#JACK IS NOT EVEN ONE OF THE CHARACTER I ASSIGNED TO ANY OF THE GROUP

[ryllen]

Try to pull him for the fifth time, ended up shoved to Jack SSR instead

[mysticstarlightduck]

Supernova Initiative - WIP Intro/WIP Someday Tag

I wasn't tagged for this recently, but I wanted to make a WIP Intro/WIP Someday post for this story in the style of my previous post for Song of Thorns (here). So here we go😅! Feel free to make your own version of this Tag for one of your WIPs, if you'd like!

By the way, if you like this, please reblog, it helps a lot 💕

And tell me if you'd like to be added to any future taglists of this WIP!

Rules: Pick a WIP. Post something about it. On a Wednesday. Or whenever! It can be literally anything! (:

WIP INTRO - Supernova Initiative

Title: Supernova Initiative

Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera/Adventure & Mystery/Whump

Tags: #wip supernova initiative #supernova initiative

Synopsis/What Is It About?

Jack Tithus, a young and charming intergalactic thief, along with his crew - Vesper Foxx, a feared cyborg assassin; Cassiopeia Tithus, his younger sister who is also a genius engineer; Aleks Keldora, a master in the art of temporary identity theft; and Artemis Zreeth, their edgy new recruit - are the most wanted criminals in this quadrant of the galaxy. Never once caught, the team defies their galaxy's oppressive government by using their combined talents to steal from the government as their own act of rebellion.

However, their luck takes an unexpected turn for the worst when they find themselves set up and arrested after a botched heist. Taken to the most secure facility in the whole Junction, the group expects nothing but problems in the coming future - instead, they are offered a strange deal: if they agree to work for the Junction and retrieve some highly classified files that were lost in a hostile planetary system, they will be spared from execution. With few other options, the group begrudgingly accepts to carry out this heist for the government they spent their lives trying to undermine.

Meanwhile, Jack finds himself trapped in a horrifying web of unethical experiments and illegal bioengineering when, while still having to carry out the heist along with his crew, he is secretly forced to become a test subject to the fearsome Director, head of the Junction's division of sciences, unbeknownst to his crew.

The team will need to count on the help of old allies-turned-rivals such as the cold-blooded mercenary and sniper Deimos Soll, their former crewmate, and the secret agent assigned to oversee their mission, an uptight and by-the-book young man called Noctus - if they wish to complete the most dangerous heist of their lives, and get their freedoms back.

Tropes and Nice Stuff! (Or, a.k.a. What you can expect in this book!)

Found Family/Team as Family!

Space adventure, exploration of unique, uncanny, beautiful, and outlandish alien planets, all the good science fiction stuff!

Robots, cyborgs, and sarcastically friendly AI!

A terrifyingly strict aspiring utopian regime that promises progress and freedom but is actually an unethical dystopia in disguise, with many bloodied skeletons in the closet, if you will.

Intergalactic politics, multiple alien cultures, and a bubbling interplanetary conflict about to explode between vastly different civilizations, each seeking either revenge or power.

Sibling bonds! A lot of this story centers around the siblings Jack and Cassiopeia Tithus, and the struggles they go through to keep each other safe and live another day, among some other notable siblings throughout the book.

Laboratory whump - A LOT OF IT. Also expect a crazy, unethical scientist/politician as a villain who is willing to do absolutely horrid things in the name of progress, even if it means human experimentation.

A suspicious, morally grey antihero with a reputation for being a cold-blooded killer, whom you'd expect is going to betray the group sooner or later, but is actually one of their most loyal allies and HAS A REDEMPTION ARC aaaaaa

Heists! Heists! Heists! And all the good stuff that comes along with this trope!

An edgy rogue-type character who is super impulsive and does not always make the best decisions, who only recently joined the group but would defend them with his life.

Traumatized - and hot - cyborg assassin lady on the path to have revenge on the people who destroyed her life in the past, and who is going to get said revenge in ✨style✨

A conformist secret agent who has always been "the perfect soldier" and follows rules like his life depends on it has an existential crisis and learns that his government has lied to him

A subplot that follows a young cadet from the Junction's Void Program, who discovers a dark secret about their government and starts investigating, but who needs to escape (and ends up meeting the MCs) after the government makes an attempt on his life + his war hero (adoptive) older brother who is a fighter pilot and really just needs a break and was tasked by their parents with trying to keep Pax from getting into even more trouble, but fails successfully.

Outcasts and society's "rejects" decide to make a better future together and it is great

Angst, team dynamics, and a lot of action-packed fight scenes!

And more! ✨

Meet The Main Cast! (The good guys)

Jack Tithus

A charming and rebellious intergalactic thief, Jack always sought a better life for himself and his younger sister, Cassiopeia, his only family - and he finally got his chance many years ago by joining a famous space pirate crew and leaving the dusty mining settlement moon he grew up in behind. After that, he took on a solo career - along with his sister and a few friends they had made along the way - and became the most wanted thief in the galaxy. He only steals from the government and seeks to help people who are oppressed or neglected by the system. He has a kind heart and a free spirit, and despite being a thief has a stronger moral compass than most, believing in breaking the rules to do what is truly right.

Cassiopeia Tithus

Cassiopeia - or Cassie, as she is usually called - is a brilliant robot engineer and inventor, able to build even the most complex machines from little more than scraps. She built her first robot when she was a child and has had a passion for mechanics ever since. A part of her older brother's outlaw team, Cassie uses her tech to aid in the heists and allow them to be mostly undetected. Most times. A lively young girl with a fiery personality, Cassiopeia has a lot of passion for what she does and is the glue that keeps their little team of misfits together.

Aleks Keldora

Raised by his two mothers on a struggling planet on the edge of the system, Aleks always wanted to help his family financially and give his mothers the life they deserved. However, struggling with self-esteem issues and often feeling discarded by society, Aleks knew what it meant to be invisible in the eyes of the world around him - with his family being the only ones who ever saw him for who he was. Tired of feeling left out by the world, and wanting to help his mothers - whose business was about to go bankrupt - Aleks decided to take a stand after winning a high-tech device in an underworld completion, a mask that allowed him to shapeshift into anyone he'd like. With the help of this mask and his other talents, Aleks completed his first heist in secret and was able to use the funds to help keep his family's business afloat, though they never knew the truth about how he got the money. After that, finally able to use his feeling of being invisible to his advantage, Aleks became more and more bold, eventually leaving his home planet in search of better heists to be able to continue to support his family.

Vesper Foxx

Traumatized by the day her home planet was raided by a ruthless group of mercenaries - who were hired by the neighboring galaxy's government to establish a Junction colony in Khosmonian territory - Vesper was kidnapped by the soldiers along with her oldest brother, Atheris, after their mother was killed in the raids. After witnessing him be tortured and killed, which scarred for life, Vesper was able to flee in an escape pod, being reunited with her little sister, Lysia, and their cousin, Deya, with whom she left their destroyed homeland behind. Despite settling down in another planetary system with the family she had left, the girl was never able to let go of the past, yearning for justice and revenge. Eventually, she left behind her sister and her cousin to pursue the deaths of the mercenaries who destroyed her life, using cyborg implants and upgrades to turn herself into the deadliest assassin in either galaxy.

Artemis Zreeth

The son of a renowned bounty hunter, Artemis never thought he would ever join their galaxy's criminal underworld, but after his father was betrayed by the crew he trusted the most, Artemis was left to fend for himself. Feeling betrayed by the system he trusted and lacking a purpose in life, Artemis survived by doing some gigs as a mercenary and pirate, a gun for hire in the criminal underworld. After winning a race and accidentally meeting the main cast, Artemis joins the group thinking this would just be another job to pay the bills, but as they spend more and more time together, the teenager finds that this group of outcasts might be the closest thing he's had to a family in a long while.

Pax Stellaryn

A genius young cadet, on his way to becoming the youngest cadet to ever graduate from the Junction's Void Program, Pax always wanted to make his beloved adoptive family proud, feeling oftentimes like a fish out of the water. After discovering a terrifying government intrigue by accident, Pax finds a chance to prove that he too can be a hero, and sets off to investigate more about this and seek a way to prevent the Junction's wretched plan from coming to fruition, after realizing his life too is in danger. However, he may have overestimated his ability to get out of this mess alone.

Deimos Soll

A cold-blooded and practical sniper, Deimos was Jack and Cassie's childhood best friend and their first crewmate. The trio split ways years ago due to conflicting beliefs and a few bad misunderstandings and ended up becoming rivals and competition when it comes to stealing from the Junction. Years later, however, after a harrowing encounter with a cruel and sadistic woman who sought to enslave him in order to force him to join her army, Deimos ends up fleeing to the only people he ever trusted - which unfortunately means having to confront his past and face Jack and Cassie again, who is very confused about his return to the crew - while being hunted down by the insane general he seeks to escape from.

Noctus

Though his full name is classified and unknown to the cast, his reputation precedes him. He is the single most successful special forces secret agent currently in the employ of the Junction - he has never failed a mission, never missed a target. And he always follows orders, always obeys the rules. However, is everything about him what it seems? A forgotten and suppressed part of his memory may prove that the system he fought so dearly to uphold may have actually made him into their perfect living weapon, and there may be many other lies yet to be uncovered

Ethean Mirannir

Pax's adoptive older brother, Ethean is a fighter pilot who has made a name for himself as a war hero and has always been the perfect soldier. Unexpectedly, he finds himself having to choose between his duty to the government and keeping his family safe when Pax discovers a secret that even he had no idea existed.

A few Plot Points, chaotically described🙃 (A.k.a - Badly Summarized WIP Tag but different)

Celebrating a successful heist on a space diner with the homies

I don't know why but I have a feeling this is going suspiciously well for our standards... Are we being set up? Hmm. Nah, I must be thinking too much into it-

Yep. Yes, we were being set up.

🎶Hell to the no, to the no, no, no🎶 WHAT IN THE DYSTOPIAN BULLCRAP EVEN IS THIS PLACE?

"Making shady deals with psycho government officers and bargaining for our freedom - with a bonus of Trauma✨"

THIS JUST-IN: 20-something agent totally done with everything must babysit this group of reckless space pirates that refuse to obey the rules

Cue the most uncomfy space travel in the whole galaxy~

"Hey guys, so yeah, this wasn't my plan either -" Promptly passes out, and everyone has more questions than answers.

Preparing to steal important files lost✨IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE✨ with a plan with came up with at 2AM with three bottles of energy drinks and a dash of improv

Operation "Let's Try Not To Die In Less than 20 Mins" begins and goes about as well as you'd expect

Losing communications with any backup we might have had and having a bit of group therapy because why not~

Things get Oh, so much worse, Special Edition - a.k.a - a not-so-nice crash landing on the worst possible planet ever

Let's improvise again Pt.2

Questionable problem-solving and emergency hot chocolate bottles

Cyborg Girl and Sniper Dude absolutely do not get along for a whole week and make it everyone else's problem

This is nice! Finally, something goes according to plan in this mess. I'm honestly surprised we got this far. Bravo to us!

(POV Shift) "Hi, yes, you're probably wondering how I even got into this mess. Let's start from the beginning."

This isn't a regular doctor's appointment, is it? What is that needle?! What are you doing -

Political drama, espionage, and manipulative teachers

And The Whump Begins

Well, well, well if it isn't the Consequences of my actions striking back at last. I probably should've mentioned this teeny tiny major problem sooner though. Yeah, my bad...

This is either the single most adorable little alien or the most concerningly ugly thing I've ever seen and now I'm confused

Cue existential crisis - "So no one was gonna tell me my whole life was a lie? Cool. Cool. Just checking... WTF"

HEIST! BADASSERY! BAD LIFE CHOICES!

Two tired older brothers try to keep their respective gremlin younger siblings from encouraging chaos and fail miserably

Insane Femme Fatale makes everyone hate her in less than 2 seconds and is so proud of it

Midnight Talks and Crispy Snacks

Things just got serious, Oh No.

How To Keep Two Rival Civilizations from Destroying Each Other 101 - We're still trying to figure it out

Hm. This plan wasn't half bad. Except it was. It was oh, so bad, OMG

To be Continued...

Playlist

Antigravity - Runaground

Superhero - Simon Curtis

Die For You - Valorant

Notorious - NEONI

Fighter - The Score

Glitter and Gold - Barns Courtney

Tagging (gently): @sleepy-night-child, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @smol-feralgremlin, @oh-no-another-idea, @littleladymab,

@winterandwords, @cowboybrunch, @eccaiia, @sarahlizziewrites, @illarian-rambling

@agirlandherquill, @anoelleart

@leave-her-a-tome, @writernopal, @anyablackwood, @unstablewifiaccess, @forthesanityofstorytellers

@i-can-even-burn-salad, @cakeinthevoid

@lassiesandiego, @thepeculiarbird, @clairelsonao3, @memento-morri-writes, @starlit-hopes-and-dreams

@the-golden-comet, @urnumber1star, @ominous-feychild, @anyablackwood, @amaiguri, @lyutenw @finickyfelix @elshells

@thecomfywriter

And OPEN TAG

[sbk-zgvlt]

I’ve actually been sitting on an au idea for quite a while. I discussed this IN DEPTH with my friend a while back but I wanna get your thoughts on it. I was wondering what would have happened if Sebek was sorted into a different dorm. I always settled for him being sorted into Pomefiore, seeing as how their whole thing is embodying the Evil Queen’s spirit of tenacity, of which Sebek has an abundance of. They’re also skilled at cultivating a unique sense of style, something Sebek ALSO does quite well. BUT SEBEK ADMITTED HIMSELF IF HE HAD TO BE IN ANY OTHER DORM BESIDES DIASOMNIA HE’D CHOOSE OCTINAVELLE. But the thought of Sebek in Heartslabyul flourishing under a strict regiment of conduct and Riddle’s no nonsense rule. I JUST KEEP WONDERING WHICH WOULD SUIT HIM BEST. While I also think he would represent Savanaclaw’s persistence well, I just think he’d despise the chaos and lack of order. And Ignihyde is out of the question.

