#OF COURSE I PUT A RAREPAIR SHIP IN THERE WHAT ELSE WOULD I HAVE DONE?

[degloved]

aaa fic requests open………… hoffheight love languages……… (but they dont label their relationship bc inner turmoil of being apprentices ;-;)

hello anon!! first of all this was a very delightful prompt. saw rarepairs (regardless if i ship them) are so fun to me !! hoffheight especially, i think they're slept on (by myself also, tbh.) i thought about the best approach to take so as not to make this too long, and initially decided to pick a handful, out of the five, which i thought most would be best suited to them. those being: quality time, physical touch, gift giving. this is very funny, as it still turned out to be excessively long (normally, these are 500 words—somehow i've ended up with 1600 words here.) therefore, i've decided to post it also my ao3 & the link to it, should you wanna bookmark or what have you, can be found at the bottom. i hope you enjoy! thanks for sending in a prompt, once again! p.s. i'm getting around to writing everything everyone's sent in! i just find myself a little more inclined to first jump into the prompts i know i'm gonna do without much trouble. chainshipping, while largely what i'm getting the reqs for, isn't my forte, hence the wait. but i'm trying!

-> READ ON AO3 <-

‼️SAW REQS STILL OPEN‼️

The Apprentices, despite their shared unshakable tendency to slip into petty conflicts with one another on an hourly basis, appeared to work oddly well together; like a well-oiled machine. Left-brain, right-brain, and their brawn; Lawrence's steady hand, Amanda's creativity, Mark's ability to put it all into motion.

If they were a machine, then Adam was surely the cog that didn't quite mesh with all the other moving parts. Perpetually on the fringes of the warehouse, uncertainly hovering about—passing a wrench here and a drill there—until inevitably slinking off with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

He didn't fit, and he wasn't even really sure he wanted to.

Wasn't sure whether he'd fit anywhere else, either.

He'd always moved through the world with a sense of displacement; as if something had plucked him off some distant planet and dumped him here, only to cruelly leave him to his own devices. Because Adam's life was also a fucking joke, whatever higher power lurked out there must've also seen it fit to exacerbate said feeling. If there'd ever been any hope of an eventual breakthrough—any hope he might stop listlessly flopping on dry land and find a suitable body of water to slip into—it'd sure been squandered now. With something of a bitter chuckle, Adam had the thought he might walk the length of the Amigara Fault without ever stumbling upon his own hole, too. (Well, at least that meant he was safe! Safety being, of course, a commodity these days.)

“Adam?”

The sound of his name bouncing off of the warehouse walls broke him out of that depressing little reverie he'd embarked on. Somewhere out of sight, the clanking of metal against metal; the noise was sharp and, by rights, ought to be annoying if not outright grating on the ears. Unfortunately, he'd gotten used to it. Didn't bother him half as much as it really should.

“Yeah?” he called out—though set down the camera he'd been fucking around with (hopelessly fucking broken after he'd knocked it off the table last week), letting his legs carry him to the machine Mark had been working on for the past hour. “Need help?”

“Nah,” the other man shook his head, rogue droplets of sweat flying every which way. “This should be done.”

Mark stood up on slightly shaky feet, dusting himself off. Adam supposed working for Jigsaw was as good exercise as any: his skin glistened beneath the pallid light overhead, face appropriately ruddy. (His own cheeks must've decided to take inspiration from it, flushing in tandem.)

“I was thinkin',” he continued, hands on his hips, “You've been cooped up in this dump too long. Wanna get out of here?”

Yes. Dear god, please.

But, Adam would never go down that easy. Pointedly, he adopted the same stance, accentuating the jut of one hip, and—with a scoff: “Way to treat me like y'all's dog, some fucking... charity case stray. What, we're gonna walk 'round the block so I can sniff about and take a piss? How big of you, Mark, thanks for the enrichment.”

Mark rolled his eyes, hardly the one to fall for the theatrics. (He was no Amanda.) “What's crawled up your ass tonight, then?”

“Nothing!” he huffed, “I'm just saying it how it is. Got the leash ready, then? I'm really itching to pay a visit to that fire hydrant—”

A strong hand fisted itself into the front of his shirt, tugged him up to the very tips of his toes—at which point, he was being shut up in the most cliché-but-effective way possible. Mark, ever the cavalier, let go of him with all the consideration one might let go of a garbage bag. Adam stumbled back, slightly dazed by the kiss and thrown off-balance—figuratively and literally. “Stop pouting and get dressed.”

Adam raised an eyebrow, “Something fancy?”

Mark snorted, “No.”

-

A bowling alley.

A bowling alley.

Adam had a hard time believing it. Out of all places in the world, a bowling alley? (What were they, sweaty seventeen-year-olds making the best out of the spare change left over from lunch that week?)

In the dimly lit space, he leaned against the worn wooden railing, eyes fixed on Mark as the other stood poised at the edge of a polished lane. His face was scrunched up with a frankly disturbing level of focus; two massive hands firmly gripped a ball, fingers knuckle-deep in its holes. With a smooth, practiced motion, Mark swung his arm back and then forward, releasing it with a precise flick of the wrist. The ball glided down the lane and—crash—it sent the pins scattering, every last one of them.

When Mark turned, pride and triumph etched into every little line of his face, Adam... was a little smitten, alright? Watching him trudge over, eclipsing the colorful lights behind him, Adam soon found himself rather crowded against that railing. “Getting a kick out of showing off?” he needled.

“Yes.”

“God, you're sooo...” Adam groaned, head thrown back. Laughing, despite himself. He felt two thick arms encircle him, peel him off the railing, press him up against a plush chest and a soft stomach.

(It was not lost on him, despite the illusion of privacy in this here corner, that they were in public. All but asking to be seen—which was far from their usual gig.)

“Sooo what?” Mark hummed, grinning.

“Shameless.”

“A little.”

“A lot.”

“The right amount,” Mark leaned down, making the most out of the situation by placing a shockingly chaste kiss to the underside of Adam's jaw, the drag of his stubble tickling just enough to chase a giggle out of him. “You like it.”

“That's a bold statement right there,” murmured Adam, letting his arms fall about Mark's shoulders; so broad, his hands didn't meet in the middle. The reminder of this man's sheer proportions, as ever, sent a little thrill through him.

“You gonna deny it?” Another kiss, a little to the left. Adam was impressed for the fact his knees hadn't yet given out. Granted, he did have supports.

“Mm, maybe,” he hummed, letting his eyes fall shut, fingers digging ever so slightly into the fabric of Mark's shirt. “Possibly. Depends.”

Mark hummed against the front of Adam's throat, the sound more so felt than heard in the way it reverberated throughout the column of his neck, thrumming along the underside of Adam's skin. On a whim, he hooked his ankle around one of Mark's legs.

“Y'know, we've still got an hour on this lane...”

“Wow,” Adam intoned dryly, “Truly didn't cheap out on me here. And you've got your priorities straight. Can't believe I'm not being mobbed by your manifold suitors every day of the week. Should probably start hitting the gym, you know, fend them off easier...”

“Lucky you're easy on the eyes,” remarked Mark, tone measured—though there was a warmth in his eyes, “'cause that mouth is doing you no favors.”

Adam cracked a smile, reveling in his turn to be a smug shit.

-

By this point, Adam had developed a strong sense that something wasn't right. Not to say something was wrong per se, but... Well, they'd been driving for upwards of thirty minutes now—and they still weren't home. ('Home' was used, here, very loosely.) He was quite certain it hadn't taken them even half as long to reach their very romantic destination initially. So, what gives?

In any case, Mark's hand was warm where it lay on his thigh. Very rarely did it move, only to switch gears on the odd occasion—and just as quickly, it’d return to its post. They haven't spoken much, but they didn't need to. The silence enveloping them was comfortable and cozy, like a blanket straight out of the dryer on a cold night. An oldies station played very softly, so much so Adam could hardly pick apart the words.

Frankly, he could doze off.

Out of nowhere (and perhaps it was a good thing, as his eyelids had gotten concerningly droopy), Mark spoke up. “There's uh,” he cleared his throat, “something in the back.”

Adam, too tired to needle ('There's uh, something in the back'—are you a caveman?), twisted in the passenger's seat to the best of his ability, pawing at the—true to his word—a box wrapped in brown paper. It sat just out of his reach. Took a few tries to propel it toward himself.

He looked at Mark, an eyebrow quirked.

“Well,” the other's eyes were firmly affixed to the road ahead, perhaps stubbornly so, “Open it.”

“It's for me?”

“Might be, if I don’t change my mind.”

Needing not be told twice, Adam swiftly undid the wrapping, balled it and carelessly tossed it to the floor.

Then stared, mouth agape, at that which was revealed.

A camera.

“How did you—”

“I didn't do anything,” Mark blurted out, tone on the side of defensive for some odd reason, “It was all Amanda. And Lawrence. I just did the wrapping, that's all.”

Adam couldn't tear his eyes away, turning the box this way and that (even though he couldn't really read or see much of anything, dark as it'd gotten.) A well-timed glance in Mark's direction—just as drove beneath a street-light—revealed a deep blush staining his cheeks, seemingly spreading down his neck.

Adam’s lips twitched. His throat tightened. His heart throbbed.

Softly, fondly, he said: “I can tell. It looked like shit.”

(He’d bet all his life savings—granted, there wasn't much there, but it was the thought that counted—that Amanda and Lawrence had less than nothing to do with this.)

“It did, didn't it?” Mark smiled, shoulders sagging. Perhaps with relief.

Adam set his hand atop Mark's, still sat on his thigh. Squeezed.

The silence resumed.

#saw #saw fanfic #hoffheight #adam faulkner stanheight #mark hoffman #n #fic request

[epersonae]

Tagged by @adickaboutspoons - thank you!

Rules: Go to your published works on AO3 and list the first fic you ever published there, the last fic you published, any fic that you wrote for a fandom/ship only once, your favorite fic you wrote in the fandom/ship that has the most works, the fic you wish more people read, the fic you agonized over the most, the fic that sprang fully formed from your mind without any effort, and a work you are proud of—for whatever reason. <3

First fic - A week at a day spa, which is the first fic I ever wrote, and the first time I'd written any fiction in years. It was a bit of an experiment, right before I became completely obsessed with my rarepair. I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. I'd be tempted to take another run at that moment from another direction after everything else I've written.

Last fic - end up several worlds away, the missing scenes companion to for the benefit of all the broken hearts. I just added a chapter with Stede seeing Mary's art for the first time. At the moment, this is my only active WIP; I have a partially written chapter in GDocs that I might work on again soon.

Only fic for a fandom/ship - The dead and the living, my one and only Star Trek (TOS movies) fic. During my time between TAZ and OFMD, I got into a Star Trek Slack and we have done watch parties for a bunch of the movies. somewhere in my head/gdocs I have the start of a long heavy fic about Khan's wife, but this little piece just kind of popped into my head after we watched Star Trek III. I love Carol Marcus a lot.

Favorite fic in the fandom with the most works - Did I really write one hundred and fifty fics for The Adventure Zone????? I sure did. Obviously I have to pick The Reckoning Arrives, which is my longest fic in any fandom, the fic that Ryn and I worked so hard on, the fic that kinda saved my life. But also I was poking through some of my other TAZ fic, and there's actually quite a few of them I still love, but The Woman Who Wasn't There is a fave as far as fics that aren't in my larger continuity. (readers of for the benefit of all the broken hearts will notice a theme about bringing the wife back into the story, which I hadn't really considered until today.)

Fic I wish more people read - another one I found while poking through old TAZ fics: Don't forget to remember. NGL, it's kinda fucked up, but at least it's short? But it's just a tight little story about coping and trauma and memory, and honestly it gave me an outlet at a time when I really needed it. Of my Our Flag Means Death fics: probably the whole devil's threeway series, which is about to be completely decanonized and I'm totally okay with that. I still think I got a vibe that I'm really pleased with and it ended up being the only reunion that I've written, which I think is genuinely funny.

Fic I agonized over the most - for the benefit of all the broken hearts, which I agonized over in so many ways. both in terms of WHAT AM I EVEN WRITING HERE and in the actual work of writing (and the bonkers choice to not name the protagonist in the text), and then in the actual work of editing. I put the most effort into this of literally anything I've ever written in any medium for any purpose.

Fic that sprang fully formed - nice either way, aka the beard fic, which I wrote over the course of a single afternoon driving along the Columbia River Scenic Highway (that was a weird week). Although to be honest, I would say almost any fic less than 1000 words is likely to have sprung fully formed, especially a lot of my earlier TAZ works when I was kind of continuously writing. (Again: 150 works)

A work I'm proud of - it really does have to be for the benefit of all the broken hearts, I worked my ass off on that one and it occupied my whole brain for several months. It was a wild thing to attempt to do, both as a story and as a technical challenge, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

Tagging (as always, no pressure but have fun with it!) - @naranjapetrificada, @nekosd43, @gaypiratebrainrot, @mxmollusca, @oatmilktruther, @emi--rose

#tag games #my fic #my writing #did a little bit of a dive into my taz fic for the first time in a while #there's some stuff in there that I still really like! #I do associate don't forget to remember with a bad emotional incident but also with realizing I was having a time and reaching out for help #also: I really have written 604k of fic huh? 😅

[lovelyirony]

Through flames and oceans (for the fic title)

u know. this was supposed to not go the direction it did. but it did. 

People say they will do a lot for love. They will walk through flames, cross an entire ocean for love.

Bruce tells himself that that’s the stupidest fucking thing people say. He, for one, will not do that. There is also the unspoken reason of that love really isn’t in the cards for him.

Currently, he’s running away from his ex-girlfriend’s dad, General Ross, because he may or may not have done some experimentation and turned into a rage monster, but also revealed some state secrets.

Come on, can you blame him? Cosmo said twenty-year-olds need to accomplish something before they hit thirty. And he’s quite sure he just made the list.

But as for love, he is thinking about it right now because his ex-girlfriend found a very nice girl named Valkyrie, and they’re kind of set to have an engagement party, and “would you please come to the United States to help us celebrate?”

Betty is a wonderful woman, really and truly. And Bruce is okay with how their relationship ended, because it’s not like Bruce could come to family dinner and expect anything besides murder or maybe cold potatoes. And Betty deserved someone far better than him, and from the picture that was sent, it looks like Valkyrie is an amazing catch.

But there is the small matter of making it to the States without getting caught. He is on quite a lot of “no-fly” and “travel restrictive” protocols. This sucks, by the way. He had frequent flier miles saved up and everything.

It sucks, at least, until he remembers Tony’s number and calls it.

(Tony had given him his number, but sometimes he forgets that four and nine are two distinctly different numbers.)

“Brucie, baby! What can I get for you? Don’t worry, the government hasn’t been able to tap my phone calls since I was seventeen and mostly joking about finding out where their secret weapons storage is.”

“Betty’s having her engagement party, and I’m invited. I kind of need a ride home.”

“Where are you located at, right now?”

“Buenos Aires.”

“You lucky son of a bitch, god I miss it there. You having a good time?”

“When I’m avoiding government agents, yes.”

“Hm, well i’m sending a new employee of mine to go and get you. Big guy, probably Swedish.”

“You don’t know?”

“I don’t presume if someone’s Swedish or not, Bruce. I’m a terrible person, but not that terrible.”

“I...I don’t follow your sense of humor.”

“No one does, that’s why celebrities call me avant garde and ahead of my time.”

“Good to know. What’s your new guy’s name?”

“Thor.”

“Are you...are you fucking with me?”

"Darling, you’d be having a much better time if I was.”

“I don’t like the energy we’re manifesting here,” Bruce deadpans.

Tony snorts. “Okay, hippie. He’ll be there by tomorrow morning. Just stay tight where you are, sugar.”

-

Thor is a gigantic man. He parts crowds like it’s what he was meant to do, and maybe it is. Bruce stares up at him.

“Hello Dr. Banner,” Thor says, smiling gently. “You are Dr. Ross’s friend, right?”

“Um...yeah. I am.”

“Excellent. I’m a friend of Valkyrie’s, is it okay if I go ahead and fly out to the airport nearest their house?”

“Uh, is Tony okay with that?”

“Of course. And we can stop at your house if you need anything.”

“Oh, I don’t have a house. Or an apartment. You would not believe how much the US government hates my credit score.”

Thor chuckles a little bit, leading him back to a nondescript car.

“Right this way.”

-

Thor is cool as a cucumber on the outside, as they’re driving. He’s mindlessly tapping on his phone as Bruce stares out the window.

Inside? Oh, Thor hates Val for this. So much.

so, you didn’t think to send me a picture of dr. banner? just the address?

lmaooooo called it. betty owes me something now. fuckin nerd. just ask him out.

no. we still have to bypass american security

which you are “old hat” at. or did i forget that you nearly almost charmed the pants off of one of the airline people?

we don’t speak of that.

relax. stark’s taking care of it anyway.

The airplane ride home is uneventful, thank god. One of Tony’s jets awaits, and the pilot is very surprised to see a man who ranks number four on America’s Most Wanted List to be there.

“You...you know Tony?”

“And you know what an NDA is,” Tony announces over the intercom. “Bruce, welcome. Mimosas are premade, in stock. Sit back and enjoy the ride! Thor, you do what you gotta do to make sure Bruce stays safe. Enjoy the bridal shower!”

The pilot is a bit apprehensive. But mostly okay. Bruce promises nothing’s going to happen, he’s just going to drink tea and catch up on news about the current state of things.

Bruce gets bored with finding out that things are still terrible, so he talks to Thor.

“So...are your parents just really into Norse mythology, or did they know you’d come out a huge guy who has the potential to probably stop Ragnarok?”

Thor chuckles, the laugh rumbling and deep.

(Okay, that’s hot.)

"My parents’ names were Odin and Frigga. You could say they were traditionalists when it came to my brother and I.”

“You mean...?”

“He embodies the name a bit too well for my taste, but yes.”

“Oh. Wow.”

“Yeah. Let me tell you about the time we accidentally crashed a fashion week thing...” 

