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disregardcanon · 5 years ago

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end of year writing meme

Total Stories Written: 27

Total Words Written: 147413 Average Words Per Story: if you do the mean, then it’s 5,459 Shortest Story: the aftermath of rebirth at 338 words Longest: Paint a New Horizon at 23,673 words

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?

I wrote fewer stories than I expected, but they were far longer than I expected. I wrote a lot of 11k fics.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write most?

pairing: Sansa/Margaery (throwback to 2015 omg)

genre: I don’t feel like I had a certain genre I wrote a lot of tbh.

fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?

THE POKEMON GAMES! Like, oh my god. I wrote fanfiction about soul silver. I wrote fanfiction about POKEMON WHITE. what. the fuck. Like, technically the first fic i ever wrote was about pokemon but i never expected to do it again.

Did you take any writing risks this year?

I wrote 2 very long asoiaf fics about difficult subject matter. Combined, they add up to more than 40 thousand words of fic.

Do you have any fanfic or general writing goals for the new year?

Fanfiction wise, I would like to finish up some of my wips and try to improve.

In general, I would like to figure out more what I want my writing to look like moving forward and how to go about that. I’m experiencing some growing pains, so I need to reassess my style and strategy and see what I need to readjust moving forward.

From the past year of writing, what was your…

Best story of this year: Paint a New Horizon

This feels like a bit of a cop out since it’s the longest, but I am very firmly the most proud of this fic out of anything I wrote this year. I feel like the emotional bits were satisfying, the romance worked nicely, and the action kept me interested in a way that almost never does. I was able to commit to TWENTY THREE THOUSAND WORDS and put my ALL INTO IT! that is. monumental for me. I’ve written long fics in the past, but those were chaptered and frankly, not as good as this one was or as much work.

I love this verse so well that I might actually go back and write more in it later when I have time. I have the beginnings of a sequel ruminating around in my drats.

Most popular story of this year: normally I split this up into multiple categories, but by hits, kudos, OR comment threads The Times They Are a Changin’ comes out on top. The mcu fandom really went nuts over Carol and Maria, didn’t they?

Personal favorite:

Washing Machine Heart is a fic that I hold close to my heart. 1. I wrote this one when I was on a study abroad in Latin America, which is the coolest thing that I have ever done 2. it’s just. really well done. I’ve never written something quite so messy and unpleasant in a realistic way before. It’s ugly in the way that Steven Universe: Future is ugly right now. In exactly the way that “Washing Machine Heart” should imply 3. oh god was it cathartic

Most under-appreciated:

Maternal, Paternal at 71 kudos, I know I shouldn’t call this one “under-appreciated”, but it’s in a few VERY happening tags, in a very happening fandom with a VERY popular set of characters. I’d think that people would be more interested in reading “Endeavor is an asshole and eventually Dabi kills him” but like. it’s whateves I guess XD

Most fun to write:

We Could Be Heroes both semesters that I had during 2019 were. super fucking stressful. the only times that I’ve had that were productive for fic was January break, summer vacation, and December break.

Last April on my birthday, though, I rewarded myself and after I got home from hanging with some friends I just sat down at my laptop and didn’t think about literally anything. I just wrote. I took a format that I knew I liked and didn’t have to think about (talk show format with an OC I already made for a different story) and then 3 characters I was very interested in then (Melissa Shield, Monica Rambeau, and Tahani Al-Jamil) and then I just. ran with it. I wrote and wrote and wrote and it was amazing. I didn’t think about it being good or about my homework or literally anything other than this talk show lady talking to these three cool characters.

It was wonderful. 10/10 would do it again.

Story with the single sexiest moment:

Familiarity. It is literally the only thing I wrote this year with ANY sex in it, so it’s automatically the sexiest. Way to go Margaery you did it.

Most “holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story:

Um. Just Souring Grapes in general.

