#no it's actually quite simple they were married in the comics

[tippilo]

Chapter 23 Excerpt: The Three Broomsticks Now on AO3:

A large ‘closed’ sign greeted them as they approached the doorstep of Honeydukes. It didn’t surprise Tom; it was well after midnight on New Year’s Day after all. Hermione, however, acted like the news was completely unprecedented.

“What do they mean they’re bloody closed?!”

“It’s past midnight on—”

“I know what time it is, Tom!” She paced in front of the doorstep, her feet dragging through the freshly fallen snow.

The winter chill was making itself known in the Scotland mountains. Icy air entered his lungs with each breath. He shifted their shopping bags to his other hand. His fingers going numb.

He opened his mouth to reply, but then decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Any attempt to console her would only rile her further. Silence was his best option.

“We could unlock the door!” She suggested.

He kept quiet.

“It’s a simple spell!”

He said nothing.

“It’s worth a try!”

He tried not to say anything. He really did. But the words were tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them. “You think they wouldn’t have wards? You believe wizard-owned shops lock their doors at night and move along?” He watched Hermione’s eyes widen with horror. He pursed his lips as he fought to keep the smile off his face. She looked ready to pull her hair out.

“We could go through the main gates!” She rushed to say, her pitch getting higher. “It’s late. Maybe no one would notice us sneaking back into the castle!”

“I highly doubt that. Plus, with all the students at Hogwarts, I’m sure they have more security measures in place than some iron gates.” She glared at him. His blasé attitude about the whole thing did not help.

“There are other passages! We could go through the Shrieking Shack!”

“What the fuck is that?”

“Shoot!” she muttered something about werewolves and a willow tree; along with a bunch of other stuff Tom couldn’t quite make out.

Speaking of making out… He watched her assault on her lower lip increase with her anxiety. That bloody bartender interrupted them just when things were getting good. He had his hand poised, ready to slide under her skirt. He didn’t give a fuck who saw them.

His eyes glazed over as he imagined the possibilities. Apparently, a quick wank in the bathroom didn’t satiate his appetite for her. Nothing did these days. “We could get a room,” he said. He would have her all to himself. No interruptions. All night long. Together. Alone. On a bed.

Fuck.

“What?!” She stopped pacing and gaped at him. She looked at him as if he just suggested running away into the mountains to be married and having her bear his children—rather than merely staying some place warm for a night.

He watched her tongue peek out and wet her lips. He would suck on that tongue as soon as he slammed the door closed.

Snow fell lightly on her curls. Her nose was pink with the cold.

“The bartender said they had a room. We’ll come back in the morning when Honeydukes is actually open.” He gestured at the building with his hand—or was it a giant ice cube? It was difficult to tell.

“We can’t share a room!” She squealed, crossing her arms over her chest in exasperation. She did this adorable, outraged scowl—like a cute little lion.

“I would have suggested sleeping on the doorstep of Honeydukes, but it’s freezing and doesn’t look comfortable.”

“Are you laughing right now?”

“No.”

“This isn’t funny!”

“I’m not laughing.”

“It looked like you were laughing to me!” She moved her hands to her hips and her lips pressed into a firm line. The corners of his mouth twitched, and he fought to suppress a grin at her comical pout. She definitely wouldn’t appreciate that right now.

“I promise, I wasn’t laughing,” he repeated.

“You’re a garbage liar, Tom!” she said. He was actually an excellent liar, but he wasn’t about to dispute her claim. “I don’t appreciate any humor in this!” she huffed and returned to her pacing, watching the ground where the snow accumulated. He could almost see the panic welling under her skin.

Dammit. Despite how entertaining the situation was, he hadn’t planned on freezing tonight. His witch was being stubborn.

He stepped closer to her. “Hermione, stop.” His fingers touched her upper arm. He imagined her red coat’s texture to be soft, but the bitter chill made his skin prickle with pain at the contact.

She paused and eyed him skeptically.

“I’m going back to The Three Broomsticks.” He had a purse full of Galleons in his pocket. There should be enough for one night. “I would like you to come too, but I won’t force you. It’s up to you.” He decided not to add that he wanted to fuck her into the mattress.

She blinked at him once, then twice, three times before she spoke. “Okay,” her voice sounded small in the strange quiet of the winter. “I’ll go back to The Three Broomsticks with you.”

#fanfic #hermione granger #tbsits #tom riddle #tom riddle x hermione granger #tomione #tom marvolo riddle #tomione fanfiction #hermione jean granger #the brightest star in the sky #harry potter fandom #hp fanfic #harry potter #fanfiction #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter fanfic #ao3 fanfic #ao3 #hp fandom #hp #writing #ao3 writer #archive of our own

[tokoyamisstuff]

Sugar Shock Ch. 3

Hotaru Haganezuka x GN! Reader

Based on this comic by @yuki2sksksk.

Summary: No one - including Haganezuka himself - believed that he would ever get married, let alone be interested in it at all...

...that was until he met you, at least.

[Last Chapter] - [Next Chapter]

Warnings: Mentions of Hotaru's past, but nothing severe.

Words: 1538

"Hey, have you fallen in love with me yet?"

That was the question Haganezuka had asked you for three months now, ever since you had explained to him that you needed to like him first before thinking about something like marriage.

"Um...no." Wow. He really has no shame in asking you this so bluntly, huh?

"Well then hurry up."

You rose a scolding eyebrow at the man sitting an appropriate distance away from you, deciding to not further comment on his stubborn demand.

After all, what may seem like immature or selfish behavior on first glance was most of the time just the result of a simple mind.

With the many times that you have spent around him in order to get to know him better, you figured that Haganezuka was a rather impatient man in general - but willing to wait for you.

To be perfectly honest, since you have started 'dating', if one could call it that way, you came to adore many things about him. Of course he may be a blockhead, emotionally stunted and rather difficult to deal with at times - but that also made him the most honest person you had ever encountered.

Actually, if one would look behind this facade, they would quickly find out that there's much more behind the misanthropic swordsmith Haganezuka than most would think.

The two of you were currently sitting on a bench in front of his workshop, catching the last rays of sunlight after closing your shop early to enjoy the weather today.

Haganezuka however wasn't even remotely done for the day, so you needed to lure him out of his workshop with his favourite candy. Often he would work until way past sunset, if not even through the whole night if he was particulary concentrated.

His workshop was also his home at the same time, if one could call it that way. Well, it had a bed and all, but only the most basic necessities. So you had decided to bring some decoration from time to time, a candle here, some flowers there, maybe a picture at your next visit.

And, fitting for someone like him, the hut was also located way outside of the main city in the middle of the forrest. At least that would spare you annoying questions of prying townsfolk. Gossip was the only thing keeping a small, secluded community like that alive, after all.

But as far as you knew, only Kanamori - the one person you would consider actually liking instead of just enduring Haganezuka - had a clue about what was going on between the two of you. Luckily he knew better than to provoke his friend, so he kept quiet until now and narrowed his teasing down to giving you a thumbs up here and there.

You just knew that he couldn't wait to force you into a double date with him and his wife...

Not that anyone else would believe Haganezuka to actually be that involved with anyone, let alone romantically. Even through all the months he had been pining on you, people assumed he was just staring because you were the one supplying him with his beloved sweets.

Come to think of it...

"Hey, how come that you always only eat mitarashi dango? It's my favourite too, but-"

"It reminds me of my parents."

Sometimes it was hard to decipher his true emotions, not only because of the mask but also due to his voice. There was always a subtle anger boiling in it's tone, together with a sadness you couldn't quite decipher.

"But they're alive, aren't they?" You knew better than to say that out aloud, but as if he could hear your thoughts he explained himself. "They abandoned me because of my bad temper, but sometimes they'd visit me at the old man's house."

Oh.

You were only in town for a few years, but you knew that Haganezuka was mainly raised by chief Tecchikawahara ever since he was two years old.

What you didn't know however was the cruel reason behind it...

"Every time they came, they'd gift me some dango to ease their guilt I guess. I'd ask them when I can come home to live with them again, promised to be good from now on...but they always went without me as quickly as they came."

Haganezuka sat crouched and facing the ground, as if buried in deep thought - or rather as if the weight of his past was still pushing him down. "My tantrums got worse with each of their visits, until they stopped coming completely. I know they're actually close by, I could reach out to them, but...we're still on no speaking terms."

You remained silent until he looked up to search your face, nodding softly in response to signal him you were there, and you were listening.

Haganezuka eyed your reaction closely, not being fond of letting someone so close to his core.

"Well, I know I ain't easy to deal with, but I was their child." His hands were folded in his lap, trembling slightly as he spoke.

But then he remembered what happened to your family - they're not here anymore. You probably held them very dearly, and there he was talking only about himself.

"Ah, who cares. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be talking about something like that in front of you, it's disrespectful-"

"No, it's alright" you reassured him, shuffling closer until you were in range to put a hand on his back. "That might sound wrong, but I hope you understand that I'm glad you told me all of this, Haganezuka."

A shiver went down his spine at the sensation of your touch. He was close to push you away, say he doesn't need any sympathy.

But deep down he knew: It was honest affection.

Overwhelmed by this unfamiliar tenderness, he tried his best not to flinch, yet couldn't make himself look at you either. All he managed to wring out at that moment was "...at least call me by my name."

And like that, all the former tension had disappeared into thin air.

His name? Hotaru? Like the firefly, how cute...

"Hah, he probably gets all sulky if I say it sounds cute" you thought, almost unable to contain your excitement.

You put a hand in front of your mouth, only barely able to hide the happy smirk on your face - yet the way your eyes brightened gave it away. "H-Hotaru..."

"..." Only rarely Haganezuka thought about social norms, but right now he was once again damn grateful for having to wear this mask in public, so you wouldn't see how much this bewildered him.

Indeed, he hated his name - but hearing it in your voice made it sound pretty somehow.

"I changed my mind, don't call me that...yet." He could get used to hearing it more often, though, as soon as he manages to not lose his cool through such little things.

You harrumphed at his statement. This guy...well, nevermind. You had heared that he doesn't like how cute it sounds, so you shouldn't take it personally.

"Ah, I'm too full already..." Rubbing your aching belly, you thought that maybe you should cut back on snacking your own sweets so often. "Hey, Haganezuka, do you want the rest? You can also finish mine as well if you like."

As soon as you had spoken those words, the man would leap to your side, shoving his mask to the side before eating the dango right from your hand.

Now it has been his turn to make you flabbergasted, huh?

"Thanks" he said plainly in between content munches, still having a grip around your wrist in whose hand you were holding the dango stick as if it was nothing.

Most likely, like so often, he doesn't even understand the consequences of his actions at all...

Your eyes were still widened as you scanned his face, realizing just how your heart had skipped a beat or two that exact moment.

Was that was attraction feels like?

Overall, Haganezuka is a complicated yet very interesting person. There's a lot to find endearing about his behavior if you just search at the right places, and be willing to accept his oddities.

Sometimes you were torn between wanting to slap him or just go right for a kiss - not that you'd already admit that to him.

At least you had to admit that for you, it seemed he was on his best behavior. He was also reliable, hardworking, and somewhere deep down really gentle and kind.

And you couldn't deny you were surely enjoying being around him.

It just seemed his upbringing had made him become wary of others, as no one ever taught him to actually deal with certain situations. So he was toning down his own intense emotions, deeming them wrong and unloveable, suppressing them until they'd break through as a full blown tantrum.

Ultimatively, it was right then that you decided he was worth to proceed marrying him eventually - you just needed to be absolutely sure to have fallen in love with him, though.

After all, you were also completely new at that topic.

Better make it quick then.

#haganezuka hotaru #haganezuka / reader #haganezuka / you #hotaru haganezuka #self insert #writing #fanfiction #demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba

[bethaven]

#2 The Big Bang Theory

(Spoiler alert)

Plot: Four nerdy scientists try to navigate social life in Pasadena, sometimes with great difficulty. Leonard, Sheldon, Raj and Howard all share some or other neurotic trait but also the longing for a less lonesome life. Everything changes one day when Penny moves in nextdoor to Leonard and Sheldon...

Years: 2007-2019

Seasons: 12

My story: One of my best friends in high school loved this series and we spent the good part of a weekend back in 2010 watching the first seasons. I've always been drawn to nerds and geeks so this spoke to me right away.

Teachable moments: TBBT developed a lot over the years, not the least the characters developed and challanged themselves more and more. I think it mostly thaught me that you can be yourself and still find love and friendship. And also, a few random science facts that can be helpfull at quizes.

Best character: This might be a random choice, but I've always had a soft spot for Stuart, the neurotic and depressed owner of the comic book store the gang visits frequently. He seems like a small role at the beginning, but he hangs on all 12 seasons and actually does quite a journey himself. I'm so happy he gets a happy ending.

Best episode: This might be the simple choice, but I really love the last episode; "The Stockholm syndrome". This because of several reasons. One, last episodes rarely are as good as they need to be, but this one is. Two, it takes place in Sweden, which always is fun if you're from here yourself. Three, it takes place on my birthday (the Nobel Prize ceremony always takes place on Alfred Nobel day December 10 th). So, basically, that episode was made for me!

Best quote: "I was under a misapprehension that my accomplishments were mine alone. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have been encouraged, sustained, inspired, and tolerated not only by my wife, but by the greatest group of friends anyone ever had." Sheldon Cooper in his Nobel Prize acceptance speach.

Fun fact: Penny's last (maiden) name is never revealed at any time through the years. Only time she is mentioned with a last name is after she married Leonard and taken his name.

If you like this you might also like: The spinoff Young Sheldon, where we follow Sheldon as a wunderkind in East Texas in the 90's, is a given for any TBBT fan. Also, other ensamble cast sitcoms like Friends, New Girl, How I met your mother and Modern Family.

#the big bang theory #sheldon cooper #young sheldon #sitcom #bethaven's calendar 2023

[goatpaste]

Hello! I have a question about you’re pillar fam au : since josuke and yukako are in this au, did Joseph still end up cheating like in the original show?

ah! that actually got answered quite awhile back in one of the first comics i think i did for this au

no, joseph did not cheat. my joseph from my writing would never do that and Wham and Suzi would have killed him super dead for it. Joseph is happily married to his husband and wife, and loves their daughter.

