#(and that includes badly missing brief character decisions)

[mettasing]

(before –"that la servetta? you're getting lost in your fantasies again..." / "what a bastard. chéri, i'm amazed by your grit and strength".

after – "who are these people? what do they want?.." / "hands are shaking. can't work. i don't understand. i don't understand".)

only thing i could do. i won't exaggerate – between all the exams i think i lost my ability to draw. it's already hard for me to sit still – which can result in a full day of working on some cell-shaded half-sketch. now idk how to build figures... it's so frustrating.

also can't work properly on my fanfic, even though i only need two or three scenes to finish the first arc. but i'm thinking about it everyday. these unfriendly lads are from here – ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ and giselle. they're people from madeleine's time in vector (which will be visited mostly in flashbacks later).

madeleine tried her best to survive there, but she was unlucky. she got booted from uni because of a conflict with staff, took many odd-jobs but couldn't hold them for long, developed alcoholism living mostly in slums. besides, she could see the looming threat of empire's future endeavours, so she joined the underground rebellion. madeleine met many people there, including giselle, a beloved cabaret dancer who lived a double-life – partly for things she believed in, partly for fun. giselle's laid-back, easygoing character was a contrast to madeleine's hyperaware, "tortured artist" type. they didn't clash, but they complimented each other, and they both shared love for art – which vector didn't appreciate much. giselle had feelings for madeleine, but the latter couldn't properly answer to them. still, they remained close friends until the incident. giselle got caught in and badly beaten by soldiers following another protest (it's not some fucking metaphor or allegory or anything, they basically were young and dumb and didn't know better), which transformed her from bright beloved starlet to paranoid broken shell of herself, as she sustained a serious brain injury. she was deathly afraid of men, including comrades from the rebellion, but also somehow her former friend. madeleine blames herself for what happened, and giselle's casy, among other things, had greatly motivated her to run away and try to meet her end. it's unknown how giselle is doing, but she is probably still alive and living in vector.

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ (squares don't correlate to letters) is madeleine's estranged brother. they got separated in the orphanage in which they got placed following their unfortunate home situation, as madeleine ran away. being complicit with her decision in childhood, he still holds grudges. faced with eviction, having nowhere else to go, madeleine suddenly found out that he was in vector as a design engineering student. she lived with him up until she left vector, and more often than not they have been arguing as a result of their completely different values and personalities. their relationship were complicated but they could've figure it out if they listened to each other. for madeleine, he was an example of self-centered boot-licking "modern human", "a man of progress" who she couldn't stand; for him, she was an egotistical half-lumpene who refused to get her life together and slowed down everyone around her, even though he tried to find her a place, one time recommending her for in-demand and well-paying position. they both had emotion disregulation problems that also contrasted. madeleine went missing quietly and suddenly after their big scandal, and on the next day when he came from uni he couldn't find her. somewhere she hid a brief note – perhaps, a sole reminder of her existence. but one is better than none: as for him, nobody knows where he went, as he vanished on his third year. maybe, he met his fate on dimly lit alley – or at the hands of authorities he had admired.

giselle and ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ had probably never met personally, hearing about each other briefly from madeleine's words. but i think that even if they had a meeting, their opinions about each other would stay the same. giselle knows the tech uni types as she previously had been enrolled there but was forced to start a new life because of family circumstances; which didn't win her many favours from them. so her thoughts about him (including madeleine's complaints) weren't positive, as she thought he was self-centered, unempathetic and arrogant. ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ has mixed impression – while he understands her struggles, he can't comprehend how someone in her circumstances (left her degree, physical and mental health-taxing job, having a family) could so easily put themselves into danger of defying the higher authority. besides, he thinks madeleine is just romanticising and fetishizing giselle being "destitute" (in his eyes). in person, their characters would clash. she doesn't like being controlled too much – she's having enough at work; and she has a short temper for those who try. giselle is empathetic – not to madeleine's degree, but enough for pointing at something "unjust" and trying to make things better. he's an authoritarian pseudo-rational enlightenment age type, thinking that everything "broken" (not suitable for his vision) can and should be fixed – in other cases it's just not needed here. they would probably insult each other at every moment they can.

giselle didn't know about madeleine's departure. she wasn't completely there yet – besides, people who visited her (and who were her friends in an old life) brought her great discomfort. still, she catched some news about their missing acquaintance, a former friend they parted ways with, and she could say she knew something, she felt something but it always escaped her grasp. ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ is largely disconnected from others' and his own feelings and sensations, but soon he found that he couldn't work and study. he tried to search for madeleine after he found the note, but it was too late, so he tried to move on. still, this unnamed anxiety without source didn't go away. he couldn't even comprehend himself feeling guilty, and no one could explain it properly.

[magnificent-nerd]

Why Naqib in The Boys sucked

Image description: fictional character Naqib in Amazon Prime’s show The Boys.

(Is the fire in the background an excuse to use racist Yellow Filter to show how exotic he is? Hmm.)

I first posted this on my blog in Dec 2020, and since nothing in superhero media has changed for the better at this time (September 5th, 2021), I’m going to keep talking about it.

Because nobody else does. So, without further ado:

WHY NAQIB SUCKS.

I was a big fan of The Boys season 1; I love superheroes, I love deconstructing a genre. Sure, it has its problems, but overall I enjoyed season 1 and thought the show had potential.

(That’ll learn me for being hopeful!)

When season 1 ended with this big build up of mostly nameless brown and background characters as Muslim terrorists (deep sigh) we the audience are left thinking this one Muslim character (Naqib) whose superpower is to blow himself up repeatedly (insert another long deep sigh here) is going to be The Big Bad of season 2.

I had my misgivings about that direction. Firstly, as you can see from the image of Naqib, he is highly exoticised and is walking around bare chested with Arabic writing on his chest. He looks more like a generic western media depiction of a genie than he does a supervillain. 

And yet he's the first prominent Muslim character in superhero media I've seen in YEARS.

-

(See my post about MENA and Muslim character good guys, including Joe played by Marwan Kenzari in The Old Guard, which is technically a comic book movie but it’s not what I’d call ‘caped and costumed’ superheroes so it’s more... superhero adjacent.)

I follow superhero content closely and as far as I'm aware the last time we saw any named Muslim characters in superhero movies WITH SPEAKING LINES was:

Instance 1) Iron Man 1 back in 2008 with The Ten Rings in Afghanistan, showing multiple Muslim characters as baddies/terrorists, but only two of them as a named character and with any meaningful lines to say. And despite one of them, Yinsen (actor Shaun Toub), being a good guy he still dies! Which is common in western media for Muslim and MENA characters.

Note: Fellow Iron Man 1 castmate, actor Sayed Badreya, makes an important point in this GQ article: "I die in Iron Man, I die in Executive Decision. I get shot by everyone. George Clooney kills me in Three Kings. Arnold blows me up in True Lies…" (x)

Instance 2) A more recent instalment in Batman V. Superman in 2016, with some unnamed 'General' character and mercenaries/terrorists in Nairomi, Africa, referred to only as "the desert" throughout the movie. All reference to the General's actual name are available in an extended/deleted scene only, so a very poor and vague depiction in the final cut.

Instance 3) The generic and badly written ‘bad guys’ in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020 movie), which was honestly such a racist depiction of Arabs and Muslims that many critics pointed out we hadn’t seen a depiction this terrible since 1994′s True Lies. (At least most critics were in agreement that WW84 movie was generally terrible, so there’s that.)

And that's it, those are the only major instances showing any Muslim actors or characters in a caped and costumed superhero movie. 

Some other fleeting glimpses of Muslims onscreen:

Glimpse 1) I spotted a girl wearing a hijab among the nameless and unspeaking background characters of Peter Parker's class in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). A first for Marvel movies, apparently.

Glimpse 2) Disney Plus show Falcon and Winter Soldier (2021) had two nameless Muslim characters walk by in a scene that’s supposed to be Tunisia (using Yellow Filter), and ‘thank’ the present American Air Force (eye-roll).

Glimpse 3) Netflix show Jupiter’s Legacy (2021) had a nameless Muslim sailor conversing with one of the main characters in a scene, with meaningful dialogue about racism. (WOW. Really good.) Bonus: no yellow filter. It’s a pity he’s a nameless background character because this brief instance is the least problematic MENA rep I’ve seen in ages, but it is very brief.

I just wrote about Glimpses 2 and 3, and how the Netflix show outdid Disney when it comes to these nameless walk-on Muslim characters.

This is pretty pathetic overall, these small crumbs, especially compared to better rep and probably the only instance of legit MENA superheroes in a ‘costumes and capes’ style superhero show, the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

-

Anyway, now I’ve listed what crumbs are available across the live action superhero genre, back to The Boys.

I was intrigued about how season 2 would handle Naqib and any characters relating to him, and what storyline they'd use. 

Was I excited at the possibility of seeing Muslim supers onscreen? Damn straight I was. Did I mind that they were baddies? Well, yes and no. When you only ever get crumbs or no crumbs at all, you tend to get excited over one stale old crumb.

After the build up for season 2, I eagerly sat down to watch the first episode, only to have the first five minutes of episode 1 Trigon him.

Note: who's Trigon, you ask? Well if you didn't watch the DCEU's Titans show, Trigon was The Big Bad who was hyped up throughout season 1, introduced in the season 1 cliff-hanger episode as this big 'oh shit!' moment for the cast of heroes, only for him to fizzle out like a wet fart in the first episode of season 2 while the show pivots wildly in another direction. 

Exactly what happened to Naqib in the first five minutes of The Boys season 2.

Erm, so, Naqib. Farewell, I guess? As a character you briefly appeared in 2 episodes, portrayed by a different actor in each (Krishan Dutt, and Samer Salem). It seems the writers used you as a plot device when they needed a cheap cliff-hanger for a direction that ultimately went nowhere.

Am I disappointed? Yeah, I am. Overall I thought season 2 of The Boys was weaker than season 1, but I'm not here to talk about the whole season: I want to talk about Naqib and this missed opportunity.

The Boys and its showrunners sell the show as being a satire of recent and well known superhero content, of all the big movies and TV shows. There's been a lot of patting themselves on the back for calling out overused tropes in superhero media (and sometimes they've done this satire well: see the LGBT marketing scene with Queen Maeve in season 2), but my issue with the show on their Muslim rep, or should I say lack thereof, is if your show has even less Muslim character rep than the content you're trying to parody, how is this a win for satire?

Naqib and that whole angle came across as a lazy, half-assed swing from the writer's room. Sure, perhaps a lot of the non-Muslim and non-MENA audience won't even notice, as we've been ignored by western media or made into nameless, generic, vacuous baddies for decades now. Non-Muslims and non-MENA just accept that we're always the baddies for no particular reason at all (which feeds into Islamophobia, by the way) and The Boys' writers could say they are simply satirising the tropes already present in media...

But, and this is a big but, the media that The Boys is satirising has already made a step toward better inclusion and representation: Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Marvel comics' first Muslim superhero, is entering the MCU as a lead character in her own Disney Plus show, debuting in 2022. 

Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan is also cited to appear in upcoming Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels (2022), which will be a major movie.

The MCU has also cast a Muslim actor (Mahershala Ali) as the lead in a reboot of Blade. That's going to be big news when it starts filming.

So to the showrunners on The Boys, I say this: now you've done this small angle of 'all Muslim characters are terrorists, yuckity-yuck!' like we've seen in major superhero movies thus far, and you've brushed that aside in favor of focusing on other whiter villains, my question is will you come back to Muslim and MENA characters again? Or is that all you got?

Because if that was ALL, then the current score is Disney/MCU:02, Netflix:02, DCEU:02, and The Boys: a big ZERO as far as Muslim and MENA rep goes.

-

Originally posted on my blog, magnificently nerdy.

If you, like me, are always on the lookout for onscreen Muslim and MENA characters in superhero media, and have spotted any characters in superhero TV shows I haven’t watched yet, let me know about them!

Here is my post on good guys, featuring Old Guard’s Joe, and Blindspot’s Rich Dotcom.

Here’s my post about the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow TV show.

And, if Marvels’ Eternals gets released on schedule for 2021, we will have a MENA actor portraying a supporting character. I just hope Marvel gives him a name.

[hyena-frog]

Makes me so sad to think about how Cassius raised Lysander for 10 YEARS and came to love him like a brother and likely put a ton of effort into being a decent role model only for Lysander to turn around and become exactly like Octavia..... like can you imagine what must be going through Cassius’ head when he flies over Lysander at the end of DA.. :( seeing the kid he raised to adulthood become a monster.. I just... ugh. It tears me up inside

Hoo boy, I hope you’re prepared for the essay I’m about to write.

Genuinely, I think about this all the time. Cassius and Lysander have one of the most complex, tragic relationships the second trilogy has to offer. I hated Cassius so much after Golden Son but now he’s one of my favorite characters. I would really love it if he is the new POV Pierce Brown promised. In the second trilogy, Cassius has been exclusively filtered through Lysander’s POV, so I’m dying to know his own thoughts on everything that has happened. (But I would also like a Volga POV for the Obsidian story and maybe Diomedes POV for the Rim perspective. I’m torn.) I just want Cassius to have a happy ending. And I hate Lysander, but I would really like for him to see eye to eye with Cassius at least once before he is horribly, painfully, rightfully murdered.

Now, the thing is, Cassius didn’t come to love Lysander as a brother over time, he already loved him when he decided to become his guardian and mentor. It bugged me that, at the end of Morning Star, it didn’t feel like Cassius’ decision to take in Lysander was justified enough. All we really got out of him was that Lysander reminded him of Julian. Pretty flimsy. Then Iron Gold came along and blessed us with a flashback to when they first met. Little Lysander wasn’t too impressed with Cassius (he wasn’t exactly as respectable post Red Rising as he is now) but Cassius quickly went from calling Lysander an “eerie little creature” to declaring “I’ve decided to like you, little moon boy.” From that moment, Cassius truly cared for Lysander. Reading that flashback again after Dark Age makes me so emotional.

Lysander has this complex about being Julian’s replacement, that Cassius doesn’t love him so much as he loves the shadow of Julian he sees in him. And he’s justified, in a way, because Cassius does slip up and call him Julian sometimes, but it’s usually when he’s delirious from pain and not thinking clearly. Lysander completely misses the fact that Cassius does love him. I guess he doesn’t have much experience recognizing when he’s genuinely cared for, because why would he, but there is plenty of evidence of Cassius’ true feelings.

For example, Cassius sold most of his remaining family possessions to keep them afloat on the Archimedes. Now, Cassius isn’t strapped for cash by any means but the fact he cares for Lysander (and Pytha) enough to sell many of the last reminders of his dead family that he owns, is very telling. But Lysander doesn’t think about that. He acknowledges that it happened but doesn’t consider the deeper, emotional meaning behind that action.

Another example is Cassius opening up to Lysander about the last time he ever saw his father. How he disappointed Tiberius but finally regained his respect, only for the entire Bellona family to be slaughtered shortly after that reconciliation. That was a sign that he loves and trusts Lysander enough to be vulnerable with him. He never told that story to anyone else, as far as we know. He believed he was going to die in the Bleeding Place and wanted that memory of his father to live on in Lysander. The fact that Lysander is blind to how Cassius genuinely loves him, even now, is tragic.

You’re right, Cassius did try to be a good role model and pass on good morals. I think the scene in Dark Age, where Pytha confesses that Cassius forbade her from revealing to Lysander that she is actually a soldier and not a disgraced commercial pilot, as he was lead to believe, was very telling. Cassius attempted to show Lysander life outside of politics and war. He tried to show him that all Colors are equals deserving of respect. Cassius was devastated when Lysander chose to save Seraphina over the many mid- and low-color prisoners on the Vindabona. He was horrified that Lysander chose “quality” of life saved over quantity. This coming from Cassius, who compared Pinks to animals in Red Rising. Cassius has learned and changed a lot since the first book and he tried to pass those lessons onto Lysander. But it didn’t stick. Not even after 10 years of teaching.

Unfortunately, his teachings were tainted by his bad coping mechanisms for his personal demons. His alcoholism, his continued pining for Virginia, combined with his betrayal of Octavia and involvement in Aja's brutal murder, gave Lysander enough excuses to never fully embrace his lessons. While Lysander did love Cassius, there was always some flaw or another in his teacher that allowed him to comfortably distance himself from the lessons that diverged from Octavia’s teachings. To be honest, Cassius had no business taking on a ward while he was so torn up inside. Keeping Lysander isolated in a tin can in the middle of space for 10 years, instead of living among diverse people, didn’t do him any favors either. Frankly, Cassius missed a lot of red flags. A big one is the fact Lysander carved Lux ex tenebris, the Lune family motto, into the ceiling of his room on the Archimedes, where he could stare up at it every night. Yikes.

