#was The Serious Man’s relationship to cosmo ever made clear?

[handbellanon]

gotta ask a vaguely dumb question but it was hard to tell who people were referring to at the table:

Is Oscar the grandson or the father of Cosmo?

#I thought he was the grandson until they started talking about somebody’s father after they attacked The Serious Man #and to that point if it’s not answered via the question above #was The Serious Man’s relationship to cosmo ever made clear? #I can’t tell if I’m just tired or totally blipping on stuff #critical role #cr spoilers #candela obscura #co c3e1 #cosmo grimm #Oscar Grimm

[monicashipslokius]

Soulmates, Actually - Pt 2

(Read part one)

Despite their desire to buy Mobius more appropriate clothing as the soulmate of a god, Loki knows they’re not welcome back in Asgard. Not without facing some serious repercussions anyway - none of which they’re willing to subject Mobius to, by association.

So while they temporarily ‘magicked’ themself and Mobius away from the dark streets of that German city to a sunny, hot desert, they aren’t totally sure where to go next. They need a safe harbor, but few would give refuge to the notorious god of mischief. And therefore, again, to Mobius by association.

Some soulmate Loki is turning out to be.

Their displeasure must show on their face, because Mobius clutches their forearm and rubs his thumb back and forth in gentle strokes near the dip of their elbow. Loki closes their eyes a moment, and they take a breath. How such a simple gesture from their soulmate could bring such peace... Truly Loki is the most fortunate being in the universe. Even... even after everything else they’ve been through.

“We cannot stay here,” Loki says, eyes still closed, humiliated by their own incompetence.

“It’s not so bad,” Mobius says, chipper as ever. “I’m a bit overdressed, but...”

Loki opens their eyes again to see Mobius tug at the lapel of his suit. He is already sweating through the shirt underneath.

Humans are such fragile things, in need of such diligent care-taking. Something unpleasant claws at Loki’s ribcage from the inside. A voice whispers in their ear, You are not enough.

“Hey, I got an idea,” Mobius says, squeezing Loki’s arm in excitement. A smile slides easily across his lips. “We could go back to my place. Sure. Yeah. It’s not exactly built for royalty, but... There’s running water and some shade and a fridge with lots of soda pop.”

Loki frowns, confused, though they’re sure they understood most of those words. “...Soda pop?”

“Only the best brands. Yeah, this is great! Okay. Dubuque isn’t going to know what hit them.”

Loki tilts their head. “...Dubuque?”

Mobius nods, cheerful smile never dimming. “Iowa. I was only in Germany for a data analysis conference. Speaking of, I should probably text my coworker and let her know I’m not dead. I don’t want them to start a job search for my replacement yet. I told you how important my job is?”

Loki frowns harder, even as Mobius steps closer. He holds onto their shoulders.

“Dubuque, Iowa, get ready. Here comes the god of mischief and their soulmate!”

*

Loki isn’t sure what they expected Dubuque, Iowa to be like, but the lodgings they teleport into, presumably Mobius’s lodgings, are hopefully not a fair representation of the city as a whole.

“Home sweet home,” Mobius says.

“Is this a closet?” Loki asks, peering around the large single room. A bed is wedged against the far wall under a pair of small windows. To their immediate left, is the semblance of a minuscule kitchen - a sink, a few cabinets, and the promised refrigerator.

“Now, I know it doesn’t seem like much, but this place has everything you could ever need.”

Mobius walks into the living quarters. Three strides and he’s already halfway across the room. He goes to the windows and draws back the sheer curtains. The slightly improved lighting does nothing for Loki’s opinion. The walls, the bedspread, the carpeting - all shades of a light brown that Loki cannot tell is intentionally pale or faded over time.

“Bathroom’s through there,” Mobius says, pointing to a doorway off the corner that doubles as a bedroom.

Loki checks, and finds it lacking. There is not even a bath!

“Are all Midgardian accommodations like this?” Loki asks. They try to keep the disdain from their voice, for Mobius’s sake - but it is precisely for Mobius’s sake that they are so outraged!

“Oh. Well? Nah.” Mobius rubs the back of his neck. “I guess a lot of places are bigger, though it’s important, I think, to be happy with what you have.” He lifts his shoulders, then lets them drop. “Some people don’t have anything.”

Mobius shrugs off his suit jacket and drapes it over the bedspread. The sweat down his back speaks of his fragility once more, and Loki turns away. Mobius said he was valued by his company, but if that were true...

“Do all top data analysts have similar accommodations?” Loki asks. They’re still holding the scepter. Looking around, they see another door - a cloak closet? Loki draws open the door, and yes! Coats and shirts stuff the narrow space. Shoes are lined neatly across the floor. Loki tucks the scepter into the back, behind the clothes.

“The company pays me pretty well, actually,” Mobius says. “It’s just that... uh. How do I put this?”

Loki closes the door and turns toward Mobius, who has unbuttoned his shirt cuffs, and is rolling the sleeves up to his elbows.

Mobius looks up to the ceiling, then at the bathroom door. “I had a bigger place for a long while, but a few years ago, I downsized. Lots of people buy big in anticipation of... well. But when they reach a certain age, they start to assume that... I guess I’d given up.”  He waves an arm out. “This place? It's been enough for just me.”

Loki takes a only small step forward, wanting to be at his side but suddenly afraid to, with Mobius’s sudden vulnerability. Loki doesn’t have the best reputation for healing things. Most of their life, they’ve only been good at breaking.

They fight to keep their voice steady as they say, “You didn’t think you would find your soulmate.”

Mobius shakes his head a little, but when he looks up at Loki, the smile that dimmed sparks back to life. “If I’d known I was waiting for a god, I would have kept the mortgage.” He tucks his head down. “This was probably a bad idea, wasn’t it? This can’t be anything like you’re used to.”

“It’s...not. But.” Loki forces themself to take another step, drawn in by the hopeful gleam in Mobius’s eye.

“But?”

Loki thinks back to when they were young, when they spent hours cultivating dreams that didn’t involve domination of the nine realms. Well, not only that. When they laid awake and thought of all the sweet nothings they would say to their soulmate and all the promises they would make. Back when they thought the universe still held some kindness for them.

They take the final step that brings them to Mobius and tells him, “I would like to stay where you are.”

“Even if it’s this closet?”

“It is... cozy.” Loki glances around. “Though I insist we redecorate.”

Mobius’s smile lights up his eyes, and Loki’s breath catches. They cannot remember the last time they made someone smile like that. Genuine. Bright. Happy. 

“So much beige,” Loki says, grinning. “Do you not see the value in a bit more excitement?”

“Trust me,” Mobius says, “I’m starting to.” He glances, ever so slightly, at Loki’s mouth, and Loki has never wanted to kiss anyone as much as they want to kiss this man in this drab apartment.

Loki starts to lean, and for a moment, Mobius does too.

But then Mobius worries his bottom lip between his teeth and steps away instead.

A familiar pang of rejection echos in Loki's chest. Even their own soulmate finds him lacking. They drop their gaze.

"Hey." Mobius touches their face, a finger under their chin, drawing their gaze right back up. "We should go slow, right?" He swallows hard. "I haven't... It's been a long time for me, and with you, I don't want to mess this up."

Loki wants to tell him that he couldn't ruin this, no matter what he did, but that would be a lie. The truth is much more complicated. Their souls are bound together by the cosmos, yes, but unfortunately the cosmos does not provide any training or instruction on how to sustain a lasting relationship.

Loki, themself, hasn't much experience in that matter. They've had their fun, but that was all.

"Is that okay?" Mobius asks, blue eyes like that of a baby fawn. Loki doubts they would deny him anything, ever. But especially not something they also want.

"Yes," Loki says, much softer than intended. They clear their throat and say, stronger, "Of course."

"Great!" That smile returns full-blast, brighter and more scalding than the desert sun. He bounces back a step. "I'm going to go grab a quick shower." He plucks at his shirt. "So sweaty. You okay for a minute?"

Loki shrugs and nods at the same time, as Mobius disappears into the bath-less bathroom. When the door closes behind him, Loki flops backwards onto the beige bed and stares up at the ceiling, flecked with plaster. The mattress sinks pleasantly beneath their weight. Loki thanks the realms that Mobius at least owns a decent bed.

The water turns on in the bathroom, muffled by the door. Mobius begins to sing. Loki hasn't heard the song before but doesn't need to, to know Mobius is singing off-tune and off-rhythm. A particularly bad note draws a startled laugh from Loki.

Loki glances at the door, wishing they could see Mobius's face, knowing he's wearing that infallible smile. A dresser beside the bed blocks their view, and their attention immediately shifts to a series of framed photos atop it. An older photo of a couple - Mobius's parents, presumably, is most prominent on the left. Their severe expressions do not match the tender way they hold the baby in their arms.

Beside that photo, one of a younger Mobius with longer blonde hair and no mustache sitting on a water vehicle, giving a thumbs-up. Loki smiles softly at him, at his beauty, though easily admits to themself that they prefer the Mobius of now - more gray than blonde, and the mustache. Dignified. Handsome. Loki thinks of kissing him again, and exhales. Going slow will be a test of their willpower, but Loki will overcome. For Mobius. For them, together.

The third photo is of a three-story brown building. Mobius's office? Loki rises from the bed to look closer, but - yes. Only a building, with no people in sight. A quick glance around the room proves no more photos. Why would Mobius dedicate one of his few photos to his workplace?

I guess I'd given up.

In the drab monochromatic room, the photo of Mobius on the ocean holds the only splash of color.

In the bathroom, the water turns off, but the singing continues. Loki listens closer, hears now how the chipper tones drop pitch at the end, and in that sound, so near a sigh, they recognize their own sadness.

Loki meets the stern gazes of Mobius's parents in their photo and vows to them, "I will make your son happy again."

The door opens, and Mobius appears, shirtless, a towel around his shoulders, and a pair of gray sweatpants high on his hips.

Loki's usually thunderous brain goes very, very quiet.

Mobius is not chiseled muscle. His shoulders are not particularly wide. He's not tall. But he needn't be any of those things. He is soft, sturdy lines, and stability, and courage, and the most attractive being Loki has ever had the blessing of putting their eyes upon.

Mobius dabs at his wet hair with the end of the towel. "Hey, you found my photos?"

The reminder of the photo of the building is enough to cool Loki's desire, though it still lingers, simmering, in the base of their being.

"Yes." Loki gestures to the offending photo. Mobius sees and drops the towel back to his shoulder.

"That's the office," he says, confirming Loki's suspicions. "It's a nice building, yeah?"

Loki tries not to let their distaste show on their face. Tries, not particularly hard. "Wouldn't you rather have more of your family? Your friends?"

"Oh. Mom and Pop didn't really care much for photos, and they're gone now." He doesn't mention extended family, or any friends - not even the protective work friend who tried to convince him away from Loki on their first meeting. Instead, he gives Loki a sad sort of smile, as big as the others before but so, so different. It doesn't reach his eyes at all.

Sometimes soulmates are very different from each other, practicing a running theory that opposites attract. But more often than not, soulmates share at least one or two very similar traits. Through these traits, they find common ground. Equal footing. A keystone that holds up all the parts of them that are different until they make a bridge.

In Mobius, Loki sees their own loneliness.

"Would you..." Loki pauses, unsure, but the kind curiosity in Mobius's eyes urges them on. "Perhaps we could have a likeness taken of us. To add to your collection."

The light returns to Mobius smile. Loki will fill this entire apartment with photos of them together if it keeps.

"I'd like that, Loki. A lot."

"Good."

Mobius goes to the dresser and pulls open a drawer. He withdraws a gray short-sleeved shirt and pulls it over his head. Then he glances over his shoulder. "You need to borrow something?"

Loki waves their hand and alters their clothing from their princely armor to a silk green sleep-shirt and pants.

"Woah." Mobius looks them up from head to toe and back again. "That's the hottest thing I've ever seen."

Loki laughs again, and this time, they aren't so startled. With Mobius, they are starting to expect it.

Mobius glances at the bed. Loki does too. Then at each other.

"I know, technically here in Iowa, it's maybe too early to go to bed, but I've gotta tell you, after this kinda day, I really need a nap." Mobius rubs the back of his neck. His cheeks tint pink. "But, uh there's only one bed. I don't even have a couch. Oh! I know! I'll sleep on the floor." The man reaches for one of the pillows like he actually intends to remove it.

Loki snatches his wrist. "You will do no such thing."

"Well, I'm not going to have a prince sleep on the floor."

"Mobius," Loki says gently. They bring Mobius's imprisoned hand to their mouth and place a soft kiss to his fingers. This fragile, precious human. "No one is sleeping on the floor."

"Oh." The pink in Mobius's cheeks reddens - a beautiful shade. "What... uh, what about going slow?"

Loki rolls their eyes. "I do not intend on impugning your virtue. I merely wish..." Their nonchalance slips rather suddenly, and their voice fails them. Saying their innermost desires aloud has only ever been used against them. That they nearly did so, so casually, shocks Loki to their core. Careless.

Mobius folds his hand over where Loki is clutching his other one, until Mobius holds Loki's in both of his own. He brings Loki's hand to his own mouth and places a soft kiss to each of their knuckles, one after the next, mustache tickling the back of their palm.

"What do you wish, Loki?" Mobius asks.

With Mobius, Loki wants to be careless. But to do so would be to give him power. And with that power, mortal or not, Mobius could crush them, heart and soul.

"I can tell you what I want?" Mobius says. "And you can tell me if you'd like that too."

"Very well," Loki says, breathless.

Mobius kisses the dip between Loki's fingers and thumb, and says, "I want to hold you. Fall asleep with you in my arms."

Loki's throat goes very dry. Their heart hammers wildly in his chest. They wants that. So much. But... no, surely Mobius will realize that is a terrible idea. He will change his mind at any moment. So Loki forces themself to say, voice hoarse, "I could kill you."

Mobius shrugs. He doesn't deny it, but he also doesn't let go of Loki's hand. "I figure you would have done it by now."

"I could be plotting."

Mobius meets their eyes, but they hold only fondness, no suspicion. "Are you?"

"Maybe."

"Mmhmm." He pulls Loki's hand to his chest. "Are you saying you aren't interested in the cuddling? It's okay to say no."

Loki opens their mouth but they still can't say what they want.

"No worries." Mobius kisses Loki's hand and releases it. "I can still sleep on the floor -"

"You will not sleep on the floor," Loki says, the annoyance at such a thing finally giving them their voice back.

"Okay, okay." Mobius holds their hands up. He laughs as he draws back the covers. He slides into the bed and then moves to the other side, pressing up against where the mattress meets the wall, so that Loki can have the open side, without being boxed in. Loki could run. Mobius would let them.

Loki crawls under the covers.

They lie in bed, side by side, both on their backs but not touching. Loki doesn't know how long they stay there, staring at the ceiling, before Mobius rolls onto their side, away from Loki. It feels wrong - too wrong, and in the quiet, Loki tries again to find the courage to have their wishes exposed.

"Mobius," they whisper. If Mobius is already asleep, then they won't -

"Yeah, Loki?"

Loki swallows down their nerves. Mobius has only proven himself trustworthy. They are soulmates. Soulmates trust. "Mobius, I..."

Mobius rolls onto his back. He turns his head toward Loki and waits. He waits, and waits, and waits. Loki wonders if he would wait forever.

His patience is what finally cracks through the walls Loki built.

"Will you hold me?" Loki asks, and braces for rejection. For mockery. For any offer to be rescinded with a joke.

Instead, Mobius turns toward them and holds open his arms. "Come on."

Loki slides into the open spot against Mobius's chest, and Mobius folds his arms around them.

Loki's whole body relaxes at once, all the tension evaporating. Mobius is warm and sturdy against their back. His breaths are hot on the shell of Loki's ear.

"This okay?" Mobius asks.

Loki nods.

"I got you," Mobius says, holding tighter.

Loki waits a long moment, then two. They half want Mobius to fall asleep so they won't hear when they say, "Don't let go."

"I won't," comes Mobius's quick reply, slurred slightly with sleep. "I won't let you go, Loki."

Loki knows they shouldn't, but... they start to believe. And with that knowledge, that safety, sleep follows.

*

A thunderous knock sounds heavy against the front door, jolting Loki awake.

"Loki?" Mobius asks, rubbing his eye.

“Are you expecting company?” Loki pushes themself upright on the bed, heart racing.

Mobius frowns. “I’m supposed to be in Germany.”

The knocking comes again, louder. So hard the door cracks. Someone on the other side lightly curses, and Loki goes cold. They knows that voice.

Thor.

Here. Now.

“Loki?” Mobius sits upright too, and grips Loki’s shoulders. He’s so fragile, and yet so grounding. His hands are steady. His grip firm. He's as fully awake now as Loki is, and Loki can the concern in his eyes, even in the dark of the room. “Whoever it is, I won’t let them hurt you.”

“Only a fool would make that promise,” Loki says. “It’s my brother on the other side of that door.”

They expect the words to scare Mobius into rescinding his promise of protection, and they steel their heart against the inevitable hurt. You are never enough.

But Mobius does not look afraid. His jaw sets. His brow lowers. If anything, he seems even more determined.

A fool, for sure. Enough to make Loki’s heart swell. And their nerves prickle.

Loki stands, stepping away from the bed. Mobius quickly follows.

Mobius stood against Captain America and Tony Stark, but they were fellow Midgardians. Thor? Thor is of Asgard. Mobius must know he holds no chance against a god.

But he does not seem to care.

“Hide in the bathroom,” Mobius says. “I’ll get rid of him.”

Loki blinks. “Pardon?”

“It will be fine.” Mobius places a hand on the small of Loki's back and gently shoves them towards the tiny bathroom.

“But, Mobius -”

“Listen, Loki. You are my soulmate. Soulmates protect each other.”

“But -” Loki steps into the bathroom, at Mobius’s behest.

Mobius grabs the handle of the door. “He wants to throw you in some Asgardian prison or something, right? That’s not happening.”

“Mobius -”

“I’ll be right back.” Mobius winks, then closes the door, taking Loki’s heart with him.

#i wrote this #lokius #loki x mobius #wowki #soulmate au #part two!!!!!!!! #there will be a part three never fear! #avengers 1 divergence

[closetedotaku01]

can i rq for insecure s/o that have a beautiful body but she recently gained weight and kept overthinks it, but none of her friends are helping her out cause they think her body is nice and keeps taking her insecurities lightly.. for kuroo and oikawa pls

Imagine for Kuroo & Oikawa with insecure FEM S/O lacking a support system.