But then that also leads me to the OTHER au of all the freshmen going into different dorms. Jack headed off to Heartslabyul, Epel to Savanaclaw, Deuce to Scarabia, Sebek to Pomefiore and Ace to Octinavelle. Personality wise I think they’d blossom in their newly assigned dorms respectively, but I wanna see what you think.

OH WE ARE COOKING.

I'm going to start playing with the idea of the whole first year group switching dorms before doing the "only Sebek switches" one.

First of all, absolutely love the dorms you casted them in mwah mwah mwah. Jack is a stickler for the rules in his own weird kind of way, believes in fair play and is quite possibly one of the most law-abiding students in the school...if it weren't for the fact that if morality and his own beliefs comes into play, he's willing to break a rule or two for the sake of his friends.

Epel is going to be underestimated by a LOT of Savanaclaw, but his stubbornness will help him put up a good fight. Even if he loses in the end, its shown that the students are smart enough to not go by someone's looks after they prove themselves to be strong and persistent. There is a chance that his character development regarding masculinity and his toxic view of it may be delayed...unless Leona gets on his case about it, because the women in Sunset Savanna are NOT to be messed with and so is any other woman, kid what the FUCK are you on about.

I was a bit unsure of Deuce being in Scarabia, but then I remembered this is the kid who changed his ways after overhearing his mom crying about him and decided the best way to make his mom proud is to become an honor student. Being an honor student is fucking HARD, as someone who USED to be one, so bro needs to plan and worry about more things than just academics, because trying to snag a spot as an honor student also means being on your best behavior.

Then I was STILL unsure, and saw Ace was at Octavinelle, and that's when I realized oh these mfs are a package deal fr!!! Deuce and Ace could switch between Octavinelle and Scarabia and IT WOULD STILL FUCKING FIT THEM. Ace is cunning and resourceful in ways you wouldnt expect (Scarabia), while also being very thoughtful and considerate when it comes to his friends (Octavinelle). Deuce is mindful of how his actions and words can affect other people (and his spot as an honor student) as long as his emotions dont get the best of him (Scarabia), and is goodwilled (Octavinelle). I love Adeuce.

Anyways, onto the ACTUAL idea part. Yeah. that wasn't the whole post. Sue me.

Jack can fulfill Adeuce's role in Book 1, me thinks. Even if he doesn't break any rules, his sense of justice will get him to call out Riddle for how his actions have affected the whole dorm. Riddle's overblot will be a bit delayed, since there's no punching the dormhead and the ruined unbirthday thing, but that shit's definitely going to happen still.

Epel would also be able to fulfill Jack's role. His admiration for Leona and Ruggie will make him feel all the more betrayed when he finds out that theyre actually going to cheat their way through the game. I feel that he would want to showcase his skills by battling a worthy (very much overpowered) opponent, not someone who'll end up underneath a stampede. Jack tagging along will also spur him on as they both share the same admiration for Leona.

ACE IS DEFINITELY GOING TO MESS WITH AZUL HAHAHA. THIS is one overblot that will actually be sped up. The same things still happen, except Yuu and the group get the information much faster from ACE, who is oh so willing to betray Azul and the Leech twins. He got sea anemone'd haha. The loser.

i FORGOT TO MENTION: Ace and Deuce are still the first people Yuu meets. Just yknow. Different dorms and all. Im not sure if Deuce would fall for Azul's contract, considering the fact that he's under Kalim and JAMIL, the latter knowing fully well how Azul is, but for the sake of the story he DID get sea anemone'd.

Because Im a sucker for them, Ace initially didnt give up information without something in return, before Yuu suddenly said out of nowhere that Deuce also fell for Azul's contract. Ace laughs it off, saying if theyre trying to get him to pity Deuce, they have to try harder than that. But eventually, Ace caves in because he genuinely does like Deuce because "he's a cool guy" and agrees to help them out free of charge. Theyre a duo in any universe fr 🔥🔥🔥

Scarabia overblot is the only thing that turns out to be MOSTLY the same, minus Deuce being sad that Jamil wasnt cool like that...but the mess is cleaned up fairly quickly.

FINALLY getting to Sebek. Fuck.

Sebek is INCONSOLABLE that he is NOT in Diasomnia. He unfortunately cannot camp out in their courtyard as he's claimed he will because Vil and Rook have him on CONSTANT supervision. Vil is a bit sad he wasnt able to get the lavender-haired boy in Pomefiore, but I guess he has to settle for the loud guy instead...he can work with this, Sebek already has this unique charm to him anyway.

Rook is FASCINATED. A HALF-FAE!?!?!?! IN THEIR DORM!?!?!? A dream come true. He literally stops tailing after any beastmen and mermen for a week, and Leona prays to the heavens above in thanks. He's even more delighted when he finds out Sebek consumes media of the same obscure opera he follows, so rest assured Rook is hanging around Sebek.

Im not sure if Sebek would take Epel's place in VDC, but I guess its SOMEWHAT possible, since he's shown some skills in Spectral Soiree anyway. Epel is still involved anyway because the apple juice is literally from his family, so.

Sebek's character development will be faster, I will say. Vil's view of beauty does not lie in one's looks as most people may believe, as he views beauty to be something you WORK HARD FOR. Rook sees beauty in EVERYTHING, regardless of any flaws. These two are actually going to be quite impactful on Sebek's journey on learning that his fae blood does NOT make him superior than others, but his human blood doesnt make him inferior as well. Yeah. I think he'll turn out alright.

Ignihyde events turn out the same way, although Im not too sure as well if Sebek takes Epel's place as well. This is where Im too stupid. Sorry guys. And now we head to DIASOMNIA.

...WHICH I WILL CONTINUE IN ANOTHER POST!!! AS WELL AS THE "ONLY SEBEK SWITCHES DORMS" IDEA!!!!!! BECAUSE THIS IS TOO LONG!!!!

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I kind of believe Ace will play at least somewhat of a role on episode 7. Maybe the fact they set him up to be Malleus’ birthday interviewer this year is an indicator of that, but I could be reaching.

Ace’s relationship with his friend group is interesting because he acts like he’s just nonchalantly there. Like “What? No, I don’t really care about those people, I’m around just because!” — but as we can see, he really does care. He cares about Deuce, MC, and Grim (I believe some of his vignettes hint to that?). He’s the only one who isn’t visibly upset (as in, not letting it show) at the prospect of MC leaving, choosing to deflect the subject when the mood is souring because of Deuce and Grim saying it’ll get lonely without MC.

Also, I think the friend group just came together beautifully and will be relevant in episode 7. Coincidentally, the friend group has 7 people: Ace, Deuce, Grim, MC, Jack, Epel, Ortho and Sebek. I say Sebek because it’s heavily hinted he’ll join the friend group(what stands out is the 1 year official art and anthology comic cover featuring everyone + Sebek even though at there wasn’t much to justify his presence there). The way Ace, Deuce, MC and Grim initially formed a quartet of people begrudgingly brought together by complete chance then developed into a group of friends is very precious to me, and I believe that’ll at least play a part in this episode, considering this is the one Sebek will (apparently) join our group. Which also makes sense for them to be able to explore Sebek as a character, since this is the Diasomnia episode.

Idk if I’m being a clown and pointing out the obvious but anyways!!! I think Ace might have his moment to shine in the next updates, depending on how the story goes. Or idk, he might be hit by the sleeping spell and stay out of the story the whole time, but since Deuce got his spotlight in Glorious Masquerade, it would be only fair.

[Referencing this post!]

I think the birthday interviewers are arbitrary to the main story 🤔 There doesn’t seem to be a clear pattern to the interviewers assigned for the Broomquet series of cards (whereas Birthday Boy and Union definitely did have their own patterns). If there's some significance to Ace interviewing Malleus, then wouldn't the logic hold that the other Broomquet interviewers also have some kind of big tie to the birthday boy...? There doesn't seem to be this importance reflected in all of them, at least as far as I can tell.

Of the main trio (Ace, Deuce, and Grim), Ace seems to be the least emotionally vulnerable. He’s not totally honest about his feelings (despite, ironically, being the one to tell others how it is without any sugarcoating) and uses jokes/humor to deflect from confrontational or difficult situations he doesn’t want to get entangled in. Ace claims to not care, but his actions tell very different stories than his words do (see: the worry he displays in episodes 4 and 6, as well as some vignettes and events). I guess this could be called “tsundere” behavior, but rather than being his entire identity, it’s only a single aspect of Ace and lends to his overall cheeky yet bright character.

Ace doesn’t want to linger on things he considers boring or sad; he lives in the moment and wants to quickly move on to the next thing that may be more fun or happy than the current moment. The same does not hold true for Deuce or Grim, and for very good but also very different reasons. Deuce fixates on his past and his failures due to wanting to reform from his delinquency, and Grim is attached to Yuu because of their close bond as partners, roommates, and master-minion. Given this, of course Deuce and Grim would feel more sad and make remarks about the things they cannot do together anymore once Yuu leaves.

I think it’s possible that Ace has multiple intentions behind not sulking with Deuce and Grim 🤔 For one, yeah, it’s not in Ace’s nature to; he’s just more cheerful than the other two—but I think this speaks to other aspects of his character. He’s the only one of the group to point out that Mickey may not actually be Yuu’s ticket home, yet everyone is treating it like it’s already the end. I wonder if this is Ace lying to himself too—making up some excuse to avoid looking at the truth, or maybe genuinely hoping he’s actually right. Alternatively, maybe Ace is saying these things because he doesn’t want to see his friends sad—or even to alleviate everyone’s pain when Yuu ultimately has to leave (in kind of a “don’t cry now, save your tears for when the time finally comes” way) 🫠

I appreciate that the first years assemble in 7, but it felt a little clunky to me since we didn’t previously see them unite or act as a big group of friends. It was usually just Adeuce + the first year for that particular episode like Epel or isolated incidents (ie checking in with Jack and Savanaclaw pre-VDC in 5). I’m still under the impression that Adeuce and Grim are the close friends of Yuu and the other first years are friends in a looser sense of the word—but narratively speaking, it makes sense to bring the group together for what is meant to be the “last chapter” of their story. It emphasizes how far everyone has come, how they’ve grown so much closer than the circumstances which initially forced them together. It feels more bittersweet seeing the friends made along the way and realizing that Yuu has to say goodbye to them all.

It’s interesting that we end up with 7 people (excluding Yuu from this count), one for each dorm (even if there is no one representing Octavinelle and Scarabia + two representing Heartslabyul). I don’t know if that means anything right now other than being a recurring number, but it would be cool if it does! The promotional materials of the game really seem to market the first years as a group of close knit friends, which is reflected in the fandom works but not super deeply in the main story 🤔 so it’d be nice to see more of the group together and such. I wonder how Sebek will be integrated with them, seeing as he’s so opposed to befriending humans and those outside of the Briar Valley. He’ll certainly complicate the group’s dynamics and add a lot of flair to episode 7!

Oh, I’m sure Ace will have his fun at his own Glorious Masquerade (the Halloween 2023 event will probably be Masquerade Part II with the other half of the NRC cast). I just hope Ace also gets to play a big role in episode 7 😌 and earns his unique magic along the way~

[deathmetalunicorn1]

What if Jack,Hercules, Hermes, Thor, Hlokk, and any other characters you want got sucked through a portal and meet there au dog counterparts and there owner who is a single mom and her daughters one is in her teens and the other is a toddler who just learned how to walk steady on her feet.

•Dog Jack and dog Hercules like to walk the older daughter to and from the bus stop, they live on a farm in the country so the bus stop (which is basically a tree with a bench underneath it) is a long,long way from the house.

•Dog Jack has his own puppy a little female who is the runt of the litter. His owner breed him with a Great Dane female who belonged to an acquaintance and then when the pups were sold they went there separate ways. All the other puppies got sold but they let Jack keep this one since they became so attached to each other,Hlokk is pretty much her big sister (or should I say small sister, even a runt from a half Great Dane litter would be kinda tall.).

•Hlokk can tell it’s them cuz of her keen nose,Jack made a comment in an extra chapter that she has a keen nose. And if that wasn’t enough to convince them the dogs even have the same names as them and look exactly like them lol.

•Each dog has there own role to play on the farm like for example:

•guarding the house and the barn at night.

•rounding up the hens if they get loose.

•chasing foxes and or raccoons out of the hen house.

•herding the sheep.

•keeping predators like wolves and cougars out of the horse corral and barn.

•making sure the cats doing it’s job as pest control eating rats,mice,snakes,etc

.•babysitting (yes Jack and or Hercules babysit BOTH daughters even if the older says she doesn’t need it. They know she likes the company.).

•being escorts for the girls is one of them (a self assigned role) they both get a hug a kiss and an I love you before she says goodbye and gets on the bus and when she gets of the bus.

This was fun, but reading your posts on the dogs to use, I couldn't help but wonder what a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier and a Great Dane mutt would look like. Great Danes are short, coated breeds, so I'm curious if it would have longer fur or not. Great thinking question and an interesting idea for a post. Thank you.

-It started with an accident, a magic spell gone wrong, spiriting away 2 gods, 2 demi-gods, and 1 human, dropping them in front of a large farmhouse.

-A young teen girl had been on the porch, and she ran inside, calling for her mother who quickly ran out, the teen holding a toddler in her arms, peeking out from behind her mother.

-The magic seal that brought them to you was still glowing as you put your hands on your hips, eyes narrowing, “What magic brought you here?”

-Hermes and Thor were a bit surprised you knew about magic, as you were a human, but Hermes was the one to speak, “A magic spell gone wrong. We overestimated the power needed to teleport across Valhalla and wound up here. How is it that you know of magic?”

-You smiled, almost mysteriously, “It’s not the first time I’ve had guests like you lot.”

-Loud barking filled the air and attention turned to two large dogs charging towards the group, with a third, smaller dog running behind them.

-The dogs put themselves in between your new guests and your family, growling darkly until you told them to stand down, as they were distrustful of strangers.

