#I love mad scientists and she’s funny to an extent

[athetos]

Playing wargroove 2 and it’s just as fun as the first plus there’s a buff non-binary rat who was unethically experimented on so they’re obviously my favorite and there’s froggies and you can ride cats instead of horses, and there’s a lot of accessibility options which is super appreciated. Besides having multiple sliding difficulty scales, there’s also an option to reduce screen shake/flashing and vibration (a godsend for me), color blindness filters, and even monaural audio which is weirdly rare to come across. My only frustrations are that there’s a bit of wonk to it, there’s some minor typos and layout jank in the codex (which of course I continuously pore over), there’s some frequent but not overly annoying glitches when the enemy does their turn of the screen focusing on a random part of the map away from the action or pulling up menus you didn’t want to look at, and lastly I’m just bummed there’s no toggle like in fire emblem to see the maximum move/attack range of the enemy army. I saw some people complaining it would make it too easy but to me it’s just a way to save time, instead of going back and forth checking and double checking to make sure I don’t accidentally step a tile too far.

Anyway my only other comment is I’m going to kill pistil I’m going to grab her by her tail and dangle her over a pool you are my enemy you nasty vermin!!!

[federthenotsogreat]

Ranking M&L villains, not by personal preference, but rather how well they fulfill their roles in their respective games 👍

Here's my reasoning or something idk man, I hush wanna talk about Mario 😔😔

Feel free to state your own opinions, I'd genuinely love to hear them

Super cool M&L antagonist ranking wooaaa ✨✨✨✨

Anyways here's my reasonings 🥺❤️

Antasma

To me, Antasma's last place, not because he's a bad antagonist, but simply because he's "just okay", when compared to the others- He isn't all too intimidating, usually giving Bowser the spotlight instead. It's cool having a villain do that, but it also impacts my super cool and official ranking :(((((

He's like... A wet towel... He's cool! But still a wet towel... 😔

Princess Shroob

Princess Shroob is fifth place, but honestly, she's still amazing in my opinion... She's incredibly intimidating, but falls a bit flat on the comedy aspect- There's also a language barrier between her and the player, which makes connecting with the character harder... Still a great villain, there's just not THAT much to her 😩

Zokket

Zokket is really cool... He's really intimidating, has some funny moments with the Extention Corps, and his lore makes him really interesting! The only reason he's not above Cackletta to me, is because the moment Reclusa enters the game, you completely forget about him... Would he have been the only villain of his game, he would've easily made third place 👁️👁️‼️

Cackletta

Wooo omg my favorite 😳😃😍

Cackletta is really cool because she's both intimidating and entertaining- For the first half of the game she's just several steps ahead all the time and that's really nice... Her not giving up after Woohoo Hooniversity and fusing with Bowser is a really cool twist too! The only thing she's missing is some character development, if you don't count her slowly turning completely hysteric 🥺

She's a tad bit boring compared to other antagonists, but makes up for it because she's just really memorable and you always see her as an actual theat

Reclusa

Omg Reclusa... he's so cool...

He is a GREAT villain. He's so incredibly chaotic and intimidating... He's entertaining and dear god is he threatening. I actually think he's more intimidating than Fawful in BIS, and that says a lot...

He's overly confident, which really works in his favor- while Fawful sees Mario and Luigi as an actual threat who he tries to keep at bay via trapping them inside Bowser, Reclusa likes to play with his food before he eats it. He sees himself as an unstoppable god and really sells his role

Fawful!!!!

The man, the myth, the legend

I actually think that Fawful and Reclusa are relatively similar as antagonists? They're both very threatening, very confident, and incredibly memorable. I actually think that Fawful loses some of his intimidation factor due to him being a bit more comedic than Reclusa!

But what makes him the best written villain in the series for me personally, is that he's the only one with a story stretching through several games... He has the most character development out of any of the antagonists, and it's so cool seeing him go from the silly henchmen to the main villain, getting more confident in the process. He captures that "mad scientist vibe" perfectly, and at least to me, he's also the most realistic antagonist in the series. He's stressed, he's anxious, he wants his revenge...

It's nice following his development and seeing him turn into this incredible example of a villain 👏👏👏👏

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Wooo I hoped you liked that ranking guys 😃😃😃😃

Remember to hit that bell and subscribe to my channel for even more amazing M&L content 🥳🥳🥳🥳‼️‼️‼️👍👍👍

But no seriously, I hope you found my rambles entertaining... Feel free to join and ramble along! :3

[wonderbutch]

Hi ! I read your post about the mischaracterization of batfam members, could you expand more ? And how do you choose which characterization is "the right" ? I feel like comics are so old that first characterizations are too simple or over used.

But maybe, it is just not on board with dc merchandising plan...

Thanks you !

I WOULD LOVE TO EXPAND MORE but please keep in mind i havent read batfam comics in a HOT MINUTE but lets gooo.

for starters, the way i personally choose which characterisation to follow is the one that is most consistent within comics, which can be tricky, ill be the first to admit. but if your character basis is off of a headcanon you saw on tumblr/a thing you saw in one comic, you are bound to be just. holding onto nonsense.

now lets talk about how characters are talked about, characterised, and seen within fandom.

lets use dick grayson, aka nightwing, as an example. in the current comics, and in fandom, he is often depicted as the ray of hope and sunshine always happy in a gritty dark world. while this may be true to an extent to his character now, it certainly wasn’t the case when he was first becoming nightwing, and as robin. so many times i see batfamily fics set during the time where jason has just become robin that depict dick as the happy go lucky guy that loves everyone and is a ray of hope and love all the time. in reality (ha!) he was angry, he had just been fired as robin was constantly fighting with bruce, coming to terms with his emotions and feelings about being a vigilante, and dealing with interpersonal relationships. he was by no means acting all happy and sunshine. he loved jason, yes, but he certainly wasn’t hanging around wayne manor idly cracking jokes with bruce. however, as he grew into the nightwing title, he became more mature and less broody, but was still definitely a bit angsty and angry. definitely not the way hes often portrayed by fandom.

moving on, lets talk about jason. this is where comic characterisation really fucks up today. everyone, including fans and writers alike, love to present the idea that jason todd was “the angry robin”. from his first appearances, we KNOW this isnt true. he was full of love for life and adventure and enjoyed school a great amount. he grew up on the streets and had somewhat of a temper, yes, but this was usually to do with people who did great harm to others (for example, the ring at the beginning of death in the family) not because he was actually full of rage always. he was traumatised, yes. but full of hate and rage? definitely not. 80s comics are in that sweet spot where dialogue and storylines are darker and more serious, so its safe to count on jasons robin run as a pretty good place to reference jasons character as robin.

now, with tim drake, he is often depicted by fans as a coffee addicted technology genius mad scientist type character. i have so many problems with this for so many reasons. firstly, shut up about the coffee for the love of rao it has no basis in canon at all. secondly, although tim is talented and intelligent, a concerning amount of fans (and writers/comics, im looking at you, detective comics 2016) looove to say and depict tim as being “the smartest batfamily member”. this is just. so false that it’d almost be funny if it wasnt rooted in sexism (and perhaps ableism). that title will ALWAYS belong to barbara gordon. id love to go into detail about why people treat barbara gordon as second rate to tim but i think thats gonna be for another post. also, tim is literally a high school dropout!! as for the mad scientist thing, PLEASE read any other comic than red robin for your basis of tim drake characterisation. that depiction of tim is because of a very dark time in his life, he most definitely is not like that all the time 24/7.

cassandra cain’s fanon characterisation is probably one of the things about fandom that pisses me off the most. in fics, shes portrayed as this mute girl that loves batman and all his methods completely and has never disagreed with him ever. truthfully, as shown in her batgirl run during the 2000s (read it its so so good) cassandra cain is an 18 year old who has limited speech due to being raised without any spoken language whatsoever. instead, she was raised as a living weapon designed to kill whoever david cain asks. shortly after she kills her first person she is horrified, fleeing to the streets and eventually coming across barbara gordon who decides to take her in and give her the batgirl mantle. she then encounters a psychic who is able to give cassandra the ability to understand and speak english. her speech is short, often shown as short direct sentences sometimes with ellipses when she cannot think of and/or verbalise a certain word. however, she loves to talk and express herself and read books, even if it is difficult for her. for these reasons, i would consider her to be semi verbal and neurodivergent. as for being portrayed as The Biggest Batman Supporter Ever, in her comic run she is often seen directly disobeying batman, and has said point blank that she isn’t loyal to him, but to the batman mantle and symbol itself, taking the no killing rule extremely seriously. although she is one of the characters to obey the no killing rule the most and in its entirety, she most certainly isn’t bruce wayne’s/batman’s biggest supporter nor does she agree with everything he does or even his methods. that title would probably go to damian wayne, believe it or not (again, for another post) but, for these reasons i also consider cassandra cain to be the best choice for who gets to inherent the batman mantle.

this post is getting way too long but uhh those are my thoughts and feelings on certain batfamily characters and how they are mischaracterised by fandom and sometimes comics! i hope u found this informative lol.

[erigold13261]

Some HCs about NSRverse Shoko bc why not?

-They get along with Noir really well. It's because they both have a pessimistic/pragmatic view of the world while looking chill. (enjoying each other's company too) (Satoru surprisingly gets along with Hobie, after Hobie realized how fucking smart the brat was and Satoru loves to banter with them. Suguru gets along with Margo, and they definitely Judge You In Queer)

-Shoko's parents... are neglectful and controlling. They don't care enough for their kid to realize it is smoking behind their backs, but want to use the kid to climb up the social ladder.

-Although Shoko's parents heavily encouraged them to get in medicine, Shoko genuinely enjoys studying more about powers/medicine

-They knew that Utahime would come in a heartbeat if they asked for help, but didn't. It was because going against the Gojo clan was a really bad idea. (Miles was a bit bummed out to hear that no one in the JJK gang were able to have buddies help to come over)

-Shoko actually doesn't like sweet things, but eats a lot of lollipops to stop smoke cravings.

-Shoko has a slight mad scientist streak. It doesn't like Olivia because she sometimes reminds it of its personal flaws.

-Canonically Shoko has said that it will never have romantic/sexual feelings for Satoru or Suguru. (But in this AU I like to think that SaSiSu are in a QPR, although they don't have a name for their friendship)

Dang these characters are really growing on me

Have a great day/evening!

-Friendships: Noir and Shoko being critical of the world together is something I love! Also Suguru and Margo being friends is so funny but good to me! Satoru and Hobie def have a sort of frenemy vibe going on!

-Parents: Another poor kid with parents using them instead of loving them. It will probably have a lot to talk about in common with the Sayu Crew when/if they all meet.

-Work Study: I can see Shoko finding some interest in medicine, but only because that field helps them understand more about powers to an extent. So they are using their love of powers to help them actually study regular medicine (otherwise it would be too much of a chore to get enough motivation to study by itself).

-Utahime: I can see Miles being bummed out makes Shoko (and maybe the rest of the JJK gang) feel bad because they all think the reason Miles is upset because the revolution was lacking force, while Miles is actually upset that the gang doesn't have as much support and friends directly with them to help support (or something like that). Like yes, Miles would have loved to have more forces, but in honestly I can see him just wanting the JJK gang to have more support that was closer to them (that the gang had more history with, because the gang still had support from the Arachnikids, but that's not the same as like a lifetime friend or family support).

-Sweets: Shoko forcing itself to eat sweet things to get over cravings probably isn't going to help it as much as it does with Noir who does like sweet things. Apparently just being able to chew on something can help reduce the craving to smoke, so maybe Shoko ends up eating a bunch of raw vegetables, like carrots or celery to help reduce cravings while not forcing sugary sweet things into its mouth.

-Mad scientist: If Shoko knows Jurassic Park, or is shown it, I can see it loving the line "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should." I don't know why that is what came to my brain but it is. Shoko loves science but wants to figure out when enough is enough and when to not push things too far (something Olivia is absolutely okay with ignoring to push science).

-Feelings: You can still be in a QPR without being romantically or sexually involved with someone! QPRs are very flexible and just about any relationship can actually fit into a QPR. Shoko cares deeply about Satoru and Suguru, enough to possibly spend the rest of its life with them, possibly move in together, maybe even help them raise a kid if that is ever an option. All of this can be done without ever having romantic/sexual feelings for the other two. Shoko still loves them, but in a different way from how Satoru and Suguru love each other (and they love it just as much as it loves them, just in a different way!)

And you have a good day too!

[marvels-bitch-boy]

Emerald Eyes Part 3: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: (Y/Ns POV)

Word Count: 5.1k

A/N: I don't really know how I feel about this one but let me know! I hope you enjoy it!!

Master List , P1 Chapter 1 , P2 Chapter 1 , P3 Chapter 1 , P3 Chapter 3

Laying the rubble you feel the cuts that run along your body, and your head pounds like a drum in a heavy metal concert. There is no light peaking through the concrete that has encased you. As you lay buried alive you lose track of how long it's been. Eventually, you pass out from blood loss. Your mind drifts to Natasha... how heartbroken she must feel. You pictured the two of you together, you were sitting on your own couch in your shared apartment. She cuddled up to you and things just felt right, this felt like the way things should have been. You were pulled from the rubble weeks after you passed out. They were shocked that you had survived. Once you were stable you were kept in a medically induced coma. You were told all of this once you had woken up. You had a shrink visit you every morning and afternoon. He talked to you about your feelings, and about the people you thought were family. You told him things that you didn't even remember until you were already singing like a canary.

They put you into physical therapy next and you excelled at it. The rate at which you recovered was faster than ever before. The scientists who came to test on you marvelled at your genetics and the way your body worked. One day you were sitting on the edge of the pool after a session of PT. You heard the steps of heels bounce off the walls and soon enough they reached you. Turning around there was a woman dressed professionally with jet black hair in a bun. She smiled at you and asked you to join her for lunch. You agreed and soon found yourself having a lovely meal while being offered a job. "Leviathan is only interested in unlocking your full capabilities... letting you be yourself to the fullest extent"

"I'm sorry but what is your name again?" you furrowed a brow, you didn't actually remember ever hearing her give it to you. "Valentina de Fontaine... I would be delighted to be a part of your journey towards healing, your shrink informed me that as your sessions progressed you began to harbour a sort of- anger towards your old team. Is that correct?" you nodded your head and continued to eat, "well Y/N. I want to give you the chance to take your revenge, become the man you're destined to be..." she takes a sip of wine and leans back with a smile "How does that sound?"

—

That was a month ago and now you were working with Zemo who your bosses caught a whiff of. They believed that he could be of use to you and that he was getting rather close to discovering their existence. They posed as a separate organization and loaned you out to him for the time being. He supplied you with information you lacked and you provided the brawn. That was until...

"Wakey Wakey..." you heard a tap on the glass of your cell and saw a short white-haired man in a suit holding a tray of eggs and toast. "Oh c'mon, I know you're happier to see the food than me but at least respond." The man circled you and opened a small door near the floor and slid the tray in.

"And you are?..." the man touched his chest and gave a faux pout. "Wow. did they not tell you I was coming? I'm Agent Ross. I deal with international affairs... and you my friend just made a doozy of one." this made you laugh at his remark. This wasn't even the worst of what you and Zemo cooked up. There was far more at play here. He narrowed his eyes at you as you laughed and took a seat on a chair near the wall. "What's so funny?"

"Ohh, nothing~ I promise you, agent... I'm just one of the moves in this chess game. And we only have a few more till checkmate..." you turned around and sat back down on the bed... he attempted to ask you more but you closed your eyes and remained silent.

—

Sitting alone can sometimes lead to madness. You knew this too well, after all, you laid in rubble alone for days. No end in sight. Leviathan gave you a second chance to live and to repay them all you had to was destroy the Avengers... at this point, it was like taking candy from a baby.

The lights shifted to red and the alarms began to blare. You knew what was happening and you couldn't hold back your excitement. Zemo stood in the doorway as it slid open. A smile appeared on your face and he began to open your cell. Once you were free your next task was to knock out a guard and get some comfortable clothes. Walking down the halls with Zemo was a quick way to get towards the exit but not until a certain redhead joined the party. She made her way towards Zemo but as the muscle of the operation, you were tasked with making sure he came out unscathed.