This dissonance in Lysander’s thinking is what lead to his betrayal in the Bleeding Place. Yes, Lysander loves Cassius and wanted to save his life rather than see him die at the hands of people who don’t respect him. But he also genuinely believes in the inherent hierarchy of Octavia’s teachings, that the “true order” is for Cassius to follow him. If Cassius lives, if he can convince him that his rightful place is to follow Lysander, things can finally be right in the worlds. Cassius failed to express his feelings in a way Lysander can comprehend, so he felt he was just a replacement for Julian. Lysander can dismiss Cassius’ love as love for his dead twin, and in turn, he can dismiss his claim to believe in the inherent equality of humankind as guilt and justification for killing his Sovereign. Cassius was unable to truly see how badly he failed until he was betrayed.

Since Cassius was absent for most of the plot following his “death” it’s difficult to concretely say what he’s been thinking since then. But I’ve been thinking a lot about him, so here is my conjecture. Take it with a grain of salt.

That moment you mention, when Cassius flies overhead, he deliberately retracted his helmet for a brief moment of eye contact with Lysander, so he would know exactly who rescued Darrow... Shivers. So much left unsaid. I imagine Cassius was thinking a lot of things in that moment. On the one hand, some pettiness and anger at being betrayed: “I lived bitch, I rescued Darrow, this is where my loyalties lie.” But there was also probably a mixture of shock and guilt at knowing what Lysander has done, at who he’s sided with and enabled, but also at seeing evidence of physical suffering in Lysander's burn scar and blind eye. Cassius loved Lysander, he was his guardian for 10 years, so he would hate to see him hurt. I think he would feel responsible for Lysander’s actions on some level, even if he logically understands that he’s an adult who makes his own choices.

Regardless, Cassius probably blames himself on some level. That’s what I think anyway. He tried his best to teach this kid good morals for an entire decade only for him to cling to the ideals his grandmother taught him. That has to sting. It’s probably also embarrassing, to a degree. Cassius made this grand promise to Darrow that he’d raise Lysander right, that Sevro was wrong to suggest they should have just killed him when he was little. Now Cassius’ failure to make good on that promise has been advertised to the whole Solar System through Lysander’s actions on Mercury. Surely Cassius feels responsible.

Cassius had a lot of time to think during his long return trip to the Core. About what happened with Lysander in the Rim, about his lingering feelings for Virginia, about his place in the Republic, and about what he really considers the right thing to do. Cassius can be intensely empathetic when he allows himself to be. For example, in Morning Star, he managed to really sympathize with Darrow’s life when they were drinking whiskey together. I’m willing to bet he spent that long return journey considering Lysander’s perspective with a clear head, after spending so many years lost in the haze of his own sorrows. Now that he is out of that bad mental place, he is likely able to see where he made mistakes in how he raised Lysander.

It will make for an interesting confrontation between Cassius and Darrow, who is thoroughly, understandably, done with Lysander, when the time comes to kill him. Cassius knows the danger Lysander poses and probably won’t argue against killing him this time, but I do think he would resist a little and at least try to find an alternative solution.

Lastly, I just want to say this, since it’s sort of relevant: This fandom tends to agree that Sevro should have just killed Lysander as a child, but if I’m being honest, I don’t agree. Kill Lysander now, as an adult, by all means, but as a kid he hadn’t done anything wrong yet, even if he was a little creepy. Darrow was right to give him the chance to live in peace. Too bad he ultimately didn’t take it. I especially don’t think Cassius would agree killing Lysander as a kid was the right choice, even now. He is traumatized by the sudden loss of most of his family, including little kids, so I don’t think he’d ever agree to killing a child. If he could somehow go back in time, knowing what he knows now, I think he would make the same choice to raise Lysander. In that scenario, I think he would rather try to fix the mistakes he made as a mentor, rather than punish Lysander.

Guh. Anyway. I had a lot of words in me about this subject. Hope you got something out of it! I’m consistently amazed by how Pierce Brown’s writing compels me to think deeply about these characters. Not to mention his ability to make me understand Lysander’s perspective even if I don’t like it or agree with it. Cassius’ perspective though... well, half of this post is just me guessing, so we’ll have to see how close I am to canon when book 6 comes out. Thanks for reading!

[ingek73]

The Curious Case of Meghan’s Earrings

POSTED BY LAINEY

ON 03/03/2021 AT 5:53 PM

If it wasn’t obvious that the new report in The Times, featuring information provided by royal aides, was part of a smear campaign against Meghan Markle, the story about the earrings, packaged in along with allegations that she bullied staff members, pretty much drives the point home. It has nothing to do with anything. If you’re team royal, you could argue that the bullying story could serve as a rebuttal against whatever Meghan may say about the royals not welcoming her during her interview with Oprah, so for them, I suppose they could justify it in that context. But the earrings? The earrings are purely for the purpose of character assassination. It’s low.

And it’s also misleading. Meghan wore the earrings in Fiji during the Sussexes’ 2018 tour three weeks after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. According to The Times, they were a gift from Mohammed bin Salman. What The Times doesn’t include in their report though is that the CIA didn’t release the findings from the investigation into the murder, confirming MBS’s ordered it, until after Meghan wore the earrings. Not that most people didn’t already suspect MBS, obviously, but if you’re going to include the three weeks after the murder detail, you may as well complete the information so as to give the full picture of what everyone would and wouldn’t have been aware of at the time. Also not included was an explanation for how jewellery is managed in the British royal family.

Meghan didn’t just have those earrings sitting in a drawer in her closet like a regular person. That’s not how royal jewels and royal gifts work. They’re catalogued. They’re kept in fancy storage. Like the fanciest library ever. PEOPLE has a more detailed explanation of this:

“PEOPLE has learned that the earrings were gifted on March 7, 2018, from the Saudi Arabian royal family. Neither the Duke nor the Duchess of Sussex was present when they were given at Buckingham Palace, and as is protocol for any wedding gift of this nature, they remain property of The Crown.”

So for Meghan to wear the earrings, a few other people would have had to know about it, and consider it. Again, that’s how the royals operate – decisions like this go through multiple levels. She’s not the only person who has to wear this “scandal”. There are advisors in place specifically to address which jewels should be worn and which ones shouldn’t. Remember all that drama about her wedding tiara? The whole point of that dust-up was that Meghan wasn’t allowed to just waltz in there and demand the tiara of her choice. And it’s unlikely that she rocked up to the jewel room and did that with the earrings. With all the gifts that the Sussexes would have received from around the world for their wedding, there’s also the matter of whether or not she was keeping track of all of it, especially when these kinds of gifts are kept somewhere else. So was she not properly briefed about these earrings and their origins? Initially, at the time of the tour, the explanation that the earrings were on loan from a jeweller – the Crown jeweller, as we know now. Did the people who manage the jewels not do their homework and fail to advise her properly? Did she know and just not care and expect to get away with it? That seems to be the suggestion from these royal aides contributing to The Times’ story but, again, if that’s what went down, they’re not filling it in either. And would these vipers miss an opportunity to tell us about the time Meghan wanted to wear these earrings so badly she overlooked a murder?! Like, the way they’re going about this attack on her, if they could make that direct line, they would. And they haven’t here. Which is why this situation is so bizarre. They seem to be setting her up to take the fall on her own for these earrings but it’s really hard to believe that she was the only one involved in this earring mystery.

It is really something though that they decided to dig this up and throw it out there ahead of the Oprah interview. Something really filthy. And if they’re resorting to this kind of filth, they must be panicked as f-ck about what Harry and Meghan might say. Which of course only amplifies interest in the Oprah special. If the royals are this pressed, how bad is it going to be?

[bldramagalore]

I don't mind getting spoilered at all, so please rant away! I'd rather know beforehand than wasting my time only to get disappointed -twm anon

FULL SPOILER FOR TWM: THE NEXT CHAPTER AHEAD.

Like I said, this season just ruined so much of the things I liked in TWM. At first, the main conflict is centered around the fact that even though they're been together for a while and live together, Korn and Knock still haven't come out to their families (so far that's fine). One thing I already didn't like was how pressured Korn was ? It's only my opinion but basically Knock really piles up on him and so does all their friends about not coming out when Knock is from a very chill and open minded family while Korn's dad is extremely conservative and Korn pretty much knows that his coming out wouldn't go well. Korn did make bad decisions too like asking Knock to go sleep at a friend's house when his dad came to visit but pressuring someone into coming out is just a huge no for me.

Another thing that's set up from the get go is that Knock has been chatting with this girl online because they're part of a team on a game they both play. This was totally set up as a way to make the audience think Knock was going to cheat but that actually never really goes anywhere except using her as a decoy for Korn's parent at some point. What actually happens is that Knock ends up coming out to his family after he has a big argument with Korn. His family accepts him. Meanwhile, Korn goes to drink with their boss who's also gay AND FUCKING CHEATS ON KNOCK WITH HIM. Korn ends up confessing his infidelity because he's confronted about it by Knock's junior. Huge dramatic break up ensues which was well acted but so badly done in term of how OOC the characters were ? If it wasn't bad enough that they turned Korn into a cheater, they legit make him say that in his defence it was just sex and it doesn't mean anything ? That's a yikes from me. That's also coupled with Korn's dad barging in and learning about their relationship followed by a huge argument between Korn and his family. But yeah they break up and Knock even thinks of also sleeping with the boss just to hurt Korn but he can't go through with it. In the end they basically end up exposing the boss for being a manipulator (he kept bringing up stories of his dead lover who he missed so much as a way to have younger men feel sorry for him and make them sleep with him basically even though it was fake) and I guess that suddenly makes what Korn did okay ? Because he was low-key manipulated into it ? Like where. But long story short, they get back together after that and Korn's parents end up accepting their relationship.

This season was such a train wreck and honestly one of the biggest disappointment of a sequel I've ever seen. They basically ruined Korn's character for me and had the couple fight the whole time to add drama without adding anything to the story. They also didn't go through with what they had announced for the show aka them getting married. Like I told you, Bad Romance ended with a proposal and if you've seen some of the posters and promotional pictures for the show, they were supposedly setting up their wedding which just didn't happen at all. I didn't include the side couple with the doctor and his f*ck boy but if you want to know about that I can give you a brief summary too. As for Yihwa, I didn't really watch her storyline because I just knew they were gonna ruin her character and apparently they also gave her a cheating storyline except I don't know if she actually goes through with it. I'm not saying that TWM was perfect in the first place but MaxTul's chemistry managed to shine because they had many soft moments together and most of the characters were fun. Here, even MaxTul's premium chemistry felt off just because of how bad the writing was. I'm sorry this was so long but I'll never stop being bitter about this being so so bad.

[toxikku]

Ducktales Switched AU: Masterpost !

I was asked to make a masterpost pertaining to my feelsy AU and figured considering how far it’s come, it was needed!

Brief summary: This is an AU where Scrooge and Magica’s roles have been swapped. Gladstone takes the place of Lena after Scrooge saved him from the House of Lucky Fortune, whilst a shadow child called Lena takes the place of Magica’s niece. Magica lives in the mansion with Lena, Webby, Mrs. Beakley, and her brother-turned-raven, Poe. Scrooge’s family is of magical heritage, including Donald and his boys who are currently estranged from the old miser after a terrible accident involving Della Duck. The unlucky duck avoided Duckburg all their lives up until the kids hijacked and sabotaged the boat to visit out of curiousity. And then the shenanigans began.

Now the core aspect of it is out of the way, more information under the cut! Biographies may vary in length (and key events) as I am still figuring out concepts. As a result, I may make edits occasionally! If you have any further questions, even about characters I’ve already talked about or have YET to talk about, please shoot!

The official tag for it is #ducktales switched au, until further notice!

CHARACTERS:

Magica De Spell: The richest duck in the world, Magica is a well reknowned figure in the world, running huge companies as well as owning a considerable amount of land. Her estate used to belong to the one and only Scrooge McDuck, until she bought it out after his disappearance. She does adventure in her spare time (and has done in the past, crossing paths with Scrooge AND Goldie), though is quite a busy business woman so rarely has time for her domestic life. Extremely eccentric and a little chaotic, but she does get the job done. Has dabbled in magic before, but after her brother was turned into a raven, doesn’t much do so anymore.

Scrooge McDuck: An infamous warlock of his time, Scrooge McDuck was a former treasure hunter and magical artefact collector, jolly and passionate. He ventured the world with his nephew and niece gathering items which slowly corrupted his mindset, much to the worries of Donald. He became power hungry, possessive, and stuck in his own decisions - and that ended terribly when Della Duck tried to lead him away from the life of corruption. A reflex stray of magic ended in disaster, and in one day, both relatives left him. Grieving over the loss of Della and how it was all his fault, he left behind his estate and relocated to Mt. Vesuvius, then spent the following years lost and searching for a way to get Della back, no matter the casualities. His first real attempt to get her back was thwarted by Magica De Spell, and he was trapped in his own dime for five years up until the events of the Shadow War.

Lena De Spell: Magica’s ‘niece’. After fleeing numerous boarding schools, Lena turned up on Magica’s doorstep and wound up adopted. She was created during the fight between Magica and Scrooge, much like in canon, only this time around, Gladstone was there to take her place. Magica took her in partly out of guilt and responsibility for her creation, and they’ve been together ever since. Lena rarely gets to see her aunt much, and Magica’s spoilings don’t really help this - though that does change eventually, around the time she met these three weird kids. Lena’s connection to Scrooge is something Magica does stress over though...

Webby Vanderquack: Lena’s best friend and local conspiracy theorist. Not much different from her canon counterpart, she gushes over the De Spell family’s history, much to the irritation of Lena who frankly could care less. With how busy Magica is, Webby and Lena are constantly together, and go on adventures with Gladstone Gander, the triplets, and the entire family if they’re lucky. Family dictionary, and her world totally wasn’t shaken when she discovered Scrooge McDuck’s belongings in the manor.

Gladstone Gander: Scrooge’s lucky adopted and non-magical nephew. At some point before Scrooge was shadow-fied, Gladstone was saved from the Lucky Casino by his uncle. In exchange, he agreed to help Scrooge out without reading the fine print (binding contracts are never good). After Scrooge and Magica’s battle, Scrooge’s shadow attached to his, and the rest rolls out as you’d expect. He eventually becomes involved in the De Spells’ lives, trying to retrieve the number one dime for his uncle and earn his freedom. Unfortunately, his growing attachment to the family means his luck doesn’t really work with him, at least for Scrooge’s goals. Becomes quite protective of Lena and Webby (and usually stands up to Scrooge because of them), and develops awkward feelings for Magica.

Has no idea what Scrooge’s actual motives are, and Scrooge is hesitant to say them in case Gladstone rebels. Not that he doesn’t eventually anyways. Come the Other Bin, the goose has enough of his uncle’s orders but that ends badly for him, and the freedom in the Shadow War is temporary. Cursed a shadow, but that doesn’t stop him protecting the kids, which is his end - least in waking life. Stiiiiill pondering who his shadow gets attached to.

Donald Duck: Scrooge’s magical nephew and your typical bad luck magnet. Before the incident with his relatives, he ventured the world while studying magic under his uncle’s wing. Lived in Duckburg until Della’s disappearance, then left with the boys, constantly on the move for a new home (and job).  Wary about the usage of magic after what happened to Della, though hesitantly taught the boys what he knows (at least the bare minimum). Occasionally traveled with his friends, José Carioca and Panchito, and didn’t return to Duckburg until his curious nephews hijacked the boat and stranded them there. Spends most of his time looking for a new job to fix the boat. Fixed up the boat over the course of season 1, but it wound up getting broken again by its end. Magica offered his family to stay come season 2 in thanks for the battle against his uncle.

Della Duck: The missing mother. She ventured with her uncle and brother, though unlike them wasn’t that invested in magic. Della focused on practicality, and although she was a talented witch at a young age, she ultimately lost interest and wanted to tackle everything hands on. She disappeared before her children were born, sucked into a portal to the underworld after trying to confiscate an artefact from her uncle’s grasp and being hit by a stray bout of magic. As far as everyone knows, Della is long dead. Her memorial can be found at Castle McDuck, and her family visits it often.

Huey: An incredibly bright child with a knack for reading; takes to spellbooks like a duck to water. Typically the nephew most knowledgeable on spells and if you need a magic dictionary, then he’s your guy. Has about as much potential as Donald when it comes to magic ability, but he’s still learning and as a result his spells vary in strength. Into science and idolizes Gizmoduck, finding the practicality of science and technology fascinating.

