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The Good
Absolutely adorable anon comment meme for the holidays *heart eyes activate*
Had a really relaxing long weekend other than all the insomnia and will be looking forward to enjoying my Heart Attack gift soon in December!
Getting decent progress done on X-mas shopping. I think I've gotten almost everything at least planned out for Doc and for the majority of the list.
The Less Good
Work is... I don't want to say it's gotten less crazy because it really hasn't, especially as soon as anyone who isn't me takes PTO. It's work. It's shit but at least I can WFH on Mondays and Fridays and that's somewhat decent. I'm not putting in 110% until I finish year end reviews... in January because they frankly don't fuckin deserve it.
One of my friends is totally AWOL and I hate feeling powerless to do anything about it.
Family is still a nightmare. Gonna need to rip that band-aid off soon, but Christ do I wish they would just man up and do it themselves.
The Fic Updates
The only constant thing in life is death, taxes, and fic updates bc they're a delicious source of dopamine. Here's the nonsense I've been doing lately and forgot to cross-post like a Boss:
Title: I am not a martyr; I'm a problem - Ch 1 / ?
Rating: T
Fandom: The Punisher (TV), Daredevil (TV)
Pairing/Characters: Karen Page/Frank Castle, Billy Russo
Critical Tags: AU where Billy's OK actually, Messy Relationships, Fix-It
Summary: There was one last play that Karen could call when her world goes to shit and she’s caught in the sights of Fisk’s hitman. A messy chorus of asking for favors, offering to walk away, and accepting that needing help wasn’t the same thing as using someone else.
Excerpt:
This wasn’t time for a pity party. She was still in danger. Her hand brought the phone back down finally, and Karen stared at her contacts list for a long while. Every time that she scrolled through, her focus would go to Matt, Foggy, Ellison. Arguably everyone was just as royally screwed as she was and knew it, but Matt, he didn’t know about her inadvertent admission to Fisk. Even if he had suspected that Matt was more than just the lawyer by day, perhaps he had had enough doubt to stay his hand from retribution. Now though…
Another sedan rolled by. Karen shrunk back in her seat, trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible.
She didn’t have time to agonize over Matt right now, even if she was exactly that - in agony. Her next call went to an automated voice mailbox. The message that she left was simple, to the point. “It’s Karen,” she explained. “And it’s real bad.”
Title: Better Together
Rating: T
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Pairing/Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff
Critical Tags: Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort
Summary: Trauma sits deep in the bones. It hunkers down, digs in, refuses to leave. They all know what it's like to be haunted by the past.
Excerpt:
The advantage of being three not two allows them some small mercy. When Natasha is four weeks gone on some undercover quest, at least Clint and James can prop the other up instead of succumbing to the misery. If Nat’s the one at home, she is the best at picking up on when the boys need space or not. It’s when one isn’t back in the security of home and the others that things get rockiest.
Between the three of them, there are more than enough skeletons in the closet to try to rise up and lay claim to troubled consciences.
Title: Better than a Talking Space Raccoon
Rating: T
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Pairing/Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanoff
Critical Tags: Mission Fic, Atonement
Summary: Natasha wants to help James with his list of names. Just... maybe not in the way that his therapist suggested.
Excerpt:
The metal chair scraped on the ground as Natasha shifted next to him. Both of them had dragged them to be against the wall of the cafe. Better viewpoint, but not great for keeping eye contact. It suited them just fine. “Oh I wasn’t asking for your so-called doctor’s benefit. I was asking because I’m bored.”
“Bored,” James repeated. He spun the coffee between his palms once more.
“And so are you. If making amends is something that’s state sanctioned-”
“I don’t think you can call it that,” James interrupted. Natasha made a face and waved off the details with a hand.
“If making amends is approved behavior-” she changed the term but clearly not her intended meaning, “-then that at least gives you something to do other than sit in your apartment feeling sorry for yourself and missing Steve.”