Most challenging to write:

Biggest disappointment:

Shouto Todoroki Joins the Supervillain Dads Club I hoped to finish this fic last year in January. It’s currently December and I haven’t been able to look at the thing since.

I think it’s mainly because I just lost the drive, but it’s also kind of because wips stress me the fuck out. And also I had 2 stressful semesters so that doesn’t help. Favorite character to write: my favorite characters to write this year were both Todorokis! Dabi and Fuyumi are both a joy to write, I swear

Favorite opening lines:

Serena falls down at the kitchen table feeling as cold and distant as the room does. The harsh lines and open floor plan were supposed to show a minimalism only possible with wealth, but to Serena it's always felt empty.

A Woman’s Place

Surprisingly, Theon’s life does not change much either way after Maron is taken to the Greenlands. Balon does not magically start paying attention to him, even though he’d prayed every night to the Drowned God that he would.

Pretty Little Thrall

The Twins are a grand fortress spanning the width of the Green Fork. A great stone tower stands on each side of the river, with a greater bridge running in between. The Frey stable boys have taken their horses, and Jeyne walks as close to the river as she dares as they make their way to the tower. She watches the river rush beside her in awe. She’s never seen a river run so wild before. It seems like the very waters rushing beside her want to rise up and drown her themselves.

Good Family

Favorite closing lines:

That's what she gave up fighting the Kree for, and Carol will do everything that she can to bring them back. She's stopped fighting for some things, but she'll never stop fighting for this. If the times don't change on this one, she'll make them. She'll rip that gaudy fucking glove off of that bastard's grape crush colored hand and shove it up his ass if that's what it takes to get her family back.

The Times They Are a Changin’

"Alright, then. Let’s do this together,” you say, “as a team.” You think that you really like this "being friends" thing. Maybe after you beat Red, you and Silver can go to Hoenn- or Sinnoh. Unova even. Somewhere new and exciting with new people to beat. It’s nice to have a partner who’s not a Pokemon, for once. You think that, together, you could be the best trainers that ever lived.

Maybe the best friends too.

no silver medals (when you get the gold together)

The stars spread out above you- the universe expanding outwards onwards and upwards, excelsior.

Excelsior

Other favorite lines:

What does a grape do under pressure? Grapes tend to shrivel in the sunlight. Turn to raisins, actually. She doesn’t remember what poem that was from, but she remembers reading something like that in English class once. Some poem that she didn’t understand really, and might not have gotten even if it were in Japanese. She doesn’t think that’s what she’s doing.

Does it ferment, like wine? Her father always joked about her mother aging like a fine wine, growing more beautiful every year, growing stronger. But Miné isn't gaining strength, not really. Not right now. Maybe she’s just souring, getting more and more bitter about things that she can't have. Maybe she's just souring grapes.

Souring Grapes

“The authorities confirmed that Endeavor was not even in the state during the accident, and Shouto’s doctors confirmed that the burns were consistent with boiling liquid, not an open flame.” Superman looks visibly relieved to hear that.

“But that does not mean that I trust him,” Batman says, “I would prefer to keep an eye on him.”

“Why would you want to keep an eye on him, he’s a superhero ,” Captain Marvel says, with none of The Wisdom of Solomon but all of The Innocence of a Ten Year Old, “that means that he’s a good guy, right?”

Shouto Todoroki Joins the Supervillain Dads Club

The thought stabs into his brain like a needle, like the scent of pine, like the memories he’s never wanted back. Robb was the one person who ever cared about him, and Theon betrayed him to parade around as a prince and become Ramsay Bolton’s broken little toy. He swore himself to the little boy who took him by the hand when he came to Winterfell as a scared little boy and never let go. And then Theon betrayed him.

“Theon,” the trees whisper,” Theon.” The crows in the branches take flight, cawing his name, and he feels something else take flight too. His heart, beating somewhere deep inside his chest.

“Theon,” it throbs, “Theon, Theon.”

