Tsuna watching as the Arco trip over themselves look fools for Ed’s attention: Is this normal? Should I be worried about the group of hyper competent deadly idiots out brother attracts?
Al, thinking back to Roy, Ling and Greed: This is totally normal. Ed will be fine
Tsuna: I thought they were all supposed to be impressive
Al: That's the thing with Brother. He drags in super-competent people, and then he turns them stupid in very specific ways. I'd call it a talent if he did it on purpose
AU where Tsuna and Ranpo are cousins meaning Tsuna is used to dealing with super intelligent people and thus has no respect for them because he has to help Ranpo figure out transportation routes or else he would get lost just riding it to the next stop.
This of course means that by the time Reborn shows up Tsuna is 10000% done with dealing with chaotic idiot geniuses so instead of being intimidated by Reborn his first thought is "okay you're a genius hitman baby thing, bet. what's the simple everyday task you can't accomplish? is it tying your shoes? I feel like you're a man-baby who can't tie his own shoes."
And Reborn is just like ???I'm going to kill him???
I need you out of my walls bc THE TIMING ON THAT GORGEOUS SKULL IMAGE
I've started sliding into khr via osmosis (there are. so many crossovers) and Immediately went That One
he's punk, he's purple, he rides a motorcycle, the PIERCINGS, and an OCTO BUDDY? Bullseye straight to the heart, love that man
(I also my have binge read the Tsuna n Skulls excellent adventure tag as well)
Skull is best boy and I adore him so fuck yes
Have an angsty KHR AU (Playing fast and loose with flame lore and characterization. Also, I haven't figured out what the 10th Gen Guardians are doing during all this, but whatever it is, it involves So Many miscommunications.)
The AU:
Tsuna doesn't want to be a mafia boss. He hates the violence, he hates the danger, he hates knowing that if he messes up, it can get people killed.
But no one really listens to him. Not even Reborn, who just sees Tsuna's whole "I don't want to be a mafia boss" thing as a sort of juvenile rebellion phase.
(But it's not. Every time one of Tsuna's people comes home hurt, every time Tsuna has to inflict harm on the battlefield, every time Tsuna is exposed to the casual cruelty of the underworld, it damages something inside of him. It scars his soul. He hates it. He does not want to be a mafia boss.)
And then Timoteo's health declines. (These next two paragraphs were heavily inspired by Break These Chains on Me by Luki on AO3.) Tsuna, knowing his time is running out and absolutely desperate, tries to make plans to get tf out. Maybe he signs up for civilian university. Maybe he makes plans to travel. Maybe he tries to create a fake identity to just run. And Tsuna, who has learned to rely on and trust Reborn -- after everything, how could he not -- confides in him about these plans.
And Reborn -- who has never really understood why Tsuna hates the mafia -- thinks this is one last (highly irritating) attempt at a teenage rebellion. It's not entirely unexpected, what with the weight of being Don Vongola looming over Tsuna's shoulders. And so, in a true Disappointed Reborn fashion, he responds with a harsh but effective lesson. He plays along with Tsuna's escape plans for a bit, and then. And then. It's the day Tsuna plans to vanish, and Reborn sits Tsuna down at the table, with Xanxus and Timoteo, and tells Tsuna if he doesn't fall in line Bad Things are gonna happen to his people.
(Reborn does not intend this to be an actual threat. It's supposed to be a slap on the wrist. A sort of, "Yeah, you're a teenager, but you need to start conducting yourself more seriously, knock it off before I actually get mad." Sure, Vongola is threatening to kidnap Tsuna's mom, but the kidnappers are just going to take her out for tea and cake and a spa night, and when Tsuna shows up to rescue her she'll be fine. The real punishment will be the physical path to go get her -- Reborn has an Embarrassing Obstacle Course TM planned.
And so on, for all of Tsuna's precious ones.
Reborn does not consider that Tsuna might actually believe the severity of the threats. After all they've been through, after all they've done for each other, Reborn knows Tsuna would never believe that Reborn could actually hurt Tsuna's people.)
