulder and unzips it, digging through it for his notebook. “I have a question about a hypothetical formula.”

“H-Y-P-- hypothetical?”

Thomas pulls the notebook out, flipping through it for the pages he’d been working on with Logan. “I—yeah. I was wondering if I combined salicylic acid, methanol, carbon tetrachloride, touline, H-heptane…” Thomas trails off as he flips through the pages before finding the one with the partial formula he’d been working on, stepping up to the other side of the lab table and setting the notebook open in front of them.

It’s a long moment as Thomas watches both them glance over his notes. Andrew furrows his brows in thought as Dr. Washington flips the single page back and forth. She looks up at Thomas.

Thomas jumps in before she can say anything. “It’s incomplete. I know it is. I’m just not sure what’s missing.”

“Well,” she says, tilting her head slightly as her dark eyes flit over the page, “that depends on what you’re trying to get this substance to do.”

Thomas rubs the back of his neck as he walks around the table to stand on the other side of Andrew. “I was wondering if it’s possible to create a flexible but strong adhesive… thing.”

Andrew’s looking at him with curiosity. Thomas glances down as Andrew uses the communication board, reading his question aloud. “Like a G-L-- glue?” Thomas sighs. “Not exactly. I… was hoping for something a lot stronger and more flexible than glue.”

Dr. Washington hums, tapping a pencil to her mouth. Her brows are furrowed in thought. “I may have an idea. But you’d need to add carbon tetrachloride and ethyl acetate to the list you’ve got here.”

Thomas nods, scribbling that under the list of other chemicals, not picking up his pencil as Andrew adds on.

“S-O-D-I-- sodium T-E-T-R-A-B-- tetraborate could work as an A-C-T-I-V-activator.”

Dr. Washington and Andrew spend the next ten minutes bouncing ideas off each other. Thomas scribbles down as many notes as he can. Dr. Washington starts bustling around the lab, grabbing chemicals and starting equipment up as she goes. Thomas studies the new list and equations they’ve developed, and he can feel Logan’s presence at the forefront of his mind like a comforting weight.

Add CC14, K3Co5 and C7H6O3 after you’ve boiled it, Logan tells him suddenly. It’ll help the consistency prior to adding the sodium tetraborate.

Thomas jots that down.

The three of them make themselves busy. Thomas grabs a lab coat and pair of safety goggles from the cabinet near the door. Dr. Washington hands Andrew an iPad, and he pulls up a software that Thomas isn’t familiar with and inputs a series of chemical equations. Dr. Washington swirls a clear liquid in a flask as she crosses the lab.

The hours pass by in a flurry of scientific trial and error. Andrew runs simulations on the iPad before they adjust the formula each time fails—something that Thomas is especially grateful for when the simulation for one particular change involves a small explosion. It hardly absolves them of error, every slight change resulting in something different. In some ways, it serves to remind Thomas one thing he loved about chemistry: it had always been precise and measured. One small change could lead to a very different reaction.

Even when Thomas can feel his frustration rising, Dr. Washington and Andrew make him laugh. Andrew’s nerdiness rivals Thomas’s own, and Dr. Washington’s sarcasm seems to have continued in the years since Thomas had her for class. While they waited for the current fluid to boil, he and Andrew swapped opinions about Kingdom Hearts 3 and Marvel (with a healthy debate about Captain America’s arc in Endgame) and musicals.

“It’s a shame that Dr. Washington is a musical hater,” Thomas teases, being sure to speak loud enough that it was obvious he wanted the professor in question to hear.

Andrew shakes his head, tapping a few things on the iPad in his lap. Through the speakers in the lab, Thomas hears a familiar song that’s a quick change from the music of The Prom that they’d been listening to a moment ago. It’s Hairspray. Specifically, “Run and Tell That”.

Dr. Washington’s eyes flicker up across the room to the two of them. “Andrew, I will forever regret telling you that.”

Thomas raises his eyebrows. “Tell you what?” Andrew has an amused glint in his eyes as he meets Thomas’s gaze, then looks to his board. Thomas leans over. “She told me she was M-A-Y-- Maybelle in a C-O-M-M-- community theatre P-R-- production.” Thomas looks at his old professor. “Wait… really?”

Dr. Washington shoots a mock glare at Andrew. “Traitor.”

Andrew laughs before Thomas reads his reply aloud. “If any of us are a T-- traitor, it’s you. You hate L-E-S Les Mis.”

Dr. Washington pulls the pencil out from behind her ear and points it at him. “Of all the musicals we can agree on, Andrew, you’re going to get hung up on one that I just happen to think is overrated?” Andrew shakes his head sadly. Dr. Washington snorts.

“That’s amazing,” Thomas replies. “I never knew you did theatre.”

Dr. Washington opens her mouth to reply, but sharp ding cuts off her response. The timer signals the need to add the activator and start the de-gassing process. It’s a sudden, sharp reminder of what he’s here to do.

…

Thomas blows out a breath as he spins the office chair in a lazy circle. It’s nearly 7 in the evening, and Dr. Washington had gone with Andrew to pick up some dinner for the three of them. Thomas had offered to stay behind and watch their current attempt slowly heat in the flask. The internet personality had written in his notebook that this was trial fifteen.

The empty lab is suddenly quiet, too. Andrew had given Thomas the iPad to play music, but he hadn’t selected anything. Instead, Thomas listens to the quiet gurgling of the fluid in the flask on the table in front of him, the whirring of the AC unit, and a distant, muffled voice of a professor giving a lecture in a nearby room. Not for the first time today, it takes Thomas back to his own time as a student and lab assistant. It felt like such a long time ago.

He’d always been interested in the environment and helping the world on such a big scale. Throughout high school, Thomas used to read articles about scientists engineering new biotechnology that could help slow deforestation, or developing alternative substances to harmful pesticides, or creating more environmentally-friendly methods of gas consumption. He’d always found it interesting, and though he was generally a pretty average student, he’d done well in chemistry.

He remembers talking to his Aunt Patty before he chose a major, during his senior year of high school. She was an elementary school librarian, and she’d been doing that for as long as Thomas could remember. When he asked her how she knew what she wanted to do, she told him to find where his passion intersected with his ability and to pursue it.

