#“hmm what if we gave him a tragic gay love story” | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

residentlesbrarian · 4 years ago

Text

The Fourth Book I Read In the Dark: Of Expectations and Other Relatabilities

Of Gryphons and Other Monsters by Shannon McGee

Hey, guys, sooooo...this is aaaawwwkward. I wrote 95% of this review when I wrote the other Books I Read in the Dark series for the blog, but the ADHD hit me and COVID was still you know...a thing! So I am gonna post this review, finished of course, OH, but also pay extra close attention to the conclusion alright! Hmm...this is a bit like a time capsule...here are my concentrated thoughts from 6 months ago while I was slightly delirious on books and darkness. So go forth and uh yeah this one is...you can just feel the feral “I haven’t had access to proper internet so I’ve been curled in the corner like Gollum with my books” energy coming off it so...enjoy?

Okay, so yeah, I really didn’t have a reason to end my last review that way I just wanted to, so sue me for injecting a little excitement into a series of posts about me literally sitting in my house reading nonstop for 2 ½ days, my reviews my rules. Back to manufacturing my own excitement shall we!

It’s Day 2! I’ve just finished my last library book, whatever will I do! I could always reread The Neverending Story for the 1,273rd time, but I have a need. A need for GAY! I rack my brain, there has to be a solution. My town is without power, my local library won’t be open, but then it hits me. It’s so simple! It’s meant to be really! Like the universe knew this was coming and it made sure I was prepared! Like a prepper stockpiling mental SPAM for my stimulus needing ADHD riddled brain! I have an entire shelf of books that I haven’t read yet! Way back in Clexacon 2019 my best friend (Lookin at you @justalifelongphase) gave me way too much money from missed birthdays and Christmases all at once before the con started because the world has deemed it impossible for us to live geographically close to one another. Anyway, I went a little book-buying-crazy and have not had the time or opportunity to read any of them since then. Their time has finally come!

I figured after going full whimsy with The Lost Coast and sci-fi superhero with Dreadnought and Sovereign why not take a dip into more traditional fantasy, also this one was first in line on the shelf, yay for not having to actually make a decision! No more dawdling, let's get right into the review!

Unicorn Rating:

Blurb: Taryn always loves and hates gryphon season. She finds the lesser gryphons more cute than anything but the ever present fear that a greater gryphon might be just out of sight is terrifying, and this gryphon season proves to be the one that will change her and her families lives forever! Just let a girl herd her sheep in peace!

Disclaimer: I will try my best to not spoil anything from the book, but my book loving rambles may give more away than a traditional review. Here we go! Ramble time!

Review:

I genuinely enjoyed this book. It took me a bit longer to get through it than the others, but I think that was a combination of three things: A. I was starting to feel the fatigue of reading so much in such a short amount of time. B. Our local Wal Mart had power restored on Day 3 and our entire household went on a trip to buy non-perishable food stuffs and I was like a solitary confinement prisoner being let out into the yard for the first time in months when my phone picked up a wifi signal and it was a bit hard to get back into the swing of reading after talking to other humans, even virtually, that weren’t imaginary or in my head. C. Our power was finally restored on the afternoon of Day 3 so yet again I was inundated with the draw of technology and all of my friend-os I hadn’t talked to, but the book had drawn me in enough I did the most unmillienial thing and left my phone in a different room to charge while I finished this book before going back to the land of technology and interwebs. That should tell you something.

McGee was able to write this story in a way that pulls you in so you care about what happens to these characters and this little mountain town. You learn just enough about the world to understand where they fit within the overall weave of it, but you aren’t given a Tolkein-esc dissertation on the world lore. I felt the worries and the fears. I was concerned when the routines had to change. I mean she made me care about the freaking sheep! Sheep, people! One of the reasons I think this works so well is we are so firmly rooted in the head of our protagonist, Taryn. Imma use that lovely bridge I just built to skip right on over the plot section of the review to get to the characters first, don’t worry we’ll circle back round to the plot. I always do, but I just wanna talk about my newest set of brain babies.

Taryn is a character that, if the title of this post is anything to go by, I found very very relatable. Now I know relatability can be pretty subjective, some people can latch onto something with the all consuming, “It me!” While others just stare on dead eyed not understanding the appeal. I feel like Taryn could be that kind of protagonist. You are either going to really relate to her or you won’t understand where she is coming from at all. I obviously fall in the former category. I was the quintessential middle child, still am really, though my relationship with my parents has shifted now that I’m an adult. More mutual respect and friendship than parent to child. I always did my best to pick up the slack, if ever there was any, and just tried my best to be as little of a burden as possible to my parents. I see so much of that aspect of myself in Taryn and how she sees her place at the farm and even in the town, she has her place and her role, but those expectations are heavy. One of those expectations being that she will inevitably get married and help take over the farm from her parents and have kids to continue the line. The fact she finds the lesser gryphons that flock near the farm far cuter than any of the local boys that she will eventually have to choose from to fulfill that inevitable expectation is just...sad at best and down right tragic at worst. And her family doesn’t help matters either. They won’t let her forget that she will have to settle down with one of these local boys, a boy who would make a good husband and take good care of her and the farm. She knows that, logically, but she also wants to be in love, like her parents, and she just doesn’t feel like that for any of the boys in town. She doesn’t know how to make those two things line up. It’s a struggle between her head, the obligation of what she has to do, and her heart, what she really wants for her future, to be happy in doing what she has to do. Wow, I went off a little bit there, but this was my long winded way of saying I have never read a protagonist that really captured the utter confusion of being raised in a heteronormative environment without it being drenched in internalized homophobia and fear. Protagonists like this seem to always know something is off but just don’t have the words for it so they just hide it because they know it’s “different” and out of the norm, but Taryn is just livin’ her sheep herding life and ain’t got no time for these boy crazy fools. She knows her mom wants her to find a good boy to court her so she can marry someday but she’s still young. She’ll think about that tomorrow, and she just repeats that ad infinitum. The thought that maybe she doesn’t fancy any of the boys because well...girls...never even occurred to her. It's not how things are done in this small mountain town, not because of homophobia reasons, but just stubborn tradition reasons. We are even told there is a gay couple living in town who are staples in the overall dynamics in town, instrumental even, but the idea of having a lineage, being able to pass your land down is so ingrained no wonder poor Taryn was so in the dark about her own probable gayness till it slapped her in the face. As someone who was raised in a medium sized Oklahoma town...girl I feel you. I was 22 and in the middle of Appalacia, way up in the mountains for college when my gay awakening popped up and said “Hello!” Everything that never quite made sense in my life came into perfect clarity. Not quite what happened with Taryn, but the arrival of Aella surely helped, as pretty girls are want to do. Oh look a segue, good, cause I could talk about Taryn for literal hours and I’ve already gabbed about her too much for this review.

Aella, you smooth motherfucker. Like I wish I could possess a quarter of the smoothness that you do. Like I’m lucky to string sentences together around a pretty girl, but here you are just strutting about being the smoothest of smooth. Honestly, I just...I can’t with you Aella. On a serious note though Aella is a character that served as showing Taryn a glimpse at the world beyond her small mountain town, as much as she had no desire to leave, unlike her brother. Nope, sit down, we’ll get to you, Michael! Oh, we’ll get to you. She’s traveled and has stories from all over and she is fairly open about the fact that she only likes girls, but she doesn’t have land, responsibilities, and a family line to continue. She just gets to live her life the way she choses. And y’all know I am a sap for the hard dark characters that are totally softies underneath that rough exterior. I think Aella was a great foil to Taryn and great at showing her what she could have if she was willing to leave, to stretch what she was allowed to wish for, but of course the biggest issue with her wishing for anything was...Michael.

Michael was such an interesting character. I loved him. I hated him. I wanted to hug him. I wanted to punch him. Again as with the town and the people of the town I was so deep seated in Taryn’s head and feelings that her conflicted feelings about Michael and how he was acting became my feelings on the matter. Not enough to not separate a tad and see what was coming or at least try to predict it as I always do when reading, but emotionally I was right with Taryn the whole way. The one thing that really pushed Michael from just a character I was conflicted about to one I really wanna give a swift kick in the nads to, is that he knew. He knew all about Taryn’s absolute lack of romantic inclinations toward any of the boys in town and her doubts that she would ever find someone to love and marry to take over the farm. He was the only person she confided these fears in and he still selfishly followed his own pursuits with little regard to her or her worries. You sir, are a terrible brother and overall a shit human, so sit your ass down and shut your mouth.