Shooting at her as she ran down the hallway and finally made her way to you. Kicking her in the stomach and soon throwing her against a wall. You had her pinned to it and she wrapped her legs around your torso and attempted to headbutt you. Stumbling back only a few steps you felt her twist around you and soon she had you in a headlock with her legs. You began to overheat yourself and she grunted in pain as she only strengthened her grip. You let out one last attempt to burn her off of you before you felt yourself fading from consciousness. This time she could only let go and hold her hands to her chest. You straddled her and looked her dead in the eyes. "I would have never thought you'd stoop as low as Tony... I guess we both changed" you got up and made your way out of the exit. Zemo was nowhere to be seen and you made your way to the nearest pay phone. You quickly dialled Valentina's number and waited for her response. "Ma'am, I'm out... no, he's gone. What should I do now?... What!? Ma'am why would I-" she cut you off and preceded to say what would make you comply with her orders. "Yes ma'am."

Turning back to the building you came from you reentered the building and stripped yourself of the gear, you only kept your gun and began to follow your orders. As you made your way to the sound of gunfire you saw Natasha on top of a many beating at his head and soon she was slammed into the table and choked. Her face began to change colour and you snapped into action. You blasted the man with a direct blaze of fire and froze his fee solid. You began wailing on him relentlessly and only stopped once you were tackled by Steve. He looked at you confused before taking off after bucky.

Natasha looks at you in shock and you quickly approach her, you check her for any injuries and she holds you tight. The sudden change in behaviour is something she is thankful for but also wary of. You pull away from her and look around the room before giving her a concerned look "Nat...where am I?"

- - -

Sitting in an infirmary you wait as the team -what's left of the team- discusses what should be done with you. Your gaze falls on Tony who appears conflicted. His eyes catch yours and you look away as fast as you can. Fiddling with the wires that are attached to your chest is able to distract you for only a few seconds before your eyes wander back. This time they land on Natasha whose face carries a sense of guilt and caution as she speaks. The room you're in is silent but you try to guess what the two are saying to each other. Your attention is pulled from the pair towards the door when a small knock is heard. Softly your voice allows them entry. Your voice was now a light contrast from the dark and harshness it carried.

"Time for your MRI..." The nurse looks at you as one would look at Cerberus as they wander towards the gates of hell. You nodded and kept your hands in your lap as she approached you. Disconnecting you from the cables and wires took longer than they usually would due to the shakiness of her hands. You knew that attempting to help would only make it worse so you remained still and only said "Thank you" as she began to wheel you towards your destination. You did not need any assistance to get up and made sure to move very slowly so as to not incite fear. As you waited for the technicians to start the scan you softly recounted a lullaby from your childhood. The only one that you seemed to have memorized. As the scan finished you lay there motionless. Your muscles did not feel tense at this but you couldn't wait to be back in your room alone. There you were able to move around as you wanted and speak if you felt like it. In the presence of others though, you remained as silent and still as a statue.

On your way back to your room you fell asleep as you were wheeled in and out of the hallways. The quiet hum of the medical equipment and the light tapping of keys from other nurses calmed you and fill you with peace.

Waking up to Natasha gently rubbing your arm and giving you a soft smile felt like a dream. You weren't sure that it was real for a moment. She called for Tony to enter the room and he was accompanied by a man in a white coat. Sitting up you gave Natasha a concerned look and she held your hand "This is Dr Evans... He's a phycologist who wants to talk with you for a little while" she assured you that she would be right outside the door when you finished. Tony gave you a tight-lipped smile and ushered Natasha out of the room. Leaving just you and the Doctor.

He sat down on one of the wheeled stools that sat in the corner of the room. "So... tell me the last thing you remember before the fight " He spoke with a light accent and his tone didn't fall flat of the word gentle.

You recounted the last mission you went on. You recounted the details of how you "died"... and you recounted lying in the rubble until you lost consciousness. Dr Evans nodded his head and wrote something down before asking a few more questions.

"Do you harbour any negative feelings toward the Avengers? Even your former employer S.W.O.R.D.?"

"What emotions do you feel when you think about your life before that mission?"

"Have you ever had any gaps in your memory before today?"

"Do you feel as if the Avengers are the reason you were injured?"

"How would you describe yourself now?"

He asked a few more and you answered as honestly as you could. You nodded your head rather than verbally answer when he began to ask specific questions regarding your mind. You fiddled with a loose thread in your blanket and avoided eye contact. He thanked you for your cooperation and left the room. Waiting for another person to enter you had small sips of water and ate some crackers. The silence in the room became suffocating as you waited. Getting up and moving towards a window you watched the birds and the sun begins to set. As you turned around to get back into bed you were able to see a different angle from the glass wall that separated your room from the rest of the world. You watched Natasha and Tony speak to the kind doctor before he left them too. Natasha's face again seemed to hold concern and she began to think while Tony made his way to your room. Quickly you got into bed and popped a saltine into your mouth as the handle of the door twisted. "Hi..." You gave him a small wave and he cracked a smile.

"You've been cleared by the doc... says you have amnesia, and to just keep an eye out for any depressive episode... We have some things we need to talk to you about but I'll let you get settled back at the compound first." he patted your shoulder and giving you one last smile left the room. As if she had been waiting for Tony to finish his turn Natasha came in and you made eye contact with her. Her Emerald Eyes seemed to glow with a gloss on top of them. You realized that she was close to crying as she looked at you. Your brow furrowed and your head tilted. You looked like a confused puppy. "I've missed you..." she pauses a moment and makes her way from the door "-a lot" She holds you in her arms and you find yourself with your arms in the arm around her not sure if reciprocating the embrace is the right thing to do. You slowly give in and hold her in your arms. A few drops of water hit your exposed neck and you rub circles on her back, you feel her heartbeat join yours in rhythm.

The two of you stay like this for a few moments before she joins lifts herself away from you and smiles at your face. You can't place the feeling that you're having for a moment as she looks over your face. It seems different than the last few times that she's been able to see it, this time she seems to be looking around your face and her hand comes up to hold your cheek. You allow her to continue her movements and feel a finger on your chin. "These came from the explosion..." . You gave her a look of confusion and she lifted your hand to where hers had sat before.

As you ran your fingers along your cheek and down your neck, you began to realize what she was referring to. The scaring that was still fresh on your face and the indent in your chin. Maybe that was part of the reason people were scared of you. You didn't look the same. So obviously you weren't the same.

- - -

The ride to the compound was silent. You seem to be a fan of silence now. There wasn't anyone else on the jet besides the pilot so you could take a small nap. Closing your eyes and drifting off into sleep you allowed yourself to think back on the questions that Dr. Evans had asked you.

The pilot slapped your knee as he made his way down the small ramp at the back of the jet and you grabbed the small bag you had brought. Making your way through the compound you were able to find your apartment and took a shower. Once you were drying off you stopped in place as you caught your reflection in the mirror. You saw almost twice as many scars on your body as you had before. There were small minor ones but the larger ones caught your attention. You were mesmerized by the lines that decorate your body. They seemed to tell a story that you weren't able to interpret.

You heard a voice outside the door and quickly covered yourself with a towel before seeing who it was. The red hair that was faced away from you gazed out the large wall of windows and you felt caught for a moment. "um...Hi?" you awkwardly stood in place as she turned around and a hue of red that almost matched her hair spread across her face. She apologized endlessly and you excused her for a moment as you got dressed, there weren't very many of your clothes in the closet to choose from but you made do with a pair of sweatpants and a shirt. You called for her to come back in and she seemed to be cautious of you now. It was much more different than the moment before. Her gaze on you seemed to be questioning. "Why does Tony have you here?..." attempting to make small talk failed as she only seemed to stiffen at your words. "sorry...Um, I don't really know what's happened since the mission" you scratched the back of your neck as if hoping for a power button to magically appear.

"You blew up a city centre in Nigeria and I blew up the people I was trying to save..." Her words made you stand still as you attempted to comprehend why you would do something like that.

Standing in silence seems to have become your new normal. You sat down on your bed and held your head in your hands. Wanda walked to you but you looked up and sucked in a deep breath. "Can I be alone?... I'm sorry I just, I need to process for a second" she nodded her head and made her way out without another word.

- - -

A few hours later a video message from Tony was delivered and you held your breath as you hesitated to play it. You decided that you needed to be caught up with whatever the team has been facing.

- - -

What the fuck... is Tony serious? I'm not signing that fucking thing. End of discussion.

- - -

You heard an explosion go off in the distance and raced to find Wanda. Well, you found something going on. You found her with Vision being pinned to the floor like a butterfly on a wall. Soon enough she had plunged him into the cement and you stood in shock. Your jaw was on the ground and you didn't know what was happening as Clint came up and grabbed you by the arm. He dragged you to the exit where Pietro was waiting and loaded the two of you into a car and began driving. "What's happening??" You were very very close to yelling as he drove down the highway.

"Cap needs a hand in Berlin... and well..." he looked back at you "I'm pretty sure you agree with him more than Tony" you opened your mouth to speak but came up blank. He nodded his head and went back to driving.

- - -

As you sat in the car while the three were getting snacks when your phone rang. You ignored the number and continued to wait. The phone rang again but you declined. It rang a third time and you decided to power off the device.

Soon enough the two returned and you were able to get back on the road. Wanda hande you a snack every now and then but you were much more interested in getting some rest.

- - - Time Skip 2 days later - - -

You're loading into a small plane that Clint was able to snag. The trip to Berlin was quiet, Wanda remained silent as you sat next to her, she would attempt to talk every few minutes but after two sentences you would go silent again. Pietro was asleep for the entire trip until now and seemed to eagerly be watching out the window as each cloud and mountain passed.

Once you arrived at the small airfield Clint loaded a large duffle bag into the back of a van and soon after Wanda and you hopped in. This time Clint decided to play music as he drove to the berlin airport and you found his music taste was a very odd mix of german folk and heavy metal... it was surprising. As you pulled into the parking structure you saw a familiar face and two not-so-familiar ones. The Captain eyed you up and down once you were standing fully and he took in your appearance. As he was introduced to the man that apparently had been in the duffle bag -you had zero clue- you caught the stare that had been given to you by a stoic black man with his arms folded over his chest. The man made you uneasy as you switched your balance from side to side.

Once the announcement was spread over the speakers everyone began to suit up. Steve on the other hand pulled you aside away from everyone else. You thought he would want to talk about what you've done but he instead brought up something different.

"You remember how your file was leaked?..." you nodded your head and he continued "well, Vision was doing a sweep of who could have accessed it and Pietro got a bad feeling about it... I had Tony do his own investigation before the A.I.M mission..." he looked over at Pietro who was giving him an encouraging look. "It wasn't Wanda who leaked it, it was Vision himself... he wrote the email" You just stood blankly as he waited for a reaction.

"Why would he...-he saw me and Wanda..." You turned your head to look at the redhead who was already in her suit and speaking to her brother. "He wanted to break us apart..." Steve nodded his head giving you a sympathetic look "I thought you should know, I know you forgave Wanda but still, you deserved to know the truth" You couldn't believe what you just found out. Vision framed Wanda for leaking your most private past. He led the team on a wild goose chase and hoped it would fizzle out. He ostracized you from your fellow agents and didn't bat an eye. He attempted to call you insane and brand you a threat. You knew that once you saw him you wouldn't be able to contain the anger you felt towards him now. You rushed to suit up and felt an intense rush of adrenaline. As the team made their way to the tarmac they were blocked by Tony and those who chose to sign the accords. When you saw Natasha amongst them you felt a sting of betrayal. You didn't look her in the eyes when Tony made a point about you and Wanda. Vision floated down and the longer you looked at him the more you were itching for a fight. He only kept his eyes on Wanda as Steve and Tony exchanged words. It wasn't until the spider kid showed up did the fighting picked up. As you began running your body became overheated and you felt the fire coursing through you, you leapt in the air and collided with Vision. He caught himself before he was able to fall completely but you hit the ground and shot icicles in his direction. He fired a blast at you but you dodged and held a stream of fire steady at him while he attempted to dodge in the air.

"You were the one who leaked my file!! You're a fucking coward who hid behind Wanda!" He was stunned for only a mere second but that gave you enough time to leap back into the air and shoot off between flames and ice. He phased through most of them but was hit by an icicle in the chest. Again you fell to the ground but before you could reach the tarmac a red glow shined through your eyes and when you looked up Wanda was lowering you to the ground. All of a sudden the tiny dude became gigantic and caught Rhodey like an action figure. The spider kid began to take out his legs but was knocked to the side like a rag doll. Vision phased through the giant which caused him to tumble to the ground. At this sight the main priority was to make it to the quinjet, rushing down the tarmac after Steve and Bucky you caught sight of Vision blasting a beam of light that took down the control tower but the act he hit Rhodey who came tumbling to the earth from the air like an egg in a middle school science class. Wanda had been hit and you rushed to her side as Vision watched.

You caught her before she hit the ground and her breathing was rapid. As you held her Pietro called out to her and his eyes caught you two. He smiled and ran off to check on Sam who Tony had blasted. You stayed in silence for a moment before she looked into your eyes and thanked you. As you helped her up you were about to speak but the sound of the quinjet taking off is what captured your attention. You watched as those who had fought with you began to trickle together. One by one you checked in. But as you attempted to make your way off the runway you were stopped by Tony, Vision, and Natasha. They attempted to talk it out first but you wouldn't budge. You wouldn't look any one of them in the eyes. You stayed near Wanda and glared at Vision when he attempted to reason with her. "Says the overgrown iPod who framed her for leaking my file... You branded me and used her as a cover" she looked between the two of you and his face said it all. He didn't want her to know what he did. He knew it was wrong and instead of facing the music and owning up to his action, she used Wanda as a shield.

She looked at him with a face of betrayal, Natasha glared at the robot and Tony's head slinked down as he rolled his eyes. "We were gonna tell you while you were at the compound..." Natasha looked back at Tony now. "You knew?" you continued to glare at the so-called team that was standing before you.

"I think you should have made sure to choose a team you trusted..." your words had venom in them as you spoke to Natasha. She chose Tony over you, she put up a performance of grieving and missing you but didn't hesitate to fight against you.

Wanda turned in your arms and spoke. "I swear I had no idea-" You cut her off

"I know, there's no way you could have known. He was able to trick everyone, you didn't deserve how I treated you..." you said in a gentle tone, you wanted her to believe you. Staring in her Emerald Eyes you felt her getting closer to you and suddenly the sound of sirens and tires screeching broke the moment. You held onto her out of instinct as the armed vehicles and black SUVs tore through the airport. Wanda had been clutching to you as armed men jumped out and began to scream orders at you. You didn't let go as Secretary Ross stepped out of a black SUV and ordered you to stand down.

Breaking away from Wanda you made your way to Ross and produced two forms that you had handy from your employer. "You'll want to look these over, I am free to go however so you won't be arresting me anytime soon. I can assure you of that" You turn back to the now splintered team and your vision focused on Natasha. She looked at you shocked and you recognized the betrayal in her eyes. Producing the sly smile from when she had you caged, you winked and left the now tarnished heroes. You could feel the stares burning into you and you continued to hold a smug victorious smile. You held up the bird at their stares as you brought out your phone and dialled the "man behind the curtain"

"Please tell me you're calling with news I haven't heard?" You could hear the news playing in the background as she spoke. Her tone wasn't mad nor demanding, it was playful she knew you'd get the job done.

You loaded yourself into a black SUV similar to the one Secretary Ross had arrived in "Miss Fontaine, have I let you down once?..." you could hear her hum in response "the avengers bought the little act as you said they would, Ross is going over the forms now and soon I'll be back at HQ" the smile you had was obvious in your tone as you spoke. "They really did want to believe I was back, god they are dull" She continued to ask for more details.

"And Zemo? He's dealt with I assume?"

"He's attempting the next part of his plan currently and if I'm correct the Captain and Solider will take care of him for us... if not them then the panther, but he won't be a problem I assure" you said

"Good boy, when you get back we have a place to lay low for a while. Small missions here and there but think of it as some -some well-needed vacation days"

"Yes ma'am... any hint of where I'll be spending that time?" your smile remained on your face.

"Now where would the fun be in that? Have a safe flight Ignatius" she hung up and you began to drive away. You saw the armed vehicles and SUVs that were now carrying the former avengers. The sight filled you with joy. You were free of the Avengers and you had the opportunity to move on now.

- - - 2 months later - - -

As you sit on the beach taking in the sun you hear your phone ring from beside you. Picking it up you can sense the incoming message. "Thought you said these were my vacation days?" you say in a teasing manner.