But it hadn’t always been that simple, either. Thomas was as passionate about performing as he was about the environment at the time. There was greater job security in an engineering job than trying to make it as an actor, so Thomas had chosen chemical engineering and decided that he could keep performing as a hobby. It had seemed like the most practical solution at the time.

But then he was introduced to Vine, and what started as goofing around on a social media app quickly turned his life around. In a few years, Thomas decided to make performing and social media his full-time job once he realized he could actually make a living out of it. It had fixed the practicality issue, and his fans were so incredibly kind. He realized that, maybe, he could make a positive difference in the world this way, too.

Thomas sighs, standing up to stretch.

Making a positive difference in the world was really his biggest hope with anything he did. It was true when he was a chemical engineer, and it was true now.

Now.

The thought stops Thomas short suddenly. The video he’d watched the other day flickers through his mind again. The card. The entire reason he was here in the first place was to help others, right? But he thinks again about the video—the footage, the threat—and feels something uneasy settle in his stomach.

“We’re in way over our head, Thomas.”

Thomas jumps slightly. “What?” He’d been so lost in his roaming thoughts that he hadn’t even noticed that Virgil had risen up by one of the tables to Thomas’s left, in his familiar hoodie and a black shirt underneath. “What do you mean?”

Virgil shoves his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, scowling. “I mean this isn’t our fight. Not really.”

Thomas blinks, taken aback. “I—”

“Look, Ekko made a threatening video but there are people in place to protect everyone. Police. Military, if it comes to that.” Virgil shakes his head, looking away from Thomas. “You just got these powers a few weeks ago. You can’t even control your sticking ability. And you really think you can just… take on this kind of fight?”

Thomas holds up a hand, his brow furrowing. “Virge… where is this coming from?”

“Common sense,” Virgil snaps. “Apparently, I’m the only one who has any of it.”

Thomas opens his mouth, then closes it. He doesn’t know what to say. Maybe Virgil has a point. They don’t even really know what Ekko is capable of, or where to find her, or what she’s planning. Meanwhile, Thomas can’t even fully control his own abilities. He’d been getting better, sure, but it wasn’t enough. Not yet. Maybe not in time.

And there were people in place to help protect others. Thomas was just one guy.

He’s pulled out of his thoughts at the sound of another one of his Sides rising up. Patton appears on the other side of the table, his arms crossed over his chest and a vaguely disapproving look in his eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, Thomas thinks he sees Virgil roll his eyes.

“Kiddo,” Patton says to Virgil carefully, even as he casts a quick glance at Thomas, “you’re coming across kinda harsh there.”

“But I’m right,” Virgil replies insistently. He huffs a frustrated sigh. “Listen, all Thomas is doing is putting himself in harm’s way when he doesn’t even need to. Why not leave this up to the authorities?”

Patton’s expression softens slightly. “Because Thomas has the ability to do something. He should use it.”

“Why? Just because someone can doesn’t always mean that someone should, Patton.”

It’s another good point. Thomas still doesn’t quite understand why Virgil was coming forward with these arguments now as opposed to earlier, but he supposes it doesn’t much matter. Maybe because Virgil felt that the web shooter formula made the whole thing feel a lot more real and sudden. Thomas certainly felt that way. Maybe that feeling was stemming from Virgil.

“It does if it means doing a good thing,” Patton insists.

Virgil seems to bristle slightly. “If a cat is stuck in a tree and you don’t know how to climb a tree, what do you do? You call the fire department. You don’t risk hurting yourself in an effort to get the cat yourself when you aren’t qualified to do it.”

“But Thomas can climb a tree.”

“It’s a metaphor.”

“I know, but even in the metaphor. Thomas has abilities, Virge.”

“So that makes him qualified to get involved?” Virgil stops for a moment and takes a deep breath. Some of the edge is gone from his voice when he speaks again, but the underlying frustration hasn’t left. “Thomas is in over his head. And I don’t want him to get hurt tackling a fight that isn’t his in the first place. Sometimes you have to pick your battles, Patton. Why does Thomas have to choose this one?”

The question is met with silence.

Thomas slips his hands into the pockets of his jeans and glances down at the linoleum floor between his feet. He studies the specks of blue amidst the white as if it will distract him from the tension in the room. The web fluid gurgling in the flask on the table between the three of them is the only sound for a long, uncomfortable moment. Virgil’s question seems to echo in Thomas’s head.

When Thomas finally glances up, Patton is looking at Virgil with something soft in his eyes. “Because it’s the one given to us. Maybe we don’t get to pick the battles, kiddo. Maybe… we lost that luxury when Thomas got these powers.”

“That’s not fair.”

Patton sighs. “It’s not. But with great power, comes great responsibility.”

Thomas swallows and nods. He speaks quietly, despite the weight he can feel settling in his chest. “And it’s my responsibility to do what I can to help. I… have to at least try.” He glances up at Virgil. “I don’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t give it that much.”

Thomas can see the tightness in Virgil’s jaw; something he can’t place flashes quickly through his eyes. “It’s not just Thomas at stake, you know. If he gets involved, he puts everyone he loves at risk. None of us want that.”

The reminder squeezes something in Thomas’s chest. “That’s why we’re making the suit, Virgil. To protect me and my loved ones.”

Even as he says it, though, he realizes Virgil’s point. The suit would only do so much. He looks around in the lab and realizes suddenly that he was putting Dr. Washington and Andrew at risk by involving them like he had. He’d almost asked Dahlia about advice on his suit construction and no matter how vague he’d been planning to keep it, it was still involving her. It was still putting her at risk, putting everyone at risk.

He had to stop. Nobody could know his identity, but nobody could be involved in this fight, either. Not unless Thomas was willing to risk his friends’ lives, and that… that wasn’t a price Thomas would ever be willing to pay.

“This… is my fight,” Thomas says, his voice tight. Patton and Virgil both look over at him. “But it’s mine alone. After today, nobody else gets involved. I can’t…” Thomas thinks about the look of raw fear in the hostages’ eyes during the bank robbery and the tearful, desperate reunion between Mikey and his mother. “I can’t take that risk.”

He sees Virgil opens his mouth but he’s cut off by the ding of the timer beside Thomas. The host blinks a second, forgetting for a brief moment what the timer had been set for in the first place. Then his gaze focuses on the flask in front of him. Right, Thomas remembers suddenly. Web fluid.

The timer meant that he needed to take it off the heat. Cool it down—which would occur quickly—filter and wash with C12H8O2, then add silica gel to purify the substance and… theoretically, it would be complete.