Dewey: Darts right into danger just like his mother; Dewey has had accidents with his spell casting, and accidentally snapped his wand at a point (those are expensive to replace)/ His spellcasting has pretty good strength for a boy his age... until you realize it has zero handling. Until he can get a lid on it, his spells are pretty unstable and the wand doesn’t help things. Despite its defects, however, only Dewey knows how to somewhat work it because he’s had it so long. Dewey headed the ‘let’s sabotage the boat while Donald is sleeping and go to Duckburg’ plan.

Louie: The lazy triplet has a lot of tricks up his sleeves. Spells are usually pretty tame as he has a tendency to just use them for house chores, but out of all the triplets, he has the strongest magical capability. The downside is he’s just never motivated to push himself that far. As such, he has a habit of getting into the most trouble - and since he’s still building self confidence, fear isn’t the motivation he needs.

Poe de Spell: A duck cursed to be a raven by Scrooge McDuck; he was transformed into a raven during Scrooge’s final confrontation with Magica. Generally acts as her sister’s advisor of sorts, wary, wise, but still as snarky as in the OG Ducktales. Acts as a Zazu to Lena, in that sense, but cursed teens are always able to evade a watchful eye. He’s a raven the entirety of Season 1 before the wizard, Donald Duck, is able to turn him back after the events of the Shadow War.

Launchpad McQuack: The family driver/pilot - Magica admires his positive and smashing energy and wouldn’t have any other person to drive her to and from her destinations.

Goldie o’Gilt: Scrooge McDuck’s old flame; she had history with the warlock before he took a turn for the worse. Their relationship was about as you’d expect until the incident, then it grew colder with every encounter because Goldie’s rivalry was intrusive to Scrooge’s plans. She had no idea what incited this change. Attended a party and ran into another old rival: Magica De Spell, and they ventured to white agony plains together (where Goldie was reminiscent of the days with Scrooge, though she said little about it to Magica).

Mrs. Beakley: Agent 22 - used to work with Scrooge McDuck, and soon as his housekeeper until Della’s disappearance and his leave. Signed up for the same job with Magica de Spell, awaiting her former boss’ return and to keep an eye on his belongings.

Duckworth: The manor’s ghost; previously served under Scrooge McDuck before his disappearance. Along with Mrs. Beakley, is currently guarding the warlock’s belongings. Extremely loyal to Scrooge in general, but due to the bonds he’s made with the people around him, that loyalty is a tad strained. Unlike in canon, he actually stayed behind before the events of the Shadow War.

STILL TO COME:

Fenton Crackshell:

Gyro Gearloose:

Downy & Fergus

AND A BUNCH MORE. PROBS.

LINKS:

REFERENCES:

Scrooge

Donald.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Poe De Spell.

LORE:

The Scrooge sketch that started it all - This was just a random idea I came up with one day; I loved role switch AUs, especially when they’re with antagonists and protagonists.

Initial Magica Concept - Later adapted the design to better fit the design in the reboot.

General PSA about the AU - 1 - Not everyone changes drastially; they’re just adapted.

General PSA about the AU - 2 - About the general storyline.

McDuck Family Lore - 1 - The McDuck family are one of magic, Gladstone being the exception as he is adopted. Della died due to a magical accident and Donald was unable to save her.

De Spell Family Lore - 1 - About Magica’s relationship with Lena and her characterisation in general.

De Spell Family Lore - 2 - Information on the raven, Poe de Spell, and Lena.

Poe & Gladstone - stuff about Poe’s personality and fate, with a bit about Gladstone.

Lena’s Existence in the AU - shadow child, ye.

Donald - 1 - Initial Donald design; pretty basic and eventually got changed.

Donald - 2 - Doodle of that boy.

Scrooge - 1 - Doodles; Scrooge’s infamy is pretty well known and he won’t stand for family members getting in the way of his goals.

Donald and the boys - 1 - Donald teaches the boys magic... but only with restraint.

Donald and the boys - 2 (+Gladstone meta) - Slightly scrapped concept; Donald was stranded in Duckburg with the boys instead of constantly traveling the world across the season so he and the boys would be more involved with the plot.

Donald and the boys - 3 - and where they’re living.

Donald and Della’s childhood - they were so smol.

Della’s Scarf - ouch.

Dewey’s Wand - 1 - it broken.

Dewey’s Wand - 2 - but he knows how to use it.

The Triplets & their involvement - I still love this idea so much.

Scrooge and Gladstone - 1 - An old concept I suppose; I’m honestly thinking about scrapping this as ‘marriage’ takes a little too long for Scrooge’s liking and the concept just irks me a little.

Scrooge and Gladstone - 2 - Gladstone trying to casually divert attention to something else does not work in the slightest.

Scrooge and Gladstone - 3 - Summary of how Scrooge’s quest to save Gladstone and get his backup plan for the fight against Magica went.

Scrooge and Gladstone - 4 - Decided to mess with a different kind of perspective.

Voice Musing - I saw stuff in the tags it had me thinking emoji.

Scrooge and Gladstone - 5 - lore galore in the tags, btw.

Scrooge’s relationship with Goldie - talks a bit about her debut ep.

not canon but HOW DARE YOU ANON - scrooge and goldie hurt me.

Gladstone’s interactions with the kids - 1 - Lena is generally suspicious but Webby is painfully open.

Gladstone’s interactions with the kids - 2 - Lena is a suspicious child wary for Webby’s sake. Also I am called out for having too much Gladstone in this AU. Looking at this list, I can confirm I am trash.

Gladstone’s interactions with Magica - 1 - spoilers: he’s a dork.

JAW$ redraw but it’s Gladstone and Scrooge - I spent so much time on this but it was really worth it. He likely would have had the friendship bracelet Webby gave him but I was too burnt out to draw that section.

JAW$ doodles (Lena, Gladstone and Scrooge) - in which a teenager is baffled and shocked this guy would save anyone but himself.

Other Bin Doodles (Gladstone ft. Lena) - Some sketches I did after rewatching the Other Bin; Lena and Webby both get turned into dolls in this one.

Other Bin suffering - goose boy sad, save him.

Gladstone and Magica content (ft. Lena) - someone asked for Magicstone so I delivered.

Fenton & Gyro - some general stuff and their relationship with their boss.

Mrs. Beakley’s role in the Switched AU - I don’t talk about her enough tbh.

Scrooge’s old personality and his relationship with his niece and nephew - meta is so fun to write out but ouch.

Scrooge’s Motives & About Della - was rather painful to write about.

Scrooge and Donald - 1 - Did you know Della’s scarf used to be whole?

Shadow War Sketches - 1 - Man I really was on a field trip with these.

Shadow War Sketches - 2 - in which Gladstone perishes.

Shadow War Sketches - 3 - got to work with good expressions with these.

Shadow War Sketches - 4 - veeeeery proud of these.

Fake Shadow War Screenshots - got asked to edit suffering and I delivered.

Fake Triplet Screenshots - edits of the children.

Fake Scrooge Screenshots - I still don’t think green suits him tbh.

Fake Magica screenshot - she.

Shadow Gladstone and his fate - This... was dark.

Fenton and Scrooge - Took place after the Shadow War, I guess, while Scrooge is grieving.

This is a serious AU - yeah... i got nothin to say.

Inspiration - I’m a nerd, go figure.

Fanfiction WIP - who knows when I’ll finish it, but it’s in the works.

Scrapped Visual Novel - Maybe? Idk, depends if I ever get time for it.

Misc. Sketches - [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] 

Misc. Asks - [x] [x] [x] [x]

Headcanon commentary - [x] [x] [x] [x] [x]

BEAUTIFUL ART BY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE:

domiinon:

Scrooge

Scrooge again and I am sobbing

All the Scrooges need hugs tbh

THIS LOOKS SO AMAZING?? LOOK AT IT??

scrooge support squad for all the angst we put them through

KJGNJFDNGDJ THEY ALL LOOK FABULOUS

bloosume:

Scrooge

fini-mun:

The End

kats-kreations:

Last Christmas aka kat breaks my heart

[ninja-muse]

Blindsight - Peter Watts

In brief: A first contact novel with seriously alien aliens. A meditation on humanity and sentience. A bleak but believable vision of the future.

Thoughts: This is a hard read in a few ways and I can’t say whether I liked or disliked it. There’s a lot of science, a lot of facts to remember and pieces to keep track of, enough flashbacks and other narrative tricks that I’m tempted to call the story nonlinear even though it isn’t, and on top of that, the narrator-protagonist is, if not a psychopath, certainly psychopath-adjacent. I think this is a book you have to read a few times to really understand, but a single read-through will still shake you pretty badly.

Watts does a wonderful job getting into the narrator’s point of view, and the confusion, emotionlessness, and minimalist description that comes from it. He’s good at characterization in general, which is impressive considering how much Siri*, the narrator, has got to be missing. This is as much a story about humans and interpersonal dynamics as it is about first contact, and the arguments and discussions about first contact ethics and procedure wouldn’t be what they are without that strong underpinning.

Watts has also done a great job with the science. There are some really cool ideas in this book, ideas I as a science nerd hadn’t come across or only mildly had, and the science I did know decently, like the linguistics, he outlines accurately but without going over the top on it. And the science goes beyond the aliens and the human ship, because Watts also speculates about AIs and advances in neurology, and what the world would look like with those in place. I definitely came out reconsidering assumptions about all sorts of things and I’m not sure I like the conclusions.

Which is fine. Hard SF like this is supposed to make you think.

In terms of the story itself, this is well-structured and paced, with some epic twists and great, scary action scenes, and all the flashbacks and suppositions and things fit, though it might not always be obvious at first glance that they do. (That said, I’m still a bit miffed that so many flashbacks had to do with the ex-girlfriend, though I can see Watts’ reasoning for that decision, I think.) It’s tight and weird and creepy and a little claustrophobic.

So yeah… this is a good book and a good example of hard science fiction, a difficult mental and emotional read, and something I’m glad to have read. I might not know how to feel about it after the fact, like I usually do, doesn’t detract from any of that and if you’re into hard SF or are intrigued by the premise, I’d certainly recommend it.

*Yep, that threw me every single time his name was said too.

To bear in mind: Creepy alien artifacts. Mind-and bodyfuckery, including hallucinations and loss of autonomy. Probably not great for people with arachnophobia or similar triggers. Not able to speak to the neurodiversity stuff, but there’s a character who’s given herself multiple personalities and a possible-psychopath.

7/10

[ashglory-writes]

i made the blade that cut me down

soooo i was never really that much into argentstep but hoo boy that update. retribution spoilers abound.

~2.2k words, rated T. a vague kind of emotionally stunted argent/sidestep, minor appearances from others. more of a sidestep character exploration piece than anything, to be honest.

There is a subtle distinction between wound ‘repair’ and ‘regeneration’. Repair means incomplete regeneration.

The aftermath of the auction.

The aftermath of the scar.

i.

There isn't any makeup that can disguise this, you think, staring into the mirror. Not that you really have any in your possession, and not unless you're willing to spend the better part of an hour trying to cover everything and make it look even. It's luxury and time you don't have, not with the kind of life you live.

So. The scar stays.

You trace the red stripe down your forehead, fingertips lingering where it just barely misses the corner of your eye. It's just another scar, you try to think. Just another on top of the dozens, the hundreds, already littering your body. This one is a bit more visible but in the end it's nothing special.

It's a testament to your self-control, you think, that the bitter laugh curdling in the back of your throat doesn't see the light of day. Nothing special. Hah.

You've fucked up, badly. Argent knows. You let Argent know. It was a stupid decision and not one you can blame on adrenaline, or one you can say was part of a carefully calculated plan. You let Argent know and you don't know why, and that's something you can't let stand. In your line of work, not knowing things gets you killed, whether it's LDPD response times, exactly how much pressure is needed to break an arm, or your own thoughts.

The reflection in the mirror looks angry, but maybe that's only because of the scar. You cover the half of your face with a hand and squint again, wondering if it makes a difference.

Your vision starts to blur after a while, and you give up when your reflection remains unwilling to give you any clear answers. One last prod at the red mark--a twinge of pain, though nowhere near searing, which, fine, you can live with that--and you leave well enough alone. You have work to do.

ii.

Predictably, Ortega freaks out. So does Herald. You think Chen might be having one too, but he was off to the side when you entered and it's kind of hard to turn to look when Ortega has grabbed your face in both his hands.

Argent remains standing by the doorway, watching in silence with her arms crossed.

"What the hell happened?" Ortega demands, holding you in place as he stares at the scar.

"Someone tried to mug me," you say blandly. A common enough occurrence that no one will ever look too deeply into it. "I'm fine, Ortega. I know how to clean up a wound, it's not infected or anything."

You set your jaw in a scowl that he'll be able to feel through his palms and he seems to get the picture, releasing you with a murmured apology. It seems half-hearted at best, though, and the crease between his eyebrows hasn't disappeared. You recognize the worried-upset look from your Sidestep days. There's probably a lecture incoming, and you aren't particularly in the mood for one, so you turn a bit to the side and toss a nod towards Herald.

"I should probably thank you, Herald," you say, distracting everyone and causing golden boy’s face to burn bright red from the sudden attention. “All that training's helped keep me sharp too. It came in handy then.”

“Training? What training?” Chen asks, zeroing in just about where you expected he would. Good to know that some people remain as predictable as always.

As Herald begins to stammer out something, Argent speaks up for the first time.

“Doesn’t seem like you’ve been very sharp, to end up with that,” she drawls. Her voice is low, tone almost mocking. Ortega looks ready to let loose a scolding, but you hold up your hand.

“I was surprised,” you say, and you realize that it’s the truth. Surprised at... at what? That she hadn’t killed you? No, you had been pretty sure she wouldn’t, at the time. Surprised at her mercy? But this isn’t mercy; this is a complication, a punishment, collateral.

Surprised at... the fact that you don’t mind the mark as much as you thought you would?

You quash down on that thought when no denial immediately presents itself. Instead, you just continue on, as if you hadn’t just had a miniature crisis in the lobby of the Rangers’ HQ, “It won’t happen again.”

“Hmm,” says Argent. Her gaze never leaves yours.

iii.

For a time, it seems as though your scar is all anyone ever wants to talk about. At first it’s fine, because it means less attention paid to everything else about you. Then, it becomes annoying.

You cross your arms without really thinking about how defensive it makes you look. “I’m really not up for having this exact same conversation for the third day in a row,” you say.

“And which conversation is that?” Dr. Finch asks, as though she doesn’t have a damn good guess.

You don’t like how she turns every sentence out of your mouth into an admission. Every word is dragged out, and you hadn’t realized how exhausting just talking could be until Ortega wheedled you into these appointments. It’s her job, you suppose, but that doesn’t mean you have to like it.

“The scar. The mugging. Whatever. It bothers me, sure. But I’m fine now. End of the story.”

You track Dr. Finch’s eyes as they flicker towards the healing remnant on your face. “Of the two, which bothers you more?”

You blink. It pulls at the healing edges of skin. She must see something like confusion in your expression, because she continues, “Being mugged, or the fact that you were left with something from it? Is it the scar itself that bothers you, or the events that led to it?”

The events that led to it, huh? In the tunnel with Argent. Close enough to look her in the eye, to feel the heat of her skin. To feel her breath mixing with yours.

Confession.

Impasse.

Trust.

You only realize you are frowning deeply when the sight of Dr. Finch adjusting her posture in your periphery breaks you out of the memory. Is she waiting for an answer? She’ll be waiting a while, then; you don’t even have an answer for yourself yet.

“Just something to think about,” she says softly, when the silence has lingered for a touch too long.

iv.

You’re two months into restoration, and you’re so close that some nights it’s all you dream about. Being whole. Being free.

If you’re being honest with yourself, those dreams are often indistinguishable from your nightmares. A life without the threat of a hand yanking on your leash. A life that is yours to live, yours to fuck up, wholly and entirely yours.

Is there anything more terrifying?

But life marches on, and it doesn’t care whether the tremors that sleep and dream leave behind are due to fear or longing or both. Making your body into something that doesn’t leave you nauseous to think about is only half of what you want. And the path to the other half is one that leaves you clashing often with the Rangers.

With her.

Today is no different. The harsh Los Diablos sun is currently the only observer to your circling dance with Lady Argent. Herald’s balance issues had improved, somewhat, but the fact that you know exactly what he’s doing to try and mitigate them hasn’t helped him any. Ortega’s probably still busy trying to fish him out of the pair of vehicles and a building you’ve thrown him into. Chen is hopefully still dealing with the surprise you left for him a few streets back.

So it’s just you and Argent, for now. Sweat runs down the back of your neck as you watch her carefully. She’s smiling. As of late, she’s always been smiling in your little duels.

As of late, so have you.

It’s not something you can take the time to think through, though. Not right now. Not when the Rat King is saying move, move, move-

Argent’s hand slams into the lamppost by your head. The metal shrieks and crumples as you spin to the side, avoiding the follow-up kick.

