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wetalkinboutbooks · 4 years ago

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Reaper of Souls by Rena Barron

Summary: After so many years yearning for the gift of magic, Arrah has the one thing she’s always wanted—at a terrible price. Now the last surviving witchdoctor, she’s been left to pick up the shattered pieces of a family that betrayed her, a kingdom in shambles, and long-buried secrets about who she is.

Desperate not to repeat her mother’s mistakes, Arrah must return to the tribal lands to search for help from the remnants of her parents’ people. But the Demon King’s shadow looms closer than she thinks. And as Arrah struggles to unravel her connection to him, defeating him begins to seem more and more impossible—if it’s something she can bring herself to do at all.

Set in a richly imagined world inspired by spine-tingling tales of voodoo and folk magic, Kingdom of Souls was lauded as “masterful” by the School Library Journal in a starred review. This explosively epic sequel will have readers racing to the can’t-miss conclusion. (Taken from Goodreads)

Our Ratings:

→ Geena: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌗

→ Kae: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall: A messy sequel to an amazing series, we get to see the after effects of the fall out of Arrah vs. Efiya from KOS… and when we tell you it is MESS!!!

~Spoiler-Full Review Below~

The Good:

→ Arrah and Dimma

Geena: One of my favourite things about Reaper was the sprinkle of Dimma’s POVs throughout the story. We got an insight into Dimma’s life before she was Arrah, and how her relationship with the other Orisha and Daho developed. It also really helped build up the suspense near the end and set up plot twists that clocked us near the end. Dimma aside, let’s talk about Arrah. Rena Barron said brooding boys are out, brooding girls are IN! And you know what, we love to read it. The story starts off with Arrah trying to save Sukkar after she snapped all his bones while trying to save him, and she does save him :) Or so she thinks but that’s besides the point. Over the length of the book we follow Arrah’s inner turmoil of suddenly having the power of 10 tribal chieftains and being insecure about whether or not she even deserves it.

I loved Arrah, even when she was holding herself up to a terribly high bar and beating herself up about everything she did. Arrah helped bring her Auntie back from the dead and was like “Damn I suck :/” and thought shattering a girl’s glass (who was flirting with Rudjek) put her on the same level as her mom and Efiya. I was sitting there like NO GIRL YOU’RE PERFECT, YOU, YOUR MISSING TOOTH AND YOUR PETTY NATURE!!

Kae: YAAAAAAAAAS! Geena summed Arrah and Dimma up perfectly.

But I would like to add how much I love Arrah and how selfless she is. She’s always thinking about her friends and their safety, the safety of the tribal people, and of course the kingdom. She’s a worry woman, but for all the right reasons. And she also cares about herself; so much even that like Geena said, she beats herself up for the smallest of things. She’s so worried about being evil like her mother and her sister, that she calculates every single move that she makes, debating if it’s really worth it to use strong magic or not.

As for Dimma, I loved her POV’S. She is a complex character who has been demonized since book 1. We were taught to believe, through the POV of some of the Gods, that Dimma was a horrible Goddess who wrought nothing but chaos. They erased her name from history, LITERALLY. And Dimma became known as the Unnamed Orisha. While reading her POV, we learn that Dimma was quite selfless, much like Arrah (since they are technically the same person). Dimma was full of love and loved even harder. She went out of her way to give Daho immortality as well as his people, because she loved them so much. She defied the rules of the universe for her love, and it only came to bite her in the ass in the end. Like her siblings told her, “A God’s love is a dangerous thing.” And it was, but not exactly for the reasons one might think.

Geena: Kae’s summary of Dimma and Arrah is AMAZING, you know my ability to connect dots when reading is kinda shit so reading Kae’s summary gave me realization… Arrah tries so hard to separate herself from Dimma, because she refuses to believe that a part of her is in love with Daho because she herself is in love with Rudjek… but it’s like girl… you have travelled to the ends of the earth to fight and bring back the people you love (the tribespeople) just like Dimma searched the ends of the universe for immortality to give to Daho. It’d be much easier to reconcile your feelings if you just accepted that “Okay, I may have been Dimma but now I am Arrah”

Also another thing I love about Arrah is how she had…. For a time… three dudes in love with her… or at least what she thought was three dudes. Real hot girl shit.

→ Rudjek and Daho

Geena: You know the character archetype that’s like a snarky boy who knows he’s hot shit and acts accordingly, but when it comes to the person he’s in love with he’s just a bowl of mush. That’s Rudjek, and only Rudjek can pull it off. In KOS, he was slated to be the next vizier because of his father, in Reaper he’s known as a prince because his dad snaked his way into becoming the monarch. So, now he’s the snarky prince…. And the only snarky prince with rights! His POVs were actually so fun to read, like following the politics of the Kingdom and him dealing with his new craven powers…. Which also had him being able to smell pheromones when people were doing the dirty around him 😭

I really liked that Rena gave him a POV, because now we get to see how he develops given the fact that him and Arrah are dangerous to one another, because he saps her magic with a single touch and could kill her. The whole time Arrah is stressing like “Damn, what if he doesn’t like me anymore because we can’t touch” meanwhile Rudjek is like “I’ll fight the Gods if I have to, to keep her by my side” and it’s like 🥺Also, who let a teenager be in control of a whole army… I thought the vizier was a sly and smart man but I digress… Another thing I liked about Rudjek in this book was that he didn’t shy away from uncomfortable conversations with Arrah, regarding the fact that he confused Efiya for Arrah when they did the unspeakable in the clearing in KOS. Like, that was very mature of them and I’m glad they could deal with that misunderstanding… But… hands down… my favourite scene… During the climax of the book Rudjek gets a demon soul shoved down his body, and immediately assumes it’s the demon king…. And his only command to his friends is to not let him near Arrah😭😭😭 I was like PEAK ROMANCE, SOFTEST SHIT, SACRIFICIAL LOVER!!!!!

Kae: SO GEENA SUMMED UP RUDJEK SO DAMN WELL. LIKE DUDE OMG? Correct. He is perfect. I really don’t have much to add but I just genuinely loved him as a character. He is caring for both Arrah and his friends. He is also one of the few male characters I’ve read that actively tries to go against their father. Most dudes in books are like “Fine puhpa, I shall do your evil bidding.” But Rudjek is like “Sike bitch, I’ll let you think that but I’m doing what I WAAAANT!”

But okay, let’s talk about Daho. So first off, I love him??? Am I a villain sympathizer now? Tbh, I don’t really see him as a villain. Man’s didn’t commit a genocide or try to scheme Arrah out of her pants. AND HE VERY MUCH HAD THE CHANCE TO and he was like “nah.” And I appreciate that. Because there are a few certain villainous men who I shan’t name, that be on that scant shit. And Daho is just like… genuinely trying to avenge his wife’s death (Dimma) and try to get Arrah to remember that she is Dimma.

YES, I know he got Arti to bring him back. BUUUUUT, he didn’t tell her to kill a bunch of kids and shit to do it. Arti did all that evil shit on her own and Daho was like “look, i don’t condone that shit. But it’s over and I’m sorry it happened but I can’t change it.” And I’m like… okay, mood. I get it. Daho is sweet and caring. He looked out for Arrah in *redacted’s* body because we didn’t know *redacted* was dead the whole time. And even then, Daho was still like “My bad… But he wasn’t using his body??? So I took it???” Why let it go to waste, amiright?

Geena: STOOOOP FOR REAL HE WAS LIKE “It was empty, I didn’t think you’d mind”

Kae: LMAOOO OKAY BUT DEADASS. And like, idk man. He just seriously isn’t a bad person. He was trapped because after the God’s killed Dimma, he was like “BET IMMA JUST KILL THEM” and they lowkey were shook so they trapped his ass in a box for a millenia or whatever. He wasn’t even out to kill all humanity or anything. The God’s were just being some haters and now he’s suddenly the bad guy. Anyway, we stan Daho in this house.

Geena: Daho is how you write a sympathetic villain. He owns up to his own mistakes even while his demons run free terrorizing people. Kae said it best that he just wants justice for his wife and unfortunately history is written by the victors so the Orisha painted him out to be a bad guy… My dude was just chugging that respecting my wife juice and they killed her… and he also thinks they killed his son… Guess me and Kae are just villain sympathizers now

The Bad:

→ The Ending

Kae: Okay, let’s get it. And I also just want to clarify that when we say “the bad”, we don’t mean we hate it. This is just something that was like “oh fuck, this is BAAAAD! THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GO DOOOWN.”

But like, good Lord. The ending? That shit was crazy. First of all, we find out that *redacted* aka, SUKKAR. OUR SWEET, PLAYFUL, SARCASTIC SUKKAR. IS DEAD. HE HAS BEEN DEAD THIS WHOLE TIME!? Excuse me while I *SCREEEEEEEEEEEAM*. Like, what an unforeseen twist. This mf kicked the bucket back in KOS when Arrah tried to save him. Turns out… She maybe… Totally… possibly… Absolutely killed my guy on accident. He dead-dead. And this is how we find out that Daho took over his body, once Sukkar’s spirit ascended. It was a really sad reveal and my heart kind of hurt reading it. I straight up wasn’t expecting that to happen. THEEEEEN. GOTDAMN EFIYA. IS BROUGHT BACK.

Geena: No joke, the ending of Reaper was just one sucker punch followed by another… At first you think Tyrek (the prince from KOS who joins Arrah and her crew on a journey to save the tribespeople) is the demon king, then you think it’s Rudjek because he’s getting possessed, and then you learn it’s Sukkar… The final punch to the gut was Daho bringing back Efiya because his close general asked for her… because she’s his daughter. We were like, DAHO ARE YOU SERIOUS YOU SAW THE DAMAGE SHE DID TO THE HUMANS!!! Like Efiya may have grown quickly in a few months but her brain isn’t fully developed, like that girl is UNHINGED!!! I thought we were done with the Efiya chapter but here we are, and I’m scared to see what role she’ll play in the final instalment of the series. I guess this is the case of bringing back an old villain that can work out really well… I trusted Rena with the messy Arrah/Daho/Rudjek love triangle, so I trust her with this too

The Ugly:

→ Tyrek

Geena: Remember how I said Rudjek is the only valid snarky prince… Yea, Tyrek can CHOKE!! In KOS he sides with Efiya and she wreaks havoc in the Kingdom, and in Reaper he’s brought to his knees. Rudjek’s dad wants to execute him for his crimes, but Arrah sympathizes with him because she knows how Efiya’s mind control worked. As you read, you get a sense of “Okay, maybe he isn’t bad, he’s helping Arrah and them” but then you get to the climax and you’re like okay nvm this boy was insane… Imagine travelling to a whole other dimension and making deals with demons, because you’re in a fucked up sort of romance with a half-demon girl. He managed to lie to Arrah that he was being controlled by Efiyah, when he was really with Efiya the whole way…. Even when she told him to murder his whole family… this man was vile!! He’s also one of our first fake outs, when he pretends to be the demon king I was kinda disappointed… I was like no this ruins the messy love triangle I’ve been waiting for! But it was just a fake out, Tyrek was just trying to scare Arrah into freeing Efiya, whose soul was in the demon dagger that Arrah used to kill her in KOS. Overall, 1/10 for this man… the 1 point is for when he figured out “Sukkar” had a crush on Arrah before Arrah even knew.

Conclusion

Kae: So, I don't have much to add to Tyrek’s snake ass. He really was ugly in the end. I’m glad he’s dead.

But to conclude, this was such an amazing, refreshing read. Reaper of Souls was a wonderful sequel to Kingdom of Souls. Rena writes so beautifully and she didn’t hesitate to have us readers shaking in our boots. Getting more background information on Dimma, the Gods, and their old ass war, was really fun and insightful! IT added to the story in a way I hadn’t even thought about until I was consuming it all!

Arrah and Rudjek are perfect angels and I can’t wait to see where book three leads them. I also want to give a shout out to Essnai and Majka for being such good friends to Arrah and Rudjek. Same to Kira and the Cravens. This is a really close knit group of friends who will go to the ends of the Earth (and literally new dimensions) for each other. THAT’S LOVE, BITCH. And we LOVE to see it.

Geena: For real! Rena Barron set up such an amazing cast of characters, and she really emphasizes the power of friendship in her series and it’s one of my favourite things to read. With Reaper, from the very start, she sets up the story in such a way you’re literally screaming by the end… I think it requires a special kind of skill to be able to set up a story so well that while you do make predictions about what’s going to happen, it still shocks you when you realize you’re right. Cannot wait to see the absolute mess that will be the final book, with Rudjek/Arrah vs. Daho… and the drama it will bring now that the Orishas realize that Arrah is Dimma’s reincarnation.

#Reaper of Souls #Rena Barron #YA #Kingdom of Souls #booklr #book review #wetalkinboutbooks #bookish #book blogging #book blogger #books #reading #Arrah #Rudjek #our post

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toast-the-unknowing · 4 years ago

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do you have any tips for getting over someone? we haven't been together for long but it was still meaningful to me, and i'm at a loss for what to do even though we parted amicably

A relationship that ended on good terms is still a relationship that ended. It gets to be painful and confusing if that's how you experience it. It gets to suck even though it's not a "bad" breakup. It gets to be messy in your head even if it's neat and bloodless on paper.

Parting amicably is easier and more pleasant than the alternative, but it also robs you of a narrative that helps you make sense of the breakup. We understand a relationship that ends because of infidelity or a new love or a betrayal. When you don't have one of those, it can be hard to talk about it or think about it. If it takes you some time to wrap your head around the breakup, that's okay. Your story about the breakup, your understanding about the relationship, the meaning that you walk away from this experience with, those can change over time.

Losing a relationship can hurt even if it wasn't a long one. You're not just mourning the time you were together. You're mourning the time that you won't have now. You're mourning the person that you were in that relationship. That's not easy shit to go through. Sometimes sadness will hit you fast and hard and out of the blue. Sometimes you can feel it creeping up on you all day. Let it in. Sit with it. It's going to get inside anyway.

Honestly there is no "getting over someone" for me that does not involve a lot of crying, but then, I'm a big crier, I cry about everything. You know best how you process sadness -- whatever those things are, allow those to happen. Put on your sad songs playlist, do something dramatic to your hair, read every hurt/comfort fic in your current fandom, watch those favorite movies for the ninety-ninth time, whatever the routine is. You can't get over something without acknowledging that you lost it.

At the same time: breakups suck, but dude, relationships can suck too, when you get right down to it. Even a meaningful relationship that forever carries fond memories and good feelings in our hearts, where we wish the absolute best for our exes, even those relationship have parts that were more grit your teeth and bear it than love and joy. I think at one point after a breakup I stopped short and said, out loud, "now I don't have to finish A Song of Ice and Fire." I never have to have another conversation with my ex's obnoxious roommate. I don't have to circle my ex's neighborhood for thirty minutes every weekend looking for parking. I will never again eat a single slice of vegan pizza.

These are obviously all petty examples but -- in the immediate aftermath, petty is good. Reflecting on the relationship and realizing I hated the way that we handled conflict, wow our communication styles did not mesh, hm those are some problematic patterns of behavior we fell into -- those are good things that one absolutely can and should learn from, but -- later. For now: petty.

One thing I found helpful after my last breakup was to think about how really, truly absurd it was. She sent me a breakup text thirty minutes after I got home from being out of town on vacation. Did she have that scheduled in her calendar? What else was in that calendar? Did she block out some time afterwards to cry about it? Maybe I'm flattering myself. Or maybe she didn't get to because the next thing on her calendar was, like, go to staff meeting -- this was a Friday morning, she planned this shit out ahead of time but didn't decide to wait one more day until the weekend? That is some funny-ass shit, dude. At least, it was, for me, when I needed it to be. Absurdity is a great attraction-killer. Absurdity is the anti-heartbreak. It's easier to get over your ex when you picture them entering a calendar appointment to text-dump you, and I admit that’s a pretty specific set of circumstances, but I bet if you looked for them, you could find some absurdity in the end of your relationship, too.

