Soresu Negotiations

Sometimes, I can't believe Daisy x Sousa is a ship that exists and is canon. It's just SO beautiful, that we have a relationship that is explicitly just "I cherish her in all her fierceness, if she's committed to protecting everyone else, then I will help her and protect her at the same time. I will be her shield" and "I trust him to carry my passion with me, and for me when I'm too tired. I trust him to keep watch when I rest. I trust him enough to let him catch me when I fall."

And I just??? Sob???

Febuwhump Day 19: Death Wish (Captain America)

“So why did you decide to crash the plane into the ice? Wasn’t there another option?”

The breath froze in Steve’s lungs. He blinked at the interviewer, who was leaning over his desk with concerned eyebrows and a wicked glint in his eyes.

That question hadn’t been on the approved list.

They’d promised they would stick to the list. It was the only reason Steve had agreed to a live interview, his first since being thawed out, his first since coming into this new world where he was a piece of history, not a person.

And now they asked him this, on live TV.

Steve cleared his throat, clasped and unclasped his hands between his khaki-clad knees. “I’m not sure I understand the question,” he said quietly, hoping that would be enough to re-route the interviewer back to the list.

The interviewer didn’t take the hint. Instead, he unfolded a piece of paper, tapping it with one manicured finger. “Your decision to ground the plane has been studied by experts since the records were declassified,” he said, flashing perfect teeth in a predatory grin. “They estimate there were at least six other ways out of the situation without taking it down. So why was that the route you took? Was it a death wish?”

Steve’s throat closed. For a moment, he could only see the glaring white of the ice through the windshield, hear the static of the radio, the shriek of the wind…

He kept his jaw set, measuring each breath until his vision cleared and he could see the room again. The studio audience waited in breathless anticipation; the interviewer had arranged his face into an expression of polite concern. Somewhere behind him, Steve could hear the furiously whispered argument as SHIELD’s PR rep urged the television crew to go to a commercial break.

“Your experts are misinformed. There was no other option,” Steve said quietly, once he was sure he could keep his voice steady. Then he got to his feet, moving quickly enough that nobody expected the movement until he was shaking the surprised interviewer’s immaculately-manicured hand, squeezing hard enough that the bones creaked under his fingers. “Thank you for having me today,” he said loudly, speaking over the interviewer’s gasp of pain.

The exits were blocked—there was no easy way off the stage. That didn’t bother Steve. He locked eyes with the first kid in the audience he saw, and pulled a pen out of his pocket as he stepped over the camera cables and into the studio audience, leaving the stammering interviewer, cradling his hand, alone on the stage.

Within seconds he was safely surrounded by a delighted crowd seeking autographs. The audience door was a few yards away, and beyond that was freedom.

This interview was over.

But even as Steve smiled and worked his way towards the door, signing hats and hands and t-shirts as he went, the only thing he could hear was the whistle of the wind through the desolate cockpit, and the tremble in Peggy’s voice as she bravely talked him through those last few minutes.

No, there had been no death wish. In that final moment, Steve had wanted to live more than he ever had before.

It had made his choice all the harder.

And now, stranded in this new world, where people analyzed his decisions, dissected and pulled him apart like some grotesque thought experiment, he found himself more isolated even than he had been on that doomed plane.

Because then, at least, he’d had someone who cared.

————

Written for @febuwhump

Finally finished my Silmarillion/Lord of the Rings bookmark design! (Tumblr predictably destroyed the quality but you can click to see the original 🥲)

The top follows the story of Silmarillion from the Darkening of Valinor to Elwing’s flight from Sirion (upper left to upper right), and the bottom follows the Lord of the Rings from Bag-End to Mordor (lower right to lower left). At the end, of course, we end up back in Valinor to close the loop.

It ended up a bit cluttered because there was so much I wanted to fit in, but overall I’m rather happy with it :)

Oh my god oh my god Faramir put Éowyn in (okay something closely resembling) the HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR’S CELESTIAL MANTLE.