"Oh we both know in this work those aren't real..." she pauses for a moment and you receive a text "I've sent you the details for this one, its hopefully just a short recruiting mission, I need you to approach an ex widow... you're familiar with the type?"

You close your eyes and only take a deep breath before asking her a clarifying question "Is there a risk of running into a former target?... if so I'm out as soon as I see her"

She laughs and you feel your muscles squirm at the sound. "If you do see her you have my permission to abandon ship and run away to a farm in Tuscany..." she closes some kind of door and continues "just make sure you let the target know of our interests and the offer will do the rest" Like usual she ends the call and you only huff while getting up and finding out where you'll be off to.

Apparently, this widow is in Budapest... yay, your favourite place, maybe you can hit up one of the famous clubs once the mission is over.

Tag List:

@littlewinchester15 @ilostafriend-blog1 @nektotersh @ironscarletwidowsoldier @lexi21pro @zyguard118 @diaryoflife @ethanwoods @rokkyy @ihaveanxiety71 @blackwidow-3 @hangingcurtain10 @iamsimpforpoppy @axienic @wubio @dakotastorm @cristin-rjd @itsyourgirlmalise @feedonme

[mintchocolatechipnut]

the boys in a haunted house

ft. shinsou hitoshi, todoroki shouto & kirishima eijirou

Note: This came to me in a vision... okay not really but SEVENTEEN’s GoSe episode on the ghost really inspired me to write this. Hope you enjoy!

Tags: fluff, real comedic geniuses here, vague understanding of haunted houses

Word count: 2.3k

SHINSOU HITOSHI

Now Shinsou isn’t really afraid of anything in particular, as in he’s not rattled by jump scares in movies

Instead, he has a penchant for psychological thrillers, because as much as he doesn’t use his quirk for villainous motives, he does like to fuck with people in general

So when you ask to go to a haunted house with him, he’s pretty indifferent, only letting out a non-committal hum as you tell him how this new set has been getting rave reviews from your friends

When you get there, Shinsou’s reminded of the time his class set up a haunted house for the cultural festival, and wonders if he could glean more ideas from this experience should they decide to hold it again this year lmao

As you enter, you’re relieved to know that Shinsou’s interested to at least a certain extent (but for the wrong reasons lol)

When the first jumpscare appears, Shinsou doesn’t so much as flinch, even as he feels your fingernails dig into his arm where you clutch him

He just stares, as if memorising the appearance of the zombie/mummy/ghost and wondering how he could replicate the look with the limited budget his class had for the festival

You didn’t hear this from me, but some of the haunted house actors were creeped out by Shinsou himself

I mean, his purple hair sticking up all ways like that of a mad scientist, coupled with his piercing unnerving stare, while the bags under his eyes carry even more bags and stand out against the pallor of his skin? Boy is setting himself up to look like a real zombie or vampire here

Anyway, if his s/o is more on the timid side, he doesn’t mind letting them hold onto him in any way as they walk through the set

Clutching his arm so tight he wonders if his skin will break under their hold, or the hem of his sleeve being tugged so hard it might tear, Shinsou just likes that you can depend on him and that he makes you feel safe

Though do not put it past him to mess with you even though you’re afraid

He won’t be pushing you toward the ghosts despite your shrieks and wails, or giving you a jumpscare of his own while in the house, but since he likes psychological thrillers so much, he’ll play a prank once the experience is over

‘Gee, Y/N, did you see that guy? He wouldn’t leave you alone at all’

‘... wait what do you mean’

‘You know, the one who followed you around with a knife in his hand? Don’t tell me you didn’t notice. Oh wait, you didn’t? Could’ve been my imagination then. Just it was so vivid...’

You’re scared shitless when you talk to the owner and there’s no such ghost, while Shinsou stands a ways behind you and winks conspiratorially at the owner

Cue you hanging onto his arm even on the way home, but Shinsou doesn’t mind one bit

Seems like he’s up for a night of suffocation where you’ll be holding onto him like your life depended on it

Maybe then he’ll tell you it was all a joke. Or that the man with the knife seemed to have followed you home...

Whatever he’ll do, he knows he’ll have fun as long as it’s with you (and as long as you don’t get too mad and kick him out of your room)

Now, if his s/o isn’t easily scared and is more of the playful sort, he’d like doing gag commentary with you as the ghosts show up one by one

Whether your laughter is a coping mechanism, or just the result of plain unadulterated fun, Shinsou’s having fun nonetheless

If you’re really playful, and Shinsou’s feeling it too, you two cook up a plan to scare the ghosts together

While it’s only semi-successful (in which you scare one or two of them and actually earn some human-like screams from them), the both of you can’t stop cackling on the way home

Overall, Shinsou has fun, and he isn’t afraid to tell you so

‘Maybe we should do it again next time, and make a record of how many we can scare individually’

You: ‘BET’

TODOROKI SHOUTO

Given his upbringing, it’s no secret that Todoroki has never had the chance to do things normal teenagers do

So naturally his first reaction to you suggesting a visit to a haunted house is pure curiosity

He knows they exist when class 1-C did it for the cultural festival but he didn’t get the chance to visit it the last time, so why not now?

As you tell him about it, Todoroki’s already whipping his phone out to do some research beforehand, but he relented when you tell him it’s better if it’s a surprise

He doesn’t show it on his face but he’s infinitely excited to be there, in a ‘I have no idea what to expect’ kind of way as he watches you buy tickets

Cue him thinking the whole thing is like the simulations in class and actually creates flames in his hands so you can see clearer in the dark

You have to tell him amidst your laughter that he’s not supposed to do that, and he’s bewildered alright, but he complies

Now Todoroki isn’t a big reactor by any means but since you know him so well, you can tell how the haunted house affects him

Like, he’ll pretty much react the same way he did during the test of courage during summer camp last time in that he’ll flinch silently, but you can see in the dim light how his eyes widen a minuscule fraction and how his shoulders tense up during jumpscares

It’s weird, because as a future hero nothing should faze him, but even when he’s expecting to be scared it does nothing to stop him from actually being scared

Halfway through his hand would automatically reach for yours,  and when more jumpscares occur he’ll tighten his grip on it

His grip varies; when he senses a jumpscare his fingers will curl around yours a little more but when he’s actually frightened expect a violent squeeze of your hand, but nothing too painful

If you’re the timid sort, Todoroki’s glad that you feel the same way in some sorts, and feels reassured that it’s the normal way to react to such things as haunted houses (poor baby doesn’t have a clue about social norms, so he’s always questioning whether he’s weird for being the way he is and not being typical in his reactions—the answer is, of course, that he’s loved either way)

If you’re the unfazed sort, Todoroki will admire you as you march through the haunted house hand in hand, his gaze on your small but strong back as you move towards the exit. How you don’t react to anything, and instead even exchange pleasantries with some of the ghosts makes him see you in a whole new light

And then when you’re finally out in the open, where you return to your usual caring self and ask if he’s okay, Todoroki thinks that he couldn’t fall in love with you more than he already has

Spoiler alert: he’s wrong

When you cheekily tell him you’ll protect the next time you visit a haunted house, he buries his face in your shoulders while he hugs you to him tight

‘Thank you.’ You can hear him whisper beside your ear, ‘but let’s not do that again for a while.’

If you’re an absolute horror junkie, you’ll try to convince Todoroki to visit with you again

If he’s still hesitant, you opt to getting him used to jumpscares by watching horror movies together

Sometimes Todoroki can’t help but question what you find so fun about them when you yourself squeal in half-horror and half-delight when you get scared by something on the screen

But if the way you cling to his side is any indication, he likes it anyway

Pretty soon he does get used to jumpscares, in that his heightened senses from all his hero training lead him to predict the right moments where jumpscares occur

Cue him telling you ‘There’s a jumpscare at this part’ and two seconds later a monstrous face appears on screen

At first you’re in awe at his sudden ability only after watching like three films, but pretty soon it gets old and you have to break it to him that it ruins the show for you

Your heart nearly melts when he murmurs in a low voice, ‘I thought I’d just warn you in advance so you wouldn’t be scared.’

In that moment you’re eternally grateful to have someone as awkward and kind as Todoroki as your boyfriend who constantly looks out for your well-being and does his best in making you happy

You kindly explain to him what makes horror movies so good and why jumpscares are supposed to be unpredictable, but not before leaning in to whisper a ‘thank you’ and plant a kiss to his cheek

KIRISHIMA EIJIROU

Now Kirishima’s usually game for anything you want to try, but just so you know, he wouldn’t exactly consider a haunted house as an ideal date spot

What’s so romantic about getting scared by a bunch of ghosts who are also paid actors in a small dark space? But hey, if it’s for fun and you want to, why not

But just because he’s the glue of class 1-A, he’ll ask if he can bring some of his friends along since ‘it’ll be more fun that way’

The thing with Kirishima is if he sees other people enjoying this kind of thing he’d like to invite them, and when he can’t picture something being just between the two of you he’s likely to call other people to join

You might be a little disappointed and exasperated about it, but knowing where he’s coming from you can’t really get mad at him

Though if you’re truly bothered about it, just say the word and he’ll change

Sweetie will do anything for you as long as it’s within reason and he knows where you’re coming from

But anyway, you’re not against the idea of having the rest of the Bakusquad join you, since they’re a fun-loving bunch and having them at a haunted house is bound to be ten times funnier

So there’s Bakugou in his usual black skull shirt and Sero and Kaminari, while Mina’s ready to snap away with her camera so she can get some funny reaction pics out of the boys

While lining up for tickets you’re surprised by Kirishima learning in from behind you and whispering into your ear: ‘Don’t worry babe, I’ll protect you from anything you find scary in there!’

Heat immediately rises to your cheeks when you think about the utter cheeseball he is, and when you turn around to face him Kirishima has his trademark toothy grin on his face as he looks at you

How could you even be disappointed about this not being a date when Kirishima is still being his caring, romantic self?

Mina, who’s behind the both of you in line, immediately scrunches up her face in mock disgust. ‘Ew, you two,’ she says in mock disgust and you know she’d heard Kirishima. ‘Get out of here and get a room.’ The three of you end up laughing it off anyway.

When you step into the haunted house, Kirishima naturally takes your hand in his, and an immediate sense of safety washes over you when you feel his hand encapsulating yours

Going through the haunted house with Kirishima is an absolute hitch, as he knows just how to react and still have fun with you

Kirishima isn’t the kind to be scared easily, but he always acts scared alongside you because he doesn’t want you to feel alone in your fear

Jokes on him because you can tell exactly when he’s scared or not, because laughing is his coping mechanism for these things

The louder he laughs, the more scared he is, and he laughs a fair bit while you’re walking through the haunted house

When he really gets frightened though, he accidentally activates his quirk so you feel his skin harden a little in your hand

Just as quickly he retracts his hand and forgets his fear in favour of worrying over whether he hurt you, the sweetheart that he is

But the highlight of the night is really when Bakugou nearly blasted Kaminari to smithereens when he appeared behind him wrapped in Sero’s tape like a mummy, but not without Mina’s acid melting through the tape so he looked like he’d just escaped from his ancient sarcophagus

The only reason Bakugou stopped himself from yelling ‘die!’ is when he hears a ‘whey~’ escape from the mummy’s mouth, which is when he drags the ‘mummy’ by the collar out through the exit while the rest of you rush after him in hysterical laughter

Whether it’s because Kaminari instantly sobered up when Bakugou threatens to blow him up, or that Kirishima notices that Bakugou’s palms and forehead are tinged with cold sweat, you all have a great time nonetheless

When you confront Kirishima about purposely faking his fear in front of you, an embarrassed blush immediately overtakes his face

‘I just thought it’d cheer you up, so you wouldn’t focus on your own fear too much,’ he says, and his face turns even redder when you laughingly point out his own tells

‘I guess I really can’t hide anything from you,’ he then smiles after looping his arm with yours on the way back, the Bakusquad squabbling a ways in front of you so they can’t hear his next words that make you swoon. ‘But I wouldn’t have it any other way.’

[nellied-reviews]

The Sound and the Fury Re-listen

Well, I've reached episode 7 in my Wolf 359 re-listen, which means it's time for:

The Sound and the Fury

In which Hera and Minkowski are fighting, Eiffel gets caught in the middle, and Hilbert just wants them all to submit to the biologically superior will of the Blessed Eternal.

Straight up, I should probably admit that I forgot about this episode, or rather I didn't link the episode title to the episode's events until I was listening to it. And then I was like "oh, yeah, this is that episode" all the way through. For whatever reason, I thought, in particular, that the plant monster didn't come back until Season 2, with The Paranoia Game. That said, I love the plant monster to a possibly unreasonable degree, so its return here was more than welcome, and the rest of the episode was also fun!

We open in the middle of an argument - and for once, it's not Eiffel's fault. In fact, Eiffel isn't even involved, except insofar as he's trapped in the middle between Hera and Minkowski, and is forced to be the voice of reason as the two of them have it out. 

And look, that is always going to be a funny set-up. Hera and Minkowski are both incredibly stubborn personalities, and not at all shy about asserting their opinions, so there's definitely potential for a comically drawn-out, petty argument there. And casting Eiffel as the reasonable, level-headed peacekeeper, in contrast to the two of them, is perfect. It's in character - Eiffel always has been the most pacifist crew member - but it's also a role he's just totally unsuited to, because faced with the combined stubbornness of Hera and Minkowski, he's outmatched, and he knows it.

In an effort not to get involved, then, Eiffel briefly runs through the week's schedule, in a section that isn't really linked to the rest of the episode, but is full of little oddities that remind us just how weird the Hephaestus is. They have a compulsory chess tournament that Hilbert always wins. They have movie night, but only a VHS of Home Alone 2. "On Friday we'll have mustard." It's so weird, and I love it.

We're interrupted, at this point, by Hilbert, who sounds very strange, even for him. And naturally, Eiffel ignores it completely at first, focussed as he is on the unfolding Hera-Minkowski conflict. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, for such a pop culture-savvy guy, Eiffel falls into literally every horror movie cliché. He's so oblivious!

For the rest of us, it's obvious that something's wrong, and our suspicions are confirmed when we learn over the course of his conversation with Eiffel that Hilbert went looking for the plant monster, which now seems to be mind-controlling him, to the point where he's convinced that it's "the most evolutionarily competitive lifeform on this station, the most deserving of life."

And okay, I love the plant monster, but that's very alarming, and is made even more so by the fact that it's something that Hilbert might conceivably have said anyway? I mean, it's cold and Darwinistic and smacks of eugenics, yes, but it also has a callous ruthlessness to it that's totally Hilbert's style, as well as that trademark lack of concern for human life. It's like the plant monster just exaggerated what was already there, turned the mad scientist dial up to eleven. In other words, it made Hilbert even more Hilbert-y.

Luckily, Eiffel realises soon enough that something's wrong, and goes to warn Minkowski. Minkowski, being a mature, rational individual, immediately drops her argument with Hera and goes to - oh, wait, no, she does basically the opposite of that, ignoring Eiffel in favour of continuing her argument with Hera. Great. Good job, Commander.

It's at this point, of course, that we finally learn exactly what Minkowski and Hera are arguing about. And is it petty. Turns out, Minkowski wants Hera to submit reports on the various systems she runs around the station in case there's an emergency, but also just because Minkowski wants to know what's going on behind the scenes. We don't get to hear Hera's side of things just yet, but already, we can see the irony in Minkowski's arguments. Sure, she wants to be better appraised of everything going on onboard the Hephaestus in case of an emergency - but her stubbornness here means she's missing the emergency that's unfolding right under her nose!

Eiffel's attempts to make her see sense don't really help either, at this juncture. Instead, they just get him dragged into Minkowski and Hera's argument. Which I'm sure is that last thing he wants, because those two play dirty. First Minkowski pressures him into saying, to Hera's face, that he doesn't think AIs should be trusted. And then Hera, angry, plays Eiffel's words from earlier back to Minkowski, twisting what he said around so that both parties are angry at him. As a result, Eiffel ends up walking an impossibly thin line, trying to appease both of his friends, while keeping himself out of their argument as best he can and while getting increasingly frustrated with the both of them. It's a painfully awkward situation, and I genuinely feel sorry for him.

