Mumbles & Scribbles

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Defenders (Marvel TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Jessica Jones, Trish Walker, Malcolm Ducasse, Claire Temple, Luke Cage, Danny Rand, Colleen Wing, Matt Murdock, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, Cats - Character, Kittens - Character Additional Tags: cat rescue, Stuff You Do Because You're The Only One There, There I Fixed It Summary:

Jessica Jones is minding her own business, thank you very much and then her sister shows up, and no - it doesn't matter what the problem is. If it's something Jessica can do, she will. That's just the way it works.

[mumblesnscribbles]

Mumbles & Scribbles turned 2 today!

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Iron Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Pepper Potts & Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark Characters: Pepper Potts, Steve Rogers Additional Tags: Pepperony - Freeform, Capsaicin, Fix-It, Iron Man 3 Compliant, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, There I Fixed It, under the radar Summary:

When you least expect it, expect it.

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

I’ve got a story in this collection again this year - and the reveal is up!  Only 17 stories in the collection, but so far they are winners - go check it!

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 2/2 Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies) Rating: Mature Warnings: Underage Relationships: Happy Hogan & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, Happy Hogan & Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan & Natasha Romanov, Happy Hogan & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Clint Barton & Happy Hogan, Bruce Banner & Happy Hogan Characters: Happy Hogan, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov, Nick Fury, Bruce Banner, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Original Characters Additional Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Mpreg, Teen Pregnancy, Fat Shaming, Slut Shaming, Adoption, Self-Hatred, Child Abandonment, Under The Radar In A Big Way, repeatedly, Avengers Fest, Flip it Flip It Good, Tony Stark Has A Good Bud, Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers (2012), It's a small world after all, Trans Shaming Summary:

It's four months after the Battle of New York, and rebuilding the city continues. The Tower is being remodeled, Bruce Banner remains in residence there, along with Steve Rogers as well as long-term visitors Clint Barton and Natasha Romanov. Upstate, Stark Industries splits Tony Stark's time between while Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan resume their lives, just now with SHIELD and Avengers taking up some of the clock cycles.

Until a ciphered journal turns up in the rubble near the Tower. Two alphas working for SHIELD also claim Tony Stark is an omega, where any meta-gender is rare, but omegas doubly so. Trouble is - they already know he isn't.

The truth is harder to believe than the lie.

--

Throw down a few words for this year’s Avengers Fest - 5K yuk yuk yuk joke, done and over - sure!

Then I saw down to write it.  Two weeks out from the deadline.

There’s at least 10K in worldbuilding notes in Evernote too.  It has a tiny soundtrack playlist.

Happy Hogan has a BIG mouth.  And he would not stop talking.

It could be three times as long.  And yeah, there are places that need more meat on the bones.

But what do you think?

[kyburg]

Check out this playlist on @8tracks: Star Light, Star Bright - A Captain America: Civil War Listening Companion by kyburg.

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Wanda Maximoff/Vision, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, Everyone & Natasha Romanov Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Clint Barton, T'Challa (Marvel), Natasha Romanov, Vision (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff, Scott Lang, Peter Parker, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, James "Bucky" Barnes, Helmut Zemo Additional Tags: FST, Fanmix, Listening Companion, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, How many people were in that movie, Did I get them all, Pepperony - Freeform, all the feels, get tissues, Bumpy night, Fuck you iTunes, YES I PUT BARRY MANILOW IN THERE BITE ME, twice, A++ Parenting, If it fits it ships, Cover me, I HATE FROZEN BUT THIS WORKED, The author is aghast, winter shield - Freeform, scarlett vision, Natasha is Switzerland Summary:

A Listening Companion differs from a Soundtrack (aside from the fact I can't score the movie) in that the songs are not an exact match; more of a jog to the memory banks, the "aha" moment that might evoke the same or similar emotions.

There are so many on this list that were a total gimme, come on.

Yes, yes I am going to hell now. Buh-bye!

  8Tracks Link Here

[kyburg]

A few words on the subject.

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Penelope Creighton-Ward & Jeff Tracy, Penelope Creighton-Ward/John Tracy Characters: Penelope Creighton-Ward, Jeff Tracy, John Tracy, Scott Tracy, Virgil Tracy, Gordon Tracy, Alan Tracy, Brains (Thunderbirds) Additional Tags: Original Character(s), Original Series, This is a No GO Zone, The Science is wonky, The timing is questionable, The author is aghast, Advent Calendar 2015, Advent 2015 Prompt, Fluffy Ending, What happens in England stays in England, Tracy Field Trip Summary:

Prompt for the Advent 2015 Collection, still working my way through them.

"The year the Tracy family invades Creighton Manor, with added shenanigans."

[mumblesnscribbles]

Mumbles & Scribbles turned 1 today!