-You grinned at the guests, “Sorry about that, Hercules, Jack, and little Hlokk here aren’t too fond of strangers.”

-Eyes went wide and jaws dropped, looking at the three massive dogs, a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, who’s long facial fur looked strangely similar to Jack’s mustache, and a Carpathian Shepard, who was massive, but once you told him to stand down, he was sitting down with his tail wagging a million miles per hour, reminding them all of a certain Greek demigod. Hlokk was a mutt, half Wheaten Terrier, half Great Dane, she was smaller than her father, Jack, but was still a large dog, wearing a bright pink collar around her neck.

-You were surprised to learn the names of your guests, a giggle bubbling out of you before Hermes surmised that they were in an alternate dimension, where they were all animals instead of being gods or a human in Jack’s case.

-Hercules initially was unsure of this idea, until Glokk spoke, pointing at her nose, “No, Hermes is right, your scents are both very similar, plus they look like you.”

-Hercules was quick to accept it, quickly bonding with Hercules while your Jack trotted over to their Jack and sat beside him, looking up at him as if he was expecting pats, which he quickly got, looking content.

-You introduced yourself before your two daughters, Michelle, or Mickey as she prefers, and your toddler, Poppy.

-Mickey was a bit uneasy with these guests, being a bit distrustful, while Poppy was giggling brightly, waving her arms out towards Thor who was a bit surprised that the toddler didn’t look afraid of him at all.

-Hermes was able to calculate that he could get them all back to their own dimension, but it would take a day or two, and you didn’t hesitate to welcome them into your home.

-Hercules teased Hermes when Poppy saw your black cat that you kept on the farm for pest control, carrying him over, the cat looking calm and wasn’t fighting, “Hermy!”

-Hermes was amused that he was a cat, the two quickly liking each other, as they were so similar in personality.

-Mickey was a bit wary around the men, as they were strangers, until Jack saw her reading Shakespeare and her eyes lit up with sparkles as she was finally able to have someone to talk to!!

-Mickey also bonded with Hlokk, who, while shorter, became like a big sister, talking about clothes.

-Poppy on the other hand adored both Thor and Hercules, hugging their legs, beaming up at them when she managed to toddle over to them.

-The next day Jack and Hercules watched as your Jack and Hercules walked Mickey off of the farm, taking her to the school bus stop about a half a mile up the road, the two men following after, speaking with Mickey, curious about where she was going.

-Thor got to meet his animal, a large reddish colored bull, who looked calm, but Thor could easily sense the power and the two had a stare off for what felt like forever.

-Your Hermes had a job of pest control, keeping rats and other rodents away from the crops, as well as handling any intruders in the chicken coop, while your beloved canines handled with security, letting you know of any trespassers, humans or animals.

-You enjoyed having the few extra helping hands on the farm, as Hercules and Thor got into a competition over who could haul the most hay bales to the barns, while both of the Hlokk’s looked after Poppy.

-Jack tended to your vegetable garden, finding weeding it quite relaxing and Hermes was inside your home, with your permission, preparing lunch for everyone, while you were walking your cows out to their pasture to graze.

-When Mickey got off the bus she beamed, “Where’s my favorite boys?! Where’s my kisses?!” she instantly flushed, seeing both sets of Hercules and Jack there as the two dogs ran over while Jack chuckled warmly at her.

-You had to admit they were good company to keep, seeing the healthy appetites all around the room, including your own girls, was refreshing, but it was fun to keep feeding them until most were in food comas.

-Hermes was the only one who remained awake, sitting beside you on the porch swing, his head on your shoulder as he tried to stay awake, “May I ask, why weren’t you freaked out by seeing us?” you chuckled softly, rocking the swing lightly, “As I said, you’re not the first visitors I’ve had. The first one showed up when I was still pregnant with Poppy, right after my husband abandoned us and the farm. He was a funny man, but Mickey liked him, and he was kind enough to help me around the farm for a while after I gave birth.”

-Hermes was a bit curious, tilting his head up, “Oh? May I ask who that was?”

-You smiled softly, remembering your friend fondly, as he was funny but also mischievous, “His name was Loki.”

-Hermes snorted into his hand, laughing out loud while you smiled lightly as he thought it was hysterical that Loki came here first and helped you out.

-You leaned back, “Don’t mention that I told you about him, he was quite shy when he would talk about his family, like they didn’t want him finding out about where he had been. But if you see him, I have a Billy goat that’s a little shit just like him.”

-Cue round two of laughter.

-The following morning you, Mickey, and Poppy all wished your new friends well as you saw them off.

-They each said goodbye to their animal counterparts, except for Thor, who lifted his hand to his face, pointing two fingers at his eyes before he pointed them at the bull and only Thor saw the bull lift his hoof to his face before pointing back at Thor.

-Poppy was crying, not wanting to say goodbye, the same with Mickey, who didn’t want to lose her big sister and the first father figure she’s had in years.

-You were the only calm one, as your farm was a hot spot for events like this. You had a feeling this wouldn’t be the last you see of them.

[selfindulgentfandomstuff]

Violent Psychopath + Abnormal Psychologist = Loving Relationship?

CHAPTER 1: FIRST ENCOUNTERS

———

Fandom: CBS MacGyver (2016 reboot)

Pairing: Murdoc x Emmett Becker (fan character)

CW: uhh none? I think? Lemme know if anyone sees anything that should be tagged!!/gen

———

“Damn, poor Emmett’s ‘bouta get eaten alive in there!” came the very encouraging remark from Jack Dalton, a fairly new coworker of Dr. Emmett Becker.

Or rather, Dr. Becker was the new coworker to Jack, really, having only been working at the Phoenix Foundation for a month or so. It was, as usual, Angus MacGyver who served as the social glue that held their little friend/colleague group together, and it was Mac who had recommended Emmett be picked up by the Foundation to work there as their resident psychology expert.

In the short time that Emmett had been working at the Phoenix Foundation, they had found quite quickly that most situations escalated very fast here. One such situation was probably a week ago, during which a highly trained and very lethal assassin, dubbed by intelligence Suspect 218- and later revealed to have adopted the name Murdoc- had been sent to kill MacGyver and the rest of the crew, including Riley Davis, Jack Dalton and even Director Patricia Thornton.

It was a team effort of course, but the crew were more than willing to admit that Emmett’s astonishing psychological expertise as well as their highly attuned empathy may very well have helped save their lives by allowing them to get inside of Murdoc’s head and get him arrested.

Now, standing inside of one of the nation’s most secure supermax prisons, before a steel door, Emmett would soon have to face the man who almost killed four of their closest friends and colleagues.

They were here to glean further information of Murdoc on a number of things from his past kills to any associates still out in the field. He was a veritable treasure trove of information and Emmett knew that.

It didn’t make it any easier or less terrifying to step through the door as it clicked to unlock and the guards swung it open.

As Emmett stepped through and into the small room, they instinctively and very immediately noticed everything about it: the gray concrete walls, the stark and harsh lighting coming from the light fixture above the steel table in the center of the room. And sitting at that table was Murdoc.

“Well, well, well” he started in what Emmett couldn’t tell was a delighted or mocking tone; maybe it was both, “What kind of little present has been sent to me now and perhaps more importantly, by whom?”

“Hello Mister Murdoc, I’m Dr. Emmett Becker. I’m a psychologist with the Phoenix Foundation. I’ve been assigned to your case. Or rather, I was assigned to your case when you tried to kill my colleagues. Let’s talk about that, shall we?”

Murdoc looked down at the table, chuckling a bit before raising his head again to meet Emmett’s eyes. They looked at the wall behind him, not wanting to make eye contact with him.

“Hello, Dr. Emmett Becker!” he said, chipperly, artificially, and a little more loudly than necessary, “As you well know already, I am Murdoc. We can dispense with the formalities on my end, Doc, it's just Murdoc, no ‘mister’ necessary, mhm’kay?”

He paused after that, making a show of openly eyeing Emmett up and down from where they were sitting across from him. “Say, you really don’t look like a Phoenix agent… or really, any type of intelligence operative… you’re new aren’t you?”

He smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

Emmett notices. They can see it in his body language, hear it in the languid voice he uses, this man really is a predator.

They respond in kind, giving up just enough information to gain some trust and repertoire with Murdoc.

“Alright Murdoc, you got me, I am indeed new to working at the Phoenix Foundation. And yes, I’m also new to the intelligence world in general. But, I assure you, I am qualified; psychology undergrad at UCLA, graduate and doctoral degree in abnormal psychology at Stanford, multiple years of research in academia at-”

Murdoc cut them off saying, “impressive, impressive.. Very impressive… but, Emmett- may I call you Emmett?- but what exactly makes you think you have any chance at all to get me to cooperate? Seeing as all of the previous therapists, psychiatrists and psychologists in my life have failed, of course. They were all wildly intelligent too, just like you. And I killed every last one of them.” he smiles darkly, “What is it that makes you believe you’re special?”

Emmett blinked owlishly at Murdoc before answering simply, “I don’t. I don’t think I am much of anything special. But I think you are. I think there are things worth hearing, worth learning trapped in your head. I’m just here to do that, just listen, listen and learn, Murdoc. Is that alright with you?”

Murdoc looked a little taken aback at Emmett’s honesty, genuinely surprised at how forthcoming they were being. Most professionals in their field were lying, cheating, backstabbing assholes that were master manipulators. In fact, one of Murdoc’s interests was in psychology for that very reason. They were exploitative tricksters. And yet, this one was so very unlike the others, so … charmingly candid.

Murdoc looked contemplative for a moment, the malice present there in his eyes before, now fading. He gazed at Emmett thoughtfully before speaking in a soft voice, “You…really mean that don’t you?”

Emmett simply nodded in response. They weren’t entirely sure what to make of Murdoc’s apparent change in demeanor yet but he quickly confirmed what they were guessing.

“Perhaps we will be having some more little chats in the future…but for now, I’m tired and want to take a nap, go on, run along now Doc, can’t wait for our next little conversation…”

Something about the way Murdoc had said it; it reeked of sarcasm, and yet, Emmett could tell some part of him was being sincere, he actually was looking forward to talking again. And that, that was something Emmett could leverage.

———

SO I’m reposting this (as of now, unfinished) series bc I posted it a looong time ago and basically I can’t find it 😭 so here it is again and for the newcomers ig!!

Next chapter: https://www.tumblr.com/selfindulgentfandomstuff/757378264425725952/violent-psychopath-abnormal-psychologist

[anhonest-puck]

tell me about you + your friend’s 80s au?

oh lord where do i even start 😭 i’m about to be yapping for a long time i apologize in advance.

so, me n my group of friends got together and put an 80’s au together called Island Wheels! we’ve all been working on it for a while and i love it dearly i’m ngl. i write ralph’s perspective (might have been obvious..) and basically his whole character so most of the stuff in this ramble will be about his side of the story!! (we also assume that mulberry boy [we named him maxwell], simon, and piggy are still alive and just got really beat up or something)

we assigned each of the boys a type of skating/something on wheels!! so ralph roller skates (i think piggy would attempt to roller skate too? he just wouldn’t like it very much and opt to play the arcade games or smt lolll), jack and roger roller blade, simon and maurice skateboard, and samneric ride bicycles (or only one for both of them sometimes..)! they all hang out at the local skating rink to just get away from everything though.

to start: his family. i hc that ralph is a middle child! his older brother is robert and his younger brother is maxwell. his fathers name is felix allebach and his mothers name was clara, who passed away when ralph was seven. his father remarried to an american woman named trudy jennings. ralph’s full name is ralph rover jennings-allebach. his brothers are amazing; maxwell looks up to ralph like an idol of some sort, and robert would literally kill for his younger brothers. his relationship with his father is also really good too! the allebachs are british-german, making them practically fluent in both languages as they grew up around german speaking family. their family is more lower-middle class, leaning hard on the lower part.

ralph’s character: basically brother has issues. he has ocd, ptsd from the island, anxiety/hallucinations, and he tends to go into depressive slumps every so often; especially when things aren’t clean or ‘manipulated’ to how it wants them to be. this is what my most recent art was about!! he was freaking out because he looks “like a corpse” and how he can’t recognize himself anymore after getting smoked out of the island. yikes.

last section bcz i don’t want to spoil too much!! how did jack and ralph re-meet?: they wound up going to the same boarding school (wow shocker ikr) and ralph becomes distant after figuring that out. but one night during a party at the skating rink, roger shoves jack into ralph which leads into jack spilling his drink all over him. (fun fact this entire scene was inspired by Ribs by Lorde so um. thanks Lorde?) ralph still like hates jack at this time so jack is like “uhmmmmmhhh ill go get paper towels ahaha” and he just ditches and probably punches roger. and then (shocker again) their sophomore year they get put in a dorm together and simply have to Deal With It! they do end up getting along a little while into it though :)

i don’t want to spoil a whole hell of a lot but that’s a little bit of it :,) i’ve been waiting for someone to ask though i’ve been so excited FJSHSJJS. i have so much more i’m so sorry for the literal paragraphs already BAHAHAHA take some soggy ralph as compensation 🥹

please do ask questions if you have any!! i’m very willing to answer any questions about this au hehe

[theresattrpgforthat]

Can you recommend games for a DM who would like to indulge their group of chaotic murder hobos? (Hey, if it’s what they find fun, why not lean into it?) Oh, and ideally I would prefer games that don’t have much math — there are a couple players with dyscalculia or other learning disabilities.

THEME: Math-Lite Chaotic Murder Hobos

The following games are big on violence, big on loot, and light on calculations! Have fun!

Cybermetal 2012, by World Champ Game Co.

Blood Money, Viral Videos, Brain Software, Hellpower, Cassette Tapes, Hallucinogens, Anarchy, Demonic Rituals, Combat Drones, Radiation Worship, Frequency Manipulation - How Nasty is Cybermetal 2012?

