MDCBD

No one will ever know how fucking important this feels.

Thank you for this announcement Harpy you've made my soul so fucking happy.

They think that they’re thieves, agents of an elite criminal group led by Giovanni, stealing rare pokemon and advanced technology and such. And there might have been a time this actually was their jobs. In the first season or two, they frequently get angry phone calls about how they’ve fucked everything up, or get their expense account cut off because they have literally never turned a profit on their criminal enterprises and constantly procure and then lose/destroy expensive and elaborate devices.

But then the world came within a hair’s breadth of being destroyed, several times, and Jesse, James, and their weird cat rescued everybody. As terrible as they’ve always been at criminal endeavors of any kind, when the apocalypse approaches and they’re forced to step up, they’re really fucking good at saving the day.

And Giovanni is over here like… if the planet is destroyed, or time/space becomes unrecognizable, or civilization collapses, there’s no way for me to run a profitable criminal enterprise anymore. I need this planet, because it’s where I keep all my stuff. And I don’t pretend to understand the why of it, but these couple of bumbling nutcases that I should have fired years ago seem to be an important component of that? Somehow? So you gotta stop thinking about them in terms of acquisitions and start considering them… loss prevention. As in, even if you waste a million dollars a month on giant cat-faced robots and a vast array of fancy ball gowns and they never turn a profit, they are preventing all of your assets from going away at the same time because of something you can’t do anything about.

Skimming online, it looks like Ash alone has had his Torterra, Dragonite, Quilava, Donphan, Goodra (both as Goomy and Sliggoo), Infernape, Staravia, Bayleef, and Butterfree (literally the first thing he caught) all evolve in this way. That’s almost 20% of the Pokemon he owns that evolved fighting Team Rocket. That’s not even counting new moves learned (Pikachu learned Volt Tackle this way), or the rest of the Gang (Brock’s Crobat evolved this way too). 

Yes. Writing a book is the easiest thing in the whole world. In fact, let me show you just how easy it is!

Goal: change all this paper into a book.

Eh, not that hard. I mean, you just have to read, right?

Maybe scratch a few notes in the margins as reminders.

Yeah, writing and editing isn’t time consuming or painstaking at all.

In fact, I find it quite relaxing. Good meditation. No stress whatsoever!

I mean, it’s not like writing a book involves any train of thought or decision making, like when to cut scenes, because whatever you write is perfect and there to stay!

I mean, come on, it’s not like I’m going to rewrite the first chapter 51 TIMES to make sure it’s how I want it, right? That’d be crazy.

And no, it’s not like I spent over 3,000 HOURS READING AND REVISING 14 DRAFTS OF THE BOOK to make this book readable.

No sweat, no tears, no blood, and DEFINITELY no coffee stains.

Nope, writing is the easiest job in the world. I don’t see why anyone thinks otherwise. I mean, all we do is scribble words and take a few out, right?

We feel no satisfaction AT ALL when we receive a shipment of the final product for a book signing. *yawn* BOR–ING.

Nope, we don’t get excited at all. It’s just another day in the life.

And the sequels? Bitch, please. That’s child’s play.

I am Looking at these tags my guy

[ID: Screenshot of tags that read:

ppl don’t like to imagine bi ppl coming to terms with being bi after identifying as gay bc they think that’s a downgrade lol. That’s why there’s like 100000 stories about cishets realizing they were bi and like 2 of gay ppl realizing they were bi.

Now as an adult I am a bit "bitch you don't even know him" but at the same time I can recognise that Eric was just part of her dreams.

She wanted to be human so very badly before Eric

He was just a bonus that she wanted to smooch

But Eric

Holy fuck!

This dude heard a chick sing and was like "that's the one. Her" despite not even seeing her face clearly

Then he meets a weird naked mute girl on the beach and is like "A FRIEND! I SHALL BRING HER HOME AND WE WILL BE FRIENDS FOR LIFE!"