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel (Movies) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Clint Barton/Laura Barton Characters: Pepper Potts, Tony Stark, Clint Barton, Laura Barton, Natasha Romanov, Wanda Maximoff Additional Tags: Bubble Lights, inadvertant musical, Grief/Mourning, home base, I'll Be Home For Christmas, quinjets need love too, Pepperony - Freeform, claura Summary:

Two things people assume belong to Tony Stark - one, he's a people collector and two, he's given more people a home than any other (because he has so many of them).

What if that wasn't true, and somebody else wanted the job?

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Quantum Leap Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Sam Beckett & Al Calavicci Characters: Sam Beckett, Al Calavicci Additional Tags: Dirty cars need love too, Graffiti, Miss you, the ones left behind Summary:

"Al takes out his frustrations with Sam by writing graffiti on the dust accumulating on his car in the parking lot."

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Starsky & Hutch Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Ken Hutchinson/David Starsky, Huggy Bear Brown - Relationship Characters: David Starsky, Ken Hutchinson, Harold Dobey, Huggy Bear Brown Additional Tags: Post-Episode: s04e22 Sweet Revenge, it is what it is, life changes can be good things Summary:

Post Sweet Revenge, Starsky retires from the force, Hutch follows him but that leads them both into new careers.

Hutch ends up a lawyer.

Starsky? A good detective makes a good therapist.

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Iron Man (Movies), The Borrowers - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark Characters: Pepper Potts, Tony Stark, Original Characters Additional Tags: Advent 2015, What Lives Under Your Floors, Iron Man 3 Compliant, Borrowing it's what we do, Tumblr Prompt, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Pepperony - Freeform Summary:

Widget and Nybble live in the IT department of a minor division of Stark Industries, somewhere snug and chilled to 52 degrees. IE, the server room. Where they have adventures, while borrowing the basics of living from the Human Beans who work there.

[mumblesnscribbles]

Advent 2015 - Derailed

I got four out of the twenty-five prompts done.  What happened?

You hear “I ran out of time” so often, it no longer registers as a thing - everybody runs out of time, right?  So many hours in the day and so forth?

Time is always tight in my life.  I have three jobs, one of them full-time (which means I’m putting in 70 hours weeks, every week), plus parenting an adopted-as-a-toddler son, plus managing a household with the fella, plus religious social club stuff, plus just plain having friends (I hope), plus a stupidly high amount of time inside therapist’s offices (I said parenting, right?) - stupidly tight.

And then I put my foot down this year and decided to start writing in earnest again.  Not being able to write has been like holding my breath, missing meals, waiting for a bus that never shows up, and watching the washing machine at the laundromat.  All at once, and then I get pulled away to go deal with someone else’s issues.  Again, again and again.

I can turn out about a thousand words an hour - if I get the hour.  I don’t get the hours, and fifteen minutes once in a great while only goes so far.

I think I mentioned that afternoon where I got turned into a cliche by my kid.  With only a few hours left to meet a deadline, I had a kid who appeared to deliberately sabotage any effort I made to concentrate on my work - and not him - for two hours.  To the point of some really dangerous behaviors (suddenly investigating clearly marked poisons/adhesives, inviting himself over to stranger’s houses, etc.) I had to stop everything to deal with.  Which I did.

I also made the deadline.  Kid needs therapy?  He’s been there. For almost seven years.

I am special needs parenting a child who shouldn’t have any special needs.  And that is sucking so hard, I can’t express it properly.  This kid isn’t ADHD, ADD, hyperactive, autistic - none of that.  He is perfectly normal, healthy and damn smart, if I say so myself.  I was married to a guy with a 285 IQ, I know what high intelligence looks like.  What’s up with my kid?

PTSD.

Depression.

Separation anxiety.

MY KID.  

Breaking my heart?  Breaking everything, more like.  This kid was placed with us at 3.5 years of age, directly from a foster home in Taiwan.  No, he didn’t speak English, no we didn’t speak Mandarin.  We were trained, hundreds of hours of parenting classes, years of preparation.  

It did not stop him from being adopted.

The transition was horrible.  We understood what was going on.  He didn’t. We could stay up until 3 AM watching Spongebob in Mandarin trying to soothe him to sleep, we understood.  I could get up at 4 AM and be at the park by 5 AM trying like hell to keep him occupied.  We ate three meals a day at McDonald’s because he would only eat chicken nuggets and french fries in the beginning.

If this kid hadn’t been placed for adoption, there is little doubt in my mind he would stand out in any way at this point.  The trouble now is school.

I have a kid who does not stay in the classroom because he is a total asshole.

He is sent to the office just about every day for behavioral issues.  We did an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan) only to be told his behavioral challenges don’t qualify him for services…and his teachers took that to indicate he’s just a terrible kid who doesn’t deserve an education.  The day this school year began, I wrote his teacher an email identifying myself, and warning her my kid is a handful.  Contact me if you need help.  Tell me what’s going on so I can be a team player.