Cybermetal 2012 is a tabletop roleplaying game of demons, metalheads, and weirdos surviving and thriving in an isolated city of warped technology in an alternate timeline featuring tons of analog ink illustrations, intuitive dice mechanics for fans of Mothership or Blades in the Dark, fascinatingly weird worldbuilding, and much more.

This game uses a percentile system, which means that you need to roll under a certain number in order to succeed. This makes it easy to learn, and gives the table a quick understanding of how achievable any given task is. The two d10s that you roll to determine your outcome are then assigned to damage and Fallout - how much damage do you do, and what happens next? There are a number of other mechanics that you can choose to involve, such as Hardware, factions, Gear, and more - but their use is optional, so you can customize your game to the experience your players want!

S.H.A.D.O.W. Hunters, by Maps’N’ Quests.

Throughout human history things have threatened humanity –things that go bump in the night and leave the average civilian quaking in terror. These things exist on the periphery for most people, things they never even notice as being out of the ordinary. When those things go bump in the night, S.H.A.D.O.W. bumps back with the elite Hunters.

S.H.A.D.O.W. Hunters combines FPS-style action with survival horror in the vein of F.E.A.R. and other similar games while building on FariRPG's phenomenal Breathless SRD in unique ways, including lite-tactical combat mechanics and varying weapon effectiveness.

While this is a combat game, S.H.A.D.O.W. Hunters is designed to be run in theatre-of-the-mind, which means you won’t have to calculate range, and is rules-lite, which means that much of murder you do will be up to the players - do you behead the undead monstrosity, or pump it full of lead? How cool do you look doing it? There’s also a scavenge mechanic, which is great for those players that enjoy looting the body. Finally, while the game makes use of various polyhedral dice, you don’t have to add up any numbers - you just take the highest result and go from there. The game is run on the Breathless SRD, which means that your character’s skills and resources will run out over the course of play - great for building suspense and dread.

Jack Kills Giants, by Andrew White.

There’s no shortage of vagabonds who take coin for killing, but Giant Slayers… they’re a special breed. The coin is unfathomably good, you’d be more or less set for life should you bring one of those colossal beasts down. Those who decide the reward is worth the risk form up into small companies of strangers, spreading out the risks and sharing the spoils.Brought from all walks of life, those who survive past their first kill and choose to continue on the path grow into tight-knit bands, comrades in arms fighting for gold and glory. But you aren’t one of that pantheon of successful slayers just yet. You’re just flat broke.

Jack Kills Giants is a game of giant-slaying in the Fantasy Gig-Economy written and illustrated by Andrew White, with valuable contributions from Nakade & Cosmic Orrery Games. In Jack Kills Giants you won't play hardened adventurous heroes, you'll play everyday people, forced by a need to make cash to survive to chase after giants in exchange for generous bounties.

This is a game with beautiful art and a simple core system, with add-ons if you want to add difficulty, complexity, or a different flavour of play. Characters are ranked with the type of dice they roll, and there are ten character professions, which start at a d8 rank, with graduation ranks for d10 and d12. If you want a book with plenty of resources for a GM, and the ability to add your own flavour, then I recommend Jack Kills Giants!

GrimoirePunk, by Mitch. 

Wizards rule the world. They’ve traded their stone towers for skyscrapers of steel and glass, their homunculus servants for warehouse workers, their robes emblazoned with stars for three-piece suits and sensible skirts (still emblazoned with stars, though). The rest of the world might consider them clever business people or daring entrepreneurs, but you know better. Their empires of power are built on magical secrets torn unwillingly from the fabric of reality and bound into powerful grimoires: collections of spell fragments and lost secrets pinned beneath words, illustrations, and codes. Their grimoires are the source of their power.

So we’re gonna take them.

In GrimoirePunk, you play as gutter magicians democratising magic by stealing it from infinitely powerful wizards. You and your friends will create your punks and each build a unique grimoire on a deck of cards that you will add to and destroy until you have a book that is unique to you, shaped by your adventures.

This game requires absolutely no dice - instead, you use a deck of cards. These cards will represent your character’s abilities. Character creation starts with all face cards removed, and you’ll gain new abilities and spells over the course of play. If you like the idea of using whatever means necessary to get your hands on some power, and you don’t want to keep track of dice values, this game might be worth checking out. There’s even a Demo Game Dunk edition for you to check out if you want to see what you’re in for!

Chainsaw Humans, by Deep Light Games.

YOU ARE DEVIL HUNTERS, individuals (human or otherwise) who fight against Devils whenever a threat related to them should arise in the world. You are a special branch of law enforcement.

YOU USE DEVILISH ABILITIES AT SOME LEVEL as means of standing a chance in combat against these monstrous opponents.  Each devil represents a fear the humanity has. The stronger the fear, the stronger the devil.

In CHAINSAW HUMANS you'll play as human, hybrid, fiend or devil at your day job as a devil hunter. Each species play a little different but the core rules are very straight forward. Many GM tables to help are included.

This is a standard Lasers & Feelings hack, so you only ever use d6’s, and will roll either over or under a target number. Chainsaw Humans has two stats: Chainsaws, which represents being brutal, bloody, and aggressive, and Humans, which represents subtlety, manipulation, and control. While this game is designed to be a one-shot, you can probably get a few sessions out of it if you have enough fun and the GM has a number of ideas!

ORC BORG, by Rowan, Rook & Decard.

The DERELICT is a great big beautiful trash rocket smashing through space and it is jam-packed with ORCS, generations upon generations of them, sporing and scrapping, building murderous idols to their mad gods, and praying for DOOM when the Derelict will crash into heaven and disgorge every dead-hard big-toothed bastard in a glorious tide of violence.

YOU are an ORC, and you fight and kill and pray and scheme and tinker and howl for a place in heaven.

ORC BORG is a zine-length standalone RPG with beautiful, brutal art on every page. ORC BORG is a collaboration between Grant Howitt (Spire, Heart, Honey Heist, Goblin Quest) and ROLLINKUNZ (Fragnarok, The Dungenerator, Goblinfinite). It's powered by the MÖRK BORG engine - so it's fast, cruel, and obsessed with the apocalypse. 

ORC BORG is built off of the well-loved engine of MORK-BORG, a game of fantastical blood and guts. Out of all of the games on this list, it has the most calculating, as you’ll have to add up damage and subtract from your hit points. If you want scrapping, murdering, and glorious glorious violence, this is likely the game for you, and if you want to check out this style in a different setting, I’d recommend CY_BORG, a cyberpunk hack of death and revenge.

Games I’ve previously mentioned that might be worth checking out:

FIST: Paranormal Mercenaries

Locum Tendons: Doppelganger Infiltrators

Heart - The City Beneath : Dungeon-crawling into a nightmare undercity.

[starliteradio]

Rules: give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and finally the fic with the least words.

Most hits: An Unquiet Night (Stargate Atlantis, John/Elizabeth and Sam /Jack)

A fun snarky, lightly angsty piece mostly focused on J/E but also drawing parallels between their possible relationship turmoil after Epiphany with Sam/Jack's experience after 100 Days. Takes place in Jack's cabin and I loved writing that setting.

Second most kudos: Wildfire (Stargate Atlantis, John/Elizabeth)

My first ever fanfic! And the first piece of writing I've ever shared publicly outside of school assignments. Because of this, I'll forever have a soft spot for this one even if my abilities have improved. A little hurt/comfort episode tag for The Storm/Eye.

Third most comments: Resolve (Stargate Atlantis, John/Elizabeth)

A short series of moments during the Siege, surrounding John's self-sacrificial mission to nuke the Hive ship. This was my first real experiment in trying to write in broader strokes, and with more immediacy/giving a more intimate glimpse into the characters' minds. I appreciate it for giving me that practice.

Fourth most bookmarks: It's a tie between a few of 'em so I'll just choose my favorite out of those (also I'm counting private bookmarks too): Dreamland (Stargate Atlantis, John/Elizabeth)

Not my favorite story overall, but my favorite out of this tie mostly because I love the potential plot laid out and I feel that this story has given me the most practice in improving my writing and digging deeper into the characters' psychology/emotions. It's by far the longest (and unfortunately far from complete). The story is meant to be quite a long saga that takes a lot of inspiration from Battlestar Galactica, exploring the origins and trauma (as well as vindictiveness) of the Pegasus Replicators as John/Elizabeth are trapped in another dimension. It features The Real World as a jumping off point.

Fifth most words: Something Beautiful (Stargate Atlantis, John/Elizabeth)

My first ever (non-drabble) story written for Sparktober! This is a short future fic featuring Elizabeth and John at a fancy dinner party, in which they end up dealing with some unresolved angst following her capture on Asuras. I love this one because it really was a group effort; it was inspired by a conversation in the Sparktober discord. I just took everyone's ideas and tried to write a little bit of it!

Fic with the fewest words: (any of the drabbles so again I'll just choose my favorite) Machine Gun Blues (once again, Stargate Atlantis, John/Elizabeth)

This one's an episode tag to The Long Goodbye (which I'd still like to try writing a full length one shot for someday). Describes Elizabeth still suffering from the fading echoes of Phoebus.

Thank you to @winternightjewels for tagging me!

I'll tag: @ussjellyfish @havocthecat @peridotbelle

[faytelumos]

Happy blorbo blursday again!!! :D

How would your OCs do in a group project? How cooperative would they be and who would have what tasks?

I love this question, this should be on character development questionnaires.

Hhamath: He's quiet, doesn't like to offer up his ideas in case people don't like them. He'll happily just let everyone decide what the project is going to look like and the layout of the trifold, and then he'll do his share of the research and drafting. He also knows calligraphy, so instead of printing the project out, everyone gives him their share of the project and he wing-hand-writes all of the text. Everyone gets bonus points for style.

Athetæm: If everyone else on the project is a peer or friend, he will shamelessly sit back and do jack shit. He gets snacks and looks pretty, and that's the extent of his contribution. He has the brains and the eye to contribute, but he'd rather gab and hang out.

Fethu: She's the boss. Before the group is even finished forming, she knows who's doing what. Delegation and accountability are her domains, even while she's doing her own share of the research and drafting.

Meva: She's drawing all of the pretty pictures and cutting out all of the colored paper flowers. When it comes to crafts, there's no one better. She'd crochet a lace border for the trifold if there were time. As it is, she sets to work making sure her group's project pops on the table.

Lutem: She passes off the intellectual work because she's not confident she can do it, and instead focuses on helping everyone with their various assignments. Rides to someone else's house or another trip to the craft store? Need food for a late night session? Gotta get something off the classroom printer? She's your girl.

Ræs: He's picking up Athetæm's and Lutem's slack and taking extra work from Meva. Out loud, he sounds disgruntled about it, but he's never wanted to work so hard on anything in his life. He's blowing the lion's share of the research and drafting out of the water, and he's gonna argue with Fethu when she tries to tell him he's missing the point of the assignment. After they share words, the two come to an agreement.

Overall grade: A++

Shryth: She's not totally sure what's going on in any given moment. She does the work that's handed to her and then… sets it back on the table? She missed the discussion. It's kind of hard for her to stay focused in class. But she'll take everything where it needs to go.

Ohrik: He's doing all of the research and drafting. He's good at it, so he may as well. He doesn't really care; he'll just do all of the work and let everyone else put their names on it.

Shohm: She's gonna make this presentation shine. She's gotten a lot of craft materials, and she has the trifold at her house pretty much the entire time. It's all she wants to do in her free time, really. She never gets the chance to just be creative in class.

Ia: She's just gonna do all of the work. It isn't really like anybody else can make a good presentation. It's fine. She doesn't care. At least this way it'll get done fast and then she won't have to get everybody to work.

Syfreth: He keeps trying to figure out what he's supposed to be doing. Nobody will give him any work to do. So he ends up sitting in the corner and reading a book between looking up for a chance to actually help.

Toler: He makes cootie catchers and paper footballs out of Shohm's fancy paper. She doesn't mind it, and she helps him come up with some of the stuff in the cootie catcher. He hasn't looked at the assignment even once.

The day before, when Shohm finally brings the trifold back into class, Ia and Ohrik almost throttle each other over whose version of the project goes up. They end up rewriting the whole thing the night before. It barely fits into the blank spaces Shohm has left between the paper scenery and glitter borders.

Overall grade: B+

[septembersung]

🤝 please!

How do the characters meet, including the antagonist?

For now I’ll call this story Amaryllis, after the protagonist. I’ve talked about it a little here in the past but if you remember any of that (and I’m not sure I do) please disregard because it’s effectively scrapped.

The characters don’t meet in-story because they already know each other, with one major exception. Amaryllis takes place in a fictional town in Kansas, a mishmash of many details from real small towns from all over; call it an ur-small town of flyover country. The cast all grew up there or have lived there long enough to make no difference to the narrative. Rylla and her husband have known each other since they were in diapers. Rylla's close friend circle includes two women she grew up with and her college roommate, who moved back with her to be part of the "keep small town business flourishing" movement and start the art business they own together.

The primary antagonist isn’t a person, it’s grief and death. Rylla’s 4yo daughter died nine months before the story opens.

The exception to the very local cast is the priest-monk who moves in and ends up being the catalyst for Rylla’s salvation. Rylla isn’t Catholic or even particularly anything - culturally Protestant, basically - and she doesn’t convert in story, but they end up as unlikely friends. Fr. Thaddeus is a member of the fictional order dedicated to St. Michael that shows up in several of my wips. In a group of exceptional men, he stands out. His personality and history is mostly a mystery to me still but I do know he’s a jack of all trades, an artist of some kind (like Rylla), and an exorcist. He's a young-looking middle age, with an unassuming face, and his robes deflect from his powerful physique. The kind of muscle you get from decades of self-discipline and living an active rural life. He's been sent as part of the vanguard of monks establishing a daughterhouse of the order on a large property at the edge of town. The property borders public lands with trails, a lake, etc. This is all relevant to the question because it explains the unusual circumstances of their first meeting.

