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welldonebeca · 11 days ago

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it's a Bad Idea, right? (28)

WC: 1.4k words Warnings: Mafia AU. Tension. Angst.

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Pietro rode on the front and talked to Jennifer the whole time, but Betty couldn’t quite say anything.

Her mind was long gone.

They were asking about Steffan.

Of course the girls mentioned Steffan, they were probably trying to get out of trouble – or in the least trouble possible.

She still needed to call him.

What if they had arrested him?

What if something had happened to him?

Jennifer parked in front of their building, and it was Pietro who got Betty out of the haze in her mind.

“Come on,” he called. “Let’s get inside.”

She followed him, still feeling her heart pumping hard.

What if Steffan was hurt?

What if he was in trouble?

Maybe they hadn’t caught him, but…

Well, there was no guarantee of anything.

Pietro got inside first, and Wanda jumped right on him, wrapping her arms around him with the worry of a sister terrified of not knowing about his well-being.

She was left to close the door just a minute before Wan was squeezing her in a death grip, holding her in a death grip, moving back and then holding her face as she looked at her with such worry it made Betty’s eyes fill up with tears.

“Oh, thank God,” Wanda exhaled, her voice half-broken. “Pietro said there were shots!”

Betty swallowed down, nodding.

“They started shooting, Piet grabbed me and got us under the counter,” she mumbled.

“I couldn’t let you die,” he said like it was obvious. “I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you.”

Betty turned to look at him, and he wasn’t even smiling, he looked very serious about it.

Wanda pulled her along to sit down, and her eyes caught the flowers on the counter, with Betty written on the card stuck between them.

Black dahlias.

“What’s that?” she asked, confused.

Wanda turned to look at it too, and her face soured right away.

“The neighbour said someone came looking for you,” she told her. “I think they are from Steffan.”

Betty walked to the counter, but she followed right after her.

When she pulled the card, there was no signature from him. Just a phrase.

“Sorry for not winning you an arcade ring.”

She frowned.

What?

“Who would send someone black dahlias?” Wanda asked, sounding annoyed. “That’s… poor taste at best.”

Betty looked back at her.

Well… those were pretty flowers?

“Black dahlias?” Pietro asked from the living room, sounding just as confused as Betty.

The wedding had made Wanda, somehow, obsessed with flowers.

She had a book with every little meaning, with the colours and all that shit.

“They mean betrayal,” she said simply. “Death. Sadness.”

Betty focused on the card again, and it was Steffan’s handwriting, even though it wasn’t signed by him.

“Is that from Steffan?” Pietro asked, and Betty could hear the anger in his voice.

She exhaled.

“Yeah,” she mumbled.

Why would he send that?

“Who is Steffan?” Jennifer asked.

The three turned to her, a Betty finally realised Vision and her were standing side by side in the living room, with her friend’s fiancé looking very, very worried.

She hesitated.

Well, Jennifer was a lawyer.

Her lawyer.

“My boyfriend,” Betty spoke slowly. “He is part of Hydra.”

Jennifer’s eyes widened, and Vision looked away, embarrassed.

“He’s not a Nazi,” she defended herself. “And he is just… hm...”

Well.

In Betty’s defence, she never had to say anything like that aloud!

“He was the… whatever version of general manager of the area would be called,” she tried to explain.

Jennifer turned to look at Vision and then back at Betty, and covered her face with a hand, looking very unhappy about it.

“You are dating a Hydra member?” she asked slowly. “And no one told me?”

Betty grimaced.

“I never got involved with anything,” she argued with her.

“Never?” Wanda interrupted her, with her eyebrows raised and a very serious look on her face. “Not once?”

She fell into silence, glaring at Wan.

Jennifer stepped up in her direction, her curls escaping her hair tie.

“Might I remind everyone in this room I can only defend people from things I know?” she asked, nearly outraged.

Betty recoiled, crossing her arms, embarrassed.

God...

Also, was she the only one just meeting her now?

Betty pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Look!” she started. “Once, I translated things for them. Once!”

Jennifer closed and opened her hands, and pointed at the chair.

“Sit down,” she told him. “And we are going through all the details of this relationship, I want to know how you met, where you’ve been, the people you’ve met… everything.”

Betty sighed, but complied with her, sitting on the table.

They went through everything. How they had met, how they started dating, how he held all the power in the relationship… of course, going through the whole shit show the meeting with his boss was.

“When was the last time you two talked?” she asked.

“The morning,” Betty told her. “He dropped me off and said he couldn’t pick me up, so I should come home with Pietro.”

“Did he know?” Pietro asked, sounding nearly angry.

Betty turned around to him quickly, nearly snapping her neck.

What?

“Did he know what was going to happen?” he asked. “To leave you alone there?”

That was absurd!

“How would he even know?!” she stood up. “No one could know.”

But still, she wasn’t so sure.

Of course he wouldn’t know, right?!

But Piet kept his eyes on hers, serious and unmoving.

“Did he call you?” he asked. “Wanda knew about the thing at the restaurant and she wasn’t even in the neighbourhood. Your boyfriend would know.”

Betty clenched her jaw.

“Not if he was arrested,” she looked away, and then back at Jennifer, and she looked very sour.

Now… Betty could ask. But she was half-sure the answer wouldn’t be good.

So she didn’t.

“I should call him,” she took her hand to her face, rubbing it.

Where was her bag?

“You really should not,” Jennifer interrupted her. “If your boyfriend was arrested, then his phone is with the FBI. You call him, and they’ll know you’re looking for him, and they are not going to think you’re just worried about his presence.”

Betty bit her nail, not fully settling in that.

“What if something happened?” she insisted.

“Something almost happened to us,” Pietro spoke nearly over her. “If he cared, he would be here. He has a lawyer, if he wants to contact you he can.”

She clenched her jaw, looking away from them.

“Betty, as a lawyer,” Jennifer spoke, and paused. “As your lawyer, specially. What do you even know about him?”

That made her pause.

Well…

Wanda even stepped up to her, crossing her arms and looking at her like she was waiting for her answer.

“Why are you looking so smug?” Betty asked back, unable to stop herself. “If I remember right, you told me to go out with him. You called it a historical reparation.”

“That was before he roped you into getting a meeting with his boss and caused you to almost die and get arrested,” she raised a finger. “There is only so much you can ignore about that man, and we both know that.”

“Do you know his full name?” Jennifer asked.

“Steffan Bauer,” Betty answered, turning to look at her, still processing Wanda’s words. “Look, Wan-”

“His age?” Pietro asked, not letting her finish.

Betty stared at him.

What?

“Thirty… something?” she frowned at him. “I don’t know!”

“Where is he from?” Wanda asked.

“Germany!”

“Where in Germany?” Vision came in, though a little softer than the others.

Betty turned to look at him, glaring now.

What was that, an intervention?!

“The names of his parents?” Jennifer asked. “Either of them?”

She shut her mouth. No, she didn’t know that.

“How long he’s been in America?” Wanda pointed.

“Is he a legal immigrant?” Jennifer added.

“Why would someone leave Germany for the United States?” Pietro asked, very damn sassy.

She glared at him.

“Fine!” she raised her hands. “I don’t know anything about him.”

Did they have to rub that in?!

“I can check if he was arrested,” her lawyer offered. “But that’s all. You really should not try to contact him, it’s only going to make the FBI think you are involved with more stuff than you really are. Don’t make yourself a target.”

She plopped herself sat on the kitchen chair, crossing her arms.

Great.

“Come on,” Wanda moved to her side. “We have to start packing.”

Betty frowned, confused.

“Packing?” she asked.

“You two are coming with us,” Vision told her. “It’s not safe to stay here. You’re coming to our home, where it is safer.”

…

“it’s a Bad Idea, right?” was posted on my Patreon in September 2023. To have early access to it (and lots of other stories), consider subscribe to my page! It’s just $2 a month, and I know you won’t regret it!

…

Bad Idea: @peaceloveancolor

#steve rogers #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers fanfic #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x reader fanfiction #steve rogers x reader fanfic #steve rogers x reader fic #steve rogers x oc #steve rogers x oc fanfic #steve rogers x oc fanfiction #píetro maximoff #píetro maximoff fanfic #píetro maximoff fic #píetro maximoff fanfiction #píetro maximoff angst #píetro maximoff x oc #píetro maximoff x reader #píetro maximoff x oc fanfic

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anhed-nia · 1 month ago

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BLOGTOBER 10/22/2024: THE GRUDGE (2020)

I had no idea that this movie even existed when I stumbled upon it one night and figured it would be an OK waste of time. The film's invisibility is explained by the fact that it was released right at the beginning of 2020, which was a lousy time to do anything, but that doesn't clarify for me why everyone hated it so much. I have a few theories, the main one of which is GRUDGE burnout. Various factors make it hard to describe how many GRUDGE movies there actually are, but let's generously say there are 7 original Japanese features, 2 Japanese reboot films, the SADAKO VS. KAYAKO movie, then there are 3 American remakes and this reboot. The present film is the only one I like.

I was a total sucker for J Horror when it hit the states, but even at the height of my mania, I didn't get anything in the extended JU-ON franchise. None of them have the depth or convincing dread of RINGU or KAIRO or any of the other allegories for festering trauma and alienation. They all just seem extremely silly to me; oooh, a spooky cat, oooh, a spooky child. Every time the ghosts start making that noise, it's almost impossible for me to stop myself from also making the noise. It's a noise you learn to make as a little kid to be annoying. It makes me think of this every time:

youtube

The 2020 version, on the other hand, really works for me. Not that it's never silly, but considering that it's built on a foundation that is so fundamentally ridiculous, it's pretty accomplished. It's intensely atmospheric, effectively scary, and it has an absolutely stacked cast; with all that in mind, I find the de rigueur silliness pretty forgivable.

