#i don’t know how you think this works but its not like every parallel universe would have a ledger of every soul that exists in it

[snzical]

nobody im dating could ever ask me if they think we’re in love in every universe im a stem major AND a pedant im going to say no and it will turn into a fight

#.txt #like no we definitely aren’t #that’s not how probability or multiverse theory works you and i are not universal constants #we probably broke up in a ton of them and in even more we probably never met and if we did we probably weren’t attracted to each other. #SORRY! but in a bunch of those universes we hate each others guts #and that’s assuming both of us even exist in all these universes and also that these parallel universes would have literally ANY relation #‘are we in love in every universe’ buddy we probably don’t exist in a lot of em #i don’t know how you think this works but its not like every parallel universe would have a ledger of every soul that exists in it #or whatever you believe is happening there theologically or spiritually or scientifically speaking #i don’t know. that trend is so dumb. i’ve always thought so #why do we need to be the same in every universe for our bond here to matter #why can this life and this love not be a miracle simply for existing as it does. in infinite probabilities we found each other

[3lostyears]

timepetals thoughts i keep having:

i know that the assumption is “she is my s-” means soulmate but i always think he just thinks of rose as his soul. less that she completes him or is his other half and more that she just is his conscience and any goodness he may have is hers. he was born out of love for her, she is such an integral part of him, she is his soul itself.

i know everyone has taken permanent damage from the “how long are you going to stay with me” and why the general focus is on the doctor’s reaction but the way rose says forever gets to me. she’s not giddy or girlish when she says it, in some ways she almost sounds resigned to it, which has wonderfully angsty connotations in the timeline of s2. but it’s why it really works for me, she is so dead serious and committed when she says it, because she understands everything it means (and therefore part of her feels solemn about it). it has a lot of weight to it. even the first time donna says she’s going to travel with the doctor forever to martha at the end of the doctor’s daughter she sounds a lot more fanciful.

every time i hear the doctor scream when rose loses her grip in doomsday i just think that he would absolutely not have survived her actually being sucked into the void.

i always think the vocals in doomsday are similar to the doctor’s theme so to me the angry rock music is rose’s side and the vocals are his, rather than the howling wolf idea i’ve heard some people compare it to. how the doctor’s theme is lonely and mournful with its sparse instruments but calm, everything the ninth doctor was, while doomsday is heartbroken and angry and an entire orchestra because it’s two people overcome with grief together. how doomsday becomes such a motif for both characters individually, even when they're separated.

i still struggle to comprehend that the doctor wearing floral ties in s3 is canon and NOT a fanfic trope like you're telling the doctor said "i need a floral motif as close to my two hearts as possible" and you're describing him as something other than a grieving widower???

the doctor really could not go anywhere in s3 without running into some kind of couple but i never see people talk about the parallels in 42. “we chose this ship together / he keeps me honest so i don’t want false hope” and the way the doctor literally gives mcdonnell his condolences through gritted teeth?? the fact that she would rather die with korwin than be without him and have it be her fault

that the doctor, king of self-loathing, saw rose dressed as his ninth self and carrying a giant weapon and he not only RAN to her but then deliberately protected her from the trauma of seeing him change again. and then tentoo immediately picks a blue suit to be like now i’m matchey matchey with rose 🥰 the universe was ending and he’d seen rose again for two actual minutes but the doctor was so utterly focused on her.

how tentoo truly is rose's doctor, especially as he's got that little bit of nine in him. he's born out of the same love and protection of his previous incarnations but he loses a heart and the curse of the timelords and goes oh, this is rose's heart. and then he wears the blue mourning suit and yes, there is still mourning, but there is also the start of the rest of their lives together.

how the doctor’s hair most noticeably changed after school reunion to become spikier and less boyish. how that coincides with him using mickey to put distance between himself and rose now that he’s been reminded of rose’s mortality.

how wild the doctor and jack’s conversation in utopia is. the way the doctor says “rose” like it’s an entire explanation in itself because even before she absorbed the time vortex she fundamentally changed the life of everyone she met. the way he says “everything she did was so human” and the way he accepts jack’s sorry to him because there’s no trying to deny his feelings from jack, not when he saw his ninth self. the way jack has BARELY finished his sentence about watching rose grow up when the doctor casually asks him if he wants to die, the almost playful way he says it. one semi suicidal immortal who spent half of the season trying to get himself killed to another, both of them still kind of toying with the idea. both of them trying to have hope even though they've lost so much.

#doctor who #timepetals #rose tyler #meta #dw meta

[bumpkinspice0]

Parallels: Chapter 11 Just a Little Longer

Miguel O'Hara x Spider!FemReader

No use of y/n

Rating: explicit (MINORS DNI!!!!!)

Word Count: 2892

Summary: Miguel likes holding you. You like waking up in his arms.

Warnings: SMUT (Oral, M and F receiving, face sitting!! hand job) BIG feels, angst, you're both scared but still horny (aren't we all)

A/N:  intended for this chapter to be longer but it just kinda reached its own conclusion. I think it turned out nice.

Previous. Next

Series Masterlist

AO3

_______________

Chapter 11

Just a Little Longer

Well, here he was— exactly where he said he’d never be again. He cradled you in his arms while watching your breath peacefully rise and fall. He should be exhausted. He is exhausted. He’d been up for days now just monitoring you. And even in this state, he can’t help but force himself to stay awake just a little longer to watch you— His strong little spider. His.

You’re okay. You’re safe. 

This is exactly where he wanted you the entire time— safe in his arms. The only place he knew he could truly protect you.

He’d broken the rules he’d set for himself. He’d practically exposed the two of you. He’d possibly put the fabric of the universe at risk… and he didn’t care. He didn’t care because he’d do it all again without question. 

He swears he felt everything just as you had when the explosion went off. All of your pain and anguish through the connection. The burning, the shrapnel, the brain shattering jolt— The life draining out of you as you were flung into oblivion. Time stopped in the moment, an impossible future fading before his very eyes. The realization would have knocked him out if he didn’t push himself to act immediately. 

You fell, he caught you. The sensation of your broken body in his arms nearly brought him to his knees. The spider-sense was wailing in agony so loud he couldn’t even comprehend his surroundings anymore. There was only you— he had to save you.

She’s dying! She’s hurt! Help her!

And suddenly, he was in the medical wing screaming for every trauma nurse to drop what they were doing and help you. They ripped you from his arms and began their work immediately. He hovered over them, a motionless statue as they scurried to assess the damage. The only remains of your suit were small static scraps around your body, most of it destroyed by the explosion. It helped. It protected you but it wasn’t enough. 

You looked so small. So helpless and broken. He wanted to help more. He wanted to push them all out of the way and do it himself. He could save you, he knew it.

Don’t they know you’re his?

They managed to get you stable after several hours and he still hadn’t left the room. The fact that his tower, his entire life , was just under siege didn’t matter. The thousand other tasks he had to oversee didn’t matter. There was only you.

He couldn’t focus on anything else with your blood still all over his hands—literally.

He stayed there as the hours ticked past. He demanded every resource be used, even the ones he declared forbidden. They pooled together everything they could from the multiverse to aid in your recovery. He had deemed it too risky to use too much technology from other worlds before— yet Miguel stole from every corner of existence to make you new again. 

 Lyla kept everyone at a distance. If anyone had any thoughts about his constant presence next to you, he didn’t hear it. He didn’t care anymore. They could all gawk at him if it meant you’d be okay.

And you would be. You pulled through. A few more days of sedation, rest, and meds and you’d be alright. He’d seen worse things than this get healed by the hands of his medical team. Even in knowing you’d be alright, the evidence of it all was still all over your body. 

He hated seeing you like that. You’d healed so much in just a matter of days, you’d never know how truly bad it was. He’d make sure you’d never find out.  

And it’s all okay now because you're okay. 

You’re right here, in his arms. In a place that he deemed forbidden from anyone. His bed and his home.

“You can’t keep this up, you know,” Lyla illuminates next to the bed, her aura duller so as to not wake you, “There are risks here. Big ones.”

“I know,” Miguel murmurs, running a hand gently over your hair. 

“You broke your dumb rules. A lot of them. She noticed,” The AI sits on the bed, the mattress not even registering her projection, “She’s not stupid, you know.”

“I know,” Miguel says again.

Lyla sighs, gaze drifting downward. “The serum. Your little spider mate cure… it finished synthesizing this morning.”

“I went and checked its results myself,” He says, completely void of emotion, “It’s ready.”

The gentle rhythmic rise and fall of your chest tells him you’re dead asleep. He knows you won’t hear a word of this. Lyla wouldn’t have said anything if she wasn’t sure you were out for good.

“Miguel…” Lyla’s programmed gaze drifts back to his face. For a projection, there was always so much emotion in her eyes. He knew she was so much more than an AI now. A friend. One of his closest. 

“I know.” he nuzzles his nose into your still damp hair. You smell like his shampoo now. Oh, he liked that way too much. “We’ll do what we need to do when the time comes.”

“When is that time?” 

He has no answer. He doesn’t want an answer. It didn’t take a genius to see there was no future here. There never was. Beings from 2 different dimensions, completely different worlds and lives. He’d tried it before and he’ll carry the guilt of that to his grave. 

And even still… Miguel can dream. He can pretend. 

It wouldn’t be fair to spring something like this on you after… all of this. You’d been through enough as it is. He’ll give you some time to recoup and get back in the swing of things, a few days, weeks at most. He’ll know when to tell you— that’s what he tells himself anyway. 

“When the time is right.” Miguel finally answers. He looks at his AI companion and he knows she won’t tell you. It’s not her place. “But please, Lyla… just…”

Just let us have this. For now.

The desired words fall dead on his tongue but she understands completely. She always does. Her projection vanishes and the room plunges back into comfortable darkness.

Miguel falls asleep to the sound of your quiet breathing.

————

You wake up to the sound of Miguel's snoring.

It’s morning, beams of sunlight sneaking through the cracks in the drawn blinds behind you. You’re surprised you slept soundly through the night with this human chainsaw revving in your ear. 

You can’t be too mad, though. He’s still holding you tightly to his chest, your head dipping with every ragged inhale. His face was so placid despite the roaring coming from his throat. You’d never seen him like this. Completely peaceful, at ease. Comfortable was probably the right word. You liked seeing him this way. 

You liked waking up in his arms.

You didn’t realize how much you'd missed waking up with your lover the next morning. Whether it was a partner or just a one night stand, it was nice to have someone there. Someone you just shared so much of yourself with.  

Then you notice another thing— you feel great. Fucking amazing actually. You glance down at your right side. What was previously a plethora of bruised ribs and ugly wounds was now a completely healed patch of fresh skin. Only a few faint slivers of a scar remain. Your arms bore no scars and your head was no longer heavy and fogged over. You were healed, almost entirely. 

Miguel shifts, adjusting his upper body and dragging you along with him. He still isn’t awake but the new angle has stopped his horrid snoring. Thank god. 

You’re completely awake now. After days in bed and now totally healed, your body was sick of sleep. You wanted so badly to just get up, but the warm body pressed into your side lured you to stay curled up in the blankets— Just a little longer. 

You run your hands along Miguel’s bare torso, the blankets pushed down to his hips. His body might as well have been sculpted by gods, you never get the time to appreciate it the way you’d like to.

Your touch drifts along the elastic of his briefs. A bit lower and you can feel the strain of the fabric there— and his rock-hard length underneath. Even superheroes still get morning wood, you suppose. You graze your fingers gently over his member, heat rising in you as soon as you touch him. A faint moan escapes his lips. You look up at him. He’s not fully awake, eyes still softly closed. 

Well, he’d taken such good care of you the last few days— it’s only right to return the favor. 

You palm him through the fabric, savoring the way his strained massive cock feels in your hands. You don’t get to have him this way often. He always takes the lead— takes control. You never mind in the slightest. Miguel always gives so much and always makes sure you’re satisfied. He reveled in it. Now you wanted to do the same for him.

You kick down the blankets further and gently pull his cock from his briefs. He lets out another moan, louder this time. His eyes flutter, slowly coming to consciousness.

You begin to stroke him slowly. His hips wriggle under your touch. 

“Arañita ,” He gasps, eyes still closed but face painted in bliss. You briefly wonder if he’s ever woken up to this. 

“Good morning,” You lean over, laying a trail of kisses from his chest to the crook of his neck. His arm around you tightens, pulling you impossibly closer to him. His eyes crack open a sliver, immediately gazing down at you. Whimpers and moans escape him as you continue to stroke.

He looks beautiful this way, you think. 

A bead of precum dots his length. You run your thumb over it and massage it around his tip. You swear you nearly see his eyes roll to the back of his head as you do so. 

You rise from his grasp and straddle his torso, completely naked above him. You begin to crawl down his body, mouth already watering for his cock. 

“Wait,” He grabs your arm. You already know his hesitation.

“I’m okay,” You assure him. You sit up straight, showing your fully healed body. “Look at me. I feel great. I’m okay.”

He looks at you a moment longer, eyes raking over every inch of you as if to find something to worry over. There was nothing left. You were healed. He healed you.

His grip on you slowly loosens and you crawl down to his legs. His leaking cock throbs right in front of your face and you swear you almost drool at the beautiful sight. You grab him again, swirling your tongue around his tip. You take your time there, gently teasing him. He likes it when you tease him. 

You lick up and down his length several times before taking him entirely. His hips involuntarily thrust upwards, shoving himself further down your throat. You stifle the urge to gag, forcing yourself to relax your throat. You want more of him— all of him. 

His hands trail down to your head, running his fingers through your hair as you start to work him in and out of your mouth. You still stroke him with one hand, your now saliva drenched fist following in your mouth's wake.

