#Dani is connors problem now

[badfictropes]

Danny/Dani and Clark/Conner

(Warning: This is just my opinions and while I would love to hear other thoughts please be polite in your comments.)

Now I want to start by saying I don’t think Clark is wrong in feeling the way he does about Conner and about not wanting to be a father to him. But the way he dealt with and expressed those feelings is my problem. The way Clark treats Conner as if he isn't a real person with emotions and feelings and refuses to acknowledge Conner's personhood is fucked up.

Clark doesn’t want to be Conner’s father and while this is deeply unfair for Conner and will no doubt leave a scar it would be far worse to try and force Conner on Clark, I don’t doubt Clark will not be able to be the parent Conner needs.(Side note:does Lois or Clark’s parents ever find out about Conner in canon?) In DpxDc fics and prompts the JL trying to force Clark to play daddy is not going to do any good for Connor or for Clark. Clark does not see Conner as his own person/a person at all; all Clark sees is evidence of his violation and while this sucks for Conner forcing the two together isn’t going to help.

I read one DpxDc fic where Clark got therapy about this(Side note: this fic also pointed out how unethical it is to have a therapist that not only works under you but is also your personal friend ie Dinah. A lot of fics have her as not only the JL’s counselor but individual teammates personal therapist which just can’t be ethical.) and his therapist pointed out that Clark talks about Conner worse than he does Lex who actually violated his consent. I thought this was a very good point and definitely something Clark needs to think about. How is his opinion of Conner(who is the innocent and also a victim in this) worse than his one of Lex?.

Now for the Dp side. I personally am a fan of Danny being a mom(gender-neutral) to Dani(and Dan) and it’s my top 3 favorite Dp tropes but I know not everyone prefers it. While I imagine that after everything was over the full force of his violation at Vlad’s hands hit him I don’t think Danny ever wished Dani didn’t exist at all, I don’t think it ever even occurred to him to think that way. I could see him wishing the circumstances around her existence was different(after all Neverborne are a thing and it would be just like Danny to make one by accident) but he could never regret Her no matter how she got here. I’ve seen people mention that Dani manipulated and betrayed Danny and I’m just like while Dani has Danny’s memories she was literally created a few months ago cut her some slack, Dani was also being manipulated and used and Danny knows that he understands that; it why he not only helped her but forgave her. And I know people are going to be like forgiving someone is not that easy or quick but sometimes it is especially when your not even 18 and full set in your stubborn mindset and when your an empath like most people hc ghost to be(a little hard to stay mad for long when you can literally feel someone’s regret and remorse, it doesn’t hurt Danny no doubt saw Dani as someone smaller and weaker that needed his help and protection.)

Onto DpxDc. Now I think Danny would be sympathetic to Clark’s feelings and circumstances but I think his sympathy would end when he hears/witnesses how Clark treats Conner. Clark’s feelings are valid but how he deal with/expresses those feelings are not. Clark is a grown ass man and should know better than to take out his anger and pain on a child(Side note: Do you think Clark wouldn’t be as cruel to Conner or that the JL would be more intolerant of Clark’s behavior towards Conner if Conner was younger/a baby?). Danny would find Clark’s treatment/opinion of Conner deplorable after all Neverborn/Mirror born are precious no matter how they came to be and while it understandable Clark can’t be a parent to Conner that doesn’t mean someone shouldn’t be. Conner deserves to have a parent, a family that loves and cares about him; he deserves to be treated his own person and choose how he wants to live his life(not just be a hero) and since he won’t get that from Clark, the JL should find him a good foster parent he can get that from.

So in conclusion I think Danny would be sympathetic and understand of Clark’s circumstances until he sees Clark’s treatment of Conner/hears his opinin of Conner and then the sympathy is over; Danny will then focus on Conner and helping him/helping to figure out what’s best for him.

[robinasnyder]

Okay, but, hear me out: Jack already *knew* about Bruce and Clark. How did they meet exactly? Half of Bruce’s family has died and been resurrected at this point. When Damian was killed, Bruce went off the rails trying to find a way to bring him back. He stumbled upon the Fentons, and went to visit them as Batman. Maddie's out with Jazz and Danny' on a school trip. Jack's at home alone when Bruce shows up, wanting answers. He's too obsessive, too manic, too desperate. Jack’s like "oh, Robin's like his adopted son", bc Batman clearly loves the boy and os grieving. So Jack asks "he's your son, right?"

And it sort of spills out from there. Bruce has a breakdown. Jack comforts him, telling him how it felt when he found out his son had died, and that he and his wife had been treating their dead son like an enemy. And now things were stable, and his son is half alive, but Danny doesn't know they know.

Jack can't help too much, but he gives Bruce all of his research and some suggestions and asks him to call if he needs anything. Then he calls 24 hours later to check on him.

Bruce gets Damian back. He and Jack keep talking. It isn't like Gotham doesn't already have a weird relationship with death to begin with. Solomon Grundy exists. There are other people Batman deals with at various stages of alive and dead. So Jack Fenton is a good resource, he tells himself. Really, it's just nice to be friends with another dad of a superhero. Jack's powerful and brilliant and fights ghosts too, but he isn't a hero, so in some ways he's easier to talk to. He's never a potential JL member. He isn't a colleague. He's just a friend.

He's also a friend whose hero son has been cloned, apparently. And they're learning to manage suddenly sort of having a new kid/new niece.

So one day, Clark comes to Bruce and he's just frustrated with himself. He and Connor don't have a father and son relationship. Clark practically made sure of that with his early panic. Martha and Jonathan Kent raised Connor. But Clark's trying to have a non-hero relationship with him. Jon and Kon get on great. To Jon, Kon's his cool uncle/brother. And Kon adores Jon and even calls him his little brother when he thinks Clark can't hear (he can, he does know). Clark can't be a parent, but he wants to be something as Clark and Connor Kent, not just this awkward mess.

For once, Bruce knows someone who can help. He waits until, once again, everyone's out of the house, then he takes Clark to meet Jack. He told Clark this was his friend who is excellent at keeping secrets (though you wouldn't think so, he really can be when it matters). So they show up as Clark and Bruce. Jack’s got the fudge ready, and hot coffee and the promise that they've got six hours to try and figure out how to help Clark with his problem.

Clark admits to who he is easier than Bruce, because Bruce trusts this man implicitly, and because Bruce is nervous about introducing them because he clearly wants Clark to approve of his friend. That's new for Bruce, which means Jack is important. So Clark's extremely blunt about the situation.

Jack does have a similar enough story. He's also trying to figure out how to integrate Dani into the family, but things are awkward. Still, Dani hugged him and cried when they showed her the addition they built so she could have her own room.

Clark and Jack both end up giving each other advice and then call Martha Kent, who Clark quickly goes to get her and then flies her over. She takes to Jack really well, and they end up exchanging recipes. Jack's the one to suggest letting Kon and Dani meet, but Martha's the one that approves of the idea. Kon's experiences with other clones tends to be not great. The four of them plan a meet up.

This turns out to be a hero meetup, Dani Phantom and Superboy, only knowing the other is a clone. They hit it off really well.

So, Jack and Clark stay in contact. They both support each other as they try to forge relationships with the clone children in their lives. But that also leads to them talking about their hero sons.

Eventually, the three talk enough that they decide to have a meet at Bruce's home. Bruce gets Alfred to help him clear out the kids. He waffles about having Duke stay too, and ends up asking him if he wants to stay, but Duke points out that this is to try and help Damian make friends. Duke will come to the next one. So with that, the preparation's all complete, the Kents fly over and Jack and Danny arrive from their roadyrip.

Things seem to be going okay. Damian and Jon are best friends, so it's clear Danny feels like a third wheel, but Jon wants to try and be friends, so Damian's willing to go along with it. And Danny (the oldest) wants to try because he knows how important this is to his dad.

Unfortunately, that's when the ghosts attack.

Damian happens to have his sword and a few batarangs on his person, but is otherwise unarmed and out of costume. Jon is in a similar state. Danny is able to transform and fight back, but he's a bit handicapped bc until they can find a way to get Damian and Jon ecto-weapons, they're basically just living targets. So after being kidnapped, Danny manages to grab them and run.

They end up deep in the Infinite realms, and they have to try to find their way back.

Meanwhile, Bruce, Clark and Jack just witnessed their children getting kidnapped.

Bruce quickly gets changed, as does Clark. Then Clark flies them to Amity Park and the portal and Speeder. They take off, hunting for their children.

Adventures include:

- Walker being on their ass from the word 'go', and Batman having to outsmart him using his own made up rules.

- Superman still being all super strength, but he needs the ecto-equivilant of brass knuckles before his hits can connect. Once he has those, his punches hit just as hard as a normal Superman punch.

- They end up in the Kryptonian part of the Infinite Realms. This takes multiple chapters because not only are Kryptons gods there, but also Clark's parents. They're both happy to see him alive and thriving, but also a bit shocked by his values.

- Also, also, Kryptonians were high key kind of racist, and a number of them, while greeting Clark, are rude about his "mixed species" son, and mock Kon for basically everything.

- This is how they all find out that Superman is a lot stronger than all of them.

- The one nice thing is them getting to meet the god Nightwing, and Clark telling him about Dick choosing his name because of the stories Clark told him. And then Nightwing wants to hear all about Dick, and basically gives his blessing to use the name, along with a gift to take back to Dick. Nightwing also likes Bruce very much, also being a symbol of justice, fighting darkness with darkness.

- Bruce actively deciding that even if his parents are there that he could waste his whole life trying to find them, so he can't go looking for them.

- Jack getting waaaay more info on ghosts than he ever thought possible.

- Ending up in Ghostwriters library and doing some research.

- Eventually finding Clockwork, who congratulates Bruce for surviving his time stream adventures, but otherwise being cryptic and unhelpful in helping them find the boys.

- Said boys eventually finding ghostly weapons, which react to Damian and basically soul bind to him bc of his liminality and his strong will.

- Jon and Danny trying to explain the mechanics of their own abilities to fly and really sucking at it because both don't really understand and get confused.

- The kids have to slog through a bog.

- Youngblood.

- Cujo appearing at come point and Damian going *completely* starry-eyed about him.

- Damian and Jon both adopting ghost pets.

- Jon's are kryptonian animals, btw.

- The boys ending up in the Kryptonian part of the Realms way after their fathers.

- the boys meeting Clark's bio parents and having like an hour where things are nice.

- The Kryptionian ghosts Clark beat the shit out of wanting revenge, kidnapping Jon and mocking him for being not full Kryptonian/beating him because they can.

- Jon develops a new power, which even Superman doesn't have and manages to free himself.

- Damian and Danny exacting terrible revenge on those assholes.

- All three of them getting badly swarmed after that.

- Nightwing appearing and rescuing the boys. He's the one who ferries them out of the Kryptonian part of the Infinite Realms. He also gives a gift to Damian when he realizes that Damian stood at Dick's side as his partner and that their relationship is special.

- Nightwing also honors Danny as the one who defeated Pariah Dark.

- He also gifts something to Jon, because he is just as Kryptonian as the rest of them.

- The boys finally, finally ending up in Dorothea's lands, only for her brother to be attempting a coup.

- Batman completely outclasses Walker, leading Walker to helping them get to the Dragon Lands where the boys are.

- Superman and Jon beating up dragons together and Jon showing off his new power.

- Damian being recognized as a young ghost warrior by one of Pandora's people (who got stuck there during the coup when they wete visiting a friend).

- Dorothea wrecking her brothers shit.

- Father-Son bonding by fighting together!

- Clark being so proud of Jon and extra affectionate because he's so angry at the Kryptonian ghosts, and even more pissed when he finds out they hurt his son. Bruce and Jack literally have to hold him back from running off to destroy some ghosts.

- Damian's new warrior buddy managing to diffuse the situation by offering Damian a chance to take one of Pandora's warrior tests.

- Damian getting to meet Pandora, and learning about his new, burgeoning abilities as a liminal (not full halfa, but his experiences in the Infinite Realms, plus the weapons that soul-bound to him, plus Nightwing's gift (a touch of Nightwing's own power) mean he's closer to a halfa than a regular liminal and needs training.

- Bruce also being invited to try the trials.

- Clark is also invited, but declines, as he wants to check on his son's injuries (Frostbite is called to come help), and wants to spend a little time with Jon.

- Jack and Danny get to have a heart to heart. Jack admits he's known for a while, but that he's been scared about how to talk to Danny. He's so proud of Danny and how good he is. And he's proud of the way he handled Dani's appearance, as he did way better at 14 than Clark or Jack did as adults. He's proud, and scared of Danny getting really hurt.

- Danny is relieved and happy to know his parents actually know and love him and support him. He and Jack hug it out.

- After Frostbite arrives and heals Jon, Danny introduces them and Jack finally allows himself to go full AuDHD and ask a million questions, which makes Frostbite just an excited and they are so excited to have a research buddy.

- Damian and Batman win their trials. Pandora gifts Batman a one time boon to call for aide. Damian is given two more weapons, which soul bind to him and come from Pandora's armory.

The dads and kids go back through the portal, arriving to Jazz, Maddie and Dani down in the workshop making a robot that was Dani's idea. Basically a whole accidental full identity reveal.

Everyone ends up piling into the RAV, which Superman flies to Gotham so everyone can have dinner at the manor. It's a lovely night.

About a week later, Jon, Damian, Danny and Dani manage to get ahold of Kon and Kara and have them show up in the same remote place. It took some serious work, but the managed to have a cool surprise for them.

Wulf opens a portal, out of which steps Nightwing.

Danny had to get multiple powerful ghosts to agree to help to make this happen, as gods of dead worlds aren't really allowed to leave the Infinite Realms.

Nightwing blesses both Kara and Kon as true Kryptonians, and gives them both a gift. They'd both heard about some of the adventures Jon and the boys went on. As Kara had the most memories of Krypton, she especially had been called upon to talk about her and Clark's homeworld after everything went down. It's literally awe-inspiring to see one of Kryption's gods.

Kon, meanwhile, is near tears because his existence has just been validated by a god of his people. A people which had always treated him with disrespect, who used his own name to mock him. And Nightwing blessed him and gave him a gift. Kon feels so accepted and happy that he literally can't keep his feet on the ground.

After this, it comes out that Kon and Dani have actually been working as a team, as their powers compliment each other pretty well, and he's gottan Dani to join Young Justice as a junior member.

Jon, Danny and Damian, meanwhile, have formed their own team. Jon now has someone he can basically go all out with, and Damian has two people he can practice his new abilities with without risking killing of maiming them.

Damian also starts getting harassed by ghosts, but that's where the Fenton Tech really comes in handy.

Bruce realizes that somehow he did manage to get Damian a new friend, but also got closer to Jack and now has another best friend besides Clark.

