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from-the-clouds · 3 years

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Kiss Me More (Part II) - Zemo/Reader

Masterlist || Part One

Summary: Part two, read part one if you haven’t already! Sam & Bucky put reader in charge of looking after Zemo....again. Series loosely inspired by this song.

Words: 2.5k

Warnings: Kissing, heavy petting, mentions of sex, minor TFATWS spoilers.

A/N: Wow! I was so shocked on the feedback I got on the first part of this story. It has nearly 800 notes. I’m not used to my writing getting that kind of attention so I really appreciate the love. I decided to make this into at least a 3-4 part series and there will be eventual smut, but I feel like there’s something sweet between these two that goes beyond an obvious physical attraction, so I do want to build that a bit before we get there. This weekend I rewatched TFATWS & Civil War because I’m officially obsessed with Zemo lol. Please let me know what you think, and let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist. :)

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“Keep an eye on him.”

Y/N watched Bucky and Sam split off again. That was now at least the third time she’d heard that phrase since she arrived in Riga. Little did they know, she was probably the worst person to be put in charge of Zemo. Truthfully, it was starting to be a little insulting.

It was unclear why she’d been brought along on this mission, when half the time Sam and Bucky were talking in hushed tones just out of her earshot. There was always more to the story than they told her, but this time, it felt like she was more out of the loop than ever.

She adjusted the neckline of the sweater she wore out of an abundance of caution, checking subconsciously to make sure it hadn’t exposed the mark Zemo had left on her from the day before. It was a discovery she’d made that morning, and persisted despite her efforts to cover it up with makeup.

“According to those two, I must be the best at babysitting you,” she muttered under her breath. It was petty, so she wasn’t even sure if she wanted him to hear. But he did.

“Babysitting?” Zemo lifted an eyebrow.

“You know, a nanny, a governess….whatever a Baron’s equivalent is,” she said, looking him in the eye for the first time that day, which was a mistake. He looked so handsome in that long, fur-lined coat, tall and refined, hair styled perfectly. There had to be warrants out for his arrest since escaping prison, and in his current getup, he was hard to miss.

It wasn’t easy to ignore the stifling tension between them. The Baron hadn’t left her thoughts since she’d closed the door on him the evening before. Now they were alone again. She couldn’t decide if that was thrilling or terrifying, so she decided on both.

“It’s nice of them to give us some alone time,” Zemo stepped close to her, one gloved hand pressing between her shoulder blades. Despite the cool temperature outside, it was the first thing today that had her shivering.

“Walk with me,” he commanded sternly. She saw no opportunity to refuse as they started in the direction opposite of where Bucky and Sam had disappeared.

“Zemo-”

“Helmut,” he corrected her. “But go on…”

“We have to focus on figuring out where Donya’s funeral will be,” she said, feeling his hand slide down to settle on the small of her back, trying to inch away, but he just pulled her closer. “We can’t waste time.”

“I know Riga inside and out, that won’t be as difficult as you and your friends think,” he murmured. His proximity was already suffocating. Or maybe comforting. It was hard to tell. “Tell me, what is your business with them? You aren’t an Avenger. This was my first time hearing your name.”

She snorted, finally finding the strength to pull away, and he dropped his hand. That was one thing that had confounded her. He was confident, took liberties with what others would allow, but knew when to stop pushing. There was something alluring to his nature.

“I’m not,” she responded, wondering how much she was willing to share. When she stole a glance out of the corner of her eyes, his head was lowered, leaning in, listening intently for her response. She wondered if he really cared, or if he was good at pretending. It was easy to believe that he did.

“Bucky and I aren’t that different,” she continued. “That’s why we’re friends. I’m not a super soldier, but I was taught how to fight, how to kill. I followed orders for too long without questioning whether or not I was doing the right thing. And at least now, I think I am.”

“You think,” he repeated, and corrected her again like he had the day before. As much as she wanted some kind of clever or quick quip back, she wore her heart on her sleeve for the moment and shrugged. There was nothing to defend when she still wasn’t sure what responsibilities she had in this world.

Zemo halted, and she paused too, turning back to look at him. “So you were an assassin,” he murmured, reaching out. Nodding slightly, she lowered her eyes when his gloved thumb brushed across her face. The buttery, overpowering smell of leather took her over as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I would’ve never guessed. Du bist so süß.”

Her knowledge of German was limited, but she could see a flash of what looked like affection in his eyes. He couldn’t be lying, could he? She wondered. She wanted to trust that he wasn’t, wanted to identify every good part of him she could, so she could justify the overwhelming attraction she felt towards him. Something in her just kept pulling forward against her will, like a magnet.

“You’d be surprised,” she answered, but didn’t pull away. The intensity of his gaze made her feel weak, but there was something strangely reassuring in his eyes. It was just the two of them, standing on a crowded sidewalk.

She rose her hand to clasp around his, frowning when she felt the hard loop of a ring on one of his gloved fingers. It had gone unnoticed by her, until now. He still wore a wedding band.

It would have been easy to vocalize the observation, gauge his reaction, try to regain some upper hand and remind him who exactly he was dealing with. But, it would’ve been pointlessly cruel, as she knew what that felt like to answer that question. Those days were behind her, now.

As if the universe was scolding her, a loud car horn broke through the perceived silence. His hand dropped from her face, and they began to walk again.

“I had lots of time to think in prison,” he said after a heady pause in conversation. “About the things I’d done. Whatever intentions you have, to someone, you’re always the enemy. What I thought was important, trying to serve the greater good, it isn’t always worth the trouble. I was trying to protect what I had already lost, the places and people I’d taken for granted.”

Deciphering his words, she took a moment before responding. “That’s actually...very insightful,” she said, partly surprised by what he’d shared, appreciating that he felt her vulnerability, and matched it in his response.

“I know you’re stunned I’m not a brute,” he answered, increasing his pace to a determined strut rather than a lazy stroll. She was forced to keep up with him. “You’ve been told what to think about me by Sam and Bucky.”

She scoffed. “Not just them. The entire world. All the people you’ve hur-”

He halted and turned to face her so quickly, she collided with his chest and her breath caught in her throat.

“I’m not that man anymore,” his voice was nearly a growl, disgust laced in his features as he looked down at her.

But as soon as she recognized it, he became expressionless again, backing away. Falling back into step beside him, they continued to walk, a bit faster than they had been before. She followed him, at this point convinced that she might get lost without his guidance, but a little startled by his sudden change in behavior.

“What do you think of Riga?” he asked her as they cut through an alleyway. His voice held none of the venom that it had a few moments ago, so she wondered if she’d just hit a sore nerve.

“It’s beautiful,” she answered, admiring the old brick buildings and fine architecture. “But I think I haven’t had much of a chance to appreciate it.”

“Have you been thinking about me?”

They ducked under an alcove, and she realized he’d carefully led her off the crowded streets. It was much quieter here. She suddenly didn’t feel as protected as she had been with him in the open. The temperature in the shaded space was much lower than expected. And he was standing over her, waiting for some response she didn’t know if she could give.

“I haven’t forgotten about last night, liebling,” he continued.

Of course she had been thinking of him. Nearly nonstop. What they’d shared, what it meant. She hadn’t been able to sleep until she relieved herself, fingers rubbing her clit and delving into her warmth, whimpering his name when she finally came. Still, it had done little to quell the ache inside her.

It was a horrible thing, she’d decided. Objectively horrible, and unprofessional. There was the consideration of accessibility. What did he see in her beyond a means to an end? Was she really going to throw everything she’d worked for away to a man who was going to use her to scratch an itch?

Too much was at stake, Sam and Bucky’s trust, her reputation, her job, and she couldn’t allow it to go on.

But oh, how much she wanted it to.

“Yesterday was nice,” she straightened up, holding her own. “I won’t lie to you.”

The corner of his mouth tugged up slightly in a self-satisfied smirk.

“But I’m not foolish,” she continued. “Coming on to the first woman you see after you get out of jail? Seems pretty convenient.”

At first, the Baron tilted his head to the side, his brows pulled together at her words. But after a moment, the smile returned, and he chuckled. “Is that what you think this is about?”

“Don’t insult me, Helmut,” she said sternly, trying her best not to feel embarrassed. She was only being honest.

“Are you always so severe to yourself?” he asked, tutting lightly.

It would have been better to say nothing. Why give him anything at all?

She didn’t answer his question, just backed away from him and began walking in no particular direction, wanting only to increase the space between them and regain her common sense. That was impossible however, as she was jolted backwards before she even knew what was happening, a firm hand on her upper arm, and she was chest to chest with Zemo once more.

“We were in Madripoor together. I could’ve had my way with many women there if I wanted. But I didn’t.”

“Please-” she rolled her eyes.

“If all I wanted to do was fuck someone, I could have done it by now,” he stalked forward, the air pressure around them dropping, weighed by the tension hanging thick between them. “But that’s not what I want. I want you.”

His words, spoken in a soft, low purr rattled away every bit of resolve she had left in her. Some last ditch effort found her stepping backwards, but her body met the brick wall behind them and she realized he had her cornered.

In more ways than one, she thought.

Taking in a shaky breath, she looked up at his eyes, clouded with lust. “I know you want me,” he said, not a shred of doubt in his voice. But why should there have been? He was right.

Her eyes darted around, like someone or something around them was going to jump out and save her from herself. It didn’t go unnoticed. “There’s no need to be scared, liebling. I feel it, too.”

With that, he closed the gap between their lips. He tasted sweet, like the candies he’d been eating back at his flat. Turkish delight. She was drowning in him again, his scent, his touch, everything about him enveloped and beguiled her. Her shirt had bunched up slightly somewhere along their walk and his gloved hands explored the exposed skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake.

She surrendered, letting him tease open her mouth and claim her wholly. It was still bad, she knew. But there wasn’t any last bit of self-control left in her.

The layers of clothing between them didn’t allow for the same proximity she’d had to him the evening before. Groaning in delight and frustration, she reached up to tangle and rake her fingers through his hair, as his fingers curled around the top of her sweater, revealing the sensitive skin of her neck.

“Don’t hide this,” his lips left hers as his eyes focused on the stamp of affection he’d left behind the day before. “Let them see.”

“You know I can’t,” she responded, sheepishly pulling it back into place. Studying her with amiable consideration, his hand rose to brush tenderly across her cheekbone.

“I thought you’d come to me last night,” she confessed, drawing away slightly, shocked by her own admission. But right now, she didn’t feel the need to put up as much of a facade. He looked positively virile; panting, his cheeks flushed and hair mussed, pupils blown out as he focused on her. To know she was the cause of his current state of disarray gave her an immense amount of satisfaction. A buried, salacious part of her wondered what else she could do to make him look even more unkempt.

“I considered it,” he said, sounding almost timid. “But I want to do this right.” He leaned in, pressed a kiss beneath her ear. “In private, so no one can disturb us,” he continued, lips moving down her neck. “We can take our time, you can be as loud as you’d like.”

The mental image he was currently painting for her was doing very little to strengthen her convictions, whatever those had been. The thought of her legs wrapped around his torso, naked bodies pressed together sent a bolt of electricity through the pit of her stomach, radiating outwards. She wanted his lips on every inch of her skin. Aching at the possibility, the present tease of his teeth nibbling on her collarbone wasn’t helping.

“You know we can’t,” she didn’t try to stop the thought as it came out of her mouth.

“What is there to lose?”

Everything, she thought, but didn’t answer. She couldn’t really, as his gloved hand was trailing slowly under her jacket and sweater, against her bare skin, and cupping her breast through her bra. Whimpering, she couldn’t control the way her body arched against his.

Hooking her knee on his hip, she let him press forward, feeling the warmth of his excitement through his trousers and her jeans. He ground against her once, teasingly, and she moaned softly into his mouth.

He was the one to pull away, and she was thankful he did. “Think about it, liebling,” he said softly, pressing a tender kiss to her temple. “Du hast die Kontrolle.”

“We can’t,” she answered again, but even she didn’t believe herself. Raking her hands through her hair and adjusting her rumpled sweater, she straightened up. “We have a job to do.”

Brushing past him out of the alcove, each step she took away from him gave her the self control she desperately needed. She glanced over her shoulder to see him reluctantly trudging behind. At this point, she wasn’t foolish. There were only two ways this could end.

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Part III

Series Taglist: @juice-1981 @sapphiredreamer26 @tatooineisdry @marvelsvision @spookycereal-s @trelaney @fireghost-x @booksarekindaneat @thunderingbats @felicityofbakerstreet @takacsgram @mischiefmanaged71 @fanfictionedagain @merelyhooper @gyllord @mundaytuesday @friday18eo @lovegood7553 @adara-wolfhart @a-djarin @farawaywasteland @sky-writes-stuff @fuckinglittlekitten @katyasrussianaccent @agent-jbarnes @neoarchipelago @pattispunk @kpopnena @purebloodwitch @spookyconsultingcriminal @msmarvelwrites @professorrw @lazyradeecal @captainrexstan @notyourfuckingbusinesss

Let me know if you’d like to be tagged, or if I forgot to tag you for some reason! :)

#tfatws #tfatws spoilers #helmut zemo x reader #helmut zemo x you #helmut zemo #helmut zemo fanfiction #marvel #marvel fanfiction #zemo x reader #zemo x you #zemo #baron zemo #bucky barnes #sam wilson #daniel bruhl #helmet zemo fanfiction #tfatws imagine #mcu #mcu imagine

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yougottalovebuckybarnes · 2 years

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Come Back to Me (Bucky x Reader)

A/N: Hello, my loves! My intention was to post my 2nd part to "Cold" next, but I was rewatching TFATWS again... aaaaand decided to write this at 1 am. I hope you like it, and I'll see you next update!

-M <3

Word Count: 1.8k

Warnings: Angst w/ a happy ending <3

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It did not take long to find John Walker. At least, not on my own. The three of us had chosen to search for him separately in an effort to cover more ground, yet it did not take much detective work to locate him. At least, not after finding droplets of blood leading into this old warehouse.

“I found him,” I whispered quietly, watching as the man who could never live up to the name of Captain America began to fall to pieces. “He’s in the old warehouse, a few miles west from the square.”

“Hold your ground. We’ll be there soon.” Sam’s voice was firm in my ear.

“But - “

“That is an order, Y/N. Do not go in.” I nearly rolled my eyes as Bucky chimed in after him, even more serious than Sam was. It almost felt like they believed I was unable to do anything on my own. I was not scared of John Walker, not even after watching him brutally murder that man in front of everyone only an hour ago.

