Story: "Up the Water Spout" Part 1
Aug. 27th, 2014 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Hairpins," "Blended," "Am I Not," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys,""Saudades," "Querencia," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," "Green Eggs and Hulk," "kintsukuroi," and "Little and Broken, but Still Good."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Natasha Romanova, Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Betty Ross, Bucky Barnes.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Mention of human trafficking and nonconsensual drug use. Slightly offstage sexual violence. Dubcon/Noncon.
Summary: Sometimes the Black Widow needs to hunt, and sometimes she needs help settling her personality afterwards. Uncle Phil arranges an extra ageplay session.
Notes: Hurt/comfort. Family. Fluff and angst. BAMF!Black Widow. Black Widow is creepy. Spiders. Coping skills. Asking for help and getting it. Hope. Nonsexual ageplay. Caregiving. Competence. Girl stuff. Toys and games. Gentleness. Trust. #coulsonlives
This story returns to the main storyline of "Love Is for Children." The first few chapters show Black Widow considering and carrying out a mission, then after that it's pure ageplay. It fills a square in the Plot Challenges Bingo Card 7-4-14:
Situation: Crime pursued by vengeance
Setting: Red Light District
Complication: Everything Is Spiders
I also have a list of photogenic scenes from the whole series for fanartists to consider, a series landing page, and anarchive of images. The perk story "Brotherlove, Brotherlust" Part 3 is still open for participation.
A note on feedback: While it's not necessary to comment on every post I make, remember that I don't know who reads/likes things if nobody says anything. Particularly on long stories, I've discovered that I get antsy if there's nothing but crickets chirping for several posts. So it helps to give me feedback at least once, even if it's just "I like this" or "This one doesn't grab me." First and last episodes are ideal if you rarely feel inspired to comment in the middle.
Anonymous commenters: You don't have to specify exactly who you are, but it helps to have a first name or a username from some other service, so I have some idea of who's saying which and how many different "Anonymous" folks there are. You can just type some kind of identifier at the end of your comment.
Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20.
"Up the Water Spout" Part 1
Natasha Romanova was growing restless, and that was never a good sign. What the Red Room had done to her could not be entirely undone. It could be ameliorated somewhat. It could be directed toward legitimate targets. In between those, she could control her urges, or satisfy herself if necessary, but that only worked for so long. There were dark places inside herself that she needed to revisit. Therefore Agent Coulson tried to make sure that she got adequate opportunities to go hunting.
He was gratified when a suitable one arrived in his inbox. A few deft touches of symbols on his desktop opened a line. "Agent Romanova, I believe I have a mission for the Black Widow," said Agent Coulson. "Please come to my office to discuss it."
She arrived within five minutes, slipping silently through the door to perch on the very edge of a chair. "Reporting for duty, sir."
Agent Coulson passed her a Starkpad with the relevant files onscreen. "We have a location on Dartmouth. He's in a red-light district not far from Hell's Kitchen, running call girls through a hotel and controlling them with drugs sourced from AIM," he said. "Daredevil doesn't want to tangle with him again." Their last encounter had involved an air horn. "Neither does Spiderman." That one had ended with Dartmouth losing more than a bit of skin to escape the webbing, but he'd also bounced Spiderman off the side of a bus. "So he's all yours if you want him."
The Black Widow took a dim view of men who controlled women with mind-altering substances. She licked her lips. "I want him."
* * *
Notes:
Black Widow has been portrayed in various ways, but always as a femme fatale. Her predatory nature in canon is somewhat modeled after the black widow spider. In this series, I posit that the Red Room's training had some deep effects on her body and mind, some of which have been reduced but not removed by Phil's efforts.
Hell's Kitchen is a bad neighborhood in Marvelverse New York, the territory of Daredevil. Because he is blind, he uses his other senses to compensate, and that leaves him especially vulnerable to sonic attacks. The same area was historically a bad neighborhood in local-New York, although gentrification in recent decades has changed that; thanks tothnidu for this reference.
AIM is a supervillain organization made of mad scientists.
Spiderman is another New York superhero.
[To be continued in Part 2 ...]
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Natasha Romanova, Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Betty Ross, Bucky Barnes.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Mention of human trafficking and nonconsensual drug use. Slightly offstage sexual violence. Dubcon/Noncon.
Summary: Sometimes the Black Widow needs to hunt, and sometimes she needs help settling her personality afterwards. Uncle Phil arranges an extra ageplay session.
