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yelenasdiary · 8 months

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ive got an angst request! reader grew up with yelena in the red room and they were inseperable, and ruthless assassin partners and have always been there for each other but after they graduated, yelena went on to become a subjugated widow while the reader was sold by dreykov to hydra to train with bucky to become a winter soldier, and she gets the super soldier serum. years pass and she escapes, becoming an avenger but she eventually goes on the run after the accords and meets back up with yelena and nat during black widow and helps them take down the red room. even more time passes and yelena and reader become girlfriends and even better partners than they were before but then she survives the blip while yelena is dusted and theres a bunch of angst as natasha tries to pull her basically sis in law out of a slump as they both grieve yelena together but when given the chance to bring everyone back, reader ends up being the one to take on thanos in the end and slight of hands the stones off of him and snaps to destroy him and his armies. it ends with nat comforting yelena as they sit at readers grave. ive got a fun idea for part 2 if your interested in reader somehow surviving the whole thing but still having faked her death.

It Was Always The Plan

Pairing: Yelena Belova x Fem! Super Solider! Reader

Summary: After losing your girlfriend to the blip, you struggled to cope. Natasha lends a helping hand while you plan to take down the superhuman who took her away from you.

AC: Thank you for sending this & in great background detail!! It’s unknown (well to me anyways) if Alexei and Melina survived the blip so I’ve added a little extra detail, I hope you enjoy this x As for a part 2, I’m not sure if we’ll do one but we’ll see.

Year 1 -

Natasha placed a mug of hot coco in front of you before she took a seat across from you. It's been a struggle, but she finally managed to get you out of bed, even if it was just to sit at the table and have a hot drink with her. A few months ago, you lost your girlfriend, Yelena, to the blip. At first you didn't think she was turned into tiny pieces of dust, given that she was on a mission at the time, and you just assumed she would contact you when she was safe. But when Natasha tracked down Yelena's last whereabouts, it became clear that the blonde was gone, just like half the population.

Since Natasha told you what you feared, things have been dark and cold. Life just didn't seem enjoyable. You missed Yelena, deeply. But under the grief, you were angry and wanted nothing more than to destroy the one person who took the best part of you away, Thanos.

"Is there any plans yet?" you looked up at Natasha, a question you'd ask her once a week and every answer was the same, "No" she replied softly with a light shake of her head. Every no that left her lips made your heart break once more. You tried to be mindful that Natasha was also hurting, losing her sister isn't easy but it was clear that Natasha was dealing with the grief in her own way.

Every day she'd come by your room and check in on you, encourage you to come to team meetings, go for a walk or just simply come join her downstairs for a hot drink as you are right now. There were times where you allowed yourself to break down into tears while Natasha comforted you, something next to nobody has ever seen from you besides Yelena.

Year 2 –

As time went on, things didn't exactly get easier, but you learnt to cope with it in different ways. Natasha was the one who really pulled you out of the darkness of your room and continued to keep an eye on you which in many ways helped you both grow closer in more of a sister-in-law way and you almost felt like Yelena was still here.

You trained daily in the gym, attended team meetings, went on small missions when needed but in your own free time was when you found yourself trying to find ways to reverse Thanos's snap. Whenever you came up with something that you thought might be useful it always led to a dead end, and you were back to square one.

You also continued the work Yelena was doing with Melina before the blip, saving other widows. With the blip, it made it harder to track down some widows as they were also blipped but those who you and Melina could save brought some comfort and you only hoped that when (and if) Yelena would come home, she'd be glad that others were saved during this hard time.

Year 3 –

By now, dealing with loosing Yelena and the others was leaving the emptiness within your heart even deeper and for most, life when on. Mission came and went, Widows were still being saved from Dreykov's control even though he was dead, and the world moved on, like human nature.

Each night you found yourself seeing Yelena in your dreams or remembering good times you had with her. Memories from Red Room to meeting up with her again after years, you could still feel the way she kissed you before she left for a mission and the way you loved having her fall asleep in your arms. She made you feel like the world was in your hands, just the two of you in this world that almost made no sense to either of you.

You missed the way Yelena would tease you for almost everything, only for you to tease her back. You missed everything about her that eventually you'd fall asleep with tears rolling down your cheeks just wishing she'd walk through that door and apologise for being away for so long. You thought about how she'd tell you that her mission when wrong and she was taken and finally was able to escape or that she was out at sea and couldn't contact you.

But every scenario you played out in your head made you feel stupid for thinking that Yelena would let you and her family go this long without hearing from her.

Year 4 –

"You hit training pretty hard today, are you okay?" Natasha asked as you entered the compounds kitchen drenched in sweat. You nodded and smiled softly, "just making sure I'm ready" you replied before grabbing a cold bottle of water.

"Ready for what?" Natasha questioned.

"You know, for when we finally find Thanos and bring them home" you explained with confidence which only grew to Natasha's endless worries on you. Each day you showed that you were okay with how things were, that you were finding a way to cope but just like everybody around you, nobody was okay, not truly.

Everybody was doing something to try and fix things.

----

When you saw Scott rushing to Natasha's office you felt something that felt like it was slipping away, hope. The look on Natasha's face when she came to see you hours later only confirmed what you and everybody else had been hoping for.

"We have a plan" Natasha looked at you with a soft smile, a sparkle of hope in her eyes made you smile, "let's bring her home" you replied.

The only thing on your mind when it came to fighting the superhuman who took away your true happiness and the rest of your loved ones, was them. Nothing else mattered to you but making sure Thanos would pay and you were determined to make sure he knew that he messed with the wrong team of Avengers.

You'd been training yourself up for this, taking the gauntlet from the purple enemy knowing exactly what you were going to do next.

"Time's up big boy" you smirked as Thanos turned around an faced you, his gauntlet on your hand boiled his blood. "You don't understand!" he spat. "No, you don't understand! You took the one person I love more than anything from me! You took my friends and family! There's no forgiveness for that in my books!" You looked him directly into his eyes, raising your hand up slightly.

"Y/N! NO!" Natasha yelled as she ran towards you, "that wasn't the plan!" she added as you looked to her.

"This was always the plan, Nat" you smiled softly. "I know you'll take care of her" you added before your eyes looked back at Thanos and snapped your fingers together without a second thought other than knowing Yelena and the others would finally be coming home.

----

Every single day since Natasha brought her to your grave, Yelena would visit you. She'd bring some of your favorite snacks and just sit with you until she felt okay again. Natasha was never too far, always ready to be a shoulder for her sister to cry on.

"You idiot" Yelena shook her head as she placed a kiss on your gravestone, "you were supposed to be here, waiting. Not like this" she added.

Most interactions started off like this, first Yelena would show anger and hurt but soon it would change to how much she misses you and talking to you about the things she wants to do to keep your memory alive, letting you know that she'll never let anybody forget who saved the world. Then Natasha would come sit with her before the two of them shared their favorite memories with you.

It would take some time for Yelena to adjust, like you did. But she knew she had everybody she needed around her, even you and Natasha would be the one to make sure that Yelena would never forget about you, not that she ever would.

#yelena belova #yelena belova x reader #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x reader #marvel #fanfiction #black widow

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abcd-em · 8 months

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Talk to me about irondad but make it MJ 🎤

why NOT, let's go!!!

I've written over 200k for this trope, it's fair to say that it consumes my brain just a little bit thinking of them

The MCU gave use such crumbs when it came to MJ and her family, her background that it's fun to build her one that ties her into the heart of that universe especially in the Spidey franchise where so much of what happens is the fallout of Tony's existence/presence in Peter’s life

You've got two intelligent people who so often use that wit and smarts to keep people at a distance - putting them in a room together to talk is immediately fun for me - then add in the layers of Tony's own history and his father paired with MJ's 'expect disappointment and you'll never be disappointed' and you get such an interesting look at both their characters.

They can both be evasive and nosey and protective and prickly and its so intriguing to unpack that. Especially bc it can put MJ at the heart of the MCU, bring her more into what we would normally consider Peter’s world but also shaping it around her own perspective and experiences WITH that world. Which I really tried to write in Vagary.

SPEAKING on the PeterMJ of it- a) the identity shenanigans that can go on - enough said. b) it has the fun of famous MJ with everyman Peter Parker. The sneaking around, the secrecy, the masks they both wear. c) MJ meeting and falling in love with someone who is a superhero, something that has plagued her childhood, and having to reckon with that? Choosing to be with him even though she KNOWS how this ends?

And simply bc I CAN that's half the issue with them in Rolling Fake Dice. There'll be a little more insight into what their relationship pre-blip really looked like in later chapters but so much of it was spent with her not wanting to know about the spidey side Vs. Now when he's keeping things from her. She wants the ease they used to have bc everything else is big and daunting, but she also nearly lost her dad to this - technically she lost Peter too - she wants to know and that's exactly the reason he isn't telling her, just like she isn't telling him everything either.

#em answers #petermj #irondad but make it mj #spideychelle

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exovapor · 3 years

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I'm OBSESSED with your writing. Can you try.. Maybe, Donnie being a filthy boy being an 'stalker-ish' of his long time crush? Be checks their FB for new posts, saves every picture of them he finds? He doesn't mean to be a creep, feels guilty, but just doesn't know how to ask for more than friendship?

Good afternoon Anon. Here is my short story in relation to your ask.

I wasn't sure where you wanted me to take this, so I had to do a bit of guessing on my part. I hope this something like you were wanting.

I will admit that this ask was a bit of a struggle for me, not knowing a clear direction to take it outcome made me a little unsure of my writing and guessing abilities LOL. However, I will admit to crying along with the characters in this story more than once.

Thanks again for the ask and the initial compliment. I hope to continue to earn your favor in future posts.

· Stalker [noun]: 1a person who harasses or persecutes someone with unwanted and obsessive attention. 2a person who hunts game stealthily.

· Donnie stared at the definition on his one of his monitor screens while his various other screens were busy flashing receipts of files downloaded, text trail streams from your phone, notices of any social media post/update/like/heart/emoji, a GPS line grid of your routes today (overlayed over the routes you’d taken previously), and data search hits of anything and everything that pertained to you.

· At this point, the boy had literally every picture you had ever posted, anywhere, of yourself. In fact, he had all the pictures that other people posted of you in them. He had even gone through the effort of designing a face recognition program that picks you out of the background of total strangers’ pictures and, yeah, he had those in a file too.

· He has special file folders that compile things that you like, things you don’t like, things that make you happy, things that make you sad. He is your own personal Pinterest and you didn’t even know it… and maybe that is the part that keeps bothering him so much.

· He sits staring at that word and definition and chewing his bottom lip. True, he knows the word and the meaning, but he needed to LOOK at it, analyze it, mull it over in his guilt ridden brain.

· He just KNEW the word Stalker couldn’t apply to him.

· After all, he isn’t harassing or persecuting you, you don’t know! So, it isn’t necessarily ‘unwanted attention’. It is just…unknown attention.

· Stealthily, hmmmm, did that part apply to him? Well, He isn’t EXACTLY being stealthy.

· If you knew about technology like him, then you would probably see his programs running on your devices and be alerted to his activities. AND, if you shared his love and view of technology, then you would probably be more understanding of his activities and not consider them stealthy…just data mining. In fact, you might applaud him.

· ‘Ok, that was taking it a bit too far’, Donnie thinks to himself and he feels a band tighten and squeeze around his infatuated heart.

· He is almost certain that you would be shocked to learn of his extra curricular activities and how they revolve around every aspect of you.

· Regardless of how he tried to spin the truth and wiggle out of the definition of stalker, Donnie still felt guilty for invading your privacy. However, he honestly couldn’t help himself…at least not anymore.

· He has fought the urge, the nagging thoughts and the burning need, to know more about you for what seemed like an eternity.

· Listen to him, he is starting to sound dramatic like Mikey! What is his turning into? He is losing his rational edge!

· To be accurate, it hasn’t been an eternity. In fact, he has known you 1 year, 36 days, 14 hours, 11 minutes, and 23 seconds to be exact. However, you started occupying space in his mind 2 minutes into meeting you and your claim over his mind has grown exponentially over time.

· You were quiet and reserved during that first meeting, so there wasn’t much to go on. It started as a simple visual interest with a thought of ‘Oh. She’s pretty’.

· However, then you started talking and that changed everything.

· You opened up more and more each time you hung out with their little group, revealing layers and layers of interests and personality. You were fascinating…and that’s when his thoughts about you really started to snowball and spiral out of control.

· You went from being a simple pretty face to being a walking embodiment of everything he seriously ever dreamed of having in a mate.

· Early on, there were three sticking points that really made Donnie’s feelings problematic. 1. He was a nearly seven foot tall walking talking turtle and you weren’t. 2. You had a boyfriend that you were deeply in love with and adored. 3. Donnie was too insecure about #1 and how you felt about inter-species dating to let you know that you had started to OWN his heart.

· Now, thanks to his surveillance, there were only two sticking points….#1 and #3.

· He still remembers the feelings of that day, 44 days ago, when the blip of information popped up on this screen alerting him to the fact that your boyfriend was starting to stray.

· Donnie had severely conflicting feelings bombard him at once and it was overwhelming.

· The initial knee jerk reaction was elation, one of the problems blocking him from you may soon be null.

· However, the feeling of elation only lasted for a second or two before the intense anger and sadness set in. Donnie was honestly shocked at the depth of his anger, he didn’t even know he had that level of malice in him. Had he been in physical proximity to your boyfriend at that moment in time, Donnie isn’t sure that he wouldn’t have hurt your guy…or worse.

· How COULD this guy do this? WHY would he? He HAD YOU! What the heck was this guy thinking? Not only did he have you, but you thought the world of him. When you spoke about him you would smile so genuinely, your eyes would shine and gaze off into a bright imagined future. Donnie was always so jealous to watch it happen, he wondered what it would be like to be THAT GUY. And here the idiot was throwing it all away and meeting up with another girl!

· WHAT THE…(yes, this called for a curse) HELL…IS WRONG WITH HUMAN MEN?

· As the anger set root in his heart, the sadness engulfed Donnie like an all-consuming wave. He realized he was going to have to share this information with you, somehow, and that he was going to have to watch as it destroyed you.

· At first, Donnie had a plan to try and save you both from that fate. True, it would hurt him more to save your relationship, but he would rather be the one facing the pain and not you.

· He TRIED to circumvent the situation. He sent anonymous messages to your boyfriend stating that he knew about the infidelity and that he would tell you if needed. However, it didn’t seem like your boyfriend cared because he sent messages back stating Donnie could, basically, go fuck himself.

· Life had cruel sense of irony, thought Donnie, that is exactly what I do since this moron has the woman that I love.

· So, after trying for nearly two weeks to stop what was happening behind your back, Donnie had no choice but to let you in on the secret.

· Donnie couldn’t come right out and tell you that he caught your boyfriend cheating by hijacking your data streams and the data streams of those around you. So, Donnie intercepted some texts between your boyfriend and his mistress and he then sent you a text, under the guise of your boyfriend, telling you to meet him at a specified restaurant for a date.

· It had been a gut wrenching night for Donnie. He remembered watching it all play out on camera feeds from around the restaurant and street outside. He watched you dressed up in your pretty dress get out of your cab in front of the restaurant. You had such a lovely smile on your face, you must have thought you were in for a romantic evening.

· He watched as you walked inside and how the hostess got flustered and confused by a 2nd girl showing up for your boyfriend’s seated-for-two table.

· Donnie stopped breathing as your eyes found the new couple holding hands and giving each other sweet kisses across the table. Hands and lips that were supposed to be yours were touching some stranger.