The rest of the process would take about five minutes. And then, well… Thomas could leave. He could keep Andrew and Dr. Washington from knowing the final product and maybe that would help protect them. When Thomas looks up again from the flask, Virgil and Patton have both left.

Thomas stands alone in the lab and keeps himself busy for the next several minutes walking methodically through the rest of the process. He can’t help his quick glances at the clock and the door, silently pleading that Andrew and Dr. Washington are at least longer than five minutes away. Thomas works in silence, but he barely realizes it. He just wants to finish this and get out as fast as he can.

He adds the silica gel and stirs it quickly with a glass rod. He can’t help the bubble of disbelieving laughter that bubbles in his chest as he watches the fluid react to the purifying process and oxidation, attaching to the glass rod as he pulls it out. The substance forms a cloudy-colored web of adhesion. It stays attached as Thomas tries to pull the glass rod out. It’s strong. So strong, in fact, that Thomas can’t pull it out.

Thomas grabs the other flask of the same substance that they’d had on stand-by (in case Thomas had been wrong about the filter liquid or the silica gel), and pours it into a vial with a stopper. He stashes some silica gel and C12H8O2 in separate vials. He shoves them into the outside pocket of his backpack before quickly shedding his lab coat.

Before he races out of the lab, he leaves a note and enough change to cover the dinner he wouldn’t be eating.

Had to rush out. Thanks for the help. -Thomas

...

WGP Tags: @captain-loki-xavier, @human-dictionary @the-peculiar-bi-tch @mining-pup @band-be-boss-blog @asexual-trashbag @samathekittycat @why-should-i-tell-youu2 @theobsessor1 @always3charcoaltea @changeling-ash @logical-princey @crimsonshadow323 @flickering-raven @smokeyrutilequartz @dontbugmeimantisocial @liz-a-bell @black-king-white-knight @soijusthavetoask @analogical-mess @marvelfangeek09 @dolphidragon @thelowlysatsuma @approximately12lbs-of-ducks, @princelogical

#sanders sides #sanders sides au #sanders sides fanfiction #platonic lamp/calm #spider-man au #with great power #tw arguing

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fangirl530 · 5 years

Text

Saving a lightbulb has never felt so great chapter 2

(first chapter here)

disclaimer: characters who appear do not belong to me (except for OC’s who appeared last chapter)

...

“Think you could help me with this math homework?” Gosalyn asked the robot perched on her shoulder, already knowing the response.

" --- -. .-.. -.-- / .. ..-. / -.-- --- ..- / -. . . -.. / .. - --..-- / -.-- --- ..- / .... .- ...- . / - --- / - .-. -.-- / ..-. .. .-. ... - .-.-.- " /

she smiled. She asked everyday, though at different times, and Bulb’s response was always the same. She was sure he’d give eventually. Even if he didn’t, it’d become a fun part of her routine.

Over the last couple of weeks, she and Lil' Bulb had become pretty close friends. She knew he’d eventually have to go home (which he refused to tell her about) but he seemed to have decided now wasn’t the best time.

He’d told her that his home was far away, in a part of Duckburg unfamiliar to Gosalyn. They had agreed that she wouldn’t be able to get out there and back before Mrs. Quackley and Ms. Rina began wondering where she was. And it wasn’t like she could ask them, they’d think she was crazy. Or worse, take Lil' Bulb away. It was best to wait.

At least, that’s what she told herself. Deep down, she knew she wasn’t ready for the robot to leave. Especially if she didn’t know where he was going.

The pair chatted as they walked from the bus stop to the orphanage. It was only a few blocks, so she was permitted to walk. She turned the corner and stopped.

Ahead of her, at the bank, Gizmoduck and some guy in a purple costume were fighting with three beagles.

They must’ve been trying to rob it, she thought.

Lil' Bulb hopped up and down, tugging at her hood and pointing to Gizmoduck. Gosalyn stared, looking between them both. He was flashing too fast for her to understand him, but she had a feeling she knew what he was saying.

“You know him?” she guessed. Lil' Bulb flashed twice, and then slowed down so she could figure out what he was saying. “He knows how to get you home?” he flashed twice again, and she smiled. “Well, then, let’s go talk to him!” this is perfect, she thought. I’ll get to figure out where he’ll be going!/she started running to the fight, but the purple costumed guy intercepted her.

“Whoa there kiddo,” he said, standing in front of her with his arms out to block her. “You’d better stay back. It’s dangerous in there.” he put his hands on his hips in what was probably supposed to be a heroic pose, but made him look more like Ms. Rina when Gosalyn broke a window while playing hockey. It had totally not been her fault; Jake shouldn’t have thrown the puck like a baseball and not expected her to hit it.

She glanced at the hero, who was watching her expectantly. Realizing she’d probably missed something, she shrugged and chose to respond to the last thing she’d heard.

“I can handle a little danger.” she moved to go past him, but he stopped her.

“Sorry, I can’t let you through. Wait until it’s over, okay?” Gosalyn scowled, but nodded. At her confirmation, the guy ran off, winking as he did so. “Don’t worry!” he called over his shoulder. “Darkwing will keep you safe!”

Gosalyn rolled her eyes as she went to the curb. “I don’t need anyone to keep me safe,” she muttered. Turning, she began watching the fight. She started tapping her foot impatiently, and felt Lil' Bulb doing the same.

When all three beagles were defeated and and loaded into police cars, she ran back in. Darkwing spotted her and moved to intercept her again.

Not this time, she thought, darting around him and away from his hands. She dashed to Gizmoduck’s side.

“He, Gizmo!” she called. He looked down at her, smiling.

“Hello,” he said politely. “Do you-” he froze as he noticed Lil' Bulb on her shoulder. “Where did you find him?” he asked, his voice sounding shocked.

Gosalyn quickly went through an abridged version of what had happened. When she was finished, Gizmoduck was beaming widely.

“This is spectacular!” he said, holding his hand out. “Thank you, uh…”

“Gosalyn.” she looked down at his waiting and, and stepped back. “Wherever your taking him,” she said, “I want to come to.”

“Of course,” he said agreeably. “Dr. Gearloose will be ecstatic to meet you! Well, maybe not ecstatic. But he’ll be happier then he has been recently!” he smiled. “Hop on up!” grinning back, she grabbed his hand.