Fr. Thaddeus meets Rylla before she meets him. Since Amber’s death, Rylla has been increasingly out of touch and detached from reality. He’s seen her around and is aware of her situation. Part of his job is to get to know the people of the town and get a feel for the spiritual landscape. Another part of his job is to explore the lands the order bought and build, not the main church or any of the monastery proper, but the hermitage style retreat chapel they'll need, deep in the property and out of the way. For Fr. Thaddeus, this is practically a sabbatical, especially after his last assignment. Lots of alone time, a private construction project, endless hours for praying? He's having a great time. He's also waiting for the other shoe to drop, because he knows he's not really on vacation, but so far the Lord hasn't put anything in particular in his path.

Rylla is having a particularly bad episode here around the nine month anniversary of Amber's death. She’s wandering the trails late in the day, leaves the trail, finds a spot to rest, falls asleep, wakes up in the dark in a bad storm. If she had a weather radio, it would be screaming 'flash flood warning.' Trying to get back to her car she gets lost and ends up on the order’s new property where he happens to be camping out and he saves her life, though she doesn’t quite realize it. She’s not self aware enough to realize she was passively seeking death. Or isn’t able to admit it to herself. To her he’s like a figure out of a fairy tale. A not very pleasant fairy tale.

For his part, Fr. Thaddeus is an exceptionally grounded man, as well as spiritually astute, and immediately recognizes that this soul, particularly, is why he's here.

[sanatik-aga]

Working with Disney

For today’s assignment I had to pick two people who worked with Walt Disney and write about them, and so today I chose Walter Lantz and Xavier (X) Atencio. So let’s begin!).

Walter Lantz was born on April 27, 1900 in New Rochelle, New York. He started his animation career at sixteen years old working for William Randolph Hearst at “New York American, William Randolph Hearst’s”, newspaper company that wanted to create cartoons from popular Comics strips. He was just simple office boy where he had to wash brushes for Winsor McCay. Since then company was closed and he moved to Universal Studios as a gag writer for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 1927 and then in 1935 he was put in charge as a producer for the show. He distributed for the show many good things such as introducing new characters for the series including Andy panda and audience favorite Woody Woodpecker

He’s studio worked on shorter projects longer than any other studio before while they all increased their duration to grab viewers attention as long as possible. But in 1972 he had to stop due to shrinking revenues. In 1979 he received special Oscar for his special achievements and in 1994 he passed away.

He never actually worked for Disney, but rather for his opponents Universal Studio. But he was in friendly terms with Disney since both of them were in the association, the Animated Cartoon Association made of Leon Schlesinger of Warner Bros, Fred Quimby of MGM and Walt Disney. They were always cooperating and he said that in was very friendly group, for some people hearing that is something they would never believe in because everyone would rather imagine cutthroat type of relationship between big companies. But Walter Lantz said that he was in touch with Disney, if one of his employees thought about going to Disney instead, he would call Disney himself and tell about his employ that wants to work for him, Disney will ask how much Salter paying him, he would answer and then Disney would say that he won’t pay him more than Lantz already does.

I’m glad than I picked Walter Lantz for my blog because reading his interview with Don Peri definitely made me smile, this guy is very wholesome and nice guy. I picked him because I thought that his name is funny since Lantz part reminds me of name Lancelot. And I was even amazed when I found that he got an Oscar because back then really talented people were getting Oscar, and looking at his achievements, I can say that this man is really talented and hardworking man.

Second man that I want to talk about is Xavier (X) Atencio

So, Xavier Atencio was born on September 4,1919 in Walsenburg, Colorado. At the age of 18 he moved to Los Angeles as a student of Chouinard Art Institute and year later he began his career in Walt Disney Studio as an inbetweener on Pinocchio. Then he became assistant to Wolfgang Reitherman on Fantasia and Dumbo. After that he was in rolled into U.S. Army for WW2. After the war he returned to Disney and worked on small projects like Toot, Whistle and so on. His big projects he worked on were Jack and Old Mac in 1956 and then Noah’s Ark in 1959.

In 1962 he worked on A Symposium on Popular Songs as an instrumental in creating along side with Bill Justice. This duet also created the Special effects for Mary Poppins where the nursery magically tied up. Xavier shortly moved to WED in 1956 and worked on attractions there. His notable works are lyrics for Yo Ho for the Pirates of the Caribbean and Grim Grinning Ghost for Hunted Mansion. After his Retirement in 1984 he was labeled as a Disney Legend in 1996.

In his interview with Don Peri he was asked how did happened that he went to work for Disney.

He said that before that he was unrolled into Charles Mintz Studio because his uncle was a worker there. But he didn’t have enough experience with animations so they sent him to Chouinard Institute which had a preanimation. After the graduation his professors were collecting portfolio for Disney. At first he rejected offer, because he was committed for Mintz at first. But after the while he gave a shot and then they accepted him.

So, my thoughts on this man that he was pretty much an essential figure in Disney. If he wasn’t there I guess we can’t tell for sure how some works would turned out.

That’s it for now, thank you for your attention.

[violetsiren90]

Warning! My message is a lot longer than I actually meant to write.

What? No, no.. I'm not one to rush people into replying back. I am just the person who tends to have very good long term memories but bad short term memories. I don't know why my mind processes like that.

But I've had low battery lately, I haven't been social with anyone lately either. I haven't said or done much lately because of being so drained.

So no complaints from me.

When it comes to the actual obsessive compulsive disorder, the real disorder (not the "other" compulsive disorder)... I have mild obsessive compulsive signs and symptoms. Intrusive thoughts and ruminations are some signs, organizational and ritualistic habits, contamination - could explain my mild germaphobia. Basically every sign or symptom you could think of with obsessive compulsive disorder, just more mild though. At least maybe a milder diagnosis than yours? I don't know.

True. That's the whole complex situation involving characters in every fictional story you've ever read. People complain that they want some more representation, yet complain that the character is too Mary Sue for them to enjoy the story. Original characters (who do actually have face claims) are rare now, which is understandable for certain people, since you'd have visuals of the character and detailed backstories too - if you're the type of person who doesn't mind reading any character like that. Even insert characters could be a hit or miss for people too.

I was joking. Well... Kind of. Not that it would be noticeable over some screen rather than in person. But yes! When it comes to people who's short, or disabled, or whichever person you are. Having certain things on higher shelves does become frustrating. I know you could ask a lot of people for help, if they're considerate to people strangers, but it's a really annoying thing to do. Always relying on people to help you with whatever you might need help with. I'd really hate asking for help too.

Sadly, for me, I don't know how to create content like that.. I probably am the only person who doesn't know how to make edited pictures or gifs, banners, any visuals. So I doubt any visual content will be seen.

But arsonist Jack would still be an interesting story either way if you'll have good ideas to write for the story. An arsonist, a serial killer. I may be able to imagine Jack as a split personality. Wait.. Did I say this yet? Did I say that before? I can't remember. That can be another concept.

The xNTx in me enjoys overanalyzing everything that comes to mind.

Like I said.. I could easily imagine just about everyone being assigned to more than one sin and virtue but I'm only assigning one per person though. And this is just what I've noticed whenever people write a Sin universe concept. I rarely see Yoongi as any other sin besides Sloth so he would be Sloth and Diligence for me. Most of the time, I would just see people assign Pride to Jin or Namjoon. Jin seems slightly more of Pride than anyone else? In a good and bad way. But I think the reason many people assign Namjoon with Pride since he is the leader of BTS (not that he couldn't be prideful). But I would always see Jin assigned as either Pride or Gluttony, both seem fitting for his character. Joon is usually assigned to Pride, Greed, Gluttony, and maybe one other sin I can't remember. The sins could easily be assigned to any of them too.

I know just about everyone in the group says that Hope and Jimin are the scariest when angry. JHope could easily represent the Wrath and Patience in general. But I could also imagine him as Envy, Gluttony or Greed too. I see people assign him as Wrath, Greed, Gluttony or Envy.

Most of the time Lust is usually either Jimin or Taehyung in stories I'd seen. Jimin, Taehyung or Jungkook could easily be Lust in my mind.

Jimin is usually assigned Lust, Envy, Greed or Wrath in stories. Which I could also imagine? I know that I'm basically repeating myself now.

Taehyung's assigned Lust, Envy, Greed and even Wrath too. Between Jimin and Taehyung, there's roles are always switched between them from what I've noticed. But I guess it depends on how you write them too, like how you might want that sin and virtue represented in work.

Jungkook has been assigned just about every sin at some point so I'd say that isn't really surprising though.. But the sins I see assigned him the most are usually Gluttony or Greed, even Wrath - there is so many people I see assign him as Wrath that I've seen, and sometimes Envy.

Though I might have a slight twisted concept on sin of the sins. Like.. Envy, Lust, Greed and Wrath. So hopefully my explain makes sense.

"Greed may not be good, but its not so bad either. You humans think greed is just for money and power, but everyone wants something they don't have."

"You humans think greed is only about money and power. But don't forget: everybody wants something they don't have. So I want money, women, status, fame, and everything else in this world! And I want eternal life." Greed may be a neutral antihero character? But I'm still thinking about that though. So I'm not completely sure on that.

Before you ask, if you ask, this version of Greed would be inspired by inspired by an actual character so that's not even an original concept.

And Lust. Regardless of who represents Lust, obviously Lust's always going to represent sexual lust but not just sexual lust either since lust could mean many things. Lust for sex, power, people and materials - I know this is sounding like Gluttony and Greed. But what about lust as in bloodlust? Just combining the concept of lust as sex and violence.

Wrath is character that I could have many ways of portraying... Wrath is traditionally portrayed as hot explosive anger which could be a way for that character to express their temperament. But in my opinion to a character like Wrath, I could also imagine to other versions of Wrath that doesn't always have to represent explosive anger. There is two of these possible outcomes for Wrath. One: A really cold, calculated and deliberate anger. So the complete opposite of hot explosive anger. I'd say imagine a lot of your favorite mafia men (or maybe this is just me) in this scenario; those men are usually cold, calculated, deliberating a plan of revenge against their enemies in some way or another. Like as in Yoongi in Haegeum (but that doesn't mean I could not actually just write his character, and the other BTS boys, like that in mafia stories). And two: A self-hatred and inwardly turned Wrath, and this longing to be released from this feeling to find inner peace. “It’s about being relentlessly hard on yourself and no matter what you do and how much you improve, you will never be as perfect as you wish, because perfection is an illusion.” So this is why I am having too many conflicting thoughts on who portrays the Wrath in my story. Or, unless, in some way, I could combine every wrath into one character.

And as for Envy. There's two ways I could portray Envy's character, so I might attempt to combine both versions. Obviously envy means one person is envious, jealous, covetous of other people and materials. So that stays. But what happens if people are also envious of Envy? Like, “Being resistant to other peoples hurtful words and actions. They might leave some bruises but they won’t get under your skin. It’s about never giving up and reminding that every hate stems from fear, insecurity, mistrust or malevolence.” Envy could still be some envious character, while other characters are also envious at the same time. It is still a concept I'm working on. But I might need to figure details out for certain characters. Though these are just some ideas right now.

And I don't know what the concept will be yet.. Maybe supernatural? I don't know. There are so many universes I can see this happening in a lot of the time so I might be fickle about the universe at the moment.

Though.. Not sure if I'll do this for the Sins & Virtues concept, or even a supernatural concept in general, but I would love to use Taehyung's visuals of him covered in tattoos. The Shadow Like Me, with the vines and tree looking tattoos. I'd love to use that appearance for a story.

Oh good! I tend to neglect social media when I get overwhelmed with life, and I just never want anyone to think I forgot about them!

On the Yale-Brown OCD scale I scored as severe at the time I was diagnosed. But I'm happy for you that yours is more mild, because it's just no fun!

You're very right, one could definitely assign any pairing for any member as far as the seven deadly sins/virtues goes. It's so fun in characterization to decide if you're going to lean into a person's known traits or if you're going to attempt to pull lesser explored sides out of them!

I have heard a lot that Hobi and Jimin are the scariest when mad. It's so interesting though, because I really think that also boils down to what you're afraid of? When I think of who would be the scariest when mad, I think Yoongi and Namjoon. Why? Because at his unhealthiest, I feel Yoongi would be the most likely to go silent-treatment/ice you out. And with Namjoon I feel like his anger would manifest strongly as disappointment. Scream at me, cuss me out, throw my shit down the stairs. But give me the silent treatment? Say you are disappointed in me?? (I'm kidding, by the way, screaming/words of degradation/physical violence of any sort are obviously abusive behaviors that should never be tolerated)

But yeah, I can see people being more afraid of their mood shift because it would be so jarring in contrast to their typical presenting persona.

I like the idea of Greed extending beyond the socioeconomic "miser" trope. I see what you're saying with basing Greed on a kind of hunger that can be a driving force (Like in J-Hope's song "More"? 👀).

And it's interesting that you correlate Lust and Greed, because they can seem so similar, right? But I feel like Lust comes from a basal function whereas Greed comes from a higher neurological function. Also, Greed seems to use acquisition as a means to an end, like, getting something to possess it. Whereas with lust, the ACT of taking, not having, seems to be the actual end goal. Lust is uncomplicated - a craving. Even if it's an insatiable one. Greed is more complex, even if it's basic, right? I have no idea if I'm making sense WHATSOEVER lololllllll. I'm probably (definitely) overthinking it. But I love tearing apart philosophical concepts like that! (Anyone who has an actual education in philosophy, please do not perceive me at this or any other time, lol).

Wrath is so interesting too, because it seems like anger that is specifically linked to demanding a kind of payment for its satisfaction, and usually a destructive/punitive one. So, you're right, it could be a cold and calculated cruelty or a heated and passionate rage. Though I never thought about Wrath in the sense of springing from a place of self-hatred, but that is such an interesting concept for a character as well!

I think that's interesting, about Envy. As opposed to Greed, Envy would seem to stem from a place of deep dissatisfaction with the self. Whereas Greed is focused on the object of acquisition, Envy is focused on the individual and the circumstances of the individual that the thing to be acquired must be taken from/modeled after. Like, Greed wants a sports car for the very sake of adding another car to the collection. Envy wants a sports car because individual X has a sports car and Envy seeks to emulate that person's life and in the hopes of self/social satisfaction. In a similar vein of distinction, Lust desires their friend's partner from a place of actual primal craving, disregarding the tenants of friendship in the name of satisfying a basic desire. Whereas Envy desires their friend's partner due to desiring a life like their friend's for themselves.