But Tsuna. Well, Tsuna's on a different page. This life is killing him, slowly, and when Reborn tells him that he never intended to help Tsuna escape, it hits Tsuna like a full-on betrayal. And while mere minutes before, Tsuna knew that Reborn would never even dream of harming Tsuna's people, Tsuna no longer can trust this. Tsuna fully and absolutely believes that Reborn's threats are real, and that there will be permanent consequences if he doesn't comply.
It gets worse.
Tsuna thought Reborn actually cared about him. Reborn had, slowly but inevitably, become something like a father to Tsuna. But in that moment, Tsuna realizes that he actually was just a job all along.
And Xanxus. Tsuna also thought Xanxus cared about him. He thought they had come to an understanding. He thought they were starting to become brothers, of a sort -- bonded by battle and trauma and shared responsibilities, by nights complaining to each other over dinner or over the phone. And as Tsuna sits across from them, hearing his people threatened and knowing he is, in fact, going to be forced to Italy, he comes to believe that none of that new brotherhood was real.
And Tsuna realizes he has no choice. He never had a choice. He will end up in Italy, as Don Vongola, no matter how much it is going to kill him inside.
And worse: the people he has come to love clearly do not love him back. If they did, they would not be doing this to him. And sitting at that kitchen table, seeing the disappointment in Reborn and Xanxus' eyes, he knows that he is never going to be enough.
But he knows, he knows, that he isn't going to survive Italy without having them in his life supporting him. Because even if they don't love him, he does, truly, love them.
And he comes to the conclusion that if he remains as he is -- weak, useless Tsuna -- not only will he inevitably lose them, but he just flat out won't survive the life stretching out (long, so long, and so so desolate) before him.
So he uses his flames.
He images the mafia boss that they want him to be (as he perceives it). He thinks about all the characteristics they must want him to have, all the things they expect him to want, and he conjures an image of this better Tsuna in his mind. And then he harmonizes with it, becomes one with this false image of himself.
But it doesn't work, not all the way. There are still bits of him, the original, weak, disappointing Tsuna left. He can feel it, in the dread at the thought of the life before him. In the shocked-hurt he feels at this betrayal. In the agony of knowing that they don't care about him, they never cared about him, they only care about his title.
So he puts those bits of himself in ice.
And suddenly, the years ahead don't seem so bad. Suddenly, the betrayal seems reasonable -- after all, wasn't he acting so silly, so juvenile, trying to escape like that. Suddenly, it doesn't matter that they don't love him back -- of course they don't, why would they love him? -- all that matters is he loves them. As long as he keeps himself in check, and matches their expectations, nothing is wrong.
Tsuna looks at them, sitting across the table, and complies with their demands.
Reborn does, for a moment, think that it happens a bit too easily. There's none of the usual screeching, no dragging of the heels, no protests. Right then, Reborn fully expects it to boil over at some point in the future. (He thinks, maybe, that Tsuna is playing along now, but will have a teenagery-protest again as it gets closer to the time they leave for Italy.)
(It never happens.)
Reborn thinks, merely, that Tsuna has put on the mantle of maturity. It's a little ahead of schedule of what he was expecting, but then again, Tsuna has always exceeded expectations.
Time passes. Timoteo's health declines. He dies. Tsuna goes to Italy, and becomes a mafia boss.
(It's a golden age. Tsuna is just as compassionate and selfless and determined as Reborn always knew he would be. There is a peace, unlike anything the underworld has ever seen, because of his rule.
This peace is a result of the core of Tsuna peeking out. It always would have happened.)
It's five years into Tsuna's reign before people begin to realize that something is really, really wrong with Tsuna.
They do figure it out, eventually. And when they do, when they realize what happened and what caused it, it breaks them, just as much as they broke Tsuna all those years ago.
Imagining there’s a whole language for flame users based off of what colors they’re wearing particularly when it comes to skies. Like everyone tends to lean into wearing the color of their own flame. Occasionally you will see someone throw on a splash of orange if they are looking for a sky but for a sky? For a bonded sky? Wearing the color of one of their guardians is seen as giving them favor, of holding them above all others, of claiming them publicly even more than their bond has already claimed them.