Andrea Riseborough (yesss) is a recently widowed cop whose first case in a new town involves a string of seemingly-unrelated deaths tied to a certain house. As per GRUDGE tradition, the asynchronous story unfolds over three years, during which: - A grudge-infected woman returns from Japan to kill her family and herself in the house. - A pair of husband-wife realtors, who are expecting a potentially-severely disabled child, contract the grudge as they try to sell the house, resulting in a murder-suicide. - An aging couple moves in, and they temporarily host a woman who performs assisted suicides, hoping she will help the wife, who suffers from advanced dementia. Soon, they all start to see the angry spirits of the first family.

I really enjoy the way that this story is layered, with a character who recently experienced a death; a couple who are seeking death (Lin Shaye and Frankie Faison); and a couple who struggle to decide whether their baby will live or die (Betty Gilpin and John Cho). It's a lot to pack into a 94-minute movie, but the cast is so strong, and the atmosphere is so well-developed that nothing feels half-baked. I especially enjoy Jacki Weaver (of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK among many other things) as the assisted suicide professional who brings a touch of Tangina to her segment, without going over the top. This is certainly Lin Shaye's finest moment; I've always been a fan, but in this role she balances tragedy and terror very successfully. She's someone who has that Robert Englund quality where she just really knows how to be in front of the camera, she knows what her angles are and has an excellent sense of timing, but here she also gets to do a bit of proper drama. It's nice.

All that aside, I just find this movie really appealing materially. It has a couple of the best movie corpses I've ever seen, and it has an interesting way of presenting haunted houses. One of the few things that I like about the other GRUDGE movies is how they tackle the challenge of making a new, cheaply constructed house look scary. The big old Victorian that the movie centralizes is an easy one, but Andrea Riseborough's suburban ranch-style place is a less obvious candidate, and they still manage to spookify it pretty well. I used to think about what makes a new building disturbing when I would see images of Jeffrey Dahmer's parents' place, which was so ordinary in most ways, though it was also shoved back into the shadows of the trees...I always wondered whether I was just projecting that it looked sort of grim. I also think about my in-laws' suburban home, which I don't personally find spooky--perhaps due to comfort and familiarity--but it crazily doesn't get any light at all, from any angle. It's perpetually cold inside because of this, and I always ask myself if I would find the place frightening if I were a stranger there.

William Sadler FTW!!!

Anyway, that's enough about me. I can pick out things about this movie that don't work as well (like I find Demian Bichir deeply ridiculous although I don't exactly blame him, I think it's just the way he is), but I don't find that the problems stand out farther than the virtues, and I think that makes this a success. I did browse through some of the negative reviews just to see what I might be missing, and I found that the vast majority of them said things that I just didn't think were true; I think it's objectively not true that the performances are shallow, I think it's objectively not true that it's overly predictable and cliched. I think that sometimes people preemptively tell themselves what a movie will probably be like--especially horror movies, and most especially an American reboot of a remake of a Japanese horror movie--and then when they see the movie, they only see what they told themselves they would. Of course I can't prove that that's what happened, it's just what I think, because almost no negative review made me feel like we had even seen the same thing. I'm here to tell you not to be afraid of THE GRUDGE (2020). Go ahead and see what you think, without all the baggage. If you really don't like it, it can be my fault.

#blogtober #2024 #the grudge #2020 #2019 #horror #nicolas pesce #andrea riseborough #line shaye #betty gilpin #john cho #william sadler #frankie faison #Youtube

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morastfrck · 1 year ago

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Hi thx again for that art. Honestly i wanted to share with my True Hero headcanons (I prefer more responsible Delsin, rather than psychopath) - More Responsibility: Will protect every conduit, teach and guide them to control their powers. He became friend of many conduits and thanks to his ideals, he will find many conduits with same mindset (justice and equality for both Humans and Conduits). And thus creating sort of like Justice League to protect the entire world. - From now on, he is public face: whenever he goes, expect lots of cameras and journalists. While he loved this at first, it became annoying as fuck and decided just to go away from them as fast as possible. However his actions, will give people hope and inspire everyone in the entire world. - He will mete with Zeke, who will tell Delsin everything about Cole. And while feeling inspired, he would also struggle more about continuing ideals of Cole and carrying on his legacy. Questioning himself, is he really worthy? - Akomish will became his place of protection and warm. Betty will always make lots of cakes and his favourite dishes, to make him feel better. - No matter his struggling, Delsin will always try to do his best no matter what. From saving cats from trees, to prevent another war crimes to happen or cartels to hurt innocent. He maybe struggles, but he will not let his struggle, to fail so many innocent people. - Delsin once a month will always visit Reggie's grave to talk about anything. Trying to hold himself not to cry. - He will have more powers, but not asking for more and being responsible with this. (If a conduit says no, Delsin will not take it) - He may be a hero, he is still no saint. If there is a conduit or a criminal mastermind who cannot change and still a threat to innocent, he will put him down for good. - Delsin one day will face conduits of nightmares and will face his biggest fear: REggie. However he understands it's not real and overcomes it. - Delsin will become everyone's big bro and a mentor sort of like Charles Xavier. Thanks to Eugene's genius they would profit and have lots of money to start investing on good stuff and make a big base for conduits to live and train. - Delsin will have no free time (unfortunately) - he will always check the monitors for any crimes, and while he has his friends, he still would feel lots of pressure on his shoulders. - Delsin one day will face a conduit who was used and brainwashed by her own father, who wanted to use her for himself. Once Delsin hears this story, he will be mad and kill that person in blind rage. - Eugene's new invention allowed to train in virtual reality, to have faster and better access to new powers. Fetch will be sort of like flash thanks to her light speed abilities. While Delsin will always be everywhere at the same time to protect everyone. And also here is mine headcanon quote for Delsin hero. "The world is not a great place. It's fulled of bad and sick people. And yet here i am, doing my best no matter what. And while i'm still breathing the ideals of justice and hope, I will never die. I will struggle, but never give up the fight. And i will not stop my fight, until the world would turn into a better place than it ever was. Never." What do you think?

woah hell that is a big ass concept you have here, you should totally write a post canon story with it or something (bc fr its really put together, even with further future concepts and everything)

honestly? this does seem like a plausible option for that kind of delsin. I mean, society would have to face some major changes after augustine’s fall, both in terms of conduit relating laws and people’s mindsets, and having someone as known as delsin take everything in his own hands would def help. So imo the plot idea is pretty solid.

I personally would focus more on delsin’s personal growth. Storywise he is already powerful enough that he was able to take down augustine - which is hella impressive, she had been practicing concrete for 7 years. So i dont really see any point in focusing on him expanding his powers but rather deciding how to use them. You called bad karma a psychopath, but i feel like they are far more similar to each other, Its not like they are two different characters. the only thing separating hero from infamous is like this one metaphorical wrong choice.

If he makes this bad decision, he is basically forced to make more - he killed one guy, so what difference would it make if he killed a few more, and so on. He would also probably be way more focused on revenge - for himself on society (that was rejecting him throughout his life, for graffity and similar stuff) and failed him again after he turned out to be a conduit, for reggie, for akomish (and later even revenge on akomish for also rejecting him). Its like a vicious circle of him being rejected, getting his revenge for it, and getting rejected furthermore.

For the hero on the other hand, i see him as more of a trapped in the expectations type of character. He saved a few people, and now they point their phone cameras at him and scream his name, and he just cant let them down. At first it really busts his ego - he literally talked about becoming a hero before, so makes sense that he is flattered. But the thing is, on the inside he is still the same person who could have gone the infamous path. After all, bad karma points are only given for executing an enemy, not just for them dying. I believe that shows the difference really well, as its not about murder, its about cruelty.

Delsin doesnt have the truly neutral choice, bc he will either be percieved as a villain or a hero by the crowd, so naturally their perception will always be exaggerated. They either see him as a psychopath or a saint, no inbetween.

But in reality, he is still a sly fucker who draws mocking graffitis on the walls and flirts with his enemies, no matter what choice he made.

(tho i do feel like reggie’s death could make big difference for his alignment. either sending him down the revange path or making delsin want to not let his brother down and going all hero)

so basically, i feel like really becoming a hero, and not just a rebel with good reputation would be pretty challenging for him. It would be interesting to see the way he would struggle to actually make rational and good choices at times, or how he would tackle the problems actual heroes face (or like those “who should i save” dillemas from superhero comics)

also this is why i prefer the og delsin, as i see him as the one who stays more loyal to his original ideology, and while accepting his feelings he doesn’t go too far with revenge stuff or attempts to become the hero everyone needs. He is the “its not possible to please everyone” and he is fine that way

But generally i think you have a really cool concept here. It works great, tho we def dont see some things the same way lmao

and good luck in turning it into somethin more? (bc i really hope you do its worth it!!!!)

oh but also think about mentor delsin in his late thirties-fourties😩😏

#and daaaaamn you got me into writhing this whole thing #ah the character analysis my guilty pleasure #i really hope this whole thing will shrink into the expandable post once i actually post it #delsin rowe #infamous second son

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lesbiancocksucker · 1 year ago

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"the ending was a masterpiece of storytelling" Please say it louder for all the people in the back because it absolutely was a masterpiece and the fact people are hating on it or acting like it's bizarre is just annoying. I wish more people who understood art and storytelling were making videos about the show.

Like it's exactly the type of ending I would've expected for riverdale!! No I wasn't expecting the polycule nor was I expecting grandma Betty reminiscing about her high school years but riverdale is fundamental a show about high school!! The characters mostly got happy endings and once they all died they got sent back into Jughead's narrative to live out eternity in a "heaven" pop's. Like in terms of wrapping up the plot lines, giving characters the ending they deserved and giving everyone closure riverdale hit the nail on the head. It did a great job!!! And it was fun and wacky!!! Grandma Betty got "sent back in time" (she was imagining it or so we think) to attend her last day of high school. The gays all had their normal wonderful lives and grandma Betty in her young body looked archie andrews in the face and said I know how you die. Homophobic-turnt-gay-lovers frank andrews and tom keller got hatecrimined. Fangs died in a accident. Julian died in vitenam. Everyone reunited in the great pop's in the sky and can live out eternity with each other drinking milkshakes and being young.

