#probably very smart but very trollish

[sporktato]

The way that I know nothing about Master Yaddle other than I love her

#star wars #master yaddle #the clone wars #the prequels #phantom menace #jedi council #like looks very wine aunt shaped #probably very smart but very trollish #totally endorses all padawan prank wars

[bigskydreaming]

Something else to keep in mind is the way things compound? Like for instance, I’ve seen a mini trend of fics lately focusing on the issue of Dick dropping out of college or not wanting to go, which for the record, I feel is another way of building up to the idea that he and Bruce have all these fights during this period that are two way streets instead of like....what canon actually was (reminder that in the canon that Dick actually dropped out he and Bruce actually were never really NOT on good terms, like there’s never been a big fight in the comics about this topic so.....incheresting).

But anyway, my point is its worth keeping in mind that how you frame something at one point in a narrative like.....ideally, you want it to mesh up and align with other things you’ve brought up throughout the narrative, and not accidentally contradict yourself narratively.

I mean, this is really the big gripe most Dick Grayson fans have with his fanon characterization overall:

The fact that it just doesn’t make sense.

In Jason-centric fics that are after his resurrection, how often is Jason utterly convinced that Dick can’t even wipe his ass without Bruce’s approval? And yet in Jason-centric fics that are before his death, how often is Jason thinking about how Dick and Bruce are constantly fighting and Bruce can’t seem to do anything without Dick objecting? Reconcile these two things. They make no sense.

Same thing with fics that talk about Dick being the emotional glue of the family, the one keeping a cool head to calm down everyone else when they’re all taking shots at each other.....until randomly he just pops off without warning because he’s just that hot-tempered. These things mesh, how?

Same thing with Dick being frequently referenced as idealized by the hero community......but every time he interacts with someone like Roy or Kori or other Titans he can’t seem to avoid pissing them off and creating epic grudges. Make it make sense.

Or how Dick disliked or didn’t care about Jason to the extent that he only references him as a cautionary tale because of one line in canon......but the whole damn story where he kills the Joker because of Jason doesn’t count.

Or how its not okay to blame Dick for his own rapes but both of his major breakups which are intrinsically linked to the actions of his rapists like....were clearly and objectively all his fault somehow.

Dick Grayson fans aren’t on board with most of fanon because you can’t sell people on a constantly conflicting characterization that makes no sense and has no internal consistency.....you can only cater to people who don’t NEED to be sold on that because they’ve already decided they’re down with hating a character or largely ignoring him.

And I think people have gotten so used to not thinking twice about contradictory takes on Dick Grayson that they unintentionally undermine their own fics by contradicting themselves without even realizing it.

Like its ridiculously common to come across fics that reference Dick being beloved and charming everyone at the society galas they all have to go to.....but these fics take pot shots at Dick’s name, fashion, mannerisms etc all throughout it just because the author likes it or fans expect it or whatever reason.

But actually THINK about it:

Think how snobby the socialites at these galas are characterized as being any time its Jason their noses are turned down at.....and then look at like.....the constant jokes you as the author make YOURSELF at Dick’s very name, fashion and circus origins......how on Earth does it make ANY sense that these same people aren’t doing the same damn thing about Dick? That they’re actually any more fond of him than they are Jason, if no matter how charming he might be in the moment, the second he turns around its just as easy and likely for them to make a joke about his circus background or name as it is for writers and readers? If you can’t resist doing it, you really think snobby one percenters would bother in-universe?

Hell, they’d be more likely to hate him BECAUSE of his name, his fashion, etc.....because think of how often people not so subtly infer that he’s making a bad choice when he refuses to go by a different name, or dress more accordingly to normal fashions, etc.....

Dick has a million ways he could more easily fit in with the society he was brought into and ease his passage through it, but he puts his foot down at practically every opportunity. The idea that everybody is just dazzled by him at these galas makes no sense because the most consistent character choice made by Dick throughout the decades is that he refuses to CONFORM to others’ expectations of what he should be like. 

EVERY SINGLE CHOICE he makes from his name to his wardrobe to his costumes to his education to his city to his living arrangements and on and on is in complete and utter DEFIANCE of what people expect of the eldest son or ward of Bruce Wayne, Prince of Gotham, and that’s by Dick’s conscious and consistent choice. He knows damn well how to be more what people want or expect of him, and that’s not what he wants so he says mmmm but also how bout no.

Dick constantly embodies the idea that you can take the boy out of the circus but you can not and will not take the circus out of the boy no matter what environment you place him in or who you surround him with. He will not allow it. He will not play along.

In what universe is that going to endear him to the very people who would most likely view his choice to prioritize the very things they look down upon as something he consciously PREFERS over their projected expectations or assumptions?

Its not.

Personally, I think Gotham high society despises Dick Grayson no matter what they pretend to his face, and he’s perfectly aware of it. And probably gets some kind of trollish glee out of it because fuck them too, anyway.

(And all of that is WITHOUT even taking into account the fact that a good number of the people at these society galas all along were looking at Dick as their future property, given that they were Owl members who knew all along what they intended for their Gray Son. These people simply do not view and treat Dick as an equal. Its impossible. There’s no way).

Or then back to the idea of Bruce and Dick’s fights in his later teenage years being a two way street....

The core problem at the root of all this is the very idea of a two way street implies a certain give and take. A clashing of equals.

And that’s just not the reality in ANY continuity.

Because the question is, in any given fight between Dick and Bruce in ANY canon....

When does Dick ever WIN these fights?

When does Dick get the outcome he wants OVER what Bruce wants? When does Bruce ever cave? When is it NOT Dick leaving the manor without getting what he came for, or even being kicked out? When has Dick ever been able to say no, I’m NOT fired, or no, I’m NOT giving you control over what happens with Robin. Even when he DOES confront Bruce on these matters, Bruce STILL infamously never caves. He never actually apologizes or admits wrongdoing, he still usually tells Dick to leave. Like I said, basically the only time Dick’s ever got the upper hand in an argument was over the college thing and that time it wasn’t even a fight! Bruce didn’t actually care that much! That was the good timeline! LOL.

But there’s never actually a reversal. There’s no real precedent for Bruce caving to a teenage Dick Grayson and saying hey you know what, you’re right here, I’m overstepping or I’m in the wrong or I’m the one who doesn’t know what he’s talking about because our divergent life experiences here have mine as less relevant to the issue in question than yours do?

It doesn’t happen.

And here’s the problem with that:

Dick’s a literal genius. Every member of the Batfam is. Its how they’re able to do what they do. They’re ALL smart as fuck, capable as fuck. Put any of them in any other situation where they’re the only Bat present, and everyone usually defaults to them. They know what to do, they know what call to make, their approach is borne out by the narrative as being the correct approach. Their intelligence and strategy is validated by the narrative, with Dick being no exception here. In fact he’s particularly NOTED within canon narratives for being the guy everyone in the DC universe trusts to lead them.

Now.....imagine being this guy, who while although still a teenager, is in his late teens, and has YEARS of leading his own team under his belt. Years of being responsible for the lives of teammates and civilians. Years of becoming aware of and comfortable with his own natural brilliance. Years of becoming confident in being capable of making the right call when the situation demands it. Years of learning to TRUST in his ability to make the right call, to know the right approach, because not only are people relying on him to make those calls, he needs to be able to trust he can make them in order to have the confidence to follow through and DO so instead of being frozen with indecision or trying to pass the decision off to someone else, which he NEVER does?

With all that....and even with all due respect to Bruce’s own genius and experience....

What are the chances that in all the times that Bruce and Dick clash in his late teenage years....

Dick is NEVER right?

And yet.....when in any of these conflicts.....is he ever validated in that, versus shut down by Bruce who insists his way is still right?

Imagine being an acknowledged genius with years of experience and responsibility under your belt, but NEVER getting to be right in any arguments with your father, even when just based off pure freaking statistics, its frankly impossible for you to be 100% wrong EVERY SINGLE TIME?

Do you see where the two way street thing starts to fall apart? How can it truly be a two way street if part of the reason the two of them so often end UP aggressively opposed to each other during this time period.....is because of how many times previous encounters have only ended ONE way no matter WHAT?

It makes sense for Dick and Bruce not to clash as much during their younger years, because even the most stubborn kids do understand on a fundamental level that they have things to learn from more experienced adults. And Dick has never been someone mindlessly predisposed towards conflict. He didn’t become an exceptional acrobat by the age of eight by butting heads with his parents every time they tried to teach him, he couldn’t have. He KNOWS how to listen, he KNOWS how to acknowledge when someone else is right. 