Bruce laughs a lot about that story. Thor’s laugh is majestic, and they sit a little bit closer. 

-

By the time the plane lands, they’re great friends and Thor reaches over Bruce in the baggage area and wow that man has very defined muscles. 

Not that that’s important. No, that’s like. Not important at all. So what if Thor is very well-muscled and maybe this will play into Bruce’s intrusive thoughts/daydream thoughts at later intervals? Does not matter. At all. 

(Oh god the man smells like salty ocean air Bruce has got it so so bad. So Bad.) 

- 

Tony greets them at the landing pad with a wide grin, eyes lighting up. 

“Well, don’t you two make the happy couple,” he teases. Bruce turns red. This does not go unnoticed. 

“Bruce, honestly, you run away from government and my friendship, and this is what gets you--” 

“A bridal shower? To get me home? Yes,” Bruce says, cutting in not-at-all smoothly. “Now, where are Betty and her bride staying at?” 

“Oh, they’re staying at the cutest little bed and breakfast for their bridal shower. Rented out the whole thing--well Pepper did, it was our wedding gift to them, and of course I mean Pep’s wedding gift, because I have something else planned-” 

“Please tell me that you do not have a house bought for them,” Thor says. 

“Complete with a laboratory and gymnasium,” Tony says with a wink. “I’m kidding, they already have a house. I just kind of kicked them out for a week while I remodel their entire kitchen. Val gave me the colors, I was surprised that she has taste.” 

“If she hears you say that, she’ll kick your ass.” 

“Which is why she won’t,” Tony reminds Thor. “Now, let’s get to unpacking. Bruce, I’m getting you some good shampoo, holy shit your hair sucks.” 

“Thank you Tony, I love and value our friendship and our kindness towards each other as well,” Bruce deadpans. 

“Oh come on, you have to look good. It’s your ex’s wedding party!” 

“You make us sound so dramatic,” Bruce says with a snort. “We broke up. Big deal.” 

“You and Betty...?” Thor asks. 

“Yeah, but it’s fine. We were dating, and then I pissed off her dad, who happens to be a general. I mean, also the government. But mostly her dad.” 

“Wow.” 

Thor’s type shouldn’t be feral scientist. But it is. 

They’re led inside, and Tony bids them goodbye. 

“Duty calls,” Tony says airily, waving. “Make yourself at home, don’t put coffee grounds down the disposal or I will kick you out. Rogers is still nursing his wounds.” 

“Noted,” Bruce says. 

“I drink tea,” Thor answers. 

Bruce shares a look. 

“You too?” 

“Yeah, I prefer it over coffee most of the time.” 

Bruce smiles. 

“I think we’re going to get along.” 

- 

They have a couple of days until the wedding party, and Thor has never seen New York. Bruce is fairly sure that no one will even see him on the CCTV footage as long as he’s walking next to Thor, so he deems it good enough to go and get a bagel. 

Thor is a very gentle man. That’s a good quality. 

He smiles at a little girl, who is staring, open-mouthed. Even gives her a little wave. Bruce grins. 

“You like kids?” 

“I do. They mostly just want to have fun, want to see what the best of the world is. I think we all need that occasionally.” 

“I’ve never thought of that,” Bruce confesses. He takes a sip of his coffee.

“I love watching my cousins,” Thor continues. “The way they grow and figure it all out, it’s rewarding. What about your family?” 

Bruce freezes. 

“Um. I don’t exactly have a family.” 

“Then you’ll just have to meet some of my cousins,” Thor amends, smiling as he sips his drink. “You’d like them.” 

“I’d like that,” Bruce says, grinning. “What’s next on our New York agenda?” 

"I told Loki I’d visit some stores for him and pick up some items he’s been wanting.” 

-

Have you ever seen a sales associate from Chanel be terrified at your presence? No? It’s worth it. 

Bruce is kind of concerned. 

“I...are you...?” 

“My name is Robert, uncanny similarities,” Bruce responds. “We both were born in Ohio.” 

“Why is it always Ohio,” Thor mutters. “You reckon my brother would want this shoe or that?” 

“Ooh, definitely go with the heel. I think that’s good.”  

“Gotcha.” 

Next shop is Dior. 

This goes a bit out of hand. His whole line about being Robert with Incredible Similarity does not go as planned. 

He and Thor are on a subway, currently running away from some authority figures and calling Tony. 

“I was in the middle of learning drama about high society that I can use in my next romance novel, are you joking?” Tony hisses. 

“You write romance novels?” Thor asks. 

“Now is not the time to question that, I’m in the middle of making sure you get a car to your next stop. How well do you both know what a Chrysler is?” 

“The building, right?” 

“God, I hate you so much,” Tony groans. “No, um...it looks like the wing things that they give army people when they do something that I guess they think is cool.” 

“Oh. Okay. Get in that car?” 

“Yes. It’s gonna be red with silver detailing.”

“Tony, they’re gonna know it’s us.” 

“Believe me, they won’t. Trust me.” 

- 

So as it turns out, it’s not the most ostentatious vehicle. 

Because Tony pulls up in a lifted pick-up truck, painted a sparkling, neon green with bright orange wheels. 

It is the ugliest goddamn thing Bruce has ever seen. Also the most effective. 

Thor nearly shoves Bruce into the car, and they’re sitting too close, and Bruce probably shouldn’t be focusing on the fact that Thor’s hair is now artfully messy, but here he is. Doing that. 

“So, sorry that before the wedding shower we’re being hunted down by the government.” 

“Not the worst thing that I could be doing on a Friday,” Thor says with a shrug. “I think you’re just about the most interesting person I’ve met, Bruce.” 

He smiles at him. Bruce’s heart skips a beat. He can’t tell if it’s because of the eye contact or the fact that they’re in close proximity. Maybe both. 

“You wanna go on a date after all this?” Bruce blurts out. 

He does. And as soon as he says it, he kind of regrets it because they’re in a car with glittery silver interior seats and he’s also in pants that have seen better days, and his hair is a Mess. 

(Also self-esteem issues, but Bruce is used to that so he’s not counting it.) 

“Like, after we get home or when the government gives up on finding you?” 

“I don’t know. Whichever one comes first?” 

“Technically, I think I count as army jurisdiction, and military budget is a fountain of money.” 

“Ah. Then home it is. How do you feel about ordering in?” 

“Mm, sounds good,” Bruce says, grinning. “You’re the best.” 

“Well, I certainly try,” Thor says, grinning right back. “You wanna go to Betty and Val’s shower together?” 

“Yes. Do we have to amend our ‘how-we-met’ story?” 

“Not at all. Valkyrie used to run an underground fight ring. She knows the feeling.” 

“How has that not come up in conversation?” 

“We were kind of preoccupied trying to figure out what a Chrysler car looked like.” 

“Oh, true.” 

- 

At the wedding party, Bruce and Thor are very happy. Betty and Val roll their eyes and laugh as they talk. 

“Leave it to my dad to ruin everything,” Betty gripes. 

“Well he didn’t ruin this party or my meeting Thor,” Bruce defends. “Besides, you know what happens if he steps a foot near you.” 

Betty grins. 

“You serious?” 

“Can’t promise you’ll get your security deposit back, but yes.” 

Betty pulls him into a hug. 

“You’re too sweet to me.” 

“Yeah, tell me that after he steps on the limousine.” 

“Eh, I wouldn’t worry,” Thor says, grinning. “I think Tony has some sort of security feature worked in.” 

“Oh, he does,” Val says. “He’s threatened to pull some of the contracts for safety gear. Won’t go through with it, but Ross can’t touch the wedding. Best gift ever.” 

- 

When the party gets late, Thor and Bruce are sitting out on the porch. Clean-up is happening, and they’re taking a break. Thor thinks that Bruce has never looked more beautiful in a rumpled yellow shirt, soft lights making his face glow. 

“I’m glad I met you,” Thor murmurs, moving a stray curl. 

“Really?” Bruce asks, smiling softly. “I think I’m glad I met you too.” 

- 

Bruce grins behind his door when they make it home. Thor had kissed him on the cheek, and while that wasn’t too big of a deal, it was a big deal to him. 

“See you in the morning, dear,” Thor had told him. 

He was going to be up half the night with that line running through his head. 

- 

A lot of people do a lot of things for love. Bruce still wouldn’t walk through flames, or swim across an entire ocean, but he’s starting to understand. 

#lovelyirony writes #GOD. this was supposed to be sad and now it isn't only because i had a funnie thought #thorbruce #bruce banner #thor #tony stark #betty ross #valkyrie #OF COURSE I PUT A RAREPAIR SHIP IN THERE WHAT ELSE WOULD I HAVE DONE? #valbetty #idk what the ship is called but i like #thor is In Love #Bruce is Awkard but u know what. okay #go him #best line is about the chrysler

[poisonousushi]

ooo for the character ask you rbed awhile ago, could i ask for sigma or yosano? thank u :)

hiiii! thanks for the ask. your choice of characters is really nice! i'll try my best to lay out my opinions here, but i don't think i'll be able to give you some for yosana bcs i am not that confident with my opinions on her ;;; anyways, i'll go with sigma first~

 • Why I like them 

Sigma is simply not unlikable. It’s just the vibes he gives when he is in his own habitat (e.g. the casinio), he really was so confident there and I just… I’m weak for that kind of vibe. And also, his duality, like despite looking confident, he’s an anxious and desperate little thing. But most importantly, his sense of morality. I don’t know, he crosses the boundaries of the popular argument of nurture vs nature. Even when he was dumped into the world without any family or ties or purpose, it looks like he intuitively knows that his purpose is not bound for killing (remember: he didn’t ever want to stab Taneda-sensei. He was only driven by DoA’s mission.) There might be underlying reasons why, and honestly, I’m still looming over it through headcanons and theories (but for now I am focusing on Nikolai and Fyodor, so Sigma baby have to wait). Sigma just wants something that would define him, or make him feel like he belong. Hence, why he was so desperate to protect the casino because his identity is tied to it. If he loses it, what would he be? Of course, Fyodor nails it on the part that he knows what Sigma wanted – a home and a purpose. Also, he’s really kind to his customers to a point that he gives them a second chance in every game by sabotaging the game himself, lol. (And memorizing his clients’ numbers and needs.) That’s some high level of service right there. So yeah, he’s just overall precious. 

 • Why I don’t 

Who doesn’t like Sigma, let’s talk. Okay, honestly, I don’t think he is ever culpable for not being able to get out of Decay of Angels. The strong reason would be because it’s the only place that provided him home, security, safety, and identity. He’s deeply tied to the organization because of that. And yes, because he experiences what it feels like to be a stray, and to stay in prisons, and he doesn’t ever want to go back there. So yes, I don’t have any reasons why I don’t like him. For me, there’s simply not any. 

 • Favorite episode (scene if movie) 

Since we still don’t have Season 4 yet, so I’m going substitute manga panel/s for it. Though idk why I can't insert photos when answering this ask. Is there a new Tumblr update for the features? I think there was, but anyways, I'll just going to verbalize it. Most of my favorite manga panels of him are those where he's the most vulnerable, like that time he gave up in front of Atsushi and that one where he slipped off Atsushi's grip. It makes me want to hug him ;;; 

 • Favorite season/movie 

I’ll just substitute this is favorite arc in the manga. Of course, the current Decay of Angels arc where he appears the most. 

 • Favorite Line 

Sigma has said some lines that really resonates so much, but I will just cite one that sticks out to me. 

 “Hey, somebody tell me, can’t an ordinary man be forgiven for wanting to protect what’s important to him?” 

 • Favorite outfit 

The one he’s wearing, of course! Sigma’s character design is really interesting. The fact that he’s wearing heels and earrings is so groundbreaking. And also, Harukawa-san snapped when they made him have a galactic design in the interior of his coat. And his turtleneck! I really love the fact that he wears a turtleneck underneath, because strip him off other layers and leave him in that turtleneck and slacks, imagine the power he would have. I think it won’t be a stretch to say that Sigma is one of the characters in BSD with Best Character Design. 

 • OTP 

I know GogSig is a known rarepair with Sigma involved, and yes, I have written it at some point – mind you, it’s the fic with my highest word count – but I’m not totally knee-deep in the ship. But I have encountered a rarepair fic before of Chuuya x Sigma, and when it flashed in my mind the potentials of that ship, I do think it’s nice! Kinda has the same vibes with ChuuAtsu, hence why I’m here for it. 

 • Brotp 

I wanted to put Sigma x Atsu in OTP, but I realize I see them more as siblings/best of friends. I don’t know if that counts as Brotp. 

 • Headcanon 

Not much, but I hc Sigma as asexual and nonbinary. And also, I don’t think he’s scared of insects.

• Unpopular opinion 

People sometimes call him Fyodor's OC but I don't really think that's the case. Maybe, my point here is un-improved and I must have totally missed other information in the manga (so correct me if I did) but I do think that Sigma isn’t made by Fyodor. He woke up in a dessert, right? Three years ago (as of documented so there's a possibility of something before three years ago.) But the Decay of Angels only obtained a page in consequent to the happenings of Sunday Tragedy, and the events all rolled over quickly from the moment ADA was framed. (And the casino was made 8 days prior to Skyfall.) Besides, Fyodor fetched him up from a prison which might indicate that Fyodor must have only heard of him, and that there might be someone else who made him. But is it actually canon that Fyodor admitted to making him or I totally have forgotten that part? My memory is so wack sometimes, I’m sorry. And also if people only dubbed him as Fyodor's OC as a joke, forgive me for not understanding ;;; 

• A wish 

I wish Sigma will be with ADA at the end. He just suits to be there, and since BSD has this way to perpetuating patterns like Oda adopted orphans and influenced Dazai by taking in and helping Atsushi, so it is my own wish that such would also influence Atsushi to take in Sigma. Though he already basically had done it by initiating to recruit Kyouka into ADA, but can Sigma be the other one? Please. 

• An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen 

That Sigma would die when he would touch Fyodor to extract information from him. I think it’s pretty much hinted that Fyodor can control his deadly ability but, like, if he knows that Sigma is getting used by Nikolai just to know about his ability, it’s scary for me to think that he would kill Sigma upon the moment of contact. Well, it’s only a theory, so I desperately hope there are other ways to know about Fyodor’s ability without having to possibly kill Sigma in the process. He deserves a character arc with a happy ending! 

 • 5 words to best describe them 

 Precious, soft, desperate, must protect 

• My nickname for them 

I like calling him “Sigma baby~” in a way to indicate that he’s a baby. 

 As for Yosano, like what I said, I am not so confident with my opinions of her ;;; except that I DO LIKE HER and I ship her with Kouyou. 

 Anyways, that's all~ ah, i hope my answer isn't too bland or too explosive either. ;;; i hope it reached your standards ;;; but really, thank youuu! it was fun to talk about sigma. i always have time to talk about sigma huhuhuhu

#jai asks #bungou stray dogs #bsd sigma #bsd yosano akiko #spacestuffing

[likecastle]

With all due respect, whenever I read posts about fandom racism, I can't help but think that while it's interesting, telling people that they should do some soul-searching instead of having fun is just not gonna be efficient. What exactly prevents you to just enjoy your corner of fandom whether white fans join in or not, and block the hate if you get some? (genuine question here) A lot of people have rarepairs or are in tiny fandoms and occasionally have to deal with drama, after all.

What prevents me from ‘just enjoying my corner of fandom’ is that I’m not comfortable looking the other way when people in my community say they feel unsafe or unwelcome. I am a white fan, and the assumption that I’m not white because I’ve reblogged some posts about fandom racism is telling, I think. But as a white fan, if I’m not listening to what people of color in this fandom have to say about their experiences, I’m failing them and I’m failing the fan community at large. Besides being concerned about the harm that’s being done to individual people, making any environment safe and welcoming for everyone only enriches it and makes it stronger. 

Comparing racism to fandom drama also misses the point. This isn’t a question of whether I ship Yennalt or Geraskier or Geraskefer or all or none of the above. Which characters we like -- or in the case of The Witcher, which version of the characters we like -- is certainly a matter of taste and of course we all have to accept that some people love things that are not of interest to us, and we love things that are not of interest to others. But feeling like you’re on the fringes of a fandom because you ship a rarepair or because you have a very specific headcanon others don’t share isn’t the same thing as getting harassed because of who you are, or being exposed to harmful discourse about people like you. That’s not just being in the minority, it’s being marginalized -- pushed out of the group not because of what you like, but because of who you are. Fans of color deserve to be accepted for who they are, and shouldn’t have to spend their time weathering personal attacks, as if that’s just the price they have to pay for existing in this space.

And, it’s worth pointing out, the idea that certain characters are people of color isn’t some fringe headcanon, either. The Netflix show is the version of the franchise that most people are familiar with at this point, not some small corner of the fandom. It’s OK if you love the version of Yennefer from the games, or if you’re attached to the version of Triss in the books, but that doesn’t change the fact that characters of color are part of the canon now. You don’t have to like the show, or how it handled certain characters. One of the beautiful things about a fandom with as many different iterations as The Witcher is that we can all pick and choose which bits of canon we want to adopt and which we want to discard. But if the fandom is consistently whitewashing characters of color, especially in contexts where nearly every other aspect of the show canon is retained, that ceases to be a matter of personal preference and becomes indicative of underlying biases that do real and palpable harm. 

And, yes, we’re all here to have fun, but what I hear when people of color talk about fandom racism is that they’re not able to enjoy the content in the same way I do because of the unconscious bias, explicit prejudice, and outright harassment they face. Staying silent about that puts my own comfort and enjoyment above theirs, and, frankly, it’s the same as condoning it. Racism isn’t just a problem for people of color to deal with, and as a white person, I’m not going to make anything better by looking the other way. That just sends the message that I believe it’s not my problem, but in reality it’s everyone’s problem, because not only does it do active harm to people of color, it weakens the fan community as a whole and makes it less rich and less interesting because we lose important perspectives and valuable voices.