There’s no space left in your mind for introspection when facing Argent. She commands attention, has staked a claim on a section of your focus and your thoughts-

-she has, hasn’t she?

Again, you’re growing distracted. With a growl, you push past the epiphany. Even though you know you’ll have to dissect this later, you can’t afford to be sloppy now. Though you both have settled into an equilibrium, a mutual understanding of the current state of affairs, Argent doesn’t believe in pulling punches.

Neither do you.

You lash out with your right elbow, but it barely grazes her side. That’s fine- the nanovores are already making short work of the ground beneath her feet. She barely spares them a glance as she leaps towards you, winding her arm back for another punch that could break your face in half.

Another near miss, another gleam in her eye that tells you she’s still playing.

“Is it ready?” she asks, when she leans in close to try and grab onto your arm. You step away quickly enough, bringing up your forearm to bat away her attempted grapple.

Give and take. Lead and follow. It’s your turn in this dance, and you lunge towards her swinging one hand out like you want to cut her in half. She grins as she jumps so high that for a brief, disorienting moment, you think she’s flying. When she lands again, cracks spiderweb out in the asphalt from the impact of her feet.

“Almost,” you say, the first time you’ve put into words how close you are, no matter how vague. “It’s- almost there.”

Her expression sharpens at that. “When?”

“Not more than a few weeks. Two. Two weeks.”

You block the kick aimed at your face but she reacts faster than you or the Rat King expect, using the momentum to whirl around and shove you into a brick wall. You can’t dodge this one in time, and the back of your head ends up slamming against the wall hard enough that you’re already considering giving Dr. Mortum a bonus for the additional padding she’d thought to include.

When your vision refocuses, you’re in a scene you’ve played before. Her hand around your throat. The press of her fingers will leave bruises come tomorrow morning, but right now you don’t care. Don’t struggle. Hardly even dare to breathe.

Because right now your hummingbird pulse is racing traitorously quick, not only because of the exertion. Argent’s eyes--inhuman and fathomless like the night sky, like the abyss--are so close that you can see your mask reflected in her irises. Blankness reflecting into blankness, void into void. You almost want to laugh. Seems appropriate.

There’s a moment here that passes. Her grip, impossibly, seems to tighten just for the barest instant, and then she releases you. The first unrestricted breath of air is sweeter than any you’ve taken before.

“Two weeks,” she repeats, already turning away. “I’ll hold you to that.”

v.

Argent’s eyes are like a cat’s in the darkness.

“Did it work?” she asks. She has a thick winter coat on, the hood pulled up to hide the distinctive starlike glimmer of her hair. She slinks about your soon-to-be-abandoned hideout like a robber in a neighbor’s home.

You surprise yourself with your laugh. It’s nothing like the bitter bark, the cynical snorts that you’ve trained yourself to give. You don’t think you’ve ever laughed this hard, this freely in your life.

Last night you could look at yourself in the mirror without wanting to put your fist through the glass. This morning you woke up smiling.

Did it work?

Like a dream.

“It did,” you say, lighter than you thought possible from yourself. “The device is yours now. I’m done. I’m free.”

You start off towards the exit, but you don’t fully know what comes over you. The impulse. The urge, to look briefly back over your shoulder at Argent, standing in the slice of moonlight, profile illuminated in silver. To say, “Good luck, Ximena. I hope you get what you’re looking for.”

“Wait.”

You don’t fully know why you stop, either.

“Take off your helmet,” she says. It’s not suspicion in her voice, not precisely. But you suppose you can understand. If it worked, why are you in your suit still? What are you hiding beneath the armor?

You undo the latches, let the hissing that accompanies the release of compressed air fill the silence.

She’s holding her breath.

So are you.

Why? You think you know why.

Your helmet feels light in your hands, hollow. There’s a stale gentle breeze that blows through the cracked windows and plays with your hair. It takes your eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness without the aid of your helmet’s built-in systems, but when your vision resettles, you realize that Argent is staring.

“You kept it,” she says.

Instinct has your hand reaching up to trace the line that runs from forehead to cheek. Over the weeks, it had faded until it was barely visible against your skin. Sometimes, even you yourself can barely spot it unless you concentrate very hard in the mirror.

“So I did,” you say, smiling. “I suppose this is our secret, now.”

[cursebreakerhawk-blog]

A not so Brief History of the Hawk Family (+family tree)

(hope you can see something in this terrible pic)

Summary: Backstory of a family of Slytherin purebloods, how the oldest son fell in love with a muggle, ran away with her, and made all the wrong choices in his life. A brief description of their sons, and their fate. Please don’t ignore, I know it’s long, but it’s not boring, I promise.

The Hawks, not unlike the Gaunts, the Malfoys, and the Blacks, were a long lineage of pureblood Slytherins, which would not have been very good for Finn’s character, if he had actually met any of them.

Let’s elaborate. Finn’s dad, Cordelius Hawk, was the oldest of the Hawk boys. Him, his little brother Evander and their parents, Gertrud and Marcellus, lived in an enormous mansion in the south of Scotland. Gertrud and Marcellus were unemployed, living of their family’s fortune. While Marcellus, who was much older than his wife, liked to spend his days out in pubs, Gertrud was always at home, taking care of the boys. (not a very functional marriage, but who said they were functional people?)

They were not the nicest of folks: Marcellus got into numerous fights with other wizards at pubs, having even killed one, once, with a very nasty curse he invented himself. Gertrud, on the other hand, had the unfortunate habit of hexing anything that came remotely close to their gigantic garden, including poor, unaware birds and squirrels, and a child’s kite. They both were supporters of Grindelwald during the first wizarding war.

While Evander was fascinated by watching their mother hex everyone, Cordelius found it disgusting. Without their mother’s knowledge, he would even take some of the wounded animals back to his room and try to nurse them back to health. He was always very peaceful, very tactful, good enough to bother his parents. That said, Evander was too dumb and brutal to win their afection as well.

One morning, the Hawk parents were out on a meeting with their fellow Grindelwald supporters, and Cordelius (who was 26 at the time) was taking care of Evander (who was 16), and while their parents usually let him use magic at home, despite being underage, Cordelius wasn’t fond of bending the law to let him practice dark magic in the garden. 

A few minutes past 11 AM, a curious muggle kid walked by the fence, and, channeling his inner Gertrud, Evander charmed a large rock to fly in her direction. Cordelius had left his wand in his bedroom, and had no way of stopping his brother from seriously hurting the kid other than jumping in front of the rock and catching it. That’s what he did, after taking a murderous glance at his little shit of a brother.

‘Are you alright?’, he asked the kid, while Evander ran back into the house.

‘I am.’, she answered, ‘Could you explain to me what happened?’.

‘My retarded younger brother thought it would be fun to throw a rock at you.’, he said, carefully, to avoid mentioning magic.

The kid turned red with anger.

‘Well, I hope you tell your parents about that!’, she said.

‘I’m afraid they would take his side. I would end up being punished for helping you.’, he confided, ‘I think the best thing you can do is not walk by this house ever again... For your own safety.’

‘Can I at least know your name?’

‘Cordelius Hawk.’

‘Thanks for defying your family to save me, Cordelius Hawk. I’m Amelia Watson.’

Cordelius noticed that Evander was coming back to the garden.

‘It was nice to meet you, Amelia. Now, run!’

She did. Cordelius knew his parents would never let him hear the end of it if they found out, so it was time for a desperate measure. He flew past his little brother, who was now out in the garden, got into his room, grabbed his wand and pointed it at Evander, through the window. ‘Obliviate!’, he muttered, and the incident was never spoken of, at least for the next 14 years.

*

It was really late, one night, when the doorbell rang at the Hawk mansion. Gertrud came downstairs, in her night robes, her concealed wand in one of the pockets. Cordelius was carefully watching through his window, but he couldn’t really tell who was downstairs.

‘I demand to see Cordelius Hawk!’, said the fierce brunette at the door, who was now much taller than Gertrud.

The witch cussed, reaching for her wand, but Cordelius was already jumping down the last flight of stairs.

‘Amelia?’, he asked, and she grinned.

‘You know this muggle?’ questioned Gertrud, in a high pitched scream, astonished.

The way Amelia pulled Cordelius into a passionate kiss gave her the answer. He kissed her back. Gertrud felt like she had been hit by a stupefy. 

‘Now, run!’, Cordelius whispered in her ear.

‘Is that your catchphrase?’, she laughed.

He had already grabbed her arm, and they were running into the night, Gertrud too paralyzed by shock to do anything. The next morning, when Marcellus heard of what happened, he ordered his wife to snap their son’s wand in half, and ban him from the house. Gertrud quietly agreed, but she kept his wand hidden in her secret locker. She had just found out in the hardest way that even the coldest hearts can break.

*

Cordelius and Amelia never got married. Every wedding had to be publicly announced back in the day, and they were too afraid that his parents would find out. Cordelius never told her that he was a wizard, either. He had left his wand at the mansion, and even if he hadn’t, showing his true nature to her would be breaking the law. And the law would have way more severe consequences than some stupid family rule. They moved to London, and lived with Amelia’s parents, Isabella and Hugh Watson, who were much younger than Cordelius’s parents, and much warmer: they understood he was hiding from his family, and treated him like a son.

One year later, Jacob Hawk was born. He was perfect: his parents and maternal grandparents loved him like he was the best boy in the world. The Watsons had a small garden with a swing, and he spent most of his childhood in there, never lonely, always loved.

Even though he was finally happy, and finally at peace, Cordelius would feel his heart sink sometimes. He missed magic, the world he had lived in for fourty years. He missed being special, and being powerful (because, yes, he was one of the most powerful young wizards at Hogwarts when he was a teenager, and still very gifted as an adult). In some twisted way, he even missed his abusive family. Whenever those thoughts began to creep into his mind, usually in the middle of the night, he would hug Amelia closer, and try to let go of them. Sometimes he succeeded, sometimes he failed.

*

(We don’t know how many years passed between Jacob’s and Finn’s births, and I’m still waiting for Jam City’s canon version of this. However, it makes sense that Jacob was not a toddler whan his younger sibling was born. This is important to the next part of the story.)

Cordelius and Amelia had another son, Finn, a few years later. He got just as much love as his older brother, from the whole family. He had his dad’s black hair and blue eyes, but Amelia’s kind expression.

On the day of his first birthday, 23rd April 1974, Amelia asked Cordelius to go get a birthday cake at the local bakery. He reluctantly agreed: he was still scared of running into his parents, although the thoughts about them and magic were much more frequent.

It was certainly probably not a coincidence when he found Gertrud standing outside the shop. She had always been a wonderful legilimens, also with a gift for divination. She would have known. Cordelius was expecting harsh words, curses, hexes... The last thing he expected was a hug.

Gertrud, now a widow, seemed much older and smaller than her son remembered. She pulled him in for a long time, and after she finally let go, she revealed his old wand, that she had brought in her purse.

‘You left this at home.’, she murmured, ‘I’ve been missing you terribly. Your father passed away not long after you left. Your brother got himself killied in a duel at a pub, four months ago. He was never too bright...’, she sighed. ‘Please, come home. I love you, and I know you love me to. Also, you’d be able to use magic once again.’

Wether she meant those words, or was just blatantly trying to manipulate him, Cordelius never knew. The only thing he knew was that it worked: his youngest son never got his first birthday cake.

*

Since the Watsons were muggles, the two boys grew up without knowing anything about magic. Hagrid had to come to their little house in London to explain to young Jacob that he was a wizard. As Finn was obviously too young to remember his father, and none of the Watsons ever told him anything about him, Jacob resented him badly. After hearing Hagrid’s declarations, he immediately deduced that his father must had been a wizard too.

When he got to Hogwarts, Jacob was determined to get his revenge: he was going to find a type of magic more powerful that the one his father possessed, and use it to punish him for abandoning them. First, he had to study about his own origins. He spent all the time at the library, and it didn’t take him much time to find out the Hawk family in some books about purebloods. Then, during his research, he came across the Cursed Vaults, and knew he had found what he wanted.

It was not until Jacob’s third year that he realised all the Hawks were dead. Gertrud got sick and died one year after her encounter with Cordelius. Now completely alone, and regretting every life decision he had made, Cordelius had sunken into a terrible depression, combined with magical drunkness and failed attempts of enchanting himself into being happy again. He took his own life, being one of the only few wizards to successfully Avada Kedavra himself.

However, Jacob was now too deep into the search of the vaults to give up. And we all know how that worked out for him.

All of the Hawks’ malice and the Watsons’ remorse did not darken Finn’s heart, against all the odds. He was always too sweet, too kind, too peaceful, not unlike his father. The difference, however, was noticed by Amelia when she asked her youngest son not to disappear like the other men in her life. He hugged his mom, and promised that not only would he never leave her, he would also bring his brother home. She wiped away a tear. Finn was, in fact, different. Finn was loyal, against all odds.

[larprambles]

Tips and Tricks on Organising a Game

Full disclosure pals: I have not actually run a game yet. Fortunately, I have picked the brains of many of my close friends, and came up with a few useful tips. This is very much NOT a full guide.

So, you have decided to run a game. You have got a venue, you got catering, got a plot, and got a crew. You have covered all the obvious pitfalls, and got all the essentials. However, there’s probably a few things people may not have mentioned or thought to advise you on. Hopefully this covers at least one or two of those gaps. As always, there are exceptions to ever rule yada yada, use your best judgement.

 Online Management

So this is probably going to be the largest section as it covers a lot. I’m going to reduce a lot of it to bullet points for ease of readability. This section will assume your game has some online presence beyond a booking form. Most games will have a Facebook page/event/group, and many will have a website.

- Make a group/page then make an event. Encourage froth on the group, not the event. This way logistics and organiser updates can be kept separate from the keen, and therefore easier to find.

- Make important game information into files, and upload them, rather than making a series of posts. It will be HELL to find otherwise, trust me. If you have a website, make sure the game information is the same version as whatever is currently on the Facebook. Delete old files, they will just cause confusion.

- Release information only when it’s complete. Updates and tweaks are fine. What’s not fine is publishing a unfinished brief, then answering further questions in comments/emails and that information only existing there. People will miss it, and be confused.

- Encourage questions to be sent to your official game email rather than personal Facebook accounts. That way the entire ref team will see it, and it will keep your stress levels down. 

- Your group/page/event should have a pinned post. This should include: Time of event and the location, the event premise, if it’s a standalone, player event or if not what event number it is, if it is fully catered, if it has sleeping space or it’s camping only, if there are still tickets available. Additionally it should have links to any important information such as your E&D policy, your rules, your setting etc. Set up an FAQ for small questions in the comments - anything more complex should go to your emails. 

Okay, now that section is over, we can go to more singular tips. 

Be Honest in Your Advertising.  You want people to come to your game, naturally. You may find yourself plugging it a lot when people are deciding which games to play, or pushing it hard if people are on the fence about attending. A natural opener seems to be if someone asks something like “I wish there was a decent horror game right now!”

There seems to be a tendency with organisers, to push their games even if it doesn’t fully fit the brief of what someone is asking for. Avoid this, as it sets unrealistic expectations for the game, and can also come off as desperate. Nobody likes desperation. Nobody. (This goes TRIPLY if someone is asking about accessible games. Don’t pretend yours is more accessible than it is.)

Saying No To Concepts. You want people to have fun at your game. You also want your game to have a clear vision, and be what you want it to be. Therefore, get used to the idea of saying no to things that don’t fit what you want for the game. This can be anything from proposed rule changes to character concepts. Spell out your expectations and reasoning, and be ready to accept people not attending if it doesn’t fit what they’re looking for.

Make a Thank You List for Your Speech In Advance A lot of organisers make speeches at a debriefing/time out. Make a list of who you want to thank in advance. Otherwise you will forget somebody and feel terrible later. (On a similar theme at your briefing speech, make it clear at the beginning you don’t want hecklers/jokes/complex rule queries until the very end. Save everyone some time.)

You Will Time In Later Than That Figure out what time you want to be ready for, then set time in an hour later. Stick to these limits strictly, and time in when you’ve advertised. Get crew side things done as early as possible, so you can help players who are flapping/late. If possible, dedicate a crew member to later arrivals.

If Someone is a Ref, Don’t Override Their Calls If you have rules in place, or something that players need guidance on, you will need refs. Firstly, there should always be either a floating ref present, or a ref ALWAYS in the same location. Secondly, if a ref makes a call, don’t second guess them, and don’t retcon it unless it’s catastrophic. You have trusted these people and their judgement, let them do their job.

Delegation and Responsibility So, you have your core team. Make sure each member knows what their responsibility is and where their jurisdiction ends. Their calls (and yours as the actual runner) in that area are final. Do not make decisions by committee, as this will fog your version, and lead to stepping on toes. You can’t do everything by yourself, don’t try, but managing the teams and individuals you have is more than doable. 

