#Hopefully the next incarnation will have less of a god complex

[thelesbianthespianposts]

NOOOO RORY!! (And also Amy ig)

[hookaroo]

A Captain’s Heart (12 of 34?)

Chapter 1 Chapter 11

Rated T for language and graphic descriptions of injuries.

Also on FF.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12937105/1/A-Captain-s-Heart

Tagging @therooksshiningknight & @killian-whump by request :)

“Oh Killian.”

Awakened first by the door opening and then more fully by the complex emotions in his wife’s voice, Killian groggily lifted his hand in her direction… only to be reminded of his dire situation by the clank of handcuffs against the metal railing. He grimaced a sheepish apology.

“Hello, love. You made it, then. How was the drive?”

She stopped just out of reach. The twitching of her fingers betrayed how badly they itched to reach out and comfort him, assure her he was actually there in front of her, promise them both a happy resolution to the predicament. Her expression was a rigid neutral, but he could see the loving softness in her eyes.

“They weren’t even going to let me see you. Had to pull some strings.” She scoured his body for injury, but the gruesome wound on his leg had been cleaned and covered with a thick bandage once the pain medication had taken effect. “You okay?”

“Aye.”

There was no need for him to protest his innocence to her. He knew that she knew. And that’s all that mattered. Still, there was so much he wished he could tell her, if only the pesky guard officer would leave them alone. If only he knew for sure they weren’t being recorded. If only…

Killian could do nothing but sigh in frustration. To have her so close, and unable to touch… it was pure torture. His fingers tingled to wrap around hers, his lips burned with the need to kiss.

“Not quite the reunion I’d imagined,” he admitted with a sad smile. Emma’s answer was equally rueful.

“It’ll be okay, Killian. We’ll fix this mess.”

He nodded in a display of confidence beyond what he actually felt. “Do you know what’s become of… er… my cousin?”

Killian tried to use his eyes to convey the importance of having her play along. Emma’s brow creased in the slightest of confused frowns. Mystified, she mouthed, Cousin? before shaking her head.

“No. Sorry.”

Quietly, Killian voiced his concerns. “They haven’t told me they’ve done with her, and you know how she gets.” He raised a prompting eyebrow, and Emma nodded.

“Oh. Right. I’ll… see what I can find out. Can’t promise they’ll let me back in with news, though.”

“That’s okay, Swan. I’ll feel better knowing she’s got an ally in you.”

He had really hoped to break the news to her gently. Under different circumstances…. Any other circumstances, really. But Marvel didn’t deserve continued distress, and she would recognize Emma. At least then she wouldn’t feel completely abandoned.

“Time’s up, sheriff,” intoned the guard, and Emma’s expression flattened; Killian could immediately recognize her usual reaction to strong emotion whenever she thought she wasn’t in a good place to express it. He bit his lip, feeling horrible that he was the source of that angst, no matter how innocent he actually was.

“I’m so sorry, love.”

She tried to smile, but the result was a sad shadow of her normal sunshine. “Don’t be. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She blew him a kiss. “Love you, Killian. See you soon.”

“I love you, Emma.”   

He couldn’t even return the gesture. And the ache in his heart was killing him.

Because of his injury and the necessity of IV therapy, Killian was not sent to jail to await arraignment; instead, they admitted him to the hospital for the night. Late afternoon found him in a private room with a guard posted by the door and a cuff around his ankle, securing him to the bed rail. He wasn’t sure if the latter was a concession to his disability, or a sign that they considered him not to be a danger to the nurses that were in and out checking on him. Either way, Killian was grateful to have his hand free.

He wasn’t allowed any visitors apart from his lawyer, a disturbingly young man who hadn’t yet mastered the poker face needed to conceal his obvious belief in Killian’s guilt. Killian confirmed his intention to plead ‘not guilty’ and did not avail himself of the opportunity to ask any questions. Alone again, he spent the rest of the afternoon worrying at the TV, nodding off from drug-induced drowsiness, and fighting the need to visit the restroom every 15 minutes - a process which required nurse assistance and direct guard supervision and was much more trouble than it was worth. But the saline being pumped into him had to go somewhere.

