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just-dreaming-marvel · 2 years

Text

The Truth About Love ~ 5

THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE MASTERLIST

< previous chapter

Word Count: 1,980ish

Summary: Steve takes you out on a first date.

Notes: I’m sorry the update took so long. I hope that you enjoy it! Please feel free to share your reactions!

“There he is!” Sarah Rogers exclaimed. She stood up from the cafe table with her arms out.

“Hi, Ma,” Steve greeted. He hugged her, kissing her cheek.

“How are you?” Sarah was all smiles as she pulled back.

“Wonderful.” A big cheesy grin broke out across Steve’s face.

“Wonderful, huh?” Tony repeated as he walked over. “Hey, Ma.” He leaned in and kissed Sarah’s cheek.

“Tony,” Sarah greeted happily, reaching over to hug her stepson. “I’m so glad you both could make it! Let’s sit.” The three of them sat around the small cafe table. “How are my boys? I feel like it’s been too long since we all have gotten together.”

“The company has been good,” Tony quickly answered. Steve couldn’t help but notice how Tony was slowly turning into a focused—maybe uptight—businessman, making him wonder how alright Tony really was. “It’s been keeping me busy.”

“Are you taking care of yourself? If the job is too much—“

“I’m fine, Ma. I promise. My personal assistant, Pepper, is making sure I’m being kept alive. Don’t worry.”

“I will always worry about my two sons.”

“You should be worried about Steve’s answer then. Why is he so wonderful?”

Red crept up Steve’s cheeks as the attention turned to him. He couldn’t help the growing smile. “I met someone,” Steve admitted.

Sarah couldn’t help but gasp dramatically. “You met someone?” She repeated.

“Yes and she’s wonderful, Ma. I think you would really like her.”

“How did the two of you meet?”

“Well, we met like, uh, four days ago…”

“Four days ago?” Tony questioned.

“Her name is Y/N. She works at a coffee shop not far from my apartment. It turns out she’s Bucky’s girlfriend’s roommate and lives across the hall from us. We’re going on our first date tonight.”

“That’s so exciting!” Sarah exclaimed as she clapped. “Where are you going to take her?”

“I don’t know yet. I do need to plan so that I can maybe let her know what to wear or if we need to take a cab instead of my motorcycle.”

Tony scoffed. “You have enough money to buy a car, Steve,” he said. “You get a decent percentage from the company, just as the rest of us do here. Why don’t you buy yourself a new car and move into a nicer place?”

Steve was disappointed at the words coming from his brother’s mouth. “I don’t need all that, that’s why.”

“Does this girl know how rich you are?”

“Tony!” Sarah gasped.

“I’m sorry, Ma. I’ve had my fair share of girls go after me because of the money. They played every card. Even cute coffee shop workers.”

“Y/N’s not like that,” Steve defended. “She doesn’t know about the money.”

“Are you sure? It’s not that hard to search your name and find out who you’re related to.”

“We don’t even know each other’s last names.”

“Not helping your case here.”

“You don’t know a single thing about her.”

“Neither do you, clearly.”

“Boys! Please, not here,” Sarah begged.

“Sorry, Ma,” they both muttered.

“Steve, I am so excited about your date with this girl. Please do call me and tell me about it when you are able to.”

“Of course, Ma.”

~~~

You had been nervous all day, and Natasha could tell. She kept questioning you about it and you kept brushing it off as school jitters, as school was starting in a couple of days. Natasha would give you an unbelieving look and you would hurry off to distract yourself. You were thankful when Bucky arrived at the door to take Natasha away for the weekend before school starts. Them both being gone meant that neither of them could find out about you and Steve. You were just about to start going through outfits when your phone buzzed. You couldn’t help but smile when you saw who it was.

My Artist Guy: I’m excited about tonight, doll. I have it all taken care of so don’t worry. I’ll see you at seven.

My Artist Guy: Oh, and I guess I should tell you not to worry about dressing too fancy.

My Artist Guy: Unless you want to, of course. Who am I to tell you what to where?

My Artist Guy: We will be taking my bike if that helps.

You laughed at his clear nervousness that was showing through. It was very endearing and made you swoon over Steve even more if that was possible. You bit your bottom lip as you typed your own response.

Me: Thank you, Steve. I’ll see you at seven :)

~~~

Steve had to force himself to take deep, slow breaths as he walked out of his apartment and onto the front mat of yours. His fist nervously tightened around the boutique of flowers he was holding for you. He had spent too long trying to pick a boutique out, regretting that he didn’t know your favorite flowers. Though Steve had to give himself some grace, the two of you really didn’t know each other yet. That was the point of the first date. Taking another deep inhale and exhale, Steve lifted his free hand and knocked on the door.

You had been ready for the past hour. You hated that you were just waiting—pacing back and forth—but you had felt the need to get ready quickly. You were just about to sit down with your head snapped toward the sound of a knock at the door. It took you a second to regain control of your senses, but eventually, you were walking toward the door and opening it. Steve was on the other side. His eyes snapped to yours. For a moment, you two were lost in each other’s gazes. Nothing else in the world but the two of you.

Eventually, Steve cleared his throat and offered you the boutique in his hand. “Uh, these are for you,” he said, his voice cracking like a teenage boy.

“Thank you, Steve,” you replied, taking the flowers and putting them up to your nose. “They’re beautiful.”

“Just like you,” he mumbled under his breath, hoping you hadn’t heard. But you did.”

“I’m just going put these in a vase and then we can get going.”

“Right.”

You turned and went back into your apartment’s kitchen. You quickly found a vase, put water in it, and placed the flowers inside. Coming back to the open door, you could see that Steve was nervous. It was cute.

“Ready?” You questioned, pulling him slightly out of his nervous state of mind.

“Yes,” he nodded.

Steve took the lead as the two of you went down to the parking lot, where his motorcycle sat. Like the night before, Steve carefully placed the helmet over your head and buckled it. He got on the motorcycle before you slipped on behind him. With confidence, your arms went around his mid-section and you allowed yourself to be right up against his back. Steve wiped off his clammy palms on his jeans before starting up the motorcycle.

“Let me guess, this is a surprise again?” You teased.

“You’re catching on quickly, doll,” Steve responded just before the two of you were off.

Your arms tightened around Steve as the motorcycle picked up speed. Steve easily guided the bike through the busy city streets, enjoying the closeness that his bike allowed you to get to him. Before you knew it, you were in Brooklyn and stopping in front of a small park. Steve slowed the motorcycle down and kicked the kickstand. You got off the bike first, taking the helmet off as you did, before Steve followed.

“Come on,” Steve beckoned with a smile.

His hand was held out to you, hoping that you would grab it. You placed the helmet on the seat of the motorcycle before smiling at him and taking his hand. Steve’s heart soared at the touch and he knew he would never get used to feeling your skin against his. He led you into the small park and to a large tree. Underneath the large tree was a picnic blanket and a basket sitting on top of it.

“Steve, this is so cute,” you commented, giving his hand an excited squeeze.

“Do you like it?” Steve asked as the two of you stopped at the small setup. “I was worried it wasn’t enough.”

“Wasn’t enough? It’s perfect.” You moved and gave his cheek a kiss. “Thank you.”

Steve was frozen in his spot, his cheek burning where your lips had touched. You didn’t notice as you let his hand go and moved to sit on the blanket. You opened the basket and began pulling the food and drinks out. Shaking his head, Steve was finally able to focus again and he moved to sit beside you.

The two of you sat on that blanket for hours, well after the sun had set. You talked, you laughed, you ate. You simply enjoyed each other’s company. As the night went on, the two of you moved to sit closer together. Steve was now sitting up against the tree, his legs out in front of him. You were sitting next to him, tucked into his side. He had an arm around you and you were absentmindedly playing with his hand as the two of you spoke. You were in the middle of saying something when you let out a yawn.

Steve chuckled. “I should probably get you home,” he said, a hint of wistfulness in his voice. “It’s getting late.”

“Yeah…” you breathed out, not wanting the night to end.

Neither of you moved, keeping still in the comfortable silence surrounding you both. You continued to play with his hand, noticing the hardened callouses over it.

“Where did you get these?” You asked quietly, finger running over his palm.

“My paintbrush, my clay work, the punching bag at my gym,” Steve responded. “A variety of things.”

“You’re so… amazing.”

“Oh, doll,” he chuckled, “I’ve got you fooled.” He kissed the top of your head. “I do need to get you home.”

“Ever the gentleman.” Steve took you with him as he stood up. “Will you show me some of your work sometime?”

Steve nodded. “How about next Friday? 7?”

“I would, but work. Saturday?”

“Saturday is good too.”

“Great. Can’t wait.” You yawned again.

