Knowing Our Fears Is Good, Controlling Them Is Extraordinary. Janaina Medeiros Illustrator | Brazil

Knowing our fears is good, controlling them is extraordinary. Janaina Medeiros Illustrator | Brazil

Today in Black Excellence: Maya Angelou—a literature titan whose 1969 memoir was the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” —Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

What was the early life of Maya Angelou?

She became a celebrated writer and Black icon, but it came from a childhood of tragedy. Born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Angelou was quickly exposed to racism as a child. Her parents split when she was young, and while visiting her mother, aged eight, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend: her uncles killed the boyfriend in revenge. These horrors left Angelou mute for five years, as she discussed in an interview with Oprah, a close friend. At age 16, she gave birth and was forced to work grueling jobs to support her son—including fry cook, sex worker, and nightclub performer.

She recounted her traumas to close friend James Baldwin—fellow writer and Black icon. He challenged Angelou to write about her experiences, and she published the wildly successful memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It catapulted Angelou to international stardom and was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970. It remained on The New York Times’ paperback nonfiction bestseller list for two years—the longest record in history.

What made her such a Black icon?

Angelou was a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated on her birthday in 1968. Angelou stopped celebrating her birthday for years afterward. In 1964, Angelou helped another activist friend Malcolm X in founding the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

Spanning over 50 years, she published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, books of poetry, and plays. Her 1971 poetry collection, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’Fore I Die, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Because of her tireless work in literature and political activism, Angelou became widely respected as a spokesperson for the Black experience, particularly of women. You can even find her legacy in your pocket—she recently became the first black woman to appear on a US quarter.

Original portrait by Tumblr Creatr @inuqo

"I was filled with such deep gratitude while working on this illustration of Maya Angelou. Her talent, creativity, strength, power and resilience is inspiring to us all and I wanted to display how beautiful her Universe was. How important her words and life's journey was because it showed us that no matter how hard we fall, still we can rise".”

—@inuqo

Wanted

pairing: Loki x Reader: 18+

word count: 5k

summary: Even after inviting Loki to one of Tony’s parties, he believes that you do not truly want him to be there. Thinking that you and the team invite him out of pity, you follow him into the bathroom where you accidentally confess your feelings for him.

a/n: This is a long overdue present for my friend lmao. 

Requests that have been sent in are still being worked on and will be posted next!

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Love Masterlist (A Loki x Female Reader Mini Series)

Part 1- Love Bites

Part 2- Love Destroys

Part 3- Love Burns

Part 4- Love Sees All Things

Around the Realms in 80 days - Chapter 11

Pairing: Reader x Loki

Story summary: You have fallen through a portal during the convergence into Asgard and come face to face with Thor, and his brother Loki. With no way to return, you must travel with the two men and their hoard of asgardian soldiers to get back home. Things get from bad to worse when you have to share a tent with the god of mischief himself.

Notes: I'm still alive and so is this story!! I'm so sorry this has been a long time coming but I hope you can forgive me with my slightly longer than normal chapter! This chapter feels kind of angsty to me. I hope you like it and are still interested!

The sunlight flitted through the tent easily waking you. You groaned and folded the pillow over your head. 

“Wakey Wakey.” You heard Loki’s far too jovial voice from next to you. 

“Are there any eggs and bakey?” You groggily replied. 

Loki was silent for a second, 

“What’s bakey?” 

You snorted and opened your eyes. Somehow in the night you had moved closer towards the middle of the bed, rather than lying on the edge. Loki was, rather disconcertingly, sat up and staring down at you with a puzzled look on his face. 

“What?” You snapped.

Loki narrowed his eyes

“I am going to ignore your impertinence given you are clearly half asleep. You snore by the way.” 

“I do not snore.” You said uncertainly.  

He grinned, “Sure you do. When I came back last night you were already sleeping like a babe and snoring like a boar.” 

It was too early to be dealing with Loki’s…Lokishness. You threw your arm over your eyes to block out the light and mumbled something about lying gods. 

“You should be happy, tomorrow you will be able to return to Midgard.” 

That made you sit up straight and look at him. 

“Tomorrow?” 

He raised an eyebrow,

“We will arrive at the capital tomorrow, Heimdall can return you as soon as we do.” 

You had completely forgotten that returning to Asgard would also mean returning home. For some reason, instead of feeling overjoyed like you assumed you would, you felt sort of…sad? Hollow? Anxious? Your time here had not always been pleasant, but you had got to experience things you thought you never would, and see things very few humans had ever seen. You weren’t sure if you were ready for your little adventure to end just yet. This realisation hit you with surprise. Your time here had been short, but you already felt as though you couldn’t go back to your everyday life on earth. What was magic, intrigue, kidnapping, trolls, princes and excitement in comparison to daily commutes and offices? 

