Snippet from my post of Marker headcanons. I asked myself, "What if Viltrumite mating affects the Viltrumite more than their partner?" and now I can't stop asking myself that.
“Mark, are you ok?” Amber whispered to him underneath the stars.
Mark took a deep breath, unaware he had stopped breathing the moment he looked into her eyes, his senses rushing to flood.
Right. They were on a planetarium date, watching a projection of stars turn into constellations when Mark got so distracted thinking of ways to travel safely through space with Amber he didn't notice her hand reaching for his thigh until it began to grow... hot.
For some reason, he short circuited. A quick, dizzying pulse rose from where Amber cupped him to the middle of his heart and thunked. Mark squeezed her hand, pushing it close to his chest as he looked in her eyes.
"Yeah…" His words came out ruggedly, very strong yet delicate, "Never better. "
Weird. He couldn’t tell who was who when it was only the two of them.
For a moment, it was like they were woven together.
"What're you some kinda forest fairy protector?"
"You some kind of cowboy having a colonization crisis, poncho pete?"
Daryl had followed the map Glenn found in the prison tower, looking for spots that might have baby supplies for Judith. The formula him and Maggie had found previously was already running low and things were getting too dicey for everyone to go out looking for more. He parked the bike outside of a rest stop and looked over his map when he heard what sounded like galloping coming through the trees.
At first, he thought she might be a mirage but when she stopped a few feet from him and eyeballed him, he knew she was real.
"You got any idea how fucking loud that hunk of junk is? You trying to draw every corpse within 20 miles through the damn woods?" She scolded him from atop her white horse.
Daryl stared confused for a moment before snapping back to the reality of the scolding.
"What're you some kinda forest fairy protector?" Daryl looked her over. She had long fire red curls that rested just over her right shoulder. She wore a long dress but he could see that she had boots and pants on underneath. She almost looked like a princess in a movie had once seen while waiting to be bailed out of jail.
She eyed him in return at his stupid comment.
"You some kind of redneck cowboy having a colonization crisis, poncho Pete?" Daryl stared at her knowing that she had in fact succeeded in taking him down a peg.
"You need something or you just rode out here to bitch at me?" Daryl asked squinting at her.
"Find a car. You're drawing bodies towards my place and I'm tired of having to work overtime to keep corpses away." She demanded.
"You from around here?" Daryl asked seeing the protective look she had.
"Are you asking where I'm staying or if I'm familiar with the area?" She pointed the question outward but Daryl knew she was trying to keep her camp guarded, which he respected.
"Look, I'm not trying to mess with you or nothing. I'm looking for baby supplies." Daryl pulled out the map and the woman looked at him surprised.
"You have a baby out here...at the end of the world?" She asked with heavy judgement.
"It ain't mine...but yeah there's a baby in my camp and her momma....she didn't survive the birth." The woman climbed off the horse and walked over towards him to look at his map. She noticed the star over the prison and he jerked the map away.
"You're staying at the WGC? That place was crawling with bodies." She said surprised.
"It still is...we're just clearing em' out." He explained. She made a face that seemed unimpressed as she jerked the map back from him. She marked a few places on the map.
"These are the daycare's, grade schools and nurseries about 20 miles outside the prison. You should come across formula in these two daycare's but this one was ransacked already." She points to one.
Daryl takes in the information like drinking from a fire hose trying to remember everything she was saying.
"Now the grade schools are tricky because there's a lot of bodies over there. If you can navigate your way through em without getting bit, look for rooms with little chairs, not big chairs." She explained.
"H-how do you know all this?" Daryl asked curiously.
"I've been in the area awhile. I'm loading up for the next couple months before getting back on the road. These are just places I've spotted." She explained walking back towards her horse.
"Where ya headin?" Daryl asked as she swung her leg over the horse.
"That's enough questions Pete. Best be getting to them daycare's if you want to find some formula before you lose the daylight." She said adjusting to the saddle.
"Daryl...my names Daryl." He said not wanting to be stuck with the name Pete.
"Oof...shoulda stuck with Pete." She chuckled before clicking her tongue and the horse trotted away. Daryl watched her disappear into the woods and had to physically shake his head. He wasn't sure if he just had a fever dream or if he just caught a lucky break of running into someone who wasn't trying to kill him or rob him.
Summary: Invincible joins Amber during volunteer hours.
On a typical Thursday afternoon, Mark Grayson called his girlfriend and asked to hang out, filled with the sudden urge to grocery shop together. When Amber couldn't because of her obligation to her volunteer work, Mark dawned his Invincible suit and said he'd be there in five to take her to work.
'Perfect!'
Invincible smiled at her texts, zipping through the air.
'Weird Question: Can you pick up a sack of balloons?'
'Hold the air.'