There's ten thousand cliches about time being the best or only thing to heal a heartbreak; those have some truth in them. There's a bunch of cliches about making time go faster by staying busy; those also have truth in them. Covid is a weird-ass time to be going through a breakup, but it’s a weird-ass time for everything and we're five months into this, so you've got some hobbies and methods of socializing in place. Put them to work. STAY BUSY. Do the things you already know you like. Do them to an obnoxious degree if you want to. Play the same video game three times through in a row so that you can get every single steam achievement, who cares? This is your time now.

Is there something you like doing, or something you've been interested in doing but never tried, that your ex was not into? Now is the time. Watch that movie in the genre your ex hated. Take that online class in the thing your ex thought was stupid. Make that food that your ex thought smelled bad. They aren't here, they don't get to decide.

Reach out to the people you have in your life. Obviously, close trusted friends are great for talking about the breakup. But talk to them about other things. Ask them about their shit. Talk about whatever dumb movie you just watched. Reach out to other friends, too: who's someone that messaged you and then you didn't get back to them and now it's been too long and you can't message them back now it'll be awkward -- message them now. Send them a meme, who cares, they're probably covid-bored too.

Reach out in other ways: is there an organization near you looking for volunteers? Is there some event happening in one of your fandoms where you can get really into reading and commenting and promoting? Human interaction can be hard to come by right now, but it's not impossible. In some ways it's easier than ever to say "I want to talk to someone" because everybody is lonely, even if they didn't just leave a relationship.

This is a great time to check in with your support network. The end of my first relationship was a catalyst for admitting hey, I have some shit I should talk to people about, in like, a medical professional way. The end of my most recent relationship was a catalyst for admitting yeah the shit I have in place isn't really doing the job. That might be a level of care that is unnecessary for you, but it's worth asking if your network is supporting you or if it needs a little boost to its resources, for the long term or just for right now.

Finally: If you want to stay friends with your ex, I wish you the best of luck. But please, don't try yet. Take a break from this person. Block them on social media, don't call or text them, don't ask your mutual friends about them, when someone tries to tell you about them go "hm, okay" and change the subject. Give the relationship time to get fully out of your system before you try to build a new one. Captain Awkward advises six months post-breakup before the "let's be friends" stage and I have no reason to doubt her suggestion. (You know what, all of her advice is good. Cancel this blog post, my actual advice is just to spend a hundred hours reading Captain Awkward.)

#I hope this helps #best of luck anon #Anonymous

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cryptocism · 5 years ago

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ive been scrolling through ur blog for a while (cuz ur dc opinions are Top Fucking Notch) and i saw what you said abt bart in tt 03 and f:fma and while i totally agree (it killed tt 03 for me lol) im super curious abt how youd do his development if given the opportunity?

I’ve been thinking about this one like A Lot so buckle up this is long:

it would kind of depend? On whether or not he’d be in an ensemble team like Teen Titans or with his own solo series.

I understand metatextually why he became Kid Flash in TT, since they needed him to be more mature and a more recognizable character and having him upgrade costumes/codenames is a good shortcut for both. But I’ve already talked about why it didn’t sit right with me.

So, lets flip the script a little bit - the start of TT would be largely the same. Our boy Bart is on the new Titans team, and things are kind of awkward after YJ disbanded, also Max is gone and Bart’s relationship with Wally is still not doing great. Things are rough, Bart has newfound doubts to deal with, especially now that the world seems to have gotten harsher and everyone seems to have a lot less patience to deal with him. The pressure to be more mature and a recognizable character is coming from other characters now rather than an authorial need: he’s reminded to take things seriously, or that he should know better by now, that he needs to slow down and think more. So Bart decides a change is necessary, and we get the library scene. He reads all the books, he reappears as Kid Flash, saves Tim via bullet catch, disassembles a gun, takes down Slade, etc. etc. Here’s my departure from canon though: it doesn’t work.

Kid Flash is not a solution, or a magical cure for immaturity. Reading a whole library so he’s miraculously smarter and more mature and capable is, at its core, a pretty naive conclusion. And it makes sense he would think that. But it doesn’t work. He’s still impulsive, distractible, hasty. He can’t put a lid on his own sense of humor. People still think he’s annoying or lazy or careless. And he keeps trying - he knows all this stuff now, he read a whole library! - but he’s still apparently too much the same person as he's always been. And even though he’s trying very hard to live up to the Kid Flash name, it still doesn’t feel like him. Wally doesn’t like it, since Bart is literally just imitating him now, which makes things between the two even worse. And Bart keeps worrying about what’s supposed to come afterwards, since “Kid Flash” is inherently temporary, and while Impulse was only peripherally related to the flash legacy, Kid Flash comes with expectations.

Bart is trying very very hard to be ‘grown up’ and ‘mature’, but he hasn’t actually learned anything other than a bunch of facts (which are still useful, but) he’s just trying to be who everyone expects him to be.

And this is what i mean about the ensemble thing, because this arc would be in conversation with the rest of the core four, who are also trying very hard to be people they’re not, but all in different ways. Bart obviously with the codename change, but Cassie, Tim, and Kon all have similar issues, they’re all trying to imitate people.

Tim is doing his Batman jr. routine, reverting back to the persona he had at the start of YJ. He’s cagey and mysterious and does questionable things without telling anybody, because he’s de-facto leader of the team again, and he has to be better than he is. No more kid stuff, the Titans are serious, he has to treat it like a job, not like a sleepover. And this whole act is putting distance between him and his friends.

Cassie is trying her hardest to put herself in a support role. Donna’s gone and she has some big shoes to fill (she and Tim could probably bond about that if he weren’t stubbornly trying to brood at all hours of the day) and she’s doing her best to just Be Donna. Cassie and Tim would work better with their team roles swapped, and they both sort of know this - Cassie is naturally charismatic, thinks on her feet, can maintain good PR, and when she’s confident in herself is great at leading. Tim is partial to planning ahead, secrets, and keeping in the shadows, and is better at being a confidant and emotional problem solver among the team (when he allows himself to be open among friends, that is).

But they’re both trying to fit themselves into what they see as pre-ordained roles: Robin is leader, Wondergirl is a supportive mediator. But Cassie’s got a temper and little patience for people being idiots, and Tim’s not predisposed to spotlights.

Kon on the other hand has a story that’s less about who he should be and more who he shouldn’t be. The Lex Luthor dad storyline is here (minus the mind control shit, although the threat of it is still brought up) and Kon is doing his level best to do nothing that could be interpreted as something Lex might do. While everyone is doing their best to Not be their own person, Kon has no idea if he ever was his own person. He’s questioning everything he does, wondering if it’s some kind of evil gene showing through when he’s angry or petty or selfish. He’s going through lots of clone angst.

So they’re all dealing with expectations and who they are or aren’t supposed to be, trying to fit themselves into boxes that don’t suit them and then convincing themselves that this is how it ought to be. Kon ought to avoid feeling or acting in any negative light because any sign of Luthor is a sign of evil, Cassie ought to tone herself down and act like Donna, Tim ought to step up and lead the team and act like Dick, and Bart ought to listen better and be smarter and slow down and grow up and do his level best to just Be Wally.

Throughout the issues they’d all get a spotlight on their various crises, taking them through complimenting character arcs. Kon would realize through a couple close encounters and chats with ma and pa and talks with his friends and citizens of metropolis that nobody is all good or all bad. Clark can be a real asshole sometimes and Luthor’s actually done a fair bit of good (usually in his own interests, but still we’re gunning for nuance). Turns out he doesn’t have a dark side to be tempted by, he was made from 50% complex person and 50% complex person, just like everyone else. Which means he isn’t destined to be the next Superman, or Superman’s next supervillain. He’s just like, a person. With his own thoughts and feelings that have nothing to do with genetics.

Tim would wear himself out and hide it from everybody until he killed himself, but it’s only when he sees Cassie also wearing herself out too that his ‘somebody needs somebody’ instincts kick in and they’re actually able to talk about how miserable they both are. Through some trial and error they’re able to figure out a good co-leader system for leading the team, having each other’s backs along the way, which allows for them both being able to help out the other members of their team with their own shit i.e. Kon and Bart’s identity issues.

Bart is, like Cassie and Tim, wearing himself out trying to be this perfect version of Wally that never actually existed. He actually hates the recognition the new name gives him, because people have expectations for him now, ones he can never seem to live up to. He’s bad at following orders still, which makes him a pretty shit sidekick for Wally, in fact he’s just pretty shit at being a sidekick in general. But, he reasons, he’s supposed to be grown up and responsible now, and responsibility is all about doing shit you hate until you die, so he’s probably on the right track.

It’s only later, once he gets some support from his friends, who help him deal with things like Max and YJ disbanding and stuff that he’s able to actually sit down and have a heart-to-heart with Wally. Wally confesses that he understands the pressure to live up to a legacy, and how he did his best to just Be Barry when he became the flash. In fact while Bart was trying to live up to Wally and be a good sidekick, Wally was trying to live up to Barry and be a good mentor. Wally’s the one to tell him that Bart’s always done his own thing, and is at his best when he does. They both agree they suck as partners, but maybe they should’ve tried to be family first. And there’s probably a racing metaphor in there somewhere because speedsters love their racing metaphors.

ANyway Bart returns to Impulse, forging a new path, getting along better with Wally now and hanging out with him just as civilians with no pretense. He learns some valuable lessons about how maturity can’t be learned in a book, and that he’ll get it himself the more he lives and learns from experience. The Titans all get along better now that they’re all sure of their places in the group, and they can all go on just being themselves without worrying about expectations or roles to fill or whatever.

...If Bart still had his solo series instead though, id actually want it to go in a sort of different direction? The thing about living up to predecessors and trying to be some ideal version of another person works well for the Titans because they can all deal with a similar issue in different ways, but I think it would also be interesting to do the complete opposite.

Lots of shitty things happened in very quick succession in Bart’s life that he had no control over: Max’s disappearance, having to move in with Jay and Joan (who are nice, but whom he barely knows,) leaving his friends in Alabama, Young Justice breaking up… Basically, things kind of suck for Bart, and all he wants is for them to go back to the way they were. Instead of trying to be grown up or mature or whatever, Bart is resisting every single encroaching thing about coming adulthood. Because all growing up ever seems to mean is that everything changes and either you have to leave the people you love or they have to leave you.

So this series would focus mostly on that, both in his civilian life; going into high school, not knowing anybody, the few friends he does make are less interested in ‘kid stuff’ and more focused on dating and interpersonal drama, high school itself seems to be geared entirely toward the “what are you going to do with your life” question, when he visits his old friends back in manchester, they’ve all kind of grown up without him. And in hero life; everyone from Young Justice is trying to move on and not talking to each other, his father figure and mentor is gone and he's not really jiving well with the rest of the flash family, and people just seem to have less patience for Impulse now that he’s older.

Growing up is hard. It’s hard and no one understands. Especially not when you’re also a superhero and have dealt with some quality trauma like losing loved ones and feeling yourself die. So it makes sense that Bart would resist that in every way possible, do his best to pretend like everything is still how it used to be, for once in his life just trying to make everything stay put. He refuses to get rid of his old stuff, he doesn’t want to treat any villainous threats seriously, people in school keep talking about college and jobs and tuition fees and Bart wants none of that, he acts out, refuses responsibility, gets reckless under the pretense that he never used to have to be cautious.

And this is the part where I’d bring in Inertia, cause Thad was robbed and I want him to have an actual arc that doesn’t end with infant-splosion. Also he can have a good ol companion arc to Bart. Welcome to foils everybody, where two identical boys with opposing life experiences get to thematically compare and contrast with each other as they deal with the trials and tribulations of growing up.

So, I’m ignoring every appearance Thad ever made after Impulse 1995, picking up instead where his story left off where he swore vengeance on his creators and disappeared into the speed force. And he’s off to do exactly what he said; Thad Thawne II is going to kill his namesake/grandfather/creator - the president of Earthgov.

But, turns out assassinating the president of a whole fucking planet is a lot harder than he thought - Thad has planned extensively for every moment of his life, so once he starts going off script things predictably go a little off the fuckin rails. Thad fails, obviously. For one because despite how much President Thawne might deserve to die, Thad at this point hasn’t done anything worse than attempted murder, and making him a killer would put a wrench in any kind of redemption arc he could have. Also he’s acting on rage, in a highly emotional state, basically going up against the entire government. Of course he’s going to get caught by the science police and brought into custody.

Bart, meanwhile is jumping with both feet into any kind of escapism he can find, which involves various time travel shenanigans and lands him in the 30th century. He gets to reunite however briefly with his mom, but the mission he had gets derailed by the appearance of Inertia.

Every time Bart and President Thawne interact, the president always seems to make a bid to sway Bart to the Thawne side. This never works, which is part of the reason Inertia exists in the first place; a version of Bart that the president could control. When Inertia landed in the 30th century, hell bent on assassinating his creator, the President subdued him and eventually coerced him back over to the Thawne side of the family feud. No longer a rogue agent, Inertia is back to his old self, all about destroying Bart and the rest of the Allens.

They have a battle, taking place all over the 30th century city, and Bart does his best but Inertia has the entire Earthgov police force on his side, and Bart eventually gets captured. He gets taken to some kind of holding facility, meets with the President who monologues as him while Inertia stands beside him like a good lackey. Then suddenly the speed-inhibiting cuffs or whatever Inertia had put on Bart to stop his speed malfunctions, and Inertia drops the act, now Impulse and Inertia working together to take down the Earthgov people holding them there.

Turns out as soon as Inertia knew he couldn’t take out the president, what with all the military force President Thawne had on his side, he bided his time until he could. He uses Bart’s help to finally get President Thawne cornered, and the assassination plan is back on track. Except now Bart is the thing stopping him. He makes the argument about how murder bad. Heroes don’t kill, etc. Inertia insists he isn’t a hero. But Bart reminds him that that’s not how Max saw him.

Inertia hesitates just enough that President Thawne is able to get away, and now the two of them have to make an escape attempt back to the past. Bart insists on trying to take Meloni with them, and they try but ultimately fail somehow (maybe someone has to stay behind to make sure they can make the trip safely, idk. At first Thad is willing to stay behind, since there’s nothing really for him in the past. But Meloni knows that President Thawne would destroy him if he did, and she can’t let harm come to either of her sons - and she does consider Thad her son, just like Bart. She’s had far too little time with either of them, but she loves them all the same. She tells them to take care of each other, and is the first to encourage them to be like, actual brothers.)

After yet another tearful goodbye, Bart swearing he’ll find a way for them to all be together again, Bart and Thad go back. And they do end up having to lean on each other, because shit’s tough for the both of them. Thad initially wants to apologize and possibly reunite with Max and Helen, and then finds out Max is gone. And Bart has someone who understands exactly what he’s going through.

Things get a little more lighthearted from here. Bart and Thad don’t get along well at first, since they’re both going through rough times and lots of changes and their first instincts are to lash out at each other. But eventually they form a sort of camaraderie through shared grief, then shared fish-out-of-water experiences. Which evolves into shared inside jokes and video games and comic books and they become slow but steady friends.

They upgrade into brothers when Bart defends Thad against the repeated (and not entirely undeserved) suspicion he receives from the rest of the Flash family. Jay and Joan take him in, but it’s clear they don’t trust him, and neither does Wally. Bart stands up for Thad, arguing that he’s as much of a Thawne as Thad is, and treating Thad like he’s the next Cobalt Blue is just going to ensure that history never changes and stupid family feuds are forever. After this, Thad starts trusting Bart a little more, and kind of solves Bart’s problems regarding encroaching adulthood with his friendship. Neither of them really had a childhood, and Thad hasn’t experienced 21st century life at all, much less the societal expectations to grow up. So Bart gets to have fun again, and Thad won't judge any of his games or his books or his attitude or interests for being childish or lame because he’s fascinated by the experience of anything regardless of the target audience.

And from there it's a series about these two becoming brothers and growing up and the different lessons they learn and wacky characters they meet along the way. Thad ironically also puts Bart in a position where he has to take on more responsibility, since even though Thad can imitate heroic actions and is actually pretty good at it, he doesn’t understand what makes them heroic. Bart has to draw on a lot of the things Max taught him and now has to teach them to Thad.