Steve’s hand intertwined with yours. “Let’s get you home.”

~~~

Just like the night before, you basically fell asleep against Steve’s back. He hated the thought of disturbing you and longed to just keep you next to him, but he was a gentleman and this was only the first date. With a soft voice, Steve woke you up, helped you off the bike, and guided you by the hand to the hallway where your apartments were. The two of you stopped in front of the doors.

“I really did have a good time tonight, Steve,” you told him.

“I did too,” he admitted.

“I… I should go…”

“Yeah.” Steve slowly let your hand go. “Me too.”

“Goodnight, Steve.” You turned to go into your apartment.

“Wait, Y/N.”

You looked back at him. You barely saw him as he stepped forward and kissed you softly. You practically melted into him as your eyes fluttered shut. His lips were so soft against yours and didn’t demand anything else but your lips against his. The kiss was too short for either of your liking, but Steve was already being more forward than he had ever before. Pulling away, he kept his face close to yours.

“Goodnight, doll,” his breath fanned your face as he spoke.

You were at a loss for words as you stayed in place and he rushed into his apartment. His apartment door shut and then you leaned back against your own door with a goofy grin on your face.

next chapter >

TAGLIST IS CLOSED - Taglist Information

#steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x fem!reader #steve rogers x f!reader #steve rogers x female!reader #Steve Rogers x Female Reader #steve rodgers imagine #steve rodgers x reader #steve rogers x y/n #steve rogers x you #marvel imagine #marvel imagines #marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic

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flowerypeaches · 3 years

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Mothership

“What is that?”

Hero stopped their approach, a positively bored expression on their face. “What are you doing?”

Their nemesis, who was currently pointing behind Hero with an incredibly overexaggerated look of surprise, rolled their eyes, “Uh, giving you your cue?”

“My cue?”

Villain sighed loudly, dropping the egregious pose. “You're supposed to turn your head, in a suitably dramatic fashion of course, search for what I was pointing at, only for it to be revealed a ruse, granting me the opportunity to strike you unawares so I may gain the upper hand in our skirmish.”

“Mhm, and why would I fall for something so stupid?”

“Because you are stupid?”

“...”

“Ow, okay, okay!” Villain held a hand to their nose, grimacing as it came back bloody from Hero’s rather crude punch. “See, this is what I was trying to avoid. No story, no drama, no excitement. What if I let you get a few good hits in afterwards?”

Hero replied by kicking Villain’s feet out from under them, knocking them onto the cold and cracked pavement. “Looks like I’m already getting a few good hits in.” They leaned over Villain, arms crossed. “Now, are we going to actually fight, or are you going to keep trying to direct your own personal soap opera?”

Hero waited for Villain’s patented snarky response, specifically about how soap operas are a valid form of art and Hero would be wise not to disrespect it, yadda yadda, but none came. In fact, Villain wasn’t even looking at them.

“Uh, Villain? You still with me?”

Villain’s voice was barely above a whisper, “What is that?”

“Seriously? It hasn’t even been a minute and you’re really using the sa-”

“I’m not screwing with you, Hero, there’s something in the sky!”

Hero had to admit, Villain’s acting had gotten much better in the last thirty seconds, but no matter how real it looked, they weren’t going to fall for it. Villain might be messing around now, but Hero couldn’t forget that they were a criminal, and a dangerous one at that.

They reached down, pulling Villain, who was still staring into the sky, up by their collar. “Look, I get that you never got the lead role in the school play or whatever, and want to make the world burn because of it, but could you, just this once, take our fight seriously?”

“I think it's getting closer.”

Hero ignored them, “I’m tired of the other heroes telling me I have it easy because my nemesis would rather focus on projecting their monologue to all of the hostages than actually rob the bank they broke into to begin with.” Sure, Hero was thankful Villain’s obsession with the dramatic kept them from causing too much destruction, but they had their own reputation to uphold, and constant stalemates with the theatre school reject did not help! “Let me tell you what. If you go down to the station without a fuss, then maybe I can get you into one of the nicer cell blocks. You know, the ones with the view of the hills. Does that sound good? Villain? Are you even lis-”

Blinding light filled Hero’s eyes and ears, cutting off every train of thought and any plan of action they might have had before then. They looked up, and despite the harsh light making their eyes water, they could make out the vague shape of a disc floating directly above them.

Oh.

Oh no.

“Told you.”

Hero looked back down to their nemesis, who looked much too smug for the situation at hand, and sneered, “Maybe if you didn’t insist on playing drama club, I might have actually taken you seriously.”

Villain had the courtesy to drop their grin, squinting up at the… “Is it getting brighter?”

It was, and that meant it was too late for Hero to prevent what was about to happen. Familiar cold heat ran through their veins as their limbs locked in place.

A safety precaution.

Definitely not to prevent anyone caught in the beam from escaping.

“Hero? I-I can’t move.” Villain said.

Villain.

They shouldn’t be here.

Hero’s eyes widened, realizing just how screwed they were. They tried to relax their hands, to let go of Villain, to shove them out of the beam, anything, but only managed to twitch their muscles, as if they were encased in a steel mold.

Villain seemed to be doing the same thing, though the trembling may have just been the fear. Any other time, Hero would have loved to see Villain’s mask slip. To force them to acknowledge that, yes, Hero was a real threat to their criminal livelihood. Instead, Villain acted as if Hero was a fellow actor, asking for Hero’s thoughts on new scenes they came up with, or excitedly talking about whatever had happened in their soap that day, a neon flashing sign that indicated they were in desperate need of friends. Did… did that mean Villain thought they were friends?

Not the time.

Hero gave up on their efforts, and let the looming dread wash over them. This wasn’t acceptance, no, they were just giving themself a moment to rest before they faced what was up in the ship. Oh, they weren’t ready.

Two enemies, encircled and entrapped in an ever growing light, locked eyes.

“We’re so f-”

And as quick as it had appeared, the burning light and mysterious ship attached to it, along with Hero and Villain, vanished into the night.

.·°·.·°·.·°·.

Light surrounded Villain. The ambient noise of the city was replaced by a low, droning hum. Any sense of direction was lost as gravity no longer affected them. They were weightless, and, even in this world of superpowers, nothing made sense. Where did the city go? Why couldn’t they move? How were they floating? The light was all-consuming, and Villain would have thought themself lost in it if not for the deathgrip Hero still had around their collar.

Slowly, the light faded, and Villain felt their own weight return to them. Their legs wobbled, and in an instant, whatever force that held them in place disappeared. They would have fallen if not for Hero, who still held them in their grasp.

“What just happened?” Villain said, though not really expecting an explanation.

Looking around, they could see they were now in a circular, silver chamber. Dials and switches and lights and symbols dotted the walls, communicating something or other, and the floor was, what was that, carpet? Villain shuddered. Honestly, it looked a lot like a cheap sci-fi set for a tv show that should have been cancelled three seasons ago than a futuristic aircraft capable of teleporting human beings.

“Oh, no, no, no.” Villain jumped at Hero’s voice, and stumbled as their anchor let them go to run over to a wall.

Not a wall. A window.

Villain blinked.

A window that showed… Earth? No, that couldn’t be right. If they were looking at the earth, that could only mean...

“Shit, we’re already in orbit.” Hero said.

Villain blinked.

They were in space. Space. That was impossible, right? They couldn’t actually be in space. But here they were, staring at the little blue marble with their very own eyes. Was the room spinning? Or was it the spaceship?

Villain ran their hands through their hair.

They were in a spaceship. A spaceship. That was impossible, right? They couldn’t actually be in a spaceship. But here they were, having been abducted by the UFO just seconds ago. By what? Aliens?

Aliens.

Villain forced their gaze away to keep themself from spiraling, instead focusing on Hero, who has since moved on from the window to the numerous switches and lights, tapping the wall and looking at the symbols that popped up. Villain didn’t understand what Hero was trying to do, it wasn’t like they could understand what any of it meant.

Three deep breaths, and Villain made the best plan ever made in 24 seconds. They stepped up next to their nemesis.

“Hero?”

Hero’s hand was covering their mouth, muttering something to themself, and clearly not paying attention. Nevertheless, Villain continued, “Now, as much as I hate to say it, I think we may have to work together to get back on Earth.” Truth be told, in any other circumstance, Villain would have been ecstatic to work with their nemesis. Whether to defeat a worse villain or take down some other hero that had become corrupt, they would have welcomed the opportunity wholeheartedly.

Why? Well, Villain would argue that it was more interesting, that their relationship, and subsequent fights, would have more dramatic tension. Definitely not because of any other tension that may arise from spending time together.

Villain puffed out their chest, “Lucky for you, I have decided to put aside our differences, and your lack of charisma, to take the initiative and save us both from peril. Yes, this does go against my better judgement, and yes, it may possibly be my most difficult role to date, but if it means I get to go back home in time to watch my soaps, then it’ll be worth it.”

Hero finally turned towards them, “Do you ever shut up?”

“Only for dramatic effect.” Villain said with an award-winning smile, earning an eye roll and a huff of annoyance. “So… what do you think we should do?”

“I thought you said you’d take the initiative?”

“Yes, the initiative in proposing we work together.”

“...”

Villain held up their hands, “Hey, hey, before you go punching willy nilly, why don’t you tell me what you were doing over here? Get anything useful from the flashing green triangle you were poking at?” They would have teased more, but Hero’s lack of response made them move on. “What are you thinking?”

Hero’s eyes flickered to the wall and back to Villain. “You need to leave.”

Villain blinked.

“Well, obviously we need to escape. We were abducted!”

Hero shook their head, “No, you need to leave. I’ll stay, and deal with-”

“What? And how are you going to figure out how anything works, huh? Even if you do, why wouldn’t you just come back with me?”

“It’s not that simple, I can’t re-”

A low, loud beep interrupted the enemies, and Villain turned their head in time for a wall opposite the window to open up and let someone through. Someone distinctly… humanlike.

The person, an older woman by the looks of it, smiled brightly and opened their arms. “ .·°¯°·.·° .·°° ?”

That was distinctly not humanlike. It was like hearing someone speak through water, and an undercurrent of static scratched the inside of Villain’s ears.

The woman—were they even a person?—walked closer, and Hero quickly stepped in front of Villain, shielding them.

She paid no mind, however, and spoke again, “ .·°¯°·.·° .·°° ,” looking expectantly at Hero, who, after a moment of hesitation, stepped forward. Her smile widened, and Villain was hit with a sense of deja vu. She pulled Hero close, and, were they hugging? Why was Hero letting her? What was happening?

The woman whispered something to Hero, but it wasn’t like Villain could understand even if they tried. Hero turned back to Villain, giving them an apologetic smile before, “ ° .·°° ° .¯ .”

Villain’s jaw dropped.

Hero was replying to the woman. Which meant they understood her. Which meant they knew whatever language was being spoken. Which meant… which meant… Why were they abducted in the first place?

The danger presented itself fully to Villain.

They had been taken off the face of the earth by their mortal enemy, or someone who was well acquainted with them, at the very least, and had no possibility of escape. Villain considered themself clever, but trying to figure out how alien—alien!—technology worked was beyond them. They had to rely wholly on Hero, who, although Villain was loath to admit it, hated their guts. Hero could be plotting in front of Villain right now and they would be none the wiser.

Hero wouldn’t do that. Villain tried to reassure themself, because Hero wouldn’t send them off with some unknown alien being. They’d want to arrest Villain proper, right? Arrest and put them in some high security cell they’d break out of a month later. It was their thing. Villain didn’t want their thing to end.

Huh.

Villain shook their head, they’d have to examine and repress that particular line of thought later, because the woman was suddenly standing in front of them, startling Villain out of their thoughts. She reached out, clutching Villain's jaw with cold fingers, turning them this way and that. As if they were being studied. Was Villain wrong? Was Hero really getting rid of them?

“ ¯ .·°°·°¯ .” She said. Villain’s ears itched worse now that the woman was closer.

Maybe Hero thought they were doing Villain a favour, sending them off on an adventure, letting them create their own melodramatic space opera. Or maybe this was punishment for all the dated Space Trek references. Both were a possibility.

Familiar hands pulled Villain away from the woman and into Hero’s chest. They were not blushing.

“ .·° .¯°·°° !” Hero’s voice was raised, clearly upset at whatever the woman had said.

She, however, was unaffected by Hero’s outburst, gesturing between the two enemies with raised eyebrows, “ °·.°·.°¯°·. .”

Hero shook their head, and Villain felt Hero’s grip tighten ever so slightly, “ °·.°¯ .·°°·.°°¯ .”

A strange noise came from the woman, sounding almost like… bubbles? It was clearer than the other times she spoke, and it was the way she moved that made Villain realize it was a laugh. She was laughing at Villain. Or Hero. Both?

Hero’s hands were shaking, and Villain couldn’t tell if it was with anger or fear.

“ ·° .·° .” Hero was curt with her, and Villain recognized the tone from when they threatened to blow up City Hall. The tone that preceded their fights.

The woman seemed to recognize the tone as well, as she backed off a little, holding her hands up in a placating way. She gave Villain a small wave before nodding at Hero, “ ·.°.°¯°°¯° .· .·° .” and left, the wall closing up behind her.

The pair stood in silence.

Hero let go of Villain, letting them step away. Except, they didn’t. In fact, they did nothing of the sort. Villain spun on their heels and stepped forward, “What on ear–ugh, what just happened?”

“There, um, might be a slight problem.”

“Slight problem? You call this”—Villain gestured wildly around them, narrowly avoiding hitting Hero in the face—”a slight problem?”

Hero leaned away from Villain, avoiding their eyes.

“Care to explain? Anything? At all?”

“Where do I start?”

Villain’s theatrics, for once, wasn’t uncalled for. “Oh, I don’t know, how about the fact that we were abducted? That we are in space? Or, or!” Villain backed off, giving themself room to pace around the circular room and project their panic to an audience of one, “That there is an alien speaking to you, Hero, in an alien language, because no human could actually sound like that, acting like she knows you, and you, you reply to her? As if you know her too?”

“Yeah, that would be my… mother.”

“Your mother.”

Hero nodded.

“Your mother who lives in a spaceship. Who speaks an alien language.”

“Who is an alien.”

“Who is an alien.” It took a good second for the words to sink in. “Your mother is an alien?! Like, an alien from an alien planet?”

Hero nodded again.

Villain felt their brain short-circuit. “Does that mean…”

“That I’m an alien from an alien planet? Yes.”

Villain felt lightheaded. This was okay. This was manageable. This world-shattering, insane truth of the universe was perfectly manageable, and they were not going to spiral, not for one second. Deep breaths. One… two… three… Villain stopped pacing, facing Hero with the calmest expression the latter had ever seen on the former. “Okay, so now that you’ve had your nice little family reunion, we can go back, right?”

Hero’s face was a cross between a smile and a wince.

Villain’s expression twitched, but held firm, “And why not?”

“Well, my mother-”

“The alien.”

Hero tried not to get annoyed, but damn, did Villain make it hard. “Yes, my mother the alien. She, erm,” They groaned, covering their face with their hands, “She may have made a fundamental mistake about the nature of our relationship.”

“And what mistake would that be?” Villain grit their teeth.

“She may, perhaps, think that, we’re… dating.”

“Louder, Hero. Speak so everyone in the audience can hear you.”

“She thinks we’re dating!”

Villain blinked, completing the rule of thirds and simultaneously breaking their composure. So much for not spiraling. “Dating?” Their voice squeaked.

“Dating,” Hero nodded, “And-”

“There’s more?!” Villain turned away, back to pacing and practically pulling their hair out from the absurdity.

“And, the reason we can’t leave yet is because she invited us to dinner.”

Oh. Oh, no. Oh, no no no.

“What’s wrong? I thought you loved drama.” Hero said, failing to lighten the mood. “Aren’t family confrontations and misunderstandings the bread and butter of soap operas?”

“My love of drama left me when we left the atmosphere.” Villain glared at Hero with enough ferocity to start a fire.

Villain walked up to the walls, flicking the switches and turning the dials, to see if, miraculously, they could make the ship go back to the city. The lights blinked mockingly in response.

“Uh, Villain?”

“There doesn’t happen to be an escape pod on this ship, does there?”

“Unfortunately not.”

“We’re really going to have to do this, aren’t we?” Villain said, turning to face their nemesis.

“Unfortunately yes.”

Two enemies, both flushed head to toe from frustration and embarrassment, locked eyes.

And Villain, lover of monologues and soliloquies, came up with the most profound, most thought-provoking line they could think of.

“We’re so fucked.”

Hero was inclined to agree.

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onepinkline · 2 years

Text

I don’t really know why I’m putting this here, but I think I just need to tell someone.

My sophomore year of high school, I had an art class with a boy we’ll call Mark. Mark was a “weird kid” but I thought he was nice enough and would talk to him if he ever started conversation (mostly at the sink rinsing brushes as we didn’t sit together).

Mark was a senior, and he asked me to be his date to the prom that year. I thanked him, but I was a bridesmaid in my cousin’s wedding that fell on the same night as prom so I had to say no. I let him know I appreciated the invitation, especially being a sophomore invited to prom! I invited him to sit with me the rest of the year, and he did. I never wanted to be more than friends, and I always kept the conversation away from flirting to not lead him on.

It’s important to note here that I graduated at 17, meaning I wasn’t driving to school until I was a junior. At this point, Mark had graduated and was working at my local Kroger’s, which happens to be a two-minute walk from my childhood home. I frequent this Kroger because it’s closer than any gas station, so I would pop in for a drink to take on a drive or any time my mom forgot ingredients for dinner.

Mark would stop and ask me every time how my car was treating me, using the specific year/make/model of said car. It made me uneasy, but I shrugged it off as over thinking. We’re going to skip forward 4 years now, Mark had made numerous comments about me getting a boyfriend, getting engaged, getting married, and at this point I had blocked him on all of mine and J’s social media. We were never friends on anything to begin with, but I figured he must’ve been lurking on my pages to know so much information about me.

At this point, I had to finally say goodbye to my dearly loved Pontiac. I upgraded to my current car, and within the first week of owning it he stopped me in the store again to ask how my new year/make/model was treating me. It was the first time I had been to the store in the car, and this terrified me. I had made it a point now to avoid him any time I saw him at the store.

Shortly after, we moved into our first house. Mark stopped me again in the parking lot, letting me know that if I needed help cleaning out my garage he’d love to lend a hand. I didn’t post anything about needing to clean out my garage, but the previous owners had left it a disaster. This, once again, scared the hell out of me.

Then tonight, I had to make a late night (11:00pm) run to the store. Kroger is still the closest to me, so naturally it is where I went. You may remember a few months back, I posted that I got a new job. I’m still in the same building, but at a different agency and my hours were cut in half so that I can attend college.

Mark was there. I ducked behind another woman walking in to avoid him, thinking I was unseen. But when I came out, he was hovering by an empty cart return a few spaces from my car. He stood beside me while I loaded my car and said, “why’d you switch over to (employer)?” Wanting to give him as little information as possible I said, “oh, I just liked the hours better.” He said, “yeah. I guess working 5 hours would be nicer than 8.”

HOW WOULD HE KNOW THAT? I have officially decided that I won’t be going to Kroger alone anymore, but I’m so unnerved that he knew exactly how long my shift is at a job he has no interaction with… at all. Someone please tell me I’m overthinking, because I’m so uncomfortable.

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Scottrospective: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together! or Days of Summer

Hello all you happy scottaholics! Welcome back to those of you who’ve read the rest of this retrospective and welcome to those of you just joining us. This is the Scottrospective, my look at all 6 volumes of Scott Pilgrim, the game and the movie. It’s all the video game refrenes, slice of life story telling and boob punches you can handle!

It’s been three months since I left off with “The Infinite Sadness” , and while I intended to cover this one for Valentine’s Day, my schedule got away from me and with March being full up, this ended taking till April

I”m not too put off by it though as the hiatus between these two reviews is fitting for this one both in story and out. In story there’s a couple month time skip between books, while out.. this book got delayed a few times.

This is notable to me at least because this was the first volume of the series I bought when it came out. As i’ve brought up before I came into the series via the Free Comic Book Day Issue and the second and third volumes, picking one up later. I still have my original copies despite no longer really needing them thanks to having the color editions in general. Always will provided something dosne’t happen to them. So this was my first instalment that I got to read fresh and got to wait for and be hyped about and i’d saved enough money that I was able to pre-order it. So the experince of waiting and waiting for the book only to keep seeing it slide back is vivid in my mind as is the frustration I felt having the one thing I COULD NOT WAIT FOR, keep going further and further back.

So with this long wait and the fact I bought this one when it came out, as I would for the next two which didn’t get delayed thank god, this volume naturally means a lot for me. When I wrote Scott Pilgrim fanfiction, this volume’s status quo is what I based it on. It was the coolest to me and the one I loved to reread the most. It has the most contained story, the most character growth at the time, and the best art due to Bryan’s style having finally hit it’s stride. Not that the art for volumes 1-3 is bad mind you, but it’s very clear his style was changing and shaping into what it is now with each one and while it’d change a bit more, this volume is where the style and quality everyone thinks of when they think of this series and the kind you see on various art done from it comes from.

So as you can tell i’m excited for this one. Before we get started there WERE two shorter comics released between this one both for Free Comic Book day, the first of which, Free Scott Pilgrim, is the reason I got into the series and the second, the Wonderful World of Kim Pine .. was both delightful and sets up Kim moving in with Hollie for this volume. Originally I intended to cover these in this review.. but I realized they wouldn’t of helped the pacing and this review is going to be way longer than my standard as is.

So instead I came up with the compromise. I did review them.. but as bonus reviews on my patreon. For just one buck a month you can read them and help me reach my stretch goals which now include reviews of Lost at Sea, Seconds and SnotGirl, aka Bryan’s OTHER comics. You can find my patreon THROUGH THIS LINK HERE if your intrested in the exclusives or helping me reach my reviews. I also intend to do an exclusive of Monica Beetle, a short comic Bryan did starring Scott’s dad in the 70s at some point so keep your eyes peeled for that, as well as the three strips he did of Style, the comic that gave us the prototypes for Lisa and Kim.

I will talk about their connections and setups for this volume briefly: FSP sets up the next ex as a ninja, with Roxy having a bunch of posters come to live and pummel our boy, while Wonderful World has Hollie tell Kim she can move in with her. It’s not much, hence why i made these exclusives but they are good stories, so check them out. And with that JOIN ME UNDER THE CUT, as we enter Scott’s world once more as he grapples with the past, employment, and saying the L-Word... which might be Lesbians. I don’t know. Find out bellow!

So we open Two Months after Volume 3 with a beach birthday party! Complete with Kim in a swim suit!

But it’s for Julie who lobs a volley ball at Scott’s head when he and Ramona try to make out.

I also dont’ know if “Manfiesting out of all the world’s collectives sorrows” counts as a “birth” necessarily but whatever. I love a good beach story. It’s just a fun setitng for swimming, romance and battling a giant crab with the help of the bird what lives in your backpack.

So after the beach our heroes get dinner and Ramona sweetly calls Scott the nicest guy she’s ever dated. He responds with “That’s sad”. Blunt, but entirely accruate. Julie calls it pathetic and tries to counter Ramona RIGHTFULLY saying “who the hell asked you?” something that really should come after EVERYTHING Julie said with “Back off bitch i’ts my birthday”

So later that night Sex Bomb-Omb has a beach sing along, and I can’t help but notice Neil’s hairy legs.

I mean yes it does make since for a 19 year old to have leg hair, but of all the characters besides Stephen, the ONLY other character we’ve seen it with to give it to, why the character you specifically single out as “Young” it’s just a weird choice I never noticed before.

But anyways Julie has to whine about it because she’s Julie, she can’t stand other people being happy and complains the song...

One of my faviorite moments of the series. Knives puts a nicer spin on it, she’s here too and not over with Neil because, as we’ll find out later they broke up, but she just asks if Knives should be drinking. She shouldn’t but for fucks sake lady she was just trying to talk. I also do like that despite Julie trying to control Ramona’s love life, you know the thing the VILLIANS are doing, Ramona cannot stand her now.. and honestly probably never did.

But Julie, SOMEHOW turns out to be right for once as Kim and Knives have disappeared later that night, and Scott elects to go look for them. Also Ramona says she wants to marry kim while drunk after Julie asks if she does. The throuple is strong with these three... serioulsy that’s my one true pairing for all three now. I mean it ballances out their collective flaws, it’s cute and Ramona is just as into her boyfriends ex as she is her actual boyfriend even when she’s not hamered. Why the fuck not?