My reward was being called in for a parent/teacher conference to be told what a terrible kid I had, and why wasn’t I homeschooling like a Good Parent would?  Three weeks in, and I’m telling them my kid is a good student scholastically, and a terrible one behaviorally.  So what do we do?

I would repeat this until the first week of December.

My kid has one safe place - the center of attention.  If he isn’t there, he gets there - and the worst way is just as good as any other.  He interrupts, he gets out of his seat and roams the classroom, he throws things, he makes noise…he is unrelenting work for anyone.  Unless someone is sitting at his elbow, keeping him on task.  He’s also bright, which means he gets done with his work ahead of the other kids.  But give him someone to ‘keep him busy’ also means he can use it to disturb the classroom - so all of that got yanked early on.

December 10th, I pulled him out of school.  No warning.  They took him out of all the Halloween activities “to teach him a lesson” - well, gee.  Taking his stuff?  He’s lost everything, guys.  Taking his stuff?  It doesn’t even register. And that worked so well as a disciplinary tool, they took the whole holiday activity schedule as well. The teacher grabbed him by the hand and dragged him to the office and announced that if she had to teach him, she was quitting.  In front of him.  If she said anything along the lines of hating him, or that he deserved to be abandoned by his Real Mother - it wouldn’t surprise me.  You hear about the stupid things people ask about adopted children to their parents.  In our case, that’s playground talk by the kids to our son.  “How much did you cost?”   “Didn’t your real mother love you?”  “You must have done something to deserve being adopted.”  The kids.  On the playground.

Well, children can be so cruel.  Le sigh.

I took him out of school the next day, asking his pediatrician to write him off the balance of the school term until winter break.  Reason?   PTSD, depression and separation anxiety.  Then I called the superintendent’s office, got in touch with the office of special education and demanded my rights.  I’ve secured an advocate.  We’re now in the process.

School goes back into session in about a week.  My kid won’t be there.  Where he will be is still up in the air.  I am hoping there will be room at a homeschooling drop-in center half an hour away from home, and he can continue at his established after school program during the day.

I have to pay for transportation.  And the afterschool.  Probably will have to find some $$$ for the drop in, if they’ll take him.  Keep in mind, my kid is a total jerk.  He’s a bully. He has a sharp tongue and little patience.  He is angry at about a 5 or a 6 before something actually triggers him.  Nobody calls me to tell me what a wonderful kid I have.  They call me almost daily with a litany of complaints.  My native Chinese acquaintances say I don’t beat him enough.  Scolding him in public once got DCFS called on me.  You do not win with this kid.

His therapist kept telling me to “stop being so angry” beginning of the year, without really addressing the why.  So I found a therapist of my own.  “Can we just dial down how much this stuff hurts?  That would help, right?”  

The kid now gets two hours of therapy a week.  I get one.  And now the fella is going to get one of his own - it’s all situational, but depression is what you get when you get ground down like this.

I thought I could find an hour to get these prompts done on a daily basis.

Then I pulled the kid out of school, and that hour got swallowed up by phone calls on top of phone calls on top of taking the kid to work with me because there was no money for a sitter, and no place for him to go.

I’m going to put this here.  Khan Academy is wonderful.  It is also saving my bacon.

I can’t stop working.  Therapy isn’t free.  This isn’t something you medicate for.  There is no “fix” - and this kid is in seriously deep water.  You don’t blame the kid.  You don’t blame the situation.  You deal with what’s in front of you without making it worse. That’s all.

I ran out of time.

The last of the Christmas packages got mailed yesterday.

I’ll try to update with developments as they come in.  We’re headed for a really big neuro-psych eval at a local resource that specializes in adoption trauma.  Everything from workshops to residential treatment, including school.  

The challenge is trying to find something to do with kid that is fun.

Video and board games.  Splatoon is a big favorite right now.

Have not given up on the writing.  And I really like these prompts.  It’ll take a little longer to get through them.  But I will.

I love this kid.  Nobody deserves this, but more to the point - nobody deserves to have their traumas exacerbated by neglect and disrespect because they don’t want to acknowledge or deal with a kid who has them.

I’ll acknowledge my kid a jerk.  My job at this point is to remind people he’s only ten years old, and it’s all our jobs to teach him how to do better than this.

Stay tuned.

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Advent Day 4 - SO EFFING LATE SORRY - taken from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“Two things people assume belong to Tony Stark - one, he's a people collector and two, he's given more people a home than any other (because he has so many of them).

What if that wasn't true, and somebody else wanted the job?”

And of course, because I’m slammed, I forgot the cookie.  HUMBUGS!

Salty-Sweet Peanut Butter Sandies - enjoy!

[mumblesnscribbles]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Day 3 is up (I’ve got a huge case of bronchitis, getting caught up today), and today’s turn is from Quantum Leap.

Cookie for today is Chocolate-Dipped Orange Cookies because nothing says Christmas morning to be more than fresh oranges, chocolate coins and peanuts in the shell.  I may make a homemade ice cream flavor out it.

Enjoy!