There’s crossover comics with Superboy, where Bart laments about having to deal with grown up stuff, and Kon gives him a new perspective on the whole “being young forever” thing, since that was a reality Kon actually had to deal with and it sucked.

Through various misadventures they meet new and familiar characters to give them different perspectives on the whole passage of time thing. Villains who despise children or childish things, villains who embrace it but probably too much. People who talk about growing up as the worst time of their lives, others talking about it like it was the best. Kids and adults alike trying to force Bart and Thad to act a certain way while treating them another.

The two of them come to opposing conclusions about this; Thad wants to embrace change completely, partly because he wants to experience firsthand all that life has to offer, but also his worldview depends on believing that anyone can change, and anyone can be better, because he has to believe he can be redeemed for all the shitty stuff he did. Bart, on the other hand, knows his life isn’t perfect but thinks, based on recent events, that it’s all just going to get worse from here, and so resists change as much as possible.

Thad, in his haste to experience everything, sometimes ends up going too far, either burning both of them out, or pushing them into situations that they’re not ready for or are ill-equipped to handle. Bart, on the other hand is so resistant to change or responsibility that he stops them from doing actual necessary things like planning their futures or doing chores or making new friends. This acts as the crux for their main conflict that slowly builds throughout the series, and then in a finale to the arc, they both figure out a way to get Meloni back to the past, and to raise some stakes they have a falling out in the middle of the mission about it.

Bart accuses Thad of trying to leave him behind, or trying to be the better version of him again, and that old insecurity about Thad replacing him crops up. Thad thinks Bart just can’t handle anything outside his personal bubble and wants to force him to live in the real world. Plus he also feels kind of abandoned by Bart, who often would leave Thad to do the scary adult things on his own.

Tensions still high, there's suddenly an external threat to deal with - probably president thawne and the science police - and they attempt to continue arguing even while fighting the president. I’m making this up as I go so lets say yada yada big climactic moment it's looking like the two might fail to get Meloni back and they’re both still angry with each other and Bart just… can’t take it anymore.

He keeps losing people, and the ones he keeps he always seems to screw up with. And at the end of the day he’s just a kid who wants his mom. Is that really so much to ask? So there’s a reversal, a parallel, if you will, of the assassination attempt from the beginning of the series, this time with Bart. Or, because I don’t think many people would buy that Bart would actually ever for real kill someone, maybe he’s finally about to get his mom back, but she doesn’t want to go (since she made that deal with the president that he wouldn’t harm anyone of the Allen family so long as she stayed with him) so he’s trying to force her, risking the lives/well-being of the entire Allen bloodline across all of time.

This time it’s Thad who has to talk him down, who has to remind him about being a hero, who has to remind him that trying to go back to some magical time in the past where things were better is just going to stop him from learning and growing as a person, and that doing anything and everything possible to get there is just going to lead to Bart doing something he Actually Can’t walk back from.

Alright but here’s the thing because having Bart be forced to leave his mom again for like the billionth time is tired and overdone, and personally the whole message about heroics involving extreme and damaging amounts of sacrifice can only go so far. So here; Thad and Bart are both right.

Like on the one hand, yeah, it’s childish and selfish for Bart to want to be with his mom at the expense of literally everyone else in his family. On the other hand, the fact that they can’t be together because some asshole is upholding a stupid grudge is bad and unfair and wrong. The issue needing to be fixed is not the kid who wants his mom, it’s the jackass keeping them apart (and who also wants to kill/imprison people). So Bart convinces Thad that they have to save Meloni, and Thad convinces Bart that there has to be another way - one where they get their mom back and the Allens don’t have to be hunted.

The whole story would be leading up to the two of them coming to this conclusion; the healthy middle between the two extremes. Where they have the maturity to plan ahead and sort through their differences and figure out the best course of action with the least amount of collateral, but they don’t let go of that adolescent need for justice and fairness - that thing that makes you dig in your heels and say “no. That’s not fair, that’s not right.”

SO here’s where I’d put the title card: “Bartholomew and Thaddeus Take Down The Government”. How do they do it? No idea! I’m flyin by the seat of my pants here! Do they run for office? Do they publicize the president’s crimes in such a way he gotta go to jail? Do they somehow turn public opinion against him enough to get him out of office? idk!!! And I don’t remember enough about Earthgov’s political situation to put an accurate read on what exactly they might do to disrupt it.

Either way they don’t kill him, manage to free their mom, and they all go back to the past together. And a new arc would involve the three of them getting settled in the past; Meloni would be a main character now, and hers is a two-pronged fish out of water story where she’s trying to figure out how shit works in the past, with overtones of the struggles of being a single parent.

And... I’m not going to say any more about that because this is long enough already oof.

TL;DR I think a coming of age story would be cool for Bart, and having to deal with growing up when he never really had a childhood. Also the comic itself would be aimed at younger audiences, who can probably relate to having a Bad Time in the Teens and wacky hijinks with friends and siblings.

#soapbox #anonymous #asks

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caden · 5 years ago

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Honestly thank you for saying that. I also don't hate Travis but can't stand the way he goes about proving his "wokeness" he's obviously good natured but his approach is just so off and it's awkward when listening to the other brothers try to swerve around it, being more self aware than he is. I can't listen to the new Adventure Zone arc because her went out of his way to create a disable character and then be like "are you gonna ask me about my wheelchair" it's just too fucking much dude.

This is a super long rant-y response that doesn’t really say much of consequence, but...

yeah i have not enjoyed his arc so far sadly. I’m still going ahead with it for the time being, it’s worth listening to but honestly TAZ hasn’t gripped me all that much since balance. I feel like one of their issues is that balance really really tactically built up to its big emotional dramatic moments, everything felt really natural and just flowed so well-- whereas with these other arcs, I feel like they just jump the gun and try to constantly have dramatic stuff happening without ***earning*** it. The nature of most roleplaying games is just that they’re long form, and IMO the most important element of nailing a podcast like TAZ is making sure that the downtime is really enjoyable-- that means having really charismatic side characters, engaging and open-ended worldbuilding that allows for lots of different situations, and PCs that have clear and interesting motivations. Travis just isn’t a good enough DM to pull that all off. He’s decent at roleplaying IMO, but his personality / skills are just better suited to being a player. He clearly isn’t as good a storyteller as griffin, and even griffin’s storytelling has been strained from time to time.

I honestly really really really wish that they would play a more Critical Role / MCDM style DnD game, where the worldbuilding took front-stage over the characters, and where it was assumed that the main players would cycle through MULTIPLE characters because their characters could actually die if it was dramatic-- or even just if the players fucked up in combat. I’d love to feel like they were in a setting that allowed them to have guest players on, where the world has internal consistency (unlike the live shows which are always fun but clearly not sustainable for a long-form story), and where the whole thing isn’t all built along railroading players down an ultra long-form epic story in the vein of Balance. Like one thing that’s great about DnD for me is that if you don’t currently feel like you’re gelling with the character you’re playing, you can just make a new character! If the quest you’re on isn’t incredibly engaging, you can tell the DM that you want to explore something in your character’s past or independently pursue some other motivation instead. I really wish they would experiment with a more freeform, noncommittal story, where they could lean into their improvisation skills (which is what they’re very good at) over their storytelling skills (where they're sort of lacking).

I also feel like-- and this is just an unintended byproduct of the general vibe that they’re going for-- one big problem that I notice with their storytelling is that all of their characters are just like... too good. I feel like they’re so committed to being wholesome and non-stressful that everything about their worlds just has no edge at all. I’m not saying that I want TAZ to be game of thrones, obviously that would suck-- but so much of the conflict in their worlds feels awkward or forced because they don’t create their characters to be as flawed as I think they should. Justin usually being the exception. I think this is reaaaalllllly coming to the forefront in the new arc, Travis just isn’t capable of putting the kind of tension into his stories that Griffin was because he’s too committed to making his world crunchy and chill and, dare I say, woke. But I think the wheelchair thing is coming from a different sort of bad storytelling-- writers put a diverse character into their story and then feel so immediately proud of themselves that they forget to actually make the character interesting or memorable beyond that, inadvertently tokenizing the characters.

Griffin also did something really smart when he was DMing, which was that he intentionally never told us anyone’s race. He explicitly said that it being an audio medium allowed the listener the freedom to imagine whatever race they want, as well as imagine trans-ness, disability, etc. Which, even though it might sound kind of like a cop-out, is IMO the best way to handle it. If they play characters outside of their race, people will be mad. If they don’t have enough diversity, people will be mad. If they have explicit diversity but portray something insensitively, people will be mad. I personally think that griffin would have been smart enough to do these things sensitively, but he’s always erred on the side of caution. The only exception in balance was them explicitly stating that Lup was a trans woman, which was also handled very well IMO. Travis just isn’t taking that level of subtlety to his DMing because he isn’t as perceptive about these things as Griffin is. He’s stating all this stuff explicitly because he wants people to know that his world is diverse. Which is cool, but it comes with the baggage of actually having to execute that diversity with some level of insight. In this case, I honestly think the players should be more comfortable going ahead and making characters that are explicitly NOT cis white (or white-coded) men. They made the move after balance to start playing women, which was good. The alternative is just constantly having protagonists that, even in fantasy/sci-fi settings, are cis-coded, white-coded, or male-coded.

All in all, the big issue for me rn with the Mcelroys is that i have much more of a sense now that they’re the types of creators who are entirely just trying to please their fanbase. This is really visible in the style of comedy that they’re doing these days as well. They aren’t trying new things, they’re just finding what’s comfortable, what fans clap for in live shows, and doing more of that. I remember once in a live show they said “okay guys, we’re making a change. we’re no longer gonna allow you guys to ask questions that are just you bragging about a cool thing you did”. That was one of the best decisions they made from a content perspective, lol. Their most interesting work of the last three years has been the Trolls 2 podcast, because it’s stylistically VERY different from their normal stuff, and because NOBODY was asking for it. And as a result, it was able to be a novel, funny concept. I feel like in the age of streamers, youtubers, creators who are basing their brand off of PERSONALITY over CONTENT, we’re gonna be getting more and more of this kind of art. As creators, the Mcelroys aren’t trying to do something new, to create exciting thought-provoking funny content. They’re just repeating the things that have found them the most success. They take the desires of the fans a bit too seriously, which keeps them from going in new directions, because fans can’t validate things that don’t exist yet. The fans shouldn’t be the ones who create new trends or decide the tone of the content. That should be entirely in the hands of the creators. You can sorta tell that at times Griffin and Justin are unhappy about it. I think this was at its worst about a year or so ago, and they’ve realized it and started to work on course-correction. They stopped doing TAZ live shows with the balance characters, which was a good choice. I DON’T think that the issue is that they ran out of ideas, it’s just that they’re overdue for a creative renaissance. I would love it if instead of just doing more TAZ and mbmbam, they continued to do a bunch of small unusual projects in the vein of Trolls 2, the old Monster Factory videos, the new non-DnD TAZ live shows, etc. I’m also enjoying The Besties (I listened to it before it got canned and was excited when it came back), because I feel like Griffin and Justin act more like normal humans on that show and less like Mcelroy brothers.

WITH ALL THAT SAID, their content is still often very fun, and I think it’s really good that they exist as successful creators. They’re a net positive force in the world, the small attempts people have made to cancel them for dumb shit will always be petty and stupid. They’ve more than earned a spot in the podcasting hall of fame, I don’t think they’re just has-beens, and I will continue to listen to plenty of their stuff for the conceivable future even if it’s not always exactly what I want from them.

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soulmeshart · 5 years ago

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Why I think Proffesor Venomous isn't a bad person

Warning:This post contains spoilers for the episode "The big reveal" of Ok KO Let's be heroes.

Most of us assumed that Venomous was in fact, Laserblast aka KOs father even before this episode and now that fact is confirmed. I've seen people starting to hate on Venomous because of this so I'm going to explain why I think Venomous aka Laserblast isn't necessarily a bad person.

Let's start at the beginning. Before Carol joined P.O.I.N.T Laserblast was most likely fairly confident in his power and skills. He was in the best hero group out there after all. However this changed after Carol,Gar and Rippy Roo joined there team. Quickly he noticed how powerful Carol really was. I mean her power Is literally copying others abilities and moves and recreating them. Laser started dating Carol and probably as time went on noticed more and more how much better she was at this then him. Basically he became jealous.

Jealousy can easily be narrowed down to 2 simple types. Positive and negative. Negative jealousy is when let's say Person A is jealous of Person B, this causes Person A to hope,wish and maybe take some sort of action so that Person B can fail at whatever Perosn A is jealous of. Positive jealousy is when Person A is jealous of Person B and that makes them want to improve themselves,to be able to reach the level person B is on.

Laserblast was positively jealous of Carol. He never wanted her to fail,he just wanted to better himself. His ways of improvement were not supported by his fellow teammates,which probably causes him to feel betrayed. Still,he continued with his bioengineering projects in secret and whether he wanted to or not,he made a few really powerful inventions. Here's where people draw their first assumption that he is a bad person. After the Grayman incident,he suggest that they steal and use these weapons,however he is yet again denied by his fellow teammate. We don't know whether he would've continued with his projects or not but his attempt to hide his lab ends in him losing his powers.

All of his work led up to nothing. He was going to crawl out of the sewer back to Carol and Gar,but after hearing what Carol said ("He wasn't strong enough to survive this") that crushed him. This is where we discus a few issues. Carol's statement is rather true,technically speaking,no one could survive getting shrunk to microscopic levels and then sucked trough a black hole. So why is Laserblast so insulted by this? Is he just delusional? No. I think he was mostly disappointed in the lack of faith Carol had for him. She kept saying how his powers were good enough making her seem like she had faith in him and now her statement clearly contradicted that. It must've crushed him right after he had lost his powers. So he decided to leave.

People might say how he was awful and left Carol with their kid and that he didn't love her. However I don't think that's true. Laserblast clearly had some sort of affection for Carol. Some of their interactions we're kind of weird,like when he gave her his used lollipop but that doesn't mean he didn't care about her. He kept of picture of her and him together in his secret lab. He had no reason to keep it their if he hadn't truly cared about her,after all no one knew about his lab and experiments except him. Regarding the statement that he left her with their kid. Well, he didn't even know that Carol was pregnant. It was stated in the show by Carol that she found out about her pregnancy AFTER Laserblast had disappeared. Now he probably did find out about KOs existence sometime after he vanished. He clearly recognized KO in the episode where he first appeared as Venomous ("We're captures"). So why didn't he return? Well he most likely found out about KO's existence after his appearance had been altered through his experiments and he was most likely already a villain at that time. Even if he wanted to go back, how could he? What would Carol think of him?

Now,him becoming a villain. First,being a bad person and being a villain are 2 separate things. Just as being a good person and being a hero are also 2 separate things. So keep that in mind.

Venomous' initial intentions we're simply to get his powers back,and he pretty much failed. He did become some sort of snake hybrid but we haven't really seen him use that ability other then hissing. In his search for powers however,he discovered many powerful devices and inventions. Quickly he realised he could make money off of them by selling them to villains since heroes didn't want to buy his products. He quickly became rich and powerful.

After a while, Venomous got bored of his lifestyle. Sure, he was making a lot of money but his life as a villain turned into a boring old office job. That is where Boxman comes into play. Boxman continuously reminds him of something that he loves to do. Attack heroes. In today's villain society, simply attacking heroes isn't really done. People might say that Venomous is well,evil and a bad person because he loves attacking heroes. But is he really?

Venomous enjoys petty villainy most likely due to his past. He is probably jealous of heroes because he used to be like them,but now he can't be. However this jealousy doesn't really go to any extreme measures. Both him and Boxman never really take things to far. Heck,the 2 of them plus with the help of their kids they could probably destroy Ko,Rad and Enid and even bigger heroes easily. But they don't. Why? Well they don't really have a reason to. Even in the episode "We're captured" we see Ko,Enid and Rad over a pool of lava. We expect them to be dropped in. But when we hear Boxmans evil plan to torment them,that isn't the case. His plan is basically a bunch of "but before you get in harms way THIS HAPPENS" ultimately preventing then actually being hurt. Plus, if it weren't for Boxman and Venomous, our 3 main characters would probably have a harder time leveling up and practising.