· Donnie watched your smile and eyes die…the light of your inner sun go out…

· …and it killed him.

· He’s not sure who was crying the hardest, you standing there in that restaurant witnessing the scene or him back at the lair watching your world crush around you on his monitor.

· It had taken a while for you both to recover from that night.

· His brothers noticed his melancholy mood for a couple of weeks but Donnie wouldn’t tell them what was bothering him. And you stayed in your bed, refusing to face the world, for nearly as long.

· Eventually, the group began to notice your silence and absence, so April stopped by your apartment to check on you. She was the one to pull you out of bed, get you to shower and eat. She visited everyday and made sure you had someone to vent to and a shoulder to cry on.

· Donnie was glad that April could be there for you when he couldn’t. He didn’t think it was appropriate for him, a male, to be your confidant at that time. Especially since he felt so much guilt over having to be the one to expose you to that pain.

· No, he didn’t CAUSE the pain, but he did have to make you face it and he didn’t like not being able to protect you from it. You were such a rare, precious creature and watching you in pain felt like he was suffocating slowly.

· There were some points during those first few weeks that he questioned if he did the right thing, but logic told him it would have eventually come to pass with or without his involvement. It was better to rip the bandage of quickly and let you start to heal than it was to let you linger and drag out the inevitable.

· Donnie did secretly check on you every single night during patrol. And, of course, his surveillance feeds were always running. He watched from a distance as his beautiful phoenix burn down to ashes and, eventually, started to rise again.

· Now, it’s been over 3 months and you’ve begun to be more like your old self. Donnie can tell there is a silent sadness there, but you are able to laugh and smile with the group during your get togethers. And each time you two are left alone, his mind nags at him about those last two sticking points.

· Would you be at all interested in him? And HOW does he go about telling you that you have become the center of his world?

· Still staring at the monitor and the Stalker definition, Donnie sighs and rubs the bridge of his snout to release of the pressure now pushing against the inside of his head. The memories of what has happened, the emotions of what was and what is, it was all starting to be too much.

· “Bro, what’s all this?”, Mikey says standing behind Donnie’s chair, talking around a mouth full of pizza.

· “NOTHING!”, says Donnie, voice breaking from the stress of being caught. A startled Donnie quickly taps some keys on his keyboard and the screens revert back to the standard lair camera feeds.

· Mikey may look or even come off as naïve at times, but he’s no fool, he can sense that his older brother is trying to hide something. “Dude, seriously, what was that? I’ve been standing back here reading the screens. I saw Y/N’s name and that looked like her phone number on that other file…, you know the file that looks like texts messages. And why is there a plotted map of the area around her apartment, her work, and to the lair? What’s up?”, Mikey said giving a disapproving look at being thought a pushover.

· “Just standard surveillance, Mikey, nothing to worry about.”, Donnie says trying to placate Mikey’s curiosity. Donnie hates lying, especially to Mikey, but he’s feeling so guilty about being such a…(inward sigh)…stalking creep that admitting the truth is hard to do.

· Mikey stands there staring at Donnie and, as he does, Donnie begins to fidget with his computer chair armrests.

· Mikey stuffs the remnants of the pizza slice into his mouth and does his best Leo impersonation by crosses his arms and staring down at Donnie as sternly as his jolly face can achieve, “Dude, I’m not going to ask you again. You’ve been weird for months. We’ve let it go for the most part but now you are hiding things from me…from ME, dude! You and I, we’re like peanut butter and jelly, we’re ice cream and chocolate fudge, we young dudes have got to stick together. Trust me, bro, I’ve got you!”.

· Donnie stared at the floor, too ashamed to meet Mikey’s eyes any longer. He gave a heavy sigh and reluctantly started to speak, “Sorry Mike, I…I honestly don’t know what’s come over me lately. I’m doing things I never thought I would do, I’m feeling so guilty about it, but I don’t know if I can stop doing it either. I feel…lost.”.

· Mike relaxed his leader stance and leaned against one of Donnie’s lab tables, “Bro, I can tell you’ve been carrying some heavy stuff lately. You need to let it out.”

· Donnie felt the heat rise up through his body like he was suddenly being consumed by a fire and he ripped his glasses off his face and drew them down on the desk in frustration, “Mikey, I’m in love with Y/N. I have been for a while. I have been…”, Donnie hangs his head in shame, “…tracking all her digital foot prints and watching her. In fact, I’m the reason she found out that asshole boyfriend of her's cheated.”

· Mikey’s mouth drops open at Donnie’s demeanor and use of the word ‘asshole’, “Whoa, dude, why didn’t you say something earlier?”.

· Donnie can feel a stinging at the corners of his eyes, this was so embarrassing, so frustrating, so…..so many things at a once. He didn’t have a response for Mikey, all he could do was shake his head.

· Still with his head hung down and staring at the floor, Donnie starts to hear Mikey chuckle. Donnie looks up to see Mikey’s eyes on him and for some reason they are full of merriment at his painful dilemma. Donnie stares at his, normally, very considerate brother in astonishment, this isn’t like Mikey at all!

· “Mikey, I’m more than serious here, now is not the time to make fun of me. What is so funny?”, Donnie asks exasperatedly.

· Mikey shakes his bald head and claps his brother on the shoulder with his green hand, “Bro, she thinks you’re cute.”.

· “W-What?!”, Donnie stammers out.

· Mikey, still chuckling, says, “Yeah, dude, that’s why I asked WHY you didn’t say something about liking her sooner, she’s always thought you were cute. She and I talk about it all the time.”.

· Donnie just stares at his jolly brother in silence. His mind is too blown to form a sentence.

· Mikey turns to leave stating, “And by the way, dude, stop watching her like that…that’s just creepy.”.

@turtle-babe83 @tmntspidergirl @kokokatsworld @nittleboo @the-second-circle-of-shell

#tmnt donatello #tmnt #tmnt donnie #tmnt fanfiction #tmnt x reader #tmnt bayverse #tmnt 2016 #tmnt fandom

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momentofmemory · 3 years

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FICTOBER 2020 - day thirty

Prompt #27: “Give me that.”

Fandom: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)

Characters: Michelle Jones, Peter Parker

Words: 1326

Author’s Note: Set post endgame pre ffh, Peter’s acting weird—but different weird from his normal weird. MJ’s determined to find out why. Fluff, MJ POV.

>> light me up

MJ’s pretty used to Peter doing weird things.

In fact, ‘Peter doing weird things’ is pretty much the reason she started paying attention to him in the first place: the sudden dropping out of extracurriculars, skipping classes when he’d rarely even been tardy before, zoning out in the middle of decathlon on questions even Charles could get right.

(That, and he’s cute.)

(Maybe.)

(A little.)

But regardless, Peter tends to reserve his weird behavior for getting out of school activities—so when he all but vaults over her to get into their arts classroom before her, she can be forgiven for being taken a little off guard.

“Peter, what the—” MJ freezes when Mrs. Pats glances in her direction—“fudge?”

He’s hastily taking down one of the photographs hanging on the wall, and trying very hard to ignore her.

Naturally, she walks directly up to him and tries to snatch the photograph away.

“MJ!” He’s faster than she is, to an obnoxious degree, and stuffs it into the folder sticking out of his backpack just in time. “What’re you—hi?”

“Hi,” MJ says, like they didn’t literally just walk to class together. “What’s with the photo?”

“Photo?”

It’s times like these that she has to question her ‘Peter Parker is Spider-Man’ calculations, because wow is he bad at lying. “Yeah. Photo. The one you just put in your bag, genius.”

“Oh. That one.” He shoves the folder deeper into his backpack. “Mr. Catz likes to display his favourite class photo of the week as like, a motivation for us to do well or something.”

MJ glances at the corkboard—sure enough, ’Photos of the Week’ is spelled out in multicolored foam sticker letters across the top.

“Huh,” she says. Then she nods towards his backpack, which he’s been not-so-surreptitiously sliding behind him. “So is it yours, or you just stealing some random freshman’s pic?”

“Mine,” Peter says, clenching the straps a little tighter.

The clock in the back of the room ticks away the seconds of their free period, Mrs. Pats dutifully grading assignments in the corner. Peter doesn’t offer anything further.

“Great, so.” MJ clears her throat. “You gonna show me what you did to earn a spot in Mr. Catz’s heart, or—”

“No.”

The rejection is so abrupt MJ barely has time to parse it before Peter’s brushed past her, walking to the far side of the room and pointedly taking out his sketches for the still life study that’s due on Wednesday.

MJ stands stock still.

A year ago (six years ago?) it probably wouldn’t have stung as much. But ever since the Blip, she, Ned, and Peter—and really, most of their class from Before—had hung out a lot more often. There’s nothing quite like a worldwide disaster to force people together, and while she wouldn’t’ve chosen it, acting as a full-fledged member of their group had been—nice.

Except, apparently she isn’t one, since he’s determined to keep something as simple as a photograph a secret from her.

His mistake. If there’s one thing that’s sure to get her to figure something out, it’s being told that she can’t.

MJ slinks to over to the seat next to his, feigns that she dropped something, and then deliberately leverages her backpack so that it swings off her shoulder and crashes into his—

Spilling its contents out all over the floor.

“Ha—”

He’s still definitely faster than she is, but she has the added benefit of surprise this time.

She snatches up the folder and flips it open to the offending photograph before Peter can fully register what’s happening.

“Wait, no no no—” Peter lunges to grab it from her, but MJ swings it out of reach (one of the many benefits of being tall). “Give me that!”

"Nope,” MJ says, darting to the opposite side of the table. “We’re going to find out exactly what was so important you could show it to your class but not to—”

MJ freezes mid-sentence, because she’s finally registered the subject of the photograph and—

And it’s her.

She’s sitting out on her fire escape, legs crossed, head tilted just slightly up and laughing at someone out of frame. Her posture is relaxed, nestled comfortably in the lower left third of the composition, and light from the setting sun spills across her face. It’s shot in tight focus—only her face and hands in full clarity, the rest a soft blur.

It’s the sort of photo that would’ve been taken quickly, the moment there and gone in an instant, but not on a whim. It would’ve been captured by someone paying careful attention.

“MJ?”

Her eyes flick up to meet his.

“Michelle, I’m—I’m sorry,” he stutters. “I didn’t think he’d choose it; I just submitted it because I thought it turned out well enough for a grade. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. I can just—we don’t have to—”

He trails off, pleading silently with her to say something.

MJ rests her hand on the table, tracing the curvature of her smile with her fingers. She remembers the night he must’ve taken it.

They’d been at her apartment—her, Ned, Betty, and Peter—going over interior and exterior angles, congruency, and transitive vs substitution properties for the hundredth time, in anticipation of the Geometry test on Monday.

It’d been a good night. To feel like she was part of a group; to have just a moment to be a normal teenager instead of a survivor of a world-ending event.

And apparently, Peter had thought so, too.

She clears her throat against the rush of emotions that brings, not the least of which is the heat that floods her cheeks.

“The background’s a little overexposed,” she manages, squinting at it like she’s looking closer, when honestly it’s an attempt to mask the hopeful smile she wants to make instead. “And I—I mean, your subject—it could use a little more light on the camera facing side, probably. A reflector would help with that.”

She hands the photo back to Peter, and he accepts it wordlessly. She doesn’t miss the crestfallen look that passes over his face.

She swallows.

“But, uh. If you’d used that, you probably would’ve lost the candidness of the shot.” She bites her lip, then takes the plunge. “And it… you wouldn’t have wanted to interrupt a really fun evening.”

Peter lights up with a speed that astonishes her. “Yeah?”

MJ very, very willfully does not smile, because she’s already given away too much. “Yeah. You know. As best as you can get spending a Friday evening on math homework.”

Peter laughs, and he sounds relieved—and hopeful? Maybe she’s projecting. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s great, I just—I mean, I took it without you knowing, and I didn’t want to make you feel weird.”

It definitely, definitely makes her feel weird. And exposed. And—

Seen.

“It’s fine,” she says. “It was good enough from a technically standpoint for Catz to be impressed. And, um.” She shrugs and looks intently at her shoelaces. “…You can tell you put a lot of care into it.”

A pause.

Then: “It’s easy when my subject’s pretty great, too.”

MJ jerks her head up at that, but Peter’s already walking back over to the board and she doesn’t feel like broadcasting her wtf does that mean across the room.

Instead, sits back down in her chair and watches as he clips it back to the string. It’s definitely still weird seeing a picture of just her in their classroom.

Weird enough that she might have to adjust her ‘Peter Parker likes Michelle Jones’ calculations.

She grabs a pencil and starts working on her still life studies, deliberately not looking up when Peter comes back from his task to join her.

But if she happens to scoot her chair just a little bit closer to his, well.

It’s just because there’s better lighting.

#fictober20 #fanfiction #michelle jones #peter parker #spideychelle #spiderman

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dlwritings · 5 years

Text

His Plan | Peter Parker

masterlist found here

pairing - Peter x reader word count - 3,514 warnings - I guess FFH spoilers lowkey A/N -

summary - You’re far too shy to tell Peter how you feel about him. You always have been. He’s shy about it too, but decides to bite the bullet and confess a couple things to you on the school trip to Europe. His plan doesn’t, however, account for you feeling the same.

To say you didn’t exactly like high school was a bit of an understatement.

Under the dictionary definition of loner, it said: see (Y/N) (Y/L/N).

For most of middle school, you were unbothered by it, but then your freshman, sophomore, and junior years passed, and you were over it. At that point, you were so close to the end, everyone already had their friends. If you tried to squeeze into a group, you’d just be intruding.

Not that there were many groups you wanted to be a part of anyway. There was only one. It wasn’t exactly a group, per say, just a few people you observed from afar who seemed like cool people to hang out with.

Okay, maybe cool was pushing it.

To the rest of the school, kids like Michelle Jones, Peter Parker, Ned Leeds, and Betty Brant weren’t exactly cool. To you, though, they were exactly the kind of people you could see yourself spending time with. They didn’t all exactly hang out together. Obviously Peter and Ned were inseparable, but MJ and Betty were like background characters to their friendship’s main storyline. You would’ve done anything to be cast as an additional role.

The thing was, you didn’t know how to make friends. You hadn’t done it since elementary school, and you figured people were a lot harder to befriend now. You couldn’t exactly share a box of crayons and become immediate best friends in science class like you could in kindergarten.

When the school announced a small class trip to Europe, you were really eager to go. Even if you spent the whole time alone, who wouldn’t want to spend two weeks in Europe? And maybe, just maybe, you’d finally get the courage to talk to some people.

On the plane ride, your seat was right behind Peter and Ned. You felt like your stomach was filled with butterflies. Sure, you wanted to be friends with Ned and Peter, but sometimes (all the time) you wanted to be a little bit more than friends with Peter. You had gone to school with him since elementary school, and had been crushing on him just as long. Sometimes you would stare at him from across the room and look away the minute he looked back. Even if he smiled in your direction, you cursed yourself for getting caught. He probably thought you were the weird loner girl, just like everyone else did. No one wants the weird loner kid staring at them. Sitting behind them was perfect because you could stare at Peter without him ever realizing it. Not that the back of his head was particularly infatuating, but you were going to take what you could get.