All this to say Tsuna wears a red shirt and Hayato, the only one that understands the unspoken rules, runs face first into a wall
Trying to find a lost MCU Tony Stark fic/series (AO3)
I’m looking for a long fic series I read ~1–2 years ago (it was still ongoing at the time). I think it may be deleted, locked, or orphaned because I can’t find it through search anymore.
Key details I remember:
- Tony ends up in a new/artificial body (I think he looks like a teenager)
- The public and of avengers team don’t know it’s him — he’s treated as basically Tony’s “son”
- Pepper and Rhodey know the truth
- Tony develops some kind of technopath ability in the new body
- Loki pretends to be Tony publicly (covering for him) I think at a press conference. Loki was told that Tony was too injured to be there.
- Wanda develops a crush on Tony’s new identity
- Strong post–Civil War / anti–Team Cap tone
Specific scenes:
- Steve accuses Tony of experimenting on Pepper and his “son” with Extremis
- The team watches a movie from a list Tony made for Steve to catch up on modern times but Tony learns that they have already been watching it without him.
- Running bit where Clint takes Tony’s money for vending machines on missions/ steals his wallet without Tony knowing.
-Tony is helping either Harley or Peter study in the new body.
-Team cap recognizes the abuse from Howard in the new body but blames Tony for it.
Other:
- Possibly includes Peter Parker (not 100% sure how big his role was)
- Definitely a series, not just a single fic
If this sounds familiar or you have a link/download/bookmark, I’d really appreciate it!
"after the war," lance says quietly, "we'll go our separate ways. and you won't need to worry about it anymore."
from my fic, skin still
I found a prompt of tiktok, that was from here, by @gingerly-writing that I am STUPIDLY in love with and I have to share it.
and I am so weak.
She’s playing at being nonchalant, throwing his own words back in his face, casually ruffling her hair like she’s exasperated.
She’s not, oh God, she’s not, it hurts this man, this brilliant man with all his ups and downs, the manic way he’ll tackle a problem, the sleep soft expression on his face when she randomly runs into him after a science bender and before coffee-
It’s been him always and so slowly she can’t even say when she even knew-
He doesn’t love her.
Honestly, her therapist would probably punch her out on live TV if they even knew how much she just...wanted. Not thrill or the quick fast, in and out of your system, the forbidden temptation for a hero to fall in with a villain, but all of it. The depressive episodes, the temper that made him bare his teeth, snarl out threats and vulgarity- ones he never hesitated to carry out if it suited him. He was a villain.
She- she’s a hero, she’s the hero.
Still, this situation counts as doing her duty, keeping a villain in check until-
Well. Until.
“Run,” he growls at her, skin flushed, sweat beading on his brow as he hunches over.
The very picture of a cornered and wounded animal, trying desperately to fight off its own instincts, she muses, almost poetically. Damn him.
“If the spell only makes you attack people you love,” she says, playing so desperately like this doesn’t hurt her to say, praying he can’t see-, “I’ll be fine.”
She’s not fine, how dare that fucking bitch put them in this situation, hero or not, she’s literally gonna kill her, she’s not gonna lift a single fucking finger-!
“I love you,” the villain snarls, eyes wild, glinting in the light as concrete cracks ominously under his fingers.
Her breath hitches as her eyes fly to his and he- looks away.
Silence falls for a moment as she stare at him and- and-
A pained whined escapes his throat as he tenses and jerks, shifting just enough to lock his wild eyes with hers.
“Now,” he grits out even as his hands clench and concrete turns into dust so very easily under his strength, even as he screams-
“Run!”
She’s gone before the echoes stop ringing against the walls, she’s gone in the moment it takes for his self control to slip, for his hands to curl like claws and drag against the walls, leaving five deep scars.
She’s hurtling herself through the air, desperately pulling up comes and begging someone to answer her on where’s the counter spell, where’s that bitch who did this, someone report!