DPXDC Prompt: Supersons + 1

What if Jack became friends with Clark and Bruce. And Danny accidentally becomes apart of the Supersons.

Jack takes Danny with him on a trip to visit his friends- just for it to turn into a playdate. But it isn't long for the cat to come out the bag especially since Danny's rogues can sniff him out.

So now all three are trapped in the ghost zone and this is way more than Danny wanted to reveal with day one "friends" . (maybe its walker)

And their dads having to come find them. Jack leading the charge because he has no idea Clark and Bruce are superheroes LOL But he knows ghosts when he sees them >:U

Could also be a good moment to have good dad Jack- one that once he knows Danny's phantom is immediately wait.. that's my son… MY SON? IM COMING DANNO!

Imagine just very heartfelt. Jack learns to reconnect with his son- Danny has more connections and now protection. Jon is happy to have a flying friend. And Damian still appalled Danny's bad at his identity. "It works because most people wouldn't think I'm dead." "Except for other ghosts?" "I told you that's not something I can avoid >:T." And be even funnier if Clark and Bruce had to go along with Jack WITHOUT being super. Even Jack doesn't find out about them. Which Danny is fine with keeping secret. So they have to work off of limited unsettling tech and still pretend they're a good shot because of other reasons.. or hits. Imagine Jack is like sensitive to Bruce's parents death like OH WAIT- sorry Clark you take these. Brucie, I got the boo-merang and the anti-ghost staff somewhere. That's my wife's favorite. uwu Jack also the reason they couldn't slip away into hereos because he dragged them along shouting FLITHY SPOOK! GIVE ME BACK OUR SONS!... in the Fenton RV... so imagine they had... Quite a ride.

[itshype]

My DC x DP Masterpost

Here is my masterpost of works that fall into the category of a crossover of DC comics and Danny Phantom. Mostly, these will be notfics. If any of the links are broken please message me ASAP. Edit: I will not be doing taglists because people are quite frankly abusing the idea.

What's a notfic?

So, this was really common in fandom like 10 years ago but it's less common now so I'm just including this quick explanation in case. Notfic/Not!Fic is the halfway point between an actual fic and a prompt. It mostly sort of has the tone of describing another fic to somebody, or working out an ongoing plot with a friend (e.g. Instead of writing out an entire set of dialogue, a notfic might just put "Jason and Tim discuss why they both want to fake their deaths").

Permissions Housekeeping

I totally don't mind if anyone wants to take all or part of what I've written for any prompt and write an actual fic or create another transformative work as long as I'm appropriately credited. If you're just taking the most oblique inspiration from something I've made I'd appreciate at least a tag so I can read it!

Also if you'd like to tag me in any of your works please do, provided that it's the first if it's in a series and not Jazz/Jason as the main pairing, please.

Works

Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, Crowntaker, Realmshaker

Danny isn't the Ghost King but after defeating Pariah Dark the new king knows Danny has massive political influence.

Navigate any storm, with nothing but the stars to guide you

Danny is obsessed with space so the whole 'superhero' thing is on the backburner.

Please don’t pet me! I am working!

Repeat after me, SERVICE ANIMAL CUJO. (Minor Connor Kent/Danny Fenton)

It's a boy, congratulations... to me!

Danny insists Connor is his clone even though he's really not.

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss, Godhood

Danny gets caught and tells the JLA that neither he nor Vlad are ghosts.

New type of Vlad just dropped

When a ghost's obsession is destroyed, they get a new one.

Mother of the Year

Talia Al Ghul gets to be a good mother. As a treat.

Amorpho Whomst?

Danny, Dani and Dan trade off on responsibilities.

Halfa? Half a What?

Danny's half human, no one's sure what the other half is.

The second, secret Justice League

There's another Justice League that not even the Justice League is cleared to know about.

Excuse me, do you work here? Danny is sent to represent the first, non-secret Justice League.

Triple Threat

The Champion of All Magic and The King of All Ghosts have a mutual triplet.

Like peas in a pod [person]

Jason is healed of the pit rage but has a whole new problem.

There's a Mr Wight Hood to see you?

Jason adopts Danny instead of being the Red Hood.

The Wight Baby For The Job Sequel to Mr Wight Hood

You Make Miso Scared

Danny's always talking about soup time.

Reverse Bruce

Give baby Jason MORE PARENTS!

Work Experience

Danny has to learn about Ghost culture before he can rule it.

Mansplain Yourself

Constantine probably knows best about ghosts over the Justice League's newest member...

The Opposite of a Golden Ticket

International star Ember McLain is in danger

Haustoria Horror

Undergrowth's got Poison Ivy

Like and Survive!

Danny runs an advice website for young heroes

You're not the Boss of me!

Batman accidentally outs his family to Danny

This is a PSA

Danny's Wail affects the JLA

Floral Fiasco

Poison Ivy errs

How I Met Your Brother

Dan joins the JLA

The Manhunter's Manhunt

There's a miscommunication with the Martian Manhunter

The Green Knight

Jason lives (just this once)

___

The Job

Danny's gotta put food on the table (Also available in DP only version)

Always A King (DC x DP)

The Realms must have a king

Series: The Surprise Obsessions of the Ghostly Batclan (image heavy)

Ghost Bruce HC

Ghost Jason HC

Mini prompts

Danny Phantom vs The IRS ; part 2

Phantom's mistaken identity

Billy and Danny are secret twins

Danny scars the batfam

Superheroes need more therapy

All-caste Jason

Poison Control

[faeriekit]

Okay, wait, so everyone hold UP, I am ReReading - the first time Connor smells something weird is in the custody meeting, right?? He says it possibly smells like magic, so I just assumed perhaps it Was a magic thing --- BUT he definitely says the smell is Back in this new chapter and sniffs it out to find the blood blossoms - so assuming I'm not wrong, there were blood blossoms in the custody meeting??? How come Danny and Danielle didn't notice? Is it because they're old and powerful and beyond such things now, or perhaps there wasn't enough blood blossoms to cause them a problem? OR perhaps they're the ones that have been doing it to make the custody battle go their way for certain?? (Doubtful, Danny couldn't put his kids in danger like that... Dani tho?)

👀

[elizabeth-mitchells]

Comfort Food - Dani/Grace - Terminator: Dark Fate

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Terminator (Movies) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Grace Harper/Dani Ramos Characters: Dani Ramos, Grace Harper, Sarah Connor, Carl (Terminator) Additional Tags: Not Canon Compliant, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Post-Canon, Missing Scene, McDonald's, Fast Food, Comfort Food, Fluff, basically grace survives and they stop by mcdonalds after they escape Words: 2870

The Rev-9 is destroyed. The four of them are barely alive after the fight. The first thing they need is to find a safe place to go.

That's when they step into McDonald's.

Sarah didn’t have time to say it, and she couldn’t exactly remember where she heard it first, but there was something oddly comforting about McDonald’s. That’s not to say she loved the place. A most likely despicable company, sure. But it was just so goddamned… big. It was available in most of the globe, and in every stupid country Sarah found herself in she could turn a corner and there it was, like a fucking mirage. The ridiculous “M”, the lights, the colors, the food, and the bathroom too. They were all mostly the same everywhere. The most childish spot for feeling like stepping into a sort of time loop. Somehow the most appropriate place to stop by after destroying the Rev-9.

The four of them were in various degrees of falling apart, some of them quite literally. “Wait here,” Sarah instructed Carl, not any more gently even after everything. He diligently hung back at the door, missing arm and all, while the three women entered the fast-food restaurant. “You two, sit,” Sarah pointed at one of the tables and confidently walked to the register. Dani and Grace hesitated at the door, but eventually gave in and followed the instructions.

Their little group probably looked beyond suspicious and out of place. They walked a long way until they found this place, and they were still covered in blood, dirt, and ashes. At least Dani’s long hair was the only thing still dripping water. Surprisingly, the employees of McDonald’s barely bat an eyelash at the new clients. It fascinated and worried Grace to think they weren’t the strangest thing these people had seen walk into the establishment in the middle of the night. Thankfully, there weren’t any other patrons.

“Are you alright?” Dani asked, as soon as the two were comfortably seated in one of the booths.

“Hm. Yeah, I think so,” Grace mumbled. She lowered her head, realizing Dani had noticed the way she had ungracefully fallen onto her seat, wincing and bleeding. “What about you?”

“Well, I’m alive.”

Dani’s answer came in a whisper. Her voice was trembling just slightly. This still wasn’t the time and place to think about the events that lead her here. However, this place, the bright lights above her, the clean floors, the smell of food, it was enough of a taste at normalcy to make her feel like she could take a break, like chaos was solved and she had made it out alive, for now. Which was enough, surprisingly. The best part? Seeing the moment that the words she just spoke fully registered in Grace’s mind as well. 

Dani had survived. The Rev-9 didn’t make it through the second explosion they had pushed it into. It was definitely gone. More and possibly worse problems could be waiting for them. But, for now, all that mattered was this, Dani’s little smile from the other side of the table. Dani was alive and Grace had completed her mission, “You know,” Grace started to speak, “I didn’t think…”

“Dig in,” Sarah interrupted them, dropping two trays of food on the table and sitting down beside Dani.

The following seconds were a quick flash of very different approaches to their meals from the three women. Sarah didn’t waste a second to get started on her burger. They needed food to stay alive, they had a chance to eat a warm meal, no time to waste. Dani, on the other hand, took a deep breath then turned her head away from the food. How could they eat after everything that just happened? Her stomach churned just thinking of all the violence she’d had to stomach since the previous days. Then there was Grace. For a second, she frowned at the food. Offended about the interruption, about the way it seemed to upset Dani, and… and then there was the smell of the fries. She took a handful of them, slowly chewed them, and then there was no turning back. She got started on her meal as if her life- as if Dani’s life depended on her eating that burger.

“Let’s get to the point,” Sarah announced after a few bites and a long sip of her drink. “Grace. The terminator was a hundred percent dead, correct?” Her question was met with silence and thumbs up, considering the augment soldier was halfway done with her burger. “And you? Will you live?” She ignored the look Dani her sent her way. Sarah was used to being blunt in worse scenarios, she wasn’t about to change things now. If anything, change within her was barely noticeable. But there was just something uncharacteristically earnest in her tone as she made her question. She cared about the answer, more than she was ready to admit.

They had to wait until Grace was done chewing, but finally, she got her appetite to slow down for a moment enough to give an answer. “There was a lot of damage,” she said, quickly scanning through the systems in her body, a series of unsatisfactory percentages showing up in her vision, but nothing too alarming. “Nothing I can’t fix,” Grace stated with finally, diving right back into her food. This would hold her up for a short while, but she would need to raid a pharmacy soon.

“Good,” Sarah nodded. After a few more moments of eating in silence, she turned toward Dani. “What about you? How, uh, how’re you holding up?”

Dani, almost without noticing, had started to slowly go through her set of fries. Eating them slowly, enjoying the warmth and the distraction. However, instead of answering, she ended up blurting out the first thing on her mind. “How are you so calm right now?”

“It isn’t my first rodeo. Hell, it isn’t even the second time I go through this shit,” Sarah replied, finishing her meal. “No time to dwell on it. We have to move to safety. Plus, we got that monster as a bodyguard waiting outside.” She nodded her head to the window, where they could glance at Carl, calmly waiting outside for them. Dani almost made a comment about Sarah forgetting her promise to destroy him if they managed to survive, but she decided against it. “I’m going to the bathroom,” Sarah continued, “you two finish up, get cleaned up. I’ll get us a phone and a vehicle. Then we need a pharmacy and a safe house. Don’t take too long.”

A moment later, she was done. Up and moving again. Dani was thinking about how much she would have to learn from Sarah, how much she would like to learn from her. Grace was thinking… “Dani,” she whispered, “Do you think I could get another one of these?”

“You can have mine,” Dani chuckled. She pushed the burger toward Grace. After taking notice of Grace’s frown and already knowing that was a sign for an upcoming speech about her protection and importance, she added, “Please, Grace. I can’t stomach it right now.”

Grace was reassured by the fact that Dani at least was steadily eating her fries. Encouraged by her deep hunger, she accepted the burger. “Thank you,” she smiled. After taking the first bite she made a sound of appreciation. If her attention wasn’t all taken by Dani and her meal, she would have attempted to think about how profundly human she felt. It was a comfort to eat this incredibly ordinary food and pretend everything was perfectly normal about her, her life, and the world around her.

“What were you going to say,” Dani asked her without preamble, “before the food arrived?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Grace shook her head softly.

It wasn’t convincing in the slightest. Even less so to Dani, whose stubbornness could easily match Sarah’s and Grace’s. But then again, there was something mesmerizing, comforting, but also so simple and easy about watching Grace have the time of her life eating ridiculous McDonald’s food. It rendered Dani speechless. It got her thinking a little. About the way Grace had gone through so many years without these simple pleasures. About the way Grace’s body worked differently, but the bigger part of her was always so endearingly human. About Grace in general, fascinating even under the worst conditions. Done with what little food she could tolerate and soothed by the space and the company around her, Dani allowed herself to close her eyes for just one moment…

“Dani… Dani?”

Grace’s voice eased her out of that unlikely sleep she had fallen into. The soldier sounded concerned enough to still sound like Grace. But it was undeniable the hint of amusement and fondness in her tone. Was she used to waking up her Commander from accidental naps like that? Was that a spark of jealousy that Dani was feeling for her own self of the future?

“Sorry,” she attempted an awkward laugh. “Let’s stop by the bathroom. We don’t want Sarah causing a scene because we’re taking too long.”

“Take your time,” Grace said. Her words were soft, her frown was unforgiving. The fondness between her and Sarah was reciprocated, but still complicated. Grace wouldn’t hesitate to stand her ground against anyone that tried to disturb Dani’s brief moments of peace.

The bathroom was another unlikely little piece of heaven. It was clean, empty, functional, quiet. Most importantly, it looked like Sarah had acquired a first aid kit from the employees and left it behind for the two of them. What followed was a slow and steady process of dealing with the most pressing issues both of them had. First, a visit to the toilet, sure. Then, washing faces, hands, and arms. Grace wet her hair, and was almost completely unaware of Dani's appreciative stares at the whole process. They didn’t have a lot to work with, and there were a lot of bandages and healing in their near future. But, at the very least, they had a small bottle of alcohol, and they did what they could with it.

Cut clean and bodies slightly refreshed, Dani had time to openly stare at Grace. “You’re incredible,” she sighed. She hadn’t meant to just blurt it out, but at the same time she couldn’t figure out a reason not to. Grace turned to look at her with genuine wonder in her eyes. “It already looks better,” Dani added, pointing at the wound on Grace’s neck. Back at the dam, it had looked beyond deadly. It would have been, to anyone who wasn’t an augmented soldier, apparently. Now the wound appeared to be closed, at least. Though there was still a long road of healing ahead.