Keeping Your Emotions in Check Running games is hard. There will be times when you are frustrated, upset or even angry. Have someone who has volunteered to be your venting buddy. When something goes wrong, talk to them rather than taking it out on players or crew. Nobody likes crewing for someone that shouts, becomes moody or treats them badly. Having an outlet who knows what they’re getting in for is invaluable

So that’s my limited experience exhausted, and I have definitely missed an awful lot out! Feel free to add more if they strike you, or disregard everything I’ve said as tosh.

[polandspringz]

I Started Trying To Replicate “What’s In A PV?” and I Ended With An Essay Comparing “Neo Yokio” and “Children of Ether”

I wish I could post this on /r/ anime but I’ve never posted on their before and after a brief rundown of the rules it seems like this would most likely be removed for not fitting their definition of anime. Still, I’d like to make everyone aware that when I call this property an “anime” I am referring to the fact that it is a part of the anime-inspired movement as defined by Mother’s Basement. (See his video titled “Avatar is an Anime: Fuck You, Fight Me)

So, “Neo Yokio”, a very obvious and not so clever allusion to Neo Tokyo. Where to begin? Well, within two days, this trailer has not received much attention, and those who have been talking about it are split on not whether it will be terrible, but whether it will be terrible in a good way, or terrible in a bad way, and by that they are referring to being nonredeemable, even through memes. After jumping into this two days late, I was only able to scan the comments underneath the trailer on Youtube, and I saw this split very prominent. However, I was surprised to find a few people who saw some worth in this series, that it may in fact be good- in a trashy but comedic way.

I think the main thing many people are missing from this show is that it’s a parody. If you do any few seconds of research, hell- even simply typing the show title into Google- you’ll instantly be shown several articles that all include the word “parody” in the title. So, we should already be aware the show won’t be taking itself seriously, which I think is good. The last time Netflix tried to make an anime inspired thing, which was less than a month ago, it turned out badly, almost as bad as everyone fears this series will be, un-memeable (I tried to avoid typing that, I really did) However, with what the trailer shows, I think this series will offer plenty in terms of comedy, as I don’t think the lines of dialogue we heard in the trailer in context will be as similar to Jaden Smith tweets as we are being led to believe. At the very least, there is hope that when put into context, they won’t intentionally sound cringey and forced as if to replicate the hilarity of his most famous tweets.

So, now I’d like to jump into the trailer, stealing a bit of Mother’s Basement’s “What in A PV?” format, although I am not as eloquent as him, and I’m not being sponsored by the network this series is being hosted/licensed on. Now, if I’ve learned anything from the Anime Youtube community, it’s that sometimes one shot can encapsulate a whole show. In Made in Abyss, the opening scene that drags the camera vertically up from the bottom of the abyss has been analyzed by many this season as a key example of this. The shot right before the title drops, I believe is this show’s rather crude version of that. When we are shown the two girls playing tennis, the reaction of the girl breaking her racket is supposed to be seen as strange and over dramatic to the extent that our curiosity is awakened. We are immediately supposed to be led to believe that the rest of the trailer will show us a rather over the top reactions made by characters, and the entire show will be similar in nature. But, when the shot freezes and starts playing Studio Ghibli like music over top the brush stroke stylized title drop, the contrast is supposed to leave us with more questions than answers.

This show is a parody, so it’s going to be packed with references. These two contrasting shots that follow one another are very much that, references. The mecha robot seen throughout the trailer does not imply that the show will be attempting to invoke the mecha genre in anyway, but it exists for purpose of being an allusion to that genre, as well as a spin on the robot butler trope. When I found people stating that they thought this show had no direction and was plain cringey, I was a little surprised. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this was a passion project, as I am not familiar with Ezra Koenig’s works or interests, but another Google search has revealed to me the show’s intent is to be “a postmodern collage of homages to classic anime, English literature, and modern New York fashion and culture”, as stated by Netflix themselves. This explains how we got from Neo Tokyo to Yokio (New York + Neo Tokyo, although some of the narration about the city reminds me more of New Orleans, but I digress)  But, I feel as though people are fearing this is going to end up being like this season’s “THE REFLECTION” in nature rather than something like a comedic “Children of Ether”.

For those of you who went to Anime Expo this year or attended one of the Anime Movie Night screenings or encore screenings during the summer, I can hear some of you finding disgust with my comparison there. For those who are unaware, “Children of Ether” is a Crunchyroll original series created by LeSean Thomas and animated alongside the help of Japanese studio Satelight. An ONA is available on Crunchyroll and was premiered at the aforementioned events, and it too pays tribute to classic animes, but ones close to Thomas’s heart in terms of their animation, storytelling, and representation. The most notable and prominent influence on the work being Michiko & Hatchin, a series I thoroughly enjoyed and found to be a beautiful action and crime road trip story. Now, I would like to make it clear I am in no way saying that I think “Neo Yokio” is going to be an equivalent to “Children of Ether”, but I am saying it is possible to pay tribute to anime in your story in a multitude of ways. (Once again, see Avatar is an Anime, Fuck You, Fight Me). When I watched “Children of Ether”’s ONA short in theaters, I found it to be a rather interesting story that I looked forward to seeing more of. It had an art style similar to the works it had been influenced by, as the character designer was the same one from Michiko & Hatchin, and it’s voice acting for the main cast was well done and the world was fleshed out enough that it distanced itself from every other post-apocalyptic story we had seen in both eastern and western media. The only fault I had with the real short was the way the character’s mouths and bodies moved in accordance with their voices was always slightly off, both in mouth flaps and general motion. It ended up making some scenes very awkward to watch. Now, that can be explained away by problems with mixing Japanese animation and English voices, but the strange thing is, “Neo Yokio” doesn’t have that issue.

To be more precise, I understand that’s not enough to give Neo Yokio a leg to stand on or to place it above or on par with “Children of Ether” in any way. (I just figured it would be a good way to break paragraphs) “Neo Yokio” might have a better production team than “Children of Ether”, or at best one that has more experienced animating for another language, and as it would seem, that is Production I.G. But if you’re confused on why “Neo Yokio”’s art style has turned so many people off at the same time, it is being co-produced with Studio Deen. (So…) Yet, I feel it is unfair for people to treat “Children of Ether” so well when one can hold hope for “Neo Yokio” in the same way. The art style certainly does not have the same realistic edge as “Children of Ether” does, nor does it have KyoAni or A-1 Picture’s eye candy animation or anything like you would expect to see in “Ping-Pong: The Animation”, “Mob Psycho 100”, or “Tatami Galaxy”. In many ways, I think many people are forgetting what a lot of children’s anime or even mediocre anime looks like- it looks like “Neo Yokio”. It’s not trying to be anything special in that regard, and the typical art style one might see in a Pokemon episode is expanded upon by its western edge, which makes it into its own little mish-mosh creation. I understand it may not be pleasing to some, but it’s not trying to do what “Children of Ether” did where the production company literally was able to snag the exact designer of the work it was influenced by to create something equal. If anything, I think if “Neo Yokio” was given any sort of mainstream style (yes, at this point, I’d say even the oddballs with mixed media styles have enough to be grouped as a collective mainstream style decision) it would be worse off, because then it would be seen as trying too hard to be an actual anime. It would come off as obnoxious and be insulting.

“Children of Ether”’s purpose is to be its own work that visibly shows off the works that preceded it and influenced it in hopes of creating a compelling action and adventure story in a fresh post apocalyptic world. It also hopes to inspire more works to help increase the number of stories in anime that include diversity and representation amongst its cast. The tone of the serious is going to be serious but not melancholy, being able to build exciting suspense in fight scenes without ever falling too far away from the ability to turn a sad moment into a hopeful, but not heartfelt scene. “Avatar: the Last Airbender” and “The Legend of Korra” both are established in Mother’s Basement’s video essay as being a part of the anime community for their obvious art style and storytelling. While western media is meant to make people laugh first, Japanese media is always meant to make you feel for characters before you laugh at them, and although these two series often are known for their comedic scenes, they never break their emotional moments for comedy, they let them set in and simply be emotional and heart wrenching. Even shows like “Steven Universe” can be seen as not a direct western-anime equivalent, but have its moments where it allows itself to replicate Avatar and Korra it’s emotional scenes, but it plays more to the western cartoon art style. Yet, the idea of the story itself is not far from what would be found in Japanese media. And then there’s “Neo Yokio”.

Even though it is true that Japanese animation aims for emotion over comedy, there are countless animes that exist for the pure purpose of making you laugh. “Neo Yokio” is going to be much different than any other western anime purely because all of the aforementioned ones ended up following two main things: art style and storytelling. “Neo Yokio” is a parody though, so both of these are actually secondary. If it were to try to follow the storytelling style, it would end up being “edgy” with all its references being seen as though it was trying too hard to replicate anime that it would be cringey- as many proclaim it will be. The lines hashed out by Jaden Smith should be enough to explain away that, but the main point is that because this series is trying to include a variety of anime references (mechas, demon hunters, etc.) the story is going to be certainly original but not original enough that it can survive in a serious tone and not been called out as a blatant copy. By taking the parody route, the series will most likely be able to be consumed as a sort of an anime abridged video, but not to improvisation level and chaoticness of “Ghost Stories”. I deeply believe that by deciding to make this series a parody instead of your typical western anime, it will be much more successful and much less cringey than it is being expected to be.

(Here are two of the articles I referenced for some of LeSean Thomas’s comments about “Children of Ether”, besides my own viewing of the ONA:

https://goo.gl/NDeUub

https://goo.gl/UZRk7P

Thank you for reading this! Let me know if you want me to ramble/review about any series in particular!)

[englishbad]

Phases: Chapter 1

Phases ( AO3 | FF.net ) Status: In Progress Rating: T-> M (Future chapters) Main Characters: Kagura, Sougo Okita Word Count: 2,747 words Summary: Okita has an alcohol problem and doesn't realize the damage he has done until it's too late. Losing friends, his job, and shattering a girl's world. Can he overcome his abuse?

Chapter 1: The Next Day

Okita woke up to the chatter and marching footsteps outside of his door.

His body was heavy, but he needed to take a piss, badly.

“What happened last night?” Letting out a sigh.  

He rolled over to see it was already 7:40.

“Fuck.” He had some difficultly to get up from his futon. Rolling off the mattress, pushing himself off up, only to fall on his butt again.

He still had his uniform on.

That moment he realized he had too much to drink the night before, again.

He smelled his shirt, reeking of mixed alcohols. Okita stripped down to his underwear finding the closest clean clothes to wear before he can go use the restroom and prepare for the day.

He slid the door open with the surprise of his men heading down the hall. They saluted him, “Good morning, Captain Okita!”

“M-Morning.” He squinted, slowly adjusting to the lights as he swayed on his way to the bathroom.

*

It was 7:59.

Toshirou Hijikata slipped into his seat next to Isao Kondo just in time for the daily brief. He cleared his throat, starting the meeting.

“I will make this quick. Read the tasks for today.” He held up a piece of paper with an agenda. “Sougo,” He caught the man’s attention, raising a brow upon hearing his name. “Lead the men out for sortie.”

The vice-commander got up from his seat, “Dismissed.” shooing the squad to leave. He made his way out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

The men in gold and black began their chatter, “I heard the vice-commander got laid last night!”

“I heard she’s still in his room!” Another mentioned.

“That’s unlike Hijikata-san to bring women back to headquarters.” Okita glanced over to Kondo with tired eyes, fighting his hangover.

“He must really like this woman. Best give him some privacy. You never know, you might end up calling her the Second Lady of the Shinsengumi soon.” The older man gave a hearty laugh, patting the young man’s back.

Okita winced, covering his ears. Kondo was always cheerful in the morning, but every whisper in the room was giving him a headache. He groaned, using his sword to help him off the ground.

He sluggishly headed out to the main entrance to meet the squads.

Okita caught a glimpse of the vice-commander escorting the woman into the squad car.  She had his jacket over her head hiding herself.  

Hijikata stepped into the car, quickly driving off.

The men were very curious to who the mystery woman was, and why she was so secretive.

“She must be a big deal if she had to conceal herself.”

“Maybe she’s a celebrity!”

“No way, why would a celebrity associate with us country samurai?”

“The vice-commander is a good looking fellow.”

“You’ve got some type of crush on the vice-commander?”

“He’s better looking than you, ass-chin!”

A fight spurted amongst the Shinsengumi members with some punching of faces.

“So noisy!” Okita shouted pacing in front of the squads as they hastily lined up. “All divisions are to patrol the defined areas on Hijikata-san’s agenda, in exception of division six for cleanup duty.” He gave a half-assed speech, wanting to get just some shut-eye.

The others marched to their captains’ orders as division six sighed in defeat. Okita ordered his own men to patrol the south side of Kabuki district without him.

Okita sat on the step, taking out his infamous eye mask, ready to fall asleep against the pillar.

“Sougo.” Kondo stood next to him. “I know it was a wild night, but I need all men out of the compound today, Pops will be coming over as soon as Toshi comes back from his errand.”

Okita sighed, “Yeah, yeah, I’m leaving.” He headed out to the gate, waving the Commander with his backhand.

Everywhere Okita went was too loud and distracting. He found a quiet bench in front of a snack bar and laid down, just as he put on his mask, he heard his name.

He sat up seeing one of the Odd Jobs members, Shinpachi walk over to him.

“Good morning, Okita-san. Are you here on duty?” He asked.

“Something like that. What’s your business here?”

“A client believes her husband has been embezzling their funds with an investor friend. Gin-san is undercover right now.”

Okita yawned and flicked his sword away from the sheath, “I can help you deal with it now if ya want.”  

Shinpachi crossed his arms into an x, “No, no, there’s no need for that! Just, listen.” He pushed up his glasses. “I think Kagura is really upset for something you did last night.”

Okita looked into the distance seeing the China girl. Her hair up in buns, wearing her typical red Chinese top and black ankle pants. One of her many Odd Jobs outfits.

They briefly made eye contact, only to quickly turn her back away from the men, hearing a clear “Hmph”.  

He smirked.

“She cursed your name in the morning.” Shinpachi said.

Okita’s smile widened.

“It’s nice to know you’re thinking about me, China!” He yelled out to her. However, he hasn’t had the faintest clue what happened the night before.

Kagura did not move from her spot. Her arm started to move, flipping the captain off.

Over the years with their constant fights, Okita grew fond of his rival, in personality and appearance. Of course, he didn’t want to rock the boat with the relationship they had. He was content with their fights and petty arguments. To do something out of character such as confessing that he wanted to take it to the next level was something he thought about, but never acted upon it. As if he would be the one to tell Kagura the puberty hit her like a truck and has a really nice set of tits, but no; he would never tell her that. Men are prideful creatures.

Okita craned his head to Shinpachi, “She’ll get over it. She always does.”

They heard footsteps coming down the staircase. It was Gintoki in a disguise, wearing a black wig and a large scar on his face in a pin striped western suit. He gathered his employees to debrief. The Odd Jobs owner gave the officer a nod, acknowledging his presence before walking off with his colleagues.  

Okita settled back to his position about to sleep, feeling the vibration in his pocket. It was Yamazaki on the line asking for back up at his location.  The officer had no choice but to put his nap on hold, sighing to head over to the spy’s rendezvous point.

*

When Kagura turned 20, she decided to take a part-time job at bar as a hostess to make certain ends meet when things were slow at Odd Jobs. It just so happened the Shinsengumi frequently love to drink at that bar where she worked.

As the police force grew, celebrations were happening much more, that included new recruits, birthdays, and finished cases.  She grown accustomed to the obnoxious customers, but it was always fun to see how much she can rack up the most tips and pay for the most expensive liquor at the bar, especially when it came down to the Shinsengumi. She thought of it as getting back the money that the “tax robbers” stole from its citizens.

Oddly enough, a certain captain of the special police squad never once was her customer. He always watched from the side, glancing occasionally to see what customer was with her, usually taking a shot or a sip of whatever was in his hands after. If it was not Kondo trying to bribe Kagura to put in a good word for him to Tae, it was some man with a fetish, for her red hair or someone with a Chinese outfit fetish. Kagura would have some satisfaction making him jealous.

She never understood why men were such cowards, it was obvious that he liked her, and she knew it. Why can’t he just ask her out already or at least give an indication of interest rather than calling her names and instigating a fight? She always took to heart the advice from Tae, that men should take the lead in courting the girl. But, men like assertive woman right? No, no, no, it just meant the man was spineless and the woman wore the pants in the relationship and he would dump her immediately because of that reason. Damnit, being a girl is hard.

She got ready for work, letting her hair down and one of her hair covers on the right side, wearing her long red cap sleeve cheongsam with yellow piping. She left the Odd Jobs in a rush, forgetting her parasol to begin her night shift.