A/N: Wow I love this ask with my whole heart. Even chose two of my favorite characters. And may I just say these two might be the best in this situation, given that they’re captains, and aside from Bokuto captains are very aware of their teams and the general mental state and morale of every person on their team, so they might be the best people for this situation.

TW: Body image issues, self-esteem issues

Now: Imagine time!!! 

Kuroo Tetsurō

-Kuroo would notice you spending more time in the bathroom. More time picking out outfits. And your generally more disgruntled demeanor

-He can tell you’re unhappy, but he cannot tell what about. As far as he knows there’s nothing that’s happened. But he figures you’ll tell him in time whatever is bothering you.

-And then one day he’s out with you and your friends and one of them compliments your outfit and your body.

-He sees the way you immediately flush and reject the compliment. It’s not a humility thing or a simple deflection out of embarrassment, he can see you wholly and fully rejecting the compliment. You don’t even look like it made you feel good.

-He takes your hand in his and is about to ask you if everything’s okay when one of your friends whines about how pretty girls always fish for compliments

-He notices how your chuckle is feigned and your eyes look beyond hurt, watering a bit. How you squeeze his hand slightly.

-Your mutter out something he can’t quite make out over the sound of everyone else talking, but it’s something along the lines of you mentioning your weight gain. And it clicks for him.

-One of your friends talks about how you still look “fine” and he can’t take it anymore. You’re far from fine. As far from fine as it gets. You’re magnificent, an absolute treasure, and fuck them for not noticing that the most beautiful girl in the entire world is not happy

-Fuck them for not seeing it. Fuck them for hurting you. He is not having it.

- “I’m sorry everyone, we’re headed home now,” he says, already standing up and grabbing your purse to hand to you.

-You follow his lead solely because you’re scared if you don’t you might burst into tears in front of everyone and you don’t want to cause a scene.

- “Awww come on where’re you going? Why can’t you guys stay?”

- Kuroo doesn’t miss a beat, “I need some alone time with my gorgeous girlfriend.” He turns to you, speaking barely above a whisper, “You ready to go, love?”

-You nod at his gentle words and head back to your apartment together.

~~~~

When you enter your apartment, Kuroo immediately pulls you into a tight hug. “I’m sorry,” he whispers to you, tucking his body into yours, head into your neck, arms wrapped tight around you.

The tears you’d been holding back fall freely from your eyes and into his shirt, “I’m sorry, Tetsu I--”

He pushes you back, holding your shoulder at an arm’s length, “What are you apologizing for, love? You’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.” You can’t meet his eyes, forcing yourself to stare down at the visible extra weight you’ve put on.

“For… not looking like the girl you fell in love with,” it’s all you can say before the sobs start pouring out. Hating your body. Hating yourself. Hating yourself for putting the most caring man you’ve ever known through this with you. 

The sobs tear through your body leaving an aching wreckage in your chest and your stomach and your back and your throat. There’s nothing left undamaged. Every bit of you is in so much pain and is shaking, like the pain you’ve been feeling finally exploded and is trying to escape by any means it can, fighting to escape even through your shaking fingertips. 

Kuroo puts his hand to one cheek and wipes the tears on that side, he bends down so his face is in front of yours, “Look at me.” His voice is soft and comforting filled with the love, care, and respect you had grown used to, but these words were packed full of them. Even when you knew you didn’t deserve all the affection.

He inhales deeply, “Deep breath in through your nose,” he exhales softly, smiling with his eyes as he blows lightly on your tears sending coolness into your burning cheeks, “And out through your mouth.”

You copy him as he repeats this until your breathing steadies. Until your heart has stopped slamming against your chest. Until the pain in your body is reduced to a dull ache.

Your eyes are still on his, and he’s looking at you with passionate love and fierce compassion, “There she is. There’s my beautiful girlfriend,” he says with a shy smile.

“I’m not---” a sob threatens to reappear, but you catch it in your throat.

“Love, you are beyond gorgeous. Your body is so sexy and still so adorable and pretty. I don’t know how you do it,” he kisses the crown of your head, “you mean the world to me,” a kiss to your forehead, “and if you call my world anything less than a goddess, anything less than perfection,” he kisses both of your eyelids and the tip of your nose in quick succession, “I will have to fight you.” He punctuates his sentence by planting a kiss on your lips.

“Tetsu, just because you’re my boyfriend, doesn’t mean you have to lie to me. It actually means you shouldn’t lie to me. And I know I don’t look good like this.”

His shoulders fall. And he has a sad expression on his face, but his eyes are still happy and you can see the smile tugging on his lips as he looks down, “Oh I get it,” he takes a long pause, “you think I have bad taste.”

You hit his arm playfully, “Tetsu, I’m serious!”

“So am I!” he shoots back, chuckling lightly.

“Okay, love, I know you don’t believe me. But you are seriously gorgeous. Completely, out of this world gorgeous. Beyond any person, place, or thing I have ever seen. The whole cosmos comes together to make the Earth and everything in it and around it, and the only part of any of it that’s worth seeing is you.”

His words feel raw and sincere, but you’re about to reject his kindness when he says the words you’ve been waiting for, “But you don’t see yourself that way. And that means you’re wrong…. But you do deserve to feel as beautiful as you are. And to feel as happy as you always make me. So if you want to come with me on my runs or if you want me to help you with anything let me know. I think you’re gorgeous but more than anything you deserve to be happy with how you look. So I’ll be right there by your side to get you there safely and healthily.”

You start to tear up again, your chest welling with love for the man before you. You collapse into his hold, and he holds you tight. He pulls away slightly to get a look at your face, “On one condition.”

You nod.

“I disagree, but I still believe that you don’t see yourself as beautiful. So even if you disagree ... can you please believe me when I say I know you’re absolutely bewitching.”

You nod again, and he pulls you in close to his body, happy to have brought you peace. 

Oikawa Tōru

-It wasn’t intended to wound you. In full honesty, it wasn’t intended for you. But you’d heard it nonetheless and it was roaring through your mind.

- “Pretty people never date down.”

-You’d heard in passing as you walked down the street. But the words bounced around, rattling everything in your mind.

-You never thought of yourself as particularly pretty, but you’d certainly done yourself no favors by putting on a healthy amount of “relationship weight”.

-You tried going to your friends, desperately craving some semblance of comfort or hope for your relationship with THE universally recognized pretty boy Oikawa Tōru.

-They shot back sarcastic comments about your “pretty girl problems”

- “Former pretty girl problems" was the only thing your brain could shoot back, determined to push you into a hole with the crushing anxieties you had about your body now doubled up with losing the person you loved and trusted most in your life.

-You walked into your apartment, your boyfriend on his laptop watching and rewatching one of his games, taking notes on his performance as well as the performance of each of his peers.

~~~~

“Hey baby how was your day?” his words are unfocused. Almost like he’s reading from a script as he jots down more notes and rewinds to rewatch the same play again.

“Terrible,” you say, honestly believing he’d be too caught up in his game to care. Who’d care for the ugly girl they were stuck with anyway? He probably stuck with you out of sheer pity.

He immediately paused the game and turned back to face you, “Aww no, what happened, baby? Come here.” his arms were open wide for you on the couch. 

“You know you can leave,” you said before you could think better of it. You regretted it. You didn’t want him to know that. You selfishly wanted him to stay with you forever, even if only out of pity. But… he did deserve better.

“What?” he asks quirking a brow, aware of how serious you sound, “I don’t want to… leave. Do you just need some alone time, Y/N? I can go on a run or something if you need some time to clear your head.”

“I meant ... leave me,” you say, your voice weaker and higher this time as tears that you hadn’t even felt forming started blurring your vision threatening to spill any moment.

He was in front of you in a heartbeat, “I’m sorry. I’ve been focusing too much on other things, haven’t I? I promise I don’t wan--”

“No the problem is you’re focusing too much on me!” your voice comes out as a yell and you see the half-step he takes, backing away from you, “you deserve better Tōru. You should want to leave.” With that, the tears spill over and your legs give in as you fall pathetically to the ground.

This moment is the very reason he should leave. You can’t even hold yourself together. You’re not pretty, you’re not strong, you’ve yelled at him when he’s done nothing wrong… you hardly deserve him.

You feel his hand meet your cheek and you flinch slightly at the contact, but neither of you move. His hand drifts down to your chin, lifting your face up so your eyes meet his. Your anger and sadness triple down on you when you see he’s got a fake smile on, his eyes rimmed red, tears forming because of you.

“I love you. I am not leaving you. Full stop. So please tell me what’s bothering you, baby.”

You want to ignore him. You want to grab your things and leave so he can get started on finding a better match so he wasn’t stuck dating down. With his body and mind and humor and kindness, he’d have no trouble. He had a million fans on standby at any given moment anyway.

But you don’t. You don’t pack. You don’t leave. You instead, pull his body into yours, desperately clutching his shirt with whitened knuckles, sobbing into him. 

With time you let his strong arms bring you peace. With your body molded tight against his, you eventually match his breathing, steadying yourself. His smell grounds you, the feeling of his hand in your hair calms you, and the soft, gentle praises he coos into your ear center you. Effectively, he slays every intrusive thought in your mind.

“You’re so perfect for me.”

“I never want to leave you.”

“You’ve made me the man I am today. I wouldn’t be here without you.”

“I know the path to being my best self, is a path I’ll only be able to walk with you by my side.”

“You’re my whole world, baby. Please stop discounting yourself.”

“I wouldn’t change one thing about you, baby. Not even your stupid jokes. Not even the way you tease me.”

“I love your mind and the way you think. How kind and passionate you are. How you support me through everything. How you take such good care of me and everyone you love. God, I love the way you love. I love how wholly and completely you give love. And I love your body, baby. I love how pretty your face is, how perfectly your body fits with mine, how completely, mind-blowingly sexy you are. All of you. There’s not one part of you I am not head over heels in love with. We’re an absolute knockout of a couple, but you are by far the better half. Baby, please believe that because it is the truth.”

Every word is woven between kisses and touches and the easing of your whole body and mind. There was no way these words were planned. They were genuine. You could hear the authenticity in his voice, even though the unpleasant raspiness that had formed as he desperately tried to hold back his own tears. He had you whipped. Completely convinced.

You belonged here right in his arms. Right up next to him. As close as the world would allow any two people to get.

After you’d calmed down completely he asked without looking at you so he could keep you close, “What happened?”

You told him everything. The words you heard. How they beat around in your head, leaving a cold thunderous ache throughout your body. How your support system had failed you. How he had saved you from the treacherous thoughts that were certain to continue sending you spiraling downward if he hadn’t fixed everything simply by being him. And how much you treasure him.

He let out a breathy laugh, that soon grew into a full-on laugh as the tears finally left his eyes.

“It’s not funny Tōru!” you pout, basking in the sweet sound of his deep laughter.

“I know,” he says, still laughing. He clears his throat and does his best to stifle down the laughter, but it keeps bubbling up, “I know, baby. I know. But you know how I feel and you know that’s not going to change.”

“Then why are you laughing,” you ask, giggling as you wipe the last of your tears from your face and wipe the ones from his. 

“All I can think of,” the laughter breaks through his sentence, but he regains his composure, “is that you think I’m the prettier one.”

