#the unsinkable ship of fools
Text
Errors, “Errors,” and Sci Fi
@strawberry-crocodile
tvtropes calls stuff like the wolf example "science matches on" which I think is a pretty fair shake
This. This is what’s got me thinking so much about errors. There’s a certain danger, here. A certain way that this particular effect — delicious dramatic irony — tempts the mind when reading old stories, even true ones.
What do you know about R.M.S. Titanic? I ask my class every year, and the first hand rises. “It was unsinkable,” the student inevitably says, and everyone is nodding, “or so they thought.” I write the word UNSINKABLE on the board, underneath my crude drawing of a ship with four smokestacks. It will be crossed out before the end of the hour, but not for the reason they expect.
“I find no evidence,” Walter Lord, preeminent biographer of the ship’s survivors, wrote, “that Titanic was ever advertised as unsinkable. This detail seems to have entered the collective mind so as to create a more perfect irony.” Indeed, historians’ examinations of White Star Line documents show the shipbuilders themselves worried it would be so large as to risk collision; they stocked several more lifeboats than 1910s regulations required.
The War to End All Wars (deep breath, satisfied exhale), also known as World War ONE. Chuckle. Shake of the head. What if I told you that this phrase, used primarily in American newspapers after the fact, wasn’t meant to be literal? Nowadays we’d say The Mother of All Wars, or One Hell of a Fucking War, but we wouldn’t mean literal motherhood, literal intercourse. What if I said the armistice and the Lost Generation and the Roaring 20s were all braced for another outbreak of European conflict, and yet we still failed to prevent it?
Did you know they were so confident in the safety of the S.S. Challenger that they put a civilian schoolteacher onboard? I do, because I’ve heard that one repeated many times. Only, see, it’s got the cause and effect reversed. Challenger launched on a day the shuttle’s engineers knew to be dangerously cold, because the first civilian in space was on board. And NASA knew its shuttle project would be cancelled entirely, if they couldn’t get that civilian’s much-delayed entry into space in the next two weeks. So they launched on a cold day, and killed her instead.
These are all what cognitive science calls Hindsight Bias on the personal level, what sociology calls Presentism on the cultural level. Social psychology’s a little of both, is primarily interested in why you’re sitting on your couch in a Colonize Mars shirt watching PBS and chuckling at the fools who believed in El Dorado. It wants to know why the mind flees straight from “marijuana will kill you” to “marijuana will cure cancer” without so much as a pause on the middle ground of its real benefits and drawbacks, its real (mild) risks and rewards.
And they can paralyze the sci-fi writer, if you think too much about them. Jetsons is futurist one decade, retro the next. “There are no bathrooms on the Enterprise,” the creators of Serenity say smugly, as if Gene Roddenberry should’ve simply known that decades later it’d be acceptable to show a man peeing in full view of the camera, nothing but the curve of the actor’s hand to protect his modesty. “No sound in space,” the Fandom Menace says, “No explosions in space,” and “A space station can’t collapse in zero-G.” Only then NASA burns a paper napkin outside of atmosphere, transmits music using only the ghost of nearby planets’ gravities, and logs onto Reddit long enough to point out the Death Star would implode in its own gravity field. And now we’re the ones pointing, the ones laughing, at those earlier point-and-laughers. Self-satisfied, smug in superiority. As if we did the work to find out ourselves, instead of just happening to be born a little later than George Lucas.
#errors#continuity#sci fi#presentism#star wars#titanic#world war i#science marches on#history#started a new post because i got waaaaaay off topic here#if you think the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (1993) should've had feathers#you're a lot more ignorant about paleontology than the people you're trying to criticize#science was not handed down to us in its perfect complete form circa 1943#stop for a second before you call out someone else's reptilian denonychus#someone else's oxygenated moon#and ask: am i better read#or am i just more recently born?
2K notes
·
View notes
Note
Let me test you two on your knowledge of history by asking this one question: Do you remember who "Unsinkable Sam" was?
"The cat who survived several ship wrecks? Once, I had Fujin fooled in believing that cat was an Osh-Tekk warrior, trapped within their wild shape and banished to Earthrealm to live and die as a cat. Hence, why the cat survived through such turmoil."
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
This was easy to ignore when it was some dumb meme but press have reported on it enough for Cameron to respond so let's go over why James Cameron would not be a good choice for the Titan implosion
(let's ignore the fact that his friend was on the sub)
Two things made Cameron uniquely qualified to direct a Titanic movie. First off the sinking is dramatic and chaotic. Passengers freaking out, the scramble for minimal lifeboats, cold water sliding in and pushing debris and disrupting apparatuses on board, it breaking in half, those in the water futilely waiting for rescue while they freeze to death etc. Horrifying stuff but damn exciting viewing that utilises Cameron's distinctive strengths as a genre action director: escalating the stakes and tension with vast scenarios that are naturally occurring but hit you out of nowhere and keep you gripped
The climax of Titanic is up there with Terminator 2 or Aliens: it's the Poseidon Adventure on acid and Jim takes every advantage of this opportunity
The Titan imploded in seconds on the first day according to most experts (the Navy likely knew this on the first day). There's no real rising action or tension unless you want to just make shit up.
The second? Well Jim loved the Titanic long looooong before he ever put pen to paper on the script
Guy's not just a director with a pitch-he's an oceanographic explorer with deep, intimate knowledge of that ship. He's not fascinated with the sinking, he's fascinated by the Titanic. He's been down there 33 times-he's BUILT his own sub! Guy's obsessed.
*HE DIDN'T EVEN WRITE THE FUCKING SCRIPT BECAUSE HE WANTED TO HE CONVINCED HOLLYWOOD TO FUND AN EFFORT TO DIVE DOWN TO THE FUCKING BOAT BECAUSE HE WANTED TO EXPLORE IT*
The Titan was a minor annoyance for him until it got his friend killed. So like he's not gonna have that passion or keen interest and also has a billion and a half Avatar movies to make. If you genuinely want this movie and are not just memeing he ain't your guy.
But also in general it'd make a shit narrative film. You know why there's a love story in Titanic? Because otherwise it's a laborious wait for the iceberg to hit or you have it immediately and forego all tension building. You need something to keep the audiences invested so they decided a love story. Jack and Rose are-of course-fictional but that's alright as there were fucking THOUSANDS of people on that ship it's easy to slot them in. The people on the Titan likely died Day 1 and died immediately. It was an incredibly tightknit space with five people. Not much narrative potential here unless again you entirely break from the story.
(not the picture of those who died sans Stockton Rush but gives you an idea of the size two people are snug in there)
So the meat of the film is on building up or the aftermath. While the aftermath could have some potential that's not the story-and this is something at a glance it DOES have in common with the Titanic: the hubris and utter arrogance of the wealthy.
And this is where I say the lifeboats are short-sighted and the irony of it sinking on its maiden voyage (this wasn't The Titan's first trip) this is more an accepted truism of not only the elite fools who invested in it but the engineers and public: this ship was unsinkable. Everybody thought this.
Nearly the entirety of the deepsea diving community told OceanGate their submersible was heading for disaster.
Stockton Rush was not some prideful but short-sighted man blinded to the risks of his vessel thanks to like-minded peers. He was an arrogant, greedy fool who wanted to create a rich person's tourist trap one of the most famous graveyards in the world via the cheapest resources possible. His Randian-levels of self-righteousness made him fish food and led to the horrific death of a teenager. He fucked around and I doubt he took the nanosecond before his body was eviscerated to contemplate how he found out
And here's the final thing: this all probably works best as a documentary. A deep dive (sorry) into this company and their blowhardy foolish methods to goad rich idiots out of their money. The factors that led to this. But that isn't a narrative story even focusing on the hubris angle. Because there is plenty of hubris in the Titanic-oh is there a lot!-but there's also a romanticisim. Hence why romance stories work so well when adapting it.
The Titanic is a symbol of a bygone era-and a lot of this is rooted in classism but that last gasping sighs of Victorian-era innovation is something to be marveled at feeling like a culmination of the invention of the steam-powered train. It also examines this classism (which the 97 film explores-albeit briefly) in that there were third class passengers and most of them died. It reveals the beauty and elegance of the era but also the abuse and callousness of a time 2 years before World War 1 changed everything. It perfectly encapsulates the majesties and the tragedies of this late 19th/early 20th century culture which I think is why so many people are fascinated by it. Our world just isn't built like this anymore.
Not only were the passengers fucking billionaires (so the class angle at least on the vessel is gone) the hubris is easy to sum up. We know this guy is a jackass-there's nothing as interesting following his jackassahoonery before the sub explodes compared to exploring the societal culture of a time long gone depicted on the Titanic.
So this isn't even a it's too soon thing-the first movie about the Titanic was made 30 days after it sunk and with one of the survivors (this was back when movies were made in five minutes at the budget of a cup of coffee). A narrative feature on the Titan is a boring idea and far far below the skillset of the director who newspapers are now saying should make it all because it exploded visiting a famous ship he made a famous movie about
Also, again, he's a bit busy making a fuckton of Avatar sequels I guess one person wants. That person being James Cameron.