“Hold on!” Darkwing yelled. “You can’t just let a little girl ride on your back! What if she falls?”

Gosalyn scowled. “Mind your own business, Darkwing!” she snapped. Lil' Bulb shook a fist at the hero, and she smiled at him gratefully.

“Okay, let’s all calm down,” Gizmoduck said placitingly. “Darkwing, why don’t you accompany us? You can keep Gosalyn from falling off.”

“Deal,” he agreed, looking down at her. “Do you need help getting up?” he asked.

“No,” she said, using Gizmoduck’s hand to hoist herself up. She scaled his body, coming to a stop on his shoulders. Darkwing climbed up after her,positioning himself over her. When they were both secure, Gizmoduck lifted into the air and started flying down the street.

Gosalyn took her phone out of her pocket and dropped a quick text to Ms. Rina and Mrs. Quackley:

Had to help Gizmoduck with something. Nothing dangerous, promise. Be back soon.

She hit send and tucked the phone back into her pocket. She’d probably owe them a big explanation later, but for now she chose to focus on the ride. They weren't too high up- just level with the top of the buildings, not above them- but she was loving it. She grinned widely the whole time, and hardly noticed Darkwing’s arm pressing against her back.

It was over all too soon. Gizmoduck landed outside a big rectangular building, allowing his passengers to climb off,

“Here we are,” he said, allowing them to dismount. “Come on, follow me!” He took them inside to an elevator, where he pressed the button that said UL. Gosalyn rocked on her feet with nervous anticipation as they went down.

The door opened with a ding, and Gizmoduck ushered them out while calling;

“Dr. Gearloose! We have visitors!”

“Visitors?” a voice said. When Gosalyn looked for the source, she saw a tall chicken with glasses, a green shirt and a brown vest leaning over a desk turned to look at them. “Why do we ha-” he stopped, spotting Gosalyn. Or more specifically, her right shoulder where Lil' Bulb was sitting.

Pulsing, Lil' Bulb jumped off and ran to him. The chicken- who must’ve been Dr. Gearloose- knelt and hugged the robot to his chest.

“Gosalyn found him during the invasion,” Gizmoduck explained. “An alien had him, so he unscreweed himself to stop them from hearing anything important. She caught him before he could hit the ground!”

Dr. Gearloose looked down at her. “I’ve been told I need to work on talking to other people,” he started. “It’s never been a strong suit of mine. But I believe I can make an acception for you. Thank you for saving him, young lady.”

“You’re welcome,” she said nonchalantly. “We got along pretty well.” she looked at the little robot. “I’ll miss you, Lil' Bulb,” she said, fighting hard to keep her voice from catching. Lil' Bulb pulsed something quickly, and Dr. Gearloose looked a little surprise.

“He said you can visit,” he told Gosalyn. “And that he’s glad he got to meet you.”

Gosalyn’s eyes widened, but her excitement faded as quickly as it had risen. “I can’t. My… guardians won’t let me come here on my own.”

Darkwing stepped up to her. “I could take you here!” he volunteered. “Then you’re not alone.” Gosalyn turned to look at him hopefully.

“Really?” at his nod, she beamed and threw her arms around him. “Thanks Darkwing!” letting go, she smiled at Lil' Bulb. What she’d thought was the end, was actually the beginning of something wonderful.

#ducktales #gosalyn waddlemeyer #gizmoduck #darkwing duck #Gyro Gearloose #lil' bulb #OCs #writing

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katerinu · 5 years

Text

I’m reposting my “dream InuYasha OC” to my art blog and I realized I never... posted the dream in question? I wrote this all down in my phone notes while I was still half asleep. It’s weird, it’s nonsensical, it’s out of character, but DAMN this was a fun ass dream.

Dream below the cut but TL;DR: InuYasha and the gang come across an astrologer dragon girl living in a cave and find out she’s Sesshomaru’s daughter ajkfhsdjkfsh

InuYasha and the gang hear about a dragon lurking in a cave, and go to investigate. Inside, the come across a great lizard, but hardly a dragon. Before InuYasha is able to strike, a furry creature blasts in, changing the trajectory of his attack, thus missing. The lizard, seemingly spooked, bounds off into the darkness.

InuYasha is confused, and turns to see what happened. An extremely fluffy, dog like creature, with small horns, beady eyes, and large fangs is growling and poised for attack. Kagome thinks it’s just a weird, scared dog, but InuYasha prepares to strike the thing.

“Stop!” Cries a girls voice from behind. They turn to see a young woman, with dark hair and Chinese styled garb running towards them. She wraps her arms about the strange creature, which nuzzles into her and seems to purr.

The gang make a fire to settle around, and the girl tells her story. Her name is Ruki, and she explains to the gang that her father sent her here as a test. She needs to be the one to defeat the lizard, otherwise she can never achieve her full power.

“Plus, once I’m done, I can return to the mainland!” Ruki beams.

The gang can’t help but think her predicament is cruel, but she shakes her head. “No, I agreed to this training. Plus, my father sends me books and other strange things to further my studies! For example,”

Ruki pulls a black orb from he robes. Setting it to the floor, she presses into it, and the thing seems to have a mechanical give. When she releases, the ball opens, casting blue/green circles of light against the walls, with odd symbols inside.

She explains it to be a personal map of the stars. Ruki can see how the stars are positioned every night and day, but can also see the maps of people she chooses in order the read them and understand her opponents and allies.

Ruki points to one section of the strange map. “See that? That’s my fathers chart!”

The gang look to where she is pointing. In the center of the chart reads the name, “Sesshomaru.”

After the gang shout in alarm, Ruki asks, “Do you know my father?”

“Know him?!” Sango says.

InuYasha intervenes with a sneer. “That’s my brother.”

Ruki is excited and claps her hands. “Then you are my uncle!”

“That’s not something to really celebrate.” InuYasha tells her. “Besides, I’m more concerned about why he would do this. It IS cruel, and we’re gonna get you out of here!”

(To be noted, InuYasha didn’t care about her beforehand.)

Ruki stands firm. “No! I told you, this was my idea, and I’m staying until I complete my duty!”

As if on cue, the lizard appears again. Everyone jumps into position, but Ruki takes the lead, holding out her arm. “This is my fight!” She tells them. “Don’t intervene!”

Miroku quips, “Must run in the family.”