Scott instead finds the two making out. I will confess I shipped these two when I was younger.. but I don’t. Not because their gay or anything or because I found another ship for them but because the age gap is still just as wide as it was for Scott. The game did not get this memo and made them a couple which is... ehhhhhhhhh. I mean I wouldn’t mind either being bi, but it just brings up the same problems even if their both hammered. I also question why this scene exists. No really outside of one face punchingly dickish comment from Scott later, this never comes up again and it doesn’t effect Kim’s or Knives character any. Why have this? it’s clearly not fanservice, it’s just a thing that happened. And while Scott Pilgrim as a series does have some of those, as does life and that’s fine.. this is a bit too major, i.e. Kim and Knives, two of the main cast, making out, drunkenly or not, to just.. gloss over you know? I feel Kim would feel majorly guilty for this, as she has the most active moral compass of the main group, and Knives would be massively confused but it’s just.. forgotten because I dunno. In a story that’s otherwise pretty stellar this stands out as an utter waste of potential. I’m not saying have them hook up, gay or not it’s still not better than what Scott did, but have them at least talk about it and have both grow or something from it. Sheesh.

So we cut to.. another day. Maybe the next day I dunno but it’s August. Point is Scott and Wallace are grocery shopping and Wallace notes they can’t get fancy mayo as their barely in budget. I would’ve glossed over this scene... but @panur pointed out back around the Infinite Sadness review that this scene reveals something very intrestng: Scott.. is kind of a fincial burdern to Wallace. Before this while Scott mooched off him it wasn’t all that clear that Wallace was struggling.

But here we notice that outside of some Havarti, it’s just the simplest stuff imaginable: turkey, bread, boxed mac and cheese ramen noodles... it’s nto BAD stuff, I have all of that in my house and it’s good stuff... but it’s not the kind of thing that you need to carefully budget for. Now granted part of this probably is Wallace as he likely spends a LOT on drinks, condoms and two 2 liters of diet soda a day.. but while he really needs to adress his alcohol issues, the rest is fair. He should be allowed to have as much sex and diet coke as he wants it’s his money. Same with the havarti. He earned it if he wants some really delcious cheese with herbs, seriously Havarati is the best, then that’s his bidness. But the rest of the time he’s barely managing to get a basketfull of cheap food.. because he has to provide for Scott. It’s clearly something Scott dosen’t get and something I can relate to not getting. It took me a while to get how hard it is to budget for a full family, let alone two people on one income like Wallace has to. But Wallace is working on a nice job... but still a call center or something. He can’t pay for everything and the finccial stress is about to give as their landlord wants to meet with them. And as we’re about to learn things were even worse than we thought.

Our heroes head home where we get a truly iconic conversation when, over margeritas (again proving my point that while Scott certainly isn’t HELPIGN wallace’s finacials, it’s not all on him)

This will be imporant later.. both the Lesbians part and Scott’s struggle saying it. he tried earlier on the beach but couldn’t get it out and Ramona clearly didn’t want to hear it as she kapt sshhhhing him.. playfully of course but still.

So some time later it’s moving day! Kim is moving into Hollie and Josephs, and Scott, Stephen and Jason are helping. You might be wondeirng who the hell Jason is. He’s Kim’s boyfriend. I do not likes him. Not because he’s kim’s boyfriend, getting upset because a fictional character you fancy is dating is just patently stupid. I’ts like getting upset a celebrity crush is in a relationship: you had no chance anyway why. I wasn’t even bothered as a kid. I don’t really like him.. because he has no real personaliy and no real baring on the plot and I struggle to think why Bryan included him other than for a really annoying plot twist next time, which does not help my liking him knowing what’s coming.

But while our heroes help our heroine move in, and Scott is suprised Hollie is there despite Kim having told him a minute ago she was moving in with her, something I can relate to sadly, we get something vitally plot important; Stephen passes Joseph’s room.. and notices he has a small recording setup in his room. Stephen quickly begs him to record the band’s album and Joseph agrees if only because he finds Stephen hot. Eh i’ve seen better relationships start on less, fair enough. And yes I said relationship more on that in a bit.

So after a brief scene of Scott and Ramona having lunch where Scott fails to know her age and when Ramona says he could just ask.. hea sks and she dosen’t tell, not a bad scene character wise just not very plot important and probably should’ve bene swapped in order with the previous scene, we get to the next day. There’s a heat wave so Wallace orders Scott to go to the mall maybe find a job. He emphasises that.

Instead Scott just sorta bums around thirst but nto having any money.. until an old face shows up.

For those who forgot like Scott has, it’s Lisa Miller from the Volume 2 flashback, the girl who had a crush on Scott and was close friends with him and Kim. After a tackle hug and some panic Scott eventually remembers.... if in a curiously unique and self serving way

At the time this was just hilarous. Now it’s very clear foreshadowing for the big twist in Volume 6. The two catch up while Scott is very clearly attracted to her but very clearly dosen’t want to be, with Lisa wondering where kim is, finding about Ramona, etc, before offering Scott lunch as the two catch up and Scott is very conflicted about how he feels. It’s nice visual stuff as he’s blushing, something more clear in the color version and trying to desperatley sort things out. As for why Lisa’s here she’s moving to the states soon, but is staying with her sister for now.

So after an incdental scene with Wallace we catch up with Knives, who has broken up with Neil. And after some talk about Clash at the Demonhead, Tamra notes Knives apparently put a big x on her shrine of Scott... which baffles Knifves as she sure as hell didn’t do it and is still, sadly, obessed with Scott as ever. Granted Tamra isn’t at all helpful here claiming she did it even when she says she didn’t, is clearly confused and while yes we don’t know who else would care Tams, that just makes it all the more creepy. Stop gaslighting your bestie, she’s already got enoguh issues. She dosen’t need thinking she might have a split personality on top of the stalking, obession over a guy who has no intrest in loving her back, and attempted stabbings. Knives dosesn’t get a ton of focus in this one sadly. She kind of takes a back seat, and while sh’es not GONE from the volumle and someone close to her does impact it, she dosen’t really have any personal progression, negative or positive, like she does in every other volume, a shame since her personal jouney is one of the most intresting of the main cast.

Anyways that night Scott hangs out with Lisa, having not gotten around to telling Ramona she exists yet and plays a game of find the Kim Pine. She goes to Neil’ and Stephen’s place for practice, but finds no one there and Neil being a dick... get used to that it’s going to get about 80 times worse soon enough. Though we do get this classic panel i’ve gotten some use out of

He goes to Kim’s place, but she , Hollie and Satan’s Misterss have all left to Sneaky Dee’s, the local mexican place, for something to eat and Stephen is either high or doing.. something with Joseph.

Yeah i’m not hiding that Stephen turns out to be gay in the final volume or cheating on Bitch and a Half with Joseph. And even if I hate Julie with the power of a frozen sun, I still dont’ think cheating on her is kosher. He could’ve just broken up with her and while part of it was likely confusion, and he could also be bi and not decided which one he wanted to be with, it’s still a dick move.. and later makes him a hypocrite but that’s a rant for next volume.

So our heroes FINALLY find Kim, along with Hollie and Mouthface. And a nice thing I like is that Kim and Lisa are just.. increidbly close, happily catching up and making plans to hang before Lisa leaves, that despite Lisa having feelings for Scott the two ended up as close and She and Scott did and i’ts sweet to see. it’s also just.. rare to see Kim GENUINELY happy. I mean look at her

It’s not like she HASN’T smiled across the series but normally she’s just so miserable, likely because her best friends are a grumbly asshole who forces them to hang out with a raging typhoon of bitchiness, and an insenitive asshat who she never got closure with. This is the first decent human being whose not Ramona or Hollie, and that last one’s not going to last, in a while. It’s genuinely sweet to just see her.. enjoy the moment for once, honestly engaged with someone. Ramona shows up and finally meets Lisa, who apparently was on Degrassi.. I mean she says candaian show no one ever watched, and I watched that plenty but i’d like to think she was on there for a season or two. I liked Degrassi.. I honeslty miss it and think it could use some form of revivial and think porting it to netflix was a smart decision.. what wasn’t so smart was not having the other seasons leading into it on there. Need to watch more of it.

So the next day Ramona stumbles into Scott’s dreams and both are annoyed, with Ramona suggesting he get a job. This finally gets him to try. He asks about Wallace’s work but understandably, he dosen’t really want scott there and asks if he even knows. So Scott sets out to ask his other friends for jobs, while Knives shows up saying she’s “totally not stalking him” but someone is following HER, a mysterious spiky haired dude in a black leather jacket, shades and with a sword on his back. Whu-oh.

He tries Second Cup, with Julie annoyed that Stephen’s recording.. it’s hard to tell if she’s annoyed because she’s a bitch or because Stephen is both gneuinely annoying right now and clearly screwing around behind her back. My take?

But Scott realizes maybe getting a job at his Sister’s place of work who also works with his arch enemy might be stupid and backs out. He next tries Kim’s, but backs out of that too, admitting to kim it’d be stupid and Kim lists off all the reasons (His lack of resume, the fact them working together would be stresful and his ountain of late fees) why that’d be stupid, but in a jovial way. For once i’ts clear that while she’s still taking the piss out of them she isn’t mad at Scott.

In fact she genuinely helps him get a job, taking him to Stephen’s work since hers is dead right now anyway, a vegan place. While Scott naturally compares things to a job system as he’d start as dishwasher while Stephen taught him prep, Scott agrees to genuinely take this seriously and Stephen’s boss decides “eh why not” when he asks her to employ him. Scott is gainfully employed baby! God I miss that. Seriously i’m not pimping my patreon for shits and giggles.

But as he celebrates and Kim wishes she could punch his life in the face, they run into some trouble on the way home: Katana man who slices a motherfucking bus in half and chases them, with Scott reluctnat to fight because he has a sword and Scott does not, which is valid. He does escape though using subspace. He and Kim part awkardly and he returns home to Wallace throwing a party with two intresting charcters, a woman and a man of color, one of the few in the entire work, who are never seen again.

The next night is practice.. or rather recording, and we start to see Neil get edged out, with him unable to come due to exams and clearly not happy about it, and Stephen just kind of ignoring anything he cares about like the dickhead he is. It dosen’t get any better as “recording” ends up just being Scott, Ramona, and Ratfaced Knacker watching bored with Joseph and Stephen work. Eventaully Scott and Ramona decide to get out of there as things are getting tensed between thing one and thing bitch, and leave.. and take Julie with them for some reason.

So the three have dinner with Lisa, Kim, and Jason before The Mummies Curse thankfully leaves. Jason thought they were friends.

We also get this exchange.

I mean.. she is the better option. She his THE option. But before we can get the obvious answer of

Stephen comes in with Knives. He smuggled her in. This leads to problems when Scott returns from the bathroom to find Queen Bitch throwing a bitch fit about him having brought her and screechs at her when she dares to talk to him “How do you even know my name?” Well Ted Cruz, you see when someone is an actually thoughtful and likes other people, they keep track of things about them and don’t constnatly tear them down or assume their partneer is automatically bonking a 17 year old instead of you know, actually forming something of a friendship and not shutting her out sensing she needs this friend group. Some people are not vacous piles of vitriol who care about nothing but themself and seem to go off at the slightest thing.

Scott takes Ramona home but finds a drunken barely awake wallace so no sexy times. Not that he could anyway as the next day is the meeting with Peter their landlord.

Peter reveals they’ll have to clear out by the 27th as their lease was for one year and their paid up.. as in only the first and last month. The two part melacholy knowing this sucks and isn’t a great situation. Then it’s time for Scott to work work, angelica, work work, eliza and peggy. After grueling day, can relate, he runs into a wisp on teh wend and steels himself for a fight.. okay he bitches about it being too hot but it’s Scott. so it’s expected. He does get a hit in on his mysterious persuer.. and that’s when we meet Roxy.

Via boob punch, something Scott’s not proud of but in his defense, as Roxy keeps complaning about it, he was blindly struggling for a hit and din’t know the next Ex, or any of them, were female.. not that Ramona didn’t suggest it loudly enough by empahsising “exes” but scott’s a bit of a fuckwit. She mentions “everyone allways remmebers you”.. which is kind of ominus and tells me she tried to hook back up with ramona despite her having a boyfriend and she rejected her. Still on good terms though. But this confusing encounter ends with Roxy vowing she’ll get him next time gadget, next time.

So we get some assorted slice of life scenes with the band, lisa and what have you as Scott tries to get in touch with Ramona but she keeps avoiding him. THat’s not worrysome at all. And Lisa brings up high school while drunk and clearly hits on Scott. He sidesteps it with her drunkness.. but this clearly isn’t over or going to stop being a problem.

Speaking of problems Wallace makes Scott confront the truth: He either needs to find a new place to live or commit to staying, though Wallace is trying to nudge him toward asking Ramona to move into her place. Scott starts thinking it over, it being very hard especially since, as Stephen points out this was his very first place of his own.. but Stephen also points out these things are temoporary.. right before Scott ducks from katana guy.

At work Scott wonders who it could be, though it turns out Stephen’s met him before, as he’s brought his family in here. So he’s PROBABLY not one of the exes.. but it leaves the question why he wants to cut Scott in half like Dewey Cox’s brother. But it turns out he’s nto the only enemy Scott’s casually running into as Roxy is there too.. with Ramona.

The two talk, clearly about Scott and Lisa with Roxy trying to convince her he’s cheating and Ramona rightfully trusting Scott: while he IS attracted to her, he’s been fighting it every step of the way. Scott storms over to find out what’s going on and while Ramona is more distracted by his new job, she eventually realizes Roxy did attack him and he simply dscribed her poorly when he mentioned the incident over the phone. Scott is confused as he dosen’t get it. Is she with one of the exes what? After some hiinting from both parties, and Roxy rightfully mocking him for not getting the obvious... he finallyg ets it in the grandest way possible.

So Roxy gets ready to fight and Scott can’t because sword, and gets fired in the background as he hides in Ramona’s bag and Ramona prepares to step in. Roxy screams at her for trusting him and defending him when Ramona.. just dosen’t her boyfriend to be bisected by her ex. A fight insues and a damn cool one at that. I honestly wish the movie had taken more from this, but simply didn’t have time leading it to instead be more like the envy fight with a bit of the Winfried Hailey fight from Free Scott Pilgrim.

Roxy chases her and Ramona rightly points out Scott can’t run forever but takes him into Subspace.. where Roxy heads them off, having “taught you everything you know bitch” leading to a cool fight in the wintery version of subspace. Again why THIS wasn’t used instead I have no real idea. We also find out she’s a half ninja but she eventually leaves afer Ramona presses that button.. but Rammy is actually apologetic about it and Roxy’s “I hope you and your 24 children are happy together comment” is telling.

Upon this readthrough of the volume.. I realized Roxy is the most layered and intresting of the exes next to Gideon himself. None of them are out and out terrible, but most of them have pretty simple motives: to kill Scott, ???, profit. Or in Todd’s case to kill scott, bang around and be a dick. But Roxy.. genuinely wants Ramona back. She’s the ONLY one who does: Gideon kinda does, but only in the sense that he wants her for his collection. But Roxy geninely still loves her, admitting so during this fight. And it’s not like she has no chance: out of the 7 exes she’s the ONLY one who parted with Ramona on anything resembling good terms. While intrestingly we don’t find out WHY they broke up, Ramona didn’t cheat on her like she did everyone else she was with. The two have coffee and hang out and Ramona geninely dosen’t even consider until Roxy tries to attack Scott that she’d really try killing him and tries her best to talk her out of it. But what holds Roxy back is her anger: She’s so bitter about the fact Ramona is bi or pan, so dedicated to viewing Ramona’s very orintation as a betryal (though Ramona calling it a phase dosen’t help and the movie RIGHTLY has Roxie comment on it and fly into a rage over it), and so driven to make sure the woman she loves dosen’t get hurt again that it blinds her to the fact Ramona dosen’t love her the same way anymore, and that while Scott is objectively a dick, and a cheater, and a greasy buttcrack pooflap, he is not a terrible person. A meh one sure, but he’s got good to him. She’s so biophobic she simply can’t see he’s a harmless moron.. well harmless to Ramona even with the cheating. He’s killed two people at this point and will kill again. Also she apparently has issues with only being a half ninja but this is never adressed. Point is Roxy’s really grown on me and is now probably my faviorite ex.

Scott and Ramona talk it over on their way to Sneaky Dees and Scott finally asks to move in and gets a yes. His response is downright adorable.

So at Sneaky Dee’s Young Neil is just a bit absolutely irate with Scott.. which isn’t fair as them not playing things is entirely on the blocky face asshole. Yell at him.. which he does, pointing out that they haven’t played shows in forever, and that the lady who owns Sneaky Dees not only runs shows, in the upstairs space, but has been asking them to play. Kim is rightly curious about this and to both Stephen just keeps saying “We’re recording right now.” And some of you may of wondered why I hate him. Well while he’s not exctly stellar in the first half in the second Stephen becomes goddman insufferable, slowly destroying the band for his affair and not giving one iota of a shit what anyone else wants. He’s a selfish, egomanical cheating prick. And yes I get it their recording an album.. but doing live shows would give them extra practice, MONEY, even if likely not a lot and exposure for said album. I get professoinal bands stop touring for a bit to do an album but you are not a professional band, and said bands still often iron out the album on the road. God you suck.

But while Scott sidesteps this argument he walks into another where Ramona confronts him about lisa about liking her.. and he rightly says if there was anything, which there was not it’s in the past. And while yes he is a cheater, she does not know this yet. This plot honestly would’ve worked better if she learned about the knives thing sooner, but instead she just comes off as paranoid for listening to Roxy about something that isn’t happening. Yes Scott’s been shown to be attracted to her.. but he’s been ashamed of it, fighting it and in denial about it, and is clealry all in with Ramona. Being attracted to someone else on a phsyical level does NOT mean your relationship is doomed.

Things get worse as he goes home to ruminate.. and instead sees a man’s Penis. And Wallace..is at his second most unsymapthetic, not letting Scott get a shirt or a bus pass or something like a decent human being for no goddamn reason. Usually when Wallace is a dick to Scott, Scott’s earned it and badly needs a slap in the face. Here he’s just being a prick because.. the plot needs him to? I dunno it dosen’t work for me. It’s in character, I just don’t have to like it.

So with no other options.. Scott ends up at Lisa’s. And so we get the last temptation of Scott. Lisa admits, embarassed that she’s been wearing sexy dresses and what not specifically to attract him, with Scott also mentioning how things are rough, Lisa tries to fight it herself pointing out he’s with ramona.. and when Scott points out they didn’t do anything in the past Lisa points out they should’ve.. and maybe they should now.

We fade to black as Scott ends up in a dream and finds Roxy, who naturally has the same skill and tries to Freddy Kruger him before he wakes. He finds Lisa but they didn’t do anything: Scott pushed her away and babbled about how much he loved Ramona instead. As i’ve said.... his heart was never with LIsa... and even when he was so close to giving in he couldn’t. It’s a tangible sign of growth: He screwed around on Knives with Ramona, and given how bad things were getting with Ramona, it would be oh so easy to once again ditch a relationship the minute he found something else and oh so understandable. But... he dosen’t. He loves Ramona even if he hasn’t said it, he wants to make this work, and he’s changed. She’s changed him. He’s not quite a good man yet.. bu he’s getting to be good enough. Love turned him from a skeezy dumbass into a far more loveable dumbass. Ramona’s gotten him to stop dating a teenager (even if again he cheated), face his past with envy to finally move on and now get a job. He’s realized just hwo much she means to his life and world and so he goes to tell her.

Riggghtttt after going to get his job back and works a shift, with steven wanting to punch his life in the balls. Stephen shut the fuck up. Just because Scott is lucky and your stuck dating satan’s scrotum does not mean you get to punch his life int he balls. Kim does, because he’s put her through more shit but not you.

He goes to second cup to talk to Stacey.. only to end up at the wrong one where Knives also now has a job... and we finally get an answer to who the mystery katana guy is...

Yup turns out wielding giant weapons in vengance runs in the family. As for how he knows about Scott her aunt mentioned her boyfriend, everyone freaked out and obviously while her mom was mentioned as knowing in volume 1, they did not tell her dad whose brain turned into an engine of vengance and defaced the shrine. While part of it is apparnetly racisim for Scott being white the fact is he clearly saw Scott’s photograph. The guy is 5 years older. I get him being protective. Still dosen’t justify cutting off his head. His balls maybe but not his head.

And then Scott ran, once agian finding a subspace entracne.. and this time we see inside ramona’s head and well...

Yeah.. that’s.. kind of fucked, and Ramona isn’t happy scott saw that, though she backs down once Scott explains..a nd then gets upset over him staying at Lisa’s but before SCott can tell her he loves her it turns out Roxy stayed over. So yeah, Ramona might of cheated, she tells him to alk it off and he runs around in a psycadelic haze of emtoinal confusion. And meets.. someone new...

Scott snaps out of his funk and ignores his doppleganger heading back for Ramona... whose fighting Mr. Chau. Scott left the door to Ramona’s head open and he followed him through Subspace. Scott lures him into the house and away from her only to run into Roxy. This leads to both of his attackers fighting and her wondering if Gideons ent him “Why does no one ever belivie in me?!”

She soon realize no i’ts just unrelated and calls Scotto ut on hiding behind not having a sword and behind her being a woman, caling it a flimsy excuse. I mean she’s tring to kil lhim. It’s okay to hit an enemy combatant. Scott realizes he has to stop running... and get real with ramona leading to a truly epic, romantic and heartfelt speech and given how far he’s come and just how heartfelt it is it’s a real sign of how deep he feels. Sure we’ve seen genuine chemstiry between the two.. but htis moment is a shit.. from a simple relationship.. into true love.

I may of only had a few but Relationships are not easy, They take work, they take time, they take patience and theyt ake love.. but if your willing to work with someone, look past some flaws and help them with the rest.. then it’s worth it. And Scott has finally realized it and for the first time in a while is running TOWARDS something difficult, actually working on this relationship and talking with his partner instead of running finding someone else or wallowing. He’s truly grown up. While he still has miles to go.. he’s taken about 50 steps forward with this. And as such given the kind of unvierse we’re in, as Ramona is genuinely touched by it he levels up a glowing sword with a heart shaped hilt coming out of his chest.. and realizing what’s happening he pulls it out....

So Scott faces off with roxy and in an awesomly short battle, their sords clash.. and he bisects her.

Scott then honestly talks down Mr Chau who leaves after a nod, and Ramona tells Scott she loves him two. The two make out and all is well.

One make out fades into another, as we cut to Scott moving in with Kim and Blockhead’s help. Well kinda they only had one box but they owed him one. He and wallace comiserate over the end of their time as roomies. They’ll always be friend but it’s truly the end of an era. Also Wallace gets off another bit of dickery as he’’s very glad it all worked out for scott...

Now there’s the Wallace I know and love. Dickish but just the right loveable kind of douchebag with that swagger.

Back at Knives house she’s apparenlty into somebody though who I have no idea, Mr Chau give sher his blessing and she.. apparenlty doesen’t know chinese. I dunno. As I said her subplot this go round was her weakest overall.

And so we end with the whole gang gathered to see Lisa off. It’s a REALLY nice shot, and one of the only times Wallace is seen with the Sex Bomb omb side of the group. Oh sure he goes to their shows and what not, but generally their never in the same vincinity so while there’s no interaction I still find this neat. Seriously the whole main cast is there, it’s a really lovely shot

Also Jason and Hollie.. who are getting awfully chummy. Whu Oh. And of course Craphole and Mouth Face are as likeable as ever.

So we jsut get a genuinely nice sene. Except Stephen and Julie reconciling. Fuck that. Please move on. And as everyone fondly wishes Lisa adeu and wish she stuck arond the res tof the series we end on Scott and Ramona snuggling, Scott asking her her birthday and finding out she’s 24, and they both will be come september. Scott wishes this moment could last.

They probperly snuggle as the volume ends on a high.

Final Thoughts:

Yeah.. Gets it Together is, on rexamination, DEFINTELY my faviorite of the 6. Besides personal value i’ts hte best contained story, contaning lots of character development, great character moments, jokes, and EASILY the best art so far, with goregouness and creativty abounding.