“S-such a good girl,” he gasps in between those beautiful moans he lets slip. All encouraging music to your ears. You take him deeper, his tip ramming at the back of your throat. “I’m not gonna l-last long, little spider. Ha pasado demasiado tiempo, mi corazón. Eres demasiado bueno conmigo.”

As long as it makes you feel good, that’s all I want, you think. 

Your beautiful protector. Your twin soul across the multiverse. You want to give all of yourself to him. He’s already practically done the same for you. 

He grips your head with a shaky sigh, ropes of cum painting over your tongue. You drink him down with delight. 

You come off of him with a pop, tears faintly pricking the corners of your eyes from taking him. His thumbs run down and trace your face. One catches a stray line of cum from the corner of your mouth. He pushes it past your lips and you eagerly suck the digit clean.

“Come up here,” he moans, cradling your face again. “It’s your turn. I have the perfect seat for you.”

Your toes instinctively curl at his words. Did Miguel just ask you to sit on his face?

“This was supposed to be about you,” You say, running your hands back up his chest.

He smirks, “Oh, this is still very much about me. Now get up here.” He leans forward to grab your hips and in one fluid motion pulls your body up to his shoulders. Well… if he insisted . You shimmy your legs further above him, your bare cunt now just inches from his waiting mouth. 

“Always so wet for me,” His breath ghosts over you, sending a shiver through your entire being. “Maldición . ”

He pulls you down into him, squeezing your hips. You gasp, bracing yourself on the headrest. His mouth engulfs you completely, tongue licking up your length and swirling around your clit. He’s too damn good at this by now. 

You’re not going to last either. 

You’d never ridden someone’s face before. He’d eaten you out so many times before, but not like this. This new angle, the absolutely filthy position you both were in— it made it all the more thrilling, to say the least. 

The euphoric electricity shooting through your body makes you move your hips almost instinctually. You follow the pleasure, rolling your hips into his drooling mouth. He moans, holding his tongue out flat for you to pleasure yourself with. 

That’s it, use me. 

As you case your high you can't help but notice it again. The pull of the spider sense— Or lack thereof. You’d both grown so used to its demanding nature by now. So, ready to satiate the desires it pulled out of you both, the demanding little thing that it was. 

But now… it was just you and him. Giving each other pleasure for pleasure's sake. It sounds so simple yet it was everything to you. The lust in his eyes. Your eagerness to please him. You weren’t just stifling an urge or keeping it in check, you were making love— for what felt like the first time.   

Your climax is building, you can feel the crescendo.

His grip tightens and he pulls you closer, halting your movements. His furnace of a mouth lapped and worshiped you with new vigor, lips coming up to suckle on your clit. You’re done. Your hands claw through his hair, pulling at it as he drinks your orgasm out of you.

You’re almost certain your legs have given out, but he holds you there— perfectly still above him. You should feel completely exposed yet your heart can’t leap at the way he’s looking up at you— Like a goddess.

“ Eres la mujer más hermosa que he visto en mi vida. ” He says, softly kissing the inside of your thigh. 

You manage to lower yourself down and lay beside him, “What’s that mean?” you venture to ask. 

He rolls over to face you, “I means I think you're pretty.” 

You can’t help the blush that creeps into your cheeks. You were just sitting on his fucking face but you get red from a basic complement? Typical. 

It wasn’t the complement though. It was the way he was looking at you. Those blood-red eyes were somehow so soft and caring. He looked at you like you’d hung the stars themselves— That’s how he made you feel anyway. 

He always made you feel a lot of things. All of them getting vastly more confusing. 

Your heart shutters just thinking about the hard conversation you’d have to have one day. How you’d eventually have to part ways once this spider-sense curse was cured. Was it really ever a curse? This couldn’t ever work, not with him. There was no future for you and Miguel. Absolutely none. 

But there was right here and now— and that’s enough for now.

Miguel pushes a stray hair from your face, you lean into his touch and place a kiss on his palm. 

“You’re all healed,” he says softly, “You can go whenever you’d like.”

It sours the mood a bit but you know he’s only trying to comfort you. 

You're okay. It’s over now. 

“Do I have to go right now?”

His hand runs down the length of your naked body, “Absolutely not.”

“I could think of a few things to do before I go,” You stretch your arms around his shoulders and he pulls you flush against him.

You kiss him— deeply and with purpose.  

You feel his chest rumble in approval, “I bet you could.”

_________

Ha pasado demasiado tiempo, mi corazón. Eres demasiado bueno conmigo: It’s been too long, my heart. You’re too good to me. Maldición- Goddamn eres la mujer más hermosa que he visto en mi vida: You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life

I beg you, let me know if any of this wrong <3 Thought it might be fun (And heart wrenching) if Miguel hides more of is affections behind his Spanish.

Boy these two idiots are really in it now, doc!

_________

Taglist:

@ineedgarlicbread @pinkiemme @thesilenthill @bontensbabygirl @fallenangelsongwolf @raerorigel @littlefreakymunson @viriexo

@w33ni3

#miguel o'hara fanfiction #miguel o'hara x you #miguel o'hara #miguel o'hara x reader #across the spiderverse #miguel o'hara x spiderwoman!reader #miguel o'hara smut #parallels fic #miguel x reader #spiderman 2099

[callsignspark]

soft-tober | 09 | Bradley Bradshaw

soft-tober is about experiencing the joys of October with loved ones. each day is a fall-related one-shot for one of the couples from my Dagger, Sword & Shield universe, plus a few extras! today is Bradley and Mary with “Is this costume too revealing?” from this prompt list.

If you’d like to be tagged for soft-tober, please send an ask!

word count: 1.2k

soft-tober masterlist | main masterlist | divider credit here

warnings: extreme fluff, this takes place in 2024, body insecurities after giving birth, this gets a little raunchy so minors go away

callsignspark disclaimer: my blog is an 18+ space; minors do not interact - you will be blocked. I do not consent to my work being copied, run through an AI generator, translated, or posted elsewhere. I do have an AO3, where I eventually will be cross-posting my works.

09. "Is this costume too revealing?"

“I just don’t like it! He’s a good kid, but I don’t like it!”

Mary hums as her husband continues complaining, talking circles around himself while she’s stuck in her thoughts. She knows that she’s worrying about the wrong thing. They just dropped the twins off at the Benjamin-Mitchell household with Amelia and her boyfriend, Josh. Trusting the two teenagers to watch the ten-month-old Bradshaw girls for a few hours while they attend a Halloween party.

“I trust him, he’s a good kid, but does he have to be there? I guess it makes sense for there to be two babysitters, one for each girl… but I still don’t like it! Maybe we shouldn’t go. No, Amelia is smart; she can handle it.”

If this were a movie, she would be worrying right alongside Bradley about whether the kids were going to throw a rager while babysitting. And in real life, if it were any other night, she’d be concerned about leaving the girls, even if it’s just a couple hours. Especially considering this is the first time they’ve left the babies with anyone who’s not a seasoned parent.

But she’s not worried about that. Because it’s Halloween and the invite had said to bring a friend and come dressed like them. So, she’s wearing a flight suit tied around her waist, with a skin-tight bodysuit, that feels like it’s digging into every bump, lump, and roll of her post-partum body. She hasn’t been this uncomfortable since giving birth.

“Is this costume too revealing?”

She knows she’s worried about the wrong thing.

“And I heard you tell her to make out with him after- what?” Wide brown eyes bounce back and forth between her and the road, a confused look washing over his face.

“Is it too… ya know, too much?”

“No.” Bradley says it with such conviction that her brain almost lets it go. Almost.

“You’re just saying that because you like how much my boobs are out.”

“I will never complain about your boobs - especially if you’ve got my call sign over my favorite one - but you just have a little bit of cleavage. It’s not revealing at all.”

Mary glances down at her chest, the patch she had gotten made with Bradley’s helmet logo stitched carefully on her left boob, and realizes that while her breasts are one of the problems, they’re not the main problem.

“I just…” She sighs, wondering if trying to explain is even worth it. Bradley has only ever been self-conscious about the scars on his neck and face, never about his figure. He’s always been in great shape, no jiggling or wiggling like her body. “I feel like I’m out all over the place.”

“It’s because you’re breastfeeding, baby doll.”

“I’m going to flash everyone!”

“Lucky them.” He murmurs, ignoring his wife’s shocked noise as he turns down Javy’s street. “Where are we going to park?”

“Bradley!”

“Hang on, lemme park first.”

She huffs, looking out the window as he parallel parks in one of the last open spaces, the van jolting slightly as they stop. I still can’t believe we’re the kind of people with a minivan, she thinks as Bradley unbuckles them. Mary can feel him leaning towards her, a big hand making its way to her thigh.

“Mary, what’s going on?”

She sighs; he won’t let it go, it’s best to just talk to him about it. Which is easier said than done.

“My body changed a lot with the pregnancy, which I knew would happen. I had twins. I just thought I would be back to normal by now, especially with the breastfeeding.” Bradley doesn’t say anything; just brushes her hair back with a big, warm hand. “I know it’s stupid, but there’s a part of my brain - that sounds a lot like my mother - that keeps telling me how many women lose weight and get smaller when they breastfeed.”

A quiet gasp escapes her. It’s the first time she’s said it out loud and heard how terrible she’s being to herself.

Bradley opens his mouth, but she cuts him off. “I know what you’re going to say.”

He chuckles, “Oh, yeah? What am I gonna say?”

“That I’m just as beautiful as the day we met, and you can’t believe I grew and gave birth to your two favorite people in the world. That you love me.”

“Not bad.” He hums, pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. “You forgot a few things, though.”

“What?”

“You forgot the part where I tell you how fucking sexy you are. That I love you no matter what your body looks like, and I always will. I gotta admit, though, these?” Bradley trails kisses down her neck, pulling the stretchy collar of her bodysuit down, groaning when he catches sight of red lace. “These are incredible.”

“Don’t get used to them; they’re temporary.” Mary pants as he nips at the sensitive skin of her breast, right where his call sign has been sitting for the last hour.

“Guess I’ll just have to get you pregnant again.”

She moans at the casual way he says it, his tongue brushing over her nipple through the lace of her bra. He looks up at her, through his lashes, as he takes her nipple between his teeth, his big brown eyes making sure she’s paying attention before he sucks it into his mouth.

“Bradley!” She gasps, pulling at his curls, unsure if she wants more or if she wants to push him away.

“Yeah, honey?” He pulls off, the damp fabric cooling against the stiff bud. “You want more?”

“I- not in public!”

“Why? It’s not like I haven’t done that before.”

“Yeah, yeah. King of unclogging my milk ducts, folks.” Mary teases even as she lets her eyes drag over him, taking in every detail. The way he’s panting because of her. Eyes big and glassy because of her. Hard under his costume because of her. “Get in the backseat.”

“What?”

“Backseat, Bradshaw. Now.”

“Are you sure?”

“You’re the one that wants to get me pregnant again, right?” She asks as she wiggles back into the third row of the minivan, leaving her husband gaping in the front seat. “Let's try right now.”

“Jesus fuc- We’re going home.”

“What! Why?” Mary whines, so worked up the windows are going to start fogging up any second.

“We’re going home. I’m going to bend you over the couch, and then we’re coming back to the party. Just let me text Mav and Penny to ask them to take the girls overnight.”

“Oh, god, I love you! You’re so smart!”

“Stay there.”

Mary freezes where she was starting to climb back to the front. “What?”

“Stay. There.” Bradley starts the van, checking his mirrors to pull out. “You’re going to get yourself ready for me, so when we get home there’s no time wasted.”

The car’s audio system interrupts him, telling them Penny texted, agreeing to take the kids, and ordering them to have fun. The two parents giggle; it’s the first time they’ve really let go since the twins were born in January, and they’re going to make the most of it.

And make the most of it they do.

@gretagerwigsmuse | @hangmanapologist | @hangmanbrainrot | @princessphilly | @hangmanssunnies | @thesewordsareallihavetogive | @a-court-of-roscoe-and-baby | @katieshook02 | @hellojameshowyadoin | @aristotles-butthole | @atarmychick007 | @whatislovevavy | @kmc1989 | @sometimesanalice | @laracrofted | @yuckosworld | @mika-darling | @bradshawsbaddie | @bobblebobsbae | @ohtobeleah | @withahappyrefrain

#elle’s soft october #top gun maverick fic #top gun maverick au #top gun maverick imagine #top gun fic #top gun au #top gun imagine #DSS universe #bradley rooster bradshaw fic #bradley bradshaw fic #bradley rooster bradshaw x oc #bradley bradshaw x oc #bradley bradshaw imagine #rooster imagine #Mar(r)y Me fic #MM fic #elle writes

[autisticlancemcclain]

fic rec friday 10

welcome the the tenth fic rec friday! where, on friday, i rec five of my favourite fics.

1. A Rain-Check on Redamancy by @youraveragemushroom

Burnout these days usually came from working long nights at the Garrison. If Lance from five years ago could see himself today—working part-time to rebuild Earth and full-time as an instructor at the very same institution that gave him his crippling anxieties—he would probably shit a brick. Hell, five years ago he hadn’t even known aliens existed (although he always knew deep down that humans weren’t alone in the universe), and now he’s best friends with multiple! One of which had apparently texted him an hour ago.

Forgoing proper texting procedure due to fatigue and general doneness, Lance tapped on the icon to call back.

“Hello?” a familiar deep rasp answered from the other line.

“Hey, mullet,” Lance replied, pushing aside the papers in front of him to lay his head down on the desk. “What’s cooking?”