What would they have done with Marvel? Fed and clothed her, presumably. But then what? Was it at all reasonable to hope that she’d been discharged into Emma’s care? Knowing that she was his wife and thus put Marvel at risk of unwilling contact with him after his release? Killian prayed that, wherever she was, she wasn’t too confused or afraid, or feeling like he had deserted her.

He missed her. Emma, too, of course - gods, what he wouldn’t give to have his wife snuggled next to him right now - but that was expected. He and Marvel, though, had just met. They had spent less than 24 hours together, by his reckoning. Very eventful hours, to be sure, but… somehow she had become so precious to him in that time, and he missed having her by his side. He couldn’t wait to see her again.

Killian spent the night in an odd mixture of stressed wakefulness and deep, drugged sleep, until dawn roused him squarely into a state of hungover listlessness. He was more nervous than he thought he would be over the day’s court proceedings. They would not be determining his fate... at least, not beyond the amount of money required to release him on bail. It must be old habits. No pirate could be thrilled by the prospect of appearing before a magistrate, under any circumstances.

Morning rounds brought a physician to check his progress. And Killian was doubly grateful for the narcotics during the exam and bandage change. Apparently satisfied by whatever could be gleaned from the appalling sight, the doctor gave orders for a switch to oral medications and discharge home - or, in this case, to the courthouse and then home. Hopefully.

A nurse removed his IV and helped him into a correctional facility jumpsuit, which had to be a size larger than preferable in order to accommodate the bandage on his leg. And then it was simply a matter of awaiting the court's pleasure. Thankfully, the Friday docket was light, and Killian found himself being wheeled to a transport vehicle before 10 am.

The trip was short and quickly forgotten in Killian’s preoccupation with their approaching destination. The attorney had explained what was to happen, and Killian had had a vague notion anyway, although their ‘courthouse’ in Storybrooke could in no way be considered reflective of the rest of the country. Beyond the occasional villain cropping up every so often, crime tended to be minor, and Judge Hart of Wonderland only rarely suggested beheading as an appropriate punishment.

As he was wheeled through the door and into the courtroom, Killian’s gaze immediately found Emma in the audience, before he took in anything else. Her mere presence worked wonders, bolstering his confidence and soothing his anxiety. He flashed her a wry smile, which she returned instantly, projecting calm reassurance, weariness, and a bit of annoyance at the situation. But knowing she was there - that she had his back, no matter the outcome - made all the difference.

The proceedings were over before he knew it, and apparently, Emma’s presence also influenced the judge, who released Killian on his own recognizance without even requiring bail. A surprised but grateful Killian was then returned to the patrol car and the court moved on.

All that remained then was a quick return to the hospital to fill out discharge papers and collect his prescriptions. He would be required back in Newburyport at some later date for meetings with the lawyer and a trial, if it proceeded that far. But for now, he was free. And all he wanted was to throw himself into Emma’s embrace… and then reunite with his ship incarnate, wherever she may be.

[desolate-rose]

Chapter 8 magic is real!

I have a plan!

And it only took me two years and some change!

And that’s not the only thing i've done in the last two and a half years! (that would've been a very boring two years) I can walk AND talk! And through these new skills (which were a pain to get let me tell you! Learning to walk left. So. Many. Bruises.) I had discovered all sorts of things!

I had confirmed that I am in fact a princess, we do in fact live in a castle, and that I am indeed a hylian.

That knowledge had sent me into another one of my depressingly common panic attacks, but it wasn’t all bad!

My new skills led me to the discovery of, (drumroll please) A LIBRARY!

Oh sweet literacy how I missed you!

I may have given my parents the mistaken impression of being some sort of baby genius or something, but in all honesty I was just desperate to be able to read again. Again being a baby was very very VERY boring, and my rationale thought and impulse control had honestly been worn down by the lack of intellectual stimulation! I was sooooooo bored of baby babble.