About halfway through the eight hour plane ride, you felt your eyes start to close. You leaned your head against the window and folded your arms across your chest, trying to get comfortable. Just as you felt yourself start to dose off, the person next to you -a classmate whose name you didn’t actually know- stood up, startling you back to alert consciousness. Switching seats with her was Peter. “Hey,” he said awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. Was he talking to you? “Uh, is it okay if I sit next to you? The, uh, the lady in front of me and Ned’s got really strong perfume. It’s giving me a headache.” You assumed the girl next to you had already agreed to this deal, so you just nodded. Inside though, your stomach was turning. Shit. How could you stare at him now? He’d notice you for sure. And how were you supposed to sleep? All of your senses were on overdrive. Every breath he took rang in your ears. The fact that his knee was only a few inches away from yours made your skin burn. You could smell his cologne (Deodorant? Laundry detergent?) every time you breathed. Yeah. There was no way you could sleep.

You were both quiet for what felt like hours, but you were sure it had only been a few minutes. “Hey, do you maybe want to watch a movie?” he asked. “I, I got this headphone splitter. Unless, sorry, unless you wanted to sleep.”

“I’ll, I’ll watch a movie,” you said. Peter’s face lit up and he fumbled to plug his headphone splitter into all the places it needed to go. Watching him made you bite your lip to hide your smile. Why was he so cute? More importantly, why was he talking to you? When he finally got it all connected, you started scrolling through the movies.You were both torn between Monsters Inc, one of the Harry Potter’s, or the most “recent” It movie. You were both kind of grateful that no movies came out during The Blip (With half of the world’s directors, producers, actors, and what not dusted, who was going to make a movie?), because it meant you didn’t miss much in the cinematic world. You were never a fan of scary movies, but Peter seemed kind of excited about watching It. All he had to do was give you a look -Was it possible for a person to be part puppy?- and you caved.

It didn’t take you long to regret it. You jumped at every scary part and had to cover your mouth multiple times to stop from screaming. There was one part where Pennywise started to climb out of the projector screen, and you ended up reaching out and grabbing Peter’s arm, closing your eyes and turning your head away. You felt Peter tense up, so you immediately let go. “Sorry,” you said, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear. You took your earbuds out and let out a shaky breath. “I, maybe this is just a little too spooky for me. I think I’m going to get some rest.”

“No!” Peter said. “Uh, we can watch another movie? It’s no big deal. I’m not that into this anyway.”

“It’s okay,” you said. “I’m feeling pretty tired. I want to make sure I’m awake when we get to Venice. You finish it up. Tell me if it’s any good.”

To avoid any further awkward interaction, you closed your eyes and leaned your head on the window again, mentally running through all the things you had done wrong.

When you got to Venice, you were all given your rooms and some free time to explore. Mr. Harrington wanted you all to meet at a restaurant at 6:00 for dinner, which gave you four hours. You, as had been your plan, wandered off alone. It had been your dream for ages to go to Italy, and there you were. You brought your camera -an old film one that had once belonged to your mom- and felt like the ultimate tourist, but you loved it. You knew some people liked to blend in with the locals when travelling, but you didn’t mind standing out.

All you really wanted to do was walk the streets. You didn’t want to go to a museum or pay for a gondola ride. You just wanted to spend a few hours staring at the beauty of Venice. It was so different from Queens, and you already knew the few days you would spend there wouldn’t be enough. You were only about a block away from the hotel you were all staying at when you heard someone call your name. You turned and saw Peter jogging over to you. Your cheeks instantly felt warm. You stopped walking and let him catch up to you. “Where’re you headed?” he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

You shrugged. “Just gonna walk around a bit.”

“Do, would you, do you maybe want some company?” he asked. You bit your lip and nodded.

“Yeah. That’d be nice.”

Peter smiled. “Ah, uh, cool. Cool. Okay. Let’s go.”

The two of you started to walk towards the center of town. At first, you were both quiet. You couldn’t think of what to say to him. You didn’t even know Peter knew who you were. Now it felt like he was around every corner on this trip, and it had only just started. How were you supposed to talk to this person you had spent (basically) your entire life pining after?

“This is my first time out of the states,” you said. You didn’t know why. It was just the first thing you thought of, and you had to fill the weird silence. “Have you ever?”

“I went to Germany, uh, before The Blip,” Peter said. “Mr. Stark, it was a trip he took me on.”

Of course. Of course the first thing you say brings up a memory of Tony. Nice going (Y/N). Just the person he wanted to talk about. “I’m sorry,” you said, shaking your head. “I didn’t mean-”

“It’s okay,” Peter said. “It was a fun trip. I, uh, I met a lot of really cool people.” You knew you should’ve ended the conversation there, but you and your stupid big mouth had to keep talking.

“Do you miss him a lot?” you asked. “Like, how close were you guys?” Peter cleared his throat and stared ahead of him. You turned to look and swore you saw tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” you said, shaking your head. “That was dumb. Of course you don’t want to talk about him. I’m-”

“No, no, it’s fine,” he said, assuring you again. “We were really close after, uh, after Germany. I just wish I, I got to spend more time with him after The Blip, you know? It was like I was back, and then he was gone. It didn’t really feel fair.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “But I learned a lot from him. He was cool. So, yeah, I miss him a lot.” You wanted to ask more questions, but you already felt like you were intruding. If you wanted to get Peter to fall in love with you (Was that the goal?), this probably wasn’t the way to do it.

Peter moved on from that conversation really well. Sure, he was a little awkward, but you two ended up talking a lot. You talked about favorite movies, plans for after high school, family, and hobbies. You found yourself falling more and more in love with him with every step. A few times your hands brushed together, but you both jumped away at the contact.

When it was time for dinner, you and Peter didn’t want to rejoin everyone. Still, you knew Mr. Harrington would go crazy if you didn’t go back to the class. They’d think it was Washington DC all over again, like when Peter first disappeared. Why had Peter disappeared?

“Hey Pete?” you asked as you got nearer to the restaurant. He looked at you, a small smirk on his face. You realized that you had just given him a nickname, or used one that wasn’t reserved for you. “Sorry, uh, Peter,” you said with an awkward laugh.

“No, no, you can call me Pete,” he said. “It’s just, not a lot of people do.” You were both quiet. You had a moment where you wondered if Mr. Stark called him that. Something in his eyes told you he did. “Anyway, what were you going to say?”

“In DC,” you said, “when you all went on the decathlon trip, everyone said you disappeared when they were in the monument.”

“Yeah, I, uh,” he stuttered, “uh, I just kind of, I wandered around. Kind of like now. Like we’re wandering around.”

“And then Spider-Man showed up,” you said, “and you didn’t see him?”

“No,” Peter said. “But, you know, I talk to him all the time. With Mr. Stark and everything.”

“Did you talk to Mr. Stark about it?” you asked. “Did he know Spider-Man was gonna be there?”

“Yeah, he was really impressed,” Peter said. “Said it was a good thing he acted so quickly.”

You tried to get a good read on Peter’s face without it seeming too obvious that you were staring. You didn’t know him that well, but he seemed like a terrible liar. There was definitely something he wasn’t telling you, but you just didn’t know what it was. You also figured it wasn’t your place to force anything out of him. After all, this was pretty much the first time you had spoken to him. Hadn’t you already pried enough?

Dinner flew by, as did the rest of the evening. You spent most of it glued to Peter’s side, which meant you were glued to Ned, MJ, and Betty too. How had that happened? You hadn’t even been on the trip for 24 hours and you were already spending time with the people you had been wanting to since you were 14. And you were pretty sure they were having fun.

When dinner ended, you all headed back to the hotel. Mr. Harrington wanted to make sure you all had enough energy for the day ahead of you, so he wanted everyone to get a lot of sleep. You said goodnight to everyone and headed off to your room. You couldn’t fight the smile on your face as you changed into your pajamas. What a day you had. You shot your parents a quit text telling them how much fun you were having and decided to head out to the balcony. You couldn’t stop staring at the beauty of Venice. You brought your camera out, snapping pictures of anything your lens could see.

There was a knock at your door, so you set your camera down and jogged over to the door. You assumed it was Mr. Harrington checking in, but you opened it and found Peter. “Oh, hey,” you said, furrowing your eyebrows. You were suddenly feeling self-conscious in your pajama shorts and tank top. Peter was wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt, and his cheeks seemed a little pink.

“Hey,” he said. “I was just, uh, it’s, I was wondering if, you maybe wanted to watch a movie. Since, you know, we didn’t finish the one on the plane.” You suddenly realized he had his backpack on, because he took it off and dug through his bag. He pulled out a few movies, dropping some of them accidentally. He let out a mumbled curse word and picked them up, then showed them to you. He brought some Pixar movies, his Star Wars box set, and a couple random comedies like 21 Jump Street and Neighbors. You grinned and stepped aside, letting him into the room. Before you shut the door, you looked down the hall to make sure Mr. Harrington wasn’t there. You didn’t think guys and girls were allowed in the same room past the curfew he had established for the night: 9:00. It was 9:15. You shut the door before anyone could walk by.

Peter was awkward, needless to say. He kept scratching the back of his neck, looking anywhere but at you. You didn’t know what to do. You finally plopped on the bed and smiled at Peter. “What do you want to watch?” you asked. “You’ve got a lot of choices.”

Peter laid all the DVDs out on your bed, letting you see the full array. “You pick,” Peter said. “I picked last time. Unsuccessfully.” You giggled and glanced over the titles, finally settling on Cars.

“This is one of my favorite Pixar movies,” you said. “A lot of people don’t like it, but I do.”

“It’s good,” Peter agreed. “Totally underrated.”

Peter popped the DVD in the TV (Both of you said a mental thanks that it had a DVD player built into it.) and joined you on the bed. You kept a good amount of space between the two of you, both of you really tense and unsure.

Your mind was reeling with the why. Why was Peter there? Why was he hanging out with you so much on the trip? Why was his hand inching closer to yours? Why did he smell so good?

Peter was thinking about the how. How should he tell you he liked you? How was he supposed to get this girl he’s been liking for his whole life to fall for him? How could he hold your hand without being weird? How did you look so cute all the time?

You both decided to speak your minds at the same time.

“(Y/N) I-”

“Can I-”

You both stopped and looked at each other awkwardly. You reached for the remote and paused the movie. “You can go,” you said.

“No, no, you go,” Peter said. “What were you going to ask me?”

“I just wanted to know, if, um,” you said, “maybe, uh, I guess, like-” What were you trying to ask him? Why are you talking to me? Do you have a crush on me? Are you aware of how deeply I love you? “You go first. I lost my train of thought.”

“Um,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, “I just, I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a long time, but I’ve never known how. And I see that it’s really, it’s probably weird. You’re probably going to think I’m really weird. It’s just, okay, so I should just say it, right? Instead of stammering like an idiot. I should just say it.”

“Peter-”

“I really like you, (Y/N),” he said. “Like, I’ve liked you for a really long time. And I know it’s weird because, because you don’t even talk to me, and I’m sure you didn’t even know I existed until this trip, but-”

“Didn’t know you existed?” you repeated with raised eyebrows. “I didn't think you knew I existed. Peter, I’ve had a crush on you since, like, kindergarten.”

“W-Wait, are you, are you being serious?” Peter stuttered.

“Yes I’m being serious,” you said, laughing and shoving his arm slightly.

“Oh,” Peter said plainly. “Cool.”

“Cool?”

“I don’t know how to respond to this!” he said. “I didn’t think we were going to get this far. I didn’t have a plan for if you liked me back.”

“A plan?” you said, raising an eyebrow. Peter’s cheeks turned pink right away.

“Uh, yeah,” he said. “I had this, this really big plan of how I was going to tell you I liked you and then, and I was, oh-” He cut himself off by digging through his backpack again. “I, I got you this. It’s okay if you totally hate it, I just thought-” He cut himself off with a sigh and handed you a small bag. In it was a necklace with an odd, small charm on the end. You looked closer and discovered it was-

“A spider?” you said. You looked up at Peter to see his cheeks were even more red than they had been earlier.

“That’s the other thing I wanted to tell you,” he said. “I’m, uh, well, I’m-”

“Oh!” you said, understanding washing over you. “You’re Spider-Man!”

“Shh, shh,” Peter said, waving his hands for you to lower your voice. You giggled and bit your lip, spinning the necklace in your fingers. You handed it to Peter and gathered your hair over one of your shoulders.

“You think you could put it on?” you asked him. He swallowed and nodded, then watched you turn your back to him. If Peter was a little more bold, he’d probably start kissing the skin of your neck like he had always wanted to. But he wasn’t, so he just used his shaking hands to clasp the necklace around your neck. Peter let out a small sigh as you turned and revealed the spider charm resting on your chest. “Thanks, Pete,” you said, letting your fingers fiddle with the charm. Peter just nodded, speechless by how well everything was going. This was definitely not part of the plan. But he didn’t mind.

“So,” he said, finally clearing his throat and finding his voice again, “should we watch the movie now?”

“Or, we could maybe not watch the movie?” you suggested.

“Oh do you want to watch a different-” Peter cut himself off in embarrassment as he realized what you meant. “Oh. Oh yeah. Yeah that, that could-”

You just laughed and grabbed his hand, pulling him with you onto the bed. He fell with an oof at your side as you pressed play on the movie. Feeling a little more confident than you had a few minutes prior, you cuddled up to Peter’s side, resting your head on his shoulder and your hand on his stomach. Peter put his arm around you, hoping you couldn’t feel how fast his heart was racing.

You could, but you didn’t mind because yours was too.

“So, so we are watching the movie?” Peter asked with furrowed eyebrows. You just laughed and rubbed your thumb along his stomach.

“You don’t need to have a plan for everything, Peter. Let’s just see where the night takes us.”

—– —– —– —– —–

TAGLIST

@bangtan-serendipity | @planetdemon | @the-singing-clown406 | @tomshufflepuff

#peter parker #peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader #peter parker fluff #spiderman #spiderman imagine #spider-man #spider-man imagine #marvel #avengers

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why-this-kolaveri-machi · 5 years

Text

two things, and i love their implications:

1. mysterio’s real name isn’t quentin beck. we never really find out his actual name.