The clouds above her became more dark and gray. Kagura began to regret her decision not bringing her purple parasol, feeling a few drops on her head.

A man rushed to her direction, bumping into her shoulder hard as her hair bun cover fell off. She looked back seeing an injured captain was the one who almost knocked her off her tracks.

“Sadist?” Kagura sneered at him watching him hide in the dark alleyway.

“Ugh, not you, not right now.” Okita held his arm. Blood was visibly running off between his fingers.

“You ass, I’m going to be late for work!” Balling her fist at him.

“Are you trying to get me killed?” That was an understatement.

A dozen of men armed with weapons rushed pass her. “Hey, are you looking that stupid Shinsengu—” His hand muffled her mouth, dragging her into the alley.

“You’re so damn loud.” His voice was slightly raised higher than a whisper.

Kagura pushed his hand off from her mouth.

The blonde captain was disheveled. He leaned his head back against the building, panting.

“What happened to you?” Sounding more pissed than concerned.

“Like it matters to you.” Okita peeked into the street, finding signs of the men, “They shot me.”

“Too bad they missed. They should have aimed for your chest instead.”

He deadpanned, pulling her cheek.

“Ow, ow, ow, what that hell?” She exclaimed. As she finished, a clap of thunder echoed through the sky following a downpour.

“I heard something over there!” A man’s voice yelled at their direction.

Okita put his hand over her mouth. Kagura shoved his hands away becoming agitated every minute she was with him.

He pulled her in close to his chest, burying her face into him just to keep her voice low, “Shut up will you.”

Okita pulled the side of his coat over her body, “The hell you think you’re doing?” She looked up at him, watching the droplets run down his face.

“You’re so pale that your skin practically glows in the dark.” He spoke down to her. “If they see us, I’ll end up doing more work than I want to. I really don’t wanna deal with Hijikata right now.”

Kagura huffed, rolling her eyes, reluctantly obeying.

He kept an eye on the men looking for them. As he heard voices from the side streets, he pulled her closer into him.

He was warm.

Okita’s shirt made it feel almost it was skin to skin to her. She could hear his heartbeat, feel him respiring against her, it was strangely soothing. This is what it feels like to be close to him. No fighting, no arguing, just comfort and pleasant silence.

“We’ll split up, you take this side and we’ll go to that street. Find that damn Shinsengumi brat.” One of the men ordered. The captain watched as they scattered to different directions, missing the alley.

He sighed in relief, dropping his arm from her head, letting his part of his coat uncover her. He gulped, breathing heavy again, taking a few seconds to rest from the stinging of his arm.

Okita realized she was still on him.  “China, you can get off me now.”

There was no response.

“Hey, you deaf?” Nudging her from the side, again no response.

The captain felt her breathing heavy against him. He moved her away from his chest as her bangs shadowed her face.

“Hey, China…” Okita reached over her head with his hand, fingers surfacing her hair.

He paused, thinking she hasn’t acted viciously yet.

He continued brushing Kagura’s bangs aside with his fingers, gliding her hair behind her ear.

Those cerulean eyes of hers, locked into his own crimson eyes. He never seen her so fixated. Her lips were slightly parted as drops ran down her porcelain skin.

The rain continued to fall onto the ground as the sound of the water became louder.

He kept his hand on her face, looking deep into those eyes of hers closely for the first time.

Perhaps it was the blood loss talking. However, the very same girl he has fought for years had the most amazing eyes.

He stroked his thumb against her cheek, feeling the goosebumps rising on her face. Was this the moment he would cross the line of their rivalry?

Kagura opened her mouth to speak, even before a syllable left her mouth…

Okita leaned in to captivate those lips of hers.

He moved in closer to her parting her lips with his for a deeper kiss. Her lips were soft, the taste of her strawberry lip balm made it even more enjoyable.

He pulled apart looking for a reaction. Anything would do.  

Her eyes darted from his half-lidded eyes to his mouth to his eyes again. Was…was that not good? As panic filled his head. She arched her feet up his height, closing her eyes, returning the kiss. Wrapping her arms around his neck to keep him close.

His body felt numb as if a bullet wasn’t embedded in his arm. He pulled her in with his arms around her back, arching her up, for a more intimate contact.

Lips broke apart, both gasping, nose-to-nose looking at each other with a smitten smile written on their faces.

Kagura blinked, pulling herself back from him. She held onto his forearms, feeling her legs become tingly and unresponsive.

Okita chuckled.  

“I-I… late for work.” She said, not long after stumbling on her feet, catching her fall.  She composed herself, “I-I have to go.” Shutting her eyes tightly before running away.

He watched her leave as his mind was calibrating what just happened. His mouth was agape in disbelief.

He crossed that line.

He replayed the events in his mind. She must have enjoyed it too, right? That kiss wasn’t an ordinary kiss; to share a mind-blowing kiss enough to fall to her knees was a rarity for anyone.  

A vibration came from his pocket snapping him out of thoughts.

He answered the phone.

“Captain Okita, where are you? We’ve lost track of the rebels!” Yamazaki voice cracked.

“I lost them too.” Reality set in as his arm began to sting again. “I’m going to see a medic, I’m injured.”

“C-Capta—” He cut him off, flipping down the top of his phone.

Okita rummaged through his coat pocket, finding his flask, removing the cap with his teeth. He spit the cap on the ground, taking a swig of the alcohol before emptying the contents, throwing it onto his wound.

It was going to be a long night. He knew should have just stayed at that bench to sleep.

Author’s Notes: “…If you think things are bad now, things are going to get a lot worse.” - Gintoki

From the merchandise it looks like Okita is a happy drunk, may be a brash drunk. So how about messy, angry, drunk?

Anyway, this took me a lot longer to write where I sat in front of the screen looking at the document blankly. I wrote this weeks ago hesitating whether I should even publish it, but I made his far so, what the hell.

That it wasn’t “The Notebook” type of kiss I wanted, and I thought long and hard how to compose it. (I’ve never read The Notebook or watched the movie.) I think kissing in the rain romantic and sad at the same time.

This story is surprisingly one of the shorter parts that I have written, and it’s not going to be filled with humor and sticking true to the Gintama feel. But at least try to enjoy it as much you can.¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[notagreenlantern]

So.. ... can you sum up the space opera for us?

Yes. But you are all gonna wish I didn’t do it... Gather round, because I am incapable of being brief...

It all started when avillainous bug dude named Annihilus (spelling? Who knows. Someoneknows. Not me), who chilled in the Negative Zone until he noticedthat the regular universe was expanding, and this cause the NegativeZone to shrink (because comics!) and he went “Fuck this shit!”And decided to invade the universe outside the Negative Zone. Heunleashed the Annihilation Wave.

This wave of reallyferocious supercharged bugs and ships and what have you, tore throughmost of the universe, leaving the Skrull Empire crippled (like, theyhad nothing going for them. They didn't even have a single ruleranymore, it was just complete shambles. They had no business goingthrough with an invasion of Earth after this, but they did. BecauseSkrulls??? IDK).

The wave also killed everysingle Nova Corps member, except for my babe Richard Rider, who hadto take over the entire Nova Force (don't ask me, this goes intostuff I don't know. But it's like the entire power of the corps whichis usually shared between the members of the corps. And like it candrive someone mad to have all of it, but the Worldmind is helping himnot go mad [this is an important plot point for later]). There's alsothe Worldmind, which is an A.I. as well as the memory bank of theentire culture and civilization of the planet the Nova Corps wasfounded on, Xandar. This Worldmind is sort of in Richie's head or thehelmet. I don't remember. Anyway. They get along very well. Worldmindis only interested in protecting itself, and Richie is very muchinterested in not letting the frelling bugs overrun the galaxy.

Richie also runs into Draxand a girl called Cammie (who is... Not that important in the end?).Drax is not Drax the Destroyer. Except he is. But he also isn't(COMICS!)

There's also theseplotlines involving the Super-Skrull (I actually started to miss him,he wasn't in the story at all towards the end. Actually, the Skrullsin general were not present for a lot of it in the second half. Thefailed Earth invasion probably had something to do with that), andRonan the Accuser(for the life of me I can't remember his plot atall, but he drags Gamora into the story). These two later on have tointeract on several occasions, and it is always great. I ended upreally liking both of them as well.

Quasar is killed (he getsbetter).

The war starts. Likeactual war. It is made clear that Richard gets the commander role andthat he is forced to take a lot of hard decisions, and this is wherehe grows up, and becomes an adult. A lot of characters show up. PeterQuill (formerly Star-Lord. It's a whole thing), Gamora, Ronan andDrax are on Richie's team, and he's later joined by the Super-Skrullfor a bit, Phyla-Vell who takes over the mantle of Quasar, a bunch ofGalactus former heralds (like two, it's not a bunch. Surfer dude goesback to being Galactus Herald. Surfer dude and Galactus are thencaptured by Annihilus, who tbh has some help), also help Richie out.

Thanos, and a fairy (whichaccording to wikpedia was a creature created at the same time as theuniverse was created) join Annihilus because Thanos is bored and justwants to see how it all plays out (no seriously, that is hismotivation). They kidnap Moondragon. I don't remember why.

I am making this way toodetailed. I need to rein this shit in...

Thanos turns Galactus intoa weapon. Moondragon convinces Thanos that Annihilus is playing him.Thanos is about to disable the Galactus weapon, so that Galactus canfuck up Annihilus. At this point Drax, who found out aboutMoondragon's kidnaping from Phyla, caught up with Thanos and pushedhis hand through Thanos' chest and pulled out Thanos' heart. It wasbloody. And extremely bad timing.

Elsewhere there was somepolitics shit going on with the Kree? The Kreeleadership made a dealwith Annihilus? Ronan was not impressed. He and Super-Skrull went tothe homeworld of the Kree and fucked things up there. They found outthat the leaders had killed... I can't remember what it was called,but some sort of head in a jar or something? Something that usuallylead the Kree anyway. Regardless. The Kree made Ronan the leader,despite his protests.

Richie meanwhile got readyfor a suicide mission, but first sent a detailed message to ReedRichards about the annihilation wave, and that if Richard failed, thewave would reach Earth

In the end, the war iswon, the Annihilation wave is stopped, Richie put his hand downAnnihilus throat and pulled out Annihilus heart (there were a lot ofhearts being ripped out of people... Technically not people since nothuman...)

Richard went home to Earthfor a little rest. It did not go well.

Ronan impressed with PeterQuill's performance during the war, made him security advisor orsomething.

Now, let's see if I canexplain this... The Kree homeworld had some sort of security net,something computer based security system, which was damaged duringthe war, to patch it up, Peter took an offer from some sort of spaceknights (no seriously. Space Knights. I have to look that up. Itsounds badass and awesome) which had a fix that would be patched intothe Kree system. However it turned out this was an evil plot and itall got infected with a virus (techno something the virus wascalled), created by a lot of robots called the Phalanx.

This kicked off three tiein books leading up to the main book + the Nova series which startedafter Annihilation. One tie in featured Star-Lord and the notGuardians of the Galaxy, not yet anyway. Another was about Phyla-Velland the third about some dude named Wraith. We are pretty much gonnaignore Wraith completely in this summary. Unless I suddenly rememberthat he was super important... I doubt it.

Phyla is the new Qusar andshe has some serious self doubt issues, about taking over this role.Also her girlfriend is Moondragon, and Heather is having issues withheadaches. But it's Phyla who starts hearing a voice telling her shehas to find “the chosen one”. So she and Heather head off to dothat, chased by the Phalanx, who also finds out she is looking for achosen one. Moondragon is turned into a literal dragon.

We get a quick re-cap ofPeter Quill's history and some shit he did where he had to make achoice which led to the death of a lot of people, and how that madehim retire the name Star-lord. Anyway, he ends up with the Kreeresistance movement, and they assemble a team for him, to infiltrate.And they had to do it without as low tech stuff as possible becauseanything technlogical can be infected by the techn-something virus.

This virus also infectspeople, and it doesn't brainwash them, they can still act likethemselves, but they want to do things for the Phalanx (brainwashingand/or mind control are pretty huge things that creepy me out alot... Like actual things I'm terrified of creep me out. Which... Iknow, irrational. But whatever). So they are more or less under mindcontrol. Ronan is controlled by them, for a while. He breaks free romit eventually.

It is revealed that theleader of the Phalanx is actually Ultron, who builds a massive toweron the Kree homeworld and then projects a shield preventing anyonefrom coming in or leaving Kree space (which is huge and includes alot of planets). Ultron's motives are... Badly explained.

Phyla and Moondragon find“the chosen one”. The chosen one turns out to be Adam Warlock.Ultron shows up. Ultron kills Moondragon (fucking asshole!). Someonenamed the High Evolutionary (also an asshole and a huge dick) joinsPhyla and Adam as they escape from Ultron.

Meanwhile Richie almostburns to a crisp. While he is being healed, a Kree woman is deputizedand made a Nova. Gamora is brainwahsed and hunting Richard. Richardis infected with the virus. Gamora kills the woman who was made anova. Richard fights off the virus, and with worldmind keeps it atbay. Rich manages to escape Kree space and ends up on Knowherewhere he meets Cosmo the dog (who isa good dog). Stuff happens there. I'm not going to get into it.

Iam only halfway through Annihilation Conquest here. Jfc. I have gotto stop being so fucking verbose.

Iam so sorry.

Alot of stuff happens. Like a lot. A lot I can't even explain.

Youknow what, let's just skip to the important bit. They defeat Ultron.

Peterdecides that the galaxy needs guarding and he assembles the Guardiansof the Galaxy, and they take up residence in Knowhere. Which is thehead of a dead celestial, floating at the edge of space, and whereCosmo is head of security. The important point is that they haveteleportation technology there.

Meanwhilethe Kree are very defeated after first the Annihiltion wave, and thenthe whole Ultron business.

Richie gets into a fight with Galactus. Worldmind crashes. Richie goes backto Earth and gets involved in the Invasion business. He meets up withDarkhawk who works as head of security at Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S wherealso Richie's brother Robbie is a scientist. They get Wendell back,though he is kind of an energy being.

Theyalso get Worldmindback, but after the invasion is over Worldmindstarts to go crazy, after crashing, and having put so much energyinto not letting Richie go mad, it itself went mad. It was alsoheavily influenced by Ego the living planet (IT'S A PLANET WITH AFACE! WHY????). There is a whole storyline about Worldmindconscripting hundreds of humans to becoming nova corps members.Richie opposing this, because he doesn't want to send young untrainedpeople out into war, and everyone just calling Richie jealous. Richieis then stripped of all of his powers (wich is why he got to beQuasar for a bit).

TheGuardians meanwhile do a lot of guarding the universe. Mostly bydealing with rifts in space. Drax and Phyla go off to findMoondragon. Phyla makes a deal with Oblivion, stops being Quasar andstarts calling herself Martyr and has a pretty dramatic personalitychange.

AdamWarlock, is. Adam Warlock. They somehow pick up Jack Flag..... Fuck,what happened to Jack Flag???? I don't think he showed up in the lastevent? Where was he???

Anyway.The Guardians had their own series, so while everything is eitherleading up to soething or interconnected with the over arching plot,they had a few solo things the got to do. Just like Nova. Though Novagot more solostuff to do than the rest.

Alright.Now we get to the really complicated bit.

Fromwhat I gathered from the backstory recap, the Inhumans got shit on alot. Especially lately, with people attacking them and then findingout that Black Bolt had secretly been a Skrull for months, and thatlots of Skrulls were n the moon where they used to live. So theInhumans decided that enough is enough “fuck everyone else, we aretired of being treated poorly” said Medusa. They had been createdfor war, so after they retrieved the real Black Bolt the Inhumans dida serious number on the Skrulls, before going to the Kree where theydecided that they now ruled the Kree (I can not be expected to gointo the actual politics). Also to make it a proper royalarrangement, Crystal was betrothed to Ronan and they got married, anddespite Crystal repeating like a million times that it was just apolitical gesture and an arrangement. I think they actually startedto are for each other? She definitely started to care for the Kreepeople, much more than the rest of her family.

MeanwhileVulcan was a mad king. I really can not go into the politics oof theShi'ar because I can't remember how to spell their name. Anyway. Theyescaped from all the recent disasters, so they were still a strongempire, an empire ever growing. Anyway. Vulcan brother of, fuck,what's his name? Havoc? Something Summers, and Scott Summers (Iassume you know their names. Why am I telling you...) had somehowtaken over leadership of the Shi'ar empire, instead of Lilandra  whowas sister to the previous emperor?

Eitherway, Vulcan is mad and my favorite mad king. He decides he's gonnaconquer all of the universe, because that's the sort of thing a manlike him would decide to do.