Ruki attempts to fight, but seems to weak to do any sort of damage. InuYasha insists he jump in, but Kagome notices something.

“Ruki isn’t using her full power!”

After this is brought up, they all instantly notice.

“She mentioned she was training to acquire her full power. Maybe she doesn’t possess it yet?” Asks Sango.

“No, her actions are purposeful.” Miroku says. “She has plenty of power, she’s deciding not to hurt the creature.”

Kagome gasps. “Because she doesn’t want to!”

After awhile, Ruki appears quite banged up. Still she grits her teeth, and keeps fighting.

Then, Sesshomaru appears.

He’s standing to the side of the creature, staring at Ruki with a strange look. He seems... sad.

“Father!”

“Ruki,” Sesshomaru says, “you must slay the creature, or you’ll never become what you were destined to be.”

“But, father...!” Her voice quivers. “I... I can’t.”

“You must!”

Sesshomaru bellows so loudly it surprises the party, his voice, a deep bass, ringing off the cave walls. His face though, appears as if he’s pleading with her.

“Lord Sesshomaru!” Jaken cries, who is standing behind with Rin.

Rin says, “is Lord Sesshomaru okay? He looks like he’s about to cry...”

“Cry?!” Jaken scoffs. “My Lord has never cried! He especially wouldn’t shed tears over some hermit girl in a cave...”

But Sesshomaru DOES look as though he is about to cry. There is even a slight quiver as he speaks. “Ruki. It is your sworn duty to kill the creature. It’s what your mother would have wanted.”

Ruki also seems hurt by this, but cannot stop the tears that spill down her cheeks. “You’re right.” She agrees. “You’re right... father, for her sake,” she looks up, more determined than before. “I will slay her!”

The gang look confused. Her?

“She can’t mean...” Kagome says allowed to herself. “That lizard WAS her mother?”

Ruki attacks again, this time at full power. She raises her hand, an otherworldly glow burning up her arm as she chops into the beast, cutting it in half. It collapses with a hellish scream.

Ruki lands, keeping her gaze to the floor. She’s shivering, trying to hold back tears. But then, a woman’s figure appears above the monsters corpse, and it says,

“I’m proud of you.”

From the body, a ghostly miasma pours from the thing, surrounding Ruki and entering her body. After she consumes the demons power, she turns to face the gang, and thanks them.

She reveals that she is a dragon, as her mother once was. With her power, she can now take her rightful place in the stars, watching over those in need and bringing hope to those she loves. Ruki transforms, and slithers from the cave, and into the night sky.

#my oc

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xaz-fr · 5 years

Note

Hello! I've been following you for a while and wanting to get into your lore. Where should I start?

Sorry, I was playing ‘Antidepressant the game’ aka Slime Rancher for the past literally 10 hours.

edit: Tumblr apparently doesn’t wanna allow you to read more on asks. Fine. Fuck you too Tumblr.

The way I did it is come up with a very very basic idea/concept/aesthetic. And it should hopefully fit what your dragons already look like or what you’re into but it doesn’t have to.

I started my clan with the simple idea of ‘swamp witches’ because I was missing my home state of Florida and love the aesthetic of Old Florida and gators and the everglades. And that’s why Layali looks the way she did when we lived in Light.

She radiates the idea of a swamp witch while herself not actually being one (she’s a seer but whatever). And from there I slowly built out my clan. And it should be noted; I grew my clan VERY slowly compared to how some people *cough @golden-lionsnake cough* buy dragons left and right. I didn’t buy my first permanent dragon for like a MONTH.

and when I did buy a dragon i asked myself ‘what does a swamp full of witches need?’. Well... herbs for starters, and plants, so probably a garden/farm land of sorts. Which is where Spayar came in

and he’s a druid, living in a swamp, and still kinda witchy, right? At the very least he fits the aesthetic idea I was going for.

And then from there if I bought a dragon they needed a purpose. Even if the purpose was ‘guard’ or ‘huntsman’ or ‘another witch’ because you gotta actually have witches in a swamp witch style lore. And I made everyone do something different. And when everyone does something different they interact in different ways. Like how does the adopted daughter of one of the sort of clan leaders interact with a roving fire spirit? (which I did have for a time). Or how do the druids interact with the witches? How do guards work in a swamp of a tiny clan that has no enemies or allies? What about as they start to get larger and make friends?

I built my Manor sub clan the same way. I bought the Master, gened him, and just had him around.

I then, later, decided I needed more general fodder. So I bought a bunch of fodder pairs. And I had always thought that a dragon named the Master might maybe not really be a sort of weird cult leader? And what he actually is now isn’t that far off. He’s... the owner of a bunch of concubines: my fodder pairs. So I gave my otherwise loreless fodder breeders lore by connecting ALL of them to the Master as parts of his collection and they all live in his big manor (hence the subclan name) and he provides everything for them they just have to maintain the house and entertain him (which is sometimes fucking and sometimes playing music or cooking him food or bringing him nice flowers or fighting wild animals or making beautiful art or dancing). The aesthetic is literally ‘Jeff Goldblum Grandmaster style book collector has a bunch of hot young dragons who like to fuck.’

Carrion Roost is similar (name subject to change bleh) except a littttle different. I had OCs I made into dragons and was like ‘well now what’. Well they’re canonically vampires. So. I made some pseudo-vampire dragons called the Prime Hunters. So my aesthetic for them is literally just ‘does it LOOK like a vampire? It’s a vampire’. And lore builds itself out from there with born Hunters and turned Hunters and Hunters who were chased from their origin points and ones who wandered and ones who despite everything aren’t that bad they’re just so very hungry sometimes and then some who are just ABSOLUTE awful little goblins.

Cahya is the former and then Evit here is the little awful goblin

Also final tips

I didn’t just stumble upon my lore all at once. It took me *looks how old their progen is* nearly two years to get to where I am now with my lore and only recently have I really expanded my lore beyond Cypress Hall. Until tabs and the Den came out I was a SINGLE CLAN lair. No extra sub clans or clans in other flights. I put all of my ideas into one clan. And yeah my clan had cliches and niches and such but they all knew they were the same clan, that they all were part of Cypress Hall. Also I’ve been world building for 10+ years at this sort of mini macro level and can literally come up with an entire plot line for a story in 3 hours with like a one sentence prompt. So I’ve got a LOT of practice.