2. beck and his associates are seen stalking peter in the background in venice before the water monster strikes.

so “quentin beck” is born in the aftermath of civil war, right? he’s already fuming because tony stark not only had the gall to appropriate his revolutionary tech for a personal plaything and fire him in the process, but he and his band of costumed super-friends end up fighting amongst themselves and throwing each other in jail (which--let’s be honest for a second here. how in hell is naming your team ‘the avengers’ not a huge branding mistake?? nobody wants you to clean up a mess--they want that mess to not happen. beck doesn’t think he’s going to need a lot of effort to come up with a better message).

so. anyway. it’s not long after that that the ‘avengers’ basically close up shop; this means that an entire hyperspecialised r&d division dedicated to making their toys is out of their very, very hyperspecialised jobs. the legal loopholes that they had to jump through and the million secrecy clauses hidden in their mind-numbingly voluminous job contracts means that there are multiple dangerously brilliant people who know a lot of dangerous secrets running around without a job, and almost all of them are furious with one anthony edward stark. a lot of them are absorbed into SHIELD--or what remains of it, anyway--but beck attracts the outliers, the most brilliant, the ones who could match his mania measure for measure and produce things the world would be dazzled by. he would out-tony-stark tony stark, and he would do it right. none of the messy backstory, none of the fatal character flaws, none of the silly flying costumes and sillier friends--he would be untouchable. his first step is to choose a new name--something short, sharp, memorable, and brand-able, like ‘stark’. he chooses ‘beck’. for a first name, he goes for something that suggests old-timey legacy and would stand-out and stick in a random person’s ear: ‘quentin’.

quentin beck and his team are on the cusp of launching their ideas when the Snap happens.

quentin survives.

he doesn’t want to talk about it. he thinks he even forgets what happened in those few minutes, and if for the first few months he can’t bear to touch anyone and gets panic attacks at the sight of friggin’ dust motes it doesn’t really matter, all right? what’s more interesting is what he learns in the first few chaotic months after half the world turned to dust: that it was because of some megalomaniac space alien, and that the megalomaniacs who were supposed to protect them all had had their asses handed to them. tony stark gives up and retreats to the country; the remaining avengers are in a shambles. this is not the part that surprises beck; the part that really gets to him, really fucking sticks in his craw: people still believe in them. they still cheer when war machine flies by in his clunky metal suit and wizards shoot lasers from their magic circles; they’re still waiting for some last minute miracle from an alien who drops out of the sky and fixes this gaping, bleeding wound in one fell swoop. all of beck’s genius, all of his ideas and his dreams to change the world are nothing next to some costumed idiot who can shoot lasers out of his hands. fucking lasers!

well, fuck. if it’s the era of the superhero, then quentin beck’s going to go all in.

obviously he doesn’t have any actual superpowers (guterman suggested being “artfully irresponsible” with dangerous radioactive material, and quentin hopes he was only joking), so he’s going to need the resources that tony had. in the general chaos after the Snap and as a consequence of stark’s operations shrinking even further, it doesn’t take him very long to find janice and william, and through janice, exactly what he needs. combining his intuitive projection tech with william’s drones creates the spectacle he needs to convince people that he’s the real fucking deal.

he brainstorms with his team for his superhero character: capes and lasers are a must, obviously. scaly, skin-tight armour ala thor: check. metal chest plate and gauntlets like iron man: check. hell, make ‘em light up; the kids will love it. intricate designs on the cape and where it attaches to his chest plate: hell, why not. that’ll invoke those new york city wizards and give conspiracy theory nuts some meat to gnaw on. and a smoky dome over the head because by now beck is tired and rendering a believable human face, even under a mask? really fucking difficult without taking a huge dive into uncanny valley. he’ll get there one day, but for now his character gets a fishbowl on his head.

all of this takes a long-ass time to put together, and by the time beck thinks he’s anywhere close to putting his operation on a test-run, the Snap is reversed, everyone comes back, and tony stark is not just dead, but a goddamn martyr. the other heroes come back. the Snap is now a Blip--a name that shows just how desperate people are to put the last five years behind them. iron man and the avengers are not just heroes anymore but mythic figures--if beck wants to stand a chance of even matching up to their status, he needs to start getting more ambitious, and take more risks. he needs access to all of tony’s armoury, and he needs to infiltrate SHIELD.

through janice and stark industries’ less-than-stellar post-Blip security, he finds out that not only did tony leave behind a master control for an entire planetart defence system, but that he left it to a kid. a literal sixteen year old child. a child! at first, quentin can’t quite believe it--tony’s ego was planet-sized, sure, but it can’t have been that big? maybe this peter parker is actually a 3000 year old alien changeling or something.

oh, no. oh no no no no--peter parker is no alien. he’s spider-man.

it takes beck less than a week of stalking the kid to find out that he’s the guy in the head-to-toe spandex and bug-eyes that’s been rescuing cats from trees in queens. beck watches him go to school; watches him fool around with his friends and slink into a corner to have a silent cry when he thinks no one’s looking. he watches him suit up and break up muggings and accompany lost old ladies home at night on one hand and stop speeding trains and dodge bullets on the other. beck watches the kid leverage his status as a superhero to draw in funding to house the post-Blip homeless, yet quail at the very idea of having to deal with a problem any bigger than his own neighbourhood. it’s almost cruel, beck thinks, that tony stark left the burden of his legacy on this affable, compassionate kid, but stark was always a selfish bastard.

he sees peter parker crumble in front of stark’s grave on one particularly difficult night, sobbing until he’s practically dry-heaving with the force of it, and quentin beck makes up his mind. he’s going to get peter to give him tony’s legacy of his own free will. it’ll take him some time to put everything in place--he’s going to need guterman to revise the script that they’d been working on; everybody loves sci-fi crap about alternate timelines and multiverses, don’t they?--but the kicker? he’s going to swipe everything tony worked on (stole!) like he’s taking candy from a baby.

besides, he’s sure peter will thank him for it.

#mcu #spiderman #spiderman far from home #far from home spoilers #mysterio #quentin beck #tony stark #peter parker #um i think i just accidentally wrote ~1000 words of backstory for mcu!mysterio #i swear i didn't mean to

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canyouhearthelight · 5 years

Text

The Miys, Ch. 48

This chapter got away from me a bit, but I brought it back and I kinda like it!

If you haven’t seen your fave characters recently, don’t despair. There is so much going on now in the story that I’m having to be careful to pace myself.

Mentions of food and alcoholic beverages. Mentions of dom/sub culture. Lots and lots of fluff, plus one insane cat.

After trying a belly-aching amount of chocolate, our new friends decided to leave for the night. I was sad to see them go – I found myself really liking Charly – but when she explained that several hours in the packed crowd had left her drained, I couldn’t argue. I get peopled out, too, I had explained. She was delighted by my and Tyche’s term, testing it out and finding it the perfect way to describe what she felt.

Once we waved them off, my two chaperones and I decided to tackle the last item on our list. We carefully weaved our way through the crowd, Conor wordlessly going in the front to break through the crowd and Maverick behind me to bring up the rear. With surprisingly little difficulty, we managed to reach our destination: The Undine, Sebastian Reed’s new pub. Like most areas on the Ark, the outside was nothing out of the ordinary, although I knew the door had been replaced with one whose sweeps and swirls of texture translated to Noah. At first, the Hujylsogox method of marking doors and corridors had meant nothing to any of the humans on board, but after this long it held a kind of eerie beauty and even I could see that the pattern here was new and unique, even if I didn’t know what exactly it said.

The inside was a completely different story, however. Originally a little-used lounge area, the space had been transformed into a crisp, high-end restaurant that nonetheless invoked the feeling of standing in a low-heeled but well-maintained pub. Even the ever-energetic Conor had to just stop and take it in for a few moments. “This is incredible,” he breathed in awe, eyes closed.

“Mmmhmm,” was the only reply I could muster as Maverick watched us both with a small grin before he gently tugged on both our elbows.

“Sebastian’s coming,” he murmured before gesturing with his head.

Sure enough, as soon as we turned, there was the owner himself. “Welcome to The Undine,” he greeted us warmly, reaching to shake my hand. “Councillor Reid, it is wonderful to finally meet you.”

“Sebastian Reed,” I nodded my head toward him. “This is Conor MacMaoilir and Maverick Okima.”

“Bastian and I go back a bit,” Conor assured me, clasping the man’s hand and clapping his shoulder roughly. “Same therapy group, ‘bout since we came on the ship.”

The bar owner nodded before turning to Maverick. “Lieutenant Okima. Thank you. It’s an absolute pleasure to tell you that in person.”

“I’m not a lieutenant anymore,” Maverick tried to correct him uncomfortably. “Just Maverick is fine.”

“Well, just-Maverick, thank you all the same. Without you, we may still be mining ore, and I probably wouldn’t have this,” Sebastian gestured at the crowded pub. “Let’s get the three of you seated.”

I gently reached down and squeezed Maverick’s hand. He glanced down and flashed me a quick smile, squeezing my hand back. The tall pilot was still adjusting to the idea that people appreciated the things he did, and being shown gratitude left him in uncharted territory as far as social interactions went. With as much time as he spent with me and Conor, we had both quickly noticed that it helped if he just had one of us to ground him. Nonetheless, he was still holding on to my hand as we were ushered to a table in the back corner.

“Surprise!” Tyche grinned as she stood to give me a hug. She didn’t even try to dislodge Maverick’s hand and just included him in the squeezing. When she stepped back, I noticed that, instead of her usual flowing cardigan, she had on a sharp black bomber-style jacket that I had never seen before, and made a note to mention it when I had a chance.

“VIP treatment?” I joked, cocking an eyebrow at Sebastian. “Other people will get very jealous.”

He waved the comment away. “Councillor Reid – “

“Sophia” the four of us corrected him as I heard Antoine start chuckling in the background.

“Sophia,” he grinned, “It was your suggestion that this place even exist. Antoine supported me completely when I mentioned my hesitation to him, and your sister was incredibly insistent. Add to that Maverick and Conor, and I really can’t think of anyone who better deserves a reserved table during the grand opening. So, have a seat, and I’ll bring out drinks in a blip.” Before I could even make a token argument, he vanished into the crowd.

“I already told him our orders,” my sister explained, drawing my attention back to her.

I nodded before gesturing with both hands. “I’m loving this jacket, woman! Where did it come from?”

Instead of answering, she gave a pointed look at Maverick. “It’s tradition,” he explained hesitantly while rubbing his neck, a gesture he had picked up from Conor. “She completed about six pilot certifications on the same day, so it felt right to give her the jacket. It’s like a graduation present.” Nervously, he glanced at me.

Tugging his arm down, I held on to his elbow. “Hey, it’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong, I swear. I was just curious because I’d never seen it before… wait.” I jerked my head to look at my sister before turning back to Maverick, wide-eyed. “Did you say six certifications? On the same day?” Biting her lip, Tyche nodded and turned pink with the laughter I knew she was holding back. Maverick nodded emphatically in agreement. “Holy rabies! That’s amazing!” I squealed and practically tackled my sister in excitement.

To my utter shock, her jacket attacked me. The black-furred collar started squirming, sharp claws hooking into my shoulder in its attempt to get away. Before I could step back, it pried itself out from between me and Tyche before shooting itself behind me to attack Conor. I whirled around, panicking, only to see Conor neatly catch the disgruntled collar as it yowled in a plaintive and familiar tone.

Throwing my hands up in exasperation as Mac glared at me and Conor tried not to die of laughter, I groaned. “I’m done. That’s it. My sister is a pilot, has a snazzy jacket, and the collar turned out to be a cat. My life is officially a cartoon.”

Antoine took his chance to jump in the conversation. “At least sit down and have a drink with us,” he gestured with a grin toward the empty chairs. Conor was the first to claim one, Mac still taking shelter with the giant of a man. Before I could take a seat, Maverick slid into one and tugged me onto his lap by my wrist, laughing at my disgruntled expression. As she sat down, Tyche gave the three of us an odd look before glancing at Antoine, who just shrugged.

Once our drinks arrived – I was delighted to find out that I had, indeed been given the Bloody Mary I hoped for – we shared our experiences with the festival so far. Tyche had not found the chocolatier on either of her visits, but very smugly gushed about the patisserie that I had searched for in vain. The tiny ramen bowls had been a universally huge hit, it turned out, as had the kosher, halal, and Jainist vendors.

When we got to the point where we bumped into Charly and Coffee, Maverick threw his hands out to interrupt. “Hang on, someone explain the collar to me please? You promised you would.” He looked at me pointedly.

With a sigh, I glanced around the table. “Anyone else want to tackle this first?” When no one spoke up, and all three of them smirked, I shook my head. “Traitors,” I muttered before turning to Maverick. “It’s a sign of serious commitment in dom and sub culture. And I mean serious.”

“You know,” Tyche chimed in, tapping her nails on the table. “That’s something that hasn’t really come up a lot, at least that I’m aware of. I know it’s barely been a year, but not even the Council has said anything about how marriage is going to work now.”

I furrowed my brows as I thought about it, realizing she was right. Conor nodded, eyes wide, but Maverick looked confused. “What do you mean? Wouldn’t something like that work the way it always has?”

“That’s the problem,” Antoine pointed out. “There is no ‘way it always has’ for something like that. Before the End, there had to be some sort of legal process for a marriage to be recognized, and even then, it wasn’t recognized everywhere. Polygamy, for example, was widely not recognized, and there were even still a few small regions that did not recognize same-sex marriage.”

“Wait, polygamy?” Maverick asked, shaking his head. “But Councillor Hodenson’s parents – “

“Were only recognized within their sect,” Conor pointed out. “But in a legal sense, they had no standing.”

“Can we please table this?” I asked, resting my chin on my folded hands. Maverick was drumming his thumb on my hip in agitation. “Let’s enjoy the rest of tonight and save the major issues for… next week. I agree this needs to be addressed before it comes up and there’s a huge mess, but right now I want to enjoy time with my family.”

I felt Maverick stiffen behind me, his fingers digging painfully into my hip. The next thing I knew, Conor dumped Mac unceremoniously into Tyche’s lap and made his way around the table in two ground-eating strides. Gently, but firmly, he wrapped his arms around both me and Maverick, ignoring the confused looks he got from Tyche and Antoine.

“Hey hey hey,” he chanted softly into Maverick’s hair. “It’s okay. That means you, too, man. That means you, too. You’re family. You stay. She meant you, too. You’re family, Maverick.”

Leaning back into the both of them, I dug Maverick’s hand from my hip and wound my fingers into his. Something wet trickled down my cheek, and I realized that Maverick was crying. I felt terrible. I never meant to make him think he had to go. Reaching one hand back to hug him the best I could, I realized Conor’s head was still buried in his hair, and tracing back further found Maverick holding onto Conor as desperately as he was holding on to me.

After a few minutes of us just sitting there like that, Tyche finally broke the silence. “Why do I feel like I shouldn’t be watching this?” she asked Antoine in a loud mutter.

It was just enough to break the tension, and the three of us started to laugh. “I must look awful,” Maverick chuckled, pulling his hands away so he could wipe his face and try to fix his hair. Hopping off his lap, I let him stand up.

“Come on,” Conor smiled, eyes red. “Let’s get you cleaned up, man.”

I must have watched them walk away for a bit too long, because I heard my sister clear her throat. Like a deer in the headlights, I turned to face her.

“Mind telling me what that was?” she grinned evilly.

I was in so much trouble.

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#the miys #humans are weird #human are space orcs #science fiction #sci fi #found family #aliens #earth is space australia

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the2020romanceproject · 4 years

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Review: The Wedding Date

(Or: Maybe I should only read the first half of romance novels from now on?)

Book two of my year of romance was Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date! I was excited about this one, since I had actually heard of it before I started reading romance, and also it has fake dating which is always gold. And I did enjoy it...up to a point. More on that below. :)

First, a summary: Alexa is chief of staff to the mayor of Berkeley. Drew is a pediatric surgeon in L.A. They get stuck in an elevator together when Drew is in San Francisco for his ex-girlfriend’s wedding to his med school classmate. Drew was supposed to have a date for the wedding, but she cancelled, and on a whim he asks Alexa to go with him instead as his pretend new girlfriend. She says yes, and they have a great time at the wedding and fall in bed afterward and have great sex. Drew secretly changes his flight to leave later in the day on Sunday, and they spend the day together. They’re both hesitant because they know the other person isn’t looking for anything real here—Alexa in particular knows Drew doesn’t do relationships—but they keep reaching out to each other, and Alexa goes down to L.A. to stay with Drew the next weekend. There’s a brief blip where she texts him to ask if he’s sleeping with other people and he makes a joke instead of answering seriously and she cancels their next weekend together; then he runs into her (very conveniently) when he’s back in SF for a conference and they fall into bed again. Then there’s a more serious blip where she meets a bunch of his exes who let it slip that he broke up with each of them around the two-month mark when it seemed to be going really well. Alexa gets upset, refuses to let Drew say anything about his intentions because she doesn’t want to be hurt, and sneaks out of his apartment in the middle of the night to fly home early. Drew realizes how much she means to him and flies up to L.A. to support her at a hearing for the at-risk-youth arts initiative she’s pushing for, and the two of them happily reconcile (and the initiative passes). He shows her the job offer he got from his mentor at a San Francisco hospital, and she tells him yes, she wants him to move here. There’s an epilogue a year later where he takes her back to the elevator where they met and proposes.