If we really love a show and its fandom, we have a responsibility to take a hard look at the dynamics in the show itself, as well as the dynamics of the creative community that springs up around it. We owe it to one another to ask hard questions about the art we love and the fanart it inspires -- not because we don’t want people to enjoy it, but because we do. Being critical doesn’t mean I don’t love the franchise or the people in the fandom. It doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. But there’s no way to just enjoy something in a vacuum, and we owe it to one another to consider how our own experiences are interconnected, and what impact our behavior has on one another. This is especially true because, as others have said more eloquently than me, the biases that inform what we do or don’t like are not always conscious, and recognizing that our assumptions and unwitting behavior can have harmful effects -- and then trying to do better -- is a way of caring for one another, and for the long-term health of our community.

To suggest that fans of color who face harassment or discrimination should just ‘block the hate’ they get also ignores the very real toll that takes on someone emotionally and psychologically. I can’t in good conscience expect people to just rise above, when I have a chance to help, even if only in some small way, dismantle the behaviors that are hurting them. Once again, why would I prioritize my own comfort over someone else’s safety? If I care about the people whose fics I read and whose art and gifsets I reblog, who write insightful meta and delightful shitposts, why wouldn’t I do whatever I can to make sure they stick around and keep making more of the things I love? And even if their thing is not exactly my cup of tea, isn’t my fandom experience made richer because they’re part of it? Isn’t the chance that someone else might feel really seen and understood by their work worth the small amount of effort it takes me to stick up for them and make sure I’m not part of the reason they leave?

#the witcher #fandom racism

[nightklok]

Yo, you write some incredibly rare ships, and you seem to be interested in exploring even more. What inspires you to explore these unique pairings?

Honest Answer: I work at a position where I talk to almost no one because I’m the only ‘female’ (I say questioningly), youngest in my position by decades, and the culture/language barrier makes it difficult! So aside from small talk, listening to my coworkers play either the entire Avril Lavigne discography, Jrock or whatever on the speaker, I have my thoughts to entertain me 6 hours/4 days a week :D With an overactive imagination, this can be fun! I usually think of fanfics I want to write, visualize scenes in my head, but I ended up thinking of what new rarepairs I can do for the hell of it. 

More Creative,honest answer:

Honestly, when I do rare pairs, I do like to use characters that aren’t really that well used in fanwork (Edgar, Dethklok Minute Host, Trindle, Lavona, etc) or I like to experiment with characters people don’t really think about shipping, either because of the show’s portrayal or just simply never considered (Pickles/Abigail, Nathan/Lavona, Charles/Lavona, even young Salacia/Murderface though this is a pairing less of a rarepair and more of just more fuel to add to Galaktikon ll but that’s not for this postsfdkj-).

I feel like the phrase ‘Keep an open mind’ is something that you’d really need to explore more rare pairs. And I don’t mean this as in exploring toxic ships for fetish fuel or something but I mean as in characters that never interacted in the show for one reason or another or characters that did interact but maybe there is some potential. 

I feel like the first ship I gave this mindset to was trindle/edgar. I wanted to write a fic of magnus being comedically tortured (metaphorically) so what better way to write that than have Magnus be forced to help the biggest dethklok fan and biggest nathan simp for the purposes of the prophecy? I only had Trindle/Edgar there for the comedy...but of course, I fell in love with it. I saw potential afterwords; they were dethklok fans after all! Maybe they did interact before whether in commenting on each other’s forums or something. Of course, that fic is still in the backburner and now Trindle/Magnus is something I ship more but if I hadn’t decided to just give Trindle/Edgar a chance, I wouldn’t have thought of it before.

And something else I do sometimes (not anymore as nobody really has anything new to add to this these days) is when people answer those character ask memes and they state the NOTP, I try and figure out why Is that and if something could be done! Though this is only exclusive to one pairing as only one pairing has ever shown up in NOTPs and never OTPs and honestly? I feel like there’s more potential to it if people are willing to explore it. For purposes of keeping my fic on them a secret (because I'm mean), I’ll try and get people to guess :D

I notice that when people get asked NOTPs, especially in those character memes, they just kinda thrown in the ship that everybody collectively doesn’t like...and why is that? I feel like when people do that, they just put it down so NOTP doesn’t get a blank answer but don’t really explore, or at the most, explore it in the way people write Skwis/tok but either ignore bookklok or make it so the episode makes them closer. And this isn’t judging people who ship them, far from it! I admire anyone who can ship them still BUT still take into consideration of that episode and use that as character growth for Toki. 

Realizing that fanon does NOT mean canon and I can sometimes use canon to either ignore or use for my advantage has been such a liberating mindset. 

Not a rarepair but I do give credit to Nathan/Abigail for helping me see this. I feel like it’s a ship that on surface level, did get subjected to bad writing but that’s literally every other character at a point so if those characters get a chance, why not them? and to an extent, why not give characters like Trindle, Lavona, etc their own happy ending?

As for HOW specifically...that is yet to be answered-Honestly, the whole ‘throw something on the wall and see what sticks’ mindset kinda helps too! Try and think how two random characters would work. Just to show how my mind works, I'll show how I decide on a rarepair, and I just thought of Lavona/Pickles. It can work honestly! And why? 

Well...what if Nathan wasn’t the first choice for Lavona’s plan? What if it was one of the members? Yeah, let’s throw skwisgaar out as he’s probably had his own mission unknowingly completed. Pickles could be one of the potential candidates. Fiery personality is incredibly multitalented and intelligent in his own way. yeah, he’s got his problems but maybe she can excuse those problems for the chance of getting her revenge. So, perfect-they get Pickles! Her initial plan is to coerce him into sleeping with her and then her plan can get into fruition.

Pickles is trans and somehow everyone completely forgot about that. Ah well, Lavona will have to take one for the team regardless and well, he’s actually gentle with her, and she tries to leave but he just wants to be held for some reason-now she has these things called feelings.

Well, there you go a 25k will they won’t they comedy of Lavona trying to move on from Pickles but admittedly she can’t help be attracted to him :O

Gosh, I Feel like this is rambling haha but I hope this helps anyone understand how I work! :O

Alternate advice; probably use a wheel generator-

#thanks for asking! This was fun to type I had to actually #think about how I did this #as I just kinda was just 'oh TRINDLE? with Magnus? haha rarepair go brr' #sourbat #Insomniac Coffee Talks [asks]

[that-scouse-wizard]

Day 13 of the April Prompts by @stupendousbookworm

Prompt: Write about a random ship between two canon characters that isn’t relevant but they’re just so cute.

A/N: Let me present you lot with a rarepair. Tulip x Rowan or as I call them, Khannasu. Hope you guys enjoy!

Word count: 1245

‘Come on Karasu, you’ve mocked Argus Filch to his face, you’ve out-pranked Nymphadora Tonks, you’ve taken on a bloody cursed vault for crying out loud! This is a simple yes or no question, just ask her!’ Tulip thought, trying to egg herself on, to no avail. Though she held a quill to a piece of parchment, she had scarcely managed to do more than a slight dot, and nothing else. 

The subject of her current predicament being the one person she wanted to ask to the Celestial Ball, Rowan Khanna.

Currently, the Hufflepuff was on another table at the other end of the library, completely focused on a piece of homework that likely wasn’t due for weeks. Rowan took just a second to adjust her glasses, Tulip smiled, Rowan looked cute when she did that.

A soft croak broke her out of her musing, courtesy of pet toad Dennis, “Of course I’m bloody nervous!” She hissed as quietly as she could, briefly glancing across the library to see if it had caught Rowan’s attention. Breathing a sigh of relief to see that she hadn’t.

Madam Pince on the other hand…

“Miss Karasu.” The librarian spoke up sternly, approaching Tulip. The Ravenclaw wordlessly locked eyes with her, a sense of dread formed in the pit of Tulip’s stomach. She had a feeling she knew what was coming, “Pets are not permitted in the library, and you are clearly not doing anything worthwhile. So either send him away and get some work done quietly or both of you can vacate the library.”

Pince seemed a lot grumpier than usual, definitely not in a mood to argue. Frankly, neither was Tulip, perhaps it would be easier to think of a way to ask Rowan out when Tulip wasn’t so blatantly staring at her…

She sighed in defeat as she exited the library, gathering her things (and Dennis). The uncertainty of it was the most off-putting aspect of this whole situation. She knew Filch had no real power, she knew she could out-prank Tonks and she knew the boggarts that guarded the Vault of Fear could be banished with a Ridikulus spell. Asking out Rowan Khanna? Without knowing if her feelings were requited? That meant facing a much greater chance of failure. One that she didn’t know if she was willing to take.

Initially, the two of them had worked alongside David Willows in breaking the curse of the Vault of Fear as acquaintances exchanging information that they knew. The most she had given Rowan up to that point was a “Good job, Bookworm.” after she had distracted Pince so they could access the vault. 

When the frog choir auditions came around, Dennis had disappeared for a good few hours, he had worried her sick. That is until Rowan, still with her hair damp from taking a bath, had returned Dennis to her. Her pet informed her of Rowan’s apparently good singing voice.

In spite of Rowan’s shyness about performing, she had done so for Tulip. Honestly, to say she was good was an understatement, Rowan had the voice of an angel. It had taken some convincing, namely Rowan bonding with Dennis but at last she had agreed to be his partner in the frog choir. Rowan had secured one of the two spots quite handily. After that, the duo began working together, ensuring a growing closeness, one that had led to Tulip realising she had a crush on Rowan.

Still, they were just so different.  

Rowan Khanna was calm, studious and rule abiding (not counting her delves into the Cursed Vaults alongside David Willows of course). Tulip… wasn’t that, at least not always, what was the chance that Rowan would even consider her offer?

“Karasu!” Came a voice she hadn’t expected to hear, snapping her from her thoughts, it belonged to none other than Merula Snyde. 

“What do you want Merula?” Tulip asked, crossing her arms as her brow furrowed. They hadn’t been on speaking terms for a while given their history.

Merula scoffed a little at Tulip’s tone, “I’m looking for Khanna. I need her for something and you and her seem to be awfully friendly nowadays.”

Tulip’s eyebrow cocked at that, “What do you want with her?” She asked suspiciously.

“Why do you care?” Merula retorted. Tulip scowled, causing Merula to roll her eyes at her, “If you must know, I need her for the Celestial Ball.”

“You’re asking her out?” Tulip said, sounding shocked.

Merula’s jaw dropped in surprise, “What? No!” She responded, equally as shocked by Tulip’s question, “I need her to help me ask D-, someone out.” She said quickly catching herself.

Tulip looked at her sceptically, though feeling relieved as well, at least Merula wasn’t asking Rowan out. Tulip smirked as she got an idea, if Merula needed to be near Rowan but had no plans on going out with her... yes that would work. She could even have a bit of fun with her old friend too.

“Okay then, tell me who you’re asking out and I’ll tell you where Rowan is.” Tulip demanded with a cheeky grin.

Merula glared at her in disbelief, “It’s... David.” She admitted after a pause. Just the slightest blush lighting up her cheeks.

“David Willows?” The Ravenclaw asked, she had a suspicion the two had feelings for each other since they had gone out on a date previously but the fact that it actually seemed to be coming true was a surprise. She got a nod in response. 

“David Willows, the one you fought like cat and dog with in first year?” Another nod, “David Willows, the one you’ve been trying to one-up constantly?”

“Yes.” Merula admitted begrudgingly.

“David Willows the one you-”

“Tulip, I get it!” Merula interrupted, “Can you just tell me where Rowan is?” 

“If you do just one more thing.” Tulip said.

“What?” Merula growled.

Tulip’s response was to take out the quill and parchment from before, quickly scrawling a note on it. Before taking out a piece of twine (it never hurt to be prepared in case it was needed for a prank), wrapping it around Dennis to attach the note.

“The bookworm is in the library.” She said gesturing in its direction, “Give Dennis to her.” She continued, quickly shoving her loyal companion into the grasp of the self-proclaimed ‘Most Powerful Witch in Hogwarts’.

“Wait, why?” Merula tried to question, though Tulip was already briskly walking off, “What was that about?” She asked Dennis, only getting a croak out of him.

“... I have no idea what that means.” She sighed in resignation, well at least all she had to do was give him over. Though whatever Tulip wanted to tell Rowan would have to wait until Merula was finished with her.

-------

A few hours later

It was about dinner time in the Great Hall, the structure thronging with students. Though as Tulip was about tuck into her dinner, Dennis hopped up onto the table, now with a new scrap of paper attached to him.

Her eyes lit up at the sight, at the very least she had gotten a response. She scanned the length of the Hufflepuff table, her eyes soon landing on Rowan. Her fellow fourth year was watching her eagerly for a reaction. Another good sign.

Tulip took it the parchment, unfurling it. Seeing what Rowan had written, it felt like a great iron weight had been lifted off her chest.

My answer is yes.  

#aprilprompts2021 #harry potter hogwarts mystery #hphm #tulip karasu #rowan khanna #rowan x tulip #khannasu

[maggot-monger]

some musings on shipping culture

just to get this out of the way: this post is prompted by things i have seen people say and reblog recently about a variety of ships and fandoms, some of which i have been in, some of which i have not. it is not directed at any individual in particular. 

i am also not upset. how other people like to enjoy fandom is interesting to me but ultimately it’s totally irrelevant to how i like to enjoy fandom. in fact, my apathy about other people’s favorite ships is a major reason i am curious about how some people respond to each other/canon/whatever.

the main question is: why do people care what other people ship and why they ship it?

here’s what i got. this list is not ordered by importance.

1) purity culture 

tbh i am kind of burnt out with thinking about purity culture. probably a lot of reasons are somewhat related to purity culture, but i don’t want to get into whether or not it’s ok for people to ship stuff they wouldn’t condone in reality (although for the record, if you couldn’t tell, my opinion is: ship literally whatever you want). so, moving on.

2) whether or not ships are likely to become canon

a lot of the time, this debate gets avoided either because none of the ships being argued over are likely ever to become canon, or because one of them is almost definitely going to become canon. sometimes it’s an argument about which relationship is more important, whether romantic or not (two examples: 1) most wincest shippers understand that sam and dean were never going to kiss on the mouth on tv, but are very invested in the brothers’ relationship being the central relationship in the show regardless. 2) debates over whether elsa in frozen should have a girlfriend or stay single). 

much of the time, people get passionate about ships going canon because of issues of representation. wanting the queer ship; wanting the ship involving at least one character from an underrepresented group; wanting the ship that resonates with some meaningful experience much of the audience can relate to. that’s all cool. i get all of that. i don’t personally have many feelings about ships i like going canon because that’s not really part of the experience for me, but i understand why it’s appealing to others.

i do not, however, understand why some people whose ships might become canon care about telling people whose ships are never going to become canon that their ships are, uh, never going to become canon. like, in my experience, usually people who ship a never-going-to-be-canon ship know that it’s never going to be canon, and while they might be salty about it, they aren’t claiming that their thing is going to be what happens in canon. i get why never-going-to-be-canon shippers might get pissy at might-be-canon shippers because it sucks to “lose,” or because often (not always) might-be-canon ships are very popular comparatively and it can get tiresome to see your fandom dominated by something you don’t like/care about. but why do fans of popular (might-be-)canon ships get pissy about fans of never-gonna-be-canon ships, within fandom spaces?

a lot of this tension might be because of fandom dominance wars, rather than canon dominance wars. the never-gonna-be-canon shippers might feel that the might-be-canon shippers are dominating fandom spaces, but the might-be-canon shippers might feel that the never-gonna-be-canon shippers are dominating canon spaces. often when this happens both ships take up a lot of fandom space regardless of which takes up more, and might in fact be equally popular. so this might be just misperceptions about relative popularity, and feeling like your ship is being attacked/ignored disproportionately in the fandom when in reality it isn’t. i have definitely seen this sort of attitude from warring flagship supporters many a time.

but ok, to come back to why might-be-canon shippers make arguments against never-gonna-be-canon shippers based on likelihood of canonization: why? i don’t get it. i’ve seen this happen even with people who ship fully realized canon relationships arguing against people who ship fully non-canon relationships. why? 

my instinct is to think that last one is a sore winner thing. like, you won dude. good for you. take your winnings and let everybody else lick their wounds/carry on with their own preferences in peace. i’m even inclined to think that canon shippers as a rule should ignore most baiting by non-canon shippers because losers should be allowed to be little a bitter, as a treat. but at this point, i realize that i have just made a claim about how people should act in fandom, and who am i to say that? no one. so: never mind. and it might not be a gloating thing anyway.

another piece of evidence i see people bring up in these arguments is about basis in canon, rather than likelihood of canonization. that seems like another major point, so let’s move on to that. 

3) basis in canon

whether or not a ship is likely to become canon, there are lots of conversations about which ships make the most sense given evidence from the canon. 

i, being a massive slut for characterization, get this sort of. usually even when i enjoy crack ships i want to make them work with textual evidence somehow. i personally just think it’s more satisfying to figure out how two characters might have met and what would have appealed to them about each other to lead them to connect/date/bang/whatever, even if it never happened and never will happen and nobody would even think about the pairing unless either they were trying to be funny or they were really far down a rabbit hole. that’s my own geeky cross to bear.

i don���t get why “basis in canon” makes any ship better than any other ship though. sometimes a ship is within reach of canon characterization/story, and the work to go from non-canon to canon is suuuper minimal. these ships make sense pretty much as they are. that’s cool! such ships are usually popular for a reason: they appeal to a lot of fans of the canon because not a lot has to be done to the source material to make it work. often, the more you have to modify/do interpretation footwork, the more people’s interesting is going to drop off because you’re getting further from the source, and the source is why everyone is here in the first place. (some fandoms are of course exceptions to this.)

but why is closer-to-canon better? sometimes the work to get from canon to a far-from-canon ship is really clever, and does actually make a lot of sense if you follow the reasoning. sometimes far-from-canon ships are satisfying in a way other closer-to-canon ships aren’t (at least to some people). sometimes far-from-canon ships allow for creativity that closer-to-canon ships don’t. sometimes the appeal of far-from-canon ships is none of that, and it’s purely because the ship is sexy, or it’s controversial, or it’s weird, or people have gotten tired of the fandom flagships and they’re looking for something new. 

i don’t understand why any of that is worse than the reasons for shipping something with “more basis in canon.”

personally, i get tired of fandom flagships in most of the fandoms i’ve been in very quickly. furthermore, i lose interest in ships almost immediately if/when they become canon. that’s not a value judgment; it’s just a pattern in my own preferences that i’ve observed from 15+ years of fandom involvement. i enjoy having to work in the murky waters farther from canon to justify my weird little ships. i find the moment of canonization exciting and satisfying (and sometimes emotional and vindicating), but i do not enjoy watching people actually being in romantic relationships very much (part of this is probably due to the fact that i personally do not enjoy being in romantic relationships very much). i also just tend to enjoy elements of ships that a lot of people find off-putting, but this is going back to purity culture and, again, i don’t want to get into that. these preferences reliably lead me away from close-to-canon ships and fandom flagships. 