Also it wasn't exactly out of character for the cannon zelda, she had repaired / created an incredibly advanced guardian as a child which was not only capable of showing a personality planing and a facsimile of emotion, but also TIME TRAVEL.

Should I have pretended to be the average three year old because I'm not actually some sort of genius? probably. Will this have consequences for me? most likely. Will I regret this later? Almost certainly. Do I care right now? NO!

Consequences can suck it!

Mama needs to feed her addiction!

Also it wasn’t like I had just started to read books bigger than my head either, I’m still learning to read hylian, it’s a whole new language writing system and alphabet! I’m still stuck on baby books and basic words, but it’s better then nothing!

And sadly the little i can decipher of the hylian writing system is also more advanced than the nothing that real three year olds know. So I’m now the castle's little genius, mom and dad are absolutely brimming with pride. Honestly it’s too much attention placed on little ol me but if it’s a competition between too much attention or not being able to read, I’d choose to read every time.

I’m currently trying to figure out a rough chronology for the events of breath of the wild and all of its proceeding events. (assuming I'm not in the age of calamity: hyrule warriors timeline, but that timeline only exists as a split off of the original timeline so for now i'm assuming im in the original timeline. Prepare for the worst hope for the best and all that rot. Also im not stupid enough to assume that i can be a baby genius and just yha know MAKE a time triveling gaurdian) so that I can best implement my plans. Here’s my rough ROUGH timeline.

10,000 years before the start of the game Gannon attacks and is sealed away by the hero and princess with the help of the 4 champions, the Divine beasts, and the guardians.

At some point after that the sheikah become distrusted due to their powerful magic and technology and are banished.

They split in two the yiga who hate the royals of hyrule for their betrayal and join forces with gannon, and those who remain with the spirit of the sheikah and give up their great skills to remain serving the crown

98,983 years later princess Zelda is born. Shortly before that link is born

At some point a prophecy announcing the return of calamity Ganon is made.

At some point Zelda's mom dies making her unable to learn sealing magic from her.

Zelda is pressured into praying and praying and praying to unlock her sealing magic, at one point even collapsing in freezing water nearly losing her life if it wasn't for urbosa saving her.

The sheikah rediscover the Divine beasts, guardians, and sheikah slate.

Zelda helps to study these ancient artifacts to the disapproval of her father

Link finds the master sword

Link is appointed zelda's personal knight

The champions are chosen

Zelda goes to the spring of wisdom on her 17th birthday and Gannon returns

The champions, king bosphorus, and thousands of innocent people die when Gannon turns the Divine beasts and the guardians against them

Link is mortally wounded and Zelda unlocks her powers.

Link is sent to the shrine of resurrection

Zelda returns the master sword to the lost woods and goes to face Gannon alone for the next 100 years

100 years later Link wakes up with no memories and the events of the game commence.

In the end my plan is quite simple. Make sure my mom doesn't die. All of Zelda's problems stem from her mom's death, Gannon could only wreak havoc because Zelda's mom wasn't there to teach her the sealing magic or deal with calamity Gannon herself. At best my mom could teach me the magic and we could seal Gannon away together or she could do it or I could do it, at worst I can use the magic because I'm not actually the girl who is meant to be the zelda incarnation of hylia. Either way gannon gets defeated, bada bing bada boom no great calamity no destruction of all i've come to know and love.

Does it sound stupidly simplistic yes. But in all honesty it needs to be. There are too many variables at work here to have a twenty step plan and have it all go accordingly. Life is messy and unpredictable and not exactly amenable to complex multi step plans that rely on everything going a certain way. There's a reason that the saying ‘the best way to make God laugh is to tell him your plans,’ is so poupar. This isn't a game any more, stuff happens, free will is a thing. I can't rely on what I think I know. Who knows how much the butterfly effect has already affected things. So simplicity is the name of the game, it allows for the flexibility a rigid multi step plan would not.