He wants to do something, something reckless, something brave. Something that makes him redeemable.

He can’t save Robb, but he can save someone . He can save Robb’s fake sister. Theon can save Jeyne from some of her pain.

If You Believe in Me (I’ll Still Believe)

She dared a glance forward and met Margaery’s eyes- a deep, chocolate brown. They were warm and inviting and Margaery’s little curly bangs framed her face like a heart. Margaery’s head went over the back of the booth and it seemed to almost be floating against the flowery wallpaper. It looked like Margaery was lying out in a field of flowers- the Maiden gazing up at the clouds and trying to make shapes of them.

She could imagine Margaery telling her that this one is a flower, like Tyrell, and this one’s a deer, like Baratheon, and this one’s a dick, like Joffrey. She giggled nervously again and felt her cheeks flush. She’d never felt this giddy and unsteady in her whole life.

“Are you alright, Sansa?” Margaery asked cautiously. She reached across the table and laid a hand over Sansa’s own. The touch was warm and tender, and Sansa felt the blush from her toes to the tip of her head.

“I’m perfect!” Sansa nearly screeched. Margaery laughed at that, but her look was kind.

“Yes, darling,” she said with a smile that was wide and fond, “I think that you are.”

Lesbian. The word wasn’t supposed to fill her with such a warm, hopeful feeling, was it? She wiggled awkwardly in her chair, trying to get situated and stop feeling so silly and excited and vulnerable, but it didn’t fix anything. She felt Margaery’s leg brush against hers under the table. It sent a jolt through her.

Lesbian.

Sansa took a shaky breath. She thought to herself that there might be something to that.

Paint a New Horizon

#end of year writing meme #writing meme #sunkelles writes #2019 writing meme

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djemsostylist · 6 years ago

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I watched Captain Marvel...and I think I hated it. A Review

So like, I really hated Captain Marvel. Well, hate’s a strong word I guess. But given what it could have been, and what we were given instead, well. It’s better than Gagnarok, which is faint praise, I suppose given how much I despised the last Thor outing.

This movie had so much potential. So. Much. Potential. Because they actually had the bones of a good movie. The casting, as per usual for Marvel, was spot on. They created some really interesting characters who weren’t actually cliches like they very easily could have been. And the idea of an origin movie that merely exists for its own sake, especially this late in the MCU lineup, is an interesting one.

Thing is though, this one...well, it sucked. And I think it’s entirely because of the writing and directing. It read like a YA version of a Marvel movie. And it’s the first time in a while that I read reviews and thought “What am I missing?” Most of the round-up that I saw prior to the movie claimed that Sam Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn were a delight, the humor and nineties references were subtle and delightful, and that the whole movie didn’t force things on you but rather allowed the moments to breathe. Even here--the majority of the people I follow are gushing over the movie and the relationships and the subtle building of Carol’s backstory and I’m just like....? Because I got none of that?

Fury, as a character in this movie, makes literally no sense. He seems a whole lot more like Sam Jackson than Nick Fury, and if this movie was attempting to show us how a young and bouncy Nicholas J. Fury became the jaded leader of SHIELD, than they fucking failed. Fury cooing over cats and completely trusting aliens makes no sense, and rather than have him grow over the course of the movie into the Nick Fury we see today, he does...none of that? He was frankly kind of obnoxious, and the amount of moments he dropped a not so quippy one liner the writers desperately wanted us to laugh at made me actively irritated by the end.

