#I'm having more feelings about shapeshifter Travis

[kurithedweeb]

Mother called him zvanyalken, demonblood. She called him enkyaiken, Enki’s blood. She calls them livyahken, frostblood.

“You are Travis, son of Elsbeth,” Mother told him when he was young. “You are a son of Gal’ruk, and one day you will protect its people from the forces of the Warlock Valkrum as I have been, and you will be one of a long line of warriors.”

Travis ran his hand over his mother’s embroidery project. This one was a new quilt for his bed. His old one didn’t cover him completely anymore and blizzard season was coming. He liked the blizzard season. Mother didn’t go out imp hunting as often, so she didn’t get hurt as often. He liked watching her work, her stitches were so neat and straight.

“Was he always bad, Mother?”

She added another stitch to the arctic fox running across the hem. “I’ve never known him not to be, but there was a time before I knew him,” she said. “I thought he was a sweet man when we first met, but that wasn’t really him.”

Travis was zvanyalken. He was a shape-changer, a skin-shifter. He was born with horns, with fangs and claws. He spent most days squishing his insides into human-shapes. He spent most days trying to look like Mother for as long as he could.

He did not look like Mother that day. That day, he had horns and fangs and claws. The points of his teeth caught on his lip when he spoke, his nails tore through his mother’s beautiful stitches like a knife if he wasn’t careful, if he didn’t dull them down.

“Was he a different person in the skin you knew?” Travis asked.

“No, no. I don’t think he was a different person at all. He was only pretending to be someone else.”

Mother set down her needle and embroidery. She tipped his chin up and ran a hand over his hair. Over one of his horns.

“You’re not a different person when you shift skins either, Travis,” she said. “No matter what form you take, snowflake, you are still Travis, son of Elsbeth. You always will be.”

His lip bled when he smiled, caught on a fang. It was healed by the time he licked the blood away.

“Come sit with me, snowflake. I’ll teach you how to make a fox.”

She guided his hands through embroidering a smaller, much worse fox trailing after the first. The conversation drifted from his mind, and when he woke up one day soon after in the skin of an arctic fox, she brushed his coat until it shined and made him a nest in front of the hearth until he shifted back because he wasn’t big enough to reach his bed.

[zahri-melitor]

New(ish) Comics 11 December 2024

Absolute Batman #2: I'm giving this the opening story, but it's remaining very much written Not For Me. Interested to see the Selina in it though, and apparently it looks like Jim Gordon and Martha Wayne are possibly dating?!?

Action Comics #1075: Mark Waid apparently just really wanted to retcon Jor-El out of one of his more poorly aged life choices. We finally see Lil Kara.

Kon and Kenan continue to bounce off each other amazingly (and Kon got to take the spotlight a bit here).

And over in Kara's story we checked back in with the rest of the family (Supertwins sighting!) and compounded the mystery further.

Batman and Robin #15: I'm liking this so far. And honestly we do need a retread of 'Damian, what do you want with your life outside the costume when you grow up', given the last go around. Looking to Thomas Wayne and the fact he was a healer/doctor for a bit rather than Beach Hermit Ra's feels...more in character, to me.

Black Lightning #1: Look, I'm not 100% current on what has been happening to the Pierces recently (outside of BatO), but this feels like it's retrofitting more pre-Flashpoint history for the characters in terms of extent of time spent as heroes onto their more recent stories. Jeff's definitely now back to having a proper history as a hero rather than the 5 minute long one he had in BatO 2019.

Anissa and Grace are apparently having problems? I guess that's justification somewhat for why Grace is in BOP right now and Anissa is in New Orleans for some reason.

Batman Uncovered #1: Look I flicked through this and I realised I didn't particularly like a lot of the variant covers. Lot of overly busy stuff.

Batman/Santa Claus: Silent Knight Returns #3: this only matters to like 3 people, but they all follow me so: so in the Silent Knight universe, Santa's wife is some sort of wood elf named Ulah.