Like comparing to another cw show that will remain unnamed this ending was like winning a million dollars.

#riverdale #some people dont know how to have fun

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realm-sweet-realm · 1 year ago

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Accretion, chapter 3

Accretion is a story that follows the rise and fall of Galactic Boss Cyrus and the fate of Team Galactic and the lives of those affected by it after its reformation under Saturn. It will be about 8 chapters in length. I hope you all enjoy this.

Saturn walked through the dorm halls, clutching his abra, Betty, like a ragdoll as the Pokémon levitated his luggage behind him. Maybe choosing to stay in men’s dorms hadn’t been a good idea. Not that he was exactly comfortable living with a stranger of any gender given how shy he was, but since he hadn’t transitioned at all or even used a non-feminine his name on any of the paperwork, this was starting to feel like a mistake. He got to the room with his number- 108- took a deep breath, and slowly opened the door.

Saturn’s roommate, a young man with sharp eyes and frosty blue hair, was already there, bags unpacked and nose in a book. If the stranger had noticed that someone had come in, he didn’t show it.

Saturn signed for Betty put his bags down in front of his bed. They dropped loudly, prompting Saturn to cringe as the stranger peered up at him.

“Hey. My name is Venus,” Saturn managed.

The other man put down his book and looked him over, dull-eyed and surely thinking that ‘Venus’ was a strange name for someone in the men’s dorms. “I don’t want to call you that,” the man said.

“…What?”

“That name makes you uncomfortable. Give me one that won’t make you uncomfortable.” The man waited a moment as Saturn attempted to gather himself and respond. “Or, I could call you nothing at all. It seems that neither of us are enthused about sharing space. Perhaps we’d prefer to ignore eachother entirely.” The man’s tone wasn’t annoyed- he sounded like he was just stating dry facts.

“No, it’s not that, I just- well, I don’t quite have a name picked out. I mean, I’m not out to my parents, so…”

“You don’t need to tell them the truth. Tell them you don’t want to be named ‘Venus’ because Venus is a lousy planet. The less you care about others, the more ability you will have to live as you see fit.”

“Um. Okay.” Saturn turned away, opened up his suitcase, and set to unpacking. Once the initial agitation wore off, Saturn wondered where on earth this man got so much nerve and where he could find some of it. He might as well try to find out. It wasn’t like they were off to a great start as roommates, so what did he have to lose?

“Some of my friends call me Saturn,” Saturn explained, “It started as a placeholder, but I’m getting used to it. What’s your name?”

“Cyrus.”

“Cool. I’m going to take a look at the bar across the street from campus. Do you want to join me?”

“Sure,” Cyrus answered, with some hesitation.

Saturn would give Canalave one thing- their university knew how to throw a welcome week. Unfortunately, since it was nearly five, most of the booths for campus clubs and other features were currently being packed up for the day. It might have been interesting to check them out together since he didn’t have anyone else to go with.

“So, what are you here for?” Saturn asked as they passed through the various stands.

“My scholarships are in engineering, so that will be the majority of my classes,” Cyrus explained, not sounding especially excited. “You?”

“Well, uh. I don’t know. I mean, my goal up until a month ago was basically just to distract myself until I die. But my family scrapped together the cash to send me here, so I’m vaguely obligated to do something. Pretty sure they’re mostly just hoping this’ll keep me out of prison, though.”

“Prison?”

Saturn held up the floral-printed purse he’d snatched from a booth while its owner’s back was turned. He took 3000 poké from it, then snapped his fingers. On cue, Betty teleported it back.

“I... see,” Cyrus said, looking at Saturn with more alertness than before.

“Yeah. Betty here has been my partner in crime for, well, a long time,” Saturn explained, rubbing the Pokémon between the ears as it floated beside him. “So, you don’t seem that interested in engineering. What do want to do with your life?”

Cyrus looked forward as they walked, his face serious. “It’s not that I’m uninterested in engineering. It’s that millions upon millions of people are born, suffer, and die and the world remains incomplete no matter how many of them attempt to change it for the better. Something has to radically change and it won’t be through technology alone. My goal is to figure out how to change it.”

“Oh. Wow. You sound like a real visionary.”

“I suppose so. But you’re the one who’s actually taken risks. You must have some interesting stories about your criminal exploits.”

Saturn laughed. “That makes it sound like I robbed a bank. But yeah, I have stories.”

It was a short walk to the bar. Unsurprisingly, given the number of students that had arrived that day, the bar was packed despite it barely being evening. The music blared and several dozen people attempted to yell over it and each other. Why humans willingly put themselves in locations like this, let alone managed to do something as nuanced as socialize in them, was beyond Cyrus. But he could manage this. He needed to learn more about people to decide how to change the world, and Saturn was a good start, given his willingness to spend time with him.

They were seated. Saturn asked questions Cyrus could barely make out. Cyrus gave short answers. It was better not to attempt anything more complicated than that while most of his cognitive resources were focused on filtering out the noise.

“Want to have them move us to the patio so it’s quieter?” Saturn asked after a few minutes of conversation, his tone leaving no question that he’d noticed Cyrus’ discomfort.

“If you’d prefer it,” Cyrus replied, taking care to sound indifferent, as though that would save face.

Wonderful. Now Saturn would think he was strange and inadequate and want nothing to do with him. He’d lost the respect of a compliant human being because a bar was loud.

And yet, Saturn hadn’t rushed to leave that night. In fact, after they got going, they’d talked for hours. And strangely enough, the next day Saturn invited him out to look at the booths for various clubs. And Cyrus agreed to it.

Saturn dragged him to the first meetings of various clubs so he’d have a sturdy wall of confidence to cling to if things got awkward. They played video games together. They stayed up late exchanging jokes and stories on nights they couldn’t sleep. They discussed each other’s classes to the point where Saturn majored in engineering because he’d found Cyrus’ rambles on the subject so interesting. And Saturn was good at it. Saturn transitioned. He gained confidence. He gained other friends. And yet for some reason he chose to spend time with Cyrus. Every time Cyrus was sure he’d acted a bit too strange, been a bit too much or too weak, or that Saturn would leave him for better options, Saturn didn’t lose interest in him. It was baffling but pleasant.

---

“Thanks for agreeing to look over this, especially on such short notice,” Saturn said, logging into the library computer. It was a bit past 1 am and finals were still a few weeks away, so they were the only ones there.

“It’s fine,” Cyrus answered. “This is about what I’d be doing at this hour anyhow.” It was true. While Saturn being up at this hour was rare and usually meant he was upset, Cyrus frequently spent the early morning hours researching whatever his current interest was.

“Right.” Saturn opened up his presentation on the Celestica people. “Alright. Here it is. I made sure to follow the syllabus, but it’s on a pretty complicated subject, so I thought I’d make sure. It’s on the evidence for and against whether the Celestica people actually met with Arceus and received blessings from him.”

“That is a complicated subject,” Cyrus said, looking over the first few slides. “They did seem like God’s chosen for a while- long-lived and able to thrive in a land others struggled in. People use the fact that they were wiped out as counter-evidence, but personally, I think that Arceus left them because it didn’t want to be near the Diamond and Pearl clans. People tend to forget that, while He may have created the universe, He is ultimately just a Pokémon with His own desires.”

Cyrus continued looking through the slides. It was flawless, not that he expected any less of Saturn. At some point in the past few years, Saturn had stopped stealing and started taking his schoolwork seriously, and the effort showed.

“It looks as though you’ve gone above and beyond on this. There is nothing to worry about.”

“Okay. Sorry, I just... kind of wanted this presentation to impress someone.”

That got more of Cyrus’ attention than he would have liked. “There’s no need to worry about that. It’s a first-year class. Most people in it won’t know a fantastic presentation from a mediocre one. Who is it?”

“Oh, believe me, he’d be able to tell. And it’s just... someone. A crush from some of my classes. He’s way smarter than me, and I guess I wanted to show him that I could get really knowledgeable about something too, or teach him something, or... y’know, it sounds stupid now that I say it out loud. Let’s go back to our room.”

And so they did. Neither of them wanted to go to bed yet, so they ended up sitting on Saturn’s bed and talking, Betty curled up against Cyrus’ chest.

“Want to hear a story?” Cyrus asked.

“Sure,” Saturn said, stroking Betty as she purred.

“When I was seventeen, my family tried to pair me off with a girl from another prestigious family,” Cyrus started. There was no need to give context. Saturn knew that Cyrus’ mom had chased after the acceptance of his wealthy relatives and eventually gotten it. He hadn’t spoken of the abuse of course, just the context needed for stories. “I was a few months away from escaping to the other side of Sinnoh and cutting all ties with them, so she wasn’t in my plans. They had her over for dinner so we could meet. I did the bare minimum expected of me. But then they left us alone in the living room. She had ideas of what we should do together, so to increase her chances of a shotgun wedding. If the fact they’d left us wine was any indication, my family had similar ideas.”

Saturn smirked. He had a good idea of where this was going. “So... how did you protect your virginity?”

“I ‘accidentally’ drenched her dress in red wine and told her she’d best go home and put it in the wash before the stains set in. But that isn’t the end of it. She made a show of removing all her clothing, handed it to me, and told me that she’d be ready for me when I came back. When I came back from putting her dress in the wash, I brought her a towel to cover up with. I still remember the look on her face. There were several, actually. One right after the other.” In imitation of her, Cyrus contorted his face into shock and then anger and then defeat.

"Oh my God. What did she say after that? Must have been a real interesting evening for you.”