Maria was a fascinating character, or she could have been? She and Carol are wingmen test pilots, working under a female scientist developing cutting edge technology. She’s a single mother in the military with a precocious young daughter and together with her best friend they’ve made themselves a family. Her best friend is then killed in a horrible accident gone wrong, and she...actually I don’t know. I’m assuming she left the Air Force perhaps because, like Sam Wilson, she had a hard time finding a reason to stay in. At least that would be what I assume. And maybe she always thought Carol survived and the Air Force covered up something they shouldn’t have been doing and maybe she took a quiet retirement in return for not asking questions, and maybe she always wondered what happened the day that Carol died. I don’t know, really, since they don’t ever really allow her to do much of anything except tell Carol who she is 5 times and then suddenly decide to go into space because her daughter told her to. We were robbed of Maria, is what I’m saying, and I think they could have given us so much more. (Give me a story where Maria takes the retirement and the payout and moves to Louisiana but never really stops looking for answers because Carol wouldn’t just have died like that and one day she digs too deep and she runs into an Agent named Nick Fury who was looking into something too and together they discover what the Air Force tried to cover up all those years ago. Frankly, I feel like this should have been the plotline that Earth had sans Carol, but I digress).

Carol’s team was criminally underused. Gemma Chan, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou (and those other dudes)--they had virtually no part. And it could have been fascinating. Carol was with them for 6 years. 6 years. That’s a ridiculously long time actually. And she has a life there. At least, we can assume? She appears to have an apartment (or quarters), access to public transit, etc. She is close to Jude Law (I refuse to call him Yon Rogg bc that is a fucking stupid name), and she is also, again ostensibly, close to his team (hereafter called Kree Team 6). The scene with them boarding the plane for their first mission together (which totally did not feel like that at all) was interesting, and a lovely glimpse in to team and the dynamics. I liked seeing how they fought together, their ethical views (they go out of their way not to hurt the locals/refugees, which we’ll get to later). And I loved the look into Kree society--it felt more real and grounded than any of the alien societies (beside Asgard) that we’ve seen before. But we get nothing from them. Like, Gemma Chan has 3? lines? Hounsou has maybe 2? And Jude Law 100% feels like he was supposed to Mar Vel (and likely her lover?) before someone, sometime after way too much of the script had been written, decided not to go that direction. Which leads me to the next question, of why not? Because Carol doesn’t need a love interest? I mean, sure I guess, but Thor, Steve, Bruce, and Tony have all had a love interest, and I don’t think it detracted from their stories? Like, Tony still has his bond with Rhodey, Steve obviously has his with Bucky, Thor is still codependent on Loki. Would Carol being in a relationship with Jude Law prevent her from having an equally or more important relationship with Maria? Like, I would have loved for about half the movie to take place with Carol still with the Kree, if only so that we could have felt something of Carol’s relationship and connection with them, which would make the revelations that much more crushing when she does find out. Like, how much worse is it if Carol has an actual life with them (which has likely only been a little bit shorter than the amount of time she’s been in the Air Force) only to find out it’s all based off a lie? Only, it wasn’t totally a lie because she had friends and a home and a job and a lover and a life which she wouldn’t have had if they hadn’t taken her, and yet.

I loved Carol. Or at least, I think I did? Reviews kept whining that Carol was brainwashed half the movie, which sure, but she was no Bucky Barnes. And I loved that. I loved that she has awful nightmares that wake her up and make her seek out her lovermentor to spar, but she is still herself. Like, she isn’t deadened and unemotional and tormented. She’s happy and scrappy and sarcastic and goofy and bouncy and a little bit of a hothead and she is still herself. I loved the scene when she looks at the guy over the newspaper, the sly little half smile she gets when she says “Heroes. Noble warrior heroes” like she knows she’s being a little bitch and she loves it. I love that when she knocks on Jude Law’s door at 2:00 in the morning he can’t even pretend to be irritated with her. I love that she banters with her team and loves her powers and isn’t afraid of dying. I loved who Brie Larson made her in the spare few moments she had between the awful directing and the horrible lines and the things that didn’t really make sense. I can’t wait to see her in Endgame, and much like I did with Hawkeye in Civil War, go “Oh, there’s Carol!” because she had been hiding behind a shitty plot and horrible dialog and suffocating directing for far too long. (Also, I loved her costume and her design and the mohawk is beautiful, and her powers aren’t OP at all.)