In which Lance finds himself ignoring how late it is and indulges himself in pining after Keith. Which becomes slightly more difficult when said object of his affections shows up in the middle of the night to rescue him from paperwork, stress, and the melancholy that came from being away from him.

the ‘god i wish you were here’ ‘look behind you’ trope will get to me EVERY single time idc. always makes me all stimmy bc its THE epitome of romance. this whole thing was so so romantic and full of parallels to the first episode to show how deep their relationship has gotten...i love me some romantic parallels fr

2. sweetheart by @jilliancares

“Sorry, babe,” Keith says. He even smiles, no doubt proud of himself.

And Lance knows it’s his fault. He started it, after all, but at least the biting term of endearment made sense when he was the one doing it. Keith had been talking to him like they were some old married couple. The kind who’ve been married too long and don’t love each other anymore and gripe over meaningless shit, only managing to piss each other off even further.

That’s why Lance called him dear. Because it made sense in the situation. It was a calculated insult. A strategic jab.

Keith, on the other hand, is weaponizing the term of endearment without any rhyme or reason, simply to get back at Lance.

Or: Keith and Lance have gotten into the habit of using pet names as condescending insults. They're not really terms of endearment.

ooooooo god endearments going from sarcastic to desperately genuine and the inherent hopelessness in that....whew boy. its def a Concept that u indulge and then you have to clutch ur stomach. i remember reading this as i was getting ready and brushing my teeth and the cliff scene made me gasp out loud and stop just to i could pay Full Complete Attention

3. don’t speak the language by @goldengalaxies

“More importantly” Lance says. “I am currently having a breakdown in this lift because look at him- I am so incredibly gay.”

“Lance!” Hunk buries his face in his hands. “He could speak English you know, your skills of deduction are really not that good.”

Lance ignores his warning in favour of groaning dramatically. “Oh, Dios mio, Hunk, he’s so gorgeous. Look at those muscles. He could probably bench press me.” Lance fanned himself. “Oh my God, fencing is my new favourite sport, fuck swimming.”

(or the one where Lance thirsts after a random guy in the lift who he thinks can’t speak English. lance is very wrong and hunk is very much done with his shit.)

let me tell u about this fuckin FIC. it’s hilarious, but i first read it before i meticulously started storing and bookmarking my fave fics, so when i wanted to reread it i couldnt find it. but i KNEW it was hilarious so i spent fckn hours looking for it, and it took me hours too bc i coulnt figure out which tags to filter. but it was WORTH IT. the entire concept of this fic is hilarious and makes me laugh. amazing work.

4. Whose bright idea was this? by IronScript

When Lance is captured during a mission with the MFE pilots, he wakes up aboard Haggar's ship, though the witch herself isn't there, so he figures why waste an opportunity? Then he finds something that he definitely hadn't expected.

All the while, he has no idea that back at the Garrison, his team and a few select others are watching his every move.

bro the idea that the team is panicked for lance’s safety and they desperately organise a rescue mission for him terrified that hes getting tortured and losing hope but by the time they find him he’s already got one foot out the door and has rescued himself is ENDLESSLY funny to me. like he really said ‘damsel in distress who’ and i love him for that lmao

5. Garfle! Warfle! Snick! by IronScript

How the game show episode actually should have happened.

I'll admit to being a Lance stan, but even people who don't like him seem to agree that he was really fucked over in this episode. So here's my attempt at it. Is it more realistic than what actually happened? I like to think so.

another ironscript fic bc they nail bamf lance. this is how the gameshow WOULD have gone if vld gave a shit about their characters like actually. like yes of course the team is proud of each other and capable of acknowledging mistakes. of course keith knows lance’s worth. of course lance is a badass. of course the team knows wtf theyre doing. love to read this when i get mad about the game show

that’s it for today!! i’ll see y’all back next friday for the next fic rec post!!!

#have a lot of fics i Looked for today #vld #voltron #lance #lance mcclain #keith #keith kogane #bamf lance #team as family #klance #pining lance #soft klance #fic rec #fic rec friday #longpost

[battle-of-alberta]

Hi and welcome to this thing that's sort of a prequel to the timeline I'm working on. The working title is Alberta Story, but as you can see I kind of changed directions midway through as I thought about it more, I figured if I was getting frustrated then surely Ed was also getting frustrated with it so I turned it over to him to express that, haha. I wrote the first half of this last fall and stewed on it for about a year and decided, screw it, I don't know where I'm going with this but I will slap on a few more panels and figure it out as I go.

This might be the closest thing to a reboot of the BoAB main storyline for a while. I wanted to do something that gave a cursory outline of Canadian / Albertan history for people who are new to it, but of course it runs the risk of repeating every narrative Canada / Alberta have about themselves and that's quite frustrating, to be honest! Particularly when you are trying to write characters who lived through a great chunk of it.

I was trying to think about where to "start" the story of Alberta, particularly after reading Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta. A lot of the tongue in cheek ahistorical assigning of Albertan-ness to even protozoic life rubbed me the wrong way even though I found it an interesting narrative, so I wanted to illustrate the difficulty of "beginning".

Additionally: I really find it frustrating in the Hetalia fandom when people kind of take Himaruya's approach and suggest the colonized personifications almost predate colonization somehow, like they were "always there", or the approach that they are direct descendants of some ambiguous ancestral "Native America" that mysteriously no longer exists. At the same time, I sort of understand how it also happens with the narratives we construct ourselves, in textbooks and museums, that have long illustrated "pre-history" (Indigenous history) as opposed to "history" (the "Real" history of Euro-Canadians). It's a cultural underpinning that needs to be undone.

I don't make any ambitious claims to produce real, decolonizing work, I realize there's this big gap in this universe I'm building that acknowledges municipal personifications and only vaguely gestures at the idea of others and there's a myriad of issues with that, but it's a place that I as a euro-canadian myself am starting with and I hope to continue learning and growing from here.

"Here" is summed up as: isn't it crazy that a company that was just gifted 1/12th of the surface of the Earth not only predates the idea of this country and its cities but also still exists and is just a place you end up in at the mall now?

More detailed explanation of each panel follows.

Diver's Claw: Several stories in different First Nations cosmologies reference the Creator or another figure making a flood that covered the whole earth, where a survivor (Wisakedjek in Cree/Ojibwe stories, Na'pi in Blackfoot, etc) sends down a succession of animals to the bottom of the waters to retrieve a piece of the old earth, which they can then use to create anew.

Mounds of Earth: When the Northwest Mounted Police were sent out west from Canada after purchasing the territories (including Alberta) from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1870, they marked the border along what would become the 49th parallel between Canada and the United States with piles of dirt.

Descent from the Stars: This is supposed to be a depiction of Manitou Asiniy, also known as the Manitou Stone or Creator's Stone, a meteorite that has spiritual significance to many Indigenous peoples. As I write this, he (as a sacred being, he is referred to with these pronouns) is currently in the custody of the Royal Alberta Museum which has recently agreed to return him to the site where he was originally taken from near Hardisty in 1866. Currently, the gallery is open for worship and ceremony until it is time to repatriate him.

Bodies liquified in coral: this is NOT a scientific illustration, haha. The idea is that a lot of Albertan identity comes from about 400 million years ago in the Devonian period. At the time, a big chunk of "Alberta" was covered by ocean. The organisms lived, died, and over time became crushed by sediment layered over them. Coral has a lot of holes perfect for holding this sludge and fossilizes nicely here, and it is this layer of Earth's long history that speculators are looking for when drilling for oil.

Lips to a book: Alberta joined Confederation on September 1st, 1905, which our last premier tried to commemorate with a holiday that no one showed up to. Back at the turn of the century however, it was a massive party attended by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier and the Governor General, a position in Canadian parliament that represents the King or Queen of England. Govenor General Grey (his grandpa was the Earl Grey the tea was named for, I believe) was the one who kissed the bible at this inauguration.

Prince: The prince here is Prince Rupert, who Rupert's Land was named for, and the king in question is Charles II of England (yes, the Restoration and Great Fire of London party guy from the Stuart era). Rupert's Land centred on Hudson's Bay and made up over 40% of what is now considered Canada. The Hudson's Bay Company was granted the charter to all this territory - if they found the Northwest Passage while they were at the business of acquiring beaver or otter pelts, it was certainly a bonus.

The rest is fairly self explanatory, I hope. Like I said, I felt like I was falling into the trap of the same old story of pioneers and exploration that has been absolutely done to death in Canadian history, and I didn't have anything particularly new to say about it that would maintain this storybook level of accessibility so I just. Stopped! Shifted gears! haha. Still, I think the fur trade is a very important piece to the puzzle that often gets either a bit overhyped or glossed over in favour of railroads in Canadian history and almost entirely ignored and forgotten in American history, and it makes sense to start there, particularly for Ed who has a lot of Complicated Feelings about it.

Enjoy! Maybe one day I will figure out part two.

#historical hetalia #hetalia oc #hws oc #aph oc #projectcanada cities #pc: edmonton #hapo art #digital art #clip studio paint #edward murphy #i wanted to have this comic take place at city center #BUT THE BAY IS GONE!!!!!! #so southgate it is i suppose #since it is close by a certain trail to a certain other city

[bedtimestoriesforbrokengirls]

The Daily Dad — Feb 11, 2024

Things you might want to know:

Is There Lead in Your Reusable Water Bottle? 💭 I feel like “drank hourly from a lead-tainted tumbler” is going to be the origin story for the world’s worst super-villain. UltraKaren or some shit. She’ll have the power to sigh loudly in line at the coffee shop and then shamelessly take five minutes to negotiate the preparation of her own venti latte.

WhatsApp Chats Will Soon Work With Other Encrypted Messaging Apps ❝ New EU rules mean WhatsApp and Messenger must be interoperable with other chat apps. Here’s how that will work.

Should you flush with toilet lid up or down? Study says it doesn’t matter 💭 A parallel study concludes that pointless clickbait is a waste of everyone’s time.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Says She Won’t ‘Enshittify the Network With Ads’ ❝ WIRED spoke with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber about the X competitor opening signups to all, how to crowdsource deepfake porn moderation, Jack Dorsey, and more.

Wil Wheaton Rages at Larry David for Elmo Attack: “Appalling, Unforgivable, Despicable” 💭 Oh for fuck’s sake, Mr. Wheaton. I loved Stand By Me. I skipped the first couple seasons of TNG so I have no anti-Wesley bias, and bear you no ill-Wil. But c’mon, dude… it’s a fucking muppet. My dad hated and screamed at me, too… but we’re adults now. Intentionally triggering yourself with stupid, entirely optional shit and then publicly freaking out about it is infantile. And as for the sanctity of beloved Elmo…? Have you considered how many dicks Elmo has jerked off after-hours in a locked bathroom on the set? Elmo has probably done The Artistocrats for private audiences. Elmo goes to work every day with a man’s hand up his ass. Settle down, bud.

Merlin is a brilliant pig who communicates through "speech buttons," and loves to dance and eat ice cubes ❝ Pigs are so very smart, and this one named Merlin is no exception. In this terrific video, Merlin, who lives in West Sacramento with his human, Mina Alali, demonstrates how he communicates through pushing…

Ars Technica used in malware campaign with never-before-seen obfuscation ❝ Vimeo also used by legitimate user who posted booby-trapped content.

Polyamory Has Entered the Chat ❝ Mainstream awareness of polyamorous relationships is becoming more widespread. On dating apps, making connections is about more than sex.

TikTok is full of tryhard slang 💭 When people with sex blogs do it, they’re called “neolojisms”.

Bluesky Social Network Ditches Invite Codes, Opens Registrations to All ❝ Bluesky, the decentralized social media platform conceptualized by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has now opened registration for everyone. On...

Plex Launches Movie Rental Store ❝ Media platform Plex today announced the launch of a dedicated movie rental store, allowing U.S. Plex users to purchase content directly from Plex...

feeeed: Embracing Feed Diversity and Personal News Curation 💭 I don’t think it’s for me, but feeeed is interesting… it’s essentially a news and social media bucket for your life, collecting everything from dozens of sources and presenting them via an algorithm tuned for the end-user and not advertisers.

Apple Updates Its Collection of Windows Apps ❝ Today, Apple introduced a redesigned version of its iCloud for Windows app. The updated app, which allows users to access photos, files, passwords, and other content on a Windows PC, has clarified how it works and where synced content can be found. The app also adds physical password keys and other refinements. I don’t spend

Why Everyone Can’t Stop Talking About Palworld ❝ Palworld is the first video game blockbuster of 2024—but it’s not what it seems.

Landline Phone Owners Are Protesting AT&T’s Plans to Drop Service ❝ In California, AT&T is designated as the Carrier of Last Resort. The fight is on to keep it that way.

Disney invests $1.5 billion in Epic to create ‘persistent universe’ tied to Fortnite 💭 When Epic rebooted a flailing Fortnite —ripping off PUBG in the process— I decided to give it a try… it’s such a mishmash of mechanics, I figured there had to be something in there for me to enjoy. I was wrong. Bleh.

The Best Vibrators to Get Your Groove on ❝ Gender? I don’t even know her! No matter what you’ve got, these tools promise good vibes for all.

Apple Vision Pro Users Are Mad They Can't Watch 3D Porn ❝ Sorry, horny weirdos. You’ll have to find another way to get off.

A Designer Dog-Maker Regrets His Creation ❝ The inventor of the Labradoodle believes he created a Frankenstein.

Deepfake scammer walks off with $25 million in first-of-its-kind AI heist ❝ Hong Kong firm reportedly tricked by simulation of multiple people in video chat.

Carl Weathers, Rocky, Predator and The Mandalorian star, dies aged 76 ❝ Actor played Apollo Creed in the Rocky film franchise

Microsoft may bring Bethesda’s Starfield and Indiana Jones games to the PS5 after all 💭 After the massive, long-term strategy leak last year, it’s entirely possible that Microsoft is ready to just throw up its collective hands, pull a Sega, and exit the hardware business entirely.