Her eyes are wet and it’s the sting of the wind, her hands are shaking and it’s the sudden, sharp rise of adrenaline, her heart is pounding so hard, but-
-that’s just the fear a villain, the villain is going to hurt her down and kill her.
Her breath scrapes out of her lungs and it hurts.
If he lays a finger on her, completely out of control and with none of his usual restraint, if he shows up downtown to tear down buildings with none of his elaborate plans that result in minimal to almost zero casualties-
They’ll take her away from him.
She will no longer be the only hero sent to deal with him, won’t be the one they call first, because now he’ll be a threat large enough that the almost playful, almost friendly competition they have will be replaced with a highly trained team of lethal heroes aiming to remove him by any mean necessary.
For some, that’s death. For others, it’s a collar around their throat until…well. Until someone somewhere in a position of power decides otherwise.
Not that they will. Because if these spineless cowards are still afraid of heroes, there’s no telling what they would do with a villain such as him.
She can’t- she’s not doing to let that happen.
He’s had no mass causalities under his name, never directly endangered the public, expect for instances where it was a large scale problem he had.
She knows the only reason why he’s considered the most wanted villain and not a particularly violent and clever vigilante is because all his targets are the high and mighty. Those will money and power and resources like blackmail and coercion to use as they please. People in places of authority and lacking in the moral department.
He’s stronger, he can outwit, out strategize, out think and perform miles better then anyone they’ve ever sent after him. He’s raking in money from both legal and illegal means, he has no problem killing when needed, blackmailing or even arranging events to lead to him being owed a favor.
He’s not a good man, she know, oh God, she knows.
But he’s still the man who, when the city was hit by a blizzard due to atmospheric disturbance caused by another villain, took over the power station and kept the lights on while ensuring the company that owned it was unable to bill anyone using their service. He’s still the man who showed up to a showdown and literally wiped the floor with them all because they were trying to overthrow the government and crackdown on “undesirables”.
He’s the man who bought and managed to deliver a Mad Scientist Kit to every single child of 12 on Christmas five years ago. He likes the color green and gets pissed off when people shift lanes without a blinker. Breakfast is his favorite food and he’s showed up to a fight with a bag of donuts- not poisoned- and he’s frustrating and violent, but he’s never raised a hand to a child.
He makes valid points on the very obvious and not so obvious corruption even she’s been combating as much as she can.
He’s not wrong.
That’s the worst part of all this.
He’s not wrong.
She’s changing things from the inside and it’s a hard road and she has barely anything to show for it, but she’s changed things.
He’s file is still too classified for her to know if he was inside- perhaps deeper then she’s ever been- but she knows him well enough that for him to go public, all other options were unavailable.
Which at least implies he tried other options.
She gits her teeth as a new update on the retrieval of the bitch that caused all this, or if any of her magic connections have a counter spell…
Jackpot, one of her long time friends happened across this very spell in a rage induced blender about six months back and should have the book- all they need is the name and acknowledgement of the original spell placed on-
Her ears are ringing, the sun vanished from the sky and her- she’s…?
On the ground, in a crater because someone just dropkicked her from the sky.
She gets her hands under her and pushes up, rubble cascading down her back, over her shoulders, along with her hair.
He broke her favorite hair stick.
Tears sting her eyes because he bought her that one.
She gets to her feet, flicking away the blood on her mouth and slides back as he touches down with a whisper of fabric not ten feet in front of her.
Her breath hitches because his eyes are blank, glowing and there’s nothing- there’s not a single expression on his face.
She knows, she already knows she’s going to have to throw everything she has at him, she’s going to have to fight like she’s going to kill him. That level of rage, of cold, clinical detachment is going to be difficult to attain but-
Dodge, slide, shift, block, block, block, cou- nope, block, counter, jump- DISTANCE.
Her ribs hurt.
“Yo, suga, tell me you got ‘im on da ropes?”
“What you can’t tell from TV?”
It’s deceptively light, gently teasing, compared to the stressed, almost panicked tones of her bestest magic friend ever.
“You ain’t got cameras, you got a city wide evacuation order. I need five minutes.”