That said, the argument that then plays out is fascinating to me, because I think it shines a really interesting light on the power dynamics onboard the Hephaestus, putting the focus on Hera and Minkowski's relationship in a way that we haven't really seen before. Up until now, after all, they seem to have worked in tandem pretty well, with Minkowski giving orders and Hera carrying them out. Here, for the first time, we see a tension between them, stemming from the fact that Minkowski, as the commanding officer, nominally has the most power onboard the Hephaestus, while Hera, as the ship's AI, probably actually has the most power, between her vast sensory array, her huge databanks, and her literally running the entire Hephaestus. Yes, Minkowski is technically in charge, purely by virtue of her being a human. But Hera, on a day-to-day basis, is actually more crucial to their ongoing mission - even though, as an AI, she doesn't get to hold an official ranking position.

That's possibly why Hera takes Eiffel's well-meaning dismissal ("It's just her programming") so personally. It's a reminder of her different, subordinate status, and it reeks of a double standard - she's right that nobody would think to blame a human's erratic behaviours on their biology. That would be patronising, right? As much as Eiffel means well, writing Hera's reactions off as mere programming strips her of her agency - something that comes up again and again in her character arc. How much is Hera responsible for her actions, if she can also be programmed to act a certain way? In what ways has she been "made" a certain way, against her will? And how can she best deal with that while still retaining a sense of agency and control over her life and identity?  They're big, complicated questions, and we're only really scratching the surface here, but I do think it's a solid foundation for later developments. At the very least, we get the impression that Hera doesn't like to be reduced to her programming - and rightly so, I suspect. To some extent, at least, she is more than just the code that she is made of, just like humans are more than the sum of their biology. And that's a good thing to be establishing now, buried in the middle of a relatively low-stakes argument, before the more plotty stuff kicks off later on in the show.

And of course, it also bleeds into Hera and Minkowski's argument, which really picks up steam at this point, after an impassioned but ultimately futile speech from Eiffel about how it's a stupid fight to begin with and how making him pick sides is dumb and unfair. Hera, ignoring this, accuses Minkowski of feeling threatened by the big, powerful AI. That, for Hera, is why Minkowski is micromanaging her. It's because she's a typical human, insecure about an AI having more power than her.

Hera's point is almost immediately complicated by Minkowski, who rightly points out that the issue, for her, isn't that Hera's an AI. It's that Hera' unreliable. She keeps breaking down and glitching, and so the crew keep experiencing emergencies that could maybe be avoided if Hera would just give Minkowski the reports she wants. We've seen Hera break down as recently as last episode, and so this does kind of ring true, even if the way that Minkowski brings up Hera' vocal glitching feels like a bit of a low blow.

Both of them, then, have a point, and I think it's also worth noting that it's also, as Minkowski points out to Eiffel, a question of protocol. Whether Hera likes it or not, Minkowski is, technically, her commanding officer, and should be able to just give her commands and demand reports from her. Refusing to do so undermines Minkowski's authority. That said, Hera didn't exactly have a choice when it came to joining whatever weird sort-of military thing Goddard has going on. She never signed up for the whole "commanding officer" thing, so why should she obey Minkowski? Because she's programmed to?

It's messy, grey situation, with no clear answers, and it's worth noting that the argument doesn't really get resolved. Neither Minkowski nor Hera back down at any point. Instead, a combination of Eiffel calling them out for being childish and Hilbert attempting a coup snaps them out of it, reminding them that they have bigger problems right now. There is a time and a place for the discussion they were having. But that time is not now, and so they decide, without really discussing it, to set aside their grievances. It's not that their respective opinions aren't valid. But keeping each other (and the rest of the crew) safe comes first, and so they bond over being annoyed at Eiffel, and they set off to save Hilbert. It's sweet, in a way, and I like how quickly they both just get on with it. And Eiffel's dejected resignation at the end is the cherry on top. Bless him.

And so we get to the end of an episode that, while it's reliably funny, also gives us an outline of the main points in an argument that we probably should have seen coming. It's yet another example of how stress and tension can easily build up in the contained, isolated atmosphere of the Hephaestus - only this time, we don't get Eiffel cracking and hoarding toothpaste, we get Hera and Minkowski cracking and unleashing the titular sound and fury. The points raised get us thinking, in particular, about Hera's status, as an AI, but also just as a member of the Hephaestus' crew. Eiffel, meanwhile, is forced into a responsible, mediating role that he is neither comfortable in nor particularly good at. And at the end of the day, we're reassured that Minkowski and Hera do, at least, have their priorities straight. Arguing over reports is fine and dandy, but it's not worth getting killed over.

And of course, perhaps most excitingly, the plant monster returns. Surrender your flesh, and feed your new master :)

 Miscellaneous thoughts:

It doesn't escape my attention that this is the second title that's a Shakespeare reference. Keeping it classy there, Doug

"Umm... that's all it says for Friday."

The schedule bit is basically the Night Vale Community Calendar segment, but in space

Hilbert's voice in this is sooo weird and dull and creepy ugh

I know the science of it isn't really the focus here, and I'm 100% down with that, but also how does a plant mind control people?!? I want to know!

"Our operating system is a tin-headed, insubordinate, feckless fool!"

"Sit your Swiss ass down, and take a side, Doug."

Aww, Eiffel just sounds so confused and stressed-out by the whole situation :(

And finally we get the obvious Little Shop of Horrors plant monster joke :)

I didn't go into much detail about Eiffel in this, but his speech where he finally gets them to shut up and work together again is also great and I love it jsyk

"Shut up, Plant-Hilbert." Bwahahahaha.

[1stunseeliefaelass]

Darksiders Arthurian Tales Revisited

Chapter 6: Healing and Regrouping

Death and War then sat around in silence for a time. War didn't notice at first, but soon heard Death snoring quietly. He decided he'd remain in the room for now, wanting to keep an eye on him. He observed the injuries on Death as they slowly began to heal up now that he was finally resting. Soon enough Puck came on by, and War instantly went on the defensive. Always being wary of the Satyr.

"Satyr, do not even try."

"I have no idea what you're on about Horseman, I'm here to help." Puck assured him.

Death meanwhile heard Puck's voice and groaned, "If I could move, you wouldn't want to stick around."

"Yeah well you really can't now can ya? Now let's see what damage I'm working with exactly."

Death tries to move but is unable to, he begs War, "GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"

War however tries instead to keep him in place on the bed, "If you keep moving I'll let the Satyr do his work."

Death stiffened at that and immediately went still again. War then asked Puck, "State what you're trying to do Puck, and it better be good. Or else..."

"I would be offended, but you know my reputation." Puck states pulling out a bag.

"What's in it?"

"Medicine, to help with the pain. And also accelerate my work." Puck explained before pulling out a syringe.

Both Horsemen give him a concerned look but he says, "Don't worry, they're new."

He then comes up to Death who asks nervously, "What's in it?"

"Eh....milk of the poppy for one. And two several mystical herbs with regenerative abilities."

Death froze up again, "Wait a minute.....that's opium!"

"Morphine. But similar enough, it comes from the same plant." Puck corrected him.

"If you're lying to me, and I get high, I'm going to kill you."

"Oh you won't be high, but hopefully you won't get addicted to this crap." Puck explained.

Death sighed, "You better not put too much in the needle, and I also better not get addicted to it."

"Eh, don't worry Horseman. I know how the Nephilim are with these kinds of things."

Death then asked, "Wait a minute, Strife isn't your guinea pig is he?"

"Define guinea pig."

"YOU'VE BEEN DRUGGING MY BROTHER?!"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to give him anything dangerous that he can get addicted to." Puck assured him.

"THAT YOU KNOW OF!" Death protested.

"Yeah yeah hold still and I'll get this in ya."

Death in time felt the pain go away, but also a little nauseous as time went on.

War looked at him a bit concerned, "Should I worried?"

"Eh, not really. Just be aware of the splash zone."

"Wait what?"

Death meanwhile quickly shouted to War, "I feel like I'm gonna be.....hrrrrp....Get me a bucket!"

War then grabbed on quickly and helped Death to handle the puking before looking at Puck again, "Was that normal?!"

"Yes that indeed was normal. Nausea is a common symptom, it's to be expected."

Death managed the shout between hurls, "How am I......huagh......supposed to.....aaach....eat like this?"

"Uh ok then. I don't know. I've not exactly tested this on your kind to this extent before." Puck explains.

War started holding Death's hair back and comments, "You know if you trim your hair or tie it back you might find easier to..."

"SHUT THE HELL UP, you don't even practice what you preach!" Death shouted quickly before feeling another wave coming on.

"Hey bro how are ya do.....oh my....What did you give him Puck?" Strife questioned upon coming in.

"Ah just a simple bit of morphine."

"Just morphine?" Strife pressed.

"Yep, apparently your brother can't handle it." Puck stated sarcastically.

Meanwhile Merlin finally came in after taking a look at Morgen, and upon seeing Death got very concerned. He also looked Puck's way,

"Morphine?"

"Yes." Puck told him.

"Oi......I'll my magic." Merlin says.

It is a very difficult and long process. But eventually Death gets passed the nausea and Merlin is able to start healing him. He inquired of Death,

"Why do you let him give you meds?"

"Because he practically forced them down my throat." Death expressed annoyed.

From there Death explained to Merlin what all happened in the past two days. Merlin only sighed deeply at the end of it all. He then said to Death in regards to Morgen,

"Right now, she's acting like she's already dead. Just laying there saying nothing."

"Do you have any idea of how to help her?" Strife implored of Merlin.

Death meanwhile muttered under his breath, "I know all too well, how she feels right now.", he then offered, "Is there any way for me to help?"

"Not unless you can say something to her. Physically she's doing alright. Mentally however, I don't know."

Death shook his head slightly, "She probably feels broken, used, just something below what you thought you were."

War looked at him oddly, "You sound as though you had a similar experience."

Death grunted softly, "I don't want to talk about it, not with you."

"Why not brother? You spoken of many gruesome things with me?"

"This was.....far from gruesome. Far more....horrific." Death stated grabbing at his inner thigh.

"More pain?" Merlin inquired.

"No.....just an old wound. One that....never healed right."

"Ok then."

"When will be capable of moving?" Death inquired of Merlin.

"Well if Puck here uses his magic alongside me, it'll probably take a few hours. You were injured very badly, that Nerve Ender really messed your nervous system. Patience is key. I know it's not your strongest of virtues. But try to start practicing it now." Merlin informed him.

Death fell back against the pillow, worried for Morgen. He could only hope his words and experiences would be enough to help her. For now, he'd have to wait to use them. Meanwhile Morgen heard a rested Barrcus enter her room to try his luck.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I wasn't there to stop him. I couldn't see what was going on in there. Care to explain that to me?" Barrcus started as he began to gently stroke her head.

Morgen stirred a bit at his touch but didn't say anything. She only curled up and began sobbing again. Softly crying into the pillow she'd been holding close. Barrcus began to silently comfort her as best he could. Stroking her head and back, singing as best he could manage for her, and even suggesting that she should eat. Morgen's stomach growled when he mentioned food, only then did she speak. But her tone was reserved, distant, and barely heard. Her eyes were grey to represent the creeping depression she felt,

"I'll eat, but that's all."

This tone hurt Barrcus to hear, but he remained strong for her, "I'll go make you something. I know you used to love my cooking."

Morgen actually managed a small giggle at that, his dishes were truly experimental. As strange as they looked, they were always a delight. She actually told him before he walked away, "Uh something warm please....I'd like to feel...some semblance of warmth right now."

Barrcus only nodded and made a note to make it his best dish yet for her. He'd ask Mina to help him too, something he knew she'd agree to for Morgen's sake. Morgen meanwhile sat at the window as she waited for the meal. Looking out longingly for a freedom she felt powerless to gain or reach. She wasn't sure how long she'd been looking outside, but she soon felt a little fluffy thing rubbing her ankles gently. Looking down, Morgen saw Fuzzball being all sweet to her, wanting to cheer her up. She couldn't help but give a small smile to him.

"Awwwww, came to see me did you?"

Fuzzball made a sweet little chirp like sound and began loving on her some more. Morgen permitted it and even petted him. She actually started to feel somewhat happy with him around. Even hugging the rodent for his little efforts and letting him give her a little lick on her face.

"You truly are a sweetheart aren't you little one? I can see why Death has you around." Morgen muttered quietly whilst giving his belly some nice scritches.

As time went on, and Barrcus took his time, Morgen heard a light knock on her door, and a very familiar voice. Only this time, it held a gentle warmth that she currently lacked,

"Morning."

Morgen turned around and looked at him surprised, course her surprise became concern, "Morning, are you alright?"

Death looked at the various patches all over himself and explained, "Nothing the uh mad scientist can't patch up so to speak. You should've seen me earlier, laid out unable to move heheh."

"I can imagine it was truly painful for you."

"Yes it was painful, but to be completely honest that was far from the worst. Trying being stabbed in the chest. Not a pleasant feeling I assure you. But even that wasn't exactly the worst. From fights between me and Absalom, no. Not even that. Do you really want to, what it is, the worst one?"

"Only if you're comfortable Horseman. I won't force anything." Morgen explained scooting a tad bit closer to him. As if to get some of warmth he's currently giving off.

"In order for me to tell you, you must first see something. And understand it's significance to it." Death told her calmly before carefully removing his trousers from under his kilt. Having switched into his one of his lightest armor sets for now. Morgen kept calm but wondered why he'd remove his trousers for this.

Then he sat back down and questioned her, "What should parents do?"

"Any good parent should protect their children, raise and love them well, do everything they can for them, and overall just be good to them." Morgen replied.

"Funny on how our experiences had to be the exact opposite."

"Wait....you're saying our....don't tell me that you.....that you were...." Morgen began to say.

Death sighed, "Most of the four don't know, expect for Strife. Lilith...was my creator....but she...far from being my Mother. Mother to the Nephilim race she was, but....not mine. At least in my eyes."

With that Death moved his kilt aside, showing Morgen the wide and deep scar that lay across his inner left thigh.

"What....did she do to you?" Morgen asked nearly touching it but pulling her hand back at the last moment.

"Go ahead, touch it. I've grown used to it."

Morgen tenderly ran her hand along it and noticed him tense up slightly, "It doesn't hurt does it?"

"Every now and then. But you're hands aren't, painful in that area right now." Death assured her.

Morgen continued touching him for a time before asking, "What happened to you?"

Death sighed deeply and taking a deep breath began, "The years you spent with Uther, Lilith managed to compress into three days. I was ordered to go...visit her...alone, if I had known then I would've disobeyed orders. Broken rank almost. Funny isn't it? How a parent who is supposed to protect their children, can become the most vile, hated, most personal, demon and an enemy. The words I wish to say about her, I don't think have been invented. I don't remember....much....about those three days. I was either drugged, which I'm hoping or I was the one that repressed them. I do remember the pain, some of the experiences, how many time I begged or pleaded for it to end, to stop it. No respite came of them, only laughter. Only the maniacal...SADISTIC LAUGH ANSWERED. And that VOICE, IT MAKES SICK TO THIS DAY. Everything crawls, when I try to remember what she said. Every single time I'm forced to be in a meeting with her, turns my stomach. I WISH she would break the rules of the Council, just so I would have a REASON TO OBLITERATE HER, AND DRAG WHATEVER'S LEFT INTO OBLIVION. But I was able to find something afterwards, something that saved me. A crystal that my real Mother gave me. There's only one person I truly view as my Mother. When I came to her that night, when I finally was able to get away from Lilith, she didn't hesitate. She brought me back into her home, gave me fresh clothes, made sure I could feel safe, did so much for me. Even took a slap from Lilith herself just to keep her out of her home, away from me. All to do what Lilith FAILED to do for me. Ale treated me as a Mother should treat her son, with love, kindness,...understanding, and unconditional support. Since the day I was 'born', she's the first thing I saw. The first person I saw. And no matter what she's been there, and will be there until the very end. Those very same things I will never say for Lilith, under any circumstances. You have someone similar to that, and he's currently cooking you breakfast. Go to him, you don't need to tell me about what happened, but you need to tell him about everything. As I told my Mother."

Morgen, who had been listening intently, hugged him, "Thank you for sharing with me. And I'm truly sorry for what you endured all those years ago. Thank you so much, I needed to hear this from someone, to know I wasn't so alone."

"So, are you going to tell them? Cause you're going to need to. Also, you're never truly alone. But nor are we truly together in some cases. It's just of a matter of figuring out things."

"A sad but true statement. But thank you nonetheless. Perhaps we could talk another time, I rather enjoyed this?" Morgen inquired gently, her eyes now a beautiful shade of amber.