That's pretty much it. Hopefully before the show ends we will see some interactions between KO and his second family (Venomous,Boxman,Fink,The robots). Also possibly a Venomous and Boxman wedding

#ok ko lets be heroes #ok ko #ok ko fink #ok ko venomous #venomous #ok ko proffesor venomous #proffesor venomous #boxman #lord boxman #ok ko boxman #ok ko theory #ok ko laserblast #laserblast #ok ko carol #carol #ok ko mr gar #ok ko gar #mr gar

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divine17 · 6 years ago

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↳ COCO CRUZ AS A LOVER | MASTERLIST

Fandom: Mayans MC

Request: —

Count: 34

A/N: i sent a friend a bunch of headcanons to a friend like six months ago lmaooo but i’m posting them now so ... yeah

Coco loves oral more than anything else, & giving more than receiving

Finally putting that quick tongue to work, huh?

He loves that he has the ability to make someone so weak for him, making them feel so fucking good and it’s all because of him

Hearing your little moans and whines of his name really drives him insane

Honestly he could probably get off on just that alone

And he gets jealous pretty easily

Definitely doesn’t like you being alone, ever

It’s not that he doesn’t trust you, or doesn’t think you have good enough judgement and will cheat on him

You’re his ride or die girl and nothing could ever change that, no matter what

It’s that he doesn’t trust everyone else around you not to try some shit just because you’re Johnny Coco’s girl

But he would NEVER tell anyone about his jealous habits, probably seeing it as a weakness or just petty (even if it’s not)

He would literally rather shoot himself in the foot than tell someone that

On the uncommon-not-uncommon occasion that he does let you give him a blowjob, it always seems to be in one of two places

A, he’s in a dark, quiet closet because he’s too horny to see straight and needs relief asap

Or B, in a cute little setting, like you waking up in the early morning with him and then going down on him

He loves the morning when you wake up with him, especially if he’s gotta leave on a run and won’t be back for a few days

It’s just quiet time for him to fully take you in and admire you

But if it’s a morning where he gets to sleep in, he’ll always let you sleep in too before doing anything else

He’ll wake you up by playing with your hair or tracing his name onto your bare skin, letting his hands run along your curves and edges while he whispers sweet nothings to you in spanish in the cutest raspy morning voice

He looooves when you pull his hair

That’s another big thing for him

He loves when he’s eating you out and you tug on his hair, a silent way of encouraging him and telling him what he’s doing right

And even more, he loves fucking you in the kitchen where you’re sitting on top of the counter and at the perfect level for his tall frame

Perfect height to reach for his hair and knot your fingers through it

Honesty, he speaks Spanish when he comes and we all know it

Whether it’s calling you his sweet little pretty princess, spilling his guts to you in a long-winded rant about how much he loves and treasures you or papi’s filth little cumwhore, it’s going to be in Spanish

And he can’t really control it, it’s a subconscious thing, he does it without thinking about it first, ya know?

Coco is also big on sexting

It’s the only thing that gets him through long runs

He loves seeing pictures and videos of you, your body that he knows better than anything else in his life

He imagines himself pleasing you with a certain expertise, doing everything you love so much in just the right way

He knows exactly where to touch, where to bite, pull, scratch, lick, suck

And it drives him crazy not being able to

It makes the real thing just that much sweeter when he finally gets back home to you

#coco cruz #coco cruz imagine #coco cruz one shot #coco cruz fanfiction #richard cabral #richard cabral imagine #richard cabral one shot #richard cabral fanfiction #mayans mc #mayans mc imagine #mayans mc one shot #mayans mc fanfiction #sons of anarchy #sons of anarchy imagine #sons of anarchy one shot #sons of anarchy fanfiction

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yourstrulyblog0123 · 5 years ago

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11/13/19

Okay, so I’ve decided that keeping feeling and emotions in my head is really not good for my health, and to be completely honest I’m going out of my mind trying to figure out everything that’s going on up there. So welcome. Maybe writing things out will help me piece them together in reality. I’ve been wondering for a couple of days how I would start this blog. Introducing myself is out since being anonymous makes this whole thing a lot easier, and I couldn’t seem to find the right words that would allow me to start this off. So instead I put some Ed Sheeran on and I’m just going to start typing. I’m sure there will be a bunch of grammar errors and spelling, but I can edit that before I post. Wow, I just re-read that all back and I’m well out of writing practice.

Anyway. Down to it. I’m Yourstruly. Don’t try to ask for my name because I won’t give it to you. what you can know is that I’m 23. Married, and as of right now I’m a blonde…. There that’s relatively vague. The reason I have given out this information is because I have started this blog to get out my feelings and frustrations. A counselor would tell me to write everything down anyway, so why not on the largest information center in the world? I have a slight hesitation about posting my personal business online, even if I don’t think anyone other than myself will ever read it. Anyway, i’m rambling, again I racked my brain about how to start this, I feel like the first blog is always the hardest, establishing one’s self is never easy.

So, I’ve spend the past two or three weeks in a dark place, probably the darkest i’ve ever been in. For 9 years I’ve loved the same person, without hesitation, I’ve supported him, literally and figuratively. I’ve stood by him, even if I didn’t agree with him, and I have let him say the most awful things to be because I know he doesn’t mean it when he’s angry. An excuse some people may think. I hate having to tell anyone about some of the thing he has said because I don’t want anyone to think I’m being abused. I am not, nore have I ever been in an abusive relationship, verbal, physical, or mental. People deal with anger in different ways, and I know this, I’m a logical person and I can understand that. It doesn’t stop the hurt though, and you can only ignore the “I hate you’s” and “I wish I’d never married you’s’ for so long before letting them roll off your back doesn’t seem like something you can do anymore. What scares me more than anything else is that I’m not even sure I want to stick around anymore. After 9 years, I wonder if I still want to be with my husband. It’s a scary thought. How could i just walk away? After everything we’ve been through and accomplished? I have this overwhelming desire to pack a bag and catch a plane to anywhere in the world. Somewhere different. I never realized that I’m like my mom in that sense. She hates staying somewhere for to long and uses buying houses and moving as a way of therapy. My grandma uses remodeling her house as her way of staving the itch. Me? I have nothing like that, I don’t own my house, so I can’t remodel it, and i dont have the funds to buy a house and move into it. In-fact the entire idea of buying and moving into a house gives my stomach an uncomfortable flipping sensation. I guess what i’m getting at is that the itch to go and travel has become overwhelming, and my husband has no desire to leave this shity state we live in. His whole family is here, my family is spread all around. He sees here as, home. I see is as a dying fly over state that no one wants to come to. It’s depressing, everyone here is closed off and there thinking gets more and more backwards the farther you get outside the capital. and the capital is full of stupid hipsters who as vegan and wear glasses to be ironic. There’s no history to care about here. No one knows where they come from and no one cares to know. There all just, content. It’s funny I use that word because my husband is always complaining about me being complacent and content. I guess traveling changed all of that though. About 2 weeks ago I spend 10 days in Asia. China and Thailand to be exact. Let me tell you, I never really saw myself going to Asia, Europe is the big one for me, but it was amazing. I different world, full of people so different but so the same. It’s the first time I’ve felt entirely hole in my entire life. It’s a feeling I don’t want to forget about; and since I’ve been back in the states I’ve felt like a part of myself is missing, like I’m not hole. I’ve been going through every day on autopilot. I feel like my emotions have been turned off, he only emotion i have been able to feel is sadness which really isn’t ideal. I cant feel happiness, it sucks. I don’t have a hard life. I have a job and a home, I can pay all of my bills, and i have good people in my life and i still cant feel happiness. All I want to do is pack a bag and catch a plane to somewhere, anywhere other than here. and i know that I can’t do that. I can’t just up and leave like I don’t have anything here. Like I don’t have a job or a husband. Like I’m just free. I’m not free, I’m not free and I think that’s the most heartbreaking thing about this whole situation. I’m not free. and I want to be, but I also don’t want to lose what I have. My husband has been my rock for 9 years, and now all of a sudden I don’t want to be around him. I don’t want to take care of him, or clean for him or cook for him....

But what if all these feelings are moment driven, what if in a week, I’m over it? I’ve been known to move on from things quickly. A character trait of mine I’m not the most fond of. It usually goes something like this: watch a movie, read a book, listen to a song, find an actor/actress I really like, really anything that’s more exciting than my day to day and I adapt to it. I adjust what I wear or what I do in an attempt to adapt to this thing or person I find excitement it. So with that being said, is this whole life altering dilemma I’m facing just another phase I’m going through? Will I find something else exciting in my head and all will be well again? The answer, I have no clue. I’ve never been to this point, never wanted to, well, leave. I guess that’s the conundrum. Figuring out if I’m crazy and emotional, or if this is real... I guess this is the point in the post where my self doubt begins to come out. My self esteem level is a dwindling thing. I’m not a huge fan of myself, unfortunately. I can find a flaw in everything, which I’m sure is kind of normal, I mean everyone has things they don’t like about themselves, but mind seems to be to that self destructive level that it really shouldn’t hit. I’m a person who has an idea of who I want to be in my head, but being that person isn’t always the easiest. I want to be a reader, and someone who wears old band t-shirts because I actually know the bands. Converse every day and a great butt without even trying. Someone who sits in cafes and reads books and goes to pubs (yes pubs, not bars, bars suck). I want to be someone who catches attention without even trying. So petty of my, but I want to be the prettiest in the room but have no idea. My husband call that wanting to be the center of attention, which sounds bad. I guess I have a more, romantic? look. No I don’t want to be the center of attention, but I would like to feel like people are in awe of me. Like “wow, look at her, watch her just, be. She’s got it all figured out.” A daydream I often find myself in. Anyway, I guess this is long enough for a first post. To anyone who read this mess of words and thought, thanks.

Until next time.

-Yours Truly

#blog #1st blog #dear diary #yours truly

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caps-gal · 6 years ago

Text

Comfort Food

You opened the lid of the foil and cardboard container to inhale the scent of the spaghetti, your stomach growling loudly as you rode the elevator up to the floor where you worked. You liked how the restaurant didn't use a bunch of plastic and styrofoam for their carryout, too. It was delivered in an open top box and you were encouraged to recycle.

It had been such a shitty day, and this spaghetti was honestly a lifeline.

Drama much, Y/N? your inner bitch asked.

Get fucked, inner bitch, you replied. To yourself.

Coz that's how you were rolling that day.

It had been one of those 'kick-you-in-the-crotch-spit-on-your-neck-fantastic’ kinda days: you had overslept, missed your train, skidded to your cubicle with seconds to spare and no coffee, and then before your computer had completely booted, your phone had rang and you were called into your boss’ office.

You sighed and navigated the cubicle maze, tapping lightly on his closed door.

“Come in!” you heard him call tersely.

Sounded like you weren't the only one having a day. You opened the door gingerly. “You wanted to see me?”

“Um, yeah? Where's my budget report?” he asked snidely.

“Oh!” you said in surprise. “Well, it isn't due until Friday, so it is not finished yet.”

“I need it tomorrow, Y/L/N!” he snapped.

“The meeting isn't until Monday. You asked for it for Friday by noon. I have the email,” you said calmly.

“Well, the meeting was moved up to tomorrow. Apparently Ms. Potts has to go out of the country,” he said in yet another unpleasant tone.

“I was not made aware of a change, Brent,” you said, beginning to lose your calm.

“What am I, your secretary?”

“Of course not, but while we may have gifted people in this building who can read minds, I am not one of them,” you snapped back.

“I would advise you not to take that tone with me,” he sneered. “Now go get busy. I want that report by 8 am.”

You left his office without another word, leaving his door open as a petty, passive/aggressive F.U.

Such was the life of the Office Manager for the Intelligence Analysis Department in Avengers Tower. You had to have low-level clearance to get past the first floor without an escort, but you got kicked around like a soccer ball on a playground because you weren't actually an analyst, you just did everything else in the department. You did draw the line at fetching coffee. You had some standards.

OK, you had a standard.

So you started to frantically compile the salary, expense and discretionary budgets from the current fiscal year, added to that the numerous budget increase requests, additional position requests, training budget -- you were going to be here all night.

And every single person in the department needed something from you desperately and urgently. You were actually considering hiding in a closet with your laptop to try and get things done.

You had a reminder pop up that you had a meeting at one. The day just kept getting better.

You figured you better go and grab your lunch if you wanted to eat before the meeting. You'd be cutting it close as it was, but you hadn't had breakfast so you were already so hungry you were considering eating your own ear wax.

You hurried to the break room to grab your lunch and -- Are ya fuckin’ kidding me? you thought as you stared at the spot where you had placed your lunch. Your lunch that had been clearly labeled as YOUR LUNCH!

You must have had a look of anger and disbelief on your face because a co-worker Randy said, “Lunch thief strike again?”

“Seriously? What the hell? Who steals food that is clearly labeled? And really, does it matter if it has a name on it? DID YOU BRING IT TO WORK? Then don't eat it?” you ranted.

“Sucks,” Randy said. “You'll have to order in or something.”

“I have meetings,” you said with disdain. You sighed deeply and turned to buy a candy bar or something from the vending machine and -- “Oh, come on! Out of order? Really?”

You stomped off to get your computer and a notepad, heading to the meeting early. Maybe there would be muffins.

There were no muffins.

Three hours, two meetings, one bathroom break and no snacks later, you finally returned to your cubicle.

You needed carbs.

Screw it, you thought, pulling up Berluti's website to place a delivery order. You added bread and a bomboloni to the order.

When the security desk called to tell you your food had arrived, you almost cried in relief. You hurried down to pay the delivery person, tipping generously and smiling happily at the guard before returning to the elevator.

It was almost 5, and while most people seemed to be wrapping up for the day as you passed their cubicles and offices, you knew that you still had hours of work ahead of you. Still, you had spaghetti, extra meatballs, soft yummy bread and a decadent dessert. You could do this.

You had spaghetti.

You were walking past the conference room when the door flew open and a man stormed angrily from the room, plowing into you and not even stopping to say a word of apology.

And he knocked your life-saving spaghetti out of your hands. You hadn't closed the lid tightly and it opened and spilled all the way down the front of your clothes to land in a wet plop on your shoes.

You stood there, frozen in place with your jaw slack. Your suit, blouse and shoes were no doubt ruined. There was spaghetti all over the floor around you. You looked around for the bag with your bread and bomboloni and found it behind you, crushed under the foot of your assailant, butter and chocolate smashed out of the bag.

You realized as you dropped to your knees to try and clean up some of the mess that you had started crying. You were covered in food, none of which you could eat, starving, had nothing to change into and couldn't leave until you had finished that stupid report for your stupid boss who couldn't even be bothered to tell you that the meeting had been moved up!

You didn't realize it, but you had been muttering all of this aloud -- your inner monologue had gone rogue -- and outer!

“I have a Bachelor's degree in Accounting, a Master's degree in Public Accounting, am a CPA and a Certified Forensic Accountant and I am doing budget reports for a jackass who can barely write his name!” you continued muttering, not noticing that someone had dropped down and was helping you clean up.

You finally saw hands through your tears when yours bumped into one. You gasped and looked up and into the bluest eyes you had ever seen.

“Oh, shit,” you whispered. “I am so sorry, Captain Rogers, Sir.”

He smiled at you and said gently, “Don't worry about it. That Senator didn't like what he heard in the meeting. I'm just sorry you got caught in the crossfire, as it were.”

You scooped up the worst of the mess and started to get to your feet and Rogers jumped to his to offer you his also spaghetti-covered hand. “Thanks,” you said quietly, bending to pick up the mess and the bag of ruined bread and pastry, hiccuping a sob at the lost bomboloni.

“I'll call maintenance to come and clean up the rest,” Captain Rogers said.

“Thank you, Captain Rogers. I appreciate your help, really,” you said with a watery, tremulous smile.

“You seem like you're having a really bad day,” he said gently.

You shook your head slowly. “Nothing compared to what you deal with. Just being a whiner.”

He smiled kindly. “Did I hear you say you didn't have a change of clothes?”

You nodded. “Probably. I didn't even realize that my internal griping had gone external. Sorry.”