“Very little. And it wasn’t. I had my pokétch to keep me entertained, but it grew repetitive after the first hour and I couldn’t focus while she was making repeated attempts at conversation.”

“That poor girl. Well, I guess it’s what she gets for not taking no for an answer.”

Cyrus smiled. “Yes, well, I don’t blame her. Humans are in a constant struggle to fill these voids inside of us. It’s natural that we hurt each other- or attempt to, in this case- in the process. You know, Arceus could change that with a figurative snap of His fingers. I wonder why He doesn’t.”

“Free will, probably?

“If we lived in a world where everyone was constantly intoxicated, would it be a violation of free will to make us sober? Or would it increase our free will, allow us to make clear-headed decisions?”

“That’s a good point. Actually, I think I get what you’re saying.” Saturn opened his arms and let Betty float into his gentle embrace. “I used to be able to talk to Betty telepathically. Just Betty, no one else yet. Everyone thought I was going to be a psychic gym leader. But the more pressure people put on me, the more static there was, until I couldn’t hear her anymore. My psychic abilities were gone and they never came back. I had a mediocre Pokémon journey, I started having feelings about my body, I started stealing because why not at that point, and yeah… I just kept getting further from the person I’m supposed to be. It would be nice if someone could just take away all the static, you know?” Saturn was shaking a little. Betty clung to his chest to keep him calm.

“You understand,” Cyrus stated. He’d tried to explain his philosophy to others- people he considered intelligent, or simply whoever would listen. They’d called his ideas things like “ridiculous,” or “depressing” and one had even suggested he get his head checked. None had ever truly considered them before. Cyrus got up and started pacing. “Excellent. I have a lot to explain to you. You see, the human spirit is-”

Saturn’s sad eyes met Cyrus’, and it suddenly occurred to Cyrus that this was not the time. He sat back down next to him. “Ahem. I think that clearing up the… ‘static’ would change less about you than you think. Further, if we could complete the spirits of others, they would be able to see that as well.” Cyrus paused, looking at Saturn’s face to gauge if he’d said enough. “I like the person you’ve become.”

“Thanks,” Saturn replied. “Want to play some video games?”

Cyrus moved to speak, but Saturn cut him off “Don’t lecture me on staying up. You’re staying up. I know you don’t sleep until you crash.”

“That is correct,” Cyrus admitted.

Saturn started up a fighting game and they began playing together. As per usual, Saturn came in quickly with a volley of attacks that Cyrus was nearly helpless to.

“Could I tell you about my philosophy now?” Cyrus asked.

“Yeah. It sounds interesting,” Saturn replied, only half-focused as he performed a combo move worthy of tournaments.

Cyrus sat forward, intensely focused on wording this the best he could. “The human spirit is incomplete. People live in pursuit of love, acceptance, and a general sense of wellbeing. We hurt each other for it, and that makes our victims hungrier for it, and for power and revenge. There are many factors to this, but for now that’s the best way I can summarize it. The only way to break the cycle is to learn to live without love and happiness, and to learn not to be hurt by the cruelty of others.”

“So... basically learn to be satisfied no matter what?”

“Something like that.” If Cyrus told Saturn that he thought complete emotionlessness was ideal, he’d probably react the same way everyone else had. Cyrus grit his teeth at the thought and mashed buttons furiously. Saturn struggled to keep up. “The problem is that no one wants to learn. They prefer their lives of wanting, pain, and tearing each other apart for relief. Increasingly, it seems as though only the Gods could cleanse this world!” Cyrus dealt Saturn a finishing blow. He realized then that he’d lost his cool, said things that were too close to what he’d told others.

Thankfully, Saturn didn’t seem to be reacting too strongly to it as he set up the next round. Perhaps he thought Cyrus had just gotten heated over the game. “Huh. That makes sense. A lot of bad comes from being greedy and hurting people for what we don’t have. You know, that reminds me. There’s a legend that we learned about in class that a member of the Galaxy Team took control of Dialga and Palkia once.”

The round began. More attacks. Cyrus allowed his character to be pummeled. This myth sounded interesting.

“I don’t believe it,” Saturn continued, “I think if it had happened, we would have known, you know? Something would have changed. If you did that, you could literally change anything.”

“...That legend... do you think there would be information on it in the library?”

“Well, yeah, presumably.”

Cyrus put down the controller and got up. “I have some research to do,” he explained as he left.

The next day, Cyrus found himself wandering into the lecture hall for Saturn’s Sinnoh myths and history class. There were enough people in the lecture hall that he wasn’t noticed. He couldn’t have told you why he’d come. The presentations were amateurish. Cyrus could be learning far more had he gone to the library.

It wasn’t as though he cared that Saturn had a romantic interest. Saturn had proven to be a loyal friend, and even if he wasn’t, Cyrus had lived without friends before and could do it again. Sure, Saturn made his life more pleasant, and sure, Cyrus felt and acted more human around him than he would have liked, but it wasn’t as though he needed him. And if anything, it was good that Saturn had someone to fulfill a role he couldn’t. Cyrus was above lust. Men, women, they could be pleasant to look at, but it was no different to him than paintings or flowers or Pokémon or any other source of beauty. He’d never experienced the kind of disgusting emotions that would lead a man to betray his family or worse. Not that anyone he’d seen presenting seemed particularly suitable for Saturn, either.

Finally, it was Saturn’s turn to present. Saturn spotted Cyrus in the audience. He smiled at him, and Cyrus’ stomach flipped.

Oh, no… this… this won’t do.

Not with what he had planned. Not with what he must do.

Finals came and passed. Cyrus and Saturn spent a lovely winter break together. Cyrus was remarkably close-mouthed about what classes he would take next semester, but otherwise everything seemed normal. And then, three days into the next semester, Saturn came to their room and all of Cyrus’ things were gone. He couldn’t get ahold of Cyrus by phone, either. He didn’t hear from Cyrus again until mid-May, after Saturn’s final semester was completed.

It was the middle of the day when Saturn received the phone call from that familiar number. He picked up the phone.

“Cyrus?”

“Saturn. Are your classes finished?” Cyrus asked, his tone business-like.

“Um… yeah? It’s great to hear from you.”

“Good. Would you like a job at my energy company?”

“Your what? How did you…?”

“That can be answered in time. I’m willing to pay you as though you have ten years of experience. We’re located in Eterna. If you’d like, you could stay with me until you find other arrangements.”

Saturn stayed silent for a while. This was all very strange. It was also a deal that no fresh-from-school professional would refuse, assuming there wasn’t a catch. And he did want to see Cyrus again.

“I’ll take it,” Saturn said. Hopefully he’d feel better about this once he reached Eterna.

#pokemon #galactic boss cyrus #commander saturn #abra #my fanfiction #accretion #gingashipping #cyrus x saturn

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slaygentford · 2 years ago

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9, 10, 17, 23 but mindhunter. now you can be sooooo controversial because who is gonna get mad? the mindhunter fandom? like...

oh my GODDDDDugh finally the real questions

9. worst part of canon um the way that Nancy only appeared properly in the second season. Nancy was that bitch in her huge orange plastic sunglasses chain-smoking watching dead eyed as her husband obliviously drank a beer. there was so much there. she's younger than bill and clearly not as naive as he thinks she is but she's also not a Betty draper she's way more self aware. it's soooooo fucking annoying that her drama was about her kid being a serial killer which is so obvious and lazy when it should've been built off of her crying on Debbie's shoulder 2 hours into meeting her wine drunk bc bill is so unreachable and she feels like she can't give him anything. like GIRLLLL what happened to that. their marriage couldve dissolved in such an ugly and interesting and nuanced way I can't believe they did her like that I love divorce and it could've carried a flagging season . also the Manson needle drop was so ill done

10. worst part of fanon we HAVEEEE to stop. pretending that bill doesn't wear polo shirts. like I know we don't want to face that truth but we (5 people) haaaaave to accept it. we just have to. like he's a narc it's literally part of the whole thing

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art the entire dynamic in three missing girls OBVIOUSLY. more of the mindhunter s3 fic... I love you. I miss you. LESS OF THE REAL LIFE SERIAL KILLER STUFF. jesus christ. what the fuck the overlap in this place is so dicey it gives you a real idea of the intended demographic I'll say that much

23. ship you’ve unwillingly come around to bottom Wendy carr was a HUGE moment. paradigm shift. I think she's one of those people who knows exactly who and what she is esp at the end of her last relationship. the sneaking suspicion she's had since she left her first partner that she's going to die alone is now confirmed as fate/fact. wendy/dying alone

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initiumseries · 1 year ago

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What do you think of Riverdale?

I haven't seen more than one season of Riverdale so idk if this is accurate but from the scenes ive seen online, it feels like they're being bizarre on purpose.

Ah Riverdale. Such an annoying show lol. So I remember reading about how the main cast were trash people and how the show was definitely bizarre on purpose, but not in a meaningful or funny way? Like Scream Queens was WEIRD, but it was also hilarious (s1), but Riverdale, it was bizarre in the way that apparently the actors wouldn't actually know what the full script was until they arrived on set, which is NUTS. Teenagers stripteasing in a room full of adult men, dungeons and dragons rip off episodes where Betty and Jughead are fucking in a bunker bed they watched someone die in? The entire thing just seemed like such an incredible shit show that people watched, but never actually liked. Normally folks get defensive even over horrific shows and their characters, but this one show in particular, even the tag was just full of people hating on it? It was so funny because it's one of the worst shows I've ever laid my eyes on, and the ending looked remarkably dumb too. But it was also like...in some public discourse because it was so ridiculous? And like every exec was trying to bag another Riverdale (basically how we got that abysmal GG reboot), but nothing landed because it was always awful, and so was riverdale, but it was first so people just kept watching it...Idk man, I think...from a cultural phenomena perspective it's interest. From a viewer perspective, I'd rather eat my own eyeballs than watch that show, and from an overall perspective, I'm so happy it's over, and right at the writer's strike so we can hopefully never have to go through something like that again haha.