And like his servant? Advisor? Whatever that dude is is like "okay I know you're hung up on mystery singing girl but this mysterious girl is right here and really into you"

And Eric is like "well damn. I should take her on a date and probably smooch her"

And he almost falls for this new girl so that he has to have a spell put on him by Ursala

Once that's broken and he realises that the two mystery girls are the SAME girl he is like "damn. Better commit murder for her" even though she is now half fish

Like Eric is ALL IN right the fuck away no matter of you're a romantic or platonic interest

Eric is a ride or die person through and through

I like to think like every other week he brings in a new drifter who is his New Best Friend and Love To Learn Ariel is thrilled and asks all the questions and records their life stories

Stephen Strange is a paranormal investigator/psychic medium that spends most of his days looking into odd and harrowing paranormal cases that most people would often overlook. Even the one’s that appear like obvious hoaxes or are easily dismissed by his peers, as Stephen unlike most—if not all of them, can actually see the dead. If that weren’t enough, he even has real magic at his disposal to counter the ungodly, wicked spirits and entities he faces on a daily basis. Usually overworked and underpaid, Stephen tends to keep to the shadows away from prying eyes or curious onlookers and makes do with what he has; satisfaction from his work often being enough payment on good days. On bad days however, Stephen (overwhelmed by an empty cupboard and his rundown home) must give into less inconspicuous cases. Such as the famous haunting of the Scarlet Witch in Westview, New Jersey. To no surprise of his own, almost immediately upon arriving Stephen does what many thought impossible; and helps the witch pass on to the next life with her family. Not only that, he also discovers that the real malevolence in Westview was the result of another witch, Agatha Harness.

Sudden notoriety amongst—not just only the paranormal community, but also the general public, Stephen finds himself thrust into prominence and hounded by every news media in sight for the story of his triumph. At the persuasion of his partner Wong (and their empty fridge) he agrees to attend a few interviews and speak on his work much to his own dismay; figuring he will soon revert back into seclusion and out of the limelight. Unfortunately for him though, he captures the interest of someone he’d never even expected to meet in his lifetime—Tony Stark. And though Stephen debates with himself relentlessly on whether or not to even meet with the man, he finally settles on going when Wong convinces him that Stark may be just the meal ticket they need.

Upon meeting him for the first time, Stephen finds something is…off about the other man. Unable to put his finger on what it is however, he allows himself to hearken Stark’s reasoning for calling him. As it turns out, he suspects the spirit of his late father, Howard Stark, is haunting him. While it seems plausible enough, there’s only one problem to the story—Howard Stark has been dead for years. And if experience has taught Stephen anything, it’s that most spirits don’t take to haunting later into their afterlives. Even more curious about the case then however, Stephen agrees to stay the night and investigate Stark’s mansion for any signs of restless spirits or anything more sinister amongst the shadows. As the night passes by, he’s unsurprised to find Stark is familiar with his work with the Scarlet Witch. What does alarm him though, is finding out Stark is also aware of his lesser-known cases, even the ones he’s never made public—like the case of the skewed zealot, Kaecilius and disturbed follower’s ploy to summon the demon Dormammu. And even the more devastating corruption of his own friend and former partner, Karl Mordo. Though disturbed and paranoid at the fact, Stephen hides it well and lets Stark lead him through his home throughout the night in hopes of catching whatever it may be that’s supposedly causing terror in Stark’s home; believing as time goes on with no signs of a spirit the whole thing may be a lie. Until the walls start bleeding at midnight.

Sure enough now that Stark’s story is true, his distress grows further as more strange happenings follow them throughout the night, and it appears whatever is there has one clear goal—kill Stephen. Worse then, Stark seems to playing right into the evil entities plans and keeps leading them into more disturbing situations with Stephen front and center during all of them. Devising a scheme to “separate” from Stark long enough to gauge the situation on his own without the risk of losing his head, Stephen finds himself in the man’s lab, where activity seems to be quiet. Only to encounter another spirit there. And to his shock and awe it’s—also Tony Stark? Questioning the spirit Stephen listens when he begins to explain the situation. The man outside is not Tony, but Howard himself come back from the dead to posses his own son’s body and live once more. Tony continues to tell him that somehow Howard’s soul had become corrupted, and that he had in fact haunted Tony at first, albeit peacefully. His cordial behavior soon changed however, and Howard wreaked enough horrors to cause his son to go into panic and accidentally befall his own death. Telling Stephen that the only way Howard can go on living is to sacrifice another life, he also informs him that he wants Stephen due to his own mystical energy, as it will be enough sacrifice to gain him years (and more) on earth.