There is a problem here or there: Stephen and Julie’s subplot feels underbaked, and not just because I hates them, and there are several scenes that don’t further plot or character stuff. Ther’es also stuff that could’ve been expanded on.. but given this is still a pretty meaty graphic novel, it’s understandable why it wasn’t.. though it is why I’d love a streaming series since while the movie is excellent, a full series could expand on stuff from the books more Brian simply didn’t have time for. Knives also didn’t get a lot to do.

But their drowned out by tons of great decisions: Lisa was a wonderful additoin to the cast and I genuinely wish she’d stuck around, adding in some energy, blending well with the Sex Bomb Omb crowd, and having great dynamics with everyone and her arc with Scott is heartbreaking,knowing she can’t have him but wanting him anyway having never gottne proper closure on the man she’s always wanted. She’s a heartbreaking character and its nice to see her end in a decent place and on good terms with Scott, having let him go for both thier sakes.

And while Lisa is a highlight everyone is on their a game here for the most part apart from knives, girl hitler, and captain dumbass: Scott grows signfigantly but is funny as hell, Wallace has an intresting arc trying to nudge Scott out without being overt about it, scared to really confront him, Kim is in a happy and serene place for once and it shows. The villians are also intresting: While Mr Chau is a tad underbaked, he’s sitll a cool imposing presence. I do think he shoudl’ve had more to do with the plot.. but is still just so freaking cool it papers over that and him just.. disappearing after this like poor Lisa.

Roxy is far more intresting, having clearly more going on than we see and while I wish we’d got her backstory, she’s easily the most engaging of the exes, being the only one to actively compete with Scott (All her and ramona end up doing is making out a little it turned out), and have bigger stakes than just “The glasses wearing douche asked me to beat up my exes boyfriend and I was like alright.

All in all Gets it Together is really magical, the series high point, and just damn fun and it was a pleasure to go through

Next Month on Scott Pilgrim: It all falls down as we take a look into what once was my least faviorite Album, vs the unvierse. Two perfect assholes try and murder scott with Robutts, his relationship and band crumble and things get sad so very very sad.

Next on this blog: More LIlo and Stitch! The Proud Family come to Kauai and get into a fight with our heroes. Also wizard kelly... who if nothing else is now far more tolerable now i’ve had to spend another volume with the wicked bitch of the west. Touche universe touche. See you at the next rainbow.

#scott pilgrim #ramona flowers #wallace wells #roxanne richter #knives chau #stephen stills #julie power #mr chau #stacey pilgrim #neil nordgraf #young neil #comics #oni press #scotrospective #lisa miller #kim pine #jospeh

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marymccartneyphotos · 3 years

Text

Paul Weller in conversation with Mary McCartney: ‘We used to pinch a lot of Beatles songs’

For this Woking-born son of the 1970s, there were four father figures who underpinned everything, from his first guitar to an inspirational career that continues to expand and explore more than 50 years later. On the release of his latest solo record, his third in three years, we asked Paul Weller to pick through the past with an artist who knows better than any how The Beatles shaped the generation that followed. By Dylan Jones; 4 June 2021 from British GQ Magazine

(edited for Mary McCartney content only)

For Weller’s latest GQ appearance, we thought it would be good to put him together with an old friend, the photographer Mary McCartney. Which is what we did...

Mary McCartney: So, Paul, when did you become a Beatles fan? When you were 12?

Paul Weller: When I was five years old. I had some of the singles, because my mother bought them, but the first time I saw them was the Royal Variety Performance in 1963, when I was five. From the time I saw The Beatles I loved music and then when I was around age 12 I started trying to learn to play guitar. Me and my mate had a few lessons for a bit and got a few weeks in, but the guy was trying to teach us how to read music, so we got bored with that. And as soon as we learnt enough chords we stopped the lessons and we just start doing it ourselves.

MM: When did you actually start writing songs?

PW: As soon as we – me and my mate Steve Brookes – learnt the three or four chords. I’m still mates with him now. We started a band and we just learned together and we just kept swapping whatever we’d learned in the week, swapping back and forth. It was just me and him and then we just gathered up people as we could find them. There was never any doubt in my mind that’s what I would do and, even at around 12, I thought that was definitely what I was going to do for a living. Well, I didn’t know it could be a career, I just knew I was going to do music. So by the age of 14 we were playing pubs, working men’s clubs and social clubs with The Jam. But your dad’s band was the catalyst for all of it.

MM: You know, I’m directing a documentary about the history of Abbey Road Studios at the moment, so I’ve been taken back to those times. There is a photograph of me aged three months on one of the sofas in the studio, so I was there before I can remember being there. Whenever I walk in through the doors I still get a funny feeling. But I’m learning a lot about The Beatles’ recording process, though. What was your writing process in the early days?

PW: When we started to write songs we just used to pinch a lot of The Beatles songs. They were very basic, just us taking our first steps as songwriters. I was actually very passionate at the time, but I didn’t have the skills to articulate that passion. That kind of developed. Our first songs would have been nonsense songs, just “My Baby Love Me” stuff... But, like every other fledgling songwriter, I just started off by aping other people, like The Beatles did, like Dylan did. Everyone starts out copying other people.

MM: I assume you recorded your new album during lockdown?

PW: I did. I had about four or five tracks left over from [last year’s] On Sunset and they were just lying around, unused. So I started working away, chipping away, trying to put together a new batch of songs. As ever, I recorded them all in the studio down in Surrey, just me and a guitar singing along to a click track. If I couldn’t record with the band, I’d send the recordings to them and they’d play their parts and then send them back. It was a very odd process, but it worked. However, when we could finally all record again together, it was like the first day of school after the summer holidays. It was great. The writing process was actually the same as it always is, but because I knew I didn’t have any live work for the foreseeable future, we just created all this space. I think the lockdown was actually hugely influential in a way, as all the quiet made me appreciate nature in a way I hadn’t done for quite some time, maybe ever. I could really feel and hear and see nature again, it started to take over. I loved hearing the birds sing and not seeing any aeroplanes in the sky. It helped me think about things I would never normally think about in any situation. I felt more in tune with nature. I had a thought that if we weren’t here, if we all disappeared, which I’m sure we will do one day, the earth would just reclaim itself and that it will always be here and we won’t.

MM: It was such a nice feeling, actually stopping and looking and appreciating, not rushing around. I was lying in bed one night in the middle of London. It was 2am and it was so quiet it felt like we had gone back 100, 200 years. I couldn’t hear the rumble of the underground and it was almost as though cars hadn’t been invented.

PW: How was your lockdown, Mary?

MM: Mine was good, but we’re not here to talk about me. I’m grilling you today. But mine was good. Well, I say it was good, but it was unnerving. I think, on a global scale, it was just unnerving because it was like living in a science fiction movie. I think the main thing a lot of us benefitted from was having to slow down and not being able to just go and do things. So, in that sense, it wasn’t a bad thing. I was obviously worried about people’s health and the economy, but, like you, I really got in touch with nature. I did a lot more photographic work outside. And, of course, I started to prep for the Abbey Road doc. What’s the perfect recording scenario for you?

PW: Well, I love my studio and, to be honest, I’d be quite happy to never come out of the place. I could quite happily stay there forever. I bought the building in 1999, but it’s only really been the past 15 years or so that we’ve really got it together, with the sound and the vibe and the equipment. I’m continually making little acoustic adjustments to the room. We’ve got a drum kit set up all the time, as well as a mic’d piano, so it’s always ready to roll. I can play guitar, obviously, as well as bass and piano, but I’ve never really enjoyed playing the drums, because I can’t sing and drum with any conviction. It’s a different art altogether, playing drums. I like drummers who play the song, who can play the tune and who aren’t trying to do their own thing. That requires a certain amount of discipline, a different discipline: not playing too much but playing the right thing. Your dad is a good drummer.

MM: Yeah, he is. Mum introduced me to a song he played drums on years ago, called “My Dark Hour”, by the Steve Miller Band. He’s credited as “Paul Ramon” and he does backing vocals, guitar, bass and drums. It was recorded in Olympic Studios in London towards the end of 1969, after an argument Dad had had with the others over Allen Klein becoming their manager. The others had gone off and he said Steve Miller walked in and asked if he wanted to play the drums on this track he was recording. I think the drumming on it is so good, but you can tell he’s letting out a lot of tension.

PW: I love that first solo album of your dad’s, the one with you as a baby on the back. That’s probably one of my favourite records. It was lo-fi before lo-fi was even talked about.

MM: I love the rawness of it, as it’s just so personal. I still listen to McCartney and Ram a lot. They shot the album cover up in Scotland. They were horse riding and he zipped me up in his jacket. He put me in the jacket so I was safe, as he was going riding. I love that picture from a photographic point of view as well, as it’s very real. It’s taken at the end of the day, during the golden hour. It’s so natural.

PW: Now, what was it like growing up, then, as a daughter of a Beatle?

MM: Well, it was more like growing up as a daughter of Paul and Linda, because they were such a great couple. But,

also, they were such adventurous people. So, we were kind of following them around and going on lots of adventures. We went on tour with them and we really only stopped when we needed to go to school. So I have lots of memories of travelling as a girl. I even remember going on the double-decker that they used as a tour bus in 1972. The seats on the upper deck were replaced by mattresses and bean bags.

PW: I assume it was your mother’s inspiration that made you want to be a photographer...

MM: I think so, as I think I just always saw her taking pictures. She had such a casual style too. She didn’t do a lot of setting up and neither do I. It’s just so much nicer when you connect with your sitter and when you just casually take pictures. I much prefer that and I certainly know that you don’t like to have your picture taken in a very set-up kind of situation. What really got me into becoming a photographer was looking at Mum’s pictures from the 1960s. They were about her being with someone and taking pictures and very much not “This is Jimi Hendrix”. Again, casual. When I became a photographer, I took Mum’s talent for granted. She would take pictures out the car window and then they became these books or a print on the wall. When I started doing it myself I’d put the camera up and I’d be like, “Dad, can you turn the car around so I can take this picture?” And he’d be like, “No.” She would take pictures so effortlessly and I didn’t realise there was a knack to it. Mum and Dad would treat everyone equally; I do remember that. We were always surrounded by people, so I suppose that’s why I think I am a bit of a people person. I like meeting people and I like connecting with people, but I still find I’m quite shy about it. I find it stressful, but I like it. But I could never in a million years get up on a stage, ever. Even thinking about it makes me feel like fainting. When did you first walk out in front of a big crowd? How does that feel? Is it just feeling that adulation and love and appreciation and then giving that back? Does that feel really healthy? I always think when it works perfectly, it just must be such a healthy feeling.

PW: It’s almost a weird thing, because just prior to going on stage, especially in the hour before, I’m in bits. I’m so nervous and so don’t want to be there and want to go home, and then within minutes of actually being on stage, as soon as that first tune strikes up, I automatically feel as though this is completely where I’m supposed to be. It feels like the most natural, most comfortable, Zen-like place you could possibly be, it’s so weird. I’ve always felt nervous before going on stage. That’s never changed. I mean, it’s got a little bit better as I’ve got older, but not much. I think I need to have that feeling. It was weird, because there was a time when I tried to stop drinking – before I stopped completely – and when I stopped I suddenly wasn’t nervous before going on stage. And I didn’t like it. It felt really odd.

MM: Isn’t there something superstitious about this?

PW: No, I don’t think so. I just think it gives you an edge. Those nerves can make you edgy and I think that’s important for me.

MM: And then did the nerves come back?

PW: When I started drinking again they did.

MM: But now you’re not?

PW: When I finally stopped drinking it took me at least two years to get used to that feeling of going on stage totally sober and straight. And now I love it. But it took a good two years to get comfortable, as it was really odd at first. I’d be on stage and I’d notice so much, like there’s a guy in the front row who’s wearing a green shirt or something, and now I don’t feel that at all. Now it feels natural and I have a greater appreciation of it. That’s the other thing as well, getting more from it and being more conscious of what we’re doing.

MM: Growing up, watching Mum and Dad on stage just felt natural. But I’ve seen you play a few times and it makes me realise how much I couldn’t do it myself. There is such great energy and it’s really entertaining and you look completely natural, but I wouldn’t be able to feel comfortable in that position. Also, to me, it feels like your music has to be played live. I went to a concert before lockdown and the person was so vacant and not connected to the audience and, because of that, it made me nervous. You could tell they were going through the motions, that it was an act. They had no connection at all. Whereas when I look at Dad on stage he’s all about connection. I think I had taken it for granted before that, but when you see someone who doesn’t connect, you realise how important it is.

PW: I know some people who turn up just before they go on stage and as soon as they finish they get in the car and they’re off. I don’t understand that either. It’s a far bigger thing than that for me, because I’m looking for that connection. As much as the audience might be, I am as well, and my band too, because I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes and there are some nights where you get so connected together by an audience that this thing just grows and grows. It transcends the moment.

MM: It’s like magic.

PW: It’s something special. The last time I played at the Fillmore in San Francisco, a couple of years ago, it was like that, and it wasn’t because of gear. It was almost like we took off, like the whole room just lifted up.

MM: Have you got a ritual for after the show?

PW: No, not really. No.

MM: My dad has this sandwich and a Margarita, because he doesn’t eat before he goes on. He waits until after.

PW: I have a cup of tea these days. In the past, I would have got off my nut, but I don’t any more. But if you have a gig like that and that becomes your benchmark, you’re always looking to get back to that moment, which is not always possible. But that becomes the thing you’re always searching for, to find that connection. We’re always striving for the spectacular. It’s the same with record companies. Sometimes you have to compromise, but what you really want to do is pursue your own passions. It was more difficult when we first started, because the record company tried to step in more and tried to guide us to do this or that. In the early days of The Jam they even suggested we cover a 10cc song. We said, “No fucking way is that going to happen.” You’ve got to stick to your guns. You’ve got to pursue what you set out to achieve.

MM: Fashion and clothes feel important to what you do, maybe because they make you feel a certain way to be able to perform?

PW: Yeah. But although I was too young to be really involved in the 1960s, I still lived through that time and that whole thing has never gone away for me. I love that period and it informs a lot of what I do, including how I dress. The whole look and sound of that time is just really formative. I don’t feel I’m stuck in that time, but it will always be the cornerstone of everything I do. I just thought it was such a brilliant time for music and fashion and art and all that stuff.

MM: What do you think it is about it? Is it experimentation?

PW: I think so. It was those postwar years, coming out of all that austerity, that bleak black and white, grey world – large parts of the country were still like that in the early 1960s. There were still bombsites. There was still slum housing. So it took a long time for Britain to become modern, but when it did, it was explosive.

MM: Dad describes it as it all suddenly going technicolour.

PW: Yeah, I think that’s true and you just see the clothes and music expanding. Men stopped wearing demob suits and started wearing all these bright-coloured clothes.

MM: And the pill came about and made life a lot easier.

PW: Then the other pills came a little bit later and helped expand everyone’s horizons. These people were pioneers. And also look at the art world – Peter Blake, David Hockney, Bridget Riley. It felt as though everything was becoming more modern and opening up and becoming different and colourful. I was only a very tender age, but, nevertheless, that influence was of great importance and value and always has been. Punk was probably the first time I experienced that freedom. We missed out on the 1960s, had a lift with Bowie, but after that it was largely a cultural wasteland. I was always looking for when I thought it was going to be our term. The 1970s were still very much in the shadow of the 1960s until punk. And then it all blossomed. Then it all started to make sense.

Fat Pop (Volume 1) by Paul Weller is out now.

Producer: Grace Guppy. First assistant: Pedro Faria. Digital technician: Alexander Brunacci. Make-up: Jane Bradley. Retouching: The Hand Of God

#musician #mary mccartney #interview #paul weller #photographer #paul mccartney #Linda McCartney

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scarlet--wiccan · 4 years

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Hey, since the maximoffs are generally white-passing (though not always and “passing” is a complicated thing) in the comics, do you think it’s rude/unnecessary to confront someone for making very pale art of them? If I did it I’d try to be nicer about it than I would if they were just blatantly whitewashing a visibly brown or black character, but I see a lot of artist who I feel like might not know and I really wonder if it’s worth it. Do you have any thoughts?

That's complicated. It's not a misrepresentation of the characters in the way that, for instance, a blonde Wanda or a tall, muscular Billy would be.

I can't reasonably fault anybody, fanartist or canon illustrator, for drawing characters on-model.

That said, in the last few years there has been an ongoing conversation in this fandom, at least here on tumblr, about who the Maximoffs are, and the ways in which their general representation is lacking. It's become more common to draw the characters with darker skin or more apparently ethnic features. If you're a fan of Wanda, or Pietro, or any iteration of Young Avengers, it's pretty hard to avoid that conversation, so it's easy to point fingers at anybody who seems to be ignorant to, or is intentionally ignoring, that trend. If I'm reading your message correctly, you seem to be asking if that trend represents a truer, more valid version of the characters that we should all adhere to, and if it is necessarily problematic to do otherwise.

I'm of two minds. On the one hand, I believe that disrupting the representation of all Roma people as white-passing, or even interchangeable with white Europeans, is crucial. Setting aside the fact that the diaspora intersects with just about every racial group, not just white people, the broad whitewashing of Roma communities in media erases our origins and occludes the fact that the mistreatment of Roma people is a race issue. On a wider scale, I believe that this manufactured ignorance contributes to systemic antiromanyism, but within the sphere of pop culture, specifically, it allows people to get away with obviously racist art and writing, and it's why Romani history and identity are viewed as disposable whenever people adapt these comics for the screen.

On the other hand, I'm deeply frustrated by the tokenization and co-opting of Roma identity that this fandom performs. This may sound hypocritical, considering how much of my blog revolves around my edits, but I see a lot of folks on tumblr who draw brown Wandas, make fancasts with Romani actors, and, like me, photoshop comic book panels, but not a lot of people who demonstrate any understanding of antiromanyism, or better yet, material allyship. In everybody's haste to earn diversity points, they've produced a lot of unintentionally racist content. I've seen a lot of cultural tourism, inappropriately co-opted activist work, and even virtual brownfacing in the form of RP accounts. No one, myself included, should feel entitled to dictate what a true or valid image of Wanda looks like, but especially not a community of people who think that having a folder of Hiba Abouk gifs and a Wikipedia list of common chib phrases makes it okay to racefake for your MCU roleplay.

Anyways, when it comes to fanart, you're going to have to rely on your own subjective judgement, and try to think about more specific issues than "whitewashing" because these characters just don't fit into that idea. Content that's derived from the movies is complicit in erasure. Content that is derived from the comics, but which applies lighter and straighter hair to Billy or Wanda is complicit in eurocentric standards, and the trend of gradually lightwashing characters of color, and even white Jewish characters. Content which employs racist stereotypes is not better than canon "white-passing" depictions. Cultural appropriation is still cultural appropriation, even if the character you're drawing is a member of that culture. Many popular writers and artists have a history of ignoring or shutting down dialogues about representation, even harassing people like me.

Hopefully, thinking about that stuff gives you a more clear idea of what to look out for, what's worthy of confrontation, and how to articulate your problems with a specific person or their content.

I know this ran longer than was strictly necessary, but I wanted to roll your message together with a similar question about whitewashing:

The Maximoffs weren't conceived, written, or designed in such a way as to be intentionally whitewashed, at least not originally-- their background was established via a retcon, at least a decade after their first appearance. Up until that point, they were generic, apparently white, Central Europeans. The fact that they are treated as interchangeably white and Roma is both product and perpetuation of the broad whitewashing of European Romani that I described earlier. Nobody's going out of their way to make sure the twins always have at least one white ancestor in order to justify "whitewashing" them, rather, nobody has ever truly envisioned them as people of color in the first place.

People will perform all kinds of mental gymnastics in order to minimize the Maximoffs' ancestry, or come up with reasons why it makes the most sense for them to look white-- invoking Erik as the father; dredging up the short-lived Robert Frank retcon; or, for Billy and Tommy, claiming that their resurrection somehow erased their genetic and ancestral ties to Wanda, even though the text implies the very opposite. I'll let you in on a secret, though-- these characters aren't real people, and their stories aren't immutable truths. If anybody, fans, writers, or artists, is making leaps of logic to avoid making comics more inclusive, it's not because their hands are tied by the unbreakable chains of canon, it's because they don't want comics to be more inclusive.

Also, I could be off the mark here, but I don't think I am-- Sinti people are Roma. Different parts of the diaspora have different names for themselves, but are all part of the same larger population. It's mostly a regional thing, as I understand. If you want my opinion, it doesn't matter what version of the story you go with-- whether Magda, Marya or Natalya is their birthmother, Marya and Django raised them. They have direct Roma ancestry either way, and they were raised by a Roma family. It's hard to say exactly where in the world the Maximoffs lived, or what specific label they might have identified with, but the twins would likely identify with the community they were raised in, be that Sinti or Servitka or Kalerash or whatever else. If I'm being honest I don't think that distinction is relevant for non-Roma to make.

I've said this before, but I don't really care what the characters look like, and I'm not interested in playing identity politics with fictional stories that were created by and for American gadje. Obviously, I love these characters as a fan, and I do have my own vision, no pun intended, of who they are and how I'd like to see them represented, but I worry that these conversations are unproductive. I hope you guys understand that I'm not out here trying to canonize an arbitrary idea of what Jewish Romani people look like. American superhero media has a long history of exploiting, misrepresenting, and erasing Romani history. I want more people to understand that, and understand the material consequences it has, and think about how comics, American culture, and art in general can deconstruct this specific mechanism of racism. It's not about any one character's identity, and it's not about my creative vision.

#bee text #wanda maximoff #pietro maximoff #billy kaplan #tommy shepherd #robintext

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calligraphist-artemisia · 3 years

Text

Finding Courage

Written for the Kidge Spring Event!

Prompt 6: Edelweiss | Courage, Devotion

Summary: AU - Canon Divergence. Five years after the end of the war, Pidge finds herself wanting to go back out and see the universe with her own eyes. Luckily, she knows someone who can help with that, but only if she can find the courage to ask.

Also posted on AO3 under the username Kishirokitsune

❀ - ❀ - ❀ - ❀ - ❀

The time had come.

Pidge looked in the mirror as she ran her hands down the sides of her shirt, trying to smooth out the few wrinkles that had accumulated. She wanted to look nice, but not too nice. Lance and Hunk would notice if she was trying too hard and they would poke and prod until they were satisfied with the answer she gave, and that wasn't something she really wanted to deal with. (Shiro was likely to notice as well but at least he would be polite enough to keep it to himself.)

Which was why she'd selected a pair of jeans, her signature green shirt (at least according to Lance), and her nicer lab coat that didn't have oil stains all over it. And while for most of their Team Voltron get-togethers she would forgo the lab coat for something nicer, she had plans to drop by the hangar where Project Lionheart was in the works to grab a few things from the lab she shared with Matt.

Text appeared at the bottom of her glasses.

Matt: I leave in 10 minutes if you want a ride.

Pidge pressed her finger to the right side of her frames. “Send message: I'll be down soon.”