(just to be clear: i’m not being attacked. i do not feel attacked. i'm just using myself as a rhetorical example here.)

does this make my taste in ships bad? i don’t know what "bad taste in ships” means, but if you’re going to say that my taste is bad, i’m going to want you to justify it. 

does it make my taste in ships stupid? well, sure, i do like stupid shit sometimes. but i also feel that it would be strange, if not flat-out incorrect, to claim that my taste in off-norm ships is not thoughtful. i think about many of my far-from-canon ships a lot — often, i think about them a lot before i start shipping them/see anyone else ship them, and i decide i like the characters together because i’ve come at it from a character analysis perspective. i have liked ships for some extremely nerdy reasons. a lot of people who like far-from-canon ships get there because they like thinking about characterization and plot and symbolism. to be completely honest, i often end up liking rarepairs in part because the people who end up liking rarepairs often have higher overall intellectual skill and desire to think about things extensively on average than fans of fandom flagships do on average. so, is liking far-from-canon ships stupid? that’s subjective. is it unintelligent? probably not.

is enjoyment of these ships dumber when people don’t get there through a lot of analysis, or when they don’t try to justify their enjoyment once they’ve decided they like a ship? i have seen extremely well-written, clever, extensively researched fic about pairings the author had no interest in justifying, and imo that’s just as intellectually motivated as analysis about why the ship makes sense. so, i would say, no.

is it bad to ship stuff and have no intellectual interest in it all? i mean, everyone can have whatever opinion about this, but in my opinion, no. this is fandom. this is for fun-having. i’m a nerd, but not everybody has to be a nerd. sometimes i like to read stuff that is not nerdy, that just shows me something comforting or new or evocative and doesn’t ask me to care about how we’ve gotten there. i might care anyway, but that’s on me, and it doesn’t make my enjoyment better than the enjoyment of someone who doesn’t want to overthink it.

finally, even if a ship having no basis in canon does make it worse somehow, who cares? what is the point of arguing over ship quality, of all things? is it just elitism? is it defensiveness against criticism of fan work being inferior to original work? is it a desire for everything to make sense, paired with a belief that people prefer things that make the most sense? if anybody has read this far and has insight into this, please tell me. i see this so often, and it baffles me every time. i don’t really want to agree, but i want to understand.

so, i don’t quite get this one. i get parts of it, but overall, i don’t get it. 

4) i don’t have a number 4. i put a number 4 when i started writing this post but i think i covered what i was going to say here in points 1-3. alternatively i forgot my 4th point in which case RIP.

if you read this far, i apologize for the messy organization. i wrote this primarily to sort out my own thoughts. i’m not sure it helped, but it was something to do for an hour XD

#please don't reblog #(idk why anyone would but) #(i am happy to chat though! i am genuinely interested! my questions are not rhetorical) #further disclaimer: none of this is about my current main fandom which seems blessedly tolerant compared to many fandoms #i say things

[sybright]

My Favorite Cats Ships

Okie dokie, @whitmerule wanted to know my main ships/pairings and I knew I’d have to make a post dedicated to this at some point so here it is lol (also sorry this is so long). My “main” universe, which is what all of my main pairings are in, is based on the ‘98 film for the most part (although really all of my universes are based on the ‘98 film, just with alterations here and there). 

Edit: My preferences have changed somewhat, so I’ve edited this list to reflect my current feelings towards certain pairings. This means that I’ve deleted some pairings that I don’t like much anymore, and have added some new ones :). All of these ships are in no particular order btw.

Main Pairings:

Tuggoffelees 

-I know it’s super popular and there’s loads of content on them, but I still stan. I don’t love them AS much as I used to, but they were my first ship in this fandom, and therefore are still very important to me. 

Demebombastrap 

-In terms of individual pairings, I really like Demelurina and Bombastrap on their own, but I like them best all together. I used to be quite fond of Demestrap by itself, but I’ve gotten pretty tired of that ship over time personally (obviously nothing against people who like this pairing a lot, kudos to y’all who love Demestrap ^^), so I’m not that big a fan of them on their own anymore. In order of the individual pairings I like best: Demelurina first, Bombastrap second, and Demestrap not so much.

Skimblegus (Skimbleshanks/Asparagus Jr., NOT Gus the theatre cat, I see the two of them as separate characters in most productions).

Jellydots (Sweet lesbian grandmas <3).

Tumblejem 

-This is my self-projection asexual pairing, leave me alone lol. They give me bestie vibes and I love that for them <3.  

Platoriateazer 

-This is a bit of a rarepair, but it is one of my main ships, I see Teazer and Plato as platonic partners and Tori as their mutual gf. Alternatively, I like Victeazer and Platoria on their own as well, although I like Victeazer a bit more than Platoria, but I prefer them all together.

And that’s about it for my “main” pairings, here’s a list of my alternate pairings/rarepairs that I love too much for my own good.

Alternate Pairings/Rarepairs:

Demandra 

-No longer my main blog’s url, but they have their own blog now and therefore are still ridiculously important to me XD. This is my fave rarepair, and might also be even MORE of a self-projection asexual pairing for me than they were before. I’ll say it once, this is my ultimate comfort pairing. 

Plonzostrap (Plato/Alonzo/Munkustrap, alternatively, I like Alonzostrap and Plonzo on their own as well, although I haven’t put that much thought into Munklato on its own).

Platoricopat (Cats Zurich got me obsessed with this concept, and @whitmerule’s gifs are are just *chef’s kiss*).

George/Etcetera/Electra 

-I don’t really have a ship name for this, and also this particular pairing is very complicated and I’ll try to explain it as best I can. George and Etcetera are romantic partners, Etcetera and Electra are queer-platonic partners (I see Electra as aromantic), and George and Electra are platonic partners. This is technically a main pairing for me, but it’s sort of rare and complicated in its dynamics so I put it down here. Also, I adopted the hc that George is a Pollicle btw.

Oh and just as an aside, I also really like Elecctera and Etceorge on their own, but I probably slightly prefer Elecctera, I just love the queer-platonic besties vibes of them <3. 

Mungocavity (This is in a scenario where Macavity is less evil and more of a dumbass, but I really like this pairing. It would be one of my main pairings if my main universe Macavity wasn’t complete shit).  

Jemtoria

-One of my newer ships, I usually see Tori and Jem as being somewhat far apart in age, so this is in a scenario where Jem’s a bit aged up and Tori’s a bit aged down. I love everything about this pairing. Considering how much Jem and Tori interact with each other in the show, this ship has so much potential to me. They’re just so soft and they make me really happy <3. 

Tuggoffeleteazer

-Once upon time I didn’t think I’d ever ship Tugger or Misto with really anyone but each other, but times change. Initially, I got very interested in the idea of Rumpletugger (which I still quite like on it’s own), but then later became intrigued by the idea of Mistoteazer (and all the shenanigans they’d get up to, both being mischievous and chaotic), so of course this led to me just putting all three of them together XD. I love this trio so much, they just give “bestie vibes ONLY” type of energy, and feel like a super chaotic friend group, and that makes me really happy. 

Bombbella

-I’m not even sure how to explain what led me to becoming so attached to this ship XD. I had seen people mention it being a neat concept in passing, but I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who actually truly ships them. I basically got into this ship through my “Jellicle leader Griz” au thing, which is an au where Griz is the oldest of Deuteronomy’s children and was expected to become the next Jellicle leader. She’s much younger in this au than how I typically see her, so the newer Griz design fits well in this scenario. I just got really into the idea of Griz and Bomba being tragic ex-lovers. 

They dated for a long time in their teens, broke up for a few years, and then got back together again when they had matured, and then Griz went and abandoned the tribe (as well as Bomba) to see the world and pursue her dream of being a star. Griz returned eventually, but the damage had been done, and Bomba was far from ready to forgive her. In the end though, she does forgive Griz, as does everyone else, but then Griz goes on to be reborn, and they miss their chance at happily being together. It’s just all in all a really fun concept for me to play around with, and has so much angst potential. 

Jellycass

-Not a new ship, quite the opposite actually. This is a ship that I usually don’t think much about (hence why it wasn’t here when I first made this list), but whenever I do, I always feel at peace inside lol. I can’t for the life of me find the post that got me into this ship (trust me, I have searched ALL over tumblr for it, I looked through both Jellylorum’s and Cassandra’s ENTIRE tags and still couldn’t find it), but I saw a post when I was first getting into the Cats fandom that talked about how Jelly and Cass would be this sort of “odd couple” that the tribe didn’t really understand, but clicked super well with each other for some reason. 

Even though I only ever saw that one post on them for a long time, I grew really attached to the ideas it presented for Jellycass. I like the age gap concept in particular, with my personal idea of it being Cass in her late twenties to early thirties, and Jelly being in her late thirties to early forties. It really heightens the “odd couple” energy of them, and I can see Cass getting along really well with someone older. Troika provides me all the rights for this ship <3. 

Some Extra Stuff:

Even though I like Platoria as an individual ship, and ship them to a degree, I’m not super interested in them. They’re a bit bland for me if I’m being honest. I like seeing them on my dash, but I won’t actively seek out content of them, so please don’t tag me in stuff surrounding them if you don’t mind (obviously this doesn’t apply to their poly equivalent). I used to include Demestrap in this section, but now I’m really not all that fond of them, I really only like them together in a poly scenario, like Demebombastrap or even Demelonzostrap. 

There’s a bunch of ships that I categorize as “I like it, but I don’t ship it,” and that’s where ships like Munkujerrie and Alonzoffelees fall. They’re ships that I enjoy as concepts, and that I would probably read fanfic about if given the opportunity (and like fanart of), but I don’t necessarily ship them. So you don’t need to tag me for them. 

The only ships that I just straight up don’t like, although I have nothing against people who like them, are Tuggerlurina, Mistoria, Skimbledots, and Jellygus, Tuggerlurina being the one I dislike the most. I just scroll past content of them if I see it on my dash, I thought I should probably list them here cause idk, might be useful to @whitmerule to know which ships I really don’t like. 

Note: I don’t see any of the characters I listed here as being biologically related, some people hc Deme and Bomba as sisters, or Etcetera and Electra as being twins, I don’t see this personally (In fact I have a whole bunch of family hcs that I’ll probably save for another post, if anyone even wants to read that lol). 

And now for my favorite 2019 movie pairings (which I also don’t see any of them as being biologically related), because they’re sort of relevant since I’m listing pairings and stuff so I feel like putting them here too:

2019 Movie Main Pairings

Mistoriastraps 

-This is the ONLY scenario where I like Misto and Tori together. I only like it when it’s in the 2019 movie, and only if it’s with Munk, those are my two requirements lol. I think Munktoria and Munkoffelees are really cute too, but I don’t care for them that much, I like them best all together.

Demandra (I see their relationship very differently in the movie, and I prefer their stage-show relationship, but as always, I love them). 

Tantojerrie 

-I know they don’t really interact in the movie, but I saw people talking about them as a ship on here, and I just think they’d be really cute. Technically Tanto is implied to be kitten age in the movie, but I imagine this as a post-movie, next Jellicle Ball type scenario. I see Tanto as being on the cusp of adulthood, where she’ll probably be an adult at the next Jellicle Ball, and I see Jerrie as being a very young adult, so they’re not far apart in my mind (plus I see Jellicles, being cats and all, aging differently than humans, so this isn’t as odd to me as it might be to other people).

2019 Movie Alternate Pairings:

These are just my alternate pairings for Misto, Tori, and Munk if Mistoriastraps doesn’t happen lol:

Tuggoffelees

-I’ve adopted the hc that they’re ex-boyfriends in the 2019 movie, and I like to imagine that they’ve sorted things out post-movie and got back together.

Victeazer

Skimblestrap

That’s about it for my ships. Thank you for reading if you got this far lol. 

#my rambles #cats the musical #cats ships #q word mention #cats ships masterpost #long post #cats 2019 #cassmeter #really happy with my current ship list #I've had time to narrow down the pairings that I REALLY like and felt it was time to update this list

[birlcholtz]

Let's hear your Lardo/Snowy thoughts

anon you’ve unleashed the entire outline for my lardo/snowy fic in bullet point form bc idk if i’ll ever have time to write it and i want to share this idea with the world. i typed it up from my journal in a feverish hurry today before my first class so i’m gonna have to fix the typos as i go LMAO, the things i do for y’all (jk i would have fixed them anyway)

(send me your rarepair/qpp headcanons!!)

lardo, ‘pong god’ according to tater, meets and befriends snowy through tater. snowy is starstruck because he’s heard so much about lardo. lardo is starstruck because she has more of a celebrity-admire-from-afar crush on snowy than she would like to admit (them interacting at the cup party at jack’s place was fun, lardo absolutely annihilated tater at pong and grinned at snowy, who was casually observing, with more boldness than she felt, and snowy’s heart went pitter patter god the nhl is really just frat bros on a salary isn’t it, you either have a weird hockey boner or a weird beer pong boner????? or you’re well-adjusted yikes. i don’t make the rules)

they bond over eyeliner and lardo redesigning snowy’s helmet, but over the course of her designing his helmet and them probably having more ‘consulting’ sessions than necessary, they really fall for each other (not just admire-from-a-distance) and are not looking forward to the helmet design being completed since it’s their only good excuse to talk to each other all the time. but through snowy lardo gets a couple other goalie helmet commissions and her design for snowy’s is so sick that falcs upper management commissions her to do a mural in the breakfast nook. lots of wings and ice and stuff like that and it’ll be fuckin badass. the most badass breakfast nook you’ve ever seen

and lardo’s not dumb so she accepts and crashes with jack and bitty while she’s in providence. and snowy winds up dropping by their place a lot. like a lot a lot. and he offers to help her get paint and get the nook all set up to be painted and then once they do that he’s like oh i guess i should leave you to it then and lardo is like no stay! i like having someone to talk to while i paint and snowy is like oh cool! and internally dying because he gets to spend more time here

more under the cut!

the whole falcs team knows about this by the way. tater is so proud that he introduced them. or caused them to meet each other. whatever. and george also knows because nobody can keep a secret from her. people keep trying to get jack to spill whatever he knows about lardo but he’s not telling. which they take as a cautiously optimistic sign because come on they all love lardo and if jack’s refusing to tell then there must be something to tell right?

lardo finishes the mural eventually (i don’t know how long it takes to paint things) and snowy hangs out in the nook as much as he can. he gets chirped for it both subtly and not so subtly, in lardo’s presence and out of it. there are definitely other falcs popping in and out and winking really exaggeratedly at snowy. he’s trying to ignore them which is pretty easy because focusing on lardo is easy

and when lardo finishes it, snowy actually doesn’t realize for a bit— like, she stops painting and they talk as she takes off her smock and puts her brushes down and stuff, and then she comes and sits down with him and they’re still talking, and at one point snowy’s like wait you’re not painting are you taking a break? and lardo’s like oh what no i’m done actually and snowy (dying inside) is like oh ‘swawesome (because lardo got him into saying it and now he can’t stop, tater mocks him constantly)

but obviously both of them are kinda like :/ about the mural actually being done because lardo doing art for the falcs is an excellent excuse for them to spend ridiculous amounts of time together as long as snowy doesn’t have like. practice. you know. his job.

so then lardo’s like fuck it and she’s like hey snowy can i ask you something and he’s like sure what and she’s like (summon the confidence you feel after you beat nhl players at literally anything, you got this) do you. want to go on a date. with me sometime? and snowy’s like oh FUCK yeah and it’s great

they get chirped so much. marty’s like wow we need to keep the single guys away from samwell clearly holy shit. and that’s just the BEGINNING. but i’m having trouble coming up with good chirps rn so if anyone else supplies some i’ll love you forever

snowy isn’t huge for a hockey player but lardo is tiny for an adult human so the size difference is still amusing, especially if he’s wearing his goalie pads. they’re fucking adorable. they’re both good at doing their own eyeliner but they start doing it for each other just because it’s nice. sickening. that’s so cute. (that last bit was me providing commentary on my own ideas at midnight in a superhero themed journal)

things lardo does: redesign snowy’s helmet whenever she’s bored and has a new idea, fist bump snowy probably more than is normal for two people in a romantic relationship but jack and bitty and ollie and wicks would beg to differ, feel extremely relieved that all the falcs SOAPs aren’t just identical supermodels and proceed to make them all love her, give herself blue highlights once just for fun, scream ‘goalie interference’ every time something happens near snowy in a game that she doesn’t like, text snowy little things she sees or thinks of throughout the day that she thinks he would like

things snowy does: brag constantly about lardo to every other goalie he knows, make food for lardo when she’s busy working and bring it to her, think lardo’s blue highlights are the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, can’t wait to introduce her to Everyone He Knows but is simultaneously so nervous whenever he does introduce her to someone because he wants everyone to like her so much, intentionally leave shirts and hoodies around for her to steal, not play her in pong because he stands zero chance

neither of them talks a lot but they learn to read each other through the most minute facial expressions, which makes the charity events that snowy has to go to (and brings lardo with him) much more fun. and they’re both such a specific combination of chill and chaotic that i think they would have a lot of late night taco runs, long hours of snowy just watching lardo paint because it’s relaxing, and relentlessly messing up each other’s hair constantly

ive just fallen in love with this ship like overnight so?????