Though Tony pleads with him to leave lest he meet his own demise, Stephen won’t allow Howard to take another life and sets upon a plan to stop him before he can go on further. To his relief and astonishment, Tony offers to help him stop Howard and send him back where he belongs, dead and unable to cause more harm. Stephen agrees and they set about bringing their plan to fruition, but not without one final warning from Tony: don’t spill any blood. As Howard has cast his own evil energies and hexes around the mansion, should Stephen spill his blood, his body will fall under control of Howard and worse then; give Howard the chance to posses his body and all his power. Exactly like he had done with Tony. Thanking him, Stephen promises then to not only stop Howard, but also find a way to help Tony as well.

Now working together, they have to find a way to reserve Howard’s vile actions; all while avoiding anything he throws at them—even some not so friendly faces from Stephen’s own past cases, risen from the dead once more—and guarantee that Stephen never spills a drop of his own blood. And if Stephen has any say in the matter, bring Tony back to life while they’re at it.

I figured out a way to limit the number of tags on a work in AO3! I’m not sure how to share a custom site skin, but this is how you can make your own:

Go to your AO3 profile and click “Skins” on the left, then hit “Create Site Skin”

Make sure you’re under “Write custom CSS”

Add a title and any other required info, then copy/paste this in the CSS box:

li:nth-of-type(n+20):nth-of-type(-n + 100000) {  display: none; } .tags:hover li:nth-of-type(n+20):nth-of-type(-n + 100000) {  display: initial; }

The first part will hide all tags from the 20th tag to 100000th. (If someone puts more than 100000 tags, you’ll get more, but that seemed unlikely). If you want more than 20 tags to show, you can change the 20 to whatever. If you do, make sure to change the 20 in the second part too.

The second part will make those tags temporarily reappear when you hover over where the visible tags are. (The hover thing won’t work on mobile unfortunately, but it’s kinda nice on a computer.) You can omit this part if you don’t want it. Hit “Submit” and then “Use skin” and it should hide the tags on works with a lot of tags! Notes:

- This will hide relationship tags as well as freeform tags. Hiding only additional tags is tricky due to the way AO3 structures their HTML. I can make it only hide additional, but if I do, it can’t keep count of which ones to hide and will hide too many. I can provide more details if anyone is interested

And Tony gets them, every last fucking one, to SIT ON THE GODDAMNED FLOOR with an offhand wave and a fucking sentence.

Everything he does that could potentially qualify him as such is in direct response to a) childhood abuse b) what happened in the middle east c) what happened in new york.

He cares about his image, yes, but a narcissist would never have sat down on the ground at a press conference like that, wouldn’t have been eating a greasy burger he pulled out of his coat pocket as he was eating.

He’s cocky. He’s rough around the edges. He might appear a little socipathic at times, but he’s not.

He’s closed off from having lived a life that was hell on him emotionally, so he keeps that part of him shut away and doesn’t let anyone see it, because when they do? Bad things happen. 

The thing about the Iron Man movies that frustrates me the most is Pepper Potts. I want to love Pepper. She’s competent and amazing in the first movie. She’s got reason to be annoyed in IM2, even if you’d think someone who’s known him for that long would at least be concerned.

But she was absolutely the worst partner in IM3. Part of relationships is understanding your partner’s love language. Tony had a fucked-up childhood and he expresses affection by throwing money at you and giving you extravagant gifts and protecting you. Was the boob bunny a stupid gift that didn’t take Pepper’s tastes into account? Absolutely. Did Pepper ever take his love language into consideration by maybe talking to him about what she’d like and what she would not like, or setting up a wishlist on online stores or with JARVIS? Unlikely.

Also, Tony is dealing with freaking PTSD. He saw something that terrified him beyond words, something that keeps him awake, and he doesn’t trust therapists, so he does the only thing he can think of, being a futurist, and plans and prepares for the future by building defenses. His love of tinkering, his perfectionism and ‘it can always be improved upon’ mentality, and his obsessive need to prepare for the threat he knows is coming are all part of him, as well as coping mechanisms.

And he doesn’t shut Pepper out. He tells her these things. And she has the fucking gall to still get angry at him for waking her with a PTSD nightmare, for scaring her with what is basically his emotional support armour, and to tell him she’s sleeping on the couch. To prioritise her sleep and her emotional comfort over her partner having PTSD nightmares and anxiety attacks and clearly needing her.

What. The. Fuck.