But as he grows older, when he has more and more experience under his belt, more and more confidence in his own insights in large parts thanks to Bruce’s own efforts in buttressing his confidence in his younger years.....what happens when the balance of who is right and who is wrong in their arguments NEVER EVER starts to shift in his direction even a little bit, no matter HOW much more experienced he seems to get....and what happens when communicating this problem, this imbalance, to the person that really matters here, Bruce himself....still inherently requires Bruce accepting blame and acknowledging even just in THIS case, the idea that he’s not always right at this point and Dick has insights that can challenge his?

Of course there’s going to be more and more conflict....but can you truly argue that its a two way street, even just based off THIS? Is the teenage son truly to blame for being frustrated that he’s not allowed to ever be right, because the thing getting in his way is his father never ever being willing to back down or cave or not have the last word?

This is the sort of inherent contradiction I think lies at the heart of a lot of conflicting viewpoints here. It doesn’t matter how much lip service is being paid to the idea that Dick is intelligent, that Dick is respected, if all your content continually bears out the idea that actually no he’s not, because Bruce is always right, Dick never is in the right in arguments or conflicts.

The latter evidence just is not aligning with the former claims, and thus readers are innately forced to make a choice as to which to believe.....and more likely than not, they’re going to err on the side of substantiating whichever stance actually has more narrative support behind it, in any particular story.

See what I’m saying?

You need to make sure your story is ACTUALLY saying what you think you’re saying or you intended to say....or you end up undermining your own intentions.

Anyway. Just throwing that out there. 

[margoteve]

Fic: It is You

Summary: Jim and Claire have some alone together time.

Rating: Teen

Genre: Romance

Ship: Jim x Claire

A/N: I need to stop having thoughts at 4am that’s for sure. Check it out at AO3. I appreciate likes and reblogs and comments yes. 

The music played softly from his phone. It was the same music they danced to on that hill, after the Spring-fling ball that got interrupted by Angor Rot. But right now, there was nothing to fight for. No one to interrupt them. He made it clear to Blinky. It was just him and Claire. His nerves were through the roof.

"Are you... Sure about this?" Jim held his shirt in his hands sitting in front of Claire on her bed. She was there in a simple tank top and he didn't know where to put his eyes.

"Yes," she replied with full confidence. A soft smile brightened her face as she touched his cheek. Smooth fingers over a stone skin. "Are you sure about this? You can back out."

He leaned into her touch, a small purr rising in his chest. "I'm good," he said.

She chuckled and leaned forward stealing a kiss from him. He sighed into it, his heart swelling and beating fast, so fast it could fly right out of his chest. Claire, oh Claire, she was his everything. His hand covered hers and he kissed her palm when their lips parted.

"Thank you," he whispered. She booped his nose.

"There is nothing to thank for, silly. I love our kisses," she stroked his jaw and traced one fang. Then without hesitation sat in his lap and wrapped his arms around her. "I told you, I think you are very handsome," she stroked his hair, brushing over his horns.

She looked right into his eyes and there was nowhere for him to hide. Her hand slipped over his ear, causing a shiver run through his body. Her fingertips glided down his neck to his shoulder. Her gaze rested on a fresh mark on his body. A craved tattoo, trollish marking which he got after a mission. She traced the swirls going over his bicep, then up and to his chest. Her hand stopped over his heart and pressed over it. Their foreheads met and he nuzzled her as his hand covered hers. They breathed together, no words passing between them. Just his heartbeat under her palm. The one thing reminding him of who he was.

"Claire..." He gently whispered. "I love you."

"I love you too James Lake Junior," she smiled. Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes so she quickly wiped them out. "This isn't going as I first imagined," she joked sniffing a little.

He smiled and took her face between his hands. "I think it's perfect," he said, brushing his thumbs - human and troll-like - over her cheeks. She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.

Then took his hands in hers and dropped them down between them. "I'm not done yet," she chuckled and pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Where did this one come from?" She puzzled over some of his marks.

She was there for the battles but Jim only recently became comfortable of taking the armour off around her. He looked down at the scratch she had her finger over.

"I am not sure, probably the latest Bagdwella's gnome infestation?" He hummed amused with his own confusion.

"This one?" she moved to the next one.

"Eternal Night, I think most are from then," he said and looked at her shyly.

Her face turned to sadness as she traced over the marks over his torso. "Jim, promise me... never sacrifice yourself like this."

There was something relentless in her eyes. She wouldn't let it go unless he gave in. It was kind of scary how Claire could just bend him to her will.

"I'll...try," he offered that. "You know I-" she stopped him, her fingers on his mouth.

"I know." She nodded. "Just remember you aren't alone in this, okay?"

"I can promise that," Jim smiled and lowered his head for another kiss.

Claire smiled into it, her deft fingers sank into his soft, fluffy hair. He held her tight and let her push him down.

Hours later Jim laid beside her watching her sleep and lazily playing with her hair. He will never understand how she could have ever chosen him. So brave, so smart. He could slay hundred of Gum-Gums and Gunmars but he might never deserve her. He was luckiest half-troll on Earth.

Claire snuggled his chest and he smiled then placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. Making sure she was comfortable he settled down, his eyes finally closed. That night was the most peaceful he ever had.

#jlaire #clarim #trollhunters #jim lake jr #claire nuñez #tales of arcadia #toa trollhunters #eve writes stuff

[elizabethemerald]

Hanging with NotEnrique

Ok, this was inspired by @infographicisminetocommand​ tag on @djkrel​‘s post. 

I wanted to write a quick drabble of Jim just hanging out comfortably with NotEnrique. And then oops I made it emotional. I hope you enjoy. 

Please reblog if you like!

Jim laid back on Claire’s bed, his math book in his hands. Claire sat at her desk working on her Calculus homework. It was weird having an actual regular study session. There was no pressing Trollhunter business right now. There was nothing they had to research to help Trollmarket, just regular teen aged things. Namely making sure Jim passed his Sophomore year. 

The “regular study session” was made slightly unusual by the presence of NotEnrique. The small troll dozed on Claire’s bed next to Jim. Jim just shrugged and reread the math problem, trying to understand what exactly it was asking. At least NotEnrique wasn’t causing any problems. 

NotE suddenly sat up, his ears flicking forward, his eyes darting towards the door. He jumped onto Jim’s chest and Jim quickly adjusted the book he was holding to conceal the former changeling. 

“Claire-” Was all the warning Jim could get out before her bedroom door was suddenly snatched open. Ophelia stood in the doorway glaring around the room. Her eyes took in Jim laying on the bed with his math book and Claire sitting at her desk. 

“Mom can’t you knock?” Claire asked, exasperated. 

“Not when you have a boy alone with you in your room.” Ophelia said. 

She continued to glare at Jim as if trying to determine how long he had been laying on the bed. Jim resisted the urge to roll his eyes, she and Javier had been trying to catch the two of them in the middle of some clandestine act all night. If only they knew what they really got up to at night. Claire made no attempt to hide her eye roll. 

“What do you need mom?” Claire said. 

“Your father just got home from the store, I need your help unloading the groceries.” Ophelia said. 

Claire sighed quietly and stood up and left her room. Ophelia stood in the doorway for a moment longer her eyes never leaving Jim as he stayed on the bed looking at his book. All of his muscles felt tense. Normally this was exactly the sort of thing he would volunteer to help with. It would help Claire’s parents relax around him, and there was no way he could mess it up with something Trollhunter related, but he couldn’t move with NotE hiding on his chest. 

Finally Ophelia left, closing the door quietly behind her. Jim sighed and NotEnrique relaxed. His ears flicked forward like a cat’s probably tracking Ophelia as she walked down the stairs. Eventually he spun in place and looked like he was ready to jump back onto Claire’s bed. 

“You can stay there if you like.” Jim said quietly. “It would be easier so you don’t have to duck out of sight every time her parents bust in.”

NotEnrique eyed him for a moment, then settled back onto his chest. Jim reached over and grabbed Claire’s pillow, putting it below his head so he could more comfortably read his text book with the troll laying on him. 

“How have things been for you little dude?” Jim asked softly. NotEnrique stared at him for another moment before responding. 

“Tough.” NotE said. He also kept his voice low, and his ears swiveled to listen to the hallway. “I constantly have to hide from the ‘rents. And with everything going on in Trollmarket, I don’t know that it’s safe to be there either.”

“Hmmmm.” Jim idly scratched NotE’s scruff. “Yeah, there’s a lot happening right now.”

“Plus Claire is stressed. About you.”

Jim’s eyes widened. “About me?”