"My doors are always open, to those who ask good questions. Not to those IDIOTS I've had to deal with recently. Give Barrcus my regards as well and ask about recipe. It smelled rather delicious." Death told her.

"I'll bare this mind, and of course I'll ask about the recipe. Good day for now." Morgen expressed with a sweet smile before hurrying off.

Barrcus was warmed to see Morgen managing to finally smile. Though he could she was dreading something. As she sat at the table with Mina gently rubbing her hand, Barrcus posed to her as he began plating the food,

"How are you doing?"

"Better now. After you left Fuzzball came by and helped better my mood a slight bit. Death however, he understood. Although I'm sure his own pain was worse than my own, I'm glad he felt he could share it. It gave me the reassurance I needed right now." Morgen informed him.

"I'm glad that he was able to assist you in what you were going."

"He told me I should tell you what happened. That it should help with my recovery." Morgen explained simply.

"Do you wish to tell me? Or is it too painful right now? You don't have to tell me everything, just take your time." Barrcus assured her as he placed the food on the table at last.

As Morgen ate up, albiet slowly at first, she began recounting what happened the night before. She wouldn't speak on the other many years she'd suffered the same fate, as she wasn't comfortable bringing them up. Only mentioning that night, Uther's twisted mentality, his strange change in mannerisms, the guilt tripping. All of it, she laid bare for Mina and Barrcus. Mina embraced her gently and rubbed her back as she spoke, and eyed Barrcus to make sure he kept his anger down. At least for right now. Barrcus in turn tried his damnest not to lose it to his rage. Swallowing it hard as he focused as best he could on Morgen. Comforting her alongside Mina in the only ways he felt he could. Mina kept urging him to speak up once Morgen finished, and to hug her as she was doing. Barrcus tried to think of something to tell her, either assurance or comfort, but did at least hug her. His other four arms trying to get to Morgen to make the hug even better for her. Finally he thought of something,

"I failed to protect you. I failed to keep my promise to your Mother. I failed you."

"You didn't fail at anything. My fear just kept me silent." Morgen insisted.

"You're all I have left of Igraine, why couldn't I....see. Why couldn't I see it so I could prevent it?"

"Uther, he placed an enchantment on the room. One that blocked you out. Everytime you sent spiders to my room it killed them. I fear it would've harmed you as it did them."

"He shall die," Barrcus explained grasping her hand, "He will suffer a fate fitting for a monster like him. He will know suffering."

Morgen let out a quiet chuckle before it turned into quiet crying. Mina and Barrcus hugged her tighter at this, causing Morgen to say, "At least.....I'm lucky enough...to have you in my life."

"And we'll always be there for ye lass. No matter what. We'll do everything we can for ye." Mina declared softly.

"Until the day I die, I will protect you. The way I should've, the way I must." Barrcus stated.

"Thank you...both of you." Morgen replied as she worked to calm herself down.

Mina gave her a handkerchief and began singing in Swedish. Granted she still had the Scottish accent on it so it did sound a tad off. But to Morgen, it was always soothing. Soon Morgen was finally calm enough to continue her meal. Mina watching her closely the whole time. As always she did finish it, "It was amazing Barrcus. Just as they always are."

"I try my best."

In the meantime Death had been thinking about his own experience. Normally he'd hate thinking about it, but after having told Morgen, after having shown her the scar, he felt different. He felt it was almost cathartic now, but at the same time it scared him a bit to wonder if the things in his nightmares were indeed memories he locked up. Finally he took out the crystal he'd shown Morgen and called up his Mother. Wanting any advice she could give him, and wanting to hear her talking to him in general. She always had a way of calming him down with her voice alone.

"Hey, Ceise? You there?"

He heard Ale give a small yawn on the other end before she told him, "Yes Atan I'm here. Is everything ok?"

"Kind of uhm....just wanted to check on you. See how you were doing?"

"Oh I'm doing just fine as always....,"Ale told him sweetly before bumping into a wall, "...Ouch! Oh."

"Are you alright?"

"Fine, just ran into the wall again ehehe. Anyway, are you sure you're ok? I know that tone, and you only use it when something's troubling you." Ale inquired.

"I just...just uh dealing with this mission I'm on right now. It's....unique, to say the least."

"Well tell me about it then. What's on your mind Atan?" Ale bade of him gently.

Death proceeded to explain the recent events. Why he was there, and what had happened, everything. Even how it all went to shit. The last thing he mentioned, was how he'd told Morgen what happened to him.

"So....why did you tell her Atan? Were you pressured?" Ale asked a little concerned.

"Because she has something in common with me with those regards. She was in the black pit I'd been in, I......wanted to help her...get out....to deal with it....understand it....whatever could help. When I told her, discussed it with her, it helped. Her and me. But it also opened up a prospect that scares me." Death explained to her.

"Is it the nightmares Atan? Are they worrying you again?" Ale gently queried.

"It's what's implied by them that worries me. What if they're, old memories, crawling their way back? What if....I wasn't drugged like I'm now hoping I was?"

Ale heard him breathing heavily and fast. It was clear to her just how scared he was, "Atan, listen to me. Calm down. Take deep breaths. You'll be alright, she can't hurt you."

"I know, I know. I know...just things are getting a bit too personal, that's all." Death explained wanting so much to believe her.

"You can hide many things from me Death, but one thing I'll always know, is when you're scared. Your breathing picks up speed and becomes heavy. Do I need to come down there? Would it help?"

"I.....Uh....I'm I.....uhm...uuuuhhh..." Death attempted to say before ultimately going quiet.

"That settles it, I'll make my way there. Just stay calm ok? Maybe go see your family until I'm there?"

"Uhhhh heh uhm right....they're technically in the next room. Also Merlin's here so, be worried. So goes for Puck, oi."

"Don't worry Atan, I'll be careful. Just go see your siblings and try to keep calm. Or at least see Strife, as I know you told him." Ale sternly but gently ordered him.

"Yes Ceise I will. Be careful, also I could just ask Merlin to open a rift for you."

"Don't worry Atan, I know the roads well. Besides I can also use my crystal to track you. I promise I'll be there before too long." Ale promised him sweetly.

"Alright if you're sure, be mindful of bandits, and swindlers!"

With that he hung up and went to go see his siblings as requested. Ale in the meantime began to prepare for her trip. Death ran into his siblings in the hallway and as he did, caught sent of something delicious.

Strife immediately spoke up, "Death are you experimenting again?"

"I've been in there most of this time. That's Barrcus' cooking."

War then added, "Either way it's food."

"Mmhmm, may as well get to it." Fury suggested as she walked on past her brothers.

They followed her ultimately to go see what was cooking. Back at Uther's castle, he had other plans for this afternoon. He went down into the catacombs, where in a lone chamber, stood a caged wendigo. One he'd bought from some pretty sketchy hunters that had searched 'Vinderland' as they put it. Uther meanwhile knew it as North America these days.

"Rise my pet, I have need of your service again."

It made a hissing like gurgle before coming towards the corner Uther was closest to, it's voice sounding like someone suffering from hypothermia, "What do you require of me your grace?"

Uther pulled up a portrait of Morgen and torn cloth from Death's kilt, "Find her, bring her back unharmed. This one on the other hand....," He began whilst giving the cloth to the wendigo for Death's scent, "..kill him. And make sure he's never found."

The wendigo laughed maniacally, "And if anyone gets in the way?"

"Do what you want, I don't care. Just bring HER alive." Uther demanded.

"As you wish, but do you have anything for the cold?" The wendigo inquired.

Uther told him, "I would build you a fire if you so wish. So long as you do your job. You won't have to worry about being too cold."

"Done."

Uther moved away and snapped his fingers. The chains in response snapped away and left the Disorientation Collar around it's neck. One similar to Death's own, but Uther could control it's affects. This the wendigo knew, as it sprinted off to find it's target. It moved quickly, even whilst in it's more humanoid form.

Ale at this time was halfway down the road and comes up to a fork in the road. She took the direction the crystal suggested to her. She heard steps ahead of her and stopped briefly, her ears keenly picked up the sounds of someone shivering badly. As the being, whoever they were got closer, Ale cocked her head in concern. Finally she called out ahead of her, "Hello there? Are you alright? I can't see you but I can hear you."

The vines on her wrists and ankles however tried to tell her something was off about this being. That it looked wrong in some form. Ale however listened keenly as the being sniffed the air around her, "J-j-just c-cold....and a b-b-bit h-hungry......"

"Oh well I may have something warm on me, a scarf or hood perhaps. I also have some food with me in another crystal if you'll permit me a moment." Ale explained as the being got closer and sniffed at her again.

"T-t-thank you."

Ale heard him sniff at her once more and finally inquired a bit naively, "Are you ill perhaps? Maybe a cold got you."

"Y-yes....it seems....u-unfortunately..."

"Well uhm hold on...I have some warm soup on me somewhere. And would you prefer a scarf or hood?" Ale questioned the being.

"B-both....please."

"Very well then.", Ale said before finding the soup and summoning it, "It's not too warm, so hopefully the bowl doesn't burn you. You can test with a finger to be sure though."

The being took the bowl and begins to slurp it down. A bit too quickly in fact, like a starving man. Ale noted this with concern and finally found the scarf and hood.

"Perhaps you are more in need than I realized. Were you starving? How long have you been traveling for? Poor thing."

As Ale wrapped the hood over it, having a bit of trouble at first with the antlers but managing all the same, he responded, "T-thank you...."

Ale then wrapped the scarf around him and her hand barely touched his skin, she didn't notice much beyond how frostbitten it felt to her. "Oh my, you really are freezing. Where did you come from? How did you get so frostbitten like this?"

"North....far north."

"Well hopefully this warm air helps along with the scarf and hood." Ale expressed with sympathy as the vines continued to try and warn her.

"So....what brings you to this side of things?"

"I'm visiting my Atan, although I'm not too familiar with the area out here. So I'm using a crystal to guide me there." Ale informed him.

"Crystal?"

"Mmhmm, I use a special magic in it to track his location." Ale stated as he sniffed around again. She thought nothing of it this time, wanting to polite.

"May I....take a look at it?"

"Oh of course, just be careful." Ale explained before handing it over. She noticed his hands were partially clawed, freezing to the touch, and highly bony. She did her best to hide her concern at this revelation.

"So....what is your Atan? Whatever that word means..."

"Uhm....my son actually. Perhaps I can call a carriage for you? There may be someone in the nearby town that can help you. Plenty of good folks at the tavern there will help anyone in need. I'd stay and chat longer...but I must be going. My Atan is expecting to arrive soon." Ale told him trying to hide her growing nervousness.

"W-who's your son?" The creature pressed, his heartrate elevating as she spoke.

"A good man, one I raised well. He's strong too." Ale explained vaguely.

"Strong? Plenty of meat on the bones."

Ale noticed he isn't shivering now by the sound his voice and goes to sprint off but is grabbed by both arms. She herself is now left shivering as this thing finally lets down the rouse, mocking her, "Thank you for your help. I'll make sure your death is quick, a mercy I was not given."

"W-w-what?!" Ale shouted as her teeth chattered.

"Heheh, I must be in a strange land. If you couldn't figure out what I was....what I AM."

Ale began squirming as best she could trying to call Death on her crystal. But the Wendigo notices easily what she's doing, "Maybe we should call him?", then upon taking it, "Just to say hi."

He hissed as the crystal vibrated for a moment before Death answered, expecting Ale on the other end, "Yes Ceise?"

"Does this sound familiar?", He hissed before slicing one of Ale's cheeks. She yelped in pain naturally and Death froze before shouting in rage, "WHO THE HELL IS THIS?!"

"Someone who was sent to kill you. I want to know first your name." It asked with a slightly distorted tone.

"I am of the Four Horsemen, and my name is DEATH!" Death shouted trying to intimidate him.

It only laughed however, "Funny...very funny...I used to have a name like that. Now...all I have is the hunger...and the cold. Hopefully your Ceise can help....alleviate that problem."

Death's own heartrate picked up, "You touch a single hair on her head I will kill you!"

"I doubt that Horseman, many hunters tried. All of them became prey."

"I'm not ordinary man." Death retorted.

Giggling the creature responded, "You'll have until dusk, before my appetite takes over. Good thing she gave me some soup a while back, otherwise your amount of time would be shorter. And keep your 'group' away. I would love to feast on them but I'm on a schedule. If you don't come alone, I'll guess I'll have to have a feast."

The signal cuts out once the crystal is shattered in the Wendigo's hand. From there it asks of Ale, "So, do you have anymore of that delicious soup?"

Ale nods and says whilst shivering badly now, "H-h-h-here......in t-this...c-c-crystal....."

"Thank you, dear." He expresses before scarfing down all the food he can from it. Ale in the meantime huddles up to a tree in a mix of fear and extreme cold. Course the winds around them both are starting to pick up, although it doesn't seem to be doing so outside of their radius.

The Wendigo laughed at noticing the wind speed up, "Familiar, but insignificant."

Ale goes quiet and closes her eyes. It looks as though she's napping, but she's actually in deep concentration. Waiting for the right moment to shoot out a burst of power. Allowing the speeding winds to swarm around them all the more in a very gradual and deliberate way. One that catches Death's attention when he sees it after preparing to leave and find Ale.

Using Despair, it doesn't take Death long at all to reach the sight. But he finds the wind having picked up speed massively. The Wendigo is actually starting to get a bit concerned but doesn't say anything of it. Not when Death shows up at least.

Clapping and laughing maniacally he begins, "You actually did come alone. I actually was hoping for a feast. I guess a small meal would do."

Death realized all too well what he was facing now, "Wendigo..."

Laughing once more like a hyena mixed with a dog that mated with a smoker he told Death, "I've never even tried Nephilim flesh before. Hmmm is it sweet or bitter, gamy or fatty? You have a lot meat on the bone, I'll bet the marrow tastes so sweet! Better than the rabbit, I would make a stew out of her."

"How about we come to a proposition? I know what your kind are, and what they love to do, to hunt. How about we have a wager, you catch me, you eat me? But if I catch you, you burn."

"No deal....I'M TOO STARVING TO CARE! A TRAP!" The Wendigo explained before showing it's true self to Death.

"Fine by me, saves me the time from killing you. I'll make you pay for wounding her."

The Wendigo can only get just under the tree canopy in height before the collar shocks him, preventing him from reaching past it. Death notices this and realizes what is happening,

"Uther."

It growls in pure anger and upset before charging at Death. Death dodges out of the way of it's lunge as best he can, but still takes a slight scratch for his efforts. But it's nothing his magic can't heal.

"A simple lunge? I know you can do better than that."

The Wendigo hissed at him, "Words that you shall swallow!" It then began swiping at him and is barely able to snag Death at all. He even rips trees out and throws them at the Horseman, only for Death to cut each one in half with Harvester. Upon cutting a final, truly thick tree in half, Death was met with a giant smack upside the head with a trunk. After being sent flying, and bouncing off the ground a few times he lay still for a moment before stirring to get up. Hearing the Wendigo screeching in triumph like some demented eagle. He throws this tree at him as well, and Death uses his Reaper Form to take care of it, but hopped out of it shortly after. As he can only use it in short bursts without Council leeway, best to save that energy up. He stood back up slowly and cracked his neck and back,

"Ok, my turn."

Death then began to run at this thing, stopping just in front of it before using a teleport slash on him. The Wendigo retreats for a moment, being quite surprised at Death for him having done that. Meanwhile down the road, a wagon had been hindered by one of the tree halves that got chopped by Death. A golden brown haired young woman was currently trying to chop it with an axe, whilst her Dwarven adoptive Father shook his head.

"C, we could just turn around. We don't have to clear the road. Just leave it for the officials."

"I know that Gregory, but I haven't found any good contracts lately. This is a good way to keep my strength up for em don't ya think?" C replied with a smile.

"Lass ye've gotta know when to quit too. Sometimes quitting really ain't as bad as most folks tell ya. I knew when to quit military life, and look at me. I'm still kicking and got plenty of my strength left. Seriously just look at me girl."

"Yeah you and all your gray hairs can certainly attest huh? Hahahahaha." C remarked jokingly.

"Eh be lucky yer my daughter, otherwise I'd be leaving ya to this whilst going my own way. Seriously lass, this'll only delay us by several hours. Whilst the path I'm thinking of will only take at least two."

"Come on Gregory, I know what I'm doing. I'll have this done in no time at all." C urged him whilst looking at him. Behind her however a tree trunk had come flying their direction.

"LOOK OUT!" Gregory shouted before tackling to the ground.