He held his hands up in a warding motion. “Not mad! Just wondered if you want to come up and get cleaned up and I'll find you something to wear.”

“That's really nice, but I doubt we shop in the same department,” you replied.

He laughed and he held out his hand. “I'm Steve, by the way.”

You shook his spaghetti-covered hand and said, “Y/N. It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir. Though tidier and less humiliating circumstances would have been my preference.”

“Ah, none of that 'Sir’ stuff! Call me Steve.”

“Oh,” you said, surprise. “Thank you, Sir.”

“Gotta work on that,” he said with a laugh. “Come on.”

He stopped at a desk to ask someone to call maintenance to clean up the pasta mess and then led you to the elevator, asking Friday to take you to the residence level.

“You can clean up in my room and I'll go see if Nat or Wanda have anything you can borrow,” he said as he led you through a comfortable common area.

“Oh, ah,” you began.

“Don't worry, he's the original Boy Scout,” a female voice reassured you.

“Ah, Nat, I was going to see if you could help out. Y/N is an intelligence analyst and had a pasta mishap when I upset Senator Lawton and he ran her over in the hallway.”

“I'm not an analyst --” you began.

“Come with me,” she said. “We'll get you taken care of.”

Steve watched you walk away with Nat and could not take his eyes off you. He didn't know what it was about you, but he had seen you around the building and had no reason to speak to you so he had 'pined from afar,’ as Bucky was fond of telling him.

He pulled the receipt from your dinner from his pocket. He had grabbed it from your trash so that he could replace your order. It was only fair since the Senator had been pissed off by his refusal to toe the line.

It had nothing to do with him having a crush on you since you had beaten him to help a little girl that had been separated from her caregiver and knocked over by a careless bike messenger. You had been so kind and sweet to the child, soothing her tears and helping her to find her grandmother. He had wanted to talk to you that day but what could he have said?

Being Captain America had not given him game, as Sam was so fond of telling him.

So he had creeped on you, as Nat was fond of telling him.

He got out his phone and ordered from Berluti's, taking a shot and ordering double the food, hoping you would invite him to join you.

“So,” Nat began, “how long have you known Steve?”

“Oh, I don't know him. I mean, I know him but I don't know him. I know who he is, but I've never spoken to him before. He's just being nice.”

“Well, our Steve is a nice guy,” she agreed as she opened the door to her room and walked in.

“I’ll take your word for it. His persona seems nice, but I would imagine that none of you can be understood just from news stories and press conferences,” you answered as you followed her into her room. It was decorated much more softly than you would have expected in soothing tones with lots of pillows and comfy furniture. “Like I would have expected you to be all clean lines and metal and modern art from your public persona. But this is a really warm, inviting place.”

“Thank you! And you're right about most of us, but Steve -- he really is that good. He has a stubborn streak a mile wide, but he's a good man,” she said, sounding pleased. “So, how long have you been an intelligence analyst?”

“Oh, I'm not! Captain Rogers must have misunderstood. I'm just the office manager,” you were quick to point out, not wanting anyone to think you were misrepresenting yourself.

“Really? But you're a forensic accountant. Why wouldn't they utilize your abilities?” she asked, sounding shocked.

“How do you know that?” you asked in surprise.

“I make it my business to know about the people that come into this building every day. And you're the only forensic accountant in the building. Why don't they have you working money angles?”

“Preaching to the choir, sis,” you answered without thinking, then gasped and covered your mouth when she laughed.

“There we go,” Nat said. “Was starting to think you didn't have any spirit.”

“He tries hard, but Brent hasn't broken it completely,” you sighed.

“Well, I don't like the fact that we have an asset being wasted,” she said, sounding perturbed.

You shrugged. “I am but a cog,” you said with a laugh as she handed you some workout clothes.

“Will these be OK?” she asked.

“Yeah, they'll be amazing. I do not want to sit in spaghetti all night. Especially since I'm starving! Smelling it all night would be torture.”

“If you want to wash up there are towels and wash cloths in the linen closet in the bathroom,” she said.

“You are a goddess!” you gushed. “Thank you so much.”

“Just don't let Thor hear you say that!” she said with a chuckle.

You smiled and went in to clean up and Nat pulled out her phone.

Nat: OK Operation Get Steve the Girl is go. I'm talking to her and she's a delight

Bucky: Whoa! Details!

Sam: Damn, does Steve know?

Nat: Yeah, he finally got the opportunity to Prince Charming her

Nat: We'll meet up after she leaves

You came out of the bathroom then and said, “I love Berluti's but damn it feels good not to be wearing it! Seriously, thank you so much. I'll wash these and get them back to you as soon as I can.”

“Oh, no hurry. But maybe we could hang out some time? Wanda's always with Vis and Pepper is always just gone. It's be nice to have another woman around in this sausage fest, y'know?”

“Pepper! Potts! Oh I need to get my report done. But I would love to hang out! Wanna grab lunch or something this weekend?” you asked with a smile as you headed out the door.

“That sounds great! I know where to find you, I'll come by and steal you for lunch soon.”

“Sounds amazing! Thanks again, this is so nice of you!”

You hurried back to your desk, worry about your report catching up with you. And, holy shit you were hungry. You got busy gathering the data that you needed for the report. You had begun the process but since you thought you had three more days before you had to turn it in for Brent to take credit for, you had worked on it in between other duties rather than focusing entirely on it.

You had been busily typing, entering figures, creating tables, typing in HR codes to position requests, and generally making the report bulletproof. Brent didn't keep you as his underling because he liked you; you were very good at your job.

Your stomach started grumbling again. You looked down and said aloud, “Look, you just need to be quiet. I know you're hungry but there's no food until we finish this report for the Jackass.” Then you started to go back to work and thought you smelled Berluti's. “Oh my God, can I be so hungry I'm hallucinating smells?”

Steve stood a few feet behind you, caught between sighing like a teenage boy with a crush and giggling at the way you talked to yourself. He cleared his throat gently and watched you spin around, hand on your chest in surprise.

“Sorry!” he said, holding up his hands once again in a non-threatening pose, one hand holding a bag of take-out.

“Oh! Captain R -- Steve,” you said when he raised an eyebrow.

He smiled at you then at the use of his name. “Hey, since it was kind of my fault that you had to absorb your dinner through your skin,” you chuckled at that and he smiled at the warm sound, “I thought I'd replace it.”

“Oh my God, you did? I think I'm in love!” you said as you hopped up from your chair. “Yummm I feel like Pepe Le Pew floating along after a scent. Except mine is Berluti's.”

Steve laughed and said, “Let me just separate out my order from yours.”

“Oh, you got some, too?” you asked.

“Yeah, it just smelled so good.”

“Do -- do you wanna eat with me in the break room?” you asked hesitantly. “I mean you're probably busy --”

“No! I mean yes! I mean, I'm not busy. I'd love to have dinner with you,” he said with a shy smile. Rogers, you are such a dork!

“Well, that sounds like the best thing to happen to me all...year,” you said, returning his shy smile.

Nat, Sam and Bucky watched the two of you on a security camera monitor, popcorn in hand.

“She's as hopeless as he is,” Sam said, tossing some popcorn into his mouth.

“Nobody’s as hopeless as he is,” Bucky said, shoveling some popcorn into his own face.

“I think they're cute,” Nat said with a smile, switching the camera over to the break room. “And I hope they hit it off, because I like her.”

“You just want another girl around,” Bucky accused. “You already outnumber us.”

“Only in IQ points, Barnes.”

“Ouch,” Sam hissed. “Turn the sound up. Let's see if he nudges her a meatball with his nose.”

So his three best friends watched the two of you have dinner and awkward conversation together, delighting in Steve's painful chit chat topics and your equally gawky rejoinders.

It was magical.

#Chris Evans #Captain America #Steve Rogers #Captain America x Reader #Steve Rogers x Reader #New fandom who dis #Avengers

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criticalalexandrite · 7 years ago

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SU sucks at writing Grey Morality

For a show that’s so obsessed with grey morality they have a poor understanding of how it works. Let me explain. Grey morality has nothing to do with gauging how good or evil someone is. It has do with establishing and addressing actually potentially debatable questionable morals, that’s it. That means in such a story a good guy can have questionable morals pointed out by an unbiased too. In fact they absolutely should so long is this isn’t being used to debate whether or not abuse is evil because that misses the point. And the other issue is the show writes characters with questionable morals is the writing bias. You can’t make a show about characters with questionable morals and favor some characters over others. That defeats the whole purpose of the concept. All the characters would have to be judged equally for their grey morale. And the other issue is the show has a preschool level understanding of grey morality. You know, well rounded grey morality which the show advertises itself with Literally in every ep that redeems a morally grey character it’s reduced to pity parties, a bunch of crying and erasure of future tension in character arc conclusions. What I mean is when these characters cry over being called out for their moral ambiguity, the show’s narrative never questions them again. Despite the fact that...morally grey characters are supposed to be constantly questioned. Oh yeah and the other issue is that when the show goes into morally grey arcs it becomes...disconcertingly clear how their understanding of that is skewed. And what I mean by that is they call the wrong things morally grey. If a character that’s not as favored by the crew wants to stand up to their abusers/antagonists, they’re painted as evil for those “problematic morally grey views.” But when a favored character does it they’re called good and perfect no matter what. Let me give examples. Bismuth, Garnet, Amethyst, Jasper, the Ruby Squad, CG Ruby and Sugilite are all painted as evil for expressing morally grey views. Never mind the fact the show said there are no villains. But I guess that changes when their least favorites are involved. Then there’s Pearl. Lapis, Peridot, Blue Diamond and Steven who are always painted as perfect victims no matter what awful things they do. Although I’ll admit Rose Quartz is an...interesting case. She could’ve been close to becoming an actually morally grey character, considering her past. But then the show starts messing up in season two and three with its writing bias again. Rose starts showing in season two that she’s really manipulative but she’s not judged for manipulating people for her own petty gain. She’s portrayed as misunderstood and “trying her best.” Which would’ve been tolerable if the show followed up on showing it as morally grey. Nah though, of course they can’t do that. Because when it comes to her world views on killing, she’s 100% flawless for being a pacifist. Which apparently absolves her of being manipulative frequently to the crewniverse. Yes, that’s right. The morally grey show is trying to act like being a pacifist is inarguably the right path. Never mind the fact that pacifism succeeding relies on snubbing the abuse/assault victims that can’t be passive due to the state of their life. You know, even though the whole morally grey thing would apply to pacifists too? The show doesn’t even have the naunce to at least address that since Rebecca herself is a pacifist hippy. So, that means Rose right and Bismuth evil. Even though all Bismuth wanted to do was shatter the Diamonds and the willing abuse apologists in the Homeworld system. So much for pacifism being the absolute morally ethical choice here. Then she’s revealed to be the one who killed Pink Diamond. Oh hey looks like the show’s trying to be morally grey again right? WRONG! Instead because the Diamonds are now “the real heroic victims all along” post-Steven Bomb 5, this makes Rose the villain now. Yes. Rose is the villain...for supposedly killing her abuser out of self defense. *cue screaming* Oh and then, come next Steven Bomb that wasn’t true after all! That was just a conspiracy started by Yellow Diamond! One of the Diamonds is the real evil again! Making that whole turnabout arc absolutely pointless. (And also the Diamonds are revealed to be abusers but gotta ignore that so we can pity Blue Diamond still as the pinnacle of pacifism.) Especially since no morally grey examination happens in any of that. You know, the show that says there’s no such thing as a villain in the series. And also insists everyone is morally grey? Oh and you know that’s another issue with Steven Bomb 5. It tries to paint abusers as morally grey. ABUSERS. If you honest to God think that abusers are inherently morally grey then you’re dangerously naive. But I’ll semi- give the fans the benefit of the doubt in that regard. Because the crewniverse seems to believe this too and are the ones preaching this as moral purity. It’s even self-admittedly apart of Rebecca’s peaceful fantasy world for even abusers to be redeemed. You can look that up yourself on her interview about season 5′s pitch. I can’t believe it still has to be said that abusers shouldn’t be given morally grey arcs. But that’s this terrible world full of people with horrible comprehension skills for you. It really feels like the crewniverse went with making their whole cast morally grey as an excuse to not change the status quo permanently. The status quo which is fundamentally flawed because it excuses abusers and manipulators. In crewniverse’s eyes morally grey changes definition. Based on which character they’re focusing on is the most aesthetically pleasing to them personally. And don’t get me wrong. This doesn’t meant I hate morally grey characters by default. I’d personally love to see a show with all grey morality characters! The problem is SU fails at it horribly due its noticeable borderline fascist writing bias. I can’t bring myself to give it an A for effort when it seems very clear the show isn’t going to try harder to make an actually diverse morally grey show.

#SU critical #SU discourse #grey morality #writing problems #crewniverse problems

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cwdcshows · 5 years ago

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Arrow - S8 E10 - Fadeout

Normally I try to do these in order, but haven't caught the first couple of seconds of last week's Legends, I haven't been able to bring myself to watch that episode and honestly haven't decided yet if I even want to; and figured if I was going to bother with an episode tonight yet, it might as well be the Arrow finale.... So here we go. Yeah, okay, if I became some sort of demi-god type being, I might be tempted to somehow tinker with a few things; especially rectifying the loss of certain loved ones, if it can be avoided in the short term. Undoing Moira's death seems like a big deal though, because that kind of radically alters the last 6 years where she wasn't present. I mean, just off the top of my head, would Thea have still gone off with Malcolm to train that summer? Did they still have the same confrontation with Slade and his small army invading the city after this new scenario where Oliver managed to free himself and get the upper hand on Slade? It also raises some questions of some of the other changes and to what degree Oliver was involved (and how) and what are either aberrant differences that just randomly occurred and what were indirectly caused by some of these other changes, by way of the butterfly effect? I mean, this is evidently a world in which Dinah Drake never existed, are we supposed to infer that Oliver didn't particular care for her and snapped her out of existence? Did Dinah steal the last bagel in the bunker break room right before Crisis and Oliver's carrying a petty grudge? Or maybe he really liked and her decided to save her when the arbitrary path of the new timeline decided to delete her - which I imagine is what we're probably supposed to believe, but I'm going to assume it's the bagel thing.