“You seem…displeased. I thought you would have been happy about this?”

The sincerity of Loki’s voice took you by surprise, and you scanned his face for malice and found none. 

“I suppose it just passed me that I would be retuning so quickly. It’s very unlikely I will get to experience anything like this again.” You frowned. 

“You will be able to see your family and friends again. This is a good thing; Asgard in such a time of unrest is no place for a mortal.” He said, quite gently. 

You felt your stomach drop and creased your forehead more. 

“Yeah.” 

Now you knew you were being silly. Getting upset that Loki didn’t want you to stay? Well of course he didn’t. You weren’t even friends. Your actual friends and family would be worried sick and here you are being selfish because you didn’t want to end your unexpected jaunt. 

Still, his words had effected you and made you feel unwanted here. Embarrassingly you felt tears start to grow. 

You stood up quickly from the bed before you did something stupid, like cry. 

“I’m going to get ready.” 

You didn’t even bother telling him to close his eyes before whipping off your shirt and pulling on your clothes that lay over the back of Loki’s chair. Although you didn’t think much of the woman, Yrsa had been kind enough to gift you with a few dresses for your journey. All of them in the typical Asgardian style you had come to realise. You pulled on a lilac, loosely fitted dress and drew it in using the brown belt and your own Dr. Martens you had arrived in. 

“Where are you going?” Loki asked. 

You flicked your eyes up to him. He was still sat up in bed, the green silk sheets wrapped around his middle and bare torso showing. His hair was slightly more unruly than normal, curling more having slept on it all night. He looked so adorably confused that your heart clenched. 

“I’m going to see if there’s any breakfast about.” 

You didn’t make eye contact as you left. Once you were out of the tent, you allowed a few tears to slip down your face. 

“Ugh.” You chastised yourself. You shouldn’t have allowed yourself to get comfortable with anyone, now you were going to be upset when you said goodbye. 

You took a deep breath, trying to take in as much of the world as possible before you went back to stuffy offices and being coughed on by other commuters. 

Luckily, Halvor and a few of the other men were up and tucking into some bread. You walked over to them to join them in breaking their fast. 

Halvor greeted you with a smile which you appreciated. Maybe going home was a good thing, it was clear you were never going to fit in here, not by the way most of the men eyed you cautiously. 

You took the bread he offered and tucked in.  As the morning progressed, Fandral spotted you and walked sheepishly over. 

“My Lady, I wish to apologise for last night. I fear I was less than cordial and it was not my intentions to upset you.” 

He offered you his hand and you placed yours in his tentatively. He lightly kissed the back of your hand. 

“I wonder if you could find it in your heart to forgive me.” 

You stopped yourself rolling your eyes. The grandeurs of speech was not something you would miss.

You suddenly felt sad again, reminded of the fact that you would be exposed to these formalities any longer. 

“It’s fine Fandral.” You sighed. 

“You seem a little dispirited this morning Latte.” Volstagg commented, coming up behind you. 

“Of course she is dispirited.” Fandral retorted, “anyone would be if they had spent that long in Loki’s presence.” 

“There is no need to be so disheartened, we return to the capital on the morrow.” Volstagg’s eyes lit up as he continued excitedly.

“You will finally see Asgard in all it’s glory, you will adore it! It is the most grand most spectacular place in existence, truly a sight to behold. I am most looking forward to return.” 

“If I even get to see it before I’m whisked back to earth.” You blurted before you could stop yourself. 

The men looked at you quizzically, 

“I’m sure Thor will allow you to see it before you leave. I would have it no other way in fact. Since it was misfortune that brought you here and misfortune that has been with you during your stay, the least we can do is ensure you get to see what Asgard can truly be.” 

You smiled weakly. 

“You will enjoy Rythja more than the other places I think Latte.” Fandral explained, “it is far friendlier and less stuffy than the places we have visited so far. Rythja is a stopping point for many a traveler, and is well known for its public houses and relaxed nature; there are no differences between princes and peasants in Rythja, for everyone is treated the same.” 

The men grinned at each other and you dreaded to think what else it was well known for. Still, it sounded much more positive than the warnings you had received before visiting Boer or Deill and perhaps it would be a drama free ending to your time here. 