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letteredlettered · 2 years ago

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Hello!! If you haven't replied already, could you talk about the "Captain Rogers Goes To Washington 6"? 💕 And if you've already done that one, can you talk about "zombie au"? Thank you ✨

Hello, thank you for asking!!!

Captain Rogers Goes To Washington 6 was my next installment in the Responsible Science series, which is an MCU series focused on Bruce Banner, and one of my favorite things I've ever written. I know, I know, I wrote the majority of that series in 2012; the last installment was finished in February 2013--how could I still be working on it? Well, believe me when I say that I still poke at a fic I started in 2007, and that I still return sometimes to the first fanfic I ever wrote, which I started in fourth grade.

This fic had several things going on: I wanted Bruce to get a serum that would block the Hulk; he would use this in a fic later in the series, and it would go terribly wrong (it actually separates Bruce and the Hulk into two different bodies, which Bruce thinks is great because he doesn't have the Hulk living inside him any more. He doesn't really care that much what the Hulk is up to, because as it turns out, the Hulk is deeply connected to Bruce's emotions, so without the Hulk Bruce basically becomes this cold, emotionless scientist without any social responsibility or compassion. When the Avengers fix the problem by reuniting Bruce and the Hulk, Bruce is horrified--he finds himself without the Hulk even more of a monster than with the Hulk--poor Bruce).

My idea for Bruce to get this serum is that someone would experiment on him; the obvious choice was that he would get captured once again by General Ross. This was great, because the other thing I wanted to deal with in the story was Bruce's relationship with Betty Ross; she's not very fleshed out in the movies, but I really wanted to explore her as a character and Bruce's history with her. This WIP kept getting combined and separated with a backstory I was writing for Bruce that dealt with his relationship with Betty before the Hulk and after.

If I remember correctly, Betty canonically lives in Virginia, so I had to give Bruce a reason to go there. I had him kind of thinking about it and that it was a part of his past he should face, but Bruce doesn't take a lot of initiative, shall we say, so he needed another kick in the pants. That kick in the pants is Steve Rogers, who is just . . . sad. He's just sad all the time in his brave "I'm okay, really" way, and Bruce doesn't like it and wants the world to be a better place for this man who tries so hard. So Bruce suggests a little field trip to DC so they can see all the museums and monuments (he imagines Steve is a Smithsonian man. Steve likes museums all right, but is more interested in Bruce's interest in them than the museums themselves, really, but Bruce is convinced that Steve must love them).

I think part of the inspiration was that I went to DC while writing the third part of this series--@mydaroga and I went to con.txt. together and then DC. That was my first time, and I kept thinking what Steve would think of everything. Consequently, the parts of this fic I have written are Bruce and Steve looking at monuments, despising American history and considering the potential of the experiment that is America, and being sad about politics. It's kind of too full of itself and thinks itself too important, but I do love me some Steve being sad.

Then they were going to part ways so Bruce could see Betty and Steve could go to Arlington; this series was started before Winter Soldier, so he still thinks Bucky is dead. Then after seeing Betty, Bruce was going to get nabbed by Ross and given the serum, and while Bruce is blissed out at the thought that he might be able to die (since the serum removes the Hulk), Steve finds out and fights a tank single-handedly to save Bruce, and Bruce is very, very disappointed. Steve is disappointed in Bruce for wanting to die, and Bruce is annoyed at Steve for not understanding him; they drive back to NYC in silence, and it's not a very happy fic.

#marvel #suicide #suicidal ideation #steve rogers #bruce banner #responsible science

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augment-techs · 2 years ago

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{translated} I’m in love with coming apart at the seams, would you be the one to sew me back together + Billy/Skull

Title: the worst sort of fools Rating/Warnings: M; violence; underage. Relationships: Billy Cranston/Eugene Skullovitch; Bulk & Skull; Marah & Kapri & Cameron; Clare/Leelee Pimvare; Victor/Monty; Trent/Cassidy/Devin; Fran/RJ; Betty/Devon; implied Bulk & Jason. Characters: Eugene Skullovitch; Farkas Bulkmeier; Fran; Leelee Pimvare; Clare; Victor Vincent; Monty; Cassidy Cornell; Devin Del Valle; Marah; Kapri; Betty Burke; Ben Burke; Ensemble Teams; Lord Drakkon. Additional Tags: Shattered Grid AU; voyeurism; torture; aftermath of torture; hurt/comfort; emotional/physical/sexual abuse; mental illness; WHUMP; Protective Eugene Skullovitch; Protective Farkas Bulkmeier; Protective Kapri; Protective Cameron Watanabe; Enraged Rangers Coming For Drakkon's Life. Summary: "We will die loving you, and you will never know." Instead of taking on legions and dimensions of Rangers for the sake of one little morpher per team, Drakkon decides to amuse himself with the capture of the people that Finster-5 promises are important to the growth of the Rangers, even if they don't notice it until it's too late. Keeping the pairs separated and in their own groups is the first step; those who exude the characteristics of Purple (with one stray Pink) being put into darkness with sound generators to fool their senses and rile them up; and those who exude Orange being put into too white, too light sterile rooms with a deafening kind of silence to make them close in close to each other and put them on terrible edge. The second step involves putting the Purple (and Pink) group out of balance: unleashing them into a different prison built like a maze with the promise of food and drink and being released back home if they find a way out all together: not one of them thinking much of themselves, but mostly just trying to get back to their other half and their teams, trying to circumvent traps of projectiles, poisons, snares, floor falls, and their own antagonism towards each other. It keeps Drakkon amused, but also annoyed that they don't seem to care much about themselves. The third step comes in petty torments recorded for posterity and sent out to their individual dimensions as a lure: sending in Sentries and Putties to beat on the Orange group--exactly and only one of them being a very good fighter, only one of them being fast enough to evade a direct hit, and one providing distractions to get the others to different rooms and keep them safe for a little while more; all so resilient that it amuses Drakkon tremendously when the recording goes to the Mighty Morphin, Ninja Storm, and Dino Thunder teams and he gets to see the devastation cross the faces of the Dr. Oliver with terrible hair (and his little followers), the sarcastic, too bright for his own good Watanabe, and the Billy Cranston he hadn't killed yet. The forth step was waiting. (The fifth step, though not Drakkon's, were the groups getting out of their respective cages to try and make their way back to each other and then their own dimensions. Bloody and tired, but still trying.) * (I may well end up at least writing a small thing for this, if only in flash fics.)

#ask fill #prompt fill #theoretical fanfic #shattered grid #boom! comics power rangers #mmpr #ggpr #power rangers ninja steel #power rangers ninja storm #power rangers jungle fury #power rangers mystic force #power rangers dino thunder #power rangers beast morphers

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weeping-gospels · 2 years ago

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The snowstorm kicked up as the hours trudged on, nipping at the already low temperatures until it had reached a near freezing point.

Exhausted from a recent brawl, the beast slowly trekked through unforgiving sheets of snow, each drop like a sharp needle to the face. Her body weakened as her muscles strained, the icy experience slowly but surely solidifying her entire vessel and death was soon to arrive should she remain outdoors any longer. Damn her hypothesized forecasts and their hidden meanings. She was a woman of science, not of the odd weather in an already bizarre setting. She had spent cycles studying Skaven psychology and physiology, not the fucking weather.

Damn it all to hell. She’d sooner let her body rot where it stood rather than catch even a glimpse of Negoro’s face yet again as her soul passed over into a temporary emptiness. The amount of times she’s died was humiliating — and now the fucking weather would do her in. She’s gone soft.

Yet…the snowfall cleared if not for a fleeting moment, allowing the drifting beast to witness the beauty of Jerdano’s creation through the veil of foggy white. Morrslieb’s moonlight graced the lands blanketed in frost, the pine trees still standing stubbornly resilient despite such the nasty climate and a blissful silence remained. When was the last time she had welcomed the feeling of tranquility instead of calamity? When was the last time her mind was as quiet as this picture-still moment? Had the Gods finally spared her merciless demises and began to gift her with more pleasant ones for atoning to her sins?

Perhaps dying wasn’t as bad as she presumed. If dying was always like time had stopped just for her to take in the world around her at it’s most vulnerable..then maybe, just maybe, she would like to die just a bit more.

…

Softness. Softness, as if resting on a rug of fur thawing by the fireplace. Was this a new feeling of death as well?

“ Corpse-thing… “

Ah, that’s a familiar voice. It’s distant and muffled, but it is amicable. Her senses are still shot from the snowstorm and her eyes feel glued shut.

“ Carcass-thing? “

There it is again..but her ears feel as though they are underwater.

“ …Betty. Betty, wake up.

WAKE UP. “

SLAP

Gasping sharply, it felt as though her soul had been slammed right back into her body. Nearly jumping out of his own skin, Hemlock squealed and shoved both paws onto her hips to keep her down, noisily bruxing out of stress,

“ STAY DOWN, STAY DOWN-DOWN, YOU FLEA-RIDDEN CADAVER! “

“ Wha — ?! Oh. Oh, it’s you. “

Sneering up at the overweight rat’s face, the now humanoid Dhampir’s body deflated in both relief and irritancy. Sneering right back, the Black Bull let out a rumbling hiss,

“ Like that is any way-form to treat your savior-hero, undead-thing. If it wasn’t for Hemlock’s GRACIOUS, MERCIFUL PAW, corpse-thing would have been icicle for ‘nother Skaven to shatter-destroy. “

“ Mhm. “

“ Undead-thing should thank Hemlock. “

“ Mhm. “

“ That isn’t-not an apology OR thank. “

“ You are not getting jack SHIT from me, Hemlock. “

Snarling, the rat shoved her off of him and stood up on all fours,

“ BAH! SHOULD’VE KNOWN BETTER THAN TO BE NICE-KIND TO STUPID DEAD-THING! WOULD’VE BEEN BETTER TO LET DEAD-THING FREEZE TO DEATH! “

“ Must you always insist on being so loud, you roach-infested blob? I never asked to be saved, thank you very much. “

Dusting herself off, the red head started her journey out of the den — only to come face to face with nothing but misty white. The snowstorm had reached it’s climax during her slumber and now the two were trapped.