Apple made an AI image tool that lets you make edits by describing them ❝ The model, called MGIE, lets users type out their edits to photos. MGIE is open source and available for download on GitHub.

#news

[wallpaper-inside-my-heart]

You're losing me - Ianthony

Okay, so I know that I already rambled a bit about this one over on @beanie-twink s blog 😅

However 

Listening to “You’re Losing Me” after that letter video hits even worse, so I need to talk about it again, in more detail!

"You say, "I don't understand," and I say, "I know you don't"

We thought a cure would come through in time, now, I fear it won't"

→ Anthony feeling the rift between them growing but also not really finding the tools to repair it 

→ also the irony about this part of the letter

“But I don't think there is a point of no return for friendships as deep as ours was. I am reaching out to you as an ex-best friend. I want to talk about things and lay them all out there so we can possibly mend things.”

→ and him never actually reaching out to fix it

(not meant to blame him here, it was obvi very complicated; just pointing out the parallel)

"Remember lookin' at this room, we loved it 'cause of the light

Now, I just sit in the dark and wonder if it's time"

→ just the whole image of them creating smosh together, sharing their apartment for a while and then also the office space that Defy made available to them when they sold the company to them and how amazed they were at the professionalism back then

→ and all of that just turning more and more bleak over the years, as the work demands and exhaustion accumulated

→ but also with him now describing Ian as the sun! and the room loosing its light just like he was loosing his friendship with Ian!!! 

(I am so normal about all the metaphor opportunities Anthony has created for us with that simple comparison!!)

"Do I throw out everything we built or keep it?

I'm getting tired even for a phoenix

Always risin' from the ashes

Mendin' all her gashes

You might just have dealt the final blow"

→ so while part of this chorus still fit Anthony so well!

→ like him mourning leaving the company behind that he built with his best friend

→ I also want to talk about how well this fits Ian again!

→ not at the same time, but especially during the defy collapse

→ like in such a short amount of time he had lost both his best friend and it was looking like he was going to loose his company as well

→ just imagining how much it must have hurt for the universe to treat him so horribly back then

→ and how he had to keep fighting and reinventing both himself and the channel → aka a sort of rebirth/phoenix situation → again sun/fire symbolism!

"Stop, you're losin' me

I can't find a pulse

My heart won't start anymore for you

'Cause you're losin' me"

→ I don’t even know what to say 

→ like to me this just summarizes the letter and Anthony’s apparent emotional state prior to leaving really well

"Every mornin', I glared at you with storms in my eyes

How can you say that you love someone you can't tell is dyin'?

I sent you signals and bit my nails down to the quick

My face was gray, but you wouldn't admit that we were sick"

→ this verse just explaining all the resentment that was building up in anthony and how he wanted Ian to actually react to what he was doing

→ especially regarding the part where he mentioned the failed conversation attempt about his bad ex-relationship

→ and Ian just not knowing how to react and in general continuing to act (and maybe even believe) that they were still fine

"And the air is thick with loss and indecision"

→ the perceived loss of the friendship and him being unsure whether he should finally leave or not

"I know my pain is such an imposition"

→ Anthony writing in the letter about worrying if he ever put Ian through emotional turmoil

"Now, you're runnin' down the hallway

And you know what they all say

"You don't know what you got until it's gone""

→ I feel like the last line can be both read towards Ian → in the sense that he didn’t realize what it would be like without anthony around or more precisely him not expecting them to just “looe” all contact with eachother

→ and also how valuable Anthony was to him as both friend and creative partner

→ but it also fits so well with Anthony saying this to himself

→ since he talked about how he didn’t realize “how important Ian really was for what smosh was able to accomplish” until he managed to get some distance from the situation

"[...]

"Who only wanted you to see [him]"

→ all this time Anthony just wanted Ian to recognize what he did without ridiculing it

(again, no blame either side, I’m just referring to the following line: “The snide remarks about anything I made that put my true emotions out there for the world”)

"And I'm fadin', thinkin'

"Do something, babe, say something"

"Lose something, babe, risk something" 

"Choose something, babe, I got nothing" 

"To believe, unless you're choosin' me""

→ Anthony asking Ian to leave smosh with him; to risk just leaving it all behind

→ and then seeing Ians refusal to “choose him” as the sign that the friendship he had once believed to exist between them had now faded beyond recognition...

#I need other ppl to feel these emotions with me!! #so I'm finally getting this one out of the drafts it's been sitting in since the letter video was posted #ianthony #taylor swift #lyric analysis #☀️🔎 #ianthony song rec

[k1nky-fool]

Truth of a Parallel

Part 3: The Thirteenth Widow

Masterlist

Miguel O’hara x OC: Elisa Hannen

Pairing: M/F

Per Chapter Rating: Explicit (for violence reasons. there is no sexual content in this chapter).

Warnings: MCD (major character death), death is treated very seriously in this chapter with lots of angst. But this chapter is almost exclusively hurt/comfort.

Taglist: @gatnalien @sevikasstressball @musicmansauxcord @2downbad4dilfs @its-paprika

Gif by @prettyoatmeal

-Elisa-

To his credit, Eddie didn’t immediately freak out. His flurry of questions was held back in a much more clear minded move, but the longer he took to formulate a response, the more Elisa felt she was intruding on someone’s peace that she rightfully shouldn’t even know anymore.

“Nevermind, this was a bad idea.” Venom decided.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be here. I’ll leave.” Elisa began to turn around.

“No! I-” Eddie struggled. “I’m happy to see both of you.”

That made both her and Venom perk up. “I have a hard time believing that.”

“Come on in.” He invites her away from the window. “I suggest utilizing the door next time.”

“I don't have any other clothes.” She pointed out, and he just grabbed her a hoodie and pair of sweatpants for her.

“Something has to be wrong, he has no reason to think we’re not here to kill him.” Venom panicked, but Elisa was more motivated to distract herself from everything going on outside.

Once she was comfortably situated in his clothes, on his couch with a cold beer, offered out of the kindness of Eddie’s own heart, Elisa waited patiently as Eddie finished whatever he’d been doing before she showed up. He eventually sat down beside her, being remarkably less awkward than she anticipated.

“I feel like I have the right to know why you came here of all places.” Eddie prompted. “Not to sound like a dick, but aren’t you still dating that MJ girl?”

“No, she broke up with me sometime last spring. Apparently there's a limit to how many times your fiancée can stumble into your apartment needing extreme medical attention and begging not to go to a hospital.” Elisa said.

Eddie actually laughed. “I must have missed that class in school.”

“You missed every class but sex-ed.” Elisa pointed out.

“Not nearly as many titties as I was led to believe by a certain friend at the girls academy down the block.”

Elisa gasped in offense. “I must have just had a better education than you.”

“Yeah, I’ll say. Still, you don’t know how to answer a question.” He jabbed back at her. “Why come here of all places?”

“Why does he have the right? You didn’t have the right to your questions when he was being a prick-”

She forced herself to take a deep breath, which Venom clearly wasn’t on board with and it made her slightly nauseous. “I’m overwhelmed. I figured if I had nowhere to go, I might as well settle on the worst.”

“That bad, huh?”

“What?”

Eddie snickered. “It had to get that bad before you thought of coming to me? You’re many things, but you don’t run from your problems.”

Elisa slumped back into the corner of the couch. “Yeah, I’ve got a track record.”

“Why can’t you go home?” He asked. “You got another heart to break waiting for you there?”

“I really wish that wasn’t as accurate as it is, but I’m not dating him.” She let herself accept the defeat all while still defending herself from something that wasn’t even attacking. “His name is Miguel. He’s a Spider-Man from a different universe, and he’s here to catch something that landed here that shouldn’t be.”

He just nodded, knowing that weird stuff like this was pretty typical for her ever since she became Spider-Woman and even more so after she became Widow. “Just out of curiosity, is he hot?”

“I’m working with him, I’m not oggleing this poor man that probably doesn’t even want to be in this miserable universe.” She defended, but Eddie just stared at her as she was having trouble meeting his eye line. “... He’s not… unattractive.”

“Uh-huh.” He smirked to himself in his victory.

Elisa was exposed, but she didn’t mind. Eddie wasn’t the same as he was back in high school and neither was Elisa. But somewhere inside both of them lived two weird kids that were still friends after everything. And Eddie still bought the same trashy brand of beer that was the only brand at the mini-mart that wouldn’t ID them.

“I feel like I’ve earned at least one question.” She suggested, and Eddie made an accepting gesture. “Why’d you let me in?”

“You snuck in.”

“Prick.”

“You know what I mean.”

Eddie laughed, but relented. “I didn’t like how we left things.” He admitted. “I’ve seen the amount you swing to MJ’s apartment, so if you’re not dating her, then you’re at least still friends. I thought there was a chance we could be friends again.”

That made sense, some part of Elisa felt the same. Eddie had betrayed her, and he pretty much ruined her lives as both Elisa Hannen, and Spider-Woman, forcing her to become Widow. And yet, when she was overwhelmed, she needed to find comfort. Whether she liked it or not, Eddie was that comfort. “Were you going to reach out at all?”

“I’ve started to call you about five or six times, but I’ve chickened out every single time.” Eddie admitted.

“What’d you want to say?” She asked.

He choked on his own breath for a little before just retrying with an exasperated sigh. “I don’t know. I really just wanted to know if there was a chance you’d let me try again.”

Elisa felt her heart sink, and Venom did too.

“He could start with a damn apology for once.” Venom hissed into her head.

I want to hear him out.

“Why the fu-”

“Eddie, you used me as a popularity stunt.” Elisa challenged. “Not just my name as a researcher at Oscorp, but also my persona as Spider-Woman.”

“I know.” He accepts. “And it’s no thanks to me that you managed to get on your feet after I published the hit-piece. I did it wrong back then, so I wanna make it right now.”

“You can’t make it right.” Elisa scoffed. “It’s already been done, and it was wrong to do it.”

“I-I know. I-”

“I fixed it without you. There’s nothing left to make right.” She explained to him. “So maybe just do it right next time.”

Eddie perked up. “Next time?”

“Absolutely not!”

Elisa nodded. “It’ll take a little more to get Venom on your side, though.”

“A little? This man better start groveling, or whatever humans do when they don't want to be eaten!” It snapped, still refusing to come out and talk to Eddie, itself.

Eddie agreed without question. “I understand. And I get that it won’t be the same, but I’m willing to be a better friend this time.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it, Eddie.” She challenged, and he just kept smiling like an idiot. It was getting late, and Elisa couldn’t realistically stay the night at her ex-boyfriend’s house. “I should get going.”

Venom showed its eagerness to leave with how fast it materialized the suit over her skin and over her face. Elisa took the mask off her face and Venom soaked it back up while grumbling in annoyance in her mind.

“I’ll see you around.” Elisa took off his hoodie and sweatpants, giving him a friendly hug.

“Take it easy, Widow.” Eddie watched as she made her exit out the living room window.

“You made me hug him.”

“You’ll survive, Venom.”

“You going to face Miguel?”

Elisa knew she didn’t have another option, but she really had to know if they had been successful in tracking down Clara from 5302. She got back to her apartment and quickly got dressed, knowing Miguel was likely to show up now that her location was known.

She didn’t expect him to actually knock on the window when she sensed him land outside, but immediately, something was odd. The landing was far too quiet to be Miguel. Instead, Elisa cautiously approached her window to see who was there.

Olivia Weaver, Widow 5302, lifted a shy hand to wave at her. Despite how odd it was, Elisa opened her window and let her in. Olivia was about her height, but with a slimmer build. Her long, blonde hair was tied up on the crown of her head, being pulled through her mask to avoid a misshapen head under the mask. She took off her mask and her eyes were the same shimmering green that Elisa’s had been before Venom had bonded with her.

“Let me guess, Eddie?” She deduced. “He was a host of Venom in my universe too, and still your friend. Oddly enough, you still have Venom currently in my universe.” Olivia explained. “We knew it’d be wild when we found Elisa wearing the Widow mask.”

“You and the other twelve Widows?” Elisa asked.

“Yeah, all of us.” Olivia confirmed. “In every Widow universe, you were always just different. It’s why Venom always finds you. We were too busy wondering who would be hosting Venom if you were Spider-Woman that we never stopped to consider that maybe, Venom wouldn’t find another host.”

“Yeah well, I’ve got-”

“A track record.” Olivia interrupted, relishing in the awkward look on Elisa’s face after being easily predicted. “That’s the same line you said to me in my universe after I said Venom was only using you. Of course, not really you, but the look on your face suggests you want to throw a taxi at my face in this universe too, so maybe it’s a parallel trait.”

“Is being a know-it-all, priss a parallel trait for you?” Elisa snapped. “Miguel too shy to ask for my help, or are you here to tell me I’m not welcome in your Spider Society?”

Olivia threw something at her head at a surprising speed, but Venom moved her arm fast enough to catch it. It was a watch.

“Can you blame him? You’re intimidating.” Olivia joked.

“Wait, I thought none of them trusted Venom?” Elisa recalled quite easily, while Venom was just excited at the thought of going a second round with the Spider Society.

“Venom means a lot of things in the multiverse.” Olivia explained, “Meeting or bonding with Venom is a Canon Event. It’s just a Canon Event that is over for most of them. Peni lost her friend to the Ven#m mech. The Peter that noticed you really hurt his MJ while he was hosting Venom. Peter Porker faced a Symbiote in his universe called Pork Grind. Miguel nearly died fighting Venom in his universe. And don’t even get me started on the Venom Anomalies.”

That definitely sounded right for the reaction she got. “What about you and the other Widows? I even have the same face.”