Soon, the party were packed up and ready to leave. Halvor helped you up onto the horse and you tried not to wince as your poor thighs ached. Thor and Loki returned from saying their goodbyes to Gunnvladr, and you were thankful you were not needed. Gunnvladr however, had been rather thankful to the Princes for helping to rid them of the bandits, and apparently the mens help in the field had been appreciated. Perhaps the trip would help the unrest after all. 

You settled back against Halvor and prepared to travel for one of the last times. 

                                                             ***

It was evening and you had made it to Rythja. Thor had spotted one of his favourite drinking establishment and you had all trooped in. 

The pub reminded you of old country ones you might have visited after hikes. It was effectively one very large room, full of wooden tables, benches and chairs, with a long bar north of the room. It was extremely busy and noisy, however unlike previous places you had visited, no one seemed overly bothered that the Princes of Asgard had just waltzed in. There was a large bar-maid with long curly red hair behind the bar and she currently had her work cut out for her drawing drinks for Thor and his men. Despite her impossible task, she remained jovial, laughing at Thor and Volstagg bickering while they stood at the bar. Having been there all of 10 minutes, Fandral had already whisked a blonde haired beauty to a darkened corner of the room.  

You on the other hand, sat staring bitterly out of the grimy window, as you watched a spider crawl slowly down. 

Your bitterness had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Loki was currently grinning from ear to ear, goblet of ale in one and and the other wrapped around the waist of the bar-maid on his lap. 

“…And then he stabbed my neck” Loki regaled some stupid boring story to the woman and she gasped loudly.

“That must have been so awful for you.” 

The bar-maid leaned in and placed a hand on his chest, fluttering her eyelashes. 

You rolled your eyes, hard, and made an audible sound of irritation. Loki heard you and grinned even wider. 

He clutched her hand and held it close to him, sighing heavily.

“It truly was the worst of times. The healers feared I would not speak again.” 

“What a shame that would have been.” You chimed in, unable to help yourself. 

Loki narrowed his eyes at you, while the bar maid looked rather shocked. 

“Indeed. Although, talking is not all my silver tongue is renowned for.” He all but purred. He brought the lady on his lap even closer, however continued to make eye contact with you. 

You felt a flush growing up your neck and tried to ignore it, and the girl on his lap giggled. 

“Gross. On that note I’m leaving to find some better company.” 

You stood up quickly.

“There is no company better than mine.” Loki smirked. 

“An empty chair is better company than you.” You hissed. 

You turned quickly before he could reply and huffed over to join Thor and Volstagg who were stood at the bar drinking and discussing in great detail how the best way to kill a bligespine is. 

“My brother causing you distress my lady?” Thor asked, raising his brows as he noticed your clenched jaw. 

“He is always causing me distress.” You sighed. ““Hey, is there anything here I can actually drink?” You added eyeing up the drinks behind the bar.

“Well you will soon be rid of him when you are returned home tomorrow.” Thor replied cheerily.

You looked back over your shoulder to find him talking about something that was clearly very amusing by the way the bar maid was simpering. Your stomach felt funny.

“Yeah.” You sighed, suddenly feeling tears threatening again. God what was wrong with you?“Can’t wait.” You dragged your eyes away from the couple.

“Anyway, about that drink?” 

Thor laughed heartily, 

“Let’s see…perhaps a small glass of Vanaheim wine will be fine.”

Volstagg snorted, “They always did make their wines as weak as piss.” 

The red-head behind the bar smiled and went to pour you one. As you waited, Volstagg and Thor went back to their previous conversation.

“Here you are love.” 

You suddenly realised she was the first Asgardian not to question the fact you were from Earth. 

“Are you not surprised that I’m a mortal?” You asked, taking a sip of the wine. 

It was delicious. Like nothing else you had tasted. You weren’t sure how to describe the taste, it was more of an emotional feeling, like summer days spent in the garden with your family, trips to the sea-side and long bike rides. You sighed happily. 

“Is it to your liking Miss?” The bar-maid asked. 

“It’s amazing! I could drink this all day!” 

She smiled,

“I’m glad. Truth be told Miss, we get all sorts around here. We have one regular customer, who I’m fairly sure is a dark elf from Svartalfheim ‘he comes weekly, dressed head to toe in black, drinks three Mermaid tails and leaves.” 

“Mermaid Tails?” 

“Oh, not real ones of course. It’s the name of a drink, a concoction of spirit mixed with juice taken from oranges and berries.”

You chortled, “Basically a sex on the beach then.”

This time it was the bar maids time to laugh, taken by surprise. 

“That’s what we call that cocktail on Earth!” You explained, giggling along with her and drinking more of your delicious drink. 

The drink went down rather fast.

“Can I have another please?” You asked. 

