Onthishamsterwheel
Recent bookmarks
-
Special Topics in Quantum Relations by greenTeacup
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
04 Jan 2022
Tags
Summary
Four weeks after the battle of the Statue of Liberty, some kid named Peter Parker turns up on Stephen’s front door with a backpack and a shiner the size of a softball over his left eye.
“They’re back,” he says.
(Fix-it fic where Peter makes better decisions, Stephen is a better mentor, and a handful of recently reformed supervillains try to make good on their mistakes.)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 19,120
- Chapters:
- 4/?
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 114
- Kudos:
- 1,475
- Bookmarks:
- 405
- Hits:
- 19,989
Bookmarked by Onthishamsterwheel
15 Oct 2025
Bookmarker's Notes
Incredibly well written. Setting and characters are vivid and realistic! Writing flows incredibly well.
-
Tags
Summary
Peter busts into a dingy apartment, expecting to find the artist behind a forgery racket. That's exactly what he finds, but the artist in question isn't anything like the sort of person he expected to find, and rather than having answers, he's got a far bigger mystery to solve.
An AU where things are very different, but the important things are the same.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 10,318
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Collections:
- 3
- Comments:
- 86
- Kudos:
- 2,315
- Bookmarks:
- 633
- Hits:
- 42,170
Bookmarked by Onthishamsterwheel
12 Oct 2025
Bookmarker's Notes
>> The kid is sketching random fragments, and even in the cheap black ballpoint, Peter recognises the work of the masters. Da Vinci. Goya. There's even a bit of what he thinks is Stephen Wiltshire in there, and he takes a moment to appreciate the irony. Or maybe it's not irony at all. Maybe it's just symmetry.
———
>> “These are really good,” he says, unable to keep the awe out of his voice.
Neal grimaces, obviously dissatisfied. “No contrast. No colour.”
———
>> Neal's gaze turns to him sharply, and for a second their eyes lock and he can see the **furnace of intelligence** there, burning under the surface. There's an uncertain smile twitching the corners of Neal's mouth, but then someone knocks on the door and the moment breaks. Neal's hand snatches up the pen again, and he's back behind that wall in his own head.That connection between Neal and Peter is perfection!
———
God! The writing for this is just immaculate. It’s the details, really. Like the description of the sound of tiny paper cranes, and lines like this…>> He gives her a Look, possibly blunted by his groggy head.
“Blunted” as an adjective referring to the “Look” ugh *chefs kiss*. Damn.
———
>> Peter flicks though it one handed while slurping the dregs of his coffee and chewing bagel with hasty, mechanical bites.Ok, honestly not sure why I liked this line so much but I just did. Maybe I just, for some reason, enjoyed the use of the term “dregs” in this context. ☺️
———
The dialogue once Peter and Diana get into the case feels exactly like what they’d say on the show. Man, perfection.
———
>> Peter slips his hand into his jacket pocket, and knows even before he touches bare cloth that he won't find anything. “Check anyway.”Oh, Neal. Stealing Peter’s keycard to sneak onto the roof is so Caffrey.
———
June as the foster mom!
———
>> It’s barely nine, but he’s lost count of the refills he’s had, between the pot of espresso at home, finished while the sun crept up, and the crude oil the FBI pipes directly into the White Collar division from the Gulf.
Hahaha. Proper chuckle at that.
———
>> Then he focusses on Diana again and realises that she has that look on her face that he’s become familiar with, calm and confident, like she's about to lay down pocket aces.
———
>> “There was a spread in one of the big papers about Neal’s school. The reporter focussed pretty heavily on Neal; the public love to read about savants. It’s only like one in ten autists that have a savant skill, and out of those, most of them are just a party trick, like birthday calculation, or prime numbers or something. So they must have thought they’d struck gold, finding ‘the next Da Vinci’ at some underfunded special needs school that’s basically just a stepping stone to assisted living and sheltered workplaces.” Mozzie’s sarcastic air quotes are obvious, even without the gesture.
“You sound like you’re quoting,” Diana surmises.
“I have perfect recall,” Mozzie replies.
“That’s useful,” Peter comments.
“It has its moments,” Mozzie replies. “You were born on a Tuesday, by the way.”
“Ten percent, eh?”
“We can’t all be Rain Man.”