Olivia took a deep breath. “Venom was originally drawn to my powers when it crashed. Venom and I ended up killing Oscar in my universe. That wasn’t the kind of hero I wanted to be. But it found Eddie, and he stayed hidden for a while, but when he published the Oscorp Expose, Venom took your side. And you were much more of a threat than Eddie was. You and Venom just have a different kind of bond than the other spiders do.”

“What does she mean ‘the Canon Event is over for the other spiders?’” Venom bristled.

That made her heart drop. “Olivia, is splitting from Venom a Canon Event?”

That was the question Olivia was avoiding.

It was obvious as soon as she asked it. Olivia took a moment to find the words. "It happens differently for everyone."

"Wait, we're gonna break up?" Venom panicked.

"We're not gonna break up, Venom." Elisa groaned, and focused again on Olivia. "Look, if everyone agrees that a Spider splitting from Venom is a Canon Event, then suddenly everyone I talk to is waiting for what would have to be the worst day of my life."

"Everyone's waiting for the next horrible thing to happen to you." Olivia pointed out, but when Elisa gave no sign of understanding her, she continued. "Is Oscar still alive in this universe?"

"He was locked up yesterday, I think." Elisa didn't understand what she was getting at.

"What about Dr. Claudia Connors?"

Elisa freezes. Claudia Connors worked alongside Nora Osborn in biochemistry, and her attempt at developing a method for regrowing limbs could have benefitted all amputees not unlike herself. Her serum went wrong and she became The Lizard. It was Claudia that introduced Elisa to Oscorp at all because she was the only scientist that truly enjoyed the publicity of it all. Claudia led the field trip her class had gone on.

Elisa made a cure for her, but while it worked on everyone she had turned, Claudia had been dosing herself too high, and the cure only sped up the rate it was killing her. Elisa didn't go to her Junior Prom, she attended Dr. Claudia Connor's memorial service.

"Yeah." Olivia knew the look on Elisa's face. "She's still alive in my universe. She went to your graduation party."

"Why would you tell me that?" Elisa asked.

"Because everyone just lives with it." She answered delicately. “If everyone is waiting for you and Venom to split, then they’re also waiting for me to lose Dr. Connors. For some others, we’re waiting for the Police Captain, Nora Osborn, Flint Marco. Everyone’s on a different timeline, Elisa. And after the worst of it is done, we have a support system made up of the only people in the multiverse that’ll understand.”

Elisa took a long look at the watch. “What about everyone that was ready to attack me? I doubt they’re welcoming me back with open arms.”

“They’re free to avoid you if they want, but if you guys want to sing kumbaya, then that’s up to you.” Olivia shrugged and opened the portal back to the headquarters. “But I know at least one guy that wants to try again.”

“That sounds promising.” Venom teased.

Shut up. Elisa stepped into the portal.

On the other side of the void, several spiders just stared. Some ignored her and continued on their way, and to her surprise, some even gave a polite wave. It was dark outside now, and the lights in the building were kind to her senses.

Olivia brought her back to Miguel’s platform where it had been lowered. His back faced Elisa where she noticed something interesting.

Miguel doesn’t have heightened awareness.

Venom recoiled. “Then how the hell did he pull one over on us?”

“Miguel!” Olivia called out so she wouldn’t startle him.

When he turned around, he seemed surprised to see Elisa. “You actually came back.” He noted.

“I told you.” Olivia reminded him. “Elisa was always an odd-girl-out.”

As much as Elisa wanted to pretend like Olivia didn’t know her at all, there was an obvious sense of familiarity that they had. Elisa remembered that she was in the hospital for 300 rads of acute radiation poisoning for a brief time after she was bitten by the spider. The science class that went on the trip had all made her cards, and Olivia hanged back while some more familiar faces visited her in the hospital with the class. MJ, Eddie and Holly all came to visit, but Olivia was kind enough to visit her personally, give her all the assignments she had missed, and went over her notes when Elisa didn’t understand. Elisa could only hope that her alternate self was kind enough to do the same for Olivia.

“I’m glad you came back.” Miguel said to her.

Elisa hopped up onto the platform with him. “I’m not gonna start running from my problems now.” She said, “What’s your status on the tracking device?”

Miguel’s expression didn’t give her much hope. "We may have underestimated her advancement."

“Uh-oh.”

"No chance that means we can track her tech?" Elisa hoped.

Miguel confirmed the difficult reality. “We realized she wants 4167 Carnage to find Clara.”

“Yeah, I talked to Clara Kassidy down at the station. She didn’t know who reported it, but she was able to figure out it wasn’t me. At least the two of them haven’t met yet.” Elisa supplied.

“Do my ears deceive me, or is she back?”

Olivia lit up like she was expecting this. “How nice of you to join, Peter.”

Peter swung up to meet them and glared at Elisa. “So what is she doing back, and with a watch, no less?”

“Not this wash-up again.” Venom groaned to her.

“Peter, we don’t have time for this.” Miguel argued.

“Miguel, she’s an OUCH waiting to happen!” Peter didn’t let up.

“Mind telling me what the hell an “ouch” is?” Elisa asked.

Olivia was kind enough to explain while Miguel pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering in Spanish under his breath, letting her explain. “An OUCH is an acronym for an Out of Universe Canon Hazard. It’s when either an Environmental Trigger travels across a universe and sets off a Canon Event for a spider that isn’t in their own universe in Type 1, or a spider in another universe stumbles across the right Environmental Triggers outside of their own universe in Type 2.”

Venom took offense, yet again. “Everyone is so certain we’re gonna break up.”

Elisa was just about done with this argument. “Peter, I turned you and all your spider friends into a joke because of Venom. Right now you vs. Venom is tallied up at zero to one. I’d say we’re doing fine.”

“And I’ll get your ass again!” Venom cheered to itself.

“We all loved the power the black suit gave us, but we know the cost of it is too much to justify wearing it.” Peter reminded everyone else. “The Canon says that the Spider and Venom will split. And I might not even be worried about any other Event, but if it’s triggered here or anywhere other than your universe, then we have a rogue symbiote on the loose, outside its universe.”

“It’s not his business!”

“Then we burn that bridge when we get to it!” Elisa hissed, only to be held back by Miguel.

“Elisa, stand down.” He said. “Peter, whether we like it or not, she’s bonded with Venom. Many spiders had to reach a truce with Venom to beat Carnage anyway. This might be the only way she survives this.”

Peter wasn’t happy, but at the very least, he understood Miguel’s point. He gave a warning pointer finger in return. “I’m keeping an eye on her.”

“Try it.”

“Miguel couldn’t keep a tail on me for longer than a minute, but whatever helps you sleep at night, Cryptkeeper.” Elisa jabbed, and Olivia nudged her like that was something she shouldn’t have said to their principal, but it made both of them laugh.

“Híjole chicas, we need to figure out our next move, not pick little cat fights with each other.” Miguel chastised. “Now, we can’t find her, we can’t track her, and we’re fresh out of ideas.”

“Well, I don’t usually have tracking technology in my universe, so I say we do this the old fashioned way.” Elisa suggested and Olivia let out a long sigh, likely just tired that this couldn’t be solved by the magical mechanisms from Miguel’s universe.

“Oh, but two Widows investigating a parallel identity in each other’s universes, that’s not an OUCH waiting to happen either?” Peter just gave up on trying to argue this.

“I’ll keep an eye on them.” Miguel assured him, but Peter didn’t look very impressed as Elisa opened the portal to Earth-5302.

The portal came out on a roof near the Oscorp building. “Umm, fair warning Elisa, you might want to keep your mask on for this.” Olivia warned as she brought them to one of the many balconies of the building. Elisa was worried since she recognized this as the balcony to Nora’s Office, but as soon as they entered the building, she realized exactly what Olivia meant.

“Dr. Connors? We need your help on something.” Olivia greeted with joy like this was common.

Claudia smiled, welcoming Widow warmly. Her coat was neatly safety pinned up by her bicep to keep the residual limb safe while she worked in the laboratory. Elisa was left amazed at her face. 5302 Claudia was forty-seven. Her age was showing in a way that only reminded Elisa that she had failed eight years ago. “Who’s this with you?”

“Clara Kassidy found a way to travel across universes. This is the Widow from the universe that Clara invaded, and this is the Spider-Man that knows how to make sense of that tech.” Olivia explained. “We know she was working on her research here, and Oscorp still has copies of those records. We need to see what Clara was working on before she was arrested.”

Claudia took a long look at Elisa, and even Venom could feel her anxiety rising. When she finally took her eyes off her, Elisa was relieved that she’d moved on to observing Miguel. Claudia just nodded. “Alright, I can take you to her lab and unlock it for you, but that’s as far as I go.” She warned.

“That’s all we need.” Olivia thanked her and walked beside her as they led the way to the laboratory.

Miguel stayed back with Elisa, and he was as observant as ever. “Are you alright?” He asked.

“I’ll survive.” She dismissed. Claudia looked back at them for a brief moment, and Elisa tensed and averted her eyes.

“Maybe Peter was right.” Miguel wondered.

“Shut the hell up.” Elisa warned.

Most of the laboratories were sealed off in their own rooms to avoid contamination, and it was easy to plan a route that wouldn’t leave them exposed to any of the ones that had any glass on the walls. It allowed them to just duck under the view of any of the labs that had windows to the hall.

“This is it.” Claudia announced, opening the door with her own key. She stayed by the door as all three of them passed. The police were done here and now the records were organized in the office for anyone that needed to reference her work, with Nora and Claudia’s supervision. Elisa stayed in the back as she began looking around the laboratory. It had been mostly picked clean by the authorities, but the equipment was definitely more advanced than Miguel expected just based on the expression his mask held. Elisa found Kassidy’s desk to figure out if there was anything that suggested a plan, while Olivia and Miguel were assessing the equipment and theorizing ways to locate Clara or perhaps find other evidence of her escape.

There wasn’t much left on the desk, but there was a photo of Clara Kassidy several years ago, celebrating with Nora Osborn and Claudia in front of a chalkboard covered in mathematical work. “That was the day she mathematically proved AdS/CFT correspondence.” Claudia supplied. “Everyone was quite excited, understandably.”

Elisa put down the frame and continued searching without saying a word. She opened a few drawers and pulled out some manilla folders and opened them to see plenty of research papers on a device she called The Seeker. This looked somewhat important, and Venom was also lost on how to scan something and archive it for later use. Elisa poked at her watch for a moment and found a Call Lyla button, and she reluctantly pushed it.

Her tiny, hologram form appeared in front of the watch. “What’s up?”

“Hi, Lyla. Is there a way I can scan this for archiving?” Elisa asked, and Lyla was happy to show her how to use the scanner on her own.

Claudia watched in amazement, but kept giving useful context to Elisa. “That was a paper she wrote on quantum gaps forming between multiversal planes.”

Elisa knew just enough about Oscorp’s quantum physics experiments to understand what Claudia was saying, and what it meant. There were gaps between multiversal planes, and Clara had developed a machine that could seek them out, allowing her to travel through the gaps that already existed.

“It’s interesting to see her theory proven correct right in front of me.” Claudia mused. “I’m glad there’s a universe out there that has Elisa Hannen protecting it.” Elisa flinched and turned to Claudia. “That finally got you to look at me.”

Elisa didn’t know what to say, so she just gave up, signaling Venom to drop the mask. “How did you know?”

“I know the voice of my lab assistant that I see every day.” Claudia laughed, but it was bittersweet. “Something tells me that your universe wasn’t very kind to your version of me.” She said, noting the scar on Elisa’s cheek that she had no way of knowing came from a parallel version of Claudia herself.

“You died eight years ago.” Elisa confessed. “It was an accident that I couldn’t save you from.”

Claudia smiled sadly and Elisa struggled to stop herself from becoming a scared high schooler that never got to say goodbye to her mentor. “My version of you is still my lab assistant in this universe. She’s good friends with Holly Osborn, and she’s a talented chemist.”

“Nora kept me in that position when she hired Oscar. I was still in high school at the time, so I couldn’t take your spot.” Elisa explained. “I was seventeen when you died. And only a year later, Oscar was exposed.”

“Then it seems like your universe hasn’t been kind to you either.” Claudia figured. Olivia said that the Physk hit-piece had happened in this universe, which meant that 5302 Elisa had her trusted mentor to fall back on in this universe.

“You’re so much like my Claudia.” Elisa noted, really attempting to convince herself that this didn’t mean she was talking to a ghost of her friend.

“Elisa, I know I’m not her.” She offered. “But I also know that you aren’t my Elisa. So, just let me as I am, speak to you as you are.”

Elisa let Claudia take her hands in her one left hand. “If your universe has treated you anything like I think, then I hope you know that you’re doing good. The fact that you’re here means you’ve kept going after everything, and if you’re anything like my Elisa, then I know you’re the right person for the job.”

She couldn’t hold back anymore, she just hugged Claudia like she would have if she could have said goodbye. “If you’re anything like my Claudia, then I want you to know that, even after everything, you never stopped being my hero.”

Claudia hugged back just like how Elisa remembered. “Then keep being a hero over there for both of us.”

When they finally let go, Claudia just smiled, letting her get back to scanning documents.

“Just out of curiosity-”

“No, Claudia.” Elisa warned, knowing she was just wondering what had actually managed to take her out in a parallel universe. She was always quite the eccentric personality.

“Alright, fair enough.” She accepted.

“Do you know who your Widow is?” Elisa asked.

“Ms. Weaver told me her identity months ago when she was originally investigating Dr- Ms. Kassidy.” Claudia said. “But I can’t figure out who the triangle man is. I know that’s not Eddie.” She suggested, nudging Elisa’s shoulder with her stump in an old joke. She definitely noticed something suggestive between the two of them.