*it’s not clear when you first look, but it’s showing stars in the celestial sphere. I swear.

McCluskey, Astronomies and Cultures of Early Medieval Europe

(X)

Shut up I’m having a fan moment. Clenching my fists. I love the stupid star mantle. This mantle is a celebrity to me.

Oooh, tell me about "Steve blipped"!

This one is built off the question: What if Bucky survived the Blip at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, and it was Steve who turned to ashes? Written from Bucky’s POV, this one is kind of an angst-fest. I don’t have the full thing drafted out, and I’m not sure when I’ll ever finish it, so here’s a snippet of the beginning:

————

“Bucky.”

It was Steve’s voice, with something in it that yanked Bucky back ninety years to the days when Steve was a sick little kid, frightened and unsure behind his bravado.

And then Steve turned to him, blue eyes wide—and collapsed into a column of grey ash.

No.

No, no.

No.

He never remembered stumbling forward, never remembered landing hard on his knees. He only remembered the sick horror clambering up his throat, the ash dissolving between his fingers even as he clawed at it, tried to gather it.

NO.

A barrage of neon blue death rays, aliens, childhood illness flashed behind his eyes—all the things that Steve had faced, had fought through, had survived by sheer force of will…

…only to be defeated now by a simple snap of fingers.

It was unthinkable.

It was true.

Bucky’s world reeled. He bowed his head and let the despair take him, waiting for his own body to dissolve.

It didn’t—and there lay the true tragedy.

Till the end of the line, they’d always said.

He had never wanted Steve’s line to end first.

Agents of B.A.R.B.I.E. -> Phil Coulson

This Barbie is a dad!

Good Friday

The more you think about it, the worse it gets.

No part of the Passion Gospel, the Gospel for Good Friday, has any hope.

Even the tender moments – Jesus asking John to take care of his mother, Joseph and Nicodemus making sure that Jesus has a proper burial – they’re just people dealing with the fallout from death.

You know what Joseph and Nicodemus are thinking about while they’re wrapping Jesus’ body up for burial? How much this sucks.

And whether the Romans will stop at killing Jesus. Or will they, and other followers of Jesus, be next?

The more you think about it, the worse it gets.

You know what Joseph and Nicodemus aren’t thinking about? How anything good can come from this.

Much less how God is already using all of it to do more good than either of them, or anyone on Good Friday, could ever imagine.

And yet, you and I know, that’s exactly what’s happening. Because you and I know something that Joseph and Nicodemus don’t know. Not on that worst of Friday’s.

They don’t know that Sunday is coming.

But that’s how it is, when you’re where they are. When you are right in the middle of the very worst.

When you and I are right in the middle of the very worst, there is nothing that human eyes can see to tell us that it’s ever going to get any better.

When that’s where you are, the only open question is whether it’s going to get worse.

In the middle of everything that you are dealing with right now – whether it’s death or illness, divorce or the end of a friendship, job loss or financial problems – while you’re waiting to see whether you’ve hit bottom or if it’s going to get worse. You get Joseph and Nicodemus. You are right there with them.

The more you think about what you’re dealing with, the worse it gets.

There’s nothing that our human eyes can see to tell us that anything good can come from what you’re going through.

And yet, you and I know, that’s not true.

Because you and I know something. Something that’s easy to lose sight of when you’re in the middle. Something that’s hard to hold onto when you’re scared.

But it doesn’t matter. It’s okay if we lose sight of it. Because it’s still true. Even if we’re scared. 

Today is Good Friday. And Good Friday shows us that none of it, not even the very worst, can hold down our God.

Because Sunday is coming.