So my plan really only has two components: learn sealing magic as soon as I can, And make sure my mom survives.

simple but hopefully effective

______________________________

I toddeled determinedly through the halls ignoring the bemusedly indulgent granny trailing behind me.

Fun fact about being a princess, you don't get any alone time. Ever. i am constantly being monitored, be it by granny, spots, father, mother, or some other random sap assigned to guard duty. Literally the only times I am left alone is when I head to the restroom or am put to bed for the night.

It's only mildly infuriating.

Mildly.

But anyway, at this time of day I would usually be at the library attempting to read some of the less difficult books or in my nursery playing with my toys under the watchful gaze of granny or spots, but today I have a mission. I was going to get my mom to start teaching me sealing magic if it kills me. I had found the perfect excuse as well. An old story book depicting the great matrilineal line of queens and their unique gift bestowed upon them by hylia herself. Now to enact my plans and deploy my greatest weapon. puppy dog eyes.

I stumbled my way into the office where my mom was going over various papers with a serious look upon her face. “Mama!” I cried practically throwing myself into her lap. McGuffin clenched in hand. “What is it my little bird” she smiled blessing my day, watering my crops, clearing my skin, and healing my wounds. “I found something i don't understand!” I chirped, squirming myself into a more comfortable position, book tucked into my arms. “Oh and why didn't you ask ila?” (so that was granny's name, huh.) “mhhhmmm i wanted to ask you!” que puppy dog eyes version 37 bright, cheerful, innocent. Work that toddler arua!

Mother chuckled while granny rolled her eyes behind me, I saw that missy! Don't give me your sass! “Oh and what didn't you understand?” PLAN IS A GO “mama what's se-al-ing magic? Why does the book say I have it? I'm not magic!” I pretended to pout indignantly, flipping to the page in my book that referenced it.

“Sealing magic baby, is the reason our line has ruled hyrule since the hylians lived amongst the clouds, it's a special gift from hylia herself.” hook, line, sinker. “Really?!” “yes my little bird, it's a special magic that lets us seal away bad guys, banish evil, and protect our kingdom. It's proof that we descended from hylia herself” as mother said this she raised one of her hands allowing for it to be bathed in an ethereal golden glow, bathing her in light and making her look like something genuinely devine.

Before this there had always been a little part of me that had been denying the truth. No matter how often it was mentioned in books or stories. No matter how many things had pointed to this being the hyrule of stories, a small part of me had been screaming that magic isn't real and that the legend of Zelda couldn't be real. But now, bathed in divine light and witnessing true honesty to god magic for the first time I could no longer deny the truth. Normally this confirmation would chill me to the bone and cause hysterical fear, but the power before me was warm, comforting, and at the same time incomprehensible. I could not fear when this light this power was here to bolster my spirit. I had never been adamantly religious before, but in the face of this light, for the first time I truly believed in the divine.

As the light faded away and I blinked spots out of my eyes I reaffirmed my mission. I needed to learn how to do that. Yesterday.

“Teach me! Teach me! Teach me!” I chanted practically vibrating where I sat, eyes wide in wonder and awe. “Now now little one, not so fast!” my mother chuckled, ruffling my hair.

“Why not!” I asked indignantly and was a little worried. I NEEDED to know sealing magic for my plan to work. It wasn't safe to put all your eggs in one basket. No matter how hard i would be working to save my mother regardless of calamity ganon.

“You're not old enough yet, my little songbird.” NOT OLD ENOUGH! I WAS 17 YEARS OLD WOMAN WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT!? “I am old enough! I know how to read and everything!'' I frowned, doing my best not to show the inner turmoil starting to boil.

A little of it seemed to show on my face with the way mother immediately began to sooth me “zelda that's not what i mean.” my eyes searched hers, they were uncommonly serious. “Our magic is powerful and dangerous. There is a reason i can't teach it to you yet. Your not yet old enough in body or mind to be able to withstand the strain that kind of magic would put on your spirit.” my face must have still looked mutinous because she continued on. “Beyond just that, your power is not developed enough yet even if you could withstand the strain. You wouldn't be powerful enough to actually use your sealing magic.”