Tony is terrified and having a panic attack and Pepper snaps at him and leaves. The fuck kind of partner does that? If I have a nightmare, no matter how ridiculous and no matter what time we have to get up for work, I know I can wake my partner, tell him I had a nightmare, and have him hold me and comfort me until I fall back asleep. And vice versa. Like a loving, supportive partner is meant to do.

And her hatred for the Iron Man armours, her insistence that he give it all up? What part of ‘I am Iron Man’ was hard to get? Tony went from being a party boy Merchant of Death to someone trying to save the world and right his wrongs at great cost, and she does nothing but nag him for it. I mean, yes, I can absolutely understand her being terrified that he’s putting his life on the line and may not come back to her. That’s 100% fair. But that’s who he is. Her choices are a) learning to live with it and support him (and I imagine she could find plenty of support herself, in support groups for army spouses), or b) make the decision to leave him if she can’t handle being the woman he may not come back to. But she can’t demand that he change himself for her. Except she does. I hate the moment when he destroys his armours for her so much, and she’s so pleased with it - those armours literally saved her life!

I can’t imagine she gave him a moment’s peace when he rebuilt them and became more active in Avenging, and at the beginning of Civil War I thought they were hinting that Pepper had finally left him and I was nothing but relieved. And then really annoyed when they were playing Happy Families again in Homecoming and Infinity War.

Basically I want to love Pepper as a character (especially since Fandom Pepper is often so much better than MCU-Canon Pepper). I think she and Tony would have a great dynamic as really close friends, like him and Rhodey. But she is a shitty girlfriend to him and I hate the way the movies are trying to push this awful relationship as perfect for him.

I want to love IM3 so much, because his interactions with that kid are so important - hell, his interactions with that one journalist are important too - but people who aren’t used to people like Tony just aren’t going to see that. I just can’t watch it because I get to that scene with Pepper and I want to put my fist through the tv for how disrespectful she is to him.

It doesn’t even pass as being a good example of an abusive relationship because they still try to frame her as being right for doing those things?

Either way, give Tony Stark the love and care he deserves.

Also, on the topic of Love Languages, I think Tony likes to give gifts because it’s something he can do that requires minimum communication. We know he’s not great with the emotions thing so sharing that with others? Eeehhh probably not. He says he doesn’t like being handed things, so it’s probably fair to assume he doesn’t like gifts too much. He also doesn’t seem like a touchy-feely guy. So we’ve got quality time and acts of service left.

Now, keep in mind that Love Languages is how you receive love. Over and over, in what we hear from Tony himself and what we know from others, we see that he’s always alone. He doesn’t receive affection or quality time from anyone. His father is always pushing him away, etc.

I think Tony’s love language is either words of affirmation or quality time. While he does appreciate people doing things for him, he has the robots, he can do things himself… It’s mindless for him - doesn’t hold much meaning. However, he is very strongly affected by people’s words - especially their opinions of him - and especially in IM3 anyway, he clearly wants to spend time with people, but on his own terms. Quality time isn’t necessarily about doing something with a person, it’s about spending time with the person.

Tony likes building robots, hangin’ out, and talking.

Pepper doesn’t give a shit about his suits (hates them), is late for date night (late enough that he ate alone which implies this is possibly not the first time), and she doesn’t talk to him or listen to him (or believe him if she does listen).

IM3!Pepper is The Worst Thing Ever for Tony, but she responds to him and sticks around, so he thinks???? Maybe that’s good enough?

And Tony gets them, every last fucking one, to SIT ON THE GODDAMNED FLOOR with an offhand wave and a fucking sentence.

Everything he does that could potentially qualify him as such is in direct response to a) childhood abuse b) what happened in the middle east c) what happened in new york.

He cares about his image, yes, but a narcissist would never have sat down on the ground at a press conference like that, wouldn’t have been eating a greasy burger he pulled out of his coat pocket as he was eating.

He’s cocky. He’s rough around the edges. He might appear a little socipathic at times, but he’s not.

He’s closed off from having lived a life that was hell on him emotionally, so he keeps that part of him shut away and doesn’t let anyone see it, because when they do? Bad things happen. 

The thing about the Iron Man movies that frustrates me the most is Pepper Potts. I want to love Pepper. She’s competent and amazing in the first movie. She’s got reason to be annoyed in IM2, even if you’d think someone who’s known him for that long would at least be concerned.