“See? I still got it,” Grace replied. Technically, the smile she wore at that moment was small. But it was so… new, to Dani, that she found it to be the brightest most beautiful thing in the world. For a moment she felt like the luckiest person on Earth knowing that now she would have time to really get to know Grace, her sense of humor, her personality beyond being a soldier, all of her. She didn’t even have time to think about all the upcoming smiles from Grace that would soon come to lovingly blind her. For an instant, Dani opened her mouth to reply, but then she closed it and turned away to stare at the mirror again. “What?” Grace gently prompted her.

Dani took a deep breath, and started washing her hands again, quite unnecessarily too, but it was better than staring at the other woman as she said, “It’s just that… not running for our lives? Looks good on you.”

Grace stayed silent. She took her time processing the information. The look on her face was complicated. A small arch in her eyebrows showed she was at least a little impressed by the compliment. Then there was that absolutely gorgeous pair of expressive blue eyes. They were delighted, caught off guard, for sure, and very appreciative for Dani’s matching ease, the first time she saw her relaxed and awake since they met. But there was an unmistakable hint of grief, nostalgia for something impossible to recover, even if what was in front of her was just as good.

Dani took the opportunity to ask something that she hasn’t been able to shake off her mind. “What were you going to say,” she slowly asked Grace a second time, “before the food arrived?”

The expression on Grace’s face instantly dimmed, but she didn’t look too bothered about it either. “I just didn’t think I would survive this far,” she gave a small shrug, “that’s all.”

That’s all, she said. As if that wasn’t a pretty significant thing, Dani thought. “I can’t imagine,” Dani frowned and spoke in whispers, while Grace tilted her head and listened intently. “I can’t imagine… ever, you know, being the person that gives the order to send you, Grace, in a suicide mission.”

“It’s not like that,” Grace shook her head softly. She was leaning against the sink, staring at Dani with all the devotion she couldn’t seem to shake off her eyes whenever they locked eyes. “I volunteered,” Grace said, “I, you and I, we both knew I’d be the best one to protect you.”

“Why is that?” Dani asked, considerably more breathless than she meant to. Then she took a hesitant step forward, and nearly started shaking when Grace mimicked her move.

“Can’t you tell?”

In the back of her mind, Dani was thinking about how she could probably spend the rest of her life analyzing that question, and the way Grace said those three words. She was genuinely asking, she was hopeful, she was afraid, she was sad, she was… She was placing a hand on Dani’s cheek. Grace was cradling Dani’s jaw with a delicacy and gentleness that most likely shouldn’t be possible in a soldier like her, wounded, traumatized, transformed, and scarred. But Dani felt like the two of them were standing on top of a cloud, leaning forward, looking up into crystal clear blue eyes…

“A car is here,” Grace announced, sharply turning her head to the right and schooling her expression back into deadly professionalism.

“Righ,” Dani exhaled a heavy sigh, took an extra moment to recover herself, and added, “Let’s go.” Then, without allowing herself to think too hard about it, grabbed Grace’s hand and led her outside. She didn’t look back to see Grace’s reaction to her taking the lead like that, but she could have made a pretty good guess.

Outside McDonald’s, they met Carl. The retired Terminator looked at them with his familiar but stoic stare and said, “I hope your meals were satisfactory.”

“Yeah,” Dani nodded, “Thanks.”

“Is that safe?” Grace asked, nodding toward the car parking a few feet away from them.

“Stay put,” Sarah ordered as an answer.

Carl couldn’t help but take a couple of steps forward, to be closer to the stranger, to protect Sarah if necessary and possibly even against her will.

Hearing Sarah’s curt response, mutual fondness or not, Grace nearly groaned out loud in annoyance. She did tighten her hold on Dani’s hand. Which brought to Dani’s attention the fact that their fingers were still comfortably interlocked and how natural it felt to just continue to hold on.

“Hey, Grace,” she said softly, tugging a little on the hand she was holding.

With her attention back on Dani, Grace instantly relaxed. Irritation vanished from her face, and the pressure of her hand loosened a little too. “Yes?” she asked. Looking at her with that same exact spark of adoration from before. 

“Can I kiss you now?”

First, Grace just smiled at her. It was an honest grin. She genuinely looked elated. Not at all like she had expected this outcome based on experiences from a future that hadn’t happened. She looked overjoyed and relieved as if she was experiencing the completion of a dream she’d had her entire life. 

“Of course,” Grace replied, in the middle of taking a deep breath and exhaling a soft sigh.

Grace stepped closer, Dani placed a hand on the back of her neck, they met in the middle. At first, it felt like a spark, an explosion of all the action, the adrenaline, the terror, and the thrills they had experienced during nearly every second since they met. Then, the feeling melted into a slow and steady flame, it was comfort, relief, triumph, safety. It was an action of complete love, and hope, and the promise of a future together.

A moment of such levels of perfection, of course, could only be interrupted by the loud and tremendously inopportune sound of a car horn.

“Let’s go, lovebirds!” Sarah yelled from the window of the driver’s seat. She sounded like her usual self, even if she couldn’t hold back her smirk.

“Please,” Carl added, “excuse her for the interruption. Would you like to have an additional moment of privacy?”

“No, Carl, uh, thanks,” Dani replied, a giggle stuck in her throat. “We’re, um, we’re good. Yeah. Let’s… let’s go.” She could hardly keep her composure, not with Grace standing behind her, arm wrapped around her middle and holding her close, her lips smiling and pressing a kiss on the top of her head.

[theorangerangers]

I posted 1,754 times in 2021

320 posts created (18%)

1434 posts reblogged (82%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 4.5 posts.

I added 478 tags in 2021

#power rangers - 129 posts

#my au - 90 posts

#tommy oliver - 49 posts

#connor mcknight - 48 posts

#kira ford - 36 posts

#trent fernandez - 32 posts

#ethan james - 32 posts

#lauren shiba - 21 posts

#hayley ziktor - 21 posts

#rocky desantos - 20 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#as dark as it sounds i kind of want ivan’s ghost to visit his team mates that are born after he dies so that they can still have time togeth

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Ryan probably doesn’t understand much about being an adult outside of being a power ranger, like does he even know that the mitochondria is the power house of the cell?

36 notes • Posted 2021-06-08 20:03:07 GMT

#4

I am considering doing a power rangers and Danny phantom cross over au and don’t know which of the following would be better

Anton and Vlad being business partners for something and Trent and Dani having a conversation about the thing their dads want them to be

Lightspeed Rescue rangers working with the guys in white to catch Danny

Mystic force trying to fix the ghost problem in amity park once and for all and getting told off by each member of team phantom about staying in their own lane with magical nonsense

Dani running into operation overdrive multiple times on her travels and becoming an informant for what the villains are up to due to her own evil up bringing

Wild force encountering Wolf and fighting off Walker and his goons to try and help him

The silver guardians setting up a division in Amity park and Wes trying to convince Wes that phantom and Fenton are the same person only to be laughed off but somehow convince Eric in the process

Dani meets Lauren while she’s in hiding training to use the sealing symbol and is her sparing buddy for a while

Jazz being a therapist to the Bradley brothers and realizing they are power rangers pretty quickly

43 notes • Posted 2021-06-09 06:24:51 GMT

#3

Do you ever think about the fact that people in the power rangers world know damn well the US government opened a gate to hell and then recruited five of the most queer coded character in the show to fight demons. Like imagine watching the news one day and it’s the damn president telling everyone that the navy screwed up and now they are fighting demons over who has the rights to a piece of land (that the demons had first and just wanted their home back). The demons don’t even want the world they just their piece of land back. Like imagine knowing tax dollars were spent on putting people in magic tights and fighting the hordes of hell over who has the rights to San Francisco. Also the demons stole a kid and raised it into the worse case of an identity crisis ever and the military is just like, yes this is the one we want to have the most dangerous weapons when he finally changes sides back to humanity.

@bundibird if you’re wondering what watching the actual kids show the power ranger is like this is the plot of season 8

51 notes • Posted 2021-06-28 00:08:24 GMT

#2

Amelia meeting Chad and then meeting his mermaid wife

65 notes • Posted 2021-06-02 03:34:32 GMT

#1

See the full post

190 notes • Posted 2021-12-08 18:12:05 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[duhragonball]

So the only two Terminator movies I hadn’t seen were Salvation and Dark Fate, which was why I bought this box set.  I was looking forward to T4, but wasn’t very impressed with it.   T6, on the other hand, yeah it’s pretty damn good.  But, like T4 and T5, this was also meant to be the first part of a reboot trilogy, and just like T4 and T5, it didn’t perform well enough at the box office to make that plan a reality.  

I don’t know what the future for this series holds.  The Wikipedia article for Dark Fate talks about plans to make a Terminator anime on Netflix, which sounds pretty stupid to me, but I thought that Sarah Connor Chronicles show was a bad idea, and I seem to recall it did okay.  People seem to think there’s money to be made off this franchise, but it feels like each new attempt ends in failure, sort of like how Skynet keeps trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. 

Just to recap...

T1: Kyle Reese travels back in time to protect Sarah Connor from a Terminator, so that her yet-to-be-born son can lead humanity to victory in the Future War.  Ironically, Kyle turns out to be the father of Sarah’s baby.  

T2: Skynet sends another Terminator to kill John Connor, but the Future John sends a reprogrammed Terminator to protect him.   Meanwhile, Sarah Connor is determined to prevent Skynet’s creation.

T3: John Connor thinks the Future War has been prevented, but he can’t quite believe it.   After surviving another Terminator attack, John realizes that Skynet’s rise to power is inevitable, and he reluctantly accepts his fate as the leader of the human resistance.

T4: Fifteen years after Judgment Day, John Connor has to save Kyle Reese from a Skynet plot to wipe out the Resistance.  

T5: Repeated time trips and assassination attempts have left the timeline from 1984 to 2029 unrecognizable.    Skynet captures John Connor in the future and converts him into a T-3000.   This new John is tasked with facilitating the rise of Skynet in 2017, but he is defeated by Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese, and a T-800 sent from the future by an unknown benefactor.

There’s a lot of details that prevent these movies from fitting together into a single storyline, but the broad themes still make for a good meta-narrative.  The first movie introduces Sarah and the central conflict, the second movie introduces John and provides an origin for Skynet.   The third movie depicts the worldwide nuclear strike that marks the beginning of the Future War.   The fourth movie shows us the middle of the Future War.   Finally, the fifth movie depicts the end of the war and the part where Kyle goes back in time to start the cycle again.   Circumstances change from one movie to the next, but you can chalk these up as the result of all the various time travelers.    I mean, a lot of people get killed in these movies, and they sort of act like it doesn’t matter much in the long run, but it could add up in a hurry.  

Knowing all of this about the first five movies, I was really curious to see what the sixth one would even be about, especially with Linda Hamilton returning as an older Sarah Connor.  She was dead in T3 and 4, and T5 recast the role and overhauled the character.  Of course, T6 just sort of pretends those three movies never happened, but even so, what else is there to do with Sarah?

Well, Dark Fate opens with John Connor getting shot in 1998.   In this movie, the effort to prevent Judgment Day in T2 was successful, but Skynet had sent multiple Terminators throughout the 1990s to hunt down John, and they kept looking for him even after Skynet itself ceased to exist.  

It’s a ballsy move, but it’s almost inevitable.   They literally did every other thing there was to do with this story.   It’s not even the first time John has died to a Terminator.   The T-850 in T3 did the honors in 2032, albeit off-screen.   In T5, Skynet decided that it had to team up with John in order to win, so it turned him into a Terminator.   I’m not sure if he was killed in that movie or not, but it might as well have been his death.    But those were future versions of John, and Skynet’s goal was always to kill him before he could defeat it, not after.   And so, T6 decided the only road left was to let the coyote catch the road runner.

So John’s dead and Skynet’s gone, so now what?   Well it turns out there’s another dark future down the road, and this whole formula plays out again.  This time, the bad guy is a “Rev-9″ Terminator, sent to kill Dani Ramos.   But the Rev-9 isn’t working for Skynet, it’s working for Legion, which is just another AI that became self-aware, took control of the world’s defenses, etc.  

Ramos’ protector from the future is a human “augment” named Grace Harper.   She looks cool and kicks ass but she’ll run out of gas if she doesn’t take her augment medicine.   Also, she isn’t powerful enough to beat the Rev-9.   Luckily, Sarah Connor steps in and offers to help, because she’s been hunting Terminators ever since John’s death, and because she knows what it’s like to be in Dani’s shoes. 

Over the years, Sarah’s been getting tips on where new Terminators will show up from a secret informant, and Grace’s orders are to proceed to a particular location if things go poorly, and it turns out that’s the same place where Sarah’s been getting her tips from.  They go there and find an old T-800 named Carl.   Carl’s the one who killed John in 1998, and afterward he had no purpose and no further instructions to follow.  He eventually studied human behavior and developed the AI equivalent of a conscience, then married a human wife and helped her raise her young son.  

Sarah still holds a grudge, but they need Carl’s help to survive, so they all join forces to have a big showdown with the Rev-9.   Grace and Carl sacrifice themselves to help Dani win, and the movie ends with Sarah promising to help Dani prepare for the future that’s to come.  

At first, Sarah assumed that Dani would be the mother of the eventual leader of the resistance against Legion, just as John was fated to lead the resistance against Skynet.  But eventually it comes to light that Dani herself will be the leader who saves the world, and Sarah realizes that she’s the new John.   I guess that’s Sarah’s character arc for this movie.   She loses her own son, spends the next 22 years without a purpose, and then she discovers a new purpose.   It also allows Carl to redeem himself for John’s murder.  Now that he’s grown a soul, he can choose to die for Dani instead of killing for a Skynet that no longer exists.   Grace’s arc is probably weaker than the others, but she initially saw the Rev-9 as a threat that could only be avoided and not defeated, but in the end she stood and fought, so I guess that’s good enough. 

More importantly to me, though, is that T6 serves as an answer to the previous film.   Skynet was obsessed with John Connor, like he was the only thing that allowed humanity to defeat it.    So in T5, Skynet decided that if it could just convert John to its side, it would be unbeatable.    That always struck me as silly, because without John Connor, someone else would have stepped in to fill the void.  And T6 demonstrates this by introducing Dani.   Legion and Skynet might as well be the same idea, but even without John Connor, there’s another human leader who can rise to the occasion.   And if something happened to Dani, someone else would step up, and so on.   

Skynet thought it could win the war by defeating John, but it’s reasoning was flawed: it had to defeat what John represents, and there isn’t a Terminator powerful enough to do that.   As long as it kept pursuing the man, it would never succeed.  It would have to kill every human to achieve the victory it craves, but it couldn’t seem to make that work either.