I feel like I spent my last review talking entirely about why the book fell apart in the middle for me. This book also fell apart in the middle, but I’m going to start with some things I liked/noted about it, so as to not spend ALL my time complaining about shortcomings. :)

Things I really liked:

Chemistry. Alexa and Drew are both super charming. Their back-and-forth was really enjoyable to read. It was a big part of what got me into the book: I wanted to see these two charming people grow to like each other. All the thing where they’re at the rehearsal dinner and wedding and enjoy touching each other were really nice to read.

Tropes. This one had such good tropes! Stuck in an elevator together! Fake dating! Anything with plausible deniability, where they’re acting like they really like each other but each one thinks it might not denote real interest, is just the most fun. This one gave up the plausible deniability aspect way sooner than I would have expected, but still: great tropes.

Race. Alexa is black and Drew is white. I am also white, so my perspective here is not informed by personal experience, but I really liked how this was handled. Alexa does experience some microaggressions and outright racism—not from Drew—in ways that felt realistic to me. Drew doesn’t try to explain away any of the racism, which made him seem like a good potential partner to her. There was also a thing where he failed to understand a thing in her past that was impacted by race, and when she explained it he listened and accepted his ignorance. She was still concerned that he’d like her less for having made him aware of his privilege, which felt like a very sad and real fear. Overall, it felt like racial dynamics were allowed to come into the text in nuanced and organic ways that kept Alexa from being a token POC. (Jasmine Guillory is a POC herself, so I’m not surprised that this is handled well, and there are probably other things about it that I as a white person didn’t even pick up.)

Body type. Alexa is curvy! She’s embarrassed about it! But Drew loves it! As someone who fills out the top of a cocktail dress pretty well myself, I really appreciated both sides of this: the realistic body issues from someone raised in a society that valorizes thinness, and the way the text kept affirming Drew’s attraction to her. There’s a racial component to this as well—lots of skinny blond girls in this book—but it was something I was able to identify with even from my different societal context.

Things I noted/was surprised by:

How soon they had sex. At some point I’ll stop being surprised by this in romance novels. I’ve read a lot of fake dating stories, and written some, and I would have expected the charade to go on a lot longer before they had actual sex that couldn’t at all be explained away by the fake dating scenario. The purported fakeness of it is the fun part! They both think the other one isn’t interested for real, while their own feelings continue to grow! Why would you cut that part short?? As soon as they kissed and admitted to each other that they wanted it for real, the tension dropped from a ten to about a two. This book got a decent amount of mileage out of that lower level of tension—more on that below—but it’s so surprising to me that it didn’t keep the much more interesting and trope-y tension going longer.

Consent and power dynamics. This book was super good about consent: Drew made sure to check in about what Alexa wanted, and it was played for sexual intensity, where he clearly got a kick out of hearing her say it. But it was very, very one-sided. There was no implication that Alexa needed to check in with Drew on what he wanted. This wasn’t a surprise, exactly, but it did stand out to me, since I don’t read a lot of het (and honestly this is a big part of why—I don’t want to encounter gendered power dynamics in my leisure reading). Consent felt like a thing the woman had to give the man. I’m not saying this is a problem, necessarily; just something I noticed.

Sex scenes. The sex scenes almost faded to black but not quite. Maybe they faded to gray? I felt like I knew pretty much what sex act they were doing and when, but they weren’t described in any real detail. It was an interesting compromise, like the book was trying to give us a clear sense of their sexual relationship without any real titillation. I wonder if this is a genre thing—I’m not sure this book was published strictly as romance—or if it’s just Guillory’s style.

Romcom careers. They’re chief of staff to the mayor of Berkeley and a pediatric surgeon. Those have GOT to be two squares on the romcom career bingo card. I’m teasing a little, but I think this kind of character background serves an important role: we have to know that they’re accomplished, valuable people, so that when they feel rejected or insecure we can revel in it—look, they feel like I once felt! But it’s unjustified and they’ll end up happy!—instead of actually questioning the characters’ worth. Fanfiction usually gets over this hurdle by writing about characters the readers already know and respect and love, or, in the case of RPF, writing about people who are for-real successful and famous. Romance novels have to introduce us to brand-new characters, and one of the easiest ways to make us feel sure that these characters are worthy of our respect and of the other character’s love is to give them prestigious and intellectually or creatively rigorous careers. I’ll be interested to see how many other instances of this I run across.

Two points of view. It strikes again! Do all romance novels include both points of view? I don’t hate it, necessarily—but it does decrease the overall tension. You don’t get caught up in one character’s desires as strongly when you’re seeing both POVs.

Immediate attraction. Another thing I should probably stop being surprised by. Both Alexa and Drew are very physically into each other as soon as they meet; he has trouble not looking at her breasts, and there are so many narrative references to her wanting his touch, wanting to move closer to him, etc. To be fair, I think I’m pretty far toward the “not attracted to complete strangers” side of the spectrum, so I might not be the best judge of this, but it did feel a little over the top. I suspect this was an attempt to make us really want these two to be together. I think it was trying too hard—a more genuine reserve would have been more compelling to me, where they like each other but don’t immediately want to jump each other. Also, they’re going to a wedding together as fake dates! You don’t have to try that hard to make us interested!

Food as comfort. This was such a strong recurring thread in this novel. Alexa has a sweet tooth, and Drew is always getting her doughnuts; they get a lot of very satisfying takeout. It gelled for me with the thing where a lot of the satisfaction in the novel came from the comfort of “oh, this person is touching me; oh, they like me back.” Comfort instead of angst.

Subplots. One of my questions in approaching this genre was whether romance novels needed to be more novel-like than fic—i.e. whether they needed to engage with a plot beyond the romance. This does have a very slight B plot (Alexa’s youth initiative, which is connected to her difficult relationship with her sister) but it’s VERY slight. The book has an even less prominent subplot about one of Drew’s patients who develops cancer. Alexa’s subplot resolves, whereas Drew’s is only backdrop. Drew’s in particular is used the way I’d use a subplot in fic: it’s included to provide an excuse for scenes with or about Alexa, or to affect Drew’s mood in ways that reflect or influence the romance plot. It serves the romance instead of being an independent plot in its own right.

Okay, so those are my observations. Time to dig into the thing where this book lost me in the middle—much like the last book I reviewed, but for entirely different reasons.

I’ve already talked about the drastic drop-off in tension after they slept together. That actually was not what lost me this time. This novel managed to build enough of a rapport between the two characters that I was invested in their relationship becoming real. To be clear, I would have preferred that the fake dating trope go on longer and create opportunities for actual longing. But this novel wasn’t so much about longing; it was about that delightful feeling when you like someone and you reach out tentatively and they meet you in the middle. It was the very, very gentle tension of, “Maybe we could hang out today?” “Sure!” over and over, as a relationship builds. It was fluff-adjacent tension. Super enjoyable, the way a warm bath is enjoyable. I wasn’t dying to get to the end or anything, but it was nice.

I did wonder, about halfway through, how the heck this book could possibly keep going like that. And it turned out it couldn’t. That was when it introduced: the Misunderstanding Plot.

Don’t get me wrong. I love a good misunderstanding plot. But they are hard to do well. They work best when they feel unforced and genuine, and don’t make either of the characters carry the idiot ball. Like, say, if Drew and Alexa hadn’t had enthusiastic sex where they talked about how much they wanted each other, and they were still under the impression that it was a fake relationship, it would be very easy to have the other character accidentally confirm that and drive a wedge between the two of them. Or if one of them was starting to think it WAS real, and then they overheard the other person confessing to someone else that it was totally fake. (Don’t mind me; just thinking about ways I might write it.)

The problem with this one was that they were basically just dating at this point, so in order for drama to arise, the characters had to act badly in ways that felt forced and off-putting. They’d known each other for a week and a half; things had been happy and a little giddy and chill between them so far. Then Alexa texts in the middle of the workday to ask if Drew is sleeping with anyone else. (Because that is the perfect way to initiate an important relationship conversation, obviously.) He makes a joke, because he is clearly also very good at this, and they don’t speak to each other for a week and a half.

Guess which one of them this makes me like more? That’s right! Neither!!

Look. I like characters who are stupid about their own feelings and blind to other people’s. But I also like characters who, when they know about the other person’s feelings, are very, very considerate of them. Drew was not—and Alexa compounded the problem by being confrontational with the question and then abruptly pulling back as soon as she didn’t get the magical easy answer. In short, it made me think that they were bad for each other.

They recover from the texting thing when they just so happen to run into each other (I mean, I can’t throw stones, I’ll buy the coincidence) and are happy to see each other, and apologize, and everything’s fine. But by this point the novel had lost me. I had been enjoying the happy dance of “Does s/he like me? Ooh, s/he does!” but only so long as it lasted. They didn’t have a strong enough core after a week and a half to get through the badness of those texts. They were happy again, but I wasn’t invested. I was mostly reading so I could write this review.

Then, fascinatingly, the book won me back.

It was a very specific passage that did it. On page 190 of the paperback, Alexa talks in the narration about how she wouldn’t admit this to anyone other than herself, but ever since that first weekend with Drew, she’d imagined him in bed with her every night as she fell asleep. And I was sold. I mean, it was still very gentle tension. But! A thing the character wanted that she wasn’t getting! I could be into this again!

And then...well, this is already super long, so I won’t go into all the details of the misunderstanding that ended the book. It had a lot in common with the text message fiasco: Alexa felt insecure, got upset that Drew might not be into her, and refused to engage with him about whether that was true. (Okay, it was actually more egregious than the texts, in that she wouldn’t let him speak.) Her getting upset made sense, but her refusing to let him speak when he was clearly trying to felt SO forced.

The funny thing is, there was actually a seed of potential real conflict there: Drew hadn’t really admitted to himself that he wanted a long-term thing with her. He could have told her that. He could have done anything, really, to indicate that and create a real conflict. (Also tricky to handle without him coming off as not actually interested—but doable, I think.) As it was, he didn’t call her his girlfriend at a party—which, it had been like a month, and they hadn’t discussed it privately, so it’s totally appropriate not to throw the term around in public yet!—and...that’s it. Everything else was just her fears, and the very cowardly way she handled them. I guess that’s relatable? But it felt so engineered. It didn’t so much make me dislike her as make me annoyed with the text for twisting her response so that they couldn’t have the very short conversation that would have cleared everything up.

In fairness to Guillory, a friend who’s read the whole series tells me she does better with misunderstanding plots later. But I’m really, really excited to read a romance plot that doesn’t lose me halfway through.

Next up is Red, White, and Royal Blue. I’ve been told this was basically written for me, so I’m hopeful. Fingers crossed it sticks the landing!

#romance novels #reviews #jasmine guillory #the wedding date #romance meta #fanfiction meta

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themattress · 5 years

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Spider-Man purists are bad enough...

But MJ purists are really galling to me.

They railed against Kirsten Dunst’s portrayal in Sam Raimi’s film trilogy, they railed against Shailene Woodley’s portrayal in TASM 2 before it was cut from the movie entirely, and now they’re railing against Zendaya’s Michelle Jones in the MCU. It seems they just want Mary Jane from the 616 comics (and those spun off directly from it like MC2, SM:RYV, and the newspaper strip) directly adapted every time. But how often has that ever actually happened?

Ultimate Comics version - Pretty and popular, but also a nerdy science student, girl-next-door childhood friend to Peter and quickly becomes his secret keeper and personal confidante, basically composited with 616 Gwen Stacy and even gets a variation of the bridge scene.

Spider-Man Loves version - High-school student version based off Kirsten Dunst’s portrayal, a good-natured popular girl who is more open about all of her personal vulnerabilities.

YA Novel version - Very similar to the above.

Exiles version - Butch lesbian who has spider powers, in a relationship with Sunfire.

Mangaverse version - Hyperactive ninja girl who has spider powers.

1602 version - “Marianne Jane Watsonne”, a Scottish actress.

Spider Gwen version - Leader of a rock band and an irritating Alpha Bitch.

Life Story version - An even more damaged divergence from her introduction in the 616 comics: basically her if she had never gotten her act together. Not at all pleasant to read.

Earth X/Reign/Zombies versions - All of these versions literally just exist to be fridged. The first two literally die of the same thing (cancer), while the third is killed by a zombified Peter!

Gamerverse version - A combination of the 616, Kirsten Dunst, and Ultimate Comics MJs. There are elements of all three, but it still stands as a unique portrayal of the character.

Other video game versions - Pretty much always just an NPC supporting character that you need to help out, usually poorly voice-acted. In one famous case, she can get fridged.

1967 TV version - Accurate to the 616 version’s party girl personality at the time, but composited with Gwen Stacy in that she’s related to Captain Stacy (she’s his niece here) and has strawberry-blonde hair instead of red hair. Also, her voice-acting is laughably bad.

1994 TV version - Has the 616 version’s introduction and her personality is on point toward the start, but gradually becomes more composited with Gwen Stacy, complete with her getting the bridge scene. And not only is she badly voice-acted, but her design is an eyesore.

Unlimited version - Just a one-scene cameo in the first episode. No personality to speak of.

MTV version - Based off Kirsten Dunst’s version. Cool design, but more bad voice-acting.

Ultimate TV version - Loosely inspired by the Ultimate Comics version in that she follows a career as a journalist, but otherwise has more in common with Lois Lane or Vicki Vale.

2017 TV version - Silent cameo in a tiger (get it?) mascot suit in just one episode. That’s it.

Marvel Rising version - Based off the Spider Gwen version, but with the dumb Alpha Bitch personality removed in favor of being more good-natured like the Ultimate Comics version.

Spider-Verse version - We know nothing about her other than the fact that she’s Peter Parker’s wife. And her Peter Parker is nothing like the 616 version, so she likely is too.

So yeah, has there been any version that adapted 616 MJ precisely? Why, yes, there has:

The MJ in The Spectacular Spider-Man is a direct, faithful adaptation of the 616 version: same build-up and introduction, same beautiful red-headed appearance, same extroverted party girl facade and refusal to commit to a relationship in order to hide from her inner pain, the only thing that’s not adapted is her cringy 60s dialogue. Cool, so what does she do?

......Pretty much nothing.

She’s introduced and looks like she’ll be a big character, but then recedes into the background and mostly hangs around Gwen, trying to get her out of her shell and being a shipper on deck for Peter/Gwen. The most she gets is a storyline about a failed relationship with Liz’s brother Mark and bonding with Liz in the process, which is mostly contained to just one episode (episode 24, the third-to-last episode in the series). Yes, I get that the show being cancelled is a major contributor here, but I still don’t think that’s the only problem. Greg Weisman and co. tried to adapt 616 MJ exactly, which included her not being that important of a character for a while in spite of all the build-up, with her only becoming Peter’s true love and a three-dimensional character later (after Gwen died, although Spectacular probably wouldn’t have waited until then since the writers were unsure they’d ever kill Gwen off). The problem is that this only worked for 616 MJ due to the comic book medium, with years of issues to allow character and relationship development. But when adapting to a vastly different medium like TV, you can’t necessarily get away with that, and that’s exactly what happened here: because they didn’t do anything meaningful with MJ before the show got cancelled, she ended up being one of its more forgettable, less impressive characters. When people think of who oughta be Peter’s true love in Spectacular, it’s either Liz or Gwen, or maybe even Black Cat if you’re into Foe Yay shipping. MJ isn’t even a blip on the radar.