But she was absolutely the worst partner in IM3. Part of relationships is understanding your partner’s love language. Tony had a fucked-up childhood and he expresses affection by throwing money at you and giving you extravagant gifts and protecting you. Was the boob bunny a stupid gift that didn’t take Pepper’s tastes into account? Absolutely. Did Pepper ever take his love language into consideration by maybe talking to him about what she’d like and what she would not like, or setting up a wishlist on online stores or with JARVIS? Unlikely.

Also, Tony is dealing with freaking PTSD. He saw something that terrified him beyond words, something that keeps him awake, and he doesn’t trust therapists, so he does the only thing he can think of, being a futurist, and plans and prepares for the future by building defenses. His love of tinkering, his perfectionism and ‘it can always be improved upon’ mentality, and his obsessive need to prepare for the threat he knows is coming are all part of him, as well as coping mechanisms.

And he doesn’t shut Pepper out. He tells her these things. And she has the fucking gall to still get angry at him for waking her with a PTSD nightmare, for scaring her with what is basically his emotional support armour, and to tell him she’s sleeping on the couch. To prioritise her sleep and her emotional comfort over her partner having PTSD nightmares and anxiety attacks and clearly needing her.

What. The. Fuck.

Tony is terrified and having a panic attack and Pepper snaps at him and leaves. The fuck kind of partner does that? If I have a nightmare, no matter how ridiculous and no matter what time we have to get up for work, I know I can wake my partner, tell him I had a nightmare, and have him hold me and comfort me until I fall back asleep. And vice versa. Like a loving, supportive partner is meant to do.

And her hatred for the Iron Man armours, her insistence that he give it all up? What part of ‘I am Iron Man’ was hard to get? Tony went from being a party boy Merchant of Death to someone trying to save the world and right his wrongs at great cost, and she does nothing but nag him for it. I mean, yes, I can absolutely understand her being terrified that he’s putting his life on the line and may not come back to her. That’s 100% fair. But that’s who he is. Her choices are a) learning to live with it and support him (and I imagine she could find plenty of support herself, in support groups for army spouses), or b) make the decision to leave him if she can’t handle being the woman he may not come back to. But she can’t demand that he change himself for her. Except she does. I hate the moment when he destroys his armours for her so much, and she’s so pleased with it - those armours literally saved her life!

I can’t imagine she gave him a moment’s peace when he rebuilt them and became more active in Avenging, and at the beginning of Civil War I thought they were hinting that Pepper had finally left him and I was nothing but relieved. And then really annoyed when they were playing Happy Families again in Homecoming and Infinity War.

Basically I want to love Pepper as a character (especially since Fandom Pepper is often so much better than MCU-Canon Pepper). I think she and Tony would have a great dynamic as really close friends, like him and Rhodey. But she is a shitty girlfriend to him and I hate the way the movies are trying to push this awful relationship as perfect for him.

I want to love IM3 so much, because his interactions with that kid are so important - hell, his interactions with that one journalist are important too - but people who aren’t used to people like Tony just aren’t going to see that. I just can’t watch it because I get to that scene with Pepper and I want to put my fist through the tv for how disrespectful she is to him.

It doesn’t even pass as being a good example of an abusive relationship because they still try to frame her as being right for doing those things?

Either way, give Tony Stark the love and care he deserves.

Also, on the topic of Love Languages, I think Tony likes to give gifts because it’s something he can do that requires minimum communication. We know he’s not great with the emotions thing so sharing that with others? Eeehhh probably not. He says he doesn’t like being handed things, so it’s probably fair to assume he doesn’t like gifts too much. He also doesn’t seem like a touchy-feely guy. So we’ve got quality time and acts of service left.

Now, keep in mind that Love Languages is how you receive love. Over and over, in what we hear from Tony himself and what we know from others, we see that he’s always alone. He doesn’t receive affection or quality time from anyone. His father is always pushing him away, etc.

I think Tony’s love language is either words of affirmation or quality time. While he does appreciate people doing things for him, he has the robots, he can do things himself… It’s mindless for him - doesn’t hold much meaning. However, he is very strongly affected by people’s words - especially their opinions of him - and especially in IM3 anyway, he clearly wants to spend time with people, but on his own terms. Quality time isn’t necessarily about doing something with a person, it’s about spending time with the person.

Tony likes building robots, hangin’ out, and talking.