You hit his arm as you two laugh on the floor behind the couch, perfectly at ease with the man who you adore, and who adores you.

~~~~

Also just a reminder: Weight =/= beauty. So whether you are plus-sized, or thin, curvy, or flat, your body is perfect as it is. Just please stay healthy and happy and that’s all it takes. “Fat” does not mean ugly. “Skinny” does not mean ugly. Please stop associating these words. They’re not the same.

Beauty is your kindness and your compassion and your integrity. Your will to fight another day, your will to stand up for others, your will to give voice to the voiceless. It’s the way you look when you’re passionate and the way you constantly bring joy to others. So while I personally do understand associating my worth and my beauty with my weight, we all know that it’s just incorrect. Beauty does not fall into any physical mold, so please don’t try to hold yourself to a mold that was created by people who profit off your insecurity. You are you, and that is a goddamn blessing. You are you and that is more than enough. Your body is perfect. Please be kind. 

#haikyuu!! #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #Kuroo #Kuroo Tetsurō #Kuroo x Reader #Oikawa #Oikawa Tōru #Oikawa x Reader #Haikyuu imagines #Trigger: Body insecurity #Trigger: Low Self-Esteem #Trigger: Intrusive Thoughts #mild angst #fluffy endings #fluff #thanks for the ask #reminder that no matter what you look like you’re gorgeous and you are loved #I really enjoyed writing this one!! 💕 #Lila Writes💫

[aloesarchives]

Wakatsuki Headcanons

(A/N):I’m on a writing spree at this point thanks to all this free time I have because summer is here. I’ve been re-reading Kengan Ashura and made me love the fighters even more.

Wakatsuki deserves some love so I’ma deliver it to y’all.

I love him

God, where do I start with this man

You have to at least known Takeshi long enough to be with him, or more rather have him consider any feelings for you. At least or more than 10 years, somewhere along your guy's youth/ younger years.

This is mostly due to understanding his strongman condition and how almost everyone judges or feels intimidated every time they come across him.

What made him grow fondly of you was your blank slate impression of him. It wasn’t that you didn’t listen to other people’s judgement, you wanted to get your own impression on Wakatsuki Takeshi. And to be honestly, he was someone that people didn’t make him out to be.

He’s a anxious, soft, gentle giant that just so happens to be a powerhouse beyond the average man. And the fact you didn’t fetishsize or sexualize him made him more comfortable to be around you.

He tries his best to control his strength around you so he doesn’t accidentally hurt you. But he hasn’t hurt you at all due to him being able to control himself over the years and you teaching him so.

But that doesn’t mean that his size and build becomes an inconvenience at time. There are times when you’re walking around the house and run/walk right into him, knocking you over. After that, he’s spewing out apologizes while helping you up. It doesn’t hurt but it does have some force to it. He makes up for it for it with cuddles and kisses of the sofa even though you have reassured him multiple times that you’re fine and it’s okay.

He values your company a lot as the both of you get older. 

You have hung out with him for a majority of your time that he introduced you to Heihachi Furmi. The man that took care of him and a close friend of his. And right off the bat, Mr.Furmi instantly notices the visible, but implicit, chemistry between the two of you. How you the both of you smiled and laughed at each other, it was obvious to him that you made Wakatsuki happy. He’s glad that you make Wakatsuki feel normal despite his abnormal strength and size.

You made yourself acquainted with him and now consider a friend even. 

 I know Wakatsuki for sure is very adamant about his second life as an underground fighter, especially revealing it about you. This is mostly his anxiety eating at him. Telling him that if you found out about it, you would leave him and that’s his worst fear.

But not all secrets can be kept when Wakatsuki mention to you that he couldn’t spend time with you that day because he had to do something later. You didn’t pry into his business, but while being out you ran into Heihachi. After having a small conversation, he asked you if you wanted to attend something with him. You, being free, said yes and he took you to a vacant warehouse that was filled with businessmen and higher-ups crowded in one area. You being curious, you asked Heihachi what this all was but he said you have to wait. Then within the sea of people, you see a tall familiar figure in the middle of the surrounding crowd. It was Wakatsuki. And it seemed he was fighting someone. The match didn’t take long as he was able to override his opponent with ease. Then Heihachi explain to you the kengan matches and that Wakatsuki is Furmi Pharmaceuticals’s representative fighter. Although he told you this, you didn’t pay much attention to it. Your focus was on Wakatsuki and how he overpowered his opponent and make it look easy. When Wakatsuki was done with his matches, he was walking towards you two but he didn’t notice you until he got close enough where the crowd died down.

When he saw you and your eyes locked, he’s heart stopped beating. God, he was so scared. What did you think of him? Are you going to leave him? He snapped out of it when you went up to him and placed your hand on his cheek. His worries would soon disappeared when you congratulate him on his win and asked him if he was okay. This man let the biggest sigh of relief and hugged you. Saying that he was afraid of your reaction, however, you reassured him that it doesn't affect anything you guys built up and that he'll have your full support in his fights.

After that encounter, you've always showed up to his matches or accompany him to watch some. It has become to the point where you're a regular attendee for the matches. It has also made you become very notable and recognisable within the kengan community.

Like you were this mysterious, yet beautiful woman that only comes to the match where the famous "Wild Tiger" would fight and no other matches. However, it doesn't take them long to understand who you were and your relationship with Wakatsuki. Surprisingly, people treat you with high respect and regard because of who you are, and it becomes more evident when there's a ring on your left ring/on your necklace.

He’s pretty grateful to you for staying by his side for so long because he doesn’t have a lot of friends/acquaintances outside of the kengan matches and is kinda lonely.

It’s a definite that you are friends with Sakura, Akiyama, and Sekibayashi.

After some thinking, Wakatsuki would ask you to marry him. He doesn't want to make you feel pressured, but he thought a lot about having a life with you was something he considered for a long time. 

When If you say yes to him, he’ll feel this content happiness that he has never felt before and promises you that he’ll be a good husband(which he fulfills greatly.

Let me tell you about having a married life with Wakatsuki, it’s great. It’s a quiet and tranquil life you two share; yes, even with his involvement in the Kengan matches.

You guys just chill at home, bathing in each other presence, with small conversations here and there. You guys also go out on nighttime walks to clear your minds but it’s because how pretty and quiet Japan becomes once night falls.

Hold his hands, he’s loves that small tender moments.

Sometimes, he’s laying down with you on top of his chest but it’s mostly reverse where he’s either hugging your chest or stomach.

Deadass Wakatsuki purrs, it’s more of a content rumble he lets out when softly pat his head or rub his chin.

You were Wakatsuki’s first kiss and he was glad since he didn’t know how to. But it was cute and he’ll always asked for a kiss when he gets the chance. When you’re cooking, he taps your shoulder and pecks your lips, or when you’re just chilling, he’ll kisses your forehead.

He undoubtedly has a Nintendo switch and plays either Animal Crossing or pokemon sword and shield. You have your own switch so you can play with him. You bought smash bros for his switch to play together and at times it gets heated. But it’s all fun and games and you two always have a good time. It’s a good way to spend time with each other.

Y’all can’t tell me that Cosmo hanging out with Wakatsuki is the cutest shit you’ve ever seen.

Cosmo is literally your child at this point. I’m not kidding you.

Like you hangout with Cosmo and Wakatsuki when they go out or sometimes it’s just you and Cosmo. You watch the Kengan matches with him.

Cosmo straight up calls you “mom” on more than one occasion but you didn’t mind.

You thought Cosmo’s interactions with Wakatsuki was cute. 

Wakatsuki would be lying if he didn’t long for having a family with you. But again, it’s up to you to decide as he doesn’t want to pressure you.

But, guys, imagine having or taking up the last name Wakatsuki. I straight up quaking in my boots and clutching my heart as I’m writing this.

Because Wakatsuki has a huge frame and is 6′3-4(?), you climb on his back to get a better view or just to mess with him. That or you sit on his shoulders, he doesn’t mind.

Although you don’t really sexualize Wakatsuki, it would be wrong to not admit he’s gorgeous and beautiful. It’s kinda more of admiration from afar. Chiseled and forged like if David Michelangelo made a sculpture himself, he’s so exquisite, handsome and stunning that he’s just *chef kiss perfect. You question how you got this man, and you add it to the bonus section of your list on why you love Wakatsuki.

He’s old and the years are heavy on him, him being with you is more than enough for him.

His hugs are tender but firm, always with a dash of cherish and appreciation into them.

Wakatsuki always has this serious and cool facade but people wouldn’t deny how it slowly cracks, and the undeniable soft look on his face and eyes when he talks and sees you.

Like when he realizes he loves you/how much you mean to him, it hits him hard.

God, when he says “I love you” to you, you can tell he really means it. The gentle and softness in his eyes, to the serene and tenderness to his voice, you can’t tell me you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside when he does tell you. You return his loving smile and always reply with an “I love you” too. If you’re the one to say it to him, it’s his turn to fill warm and contentful and he gives you this smile you only know he shows you. It’s just straight up wholesome.

Give him kisses/pecks on his forehead and cheek. It makes him feel loved and at ease. If you’re smaller than him and he has to come down to your height, he makes you look cute to him and makes him weak to his knees. Give one of those before he goes into his fights, it gives him a power boost.

Wakatsuki would always eat your cooking, he loves your food.

Although you do trust Wakatsuki to be careful when he fights, you do worry about his well-being which is understandable and he does promise you he’ll be careful. But that fights like the one with Julius made your heart rate jump and almost made you pass out but Wakatsuki kept his promise and lived.

One of the perks of being with Wakatsuki was how understanding and patience he has. He’ll listen to your rambles and rants, and if you want he will give some of his thoughts and advice on it.

He’s loyal, so loyal, do I even have to explain myself? You’ve been with him for so long like hell he’ll take interest in another woman or person. He cherishes you beyond your understanding that he would be damn to betray and hurt you in such a way.

It’s mostly a good life, yeah a few ups and downs, but it’s a pleasant life because Wakatsuki treats you well and is grateful to have you in his life.

Please love him for the love of god

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guys, please follow @kengan-ass​ because they’re literally the backbone of the Kengan fandom on Tumblr. I also gots some ideas from their work and put in my headcanon, but by all means I didn’t copy their work.

#kengan ashura #kengan omega #kengan ashura headcanons #kengan ashura × reader #wakatsuki takeshi #kenganverse

[true-blue-megamind]

Daylight and Dark Ch. 1 - First Night

Photo by Joe Waranont

Read the full fan fiction HERE

This is an excerpt.  Due to Tumblr’s regulations, the second half of this chapter is only available on AO3.  The full fiction is not child-friendly!

Summary: Months after Titan's defeat, Roxanne faces concerns as she and Megamind's relationship grows more serious. Soon, however, she learns that may be the least of her problems. Metro City's new hero has a dangerous past, and loving him comes with as many perils as benefits. Mystery, drama, romance, and humor.  RATING: Explicit.  WARNINGS: violence, sex, language, references to prior domestic abuse, and rock n’ roll!

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f I should labor through daylight and dark, Consecrate, valorous, serious, true, Then on the world I may blazon my mark; And what if I don't, and what if I do?

                —Dorothy Parker

Roxanne Ritchi stared at her reflection without really seeing it.

Tonight. It was going to be tonight. She had waited, fretted, but no more. It had to be tonight.

Perhaps this moment had been too long in coming. It wasn't as if she didn't want it to—she adored him, she was undeniably attracted to him, and she was completely unbothered by their physical differences—but there was a part of Roxanne that had been affected more than she liked to admit by past disappointments.  She described her approach to relationships as "circumspect" and "judicious," but, if she was honest, she was, in reality, a coward.  Not that she was afraid of Megamind, of course; that would have been ridiculous.  Her concerns were harder to define than that.  What she feared was, she supposed, perfection, or rather the relentless feeling that anything this perfect had to be inevitably doomed.  After all, past experiences with men had all ended in disaster—she was either too aloof or too intense, depending on which of her exes you asked— and it seemed that the better relationships were in the beginning, the more spectacularly they failed in the end.  In fact, the reporter had already resigned herself to a single life, throwing herself completely into her work, when along came a certain blue alien.  Now, deep down, she was afraid that something would go wrong—especially when their relationship was already complicated by its very nature.  Perhaps that was the real heart of the issue: her love affair with Megamind was complex in so many ways, even more than the expected difficulties entailed in dating any Defender, and some of those issues revolved around things neither she nor her blue boyfriend could control.

Even so, she had made her decision, and she wasn't going to back down.  It was going to be tonight.

A knock snapped Roxanne's eyes back into focus, and she frowned at her incomplete makeup. Hurriedly finishing her mascara and applying some russet red, long-wear lipstick, she swept all her cosmetics back into a drawer.  An extra spray of perfume for good measure, and that would have to do. Fanning her mouth with her hands to dry the lip color, Roxanne walked briskly through the living room to her apartment's front door.

Megamind was standing in the hall, eyes fixed pensively off into the distance. It was a look she was growing to expect whenever she left him waiting too long; the double-edge sword of his massive intellect was that he was always thinking, always wondering, his thoughts never still. The sound of the door brought him back to attention, and he smiled. She threw her arms around him— their usual greeting— and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

Nerves sang and sparked. She hated that she was as fidgety as a maiden bride.  While she believed that, like alcohol and tobacco, sex should be "enjoyed responsibly," Roxanne had slept with a respectable number of men.  It had been years since the idea of it had made her jittery.  Until now.  Maybe it was her long hiatus from the dating pool—very few men were willing to move on a woman supposedly dating someone with lasers in his eyes—or maybe it was Megamind's charm coupled with the intensity of her feelings for him, but, whatever the reason, something about the city's hero made her feel like she was in high school once more: heart fluttering and stomach slightly queasy.  If only that were the sole reason for the butterflies beneath her skin.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she smiled again, looking into eyes so green they glowed.

His expression was tender as he turned his gaze down to her's— something that, at only two inches taller than Roxanne, he only managed to do when they were this close. And when she was wearing flats. For a moment Roxanne silently praised the work-sore feet that had prompted her to opt for more comfortable shoes this evening.

Clearly, the blue alien had been on duty today as he was dressed in his familiar dark leathers. For a short time, Megamind had tried wearing white— had even gone as far as to build a new super suit that imitated Metro Man's powers— but thankfully Minion had convinced him that it was better to be his own brand of hero. And he'd been right. Not only did Roxanne prefer her boyfriend's bad boy look for reasons of her own, but even the most hardened criminals had grown to fear the black-clad Defender of Metro City while citizens had grown to accept Megamind for himself.

Will that continue after tonight, if people find out? Or will the same public that praises him today turn against him tomorrow?

"Don't worry, it's alright," the blue hero assured her. Roxanne startled for a moment— how did he know what she was thinking?— before she realized that he'd been referring to the wait. "I was just considering how I might turn one of your windows into a transparent glass monitor," he continued. "It would require some creative engineering, but I think it could be done. Then I could build you a smaller version of the supercomputer in my lair, and ta-da! It could function as a window until activated, and then you could use it to communicate with me in my workroom, or research, or to—" seeing her quizzically amused expression, he caught himself in mid-thought and cleared his throat. He and Roxanne had agreed to just have a normal, relaxing date, and it seemed to occur to him that this might not fit the description. "Erm, these are for you," he finished sheepishly, proffering a bouquet of yellow daisies, orange and gold cosmos, gardenias, and red and white roses.

He always brought her daisies, ever since she had mentioned once in passing how much she loved the ones in Hill Top Park.  Bouquets turned up at her office every Thursday like clockwork.  She didn't even mind that some of the interns got all girlish and giggly about it.

Roxanne accepted the flowers, inhaling the blossoms' sweet scents before saying: "They're beautiful. Come on inside." She pulled him in, leaning up to give him another kiss as she reached around him to shut the door. "I've always wondered: what are these?" she continued, touching tiny white clustered flowers with one hand. "It seems like they're in every single bouquet I've ever seen, but no one ever mentions what they're called."

"Ah, yes, that's Gypsophila, Baby's Breath. And you're right, it is a common addition to bouquets... I think for artistic reasons. What's wrong? Do you dislike it?"

"What? No, not at all..."

"What is it? You look like you just smelled something horrible. I can take the Gypsophila out."

"Oh, no, that's not necessary. It's nothing... just..."

Baby's breath.  Oh God.   Roxanne tried to ignore the skittering tightness in her heart.

What if she got pregnant?  What would the world say to the first half-human child?  She was a responsible adult, of course, and she wasn't rushing into this unprepared, but even so... Sex was designed to make babies, and no matter how careful a girl was, sometimes it did just that.  Her cousin Theresa, who had conceived her third child while she and her husband were using both pills and condoms, was living proof.

Realizing she'd been quiet too long, Roxanne thought quickly. "It's just that that's an odd name for a flower, isn't it? I mean, it doesn't really look like breath."

"No stranger than Forget-Me-Nots or Grandmother's Lace." He shrugged. "Flower names are just weird."

"At least Grandmother's Lace sort of looks like lace," she laughed, more at herself than anything else. "But you're probably right. Either way, these really are gorgeous," Roxanne smiled again. "I love them."

"I'm glad," he grinned. "I've been studying Floriography."

"Flori-what?"

"The language of flowers."

"I didn't know flowers talked," she joked.

"Very funny. You've read enough classic literature to know what I mean."

"I do, and you're very sweet," she answered, retrieving a vase from the small china hutch in her living room, and leading him into the kitchen. "Let's see… Roses are for love, right?"

"Love and affection, depending on the color."

"And these colors are?" She asked, setting the vase on the counter and turning to face him.

His cheeks flushed a little, the expression of shy pleasure at odds with his tough-guy persona. It was unreasonably adorable. "The red ones mean: 'my love for you is passionate,'" he explained. "And the white ones mean: 'my love for you is pure.'"

She felt her heart do a happy, ridiculous little flip, and turned her head to give him a smile that felt embarrassingly shy and girlish. "Oh."

This was always his way: thoughtful, charming, romantic, foolishly sentimental… Yet he never begrudged her her independence; never complained when she had to break a date for a hot news story or an overdue deadline. He just told her to stop by the Lair on the way home if she had the time, and sent over a packed dinner via brainbot with a note saying something like: "You won't forget to eat, will you? Love, MM." And then there was the way he fully embraced her for who she was, skipping typical dates in favor of afternoons in bookshops, long days in the park, weekends exploring quirky little-known museums, and dinners at hidden gems serving unexpectedly excellent cuisine or wonderfully authentic international dishes.

"Are you sure you're not telepathic?" she asked, only half in jest.  It was something she'd questioned him about before.

"I think I would notice if I were."  His expression turned teasing.  "Perhaps, Miss Ritchi, you are simply too... Predictable."

"Jerk," she laughed, trimming the edges of the flowers under the running tap.  

"Villain," he corrected, gesturing to himself.  "One of the good guys, now, but still a villain," he moved close.  "And a devilishly handsome one at that."

"Hmm.  I can't argue with the last part."

"That's because you have excellent taste."  God, why did his smirk have to look like dark secrets and wanton promises?  "Really, though, Sweetheart," he added, his smile gentling.  "I know you because I love you."

"I love you, too."