And this was a TV show! Can you imagine the kind of problems a series of movies could run into when trying to adapt 616 MJ? How long would be appropriate to keep the blind date build-up going before introducing her? How long would be appropriate for her to keep the party girl facade up and remain a secondary character? Would Gwen’s death be necessary for her to mature and start a relationship with Peter, or would something else be the catalyst - but would 616 stans accept something else? How long until she and Peter are married? Will they even get married? Can you keep an actress on contract for the amount of time all this will take? Will the actress be any good? Will she have chemistry with the actor playing Peter? Will audiences just find all of this annoying since at this point in time MJ as Peter’s true love is common knowledge and they’d prefer for the movies to stop beating around the bush?

Bottom line: let other versions of MJ be other versions of MJ. Stop expecting the 616 version to be brought to screen. I get it, you’re pissed off at Marvel’s treatment of 616 MJ, but the thing to do is to keep rallying for them to fix that shit in the actual 616 comics rather than constantly try to enforce this kind of conformity on every version of MJ that comes along.

#Marvel #Spider-Man #Mary Jane Watson #Opinion #Analysis #Comparison #Fandumb #Stupidity #This has been a PSA

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theinquisitivej · 5 years

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Spiderman: Far From Home – A Movie Review

After an animated masterpiece gave us what many consider to be the new best Spider-Man film, and after a monumental finale to a developing narrative that was twenty-two movies in the making, what hope does a sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming, a movie praised by many but seen by others as not much more than just middle-of-the-road, have of satisfying an audience who have been especially well catered for when it comes to superhero movies connected to the man who does whatever a spider can?

Well, it turns out it’s got a pretty good shot, because I got a lot more out of Spider-Man: Far from Home than I ever expected I would.

Jon Watts returns from Spider-Man: Homecoming as the director for its sequel, and with that comes a cemented sense of identity, as Far from Home takes the praiseworthy parts of Homecoming’s personality and places even more emphasis on those elements. The aesthetic for the Home series isn’t as palpably noticeable as something like Guardians of the Galaxy or Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, but it nevertheless maintains a consistent tone with the previous film which makes this particular perspective of the MCU feel lived in. There’s a charmingly grounded feel to how characters will engage in idle conversation about certain major events from other MCU films in a way that jokingly downplays moments or story beats that were presented with heart-wrenching gravitas in other films. It’s amusing for invested audience members, but it’s also an effective method of reminding you that this world is inhabited by a population who are routinely affected by world-spanning comic book shenanigans, but don’t have the advantage of hearing first hand what the hell is going on. As such, developments like Captain America going on the run become background news that gym teachers are only semi-aware of in the previous film, and, in Far From Home, the “blip” that erased half the population then brought them back 5 years later is just another thing that people have grown to live with. The film even feels comfortable enough to use it for comedic effect when one of the characters uses the blip to put Flash in his place when he’s being insufferable, and that is so endearing. As a result, while the visual aesthetics of these MCU Spider-Man films may not be as immediately striking or distinctive as other branches of this franchise, they provide a consistent tone of down-to-earth sincerity and people just getting on with their lives that makes them really pleasant experiences.

And while last year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp was an enjoyably sprightly heist movie which nevertheless felt out of place and too rushed out after we were still reeling from the weighty punch of Infinity War, Far from Home not only improves on its namesake predecessor, but also acts as a remarkably suitable follow-up to Endgame. The sombreness of Endgame’s first half and the epic scale of its second half are contrasted by the everyday levity and more personal stakes shown in this film. The action is inventive and varied enough that you’re interested to see how Spider-Man deals with foes we’re not used to seeing cinematic depictions of him fight against (elemental and… other, more spoiler-y threats), in environments that are labelled as ‘far from home’, outside of his typical comfort zone of New York. The comedy works because of a comforting sense of cohesion to the characters which make them work well together, and yet the dialogue is natural and flexible enough that you always see the individual traits of each character shine through. With a diverse cast of commendable talents like this, that’s a treat.

But while the film is a remarkably appreciated light-hearted palate cleanser, that doesn’t mean it’s pulling its punches with its heavier dramatic moments. This film deals with a teenager who watched someone he looked up to die in front of his eyes, and is now confronted with a world filled with iconography and heated discussion about that idol, and some of that fervent conversation is even directed at him as everyone asks if he will be the person to step up and take the place of his hero. It’s an emotional state that makes you feel so much for Peter, especially as Tom Holland has gone from strength to strength and solidifies himself as the definitive version of a young Peter Parker in my eyes. He’s killing it in this, selling the subtle balance between Peter having some newfound confidence to be able to stand up for himself and make his own decisions about what he wants and who he is, while also being racked with guilt, expressing uncertainty of the world of large-scale superheroics that he’s had a taste of but isn’t sure he wants to go back to, and retrospectively questions his own actions. A subtle detail in the film that does a lot to convey Peter’s current state of mind is his spidey-sense (Peter-tingle) not being quite as sharp as we might expect it to be – Peter is having trouble trusting his instincts. This, and his general anxiety over where he’s heading and his fears of the past are masterfully represented in one reality-bending sequence which shows some of the darkest imagery Marvel has ever put in their films as it puts all of Peter’s inner turmoil and doubts up onto the screen.

SPOILERS IN NEXT PARAGRAPH

But what works especially well in this film for me is how it creates these brilliant parallels to the first Iron Man to commendable effect. Both films feature ceremonies near their opening in which the hero is expected to attend and someone close to them criticises them for not quite presenting themselves correctly (if at all), as well as protagonists who question how the legacy that’s been left to them should be best used, villains who seek to use that legacy and the technology of Tony Stark for their own selfish ends (and both villains use the distraction of a more immediate seeming threat to disguise their manipulations behind the scenes), before concluding with the heroes having their secret identity revealed to the world. And of course, both feature tech-savvy geniuses working on their superhero suit in a holographic workshop while ACDC music plays, and the only thing I love more than that unspoken “this kid has everything in him that made Tony Stark great without him realising it” moment is Peter saying “Oh I love Led Zeppelin”. These parallels allow for a neat bookend of this whole arc of the MCU with Iron Man starting us off while Far from Home brings it, well, home. But they also reinforce the main theme of Peter’s emotional journey as he asks himself if he can, or should be the next Iron Man. The answer, as Happy tells us, is that no one could live up to Tony Stark, not even Tony. Peter doesn’t need to worry about being the next version of someone else, but the first version of himself. The film uses these connections between his character and Tony’s, between Far from Home and Iron Man to show us that we can move forward with confidence as we establish our own identity and take the parts of the people who inspire us along with us. Far from Home echoes a lot of the characteristics of Iron Man but ends up being something new, and it is exactly in that way that Peter ends up honouring Tony’s memory while still moving forward by the end of the film.

There’s a lot at play which could have stacked the deck against this film being a critical success; between the explosion of artistic creativity on display in last year’s singular Into the Spider-Verse, and Endgame’s entanglement with gargantuan levels of audience investment allowing for once-in-a-lifetime emotional payoff, I expected for a long time that Far From Home would be unfavourably compared to these two relatively recent blockbuster triumphs. But it was exactly the film I needed for this series after Endgame, and full kudos to the showrunners, I wasn’t anticipating that. It’s packed with youthful sincerity, delivers an adventure with scaled back yet more personal stakes which makes the whole thing feel that much more meaningful, and while I enjoyed seeing the kids in their own environment in the school in the last one, the trip through Europe makes it an enjoyable journey. The more time passes, the more I appreciate about what it achieves under the surface with its character development, inspired connection with other films in the series, and its ability to capture the experience of trying to find your way.

Final Ranking: Silver.

When all the threads of the MCU have been tied up by Endgame, who better than a spider to start weaving the first strands of the next web.

#The Inquisitive J #film #movies #film reviews #movie reviews #critic #criticism #film critic #marvel #mcu #spider-man #spider-man far from home #spider-man far from home review #far from home #far from home review #the inquisitive j reviews

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that-shamrock-vibe · 5 years

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Movie Review: Spider-Man Far From Home

Disclaimer: Just like Avengers: Endgame, I cannot stress enough how spoilerific this movie is. I feel just reading a general overview as I am about to give here may taint your viewership if you don’t want to know anything going in. I will strive to be as spoiler-free as possible and just give enough of a tease to push non-committed cinema goers to go and see it but if you do not want to know anything about this movie going in, do not read on until you do.

General Reaction:

This is probably my favourite live-action Spider-Man movie to date. Into the Spider-Verse is still in my opinion the best Spider-Man movie overall, but this is definitely my favourite live-action one. Just as there is an in-movie debate about if Spider-Man should become the new Iron Man, I feel that debate may also be going on amongst both MCU fans and Marvel Studios in-house in terms of making both the character and movie franchise the MCU’s new focal point since Iron Man’s departure in Avengers: Endgame and the original six seemingly bowing out as the core team.

I don’t think I have ever gasped or wanted to cheer so much in an MCU movie, even in both Infinity War and Endgame where everyone was doing it, myself included, this had them beat for the legitimate surprises that the ad campaign managed to keep secret, possibly to the movie’s detriment but I’ll get into that in my spoiler review.

Even 11 years since the MCU started to build up the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, just to see essentially a European tour with some new locations and already visited places, including one or two that I’ve visited personally, was really great to see.

There was so much that managed to one-up itself, not only from Spider-Man: Homecoming but also from what is now the Infinity Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and in a way set the tone for the next phase and new era, that it was a wonder to behold.

The action sequences and visuals are some of the best I have seen in any movie. It made me want to see it in 3D and I actually think next time I might pay to see it in 3D they were that good.

As I said, with the ad campaign keeping so much of the movie secret, I don’t know how inticed fans will be to see the movie because it just looks like your run-of-the-mill Spidey flick but it is so much more than that.

I cannot say how good this movie was, the locations, the action, the danger, the emotion, the humour, everything came together so perfectly in this movie and you feel not only what it’s like to be in a superhero movie with a high school twist but also with that added peril of the “blip” aftermath.

You feel the ramifications of Avengers: Endgame throughout this movie, both in terms of Tony’s death and also people being wiped from reality and returning. They explain it quite well, because I know that the end of Endgame many fans were wondering why exactly Peter and Ned were back at school as if back to normal, they explained that rather well here.

Also, there are callbacks to earlier movies in the MCU so intrecally woven into the story and so shocking that it blew my freakin’ mind to think that Feige could have actually somehow planned this the whole time.

I saw this movie mere hours ago and so possibly cannot quite compartmentalise everything I saw into what is spoiler and what is not, so I will probably splurge out everything I haven’t covered here in the spoiler-review. But seriously I cannot stress how great this movie was.

Cast:

As I said in my opening, I am starting to see Tom Holland be able to stand front and centre as the main hero of the MCU, I know it’s supposed to be Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, but this movie even snubs her and we will get to that when we talk about Nick Fury. But Holland is just so likeable as Peter Parker and so genuine and comics-accurate as Spider-Man that I can never see another live-action actor portraying this character. I loved Andrew Garfield but Tom Holland is my Spider-Man as Robert Downey Jr. is the definitive Iron Man.

Zendaya continues to prove why she is such an up and comer as one of Hollywood’s best young actresses. Genuinely I see her on the same level as Letitia Wright and Naomi Scott, while she’s maybe not as funny as Letita Wright she has a realistic yet dark humour with MJ that is really relatable.

Jake Gyllenhaal is as good as Mysterio as I hoped he was. What he did with the character here is of a similar but admittedly better quality to what Michael Keaton did with The Vulture and, Rhys Ifans did with The Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man and even what Thomas Haden Church did with Sandman in Spider-Man 3, they all made their respective characters interesting even though before seeing these cinematic versions I either didn’t know of them or didn’t care about them.

Peter’s school group are okay, they are necessary to the movie as Peter can’t go on a field trip himself, but they just kind of fade into the background. Ned continues to be an annoyance for me, Flash is just your typical noughties bully and Betty...we’ll get to Betty.

The most surprising breakout for me in this movie was Remy Hii as Brad Davis, I remember seeing this guy on Neighbours a few years back. He’s definitely upped his game a bit since then.

As for Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau and Marisa Tomei, they have some great scenes and they are as you expect them to be. It definitely helped to not focus too much on the younger actors and have some relief with the more mature content at times.

Also, without going into spoilers, there is something revealed in the end-credits scenes that made me exceedingly happy. I’d say these are the best end-credits scenes, two of them, since Doctor Strange in terms of setting up the future of the MCU.

Recommendation:

This is as close to a perfect Endgame aftermath movie as I could have imagined, it doesn’t try and ram in what everyone is doing post-Endgame but focuses on a bit of light relief mixed in with some rather serious and consequential actions along the way.

Even if you are on the fence about seeing the movie, I know I’ve said this a lot recently but, this is one of those hot topic talked about movies that you need to see regardless of if you think the trailers are only meh.

See it for yourself and take in the wonder because I guarantee you will not leave the movie with the same thoughts you had going in.

So that’s my non-spoiler review for Spider-Man: Far From Home, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Marvel Movie Reviews as well as other Movie Reviews and posts.

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help-its-a-dot · 5 years

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Alright so when I took this job they said all I had to do was narrate. You know, just follow this guy around and relay what he’s doing, make it sound interesting, yada yada yada.

Ok now that I say it out loud I realize that I’ve probably looked like a stalker for the past few days.

Fun.

ANYWAYS I was going somewhere with this; I had a point. Right. My point was that I didn’t think I’d end up in the middle of a burned down park, cowering in absolute terror behind some rocks that I really wish were bigger, and longing with all that's left of my heart that I could be one of those people that are, given the situation, naturally sprinting away whilst screaming at the top of their lungs.

Should I run away? I mean, it seems like the more logical option here; If I could get over that bridge, then I’d-

*bridge disintegrates*

Well there goes that.

Looks like I’ll be narrating then! Yippee. So, I should probably warn you, I haven’t exactly been paying attention to my assigned main character, ergo I don't have that much background knowledge. Oh who am I kidding, I have none.

Anyhow, sorry, I know I should be narrating. I’m getting to that. Background knowledge. What do I know?

Uh, actually nothing much happened to this dude. A few weeks ago he found a dead body in his bathtub. Now that I think about it, that’s probably where I should’ve started paying attention….

Ah, fucked this up, didn’t I.

Also, as a side note, I’m gonna be calling this dumbass Jake because my dumbass kind of sort of didn’t ever really at all catch his name.

Alrighty folks! I’m gonna…. Be brave…. And peek out from behind these rocks…. Did I mention how much I wished they were bigger?

Ahem. *clears throat*. Narrator voice. *nods decisively*. Lets go.

There’s fire everywhere. On the tops of trees like snow at the peaks of mountains (how are there even still trees here) bushes have morphed into bonfires, while patches of grass are practically leaking little flames like a dope game of ‘the floor is lava’.

Jake stands, looking at the devastation with wide eyes. Smoke billows out into the sky, painting the already grey clouds black.

A deafening crash sounds behind him- you know, the kind you get when a boulder squishes a four story building like it’s a three year old’s structure of off brand legos. He’s thrown to the ground, and waits, breathing heavily.

Aw god why did I forgot my flask of vodka today? I freaking need it.

And as if that weren’t enough, a spaceship just blipped into the sky.

Should I run?

I should probably run.

Sorry, sorry, I’m not very good at this narrator thing. In my defense, I didn’t think they were serious! Alright, I’m gonna try that again.