“Or Da Vinci, I suppose.” Peter says.
———
>> He’d waited till now to watch it, for the same reason he’d drunk his glass of wine a little too fast. He needed some space to breathe. Some space from Neal, standing on the roof, his chilly fingertips creeping into Peter’s hand. Some space from Mozzie, asking about rape, his emotions locked down and braced for the impact, the potential horror, of the truth. There was a brief confidential memo waiting for him when he got back from the park, saying that Neal had checked out healthy and uninjured, that he’d answered enough of their questions that they were pretty sure no one had hurt him. Peter wonders how they’d tell if Neal was hiding it, how they’d be able to separate the body language of trauma from the body language of autism. Nine months is plenty long enough for bruises to fade.Oof. This was dark. And sad.
———
>> Peter’s waiting for the day Blake doesn’t need handholding. Right now he’s so green and wet behind the ears he’s almost a nuisance. He’s eager, and he’s booksmart, but he’s gullible and awkward, and he hovers like he’s waiting for instruction all the time. If he doesn’t grow out of it, Peter’s going to suggest he join the army instead.
———
>> They haven’t talked to Neal properly, yet, but if the con went down the way Peter thinks it did, he likely never even met the person pulling the strings.There are more parallels with canon than I initially expected based on the tags/summary. And they are wonderful.
-
Tags
Summary
Tim never thought he'd have a kid. Luke thought he'd never have family again.
Turns out they were both wrong.A series of connected vignettes.
Bookmarked by Onthishamsterwheel
08 Oct 2025
Bookmarker's Tags:
Bookmarker's Notes
Fantastic series. Sweet, emotional. Tim being a parental figure to a sad, traumatized Luke.
My favourite lines/excerpts…
Ch 1
Tonight, Tim doesn't know if he's cut out for this. He thinks about the stack of parenting books he has on his nightstand - all three on helping kids through trauma, and wasn't that a gut punch when he started to think about why there was this whole specific subset of adolescent parenting books out there - as he lies awake and stares at the ceiling. He thinks, maybe if he stays awake, Luke's sleep will be kind. He's never considered himself superstitious before, but maybe he's only just found the necessary mix of abject helplessness and fierce, protective love that makes believers out of the most grounded or skeptical. He wonders if this is what people who are devoted to sports teams feel like. If his secret vigil works tonight, will he never want to wash these clothes again?
Tim rests a hand on Luke's arm and gives the gentlest tug, and that's all it takes for Luke to press himself into the older man's embrace. He's still in a ball, still trying to make himself so small that his nightmares can't find him, but Tim hugs him anyway. His knees hurt after a few minutes, though, and he has to stand. Luke pulls away, thinking Tim is going back to his room now that "comfort the sad kid in my house" is checked off of his to-do list, but Tim guides him to his feet, too. Pulls him close, again, back into the shelter of his arms. Luke still seems like he thinks Tim will push him away in a moment, but Tim has no intention of doing that. Ever.
CH2
"If I've told you once, I've told you a million times, and I'll tell you a million more: you are my priority, Luke," Tim says, softly, his hand on the back of Luke's neck as the teen buries his face in his hands. "You're gonna be a grown man one day, with a family and everything, and if, on the other side of the world, I got wind you were scared or hurting you'd have this 65-year-old and two suitcases at your doorstep in 24 hours or less. I love you, kid, and that's not gonna stop because you get older. It's not gonna stop because you have a life outside of me - which I am thrilled with, by the way. I love seeing you grow; I love having you around; and I want to make sure that you know I mean it."
CH4
"Good man." Tim pretends not to notice Nicky stand a little taller at that. Shit. Did he just get another kid? He’s got the room. He could probably-
“He said his name was Avery.” He hears a gasp in stereo, each boy freezing.
Ch 5
>>Nicky hasn’t had great experiences with adults. From the time he was put in the system all the way through The Institute, the adults around him were at best uninterested in the child he was and at worst very interested in what value they could extract from him. Being trouble served him well at The Institute, but as he creeps closer and closer to 18 he wonders what good he is, now, in the real world.