Instead I decided in this rewrite, to try and keep to the canon best i can with what iv built but without the cheating plotline. Tomoko was planning her future with her boyfriend/fiancé/husband/whatever at the time, talking about having kids. Going great as far as she could ever tell, they were struggling to conceive so Tomoko turned to getting outside help for this, via a sperm donor. However around the time of confirming Tomoko's pregnancy, her partner left very suddenly and without warning and was never seen from again, leaving Tomoko heart broken and with a kid(s) on the way. (with a very similar vibe to how canon tomoko is with Joseph, even tho he's gone and did her wrong she still loves him. She struggles to the idea of loving again and her kids are VERY concerned on the matters of their mothers heart. Yukako wishes to see her mother find love again and move on. While Josuke swears he'd kill his mothers ex if he ever saw him and gets super defensive to any advances anyone makes at his mother because he doesn't want to see her get hurt again)

That sperm donor would just so happen to be Joseph Joestar, after traveling around the world with his new friend Abdul and letting himself get a little too competitive in a simple drinking game of dare go too far he left his mark behind in the sperm bank in Tokyo were Tomoko would end up seeking professional help for her pregnancy.

for the first few years of Josuke and Yukako's life no one was aware of the connection they would have to the Joestar family. Joseph would struggle to recall his less than careful party going behavior while visiting Tokyo that would result in the Higashikata kids somewhere out there, who would later inherit stands from Josephs side of the family. And Tomoko wouldn't be aware of why her kids were sick for 50 days back in 89' or that it could possibly be because of their bio dads bloodline.

Joseph and the family would come to find out about Josuke and Yukako during the events of p3, after Speedwagon Foundation doctors digging through the families medical files for information to try and help Holly, they would stumble upon Josephs Donation and with the Foundation's research were able to find out resulted spawn from this event.

After returning home, finding Holly's stand had "gone away and would no longer hurt her" they decided the same must have happened with the twins of Morioh. Deciding to put their personal feelings aside and leave the family alone. They didn't need the "excitement" that came from being around their family and deserved to stay far away from it as they can

they wouldn't, no one in that family can leave well enough alone and the kids didn't "lose their stands" either. Tomoko would raise two kids who seemed to always have weird things happening around them that she could never explain. And as they began their years of highschool, they would be approached by Jotaro who was there both on leads from the SW foundation as well as, a discovery that holly stand never went away. It laid dormant mostly as she no longer needed it and herself believed it no longer to be there. However she would realize the stand was still with her in a small way, and then slowly dawn on the fact that if she had her stand still, would her estranged morioh siblings still have their? With this, SW leads and everything else lining up. Joseph finally decides that as he's gotten older, that if he brought these kids into this world and left their mother to raise god knows what kinda kids his genetic and stand abilities would leave her to deal with, they deserved some form of compensation. thus followed up by the events of p4 in a slightly tweaked way, mostly on the front of family relations and some stuff slightly changed just to my own taste and more of Yukako's involvement in stuff.

#pillar fam

[grandhotelabyss]

Do you think people don't really often push them selves to ponder and engadge with work that is beyond just surface level entertainment do to some inate law of life, that some people cant be helped.

Or is it more the fault of the "culture", even maybe an nefarious "dumbing down"? I remember once Logo pointed out how America actually used to be one of the most well read countries just two hundred years ago it really made me think.

Hell even my grandparents who lived through the soviet union seemed to know and enjoy a lot of literature, not even speaking about shit like Operas which are totally foreign to me - and they are quite simple and practical people, so its not like they are an exception.

I don't think we can compare an agrarian society in a fairly primitive state of print culture where everybody spoke sagely because they'd read the King James Bible and only the King James Bible to a complex and increasingly urbanized society where everybody has smartphones. If you read Thoreau, who was writing back in Logo's literate America, he thought his fellow citizens were morons who needed to read the translated Indian and Chinese classics, abandon their business-minded ways, and live closer to nature. It's always something. Those Bible-readers also thought their countryman Melville was a lunatic the minute he started writing unpredictable novels rather than sexy travelogues, and there wasn't a hope in hell of their understanding the visionary poems of their reclusive spinster neighbor Dickinson. Nowadays Thoreau's, Melville's, and Dickinson's schizoposts would be the center of online cults, and they would feel themselves appreciated, not to mention that the asexual Thoreau and the homosexual Melville could live their erotic lives as they wished without being pestered by women trying to marry them or marry them off, while Dickinson—perhaps controversially, she's always seemed straight to me—could at last find a man able to keep up with her. We do enjoy advantages they did not.

You have a point, though, with your comparison between now and the mid-20th-century, when the communist and capitalist worlds both stressed a certain cultural uplift of the masses through their educational institutions and through their media. I'd rather live now than in the 1850s without a doubt, but sometimes the 1950s don't look so bad from the point of view of mainstream culture. I'd say things really have been dumbed down in education and in public culture since then, but, again, it may just be an inevitable result of the changed media landscape. Classical music and serious literature had a more captive audience in 1955 that's just not possible today even if anybody wanted to bring it back—and even that culture tended to be middlebrow, suspicious of certain forms of difficulty or complexity, or else of vulgarity and vitality. In 1955, all the intellectuals were complaining about rock and roll and comic books, whereas now Bob Dylan has the Nobel Prize, and I haven't taught a college-level literature course that wasn't exclusively about comic books in almost five years. And yet I can write and speak about whatever I want online, including serious matters, and I do.

[mask131]

Green spring: Midsummer’s Night fairies (1)

OBERON, TITANIA and PUCK

Category: Shakespearian world ; A Midsummer Night’s Dream

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, and extremely influential on Western culture as a whole – an influence that is perfectly embodied by a trio of characters. Oberon, king of fairies, Titania, queen of fairies, and Puck, Oberon’s jester. Today these names can be found everywhere – books, comics, television series, cartoons, manga, poems – to the point they are basically considered as THE fairy royalty, in legends and folklore. But the thing is that they were Shakespeare’s creation. Not entirely, Shakespeare did use pre-existing folklore as inspiration, but he was the one who placed those three entities in this particular structure and role, and when people talk about them today, they speak of Shakespeare’s interpretation of the characters. In fact, the fairy royalty of Midsummer Night’s Dream is such a big topic I’ll have to divide it into two entries. Today’s entry: exploring Shakespeare’s play and characters.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a comedy that starts out with a group of four young Athenians (we are in Ancient Greece) who one night flee into the woods outside of the city because of complicated love matters. It all starts with a young couple, Hermia and Lysander, who flee Athens because they are in love with each other but Hermia’s father refuses this union. They are followed by Demetrius, who is another suitor of Hermia that she is supposed to marry, despite her not loving him. And Demetrius in turn is followed by Helena, a friend of Hermia who is madly in love with Demetrius despite him constantly rejecting her. In parallel to this love story, a second plot happens in the woods: a group of low-class, uneducated craftsmen of Athens, called the “rude mechanicals”, gather in the forest to rehearse a theater play they are supposed to perform the following day for the marriage of the king of Athens, Theseus. Yes, the Greek mythology Theseus, who is supposed to marry queen Hippolyta of the Amazons. The problem is that the rude mechanicals don’t understand anything about theater, and due to their simple and down-to-earth process of thinking the rehearsal is a ridiculous mess – especially thanks to one of them, Nick Bottom the weaver, who is a fool full of himself, the kind of guy that tries to play all the roles at once because he is certain he is just that good of an actor. He will be important for latter. AND, unknown to these two groups, a third community is in the woods tonight. Not a human one, though. The fairies have come to the woods.

Titania, queen of fairies, arrives in the woods of Athens to assist to Theseus’ wedding the following day, with all her fairy retinue… And is quite unpleased to see that her husband, Oberon, king of fairies, has also arrived in the woods with his own court. You see, Titania and Oberon have been feuding for quite some times now due to a changeling matter: Titania was given by his dying mother a little boy that she decided to raise among her fairies, as a changeling child. But Oberon asked for the boy, thinking he would be better raised as one of his fairy knights. Titania refused to give the boy up, and since then the two have been fighting and avoiding each other. Which, as we learn, is actually very bad for the world. You see, the fairy rulers are actually the “parents” of nature and seasons, and their feud causes their “children” to enter a state of chaos and confusion. We are talking floods that destroy crops and kill cattle, noxious and disease-filled fogs rising out of the sea, frosts that destroy the fresh flowers of spring while buds and blooms appear randomly in the heart of winter… And this “ill meeting by moonlight” doesn’t help either, as Oberon and Titania basically accuse each other of cheating with Hippolyta and Theseus (respectively), and they leave each other even more furious than before.

Oberon is left alone and as he broods, planning his revenge, he happens to meet Demetrius and Helena. Helena declares her passionate and ever-lasting love (borderline insane love) to Demetrius, who rejects her harshly and cruelly, and as they leave Oberon decides to stand with Helena and punish the hard-hearted Demetrius for disdaining love. He calls forth his faithful servant, Puck, and orders him to use his powers (he can fly faster than the wind and easily travel around the world in a matter of minutes) to go fetch a magical flower whose juice can make people fall in love. Oberon plans to use the juice of this flower to pour it onto Titania’s eyes, and force her to fall in love as part of a complicated manipulation/humiliation plan – but before Puck gives him the flower, Oberon orders him to go fetch the “young Athenian” that wanders in the woods with a girl in love with him, and to also pour the juice in his eyes, so he might fall in love with her. Pretty simple orders, right? But that’s without counting on a lot of factors…

One of which is Puck’s behavior itself. Puck is actually the first fairy introduced to the audience, even before the appearances of Oberon and Titania. Puck is a shrewd and knavish sprite also called “Robin Goodfellow” or “Hobgoblin”, a “merry wanderer of the night” that is Oberon’s jester, and we got a full list of the various practical jokes he likes to play on mortals. Misleading wanderers in the night to laugh at the harm they cause themselves ; spoiling milk and frightening village maidens ; driving “fat and bean-fed” horses mad by imitating the neighing of a filly in heat ; hiding himself in the bowl of milk of the local gossiper before bursting out of it when they are about to drink from it ; or taking the shape of a stool only to disappear when the “wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale” tries to sit on it… As you can see, a standard mischief-making fairy. And his love for jest will make Oberon’s plans even more complicated…

First of all he does fulfill his task of pouring the love-juice into the eyes of the young Athenian man in the woods… But he wasn’t told there were TWO Athenian men in the woods. The result is that he pours the juice in the eyes of Lysander, and makes him fall in love with Helena. When Oberon notices this mistakes and berates Puck, the sprite quickly pours the juice in the eyes of Demetrius, to also make him fall in love with Helena… Only to result into pure chaos, as Helena doesn’t understand why two men uninterested in her are suddenly fighting for her, while Hermia lives very badly the fact that her two suitors suddenly abandon her and treat her like dirt. In a second time, as Puck performs his job, he stumbles upon the rude mechanicals rehearsing, and he is mightily amused by this (Puck always thinks of human as amusing creatures and hilarious clowns). He particularly takes a nasty liking to Nick Bottom’s foolish arrogance, and decides to play one of his jokes on him – by turning his human head into the one of a donkey (or rather the head of an “ass” as the characters keep insisting, for the audience’s delight). The other rude mechanicals flee in terror in front of their transformed friend and Nick, unaware of what happened to him, wanders around the woods… until he finds a sleeping Titania, who has just received the flower’s magical juice in her eyes while she was asleep. As she wakes up, she sees the donkey-headed weaver and falls in love with him… And Oberon and Puck laugh as “Titania fell in love with an ass”.

However, after a few scenes of the regal, beautiful, majestic and delicate Titania trying to please the rude, air-headed, unmannered and unrefined donkey-headed man, Oberon comes to regret what he has done and thinks the fun has to end (though there is an ambiguity towards his behavior… after all he decides the “prank” has to end once Titania agrees to give him the changeling boy he sought after, thanks to her newfound obsession for Nick Bottom – does he thinks the love spell should end because he obtain what he wanted? Or does he truly acts out of remorse upon seeing his wife humiliate herself this way? Or maybe does he even feel a bit of jealousy upon seeing her love another so much?). Oberon calls forth Puck once more, puts a sleeping spell over everybody over the woods, and orders the messy love spells to be broken (except for the one tying Demetrius to Helena, as Oberon always intended there to be one). Titania wakes up realizing with horror that she was in love with an ass, reconcile with Oberon and together leave the woods offering blessings upon the imminent royal wedding. The young Athenians wake up and return to Athens to have their newfound love recognized. Nick Bottom, his head returned to a human’s, wakes up from his bizarre “dream” of fairies and perform with his rude mechanicals their play at Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding. And the play ends with a famous monologue of Puck, who addresses the audience itself, reminding them that if they were displeased or offended by anything they saw today, all the characters were but shadows and illusions, and that if they disliked the play they should just leave the theater thinking of this experience as a bizarre dream they had while slumbering, since in the end nothing is truly “real”…

- - - - - -

Now that I am done with my brief recap (which is just as rude as the mechanicals themselves), it is time to talk about some side-details and more in-depths analysis to understand what is the big deal with those fairies. There are actually three main points I want to discuss.

1) Titania, Oberon and Puck form the basic social trinity expected from any royal depiction of the time: the king, the queen and the jester. In this way, the fairy court mimics the human court. Even more in that, in the play itself, Titania and Oberon were designed to be reflections of Theseus and Hippolyta, a sort of “supernatural mirror” of the actual rulers of Athens right about to be married – it doesn’t help that in-universe, the two couples have said to have intermingled (Oberon having been Hippolyta’s lover, and Titania having an affair with Theseus), and in a meta-theatrical aspect, usually the actors for Theseus and Hippolyta also play Oberon and Titania, since the two duos never appear at the same time on stage. Another point of “mimicking” is tied to the idea that Oberon and Titania’s feud causes environmental damage and weather-chaos. This is actual a literal manifestation of a trope that Shakespeare adored, and that was very common in medieval and Renaissance works of England: the idea that the royal body is the body of the country, that the king is a mirror of the land. It is an old topic that goes back to the Arthurian myth (king Arthur and the fisher-king especially), but the concept is that a good ruler will bring peace, prosperity and happiness to the land, while a bad ruler will actually “corrupt” the land or “harm” the country by its mere presence, since the two are tied. To take a “fisher-king” like case, a sick or wounded king will be tied to his land being blighted by disasters or becoming sterile. In Shakespearian works, this trope is usually used in tragedies to point out how the corruption or wickedness of a king harms the entire country: Macbeth’s murderous ways and Richard III’s tyranny cause numerous sinister and creepy omens that freak out their citizens, King Lear’s foolish and self-destruction decisions are coupled to an upcoming storm… And here, the feud and quarrels between the two fairy rulers leads to the entire nature world becoming unhinged.