This is bad very very bad. “When can i learn it?!” mother chuckled at my assumed enthusiasm “Numbers hold power baby, when you turn seven you can start your lessons.”

Seven, SEVEN! That's years from now! The remaining calm and serenity from the glow of hylia's might drained from my body.

“Now i think it's time for your nap! Come on little bird i'll put you to bed, maybe afterward you can sing me a song hmm?”

Why do the gods hate me?

Also on FanFiction.Net! https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13547505/8/

[thisiscomics]

This mini-series/event seems to be part of whatever the overall Rebirth plan is, although fortunately there’s been no sign of any Watchmen as yet.

The story is an enjoyable read, as the two teams face off and we get to follow the manipulations of Amanda Waller, which is (almost) always an interesting sight. The (currently) secondary plotline, which sees a disparate crew brought together by a shadowy figure (whose identity is promptly revealed, so this isn’t much of a spoiler)- a gathering with no immediately apparent connection to the League/Squad storyline, so one assumes that both will ultimately team up against this group- feels very symptomatic of the Rebirth concept as I see it.

In short, it seems to be set on reintroducing characters written out of continuity during the event storylines of the past decade or so (or in some cases that have mostly just been ignored in recent years), without any explanation at this point of how or why they are still around. The chosen characters are ones that I would like to see well written again, so there is no objection to the choice of cast, it’s just that it leaves the reader with the strange feeling that this is just a convoluted way of making up for some of the less successful creative decisions taken in an effort to make the ‘event’ mini-series seem ‘important’, ‘controversial’, critical to continuity, or whatever. Making a big deal of all this just seems to highlight the faults of ideas like the New 52 and the overload of Crisis titles, and fails to convince that lessons have been learned and that the current Rebirth concept isn’t really just more of the same, to be regretted later with an attempt at correcting it retrospectively through yet another massively hyped event.

So, onto the characters. There’s 2 in particular that seem to sum up the confusion that I feel around Rebirth.

1. The not quite original, but certainly most familiar version of, Lobo:

The New 52 just seemed to go a bit crazy with Lobo- first he was similar to the old Grant/Bisley Lobo that birthed a multitude of comics in the 90s, then this version was actually an impostor and a different Lobo (less of the anarchic Alan Grant stuff and less of the Bisley biker look) got his own title for a little over a year. And now the Grant/Bisley style one seems to be back. Which just makes you wonder what the actual plan was with Lobo as a character in the New 52, and suggests that whatever it was, they just gave up on it and thought ‘screw it, let’s just go back to what worked‘.

I actually quite liked the revamped one. It wasn’t a great comic, but it tried to do something more than just the previous version’s anarchic humour and violence- which had eventually grown a bit tiresome as time went on and creative teams changed- and it wasn’t a bad read. (In a way, it was perhaps an incarnation closer to the original Lobo that appeared in Omega Men and maybe also a bit like the Lobo in L.E.G.I.O.N., who was a watered down version of the ‘Mature Readers’ one.) But it presumably didn’t sell, so this seems to be a blatant way of just ignoring all that and reverting back to the previous formula. Which doesn’t feel very innovative.

2. Max Lord:

His history is already quite confusing, although a Wikipedia summary of the character does highlight the old way of revising characters, instead of all these complicated continuity changing events:

“We thought about that aspect of the story [where Maxwell was turned into a cyborg] some more," DiDio explained. "And then asked, 'Did anyone read it?' No. 'Did anyone like the idea?' No. So we moved ahead with Max as being a human, and having been a human, and not letting that small part of the past stand in the way of this story. We wanted what was best for Countdown [to Infinite Crisis], and for us, that meant that Max had to be a human.”

So, “when there were bits that didn’t work and no one really liked it, we ignored it”, essentially. Which seems easier than holding another event to correct everything, and then decide it didn’t actually work, so let’s try again. And again.