☆°•°○°○☆
Invincible huffed as another giraffe popped in his hands. The couple sat on top of a store roof decorated with tiny, beige and pearl pebbles with a sack of empty balloons between them, a box of balloon animals in front of them and the evidence that Invicible could not do this in a garbage bag behind them.
"I feel bad. I never even knew this place was here."
"You gonna sit there feeling bad about being late or are you gonna tie the balloon knot?"
Invincible huffed as another giraffe popped in his hands.
"You know I can fly right? I could go get a real giraffe."
"And you'll keep it calm? Hydrated and fed? Who's going to watch all the kids and make sure none of them get squashed by giraffe pies?
“Right. Cool. Why did I agree to this again?”
"It's for the kids." Amber shrugged, the elephant squeaking in her hands, smiling as if that answered everything.
"Why're you looking at me like that?" She asked shyly. The masked hero’s abrupt silence gave her butterflies. Handsome Invincible, Amber thought, her brain having no choice but to revert to its Paleolithic roots when faced with his smile.
"Like what?"
"Like you really like what you see."
"Ohh, is that what it means?"
Invincible rested his chin in his palm and leaned forward, as if to stare harder.
"I like what I see." He admitted, completely smitten.
"Oh really" Amber purred.
Leaning past the balloon bag, she was close enough to get right up to Invincible's ear when she said, "Then you'll love the view."
And nudged him away with her knee, giggling when he grabbed her foot as if he was going to take her along.
At her request, Invincible stood solidly with his hands on his hips. Maybe posing juuust Superhero enough would help inspire him with new ideas for the kids.
Something fantastic! Something new!
Something… else!
Anything else.
Because, who liked balloon art? They would just pop it, that wasn't good art. Kids should like something else, something useful. Like, defensive maneuvers or where to locate an exit.
“What can I really do?” He asked.
Approaching his side, Amber mimicked his posture and took in the world.
“Would saying ‘Whatever you can, Invincible’ be too obvious or ultimately unhelpful?” She asked as well with a heroic inflection that made him smile.
“I could build a park? “He cutely cocked his head towards her and noticed her expression, “Five parks?”
“Oh, Parks and Recreation, my Hero!” Amber laughed, then cupped his face and directed back to the view beyond, “Now let’s cross ‘immediate gentrification’ off the list and try again.”
Inside of the strip mall styled layout was a big, brick social service building that provided food, shelter, clothing, and other essential resources to those in need, disaster relief offices mixed in between with bright lights and large, shiny windows responding to natural disasters and other emergencies.
There was a rehabilitation center designed specifically to help people work through their addictions and the rest of the area was rounded off by thrift stores to raise funds for their programs because the local government kept mysteriously misplacing those funds while increasing their rent and gentrification threatened to kick them further from basic comforts.
A church preaching gospel on the corner and a liquor store two blocks down. A cemetery decorated every other block like they were the parks and recreation.
But there were also the sounds of children's laughter in the air, and spring was on its way, so the earth was waking up. The birds chirped, the sun was warm behind the overcast of clouds and the sky was three shades of light blue.
Amber exhaled, the sound ages older than she'd ever be, "It's a real shame how isn't it? How beautiful it is."
The question made Invincible introspective; Amber's mind was constantly surprising him, and it made him so curious to know how she worked. How she found beauty in avarice or how she made it look like maturity over naivety made the hero spend considerable amounts of time examining his own thoughts and feelings.
Whenever he looked at Amber, he wanted to be…
be Kindred with her…
‘What is that?’, He wondered off-handedly before perishing the thought.
Didn’t matter. It’s not like he would ever say something that sappy.
Never.
Noo way.
"Wow… you're really hot when you're concentrating in uniform."
Invincible snapped out of his stupor, "Oh! Thank you," blushing he confessed, "Sorry, I was um, concentrating way too hard."
"I'm sorry too." Amber took his hand, staring soulfully at his big, dark brown eyes, "I misspoke. I think you look hot no matter what you wear."
"Awww."
"Or don't wear."
"Awww!" Invincible exclaimed, using their intertwined fingers to pull her in front of him so he could hold her from behind. His chin fit snuggly in the crook of her neck.
The masked hero's breath tickled her ear, but the latex felt cool against her heated skin. Amber tried to keep a straight face but, she really hoped he couldn't hear her heart beating.
"I can hear your heart beating." He sung teasingly.
'Damn Viltrumite hearing.'
"Could you hear the question I asked?" Amber sang back, embarrassed and looking for an easy win.
Invincible cuddled her closer to his heart.
"It's a shame that it had to be ashamed for anything to get done around here. It's ridiculous. You should see the type of shit they waste money on at the Guardians Headquarters."
"You know what, I really felt like being rational, but… you're right. Irrational hatred would be the next step… Anarchists?"