2) The whole play happens during one very magical night… But which night? “Midsummer’s Night” you are going to tell me. After all, it is in the title of the play ; today the play is usually performed around midsummer ; midsummer was a huge celebration in England for a very long time, and legends tell of midsummer night as a time of spells, magic and wonders… But the thing is that, in-universe, there is no reference whatsoever to midsummer. In fact, the only time and festive references in the play are rather directed at another folk celebration… The May celebrations. The text references several times the May rites, dances and poles, all indication the celebrations surrounding the 1st of May, day of the return and beginning of spring. And this fits the main themes of the play: love, lovers, marriages ; since the May rites were rites of fertility, sexuality, coupling and weddings. So… Midsummer Eve or May Day? Maybe both… There is a true time-confusion in this play, there serves to enhance the “dream-like feeling”. This time confusion can also be found in the very time setting: the play supposedly takes place in Ancient Greece, and yet uses many anachronism referring to Shakespeare’s England (the May Day references, for example).

3) A final important point would be that the fairies in this play are true “crossroads” character, a mix of various influences and fairy-interpretations that actually heavily shaped future interpretations of the characters. I explain myself… You have in this play’s fairies the actual folkloric interpretation of fairies in the British Isles – the “fair folk” as we would know them, an interpretation of fairies as wild, chaotic supernatural beings. This is the depiction of Titania and Oberon as almost god-like nature spirits whose fights disrupt the very feather, and it is Puck, the Robin Goodfellow that keeps shapeshifting and turning invisible to play sometimes dangerous pranks on humans. But we also have here one of the earliest and most famous example of the future “sanitized” fairies, what will be called the “Victorian fairies”. This shows the strongest with Titania’s fairy court and servants, who are characterized as being small in size, and strongly tied to plants and insects. Titania sleeps in a bed made of plants and flowers, her servants are called names such as “Peaseblossom”, “Mustardseed”, “Cobweb” or “Moth”, and they are told of performing things such as using glow-worms as light sources, fanning people with butterfly wings, and entering into armed battle with bumblebees to steal their honey-bags. We see here the true precursors of the tiny insect-winged fairies dressed in petals and leaves (an image that was also fed by another of Shakespeare’s fairy queen, the small Mab from “Romeo and Juliet”).

But this is Titania’s side that is mostly connected to plants and insects, because if you look at Oberon’s side, there is a stronger connection to animals: Puck has been noted before to shapeshift into, imitate the sounds of, or turning other people into animals. Animals… and also more sinister things, such as… well the dead. One notable passage has Puck warn Oberon, “king of shadows”, of the upcoming dawn by describing how the ghosts flee the light to seek the safety of their graves, only for Oberon to point out that fairies, while also being spirits, are “spirits of another sort”… Fairies existing as spirits between the humans and the gods, fairies being at a cross between the animal and the plant (a confusion that gains its paroxysm during the “love scenes” between Titania and Nick, where the fairy queen lies surrounded by insect in a bed of plants and flowers with in her arms a donkey-headed man, scenes where all the borders of nature break down in one great confusion)… And the fairies, finally, are also present at a crossroad with Greco-Roman mythology… Because despite fairies being creatures of medieval and Renaissance England, they are here present in Ancient Greece, getting involved in the life of Greek heroes, Athenian citizens and Amazons. Oberon makes numerous references to the Roman gods (the most important being the magical flower he uses, supposedly created when Cupid misfired an arrow that hit the flower), and as for Titania her very name is a reference to Greco-Roman myths. Indeed, Shakespeare completely invented her, but he took her name from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in which “Titania” is used to designate the daughters of the Titans… hinting that Titania is a descendant of the Titans.  In fact, Ovid’s Metamorphosis were clearly a big influence on Shakespeare’s play, as obvious from the whole “Nick with a donkey head” plot, tied to the heavy references of Roman gods.

#green spring #shakespeare #a midsummer night's dream #oberon #titania #puck #fairies

[sokkastyles]

Weird thing from "The Search" that I don't know what to do with:

Both Noren and Azula see themselves as the Dragon Emperor in Love Amongst the Dragons, the play within the comic. The Azula thing is pretty obvious. Zuko says he doesn't get why she always made him play the villain but the audience is supposed to understand that this is Azula misunderstanding the play and seeing herself as the humbled rightful heir to a powerful destiny that she feels she deserves and is being kept from by others, without understanding the play's message, which is that the Dragon Emperor needed to be humbled in order to embrace love.

The Noren thing is a little stranger and carries some bad implications. Ursa immediately recognizes Noren's name when she meets him as the name that the Dragon Emperor takes in human form, and by this time the reader is starting to suspect the truth that Ursa does not know yet, that Noren is really Ikem, with a new name and a new face.

Unlike with Azula, the comic wants us to see Noren/Ikem as a heroic character, so the parallel with the story-within-a-story is not meant to be a subversion, but more straightforward. Which means that the comic agrees with Noren seeing himself as the hero of the story, who was humbled and brought low but then gained love in the process.

Except that Ikem didn't start out in a high position. Ursa is the one who undergoes class changes, being slightly higher in status than Ikem and then going on to marry the Fire Lord, before eventually being banished, then finding love with Ikem, who has become Noren, as Noriko, who is neither a magistrate's daughter nor a fire lady, but a simple woman (who the comic also obnoxiously goes out its way more than once to tell us is not as pretty as Ursa.)

This implies that Ursa was the one who had to learn the lesson of humility. Which I don't like because of the way Ikem, in particular, treats her leaving to marry Ozai as if it were a choice she made, when the comic NEVER implies that she had a choice and, in fact, makes it very clear that she didn't have a choice at all.

This connection between Ikem and Azula both wrongfully seeing themselves as the hero of the story seems to also imply that Ikem was wrong to blame Ursa for being forced to marry Ozai, but the comic never condemns him for that and seems to agree with him.

The unfortunate implication is that Ursa had to be humbled by being abused by Ozai for ten years, be forced to bear his children while also watching them be abused, and then be forced to abandon them to her vile husband to accept Ikem's love. Even though she did love Ikem before, the comic oddly treats her being forced to marry Ozai like it's a sign that she didn't love him "enough" or just can't let her love Ikem when she is Ursa the magistrate's daughter who is above him. She has to be brought to her lowest point first. It's quite a misogynistic way to tell the story of a woman who, in the original series, is also a voiceless victim who gets blamed for not being a good enough mother by a startlingly large portion of the fandom through no actual fault of her own.

#the search #atla comics critical #ursa #ikem #azula #love amongst the dragons

[tamtam-go92]

Tam's reading resolution

Book 1: Pearl S. Buck - The Good Earth

Released: 1931

This is the edition that I own, it's an old book but I don't have it at hand as I type this so I can't say how old.

So, what is interesting about this book? It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and the author would eventually win the Nobel Prize in 1938. It's about a poor Chinese farmer called Wang Lung who marrys the former slave O-Lan (O-lan in the German Edition, so I read the L as an I until now). In the first years of his marriage Wang Lung's farm prospers, his wife bears him two sons and a daughter in a quick succession and they gain enough wealth to buy a new piece of land were they can grow rice. But then a drought comes over the land and Wang Lung and his family are in danger of starvation. So they leave their land, their good earth for a big, wealthy city in the South by train. They are now in the city and try to make a living by begging and Wang Lung becomes a rickshawee. When suddenly military people show up and take away men from the city, Wang Lung wants to return to his land but he would have to sell his daughter into slavery to afford the move back to his hometown. This is how far I've read until now.

What I liked so far: I like the setting, I'm really interested in Asian culture and it's so interesting to read about it, as I know almost nothing about China from around 1900 (the events aren't clearly dated, but it's considered to play around that time). I also like the characters. Wang Lung is a simple man but he's pretty observant and the book is written completely out of his perspective. I like how he seems though about everything, especially his family, but is actually a softy when it come to them. He sees his father as an old fool but is so fond of him that he would rather starve then see him starve. He sees O-Lan as stupid and ugly but still reports so fondly of her, when she tends to the kids and the house. And it gets clear that she isn't stupid, she only talks little. But when she's got something to say it's usually really wise. I almost teared up when Wang Lung reported about his infant daughter almost starving. When she was born he didn't care much about her (you know how things were back then...) but he grew so fond of her, that he did everything so she didn't have to die. That was beautiful. The father is a great comic relief and O-Lan is such an interesting and mysterious character. I wish we knew more about her. The kids don't have names yet but they start to gain personality, the elder boy being timid and "wise" and the younger being sneaky and bold. So far I enjoy the read.

What I didn't like so far: The book is old, it's written by a white woman about a culture that she grew up with, but was never a part of. She used terms that make readers today flinch (slitted eyes, yellow skin) but I think you have to see the book as what it is: a product of it's time. It also rushes through the first years of Wang Lung's and O-Lan's marriage which I would have liked to know about. It also rushes over the different characters so much, that it's hard to get to know them. Even if it's out of Wang Lung's perspective, I don't feel like I really know him yet. Not to speak of other characters, many of them don't even have a name. It also bothers me that the book doesn't give a real understanding of time. I have a feeling that it's five or six years into their marriage until now but the boys seem so "mature" already it's really hard to tell. I know that it's not necessary to know and that an ordinary farmer around time wouldn't count the days as we do today, but I just like to know. It's my inner Monk.

Overall impression so far: I like the read. The story has been quite simple for some time but I feel that with the military confrontation coming into play it's gonna build up some tension. I am aware of the problematic side of books like this. Still I want to treat the book as a product of it's time and it even made me think about it's problematic sides more than I would have been aware without reading a piece like this. It's easy to read, at least the translation that I've got. In any case, all opinions formed are solely based on the translation! I don't know how the original deals with the afore mentioned slurs. The book doesn't catch me emotionally, to be honest, even if there are touching moments. But I'm fascinated by the world and can't wait to see how Wang Lung can make it big (as I'm sure this is such a story). I'll come back here in ten days to report more!

#tam's reading resolution #book 1: the good earth pearl s. buck #part 1 #tw racial slurs #tw child death

[norwegianpornfaerie]

Love and Thunder: A Review (of sorts)

I am... significantly torn.

I've had such ups and downs with this movie, ever since it was announced. I remember coming home from a night out, half-asleep and checking my phone before bed, and seeing a headline about it being planned. I rolled my eyes and fell asleep. I was NOT happy with the MCU at the time, and I was worried they would fuck it up.

Then I woke up, saw Taika was directing, and went straight to euphoria. I know people either love or hate Ragnarok, and I'm one of those who adored it. This was the best possible news, as far I as was concerned, and as I put it to a friend of mine "I don't care if he ends up marrying Thor and Jane and having them settle down with twelve kids and that's the movie - Taika would make it work."

Time passed, and I got even more unhappy with the MCU. Endgame - to my mind - was terrible, and the fact that it seemed so universally loved put me even more off. I started having doubts about L&T. I got cynical.

Then along came Our Flag Means Death, and suddenly I was back on board again. Surely, a man who could play a character like Blackbeard with such nuance and understanding, and co-write a show with such great representation, would not mess things up.

And... Well.

Is it a bad movie? I... honestly can't decide. There are things I like about it. There are things I love about it. There are quite a few things didn't like about it, and there are even more things I wish it would have included, but did not even allude to. I suppose, more than anything, I am disappointed, but I am disappointed in such an unexpected way.

Here's an entirely spoiler-free summary: It's certainly not Ragnarok. The writing is okay if disappointing knowing what Taika can do, the acting is fine, and there are some genuinely hilarious moments. The pacing is weird, the tone is wobbly, and the plot is a little whatever. There are queer characters. Overall... meh with a side of disappointment. But I'll watch it again. More details on my likes and dislikes, with as few spoilers as possible:

Here's what I liked:

The goats. As seen in the trailer. The goats are wonderful.

Mighty Thor's character design and look in general, her fighting style, and how Mjølner worked for her.

The possible trans representation. (See posts elsewhere on my Tumblr for details.)

The look and feel of New Asgard - I just wish we got to see more of it.

The return of the acting troupe from Ragnarok (especially the casting of Hela).

A supporting character is confirmed to be queer.

Thor's Loki tattoo - as seen in the trailer. It is spectacular in the film, and there's so much detail.

The subtle implication that Thor doesn't need a weapon; a lovely resolution to the damage IW and EG did to what was established in Ragnarok.

What I didn't like:

The resolution of Jane/Mighty Thor's arc.

Valkyrie was shamefully underused.

The tone. It was all over the place. Ragnarok had a perfect balance of humor and genuine feeling, with characters who felt real, but this movie felt like a comic book in a bad way.

It's never really explained what or who gods ARE.

The ending. It felt too simple, in a Disneyfied, familiy movie sort of way.

It feels rushed. The pacing is off, and there's never any time to breathe.

The plot is thin, at best.

What dissapointed me:

Thor's characterization. I honestly could not tell if he was meant to be a dick, or if he's going through something. I think it's supposed to be the latter, but it's too shallow to tell. I never in a million years would have expected this from Taika. Where's the character growth? FFS.

Very little actual, unambigous, queer representation. Even the trans representation, if intentional, went over the head of a lot of people. Yeah, my expectations were high, but even so.

So... yeah. Not sure what to make of all that. What did y'all think? I need to see it again, honestly. Give it some thought.

#Thor #Thor 4 #Thor Love and Thunder #Love and Thunder

[project1939]

100+ Films of 1952

Film number 112: I Dream of Jeanie 

Release date: June 15th, 1952 

Studio: Republic Pictures 

Genre: musical 

Director: Allan Dwan 

Producer: Herbert J. Yates 

Actors: Bill Shirley, Muriel Lawrence, Ray Middleton, Lynn Bari 

Plot Summary: An almost entirely fictional account of American composer Steven Foster’s life. As his music career takes off, he tries to marry a society girl named Inez... but is it her little sister Jeanie that truly loves him? 