#lardo/snowy #omgcp #writing inspo #IF YOU WRITE ANY LARDO/SNOWY FIC TAG ME #.....snardo #cursed ship name

[astxlphe]

Thank you, With Love

(@bsd-rarepair-valentines-week​)

Day 1 / Bouquet // AkuHigu 

Higuchi finds flowers on her desk several mornings in a row.

General warning: a bit of violence and talking about killing people. That’s it.

(Uhh, first time writing that ship, i hope it’s fine...)

When Ichiyo arrived at the office on the first morning, she found Gin and Tachihara gathered around her desk, whispering between themselves.  

“What’s going on?” she asked, making her way towards them.  

Silence.  

It was Gin who spoke up first, looking back at her.  

“Is it your birthday?” Months ago, Ichiyo wouldn’t even have picked up on it, but Gin sounded put off, in a “it’s your birthday and you didn’t tell me” way.  

Oh dear, they were starting to become friends.  

“Well, no.” She frowned, and supplied helpfully: “It’s in May. Why?”  

All three of them were still looking at her as they moved away from her desk, and Ichiyo gaped.  

On her desk sat a large bouquet of flowers, carefully wrapped in soft green paper.  

“We checked it,” Tachihara said. “It’s not a bomb or anything like that. It’s just...” he shrugged. “...a bunch of flowers.”  

“Is there a note?” Ichiyo asked, picking the bouquet. She checked the inside, between the flowers, but there didn’t seem to be one. “That’s strange. Who could have put that here?”  

“Thank you gift?” Gin suggested.  

“I wouldn’t know what for... Besides, how would they get that in Headquarters?”  

She tried to remember if she had helped someone recently – someone who knew to find her here — but nothing came to mind.

Either way, she didn’t have time to think too deeply on it. As touched as she was with the gesture, she had work to do.  

Hirotsu gave a voice to her thoughts. “All of you should stop behaving like gossiping teenagers,” he told them. “Akutagawa will soon be back with the boss’ orders, we must be ready to head out as soon as he arrives. As for this—” He looked pointedly at the bouquet. “While this may be a harmless gift, I strongly suggest we keep a better eye out of what enters this office.”  

They dispersed, sheepishly obeying the older man. Ichiyo found a vase in the kitchen, and put the bouquet on the corner of her desk.  

When Akutagawa came back, he filed them in on the mission, not even taking note of the flowers — if he even had noticed them in the first place — and everyone put it out of their mind.  

That was the end of it.  

+

It should have been the end of it.  

Well, it wasn’t, because the next day, when Ichiyo came in again, there was another bouquet on her desk.  

She looked around. She had decided to come in early to finish so the previous day’s mission’s property damage report— they had to keep the legal businesses on their territory safe and repair them when needed, that was the deal — so the office was empty.  

Checking the flowers, she found, once again, no deadly trap and no note.  

Nevertheless, this was highly suspicious. Those flowers couldn’t come out of nowhere. Someone had to drop them here, and this someone could do it during the night or early enough in the morning that no one had arrived yet.  

She reviewed, in her mind, who could do such a thing. The boss and, of course, all the executives, had access to their offices, but she couldn’t imagine any of them leaving flowers on her desk.  

And two days in a row?  

Apart from Kouyou, who always seemed like the most likely of the bunch to get someone a gift, but Ichiyo didn’t know Kouyou very well, and only had very few conversations with her — all work related. She was still horribly intimating and always left her shaking in her metaphorical boots.  

There was also Chuuya, the executive who visited their office the most, usually to try and coax Akutagawa into having a meal other than a salad.  

Maybe she could ask them... but she didn’t want to make a fuss about something like flowers. What kind of Mafia operative would she be if she got worried about flowers?  

Was it even the same person both times?  

So, she sighed and went looking for something to put them on. She miraculously found another vase in the kitchen, and put the flowers on her desk, on the other side of the first bouquet.  

They didn’t have a lot of decorations in their office, so the flowers embellished the room quite nicely. Both bouquets also fit well next to one another, and it was starting to give the room a nice scent.  

When the others arrived, she was deep into her paperwork.  

“Another?” Gin asked.  

“Yes!” She smiled awkwardly. “I still don’t know who sent them, though.” She ran a finger on a flower's petals. “They’re beautiful.”  

“You did not see who delivered them?”  

“No, they were already here when I arrived. I’ll ask at the reception if they saw something when I go home tonight.” She smiled at Hirotsu, noting his grave expression. “I wouldn’t worry so much, it’s only flowers.”  

“Did you make sure they weren't trapped?” Akutagawa asked.  

“O-Of course!” Her face flushed red. “No bomb, no gas, no wiretap. They’re real flowers too.”  

He nodded, and went back to work.  

The flowers stayed on her desk through the whole day.  

+

“I believe,” Hirotsu said on the third day, starring at yet another bouquet of flower in Higuchi’s hands, “that Higuchi has gained a secret admirer.”  

“Eh?” She put the bouquets back on the desk quickly and turned to Hirotsu, face turning a bright red. “A- a secret admirer?”  

Tachihara laughed. “And you call us gossiping teenagers?”  

Hirotsu send him a look, and Tachihara’s laugh died down immediately.  

“Probably Mafia too,” Gin guessed, “or they wouldn’t have been able to get in.”  

She could never have an admirer — she was, after all, hopeless, as her sister liked to say, and well aware that any reputation and authority she might have stemmed from Akutagawa’s own. She couldn’t see why anyone in the Mafia would see her as worthy of admiration.  

“Did you talk to the reception?”  

“They say they haven’t seen anything, or anyone, carrying flowers inside the building. At least not during their working hours.” Which didn’t mean much, because the reception was closed during the night and you could only get in with a key card.  

So, as always, she found a place to put the bouquet — on one of their shelves, used to file a copy of their reports.  

A cough sounded from behind as she set it down. “Are you going to leave it there?” Akutagawa asked, and for a short moment Ichiyo thought he might disapprove.  

“Well, we don’t have any more vases,” she explained quickly, feeling a bit embarrassed — she didn’t want all that "secret admirer” business to bother anyone, especially not her actual crush. “I don’t really know where else to put it — we’ll have to wait until one of the other bouquets wilts...”  

“We could get a new one. Some cheap ones are nice.”  

She glanced at her desk, where the first bouquet she had gotten, full of soft looking white flowers, would soon start dying.  

It would be a shame; they were absolutely gorgeous.  

“Do you like them?”  

“Uh?” That was the last question she expected, and it left her speechless for a few seconds. “I mean, y-yes of course! I love flowers, but those...” She blushed, and rubbed the back of her head. “Someone thought I deserved them and I’m—” She sniffed, and hoped she wouldn’t start crying over something like this in front of him. “You know. It makes me happy?”  

“I see.”  

He looked deep in thought, frowning. Maybe he thought he deserved flowers too?  

“Do you want me to buy you flowers, senpai?”  

It snapped him back into reality. “Absolutely not.”  

+

Ichiyo gulped, staring at the potted flowers sitting on her desk.  

“We don’t have any more vases.”  

There had been nobody else besides the five of them in the room, so no one else could have heard her say this, or even known she didn’t know where to put the flowers anymore.  

Whoever gifted her those flowers was someone within their office. It could only be one of four people — Gin, Tachihara, Hirotsu, or Akutagawa.  

She fantasized, for a minute, of Akutagawa buying her flowers. She giggled at herself — what a cute, romantic move it would be.  

But he wasn’t one for affectionate gestures — though she had seen him fix Gin's hair once, after a rough fight, when he thought nobody was looking.    

So that left Gin, Hirotsu and Tachihara.  

Uh.  

She couldn’t really see any of them buying her flowers either.  

Now by habit, she slipped her fingers in between the flowers and on the paper packaging the pot. Once again, no trap, but this time there was a small cardboard note, folded, written inside.  

“Water twice a week"  

It was printed, in a neat, flowery font. The note had no logo or no indication of who could have sent it. A small section had a message, but the signature had been left unfilled.  

“With love, from......”  

“With love,” she repeated quietly.  

She pulled the small card off the flowers and slipped it in her breast pocket with a smile.  

+

The smell of gunpowder hung heavily in the air, and Ichiyo stood still, her back on Akutagawa, her finger pressed on the trigger.  

“That’s the last of them,” she told him, and pushed her sunglasses back on her nose. “The place is ours.” She tilted her head, listening in her earbud as Tachihara laughed, gunshots echoing from far away. “The others are almost done as well.”  

This organization had believed they could settle on Mafia territory and start their own business there, hoping to slowly eat away the Port Mafia’s influence on the neighbourhood — their mistake.  

The boss had not liked their arrogance.  

“Good.” Rashomon comes to a rest, settling back into its coat form. He stares at the bodies they left in their wake, and his lips twitch into the only kind of smile Ichiyo has ever seen him make — more a grimace than a smile.  

“Let’s leave before the police starts getting curious.” He coughed. “The officers in the area are ours, but they will not be able to pretend nothing happened.”  

As he talked, Ichiyo couldn’t help but notice — soft cries of pain and twitchy movements. She blinked, surprised. Akutagawa did not usually leave any survivors.  

“Those are still alive.”  

“Leave them,” Akutagawa ordered. “The police will take care of them.”  

As he spoke, sirens starting sounding in the distance. Ichiyo’s earbud spluttered. “They’re already here,” she heard Gin say. “We will meet back at headquarters.”  

She relayed the message to Akutagawa, who nodded. “Come on,” he gestured for her to follow him. “Let’s get out of here.”  

They left, getting back to the car quickly. Akutagawa took the wheel and Ichiyo sat in the passenger seat. The adrenaline from the fight was dying down, allowing her to relax, and she felt a strange mix of nervous and giddy.  

She was alone , with Akutagawa . Maybe they could make small talk?  

“Senpai?” she tried.  

All the answer she got was an absentminded “uh?”  

“Can I...hum...ask you something?”  

She took his silence as an approval.  

“Why didn’t we kill them? Even with our people in the police—”  

“I can’t.”  

“Why not?”  

Her question resulted in a deep, angry scowl she’s learned to associate with the people he hated the most.  

“I promised. I made a deal with the weretiger.”  

The somewhat sweet if not oblivious young man who had helped her tail Gin once. He had seen her at her cry once, to her greatest embarrassment.  

And this person had somehow managed to convince Akutagawa to stop killing.  

“What did he do? Offered his own life in exchange?” she tried to joke.  

“He did, actually.”  

Why wasn’t she more surprised? Based on what little she knew about him; it was exactly something he would do. 

“And the boss agreed to this?” She doubted he had, but well. Mori had his eccentricities too.  

“No,” he said. “He isn’t aware of this.”  

“And you’re not going to tell him.”  

“What the boss doesn’t know won't kill him.” He paused. “Or me.”  

“I see.” Ichiyo bit her lip. “Does anyone else know?”  

“Only Gin, and she called me an idiot.” He looked put off at this, his expression almost identical to Gin’s when she’d thought she had missed her birthday.  

Still, she felt her heart swell — she was in on the secret, he had chosen to tell when he could have just told her to mind her own business. He trusted her.  

“I can do it for you, if you’d like? The killing, I mean. You just point me to the target and—”  

“Don’t bother.” He huffed. “That’s cheating. Just don’t let the boss know.”  

“I wouldn’t! You can count of me.”  

Akutagawa didn’t answer, and turned at the next corner instead. The car slowed down in front of the Mafia headquarters.  

+

She was attempting to write the report when Gin came in, holding a pot of flowers.  

“This,” Gin explained. “came in just before we left.”  She set it down on the desk. “It was left at the reception for you.”  

“Uh, thanks.”  

“It doesn’t seem to be slowing down,” she went on crossing her arms, eyebrows set into a frown.  

“I’m sorry.” Ichiyo sent her an apologetic smile. “I wish I knew who sent those...”  

“We can’t do anything about it.” Then muttered something under her breath she didn’t quite got — something that sounded like “idiot” and, she could guess, wasn’t directed at her — before leaving her to her work.  

Tachihara was, as usual, no help whatsoever, while Hirotsu diligently did his own paperwork. If things went as it generally did, he would threaten the younger commander into working within the hour.  

Curious, she took the time to look inside the flowers, thinking that maybe, after last time, there would be a note.  

She found it easily. It was the same kind of cardboard note, indicated to water the flowers once every two days. Inside was the flowery inscription: Thanks for everything, from.....  

As before, it had been left unfilled.  

It didn’t necessarily mean anything. It was only a default flower shop card, but there were always different choices and mystery person had picked those ones in particular.  

Thank you and With love.  

“Higuchi?”  

She almost jumped out of her skin as Akutagawa called out to her.  “Yes?” she squeaked out.  

“Have you seen Gin?”  

“Oh, she just left — I think the flowers are getting on her nerves.”  Her shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry.”  

“Don’t make useless apologies. You have done nothing wrong.”  

God, this man’s way with words.  

“Thank you,” she said anyway, and yawned. It had been a long day.  

His gaze caught on the flowers on her desk. Ichiyo wondered if it annoyed him too — but his face seemed to almost soften. “I’ll talk to her.”  

Before he left, he took a look at the she files on her desk. “Paperwork can wait,” he told her and disappeared in the corridor. “Get some sleep.”  

Once he was gone, Ichiyo leaned back on her chair. She should probably take a nap. They’d been running around all day, and it was a little over two in the morning. Akutagawa was right, the paperwork would have to wait for tomorrow.  

She pushed the papers back, gathered her things, and went home. She made sure not to make too much noise — her sister was asleep; she didn’t want to wake her up.  

+

Next morning, she woke up early to be able to finish the reporting before lunchtime. She left home before breakfast, deciding to take it at Headquarters.  

After parking her car, she started walking towards the building, when she stopped dead in her tracks.  

Right there, if she turned left directly instead of going forward, a little further down the street, was a flower shop.  

She’d never taken that street. She’d been around the neighborhood, obviously, but always the streets that sold lunch, or groceries. Or office supplies, when they had budget cuts and ran out of pens.  

On a whim, she took her left and reached the florist pretty quickly. The store name’s font matched the one on the card she’d found in the potted flowers.  

She hadn’t imagined the florist could be so close to her place of work. She looked through the large glass door, and realized it was open. Her watch showed 6:30am, extremely early for a florist to be opened.  

On the other hand, around the Mafia HQ, people kept strange hours.  

Then she spotted Akutagawa. Inside the flower shop.  

Eyes wide, she stood, watching in silence as he seemed to hesitate between a bouquet of roses and a pot it colorful pansies.  

She really liked roses.  

He picked the roses.  

Maybe they were for Gin?  

After paying, he moved towards the door and froze when he saw her. His lips moved, mouthing a swear word as he realized he had nowhere to run.  

His face went red and, as soon as was outside, he shoved her the roses in her arms and tried to escape.  

Definitely not for Gin.  

“Wait!” She managed to get a hold of his sleeve. “Senpai, have you been the one— the flowers?”  

He nodded briskly. “I just wanted you to know that I...” He seemed to have trouble finding the right words. “Appreciate,” he ended up saying. “I appreciate you, and your work. You always have my back, even though I’m not—” He grimaced. “I believed this would get the message across better than I could. Don’t make a fuss about it.”  

With love, the note had said.  

“But I—” For all her fantasies for Akutagawa offering her flowers, she had never considered what she would do or say if it actually happened.  Her eyes watered and she gulped, trying to fight back a sob. “It’s just my job and I—”  

“Are you crying.”  

“No!”  

“Stop crying!”  

“I can’t, I’m sorry!” She rubbed her eyes to get rid of the tears. “I’m just so happy!”  

“What about?”  

“You! And the flowers! And the—”  

Thank you, with love.  

Akutagawa didn’t answer, but he fumbled with his pocket and pulled out a packet of tissues, which he pushed in her hands. “I didn’t want to — I didn’t mean to—”  

She blew her nose ungracefully. “Thank you.” She sniffed. “I didn’t mean to get so emotional over this.”  

“No trouble. I’m…glad you like them.” He stood there, quiet, for a few seconds, staring resolutely at the flowers. “Would you like to—” he hesitated. "You are free tomorrow night.”  

It took her a second to know whether it was a question or an order.  

“Yes?”  

“Good. Let's have dinner?”  

“I—” She couldn’t speak. She had to be dreaming, or something would go horribly wrong in the minute. This was everything she had wished for since meeting him and it couldn’t simply happen. She hadn’t done anything to deserve that and yet... “Just the two of us?”  

He acquiesced, and she smiled, feeling herself tear up again.  

“I would love to!”  

“Please don’t cry again.”  

“It’s too late! I’m so sorry!”

#bsdrarepairvday #bsd #akuhigu #akutagawa ryuunosuke #higuchi ichiyo #i hope it's alright #you know what i had a lot of fun writing this actually #so i don't care if's a bit dumb y'know #also this got WAY out of hand like #it wasn't supposed to be this long #sorry #PLS LET THE READ MORE WORK

[kuriboo]

YuGiOh GX Month 2020

Day 22: Stop Blowing Holes in my Ship!!

This is the rarepair day, and I, predictably, have chosen to write about Jesse Anderson/Chazz Princeton. I think about these two more than anyone really should, by this point. Decided to write some season 1 content; I like to think Jesse was enrolled in North Academy while Chazz was, and there was some reason he just wasn’t at the school at that time. This is just one possibility... But, well, this is canon divergent territory so whatever I say goes anyway, I guess.

This is obviously very late... I have lots of opportunity to write these days, but not a ton of time to put it up anywhere, and I honestly only decided to write this a week ago, or maybe two, after looking at the prompt list again in my Bastion Erasure messages. I also plan to write one more, for the Arc V day, but it’a not gonna be done in September, sorry about that. I’ll probably have it up on October. I’ll put the ao3 link for this one in the notes!