She swears vividly and colorfully, biting them off before she can-
-dodge, dodge, dodg-fail, GET BACK UP-no, no, down, do-UP-!
“-itch, if you don’t an-”
“Five min-minutes, I gotchu, fam,” she wheezes through what is definitely broken ribs before clicking her comms off.
He’s standing there, crouching down from where he landed after she threw him.
There’s no banter, no monologues and oh God, all the times she’s taunted villains for even pausing to speak with her, she needs it back just for a few seconds, hon-
dodge, slide, turn, tuck and roll, attack, attack, attack-
She breaks his leg and dislocates his shoulder. He doesn’t stop, doesn’t slow down, doesn’t hesitate and that slow trickle of fear turns into a full on scream in the back of her head.
She’s strong, but there’s only one of them fighting with actual lethal intent.
She- she doesn’t want to.
Too bad, so sad, comes the mocking voice of someone long dead.
She closes her eyes, just for a second.
When she opens them, it’s to his fist caught firmly in her hand. Her eyes are glowing and she reaches out, just as he throws himself backwards, but the spray of blood spatters her face.
It’s not her in control, it’s every single instinct she’s beaten into her body. It’s not her, it’s the hero, the hero that is fighting the villain, the hero that cannot fail, cannot hesitate-
The hero doesn’t.
The hero fights the villain, through the pain and the blood and the burn and there’s screams and the sound of buildings coming down, the whistle of wind as their fights goes airborne, the crack of asphalt as they come back down.
In the end, the hero is still her, she is still the hero, no matter what instincts say.
She hesitates on a killing blow, barely a millisecond, shifting the aim of a broken off piece of jagged steel. Non-lethal, enough to immobilize.
He doesn’t quite dodge all the way, but it’s enough that he wretches the other end out and away from him and shoves it back.
The arm around her back prevents her from getting out of the way, holds her in place long enough that she-
It hurts.
Oh God, what is this pain? Make it stop, please-
There’s water in her throat, bubbling up and choking and she can’t breath.
She coughs, and it’s blood that spills over her lips. Her legs give out-
He catches her, a hitch breath and the glow fading from his eyes as he blinks them. The arm around her back softens as fingers curl around her waist.
He says her name.
They’re on the ground and her head is so heavy, lolling until he gets his other hand out from in-between them and it’s so warm against her cheek, tangled in her hair.
She blinks and she can see his mouth moving, can see how his eyes are back to normal, but the sun’s setting so fast. It’s getting dark out and she can’t make out anything.
Her ears are ringing.
The world takes a moment, but it finally turns back on.
Her comms are in his hand, her head is on his shoulder- maybe the one she dislocated? Actually, is it dislocated? He kinda walked that off a bit too quickly.
Wait no, that wasn’t-
“-dical here RIGHT NOW, I’m going to burn this city to the ground, starting with- hey, hey, shush, it’s okay, I’ve got you, look at me, look at me.”
She looks.
“Please don’t cry,” she whispers and it hurts and scratches her throat and rattles in her lungs- it hurts.
“You-”
She doesn’t know what that look on his face means. She’s never seen it before. There’s bruises blooming all over his skin, blood dripping from slashes, gashes, stabs and tiny little cuts from that window she threw him through.
She’s pretty sure she’s laying on the leg she broke. Maybe. She can’t really feel the ground, but…but…
“You should have run,” he spits at her, the hand holding the comm dropping it before settling on her face.
It’s shaking, she notices.
“I did.”
He twitches at the vague confusion in her voice and snarls.
“Not fast enough! Not long enough!”
“You were hurting people,” faint protests he interrupts harshly, tightening his grip until she can feel it.
“I hurt you!”
He coughs and she can see how his teeth are stained red and wonders if they’re both dying here, in the ruins of a skyscraper barely five minutes after he confessed his love to her.
“I don’t care about the nameless masses of sheep! So caught up in their pitiful lives, with their troubles that seem so all consuming and could be so easily solved- I don’t care!”