AAAHHHHH SO INTERESTING TO TRY AND DISTINGUISH NUANCES IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND MOTIVATION.

You've unleashed a monster in me, lol.

AND OH - Tae in tattoos??? Specifically that sort. *chef's kiss*

Sorry I got carried away with the philosophical blabbering - feel free to jot it down under topics to NEVER bring up with Violet lest you be met with word-vomit, lol.

But also, I've seen one too many reels today of Yoongi consuming a banana in a way that could be argued is the Eighth Deadly Sin, so my brain is at, like 2% functionality right now. 😅

[adamwatchesmovies]

Now You See Me (2013)

I don’t like dismissing premises outright. You never know. A sufficiently stylish presentation or engaging story might make it work. I'll make an exception for Now You See Me. This heist thriller was doomed from the start. It cheats so frequently and so obviously that even before the twist ending comes around, you’ve already started booing it off the stage. It’s less “sleight of hand” and more “pumping the auditorium full of knock-out gas”.

Magicians J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) are brought together by a mysterious benefactor. One year later, they perform together as “the Four Horsemen” and baffle authorities when they transport an audience member inside a bank in Paris, steal all the money inside the vault and then give it away to their audience. FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and Interpol agent Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) investigate what HAS to be a trick… right?

Audiences are immediately suspicious any time we see magicians on-screen. These sleight of hand, escape acts, illusions, etc. are not the same as those that amaze us in person. They’re cheap facsimiles created by tricks of the camera. Ostensibly, this movie is about a quartet of magicians who use their skills to become Robin Hoods but every time you see them perform, you don’t buy it. The obviously fake tricks, which include Henley flying in a giant bubble and Merritt hypnotizing audience members to aid the group’s escapes, create a canyon between you and the investigators. You know what they’re doing is impossible. I don’t mean that it looks impossible. It's impossible unless they're all wizards and that’s just the beginning. Early in the film, we see the Horsemen interact with a hologram courtesy of “the Eye”, a Freemason-like group of magicians who steal from the rich and give to the poor. So it’s a science fiction film now? The FBI should be less worried about magic wands and more about alien tech teleporting people across the ocean.

This movie is like a four-year-old playing Snakes and Ladders against a blind man. It cheats at every opportunity. You don't believe for a second that the Four Horsemen - as wealthy and influential as they might be - could install a giant mirror in a secure location to make it seem like they’ve stolen an entire safe. Why? because you realize that if anyone stepped up close to check if it was actually missing, they'd spot the trick immediately. It’s one insult to your intelligence after another… and then we get to the ending

So it turns out Dylan was the one who brought the Horsemen together. Why? So he could get revenge on various people who contributed to his father’s death years ago, or failed to compensate his family after a tragic magic trick went wrong. Let's break down that sequence of events. Dylan spent DECADES plotting this whole thing, getting a job at the FBI, assembling a team, praying to the dark gods that he would get assigned to the Four Horsemen case, then thanked his lucky stars he took all those acting classes so he could act all frustrated when the Horsemen ran circles around him, even going so far as to maintain character even when alone, just in case someone was watching. His scheme involved chasing Jack through the streets of New York at high speed, the other Horsemen stealing a corpse from the morgue so they could fake Jack’s death in a fiery crash - a crash that conveniently does not burn a critical piece of paper that leads the investigation to the next clue. The Count of Monte Cristo must be blushing somewhere. The whole thing almost gets railroaded when Dylan begins falling for Alma - a magic trick in itself because there’s no reason the two of them should like each other, much less form any lasting attachment - so it's a miracle the thing worked out like it did.

Even if you can swallow the rabbit-sized ball of suspension of disbelief Now You See Me wants you to, the characters are thin and their motivations illogical. The plot tries to do way too much but I suspect that’s a deliberate strategy from director Louis Leterrier and writers Boaz Yakin, Edward Ricourt and Ed Solomon to keep your brain spinning past the ending. It's the only way to prevent you from realizing how little sense this story makes. One more thing. Some versions of the film feature a post-credit scene that hints towards a sequel (released in 2016). Others don’t. If you are determined to catch Now You See Me and want to get the most out of it, you might have to do a bit of digging. (August 27, 2021)

[writingpaperghost]

For one of my classes the other day, we were doing this exercise where we were tasked with creating either a version of the human race where they've always been in the sky, or always been underground. The idea was that they would never come into contact with the ground and water/above ground. And we were split into four groups to do this.

Now apart of this assignment was determining, as a group, what you considered the aspects that made humans "human", which would obviously need to be kept in the final design of your alternate evolution humans. My group was tasked with making an underground human, and we presented our creation third. We made this sort of weird worm with four arms thing. The group that went first also made an underground human, and their's was the one that most visually resembled a human. Pretty much a slightly odd shaped ape with a tail, sort of deal. Because they defined human mainly on a physical level (mostly, I think, it was one particular member, who I will call E).

The next group had a sky human, it resembled more bird than human, really, and the important part, for this story, is that in the name, they had the "homo" prefix. Then my group came. We open our little presentation with the information that we chose to base what made something human more by it's social and non-physical aspects (our reasoning boiled down to the age old sci-fi take of "if a robot gained sentience and acted the same as a human, then it is human"). Once we're done showing off our presentation, our classmates get a chance for comment and questions. This is where E comes in. E's question was "what makes this a human?". Which, we'd already established our criteria, so I can only assume they weren't paying attention. But, beyond that, they kept trying to argue that this wasn't human, as it didn't at all physically resemble one, and the last group at least put it in the name (never mind that the name has jack shit to do with whether or not it's human. By that definition, I could name a house plant "Homo-sapian" and it would be human. By that definition, any other creature of the "homo" genus was human, just the same as you or me).

I guess there's not exactly a real... conclusion to this story, not of much interest. E's entitled to the belief that the scientific definition of human is the only one that matters (though I would love to learn what they think about the story of media that clearly tries to present otherwise). I don't agree with them, but that shouldn't surprise anyone given my propensity for jerking the physical humanity out from under characters in my fics.

As one of my group mates put it, the question we're really asking is "Would you still love me is I was a worm?"

And the answer is, if all the social and mental things stayed the same, yes. We'd all love each other, even if we were worms.

[daydreamerdrew]

Comics read this past week:

Marvel Comics:

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes (1963) #1-5

These issues were published across March 1963 to November 1963, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Stan Lee and penciled by Jack Kirby. Issues #1-3 were inked by Dick Ayers and issues #4-5 were inked by George Roussos.

This book takes place during WWII and the premise behind the group is that the Howling Commandoes is a uniquely tough team that specializes in what are seemingly suicide missions. Nick Fury is a very abrasive man, which is partially an act that he lets up a bit when he’s not with his men. And when speaking to his own commanding officer, Captain “Happy Sam” Sawyer, the roles are reversed and Nick is respectful and sometimes almost meek. For example, issue #2, when he’s told that the Commandoes have been assigned a new mission right after they’ve just gotten back from one, Nick says, “The boys are pretty bushed, Cap’n! How much of a rest can they have first?” After being told none, he goes back to his men and wakes them up aggressively, acts like them needing a rest is silly and unnecessary, and insults them as he’s getting them going on their mission. In issue #5 Nick is temporarily stripped of his rank and made a private, and he expects his men to want to get back at him for how he’s been so rough on them, but instead they’re all really nice, making concessions for him and offering to trade loads. This makes him yell at them in anger and they respond with relief that he’s acting like himself and not all dejected.

The various members are not all super distinct to me. Gabriel Jones stands out, not because he’s the one Black man on the team, which is not consistently and always noticeably portrayed, but because he’s always carrying a bugle with him. This is sometimes used strategically in missions where he’ll play to pull the enemy’s attention towards him. In issue #3, as the Commandos are charging at opposing forces, he’s playing and one of the others says to him, “Hey, Gabe! Enough with that bugle, huh? They know we’re here!” Gabe’s personal thing is that he’s into jazz. When the Commandoes are taking a stop at a base in issue #3 he says, “Man, wouldn’t I like to be wailin’ with Jonah Jones back at the Embers right now!” And then, “Man, I’ve been waiting a long time for this visit to town! Hope they have a good jazz combo somewhere!”

Corporal “Dum Dum” Dugan also stands out because he has a unique hat. His personal thing is that he joined the army to get away from his wife. In issue #2, as the Commandoes are grumbling about their mission being yet another suicide mission, he says, “Well, you don’t catch me complainin’! Any kind of mission is more peaceful than going back to my wife!” Nick tells him, “Dum-Dum, I don’t think you got a wife! Who’d marry an old walrus like you??” In issue #3 Dum Dum says, referring to Nick, “Of all the crummy luck! I joined the army to get away from my battle-ax wife, and now I’m stuck with a cigar-smoking human gorilla!” In issue #5 he says, “Look alive, you deadheads! Even my ball and chain, bless her pointy little head, is a better soldier than you slobs!” And one of the others tells him, “How would you know, Dum Dum? You ain’t been home to see her in twenty years!!!” Dum Dum also has issues with his mother-in-law. In issue #3, as the Commandoes are being fired at, one of the others says, “Hey, Dum Dum! Isn’t that a field piece barkin’ at us?” And Dum Dum responds, “Either that or my mother-in-law! Naw, it’s not loud enough for her!”

In issue #4 one of the Commandoes is killed, Jonathan “Junior” Juniper, who’s character description in the first issue reads: “Fresh out of an ivy-league college, Junior is the cheerful, eager-beaver of the group! But don’t let his youthful smile fool you! He’s fast as a panther, and just as dangerous!” The scene he dies in isn’t noticeably more dangerous than the types of situations the Commandoes are in regularly. In issue #5 Nick is noticeably very upset about his death and one of the others thinks, “Never saw anything like it! Fury acts just like Junior was his own son! He’ll never forgive himself for what happened!”

Black Widow: Deadly Origin (2010) #1-4

These issues were published across November 2009 to February 2010, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Paul Cornell. The present day parts of the book were penciled by Tom Raney and inked by Scott Hanna and the flashbacks that are throughout the book were drawn by John Paul Leon.

Both writing and art-wise the flashback parts of the story were much stronger than the modern day parts. The flashbacks retold her origin and revisited various parts of her publication history in a way that impressively strung together various surprise reveals and retcons that had been made over the years to actually make them make sense together. The modern day part of the story is set into motion with the murder of Ivan Petrovitch, which leads into a plot where Natasha discovers that she was made “filthy” and infected with “microscopic biomachines” that she infected anyone she was close to with, which when activated make the loved ones of her loved ones brutally attack them, and which is revealed at the end to be the work of Ivan Petrovitch, who faked his death and turned himself into a cyborg.

Black Widow (2004) revealed/retconned that Natasha’s backstory of growing up as a ballerina and then wanting to become a spy when her husband was killed was actually false implanted memories and that she’d been raised in the Red Room and trained to be a spy since she was young. I’ve been confused since then about how Ivan would fit into that, because his role in her backstory was that he saved her life when she was an infant, and he continued to be a positive part of her life when she was an adult. According to issue #1 of this book, Ivan had to leave Natasha in someone else’s care when he was called for military service and, not wanting his “little girl” to go to an orphanage, he brings her to a comrade high in the military, who unbeknownst to Ivan takes Natasha to the Red Room. Later, when Natasha is an adult, Ivan is injured and Natasha accepts a deal, though Ivan tries to resist, for them both to take a super-soldier serum-like thing to save his life. This explains how they can both be from the time period they were originally based in and still be alive and young in modern comics. Significantly, to me, Ivan’s intended final words were: “Just you from now on… Proud of you, my little girl.”

In issue #2 Natasha is confused between her cover as a ballerina in the Bolshoi and as a Black Widow of the Red Room, which is also attributed to the serum she’d been given being unstable. This explains how she didn’t know about her real backstory until the time of Black Widow (2004). Natasha tells Ivan, “I can’t tell what’s true anymore.” After the “death” of Natasha’s husband, Alexei, she volunteers to become a spy against the west, which is what her original backstory is. She says, even though she believes herself to be an “ordinary Soviet housewife,” “For some reason I feel I have skills I can offer- women I can be!” The person she’s making the request to was not involved in the Red Room and doesn’t approve of it and says, “She’s still trying to work it all out, trying to explain all the things she is… Casting off the peaceful retirement I tried to give her, not willing to vanish into being a normal person.” Ultimately, the decision is made to “follow her wishes.” The rest of Natasha’s history largely plays out as it did, but with the timeline changed so that she spent decades as a spy for Russia. This is so that her defection can happen as it did in the 60s comics, after she’s met Tony Stark and Clint Barton, but so those events can take place more recently and not age all of those other characters considerably. In Black Widow (2004) it was also revealed/retconned that Natasha’s defection was because Nick Fury was manipulating her with pheromones and not actually because of her own principles, which seems to have been dropped here as the focus is on Natasha trying to be a “whole” person and working towards that. I appreciate that because that reveal was a horrific removal of her agency throughout her whole history. Similarly, I appreciate that Natasha, despite brainwashing, is made to be the driving force behind her work against the west.