Anyway, Max was significant in Infinite Crisis, and particularly to Greg Rucka’s The OMAC Project, which was one of the many miniseries connected to that event. At this time, his character was a lot darker than it had been in Giffen and DeMatteis’s Justice League America/International comics, although this seemed to work quite well. This was in no small part due to the interesting covert operations intrigue in the DCU that Rucka was creating in his Batman writing, then in Checkmate and The OMAC Project. Max’s ultimate fate seemed very much one of those shock narrative twists that had been decided upon at a high level in order to increase sales, and had it been in someone else’s hands, I suspect it really wouldn’t have worked.

As in Identity Crisis, where characters from the GIffen/DeMatteis League are made dark (unnecessarily, and not really convincing anyone that ‘comics have grown up’), Lord becomes a lot darker than he had ever really been before, and kills Blue Beetle, then dies at the hands of Wonder Woman (a plot point that also worked well because of Rucka’s take on that character. She is a warrior, and will make decisions that may shock her allies, but make logical sense in terms of threats to their safety).

He was then brought back in the next lot of DCU events, Blackest Night and Brightest Day, and was the principal villain in Justice League: Generation Lost. His appearance here is broadly consistent with this latter appearance, and one hopes that it is building on the idea that he sees superhumans as a threat, with Checkmate as a line of defence for normal people.

I assume his repeated presence in event stories is due to some affection on the part of editorial, but the alive/dead, evil/misguided/acting with best intentions flip flops suggest some uncertainty about what to do with him on each occasion, which seems to be the recurrent theme in these reboots.

The presence of Rustam (from John Ostrander’s original Suicide Squad run), Johnny Sorrow (from Geoff Johns’ JSA) and Doctor Polaris seems less symptomatic of the confusion around what to do with characters, although both Rustam and Doctor Polaris were dead, and none of them are probably  characters with thousands of fans clamouring for their return, so it still leaves me wondering about why they were chosen. Nostalgia prompting the decision to work them into a storyline? Hopefully they fare better than Max has historically and don’t find themselves caught up in more resurrections and personality changes.

The final character, and the one seen in this panel, is the one I am most interested in. Legion of Super-Villains member Emerald Empress is out of time, as far as I am concerned (52 established that the Eye did exist in the present, and Lobo (him again!) had it, so it could be a present day incarnation, but since we have no idea what is going on in continuity terms, I’m choosing to ignore that possibility for the moment) and, like the resident of Arkham seen in Batman, suggests that there is a place for the Legion in the Rebirth universe. The fact that she is looking for a Legionnaire, and says time is missing, suggests that there is a time travel-based Legion adventure somewhere out there to be told.

The Legion were never central to DC events, but were always impacted by them- Levitz and Giffen, as well as later creators, had to address the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and subsequent changes to continuity, more than once to try and keep their future consistent with the current version of the DC Universe. They were rebooted following Infinite Crisis and had a Final Crisis tie-in mini-series, but were not really integral to those stories (unlike Superboy Prime, for whom Legion of Three Worlds seems to serve as Geoff Johns’s epilogue to his story in Infinite Crisis, as much as it seeks to reconcile the different Legions before the Final Crisis takes effect).

There is definitely a fondness for the team in a lot of creators, which seems to be why they always re-emerge following the reboots. As I’ve previously mentioned, they never seem to be able to find sufficient commercial success to stick around, but I always look out for their re-emergence, hoping that this time all will be well. Given that time travel and various science fiction ideas (parallel and pocket universes, paradoxes and manipulation of reality) have been a part of their stories for so long, they seem to not suffer the problems with continuity revision that I see in other titles. Perhaps like the current issues of Wonder Woman, they can work with these changes by acknowledging them as outside manipulation, and so there’s no need to jump through continuity hoops to try and explain what is and is not ‘real’ and why, making the stories somewhat meta, yet less complex than that might suggest. Once you have gods, or the Time Trapper, or editorial teams, messing with your past, then it’s clear where you stand; no resurrections or complicated explanatory flashbacks needed.

From Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad 2, by Joshua Williamson, Tony S. Daniel, Sandu Florea & Alex Sinclair