The plot for this book was so embroiled with the characters and their journeys that I can’t talk on it much but the twists at the end and the final climax was very satisfying for me and left me excited to dig into the next book. Also something of note that I didn’t talk about in the character section cause I felt it was dragging on a touch, I really only talked in depth on our three biggest players but there is a very colorful cast of side characters ranging from Taryn’s nervous pony to the boy-who-cried-gryphon neighbor no one can stand to the troupe of hunters led by Aella’s mother to Taryn’s best friend Nia, all of whom play important parts in building that sense of caring about the people of this town and the town itself, which in turn made me deeply care about the outcome of the plot at the heart of the story. And the sheep! The god damn sheep!

One thing I do want to say before my final thoughts is that whoever designed the cover of this book in a genius because as I dug into the story I found myself constantly closing it to spout off about theories of what I thought was happening on the cover and what it all meant, I was kind of reader fatigue delirious for most of those theories but some of them I was right! I might have reenacted the Captain Holt “Vindication” gif IRL just because it felt too good not to. I just love when a “cool” cover turns out to be so much more than that once you’re “in the know”. So yeah, now y’all know to pay attention for that.

My final thoughts on this book are pretty positive. I can tell the author is building us toward so much more, hence the name of the series, Taryn’s Journey, and it feels like it. This is only the beginning and I honestly can’t wait to take the next steps with her.

Queer Wrap-up:

Hey it’s me from the future...present...whatever...so, this is when I stopped writing the review six months ago and there is a reason for that. I, kind of, agonized over what to rate this book on the scale. Multiple times having to call my brother and go back and forth just to then repeat the same arguments with myself as soon as I got off the phone. Now why was this such a hard terrible no good awful back and forth well...SPOILER WARNING...seriously anything past this point will be spoiling some character beats for the majority of the book...okay? We understand one another. DANGER ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE...or you know scroll on.

So, Taryn is never confirmed to be queer in the text of this book. Now you would have to be wearing the tightest hetero goggles in known history not to see the heavy HEAVY subtext saying THIS BITCH GAY! It’s basically a full grown elephant painted sparkly rainbow trying to hide behind a dead shrub aka not hiding at all. I so desperately wanted to give this book four of those darling unicorns but in this rare case I just don’t think I can justify it. We have a protagonist that is still figuring herself out, which is amazing that we get to see that and go on the journey with her. Some of the things Taryn does and thinks are queer coded as hell, especially if it involves Aella who is explicitly gay on the page, but Taryn herself never express whether she herself is queer. Which, fair, other really important and traumatizing things were going on and I love that about her as a character, she didn’t meet Aella and suddenly that was all she could think about. Aella, of course, is representation who I’m counting because even though she shows obvious interest (you smooth motherfucker) in Taryn she is so much more than just a love interest and her character isn’t just boiled down to her sexuality. Now in this wrap up I’m also including the doctor and his husband in the town. They are very minor characters but they give us interesting insights into the town and the people. They are accepted and treated well in town even if some do almost, pity isn’t the right word, but they seem sad that they won’t be able to have any kind of legacy or lineage. As I said in the review it’s not homophobia it’s being stuck in your ways and it’s an interesting take.

Links:

Shannon McGee Website

The Storygraph

Okay so this one is a bit of a mess. Pieces of it were written 6 months apart and most of it was written while I was kind of delirious but hey at least I can say it’s honest. I still stand by everything my past self wrote and I still really enjoy thinking and talking about this book and am excited for whenever I get around to reading the sequel to continue on Tayrn’s journey with her. This is a book I probably would never have known even existed without ClexaCon and trolling through artist alley for literally every table that had books on them. I guess, moral of the day is maybe you won’t just find great books on library shelves but on unassuming convention tables too and it never hurts to look. Trust me, I’m a lesbrarian.

Oh bet you thought this post was over. I did the sign off and everything but oh no no! I have some info and such to impart. I am WELL AWARE these reviews have been fairly inconsistent to down right sporadic. Well, this is just a little info dump letting you guys know I am gonna be putting up one more review after this one that I wrote ages ago and I mean AGES (think years, as in multiple) and just never got around to posting and then the old blog is probably gonna be going through a PLANNED dormancy while some pretty big stuff is coming down the pike. You may notice visual changes and other stuff before anything else is announced but just keep an eye out. To quote the Fates from Hercules, “It’s gonna be big!”

Okay now for the actual sign off, I got shit to do! No one look behind the curtain, it’s a surprise!

#Of Gryphons and Other Monsters #Shannon McGee #resident lesbrarian #3 unicorns #questioning girl #lesbian #heavy wlw romantic subtext #ya novel #ya fantasy #go to your local library #but wear a mask #and wash your hands #and stay 6 feet apart #be safe out there guys gals and nonbinary pals

7 notes · View notes

rigginsstreet · 6 years ago

Text

i already have a question was that jessica lucas playing an extra or just like... her twin lmfao

this whole game is so stupid i cant deal with this like we get it ras, you saw jumanji

the scene hasnt even started but alice already being pregnant is stupid. ras is stupid. alice is stupid. madchen is stupid cuz she ultimately led us here and i will never forgive her

also alice is an unreliable narrator and nothing she says is fact except for all the gay fredsythe shit. thats canon

why are we doing 80s when theyre in the 90s god..... i hate this show i had a whole soundtrack ready in my mind. it was mainly nirvana but ... its what fp wouldve wanted

alice had no friends gee... i wonder why...

IS THE WRITING THAT BAD OR IS IT CAMIS DELIVERY WHAT WAS THAT

lmfao fp blew alice off ok ya know.... im dying that they try so hard to set up flice as some epic romance meanwhile they could not give two shits about each other. obviously my boy was going around fucking every girl how else was he supposed to convince his dad he wasnt getting plowed by fred on the daily

alice and penelope.... gay. lesbians. gay lesbians. in love. always. OH COME ON YOU HAVE THE NERDY BITCHY CHICK WITH THE ASSHOLE FROM THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? HELLO???

fp would bring up his arm being in a cast for literally no reason what does that have to do with streaking fp? hes always been a dumb bitch at least thats consistent

IM NEVER IN MY LIFE GETTING OVER FRED APPEARING OUT OF THIN FUCKING AIR TO A MEETING OF A SPORTS TEAM HES NOT EVEN FUCKING ON JUST TO RUN NAKED WITH FP ARE YOU..... WHAT..... GOD...

fred really just wanted to get detention with fp so they could have a date im cry

ras really loves his saved by the bell references huh

alice no one wants to hear your hoe stories unless theyre gay or with hal

is fp asleep with his hand over his face lmao ok thats my son

of all the time i spent talking about fp carving his initials all over the school... and they give it to alice.... fuck you. anyway riverdale high is littered with fj + fa in a heart thanks for coming to my tedtalk

tom and sierra did not date in high school. but also thats not tom so

penelope would love heathers ok.... thats my mom

and shes in love with sierra wow we stan

wow fred the gay just keeps jumping out

fred really went to look at fp before talking about how he wanted to stay in riverdale his whole life.... god he already had their wedding planned i know it

ok fred literally had no reaction to hermiones hand on his knee so... guess the feelings come later? or its bad acting idk

oh... hmm.... so... was fred too living on elm street at this time? or is it just coincidence fps dream life takes place on the street fred will eventually settle down on.... we dont know..... either way... gay

also alice exposing fp? BUT YALL GONNA SAY THIS IS ROMANTIC OR TRAGIC OR WHATEVER BULLSHIT LIKE NAH SON. ITS JUST MEAN

yall + alice think her life wouldve been better if she married fp and had chic but like... even she herself is saying fps gonna end up a drunk like his dad so ???? next

ok so like.... on the one hand fp wanting to be the first jones to go to college makes me emotional but like .... forsythe senior being a serpent? makes no sense.... i mean... i guess? if we’re rewriting history. but uh.... literally last season fp said he joined after his dad threw him out but i guess that never happened now so whatever. but why as an adult would he want to go back to the serpents? i get desperate times blah blah but.... and then to lead the gang? idk.... and then to have your own son lead it? nah

so sierra been knew about the sisters and never did anything?? ok

ok i will say this level of stupid drama is right up there with 90s soaps so like... kudos to that lmfao

fred gave fp half his sandwich just like julia and i have been saying get... out... :’)

alice carved fp and freds initials next to each other lmfao even she knew! bitch!

fred draping himself over the desks is gay culture

i literally cannot handle all the subtle fredsythe happening in this episode ras really came for my whole fucking scalp

FP AND HERMIONE FUCKED IM SORRY I DONT MAKE THE RULES

penelopes so fucking gay... so fucking gay. good for her

fp and hermiones season 1 interactions are suddenly making so much sense they... were in love we just need to accept this and move on with our lives

hermione: so fp what went down between you and alice. fp: not me thats for sure!

fp putting on the crown and fred immediately going into a sword fight... so anyway they fucked!

they really trying to force this heterosexual nonsense down our throats like im sorry its too little too late fred and fp are gay i can never buy anything heterosexual interaction again. besides the ones i deem appropriate. i am the gatekeeper.