“My big sis cares about you, you dough head.” NotE snapped, though he didn’t move away from Jim’s hand scratching at his scruff. “She was almost sick with worry every day you were in the Darklands. She stopped eating while you were gone.”

Jim looked down, his guilt weighed on him heavily. It wasn’t like he needed the reminder that he had seriously messed up by going in to the Darklands by himself. Learning how much Claire had worried, only added to his guilt. 

“Thanks for telling me NotE. I just wish I had some way to make it up to her- oof.” Jim grunted as NotEnrique jumped on his chest, landing his full weight on his solar plexus. 

“Why do you think she invited you over for this study session? She wants to be around you. Do normal things! Being here is how you are making it up to her. Getting her little bro out of the the Darklands is how you made it up to her. Surviving Gunmar is how you made it up to her. For a human Trollhunter you aren’t very smart when it comes to people.”

Jim smiled grimly. “Yeah I’m still working on that part. Thanks for being straight with me.”

NotEnrique rubbed the back of his head. “Listen don’t ever tell her this, but I care about ol’ spongeface. She’s the closest thing I have to family. And I want to make sure she comes out ok after all of this.”

“You’re a good brother NotEnrique. I’ll do my best to make sure she’s taken care of.”

They both paused as NotE’s ears flicked toward the hallway. After a second Claire opened the door. She stepped into her room as her mom’s voice called from downstairs. 

“Don’t think about closing that doo-” The voice was cut off as Claire closed the door. She sat back down at her desk with a sigh. She turned to see Jim and NotEnrique still on her bed. She looked at her brother for a moment that said something to him in Trollish that made him snort. Jim grabbed his amulet in his pocket so he could understand the next thing she said. 

“The way they always assume I’m up to no good almost makes me want to do something bad just to give them something real to worry about.”

Claire and NotEnrique laughed quietly, and Jim chuckled as well. She turned back to the book on her desk and looked like she was about to get lost in her homework again. Jim coughed lightly causing her to look back up. 

“Thanks for inviting me over to study with you, Claire.” Jim said. “It’s nice, just doing regular things with you.”

She smiled at him. Jim could see the truth of what NotEnrique said in her eyes. She was scared for him. Maybe scared that she would lose him again. He smiled back at her. He tried to put a promise into that smile. A promise to always come back to her. A promise to be safe for her. 

“Plus it’s fun to hang out with NotEnrique.” Jim said trying to lighten up the tension in the room. Claire snorted and turned back to her work. 

“Yeah, my hermanito is fun to be around. As long as he’s not eating my socks!”

All three of them laughed lightly together.

#jim lake jr #notenrique #claire nunez #Trollhunters #tales of arcadia #ophelia nuñez #study session #writing emerald #please reblog #I just want them to have a good relationship #Like girlfriend's little brother #they should be friends #and NotEnrique actually cares about Claire #he wants her to be happy and safe

[katanamasako]

The Outsider Incident [Part Three]

Kat stood with her older sister in the forge, facing down the angered kin of the one she murdered. Calamity wholly uninterested.

"you were told to come face us alone, outsider!"

one of the kinsmen snorted angrily. They had right to be angry, Calamity had never been seen before, nor was she welcomed into trollmarket before. Kat had brought her unannounced, probably a bad call on her part.

Calamity however held up a hand, speaking fluently in trollish, addressing them to explain her presence.

"My presence here is not to fight. my sister is a moron and prone to bad language and short temper. She wished for me to speak on her behalf in proper manner, to request to fight on her clan's ground. If we understand the written law right, if we lose, you gain right to our clan's grounds should she lose the fight for her honor. if she wins... well... you have lost your lives."

The trolls spoke among themselves for a moment then the largest bull among them approached, snorting, lowering his head to eye level with Calamity. The eldest hound didn't flinch, but narrowed her eyes at his attempt to intimidate her.

"Very well. But Only she Fights."

"we wouldn't dream of interfering, I'm only here to create the shadow bridge to take you there, and to set up a scrying mirror so the tribunal can keep an eye on things."

"... fine. lookin forward to snapping those wings."

He laughed a bit, nudging the troll to his left. Kat went to respond, but thought better of it catching a glare from her sister. She'd have her chance soon enough. Calamity tapped her scythe's staff on the ground once. Twice. the third time, she stopped short, and darkness engulfed them in a rush of wind and energy. Like a contained storm they were all surrounded in a bubble.

when it dissipated, they were in the Darklands. the one place No self respecting Pact Troll wanted to be. Panic. Cold. Creeping. Intense panic. crept through the group of kinstrolls. But Calamity's voice rang out, stopping Gunmar as he rose, the thralls as they approached and the kinstrolls as they prepared to flee or beg for their lives.

"Please hear me out, Strong Trolls of the Deep Halls, These Pact trolls have challenged my sister's Honor. Claimed she killed without reason. Called her a murderer and challenged her to a right of blood and kin. This is Her fight. Hers alone. We brought the fight here because they allowed her to invoke right of battle on her clan's land. Being she currently claims kinship of a kind to Gunmar The SkullCrusher, that brings us to the Darklands Crucible."

Gunmar frowned waving his hand, slowly leaning back into his throne. his thralls moving out of the way, Calamity pulled open a large scrying mirror for the tribunal to keep witness, as she stepped aside. She then looked to Kat.

"No need to hold back. in this case, killing is perfectly legal and acceptible."

Kat grinned, flames slowly fanning out from her feet. She rotated her shoulders a bit as more flames yet traveled from her chest down her arms to form large blades in her hands.

"Good. It's been a while since i've had a good, lively slaughter in the name of honor. usually it's just one or two morons and the rest are smart enough to shut up and stand back."

[I'm sorry, i'm cutting it here because everything written suuuuucks]

#again i'm sorry for cutting it short #i'm so not a writer TT^TT

[ck90]

That Thing He Does

So I saw the @shieldshockfanfic repost about the price for fortune telling being a cute #shieldshock and this happened. I’m sure it’s been done a gazillion times before but what can I say, it was a thorn on my side until I wrote it.

I haven’t done a full edit but did do a pretty so go figure. This is also my first ShieldShock so [insert neurotic, caffeine-addled, feelings of panic].

EDIT: You all are so awesome, feelings of panic subsided enough to put this on 

AO3 

“Dammit.” Darcy grabbed the bottle of Zoya and removed the polish from her toe for like the twelfth time. Okay, it was only the third, but it felt like a baker’s dozen.

“How in hell did they do that?” She swiped at the various images of the most amazing, beautiful, marvelous painted toes she’d ever seen in her life. And she couldn’t do any of them.

She’d tried. There were instructions and videos, but it quickly became apparent that her artistic skills were limited to stick figures with crooked lines.

What she really needed was a pedicure, but as much as the thought of one was amazing, the idea of some stranger touching her feet just gave her the willies. Not to mention throwing money she could ill-afford to spend on an indulgent luxury was out of the question.

So she was on some floor of the Stark Tower, there were so many she couldn’t keep track and didn’t bother to, on a couch that was more comfortable than her own bed and undoubtedly cost more than her whole wardrobe combined painting or attempting to paint her toenails.

“Unreal.” She enlarged an image. “Dark sorcery, that’s what it is and mere mortals can just suck it.”

“Problem?”

Darcy looked up and just, Dayummm, that man. Super Soldier. All-American yumminess that made the butterflies in her stomach take flight. Talk about mere mortal faced with sorcery.

“What?” Her brain will eventually reboot from that quick trip to Pervyville.

Steve, leaning against the doorframe ducked his head and looked at tablet clutched at her chest and the nail polish bottles littering the coffee table she’d moved closer to the sofa.

Oh. Yeah.

“Nah. Just,” she waved at the mess, “trying to do the impossible when you’re not a contortionist and have no artistic talent is hilariously quixotic.”

His brow arched and she deflated.

“I want pretty toes and can’t do it.” She wasn’t pouting. She wasn’t! Just looking longingly at the pretty pictures.

“Want some help?”

She looked up. When did he move from the door to the sofa? Was super speed part of his skill set now, too? Her toes shriveled into the sofa, hiding from the source of light that sat down next to her. Not that she was thinking Steve was light because, he was just a man, right? A pretty, pretty man.

“I’ve picked up a pencil a time or two.”

Wait. He was offering to paint her toenails? Did she get sucked into an alternate universe and didn’t know it? Those pretty blues were doing things to her.

“Uh.”

He leaned over a tad, not touching because he’s forever aware of the impropriety, and looked at the tablet on her lap.

“Those are very artistic.”