My Rating (out of five stars): **¾ (with a warning- see below) 

When I saw this was a full color musical by Republic Pictures, I was very intrigued. Republic was one of the cheapest B movie studios in Hollywood, known mostly for westerns and serials on shoestring budgets. Why did they do a musical in color? Because Steven Foster’s music was in the Public Domain, and they didn’t have to pay a cent for it! Maybe because my expectations were very low, I thought the movie overall wasn’t too bad. It had tons of music, and the actors were all pretty good. However, there’s a huge caveat- Foster's early music was associated with pre-Civil War minstrel shows, so there is a long segment in the film of white entertainers performing in blackface. It was extremely difficult to watch, and most people today probably wouldn’t want to. Because of that, I would NOT recommend watching it. (I markered over the blackface characters on the poster above, considering this will be semi-publicly posted.)

The Good: 

The cast was quite good for a low budget film. I liked Eileen Christy as Jeanie- she was a fine actress with a nice voice and a cute look. Bill Shirley as Foster was also pretty charming and likeable.  

Lots and Lots of music! I wouldn't be surprised if more than 50% of the film was musical performances. Foster’s music is antiquated now but generally enjoyable, and it’s a big part of the early American cultural zeitgeist. The singers were all talented and easy to listen to, even if the performances were more pleasant than remarkable. 

The character of Edwin P. Christy, the famous minstrel leader. Ray Middleton’s portrayal brought life and humor to the film as a vain celebrity. His singing voice was especially good. 

The color looked nicer than I expected. It was something called Trucolor, which certainly wasn’t Technicolor, but it was decent. 

The film tried, emphasis tried, to have Foster pay homage to the debt he owed African American music. Most people today would shout “cultural appropriation” about much of his music, which is valid, and I appreciated that the film didn’t totally sweep that under the rug. 

The Bad: 

Blackface. It’s a terrible shameful part of American entertainment history that we can’t deny, but I never want to actually see it on screen. It was horrifying. 

There was definitely racism in other places, even when the filmmakers seemed to have good intentions. As an example, Foster was friendly with a little black boy, even giving up his savings to pay his hospital bill, but... the kid’s nickname was Chitlin for god’s sake. 

The story had almost no relation to the real Foster. The movie inexplicably took place in Cincinnati, where Foster never even lived. His life was portrayed as simple and relatively easy, when in real life he died at 37 of possible suicide. 

Some of the sets looked comically cheap. At one point there was a river with water that was freaking identical to the chocolate river in 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory! 

The actress who played Inez was the weakest in the cast. Not only was her acting sub-par, her character was so awful she made me want to scream. 

When the movie is called I Dream of Jeanie and a main character is named Jeanie, there’s not exactly any suspense about whether or not she will end up with Steven Foster! 

#project1952 #100 films of 1952

[jjorbles]

(Repost) This is not my Wonder Woman

Note: This article was originally posted July 28th, 2014 on the Agony Booth, which I used to write for. Since that site is sadly no longer with us, I’m reposting my old articles here.

So as you probably know by now, the image above is the new Wonder Woman, as she will appear in her first (official) theatrically-released motion picture role. It’s pretty much exactly what I expected her to look like. The design is focused predominantly on her Greek warrior origins. The image is meant to sell her first and foremost as badass and intimidating. Surprisingly, despite details like her bandolier leaning toward utilitarianism, Wonder Woman still apparently fights evil in high heels, which will probably rub some people the wrong way*. It’s hard to tell from this sepia-toned image, but it looks like there’s next to no color in the outfit; dark brown, bronze, and a dull silver seem to have replaced the traditional American flag color scheme, which is new. Presumably, the idea is to make her more in sync with the muted color scheme of the film, which will likely carry over from Man of Steel. Overall, it does nothing for me, but it’s not a horrible costume. Gal Gadot certainly looks the part, and it’s actually quite faithful to the spirit of who Wonder Woman has been for the last twenty years or so. The problem is, it’s not my Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman, as a character and as an icon, means a great deal to me. She is by far my favorite comic book superhero, and has been for a long time, so much so I once made a makeshift costume of her to wear when I was five. Seriously, I did that. I was a weird kid.

So naturally, I have pretty strong feelings about Wonder Woman. Which is not easy for a character who’s had such a strange and tumultuous existence. One of the reasons I love her is that she has by far one of the most bizarre and fascinating histories and origins of any superhero. And while that’s a source of her charm, it’s also her greatest weakness. Despite being inarguably the most recognizable female superhero of all time, she remains strangely obscure for someone so iconic. Her image is universal, yet her character almost unknown. Her media presence is constant, yet strangely few adaptations of her comics exist compared to her male counterparts. She’s managed to stay in constant publication for 73 years now, yet unlike Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man, she’s almost never had more than one concurrently-running title at a time.

Why is this? Why has Wonder Woman traveled such a rockier path than other superheroes? Why does everyone know who Batman and Superman are, but know very little about Wonder Woman beyond her name and costume?

There are a lot of complicated reasons for this, but one way or another, most of them have to do with one simple fact: she’s a woman. No one likes to admit it, but even in this day and age, the comic book industry at its best has an... awkward relationship with women. Study the history of any female character who’s been in publication for a decade or more, and things get weird and often uncomfortable.

For example, Lois Lane, the most well known woman in superhero fiction outside of Wonder Woman, started out strong, willful, and career-minded, one of the first to break the mold of how damsels in distress were meant to act. She had agency and goals of her own outside of her relationship with Superman. And keep in mind, this was the 1940s. But then the ‘50s came around, and Lois’s character turned towards an outright psychotic obsession with marrying Superman. The pages of Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane are packed with bizarre, misogynist stories that frame Lois as a shrill harpy constantly scheming to entrap Superman into marriage and failing, like some matrimonial version of a Road Runner cartoon. Things have gotten better for Lois lately, though they do have a tendency to write her as a gun-toting commando ninja, because that’s obviously the only way a woman can be empowered. It seems like the writers are constantly overcompensating for Lois’s perceived status as a damsel in distress.

What’s the disconnect? Well, for the majority of its history, comics books have been written, drawn, edited, and published almost exclusively by men, and while that’s becoming less and less the case, male attitudes still tend to dominate the industry. And male creators tend to overthink their female characters at best, and at worst, imprint their own warped views of the opposite sex onto them. This is especially true in Wonder Woman’s case. In fact, Wonder Woman comics are so predictably influenced by changing attitudes towards women that you can actually see the last 70 years of the feminist movement reflected in her publication history.

You remember the feminist movement, right? That thing that apparently we don’t need anymore? Yes, this is going to be a bit of a rant, but unfortunately there’s no way to talk about Wonder Woman without talking about feminism. The two are essentially joined at the hip. The character was created by a feminist based on his own radical gender politics, and essentially co-opted by the feminist movement as their mascot. Basically, as Wonder Woman is perceived, so is feminism perceived, and vice-versa.

Any given era of Wonder Woman comics in some way reflects what the popular image of a “strong woman” was at the time. The ‘40s through the ‘60s saw Wonder Woman’s alter ego Diana Prince as the mousy, secretly-overqualified secretary pining away for a man who barely notices her. You can see shades of everything from Bewitched to Woman of the Year in early Wonder Woman. The Robert Kanigher era especially was all about Diana apologetically emasculating her boyfriend Steve Trevor.

The ‘70s briefly saw her morph into a fashionable, liberated “modern woman”, a powerless kung-fu detective with more than a little of Emma Peel in her. 1980s Wonder Woman had more of a Princess Leia vibe, as a regal, dignified ambassador with no steady romance in her life. Finally, the ‘90s began the rise of “Straw Feminist Wonder Woman”.

What do I mean by “Straw Feminist Wonder Woman”? Well, do you remember that episode of The Powerpuff Girls called “Equal Fights”?

It was about a costumed lady bank robber named Femme Fatale, who justifies her crimes to the Powerpuff Girls by citing gender discrimination against women, and the fact that all men are jerks. She essentially has a persecution complex: as a member of an oppressed minority group, anything she does if justified in her eyes. Femme Fatale was designed as an archetypical Straw Feminist: man-hating, irrational, and abrasive. While not in the least bit subtle, “Equal Fights” was an admirable attempt to educate its audience on the true purpose of feminism. Unfortunately, the episode ended up being strangely prophetic. Except, in the real world, Femme Fatale won.

And this is where I get ranty. Feminism has had a bit of a PR problem over the last twenty years, which has recently come to a head. There’s a new online movement calling itself “Woman Against Feminism”, involving women declaring they “no longer need feminism”. In some ways, the movement has admirable goals. Many of its members clearly have their hearts in the right place. They want equality and understanding between the sexes, and simply don’t understand that that is exactly what feminism is about. (A few of them, of course, are just plain slut-shaming or belittling the suffering of others, but I’m just going to ignore them. Let’s talk about the actual problem here.)

This one image for me sums up the entire problem here. For some people, the word “feminism” has come to mean something else. What a “feminist” actually is is someone who believes in equality between the sexes. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. If you believe women should be allowed to vote, you’re a feminist. If believe women should have control over their own bodies, equal pay, and the right to make their own financial choices, then you are a feminist. It doesn’t matter if you choose to self-identify as one*, those are the ideals the movement is defined by. That has not changed. Only the popular conception of the movement has changed.

[*And since this always manages to come up, yes, there’s something to be said for the idea that we shouldn’t need the word “feminism” anymore. Yes, I also saw and agree with Joss Whedon’s excellent Equality Now speech. Yes, it would be great if gender equality was at the same place that racial equality is now in the national conversation, where we no longer need a word for “not racist” because not being racist is just assumed to be common sense. But for feminism, we’re not there yet. And as the video below points out, removing the word “feminist” from the discussion isn’t helping, because it’s not actually changing the public discourse. It’s just avoiding the issue, and steering the topic away from gender.]

Laci Green articulates things in this video far better than I ever could, but basically, society has somehow become convinced that feminism is some kind of extreme female superiority agenda rather than a simple call for gender equality. Feminism is a dirty word, conjuring up images of shrill, unattractive harpies who hate all men and shame good-looking women purely out of jealousy. People feel the need to distance themselves publicly from the movement in order to be taken seriously when speaking about gender issues. Celebrities like Katy Perry and Shailene Woodley and Lana Del Rey have gone on record claiming to not be feminists. Even Wonder Woman herself fell prey to this recently, when the new creative team set to take over her book said in an interview that they didn’t want her to be feminist.

If I may steer the conversation away from Wonder Woman for a moment: Whenever the topic of “when did feminism go so wrong?” comes up, people always want to play the blame game. Usually people fault the movement itself for going off-message. The notion is feminists let too many extremists join the movement and give it a bad name. And I really don’t think that’s true, mostly because there are so few actual well-known feminist extremists to point to. Usually Andrea Dworkin’s name gets thrown out, and people are always quick to pounce on the Tumblr community. But in my experience, feminist extremists are a very small minority, and not a very vocal one compared to the many, many positive feminist voices out there. No, the reason feminism’s image was so easily distorted is that as much as we hate to admit it, this is still a man’s world. The patriarchy is slowly losing its grip, but it’s still in power.

Men don’t like to admit how much we still benefit from a patriarchal society, and when confronted with reality, we become defensive. We’ve somehow convinced ourselves that sexism is more or less “over”. It isn’t. Not even close. Women still receive less pay for equal work because of their gender. Less than fifty years ago, it was still legal for men to rape their wives. Women still face constant obstacles when trying to make decisions about their bodies. They still (rightly) fear coming forward after being raped because of the likelihood they will somehow be blamed for it. And yet, we often manage to overlook all this.

We’ve decided things are more or less equal now, and anyone still fighting against sexism is perceived to be overreacting, and fighting a war that ended long ago. No one likes to be blamed for the sins of their fathers, but unfortunately, we’re living in a world still dealing with the consequences of those sins, and blaming the victims isn’t helping. It’s making us culpable, and it needs to stop.

But I was talking about “Straw Feminist Wonder Woman”, wasn’t I? As I said before, this image of feminism as bitter and anti-men has been the popular conception since the early ‘90s, and not coincidentally, this is roughly around the time Wonder Woman suddenly got very, very angry. To be fair, everybody was scowling in comics in the ‘90s, but Batman and Superman were scowling because “DARKNESS! NO PARENTS!” Whereas Wonder Woman started scowling because “Ugh, men are dirt, amirite ladies? I’m gonna go back to my island of butch militant lesbians because I hate men so much!”

As previously stated, comics have an awkward relationship with women, due to them being mostly written by men. Men, many of whom aren’t really feminists, and in the case of Wonder Woman, find themselves tasked with writing a character who’s almost literally the living embodiment of feminism itself. Therefore, they always find themselves falling back on what they think a feminist is. She hates all men, or at least looks down on them, and overreacts to every sexual or romantic proposition, because how else are we to know that she’s a modern, independent woman that doesn’t need a man? She’s extremely aggressive, and prone to anger and violence, because how else are we to know that she’s a strong woman who can kick just as much ass as a man?

Trying to distance Wonder Woman from feminism isn’t new either. In the late ‘80s, a new element of the Wonder Woman mythos was added: The Amazons of Bana-Mighdall, a splinter faction of Amazons living in secret in the mortal world. How they’re used varies from writer to writer, but generally their purpose is to provide deliberate straw feminists to contrast against the less extreme, accidental straw feminist Wonder Woman. They’re the man-hating extremists who want to reap bloody vengeance against anyone with a penis. They’re basically there to say, “See? Wonder Woman’s not that kind of feminist! She’s totally cool with dudes! These are the man-hating dykes you so fear and despise!” It’s understandable why the writers feel the need to include them, but they have the effect of delegitimizing Wonder Woman’s position rather than clarifying it.

It may seem like I’ve gone completely off-topic here, but the point I’ve been building towards is that people don’t understand Wonder Woman because people don’t understand feminism. Her comics have always been subject to the changing image of feminism and her writer’s skewed perspective on feminism, so much so that she’s never managed to remain consistent long enough for people to get to know her. Our site’s own Sofie Liv posted an excellent video essay to that effect, putting forth the well-reasoned assertion that maybe Wonder Woman just doesn’t have a character.