WHO IS PENELOPE FIGHTING WITH THAT STANCE

why are they in the same outfits all the time ???

michael sounds so much like his dad but like just with maybe a deeper register. i love baby hiram hes the only son i claim. besides gay fredsythe. but the flice and fremione scenes are when theyre dead to me. ok i can forgive fremione. kinda

FREDHEADS DIDNT EXIST TIL SENIOR YEAR I WILL KEEP SHOUTING THIS FROM THE ROOFTOPS AND FRED AND FP WERE THE ONLY MEMBERS EXCEPT OCCASIONALLY TOM BUT IM HAPPY TO KNOW MY BOY FP WAS ON DRUMS THATS CUTE AS HELL

interesting how fp was supposed to tell alice freds dad died. fp had to console his boyfriend he didnt have time to call alice ok

penelope and alice, fred and fp, sierra and hermione sitting across from each other. these are riverdales endgames.

also i know fp was running his foot up freds leg soothingly under the table dont play with me. he couldnt do much more than that they were in public he had to comfort his boyfriend somehow

penelope essentially: WE TAKE THIS TO OUR GRAVE!

fp..... honey... no.... spit is not necessary

everybody wants to rule the world is a fucking bop tho so ill forgive them this

ok but fred HAD THE BAND SENIOR YEAR HELLO

hermione spent the whole episode talking about how she wanted hiram and now at the end she gets with him but doesnt want it? lies

FRED AND FP ARE ROMEO AND JULIET STOP TRYNA SAY EVERYONE ELSE IS. BITCH

also fp.... won them the state championship senior year so.... he... didnt give that up omfg i hate this

yall.... they did hal so dirty i cant believe. i mean... ugh whatever i dont care

but fred and hermione went on a date senior year.... ok

7 notes · View notes

underthebluerain · 7 years ago

Text

Watched Thor: Ragnarok yesterday. Some of it I liked, some of it I loved, most of it was a mess, some of it I hated. The things I loved made me really emotional and saved it from being a wholly bad experience. The things I hated are the reason I am really glad I didn’t spend money on it.

Fair warning, this "review” is as messy and disjointed as the film. Also long.

-The moment the movie started with Thor’s monologue it was clear it was 100% off tone with the Thor universe. Like what.

-The first woman we saw in Thor was Jane Foster doing scientific research. The first women we see in Ragnarok are two unnamed fanservice extras who are presumably skurge’s conquests and are there for the guy to show off to, with barely any lines, no important role and (I think) never seen again. Just a thought.

-I will admit, I did fid some moments funny and genuinely enjoyed them. Others were just ridiculous, a sign they completely ignored the kind of story and especially characters they were showing. And the moments that should’ve been dramatic but that were played in a funny way, even worse. Like Thor and Loki’s reunion. Thor thought he was dead, again. Honestly. Take away all the emotional depth why don’t you. (Yeah I still laughed but it was a Robbed Angst Moment).

-Not to be That Guy but... Loki’s in-universe The Dark World play has Lady Sif and the Warriors Three in a bigger role than they had in it (since they are present at Svartalfheim) and also has Jane in it so 1) it’s keeping both Sif and Jane UNLIKE THIS MOVIE and 2) how shitty is that the in-play acknowledges these characters and the film proper doesn’t. I am so tired of Marvel’s self-referential “haha let’s lampshade the fact that the women are missing but not actually do anything to remedy it!” also unashamedly used in AOU and Antman.

-The bit they showed us about the play I liked in general though, it had plenty of Bro Feels. And Odin!Loki mouthing “I didn’t do it for him” lol but also aww. Also interesting that Sif and the W3 were included (just like in his deleted TDW imagining. He really wants Thor’s friends to like him damn) worried about him and Sif was sent to get help...?? They are not helping me forget about sifki tbh

-Also I shouldn’t be surprised that something serious like Loki’s origins was mentioned only to be funny but like... what?? He seriously decided to let everyone know?? Really?? And is this play seriously how he decided to do it?? When was this?? Was everyone chill with it?? When did he become cool with it??

-Was Jotun!Loki called a blue icicle or did I hallucinate that

-Literally the only mention of Jane is of how she dumped Thor and him saying he dumped her instead. Besides Jane being missing, several reasons why this is shitty: 1) again, only one mention of her in the entire film 2) the only mention has her referred to only insofar as her relationship or lack thereof with Thor goes 3) Thor wouldn’t be trying to save face regarding the breakup, he’d just be sad about it 4) it isn’t a good enough reason to have her missing, fuck you.

-Thor to Strange: “Who are you and why should I care” lmao same

-Hela being Odin’s daughter is so out of left field. The backstory regarding her helping Odin win the realm even more so. What?? Just what??

-On the other hand, nice to see the fishiness about Odin and Asgard’s treatment of other realms acknowledged as shitty. But they still had Odin’s only scenes being good to his sons...?

-I am conflicted about Hela’s design because on the one hand I am gay and find it sexy but on the other I kind of resent they gave her the Black Skintight Catsuit™ of Sexy Female Characters.

-The W3 didn’t deserve those sudden deaths and Thor didn’t deserve to not find out about them.

-I SO loved Thor and Loki’s interactions. I'VE MISSED THEM SO MUCH

-The mural with the family was nice. I didn’t like how frigga was depicted lower than her husband (and this even though she’s taller...) and looking at him/the ground while the men are looking forward, but it does make sense given Asgard’s sexism (as established in other movies, because apparently now they have an all-women army. Ok then why was Sif being the only female warrior a big deal?? Answer: this movie doesn’t give a shit about continuity)

-So... Odin was ashamed of how he got the realm... but he still made a hugeass mural about it??

-I do like hearing Odin get called out. also Odin manipulated history, who else isn’t surprised?

-Again with the humour being used to reference a tragic past event: Loki’s apparently telling the Sakaar gang (whom he barely knows) about how he let go of the Bifrost. As if it’s a funny anecdote. They all laugh. What.

-Just let Hulk stay there and rot Thor

-Hulk is an asshole, I didn’t need more reasons to hate him but they gave them to me

-They didn’t just made an AOU reference they actually had the gall to show me ooc!nat and fucking brutasha AGAIN EW EW EW WHY FUCK aaand I officially hate Taika Waititi. I am SO glad I didn’t go see this movie in a theatre can you imagine giving more money to be traumatised with the same shit again omg

-Lmao they literally threw in a line in just to give Banner more degrees than Jane, Phd’s actually, so his are more important right? The male ego truly is astounding

-I thought we’d see more of Valkyrie’s backstory and her grudge against Hela, but at least we got something. Also her name wasn’t revealed?? Was it in the credits? She is cool though. I liked that her introduction was not at all dignified (falling off the ship bc she’s drunk? lol. Wasn’t expecting it tbh) but she got her dignity back. I’ve seen it mentioned that her story of “badass warrior leaves after traumatic battle and becomes jaded drunk who pretends not to care about anything but eventually finds it in herself to come back and fight for what’s right” is a story usually reserved for men and it’s great that she got it.

-I feel so defeated that Asgard had to be destroyed.

-The rock alien was quite funny.

-Thor has literally lost his home, his girlfriend, his mother, his father, several of his friends (not that anyone told him) and his fucking eye give this boy a fucking break

-Thank god Thor didn’t end up believing Loki was dead again bc I would’ve gone there and killed him myself tbh

-I think one of my main problems with the film is that I actually enjoyed the adventure, some of the humour and few emotional moments, but it ignored and/or glossed over so much that was important that it’s not as gut-wrenching as its predecessors. To sum up: this movie was a good fic, but not a good enough Thor movie, you get me? Especially given how this is probably the very last Thor movie.