“N-No, he's Spider-Man from a universe that’s ninety-seven years ahead of us with a wildly different history.” Elisa explained. “He brought together hundreds of spider people to investigate and apprehend malicious universe travelers.”

“Hmm…” Claudia mused. “Then you probably know more than me how troublesome that could be.”

That caught Elisa off guard. “Troublesome?”

Claudia was surprised she had to explain, but it seemed that she was somewhat aware of the theory of Clara’s work. “All of these spider people would be parallel identities in some aspects. I just hope you know that affecting other realities, especially your own parallel identities, might be dangerous for the integrity of that reality’s durability.” Claudia warned, and Elisa was somewhat worried now, thinking of Miguel.

She really did like Miguel, but Claudia was right. Interfering with Miguel’s reality or getting too attached to him and neglecting events that are supposed to happen in hers could be detrimental to the Canon. After all, Canon Events included events like meeting partners like Eddie and MJ, or making friends like Holly or Claudia. If Elisa got too caught up with Miguel, then her own reality could suffer for it. She didn’t need Miguel or Peter to tell her that the Canon was the very fabric of reality that they all existed on. Ignoring or trying to change it could have disastrous effects.

“I’m not dumb enough to start letting romance get in my way.” Elisa assured her.

“Well, you’ve got a track record.” Claudia laughed, and Elisa was once again surprised that she was actually happy to hear those words come from Claudia at least one more time.

Miguel and Olivia came back, happy with their own scans. “We got what we needed, we think we might know where to find her equipment.” Miguel said as Elisa’s mask crept back up her face.

“Good. I got all her research data for reference later.” Elisa offered.

“Alright, we have a trail!” Olivia clapped in excitement. “Thank you, Dr. Connors.”

“My pleasure.” She said, guiding them to the nearest balcony. “And good luck to all of you. We’re lucky to have people like you to keep us safe.”

They bid her goodbye and continued on to find where Clara had set up her equipment after breaking out of prison. Miguel kept pace with Elisa once again. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah.” Elisa answered. “I just needed to talk to her.”

Miguel didn’t press, likely understanding exactly what just happened. Elisa would just have to move on with the fact that she would never live in a reality where she could truly tell Claudia Connors just how important she was to her. But getting to hear her mentor tell her that she was the right person to protect her own reality was healing. And Elisa got to make sure that in this universe, Claudia Connors would die knowing that she was never seen as a villain to people that loved her.

“That’s good, then.” Miguel said.

The group came to a subway station, and found their way to a maintenance tunnel. The fence in front of them had a locked gate and Elisa grabbed the lock, allowing Venom to poke and prod within it to get it open without much effort.

“Gracias, Venom.” Miguel acknowledged.

Venom bubbled in excitement in Elisa. “I like him too.”

She just laughed and continued down the tunnel with the two of them. Olivia led the way, looking closely at the ground and walls to make sure she wasn’t missing anything. She likely realized at the same time Elisa and Venom did that this tunnel was essentially a choke point.

You know anything about Carnage as a member of your species?

“Carnage is a red rank member of my species.” Venom explained. “Black rank symbiotes, like me, are sent as scouts to worlds that are meant for hunting grounds, as you know. If we do not contact the base, then the planet is not viable for hunting. Red rank symbiotes are physiologically different from my rank. They have the ability to cannibalize equal and lower ranked symbiotes.”

So, did you contact the base when you arrived on my planet?

“I never got the chance to. But I don’t think 5302 Venom did either if it found you.”

“This looks like it.” Olivia announced, finding a lightswitch that did not light up the whole underground lab, but was sufficient enough to find what Clara was doing.

Only one wall was lit up by the lamp beside it. The brick was patterned with all kinds of calculations for the tech she had used to travel. There were tables that were filled with gadgets and papers, only vaguely lit up by a couple of lamps in the cylindrical, brick dome.

Elisa found a reason to be next to Miguel again. “Venom says Carnage’s rank of symbiote is known for cannibalizing equal and lower rank symbiotes. Is it possible 5302 Clara and Carnage want to destroy my Carnage?”

“It’s not impossible, but if they’re trying to kill Canon, then they’re much more dangerous than we anticipated.” Miguel noted.

“Hey, guys?” Olivia called out. They both looked across the circle to see what she was worried about. It was a very interesting contraption, being a collapsible cylinder with a lens that someone could see through. The cylinder itself was bulky, nearly the size of Miguel’s arm, and it looked at least nearly complete.

Miguel’s watch gave him a silent, buzzing alarm that he looked down at, and Elisa froze where she was.

“Something’s wrong.” Venom cautioned.

Elisa kept watching Miguel, and he dropped his wrist and put himself between Olivia and Elisa. He looked back at Elisa, but she couldn’t tell what his mask’s expression meant. His gaze turned back to Olivia, and he began to back up with Elisa, toward the exit.

“We have to get out of here.” Venom warned again.

Elisa’s own senses sent a chill down her spine and she could only do as Miguel said.

We aren’t alone in here.

Olivia had also just felt the presence that could have only been lurking above them the whole time, obscured by the shadow that lay out of reach of the weak lights.

A towering woman dropped from the ceiling, facing Olivia. Her skin was stretched with the red muscle that Carnage enhanced, and Clara wasn’t holding it back at all. It was a full symbiote takeover, and Olivia was right in front of the most dangerous enemy any Widow would ever face.

Elisa began to charge in, but Miguel stopped her. “Stand down, it’s a Canon Event now.” He grabbed her, opening a portal to leave, and leaving a drone to allow them to observe and help when the Event was done.

She followed Miguel through the portal, and they immediately opened the footage the drone was gathering.

Olivia barely dodged Carnage’s claws, but Elisa knew Olivia was smart. If any of her old classmates were clever enough to outsmart Carnage, it was Olivia.

Widow launched herself up to the ceiling, and in a moment, she proved Elisa’s assessment of her right. Olivia used herself as bait, correctly realizing that the ceiling of the brick cylinder likely came out above ground. When Carnage lunged at her, Olivia webbed the ceiling and dropped, using Carnage’s force, and her strength to kick Carnage through the brick ceiling, getting them out of the tunnel.

That was a good move, Olivia can catch it off guard out there.

“There’s no way.”

Shut up, she’ll do it.

Several more spider people ran into Miguel’s observatory to see what was happening. But when Elisa looked back to them, she realized that every Widow had heard that this Canon Event was happening for another Widow, and they all came to just hope that Olivia would be the one to tell them how to survive it.

Olivia kept running from Carnage, but it was easy to notice that she wasn’t trying to escape. She could have easily lost a tail, even if it were Carnage and Clara, but Widow’s were never known for being cowards. All of them have been knocked down no less than any other spider, but no spider, especially not Widows that had all found solidarity in their shared place in the multiverse. No, Olivia was leading Carnage somewhere.

Oh shit, I know this street.

“She’s calling on Venom for backup.” A Widow noticed. Elisa recognized her as Beatrice Jacobs.

The other Widows chattered anxiously amongst themselves, all while Elisa’s heart was beating a mile a minute, and she couldn’t tear her eyes off the screen.

She thinks I have a better chance of beating Carnage. Elisa didn’t want to think that. Olivia was one of the best. Elisa felt utterly hopeless. If Olivia thought Elisa was stronger or smarter than her, then they were all damned.

Olivia waited by a window and dodged just as Carnage’s claws grabbed at her, sending her hand plunging through the glass, and catching the attention of whoever was in the apartment. Carnage realized what had happened, and it grinned with a mouth full of sharp teeth.

The oily, black muscle completely overtook 5302 Elisa’s form. And her friend, Venom, was enraged. Surprisingly, both Venom and Olivia were able to catch Carnage off guard for a moment, and sent it flying into the ground.

Venom wasted no time going after it to kick it while it was down. Unfortunately, Carnage did not stay down for very long. It caught Venom’s neck in its claws and squeezed. Venom screamed out and Elisa had to look away, unaware that her own Venom had put her hand over her neck in an absent-minded move of protection.

Her eyes remained at the floor until the screaming stopped. Olivia had webbed Carnage’s mouth shut, and kicked it in the throat, successfully forcing it to release Venom. However Elisa knew that if Carnage was cannibalistic, even one injury from it would completely wipe out Venom and Elisa for days. Olivia kept moving fast, using her flexibility to weave the webs in a way that restrained Carnage while remaining unpredictable.

Olivia’s odds were getting better, until it all dropped at once along with the hearts of every Widow watching.

Carnage broke through the webbing. When the drone finally caught a glimpse of the outcome, every Widow braced for the worst. Olivia had been caught, and she wasn’t moving. When Carnage released it’s claws from around her neck, she just dropped. The Widows all froze in complete terror.

Clara Kassidy and Carnage had claimed the life of another Widow.

Elisa’s breathing was becoming more and more uncontrollable, and Venom was in complete disarray. It was like they were new to bonding all over again, both of them losing control of the symbiosis they balanced every day. The room began to spin and Elisa lost balance.

She could tell someone was trying to get her attention, but she brushed off their hands and just started walking away. She had to get her and Venom back together, but her heartbeat and lungs were overwhelmed without her permission, and all of her nerves went cold, even as her exhausted muscles continued pushing her forward as she sprinted, and she didn’t know where she would end up, but if it was away from her own skin, it would be far enough.

Whoever had been trying to get her attention followed her, and when they made another attempt to stop her and calm her down, Elisa jumped back away from who she eventually processed as Miguel, and they had managed to walk right out the front door, and were now in the courtyard in front of the building, beneath the city lights of Nueva York.

“Relàjate. Yo tambien estoy asustado, Elisa.” His voice was soft, not annoyed or tired, just delicate with her and desperate for her to listen like he had no idea how to speak to her. This time, when he told her, she did as he said, calming down as Miguel set her steady by holding her shoulders. Her breathing was still erratic, but it was manageable now, and her heart still rushed, but it wasn’t painful anymore.

“Miguel…” Elisa’s voice shook. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Elisa, please just-” He was losing her, and her heart rate began to pick up again as Venom was unsettled again.

“She was smart and strong, and if she’s gone, then I’m next, and I can’t-” Miguel just cut her off by pulling her close and falling to the ground with her. She was finally pulled from her panic as she realized Miguel was shaking too.

"Relàjate. Yo tambien estoy asustado, Elisa." He told her again, but Elisa finally realized what he was saying to her.

"Relax. I'm scared too, Elisa."

Elisa just let herself cry out there with him. Both she and Venom hated crying in front of another person, but it was far beyond either of their control by now. Not only was she terrified for her own survival, but Olivia was someone she had only just begun to know, and her life was now just gone.

"Taken from her." Venom spat from within.

They stayed like that for a moment. It was quieter than she expected. The sounds of a busy city were far off in the distance and low beneath the ground. Elisa and Venom slowly became in tune again, able to use Miguel's comfort as an anchor to reality.

Miguel eventually, reluctantly, opened his arms as Elisa released him.

"We should go check on the Widows." Elisa suggested. Miguel silently nodded and let her help him up and lead him back to the observatory.

The Widows hadn't dispersed. They all stood in a circle surrounding one Widow. Elisa had read that the first Widow to be found by the Spider Society had been Maxine Catch, but she had died in the first Carnage attack. Kat Marco was the second, and it seems to have been her duty to activate the portal to retrieve Olivia's watch so it didn't go unaccounted for. They all turned to Elisa, maskless, holding varying expressions of concern, sadness, or terror.

An overwhelming reality was coming over the room as everyone knew what this meant.

"We're next."

#miguel o'hara x elisa hannen #miguel o'hara x oc #miguel o'hara smut #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o'hara #oc: elisa hannen #oc: clara kassidy #carnage variant #major character death #angst #hurt/comfort #oc: olivia weaver

[tazmiilly]

Hello, hope you’re having a great day!!

What are your thoughts on a yound Fiddleford meeting young Stan? Maybe Portal-era (before Fidds starts getting concerned bout the project)? Or maybe while Ford&Fidds were still in college? I really don’t know how exactly any of those would go, but I’d frankly sell my soul to know what those two’s dynamic would be like. The potential!

so if we're looking at a timeline that stays mostly canonically accurate, i personally don't think its very likely the two would've met up. (Unless if you're talking about an idea that takes a large step away from canon at some point. Then you have a lot more options there to make things happen!)

The entire possibility of fiddleford and stan meeting up that soon is completely up to ford. which means its almost entirely out the window if you wanted to stay close to canon LOL.

In college we can assume ford was very closed up about stan and what happened, so fiddleford had very little information about who stan was or what his intentions may have been (especially that it was an accident). You can try to think of it from fiddlefords perspective too. Imagine if your best friend approaches you about a topic you can tell affects them greatly. if they tell you they feel like they were betrayed and hurt by someone close to them, one of the last things you'll probably tell them is "you should try talking to him again". you are likely going to be biased towards your friend after all. most people are. so i think in a mostly canonical sense things would've been at a stalemate between ford and stan in the 70s.

you mentioned specifically the part of the timeline where fiddleford wasn't concerned about the project and i think for a similar reason nothing would've transpired. the only difference is that ford probably talks about stan in a serious way even LESS than he did right after the separation. and the family that probably takes precedent in fiddlefords mind at this point in his life is his own.

now! i do think that if there ever was a chance it could happen it could only happen after ford and fiddleford had hit the brink. but theres a lot of "ifs" there. but they're possible! bc like i said, fords gotta be the person to initiate contact. which in canon, was only fords last resort. I have no idea what it would’ve taken for stan to say something first. I feel like he didnt want to appear desperate. he wanted to make his family proud first, prove to them he could do it on his own (even though he was kicked out as a child..) but anyways, if we’re talking about them all 3 possibly being in the same room in 1982, either fiddleford and stanford would’ve had to made up before stan arrived or! stan and ford would've had to made up soon enough to not push ford through the portal and for ford to try to reach out to fiddleford again (since we know he tried once, maybe stan could help him with that the next time? probably.) either way the only way i could see them all 3 being in the same room is post fords betrayal by bill. I just dont think ford would’ve reached out.which is a shame bc i think their dynamic would’ve been pretty funny and every once in a while i like to draw all 3 of them, but i have no idea how they would’ve gotten to that point lol.

months back i did try drawing those ideas on how fiddleford would’ve been approached (usually by stan) so ford and fiddleford could start talking about what the hell was going on, but they were all just ideas, nothing solid, and they both took place post betrayal.(x) (x) (x)

Which once again sucks bc it would be so funny to have a dynamic thats like (stan)<- likes to pester ford (fiddleford)<-ALSO likes to pester ford. thats funny stuff. I think they’d easily get along imo but the odds are not likely on them knowing each other that early.