⁂

"What a week it's been, huh?" Jessed asking the bug on his shoulder

The past week had been intense. Normally, Jesse would be in class right now at North Academy. After building his deck for the entrance exam, he had risen high up in the ranks, even though he was just a freshman. Maybe it was because he had bonded with his new bug deck so quickly and so well, rather than pure dueling ability, but it still had caught someone's attention. A few weeks ago, that fella in charge of Industrial Illusions, Maximillion Pegasus, invited Jesse and his bugs to this big tournament with all these duelists he ain't met before. Today had been his second duel in the tournament, and these duels were at least as hard as the duels at North Academy were, those duels being the hardest Jesse had ever faced. He'd managed to win the duel, but it wasn't easy.

For whatever reason, though, whenever Jesse looked out to the audience, he always saw Pegasus looking at him. Pegasus always looked like he was mulling something over in his mind, but he was always looking at Jesse when Jesse saw him. It was a little strange, but Jesse wasn't going to let it throw him off. He was going to give this tournament his best shot and try to leave without regrets.

He couldn’t let himself get distracted now, anyway. He was already thinking about his next opponent in the tournament, and how to face whatever strategies they might use. He was back in the room he’d been assigned to stay in for the duration of the tournament. It was fairly simple room; there were a few chairs, a bed, a closet, and a TV. It sure was comfortable, though.

When the door to his room opened, Jesse nearly jumped out of his chair. “Whoa, that sure spooked me,” Jesse said quietly to himself as a staff member entered the room.

”My apologies.”

”It’s fine, I definitely ain’t upset or nothing. It’s not time for my next duel already, is it?” Jesse asked. He knew he would be dueling more often as the tournament progressed, but this was sooner than he’d figured it would be. His previous duel ended not long ago. Yet, it was strange for someone from the tournament staff to be here otherwise.

”It’s not time for you to duel just yet. We received this today. It’s for you.” They gave Jesse an envelope with his name written on the front.

Jesse smiled. “Thanks!”

As the staff member left, Jesse opened the envelope, his bug friends crowding around to all try to read it at the same time. It was from Chancellor Foster, from North Academy; the date the letter was sent was written in the top right. It’d been sent out not long after Jesse left North Academy. He’d set off for the tournament almost as soon as he got the invitation, since the trip itself took over a week. It wasn’t a surprise to see the mail travelled slower. Even so soon after he left, it was a letter updating Jesse on how much had happened in North Academy between Jesse’s departure and when the letter was written.

Apparently, a lot happened in a short time. A freshman from the main branch of Duel Academy had transferred to North Academy just before Jesse left for the tournament. Why the transfer occurred wasn’t clear, but it wasn’t any of Jesse’s business. As it turned out, that freshman had reached the top rank of North Academy after putting their new deck together, as part of North Academy’s entrance exam. Jesse rose his eyebrows as that. This duelist must be really good, ranking as the top duelist with a deck full of cards they’d never used.

It sounded like this duelist was going to represent North Academy in the upcoming duel against the main branch, too. Jesse wouldn’t be able to see it in person since he wouldn’t be back to the academy yet, but he couldn’t wait to hear the results.

”Chazz Princeton, huh? I’ll have to remember that you.”

As good as this Chazz Princeton was, Jesse still hadn’t dueled them yet. As soon as Jesse returned to North Academy, it would be time to change that.

A duel later, not long after dinner, Jesse was practically vibrating with excitement.

The next duel, just 36 hours away, would be part of the semi-finals. He was so excited to be in the tournament, to have made it this far, that he couldn’t think strategy right now. He didn’t know what to do with himself, but if he couldn’t get himself to prepare on the upcoming duel, maybe watching a duel on TV would help him think of new ideas? Seeing other duelists’ decks and strategies and all? Jesse turned on the TV and began flipping through channels to find a duel to watch.

He stopped when he found a duel that immediately captured his attention. It looked like the duelists were around his age? That was odd, since students usually didn’t weren’t broadcasted, especially on a live broadcast like this one.

A few minutes later and Jesse found out that this was apparently the big duel between North Academy and the main branch. He blinked. Did he forget this duel would be televised? He didn’t remember hearing that it would, but...

It looked like the main branch had chosen a duelist, too, which made it hard to figure which duelist represented which school, but after a couple of moments he was able to figure it out. The duelist in the black jacket was Chazz Princeton, dueling for North Academy. Duel Academy’s duelist had a red jacket on; it sounded like his name was Jaden. Both students had interesting cards. Jaden had these cool looking hero monsters, they seemed like fun friends to have. Chazz looked like he was using North Academy’s legendary Armed Dragon deck. The deck could appear weak at the beginning of the duel, but Jesse knew better to judge it by that. The biggest lesson any student at North Academy learned was that there were no truly bad cards. All cards could be good, as long as you knew how to use them.

Chazz had just summoned Armed Dragon LV 7. Soon anyone who was unaware of the deck’s power would no longer underestimate it. Beyond it’s powerful stats, it also had the ability to destroy all its opponents monsters, making it a force to be reckoned with. This deck was legendary for a reason. Soon, Jaden was able to defend himself from the direct attack without losing life points, but it was close. He’d barely been able to keep himself in the duel.

This was a close duel. Jesse was on the edge of his seat. Even if the situation looked bad for Jaden, Jesse knew he couldn’t count out Duel Academy’s rep just yet either.

A few turns later Jaden was able to destroy Armed Dragon LV 7 with a card effect, proving Jesse to be right. Jaden had less life points, but he now had the upper hand.

”I hope Chazz can pull through still,” Jesse muttered to himself. “It’d be nice to see North Academy win this year...” Of course, this was Jesse’s first year, so he hadn’t been present for last year’s duel. But as the school had prepared for this year’s duel, he’d quickly learned North Academy lost last year. It wasn’t a close match, either. The school’s moral, especially the chancellor’s, had been hit hard after that.

Plus, it was clear by now that Chazz’s status in North Academy had been no fluke. He was a good duelist and definitely deserved to win. Not that Jaden didn’t deserve the win either, Jaden was fairly good himself, but... Besides just wanting his school to win, Jesse wouldn’t deny that Chazz was kind of cute. That fact definitely had him leaning even more for Chazz’s victory.

After Chazz’s next turn, however, something changed.

All the sudden Jaden was telling Chazz about how dueling for fun, not for the win itself. Jesse knew Jaden was absolutely right. Jesse hadn’t even questioned whether they were both having fun. Yet, looking now at Chazz, it was clear he was stressed. Jesse frowned. He knew Chancellor Foster and the other students wouldn’t put this much pressure on Chazz to win this duel, so who was? Someone else?

Was Chazz putting some of that pressure on himself?

Many people experienced test anxiety, even people who excelled in what they were tested on. Jesse had seen it before, and experienced it himself in the past; slap the word ‘test’ on anything and people get nervous. Suddenly, people forget the answers to questions they otherwise knew. Maybe this duel could be considered something like a test. Maybe this was a bad case of test anxiety.

No matter what, Jesse hoped Chazz would be able to relax and pull through. Duels weren’t made for stressin’.

Chazz told Jaden to surrender while he still could, but Jaden was having too much fun to even think about it. Jaden hoped that during his next duel with Chazz, Chazz would be able to have fun, and Jesse found himself hoping that, too. Chazz didn’t deserve the pressure he was under.

Jaden’s next turn came, and the broadcast lost its signal as Jaden attacked. That attack would’ve left Chazz with no life points, and there was definitely no was for Chazz to avoid it. It was weird that it cut right then, but Jesse didn’t need to see anymore anyway. He already knew how the duel ended.

Both duelists were only in their first year of school, but it was clear they both were skilled duelists. Bringing out Armed Dragon 7 and devastating Jaden’s life points with a direct attack was not an easy task, especially someone using Armed Dragon for the first time. Destroying Armed Dragon was no easy task, either. Jaden, as the winner, was very obviously a good duelist.

Chazz, though? No one should think any less of him because he lost; Jesse sure didn’t. That’s just the way the cards played out sometimes. No one could win all the time.

Jesse had already been interested when he heard Chazz was the top duelist in North Academy right after transferring. Now that he’d watch Chazz duel, he really wanted to duel against Chazz. He couldn’t wait to meet him.

Though Jesse had a feeling he would want more, all he could hope was that he and Chazz could at least be friends some day. Not today, not with this tournament still to finish, but some day.

Chazz at the very least was not going to get out of a duel with him.

#gxmonth2020 #gx month 2020 #tater writes #yugioh gx #tater.txt #thanks for hosting this cool event!! Wish i hadn’t been too busy for it!

[phantomchick]

Tony Stark Fic Recs

Burning Candles - by kerravon Hurt/comfort, exhaustion, concussions, hurt tony, steve is a bro, nick fury being morally shady, the avengers! Summary: A few months have passed since the Avengers fought the Chitauri, and the team is coming together, except for Tony, who seems to be coming apart. At first, Steve assumes that he's just being irresponsible and annoying, but then JARVIS clues him in.

Fifth Time Lucky - by Arkada oneshot, fluff, this fic is short, sweet and a lot of fun. Well worth the read. Summary:  Tony Stark has five soulmates, but he gave up on finding any of them a long time ago.

Hide A Heart Of War - by RayShippouUchiha Tony Centric 2 chapter fic. Flower soul mark au. EXCELLENT ANGST.  Lots of feels, there’s also a slow burn romance in the background. Rhodey is a good bro. Loving all the descriptions of the soulmarks. Summary:  “You’ve got war in your heart boy,” Howard sneers, “don’t ever try and pretend to be anything but what you are.” Tony feels the familiar burn of a flower mark being etched into his skin but he doesn’t look, doesn’t try and check to see what it is. Instead he keeps his eyes on Howard and his hands cupped around his bleeding mouth and nose.

The (Not So) Great Pretender - by RayShippouUchiha Complete, secret identities, tony/bucky which i don’t usually ship but hey this author really makes it worth it. Oblivious Avengers. Hilarious but also angsty? Summary: Basically no one believes Tony when he tells them he’s Iron Man so he’s just... reluctantly keeping his secret identity going? It’s super funny.

To Victor Goes the Spoils - by tisfan Tony Stark/Victor von Doom, 10 chapters, complete, secret identities. Summary: In which Doom finds himself at a super hero masked ball... and gaining the attentions of the handsome and charming Tony Stark...Just one dance... just one kiss... before Doom unleashes his evil plot. Backstory: I accidentally stumbled on this doom x iron man fic so i thought i’d read it for laughs but then the fic itself was really good and I was suckered into shipping it. Now I’m in rarepair hell. The end. 

Iron Man Yes, Tony Stark...Not Recommended - by lilsmartass Gen. Complete. 9 chapters. Angst, lots of angst. Hurt/comfort. Unintentional bullying. Rhodey is the captain of the tony stark defence squad. AND HE WILL HAVE HIS REVENGE. Summary: Clint and Steve have both seen Natasha’s report on Tony and expect him to be a certain way. With Pepper now out of the picture, Bruce in India and Thor is Asgard they have no one to show them just how wrong first impressions can be.

That Which Kills Us - by Ironlawyer Ultimates!verse, steve/tony, oneshot, internalised homophobia, Tony is not a good patient. Summary: Sometimes Tony hates being alive as much as he hates dying. Trying to juggle duties to The Ultimates and a terminal illness isn’t exactly easy. Throw in an irate Steve Rogers and things just get too damn complicated.

Doomed To Failure - by DobbyRocksSocks Oneshot, excellent content, i read this fic and then i had to sit in my chair and be like ‘whoa’ for a while. This au is very well done! Summary: Everyone is born with their soulmate on one wrist, and their mortal enemy on the other. What do you do when it's the same person?

Say Goodbye to Yesterday - by melonbutterfly 4 chapter fic, complete, time loop, team building, alien invasion. time travel is a trope i keel over for this you must learn. Summary:  The day after the invasion Tony wakes up and his tower is intact again; everything is exactly the way it was before this whole mess went down. 

Don't Bet Against the House - by AlexTheShipper 2 chapter fic, complete, protective Jarvis, team dynamics, fluff Summary:  In which jokes about the arc reactor are not taken lightly, not by JARVIS who will never again sit trapped in his servers as someone attempts to kill Sir.

From A to Z - by Rachel500 26 chapter fic.Complete. Very very good, *sips fruit juice out of my champaigne glass* a classic of the genre! I’m a sucker for time travel as a trope, pair that with fixing the disaster that was the mcu chronology? BUDDY I’M SOLD.\ Summary: “OK, hypothetically, you get sent back in time one year. Does that make a difference?” Strange asked. “Two? Three? Could you live through the worst experience of your life again to preserve enough of the timeline to continue? Could you stand aside and let someone you love live through a bad experience in their life?” “OK. I get it. Bad idea.” Tony smirked at Strange to cover for his unease. “So. Plan B?” Strange grinned but there was a serious glint in his eyes. “How about we make it plan Z?”

Acceptable Risk Is Not - by izumi2 Super bamf tony, oneshot, Maria Hill redemption arc. Captain america the winter soldier. Not steve friendly but this can be blamed on the plot of the movie making zero sense with hindsight. Summary: what if someone considered an alternate solution to the data drop?  THIS IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVOURITE FICS FOR REASONS SO PLEASE TRY IT.

The Course of Reason - by Infie Oneshot, aftermath of captain america civil war, Carol Danvers is a relateable ho whom I stan, the saltiest of all possible responses to that film. YESSSS. This is it. The fic that finally knocked me over the edge onto the civil war team iron man side of the fence. BEHOLD. It’s greatness. Summary: The UN has asked Tony to discuss their options with the Fugitive Avengers. It does not go the way they expect it to.

Uncompromising Principles - by Kizmet 19 chapter fic, it’s completed and it’s very well done, legal drama, Tony/Pepper, Steve is... a good person who made mistakes, he’s trying anyway, i can’t say more without spoilers, but it’s A Ride, like you’ll read this and it’ll make you have Feelings and Thoughts and it’s very clever in how it goes about making those Feelings and Thoughts happen. Captain America: civil war aftermath fic. Summary: After leaving Siberia Captain America begins his plans to overturn the Accords. But not all is as it seems.Not compliant with the end of "Civil War".

To intervene - by apathyinreverie Currently at 15 chapters, ongoing, a lot of fun, tony stark has a heart, tony and rhodey, civil war team iron man, mutant kind, pro accords. Summary: The one where Rhodey stages an intervention after the whole Ultron fiasco.

Veni, Vidi, Amavi - by Maedlin Treat yo’self. It’s a Time travel fic. ONE OF THE BEST: Bamf Tony Stark, Bamf Jarvis, Palladium Poisoning, Complete, 26 chapter fic, but you’ll wish it was longer by the time you’re done. (Luckily there’s an ongoing sequel series to enjoy!) THIS FIC IS SUPREMELY GOOD! And HEAVY on the Jarvis love! DO YOURSELVES A FAVOUR AND TRY IT SERIOUSLY YOU WON’T REGRET READING THIS. Highest of recs goes to this. Summary:  (We came, we saw, we loved.) Tony's not the hero type. To suggest otherwise would be outlandish and fantastic, clearly.  Yet somehow, he's the one that's responsible for saving the universe. Now, he's a decade in the past. He's just revealed to the world he's Iron Man.  Tony finds himself facing dozens of old problems, and as time passes the ripple effect of his presence generates ever more new issues. All the while, the impending threat of Thanos looms ever-closer.

With One More Try (Can We Start Again) - by Infinite_Monkeys 5 Chapter fic, and it’s Completed. Time travel fix it, not strictly tony stark-centric but still a firm fave, A masterpiece. Definitely in my top 5 time travel fics and i’ve read a LOT so that’s saying something! Contains: That Good Loki Content. Summary: Loki's attempt to conquer Earth has, to his great dismay, succeeded spectacularly. When Thanos sends him to collect the Time Stone, he strikes a deal with the Stone's keeper: He'll be sent back to the beginning of the invasion, and this time, armed with knowledge about his opponents, he can lose properly. Or: a time loop fic in which Loki does increasingly desperate things to try and get the Avengers to defeat him already.

(Science) Bros before (HYDRA) Hoes - by Kizmet Tony is the captain of the Bruce Banner defence squad, Legal Shenanigans, It’s marked as Ongoing but what’s there is satisfying enough on its own I promise, basically a huge callout for Johannesburg, Hulk deserves a hug. Summary: The Hulk isn’t taken from the planet after AoU, there’s no one conveniently out of reach to take the fall for Johannesburg… A choice is going to have to be made: Wanda or the Hulk. 

A Larger Matter - by TheSovereigntyofReality Oneshot. Consequences! The ‘Steve’s blood’ scene in the agent carter tv show always pissed me off so this fic was uh Cathartic shall we say, but honestly you can read it and have it make perfect sense even without having seen the show, Howard Stark, teenaged Tony, Team Stark. Woohoo. Summary: When Peggy Carter tipped out Steve's blood, she had no idea the hornet's nest she just kicked.

Who in their Right Mind... - by AnonEhouse Crackfic, Oneshot Summary: Dum-E saves the universe

Catching Butterflies - by GremlinSR Ongoing, 6 chapters and counting, very very good content, like you wouldn’t think so from the summary which is a little bland but it’s actually very very good. Believe me when I tell you: It contains The Good Stuff. Time Travel fix it, Bamf Tony Stark, Bamf yet confused T’Challa. Summary: Tony snaps his fingers...and wakes up five days before the events that led to the death of JARVIS and the creation of Ultron. He decides he won't let the future he lived come to pass, no matter how thoroughly he has to destroy the timeline.

The War is Far From Over Now - by Dont_call_me_Carrie Ongoing, 40 dhapters and counting, this fic is clearly the author’s baby and they put so much work into it so watching it grow is a pleasure. Protective Jarvis, Protective Stark Industries Employees who like their boss. Rhodey is a good Bro, Awesome Pepper Potts. Fix it via Accidental World Domination. Summary: In which Tony does not, in fact, intend to take over the world.... unfortunately, everyone else missed that particular memo.