-Even without watching the Infinity Wars trailer it’s obvious Loki’s taken the Tesseract you little shit. I hope Thor knows and is like “take it out let’s see what we do with it hmm?”

-Fuck, I really enjoyed Loki and Thor’s relationship in this movie. On the one hand, the movie robbed them of several emotional moments (Thor finding out Loki’s alive, their reunion, a longer confrontation), but on the other the humour gave them several great scenes of sibling banter and backstory that I loved so much (even if some of it didn’t make sense like the snake anecdote: cute, funny but nonsensical). And despite the movie’s light tone not fitting with the other films’, I... feel like it did kinda fit their relationship here? The film made it work. I still wish we’d gotten more emotional scenes and arguing and angst, but I did like to see that it’s been quite some time since their grievances and that has sort of caused them to cool over a bit, so things are calmer, lighter. And that allows Loki to act less like a “I’m gonna betray you” (which is still there, but he doesn’t play it up so much), and above all allows Thor to say, “look, this has been fucked up for a few years, I don’t think trying to stay together will work”. Which I think is both sincere and reverse psychology. Sincere because Thor has been through a lot of pain and he knows Loki has too, so he doesn’t think he can handle having Loki there but not being able to trust him, and if Loki wants out he’s not gonna force him to stay. And reverse psychology because he’s hoping so bad that he’ll want to stay, that he’ll choose to. Freely. And he knows that the only way he will make a free choice is if he thinks Thor has made his and that it’s to stop pursuing him. I AM EMOTIONAL

-AND LOKI DID COME BACK TO HELP AND THOR FUCKING BELIEVED HE WOULD OKAY

- “IF YOU WERE REALLY HERE I MIGHT HUG YOU” “I’M HERE” GFHXKCJDLKLXKS

-WHAT THE FUCK WHERE IS MY HUG

-AND THEY DID END THE MOVIE TOGETHER SIDE BY SIDE WITH THOR AS KING AND LOKI AS ADVISOR AND GOING TO EARTH AND FACING WHATEVER DANGER IS COMING TOGETHER AND I AM VERY EMOTIONAL OKAY

#thor: ragnarok #thor 3 #thor 3 spoilers #ragnarok negativity #i mean there is positivity too but yeah #about me #and my fangirling life #my post

8 notes · View notes

theperfectladiesman · 8 years ago

Text

Saiyuki meme part 2

34) What character do you think is least like yourself?

~Probably Ukoku. I’m not a psychopath or sociopath looking to snuff out life and light. And he’s super cunning and manipulative.

35) What is a shipping you’re not on board with? (Be respectful!)

~I pretty much ship nearly everything under the sun for the most part. Or can at least understand or respect a ship. I ship I wouldn’t really be on board with though would be Li Touten x Nataku. Or Dokugakuji’s mom x Doku/Gojyo. Just not my thing.

36 ) Which Saiyuki character do you think could easily adjust to modern times?

~I’d say nearly all the main cast. I think they’ve all been through so much & they’ve learned to get really good with adapting and rolling with the punches. But if I had to narrow it down, perhaps Goku. Followed closely by Gojyo. They seem the most easy going & quickly accepting & adaptable. Likewise, I think Kougaiji would be one of the ones who would struggle the most perhaps.

37) What is your favorite quote?

~There’s A LOT of good ones. Seeing as I have the opposite of a photographic memory... I can’t remember what my fav would be. A really good, memorable one though is where Kou overcame Ukoku’s mind control & gave him the whole speech where he wont be controlled again & his friends helped him to the light. Idk, something to that effect. Maybe I’ll come back to this question later after I find the exact lines.

38) Do you binge read the entire series or read selected chapters?

~Usually when I binge read or binge watch, it’s from start to finish on the entire series. If I just want to research something or remember a specific thing, it’s selected chapters.

39) Are you more a fan of Gensomaden Saiyuki or Saiyuki Reload/Gunlock?

~With the anime, Gensomaden. With the manga, its definitely Reload.

40) Your favorite character became a mythical beast. What would they be?

~This.... is a tough one. If I wanted to take the easy option, I’d say it would be Kougaiji and he’d totally be a dragon. Or if I wanted to be funny, saying Gojyo being a kappa. I could see Hakkai being the male form of a Dryad. But I think my favorite is Sanzo... and the only thing I can think of to liken him to is the Phoenix. Sanzo’s “like the sun” and Phoenix is a sun bird. Phoenix’s rise from the ashes and Sanzo got burned by Kou’s fire and still rose to his feet.

41) If you HAD to choose a character to die, who would it be?

~Well, this doesn’t say -MAIN- character. I wish I could say Ukoku... that would spare everyone so much misery... but I like the psycho bastard. So...Gyokumen Koushu. Then maybe Kou would get his mom back & he could team up with Sanzo!

42) Would you rather: Have all characters die or Have only one survive

~The question is.... would it be like Goku? Have them forget & then be reunited with the reincarnations? On one hand, it would be nice to have one survive to carry on the memory of everyone who died. But....I feel like there’s something incredibly unfair & cruel about having only one survive... so I guess I’d rather them all die.

43) If [character] got into a fight with [character] who would win?

~Lol its hard to do these ones when I’m just answering them myself.

44) What does Gojyo’s marking look like to you?

~I answered this one already, basically, a tribal flame

45) If Sanzo became a demon, what kind of marking do you think he’d have?

~I kinda wanna say something like the youkai Suika. Something small & round on his forehead in place of the chakra. Or it would probably be somewhere more discrete like his back or upper arm, a red color instead of black...idk the shape/design.

46) If [character] died, what do you think they’d be reborn as?

~I think Zakuro would love to be reborn in the golden age (Elizabethanera) cuz that’s when theatre, music, poetry & literature flourished. Perhaps Kougaiji/Hazel in the Victorian age and Ukoku in the Edwardian era... I know that’s not what the questions asking, but it is interesting to think diff era’s you’d put them in.

47) After the journey, what do you think [character] will be doing?

~Hmm... I’ll just stick with Gojyo for this one. Assuming he’s still alive after the journey. I think he’d stick with Hakkai. (grudingly)Helping out around the shop if Hakkai worked/owned a shop. I could see Gojyo maybe being a bar tender or an escort/host... or whatever those equivalents are in the Saiyuki era, or just keeps raking in money with his gambling while being domestic with Hakkai.

48) If [character] had a tumblr, what would they reblog?

~This one’s a fun question. I think if Gojyo had a tumblr, the majority would reflect the 3 things he likes most- women, booze, and smokes. Probably sprinkle in some selfies of himself being all sexy, cheesy pick up lines and puns, maybe some crude jokes, more scantily clad women, and gambling tips. Then there’s probably some stuff he’d reblog for the sake of Sanzo,Hakkai, and Goku if they had tumblr as well. Monkey posts to tease Goku, life hacks for Hakkai, & random stuff that would piss off Sanzo. Probably jokes about cranky old men or something.

49) What is your favorite animated scene?

~umm.... idk... all of Gaiden?

50) [Character]; Boxers, briefs, or commando?

~I feel like Gojyo would have an occasion for all three. Briefs when he’s planning to get with a lady or impress. Boxers when he’s lounging with the boys. And sometimes commando, mainly when sleeping if he has his own room.

51) What 3 or more tropes fits your favorite character?

~ummm.... running gag, ship tease, and funny moments. (gojyo)

52) What are 3 tropes that describe [character]?

~fiery redhead, the alcoholic, and jerk with a heart of gold (gojyo)

53) If Saiyuki got a 4th series, what would it be called?

~Well now that there is a 4th season coming out... Saiyuki Reload Blast XD (now we just need an Ibun OVA!!!)

54) If your favorite character could control an element, what would it be?

~Fav charater’s always been between Sanzo and Kougaiji... though recently I often wonder if it’s not Hazel now. I think Lightning suits Sanzo. Fire for Kou. And Ice for Hazel. Earth for Goku & Hakkai. Wind for Yaone.

55) Was there a character you used to love but no longer do?

~I dont think so actually. I think everyone I love I still do and everyone I hate I still do.

56) What has been the saddest moment for you in the series?