"Ah what the he...?!" C shouted back before the tree landed just behind their wagon, barely missing the back.

"I told ya! Now what the hell was that?" Gregory quizzed before getting up to look over the tree in front them. From there he saw Death as he was fighting the Wendigo. "Oh we are NOT getting involved."

"Why what's wrong?" C asked getting up to look herself. Seeing it for herself really peeked her interest. Normally she would agree to leave a Horseman to his job, but then she spotted Ale hugging a nearby tree as she was trying to concentrate. "Shouldn't we get her out of there though? She might be hurt bad."

"Fuck!" Gregory cursed before grabbing his crossbow, and switching it over to a rapid fire setting with white phosphorus attachments.

"What are you doing?" C inquired curiously.

"Get ready to fucking deal with that THING!" Gregory declared before trying to sneak over to Ale.

"Wait Gregory what are you....argh?!" C called to him before hurrying to get a weapon herself, this one being something she picked up as a reward for a job once. A sword that when its pommel was twisted, grew a firey plume over the blade. On the inside of the pommel was an obsidian stone. C normally preferred using water stones, but for this task she figured she may as well use this stone. She twisted the pommel and with the firey plume also came a change to the blade. Turning it from simple steel to obsidian, amplifying the capabilities of the blade. Course the sound of the blade igniting did unfortunately catch the attention of both Death and the Wendigo.

"Ehehehehe....oops..."

"I said alone!" The Wendigo shouted.

"They aren't with me!" Death retorted.

"Then you won't mind me feasting."

C gulped and prepared herself as the thing turned its body towards her, "Oh shit." Then is knocks Death aside before charging at her. C uses the tree trunk to hop into the air and try to slam her sword down on it. Course she's swatted aside like a fly, but does at least burn the Wendigo since it smacked her sword.

"Ahhhhh....warm...." The thing taunted to her.

"Still fire isn't it?!" C hollered.

Death however yelled to her, "Stay out of this child!".

He then began to use his scythes to attack this beast. Using a magma enchantment on Harvester, and forming one scythe into a hook to latch onto the thing's left shoulder. His other scythe stabbing the beast in-between the shoulder blades. Crying out the beast grabbed Death by his dangling leg and flung him to the side. Both halves of Harvester lodged into his body, he still continued to converge on his current aggressor. Death is ready to go tooth and nail, only to be surprised by a sudden explosion hitting the beast's chest head on.

Looking behind him he saw an elderly Dwarf with a crossbow, "Come at me ye fucker!"

The Wendigo made a truly nasty look towards Gregory and made a full charge at the Dwarf. Death took the opportunity to grab the hook again and began making more stabs into the beast's back. It cried out again and since Death was staying in the middle of his back, he started trying to shake him off. As that proves fruitless, it decides to jump up then slam onto its own back. Death still clung on, but barely. Then finds himself being shaken around again since the Wendigo decided he was weak enough to try that again. He begins slipping off the hook as the Wendigo begins grabbing after him frantically. Gregory meanwhile loads another bolt and hollers out, "Just let go so I take a chunks off this thing!"

Death then found it himself to grab Harvester again and once he'd tightened his grip on the hook again he forced the beast to rear up on it's hind legs, baring it's chest towards Gregory. "FIRE!!!"

Gregory did so, albiet reluctantly as he didn't know how Death could handle a white phosphorus explosion. But he fired multiple bolts into the beastie with rapid succession. Causing it to roll over and let Death take a few hits himself. Gregory called out to him, "Horseman! Just let go ye stubborn git!"

"Just keep firing! I'll live!" Death shouts back, making a mental note what the hell was in those bolts later.

The Wendigo has now had enough and begins bolting away. Death eventually realizes what may happen as the thing seems to be going towards Uther's castle. He finally just lets go, landing on the ground whilst bouncing off of it a bit and rolling before calling Harvester back to him. Causing the twisted creature one final piece of pain. He lay there on the ground after that as the adrenaline began wearing off, leaving him with the pain of the white phosphorus burns.

As Gregory came up Death inquired behind pained growls and gritted teeth, "WHAT WERE THOSE BOLTS?"

"Explosive white phosphorus, hence why I said let go. Ye stubborn git."

Death then looked back towards the young woman nearby with the flaming sword as she shut the spell off with a simple twist, "You were doing good child, proved to be a....excellent distraction."

"Yeah ehehehe.....I meant to do that. Yeah...." C replied rubbing her neck.

Death sighed, "You may want to get a better enchantment. Fire's good, but a super heating enchantment is better."

"Noted, thanks. Though maybe you wanna check on this lady over here?" C inquired pointing towards Ale.

[squeiky]

Honestly papyrus and sans are the #1 deltarune teasers.

From the door... To papyruses little Easter "egg". Tp the gaster connections :/

(ps: papyrus is way more connected to gaster than sans is. )

Then the "dont forget" <- take it literally friends you seriously want to remember small tib bits in both games.

The sans wink in deltarune.. The fact that they seem...wary of the player. In fact, they talk directly to us. And even add sound effects! How kind.

Reminds me of lancers mp3. Its a cute sound effect.

Tbh, they remind me of those kids tv shows.

You know? Where they are talking someone and look directly at YOU, and go "can you find this?" Or "what should i do?" Or "what do you think?"

Like.. Elmo, or dora the exlporer. Or something.

I could go off on papyruses flying ability, or sans timestopping, time manipulating.. Just a bunch of things about time tbh. Or papyruses... Strange music in his room, or his apperent blasters, pr the fact that he looks similar to gaster....

(i messed with both gaster/mysteryman and papyruses sprite a bit. I just flipped papyrus's default face, ontop of gasters. I guess they are just 2 eggs. Beacuse they seriously have that egg shape apperance. So we have 2 eggy bois and i love it.)

Okay i dont want to go to much on papyruses frequent wall breaking which is like 24/7 and how he knows about alphys... Or the fact that she works in a laboratory... Or how the bone brothers barely know anything about the other, and how it was pointed out by the shopkeeper that she cant tell if they are related or not..

( someone said the shopkeeper has a sister soo..)

Or how similar sans is to lancer... Or how similar he is to literally everything in deltarune. Actually he's so connected to deltarune, you cant even see him die. He supposedly gets "tired" and runs away, exactly how with the nightners.

(Personally i dont think he died. He has an arrange of sound effects,( papyrus included) such as drums and what not.)

He bleeds like the nightners. According to lancer they have a blood bucket, and someone to clean up the "blood" (i think they do, i forgot their name) and how apperently know about blood to the extent of how it works, and know how to use it as a joke and not freak out. (I.e. That one kid and noelle) to the loint of having a janitor to clean it up. And sans is the only undertale character to bleed, and walk away. Seeing as monsters IMMEDIATELY dust after being brought to 0 hp. And not bleed to death, as sans does. Which sucks alot but oh well. the ICE-E crossword, that only exists in deltarune.. That sans has in undertale.

And the connects with papyrus is more undertale related/ gaster related than deltarune related.

So mabye i was wrong and sans is more of a hint for deltarune + lancer (from his bike, to prankster personailty, to clothes, to his ENTIRE HOME.)

(the castle is filled with those forever smiles that sans has. Which is funny cause that castle is in shambles and is obviously has a terrible king in charge, and its really depressing how lancer's dad was nice, but not anymore. But yeah KEEP SMILING YA SACK O POTATOES.)

(To the benches that sans has in the fundraiser)

OH OH OH ! AND THE FACT THAT PAPYRUS REFERS TO UNDERTALE AS "HIS GAME!" AND CONNECTION WITH TOBY FOX (and possibly the temmies) AND WITH GASTER POSSIBLY BEING APPART IN DELTARUNE THATS VERY VERY INTRESTING IS IT NOT?

I mean what do you think?

Though i dont understand the "you hear a trousle of bones" in deltarune. And sans says "my little brother"..

Like how old are you sans that it conerns me. You even befriended toriel, which personally sounds awsome.

(People draw kris as if he would hate that, but kris is such a prankster, he and sans would be besties like-)

Also how young exactly is papyrus here? Asriel is obviously younger than papyrus in undertale, by using him as a ruler, papyrus and sans shouldn't be so..... Young? Adult age atleast not..babybones.

Unless papyrus indeed does the trick that goner kid did, and just doesn't exist in deltarune, due to his connection with gaster and his connection to undertale.

Unless im wrong, and asriel was just born before papyrus and sans came to snowdin, which might mean he would be older but... UGH THIS IS CONFUSING BUT THERE SHOULDN'T BE BABYBONES PAPYRUS ANYWHERE BEACUSE EVERYONE IS THE RESPECTIVE AGE OF UNDERTALE, INCLUDING ASRIEL AS DUE TO HIS CONSTANT RESETS HE'S PROBABLY ALOT OLDER THAN WE REALISE!!!!!!!!

And that papyrus cannot be connected to sans, unless toby says so.

Otherwise papyrus cant exist in deltarune, and sans has another brother or something.

Also undertale papyrus and sans are alot.more diffrent than you realise.

Actually their roles where reversed at a time! Cool huh?

Papyrus is seen being pretty depressed, while somewhere, i cant remeber where, but it is said that sans wans't always this lazy.

Which means....

ROLE REVERSION!!! Cool right?

Before you OFFICALLY MEET papyrus and sans, sans is constantly trying to cheer papyrus up with jokes

(terrible pun are normally a thing of inexperience. Unless on purpose. But he has a joke book. Most likely papyrus's book beacuse of the constant puns papyrus makes, that are really good! Papyrus is the only one who has a book shelf, so probably the quatum physics is his too. As he needs SOMETHING FOR THAT FREAKING BRIDGE. And why would you need a book if you already know all the jokes? :/ also im pretty sure either he recites it for toriel (which hes not aware is toriel) or its for papyrus. Either one makes sense. Even both)

Anyways sans was alot more hopeful and papyrus was a lot LESS hopefull. Only by meeting you, the PLAYER err... Human! He regains his hope back!

Sans is also homesick. Undertale isn't his home, he doesn't feel happy with going to the surface either.

Deltarune is the only place he truely seems at home, happy, joyfull. And even owns a...

Bar!! :DDD probably got handed it thx to grillby!

And has a freind named alphys who is just as nerdy as she was before. But now a nerdy teacher~

(WHICH CAN RELATE! I HAVE SO MANY NERDY TEACHERS IN MY SCHOOL LMAO ITS AWSOME, I GET TO TALK ABOUT ANIME LIKE-)

And not some depressed scientist with an anxiety and peer pressure.

Like no wonder he's homesick.

No wonder papyrus feels a bit "down lately." He gets the sucky version.

I guess when your suck in a strange place, a different home you lose alot of hope, rather than gain some.

Or hp. What ever you want to say. Hp= HoPe ? Sure why not i guess.

I mean, im trying to write my goddamn comic, and its gonna be hard to keep all my notes conistent.

Cause just rewatched their whole introduction and im like-

GODDAMIT PAPYRUS DO YOU NEED A HUG? FRISK MOVE, MAKE THIS GUY HAPPY. YES! THAT CONVERSATION ALSO FILLS ME WITH DETERMINATIOM! I CANT BELIEVE ITS CALLED THE "BOX ROAD" THANKS TO 1 FRICKING BOX.

YES SANS CHEER UP YOUR SUPPOSED BROTHER WITH DESPERATE JOKES AND FUNNY COMEDY AND POSSIBLE SOUND EFFECTS.

YES PAPYRUS SMILE, YES PAPYRUS GET MAD AND MARCH OFF LAUGHING HAPPILY WITH THAT ONE BACKBONE PUN.

PAPYRUS NO DONT GO BACK TO BEING Sad- goddammit he left my screen AND HES BAck... Aww... :(

What? Yes sans? He's been feeling down lately? Seeing me could cheer him up?

AWWWWwWwWWWwWwww thats so SWEEETTTTT

THANK YOU FOR TALKING TO ME DIRECTLY LIKE YOU SHOULD BTW. AS IM NOT FRISK, I AM A REAL HUMAN, USING FRISK AS A VESSEL AS I TOWER FROM ABOVE. AND YES I DO SEE YOUR FACE PAPYRUS FROM THE DIALOUGE BOX AND YOU LOOK AMAZING.

*Papyrus realises he doesn't have ears

[Facepalms]

*theres.just a bunch of makeup and sludge on the floor.

[Covers face]

*why does he even carry that?

[Peaks a little and whispers]

"Its always important to carry makeup on. You never know when you need it. Like now."

*papyrus nods his head thoughfully.

[loxxxlay]

This isn't critical, just genuinely wondering as you are someone on here that speaks respectfully about other peoples views too, but sometimes I think people put ragnarok praise under the category of "funny" and just leave it there, whereas Thor was well received in infinity war too, which was much more tragic and arguably not funny at all, then in endgame it was like they forgot that it wasn't just humour that made people like the character, but story arc and progression. Thoughts? Thanks!

Note: Not everyone is going to agree with what I’m about to say. (Obvious hahhaha right? But no.) I’m going to say some stuff, and I want everyone to be aware that these are MY PERSONAL OPINIONS and are in no way representative of how all pro-Ragnarok people feel about thor or about Ragnarok. (Or even about dark world, infinity war, or end game.) If y'all disagree and want to argue with me, then fuck you. If y'all disagree but leave me in peace, I love you. there is no in-between lmfaoo.

Hmm, yeah I definitely agree to a good extent! Ragnarok praise often does reference the humor, but I don’t see people praising it for that reason only. In fact, that’s the main rhetoric that anti-ragnarok ppl use to mock us who liked Ragnarok - that we just like it because it’s funny and that we have no appreciation for actual character depth/progression. Which, as someone who has been invested in these characters since 2012, can upset me. D:

I think what makes Ragnarok appealing to many people (or at least myself) is that it made characters more relatable. In the past, they were depicted as gods and largely lacking in depth (with the exception of Loki). this is actually my major critique of thor: the dark world. they reduced their characters into caricatures. Jane, previously awesome multi-dimensional scientist, is now too lovesick to work/do what she loves. Odin is the typical misguided, stuck-in-his-own ways, distant father. thor: gloomy trying-to-be-a-good son but sees the error of his father’s ways. Malekith: villain who wants to turn the universe into “darkness.” Suchhh cliches. :/ And cliches are hard to connect with, esp in fantasy.

In Ragnarok, the cliches were not necessarily broken, but the characters were given some depth. they were given COPING mechanisms. thor, gloomy son, starts coping with grief (his father, his hammer, etc) with either anger or exaggerated lightheartedness (which yes, led to humorous moments). Whereas before, he’d really just wandered around all sad-looking. Valkyrie, a living legend, is literally an alcoholic who rounds ppl up and sells them to buy alcohol. Bruce (who was never cliche fyi, but definitely given more depth in this movie) was given panic attacks - even Hulk processed bad feelings via anger/selfishness. And Odin, even though ppl may disagree, was given depth because he was shown to have not only a pattern of lying and casting out his children but also having a solid foot in the door of imperialism - this shows how he has made huge mistakes as a father/leader, and it puts everything in previous movies (including Asgard itself) in a new light.

those are all examples of the way Ragnarok took Powerful Gods and Superheroes and Magical Realms and brought them to regular ordinary human level: through mental illness, through poor coping mechanisms, through them making Big Mistakes. Something which, previously in the thor movies, was only really done with Loki (which is why, i’d guess, there used to be so many more loki stans than thor stans). thor and its cast were suddenly more relatable characters.

As for other part of your ask: I think both Infinity War and End Game were both terrible movies. But both of them did do a lot of things of value in terms of thor’s character. 

Infinity War, in terms of thor’s character arc only, was written well and acted by Chris Hemsworth well. thor retained what he had in Ragnarok: the dealing with grief through either anger or exaggerated light-heartedness. (which ties into the tragic circumstances). for example, think of how he cried while he talked to Rocket on the ship with a big smile on his face. think of how he slammed his axe into thanos’s chest and held his neck while he killed him. those match up perfectly with thor’s coping mechanisms in Ragnarok: blaming Loki and gearing up for battle when Odin dies. making jokes about his hammer/etc in the arena after being pseudo-tortured. lashing out in anger at Hulk when things aren’t going his way. Joking when Loki reappears at the end of the movie: “if you were here, i might actually give you a hug.” As well as the line, when Loki voices concerns: “I feel like everything will turn out fine.” (exaggerated lightheartedness)

In other words, the depth Ragnarok gave thor was adhered to in Infinity War.