My eyes focused back inside, watching as he fell to his knees, the bloody shield gripped in his hands. Despite the amount of destruction and devastation this man just caused, I could see how vulnerable he was. John Walker was a broken man. Maybe there was still hope to save him yet.

“Walker.”

His head snapped up, as I walked into the warehouse. His lips moved, mumbling something under his breath, but he rose to his feet and walked towards me. “I’m surprised to see you here. Alone.”

“I’m surprised to see you here at all, after that stunt you pulled this afternoon.” I countered, crossing my arms as I watched him begin to pace. “I would’ve imagined you would be out of the country by now.”

“Why would I be? I did nothing wrong.” Walker’s hand tightened into a fist. “You saw what happened. You know what I had to do. I killed him because I had to. He killed Lemar.”

“You can tell yourself that all you want, John, but we both know that was not what happened.” I shook my head slowly. “This wasn’t revenge. This was murder.”

“You speak as if your boyfriend hasn’t done the same thing!” His words were venom and I held my ground as he took a step closer to me. “What I did was justice. What Barnes did-“

“Bucky did not have a choice, and you know that.” My voice was sharp as I glared up at him. “There is no justice in what you’ve done. You have dishonored that shield and you have dishonored your country.”

“I would watch your words if I were you.” Walker’s voice was deadly quiet, but if looks could kill, I would’ve been dead that very moment.

“You don’t scare me, John Walker.” I shook my head, a small huff of amusement escaping my lips. “I truly believe that there is good in you, but I don’t know how far I’d have to dive into you to find it.”

He scoffed and turned away from me, resuming his pacing again.

“Listen…” I sighed, letting my arms fall free and relaxing my stance. “I know that we have not gotten along well these past few weeks, but it is not my wish to hurt you as much as you have hurt other people. If you go home and could explain what happened, they might consider your previous record.”

My gaze fell to the shield, my stomach twisting in knots at the sight of the scarlet that adorned it now. Staining the shield that had once belonged to a true hero, but was now in the hands of a murderer.

“We do not want anyone else hurt. And I’m sure you don’t either. You are a good man, Walker. Deep down, I know that you are.“ I swallowed the lump that was continuing to grow in my throat as I continued. “But you have to give me the shield.”

John’s body froze, his gaze directed to the floor as if he did not hear my words or at the very least did not wish to address them. Slowly, he raised his gaze, meeting my eyes with a coldness I never expected from him.

“Oh. That’s what this is.” A humorless chuckle escaped his lips as he shook his head. “You almost got me, Y/L/N.”

“This isn’t something I’m eager to do, John.” My hand slowly crept towards my waist band, my fingers searching for the gun I had placed there. “But you know you need to give it up. “

His eyes followed my hand, flashing as he understood what I was doing. John shook his head slowly. “You don’t want to do this.”

My hand grasped onto the grip and let out a shaky breath as I pulled it free, aiming it at him as I looked at him one more time. “No. But I will do what I must.”

===

Bucky’s POV

The sound of bullets firing in the warehouse caught my attention as I approached the building. “Fuck!” I grunted, my pace picking up to a full sprint. “Sam?”

“I heard it too. Almost there.”

In most other situations, I would’ve rolled my eyes at her inability to follow directions. Whether it was refusing to stay in bed when I insisted on making breakfast or sneaking out to her computer to write one more page for her thesis, it always brought some sort of amusement to me. But not this. Not when confronting a man who had just committed murder, and taken the serum.

I rounded the corner and entered the warehouse, my heart nearly stopping as I found the sight before me. Y/N was shoved against the wall, her fingers grasping onto the shield as Walker was trying to pry it from her grip. Blood was trickling from a gash on her forehead, her bottom lip busted.

“Why are you making me do this?” His voice was a growl, his face twisted with rage before screaming the words again. “Why are you making me do this?”

He yanked on the shield, pulling her away from the wall before quickly head-butting her, causing her grip to loosen but not fall away.

“You can do whatever you want to me…but it won’t change the fact that you are not even half the man Steve Rogers was. “ Y/N’s voice was strained as she glared at Walker. “You do not deserve to carry that shield.”

Fuming, Walker spun around, his grip tightening on the shield as the force of his movement threw Y/N across the room and slammed her body into an electrical box, shooting sparks into the air. She did not get up.

Before I could even move, Sam flew directly at Walker, his hands aiming for the shield. But the thrust of this shield upward connected with his chest stopped him altogether and onto the ground.

It took no more than five seconds for me to reach where Y/N had collapsed, my breath caught in my throat as I pulled her into my arms and took in the damage. Her face and neck were speckled with bruises, an even darker one forming over her left eye. She had taken one hell of a beating.

“Y/N…” My voice was nearly a whisper, as I gently shook her. “You gotta wake up for me, doll.”

Her head lolled to the side at my movement, and I shook my head slowly, tears beginning to build in the corners of my eyes. I pulled her tight against me, cupping her face with my flesh hand, my thumb stroking cheek gently. “Please, baby. Come back to me.”

The sound of grunting pulled my gaze away from her momentarily, watching as Walker pinned Sam to the ground, tearing his wings from his suit. I glanced back at Y/N, still finding her eyes closed. I pressed my lips gently against her forehead as I placed her down again. “I’ll be back. I promise.”

Just as Walker was raising the shield to strike Sam, I slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. After standing again, I rushed him quickly, my fist connecting with his jaw. It took everything in me not to beat the man to death, each blow following the next in rapid succession. A small smirk spread across his face after he landed on his back, glaring up at me.

“I’m guessing your girlfriend didn’t wake up from her power nap, did she?”

My vision turned red, and as I moved to land a kick to the ribs, he swung his arm out, knocking me to the ground with a grunt. Before I could get myself up again, the shield struck me in the back, knocking me down again and taking my breath with it. I rolled onto my back, and looked up, watching as John Walker raised the shield above his head once again, prepared to knock my lights out, perhaps for good.

But before he could move a muscle, the sound of a gun firing broke into the fight. The scream of pain he released drew my eyes to his arm holding the shield, blood pouring steadily from a new wound.

Sam came up from behind him and yanked him backward, forcing the shield from his arm. I turned around and found Y/N standing behind me with her gun in her hands. Her eyes reflected exhaustion, and she looked mere moments from collapsing. I quickly stood up and caught her in my arms before she could fall, holding her against my body.

“Are you okay?” She asked as she let her gun drop to the ground, her fingers dancing across the skin of my face checking for any cuts or bruises. I couldn’t help the small chuckle that left my body.

“You are asking me that? You got thrown into an electrical box and were nearly beaten to death. I feel like I should be asking you.”

“Nothing that some ice and Aspirin won’t fix.” Y/N teased gently and I shook my head in amusement. “Maybe some bed rest, too. I think he may have broken a rib or two.”

“How you manage to laugh after something like this is beyond me.” I gently pressed my lips to her forehead. “I thought I lost you for a minute.”

“You won’t lose me, Buck.” She looked up at me with a small smile before it faded. “And I’m sorry that I didn’t follow your orders. I guess I thought that I was capable of taking him on my own.”

“I forgive you, doll. You can defy them at home all you want, but I just ask you to follow them out here. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.” I leaned down and kissed her gently.

Although it took time for Walker to be punished accordingly, knowing that Y/N had survived was enough for me. I had never expected that it would ever come this close to losing her, and I would never allow it to happen again.

A/N: That ending was kinda meh, but tell me what you all think! :)

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes #bucky x reader #bucky x you #buckybarnes #bucky barnes imagines #buckybarnesxreader #bucky angst #marvel imagine

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mollyscribbles · 2 years

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I posted 6,186 times in 2021

29 posts created (0%)

6157 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 212.3 posts.

I added 1,424 tags in 2021

#good omens - 225 posts

#carmen sandiego - 216 posts

#kitty! - 152 posts

#the owl house - 149 posts

#writing - 137 posts

#plagueblogging - 124 posts

#just fandom things - 117 posts

#venom - 110 posts

#just tumblr things - 108 posts

#life advice - 86 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#so that when they told everyone they got married it would be *assumed* that was the prank but joke's on them they were still married april 2

My Top Posts in 2021

concept I will likely never write: Cells At Work/Venom crossover. Basically, the cells in Eddie’s body react to the absolute chaos that comes with a symbiote moving in.

“All right, got to get to work to heal that broken leg -- aaand it’s moved back into position and perfectly healed what the hell.”

“where the fuck is the kidney. I know it was here the last time we cycled through.”

"Was it a good idea to eat that?" "Normally no, but the really helpful new cells seem to like it."

“Ah shit, that is a HUGE wound. I don’t even know how to begin to fix it, everyone just try not to get sucked out -- ok so the weird but helpful new cells fixed it in under a minute. that’s. good?”

“wait no where are the weird but helpful new cells going please come back”

The main problem with attempting to write it is that I have a habit of going on research spirals that result in not writing, and the level of medical detail involved in Cells At Work would probably make that worse than usual. also 90% of the concept in my mind is just the cells going “what the fuck” at everything.

38 notes • Posted 2021-10-15 02:54:25 GMT

Before I see Venom, I shall give you a scene I sincerely believe happened at some point between the films:

Anne: Dan, I had to wait until I could mentally sort this out enough to explain, but I want to be honest about something that happened that day between the MRI incident and the Life Foundation rocket exploding. It feels like I cheated in a really weird sort of way but please let me explain the whole thing.

Dan: . . . okay, I’m listening.

[brief recap of events later]

Anne: . . . and then Venom decided that the best way to return to Eddie was by kissing him, so I ended up kissing Eddie too.

Dan: Given that when we had dinner with him the other night it was very obviously a double date with him and Venom that’s entirely believable. I don’t really see it as cheating, if the kiss was Venom’s doing.

Anne:

Dan: um. The kiss wasn’t the part that felt like cheating, was it?

Anne: Sharing a body with a symbiote is a very intense experience.

Dan: huh. This . . . isn’t exactly a situation that relationship advice columns could help with, but it was an emergency situation so I can let this go. But if I’m ever in the same position I get a free pass to find out what it’s like.

Anne: that’s fair. Venom seems to want to stick with Eddie, so it’d probably be an emergency only thing.

63 notes • Posted 2021-10-01 04:29:58 GMT

I’ve seen a few posts going around by people wanting to assure their followers they don’t mind if someone likes a ton of their posts, and the general response is that no one here seems to think it’s weird, which left me wondering where the idea that it’s weird came from . . .

thinking about it, it’s probably carried over from other social media sites that have more personal info and less shitposting.

On your facebook account, if a guy you went to high school with likes your vacation selfie from two years ago at 3AM, you might feel a little creeped out.

On your tumblr, if a person with a fandom username goes through a tag for a specific movie and likes/reblogs half a decade’s worth of posts you made on the subject, you’d probably just think “haha, they probably just watched/rewatched that movie and needed a little content binge. Have fun.”

70 notes • Posted 2021-03-22 02:08:51 GMT

Carmen Sandiego Season 3, in a nutshell

ACME: *change focus to catching Carmen* Julia: ACME is...evil? ACME is unyielding? ACME is incapable of love? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the world as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this agency.

89 notes • Posted 2021-01-05 03:26:33 GMT

297 notes • Posted 2021-03-12 03:32:31 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #just tumblr things

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voidendron · 4 years

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Deep Blue Sea: Ch 14

Chapter 14: Officer Keen Subnautica/JSE Egos Crossover

(( Disclaimer: I uh. Lost my paper where I’d written down what triggers all of the events in the game and don’t have the patience to make a new one or rewatch/replay a whole playthrough before continuing the fic- ^^” so yeah, I might write some things out of order without meaning to. I’ll try to look up things in the wiki when I remember to, though ))

Warnings: None Characters: Jackieboy Man, Chase Brody, Marvin the Magnificent POV: Jackieboy Man

They had the Seamoth blueprint, as with one for the mobile vehicle bay. They just needed to be built.

Jackie was grinning. He’d found the last piece for the vehicle bay. Now he just needed to toss all the supplies for it at their fabricator so Chase and Marvin could get the Seamoth pieces ready for it.

“Hey James!” Jackie glanced over his shoulder when Chase called for the chef. “You wanna get a radio put up on one of the walls?”

“Of course,” Jameson signed, grabbing a builder out of one of the lockers. Damn were they organized so nicely now. Jackie was glad the man had done that; they could actually find the stuff they needed now!

The radio finished right about as the fabricator was finishing with the mobile vehicle bay. The light was blinking and Jackie grimaced.

“Uh…none of us have been up to Pod Five for a while, have we?” Jackie asked. Someone cleared his throat and there was a lot of shaking heads. “Let’s hear it. Hopefully we’re not too late.”

Jameson jammed his thumb into the button and stepped back.

“Playing pre-recorded distress call...”

A voice—a human voice—spoke over the radio, “This is Officer Keen in Lifepod 19! The captain is gone. I have assumed command. The last thing the captain did was give me co-ordinates for dry land. We regroup one and a half kilometers southwest of the crash site. Stay together. Good luck. This message will now repeat.”

Keen’s voice gone just as quickly as it was there, everyone’s PDAs chirped with, “Rendezvous coordinates corrupted. Transmission origin coordinates downloaded.”

Silence.

Jackie was the first to break it. “…Did he say dry land?”

“He said southwest from the ship, but the coordinates got all effed up.” Chase shook his head and smacked his PDA’s screen. “But…we’ve got a signal for Pod Nineteen’s exact location. We head there, maybe we’ll find Keen or at least the coordinates he tried to send.”

“And,” the security guard added, “the mobile vehicle bay’s finished. Could take a Seamoth once we’ve got it built ‘cause that’s a long way.”

Marvin crossed his arms. “They’re single-person, aren’t they? Who’s gonna go down there?”

The others glanced between each other, but Jackie only shrugged. “I mean. How hard can it be to pilot one? I’ll go.”

“Seamoth’s gonna start with a depth max of…200 meters, I think?” Chase gestured at the bulkhead locked tight; just beyond it was the hatch that would take them outside the habitat. “You’re not a good swimmer, but you’d have to swim the rest of the way to Nineteen.”

“I’ll bring a Seaglide. Besides, we don’t know what’s down that way. One of us gets attacked, best that it’s me; at least I’ve got a chance of defendin’ myself.”

“Okay. Fair enough.” He gestured for Marvin, then, “You get the vehicle bay up to the surface. We’ll start bringin’ the supplies topside.”