“Uh.” She blinked. Earth to Darcy! “Yeah. I wasn’t really trying for those, just, you know, the basics like actually painting.”

He nodded. “One color or two?”

“Two.” Came out in a squeak. She didn’t even know her voice could do that.

“Trust me?” He was looking at her so soft and earnestly.

With. My. Life. Yes, a thousand times, yes!

“Uh huh.”

He was staring at her expectantly and Darcy finally realized he was waiting for her to bring her feet out of the cushions of the sofa. God, she hoped they weren’t baskets of fuzz nearing sentience. She lifted a foot near him and to her eternal astonishment, he picked up both of her legs and placed them across his lap.

This was the same man who was also so careful around her. Always making sure not to touch her, even accidentally, never mind in a friendly casual manner, that she actually thought he found her kinda repulsive. I mean, she got it, her mouth had a way of saying things before her brain could filter it and he was an old-fashioned type of guy who was used to proper ladies. But she’d never felt so trollish as when in the presence of Captain America.

“Those your paints?” He was looking at the case with enough polish to paint every toe in the Eastern Seaboard and that included the men, too.

Darcy nodded. “Steve?” God, those blues of his were so…drownable. “You’re touching my feet.” More than her feet actually, her calves here firmly on his thighs and his chest was pressing lightly against them in order to look at the nail polish on the table.

The masculine muscles, and there were so, so many, blanketing her calves tensed. “Is that okay?”

Is it okay? Dude. I want to use you as my own personal, preferably naked, blanket for the rest of my life.

“Uh huh.” Thank God the filter worked for once. Might not be fully coherent but it didn’t spew the things she was thinking. “Is it okay with you?”

His hand brushed the top of one foot, before holding it. It was almost a caress. “They are nice feet, Darcy.” His mouth tightened and eyes closed as his head dipped to his chest and his shoulders kinda folded on to themselves.

“Well, they’re my little piggies so I’m kinda okay with them.” A soft huff escaped his lips as they hitched up. “You’re hands are…” warm, soft, strong, making me melt…“nice.”

“So this is okay?”

Uh, yeah. “More than okay.”

He gave her calf a gentle squeeze before turning back to the polish. “What colors would you like?”

“Do anything you want.” So much for the filter working. Did his ears just turn a little pink? Totally worth her own embarrassment.

“Anything?” His voice was low and a little husky.

It gave her ideas. Pervyville meet your new mayor, Darcy Lewis. She swallowed. “Sure.” Her voice did not squeak. It didn’t!

“Don’t look,” he said. “I want it to be a surprise.”

The man could ask her to go piss off Banner and she’d do it in a heartbeat. “Okay.” She picked up the tablet and started scrolling. “Can we still talk?”

Not if he continued kneading her arch with the hand that was not painting, they couldn’t. God, it felt so good, she bit off a moan. Because that would have been inappropriate.

“What do you want to talk about?”

You. Naked in my bed? Thank God the filter was semi-functional. “Do you know what happened in Budapest?”

Steve laughed. “I think they are just messing with everyone.”

“Yeah,” she smiled, “that would totally be something they’d do.” Silence settled between them and it was surprisingly comfortable. She was still trying to think of something to say, what could she have in common with a gorgeous superhero.

Turns out they had a lot in common. Love for coffee. Movies. Books. And he kept massaging her foot with strong, nimble fingers so it’s not her fault her eyes drifted close and she enjoyed the fucking moment. And then he did that thing.

He lifted her foot near his mouth and blew. It couldn't be helped. The jolt of electrical - okay, fine, sexual - energy surged through her and her leg jerked. Would have probably kicked him in the face if he hadn’t been holding on so securely.

“Darcy?” His eyes looked pained with worry and the grip on her foot tightened. “You okay?”

What was her name again? Right. “Uh. Huh.” Yes. Her voice was actually squeaking. She dropped her eyes before something embarrassing happened. Like her having an orgasm because he was blowing that warm, intimate breath on her damn toes. Which led her to thinking what it would feel like against other parts of her body.

“Want me to stop.”

“God, no.” Hard to clear your throat when it's rough and tight. “I mean, not unless you want to.”

He stroked her foot and if that wasn’t caress, she’d eat Tony’s stupid suit. The small one, not the Hulkbuster.

“I’m only halfway done.”

Yeah. If she made it out of this room without jumping him, it will be a flipping miracle.

“Okay.”

She knew he was nice. Of course, Captain America would be nice, but Steve Rogers is so goddamn adorably sweet and funny and smart. He makes her laugh and she’s thrilled that she could return the favor to the point he had to stop painting, eyes crinkling shut and hand on his chest. She fell a little in love with him right there and then.

Okay. More than a little but who’s counting.

The thing was after this, she wouldn’t be able to go back to the way they were before. It would crush her to know this Steve and have to go back to the formal, perfect gentleman and rather cold Avenger.

“Can we stay like this?” It comes out of her mouth before she can think about it.

“Like what?”

“Friends.”

He looked up. “I thought we were friends, Darcy.”

Her head moves slowly side to side. “No. You were polite. Nice. But there were times I thought you could barely stay in the same room I was in, much less stand near me.”

The hand massaging her foot stilled. “I’m sorry, Darcy. It wasn’t about you, it was about me.”

What was that supposed to mean? Should she ask? Did she want to know or would it be something she’d be better off not knowing like that inter-dimensional portal to a zombie world that opened up in Jersey of all places? It got handled quickly but…ew, gross.

“Oh.”

“I like this,” he said. “I,” the corded muscles of his throat stood out when he swallowed thickly. “like you.”

He did? “You do?”

His lips curved up into a soft smile. “Yeah. I do.”

Her heart skipped a beat. Or twelve. Who needs a regular rhythm anyway?

“I like you, too, Steve.”

They just stayed like that smiling at each other until she felt the heat blossom from her cheeks down her neck to her chest and…Oh.My.God. Her brain short-circuited. It just did.

She didn’t know how long it took for her to remember to breathe, but she finally managed, and her face finally felt like it wasn’t doing its best impersonation of a tomato. She was finally back to normal. Or as normal as she could be with Steve Rogers touching her and massaging her foot.

And then he did that thing he did. Again. Bringing the other foot near his mouth and blew.

Jesus on a pogo stick!

Her whole body shuddered. God, she wanted to do dirty, inappropriate things to this man when he does that thing he does.

Her eyes met his and there was merriment and something dark and promising. Hell. He knew, had known the whole time what he’d been doing to her. Or maybe he was just making sure that he was actually doing that thing that made her throw caution to the wind.

“If you don’t like it, I can do something else.”

Huh? He pointed to her toes. Her beautiful, marvelous, amazing toes in blue with stars, one toe in each foot was red with stars. He’d used that damn glittery silver polish that she’d loved but couldn't put on her nails without making them look stubby.

Red, silver, and blue, huh? Either that was a hint, shut up, she’s not thinking all that clearly, or she’s going to have to move to a cave on the other side of the world.

Darcy gently tugged her foot his grasp and scooted closer until her butt was flush to his thigh and she was practically sitting on his lap.

“Darcy.” That voice again, low and husky and full of promise. “Want to get coffee with me sometime?”

She’s almost on top of him and he wants coffee? Hell no.

“No.”

He stiffened and his eyes turned into that soft, lost puppy dog look. “No?”

“Dinner,” she said. She should have left it that, but that damn filter. “And breakfast.”

He swallowed. “Most important meal of the day.”

“Uh. Huh.” Her hand traced his jawline before settling against his cheek. This man was carved from granite. She always wanted to be a geologist.

Darcy leaned forward until they were sharing breathing space, their mouths a whisper apart.

“Do you want me to stop?” She really, really hoped he didn’t.

“Hell no.” He closed the distance, lips covering hers and did that thing he does.

#shieldshock #shieldshockfanfic #darcy x steve #I don't know how this happened #I'm blaming #fortysevenwrites #because it's her fault somehow #look!it's fluffy #amwriting #things I'm not supposed to #finally remembered how to do the read more Sorry! #omg you guys are awesome #thank you

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Chapter 44: Scrapbooking

Bold italics are trollish.

This story is NOT back on its old weekly update schedule! Chapter 43 was a week late, and I happened to finish this chapter 'on time' and decided to update to match the alternate-Fridays that I wrote on my calendar. The next chapter will be two weeks from now unless it's late again instead.