#james cameron#james cameron titanic#titanic#titan sub#titanic sub#oceangate#titan film#deepsea exploration
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
What Doesn’t Kill Me
Day 29 of Whumptober
Sleep deprivation/ Defiance/ ‘Better me than you.’
Characters: Scotland, Wales
Day 28
--------
‘What are you doing still up?’
Wales sighed and leant back in his chair, pressing his fingers into his eyes, ‘Work.’
‘Aye, smart arse, I can see that.’
The door clicked shut and when Wales opened his eyes again Scotland was by his desk, placing a candle down gently on the dark wood. It was England’s desk, actually, a sturdy mahogany one that had been in his manor's study for centuries. These days England was very careful with it, working on a light rubber or wooden board covering the top so as to not scratch the surface but there were older gouges along the legs and sides, nicks and bumps from swords and daggers- some intentionally etched doodles from a younger, more frivolous version of England himself.
Scotland ran his finger over Wales’ personal favourite, an ugly looking caricature by the top most set of drawers that England had once claimed was Scotland. Wales thought it looked more like Ireland, if any one.
‘You’ve been in here all day.’
‘There’s been work to do all day.’
‘Don’t do that, you sound like him.’
Wales watched the candle flicker and didn’t reply.
Scotland leant closer to see what he was working on, ‘Death certificate?’
‘Running through inheritance laws to forge a will,’ Wales slid the sheet towards him, ‘for his bastard son to return and claim the estate.’
‘A bit pre-emptive, don’t you think?’
‘It’s got to be done at some point.’
‘Rhys,’ Scotland lay a large hand on his shoulder, ‘Come on. You’re being a fool. You don’t need to do all this right now.’
‘I know, it’s just-‘ Wales shook his head and leant it on Scotland’s arm, ‘I feel as though I need to do something.’
‘Arthur might not come back for years-‘ Wales winced ‘-and you can’t do this all the time till he does.’
‘It’s such a horrible way to go. All those people...’
‘I know.’
‘And this time of year too. Not to mention how deep that ocean is.’ Wales felt his eyes sting and rubbed at them.
‘Come on now,’ Scotland turned off the little gas lamp Rhys had been using to see. Really, someone should shake their brother into installing electricity into this place, it was far too old fashioned, ‘A week of this is long enough.’
‘That ship out of all of them,’ Wales stood, his stomach clenching, ‘he was so proud of it.’
‘That’s what he gets for being so arrogant, boasting here there and everywhere that it was unsinkable.’ Despite the harshness of Scotland’s words there was no bite of malice to them. Wales only heard worry, hidden but as real as his own. Since the telegram had come through, Scotland had said very little at all that wasn’t covered by what he thought people wanted him to say and had instead swiftly stepped into the gaps England had left behind to keep things going without issue.
Scotland picked up the candle and waited for Wales by the door, eyes watching him carefully with one arm held almost aloft, as if ready to catch Wales should he fall.
‘Hurry up. It's cold and I'm not going to get ill faffing about this draughty house because of you.’
Wales tried to smile for him and squeezed his arm when he got close, ‘Warm in bed sounds good.’
'I've got some time in the morning before I need to go to Westminster,' Scotland said as they began to walk towards their rooms, 'we could go to the nearby stones for a bit.'
Wales felt a genuine smile tug at the corners of his mouth and didn't fight it, 'That's alright. I'm going to go for a walk. There are some hills nearby I've not been to in a while.'
Day 30
Full Masterlist
#aph scotland#aph wales#hws scotland#hws wales#aph brit bros#aph uk bros#hws british isles#whumptober wip#whumptalia#whumptober 2022#heroes writes
46 notes
·
View notes
Text
Masterlist
Series:
Namjoon
Jin
Yoongi
One That I Want ||m.yg||
Description: It is summer of 1956, and leader of the T-Birds Yoongi is working at a food joint at the beach to make extra money over the summer, when he meets a pretty girl. They start a summer fling that unfortunately had to come to end, but an unexpected turn of events will bring them back together.
Genre: 1950s au, angst, fluff, some smut, Greaser!Yoongi x Square/Goody-Two-Shoes!OC.
TW: underage drinking and smoking, sexual content, violence, misogyny (it’s the 1950s so peak macho man era).
Start Reading Here!
Hoseok
Jimin
Taehyung
Jungkook
Unsinkable ||j.jjk||
Description: The 1910s are the peak of passenger ships, it was also the peak of classism, Jungkook is a third class immigrant from Korea, and you are a first class “prisoner” not wanting to go back to a life of strict standards. Once you meet Jungkook, life seems worth living, but when tragedy strikes, will you guys make it out to live the life you planned?
Genre: Titanic AU, poor/artist!JK x rich!f reader, angst, fluff, very slight smut, forbidden love.
Warnings: mention of s*ic*de attempt, major character death, major maritime disaster, graphic description of hypothermia and frostbite, drowning scare. Mentions of DV
Start Reading Here!
One-Shots:
Namjoon
Jin
Yoongi
Hoseok
Can I have this Dance? ||j.hs||
Description: Where Hobi asks you to his fraternity spring formal in cinematic way.
Genre: drabble, college au, fluff, smut, established relationship, Hoseok x f!reader.
TW: foreplay, protected sex, virgin sex (mentions of blood), vanilla sex.
Word Count: 2.2k
Start Reading Here!
Jimin
Whistle ||p.jm||
Description: you and Jimin meet after your dogs get out.
Genre: Non Idol AU, neighbors-to friends-to lovers, Non-idol!Jimin x f!reader, fluff LOTS of fluff.
TW: anxiety over animals escaping.
Word Count: 3k+
Start Reading Here!
Taehyung
If Walls Could Talk ||k.th||
Description: where Tae shares a bathroom wall with his next door neighbor and can hear her music choices every time he takes a late night bath.
Genre: forced proximity (kind of?); Recently discharged!Tae x f!reader; some angst; fluff; hopeful ending.
TW: Mentions of verbal abuse (not with Tae involved), mentions of cheating.
Word Count: 5.5k+
Start Reading Here!
Jungkook
Fool's Gold ||j.jk||
Description: when Jungkook’s prank goes horribly wrong, will he be able to win you back or will this be the end of you and him?
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Prankster!Jungkook x f!reader, established relationship, prank gone too far, angst, hurt/comfort, miscommunication, happy ending
Warnings: small act of violence.
Word Count: 4.4k+
Start Reading Here!
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
“The breeze tugs at my new clothing. The long skirts and maiden dresses have been abandoned by me the night I had left to sea together with my friend-pirate. He is named Lilliard and he is a man of short stature and a great sense of humour. He wears no beard, for he believes that it makes him less of a man (though I believe it is because it itches). He pays great respect for me but gives me no more care than to any other man on board. He is strict but fair. He follows a precise schedule and tells his men to do the same. While I'm on board his wooden ship, the one he calls 'unsinkable', he shall refer to me, treat me, see me, and hear me as a man and not a woman.
“It has been two days since I left my home town, my home life, behind to sail across the dangerous seas and oceans. I'd written a note to my sister and my mother. I explained to them my disappearance and I explained to them my affair with another woman in that letter. I will try to write to them every time Lilliard's ship harbours in a town with mailing services. I hope they are doing alright.
“I am afraid of what I will find. And I am scared of what will happen if we don't find anything. I am left with nothing but the pirate's life. I put behind everything I've ever known to search for Her. Was it the cost I was willing to pay? Was it a hasty decision? And what shall I do if I never find her? I can never go back now for, I am sure of it, they will throw me in jail to rot the moment my foot stands back on the mighty crown's soil. But I hope. I know that whatever comes next I'll be left with not choice but to survive it. And if I don't, I'll die trying.
“The crew treats me well. Though they are unused for a woman on board (apart from being a hostage) all the men have taken me as one of their own. They tell me jokes (not the ones they tell in high-class societies) and laugh together with me. They offer me drinks and help. I have never known of the friendship that dominates the sailor's crew, unlike that of what I've heard from the rumours around pirates.
“There is one man who has given me the cold shoulder; he avoids me, he never talks to me and whenever he does, he tries to make it as short as possible. I will leave his name out of my diaries for his privacy's sake - I know that one day these pages will be read not by my own eyes.
“The man, whom I shall call R. from now on (though that is not his name's initial), seems to be of pure intelligence. Not one on board can match his wit, not one on board (not even Lilliard himself) can beat him at games. Mr. R. takes everything serious and as a matter of fact. Unlike the roaring sea that sometimes crushes the wooden planks, the man is quiet and calm but I fear he is deadlier than mother Sea herself.
“He gives me no trouble, however, and I shall give him none too. What a pirate I will be if I start arguing with the people around me, the people who keep the ship running, food cooking, sails clean and ready to be used? I was given a gift - an opportunity to chase after my love. I will keep my muscles tense, my eyes sharp, my ears open. I will work day and night to prove to everyone and to myself that I am not a simpleton. I am not a weak person. Perhaps the lads on land might laugh at the fact that God has put me in the body of a woman. But I believe that God had given me far greater grace than to those fools who do naught but drink and dance. I will claw and gnaw away at every possibility that will come across my way. I won't rest until I am damned to my grave and further into Hell. And even there I shall spit in the Devil's face and try to climb the mountain of skulls and bones to argue God and break into the Eden's garden. Only then I will rest. Only then I will truly live.”