Here's another thing, why did anyone tell Moira she died in some alternate timeline? I don't think I'd want to know that; especially since that whole encounter was probably pretty terrifying and for everything Moira did and gone through up to that point, it's still conceivable that just the experience of almost dying at Slade's hands might have been cause for her to develop PTSD. If finding out that she actually did die during that encounter and then six years later her son died and became the fucking Spirit of Vengeance and helped reboot the universe and somehow manipulated this timeline where you lived isn't a trigger, I don't know what would be. Oh, come on, make up your mind people; was Dinah there or was she erased from existence? I get that she said last week that it wasn't until after Oliver's funeral that she woke up in the future and discovered she'd been erased, but seriously, how long did they wait to put Oliver's funeral together that she had time to still be part of whatever Saint Oliver retrospective documentary they're doing? And are we now going to spend the entire episode pretending that we didn't see any of the events from the last episode? Because that makes the less episode less of a "backdoor pilot" and more of just a pilot that they randomly inserted into another series just for the sake of tying it in. Thank fucking God the entire fucking episode isn't going to be done in the documentary format. I hated whichever the last time they did that; whether it was last year or the year before. I think it was last year and it was dumb and boring and definitely not the format the last fucking episode of the series should be. Crime in Star City disappeared overnight. Literally. Fucking how? They tried to play this bullshit in the last episode and makes no sense; how does a city of....what? At least 10s of thousands if not probably hundreds of thousands or a million people.... how does a city the size of Star City suddenly have no crime, just because....Oliver willed it or something? Doesn't that sort of negate the free will of the people in Star City? And why just Star City, not the entire world and allow Barry, Kara and the others to kick back and relax? Why does this magic spell suddenly get lifted in 20 years? So the scene of them all toasting Oliver's memory answers one question I raised previously, which is, did Roy still lose his arm; and the answer is, yes; and Cisco or whomever built him the most Robo-Cop type arm they could come up with. And I'm guessing that might be the answer to how Caitlin or Cisco support themselves in spite of Star Labs otherwise being defunct by all account; because if either of them developed that prosthetic, and I'd bet dollars to donuts one of them, probably Cisco did, they must be a fucking billionaire as a result of all the limbs of everyday people I'm sure they've helped replace with this technology. Though my follow-up question is, if in this new reality Crisis never technically happened, how and when did Roy actually lose his arm? Second follow-up, noticing that it is in fact his right arm and assuming that since he's drinking right handed..... does the arm vibrate and what level of precision can he control his grip strength? I'm fairly confident these were questions at the forefront of Roy's mind when he got his new arm. (Sigh)....So he saved Quentin too it seems..........cool........ So what was the fucking point of that fantasy episode the Monitor put Oliver and Laurel through right before Crisis, where Oliver tried over and over to save Quentin and had to come to grips with not saving the day or some bullshit? Well congratulations on the promotion to Chief of Police, Dinah; I'm sure you're going to be in that job for many years to come and not going to be whisked away to 20 years in the future, while be simultaneously erased from history. Also, all through the last episode I was trying to figure out what Dinah looked different; and I still can't quite my finger on it, especially since in this episode she looks how she normally looks. I also can't describe the way in which she looked different last week; like she looked....hotter.....and also slightly younger. Am I nuts? Does any of that make sense? Augh, what the fuck. Why would Mia be given the memories of Oliver watching his father killing himself? That is what they're suggesting happened, right? So we have Dinah and Laurel in the present day prior to their quantum leap to 2040 that took place in the last episode, which I guess technically makes all of those scenes the past even from our perspective. And now we're jumping forward again to 2040 to presumably some point after last week's episode, to a time when Mia has her Pre-Crisis memories; just in time for a visit from Sara. Have I got that all straight? Is Mia coming to the present day after all? Are they going to make that any more of a cluster fuck? It seems unlikely, since they bothered transporting some later version of Laurel and Dinah there and setup the whole thing with JJ getting his Pre-Crisis memories. Maybe Sara's there to do her fucking job protecting the timeline and has some issues with them stopping Bianca's murder last week? Nah, probably not. I'll tell you what, I may be able to make my piece with all the Olicity bullshit if it means it's all been leading up to this moment where Sara is actually there for a booty call with Mia. Augh.... of course she's there to take Mia to her father's funeral. Fuck you writers. Seriously, they're still getting those stupid fucking tattoos? You know what we definitely don't need in the fucking series finale? New, unnecessary flashbacks shoehorned into season 1. Why the fuck is this part of the show? Is this the result of them realizing they killed off the main character two fucking episodes before the end of the series and needed to find a way to inject him back into the last episode for more than just a cameo? Wait, did Mia just say "a few weeks before Sara showed up"? As in, Williams was kidnapped weeks ago? Did anyone else forget that William was kidnapped last week? Did anyone else just realized that they basically set something like that up and it won't be resolved for like, 9 months; assuming their spin-off does indeed get picked up? Also, did she actually tell Laurel that William was kidnapped or did she keep it ambiguous what happened "right in front of her" and it's just us that were reminded the details via flashback? Because if she actually told her what happened to William, Dinah she presumably remember this when she wakes up 20 years in the future in a couple of days and then run into Laurel whenever later.... God these writers suck at writing time travel stories. Why are they so fucking bad at telling time travel stories? Why do they keep writing something they're so fucking bad at? Wait......wait......wait.... Sigh..... Was the scene in the Bunker between Mia and Dinah....in the fucking past or the present? I'm pretty sure it was in the fucking present, right? And now a news report about William being kidnapped comes up on the computer; so.....William is being kidnapped in the present day too? Fucking William. And fuck you, writers. Holy shit, they brought Ragman back? Oh, for fuck sake, of course they're going to try and force this stupid flashback into relevancy by trying to give it repercussions in the present. It was bad enough when they pulled that shit with Adrian Chase. Fuck you. Oliver's getting pounded on by a small mob and he somehow manages to aim his bow to fire a grappling line to get him out of that? Seriously? And how much help was the smoke bomb in doing that? And what is he even grappling to, the sky?? I thought he was inside a building and then I see he's outside, soaring past a bunch of tower or silos or whatever; and there's literally nothing directly above him but the great beyond. Are they going to bother explaining how, in spite of whatever voo doo has miraculously wiped crime out of Star City and will do for the next 20 years, John Byrne is somehow the exception and manages to kidnap William of all people? Who the fuck took the footage of Mia rescuing William?? How did they even know where or when to shoot that? Oh man, I'm so glad that after 7 years they finally addressed that dangling plot thread of how Oliver decided to be less lethal during season 1. It's been a while since I watched season 1, but clearly the writing was sloppy and incomplete back then and they're finally making up for the low writing standards by filling in the blanks now before the series ends.... Of course they also brought back Tommy, because fuck the entire series and almost every important thing that's happened in the last 8 seasons. And how the fuck does it work that Laurel is other Laurel instead of Laurel-1? This Laurel wasn't at the dawn of time, she should have been overwritten by the new reality that was formed. I mean, from another perspective I was thinking about towards of the start of the episode, really, with the exception of anyone who was at the battle at the dawn of time, every other character ever shown on these shows, any other person who hypothetically lived on Earth 1, died. And while this New Earth sprung up in its place with virtually all of the same events, one might argue that it's a completely different universe, and all the people in it aren't technically the people who were alive before Crisis. They may look and behave like those people, they may even have the vast majority of their experiences, but even glossing over the crucial fact that there are differences, even if there were it could still be argued that these are entirely new and different beings from the ones who existed before. Copies, but wholly separate; especially factoring in the lack of Crisis or the ever growing list of divergent properties, like people who did not die in this new reality and the combination of people and histories of at least three or four other Earths. It's kind of a cluster fuck and the lack of proper answers behind other Laurel is really unsatisfying. Thea: Yes. Roy: Yes? Thea: Yes.

Why would Diggle now accept that they're not needed as a hero in Star City, on the premise that crime has become virtually non-existent, when they literally just stopped a kidnapping? So if Diggle is moving to Metropolis, is this there way of saying he's moving over to the Superman spin-off? Are JJ and Sara going to have play dates Clark and Lois' twins? Oh, it's a statue. Honest to God, when I saw it in the promos, I thought Oliver was going to appear as the Spectre, inexplicably wearing black make-up instead of the conventional white hue the Spectre is normally given. I thought it seemed like a questionable way to go.... What?? Oliver couldn't change the things that would have changed him? You mean things like Tommy dying or his mom dying or even fucking Quentin dying? You mean those things? But also, you know, not preventing Laurel-1 from dying....That was important. Oh for fuck sake, and fucking Emiko is alive too and out and about like it's no big fucking deal. Fuck this show, I'm glad this is the last episode. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??? So now Laurel-1 was Tommy's fucking wife. Because of course she fucking was. Because that is the sort of logical fucking thing that happens when you fucking mess around with the timeline. Crisis along with this whole fucking episode completely undermines the rest of the fucking series by essentially saying that most if really any of it never actually happened. When Sara told Felicity about bringing Mia back from the future, she decided not to tell her anything else; like the fact that Mia had been involved with Crisis or met Oliver or that Oliver gave her her Green Arrow suit? It's not like its a "protect the timeline" thing, everyone else knows this information; which is either all in the past or never happened, depending on how you look at it. You know what would have been great, Barry shows up and he's got like a handle bar mustache or an eye patch or bleach blonde hair like he's got in the comics; and then no one says anything, because this is just Post-Crisis Barry now. Yeah, of course they're going to make Diggle a Green Lantern the last few seconds of the series..... I fucking called the Monitor taking Felicity to some pocket dimension to spend eternity with Oliver..... fuck this show. So does that mean Mia (and William, I guess) just never see Felicity again?

Fuck this show.

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steamishot · 5 years ago

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I wrote the following draft on Friday, but I need to start off by saying that LA is mourning right now. It was an especially eerie day yesterday. I’m not much of a sports fan, but I grew up watching the Lakers during Kobe’s era. My dad’s best friend was a huge Lakers fan, and he got my dad into it, and my dad got our family into it. My dad would place bets at the local Cambodian noodle shop during basketball season and it was always a fun time following along. In a sense, I and many LA natives grew up with Kobe. Kobe has such a huge impact on our city (at the very least). I remember going to those Vietnamese barber shops in Chinatown, and seeing little Asian boys get their hair cut. “How do you want your cut?” the barber would ask? “Like Kobe” the kids would answer.

I heard the news after going to a yoga session at the park. My friend Steph, who also attended the yoga session with me, texted me a little right after I got home with the news. I was with my brother and SIL at the time, and we were stunned (not my SIL, she didn’t know who Kobe was), waiting for the news to unravel. My dad got home five minutes later, and I thought we would be the one to tell him the news. However, his friend Andy already texted him about it. We spent the rest of that morning waiting for more updates, learning about Kobe’s life, sitting around in shock. Til now, I still feel quite sad about the tragedy. But the best we can do is thank his contribution; legends never die.

Turned 28 last week and feel old-ish haha. Recap of the last few weeks

Sis in law threw a surprise bday party for my brother’s 30th at their apartment. Some drama has been going on between them and my parents, and a lot of it can be attributed to generational differences. My SIL is young, and in biological terms, her brain isn’t fully developed yet. She had that rich girl growing up in Cambodia lifestyle, and was pretty financially comfortable, although sheltered, when she was living in SF. My brother is kinda her bitch now, and he backs her on everything. SIL has pretty expensive taste, has a financial safety net from her parents, talks ambitiously, but we haven’t seen her progress much yet. Like Katy Perry’s song “You change your mind like a girl changes clothes” – that’s descriptive of her/my brothers plans. At one point, they decided to take over her uncles business in SF. She “moved” up there, then like two weeks later, told my brother to fly up there and help her move back down. It even gave me a headache.

Celebrated Mike’s 30th bday with a bunch of people in DTF. It was a bunch of fun and the food was surprisingly good. Mike made a little speech, saying he loves everyone who was at the table. We joked about how popular he is.

Went hiking with my aunt, sis in law, the kids, and friends.

Had a birthday dinner at pasta sisters with my immediate family (including bro and sis in law). My sis in law is a generous person, and also quite materialistic. She’s fancy for her age. This is advantageous because she got me a pair of lululemon pants as a birthday gift. I rarely receive expensive presents, so I felt pretty happy about it. I’ve also been wanting a nice expensive pair of yoga pants but thought it may be too frivolous. After trying it on, I understood what the type was about. In the back of my mind, I remembered in an episode of the patriot act, Hasan mentioned that a bunch of oil is used to make synthetics, the type of material used in lulus. Update: I wore it for the first time over the weekend to a yoga class, and it felt very comfortable, although the difference is not significant enough where I would buy my own.

My coworker decorated my office space and went out of her way to get me a specific cake from Glendale. I was never really that close or comfortable with this coworker, although we are the closest in age (3 years older than me). I felt that our lifestyles didn’t really align and that we didn’t have much in common. She was on the drill team in high school, very pretty and put together, fit body, into going to festivals/partying and drinking, not very academically inclined. Our conversations barely made it past surface level topics. However, I was really touched that she went all the way to Glendale to get a cake for me, just because she knew I liked this cake specifically and that I don’t really like sweets. For everyone’s birthdays, we normally just pick something up from Ralphs across the street. After this incident, I felt myself opening my heart to her more, and made an effort to connect with her. I find that it’s easier to connect once you actively choose to “like” a person, thus, to throw away judgment and allow human to human bonding.

Went to NOLA with G, S, and L. When people ask how my trip went, I would say, “it’s really different out there.” And it really is to me. I’m not at all familiar with that area of the country. I think the charm of NOLA lies in anachronism, and on the dysfunctionality of the city. People like the freedom of the city, the friendliness of the town, and how everyone can seemingly enjoy their lives despite any hardships that come their way. Some people on the internet refer to NOLA as Neverland, or an adult Disneyland. From what I’ve read, people there are very laid-back, prioritize fun, and it might be a frustrating place if you’re a go-getter. It seems like a good place for extroverts. I, personally, think one visit is enough. I think if you don’t gamble, drink, or party, the things you can do there are limited.

Besides that, I found the topic of voodoo interesting, although I felt like the voodoo shops we visited were largely touristy- it was hard to get an authentic feel of the locals/community’s beliefs and practices of voodoo. Luckily, one of my coworkers’ family is from Louisiana, and my student worker is from Belize. The day I returned from my trip, I got to chat with them a little and learn about their culture/religion. My coworker mentioned that her grandmother would always keep her hair in a jar and burn it every so often, to prevent anyone from getting her hair strands and practicing voodoo on her. She personally flushes her hair down the toilet. My student worker talked about their need to sweep their house every day from preventing dust buildup (I believe to keep spirits away).

Celebrated CNY with family.

Matt started on his first nights rotation last Wednesday night. It was a difficult transition because he had to work from 6am until noon or so for his day shift, then be on a 12 hour night shift that same night. He had a terrible first couple days adjusting, but now is better. It just sucks that we are now on completely different time zones. I’m unable to chat with him after work because he’s on shift. He goes home and falls asleep around 6am PST, during the time that I’m still asleep. I asked him to send me a card for my birthday. Although I received it days late, I was still grateful for his gift. He wrote me a very sweet message that filled up the card. Good news is, there will be 4 interns on the rotation that he will be on when I’m in town in February. That means that he’ll have less patients, be less exhausted, and have more time for me!

I watched Awkwafina’s Nora from Queens pilot over the weekend. In the show, she plays a “loser” 27 year old who can’t hold down a job and smokes weed every day, and still lives at home with her dad and grandma. The show is supposed to be representative of her life (before her fame). I couldn’t help but feel like I’m getting too old to still be living at home, and although I’ll need to spend money on rent when I move out, it’ll be a valuable investment.

Lastly, this past year seems to be the year of friendship confrontations for me. Growing up, I was very loner-ish and introverted. The hardest thing for me to do was socialize and “be normal”. I found it difficult to relate to people and to build connections with them. When I did start making friends, I was so behind on social skills that I had difficulty deepening friendships. One thing I am grateful for in my last relationship, is that it taught me how to handle conflict with someone else. Before that, I was never confrontational to anyone outside of my family. As I’m growing up, “finding myself” more, and developing my values and what I stand for/look for in companionship, I become stronger as an individual. I’m proud that I can be more honest with my friends, and be more verbal if someone/something bothers me. I look back on a few friendships that dissipated, and it’s usually due to something petty or fixable, if both parties let their ego down and communicated. But oh well, not all friendships/relationships are worth being salvaged.

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tumblunni · 7 years ago

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“SO WHY DO U WANT 2 HUG THIS TRASH GRANDPA, BUNNI” post

Okay, i figured since, well, that one goddamn wifi event is That One Goddamn Wifi Event, I may as well make a short post about it so people who weren’t able to see it can understand how it fuckin Blew My Mind when I was a teenager and plunged me into the fandom hell for the most obscure unloved jerkass grandpa who may or may not even be the guy this vague tantalizing mystery plot point is even about, and AAAA

So yeah here we go, transcript of the event text (thanks, Bulbapedia!) and some general summary of the context of who da fuk dis Charon is, and hopefully maybe at least one more person shall now understand this tiny fandom for a tiny gremp!

~The Context Of Charon~

(skip all this if you just wanna get to the wifi event transcipt)

If you haven’t played DPPT and don’t plan to: The villain team of Sinnoh is Team Galactic, a bunch of silly guys in space costumes with a rad jazz theme tune and a surprising level of competance in a terrifying plan to erase the universe and replace all emotion with infinate silence. Also, interesting moral ambiguity cos most of them are either oblivious or outright good, just being manipulated by the team’s super scary badass leader Cyrus who’s led them to believe they’re going to ‘fix’ the world to end all sadness for everyone. This weird complexity behind goofy nonsense hair people is what got me hooked on them as my faves!