"Anarchists, baby." Invincible agreed, sweetly kissing her temple while she elbowed him in the gut for calling her 'Baby'.
A snippet from Beach Day Episode, wherein Mark and Amber go to Thailand for a much needed vacation. [x]
This was perfect; the sun sailed high on their clear, blue day at the beach, its water glittered greens and yellows against the horizon and there was nothing but the sound of waves, gulls and sweaty ice clinking in glasses.
Mark and Amber lounged side by side in their swimsuits. Try as he might, Mark couldn't keep eyes off of the way Amber's soft, brown thighs ate a pair of bikini bottoms god da-
"You're never going to be able to top this." She said, breaking his concentration.
Clink!
"Good,” He sighed happily, tipping his drink to her before taking a sip, “‘this’ isn't even what I'm interested in topping the most.”
A snippet from Beggars and Choosers, wherein Cecil asks Mark to ask Amber for her help. [x]
"So, wait, you said Cecil is using me as a bargaining chip to get you to cooperate?"
"Mmhm. He's one of the 'Good Guys', remember?"
"He's an unreasonable asshole with too many bullshit speeches readily available. Like, a villainous amount of speeches." She placed a hand on her forehead, "Why couldn't he at least be a morally gray jackass? I could work with a jackass."
"I'm so glad you stayed in school." Mark nestled his face further in her lap, warm thighs calling his name.
"Yeah. These last four years of hard studying to decipher the code of old, white DEI hires have really helped me grow as a person."
this is a continuation of Help, I'm Alive, a drabble about the first time Amber saved Mark with power she didn't know she had.
three headcanons and a lot of angst for the Miraculous Ladybug fandom
1. Alya keeps track of everybody who has been akumatized for the ladyblog and realizes that their class has a statistically high chance of being targeted. There’s a powerpoint with hand drawn charts, motivations for akumas to strike, and a list consisting of question marks and whys. (She’s a little obsessed.) When she’s done she looks over her findings and comes to two conclusions. One- Ladybug and Chat Noir definitely go to their school, 5,000 years old or not. (She’s leaning towards not.) Two- Marinette and Adrien are the only ones in their class who have never been akumatized and therefore MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS.
Alya presents her findings to the class and when they’re nodding agreement, she sets up a rotation, bullies their classmate into keeping an eye on them. When Adrien is having a bad day she drops cookies on his desks, Chloe is rude to Marinette and Kim trips over himself to draw her off. Rose leaves them cute notes in their lockers, Alix invites Marinette to watch movies and Max helps Adrien beat Undertale.
Every time an akuma attacks the class holds it’s breath. This time, they think, this time we’ve lost something important. Neither of them gets left alone until their classmates confirm they weren’t the one akumatized.
(This is Massively. Inconvenient. to Marinette and Adrien.)
2. The Miraculous Cure works on everything and everyone except Ladybug. It heals broken bones, restores city blocks. It can bring. back. the. dead. So yeah the cure is Ladybug’s ultimate power. Except it does’t work on her. Ladybug takes every scrape, every bruise, every broken bone for the sake of the akumatized.
Chat Noir doesn’t know. (Ladybug, in fact, goes to great lengths to hide this from him. She has no desire to encourage his death wish.)
It’s instinct that has him throwing himself between her and the enemy, her and the bomb. Chat Noir remembers aches like a phantom pain, three-fourths gone. They fade when the cure hits. Nothing sticks to him.
This is true until he slips up. Chat Noir’s not in the right place and his Lady takes the hit instead of him. Ladybug bleeds. Chat Noir screams his rage to the world and has the akuma before anybody can catch up.
Ladybug throws the Lucky Charm high and fixes the world. She’s still bleeding.
3. The food that powers the kwamis is the previous holders favorite food. Think about it. (Don’t let it crush your soul.)
Hi there! Bypassing the meet cute so we can talk seriously about "how do you fix harry potter world"!!! I'm so glad you asked b/c while I understand plot-wise why certain things are written the way they are (HP is basically a mystery novel series and I love it) common sense wise it isn't always the best.. Massively Problematic Not-Fav Dumbledore anyone? Anyway! I'm not sure if you were looking for a strictly in canon fix but my personal fix that I've been working on forever is timetravel!! [1/2]
[2/2] Hi again!So! My best friend helped me develop a world where HP, HG, NL, & DM all go back in time after a worse outcome of the war to do things better!Basically just a gratuitous build up of the DA, making their own society in the RoR, being badass warriors and spies!Of course everyone gets a, mostly, happy ending.I’m not sure if that’s what you meant about fixing the HP world but I always find it easier to blow things up and start over when canon gets too ugly! I’d love to hear your ideas!
