YOUR WHOLE BODY DOING WHAT BIRDS DO BEFORE FLIGHT.

your whole body doing what birds do before flight.

[thrownsoul]

high above the smokestacks, throwing my soul, throwing my soul.

original character inspired by dc's blue beetle. written by zoe (90s kid, white, she/they). est. 2015.

inconsistent activity and slow reply. 21+.

🦋 rules. about. verses. 🪲 where to find. memes. wishlist. 🌻 nav. pinterest. spotify 1, 2.

[thrownsoul]

felt really horrible to realize this was true AS i was typing it

[wovi]

[thecryptsleepers]

"Oh, like a Miyazaki film..." Nick nods gravely. "It was actually a really oddly specific problem back in culinary school. You should have seen me chopping onions in my first year."

It takes him a moment to process her previous comment, but when the fact makes it through his smile gets stupid and goofy. Taller than Superman? Damn. He'll have a big head about this for a few days. He will be annoying at work tomorrow.

"I wonder if he has to eat a crazy amount to keep his calories up. But I doubt that he'd get taken out by hunger? He's Superman. I mean, is that not covered under being invulnerable?"

[thrownsoul]

Okay, that gets a laugh out of her. Not that she's begrudging by nature, but he saw the vision and gave her another silly mental image to go with it. He's putting the effort in!

"I think he photosynthesizes. Actually. Kind of an unlimited energy source, the sun."

[soulmissed]

august situates the book mug near her. his hands curve around the sparrow mug.

“ kody could use a bath. ” the boy agrees. “ he’s been to over eight states. probably a record in teddy bear years. ”

(his prized plush. tucked into heavy backpack. a softer, sweeter way of admitting he has seen the country.)

[thrownsoul]

"we can give him a bath later today, if that sounds good."

the coffee maker bubbles and drips. while it works, she gets the milk carton for him.

"over eight, huh? that's almost to double digits." note to self: check out the teddy bears' picnic from the library. he's outgrown picture books, and she probably doesn't remember the melody that goes with the words, but who cares.

"where's kody from?" a gentler way of asking where august is from.

[milehighmechanic]

i need to tell you something, they say, and tony’s grin falters.

he should have learned by now that there’s no such thing as coincidence. not for him.

had they been looking for him? waiting for an attack on the city because obviously that would be the easiest way to get iron man’s attention. he now can’t rule out that they originated these robotic birds, just to get his attention. there’s nothing hostile or aggressive in either voice or body language. but these days people don’t normally call him a playboy or arms dealer to his face unless they’re trying to wind him up.

but they’re in public, and tony’s on his guard, so nothing in his body language changes, other than perhaps a slight narrowing of his eyes. head tilting a little to the side.

“not really.” if he were less concerned about this person’s intentions, he might suggest the coffee shop, but he’s really trying not to bring julie into his mess. “but there’s a couple of places, sure. is this time sensitive, or can i meet you later?” most men with tony’s level of paranoia would shut this down. but tony’s always been in favour of springing a trap.

[thrownsoul]

"oh, man. kind of?" time-sensitive, she means. "i gotta get home soon."

she can't just pop home to change outfits and come back. (and she can't imagine any location she could meet him at later that wouldn't immediately clue him in, anyway.) not because anyone is waiting up for her, worrying—though julie might be, if she's home—but because once she gets back, she's going to fall into bed and pass out.

(khaji ren could protest about whether she, strictly speaking, needs to; after all, it's kept her going for much longer, in much worse circumstances. but it doesn't.)

armoring down in public would be impulsive and risky, especially now that he's bringing up paparazzi.

so she does something else impulsive and risky.

she lets khaji ren wire her into his earpiece—directly into iron man's motherfucking iron man suit. because what could go wrong with that. it's just a phone call minus the phone, right?

<< look, whatever, i don't like lying. we've met. i'm your sister's roommate. >>

[tremaynes]

❝ yeah. ❞ you and me both, he thinks; fionn's not an alien vigilante, or whatever, he's not running around helping people in that way, but he is in this job because he wants to do something good in his life. because he's hurt enough people, and done enough shitty things, that he feels like he has to pay that back somehow. and yeah, he never meant to, and yeah, he's never been violent or a dealer or wanted to hurt people, but he's not an idiot, either. he wants to make the world better, not worse. he wants to be somebody who sees something happening, and helps. he wouldn't know how to just be a bystander.