(edit: one other thing i forgot to point out was that i know some people think that in the parallel universe stan actually comes back to gravity falls to work with the both of them at some point! which i think is a nicer outlook on the dimension given what we know, but i havent thought much about that. its very intriguing to me and kinda nice to think about stan ending up somewhere nice in that dimension. but that is outside the timeline window you mentioned.)

basically tldr: ive spent a LOT of time thinking about it and as much as the dynamic wouldve been fun, i cant see it happening quite that early. fords too stubborn for that.

#if fiddleford was there when ford wrote the postcard i can only imagine the look on his face would be 'you're going to talk to him NOW?' #which is so funny to me #long post #ask #thoughts #if you've made it this far im giving you a medal

[2toplibrary]

GUESS THE AUTHOR!!

There are 10 new TDBKTD fics in the September round of Planet BNHA exchange and a new beautiful fantasy art!!!!. See if you can guess who is behind these works!

❓🤔

don't wake me, i'm not dreaming by Anonymous for sobashouto (snowandfire)

(E, 2.7K, 1/1)

They say déjà vu is when, for a moment, two parallel universes line up with each other.

Katsuki considers this, as Shouto rests his hand on his chest—pads of his fingers lightly brushing constellations on Katsuki’s skin, tracing invisible starbursts close to where his heart resides—and a tide of familiarity, so powerful it almost knocks him off the bed, sweeps through his body. It’s their first time touching, like this, so why does Katsuki feel like he’s been here before? As if the single touch of Shouto’s fingertips breaches the surface of skin, unearthing alternate histories and timelines where they’ve been in this exact place

❓🤔

EXT. HEIGHTS ALLIANCE by Anonymous for fizzseed

(G, 3.2K, 1/1)

Ochako had watched his hands, had watched the way Todoroki just nodded and then reached out and caught Bakugou’s shaking hands between his own, rubbing them together and murmuring you’re cold as Bakugou had stared, slack-jawed, and she had thought, oh.

Ochako knows Bakugou Katsuki, and she knows him with Todoroki Shouto, and she looks at this not-Bakugou’s shaking hands as he snarls at his Todoroki about gruesome ways of dying, and thinks: oh.

Thinks: some things are the same in every universe, huh?

All right, sure, Todoroki is right, Bakugou shouldn't have taken that sword, but how was he supposed to know it would tear a hole in the fabric of his universe?

❓🤔

Visit Again Soon by Anonymous for lovesid

(T, 2.7K, 1/1)

“They both hear a squeak from the other side of the counter, and they’re reminded of Bakugo’s presence. The young blond is trying to look away from the couple, face looking both uncomfortable and jealous. Shouto laughs to himself, ruffling Bakugo’s hair with a hand.

“Don’t worry, I could never forget about you, Bakugo.”

The smaller blond gives Shouto a smirk, puffing out his chest. “I’m that unforgettable, huh?”

“I could never forget the boy I fell in love with,” Shouto says, looking into Bakugo’s eyes.”

Or

Katsuki and Shouto get a visit from a familiar face, stirring up old and new feelings.

❓🤔

Something old to keep my promise by Anonymous for alchemicink

(T, 1,7, 1/1)

It’s a soft landing, palms down on fresh snow outside a modest, white-roofed cabin surrounded by dark trees and quiet. A dim orange light radiates from its windows, warm and inviting. Familiar. Katsuki looks around, icy winter breeze cutting at his cheeks, and traps in his throat the exclamation of surprise that bubbles up when he recognises the chipped wood of the door, the lantern bought at the shop down the mountain, the first car he bought parked in front of the porch.

He’s actually there. Niseko, Hokkaido, sixteen years into the past.

❓🤔

late in the evening by Anonymous for AnnieLucas

(M, 2k, 1/1)

Todoroki Shouto falls in love on a hot, damp night in a far-off town to the tune of ancient odes turned shanties turned siren call to wild abandon, to an ill-fitting youth, to touch for pleasure not for violence. To the raising of voices not in but in ecstasy. To a two-man dance, ungainly and as-yet untrod, though not wholly unfamiliar. No, his very blood awakens for it, thumps in his head to keep him in rhythm, rushes to his cheeks and the tips of his ears, creeps down his chest and lower still to color him red with intent.

Shouto falls in love without ever having really considered the thing itself. It’s happened by degrees, by turns so small and steps so many that when the last of them drops it takes him entirely by surprise.

It goes a little something like this:

❓🤔

His to Hold by Anonymous for linzbees

(E, 4.1 K, 1/1)

One minute he had been watching Shouto fly in a sharp arc between two buildings, only steam left in his wake. And the next minute Katsuki was nineteen again, sitting in Sero’s shitty apartment listening to Mina gossip, the smell of weed and stale socks thick in his nose.

OR

Katsuki time travels and comes back absolutely down horrendous for Shouto

❓🤔

Like I Want You by Anonymous for maynope

(M, 5K, 1/1)

Katsuki's been going through it. Not only was he sent to another world, he's stuck with the asshole version of himself. And the guy he's married to... who just happens to be this world's version of his ex. Who also got sent through with him. Gods, help him.

Or -- Nothing like seeing another version of himself succeed where he's failed can fire up Katsuki to get what he wants.

❓🤔

Dreambusting by Anonymous for bblueraven14

(M, 5k, 1/1)

Top heroes Shouto and Dynamight just want to indulge in a chill dinner with a side of pathetic mutual pining following a successful villain take-down.

What they get instead is quirk-induced mind-fuckery, exposed desires and a need to reinvent their dreams.

❓🤔

Forever Rain by Anonymous for class1akids (BrusselsSprout)

(T, 3.7, 1/1)

He smells like rain and the grass and everything Katsuki wants, with a hint of a scent that is characteristic to him and him alone. Katsuki kind of wants to figure out what it is, take his time doing so. Spend hours like this, hugging him close if he has to.

"I'm coming with you," Shouto declares with a finalty.

Katsuki pauses and looks at him baffled.

"The fuck?!"

Shouto shifts to face him, "I said, this time and all the other times after. I'm coming with you. Wherever you're going."

Oh no way in hell are they doing this. Katsuki can't do this. Doesn't want to, at all.

Or, Katsuki hates the rain but the rain brought him the one he loves the most.

❓🤔

out of this world by Anonymous for sobashouto (snowandfire)

(E, 3K, 1/1)

Todoroki and Bakugou's first time is... anything but ordinary.

❓🤔

visitor by Anonymous for novaephemera

(G, ART!!!)

#new arrivals #Planet BNHA fic exchange #todobaku #tdbk #bakutodo #time travel #dimension travel #au #quirk shenanigans #quirk accidents #au: fantasy #fic

[gayofthefae]

To me, this show has always been a metaphor for trauma symptoms. Sure, this is literally what happened, but really:

His life got better externally but then this dark monster attacked him. And it took him away. It stole his life and made him keep hiding like he always did. Maybe even feel like he did when his dad was still there. Then there’s this smoke monster that attacks him - but only in his mind. Nobody else can see it and he’s not sure if he’s going crazy, but it is valid and real. It’s still harmful to him. And in Owens’ defense here, it DOES happen to get worse around the anniversary of the incident. He tries to lock it out, quite literally repress it.

This is what the whole show is about, really:

Season 1, he runs from it.

Season 2, he/El represses it, quite literally.

Season 3, that wasn’t enough. There are still remnants in this world. Repression will never get rid all the way and it’ll just come back just as big, if not bigger, but this time affect the people around you more.

Season 4, he left for real. He escaped it in season 1 but now he’s avoiding any connection or trigger. And that works for as long as it works. But then something comes up again and it pulls him right back in.

As someone with PTSD, I relate to Will - especially because my flashbacks have been traumatizing so season 2 has always been a very validating allegory for me.

Will’s relationship with the upside down is all about how when the real life bad stuff ends like abuse, you are free...technically. But your mind isn’t yet. There’s still a lot of work to be done to convince yourself that you’re safe, especially from a long-term situation like his with Lonnie.

So yes, on the surface, he was finally safe and then the monsters came.

But in actuality, once the relief wore off, his body was still in the habit of being attacked. So he was attacked again. He was free from Lonnie. The monsters represent becoming free from his mind.

It’s actually very cool, too, because with El, we get to simultaneously catch up on WHAT her trauma was THROUGH her flashbacks, but because hers are real flashbacks and his are narrative representations, we don’t get the same with him. But Brenner and Lonnie are meant to parallel each other so it’s almost context from another character’s trauma.

Brenner forced her to open the gate. Just like Lonnie is responsible for Will’s body remaining under attack even after he’s gone.

And this leads into its own theory too of how to end this all. He needs to face his trauma. He needs to confront it. He wants to kill it, but I don’t think that’s right. It’s too simple. And it’s what they’ve done every season. He needs to pacify and integrate it. Whatever Henry and the mind flayer’s literal origins, the theme of the show is confronting trauma. So he CAN’T simply “kill it”.

Henry is El’s representation that was sent into Will’s world and now attacks her after she’s been free of Brenner. She had her own relief in season 2 before season 3 and on after she repressed it herself as it reached for her. It stepped up to coming directly into her mind when she opened to it by looking for it. So if the mind flayer and Vecna really are separate, Vecna is hers and the mind flayer is Will’s.

But they’re both everyone’s too. Eldritch - very old. They tell a very old story of abuse.

Henry is a representation of someone who didn’t break the cycle. He was pulled in and possessed by the eldritch monster and took it out on others. He’s a combined force in that way. So maybe it is just getting to him.

You can’t kill the monster. You can’t kill universal abuse or trauma symptoms for all. As I said and as they said in season 2, it’s so old, it doesn’t even know it’s true home. That’s abuse by its very definition.

But you can break the cycle. You can break Henry out of the cycle. Killing him, if anything, perpetuates it in you. But you can break through to him.

I think maybe it really is Henry, in some ways. That’s why the mind flayer has no true motive like him. It’s just doing its job. This is just how the world works. It’s just black smoke. It will always exist. But it doesn’t have to attack in the way Henry weaponized it. It doesn’t have to be a combined force.

#stranger things #will byers #el hopper #henry creel #this was stream of consciousness #they always are #trauma analysis #stranger things theory

[llycaons]

ep6: oh shit, there’s women in this show!

the fact that nhs knocks with a secret code. lmao

every single time I see this scene I have the same thought and its ‘jc tells wwx to stop being gay for alcohol’ because that’s what wwx is doing here metaphorically

I LOVE when they’re all scrambling here and wwx crosses his legs and fixes his hair

mind-control talisman must be insanely powerful to work on lwj so it must have some kind of constraints, like it’s not a total mind control, the subject has to be caught off-guard, etc. I like to think wwx realized how unethical it was after this and destroyed it but it’s a very strong magic spell to just drop and never mention again (LIKE TIME-STOPPING)

cut-sleeve? is this an intentional nod? it seems deliberate enough. is wwx in-universe testing the waters? he seems to think lwj is straight later on

THIS SHOT. SO CUTE

how he says wife...

I think lwj def knows he’s gay he’s just resigned to being alone for life because he can’t fathom being allowed to marry anyone but a woman and he doesn’t want to do that obviously. also he’s isolated bc of the autism and reputation... god, this scene is so sad

I didn’t realize this happened so early in the series! it’s so cute!

wcz is wearing jiang purple

this kid is SO well cast, he looks so similar to wwx esp around the eyes

lwj’s posture is killing me he is so fucking funny drunk

this set is SO pretty

this scene REALLY jumped out to me on my first watch - wwx sees lwj not bend and is determined to match him. not to be outdone

HE IMMEDIATELY STARTS PLAYING UP HIS WOUNDS WHEN THEY MEET WITH LXC. god wwx is such a delight

aww, lxc. nobody else would talk about him to his mother. this is so kind bc obviously it means a lot to him

actually I think wwx is perfectly within his rights to be annoyed that lqr treats him differently based on something his mom did. come on, lxc!