So with that conclusion reached, I really don’t see where else this franchise can go.    They could do a movie about Sarah and Dani fighting more Terminators, but that would just be a retread of the previous movies.  And the outcome is already understood to be pointless.  Either Dani will prevent Legion’s creation in the present-day, or she’ll tough it out and win the Future War in the 2040′s.  We know that’s inevitable, or Legion wouldn’t have sent a Terminator back in time in the first place. 

This reminds me a lot of my initial thoughts after seeing Genisys in 2015.   It seemed like Skynet was getting increasingly desperate to find away to avoid losing the war.   It couldn’t beat the humans on the ground, and time travel never seemed to help, and hijacking John Connor didn’t help either.    Now we see that killing John would make no difference either.  So it seems like the only option left would be for “The Machines” to sue for peace, or accept defeat.    I’m not sure that would make for a very good movie.  

That might be the only major flaw I see in T6.   The action’s great, and I never got bored watching it, and the story is compelling, and it’s a great sendoff for Arnold Schwarzenegger if he ever stops coming back for more of these movies.   But it’s also kind of redundant.   This movie just reinforces lessons already learned in previous movies.  

I really hope this is the last one.  I suspect that a lot of the themes that made T1 and T2 so successful have been superseded by other franchises.  You can get a lot of the same gonzo action sequences out of an Iron Man or Captain America movie, and the threat of “technology gone too far” isn’t exactly novel anymore.  There was a scene in T6 where Dani’s brother lost his job to a robot, and that seemed downright quaint.    They were doing stories about that in the 80s.   T6 does some thought-provoking stuff with the Border Patrol and their detention facilities, but I’m not sure we need a Terminator movie to cover that ground.   I’m not saying the Terminator movies aren’t allowed to get into social justice topics.   It’s been doing that for decades.   But it’s hardly unique in that respect.   By now, the question James Cameron and the others need to be asking is “What problem would a new Terminator movie solve?”  It’s not going to be a financial success, and critics probably won’t like it.   So what are we going for here?  I’m not sure there’s been a good answer in a long time.

[vore-scientist]

Demanding

[FLUFFY Safe, soft, willing, GT, non-romantic non-sexual M/f vore, fantasy setting. No additional warnings]

Proper Title Demanding: Yonah in Terra-Syor

Ok a little explanation is needed for this: IT'S NOT PART OF THE NORMAL MYSTIC WOODS. IT'S AN AU+ CROSSOVER SILLINESS

Been talking with @vixen525 (dA, tumblr) and we’ve been talking about fun crossovers with our worlds/characters and this came out of that! 

To set you up: Yonah, for whatever reason it’s not important for this story, got transported to the dimension/world of TerraSyor (which belongs to @vixen525 ), but in the process suffered memory loss (bc I wanted to be cliche as fuck and it makes things so much fun!!!). Giants in TerraSyor are called Syors or Syorians which are two subspecies. Check their dA for more information. They are a LOT larger than Yonah. But anyways. That’s kinda the set up, other things you need to know are explained in the story. 

---

Like last time we find ourselves in the office of the King of the Giants (who is away on a diplomatic mission) on the giant desk which had a smaller human sized desk on the upper right hand corner. Only this time it is night, or rather early evening. Though in this northern region, the sun had gone down over an hour ago; the Chief Political Advisor is sitting at her desk with mage lights hanging around her.

With King Connor away, Naomi tended to bury herself in her work. Because her best friend, the aforementioned King, is not there and while she misses him she has a lot of work to catch up on! King Connor tends to let it pile up. Often by keeping her from being able to do it thanks to his favorite way to enjoy her company. So while she missed her friend, she was not about to let this opportunity go to waste!

She would stay up for days to finish the paperwork! She had done so before even against the orders of the castle’s human physician for her to maintain a proper sleep schedule. As if she could sleep without Connor! And she was reluctant to ask one of the castle staff for assistance. Once or twice she’d gone to Lana, but the former Queen and interim King wasn’t someone Naomi liked to bother much even if she was available. Always more than happy to help, extremely sweet, but a little overbearing.

Thankfully her new guard was there to get her proper rest every night! Well. He tried. One all nighter he was willing to allow; he would force her to sleep should she try two in a row.

Tonight was such a night, however it would prove to be much more interesting.

Grunting as he glanced at his pocket watch tick into later evening he stood up and feeling a bit playful he reduced himself from 23.5ft to 7.5ft tall. Even at his full size he was more than small enough to sit comfortably on Connor's desk. Naomi didn’t notice him walking up until he was pulling the politician from her chair. She protested and held onto the desk and Yonah pretended to let her be strong enough to hold herself there.

“No! I need to finish reviewing this trade negotiation!” she sounded serious but there was a hint of playfulness.

“You can review it in the morning, you were up all last night! I know you miss Connor, that’s why I’m here!”

“I’m your boss, you’re paid to protect me!”

“I’m not technically paid and apparently I need to protect you from yourself. Also I need to sleep too! How can I protect you if I’m exhausted” He had tried to sleep last night, Naomi in his arms, powered by caffeine and hyper fixation, and armed with her portable desk, she did not waiver.

And he did manage to nap a few times. Not for more than an hour total. He was disinclined to sleep while she worked for several reasons. Mostly her safety even if this was the most secure room in the palace. Assassins had still gotten in before! And because once he woke up buried in paper. He was sure he’d inhaled a page at some point. Such suspicions were confirmed a moment later when Naomi got mad at him for it. And for his snoring.

So no more sleeping on the job!

Finally Yonah yanked her away from her desk, and ripped the paper from her hand. “I’ll give you one chance to change into PJs or you’re going down as is!” He grinned.

She had not changed clothes in almost 36 hours… she sighed and agreed. Plus she needed a shower, even if it would be made pointless soon after. Very soon in fact, as they both put on PJs after drying off but before heading to Connor’s bedroom, which they both lived in. No this is not weird.

Now, with both in their PJs, and teeth brushed, it was time! Yonah had returned to his normal size a while ago and he picked up the human and locked her dark and sleep deprived eyes onto his own. Before he lowered her from eye level and shoved her into his mouth.

Now, Naomi was never enthusiastic to be eaten, at least, not by Yonah. Not by anyone but Connor really. It kinda sucked, a lot. Being swallowed was the worst part. Yonah, being almost five times shorter than Connor, could barely fit a human torso in his mouth and Naomi’s sides sometimes got bruised against his teeth, and even though it was a short trip down it always felt like she might be squeezed to death. But that wasn’t why she was so unhappy.

Yonah noticed her hesitation but didn’t say anything as he swallowed her down as quickly as he could, and then promptly made his way to Connor’s chambers. Maybe the motion of his gate would lull his passenger. It was a fair distance even for Yonah, at 23.5ft, navigating a Castle meant for much larger giants. But the wash chamber was nearby to make it more convenient for Naomi. Soon he was in the bedroom and making his way to his own bed that was tucked into a corner of the room. It was a four poster with a canopy, and curtains, which gave it a feel of a box or a container, or cage… which wasn’t a bad thing, in fact it kinda felt familiar but he was sure he’d never been caged in such a way.

Yet sleep did not come. Specifically Naomi couldn’t sleep. As he climbed into his bed he felt Naomi shift. So much so it was clear she hadn’t woken due to his movements. Normally such little hints of struggle lulled him, but he could sense her restlessness and with him being in charge of her wellbeing, his worry chased away any lulling effect.

“Something wrong Naomi?” He sat at the side of his bed, feet on the ground, and pressed a hand to his belly, pleasantly full with the small human woman. She didn’t seem to appreciate this.

“It’s nothing!” She kicked, knowing it didn’t hurt him but he still grunted for her edification.

“That’s a lie, you need to tell me,” he rubbed at her.

He heard her sniff.

“This is. So different from when Connor eats me… it’s so confining!!” though her tone carried an air of falsehood.

“Do… you want me to spit you up? Will you sleep if I hold you in my arms?” Yonah knew full well that Naomi was from a tropical kingdom, used to warm humid nights, and was so accustomed to sleeping in Connor’s stomach that the cool dry air of the giant’s castle made it hard for her to fall asleep.

“I just miss Connor!” She finally wailed softly. Oh. This wasn’t a problem he could fix, and he was about to suggest he cast a reversal of his reduction so that he was closer to Connor’s size, if only briefly. But The problem wasn’t his size, the problem was he wasn’t Connor, so it was unlikely to help.

Yonah still held his stomach, he could feel her shaking as she cried under his hand. There wasn’t anything he could do.

Then his keen ears picked up a new sound and he stiffened. Naomi was too preoccupied to notice at first. Until he poked at his stomach, and with that poke was able to convey an air of novel concern.

“Wha-”

“I hear something-”

“Surely not an assassin, Connor’s not even-”

Shhhh - he pressed his hand forcefully down, feeling her squish in frustration. The sound was distant and small, he needed her to be silent. As emotional Naomi was, she knew that this took precedence. In fact she was a bit worried. What if it was a an assassin, or a slayer! Technically any slayer after Connor is also an assassin given his status as King.

“Yonah if you eat an assassin without spitting me up-”

“The fuck!? That’s horrid, and please, quiet-” he said at a whisper. It was probably the lack of sleep combined with missing Connor that had her so delirious that she even thought he would make her sit in his stomach if he caught someone. Now that he was thinking about it too and it made him a bit sick to his stomach. But he forced such images away to focus on the sound.

“Oh!” he said as he realized what it was. It wasn’t one he heard very often. “That’s the human door!”

Naomi sat up, curious but not without some concern. “You’re sure?”

“Very sure, and it sounds a bit frantic”

“I doubt it’s trouble... “

They sat there for another minute.

“Still knocking” Yonah reported.

Naomi shifted like she was thinking. Then Yonah heard the door unlock, open, and then the quick steps of bare feet across the stone floor, headed right for him! Him and Naomi! Quickly he put on his glasses, withdrew the curtains, and peered into the darkness.

The figure passed through a section of the floor that had a spot of moonlight shining down from a window and Yonah startled but chuckled as he saw the plump female form.

“It’s Dani!” he said.

He thought that would make Naomi relax but the way she flopped over she wasn’t relieved as much as suspicious.

And her suspicions were confirmed when Dani climbed right into the bed and dropped what a moment ago had been a human sized book, now the correct size for him, into his lap with a THUP. Yonah anticipated the next sentences out of her mouth as, hands on her hips, she glared at him with fierce confidence.

“Eat me! Read to me!”

Yonah was acutely aware that his hand was STILL over his stomach, and Naomi had gone still, but he wasn’t worried about that. While he loathed to turn Dani down, his stomach was already occupied. This wasn’t really up to him.

Having also gotten little sleep his first emotion was annoyance, then anger. But no. He wouldn't lash out. Instead hesmiled kindly down at Dani, scooping her up in his free hand and kissing her chubby cheek, stroking the back of her head. Then he rubbed at his stomach and looked down, Dani looking as well.

“Only if Naomi says it’s ok”

Even in the dark He could see Dani’s face get red.

“I- didn’t realize-” she flicked her eyes back to Yonah’s which in the darkness glowed softly. “I’m having trouble sleeping, so I thought- even if you don't eat me…”

Naomi sighed with her entire body. Seemed like Yonah’s services were in high demand tonight. Still. The idea of Yonah eating Dani along with her… The chamber that was his stomach was so small that Naomi filled up most of the space already. Yonah said he could do it, eat more than one person, but was now the time for him to prove it? As a test she stretched out the space a bit. With her massaging it graciously gave way, not as much as she would have liked, but better than nothing. Another sigh, and then she deflated.

“Misery loves company, she can’t make it worse!”

Yonah grimaced, he wasn’t so sure about that. But then looked back at Dani who was snuggling into his arm, smiling softly. She hadn’t heard Naomi’s reply. Though now with Naomi’s permission, Yonah couldn’t see himself not eating Dani. One person in his belly was pretty great. But two? Wonderful. Delightful. The ideal amount of stuffed for a perfect and well deserved night’s rest. So he jostled his arm and Dani looked up at him.

“Naomi said it was alright” he kissed her cheek again, this time sticking out the tip of his tongue to get a brief taste, for soon he would get the full experience.

Dani’s eyes lit up, “Really! Then what are you waiting for?”

The light chuckle that came from Yonah shook Naomi who couldn’t help but giggle as Yonah said “Nothing, I’m just not feeling rude enough tonight to not warn Naomi that she’s about to have company.” He pressed fingers into his stomach to make sure she was listening. Since she could hear him speak, his statement to Dani was all the warning she needed.

He held Dani up to his mouth and opened his jaws wide, placing his tongue over his teeth so she could crawl in. There was more flavor on Dani tonight, she must have used some new bath salts. Yonah had recently caught onto Dani’s attempts to find a combination of salts that would be nearly irresistible to him, but since the magic flavors of the salts were designed for Syorians, there hadn’t been much success. He still held her in his mouth for longer than he had done Naomi, enjoying the new and interesting flavor that complimented her natural one.

There wasn't much space with her halfway in his mouth but he could still move his tongue enough to make Dani squirm a bit, laugh a bit. Until he tipped his head back, and he pushed her in a little further as gravity helped slide her to his throat and he took a swallow. While he liked to take his time with this too, as the stretching was painful but in a good way, his airway was completely cut off, he had to continue to swallow. Slowly but steadily. Naomi was also scrambling a bit, probably to make room. That felt nice. When he took a deep breath as her body slipped past his collar and allowed him to breath he could feel the pressure in his chest.

“Hey!” he heard Dani yelp and his own breath caught! As he felt something he hadn’t in a while.

Her hands had only left the esophagus, her head not even breaching into the chamber, when strong hands took her wrists and pulled her in. While their safety charms produced light, they had both set them to be dim in anticipation of sleeping, but not pitch black just yet, they needed to get settled in some semblance of comfort in the confined space.

“Hi Naomi!” Dani said as she tried to get off of the woman of much higher authority. That mostly failed but at least she wasn’t on top of Naomi anymore. More laying across.

This wasn’t the first time they’d done this, but it had only been a once or twice before. So adjusting to being so squished wasn’t very quick. They had to move around a lot to experiment with different positions. Yonah hummed small vibrations as they made their various attempts, and his constant poking and pressing at them did not help, but neither did they tell him to stop.

Oh it was a great day, or night, when he got to eat two people! And two of his favorite people in this world. Friends always tasted better. And every shove was a small burst of joy for him as he sat, completely content.

Finally the movement stopped but yonah didn’t notice until one of them, probably Dani, did her best to kick his insides.

“The book, Yonah? You’re not getting this full belly for free you know!” that was Dani, and Naomi laughed.

“Naomi needs to sleep, Dani!”

He felt the women shift a bit and had a hushed discussion that he couldn’t hear well enough.

“I’ll fall asleep faster if you read! Your voice is very soothing.” That statement was accompanied by stroking against his insides.