~Yakumo’s death. Yakumo’s whole chapter arc. And the end of Gaiden.

57) What is your favorite anime/manga genre?

~Psychological thriller/horror (but I also like romance & action & drama)

58) Name 5 other characters you like along with your fav Saiyuki character.

~Spike Spiegel, Axel, Seto Kaiba, Zelos Wilder, Alvin Svent, and Snow Villiers

59) Do you prefer subbed or dubbed anime?

~Dubbed. But most of the time subbed is 100 x’s better... obviously.

60) Did you watch the anime first or read the manga?

~Gensomaden anime came first.

61) Do you seek out spoilers or avoid at all cost?

~I avoid them at all cost, most of the time. Unless it’s something I’m not planning to watch or read.

62) Do you write fan fics or draw fan art? If so, link!

~I do, on both accounts. I don’t have any Saiyuki fanfics though. If anyone really want links, I’ll send them privately in IM’s. My Saiyuki fanart can all be found on my blog. Other fan art of diff fandoms is on DA. I only have a couple of completed fanfics on fanfiction.net... most of my work isn’t finished so that’s not really worth linking, I wouldn’t think.

63) What was the most pointless filler in the anime?

~I can’t really think of anything... maybe the sauna one where Goku thinks Sanzo turns into a demon. Or the kitty one. Don’t get me wrong, I loved both those episodes... but in regards to the plot, they don’t contribute a thing.

64) How do you describe Saiyuki to a friend who has never heard of it?

~Four guys travel west to stop the resurrection of a demon lord. Um... there’s lots of humor and action. It’s amazing. It’s.... kinda gay without actually being gay.

65) If you RP what is your favorite thing to Roleplay?

~answered this one~

66) What is your favorite Saiyuki Opening or Ending for the animes?

~The opening for Gaiden is very gorgeous, perhaps that one <3

67) What’s something you think would improve the series?

~HAVING MORE MANGA TRANSLATED AND PUBLISHED HERE IN AMERICA! And bring back some minor characters, that’d be cool to see.

68) Who, in your opinion, has the most tragic backstory?

~Geez... that’s like comparing a life time of stomach issues to someone who has a life time of mental illness... both are equally tragic. If I HAD to pick.... Yakumo.... I’m just gonna go with Yakumo. Technically, it’s not really a backstory but what’s he was presently doing. Having such a kind, soft heart... wanting nothing more but to save, shelter, and raise youkai kids... and choosing to kill them when they go berserk, perhaps with the whole mentality of ‘kill a few to save the whole’. It’s so tragic. Other than that, I can’t choose 1 over the other for tragic back stories cuz everyone has it equally bad in some way.

I guess I can say the tie would be between Gojyo, Sanzo, Hakkai, Goku, Dokugakuji, Hazel, and Nataku.

69) Who would be best at pleasing their lover?

~It kinda depends on what said lover wants most our of their partner and if it’s true love or a fling. If they both knew what they were doing, Goku & Kou would be very thorough, patient, and thoughtful lovers. Gojyo would be best at bringing the skill/pleasure in a pure sexual aspect. Hakkai’s difficult to pin down. He’d be gentle with the same qualities I listed for Gok/Kou.... but he’d have this wall up at the same time. Sanzo... just probably wouldn’t be the best, if he got intimate at all to begin with. Hazel’s so... antagonistic. I’ll just go with Gojyo or Dokugakuji.

70) What do you think Saiyuki would be like if Kougaiji and co were the main protagonists? Do you think you’d still enjoy it?

~A lot less humor and more dark because it would be more from the “villains” POV. Kou’s kinda angsty. I don’t think Saiyuki would be as well recieved and loved from Kougaiji’s & co’s pov... and there’s several characters we might have missed out on.... but I think it’s something I would still really enjoy. If its written by Kazuya Minekura, she’d make it amazing regardless.

71) What minor character had a significant impact on the plot?

~I think that would have to be Hazel Grouse.

72) On a scale from 1 - 10, 1 being not much and 10 being too much, how much does Saiyuki Gaiden hurt you?

~TEN

73) What character is still a mystery to you?

~Perhaps Koumyou or Ukoku (maybe even Yaone in the sense that we kinda know next to nothing about her... that I can recall). But with Koumyou especially, both of them are just so complex & different than I am that they’re difficult for me to understand.

74) What is the funniest moment in the series?

~It really says something about how much a perv I really am if the very first scene that pops into my mind after thinking about what my fav moment could be is.... Gojyo & Goku wrestling & arguing on the bed and that lady walks in & thinks they’re doing, or about to do, something naughty. Oddly, I Really like the scene where Gojyo mimics Sanzo too.

75) Who is your favorite minor character?

~Hazel or Banri or Zenon ...... Yakumo & Zakuro are p great too

76) Which character has had the most growth?

~I think that would have to be Goku

77) Which character needs more development?

~hmmmm........Lirin maybe?

#Saiyuki meme #part 2 #good lord this was long & took forever #but I wanted to do it for myself just for the hell of it & it was fun #when Im up all night with stomach issues & too tired to do anything else this was kinda a blessing

2 notes · View notes

argyle-s · 7 years ago

Text

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME CHAPTER 4/?

Rating: Mature

Read at Ao3

Start at the Beginning

After saving Alex's plane, Kara recruits Winn and Maggie to help her become Supergirl.

Update: This story has now been betaed by @ifourmindbeso. Any remaining mistakes are entirely my own.

Chapter 4 - In the Light of Day “Pretty cool, huh?” Kara asked as she walked by Winn.

“A plane-saving lady?” Winn scoffed. “How is the world supposed to take her seriously if she can’t even come up with a suit? What… Metropolis gets him and what does National City get? Some rookie superhero?”

Kara laughed. “Maybe she wasn’t expecting to save a plane last night. Ever think of that? Maybe she was out having drinks with a friend. Or maybe, maybe she just needs her best friend’s mad cosplay skill to help her come up with a suit.”

Winn looked over at her. “Seriously? That’s what you’re going with?”

Kara shrugged. “What? You think having super powers automatically makes you know how to sew stretch knits? Does every origin story come with a free serger? Is there a super hero manual that explains how to pick bomb-proof fabric?”

“You’ve given this a disturbing amount of thought,” Winn said.

“Maggie got called in to work, so I went home early,” she said.

“Sorry.”

Kara shrugged. “It happens.” She turned her back to Winn and took a second to heat vision Cat’s Latte before announcing “She’s here.”

***

“I know many of you are used to being second best but it's new to me. The most incredible event in the history of National City and yet we have no exclusive of any kind.”

“We don't have much to go on. The image we're working off is low res... I guess she's around 5'9”. It's tough to Gauge with her height measured up against an airplane.”

“Hair color brown. Or black.”

“Or maybe her hair is just dirty. You know, from soot. The plane exhaust,” James said, cutting off all the rambling.

“James, you make an excellent point. Do you think there's any connection between this hero and...” Cat asked.

“To my friend in blue? I don't know. I mean, not that he mentioned, but if she's anything like him, she's a hero. Saving people is what they're born to do. She'll be back.”

Cat smiled. “Hmm. She better be. This girl is the answer. She is exactly what I need to save the Tribune. Besides fatty foods, there is nothing people love more than a hero. We are going to blow her up. We will feature her online and in the paper, but we need images, we need video, we need an interview, and exclusive content. So go. Go get me that girl. And, Keira... Go get me a lettuce wrap.”

Kara nodded, a smile on her face. She’d forgotten just how good that little speech had made her feel the first time around. How much confidence it had given her, especially after the fight with Alex the previous night. She turned around and started to head out of the office, only to find James falling in beside her.

“It's funny,” He said. “That was the first thing he did. Save a plane, I mean.”

“Must run in the family,” she replied as she walked over to Winn. James gave her a slightly puzzled look as he headed for his office.

“Winn, come with me.”

“What? Why? Where?”

“The roof.”

“The roof? What’s on the roof?”

***

Winn looked around nervously as Kara led him up onto the helipad. Kara felt a little bad for him, because she knew he hated heights almost as much as Cat, but she also knew this was the only way to convince him.

“Hey, uh, just whatever you have to say, can you make it quick? I'm not really into being this high up,” he said.

“Listen, Winn, I'm going to tell you something about me that only a handful of people in my life know. Can I trust you to keep a secret?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.”

“Good. I just really need someone to be excited for me. There's something about me that for most of my life, I've kept hidden. But last night, I embraced who I am and I don't want to stop.”