Notes: Hurt/comfort. Family. Fluff and angst. BAMF!Black Widow. Black Widow is creepy. Spiders. Coping skills. Asking for help and getting it. Hope. Nonsexual ageplay. Caregiving. Competence. Girl stuff. Toys and games. Gentleness. Trust. #coulsonlives
This story returns to the main storyline of "Love Is for Children." The first few chapters show Black Widow considering and carrying out a mission, then after that it's pure ageplay. It fills a square in the Plot Challenges Bingo Card 7-4-14:
Situation: Crime pursued by vengeance
Setting: Red Light District
Complication: Everything Is Spiders
I also have a list of photogenic scenes from the whole series for fanartists to consider, a series landing page, and anarchive of images. The perk story "Brotherlove, Brotherlust" Part 3 is still open for participation.
A note on feedback: While it's not necessary to comment on every post I make, remember that I don't know who reads/likes things if nobody says anything. Particularly on long stories, I've discovered that I get antsy if there's nothing but crickets chirping for several posts. So it helps to give me feedback at least once, even if it's just "I like this" or "This one doesn't grab me." First and last episodes are ideal if you rarely feel inspired to comment in the middle.
Anonymous commenters: You don't have to specify exactly who you are, but it helps to have a first name or a username from some other service, so I have some idea of who's saying which and how many different "Anonymous" folks there are. You can just type some kind of identifier at the end of your comment.
Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20.
"Up the Water Spout" Part 1
Natasha Romanova was growing restless, and that was never a good sign. What the Red Room had done to her could not be entirely undone. It could be ameliorated somewhat. It could be directed toward legitimate targets. In between those, she could control her urges, or satisfy herself if necessary, but that only worked for so long. There were dark places inside herself that she needed to revisit. Therefore Agent Coulson tried to make sure that she got adequate opportunities to go hunting.
He was gratified when a suitable one arrived in his inbox. A few deft touches of symbols on his desktop opened a line. "Agent Romanova, I believe I have a mission for the Black Widow," said Agent Coulson. "Please come to my office to discuss it."
She arrived within five minutes, slipping silently through the door to perch on the very edge of a chair. "Reporting for duty, sir."
Agent Coulson passed her a Starkpad with the relevant files onscreen. "We have a location on Dartmouth. He's in a red-light district not far from Hell's Kitchen, running call girls through a hotel and controlling them with drugs sourced from AIM," he said. "Daredevil doesn't want to tangle with him again." Their last encounter had involved an air horn. "Neither does Spiderman." That one had ended with Dartmouth losing more than a bit of skin to escape the webbing, but he'd also bounced Spiderman off the side of a bus. "So he's all yours if you want him."
The Black Widow took a dim view of men who controlled women with mind-altering substances. She licked her lips. "I want him."
* * *
Notes:
Black Widow has been portrayed in various ways, but always as a femme fatale. Her predatory nature in canon is somewhat modeled after the black widow spider. In this series, I posit that the Red Room's training had some deep effects on her body and mind, some of which have been reduced but not removed by Phil's efforts.
Hell's Kitchen is a bad neighborhood in Marvelverse New York, the territory of Daredevil. Because he is blind, he uses his other senses to compensate, and that leaves him especially vulnerable to sonic attacks. The same area was historically a bad neighborhood in local-New York, although gentrification in recent decades has changed that; thanks to
thnidu for this reference.AIM is a supervillain organization made of mad scientists.
Spiderman is another New York superhero.
[To be continued in Part 2 ...]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Whoah--
Date: 2014-08-27 06:19 am (UTC)Where's the rest?
(Lifts laptop, looking beneath and behind it.)
MORE?
(baleful sigh).
Re: Whoah--
Date: 2014-08-27 06:21 am (UTC)Re: Whoah--
Date: 2014-08-27 01:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-27 07:35 am (UTC)I'm curious about why Phil would send her on something this personal, but I assume we'll hear that soon.
If we ever have a Black Widow movie and it doesn't touch on the damage done by the Red Room, I'm going to be very upset. Not that I actually think we're going to get a Black Widow movie.
(I've been around, I just haven't had a lot of words; maybe I'll have more words for this one.)