Placing all of his pillows behind him so he was sitting up for maximum comfort, he picked up the book. There was a bookmark in it but disregarded it. This was Warrior Mages: Into the Feywild, the first story from a series he’d not read before. Of course being from another world (not to mention his loss of memory from the interdimensional travel), he hadn’t read most book series. This one in particular he’d wanted to read, on Dani’s recommendation. Sneaky little human!

The effect wasn’t immediate but it was much quicker than he’d have bet on, as he could soon hear light snores coming from his midsection. He’d barely made it a second chapter in, and while he’d been hooked he was also on the verge of passing out. Keeping his voice low he told Dani this, laying a hand lightly over his stomach. She only responded with some strokes from the other side of his flesh. Still awake but not about to insist he keep reading.

Very carefully and very slowly he adjusted his position and pillows so that he was laying down. The weight of the humans settling in his gut, he kept his hand over the spot, using his other to pull up a thin blanket.

Apparently the night's adventures were not over however, as only 2 hours later the door burst open with the King’s early, loud, dead of night return. Yonah thanked the gods the didn’t think to shout for his friend. But the crash of the door and the approaching thunderous footsteps were just as infuriating.

Taking note that Naomi was not as her desk, Connor made a beeline for the small bed in the corner, dropped to his knees, leaned down, and drew the curtains without warning, though he was met with the angry, tired gaze of his little, doll sized guard who was sitting up, clearly stuffed with the king’s favorite treat. A little too stuffed if Connor was inclined to notice, but he was not. Yonah’s mane of jet black curly hair was also in the most amusing state, which Connor did notice but didn’t care about.

His eyes were wide, pupils dilated, and he had a massive fanged grin on his face like a child looking at both a pet rabbit and a piece of chocolate cake.

“Spit her up!” he said without any more pretense. His voice devoid of consideration for the time of night.

Yonah put his hands defensively over his stomach, “Welcome back, Your Majesty.” The two humans in his belly waking up slower than he, but upon Yonah’s words Naomi called out as well.

“Connor’s back! Let me out!!”

The pointed ears of the king flicked to catch the voice of his friend and favorite snack.

Normally he’d obey a direct order from The King. Without question he would follow identical orders from the King and his second in command. But he was sleep deprived, no mood to deal with a demanding royal, and more so no mood to give up his treats! So delightfully full. He deserved this. The King could fucking wait.

“No.” he growled, making his eyes glow.

Connor blinked in surprise. A bit confused and taken aback at this blatant disrespect for his authority.

“What do you mean, no?” He narrowed his eyes surely his guard wasn’t disobeying him!

“What do you mean, no!!” Naomi’s voice rang out. Dani stayed silent, not really her place to intervene.

Connor’s ears flicked back and forth, switching between showing frustration and staying locked on Naomi’s voice.

“Yonah if you dont spit her up, I’ll-”

Yonah glared “Do what!? Fire me? Punish me? If you do, I hope you Have fun finding another guard, You had such great luck before.”

Connor’s hand had started to reach for him but stopped at Yonah’s threat. He knew Yonah wouldn’t really quit. But he finally noticed the bags under yonah’s eyes as the fire and sleep deprived fueled angry otherworldly half-giant continued to glare at him. Then pulled the curtains closed before the king could respond. The bed chamber was brightly lit now but the curtains, though translucent, were designed to keep most light out.

A smile crept onto Yonah’s face as he heard Connor continue to grumble yet stood up and walked away. He lay back down and fell asleep quickly as Naomi continued to complain while Dani regretted her choice of bed for the night.

[FIN]

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[fridayfirefly]

Lost and Found [Part Six]

Masterlist | Ao3

It took Damian almost a month to realize what was going on. In his defense, the app Tim programmed for the bracelet only alerted Damian when her blood pressure or heart rate got too low. It did not, however, alert Damian when the bracelet went offline.

It was two AM on a brisk October morning when Damian discovered this. He had just gotten back from patrol with Stephanie and Tim. Father hadn't gone, as he had a charity dinner to attend. It had been a good night for crime-fighting. Two robberies stopped with no bloodshed to either the criminals or the bats. Stephanie slipped upstairs as soon as they got back, but Damian and Tim lingered, Tim still working on a case, and Damian cleaning his gear. As soon as the last knife was sharpened and put away, Damian pulled his phone out and tried to open up his messaging app to see if Jon was still awake when his thumb slipped and pressed the wrong app by mistake. It was Tim's app, the one he programmed for Damian, named (rather un-creatively, in Damian's opinion) Bracelet Monitor. Curious to see how her vitals were doing, Damian waited for the screen to load. Except, once it did, nothing happened. 

"Drake?" Damian called out across the cave. "Something went wrong with that app you made."

"What do you mean?" Tim asked, already walking over. He plucked the phone out of Damian's hands and started rapidly tapping the screen. "This isn't good," Tim muttered.

"What do you mean 'not good'. You said it would alert me if there was a significant change in the vitals."

"It would alert you. The vitals aren't the problem. The bracelet is somehow offline." Tim grew more and more frustrated as he dug deeper into the app. "I just accessed the data records. It's been going offline sporadically for over a month, which should be impossible. The only way it should stop working is if it lost power, which it didn't do because it would have alerted me when it came back online. It's like it just stops existing, for anywhere from a few minutes to hours."

"Is she in trouble?" Damian questioned, already ready to get on a plane and fly to wherever she was in order to protect her.

"I'm not sure..." Tim's voice trailed off, only for him to brighten up a moment later. "The bracelet came back online. Her vitals are good, though her heart rate and blood pressure are both a little higher than her baseline. In fact, it seems like her heartrate always elevated right before the bracelet goes offline and right after it comes back online. This is just baffling." Tim handed Damian his phone, the vitals pulled up onto the screen. "Here's your phone back. I'll look into it more tomorrow."

"Wait." Tim was about to walk out of the cave when Damian stopped him. "Should we activate the GPS. See where she is so we can make sure that she's safe."

Tim looked hesitant. "Give me a few days Damian. Make that our last resort, because if your soulmate is anything like you, I don't want to be the one to explain to her that I enabled your stalking tendencies."

"I don't have stalking tendencies," grumbled Damian.

"Tell that to the heart rate monitor, blood pressure monitor, and GPS tracker embedded in the first gift you ever gave to her." Tim's voice wasn't necessarily condemning Damian, but he knew better than to push the matter with Tim.

Damian shook his head and followed Tim upstairs. Patience is a virtue, after all, Damian reminded himself. Someday I'll hold her in my arms and she'll be safe and sound and this will all be worth it.

——————————————————————

A few days turned into a few months as Tim continually postponed his defeat. Both Damian and Tim could see that Tim wasn't making progress, and by the time January came around, both Damian and Tim were getting desperate. Damian, because his soulmate's bracelet was still going offline, unpredictably, but with increasing frequency. Tim, because he had never before had such a tech malfunction where he couldn't action find the source of the problem. 

One night, while Tim was working on the bracelet's programming in the Batcave, he simply turned away from the computer and said, "I give up."

Damian, who was in the middle of sparring Grayson, said without hesitation, "Than give me access to the GPS."

"Look, Damian, I know that when I first made it I offered you that option, but I don't think it's a good idea anymore."

"It's the only idea we have for guaranteeing her safety." Damian threw a punch and dodged to the left, barely missing a crack to the ribs by Graysons escrima sticks.

"Relationships are supposed to be built on trust, not one person invading the privacy of the other."

"I'm not breaking her trust, I'm trying to keep her safe. She could be abused or kidnapped or-" Damian blocked the punch Grayson threw but got his legs swept out from under him.

"Focus, Damian," Grayson scolded once Damian got up off the mat. "You can't let yourself get distracted in a real fight."

"I'm only distracted because Drake refuses to show me the location of my Soulmate. She might be in danger, and you refuse to do anything to help," Damian snapped.

"C'mon, walk with me." Grayson grabbed Damian by the arm and pulled him out of the Batcave.

"Let go of me, Grayson." Damian ripped his arm out of Grayson's grip, but still kept up with the older man as they walked through the Manor to the kitchen. Outside the snow was falling. It was one week until Christmas, and Damian mentally reminded himself to ask his Soulmate if she celebrated Christmas before he wrapped the gift. After all, it would be awkward to send it to her only to learn that she didn't really want it.

"So how are things with your Soulmate?" Grayson asked as he pulled out ingredients for hot cocoa. 

Damian gritted his teeth. "I've already told Tim. She is unsafe and I would like to rectify that by knowing her location."

"How will that help?"

"What do you mean?"

Grayson turned the stove on. "How will knowing her location help you protect her."

"It just will. If I can track her location I'll be able to make sure she isn't getting into trouble." It wasn't until Grayson turned around with a frown on his face that Damian realized the connotation of her words. "Not like that," he protested. "I don't want to control her. I just want to keep her safe."

"Damian, trust is vital in a relationship. You have to trust that she can keep herself safe."

"You might have a point," Damian conceded. He was still shocked by his earlier comment. He didn't want to be the controlling Soulmate. He wanted her to feel free, to feel independent. He didn't want to hurt her by keeping her safe.

"How often do you communicate with her?" Grayson stirred the cocoa in the pan.

"A couple of notes every day."

"And when you ask her how she's doing, what does she say?"

"She has her good days and her bad days, but overall she seems happy."

"If she says she's okay, I think you have to believe her. I think that's the only way you can make it work." Grayson poured the cocoa into cups. "Did you know that Bruce offered to find my Soulmate for me when he first adopted me."

Damian shook his head.

"I told him no, I wanted to find my Soulmate the natural way. And I did. I met Babs and we became friends even before we knew that we were Soulmates. And Lord knows I wanted to keep her safe after she got into fighting crime. But even though she got hurt, I don't regret the fact that she became Batgirl. Because she doesn't regret the fact that she became Batgirl. I trusted Babs to make her own decision, and no matter the consequences, trust is always the right decision."

"You're right," said Damian. "I haven't been treating my Soulmate very fairly."

Dick set the cocoa down in front of Damian. "Just remember that your Soulmate is her own person too. You have to give her her own choice, even if the choice she ends up making isn't what you wanted."

Damian took a sip, savoring the flavor. "It's good. Thank you, Grayson."

"No problem."

——————————————————————

"...But Richard talked me out of it," Damian explained to Jon over video chat. He'd been talking to his best friend for over an hour, trying to explain the revelation that had come over him. "I can't believe I said that I wanted to 'keep her out of trouble'. Even hearing it now, I cringe over how controlling it sounds. I thought that everything I was saying was rational, but then it was like someone flipped a switch inside my brain and suddenly all my creepy stalker behavior no longer makes sense. I can't justify the bracelet anymore. Now it just feels like an invasion of her privacy.

"Can you turn the bracelet off? Have it just be a normal bracelet?" asked Jon

"I'm going to ask Timothy to deactivate everything tomorrow. When I meet her in person, I'll apologize for monitoring her without her consent. It wouldn't be fair to try and keep what I did a secret from her."

"That's good. I think you're making the right choice."

Damian wasn't sure what to say. "Thank you. I suppose."

"You're welcome, Damian. By the way, I don't know if Tim has told you yet, but Connor and I are spending half of Christmas break at Wayne Manor."

Damian perked up. "You are?"

"Yep. And while I know you're morally opposed to video games, I'm still bringing some and you're going to play them with me, whether you like it or not."

"Fine, but only if you come on patrol with me," Damian sighed dramatically.

"Of course. I can't wait!"

Jon's smile was contagious. Damian couldn't hold back the twitch of his lips. He was glad he had a best friend.

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[lordmogatron]

Terminator: Dark Fate

The other day on Twitter I posted this

And that was true until today, when there are 3 good Terminator movies.

Terminator (1984) was a horror film. The cyborg aesthetic was basically a justification for why the killer was unstoppable. Instead of Jason Voorhees, who was like an evil magic zombie (or something???), or Michael Meyers, who was just a very determined human, the Terminator was a symbol of man's hubris and its own determination to destroy itself. Nothing that Sarah or Kyle are able to can stop it. The cops can't stop it. They win more out of luck than anything else, but at the cost of Kyle's life. Every step of the way you think, "This is where he gets them!" It is a very tense, scary film.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), on the other hand, was the action film, y'all. It's funny to watch it now because Arnold Schwarzenegger is always the good guy, but the first 20 minutes or so, until the showdown in the mall, it plays very similarly to the first one. One big, robotic-looking person hunting a defenseless person while the smaller, human-looking person is trying to find him.But then it's revealed that (spoiler alert for a 30 year old movie), the Terminator we know is the good guy! It's the more human-looking one that is the villain. And while it was tense, once that fight happens and the semi-truck scene are done, it isn't really scary.

The next three Terminator movies are...movies. They each have things that make them, but they aren't good. They were trying to recapture what made T2 good, and they couldn't, because everything T2 was new and fresh; it was a shift for the franchise and action movies as well.

T3 was kind-of a lame cash grab, and it destroyed the message of T2 ("There is no fate but what we make.") by saying Judgment Day was inevitable. Salvation was a cool concept showing what it was like in the war, but despite people saying they wanted to see that, they really didn't (humans are bad that way).

Genisys was just dumb. Really dumb, in fact, but it did give us a great insight into the mind of Sarah, mainly: Her fate had been decided for her before she got a chance. She was destined to be the mother to John Connor, and it was supposed to happen regardless of her opinion. The knowledge of the future effectively ripped away any chance she had of making the choice, and she wanted to fight it. Very cool. But why did they get in a time capsule to go forward when THEY WERE ALREADY GOING FORWARD IN TIME BECAUSE THAT'S HOW TIME WORKS???

...

Terminator: Dark Fate brings back the horror elements (and Linda Hamilton! Yay!), and blends in the action elements. Instead of an indestructible machine sent to protect our new Sarah analog Dani (played by Natalia Reyes) we have waifish Mackenzie Davis (playing a character named Grace because subtlety is not one of James Cameron's stronger suits), a human augmented with cybernetic enhancements who can only function at superhuman levels in short controlled bursts.

There is a great part where she is sent back and we see her naked form, but it's not sexual; it's a wide shot, lasts maybe 5 seconds, and is meant to show her form and how she moves. It says, "This is our protector. This is what she looks like." We then see Gabriel Luna as the R9's naked body when he comes back in time, but it's different. It's closer, it pans up slowly as he stands. Muscular. Dense. Powerful. "This is our hunter. This is what he looks like."

Throughout the movie, the R9 tracks them, using the panopticon we've constructed to track Dani and Grace. It is efficient and fast; it lets our technology do half of its work for it. The few times the R9 and Grace fight it is very clear anything she does to it is, at best, a delaying tactic. It cannot be stopped. It cannot be reasoned with. It's mission is to kill Dani and it won't stop until it completes the mission.