The redhead looked at Thor for guidance, but he was far too engrossed in his conversation to pay you any heed.

“I’m not sure…” She frowned. 

“It’s fine, I’m fully grown, I don’t even feel that drunk I’m sure I can manage another.” 

Her face cleared.

“Of course” 

As she handed you your second drink she continued. 

“We ‘ad another customer in earlier this week. ‘e was dressed completely in black too, and a mask covering his face. It’s not too uncommon that someone would hide their face around ‘ere. Except his eyes were red. Normally only Jotuns have red eyes, and he wasn’t the right height for one… excuse me.”

The bar-maid stepped away for a bit to attend to some customers and you tried to focus your brain to remember why the red eye thing was significant. You were sure that it was important, but you couldn’t remember why. Someone had mentioned something about red eyes before hadn’t they? Who had said that again?

You decided it probably didn’t matter. You were feeling floaty and soft. When the bar-maid came back, she refilled your drink. 

“Anyway, as I was saying ‘e probably wasn’t a Jotun but I can’t think who else would have red eyes. ‘e only stayed to drink a pint of ale and left.”

“Jotun?” You hiccuped

“Frost Giants.” 

“Frost Giants?” You chimed, your voice increasing as you hiccuped. 

“The people who inhabit Jotuunheim. You don’t seem many of em about half of em was destroyed when…”

“My, isn’t this a fun conversation.” Loki’s silky voice appeared from behind you. 

The bar-maid raised a brow.  “Did you want something Prince Loki?” She asked, with un-cruel amusement dancing in her eyes.  

You laughed loudly. It was unusual to see someone who wasn’t of nobility speaking to Loki so directly and that fact was absolutely hilarious to you. You continued facing your body towards the bar but tipped your head back so you could see him.

“You look funny upside down.” You giggled. 

“I was simply coming over to see why the midgarian was being so loud. But now I can see she is completely inebriated.” 

“You’re a knee…a knee…a knee grated.” 

“Oh?.” Loki stared at you with a mixture of mirth and exasperation. 

You noticed the bar maid left again to speak to some customers as you span round to face him directly very quickly, making you loose your balance. Loki reached and and caught you, holding your shoulders in place until you stopped wobbling. 

“Hey, get off me.” You tried to push at his arms. 

“For Norns sake woman I’m trying to stop you from falling.” He rolled his eyes, “What in the nine realms have you been drinking.’ He murmured. 

Loki picked up your glass on the bar and took a sip. His face seemed to get even paler and his eyes narrowed dangerously. Before you could blink he had span round and pinned Thor against the bar with a knife at his throat. 

“What?” Thor spluttered, turning around. 

“You let her drink the Vanir’s wine of Eden?” His voice was calm but deadly

“It’s fine Loki, the Vanir’s wine are notoriously weak.”

“For an Asgaridan you half-wit. It may be weak but mortals were not designed to consume drinks with unknown psychotropic properties.”

“The wine does kind of taste like feelings.” You hiccuped again. “I feel like I’m on a little cloud.”

You giggled at them. 

“You idiot” Loki hissed, “Why must I be cursed with an oaf for a brother.”

“Hey can I have another drink?” You asked.

“No.” The Princes echoed sharply. 

You pouted “fine…god I was only asking.” You murmured, wondering off to find a seat, you were suddenly feeling a bit dizzy. You thought you announced this, although you weren’t completely sure. 

Finding a nearby table you sat down on the bench, ignoring the few people already sat there. One of the customers sat at the table already looked at you strangely and greeted you. 

“Hi?”

“Hello!” You gave him a dazzling smile “I’m from Earth.” 

You could hear Loki from behind you, you realised he must have followed you over.

“Ha ha! Let’s get out of here shall we?” He said your name warningly.

“Trying to take me home?” You wiggled your eyebrows suggestively.

As the men at the table laughed, Loki rolled his eyes and put out his hand to help you up.

“C’mon, let's get back to the tent.” He murmured as you stood up, leaning on him for balance.

You winked at your new audience,

“I’m irresistible” 

“You’re annoying is what you are.” Loki muttered as the men around the chuckled.

“Hey!” 

Loki held you by the elbow and helped you walk out at a brisker pace than you would have liked. 

“Can we slow down my head hurts?” You whined as you reached the door of the pub.

Loki sighed heavily, but opened the door for you and set off at a slower pace.

The colder air hit as you walked out of the tavern, leaving the noise behind. The tavern opposite was in the process of throwing one of its drunker members out onto the street which made you giggle. Loki looked down at you and smiled too. You looked up into the quickly darkening sky, and stared at the beautiful stars and moons as they started to appear. 