As her expression fell, Hemlock cackled, soaking up his past mate’s disappointment.

“ KEHAHAHA! AS IF CORSPE-THING HAS A CHOICE IN THE MATTER! CORPSE-THING IS TRAPPED-STUCK WITH HEMLOCK UNTIL STORM BLOWS OVER! KEHAHAHAHAAA!! “

“ Oh, let it all out, you fucking comedian. I hope you choke on your own annoying laughter and suffocate slowly — “

Her insult was cut short whence karma stabbed her stomach, the woman abruptly doubling over in a horrible coughing fit. Wracked with hoarse gagging and coughing, Betty sunk her nails into the earthy walls for balance, blood spilling from her lips as her sore throat chapped up and burned from the cold. Hemlock’s laughter instantly died out at the scene and he found himself hobbling over to yank the creature back down into her original position against his bulky chest, providing the warmth she desperately needed but refused to ask for. His lasso-like tail proceeded to coil around the two to lock her in place, silently observing the coughing fit continue rather than dissipate.

“ Betty… “

The rat quietly murmured, recalling the memories where she had aided him when he was ill. Awkwardly, he pat her back, his paw flinching away as she started wheezing sharply — he hit too hard. Right, his strength was immense compared to her slender frame.

“ Betty? Are — … is….is undead-thing going to be dead this time? “

It’s been a while since he’s witnessed her die. His memory isn’t good to begin with. He can’t remember how it went.

Ears flatten in frustration and now he uses his paw to carefully massage over her chest, being mindful of how much pressure he was using. Betty’s hand shakily rested over his much larger one, halting his rubbing but not rejecting his touch. Her coughing fit stopped after a few more painstaking minutes, leaving her bloody and shaking tremendously. Too tuckered out to move away, the woman remained in Hemlock’s arms, huddling in for more of the warmth she craved — and the rat provided it, wordlessly cradling the undead and spending the remainder of the night watching her.

The snowstorm continued.

#one shot #character: bethanne drozdov 🦇#character: hemlock 🐀

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blueikeproductions · 2 years ago

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Kind of a timeline of events I had in mind with the Heathers AU. JD and Dan met originally at Hawkins. Their adventures are kept vague, when asked about it, JD says you just “had to be there”. At that point, JD had let his guard down and did seem to form some sort of connection with Dan in their adventure. Before Dan moved (and Dan wasn’t even aware he WAS going to move at that point), he gifted JD a Transformers toy. Specifically Fangry. JD was confused it didn’t have a head and was at first annoyed Dan seemed to view him as a perpetually angry Decepticon, until Dan elaborated. He brings up Wilder, the Japanese version of the character, a teenage delinquent who eventually becomes an Autobot. Dan had put an Autobot logo on the toy over the Decepticon logo, and explained how Wilder reminded him of JD, and that the toy was a gift and a reminder not to loose his head. (The toy’s head was in a compartment but the point was still being made). JD didn’t fully understand but was touched someone gave him a gift. The next day JD was floored to learn Dan had moved from Hawkins, and felt betrayed. Not getting why at the time, he still kept the Fangry toy, it was tucked away in his trenchcoat. By sheer coincidence a couple years later the two found each other at Sherwood.

JD awkwardly accepting a hug from Dan who was overjoyed to see a familiar face. “I didn’t know we were on a hugging basis…”

Reluctantly JD agrees to hang out with Dan after school, partially won over that it’d be at a Snappy Snack/7-11 combo. There’s a gag where JD is trying to remember Dan’s name and blurts out Dustin, only to correct himself remembering Dustin was the geek with weird teeth.

The two seem to be getting along and JD does feel good, he is still weighed down by abandonment and the other things that have piled up, and isn’t fully being as friendly, but Dan just cheerfully chalks it up to some new reputation and doesn’t take it seriously.

On top of Veronica also approaching him, JD starts having a lot of conflicted feelings only compounded more by the Heathers and jocks being what they are to Veronica and Dan and himself. Made worse when Dan is suddenly hanging out with Kurt and Ram, not noticing the two boys had started to change because of Dan’s influence.

Prior to this, JD noticed Kurt and Ram picking on Dan, but didn’t notice Dan handling it well. When it looked like it was going to escalate into a fight, JD rushes in, not understanding what he’s doing and whales on them. So to see Dan making friends with his tormentors was something he couldn’t process, and fearing he was being abandoned again, Veronica breaking up with him at that point also, it all caused him to snap.

In the skirmish in the boiler room, JD misplaces his gun, and accidentally whips out Fangry holding it like a gun in Veronica and Dan’s faces… Until he pauses and looks at the toy and finally gets what Dan meant before, collapsing muttering “Wilder lost his head…”

Symbolically the Autobot sticker had started to peel off revealing the Decepticon one underneath, and he gingerly smooths the Autobot sticker back on.

Like in the movie and musical, JD straps the bomb on to himself in an attempted suicide, recognizing he did have friends but admits his damage prevented him from seeing what was in front of him. To his shock, Dan, Kurt and Ram rip off the bomb and kick it into the sky where it safely detonates. When asked why the other kids say to effect “high school sucks, sure, but we don’t need it to get any suckier.”

There are kids that still die obviously, one of the Heathers and a replacement kid for the jocks. JD did plan on killing Kurt and Ram but hesitated because of Dan being there, and threw all his anger on the other kid because he harassed Veronica.

I considered Betty Finn being a victim also, sort of a dark joke at her expense because of her minimal role in the original movie, and being erased in the musical. The bit here is like the Heathers predicted, Betty was put into a position to be popular and abandoned everyone in pursuit of it, reforming a new Heather trio to her own detriment.

Oh in this version, JD would also loose his dad prior to him trying to blow up the school. His dad, who is still a pretty big dick like in the movie and musical, dies in demolition job that goes awry, and JD feels no remorse going “Well it was bound to happen eventually.” Having nothing left to loose, he goes for the gusto. When the dust settles though, he does realize he has no place to actually go, the unsympathetic landlord threw him out of the apartment, so Dan offers to let him stay with him for awhile until something could be worked out. “Just keep the gun away from my brother, he’s starting to get into things now that he’s crawling around.”

“When did you get a brother?”

“Technically I’ll be getting another brother if you’re up for it!”

“….!” -hugs Dan-

“Oh I didn’t know we were on a hugging basis!”

“Shut up.” -continues to hug-

Kurt: -playfully- Gaaaaaay~ -gets elbowed by Ram and Veronica-

Kurt: …ok I deserved that…

Anyway it would end with JD on the mend❤️‍🩹, sort of sidestepping the murders in a comical fashion.

Dan: So it’s a happy ending? Veronica: Eeeeeehhhhhh happy enough.

#heathers #heathers fanfic #jd heathers #heathers the musical #veronica sawyer #heathers headcanons #jason dean #heathers fanart #blueike #blueike productions

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daydreamerdrew · 2 months ago

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Comics read this past week:

Marvel Comics:

the Nick Fury story in Strange Tales (1951) #145

This 12-page story was published in March 1966. It credits Stan Lee as the writer, though the Grand Comics Database lists Jack Kirby as an uncredited co-plotted. The layouts were drawn by Jack Kirby, which were penciled by Don Heck, and then inked by Micky Demeo.

It’s a common joke in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes (1963) for Dum Dum Dugan to reference a negative quality of his wife or mother-in-law. In this story he pretends to be interested in what young Jasper Sitwell can teach him, and when Jasper takes him seriously, Dum Dum thinks, “He’s dumber’n my mother-in-law! He thinks I meant it!” This is the first instance of that joke in the non-WWII comics, and, I suppose, the first indication that Dum Dum is still married in the 60s despite not liking his wife or her mother.

Jasper says about Nick, “I think the Colonel is great, Agent Dugan! He’s so forceful! So dynamic! He’s been my idol since I was a stripling!” Dum Dum says, “Personally, I useta go for Betty Grable!”

One of the villain’s henchmen says, “The hand of SHIELD has many fingers.”

It’s stated that Nick has a “specially-built Porche 904.”

Jasper questions Nick being “in the open… exposed to attack like this!” Nick says, “Why not? I gotta earn my salary some way!”

When Jasper pulls an “infra-red blaster” out quickly, Nick thinks, “Gotta hand it to the kid! He’s fast… ‘n he’s sure!”

Nick thinks, while fighting, “Gotta get up… I gotta..! Even if I’m licked… SHIELD will go on fightin’… and we’ll beat ‘im in the end, but… if I can finish ‘im now.. I’ll save a lotta innocent lives! I can’t… let ‘em.. down..!”

S.H.I.E.L.D. is said by one agent to be “the fastest-moving, most heavily-armed law-enforcement task force there is!”

And Nick says, of S.H.I.E.L.D., “we ain’t been beat yet… and we ain’t gonna be, so long as I’m ramroddin’ this outfit!

The Grand Comics Database notes for the Nick Fury story in the previous issue, which was Jasper Sitwell’s first appearance, says that Jasper “was reportedly based on Roy Thomas.” I didn’t like that and thought it was mean because all that was set up for Jasper’s relationship with Nick in that story was Nick finding him overbearing and annoying. So I appreciated seeing in this story that Nick actually likes Jasper even though he’s over-confident and socially-naive.

Captain America: Dead Men Running (2002) #1-3

These issues were published across January 2002 to March 2002. All were written by Darko Macan. Issues #1-2 were drawn by Danijel Zezelj, issue #3 was drawn by Derek Hess, and all were colored by Matt Madden. All were 22 pages.