There are several scenes where the R9 is close and I found myself genuinely concerned that it was going to find Dani. It stalks and blends in with society, and nearly kills her several times before the end of the movie.

Terminator: Dark Fate is a good Terminator movie, and more importantly, it's a good movie. I did have a few problems with it, primarily with the conclusion, and there were some parts about how Terminators work that they didn't explain for a new audience, but overall it's very good. 9/10

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Terminator: Dark Fate review

Okay, I just got finished watching the movie. Here are my thoughts:

Short review: It’s definitely one of the better post-T2 sequels but it still feels like an unnecessary entry in the series. It gets a letter grade of C / C+. 

Long review:

PROS

1) Gabriel Luna as the Rev-9. Easily one of the better villain Terminators in the series, arguably the best. He was absolutely menacing and Luna was able to pull off the machine-like personality without it coming off as cheesy. If I had to pick who among the cast really shined, it’d be Luna.  

2) Arnold Schwarzenegger as Carl. Okay, I love the idea of a Terminator finding new purpose and integrating with humanity. That’s the whole point of the series, it’s about machines blending in with mankind. Carl takes that concept and goes in a different direction with it. That said, WHY COULDN’T THIS MOVIE BE ABOUT CARL? I’d honestly love for a whole Terminator movie about what happens to a Terminator after it completed its mission. I’ll just say it now, the Carl subplot was far more interesting than the main storyline. 

3) Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. Not much to say here, Linda killed it. It was nice to see Sarah as this brooding, aging anti-hero. She reminded me of Hugh Jackman’s performance in Logan. I was actually surprised that the movie didn’t give as much for Linda to do as I thought they would have. She was definitely in more of a supporting role compared to her roles in T1 and T2. 

4) Mackenzie Davis as Grace. I mean, I should be more critical of this character since Grace is just Kyle Reese 2.0 (more on this later) but the movie did make Grace a distinct enough character to stand on her own. Plus, I liked that the movie brought back the concept of the human-robot hybrid. True, this was just an excuse to have Grace fight toe-to-toe with the Rev-9 and to introduce a deus ex machina at the end of the movie instead of exploring concepts of humanity and machines/artificial intelligence but still, I liked Grace’s character. 

5) Action scenes are fantastic. The action highlight would have to go to Gabriel Luna’s Rev-9 doing battle with the border patrol. 

6) This is a minor pro but I love when the Terminator series gives us glimpses of Judgment Day. So although it was short, I did like Grace’s flashback. 

CONS

1) The character of Dani Ramos. Now, I just wanna say, I really tried to like her character. But I’m sorry, I cannot. They literally just copy and pasted John Connor’s role in the story to Dani. That’s not creative, that’s lazy and uninspired. It doesn’t help that Dani herself is a flat, two-dimensional character. Credit to Natalia Reyes for giving an excellent performance but how her character was written was crap.     

2) Legion. Like the Dani Ramos/John Connor situation, they just copy and pasted Skynet’s role in the story to Legion. Seriously, there’s nothing to really differentiate Skynet from Legion aside from the fact that Legion uses “Rev” for their Terminators. Also, the Rev models are...darker? And they don’t have a full head? Look, if you’re going to replace your main villain faction with this new one, give us something new. Or at least, take the story in a different direction.

3) In fact, just writing about my problems with Dani and Legion leads me to my main problem with Dark Fate. It doesn’t take the series anywhere new, to the point that I’m not sure why this movie even exists. Say what you will about Rise of the Machines, Salvation, and Genisys, at least those movies tried to introduce a new element to the series, or tried approaching the series from a different angle. For Dark Fate, the story is just a copy of Terminators 1 and 2, with the human-robot hybrid subplot from 4 and 5, and the T-1000/T-800 hybrid concept from 3. Don’t even start with the “but the new leader is Dani and the new villain is Legion” argument, you can just switch them out with John Connor and Skynet. 

4) Pacing was atrocious. Movie started off fast-paced and intense but didn’t allow the audience to fully take the story in. Then, by the third act, the movie just sorta trudges along. The movie was only 128 minutes long but it felt like I was in the theater for three hours. Somehow, “Avengers: Endgame”, which actually was 3 hours long, didn’t feel as bloated. 

5) Because the writing and pacing was off, the movie didn’t really give the characters a chance to just sit and talk. We get a few of these scenes here and there but they don’t stick. Most of the time, the slow-paced scenes are just used to give out exposition. It honestly feels like no one on the Dark Fate creative team watched the first Terminator movie, even though James Cameron is directly involved with this movie. 

6) Look, I personally don’t have a problem with killing off John Connor. It’s an interesting idea that could take the series to a different direction. But his death didn’t do anything to the story. All that happened was, we got a new John Connor and a new Skynet. If that’s the case, then what was the point of killing him off in the first place? For shock value? That’s pretty damn cheap. 

SIDE NOTE

If the story is going to revolve around protecting Dani, at least take the story in a different direction. Make her distinct from John Connor. For example, let’s say in the original future, she grows up to become a scientist and invents the Legion program as a way of destroying Skynet (the concept of using a virus to battle a virus). The Rev-9 was then sent by Skynet to kill her as she’s just as responsible for Skynet’s downfall. However, due to John and Sarah making sure Skynet doesn’t exist in T2, the future changes to Dani still creating Legion but to profit off of the arms race. Legion becomes sentient and, without Skynet as its enemy, it becomes the new Skynet. 

So, with Grace being from the future where Legion is used for good, she believes that Dani is still a savior, unaware that Dani is responsible for the coming apocalypse. Thus we get a role reversal, with the Rev-9′s mission to kill Dani could potentially save humanity while Grace’s mission to keep her alive will result in Judgment Day. Both Grace and the Rev-9 are unaware that their missions will have the opposite effect. 

That’s what I mean by change the story up. Don’t just repeat the story of the first three movies. 

[atamascolily]

lily liveblogs “terminator: dark fate”, part four

In which Sarah Connor suffers for the cause in the most ironic way possible.

(one, two, three)

I've already waxed poetic elsewhere about the "My entire body is a weapon"/ "Save it for the ladies" exchange, but let's just say the Rev-9's claim of "Metal hip - two tours in Afghanistan" is a) a great manipulation, and b) might even be true - certainly the part about the metal hip is! And the "thank you for your service," / letting him pass through is just... the irony... I can't even...

(and also, this MAKES SENSE when you realize that Legion was designed to process people and manipulate/control them and THAT'S why he's so good at it).

Sarah Connor gets picked up by a smarmy dude named Officer Rigby. "You belong in your own private cage," he tells her. He's probably going to die soon, and we are not supposed to be sorry about it. (And meanwhile, some random dude yells in the background, "I want to go, too!" No, you don't. Trust me.)

Grace does not believe in bureaucratic bullshit. And she won't accept "detainees" instead of "prisoners". YASS. At least there's fresh meds for her.

Oh! I just realized why she steals the guy's clothes.. it's because nothing else would fit her. It's tough being so tall.

Grace pulls the fire alarm and Sarah recognizes an opening when she sees one and manages to kick Rigby in the groin and take him and both her guards down with both hands in cuffs behind her back. LEGEND. Kyle Reese would be so proud of her, especially since he pulled the same stunt back in T1 in the police station sequence. 

Grace starts opening doors and people rush to get out, oh please let this not be a slaughter.

The dude who was with them (Flacco?) slams the door into the Terminator's face and he gets punched into a wall for his trouble. I hope he survived...

The Rev-9 jumps UP into the rafters, holy shit, and is scrabbling over the metal fence like the Rev-7s in the future scene, and it's so a) predatory and b) so feral and inhuman... and that guard who sassed Dani looks terrified as hell as she faces him down.. and gets slashed for her troubles.

Slaughter ensues, but only people in official uniforms thus far... Every one of them is mobbing the Rev-9 and just getting stabbed.

Oh, good, they found a helicopter. Someone gets punched out the door after them, and you think it's the REv-9 who did it, but it's actually Sarah! YASS. Dani wants to wait for her and Grace wants to get away. Dani doesn't want to leave Sarah (hey, callbacks to earlier!) and jumps out of the helicopter with the gun as the REV-9 runs at her. Dani starts shooting the REV-9 which is very cathartic for her, but Sarah tackles her and pulls her into the helicopter. The REV-9 jumps for it, but misses, and falls the ground and just looks... annoyed despite having no expression whatsoever.

The REV-9's accent with the sheriffs is interesting. There's the same "good ol' boy" attitude as "That's a nice bike" in T2 and the same cut back to our heroes that speaks volumes.

Cut to a forest in Texas. I have no idea if this is botanically accurate or not because I have no experience with Texas flora. But there are pine trees and maple trees, I can tell you that much.

I like how Sarah and Grace are ready to draw when they knock on the door of this ordinary-looking house in the woods, and Dani just looks at them like they're crazy.

Hey, and it's the same music as in the prologue, as Sarah recognizes the Terminator! He says her name and she raises her gun to shoot him except that Grace intervenes and she hits the ceiling.

“My name is Sarah Connor, you killed my son, prepare to die...” No, okay, she doesn’t actually say that, but I’m gonna do it for her.

Sarah stalks off when they won't let her shoot the Terminator. Dani and Grace exchange a look, and Dani goes after Sarah while Grace deals with Carl (his nom de... paix, I guess). They have the ... "So you're a cyborg, too?" talk, which goes about as well as you can expect.

Poor Sarah looks so broken sitting outside alone. Dani uses her people skills to rally her. Sarah's admission that she never took photos of John is a) heartbreaking, and b) good tactics, especially given how previous Terminators used photos, and how the REV-9 uses facial recognition software.

Sarah's sarcasm as she contemplates Carl's family photos is biting and hilarious and poignant especially given what she just said to Dani (and how a photograph was what brought Kyle to her in the first place). MY HEART.

We are meant to parallel Carl's treatment of Alicia and Mateo with Sarah and John, and Sarah and Carl in "Without purpose, we are nothing". The irony that Carl understands Sarah in this way, and that Sarah has been getting her raison d’etre from a Terminator the whole time... way to lay on the pain, writers!

I've heard a lot of critique of this film claiming that Terminators just wouldn't act like Carl, and I think that's not accurate. What exactly do people think a Terminator WOULD do after they finished their mission instad? It's not like Skynet or Legion or whatever gave them any other programming, and we know from T2 they can't self-terminate. So what are they supposed to do, just stand there??

Even though Carl doesn't have his chip removed the way the T-800 in T2 did, Terminators are very accomplished at learning and mimicking humans. They are adaptable. And I think the filmmakers are right that the T-800 would try to find a new mission--paralleling the old one--to give his life purpose. I think this is a very plausible plot device, and also a great opportunity for irony and parallels, which this franchise thrives on and I personally love.

(There's great fic from Carl's POV on A03 by Tyellas that expands on this that I LOVE, so you should all go read it RIGHT NOW.)

I also LOVE the growing parallels not only between Sarah and Carl, but Carl and Grace that the film keeps emphasizing YASSS.

Sarah is NOT PLEASED to learn she's been manipulated the whole time by the robot who killed her son.Understatement of the year. I was wondering when she was going to shoot him!

"Do you believe in fate, Sarah?" OW, MY HEART.

Oh. Interesting. So when Sarah destroyed Skynet, she released Carl from his programming, thus allowing him to learn?? Okay, I'll buy it. Which means that Carl was released at the same time as the other Terminators in all three films (though we get into the simultaneity problem, but that's a headache for another time). It's plausible if I don't think too hard about it, so I'll buy it. I wish people would stop calling plot elements they don't like/agree with "plot holes". That's... not what it means.

[so who is sending the other terminators? Are they from Legion or Skynet? what is their purpose? Since Sarah is a wanted woman in America, it makes sense if she was killing Terminators in Mexico, which makes me wonder if she's been protecting Dani until now???) I have a feeling the film will not answer this question.]

There's a dog curled up at Carl's feet when they cut to the next scene. This is NOT a plot hole, as some people have claimed. This is actually a clue that Carl IS as human as he claims to be... i.e, he seems to have mastered whatever subtle cues that makes the dog recognize him as human, and not a foreign predator. Obviously, YMMV, but I don't see it as a plot hole.

The secret storage armory is de riguer for a Terminator film, but I also enjoy the deadpan social commentary about human barbarism coming from a reformed murderbot. "And also, this is Texas." He's definitely living in the right state for that.

Wow. The training lesson at the shooting range was everything I could have hoped for. I love Sarah's wry smile as the watermelons explode.

OF COURSE SARAH CONNOR "KNOWS A GUY" with an EMP, lol...

Kudos to Carl for getting his family out of the way and for preparing him for this day. But it's clear he won't be back.

... how about that leather jacket and sunglasses? because he's about to start being way less human and way more machine.

oHHHHH he leaves the sunglasses behind, I was NOT expecting that. NICE WORK.

hello rev-9 smashing the family photographs, that's not symbolic of anything at all.

Hey, did they take all the guns with them or is the REv-9 going to use them against their owner?? was leaving the photo of the van on the fridge intentional? Too early to tell! Either way, ironic given Sarah's caution with photos earlier!

Sarah's withering expression as Carl lectures about interior design is GOLDEN.

I now want a road trip movie about this dysfunctional found family. I cannot believe they are only together for less than 24 hours. Thank goodness for fic.

"I don't commit treason for just anybody," is such a great line and one of my favorites in this film.  

Of course the EMP is probably going to disable/take out Carl AND Grace AND the Rev-9 because that's just how this kind of movie works, but there you go.

Sarah telling Carl to shut the fuck up is GOLDEN, they work so well together. Mommy and Daddy, indeed.

AHHH, the major bringing them the EMP on the sly gets shot. It's tough being a minor character in these films. Dani pulls him into the van but I can't help but notice in that position he's a human shield.

Okay, so leaving photos on the fridge was NOT intentional... maybe Sarah should have had an op-sec chat with Carl about that??

Oh, hey, the flesh-like bit of the REV-9 jumped out of the copter while the chassis keeps flying. That's a neat trick. And the moment where the fleshy bit jumps in and they merge is always cool.

Okay, so they're going to the air base. I guess another fight is in order. Ah, this is where the planes are coming in. Apparently, Grace is piloting. That answers my question from the trailer.

They just run the van right up the ramp and the Major is there to take awkward questions. "District contractors" indeed. I hope he'll survive this movie, but I have my doubts. Oh, he's not going with them - I don't know if that increases his chances or not. WHAT THE HELL KIND OF RELATIONSHIP DO HE AND SARAH HAVE ANYWAY??

They didn't bother to close up the back before taking off??? Wow. Okay, I guess that works...

Carl uses himself as a shield for Sarah, which just makes her mad...

The Rev-9 flips out of the burning helicopter onto the ramp, and Carl just takes him down and shoots him. It doesn't take, but it's pretty glorious. SARAH AND DANI ROLL THE VAN OVER HIM OH MY GOD.