Like, imagine if the movie is divided into Carol with the Kree slowly realizing shit ain’t what it seems and the other plotline is Fury and Maria trying to find out wtf is going on, and then they meet up in the climax to take down the bad guys. We get to know Carol, Maria, and their relationship to each other and everyone else. Imagine if we didn’t have to guess at literally everything. And imagine if, in the end, Carol leaves, not because she has to guide the fucking Skrulls to a new home, but because she’s functionally immortal now, and what kind of a life does she have with Maria and Earth any more? (Like, the movie doesn’t address this at all, but I mean, this is a Thing. Whether it’s because she’s Kree (wtf did the blood transfusion do?) or because of her powers, she is immortal now, yes? Or as immortal as Thor or Steve, theoretically.)

The thing is, the Russo’s and Markus and McFeely are really, really good at taking little things and tiny moments and making us know and understand backstory, and showing us how relationships grow and develop in the things we can’t see or don’t have time to see. These writers/directors...are not. They suck, frankly. Who is Mar Vel, what is her relationship with Carol and Maria, what was Carol’s life like in Kree land, why is Maria retired and living in the Bayou, why is Fury on uppers, how did Carol become a Kree, why did they give her the disk control thingy and why doesn’t she take it off, what did they tell her about her past, and most importantly, WTF with the Skrulls and Kree. How did you manage to tell us how to feel to for an entire movie while also telling us nothing at all. (Also, The Russo’s and M&M are good with continuity while still writing new things, while these people, are, again, not. Like, don’t even get me started on the Tesseract.)

And then, okay, when the Kree Team attacks that first planet to save their operative, they are all super specific about making sure the locals don’t get hurt, they protest the innocent, etc. Gemma Chan immediately pulls up her rifle when they say they are just civilians, Jude Law goes out of his way to put up a shield to protect his dudes and NOT hurt the locals, and he seems sorta grossed out by Ronan and his zealots. So...wtf with the “all Kree all evil murdered who kill babies and the Skrulls just want to be with their families.” Like, it’s so fucking tired. A twist for twist sake, which if you didn’t see that coming...well, that’s on you. I’d be much more here for “everyone sucks a little bc people can suck sometimes” rather than the shlocky bullshit family reunion I was forced to endure. The Skrulls were fucking insufferable frankly, and the entire reveal with Talos and the Skrulls from then on was like an embarrassing episode of Stargate.

And look, I’m not opposed to humor in Marvel movies. I’m not, I swear! I legit loved both Antman’s, Peter always fills my heart with smiles, and Sam Wilson refusing to move his seat up made me legit cackle. I don’t like when I feel like the writers spend an entire movie nudging me in the ribs with increasing brutality while screaming “Isn’t it FUNNY THO???” Because no, dear writers, no it’s not. And yes, yes I do get the jokes, but good god could we have a minute? I mean, by the end, the jokes were literally being telegraphed a few 30 seconds before they dropped. (The Kree scanning people--Cat, High danger level. I bet Fury’s going to be...oh yeah, hahaha he is a nonexistent threat isn’t that hilaARIOUS? No, it’s fucking stupid.)

It was, frankly, awful. I hated it, so much so that by the end I couldn’t even muster up enough of a Give a Fuck to care that her callsign was Avenger (and I fucking LOVE callsigns) or care that the stinger had all of my children. I really didn’t. This movie was so fucking disappointing because it didn’t have to be bad. It really didn’t. If they had hired competent writers and directors (I should have known when they hired the Tomb Raider lady this was going to be awful), they could have made it work. They really, really could have. And they didn’t and everyone loves it and I’m happy because shitty butthurt fanboys are being legit gross about this and I want them to be crushed by money, but. I want the next movie to have better writing and better directing because it’s what we deserve. I don’t want to have to keep settling, because it’s good enough.