Back-and-forth, back-and-forth, to and from the habitat and vehicle bay. If the Seamoth needed this many supplies, Jackie could just hope they wouldn’t need a Cyclops. He didn’t even want to think about how much it would need. That is, if they could even piece together a blueprint for one. Those things were apparently massive.

One last metal, then the little robots set into the vehicle bay got to work.

Jackie arched a brow. “Are they…supposed to build it so high outta the water?”

Chase looked just as perplexed as he probably did. “I have no idea.”

A little above the surface, sure. The little robots probably didn’t want the vehicle flooding after all, but that high? Ah well. As long as they were doing what they were supposed to, then whatever.

“I’d get off the vehicle bay if I were you.” Both men glanced back over their shoulders; Marvin was treading water a little ways away.

“…Why—”

Jackie’s question was cut short when the Seamoth dropped into the water, its splash causing the bay to rock violently and throw both of them off of it. The security guard floundered back up to the surface, coughing and spluttering, and could hear Marvin laughing even through the water in his ears.

“Told you.”

“How’d you know that would happen?”

“Because gravity’s a thing and big objects make big splashes?”

“You suck.”

The entertainer only laughed. “Yeah, yeah. Just take these,” he shoved the Seaglide that had been floating next to him at Jackie, as well as a water bottle and first aid kit. “Find Keen or those coordinates.”

“If you die, we’ll kill you,” Chase added helpfully as he tossed a rebreather at Jackie. When the repairman had gone back into the habitat to grab it, he had no idea.

Jackie snorted. “Okay, all right! I’ll be careful. …Uh. Mind helpin’ me get these in the Seamoth?” A poor swimmer with his arms full. That wasn’t a disaster waiting to happen, he thought with a chuckle.

Rebreather on, first aid and Seaglide in easy reach, water bottle at his hip, broken flare pinned between his back and the seat for easy grabbing as he got out. How hard could this be?

The submersible lurched forward before he stopped it. Okay. A little touchy, but you’ve got this, he thought. He waved to his comrades through the windshield, held up his PDA and moved it until the signal for Nineteen came onscreen, then eased the Seamoth forward.

You’ve got this. Just…don’t crash into anything. Easy.

The Seamoth took off.

Deeper, darker, heartbeat in his ears. This place gave him a bad feeling.

Bioluminescence. It stood out here, with the waters so dark. Trenches, that seemed to stretch on into darkness. Tight spaces that could render the Seamoth trapped and leave its pilot with a long way to the surface.

Jackie swallowed.

The Seamoth’s warning beep startled him. He pulled back until the beeping stopped. He’d reached its limit. His turn.

He made sure his rebreather was sealed, Seaglide at full charge, tucked his “spear” under one arm.

Deep breath.

The windshield cracked itself open to allow the cabin to flood slowly, then swung up completely. When Jackie pushed it shut again, vents in the sides of the submersible activated to drain the water.

He could see Nineteen. It was still so far. He had plenty of air, but who knows what creatures were down here.

Just go, Jackie, he thought. Don’t let your fear get to you.

The Seamoth dragged him through the water. Closer. Closer.

His stomach dropped when he saw the side torn open. Oh, god. Please tell me Keen got outta there?

Down, down—

A yelp was left muffled by his mouthpiece was something zipped past him. Another, a third. Where was it—there! A plant was—

He cursed, the word sounding like nonsense with his helmet. That plant—it shot needles? He bit down on the mouthpiece and yanked one out of his thigh. As the plant kept firing the sharp little projectiles, Jackie darted the last stretch for the lifepod; he could hear one last needle strike the metal when he got inside, then the plant stopped.

He grabbed his scanner from his hip and scanned the needle he’d been struck with. No venom. Good. Just a sharp little bugger. He’d have to warn the others to watch out for those plants. Who knew a plant could be so feisty?

With the light on his Seaglide shining bright, he swept it through the pod, looking for signs of—there! A little data log. Not a PDA. That’s a good sign. It told him Keen might have gotten out and taken his PDA with him.

Jackie snatched up the log and inserted it into his PDA.

Keen’s voice carried over from the device, “To all crew: If you are reading this then you have followed the automatic distress signal broadcast by this lifepod's onboard computer, contrary to my orders.” Jackie rolled his eyes. Can’t really follow his orders if the coordinates were corrupted; that’s why I’m here in the first place! he thought. “I have been forced to evacuate. Your orders are to disregard my safety and attempt to reach the designated rendezvous co-ordinates at the nearest landmass. I hope to see you there.”

His PDA chirped. Coordinates. Actual coordinates to dry land.

Jackie would have grinned if not for the rebreather.

He was just about to go darting back to the Seamoth when a light next to the pod caught his eye. He reached for it—flipping off the plant when a needle nearly caught his hand—and snatched it up before making a beeline back to his vehicle. The moment the water drained from the cabin, he threw the helmet off and inserted the new data file into his PDA.

“Ultra high capacity tank?” The blueprint downloaded immediately. Well, that’s one less thing to worry about.

Now, he really did grin. Keen was probably alive on the landmass (the dry land he now had coordinates for!). Maybe other survivors were there, too.

Jackie just had to get back to their habitat and share the good news.

#writersofjack #fanfic #jacksepticeye #jackieboyman #chase brody #marvin the magnificent #blitz indites #deep blue sea #subnautica crossover #dbs ch14

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rallamajoop · 4 years

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Inception: A Fannish Retrospective

For a while now I’ve found myself craving a fic of a particular hard-to-define quality – something with a bit of grit and maturity – not graphic or grim, but perhaps the kind of seedy underworld setting you might find in the better parts of Tarantino or Guy Richie’s oeuvre. The kind of fic that lets me believe that if the author toned down the slash and published it as a mainstream crime or espionage thriller, I’d still be enthused about reading it. Cord Smithee’s work is a particularly good example, for the UNCLE fans out there, but you can only reread those fics so many times, and fic of that quality has been especially sparse in the last few fandoms I’ve drifted through, and so the craving lingered.

Then it hit me: hey, you know what fandom used to be really good for that kind of fic? Inception.

And after all this time in Venom fandom, it was hardly a big jump to more Tom Hardy, so.

Maybe the bigger wonder is that nearly ten years on, most of the fic is still just as good as I remember it being. Mirabella’s Towards Zero remains one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever read in any fandom, and delires’ chav!Eames AU is better than any idea that cracked has any goddamn right to be, and (at least as long as you’re into the juggernaut ship that is Arthur/Eames) you are spoilt for choice for more.

But revisiting a fandom this much later and binging this much fic, you notice things. We’ll start with…

The Film

Still holds up on rewatching today. It will never be nearly as smart a film as I’ve seen some claim: totems, for one, make no fucking sense (they’re objects with details known only to you, but if Cobb can unintentionally bring a carbon copy of his wife into a dream, why not a top that falls over when spun? And why does it keep spinning indefinitely in dreams, anyway?), and for all the exposition on ‘kicks’, why the kicks need to be synchronised to work under sedation is woefully under-explained, to the point I’m always by distracted trying to make sense of it in the middle of the third act. (Do not even get me started on the ‘it’s actually about filmmaking!’ theory – the mental gymnastics required to explain how Yusuf or Mal fits in or why we’re so fixated on the importance of the set designer, of all roles, is laughable. Some of the parallels are moderately entertaining, but don’t try to tell me you’ve unlocked the secret meaning of the film – Inception is not a movie that makes you work that hard to find its main themes.)

But the film works despite its plotholes because it’s not, ultimately, a story driven by its mechanics: the endlessly spinning top may make no sense, but film is a visual medium, and it’s such a good visual gimmick it’s gets a pass. The practical stunts are still as impressive ever, but what really lifts Inception so far beyond your typical action/heist film – for me, at least – are the characters, and the huge emotional payoffs at the end. Fischer’s reconciliation with his father is no less moving for its falseness, “We did grow old together” has gotten a sniffle out of me time and again, and the final “We’ll be young men together” scene is wonderful in so many ways I could only dream there was the Cobb/Saito fic to live up to. It’s not for nothing I’ve got Inception mentally filed in my very short list of humanist action movies along with Mad Max: Fury Road, Terminator II, and precious few others.

And then there’s…

The Fandom

Film fandoms are always an interesting beast, peaking as they do when the film is still in theatres, when most folks writing fic are working off imperfect memories of having seen an hour or two’s worth of canon maybe once or twice at most. Fanon can go feral in far less conducive environments, is my point here – inevitably, there’ll be the details that get analysed to death or flanderised to the point of parody, and the details that get altogether forgotten. Here’s just one example that hit me on a rewatch: I have lately read god knows how many different theories on just what it means that Arthur knew Eames was in Mombasa – none of them the least bothered by how everything in Cobb’s behaviour in that scene suggests he already knows exactly where he’s going, and may even be right now leaving to catch his flight. We could talk about the artefacts of clunky exposition being shoehorned into the dialogue, or the actual intent of that exchange, but shipper-goggles give you some powerful tunnel-vision (and I say this as someone who ships it like burning).

Binge as much fic as fast as I have in the last few months, and you begin to notice trends. Common themes and popular fanon that have ascended to gospel, and facets of the original film I’d love to see explored that fandom seems to have collectively missed altogether (and the sad lack of decent Cobb/Saito is only one). Below, in no particular order, are some of those observations.

Since most of these come across as critical, I want to emphasise that I have had a ball revisiting the fic in this fandom, and there are probably multiple fics guilty of everything I touch on below which I have loved to bits. It’s only the repetition that really starts to make you sit up and notice.

1. The Cobb-bashing, oh my god the Cobb-bashing! I had forgotten just how much this fandom hates Cobb. In the film, Cobb’s plan is the only reason Arthur and Eames ever end up in the same room at all – yet in fanfic, Cobb has been recast as the only thing keeping them apart. I’m not kidding there – fic with that exact premise is almost its own genre. In Inception fanon, Cobb is crazy and cares only about himself, and Arthur has wasted years of misplaced loyalty keeping him alive. Fanon!Eames hates Cobb for monopolising Arthur’s attention (in the film, Eames seems underwhelmed to learn Cobb is still working with Arthur at all). Fanon!Eames only works with Cobb at all because it’s an excuse to work with Arthur (in the film, they’re barely capable of having a civil conversation). Fanon!Eames never forgives Cobb for concealing the level of sedation they were under Inception job, and nor does Arthur (in the film, no-one even mentions Cobb’s deception after they leave the first level, and Eames’ main disappointment at the end is that he won’t get to see the Fischers’ big reconciliation, but why let that douse a good hateboner?) Meanwhile, Yusuf’s corresponding betrayal and Arthur’s equally-disastrous research-fail are rarely referenced. It’s not every fic, but the base level of Cobb-hate around these parts is pretty astounding. There’s nothing new about fans bashing the main character for having the gall to take screentime away from their OTP, and I’d be the last to play down Cobb’s real failings. But when one finds oneself tempted to leave enthusiastic comments on decade-old fic, praising the author for giving Cobb a minor scene or two where he gets to be a total bro to Arthur for a change… I promise you, it’s not me, it’s this fandom.

2. For all that Eames is basically the single biggest reason I’m reading in this fandom, his fanon characterisation leaves something to be desired. I do get the appeal of flirty!Eames or pining!Eames – it’s just that once in a while, you find yourself longing for fic about the guy who was actually in the movie – y’know, the one who’s first response to Arthur’s name was, “Arthur? Are you still working with that stick-in-the-mud?” I am totally down with the idea he was feigning indifference– maybe for Cobb’s benefit, maybe he’s actively in denial himself, whatevs. But fanon!Eames characterisation typically ranges from “hopelessly in love with Arthur from the moment they met” to “a walking sexual harassment lawsuit in action,” and neither of those guys could convincingly feign indifference to save their lives. It’s also a shame we don’t see more of the side of Eames that got so genuinely, unashamedly invested in what they were doing for Fischer – quite beyond the money and the prestige, Eames loves that they get to fix Fischer’s relationship with his father and reveal Browning as the rat that he is, and it’s a wonderfully humanising side to such a shady character. There should be so much scope in there to cast Eames was a guy with a real idealistic streak, or more conscience than he’d usually admit to, or just an abiding love for melodrama – the possibilities go on and on (and if you can’t think of a dozen ways to tie any of those in as fuel for his rivalry with Arthur for bonus shippy fodder, you aren’t even trying). But that part of Eames never does seem to have found a place in the fandom’s collective headcanon, because hell if I can find any exploration of it in fic, le sigh. (Cynically, I have to wonder if it’s because it clashes with the fanon where Eames spent the Inception job furiously hating Cobb and focused on Arthur, but even that seems somewhat lacking as an answer. Who even knows?)

3. As a corollary to the above, remarkably few fics make any attempt to deal with the fact that Arthur and Eames a) basically hate each other, b) for reasons that do not entirely revolve around how Arthur won’t put out. Obviously, this is a ‘hate’ that covers a much deeper well of underlying respect, but these are two guys who only stop taking potshots at each other when they’re being shot at for real, and to me that is 95% of the fun of the pairing – why does no-one even seem to try to recreate that dynamic in fic? Even 99% of Eames’ infamous ‘flirting’ would be better described as him pulling Arthur’s pigtails. Yet virtually no-one seems to want to tackle their antipathy head-on – even fic that acknowledges it as a past phase of their relationship isn’t set during that phase. I’m all for seeing them eventually end up friendlier, but you’ve got to show me how they get there first – that’s the good bit! Why does everyone skip over it? :((((

4. This fandom has SUCH a thing for underage!Arthur. Fics will go on and on about how young he looks, or theorise that he was actually underaged when he first got into dreamshare, or at least looked it. Seriously, the idea of Eames having mistaken Arthur for a teen when they first met is, like, the accepted pan-fandom headcanon as to why they don’t get on (unless we’re in military-backstory land, in which case it’s that Arthur had to deal with Eames hitting on him during the time of DADT). Then there are the many (MANY) AUs where Arthur really is a teen, hitting on the much-older Eames – there’s that one semi-parody where even twenty-something!Arthur gets cockblocked by his own looks, and there’s even at least one that flips things so that Eames the one who was underage when they met, just for variety.

It’s a real Thing, and I only wish I understood where it comes from, since (to me) Arthur has always looked like the 29yo man JGL legitimately was back when Inception hit screens – I don’t think he’d even passed as a Hollywood!teen for a solid half a decade at that point. So… are there really that many people who thought JGL looked that young when the film came out, or is this just one of those fannish meme things? I may never know.