And I can’t really argue with that. If nothing important or character-defining about Wonder Woman remains consistent from writer to writer, then what argument can be made about her character? It’s a question I honestly don’t have an answer to. On the one hand, I believe in Death of the Author. I believe that characters in fiction take on a life of their own, independent of the influence of their creators.

Batman has evolved far beyond the original vision of Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The current Superman certainly isn’t what Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster first imagined. On the other hand, I also don’t believe characters are completely defined by popular perception. If that were the case, Batman would be a bloodthirsty Punisher knockoff, based on what a lot of his fans seem to want. So what really defines a character like Wonder Woman, who’s been around forever, but has had so many completely incompatible interpretations?

I don’t have an answer for you. I don’t know if there is a direct answer for that. Maybe it’s all subjective. Maybe who a character is to you personally is all that really matters, and if other people share and enjoy your vision, then great. I can only tell you what Wonder Woman means to me, and unlike Superman or Batman, it comes almost entirely from the mind of her creator.

Outside of Spider-Man, I’m not sure there’s a superhero as popular as Wonder Woman who was as fully formed as she was in her first appearance. William Moulton Marston was one of the most interesting men ever to write for comics, and his vision of Wonder Woman, odd as it may have been, was a fleshed-out, living entity all its own. The seven years’ worth of Wonder Woman comics he wrote before his untimely death remain the highlight of the Golden Age for me.

Wonder Woman was the first notable attempt (to say nothing of success) at creating a female action hero who didn’t need to sacrifice her femininity in order to be powerful. Wonder Woman got to save the day and be the hero with no qualifiers or concessions to male sensitivities. Her stories were almost a complete gender reversal of the superhero formula: In Wonder Woman comics, all the heroes, villains, and otherwise powerful and influential characters were women, including most of Wonder Woman’s rogues’ gallery, while men were usually limited to roles with less agency that were normally occupied by women. Steve Trevor remains one of the only examples of a male damsel in distress.

Marston’s comics were bold and groundbreaking, not to mention nutty as hell and immensely fun. The mythology of Wonder Woman’s world was unique and eye-catching in ways that few comics even today can match. Golden Age Wonder Woman rode giant kangaroos through space, fought seal men and fire warriors from the sun, and rescued WWII soldiers from evil valkyries, all in the name of love and peace.

After Marston left, things got a lot more shaky with regards to Wonder Woman’s “Girl Power”, but the comic itself got no less strange. It was the Silver Age, after all. A strange mix of science fiction and fantasy still remained, and Wonder Woman herself continued to be a mostly peaceful champion of love.

After the reboot in the ‘80s, however, things began to get a lot more conventional, and in my opinion, the poorer for it. Previously, Paradise Island was a wondrous mix of science and magic. They had ancient marble architecture, but communicated with telepathic radios. The invisible jet was one of many unique aircraft. Wonder Woman didn’t just journey through a greatest hits collection of Greek mythology; She travelled to other planets, subterranean worlds, and subatomic universes. The Greek gods themselves would occupy other planets instead of vaguely defined, seemingly earthbound realms. But all of that changed after the reboot.

No longer playing fast and loose with Greek mythology, the comics suddenly began valuing historical accuracy. Paradise Island became Themyscira, devoid of anything remotely fun or interesting. Gone were the giant space kangaroos, replaced with more conventional mythical creatures like pegasi. Gone were the strange space-age gadgets, leaving the Amazons still technologically primitive after thousands of years of immortality. Wonder Woman’s adventures lost their pulp sci-fi edge, confining themselves to the familiar world of Greek myth. Wonder Woman became almost completely earthbound, and those unique elements that remained, like her invisible jet, began to be downplayed.

One of the more subtly subversive changes was that the character’s patron goddess was changed from Aphrodite to Athena. It may seem insignificant, but whatever else she may be (Goddess of Wisdom, Justice, etc.), Athena was still a War Goddess. And war, even justified war as Athena was meant to represent, is not something Wonder Woman should ever be a champion of.

See, whatever else may have changed over the years about Wonder Woman, there’s one thing about her that’s remained consistent enough for her best writers to latch onto: She’s a peacemaker. Always has been. The Marston comics and the Lynda Carter TV show—probably the best and most defining versions of Wonder Woman ever—were both very clear on this. One of the best quotes ever made about the DC Trinity was when Gail Simone said, “When you need to stop an asteroid, you get Superman. When you need to solve a mystery, you call Batman. But when you need to end a war, you get Wonder Woman.”

That’s who she is. She never fights in the name of war, even a just war. War is her enemy. Literally. Her archenemy is Ares, God of War. If there’s one thing Wonder Woman has always been about, it’s preventing conflict. That’s why her signature weapons—her lasso, bracelets, and tiara—are nonlethal and defensive in nature, designed to defend and subdue but never harm. That’s why her patron goddess was the goddess of love. As her theme song says, Wonder Woman’s goal is to “stop a war with love”.

This subtle change in Wonder Woman’s ideology was immediately felt. Wonder Woman wasn’t exactly barbaric at first, but she was definitely more violent, frequently ripping her (admittedly nonhuman and monstrous) enemies apart. But the thing that really cemented Wonder Woman as warlike in readers’ minds was Kingdom Come.

That mini-series featured the image of a sword-wielding Wonder Woman who, at the book’s climax, murdered her human opponent by stabbing him through the chest. That moment was meant to shock and horrify, by showing how far the once noble heroes of the DC Universe had fallen, with the kindest and most nonviolent of them cutting a man in half. The image of Wonder Woman running a man through was meant to feel as wrong as Batman shooting someone. But in a bitter irony, from that moment on, that image would be what defined the popular concept of Wonder Woman.

She’s now frequently seen carrying a sword and other ancient weaponry, her lasso hanging unused from her hip almost as a formality. Heavy, stylized armor is often added onto her costume. Her sisters, the Amazons, have become almost unrecognizable.

Paradise Island was once essentially a highly sexual nunnery, an island of women dedicated to the way of Aphrodite, and the way of love. The whole reason they were on that island to begin with was to escape from the war and violence of Man’s World. Now the modern Themyscira is like an all-girl boot camp, filled with armored, battle-ready Amazons, constantly training and fighting. They act as if they enjoy war and conflict, which completely defeats the whole point of living on a isolated island in the first place. The great Wonder Woman, once a trippy, unique pulp sci-fi heroine, has been reduced to the generic Xena clone that Gal Gadot will apparently be playing onscreen. Because one warrior princess is the same as another, right? No need to go deeper into her character than that!

Look, I like Xena. I like Lucy Lawless. I like badass warrior girls in general. But that's not who Wonder Woman is. It has never been who Wonder Woman is. Wonder Woman is as much like Xena as Ellen Ripley is like Buck Rogers. Yes, they both fight aliens in space, but that’s about where the similarities end. And giving Wonder Woman a sword isn’t just counter to her whole message of love and nonviolence, it actually disempowers her as a character, which is the opposite of what they’re presumably going for.

Giving Wonder Woman weapons and armor implies that she needs weapons and armor, which she never has before. She’s always been able to take on rogue gods with nothing but a lasso, a tiara, and a pair of bracelets. Giving Wonder Woman a sword and armor just because she’s a warrior princess is like giving Superman a raygun and a jetpack because he’s an alien.

But mostly, a lot of the problems with Wonder Woman stem from how every writer approaches her with the idea that she’s somehow broken and in need of repair. She’s too weird, or she’s too political. Whatever the reason, they all feel the need to junk everything and start over. But they never start by asking themselves who Wonder Woman is. They instead ask who she reminds them of. So not only does Wonder Woman become whatever the current version of a “strong woman” is, she takes on incongruous elements from other, more popular superheroes in the hopes that her books will sell. She reminds us of Superman, so let’s give her the power of flight, even though she’s already got that iconic invisible jet. She reminds us of Thor, so let’s put all the focus on her mythological background. She reminds us of Xena, so let’s give her armor and a sword, and have her take joy in battle.

Wonder Woman is not Superman. She’s not Thor, and she’s not Xena. She’s a wholly unique entity. She is Princess Diana, peacemaker, healer, ambassador. She’s the champion of Aphrodite, pledged to end humankind’s suffering and conflict by teaching them how to love. It’s Wonder Woman who won the Tournament of Grace and Wonder, and the right to bring peace and love to Man’s World. It’s Wonder Woman who reformed Baroness Von Gunther, a Nazi war criminal. It’s Wonder Woman who was so pure and honest of heart as to withstand the scorching breath of Drakul Karfang. It’s Wonder Woman who withstood blow after blow from an angry Green Lantern while continuing to hold out her hand in friendship.

She has the strength to crush armies and the heart not to use it. She’s a woman who’s never had to fear any man, and therefore never has reason to hate. She has the strength of women, yes, but also the empathy and gentleness of women. She fights not to divide or punish the sexes, but to unite them. She is kind, empathic, curious, fierce, loving, dominating, and utterly fearless. She’s the greatest superhero who ever lived.

Well, that’s who she is to me, anyway.

#stuff I wrote #agony booth #repost #wonder woman #dceu

[sserpente]

A/N: Jonathan Pine… oh, the things he does to us. I love this character. Requests by @a-tired-doctor​ and anon. Enjoy, everyone!

Words: 1835 Warnings: sexual harassment, smut (in a pool)

Those costumes were ridiculous. How much money had they spent on all those hours of make-up, latex and leather? The rich and the famous were getting more and more ridiculous year after year. It was a disappointing process to watch, being part of it and yet feeling like you were alien.

It was thanks to your parents you had been born among the wealthy and while you appreciated that you had a roof over your head and food and warmth and running water in abundance, you could never conjure up the same delight as your mum when your dad bought you the newest Louis Vuitton bag.

You were the only one who had kept her costume simple this year. You had supported a small business and dressed up as your favourite comic book character, one that hardly anyone at the party recognised. That, at least, kept you away from greedy photographers looking for the next scandal.

Your family had a reputation though and that meant that despite you long being of age, you were still forced to show at these hypocritical events—especially since you were still single and your parents were hoping for you to marry a successful… and equally wealthy… businessman.

Pretending to be sick tonight would have saved you a lot of trouble.

“Excuse me, can I buy you a drink? A beautiful young lady such as yourself shouldn’t be standing around all on her own.” The man who had approached you was dressed up as Dracula. Not the sexy version though—if anything, he reminded you more of Nosferatu.

“No, thank you. I quite enjoy watching rather than taking part.” You let him know, as kindly as you could muster. You resisted the urge to roll your eyes when he came even closer instead of moving away.

“Please, I insist. Your partner didn’t just abandon you, now did he? Did you come here alone?”

“I didn’t. And I’m flattered but I’m not interested.”

Dracula ignored your gentle protest. “Hey, you!” He called out, stopping a man in a navy blue suit. He was not dressed up, meaning he must have been working at this expensive hotel.

“Champagne for me and this beautiful lady.” His blue eyes locked with yours, sending jolts of electricity through your body. Your lips parted. Who was that man? He was handsome.

“Right away, sir.” He said, his smooth British accent making you shiver. Blinking rapidly, you shook yourself from your trance-like state and stepped away from the would-be Dracula.

“I said I’m not interested. Leave me alone.”

“Oh Missy, judging by that expensive costume of yours, you’re just waiting to dig your shovel into the next available sugar daddy. Don’t play hard to get.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Sir, perhaps you should do as the lady asked and leave her alone.”

“What’s it to you? Who do you think you are?”

“I am the Night Manager and I am here to ensure all of our guests feel comfortable, sir. As of right now, you are making this young woman very uncomfortable and I will need to ask you to step away from her.”

“Ridiculous. I know the owner of this hotel, I’ll have you fired before dawn.”

“Certainly, sir.” The Night Manager replied sarcastically. You breathed out, relieved when Dracula finally gave up and left.

“Thank you.”

“You are very welcome.” He gave you a warm smile, awakening butterflies in your stomach. You had to ask. You had to know.

“What is your name?”

“Pine. Jonathan Pine.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Jonathan.” You replied, telling him your name in return. “Thank you for saving me. I don’t suppose you know a place somewhere in this hotel where I could hide from all of these wealthy scumbags?”

There was a glint in his blue eyes that you couldn’t quite place. Was it wit, mischief or something else? He almost seemed like he was hiding something and yet, you hadn’t felt so safe in a long time like you did with him now.

“There is, actually. The pool is usually closed by this time but I can arrange for it to be prepared for you. You are staying in the penthouse suite, yes?”

“I am, yes.” You smiled, biting your lower lip. Heavens, this man was the most attractive human being you had ever met. “Do you recognise all of your guests?”

“A lot of them. But mainly the beautiful ones.” Jonathan winked. He winked. Taking a deep breath, you followed him away from the celebrating crowd and towards the north wing of the hotel. He unlocked the door for you with a smile, allowing you to enter first.

He had not been lying. This area was the embodiment of peace and quietness. The surface of the crystal clear water was so still it could have been a mirror and the gentle lighting created a relaxing atmosphere. There were several cushioned loungers inviting you to lie down and take a break from this idiotic Halloween party. You took off your shoes and walked further into the room barefoot to wash off your make-up at the nearest sink.

In the meantime, Jonathan wandered off to get you some fresh towels. They were still nice and warm when he handed them to you.

“There is a selection of saunas just around the corner. Do let me know if you want to use any of them so I can have them prepared for you. I will be nearby. Call me if you need anything…” His lips parted, and he made your heart skip a beat when he eyed you up and down. “Anything…” He repeated, his smile downright… dirty.

He was testing the waters. Testing if there was a chance you reciprocated the attraction. And oh Lord, you were.

“Actually…” you stopped him when he turned to leave, “would you… would you join me?”

“Tempting,” he replied. You smiled, turning around for him.

“Would you mind helping me with my costume?” You only realised now, with his soft and long fingers on your back as he unzipped you, that you didn’t have a swimming costume. Oh dear… you would have to swim all naked. What a shame… you were almost certain Jonathan didn’t have a swimming costume either.

Once you were able to step out of your costume, he took off his clothes first. Off came the shoes, socks, the suit jacket and the trousers, your heart pounding in your chest when he removed that black belt and when he unbuttoned his shirt, you could feel your knickers dampening, the heat in your core growing.