– from diaries of an unnamed woman, circa 1717
Part I
#pirates#wlw#lesbian#pirate life#sapphic#queer#writing#lesbians#my writing#fiction#short story#diaries of an unnamed woman
0 notes
Text
by Linda Chuvala
Most of us look forward to the month of April as spring returns with warm temperatures, blooming flowers, and many outdoor festivals. There are a lot of fun facts and celebrations in April– let’s start it off with a laugh!
Did you ever wonder how April Fool’s Day started? It is speculated that the custom of April Fools began in France during the 16th century, after the New year calendar was moved from April 1st to January 1st. Those who continued to celebrate the April new year were considered fools, and often the victims of practical jokes. Today we just like to have a little fun with our friends!
Many festivals occur in April. In Washington DC, there is the beautiful cherry blossom festival. New Orleans hosts its Jazz and Heritage Festival and Atlanta celebrates its annual Dogwood Festival. Here in St. Louis, thousands come out to participate in the annual Earth Day festival. Make sure you mark your calendars for the 27th or 28th.
April has two birth flowers. Both the daisy and the sweet pea are considered birth flowers for the month of April. The sweet pea signifies blissful pleasure, while daisies represent childhood innocence, loyalty, and purity.
The month celebrates the birth of Queen Elizabeth II, Leonardo da Vinci, William Shakespeare and Thomas Jefferson.
The first shots of the American Revolution started April 19, 1775. The Civil War, Spanish War and World War II all started in April.
On 15 April 1912 the Titanic, believed to be unsinkable, hit an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later. Unfortunately, there we too few lifeboats to save everyone and only about 700 of the 2,224 passengers were rescued.
“Houston, we’ve had a problem”! April 11, 1970 Apollo 13 launched from Cape Kennedy. Fifty-six hours later, she suffered a catastrophic explosion that crippled the ship. Fortunately, the astronauts were able to return home unharmed.
April celebrates Arab American heritage, child abuse prevention, and Autism Awareness. It is also Keep America Beautiful month, Jazz Appreciation Month and Poetry Writing Month.
Some “just for fun” April celebrations include: National Pillow Fight Day (6th), National Library Worker Day (9th), national siblings day (10th) and World Penguin Day (25th).
1 note
·
View note
Photo
ASOIAF Characters + Tarot Cards (Major Arcana) [1/5] (insp)
"The Fool’s unburdened by anything weighty like experience or uncertainty, and the Fool will cheerfully amble into great adventure or off a cliff with precisely the same naiveté."
"[The Magician] is sort of an unsinkable ship; you can’t keep someone down if they are always capable of building themselves back up again."
"You (the High Priestess) are ever so much more than your body or even your mind."
"[The Empress] is powerful and nurturing... and has an unforgiving set of teeth for anything that might come for her creations."
158 notes
·
View notes
Text
Poke Pt 7 - Yacht Party
…
Whistling in the exit of your closet Eddie took in your own toga reminiscent style dress the bright white sheer layered skirt was slit up to the upper thigh and met the golden belt that separated the base from the lace top. With thick straps in white and a low dip in the cleavage almost to the belly button that flowed out to reveal the golden glittery heels you had chosen for the event. “Wow. You need a sign to remind gentlemen to pick their jaws up off the floor.”
“Funny,” you teased, folding a stretchy pair of shorts to cover the thigh holsters for a couple of your daggers for worst case scenario that also would help keep guys from peeking up your skirt if the wind blew the slit back too widely. “I’m sure no one will care about my dress as I death grip the wall.”
“I can skip the trip to prison if you need me there.”
“I’m ok. If I feel bad I am not above fainting or breaking into hysterics to have Tony himself fly me home. Or maybe Prince Thor, I think he can fly if he has his hammer.”
“You can beat this evening. I know you can.”
After a hug for him you said, “You’ll miss visiting hours.” And he chuckled hugging you back and kissed you on your cheek taking notice of the one side of your hair braided back so you could flip the rest over to your left side knowing the boat would drive it wild no matter what you tried to do with it.
The ride didn’t calm things and from the concrete pathway to the wooden docks your focus shifted in a means to calm yourself on the pelicans and gulls who watched your stroll beyond the guards at the entrance who took your invitation shared the lit pathway would guide you to the proper ship. At the base of the plank bridge to get onto the yacht you paused hearing the guests already aboard.
Mid stare at a gull hovering above the boat in a try to focus on anything but the fact you would be out on the open ocean for who knows how long you flinched to look at Sam in his step up to your side with an impressed whistle. “My sister would die of envy seeing this ship. She loves to sail.” His eyes landed on you asking, “Ever been on a boat like this?”
“I’ve been on ferries, but I haven’t been over the open ocean yet.”
“You’ll be okay. Stark’s probably built this thing himself. Bound to be unsinkable.”
“Well, there’s a history of unsinkable ships that beg to differ when it comes to that claim.”
He chuckled and said, “We’ll be just fine. Just in case,” he said showing his duffel bag at his side holding his metal wings, “Brought my wings, things go south The Falcon’s got you.” To yourself you grinned and followed him up into the monstrosity of a boat.
Surely one that would make your ancestors weep, not just for the luxurious ability to have food storage, running clean water and plumbing but for the fact that nothing of the earth other than the single fallen tree stump of an end table was here. The wood was fake same as the faux leather seats and imitation marble finish on the metal surfaces. Nothing of this boat showed the respect boat makers used to put into building sea faring vessels to keep from displeasing the Gods in crossing the tumultuous open ocean and you guessed that might be why they always bothered you.
With legs crossed you sat with eyes fixed on the open ocean in your second level seat unable to keep on your feet to mingle in the crowded floor below. “Thirsty?” the voice at your side brought the sudden place of Prince Loki there with two drinks in hand, one of which with a pacifier band around the stem of the fruity blended drink he offered to you. “The bartender insisted I offer you this one.”
Unable to help it you chuckled and accepted the drink, “It’s a virgin margarita. Thank you.”
“What would maidenhood have to do with drink offers?” he asked and you glanced away to keep from spitting your sip of the drink on him. “Is it repulsive? I shall demand a new drink to replace it.”
You shook your head and giggled in catching his eye to say, “Virgin, when related to drinks means alcohol free.” And his eyes narrowed, “It’s illegal for people under 21 years old to drink alcohol in this country. Others it ranges from 14 to 18 depending on their culture.”
“Why would they have such variation?”
“Because hardly any of the countries share the same faiths, histories, cultures or beliefs on how they should be governed. So just stubbornness and idiocy.”
“I had hoped the drink would aid in a welcome of my company, you seemed troubled when I arrived.”
Softly you chuckled and replied, “Quite humorously for my bloodline I have a fear of open ocean outside of wooden boats.” His eyes locked onto yours in a moment of shock, “There’s no earth in this boat. Vikings paid homage to the Gods for smooth sailing across the oceans. Might just be me.”
And he grinned your way stating, “Not only you. Those who can hear Yggdrasil have higher expectations when it comes to vessels. Your ancestors would be proud you wish to honor their traditions, the ocean is not a fair mistress, she is an insurmountable warrior, she demands respect.”
“How have your candles and soaps been?” You asked to change the subject, uncertain of what meaning his lingering stare into your eyes meant.
“Quite exquisite. Thank you again for your care in crafting the mixtures for us to our likings. Your customers have been favorable of temperament?”
“For the most part. Before the shoes Natasha and Steve bought me I got shunned a bit because of my clearly worn name brand shoes, but the new ones have helped to give me a bit of credit to my image. Used to be called an immigrant and now people are asking if I’m paying my dues in the entertainment or beauty world until I get my big break. When Stark came in I almost thought he would just order enough to use that as a means to force me to accept the money he offered.”
“What should it matter what shoes you wear when you are working?”
“The shop has an image to uphold for their most superficial of clientele.”
“Should they ever release you from employment alert my brother and myself and we shall raze the building to cinders.” That had you giggle around your next sip and he said, “You doubt my loyalty.”
“Not at all, Prince Loki. Merely I question how Stark would handle the discovery of who was behind the attack after he’s vetted you both as Heroes.”
“Not one person in my lifetime has been foolish enough to dub me a Hero. I am the God of Mischief and Deceit.”
His eyes lowered to the hand you offered him that his rose palm up to accept, “Fool, right here, pleasure to meet you.” To himself he chuckled and smiled in a glance away. “See, that smile,” he glanced back and chuckled again as you said, “Pure sunshine. You can’t convince me there’s evil in there no matter how many times you stab your brother.”
“I unleashed an army on New York,”
“Oh who hasn’t unleashed havoc on New York. Havoc is the new pink pumps of the season, everybody has to have some. New York, Washington, California, your brother leveled a town in New Mexico. Now you go and attack Rhode Island or someplace small like that then we can talk crossing into unthinkable territory, which is seven miles below evil. You have to earn evil.”