She truly did, and the fact that someone as brilliant and charming as Megamind loved her back sometimes still filled her with soft surprise.  More than that, however, he respected her.  He trusted her.  Following their defeat of Titan, Megamind had not only granted her nearly unfettered access to his secret Lair— something unheard of in the past— but, keenly aware that the sudden cessation of her regular kidnappings could affect her career, he had also allowed her to join him in some of his more noteworthy heroic battles.  While her blue beau insisted that she steer clear of the dangerous Doom Syndicate, together they had taken down two minor would-be villains: the first an ex-model with a scarred face and a terrible idea of revenge, the second a balding science teacher with an insane plan to make the pigeons in the park emulate Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.  That last had been a monumental failure even by Megamind's standards.  The chemical compound the man had fed the birds had only succeeded in giving them explosive diarrhea.  It had been an incredible mess.

Thank God for brainbot cleanup crews!

"And just what are you snickering about?" Megamind asked her, cocking one eyebrow, green eyes shining with curious mirth.  "It's mean not to share," he added, adopting his best Hero-Giving-a-Life-Lesson voice.  Roxanne laughed harder.  That particular part of his new persona was definitely a work in progress.

"I was just thinking about the bird guy," she answered, turning to fill the vase from the faucet.

"The bird—Oh!  Ravenous!" he gave the word an odd inflection, putting an emphasis on "raven," just as the aspiring villain had.

"That was it!" she chortled.  "God, even his name sucked!  He got so mad at you for pronouncing it wrong, too."

"Excuse me," he grinned, leaning back against the counter to catch her eye. "I was pronouncing the word ravenous correctly.  It's not my fault he had an unnatural obsession with avians.  And, as I recall, it was you, my Dear Miss Ritchi, who insisted on pronouncing his name wrong—or rather right— on air, until you had the whole city doing it.

"Me?" she couldn't hide her smile.  "Look at this innocent face.  Would I do something like that?"

His laugh rang through the kitchen.  "Oh, yes, you would.  I always said you would have made an excellent Evil Queen!"

It was absurd how much her heart sped up when he said that.  "When did you decide to learn floriography?  I mean, it can't have been just for this," she asked, arranging the bouquet with more care and concentration than was really necessary.  "I can't imagine you taking an interest in it before."

"Yes and no.  I did learn for you, Roxanne, but," he seemed to swallow his sheepishness, "I've studied the language of flowers for years.  I... I used to imagine what I would say to you if I only had the courage to leave a tower of blossoms on your table after a kidnapping.  I never did.  I didn't want you to feel... uncomfortable, frightened, but...  Roxanne, I revolve around you.  Your smiles have been my drug for a long time."

She swallowed turned her head back quickly.  Her face felt like fire and she knew she was losing the battle for suave composure.  Damn it, I'm supposed to be the one seducing him!  

How could she not love him when he said things like that—said them and actually meant them?  Surely that was too much for any reasonable world to expect? And if others might not like it, well, so what?  She'd endured criticism of everything from her political stances to her hair, and God knew Megamind was no stranger to animosity.  Whatever storms this might brew, they would weather them together.

"The Gypsophila represent purity, too," Megamind informed her.  She could hear him grinning at her blush. "The cosmos are joy and harmony," he added, moving closer again. "Yellow daisies are for both true love, because each flower is actually two joined as one, and for new beginnings. Gardenias, now those are interesting. They represent feminine beauty, and can refer to a secret love, but," Roxanne nearly dropped the vase as he leaned against her back to breathe the last words against her ear. "Gardenias also mean: 'I will always protect you.'"

"Megamind," she breathed, gently setting the vase on the counter and turning to bury herself in him. He smelled like hot metal— he'd probably been welding something earlier— and expensive cologne, but beneath that was his familiar musk of leather, spices, and something warm and woody.

He began kissing along her ear and down toward her shoulder— something he had become extremely good at in the last few months. His goatee, warm breath, and gentle teeth were sweet torture against her sensitive skin. Clever fingers tickled up the nape of her neck and slid around to gently tangle in her short hair, making her shiver. She sighed his name again, tasting the syllables like a prayer.

Megamind. This was Megamind: fiercely loyal and endlessly affectionate. Of course, he would always protect her. Let the whole entire city, or even the entire planet, turn against them, and he would remain steadfastly at her side, determined and immovable as stone.  Certainly, they had had their share of arguments—what couple didn't?—but, in the end, he always had her back. He'd probably even do his best to shield her from the worst of people's biases.  Because that was the sort of man he was.

To hell with what people might think. I want this, now and always.

Roxanne leaned back just enough to kiss him with thorough passion, giving his mouth the full and undivided attention it deserved.  He matched her passion, tongue gliding past her lips to tempt and tumble against her own.  Almost of their own accord, her arms wrapped about his slender neck, pulling him closer, urging him on...

And her stupid phone timer went off, shattering the moment with an annoyingly jaunty little tune.

"I… um… I have dinner in the oven," she stumbled over her own words. "It should be... ready… almost... almost ready."

Mercifully, he took his cue. "Oh-ho!" he laughed, giving her one last peck on the lips. "Home cooking twice in one week! Just what are you up to, Miss Ritchi?"

Although Roxanne had learned to cook at her grandmother's elbow, she'd rarely felt it worth her time when she was single, preferring quick frozen meals she could leave in the crockpot or even pop into the microwave.  Since she had started dating Megamind, however, she'd dusted off the old cookbooks she'd inherited and started making meals from scratch once a week.  True, the hero had Minion to cook for him— and her skills were nowhere near the henchman's gourmet standards— but this was one of the ways she could show her affection, and it always seemed to please the blue alien.  Things like that had become important to the reporter as Megamind took up residence in her heart, which is why she found herself constantly making little gestures like buying him a blue teddy bear in a black leather jacket, or texting him funny pictures and thoughts she knew would make him smile.  So she had gotten into the habit of planning one special dinner each week.  But, up until now, it had always been only one.

I'd hoped he wouldn't notice.  I should have known better.  

She gave him her best calm reporter stare. It was ruined by the fact that her face still felt like it was glowing red. "Why should I be up to anything?" she asked coyly.

He lifted an eyebrow, his grin playful.  "Your wiles won't work on me."

That earned him a sultry look. "I was under the impression they were working pretty well just now."

"Wicked girl," he teased. Following Roxanne across the small kitchen, Megamind opened the oven and sniffed eagerly. "Mmmm... Lasag-na. My favorite. Now I'm definitely suspicious."

"It's lasagna, silly," Roxanne corrected fondly, moving past him to set her bouquet on the dinette table. "And can't a girl make her favorite hero a nice dinner without him getting into conspiracy theories?"

He only grinned at her again. "La. Sag. Na." That was one of the things Roxanne loved most about Megamind. He never let himself be embarrassed. Most people would have been mortified by constant mispronunciations, but he brushed them off with a smile.

Giggling, Roxanne swatted him playfully out of her way and found two oven mitts in a drawer before retrieving the dish from the oven. "Maybe I'll make you learn to say it correctly before I let you have any."

"Oh, you could never be so cruel!" he answered over his shoulder as he selected plates from the cabinet. "I should have brought a bottle of wine."

"I still have two from the last time you came over," laughed Roxanne. "I think we'll be okay."

"You make me sound like an alcoholic," Megamind complained, but he couldn't quite tame his playful expression as he began setting the table. "I simply couldn't decide what would compliment the dish best. Besides, I wanted to make sure I had something to eat my breakfast cereal with in the morning."

"Ewww!"

Roxanne loved Megamind's laugh. He was the city's hero now, but his rolling chortle still had a dark ring in it, and something about it sent delicious shivers down her spine.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding" he assured her.

"I know, but... Ewww!"

He laughed again and motioned her to her chair. "Alright, okay," he said, helping her into her seat. "Whenever I stay here overnight, I solemnly promise that I will not eat cereal and wine for breakfast."

Roxanne tried to giggle but found her throat suddenly tight. Funny how that comment brought the conversation to the matter at hand.

Come on, Roxanne.  For God's sake.  Just ask.

She looked up at him, his face still glowing with humor, and gently placed her hand on his.

"Megamind, I was thinking, what about tonight?"

He looked confused. "What about tonight?"

"For that. For you to stay over. I mean..." she sighed.  Ugh... Why is this so hard?   "Will you stay here with me tonight?"

"Of course!" his easy tone implied he still didn't get her meaning. It wasn't as if he had never stayed over, after all... It was simply that they had never done any more than cuddle.

"No, I mean, will you—" Oh, God, I'm going to have to be specific, aren't I?— "Will you sleep with me? Will you spend the night here as my lover?"

That finally did it. His eyes widened in surprise, and then he glanced quickly down, trying unsuccessfully to hide his little up-to-no-good grin.

When he lifted his gaze again, however, his expression turned serious. "Are you... sure? I want you to be sure, Roxanne. Absolutely certain." He lifted his free hand to push a strand of her short hair tenderly back from her face. "No regrets between us. Ever."

She smiled. Doesn't he understand that that's what makes me so certain?  He's always ready to put me first.

Yes, he was an alien. Yes, she was going to be the first known human to sleep with someone from a different planet. Yes, in a society where too many still objected to relationships between different races and same genders, sharing her bed with an extraterrestrial was sure to stir up trouble. But it didn't matter. She had given him her whole heart, and after five months of dating— more if you counted the dates with "Bernard"— she wanted to give him her body, too. The time had come. Their relationship couldn't continue in this state of limbo. Either she stopped holding back or she broke things off, and she couldn't bear the thought of the latter. No matter what happened, no matter who judged them, no matter how many snide comments she had to hear about Stockholm Syndrome and tentacle porn, she would not—could not—let him go.

Fully meeting his look, Roxanne let her emotions— love, desire, trust, longing— fill her blue eyes. Her hands caressed the sides of his face as she pulled him down for another slow-burn kiss.

"I'm sure," she breathed when they parted for air. "I'm very, very sure."

He smiled and leaned back in, kissing her again, letting years of contained passion spill over her.  The chair skittered back as she rose, tangling her arms around him.  Clutching her, Megamind ran eager hands over her back, cupped her hips, and pressed her close to feel the proof of his desire. His kisses were hot, desperate, as if he were drowning and her lips held his only salvation.

Panting and flushed, the hero was the first to pull back. "I'm sorry," he said, motioning to the cooling meal on the table. "I don't mean to let all your hard work go to waste, but—"

"I have a microwave. We can heat it up."

He grinned. "Well, in that case..." he purred. Scooping her up in his deceptively thin arms, Metro City's blue hero carried Roxanne to the bedroom.

Tonight. It was going to be tonight.

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#Megamind #fanfic #fan fiction #fan fic #roxanne #Minion #mystery #drama #romance #action #adventure #detective #Post-Movie #Megamind as a Hero #megamind fanfiction #violence #crime fighting #hero

[madamebaggio]

THE SAME WAY I LIKE MY COFFEE

Summary: Sansa Stark always liked her coffee hot and sweet. She finally found a guy that makes the sentence "I like my men the same way I like my coffee" real to her.

Jon snow has no right to be that hot.

Or: Sansa opens the coffee shop of her dreams, makes great friends and meets an unbelievably hot Jon Snow.

Notes: This work is complete and you can find it all here ;)

****

Intimacy was a very peculiar thing, Sansa usually marveled.

After seven months working door to door with everybody else, she felt like she’d known them all her whole life.

She wasn’t shocked anymore when Ygritte stormed into her café at 10 in the morning, growling at everybody and demanding coffee.

She loved that Margaery would offer her flowers and say she was just using Sansa’s café to promote Highgarden, but never left a card with the vases. Sansa even laughed when her new friend tried to set her up with her older brother.

Tormund’s flirting didn’t bother her anymore, because he was crazy about Brienne, who’d taken to Sansa like an aunt.

Gendry was awfully kind, helping her every time something broke around the café, carrying heavy things for her. It took her months to convince him to call her just Sansa, instead of Miss Stark, but she’d taken to him like a brother –another one.

Gilly loved making Sansa’s frilly aprons, and her baby boy was a treasure. Sam always asked Sansa if she was eating well and taking care of herself.

They were a big family and took so much care of her that Sansa did all she could to repay it as best she could.

Of course, the downside was that they were like a second nosy family and they all wanted to matchmake her with someone.

Also, she knew a bit too much about everyone’s sex life, because God forbid such a thing being private.

She even knew that Margaery had had her nipples pierced by Ygritte, and if that wasn’t way too much information, she didn’t know what was.

Ygritte had been trying to convince Sansa to get a real tattoo, because –apparently –Sansa’s “sorority tattoos” –as Ygritte herself called them –weren’t good enough.

Sansa knew that her tattoos –a small star behind her left ear and the word “family” on her ribs –might look cliché and silly to Ygritte, but she loved delicate things.

Ygritte was a great artist –she had amazing drawings with Celtic designs –but they weren’t Sansa’s style and she admitted it to the other redhead.

Ygritte had accepted that explanation, but made Sansa promise to get a decent tattoo. The Stark girl just laughed and agreed.

They made a weird group, but it was good all the same.

Her family came to visit often and Sansa couldn’t help but notice that –after some time –Robb would always bring her flowers from Margaery’s shop and that he arrived with a blush on his cheeks. She also noticed that Arya had started bringing her motorcycle to Gendry’s shop and the thing seemed to be breaking an awful lot recently.

Both Robb and Arya insisted that she was crazy and there was nothing there.

Sansa never expected that by leaving the security of her family she could have so much. Yes, it was difficult, money was short for the first time in her life. But she was taking care of herself, paying her own bills and she actually felt useful, like she was doing something.

She felt she was worth something, not just a stupid girl.

Joffrey had called her a stupid girl and so had Harry. Petyr called her that like it was term of endearment.

She was not stupid. She was showing them all.

XxX

“Hey, Red. Can you make fifty of those pink glittery cupcakes of yours by Friday?”

Sansa had given up pointing out to Ygritte that they were both redheads and it was strange for the other woman to call her Red.

It made no difference to Ygritte.

“It’s possible.” Sansa confirmed after thinking for a bit. “I thought you hated pink.”

Ygritte was one of the least girly girls Sansa had ever met. Ygritte never wore pink –or lavender and peach, for that matter. She indeed reminded Sansa a lot of Arya, and perhaps that was why her baby sister and the artist got along so well.

“I do.” Ygritte agreed, after taking a sip from her pint. They were at Tormund’s, as usual. “But it isn’t for me. I’ve got a new guy coming to work at the shop and this will be his ‘welcome party’ thing.”

Sansa snorted. “How mature.”

Sansa didn’t normally take orders, because she had –until very recently –run the café by herself. She actually loved doing cupcakes and cakes and decorating them. She was planning on having a workshop for kids during Christmas week, so they could come to the café and decorate cookies and gingerbread men.

Now that she had two people working for her, she had a bit more of time to do things like that, but she normally only did it for her friends.

Ygritte snickered. “Jon is so bloody serious and brooding.” She explained making a face. “Some pink might do him good.”

Margaery turned to face Ygritte so fast that Sansa feared she’d given herself whiplash. “Jon? Jon Snow?” She asked. “The infamous ex-boyfriend?”

Sansa arched a brow. This was a new piece of information to her, she didn’t remember Ygritte ever mentioning an ex-boyfriend, infamous or not.

“Yup.” Ygritte confirmed with a smirk.

Sansa kind of wanted to ask why he was infamous –especially because Margaery said it like it was a good kind of infamy, if that was possible –but time had taught her that she probably didn’t want to know.

Sansa sipped her Cosmopolitan and waited for Margaery to say something else. The Free Folk didn’t serve any type of cocktail –at all –but Sansa had commented once how she missed Cosmopolitans and Tormund had sighed and grumbled, but eventually Brienne made him learn how to make them for her. Margaery loved it, because she spent a long time trying to convince him to prepare anything for her, but couldn’t and now they had Cosmos.

Tormund refused to make them for anybody else and the two glasses he had and everything needed to make the drink was kept separate, just for the two ladies.

Tormund was such a sweetheart sometimes.

“Jon, you say?” The man himself spoke. “The lad with the dark hair and a mighty frown?”

Ygritte nodded.

“How come I’ve never heard of him?” Sansa finally asked.

“Don’t know.” Ygritte shrugged. “I don’t go around talking about past guys. Or girls.” Margaery snickered from her seat. “But Jon and I are still friends. He’s been around once or twice. Sam knows him.”

The doctor, upon hearing his name, turned to them too. “Who?”

“Jon.” Margaery offered.

“Oh yes.” Sam smiled. “He’s nice.”

“I’ve never met him.” Margaery informed Sansa. “Just heard the stories.” She traded a smirk with Ygritte and Sansa was defeated by her curiosity.

“Ok… What is he infamous for?” She asked, knowing she was likely to regret it.

The smirk on Ygritte’s face was positively filthy. “For how good he is at oral. Quite enthusiastic at it, too.”

Sansa could hear Sam berating Ygritte for saying something like that and she could feel how hot her face was, as she blushed.

“Ygritte!” She chided the other woman. “Seriously, what’s with you? Now I’ll look at the guy and imagine him between your legs.”

Just after she had said it she realized how terrible that sounded.

Margaery was cackling in delight and even Ygritte and Tormund were laughing, while Gilly giggled and Sansa felt her face heat up even more.

“You can always imagine him going down on you, if you want.” Ygritte offered with another grin.

“Oh my God!” Sansa covered her face with her hands, because she couldn’t believe where this conversation had gone.

Not that she was shocked, more often than not they ended up talking about sex.

She didn’t even know the guy!

“I’m offering as a friend.” Ygritte spoke, fake sympathy in her voice, as she patted Sansa in the back.

Sansa snorted before she could stop herself.

Margaery arched a brow. “Sansa… You’ve had a guy go down on you before, right?” She asked carefully, lower so only the three other women could hear the question.

Sansa refused to answer that question.

“You’re shitting us, right?” Ygritte demanded.

This time Sansa just shook her head.

She had never explained how terrible her past relationships had been. She did tell Margaery and Gilly a bit more about them, but honestly, she had softened it so much they had no idea. She didn’t want them to look at her and see the poor rich girl with shitty taste in men.

So no, no oral sex, no good sex at all, to be honest. When she’d dated Joffrey she was way younger and those things didn’t cross her mind. Harry thought it was disgusting, even though he all but demanded she did it for him. Then there was Petyr Baelish…

He had been all charming, taking advantage of her when she was fragile, still shaken because of her breakup with Harry. He was way older than her –old enough to be her father –and he had cajoled her with sweet words and promises until he managed to get her in his bed.

Then he showed her his true colors, all the promises of sweet pleasure left behind for his own enjoyment.

Sansa never felt worse than she did the morning after that night.

The three other women traded looks between them, like they were having some kind of telepathic conversation. Eventually Gilly was the one to speak, “That’s fine, darling.”

Sansa cleared her throat. “Oh, sure. My fault for having crappy boyfriends, I guess.”

Ygritte was frowning and ready to open her mouth, when Margaery cut her. “Well, darling, some nice human being invented ‘massagers’ just for that.” She even made the quote signs around the word massager. “Fantastic little things.”

Sansa was squealing with laughter and telling Margaery to shut up, but at least she wasn’t sad anymore.

It was okay, because Margaery, Gilly and Ygritte had every intention of making sure that Sansa lived her life to the fullest. And –hopefully –got laid in the process.

#madame baggio #fanfiction #images not mine #crackship #modern au #game of thrones #Sansa Stark #jon snow #jonsa #Sansa x Jon #fluff fic

[the-odinson]

Thor 🗲 Intro

“Fortunately, I am mighty...”

OOC PORTION —

NAME: Danny

PRONOUNS: he/him

AGE: 23

TIMEZONE: GMT +1

TRIGGERS: None

IC PORTION; BASICS —

CHARACTER NAME: Thor Odinson

FACECLAIM: Chris Hemsworth

AFFILIATIONS: The Avengers

AGE: 1500s/appears mid 30s

SPECIES: Alien (Asgardian)

IDENTITY: Public

DOES YOUR CHARACTER LIVE IN THE MOUSEHOLE? IF SO, WHAT ARE THEIR DUTIES? Yes, but he doesn’t particularly like it there. He doesn’t feel the effects of the cold, but Thor has never liked being confined so prefers to get outside as much as possible. Thor has decided to take on the role of a hunter/gatherer. The vast forests of Europe aren’t too dissimilar to the Asgardian wilderness and, while the beasts aren’t as ferocious as back home, what’s a king to do if not revel in the hunt? When needed he will also help with aid work: he can cover great distances with ease and carrying heavy loads is hardly a problem for him.