So who is Charon in particular? Diamond and Pearl got a third version called Platinum that fixed a bunch of glitches and unfinished graphics and expanded upon the rushed endgame, etc. It also (for some reason) added one single extra member to Team Galactic, as seen here on the second furthest from the right. Charon is a grumpy grandpa and he literally does nothing in the plot. Its really confusing why he was actually added, he only gets more than two lines of dialogue if you pursue a secret sidequest waaaaay in the postgame, and he still gets like.. SIX lines of dialogue and not even a boss fight. Poor dude barely exists in this game! So what’s weird is that this wifi event kinda contains more dialogue for him than he ever got in the main game, and it at least gives him a purpose for being here- to introduce the new transformations for Rotom that were added in this wifi event. But it just seems pretty badly handled cos he never even appears in the event and there’s a lot of fan debate that it isnt even meant to be him, blablabla. And he still doesn’t do anything UNLESS you get this wifi event, which is really unfair and probably contributes a lot to his unpopularity, okay sorry I’m starting to ramble...

Basically, all you need to know is that Charon is a grumpy grandpa who does literally nothing in the plot.

The Establishing Of The Grump Gramp This is... kinda necessary to know why this thing hit me so hard in the emotions? This is why I don’t think it would work as well if Mystery Wifi Event Flashback Person actually ISNT Charon. All we see of Charon in his VERY FEW non-optional dialogues is that he is vain, cynical, pompous, greedy and for some reason obsessed with talking like a complete tool. And he’s SO MUCH this that he doesn’t even have any loyalty to his fellow villains, he exists to be like.. The More. Everyone else is some degree of honorable dude doing what they do cos they believe in a good cause, Charon is that one teammate that’s too evil even for the rest of them. Or, like, at least too petty? He’s an eternally incompetant comic relief dumbass who never even has enough imagination to do anything genuinely evil, he’s somehow less dangerous than his morally ambiguous teammates! He’s just sitting here like ‘fuq yeh i luv bein evil cos i can swipe the pocket change outta dis vending machine’, then somehow it falls on him and shatters his old man spine. Meanwhile his boss is being all ‘I want to make a world of smiles!’ *collapses the universe into a black hole and literally summons poke-satan* So ANYWAY the relevant point is that you can see why he’s THE SINGLE MOST UNEXPECTED person to suddenly get a sympathetic backstory!

Some transcript of his tiny non-wifi-event dialogues for comparison of how much of an absolute prick this man be:

” It seems quite obvious to me, Charon, the genius even the boss recognizes.” "Humph. Saturn and even Cyrus fall to a mere child... Perhaps another option needs to be considered. One befitting the genius of Charon!" [This is basically his only dialogue in a normal game run, aside from expositioning a few things that were said by other people in the previous version.]

Postgame optional dungeon text:

“What do they see in Cyrus? Immature, overthinking buffoon. He goes through the trouble of assembling Team Galactic for what? Ultimately, he destroys his own creation for his ludicrous vision. It's no thanks to him that I have to struggle with the pieces." “The young can live with their dreams. I prefer to remain firmly in reality. And for that, money is paramount.” “ With this Magma Stone, I will awaken the legendary Heatran! I will control the volcano's eruptions to extort money by the millions! Fear me! “ [cue him being defeated offscreen in a cutscene by someone else] "...Uh, what are you saying? I know nothing! Extorting with Heatran? Merely the blathering of this harmless old man! All said in jest! Besides, among Team Galactic's Commanders, I was the most junior..." [Seriously, you don’t even get to see what Heatran even is! its just an optional scene to go back after he’s gone and catch the thing.]

So yeah he does literally nothing and all we know is that he’s a jerk and he betrays his evil team only to fail horribly at being his own villain also that he has a Rather Specific Speaking Pattern, which will come up later in linking him to that wifi event BUT ANYWAY literally the rest of the team walks away and leaves him to his fate cos he’s such a jerk literally Jupiter says he’s ‘not fun anymore’ literally a man dressed in a boulder costume bitchslaps him with a giant frog its like the biggest fuckin smackdown and the player didn’t even need to participate, he just self-destructed mid cutscene farewell two paragraphs of dialogue granddad, we will probably never remember you ever

B U T

~ The Transcipt Of The Fabled Wifi Event ~

Extra context: this was probably the worst handled of all the horribly handled wifi events. Makes sense at least, sinnoh was like the beta test for whether such a thing could actually be possible in this series. i’m glad they’re more accessable nowadays, but what sucks is that now we don’t seem to even get as many Actual Events, instead they’re just a plain gift of a pokemon via trade without a fun cutscene :( But yeah it was only accessable for a one month period when the game first released, and the item you got in the vent didnt have enough clues about where and how you were meant to use it in order to find the secret room, unless you already knew it was connected to Charon.

The item for the event is the Secret Key, which is somehow charmingly the least secret secret of all time

You take this to one random spot on a random wall in one of two separate Team Galactic HQs in this game, and the whole damn wall vanishes to reveal Charon’s Secret Lab/The Rotom Room

Here, you can turn Rotom into any of its new transformations. And then, completely optional, is a hidden backstory for this one terrible granddad! The notebook on the bottom desk explains how the transformations work, gameplay-wise, and also ‘hey this secret lab belongs to me specifically, Charon’ The notebook up to the top right on top of the box which you might not have noticed, and might have assumed would just contain more boring tutorials? Hoo boy dude, 99% OF THE EVENT DIALOGUE is in that thing! And you’d think a second hand flashback entirely through longwinded narration would be terrible but man somehow it really just worked for me. RIP my soul, cause of death: this

SO LETS GET GOING TO THE MEAT OF THIS POST, MY FRIEND

If you don’t feel like scrolling thru this textdump, I’d reccommend Chuggaaconroy’s excellent lets play of platinum, where he read out the journal here. (16:25, talks about the various wifi event failures first.) Or if you watch this earlier episode (17:15) you can see the whole mini-dungeon where you can catch Rotom in the first place, which isn’t necessary to understand all this but its still super cool. If you do feel like scrolling, here have the appropriate music, or the appropriate music: anime orchestrated version

+++

"It's an old notebook. There's no telling how old it is."

Our encounter was a sudden one. It was when I found my toy robot, one that I had earlier misplaced. At that instant, a Pokémon startlingly emerged from the lawn mower's motor! Clutching my robot, I stared, transfixed by the peculiar Pokémon.

The Pokémon hovered in the air, held aloft by a power unseen. As if curious and unafraid of my presence, it floated toward me. Crackling sounds accompanied it, as if from static electricity in the air. Remarkably, it seemed the Pokémon was the source of this power! In alarm, I flinched, certain that my face would be subjected to a shock. Much to my surprise, the Pokémon seemed to favor me with a smile.

Finally, I came to realize that the Pokémon only wished to be friends. I have decided to name this most wondrous Pokémon 'Rotom.' Simple though it may be, Rotom emerged to me from the motor of a lawn mower. Motor and Rotom... Surely the link is obvious?

Rotom is a Pokémon that is simply sensational. The fact that it can turn invisible is simply the beginning. What makes Rotom unique is its ability to enter and operate machinery!

Rotom and I became fast friends. We were perpetual companions. The electricity from its body forbade contact, however. We could not touch, let alone hug or hold hands, but we cared not. For we were bonded on a much deeper, incorporeal level.

A feeling of mischief got the better of me one day. Seeing Rotom hovering, I decided to startle it--normally I would not. Perhaps frightened, Rotom discharged power beyond its usual range. I fell, stunned, into the arms of unconsciousness...

When I came to, to my horror I realized that Rotom had disappeared. I searched high and low for my friend in dismay and desperation. 'Don't chastise yourself. The fault is mine. No harm done. Let us play as we always have.' Though my words poured out, my friend could not be found to hear them...

My search for Rotom carried me far from home. It was in the town's rubbish heap that I again found my old toy robot. Curiously, our eyes met, then the robot waved a hand as if in greeting. I knew then that I had found my lost friend. I ran to it and hugged Rotom tight, talking on and on.

The robot's eyes lit up happily as I held it. I'm certain that, within it, Rotom was emitting lots of electricity. Somehow, I felt I could understand Rotom's thoughts better than before. Also, I realized that we would remain friends throughout our lives...

"The notebook ends with this page..."

+++

And this is his one and only trading card, and the biggest canon confirmation that he was indeed intended to be the mysterious author of Eighteen Pages Of How Much I Love To Hug My Friend Don’t tell me he doesn’t become INFINATELY more interesting with this knowledge!

Fuckin hell I would give my left foot to see an expanded plot upon this man’s secret good side seriously HOLY SHIT would you ever have imagined he cared about anyone, let alone THIS MUCH? Just sorry seriously i could talk for hours about this aaa dear god...

Oh and another minor transcript, you can get some dialogue from Rowan the first time you transform Rotom into one of its new forms. Its kinda interesting cos it gives some more Vague Potential Lore that inspires a cool headcanon that him and Charon might have known each other in the past? Cos he seems to know at least some details of that hidden journal...

"A Pokémon that slips into electric appliances, you say... Hmm... That is somewhat off from what I've heard about it. Hmm... This is what I've heard. Long ago, there was a Pokémon that merged with a toy robot. Should that Pokémon be recognized as a new species or not... Debates over the issue were about to start when they were rendered moot. The very topic of discussion--the Pokémon-infused robot--disappeared..."

Also that leads into another possible less-heartwarming interpretation of the whole thing that is actually EQUALLY interesting and ALSO makes Charon way more deep as a character! The idea that maybe this heartwarming thing is completely in the past, and nowadays he actually is 100% a horrible prick. Cos I mean, the one rotom you can find in the game is in that mysterious abandoned fancy old house, which is pretty heavily implied to be the notebook-writer’s childhood home where they met it. You can find a fragmented extra notebook page which seems to be the day before the start of the entries you can read in Charon’s lab. It says "Som...hing so pecu...r shou... make off ...ith the mot..." , which was confirmed to be "Something so peculiar should make off with the motor..." aaaaaallll these years later in an episode of Pokemon Generations. So there’s the interpretation that maybe this rotom you can catch is the same one described in the journal, which makes you wonder why its all alone here if Charon supposedly cared about his friend so much. Perhaps he really was a decent guy once, but when he grew up to be such an evil prick he abandoned his pokemon? or maybe it saw what he became, and ran away? or maybe some other sort of mysterious thing happened to cause them to become separated? There’s so many potential interpretations of this whole thing, aaaa!! Why was such a tantalizing plot point wasted on a super hidden wifi!!!

But of course I like the version where trash gramp has one shred of redeemability in his soul and then hypothetically you could have a sidequest to reunite him with his tiny tangerine friend and convince him of the error of his ways and then EVERYONE CAN HUGS AGAIN

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

srsly its got the power to make me never stop thinking about this damn wifi event for all these fuckin years giv grandpa justice, dammit

#commander charon #edit cos i linked the wrong video #im sorry i talkd a forever again #i know ive blabbered this repetitive stuff in other posts but this is like a masterpost introduction for newbs to grandpa fandom i guess #plz join our fandom it is like three people #also i wanna see more cute gijinka designs for rotom seriously i never get sick of those #semi unrelated thought lol #i wanna find more rotom fanart in general i think ive reblogged it all lol #i can reccommend Ray from @daily-haunted-tv

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castlehead · 8 years ago

Text

Wandering Radical

Perhaps at the end of the day I am the sun, am as absurd as calling It a morning sun or setting, like a battle between mind and mind,

To scope the angles of the clouds and sweetly To assume the when, sans context

Of the time, completely blind to when, the sky in either case a mirror Image. Its qualities indicate both ends of today,

Revealing the same hued leveling frames congealing on the horizon Like wet sugar at the bottom of your cup of tea, which I am

Not sure this is; or I am The sun’s ill-researched absurdity Itself, whose heat spills all serious upon

The blank heavens: a blank dark as had ruled Across the garden grounds where-

-The radical will, is fated to, wander. It is when Our watches tell us that the day is come, yet light is not Yet light but lesser dark. Something vague on the horizon

Upheaves the severest corners Of sleep, but leaves us as of then not sensitive to the explosive Draught wakening senses to their duty; drippingly, A high peace of morning, a piece of the

Peace, of time in fickle frames unmovable. The- -Radical takes a walk.

It is how he does his time on this visionary Earth, Or call it prison, fabrication---it is this fabricated

Intensity of devotion that makes him Properly diurnal.

In his quakes of pattern, The radical configures An equivalent paean for the sun and

Moon. I memorialize the minutes of his life by linking these. All of him is all of me accumulated, but in frames of death, not Life, though the radical takes some action to deny his lack of self, Once fetched together by the sun and once all the frames are single-file

As like the resuscitated breather’s breath, the radical Enacts his betrayal of me and himself, he takes his walk back To the moon’s fugitive remaining parts,

Essentially backing the wrong horse, his reasoning a roast Of change of day, a circular riposte

Unto that offense of passing time, that is, a passing into The light of day, as if his own reality were more at stake

In a fluxive World. This choice resulted quickly in diffusion, him With the rest of night among the weltering calm

Palinode, and pallet, of dawn colors---this To catch the memory of being, as if he was at all

Before I made him wander, by being in the night, He is from bones to flesh to a frame among frames Of passing time, a circular riposte

Unto some offense, when to be the footman both Of a sun and Moon, independent of the meld of both Into some other---since in being, One cannot be, without an Other---

Robs time from the already-flimsy being Of the radical, makes his realness flee

Into something metaphorical already, even before I write it so: He has been there before, in the metaphor. He says

This in the garden, and suddenly finds no More to be found there but tombs, tombs

Garbed in glitz and beads for epitaph of words Soaking in the petty stylings of truth’s obligatory

Temporalities, and those truths especially of life, In bleak essay for our dank attachments Daily to be rid, for sake of his

And any life of radical, And he lamed by these withered words about it. Yet they are not idiom

To be put together, the way one as him, but not him, The way I put together the blueness of the atmosphere And light through the big tree: with my massive-

-Painter’s hands, I cluck him out his hoot, contrary hoot, And find I holler answer in

My own mind: he sees himself---in my gusty, Gutsy absurdness; yet unsated, continues licking at these

Chromatic choirs of light through lewd yew trees. It was his sun heaved upwards to the other side

Of the planet, for he was there where I cannot be, The same as maker cannot be the made. He eyed

The sun: it was the same answer---to night’s different gilding, Artifice both, for both come from my hands; what drapes

The dark of damfool night in a slightest glow of visibility Rides on the backs of particles of light later, depending on That ignorant steed, to paint the morning reality instead.

The radical unsheathed by Dawn, realizes nothing of this wilderness of symbols, but Sees clouds where they should be, and as is normal, he

Battles certain pained thoughts that, weakened by Sleep, had almost made a night of his day, this day.

A weal reddens at the rejection Of moon in its final places, somewhere In the moon, as it turns inward, a touchy thing: Its ardor to oppress

The dawn is like a perspective once asleep, then made alive to Meet the challenge of the old inevitability that will compromise it,

Settling the pitch of night’s end finally upon the cities’ Grace as much upon the valley, and all of this, a slow contumely

Unto that moon, a passive, suffocating greyness to its Light, leaking away into usurping horizon: the radical Takes a walk: I am filled with a madness to confess

What he might have gotten away with never affirming, If he just only lived the lie, that he was born, not made. The

Sketchy, yellow light to heat the frost on grass To runoff watering lower berths, lower hills. Tell me his

Reality, o nature, or my nature. A whisper of wind got blown like a charge. Some

Cold glaucoma at first was deadly lush in my wandering radical Who saw this night in him the horse to back. As opposed to that Which took its place, and does, whether I create Or not; having no alternative.

The sun broke out across the nothing new like an Omen by the reins. In blowing hymns of rays---

There were pink yellows, majesties of common, virilest Red into vermilion---the caroled heralding of the sun

Got at him, cornered all the frames Of him, being so enhanced at soul By the drooping weight of bell-flowers Among other garden vesture finally Mid garofani and rosa venturing

Curled thorns up to meet the oxidation of self’s throne, He sitting like the sun at the tips of his head, fighting to Be as massive as the sun, thinking in steps, inconclusive Frames that want the very flat face of meridian their

Home.---Disinterested, apart, I the sterilest painter Could only hope his interest tell the story enough, As if, being a mirror in dark, all that is here is what

Is here. If the sky were conscious of reactions to itself, But not the source of that, the origin of its own self- -Most metaphysical; and wearying of no obligated Approbation/dismay towards a lot of unfelt reality As tunes this poem here,---then, my

Light might could speak in a spark Or charge through the yew trees, back At him, and make him live, more than

One thousand Frankensteins, for the big, Blue bushes---or what light through staid

Clouds: by the time of this frame the day was obviously day, and Yet the radical sought some communicant or symbol for this, Searching for certainty about all the selfhood, anything

As might state its line of reasoning to him, As if I owed him my logic! I told him life

Only existed so he might put himself at stake, Risk to regard the brittle branches of the little Trees as a heft equivalent to the heft of his

Reality, which I painted from scratch; one tree, one instance Of a tree in the particular, all that was needed.