She giggles, breathy noises that make her cough, even as her entire body protests. Her vision goes a bit gray, but she blinks, watching as terror crawls bodily across his bruised face.
“Liar,” she whispers so softly, even as his eyes slide closed and he leans down- oh.
He presses a kiss to her forehead, bending down to carefully rest his own against hers before he gives her a kiss, right on her lips.
It last for all of a second, but she smiles when he pulls away.
“I love you too,” she breathes, even as tears well up and spill over, craving tracks down the dirt and grime covering her skin.
“No, no, no, don’t you dare-”
The hand on her cheek goes for her comm and he’s- he’s yelling into it again and her ears are ringing and the sun’s probably set now because it’s so dark she can’t really see him anymore.
He says her name- once- twice-
Something like a scream whispers in the quiet place she’s found herself in, but she can barely hear it.
He’s screaming, screaming, through his own broken bones, through his own bleeding body when in a burst of colors and the crack of thunder, they land almost on top of them.
My boyfriend, again blending together fanfiction tropes: So what if when you finally find your soulmate, that’s when you discover if you’re alpha or omega, right?
Me, hands shaking as I frantically search for pen & paper: KEEP TALKING
Me: Seems hellish
Boyfriend: So does being an ant person
Me: Again, baby, they’re not ants
Boyfriend: YES THEY ARE. They communicate via pheromones— LIKE ANTS.
Me: So back to the soulmate thing….
Boyfriend: You could trick them into following orders and thinking they’re dead by spraying them with a spritz bottle. I think they need a queen.
Me: So back to the soulmate thing…. Seems hellish!
Boyfriend: Not really. If being around the other person is what triggers the changes, if you want to go back to normal… all you need to do is leave.
Me, writing: (You found your soulmate. It’s changing you in scary ways. All you need to do is leave… how difficult would it be to leave? What pressures exist to stay?)
Boyfriend: So these ant-people—
Me: OMEGAVERSE IS NOT ANTS!!!!!!
i do kind of believe that getting a bachelor's degree makes you stupid about your field, specifically in the way where you believe you know a lot more than you actually do about the field of study you were in. if you are extremely lucky and have some very good instructors, they will impress upon you how much there still is to learn, but a lot of people leave a four year program with a little too much confidence in their own expertise
this is my theory for why bachelors holders are constantly on here using their degree to leverage an air of superiority while saying a bunch of demonstrably false bullshit, but you never see masters or phd holders comment on anything outside of their thesis topic and occasionally as an addition to the bachelor holder's essay going "hi, phd in same field here, there is no consensus on what this person is asserting and they are full of shit".
relatedly. saying "i have a degree in x field" is actually not a replacement for citing sources. some of you seem to be leaning way too heavily on it as a replacement for the due diligence you were supposed to learn in that very program, and i think you should be embarrassed about that. ultimately most of the time you shouldn't even need to disclose your degree except as a positionality statement, because your work should stand on its own and demonstrate your expertise. people should believe what you say is true not because you wave around a piece of paper, but because you show them why it is true using the skills and knowledge that paper is supposed to represent. by not doing that you are undermining the work of your colleagues in the field and eroding trust with the general public. cite some goddamn sources or do not say anything at all.
Shitty things about being isekaied #34; every time I use the restroom I automatically reach for my phone I left in my jacket pocket back on earth, and my hand goes exactly where I keep my knives on my belt, so I always walk out of the john with a fresh hand wound
Shitty things about being isekaied #49: dog came with me but the magic field uplifted her into an anime girl and I'm realizing our personalities just don't click (plus her sitting on my lap is weird now)
Shitty things about being isekaied #64: the town blacksmith is an elf named Gay Simpson and I couldnt explain why that made me laugh and now she won't fix my weapons anymore
Shitty things about being isekaied #75: my degree in russian lit is useless now
Shitty things about being isekaied #83: the four dark lords of this world look almost identical to abba which cant be intentional but when they line up on horseback its so uncanny i cant help but wonder if someones fucking with me
Shitty things about being isekaied #94: they dont make my meds here and health potions dont do shit for bipolar
bell mare - david crawford