Now,on Vulcan's side he has the Imperial guard which is a group thatalways protects the emperor, like they are totally loyal to them nomatter who they are or what their actions are (and for some reasonall the imperial guard members are like counter parts to DC's Legionof Superheroes???? according to wiki... I am unfamiliar with most ofthe legion. And mostly just wondered why one of them reminded me ofBrainiac). The leader of the Imperial guard is Gladiator (and I likedhim... And for a purpe dude with a mohawk he was pretty hot... I meanIliked him for other reasons than just how shallow I am)

Theresistance against Vulcan consisted of a very random group of people,some of them x-men. Havoc was there. A woman with green hair whoseemed to be dating Havoc, I think her name might have been Lorna (orsomething). Someone who may or may not have been a future relative ofJean Grey?????????? and some other people I can't remember at themoment. They called themselves Starjammers.

TheStarjammers had Lilandra and were protecting her. They found outabout the wedding between Crystal and Ronan, and the green hairedlady had some connection to Crystal they decided to flee to Kreespace to attend the wedding. The Kree still had that shield, thoughnow they operated it, and they let the starjammers through, and thenput it up again so that the Shi'ar ships that followed were destroyedupon impact with the shield. I think that is what happened. I am notsure.

Anyway,Vulcan got really mad and saw it as a sign of aggression that hisships got destroyed and decided that he would have a war against theKree, and the Inhumans who were still the leaders of the Kree.Because they had promised Ronan that they would evolve the Kreepeople (because Comics?).

Sometime passed before the wedding. At the wedding day, a suicide bombertook down the shield protecting the Kree space. The Imperial Guardattacked the wedding, and kidnaped Lilandra.

Thisstarted the war between Vulcan and the Inhumans.

Somany things happened all over the place. I have to try and keep thisshorter. So I don't think we need to summarise the Darkhawkstoryline. We're skipping Blastaar and the Negative Zone and hiseventual move into regular space. We are gonna skim past some thingsI'm not entierly sure when they happened chronologically. Most ofRichard's storylines. Which is mostly battling a Worldmind gone mad,getting his powers back, and not much else connected to the war.

TheGuardians tried to get the both parties in the war to see the factthat the universe was fragile after the recent disasters, and thatall the rifts in space were a bad sign. But both Inhumans and Vulcanrefused to listen to them, because they had never heard of theGuardians.

Vulcangot more and more mad.

Gladiatorturned against Vulcan. I don't know if he was in love with Lilandra(maybe he was and I missed it in the backstory recaps), but it'sheavily implied.

Lilandrawas rescued. She was also brought to the throneworld and about to bereinstated in power, when sadly she was assassinated.

Afew of the Guardians traveled through time in a side plot, whichactually tied into the main plot, but is too complicated to get intoright now.

TheInhumans having lost the one thing that could have turned the waragainst Vulcan (Lilandra taking back the ower) decides to use a lastditch plan. A terrigen mist bomb that would “evolve all of theuniverse like it evolved the inhumans, exept the kree which areimmune to it so why they thought it would work on  anyone else is amystery” It was a fucked up plan. The bomb was also powered byBlack Bolt (there's a whole plot about the Inhumans weapons andshields and stuff being powered by Black Bolt's voice. I can't getinto it), and it was a suicide mission. Crystal decided that fuckthat, that shit is fucked up, teleported with Lockjaw to the bomb andturned it into just a immensely powerful bomb. She and Black Boltwere about to teleport away again when Vulcan attacked in person. Sheand Lockjaw teleported away.

BlackBolt and Vulcan fought. The bomb exploded killing both Black Bolt andVulcan. As well as opened up The Fault. A massive hole in space whichopened up to the Cancerverse.

TheShi'ar surrendered.

Thena lot about politics.

Gladiator,against his will, was made the new emperor.

Therewas a lot of stuff with the Inhumans and the Kree which is lessimportant right now.

Richardhad a run in with Monark Starstalker (seriously what happened to thatdude? Can he come back?). Also Darkhawk. Also the Sphinx x2. Also hebrought back Namorita.

Everyoneexplored the Fault and took readings of it.

AdamWarlock turned into Adam Magus the evil version of Adam Warlock.Peter Quill tried to stop him using a cosmic cube, but Magus fooledhim into thinking he had been stopped.

Alsothere was that thing with the chuch of universal truth which Icompletely forgot to talk about. I have forgotten to mention so manythings. So much happened.

Ahuge cocoon hatched and Thanos came back to life.

Quasarwent deepest into the Cancerverse and discovered the evilcounterparts of Earth's heroes. An evil Quasar went to visit Earth.Richard Rider and Darkhawk took care of him. Darkhawk was badlyhurt... Oh my god, I have to check what happened to Chris! He nevergot to see Richard Rider again.If he even survived. Or maybe he waskilled off later on. I doubt he was much more than a d or c-listhero.

Thecancer verse started to come out of the fault, first just monsters,but soon enough the real infection from the cancer verse started andthe evil counterpart heroes showed up.

Okay,so the deal with all of this is...

Theuniverse has death and life these are constants and they are alwaysat odds, but they keep a balance. In the cancer verse death waskilled off, meaning that universe no longer was in balance. Andthings just kept growing, hence the name. They filled that universeto the brim and now that the fault has opened they want to get outand start to fill up the next universe. This means finding the marveluniverse's avatar of death (=Thanos) and killing him at a specificplace in a ritual.

Idon't think I need to get into the ending of it.

Sothat's it. I am sorry I can't do short and concise. And it bothers mehow much I left out and forgot about...

[mst3kproject]

1103: Avalanche

As I understand it, the point of a disaster movie is the same as that of a slasher, or an episode of reality TV – we’re here to watch terrible things happen to people we either don’t care about or indeed, outright despise.  The same principle lay behind the Roman gladiatorial games, in which prisoners of war were made to fight to the death in a public place – entertainment at the expense of somebody who doesn’t matter.  I guess fiction is the most ethical way to indulge this urge, since it’s the version in which no real people get hurt except maybe a couple of the stunt guys.  Our consciences can take comfort in the fact that they at least got paid.

Now that I’ve said that… is it really worth describing the plot?  As in The Deadly Mantis, who the people are in this movie and what they’re doing is really beside the point… but oh, well.  A woman named Caroline arrives at a ski resort owned by her asshole ex-husband Dave, who is hosting some kind of winter sports competition for its grand opening.  This is vaguely shifty but I don’t know why.  It doesn’t matter anyway because a zillion tons of snow fall on them.  Caroline and Dave survive but she doesn’t take him back. Dave pretends to be sorry he’s such a shifty asshole but never really seems to mean it.  The movie doesn’t so much end as it just loses momentum until it finally gives up.

Avanalche is not a movie that would have ended up on my Episodes that Never Were list, and I think that’s because it’s just not silly enough.  I tend to think of an MST3K-able movie as one that is somehow inherently ridiculous and if you go through the Episodes that Never Were, you’ll find a few like Fiend Without a Face, that got there by virtue of absurdity alone.  Avalanche is more or less about things that could actually happen and presents them in a pretty boring way, and therefore feels rather meh to me.

Make no mistake, though, it is still extremely bad. The scenery is pretty but can’t carry the movie.  Most of the actual avalanche is stock footage, and when they need actors and avalanche in the same shot they composite the latter over the former so badly that I can only pity the poor effects people.  Mia Farrow and Rock Hudson don’t manage to infuse Caroline and Dave with any real life, but the lines they’re given are so dreadful that I want to blame this on the script rather than their acting.  You stifle me – I need my space! is not something that gets blurted out during an argument – it’s something said in a level voice while the marriage counsellor nods approvingly!  Rock Hudson seems to spend most of this movie yelling impotently at people on phones.

As an aside, stage names like ‘Rock Hudson’ and ‘Touch Connors’ always make me wonder – did people call them by those names in casual conversation?  Did co-stars say things like hey, Rock, did you see the script update? and Touch, can I borrow a pen?  Did Dwayne Johnson decide to start using his real name because people called him ‘Rock’ and it was weird?  Did people call Dany Garcia ‘Mrs. Rock’?  I bet Ray Dennis Steckler actually asked people on set to call him ‘Cash’ and they wouldn’t do it because it was stupid.

Back to the movie.  We watch various of the sports events and sometimes what’s going on is kind of impressive, but only if you’re already into things like ski jumping. If you’re not, you’re just watching people you don’t know do the same thing over and over.  The snowmobile race is kind of fun because we get to watch people crash and go flying, but the rest are just dull – as I pointed out in my review of Racket Girls, you can’t get into a fictional contest unless you know the characters enough to know who you want to win.  The bit with the kid dangling from the broken ski lift serves absolutely no purpose except to tug on our heart strings, and it fails precisely because we can see right through that.

The biggest problem with Avalanche, and the number-one reason it’s so damn boring, is the way it treats the people overtaken by its disaster.  Even disaster movies have to be about people, but there’s a right and a wrong way to do it, best illustrated once again by that description of the Jaws franchise: Jaws is a movie about people reacting to a shark, while the sequels are about a shark eating people.  Watching a shark eating people can be fun, particularly if they’re people we hate, like the spider-bait in Giant Spider Invasion, but it doesn’t last.  In a movie called Avalanche we should get to know the characters just well enough to see the changes wrought in them, and how they conform to or deny our expectations, in the desperate circumstances that follow. Instead, Avalanche sets up all these people’s lives and stories outside of the disaster, and then simply leaves them there with no closure because the disaster itself renders closure impossible.

Take the two figure skaters: I think they’re supposed to be rivals and old friends?  Their story is set up for the blonde one to have her big moment in which she finally gets the spin right and her friend applauds her even as it means she loses the contest.  Instead, they both get buried in snow and die.

Take the skier’s affair with the brunette skater. His wife catches him in bed with her and they fight about it the next morning.  We want to see him get punished for his behaviour while she runs back into the arms of the TV reporter who we’re told was her awkward ex-boyfriend.  That would be an end to this story.  Instead, the skier freezes to death, the reporter falls from a ski lift and somehow manages to miss the fireman’s net that was literally right under him, and the wife in a moment of tragic irony is overwhelmed by the avalanche just as she was about to commit suicide anyway (very tasteful, am I right?).

There’s a series of other background stories that go nowhere.  Caroline throws herself at a photographer to make Dave jealous – they both survive but can’t actually get together at the end because it would be weird.  Dave’s Mom hangs out with McDade the accountant and they seem to be falling in love, but then they both die when their ambulance falls into a ravine and explodes!  There’s a few other things that go on with the sports competitions, including the cheating skier trying to break a speed record and a male and female snowmobile racer who hate each other, but none of this matters because none of these stories have an ending!  It’s all just set up to try to make us care when everybody dies, like the brief time we spent getting to know each victim in The Horror of Party Beach.

Disaster movies often try to suggest that the ‘bad’ people in them are being punished for their misbehavior by this outside force. Avalanche does quite a bit with this motif, by trying to make Dave personally responsible for every poor decision that leads up to the catastrophe.  Dave had the trees cut down.  Dave refused to cancel the grand opening despite the weather. Dave insisted that his lawyer or somebody fly in during the fog.  When the plane crashes on the mountain and starts the slide, this is Dave’s fault, and Dave even says so at the end as he and Caroline drink champagne directly from the bottle.

Yet the thing is… it’s not. The plane crash was not inevitable, and even if it were, it wouldn’t automatically cause an avalanche.  All these things could still have happened without producing that result.  If the plane had crashed ten feet to the left there might have been no slide, or it might have missed the resort.  Or none of that could have happened and there could still have been a disaster.  One of the reasons avalanches are so dangerous is because even very tiny things can set one off.  A bear sneezes on a mountaintop and pow!  Your hotel gets buried.  Things could have been done to prevent the situation but they might not have worked.

It’s even dumber to imply that the skier’s hypothermia is his punishment for cheating on his wife.  The two are in no way connected.  In mad science movies, the villain is killed by something they created which is seeking revenge.  In a disaster movie, both the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ human characters are caught up in the same events that really have nothing at all to do with their personal decisions. Trying to call this ‘karma’ just makes you wonder about all those nameless people in the stacks of body bags, and what awful things they did that the gods of this universe think they ‘deserve’ this.

The ending sucks, too.  Caroline and Dave basically just stand around and say “well, I guess that happened” and then she leaves. I think we're supposed to be glad they're not getting back together but that really didn't seem like it was gonna happen anyway.  Nothing’s resolved.  Nothing can be resolved when pretty much everybody whose problems we were supposed to be interested in is now dead.

Do you know what this movie needed?  Bigfoot. Bigfoot lurking in the trees to scare people who venture out in the snowstorm.  Bigfoot jumping out of the woods to frighten skiers and snowmobilers into crashing!  And just picture it – at the grand finale, Bigfoot marches in with an army of forest creatures ready to dig the humans out of the mess and save the day!  Out of all the Season Eleven movies not to have Bigfoot in them, why Avalanche when it was clearly the one that needed him most?

[cool-danielramos]

Architectural Suspense In The Two Systems

One writing axiom is "keep your characters in trouble." Still another is "keep your audience guessing." Aspiring illusion writers -- and, indeed, suspense writers -- can understand a thing or two from The Two Systems, the center element of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

The activity accumulates with the Company of the Band in disarray, seeking the Ringbearer, Frodo, because they are ambushed by orcs. 新宿　賃貸 (If you haven't read Lord of the Bands, end now; if you've just seen the films, that debate could make no feeling -- the film and the guide designs of The Two Systems have completely different structures, among different differences.)

Most of the audience understands from The Fellowship of the Band is that Frodo has decided to go to Mordor alone, and Sam has gone with him; Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas know actually less, as they variously struggle the orcs and ultimately discover Boromir succumbing to his accidents, having failed to avoid the orcs from abducting Happy and Pippin (which he does not get an opportunity to tell them).

Two main characters, Gandalf and Boromir, have now died; so in terms of the viewers know, anybody is good game.

Moreover, four of the lowest, least experienced people of the organization have headed into certain threat or have been abducted by their enemies, and the surviving characters have to decide what things to do. After the winding, peaceful start to The Fellowship of the Band, The Two Systems begins with the stress previously at the boiling place, and never enables up. Tolkien's conclusions about design just improve it.

For the very first section of Book III (The Two Systems includes Publications III and IV of Lord of the Rings), the audience is pushed to see just what Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli see, as they fall farther and farther behind the orcs getting Happy and Pippin to Isengard. (Aragorn deduces early in the day that Sam and Frodo have headed to Mordor and decides to regard Frodo's decision to go alone.) Their area stops with a confrontation using what they believe is certainly one of their worst predators, Saruman, but turns out to be Gandalf, back from the dead. It's a brief time of comfort before Tolkien goes into what happened to the hobbits.

We then uncover what has happened to Happy and Pippin -- who barely control to escape the orcs within a brutal raid by the Competitors of Rohan. They match a possible ally in Treebeard, but actually what he and the Ents will do about what the hobbits let them know is uncertain, and whether they will do it easily enough to greatly help Rohan survive Saruman's barrage from Isengard is remaining hanging.

Of course, Tolien then sets the residual characters he is ready to share with us about -- Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf -- proper in the center of the war between Isengard and Rohan. Just Gandalf is not stuck at the Struggle of Helm's Heavy, a harsh siege by which Rohan is badly outnumbered.

With every part, Tolkien sets his characters in new and usually worse peril -- and never allows a trace what is occurring to Frodo and Sam. He makes the audience watch for the entirety of Book III -- that is 1 / 2 of The Two Systems -- before switching back again to Sam and Frodo. And that is just after having a brutal, if brief, struggle, that leaves Rohan tired, Saruman's forces destroyed, and the worrying threat of the true foe -- Sauron of Mordor -- emerging, particularly since so far he is missing little he can not replace.

Following switching back again to Sam and Frodo, Tolkien just allows us their history, which movements beyond the events in Book III, therefore the audience shortly leaves behind any feeling of certainty what is occurring to the other hobbits, Gimli, Leglolas, Aragorn and the others. After the war unleashed in Book III, Tolkien has a various method of maintaining viewers on the edge of these seats in Book IV: Gollum.

We already know just Gollum lusts for the Band; believes it was stolen from him by Bilbo, Frodo's dad; and initially, killed his pal for it. Gollum is also alone capable of featuring Frodo and Sam the way into Mordor, and Frodo exacts an pledge from Gollum for his help. For the others of Book IV, the audience (and Sam) wonders whether they can trust him never to eliminate or betray them. In the end, obviously, as his two warring edges (desire for Frodo's trust and agreement versus his using need for the Ring) battle, he reveals he is capable of both.

By the conclusion of Book IV, Frodo is diseased by Shelob and grabbed by orcs in Mordor; Sam is alone, bearing the Band; and Gollum, having betrayed them equally, remains on the loose.