SHOE FLYING AWAY. THERE IT GOES. LOVE THAT MOMENT

at this point I think wwx has a crush but he also just wants to be friends so if lwj isn’t interested in him that way (and at this point he def thinks lwj is straight)  he still wants to hang out. I don’t think he expects his feelings to be very strong and in fact, in the future I read him as avoidant and scared of his feelings precisely because they’re more powerful than he knows what to do with. but for now it’s just a crush that he thinks he’s okay with not going anywhere as long as they get to hang out

lwj’s hair is so pretty here. this shot of wwx does make me laugh

hm. this means nothing to me. they’re not at a point yet where it means anything to them either and it was done just to protect wwx so *shrug*

wwx sheepishly getting off the ancestral table and then makinh gestures to dust it off is so fucking funny he has so much personality and charm

ik this is supposed to be a romantic moment but the guy looks so head empty. nothing going on behind those eyes. what do they brits say? gormless? he’s gormless

that post like ‘he becomes excited and deferential at the sight of a lesbian’ very true.

lwj doesn’t interact with many women throughout the show but he’s always very polite to them. probably still misogynistic, as every man is in this series is, but arguably less so than wwx (calls jl a mistress to demean him) and jc (has that stupid list of ideal wife qualities, genuinely tried to marry wq away from her family). he clearly respects ly a lot as his elder and I would love to have seen more interactions between him and other women.

heyyy demon subdue palace

ly being the only female leader of a very conservative and patriarchal sect is so fascinating honestly. would love to see more of her

also the rabbits with headbands might be dumb, but I think they’re cute

every single thing ly says also applies to wwx. the show hitting you over the head with parallels: DO YOU SEE HOW WWX AND LAN YI ARE SIMILAR. DO YOU SEE IT?!

I fucking love parallels. they made those women lesbians together

personal highlights:

lwj slouched over when drunk

wwx playing up his wounds when they see lxc

that shoe flying into the pond

wwx making a show of dusting off the table he was sitting on

#cql re-rewatch #SQUEEZED IT IN

[morganpdf]

Ok 🖊 for Ellis (don’t think I’ve seen you chat about them much) and obligatory 🖊 for Fig bc you asked about my Fig first :3

not me immediately forgetting to answer this dsvfvds

BUT TY i don't talk about ellis much & i know part of it is because they don't have (or want) a partner so I tend to draw less of them (i'm foolish)!!! BUT in splat timeline ellis is agent 3 in an offshoot universe from the main one juice and i have (wherein flynn, rowan, and jo are 4, 3, and 8 respectively). they live with august (the agent 4 for that timeline) until she moves out to live with her gf, piper (agent 8).

the rest is under the cut bc ouhhhhghghhhgh oc chatter

BUT BASIC STUFF: in every universe, ellis uses they/them (maybe toying around w xe/xir but not sure on that yet) (honestly i think they'd be down for any pnouns that Aren't he/she) (don't even THINK about gendering them) and is aroace. they're also autistic in the "this conversation isn't interesting to me at all so I'm just going to leave" way.

in splat timeline! ellis is the youngest of the agents, despite being. the most longterm member of the splatoon. they're about a year or two younger than august (it used to be more than that but I think this works better), and they meet through the agency. ellis had been living alone in agency-based housing and was assigned august as a roommate and, hates her (lovingly). they have a very sibling relationship and ellis judges every girl august brings home (except for piper BUT to be fair. august didn't bring her home technically. and ellis knew her previously through the events of octo expansion).

SPEAKING of piper. in every timeline ellis LOVES piper. she can bake a mean pan of brownies and she's also autistic so she Gets them and its very (autism creatures shaking hands image). they just sit together quietly on their phones/laptops hashtag parallel play. when they find out august and piper are dating they're very PIPER YOU ARE MAKING A HORRIBLE MISTAKE (i am so happy for both of you) AUGUST IF YOU FUCK THIS UP I'LL KILL YOU. also when august moves out to live with piper they cry but no one sees ok. no one

NOT INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP STUFF:

ellis has to be doing something with their hands at all times. they have like 50 different fidget toys littered around the apartment, 30% of which are different color fidget cubes. they don't even like fidget cubes that much but they're all different colors/novelty gimmicks (ie baby yoda, a cat, etc) so it's ok. their favorite fidgets are rubbing smooth stuff and clicking so. clickable pens and smooth stones are their go-to fidgets

in splat timeline they use up a lot of that energy tinkering with their autobombs (they refer to them as their chickens, always in a deadpan) (with how technical they like to be when talking abt them, no one can tell if the chickens thing is a joke) (good luck figuring it out), but in every timeline they do a lot with textiles. their favorite is cross stitching but they also dabble in knitting. all the cross stitching they do is like. rude phrases made to look super live laugh love home sweet home because they think it's funny. they have a very floral "go away" hung on their walls in different scripts in like 3 places

oughhh this is just making me realize i need to draw ellis more...... they're the focus of my piece i did for hero shot zine tho so here's a sneak peak straight from that!!

AND THEN ONTO FIG..... fig (they/them) is @saltylenpai's OC technically so i'm a little rambly about them but they're dating my OC wren (he/him)!!! i have like NO recent art of either of them though so i need to. do that

but fig is super sweet, in love with the world and everything in it. in splatoon timeline, fig is a sanitized octoling in recovery and their love for all of the little things in life comes from relearning how to exist as a person. in human aus they're just. like that

fig's also like. our tallest oc. they have a huge tattoo spanning their chest and arms that's sea themed, uhhhhhhh, they love art and making art and thats how they meet wren actually!! they go to school together!!! wren is a printmaking major who dabbles in pottery and fig is like. i want to do Everything actually. so theres some overlap in classes. fig is also mega autistic (are you sensing a theme with our OCs) ESPECIALLY in the "i don't understand social cues" way and that whole flirting situation was a shitshow bc fig just dropped the "you make me feel a way [romantic but doesnt realise it]" and wren is just a fucking Mess over it bc he's so flustered and gay about it but he's not sure if *he's* reading the situation wrong . they get together thought shhh

fig's also a huge romantic and takes so many candids of wren and paints wren and like. wren is just their muse in a lot of ways its so fuckinf cute. ouhhhhhhh i just love fig a lot. i love fig theyre so cute and sweet and i love them so much i have so many feelings about fig i am not good at words about them theyre just (crying noises) and their relationship with wren is SO (louder crying noises)

here's a fun fact!! fig grew up birdwatching with their mom so when they come around to be like "hey mom this is my boyfriend wren" she's like yeah that tracks for you, always a birdwatcher!!

#ask.pdf #nightbloggingbyday

[dwollsadventures]

Time Machine (sort of) Idea

Had a sudden idea, writing it here so I don’t forget it. Has very little to do with my usual interests.

So, time machines are impossible. As far as we know, time and space are very interconnected and not very flexible. Wormholes and black holes notwithstanding, because they’ll probably kill anyone who enters them. One cannot travel through space without traveling through time, and vice versa. You take a step forward and a moment has passed, however you measure it. You try to stay perfectly still, but that’s impossible. Even if you freeze all of your cells, the electrons on your atoms will spin, spin, spin. The laws of our reality are (seemingly) unbendable. How do we see dinosaurs?

We don’t travel through time, we travel through universes. [Realizing after I wrote all this that that new Professor Peculiar movie just came out... This has nothing to do with that, I was just thinking about time machines]

Proposition takes into account a few things that are sci-fi world-building-y, but so do all time travel stories. The first is the theory of parallel universes. Imagine a universe as an island. Within the confines of that island there are all the laws that govern it, including time and space. An infinite number of islands exist, laid out in a sort of grid. What is between the islands? A sea, or, an inter-universal space. A place where there is no time or space or any other sort of physical law. This inter-universal space (hereafter shortened to IUS) is our ticket.

In the IUS, we can, hopefully, travel to a parallel universe that is exactly the same, except for one detail: the timing of the big bang. We want to travel to the Cretaceous period? Travel to a universe where the universe started 67 million years after ours (add an extra million years, just to be safe. If we travel through the IUS, there should be no time or space. So, when we leave our own universe’s confines, no time will pass and we can travel any distance, because there is no such thing as distance.

Problem: we need time and space and all those other laws of physics to live. We might not die, but it would be nice to keep our molecules existing as we know they ought to be. This is where our “time” machine comes into play.

There are two components: one set that exists in our universe, and one that exists either entirely in the IUS or on the boundary of our universe and the IUS. The one in our universe will be where the crew and all that stuff should be. For the purposes of my own imagination, I imagine it like a bathysphere the size of a research station. The shape doesn’t really matter though, because of the second part.

In the IUS our true technology exists. This will be an outer “shell” that covers the first component and has all the important jobs. How will it do these jobs? How will it be constructed? How does it work? Well, the IUS doesn’t have any laws of physics or anything, so making a machine that can do all of these things shouldn’t be all that hard. Its jobs are as follows:

Create a miniature universe for the crew and research station to inhabit. This allows them to exist without dissolving into nothingness. It should have a slightly tweaked set of rules though. Perhaps time and space exist, but they are frozen in place. That way the crew doesn’t have to experience anything in the IUS and will just experience a tiny “jump” as they enter the target universe.

Travel through the IUS to locate the target universe. There really isn’t a medium through which to travel, and considering there’s no laws for propulsion or anything, this should be simple. All it needs is a universe that matches our specifications.

Enter us out of our universe and into the target one. This is a bit finicky. You see, our planet, our solar system, and pretty much everything is constantly hurtling through what we call space. Which is why every time machine needs to be a space and time machine. If we just traveled through time, we’d end up in the location our planet was 67 million years ago. For all we know, this could be inside a star or, more likely, in the vast nothingness of space, waiting for our solar system to swing by in another few million years. We need our machine to plop us at the right coordinates. Secondly, we need to make sure our landing is safe. When we leave our universe, all of the space where the machine was before becomes a vacuum, as there isn’t anything there anymore. Gas will rush into to fill it. The opposite happens in our target universe. We will be placed into an area where there will already by atoms. When we enter, all of the atoms in the place we pop into will be violently moved out of the way, because they don’t want to overlap with us. This will produce an explosion. It would be preferable to have a gas explosion rather than an explosion of, say, rocks, or tree, or dinosaur. We could make the research station secondarily enclosed in a rocket-ship, but those things are expensive and dangerous. We’re already sending a crew to another universe, why risk a rocket fuel explosion?

When we get to the target universe, the crew and everything they bring will be subjected to the new laws of physics, so time will pass. Similarly, time will pass in our universe. Though we’ve left it and travelled through the IUS, it is still doing its thing. No time passes in the IUS, but, if the laws of physics are the same in the target, the same amount of time passing in that one should match our own.

And then bam! Dinosaurs.

The ethical questions surrounding this are, uh, complicated. We don’t have the risk of paradoxes, since this is a different universe from ours, but we will be changing the course of events on the target universe’s Earth. Will that be fair? But, again going back to parallel universe theory, someone else has probably already done it. Have they done it to our universe already?

Idk. I’m not a philosopher. Or a physicist, if that wasn’t clear already.

Very scientific diagram to illustrate my idea:

#time travel #world building #time machine #idea #do not forget in the archives

[2aura]

When the Shadow Leaves

To her, every morning she opened her eyes was just a normal, ordinary day. But to exist in her universe, a life parallel to her own, it brimmed with a simmering hope. The shockwaves of her magnetic presence emitted a type of pheromone that no creature or being could ignore.

Yet she was none the wiser. One could even say.. beautifully aloof. 

Her name was Aura. She couldn’t tell you where that nickname sprouted from, but it encapsulated her wonderfully. From the lush greens surviving off of their favorite supplement, Aura Energy, to the earthen elements in her hands practically coming to life when tirelessly worked upon and molded, to the paint drying on modern day artifacts she’d created from complete scratch, it was as if her day-to-day always exuded near-perfection. Every movement she made was deliberate, nothing ever wasted. Even the birds chirped a little more loudly with their hidden love songs, while the sun peeked out past the clouds ever so slightly, once a day, just to say “ciao”. I don’t think she ever noticed.

On this particular day, Aura went to the shops to run some errands and treated herself to one of her favorite ice cream flavors, stracciatella al caffè. It was that sweet, heavenly pick-me-up that she needed before her last stop at the post to deliver this week’s final parcel. Like every other visit there, she said her hellos, paid for the shipping, and left back for home. On this particular visit however, her shadow didn’t accompany her home. It stayed there, defiant, tired, unwilling to budge for anyone or anything.

The birds were eerily quiet, the bustling crowds of people were walking hastily, not in the mood to even crack a smile at a stranger, and the rain started pouring uncontrollably almost out of nowhere. Poor Aura did not bring her umbrella with her. 

Aura laid in bed, exhausted from the world. The shadow left in its place what can only be described as a rotted reflection. What Aura was seeing was most certainly not her - not how everybody else saw her. It behaved almost like a Strangler fig. A Strangler fig is what a thriving, living tree can turn into if germinated by an intruding plant, and left to grow on as a host. It slowly grows until it makes contact with the ground, takes control of the roots, and asphyxiates the tree of its nutrients, leaving it completely hollow inside. What’s left afterwards is a visual cacophony of disjointed tree limbs, while any once water-like flowing sap became treacle-like sludge. An agonizingly slow death. 

For the next few months, sleep was impossible to come by. The sadness was deafening and self-defeating, like a firecracker inside of your stomach, waiting to be lit by the ever-threatening matches of self-hatred. Having to battle your own brain to do a simple action such as waking up or eating is a war that no person is ever equipped for. The burden of anguish and stress had pushed Aura to desperation. She daydreamed of haphazardly molding the last piece of clay in her room into a physical SOS, or maybe some ironic symbol of hope - a lighthouse shining in an obsidian sky. The clay was placed gently in a kiln, left to bake in the recesses in her mind as a last ditch effort to find herself again before it was too late.

That dawn, the shadow returned home, hesitantly rattling the doorknob as if it was still unsure of its actions, but ultimately knowing where it belonged. By Aura's side.

The world exploded in light.

I opened my eyes. This wasn’t a dream-within-a-dream. I couldn’t explain this story to you even while writing it. Hell, I’m more sure of this than I am of my own being.

When I woke up, Aura never felt as real as she did at that moment. I felt honey-drizzled by her warmth, cocooned in her comfort, dazed in her scent. I was completely washed over and sun-kissed. And then came the sliver of golden light (a light I had never seen before), peeking through the crack of my door.

I pushed it open and let the light in.