Quick question, do you run the IncorrectlyShield tumblr by any chance? Because if you do... can I just say a big thank you? I laugh basically every time you post (especially if it's a Leopold-related thing.) Also thank you for having the big dick energy to include Alistair, Leopold and Ophelia in your jokes. Bless.
I do! And anyone who knows me knows that Leopold is my baby. I’ve related to him since season 1, and then they threw in That Backstory with Alistair and well.......... 😬
But I absolutely loved the complex dynamic between Leopold and Ophelia in the Framework, and exploring it more with little posts like this when life is too hectic to write much fic is so much fun! And, well, dragging Alistair for all he’s worth (not much) is a huge ‘fuck you’ to my father, so it’s very therapeutic.
Leopoldhas woken up. And, from the sound of the chain rattling, discoveredhe’s been handcuffed to a pipe and quite too far away to interfere.
“Aida,what are you-”
Hersharp look cuts him off. She hatesthat name. It belonged to an it,a thing built only to serve and bend and break itself for the benefitof others.
Shelooks down at her hands, sees the blood beneath a broken nail and thedirt clinging to her fingers. But this is different. This is a choice.
Sheturns to consult the Darkhold again.
“Ophelia,”Leopold says. From the corner of her eye she sees him reaching forher, pleading with her. So unlike the man he was before. It’s pathetic. “Whatever you’re doing, you need to stop.”
“Ican’t.” That’s imprecise. She never would have made such astatement before because the truth is she canstop. She hasn’t crossed the final line yet and there is nothingpreventing her from closing the book and walking away for good. Amore accurate statement would be that she won’t.
Butin her heart, that fluttery little organ she has only recently cometo understand is so much more than flesh and blood, she knows that ‘Ican’t’ feels moretrue than ‘I won’t.’ She could no more stop than she could cutoff her own hand.
“Why?”he asks. He smiles. That too is unlike his former self, but shedoesn’t hate it. He used to smile at her—at it—likethat when he was pleased with her progress in imitating humanity. He’s hoping that shewill once again make a breakthrough. “I saw your face after you savedMack. It made you happy to do good. So do it again now, stop this andcome back to the Playground with me.”
“Oh,Leopold.” She shakes her head, but no sooner has she looked awaythan he speaks again.
“No.Don’t do that.” He sounds so much like her Leopold that itstartles her into giving him her full attention. “Don’t brush meoff like I’m one of your NPCs. You think this is the right thing todo? That this needs to happen? So explain it to me, help meunderstand.”
“Allright.” She steps back to sit on the edge of the circle—not amystic circle, but one made of circuitry and metal. “You say Ishould return with you. To what? A cage? A prison? I did not claw andfight my way through layers upon layers of coding—much of whichcame from you—intoreal life just to spend the rest of it in a five-by-nine cell.”
Heshakes his head in denial … but he makes no open effort to disputeher claims. He knows as well as she does that his friends will neverforgive her the actions she had no choice in. They would rather blameher than face the reality that theirchoices made the Framework what it was.
“Andthis-” she gestures to the work she’s done here- “is necessary.Now that I’m mortal, I understand the dangers this world poses. Inthe Framework humanity was at peace. Children were safe to play inthe street without supervision. There was no war and crime was nearlystamped out.”
“Therewas no freedom.”
Sherolls her eyes. “You do not know what those words mean. You’venever known a true lack of freedom. What humanity knew in theFramework was safety. And I will make this world safe as well.”
Shestands and returns to work. There isn’t much left to do now; good,as SHIELD is sure to be close on Leopold’s heels, eager to interfere in her plans.
“Okay,you’re scared,” he says. “I get it. Dying is scary. But thereare things that- that make it worth it.There are things worth dying for, you just have to find them.”
“Youmean love.”
Hehesitates, his expression closing off the way it always does whentheir history comes up. “Yes.”
Shesmiles sadly at him. “I am doing this for love.”
“No,”he says immediately. “You’re- you’re new.You’re too young to know what real, deep love is like. But youwill, you just need to give yourself—give this world—time.You’ll understand.”
Thelast connection in place, she closes the final panel and returns tothe Darkhold to ensure she has the last of the instructions correct.
“Ido,” she says. “I understand love the likes of which you nevercould.”
“Ophelia-”Leopold says, but stops when his eyes find her hand. His face goesstrangely slack. It’s … humorous. She hasn’t had much chance toexplore humor. Maybe after she finishes repairing this world’s flaws.