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themisofpumpkinpie So as much as I love time travel (and holy crap I would love to read that fic b/c I’ve definitely played with gratuitous DA but then we’ve got Harry and a private army and a will to change the world and we call those people terrorists until they win. Also the fact that somebody with developed higher reasoning skills could avoid half the plots and finish the unavoidable ones that much more quickly.) my problem is where do you go back to? Fourth year and save Cedric Diggory? Third and preventing Pettigrew from escaping? Second and saving Ginny? If you can do that then why not go back to 1981 stop Voldemort from every reaching the Potters? Maybe 1976 when Voldemort is on the rise and then Harry would have time a build an army and some trust and stop canon from ever happening. The marauders generation might actually stand a chance.
If you can go back to 1976 why not 1938 and spend seven years extra years in Hogwarts installing a moral system in Tom Riddle and directing him towards politics? Because Tom Riddle the impoverished brilliant student would still have a will to bend the world, and really he and Hermione could have a lot in common. But what if Tom Riddle is a symptom? You could argue that- Grindelwald laid the groundwork and it was only because of him that Voldemort stood a chance. Two Great Wars in two generations would put anybody off war. Besides Grindelwald is where Dumbledore got his start and you can take Tom Riddle out of the orphanage but Dumbledore will make him go back. And he’ll always hate Dumbledore because of that. (And I can’t really see any canon character with the stomach to strangle an infant in his crib in 1926. Maybe Hermione.)
So then you’re to 1899 and trying to stop the tragedy of Ariana Dumbledore and if you manage that Dumbledore goes off with Grindelwald because he’s in love and young and stupid and the world ends. For the Greater Good.
And if you’re going back to stop Grindelwald why not further back? Don’t tell me that between Hermione’s brain and Ron’s grounding in the Wizarding world they could pick a point and say this is where is all went wrong. Where did the wizarding world cease making progress? When wand legislation was introduced or the goblin rebellions maybe? Could we argue that Salazar Slytherin is where it all went wrong? If that’s the case why choose time travel as your solution? If you’re going that far back you’d be blowing up everything you knew.
This a group that has awful things happen to wizards who meddle with time hanging over their heads. A group that has the object lesson of Hermione cracking up from third year and surely one of them, Luna maybe or Neville, knows the story of Eloise Mintumble who caused 25 people to cease to exist when she got trapped four hundred years in the past for four days.
So as much as I love time travel, I don’t think it’s the answer.
I’m thinking (and writing) post-canon- the 19 unsatisfying years where nothing changes. Fuck that.
This is a generation raised on war, children who fought in the final battle against Voldemort because Hogwarts is their home, who spent years of their education terrified because of Greasy Gits and Basilisks and Dementors and Death Eaters and Tournaments where their heroes ended up dead.Theirs are the stories that matter in this war. Their parents generation was subsumed by theirs the day adults toasted Harry Potter the Boy-Who-Lived. They can’t take it back now.
Start the day after Riddle dies. The golden trio stands on a bridge and Harry sheds his destiny. It’s not that easy.
They huddle into the Burrow, share beds and mourn their losses. Harry’s not the type to wake up screaming which means he’s the only one in the house who isn’t. Waking up screaming that is.
They get four days before the vultures descend. Somebody leaks the Chosen One is staying in the Burrow and they wake up to a mob of well wishers and reporters, pressing down on the wards.
Hogwarts is a ruin after the last battle and Harry goes home. That summer they count their scars. They rebuild hogwarts.
Nothing’s changing out in the real world but Harry’s not living there right now. The students who fought, the students who survived- they exhaust themselves turning hogwarts into a home again. They sleeps in huddles on the floors of their common rooms, get drunk by the lake, excorise the ghosts of umbitch, snape and the carrows. Hogwarts stands at the end of the summer stronger than ever.
This starts the day Tom Riddle died. Harry shakes Draco Malfoys hand and prevents the arrest of Narcissa Malfoy.
Harry buried Dobby with his hands but Hermione is the one who teaches him the value of symbols.
They go shopping sometime that summer. Harry buys clothes that fit all muggle. Every picture of them that summer has them in muggle clothes. Hermione stops wearing long sleeves. The scar on her arm stands out white against the tan she’s getting.
Maybe Harry goes back to school, maybe he doesn’t. It matters but not as much as you’d think.
If the ministry is changing why is a pure blood in charge?
Kingsley Shacklebolt is a good man, adaptable, experience with muggles, but we don’t know him, not the way we know Harry’s generation.
If the ministry is changing what did they do with the collaborators?
Every last ministry worker did something distasteful is this war. How do you handle a government that’s corrupt inside out. How do you change when the powers still in the same place.
Voldemort was simply the worst of the worst. The obvious blight. The wizarding world is rotten all the way through- otherwise the problem wouldn’t exist.
So write me the war torn, scarred children who stood up and said enough. Write me the creation of a society. Write me the civil war. Write me the revolution.
This is a tragedy. The revolution will not be civilized.