He smirked and at the notice he was still holding your hand he released it to take hold of his drink for a sip to break his stare only to look down at that hand resting on his knee when the boat began to pull away from the dock. “I murdered my birth father.” He blurted out as if to try and not lie to you or make you believe he was anything but evil as most from his planet thought.
“Did he raise you?”
“No.”
“Were you close or just a birthday card once a year type of situation?”
“He abandoned me at birth in a frozen tundra in the midst of a battle between the Jotuns and Asgardians and never acknowledged me as his child or that I even existed.”
You nodded and said, “Selfish quim had it coming then.” Throatily to your sip of your drink he chuckled and bubbled into a few moments of unforgiving laughter. “I’d pick Frigg as a mother any day over that bastard.”
“King Laufey of the Jotuns, or Frost Giants, as some nations dub them.”
“Odin’s half Frost Giant in the legends. They knew each other?”
“Odin,” his eyes fell on you, “Father is half Frost Giant in the legends?” You nodded and he said, “He never speaks of this if it is true.”
“Well he’s probably jealous.” You said and his brow twitched up, “If it was between me and you to be Jotun I’d stay mum simply because you have to be the peak example of Jotun prowess.”
“Asgardians tell bedtime stories of Jotuns to terrify their children and frighten them to behave or they will be eaten.” He said mournfully and looked out at the sea.
“I’d start biting people then.” You said and in the spread of his smile you said, “Always a monster till you’re necessary. How the universe works. The odd one, the new one, that one who doesn’t belong. Till they need you, till they’re scared. So much easier to be scared of the new than to trust it. Well I trust you,” you said and he caught your eye again, “And you can’t stop me. I’m stark raving mad with power and will cackle in their disbelieving faces for not trusting pure sunshine.” You said with a wide smile making him chuckle again.
“Are you certain there is no alcohol in that drink?” He teased.
“Just tons of sugar.” You said taking another giggle laced sip as he took a sip of his own drink. “I heard you’re over seventeen hundred years old? How does that line up to our age progression? If that isn’t too personal.”
“Roughly similar to your age I would presume. Young adulthood.”
You gasped and said, “And they gave you alcohol, someone get this man a pacifier.” You said teasingly turning your head to call it out making him chuckle and simply use his arm closest to you to prop himself up to scoot closer.
“Shh,” he whispered through a chuckle by your ear and you giggled again. “There is little substance on this planet able to inebriate myself and my brother.” He said with his eyes focused on yours when you turned your head slightly to catch his bright gaze and smile.
The ship took a wide turn and your joking mood waned and his hand covered yours at the returned grip of his knee to lace his fingers under your palm, and next to your ear he asked, “How would you like to play a game?” You caught his gaze and he grinned nodding his head at the crowd stating, “Say a name.” He watched your eyes dance over the women in toga influenced gowns surrounded by men in both togas and white and golden suits and you chose one from the back that with a flash of green in his eyes had the man start to dance absurdly awkward luring out your smile and giggle again.
Innocent fun, insignificant playful pranks that had Prince Thor search for his brother in the crowds until he spotted him at your side with his hand on yours. Loki would never have openly chosen such a public display with anyone he dared to imagine courtship until proper tasks of approval had been sought for and by the clear try to not let you have a break to focus on anything but his magic. And the game upon his knowing Thor was looking his way had the Prince conjuring fables and joking tales in front of the possibly distressed young Shieldmaiden he would never dream of damaging her honor. Something was bothering their young respected friend and his brother while Thor saw to his sea wary Mate was distracting his chosen companion for the evening in a far more acceptable use of his magic at this party.
Some food was sampled from the migrating attendees made from faceless drones that somehow had you more weirded out than the ship. One of which that had Peter hanging on his back while it held a bucket and led him to lie down on the couch beside the pair of you. The move had you inch closer to the Prince and had his gaze drop to the thigh pressed against his to something hard he felt tap the side of his leg. He felt himself unable to help but smirk at the clear hilt of a dagger poking out from underneath the shorts that blended into your skirt from afar in its same brilliant white shade. And in a low purr beside your ear as you handed over your empty glass to a drone to free a hand so you could check Peter’s temperature the Prince asked, “Please tell me that’s a dagger on your thigh.”
With a blush to the green mist that eased the hilt of two coiled snakes in bright silver into view widening his grin as he caught sight of the full design. And he could imagine the blade in his mind by the hint of metal beneath the hilt his mist hid away again as Pepper hurried over with some sea sickness medicine. “Where else would I keep it?” you whispered back widening his grin to the point he nipped at his lip to keep from grinning like an idiot.
Pepper in her trot up to Peter’s side offered him a fizzing drink he accepted and took your help to prop himself up to sip on it, “Here you go Peter.” And her eyes rose to you asking, “Are you sea sick too? I haven’t seen you on the main floor since we took off.”
“I’ve got a thing with metal boats in open ocean,” her lips parted, “I’m good sitting. Body just prefers wood boats it seems. Prince Loki’s been distracting me.”
“Well if you need anything let us know.”
“Does he make a lot of these drones?”
Pepper sighed saying, “It’s a new thing. He said he’d make them faceless since I thought fake humanoid ones might bother me, but these aren’t any better, sadly.”
“Because he does know about all the evidence on making AI’s and how devastatingly bad that could go?”
“I remind him daily. Only, seems he forgets, daily. Progress,” she said shaking her head and rising to her feet to go check on another person muttering, “This party is the stuff of nightmares with these waves.”
In a glance at Loki you asked, “If Stark builds AI’s can I plead asylum on Asgard?”
He smirked asking, “AI?”
“Robots with free will. Always turns out that they want to destroy the human race. Borderline Ragnarok for our race.”
“Should there be any danger to this planet we will grant you asylum. I give you my word.”
“How important are potatoes on your planet? Because if they don’t grow there I will be smuggling some there. My ancestors didn’t get to enjoy them in the older generations, but I know they look down on me in envy. Even broke I eat like a King.” Making him chuckle again. “I’m serious, one of the best foods discovered on this planet is the potato.”
“Potatoes are amazing,” Peter sighed after finishing his drink and laying flat again. “I would bring lemons. My aunt gets this big smile when she sees lemons. I don’t get it, but it makes her happy. And I’d have to bring her too of course.”
Loki smiled saying, “We have six variations of potatoes and four lemon breeds. The pair of you and young Peter’s aunt would be amply pleased.”
“Could I have a sheep? My parents promised to get me a sheep when I was bigger. Or is it mainly city spaces without any room for cottages?”
“We have a mixture of both. A quaint cottage could be arranged, or a plot of garden and field to keep your sheep in should you prefer an apartment in the Palace. With ample workers to help train you in treatment and sheering of your sheep when necessary.”
In a giggle you replied, “I would need sheep lessons.” Making him chuckle as well.
At their sides save for a trip to the bathroom you remained until the boat docked again and Loki rose to gently help you up and lead both you and still unsteady Peter to the dock. The assigned car to drive you back however found him reluctantly in release of the hand his had been fixed in for hours now. “Thank you, for the asylum and the sheep,” you said in words that muffled in the ears of the Prince whose cheek you had left a peck upon. “Sleep well, Sunshine.” You said and in a lower to sit inside the car.
“Sleep well and safe on the earth, Shieldmaiden Pear.”
.
Vision. The newest Avenger had his face plastered across the internet and all you could think of was the promise the Asgardian Prince had made you and it just made your stomach turn. He was so polite and out of everybody he could have spent his time with he seemed to gravitate to your company. Even when a long train ride let you take a long stroll in Central Park that had you run into the Super Soldiers and Sam on a run. When the Zoo was mentioned the Princes seemed to appear in mid air and as if to counter Bucky’s time with your attention another animal would be pointed to and his questions would arise all aimed your direction.
End to end between your fingers your Mate button box was flipped to tap against the counter easing the slide of your fingers to the bottom to aid the lift and flip of the box to do it again. No matter why he was focusing on you there had to be a line and you couldn’t stop hiding from your fears of finding out who your Mate was by humoring the attentions of the Avengers. Onto the counter you settled the button box and gave the button a single tap that almost an hour away had Loki’s eyes twitch off his book confirming he was alone in his gifted apartment followed by an irritated grumble and nestle back into his spot to ignore the unhelpful poke of his Mate from this infuriating planet.
Several taps more in a notice of the muffin bag you had gotten from a café earlier that had you murmur, “Let’s meet for coffee at the Blue Bird Café. Nine AM.” Your fingers tapped before you could think it through just how many could understand Morse Code this day and age, you just had to try and see if anyone would turn up.
And just like you knew it deep down, no one did, at nine or ten when you had finished off pretending to write out something in your pocket journal after you’d finished your first cider and just wanted to go anywhere but there.
*
Glaring as he made his way to the group lunch after a much needed breakfast alone Loki plopped into his seat and turned his gaze to Natasha at her asking, “Couldn’t sleep?”
“Ten minutes my Mate poked me last night, ten minutes. All in some absurd pattern,” Loki repeated the pattern with the tip of his finger on the table and had her, Bucky and Bruce listening to the meanings of the taps.
Bucky however asked the question the others didn’t, “So did you meet your Mate for coffee?”
Loki glared at him, “I beg your pardon?”