Becoming The Mask

+=+

Bagdwella had offered the two human girls a seat on the box spring mattress that she had not yet disassembled to get at its bed coils, but Mary and Darci had turned her down. Instead they were sitting back-to-back on the short wooden bench that Bagdwella stood on to reach high shelves. Apparently there were tiny insects that sometimes lived in old mattresses and the humans didn't want to risk the parasites crawling into their clothes.

Each girl was writing something. Sometimes Mary referred to her phone before making notes. Darci would pause and tap her chin with her pen before returning to her papers.

"How do you spell 'divorce'?" Mary asked. They had a dictionary with them, but Darci was using it.

Bagdwella spelled it out, carefully enunciating the runes for the girl to copy down. Mary chirped a quick "Thank you!" and ducked back down over her notebook.

The humans had come earlier that night, asking if they could work on whatever they were doing in Bagdwella's backroom. She suspected it was some kind of assignment from Blinky. Or perhaps a surprise for him, since they weren't working on it in the library.

The silly man had such a dry, academic way of teaching language. Bagdwella simply had to take it upon herself to step in and teach these whelps how to converse like proper trolls. Blinky was a better choice for writing lessons, though, being one of the few people she knew who read for enjoyment.

Oh, she could appreciate good record-keeping, and in a more abstract way she understood the value of collecting knowledge, but stories just felt stilted to her when they were written down instead of spoken.

Why Mary needed that particular word, Bagdwella couldn't fathom – had the human mistranslated something? Should she have asked her what she thought it meant in English?

"What is it you two are up to?" the shopkeeper finally asked.

"Translating stories about our families," said Mary. "This one is about how my parents got divorced and my mother got married again. She was smart, the second time. She insisted they get … premarital counselling. If Mom and Dad had bothered with that, they might have realized they shouldn't get married before they did."

"But then you might not exist," pointed out Darci.

"I'm not saying there wasn't a silver lining."

Bagdwella didn't know what lining something with silver had to do with anything. It didn't have a very appealing flavour, and the shades it developed when tarnished were pretty but not enough to make up for the metal's relative softness, so trolls didn't use it much in food, tools, or decor. It was probably a human saying. She was pretty sure they considered most metals valuable.

"What is premarital counselling?" she asked instead.

"Uh … counselling, before marriage?" Mary explained haltingly. "When people, who want to get married, talk, to … sometimes a leader, an Elder, like Vendel. Sometimes a … therapist … like a medic, but for thoughts and feelings. A person whose job it is, to make sure people who want to get married talk about … the things people should talk about before marriage. Things people who don't talk will fight about because they don't agree but did not know."

Bagdwella nodded thoughtfully. "Your parents did not do this, but your mother and her next spouse did?"

"Yes, exactly."

"That is …" Darci frowned in a way Bagdwella was learning to recognize, the furrow-browed looking-up expression of a human who knew what they wanted to say but didn't know the word for it. "That's kind of heavy, don't you think?" Darci said in English instead. "I write – written – am writing, about my older brother teaching me to drive."

"I need to explain why the divorce. My parents both are good people who learn from their mistakes. They did not divorce because one did something bad."

+=+

Claire knocked once on the nursery door, a hard thump, before entering.

"I need you to check my trollish." She shoved a three-ring binder at the Changeling.

"Uh?" said Enrique, not dropping his human face.

"For the love of," Claire muttered, not specifying what she was invoking the love of. "Fine. You know what, fine. Please check my trollish."

Enrique shapeshifted obligingly and took the binder. "Was that so hard?" he teased. He made a show of examining the angular squiggles, turning the first few pages with a solemn expression, and then handed the book back to her. "Looks troll-y to me."

She rolled her eyes and pushed it towards him again. "I meant see if my grammar's okay and I spelled everything right."

"I'm not much for spelling. And yeh'd have to read it out for the grammar bit."

"… What, you can't read?"

"I'm picking up English and Spanish okay," he said defensively, gesturing to the shelf of storybooks.

"Jim can read trollish."

"Yeah, well, Jim is a madman who thought it was worth the risk, annoying Gunmar's advisor like that. Plus he's had Strickler and the other Mister Six Eyes to keep the lessons up since he left."

"Left? Left where? The Darklands," she answered her own question. "But, wait, I still don't get it. If you guys are supposed to be spies, why didn't anyone teach you to read and write?"

"If we're s'posed to be spying on fleshbags, what'd we need to read in troll for?"

"Ciphers?" she suggested immediately. "I mean, it's still a language so it's still got patterns, but it would take longer for a human to decrypt one if it's not based on a human language."

"… Some of the higher-ups know it. Could be why the rest of us don't." Make it a status thing. Control access to information.

Or maybe Claire was just smarter about spy stuff than Gunmar was.

+=+

"So, we've been thinking about what you said," said Darci to Blinky. "And you're right. We went too fast, suggesting to Vendel that he should let us tell our families about trolls."

"And yet somehow I find myself suspecting that you are not telling me this as a precursor to setting that goal aside."

"We're asking him, all of you really, to trust complete strangers just because we vouch for them. And that wasn't fair. And there's not exactly a way for a troll to get to know a human without secrets coming out."

"Or is there?" said Mary dramatically.

Claire handed Blinky the binder he'd noticed she was holding behind her back. "We've collected some pictures of our families, for putting faces to names, and we're writing down stories about them – you know, anecdotes. Memories. Stuff they've done and that shows what kind of people they are. We're going to get Toby in on it, too. Maybe Jim, if he's got anything that can calm Vendel down about Dr Lake knowing already."

"And once Vendel knows everyone by proxy," continued Mary, "he should be more okay with actually meeting them."

Blinky took the binder cautiously. It wasn't heavy, and the stiff covers closed triangularly around the pages. Perhaps twenty pages, he estimated, which was quite respectable considering these three could only have been working on it for a few days.

It was divided, inside, with tabs to skip directly to any of the families described therein. The first section was Darci's family.

Several pages of photos grinned toothily out at him, captioned with names written in both the humans' Roman alphabet and phonetic trollish transliteration, and sub-captioned with each human's relationship to Darci. Mother, father, older brother; three living grandparents, plus one in a group picture who was noted to be deceased; and a maternal aunt and uncle and two cousins, with a note clarifying that Darci did not expect Vendel to agree to meet her entire family, only that knowing who these four humans were would help the stories make sense.

Blinky restricted himself to skimming only the title of each anecdote, though it was tempting to thoroughly read the one about the driving lesson right away, and move on to the section about Mary's family.

This section followed the same format. Blinky was impressed and proud that they'd managed to write almost the entire thing in trollish. He turned to the section on Claire's family and, three pages in, froze up.

The photo had to be of the Changeling that the humans had taken to calling Not Enrique – yes, that was how the caption identified him – lit by the blueish glow of the crystal staircase. The picture was lower quality than the others, as though the camera weren't as good, or as if it were a close-up of a larger picture.

Blinky already knew the Changeling had gotten into Trollmarket. They hadn't exchanged words yet, but he'd met the boy. And from his interactions with Jim, Blinky had really thought he was at peace with the idea that Changelings could be allies; friends; (perhaps family).

He should not be reacting to this image with the degree of shock and horror that he felt – this sense of no – this sense of wrong.

"I … do not think admitting to Vendel that one of your family members is known to be a Changeling will reassure him that it is safe to trust the rest of your relations."

"But he should take it better if we come clean than if he finds out later, right?" said Claire. "I don't think any of us can pull off acting like he got swapped after we tell our parents what's going on. And Jim said Vendel knows he's a Changeling."

"I honestly can't say what Vendel's reaction will be. But I can say," closing the book firmly, "that this was a highly dangerous picture to bring to Trollmarket." Hard evidence of Changelings amongst them …

Well, very strong circumstantial evidence. One slightly out-of-focus picture of a young troll with a handwritten caption claiming the youngling was a Changeling was hardly a compelling case.

It could still be enough to have Claire imprisoned on suspicion of conspiring with Changelings, since she had brought 'her little brother' to Trollmarket while knowing what he was. And from there, the Trollhunter's identity could be exposed, and even Vendel's protection – Vendel's collusion with the conspiracy to allow a Changeling Trollhunter to live and to operate freely – would likely not be enough to save Jim's life; and probably the best Blinky could hope for himself would be banishment.

"Okay," said Darci, jolting him out of his thoughts. "So what if we took the stuff about Not Enrique out for now, and told Vendel later? Do you think learning more about our families would help convince him?"

"… Possibly," Blinky conceded.

+=+

Previous Chapter (Various characters try to comfort Toby in the aftermath of a nightmare)

Table of Contents

Next Chapter (Barbara finds out Draal has been living in her basement)

You would not believe how long an internal debate I had about whether Enrique would say 'spy stuff' or 'espionage strategy' in his own head. 