You were going to miss this sight.

Loki kept hold of your arm as you looked up. 

“Much prettier than Midgard isn’t it?” He smirked at you.

You frowned and sighed, but didn’t answer. He was right of course, it was a fantastic view and one you would never see again. 

Loki pushed you gently to keep walking with him through the cobbled street and back to where the men were camping. It was strange, but you found your mood starting to dip quite drastically, and your memory of why you were upset was coming back. The floaty fuzzy feeling was still there but it felt heavier and it felt as though your heart was sinking. You started frowning harder and pouting again. Loki cleared his throat, 

“I noticed… you seem to have have been a little… down at points during the day.”

“Oh you noticed that huh?” You muttered. Under normal circumstances you probably would have been more careful of your tone, but you were drunk and sad.

Loki glared down at you.

“Your extreme brooding was unmissable.” 

“You would know being the king of extreme brooding.”

“I am not the king of…extreme brooding.” 

“Nice retort.” You snapped back.

Loki made a sound of indignation “Oh okay, I see.” 

You snorted “Hm.”

“You’re upset that Fandral was fraternising with a beauty in the tavern.” 

“Fraternising?” You snorted “I like your funny words magic man.”

“What?” Loki’s brow furrowed adorably again like he had that morning. 

“You look kind of cute when you’re confused.” You informed him. 

Loki’s eyes widened comically large and he blinked at you. 

You giggled “exactly like that.”

“I am the future King of Asgard, I am not…cute.” He sniffed.

You snorted “okay whatever you say.”

“So you were not upset about Fandral -“

“Fraternising? No why would I be upset about that.” You yawned. 

“I just assumed that was the source of your distress, you seemed upset when I mentioned you were leaving and you went to find Fandral and then tonight when he was with someone you seemed low again.”

This time it was your turn to stop and stare at him. 

“It’s not unusual for woman to find Fandral attractive but you should know…”

“Let me stop you there before I hear any unsolicited advice. I did not go out to find Fandral this morning. I’m not upset that - “

You tried to find your words while you started to get choked up.

“I will miss this place when I go tomorrow. I will miss seeing new things and learning more about the universe I live in, the new animals and creatures. I will miss the adventure, not knowing what my life will be like day to day. I will miss the people I have met and I mourn for the people I will never get to meet and the experiences I will never get to have.” 

You took a deep breath.

“I know how stupid I’m being and how no one really wants me here but I’m still going to miss it. I don’t know how to go back to my normal life now I’ve seen everything here, I don’t want to have to  but I also know I’m being selfish to my poor family who are probably worried to death. It’s.. do you know what it actually doesn’t matter.” You sighed running out of momentum.  

Loki frowned slightly before saying as though with some difficulty,

“You are not unwanted here.”

You snorted, 

“Sure I am, you most of all do not wish me to be here you basically said so yourself this morning.” You scrunched your face up, “It doesn’t matter I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” 

You tried to take your arm out of Loki’s grasp so you could storm forward but he didn’t let you and ignored your noises of frustration. He continued frowning as if in thought but didn’t push you further. You quickly arrived back at the tent and pushed yourself forward and stumbled into the tent and flopped onto the bed. 

“I don’t feel well.” You complained. 

“I’m not surprised, Thor should not have given you any wine.” He mumbled, as he started to take off his shirt. 

“Did we not talk about this like a thousand times? Can you not get undressed in front of me?” You groaned. 

“And I have told you that as this is my tent, I will undress where I like.” 

You blew a raspberry at him as he continued to take his shirt off, giving you a glimpse of his chest. You felt a weird feeling in your stomach and you decided it was probably the alcohol.

You pulled the covers over your head and sunk down into the mattress. Soon you felt the bed dip next to you as Loki joined you. You moved the covers down slightly past your eyes so you could see what he was up to. Loki was, as usual,  staring up at the ceiling.

“I’ve put some water next to your side.” He said, without looking at you. 

Things felt weirdly awkward between you and in the midst of your hazy state, you couldn’t quite tell why.

You cleared your throat. 

“Thank you.” 

He nodded and continued to look up. After a few uneasy moments Loki clicked his fingers and turned the lights off. You rolled over onto your own back and joined him in staring at the ceiling.

You lay awake for a long time, listening to the sound of the men returning in the early hours and counting Loki’s breaths beside you.

Maybe it was the remaining drunken boldness, the dark cover of night or the knowledge that this would be your last night here, but you whispered,

“I will miss you.” 

The darkness seemed to be a vacuum in which your words disappeared.

You did not get a response. 

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