DESCRIBE SIX TRAITS (3 positive, 3 negative) YOUR CHARACTER HAS AND HOW THESE AFFECT THEM:

Dependable: A man of his word, Thor is trustworthy and reliable; an asset in any team and to anyone who has a favour to ask. Endearing: Those who truly get to know Thor speak of him with admiration; his warm smile and welcoming personality don’t come to all, but if he lets his guard down you’re guaranteed a friend with whom you feel truly comfortable. Benevolent: Thor (usually) means well and (usually) tries to be kind to anyone he encounters. His exterior may come across as brash but there’s no malice involved, often just a difference in culture and upbringing. Obstinate: While being headstrong may not always be a negative thing, Thor hates to admit he’s wrong and has a tendency to steamroll down a chosen path rarely reassessing whether the choices he made were the right ones or simply the first ones. Distrusting: Thor enjoys being social but mainly around those he’s close to. He can appear a little hostile to strangers: while he wants to believe in the good in people, he’s been around long enough and seen a lot of the universe to know of the potential darkness inside them too. Reckless: Thor often acts on impulse and charges into situations unprepared. This can lead to serious damage caused to both himself and those around him.

POWERS AND/OR ABILITIES: Super strength: Son of Odin and King of Asgard, Thor is physically the strongest of all Asgardians, with feats including being able to go one-on-one with the Hulk and other powerful entities. Flight: Thor’s magical axe Stormbreaker grants him the ability to fly. Electricity Manipulation: Thor is capable of generating electrical energy within his body and can expel it in the form of lightning bolts. Using Stormbreaker makes the energy generation and expulsion much more powerful and efficient. Weather Control: Similarly, either with or without Stormbreaker (although with Stormbreaker is easier), Thor can control the sky and create storms. Durability: His Asgardian physiology grants much more durability than a human one, able to shrug off energy blasts and recover from injury much quicker. Thor can also survive in space and alien atmospheres. Allspeak: Also called the All-Tongue, Asgardians speak a magic-based language, granting the ability to understand and be understood in all the languages of the Nine Realms. Bifrost: Stormbreaker also gifts Thor the power to summon the Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge connecting all realms, allowing intergalactic travel between worlds in a matter of moments.

WEAKNESSES: There aren’t many things on Earth that could pose a threat to Thor, so it’s hard to pinpoint any specific weaknesses. Perhaps for someone like Thor, the word god comes up so often that he sometimes forgets it’s not true: he is mortal and, while far more durable than a human, he can get injured and he can get killed, a fact that he often brushes to the side when charging into battle. However he has become far more self-aware after losing an eye (and almost his life) to Hela.

IC PORTION; DETAILS —

WHAT BROUGHT YOUR CHARACTER TO SOKOVIA?

Sokovia is where the majority of Thor’s allies are, and he needs their help. His world gone, his people stranded on the nearest hospitable realm in need of a home; Thor knew of a place where the Asgardians could blend in and live peaceful lives. The problem is, however, it seems Earth is not quite at peace right now. When he couldn’t track down the Avengers in New York, he followed the trail to Novi Grad. His priorities are conflicting: while he came back to Earth to ask the Avengers’ help in establishing a new Asgard on this planet, he feels he should stay to try and help his friends however he can in aiding the Nomad’s cause.

DID THEY SIGN THE ACCORDS? WHY OR WHY NOT?

No - the whole Accords situation is mostly unbeknownst to Thor due to being offworld at the time of signing. From what he can gather, it isn’t something that would appeal to him. He feels the affairs of humans are mostly petty ones and, despite his growing acclimatisation to Earth and its customs, he doesn’t understand why humans have to be so divided about, well, pretty much everything.

PROVIDE 3-5 HEADCANONS RELATED TO YOUR CHARACTER: 1. Although Thor is an alien, he has spent enough time on this planet (in both modern and ancient times) for the culture shock to lessen so that now Earth to Thor is more comparable to a human travelling to a different country - he acknowledges that the differences are neither better nor worse and he chooses to respect them. He knows he will make mistakes and appear strange, but sees that now as an opportunity for personal growth. 2. One thing he doubts he will ever understand however, is the human version of ‘entertainment’. Thor cannot stand movies. On Asgard, they would entertain themselves by slaying fearsome monsters or engaging in a friendly drunken brawl, the more broken furniture the better! But on Earth they amuse themselves by… sitting down and staring at a screen for hours on end. While both Asgard and Earth had/have magnificent technology, it’s clear they used it very differently.

3. Since returning to Earth, Thor has become intrigued in the Norse tales of himself and his people from over a thousand years ago and their alleged feats. He finds it highly amusing how inaccurate the stories are, but it has led to a fascination of human mythology and the various pantheons across history and the world. He wonders if he will ever meet any other of these so-called gods.

4. While a human brain only has capacity for almost a century’s worth of memories, an Asgardian brain is built for a few millennia’s worth. Therefore Thor has a much more acute long-term memory than his human companions, although occasionally his short-term memory leaves something to be desired, especially after several pints of mead.

WANTED CHARACTER CONNECTIONS: 

Loki: His brother and the person he loves (and hates) most in the cosmos. I know a thing or two about brotherly love (I’ve been experiencing it for 23 years) so would love to write for Thor with his undeniably most personal connection. Wonder Woman: Both ancient, both ‘gods’ and both so very far from home. Despite their different allegiances I think it would be great to have Thor bond with perhaps the one person around here who may truly understand him. Superman: If anything they both have fabulous red capes. They are quite similar power-wise, although I know Superman is stronger but Thor definitely wouldn’t want to admit that. It could lead to some healthy (or unhealthy?) competition between the two, especially seeing as Thor isn’t too fond of the Justice League. Captain America & Iron Man: The two splintered team leaders. Thor respects them both (Tony a little less, perhaps…) and, since he doesn’t really understand the extent of the accords, would like to hear their sides of the story and what has happened since the Ultron incident. Bruce Banner: Thor has fought with the Hulk a couple of times but feels this has brought the two closer, learning more about how Bruce ticks and now he feels there’s a protective bond between the pair. I think the interactions they have could bring out the comedic style of writing which I love!

POTENTIAL CHARACTER ARCS: In the previous paragraph I said I like writing comedic characters (of which Thor fits the bill) but I also want to explore the deeper aspects of his personality such as the emotional pain of losing his parents, his childhood friends and his home. This could manifest in him not wanting to form bonds with others in the Mousehole at first because he’s lost so many people: why would he want to get close with anyone else only to lose them again? Perhaps a dramatic fallout with someone from a different team could lead to serious consequences for him or the team as a whole.

The reason I chose for placing Thor in Sokovia is that he’s seeking a location for New Asgard: maybe with all its emigrating population and empty buildings Sokovia could be the perfect location… I’m not sure how it would work in the group, but maybe Thor could eventually bring the Asgardians here, both to settle and to help with the restoration of the country.

CHARACTER BIO —

You know the story. An Asgardian prince, lacking in humility and exiled to Earth in order to learn what it means to be worthy. A classic tale, but at its heart, a tale of loss, and a tale of what it means to truly be human: even if you’re not. Thor has lived for well over a millenia, but only in the last decade has his life really begun. From landing on Earth a long time after people stopped worshipping him, he slowly began to understand the importance of relationships; from forming close bonds with the Avengers (and wary acquaintances with the Justice League and X-Men), to experiencing true love for the very first time. All his life Thor had assumed that humans were lesser beings, so why then did he feel he was learning so much more from them than he had ever learned from his own kind? 

After experiencing the death of his mother, then later on his father and three close childhood friends, Thor was at breaking point when his home realm of Asgard was obliterated during Ragnarök by the fire demon Surtur. With the title of King thrust upon him, Thor decided his duty to his people had to consume him before his emotions did. Pursuing the quest of a new home, he led them to Nidavellir, the homeworld of the dwarfs; unsurpassable smiths and mechanics with the power to forge almost anything the mind can dream of, ruled over by their King, Eitri. Eons ago, Eitri had forged the legendary hammer Mjölnir (destroyed by Hela) at Odin’s request, now he oversaw the creation of the glorious axe Stormbreaker when asked by Thor, capable of summoning the rainbow bridge despite its apparent destruction on Asgard. Armed with his new tool and a promise to the Asgardians of a brighter future, Thor set out alone across the stars, heading to Midgard to find his old allies the Avengers. He’d helped the humans many times before, hopefully they’ll be able to help him and his race this time. 

It took Thor losing everything to appreciate what he has. As he enters the next phase of his life in Sokovia, without family or a home, he is truly the definition of a nomad.

#srisingintro #biography

[lightsburnbrite]

Things We Do for Love: Part 3

(Third part to Such a Thrill and The Devil is in the Details) 

The next morning, Leon left the apartment early using training as an excuse. Instead he swung by Karina’s favorite cafe and got a couple of coffees and chocolate croissants to go. He was able to get the waiter to give out Karina’s room number and he hoped that he’d catch her before she left.

Karina wasn’t asleep, but she had no desire to leave the bed yet. She debated just ignoring the knock at the door but the second one seemed a bit more urgent. Against her better judgement, Karina opened the door when she saw Leon through the door viewer.

“Hello.” Karina looked up at him, her eyeliner and mascara smudged just enough to give her an unintentional smokey eye.

Leon gave a slight nod of acknowledgment and smiled that she was obviously comfortable enough with him to open the door in just a t shirt and underwear. “I need to apologize for Mathea last night. Breakfast?”

“Just for Mathea?” Karina laughed as she stepped aside so he was able to walk through. “You don’t take any ownership in the train wreck of last night?”

Leon waited for Karina to lead the way in. She stopped at a small seating area separate from the bedroom and sat crisscross in an oversized armchair prompting him to sit down opposite of her. “I should have called but I figured you’d say no. Listen, I know I fucked up last night and I should have asked if you’d be ok with Mathea there but I just assumed that he’d be coming with you.”

“Who is he? What makes you think I’m seeing someone?” Karina's tone was strained as she searched Leon’s expression, trying to see if he’d give anything away.

He held his hands up. “Look, you don’t need to be so hostile-”

“Well maybe I don’t like being ambushed, Leon. You show up with Mathea last night,” Karina tilted her head back, reminding herself to unclench her jaw. “She was wearing my wedding dress, and then you keep insinuating that I’m seeing someone. How am I supposed to react to that?”

“I wasn't stalking you, it's just that…nobody knew where you were.” Leon cleared his throat. “Even your brother didn’t know. Sebastian saw a post on facebook that you were tagged in and it said you were his girlfriend. He…has pictures of Elsa on his instagram so I figured it was serious.”

Karina attempted to keep any sort of emotion from coming through but she was infuriated by the idea that he was checking up on her. When Leon only offered a slight shrug, she pinched the bridge of her nose. “We broke up last month but Cos was nice enough to keep Elsa and Ember for me while I'm here.”

“Ember?” Leon sat up straighter now.

Karina retrieved her phone from the bedroom and made a few swipes before handing it to Leon. There he saw the man whom he had become all too familiar with laying on a bed with Elsa sprawled out next to him and a similar tricolored pup laying on his chest.

“I thought Elsa could use a friend.” Leon glanced up slightly and Karina shrugged. “You can go through my phone if you want, I don’t care.”

He hesitated at first but soon scrolled through and saw more pictures of Cosmo and the dogs but also pictures of the two of them. Suddenly it hit Leon that the pictures of the two of them were out an about, at different events and parties, even professional baseball games. Things that they never did together. He remembered back when Karina complained about it and Leon basically shrugged it off.

“I’m sorry.” Leon shook his head and handed her phone back. “I was just so worried when no one had heard anything from you. Part of me just wanted to know that you were safe.”

She gave a slight smile, she couldn’t begrudge him his curiosity knowing it stemmed from concern. “I’m fine, Leon, ok? It’s fine.”

“Just fine? I mean, you’ve practically created a whole new life and you’re only fine?” His voice raised slightly, concern ever present.

Pressing her lips together, Karina took a sip of her coffee. “I needed to make a whole new life, there was nothing left for me here.”

“I was here.” Leon locked eyes with her. “I was here but you left me.”

She held his gaze for a moment before a look of skepticism took over. "Why do you think I left, Leon?"

"I…" He hesitated for a moment, scratching the back of his head. "I still don't know."

“How would we have worked through you wanting kids when I don't?" She managed to keep her composure despite the tears that were collecting on her cheeks. "I still think that maybe I should have just given in because then maybe things could have been normal but I kept imagining me hating this innocent kid and I couldn't live with that. My marriage was over, my family disowned me. There was nothing left for me here except pain.”

Leon looked genuinely hurt by Karina’s emphasis on her last sentence so she decided to elaborate her answer. “I enjoy my job, I have a nice little house, and I spend my time with my dogs. Given everything that has happened, I’m pretty content with my life right now.”

"Were you in love with him?" His voice was low, almost a whisper, as if he was afraid of what Karina's answer might be.

Karina rolled her eyes. "I won't answer that, Leon."

With a heavy sigh, Leon closed his eyes and nodded. "Do you regret it?"

"Regret what?" Karina frowned, confused by his question. "Getting married?"

He only offered a shrug at first. "Everything between us."

Tears continued to stream down her cheeks as Karina shook her head. "You've helped me through some of the lowest points in my life and I will be forever grateful for that. I loved being married to you."

"Would we still be married if I never said anything about kids?" Leon took his thumb and wiped her cheeks before letting his hand fall back down.

Karina adamantly shook her head now. "Don't do this to yourself."

"No, be honest with me." He took hold of her hands and gave a slight squeeze. "I want to know."

She stayed silent for a while before speaking. "I don't think I made a very good wife for you."

"Maus, please just answer my question." Leon's tone became more pleading, partly because he knew what she was going to say.

With the slightest nod, Karina leaned forward and rested her head against his chest.

"We could run away." He rested one hand on the back of Karina's neck while wrapping his free arm around her shoulders. "Just start over."

Karina stepped back and shook her head. "That's never going to happen. I love you, Leon and I care about you tremendously, but you have to realize we can never go back from here."

"Well, I mean not actually run away," Leon let out a nervous laugh before the smile fell from his face. "Why not?"

Covering her face with her hands, Karina let out a heavy sigh. "Where do you want me to start? I will always be wondering if I'm preventing you from being happy, the first thing you did was to turn to Mathea so how am I to be convinced that you will ever be finished with her, and if all that wasn't enough, your family hates me because I left you."

He shook his head and started to protest. "That's not true."

"Really?" Karina let a little smirk lay on her lips, a way of giving him permission to be truthful.

"I mean," Leon hesitated again. "It's not that-"

Karina cut him off by giving him the slightest of kisses before sitting back down and sitting criss cross in her chair. "It's ok, Leon, really. It is what it is."

Leon slumped back down in his chair but frowned. "I don't get it, you say you love me but you're so willing to let go."

"It's because I do love you." She wiped her eyes again. "I want you to be happy, even if that means we're not together. We just want different things from life and as shitty as it seems right now, sometimes that happens."

Covering his eyes with the heels of his palms, Leon stayed silent for a moment. "What if I just want you back? What if want you more than I want anything else?"

Up until now, it seemed like Karina had an answer for everything. Her brow knitted, fresh tears came fast.

Leon stood, a move which prompted Karina to do the same, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling Karina tightly against his chest. "I've been miserable with out you. I don't care what your answer is, I just need to let you know."

Karina didn't respond. Instead, she simply wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his embrace. Finally, she stepped back. "I think you should probably go…before we do something that we'd regret."

"I regret agreeing to separate with out counseling or something, I regret not fighting for you to stay." Leon interrupted, shaking his head.

She sighed as she wiped her face again. "It wouldn't be fair to Mathea…go home, go on with your life."

Leon frowned. "Maus, you're not listening to me."

"If you still feel this way after a few months then…we'll talk." Karina couldn't say it, she had her doubts that Leon would still want her. Instead, Leon simply smiled broadly.

Leon was curious to see how their relationship would progress once Karina returned to Toronto. At first, he was slightly cautious in his advances, sending her memes and the occasional selfie. When Karina started texting him spontaneously, Leon knew things were becoming more favorable for their future together.

Although Leon resisted sending Karina a gift on the date of their anniversary, when her birthday came around, he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

As soon as he got the delivery notification, Leon waited for the call.

He smiled broadly as he answered. "Hey Maus."

"You didn't need to send me flowers." There wasn't a single bit of admonishment in her tone. Instead, he could tell she was smiling as well.

He laughed at this. "I love how you think I'm not going to send you flowers on your birthday."

"Thank you." There was a little sigh on her end. "They're beautiful. The ring too."

It wasn't as though Leon was looking, but as soon as he saw the ring, a cushion cut black onyx surrounded by bezel set diamonds and a platinum band, he thought of Karina. "I'm glad you like it." He grinned again but had no intentions of letting Karina know that. "I've gotta go now Maus, but I love you."

"Leon," Karina started to chastise him but gave up. After a long pause, she sighed again. "I love you too."

Leon continued to keep an eye on the social media feeds of AGO, sometimes he'd get lucky and there would be a feature involving Karina. This morning, there was a picture of Karina and three others standing around a large painting. He smirked at how everyone was dressed in business casual attire and then there was Karina in her black mini dress and studded leather jacket. He felt a pang as he looked her over, he was still very much in love with her and very much attracted to her.

As Leon read the caption, his smile grew. "…AGO would like to thank Karina Müller for her time as acting Associate Curator of European Art. We will miss her as she returns to the Alte Pinakothek in Munich…"

That was it. Karina was coming home.

Leon spent the rest of the day on cloud nine. His training went well and he felt generally untouchable. He checked his phone before he left the parking lot and noticed a text from Karina asking him to call her if he was able to. There was no question as to if he was going to or not.

"Leon?"

"Hey, Maus. What's up?"

Her initial hesitation made Leon hold hid breath.

"I…um, I have a favor to ask of you. I know it's asking a lot so feel free to say no. I mean, it's ok if-"

"Babe." He didn't like cutting her off but he had the feeling that she would have gone on for a bit longer if he hadn't. "What do you need?"

"I'm going back to work at the museum. Most of the time I'll be working from home but I'll go in once or twice a week. Nena asked me to come in on Wednesday and I didn't expect to be going in that soon-"

"Come stay with me."

Again, she hesitated. "Are you sure? I'd have the dogs with me. Would Mathea even be ok with that? I know it's a huge boundary."

"I broke up with Mathea as soon as I left your hotel room. I want you, and the dogs, to come and stay with me as long as you need to."

"I can sleep on the couch if the guest room isn't open." Karina had a hint of disbelief in her voice as if she expected there to be some wavering on Leon's part.

"Or you can sleep in my bed." He really wanted to add that she could sleep in his bed with him but Leon didn't want to push his luck. "I'll take the couch."

He heard Karina let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Leon. I owe you."

"We can discuss that once you get here. Call me when you land and I'll come pick you up."

As soon as he got home, Leon got to work in making things ready for Karina's visit. He cleared some space in the closet and made sure there was an extra set of towels in the en suite bathroom before making a list of some things he wanted to get in the shops. He was in the middle of checking to see if there was a jar of Nutella in the cupboard when Sebastian sent him a message in the group chat about going out tomorrow night. His simple reply of can't. busy elicited some smart ass retorts. Leon thought about explaining that Karina was coming home but Marius was included in the chat and it was still up in the air how Marius would react.