On the one hand, inside his head he's got no one to perform for except himself, and so he doesn't need to dumb himself down to remain underestimated. 

On the other hand, speech patterns can affect thought patterns and it sounds weird phrasing it like that when the scene is supposed to be in his voice.

#Bagdwella #Mary Wang #Darci Scott #Claire Nuñez #Not Enrique #Blinkous Galadrigal #Trollhunters #Tales of Arcadia #Becoming The Mask chapters #Changeling Jim #fanfiction #My Fanfiction #Monday is fanfic day! #family #anecdote #Vehicles #relationships #Changelings #espionage

[winchestersandsuperheroes]

Just My luck (Leonard Snart x Reader): Chapter Three

Pairing: (Eventual) Leonard Snart x Reader

Words: 1697

Summary/Author's Note: This chapter takes place in the episode Revenge of the Rogues. It's a shorter chapter. This chapter shows more of the reader's relationships with team flash. I wanted to leave you all with something since I haven't updated in a week or two. More coming soon.

The Apartment

Is there some unwritten rule that criminals need to ruin my good night’s sleep? I’m actually curious. 3:47am, that’s what the clock said. Could they at least wait a couple hours, after the coffee shops have started to open? Is that too much to ask?  3:47am, I should be asleep, my phone should not be ringing. I should really learn to turn that thing on silent at night, but alas, I am too nice of a person to do that.

The caller id read Joe, which probably meant a case. “Hello?” I answered the phone. “Hey Y/N, we had a break in at a customs warehouse downtown. It’s a weird one,” Joe started. “It’s always a weird one when I get a call. Just once I’d love to get a call about a regular B&E or a guy who skipped bail. Those were the days,” I joked. Joe laughed “You would get bored.” He retorted. “That’s probably true,” I conceded.

  “Barry will be by to pick you up in a few. I called you first so you would have a few minutes to get ready before he came speeding into your home,” Joe explained. “I appreciate it. Tell him to bring coffee!” I said getting out of my bed. “Will do, see you in a few,” he hung up after that. I quickly got dressed and my hair flattened down to a non-trollish state. I was lacing up my boots when Barry came flying through the door.

“I’m starting to regret giving you an emergency key. You don’t seem to know what defines an emergency,” I joked continuing with my laces. “It’s a matter of convenience. If I’d knocked you would have had to get up and get the door, I just saved you the trouble,” He said in return.

“Yeah, yeah,” I shook my head. I then noticed the coffee cups in his hand. Precious coffee. He noticed me eyeing the coffee, and handed it over. “You are seriously the best person I know,” I said before taking a sip of the caffeine filled deliciousness. “This right here,” I pointed to the cup in my hand, “This is why we are friends.”

“I kind of feel like you’re using me for my super speed coffee fetching skills sometimes,” He joked. “Definitely,” I replied getting up.

  The Crime Scene

“Are you sure nothing’s missing?” Joe asked the beat cop standing next to us. “That’s what the supervisor said. I can check again,” he replied before walking off. “Seriously the perp broke through that steel door to steal nothing. That feels like a lot of work for nothing… unless…” I started theorizing. “Unless what?” Joe asked. “The intention wasn’t to steal anything. It was just for attention, maybe someone in particular’s,” I eyed Barry, making sure Joe saw my look but Eddie didn’t.

It wasn’t the most farfetched assumption that someone could be trying to draw out the flash. “Bare,” Joe started walking towards Barry, Eddie and I followed suit.

“Hey, uh well, the breakage indicates that the door somehow had zero viscal elasticity when it hit the ground,” Barry told us. I did not understand his science-speak, but apparently Joe was on the same page, because he asked “What does that mean to normal people?” “Sorry, uh, the steel shattered like glass,” He explained in terms we could understand.

“How is that possible?” I asked, as he stared at a piece of debris. “It was frozen,” he finally answered. Son of- “Snart,” Joe spoke up. Barry nodded “He’s back,”

“I thought Snart was some world class thief. All these expensive cars, he didn’t take any of them. Doesn’t make sense,” Eddie contemplated. I made eye contact with Barry, I knew we were thinking the same thing. “Eddie, put out an APB on Snart,” Joe told Eddie. “You got it,” Eddie replied before walking off. Barry started to get up.

“Snart wasn’t her to steal anything,” Barry spoke up once Eddie was out of ear shot. “He was setting a trap,” Joe agreed. “For me, and by me I mean…” Barry was cut off by Joe. “Yeah, we know what you meant.”  

  Star Labs

“Captain Cold is back?” Cisco asked when we walked in. “It would seem so,” I replied in grumpy voice. “Someone’s grumpy,” Cisco observed. “Someone had to wake up at 3:47am because of that bastard. I can’t decide what’s worse that or the whole taking me hostage thing,” I said. “Waking up at 3am was worse than being taken hostage?” he asked. “We both know I’m not a morning person,” I yawned looking for the coffee maker while the rest of the team discussed Snart.

I was half listening to everyone’s conversation as I poured myself another cup of coffee. It was now about 7:30am, and I very much wanted to go back to sleep. No one should be awake this early it’s inhumane.

I overheard something about Barry not helping to catch Snart, odd, I mean I know the Reverse Flash is a really bad guy and all, but I’d think we’d still make time to fight off the other bad guys. So that’s when I started paying attention to the conversation.

“Yeah we can definitely come up with ways to neutralize Snart,” Cisco said in response to Wells’s idea for Wells and Cisco to work with the police to catch Snart.

“I can start working on tracking him down in the meantime,” I suggested. “Yeah, about that… Joe and I talked about it and we’re taking you off the case,” Barry countered. “What?! Are you serious?!” I was not about to sit on the sidelines. “Last time you tailed Snart you were taken hostage,” He started to explain. “Yeah, for like five minutes, and I was fine, well aside from my hand, from punching him in the face… but other than that, not a scratch. And I won’t let him get the drop on me again,” I argued.

“It’s not worth the risk. Besides, Joe already called a friend of his to take over the finding Snart part of the investigation, a bail bondsman Donny, I think,” Barry seemed to be staying firm to this Y/N on the sidelines thing, but I was not having it. And besides, Donny was an adequate bails bondsman at best, there was no way he’d be able to track down Snart.

“Dog the Bounty Hunter is gonna catch Snart, yeah right? Come on, you know I can find him.” I objected. “I don’t doubt your investigative skills, you’re the best PI in Central City, but it’s about your safety. Please just back off of this one for me,” He pleaded.

“Fine,” I verbally conceded. It was a complete lie. There was no way I was backing off of this case. “In that case, I’m going to go home and go take a nap, because I got up way way too early this morning,” I said before quickly exiting the building.

Once I was outside of Star Labs, I took out my phone dialed Felicity’s number. “Hey, it’s me. I need a favor.”

  The Apartment

“Thank you so much, and do you think you could maybe not tell Barry about this?” I thanked Felicity over the phone as I opened the file she sent me on my laptop. “And why exactly would you not want him to know about me helping you on a case?” she asked in return.

“Well you see…” I started. “Barry doesn’t want you on the case because it’s Snart, and he’s afraid for your safety,” she finished for me. Damn that girl’s intuition.

“Are you sure you’re not psychic?” I joked. “Nope, just your super smart friend who also worries about your safety,” here we go… I sighed. “I will be fine, I promise to be extra careful, just recon.”

“Okay, but I expect you to check in. If you don’t call me before eight tonight, I’m calling Barry,” I rolled my eyes at her mother hen behavior. “Fine, I promised to check in,” I replied.

“Awesome, then I will talk to you later girly!” She said before hanging up the phone.

I looked over the file on my screen stopping at the name Saints and Sinners; a bar that, according to this file, Snart frequented. It seemed like a good place to start poking around. And I knew just the angle to play.

  Saints and Sinners

This place was the exact depiction of a dive bar. This was definitely not a place you would find me hanging out in by choice. It was still early afternoon, so the bar was pretty much empty except for the bartender and a couple biker types that eyed me on my way in. This ought to be fun.

I walked straight up to the bartender. She looked at me with a bored expression. “What can I get for ya?” she asked me with a hint of annoyance in her voice. “I’m actually looking for someone. I was hoping maybe you can help me,” I was using a superficial cheerleader type voice.

Today’s character of choice was the ex-hook up character, I’d played this one a thousand times, it felt somewhat demeaning, but it usually worked. I was even dressed in character, with too tight jeans, heels, and a low cut top, definitely not my usual style.