Needless to say, I'm pretty sure the Rev-9 will be back... in an EVEN BIGGER PLANE.

Oh, so the EMP is dead...? Maybe they can improvise something.

Flasback! Dani beats the punks that are harassing Grace and talks the last guy into not shooting her because "this is what Legion wants us to do". FUCK YEAH.

"FUCK FATE" is basically the motto of this series (and a slightly more concise, if vulgar, reframing of "no fate but what we make for ourselves" or "no fate" in T2).

OH MY GOD THAT LOOK ON FUTURE!DANI'S FACE WHEN SHE RECOGNIZES GRACE...

"You are the future" - okay, this is very moving and dramatic, but I feel like Grace should have mentioned this back on the TRAIN why the fuck did she wait this long.

"You're John..." Sarah gasps... and just adopted a kid. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, Y'ALL. Carl was right, she needs a purpose or else she’s just going to self-destruct.

YESSSSS, I love it when movies answer my questions: apparently future!Dani told Grace not to mention it earlier, because younger!Dani wouldn't be able to handle it. Ah, the ouroboros of causality... I'll buy it, but I still think the film would have been stronger if they had had this conversation earlier on the train.

plane vs. plane hijinks ensue. Grace puts the ship on autopilot so she can actually do stuff. There's a lot of flailing as the ship starts to explode. The REv-9 climbs aboard and uses his oozy bits to rip all the flesh off Carl's hand. There's a humvee with a parachute, but the way the scene is laid out, it's kinda convolunted, but okay.. ... They bust the door open so the humvee can drop out. Carl pins the chassis to the plane but the oozy bits escape and go running free towards them. The plane explodes seconds after the humvee pulls free and parachutes to the ground.... okay.

Sarah Connor's "Aw, fuck," as they land on the hydroelectric dam is GOLDEN.

[rankakiu]

Thoughts of the Droid: Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Hello, people of Tumblr! How was your week? As always, I hope very well. People, this time I bring to you all my review and opinions about the new installment of the T-800 franchise: Terminator: Dark Fate. A film that has raised some controversy.

And it is not for less, since Terminator is one of the most beloved sagas within science fiction. Curiously, even after 35 years, the general public and especially fans of the saga, only love the first two deliveries; the remaining four, including Dark Fate, have them in very low esteem. Being honest with you, almost a week after its release, it was very frequent to see my YouTube recommendations critical of this movie, all of them very destructive, stating that Dark Fate was the worst film in the Terminator saga. Well, your favorite friend and reviewer Rankakiu has already seen that movie. Is it really a disaster? Or are we facing a misunderstood masterpiece? Well, let's go to the review to find out.

WARNING: NOT SPOILER FREE. Read at your own risk

Starting with the review, what did I think of the movie? Short answer: it is a passable movie and you can have a fun time watching it. But nothing else. Now let's go into details.

Characters: Without a doubt it is very pleasant to have back actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and actress Linda Hamilton playing their iconic roles of the T-800 and Sarah Connor, respectively. And although Hamilton had a long time not to return to her character, that does not affect at all, since she has shown not only her acting quality by reincarnating a warrior woman like Sarah Connor, but also demonstrates that she was born for that role. At no time in the movie did Hamilton's performance seem indifferent, but quite the opposite, since at all times she felt like Sarah Connor. With a reborn resentment towards machines and a more experienced soldier, but still Sarah Connor despite everything.

The same goes for the good Arnold Schwarzenegger, although in his case it is already easier for him to play the T-800 again, since he has participated in almost all the films. Even with that, like Hamilton, Schwarzenegger was born for the role of the 101 model of Cyberdine systems. Apart from the above, the film is responsible for humanizing the T-800 and thereby answering the question of whether a machine can develop attachment and affection towards humans.

Certainly previous films like Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator: Genysis had already answered that question; however, in Terminator: Dark Fate, it gives another approach, differentiating itself from the aforementioned films and I liked that a lot. Both actors make the film much more accessible to watch and make the experience much more pleasing to me.

On the other characters, the truth be told, they are not (that) badly written. Of course, I feel they need that little spark called charisma to become characters that were much more memorable. One of the most rescued new characters, in my very personal opinion, is the character of Grace, played by actress Mackenzie Davis, who, in my opinion, did a good job of playing a warrior woman, enhanced with cyber technology, turning it into a kind of cyborg. You could say that his role represents a bit what was the character of Kyle Reese from the first Terminator movie, being a soldier with the mission to protect Dani Ramos. Something also to highlight, are the moments of action of the character, where we can see her fight hand in hand with a Terminator, being almost at the same level.

Grace clearly possesses reflexes, speed and strength well above a common human; However, this power can only be used in a short time and requires a special serum to keep her cyborg body functioning properly. That little detail pleased me a lot, since you have a lethal soldier, but not with too much exaggerated power, and besides, these restrictions of power are well founded within the story. While Grace doesn't leave the conventional clichés of being a strong woman and a war-hardened soldier, at least Davis's interpretation pleased me quite a bit, building a pretty decent character. If they really gave her a better-worked script, I'm sure Davis can surprise us.

On the other hand, we have actress Natalia Reyes, playing the character of Daniella "Dani" Ramos. Interestingly, in this character we see a kind of amalgam, a story that combines the situations experienced by the characters of Sarah Connor and John Connor. Dani's life, so normal and common, suddenly changes radically and without the possibility of returning to her previous way of life, when an artificial intelligence sends a machine to exterminate her (representing Sarah from Terminator). As soon as she knows the destiny that awaits her, she has no choice but to fight and accept her destiny as a protector and leader of humanity against the machines (adopting the role of the various incarnations of John Connor).

In my opinion she is a decent character and some may consider that her evolution as a character happens too quickly, but in my case, I think that is justified, since Dani Ramos is in the situation that she has to mature quickly and become a warrior, or else her death will be insured. If you ask me, Natalia did a good job, but unfortunately her character has a somewhat annoying approach, being more the fault of the script than anything else.

Of course, I cannot finish this point without mentioning the antagonist: the Terminator Rev-9, a model created by artificial intelligence called "Legion", which has created one of the most advanced terminator models ever seen. It has similar properties to other terminators seen above, particularly the T-1000 and the T-X (Terminatrix), only here it proves to be much more advanced than the mentioned models.

If there is something that has characterized the Terminator franchise, it is without a doubt, the creativity that they put on the various models, each with amazing capabilities that more than one military contractor would like to see in reality. And the Rev-9 is no exception. I certainly liked that ability that has to be divided into two completely autonomous machines, since with that ability, it can attack the same target from two flanks, or it can attack different targets at once.

It also highlights the enormous ease that Rev-9 has of hacking systems, computers and unmanned vehicles to search for and eliminate targets, as well as being able to infiltrate with great ease and above all to replicate a complex range of human emotions, in order to go unnoticed. A highly lethal machine that should not be underestimated and whose antagonism in the film pleased me quite a bit. Maybe not at the level of the legendary T-1000, starring Robert Patrick. But at least the interpretation of Gabriel Luna does not go unnoticed.

Story: Well, where to start? If you ask me, the story presented in this movie is something like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the story of how Grace and Rev-9 travel to the past to look for Dani Ramos and the last one seeing how her life changes dramatically, to later accept her destiny, results in a fairly decent story in my opinion. The problem is that history has certain interesting ideas, but in the end it does not know how to develop any in a satisfactory way. Certainly, I think they made the same mistake as Terminator: Genysis, basically leaving a lot of doubts and confusion in the viewer.

I think one of the biggest mistakes in the movie was precisely to eliminate John Connor, to be replaced by Dani Ramos. Look, I'm not against a woman leading an army of humans against the machines, but you have to keep in mind that in the previous five films, John Connor was always established as the leader of the resistance; That, coupled with the fact that it is a very abrupt change and without argumental justification, is not difficult to understand why many did not like this change at all.

In a personal opinion, I think it would have been better if they kept John Connor alive and at the same time, to interact with Dani Ramos, so that both of them would end up becoming the resistance leaders. Or, that John Connor died in adulthood, in the middle of the battle and that before he died, it was he himself who designated Dani Ramos as his successor in the resistance.

Certain doubts also arise as the plot develops. As for example: which of the two artificial intelligences sent all those terminators that ended up destroyed by Sarah Connor? If it was Skynet, it makes no sense, since in the end it did its job of killing John Connor. If it was Legion, why so far did it occur to send a Rev-9 to exterminate Dani Ramos? And since we're in those, how is it possible that the T-800, the one who killed John, knew exactly when a Terminator arrived? And how did Legion artificial intelligence originate? Grace explains how her world ended up destroyed by Legion, but never explains how it becomes an menace, if it was an artificial intelligence that acquired its own consciousness, or a kind of virus that altered it computer structure, something that explains Legion's origin.

In this regard, one might also ask, if the events that prevented the emergence of Skynet in Terminator 2, altered the original timeline. In any case, it must be stinking that no matter what Sarah Connor does, there will always be an artificial intelligence that will seek to destroy humanity.

Another mistake made by the film at the level of story is precisely to tell the same story that we have seen throughout the franchise: an artificial intelligence sends a machine to eliminate the future leader of humanity. The resistance, meanwhile, sends a soldier capable of fulfilling the mission and having a link with that leader. After a series of battles, they defeat the evil machine, while the person destined to lead mankind becomes aware of the role he will have in the future.

Although as I said, the story that tells the growth of Dani Ramos, is not bad and in fact, the character reaches its culminating evolution in the battle at the hydroelectric dam, where our heroes join with everything to end the Rev-9 , being one of the most exciting and successful sequences of the film.

Visuals & special effects: Without a doubt the best of the film. And it is really amazing that they could rejuvenate the characters of Sarah Connor, the T-800 and especially the character of John Connor. Similarly, the special effects are fascinating when it comes to showing the Rev-9 model in all its splendor, particularly where the Rev-9 shows its liquid metal state, much like a kind of live pitch, whether for regenerate or to divide into two combat units, or to create white weapons. The effects also stand out in themselves, by showing the conflict between the human race and Legion artificial intelligence, where you can see Terminators units, similar to the Rev-9 mentioned, only that they have more beastly forms and are more implacable. Similarly, the atmospheres about a destroyed world have that perfect apocalyptic atmosphere, a practically unrecognizable world, where humanity has to fight day by day against mechanical beings, ultimately lethal.

Action: Another remarkable aspect and also the best that the film offers. For example, the fight between Grace and the Rev-9 at the car plant is a good-to-face choreographed melee battle, enough to make it a memorable battle. It is an intense combat, full of strength and speed, where both fighters use their skills to end their adversary. I also highlight another scene, being this, the final battle in the hydroelectric dam, where our protagonists come together to definitively end the Rev-9, being really a scene of thrilling action, full of adrenaline at every moment. And while I recognize that there are unlikely action scenes, at least they are quite acceptable, since these are not very exaggerated. At least, in my opinion, it is worth watching the movie for the action scenes. In conclusion, Terminator: Dark Fate, is a film that will not be a masterpiece, but neither is it a horrible product. At most, it is a passable movie that can take your boredom away. However, being a product that conforms to more of the same, telling you the same story over and over again will undoubtedly become something totally dispensable. You watch the movie, nothing happens. You don't watch the movie, anyway, you don't miss much. Therefore, I give this movie 2.5 of 5 Revs-9. Sadly and ironically, Terminator: Dark Fate is waiting for a dark destiny: to be placed next to its three predecessors in the vault of oblivion.

Greetings

Rankakiu

[greatfay]

The fosters 😏

Ohhhhhh my godddddddd I’m gonna diiiiiie. Ok let the memories resurface, this may take a minute.

my all-time ultimate fave character:

Stef. I just really liked her arcs, how straight forward she is, etc. Classic ISTJ tbh... cautious, reserved, protective, methodical, quietly affectionate. Like at the end of the day, I think she’s my fave. The kids go through so much ups and downs and Dumbass Moments that none of them can be my fave, and Lena is a close second but the writers only gave her one strong arc, and that’s when she tried to have a baby and that was so painful.

For several seasons I used to say my fave was Mike because he was Prime Dad Material. Like in the very first episode, he comes off as this douchey, entitled, deadbeat asshole who oversteps boundaries, right? Classic switcheroo. You find out this man is a saint, this man oozes emotional sensitivity and communication and affection, this man is also a dilf with eyelashes longer than should be legal. When he fostered AJ (I’m crying right now). Getting Ana through rehab??? Fighting his own alcohol addiction and not breaking once. Like the only time he ever let me down was his reaction to Dani MOLESTING Brandon, but he realized like whoa wait a minute... Brandon’s been taken advantage of and if Brandon were a girl he would see it different... Like all of Mike’s mistakes were temporary mistakes, he recovered quick and tried to do the right thing. If only his son was as quick on the uptake 😒

a character I didn’t used to like but now do:

Brandon. It took five seasons for me to like Brandon. You know how many seasons this show had? Five. And it’s because he’s pulled through the ringer of Suffering™ and it’s almost ALL his fault so that by the end when he’s doing the right thing again and again for the first time ever... and meets that super sweet girl... and then she DIES 

a character I used to like but now don’t:

Jude. He was such an intuitive, intense child, with wisdom earned from awful trauma, and watching him slowly assert himself was a wonder to watch. I do think the writers got lost with him, because his second love interest was a bore, his pothead thing was awful to watch, and when he became a twitch streamer with Taylor—WHAAACK. By the time of Good Trouble (which takes place years after The Fosters, so Jude is a sophomore/junior in college) Jude is drinking a LOT, partying a LOT, and fucking!!! a LOT!! Makes me concerned. Idk, it just felt like he lost his intuition halfway through the show and kept doing dumb stuff.

a character I’m indifferent about:

Every ex of the family lmao, idr them and I was not too fired up about any of them except maybe Emma. Like all of Jesus’ and Brandon’s exes I can’t remember.

a character who deserved better:

I’m just gonna make a list

AJ. Literally just him and Mike are just the cutest because of how earnestly the actor plays AJ, you know I love found family tropes and stuff.

 Mat. Such a sweetheart, the most accommodating and supportive boyfriend. So talented. Gorgeous hair. Mariana didn’t deserve him.

Cole. This boy fought SO HARD to be recognized for his gender, organized an LGBTQA prom for all his classmates who were rejected from their school’s prom, had to get hormones off the black market, and was so intuitive and loyal... honestly I loved Cole.

Aaron. SUCH a confusing end. Out of all the love interests, he and Callie popped with the most chemistry. The shared quest, the rides on the motorcycle, pictures at the beach, his great college advice. Their fight at her prom was so left-field and upsetting, and we know it’s because they wanted Callie to be single when the series ended so she could be free to date in Good Trouble. If I’m not mistaken, theirs is the first trans/cis relationship portrayed on network television... ever? And I mean a relationship, not a hook up.