Pepper doesn’t give a shit about his suits (hates them), is late for date night (late enough that he ate alone which implies this is possibly not the first time), and she doesn’t talk to him or listen to him (or believe him if she does listen).

IM3!Pepper is The Worst Thing Ever for Tony, but she responds to him and sticks around, so he thinks???? Maybe that’s good enough?

One of the things those of us who dislike Ragnarok hear more than anything is, “Why does everyone hate on Taika?” More often than not, it’s a disingenuous inquiry by people who either know our reasons already and simply disagree or are unwilling to actually listen, even when provided with the answer. (I don’t mean unwilling to agree with us; I mean unwilling to read what we’ve written on the subject, even though they’re the ones who asked).

For anyone who is genuinely curious why some portion of the Loki fandom is hostile to Taika, however, this page will seek to answer that question.

Because there’s a lot of material to work with here, I’ll try to divide this content into three general categories:

his atrocious misunderstanding and open dislike of Loki’s character

his flawed—and, frankly, insulting—analysis of other aspects of the franchise, and

his history of bullying and/or mocking people

Note: All emphasis will be mine.

You extend your hand. “I noticed you’re new here. What’s your name?”

Clark’s introducing her around.  “This is my good friend, Diana, she’s in from out of town.”

Clark stops a few feet away and squints at you worriedly from behind those ridiculous glasses you’re 99% sure he doesn’t actually need, and asks tentatively, “Everything all right?”

You ignore him in favor of staring at the inky dark numerals hovering over the beaming fool gesticulating some fantastic yacht story for a gaggle of secretaries and minor columnists.

Meanwhile, your paranoia gets to you. You start working out. Training in self defense. Studying the Justice League, trying to find its members. Finding out all their identities so you can be ready.

One day you wake up with a ten above your head.

That day you get a call. You recognize the area code. Gotham. Your heart is in your throat. You should throw the phone away, run. They’ve found you. You’re doomed. You might be a ten, but you can’t beat them all.

You pick up the phone anyways.

“Hello?”

“Hey, this is Clark Kent. I was wondering if we could talk.”

Your mouth goes dry. “About what?”

But they’d find you. You know they’d find you. They’re goddamned superheroes. They can carry buildings. They could probably manage finding you.

“Hello?” Clark’s voice returns, tinged with concern, and suddenly you stop. Calm down. They’re the good guys. At least they’re supposed to be.

“Yeah, sorry, just a little shocked you–”

“Caught up to you?” Clark asked. He laughed a little, but it wasn’t teasing. His voice had his regular ease, the same casual tone he would employ to talk about the weather in the break room. “Yeah. Lois noticed your odd behavior, actually. We didn’t realize it was linked to the League until you refused to interview Bruce, and then we knew something was up.”

“Speaking of Bruce Wayne, are you using his phone? Your area code is Gotham, not Metropolis.”

Clark laughed. “Damn. Lois wasn’t kidding when she said you were the best investigator working for the Daily Planet.”

“I just notice things is all.” You laughed nervously. You still can’t shake your general unease. This guy could kill you without any effort. You’re no match for him, or for any of his friends for that matter. Hell, Batman didn’t even have powers and he’d still fuck you up.

“Yeah, and that’s a skill we could use around here. Would you like to talk about joining? Bruce can send you a car, bring you here–”

“No,” you say, sharper than you intended. “Sorry. I’d rather meet in public, if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course. Lunch or coffee? It’s still early, but it’s a bit easier to cram all of us in a restaurant than a coffee shop.”

“Lunch, I guess. And no superhero stuff.”

Clark pauses, then sighs sadly. You’ve heard this sadness before in rare amounts. When bad things happened and fear and greed overtook people, he’d always frown and sigh, like someone watching their best friend self destruct, unable to help or save them. “You’re afraid of us. Aren’t you?” His voice is concerned and hushed.

A pang of guilt starts to replace the fear. “You can throw around buildings like a sack of potatoes, Clark. Your friend is powerful on an impossible level, Bruce’s kid is a fucking eight–”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Clark said, the sadness disappearing. “You have a number system for us?”

“Look, it’s a whole thing. I’ll talk about it over lunch.” You grab your laptop bag. “Where are we meeting?”

Clark said something to someone else. “Got any restaurant ideas? They want lunch.”

Bruce Wayne – you’ve heard enough interviews to recognize his voice – said, “Saffron’s pretty good.”