Bruce, “That’s Morse Code. Old school. Must have been eager to meet you rarely hear of people using it these days outside of military or science families.”
Loki asked in a slightly panicked tone, “Where would I meet them?”
Bucky said, “Blue Bird Café, nine am.”
Loki didn’t have to look at the clock but said in his rush from the table, “It’s half past noon!”
He didn’t know where that was but he knew who to talk to to get into Stark’s system. Knowing fully he had links to cameras everywhere. “Red Man, I require your assistance.”
“I am Vision, Green Noble.” The Prince led the way to one of the public labs that linked to his system that Loki linked into the simple online page of the only Blue Bird Café in New York that was located in Queens.
“I need you to help me use Stark’s system to see who was in this café this morning.”
“Are we searching for a culprit in a crime you are aware of?” Vision asked in his hover beside the Prince.
“My Mate used Morse Code to send me a message I did not understand last night and I missed the meeting they tried to arrange. I wish to know who I have spurned to offer my apologies and win back their favor.”
“Oh, very admirable then.” He said lowering as he said, “I am under the understanding that a Mate is the strongest bond you might find in your lifetime. I anxiously await my eighteenth year to have earned my own chance to meet mine.” Raising his hand to link to the system that began to shift the screen windows to delve through the system to first link into the café’s security and the street cameras to watch every person from eight am onwards.
“Pluto,” Loki muttered in the sight of you wearing an anxious expression and a slightly less casual dress entering the café, ordering a drink and muffin with glances at the door to every entrance in a clearly sinking mood as Vision continued to run facial recognition through a database while the video played.
Vision said, “From the 47 customers 24 are legally married and another 17 have announced themselves as engaged on their social media accounts.”
“Pluto Pear, that woman. When did she leave exactly?” Visio read back the time stamp and he said, “I need a print out of this list, I’m going to start with her.”
Vision asked to the print of the page behind him, “Does the young lady hold a certain physical appeal for you to begin with her?”
“I know her. I would never wish for her to believe I have left her there alone. As if I had refused to meet her on the grounds of being my Mate.”
Vision said, “Ah. Then yes, begin with the young Miss Pear.” He said offering the printed sheet that Loki accepted and hurried with rushed thanks in his race out to go and the whole while his mind raced with a single repetition, it had to be you.
Truly for months now any excuse to cross paths was taken including a laughable amount of candles and soap with films, trips out between your shifts and group meals he always made certain to be chaperoned for everyone’s comfort and for your honor the Prince searched. You were the one to make him laugh and find some sense of ease on this planet with a person who seemed to genuinely care about his comfort and tried to keep him from growing too homesick or thoughts on his lineage to spoil his wishes to ever return. If you weren’t his Mate he never desired to meet the person who dared to poke him. He didn’t want to be forced onto anyone else, he had subconsciously chosen you for a while now and would continue to do so.
*
Three knocks soon bled to five and before the sixth could land you had opened your front door to the wide eyed Prince who rapidly opened his fist to an awkward wave. “Miss Pear. Might I come in?”
“Sure,” you said letting him inside closing the door behind him in his awkward check of the single room apartment with a lingering gaze at the boat shaped bed he pointed to mid amused smirk. “My first year here there was a play they used that as a prop in and put it up cheap for sale after it closed. Really comfy.” You looked him over and asked, “You have to go on another mission? Only seen you twitchy like this when you had to leave town.”
“No,” he replied and moved closer offering the cider in his hand you hadn’t noticed. “I owe you a drink.”
In the narrow of your eyes you accepted the still warm cup saying, “Thank you. Don’t recall how, but thank you.”
“I don’t know Morse Code.”
Your lips parted to ask over the thunder of your heart in your ears, “Did you want me to teach you.”
“Not today, thank you.” He inhaled sharply and said, “I know you went to the Blue Bird Café this morning and I know that you didn’t meet the person you had hoped to.”
“I-,”
In a step closer he cut you off saying, “Because I don’t know Morse Code and it took me repeating the lengthy set of taps that kept me up last night to those amongst the team who do.”
“Oh,” you squeaked out in realization of what you guessed and halfway hoped he might be saying.
“So I came here to ask you to poke me again,” his eyes lowered to the finger that rose to tap him in the center of his chest that had him let out a breathy chuckle and scan his eyes over your face that was still devoid of anything readable but uncertainty and shock. “No, with your button, do you have it?”
“Oh, button,” sharply your head turned setting the drink down and gingerly he shadowed you in your circle of your bed to the near burrow under the fake fur blanket you had to do to grab the button that seemed to try and keep it hidden for itself. When you stood again you eased your fingers around the sides of the box with its mint colored button now a deep green that with a press of your thumb had him exhale shakily to the poke he felt.
He didn’t know what to do or say and yet all on its own it seemed his body acted to first cradle your cheek then lean in to press his lips to yours in a blind hope that however possible he could seal this bond to never break. Just as loudly as yours his heart thundered in his chest for the action his body had taken without permission.
And when your eyes met again his breath hitched hearing you whisper at the sight of the swirls of green mist that had filled the room with sparkling veins of gold to glimmer around the both of you. His skin now blue with raised ridges trailing across his skin in snowflake like unique markings to just him from his Jotun blood paired with his crimson eyes. “Was that supposed to happen or was it on accident.”
“The mist was unintentional.” He hummed back lowly and in his lean forward to brush his nose to yours his body melted forward at the toe top lift to kiss him again. With the close of your eyes covering his shift back after his notice of the color of his hand still on your cheek. An action and pose he lingered in to savor every second of it.
“Blue is a good color on you, Sunshine.” You said and his lips parted only for the growl of his stomach to make you grin and claim his hand and say, “Let’s feed you and that angry rhino you swallowed.”
Out of your slow cooker some jambalaya was served for the both of you to go with the cheesy mashed potatoes you topped with bacon bits he amusedly poked with his spoon as if it was possibly toxic. “I’m not going to poison you,” you giggled out.
“No, there is a topping like these pebbles on Asgard and it is merely awful.”
“Well this is tiny bits of bacon.”
“Bacon,” he said in an intrigued tone and took a bite he hummed around making you giggle to yourself.
“Midgard isn’t so bad, we’ve done amazing things with bacon.”
“That you have,” he said filling his spoon again with some of the jambalaya that while he chewed it his eyes scanned over your face in your downwards gaze, “Are you pleased?” he managed to ask when he swallowed lifting your eyes again to his.
“Could use more sausage. They’re so stingy on the weight per cent these days.”
“With me?” He asked in a near squeak afraid of the answer.
“As my Mate?” you asked and he nodded, “You are indescribable. You can do magic, I mean come on, I started magic when I was a kid and dreamed to have someone who would be so much more spectacularly talented than myself. Need I say, the essence of pure sunshine in your veins. You accept my Norse roots. Some people would just label me a witch on that alone. And you tolerate my weirdness, major plusses there.”
“I would assume, my title-,”
“Psh,” you said lifting his gaze from his bowls. “I would be honored to be bound to you if you ran a button stand.” You said triggering an awkward grin across his face at the compliment. “If anything the expectations of your possible requirement to take up after Odin on what I would only assume to be a possibly uncomfortable looking golden throne in that floating golden Palace would trouble me for the increase of scowls that would develop from the stress and drive that smile of yours away. Not to mention the heightened risk of stress on the heart from a job of that level.” After a moment of his amused grin your way you asked, “Do you really live forever?”
“Roughly 5071 years.”
“Well Bucky’s close to a century and he hasn’t seemed to age much, Steve was frozen for most of his. So I suppose logically, I can’t say how long I would be around.”
His brow inched up and he said, “I would find you. No matter where in Hel they settle you to spend your afterlife.”
You nodded and asked in a rather embarrassed tone, “No possible way I could get to Valhalla then?”
“You most certainly could well earn place there. Few Midgardians are welcomed, I did not mean to worry you or offer insult.”
You shook your head, “It’s just all different than how I was taught. You’re Frigga’s son, and Thor isn’t a redhead, no telling what else could be different. I mean did you at least give birth to a eight legged horse Odin rides around on?”
“Did I what?” he chuckled out with a widening smile.
“I mean who wouldn’t be able to learn to love a guy who gave birth to Hel, the Goddess of Death; Jörmungand, the serpent that surrounds the world; and Fenrir or Fenrisúlfr, the wolf; and Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged horse.”
“Thor did advise us the mortals had warped our tales, yet I had no imagination it could be that vastly different.” He paused and asked, “Hel, is she prominent in my life in the tales? I have never heard of a Goddess of that name.”
You said, “Those you had with the female giant Angerboda. You seem to love her in the tales. Though most of your tales I prefer include your other wife, Sigyn. You had a son with her, named Nari or Narfi.” His lips parted, “Odin uses your son’s intestines to chain you to a rock where snakes drip their venom on you and she sits beside you with a bowl to collect it. Though when she dumps it out and the venom drips on your face you thrash around causing the earth to quake. It’s quite the tale of devotion in Norse Mythology. There’s actually quite a tale for how you got married, she was betrothed to another and on the wedding day you kill him and take his shape and then reveal yourself after and she tells Odin she will honor the marriage. Sigyn’s basically known only for her devotion to you.”