5. No-one (by which I mean almost no-one) gets how limbo works. Fic after fic treats it as basically just a garden-variety coma, and colleagues can spend days or months moving the victim, gathering a team and planning a complex rescue. Rarely is it ever remembered the whole point of limbo is that you can age and die trapped in your own mind in no more than hours in the real world. When Eames talks about being ‘trapped in limbo until our brains turn to scrambled egg’, I think it’s safe to assume he’s being pretty literal. Basically, if you’re not treating limbo as the temporal equivalent of the Total Perspective Vortex, you’re probably doing it wrong.

6. No-one does anything interesting with Ariadne. This, I have some sympathy for: it’s hard to know where to go with someone who ends the film where she does – her push-pull relationship with the world of illegal dreamshare is not a contradiction that can be easily resolved in a subplot, if at all. But the Ariadne who so quickly had Cobb picked as a loose canon never seems to appear in fic either, and nor does the Ariadne with the guts to sneak into his dream to find answers, or the prodigy whose last-minute moment of inspiration saved the whole job. No, Inception fic is more likely to give you an Ariadne who giggles and drags her teammates out partying than any of that, which is absurd to the point of being genuinely offensive. Seriously, that is some A-grade “all we remembered about her is that she’s female”-bullshit. Even when she’s not saddled with OOC giggle fits, fic!Ariadne also remains frustrating static: years after the film, she’ll still be doing extractions with the Inception team, despite seeming no more at home in their world. Where’s the Ariadne who embraces the underworld wholeheartedly and reaches Arthur or Cobb levels of badassery? The Ariadne whose natural gifts and overconfidence get her into Cobb-levels of trouble? Who takes the Inception job as inspiration to go into therapeutic uses of dreams? Who finds legitimate dream-related work through Miles or Saito, but still lets the old team drag her back into extractions every once in a while (because she’s easily one of the most reliable architects in the whole shady business, and there’s a part of her that still kind of loves it)? WHERE?

The obvious rejoinder to all this is that it’s hardly surprising Ariadne doesn’t get much play when you’re mostly reading Arthur/Eames fic. So (because the land of fic is still terrible at cataloguing character-specific gen) I had a dig through some Arthur/Ariadne fic for comparison – only to run into much the same frustrations all over again. No-one takes her character anywhere very interesting.

So you can imagine my surprised delight when I tried a couple of Arthur/Ariadne/Eames fics on a whim, and almost immediately found not one but two different stories willing to dive headfirst into the questions surrounding Ariadne’s future in the world of illegal dreamshare (plus multiple stories which made a very convincing case that Ariadne should absolutely celebrate their successful Inception by having a threesome with her colleagues, I mean, damn).

I have absolutely no idea what it says about fandom that I had to go looking at threesome fic to find real character development, but at this point, I’ll take it.

7. So, I get why everyone reads Eames as queer (duh), but having discovered two quite excellent straight!Eames fic (which is to say, fic which utterly sells the idea that Eames considers himself straight or had no experience with men until long after meeting Arthur), the fact no equivalent seems to exist for Arthur baffles me. Sure, there’s one or two stories where one smile from Eames is about all it takes to make him change his mind, and one great kink meme fill that might have been just what I was looking for if it had ever been finished. But otherwise, the idea that Arthur (a guy who snogs Ariadne and is given no other obvious sexuality) -- the same Arthur whom every other fic portrays as seriously emotionally repressed – the idea this guy might not be experienced and comfortable dating men just… doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone. Which is so weird.

Is there not enough RL evidence that Tom Hardy can and does make straight guys reconsider their preferences? Is the idea of an Arthur who’s repressed that side of his own sexuality not a juicy enough explanation for the tension between them? How on earth did we wind up with a fandom where Eames is more likely to be the designated “straight” one at the start of the story than Arthur? The mind boggles.

Holy shit, you’re still reading? Damn! Have some more recs as thanks for listening to me ramble at so much length.

Recs!

Here’s those two from the top again, because I really do love them that much

We Can Do This Until We Pass Out by delires Disturbing London, baby, we about to branch out. (The one where Eames is a chav)

Towards Zero by Mirabella Five levels down, and five to dig yourself back out. Arthur met Eames' projection long before he met Eames.

Where the Dead Live also by Mirabella There's a monster in Arthur's basement. Maybe he shouldn't have invited it in. It’s the vampire!Apocalypse, and this one is intense. Utterly brilliant, but equally unapologetic about the implications of its premise. So, for a somewhat-lighter take on monster!Eames, I will also throw in:

Cthonical’s demon!Eames verse Unfinished -- arguably never even properly started, just a series of ficlets from a ‘verse that never quite got written, but they are scorching hot and still well worth a look.

That’s a lot of darker fic though, probably time to lighten the mood a little.

Anal [Inception] aka Not Now Cobb We're Doing BGs also by cthonical Arthur and Eames both play WoW. They kick ass at Warsong Gulch, and when they team up they’re nigh on unstoppable.They don’t know they’re playing with each other.

Champion Sound by pyrimidine Prompt: Arthur is a DJ, Eames is a bartender.

London Bridge by sorrynotsorry Arthur loves whiskey, and maybe strippers.

My two favourite Arthur/Eames/Ariadne fics

How to Cure Insomnia by wonderfulwrites When she called Arthur for advice on how to deal with the unexpected insomnia - okay, fine, on the pretense of asking for advice – she hadn’t expected to have to wade through a sea of bodies to see him. But then, she also hadn’t expected Eames’s cheerful but surprising, Just come, Ariadne. You can sleep when you’re dead. Or Eames, at all, really. The Wind on the Mountain by Starlingthefool Something in her rebels against this casual, passive seduction. God knows why, but she’s sitting up in the water, taking her foot back from Eames and dislodging Arthur’s hands from her back. She stands, wet underwear clinging ridiculously to her, and says to Arthur, “All right. Your turn.”

Aaand let’s have a few more straight Arthur/Eames to round it out.

Untitled and Untitled, redux by Helenish -- two variants on a theme, and do not let the lack of proper titles put you off, they’re both great.

Unexpected Plot Twist by ethrosdemon Post-Inception -- long and (as promised) twisty, and a very solid read.

Four Corners by Mithrigil In Eames’ line of work, a first impression means nearly everything. It’s always a pity when he doesn’t get off on the right foot.

Kiss With A Fist by cmonkatiekatie Because apparently, to find real Arthur/Eames antagonism, I have to go looking for hate sex. (Not complaining, this is some amazing hate sex.)

And also basically Everything by Wiltling There’s a darker vibe to their work, but it rarely gets oppressive -- just generally a lot of great fic.

#Inception #meta #fic recs

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linzerj · 5 years

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Golden Gate’s Heroes -c2

Yo so i finally finished part 2! Sorry it took so long but the dialogue really threw me off and i’m still not sure i’m happy with it. also I’m bad at writing and updating consistently so. uh. yeah please don’t get your hopes up for a speedy update i’m sorry. also sorry about the lack of venom i really just gotta rewatch the movies when i get the chance

So after that first awkward babysitting thing where they discovered ‘oh hey you have a secret identity I have a secret identity too’, Eddie and Scott met up a grand total of three times. Two of those times were just Eddie babysitting Cassie again, because Cassie really liked him and Venom and they weren’t going to say no to that adorable kid. The first of those times was really just Eddie and Cassie hanging out again, this time at Eddie’s much-less-nice apartment. They did arts and crafts while Cassie asked Venom questions about themself, and throughout the evening Venom slowly acquired more and more glittery cut-out crowns and ribbons. They looked absolutely ridiculous, but it made Cassie happy and Eddie thought it was cute, and so they tolerated the decorations.

The second time, Scott actually invited Eddie out to dinner with him and Cassie after babysitting. It was a bit awkward, but as Eddie recalled stories from his time on The Eddie Brock Show and Scott told him stories about life before and after prison, they found more and more common ground. By the end of it, they weren’t best friends per say, but a lot of the awkwardness and tension had definitely faded down.

The third time they met up, Cassie was still there because she was great at keeping them from being too awkward and weird, but Eddie met them at Pier 39. It was just a casual time hanging out, really, but as they talked in hushed tones about Scott’s experiences as Ant-Man and how Eddie and Venom were still learning to be a functional ‘we’, Eddie figured he would definitely call Scott a friend.

Which was definitely a good thing, given his only other friends were Anne and Dan, and while they were great it was still weird to hang out with his ex-fiancée and her super nice doctor boyfriend sometimes.

Eddie figured he should introduce Scott and Cassie to Anne and Dan sometime. They’d be so proud that he had managed to make new friends, even if one of them was still only a kid who liked giving Venom flower crowns.

But first, he apparently had to meet Scott’s new girlfriend and her parents, the people who gave Scott the Ant-Man suit.

“Dude come on,” Scott was saying. This was now the fourth time they were talking face-to-face, once again after Eddie had babysat Cassie. “They’re super nice, I swear.”

“Man, I still…we still don’t know.” Eddie sighed, scrubbing his face.

“Cassie will be there if that helps, my dude.”

“I mean.” Eddie made a vague gesture. “I guess? But still.”

“Is this about not wanting to make a bad first impression, because believe me, they won’t care that much. I mean they still like me, so.”

Eddie just leveled an unimpressed look at Scott, to which Scott shrugged. “Alright so I may have also mentioned you once or twice to Hope and Hank and Jan and now they really want to meet you.”

“Dude you are the worst. Just give it a bit longer, okay?”

And the conversation effectively ended, at least for a while.

---

As much as Eddie was trying to avoid other superheroes or people who might want to tear them apart, neither he nor Venom were going to say no to Cassie’s birthday party.

We’re going to get cornered here you idiot, Venom was hissing into Eddie’s brain.

“Yeah but it’s Cassie you asshole. You really gonna say no to her?”

…no…

“So we’re sucking it up and finally doing this,” Eddie said, knocking on the door to Scott’s place. They were immediately greeted by their grinning friend.

“Hey, you made it! Cool cool, c’mon in!”

And it was normal, for a bit. Scott’s ex and her new boyfriend reminded Eddie of Anne and Dan a bit, but they didn’t pry about anything – either because they didn’t know or didn’t care. Eddie didn’t know which it was but was grateful either way.

He tried to distract himself with cake (lots of cake, chocolate cake, the best kind of cake, especially if you asked Vee), but was more than well aware of a man and two women watching with mixed looks of curiosity and anxiety from another corner of the room. They were distracted enough by Cassie too, but as the party began to wind down, guests left, and Cassie’s mom took her home, Eddie was left with Scott and the staring trio.

“Well,” Eddie said, directed mostly to Scott, “this was great, thanks for the invite, I’ll just get out of your hair now—“

“Actually, we’ve been waiting to talk to you,” the younger of the two women said, and Eddie groaned internally. He could feel Venom stirring beneath his skin, curious but also ready to protect them if needed.

“Uh, Eddie, that’s my girlfriend Hope, and her parents Hank and Janet,” Scott interjected, seeming as nervous as Eddie felt. “Guys, this is Eddie.”

“Brock, yeah,” Hank said. “Nice work taking down Drake. I knew there was something fishy going on with him but we were a bit distracted during that whole fiasco of yours.”

“Uh, thanks?” Eddie was fairly certain that was not the correct response, but it got a chuckle out of Janet, so that was fine, he supposed.

“But there is the issue of you having been – fused, or bonded, or whatever, with one of those alien symbiotes Drake was experimenting on,” Hope stated, and next to her Scott bit his lip. “The reports you gave after the incident state that you lost it, or it burned in the explosion, but there have been some reports of a large dark figure throughout the city since then – one that occasionally eats its targets. And then Scott told us about you starting to babysit for Cassie, and at the same time he started showing reluctance over tracking down the giant maneating creature. So, anything to add, Mr. Brock?”

“Hope I told you to go easy on him,” Scott muttered as Eddie blinked, and Janet rolled her eyes.

“She takes after her dad,” she said, and Hank looked affronted. But, still.

They know, Venom was hissing in his head, but their emotions were confused, unsure of if they should trust Scott’s friends, or if they should just eat them all.

Not really, Eddie thought back. From what she said, Scott never said anything specific, they all just put the pieces together on their own, and he’s trying to make everything better for us.

Hm. Cassie may like them, and Scott is okay, but still. Don’t know about what they want.

Yeah, well, let’s see, shall we? Out loud, he asked, “What if what I said isn’t true?”

“Well, legally speaking, you’d fall under the Sokovia Accords, like my daughter and this idiot here,” Hank said. Eddie was a bit offended on Scott’s behalf at the idiot comment. “If that alien is still bonded to you, you’d count as an enhanced individual, and if you were going out fighting crime and whatnot on your own, you’d be in direct violation of the Accords.”

“That’s fair. The Accords were put into place with the intention of protecting the general public, even if the first draft was rushed and had lots of loopholes that could be exploited. The current version is more sound and willing to work with the individuals who work under it. But it also requires that anyone who signs the Accords be drafted as an official Avengers member, which, y’know, some people might want to help, but they might not want to be in the spotlight like that, and just stick to what they’re doing.” This, Eddie could do. He was a reporter, after all; he’d covered the story of the original Accords, and the little ‘civil war’ that had followed it. He’d read the documents when they first came out, even if he’d had to have Anne explain the finer points and legalese to him back then. And then with Venom, he’d read the newest draft.

It wasn’t a bad thing, certainly, but they had agreed that they didn’t want to be part of the Avengers. They weren’t cut out for big-time heroics like that, and such a spotlight would make their occasional diet of humans even harder to hide, or justify.

But. Scott had proven he was willing to overlook that stuff after Eddie and Vee had explained that it was an essential part of their diet, their survival. And these people were still involved with ironing out the Accords, and could probably put in a good word on their behalf if they were nice and cooperated. But that was a risk they weren’t sure they were willing to take, at least not yet.

Janet interrupted their thoughts. “That’s why we’re working with Tony and the Accords Panel to add more amendments for people like that. We are also trying to include people who maybe go a bit too far with their vigilantism, who have killed to protect others. Right now the Accords Panel doesn’t think those types of people should be allowed unless they change completely, stop killing altogether, but even the original Avengers members had killed – look at the Black Widow and Hawkeye, for example. They both had impressive kill counts working for SHIELD, and the Widow, at least, has continued to use lethal force since joining the Avengers.”