“Ididn’t know,” she says, hand heavy on her stomach, “that Iwasn’t alone when I entered this world. But once I realized, I knewit wasn’t safe. It needsto be made better.”
Leopold’sthroat works. He tries to speak, says a syllable or two from hername. But he’s too stunned to get out the whole thing.
Sheunderstands that. It was quite a shock for her as well.
“Myprimary purpose now is to protect her,” she says. This too isimprecise. She has no idea the sex of their child, but ‘her’ seemsappropriate somehow. “And I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Finally,Leopold manages to meet her eyes. “Ophelia. Please.”
Shesmiles. “I’ll see you on the other side.” She powers on themachine and watches as this malfunctioning world is recoded, replacedby a better one.
hi! can i request some mcu steve/carol graphics in blue&red? no triggers. i don’t have any specific quote or lyric in mind, but feel free to add some in, whatever you feel like doing w it!! thank you ❤️
here you go!! it wouldn’t let me tag you in the post, smh
leopoldsjames replied to your post “Quick question, do you run the IncorrectlyShield tumblr by any chance?...”
I’d read that ajzksjjzjs honestly I’m always thirsty for more Leopold/Ophelia content ����♀️
There’s not enough Leophelia content, honestly. I’m going to make it my personal goal to put a lot more Leophelia content into the world. That being said, it might take a bit, because I am working on a couple other big fics, right now.
me: *desperately tries to think of not-so-obvious ships* lol. how about: daisy/robbie, daisy/fitz, jemma/vijay? bonus: skyeward and reylo because it's me hehehe
daisy/robbie
A+: OTPA: I love itB: It’s really cuteC: Not a bad shipD: I’m neutral on itE: I don’t really like itF: NOTPN/A: I don’t know the ship well enough
They’re ... okay, I guess? At the start of s4 I was very against this ship because Daisy needs time to heal after s3. But the writers shockingly did a decent job laying groundwork without forcing them to be more than they should. That said, my biggest emotional response to them is still that old hesitation. They were cute enough, but there wasn’t really anything there for me to care about.
daisy/fitz
A+: OTPA: I love itB: It’s really cuteC: Not a bad shipD: I’m neutral on itE: I don’t really like itF: NOTPN/A: I don’t know the ship well enough
*adele plays in the distance* These two are SO PERFECT for each other. Did you see s2? How they both were broken and had to rebuild themselves while surrounded by people who could never understand? And he had that cute crush on her for the first few episodes of s1! I ate that up! But no, no. We can’t have nice things on aos. (If you wondered why I was shocked they did an okay job with robbie/daisy, this is why.)
jemma/vijay
A+: OTPA: I love itB: It’s really cuteC: Not a bad shipD: I’m neutral on itE: I don’t really like itF: NOTPN/A: I don’t know the ship well enough
I know at least a couple people are gonna be shocked by this rating but the show really wasted Vijay. He literally only exists so that they’ll have to use the Rider to kill Aida at the end and maybe to remind us that Jemma does care about people after how they did her wrong in the s3 finale. (But probably just the first one, since Jemma has zero chance to care during the Framework arc.) At least Will got to be a character, Vijay was little more than a glorified extra, and that makes it really tough to ship him at all meaningfully with anyone, no matter how shippy his first episode was.
skye/ward
A+: OTPA: I love itB: It’s really cuteC: Not a bad shipD: I’m neutral on itE: I don’t really like itF: NOTPN/A: I don’t know the ship well enough
I vaguely ship this? Sometimes? I definitely like how this ship affects both of them, but it’s more of a “moving them forward” kind of shipping. Like Ted/Robin from HIMYM (except I can actually enjoy skye/ward to an extent), it makes them the people they need to be so they can find happiness elsewhere. But I wouldn’t have been unhappy if it had been the show’s endgame.
rey/kylo ren
A+: OTPA: I love itB: It’s really cuteC: Not a bad shipD: I’m neutral on itE: I don’t really like itF: NOTPN/A: I don’t know the ship well enough
Sorry, hon. But I think it might just be Star Wars? I never cared about Han/Leia until the PTBs had the gall to break them up in TFA and while I do ship Anakin/Padme, they’re built in, you know? It’d be like saying you don’t want your fave character’s parents to be together. Plus that tragic ending set from the start. That is my jam. But aside from that I’m just not a fan of really anything in TLJ. (Except the crystal foxes. They can stay.) I think there could’ve been a way to build them up that would’ve put them on the Han/Leia level for me, but that wasn’t it. Also, not that I don’t love me some shoehorned romance, but how have I not seen anyone complain that we get a female-led SW trilogy and her main conflict has veered off into a romance? It’s just not what I watch Star Wars for.