Suddenly, and quite literally out of nowhere, there’s a fatally blinding blue-red light, making everyone in the immediate vicinity-- which isn’t that many people anymore, most have used their last few remaining drops of common sense and fled for their lives --squeeze their eyes shut and hastily bury their heads in whatever was nearest and most convenient to shield themselves from impending blindness, wailing in a mix of surprise and agony. All flames previously terrorizing the verdure are extinguished and the smoke is blown out as a single gust of forceful wind, which also effectively topples the few remaining, yet charred nonetheless, trees, buildings, and people.

Augh, ew, eurgh, I got a mouthful of Martin’s grocery bag. How do I know it’s Martin’s? They have a distinctive taste of mild sadness and resignation. Right, right, the spaceship.

See, when I say spaceship, I mean cool looking flying saucer thingy appearing like it was plucked right out of a conspiracy theory and given some upgrades. It’s a giant, azure/ultramarine blue, except for the bottom which shines in a weirdly mesmerizing yellowish glow, squished sphere. Oval. Pancake. Sorry, I don't know my shapes. It seems to be practically thrumming with energy, like it drank five red bulls followed by ten extremely caffeinated coffees and finished it all off with a few five hour energy drinks.

I cannot tell you how much I hope it doesn't do what it looks like it’s gonna do and explode.

Meanwhile, Jake has picked up… a sword. Well shit. Medieval, much? Not a gun? No? Personally, I think a gun would be extraordinarily effective against the horde of what looks like blobs but are probably extravagantly dangerous aliens filing in a weirdly orderly single file line out of the saucer and immediately beginning to lomp closer and closer and closer crap did I mention they were getting closer?

Should I run?

I should probably run.

Hold up, no, that reminds me, I’m supposed to be narrating. God, I’m atrocious at this, aren’t I.

He feels sweat break out on his brow. The sword is heavy in his hands, and he can barely lift it, let alone decapitate a blob, but he’s in too deep to let his weariness show. He’s gotta be strong and save what’s left of these people, this city, or die trying. Which is probably what’ll happen in a few minutes. But ah, well, he’ll die fighting for Americanos , which can’t be all that bad.

Technically, if you think about it, he’s suicidal, because his colossal ego will not, quite literally, for the life of him, allow him to take a smart route, like getting into that convenient truck and bowling over all the blobs, or snatching up a gun from that store across the street, or even just alerting someone who is actually capable at dealing with an event like this like the authorities.

But what can he do, he is American, after all. It's simply unavoidable; part of the culture description. *white people i swear

He watches morbidly as Martin’s grocery bags blow past from the ruins before him, and glances up as the spaceship above him gives one final thrum and blips away, probably back to wherever it came from, leaving him alone with an army of blobs bouncing threateningly towards him.

In truth, he didn’t know what they were. All he knew was that if they kept destroying everything at this rate, there won't be a single McDonalds left in America, and he couldn’t have that. Of course, by then there wouldn’t even be an America, and everyone would have to go to the McDonalds’ in Russia. Russia has McDonalds, right? Oh, he simply could not do that to his fellow citizens!

He pondered this, along with whether or not Australia exists, all the while counting down the seconds (...7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1�� 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… dammit 3, 2, 1… 3, 2, 1… 3, 2-- he’d get it eventually) until his doom and willing his arms not to shake with the incredible weight of the sword in his hands. Whose idea was it to make swords out of metal, anyways? It’s incredibly stupid-- nowadays 90% of America wouldn’t even be able to muster the courage to touch one, let alone the strength to lift one.

Ugh, he knew he should’ve gone with that plastic light saber he’d seen at the mall. At least then he could’ve gone down with style.

As if on cue, there’s another, at this point expected, crash resounding behind him, and he turns to watch in despair as said mall tumbles almost comically to the ground.

There goes the light saber.

And another McDonalds.

Ohh, things were getting bad.

The park, if you could still call it a park, is deserted now save for the occasional Martin’s grocery bag skittering about, and he can’t help but give in to the desire to reflect upon his life. He wasted it, playing video games and other shit like that all day, every day. This is the first time he’s been outside in a long time. He now knows with absolute certainty that if he were ever granted such an opportunity he’d go back and redo it all. He’d try harder to beat that level, he’d get the better controller, he’d stay up later working on his technique. But all that was a distant dream now, something he could not hope to accomplish now.

He wished that maybe, just maybe, heaven would have a nice game console for him.

When he’d gotten selflessly sucked into this adventure, he never thought he’d actually die, never expected anything to really happen- If he had, he of course would never have turned the power of his last 8 braincells away from a computer screen and into the real world to start investigating.

Ah fuck, sorry for interrupting, I think I twisted my wrist or some shit while trying to get a better vantage point on these still too small rocks.

Should I run?

I should probably run.

On a different note: I’m really sorry guys. When you take a narrator job they never tell you anything about your person. Had I known he was American, I would have immediately sabotaged this entire thing; I could never in good conscience have subjected you guys to.. well.. this.

But alas, now I’m stuck narrating an American who is going to get me killed.

Unless… Unless there’s a loophole. My parents were lawyers, so I excel at finding those.

The rules are, you have to stay with your hero and narrate their adventure. How an American turned out to be one of the heroes, I know not, it must be a glitch in the system. But I’ll be fucking damned if this glitch gets me killed. Literally. So! Once the hero, inevitably, dies, you’re free to go. There’s nothing much left to narrate afterwards. And since Jake is closer to the horde of blobs coming our way than I am, as soon as he’s bowled over I’ll sprint. To the side, like a smart immigrant would do. Not straight back, because then the blobs’d just follow me and kill me, so the only logical conclusion is to circle around them and see if my apartment is still intact. I didn’t finish my cream puffs and I really don't want them to melt.

They’re getting closer. He can hear their squelching, and the chicken nuggets in his stomach churn unpleasantly. There’s bits of goo flying off them in all directions, and when said goo makes contact with something it immediately disintegrates that unfortunate something, leaving nothing behind. Is this really the fate that’ll befall him? Is this how the world ends?

Well, death by disintegration it is then. Oh, he can’t wait to brag to his boys about this.

Oh, wait, no, that’s not right. He’ll be dead.

And, in the last few moments before the blobs reach him, he reconsiders. There’s still so much this cruel world has to offer, and he never took advantage of any of it. Nor was he ever grateful for much of it.

He suddenly feels a new feeling. Determination. He will destroy every single one of these vile creatures, and he WILL come out of it intact. He has to.

With new resolve he scrapes together the last of his strength and raises his trusty sword over his head, every nonexistent muscle tense, ready. They’re getting closer. Closer. 50 yards. 30 yards. 20. 10. Just a few feet.

He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes dramatically. Swings his sword.

And is immediately squashed with the most sickening squelch there could ever be.

Ew.

Should I run?

I should probably run.

Yeah, I’m gonna run.

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mister-maiden · 5 years

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Alien Isolation: Screams can definitely be heard from MY space

The sound of alarms fill your ears as you run down the spaceship’s steel hallway. The walls are lined with blood and synthetic fluid which shine from the lights of orange sirens hooked to the ceilings. The only objective on your mind is to stop this distressing sound from waking whatever horrors lay dormant in the hull. As you make your way to the security station, you hear the faint sound of scratching slowly gliding across metal. The air duct shakes violently as you press the halt button on the terminal. The orange lights of the alarm stop flashing, and the noise dies. Not a sound could be heard as you look around to make sure you’re safe...Only to be met with a sudden crash from the ventilation just above you. A scaly, black figure suddenly drops into the room, its hissing growing louder as it seeks for its prey.

It has found you.

This is Alien Isolation, developed by Creative Assembly and released in 2014. Alien Isolation is a part of the Alien franchise created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett. The game takes place 15 years after the original movie. You are Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda Ripley. You have been told that a flight recorder from the Nostromo, your mother's ship, has been found and sent to a space station called Sevastopol which is where most of the game takes place. There is no inherent danger before you enter the ship, so you bring no form of self protection. The only things you have are the skills that earned you a place on the team. You’ll find weapons and items to use on your trek across the war zone that now is the Sevastopol. With your prowess in engineering and quick thinking, you’ll have to sneak around people hunting for food, synthetics (robots) glitching out, and an alien hunting for its next prey.

The setting of being in space was such an excellent decision. One already feels alone in the dark abyss that is space, having a horror game placed on a spaceship was perfect. The phrase that keeps playing in my mind is “In space, no one can hear you scream.” This isolation and lack of supplies only enhances the panic raging on the Sevastopol and its tragedy stricken environment.

So many things are broken and smashed because of the panic the creature had caused. Wires are sparking, oil is leaking, and corpses lay on every corner. Every man is for themselves on this ship and that becomes very apparent once you read the data logs left around, (much like Amnesia and Outlast’s notes). This place that was supposed to hold life and safety in a vast playground of death has become a hunting ground with no rules. A hopeless situation with no chance of survival, you’ll find the bodies of crew members and synthetics tossed around like toys...yet not a single alien corpse to be found, which makes the situation that much more confusing and horrifying.

The visuals are absolutely beautiful. The lights are radiant, the hallways are shiny, and the alien is horrifying. They definitely had to study up on the Alien franchise’s usage of visuals to completely nail this one down. Everything is polished and the controls feel very smooth. I was very impressed with how the visuals work as you look at your motion sensor. Basically, if you look down at your motion sensor, the background becomes blurry, so something could rush you without noticing it. You have to sacrifice your perception to gain a better look at what is around you.

I think it’s very difficult to distinguish the music from one game to another game because I look at the way in how it bends, moves, and the instruments. You have your typical panic induced crescendos in almost all horror games to keep the player’s heart thumping. You have your lighthearted fantasy guitars of RPG games to keep the character’s sense of adventure going...So how does Alien Isolation remain different and individual? Simple. It stays to its roots of sci-fi and uses elements of the same music used in the original movie Alien.

This isolation the player feels is not created by the atmosphere alone. The music is what really does it...because if you listen close enough...there is hardly any at all. Sure there is a faint drown of violin here and synthetically made music there to satisfy those sci-fi needs with a dull single noted hum, but the game does try to keep it pretty quiet. That is, until you find another person. It’s an excellent way to force the player to feel alone, which makes it all the more horrifying to come face to face with an alien that is nearly twice your size.

The enemy variety forces every area to have a possibility for death. People try to rummage for supplies to survive, synthetics roam the hallways in search of “helping’ people, and the alien scurries through the ventilation system. All of these variables means no area is safe. You may be walking across a hallway and suddenly you find yourself screaming, being dragged up into the shaft just above your head by sharp, black claws digging into your shoulders and a sword like tail being driven into your chest. It keeps the player on edge constantly. My favorite is when you approach a save station which begins to blink red when an enemy is nearby. Imagine turning around to see an angry giant rushing at you.

What’s different from other horror games like Outlast and Amnesia is the introduction of a crafting system and weapons which lets you defend yourself. This forces the player to go out of their way to have to look for supplies to create such things like flares, med kits, and distractions to keep the alien out of your way. It gives the developers an excuse to force the player into unsavory positions. Do you attempt to sneak around the enemies and not use up your supplies? Or do you try to kill fellow survivors and take their gear? Without the proper equipment, you may find yourself face to face with a situation you simply can’t handle...but do be careful. Loud noises draw the creature. You can also use this to your advantage to call the creature to groups of enemies and have them be taken out by claw rather than bullet. There are many places to hide like desks and lockers, but eventually it may just find you.

You obtain a motion tracker that allows you to look in a direction and see a small “blip” every time the sensor scans the area just like in the original movies. It doesn’t tell you whether it’s a person, a machine, or even a rat which makes it worse when you have to try and confront the “blip”. It helps you see when you are not exactly isolated and something is just around the next corner, waiting for you to pop your head out. This was such a unique edition to a horror game because we’re so used to getting jump scares. How do you make a jump scare out of something that is already there? Which brings me to my next point.

The alien is the ultimate pursuer. It’s senses, quick movement, and hunting prowess makes it impossible to face in head to head combat and THAT’S SCARY! Facing this unstoppable force when you have weapons that are supposed to kill things is scary. It’s the illusion of choice that truly makes the situation bad. You’re given these weapons like a flamethrower or pistol and yet it doesn’t even affect the alien. It doesn’t even phase the damn thing and only halts the inevitable. The story isn’t half bad. It’s the typical escape story given to most, if not all horror games. Amnesia: Escape the castle. Outlast: Escape the hospital. Alien Isolation: escape the station. I’d rather not discuss most of the story since this is merely a review, but I can say that you won’t be playing the game for the story. I can hardly remember the objectives and story lines, but I can clearly remember the areas and enemies I had to face.

This is such a fantastic game for me. I am a huge sci-fi nerd and have been waiting for a good horror game that incorporates this idea for so long. Not only does it introduce a great conflict in the un-biased nature of an alien, it forces the player to use their instincts and try to get around situations in their own way. You have to be smart about your choices and understand the AI just as much as the AI develops to your choices. It was a wonderful adventure that I have tons of hours on even today.

My Experience:

The game was absolutely horrifying. From the very moment I set foot upon the Sevastopol I could tell everything was amiss. Electronics were firing off randomly, scratches and bullet holes lined the walls, and not a soul was in sight to greet me upon arrival. The game truly makes you feel isolated as you make your way through the corridors to find the recorder from your mother’s ship. You have no comrades on this venture. You have no help. There is no one to talk to through this entire venture, and it’s a LONG adventure. It took me days to even finish this game and I love/hated every second of it. The game made me want to scream at times, and others I just wanted to stop because I was frustrated, but boy was I satisfied.

I’ve always been a big fan of sci-fi ever since I was in grade school. I was my old high school’s sci-fi captain. We met every week on Fridays to watch sci-fi films and eat snacks. We watched a bit of a play through of the game before I bought it myself to try. I was a fan of horror games at the time and had no idea what I was in for. I figured the story would be a typical escape story, but I was not expecting the level of detail in the environments and enemies. I’m glad I got to experience a bit of this game with someone who was special to me, my mother.

Now, Mom didn’t like scary things. In fact she made it a point to scream as loud as she could at the screen if something scary happened or yell at the television in dramas when she was angry which made it all the more horrifying to see an alien or synth...yet all the more comforting to know someone was by me. My parents didn’t really get my whole hobby in gaming, so it was a surprise when my mother wanted to watch a few hours of the game. Since gaming is more of a solo hobby when not talking to online friends, it felt awkward at first. I had to explain what buttons did what, what I was doing, or why we were trying to escape. One scene that stuck with me was when she told me to, “Kill the shit out of that thing,” as an alien charged at us. Of course I died and we both groaned in frustration, but that was some of the funniest moments I got to experience with my mom. She supported my hobby even if she didn’t understand it and I’ll always have a special place in my heart for her. Love you Mom~

#alien isolation #aliens #horror game #cult review

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daryldamnson · 6 years

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5 Times Bucky Barnes Wanted To Kiss You + 1 Time He Did - part iii

Part i - Part ii - Part iii - Part iv - Part v - Part vi

Pairing: Bucky Barnes X Reader

Summary: You’re a good friend of Tony Stark’s who decides to drop in for a while. Bucky can’t seem to help becoming captivated by you (and your lips).

Warnings: I don’t think there are any? I may have inadvertently added a swear word or two and not noticed?

Word count: 1k+

Can you believe I’ve had this finished and in my drafts for about two weeks now and I haven’t posted it out of pure laziness but I didn’t want to do a final read through to make sure there weren’t any errors? I suck I know.

In my world everyone forgave everyone at the end of civil war and now everyone lives together and iw never happened bc i refuse.

iii.