Her new glasses were a labor of love that were nearly five years in the making. She'd spent countless nights trying to link it to her computer and then to get the voice recognition to work and then to devise a lightweight battery that would both hold a charge for a minimum of twelve hours while also having the capability of being wirelessly recharged. She'd wrangled Matt and Hunk into helping her, which sometimes involved 2 am conversations when she couldn't sleep because an idea wouldn't leave her alone, but she needed someone's brain to pick and see if she was crazy or on the right track.

She still had a hundred new ideas to try out for it, but for the moment it was the perfect way for her family to contact her when she was eyeballs deep in some new project. (Not to mention, it was also remarkably helpful in displaying measurements and any other schematics when she needed them.)

Pidge slung her bag containing her laptop over her shoulder and then headed downstairs to join Matt and tell her parents they were headed out.

Colleen pulled her in for a tight hug, her eyes glimmering with unshed tears. “I'm so proud of you!”

“Mom, I haven't even asked him yet,” Pidge complained, her voice muffled against her mom's shirt.

“Oh, please, like he's going to say 'no'?” Matt remarked from the doorway. He grinned at the glare his sister cast in his direction. “I'm just saying that I talk to Shiro a lot. And you know who else talks to Shiro? Keith does. Trust me, he'll be tripping over himself to agree to let you join him.”

Pidge rolled her eyes. The very idea of Keith being anything other than composed and unshakable by something she had to say was silly. Maybe it would have been different when they were younger and just starting out as Team Voltron, but not after all of their experiences during the war and throughout Reconstruction.

“You're all getting way ahead of yourselves,” Pidge said as she extricated herself from her mom's arms. “And making way too big of a deal out of this. All I'm doing is asking if I can go with him and help with the Outreach Program.”

With Kolivan serving as the interim Emperor of the Galra until he either stepped down or Reconstruction reached its ten-year mark, it had fallen on Krolia to lead the weakened, but not fully depleted, Blade of Marmora. She split the Blade into two separate but equal groups – one to continue their undercover work and root out any insurgents before they could cause too much trouble and the other a much more public branch dedicated to reaching out to affected planets and offering aid in whatever way they could.

Pidge, who felt like she was stagnating by staying on Earth and doing the same thing day in and day out, thought that going back out and seeing the universe with her own eyes was exactly what she needed. And sure, she could ask Hunk if she could tag along with his crew and he would gladly welcome her on board, but she wasn't sure she'd really find what she was looking for on a ship devoted to the culinary arts of the universe. Pidge had thought about it for a long time and, in the end, came to the conclusion that asking Keith was the way to go.

That was months ago and she'd seen him twice since then. She'd chickened out both of those times.

Because maybe she had a second motive for wanting to go with him. Something beyond wanting to explore the universe and even more of a... personal desire.

“Leaving already?” Sam asked, poking his head into the entrance hall.

Matt nodded. “Yeah, I have a few things to check on in the lab and Pidge wants to get to her meeting on time, so I figured we should head out.”

Pidge and Matt wrapped up their goodbyes and then set off to the Galaxy Garrison, where Matt dropped her off close to the Voltron Memorial before continuing on his way to the parking garage. Pidge watched him leave before she began making her way up the gleaming white stairs, which led to the top of a hill where a massive stone sculpture of Voltron stood watching over the land.

Normally the area was crawling with tourists, but once a year it was reserved for a group of 7 as they celebrated the day they first met.

As Pidge reached the top of the steps, she saw most of her friends were already there and seated at a round patio table. Shiro was smiling as he listened to whatever story Lance was enthusiastically telling, while Hunk leaned back and occasionally interjected. Lance paused his story as she approached.

“You're on time!”

“Like you haven't been late a time or two,” Pidge shot defensively shot back. Seriously, she was late once or twice (or a lot) because she got wrapped up in something she was working for and the man would never let her forget it.

Lance grinned at her. “I was just telling Shiro and Hunk about the time you came out to visit the farm.”

“A memory I'd rather forget,” Pidge said with a wince. She sat down between Hunk and Shiro and gently set her bag down on the floor at her feet. “Where's everyone else? I figured Allura and Coran would have come with you, Lance.”

“Dropping the twins off with Romelle. She agreed to babysit,” Lance responded.

“Even after last time? Brave woman,” Hunk joked.

Pidge couldn't help but smile. The twins were Lance and Allura's 3-year-old children, Alfor and Maribel, and were a handful even for the most experienced and patient people. Romelle was practically a saint for being able to watch them on her own and Pidge wished she could know how she did it. (Maybe then she wouldn't end up covered in mud or running from bees or locked in the attic, all of which had happened during her first and last visit to the farm and was undoubtedly the story Lance was telling when she walked up.)

“You could have brought them along. I would love to see Alfor and Maribel again,” Shiro said.

Lance shook his head. “No, trust me. This is the better option. If we take our eyes off of them for even a second they'll have climbed to the top of the Voltron statue. Somehow. And good luck getting them down.”

Shiro made a sound to indicate his disbelief. “They're not that bad.”

“Yes, they are,” Lance and Pidge deadpanned in unison.

And honestly, they were sweet kids, but the amount of trouble they could get into was staggering and, in some ways, only reinforced Pidge's feelings that she never wanted to have any of her own.

Lance soon launched into a series of stories of the more interesting antics of the twins, which Allura and Coran backed up once they arrived. Pidge found herself laughing over some of the ones she hadn't heard before and because of that, she completely missed Keith's arrival via one very special cosmic wolf. He easily inserted himself into the conversation as he took a seat between Shiro and Coran – directly across from Pidge – and it was like he'd been there the whole time.

They soon branched off from stories about the twins so everyone could describe what they'd been up to since the last time all seven of them were together.

Lance and Allura, of course, had the kids and their farm on New Altea, which they ran with the help of Lance's family. In the beginning, Allura tried to split her time between them and trying to rule as Queen, but it eventually became too much and she turned to Coran for help, who suggested a council of trusted individuals to run the day-to-day duties that were necessary for the new planet to flourish. No one was surprised when he was elected Head Chancellor of the Council.

Even once things calmed down, Shiro retained his role as Captain of the Atlas, if only for the fact that he was the only one the ship responded to. The big, bulky ship didn't have much use outside of exploration and assisting with Reconstruction (sometimes by providing extra muscle for goods, sometimes just for transporting more sensitive or bulky materials), but Shiro spoke of his job and crew with pride. He even mentioned that he started seeing someone, though he wouldn't say who.

(“It's still new to both of us,” he said in response to Lance's begging. “We want to wait and see where things go before we start telling everyone.”)

Hunk had a myriad of new stories about all of the new recipes he created, as well as some of his worst failures. He had them all laughing so hard that it brought tears to their eyes at some of his descriptions. He then spoke of future plans and how he was looking to hire more chefs to help with the increased demand for their food before turning the conversation over to Keith.

“There isn't much to say,” Keith said with a shrug. “It's not like anything has changed since the last time we talked. You all know what I've been doing.”

“Are you really going to sit there and say that nothing interesting has happened to you? You're traveling with Zethrid and Ezor and yet you have no stories?” Lance asked incredulously. “Nope. I don't believe it.”

“You don't have to believe it, but it's true.”

Some things never change.

Pidge tried not to laugh as the two bickered. They only stopped because Shiro stepped in to put an end to it and then it was her turn to gloss over what she'd been working on. Project Lionheart was largely still a secret, though they'd be ready to announce its existence in a few months.

Hours bled together as the seven friends sat and talked and laughed together. Eventually, the sun began to set and Allura and Lance stood to say their goodbyes and go collect the twins from Romelle. Shiro followed soon after, giving the excuse that he had a “hot date” to get ready for, and then Coran and Hunk left together, talking about food supply and whether or not Hunk was willing to make a stop by New Altea during his next round trip.

That left Pidge with Keith.

Alone.

With no one else around to watch her make a fool of herself.

“Are you alright?” Keith asked.

Pidge jerked her head up to stare at him with wide eyes. “Y-yeah, of course! Why wouldn't I be? Everything's great!”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “You've been more quiet than usual.”

Pidge opened her mouth to protest and then immediately shut it. He wasn't wrong. She'd spent most of the afternoon trying not to blurt out her question in the middle of someone else talking and she was dying to get it over with. Finally, they were alone and it was the perfect chance, but everything she wanted to say had suddenly fled her mind.

It was ridiculous!

Keith was her friend!

Her rather handsome friend who she'd developed a large crush on, but her friend nevertheless. Talking to him was easy. She just needed to keep it simple.

“I was wondering... If I asked to go with you the next time you head out, what would you say?”

She watched as Keith sucked in a breath as her words registered in his mind, his eyes widening slightly, and then...

“I'd say that I'd be lucky to have you by my side. You're welcome to come along whenever you'd like.”

#voltron #kidge #kidgemas #kidge spring event 2021 #fanfiction #canon divergence

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lizacstuff · 3 years

Text

SCK Asks: Episode 38

(asks under the cut)

Anonymous said: happy edser just HITS different. maybe it's because we've been so deprived of them together and blissful, it's such a joy to watch. i had a silly grin on my face during all their scenes. sure the tumor cloud is looming over our heads, but this episode only laid the foundation for that and then went into romcom mode, which i really appreciated because we've been bogged down for SO LONG with heaviness, it was nice to just take a breather.

OMG! Yes, all of this. And I’m not sure if it’s happy Edser that hits different, or if it was whatever magic and sparkle these writers injected into this episode that made it hit different.

The magic was BACK. The sparkle was BACK. These writers took the most ridiculous scenario idea (these two famous architects deciding to solve a murder) and just made it sing. I grinned through the whole thing and laughed out loud, A LOT.

This was the first episode in ages where I wasn’t watching the clock and waiting for some uncomfortable or unpleasant moment or scene to occur. Instead watching was pure joy and no anxiety, even with a tumor diagnosis.

There was so much good Edser in this episode it’s hard to know what to talk about. I loved every moment they were on screen together.

Anonymous said: I have to hand it to you, you said that the reason they were doing this pregnancy story is so that we could find out that Selin and Serkan never slept together. ngl I wanted her to suffer more, but as long as she’s gone I’m fine with her punishment being the humiliation of having to admit that in front of Eda.

Ha! Yes, I have said that all along, and I’ve never been more relieved to be right. They really went the extra mile with having Selin spell out that it hadn’t happened. With the English subs it almost sounded like they had never, ever had sex, even before. If so, I could actually believe it, their prior relationship seemed to be very business like, like they were each other’s safe, convenient date to business and family functions, and it wasn’t emotional or physical for him.

After the gross story around Selin, and how much damage she did and how much she got away with, this was not nearly enough comeuppance to sate my thirst for her pain. These writers started this story and introduced Selin’s role in it, so it’s not like they 100% inherited something they had nothing to do with. However, between Bige’s limited availability due to her father passing, Sarp Can having covid, and the way the other writers drug it into the ground, I’m also just happy it’s over and will deal with this being all we get, plus, while she didn’t get punished adequately, she did take her lumps. It’s humiliating that Serkan went around acting incredulous to everyone who would listen that she could be pregnant because he never touched her, even while she was his fiancé. I mean that’s a shrinker. Can you imagine agreeing to marry a man who you knew didn’t want to touch you? Everyone now knows her sad, pathetic desperation to have him under any circumstances. Yikes.

And as you say, she then had to stand in front of Eda and Serkan and admit he didn’t touch her. Admit that Serkan never wanted her, and it’s humiliating that everyone at Art Life knows what she did and thinks she’s a monster. Serkan finally knows she’s an awful manipulator who tried to trick him, and in the end she gets an unplanned pregnancy with a man who doesn’t love her and whom she doesn’t love. So it’s not like she’s winning by any stretch of the imagination.

(Though I really wish everyone knew (mostly Serkan and Eda) that she sabotaged Eda’s presentation. It’s important for the characters to know that she can’t be trusted professionally as well as personally... but oh well.)

Anonymous said: Two things: 1) I kinda love it even more that they got the tattoos before he found about the illness.. idk why but it was even MORE romantic. Also does this mean they're kinda sorta engaged again since the reason she said no in the first place was Selin? and 2) I need more of that "ring for love" bell ASAP. My jaw actually dropped when he lifted her up since we were deprived of it in 26.. please more breaking of family structures!!

Oh I agree, I found it very romantic they went and got the tattoos and the only impetus was their desire to have a symbol of their love. I already love those tattoos so much, and I love that they sat their designing them together. They really do signify the ultimate commitment.

I’m not sure if they’re engaged or not. Maybe they’re in a place where it’s obvious they’re going to get married, they both know they’re going to get married, but we’re still going to get one more proposal to make it official?

As for the ring for love bell, when and where did he get that!? Hee. And yes to more breaking of the Turkish family structure. That lift and twirl through the living room was... HOT. And it was just so effortless, there are just no words at times for how good Hande and Kerem are, I’ve really never seen anything like it. They don’t really have time to rehearse on set, or limitless takes or the time to really block and perfect things, but they’re just so good together they make magic happen every time they’re on screen. Amazing. Enjoy this kids, because you probably won’t see anything like it again.

Anonymous said: With the nature of these shows, Eda and Serkan will not a blissful happily ever after without something hanging over there heads or some new drama until the show actually ends. So if the new angst is Serkan's potential illness, I'm down for the potential angst it'll create.. it's already a good sign that, although he hasn't told her about it yet, he's not pushing her away in fear, but instead the opposite. I also don't think, and really hope not, him keeping it secret rn won't cause trouble.

Yes, I like that even with that heavy health news hanging over the episode, it was still light and funny and romantic and had that old sparkle. That tells me that they’re going to strike the right tone with this story which seems to be a very carpe diem thing with Serkan.

It didn’t bother me that he didn’t tell her. First, he told the doctor that he didn’t want anyone to know until he had a diagnosis. That makes sense, why worry her, or any of them, before they know. I’m sure I would feel different if he was pushing her away because of the diagnosis, but since he’s holding her close and just seems to want to spend time with her, without that heaviness hanging over her head, I’m okay with it.

Also, as seen in the new fragman, if this story is an excuse to get them out of the office and put them in all sorts of scenarios together it would otherwise be hard to justify, bring it on. Let’s see how far down the list of things to do they can get!

Anonymous said: i know no one reaaaally cares because they're not most people's favorite side characters, but it's really much nicer to watch aydan and ayfer scenes now that they're both on "team edser" and have become really good friends. i swear, the AAA trio scenes were so unbearable to watch when they were fighting over him and i was fast forwarding through all of them.. at least i can sit through team "united" aydan/ayfer scenes.

They’re actually enjoyable scenes now! I love that they’ve become actual true friends, best friends really, and along with Seyfi I love their little trio. Love that Seyfi and Ayfer were being so supportive about Aydan rekindling something with Kemal. And I agree that we can root for them when they’re working for Edser’s well-being and happiness. I just hope Aydan doesn’t do something stupid if there begins to be some question about Serkan’s parentage.

Anonymous said: the scooby doo gang ending had me laughing so hard i was tearing up when more and more people kept sneaking in and eda and serkan were getting more and more exasperated. erdem accidentally using flash took me tf out lmao. i love when sck does comedy with the whole cast and not just the usual "comedy" characters.. they're some of my favorite scenes! both "asking for the girl" scenes come to mind.

You could see Erdem using the flash coming from a mile away, but that still didn’t blunt the comedy when he actually did it. So funny. Also Engin not recognizing Eda, imagine him thinking Serkan is there with some rando woman. I also love the full cast comedy scenes, they are so much fun and really should be utilized as often as possible.

The scene where Edser walk back into the house and Aydan and Kemal were there paying their respects had me screech-laughing! So so so funny. Both sides being incredulous that the other was there and wanting answers! I also enjoyed that Serkan obviously put Erdem in charge of Kemal’s project, because he wants that project to go away. Unfortunately for Serkan, I think it’s going to take more than Erdem to drive Kemal away.

Anonymous said: Everyone is saying serkan planned the whole thing, do you buy into that? Idk would he really put everyone in a gunpoint situation where they don’t know it’s fake? Cause that’s some potentially trauma inducing stuff. Also I have no idea where they’re going with this, since it’s been a 4 day break from set which is kind of worrying. And do you know why Melisa wasn’t in the ep? I know Sarp can got Covid but wasn’t Melisa posting with cast members on her story throughout the week?

Wow, this is a lot of negative energy and fretting after a really good episode. Deep breath. Since you sent this, we know that Hande and Kerem have been shooting for 2 full days at a romantic looking beach location for 39, so it looks like Edser has some sort of mini-getaway. I don’t see any reason to be concerned about the 4 day break last week. (now the fragman’s out, hopefully that puts your mind at ease)

No idea why Melissa wasn’t in the ep, other than the way the ep was structured with the supporting characters, if she had to miss the ArtLife shooting day then I can see that they would have had to write her out of the full episode, because most of their scenes were there and it set up everything for the rest of the episode. So perhaps she was in quarantine for a Covid exposure, maybe she was legit sick/injured (she has had a foot thing) or maybe she had a conflict for that one shooting day. No idea, but I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. Also her absence gave us Ferit/Melo scenes and I’m 100% behind that, give us more of those!

As far as if Serkan planned the whole thing, he did look pretty smug and relaxed while sitting there at the end, but he also wasn’t planning for the whole group to tag along and make a mess, lmao. We’ll have to see.

Anonymous said: Do you think bad ratings makes sck in danger of being cancelled or do you think high social media engagement keeps it safe?

Friends, I don’t know anything about the Turkish system, but it seems to me that SCK will either go through May or extend into summer and end then, regardless of the ratings. We shall see. As I’ve said before I’m not going to engage in the fretting and worrying and discussion on this topic because no fan really knows what they’re talking about and there is nothing we can do to change what will happen. So just enjoy the show while we can, the news on when it will end will come when it comes.

#Sen Çal Kapımı #Sen Cal kapimi #edser #sck episode discussion #sckask #sck 1x38 #asklizac #anonymous

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lovelyirony · 4 years

Note

“i was going to ask that you go easy on me. i’m feeling kind of tender today.” For whomever you want!

Being alone is something that Bruce thought was the best option for him. He doesn’t really like being social or “on” all the time, and he’s fine with drinking tea in his room and working on homework. For fun, he’ll usually watch one of his “shows” on the weekends.

Being alone can oftentimes lead to being lonely, unfortunately. One of the drawbacks, and something that Bruce doesn’t like.

He thought he was pretty well-adjusted to college. He didn’t really need to make friends immediately. His mother had written to him from Aunt Becca’s house on new stationary that friends come along when you’re least expecting it.

And then he got to orientation and his leader said that “friends are something you need to pursue! Get out there and go make some! Join a club!”

Bruce had not done that.

He doesn’t want to say that he’s scared of people, but they...intimidate him. He was made fun of his whole elementary and most of his high school time, so it’s not like Bruce learned how to successfully navigate friendship.

So here he is in his dorm on a Wednesday night at 10:34, post-shower, and he realizes that he is all alone and he probably needs to change that.

But he’s not sure how. He’s not great at “event-crashing” and there’s no way that he’s just going to sit down and talk to somebody. He’s in it for the confusion, it seems.

A week later, there’s a knock on his door.

It’s one of the girls who lives on his floor, Nat or Natalie or something.

“I smelled coffee,” she says. “And I want to know if I can have some.”

“Um...sure? Do you want cream or sugar or anything?”

“Is the cream flavored?”

“Yeah, it’s the, uh, new fall flavor. I thought it could be good in coffee.”

Her eyes light up, and she walks straight into his room, not even noticing the notes pinned all over his cork-board and the sad laundry pile in the corner. She pours coffee neat as can be into her own mug, sits down on the desk chair, and looks at him.

“Are you going to have any?”

“Uh...yes?”

He pours some, and then gets the cream out. He passes it over to her, and she takes it gladly.

“None of us really see you anywhere,” she says. “Why is that?”

“I, um. I guess I don’t get out much,” Bruce mutters. “Can you...can you smell the coffee from my room?”

“Not from where I am, but Clint lives across the hall,” Nat says. “Room 816. He wanted coffee, but was too shy to ask if he could. We’ll provide coffee costs so long as we get it.”

“Um, sure,” Bruce says. “I always leave my room unlocked. I’m Bruce.”

“Nat, I live in 842. What are you majoring in?”

“Chemistry and biology,” Bruce answers easily. “A focus in genetics.”

“Whoa. Cool. I’m studying business and security.”

“What do you want to do with that, if you don’t mind me being the millionth person to ask that?”

Natasha smiles, and Bruce can tell that she’s more than most people think.

“My friend Tony and his boyfriend want to revamp his dad’s company, so they’re gonna need a bodyguard.”

“Cool,” Bruce says. “I want to help people and create cures.”

“Always honorable. You wanna come with us to the drive-in movie tonight?”

Bruce blinks. He’s not expecting an invitation to be thrust his way so...directly.

“Um, sure. You sure about that?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well...we’ve never met before this.”

“We’ve done enough,” Natasha says easily, grabbing her mug and heading for the door. “We’re meeting in the lobby at eight, but we’re getting dinner at seven if you wanna come to that. Tony would really like to meet you, he’s been complaining about the lack of ‘smart’ people.”

“I’ll...I’ll see you, then.”

Right at six, Bruce is nervously tugging at the hem of his shirt, or wringing his hands.

He sees a guy who he thinks is Clint.

“Oh hey! You came!” he says with a grin. “Do you have any bandages?”

“Do you need one?”

“In the future? Yes. Currently? No,” he says, getting out his phone. “What do you think you’ll get for dinner?”

“Um, probably their lasagna or something. I know that the pizza tonight is barbecue chicken.”

Clint pulls a face.

“The worst one, bleh. Ooh, Thor’s on his way!”

Thor is...Thor. There’s literally no other word to describe the vibe of him.

He’s wearing a flannel, jeans, and he looks like he could be a nature guide at a national park.

Bruce is stunned. He’s never seen him around before.

“You met Thor yet?” Nat asks, lips curving into a smile.

“No,” Bruce says faintly. “I don’t think I have.”

And then in walks Tony and Jim (or Rhodey?), and his eyes light up.

“Bruce, my darling dearest. I heard that you are a smart man, and I am all about smart men. Let’s talk science.”

Bruce actually gets engaged in conversation, and he loves it, even when Steve says “could we have this in English, please?”

"Absolutely not,” Tony says. “Bruce and I are on the same wave length, so you will have to get used to us being annoying.”

“Sorry Steve,” Bruce says softly.

Steve grins.

“I’m just joking around, Bruce. Don’t worry about it. Wait until I start talking about art techniques.”

Dinner is good. Bruce gets to know more about everyone, and laughs out loud at most of Nat’s dry humor.

“Finally, someone with good taste,” she says. “You’re coming to the movie, right?”

“What’s playing?”

“One of my favorites,” Thor rumbles. “Ben-Hur.”

“We’re going to fall asleep,” Sam murmurs to Bruce. “Like, seriously. It’s boring.”

“The set design isn’t,” Bruce says softly. He saw the movie once with his cousin Jen and their grandpa. “It’s a beautifully made one.”

“Then you can sit next to Thor,” Tony decides. “Because otherwise he’ll spend the whole time trying to wake us up so that we don’t miss a part, or several.”

“It’s a good movie,” Thor says, although he seems to know that he’s lost the debate.

“We’ll have a good time regardless,” Clint says. “Especially since I’m planning on eating a whole tray of Oreos and passing out.”

“At least save some for me,” Sam says. “I don’t want a repeat of last time.”

“Your fault for making moon-eyes at Bucky,” Nat retorts.

“Oh, I did not.”

“You did,” Thor said simply. “But let’s get to the car before we lose our spot.”

There’s not exactly a spot to lose. The only other people are older couples and the occasional young teenage couple who has every intention of parking a bit further away and hoping to god everyone ignores them.

(And everyone will.)

Bruce comes to find that they weren’t joking about having him sit next to Thor; they point out that Thor is actually really excited to have someone to talk to.

“It’s true,” Thor says, grabbing a blanket out of the car to settle down over his chair.

Or at least, that’s what Bruce thought was going on.

What goes on is that Thor shares it.