The way Tim looks at Luke makes Nicky’s throat burn with envy, loving and protective. A protective adult is unheard of, to Nicky. But Tim was willing to risk his life to protect Luke, is still trying to protect him even while he’s still kitten-weak from finding out first-hand what the shots for dots taste like. Nicky’s stood on the steps in awe and watched Tim skim a shaking hand over Luke’s hair with the world’s tiredest smile and-.
Nicky wonders what’s wrong with him, that he doesn’t get that. He shoves his hands deeper in his jacket pockets, the first chill of autumn creeping through this improbably quaint and Hallmark-esque town in upstate New York that Tim and Luke and Wendy have all landed in.>> Tim nods, cupping his cheek. “You call, I answer.” Nicky just starts sobbing. He never cries. He never lets himself, even on his worst days. Seventeen and a half years of pent-up sorrow and fear and the belief in his own worthlessness erupt from his chest at the same time and he doesn’t know how he’s still alive.
>> Like he’s welcome there. Like he’s wanted.
Like he’s home.>> She just thinks of the sweet boy who sometimes - just for a minute - looks afraid of her for a reason she can't figure out, and of the gentle, protective way the very injured man looks at him, and thinks that maybe there are some questions that don't need asking and some answers that warn off any further curiosity.
-
Tags
Summary
AU post-"Out of the Box"/S1 finale because I needed more hurt/comfort than we got. Neal is in pain. Peter and El take care of him.
Bookmarked by Onthishamsterwheel
10 Oct 2025
Bookmarker's Notes
Neal suffers from psychosomatic pain after Kate’s death.
Readers are expected to read between the lines with amazing lines like:
>> resisting Elizabeth takes more energy than soap and shampoo.
>>Twenty minutes later he smells like El’s fabric softener and a spare stick of Peter’s deodorant, and he’s crawling back between the sheets.
Using “soap and shampoo” to refer to taking a shower and then listing what Neal smells like to hint at the fact that he’d finished showering is so perfect.
-
don't make me do something I'll regret by idkimoutofideas
Fandoms: White Collar (TV 2009)
22 Mar 2025
Tags
Summary
“Don’t make me do something I’ll regret!”
Neal stared down the barrel of a gun. A gun in his fathers hands.
Or, an AU where James does something he’ll regret- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 17,112
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 32
- Kudos:
- 269
- Bookmarks:
- 45
- Hits:
- 2,649
Bookmarked by Onthishamsterwheel
08 Oct 2025
Bookmarker's Notes
Fic has good style. Flows well. Excerpts I enjoyed:
“Absolutely not. He knows better than to stick around when he’s got the entire NYPD searching for him,” Mozzie scoffed, but there was something in his tone that didn’t ring true.
——————The moment the doors closed Neal slumped back against the wall and blew out a sigh. He had gone in there trying to con his father. Every action had been perfectly planned to have the most impact. The flinch had been a spur of the moment decision, but it was still that—a decision.
Maybe if he kept repeating that to himself he would believe it.
——————“He’s still my father, you wouldn’t understand.” Neal regretted the words the moment they left his mouth as Mozzie pulled back, his expression hardening. “I didn’t mean- I’m sorry,” Neal tried, but Mozzie didn’t meet his gaze. Neal rubbed at his temples—the wine was not sitting well with him. They sat in silence for a few minutes, and Neal felt too miserable to try and lighten the mood.
“Look, you can- you can go. I’m fine now,” Neal said—he’d feel bad for pushing Mozzie away later, but at the moment he didn’t want to face anyone’s pity.
“Yeah, right. You’re my friend, I’m not going to let you drink yourself to death.”
——————Neal didn’t catch Peter’s response, too preoccupied with the emotions swirling within him and the wine swirling out of him.
——————Peter had even splurged on Parisi’s lemonade, which he normally refused to get—his usual argument tended to fall along the lines of “who in their right mind pays fifteen bucks for lemonade”.
——————He’d have parents who loved him, that much was certain. And while Peter could get busy with work, Neal had no doubt he’d drop everything for his kid. It would be impossible to hide anything from them—between El’s emotional intelligence and Peter’s investigative abilities, no kid of theirs would ever get away with a lie. He imagined what it would be like to grow up in their house, wondered if they’d move or if they’d turn the guest room into a nursery. Either way, he doubted Peter would keep going on late night stake outs. He’d probably cut back on undercover stints as well, not wanting to risk his life when he had a child waiting at home for him.