When you do start writing lore (or even just thinking about it) WRITE SOME FUCKING NOTES. Don’t make me come to your house with a spoon and smack your hands for not taking notes down IMPORTANT story elements or neat little details. I am my own worst enemy and don’t take notes until after I’ve written like... 30k worth of shit. Don’t be like me. Write fucking notes as you write, I swear to the Eleven.

and lastly: everyone does it different. I know people who use webs and make wikis and all those great character and world tracker sites, and timelines to plan their stuff. And that’s great. I am so glad that that stuff exists for people who use it. I cannot use them. It’s too tedious and slow for me. It’s too confining. I want a bulleted list of information I can scan through and find. I don’t like having pages and pages of stuff with a few paragraphs per page otherwise I feel like it’s a waste of time to do it. To be quite honest: I just remember this shit. I hardly write anything down anymore. I just have an encyclopedia of every story I’ve put time and effort into in my brain for quick access whenever I need and my lists and notes are there for me to check spellings mostly or be my backup drive for bullshit fake names or be a map.

So while you can use my method you should realize it isn’t for everyone and just because you can’t do it my way doesn’t mean you can’t. You just need to do it in a way that makes sense for you. Or maybe you wanna Dr. Frankenstein that shit and take parts of stuff I’m telling you and parts of stuff other people are telling you and form a thing you like. Totally valid. Any way of figuring your lore is valid.

#flight rising #Nonnie #ask bb #long post

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wickednerdery · 6 years

Photo

Title: FrostBitten: Keep a Cool Head Author: @wickednerdery Fandom: Marvel Pairing/character: Loki x Jotun!OC (& Reader) Rating: Mature Summary: “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Notes: This is a series/multi-chapter fic - Masterlist Here. Ulfr is a Frost Giant, more clearly so than Loki, and “played” by Lee Pace. This is mostly Loki and Ulfr, but the reader is mentioned, haha! The whole story in general is dark, this one’s mostly just angst, threats, and violence though…For consistency and length it gets a “Read More”.

Within the mirror dimension Strange easily stretches hours of practice into minutes and even then Ulfr presses the constraints of time. For once he works with single-minded focus, gives the doctor a student eager to learn. He pushes the limits of his own abilities and, in some ways, the sorcerer’s. Every second is worked with an intensity that unsettles; something’s changed, something’s affected Ulfr’s determination, and Dr Strange cannot be sure if it’ll be for better or worse.

“I think we’ve covered more than enough for tonight,” Strange cancels out the latest spell, much to Ulfr’s annoyance as it finally begins to work.

“I want a Sling-Ring.”

“No.”

There’s a low growl from the blue beast. “If you want it, I’m trapped here. I don’t like it. You claim using the ring is a basic step in magic, one of the first you learned, and now you’re denying me those lessons?”

“You don’t need it to achieve our goals.”

Ulfr moves closer, attempts to intimidate as he looks down. “I’m not a fool, I know you’re not teaching me anything that puts you, others, at risk should I betray you.” He forces a deep breath as the mirror dimension shivers. “But if something happens to you, here or elsewhere, I’m stuck with no means to carry out the plan. Not without a ring.”

Fractals of Loki appear just outside the dimension, both men curse. “I’ll consider it,” Strange yields, panic touching his voice as Loki speaks to, reaches out for, Ulfr’s illusion still in the chair. “For now, you must return.”

The force of sudden extraction unsettles Ulfr’s usual demeanor, puts him on edge in his own body, and he attacks on instinct. Grabs by the throat, slams with ice-cracking and wall-crushing ferocity, as he growls between deep blue lips.

Loki’s mouth snaps free of Ulfr’s icy hand. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

He takes in the king’s Jotun appearance; red eyes and blue skin, ridges, contrasting black hair. It’s strange in its rarity to see Loki in his true form, even for him. Ulfr notes how the lines of his arm and hand seem to swallow up those on Loki’s throat and face. “Forgive me, my king.” Ulfr lets go, they both slip back to human form. “You startled me. Was there something you needed?”

Loki came in ready to rant, to take out terror and rage on his second-in-command, but the sudden aggression throws him. All the anger and fear shifts, twists into something far more dangerously calculated. “I’ve been thinking on the new girl.”

“Mmm...”

“Would you like her?”

“What do you mean?” There’s traps abound, Ulfr’s not answering until he’s sure.

“You know what I mean. I saw you looking at her, watching her on hands and knees before me. You wished it was you, yes?”

“I’d kill her.”

The smirk grows as Loki straightens, steps up until Ulfr steps back. “Since when has that stopped you in the past?” Eyes turn predatory, approach continues. “In fact, if I’d hazard a guess, it’s part of the pleasure for you, isn’t it? Pushing them, yourself, farther and farther until the inevitable happens? Until they break apart in your hands, around your cock.”

Ulfr reveals only a hint of wariness; he blocks the god from his thoughts, but not so much Loki sees it as an increase in abilities.

“How far do you think you can get with that bold little bitch you want so much?” Loki grins, finally starting to feel his new self - powerful, in control, a true king - once again. “Unless your feelings are more romantic than desirous...is that, Ulfr? Is it love?”

Another step forward from the king and calves hit the chair.

“No matter. If you don’t wish to have her, that’s fine. It was merely an offer, a show of appreciation for all you do.” Loki blows a chuckle in Ulfr’s face. “I’m sure the rest of the men will enjoy her, she’s hardly been used after all.”

“You’ve barely tried -” Ulfr cuts himself off.

The god ticks head, arches brows. “She’s mine to have and give as I choose.”

There’s no clear way out. Anything Ulfr does is going to lead to some kind of failure, someone’s pain. He contemplates the least abhorrent option. “True, your majesty, but...” he spreads a smile. “What would others think, you unable to cow one little Midgardian thrall? It doesn’t look good, people might lose faith in you.”

They both know who Ulfr’s referring to, though neither will say the name. Loki cannot bear to say it, can hardly bear to think it, and Ulfr knows he doesn’t need to. Thanos is there, always, even when he’s not.

“You’ve a valid point, Ulfr.” Loki smiles back. “We’ll break her, properly, tomorrow....or kill her, whichever comes first.”

“We?”

“Of course. You’ve been such a great help to me thus far, why wouldn’t you continue to be...You do wish to help your king, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Loki goes to turn away, before pausing and turning back. “One more thing, Ulfr.”