Thoughts
Date: 2014-08-27 08:19 am (UTC)Ah, now you're skipping ahead a bit. ;)
>> I'm curious about why Phil would send her on something this personal, but I assume we'll hear that soon. <<
Because she can only go so long without it -- and this is probably the longest she has gone since joining SHIELD. I don't think she went on a straight-up hunt after the Battle of New York. She's gotten plenty of combat, and chances to question captive villains, but it's not quite the same for for her. The Red Room made her into a honeytrap, and while both Natasha and Phil have worked on undoing that damage, it is far from all fixed. The best they can do is aim it at legitimate targets, so she can control the urges at other times.
I have, somewhat, damped down the amount of graphic violence and sex in this series. But I don't like to nerf characters. Black Widow's power lies in sex and violence. Game Night is actually helping a lot, but it's a slow process of shifting her away from some pretty creepy stuff.
>> If we ever have a Black Widow movie and it doesn't touch on the damage done by the Red Room, I'm going to be very upset. Not that I actually think we're going to get a Black Widow movie. <<
I think we'd be very lucky to get any Black Widow movie at all, let alone one that dealt seriously with the aftermath of extreme child abuse, sexual assault, PDSD, etc. I'd watch the hell out of it if we did. But one reason I write what I write is because maintream entertainment just won't go there. I think my best trauma recovery series is still Path of the Paladins.
>> (I've been around, I just haven't had a lot of words; maybe I'll have more words for this one.) <<
I hope so.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-08-28 02:43 am (UTC)But Phil would know her better than I do, of course.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-27 10:28 am (UTC)Oh, YES.
*pours coffee, sits back to enjoy the mayhem*
Yay!
Date: 2014-08-28 01:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-27 11:46 am (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2014-08-27 06:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-27 01:35 pm (UTC)Speaking of cooperation does Phil have a method for getting information about the sex trafficcing to regular law enforcement so they can get all of his friends, and allies and other criminal associates?
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-27 03:03 pm (UTC)Yes...
Date: 2014-08-28 08:35 am (UTC)You folks got me thinking, so I wrote out those scenes, and you'll get them as extras at the end of the story.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-28 06:06 pm (UTC)Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-28 06:06 pm (UTC)Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-08-29 12:53 am (UTC)(Having thinky thoughts, looking forward to tasty bits.)
Well...
Date: 2014-08-27 07:29 pm (UTC)SHIELD's Mightiest Handler is a master of persuasion.
>> Daredevil and Spiderman aren't in his chain of command. <<
No, but they are in his sphere of influence. New York has a variety of individual and team players on the super field. This gives them the option of coordinating their efforts so that, for instance, they can each supervise different areas, different types of crime, and/or different times. Marvel makes minimal use of this, but I've written it in for this series. So they have backup if someone gets hurt or can't answer a call that day.
SHIELD is the logical point of contact for this endeavor, having both the observational apparatus to know what needs doing and who's available, and the management skills to make it work. Phil is good enough at handling people that he can usually convince superheroes to go along with his plans.
>> Daredevil might respond to sweet reason, <<
He's also not keen about going up against someone smart enough to use an airhorn on him if he doesn't have to.
>> but Peter Parker is very stubborn. Or he used to be, I loved the comic books eons ago but haven't kept up. What I used to love about Peter Parker is that he is very vulnerable compared to Superman and the Hulk but he doesn't give up. He faces super villians when he has only slightly more than normal strength and healing. <<
Peter is stubborn, but Phil knows a lot of different ways to reach people. In this case, it's precisely that vulnerability that leaves an opening. Bounce Steve off the side of a bus and he'll probably be fine in five minutes. Bounce Peter off the side of a bus and he's going to be hurting for days. All Phil has to do is offer him a good enough deal.
What I like about Spiderman is that he's primarily a nonviolent superhero. His preferred response is not a weapon, but sticky silk. So he is best pitted against people who are difficult to stop or capture, but suited to his own strength level, and not so much the raze-the-city types (although there are a few of those). In some iterations he handles petty crime as well as major crime, and he's absolutely the best bet for handling someone who needs to be brought in alive or who might be enticed to switch sides. That's a personality type that meshes very well with Phil. So Phil knows how to steer him toward cases that are well-matched to his skills.
Here we've got an ordinary crook who is tangentially connected with a supervillain organization (thus within superhero purview) and is smart enough to have hurt and escaped from two superheroes already. Sure, either of them could track him down and collar him eventually, but they'd probably get hurt again doing it. The smart way to handle this is to capitalize on the perp's weakness: hot women.