Last week in the Christmas anthology, Santa's wife was a Blue Lantern who looks like the stereotypical chubby cookie baking woman, named Carol.

Can. Can we have some consistency please.

(Also John Stewart definitely met Santa this week, I saw him do it).

In other news, huzzah, we have Etrigan; Mary Bromfield was on a date? really? with whom?; and part of me wants someone to dig out Nimue for this story and the rest of me is just fine with Madame Xanadu staying far away from its dubious characteristics.

Also Damian says he'll have to tell Irey about her father, and I was squinting going: have you two ever actually been on the same team? Or properly introduced in this universe? Because Irey was hanging out with you from a DIFFERENT UNIVERSE over in Flash. Why is it up to you, Damian? Why not literally any actual Justice League adult. I realise you're feeling responsible but this one is not on you and there's no reason for it to be.

The Warlord #76: This week in Skartaris, in equal opportunity violence, Tara punches Travis for knocking her unconscious last issue to get her out of Shamballah during the invasion. Tara then organises the Shamballan refugee retreat, because she's more useful than Travis about things that aren't violence.

The retreat gets attacked by more New Atlantis troops because they've got a shapeshifting witch (into a black bird) who's been spying on them.

New Atlantis has been busy subjugating parts of Skartaris and King Ashir of Kaambuka has also been captured (he's the pirate guy who joins up with the group every now and then).

Not much else happens - a lot of planning about how to retake Shamballah and overthrough the New Atlantis invaders.

[sunfaggot]

Travis rant (discussions of sexual assault present. It's not in detail, but this entire rant is about it)

There's an impurity he feels for a multitude of reasons. Being born wrong as a gay man, being born wrong as an autistic person, for never being good enough, and for being sexually assaulted as a child.

One's... clearly a stronger reason than the others.

He's never come clean to anyone. Nobody would believe him, because it was the town's beloved priest that did it, and the priest was nothing but holy. Anybody looking to expose him was a liar and a manipulator and going against the word of God. The only person he's ever come clean to would be Copper. (Truthfully: His mother would be absolutely sick and horrified and weep from guilt; his father would have more of a reaction conflicting between feeling disgusted with his son or the priest that violated him; and his brother would turn to full on victim-blaming, mockery, etc. That's why he's absolutely never telling these people)

It's stupid how much he trusted Father Michael. Was he really he just a dumb teen who should've known better? Should he have known better than to trust a family friend? Who does that– to boys they're supposed to take care of?

Travis definitely has very victim-blamey thoughts regarding his experience. He should have done this. He should have done that. He shouldn't have let this happen. It also has some effect on how he views his own masculinity. How can a man let this happen to him? Completely ignoring the fact that he was never a man, he was just a boy.

Travis did genuinely want to be a priest when he was younger. He loved religion. He loved God. The idea of him, a father figure who accepted your flaws, who loved you no matter what. Religion sounded just perfect– until it was ruined for him. He doesn't want to be a priest anymore but it doesn't matter what he wants. He's going to stay in this town until it collapses.

It should be worth noting Father Michael isn't attracted to Travis. He doesn't feel anything of the sort towards him whatsoever. He wants to establish power over him. A sort of “I control you and I control this town, so you better sit well and behave if you don't want me doing this again. If you go against my plans, I will pollute you." Although of course he didn't actually say that.

I've always imagined him being around... 14 years old at the time. Given that he's 17-18 at the time the main storyline starts, that's very little time to process that sort of thing.

Hopefully it does.

While there's a more realistic aspect to his backstory (the sexual abuse themes) I am also planning on incorporate supernatural elements to it too because well this is a story about shapeshifters and the main villain is a shapeshifting priest who has changed into many skins over the years. I'm also trying to do this with Copper too, because while physical abuse is a huge part of his character and backstory, I think it'd be interesting if some things took a more supernatural turn.

I did some research earlier on clergy sexual abuse cases and wow, does the Catholic Church have a lot. I wasn't particularly surprised because I had already known prior, but that's over a thousand cases..... Yikes.