“There’s this guy I hooked up with awhile back and I never got his number, but someone told me hangs out here,” I started. “You’re gonna have to be more specific darlin’,” She said impatiently. “His name is Leonard something, he has a really weird last name, I think it started with an ‘S’. Small, Snail, Sport, Smart, no wait, Snart! Yeah, Leonard Snart. Have you seen him around here lately?”

“I think you have the wrong bar sweetie, I’ve never heard that name before,” I could tell she was lying. “Are you sure? I was really hoping to see him again,” I tried again.

“I had no idea I made that kind of impression on you, Y/N,” The voice came from behind me, I knew that voice. “Son of a bitch,” I said dropping the fake voice.

#leonard snart #leonard snart x reader #leonard snart imagine #Captain Cold #captain cold x reader #captain cold imagine #The Flash

[missrosienorris]

Abusive people suck

Disclaimer: Taking what may be considered a slight dump on my own side here, but I find my criticism valid and I’m not one to be quiet about things that piss me off. But as always, feel free to prove me wrong if you're up to it, although in this case I doubt that’ll happen because I’m pretty well versed on the subject due to personal experience and a surprising amount of actual reading.

Disclaimer 2: Taking this dump on my own side of the fence does not mean that I consider this problem to be particularly significant compared to all the awful shit on te other side of the fence, so fuck off, alt-right edgelords. I’m still very much a feminist and an SJW and I don’t cry when people punch Nazis (although on principle, I don’t condone it either, but I realize that my pacifism in the face of fascism comes from a position of privilege so I’m not sure my opinion carries much weight).

Disclaimer 3: God my anxiety disorder suuuuucks at the moment, so I’m sorry if I’m even ramblier and more incoherent than usual.

SO. I say awful shit when I’m angry, I oftentimes find my anger difficult to control, and I believe anger is a pretty normal response to oppressive behaviour. But I am so fucking fed up with how people use tone policing bans as a shield for their own abusive behaviour. I know that’s an opinion that might not be considered very highly in SJW circles, but I care fuck all, because the tone policing bans in the feminist groups I’m in are misused to the point where they’re a pest and make the groups unsafe for me and countless others who cannot handle the constant threat of abuse over minor mistakes.

Now, I agree with the general gist of a tone policing ban, in the sense that if someone comes into your forum to troll and be a prick, I won’t cry over someone telling them that they suck and to piss off, sort of the same way I won’t cry over the Nazi punching. I also support tone policing bans in the sense that when someone is expressing an opinion in an outraged fashion, I don’t think it’s cool to counter their arguments with “calm down” and “why are you so angry”, because that’s just derailing the conversation. This is how I interpret tone policing, and I think banning these types of behaviour is fine.

HOWEVER, what I can and will not abide by is when some poor schmuck who is on your side makes an incredulous mistake or just expresses themselves in a way you don’t like and you start hurling insults at them while hiding behind your oppressed status and the tone policing ban. I just do not think that being oppressed entitles you to be a complete asshole towards people who are obviously not trying to hurt you but are just a bit aloof or just frankly disagree with you (and I’m talking disagreements on debatable things here, not disagreements on, say, if Nazis are bad or there are more than two genders, answering “no” to those questions falls under being a prick and you can see the previous paragraph for that). And I KNOW intent is not magic, and I agree with that, but I don’t think that means that intent is MEANINGLESS and I will fight for the principle that a well-intentioned person deserves more respect than a trollish dickwad who pisses in everyone’s cheerios on purpose. I also know that it can sometimes be a bit difficult to distinguish when someone is incredulous and when they’re just gaslighting you, and okay, we all misinterpret each other on occasion, I’m talking people who habitually attack others in this fashion.

I find that using your oppressedness to exploit a tone policing ban like this is in itself oppressive, because it makes the forum very unsafe for people who can’t handle being abused like that when they’ve barely done anything wrong. Sure, if you’re oppressed, your power to oppress others on a societal level is rather insignificant, but in these groups it’s not, because the admins always have the abuser’s back in these situations. I’ve heard it explained with the rule that the groups are supposed to be safe spaces for those that are oppressed in society at large, but I don’t buy that, because these people are allowed to hurl insults at group members who are just as oppressed as they are but just happen to use a word the abuser doesn’t like or tell their experience in a way that’s not agreeable to the abuser. The insult free-for-all in these groups constantly have anxious-minded people like me walking on eggshells, which I think is fucking awful and I cannot fit that within my definition of feminism. I know that when discussing a topic it is very important that the experiences of those who are oppressed in that area carry more weight than the experiences of those who are not, and I am not against telling people to step aside or calling them out – in fact I think that’s healthy and I do it often myself – but that and being abusive are not the fucking same.

Not only does this behaviour piss me off, I also think it’s counterproductive. I cannot count how many people have left the groups, or pondered whether they want to associate with the movement at all because the view they get of it is so toxic. I know, I know, those people shouldn’t base their opinion on a Facebook group and they should use the Google and whatever, but people aren’t smart like that and we need allies. I really don’t think that not abusing people over minor mistakes is giving in to the oppressor’s terms or not being activist enough, you can be angry and loud and troublesome without constantly being a fuckface. If you can’t call someone out for a hickup without telling them to go die, just let someone else call them out that day. And again, note that when I say hickup, I don’t mean obviously awful behaviour. For example, if someone were to tell me that mentally ill people should all be locked up in asylums, I as a mentally ill person would tell said person to go fuck themselves with a pineapple. However, if they hyperbolically said that something made them want to kill themselves when in reality they were just embarrassed or annoyed by something, I might definitely call them out on that and tell them to not trivialize a terrible feeling that I myself have suffered from, but I would not instantly insult them because they probably didn’t mean to hurt me. And I know the line isn’t always that clear, but many times it is. And when it is, I really wish people wouldn’t be asshats just for the hell of it.

#feminism #tone policing #rant #sjw

[vio1315]

N, R, S for your favorite character with black hair. If you don't have one, the one with hair that's the closest to black.

That's a toss up between Marth and Casey honestly (Rip James I love my side character more than you right now)

I'll go with Marth since he's a bit more MC

N: Never Have I Ever1. what would they never do?

Marth has ended up doing a lot of things that used to be in his never do list, but pretty strongly at this point is he will never remarry

2. what have they never done that they want to do?

Marth would love to be with his kids during their childhoods, but that's quite impossible, so he'd also take gaining some political advantage and easing the lives of a certain people group

3. is there anything they absolutely can’t believe people do?

Marth is pretty dead to expecting anything of anyone, but he really doesn't see the point in power acquisition for petty things like money/control for its own sake

4. what is the most embarrassing thing they’ve done?

Hmm... that would def be in his youth because he is dead to being embarrassed as an adult.

He doesn't look back fondly on his harrassment of animals when he was a kid (chasing and tail pulling etc)

At the time his dad berating him for entering a competition was pretty bad for him

5. have they done anything they thought they’d never do?

So many. I will give the fact that he let people face abuse in his presence, which he never would have imagined he would allow in the past

R: Rules1. do they follow rules?

For the most part. He certainly knows them Very Well, well enough to get into loopholes when he wants. But he is not rebellious for the heck of it

2. would they be a strict or laid-back parent?

He is def more laid back. He tends to offer more support through mistakes etc, only giving advice in the face of decisions and being there for whatever the result of those decisions are.

He is with his kids as adults though which may play a role there. If he was with them as kids he would be more about enforcing rules etc. He still leans toward lenient, especially with grandkids. But he never is Full Lenient. His method of enforcement can be more round about though.

He's the kind of guy that would keep a scam caller on the phone for 6 hours, like he gets kinda inventive and convoluted in terms of 'punishment' or slowly clueing you in in how he Knows what you did. Kinda trollish or playful with a more blunt followthrough.

3. have they ever been consequenced for breaking a rule?

Hmmm, most of what he saw consequence for was nothing to do with rules. He technically was punished more for rule following due to his time outside his own culture.

There was One rule he broke though which he was punished Very Severely for though

4. have they broken any rules they now regret breaking?

The one mentioned above, but other than that no. At the time he regretted following his cultures rules, but at present he is a lot more neutral about that

5. do they find any rules they/others follow absolutely ridiculous?

Sometimes he finds some laws on the books stupid, and he finds the gov system in his and the north country to be kinda poorly thought out, but he is not too upset over most rules that govern majorities, he is more upset on the punishments attached.

He is also upset that there are diff rules for diff groups and hatew how everyone goes with it

S: Streets1. are they street-smart?

As an adult, yes, extremely

2. would they give money to someone on the streets?