Last but not least, Jonathan took off his underwear, allowing you to take a peek at him in all of his glory. His manhood was impressive even in its flaccid state. You were pretty certain you had never seen a cock that was actually beautiful, as ridiculous as that sounded.

Either way… it appeared to be your turn. You blushed when he winked at you once more. You were quick to remove your bra and roll off your knickers, hoping he would not see how they were already wet with your arousal.

“After you…” He purred. You grinned, biting your lower lip as you climbed down the ladder and into the pool. The water was warm—just the right temperature for a refreshing swim but not too warm to be mistaken with a bathtub.

Jonathan followed suit after and he was rather quick to corner you. His strong arms held on to the edge of the pool, trapping you between the wall and his body and the closer he floated, the more you realised that he was growing hard, his erection brushing against your belly.

You wrapped your legs around his waist to let him know it was fine, to show him you wanted this man—this almost stranger—as much as he wanted you.

His hands felt so heavenly when he ran them over your waist, pulling you even closer to his body—his face only mere inches from yours.

“May I kiss you, darling?” He whispered, his hot breath brushing against your lips. You nodded, speechless for the most part before you felt his mouth on yours, kissing you tenderly and demanding both at the same time.

It would be tricky with the water washing away your natural lubricant but you were determined to make it work. Deepening the kiss, you teased his lips with your tongue asking for entrance. Jonathan grabbed a fistful of your hair then, unwilling to let go of you again.

You moaned into his mouth when he pressed his length against your entrance and you spread your legs even further to welcome him in as he sheathed himself in your heat, thrusting into you lazily due to the resistance of the water straight away.

Heavens, it felt like he had been made for you and you for him. Soon, both your moans filled the pool area, accompanied by the smacking sounds of your lips devouring one another. There was something about doing it in the water, both of you naked and wet as he pounded into you relentlessly, chasing his release.

At this point, even though you were climbing that delicious ladder of pleasure yourself, you hardly cared if you got to cum as well. Surely, he would make it up to you if you didn’t just yet but as of right now, having this handsome and mysterious Night Manager claim you in the most intimate way possible had you see stars already, no need for an orgasm.

Jonathan, on the other hand, seemed to disagree. You gasped when he slipped one of his hands between your bodies, down to where they met. His pace did not once falter when his skilled fingers found your clit. Your moans encouraged him and it hence didn’t take him long to figure out what it was that you liked and what got you there fast.

“Oh fuck… I’ll… I’ll… oh…” You choked out, unable to form functioning sentences anymore.

“Me too…” He murmured hoarsely. So you let go. You dug your fingernails into his shoulders as you came, letting pleasure ripple through you, twice as intense due to the both of you being submerged in water.

Jonathan followed you suit. With but a few more eager thrusts, he spilled himself inside of you, coating your walls with his cum. Resting your forehead against his, you gave in to the pleasurable waves coursing through your body, the both of you coming down from your high together.

“Happy Halloween…” He whispered into your ear, making you shiver despite the warm water.

“Happy Halloween… you know what? I’ve never done… it… in a sauna before either.”

“Hmm… we should change that.”

You grinned. “I agree.”

“And then tomorrow morning when I am off duty, I would love to take you out for lunch. We have been doing this in the wrong order, I think.”

“We have. I would do it again though.”

Jonathan laughed. “Me too.”

-

A/N: If you enjoyed this story, I would appreciate it so much if you supported me on Kofi! ♥ ko-fi.com/sserpente Big hug!

#jonathan pine #jonathan pine imagine #jonathan pine x reader #jonathan pine x female reader #jonathan pine x you #jonathan pine smut #the night manager #the night manager imagine #tom hiddleston

[kj-1130]

Can you do a Emily sonnett imagine

Where R is Ashlyn daughter and Sonnett and R are dating (but Ash does not know yet because of not really been in contact with R since Sloane has been born and R lives in a different state) and R play different sport (can be anything) and Emily and Ash and Ali (some other members of the team as well) comes to support R but R mange to get hurt (serious) and that how Ash found out that R and Sonnett are together?

With a bunch of feels and a happy ending as well?

Thank you!

@newyorker14 i just put the reader on the national team cause i couldn’t think of another way to do it. and ash is R’s team mom instead of actual mother. hope you enjoy!!

Main Masterlist

     During your first national team camp, it was safe to say that you were definitely a hot mess. You were nervous and jittery, always doubting your every move.

     Luckily, you had a saving grace; Ash. 

     The goalkeeper saw your fears and was quick to quell them with comforting words and her loving personality. As you attended more and more camps with the woman, it was easy to see that the two of you were developing a beautiful relationship. And with her came Ali as well.

     The two women took you under their wings and showed you the ins and outs of the professional soccer world. Not only that but they gave you some great advice about personal life too. 

     While they had told you that you could come to them with just about anything, you didn’t think you had the guts to talk about this to them quite yet. 

     You and Emily were dating to put it plain and simple. You have been for a while. 

     And for some reason, you just couldn’t get past the nerves of telling your team moms. You knew they wouldn’t disown you; hell they married each other it’d be a little hypocritical if they did. You don’t think they’d be mad about it. After all, the age gap is barely even there.

     So there really wasn’t a reason to not tell them. You just didn’t know why you were so hesitant. 

     Maybe it was because you enjoyed the privacy of it and having something to yourself. Or maybe you were subconsciously ‘helping’ Emily out from getting the shovel talk. Or maybe it was the fact that you lived in another state and it didn’t exactly seem like ‘over the phone’ news.

      You could make up excuse after excuse. All you knew was that you were just not ready. And you didn’t know when or if you ever would be. 

     You let out a sigh and turned to face Emily, who was leaning against the headboard, watching some old rerun on tv. The two of you were lucky to get roomed together this camp (though you had an inkling that it had to do with the fact that you were able to talk Sonnett out of doing one of her pranks last camp). 

     You dropped your head into her lap and let out another let out another sigh. 

     “You alright?” she asked with a chuckle, moving her hand to play with your hair.

     “Yeah. Just thinking,” you replied, snuggling deeper into her legs. 

     “‘Bout what?” 

     “How Krashlyn’s doing. ‘Specially with the baby and all.”

     “Ohh. Your little sister,” the blonde teased. 

     You thumped her legs with a tiny giggle, “Shut up.” 

     That also could’ve been another reason you didn’t want to tell them. It really wasn’t considering the two of you got together long before Ash and Ali had even gotten Sloane. There were plenty of times you could’ve told them but you just didn’t. And now didn’t really seem like the best time since they’ve been very busy with their new baby. 

     Glancing at the clock that was located on the nightstand, you grimaced at the time. 

     “C’mon, blondie,” you said, patting her legs. “We’ve got an early morning. Time to get to bed.” 

     The woman groaned, but complied, knowing it was useless to argue with you. 

     Once the two of you got settled, you cuddled under the covers and Emily pulled you into her. Even though your mind was racing with thoughts no more than five minutes ago, the blonde was able to calm you without even knowing it. 

-

     The next morning, the two of you quickly got up and ate breakfast, getting into your game day mentality. 

     As you all loaded the bus, you couldn’t help but feel some weird sense of dread; like something was going to happen. 

     Christen placed a hand on your knee, stopping it from bouncing. 

     “You okay?” 

     You nodded in response. 

     “Yeah, just..got a feeling.”

     The forward nodded as well, knowing that you didn’t want to be pushed right now. 

     You really wanted Emily, but she tended to be more energetic on game days whereas you were more chill, needing more quiet to get in your zone which is why you usually sat with Christen or Tobin or anyone else who was like that. 

     Eventually, you all made your way to the stadium. Even after all that time on the bus, the feeling still lingered. You tried to ignore it as you got ready, knowing that you needed your mind fully focused on this game. 

     Sooner or later, you were all heading out on the field. After the anthems and coin toss, the game was set in motion. 

     Things were going smoothly for the first half. The other team was tough but they were no match for you all. Eventually, the first half ended and you were all headed back for re-hydration and pep talks. As you left the field, the feeling of dread crept back up on you except this time, it felt ten times stronger. 

     You couldn’t pay attention to anything, knowing at this point that something was bound to happen. 

     As you all headed back into the field you attempted on putting your focus into this match, ready to get it over with and spending the rest of your day relaxing with Emily.

     When you were attempting a header, you felt something hard then it all went black. 

-

     You were awoken by an annoying incessant beeping. 

     “Babe, turn it off. Five more minutes,” you groaned, trying to turn on your side. 

     “Who are you calling babe?” 

     Your eyes snapped open, despite not being ready to. They darted around nervously taking in the fact that you were in a hospital room with your team moms and not Emily. 

     You chuckle nervously and glance between the two women. 

     “Nice weather we’re having, yeah?” 

     They only raised their eyebrows and you let out a sigh. Before anyone could say anything there was a small commotion and the door slammed open, the noise hurting your head. 

     “Oh thank god, you’re okay,” Emily breathed out in relief. “I was so worried,” she placed a kiss on your head. 

     “Emily,” you whispered, but you were only ignored. 

     “When you went down all I wanted to do-”

     “Emily,” you said more forcefully. 

     “-was run over there, but I couldn’t. And I was so scared-” 

     “Emily,” you warned, finally stopping her rambling. 

     “What?” 

     Ash cleared her throat and you watched as the other blonde’s expression turned into one of terror. 

     “Maybe if I’m still enough, they won’t think I’m actually here,” she whispered comically. 

     “It’s a little late for that, Sonnet,” Ali finally said. 

     “Surprise,” you weakly said, giving enthusiastic jazz hands. 

     Ash saw how you were battling sleep and let out a sigh, allowing her protectiveness to dial down for now. 

     “We’re talking about this later,” she sighed out. “But for now get some rest.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

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@stillmanicc, @annestine, @ymzki-haruki

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@idek-5, @10-19-17uswnt, @mmmmokdok

#uswnt #uswnt imagine #uswnt imagines #uswnt x reader #emily sonnett x reader #woso imagines #woso imagine

[fridayfirefly]

Retirement

Read Retirement on AO3

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For Maribat March Day 21 - Domestic Bliss

The first time Marinette and Garfield ever discussed retirement was before they even started dating. For superheroes, retirement was just a fact of life. One day, if you make it long enough, you'll put down the suit and you'll never pick it up again. Maybe someone will take your place. Hopefully, no one will need to. But no matter how strong you are, not even if you're Superman in his prime, the simple fact was that someday you would retire.

"What do you think you'll do after you retire?" Marinette mused to Garfield. Out of all the Titans, Marinette spent the most time around Gar, simply because the two of them spent a lot of time in the living room. Marinette liked the ambient noise that his video games provided when she worked on her projects, and Gar liked to have someone to talk to while he played. Most of Marinette's current focus was on the embroidery in her hands, as she stitched vines running down the sleeves of her shirt, but she still took the time to start a conversation with Gar.

"I dunno..." Gar glanced up from the game he was playing. "What'll you do once you give up being Ladybug."

"That's a tough question. I used to think that I wanted to run a big fashion company, like Agreste Fashion, but now I think I want something a little more low-key. In my ideal future, I own a little boutique where I make custom clothing. There would be a fabric store and a café on the same block as me, and I would never have to leave the neighborhood."

"That sounds nice. I think I might try going to college and see where that takes me. I applied to Jump City University right before Christmas, and they accepted me. If I went, I would start classes in the fall.”

Marinette’s head jerked up as she gave Gar her full, undivided attention. “I’m going to JCU next fall!” she exclaimed excitedly. “We might have classes together. What are you planning on majoring in?”

Gar shrugged, “JCU has a veterinary program that I'm interested in. I'd be taking animal behavior, biology, chemistry, and a whole bunch of other science classes.”

“That’s so cool!”

“It’s nothing much. I didn’t expect them to accept me, anyway.”

Gar seemed oddly subdued about the idea of going to college. He was a naturally enthusiastic person, which made it very out of character for him to be so dismissive. It worried Marinette. “No, you deserve praise for your accomplishment. Jump City University is a very selective school.”

“I’m not a genius. I’m just me.”

“You’re smart, Gar, I know you are. Getting accepted to JCU is just one of the many reasons why you are brilliant.”

“Are you gonna name them all for me?” joked Gar.

His question was rhetorical, just a joke, but Marinette wasn't finished convincing Gar that he deserved all the praise in the world. “For starters, you can finish any video game in less than a day. Even the ones where you need logic and strategy, you fly right through them. Secondly, you’re a genius when it comes to animals. And it’s not just because of your superpower. You taught yourself animal behavior so that you could blend in with the animals you’re imitating. Thirdly, you pretend not to be invested in politics, but I’ve seen how you keep yourself informed about environmental policies and activism. You really care about the planet. Fourthly-“

"Alright, Buginette,” laughed Gar, a slight blush on his cheeks. “You’ve proven your point.”

Marinette set her embroidery down on the coffee table and moved to Gar's couch. "Is this game multiplayer?"

"Yep. Do you want to play a few rounds?"

"Hmm... I think I could spare a few minutes to kick your butt."

"Please. I'm going to squash you like the little bug you are."

"You wish!"

----------

The next time Marinette and Gar discussed retirement was well after they started dating. They got together in their Junior year at JCU after spending two years in relationship limbo, with both too nervous to make the first move. They finally confessed their feelings for each other after Dick and Starfire locked them in a closet together until they admitted that they liked each other. They graduated college as a couple, with Gar planning on attending veterinary school and Marinette planning on starting up her fashion business. That summer they spent a lot of time talking about the future.

"I've been thinking of recruiting someone to take over as Ladybug," remarked Marinette as she cuddled up next to Gar on the couch.

"Really? Who do you have your eye on?" asked Gar.

"Wonder Woman recently took on a new protege, Cassie Sandsmark. The Ladybug Miraculous already has some connections to Wonder Woman and her home of Themyscira. Her mother, Queen Hippolyta, was a wielder of the Ladybug Miraculous for quite some time."

"If you gave up the Miraculous would you still fight crime?"

Marinette shook her head. "I think it might be time to give up crimefighting. It's been ten years since I took up the Ladybug Miraculous to fight Hawkmoth, and six years since Hawkmoth was defeated. I wasn't ready to give up that responsibility then, but I think I'm ready now."