Can I Quote You On This? - by Wix Oneshot, Mcu critical, Avengers Critical, salty, extremely salty. Uncovering Plot Holes is easy when the road’s full of them. Summary:  Christine was sent in to just do a puff piece about the Avengers. What she uncovers instead is so much more interesting.

Strong Enough to Bend - by Kizmet Oneshot, salt and shade, tony stark & steve rogers, the author has Opinions about mcu steve so if that’s not your thing i wouldn’t rec it, not steve friendly? Summary: Steve ‘watches’ the videos on Tony Stark that Shield provides him with

Take that Away and What are You? - by Kizmet Oneshot, kidnapping, bamf tony stark, not steve friendly, I love this fic Summary: Tony and Steve get kidnapped. Since Tony’s wearing a tux, Steve figures it’s all up to him to get them out of this mess. Steve never really thought much about the conditions under which Tony built the Mach I.

Facing the devil (and the deep, blue sea) - by petroltogo Oneshot, au, not steve friendly, steve isn’t a good person in this fic, but it’s juicy, soulmate au, soulmarks Summary:  Alternate title: No obvious truth  Post-CACW: In an alternate universe where everyone has the name of their soulmate and the name of their greatest enemy written on their wrists, recently captured ex-Avenger Steve Rogers receives an unexpected visitor two days before the start of his trial. [The trick is figuring out which name is tied to which fate.] [The trick is realising you’ll never know.]

Asking Why - by Kizmet Oneshot. the relief and catharsis of logic. Nat, Hill, Cho, Rhodey and Pepper sit Tony down to talk about what led to the creation of Ultron. Scapegoating is stupid: The Fanfic edition. Summary: Applying analytical techniques in the aftermath of Ultron

#Tony Stark Fic Rec List #tony stark #fic recs #tony stark fic recs #Iron Man #Fic Rec List #Tony Stark has a heart fic recs #Iron Man fic recs #Avengers #Civil War Team Iron Man fics #warning i am very much pro civil war team iron man so some of these fic skew that way #i tagged for it #but as the marvel fandom can be pretty vicious #i'd like to say once and for all don't send me anon hate for reccing the fics that pick a side #don't like don't read #these are just fics I happen to like PERSONALLY

[thiscattygenius]

So. @girlgeniusevents held a rarepair challenge. Write a Martellus/Agatha one-shot in a day.

It took me slightly more than a day and it’s roughly 4k words long and I don’t know why this was so much fun but here it is. No, I don’t ship this. Yes, I hope you will when you’ve finished reading this.

It might eventually end up on Ao3 but idk when. Enjoy.

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

“Agatha! Oh, thank the heavens. What happened?”

She turns just in time to see Tarvek skid through the doorway, his shoulders dropping in relief.

Jabbing her thumb up at Martellus, she says, “He happened.”

Then Gil also comes crashing through the doorway, nearly bowling Tarvek over. “What happened? Oh. Him.”

He looks… he looks like Gil again. Almost like no time has passed since Mechanisburg.

“Did you…?” she asks Tarvek.

And Tarvek grins. “We did!”

“Did what? Oh!” Gil says, and then he’s grinning too, hands in the air in celebration. “He fixed it!”

She’s already running, throwing herself into his arms, throwing her lips against his so hard and fast she’s probably going to bruise, but she doesn’t care because he’s here and he’s fine and she’s missed him.

After an amount of time unfortunately closer to a moment than an eternity, her feet drop back to the floor.

Everyone’s staring. Well, she’s not ashamed.

Tarvek is looking a little off balance, though, fond, happy, a little closed-off and, she thinks, a little uncertain.

She doesn’t want to make him feel left-out, so she reaches out, grabs a fistful of the front of his shirt, and pulls him in for a kiss of his own.

It’s gentler than the first one. He’s surprised but not complaining, and Gil’s arm is still around her waist, and… and this is not the time for this.

She breaks the kiss and pulls away from both of them, just enough to compose herself. “Good. That’s great!” she says.

Zeetha wolf-whistles somewhere behind her and she valiantly does not turn around.

She does turn back to point accusingly at Martellus. “You’re not getting one.”

He huffs like a disgruntled cat and adjusts the lapels on a jacket he’s gotten from somewhere. “I wasn’t asking.”

“Um, Agatha?” Gil asks.

“Why is he here?” Tarvek finishes.

“Remember the touch of the king thing he put on me?” she asks. “Apparently it works both ways.”

Tarvek barks a laugh, and Gil looks vindicated enough that he must have been filled in on the details.

“So why is he still alive?” Tarvek asks.

Martellus bristles something that starts with, “Why you useless…” but she ignores that.

“We’re not killing him,” she says, then she adds, “Yet,” under her breath so only the boys, and probably the jägers, can hear it. “He’s promised to help undo the thing, and either way he’s more useful dead than alive right now.”

“I’ll still shoot him for you if you want,” Gil mutters.

“Gil,” she says, admonishing. “I can kill him myself if I need to.”

“I… well yes, of course,” he says, stumbling over his words just slightly.

“Either way, she’s right,” Tarvek says. “He can be useful, and we should really get back to the lab.”

There’s general agreement at that, and the room starts moving, everyone heading for the door to get back to the lab they were in.

Agatha gets a glimpse of Martellus’s face as he’s swept along with the flow, looking nicely confused.

“Did I interrupt something?”

There are a few huffs of laughter, but no one seems inclined to answer, so after a minute or so, she takes pity on him. “We were just about to remove my mother from my head,” she says.

To his credit, he loses the confusion immediately. “I actually am sorry I got in the way of that,” he says, stepping up beside her. “Anything I can do to help?”

She looks to Tarvek, who looks to Gil, who looks back at her. Her mouth opens to say something, and she snaps it shut again.

After breathing for a long ten seconds, she says, “I couldn’t say.”

Both her boys look concerned now.

“Is she pushing again?” Tarvek asks.

Agatha nods and says nothing. Then she keeps her mouth shut until they reach the lab.

Martellus stays by her side, and Zeetha comes up on her other, a silent guarantee that she won’t be running away, and the boys catch Martellus up on the plans.

He listens intently and even compliments the elegance of the suggested procedure. It’s a brusque, pragmatic sort of compliment, but she’ll call it what it is. He questions the decision to give Lucrezia an independent body, but doesn’t contest it once he hears it’s on Albia’s request.

Then he starts suggesting improvements.

Agatha can’t join in. She can’t be entirely sure right now that her suggestions would be coming from the right place, and either way she’s already contributed everything she needs to this process. Instead, she sits back, focuses on staying herself, and watches the boys make adjustments.

She finds her eyes drawn to Martellus. She can tell he’s restraining himself, which is a welcome surprise. He’s doing so on several levels, even. Purely socially, while the animosity between him and her boys is almost tangible, he’s holding himself back from being openly antagonistic, focusing on the task at hand, and they in turn stay focused too.

On a more technical level, she can tell he wants to make large changes in their setup. Of course he does. He’s a spark, after all, and a strong one. He wants to take the whole thing apart and rebuild it, better! Stronger! More effective! …but he doesn’t. He holds himself in check and defers to their groundwork, works within that, offering improvements up, through his teeth, yes, but for consideration, not as a demand.

He’s not here to submit to them, no, but he knows how to pick his battles.

She supposes that’s a quality he’s had since the beginning. Once he reads a situation correctly, he can be ruthlessly rational. He knows when to give in and when to keep fighting, and in effect, he might be one of the strongest people she’s ever met.

She doesn’t care for ever calling him her king, but she has to admit he’ll probably be good at it.

A rough hand on her arm drags her off her train of thought, and she looks up to see Zeetha grinning down at her. “You still Agatha in there?”

“Yes, I’m good,” Agatha says. “I can hold her back.”

“Good,” Zeetha says. “Seeing as we’re almost ready.”

Agatha looks back at the boys and sees to her surprise that Zeetha is correct. The final adjustments are just being done.

“You weren’t paying attention?” Zeetha asks, leaning down, and Agatha doesn’t like the sound of her grin.

“I’m concentrating!”

“Suuuure you are,” Zeetha says, looking pointedly at Martellus. “You were also appreciating the nice new view.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Agatha says, hoping her blush doesn’t show. “He’s an ass.”

“Sure is,” Zeetha says. “You’ve got a nice view of it from here, don’t you?”

“Zeetha,” Agatha complains, hiding her face in her hands. “Why would I even want to get close to him?”

“It’s not like I’m saying to listen to a word he says. Just, you know…” Zeetha has a hand on each of Agatha’s elbows, swinging suggestively. “You already have two, so why not collect them all? Keep him in a little room in your castle and bring him out when you feel like having a spicy piece of…”

“Zeetha!” Agatha laughs, scandalized.

Mostly scandalized. Partially too used to Zeetha to be surprised. Partially trying not to show that the image is… interesting.

Suddenly, she’s yanked up by her elbows and shoved into a chair, and Violetta is securing straps around her arms.

“Wha… huh?”

“Distraction~,” Zeetha singsongs.

“Was that what that was!?”

Zeetha’s smile shifts from mischievous into firm and reassuring as she steps up and puts her hands on Agatha’s locket. “Needed to keep your mind elsewhere. Ready?”

Agatha takes a deep breath, and nods. “Ready.”

---

With the Lady Heterodyne securely strapped in, it’s all Martellus can do to step back and let his annoying little cousin take the controls. It is his project, after all, important as it is. His and Wulfenbach’s.

At least Martellus doesn’t have to worry about anyone subverting the instruments for their own purposes. Even without Wulfenbach’s careful eye on everything, it seems the Lady wasn’t wrong after all. Tarvek does genuinely seem to care.

It’s a surprise just how much he’s changed. Martellus doesn’t know when it happened, but he thinks he knows how. It can only be her doing.

He looks as the Lady Heterodyne’s body fights against her restraints, snarling and screaming, until she falls still as the process takes.

Every damn time he sees her, he wants to put his past self in a headlock even more. Every time, he underestimates her. Every time, she impresses him more.

She’s as frustrating as she is fascinating. Wily and obstinate and impossible to control, every time he tries to get an upper hand, she kicks him further down, but she’s strong, so strong. Fantastically intelligent, alluringly rational when it counts, and altogether disturbingly attractive.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Tarvek is fond of her, or that she has Wulfenbach wrapped around her little finger, or that any of these people are following her, because why wouldn’t they? Already he knows a life with anyone else would be nothing more than a disappointment, but he doesn’t think he’ll like what it’d take to have her.

He doesn’t know if it’s possible to have her. Not without breaking her.

If she was the kind of person who would tolerate being had, he doesn’t think she’d be half as enticing.

It’s worse than frustrating. If this was what Andronicus felt for Euphrosynia, Martellus can almost understand why it went the way it did. If this is what Heterodynes are like, he understands why they’re spoken of the way they are.

There are books that claim the Heterodynes are to other sparks what other sparks are to peasants. He never understood what that meant until he met her. He thought he knew how to swim, how to stay on top of any situation, but he had only ever swum in lakes, and she came down like a river.

He wants her more than he’s ever wanted anyone, but he’s not stupid. He’s not. He knows it’s not that easy. She doesn’t like him. She’s pragmatic enough to tolerate him, but she certainly doesn’t need him, and she already has not one but two men she does like falling at her feet to please her.

He’s not about to give up. A future where he just lets her go and settles for someone else is… well, he doesn’t like thinking about how pathetically unbearable that would be.

He does know his chances are small. He knows trying to push now would only push her away. He knows he can’t afford that. Not until the Other is gone for good.

The screaming of the machines settles down. The Lady Heterodyne slumps back in the chair.

The green-haired woman, Zeetha, he thinks, plucks the helmet from her head, and she blinks blearily up at them.

Then she sits up straight and starts laughing. “Guys!” she says. “It worked!”

The weight of tension melts away from the whole room.

He smiles too as most of her entourage descends upon her, somehow gets her out of the restraints and everyone starts chattering at once.

It worked! She’s free. Another instance of the Other is more or less taken care off, and the Lady Heterodyne is gloriously free, stretching her neck with relish and laughing in relief. She’s free, the way she always should have been, glowing and gorgeous. She smiles like sunlight.

There’s only one leash left on her now, and he’s the one feeling the lash of it.

That thought stings unexpectedly hard, and once again he has the wild urge to go back in time to smack himself. How could he ever have thought controlling her was possible? That taking her down and holding her under his wing was something he was even close to good enough to accomplish?

She’s a river. A whirlpool. Every second he spends in her presence pulls him further in.

He steps into the circle they’ve formed around her and draws her attention.

“Right, there’s still the other thing,” she says. “Let’s go take care of that.” She sweeps past him without a second glance and settles by a worktable. “Come here.”

He doesn’t stand for being ordered around.

Usually.

This isn’t orders, anyway. It’s what he meant for her to do.

He comes to her.

“Ah, Agatha?” Wulfenbach says, stepping after him.

“Gil,” she says, with a honey-soft undertone that she’s never had when addressing Martellus. “I think the two of us can handle this. It’s more important for you to help ensure nothing goes wrong with the Otherbox.”

“Are you sure?” Wulfenbach asks, his eyes flicking to Martellus.

“I can handle it,” she says. “Go.”

And he goes. Of course he goes. She owns him.

Martellus huffs, turning towards the worktable and taking a quick inventory of the tools they have at hand. “We’ll have to take some readings.”

He never made this effect with the intention of undoing it, and he was under considerable stress at the time. They’ll need far more detailed readings of both her and himself, individually and while in contact, to know what they’ll have to change, probably several times.

At least the work goes fast. Far faster than if he was working on his own. Faster than with any other possible assistant. He never has to tell her what’s needed, because she knows already, every step of the way. He starts adjusting a piece of their setup to make it more efficient, and by the time he’s halfway, she’s already redone the other half even better.

He doesn’t talk much, just outlines the basic idea of what they need to begin. She doesn’t talk at all, but she hums, that same strange hum she had while screwing his temporary hand onto his arm in her sleep.

He always assumed heterodyning would be musical. Relaxing, maybe. Instead, it keeps him on edge, constantly aware that if he loses his grip, he’ll be taken by the rapids.

He could learn to live on that edge, if he had to.

They get her readings done in record time, and she nods at the readout, presumably double-checking it against whatever readings she must have taken of herself earlier that day. Then they do his, which are for the most part where he expected them.

Then she grabs onto his newly stitched wrist so hard it hurts, and she stops humming as they watch the readouts show the biological reaction to the touch.

“That’s the best we’ll get, for now,” he says, watching the chemical changes take place. “We’ll have to take it in stages, but we should be able to reverse the process, and then we’ll be clear.”

“Good,” she says, releasing her hold and going to pull the chemicals they’ll need out of various closets.

He watches her while he rubs his aching wrist. Watches the tilt of her head, the tension in her arms, the swoop of her waist.

“Look,” he says, standing up straight so he can get the height advantage. She stands too, staring right up at him, and it doesn’t feel like an advantage at all. “You’re right,” he says. “I wouldn’t have been sorry if it hadn’t gone wrong for me, but it always would’ve gone wrong, against you, and I am sorry.”

“That’s not an excuse,” she says. “You’re still sorry because you made a mistake, not because you did anything wrong.”

“That’s… true.” Here it is again. Like his height means nothing, like his status is a joke, her piercing stare deflates him like bursting a balloon. “But, I mean…”

She glares at him for another moment before she sighs. “What is it?”

“I can’t be nice,” he tries again. “I can’t go around and be considerate of everyone. Not if I want to be what Europa needs right now, or ever. But, what I did to you was pointless and stupid and caused more problems than it solved.”

“To say the least,” she mutters, and he can’t argue.

“What I mean is that I shouldn’t have tried. You obviously can’t be controlled, and I am, actually, sorry I tried. I was an idiot the first time around, but I do learn, and even if it would’ve worked if I did it a second time, I wouldn’t want to try it.”

He doesn’t know it’s true until he says it. He doesn’t know why it’s true, now that he has.

If he could have her, really have her, wouldn’t he want to?

But he can’t, that’s the thing. He can’t have that, and he can’t afford to get caught up in dreams and fairy tales.

She holds his gaze for a long moment, and he’s the one who has to break away.

“Apology accepted,” she says. Then she turns back to the table with the chemicals and leaves him blinking in the dust.

He settles next to her again, and when she starts humming this time, it feels different. He’s still on the edge of falling to it, still a moment from losing control, but it feels, now, like the fall would be softer.

She stops to talk now, too. Not much, but every now and then, she pauses the humming to explain what she’s thinking, or to suggest a solution to an issue. It’s short, to the point, and oh so clever. He has to force himself not to smile every time she talks to him.

He has the vague suspicion that he’s acting like a boy with a crush, but that’s a thought he refuses to acknowledge.

And then they’ve finished the first stage of the process, swallowed the necessary chemicals and applied the appropriate electric shocks, and they need to take the readings again, and this time she reaches up distractedly and puts her hand against his cheek.

And he freezes.

He can barely see the new readings flashing past, too distracted by his breath leaving him. Her hand is warm against his face, soft, despite the callouses from a life of holding tools, gentle. He wants to lean into it, wants to put his own hand over hers and close his eyes, holding her there forever.

“Oh, that’s much better,” she says, and in an instant her hand is gone again, pulled away so she can leaf through the new numbers.

It leaves a cold handprint on his face.

“Martellus? Are you listening?”

Cursing himself, he shakes his head and looks through what she’s holding. “Yes, of course,” he says. Then, “Two or three more rounds like that and we’ll be cleared out, I think.”

She nods and starts picking through the chemicals again.

Two more rounds, two more touches until she again keeps him at an arm’s length, possibly forever. He hates how much that matters to him. Doesn’t know if he wants to drag it out or get it done.

“You were right about Tarvek,” he says, because he likes the way she looks at him when he admits she’s better than him at anything.

She looks up from where she’s measuring out distilled water for the solution. “What do you mean?”

“I thought he was only using you,” he says while keeping his eyes on the heating plate. “But it seems you were right that he honestly cares for you. I still don’t understand how you managed to do that.”