Today’s Readings

I really don't like it when people try to present Team Cap and Team Iron Man as being the same thing, bc they're very clearly not? (And sorry for doing this type of discourse in 2025, but it needs to be said)

Because let's be honest, the mainline MCU didn't really focus on the Sokovia Accords past Civil War. It's not present in Doctor Strange, Black Widow, Homecoming (at least in a large capacity), certainly not Ragnarok or GOTG 2, Black Panther, and almost no one cares by Infinity War. When we look at the projects post Accords, there are hardly any moments where they matter, and by 2025, they're fully repealed. Nine years of being active, five of whom were during the Snap, meaning only four years, and most of the projects don't go very in depth. That tends to lead mainline audiences into believing it was never that bad in the first place and that Cap was being selfish

But we see how the Accords really effect everyday powered people in the supplemental material like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. After being introduced, powered people had three options

Go into hiding. Live a normal life. Never show off your abilities

Sign the Accords. If you were part of a government agency like S.H.I.E.L.D., it is heavily implied you had to sign or you couldn't work for them anymore

Don't sign and show off your powers? You go to the Raft

This went for everyone, it didn't matter if your power was making farts smell good, you counted as powered. Imagine the bank down the street is getting robbed, with these in place, you couldn't do anything about it if you weren't signed or you risked going to jail; they're awful options

Or what if you were signed? Great, now all your information (powers, weaknesses, danger level, LITERALLY EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU) is held in a massive server that can be easily hacked and accessed. We see in AoS s4 that signed Inhumans are getting harmed bc the Watchdogs, a hate organization, was able to get their hands on their information and find out exactly where they were. POWERED PEOPLE WORE TRACKERS THAT WAS CONSTANTLY BEING UPDATED ON THEIR LOCATION. THAT'S FUCKING WRONG IN SO MANY WAYS

Let's switch gears for a sec here and go to another side, where thankfully, that isn't happening to you, but you do wanna make some kind of change in your community. You notice that people are going missing, that there's weird power outages and decide that's worth looking into, so you go to the council and present your case. Now, as we all know, politicians never agree on anything, so the chance of getting an immediate yes is almost impossible (I'd argue 1% is far too generous in this case). It may take weeks, months, or the decision is swept under the rug and oopsies, now the entirety of Florida is covered by a blanket of darkness!

Or you get a no, and actually, they want you to check out this tiny little village in New Zealand, and so you have no choice but to go. You quickly realize that this isn't really worth your time and feel like your services are required elsewhere, but again, you're not able to back out. When you return, you find that London has been utterly destroyed. This is a situation that Steve himself brings up, and it's something that absolutely could happen! There are just endless risks to this

Then, of course, the worst scenario, being sent to the Raft, which, bc it's in international waters, they can do whatever they want to you!! Doesn't matter if it's inhumane, no one can do shit about it. It's stated in "Jessica Jones" that prisoners aren't allowed to have any contact with the outside world, and if you go in there, you go in for good. Almost no one makes it out. Again, it doesn't matter who you were and what your powers were, you would be stuck inside with the worst of the worst. WANDA MAXIMOFF WAS IN A SHOCK COLLAR AND STRAIGHTJACKET. How in any situation is that okay??

Steve understood this, understood the true consequences of handing themselves over to hundreds of governments. He wasn't against having regulations (neither am I) but he knew this wasn't the right way to go

One side holds all the power. The other holds nothing. This is in no way equal

Reblog to hug prev

Please

obsessed with re-embodied First Age war heroes interacting with the aman-born youth

Youth: Wow, your hair is so pretty! Such a first age throwback. Could you be related to Maedhros Fëanarion? Maedhros Fëanarion: Never heard of him

Finrod Felagund: That's a cool ring, kid. Reminds me of early first age bëorian metalwork. Youth: Gee, thanks, that's exactly what I was going for! Does it make me look like King Felagund? Finrod Felagund: Absolutely. He'd be proud

Youth: Atar said you're from the first age. Did you know the sons of Fëanor? Was Celegorm hot? This blond guy the other day told me he was really hot Caranthir: Don't listen to that blond guy again. I know what he's doing