"When would you give up the Miraculous?"

"Soon. I talked to Wonder Woman about it last week and she's enthusiastic about the idea. I would need to spend some time getting to know Cassie, just to make sure she's a good fit, and Tikki would need to vet her as well, but I have a good feeling that she'll pass any tests of character we put her through." Marinette turned to face Gar. "I didn't want to make any concrete decisions before I talked to you. I know that we've always fought crime together, but I'm ready to move on with my life. I'm ready to retire."

Gar nodded. "I understand and I fully support your decision. I've been considering leaving the Titans as well. I know I could continue living in the Tower and attend veterinary school at JCU, but last week I got an acceptance letter from UC Davis for their School of Veterinary Medicine."

Marinette's eyes widened. "Gar, that's amazing! I remember looking into UC Davis when you were applying, and their program is nationally ranked."

Gar grinned. "The best in the country. It's too good to pass up."

"You have to go!" exclaimed Marinette. "This is your dream!"

"I think I'll send in my acceptance tomorrow," decided Gar. "Maybe we can go to Davis this weekend and scout out an apartment."

"And fabric stores," chimed in Marinette.

Gar laughed. "Anything for you, Buginette."

----------

The final time Marinette and Gar discussed retirement was years later. Marinette and Gar had gotten married and had moved back to Jump City. Marinette opened her fashion boutique, which had very quickly exploded in popularity. Gar started working for a non-profit veterinary clinic, which provided free veterinary services to lower-income neighborhoods. They had both achieved their dreams, and yet neither seemed content with their lives.

"Maybe we just need a change of scenery," suggested Marinette, leaning her head against Gar as they both sat on the beach watching the sunset. "I'm so tired of the city."

"Maybe," said Gar. "It would be nice to have a house with a backyard, rather than just an apartment."

Marinette sighed. "I know that I always said that I wanted to be the owner of a successful boutique, but this wasn't really what I had in mind. I'm so busy that I feel like I never get to spend any time with you anymore. Every day my inbox is filled with emails asking me to sell my company or expand to more locations. I'm tired of it. My passion is for making clothes, not running a business."

"I know how you feel. Every day I encounter another neglectful pet owner who brings their animal to the clinic for help but refuses to listen to me when I tell them that they need to change the way they treat their animal. It's exhausting."

"We could both just quit our jobs and move into the woods," joked Marinette.

Gar nodded, but he wasn't joking. "I've actually been thinking about that. There are a lot of remote regions with a real need for veterinary practices to provide medical assistance for the farm animals out there. I would feel a lot more useful taking care of animals that don't have anyone else."

Marinette turned to face Gar. "I wouldn't mind moving. I've been sending all of the offers to buy my boutique straight to my email archive, but I'm sure if I looked through them all I could find someone who would be able to take care of the business aspect of Ladybug Designs. I could retire from the business and design on my own time, when the inspiration strikes, instead of forcing myself to churn out design after design."

"You really wouldn't mind?" asked Gar, a hopeful look on his face.

Marinette shook her head. "I was serious about moving out of the city. There's something I've been wanting to tell you for a while, but I've been waiting for the right moment. I think that moment is now. Gar, I'm pregnant."

The deer-in-the-headlights look on Gar's face was comical, to say the least. Marinette giggled, "Well?"

Gar snapped back to reality, transforming into an elephant, trumpeting his joy. He turned back into himself and wrapped his arms around Marinette. "I'm so happy! This is the best news I could have ever heard, Buginette. Now we have to move. I want our kid to have a backyard and a dog and a big driveway where I can teach them how to ride a bike and a pond where they can swim in the summer-"

Marinette cut Gar off with a kiss. "One thing at a time," she giggled.

"I think this will be the best decision we have ever made," declared Gar.

Marinette agreed. "I think that partial retirement will be good for us."

----------

This was bliss. The feeling of grass under Marinette’s bare feet as she walked back to the house from the lake, hand in hand with Gar. The sound of their daughter's laughter as she danced around them, catching fireflies. The taste of homemade apple pie and vanilla ice cream, eaten rebelliously early as Gar proclaimed, "Dessert before dinner!" The sight of the stars up above them, no light pollution to mask the beauty of the heavens. The sound of Gar's voice, whispering, "I love you, Buginette," into Marinette's ear. And as Marinette settled into her husband's arms, she knew for certain that retirement was the best decision she had ever made.

@maribatmarch-2k21

#maribat #garfield logan #marinette dupain-cheng #garmari #MaribatMarch2021 #miraculous ladybug fic #my work

[traincat]

I feel like I've read a ton, but I'm honestly still pretty new to comics rn. That being said... What is one more day? Ik we don't like it and it happened a while ago, but that's about it [,=

Time for Spider-Man History With Traincat: Highly Controversial Storylines! And that feeling is totally normal with comics with huge canons -- you can read a ton and still have some fairly big blindspots in your understanding of the total picture. That being said, this is kind of a big one, both in terms of Spider-Man history/canon and in terms of how Spider-Man fandom functions. I would say probably no other storyline has had quite as much impact on how the fandom views and interacts with the source material as One More Day/Brand New Day. It's been the Wild West out here ever since it happened. (Which was in 2007, so like, yes, fairly long ago, especially when you look at how Spider-Man canon has evolved since, but in the grand scheme of things, also kind of recent. One More Day is not old enough to rent a car.)

So when people talk about Spider-Man's One More Day, they're usually actually talking about two related arcs: One More Day and Brand New Day. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to be covering both. For the sake of transparency, I am going to admit that I think One More Day, as a self-contained story, is good, actually. This is controversial! I admit that! But I stand by my stupid opinions on this blog, for some reason. I think One More Day when you examine it on its own, by which I mean you ignore the decade and a half worth of canon that came after it, as a Spider-Man story and as a PeterMJ-centric story holds up under scrutiny and that people who don't like it don't like complicated love stories and might actually throw their own mothers under buses. No offense to the OMD haters. Little bit of offense to the OMD haters. Brand New Day, which is the continuation of One More Day, on the other hand -- largely bad. Very largely bad.

But let's backtrack. One More Day is a four issue crossover storyline that takes place directly after Civil War, during which Iron Man and Captain America got divorced and divvied up the superhero community and Spider-Man made some startlingly bad decisions and made a fugitive out of himself and his family in a manner that got Aunt May shot, and Spider-Man: Back in Black (Amazing Spider-Man #539–543) which examines Peter's actions immediately after Aunt May is shot and ends with him humiliating the Kingpin in front of an entire prison. One More Day consists of Amazing Spider-Man #544 -> Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24 -> Sensational Spider-Man v2 #41 -> Amazing Spider-Man #545. In One More Day, Aunt May is dying, all of Peter's efforts to save her have thus far failed, and, consumed by guilt, he is rapidly running out of time. Approached by Mephisto, a literal demon from hell, Peter is offered a deal: Aunt May will live -- and Peter's identity, which was previously revealed to the world at large during Civil War, will once again be hidden from the memories of all but a select few -- if Peter trades him his marriage to Mary Jane. Peter and Mary Jane struggle with this, but eventually both agree to the deal. The clock strikes twelve, the deal is done, and Peter and Mary Jane's marriage fades into history.

(ASM #545) A reasonably simple premise for a story that caused so many problems -- most, I would argue, not actually the original story's fault. So obviously, this was an unpopular move -- Peter and Mary Jane had for a long time been a fan favorite Marvel couple, and in a fictional universe where most relationships are doomed as soon as they begin, the enduring Spider-Marriage was sacred ground. And then, with a snap of its fingers, it was gone: Peter wakes up in Aunt May's house, no longer married, with Mary Jane out of the picture. (She would not return to the book on any sort of consistent basis for over 50 issues.) In the wake of One More Day began Brand New Day, which is basically what it sounds like: a promised "brand new day" of "exciting" Spider-Man content and a publishing schedule where Amazing Spider-Man came out three times a month. (Which sounds good on paper but I think in practice caused more problems than it created good storylines.) Peter, newly single again, had new love interests! And also Harry Osborn was alive again for some reason! I generally like Harry's post-BND stories so that part's fine with me.

But overall? Brand New Day is a mess. It knows it wants to tread new and exciting ground with Peter -- tell new stories! ensnare new readers! make them fork out for a book three times a month. -- but it doesn't know what those stories should be. Readers who were invested in Peter and Mary Jane's relationship -- a major facet of Spider-Man comics for decades at that point -- felt rightfully betrayed that the marriage could be so easily traded in and that Mary Jane herself, perhaps the second most important figure in Spider-Man comics after Peter, could be tossed aside. From a personal point of view, I think Brand New Day fails in large part because it abandons what has always made Spider-Man such a compelling series, and that's the mix of Peter's personal life with his vigilante life. BND sees Peter with new friends, new jobs, new love interests, etc -- it is very much a brand new day! But it isn't a better day compared to the stories that came before it. I do like some post-BND stories, especially American Son (ASM #595-599) and Grim Hunt (ASM #634-637), but compared to pre-BND where I think the majority of canon is good, it's a very lacking body of work that is hurt by the way it divorced itself from the PeterMJ marriage as Spider-Man's central relationship.

"But Traincat, I thought you said you liked One More Day?" Yeaaaaah. I do. This is why I keep saying I like One More Day on its own merits, and not on the merits of the stories it opened the doors for. I like a good romantic tragedy in fiction, and the way Peter and Mary Jane's final scene in One More Day plays out is beautiful. I like the idea of Peter caught in this impossible situation, being asked to choose between two women he loves more than his own life. A really common criticism I see leveled against One More Day is that Peter should have chosen his relationship with Mary Jane over May's life, which is -- okay, I think it's weird that people keep insisting on this, not in the least because by asking Peter to sacrifice his aunt's life they're essentially demanding he commit a callous, out of character act in order to further his own interests. It's also weird because the thing is, Peter already chose Mary Jane over May -- that's what gets them into this situation. It's literally in the scene where May is shot:

(ASM #538) When the gun goes off, Peter's spider-sense kicks in, and he covers Mary Jane, leaving May in the path of the bullet. He does choose Mary Jane over May, regardless of whether he realized what he was doing. And that's why he can't make that choice a second time. His actions in One More Day do make sense for him as a character, whether or not any individual reader likes them, and Mary Jane's actions make sense, too -- after all, she's the one who ultimately tells Mephisto that they agree to the deal when Peter can't bring himself to voice it.

A lot of people also like to nitpick One More Day by going, well, why could (x) or (y) with life saving powers save Aunt May which is like -- yeah, I guess, but if we're going to ask that about this specific comic book near death setup, you kind of have to do it with every single one, and I'm not going to stake every single moment of comic book drama on whether or not that gold kid from the X-Men was busy at the time. Comics are soap operas in flimsy paper form: serialized longform storytelling that relies heavily on melodrama. Sometimes you have to go with things. Sometimes you sell your marriage to the devil. Stuff happens. That in and of itself doesn't make One More Day a bad story -- and while some people blame the Spider-Marriage's dissolution entirely on One More Day, I think that's a little shortsighted when you look at the history of Spider-Man since the turn of the century. It's clear -- and Marvel themselves have been perhaps a little too open about this -- that Marvel in the past few decades has had trouble with the direction they want to take Spider-Man. They WANTED Spider-Man to appeal to a distinctly youthful audience that they didn't think they were actually reaching -- understandable, considering that Marvel nearly went bankrupt around 2000 and was saved by Ultimate Spider-Man, an out of main continuity series which retold Spider-Man from the beginning and focused heavily on Peter as a teen -- but the problem was Spider-Man in the main continuity was at that point in canon a happily married man who was pushing the dreaded 30 whether or not they wanted to admit that. This is also why Marvel has continually pivoted away from Spider-Man having kids, because they feared that making him a dad would age him too much and make him unrelatable to their coveted audience of Teens. (This is also why almost every new Spider-Man property, especially the live action movies, perpetually stick him back into high school, despite that occupying a very small slice of 616 canon.) So around the year 2000, they started trying things in relation to the Spider-Marriage, which was viewed as a major problem -- after all, what's more adult than being married and liking your wife. First, they had Mary Jane presumed dead. Then, they had Mary Jane and Peter separate. Then, when Mary Jane and Peter had only recently gotten back together, One More Day struck. If One More Day specifically hadn't gone the way it had, it's pretty clear that the Spider-Marriage was going to go one way or another -- it's a little bit of a shame it happened when it did, because OMD is the end of J Michael Straczynski's run, and JMS wrote a really beautiful Peter and MJ relationship. But Marvel as a company and especially editor in chief at the time Joe Quesada viewed Peter and Mary Jane's relationship as a major problem in how they wanted to portray Spider-Man and thought that striking the relationship from the books would allow them more freedom in their portrayal of him as younger and more relatable to their Desired Audience of people who I guess really wanted to see Peter sleep with characters who weren't Mary Jane.

(ASM #546. Younger! Fresher! Less attached! Kissing random women in the club!)

The problem with One More Day has always been in the follow through -- from the content of Brand New Day to the pacing of events to the fact that Marvel withheld key information for such a long time that it allowed misinformation to thrive. After all, what does it MEAN to trade Peter and Mary Jane's marriage to the devil? It altered the events of canon in Peter and the majority of other characters' memories so that the marriage didn't exist, but it left people wondering -- did the relationship as they remembered it existed? How much of Spider-Man canon was altered? And the answers didn't come for over 100 issues of Amazing Spider-Man. One Moment In Time or OMIT (Amazing Spider-Man #638-641), which revealed that while Peter and Mary Jane never got married in the altered canon they did continue their long committed relationship up until just after Civil War, was published in 2010, so essentially readers were hung out to dry without answers for three years. That's a long time to string people along, but not as long as it took Marvel to confirm that the popular fan theory that Mary Jane retained her memories of the original timeline as part of her own deal with Mephisto was also true, which happened this year. I would say, at least from my perspective, a lot of the frustration doesn't come from the individual One More Day storyline so much as how Marvel has continually dragged out the aftermath, using the promise of a Spider-Marriage return to keep fans on the hook. Which is why One More Day continually comes up in discussion of current Spider-Man, because Spencer's run has relied very heavily on imagery from that period with a serious question of whether or not there actually was going to be payoff, something which is still up in the air.