“I have never wed, nor know of a Sigyn. I could never imagine my father able to bind anyone with the innards of their own child.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you.”
He shook his head, “No, you have not upset me. Although I am curious to ponder on when the tales stretched so far from the truth. Perhaps an exceptionally harsh winter with little to distract from boredom.”
“Well that’s the thing about legends. Everyone who first heard or saw them happen is dead. Kind of like the phone tree game,” his brows furrowed a moment in confusion to the name, “One person in a circle whispers to another, it can be a word or funnier a phrase and gradually through the circle the words change. Sometimes for the worse. Known a few to end in fist fights when they made us do it in schools in some mock trial to stomp out bullying as a sort of way to display how gossip explodes like wild fire. Then again it could be a testament to hearing loss rather than weak attention spans on trading whispers.” As you eyed his grin after a glance away to fill your spoon you said, “Sorry, got away from me there.”
“You did not wander far. Often I find people who ramble show great promise of intellect. Brains that are rapid to focus on new topics are very welcome amongst our scientists.”
“It must be amazing, your home.”
“My people are brilliant compared to yours, however very gullible. Hence my prowess in mischief.”
“Well, if you assume to have all the answers why would you bother looking for more?” making him smirk proudly at your words. “They’ll learn, with enough shoves in the right direction, or enough books to hurl at them. Sometimes you need a bit of mischief to open some eyes.”
“Thor has been working up the nerve to request a trip for his Mate Jane Foster to Asgard. I imagine her introduction to our scientists would be less productive than to hear from one who has crafted a rainbow portal on her own with only supplies from Midgard. Even our best crafters alive today could not tap into that technology. When Thor broke the rainbow bridge that aids in the control of the Bifrost Mother had to travel to Hel to consult with one of our scientists we had lost a thousand years prior.”
“That must have been fun for you to experience.”
“I wasn’t there,” he whispered in a downward glance then cleared his throat and drew in a deep breath, “Perhaps I should share something else, other than my race with you.” When his eyes did rise he almost flinched seeing yours on his, “There’s a, being, a Titan.”
“Like in Greek Mythology?”
“I’m, not aware of their history.”
“Sorry, Titan?”
“Thanos. I fell from the bridge when Thor broke it. Through the open void of the universe I faded to, I don’t know where. There, Thanos found me. His henchman tortured me.”
“Loki,” you said reaching out to rest a hand on his forearm that had his hand turn over to wrap around the underside of yours welcoming the contact and sadness not pity in your gaze.
“I was gone, for so very long, time is, difficult in varied realms to compare.” He wet his lips and continued shakily, “I managed to escape, with a deal. He sent me with the scepter to bring him the tesseract. There are these stones, with different powers to control parts of the universe, he wants them all and has others to locate them for him. That was why, I opened that portal. Why I killed people. To let them know something bigger is out there, and that it’s coming.”
“Okay.”
“He wouldn’t have come on his own, but I lied to him. And my Father can’t protect this planet, or won’t. I won’t let him hurt you though. I swear. I won’t let anyone hurt you again.”
“That’s a tall order in this city. Plus even doors are a danger to me when I’m in a hurry.”
“I’m being serious, he has decimated civilizations before and enslaved millions he allowed to survive.” His eyes scanned yours finding an expression he couldn’t decipher and he asked, “What is that look for?”
“I have secrets, terrible things I should tell my Mate, for fair playing field since you’ve been so open with me. I do trust you, I just,”
“I understand.”
“It’s just been mine, for so long. Nearly my whole life now, and Eddie, he found me at and back again from my lowest point,” Loki nodded and bit the inside of his lip at the tear that rolled down your cheek all of a sudden. “He was the first person who cared since I got here, and I just had to tell someone. It was breaking me, and he got me help with his therapist, which has helped. I just, I don’t know why, but even with you being able to rain aliens down upon us, I’m scared to tell you everything.” Another tear down your cheek had him lean in closer to your side. “Because if you knew, what I am, you would hate me. I don’t know why Eddie hasn’t left yet. He should have left me by now.”
“He is not going to leave, and no matter what pain that lies in your past, I will not leave you. And I will wait until you welcome me into the fold. No matter how long it takes.”
The rest of the meal he remained at your side and moved with you to your couch to inch closer to cuddling through a film that allowed you both to a comfortable silence. Droops of your eyes however had him excise himself to allow you to rest. When you were on your feet however with sight of his back his body went rigid to the poke he felt that had him turn to see you with your button in hand say, “Double checking.”
Gently he claimed your free hand and raised it to his lips to kiss your knuckles on the hand he cradled after, “Get some rest. Tomorrow should Stark not interfere, hopefully I could arrange a lunch to make up for my misstep this morning.”
“Not your misstep. I shouldn’t have assumed anyone else would know Morse Code.”
“I will learn, there is no fault on your part. Only imagination.”
“You get some sleep too, Sunshine.” His grin widened, “Keep that stress on your heart down.”
“I shall try my hardest with Stark in the same tower.” He said stealing another press of his lips to your hand before he released it and led the way to the door you closed and locked behind your unbelievable Mate you secretly wished would have tried to kiss more than just your hand the second time.
Pt 8
All –
@sherala007, @mariannetora, @jesgisborne, @knitastically, @catthefearless, @theincaprincess, ggbbhehe4455, @lilith15000, @alishlieb,
Not nsfw(smut) - @otakumultimuse-hiddlewhore
X Loki - @pastelhexmaniac
#Yacht Party#Soulmate AU#Loki x oc#sea sick#Eddie Brock#Peter Parker#Blue Bird Cafe#Vision#Bucky Barnes
14 notes
·
View notes
Text
#chum gumby#the unsinkable ship of fools#comics#jonas goonface#harm reduction#troll#hobo magic#ship of fools#street medic
378 notes
·
View notes
Text
CATS Pokemon AU
Made with help from @roxycake and @whitmerule
This is. Definitely not set within any proper game continuity. I’m picking and choosing my favorite aspects from the mainline games regardless of region. Technically, this is located in Galar, but it uses traditional gym challenge-Elite 4 format, and trainer classes that don’t appear in gen VIII, along with a different set of gym leader types. Also, contests and battle subways are here bc those were the shit.
**While I had help w/ categorizing characters and their types, I have headcanons that differ from those of the ppl who helped give input. I’m gonna try and not define relationships in this post, but if I do more with this, then I’m working with my own headcanons/ships/etc. If anyone wants to do anything with this that differs, go ahead!
Main 3 trainers+their partner pokemon:
Jemima-Fletchling
A cyclist-class trainer
Electra-Toxel
A dancer-class trainer
George-Tyrogue
A young, hiker-class trainer
Gym Leaders:
Etcetera-Bug
A friend of the main 3; she invites them to her gym as their first challenge. She was probably holding back during the gym battles with the 3, but don’t tell anyone.
Jennyanydots-Normal
A matronly but stern, disciplined trainer who has held her title for decades. She runs the gym next door to the pokemon school, and offers the students free time to practice and train with their pokemon.
Plato-Ground
A talented trainer who all the same doesn’t like his position as a trainer of ground types. He takes his loss as an excuse to begin training in Etcetera’s gym.
Pouncival-Flying
Another young gym leader. the trio first met him while taking a flying taxi between towns, as he’s also a cabbie. He’s got an unsinkable personality, and appears deceptively oblivious. He knows his way around flying-type pokemon, and he’s not one to overlook.
Rum Tum Tugger-Electric
A dazzling and maybe slightly overconfident leader who’s one of the newest to his title. He’s also well known in the Contest World, as he got his real start as a wildly successful coordinator. There’s his pikachu, too. People are obsessed with his pikachu.
Victoria-Ice
A figure skater as well as a gym leader. Her gym is sleek and elegant; balance and dexterity are musts to even reach her spot. Don’t be fooled by her gym’s cold presentation, though; if there were ever a trainer more excited than Pouncival to experience a wide variety of challengers, it’s her.
Coricopat and Tantomile-Psychic
Better be ready to see double. Sometimes they move in sync, mirroring each other’s attacks perfectly; other times, they’ll wipe you off your feet by acting beyond prediction. Can they really see your next move? Have they simply been doing this too long to be surprised? Yes.
Mistoffelees-Fairy
Are you put off by people who simultaneously view you as inferior while also lacking proper self confidence of their own? Good luck making it through a battle against Mistoffelees. A highly capable trainer, he’s still a bit uncomfortable with his position as gym leader. Most people wouldn’t pick up on this though, as he makes quick work of them.
Elite 4:
Bombalurina-Fire
A passionate and ruthless trainer, Bomba has dedicated her life to cultivating a team that’s always ready to win.
Alonzo- Water
A laid-back, casual, young researcher more interested in swimming and surfing than paperwork. He’ll disarm you with his sweet-talk and inviting demeanour, then hit you like a tidal wave.
Cassandra-Dragon
An elegant, intimidating force to be reckoned with, her battle style mixes beauty with ferocity. Don’t worry about being tricked into security, if you feel at all on her level, you’re likely over-confident.