#leon goretzka #things we do for love

[kurtty-drabbles]

Ocean au (Pool of Blood 7)

N/A: OK, HERE WE GO.

@djinmer4 @dannybagpipesarecalling @bamfoftheundead @everykurt

The skyscrapers of New Gotham are timeless and Columbina doesn´t have the imagination to try to see how the city would be with a different architecture, maybe, because New Gotham´s aesthetic works so well in the point is almost iconic. At the moment, Columbina is looking at the city below her.

Wayne´s enterprise's building seems something out of the '50s and refuses to change, sure, they make technologies, sure their workers aren´t just white men, but, still when Columbina is hunched down in the bench of the window (empty office) the woman is left with her thoughts until she hears the lunatic laugh.

Nightcreeper teleports on the next window, still wearing the same thong only an anime would. And Columbina does not seems to mind his insane presence. A rarity.

"Are you stalking me?" she asked now hovering through the air. Nightcreeper flashes one of those smiles and again it does little to frighten Columbina.

"No, not today, I was passing by and saw a little kitten floating here..." and Columbina got more insane answers proving that the man is not sane, at least not now.

"Ok, then, I suppose.  Do you ever felt fear?" she asked now peering into his golden eyes. Nightcreeper seems to be pondering about this question and she wonders if Ryder is one to admit he feels fear like everyone else or pretends he´s fearless.

"Sometimes. Why? Does my cat burglar fears dogs?"

"Your jokes are terrible, Creepy, but, yes...I´d fear. I´ll have to do a mission, of the sort, and I not sure I can pull it off" and now Nightcreeper looks serious at her, for once, and is incredibly disjointing.

"Are you going to steal something?"

"Yes"

"Can I stop you?"

"Can you be less you?"

"No, I think not. But...what will you steal?"

"A Pool of Blood!"

And Nightcreeper ogles at her for a moment until his smile is back. "What a kinky girl!" he replies and it remotes Columbina to one of Ryder´s episodes where Ryder uncover the truth about an oil owner and why he missed the important meeting in New Gotham...he was having an affair with his secretary.

"Why kinky?"

"Why anyone would steal a Pool of Blood? You sure got guts, Katzchen... I like this it does things to my blood"

"See? now your jokes are getting a tad bit better. Creepy...do you think I can do it?"

"Nope. But if you want to take me to the Red room I´m all yours" and Columbina almost blushes because the Red room is a club for BSDM and she wonders if Ryder is a member there. Maybe smiling at that gives the wrong idea as Creepy seems more than happy to suppose she´s ready for this.

"You know what? Let´s do a bet, Creepy, if I manage to steal the pool...you take me to a nice date, be creative and not pervert, and if I lose...I take you to the Red room and beat you up with my whip"

And she now is full smiles as the lunatic takes the bet, after all, in the end, Creepy is the one who will win here.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

"Meggan, I want to show you something" Kokoro calls her sister-in-law and has a small stone in her hand and Meggan having know enough about Kryptonian´s history thanks to Brian is surprised by not reconize the stone on Kokoro´s hand.

"What´s this?" she asked having a feeling what this may be.

"You know I have connections with the Foundation. We made a deal a few years ago and this stone is me charging some favours...this stone will help us to capture the Pool of Blood safely..." she shows the stone but refuses to let go. "You trust Columbina, right? Would you extend this trust to her sister?"

"I won´t say I distrust her. I´ll say I know Columbina more...if you want a more poignant opinion on Polaris, maybe, White Witch would be better to give you one...Polaris and the Green Witch are sorting having a fling and the Green Witch is her apprentice"

"I ...shall call Wanda then...look, this stone is important, let´s say that, and I need to know that Polaris won´t run away with the stone"

"I doubt of that, but if she does, what would happen?"

"Magneto´s secret daughter would be even more powerful than she already is!"

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Wanda is using tarot and is not surprised when her phone rings and is Kokoro on the phone, to put nicely, Wanda and Kokoro don´t have a relationship at all, before the whole heist all those women have in common was JLX and only that and now...Kokoro has Wanda´s cellphone. Life isn´t funny?

"Hello, Kokoro, the cards told me you would call me, what I can do to you?"

"Cards? Ok nevermind, look, is Polaris is there with you" Wanda look at Polaris and the Green Witch flirt not so subtle and frowns at this question. "she just fly away now. Why?"

"I think I have a solution for our plan...but, look, just tell me, do you truly trust Polaris?"

"As much I can trust myself"

"Then...please, hear me out and don´t make many questions about but I have something that can help us...do you know about the stones of Pheonix?"

"I´m listening"

________________________________________________________________________________________

Dr Bright is more than happy to see Ryder (who may not share the same sentiment) as he explains the situation. To put in laymen terms, a Pool of Blood was located in Jump City and has crafted a pocket dimension for itself and the Foundation along with some side help will take the Pool out of the Jump City.

Ryder nods and makes the one billion dollar question. "Why am I here? The Foundation makes very clear in the past how much they dislike reporters...if I can´t report what I see here..." Dr Bright laughs, and for once, is not a happy one.

"Ryder, let´s make a bet? if after you saw here you still want to make the article and share to the people...no one will stop you and you´ll have to deal with the consequences...Got it?"

And Ryder agrees.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The ladies arrive in the pocket dimension as Sparrow predicted("it wants us in" Sparrow mutters to Felicia who stands closer of Sparrow now) and the Foundation is there as well, however, the ladies are shocked to see Kurt Ryder there as well.

Kokoro is not having a great time and demands an explanation for why Ryder is there. And Dr Bright explains Ryder is his assistant for this mission and surely this was not the entire truth, but, everyone has things to do in regards the Pool of Blood who is near and growing.

Ryder noticed Columbina who seems amused and nervous at the same time. Then his eyes widen as he noticed... "Wait, those are Kitty´s pets?! Why are they here? Where is Kitty?"

And for a moment, Kokoro smiles, Wanda rolls her eyes, Felicia and Sparrow are not seeing this, Polaris does not care, Meggan is trying to make sure no one dies and Gwen is snickering here. Columbina plays along.

"Kitty, the brave soul she is...let her friends here" she points at Cosmo and Jupiter "out on this mission"

"What? Why?" and Ryder was ready to accuse Kitty of not being a good pet owner or maybe saying Columbina stole her pets when Jupiter´s mouth opens and the horror of space is visible to Ryder who drops on the floor.

Cosmo uses telekinesis and to take a gem and quickly the horror a flergen hide is once again hidden.

"As I told you, Kitty is really brave to let her friends here" Columbina explains and Ryder nods.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Cosmo goes to Wanda still lifting the gem and now speaks (Ryder is mind blow by this) "Be careful, Wanda, this gem is different from the last one" and the woman nods and now Columbina, Polaris and Wanda are going near of the Pool.

Ryder watches in amusement, in fear and everything his mind can come up as the 3 ladies are doing such dangerous task. Ryder asks Sparrow (both know each other identities at this point) what´s going on.

"Ryder, is ok, trust us. And right now...we´ll do something really complex...we´ll talk to the Pool of Blood"

___________________________________________________________________________________________

The Pool of Blood is sentiment enough. The Pool of Blood, however, belittle humans just like any other eldritch abomination and Columbina has experience in talking with those creatures (not all of them are like Jupiter and Cosmo)

"Hello, Pool of Blood, do you have a minute? we just want to talk"

The blood in this pool gentle hits the shore and formed a message. "I have all the time in the world, little human, unlike you, but speak, and I´m listening"

Columbina gulps and the two women nod to make sure Columbina must carry on. "We would like to offer you a deal?"

Oh...what kind of deal can you offer me?"

And Columbina hopes this works as everyone else is hoping the same too.

#ocean au #kurt ryder #foundation crossover #Dr Bright is here #Kurtty yet #kitty pryde #making deals #I like Kokoro

[lostinthe-pines-blog]

Fate Doesn’t Write My Stories pt. 10 - Epilogue

This is a multi-chapter story about MC, and Chris finding their way back together after years of being separated post graduation. Chris’s career takes him to Boston, a city he’d promised was her territory. But it’s not just Chris, fate has seemingly brought the entire Hartfeld crew back together.

NOTE: This is a fictional story based on Pixelberry’s Choices App. *Books The Freshman, The Sophomore, The Junior. I am not affiliated with Pixelberry nor do I own the rights to their original characters.

Tags @jared2612  @katurrade @annekebbphotography @emerald-bijou @jellybean-marshmellow @jollybouquetangel

Stargazing had been the most constant hobby in MC’s life. Laying on her trampoline in the backyard of her childhood home, to the roof of her college dorm. On the deck of Vasquez’s house, and the steps of her and Chris’s first apartment. She’d watched stars shine and fade almost weekly for her entire life. MC loved the idea that she was a part of something so much larger than herself or those around her. The cosmos all playing a party in her tiny little life. Looking up to the stars now they were just beginning to appear as the light of day was fading. A cold January morning on Cape Cod. A place normally for summer vacation it would now house a wedding. Her wedding. As she stands on the balcony looking out over the water freezing to Ice along the edges and the blankets of snow covering the trees. She wasn’t cold, she was warm, everything leading to these moments made her feel warm.  She tuned out the sounds of chatter behind her. She lets the warmth of memories overflow as she remembers all the best moments from the last two years with Chris.

 She shoves her key into the silver handle, her first time walking into what she’d call home. She knew he was waiting inside. She’d been here only a few times before. Stopping by before games or on errands while spending her days with Chris. Nothing much had changed except that he’d made room for all of her belongings. Everything had fallen back into place between them so quickly that she couldn’t even say for certain if they were using a label for their relationship before she accepted the key to the apartment. 

 Shutting the door behind her she wanders, her shoes clicking against the dark hardwood floors. “Chris?” she calls quickly trying to find him. As she approaches the bedroom she sees the door is closed, she can hear music playing from the other side. She may have been moving in but she was still unsure if she should knock or not? Was she allowed to enter her now bedroom without permission? Taking a deep breath pushing her daunting questions and anxieties behind she opened the door sliding inside. Her eyes scan the room her gaze catching on the bedside table once covered in his memories and papers it was now empty. He was making room for her. She looked again and saw him facing the window. Had he heard her come in? She didn’t know how to tell him she was there…

Chris sat facing away from the girl whose presence he’d yet to notice. He’d spent his long morning at the gym taking a little extra time today on his legs. Something that would always be hard on him since the accident. He knew the quickest way to heal the pain would be a hot shower. Kicking off his shoes and socks quickly he pulled his shirt off and piled them all to the side. It was in this moment he heard something, a gasp? He wasn’t alone. He turned his gaze behind him and smiled seeing the blush crossed her face.

 “Sorry… I didn’t mean to intrude… I uh, we were doing lunch still right? I must be.. I’m early. The key works though!” she panics mumbling and trying to find a subject that will stick. As she continues to ramble Chris approaches her his only clothing a pair off loose gym shorts wrapped perfectly around his Adonis belt. This was an image she’d not seen for years and even though age had changed them some he was still carved from stone. MC’s rambling stops as she feels the heat of his body close to hers. 

“You’re not intruding… you live here.” he answers her first question “Yes, we are doing lunch still, but you are early if you don’t mind waiting for me to get ready.” he continues answering the rest of her mindless questions. Baring his perfect white teeth through a gentle smile he pulls her eyes to his. He can feel the tension floating off of her, her eyes refusing to remain on his. He sees her uncertainty as her gaze falls to his eyes, his chest and eventually down to their feet. Chris quickly ducks to catch her eyes “You’re always welcome here.” he reassures her before brushing his lips against hers as he lifts her head up. A moment that was meant to be brief was quickly becoming something more.

Caught off guard by his kiss she is quick to melt into his embrace. Opening to his taste she feels his tongue tease her own, while his hands trail down her neck and back. She hadn’t had sex with Chris in almost 5 years. He was stronger now, different now. She felt the butterflies fill her stomach and travel lower to her core. The kisses familiar while the touch felt new. She doesn’t remember pulling away long enough to remove her sweater but it was no longer there. Her every touch against his own inspired by years of intent; she wouldn’t soon forget this… 

 One memory fades into another as she begins to understand more of what “for better or for worse” was going to mean. Her memories remind her that their two years reconnecting weren’t full of only good memories. 

 “You should consider pain medications Christopher, these spasms are serious.” The Doctor speaks. A Doctor Chris clearly knew, someone who’d watched over his physical therapy in the years MC had missed. 

Living in Boston now Chris wasn’t able to visit here as much, he needed to make the most of this trip to Maine. To clear his progress with the Doctor. MC didn’t know him, but she needed to trust him. She couldn’t trust him as she listened to him suggest the same medications that sent her love off the deep end before.

 “Scott..” Chris trails using the Doctor's real name, possibly gaining and losing respect from him. “I will deal with the pain… I cannot go back on those medications, I fear I wont be able to get off them if I do.”

 Scott nods gently and understands Chris’s reasoning. “This injury is part of you forever Powell, and the pain will come and go forever. If you ever can’t handle it, please do not hesitate to call us.” He says exiting the room.

Chris looks to MC in the corner of the room, she’d been silent all morning. She was just as scared of the medication as he was. “Let’s get back to my moms, she’s been waiting for us.” The car ride still silent between them. Chris confused that MC might be angry, how could she be? He’d denied the medications. He did it for her and for them. As he pulled up in front his mothers very small home he felt a rush of pain jolt through his leg. “Aghh!!” he yells grabbing and trying to massage down the pulsing muscles. 

 “Chris you shouldn’t have said no.” MC admits as she lays a hand over his, attempting to distract him from the pain. “You’re not the same man you were back then, and you might need them.” 

“I would rather deal with this pain than look at you through a faded gaze. I said no for you, and for us…” He says through his pain.

 “Really?” MC pauses, she hated seeing him in pain but she loved him all the same. She knew that she now would have to be his distraction his pain medication. It wouldn’t be easy but it was far easier than watching him slowly lose his mind. She reaches her hands through his letting him grip them tight as his muscles spasm in complete discomfort.

Again she’s brought into the reality of the cold as she hears Zack come to retrieve her. “MC, it’s time.” he smiles softly. As she leaves the balcony she notices quickly that everyone had left the bridal room. Zack her “man of honor” remained as well as her parents. Her father ready to escort her down the aisle the moment she was ready. She takes a few deep breaths and taking one final glance in the mirror. Her simple lace dress still made her smile with every look at it. The neckline lower than she’d ever worn before gave her confidence. The long lace trailing only an inch or two behind created the perfect bridal silhouette. She remembers well the choice being made.

 “MC, you look so beautiful!” Molly chimes softly at her friend.

“Oh that's the one for certain!” AJ whoops from the couch, the now 16 year old sister of the Groom had not been quiet about her opinions of these dresses.

 “She’s right” Zack grins high-fiving the teenager. “I’m sure you’ll pick this but lets see what our at home audience has to say” he jokes snapping a picture and sending it off to Abbie, Kaitlyn, and Becca.

 The answers come in quickly...

 Kaitlyn: Zack! Tell her HELL YES! But make sure to ask her if she's still certain I’m not the one she’s meeting that the end of the aisl?!?!

Becca: A neckline that deep on MC? Who is she? But all things considered… It’s perfect for her.

Abbie: MC looks so lovely in all the photos you’ve sent but the girls and I all agree this is the dress.

“Jury’s out MC, wrap it up and let's go.” Zack beams proudly. 

MC looks to the mirror again, her friends were right. This was her dress. A smile peeks onto her face as she stands there imaging him seeing her for the first time in it. Blushing now she turns back to the three of them. “This is my dress.” she admits proudly.

These memories comfort her as she walks leaning on her father, excitement and nerves filling her chest. As they step through the doors she sees a crowd of familiar and distant faces rise for her. But the only face she’s fixated on is his. His eyes widen and even from the end of the aisle she can see the glisten of his tears. This moment had been so many years in the making, she was certain she’d wake up from this dream any moment now. 

Christopher Powell had run into her, knocking her off her feet on the quad 10 years ago. Now she’d spend every moment of her life catching him when he fell and allowing him to do that same for her. No matter who or what it was that knocked them down. As she reaches the end of the aisle her father kisses her cheek softly before Chris’s familiar hands lead her toward the Officiant. She’d easily tune out the speech being given just by examining her lover. The first she noticed was their “something old and something blue” wrapped together in one peeking out of his pocket square. She laughed silently remembering how this fashion choice came to be.

 “Why do you have this?” Molly questions holding up a grayish blue plaid flannel. “It’s got a huge stain all down the front!” 

 MC looks up shocked. She didn’t even know she’d had this top still and how it’d made it all these years. As she was cleaning and gutting out the apartment with Molly and Chris to make room for wedding gifts, this was the last discovery she thought she’d make. 

 “Is that?” Chris asks with a laugh recognizing the shirt immediately.

 “Yeah it is” MC says snagging it from the sweet blonde crossed from her. “This is the shirt I was wearing when I met Chris” she says quickly explaining the story of how they met, and how Becca had dumped coffee on her causing the now faded stain. How Chris desperately tried to help her clean it but had to give up. MC was about to throw it away when Molly proposed they let her re purpose it. 

Re-purposed indeed, she’d made it into the the now handsome pocket square she saw laying against his chest. Her memories had distracted her she wasn’t even sure where they were at in the ceremony anymore, she caught up quickly as she watched Chris pull out a note book his hands shaking just as much as his voice. 

“MC” he smiles taking one hand off the book and placing it in hers as he continues. “10 years ago you laughed it off when Becca spilled coffee down your shirt defensively. This was the first moment I knew you were special, forgiving, caring and unique. Months later you convinced me and the rest of the school that I was trustworthy enough to run the student government. To make changes no one else could have. You believed in me far more than I did, it is my only hope that for the rest of our lives you will continue to believe in me as you did in our innocent school days... As you did when everything in my life crashed around me.” he pauses his voice thick now as he squeezes her hand. “No matter what god you believe in it doesn't matter” he chuckles “Something brought us back together and I have been the luckiest to see the woman you have become. I will strive to tell you every day that I love you, I vow to listen before assuming and I will stand by you no matter how wrong you might be. Because you are my light. You are the light that pulls me out of my darkness time and time again. Please let me be lucky enough to be your partner, to make you laugh at your saddest, heal you at your weakest and to love you even when you're cheering for the wrong teams.” Chris pauses watching MC laugh tears forming in her eyes. “Let me be your husband, let me be with you for the rest of your remarkable days and for whatever may come after.”

MC breathes deep wondering how she’s supposed to follow that, she turns grabbing a small worn piece of paper Zack had pulled from his suit pocket. “I’m lost without you, eyes so blue.” she pauses “I’m lost without you, my souls gone blue. I’m lost, I’m lost.” she reads the shortest poem she has in her writing collection. The words simple, the pattern and rhyming elementary. She’d written this poem her first month in Boston miserable without him. She folds the old piece of paper again speaking now from memory. “I wrote that, when I thought I’d lost you forever. But forever was to long, some may say it was fate but I believe we chose to defy fate. To create a story together that fate didn’t want.” she smiles up at him grabbing both of his hands tightly. “Take me as your wife, and guide me whenever I’m lost, help me see what is right and what is wrong. Help me do the same for you. I will give you the support when you need it most and even when you don't. I vow to you Christopher Powell to be honest and true, to laugh with you and laugh at you all that the same time. I vow to love you no matter what challenges and pain life throws at us. To remind you everyday that you are worth the world, and that you have a heart of gold. I vow to be yours from this moment until then end of moments. I love you.” she finishes knowing her vows were weaker and shorter than his. How she was the writer in the partnership the audience would never know. 