“Weather’s supposed to go low tonight,” Thor says. “Can’t have you getting cold and me knowing I could’ve done something about it.”

Bruce will say, if anyone asks, that he was not blushing and they can’t prove it because it was dark outside.

He moves his chair closer.

After all, he doesn’t want to stretch the blanket farther than it can reach. And he wants to hear Thor better.

The orchestral music starts up and floats in between cars, and Thor looks at the screen, completely enraptured.

Nat gives Bruce a look, and he looks away.

“I brought soda, you want some?” Tony whispers.

Bruce jumps as he turns to face the genius, who is so unbelievably close.

“There’s Dr. Pepper and Pepsi but with cherry.”

“Cherry, please,” Thor rumbles. “Bruce, for you?”

“Um, I’m...I’m good.”

Movie night is...nice.

Bruce doesn’t really focus on the plot that much, not when Thor is whispering every so often about a favorite piece of music or what he liked about an actor’s choice.

He doesn’t mind it. Not at all. He notices the smallest things, and Thor passes him over a snack. It’s nice.

It’s nicer when they drive back and Thor tells him that he’s glad he came.

“I’ve seen you around, I just wasn’t sure how to get you to come with us,” Thor says. “You’re always in your room.”

“I tend to be a bit of a homebody,” Bruce says nervously, readjusting his glasses. “I, uh...I’m just not always accustomed to people.”

“That’s alright,” Thor says. “We’re having dinner again, we always have it at six. Feel free to come. Nat would like to see you again. You’ve been on her hit list.”

“Her what?”

“Friendship, don’t worry,” Clint says. “She has a certain list of people she wants to ‘hit’ as her friends. We’ve tried to get her to change the name about eight times.”

“It means serious business,” Nat scoffs. “Also Bruce, you have to come get coffee with me this weekend.”

Friendship is a confusing business, Bruce decides. He loves it, but it’s confusing. Mainly because he can’t believe that people actually want to hang out with him. He’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“You keep waiting for shoes to drop,but we never throw them up in the air,” Sam says. “Now come on and come with me to get Bucky from his stupid class and harass him into coming grocery shopping with us.”

Bruce laughs.

“Okay, but I need to make a list first. Otherwise I’m going to forget to get the tea for Tony.”

It becomes comfortable, and he...he enjoys it. He likes that they cook dinner (disastrously) for Halloween together, and they all dress up in as best a costume as they can manage.

He gets inside jokes with everyone, and he and Nat make a habit of having coffee in his dorm room most mornings before heading down for breakfast, and they all eat lunch together outside when the weather is nice.

He and Tony get along fantastically, and they both help each other bounce ideas off one another and come up with new ways to think about problems.

And then...there’s Thor.

Thor is his friend, one of his best ones. But there’s something that he’d like to be more there, and he’s never sure how to approach it. He’s not even sure if Thor wants to approach it.

They walk together and they nap together, and Bruce sometimes wonders if Thor looks at him as much as Bruce looks at him.

They go on errands together, and they’re usually always sitting together for movie nights.

Nat thinks Bruce is acting ridiculous.

“Quit being a little bitch and go ask him out,” she says over coffee. Steam curls around the mug, and Bruce looks away for a minute, pulling a face.

“Nat, he’s....he’s Thor. I can’t just ask someone like him out.”

“Why not?”

“Because I ramble about genetics and how much I appreciate certain scientists! How is that going to translate when we go on a date and I can’t figure out what to say?”

Natasha looks at him like he’s the biggest idiot in the galaxy.

“You’re the worst,” Natasha decides. “You guys already go on dates, basically. I mean, he doesn’t let anyone else come with you guys to go get ice cream on Saturday nights. You go grocery shopping with him and make those mug-brownies together.”

“That’s....”

“You don’t do that with anyone else, do you? I’m so sure that you don’t, otherwise I would have heard about it by now.”

Bruce shrugs, sighing and pouring himself his cup of coffee.

Natasha’s face softens, and she hops up onto the bed beside him.

“Look. I know you have this whole self-loathing thing going on, and god knows most of us on this floor do as well. But just because of that, it doesn’t mean you get to deny yourself happiness. If that was the case, I’d never bring home latkes.”

Bruce smiles softly.

“Thanks, Nat.”

“No problem. Also, we’re having family dinner inside to talk about an upcoming vacation, possibly.”

“Vacation?”

“We ditch class on Friday if we can help it, and we spend the weekend at a lake nearby. You wanna come?”

“Sure!”

Thor is currently enduring a pep talk from Bucky and Sam, who are both quite bad at pep talks.

“You can do this!” Sam says. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I can think about twenty different ways,” Bucky says. “But I won’t mention them.”

“Bucky, you are grievously bad at this,” Thor stresses.

“What are you, my English professor? What’s with the vocab?”

“Uses big words when he’s stressed,” Sam mutters. “Thor, you’ll be fine. It will go well.”

“Or it will leave me flummoxed.”

“Shut up.” Bucky groans. “You’re worse than Steve. You sound like a dying Victorian.”

Thor just groans, face-planting onto a pillow.

“Someone just put me out of my misery.”

“Or don’t,” Bucky says. “What’s stopping you?”

“The fact that if he doesn’t like me it’ll be awkward for the rest of eternity?”

Sam snorts.

“If I didn’t know Bucky, you’d be the stupidest person I know.”

“Hey!”

The family discussion about the vacation goes well, and Tony keeps giving Bruce pointed looks, and Thor is enduring the most uncomfortable gaze from Natasha he’s ever suffered from.

They both cannot take this for long.

It’s awkward, honestly. They’re both in the lobby of their floor, and Bruce can’t meet his eyes and Thor isn’t quite sure how to go about it.

“Would you like to get coffee with me?” Thor asks.

“Sure,” Bruce says. “You want Timely or Joe-Fix-It for coffee?”

“...Timely, I heard they introduced a new flavor.”

“Alright.”

They both relax a little bit into the car ride, and by the time they’re at the coffee shop, both are laughing about a text that Loki sent about one “hypothetical” situation.

It’s easy, and it’s...nice. Thor wants this, and so does Bruce.

“I have something to ask you,” Thor says, looking into his coffee before gazing at Bruce. “And you can say no if you’d like.”

“Go easy on me today,” Bruce says softly, and Thor doesn’t miss how his hands clench around his coffee cup.

“I, um. I have feelings for you. The kind that make your heart speed up.”

“Anxious thoughts?”

Thor barks out a laugh at that, and scratches the back of his neck.

“I am...this whole thing is ad libitum.”

“What does that even mean.”

“Without preparation.” They sit for a moment, Thor collecting his words.

“Bruce?”

“Yes?”

“Do you...do you remember when Natasha was on her period romance drama kick, and we watched Sense and Sensibility?”

“Um, yeah? Why?”

“Do you. Do you remember at the end? The quote about the heart?”

“No?”

“Shit.”

It was going to be romantic. Thor was assuming that Bruce remembered the quote about the heart and the always, because it was honestly a cheesy but good movie, and Thor was going to pretend like he knew the quote too so that it would make for a romantic confession.

“Let me, ah...” he fumbles to get his phone out. “I was hoping you would have remembered the quote.”

“And you don’t know it?”

“No, unfortunately. I fell asleep.”

“So did I!” Bruce laughs. “I think we both fell asleep that night. What are you doing now?”

“I’m...looking up the quote. I’m quite sure it applies to our current situation.”

“You sound so proper,” Bruce teases, and Thor slides the phone across the table, showing a truly shitty edit of the quote done in pink, loopy cursive.

His face softens, and he turns up to Thor.

“You...really mean that?”

“More than anything. I’ll be yours, if you want.”

“I want.”

Thor laughs, grin wide and big as he gets up and engulfs Bruce in a hug.

“I think I could not get happier.”

Bruce turns red, adjusting his glasses.

“I’m...I’m happy with you,” Bruce says, and by god he looks cute like this, all flustered. “But I think we should head back before we have to sign in at the front desk, right?”

“Of course.”

There’s a pleasant energy in the car after that, and before they exit, Bruce takes Thor’s hand.

“Yes?”

"Do you think they’ll be surprised?”

“Considering that they’ve been dropping hints for weeks for both of us? I’m expecting Steve and Tony to gloat for weeks over winning over Natasha.”

“You’re sure they won over Nat?”

Bruce grins guiltily. “Nat invited me to her sleepover with Pepper and Sharon. I learned things.”

Thor laughs, getting out of the car.

“Then I look forward to their reactions.”

Not much actually changed, honestly. They were already so close, although Thor is prone to random forehead kisses and bragging about his boyfriend in every single class, to the point where one teacher had to limit his stories about Bruce to two a week, so he had to make them count.

Bruce enjoys kissing Thor a lot, and always enjoys when Natasha makes a little “aw” noise or when he has a date planned.

It’s nice. And he likes it a lot.

#thorbruce #natasha romanoff #bruce banner #thor #sam wilson #bucky barnes #tony stark #lovelyirony writes #i just love them a lot :)#also YES the reason i wrote the sense and sensibility scene like that is because i havne't watched the movie #so i thought it'd be cute if they knew that they watched it #(and yes i am aware that there is a book)#also yes natasha just goes to his room to get coffee #avengers as a college dorm #WHICH IS ENTERTAINING TO THINK ABOUT

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drakeandkatherine · 3 years

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Reunion- Ch 1: daffodil (Drake x MC TRRAU FanFic)

Hello! I am so excited to show you guys a new short series I’m working on! I think it will be about 8 chapters long. This first chapter is a little short, but only because it’s the first chapter. Future chapters will definitely be longer!

(Drake, Liam, Hana, Maxwell and any other The Royal Romance characters belong to Pixelberry! Katherine Delacroix belongs to me!)

Series Overview: Reunion is a short series about Drake Walker and Katherine Delacroix, along with their friends, Maxwell, Hana and Liam. In this series, we see the gang at a high school reunion, five years after they’ve graduated. There will be flash backs, taking place nine years ago (the start of high school) up to when they graduate. You’ll get to see how the gang came together, and how they fell apart, only to come back together.

All chapters of this series are named after flowers, with certain meanings. This chapter, the very first, is named “daffodil”. It means new beginnings, and this is where we get to see how Hana and Katherine met!

Word count: 1121 (future chapters WILL be longer!!)

Warnings: adult language

Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future chapters!

“Are you seriously thinking about going to this?” Katherine stared in shock, mouth agape. “In what world would we go back to Cordonia to see the people we hated in highschool, just five years older?” Hana, Katherine’s roommate and best friend, shifted uncomfortably on her feet.

“A world where people can change, and also where I might actually want to catch up with some of them?” she said. When Katherine didn’t answer, she sighed and continued. “I don’t think it would be that horrible to go back. Besides, the reunion is just for one night. We could go, and then make the rest of the trip a vacation at the beach!” Hana said, a hint of desperation in her voice. Katherine looked at her friend's face for a moment, before sighing.

“We really do need the vacation…” She looked around their small two bedroom apartment, which hadn’t been cleaned in a couple days due to both of the girls schedules. Between their messy apartment, putting in overtime at work, and studying for midterms, Katherine was stressed out of her mind. Hana was about to lose it too, she could feel it. “But I don’t know, Hana. What if he’s there?” A memory that should be distant flashed through her mind, making her cringe.

“Katherine, I love you, but it’s been five years. I know the way he bro-” Katherine held up a hand, cutting Hana off.

“Okay, okay. I know.” she frowned. “I just can’t help thinking that it’s a bad idea. The way we left things was bad, Hana.”

“I know.” Hana frowned, moving to sit next to Katherine, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Think about it this way, Kat. If, and that’s a very strong if, because you know how he felt about big parties and gatherings, he comes, you can apologize for what you did. Who knows? Maybe he wants to apologize too for how he handled things. At least at the end of the day, you’ll feel lighter.” Katherine loved Hana, she always knew what to say to make her see how something good could happen, regardless of the situation. If there was any chance of this going well, Katherine had to take it. It had been too long, and the weight on her shoulders grew heavier with each passing day.

“Okay. Okay, okay, we’ll go to this dumb high school reunion.”

A week later, Katherine and Hana’s plane landed at the Cordonia Airport. Stepping outside the airport's doors, Katherine shielded her eyes.

“Fuck, I forgot how bright the sun is here.” she huffed before reaching into her purse and pulling out her sunglasses. “Man, does walking out of this airport bring back memories though.”

“And to think, if your grandma hadn’t taken the job over here, we would have never met.” Hana smiled at her best friend, earning a smile in return.

9 Years Ago

Katherine Delacroix had just moved to Cordonia from the United States, due to her grandmother accepting a job in the country. Unhappy with the move across the world, Katherine spent most of her freshman year of highschool sulking and keeping to herself. Her only outlets for expression were drawing, writing, and singing, though she would never show anyone her writing. Since Katherine ignored most of the student body, they decided to ignore her too, which was just as fine to her.

Hana Lee had been attending school in Cordonia most of her life. Unlike Katherine, when Hana started high school, she already had a foot in the door. She was decently popular among the other teens, though secretly Hana despised inner high school politics and hierarchy.

She met Katherine freshman year, when they ended up in the same art class with Mrs. Theron as their teacher. They sat at the same table, though for the first few weeks Katherine ignored Hana and her attempts to make small talk. Finally, after Mrs.Theron finished telling the class their assignment one afternoon, Katherine spoke.

‘“Why do you keep making an effort to talk to me?” Katherine snapped, keeping her voice low enough so she wouldn’t attract attention from the other students. Hana seemed shocked, from Katherine’s attitude or that Katherine finally spoke to her, she wasn’t sure.

“I always try to make friends with who I sit with in class. Also, I know you’re new. Or well, were new. I hope you’ve settled in okay!” Hana smiled softly. “I just thought you could use a friend.”

“Are you fucking serious right now?” Katherine stared.

“Um, very?” Hana said.

“Fine. I’ll entertain you for this class, but if I don’t think you’re being sincere I’m never talking to you again.” Katherine huffed.

“Yay!” Hana clapped.

After that day, Katherine and Hana became inseparable. Where one went, the other followed. As they went through highschool, they grew to be quite popular among the others, much to the dismay of the friends. At school they put on fake, happy, friendly personas to try and maintain their reputation, but once they left the building, however, they’d take off running to Katherine’s house, laughing and screaming along the way. They would spend their nights gossiping about the other girls in their grade and talking about what boys they thought were cute. They also talked about their plan to take over the world one day, how they would never let anyone break them down or apart. Conversations about if aliens were real, what they would do if they could control the elements, and if they could spend one day with someone, dead or alive, who would it be.

Katherine and Hana made a plan in their first year of friendship; they would graduate together and move to the states for school. They would share a New York City apartment, and work jobs as waitresses in a nice bar while they went to school. Hana would be studying plants, to hopefully find more medicinal properties that could help others, while Katherine would study English, to get closer to her dream of being a writer.

And that’s exactly what they did.

-Present-

“Meeting you is the one thing I will ever love this country for.” Katherine joked as they stepped into the cab that would take them to their hotel. “The reunion is tomorrow night, right?” She asked as they rode along the highways.

“Yeah, they’re holding it at one of the nicer taverns downtown.” Hana said, looking at the email on her phone. “It isn’t that far from our hotel.” Katherine nodded before turning to look out the window at the scenery passing them by. She couldn’t ignore the pit gnawing at her stomach, that something big was going to happen tomorrow night. This was going to be a hell of a trip.

#drake x mc #drake x katherine #drake walker #the royal romance #the royal heir #hana lee #katherine delcroix #katherine delacroix mc #the royal romance fan fiction #trr #trh #try fanfiction #mc x drake #liam rhys #maxwell beaumont

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jar-full-of-pixel-hearts · 4 years

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Suspicious

@Shatter314 request :

could you do a f. tony one where they work close together and are secretly dating and everyone (maybe like chang and angela. or even mark) is really suspicious and they end up confronting the two of them and f. tony says something to them like "i'm sorry we didn't tell you but i just really love this girl". thank you so much and have a great day!

---

F. Tony x Reader

Space Force Netflix

A/N : Hi ! Thank you for your request ! It was a really cute request that I have a lot of fun to write. Writting the word suspicious also make me laugh and sing the famous Don’t be suspicious don’t be suspicious of Jean-Ralphio and Mona Lisa from Park and Rec. I hope you will like it and that you let me know if it’s the case.

You had tried to be discrets. For months now, you only have dates outside of town, text each other under nicknames on your second phones and meet in an empty locked office when everybody is busy somewhere else. But most important, F.Tony and you have mastered the art of turning from lovers to professionals, as much as a social media manager and his assistant can be, in a bat of an eye.

At least, you thought had been discreet.

Making your way to the office of F. Tony, your phone in your hands, giving a last look at the promotional picture of the astronauts. You push the door, expecting him to be at his morning meeting with the General Naird. It’s that why you gasp so loudly, when you find yourself into his arms at the minute you had pushed the door. In a fluid move,produced by a thousand of similar reunion, you closed the door that he quickly locks before returning his hands to your waist. His hungry mouth only leaves yours for only a few seconds before coming back for more. His tongue joining yours as you breath was becoming more quicker.

“ Fuck Tony ! what are you doing, we will be caught…” You laugh, still welcoming his lips on yours, his masculin scents making you sense dizzy.

“ No we don’t, they’re all at these important meetings about a war simulation and I tell them I have important things to do before joining them “ He explained, caressing with his fingers the back of your neck , sending thrills along your spine. “ Your hair looks nice today... is that a new perfume ?“

“ Thank you, tie looks really more nicer on you than on that mannequin and no, that's my regular perfume. But as your assistant I have to inform you that kissing me isn’t sadly at the top of your priority list for today. “ You playfully tell, trying to take your professional voice as his hand came back on your waist, pressing your body against his as he was now kissing your neck.

“ It should. Put it on the top of the list,between my coffee and read the tweet of the day.” He smiles, kissing you with a little bit more passion as you tried to step back, making you close your eyes and grip his suit jacket to keep your balance.

“ Aww I come before the morning tweets, that’s such an honor ! “ You smile, trying to regain your breath before gasping at the feeling of his mouth leaving an hickey. “ Fuck Tony no ! I cross the path of people before coming here, they will discover us !”

“ I made it so tiny they will not see it, promise “ He replied, falling badly at looking sorry. A huge Cheshire cat grin eating his face “ Your phone is ringing”

“ I noticed thank you ! “ You reply, trying to be mad without success.

Taking your smartphone, releasing yourself from your boyfriend's arms, you started to walk in the office, taking notes on the unused notepad on the desk, falling quickly back into your professional assistante self.

“ I have to go, we have a problem with the picture of the Chimp, Facebook tags it as if it was P.O.T.U.S… see you at lunch ? “ You ask, kissing his lips in a quick kiss before being brought back with a laugh.

“Wait, they want me to be the press at the war...you know I will maybe not come back “ He joked, playing you the whole goodbye to the war scene, low voice and puppy eyes included. “ Can I request a kiss before facing a possible death “

Rolling your eyes, still amused, you pass your arms around his neck, passionately kiss him, letting him panting and smiling.

“ See you tonight, I count on you to come back to me in one piece “ You joke, passing the door of the office, yourself still dizzy from the kiss.

---

“ Y/N, I think your necklace had a knock...wait...is that an hickey ?” Angela asked you, while you were sitting side by side at the table, eating your lunch, as she was waiting at the order to go to the fake battle.

Putting your hand abruptly on the incriminating mark, you nervously try to brush it off, taking a bite of your sandwich.

“ A hickey ? Don’t be ridiculous, it’s probably a bruise I make myself I don’t know how. “ You protest.

“ No no, that really looks like a hickey, girl... where do you get that, you didn’t seem to have it this morning when we talked…” Angela suspiciously tells, narrowing his eyes at you, a marvelous smirk appearing on his lips.

“ Pretty sure I did it while brushing my hair, I had this knock I had a hard time to untangle “ You lie, nervosity making you lose your appetite “ I should go back to work, I have this problem with a chimp picture…see you later Angela…”

Finishing to pack your lunch, leaving the cafeteria in a hurry, not sure of being able to lie more to your friend. you didn’t notice the strange look the Captain Ali and Dr Chang ,sat at the next table, exchange behind your back.

The suspicion on F.Tony and you wasn’t new. Once a while, Angela, Chang and others had noticed some odd detail who could have raised eyebrows. But, without any proof, they preferred to shut their mouths.

Until the end of that day.

You were looking at our feet, waiting for the general Naird to stop doing the hundred steps in front of his desk. Sat at your side, F. Tony still in his black multi pockets suit and hat, was trying to make an approach on the general.

“ My General, is everything okay ? We’re here because we won and you want us to do some kick ass publication ?” He asked, giving you a side look, trying to silently calm you.

“ Not exactly F.Tony. I prefer to know why my press agent had killed one of my soldiers by mistake while reading a text message from his assistant. Text message suggesting that you did something wrong. I quote : ( They know . I told you they will discover us. )Let’s be clear here. I know that you clearly aren’t spies. But by what I heard, you disappear at the same time, have meetings behind lock doors and Dr. Mallory swore to see F. Tony coming back from one of these meetings with lips way too pink to be natural. “ He said, doing the little guillemet gesture with his fingers. “ Do you realize what your action could look like for an agent coming from outside of the base not knowing your expert in Bullshit and read that text ! “

“ I can explain” You start, not exactly sure of what you will say.

“ No, no need Y/N. I’m not stupid, i’m married. But for fuck sake, you’re both trying to send boots to he moon and you act like two spies in a military base. Your little secret adventure could have put you both in deep shit, you know that ! Did you realise that ?! They can ask me to fire you , for good this time F.Tony !”

Watching your eyes coming back to your feet, F.Tony lift his hand.

“ General wait, i'm sorry we didn't tell you but it’s not a stupid little adventure. I just really love this girl okay !" The man confesses, taking your hand in his,making you bite your lips as your heart was beating faster “ I realise that we had made a mistake by doing all this a big secret and looking suspicious, but I take the blame. I felt for her from the days that she put a foot in my office with her big ideas and pretty eyes, the day that she show me that she was understand me ...and she worth way more than that but I try to be worthy of her every fucking day...so General Naird if you have to shout at somebody it’s at me,not her. But come on Mark...arem, General, you know that feeling...what the need to put a blame on that situation...“

“ It’s really honorable of you Fuck Tony.For the first part at least. I respect that “ Mark replied, an expression of surprise on his face you didn’t often see while he was speaking to your boyfriend. “ But from now on, for fuck sake, both of you, stop acting like horny teens in my base. Go, get out of my office.”

Getting up off your chair, still shaken by the little speech of F.Tony, you follow him outside, stepping at the elevator as he was keeping the door open.

“F... You mean it ? “ You ask, ignoring the flow of soldiers and officers who were pushing you to come in.

“ Of course I mean it, I could tweet it if you like... “

Smiling, you cupped his jaw in your hands, crashing your lips on his, kidnapping his mouth in a delicious kiss making him release the door.

“ Y/N, we’re surrounded with people…” He whispers, smiling against your soft lips.

“ Blame it on the fact that I love you too “ You smile, taking your place at his side, ignoring the obvious look of the military spacemen.

As his discret victorious "Yes" echoed in the elevator, you couldn't stop smiling.

For the day on, you had tried to stay professional. Even if the news that you were in fact a couple had traveled in the base like a forest fire. But, once a while, mostly when F. Tony was following the General to D.C, it was still possible to catch you behind a locked door, having one of your lovely reunions.

—

PLEASE don’t forget to Like, Comment or Reblog !

—

Tag List : @caitlin-rose28 @skullchik89 @ruefulposts @ssanjuniperoo @scruffiejelly @festmenyes @dannydevitostrashbag @humanbeingiguess @qatiee @ waffletoast215 @ formedinaway @ shipsandart @ hugedwarflover @ peachylemasters @ diamond-doritos @imvibin69 @ benschwartzismyhusband @underthewillowtreerycb

#Ben Schwartz #F. Tony Scarapiducci #F. Tony #f. tony x reader #space force netflix #Space Force #space force fic #fuck tony scarapiducci #fuck tony x reader #Request

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Ducktales Shadow Into Light (Lena Retrospective): Friendship Hates Magic! (Commission by WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! And welcome, and to some of you welcome back to Shadow Into Light, my fully paid for but gladly done Lena retrospective, covering everyone’s faviorite lesbian emo shadow’s personal jounrey through all three seasons and some brucey bonuses.

So this time we pick up in mid-season 2.. yes MID season 2. Though for once taking so long to adress things had valid reasons. It dosen’t make the 8 month wait for Lena to return and for Violet to show up, her concept art having been shown off shortly before Shadow War aired during San Diego Comic Con, any less aggravating, especially since the episode did air overseas before that but never leaked anywhere properly. So I knew she’d be okay but not HOW.