Title: What Happens in NOLA (Results in a Lifetime Ban and Another Burned Fake ID)
Rating: T
Fandom: The Punisher (TV)
Pairing/Characters: Frank Castle & Karen Page & Billy Russo
Critical Tags: Self-Indulgent Fluff, Alcohol
Summary: “It’s N’Orleans,” Billy drawled, the local affect sounding out of place through his accent. “We can live a little.”
“You’re supposed to be dead. That’s kind of the opposite idea,” Frank retorted.
---
Frank really, really shouldn't let Karen and Billy drag him into a bar crawl.
Excerpt:
“Now hang on,” Frank warned when the waitress started to pour out the shots. He recognized the challenge in Karen’s eyes as she slid the first shot across the table to Billy.
“C’mon. Come on,” he protested louder as the two leaned forward to link arms before knocking back the liquor.
Karen had the good graces to look slightly mollified. She wiped her lips with the back of her hand before hiding the start of a grin behind the neck of her beer. “What?” she replied with a snicker. Billy had an arm slung over Frank’s shoulder, batting his eyelashes as though he had done nothing wrong. In the same moment his free hand was creeping towards Frank's as-of-yet-unclaimed shot glass.
“This is not turning into a bar crawl,” Frank said firmly.
Title: No Proper Way to be Vigilante-Adjacent
Rating: T
Fandom: The Punisher (TV)
Pairing/Characters: Frank Castle/Karen Page/Billy Russo
Critical Tags: Established Relationship, Domestic Fluff
Summary: No one tells you how you're supposed to live your life when you're close with the supers and not-so-heroes of Hell's Kitchen.
Excerpt:
Being Vigilante-Adjacent came with a lot of, shall we say, unique problems. Karen thought that she had seen them all over the course of her time spent working - albeit unknowingly - for Daredevil for half a year while also working to exonerate Hell’s Kitchen’s own Punisher. Danger was always around the corner, she started to question when she was given the simplest explanation for things, and the fact that she had to start memorizing people’s phone numbers again because they kept jumping from burner phone to burner phone was really getting on her nerves.
But all of that turned old-hat at a certain point. She had a classic, unhackable address book for phone numbers. Her current job in journalism excused her penchant for follow up questions when something seemed too good to be true. And she didn’t travel on her own around the city all that often.
Title: The Retrieval Job
Rating: T
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing/Characters: Eliot Spencer/Parker/Quinn
Critical Tags: Established Relationship, Rescue Missions
Summary: Portland’s best and brightest criminals decide to take a hostage to exact some leverage of their own against the crew running in their town. They don’t quite plan on the retribution that rains down on them.
Excerpt:
She could settle for cereal. She had gotten by on cereal for years until now. But a part of her was still upset at missing out on Eliot's cooking. Parker couldn't even rely on Quinn coming by with doughnuts from the bakery down the road to cover the middle ground between pre-made and home-cooked. He was out of the country for the rest of the week.
That might have been why the apartment felt so empty. Chances were good on a normal day that if Eliot was out, the other body man was around. The nice thing about contract work - with the right sized payouts - was the down time they afforded in between. Parker knew the Leverage crew didn't have a job. They weren’t even running surveillance on anything upcoming. So where did that leave Eliot?
This was an awful lot to consider before breakfast, and Parker plopped herself down at the kitchen bar with a fresh bowl of cereal and some homemade juice to delay some of that heavy lifting. Immediately she had to leave the seat to go fish her phone out from the side table in the bedroom that she had left it on. At least that gave her the opportunity to snatch a flannel button up - probably Eliot’s; Quinn intentionally made sure his got hung up rather than leaving them in the clean laundry basket to get, gasp, wrinkled - to toss on over her tank top.
She scrolled through her messages, the frown from earlier returning in force. Even munching on her current favorite frosted wheat-y bits didn’t cut through the irritation at getting a metaphorical earful from Hardison and Sophie texting her if she could please tell Eliot to pick up his phone. She wasn’t Eliot’s secretary. In fact, she hadn’t been a secretary since that job with the attorney general. Something about ineffective note taking and a dislike for returning phone calls. Who would have known.