In Endgame, the writing was... not so good, but Hemsworth’s acting saved a lot of it. He was shown in deep grief - covered by anger and exaggerated lightheartedness. When they find thanos and realize their plan to bring everyone back won’t work, thor cuts off thanos’s head impulsively (anger). When thor is walking around his house naked, laughing and seemingly having a good time, bruce says thanos’s name, and you can see exactly what thor’s false smiles are hiding. but that is hemsworth’s acting. It is not written into the script. (In fact, the script was allegedly going to be much worse.)

the difference between Ragnarok/Infinity War and Endgame is not humor. It’s the lack of continuity and the message the humor sends. In the previous two movies, thor’s lightheartedness, despite his suffering, was the source of the humor. In Endgame, thor’s suffering itself was the source of the humor. Endgame implied that someone’s suffering, someone’s mental illness, and someone’s poor coping mechanisms were something to laugh at, something to mock.

At least, these are my feelings on it and why I like Ragnarok, like Infinity War (in terms of thor’s arc only), and don’t like Endgame. So yeah. People who claim it’s all about humor for pro-Ragnarok fans are full of it. Wildly, it actually is okay to feel differently about whether a movie had continuity or not? And whether a movie is good or not? And one can have a lot of deep, thoughtful analysis either way? Who knew??? Haha, anyway sorry for rambling, and thank you for being interested!

Edit: I want to add that I think that Ragnarok treated some of its characters terribly (particularly in terms of fridging) and Ragnarok is definitely not perfect to me, but I see ppl saying this enough and feel no need to contribute. I”m sick of thinking about it/being mad about it basically

[maxmiz]

OMFG!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! mmm I was wondering if you could elaborate a little bit more in Max story? I LOVE how he is Slytherin's heir

Hey there @dangpanterita​. :D Apologies for answering this so terribly late but my job keeps me incredibly busy. Let me elaborate on the two stories:

1. Max’s story in my Potter/Beyblade Headcanon

Max’s story is pretty neatly woven into the Potterverse in my head and my headcanon about him being an heir of Slytherin makes perfect sense somehow when it comes to writing a story with an epic twist. We all picture him either as a Ravenclaw (for his obvious brains), as a Hufflepuff (for his nature) or as a Gryffindor because the kid’s got some courage (he sky-dived off a damned plane to save his friends). And don’t get me wrong, I don’t picture him in Slytherin house either. But as an heir of Slytherin? Hell, yes.

I was working on a fanfic on this for some time while I was still at uni a few years back and I developed a sort of story out of it in my head. We all know that Judy is a hell of a scientist and there’s plenty of evidence in canon to show that she’s extremely shrewd, proud and ambitious - all of which are qualities of a Slytherin through and through. I’m not saying she’s evil though - but she definitely is as much of a morally grey character in my headcanon as she is in actual canon (especially in season 1 where she is undeniably cold to her son for no good reason).

I primarily imagine Judy as the Minister for Magic in my headcanon. A cold but somewhat level headed witch who is pure-blooded,extremely gifted, headstrong and ambitious. She is for the most part motivated only by her instinct for self preservation (arguably a trait of someone who would be a pure Slytherin heir), but she has a soft corner for her half blood son, Max. That is the only thing in the world that made her break away from her family. She abandoned her Slytherin crazed family to protect her son, and severed all ties with her Slytherin roots to move up in the world and become Minister.

So how was Max born at all if she was a typical Muggle resenting Slytherin?

My headcanon is that Taro, Max’s dad, is a Muggle. That Judy, as a teenager, faced a lot of abuse in her household from her father for not channeling her gifts to terrorize Muggle-borns. She runs away one day, drinks a hell of a lot of firewhiskey,meets a teenaged Muggle Taro at a Muggle bar and ends up pregnant. Once she and Taro both sober up, she feels utterly disgusted that she slept with a Muggle. She tries to abort the child, but cannot. Since childhood she’s been wearing her dead mother’s pendant of Genbu (a gift from her father to her mother) and somehow Genbu casts a protective spell around her unborn foetus to ensure the continuity of Slytherin’s bloodline. She feels helpless because she neither wants the child nor does she have the choice to abort it. She feels cursed and knows that her father will kill her child if he knows he’s a half blood. She flees pregnant to the US and with whatever money she had run away with, she joins Ilvermony to complete her final year of education.

She realises, however, that she can’t continue into the next chapter of her life with Max. She wanted to be Minister for Magic and had no interest in being a mother. Also if  her father finds Max, he’ll kill him. But she did love Max. She couldn’t exactly abandon him.

So she reluctantly leaves him with Taro to raise the boy and deletes any permanent records of her being Max’s mother. She gives Max the pendant of Genbu and moves on. Once in every few months she would visit her son, but all of that would happen in secret. Max and Taro knew that Judy was his mother, but the world has no idea.

Max often grew up wondering if his mom is so distant to protect him or if it’s only a facade for her not wanting to raise a child. He often feels conflicted by it (much like in canon).

What is the role of Genbu here?

Genbu, as I mentioned in the earlier headcanon (in the Japanese version of beyblade, Max’s bit beast is called Genbu), is traditionally represented as both a tortoise and a serpent. You can look it up. And that’s where the heir of Slytherin theory finds more support. This is Genbu (source: Wikipedia):

Max was always aware of the fact that the locket that he wore was the locket of Slytherin. He was aware of his heritage because he would often only accidentally be able to control ocean waves, but also speak to snakes before he went to Hogwarts. And of course, Judy told him why he could never reveal who he was.

And truly, because of everything he knew, he begged the sorting hat to not sort him into Slytherin. Eventually he gets sorted into Ravenclaw much to his relief.

Genbu is nothing more than the spirit of Salazar Slytherin trapped in a pendant which gives the heir of Slytherin wearing it the power to harness the same powers as him if ever the Slytherin bloodline is threatened. It can also mess with the head of the wearer.

In my headcanon, ultimately Max fights the spirit from messing with his head and tames it to become who he is. A powerful wizard who controls the element of water and controls serpents.

Max’s personality

In my headcanon, I’ve tried to bring out a darker side of Max. His personality is still the same of course, he’s funny, kind and has a heart of gold. But there’s an inherent darkness inside him. Let’s look at canon for a second. Max never loses his cool. But the few times that he did lose his cool in canon, he channeled his rage into his beyblading to epic proportions. With others, the rage is pretty standard. But when Max would snap, he’d snap big time. When his pride is hurt, he hits back big time.

The guy is smart as hell (calculating angles and saving a puppy with a beyblade requires some brains and skills) which is why he is in Ravenclaw in my story. But, he has all the makings of an heir of Slytherin whose dark side remains buried mostly because the Muggle born blood from Taro’s side keeps him grounded and kind.

Let’s not forget, in my headcanon he’s been raised mostly by Taro. So the kindness is natural. But deep down, he’s every bit his mother’s son too. So I have headcanons about Max having a dark side - a manifestation of his inner Slytherin.

2. Brooklyn’s story in Potter/Beyblade Headcanon

To answer your question, yes, I do picture Brooklyn as Credence to a certain extent. I never actually got to formulating his part of the story in my head but here’s how I imagine it going.

We don’t know a lot about Credence as such. We do know that he is a pure blooded wizard who was raised by an abusive Muggle and developed into an obscurial who somehow survived into adulthood. We also know that he’s extremely powerful, had faced a lot of childhood abuse and had grown up feeling different and alone. And of course, that he was manipulated and used by Grindelwald.

Now let us look at Brooklyn in canon. Brooklyn is also an exceptional wizard. He’s brilliant, a loner and if we look at the very last episode of beyblade, he’s grown up extremely lonely and friendless. He was always different from everyone else, gifted. He has an immense amount of power, is not inherently evil by any stretch of imagination. But judging by canon, it is obvious that Brooklyn has some degree of PTSD and probably had faced tremendous bullying or some form of abuse as child. When Brooklyn is in a mad rage, he assumes this dark uncontrollable form. Also, when BEGA was formed, Beyblade’s key antagonist, Boris (I’m using the English dub name) used Brooklyn and his mad rage and pushed him over the edge.

THIS IS ALL VERY CREDENCE AND GRINDELWALD.

So here’s my headcanon for Brooklyn. Brooklyn was a gifted powerful wizard who never went to Hogwarts. He had a lot of hidden magical talent that he dared not express because the Muggles who raised him were abusive and tried to make him repress it. And he is also an obscurial. I headcanon that Brooklyn’s bit beast is like some physical manifestation of his obscurial form and Boris, for the sake of his personal gains pushes Brooklyn over the age to use his obscurial powers to wreak havoc.

Okay so that’s as much elaboration as I could manage on my headcanons.

Thanks for the question!

[pass-the-bechdel]

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Thor (2011)

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, three times.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Three (21.42% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Eleven.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Film Quality:

The fun:boring ratio tilts considerably depending on audience mood and/or desire for originality; the majority of the story is generic in the extreme and can be tedious as a result, however those elements which are more unusual and intriguing arguably save the overall product. 

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Darcy asks Jane if she can turn on the radio. Jane tells Darcy to drive into the anomaly. Jane tells Darcy to stop talking about her iPod.

Female characters:

Jane Foster.

Darcy Lewis.

Sif.

Male characters:

Eric Selvig.

Odin.

Loki.

Thor.

Fandral.

Hogun.

Volstagg.

Heimdall.

Laufey.

Phil Coulson.

Clint Barton.

OTHER NOTES:

“But I supported you, Sif.” Good to know that Thor supports non-traditional gender roles, despite being such a macho cliche.

I’m really very concerned by Jane’s driving. Someone revoke her licence. 

“Son of Coul.”

Heimdall does not get enough credit for being the MVP of Asgard. 

Loki’s suggestion that maybe he’ll pay Jane a visit himself is clearly intended to goad Thor into fighting him and as such need not be taken seriously, but it’s still totally uncool. Of all the goading methods he could have used, we really didn’t need to go for the implied rape threat.

I thought they might manage a Bechdel pass between someone other than Jane and Darcy for a moment there at the end of the movie, but Frigga doesn’t actually get referred to by name in this movie, and she and Sif only talk about Thor anyway. Disappoint on both counts. I kinda also thought Jane and Darcy might do some more/better passing in general; it’s better than nothing, but the three passes they got were pretty freakin’ weak.

When it comes to uninspired, generic origin stories, this movie kinda makes Iron Man look like an innovative goldmine by comparison. ‘Arrogant man takes a humble, learns to value his power and earns it back through selflessness’, it’s...been done. A lot. And while Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is watchable and not without charm, he’s not an especially charismatic actor and the predictable arc of his character doesn’t offer much scope to impress, while the typically-excellent Natalie Portman suffers a similarly bland fate with prescription-love-interest Jane Foster. The chemistry between the two is pretty nonexistent, and frankly it’s easier to believe that Jane is a slightly-amoral scientist essentially using Thor for her own gain, rather than buying that she’s becoming genuinely enamoured. If the film had leaned into the idea of Jane Foster: Amoral Scientist a little stronger, they could have built a more interesting (though less comfortable) narrative and perhaps even a more believable romance as the two bond over their shared moral learning curve. But, that would require Jane’s character to be more of a priority beyond finding excuses for her to be in Thor’s presence and develop ~feelings~, so. Not shocked they failed to deliver there.

Pretty much every person who has ever seen this movie (and probably some who’ve only read about it) agrees that Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is where the fire’s at, both as an individual character and in terms of the plot he facilitates and inhabits. It’s not hard to understand why: while Thor has his dull human journey in the desert on Earth (the majority of which is spent just going places and talking to Jane and occasionally having a comedic ‘not from around here’ moment), Loki is a trickster God with magic powers living in the mythological land of Asgard and playing out a long con to win both the throne, and his adoptive father’s approval. Anything about the film that is clever or different or interesting, visually engaging, or emotionally poignant, it’s going on in Asgard, in the part of the plot where Thor is absent for the bulk of the film. Unfortunately, Thor’s absence from that thread means that we don’t get to spend nearly as much time enjoying it, and that’s why even the film’s best qualities can’t necessarily save it from the generic trash-pile. It’s easy to reach the end of the film in frustration, wondering how the Hell the strongest elements of the story (Shakespearean tragedy on alien worlds!) wound up as background noise to an unconvincing snooze-fest romance in Nowheresville, USA.

Broken into its component parts, Loki’s story isn’t that unfamiliar either; ‘jealous younger brother vies for older brother’s birthright’ has been done a fair bit (The Lion King being the most well-known example, let’s not kid ourselves), as has the juxtaposition of entitled brat vs scrappy underdog, as has ‘driven mad by envy’ and ‘power corrupts’ and pretty much any other trope being invoked in Loki’s lane. However, it works through 1. Hiddleston’s dynamic performance, 2. any and all majesty/intrigue/gravitas supplied by the setting, and 3. the additional factor of Loki discovering his adoption and true Frost Giant heritage. While it should not be ignored that Loki’s machinations for the throne predate that revelation and therefore it is neither an influence on his overarching ploy nor an excuse for him devising that ploy, Loki’s struggle with learning that his life as he’s known it was built on falsity and the way that complicates his desire to prove himself provides him some all-important nuance and pathos that gives the audience something to latch onto and identify with, even if only as empathetic understanding (one hopes that no one is going so far as to identify with the attempted genocide or the successful patricide; most of us can identify with betrayal/abandonment/daddy issues to some extent or another). Even if his ultimate decisions are plainly reprehensible, Loki’s journey to that point is littered with appreciable miseries, and that makes it an obvious emotional narrative standout compared to Thor’s paint-by-numbers excursion.

The villain narrative being the highlight of a story isn’t entirely unusual (though films in which this is unintentionally so tend also to be poorly conceived), but what’s really unfortunate is that Thor’s character motivations are not second in complexity to Loki’s; the criminally underused Heimdall is actually the next-most nuanced character around (and look at that, he’s also on Asgard and not bore-ing it up on Earth). The thing about Thor’s arc is that it’s not just predictable, it’s not just generic: it’s also barely there. We perceive the arc because we’re so familiar with the trope, but we don’t actually watch Thor learn anything, we don’t see practical signs of the degradation of his arrogance and his transformation into a wise warrior who understands restraint. Beyond causing a ruckus when he first arrives on Earth, Thor really doesn’t display any aggressive entitlement, he settles into pleasantly-strange-fish-out-of-water mode pretty much immediately, and he seems to ‘learn his lesson’ spontaneously after being told that his father is dead. He appears to mourn the implications of his inability to lift Mjolnir more than he is bothered by being told of Odin’s demise and that he can never go home; those latter revelations instead trigger his instantaneous reformation (insofar as he says the words “my father was trying to teach me something only I was too stupid to see it”) and that’s it. Confronting the destroyer and being ‘killed’ by it prompts the return of his Godhood, but refusing to shrink from a fight isn’t a change of pace for the character we saw at the beginning of the film; all in all, there’s no actual clear-cut learning in this process, there’s just a complication-free acceptance of his apparent new state of being, and that means he’s worthy of kingship now? Were they too afraid of making him dislikeable by playing out an excess of arrogance on Earth, so they softened him up immediately and in doing so, downgraded his character arc to just the concept of one rather than an actual presence? If there were more of a distinct process to his experiences on Earth, they’d be less damn boring, because we’d be following an actual story instead of just waiting for them to hit each predictable beat, and maybe they’d also generate some real characterisation of any of the Earth characters while they’re at it (instead, we have completely-useless-to-the-plot-comic-relief Darcy, and surrogate-dad-exposition-master Selvig, comprising the whole of Jane’s illustrious company). Thor’s clutch of friends back home may be a one-dimensional quartet defined almost entirely by their most obvious single descriptors (the female, the Asian, the fat guy, and...Sir Didymus), but at least they have a clear trajectory of plot-relevant motivation, even if they do become inconsequential by the end of it. Yeah, this isn’t a very good movie.