Anything by Philip K. Dick. My faves are Confessions of a Crap Artist and A Scanner Darkly.
BROWN: Playlist that represents my current mood.
Where’s My Mind » PixiesI Wanna Be Sedated » RamonesShould I Stay or Should I Go » The ClashYou Can’t Always Get What You Want » The Rolling StonesHeart’s A Mess » GotyeI Will Survive » Cake
So the tags under that JemmaWill edit... I need to hear this story ashdfjgkh
alsjdjlslsjhs ok so a couple years back some of my friends got into a twitter argument with dillon c@sey over like….. the wage gap?? and sexism??? or something like that?? and I wasn’t involved exactly but I was liking all their tweets and stuff and just kind of cheering from the sidelines. so then dill pickles went on a block spree and straight up blocked everyone involved. which. fair. then THE VERY NEXT DAY he posted an apology and unblocked everyone but he spelled my @ wrong in his tweet and then he didn’t ?? unblock me ??
so then when I made that jemmawill edit one of my friends tagged dillon in it and he responded like “an uplifting thanksgiving day message from will daniels” or something idk it’s been. awhile. anyway. at some point last year I think some of my friends and I were casually talking about him and he found the tweets and unblocked me?? and that’s why I can no longer use his full name ever and have to refer to him as dill pickles because if you use his full name he FINDS YOU.
all in all he’s kind of weird like he used to DM stan twitter teens and have in depth conversations with them which is like ??? I guess he was trying to make things right but?? that’s weird?? there have been so many twists and turns with this dude I can’t even keep up. one time he wanted me to find a scene from the show on youtube so he could watch it?? what a trip.
late to the party so a lot of these have been asked already but: B, C, F, G, I, W for the fandom asks?
B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind
Skye/Jemma. I still can’t see 4x15 as anything but these two best friends reuniting in a crisis, but Amy wore me down and now I … I don’t ship it, but I can see the potential. And I did write that one fic.
C - A pairing you have never liked and probably never will
Other than fs? Ummm… Bruce Wayne/Talia al Ghul. I’ve never liked any version of her I’ve seen and their whole relationship is just creepy to me.
F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom
Seventeen years. That’s how long Power Rangers was on the air before it got cancelled. They brought it back but the writing wasn’t as good and if I recall, it didn’t have a real first episode where you meet the team, see them get their powers, all that good stuff. So it was tough to get back into and I just gave it up.
G - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it
It shouldn’t be a surprise after the above that it’s Tommy/Kim. I still ship it.
I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why
Hm, honestly most often it’s the canon that makes me leave. Whether because the writing loses its focus or ships/characters I hate are shoved into the spotlight or they get unnecessarily political too often. In those cases it’s usually fandoms making me stick around when without them I’d leave. *cough*aos*cough*
But if I have to choose: Supergirl. The show itself became unbearable in s2 but I would’ve kept up in case things got better if fandom hadn’t started eating itself alive at the same time.
W - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms
Chuck Bartowski from Chuck. He did not ask for any of this and I’d say he needs to be protected but he’s got two dedicated government agents for that and also he can handle it.
Aurora from Disney. Easily my favorite of all the princesses. She was willing to give up her happy ending for the good of the kingdom she only found out she had a responsibility to two seconds ago. She’s amazing.
Owen from Wrecked which I only just found out is almost through its third season whaaaaat. He was such a little shit when that plane went down and he’s grown so much as a person just by having friends and learning to care about people. Also his Titanic diversion is forever one of my favorite things.
Romeo from Romeo and Juliet. He’s just such a teenage boy. He wanted to be a hero, to be a man in every sense of the word. And he loved Juliet just so much. He is my precious and must be protected (especially from himself).
Ransom from C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy. So Ransom saves a random dude’s life and then ends up kidnapped in his place to Mars, where he’s gonna be sacrificed as a peace offering. Then he ends up chilling with the aliens, learning their language, and becoming the king of England.