Demeter-Poison
A former member of Team Enigma and a steadfast ally to the main trio. She gave Electra her Toxel when it was just an egg, and has an Amped Toxtricity as her own partner. Demeter is a genuinely kind soul. Her drive to empower young trainers has kept her in The Elite 4 for some time, and she doesn’t plan on giving that up any time soon. She won’t hold back in battle, but she does, notably, avoid status-changing attacks.
Champion
Munkustrap
Smart, kind, powerful, and stressed, Munkustrap has been a familiar face to the trio, much like Demeter. He’s honestly eager to be usurped, ready to step back and re-evaluate his goals in life.
Former Elites/Champion:
Director Gus-Dragon/Rock
Former member of the Elite Four, he has returned to his true passion of theatre, owning and maintaining a space in Wyndon. He’s also a frequent judge at contests.
Grizabella-Steel
A former league champion, she has since retired to The Crown Tundra. In her time away from the league she has journeyed to multiple regions, and has many pokemon foreign to the Galar region.
Professor Deuteronomy-Grass
Former member of the Elite Four, he left the league after a few years, drawn instead to pokemon research. Understanding the root cause of type distinctions has become his life’s work. Of his recent experiments, he has been testing type determination in-egg through gene splicing and nesting conditions.
OTHERS
Skimbleshanks-Battle Metro Boss
Currently overseeing the Battle Metro, Skimble is under pressure to keep attendance up as people have begun migrating to other battle spots. Unlike other rail workers, he does not specialize in steel or ground types, instead holding a roster of largely Normal and flying pokemon.
Jellylorum-Pokemon breeder
You can find her in a quiet corner of Wyndon, nearby Director Gus’ theatre. She runs a daycare and a breeding center.
Tumblebrutus-Research Assisstant.
A friend of the main 3 and frequent conduit to Professor Deut. He checks in at irregular intervals.
Bustopher Jones-Gentleman
A jolly, round man who likes to frequent cafes, and take picnics on the countryside.
Team Enigma
Macavity-Dark/ghost
The leader of Team Enigma, Macavity is a criminal mastermind hellbent on stealing Deuteronomy’s research on type distinctions, and exploiting it for his own benefit. He has no particular worldwide aspirations beyond expanding his realm of influence, but while he’s no mere thug, that doesn’t mean he isn’t a brutal fighter.
Henchcats-Poison/Dark
The Henchcats are Enigma grunts. They’re easy enough to best once you’ve figured out their routine, but they always fight in pairs. Macavity expects many of his grunts to use poison types for their status-changing attacks.
Jerrie and Teazer-Poison
Notable grunts who seem to have reservations about their job. The two appear to genuinely enjoy battling the trio, and, unlike many grunts, seem to have connections beyond Team Enigma.
Other Notes
Jellylorum, Jennyanydots, Skimbleshanks, and Bustopher Jones are all childhood friends, and are still in touch. They are currently raising 4 Skwovet siblings between them all.
Many gym leaders also work with Professor Deuteronomy to study type distinctions.
Personally, I see the main 3 (+Etcetera and Pounce) as middle/older teens; 15 at the youngest. If the player character in the games can wait until age 12 to even get a pokemon when there are preschoolers battling pokemon, these three can be older teens who decided one day that they wanna go on a journey across the region.
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
Titanic AU | Akashi Seijuro x Fem!Reader
Note: I’m sorry if this seems OOC, sorta new to this whole thing. My requests are open!
Pairing: Akashi Seijuro x Reader
Genre: Angst
Word Count: 866
Triggers?: N/A
The ship was sinking
fast.
As the bow of the ship sank into the water, the screams faded from his mind. Akashi was here for one reason and one reason alone, his first-class ticket. If only the crowds hadn’t swept him away, leaving him far from you. Now there was a lull in the terror as he closed his eyes. The night air was freezing, he had no doubt that the water would be too. In front of him was a lifeboat; offering an appealing escape. Behind him was a flooding ship, yet it held something he loved dearly. You were a ship’s length away and here he was standing helplessly. This did give him time to think. Thinking was Akashi Seijuro’s specialty and he had a lot to think about. He thought about how you two met; he had noticed you first, but you seemed preoccupied with a nosey fiance.
Then there was that first night. Warm lighting filled the crowded room. As you spoke to him, you seemed more alive than ever. Hell, he was more alive than ever. Your quick-witted humor and ever sly smile drew him in. It was a side that you seemed to hide from your fiance. Though, meeting your fiance, it wasn’t a surprise. As the two of you had escaped outside, he looked up at the sky. The world seemed so big and he knew, in an instant, that he needed to explore it with someone like...you. It was always you.
“They say the ship is unsinkable.” You drawled lazily, yet making a fine point to look curiously at him. He nodded along slowly.
“They do say that, but you never know.” He had added calmly. You had sighed in response.
You both agreed that after that night, you should move on. Surely nothing would become of it. Akashi was a businessman without a business to his name. You had a fiance. It would be a misstep to continue contact.
What a fool I am. He thought as he kissed you. It had been slow and passionate. He had pledged something that night. His mind, in its current frenzied state, kept slipping on exactly what that was.
What a fool I am. He thought again as he ran down the deck, slipping a bit on the dampness.
“Y/N?!” He screamed running down the grand staircase only to find a swimming pool. Cutlery and dining tables; people were still running. The chaos of the moment sunk in, truly, for once. Was he going to die? Was he going to die without seeing you again? He began wondering why he ever had the thought of choosing that lifeboat. It all meant nothing if you weren’t on it with him.
“Y/N?!” He shouted once more.
“Akashi?!” The voice was faint but sure.
He called your name once more before finding your figure wading toward him in the darkness. The sea was giving an eerie blue light to the once warmly lit room.
“You must be freezing.” He pointed out, trying to stay calm.
“It’s so c-c-c-cold.” Your teeth chattered as he pulled you from the water.
“Here.” He said, thinking quickly and pulling off his coat. With it firmly wrapped around your shoulders, he helped guide you to the exit. “There’s a lifeboat over here. I was waiting for it, but...” He had no excuse except bitter selfishness for not finding you sooner.
Then, he felt your cold hand on his warm one.
“It’s okay, Akashi.” You hummed, though panic coursed through your veins. “I’m just...So cold.”
He pulled you closer, arms encasing your cold body as you shivered. He looked up, letting you rest your head in the crook of his shoulder. “It’s sort of funny.”
“What is?” You scoffed, thinking of the dire situation.
“I’m looking up at the same sky we were under when we first met. Now I’m looking at them again with you, but everything’s changed.” He rarely thought out loud. If he was going to be deceased in the ocean soon, he might as well have his lover know everything. It was a surprise when you backed away quickly.
“You don’t have to act so calmly, Akashi! Look around you! The ship is sinking and there aren’t enough lifeboats.”
It was like you had given him permission to panic, to grab onto you for support. Now he was an arm’s length away and he had trouble deciding between his sanity or your unjudgemental grasp.
“Remember what I said? I’ll always be here for you.” You continued.
Right, those were the words that kept slipping his mind. And so he chose you. Always you. He had many things to say, but to start...
“I’m sorry.” Then he hugged you tightly and caressed your cheeks which were now ice cold. “I’m sorry.”
I’m sorry this happened. I’m sorry I only got a few measly days with you. I’m sorry for what I’m about to do next.
He pushed you onto the lifeboat while you screamed his name. The ship split in half before soon sinking as well. Watching you being lowered to safety...had to be one of the happiest sights for him to see. Tears and all.
#kuroko no basquet#kuroko no basket x reader#akashi seijirou#akashi seijuro x reader#Akashi x reader#Titanic AU#Fem!reader#the basketball which kuroko plays#Titanic#Writing#Oneshot#rakuzan
54 notes
·
View notes
Text
Can't get them off my mind. Don't want them on my mind. But they linger there all the same. I should clean my room and throw all the stuff away, the gifts, the clothes, the memories. But I cling to them in the hopes that bad times will come to nostalgic thoughts, brining me warmth instead of anxiety and grief. I tuck pictures into my closet, hide things in drawers, place objects within shadows, giving the old messages of love a false face to fool me into thinking they're gone. Things I've had for years, things I wake up to every morning and see. Gifts, little things from you to me. A permanent fixture in room. A permanent fixture in my life.
It's funny that permanence can crumble just as unsinkable ships sink.
To remove something that was the center of your world seems unimaginable. To realign, forced to find a new center. To be able to trust, to be able to share and love and accept items to replace the old ones. The fear of placing a photo on the wall to only take it down. Why put it up in the first place, you know how it ends. You've learned permanent doesn't mean forever. You've learned love doesn't mean good. You've learned getting attached means cleaning your room again.
Committing myself means getting hurt. And I'm tired of being torn apart after just putting myself back together again.