Her eyes stinging from the happiest tears she’s ever felt and her heart pounding out of her chest she listens now only for her moment to speak.. 

“I do” she says almost laughing out of eagerness. She doesn’t hear the officiant even finishes his next sentence before Chris’s smile is placed over hers. She deepens into what would be the most important kiss of her life as he dips her back showing off to the crowd cheering before them. When she finally pulls away she looks out to the guests young and old. First she spots Tyler near the front dancing with his twins next to a very pregnant Abbie who cheers through her cupped hands. As her gaze moves she spots Becca and her husband sharing a kiss of happiness together. Molly, Zig and Kaitlyn stand in the back of the crowd arms reaching in celebration. She spots her parents her father laughing and her mother sobbing across from Chris’s mother who matches her own mother's tears. AJ and Kyle dancing to non existent music. She looks to her right and sees Zack’s reassuring gaze smile at her before leaving her eyes and moving a crossed them to Chris’s own best man. Zack winks to Miles as he blushes in return. A new and innocent relationship forming at the bonding of their best friends. Her stare finally returns to Chris whose one gaze has been on her the entire time. His blue eyes reassure her there is no fear in her future. That he will be everything she needed him to be for her. Her perfect Chris. This was her happily ever after.

#choices #play choices #The Freshman #the sophomore #the junior #the freshman fan fiction #Chris Powell #mc x chris #chris x mc #xoempine

[kabane52]

God’s Glorious Body

https://www.amazon.com/Theophaneia-School-Scri…/…/1607240831

Very interesting compilation on early Christian concepts of the vision of God, the controversy over whether God is embodied, and the relationship of early Christian (particularly Syrian) mystical theology to its antecedents in Judaism.

---

The problem I see in the discussion over divine embodiment is that very few people carefully specify what it means to be "embodied." It is clear in the law and the prophets that the God of Israel can make Himself visible to His children without that manifestation being something other than a revelation of God in His divinity. Moreover, the particular "shape" (so to speak) in which the God of Israel appears is not arbitrary. Moses enters into the divine darkness so that He might behold the glory of God, and it is in that vision that He apprehends the pattern according to which the Tabernacle will be constructed.

The Tabernacle is a miniature cosmos: God is the paradigm for the Creation. Moreover, the Tabernacle and Temple is described in terms of a human body: the Temple has "ribs" and "legs." The Logos of God, who was present in the beginning in the light of the Holy Spirit, is the pattern for the creation and for the human person. Visibility and sensibility in general belongs to the Creation by nature: it is intentionally crafted in order to be apprehensible by those creatures made in the image of God.

The logoi, the principles of the natures of created things, are divine activities, thoughts, operations. The divine activities are those manifestations by which the Father discloses Himself in love to the Son through the Holy Spirit, and so also for the other two Persons in their relations. The intrinsic relationality of sensible existence is based on the model of the eternal communion enjoyed eternally by the Holy Trinity. And since the Father always acts in the Son, the self-disclosure of God in His visible and audible manifestations are focused and realized in the person of the Eternal Son. Thus God, disclosing Himself to creation, does so through the Son and always through the Son.

This is why the Church Fathers taught that the Angel of the Lord, the Chariot of God in Ezekiel, and other theophanies were appearances of Jesus Christ as the Preincarnate Logos. And as God does not create arbitrarily, but in specific manifestation of His character, so the Logos of God appears to us in the "likeness of a man" as Ezekiel says.

Note that Deuteronomy does not say that God has no form. This cannot be, for we are told that Moses "beheld the Form of the Lord." The convergence even with later metaphysical language is remarkable: the logoi-energies, as the thoughts or concepts of God, are the forms according to which the world is shaped, reflecting God's eternal character sensibly. The Son is the "Form of the Lord" in that all of these Forms are summed up in Him, for the Father always thinks in His Son. It is not that God has no form in the Old Testament, but that except through a special grace of the Spirit unique to the prophets, it is impossible to see. To look on the glory of God is to die. And indeed, Moses does die in Exodus 32-34. He ascends the mountain as the true sacrificial calf, horned with the radiance of God's light afterwards, and he is placed inside a cave, signifying his death, as the Lord places His hand of consecration (compare other texts relating the hand to sacrificial representation), and emerges in glorious form afterwards. Moses therefore mus be covered over with a veil to protect Israel as God needed to protect Moses. [Much more could be said about this text dealing with the various details.]

The Glory of God in the Old Testament is concealed in darkness which veils the Form of the Lord from those who are not killed and raised in the Spirit- compare Ezekiel's death and resurrection. In the new covenant, according to Joel, the whole family of Abraham has the prophetic gift insofar as each baptized Christian receives the Holy Spirit through whom he can behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The incarnation of the Son, then, is that which is proper to man's comprehensive creation in the image of God: body, soul, and spirit. "No one has ever seen God, the God the Only Son, who is at the bosom of the Father, He has manifested Him." (John 1:18) And as Jesus says in the same Gospel, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." To partake of the glory of God through the Spirit is to share not only in the radiance of divine glory-light, but to share in the Son's capacity of seeing the Father in glory. As I discussed the other day, God created things with natural visual manifestations, and He created those things in order to be received by those to whom He has granted the power or capacity to receive them. Every sensation is perichoretic.

Does God, then, have a body? God has a body in the sense that He is visibly manifested according to the likeness of the human person precisely as God- for the whole human person is shaped in His image. God created a world that was exactly suited to His self-disclosure. The form or body of God is the Eternal Word of God, incarnate in Jesus Christ.

And yet, I affirm the classical Christian doctrine of incorporeality. I affirm it through understanding it as it ought to be understood, as an apophatic doctrine. To say that God is incorporeal is not to say that God is a particular sort of substance called "incorporeal spirit." That is a serious mistake. No, to say that God is incorporeal is to say that God utterly transcends all of the limitations associated with corporeal existence. When we think of our embodied state, it is associated with a particular spatial context which places limits on our active relations. God has no body in the sense that He is not limited to a particular spatial locale. Far from being the corruption of Hellenism, as is so often alleged, doctrines like incorporeality and impassibility exist as affirmations of the core truth of biblical theism, that the personal God is utterly sovereign and is not controlled or forced by external acts. The whole creation exists through the constant gracious self-gift of existence by which God confers His own being on the created order through the Son. The whole world, thus, is suffused with the divine operations and it is senseless to speak of God being limited in activity to a particular point or points in space.

And this- unlike what most people imagine when they think of the teaching of divine incorporeality- is perfectly easy to find in scripture, as King Solomon says "Heaven and Highest Heaven cannot contain you." The doctrine of incorporeality is not a doctrine which denies God's visibility and proper sensible manifestation as God, but a declaration of the infinity of God- that God's operations are like (all analogies are imperfect) an eternally flowing fountain. The fountain has a particular visible form, we can pick it out and identify it as a fountain thereby. Yet the fountain continues to flow day after day with a certain newness, and with an infinitude so that it retains its distinctive form and character even as it manifests itself more deeply and fully through eternity.

[chaos-weekly]

There were no irritating pet names, no snarky comments, no banter passed between them. Things had gone back to how they’d been before Jared and Jake made them fake date. And Didi had no clue why she hated it so much.

Okay, so she did know. JJ had become an actual friend, and somehow, everything had messed up. She was pissed he’d ghosted her for the night, that he’d left her to worry about her friend. Didi knew JJ could handle himself, but her mom had just gotten into a wreck with a semi truck that turned too fast. Excuse her for worrying about something that turned out to now be perfectly rational. She already had one person she cared about in a hospital room. Didi didn’t need a second.

They weren’t quite at the silent treatment, but JJ barely said anything to her, and she didn’t initiate conversations either. He’d slept on the couch the last few nights, despite her rolling her eyes every time. He used the guest bathroom unless he was showering. They were in one tiny apartment, but they weren’t talking to each other.

It was Hell.

Didi hadn’t missed JJ’s old school country music, but he played it on the road to and from the hospital every day, louder than usual. Didi’s mom knew something was up, but Didi wouldn’t answer her questions about it. That would require being honest with herself, and telling her mom that this guy Didi had finally settled down with was just dating her in the public eye. She couldn’t do that to her mom’s heart. Not after her mom was already paralyzed from the waist down and could never dance again. Her mom lost almost everything in that wreck. Didi wasn’t about to take away the hope for grand babies or a son in law, either.

JJ sat next to her on the plane, but unlike on the flight to Minneapolis, he angled himself away from her. Didn’t even look her way. Didi tried to focus on the window, but she couldn’t focus on anything except her angry, hurt heart.

So what if JJ had hooked up with someone? He was right. She wasn’t his girlfriend. Just ‘cause she hadn’t hooked up with anyone in two months didn’t mean he couldn’t. It was fake. It was all fake.

But Didi’s burgeoning feelings for JJ definitely weren’t, nor were her attraction and jealousy. She seriously had some problems to work out. They had five months left of this contract, and Didi didn’t want to spend five months giving each other the silent treatment. She deserved better than that from someone she had considered a friend. JJ deserved better than that, as reluctant as Didi was to admit it.

But she wasn’t about to offer an olive branch. Not yet. Maybe she had been hurt more than she should have because her stupid heart got attached to the idea of JJ being around.

When they’d left, he joked about cowboys breaking hearts, not getting theirs broken. She told him her heart didn’t belong to him, and he’d said they’d reevaluate on Friday.

Yeah. Turns out JJ was right.

And she hated it.

But Didi had a plan. She knew Nollie was crashing with London for the weekend, so Didi wouldn’t have to deal with any questions or concerns when she got home. She could shower, drop her stuff off, and head over to Xander’s. All these feelings for JJ had to be because she hadn’t had sex in two months, and he was the guy she was spending all her time with. Didi had gone that long before, but not while continuously spending time with one guy. Meeting up with Xander—who knew she was coming—would fix it. She’d get it all out of her system, hang out with her best friend that wouldn’t try and fix everything with words, and all would be okay.

Then Didi could apologize to JJ for overreacting. Because then she wouldn’t be lying if he said she cared about him as more than a friend.

Didi didn’t exactly enjoy rejection, and she didn’t have experience with it, either. She was drop dead gorgeous. She was talented. She was rich. She was funny and kindhearted and laughed easily. She was smart. In short, Didi was a catch, and everybody knew it. She’d been rejected for auditions, but that was the only rejection she was familiar with. And that was all because of her first movie, where she played the spoiled brat mean girl, and everybody only saw her as that from then onwards.

Didi didn’t want JJ to see her like that, too. Not again. Not anymore.

The flight passed uncomfortably, even if they were in first class. JJ and Didi managed to avoid any paparazzi on their way to his car, miraculously. As had become their routine, JJ opened her door silently, Didi got in, and he turned up the country music that he knew she didn’t like. But she knew that it brought back good memories for him, and Didi didn’t want to deprive him of those, either.

Wordlessly, she was dropped off at her apartment. Didi muttered something to thank JJ for his help, for the surprise trip, his support, but she left before she could hear a reply. Her thanks were genuine, but she didn’t want to see if he even deigned to reply. Knowing how upset they both were with her—and she with him, partially—she doubted JJ would say much more than “you’re welcome.”

Didi entered her bedroom to the refreshing smell of cinnamon apples. It was her room spray, and she had missed it. Even if it wasn’t as good smelling as JJ’s cologne.

Not that she needed to think about him. But it wasn’t like she had a choice, either. His black cowboy hat from Xander’s party still sat on top of the lamp on her nightstand.

That stupid night had been the start of the end. Somehow, Didi had messed up whatever friendship and camaraderie they’d built. When she told JJ that she meant she liked him as a friend, he’d started being ever so slightly different. Like he was deflecting. And then she’d realize the night he’d been gone that Didi hadn’t meant it as just a friend. She liked him a whole lot more than that, which definitely wasn’t good.

But JJ—if he had ever thought he’d felt for her in the same way—clearly didn’t anymore. He’d gone and hooked up with someone else, abandoned her (or so it felt) to worry and loneliness, and then acted like it wasn’t a big deal the next morning.

Except it shouldn’t have been a big deal. This was fake. Their relationship was fake.

Didi eyed the hat with dark eyes before turning her back on it. She needed out of here. Even a simple reminder of JJ was a reminder of her stupidity.

It took her too long to drive to Xander’s mansion. She lived closer to downtown, when he was a little outside of the city. Didi let herself in, dropping her overnight bag and already ready to pull her clothes off and get her mind (and heart) off of everything.

Xander walked out, studying her as she sauntered up to him. Before she could even kiss him, he shook his head.

“I’m not sleeping with you, Didi.”

Seriously? Now of all times he actually wasn’t gonna get in her pants? He wanted to all the time when he was with Leah, and even more often when he wasn’t. It’d been over two months since they’d had sex—which was a while for them—but Xander chose now to grow a conscience?

“And why the f-k not?” Didi challenged, letting her shirt drop from her hands and folding her arms over her chest. “You lost that stupid bet. It’s been two months. Are you seeing Leah again? ‘Cause that’s clearly never stopped you before, I’m not holding back even if you are.”

Xander shook his head slowly, stepping back and heading over to the bar he had in his living room. It was still set up from his party.

“You’re gonna regret it if I do sleep with you,” he announced, mixing up what was probably a crappy dirty Shirley for her and a slightly more tolerable cosmo for himself.

Didi laughed sharply. “Trust me, this is one thing I won’t regret.” She followed him over, taking a seat at the bar and accepting her drink that probably had too much grenadine. It always did. Xander had a heavy hand, and sadly it wasn’t with the alcohol.

“I’m still not sleeping with you right now. I’m not doing that to you or JJ.” There was no teasing in his voice like there usually was. Xander was rarely serious, it was one of her favorite things about him. He knew how to let loose and have fun. But apparently the occasion didn’t call for it.

“JJ won’t care, and it won’t hurt me,” Didi grumbled. JJ had made it clear—she wasn’t his real girlfriend. And after the last three days of silent treatment, Didi wasn’t sure she wanted to be. And yeah, that was a lie, but she kept telling herself that. One day it would be true.

Xander chuckled and sipped his drink. These were the only two he knew how to make, and only because they were their favorites. She’d seen him attempt a margarita for Nollie once. It hadn’t ended well.

“You like him, Didi. And I know he’s into you. Jude isn’t the type to take a friend out to visit her hospitalized mom, especially if that means talking to booking agents and scheduling people to rearrange her schedule, too.”

Didi snorted. “Yeah, I don’t think I’m even his friend anymore.”

Xander raised an eyebrow. Man, where had he learned how to make her talk? ‘Cause he knew how, even without asking a question.

“JJ hooked up with someone in Minnesota. No clue who, something about an NDA going two ways. And he didn’t tell me he wasn’t coming home. Didn’t respond to my texts. Showed up the next morning, and I was pissed. My mom just got into a car accident, Xan. It wasn’t unreasonable to wonder if that had happened to him, too.” Didi sighed. There was some much more to it, but voicing her thoughts would make them real. She wasn’t sure she was up to that.

But Xander just kept watching her, and Didi knew she had to keep going.

“So I flipped out at him for going AWOL and he totally read between the lines when I was pissed he slept with someone. And he made it very clear that it’s none of my business who he sleeps with or is seeing, because I’m his fake girlfriend. Definitely not his real one.” She scoffed. Yeah, this very much hadn’t ended well, and it hurt her heart to relive it all. His words had been so venomous. She hated that tone. It was how he’d spoken their first few interactions, but now it was worse, because now she knew he hated her. Not because she was annoying or he was making assumptions, either. He hated her for overreacting and caring more than she should have.

Didi couldn’t blame him.

“I think we’ve said maybe ten words to each other in three days. It’s been Hell. Even without these stupid feelings, he’s actually been a good friend. When Mom first got hurt, he came over and talked to me about my favorite music and my memories with her. And your party?” Didi swore before continuing. “That was what I needed to relax and distract myself from everything. JJ was so caring and kind and funny and just. He’s great. He’s too great and I can’t have him because he’s not interested.”

Didi did not mention the spooning that happened after the party. Thankfully, Xander did not ask. JJ definitely hadn’t mentioned it o him—he hadn’t even mentioned it to Didi since the morning they woke up together.

“You’re wrong,” Xander said, finally speaking up. “He may think you’re right, but JJ cares about you, even if he doesn’t wanna see it that way. He’s a fan of first impressions and sticking to them. You guys got off to a horrible start, and now he probably is trying to act like nothing ever changed between you two. But it did. He likes you, Didi, and he’ll realize it soon enough.”

She shook her head sadly, and luckily Xander didn’t press further. He set his now empty glass down. Didi had barely dipped at her own cocktail, and not just ‘cause it had too much pomegranate.

“C’mon,” Xander ushered, walking towards the stairs up to the second floor. “We’re gonna go play lego Star Wars until you feel better.”

Didi frowned. She’d played video games—usually the fantasy or adventure ones—with Xander before, but she hadn’t been a big fan. How was this supposed to help her feel better? But Didi was too tired to object, so she followed mutely.

////

The next morning, Xander had woken Didi up in the guest bedroom with an eager grin and the promise of breakfast. There was a cute cafe, one of those artsy hipster ones that felt unique, a few streets away.

It didn’t take long for Didi to smile again, even if it didn’t feel entirely genuine. Xander told her about reading to kids at the hospital. He’d signed up on a whim after realizing he missed stories and reading and being a kid, and he couldn’t get enough of it. He’d done two shifts his first day, signed up for the next week, and then gone again two days later. He was signed up twice for next week, now.

Didi was excited to see Xander so animated. She hadn’t seen her friend this light since before Leah and more fame hit his life. Back when he was doing indie dramas and romcoms, Xander hadn’t been as irritating or as much of a player. He still slept around, still broke hearts, still made bad choices, but he had been more carefree. Then he hit gold with some blockbuster romance from Nicholas Sparks, and he’d met Leah at the premiere. She’d written a song for the movie.

It was all disaster from there, so it was refreshing to see her best friend so open and happy again. Even if Didi felt the complete opposite, it was worth it to see Xander happy.

“Are you seeing anyone, then? I know you’re staying away from the Monster, but who what about that blonde at the party? Your lawyer?” Didi had suspected, after further thought, that he’d feelings for JJ weren’t the only reason Xander hadn’t been interested. In the last month or two, he’d slowly been relaxing and opening up more, and now he was back to the Xander she first met. It would make sense for a pretty girl to be involved, even if only a friend.

Xander’s face went straight, and he shrugged. “She’s a friend, potential plaything, a lawyer. Nothing more than that, Di,” Xander said. But he was calm. He wasn’t even arrogant, which meant something was definitely up.

“Xander, I love you, and I know you have a great poker face, but you’re still a terrible liar.” He stuck his tongue out at her.

“You’re no better.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know, trust me. Somehow being actors doesn’t make us better liars.” If she was a better actress then maybe she could have acted in public with JJ without catching feelings. But at least she’d snapped a picture of Xander sticking his tongue out at her. That would go on Instagram later.

“I’m not talking about her,” Xander said, sobering up. “She’s—she’s someone I don’t want to lose as a friend. It’s easy with her, and I’m not gonna risk changing that.”