He expects her to get angry. Instead, she’s quiet for a while, and then she says, “Trying to survive Castle Heterodyne together didn’t hurt. Unlike some people I could mention, he’s actually a decent person once he stops trying to scheme so hard.”

“Hah,” Martellus says. “He’s also hopelessly in love with you.”

“There is also that, yes,” she says.

They fall back into silence and disharmonious humming, and Martellus is only halfway present, mentally. The phrase ‘hopelessly in love’ keeps bouncing around in his brain, because at this point, he thinks it might apply to himself as well.

He doesn’t like that. Tarvek is the hopeless romantic, not him. He wanted to marry her for the political weight the marriage would come with, not because he’s in any way hopeless.

But that was then, and this is now, and he can’t get it out of his head.

“Do you want to marry him?” he asks, eventually.

Now she actually does look angry. “I might!” she says, defiantly. “It’s hardly my priority right now, and I don’t see what business it is of yours.”

He considers that for a moment before he decides that the last part is safe to ignore. “And what about Wulfenbach?”

She huffs, nose in the air and, it warms him to see, lightly blushing. “Well. I am the Heterodyne. I have no reason to limit myself!”

The suggestion is so delightfully outrageous he has to laugh. It really is true that Heterodynes never do anything conventionally. She doesn’t laugh with him, but she does smile, and that alone feels like a victory.

They finish round two of the procedure and do the individual readings, and then he reaches out a hand towards her for the necessary contact. “May I?”

She steps closer and lets him hook his arm with hers, and he delights in the touch for those precious few seconds it takes for the readings to finish.

They’re almost pressed together to read the numbers at the same time, her side brushing up against his, and he’s hyperaware of every movement.

The readings are as good as they could’ve hoped. Just one more round of the procedure should be necessary to put them both back to normal, and he should be happy about that.

He should be, but he knows why he’s not.

“We’ll be working together for a while after this,” she says while they’re putting the last few doses together, measuring up salts and acids against each other.

“That was the hope,” he says. “It’s the one common goal I think we can all agree on.”

She holds her current solution up against the light to check if everything is properly dissolved. “Mmhm, of course. I hope you three can behave yourselves, then.”

Martellus pauses. He doesn’t know what to think about the way she says, ‘you three’. He didn’t know there was any context at all in which she thought of him as belonging to the same category as, well, her boys. He has no idea how to react.

“Of course!” he says instead. “I’m going to avoid being antagonistic to my own allies, if they let me.”

“And that will include me?” she asks.

“I never meant to be antagonistic to you.”

“You know what I mean,” she says, and he does.

“I won’t underestimate you again,” he says. “We’ll be equals. At least for now.”

She considers him with one raised eyebrow. “Will be?”

“Are,” he corrects. “There’s no one else I’d rather work with. No one else is half as good.”

She smiles, and goes back to work, humming.

He clings onto the edge of her fugue and settles in beside her, not sure what it is that hangs between them now, but liking it much better than he did before.

It takes them well over an hour of quiet work to finish, too many small details to tweak, too many things that are too important to be careless with. It’s not hard, it’s just very exact work, and by now they’re well into the flow of it.

It takes him almost by surprise when he’s standing there with the last few wires for the readings hanging off his arms, and they’re done.

She stretches her arms above her head and cracks her neck and looks for all the world like she’s just mildly tired after a long day. “Only one thing left now,” she says.

“Oh?” he says, surprised, because he can’t think of what.

“Well, we have to make sure it all went well,” she says.

“Oh, right,” he says, because that had honestly not come to mind. They’re both of them powerful sparks, and with the readings so readily available, it wasn’t even difficult work. He’d taken it for granted that there haven’t been mistakes.

“In all seriousness, I don’t think I’m going to get married,” she says out of the blue, piercing him with a look.

“That’s… an interesting decision. Politically,” he says.

“It’s easier,” she says. “It leaves me undisputed power over Mechanisburg and the freedom to make or break alliances with fewer assumptions of bias.”

“I can see the appeal,” he says, and then he has to ask, “Why are you bringing this up now?”

“Just needed to make sure that was clear,” she says.

Then she steps close, puts her hand on the back of his neck and pulls him down and then. Her lips. Meet his.

He doesn’t breathe. Doesn’t move for the first few seconds.

Then he reacts, putting his arms around her and hugging her close, kissing her back, because he doesn’t know why this is happening but he won’t complain, will never complain about this.

Beneath the soft exterior, she’s made of muscle, silk-covered steel mashing against him, dragging him down, and he can’t get enough. He can’t have her, but maybe he can have this, just for a moment, just for right now, she takes a hold of him and drags him down the rapids.

Then it ends, and she pulls away like nothing happened, looks at the readings from their instruments and smiles.

“Great!” she says. “Then that’s over.”

He doesn’t want it to be over.

“The king’s touch thing, idiot,” she says, and throws the readouts at him. “It worked. I’m going to go check on the boys.”

And again she leaves him in the dust, his hands full of paper proving they are once again untethered from each other, and his eyes glued to her retreating form.

He can’t have her, never could, but now she has him, and from here on out, he thinks, she always will.

#girl genius #fanfiction #girl genius events #martellus/agatha challenge #rarepair challenge #I was dared don't at me

[gottawriteanegoortwo]

Damstache - An Unexpected Meeting

A rarepair, I know. For some reason, I had a sudden urge to write this ship between Damien and Wilford before work. Since I normally write Damien in a modern setting, it would be easier for them to meet! Now that I have time, I’m gonna give it a whirl.

Ship name taken onboard from this wonderful piece.

-

A case of mistaken identity leads Wilford to start talking to a stranger. But as it turns out, it might be exactly who he was looking for.

Word count: 1,500

-

Wilford had been on an errand of some sort. At least, he thought he had. He had left the studio set on a mission to do something, but by the time he reached the park gates, he had completely forgotten what he was supposed to do. Apparently, it was going to be one of ‘those’ days. No matter. Summer was starting to turn to autumn, but there was still enough of a warmth to walk around without a coat.

So he did. Going for a stroll might give his confused brain some time to figure out what he had wanted to do originally. In the meantime, he would enjoy the peace, and claim an empty swing in the playground. The children were back at school so he could absolutely use them!

As Wilford settled on the swing, he made sure his gun was safely disarmed so he wouldn’t accidentally shoot himself in the leg (again) before beginning to swing at a decent speed. The simple back-and-forth motions allowed his mind to wander and attempt to piece the holes in the story of the day. He wasn’t worried. He forgot things all the time. Places, names, events, even the simplest of things. That’s why he normally had people like Bim on hand to help fill in the gaps.

His attempt to distract his mind was itself distracted when he caught a glimpse of someone passing the playground. It was a young man, dressed in a light grey sweater vest, white shirt, and black trousers. He was walking slowly, his eyes glued to a book, yet able to easily navigate his surroundings. The swinging slowed to a halt as Wilford rose to his feet. That looked like someone he knew.

“Hey, hey! Excuse me, sir!”

Wilford was running to the man before his brain had registered what he was doing. The man froze mid-step and turned with a look of confusion. He was sure he hadn’t dropped anything. 

That look was so familiar, yet Wilford couldn’t place it. In fact, a second glance up and down made him realise what exactly he had done on impulse.

“Are… Are you alright?” The book was closed, and worry was clear as day on the man’s face as he tilted his head slightly. Such a simple action meant that not a hair fell out of place. It was perfectly combed back. It suited him rather nicely.

“I, uh… I’m sorry.” Wilford chuckled nervously, rubbing a hand through his dark curls. “I thought ya were someone else, but I have no idea who I mistook ya fer either. Forget I said anythin’.” Normally, that would be a normal person’s cue to take the bait and leave, but apparently this man was no such thing. If anything, he put the book in a bag Wilford hadn’t noticed and frowned.

“Is something the matter? You look troubled. Would talking about it help?” The offer was a surprise, as was the other gesturing to a nearby bench to sit at. Wilford nodded and followed. “I’m certainly no expert in the field, but I can wager a guess that you’d appreciate someone to talk to.”

“It ain’t anythin’ bad, before ya get yer worries started. I’ve gotta bit of a memory thing, see. I forget things sometimes. I dunno why I came here today, nor why I called out at ya.” Wilford raised his eyebrows with a grin. “But that’s nothin’ I can’t handle. I got ta meet someone new today. Ya got a name?” The question seemed to take the man by surprise, and Wilford could tell the other was relieved (for some reason).

“I’m sure that isn’t something to be reassured by, you know. Memory issues are a serious matter. I hope whatever it was you were meant to be doing today comes back to you.” The man paused for a moment, before offering a hand with a bright smile. “My name is Damien.”

Wilford is a veteran when it comes to relationships. He has dated people from all backgrounds, slept with so many different people. Yet all of that was meaningless when he saw that smile. Never had such a simple act made his heart feel like it was made of a hundred butterflies. Would it be bold to do something to make the stranger smile again? Or find a way for this to be more than a brief encounter? Would it be too rude to ask the man out on a date? Was he even romantically interested in men? If he wasn’t, would he mind Wilford being his wingman, because this man already deserved so much happiness. He hadn’t seen a ring, so the man absolutely wasn’t married, so there had to be something Wilford could do to -

“Uh… Hello?”

“Oh! Sorry! Wilford. Wilford Warfstache.” He took the hand that was thankfully still offered and shook it warmly. Then, before he could change his mind, he brought the hands close to him, and with a simple “at yer service”, kissed the back of Damien’s hand. The brief squeeze and look of surprise spoke a thousand words, but it was the little hint of heat on his cheeks that made the action worth it. “I’m sure it ain’t my place, an’ y’ve been told this a million times, but yer real cute when ya smile like that.”

“You wouldn’t be the first to tell me that… But thank you. Your words are kind.” That smile grew softer, and those hazel eyes darted aside in what could only be embarrassment. Wilford was onto something. If he could play his cards right, he might be able to spend more time with Damien.

“C’mon, don’t start that. I mean it, y’know. I know we don’t know each other, buuut I’d like ta get ta know ya better. ‘Course, if there’s someone else on th’ scene, reject me.” It was a hard habit to break, but Doc insisted it would help if ever Wilford wanted to ‘settle down’ one day. This prompted Damien to look at Wilford with surprise.

“N-no, there isn’t anyone. I… You don’t know anything about me aside from what I look like. That’s surely not a good measure of character.” Ah. Damien was one of those men. Nothing a little reassurance wouldn’t fix!

“Ya do realise this doesn’t tie ya down, right? I’d like ta buy ya a drink in a quiet place where we can chat. If there’s more ta come, that’s great. If there isn’t, I’d still like ta be yer friend. Yer willin’ ta help a stranger. Y’ve gotta heart of gold, Damien. I’ve been told I need ta find more ‘nice’ people in th’ city, but I didn’t think I’d find an angel.” That did the trick. Immediately, Damien seemed to become somewhat shy, which had Wilford wondering how cute this man could really be. “If ya don’t want ta, just say ‘no’. I’m a big boy. I can take rejection real well, promise.” Simple words, but enough to give Damien room to back out if this was all too much. Damien’s head shot around them, as though checking for something, before returning his attention to Wilford. There was something on his mind, but it only steeled his nerves as he nodded.

“One drink, Wilford. If possible, I would prefer to go somewhere quiet where I won’t be seen.”

“Oooh, a man of secrets, eh? I like that.”

“W-what? No. I -” Damien paused, one eyebrow lifting as he asked, “Do you know anything else about me? Aside from what you’ve said in this conversation.”

“... No? Should I? Are ya some sorta criminal overlord? If ya are, I want in.” Upon seeing the shock on Damien’s face, Wilford guffawed. “I’m kiddin’! Ya look like ya don’t walk on th’ grass in case ya hurt it! Don’t worry. I can get us ta a quiet place if ya can do two things fer me.” His free hand lifted as he continued, raising one finger for each point. “One, don’t freak out. Two, let me take a small payment in return fer safe passage.” Both requests were as odd as Wilford’s getup, but he couldn’t help it. Something about the larger man brought out his curiosity. Wilford didn’t know who he was. For one evening, at least, he might be able to spend time with a stranger as a stranger and not as the Mayor. Swallowing his nerves, Damien took a deep breath.

“Deal.”

One word was enough permission for Wilford to gently pull Damien to him - had they forgotten to let go after the handshake? - and kiss him on the cheek. Before Damien could object, the two vanished into thin air, off to a bar that should not be too busy.

The man was eccentric, that was undeniable. But maybe Damien needed a little fun in his mundane life.

The stranger was not who he expected at all. But Wilford was certain it was exactly who he needed, and who he didn’t want to lose.

#damstache #mayor damien #wilford warfstache #writersofmark #Blue Soul (Damien) #Rose Petals (Wilford) #personal fave

[freddieslater]

Kalosie for the ship meme if you are still accepting?

I am indeed still accepting! Honestly, I have so much fun doing these, and now that I've done most of the main ships, I'm really hoping they might start to stray into rarepair territory, like this. Rarepairs are my jam, especially for Legacies! Everyone is so damn shippable!

Who hogs the duvet: Neither of them really hog it. Josie rolls over in her sleep sometimes and it might make the duvet go with her but Kaleb ends up pulling her back in anyway, so they're always both covered.

Who texts/rings to check how their day is going: Josie more often, mainly just to see what he's up to when they're not both at the school.

Who's the most creative when it comes to gifts: Josie, and Kaleb does try to protest that using magic on certain gifts is cheating, but he absolutely adores every single one of them, and how much effort she clearly puts into them. Especially when she makes him a daylight chain because he was going on about how it would just be nice to switch things up every now and then.

Who gets up first: Josie doesn't sleep that well to begin with, so she tends to wake up earlier no matter what. She'll just stay in bed with him, content, until he wakes up, smiles, and cuddles her properly until they have to move. Sometimes, she manages to fall back asleep.

Who suggests new things in bed: There have been a couple of ideas that Josie's had, but Kaleb throws out the most suggestions, usually in such a casual manner that she has to make sure she heard him right. A good few of them involve their supernatural abilities coming into play. She usually isn't opposed.

Who cries at movies: It takes a lot to make either of them cry at a movie, but when it gets to one of them, it gets to both of them.

Who gives unprompted massages: Kaleb. It's a natural instinct for him, noticing that Josie's stressing about something or other, and starts rubbing one of her shoulders or massaging the back of her hand. Once she gets used to letting someone take care of her, she starts relaxing into his touch right away.

Who fusses over the other when they're sick: Josie can't help it. She cares about people and she looks after them, that's what she does. So, if Kaleb happens to get sick from some accidental ingestion of vervain or they're waiting for Hope's blood for a stray werewolf bite, Josie doesn't leave his side for a second unless it's to get something for him. When Josie herself gets sick, she tries to assure him that she's fine, but he still manages to sway her into staying in bed for a couple of hours while he stays with her, watching something and laying a damp washcloth along her forehead to keep down a fever.

Who gets jealous easiest: Josie is working on it. She still has her insecurities, but she knows that she can't let them control her or mess with their relationship, and Kaleb has never shown any interest in anyone else, no matter how much they flirt with him.

Who has the most embarrassing taste in music: I don't think either of them have embarrassing taste, to be honest. They both seem like they have pretty good taste in music and would probably bond over it, chilling out during the evening, listening to some playlist that one of them made.

Who collects something unusual: Not unusual, per se, but Josie's window and pretty much her entire side of her and Lizzie's room is covered with plants. They're all teeming with magic. Kaleb has a collection of vinyl records but no record player, and some questionable slippers that Josie finds amusing. There always seems to be some shark theme with his favourite movies, she's noticed.

Who takes the longest to get ready: Kaleb takes the longest, for sure, but Josie doesn't mind waiting a couple extra minutes for him.

Who is the most tidy and organised: Both of them are very organized, very tidy people. Things don't necessarily have to look perfect, but they do both have a habit of tidying things up and complaining just a little bit when someone makes a mess.

Who gets most excited about the holidays: Kaleb is a sucker for the holidays. Josie already loves them, but he gets in the holoday spirit far faster than she does, practically the second that they're out of October. It's adorable and she loves going to the Grill with him for whatever holiday-themed special they have.

Who is the big spoon/little spoon: Kaleb is the big spoon and Josie is the little. It's comfortable and they both enjoy it.

Who gets most competitive when playing games or sports: Both of them are fairly competitive, and when on the same team, a little intimidating. Sure to win, too. Of course, when they're on opposing teams... things get interesting.

Who starts the most arguments: Kaleb, mainly because he just doesn't care what people think and will happily disagree with them if he's certain they're wrong.

Who suggests that they buy a pet: Kaleb. They get a fish. Its name is Rupert.

What couple traditions do they have: Probably something like watching Jaws or Hocus Pocus around the same time every year. They enjoy marathoning Harrry Potter and Star Wars during the holidays.

What tv shows do they watch together: The Walking Dead, Supernatural, NCSI and pretty much every CSI. True Crime documentaries.

What other couples do they hang out with: Sebastian and MG, Hope and Maya, Lizzie and Ethan

How they spend their time together as a couple: Discussing conspiracies. Just lying in one of their beds (preferably Kaleb's as Josie is sick of Lizzie being able to barge in at every moment) watching some show. Kaleb likes to draw and Josie will sometimes just sit and watch or study. They enjoy taking walks, especially outside of Mystic Falls, and one of them always ensures they have a camera on them.

Who made the first move: Josie. She surprised even herself. It was just an admittance that she liked him, and she wasn't expecting him to really react, but then he said he liked her too. Lizzie's still snug that it was her who gave Josie the push to take the risk, even if she continues to disapprove of every single one of her relationships.

Who brings flowers home: Technically both of them. Kaleb enjoys how Josie's face lights up when he does it, and Josie has a habit of using magic to make the ones in the garden grow so that she can give some to him.

Who is the best cook: Kaleb, by far. Josie does know how to cook, but her knowledge is fairly limited. Kaleb thinks it's adorable when she huffs about burning something.

#legacies #josie saltzman #kaleb hawkins #kalosie #josie x kaleb #oh look a wild anonymoose