Maybe I'll clean my room tomorrow
#depression#anxiety#getting over a breakup#getting over someone#loosing friends#loneliness#being alone#my thoughts today#it has been really hard to let go#you may be in love but that doesn't mean it was healthy or good for you#but it still means you have to move on#healing#moving on#trying my best#i lost a best friend and a love and a person who made me believe in soul mates#im rambling#but its been hard recently#but im used to this kind of pain
7 notes
·
View notes
Note
Dear Byakuren, I've just read your asks about the titanic, and I wish to inform you that it was actually almost unsinkable, it had a series of chambers wich kept the water from sinking it after it hit the iceberg, but some GODDAMN IDIOT opened the FUCKING chamber hatch because he wanted to see inside and FLOODED THE SHIP, consequently SINKING IT. But you can't fool proof idiocy afterall.
Dear Anonymous,
What I learned from myself and my experience with humans and youkais alike is that...
People are stupid.
And you can’t change that!
No amount of unsinkable boats may change that!
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Invisible Hand Will Sink These Markets
Image: Nan Fry
By Brian Nelson, CFA
Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” is often thought to be a blessing by the capitalists of the world. The free-market economy will find the right answer, they may say. Self-interest and greed will inevitably push humankind to new horizons and achieve levels of greatness no person before thought possible. What fools we are to believe.
Irrational behavior around shares of GameStop (GME) continued Friday, February 26, with the company trading in a huge range of $86.00-$142.90 on the session. We re-released our 16-page report on the stock and peg a fair value estimate of just $4 per share, with the high end of the fair value estimate range of $7. A Bank of America analyst reiterated a $10 price target. GameStop shares closed at ~$102.
There’s clearly no reasonable basis for owning GameStop’s stock at current price levels, in our view, and there certainly was no reasonable basis when the stock was trading as high as $483 per share earlier this year. An equity capital raise by management would result in a fair value estimate increase (perhaps a material one depending on how many new shares the market can stomach), but the takeaway is the same:
These markets are nuts. The iceberg is coming, and we’re still going full steam ahead.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) noted February 26 that “as part of its continuing effort to respond to potential attempts to exploit investors during the recent market volatility,” it had suspended trading in 15 more stocks—all “because of questionable trading and social media activity.” We applaud the SEC for its swift action, though much more is needed, and it may be too little too late.
Unlike the dot-com bubble roughly two decades ago, the fervor of the price-agnostic trading frenzy of 2021 has an aura of permanence to it. This “craziness” is here to stay. Where during the dot-com bubble, sell-side analysts were in a race to set the highest price target, regardless of their underlying opinion of the firm, there was a solution to the problem. Get rid of the bad apples. But today, we have a fraction of the sell-side analysts we used to; they’ve been out of a job for some time now.
Fired – in favor of underperforming statistical quant work or the fantasies of artificial intelligence and machine learning. More than 60% of trading in the marketplace is now driven by indexing, algorithms and quant traders chasing momentum or following trends--or moving stocks higher or lower based on simple P/B or P/E ratios. The quants know statistics, but of finance they know little.
Moreover, there are trillions in indexed products, and their overseers believe we still operate in an environment like that of even a few decades ago—when sell-side analysts were pulling seven-figure salaries because the invisible hand rewarded price discovery. We are not operating in such an environment. The price setters have almost all left. Shown the door, even.
The best finance schools aren’t teaching how to responsibly evaluate the fundamentals of a company and haven’t been doing so for decades. Heck, they think they’ve “solved the market” with backtests and “made up” factors. They are teaching coding or indoctrinating students to believe that any share price is as good as the next (GameStop at $450, for example – what a deal! – yes, sarcasm), or that the market simply knows best. Maybe years ago, the market was once a decent price-setting mechanism, but today, it is most certainly not.
GameStop is just one of at least a few dozen rather large stocks whose share prices make no sense--and I’m not talking about Tesla (TSLA). There's actually some reasonable basis to Tesla’s valuation. It’s not just the two dozen or so companies that the SEC suspended trading today either. This nonsense is everywhere. Do we really believe that a $7 trillion asset manager like Vanguard, or the trillions in indexed products today that pay little attention to intrinsic value are not also distorting market prices?
Pretty straightforward, no? But some of the brightest minds on the Street today may say in disbelief: “Full Steam Ahead!” Of course, some of them are just stubborn. They’ve been singing the same tune for decades, finding different ways to say the same thing over and over again, and they can’t change it now. They’d be wrong, and their egos couldn’t take it for one second. The invisible hand is yet still working overtime.
Elon Musk tweets out a Clubhouse app and a completely different company with the ticker CMGR soars. The same situation happened to another company called Signal Advance (SIGL) over another one of Musk’s tweets. Yet another instance like this but without a Musk tweet occurred with confusion of ZOOM last year. There’s no fix to this, and these are just the distortions we see clear as day.
You can’t convince a die-hard index aficionado that’s hauling in $20 million a year on a book of business that he’s built based on the faulty efficient market hypothesis and underperforming modern portfolio theory to all of sudden care about the greater good of society. What did Upton Sinclair say: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Nobody cares that these markets are going straight to the bottom of the ocean like the Titanic, no more than uninformed nations can heed the warning of climate change before it's too late. We’re headed for disaster one way or another. The incentives have been in place for a long time. “Sell index funds. Look – random factors can explain these returns.” Most of what’s coming out of finance today is nonsense, padding the wrong pockets.
How many people celebrate when they get the fair value of a company, correct? Where’s that on the news? Pay a man twice as much to not do individual due diligence on stocks, and just mechanically rebalance assets every six months or so and not give a damn about the health of the marketplace, what do you expect? You don’t think Jack Bogle is hailed as a hero by advisors for saving individual investors money, do you? Jack hasn’t saved the prudent stock picker a plug nickel.
Adam Smith’s invisible hand of active management used to result in the optimization of price discovery, where participants would do their very best work to buy and sell to “uncover” the best market price, creating a positive externality for all investors--even those quants and indexers that are now polluting the system. Today’s invisible hand is leading us off a cliff. Incentives are in place to continue to discourage price discovery, and to no surprise, we’re seeing just a glimpse of it.
Iceberg ahead, and very few see it. Sure, there are perma-bears that have been bearish for the past two decades that are right twice a day like a clock, but we’ve been bullish. The ship is damaged, the markets are going to sink, and it’s not the “little guy’s” fault. The distortions in the financial markets are clear when viewed through the lens of a $6 billion company GameStop, but they are no less evident than implicit distortions caused by a bunch of index funds piling into the same name at once.
We didn’t hand out Nobel prizes just for Long-Term Capital Management to blow up. We didn’t hand out Nobel prizes for EMH just to witness what’s happening in the markets with stocks like GameStop doing what they’re doing. We didn’t hand out Nobel prizes to provide excuses for why modern portfolio theory in the form of the 60/40 stock/bond portfolio has failed investors for the past 30 years relative to a monkey throwing darts at the WSJ pages.
Why are we handing out Nobel prizes -- and why doesn't Warren Buffett have one? You get the type of academic work you incentivize, and incentives are out of whack. I’ve said jokingly that finance for the past 60 years can easily be summed up by two developments: 1) Oh, you can’t do stock analysis? Well, here’s indexing. 2) Oh, you can’t beat the S&P 500? Well, here’s some quant jargon.
Indexing and quant jargon are doing far more damage than a few traders on social media. Believe you me. These markets are not well, and the invisible hand is guiding through a fog of misinformation to disaster. Markets have bounced right off the high end of our fair value estimate range on the S&P 500, and we’ve raised cash. The violins are playing on the Titanic. The “unsinkable” ship we call the price discovery mechanism of the markets can sink. Let us not be fools to think otherwise.
There will be an epilogue to Value Trap, and you and I both know that I don't want to write it. Let's keep playing the violin for now.
Tickerized for GME, CMGR, SIGL, TSLA, ZM, ZOOM
Temporarily Suspended Trading: Bebida Beverage Co. (BBDA); Blue Sphere Corporation (BLSP); Ehouse Global Inc. (EHOS); Eventure Interactive Inc. (EVTI); Eyes on the Go Inc. (AXCG); Green Energy Enterprises Inc. (GYOG); Helix Wind Corp. (HLXW); International Power Group Ltd. (IPWG); Marani Brands Inc. (MRIB); MediaTechnics Corp. (MEDT); Net Talk.com Inc. (NTLK); Patten Energy Solutions Group Inc. (PTTN); PTA Holdings Inc. (PTAH); Universal Apparel & Textile Company (DKGR); and Wisdom Homes of America Inc. (WOFA), Bangi Inc. (BNGI); Sylios Corp. (UNGS); Marathon Group Corp. (PDPR); Affinity Beverage Group Inc. (ABVG); All Grade Mining Inc. (HYII); and SpectraScience Inc. (SCIE)
youtube
-----
Valuentum members have access to our 16-page stock reports, Valuentum Buying Index ratings, Dividend Cushion ratios, fair value estimates and ranges, dividend reports and more. Not a member? Subscribe today. The first 14 days are free.
Brian Nelson owns shares in SPY, SCHG, QQQ, and IWM. Some of the other securities written about in this article may be included in Valuentum's simulated newsletter portfolios. Contact Valuentum for more information about its editorial policies.
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
iampapad1
Untitled
sepkillz
theres soo much world to see, so fly free my angel
cannabis-home042
Cannabis Lap Home💊🧪🌡️
suryabhansingh
Suryabhan Singh
the-silent-fellowship
The Silent Fellowship