“Yes?”

His hand flies up, grips Ulfr’s throat and yanks him almost to his knees. “You touch me like that again, you touch me in public, I will cut off those Jotun hands of yours and use them as a new mantelpiece to rest my scepter upon.” Another harsh tug and Ulfr's kneeling. “Understood?”

“Yes, my king.”

“Good.” Loki forces himself into human form, though keeps his own brutal cold as he squeezes. “Now I suggest you practice controlling yourself or I’m sure tomorrow may well be the first and last time you touch that dear girl of yours.”

Ulfr nods, head still down, even after Loki releases him. He thinks of all the things he wants to do. Crush Loki’s throat, slam his head until brains splatter, throw him out the window. Make the false king weak and wailing and begging mercies. Ulfr’s mercies. He shakes in the thrill and bottled up rage of it.

At the door Loki suddenly stops, turns. “...Why were you sleeping in your chair?”

“I was trying to work on my body heat.” Ulfr glances up, gives a sheepish smile. “...But I guess I dozed off.”

Loki nods, takes in the thick layers of ice that surround them, and muses. “That poor girl, I feel bad for her already.”

The moment he’s alone Ulfr stands, laser-focus on where Loki last stood. His jaw clenches. The walls and ceiling grow slick, drip wet, as a puddle forms under Ulfr’s feet. Held breath releases in a growling-grunt as fists ball and fissures pop apart the glacier room.

Oh Loki...hope you enjoyed yourself because this is probably gonna bite you in the ass, haha! As you can see, Ulfr can be skilled in magic when he actually makes the effort, but he’s rarely made the effort before this, lol! (And, if curious, the last bit is meant to be akin to Loki magical rage-throwing furniture in his cell in Thor: Dark World.)

(Gif made by me via two gifs I found on Google.)

Tagged: @welcome-to-fangirl-hell @chibiyanai @wadeyouwitch @creedslove @lady-crowned-with-stars @moonfaery @annievvv7 @ladyfluff @holykryptonitekitten @lokilvrr @janebrownnie @lokis-little-kitten @alexakeyloveloki @theangelsfightwithdevils @the-blue-tiefling @lokis-lady-death @dangertoozmanykids101 @prometheasmother @vethrvolnir @wintertink @amethyst-dreams-and-candy-canes @drakonwild @starscreamloki @helayes @hiddles-rose @the-lady-witchitery @galaxies-inside-my-head @jackheart180 ...Thinks that’s everyone, you want on the list, just lemme know!!

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rachello344 · 6 years

Text

I’m going to tell you all a story. I don’t really know who all will see this, but I think it’s important for me to make my position and my history clear, so I’m going to write it out anyway. This will probably have some level of TMI, so your mileage may vary, but I don’t want to censor myself for this. Includes frank discussions of sexuality, sex ed, etc. so it’s relatively NSFW. Nothing especially graphic, but again, ymmv

This is... much longer than I meant it to be, so tl;dr: Fiction is meant to be a place to explore. Being afraid of sexuality or intimidated by it is normal, but trying to control the people around you because of that is not. The only person whose sexuality is your business is your own, and potentially your partner(s)’. Policing the sexuality of other people will not give you anything more than the illusion of control. Illusions, however nice, don’t generally last long. Be kind to others, and be kind to yourself.

I started reading fanfiction when I was 12 or 13, which I think is about the average. Everyone around me was starting to talk about dating and the like, and I wanted to figure out what they were talking about without asking anyone I knew. As an avid reader, the only way I knew how to get contextualized information was through stories. So I did what I think a lot of kids online inevitably do: I looked up stories about sex and romance. The site I was using at the time was DeviantART.

Any of you who have used the site are probably recoiling right now, as you should be. I have seen so many terrible things written in fiction from such a young age that a lot of the stuff people complain about here seem legitimately tame. But that’s not the point. The point is, I was a curious kid looking for answers, and I turned to stories to find them.

I started with original fiction. Imagine that. A 13 year old girl online reading effectively hentai-style fiction about OCs she had no connection with. I learned about my body through badly written dA hentai fic. I figured out things that felt good. I experimented quietly when my family left for my brother’s baseball games. And then, at some point, I found my first fanfiction.

I’d technically written fanfiction of Sonic characters when I was 8 or 9, but they were all just fairy tales with Sonic and Amy as the leads. I didn’t start with Sonic fanfiction, though. No, the first fanfiction I remember reading was Naruto. It was a badwrong Uchiha-cest fic. I was probably 13 at this point. I’d never watched Naruto, but I absolutely knew that those characters were related. Morbidly curious, reluctantly fascinated, I read the fic.

It was short, but it was definitely hot, to my 13 year old standards. I mean, most things were. I was 13. I didn’t exactly have standards. And then I realized: If this exists, shouldn’t there be stories with characters I actually know? Granted, I still read SasuNaruSasu fic because it was SO easy to find--I preferred Naruto topping at the time, but now I’d go back and forth, I think, I just hated the characterization of bottom!Naruto--but I also discovered slash for things I actually knew. Sonadow was a revelation.

It does not escape me that I got my start in fanfiction reading incest and furry porn, btw. I mentioned earlier that I was curious, and that was my driving force. I wanted to see where the limits were. I would read anything. And then once I figured out the tags, I could look for the things I liked and avoid the things I didn’t. I didn’t much care for a lot of things where romance was concerned, but for a PWP those limits evaporated like rain in the desert. And through this process, I developed standards. Things I will read, things I won’t, writing styles I prefer, things that I won’t read no matter how well written, writing unskilled enough that I wouldn’t touch it regardless of the kink depicted. And on and on and on.

I feel like it bears mentioning that the demographic of my junior high and high school was predominantly Mormon and Fundamentalist. Not all, but a significant number. We were mostly white, mostly well-off. I was in as much of a bubble as I could be. But that meant that until my friends started coming out in high school, I didn’t know any queer people IRL. I had one friend, Avery, who told me she was Bi in eighth grade, but until about tenth grade, she was the only one who’d told me.

Our sex ed was abstinence only. Heteronormative and absolutely the kind of thing that we all speak out against. There were no websites that I could find with reliable info. I was using google image searches to figure out what genitalia looked like, and I wish I were kidding. All I’d ever seen was stuff with diseases and sores. I was told that a girl who has a lot of sex is like an old pair of gym shoes. I was told that boys will be boys. I was not told that boys could love boys or girls could love girls. I was told “Just say no,” instead of any kind of way to tell when it was safe for me to say Yes.