“She’s an outlier though, Jan, we talked about that,” Hank cut in. “She’s a Russian assassin-“

“What does her being Russian have to do with anything, Hank, don’t let old grudges cloud your judgment we’ve talked about this-“

“Anyway,” Hope said, rolling her eyes at her parents, “The earlier you join, the more … uh, forgiving the Accords Panel will be about any … less than savory things you may or may not have done while trying to protect the planet, the town, your loved ones, or just yourself.”

“That’s still assuming I have the alien, though,” Eddie pointed out, trying not to laugh. Venom was snickering in the back of his mind, swirling around his body, and very much enjoying this game of cat and mouse.

Scott was looking between everyone with nervous eyes. Hank was just staring at Eddie with a kind of blank expression of disbelief; Janet was smiling conspiratorially; and Hope rolled her eyes with a huff. “Yeah, of course.”

“When you assume you make an ass out of you and me,” Scott blurted, and that, at least, earned a chuckle from Hank.

“Scott,” Hope started, but Eddie cut her off.

“Well, look, I’d love to continue this chat, but I actually have stuff to do for my job, so…”

“Yeah, man, let me show you out,” Scott said, clapping Eddie on the back and steering him toward the door. “Sorry about them,” he said in a lower, quieter tone. “I didn’t say anything but they can put two and two together and they can also be super persistent.”

“It’s fine,” Eddie said, even though it didn’t really feel fine. “It was probably going to happen sooner or later anyway. Talk to you later, man.” And Eddie and Venom made their escape.

It was another few weeks until Eddie and Venom saw Hope van Dyne again. They hadn’t forgotten about the conversation with her and her family, per say, just… been sufficiently distracted to let it fall to the wayside.

But having Scott walk in with Hope at the end of a day of babysitting Cassie was, well. Unexpected, to say the least. Venom, who had been providing helpful commentary to Cassie as she colored and was wearing no less than 3 flower crowns, made an attempt to duck back into Eddie before being spotted, but it was too little too late.

Hope, for her part, just leveled an unimpressed and expectant stare at Eddie, who just grinned sheepishly back. Scott, bless his innocent self, took one look at both of them and then ignored them in favor of flopping onto the floor next to Cassie and admiring her drawings. Cassie just tossed one of the dropped flower crowns at Eddie and giggled when it landed on his shoulder.

“We, uh, I… can explain?” Eddie said. Scott just shook his head.

“No you can’t.”

“Yeah no I probably can’t.”

“To be fair, I knew from the minute Scott started slipping up that something was amiss,” Hope said, “but you acting a bit weird at Cassie’s party was what really gave it away.”

“So, uh, are you gonna arrest us or something, then? Cuz like, you probably… don’t wanna do that.”

“No, you’re fine,” Hope said. “Although you probably don’t believe that, and I can understand why. But, look, if Scott trusts you, I’m willing to give you a chance.”

Everyone else blinked. “Really?” Scott asked, lighting up like a Christmas tree. “Aw, Hope! You’re the best!”

“And you’re adorable, Scott. Anyway,” Hope continued, turning back to face Eddie, “you and your alien friend or whatever should very much consider reading and signing these.” And with a flash, a huge stack of papers materialized – no, grew – in front of them.

“The freaking Accords?” Eddie snorted. “Dude, I have read them-“

“I’m aware, it’s a legal thing, your ex is a lawyer so I’m sure you understand.”

Eddie made a disgruntled sound. “We really don’t want to be an Avenger,” he said finally.

“Aw, but you guys are a hero!” Cassie piped up, finally tuning back in to the adult conversation. Eddie flashed her a grateful smile, and because they adore Cassie, Venom poked a small head out from Eddie’s shoulder to give her a toothy grin.

Scott gave them an encouraging thumbs up from next to Cassie, and even Hope looked – bemused, perhaps, at all of this. But, still. “We have, uh. Y’know.”

“Eaten people? Yeah, you’re the new local cryptid,” Hope said. “But as has been said, plenty of the Avengers have killed for one reason or another. Whatever, people will deal with it. Also, if you do sign, it’s not like you’re going to be required to move back to NYC or anything – look at Scott and myself, we’re still here.”

“Yeah but they probably will make him go out for an orientation or initiation or whatever they called it,” Scott piped up.

Eddie, Vee said into Eddie’s brain, we know we are reluctant, but also… we should give it a try. We could be better than ever! And we can meet many other superheroes too, get more friends. Eat them if they try to hurt us.

Eddie sighed. “We’ll think about it and get back to you, okay? That’s all I can promise right now.”

---

It wasn’t even a week before Eddie was giving Hope and Scott their signed copy of the Accords.

#venom #ant man #ant man and the wasp #eddie brock #scott lang #marvel #mcu #cassie lang #hope van dyne #hank pym #janet van dyne #fanfiction #my writing

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akatokuro · 5 years

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The Inevitable StS Rewatch, Episodes 37-38

Aiolia, are you like... okay? (HE IS NOT, IN FACT, OKAY.)

- Last time, I meant to write about these eps but I got hard-derailed with the need to scream at the walls about Milo. This seems to happen to me pretty often. It might be a problem.

- This whole Shaina-->Seiya subplot is still stupid as hell, and the way Seiya treats Shaina here is condescending as hell, but to be very very generous Seiya is at least perceptive enough to not fight back seriously because he understands Shaina essentially has a death wish. Sanctuary will fuck you up hard, dude. The mask issue is yet another way to approach the fundamental ways the entire institution of Sanctuary will break people over its knee.

- Hahaha, I love the way Aiolia enters the scene here, so ominous and terrifying! It's a great contrast to the very mellow, normal dude in the back Aiolia is framed as in his earlier cameos. HEY, SHAINA, DID YOU AND THE OTHER SILVERS REALLY FORGET I WAS A GOLD FUCKING SAINT WELL GUESS WHAT HERE'S A REMINDER

- Lia, are you... having fun sloooowly lifting Shaina into the air first - totally not to terrify her or anything, nope, no grudge here, what are you talking about, hahaha!

- I'm going to be repeatedly gushing about this through the next couple eps, but holy shit, Aiolia's Japanese VA is SO FUCKING GOOD.

- The way he's animated here is so good too! The combination of his flat tone as he introduces himself, his flat expression, and the way only his eyes move when he greets Seiya specifically - it really conveys a sense of tension and Lia being in very, very forced, tight control of himself right now.

- "lmao not even the gold saints knew that there were TWELVE ZODIAC-THEMED CLOTHS! like! twelve zodiacs! god! not just leo and sagittarius! who would ever have guessed!" yeah this is the most obvious thing for the broader lore to instantly fucking throw out the window because no.

- It's a semi-common fanon thing to regard Aiolia as "stupid", but honestly, he's never struck me as such - I like this moment where he's sizing up Seiya's answer re: Sagittarius, and comes to the conclusion that he's telling the truth. But still, murder mission means murder gon happen!

- Aiolia has problems with self-control--his emotions sometimes get the better of him and he can't help himself when he really needs to punch something because he's just SO FUCKING ANGRY--but that's a different thing altogether than just being stupid, especially since I think Lia is pretty self-aware about that aspect of himself.

- I love how Aiolia TOTALLY came here to murder the shit out of these kids, too. Like, think about the contrast with Milo later, when Milo offers to spare Hyouga for Camus's sake - Lia is apparently close friends with Marin, but does he extend the same courtesy? No. That Seiya is Marin's student doesn't fucking matter. He's here to perform a very baggage-ridden mission for Sanctuary, and that is what he is going to do, because Aiolia would really like to turn himself into a Good Saint Robot.

- And again, even as he's warning Shaina, Aiolia comes across as very tightly controlled and very short, played up as frightening and intimidating. His expression and tone doesn't change as Shaina pleads and he points out her emotional shortcomings. Aiolia can run very hot, but he can also turn himself very cold, and the combination of the two feeding into each other is what can make him potentially scary as hell, especially when you remove his inhibitions via a bit of brainwashing!

- That little detail of Lia clenching his fist and his fist shaking as Seiya accuses him of being another assassin from Sanctuary is really good. It should be clear from Lia's VA taking a BEEP BOOP BOP approach to his lines here, but Lia is internally struggling a lot already, and trying to press it down.

- Not struggling with internal conflict about his orders per se, mind you. Moreso struggling with not losing his shit over how fucking mad he is.

- And when Seiya tries to explain the situation to Aiolia, he gets this.

- Aiolia isn't actually stupid, but this is why he's interesting. He dumbs himself down because he feels he can't trust himself - both his actual thoughts and instincts, as what happened with his brother proved to him, and his ability to restrain himself. So what can he do but commit himself to his orders and the rules, especially knowing that he's already walking on a very thin tightrope compared to most people because of his TRAITOR'S BLOOD? (lmao, thanks Milo! Clearly the best friend Aiolia could ever hope for!) There might be a temptation to write off Lia as the "good boy" of the Gold Saints, since he's pushed as the protagonist figure amongst them, but he's really not. He's pretty complex.

- Lol considering how hard Shaina was shitting on and disrespecting Aiolia in earlier episodes... is seeing her so frantic and then flattening her effortlessly a little bit cathartic for you, Lia...? Just a little...?

- Lia's expression still not changing as he turns his FLATTEN BEAM onto Seiya. Truly the TermiLia right now.

- I love Aiolia's response to Seiya bleating off about his brother and why Lia is so loyal to Sanctuary. He is obviously trying to appeal to Lia emotionally by hitting what he knows are emotional weak spots and Lia is not having any of that shit. you are literally just making him madder seiya

- These sure are the words and expression of a very, very bitter man!

- Aiolos isn't exactly an interesting character to me as he is, because the series is by and large mostly interested in him as a straightforward admirable martyr figure - but he could be if you re-interpret him under a more critical lens. His treatment of Aiolia is kind of... something. I don't actually remember him ever offering a truly kind word to his little brother. Like, ever.

- There's even a fun ambiguity if you want to his line in this flashback about "You should be able to do this, because you have the same Cosmos I do - because we're brothers." Yes, it could be read as encouragement - as Baby Lia is obviously doing here - but it's also setting forth an expectation.

- Oh shit, this is some of the stuff I was planning on going through in my upcoming EIGHTEEN PAGE AIOLIA META. Uhhhh....... man, this situation sure sucks for Lia, being left behind like that! Aiolos! Issues! Probably! Yeah!

- Fucking Silvers!

- I'm glad Lia states that he hated Los and used that for fuel in terms of becoming a strong Saint, and also vaguely suicidal. You can totally see it. Leo Aiolia is a cold and hateful person in a lot of ways! It rules!

- Okay Seiya you deserve to be punched for this one

- lol Lia narrowing his eyes in response too hoo boy

- seiya why are you stripping that's shiryuu's deal

- ahhhh shit aiolia's va is SO GOOD! he was already pulling the "flat, controlled tone" before but after seiya hit him with THAT garbage he goes extremely low and dangerous and outright monotone, very audibly you're on thin fucking ice you little shit

- One of the little things that I like about Lia and how he subverts your first impression of "oh, this is the nice, protagonist-y Gold, right?" is that when you piss him off, he gets vicious and downright venomous verbally. Aiolia is capable of outright dripping with contempt for people in a way that's totally "oh, this is what he's been thinking the whole time, he was just holding it back." Like here, when he's practically sneering about "Oh, so this is all you've got after six years training with Marin, huh? You fucking scrub loser."

- Damn, I like Seiya crying as he attacks Aiolia again, knowing that it's hopeless! That's a nice touch. A LITTLE SCARED, HUH SEIYA?

- Lia, you totally should have been able to see Shaina moving and jumping in front of Seiya like that in time to pull back. You really should have. Is your mad getting the better of you? I know Seiya kicked it up several notches, but damn, man.

- yeah i do not think this is the face of someone who is actually going to be losing that much sleep over """"accidentally"""" punching the shit out of shaina

- And Seiya calls out Aiolia for not stopping his attack when he totally had the capability to do so, lmao

- Hahaha, so Lia lets Seiya punch him to let off some steam and goes: "Yeahhhh, my bad. Eh."

- I also like the detail that Lia can heal with his Cosmos! (And lol that Lia was originally going to just leave her there before Seiya called him out.) It's not an ability you actually see a lot of Saints have, including the Golds.

- Lia asks Seiya why he's doing this. Seiya starts to explain, but then Lia immediately cuts him off with THE POPE'S ORDERS ARE ABSOLUTE. aiolia are you like.... okay... i mean you asked him and he was answering y... all righty then. i mean i know that's what you've convinced yourself to cope but

- Then the shitty Silvers show up, and even these guys continue to shit on Lia for his TRAITOR'S BLOOD. Lia gets visibly mad and reiterates his determination to fulfill his mission and murder these damn kids. The Silvers ignore him, and obviously enjoy twisting the knife about being able to ignore him!

- Aiolos decides he's had enough of his bath and decides to give Seiya a hand! Wow!

- okay seiya really rocks the sagittarius cloth though. better looking than aiolos in it. sagittarius seiya is the best looking gold saint tbh. shiryuu is really hideous in libra unfortunately

- And this is Aiolia's face when Seiya puts on the Sagittarius Cloth. WHAT COULD HE BE THINKING? HMMMM.

- I love Aiolia, but he definitely has that smug Gold Saint arrogance running through his being as much as anyone else. "FOR THE GOLD CLOTH TO CHOOSE THE LIKES OF YOU..."

- But this whole thing is great, too. He was willing to let Seiya go - for the day - out of respect for Shaina and okay yeah he did feel a little bad about that, but now that Seiya's put on a Gold Cloth? Nah, you little shit. Sorry Shaina, looks like it's right back to murder o'clock for Leo Aiolia!

- Seiya, with Aiolos's help, manages to land a punch on Lia. He is very cute in his excitemement about this! AIOLIA IS NOT.

- THE TERMILIA HAS UPGRADED TO A NEW, MADDER MODEL. You'll note the feel of this whole thing is REALLY CLOSE to the intimidation of vicious, brainwashed Aiolia later on. All of that was legit in him. That's why it's still interesting as a facet of his character.

- Lia throwing out the "kono Aiolias" left and right. Considering his earlier talk about how much he hated his brother and wanted to surpass him, are we projecting a little bit onto this new kid wearing his Cloth, Lia? Maybe... maybe a little?