#Captain Marvel #carol danvers #marvel #my opinions #if anyone cares #this is a lot of words but like #this movie was so fucking disappointing and everyone on here is screaming about how amazing it was and im just like #am i overly critical of everything #did i miss something?#like wtf

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stagmanparty · 6 years ago

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So that was an okay Supergirl episode, kinda lame but understandable giving the budg-what do u mean that was the multi-million Captain Marvel movie? U serious?

Lame jokes, lackluster action (the little there was), I guess the 90s setting was to be on par with the movies back then...or to make really lame "old tech" jokes for the gen z...

Surprised they dropped the racism the kree have, thinking the blue skinned are superiors and answer why jude law had such a high rank but meh guess the cat jokes were more importan

How come Nick Fury went from bumbling idiot to badass director in just 13 years? that´s a more interesting story to see and Coulson was basically stuck on the same job for three decades

To be fair, there are parts that are...good. Larson actually emotes! and the skrull thing is handled well there´s even some little depth to carol but is waaay too little the rest is just...people walking left and right

So bottom line Captain Marvel, mediocre movie, people calling it "amazing" cause of the 12 seconds stan lee cameo bother me, that´s the least ANY movie that came out now should´ve done so is not a merit of the film per se, stop saying it is.

#captain marvel #negative post #this is it? MEH

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thebibliomancer · 7 years ago

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #167: Tomorrow Dies Today!

January, 1978

Oh hey the Guardians of the Galaxy! Not the ones more known these days and never at the same level of popularity but an interesting bunch just the same!

I’ve been actually thinking of going and reading some of the original team original run.

On this cover, Beast punches a guy in the face and the rest of the Avengers are like hey slow your roll this is a crossover not a hero vs hero event.

Anyway, we start off killing tomorrow today with a priority communications alarm interrupting him from his shower.

You’d think that since its a communications alarm and not necessarily an emergency, he could continue showering and let someone else take the call and if it is an emergency then someone can knock on the door and let him know.

Like, I understand that with the stuff the Avengers deal with its good to stay on your toes but Beast is completely covered in hair. When he starts a shower, its a long, inevitable process that should be seen to until the end.

Otherwise he’s going to drip everywhere and probably smell like dog.

He’s not even the only one who is not ready. Scarlet Witch is half dressed.

And Steve “I probably go on a ten mile run every morning for fun” Rogers criticizes Beast for not getting up to shower at 0600.

Beast, Cap, and Scarlet Witch arrive at the communications center to find Vision already there.

Also, why do they have so many chairs in here? This is more chairs than they have in their living room.

A lot of the Avengers equipment is a mystery to me. They seem like they have a lot of the typical superhero headquarters monitoring equipment but also they so often wait for problems to happen on the news before they notice them.

Anyway, it actually is an emergency so Beast would have had to interrupt his shower anyway.

Nick Fury is on the horn and he tells them to turn on the feed from the Avengers’ monitoring satellite because of course they have one of those and need to watch the news anyway.

Per Fury’s request, they focus the Avengers satellite on the SHIELD space station. Weirdly they can’t see any stars behind the station. Just an endless wall of white.

Beast zooms out and-

AHHHHHHHHHH UNICRON HAS COME AT LAST TO DEVOUR OUR WORLD!

Galactus is going to be miffed.

Except no. This looks like a double Unicron. Which is possibly twice as bad.

Apparently this giant structure popped out of nowhere and its orbit is going to smash the SHIELD station all over it in a couple hours.

So the Avengers assemble to finish getting dressed and also to go check out a mysterious huge space thing.

Like I said, this is the huge space thing portion of their lives.

On the station, playboy industrialist Tony Stark claims he has urgent business on Earth.

Nick Fury is like no shit of course I’m not letting you get smashed with the rest of us you dink, get on a shuttle and go.

Fun fact: the SHIELD space station is where Steven Lang’s Project: Armageddon set up shop. And coming up to space to stop him is what led to Jean Grey becoming the Phoenix.