Quite independent of the outside forces threatening the characters (Saruman and the Uruk-hai of Isengard; Gollum; Shelob; the orcs of Mordor; and for Sam and Frodo, basic hunger, since Tolkien ensures early on the two hobbits have just enough food to carry them to Mount Doom, and maybe not to make their escape), the audience is remaining in the dark all the time about what is occurring to anybody maybe not present, since the account remains with one class for such extended stretches.

The characters are even worse off. Aragorn, Gimli and Leglolas do not actually uncover what has happened to Happy and Pippin till almost the conclusion of Book III; and as for Sam and Frodo, they get absolutely no good media about any of their buddies -- in fact, the only tidings they get are from Faramir, surprising them with media of Boromir's death.

Tolkien, obviously, develops on this method, switching back again to the other characters at the start of Book V in The Get back of the Master, and exploiting the reader's ignorance of what happened to Sam and Frodo, when at the end of Book V, the Mouth of Sauron taunts the residual characters in the Company of the Band using what seems certain proof Frodo's death.

Is design the only method to create tension? No. But when employed in this manner, by maintaining the concentration tight on certain characters for extended stretches, it not merely invests the audience deeper in these characters'problems and risks, additionally it makes the audience more worried about what could be occurring to the others. I discover actually on rereading it, when I understand what's coming, I can not put The Two Systems down.

[metastable1]

It's easy to make big plans and ask big questions, but a lot harder to follow them through.  Find out what happens to Harry Potter-Evans-Verres, Hermione, Draco, and everyone else once they grow into their roles as leaders, leave the shelter of Hogwarts, and venture out into a wider world of intrigue, politics, and war.  Not official.

Significant Digits by Alexander D is an unofficial continuation of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky. Despite being better crafted (from the wielding and richness of language standpoint, at least in the first half) it’s not as fun or funny as HPMoR, however, those rare moments when humor comes back, or when the author takes pokes at Rowling’s Harry Potter, make it feel exactly like the previous fic). Although the author abandoned heavy references made by Yudkowky to the heuristics and biases, it still feels like a rational fic and maintains ratfic’s qualities. One thing that I miss severely is a didactic tone of HPMoR - in Significant Digits, it comes back only for brief moments. I understand that it would be difficult to incorporate that when dealing with older and more experienced characters but still…

The thing I most respect about this fic is the amount of effort that clearly went into writing it, as well as the level of skill represented by the author, who, without a doubt, did a tremendous amount of research and is clearly quite an erudite. As one commenter said:

It saddens me a little that there is not a long discussion below this chapter. You are a good writter. I guess you are just too deep into the rabbit whole.

I admit that probably 95% of references, easter eggs and clues went over my head.

We spend most of the time inside Hermione’s head as if the author was afraid to write extensively from a perspective of Harry or Draco but when he does, he nails it. Alexander D did a really good job of writing more experienced and matured versions of the trio. Their dialogues also work well and one of them is my favorite fragment of the fic - I like it so much that I posted it below.

Fic is rich when it comes to fight scenes - there are a lot of fight scenes. The author deserves a great amount of praise for handling them so well - descriptions are really good and somehow he managed to not make them tedious or repetitious. If you wondered what would look like descriptions of duels featured in Harry Potter movies (they are quite different from those in the books) then wonder no more. Also, for the benefit of those with low tolerance level for violent scenes, I should note that continuation is a lot more gore-y than HPMoR.

Another aspect that deserves praise are awesome moments and lines of dialogues or internal monologues that stayed with me long after I took time off from reading. And then there are the Moments: those epic and deeply satisfying moments that the reader is often waiting for and when they arrive and unfold, there is this feeling of appropriateness and fulfillment; an exhilaration and “this is the way it should be” sensation. There were such moments in Rowling’s HP, in Yudkowsky’s HPMoR and they can be found in Significant Digits.

Now about the main plot and ending: I think that the idea for the main antagonist was pretty great, their motivations were solid. I think what failed was execution but I don’t have a good idea how intrigue should be lead or concluded instead. Don’t get me wrong - it’s still really good, I enjoyed it, don’t regret reading SD and its ending is quite unique and very risky, and despite that, it works! However, I feel that there was a greater potential that could be realized. Events leading to the main conclusion felt a bit clunky. On the other hand, the fic has a ”reread value” - with a benefit of hindsight readers can discover new things hidden by the author and spot hints that they missed during their first reading.

Overall, in my opinion, Significant Digits is a worthy successor of Yudkowsky’s fic. If you liked HPMoR give it a shot.

My favorite chapters:

Chapter Two: Buffering Conflicts and Chapter Nine: Boxes - for Harry’s perspective

Chapter Sixteen: Protagonists - for bringing back the spirit of J.K. Rowling’s HP

Chapter Thirty-Three: Walpurgisnacht - for a great ending of an arc and that dialogue

Chapter Fifty: Ultimate - for that final confrontation

PS. Important note: my comprehension of English let me understand HPMoR on my reread without much problem, however, Significant Digits has much richer language - it is possible that I missed some positive qualities because of this.

And now, my favorite fragment:

Wearily, Harry mounted the stairs to the workroom of the Headmistress.  In his pocket were four phials of blood from Vincent Crabbe, obtained after two hours of intimidation and veiled threats.  Moody had helped, along with two aurors Moody had trained himself -- an older one named Hedley Kwannon, and one barely out of training named Nymphadora Tonks.  The glass phials, filled with the blood of Hermione’s enemy, clicked against each other as Harry climbed the stairs. He pushed open the door.  It was silent inside.  Reddish light from the dawn illuminated the alchemical diagram on the floor: nested and interlaced circles and pentagons surrounding a central pentacle.  He’d been here once before, when he first demonstrated partial Transfiguration -- so long ago! -- and the room didn’t look to have been used since that visit. “Mad-Eye’s not here yet.  We have to wait,” said Draco’s voice from his left.  Harry started, and stepped forward to see that the boy was sitting at the base of the circular wall, head slumped forward. “How are you, Draco?” asked Harry, quietly. “This was your fault,” Draco replied. “I know.” “No, you don’t, you stupid piece of arrogant filth,” said the Slytherin boy, but there was no anger in his voice.  It was disconcertingly flat, with nothing but weariness and sorrow -- the sorrow of someone who had been required to endure too much, too soon.  “You think that you just made a mistake.  You’d do the same thing all over again, but you’d just be sure to include one more trap.  One more level of manipulation or cleverness.  You don’t see that the entire thing is… impossible.  It’s just impossible, and you won’t see that, and Hermione just keeps listening to you, and now she’s paid for your stupidity.” “I know.” “And even worse, this is just another reminder of why I was stupid to ever trust you -- to ever get involved in this asinine little play.  Your goals are… mad.  Insane.  But you don’t recognize that, since you don’t recognize any limits to… to… to anything.” It was more than that, of course.  It was even more than the terrible suffering and temporary absence of Hermione, as badly as that, too, had hurt the other boy.  There was something more. You’re worried that I can’t deliver on my promises… that you’ve placed hope in false prophecies and a false prophet.  You’re wondering if I am just a freak prodigy of Muggle science who looked really impressive in schoolyard antics, since he had a whole other world of tricks to steal, and who got lucky once… but who might just not be able to cut it in the real world. Draco looked up at him, and the boy looked unspeakably sad -- like he’d lost something precious. You’re worried I’ll never be able to bring your father back, after all. “Draco, there is--” “Shut up,” interrupted Draco, his voice hardening.  “Shut up and let’s just wait without talking.  You’re always talking, but it didn’t help her, did it?  Her phoenix burned and she burned. And now she’s dead, again, just like she was afraid would happen.” Draco’s eyes were red, but dry.  “She told me that… those months when she was trying to get her Patronus.  To meet your expectations.  She told me that she was terrified of dying again and that she thought that was probably the reason she couldn’t do it.  ‘I wake up screaming sometimes, Draco,’ she said.” “Stop,” said Harry, squeezing his eyes shut. Draco sounded more like he was scolding himself than Harry.  His words were black and bitter.  “And now she’s all burned up and dead again, and it’s your fault again.  Because you don’t understand what is possible, and you talk and you push -- oh, Merlin, it always sounds so insane when you first start talking, but by the end of the conversation it’s the rest of the world that seems insane, and how could I ever think that made sense?  How could anyone be that damned arrogant?” Harry turned away, blindly.  His eyes burned with hot tears.  For a moment, despite all of his resolutions, he almost called on his dark side: to cool him and calm him and solve this problem.  The cold emptiness of Voldemort’s thought patterns would have been preferable to this.  Null was better than negative. But he didn’t, because one did not abandon carefully-considered decisions during the exact sort of situation for which you had prepared them.  All he could do, instead, was sink to the stone, slick with dust under his fingers, and cry. After a time, his shoulders stopped heaving, and his breathing slowed from great shuddering gasps into quiet evenness.  Draco had said nothing, and hadn’t moved.  When Harry pushed himself up into a sitting position, he saw through a smear of tears that the other boy was just staring at him, dully, with red-rimmed eyes. “I…” began Harry, but he found that he didn’t have any words.  He fell silent again. Eventually, he stood up and drew his wand.  “Scourgify,” he cast, his voice heavy.  The spell cleared away the dust.  Putting away his wand, Harry opened his pouch and reached in.  “Cauldron,” he said to it, and felt the metal lip of a small cauldron leap into his hand.  He pulled it free of the pouch, which distended to permit its passage, and set it in the center of the diagram. Harry sat down next to it, and took the phials of blood out of his pocket.  He set them down next to the cauldron. Draco pushed himself to his feet, and walked over.  Digging into the pocket of his robes -- still the same burned ones, had he not had a chance to change?  no, of course... he left them on for effect -- he pulled out a small bag of soft bicorn skin and dropped it down next to the other objects.  The flesh of a servant, willingly given by Odette Charlevoix. Moody would be here soon, with a piece of bone from Hermione’s father.  He had insisted on doing this part himself, saying that he didn’t trust anyone else to invisibly infiltrate Happy Smiles Family Dentistry, stun one of the owners, extract a chip of bone while the man was unconscious, and fix any memories afterwards. It was a thankless task, and Harry thought that some part of Moody’s insistence was probably repentance.  Moody blamed himself for the attack, almost as much as he blamed Harry.  “We weren’t paranoid enough,” he had said, bitterly.  It was as heavy an indictment as he could deliver. They waited in silence. Finally, Harry spoke again.  “I tried. I tried as hard as I could.  I thought through everything and planned it out and assembled every bit of information… I counted forty-three known threats and planned for eight kinds of unknowns.  We had just… layers of security and plans.”  Draco knew most of them, of course.  He’d helped, along with Moody and Hermione and Bones. There were fat folders, stuffed with parchments -- or had been, anyway, before the fire ate the hidden boltholes that had been serving as safes.  Dossiers on people and information on countries:  CHINA.  Overview:  Continued worries about European and British dominance in magic, may seek to strike before new regime rises.  Often isolates self and seeks to extend power over Ten Thousand, but pragmatic leadership points to a willingness to shift tactics, if seems advantageous. Traditional value for immortality, connected to long specialization in potioneering.  Informal and formal power structures largely mirror each other; little vulnerability to factionalization but suggests opportunity to shift key functionaries and alter trajectory of entire country.  And so on. Plans within plans, contingency upon contingency: living and adaptable Matryoshka dolls whirling in a furious dance.  A location that couldn’t be stormed by force, allies watching other allies, security measures and magical wards that could cut off the life of an attacker in moments.  And none of it had done any good when the mind of a powerful wizard had broken.  He had died, but so had others.  So had Hermione. “It’s not your fault that you can’t do the impossible.  It’s only your fault that you try the impossible, and other people pay for it,” replied Draco.  He stared down at Harry.  “You can’t plan for everything.  The world is dark and people are vicious.  Even the good ones are vicious, and the bad ones are worse, and the crazy ones do things you couldn’t possibly predict. You can’t control the universe, Harry Potter-Evans-Verres, you miserable, arrogant little scrub.” Harry was silent once more, and looked away, unable to meet Draco’s gaze.  He hugged his knees.  Draco turned away, walking heavily towards the door. There’s too much evil and too much madness in the world, Moody had said.  Too much damn randomness. You can’t control the universe. “I don’t accept that,” he whispered, as much for himself as for Draco. “What?” demanded Draco, turning back around, his voice incredulous -- angry now, where he hadn’t been before. “I don’t accept that,” Harry repeated, more loudly.  He looked up.  “I do not accept that.” “You can’t--” Harry lurched to his feet, swaying slightly, his kneecaps popping from the sudden shift.  There was iron in his voice, now.  It wasn’t cold iron; it wasn’t the chill metal of his dark side, icy with hateful clarity.  It was iron at a white heat.  He glowed with it. “No,” Harry said, his voice as certain as a hammerblow. “No,” he repeated. “No,” he said again. “I do not accept that.  I do not accept death.  I do not accept decline.  I do not accept madness.  I do not accept randomness.  They are all part of the universe, and they are all important… but I do not -- mankind does not -- have to accept them,” said Harry.  “If you want out of this, then say so.  If you want to lead a different life, then you know I won’t begrudge you that.  I will make that happen, and that choice I once gave you will always be yours: you may choose another path and you will not hear a word of regret from me.  Your preferences are sacred. So if you think this can’t be done… go.”  Harry’s face was grim.  “But I’m not going.” Harry walked towards Draco until he was inches away from the other boy.  Iron was bright in his words. “Right now, there is a little girl somewhere in the world.  She’s a small thing for her age, with big eyes.  She loves her big brother.  She wants to be just like her mother when she grows up.  But tonight, there will be an accident.  A rotten tree will collapse as the little girl climbs it, and she’ll tumble to the ground, and she’ll land badly.  And she’ll die.  And then her big eyes will be gone, and her brother will never see her again, and she’ll never grow up to be like her mother.  Everything she ever was or will be: gone and dead and buried. “Her brother will deal with his grief, in time, and may even find solace and strength in stories about how death is necessary.  Her mother will cry and hurt, but in time it will hurt less, and she’ll focus more on her son, and eventually the loss will fade until it’s just a nagging ache in her heart -- that never quite leaves.  And the world will go on, because it’s happened every day in every way, and we have learned how to manage the loss. “But it doesn’t have to be that way.  And I don’t just mean saving that little girl, or Hermione, or even your father, Draco, but every little girl and friend and father.  People die every day and they always have but I do not accept it.” But something of Harry’s heat had communicated itself with his words, and Draco’s eyes were lit as bright as the red glow of Fiendfyre.  He seized the front of Harry’s robes, twisting his fists in them, and shoved as hard as he could.  Harry stumbled backwards, foot skidding, and only barely kept his balance. “Do you think I want them to die, you sanctimonious idiot?  Are you even listening to me?  I’m saying that it doesn’t matter how much you want them to live, because the world is too complicated!  You’re denying the data!  You want to do things that no one has ever done, and do them all at once which no one has even dreamed of doing.  Not Dumbledore, not Salazar Slytherin, not the Peverell brothers, not even Merlin the bloody First Enchanter himself!  The greatest wizards in the history of the world only barely attempted some tiny fraction of your insane fever dream!  You want to rule the world and end death, good and fine, and you want to end poverty and sickness and make everyone equal and put goblins and other trash up on a pedestal and all that other fluffy nonsense, fine!”  Draco was shouting, now.  “But it is impossible!  It is just impossible!  To do any one of them was beyond anyone’s power, even those who tried, much less all of it at once!  And by trying to do it, you’re going to burn down this world and everyone in it, and it is just beyond arrogant and stupid to look at the world and declare that you are going to change it so much and so fast, and we are all suffering because of that!” Harry roared back at Draco, his voice larger than himself, as though it were echoing the cries of others, of legions, “I don’t give a damn if it is impossible!  I don’t give a damn if no one has ever done it or tried it or dreamed it in the history of the world!  ‘Impossible’ is a little word and a petty one -- it’s the word of small minds and small imaginations, and I reject it.” Draco opened his mouth to say something, but Harry continued over him, shouting now, white iron in his words and eyes and heart, a white glow suffusing him as a glow from his wand waxed brighter and brighter. “We are standing on the brink -- at the moment of crux between peril and paradise, Draco!  We are caught at the edges of two singularities, held equipoise at their event horizons, and it is terrifying, but when they offer you the Ring you don’t reject it with the word ‘impossible!’“ Draco shouted back, lunging forward to stab a finger into Harry’s chest: accusatory.  “Not everything is possible in this world!” And Harry replied, quietly, caught with a sudden stillness as clear as the sweet ring of a tranquil bell, “Draco. There are more worlds than this one.  We’ll find one where we can save everybody."  His voice caught with emotion.  "Impossible just means you haven’t figured out how to cheat.”