I was overall not interested in the story of this miniseries, but the ending was genuinely surprising in a way that wasn’t cheap, which made it interesting.

One of the soldiers explains his backstory in issue #12, that his great-grandfather is “eighty-two, he will never die, and he met [Captain America] ages ago. He was in France or China. Someplace overseas… Wherever it was, he’s never forgotten it, never shut up about the damned Captain. Probably had wet dreams about him. So he made his son volunteer for Vietnam. Probably still blames him for getting killed there. That’s why my father ran away. Left behind a letter saying he’d preferred dying a civilian. Left me, too. Great-granddad swore he’d make a super-soldier out of me. He beat me every time I failed to live up to Captain America’s example. He beat me every day.” Then this soldier angrily asks Steve, “D’you see what you do to people? D’you see what you did to me?!”

Also, the disgruntled soldier is skeptical that “you just wake up one day and decide to be a hero,” saying, “Let me tell you… it doesn’t work!” Steve says, “No. But you can wake up… and decide… that, no matter what- you will… not… be scum.”

In issue #3 another soldier, who had been trying to flee danger, questions Steve’s humanity. He asks, “What do you know about being a man? What do you know about fear?” This is because he realizes it never occurred to Steve to run away, and because “You are a blue-eyed super-soldier hero! You are picture perfect! You get up after a house falls on your head! You save a man who’s tried to kill you without thinking twice!”

Steve says, “I know fear,” and that “it’s one thing to know fear. Something else to let it control you.” Then he says what he fears most is “Doing wrong. But I don’t let it stop me from doing anything!”

This skeptical soldier tells Steve, “We don’t live in a black-and-white movie anymore!” I think it makes sense for regular people in the Marvel universe to think of Captain America as like a fictional character if they have no connection to Steve and so their experience with him has been limited to propaganda media, and also for Steve to come across as unrealistic.

When Steve is explaining how “The world has always been hard,” he gives the examples of a few American soldiers he knew in WWII: “I found a dead soldier, his pockets full of gold teeth. I arrested another for raping old women. An officer used to shoot prisoners in the stomach and enjoyed watching them die for hours.” This really shocked me. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a negative portrayal of individual American soldiers from WWII in a Captain America comic book. I’ve only before seen criticism of politicians’ actions from that era, like Japanese internment and dropping the Atomic bombs on Japan in Captain America (2002).

And Steve explains his philosophy, “The worse the world gets, the harder I’ll work to even the scales. What others do… is no excuse.”

Ghost Rider/Captain America: Fear (1992) #1

This one-shot was published in October 1992. It was written by Howard Mackie, penciled by Lee Weeks, inked by Al Williamson, and colored by Gregory Wright. It was 48 pages.

All of the artists did a wonderful job on this issue. This is my favorite visually of all the Lee Weeks-drawn comics I’ve read, and that has a lot to do with Gregory Wright’s coloring job.

Looking up Howard Mackie’s credits, I learned that he co-created this version of Ghost Rider and wrote a lot of his comics. To me that makes it more impressive that, despite this story being more about Ghost Rider than Captain America, I found the writing engaging and compelling, because I think it would be easy in that situation to assume and defer to readers’ prior knowledge of and interest in the character.

The villain of the book is Scarecrow, who is from a point in the main Captain America (1968) series I haven’t reached yet. Steve explains to Ghost Rider that Scarecrow’s mother abused him as a child, and then his parents divorced and he never saw his mother again. Steve says, “Laughton could not live with the memory of his beloved mother being abusive so he transferred all his blame to his father,” and then later “he transferred the intense hatred he felt towards his father to me.”

A villainous organization that wants to use Scarecrow gives him the power to make people terrified when he’s physically near them, which he uses on innocent victims he then kills. This is in contrast to Ghost Rider’s “penance stare,” which would make someone “feel the pain of those who’ve suffered at his hands.” Ghost Rider only uses this on criminals, and doesn’t ever kill.

In the opening scene of the book Scarecrow is being operated on by people in green scrubs. He thinks, “Pretty green packages. All lined up and ready to be opened. Like the presents Mother used to give me when I was a good boy. Time to open up the pretty green ones, Ebenezer! Time to open them and let out the fearful thing inside them.” After he kills them, he thinks, “Thank you, Mommy. Nice presents. Now can I have my birds back, Mommy? Can I open up Captain America? I’ll be a good little scarecrow, Mommy.” The birds are referring to that he also controls a swarm of crows.

Scarecrow tells a pair of his would-be victims, “No, no, no! Don’t run from your fear… You can’t run from what’s inside of you! Feel your heart race… your lungs fight for air… your muscles rebelling against all your commands! That is the fearful thing trying to escape. Not to worry. I’ll help it come out.” Then he mistakes a police woman, who happens to be Ghost Rider’s human host’s friend, for his mother and kidnaps her. He intends to take care of her so that she never has to leave him again, which ultimately means to kill her so she doesn’t “have to drink anymore” to “let the fearful thing out,” and also “won’t ever have to hurt me again!”

When Ghost Rider tries to use his penance stare on him, Scarecrow declares, “Fear? I live on fear! It’s my friend, my pet. After I’m done with you and the Captain… I will open more and more packages. The fears will be released. They’ll swim around me. Do my bidding. Never touching me.”

Ghost Rider wonders, “So much innocent blood. Here lies my personal fear… and Dan’s. Will I be able to prevent myself from killing the Scarecrow for causing all this pain? Will I too take a human life… and become that which I fear the most?” In the end he doesn’t kill Scarecrow.

Captain America/Citizen V ‘98 (1998) #1

This issue was published in November 1998. It was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Karl Kesel, and scripted by Kurt Busiek and Barbara Kesel. It was penciled by Mark Bagley, inked by Greg Adams and Scott Hanna, and colored by Joe Rosas. It was 39 pages.

In the WWII flashback Bucky asked Steve, when they found a way into Zemo’s castle, “But Cap, what if Zemo’s men are waiting inside?” Steve told him, “We’ll survive. We always do.”

Bucky yelled, about Zemo, “Get him, Cap!” Steve had to say, “Love to, Buck- but it’s not going to happen! The way those flames are heading for the spilled rocket fuel- we’re going to be cut off!” This reminded me of those scenes in Golden Age Captain America comics where Bucky stood on the sidelines and cheered on Steve while he fought.

And Heinrich Zemo said, “This is a mere setback for me- but the darkest day of your lives! For I will remember- I will remember all of you!” This is, of course, not just referencing that Zemo would go on to kill the original Citizen V, but that he would famously kill Bucky near the end of the war, too.

The modern Citizen V explains his backstory to Steve, ending with, “And as you can guess, her son had a son- the grandson of Citizen V- who has dedicated his life to redressing the dishonor done to his grandfather’s name, by Zemo and all who stood with him!” Steve responds, “Don’t say grandson- say grandchild- that way you’ll be telling the truth… or at least less of a lie.” And, “I’ve fought many people in my career, men and women. You’d fight better if you weren’t having to manipulate that bulky padding.” Citizen V seemed to be doing just fine with the padding, and I was surprised that Steve took the deception so seriously, otherwise. Helmut Zemo was surprised to learn that the modern Citizen V was a woman later in the story, but if it was intended that Citizen V initially hid her gender because she thought she couldn’t as effectively defend her grandfather’s reputation if it was known, then that wasn’t very clearly conveyed to me.

That Citizen V is fighting in her grandfather’s name parallels how Helmut Zemo fights in his father’s, wearing a similar outfit to him and reusing parts of his old plans, but then differs in how Helmut Zemo also fights because he thinks his family line makes him superior to everyone else and therefore feels entitled to ruling the world.

Steve is really bothered by Citizen V saying, “We have a job to do.” He says, “This isn’t a job. This is war.” And Steve lectures that “once you start down that path, it never ends. Take down one madmen, and there’ll be another- another battle to be fought- another injustice to be repressed. Pick up that burden, and it’ll never let you go. You have three choices, Citizen. You can fight for vengeance and let it twist you into something as harsh as what you fight against. You can walk away while you still can. Or you can recognize that it’s war- and it’ll never end.”

This all really surprised me. I thought of Steve as fighting to make a better world, not merely to prevent it from getting any worse. I also thought the idea that the battle never ends was specific to how Steve thought of himself- that he specifically struggled to built a civilian life outside of being a superhero, and ultimately the American Dream was for him to protect and not to have because of his unique responsibility as Captain America- not that he thought it was inherent to all superheroes. And the phrasing of that ‘war never ends’ is surprising because it’s something I associate with the more disillusioned and pessimistic modern Bucky; whereas, again, I think Steve does have love for humanity and believes in a better world. And I think it’s strange to have the sentiment that you shouldn’t ever fight for vengeance in a story about the Zemo family legacy, in which Bucky’s death is referenced, without acknowledging that Steve fought the original Zemo to get vengeance for Bucky’s death.

There’s a part of the story where Helmut Zemo had Citizen V strapped to a rocket, which he points out to Steve is similar to how Bucky died. I really dislike these forced scenes with rockets that refer to Bucky’s death. Captain America: The Medusa Effect (1994) had one where Bucky got strapped to a rocket by Heinrich Zemo in an earlier mission before his and Steve’s final one. And I don’t like how stories involving the Zemos often have rocket-based villainous plots.

There’s also a moment where Citizen V has Helmut Zemo held at sword-point, and acknowledges that the original Citizen V would have killed Zemo in that situation, but says, “But this is a different time… A different war.” It’s awkward to have Citizen V decide that she’s motivated primarily to save people from supervillains and not for personal vengeance, and particularly that the ongoing battle isn’t a job and is a war, and therefore she won’t kill her enemies. I think that Captain America (2013) did a good job of depicting Steve struggling with whether or not to kill a supervillain without over-emphasizing the idea that he’s never killed before, which is difficult to believe for a soldier-superhero. Ordinarily I find that concept for Steve awkward, like in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2005).