Wyatt. Another sweetheart, what happened between him and Callie wasn’t really about him, it was about her and it was definitely about legal issues, and she was right to set her boundaries, but ouch that hurt. Gorgeous hair.

Notice how most of this list either dated Callie or crushed on her lmao except for Mat. Also

Rita. The woman lives and breathes childcare and youth advocacy. Let her win.

DAPHNE KEENE. She had her daughter with her in the series finale but I haven’t heard mention of her yet in Good Trouble, she’d better have custody and a job salary over 70k for what this show put her through.

EMMA. This poor girl was practically torn in two between the twins, from Jesus’ messy/horny ass to Mariana’s bossy controlling ass. She should be president.

a ship I’ve never been able to get into:

Most of Jesus’ relationships. He’s a fuck up so all of them are basically waiting for a train wreck. His most healthy one was with Emma, who was too good for him, and the one with most chemistry was with Lexi, but she was messy af too so that wasn’t going to work.

a ship I’ve never been able to get over:

Jude/Connor. It sailed and sunk in two minutes. So apparently, Jude/Connor have the youngest LGBT kiss shown on television. This show really made history, huh. They were adorable, they literally struggled to be a couple (since Connor’s dad is homophobic) and then after being a couple for like 2 episodes, Connor’s dad walking in on them kissing and basically blowing up was so traumatizing for the kid that he moved in with his mom in LA to get away from him. They try to do the long distance thing but they're middle schoolers... and it’s their first relationship each... and both of them are just now figuring out that they’re gay. it doesn’t work out. Would love for Connor to come back in Good Trouble and try to woo Jude or something (cuz Jude...???? he’s just FUCKING... ALL the time. Like one second he’s the adorable 12-year-old you just want to shield from the world, and then it’s like TIME SKIP, he’s a college frat boy now and he fucks “straight” boys every weekend).

a cute, low-key ship:

Lol this show didn’t do low-key ships, everything was loud.

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it:

Stef/Lena; because they’re the main couple on the show and yet we as the audience forget that they’re even an option as an OTP. These two are marriage goals. They fight, they argue, they have conflicting viewpoints, but they always sit down and talk at the end of the day, and they pull it together because of their love for the kids and each other. I live for them, I seriously wanted them to adopt me. I’d cook for the family so they would be an ounce less stressed. They’re such great moms and they try SO hard to be there for the kids, who each come with truckloads of baggage and problems all befitting network TV teen drama protagonists.

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened:

BRALLIE. They’re SIBLINGSSSS AHHHH. “But they’re foster siblings” I DON’T CARE. This is not a damn Victorian novel, it’s gross. Maybe in season 1 it wasn’t as bad since Callie had zero intentions of staying with the Adams-Fosters family and was used to being bounced around in foster care, but after bonding with them all and truly believing they wanted her, season 2 onward Brallie disgusts me.

Mariana/Nick. Let’s talk about his actor for a second. Louis Hunter played a teenager in The Secret Circle back in 2011 (don’t @ me but I loved that show) and guess what, friends, he was TOO FUCKING OLD to play a teenager THEN. That opinion stands 7 years later. An absolute creep who traumatized Mariana, the girl had to go to THERAPY. She went to THERAPY because of him.

Lena/Monte. UGHHHHHHHHh this made me so mad. Monte was being so gross and inappropriate, like not only is Lena her employee/subordinate... but Lena is a WOMAN. She’s grown as hell and confident in her identity and has a whole ass wife (a WIFE) and a family to take care of, and here comes Monte with her weird ass flirtations and stuff. She could NEVER. Lena is a goddess and Monte but an ant crawling on the sidewalk outside her temple.

my favourite storyline/moment:

When Stef confronted her internalized homophobia and misogyny during his breast cancer scare and she cut her hair to symbolize her ownership of her femininity. That was POWERFUL. Stef actually had so many great emotional arcs throughout the show; losing her father (who never really “got” her “lesbianism”), her mother’s breast cancer scare, HER breast cancer scare, her fight to become a detective, maybe it’s Teri Polo but Stef is such a stand-up, rigid character with such a strong moral center that watching her trudge through emotional trauma every gd episode was riveting.

Jude’s selective mutism. I remember this out of nowhere, but Jude went mute?? And he had to see a therapist, who deduced his problem and attributed it to an anxiety disorder and advised the family not to stress him out or pressure him to talk, and he went like this for a couple episodes. Like this boy went through so much trauma that it took like one thing, one little thing, to make him shut down. And Callie like patiently waiting for him to speak, and then her seeing her rapist and the only person she wanted to talk to about it was her little brother and he still wouldn’t talk, he just sits there playing video games, and she sends him a message on Xbox Live saying ‘Please talk to me’ and he ignores it then she sends another message “I saw Liam today” and he just looks at her as tears are falling down her face and places his hand on her arm in support. I. CRIED. Even after that moment, like in the next episode he’s still mute and Callie reminds him again that he’s been so strong compared to her that he’s “due for a breakdown” and not to feel any pressure to talk before he’s ready, and they fucking plant flowers together for Lena (I’m covering my mouth with one hand to keep from crying, I’m getting old feels. Remember when we used to say ‘feels’?). Ok I’m done.

Ok the storyline where Brandon is caught cheating for people on the SATs and won’t be able to go to Juilliard was POWERFUL. I loved that Brandon and Lena had a lot of bonding moments, and Lena was honest with Brandon in a way no one else was, she was like these are the consequences of your actions. You had decisions to make and you made the bad decisions every time, and now you’re here. Remember when you selling fake IDs for that dealer ended with your hand getting smashed so you can’t play classical music any more? Did you learn from that? Clearly not. POWERFUL. Lena scalped me on that day.

a storyline that never should have been written:

Most of Brandon’s storylines lmao. Him selling the fake IDs, him taking SATs for other students, him dating that 21+ woman with a kid and deciding he has to drop out of school and get a full time job to take care of her??? I love how Stef had to pull him aside and tell him “You’re Captain Save-A-Ho! And I know this because you got your Save-A-Ho gene from me!!” Brandon was MESSY. Despite being the typically “boring” of the kids in that he didn’t party or drink, he had interest in typical teen stuff, he was also impulsive in the worst way with his relationships and would get tunnel vision. Remember when Stef and Lena had to pull a restraining on Brandon for Callie??? My godddddd, a MESS. We’re not going to talk about how he finally fell in love with the right girl and she fucking dies.

BRALLIE. That bit where Callie didn’t think she was getting adopted so she FUCKS BRANDON, I’M NOT OVER IT. AHHHH.

Jude becoming a pothead. It was really dumb. I’d have been happier if the focus was on his anxiety and how it helped him.

Everything Monte related.

The time Jude downloaded Grindr and met up with a guy in his motel room?? And the guy was a grown man?? And of course he freaks out because Jude is a kid and tells him to gtfo??? That made me SOOOOO uncomfortable, which is why I hated it. BUT, I liked how the moms handled it, because obviously he’s a boy who’s curious and he’s surrounded by other kids—especially his four siblings with their tumultuous whirlwind of relationships—who are constantly making out with this person and hooking up with that person, and because he’s gay... and has this limited dating pool... and his first love moved to another fucking city to escape his homophobic dad... how does he get to explore his sexuality? who does he get to kiss at a party? This was so relatable, so many lgbtqa youth deal with this everyday, this sort of social pressure and FOMO as the cis straight kids around us are hitting all these romantic and sexual milestones while we’re sitting on an island. And obviously Stef and Lena sympathize, but then empathize how incredibly dangerous it was because Jude could’ve gotten hurt, there are guys out there who could do terrible things to him and he has to think these things through, not to mention the guy in question could’ve been just a normal dude trying to get it on and that he was put in danger—and this was the same season that explores how Jesus and Mariana’s birth father ended up on the sex offenders’ registry. It was handled well but remembering this storyline gives me anxiety.

The Jack storyline. I forgot this kid’s name and what happened to him so I had to peruse the wiki and I fell down a rabbit hole. Basically, this is a kid who was in a privatized group home, during a season in which Callie does volunteer work with a woman, Justina Marks, who is trying to pass a bill to reform child social services—only to discover that she wants to privatized the foster system to make money off of them, which of course makes Callie like do a BUNCH of risky stupid shit to take her down. So Jack gets temporarily moved into the Adams-Fosters home, proving to be a very quirky, quiet, sensitive boy, he kisses Jude after Jude’s breakup with Connor? Then reveals he’s not actually gay, he just wanted Jude to be happy? And it’s really fucking sad because he has this bleeding heart and this need to make everyone around him happy because he sees himself as this burden. Then he gets placed into a new foster home, despite Stef and Lena wanting to keep him around... and he gets put in the same foster home with the same man who abused Jude in the show’s pilot—and like the inciting incident for the show itself (Callie destroying his car to distract him from beating her brother > her going to juvie > her getting beat up in juvie > Lena seeing this poor bruised up girl and thinking “she’s my daughter now”). So Jack ends up being fostered by the horrible, abusive man who should never have been allowed to be within feet of a child again, and Stef just so happens to be one of the officers nearby when a domestic disturbance is called in, and when she arrives at the house with her partner she’s like “bruh I know this house” and when she goes into the kitchen she steps on something: a pair of glasses. Whose glasses???

JACK’S. And she quietly lays a sheet over his dead body. His foster father, who’d already been arrested once for beating Jude, shot him in a drunken rage. And CALLIE LATER FINDS OUT JuSTINA MARKS SET IT UP TO USE AS HER FACE CASE IN SUPPORT OF HER BILL.

my first thoughts on the show:

Literally the first time I heard the theme song when I randomly decided to watch it on Netflix in like 2014 (2015? I can’t remember, I don’t think season 3 was out at that point so it might’ve been 2014) I was like oh this is going to be the crying show.

my thoughts now:

I was right. I would not rewatch this show lmao, but I’m fond of it. I did randomly decide to start watching Good Trouble and surprisingly I like it and I missed the characters. I can look back and appreciate how this show handled a lot of tender topics as tastefully as they could, and examine them from a lot of different angles.

Ask me about a tv show/movie/franchise/book!

[remnantoforario]

My RWBY Recast

With Jason Liebrecht replacing Vic Mignogna as Qrow in V7 (and onward). I got the idea to recast the entirety of RWBY. 

Now just to clarify: I don’t have a problem with the cast as it is now (mostly). Everyone working on the show since the beginning are good actors who have grown into their roles (for the most part) and help give the show its identity. 

There is no replacing them. I just thought it would be fun to just mess around with a fancast. Think of this as like a reboot or AU cast.

Now that that is all out of the way. Here we go (Now not everyone will be recast. Those who aren’t are the one’s whose voices are fine as they are).

Ruby Rose - Dani Chambers

Weiss Schnee - Bryn Appril

Blake Belladonna - Dawn M. Bennett

Yang Xiao Long - Brittney Karbowski

Jaune Arc - Dallas Reid

Nora Valkyrie - Tabitha Ray

Pyrrha Nikos - Mallorie Rodak

Lie Ren - Micah Solusod

Glynda Goodwitch - Colleen Clinkenbeard

Cinder Fall - Amber Lee Connors

Emerald Sustrai - Whitney Rogers

Roman Torchwick - Ian Sinclair 

Raven Branwen - Monica Rial

Coco Adel - Morgan Berry

Velvet Scarlatina - Alexis Tipton

Sun Wukong - Michael Jones (Keeping him the same)

Neptune Vasilias - Alejandro Saab

Salem - Lydia McKay 

[shinglescat]

Year review! 👏👏

This is my year (mod) review: wanna take a look back at what I've achieved this year.

I'd like to thank everyone who supported me and helped me get this far, I wouldn't've made it here without you. I'm truly thankful to everyone who decided to buy my mods, this means a lot to me. You motivate me to become better and better with every single thing I made. Thank you and I love you <3

So, let's start with my personal favorite - Catherine dress (even tho it's not worn by actual Catherine - she's sporting that Dany dress - instead worn by my precious ayleid eagle). It was kind of experimental one: I wasn't sure about the skirt, nor the top, nor those huge sleeves; I wanted something regal, yet simple and beautiful, that is of heavy fabric, but doesn't look or feel overwhelming. My main goal was to imitate velvet, but I don't think it does look as velvet, still pretty nonetheless.

My next favorite is Leader of the Broken Hearts. To be honest, I wanted to make a Connor's outfit at first, but it's easy and not that fancy; Markus' one on the other hand is pretty much challenging, his coat especially. So, the whole project started because I wanted to remake his goddamn coat. And, oh boy, I hate modelling coats. Just remembering my attempt at Jensen’s coat two years ago makes me wanna cry. In the end it worked out pretty well of course, but still it is one of the most challenging mods I've ever made. God, I remember the time I had trying to weight that coat to the arms. Ugh.

Third one is Lion's Pride (god fucking dammit, I hate it that English word "pride" doesn't associate with "гордость" for me anymore, instead with lgbt movement) I've been wanting to remake Cersei's dress in Skyrim for a long time already, since I first saw that in the latest episode of season six, but I literally had no motivation to start it, or I dumped any wip files right after I tried to start the project. Here it is anyways. I'm so proud of it. Dunno why, but I proud of it the most, even those I love those above more. Weird.

Fourth is my eye mod. Another thing I've been trying to do for ages. Nothing to add here, except that my Daud project helped me a lot to get where this mod now is.

Next - my female face retex. Guess what? It was another thing I wanted to do for ages. Couldn't do it earlier because of skin problems and lack of experience. Thanks to the huge update Narandil received from me two years ago I finally got some skills and did the thing. Btw, that male texture mod on Skyrim Nexus sucks. I made it because of some dudes who tried to tear Nar apart for his assets. So fucking infuriating. Still, there's one guy there who actually makes good use of them - he's into big hunky guys - he's not hard one to miss.

Sixth mod - Vestments of the First. It was in development limbo for a couple of years. It was actually ready to be released back in 2015, but I lost all the files due to win10 downgrade. Had to remake the thing from scratch anew a year later, and it entered production hell soon after.

Seventh thing - everyone's favorite Dragon Whisper Gown (Dragon's Fart actually, I have strong dislike of Daenerys even tho she has some cool outfits in the show). Still dunno what got into me when I made those ornate metal thingies full 3D. I'll probably upgrade it someday, now that I have even more experience.

Next is Mother of Dragons (I couldn't come up with something like fart this time, sadly). I've been thinking about making this dress, but I'm not a fan of boob plates. Still, a couple months later I got commission for it, asked the person who ordered it to sell it, and here it is now.

The last mod was a part of my Daud project - Old Knife of Dunwall. It all started with Daud's head sculpt, then extended to full game ready character model. Something I'm proud of, even tho I don't like certain decisions I made during its developing now.