Probably, but it depends on his own security at the time too. He's jaded enough not to if he doesn't have enough excess or if he is unsure on how safe it is

3. have they ever gotten in a fight on the streets?

Hm. He has gotten in trouble, and he may have even got roughed up a bit, but I don't know if he ever got into a proper fight

4. has anything happened to them on the streets?

So. Much.

He has straight up seen bodies on the street. He was mugged once. 

5. are they cautious when out?

Yeah, generally. He is a bit hypervigilant in general

Thanks for the ask! 

#Vio Speaks #OCs #YE THANK #Marth is a guy I think people in general know the least about of the top 5 chars #but not the least about in terms of general mcs

[moodymindymusereactions]

When their s/o is a lawyer (Exo-M)

I’m so excited someone finally included my Freedom Three!  I love them so much!!  Actually, I’m going to go back and do a separate reaction with just the three of them to the Exo requests I have received so far, so please anticipate those! 

Xiumin:

There’s something about you being a lawyer that just warms him inside, honestly.  The thought of you being so successful makes him really proud and happy.  Minseok is getting to that age where he’ll start thinking about possibly settling down and the image of you with his children is something he’s probably thought about a gazillion times, but now!  He likes to be a good role model and wow, you would be one hell of a role model for his kids.  That probably means a lot to him.  That and his family will likely be really impressed with you, too.  He sees this as just another reason why he adores you.  You being a lawyer also means you understand his busy schedules and late nights, something that relieves stress from his shoulders honestly.  The last thing any of these guys needs is someone who isn’t understanding of their situation, but who better than a lawyer!  Lawyers work the long hours, have surprise updates to their schedules, sometimes having to travel for work expectedly or unexpectedly depending on the field.  No matter what, Minseok is going to be really proud of you and you can bet that, just like Jongdae, when work gets hellish, he’ll be right there to try and sooth you.  “Ah, the case didn’t go well?” *you shake your head defeatedly* “Aw, jagiyah, come here.  Let’s take a bath together, yeah?  We’ll just relax tonight, order in, and cuddle.  Does that sound good?”

Luhan:

 Finally, someone who might impress his parents!  He loves the fact that you’re a lawyer.  This bub will likely read up as much as he can about your in particular field just so he can be as supportive as he possibly can be.  Luhan is a firecracker through and through, but he’s also super tender hearted and thoughtful.  Like Yixing, he will constantly be spoiling you and like Minseok, he’ll be unable to stop thinking about the future with you.  You represent something stable and something grounded.  He would like that.  People get caught up a lot in the whole ‘I’m manly’ bullshit, but honestly, Luhan just wants to provide for the person he loves and wants to feel appreciated by that person.  It doesn’t really matter to him what your profession is, but you being a lawyer is really cool to him.  You’re successful and goal oriented, things that seriously impress him.  Law school is hard as hell, so he knows you’re also smart as hell, which is another thing that he really, REALLY likes.  Luhan is a smart guy and he’s an Aries, which means just like Aquarius, he appreciates intellect.  He likes a challenge, which also means just like Jongdae, he’ll probably instigate dumb arguments purely for argument's sake, because he never gets to see you in action and he wants to experience that side of you for himself.  Also, just like Yifan, expect some roleplay requests.  Don’t let those boyishly innocent looks fool you, he’s a kinky guy.  Aries typically are.  “Oh my god!  Why are we even arguing, Luhan!” *pauses and just smirks, crossing his arms*  “Cuz you’re sexy when you go all lawyer on me.”

Kris:

 Sexy.  Yifan will think the fact that you’re not only a strong business woman, but a lawyer is super sexy.  It turns him on, to be honest.  The thought of you in those slick suits, done up to perfect, arguing a case just makes his blood boil in the most pleasant of ways.  He will probably want to talk about it a lot with you.  Where did your inspiration come from?  What led you down that road?  Where do you see yourself later?  What field with in law interests you the most?  What kind of cases have you been a part of?  Hardest?  Easiest? Honestly, it will turn into a bragging right for him.  When people ask him about his s/o, he’ll proudly state, ‘oh, he/she is a lawyer’ with that sexy smirk of his, just completely cocky about the whole thing.  But don’t think you’re a trophy to be displayed, no, no, no!  Not with any of these guys, but especially not Yifan.  His pride comes from the fact that you are a strong, independent person who knows what they want out of life, which is a concept he knows well and definitely something he admires in you.  “A lawyer?” “Yeah” “...” “Are you okay?” “Holy shit that’s sexy!” *cue blushing*  (also...don’t be surprised if he asks for a little roleplay if you know what I mean ;) )

Lay:

 This muffin will be beyond impressed!  Very, very, very much so!  It’ll be something that he just tells everyone with the same amount of surprise he had when he initially found out.  Just a whole lot of ‘did you know my girl/boyfriend is a lawyer?’  ‘it’s so unexpected!’ He’d smile proudly, dimples and all, each time, too.  Yixing would probably fret over you, though.  He’d make sure you eat properly by either surprising you with dinner when he could or sending you food when he couldn’t physically be there.  He’d also be someone to send flowers when you’re having a bad week or you’re super stressed with a case or really whenever he just wants to remind you of how amazing and loved you are.  He’s super attentive, even when he’s tired from work or extensive dance practices.  Yixing loves to bathe you in compliments, too!  Everything from the suit you’re wearing to how hard you're working, anything to put those shy smiles he loves so much on your lips.  I think Yixing is also the type to update your wardrobe and office gear every so often, too.  Like he will be in Paris for a photoshoot or in China for a show and he’ll see a suit that he thinks would look amazing on your or a briefcase that he just can’t pass up.  Basically, he just likes to spoil you.  “Yixing, you didn’t have to get me a new briefcase...I’ve barely broken in the one you got me for my birthday last year.” *smiles that sweet dimple smile* “You can never have too many, Baobei.  Besides, I love you and I wanted to get it for you.” (honestly, all you Yixing stans...how do you survive this dude?)    

Chen:

 Will be hella impressed!  Finds that your being a lawyer is super attractive, almost as much as those sexy suits.  He will find ways to tease you regarding your profession, anything from initiating nonsensical arguments to hiding your stuff so you’re forced to question him about it.  Coy, coy, coy.  This one is a troll (and we all love him for it let’s be honest).  He loves provoking your lawyer side, purely because it turns him on.  But on a more serious note, he is also super proud of you.  He sees how hard you work, bringing documents home and staying up late working on briefs or going over case evidence before a trial.  This is Jongdae, so you know he’ll bring you coffee, make you little snacks, massage your shoulders or draw you a bath when you get too stressed.  He’s a caretaker under all those trollish layers of his.  He just wants to make sure you are healthy and happy.  For as much as his teasing can drive you up a wall, he knows when to curb those tendencies and act more mature.  If you’re stuck in a certain part of your case, he’ll do his best to help you without actually being privy to the actual details.  People take for granted his observation skills, so he’s a really good candidate for working through hypotheticals and spurring ‘Eureka’ moments.  “Kim Jongdae, where are my car keys?!”  *pleased kitten smile*  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, love.”  “Jongdae, don’t play innocent with me…I know you took them.”  *Sly shoulder shrug and smirk* “I guess you’ll just cross-examine the witness.”  “You’re not a witness, Jongdae; you’re the perpetrator!”  *winks* “I’ll be whatever you want, sweetheart.”    

Tao:

 Impressed!  Tao is young, so he understands what it means to struggle to make something of yourself so early on in life.  The fact that you had a plan for your life and executed it to ensure your dreams came true is something that he will find super attractive.  Tao is someone who sets goals for himself and, haters be damned, he will achieve them.  He’ll ask a millions and one questions just to understand the nature of your line of work and will definitely have even MORE respect for you.  Like Yifan, it will be something that brags about.  He likes other people knowing how amazing you are.  Of course, that comes at a limit, because he can’t have anyone thinking ‘unsavory’ things about you because that’s his job.  Which basically means, he’ll give the stank face to anyone who so much as blinks wrong in your direction.  Tao can be the jealous type, but those energies are more outwardly cast rather than being directed towards you.  Possessive in the most attractive ways.  He lingers in the morning when he can, just to watch you get ready for work.  He LOVES seeing you in suits, hair done to perfection, and just overall looking like a business badass.  “Damn, babe, you look hot as hell.”  “You say that every day.” “Then I guess it’s just a fact of life, huh?” “You’re a dork.” *cocky smirk and wiggles eyebrows*

--Admin MM

#exo scenarios #exo reactions #exo #kpop scenarios #kpop reactions