I have more mixed feelings about the changes to Ivan Petrovitch. The explanation for his plotting against Natasha in the modern day parts of the book is that he’s obsessively in love with her and hurt by her rejection, which she attributes to the unstable serum. I had enjoyed their positive father-daughter relationship in the previous stories I read with him and Natasha. And I do think that that he was fully aware of her Red Room backstory for decades while she wasn’t is a little unideal. But ultimately the story doesn’t not work and has compelling moments. In a flashback in issue #3 to a few years ago, before this book but long after Natasha defected from Russia, Ivan tells her, “You never understood… I didn’t want to be your father. Or your guardian. Or your uncle. Or your friend. I wanted more than that.” Natasha tells him, “If I didn’t understand… It’s because I wanted the father, the guardian, the uncle and the friend.” In another flashback in issue #4 he tries to convince her to work with him again on what ends up being his big evil plot in this book. He tells her, “You’ve had your chance to be Natalia for the world. Maybe it’s time to go back to being my little Natasha.” Then he forcible kisses her and she pushes him off and says, “You must know, after all these years… I don’t think of you like that. I can’t. I can’t think of you as a-” He tells her, “You have no idea how you’ve hurt me all these years. Watching you pick favorites as the old certainties fell apart.” Later, in the modern day part of the book when he’s an evil cyborg, he tells her, “This body is fully functional, you know. Ha ha ha!” And then, “Come and sit on Uncle Ivan’s lap.”

There was also a flashback in issue #4 dated “four years ago” in which Natasha tells Yelena Belova, “Yelena, I accept you’re the latest brilliant graduate of the Red Room… But you have to see you’re being manipulated. You have to do the right thing.”

Black Widow (2010) #1-5

These issues were published across April 2010 to August 2010, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Marjorie Liu and drawn by Daniel Acuña.

In this book Natasha is being plotted against by someone who keeps leaving roses and ribbons for her to find, which are revealed to be a reference to a deeply personal and secret experience from Natasha’s youth. During WWII, when Natasha was 16, she fell in love with a fellow soldier named Nikolai. They had no way to officially get married, but he gave her a ribbon to wear as a wedding ring. Natasha got pregnant, Nikolai died, and the baby, which she named Rose, was stillborn. Natasha learns that she’s infertile because of the Red Room in Black Widow (2004), which is referenced again in Black Widow: Deadly Origin and therefore is still canon, so it was shocking to learn that Natasha had gotten pregnant before that. But it’s unfortunate timing for this to come right after a whole book about Natasha’s past, my reaction was largely that it’s just unnecessary.

Part of the villain’s plot against her is revealing that Natasha had been secretly spying on everyone with super-powers and framing that she tried to sell that information for profit. While this causes problems for her with the government, the reaction of her friends in the superhero community is largely just that that’s unsurprising and they don’t care because they trust Natasha. When Natasha is defending herself to Elektra she says, “You and I both know that any of us can be turned. How many times has it already happened? One of us, going bad? Against our will? By choice? How many friends have betrayed us, Elektra? How many times does it take, before we start arming ourselves with knowledge?” Though I believe it wasn’t just for that reason. In an earlier scene she said, “Good times don’t last forever,” and then referred to the data chip as her “plan B.”

Also, I enjoyed the depiction of Natasha and Bucky’s relationship in this book.

Black Widow (2010) #6-8 and Widowmaker (2011) #1-4

These issues were published across September 2010 to February 2011, according to the Marvel Wiki. The Black Widow issues were written by Duane Swierczynski, penciled by Manuel Garcia, and inked by Lorenzo Ruggiero. Of Widowmaker, issues #1 and #3 were written by Jim McCann, while issues #2 and #4 were written by Duane Swierczynski. And issues #1 and #3 were penciled by David Lopez and inked by Alvaro Lopez, while issues #2 and #4 were penciled by Manuel Garcia, with issue #2 being inked by Lorenzo Ruggiero and Javier Bergantiño and issue #4 being inked by just Lorenzo Ruggiero.

The Black Widow (2010) issues had Natasha working to figure out the identity of someone plotting against her which did not get resolved in those issues and instead lead into Widowmaker, but that book only referenced the specific events of the Black Widow (2010) issues once when Natasha gets hit in a fight in the same place that was injured in the Black Widow (2010) issues. Honestly, I didn’t think that they were necessary, I could have just been told that Natasha was in the middle of uncovering this conspiracy against her, which I was told at the beginning of Widowmaker #1, and that alone would have been sufficient.

Widowmaker starred Natasha, Clint Barton, Bobbi Morse, and Dominic Fortune, who are all being conspired against for various reasons. In the end the person behind everything is revealed to be Alexei Shostakov, Natasha’s husband from before she defected from Russia to the United States, who’s motivation is that he’s still very dedicated to Russia but feels that his Russia no longer exists, so he’s going to take over the country to remake it. And also he hates Natasha. I was very surprised that Alexei was alive because he died in the 60s and in my readings I missed the modern story that revealed him to actually still be alive. I was also surprised that he hates Natasha as all the stories I had read that referenced him up to that point depicted her sincerely mourning him.

Note: That Alexei is alive is actually briefly portrayed for 1 page in Black Widow: Deadly Origin #4, which I missed until I was working on this round-up amidst everything else that happened in that issue. Their dynamic there is actually portrayed positively, which makes more sense to me.

In Widowmaker #4 Natasha makes a plea to Alexei that was actually intended for a young woman working for him, which works. Natasha explains this plan as: “She was like me, once. Young. Impressionable. Eager to please. But not beyond redemption. […] I know the things Alexei promises impressionable young girls. I know how it stings to hear he’s promised others the same things.” I haven’t read Alexei’s original appearances in the 60s yet, but this doesn’t really match up with how their relationship has been portrayed in the various flashbacks I’ve seen.

Also, in Widowmaker #1 Dominic Forture makes a reference to working with Yelena Belova in the team Vanguard in Marvel Comics Presents (2007) by telling Natasha, “Ran with a Black Widow once, not long ago. She was a blonde.” Natasha responds, “She was lucky. She got out of here years ago,” referring to the Red Room.

Daredevil (1998) #61-64 and #77-81

The first batch of Daredevil issues was published across June 2004 to September 2004 and then the second batch was published across September 2005 to January 2006, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Alex Maleev.

I read the first batch of issues because it was the storyline where Alexei Shostakov was revealed to still be alive and then the second batch of issues because Natasha also appeared in them. The inciting incident of the first storyline is a deal being made where the U.S. will trade Natasha to another country in exchange for one of their prisoners. Natasha is tipped off by Nick Fury and goes to hide in plain sight with Matt Murdock, her ex-boyfriend who’s having a lot of personal problems and is in the media a lot because his secret identity as Daredevil is barely a secret and is constantly publicly speculated to be Matt. When Matt asks why she’s there she tells him, “I was in London, on a crap assignment. And it was getting to me, okay? I was getting the jitters. I’ve been on the road for over a year without a break and I’m not doing well in my head.” And then, “I just wanted to crash for a day or two. Maybe get the old juices flowing again, you know. Nothing- no hidden agenda. I just needed a friend.” The plan to hide in plain sight goes awry because Natasha didn’t realize that the people who want her would accept her dead or alive and they try to have her assassinated in a way that’s disguised as a part of Matt’s ongoing problems. Then Natasha finally tells Matt the truth and says, “I am glad I’m here, Matthew- I do miss you. And I do love you. You know that. I miss us. I do. But I’m sorry, that’s not why I came.” In the very end it’s revealed that the person who made the request for Natasha is Alexei Shostakov without any explanation as to how he’s alive. It’s a little wild for me that this reveal was just dropped and then nobody did anything with Alexei until 2010. When Natasha asks him why he wanted her he says, “I don’t like you.” And then, “I don’t like to lose.”

When Natasha is explaining the true story to Matt she says, about Nick Fury, “He told me to run. Even though it might have cost him his job to do so. That is loyalty. That is why I put my life in that man’s hands.” Nick is working to resolve the situation while Natasha is with Matt, and at the end of the story he tells the American side of the deal, “My agents aren’t for sale or trade,” and then threatens him if anything like this ever happens again. The second storyline is the chaos as Matt’s secret identity is finally revealed and he’s arrested. In the beginning Natasha tries to intervene on Matt’s behalf by going to Maria Hill, the new commander of S.H.I.E.L.D., in an awkward scene where she requests that S.H.I.E.L.D. gets the case against Matt dropped and she’s told that, “Nick Fury owes you a favor or two,” and, “Nick Fury’s business was Nick Fury’s business. What you had with him was all well and good… But he’s not here now. There is procedure and inter-departmental protocol and I’m not going to make one of my first moves as acting director of this world-wide peacekeeping task force a muscle job on the feds over something that frankly is none of our business.”

Captain America (1968) #615.1-619

These issues were published across March 2011 to June 2011, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Ed Brubaker, except for issue #616 which was a special 94-page anniversary issue with stories written him as well as Howard Chaykin, Cullen Bunn, Mike Benson, Frank Tieri, Kyle Higgins, and Alec Siegel. Issue #615.1 was drawn by Mitchel Breitweiser. Issue #616 contained stories drawn by Mike Deodato, Ed McGuinness (with inking assistance from Dexter Vines), Howard Chaykin, Jason Latour, Paul Grist, Paul Azaceta, and Pepe Larraz. Seventeen pages of issue #617 were penciled by Butch Guice and inked by Stefano Gaudiano, 6 were drawn by Mike Deodato, and 7 were drawn by Chris Samnee. Eighteen pages of issue #618 were penciled by Butch Guice and inked by Stefano Gaudiano and 12 were drawn by Chris Samnee. And 6 pages of issue #619 were penciled by Butch Guice and inked by Stefano Gaudiano, 17 were drawn by Mitchell Breitweiser, and 7 were drawn by Chris Samnee. I was particularly impressed with the art of these final 3 issues.

Issue #615.1 was a special issue that focused on Steve Rogers when Bucky Barnes was still the focus of the main book. In it a well-meaning person tries to fill the void of the Captain America mantle, then gets captured by A.I.M. and has to be rescued by Steve on his first day. Steve tells him to stop trying to be Captain America and the guy agrees, but he also tells Steve, “But someone’s gonna have to wear it eventually… You know that, right?” Then Sharon discovers that Nick Fury was the one behind giving the well-meaning guy enhanced strength, as well as orchestrated him getting captured by A.I.M. She recognizes that Nick is trying to manipulate Steve into becoming Captain America again, and she’s not happy about it, but she agrees to not tell Steve what Nick did because she ultimately agrees with him when he says, “Somebody’s gotta carry that shield… That’s a fact. Only question is, how long it’s gonna take Steve to realize who it has to be.” I liked Sharon being willing to lie to Steve. I had found her to be a really interesting character in Captain America (2005) and so far largely haven’t been compelled by her portrayal in the comics I’ve read since then, but this felt like a return to the differences between Steve and Sharon before Dr. Faustus messed with her head.

The first story in issue #616 and the rest of these issues make up the “Gulag” storyline, which has Bucky in a Siberian prison. In the first story in issue #616, Steve says, “Listen to me, Bucky… I don’t care what I have to do. I will fix this.” This does not end up happening. Steve’s in a difficult position, considering his job, where if he does anything illegal to help Bucky he’ll cause an international incident, and trying to get Bucky released legally doesn’t work out. In the end, Natasha ends up breaking him out because he’s going to get killed there. I honestly would have liked to have seen Steve be a bit more reckless and willing to be self-destructive in order to help Bucky, thinking back to how intensely he mourned Bucky in the early issues of The Avengers (1963). It’s a disappointment to me that we didn’t end up getting a bit of that energy again. And it’s also disappointing to me that the characters have been largely living separate lives in separate books since Steve has come back, when a big part of the tragedy of Steve’s death to me was that Bucky had been avoiding him and had only briefly interacted with him once since regaining his memories.

These issues felt like bad thing after bad thing happening to Bucky. In a bit of characterization that I liked, in the story in issue #616 he thinks, “This is the trajectory of my life… Every time things are finally stable… finally good… something sudden happens… to wreck it all… and then I learn to live with that… And after a while… worse-off becomes the new normal… and then it starts all over again. I didn’t try to explain that to Steve the last time I saw him… He wouldn’t have understood.”

In issue #619, after Steve tries to defend Bucky for escaping, the president tells him, “No matter what happens, James Barnes can’t be Captain America anymore.” And then Nick Fury tells him, “Barnes is way too tarnished now to carry the shield. But he never wanted it, anyhow. He just wouldn’t let anyone else have it. And after that… He was only tryin’ to impress you.” Even though it’s true that Bucky had wanted to give up being Captain America when Steve came back and had to be pressured into continuing by Steve, this still made me feel really bad for Bucky.

Captain America (2011) #1-19

These issues were published across July 2011 to October 2012, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Ed Brubaker. Issues #1-4 were penciled by Steve McNiven and issue #5 was penciled by Steve McNiven with Giuseppe Camuncoli. Issue #1 was inked by Mark Morales, issue #2 by Jay Leisten and Dexter Vines, issues #3-4 by Jay Leisten, and issue #4 was inked by Jay Leisten and Matteo Buffagni. Issues #6-10 were penciled by Alan Davis and inked by Mark Farmer. Issues #11-14 were drawn by Patrick Zircher. Issue #15-18 were penciled by Scot Eaton and inked Rick Magyar, except for issue #16 which Rick Ketcham and Mark Pennington also worked on the inking of. And issue #19 was drawn by Steve Epting.

There was not a lot in these issues that was of interest to me. In issue #4 we see a depiction of Steve’s idealized dream-world. In it the American dream has been achieved, which looks like a fairly generic futuristic sunny utopia. Steve is long retired from being Captain America because, as he explains it, the world doesn’t need Captain America anymore. And he’s glad for that, but, though he’s modest about it, he’s also still revered and thought of as Captain America by people he meets. And in this dream-world Steve and Sharon are astronauts. As he sees it, they’ve “got a front row seat to the future.” Sharon tells him, “Our children will be born on the moons of Jupiter and populate the stars.”

Steve being an astronaut has come up in other Ed Brubaker-written comics before. In Captain America (2005) #1 he explains to Sharon that he feels bad that he was frozen in ice during the space race, saying, “I feel guilty when I think of all those men who died trying to reach the stars… That it should’ve been me taking those risks. That’s what I was built for, after all.” And Captain America (2005) #10 was a tie-in to the House of M event and explored an alternate universe in which, among other things, Steve was never frozen in ice and did actually participate in the space race and was the astronaut who took the first steps on the moon, instead of Neil Armstrong.