The sa trauma was not intentional but the more I thought about it the more I realized huh, that sounds like a certain kind of abuse.... Well I guess I have to do something about that huh. (Just makes it canon because what I thought of prior could already be read as an allegory for it)

[jonathanarcher]

So. You want to watch Enterprise but you've heard it's largely terrible. Here's some good news: I actually really like Enterprise and I have strong opinions on the episodes and I'm giving them to you for free

Green- generally considered to be good

Orange- I personally like it but it's not stellar/I think it's underrated

Red- It's terrible but it makes me laugh

Season 1

(edit) Broken Bow- 1x01: Its the pilot you should probably watch it. Does a very good job establishing the characters and the general (horny) vibe

Strange New World- 1x03: the first of many "uh oh something is making a member/members of the crew act oddly" but I really like this for the first half of the episode because it's something so unique to Enterprise and you can really feel the enthusiasm for exploring this place where humans haven't gone before and you can see how things are different because there isn't things like a fully reliable transporter yet

The Andorian Incident- 1x06: trip and archer visit a Vulcan monastery and hijinks ensues but more importantly it's the first appearance of Shran!!! Famously brought the Andorians back into star trek and it also shows the Vulcans for the shady bitches they can sometimes (usually) be

Breaking the Ice- 1x07: the gang finds a big ole comet. this isn't a great episode but there are a lot of cute little character moments I really love including Travis and Malcolm making a snow Vulcan

Shadows of P'Jem- 1x14: Archer and T'Pol get kidnapped and proceed to refuse to have any romantic chemistry whatsoever. But who cares because it's a Shran episode!!

Shuttlepod One- 1x15: Trip and Malcolm get stranded in shuttlepod One with slowly dwindling resources. Not beloved by critics but the fans sure go wild.

Rogue Planet- 1x17: Archer romances a shapeshifting space slug

Acquisition- 1x18: this is just a fun episode. basically the Ferengi take over the enterprise and it's up to Trip to save the day in his underwear. A lot of people rag on it for causing continuity errors to which i say fuck you man star trek is full of continuity errors and this one isn't that bad.

Detained- 1x20: Archer and Travis get held in a detention center with several Suliban and the gang learns that racism is bad. Also, a quantum leap reunion

Vox Sola- 1x21: space jizz teaches trip and a random crewmen the highs and lows of water polo. Also, an underrated T'poshi episode

Two Days and Two Nights- Enterprise's first and only Risa episode and my god is it horny. Hoshi gets laid though good for her

Season 2

Carbon Creek- 2x02: T'Pol tells a story about her grandmother living on earth in the 1940s and Jolene Blalock gets to wear some real fucking clothes. Good fun, solid emotional beats, and the chronologically first Vulcan and human romance.

Minefield- 2x03: the ship goes into an alien minefield. Not the most creative name but a very tense episode AND the first real appearance of the Romulans

Deadstop- 2x04: an unofficial part two to minefield where a heavily damaged Enterprise comes across a high tech station that will repair it for a relatively low price... or is it? A delightful little romp and if you're into trip/malcolm this ones for you

A Night in Sickbay- 2x05: Archer is a fucking asshole in this episode but also his entire dream sequence and the end scene kills me dead

Marauders- 2x06: it's a magnificent seven reference in space with some great outfits. It's not life changing but it's harmless fun.

Dawn- 2x13: It's like Darmok but if Picard and that alien dude started beating the absolute shit out of each other and Picard was steadily stripping throughout the episode and I love it

Cease Fire- 2x15: Shran is back and bluer than ever baby! Another good look at the Vulcan/Andorian conflict and Jeffrey Combs gives it his all

Horizon- 2x20: the only episode of Enterprise to be Travis Mayweather centric and it's not mind blowingly good but we have to support our boy

Regeneration- 2x23: Enterprise's Borg episode that ties up a couple of plot holes from First Contact and has a fantastic score by Brian Tyler. Largely considered to have made the Borg scary again

First Flight- 2x24: Tells the story of the first flight of the warp two engine and the origin story of archer and trips friendship. Good old wholesome fun

Season 3

Impulse- 3x05: Enterprise does its own take on a zombie movie but with Vulcans. Need I say more.