This has been Spider-Man History With Traincat, brought to you by anonymice like you.

#traincat talks comics #long post #*replies

[chaeiimimi]

06 𝓑𝓪𝓫𝔂 𝓟𝓪𝓷𝓲𝓬!

Synopsis: Sakusa Kiyoomi, a young ravishing man, an athlete for the Japanese volleyball team and comes from a very prominent family around Japan. He was perfect, looks, wealth and fame. But you can’t have everything in life, can you? Sakusa, the germophobic athlete, suddenly wakes up one day and sees a baby boy in a basket in front of his door step, in the basket was a letter, a letter from his past lover, saying that the child was his. The panic look on the spiker’s face was almost comical, knowing that his life would turn into a complete 360, that day was his first time ever to miss a volleyball practice and to call Komori to ask for a babysitter. You.

Notice: the only thing I own is the plot, the art and the characters aren't mine and they all belong to their respective owners.

Safe to say you didn’t get as much sleep as you hoped that night

“eh?” you were shocked, you didn’t expect him to do it so soon

“yeah, they work from home tomorrow, we should pay them a visit”

“we?” you were flabbergasted, you? You’re meeting the elite and respected Sakusa Family?

“yeah, do you have any problems with that?” yes, a lot

“n-no sir”

So now you left a note on the kitchen counter saying you are going to the market to get some ingredients for the dish you were going to cook for Sakusa’s parents

Since you were young, your parents always taught you that you cannot visit a home empty handed, it was proper courtesy and showed respect and appreciation for having you in their home.

You strolled along the market looking at fresh produce, you opted for seafood, since it’s healthier for older people

A huge salmon caught your eyes and miso-zuke salmon immediately popped in your head, you looked at your watch, it was only five in the morning, you can let it marinate for how many hours and grill it for 30 minutes, which will be enough time to bring it for lunch

You bought it from the vendor who was very kind and even gave you a discount, after that you went to a bakery supplies to get some carrot décor and some ingredients to make icing, you were planning to make a cake less sweet so Sakusa’s parents can eat as well

With that, you head home

You saw Sakusa seating by the coffee table, sipping coffee and reviewing the forms you filled out

“good morning sir” you say as you take the things you bought to the kitchen

“we really don’t need to bring them anything you know” he says as, eyes still not leaving the papers

“I know, but my parents always tell me to not visit anyone’s house empty-handed, it’s a sign of courtesy”

He just nodded and said “suit yourself”

You begin making the marinade, thankfully the fish vendor was kind enough to slice the salmon up for you

About half way through you heard Kaito’s cry and you were about to wipe your hands to get to him when Sakusa stood up

“I got him, continue your work”

You nodded and did exactly that, it took fifteen minutes to make the marinade, you soaked the salmon in it , coverd it, and put in inside the freezer

Sakusa went out with a calm Kaito, he sat in the coffee table , his son carefully cradled in his one arm as his other hand held the forms he hasn’t reviewed yet

Looks like he got the hang of carrying Kaito you said inside your head as you smiled to yourself

You slowly mixed the ingredients together not noticing that Sakusa was now behind you

“what are you doing?” you flinched , surprised by your boss sudden speaking

“I’m making a cake sir” you said holding your chest

It wasn’t clear, heck if you didn’t spend your three months with him you wouldn’t have noticed the small smile grazing his lips

And you regret noticing because you were now flustered

You cleared your throat

“where’s Kaito?” you asked, focusing your attention back to your task

“he’s sleeping” he answered

Your mouth formed into an ‘o’

“is it normal for babies to sleep so much” he asked, his voice genuinely concern

You chuckled  “apparently, it is sir, sleep is actually healthy for baby, aside from them having small stomach and get full easily, their tiredness can also be the cause of a growth spurt or developmental leap” you say in as-a-matter-of-fact tone

He nods as he watches you pour the mixture to a cake mold, which he didn’t even know he had

“does your parents like cake sir?” you asked as you put the dough into the oven

“my mom eats it occasionally, my dad is a sucker for it, we try to make him cut it out for a bit, it’s bad for his health”

You nod, Sakusa has been a bit talkative since your talk last night

“in that case, I’ll make the buttercream frosting less sweet” you say as you washed your hands to prepare to make the frosting

Sakusa watched you as you make the frosting, a lot of thoughts inside his head

“is she doing this to impress my parents?”

“why would she want to impress my parents?”

“does she likes-“

Sakusa shook his head profusely muttering small no’s you were just nice and polite, yea, that’s it

He cleared his throat and went to the coffee table, he finished reviewing the forms you filled out and all of them were perfect, he opened his desktop and began with his work at the company again

The timer went off and it was time to take the cake out of the oven

Kaito was awake and mindlessly babbling in his crib while Sakusa watched replays of some volleyball games

You set the cake on a cooling rack to let it cool down for a while

You decided to clean the house while waiting for the cake to cool down

you wiped some shelves, throw out the trash and vacuumed, by the time you were finished cleaning , the cake was already cool, you begin frosting it, putting crushed nuts at the side of the cake and decorating the top of the cake with candy carrots and some edible decorative leaves, you slowly put it in the fridge

you sighed

“you need to rest” Sakusa says as he gets himself some water

You looked at the time and it was already 10

You shook your head “I just need to grill the salmon sir” and so you did grill the tuna for thirty minutes, gave Kaito a bath for twenty minutes, showered and changed yourself into a simple sundress

By the time you were done packing everything it was already 11:30

You and Sakusa made your way to his car, Kaito was in his baby seat and his father placed him on the back seat, you were about to seat beside Kaito when he cleared his throat

“won’t I look like a personal driver if the both of you sat there?”

You immediately got up and sat at the shotgun seat

The ride was quiet, it was a comfortable silence though, Kaito’s occasional babbles while you were still amazed by the rich neighborhood and Sakusa’s eyes are focused on the road

You arrived at his paren’ts place in fifteen minutes and you could hear the voices of people from afar

You entered the house-no, this was a freaking castle, it was huge, there was a guard, some gardeners and maids

Sakusa parked his car, you got out, he carried Kaito’s baby seat which had a handle while you carried the cake and the salmon-sizu

You walked to the backyard where you saw some children, you recognize some of them as Sakusa’s older siblings’ children, they looked like they were having an outdoor barbecue by their pool-side

Sakusa cleared his throat

They all stopped dead in their tracks eyes wide open

Sakusa glared at them “geez you guys don’t need to act like you saw a ghost”

“well what do you expect you barely visit us here?!” you assumed that it was his brother you spoke

His mother and father looked at you, and you felt very small

“woah and you- you- holy crap your married?!”

And with just one sentence there was a fiasco

“Uncle Kiyoomi is married? We have a new aunt?” a kid who was about nine said and rushed towards new but his sisters were already all up on you

“woah when did you guys get married?”

“when did you meet?”

“what company does your family own?”

“your dress looks so good?”

“do you like chanel?”

You were overwhelmed and couldn’t talk

Your boss sighed “she’s not my wife, she’s my son’s nanny and househelper”

They stopped on their tracks, as you stood there and smiled awkwardly

“but you’re too pretty to be a nanny!”

One of his nieces explained

“you have a son?!” Sakusa’s brother exclaimed

“I know right” Sakusa says nonchalantly

Sakusa was a calm compared to his very lively family

“you impregnated your househelper?” Sakusa’s father asked confused

Your eyes widened and you shook your head profusely

“it’s Nami’s” Sakusa sighed and handed his parents a letter, his brother and two sisters stood beside their parents to read the letter as well

They were dumbfounded when they finished reading, you can’t blame them, you had the same reaction when you first read that letter as well

“what a cruel woman…” Sakusa’s mother says, it seems like she was the first one to recover

Sakusa looked at his son who was looking up at him while sucking on his pacifier

“I don’t need her to raise my son” Sakusa says sternly, his family members looked at him

Sakusa took Kaito in his arms “everyone, this is Sakusa Kaito, my son” he says while Kaito babbles and cracked a toothless smile

There was a moment of silence

When...

 “Oh my lord! what a handsome baby!” Sakusa’s mother gushed and approached Sakusa and took Kaito from him

“holy hell bro he looks just like you!” his brother also says, as he pinch Kaito’s cheeks

“I want him to model for my baby line AAAHHHHH” his sister, which you assumed to be Aiko Sakusa a famous fashion designer

Sakusa Kairo the eldest among the siblings, a pilot and owns an airlines company

Akemi, the third child, a famous architect, she owns an architectural firm

And Sakusa Kiyoomi the youngest, Athlete-Entrepreneur manages a chain of hotels and restaurants

And of course Sakusa Arisa and Sakusa Katashi, the founder of Sakusa Empire

These people are one of the most influential family in japan, yet when you looked at them they look quite normal

Sakusa looked kind of distant, but you could see the softness in his features as he stares at his son being cradled and passed around by his family members

You did notice that his father was emotionlessly staring at the scene

“Kiyoomi you haven’t introduce your “helper” to us yet” Akemi says teasingly

Sakusa shook his head

“this is Y/N she’s Komori’s friend , she helps around my house and takes care of Kaito” he says as stood beside you

The whole family except for Komori’s dad looked at you with almost teary eyes

“thank you for dealing with our ill-mannered kiyoomi” his mother says

“You’re too pretty to be a nanny though, if you ever consider modeling come to me” Aiko says as she held both of your hands

You bowed to them politely “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sir Kiyoomi is a good boss to me” you said, feeling all stiff and awkward

“chill out Y/N-san we don’t bite” Kairo chuckled

You nodded awkwardly, Sakusa nudged you and pointed at the items you were holding

“oh, we bought you some salmon-sizu and carrot cake, I hope you like it” you said as you showed them the things you bought

“Y/N-chan I love you already” Akemi says as she took the carrot cake from you and led you to the table

 In no time the family were all eating and having fun, you had Kaito in your arms and was feeding him

“Y/n dear, this salmon and cake are so delicious, where did you buy them?”

You quickly realized that your boss’ mother was a sweet lady

“oh, I made them ma’am, my mother is a baker, it’s her recipe, I tweaked it a bit for it to make it less quick, my father is a fish broker, he told me that salmon is a healthy fish to serve” you smiled at her

“Y/N-chan you’re too kind, I hope my brother isn’t being a jerk to you” Aiko says as she eats cake

You chuckled at them

“Y/N-chan, how is our Kiyoomi?” Akemi asked

“Sir Sakusa is doing fine I think, he’s just a bit tired from volleyball and the company, he also makes time for Kaito whenever he can, he’s still a little bit confuse and clumsy”

Kairo, Akemi, Aiko and Mrs. Sakusa nodded together

“Y/N-chan do you like Kiyoomi?” Aiko asked which made you flustered

“I-I- yes-yes b-but- as a boss- I like him as a person-like a boss-“

“geez no need to get flustered now, we were only asking” Kairo said as he chuckled

“we don’t mind if you like him though, we’ll be delighted to have you here” Akemi says and smiled at you

You were now as red as a tomato

After the conversation, you were left with Kaito, he was now wide awake and you were playing with him

Only then did you noticed Sakusa’s father staring at you two

You cleared your throat, you got up, carrying Kaito, you cleaned up the plates near Sakusa’s father

Kaito pointed at his grandfather

You quietly approached the man

“sir, do you want to hold him?”  you asked

He looks up at you, you smiled at him and slowly sat Kaito on his lap

He looks at Kaito emotionlessly, when Kaito smiled at him and babbles “babababa!”

For the first time today, you saw a soft smile made its way to Sakusa’s father’s face

“he looks just like him” the elderly man mumbles

“I can see that sir” you smiled softly at them, slowly taking out your phone and quietly took a picture of the scene, not knowing that some of the eyes of the family were on you

 “she’s a good woman” Sakusa’s mother says to his son

“she is” Kiyoomi says as he stares at you, having a small conversation with his father, it’s very rare for him to communicate or interact with people other than business matters, but he doesn’t seem to have any trouble conversing with you

“do you like her Kiyo?” his mother asks teasingly

“mom, no” Kiyoomi sighs and takes a sip of his lemonade

Although his parents were mostly absent during his childhood, him and his siblings maintained a close relationship with them, and both his mother and father always made time for them on the weekends

A lot of people assumed that they were like the rich family from dramas, the tension and stuff but it was far from that, they were pretty normal, and chaotic at times

 “Your salmon-sizu was very good” your boss’ dad says as you took Kaito from him, the baby has already fallen asleep

“thank you sir, it was my dad’s recipe, he says it’s good for your health” you smiled as you cradled Kaito

He smiled and got up from his seat to join the rest of his family, you laid Kaito on his baby seat and wiped the sweat off his forehead

 The rest of the day were spent with you helping the maids with grilling, but Aiko quickly swooped in and wanted you to join the party, so there you were surrounded by your boss’ nieces and nephews

“you’re not uncle Kiyo’s girlfriend?” Arata, who was around seven years old asked you, he was Kairo’s son

You chuckled and shook your head

“but I want you to be my aunt, aunt y/n” Chizu who was Aiko’s daughter, said with pleading eyes

You just chuckled at them and diverted their attention to something else, you told them stories your parents and sister used to tell you when you were young, their eyes sparkled with fascination, even Mika and Eichi who were both teenagers were interested in your stories as well that they tore their eyes off of their phone screens

Later in the night you guys played uno, you taught them the basics, these kids didn’t know anything about games outside their phones

You couldn’t really relate to the adult’s conversation since they were talking about businesses so you hang out with the kids, and you were loving every moment of it, despite being born from rich families, they were really nice and humble, Eichi was very similar to his grandfather and his Uncle KIyoomi but he was polite nonetheless

It was finally time to leave, the kids were tired and the same to the adults

“come visit us soon aunt y/n” Mira says sleepily she was Akemi’s only child

You smiled at them and waved

“you better come back Y/N-chan we want another one of your carrot cake” Aiko says as you bowed to them

“dear, if ever Kiyo fires you, you are free to apply at our house” says Kiyoomi’s mother says as you leave

Your boss sighs as you finally entered his car

“they really like you” he mumbles

“I guess they do?” you chuckled

“hey y/n, thank you”

You tilt your head in confusion “for what sir?”

“just, thank you”

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