❝ yeah, aliens usually come from space. kind of in the definition. ❞ is she an alien? her hand looks human, even if the bug stuff does not. but fionn reckons it might be rude to ask. because does it matter, really? she is helping people, she's doing a good thing, she can get to people before emergency services can, and it turns out he cares a lot more about that than whether she's from earth.

he huffs a laugh. ❝ okay, no need to be patronising, ❞ he says mildly, not truly bothered at all. ❝ is it...safe for you to be doing this? ❞

[thrownsoul]

alice has been violent. alice is still violent, when she needs to be. or thinks she needs to be.

right now you wouldn't see it, though. there isn't even any blood on her armor; khaji ren cleaned it up. if there's a best part of this life, it's now, the after, and she lets her smile grow.

"i mean, if you're going to get technical about definitions—" but she stops herself there, because when has anyone ever wanted to get technical about definitions with her? since she left college, anyway.

"please, though? i gotta get joy out of this somehow."

she didn't think he would be bothered, or she wouldn't have said it. but then, she doesn't know him that well.

"safe? which part?"

[thrownsoul]

@tenderthreats / for yasha

"i've never seen a sword like that," she offers, tentative, as she perches next to the enormous, quiet presence that is yasha nydoorin.

alice has been wondering how to draw her out without scaring her off. the mighty nein is a skittish group of people, almost each and every one of them, but yasha is the only one who has slipped away by choice. more than once. and alice has let her go, because she doesn't bind people. doesn't beg them to stay.

but she wants yasha to be able to stay.

"if my blades dispelled magic, i'd sleep easier at night," she adds, lightly.

[thrownsoul]

@tenderthreats / for jester

"there's more to the world of literature than romance," alice says, without turning her face from the shelf in the bookstore. romance here substituting as a kind word for smut. "it's important to me that you know that."

like a butterfly to nectar, bookstores are her first stop in every town. but not for pleasure. she doesn't have the time for that kind of reading, not anymore.

"do you see anything on—on extraterrestrial entities?"

[thrownsoul]

this is what happens to alice when she finally meets jaime btw

[unitlead]

Kate barely battered an eyelid. She'd been prepared for Alice to come with questions of her own. After everything that's happened to her she would be a fool not to. What exactly had happened to Alice? Kate shuddered to think. The report said Alice had disappeared young, barely twenty years old and so recently after the technology had fused with her. Imagine that. Young, frightened and alone except for this-this thing you didn't properly understand yet. Had it taken her somewhere? Had something else?

❝ Not as much as we'd like. ❞ Again, honesty was the best way forward. There were many at UNIT that would've jumped at the chance to learn more. Some a little too enthusiastically. She'd been quick to shut that discussion down. UNIT was Earth's last line of defence. They dealt with threats. Alice and Scarab posed no harm.

❝ What we do know is based on the energy signature your technology leaves behind. We can't fully comprehend it. But we can measure and track the signature, to a certain extent. The relic we've found displays similar traits... our analysts tell me the signature is too close to be coincidence. A one in- ❞ She paused, squinting as she tried to recall the exact figure. ❝ three point four million chance. ❞

[thrownsoul]

Not as much as we'd like. Probably more than Alice and Khaji Ren would like, though.

She appreciates the lack of personal digging. As far as it goes. She's not going to make the mistake of trusting people with firepower who claim to know about the scarab, or openly want to. She can't afford to. (She couldn't afford to the first time.)

But it's bad news. Really fucking terrible odds. She folds her arms, the dread drawing her shoulders tight.

"My tech is a—kind of a copy of something a lot older. If you're reading energy signatures, you probably already know about the other active piece in Texas..." Active meaning Blue Beetle has it, and with Blue Beetle is where it's going to stay. "That one was found in Egypt, in the '30s, but it came from outside of Earth."

Well, Kate would know that, too. Sort of UNIT's whole deal.

"Have you heard of the Reach?"

[milehighmechanic]

his gaze is sceptical as he looks up and down the armored form again, but with his vision blurring less and less, he has to concede that it most likely is not a hallucination. which leaves him with SO MANY MORE questions - luckily these questions are forestalled by the mere suggestion of family and ambulance.

“oh god.” tony makes a face, rocking his head back ( fortunately not cracking it against the wall behind him. ) the expression on his face might be embarrassment, with perhaps a mix of horror and frustration. a tinge of fear, maybe.

it would be different if jarvis was still alive. but he’s not, and phoning either of tony’s parents will result in some form of disappointment —— different flavors of disappointment, but he doesn’t really care for either. and now rhodey’s in the air force, he can’t just come and save tony from scrapes any more.

“nobody i can call is in this state,” he declares frankly, reluctance still clear on his face. the lack of a facial expression to read is throwing him off.

“i really don’t—- do you really thinks it’s bad enough to need a hospital? i can’t just…” he shrugs, “sleep it off?” the words sound stupid as soon as they’re out of his mouth. it’s not like he actually cares much about going to the hospital, it’s just… he might be legally an adult now, but he’s sure they will still insist on calling his parents, especially for a head injury. and tony just doesn’t want the fuss.