Twilight- 3x08: Archer gets a space disease that makes it so he's incapable of making new memories and results in 50 first dates in hell. Gives a look at what will happen if the Enterprise fails to stop the Xindi weapon and T'Pol gets to wear the uniform

North Star- 3x09: Cowboy episode! Cowboy episode! Cowboy episode!

Similitude- 3x10: Trip gets severely injured and Phlox and Archer decide to grow a rapidly aging clone to save his life. This is a heavy one folks but I think the casting for the various young Trips is a particular stand out.

Carpenter Street- 3x11: Archer and T'Pol have time travel shenanigans including stealing a car and robbing an ATM. Lots of horror movie references for some reason.

Proving Ground- 3x13: Shran shows up out of nowhere in the expanse but does he have ulterior motives??? Yes. It's a Shran episode those are always good

Stratagem- 3x14: Archer, like many captains before him, finally gets his theater kid episode where he gets the act his little heart out in a stupid elaborate plan to trick Degra into telling him where the Xindi are building the weapon

Damage- 3x19: the ship is stranded without a warp drive and the only way to acquire one is to rob another ship. Holy shit does this episode get dark but I does present a good moral dilemma

E^2- 3x21: the Enterprise comes across an Enterprise that was sent into the past and that is staffed entirely by their decedents. It's a bit of filler episode but generally beloved by fans

The Council/Countdown/Zero Hour- 2x22-2x24: a pretty kick ass three part season finale that does uphold the Star Trek idea of trying to solve problems through diplomacy with some pretty good space fights. Very suspenseful and these were the episodes that made me understand why people thought Enterprise could actually be good

Season 4

(edit) Home- 4x03: the episode where everyone looks at the last year and realized that they might be traumatized. A good and necessary cool down ep after the xindi arc and sets the show up to be a bit more hopeful, a lot of good moments between characters

Borderland/Cold Station 12/The Augments- 4x04-4x06: Brent Spiner is back baby and they are going to milk him for all he's worth. I don't personally think these episodes are great but they're action packed and adds a ton to the lore

The Forge/Awakening/Kir'Shara- 4x07-4x09: this post is entirely my opinions so I'm going to say this is the best of all of the trilogies and probably the best Enterprise ever got. This trilogy has everything: shran, surak, t'pau, a shit ton of lore that explains how enterprise vulcans become tos/tng vulcans.

Observer Effect- 4x11: Hoshi and Trip are infected by a mysterious virus while non corporeal aliens posses various members of the crew to watch them. Great Hoshi moments in this one and a great tie in to the original series. My personal favorite episode

Babel One/United/The Aenar- 4x12-4x14: I don't want to spoil anything because there are a couple of great twists in this but it's another Shran episode baby!! It does lead to the first big step to the founding of the federation.

Affliction/Divergence- 4x15-4x16: Phlox gets kidnapped by Klingons and the gang goes on a man hunt to find him. Finally fleshed out Reeds backstory in an interesting way. Divergence has the best action scene in all of Enterprise with the crossing the tether scene imo. Continues the tradition of tying up loose ends from tos that no one really needed an answer to but it does it in a really interesting way.

In a Mirror, Darkly part 1 and 2- 4x18-4x19: season four is the season where they were desperately trying to tie into other, better star treks and it works for them. These are currently the only episodes to take place entirely in the mirror universe with mirror universe characters and if you hate faith of the heart than I have some good news for you. You can tell all the actors are having a great time chewing the scenery and it's some good old fashioned fun

Demons/Terra Prime- 4x20-4x21: nothing but respect for MY Enterprise series finale. In all seriousness this actually does a pretty good job of rapping up the show and giving every character a moment to shine. Fantastic performance by everyone but especially Jolene Blalock and Connor Trinneer.