>> Speaking of cooperation does Phil have a method for getting information about the sex trafficking to regular law enforcement so they can get all of his friends, and allies and other criminal associates? <<
Yes. Between SHIELD and JARVIS, and his own red-tape ninja skills, Phil can manipulate pretty much any bureaucratic organization. Here the easiest route is simply impersonating the feds and "handing off the local mop-up" to the NYPD.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-27 01:46 pm (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2014-08-27 06:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-27 02:22 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2014-08-27 06:43 pm (UTC)Aftermath
Date: 2014-08-27 03:27 pm (UTC)One of the things I enjoy most about your writing is that you deal with the aftermath of trauma. No one does that. There's plenty of trauma all over, but mostly it gets blissfully ignored. It will be interesting to see where this goes. I have a feeling it's going to get worse before it gets better.
Re: Aftermath
Date: 2014-08-27 11:28 pm (UTC)In some places, yes. It's fairly oblique, though, because I don't want to push the 'ick' factor too high in this series.
>> One of the things I enjoy most about your writing is that you deal with the aftermath of trauma. <<
Thank you. I'm really glad it works for you.
>> No one does that. <<
Well, it's very rare. I've seen a few other writers who deal with it, though.
>> There's plenty of trauma all over, but mostly it gets blissfully ignored. <<
Sadly so. You can see in the movies how the characters are wearing out, especially poor Tony.
>> It will be interesting to see where this goes. I have a feeling it's going to get worse before it gets better. <<
Yeah, there are some tense places.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-27 03:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-27 06:21 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2014-08-27 06:50 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2014-10-16 01:01 am (UTC)Hell's Kitchen is also the setting of West Side Story. There is still a housing project between Lincoln Center and the Hudson River -- next to my high school, in fact. When we went back for our 25th reunion, my classmates and I noted that we were no longer allowed to enter on that side of the building.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-27 07:04 pm (UTC)-kellyc
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-28 03:20 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2014-08-28 07:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-28 01:44 pm (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2014-08-28 07:24 pm (UTC)Re: Yay!
Date: 2014-08-28 09:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-29 11:19 pm (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2014-08-29 11:24 pm (UTC)It's challenging to do Natasha; she doesn't give away much of what's going on inside. If you see strong emotions, they're usually things she fabricated for display. So I was pleased to get this story.
Re: Yay!
Date: 2014-08-29 11:32 pm (UTC)I'm pleased this came to you.
Re: Yay!
Date: 2014-08-30 12:22 am (UTC)The universe does love synchronicity. I'm pretty good at picking things out of the aethyr. Sometimes my poems want to go visiting, too, and I'm happy to send them.
>> I was thisclose to going crazy looking for an Avengers nonsexual ageplay story when I found this series. <<
Glad I could help, then.
>> I'm pleased this came to you. <<
Thanks.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-31 03:58 pm (UTC)I'm very, very glad that you're still writing these and I'm also glad that we'll get to have another Natasha one.
Thank you!
~Anony-mouse
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-12 06:10 am (UTC)As the fan above says, *pours a cup of tea*
*settles into a comfy spot*
*opens next chapter*
I love what you say in an earlier comment about not wanting to nerf the characters. Natasha Romanov's a power in her own right, sharp edged and honed to a razors thinness. I love her.
Thank you!
Date: 2014-09-14 05:35 am (UTC)Yay! I think you'll like Chapter 2 in that case; it's the hunt.
>> As the fan above says, *pours a cup of tea*
*settles into a comfy spot*
*opens next chapter* <<
Enjoy!
>> I love what you say in an earlier comment about not wanting to nerf the characters. Natasha Romanov's a power in her own right, sharp edged and honed to a razors thinness. I love her. <<
I admire her. She's just challenging to write, because she's so contained. Anything that gets out is more likely a front than genuine. But every once in a while I get these glimpses, so I try to catch them for the Black Widow fans. For this series in particular, it's harder because I don't want to include a lot of serious sex, violence, or other adult topics. I aim to touch on those lightly because they are important parts of some characters, so I'm trying to balance the childlike wonder of the storyline with the nature of superhero life. The trick is to let Natasha be herself, without doing too much harm in the process. Very ... delicate ... work.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-23 07:18 pm (UTC)(Sorry if this double-posts, I tried to post and my 'net connection got interrupted.)