Secretly, Tony Stark has to get back to Earth so he can change into Iron Man and lead the Avengers back up here.

Double lives are hard.

Meanwhile, Thor and Wonder Man are enjoying some bonding time in a diner.

Thor confesses that some mysterious force has been transporting him back to Earth every time the Avengers need his help. Which has to be every couple of days. Its almost as if he’s being displaced through time.

Wonder Man goes wow cool uh I’ll be no help figuring that out but as long as we’re here maybe you can give me some advice.

Wonder Man: “You see... sometimes I -- I feel as though I’m not man enough to be a super man!”

-interrupting Avengers beeper says no time for feels, time for punches-

So Wonder Man and Thor fly back to Avengers’ Mansion.

But they have to wait because Iron Man still hasn’t joined them.

And when he does show up, Cap goes off on him.

Iron Man: “Sorry I’m late, group!”

Captain America: “You’re sorry you’re late? A hundred men might die up there, and --”

Iron Man: “Then shut up and get into the ship!”

Also, new Quinjet! Space Quinjet!

Only minutes later, the Avengers have arrived on the SHIELD station. Which is... really impressive.

But since it took them so long (because of Iron Man), there’s no time left for anything fancy. The big double Unicron is only half a mile away.

Now the only option is to spacesuit up (except for Thor and Vision), rocket across to an opening that the station’s brand new Stark computer pinpointed, and find a way to redirect or destroy the giant space thing in... fifteen minutes.

Geez.

I’m pretty sure fifteen minutes wouldn’t even get you from one side to the other of that thing.

But the Avengers do rocket across. And the opening that the computer found was an airlock. And interestingly, they find that the atmosphere inside the station is breathable and even chemically perfect for humans!

Now that is interesting. Does that mean that this is a human construction?

Not necessarily. The Avengers never had trouble breathing on Skrull ships or Thanos’ giant H, or even on the Kree homeworld.

I mean maybe the chemically perfect line signifies that even beyond everyone in space breathing the same thing except that one group of aliens that kidnapped that lung expert, that this construct has a human friendly atmosphere.

Iron Man weighs in. Atmosphere or not, whether the occupants are humanoid or not, this construct is far beyond the capabilities of any Earthly power.

Boring and also a waste of time says Cap.

And he steps up and takes charge, giving everyone a directive.

They should split up to cover more ground.

And while that would usually be a bad idea on a space station that appeared out of nowhere and could contain any number of alien nasties, the simple fact is that they have a vanishingly small amount of time.

Splitting up is the only way to cover any significant amount of territory.

So Vision and Wanda are one team. Wonder Man and Cap another. Thor and Iron Man another. And Beast is on his own because they have an odd number of people.

Although Beast wonders why he’s the one without a partner. He used mouthwash that morning!

Meanwhile, while Iron Man dismisses Thor’s concern that Iron Man might be troubled over Cap taking charge, in reality he is troubled.

Iron Man: “On the other hand it’s no secret what Cap thinks of my leadership! I suspect his resentment is growing and getting personal! With the stakes the team is playing for, that kind of dissension can lead to sudden death!”

Maybe its time to consider whether someone without their own book should lead the team then.

Meanwhile elsewhere, Beast is climbing through the air ducts or perhaps Jefferies tubes. And actually Cap had a point splitting him off like this. Beast is the only one who has the agility to crawl through tubes like this.

Good call, Cap!

But when he pokes his head out of the Jefferies air duct, someone grabs him and yanks him out like a radish.

Hey, its Charlie-27! From a race engineered to live on Jupiter, he’s about 11 times stronger and denser than a normal human being.

Also, its Nikki Gold! Raised on Mercury, she has high resistance to heat and most radiation and also HER HAIR IS FIRE.

And the thing is, they don’t think Beast is an enemy. They think he’s some kind of ugly alien space monkey that can also parrot words like a raven.