Bucky would admit to himself that you gained his trust quickly – quickly for him, anyway. It was so unusual for him, in fact, that he started doubting his own instincts and did a full background check on you. Despite one small blip, which you had already told him about in detail – the basics being that it included Tony, a not-so-legal backroom card game and two nights on the run from an angry mobster, you were completely clean.

His thorough search and, admittedly, your easy-going smile calmed his nerves, and Bucky was able to add you to the very short list of people he trusted wholeheartedly.

Which was why he was cursing himself for his lack of control when it came to you. All he seemed to do when around you was stare at your lips longingly (which he hopes that he covers better than he thinks he does) and awkwardly mumble responses when you expected them. If he gave himself away you’d have to have the uncomfortable ‘you’re interested in me, but I’m not interested in you’ talk with him and, not only would his heart shatter, but so would your blooming friendship. And that was quickly becoming something he didn’t think he could live without.

He usually did a pretty good job at quashing his feelings for you, and he tried especially hard to ensure that no one caught him looking at you with all the adoration that his eyes could express – which is something he’d first caught himself doing in the reflection of a microwave door. It wasn’t his smoothest moment, he’ll admit (he may have been so surprised that he almost fell off the barstool he was sat on), but he was honestly shocked by how hung up on you he looked – and how obvious it was.

He tried especially hard to hide this expression whenever his blonde counterpart was in the room. Though Steve had long since figured out his friend’s feelings for you, that didn’t mean that Bucky was going to make it easy on him – every time Steve would attempt to bring you up in conversation he would try to answer as nonchalantly as possible, so it certainly wouldn’t help his disinterested façade if he let Steve catch him looking at you like you’d hung the moon and all of the surrounding stars.

You didn’t exactly make it easy on him though.

He’d always loved the bright red lips of dames back in the 40s, it was one of the first things that attracted him to a lot of the women he dated – he couldn’t help but stare at those perfectly painted lips, all bright and pouty and just so fuckin’ beautiful.

So it didn’t really come as a surprise to him that he almost had a heart attack the first time he saw you with lip gloss on. Now, back in his day, lip gloss had been a thing – but it was mainly for movie stars who wanted their lips to shine on the big screen, and bright red matte lipstick was much more popular with the regular gals he’d date. So, yeah, he may have overreacted at the sight of your lips shining and pouty and oh so fucking beautiful – but, seriously, who could blame him? And the way your lips glinted as they curled into a smile at the sight of him on the couch? Well, he could’ve died as happy as a fuckin’ clam – and the way his heart seemed to stop and speed up all at the same time almost made that a reality.

After pulling his heart back down from his throat, he pulls a smile onto his face and tries not to look too awestruck. He’s not so certain he did a good job at that.

“What?”

You look at him suspiciously as you fall back onto the opposite end of the couch, right next to where his sock covered feet are crossed.

“Nothing, nothing.” The way his voice cracks means he isn’t as convincing as he’d hoped, so he shakes his head a little as if to reaffirm his words. The goofy smile on his face doesn’t help his case, but you let it go. It was a nice sight – both because Bucky deserved all the happiness in the world, and because his smile was quite possibly one of the most attractive things you’d ever seen.

You smile at him knowingly but say nothing, casually pulling his feet into your lap – a position that was regularly seen around the compound due to your tactile nature. You tickle the bottom of his left foot for a second (it was the best day of your life when you figured out that the supposedly dangerous and badass ex-soldier was ticklish) and giggle when he pulls it back only to lightly kick your hand away a moment later. Your hands come to rest on top of his feet, their warmth soaking through the socks and onto his skin. The indirect contact makes his entire body hum almost as much as skin-on-skin touching does – which may be a testament to how long he went without gentle contact, but, really, he thinks it’s just evidence of how smitten with you he is.

His gaze travels from your hands up to your face, which has now turned in the direction of the TV, eyes concentrated on the sitcom he’d left on out of pure boredom. The colours of the TV flicker in the reflection on your lip gloss, and maybe he drools a little at the sight of the slick shine of your lips. He honestly doesn’t know what it is that makes him so captivated, except that they just look so goddamn pretty.

As much as he tries to refocus his attention on the sitcom, Bucky finds his eyes straying back to your lips frequently – and finds himself fantasising about leaning over and pressing his lips against the pouting, shimmery curves of yours even more. He holds himself back, purely out of fear – he’s absolutely certain that you have no romantic intentions towards him whatsoever.

He’s wrong.

You’d caught onto his staring and, he didn’t know it, but that was the first time you started to get the hint that maybe your feelings for him were reciprocated.

Sorry this took so long! I’m back at uni soon so my posting schedule is going to be even worse than usual, just an fyi.

Let me know if you want more!! Comments are welcomed and appreciated!

Taglists are open - just drop me an ask if you want to be added! I have a permanent tag, as well as character tags, fandom tags and series tags.

Perma-tags: @im-socialy-awkward-no-joke - @thats-what-i-call-british - @midnightdream83 - @izawrites

Marvel tags: @thelostverse - @everydayanotherkink

Bucky Barnes tags: @poeticbarnes - @petals-sunwards - @slender--spirit - @barnesbabygirl - @yourpal-yourbuddy-yourbuckyy - @jitterbuck - @alexalltimelow - @unfallen-angel

5+1 tags: @italyand5soslover283 - @manymanyenvelopes

(if your tag is struck through that means I couldn’t tag you, and I suggest you check your settings just in case! also I type these out every time so if I’ve made a spelling error that means I couldn’t tag you, just let me know!)

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes headcanons #bucky barnes drabble #bucky x reader #bucky x you #bucky imagine #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes headcanon

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mentallydatingahotcelebrity · 6 years

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My Friend Saw Ragnarok

Here’s her opinion on it. Warning: she’s a writer. She only has a “casual” interest in Marvel; ie she’s not a fan of Loki, is mildly interested in the MCU as a whole, and only talks about it cause it’s all I talk about outside of our writing. (We’re both writers.) Here you have it, an outside opinion of Ragnarok:

(second warning: this is unedited except for some things I think would be hard for people to understand, which I revised to be understandable.)

LOL YES ugh. It was just bad. Okay, to compare, GotG was like that. I almost didn't like those movies the first time around because they're one of those movies where nothing is really explained, you just sort of have to go into it blindly accepting all of these random alien life forms we've never seen before and their powers and planets and scientific laws and such. It was hard for me as someone who likes a lot of reasons and lore for things, to just jump in and be swept into the current. But then they started to grow on me because once you watch them again, the nonsense of it makes sense. That's the point, that you're just suddenly joining this world that you've never seen before and just have to jump in feet first and go with it. Sakaar was like that in a bad way. The aesthetics were terrible, like I said. Literally Star Wars meets Teletubbies meets the Exodar (from World of Warcraft).

(there’s Exodar so you have a visual)

Oh and throw in some... I dunno, 70s space themes or something??? It was just BAD.

And the Exodar was BEAUTIFUL and I looove the Star Wars themes, Teletubbies, not so much LOL But mash all 3 of those together and it's terrible. Just terrible. None of those things belong together. It's like trying to put two magnets together, end to end. It's just a freakin mess and you just sit there, your muscles all locked up, trying to get it to work but it's just not happening.

And WHAT was that wretched prison/holding cell thing where the fighters were kept? That was just weird, and why did you only ever see TWO freakin gladiators?? And the rock guy was kind of cool, like you really wanted to like him but the rock appearance with his weird high pitched voice just wasn't doing it for me, and then that other alien guy who I couldn't even describe to you visually because we never saw him long enough to know what his features were. And obviously Hulk was living in the champion's bedroom, so that was that; but whyyyy did they put Thor in there with him?? It was such a bad plot point because it was just way too convenient. Like "This guy lost because we zapped him at the last second because [who knows why]. Let's throw him in the same room as our champion instead of tossing him back in the pen with the other 2 low-lifes."

There were so many other fighters outside the colosseum getting ready to fight; where WERE those guys?? We never saw them. This whole movie was like convenience to convenience. It was like reading an indie novel. Nothing extra is ever shown,only exactly what you'd expect and exactly what was needed for each scene. You might, if you're lucky, see a rare moment where a really neat plot point or worldbuilding things was implemented, but those moments were more like flukes than anything else.

The plot overall was "okay". I wasn't floored, but it had good substance underneath all that crap.

Odin dying, Loki and Thor having to work together to defeat Hela, Asgard being taken over while Thor is stuck in some other planet as a lowly gladiator. It had good potential, but I dunno. It was one of those movies where you felt like you were always waiting for something that never came. And in the end you're not even sure what that one thing was that you were waiting for, but you finish the movie just feeling like you never got to see "it", whatever it was.

It's hard for me to judge or compare specifically because I never did see The Dark World and it's been yearrrs since I saw the original Thor.

I really liked that Hulk/Banner had a ton of screen time. I feel like he's sort of in the background of a lot of the Avengers movies, and he never did get his own movie, so it was neat to really see a lot of him. On the other side of that though, his arc was totally flat. There was nothing to it, there was nothing that made him grow or change. He was just Hulk, and then he wasn't, and then he went Hulk again in a little sacrificial moment and just stayed that way. His arc was like a really flat line with a tiny little blip in the middle where he saw Black Widow on the screen and changed back and was all confused and had that emotional moment. Then maybe another blip where he decided to go Hulk to save the Asgardians on the bridge.

Valkyrie (idr her real name) was okay. She had the potential to have a really cool arc too, getting defeated by Hela forever ago and just sinking into that abyss of being a random collector for the GM and drinking her memories away. But I felt like she stayed flat for a long time too, until finally her arc shot upwards at a 90 degree angle when she decided to help Thor after all. And after what? After Loki showed her her memories? That was it? Like she already KNEW all that, that shouldn't have been her major changing point. Also the fact that Thor just HAPPENED to find her armor on the orgy ship just FRIED me to pieces. It's those little things, guys, those little things. You can't just pull that stuff out of thin air. It's bad planning and makes the plot cheap.

Hela was another one that was just "okay." I kind of kept waiting for some real substance from her, but she just didn't have any. Once again, it was just sheer convenience that they find Odin, spend like 36 seconds with him, he tells them he's dying, Hela is coming, there's nothign they can do, he dies, she appears instantaneously and BAM. Everything is wrecked in one moment. And I felt like there was no arc for her either. I never really remember hearing about her previous to this movie, so suddenly Odin just comes out with the fact that he has a daughter that he locked away, etc etc. And we never got to see any backstory or anything on her. She just "was" and then at the end, she just "wasn't" anymore. Like she just blinked in and out. I know her story is part of the real mythology, but it felt like they were just like "Okay we have no threads left to play with from the previous movies, what else can we do?" and just pulled her out of the lore and plopped her in there. The only thing we saw of her story was when she went in the hall and broke the tiles off the ceiling and we saw the "ONE" picture of her and Odin side by side, and are basically left to imagine the rest in our heads. FLAT.

And the Odin thing felt weird to me too. It felt rushed and strange and so disappointing. I never saw TDW like I said, so I dunno what led up to that, but why was he in that "rest home" apparently? Sent there by Loki or something? And then they get there and the building is torn down? That made no sense to me. Maybe it would have if I had seen TDW. But then they find him out in Norway or whatever (I did really love the Dr Strange part) and there he sits in his terrible fashion, almost on the verge of going insane because he's so near death, but he didn't really look sick or weak, just hella old. And he's all "My time has come" and with no more warning or reason than that, he just disintegrates into nothing. Like I always expected that when Odin died, it would be this HUGE thing. Like I would expect some great moment with good music where everyone around him is all tearfully saying goodbye and then all of Asgard is mourning him. Not him going broken-glowstick on a cliff in Norway wearing horrible clothes with only Thor and Loki to see. And they didn't even seem that broken. Thor was more broken by Loki's death in IW (who he only likes about 50% of the time) than he was over his father's death who he loved dearly from what I remember.

And last but not least, Thor's arc itself was.... I dunno even. His was a weird one. His was kind of up and down. Like he lost him hammer, and I would expect some HUGE moment from him after that. Like tearing up or being angry or defeated or something but then they just shot him off to that trash planet and he was so caught up in all that weirdness there, that we never got a good moment from him. It just went like 70s hookah party so fast, that we never got any real emotion from him. And then he never had a moment of weakness. Never that "this is too hard, I'm giving this all up" like all characters have to have. He literally never lost his drive to fight, which would have been cool if there was some epic force behind that, driving him to keep pushing forward, but they really lacked on showing us why he wanted to rescue Asgard so badly. I mean he's Thor, he shouldn't need a reason, but they never let us see the emotion behind that, or let us see some tender moment where he's sitting there telling some story of Asgard and his father or Loki or his mother or anything, and talking about why it means so much to him. The only time he wanted to give up was when he went to fight Hela, and all she did was barely knock him around (less than what Banner did to him, might I add) and then suddenly it was "Poor me, I can't do this. This is too hard." They had it so backwards. He was all amped up and driven to fight her, and all cocky about it, and she smacks him around for a few minutes and suddenly he's like "I can't do this." It was just really weird placement for me.

Literally the ONLY person in the entire movie who had a good arc, was the Executioner. (idr his real name either lol) He shows up, sort of this irresponsible guy , just using his position to get girls and get "things", and then Hela comes and he has no real morales and is kind of a coward who doesn't want to stand up to her so he becomes her second hand guy. First you see him following her around like a puppy, and then he goes from that to actually carrying out her orders. (GROWTH. Even though it was in a negative direction.) Then there's that moment when Hela pulls that girl out of the crowd and tells him to kill her, and he actually hesitates for half a moment, which was SO GOOD because it made him deep. It made you realize he had regrets about it, deep inside. But then he pushes those thoughts away and goes to kill her anyway. So now you know he's totally sold out to the villain's side of things. Then towards the end, when Hela starts to lose, he goes coward, and hides away on the ship with the other Asgardians. (More change and growth, even though again, it was for the negative.) Then at the last minute, when their ship is being overrun, he makes that final decision to forget what Hela wants him to do, to forget his fears, and do what he knows in his heart is right, which was to save his people. And he does, and he dies for it. It was really brilliant. It was such a beautiful, full circle of a character.

Also he was the only one that had GOOD armor. I loved his costume and armor. Everyone else's was crap, but his was good.

I still didn't really like him that much, cause he was kind of cliche, but he was literally the best arc out of all of them, if that tells you anything.

Last but not least, they just tried waaay too hard to be funny. It was like watching some kids’ show, like Frozen or something, where all the sudden things get really meaningful or deep, and you start to feel that moving feeling in your chest like "Okay, I like where this is going." and then some random character pops their head in with some stupid comic relief and ruins the whole thing. The whole movie felt like comic relief to me. There were moments that felt natural and funny, like a few of the moments between Loki and THor, or Banner and Thor, that felt so original to the Avengers movies and I loved that. Avengers is supposed to be funny, because that's how they've always written it, but it's never just PURE humor like Ragnarok. Even Iron Man is more serious than that, and he's like the most humorous out of all of them. So I hated that they kept ruining these good moments with stupid quips or weird things.

You know what it felt like? It felt like if they let the Grandmaster actually write and direct the plot himself. "Hmm you know, I woke up this morning feeling like a public execution." And then he just does it, and what we're left with is Ragnarok.

Overall, it had such good potential but it just fell so flat.

#my friend watched Ragnarok #Ragnarok #review #a writer's opinion #Gagnarok #Thor #Loki #Hela #Odin #Korg #Asgard #Marvel

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