So it seemed, I was the sun, or wasn’t, Or was the wisdom of the sun.

I saw time’s rambles. I took a walk this time. I switched him out; I switched

This mind of mine to strange frames Of the radical’s within, and moved That microcosm to another crown, Throne, another chord for him to Feel real in hearing: for the royal Equipage to harp out and just for

Time, for time's dreadfulness in being, bearing out- -Portals into fiction I spot there in the air I desperately breathe.

This was harder than one could Think to do. That is, to grab this thing I made

As if I could also be it, know the battle of the sun And moon my own, yet something different From that too. To grab-

-All of time’s incessant religion, always multiplying Into further depths, barely there. You’d have to do it,

Grab it differently, grab different: yes: each and Every second, make and be a different body for The frame. You'd have to dismiss the servile

Shadow of fawning publicans that follow you around, Saying about how you are so great, bickering about when Which second out of all the seconds should grab you,

That is, me, on my infinite coattails, and kill me off, while moves All long time along, isolating being from the sun, the moon from

Being; nay any heralding of light’s Meridian pathway across land and sea,

A suggestive throne but not for any sycophant. There is A need of mine, that is, to separate the hope to go on, Debased by now, from the rule of the frames Over this sucking choir.

A comfort: confusion and pure spectacle proceed with Chromatism, charisma---the pure hoot, pure hail of the

Commodious reaching of time, and light, and light unfolding; Telling, heralding itself as pleasance, eden of edens. But The radical is never there. Nor am I, however the balance Might go. All that could survive once the both of us fossilize into The symbols, forms, ratiocinations, metaphors that built us, he And I, we realize, become with the gradualness of nightfall A brute spectacle of all these different frames,

And I the painter, I am one who moved my heart of the sun From its nestled tomb in some headachey beyond beyond

The trees squared in the hills. The hills like lonely Wizards’ hats that loom, and not one bright finality

. . . . . . .

in the bunch of 'em. This bunch of cosmic minutes out of time and made of a time that differs from these my, your dripping frames. In FRANCE, the existentialists,

absurdists and surrealists would think of what I’ve made so far as so much beauty, malformed by a- -damned spectacle: of technicolor light: yes: through

famished trees. And yet, how may I take one frame, and call that my religion: is such a thing not the

same if chosen from any frames’ minutes, droll and fabulous microcosms shooting like full rays of sun, and

the sun, the ultimate, the viol, singing sadness out of tune, to show absurd beauty in a sleep? I- -took a walk. It is impossible to escape the sad

strains of this gay blowing, an impossible poise, a- -hymn, a waltz of chromatic diligence regarding this the span, the catalogue of minutes’ colored light in

a day as wide as wanderers in spaces. Cursed, this demeanor of the sun goes off into cacophony. In the sewn sky. Bowels, led from an open maw

of time, down. The radical shakes his locks at this nice, religious consistency of frames. Again, are not the followers of time, like is the radical, not more than time’s followed rules incarnate?

One can’t, or won’t, babble out a frame of multiples, and call it questing for the walk he took that morning I had made him to take.

But did I keep my reverie intact: is it spastic as surreal rays through this moment of a-

-tree, or many trees, this dallied instance: what choral agony is there to follow, after followers and radicals give up with rhetoric:

questions are not questions; no more were drips of time the frames of time. No more were suns the last

of a truth; a kindness. There’s millions of suns left. There's millions of ways the way I walk will leave the blowing sun the blowing wind---or tiding---of

immaculate change. I took a walk because I was the radical, the radical was I, a changeling, feeling

out for the code for a being in the sun and in the moon. For all these sad strains

of waltz broke through religion, time’s religion, which, after all, is the only religion. To what else

are we forced to adhere, day in, day out: and- -how is it there’s no God for this hymn of the beholder: is he beholding gold sides, green sides,

pink yellows? Absurdity is deep running. It is my rebellion; the rebellion of a- -wanderer wandering, having no alternative.

To sum up, to instate, clip the infinite to ends, that is my mission. It is to round out the brittle, brittle branches of the tree---make the tree

a part of the sun, and walk, with rays blowing in my face. Dis-organize the senses; break the new wood. For something in the heart of time's- -quite idiomatic, allusive, seeming done before, and yet no further notion of the hymn is taken,

elaborated out of dull surprise. Out of dreamt, dreamy frames of blithe light in a quiet fury. In a ghost, a moving ghost of meaning. God’s ticking

clock. So what is it I'm always speaking of: I do not know, and it makes me anxious to move on from whatever it was that rose, having no

alternative.

#poetry #google drive #revision

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segadores-y-soldados · 8 years ago

Text

Listen y’all

Because I’m this Petty and Extra™

Have this. 1. Amelie Lacroix used to be a ballerina.

Old Habits:

Reaper sneers beneath the mask. “I will not work under Talon.”

“Oh no, we are aware of your...peculiarities,” the agent says, a little more cautiously. “We’ve heard the stories of your...abilities and were interested in seeing how you feel about a...partnership.”

Reaper glances towards him, then back towards Widowmaker. His thoughts are unraveling, struggling to jam puzzle pieces together. Why the fuck won’t his thoughts settle down -

“I’m not interested in any sort of deal - ” his words and thoughts die in his throat.

Widowmaker has shifted slightly in the moonlight and, fuck, he’s not really sure why - maybe it’s his stronger senses post-meal, or maybe he’s just so fucking keyed up from the events of the night - but something finally fucking clicks and it’s like he can see it as clear as day.

Amélie.

The name rushes through him like fire consuming dry tinder and he feels something inside him explode with energy. Now that he’s seen it, he doesn’t know how he’s missed it - the tall figure, as graceful and powerful as a ballerina, her long hair pulled back tight, pale skin and dark sneers. But there’s something missing from her - some characteristic that he’s not really entirely sure what it is. He stares at her with a loss for words, his thoughts shoving each other to get to the forefront of his mind.

How in the fucking FUCK I thought she was dead we all thought she was dead I fucking TOLD JACK to do a rescue mission but no he thought it was TOO FUCKING DANGEROUS WHAT THE FUCKING HELL IS SHE DOING HERE didn’t Talon fucking kidnap her why is she working with them

He attempts to steer his thoughts back on some sort of course, but it’s like the world has fucking shifted beneath him and he can’t get his footing back. A god damn mental paradigm shift had broken into his thoughts and scrambled them like eggs on hot pavement, and he is left reeling until a thought stampedes its way to his brain.

Brainwashing.

2. The Reyes shrug

76 + 127: How We Were Made (SEP-era Reaper76):

Even now, Jack knows Gabriel has already found a way out of his cell.

Jack just has no idea what he did.

Think outside the box, he can practically hear Gabriel whisper incessantly to him in his rattling, loose brain.

I can’t, Gabe - I’m fucking trapped inside the box.

You just gotta assess the situation critically. You have advantages, Jack - you just gotta find them.

Advantages.

Sure.

Being locked in a cell has zero advantages over a guard in light body armor and a rubber-bullet gun.

The haze of sleepiness and exhaustion and pent-up frustration and roiling, thunderous energy in his veins is killing every idea in his head.

Look at your situation, think of what you have that 16 or 14 doesn’t.

“...So you are you gonna suck 16’s dick or nah?” 83 asks him vaguely from across the hall.

Sucking dicks is thinking outside the box, right? Jack half-wonders to himself, half to whatever sliver of Gabriel exists in his exhausted mind. He can practically see Gabriel’s shrug - Gabriel would understand if Jack sucked a dick to get out of jail. Gabriel would probably do that himself.

Had Gabriel sucked his guard’s dick for the key?

The thought alone makes his head pound harder.

3. I’m not the one with the statue.

Segador: It Is Not Him:

“Uh -” Reaper says unhelpfully as Sombra snaps out a hand to 76, pulling him over to the holoprojector, saying eagerly, “Oye, oye, Jack - is this Gabe??”

Jack takes a second to process the image and then -

In the stiff, awkward, uncomfortable, deadass silence -

He fucking laughs.

The years and the stress and the explosion and his myriad of problems have tempered the sound, made it harsh and gravelly, filled it with the ashes of what they had once been, but there’s a light there, a brightness, as if someone is pulling the sun out of the depths of the oceans -

And then Sombra is laughing again too, and snapping a picture with her biosystem as Jack wheezes, “Can I get a copy?” and Gabriel growls, “Listen assholes -”

“What the shit is going on over here?” Ana asks as she joins them from her rounds about the museum hall and both Jack and Sombra pull her to the projector and suddenly all three of them are laughing and Gabriel -

“Fuck this shit, I’m gonna rejoin Talon,” Gabriel huffs but suddenly there’s a warm, gentle pressure of a hand on his arm and Jack is there, smiling brightly at him from underneath scars and a silver-white five-o’clock shadow.

“Don’t be mad, Gabe,” the ex-commander chuckles to him and Gabriel softens a little at the words. Jack jerks a thumb to the statue of himself a little ways off to the side, asking playfully, “Wanna help me knock the head off that jackass?”

“Fuck yeah, let’s do it.”

4. “Gabe, anything else you’re not telling me?”

Old Habits (preview - Pre-SEP meeting):

Reyes looks at him with a little bit of embarrassment until Jack sticks out his hand.

“What?” the cadet asks in surprise and Jack just grins, “Name’s John, but I fucking hate it, so call me Jack.”

“Are you fucking serious -” Reyes breathes, “A goddamn handshake?”

“Aww, after all we went through, and you won’t even shake my hand?” Jack mocks at him and Reyes glares at him fiercely before smirking wickedly, “I can see why people want to punch you, jackass.”

“I mean, it is my kink - ”

“I am going to regret saying that to you,” Reyes sighs before taking Jack’s hand.

His hand is rough around the knuckles and joints from years of boxing, but it’s warm too.

“Gabriel,” he mutters.

“Encantado, Gabríel,” Jack beams at him and he sees Gabriel’s left eyebrow quirk a twitch at the Spanish, but Jack rolls on, “This is the part where you tell me you hate the name ‘Gabriel,’ so I can call you ‘Gabi,’ right?”

“Oh, holy fuck, now I really see why people want to hit you, pendejo.”

5. Strike Team “Blue as Blue Can Be” Uniforms

Segador: It Is Not Him:

With pounding frustration and an increasing headache (or was it increasing frustration and a pounding headache?), Gabriel steps out from behind the little partition where they had given him room to get changed. He squares up before the small group of people in the room - his four closest companions, Ana’s seven-year-old daughter Fareeha (who’s looking rather bored as she smashes some buttons on her gamepad), and a bunch of the new recruits who are milling about awkwardly.

“I look ridiculous,” he growls.

The four heroes - Jack, Ana, Reinhardt, and Torbjörn - are lounging around the main room of the base, all of them also wearing these fucking weird ultra-blue “Overwatch” armor sets. Reinhardt looks especially uncomfortable and especially blue - Torbjörn had barely managed to whip out the cobalt armor for him last-minute when Adawe had told them about the “Overwatch global reveal” photoshoot to them last week. The tiny engineer, meanwhile, looks completely out of place without his usual red armor, and he tugs at his beard nervously as he assesses the new recruits. Jack and Ana seem to pull the look off well, as its basically the get up they’re already used to: Ana’s reading something on her datapad, adjusting the beret perched on her silky black hair. Jack is leaning slack against the arm of a cheap couch, looking completely at ease with himself, tapping away at his datapad with a faint smirk as Fareeha next to him whines, “Jack, that’s not fair -”

“This is why I told you not to battle the Overwatch Pokemon Champion, Fareeha,” Jack grins to her before he and the others turn their attention to their commander -

There is stiff, awkward, uncomfortable, deadass silence in the room, broken only by the faint electronic chirping of some pocket monster passing the fuck out on Fareeha’s gamepad.

Torbjörn snorts as Fareeha’s tiny shoulders begin shaking. Ana flashes a terrible, dry smile before covering her mouth and looking away. Reinhardt squints at him with his good eye and Jack gives him the most awkward, fucking fake smile Gabriel has ever seen on him, muttering with some effort, “You - you look good, Gabe.”

“I look fucking ridiculous -” Gabriel starts with a scowl before Ana shouts, “LANGUAGE, GABRIEL.” Her daughter doesn’t even seem to notice, however - Fareeha is giggling and chortling to herself as she shakes Jack’s arm with bubbling excitement and the blonde second-in-command is also starting to shiver with stifled laughter.

6. Push Ups

76 + 127: How We Were Made (SEP-era):

Jack sighs again, not sure if he loves or hates the pressure in his head and neck, before pushing his arms up off his elbows and onto his hands.

Upside-down push-ups suck.

Gabriel’s wide, smug, fucking charming grin flashes into his head.

Jack winces against another wave of nausea and sets into his first rep. He’ll only do five at a time - before the mere act of being upside down makes him want to puke - then put himself back into a normal push up position on the floor, then repeat a few times until he actually throws up or gives himself a nosebleed. He doesn’t know what the fuck is in the “enhancements,” but every other person in the group has had nosebleeds or mild seizures.

It had been fucking terrifying the first month.

After that, the fear slowly eased up when everyone started getting them. Apparently that made it...more normal, though Gabriel loved to point out that even if 100% of all 150 of them got the nosebleeds and seizures, that statistically proves nothing except that the chemicals are fucking all of them up instead of a subset of them. Jack loved to point out that Gabriel was not very good at math, and that would cause Gabriel to point out “Shut the fuck up, Jack, I passed three levels of statistics at West Point” which would cause Jack to point out “So did I, pendejo - I had to help you study for all three of them.”

Jack does his push ups and then slowly puts himself back down on the ground when 78 groans from his cot, “Dude, you gotta try to get some sleep.”

“Yeah, last time that happened the alarm went off,” Jack sighs, letting himself slump face-down on the cool, dull concrete floor.

Fuck, even that feels comfortable.

7. Gabriel, Jack, and NES video games

127 + 76: Trick to the Game:

“How are we gonna shoot ducks indoors?” Gabriel mutters as they reach Jack’s room, and Jack smiles mischievously as he punches the lock code into the keypad, saying with a playful threat, “Oh, you’ll see.”

“What the fuck did I say about scaring me -” Gabriel begins as door slides open, Jack pulling and tugging him inside until Gabriel can finally see the screen glowing on Jack’s side of the room, with a small white video game console actually hardwired to the tv’s only USB port because what the fuck kinda video game system runs on wires these days -

“The fuck is that??” Gabriel asks as Jack bends down and grabs some sort of weird long white remote -

“It’s a Wii U!” Jack states happily and Gabriel just looks at him totally lost and rather distrustfully, before he sputters out, “The fuck is a Wee You?”

“It’s one of Nintendo’s worst-selling consoles ever,” Jack continues, pointing the remote to the infrared sensor bar that he’s taped to the wall because there’s no spot to put it on the holo-tv. He flips to the main menu (the little plaza thing is empty because there’s no internet connection, and even if it were available, Nintendo’s had the servers down for decades now), and selects -

“Ay Dios mio,” Gabriel swears as the words [DUCK HUNT] load up in bright, bold, electric blue letters. The older candidate rubs at his forehead with his hands, mumbling, “I cannot fucking believe you went through ALL THAT just for this joke.”

“YES,” Jack shouts, fist-pumping into the air, “The long con pays off! I still got it.”

And then, after a pause of grumbling silence, Jack looks at him and asks, “...Do you really think that geese are ducks?”

Gabriel looks up and squints at him, saying dryly, “...Aren’t they?”

“...Dude.”

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