Didi raised an eyebrow, but she lacked Xander’s secret spilling powers. He just smiled and shook his head.

“C’mon, let’s get home. We can watch a movie or something. Lord of the Rings maybe? Harry Potter?”

Didi thought about that as they walked back towards his house. “Harry Potter, even if they rarely give Hufflepuffs any credit.” Didi was a Hufflepuff. Loyal, good, kindhearted, just. Most people thought she was a Slytherin, or maybe a Gryffindor. And she had elements of both, but she was a Hufflepuff at heart.

When they got back to his house, Didi posted the photo of Xander on Instagram with the caption of “best friends and breakfast dates.” It would make Jared flip out at her, especially since she hadn’t posted in a week, and it had been a week before that since mentioning JJ, but Jared was at the bottom of Didi’s priorities. Her creepy manager could suck it. He was the one that helped her into this mess in the first place.

Didi noticed Xander on his phone, but she didn’t think anything of it. Soon enough, they were set up in his movie room—complete with bean bags and a candy snack bar—but Xander needed to make popcorn. He didn’t have any left upstairs, apparently.

Didi waited a good five minutes for going hunting for her best friend. She had gotten back to his house and changed into an old t shirt she’d stolen from him years ago. But it was unmistakably his—it was a high school state drama competition t shirt. For California. Didi had definitely not grown up in California.

“Xander? Did you burn the popcorn again?” Didi called, walking into the kitchen to hear tense voices.

“I’m going home, Xander. I’m not dealing with her right now.” It was JJ, but what was he doing here? He clearly hadn’t come to see her, and Didi didn’t think him the type to show up randomly.

Xander.

Xander had to have done this.

She sighed and followed the sound of their voices to the front room.

“Let JJ go home if he wants to, Xander. If he doesn’t wanna talk, then I’m not gonna force him to talk.” But Didi was looking at JJ, not her best friend. And JJ was staring at her t shirt and messy hair (the bean bag had nasty static electricity). He probably figured she’d hooked up with Xander, but it wasn’t like he would care. It wasn’t like he had a right to, just like she hadn’t had a right to object to him sleeping with someone. The ghosting her? That hadn’t been okay, but she shouldn’t have gotten upset as she had.

“Too bad, ‘cause I’m gonna. You two are gonna sit down and talk it out—or argue it out until you end up f-ing it out. I don’t care, but you’re gonna fix your relationship.” Xander gave them both very pointed looks before he left through the front door. Didi shifted uncomfortably, and she heard Xander lock the door behind him. They could totally use the deadbolt and knob to unlock his front door, but the message was clear. They needed to figure this out.

“I’m sorry, Jude,” Didi said after a moment of awkward silence. She made sure to make eye contact, frowning with disappointment in herself. “I overreacted. What you do with your free time, and who you do it with, isn’t any of my business.” As much as she wanted it to be. But Didi didn’t say that. She continued,

“You should have at least texted me back, I maintain that, but I am sorry I overreacted. You deserve better than that in a friend and fake girlfriend.”

JJ seemed confused, and maybe a little startled, by her apology. Did he expect her to be all self-righteous? To act like she had every right to be as upset as she was? Didi wasn’t the entitled brat people often made her out to be. She actually had a conscience and emotional maturity. At least, she had some emotional maturity. Didi wasn’t sure anymore if she had much more than that.

“Why were you so upset?” JJ asked, hands in his jeans pockets. He painted a perfect picture of casualness. She wished she felt that calm.

Didi took a deep breath. She wasn’t gonna lie to him, but she didn’t exactly wanna tell him, either. But JJ still deserved to know.

“I got attached to you, which I know wasn’t a good idea ‘cause it’s all for publicity’s sake. But I like you, as more than a friend. Even then, that doesn’t give me a right to judge your choices like I did.” Now she wasn’t making eye contact, staring at his feet instead.

“Yet you f-ed Xander.” There wasn’t an accusation in his words. It was just a statement, maybe even one of confusion. And maybe hurt, but Didi knew she was imagining that part.

Didi laughed softly, wryly. “I tried. I was angry with myself, still am, and wanted to just get my frustrations out. So I tried to hook up with him again.” She looked up finally, her eyes as tired as her heart, but meeting JJ’s steady gaze was too much. So she looked over his shoulder.

“Sex hasn’t ever been an emotional thing for me. It’s for fun, for pleasure, a distraction, whatever. It doesn’t mean anything to me, even if it does to other people.” Even if other people sleeping with other people meant something to her.

Yeah, Didi didn’t understand it either.

JJ still hadn’t said anything, and Didi felt his gaze on her face still. She saw his eyes on her from the corner of her own vision.

“I’ll give you space for a while. I know you probably want it, so I’ll just see you at the next event.” Didi stepped backwards, arms wrapped around herself. For the first time in a long time, she wasn’t sure where she stood with someone. Didi could usually read people well, but it was all guesswork with JJ, especially now. Maybe that was part of what drew her in—he wasn’t ever what she expected. Maybe that was part of why she’d hurt her own heart—JJ wasn’t ever what she expected. And maybe it was better that way.

#chaos weekly #rising from the ashes

[xb-squaredx]

The Life and Times of Ben 10: A Retrospective

As a fan of both superheroes and animation, it should come as no surprise that I was quite a big fan of Ben 10 back in the day. One of Cartoon Network’s more popular series, it told the story of Ben Tennyson, and how his life changed forever when an alien device, the Omnitrix, becomes attached to his wrist and he finds he can use it to turn into various alien forms. So naturally he does what any ten year old would do in that situation and becomes a super hero. Perhaps one of the more “toyetic” franchises Cartoon Network has ever had, it was extremely profitable and featured several sequel series, TV movies and specials, having the distinction of being Cartoon Network’s longest running original series. It’s back now with a reboot, and it seems timely enough to evaluate the ups and downs the franchise has had, and speculate as to where it might go next. So slap on your watch. It’s hero time!

The series that started it all, and the only series helmed by Man of Action studios (until the reboot anyway), the premise is simple. Ben accidentally acquires the Omnitrix and spends summer vacation on a cross-country road trip with his Grandpa Max and cousin Gwen, saving the day and occasionally causing problems with his alien heroes. Throughout the four seasons, the show builds up an impressive rogue’s gallery for Ben to combat. From the mad scientist Doctor Animo, to the secret anti-alien society of the Forever Knights, Ben clashes with threats both alien and closer to home. Most of the series is Villain of the Week, Ben and his family dealing with a given threat at a new location on their vacation, with some villains becoming more of a recurring problem. Chiefly, there is Vilgax, a galactic warmonger who aims to make the Omnitrix his and proves to be incredibly dangerous in battle, as well as Kevin 11, a mutant around Ben’s age who can absorb energy, and when he absorbs energy from the Omnitrix, alien forms as well. Ben slowly learns more about the Omnitrix with his time with it, as well as the secret history of The Plumbers, a group that has kept people safe from alien attacks for decades, with his Grandpa Max serving as one of their ranks.

The series had a finale of sorts with the TV movie, “Secret of the Omnitrix.” It detailed Ben traveling across the cosmos in search of the Omnitrix’s creator, in order to abort a self-destruct protocol that was accidentally triggered. Outside of that, there was also a live action movie, “Race Against Time” that also seemed to take place after the series had ended, as well as a later CGI animated film, “Destroy All Aliens” that aired several years after the original series had ended, for whatever reason.

On the whole, the original series had a good balance of humor and action, and while the vast majority of the episodes were self-contained, the continuity grew stronger as time went on. Max’s Plumber status was subtly hinted at early on, as was the build up to one of Ben’s alien forms, Ghostfreak, being sentient, with it eventually escaping the watch and becoming a major antagonist. That said, the show’s weak link was probably Gwen early on. Depicted as the more responsible of the two kids, she was a constant voice of reason, but she came off as a bit of a nag. Her and Ben’s relationship was so antagonistic, it makes one question why she was even on the road trip in the first place. The fact that she largely couldn’t contribute to the greater threats at first didn’t help, but she eventually gains knowledge of magic and is able to contribute greater. The show’s greatest strength was its overall simplicity and plenty of room for expansion if they so desired. The “Secret of the Omnitrix” TV movie was a great potential sendoff for the series, and while the final season of the show had some rough spots and felt a little rudderless, it had a good run. But that was merely the beginning…

Man of Action went on to develop a new show, Generator Rex and left the responsibility of making a sequel series in the hands of Dwayne McDuffie, a renowned comic book and television writer, known for the creation of the comic book character Static, and his work on comic book TV shows like Teen Titans, Justice League and Static Shock. It seemed like a good fit, taking the show in a bold new direction, but this direction was not without its critics.

Alien Force took place five years later, featuring an older, wiser and more mature Ben, who must once again don the Omnitrix to take on greater alien threats. This time around he’s joined by Gwen and a reformed Kevin, with Grandpa Max acting as a mentor, but not quite as active as he used to be. The show took on a darker tone, having far greater continuity and exploring various facets of the show’s overall mythology, to mixed reviews overall. Running for three seasons, the show had a variety of new antagonists introduced, as well as new allies. From the Highbreed race that served as the first two season’s antagonists, to Albedo, an assistant to Azmuth, the Omnitrix’s creator, characters new and old came into conflict with Ben. Fans were split on the darker tone and the treatment of certain characters. This incarnation of Vilgax is often contested, for one, and certain plot points in the series directly retconned and contradicted previously established canon. Gwen’s powers were stated to not be magic, stating that magic didn’t exist and her powers were the results of being part alien (though later, confusingly, magic was confirmed to exist and Gwen would occasionally cast spells again). Meanwhile, Kevin’s power set dramatically shifted from absorbing energy to being able to absorb the properties of solid matter, coating himself in a thin armor of whatever he touched, and rather than being a mutant, his powers are also shown to be from alien heritage. Kevin in general underwent a major overhaul in character, and despite being a major foe for Ben in the past, he is almost instantly inducted into their team with little friction.

Season three attempted to “recapture” bits of the original series after all of the backlash, causing Ben to suddenly lose his maturity and more comedy was injected into the series, albeit unevenly. A trend would start from season three of Alien Force on to recapture the spark of the original series. More characters from the original series made a return, most notably Vilgax, before building up to the finale. Albedo returns with a new Omnitrix, known as the Ultimatrix, which allows him to evolve his alien forms into a stronger “ultimate” form. Albedo teams up with Vilgax, and Ben is forced to use the Ultimatrix himself to defeat them, which gives us a segue to the next series.

One year after the end of Alien Force, Ben is still adjusting to the Ultimatrix, as well as newfound fame and distrust when his true identity is leaked to the world. Truth be told, it was around the end of season one of Ultimate Alien that I started falling out with the show, and while fans continued to be split on the direction the show was going, it still lasted three seasons.

Season one focused on Aggregor, a villainous member of Kevin’s alien species and his goal of absorbing the powers of five special aliens to gain access to something powerful enough to reshape the universe into his image. Despite their efforts, he proves too strong to defeat, and Kevin sacrifices his sanity by absorbing energy from the Ultimatrix, once again taking on a monstrous form to take Aggregor down. The end of the season highlights how Kevin changed drastically from the original series up until that point, before he is eventually saved. Season two is mostly made up of one-off stories, though begins planting seeds that would blossom forth in the third season. The final season sees Ben and his friends learning more about the anti-alien organization, The Forever Knights, as an ancient, transdimentional being attempts to conquer Earth. The finale has Azmuth return and present Ben with a new Omnitrix, one that is apparently “perfect,” feeling Ben has proved himself more than worthy.

Ultimate Alien gets points for attempting to connect multiple dots in the greater Ben 10 mythos, managing to explain how Kevin reformed, why Ben trusted him so readily in Alien Force and even attempted to tie in the Race Against Time live-action movie, as well as Alien Force’s own live-action movie, Ben 10: Alien Swarm. Ben also had a crossover episode with Man of Action’s Generator Rex during the Ultimate Alien series, which most would agree wound up being awesome for fans of both.

Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, while successful, made the show’s continuity more complicated and its darker tone seemed to affect its global popularity. Higher-ups at Cartoon Network had already attempted to inject some more lightheartedness and simplicity back into the series at various points to mixed success, and as a result I feel that both sequel series have some serious tonal issues. Ben at times is incredibly goofy and carefree, like his old self, but spends the latter part of Ultimate Alien’s first season dead-set on killing Kevin, believing he can’t be saved. We have lighthearted adversaries like the hillbilly Vreedle family, alongside Dagon, essentially alien Cthulhu. It was clear there were arguments in the writer’s room about just where to take the series, considering the various retcons and drastic changes in personality or motive for some characters. The villain Charmcaster went back and forth on whether or not she wanted to reform, and there are multiple points where Azmuth seems to change his mind on just what he made the Omnitrix for in the first place. Matters grew more complicated with the unfortunate passing of series’ producer Dwayne McDuffie near the end of the series, and new showrunners taking over as the series took on its greatest change yet.

With Alien Force and Ultimate Alien somewhat struggling globally, a major overhaul of the show was proposed moving forward. Derrick J. Wyatt, famous for his designs on shows like Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated and Transformers: Animated took over as art director for the show, resulting in a more simplistic, cartoony style that seemed to homage the original series as best it could. New showrunner Matt Youngberg had been a fan of the series back in the day (and was a writer on the previous series), alongside Wyatt, and the two were quite eager to create a series that felt more like the original and blatantly ignored or changed aspects from the two sequel series that went against that.

And so, Ben 10 Omniverse was created with an interesting premise. Taking place just months after the end of Ultimate Alien, Ben still fights alien threats, though at times the series will flash back to Ben at age 11, and showcased previously unseen adventures that would occasionally tie back into the present. In this series, Gwen is off to college with Kevin accompanying her, so Ben is paired with Rook, a talented Plumber that nonetheless rubs Ben the wrong way. Ben also sees another character overhaul, acting far more immature, like his ten year old self. This series is chock-full of references to the original series, as well as the sequel series and in some respects can be considered a celebration of the Ben 10 universe.

Going on for a staggering 80 episodes, the series is composed of eight main-story arcs of varying length, each season seeing a new threat. We start off with the villainous Khyber, who uses a device known as the Nemetrix to transform his hunting dog into feral aliens that are natural predators of Ben’s Omnitrix aliens, which later connects to Malware, a villain from Ben’s past. Later arcs would involve many past foes (like Vilgax, Albedo and Ghostfreak), culminating with the final arc, the “Time War” which saw the entirety of creation put at stake, ending with Ben and Rook witnessing the rebirth of the universe. Ben proposes an intergalactic road trip to explore the new world, and the series at last concludes.

Omniverse furthered the rift that had developed between fans ever since the original series had concluded. Some were split on the tone once again harkening back to the original series, while ignoring aspects of the older shows that they might have liked. Gwen and Kevin suddenly being excised from the show was controversial, as was the art style. Fans also grew tired of Ben’s growing harem of love interests, despite the fact that several episodes taking place in the far future already showed the person Ben would end up with, rending all of the “will they or won’t they” pointless. The “Rooters” story arc also received backlash, as it once again retconned Kevin’s origins, and really only brought up more questions than it answered.

Studio mandates also plague Omniverse, from decreasing the amount of new aliens Ben would acquire, to introducing the character Skurd, who would allow Ben to use the powers of two aliens at once, who was brought forth by Bandai, the series’ toy maker, likely as a way to sell more merchandise. Near the end of its life, Omniverse found itself low-priority for Cartoon Network. Its final seasons received little to no promotion and were placed in bad timeslots, the series being burned off quickly in the last few months of 2014. Toy sales had fallen and despite the show’s overall success in ratings, this spelled doom for the brand…

…for a time.

In 2016, hot off the heels of the successful (if contested) reboots, Teen Titans Go! and The Powerpuff Girls, Cartoon Network rebooted the Ben 10 series, though it didn’t premiere in its country of origin until mid-2017. The series once again focuses on a ten year old Ben Tennyson, who travels with his Grandpa Max and cousin Gwen, getting involved in all kinds of alien hijinks. In addition to being produced by Man of Action once more, the reboot takes on a new cartoony style that isn’t as extreme as Omniverse, looking similar to other current CN series, as well as adopting a lighthearted tone and leaving the half-hour episodes behind in favor of a two-shorts format.

Again, the series is simplified to a Villain of the Week format, with many villains new and old appearing here, pulled from the various ­Ben 10 series that came before it. As of this writing, season one has concluded with a second season in the works, though over half of these episodes have yet to air in the United States, the United Kingdom receiving the series over half a year early (due to its popularity overseas, likely). The season is content to leave continuity loose, with no major story arcs developing, or if they are, they develop slowly. However, the season one finale, split up into four episodes, details the grand introduction of Vilgax back into the series, with Ben also finding a way to “upgrade” his Omnitrix as a bid to defeat the villain. The season concludes with the Plumbers being introduced (though Max isn’t mentioned being among them), and Ben discovering a new alien form on the watch. While the show will likely start doing more with its later seasons, with over forty of these 11 minute episodes produced, there’s more than enough to evaluate as of now.

Generally speaking, the show seems to be doing well. CN promotes it heavily, alongside its toys, and with a second season ordered, they clearly have faith in it. Fans of the old series remain split (which seems to be inevitable with this fandom); though many feel the season one finale might lead to bigger and better things. As for me, I’m of two minds about it.

The fact that it is a reboot means that it has lost the novelty of the original series, and even with the changes made to characters this time around (such as Vilgax’s origins) there’s a real feeling of déjà vu. There’s little there to surprise me at this point and time will tell if the series can stand on its own without constantly referencing its past. The tone being lighthearted and the continuity being lax aren’t inherently bad, but I can’t shake the feeling that the series is being quite lazy.

Animation mistakes crop up quite often, and the backgrounds in a lot of episodes have little going on, often just a mess of color and basic shapes. All of Ben’s more monstrous and complex alien forms have either been redesigned (as is the case with Stinkfly) or removed entirely (Ghostfreak, Wildmutt and Ripjaws), resulting in a roster of aliens that, while fine on their own, make it hard to ignore that they’re ALL humanoid, missing out on that inhuman “alien” appeal. Many episodes shamelessly regurgitate plots from past series, while the continuity is very spotty. Ben knows the name of the Omnitrix right off the bat when there’s no reason he would, while some villains are introduced with Ben and the family having already run into them, and yet other villains get proper introduction episodes. While I’m thankful the humor isn’t overloaded with memes or relies on turning the characters into crude caricatures of themselves (like two OTHER reboots on the channel), I don’t find much of it very inspired.

I find myself cautious about the series from this point forward. I’d love to see it make a return to form, and considering how shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe might have started out episodic before adopting strong continuity and took more narrative risks, Ben 10 might find a way to marry the two narrative styles in due time. One thing’s clear though, no matter what the series goes through, weather Ben has 10 aliens of 10,000, this is one series that doesn’t quit. And with superheroes as hot as they are now, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Until next time.

-B

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