I liked that on the bottom of the final page it said, “For Ben Thompson, creator of the original Citizen V. Because true heroes never die..!” The original Citizen V first appeared in Daring Mystery Comics (1940) #8, cover dated January 1942.

Captain America (1998) #32

This issue was published in June 2000. It was written by Dan Jurgens, drawn by Jerry Ordway, and colored by Gregory Wright. It was 22 pages.

This story contained a flashback to the Battle of the Bulge from the perspective of a regular soldier who was about to be killed when Captain America, Bucky, and the Howling Commandoes miraculously appeared.

Nick told Bucky, “One side, kid! This is Howler bizness!” And Steve interjected, “Bucky knows what he’s doing, Fury. He deserves a shot at these guys every bit as much as your own squad does!”

The regular soldier narrates, “See, we’d heard about Captain America and Bucky, about how they’d been fighting right alongside G.I.’s everywhere! But I never thought I’d see them! I thought they handled more important jobs! Like secret missions! But Cap was there! Fighting on the battlefield with me! And before I knew it… it was over!”

the Captain America story in Marvel Holiday Special (1991) #1

This 7-page story was published in November 1991. It was written by Len Kaminski. The breakdowns were drawn by Ron Lim, which were finished by James Sanders. And it was colored by Marie Javins.

This story was Steve’s first meeting of Bucky’s sister Rebecca.

It was said in a note back in the Captain America story in Tales of Suspense (1959) #63 that “When Bucky Barnes’ G.I. father died in training, Fort Lehigh adopted the orphaned as camp mascot.

In Captain America (2005) #31 it was said about Bucky, regarding the aftermath of his father’s death, “How you talked them into letting you stay on the base while your little sister was sent away to boarding school is a mystery even to you.”

In Captain America and Bucky (2011) #620 we see that Bucky and Rebecca’s mother had died a few years before. And Bucky actually said that he was “explained some deal where my kid sister would get sent off to boarding school… but I would stay on the base, with my dad’s old pals looking out for me.” We see young Bucky saying about this, “Sure, Major Samson… whatever you say,” and then a scene of him putting on a brave face while waving goodbye to his sad sister being driven away.

Then in Captain America and Bucky (2011) #621 there’s a scene, from a little while after they had become partners, where Steve goes through their mail and says, “Looks like your sister wrote again.” Bucky read the letter, and Steve asked him how she was doing in school then encouraged him to write her back.

In this story Rebecca is portrayed as Bucky’s older sister. She explains, “After Mother died, I went to live with my Aunt Ida in Albany. Jim felt I was abandoning him. He swore that if I left, he’d forget me, pretend I never existed for as long as he lived…” And, “I tried to keep track of him afterwards, but there’s not much to tell. He went off to war in 1942… lied about his age. Lots of young men did back then. He didn’t come back.”

The circumstances of this confuse me a bit. Maybe Bucky could also have gone to live with their aunt but chose to stay on the army base, and was resentful Rebecca didn’t make the same choice. I’m not sure what the Barnes’ siblings relationship to the army base would have been if their mother was their only living parent before this. And Rebecca did not know until this story that her brother was Captain America’s sidekick, so I’m not sure how she would know, then, that Bucky fought in WWII. Her assuming that Bucky had to have lied about his age to get into the army does make sense, though that’s not actually what happened.

And in this portrayal Steve never knew Bucky had a sister until he met Rebecca by chance. He tells her, “I’d have come years ago, if I had known.”

After interacting with the young children in Rebecca’s family, Steve thinks, “This is everything I had to give up to be Captain America… And while I wouldn’t trade back who and what I am for anything in the world- sometimes, it’s… not easy.”

At the end of the story, Steve tells Rebecca she has a “fine family.” She says, “I’m glad you think so because from now on, you’re part of it.” This simplicity makes sense, though another direction for this story to have been taken is for Rebecca to have been resentful that her brother was brought along to fight in the wat despite that he was too young to legally. Also, I don’t think that minors pretending to be older so they could be soldiers happened as often successfully as these comics would make it seem.

The Avengers (1963) #69-71

These issue were published across August 1969 to September 1969. All were written by Roy Thomas, penciled by Sal Buscema, inked by Sam Grainger. All were 20 pages.

In issue #96, after getting knocked down, Clint says, “Sorry… to let you down… Hank! Guess I got too big for my britches… but still too small to fill your old boots!” Hank tells him, “It was a valiant effort, Clint! I’ve never been prouder of the man who succeeded me as Giant-Man!”

At one point Clint addresses Vision as “Red.”

And the last panel of this issue is the first appearance of Kyle Richmond, Nighthawk, who I know from him being a part of The Defenders (1972).

In issue #70 it’s explained to the Avengers that the Squadron Sinister “were all created for the sole purpose of defeating you.. thereby winning the cosmic game for our master!” As “the Grand-Master has complete control over time and space! It was a simple matter for him to go back in time… to alter the lives of four of your fellow Earthmen.. and turn them into super-villains whose powers at least equal your own!”

In The Defenders (1972) #13 Kyle betrayed the Squadron Sinister to the Defenders. He explained to them that Hyperion sold the Earth to the Celestial Man and “promised to deliver it precisely the way he wants it- and he wants it- underwater!” Kyle said it was “the most cold-blooded plan I’d ever heard” and, “I listened intently as Hyperion explained, but even then- I knew I could not go thru with it!” He explained the others’ motivations as that, “Hyperion hates this world for destroying his own. Maybe he thinks revenge is worth his life. Doc Spectrum would probably prefer killing the Earth if he can’t rule it. And Whizzer- I think he’s just flat-out crazy!”

Kyle explains that his motivation in this issue, despite the outcome if his side wins, is that “Even if Earth dies, the Grand-Master will provide for me… because I have won for him!”

Kyle’s backstory was revealed in The Defenders (1972) #32. He grew up wealthy. When he was a child, his mother was injured in an accident and he was at her bedside when she died, then Kyle’s father left him at a boarding school. He fought a lot while at that school, but his father was still able to buy Kyle his spot at a nice college. While there he drove drunk and got his girlfriend killed, for which he didn’t get in legal trouble, but Kyle told his dad not to buy him his way out of getting expelled. Kyle was quickly drafted, and he figured he would get “in the way of a bullet, and that would be that,” but instead he was diagnosed with a heart murmur and rejected. And then, “on the very same day the army told me they didn’t need my body for target practice,” his father was killed in a plane accident, meaning “my last obligation to any other human being was wiped out.” Kyle went on to explain that, “I abdicated the throne of my financial empire- and divided my time between jet-setting and finding a cure for my heart murmur. The first was a bore. The second, with the help of the Grandmaster, led to my discovery of the serum that doubled my strength after sundown.”

Kyle’s emotions towards him don’t reflect that the Grand-Master is responsible for things going wrong in his personal life, but it makes sense to me that these events were because of the Grand-Master using his “complete control over time and space” to create supervillains. And, Kyle also said in his telling of his life story that “through it all… my life continued to fall apart,” and ended with, “I’m back at the crossroads. The same crossroads I’ve stood paralyzed at all my life. And I still can’t remember how I got here”.

As Tony flew away in issue #70, he thought, “For once, it’s almost a relief to leave the other Avengers! I could almost feel their piercing eyes… the questions they left unspoken!” Tony’s recent health scare made him unable to don the Iron Man identity, and while the Avengers were helping and protecting Tony Stark, it was wondered where his bodyguard Iron Man was.

And Kyle says, during his fight with Steve, “Maybe that kind of blow makes left-over Nazis collapse into black little heaps, Avenger… but, my own night-born powers are made of sterner stuff!” This is the first time I’ve seen someone poke fun at Steve for having older villains.

Issue #71 is the first appearance of the WWII team the Invaders, with the members being Captain America, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and the original Human Torch. However, the name Invaders isn’t used in the story, and the Human Torch later references that they were also brought there by the Grand-Master, saying, “I still don’t know how we got here… or why!!” Which means it’s not even very strongly implied that they were a team that worked together before this.

At this point in time of this scene, 1941, Steve’s shield isn’t circular, but a rounded triangle with points at the top. He later references in his dialogue that his career as Captain America is new.

Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, referencing a comic strip that began in the late 1930s, says of Kang’s goons’ weapons, “And, while that ray-spear might lay low Prince Valiant… it has distinctly less value against a blade forged by mighty Merlin himself!” And then he says, “What a pair! Not exactly the Conan and John Carter of the far-set future!” Referencing two different pulp characters that began publication in the 1930s and the 1910s, respectively.

I liked the phrasing of this bit, also from Dane Whitman, that “a fighting chance is all we’ve got… and, if three Avengers don’t win a certain battle that took place over twenty centuries ago… we don’t even have that..!!” It goes well with backstory of fate beyond their control with the Squadron Sinister.

Vision tells the original Human Torch, while fighting him, “I am as much an android as you.”

Kang originally entered the deal with the Game-Master for “the power of life and death,” but at the end of the game had only earned one. He initially claimed he “only fought to save the Princess Ravonna,” and so was going to chose the power of life, but then was enraged by the appearance of the Avengers, despite them not wanting to fight. He decides, “Even more than I love the fair Ravonna… I despise the very name ‘Avenger’!” And so, wanting to kill the Avengers, “Ravonna must wait… wait until my own genius can resurrect her!” Kang was explained that he needed to use his new power “quickly… or it will cause your death, as well,” but he still delays, saying, “You shall not escape so easily into oblivion! Lie there on the very edge of death… until I let you perish!” This allowed that Black Knight to attack Kang and run out his time with his power over death.

And Steve says, “Even the Cosmic Cube never bestowed power like the Grand-Master possesses!”

#comics read this past week #my posts

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