“Jesus,” someone else said. You’ve heard the voice, but you couldn’t place it. “I keep on forgetting you’re rich.”

“You don’t think it’s a little much, Bruce? The pay at Daily Planet is good but not that good,” said Clark.

“I’ll cover their tab.”

“Okay…” Clark returned to the call. “Saffron, in…thirty minutes? You’re downtown, right?”

“You can get a table to Saffron in thirty minutes?” said the strange voice. “Boy, am I glad I made friends with you guys.”

“Yeah, that works.” You’re a bit hesitant, but you swallow your nerves. At least for now. Your thoughts about threat levels made you forget that Clark is a decent guy. All you could do is hope that he thinks you’re decent, too. “See you then.”

“See you then. Be safe. Bye.” Clark hangs up, and you’re left in your room. The worry is starting to turn into something different. Excitement.

They aren’t wearing masks or uniforms, no bright colors and costumes. Clark Kent is in his usual office wear, Bruce Wayne is wearing a tailored suit, Diana Prince dons a nice blue dress, and Oliver Queen wears a nice button down. You don’t recognize two of them – a twenty something in jeans and a hoodie, a man in a green shirt, and a burly guy in a baggy t-shirt and old jeans who looks like he had just washed up from the sea. All of them, aside from Diana, are tens, of course.

Clark Kent stands, shakes your hand when you come in. “Glad to see you made it.” He introduces you to the others, and they all shake your hand quite happily and greet you like a friend. You learn that the guy in the hoodie is Barry Allen, the dude in green is Hal Jordan, and the beach dude is Arthur Curry. Waitresses, all ones, twos, and threes, come in with drinks, and one plops a mug of coffee in front of you, along with a small menu. Clark Kent gives you a knowing gaze.

Once the waitresses clear out, Bruce sits up straight. “Clark, would you rather I do the honors?” His silver watch glitters in the light from the windows.

“No, no, Bruce,” Clark says, setting down his glass of water. “I think it’s best if I ask them myself.”

Within a moment, you piece it together. “You want me to join the Justice League?”

Clark Kent cracks a smile. “How’d you guess?”

“You call me out of the blue, mention the Justice League, invite me to Bruce Wayne’s place, and then here, where you introduce me to a group of people who all look strikingly similar to the members of the Justice League.” You take a sip of coffee. “Subtlety is hardly your strong suit.”

Barry Allen laughed. “They got you there on that one.”

“Well, you’re right. At first Bruce wanted to handle the situation himself,” – you’d rather not think about what handle was a euphemism for – “but I insisted we do some more digging. We did, and what we found was…surprising. To say the least.”

You look at him oddly. You aren’t normal – no one else saw numbers floating above people’s heads – but you weren’t surprising. Your parents were the only ones who knew about your ability, and they’re long gone. You’ve got no checkered past, no odd history–

“You have powers.” Clark’s voice was clearly impressed.

“How did you find out about that?” The fear comes back, forming a knot in your stomach. “I’ve never told anyone else about it.”

“It’s not hard to notice,” Barry Allen says in between sips of soda. “Most of the information we got we got from Lois after she’s hung out with you.”

“I’ve never her told her anything about the numbers, though.”

Oliver Queen sits up, flashing you a confused look. “Numbers?”

Okay, something’s not right here. “The number I see over everyone’s heads,” you say, keeping your voice low. “It ties into how dangerous everyone is. Usually it’s just a one or two, maybe a three or four or five if they’ve got some kind of training or if they work out or whatever. Almost everyone at this table has a ten.”

“Almost?” Diana furrows her brow.

“You have an eleven,” you add.

Diana nods, smiling with a bit of pride and making an “I told you so” face to Bruce Wayne, who rolls his eyes. Oliver Queen clears his throat as Bruce and Hal pass him a couple bills.

“Ignore them,” Barry says, rolling his eyes at the three of them. “What you said was interesting – I might have to ask you a few questions on that later – but it wasn’t what I found. Remember the sensory and memory study you did when you were ten?”

You do remember it. Your parents were contacted by a scientist friend of theirs who needed kids to run a study on memory and stimuli. You remember it clearly. The large sterile room, the tests, the person conducting them, a handsome woman with a four above her head, the questions, the smell of latex gloves and fresh bleach. But you don’t remember the results. You were never told the results, other than that they were good, though with a test like that it was hard to say.