I said at the top that audience mood may be a deciding factor in the success or failure of the film, and I mean that in the sense that this is a movie that may prompt vastly different responses in the same person over different viewings; speaking for myself, I have watched it and been basically entertained and appreciative of the visuals and at least some of the characters and story elements, but I’ve also watched it and been overwhelmingly bored by the trite predictability and the flat characterisation of most of the players, and unimpressed by the soft-focus CGI of Asgard. Caught in the right mood, Thor’s inexplicable laid-back Earth persona can hit just the right note for casual comfort viewing. Caught in the wrong mood, Loki’s Asgard shenanigans feel over-hyped and not engaging enough to save the movie. Is Jane too bland, or full of shades of untapped character potential? Is Darcy funny, or painfully annoying? Is Heimdall intriguing, or too nebulous to matter? It all comes off very conditional, little of it anchored solidly or fleshed out strongly enough in-text to be considered an absolute. The plot floats, dependent on the aura of various cliches rather than categorically declaring itself in any unequivocal ways. It’s not particularly messy, so at least it has that going for it, but even that is a conditional statement. The film is rarely subtle enough to develop any depth, and the shallow invocations of the idea of a narrative arc lack the conviction necessary to make simplicity a virtue. The end result? I guess the best word for it is ‘forgettable’. 

[babevogue]

Shows that made my 2017 better

So last year I made a list of shows that made my year better. Now I will say that 2016 was a FAR WORSE year than 2017 was for me. In 2016 I had academic pressure than was awful and I started a new school and all my friends ended up in different classes than me together, so that was fun. But then came 2017 and was all around just AWSOME and along with that awesome-ness came some amazing shows. Last year I just made a bullet list, but I thought that this year I should make some mini reviews, so here I go:

Fist off, my 2017 was dominated by animated shows/anime, so my eyes have really been opened to this amazing artform this year. HERE I GO:

 My hero Academia/Boku no hero Academia

What an awesome show. I watched this in November/December and I love the premise, characters and plot. It has really breathed some life into the superhero genre and is an all-together fun look at what it would be like if everyone in the world had different super-powers. It has stunning animation and the manga is also super-cool and goes in a great direction. Both the anime and manga is super-recommended.

 Favorite character(s): I love Todoroki, he is awesome (and I’m a slut for angsty backstory so…). Deku is great. Actually, can I just write every character here? except Mineta, fuck Mineta!

 Greatest qualities about the show: The character dynamics! The way the characters interact with each other is immaculate and they just fit together great. I also really like how each arc is structured and paced.

 Negatives: The girls are sometimes a little bit passive for my liking, and if there was an arc with Mineta dying I would not be mad.

Bojack Horseman

I binged this show and fell in love. What might just appear as just a wacky adult cartoon at first glance (and first couple of episodes) is actually a deep depiction of many modern-day topics and problematics such as depression, alcoholism, drug-use, sexuality, sex work, feminism, politics and of course life in Hollywoo(d). The human-like animals might be jarring at first, but it uses the character designs to its advantage with hilarious animal-puns and situations alongside making the show more lighthearted despite the shows heavy subject-matter.

 The show is about the horse Bojack who was a famous sitcom star in the `90s and his slump of a life post sitcom star life and his journey back to stardom. The blend between humor and chilling, haunting realism is amazing to watch unfold alongside clever and real character development that is beautiful to watch. Ironically the most aesthetically absurd looking show on this list has the most realistic story. Great social commentary disguised as a comedy.

 Favorite character(s): Everyone is flawed in Bojack Horseman, but the most interesting characters in this show for me are Bojack and Diane. So, I would say Diane is my favorite to observe.

 Greatest qualities about the show: The way it discusses social issues. Its stunning and thought-provoking.

 Negatives: It’s a little bit slow and odd in the beginning and some might find it a little too sad.

Rick and Morty

I discovered this show around Easter time and WOW! No show like any other on this list handles surrealism and absurdist comedy, parody and satire quite like Rick and Morty. The show about the scientist Rick and his grandson (with his grand-daughter Summer joining inn somtimes) Morty going on wacky space adventures. Ricks dick-ish nature contrasts Morty’s wide-eyed curiosity turned cynicism perfectly. The show has fun world building, alongside a great blend between one-off adventures and overarching plot. Visually the show is both stunning and disgusting making it an interesting aesthetic journey for the viewer. Funny, crazy and surprisingly deep at times. And btw watching Rick and Morty does not make you smarter nor require you to be a super-intellectual.

 Favorite character(s): Morty is always delightful.

 Greatest qualities about the show: Its really funny and has really great world building/concepts within the show.

 Negatives: It sometimes boards on a little to gross and has some growing pain in the start.

 This is kind of a shout-out to a second season of show from last year’s list so:

Stranger Things 2

Such a good “sequel”. I enjoyed every moment of the show (even the controversial Chicago episode). The characters developed, the plot developed, the new characters were amazing and tone and aesthetic from the first season was carefully preserved and used immaculately. The 80`s reference game was just as strong. For anyone who has lived under a rock the last year and a half the show (first season at least) is about the mysterious disappearance of middle-schooler Will Beyers. The year is 1983, location Hawkings, Indiana.

 Favorite character(s): Steve Harrington deserves the world in season 2. I also really like Mike.

 Greatest qualities about the show: Addicting story. SO BEAUTIFULLY SHOT! Amazing acting from everyone.

 Negatives: Ok, I lied the Chicago episodes stagnated the plot to some extent. I just don’t hate the episode as much as everyone else.

 And last but CERTANTLY not least:

 Ok so I’m cheating on this one I watched this show in January but I watched the first episode in December so I’m including it and also I’m so in love and I wanted to include it here rather than next year’s list because I want it fresh in my mind.

 Fullmetal Alchemist/Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

 So, this entry is technically 2 shows. One was created in 2003 based on a manga by the same name but diverges from the manga around the half-way point because it ran out of material to adapt and goes in its own direction. The other is from 2009 and is a straight adaption of the manga. This creates 2 shows with the same central characters, plot and starting points that diverges GREATLY from each other and they are both amazing!

 The plot goes like this; In a world where alchemy developed, you cannot create something with alchemy without having the materials that equals to what you want to make. Example: if you want to create a radio you need all the materials that make up that radio to create it. This is known as equivalent exchange and it cannot be broken.

 When the young brothers Edward and Alfonse Elric’s mother dies they try bring her back using alchemy. In the process Edward loses and arm and a leg while Alfonse loses his entire body and is only left with his soul which is now bonded to suit of armor. The brothers must seek out a way to find a way to get their bodies back.

 IT IS AMAZING! Both versions are amazing, but I slightly prefer the 2009 version also known as Brotherhood. It explores dark and philosophical themes and questions such as mass genocide, the life of the military, PTSD, fascism, war, politics, what is god/playing god, what is the price of a soul is, loss and most importantly daddy-issues.

 There is no end to how much this series deserves praise (mostly referring to Brotherhood here). From the way its gorgeously animated, to the pacing, the way it handles it subject matter and issues and has relatable characters. The character development is perfect, and the plot never meanders or goes into dead ends and concludes beautifully. Even the attention to details is impressive with examples such as the way it shows the characters physically aging and demonstrating where in timeline the scene takes place with subtle hair changes. Fullmetal Alchemist (brotherhood) is like watching someone pouring all the puzzle-pieces out on the table and watching someone cleverly and creatively putting them together, thus creating a magnificent art-piece in the in the process. I would also like to mention one of the most amazing aspects of both versions being the way female characters actions, traits, part in the plot, abilities and dialogue are some of the best female writing I have ever seen. Ironically enough in a work marked towards teenage boys.

Favorite character(s): Fullmetal Alchemist is the kind of show that I like to call having “parks and rec”-syndrome, where genually love everyone, however If I have to pick I might say Winry. I absolutly lover her and I think she is a great role model, hillarious and greatly written. 

Greatest qualities about the show: The way it deals with its subject-matter. And also everything else about the show, but especially that. 

Negatives: Nothing about the show, just a little girl and her dog that im a little tierd being meme-ed to death on reddit but also kinda laugh so im a little bit conflicted, but there is no negatives that I can think of. 

That was it, bye-bye 2017, I watched some fine televison in your year, and I hope to find some just as good in 2018. 

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 4/23/18

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 23 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – After teaching Hayama the lesson of this entire series, which is to say ‘have fun cooking and trying new things,’ Soma is able to win. Which is more than can be said for the rest of his merry band, as most of the minor good guys are summarily expelled after being defeated, and promptly leave the series, never to be seen again. Well, OK, maybe not. But we still have a few, and those few are ready to hear the tragic backstory of Soma’s father and Erina’s father, and the pressure that comes from needing to constantly be “the best.” Soma, of course, who has lost to his dad CONSTANTLY, doesn’t feel this pressure, which is why he does so well. An excellent volume. – Sean Gaffney

Gabriel Dropout, Vol. 3 | By Ukami |Yen Press – Gabriel Dropout continues to do what it does best: make the reader laugh. We get a new cast member this time around with Taplis, a young angel who hero-worshiped Gabriel and has come down to Earth to see how she’s doing. Needless to say, it’s not a pretty picture. Her addition just helps to give us more opportunities for fun, though. Actually, Gabriel may be the one cast member seemingly ignored by this volume, as the artist has realized that the other girls are easier to use for gags and also character development. She can’t hold her liquor, though, even when it’s amazake. My favorite continues to be troll Raphael, but all these girls are funny and great to read about. – Sean Gaffney

In/Spectre, Vol. 7 | By Kyo Shirodaira and Chashiba Katase | Kodansha Comics – This volume of In/Spectre is more of a short-story volume, adapting two prose stories as well as creating one original story for the manga. The stories themselves are what we’ve become used to—Kotoko listening to the problem and then theorizing us to death. But they’re also decent mysteries, and I don’t mind lots of theorizing if it manages to keep my interest and be visually striking, which the artist is quite good at. Meanwhile, Kotoko may not be getting any (I feel bad for falling for her telling us she wasn’t a virgin in volume one—she was clearly lying), but she remains one of the horniest manga heroines I’ve ever seen, constantly doing anything she can to try and get her boyfriend into bed. Nothing works. – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vol. 21-22 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | Viz Media – Throughout this series, we’ve grown so used to Seirin being the underdog that it has to be pointed out to us that they’ve never really played while trying to maintain a lead—something that’s a lot more difficult than it sounds. This is despite the fact that, as everyone watched Kagami, they realize that he has the same magic that was in the Miracle Generation, even if he was never part of it. And it’s going to take that magic to hold on, as they’re up against Kise and his perfect copy, which is able to crush them even with his sitting out a good deal of the game. That said, Kuroko is still the title character, and I’m pretty sure the cliffhanger indicates he’ll solve things. Solid sports shonen. – Sean Gaffney

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 29 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – So Harukyu has won, but is this really what he wanted? The girl he likes, Morgiana, has finally realized that she loves Alibaba even though he’s dead. He’s leading his country thanks to Sinbad… but is that really going to last? The next few volumes shoold tell us — oh no, timeskip! Yes, in time honored shonen tradition, we now jump ahead a couple years, the better to deal with Alibaba, not as dead as everyone thinks (in fact, that makes a terrific running gag) and here to step back into everyone’s lives. Sadly for him, everything is seemingly a perfect utopia now, run by Sinbad. Of course, no utopia is perfect, and I suspect Alibaba will soon be leading some sort of resistance. Once he can explain to everyone that he’s not dead. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 12 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – We’re back in class, and it’s time for exams—at least after a very amusing couple of chapters where the students go to mad scientist Mei to get alterations to their hero costumes. But the bulk of this is the provisional license exams, after which they’ll be able to do the hero sorts of things they got in trouble for doing before. That is if they survive the exam, which puts them against other schools in one giant melee battle, and only 200 can pass. This gives nearly everyone a chance to stand out—I particularly liked Midoriya spotting a fake immediately based purely on hero knowledge—and gives the volume tension, as we try to see who’s going to fall and have to be left behind. So glad this is now speeding up. – Sean Gaffney

Takane & Hana, Vol. 2 | By Yuki Shiwasu | Viz Media – This is not quite as hysterical as the first volume, possibly as it’s clearly now an ongoing series rather than a bunch of one-shots, and thus needs to work harder at plot and character development. I like how the author is not shying away from the age difference between the two of them, and the scandal that it would cause were it to get out. We’re also introduced to an old friend and rival of Takane’s, who I think I would like more if he didn’t keep reminding me of Saki from I Hate You More Than Anyone/VB Rose. In the meantime, rest assured that there is still a lot of great humor here—I was especially amused by Takane referring to Hana’s two friends as “Friends A and B.” I love Hana to Yume comedies. – Sean Gaffney

Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku, Vol. 1 | By Fujita | Kodansha Comics – I picked up Wotakoi more on a whim than anything else, but the manga quickly became one of my favorite debuts of the year. The series actually had its beginning as a webcomic on Pixiv before being picked up by a print publisher. Even more recently, Wotakoi became the basis of an anime. The attention the manga has received is understandable. The story features quirky but relatable characters, four adult friends and coworkers (two couples) who to different extents can be described as otaku. There isn’t much of a plot, but the humor and story revolve around how being a fan of games, manga, anime, cosplay, etc. impacts relationships, romance, and worklife. In some ways, Wotakoi reminds me a little of a more subdued, grownup version of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, another series that I adore. Unsurprisingly then, I’m greatly looking forward to reading more of the charming, smile-inducing Wotakoi. – Ash Brown

Yowamushi Pedal, Vol. 8 | By Wataru Watanabe | Yen Press – This volume doubles down on Midosouji—he’s all over it, and twice as obnoxious, and I think your enjoyment of the book will depend on how much you can resist wanting to see someone slug him. The majority of this volume, in fact, does not feature our heroes, as they’re still waiting for Onoda to drag Tadokoro back—which he does, and it’s awesome—but instead focuses on the other teams, showing us their own drive to succeed—as well as the questioning of the rest of Midosouji’s teammates, wondering if this is really the right way to win? We’ve still got a long way to go in this race, but even in omnibus format I want to read it faster and faster. Can’t wait for the next volume. – Sean Gaffney

By: Sean Gaffney

[avillainousmagician]

We've been doing a whole bunch of characterisation stuff over the last couple of days and it is brilliant. We were thinking up a school reunion for our people in 2020 or so which was very funny. And then general life for the Main Two when they are old which involves a lot of 'very fiiine wiine' said in a silly posh voice and I can't really convey the funniness of this because it is really specific to Dylan and I but it is hilarious and y'all just have to take my word for it. We also went into all this nasty extra detail about one of our characters we invented way back in secondary school (we have been at this whole town thing for almost as long as we've been together. We just add to it over time) because we have moved past invented people to the current timeline and that was very interesting. This particular character is broken as fuck (there's a teacher/student relationship that is ruinous (obvs) to the character, particularly after she leaves school) and we hadn't quite discussed the extent before. We had discussed how it all affected her snivelly rebound boyfriend but that was about it. The people from secondary school (and beyond like Silver who I have mentioned plenty) have almost all been Sims based but we just use that as a sort of springboard (same with SoulCalibur, Tony Hawk's, Guitar Hero and Rock Band - character creation is our Calling) and carry on from there. Sometimes The Sims gives you interesting plot points. 'Mad scientist trope' Silver being Howard Smythe's (Rob's dad - Rob being V's best friend from school, the one with the long brown hair and the beard, general nice and funny guy) boss and picking on him excessively. We elaborated on that so much. It is like a mini sitcom as a subplot. We started doing all this together because when I would play The Sims when Dylan was over he said it was very entertaining watching and listening to me get so involved in the storylines since everyone else apparently only wants to play dress up or build houses. He said it was fascinating and like a special little TV programme he could engage with. He said it wasn't like he'd seen anyone else play it. So then he joined in with me and it continued from that. Obviously video games are not a substitute for your own storytelling or imagination but they can be a fun tool and spark. I want to go into this so much more but it's purely for my own benefit because I am trying to order my own thoughts so there isn't much point because my bizarre creative process means nothing to people outwith Dylan and myself. We have so much going on and have done for forever and it's just so much fun. I did it before Dylan with previous mates and as I have said before I am so happy that he was totally in to joining in with it. We have this whole world in our heads and I love talking about it but rarely get to (hence the occasional posts like this, because infodumping somewhere is better than totally keeping it to myself) and thus have difficulty properly articulating it. There is so much I want to share but it is very difficult getting a handle on everything and recognising people don't know everything I know/that my brain is separate from other people's and therefore figuring out how to share it in a palatable way rather than just disjointed, idiosyncratic, vague ramblings. That's my project this semester. Organisation for sharing. So sorry when I do do this kind of thing. When I am enthused about imagining, I word vomit. But yeah, find someone and sort of play the Sims together in your heads. I have said it before and so I am saying it again Hours of fun. That way you don't have the Rules of a video game and you can collaboratively play it like normal The Sims but with whatever boundaries you wish!