[thrownsoul]

since he's still conscious and she needs him to freak out less, not more, she lets the helmet piece of her armor dissolve down to her neck. alice's face and expression underneath are both perfectly, ordinarily human, down to the wrinkle between her eyebrows.

okay, no family. damn.

she hopes it's just that he's (allegedly) from out of state. but seeing the spike of panic on his face, she doubts it.

as for the for the ambulance and a hospital visit, she assumes for his reluctance that he can't afford it. she just doesn't say that, because she's not fucking rude, unlike some people.

"uh... no? if you're concussed, you definitely should not sleep it off. which is the kind of thing an er doctor could tell you."

but alice has to admit... it's not his only option.

"but i guess. i might be able to tell." by i she means scarab. she doesn't sound thrilled about it. "i could do a brain scan." it would be the first time. she's only done surface-level bioscans with scarab before.

[yearnstarved]

PRINCESS TUCKS HER HANDS into her pockets, proud for navigating an interaction without rubbing someone the wrong way... yet. Although her intuitions tell her that her new acquaintance isn't the kind to get her feathers ruffled easily. "I know a truck that makes kickass tostadas," she motioned her head in the direction.

[thrownsoul]

Out of the superhero getup, they find the food truck, and Alice pays for her own tostada despite the small part of her, probably the part her roommate has been nagging at for years, murmuring, you could let the rich person pay, just once.

"What made you want to switch sides?" she asks eventually. "Just tired of getting your ass kicked?—your words."

[erstwhilesparrow]

okay i lied put your clothes back on we're not having sex i'm fundamentally evil and i need you to kill me

[thrownsoul]

@heartevaded / theresia said: "you don't know when enough is enough."

The proof is there on her back, bending over the table, the girl it now belongs to deep in her books. A scarab, purple-blue like a jewel, seemingly inert where it nestles between her shoulder blades, except that the skin around it is still inflamed. It bedded down not long ago.

But Alice shakes her head, her voice soft.

"No, that isn't it."

She knows to leave well enough alone. But she also knows when something isn't well enough. When it can't be left alone.

"Besides," she says, lifting her head to look directly as Theresia. Her expression is amused. "You want to know what it's for, too."

[thrownsoul]

@barrowbound

she's crying over a dead deer, its head arched back, legs tangled, when nól finds her. though alice doesn't know her name yet, nor can even really tell what she is through the tears and the wash of grief, or shame, or whatever it is.

alice has always gone to be alone when she cries. she curls in on herself, being witnessed—arms around her knees. head down, wiping her eyes on her forearm. when she lifts her face again, it's no clearer, but she's obviously trying to pull herself together.

"i, um—shit." hard sniff. she wipes her nose. "i sure hope this wasn't your deer."

[heartevaded]

“Whoa!”

His upper body suddenly unsupported while his feet were still stuck, Nat flopped forward. He pinwheeled his arms, just managing to wobble upright.

Nat barely registered Alice’s throwaway insult or even the harsh waft of burnt hair. (Luckily, the glamour that made his hair just a little redder and smoother also concealed the damage. He would remember and sulk about both offenses later.) Likewise, Nat’s brain skated neatly over the icy depths of the accusation that had been the point of her admission. It was crazy, so why dwell on it? Nat hadn’t made a pact or anything with anybody– he’d remember if he did.

Still, when he went to free his legs from what remained of the blasted-up webbing, he hesitated, then fumbled to grab his dagger from where he kept it sheathed on his thigh.

Nat wasn’t a warlock– but Alice was. The shock of it was like a punch to the gut– or like falling abruptly when the spiderweb holding up your arms was exploded apart by magic.

“Al–ice,” he said, catching himself at the last second. “I’m sorry, you never– I didn’t know. Are you… I don’t even know what to say.” ‘Are you OK’ seemed like a pretty dumb question, considering.

“How can I help?” he asked.

[thrownsoul]

"Don't you dare make this about me."

Why does his hair smell burnt, but not look it? Oh, fuck you, Alice thinks, realizing. She's in a mood, now. Every petty little thing is going to piss her off. But a glamour? How can she believe anything he says?

"You can stop—Iying!"

Her voice hitches. She wants to scream, but she lacks the breath for it—the minor fallout of casting after so long without flexing that muscle. The scarab is weak, and so is she.

Alice stops with her hand pressed to her breastbone. Her gaze slides off him as she tries to get herself back under control.

"Fuck you. Cut yourself down."

Whacking the remaining cobwebs out of the way with her swords, she stumbles off to wait outside the cave.