Parker tapped back a suitably grumpy negative, resolved to leave it at that.
Title: Depart, Depart
Rating: T
Fandom: Shadow & Bone (TV)
Pairing/Characters: Aleksander/Alina Starkov
Critical Tags: Major Character Injuries
Summary: Aleksander is delayed by that damned otkazat'sya boy, and Alina is the one attacked in the dressing room.
Excerpt:
He let out a heavy sigh when finally Oretsev allowed himself to be removed. The tracker stomped his way out but at least he couldn’t slam the door behind him. Aleksander paused to re-check his appearance before returning to the Grand Palace. He didn’t want his irritation at the tracker to follow him back to the party.
Another knock at the door had said irritation rise once more. “What?” Aleksander growled. “Enter!” he added when Ivan announced himself.
The instant that Aleksander saw the Heartrender’s expression he knew this was no minor nuisance like Oretsev. While Ivan was hardly a joyful person, his face was drawn and sweat dotted his temples.
“There’s been an incident, moi soverenyi,” Ivan said. The next words from the Heartrender had Aleksander crossing the room in a single breath. “When Miss Starkov left the receiving room.”
Title: Turning Away
Rating: T
Fandom: Shadow & Bone (TV)
Pairing/Characters: Aleksander/Alina Starkov
Critical Tags: Angst, S01E08 No Mourners
Summary: "Am I just supposed to let you go?"
A prompt ficlet.
Excerpt:
They’re standing at odds with one another, the deck of the skiff the only thing separating them. Alina’s sunlight is chasing away the lingering volcra. The lingering dead around them will only serve to draw them back again to snap and whine at the shining circumference around them.
Alina stares down Aleksander, stares down the man who has collared her and forced her hand in drawing these battle lines between them. Mal and the others, whoever they were, are still scuffling with the remaining Grisha. They are not soldiers in her command but still they fight.
Aleksander is the first to step forward, to approach the invisible line between them. Alina draws back until her back hits the railing of the skiff. Aleksander stills as well, though she suspects it is because of how she cannot stop her face from betraying the spike of fear that floods through her.
“This isn’t what I wanted,” Aleksander insists.
Title: Supposition
Rating: T
Fandom: Shadow & Bone (TV)
Pairing/Characters: Aleksander/Alina Starkov
Critical Tags: Post-Season One, Angst
Summary: /ˌsəpəˈziSH(ə)n/
noun
an uncertain belief.
Excerpt:
“The whelp offered you his hand in marriage?” Aleksander questions, his voice a whisper she shouldn’t be able to hear. It doesn’t carry through the air like sound should and yet it coils around her heart and squeezes tight. With their tether binding them together, Alina can always tell what he means.
Title: Where Hoofbeats and Hearts Thunder - Ch 15-17
Rating: T
Fandom: Shadow & Bone (TV)
Pairing/Characters: Aleksander/Alina Starkov
Critical Tags: Horses, Gift-Giving, Drama
Summary: With Zarya finally back in horseshoes, Alina and Aleksander can return to their journey.
Excerpt:
The poor weather had started before either of them woke up. The sunrise had been sluggish to come, fighting and losing to the grey snow clouds that had come down from the mountains.
When she eventually had tugged open the curtains after leaving the fading warmth of the blankets Alina had actually huffed in disgust. It wasn't light snow, either. Her attire required all her layers, including the conspicuous kefta.
The one that Novikov’s daughter was looking at with outright disgust now. “I didn’t know they let your kind in here,” the woman sneered. “They didn’t send you packing?”
It was nothing new, really. Whether Alina was Grisha or otkazat’sya, it seemed that there was only so many different ways to render bigoted opinions. It just hit her like a slap to the face that it happened so quickly and without any warning.