- "Aiolia, why are you so loyal to the Pope!?" "BECAUSE I AM DEEPLY TRAUMATIZED--I MEAN, BECAUSE, UH, HE'S A GREAT MAN! YEAH! FUCK YOU!"

- Lia's face when Hyouga and Shun arrive on the scene. YIKES.

- And here when he effortlessly blocks Hyouga and Shun's attacks, with a "lol, you're really going to try to fight KONO AIOLIA, the gold saint?" Again, the contempt and sneering just drips off of him - he's actively mocking them - in a way that is totally, one hundred percent consistent with the way he acts when he is brainwashed, and against Hades's mooks much later. Again, holy shit, I would LOVE to get actual insight into Lia's brain re: his opinion of Milo and the Silvers.

- It is sort of sad, though, as the more pissed off and frustrated Aiolia is obviously getting - jesus christ he just came here to murder some kids out of self-loathing, and then this bullshit with Shaina, and then that bullshit with the Silver Saints, and then the MEGA FUCKING BULLSHIT of Seiya putting on his brother's Cloth and actually hitting him, and now THESE little shits show up and complicate things even more - it feels like he more forcefully repeats those rote robot-lines about "as a saint, for justice, in the name of Athena, pope is like a GOD." Aiolia has issues, man.

- As the Bronzies keep challenging him, we get another shot of Aiolia's shaking, clenched fist. Once again I must emphasize that his VA is doing a fucking amazing job of continuing to escalate Lia's various shades of mad and the various levels of "I am seriously point two seconds away from ripping you little shits apart"

- Yes, Aiolia is refusing to listen and obviously repeating lines he's been "fed" - but once again, I don't think it's stupidity, per se. It's thirteen years of trauma where he had to crush out any personal doubts in order to survive in the environment he was in. But god these kids are making it HARD and reviving OLD FEELINGS and that's PISSING HIM OFF so they GOTTA FUCKING DIE because SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP.

- Hi Saori! Thanks for showing before everyone died!

- Leo "Fuck you I don't have time for this bullshit" Aiolia vs Kido "Fuck YOU I don't have time for this bullshit" Saori, go!

- I like how Lia refers to Aiolos by his name here, and as "the traitor Aiolos", though we see how in private, in his head, he still called him "nii-san" and he reverts to "nii-san" fully once he knows the truth. Aiolia had a hard life.

- thanks for the unnecessary flashback, episode, this writeup is already getting too long doot doot doot

- It's very hard to be told that "welp, I coped and doubted myself and twisted my thoughts and sense of self for thirteen years for nothing huh!" And I appreciate that Lia doesn't instantly believe her - he needs hard proof, because otherwise it means pretty much his whole life and everything he "worked" for just falls apart. He wouldn't be a bad fit as an Umineko character, really! <_<

- Saori selectively leaving out that Mitsumasa was also a horrible person but okay BABY SAORI IS CUTE AS FUUUUUUCKKKKKKKK

- God I love that Aiolia was totally willing to murder this young girl, too, to test if she was bullshitting him about being Athena. He was really going to try to punch her fucking head off. Aiolia owns.

- I LOVE SAORI FOR CALMLY AGREEING IT TOO HAVE I MENTIONED I FUCKING LOVE HER AND THAT SHE IS THE COOLEST?

- Lia's response to Seiya's outrage at the way he demands "proof." Even though it's brief, you really do get a sense of the weight of what Lia has been struggling with since Aiolos was framed, and how hard it is for him to just throw it all aside. And his "I need it!" re: proof.

- The ghost of Aiolos finally shows up, after all this time - exclusively to shit on his little brother. Hoo boy.

- It REALLY feels like twisting the knife for Aiolos to shoot him with basically "You're not only unworthy of being a Saint, you're unworthy of being my brother! You fuckup! You moron!" Like, again, if this is an indication of Aiolos's parenting methods with training Lia, uh... no wonder Lia has such deep-set issues...

- Like, Aiolia has legitimately suffered a LOT because of Aiolos's actions all this time, so to not have a single shred of compassion and only a very stony "you fucking failure" is pretty. Uh.

- Not that Lia challenges this himself, of course, as he cries over the fact that Los wasn't a traitor and "still fights for justice." Fully indoctrinated, after all!

- "I'm not suicidal over these developments or anything. Nope. Totally not running off here to get myself killed in atonement, encouraged by my brother's ghost who was yelling at me over what a sin I've committed. Not at all. Pay no attention to the sad lion behind the curtain!"

- Doesn't escape Saori's notice, either, as she quietly asks Lia not to die as he heads off.

- And Leo Aiolia exits the episode just as he entered it: in desperate, desperate, desperate need of some serious fucking therapy.

#rewatching sts #aquarius camus did nothing wrong

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zetina · 6 years

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hey i watched Venom and it made me wanna rewatch Kill la Kill

i had many racing thoughts after seeing it and i figured i might as well barf them all over tumblr instead of making a mile-long twitter thread. i’ll try to... write with proper capitalization and stuff now...

whut... It was a fun watch, which is why I probably give a fuck in the first place. But booooooy it takes its time getting there. I’d have... shrunk the whole introduction bit by a mile and used that extra time to make me believe that Venom and Brock have a bond which makes the former wanna save Earth.

Like, is establishing Brock’s previous happy life even needed? Who gives a fuck how cute his girlfriend is? Do we even need all that stuff about Big Bad Corporation? I guesssss it’s important in that... this is relevant to current society sense. But it took so much damn time. And because the plot is like “Hey, environment, but at the cost of being inhumane” or w/e, the “the two losers who bonded” angle doesn’t shine much.

Plus, not entirely... understanding the powers here... Does Venom have a “spider sense” or not? He can tell bad buys are approaching, but then he can’t sense other things. What are his limits in terms of controlling Brock?? His senses??? Also: “I know everything about you - I’m in your head. ...Who’s Annie?”

AND BOI THE SEQUEL-BAITING... I thought maybe they weren’t doing Carnage ‘cause it’d cost too much... But I GUESS IT’S ‘CAUSE THEY WANTED TO DO A SEQUEL OKAY. How convenient is it that Brock’s GF was compatible with Venom too? Or is that a statement on how compatible all three of them are? THREESOME? POLYGAMY? WHY THE FUCK IS VENOM GIVING BROCK GOOD RELATIONSHIP ADVICE WHAT THE HECK

and zet tried to write a fanfic

OKAY SO... Here’s what I thought could be another way to make a Venom movie. It’s nothing original, and it’s a lot of my bias talking... I’m just spitballing here.

So, let’s say we nick the sequel plans and just do a Venom vs. Carnage movie from the start. Reasons I believe it would work:

Riot’s boring - he looks just like Venom anyway who cares.

No time wasted on long-ass introductions for how the symbiotes got here. Spider-man 3 just had it crash randomly. What else do you need, really?

Contrasts Eddie with his counterpart, elevating his good traits and maybe actually resonating with people as the rise of a downtrodden underdog.

More time for Venom. Venom Venom Venom.

If you’ve read/watched Inuyashiki, you might know where I’m going with this. One loser gets power - refuses to let it run rampant doing evil and indulging desires. Other loser gets power - embraces the power to act on violent desires. (Except in Inuyashiki it’s not a loser who goes on killing.)

So while we get Carnage being... Well, carnage... We’d have Eddie trying not to be an arsehole. Eventually, Eddie and Venom bond as individuals as they did in the movie, but enough to potentially make me cry if Venom sacrificed himself (I wouldn’t buy it anyway). As in... I’d be able to understand why Venom changed his tune??? He likes Eddie...? Okay... I need more wholesome host x symbiote friendship, thank you.

I’d start the movie smackdab at Eddie’s lowest point - shamed out of New York, bumming around in SanFran, an ex who’s doing just fine without him while no one gives him the time of day. Something like that. Then the “6 months later” wouldn’t be needed either... Where Riot just got... really attached to being the old lady and hanging around in Malaysia that whole time, I guess.

Oh, and of course Venom would bite off the heads of bad, bad criminals lol.

Obviously this isn’t a full plot... I’m bad at that part;;;; I just like spitting out ideas and themes and scenes, but don’t always know how to fill things in.

Anyway, I think I got it all out of my system. I’m sorry if you actually read all of this and it was awful and boring, haha~

#venom #venom movie #rambling #purely zet #tldr it was fun but dumb and made me wanna see more parasite x host friendship #there was that YA abt parasites wasn't there #oh and i guess i gotta finally read Parasyte #yeah that's it #that's the one #remind me of more stories with this kinda stuff

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jilliancares · 7 years

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A Game for Those Who Seek to Find a Way to Leave Their World Behind

Summary: In which Dan finds a strange board game and ends up playing it (and releasing its horrors) with his best friend Carrie and arch enemy, Phil.

Word Count: 6.9k

TW: uhh there’s just some kind of horrifying things in there so idk good luck

Genre: angst? i guess? but it’s a happy end it’s like good angst

this is a thing now because i rewatched jumanji today and felt inspired (if you haven’t watched the movie it’s literally amazing you can find it online..... completely..... not illegal... ahem)(you can still read this even if you haven’t watched the movie but it’ll be better if you have probably)

Dan huffed angrily and slammed the door behind him, sadistically entertained when it resounded with a thud and his father’s angry voice followed behind him: “And don’t slam the doors!” He was glad to be out of his house, which felt stuffy and overcrowded despite the fact that it was only him and his parents living in it. He was convinced that they were taking up too much room, what with their egos so inflated.

Heart pounding with anger, Dan stomped into the woods to sulk, kicking stray branches and rocks as if they were the ones that’d offended him. He was getting into fights with his parents all the time, though he was sure that it was their fault rather than his. They didn’t understand him and didn’t bother to try to either, instead writing all his problems off as him being a dumb teenager whose problems weren’t serious enough to actually consider. It was because of this that he didn’t ever plan on telling them he was gay—he could imagine it now, how they would tell him it was just a phase or some bullshit like that. He was sixteen and hadn’t had a speck of interest in girls in his entire life, he was pretty sure he could tell his sexuality for himself, thanks.

Seated on a rock, Dan threw pebbles into the creek before him. It didn’t do much to alleviate his anger—he’d much rather chop down a tree or something drastic like that—but it was good enough to pass the time. He didn’t want to have to go back into his house any time soon.

It was just as he’d scooped up a fresh pile of pebbles that he heard it and paused in confusion. Straining his ears, Dan sat quite still and listened.

It was quiet, and kind of far off but… it was unmistakable. He was hearing drums.

Dan’s curiosity got the best of him and, without anything better to do, he climbed to his feet and set off down the river, looking around curiously as the drums grew louder the further he walked. They got louder and louder, so loud they were almost deafening, and still Dan didn’t see the source of the noise. Unease gripped him, so strong that he almost wondered if leaving his backyard had been a mistake, when he suddenly tripped on a rock and went flying forward, only to land roughly on the ground.

Groaning, Dan began to sit up, before realizing that he was face to face with a strange box, hidden half in the water and overlapped by rocks. The second he laid eyes on it, the drumming stopped.

Filled with apprehension, though curiosity as well, he reached out and grabbed the box, pulling it free of the surrounding rocks. It was worn and brown, and when he turned it over he saw a title written across the front: Jumanji.

Dan flipped open the sides of the lid, realizing at once that the thing he was looking at was a board game. And written on the side: Jumanji: A game for those who seek to find a way to leave their world behind. You roll the dice to move your token—doubles gets another turn; the first player to reach the end wins.

This sounded like exactly the game for Dan. He’d love to leave his world—and parents—behind for a little while, and feeling excited, he jumped to his feet and closed the game, crossing over the river and heading in the direction of Carrie’s house. Carrie was his best friend, and she’d do anything for Dan if he begged her enough.

Dan knocked on her front door mere minutes later, unsurprised to see that there weren’t any cars in the driveway. Her parents were rarely home—something Dan was immensely jealous of. The door swung open to reveal Carrie.

“Carrie!” Dan said excitedly, already inviting himself inside. “I’m glad you’re home.”

“What’s going on?”

“Well, I was upset because of a fight with my parents—”

“Again?”

“But I found this cool game in the river. Look.”

Carrie frowned, peering down at the box in his hands. “Listen, Dan,” she said. “I don’t know if now’s the best time…”

Ignoring her, Dan strutted into the living room, stopping immediately when he spotted Phil Lester.

“What’s he doing here?” Dan sneered. He knew that Carrie was friends with Phil, which was her only bad quality, honestly. He loved everything about her, other than the fact that she’d somehow come to be acquaintances with Phil Lester. He was a right arse, and he raised an eyebrow at Dan now, completely ignoring the venomous looks Dan was sending his way.

“Come on guys,” Carrie pleaded. “You know this stupid rivalry between you two is getting old.”

“Oh, well in that case, it’s about time we became friends!” Dan said sarcastically. Phil rolled his eyes.

“I apologize, Carrie,” Phil said, and Dan imitated him behind Carrie’s back. I apologize, Carrie. “I just don’t think I can get along with your… simpler… friends.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Dan scoffed, and Carrie groaned. This was why she never let the two of them near each other, if she could help it.

“Why don’t we all play the board game together?” Carrie suggested, gesturing to the game still held at Dan’s side. Dan wrinkled his nose.

“I don’t play board games with Phil Lester,” he said immediately.

“Scared I’ll win?” Phil rebutted.

With an angry huff, Dan slammed the game onto the table in front of Phil, letting the lids flap open. Phil didn’t deserve to play a board game as cool as this one looked, but he wasn’t going to take any shit from the other boy. Not to mention the fact that he didn’t really have anywhere else to go, and this might be better—or at least more entertaining—than going back to his house. And hopefully this way he could wipe the board with Phil’s smarmy arse and rub it in his face for the next weeks to come.

“Adventurers beware?” Phil read, reading the side flap. Dan looked up in confusion, before realizing that there was writing on both of the inside covers of the lid, and he’d only read the one. “Do not begin unless you intend to finish,” Phil continued. “The exciting consequences of the game will vanish only when a player has reached Jumanji and called out its name.”

“The hell’s that supposed to mean?” Carrie muttered.

“It’s probably just the instructions,” Dan shrugged. “Supposed to sound creepy and intense. So? Are you playing or not?”

“I guess,” Phil sighed, sounding put-upon, but he dragged himself off the couch and sat on his knees in front of the coffee table regardless. Dan opened a compartment in the lid, pulling out three game pieces: an elephant, a rhinoceros, and a monkey. Dan set them down on the board, and flinched as they suddenly flew to its edges, stuck to their starting squares.