As I said though.. they had their reasons. The episode was set for episode 8 in production order, right behind whatever Happened to Della Duck? which answered the other big cliffhanger from season 1, Della’s exile on the moon. So while this episode was back in the queue, along with Della’s, which had to wait till after the christmas episode to air because said episode takes place before it. So waiting on this episode was fair on the crew’s part even knowing it was a hiatus.

It ended up getting pushed back by a week once the episodes started airing.. but as outlined last time, THIS TIME Disney actually moved it for good reason instead of just doing so because shut up. See the problem with moving episodes around in season 2.. is Della’s return. Several episodes that in theory could’ve easily been pushed back instead of this one, Depths of Cousin Fethry, Treasure of the Found Lamp... couldn’t because they take place BEFORE Della came back and it’d be weird to air them after. One features Donald, the other dosen’t but still lacks Della and it’d be weird if it did> While this episode takes place before Della comes back or was at least meant to, no one appears in person, and Beakly mentoning “the boys and scrooge” at the bin could simply be her forgetting Della’s a part of things for a second. It’s not entirely in character, but it’s much easier than explaning why Della’s not there and Donald is.

They also moved one episode ahead of this.. but it’s one I approve of. See from episode 7 onward the episodes were aired in week long duckbombs, woo-ooo. I I don’t fault disney for it or the reason I suspect they had for doing this: while it wasn’t the intended way of airing, they likely did this airing style to get shows on Disney Plus quicker for it’s debut and given they’ve sunk a LOT of money into the streaming service and it’s a key part of their future, I can’t blame them for wanting the entire series thus far on the platform at launch. It’s one of if not their most popular show at the moment. They wanted it front and center.

So this one took an extra week to air, and an extra day as they aired raiders of the doomsday vault right after Della’s return in “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!”.. which is also not a bad move. Fans wanted more of Della and her bonding with the kids, I wanted more of that so while the wait was grumble inducing, it was worth the tradeoff to get more of this character and her bonding with Dewey.. and let’s face it Glomgold. You know what i’m about at this point.

So there were delays but not the mind boggling ones that reshuffled the season last time and by next season there’d be zero reshuffling with both holiday episodes designed to go anywhere. So with the history and the agonizing wait out of the way join me under the cut as a snark knight returns, a new fan faviorite debuts and Beakly gets sucked into Launchpad’s awful fandom.

We open our story at the Duckburg Library. Man I fucking miss the library. I mean you can go by apointment and what not but I also have library card debt and stuff, and it’s just not the same.

Anyways naturally Webby is going there to research the Shadow Realm in hopes of finding something to bring Lena back. Last week was “Children’s Card Games, Dark Magic and You! by Professor Yugi Moto which while enlightening got her nowhere. Next up is “Shadow Games on Motorcycles!: How a Crimson Dragon defeated a giant Shadow Monster and brought the dead back and I helped by Doctor Yusei Fudo”.

But that one’s not in yet so she instead goes to the Librarian to get another book.. and it’s Quackfaster! Horay! As for why she’s working two jobs, she’s saving up for a retirement condo in BIRDDDBAAADDOOOSSSSS. I had to type it that way it’s ape law.

But her next book “I Went there and it Sucked, My Time in the Shadow Realm by Mayor of New Jersey Joey Wheeler” is taken by “another strange little girl”. Quackfaster, you chase people around with a scimitar. Just accept your the weird one and live with it like me. You’ll be happier that way.

And so we finally meet Violet whose introduced pitch perfectly. Webby gives out her usual “Hi I”m Webby”.. and Violet simply holds a finger up, finishes her page and gives a simple “Yes?” It demonstrates her quite nature, her love of reading and her lack of social skills all in one fell swoop. The ensuing dead language off is also pretty damn adorable reminding me of that scene from “Lisa’s Wedding” where she and Hugh fight over a book and reading it before making out.. minus the making out because these are children, no one wants that, and Webby is taken. .and even then again children. Most we get is an innocent peck and some blushing.

So Violet, finding out Webby needs it and is researching the arcane too offers to research together tonight, bringing a sleeping bag just in case it goes on long... to Lena’s unheard objections as she’s rattled by the break in her normal routine with Webby, and the possibility of Webby falling for someone else. I mean this i framed as a friendship thing... but you can only say “friend” so many times in a work before you sound like a retired grandma in denial about their granddaughter.

Later at the Mansion, Beakley is enjoying a nice quiet afternoon to herself. Turns out once a month Scrooge has “Binventory Day” where he and the boys catalogue the bin for hours giving her a night to herself and Webby. Webby loudly interuppts the peace as is Cartoon Law, but Beakley is pleased Webby is getting back on the friendship horse.

Bentina ends up ruining it a bit though by bringing up her previous slumber party disasters... which even Lena at her most jealous admits were her fault and only agrees to in the hopes Webby’s going to cancel. Instead Webby decides to make this the most normal sleepover ever! The one where her new friend is coming to specifically help her with magic.

Bentina tries to back her grandaughter/daughter down from this insane logic, but Webby does, if innocently clap back well to her being the one to give her “Be yourself” advice. “I’m not like you Granny, I need to have friends”

And while Webby quickly flees after Beakley tries to deny it.. she’s not wrong. She has exactly one friend who she works for and no social life to speak of.. and as far as I can tell she’s fine this way. Beakley is happy with her work and raising Webby and has someone to talk to in Scrooge. She has everything she needs, while Webby is a social butterfly.. a socially inept social butterfly. She needs people and loves meeting new people and needs friends and not just her family. One’s an introvert the other’s an extrovert. I’m both at times, and before you ask why yes it is a living nightmare thank you so much for asking. I get where both are coming from. And Beakley clearly had friends at one point it’s just a long war with FOWL and a sudden granddaughter probably whittled it down to just Scrooge. It’s okay to be yourself.

So this is where the plotlines split off, so as usual, i’m splitting the up.

Launchpad and Beakley in Getting To Know You And Getting Sucked INto Your Strange and Lovely Fandom

So Beakley naturally cries out “name one person I don’t get along with.. and in walks Launchpad , Nature’s Perfect Himbo, having destroyed the gate and at least being honest he probably will again. Why he’s here when the boys and Scrooge are all gone?

But I don’t care as this subplot is just.. a nonstop delight. Starting with Beakly inviting Launchpad to sup with her.. which just confuses him. Look Bentina you have to use small words.. it’s a miracle he gets up in the morning, dreses himself and hasn’t died in a tragic gasoline fight accident. You have to know your audience. Still funny.

And “not knowing your audience” continues as Beakly serves them pea soup but Launchpad is intimidated by the spoons and while she does offer to help instead tries to use all of them then a straw and then falls facedown in his soup. And this is the SECOND TIME Beakly’s left someone living at the mansion to die. I mean that’s not a lot but it’s still weird it happened twice.

Finally they sit quitely, Beakly reading the Scarlet Pimpernell, and Launchpad doing a coloring book. And besides the odd couple energy what I really like about this subplot.. is that it fleshes Beakly out> This is one of her ONLY plots in the entire goddamn series, yes really. 70 episodes and she only got five spotlight episodes/plots. But it does at least show her off: her upperclass pedigree we really don’t see often, showing that while she applied to the job as maid out of necisity she knows her stuff, her love of classic literature and her being out of touch with the common person. It’s not a ton but it’s more than ninja butler or “stop having fun with your kids della and be a parent”. I mean she wasn’t wrong but she could’ve been nicer about it given the circumstances.

So Launchpad, given Beakley’s never shown any interest in him as a person before, assumes she’s going to fire him and was just softening him up. I mean Scrooge himself outright said he never would and if he did he’d do it to your face, hard as it’d be. But that aside, he’s fine with getting to know her once he knows that no he’s not being fired she just wanted to hang out, he’s everyone’s friend. But naturally an upperclash british former super spy and a dumb as a bucket with a heart of gold pilot have nothing in common, not even aircraft as “plane go up, plane crash going down’ is about the extent of his actual knowledge on aircraft that isn’t instinct or dumb luck.

He does manage to break the ice though, mistaking her book for a Darkwing Duck book and deciding to show her the show since it might be something they have in common. At first she’s as unintuhsed as you’d expect a british lady who never watches the telly watching a 90′s kids show would be.. but by the end she’s gotten all the way into it.

It’s really endearing, showning that two vastly diffrent people with nothing can common can be brought together by something as simple and glorious as liking the same show. I’ve had it happen with me. She naturally is all for filiming his fanscript after the finale provides no answers, being the one to suggest it and the two end the episode shooting it with her in full darkwing duck cosplay. I’ts a cute and entertaining subplot and a nice contrast to the main plot which while not super dark, does have a fog of tension over it. Speaking of which.

Webby, Lena and Violet: In Two’s Company, Three Accidently Creates Monsters That Nearly Take Your Girlfriend Off Into The Shadowy Abyss So the slumber party gets underway with Webby shooing away Duckworth after clearing out her room to greet Violet herself and violet having brought pie... a great callback to an earlier joke where Webby wondered if pie was normal at a sleepover. No but it should be. So Webby welcomes her in to her totally normal room devoid of anything. Nothing suspicious about that.

So Violet tries to get her into research, specifically Tulpas, an actual magical concept, a mental construct of some kind created out of desire, imagination or what have you. Gee I wonder if that will come into play this episode. Webby.. wants to play baggle or what have you or do makeovers and drags Violet along to do the second thing after Violet asks about Magica. Lena then finds something glowing in Violet’s bag...specifically, her old amulet, cracked but still working and flowing with Magica’s power.

Lena assumes Violet is Magica and goes to warn Webby only to find her HORRIBLY MUTATED! Naturally it’s a misdirect, as it turns out Violet is just REALLY good at special effects makeup. It’s something I honestly forgot about her... i’m betting one of her dad’s is an effects artist. Just saying that’d be neat. But Webby gives the “i’m normal really even though I live in a giant mansion with my dad I don’t know is my dad and my grandma whose actually my adopted mom” game away by pointing out the demon’s fang is crooked and Violet is curious and heads to Webby’s room finding a picture from said demon. He signed it and everything. Good man that Rakshaka.

Webby is worried Violet will be freaked out by all the weird but nope, she enjoys it. And it’s not a suprise: violet is actively researching the shadow dimension. Why WOULD she be scared off. The conflict was in Webby’s head all along.. and partly out of PTSD, but we’ll get to that. Webby still tries to get her to baggle but they settle on ancient rune dice baggle and summoning some spirits. Lena scoffs.. until it actually works. It does make sense though: As we’ll see in her last starring role, Lena is kinda like Wanda Maximoff: she has an extreme amount of power but she has no idea how to use it and is simply making up most of her magic as she goes along or took magica’s lead. But the spell means Lena can touch the dice so she spells out don’t trust her.. but forgets she’s dealing with two nerds who love unlocking puzzles and assume the message is on the dice themselves.

Webby and Violet decide they need more clarity and resume the seance.. which summons mysterious white shadow creatures Lena saw before.. .some now taking Magica’s shape. And Lena’s panicked “Oh not again” says it all. So Lena tries the tried and true bedsheet ghost cliche, grumbling about it but showing up as a ghost without any abillity to speak or talk to webby dosen’t do anything and Violet tackles the sheet before deciding to grab the amulet to dispiate the spirit.. only for Lena to show up for a breif second before she does show making the panicked child look incredibly supscious.

Webby naturally tackles and interrogates Violet wanting the full story. And it turns out the big secret is.. Violet is entirely normal. Nothing to do with Magica, no possesions or secretly being her or a minon of hers... she was just a logic obsessed 12 year old who thought magic was a myth.. until the Shadow War proved “Nope it’s real everything you know is wrong. Up is down black is white and short is long”. She just happened to be close to the bin and found the amulet when the remains of the staff fell near her and compacted back into it.

It’s a brilliant reveal. See first watch around your genuinely unsure if Violet is a real person or not.. unless you went in knowing she is, but semantics. Point is most first time viewers didn’t know she’d be a beloved member of the supporting cast and didn’t know what to expect. But looking back... it makes no sense. If Magica had the amulet.. why would she need to infiltrate the mansion. Revenge? Possibly but she’d want Scrooge there too. Even being evil on her own Violet had valid opportunity to pilfer Webby’s magical items, she has an entire box of magic rocks right there and then simply zap her with the amulet. But she didn’t.. because Violet is a person. When she DOES use it she’s utterly terrified, and we can see her breathing heavy, scared.. something Magica has NEVER been of Lena. To Violet it was just a ghost. Webby hadn’t told her about lena and any information she had about her was second hand from newspapers and the like.

Webby is sympathetic, as Violet’s feeling of being sheltered from this greater world naturally resonates and while Lena is still supscious, having reincorperated, it’s clear Webby trusts violet and simply dosen’t want to loose another friend to magic. Here trying to hide it now takes another tone.. she knows Lena was behind it.. but is so afraid of it consuming violet the way it did Lena, she forgets almost ALL of the weird magic stuff in sleepovers was magica’s manipulation, and that Lena died because her creator was a monster, not because of magic. Magic is not inherently good or bad, it just is, and that will come back as a theme in a few episodes. It allowed Magica to ravage the town and kill Lena.. but it allowed Lena to exist in the first place and while the terrible events with Magica clearly shook her.. it also shook violet out of her complacency and got her to research a world she never would’ve considered. Good can come from bad.

And it’s with this in mind that Violet.. does not give up. She’s stayed in her box enough.. and now she knows the spirit is a friendly one.. she figures they can bring Lena BACK using the amulet. After all it was lena’s and the source of her powers.. it might be the key to reiviving her. And while Lena, if invisibly as always, remarks it’s dangerous.. Webby, with no hesitation agrees to get her girlfriend back. It’s risky sure.. but what Lena hasn’t gotten is she’s WORTH the list. She’s so full of self loathing from both her manupations of webby and Magica’s gaslighting and abuse that she can’t see herself being worth anything even as Webby spent MONTHS trying to save her, clearly still loves her, and only didn’t want violet getting hurt because she misses her. Webby still loves and needs her for who Lena is.. Lena just can’t it and it hurts to think about that.

So the girls once again try to summon Lena and it starts to work.. but also summons the Tulpa’s back... this time taking Magica’s form and causing a suspcious lena to panic.. and suck both of them into the shadow realm. We get the reunion we’ve been waiting for as Webby tackle hugs her happily.

But it’s soon cut short as Lena still thinks Violet is just manipulating Webby, lying to her and that “she’s mine!”

For the record Joss Whedon sucks, not taking that out on Anthony Stewart Head or the guys who actually wrote the episode. Moving on.

I feel Lena’s jealousy comes from the aformentioned self loathing, mixed with a life of having to live just to surivive at the beck and call of a throughly awful person who didn’t consider her a sentient being worthy of anything especially love. She can’t fathom anyone else loving Webby the way she does because she feels once webby has anyone else.. she won’t need her. It’s toxic and wrong.. but it’s easy to see why that’d happen when sh’es only had one healthy relationship. She barely knows the boys, Beakly only grew to tolerate her and she was only friends with Scrooge for like.. a minute. Webby is the only person she knows, loves and trusts and she just can’t risk loosing that and can’t convince herself to share.

In a realistic scenario Lena would have to simply learn to trust and let her girlfriend have other relationshps and that hogging her all to herself is inhernetly toxic and bad. And while she still does we’re talking about a living pile of shadows smooching a clone, so yeah instead the tulpas come out and drag her off..and take Lena’s form. While Lena tries to blame Violet, Violet has absolutley none of that and makes Lena see the hard truth: Lena is so worried about being forgotten, she created the tulpas by accidnet. As I said her power is raw and unfocused.. so she didn’t do it on purpose nor did she realize how toxic she was being. This finally snaps Lena back to reality, and see Violet geniunely cares about Webby and any ulterior motives were just in her head, so the two agree to work together, using a similar chant to the one from Jaws to destroy the Tulpas and save Webby.

So the shadow realm is disapated and our trio are returned to the human world.. but Lena, not being part of it and no longer having a tether.. starts to disolve, with a really heartbreaking scene of Webby holding her hand, as does violet. But.. then a miracle happens. Since the Bracelet was Lena’s link to Webby, and to her own magic, with it and the amulet close by.. both swirl around Lena, and the power of love.. for a new friend and a first love... revivies her. Mist parts.. and we get one heartwarming sign that after all this time “I’m back?!” Lena is confused.. but once again part of this plane of reality. She’s free and WEbby triumphanthly hugs her with Violet joining in. By letting go of her hate.. Lena returned to who she loved. They also run into the end of the other subplot and Launchpad’s casual hey lena is just great.

So our heroes are reunited and doing horror makeup and I really love Webby’s updo here and wish more works fan nd otherwise used it. WE get a final fakeout as Lena seemingly disovles and Violet reveals herself as magica.. only for it to be a prank and Webby to just be glad the love of her life and her new best friend get a long. We get one last hearwarming image and we close out.. with Lena finally having what she always wanted freedom. And while she may not know it yet in accepting violet.. she’s finally found family. More on that in a few weeks.

Final Thoughts: This episode is excellent. It’s not the best of the Lena arc, that comes next and it does drag once or twice.. but overall it’s a really great character piece, with a nice ballance betwen the tense main plot and the funny and goofy subplot. It adds more to Lena’s character, finally brings her back, while giving us a new and throughly fascenating new character to rave about in Violet, as well as giving Webby her own personal squad. It’s a great episode.. and only leads to a better one. But we’ll get to that in a week or so. First we have a bit of a detour and my plug.

If you liked this review, follow for more, spread it around, and join my patreon. It’s almost time for new patreons to pay up and if you hit my stretch goal i’ll review a darkwing duck episode next month and every month! We’re just five bucks away people! And if you’d like to just comission a review directly it’s just 5 bucks an episode and avaliable via my dms, ask or discord.

Next Time on Shadow Into Light: We take a break from the last two Lena episodes to go to one of her sources as we head back to Ducktales 87 with Magica’s Shadow War! I know almost nothing going in so... Shadow betrayals and stuff? Yay?

Tommorow: It’s Fenton’s birthday! And since i’ve done a LOT of ducktales recently and can’t do super ducktales till I hit my next stretch goal at 25 bucks, we’re going back to ST Canard at long last for Gizmoducks second apperance.. which can’t possibly be worse than the first so i’m excited. Let’s get dangerous tommorow!

#lena sabrewing #webby vanderquack #ducktales #weblena #violet sabrewing #shadow into light #friendship hates magic #great title by the way #bentina beakley #launchpad mcquack #darkwing duck

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zahneundklauen-retired · 3 years

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Old Dogs, New Tricks || Ulfric and Alcher

TIMING: Current PARTIES: @ulfricvinterson and @zahneundklauen SUMMARY: Alcher hears Ulfric is back and town and goes to meet him. The two sniff out each other’s intentions CONTENT: Family death mention (no specifics mentioned)

So the wolf Ulfric was back in town. Alcher had grown accustomed to being the only authority in town, but with the return of this other, older wolf, it meant one of two things: she had support, or she had competition. Today, she would find out which one. And she was prepared to defend her spot, if need be. She was a pack leader, after all, born and bred, more thorough than most others could claim. She didn’t know too much about this Ulfric, only what Ariana had told her, as the wolf had left town soon after Alcher had gotten in. Where he’d gone was not really her business, but she couldn’t help but feel a cinch of anger at the idea that he could abandon Ariana like that. She was a young, influenceable wolf, and obviously his absence had caused her to attach herself not only to humans but hunters as well. The thought made her balk, but by the time she reached the parlor she knew he worked at, she had steadied herself, and she held her head high as she entered. The bell above her rang and her eyes briefly lifted to glance for it, but the scent of the other wolf pulled all her thoughts away from her. He was somewhere in the back. Ink and metal and blood also filled the air but her golden eyes landed on the young man at the front desk. “I’m here to speak to Ulfric,” she said, tone low, “please get him. He’ll know who I am.” If he was even half the wolf she was, he would also know she was already here.

And he did. Ulfric had been working on a client, a fairly large piece. Calf. One of his favorite spots. This man under the wolf’s needles was a braggart and a fool. Came into town from about an hour off, said something about knowing this shop from yadayada, instagram, facebook. Didn’t really matter. What did, was the fact that he went on and on about the meaning of the art he chose and how it was as powerful and strong as he was. The kicker. It was a wolf. Howling at the moon. The irony kept the ginger man smirking as he shaded the fur. Taking a wicked glee in the yelps and twitches the man before him gave up.

It was always the ones who bragged that howled the loudest. And not to mark territory. Which is surely what the….presence…. At the door was trying to do. The Vinterson line was one of fair renown. Albeit back home. He wasn’t about to roll over and play second fiddle to some…. Newcomer. So he waited. And he took his time with his art. Finishing every last hair until he put in the highlights, delighted in the pain it brought this young human, and carefully, carefully cleaned his station.

Now it wasn’t terribly long. He’d almost been done when the bell rang of her entrance. Long enough to be a nuisance, make her wait for it. Not enough to rile her hackles if she were truly a leader. An alpha as he’s heard Ari claim her to be. Titles, titles.

With a satisfied whumph, he finally stepped foot into the front room. Having let his client go out the back. A knowing smile, sure that something….interesting... Was about to happen.

“Alo” He said simply. “You call for me?”

He was making her wait. Alcher didn’t mind all too much, she was here to scout him out, after all, and making her wait for him was already a sign of knowing. Of dominance. A smile curled onto her lips at the thought. She hadn’t met someone able to challenge her position in a long time, and while she would not back down easily, she was willing to put up a fair offer to this wolf. Ariana had not told her much about him, and she didn’t want to be told either. She wanted to see-- and observe-- for herself.

The electric buzz of the needles sounded like a hum in her ears. It was almost soothing, and despite her immediate disdain for a wolf having such a ...human job, she could understand why someone enjoyed such a hobby. She, after all, still carried around a very human toy with her as well. She was wandering the front of the studio, gazing at the pieces they’d chosen to hang on the walls, when the wolf approached. He was tall, well-built, sturdy. And his voice carried the tone of a foreigner.

“I did,” she answered, coming over to him, but keeping a distance from him. “Can we go somewhere private?”

A dance. The orchestral repose. Between the two headstrong wolves and their vie for control. An aria in and of itself. Each movement, breath, bead of sweat, and step a note in their own right. “Private to talk, or to show one’s teeth?” He loosened an easy smile. A warmth that betrayed the thickness in the air. True, though Ulf was more sedentary as of late, when he let the beast go, not another soul could stand in his path. There was something of pride in his swagger. While he wasn’t close to every wolf in town, his standing was kept more by a...pride. His little pup Ari would tell him of the goings on, and if need be he’d step in. But so far, he needn’t. King with a dull crown. If the rest of the whelps needed council or guidance, he’d be there. If they needed protection, doubly so.

And then there was Alcher. He’d heard a little. But he wouldn’t pry, and he was gone for much of her… reign. So there was more to divulge. “Dere’s the apartment upstairs, or the woods about a mile off, plenty close if you want to run.” He let his tongue roll over that last r, a glimmer of a growl.

At the question, Alcher ran her tongue over her teeth. She could taste the tension in the air. She did not want to fight this wolf. Without forethought, without planning, she would be lucky to escape alive. She could feel that much. Tell from his eyes, his grin. It was an intuition that had bred and beaten into her. She was smart, that was her specialty. She drew in a breath. “I just want to talk,” she stated clearly, making sure there was no hidden agenda behind her words, “I figure we ought to properly meet.” Made sure to stretch out her words, her native tongue making them sound hard. “Our lives are entangled whether we want them to be or not.” And she still wasn’t sure of her own answer to that, only that she would know by the end of this.

“We can talk first,” she said, making the decision, not waffling on her answer, “and perhaps run later.” This intricate dance was something she hadn’t experienced often-- but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to handle herself. While the so called alpha back in Canada had been nothing but a coward and pushover, she’d still had to prove her worth and assert her dominance. This was different. Perhaps there’d even be room to share. Her family, after all, was led by multiple leaders. They were a family unit, and she wanted nothing more than to find something like that here.