“Um, Kara, I know you’re gay.”

Kara laughed. “Please, like that’s a secret. Winn, what I’m trying to tell you is, I’m her. The woman who saved the plane.”

Winn stared at her for a moment, then he started laughing. “Okay, that’s a good one. You almost had me believing you were serious for a second there. This is because I made fun of her for not having a suit, it’s it?”

Kara sighed and walked over to the edge of the building.

“Kara. Hey, Kara, what are you doing. No, stop. Kara, you’re going to get hurt.”

Kara just pitched back off the edge of the roof, arms out, letting herself fall for a couple of seconds before she flipped over and shot straight up, flipping over again and coming down in the center of the helipad.

“Ta da!” Kara said.

“You’re her!” Winn shouted. “Holy shit, you can fly!”

Kara gave him her widest smile. “Yep. And now I need my best friend’s mad cosplay skills to make me a suit, because Mom did not put a serger in my escape pod with me, and I do not know how to sew stretch knits.”

Winn nodded. “Okay. Yeah, okay.”

“The good news is I do have bomb proof fabric.”

Winn stared at her for a moment as a smile slowly spread across his face. “This is gonna be so cool!”

***

The elevator opened and Kara stepped out, rushing as fast as she could and wishing she already had her Supergirl suit because it would have made getting Cat’s lettuce wrap a thousand times easier. Of course, it would probably have been faster if she hadn’t taken the little detour to reveal her secret to Winn, but that had been necessary. She was not doing this without her support structure, which in the first few days had consisted entirely of Winn.

Of course, that was before Kara had deliberately rigged the game. Which probably explained why Maggie Sawyer was standing next to her desk when she walked into the bullpen, talking to Cat Grant.

“Hello, Ms. Grant,” Kara said as she approached them.

“Keira,” Cat said, turning around with a somewhat predatory smile on her face. “You didn’t tell me you were dating a member of NCPD’s finest.”

“Well, that’s because we’re not dating, though I do appreciate the vote of confidence in my game. Also because you’ve never shown any interest in my love life before.” Kara held up the bag with Cat’s lunch. “Your lettuce wrap.”

She turned to Maggie. “What brings you to CatCo?”

Maggie held up a large paper bag. “You left your purse and jacket at the bar,” she said.

“Oh,” Kara said, trying to give her face just the right about of panic. “Thank you. I went back for them and they were gone…”

“Well, I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I let your things get stolen, would I?”

Kara felt Cat watching the back and forth and knew the woman was picking up that there was a lot more going on, which was actually helpful in the long run, but inconvenient in the short term.

“Ms. Grant, would you mind if I took a few moments to talk to Detective Sawyer?”

“Oh, no. Not at all. After all, she was nice enough to return your things. Which you left in the bar, where you were not on a date,” Cat said.

Kara blushed about five shades of red as she realized Cat thought she had caught her in a booty call.

“Thank you,” was all she said. She gave a small nod to Maggie, then turned and lead her towards the nearest conference room.

“So,” Kara said, as she closed the door behind them.

“That was you,” Maggie said.

“Yeah.”

“So, are you and Superman...?”

“He’s my cousin. Younger cousin.”

“Younger.”

“Yeah. It’s a long story, but the basics are, he came straight here, while my pod got knocked off course. I spent twenty-four years in suspended animation before my guidance system rebooted. The long version is a bit more complicated than that, but there are not enough tissues in the room for me to go through the entire thing.”

Maggie shook her head. “You know, back when we met, you told me you had trouble finding someone with shared life experiences. I figured there was a bad break up, or maybe a girlfriend who died or something.”

“Hey, I told you you’d have to come to Thanksgiving dinner to unlock my tragic backstory.” Maggie laughed, and Kara found herself smiling a bit at that, but she kept going. “Look, Maggie, things are about to get really, really nasty. Superman and I, we weren’t just nobodies on Krypton. We’re both the heirs to dozens of dynastic titles, and because we’re the last survivors of those houses, all of their enemies will be coming for us. What’s more, my mother was the Kryptonian equivalent of a federal prosecutor and a federal court judge and when Krypton died, more than one of our prisons was broken open. Now that they know I’m alive, the criminals my mother sent to those prisons are going to be coming straight for me.”

“The smart thing for you to do would be to go home and forget what you saw in that alley last night. Pretend it never happened.”

Maggie looked at her for a moment, then shook her head. “Fuck that,” she said. “You went out last night and exposed yourself to all of that to save lives.”

“My sister’s life, Maggie. My sister was on that plane. It was not an unselfish gesture.”

“Yeah, but what about next time, and the time after that, and the time after that? I’ve seen the good your cousin has done over the years, the lives he saved. If you’re anything like him, this city, hell, the whole world needs you. And if I can help, what kind of person would I be if I refused?”

Kara smiled, and held out her hand. “Welcome to the team,” she said.

***

Of course J’onn was waiting for her when she got home.

“You can’t be here,” she hissed as she walked towards him. “What if Alex shows up?”

“She won’t,” he said. “I’ve got her putting together a tac team whose job it will be to bring you in for questioning.”

“Yeah, I figured that was coming,” she replied as she stepped by him and unlocked the door. “You couldn’t just drive over with her and let her introduce you. By Rao’s light, you are such a drama queen.

“We need to talk,” he said as he followed her inside.

“No, actually we don’t. I’m expecting company, so please, skedaddle.”

“Skedaddle? What kind of word is that?”

“One I picked up from someone I probably shouldn’t have been hanging around with in the first place, but there it is. Now, I’m serious. Winn and Maggie will be here any minute.”

“Did you know about the bomb?”

“You seriously think I would have let my sister get on a plane if there was any danger she’d get hurt?” Kara asked, and she felt just a bit guilty, because she *had* done just that, but only because she already knew how it would turn out and had taken every precaution to make sure her sister was safe.

“No, but I can’t help but feel like you knew this was coming.”

“I knew something was coming. I heard Vartox had been at the airport about two minutes before I got word about the plane being in trouble.”

“Vartox did this?

“Unless Aunt Astra sent two assassins to National City at the same time.”

“Great. I’ve read his file. He’s a nasty piece of work.”

“Yes, he is. But he’s also predictable. He likes carnage, but he’s a planner, and he’s obedient. He’ll check in with his control before he moves again. We’ve got a couple of days. I doubt he’ll move again before Monday.”

“I take it you have a plan?”

“I do.”

“Want to share?”

“Yeah, I’m going to kick his ass, then let him go.”

“What?”

“I need to get a message to Astra. When Vartox comes after me, I’ll give him the message, and then you move in a strike team to drive him off. We’ll give him time to report the message back, then take him down for good.”

“I hate that plan,” J’onn said.

Kara shrugged. “Yeah, well… that’s because it sucks, but it’s the best plan I’ve got right now.”

“That’s encouraging,” J’onn said.

“Well, if I can just get her the message, we might be able to end this without bloodshed.”

“I don’t see that happening.”

“Honestly, neither do I. The Coluan is going to have to be put down. Probably my uncle Non as well. The others though, we might be able to negotiate a conditional surrender. Bring them into the fold. That many Kryptonians working for the DEO would be a hell of a response force come the day.”

“It would be, if we can trust them.”

“If I can bring Astra around, we’ll be able to trust anyone she vouches for.”

“I don’t suppose you want to tell me where you’re getting all your information.”

“Doesn’t matter. The well ran dry the moment a picture of me hit the news. I can make a few predictions based on how well I know the players, but one of the reasons I haven’t fed you more names over the last year is the risk of poisoning the well, which is exactly what I did when I caught that plane.”

“I knew you were holding out on me.”

“Yeah, well, someday I hope you’ll forgive me, but if we had pushed them into accelerating their time table, it wouldn’t have been good. Alex wasn’t ready, the DEO wasn’t ready, and honestly, I’m not ready, but I should be if Vartox will hold off until Monday morning.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

Kara shrugged. “I fight him in my yummy sushi pajamas and a pair of bunny slippers.”

“That’s not funny.”

“No, it’s not, but right now, I’m not too far from that.” Kara said. “One other thing. I’m going to need to you work up a security clearance on Jimmy Olsen.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m pretty sure my baby cousin is a blabber mouth, and spilled the beans about me. Olsen has been dropping hints. He’s about as subtle as a coyote with an anvil, but he’s been working with Kal for eleven years or so. If he already knows who I am it makes sense to read him in on it.”