“What the fuck?” Phil breathed, and Carrie reached towards one of the pieces, trying to pull it off the board.

“It’s stuck,” she relayed, and Dan swallowed sort of uncomfortably. What were they getting themselves into? One look at Phil, however, had Dan sure that he wouldn’t back down, and so he cleared his throat.

“There’s probably some sort of magnet in them, or something,” he said unconvincingly. “Who wants to go first?”

“I will,” Phil said, holding out his hand for the dice. Dan rolled his eyes, finding this typical. Of course Phil would want to go first, thinking he’d probably get a good roll and get a good head start. He shook his hand before releasing the dice on the board. Immediately, his rhino piece began sliding the appropriate number of spaces forward, making them all flinch backwards in surprise, and the black sphere in the center started to shimmer before green letters appeared.

Before you can reach the end of this

A lover’s lips you’ll have to kiss

Phil raised an eyebrow at the board, before directing his stare at Dan. “Where’d you get his game again?”

“Found it in the creek,” Dan said, before reaching for the dice himself. Phil sighed in annoyance.

“It doesn’t even seem very fun. What did those words mean, anyway?” They’d faded by now, but all three of them had leaned forward to read them, surprised at their appearance in the first place. Dan’s guess was that it worked sort of like a magic eight ball, different responses coming up at random.

“I don’t know,” Dan admitted. “Maybe it’s kind of like a truth or dare game tied in. If you reach the end before Carrie or me, you’ll have to go kiss someone to truly win.”

Phil scoffed. “This game is stupid,” he muttered, and Dan just shook his head in annoyance. Phil was probably only good for complaining anyway. He rolled the dice.

If you find the dice reads eight

Your legs won’t work, to no abate

If you find the dice reads five

From your mouth words won’t arrive

“That’s strange,” Dan muttered, blinking as the words began to fade away. “What, if one of you rolls an eight, my piece can’t move anymore? That’s not fair.”

“I hope I roll a five,” Phil laughed. “Then I won’t have to listen to you talk.” Carrie gave him a reprimanding look for this, before reaching for the dice herself and tossing them onto the board.

Beware the pictures on the walls

They’re not as still as you recall

Dan read the words with a confused tilt of his head, wondering what sort of challenge that was supposed to be. Suddenly, however, Phil let out a gasp and shot to his feet. “Behind you!”

Dan whipped his head around, only to watch in horror as fingers gripped the edges of a painting on the wall, pulling behind it the rest of a person’s body. It was like watching the girl from the ring emerging from the tv, only this was real, and Dan was experiencing it. The girl looked up at them, looking exactly like the one in the painting that’d adorned Carrie’s living room wall for as long as Dan could remember, except her eyes were all black.

Her lips pulled up into an eery grin, more reptilian than human, and her teeth were razor sharp. With that, she let out a hiss, and bounded forward towards Dan.

“Run!” Dan shrieked, and he jumped to his feet, stumbling out of the way just as the girl charged past him. Phil snatched the game from the table and sprinted out of the room, Dan and Carrie hot on his tail.

“What the fuck is happening?” Carrie gasped, as they charged into the kitchen and slammed the door behind them. Phil flung the game onto the counter, as if it’d burned him.

“I am not playing that,” he spat, and Dan looked between him and the board game desperately.

“You have to!” Dan burst suddenly, realizing, horrified, what the instructions actually meant.

“Are you out of your mind?” Phil demanded. “You’d have to be mad to expect me to play after that… that thing crawled out of the painting!”

“But if you don’t play, it won’t go away,” Dan pointed out. “Do not begin unless you intend to finish—we have to beat the game if we want it to return to its painting.”

“Or we could just kill it,” Phil suggested, although now he was sounding uncertain. Just then, a rhythmic banging began on the kitchen door.

“It followed us,” Carrie moaned. And then, banging—but now from the wall on the opposite side of the room.

“Carrie…” Dan whispered. “Just how many paintings do you have in your house?” As he spoke—more banging. Now from the ceiling above them; and more, from another wall, and another! Phil paled, realizing that they had no clue what the painting-monsters were capable of, and finally suspecting that they wouldn’t be able to kill them all.

“A million!” Carrie despaired. “My parents—they love art!” The banging resounded all around them, and scratching as well, as if they were all dragging their nails over the surfaces between them again and again, hoping to dig through the walls.

“We have to get out of here,” Dan said suddenly, taking charge. “Let’s get somewhere safe and beat the game.”

Looking like they wanted to protest, though without any better ideas, Phil and Carrie followed Dan to the kitchen window, which he threw open before climbing out of. They followed after him and hurried away from the house, hoping none of the painting creatures could follow. They found themselves running instead into the woods, where they set the game onto a large rock and settled around it.

“Ready?” Dan asked, words that were clearly dreaded by both Carrie and Phil. Neither of them wanted to continue the game, but it wasn’t like they could just leave those probably deadly creatures in Carrie’s house, and so Phil ended up reaching out a hand for the dice.

“Ready,” he said solemnly. They all watched anxiously, their differences forgotten, as Phil rolled the dice and got a six, each die presenting a three. Dan felt like his stomach was in knots as his piece eerily moved by itself, before they all crowded over the top of the board, watching as the letters shimmered into place.

They come in packs

And bring bad omens

Beware of Death

When seen roaming

They all whipped their heads around frantically, looking for whatever nightmarish creature was going to appear next. Nothing appeared, however, not even when they waited for five minutes, even choosing to get to their feet in preparation to run.

“Maybe it’s not going to come right away,” Carrie suggested, sounding hopeful. “It said to beware of death when we see them roaming, but it didn’t say when that’d be.”

“Hopefully we can beat the game before we see them then,” Phil muttered, and silently held out the dice toward Dan.

“No,” Dan said firmly. “You rolled doubles—you go again.”

Phil looked shocked for a moment, and a bit frightened, but he visibly steadied himself. “Oh yeah. Forgot.”

With bated breath, they all watched as Phil rolled the dice. His rhino game piece slid forward on its own, and feeling like he might throw up, Dan leaned over Carrie to watch as the words appeared.

In the dark, you must stay

Until the game has finished play

“In the dark—” Carrie began to read aloud, but was immediately cut off by Phil crying out. His eyes were wide and frantic, and they darted about every which way.

“What’s wrong?” Dan demanded, and Phil flinched at the sound of his voice.

“I—I can’t see!” he gasped, and Carrie let out a horrified squeal. Dan stared down at the letters once more, sickened, but they’d already begun to fade away.

“It’s okay,” Dan comforted, though really he felt like he might be sick. Phil was blind right now—Dan couldn’t imagine being in that situation. And from the sound of it, he would be blind until the game was over, however long that took them. What if something happened to the board and they couldn’t complete it? Would Phil be blind forever? “We’re right here with you, we won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Oh yeah right, like I can trust you,” Phil spat. He flinched as Carrie reached over and touched his arm, but accepted it when she ended up gripping his hand instead. He continued to clutch it, looking feverish, as though it was his only tether to the world.

“We just have to keep playing,” Dan pointed out. “Once we finish, you’ll be able to see again—it says so in the instructions.”

“Fine!” Phil yelled, but Dan noticed that he looked distinctly more fearful than he did angry. “Roll, then.”

Dan had momentarily forgotten that it was his turn, and he reached out shakily for the dice. He was reminded anew of what horrors might be waiting for them, though he reasoned, silently, that he wasn’t likely to go blind as well, seeing as Phil already had. He rolled a two, each die landing on one. Dan cursed his luck at getting doubles as well.

Through your eyes, it can thrive

So close them if you wish to hide

“What…” Dan whispered. What could possibly…

“What?” Phil demanded. What does it say?

“It says to close our eyes,” Carrie relayed. “That it can see through them.”

“Good thing I’m already blind, then,” Phil pointed out bitterly, and Dan looked up at him, only to keep staring in shock. Behind Phil stood a figure, looking more ghost than man. It was like seeing a shadow, but instead of being flat on the ground, it stood tall—and where its eyes should be were only white. As Dan noticed this detail, an unmistakable grin unleashed itself across the creature’s face.

“Fuck!” Dan yelled, and he hurriedly squeezed his eyes shut. “Phil run! It’s behind you!”

Blinded by his own eyelids, Dan listened to the frantic scramble as Phil charged forwards, the unmistakable sound of leaves and branches cracking under his feet as he plowed towards—

“Oof!” Dan cried, suddenly knocked onto the ground, and instinctively, he opened his eyes. Immediately the figure—which had been standing where Phil had previously occupied—turned to face them, its sickening smile back on its face.

With a curse, Dan shoved Phil off him and jumped to his feet. “Get the game, Carrie!” he commanded, gasping as something clutched his leg. It was only Phil, however, who was actually blind, and Dan grabbed his hand instinctively as he started charging through the woods, one hand held out in front of them in hopes of not running head-first into a tree.

Their footsteps were loud as they crashed through the leaves and underbrush of the forest, though, from what Dan could tell, the creature didn’t seem to be gaining on them. Perhaps it couldn’t hear—the game had said that it saw through their eyes, not that it heard through their ears.

“Where are we going?” Carrie panted sometime later. Phil’s hand was sweaty in Dan’s grip, though he wasn’t sure if it was his sweat or Phil’s. Either way, Phil wasn’t complaining about it, and so Dan was grateful.

“No idea,” Dan readily admitted. After all, he could see no more than Carrie could. “Should we look around? See if it’s still following us?”

Instead of answering his question, Carrie said: “I don’t see anything.” Tentatively, Dan peeked through squinted eyes, scanning the surrounding forest carefully, prepared to shut them the moment he saw a creepy figure. Instead, he saw nothing but forest all around them, and he let out a sigh of relief.

“I think we lost it.” Phil leaned heavily against him for a moment, at that, and Dan tolerated it for a few seconds before shoving him off.

Carrie propped open the dreaded game at this news, and Dan glared at it, not excited to see its return. He dreaded what horrors would escape from it next, and he reluctantly sat down before it, realizing belatedly that it was, once again, his turn.

The dice felt malevolent in his palm, and Dan threw them, hoping for the highest number. He just wanted to reach the center of the board already, wanted to reach Jumanji. The dice landed—three. He groaned inwardly, though it quickly became clear that his low roll was the least of his problems.

Soon you shall see

Through your teeth’s clench

That though you’re hungry

Food cannot quench

“The hell?” Dan muttered, after reading the words allowed for Phil’s benefit. “What, I’m gonna be hungry forever or something?” Moments after he said this, however, he buckled over, clutching his stomach. It hurt.

“Dan?” Carrie called desperately, and he felt her hand on his shoulder. “Dan? What’s wrong?”

Dan groaned in response. Hungry, he thought. He opened his mouth to convey this, but his mouth was hurting too, aching horribly. He raised a hand to his mouth and had just barely opened it, prepared to allow his own finger inside, when a sharp sting exploded on his lip. With a hiss, Dan wiped the blood from his mouth. He’d cut his lip? With his teeth?

Dan tried not to move his mouth again, instead breathing deeply through his nose, except that he could smell something delicious nearby. It was mouthwatering, and Dan wanted nothing more than to find it, whatever it was.

Suddenly ravenous, Dan stood up straight, looking around wildly for the source of the smell.

“Dan?” Carrie said tentatively, and Dan spun to face her. He felt drunk the next moment, when he inhaled and smelt something so strong, so wonderful. Unable to help himself, he pounced, knocking her firmly to the ground and shoving her face into the dirt, bearing her neck to him.

Blood—yes, he needed blood! God—good, hot, delicious blood—he needed it thick and warm in his mouth, needed it in his stomach, all of it. Needed to not be hungry, to be full of delicious, wonderful, blood.

Carrie was screaming, which was God damn, annoying—his ears seemed more sensitive than normal. Dan planned to shut her up immediately. He bent over her, teeth pressed against her neck, when suddenly he was hauled backwards, his hands pinned to his sides.

“Let me go!” he roared.

“No!” Phil shouted back, and Dan struggled twice as hard. God, he hated that stupid, smarmy git! He would suck all the blood from his body! He would rip his throat from his neck! He’d eat his face, God! He didn’t even know how Phil had gotten to him, being blind and all, although maybe he’d heard Dan desperately panting over Carrie’s neck.

“I’m going to fucking eat you, Lester!” Dan cried, kicking his feet into the air.

“Dan, no!” Carrie cried, and suddenly she was pinning him down too, and Phil was sliding out from underneath him, until they were both holding him tightly in place and Dan was whipping his head from side to side, breathing in so harshly as if he could suck them closer to him, just for one bite, one sip!

“You can’t!” Carrie insisted, and suddenly she smacked him, hard, right across the face. “Fucking concentrate Dan. You don’t want to eat Phil. You want to beat the game and be human again.”

Dan struggled to concentrate on her words, but they rang true in his ears, and slowly, he nodded.

“Can we let you go?” she asked. Dan thought about it. He was hungry, yes, but a quiet part in the back of his head was steadily insisting that it didn’t want to consume his best friend. Or his… friend’s friend. Bad choice of friend. Phil probably tasted disgusting anyway.

Finally, Dan nodded. When both her and Phil let go of him, they backed away just in case, and Dan did the same before sitting down and hugging his knees to his chest. He tried to push his hunger out of his mind, tried to concentrate on what they needed to get done.

“Your go, Carrie,” he said through gritted (sharp) teeth. After rolling her dice (ten) she read aloud:

It destroys much in its path

And leaves a wretched aftermath

It’s cold and quick and fast and strong

It’d be wrong to stay—it won’t be long

“Jesus, we’re gonna have to run again?” Carrie demanded.

“I’m starting to wish I’d joined the track team,” Dan conveyed, and was surprised when Phil actually laughed. His laughter ceased quickly though, as the temperature around them rapidly dropped, and the wind picked up with a sudden ferocity.

“It couldn’t be…” he said tentatively, his unseeing eyes staring slightly to the left of Dan. “It couldn’t be a tornado, could it?”

The game, as if having a laugh, decided to prove that it could. The wind began howling in their ears, tearing at their clothes and ripping at their hair. Dan darted forward and grabbed Phil’s hand once more, his hunger momentarily forgotten as he began to lead them away from the wind. A glance behind them showed that there was a tornado not far off, and as Dan watched, a tree was ripped right out of the ground and sucked into it.