“Wonderful!” He brightened and brought his hands together in a hearty clasp. “I will cook for us then.” Well at least you couldn’t call him inhospitable. An open arm, and a leading step, he pointed the way for the other wolf to head upstairs. While the shop was a fair size, the staircase that connected it to the waiting apartment were not. “I hope you don’t mind kittens, I found them starving behind the shop.” There was a lovely lilt to the words. A joy he’d not shown in the first few moments. What could he say? He loved cooking. And anyone willing to talk before baring a claw was worth cooking for. Sometimes, even after. Not that he’d let his guard falter all the while. Just… sate it for a bit.

“Anything you’d rader not ingest?” Those pesky middle t’s. Always coming out as more of a duh sound. Ahh well. The both of them shared a distinction in tongue the locals to White Crest lacked.

Ulfric was quick to close the door behind them, while the kittens were still quite young, they were old enough to learn to escape. And that was more than a workout he wanted to deal with. Running was for later, right?

The sudden change in attitude did throw Alcher off for a moment. She blinked, looked around, then back towards the ginger bearded wolf. “Alright then,” she agreed, and, after he gestured for her to follow, exited the shop with him, climbing the narrow stairs up to what was, presumably, his apartment. It smelled much nicer up here, although the scent of ink and metal still wafted up through the vents and the floor. Soon, it wouldn’t matter, she supposed. “I don’t mind cats,” she said, though she didn’t altogether like them. As long as they stayed out of her way, she didn’t mind them. And, perhaps, they made a good snack every now and then. She couldn’t help it sometimes, food was food. Ulfric, however, did not need to know this. “It’s nice of you to rescue them and give them a home.” She could smell them, but hadn’t seen them poke their heads out yet. Cats did tend to be much shyer than dogs.

“I’m not a fan of mushrooms,” she stated simply, “or anything fungus related, really.” She took a quick glance around the house before settling back on Ulfric. He was a good looking man, and it made her yearn to see his wolf. His coat must be beautiful. Perhaps it, too, was a shimmering orange, like fire on the horizon.

“Ariana hasn’t told me much about you,” she stated, opting to simply get this part out of the way, so that she could reel out his intentions and his thoughts sooner, “and I figured I’d like to get to know you myself, anyways. You’re not from here, are you?”

“Ahh, our little Ari keeps things close to the throat, yes?” That wasn’t the term. Either he did not know, or did not care. He turned, prepping a few things for a simple meal. Everything it lacked in complexity it made up for in care, flavor, and quality. A swarm of aromas filled the kitchen and beyond. And that was enough to pique the interest of the kittens who were wary of the new imposing presence in their lair. First was the tuxedo, the bravest of the trio. He plodded out, tail looking like a little christmas tree, very brave. All hackles and teeth like he was the protector but also chief investigator. As if on cue, Ulfric bent and held out a small piece of raw meat. Tenderized enough to chew even with little bitty fangs.

“No I am not” He turned fully, leaning elbows on the counter and crossed his legs out in front of himself. “But I’ve been here long enough to know some things.” The little ginger kitten was the next to reveal himself. Cautiously following his brother but definitely showing his fear in a different way. Overcompensation, a hiss that barely squeaked out. Even going so far as to raise a paw to the new wolf, but quickly retreating to behind the wall. “You as well though, I presume?”

Alcher nearly balked at the word “our” but she had to admit that he was right-- Ariana was his first, and hers second. She relaxed her shoulders a bit to keep from seeming as if she were too uptight about all this. Ulf was an older wolf, and a male at that. He was invaluable to the pack, whether she wanted to admit it or not. And besides, she’d barely gotten to know the wolf. She ought to give him at least a small chance, right? “She does, yes,” Alcher finally answered, taking in the aroma of the food he was cooking and finding it smelled a lot like home. “It’s a trait that should be fostered. IT will do her well to keep things close to her heart.”

She watched him carefully as he fed the cats, not moving or even really reacting when the orange one hissed at her and ran away. Cats often had that reaction with her, even if she tried her hardest to accommodate them. “I’ve only just arrived in America, let alone White Crest. I don’t know much about this town, but I know it’s full of mystery and intrigue.” She followed the cat with her eyes as it made its swift exit. “I am from Germany, originally, but I lived in Poland with a sister pack most my life.” She offered the information freely. “You are...Northern European? I recognize the accent, though I could not place it properly.”

Ulfric soaked in the information. Somewhere in that thick head of his it rang a bell, but alas, there were many packs in both Germany and in Poland. While studies had never been a perfect pursuit nor penchant of the old wolf’s, his family did impress on him the strength of knowing who could be your ally, and who could be your enemy. A lesson well enough learned from his now permanent stay away from his home. “Ahh, I’m not sure you would have heard of my little village.” He nodded along as he finished sauteeing their meal. Just a whiff of a nostalgic sadness mixed in with the carmelized veggies and barely browned meat. “It’s called Arendal.”

The third and final of the pack of kittens made its way out. Perhaps a bit more confident in her stride, having taken the time to watch the goings on between the two large bipedal ‘cats’ that loomed overhead. She took it upon herself to declare a sense of superiority to her brothers by attempting to steal the lap of the one who was not standing.

Alcher paused. She recognized the name from somewhere. Racked her memory for it, before-- “Arendal,” she repeated, “yes, I’ve heard of that place. The pack there-- the Berserkers.” She tapped her nails, trying to remember the name. Her father had impressed upon her the names of many packs across the European landscape that were their allies, that they could go to with needs. The Northern packs were always far enough away to not cause disturbances, like some of the Southern and Peninsula packs, but close enough to form pacts with. “The...Vintersons, right? Are you a--”

But she was interrupted when one of the small kittens clambered up her leg and onto her lap. She gazed down at it with a small, confused look, before reaching a tentative hand out for the thing to sniff. It did so, then promptly began to ignore her, despite being on her lap. Sighing, she pat its head. “Tell me,” she asked quietly, “did you know of the Kriegs?”

Behind a curtain of russet hairs, a wry smile made its way across his mouth. Ulfric finished the last of the cooking and plated the dishes. “Aye. To both.” A simple motion of his head and he laid out the table for them. “I miss home dearly, I do hope my pack is doing well. Alas they are strong enough and smart enough without me.” The chipper tone he spoke in betrayed the great emptiness he felt. There’s no filling that hole, it aches in and before all things.

“It is the same for you, yes?” He had heard of the Kriegs, not enough to really say much more than what any other wolfpack he knew of. He had a sinking feeling that their stories must not differ too much. For one of their kind to be away from family something drastic must have happened. And it was probably just about as shitty as his whole ordeal. “Tell me Alcher, what do you want for the wolves of this area? I sense a great bit of pride in you. Is it unity you are after, or control?”

A smile seemed fitting on Ulfric’s face, even if Alcher couldn’t really see it under his mop of facial hair. She relaxed a little, though the ache she felt for his loss and her own made her features slump ever more. “I hope your pack is doing well, too,” she said quietly, stroking the small, purring animal in her lap. When he asked her of her own family, she took a moment before she glanced up at him again. “In some ways, yes. I still long for them, of course, but-- I don’t have to wonder how they’re doing. News must not have made it North before you left.” She stroked the cat once more. “They are all dead now. I am the sole survivor of my family. Nein--” she paused, let out a slow breath, “--my entire pack.” She finally stopped her motions and looked back up at him, then to the plate he’d set in front of her. “It smells delicious.”

She did not need to ponder on the question he posed next, but she took a moment to, anyway. “I want peace for them,” she said quietly, “I want to help guide them and make them strong, so that what happened to me doesn’t happen to them. This place-- the hunters here-- already took one wolf from this pack. I won’t let that happen again.” Her expression had turned sharp again, but not in the way it had been before. It was set and determined and loyal. The wolves she’d met here-- Ulfric now included-- were her family. Her final pack. She would lay down her life for them, and she figured he knew as much through her words alone. “I want trust, not control. I lead with love, not fear.” Just like her father had. Even in his angriest moments, Alcher knew it was out of love that he grew upset with her. Not fear. Never fear.

The old wolf listened with intensity and compassion. That old familiar ache punched at his chest and brought it down, making him fight just a bit more for each breath. No creature on this earth could understand the weight of losing one’s pack. Ulfric had lost only a fraction of what she had, and yet she stood strong. That kind of determination and drive, that’s what the pack needed. Ulfric could offer strength, and maybe experience. But she….She could really pull them together. His eyes softened, and he extended a hand.

“Your ideals are as mine.” It was an offering. Time to let someone else fully take the reins in White Crest. Berserkers weren’t naturally ones to stop and think about their actions before rushing into something dangerous headfirst. And Ulf had honestly had more than enough time thinking about the consequences of his hasty decisions. They could build something together. A matriarch and her right hand. Being a guard dog on a chain was more of his style anyway. Less decision making and more…. BBQs and catch with the pups.

In a perfect world anyway.

“Have you ever considered getting a place, specifically for the pack?”

It was an odd relief that filled her, one she hadn’t known she’d been waiting for. Alcher watched her own pain etch onto his face and in that moment, she’d never felt more akin to someone else. Not even Cain, her old partner. His betrayal still stung her heart, but Ulfric seemed to understand, on some level, what her pain felt like. His pack may have still been alive, but he was separated from them. Likely for good. When he extended his hand, she took it, and she enjoyed the warmth of it, and the callousness of his palms, thick with hardened pads from use.

“Good,” she said quietly, “I’d much rather have a partner in you than an enemy.” She gave a weary smile. “My father revered your kind. I am the same.” He was, after all, the kind of wolf Alcher strived to be. She took her father’s words to heart and etched them in to never forget. She would make him proud, she had to.

At his last question, she gave a small chuckle. “Unfortunately...human money is not something I come by often. I’ve had little use for it before, but…” a pause, “I might have a place, actually. An old farm, left to me by a friend. It’s secluded, has plenty of room to run, and perhaps a basement to keep the pups that aren’t...quite as learned.” She looked to Ulf after that, tilting her head. “You...do not cage yourself, right?”

Well. This went better than he ever could have expected. Almost made him wish he’d sought her out sooner. A symbiosis between the wolves would be excellent for this town. If not that, then at least for the pack. And to be fair, that’s really all Ulfric could ask for or ever wanted. Maybe now he’d really be able to start to build something here. Do more than just survive. His gentle smile blossomed into a full blown grin at her sentiment, the feeling was completely mutual. While he was used to being somewhat of an apex predator, he never sought out a fight with another wolf if he didn’t have to.

“I’ve got a bit of a house-egg-” nest. “From years at my business. Been saving it for some time now, looking for the right time. The right project.” He leaned back. Taking time to think of the farm she proposed and what it might be like to stretch his legs outside of the apartment. A farm could be a lot of work, but that’d be an undertaking he’d gladly.

Her next quip cut him to his core, all he could do in response was laugh. So heartily he nearly bumped the table. “Why on earth would I do such a thing?”

“House-egg?” Alcher asked, blinking. “I’m not sure I...know that term. I didn’t study my English as much as I should have as a child.” The admittance came with a small, sheepish smile as she looked at him. “You seem like you enjoy your work quite a bit. I’ve never quite found myself good at anything so...human.” She tilted her head, wondering. She had very few skills that were applicable to human professions.

“Well, the house itself is still in nice condition, but it’s big, bigger than I care to upkeep by myself so it’s grown a little dusty. Perhaps we could all get together and make it a project.” It sounded almost like a dream. It reminded her of the pack she’d left behind in Canada. But this one, this time-- she didn’t want to leave, even when they were a pack able to survive on their own. This time, she wanted to stay. She wanted a family.

His chuckle started her a little and she blinked. “I simply wanted to double check. I was going to chastise you if you did.” She paused a moment. “And, so...hunters. We agree they are to be dealt with, correct?”

“Is that not the--? Y’know like, a prepared savings for a house you eventually plan to buy.” English was still a bit of a struggle for him as well. Especially any kind of idiom or saying. The words got twisted and ended up on the opposite side of the map, absolutely refusing to ask for directions. Ulfric waved the idea away, not caring to really think about what it should be. That was irrelevant.

A part of him softened at her next query. “I-uh, well it’s a long story.” The chair creaked along the wooden floor as he leaned back. The kitten in the alpha’s lap gave a big stretch along with the old wolf. “When I first got to America, I was lost.” He rolled his neck and idly poked at his food. “I had no direction, no purpose, no pack. Alone.” He had spent most of that time in a haze, barely able to recall details of what really transpired. Only that he survived, and did what he had to do to survive. “I was getting into too much dangerous shit, verging on self-destructive. The one person I really did know here suggested once that we get a tattoo, on a whim.” That hint of a smirk returned, but his eyes and thoughts were still far away. “I don’t remember what exactly made me want to get a memorial piece, but the process, the pain, the whole thing…”

He cut off, taking that moment to roll up his sleeve to show off his left forearm. An old, somewhat hazy crest filled out most of the area between his wrist and his inner elbow. Aged and fading, the ink spreading faster than it would in a human. Didn’t help that he was drunk when he got it. “Ahh, these old lines, I’d want them to be touched up but my mentor she… isn’t around anymore.” He looked over it with a soft fondness. “Not gone, just not here.”

“Having this was like having a part of them with me at all times. It made me not feel so empty in here.” Calloused fingers moved to his heart. “Helped me love the body that ripped me from the rest of the pack. Sort of reclaim it.” With a croak of mirth he returned his gaze to Alcher. “I realized I wanted to do that for other people. Help them heal.”

He let her speak, almost able to see the musing in her head. This place must’ve been something grand. “I think we’re up to the task.” This was probably more than he’d talked in months, even with his particularly chatty clients. Though they usually only wanted to talk about themselves.

“Oh of course. If I could rid this town of their blight I’d do it in a heartbeat.” His expression stiffened, and his tone grew grim. “Though with our numbers and outright attack would do more harm than good. I will not let another hunter hurt my pack ever again.” A moment of silence, consideration. “Our pack.”

“I’m afraid we’re both at a loss with this one,” Alcher chuckled, shaking her head.

She listened to him speak and felt her heart filling with a sense of belonging that she had been searching for since she was twelve years old, and she’d first woken up without her family. She remembered she’d been lost, so lost, when she’d woken up alone in that field, bleeding and dying. Even when she’d found her sister pack in Poland, the void that her family had left had remained. It would always remain. The hole in her heart would not go away, though, she supposed, it could be patched. She had finally figured that part out.

Her eyes trailed along his arm as he pulled his sleeve up to show her his markings. A tattoo with a meaning. She pressed her fingers to his markings and traced the lines and tried to absorb the life she knew lived inside of them. “It is a hard thing to do, isn’t it?” she asked quietly, looking down at her prosthetic limb. “Reclaiming parts of yourself that seem...taken.” She tapped her leg and listened to the hollow plastic sound it made as she did. “I lost my leg when I fled my family’s demise. I was so lost as well, I didn’t speak for over a year after the incident.” She shuffled to the edge of her chair to move closer to him, putting a hand over his on the table.

“We can heal them,” she agreed softly, “together.” And perhaps even each other, but the pups came first. “No, attacking outright would only get us all killed. We need to be vigilant, careful--” and perhaps even play possum. If Ariana wanted to try and make peace, perhaps they could use that to their advantage. Get inside before striking. “But whatever we do, we can do it together. We’re no longer alone.”

And the relief she felt at her own words were palpable. She wasn’t alone anymore.

#chatzy #chatzy: ulfric #wickedswriting #ulfric #old dogs new tricks #tw family death

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allthingsfangirl101 · 3 years

Text

SC Chapter 27: Truth In Reality Take 2

Masterlist

I walked into work, eagerly looking for Abigail. My heart sank when I saw that she wasn't in yet. I continued to wait, jumping whenever someone walked by my office.

When it was a few minutes past the time she normally gets in, I started to worry that she had decided to call in sick. I tried to busy myself so I stopped watching the clock and the elevator.

"Sorry I'm late, Mr. Efron," Abigail said as she popped her head into my office. I looked up, my breath instantly getting caught in my throat when I saw Abigail looking at her feet.

"I got stuck in traffic."

"No problem," I stuttered. She was about to walk away, but I stopped her. "Abigail, wait. Please."

"It's fine," she said, clearing her throat. "We can just pretend it didn't happen."

"What if I don't want to pretend it didn't happen?"

I tried to take a step towards her, but she took a step back. "I think since we work together, we should pretend it didn't happen."

We stared at each other, neither one of us saying anything. I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my chest and press my lips to hers.

"Let me just double-check your schedule and I'll be right back to go through it with you." She nodded before turning on her heel and leaving.

Throughout the day, I couldn't focus on work. All I could do was watch Abigail. And she knew it. I noticed her walking to the bathroom more, talking to other assistants more, making more copies, and running more errands. All to stay away from her desk.

Away from me.

At the end of the day, I saw Abigail getting ready to leave. Before she could head out, I stopped her.

"Abigail? Can we talk about my meetings I have tomorrow before you leave?" I asked. She studied me before nodding. She grabbed my schedule off her desk and walked into my office.

"Tomorrow, you have a meeting with. . ."

"I don't care," I cut her off.

"Mr. Efron," she stuttered.

"I shouldn't have kissed you," I said quickly. "And maybe I shouldn't have gone to your house late at night, but I wasn't drunk. If I can just explain. It's going to sound crazy, but I need you to hear me out. Please, Abigail."

She bit her lip in hesitation. I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding when she nodded and closed my schedule. I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to find a way to tell her.

"What I'm about to say," I started slowly, "is going to make you think I'm either drunk off my ass or should be in a mental institution. But I'm begging you to hear me out."

I grabbed her hand and waited for her to pull away. When she didn't, I was surprised. I ignored the burning that went up my arm and led her over to the couch. Once she was sitting, she finally pulled her hand out of mine and started playing with her pencil skirt.

"Do you remember when I started changing how I looked and acted?" I started.

"Yes," she said slowly. "You said you met someone who helped you realize you weren't as happy with your life as you could be."

"It was an Uber driver," I nodded.

"An Uber driver?" She asked slowly.

"I know how this sounds," I sighed. "But he asked me if I was happy, like truly happy. And I thought I was. Until I had this dream. I woke up in a different life. I wasn't a New York Lawyer. I was an art teacher at a high school and. . ."

"And?" She hesitated to push.

"And you were the choir teacher across the hall."

"Really?" She stuttered.

"Yeah," I chuckled. "We worked together."

"That's a crazy dream," she said slowly as she looked down at her hands.

"It wasn't just one dream," I rushed out. "Every night, I had a dream of us in this life. Together. I was the art teacher and you were the choir teacher. And it turns out. . ."

"What?" She asked when I didn't continue.

"I never left you for my team," I sighed. "We were still best friends and I made sure they were never rude to you. We never stopped being friends, Abigail. I didn't hurt you."

"Zac," she sighed, looking back at her hands.

"Every dream I had, we got closer and closer. Until. . . We eventually. . ."

"Zac," she said harsher this time. She looked up at me, holding back tears. "Just spit it out. We eventually what?"

"Started dating."

Her eyes widened as she immediately closed her mouth. She looked away from me, her face burning red.

"Oh," she said under her breath.

"And eventually," I hesitated. I sighed when I looked up at her and couldn't hold it in anymore.

"I fell in love with you."

"You. . . You what?" She stuttered, finally looking at me with wide eyes. "You fell in love with. . . With dream me."

"Yes," I said quickly. "But I also. . . I fell in love with. . ."

"Don't," she said quickly as she jumped up. She wiped her hands on her skirt, starting to pace.

"You are not. . . You did not. . . It's been. . . You are not in love with me, Zac. I mean, Mr. Efron! Mr. Efron. Not Zac. I don't think I can do this anymore. These last few months have been so confusing and. . . I just. . . I can't."

I jumped up and stood in front of her so she couldn't keep pacing. I reached down and gently grabbed her hands, giving her the chance to pull away. I held in a sigh of relief when she didn't pull her hands out of mine.

"Abigail, I know how confusing this all is. Please just let me explain," I begged. She nodded, not looking up from our feet. I let go of one of her hands and led her back to the couch.

"When we were kids," I started softly, "I thought I was. . . Well, I was. . . I was in love with you, Abigail. But when we drifted apart in middle school, I forced myself to push those feelings down. I had them buried so deep that I eventually forgot them. And you."

My breath got stuck in my throat when she finally looked up at me. Without thinking, I reached up and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, my hand lingering on her cheek. I quickly dropped my hand when I realized I was holding her face too long.

"As weird as this Dream Life has been," I continued, "it made me realize that those feelings were still there. I never stopped loving you, Abigail. I just pushed those feelings down."

"Zac," she said, her voice breaking.

"Please tell me you believe me," I whispered. I looked desperately into her eyes. "Abby, I was horrible to let you go in middle school. I never should've chosen my team over you. It's even worse that I forgot who you were and hired you, not knowing the truth. I was a jerk. Please forgive me. And maybe we. . . Maybe we can start over. Or at least pick up where we left off in middle school. I need you in my life, Abs."

Her breath got caught in her throat when I called her the nickname I haven't used since elementary school.

I opened my mouth to beg her to forgive me. Before I could try and convince her to give me another chance, she leaned over and cut me off. I gasped when I felt her lips press to mine. I didn't hesitate to kiss her back. Instead, I grabbed her face and deepened the kiss.

I smiled as our lips moved in sync. I let go of her face and wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her onto my lap. I let out a small moan as she reached up and ran her fingers through my hair.

I broke the kiss, both of us breathing heavily. I leaned my forehead against hers as we caught our breaths. Kissing Abigail was different than kissing Abby. Kissing Abigail felt real.

"I know I don't deserve a second chance," I whispered. "Especially after leaving you for a middle school basketball team. But please, Abs. I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I will never put anything before you. I swear. No case, no client, no promotion. Nothing will be more important in my life than you. I will put you before everything in my life. I promise."

Abigail reached up and gently cupped my face in her hands. She smiled as she rubbed her thumbs across my cheeks.

"I believe you," she whispered. "And there's something I should probably confess since we're being honest here."

She slowly slid her hands off of my face, placing them on my shoulders. As she built up her confidence, I wrapped my arms around her waist.

"You can tell me anything," I said gently. "I'm the one who's been making a complete ass of myself the past few months because of some dreams."

"I've been in love with you since we were kids too," she said, my heart jumping into my throat. "I also forced myself to push those feelings down in middle school. I was nervous to start working for you because I wasn't sure I could keep those feelings buried down."

"And did you?" I asked, holding back my smirk.

She bit her lip, trying to hide her blushing cheeks from me but failed. She played with the collar of my shirt, nervously chewing on her bottom lip.

"I thought I did," she shrugged. "Until you stopped being a corporate asshole and turned into a trucker. I thought I successfully kept those feelings in a box in the back of my mind but then you remembered me and acted nicer and. . . I'm still in love with you, Zac."

I roughly pressed my lips to hers, making her giggle. She instantly started kissing me back as we relaxed more into my office couch. I smirked against her lips as I felt her reach behind me and grab the cushions.

I deepened the kiss as I laid us down, me hovering over her. She moaned as I lowered my body closer to her, pressing her further into the cushions.

"We're at work," Abigail whispered as she broke the kiss. I leaned my forehead against hers, unable to stop my smile from spreading.

"Everyone went home," I said, under my breath. "And after everything we talked about. . ."

"Zac," she cut me off, her cheeks turning red. "I don't. . . I don't think I want our first time together to be in your office."

I smiled at how embarrassed she got. She looked down at my shirt and played with the buttons.

"Hey," I whispered, making her look up at me. "We don't have to do it here or even do it tonight. Can I at least take you on our first date?"

"I don't know," she teased. "I think my boss might make me work late."

I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers. She giggled as she wrapped her arms around my neck, deepening the kiss. Abigail moaned as I slowly broke the kiss.

"I'll call him and ask him to let you off early."

#zac efron #zac efron x reader #zac efron novel #original content #second chances #SC

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