“Sometimes I hate when you’re right.”

“Well, I’m right about you needing to leave. Winn’s just pulled up downstairs, and I need to help him carry in the sewing machines.”

“Sewing machines?”

“If you’re gonna fight a war, you gotta wear a uniform.”

“Did you just quote Captain America to me?”

***

“She’s not flying around the city, fighting aliens in that,” Maggie said as she looked at the first design sketch Winn held up.

“Oh, come on, it’s great,” Winn said. He turned to look at Kara, and she just looked right back at him, completely ignoring the puppy dog eyes.

“She’s not wrong,” Kara said. “I wouldn’t wear that to the beach.” She took a drink of her orange juice, then asked, “And where’s the cape?”

“Capes are lame. You can tell your cousin I said so. Actually, never, never do that.”

“Lame or not, capes make you more maneuverable when you’re flying,” Kara said.

“Really?” Maggie asked.

Kara nodded. “The extra drag helps you corner tighter. Also, the fabrics we’ll be using could insulate a fusion reactor, and serve as a micro-meteor barrier, so I’ll be able to wrap them around someone to protect them from fire, explosions, stray bullets. You name it.”

“Okay,” Winn said. “So, we’ll go with a cape.”

Kara nodded. “And don’t forget the El coat of arms,” she said. “When I go out there, I want people to know who I am.”

Winn nodded. “You know, now that I think about it…” He started flipping through his sketch book until he found something. He turned it around, and Kara smiled. It wasn’t quite right, but it was clearly a working sketch of her first suit.

“We’d go with blue,” Kara said.

“Of course, but we’d do the skirt in red,” Winn said.

“Black sheer tights underneath,” Kara said.

“You really wanna go save the day in a skirt?” Maggie asked.

“I like the skirt,” Kara said. “I think it’s cute.”

“Okay,” Maggie said.

Kara could tell she wasn’t quite convinced, but that really didn’t matter. She wanted the original suit, because anything else would remind her too much of the war, and what it was like after Cadmus. After things started going south.

“I don’t like the boots though,” Kara said, turning back to the sketch.

“Yeah,” Maggie said. “You’re going for superhero, and Doc Martens are about two decades out of fashion.”

“Hold on,” Winn said. He flipped over a couple of pages, and held up a sketch of a pair of knee boots. “How about these?”

Kara smiled. “Those are perfect. Can you put pockets in the boots for my phone and some other things?”

“Sure,” Winn said. “I do have one question though.”

“What’s that?”

“If this fabric is so tough, how are my dinky little sewing machine and serger going to work it? Heck, how am I going to cut it?”

Kara smiles. “Oh, did I forget to mention that?”

“Mention what?” Winn asks with more than a little trepidation.

“Konex,” Kara said.

“Yes, Lady Kara,” a disembodied voice replied, causing Winn and Maggie both to jump, just a bit.

“End stealth mode,” Kara said.

“Whoa!” Winn shouted as he jumped up from his seat and backed away from the gold and silver robot appeared out of thin air above the table where he was sitting. “That’s… um… that’s… Kara, what is that?”

Kara laughed. “This is Konex,” she said. “Konex, scan and approve for level two command access. Winn Schott Jr. Formal address, Mr. Schott, familiar address, Winn. Konex, scan and approve for level two command access, Detective Sergeant Margaret Sawyer. Formal address, Detective Sawyer, familiar address, Maggie. Addendum. Detective Sergeant Margaret Sawyer is tier four law enforcement. Set ancillary privileges as appropriate under Earth, United States of America, State of California and National City laws. Addendum. Mr. Schott and Detective Sawyer are pledged allies of the House of El. Access Levels House General, Cadet Branch General, Cadet Branch Compartment Three. Approval Code, Kara, El Mayarah, Su-Von.”

“Acknowledged. Greetings Mr. Schott, Detective Sawyer.”

“Um… hi,” Winn said.

“Hello,” Maggie said.

“Konex and his brothers Kolex, and Kelex are tier four cyber constructs. Konex was my personal attendant when I was growing up.”

Kara watched Winn’s face, and could tell he was torn between being slightly frightened, and completely fascinated.

“You had a flying robot butler?”

“Butler, doctor, teacher, playmate.”

“That is so cool,” he said as he stepped forward, reaching out and stopping just short of touching Konex. “You’ve had him all this time?”

“No,” Kara said. “The original body was destroyed along with the rest of Krypton. But Konex is technically software. His memories had been downloaded into a storage unit on my ship. I had Kelex, Superman’s attendant, build a new body for Konex about a year ago. Konex built Kolex a couple of months ago so I could bring him back here while Kolex runs my secret lair.”

What Kara didn’t add, because it would have needed weeks of explanation, was that she hadn’t even known about Konex or the sanctuary crystals stored in her pod until nearly a year after Myriad. She’d asked Kal about how he built the Fortress, and he’d told her about the set of crystals hidden in his pod. She’d gone and asked the hologram of her mother why she wasn’t given a set, and the hologram had politely explained to her that she was, and they were still stored in her pod.

Having her own Fortress, which she’d dubbed Sanctuary, tucked in neatly a couple of hundred miles off the California coast had seriously upped her Superhero game. It had also given her, J’onn and Alex a place to operate out of after the situation with the DEO had gone south in the fallout from Cadmus.

“Wait, secret lair?” Winn asked. “You have a secret lair, and you didn’t share?”

Maggie just shook her head.

“Well, it would have been a little hard to explain why I had a secret lair without mentioning the part where I’m an alien.”

“Yeah, that’s actually a good point. I’m not sure I forgive you though.”

“Yeah, yeah. You say that now, but wait until Konex shows you the Kryptonian fabric extruder.”

***

Kara stared out into National City from the roof of her apartment building, listening to the sounds, letting it all wash over her. She didn’t open herself to much, because if she did, she’d hear the cries for help, the pain, and the struggles. Noises she hadn’t been entirely able to ignore for the last year. She had dozens of rescues under her belt, starting with the eight campers who’d died in the California wild fires a year earlier in the original timeline. Her super-speed, and a few tricks she’d learned from Barry, Oliver, and Bruce over the years had kept her from drawing too much attention. She suspected NCPD and NCFD might be scratching their heads over some of the things she’d done. Muggers suddenly hanging from a street lamp by half a roll of duct tape. Fires that mysteriously went out before the fire department arrived. A mud slide that froze solid in the middle of summer, fifteen feet from the road, giving them time to finish an evacuation before it thawed enough to be a hazard.

She couldn’t help it. She’d been Supergirl for so long, even a war across dozens of different universes couldn’t take the desire to help away from her and now that she was almost there, almost to the point where she could help out in the open again, every moment she wasn’t helping weighed on her.

“You okay?” Maggie asked from behind her.

Kara nodded. “Yeah. I suppose it might not seem that way, but I am.”

“That’s good,” Maggie said. “You wouldn’t do anyone any good out there if your head wasn’t in the game.”

“I know,” Kara said. “Experience was a bitter teacher on that point.”

“Sounds like there’s a story there.”

“Not one I want to remember,” Kara said, and it really wasn’t. Barry had tried to talk her out of fighting the day after Alex had been killed, but Kara hadn’t listened, and the results had been ugly.

“I keep thinking you’re too young, you can’t possibly know from experience, but something tells me you do.”

“I am a ruined vessel of sorrow and regret. But I am free.”

“Something from Krypton?”

“No. Mass Effect 2. Winn made me play the whole trilogy.”

“I’m afraid to ask.”

“You’d like it, it’s a series of video games about a Lesbian Space Cop, her partner, who’s a dinosaur rooster thing, and her hot blue archeologist girlfriend.”

“Sounds like something the little troll would be into.”

“Nah, he plays the male version of the main character, and hooks up with the gay shuttle pilot in the third game.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Winn’s bisexual. He’s just… He’s not perfect, there’s a hell of a lot more baggage there than you’d think, but after I told him I was gay, he never once made so much as a suggestive comment.”

“I think that outfit he tried to put you into counts.”

Kara laughed. “Yeah, you should see some of the ones he’s drawn my cousin in.”

“Oh,” Maggie said, right before she giggled. “Did he show them to you?” she asked, barely able to hide the mirth in her voice.

Kara frowned, not getting the joke. “Yes?”