Luckily I wasn’t interested in sex for me, personally. I was interested in it intellectually. I wanted to know how it worked, why people chose to do it, what it might feel like, what kinds of sex you could have. I was arming myself with knowledge in case I ever needed it.

When I was 15, I stumbled on a kinkster’s blog. She was a writer, and she specialized in BDSM practices and culture, specifically in explaining it to the uninitiated. I was too young to be there, but the information I got was invaluable. Again, scarleteen might have existed? But I’d certainly never found it. This was the first time I saw someone talking about consent, about condoms and dental dams, about safe words.

It was life changing. I read her blog avidly. I spent about three weeks there, researching BDSM. When I found something that seemed interesting, I’d return to deviantART to see if I could find it in story form. I’d google terms I wasn’t familiar with or cross check online. I googled so many things that it’s lucky that my parents let me have my own computer (an old desktop from my dad’s boss). It’s even luckier that my parents generally let me have free reign.

When I was 17, I found the word Asexual. It was the best word I’d seen for how I was feeling. Sex positive asexual. “It would be fine if it happened, but chastity isn’t exactly a punishment.” I could make do on my own without much trouble, and I didn’t really like any boys. Not like that. (Whether or not I ever liked girls, I’m still trying to puzzle out.)

What I’m trying to say is that my best online experiences were via kinksters. Fic at the time did NOT go into safer sex details. They were either implied, glossed over, or outright ignored. Fantasy doesn’t need to jive with reality, so it’s hardly wrong of them to ignore it. But that information was truly incredible to me.

And I know I’m an odd case. Someone who’d never felt sexual attraction to her knowledge researching every kind of sex under the sun sounds strange, I know. But I’ve always been a researcher. When I come across something I don’t understand, I look it up.

I guess, the point I was trying to make is that... for me, without all the “bad” erotica and porn, without kinksters, without slash ships, I never would have figured things out for myself. I had no sexual education to speak of, no context for anything I did no, no one to talk to, and I definitely didn’t have any queer role models or examples in media or in my real life. The first time I met a lesbian was when I was 13; she was my gym teacher. And she was the absolute first queer person I ever knew about. And until college, I’d never met another queer adult that I knew of. Never.

We had a gay straight alliance in high school, but I didn’t want to get involved. The cultural climate wasn’t outright homophobic, but I’d learned to keep my head down for being “too much” a feminist. Like hell was I going to put a target on my back. I doubt I would have been bullied--no one had come after me yet--but I didn’t really want to tempt fate either. I stood up for the people around me, and I called it good.

When I hear people say “Kink is unhealthy and glorifies abuse” I think back on my sex ed, on learning that women who sleep around are dirty. I think about the first time I ever even heard about consent being on a blog about a woman who loved BDSM. When I hear people say “X fic trope condones Y behavior” I think back on the absolute sewage that I was reading as a young teen. It’s safe to say that I’ve read just about every kink there is. I read vore on accident by the time I was 15. And I didn’t even remember it until I had a visceral flashback to it about a year ago when the jokes first started getting popular. And despite all of the abuse and rape and badwrong incestuous fic that I’ve read, never once have I knowingly harmed another person. And that makes the arguments feel a little odd. Like “violent video games make teens more violent,” the argument that violent erotica and porn makes teens more violent is absurd.

So, for those of you still reading, if you promote anti-shipping or kink critical anything, I think you should look at it a little more closely. Do some more reading on the other side, within your limits. Do your own research and figure out where you stand. I know that sex can be intimidating and scary, especially when you’re young, but something can be scary without being harmful. Only you know your limits, but there are plenty of places to do research that have reliable information. I’d be happy to help you find them. For general sex ed, scarleteen is definitely my go-to.

Policing other people’s sexualities is not the way to make things feel safe again. I know it seems like a suitable answer, and it makes you feel like you have power and safety, but think about how you feel when people tell you what you are and aren’t allowed to like or do or feel. Think about how you feel when people accuse you of all kinds of things simply because your views are different. That’s what anti-culture is doing. And just because you don’t agree with someone doesn’t mean you have the right to tell them how to feel or how to think. Because that opens the door to them returning the favor.

“But incest--” “But CGL--” “But--” No. It doesn’t matter. If you know it isn’t for you, then avoid it. That’s the end of it. Do I think some things are weird or even kinda gross? Sure. But that doesn’t mean no one is allowed to like those things. If that was the case, no one would be allowed to write fic where people have sex in a kitchen or otherwise involve food in the process. That squicks me out, but that doesn’t mean people don’t want to get off to it. I avoid the tag and move on. Don’t waste your time on things you don’t like. Period.

Life is too short to waste your time on things that turn you off. That’s time better spent finding the things that turn you on. And hey, tastes change. Maybe someday I’ll decide I want to read people having sticky food sex (doubtful). Maybe someday I’ll decide that I cannot read another tentacle fic ever again (unlikely). I won’t know until that day does (or doesn’t) come. But I’m not gonna waste energy worrying about what other people think about my fantasies. They’re no one’s business but my own, and theoretically a future sex partner should I find one.

Fiction is for exploration, so explore! Find ways to keep yourself safe. Figure out what you need to avoid, and how to do it. Find the things you want to read and read them. Consume the media you want to consume. And if anyone bullies you for it or tries to make you feel bad, you block their ass on sight. They don’t deserve even a second more of your time.

#personal #rachel writes #if anyone wants to talk about this I'd be fine with that #but if you want to come over and shame me for how I figured myself out you can show yourself out #it just really burns me up seeing kink critical people coming after people for doing things they enjoy #the sex and fantasy lives of other people are none of your business #i'm not gonna go into the gray areas here because I'm not a lawyer and I don't want to get into it on what amounts to a vent post #so i'll leave off with 'don't break just laws' and call it good #above all else be kind #tbh i might delete this at some point but right now i'm feeling brave #mostly because i'm annoyed about purity culture tbh #deviantart was a dumpster fire but damn if i had a shame free place to figure out what things were #people on this hellsite are so uptight i feel like i'm back in high school #it's the Worst #I just wanna like my weird shit in peace

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