It quickly became apparent that they weren’t going to be able to outrun this thing (despite the fact that Dan felt strangely not tired), and so they exercised their next best option. They took shelter underneath a large boulder with a low overhang which the three of them shoved themselves under. It was crowded and definitely not as safe as Dan would’ve liked, but he accepted it for what it was. Carrie still had the game in her arms, which she was clinging to tightly as if the tornado might drag it away. Dan was pressed up completely against her side, and Phil was clinging to him from the other side, both of his hand buried in Dan’s shirt. Despite the terror from the tornado, he was starting to feel hungry again. He could feel them both pressed against him, warm with blood pounding freshly through their veins. Dan shook his head.

The roaring of the tornado grew steadily louder, and Dan wondered just what the hell would happen if they all died in it. Would the game reset automatically? Or would it and all its horrors stick around and continue to haunt their neighborhood?

“You should roll!” Dan shouted, over the sound of the tornado. A loud groan filled the air, quickly followed by crashes and harsh, sharp snaps. If Dan had to guess, he’d say that another tree had just been sucked into the tornado. He clenched his eyes shut as his stomach rolled, Carrie having turned her head to look at him and sent her scent wafting over him.

“What, and have a tornado and something else? What if fucking sharks start raining from the sky?”

“Sharks?” Dan said incredulously.

“I don’t know! Bears! Something!”

“Maybe the tornado will stop though,” Phil suggested hopefully. He gasped against Dan’s ear as another earsplitting crack echoed through the air. Dan didn’t say anything as he pressed even closer, his fingers digging knots into Dan’s shirt. Dan was going to eat him. He was going to have to eat him, he smelled so—fuck!

“Fine!” Carrie spat, and she unfolded the game in what little space they had and retrieved the dice. The second they hit the board the colossal roar around them quieted, and all that could be heard was their harsh breathing for a few moments. “Eight,” she said aloud. The board read:

Now you’ll find it can get quite cold

despite it breaking the season’s mold

“God dammit,” Carrie whispered.

“We’ll have to go inside,” Phil said, and they both began climbing out from under the rock.

“Wait!” Dan cried, trying to struggle forward to no avail.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t—I can’t feel my legs,” Dan said, using his hands to drag himself out from under the boulder.

“Fuck!” Phil suddenly cried. And then he repeated Dan’s first roll: “If you find the dice reads eight, your legs won’t work, to no abate.”

“I forgot about that,” Dan whispered, and then Carrie and Phil were grabbing his arms and hauling him out from under the rock. He was soon situated on Phil’s back, his arms around Phil’s shoulders, his legs dangling uselessly around Phil’s waist. The smell of Phil’s blood was overwhelming when he was this close, his neck offered to Dan practically on a silver platter.

“We have to go,” Carrie was saying, and her hand was intertwined with Phil’s, leading him forward, but Dan couldn’t concentrate. He pressed him nose against Phil’s neck, inhaling deeply.

“Uh… Dan…” Phil began, but Dan ignored them. He didn’t care. He didn’t care about them or this stupid game or anything. Dan clenched Phil’s shoulders powerfully with a sudden, renewed vigor, and he sunk his teeth into Phil’s neck, moaning as the first drops of blood graced his tongue. He sucked, drawing gulping mouthfuls of warm blood into his mouth and swallowing greedily, moaning at the wonderful, marvelous taste.

Vaguely, he could hear a girl screaming and yelling, but that was irrelevant when he was experiencing the pleasure of this. Suddenly, a blow landed to his head, and Dan was flung from Phil’s body before slamming into the ground, unable to move again. Phil was glaring in his general direction, once hand clutching his neck, fingers red, and Carrie looked absolutely furious.

Suddenly, Dan remembered just what the fuck was going on, and he stopped being angry and indignant and starting being apologetic. “Oh shit!” he cried. “I’m so sorry! Phil I’m so sorry!”

“You’re a piece of shit,” Phil stated, and Dan nodded. He wasn’t wrong, after all.

“I couldn’t help it…”

Giant clumps of snow started raining from the sky then, and they all stared up at in in horror (Phil sightlessly). After all, it was the middle of the summer. Still, they should stop being so surprised by out-of-the-ordinary things—it wasn’t like the game wasn’t warning them first.

“We have to go,” Carrie said briskly. “I don’t doubt that this will turn into a blizzard in no time—we have to get indoors.”

“Look!” Dan gasped.

“Look,” Phil imitated in falsetto, obviously still peeved. But Carrie gave the appropriate response, gasping when she laid eyes on the figures in the distance. They were huge, prowling dogs, much larger than any dog Dan had ever seen.

“Giant dogs…” Dan muttered.

“No,” Carrie said. “Hellhounds. Omens of death.”

“Now?” Phil moaned. “So we’re gonna die?”

“Maybe they’re gonna chase us,” Carrie suggested.

“They’d better not. I can’t run,” Dan pointed out.

“We have to get out of here,” Phil said. The snow was building up quickly on the ground, which he could no doubt feel, even if he couldn’t see it. Dan readily agreed.

“I won’t suck your blood this time, I promise,” Dan said, and Phil kicked snow in his general direction.

“If you do, I won’t pick you up again,” Phil muttered, and then Dan was being, once more, lifted onto Phil’s back. He was good this time, just clinging on and not drinking Phil’s blood. He felt much less ravenous now that he’d had some, and he didn’t feel so out of control that he’d end up drinking anyone else’s blood any time soon.

He kept a sharp eye on the hellhounds, expecting them to come charging at any minute, but they didn’t. They just sat and stared creepily from the distance, their eyes dark, dark, dark.

“We can go to my house,” Dan suggested. “It’s closest.”

When they arrived, the wind was howling and the snow was falling fast and fierce. Already it was more than a foot high, and Phil and Carrie had had to work hard to get through it. Once inside Dan’s house, they breathed a sigh of relief, knowing they weren’t going to die of the cold.

“Maybe we shouldn’t play for a while,” Carrie suggested. “I mean, we’re safe for now—we could just take a break.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Dan said, and Phil helped him sit on the counter. Phil then felt his way over to one of the kitchen chairs, which he immediately sunk into. “The snow might not stop until we roll again.”

“And Dan might lose control and kill one of us,” Phil pointed out. Dan huffed.

“I won’t,” he protested, but his friends ignored him.

“We have to be smart, though,” Carrie pointed out. “If something like those paintings coming to life happens again, we’ll have nowhere to run—we’re snowed in.” She was right. Even during the few minutes they’d been inside, the snow seemed to have doubled.

“We should prepare ourselves then,” Dan said. “You know, get weapons and things.”

“You start getting knives; I’ll go upstairs and grab blankets and things, just in case the heating breaks.”

With that, Carrie was leaving the kitchen and Dan was riffling through the drawers, sliding along the counter to get to them and searching for anything and everything they could use. Phil was silent where he was sitting.

“What do you think happens if one of us dies?” Phil asked, staring blindly at the counter top. Dan swallowed thickly. He’d thought the very same question many times himself.

“Well, I don’t know if I’m right but I’d imagine we’d be able to continue the game without the missing person,” Dan said slowly. “And then when we won, they’d be brought back to life.”

Phil shuffled uncomfortably. “It’s okay to be afraid,” Dan said softly.

“I’m not,” Phil snapped, and he crossed his arms over the countertop and put his head on them.

Dan turned away from the other boy, shaking his head with something like exasperation, and pulled open yet another drawer. He was just reaching for a wooden spatula, wondering if they could perhaps use it as a projectile, when a piercing sheik came from upstairs. Phil sat up immediately, and Dan spun around on the counter, his blood thrumming (eerily, Dan realized that his heart wasn’t pounding. And when had that stopped, exactly?)

“Carrie?” Dan yelled. “Phil, carry me!” he insisted, and then they were running to the stairs, Dan directing Phil hurriedly. “Carrie what’s wrong?”

Carrie appeared at the top of the stairs, pale and panting. “Don’t come up here,” she said quickly.

“What? What’s going on?” Dan demanded. Carrie bit her lip and looked behind herself cautiously, before turning back to Dan.

“Dan,” she said. “Your parents… your parents are dead.”

—

Seated around the table, Dan stared at the board game numbly. It was dark—mainly because the snow was half way up the windows and the cloudy cover had taken most of the sun’s rays with it. It’s just a game, he reminded himself. This’ll all be over when we beat the game.

“Are you okay?” Carrie asked softly. It took Dan a few moments to realize she was talking to him.

“What? Yeah. Of course,” he said stiffly. “Whose turn is it again?”

“Mine,” Phil said quietly. Dan pressed the dice into his hands, shivering when their fingers brushed each other.

“If you get a twelve, you win,” Dan said quietly. Phil nodded curtly. Getting a six on both dice was a minuscule possibility, and they all knew it.

Holding their breath, they watched as Phil rolled the dice. Dan ground his teeth together angrily as they both landed on three.

“Doubles,” Carrie said quickly, for Phil’s benefit. Dan read aloud:

They’ll come in dozens

Quick and sprite

The Raven’s cousin

Fast as light

Bang. Carrie shrieked, and they all spun to look out the window, where the sound had originated from (Phil instinctually, seeing as he couldn’t actually see what it was).

“What is it?” Phil demanded.

“Um…”

Bang. Thud. Bang. Thudbangthudthudbangthud.

Like rain, birds were flying into the window at top speed, red splotches of blood appearing where they hit. Uncaring for their survival one bit, they poured into the glass and sides of the house (from the sound of it), cracks spiderwebbing along the windows from the sheer force of their impact.

“Birds,” Dan quickly relayed. Phil looked shocked and horrified.

“I—I think they’re Stymphalian birds,” Carrie whispered. “From Greek mythology.”

“Who the fuck knows Greek mythology?” Phil demanded.

“What do they do?” Dan also demanded, his question more important.

“Well they’re—they’re flesh eating birds,” Carrie answered.

“Fucking perfect!” Dan yelled. With that, there was a crash somewhere upstairs, and Dan groaned. “Roll again Phil! Get a six and you win!”

The dice were shoved back into Phil’s hands, which he shook sporadically before throwing in the board’s general direction. One landed in the game, and the other hit the edge and when flying.

“One!” Dan called, looking at the die that had landed in the game. Carrie cursed and jumped to her feet, sprinted after the other one, still rolling, rolling, rolling. Dan could hear thudding from upstairs, birds colliding with walls and ceilings, their shrieks loud and maddening. The die rolled to a stop, and Carrie collapsed to his knees beside it.

“Six!” she called out, and flung herself back to the table to watch Phil’s piece. It slid all the way to the space before the black sphere, and then it stopped. Words appeared.

Before you can reach the end of this

A lover’s lips you’ll have to kiss

“Fuck!” Dan exclaimed. “You never kissed anyone.”

“I—what?”

“Before you can reach the end of this, a lover’s lips you’ll have to kiss,” Dan shouted. Somewhere close by, glass shattered. “Kiss him Carrie,” Dan commanded, throwing his arm out at her. She sent a worried look to Phil, who obviously didn’t see it.

“I don’t know if that’ll work…” Carrie said hesitantly.

“We’re about to get eaten alive by birds, fucking kiss him!” Dan yelled, and Carrie, possibly frightened by his shouting, leaned forward and pecked Phil on the lips. Dan watched the board eagerly, waiting for Phil’s piece to move into the center, but it stayed put. Dan let out a cry of despair.

“Why isn’t it working?”

“Because she’s not my lover,” Phil piped up. Dan growled.

“Well sooo-rry, but we don’t exactly have time to go traipsing around town to find whichever bint—”

Suddenly, Phil was stumbling in Dan’s direction—he can’t punch me blind, Dan randomly thought, half prepared to dodge—before he found himself with a lap full of Phil Lester, and then a mouth full of him. Phil kissed him fiercely, his teeth nipping at Dan’s lip, and Dan found himself clinging to Phil’s shoulders, half wondering why? and half not having a care in the world.

He felt supremely dizzy, almost as if the entire world were spinning around him, but that might’ve just been because of Phil’s tongue, which had swiped its way into Dan’s mouth. Dan enjoyed this for approximately two seconds before he panicked, thinking he was going to rip Phil’s tongue off with his fangs—which… weren’t there. Dan was suddenly completely aware of the fact that his mouth was back to normal, and he wrenched himself away from Phil when he heard someone clear their throat.

“So, the whole hating each other thing was just pent up sexual frustration?” Carrie pondered aloud.

“I—what?” Dan spluttered, stumbling away from Phil. Then he realized that they were in Carrie’s living room, not his, and he spun around wildly, looking wide-eyed at the painting behind him. It was very much occupied, the occupant quite still, and Dan breathed a sigh of relief. “I think you’re gonna have to get rid of that painting. And all of them.”

“I can see!” Phil suddenly shouted, realizing with a sudden clarity what all of this meant. Dan realized that he was standing as well, his legs in working order again.

“I can’t believe we’re alive,” Carrie whispered, and Dan sent a fearful look at the game. Jumanji.

“We have to get rid of that,” Dan said venomously, and together they stuffed the game into a bag, and then another bag, and another bag. Finally they sprawled ‘do not open’ across the outside and carried the bag with them. They went to the furthest reaches of town (via Phil’s car) and dumped it into the river, having shoved an abundance of rocks inside it as an incentive for it to sink. Faintly, Dan could hear drums, and he felt sick.

“Do you hear that?” Phil whispered.

“Ignore it,” Dan replied, goosebumps having risen all along his body.

After that, they dropped Carrie back at her house, where she claimed she was going to sleep for seven years after all the trauma (and exercise) she’d been through, before going to Dan’s. He was quite relieved to see his parents alive and breathing, though he wasn’t relieved when he remembered the argument they’d been having before he’d left.

Dan ended up taking Phil to his room, where they collapsed on his bed and cuddled, trying to keep their minds off the horrors they’d experienced that day. And once Dan got his strength back he planned to tell his parents that he was gay—after all, he didn’t really know what they’d say until he told them.

And while it was easy to say whole-heartedly that Jumanji sucked—Dan thought as Phil ran his hand through his hair—he couldn’t argue the fact that without it, he and Phil wouldn’t have… well, this.

“Hey Dan,” Phil said some time later, and Dan hummed inquisitively into his chest. “I knew I was going to win,” he laughed, and Dan pinched him. Phil might’ve won Jumanji, but Dan had won the real prize.

#phan #phanfic #phanfiction #jumanji #enemies to lovers #blind!phil #kind of #for a little bit #anway #i hope someone enjoys this!#i had a lot of fun writing it #i want to watch more great movies now

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