“Oh, to be a fly on the wall when he makes the connection…”

Kara’s jaw dropped, and after a second, they both exploded into a fit of laughter.

“Oh, God,” Kara said, “I needed that.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Maggie said. “You looked like you had the weight of the world on those unfairly muscular shoulders.

Kara raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you’ve got a cape crush.”

“No, no, no. I adore you Kara, but you are definitely not my type.”

“Not into aliens?” Kara asked.

“Actually, Darla is a Roltikkon,” Maggie said.

“Wait, you mean to tell me the girl you’ve been crying on my shoulder over on and off for four months is a telepathic alien?”

Maggie shrugged. “Yeah,” she said. “That’s how I found out she was cheating on me. When you can read someone’s mind every time you kiss, sooner or later, stuff like that comes out.”

“I’m sorry,” Kara said.

Maggie shrugged. “I’m over it, thanks in large part to this really friendly Kryptonian who let me cry on her shoulder.”

Kara smiled. “Glad I could help.”

“I need you to promise me something, though,” Maggie said.

“What is it?”

“What you’re doing. It can’t just be about humans. There are a lot of aliens here, and they don’t have any recourse. No way to seek justice.”

“I know,” Kara said.

“Do you?” Maggie asked. “I don’t mean to be harsh, Kara, but you pass for human every day.”

Kara reached out and took Maggie’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “I know, Maggie. Trust me.”

“Okay,” Maggie said.

Kara looked away, staring out into the city. “I didn’t want to do this alone, Mags. Not like my cousin. It’s easier for him. He was born on Krypton, but he doesn’t remember. He didn’t watch it die. I have issues. Anger. Rage. I sometimes, I forget that I can’t let those out. That I’m not normal. I need help, people who know me, who can remind me what it means to be a hero when all I want to do is tear someone apart. That symbol that Winn is sewing on my costume, it’s the Ancient Kandorian Glyph for a word that literally means hope, but it also stands for my family’s motto. El Mayarah. It means ‘stronger together’. But the person I want with me the most isn’t ready to accept this. Not yet. I thought… hoped you and Winn could be that for me, be the people I drew strength from, but it wasn’t fair of me to ask you. You don’t owe me anything. You can still walk away.”

“No, I can’t,” Maggie said. “Kara, whatever else you are, you’re family. You have been since the night I met you. I’m not sure why I felt that way about you so quickly, but I did, and I do. I’m here for you. But we’re going to do this the right way. No back alley beat downs. No Star Chamber justice. We do this in the light of day.”

“I can’t promise that,” Kara said. “The part about the light of day. There are reasons I’ve stayed hidden, and some of them are pretty scary. And there are times even police don’t tell the public the entire story, to avoid causing a panic, or because it will lead to reprisals against innocent people. I’ll promise you though, that if I hide something, it will be because there’s a good reason.”

“Those prisoners you mentioned?”

Kara sighed and gave the city one last look. “Come on downstairs. Winn deserves to know what he’s getting himself into just as much as you do, and I don’t want to tell this story twice.”

***

“How do I look?” Kara asked as she stepped into the living room.

“Good,” Winn said, smiling at her from his spot on the couch.

“He’s right. I’m still reserving judgement on how practical the skirt is, but it definitely has style.”

“The swagger helps,” Winn said.

“Yeah,” Maggie agreed. “The swagger definitely helps.”

Kara turned around, looking at herself in the mirror. The suit was nearly identical to her original Supergirl outfit. The only real difference was the hidden pockets in the boots. The original suit only had one for her phone. This one had two phone pockets, one for money, and one which held an anti-kryptonite shield. She hadn’t told J’onn about that last one, because if she had, she wasn’t sure he’d have given her the kryptonite in the first place. She knew J’onn had come to trust her, but this J’onn was still the J’onn that she’d known her first few months at the DEO. The J’onn before he confronted the White Martian.

She stopped and took a deep breath. So many of the befores were going away soon and she could start rebuilding her family.

She turned around. “What have you got for me?”

“Car chase on the 112 Freeway,” Maggie said. “You in?”

Kara smiled, remembering how this went the first time. “I got this,” she said. “Konex, you ready?”

“Yes, Lady Kara,” it said as it vanished into stealth mode.

“Wait, you’re taking him with you?” Winn asked.

“How else do you expect a live camera feed,” Kara said before she launched herself out of the window.

***

Her first time living through this day, Kara was still a weak flyer. She was running on instinct alone, and didn’t have the advantage of a cape to aid with maneuvering. When she’d tried to catch the car, she’d flown into an embankment when it cut a corner far too sharp for her. This time, she had years of combat flying experience under her belt, and could turn on a dime at anything less than supersonic speeds. When the car skidded around the corner, Kara took the turn without a second thought, and put on just a bit of altitude. She used her X-Ray vision to aim, then used her heat vision to cut the battery cable on the car. A few seconds later, she landed next to the car as it rolled to a stop, jerked the door open, and pulled the driver out, dragging him to the rear, and bending him over the trunk. As the cops approached, she gave him a quick once over with her X-Ray vision, then turned to the closest of the cops.

“He’s got a knife in his right boot,” she said. “Don’t forget.”

The cop nodded as she stepped back, only letting go one the man had the suspect’s arms secured. She tapped her fingers to her forehead, a quick acknowledgment, then kicked off, taking to the sky again as she took flight.

“Okay, what else have you got for me?” she asked.

***

Kara ducked through the window of her loft, smiling as she caught a whiff of fresh pizza. She’d circled the block twice while Winn was paying the delivery guy, but now that the coast was clear, she was eager to eat. Konex followed her in through the window and decloaked once he was safely inside.

“Hey!” Winn said. “A car chase, three ambulances carried to the hospital, a mugging, and a bank robbery. Not bad for your first day.”

“Not bad at all,” Kara said. She looked around, and frowned. “Where’s Maggie?”

“She left right after the bank robbery,” he said. “Said she got called in to work because apparently there’s some alien flying around playing superhero.”

Kara signed. She’d been looking forward to sharing their success with both Winn and Maggie, but she couldn’t blame Maggie for having to work.

“Pizza?” She asked.

“Yeah,” Winn said, pointing to the table. “Five extra larges.”

Kara laughed. “Flying burns a lot of calories,”

“Man, I always wondered where you put it all before, but I’m guessing your appetite is just gonna get bigger, isn’t it?”

Kara nodded as she picked up two of the pizza boxes. She didn’t even bother with a plate. She just carried them over to her sofa and plopped down, flipping open the top box and digging in.

“So, are we done for the day?” Winn asked.

“You have plans?”

“No,” he said. “But I was going to see if I could borrow Konex for a bit.”

“What for?”

“I wanted his help with my Winter Soldier outfit,” he said. “Most of it is really easy, but the metal arm is a pain.”

“Tell you what,” Kara said. “If you can show Konex how to tie into 911 dispatch, along with police, fire and ambulance dispatch, as well as the emergency broadcast network so he can run superhero central when you’re not around, he’ll help you with your costume.”

“Awesome!” Winn said.

“No Kryptonian technology though,” Kara said in her Supergirl voice. Winn’s face fell slightly, but Kara ignored it. She knew she was going to have to introduce several Kryptonian technologies to the world at large, but she was going to do that in a very carefully controlled way, and she needed to make sure the patents stayed in friendly hands. That meant either Wayne Enterprises or Themyscira Enterprises. Letting Winn use any Kryptonian tech risked Maxwell Lord, Simon Tycho, or Lillian Luthor getting their hands on it.

The two of them ate in companionable silence for a while, and Kara used the time to rest for the confrontation she knew was coming.

“Four-alarm fire at Gates and Igle.”

The sudden sound made Winn jump, but Kara had been expecting it. She swallowed her last bite of pizza, and stood up.

“Konex, stay here with Winn. Let him show you how to run the equipment, and incorporate as many functions as possible into your internal hardware. Winn, after this, we will be done for the night. Let Maggie know, then, go home and get some sleep.”

“See you tomorrow?”

“I’ll text you,” Kara said as she jumped out of the window.

#supergirl #supercat #supercanary #sanvers #fanfiction #the shape of things to come #kara danvers #alex danvers #cat grant #maggie sawyer #sara lance #j'onn j'onzz #susan vasquez #lois lane #clark kent #james olsen #winn schott jr.#future shock

0 notes