The emphasis on Sharon and Steve’s (presumably super-serum enhanced) children being the future read strangely to me. I don’t personally have a valorization of bloodlines and certain genetics or really just family more simply. But the idea in Captain America comics of Steve’s physical and moral superiority and how they are tied together stands out beyond that. Like the idea that he is of a different, special breed partially because he comes from the past, a better, simplier time, or because he is an American. I don’t mean that in a negative way necessarily, it’s part of what interests me about these comics. But I do think that these things generally have an innocuous intention.

In #6 Clint refers “losing Bucky” as something that Steve has gone through recently and Steve thinks, “I feel bad lying to Hawkeye… But Bucky wants the world thinking he’s dead. So it’s not my decision.” This is the only comic I read this past week that said that Bucky was believed to be dead. Where we left things off in Captain America (1968) #619, he was correctly believed to have escaped from his Siberian prison. Clint also refers to Natasha being on leave, which is presumably with the cover that she’s mourning Bucky. Where we left things off in Captain America (1968) #619, it seemed that she was going to be a wanted fugitive alongside Bucky for helping to break him out of prison.

Issue #19 was a decent conclusion to Ed Brubaker’s run writing Captain America. It went over Cap’s history and therefore Ed Brubaker’s vision of it in the format of Steve talking about himself to William Burnside. I was a little bit confused by that premise because Bucky shot him and was very confident he killed him in Captain America (1968) #605. And if Steve was aware that William Burnside was alive, I would think he would tell Bucky considering that he and Sam have an intervention for Bucky in Captain America (1968) #606 about his reckless behavior that they correctly attribute to the trauma of killing someone who looks and sounds exactly like Steve. And even if Steve only met with William after that, Captain America (1968) #605 made a point to show that Bucky intended to wait at the site until William’s body was found out (he fell into a lake after taking several bullets to the chest) of respect for him. The opening of this issue is William acting as Captain America, being confronted by Steve, and then getting hit by a car while running away, so I thought at first maybe this whole issue took place in the past before Bucky killed him, but the ending makes more sense for it to be in the modern day and his Marvel Wiki page lists him as alive. This is actually a little unfortunate to me, because when he was thought to have died I thought that at least he and Jack Monroe were both dead now, because it seemed unfair that he would get to live while Jack was tragically dead.

Captain America and Bucky (2011) #620-624

These issues were published across July 2011 to November 2011, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Ed Brubaker and Marc Andreyko and drawn by Chris Samnee. The artwork of these issues was also notably really great.

Issue #620 depicts Bucky’s upbringing and training and ends with him becoming Captain America’s partner, issues #621-623 depict him as Captain America’s partner, and then issue #624 is about Bucky’s time as the Winter Soldier.

In Captain America (2005) #31 it’s referred to as that, “How you talked them into letting you stay on the base while your little sister was sent away to boarding school is a mystery even to you.” But in Captain America and Bucky #620 it’s depicted that Bucky was told after his father’s funeral that that was what was going to happen, that “I would stay on the base with my dad’s old pals looking out for me,” with the reasoning given that, “That’s how Jimmy would have wanted it, kiddo.” And Bucky just accepted it, saying, “Sure, Major Samson… Whatever you say.” That phrasing of it in Captain America (2005) #31 makes sense to me as how Bucky would have misremembered that event as him having more agency in it. I still found it very striking how there were tears in Bucky’s eyes as he waved his sister goodbye, which was paired with the narration, “I used the mask Dad taught me to wear even more, then… to hide how scared and alone I really felt.” Also, Major Samson is the one who recommended Bucky for the job of Captain America’s partner and these issues made me wonder when exactly that idea was first had as it’s something that was just sprung on Bucky; he doesn’t know.

In Captain America and Bucky #621 Steve expresses some concerns about Bucky’s eagerness to get involved in the war and tells him, “Taking a life can be simple… but living with what you’ve done… that’s not so simple.” The events of this issue end up having Bucky have to kill someone for the first time and while he says, “It had to be done… so I did it… Simple as that,” he’s clearly really affected by it. This made me think of how Bucky’s role as Captain America’s partner was both to be a symbol and to do some dirty work that Captain America couldn’t, which was explained to Steve right before he first meets Bucky in Captain America (2005) #12 as, “And if he gets his hands a little dirtier than most soldiers when no one’s looking… Well, that’ll be our secret, right?” And Bucky feeling guilty about the things he did during the war was brought up when he was being manipulated in Captain America (2005) #33 and he’s told, “You were barely human. A killer of men.” Steve seems to me to feel a bit guilty after Bucky first kills someone. I’m also struck by Bucky did not have any idea that that was the role he was being prepared for throughout his whole training. He does, while reminiscing on it in retrospect, make a joke about it that I found charming in Captain America and Bucky #620: “If I’d known how valuable I was to the U.S. government, I’d have pawned myself for a profit.”

Captain America and the Secret Avengers (2011) #1

The Captain America and the Secret Avengers issue was published in March 2011, according to the Marvel Wiki. It was written by Kelly Sue DeConnick and drawn by Greg Tocchini. I’m not interested in reading Secret Avengers (2010) right now, but I read this one-shot because it was focused on Natasha and Sharon Carter. But, unfortunately, the story and the portrayal of their relationship wasn’t really interesting.

Captain America & the Incredible Hulk (1981) #1 and Spider-Man & the Incredible Hulk (1981) #1-2 and Marvel Team-Up (1972) #104-105 and Captain America (1968) #257

The Captain America & the Incredible Hulk issue was a 7-11 promotional giveaway one-shot from 1981. The story, which was 11 pages, had them fighting Magneto. There was also 10 pages of Captain America or Hulk-themed games and 2 pages of advertising for Super Slurpee Superheroes t-shirts. I couldn’t find any information on who the creators of the comic were.

The Spider-Man & the Incredible Hulk issues were given out with the Dallas Times Herald in 1981 as advertising supplements for the department store chain Sanger-Harris. I could only find scans of two of them; it looks like there are 3 others that I’m missing. I couldn’t find any information on who the creators of these were, either. The stories were 15 pages, which were interspersed with a generous amount of advertisements for Sanger-Harris. The stories also both had multiple scenes, which were not very closely related to the supervillain plots, of various characters having a wonderful time shopping at Sanger-Harris. In the first issue the Sandman is framing the Hulk for his crimes by covering himself in green dye before them. Even before he discovers this, Peter knows that the Hulk is innocent. When he does discover it, he thinks, “Well, I always told Sandy he should pick on someone his own size!” Peter attacks the Sandman with his webs while he’s fleeing from the Hulk, causing the Sandman to change course and attack Peter, and the Hulk sees this and says, “Ugly man who becomes dust is chasing Web Man! Web Man tried to help Hulk! So Hulk will help Web Man!” He does this by picking up the tower that Peter is on so that he can hit the Sandman with it. As Peter floats down with a web-parachute, he says, “Thanks, Hulk- I think!” Also, in the second story Peter is searching the desert for a missing friend and thinks, when he finds the Hulk, “I forgot! The southwest is where the Hulk comes- to get away from people!”

Marvel Team-Up #104 was published in January 1981, according to the Marvel Wiki, and was written by Roger McKenzie, penciled by Jerry Bingham, and inked by Mike Esposito. It was a team-up between the Hulk and Ka-Zar, Master of the Savage Land. The Hulk’s part of the issue starts in media res with him on top of the Golden Gate Bridge with a young girl. One police officer goes up alone try to convince the Hulk to give him the child, but the Hulk says that the girl is his friend and accuses, “Banner sent you, didn’t he? Banner always torments Hulk!” But the girl protests, “Hulk, no! If you’re my friend don’t hurt him! Please… I want to go with him!” The Hulk acquiesces, then he becomes concerned that the police officer is going to slip and fall while trying to climb down with the girl, so he tries to take the girl back so that he can get her down himself. The Hulk explains his intentions, but the police officers down below can’t hear him, and so in a classic Hulk comic misunderstanding, they fire at the Hulk thinking that he’s attacking. Later, when the Hulk is alone and away from the chaos, the narration describes him in a roundabout way, saying, “Their lives are filled with darkness and pain and little else. No wonder they clutch with child-like desperation- to whatever shred of comfort they can fine.” And the Hulk thinks, “It is quiet here. Hulk likes quiet. Hulk would bring friend here… if Hulk had friend.”

Marvel Team-Up #105 was published in February 1981, according to the Marvel Wiki, and was written by Mike W. Barr, penciled by Carmine Infantino, and penciled by Mike Esposito. It was a team-up between the Hulk and the Heroes for Hire, Power Man and Iron Fist. At one point the Hulk sees a man slap his young daughter and goes to smash him, so to save the man’s life Luke runs over and punches him and says, “I hit ‘im for you, Hulk- He can’t hurt nobody now!”

Captain America #257 was published in February 1981, according to the Marvel Wiki, and was written by Mike W. Barr, penciled by Lee Elias, and inked by “Many Hands.” In this issue Steve and Bruce are both kidnapped by a villain group that is made up of Baron Zemo’s old henchmen. Specifically, Steve is kidnapped because they know that he visits the same cliff side spot overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in England on the same day every year, which turns out to be the anniversary of Bucky’s “death.” The villains used their study of Bruce’s body to perfect a weapon which they want to then use on Steve in order to avenge Zemo’s death. Bruce gets excited and turns into the Hulk during the escape attempt and Steve then tricks the Hulk into helping him by telling him that the villains are working for Bruce. When the Hulk gets stuck in Zemo’s Adhesive X, Steve tries to help get him loose, which the Hulk reacts to with fairly calm confusion, saying, “Huh? Why does Star-Man hit Hulk with plate? Hulk doesn’t like it!” I thought that this was cute. Later, when Steve has set the villains’ base to explode, he works hard and persistently to get the Hulk out with him even though the Hulk is making it difficult, which I also enjoyed.

Timely Publications:

the Jimmy Jupiter stories in Marvel Mystery Comics (1939) #28-35

In this batch of 8 Jimmy Jupiter stories I went from February 1942 to September 1942, according to the issue cover dates. The first 3 stories were 6 pages and then the rest were 7 pages. All were signed as by Eddie Robbins. His Who’s Who page says that he was just the penciler, and not the writer.

I started reading through Jimmy’s Golden Age stories because I was so emotionally effected by his role in the first arc of Captain America (2011). In issue #2 of that book his powers were explained as having the (possibly mutant) ability to enter what he called the Land of Nowhere, which was a surreal place he could shape with his imagination and take things out of, which is depicted as happening through portals. And he could also connect to other people’s dreams, so he was recruited to take a group of soldiers into the Land of Nowhere, connect to the dream of a Hydra agent, and then let the soldiers out so that they could raid a Hydra base that the Allies didn’t know the location of. Unfortunately for Jimmy, a Hydra spy hits him over the head with a heavy object to mess up the plan, which leaves him in a coma for 65 years (and also traps the soldiers in his dream-world for that length of time). He has limited brain function when he does wake up, and then he gets shot and killed having missed out on so much of his life.

I was struck by the thought while reading these stories that Jimmy is such a kid, he never really stood a chance. It’s hard to imagine him growing up. He’s very much well-suited for the adventures he goes on in the Land of Nowhere. He’s a sweet kid and doesn’t get into unnecessary trouble by being rude to the magical beings he meets, he can realistically get scared at times, but he’s also able to handle himself there and is really just having a lot of fun. I liked seeing in his second story how, when he was trapped with a rabbit companion in a magical circle by witches and needed a lucky charm to get out of it, he picked up his rabbit friend and rubbed his left foot three times to escape. Then, when lost in the witches’ complex castle with many doors, he just closed his eyes and spun around really fast and dizzily chose whatever door was in front of him. And then, when fighting a witch, he popped her by stabbing her with a pin he stole from one of her Sunday hats.

Throughout his stories there are times where it seems as though Jimmy is in real danger, but he largely doesn’t need anyone to tell him what to do. An exception to this is in the story in issue #34 when Jimmy is tempted by man named Temptation and another character, Werjil, tries to get Jimmy away from him. He accepts candy from Temptation despite Werjil’s protests, he refuses cigarettes on his own, then he goes on a merry-go-ride with Temptation which Werjil says he can only go on once or he’ll be trapped there forever. As Temptation is trying to get Jimmy to stand on the ride longer, a big muscular man named Will Power suddenly appears and beats up Temptation. So it seems that whatever happens, Jimmy can’t really be harmed in his dream-world.

The first time Jimmy visits the Land of Nowhere, in his first story, he falls out of a plane because he was too excited to buckle his seat belt and then seemingly lands in a cloud. And then end of the story a dragon is crying on Jimmy, getting him all wet, and then he wakes up to find that he apparently fainted while falling, but his parachute opened and saved him, and then the pilot poured a bucket of water over his head to wake him up. This kind of pattern continues to play out over the course of Jimmy’s stories in this batch, though in more mundane circumstances, where he often is somewhere where he could conceivably fall asleep, seemingly doesn’t and instead is whisked away on an adventure, and then wakes up at the end back in that mundane setting, with his fantasy adventure turning a little weird right before that. But the way that Jimmy falls asleep so often outside of his bed may be a part of his powers: the story across issues #31-32 seemingly takes place while he’s asleep on a roller coaster.

Jimmy has yet to take anything out of his dreams. He collects a handful of moonbeam in the story in issue #30 but then has to use it later when fighting gnomes that ride on bats. And he picks golden rods for his mother in the story in issue #35 but has to get rid of them because his dragon friend is allergic to them. I’m not expecting Jimmy to actually connect to anyone else’s dreams or to take anyone else into his own dreams in these Golden Age stories; I’m assume that that that’s something that Ed Brubaker made up. But Jimmy does believe that the adventure that he goes on are real, though nobody else does. In the story in issue #30 his mother tells him, “Jimmy, if you don’t stop telling these impossible stories, you will be punished!” And the opening narration of the story in issue #31 reads, “Hoping that the Land of Nowhere will be erased from Jimmy’s mind, his mother sends him to an amusement park.”