Beast refuses to put up with that sitting down dangling by his scruff so he kicks Charlie-27 in the face and starts bouncing all over the room.

Nikki tries to shoot Beast because, hey, he’s a rude monkey. But he’s bouncing so fast she can’t get a bead on him despite having aim adjacent to Annie Oakley’s.

But then Beast tries to tackle Charlie-27 and just bounces off. Because dang. Remember? Eleven times more massive than a normal person? Its rather like Beast just tried to jump kick a brick wall.

Before possibly breaking a toe kicking a guy built like a brick house, Beast also muses on the weirdery of the two of them speaking English.

Which again isn’t so odd. Universal translators exist. And a lot of aliens speak English.

But all these things like the atmosphere and aliens speaking English? This time they signify something other than narrative convenience.

Nikki jumps to confront the dazed Beast but with a RRRAK! a coherent light burst separates the two.

The rest of the Guardians have shown up, specifically Starhawk who tells Charlie-27 and Nikki to stand down.

Starhawk: “This fighting must cease! I sense that he is not evil! Accept the word of one who knows!”

Lets run up the line.

Blue guy red fin is Yondu Udonta and he is absolutely familiar if you only know Guardians from the movies. Like in the movies, he has special arrows that he can control through whistling. But in the comics he also uses a bow. He is from Alpha Centauri which kind of breaks the theme of the Guardians all being humans but adapted for life on different planets of the solar system.

Unlike the movies, Yondu is portrayed as noble savage IN SPACE. Going with that he has an intuitive and mystical rapport with nature. IN SPACE! Making him a space Alabaman was probably a better idea.

Next there is Starhawk. In the movie he was Sylvester Stallone and very disappointed in Yondu. In the comics, he’s just weird. He was conceived on Earth, was born on Vesper, and was raised on Arcturus IV. He has a grab bag of powers like flight, super strength, light manipulation and being the one who knows thanks to being empowered by the Hawk God. He’s also in an on-again off-again fusion with an Aleta Ogord. He’s basically weird.

Next is Martinex. His people were genetically-engineered to colonize Pluto so he’s made of silicon crystal instead of meat. He can also siphon heat out of the environment or vent it. Which lets him shoot heat rays or cold beams somehow.

And finally we have Vance Astro, Major Victory. He’s another weird one. He was sent on a mission to help colonize Centauri IV, put in cryogenic hibernation, and woke up to find that he wasted his damn time because faster travel had been invented and people got there before him. And now he has to stay in his astronaut suit or age rapidly. Also also, he has psychokinesis. And also his younger self became New Warrior Marvel Boy and probably ruined his chances of becoming an astronaut by killing his abusive dad.

Comics are weird.

Beast doesn’t know this though. He just sees a bunch of asshole aliens who are still calling him monkey so he jumps to attack Charlie-27′s face.

But is interrupted when Mjolnir flies by, snags him in its loop and drags him away. Which is damn good trajectory control.

Anyway, despite split up gang we’ll cover more ground, the Avengers have reassembled off-screen and apparently recognize the Guardians from prior team-ups. With Cap in Marvel Two-in-One #5 and with Thor in Thor Annual #6.

And now Major Victory recognizes the Avengers. Because he is from this time period and oh man oh geez the Avengers are his heroes! He used to dream of meeting them!

So a potential misunderstanding fight cut off before it began and the teams introduce themselves.

And no worry about the SHIELD station. The Guardian’s meteor deflectors will gently shove it out of the way instead of running into it. This whole mission was pointless!

Except as set-up. And honestly, even if the Guardian’s station wasn’t going to run into the SHIELD station, I’d hope that they’d be interested in why a giant space thing appeared.

Thor recaps his crossover with the Guardians because it happened so recently he hadn’t had a chance to put it in the Avengers files yet and also because the details are relevant.

He teamed up with the Guardians to invade Korvac’s Wonderworld. Who is Korvac?

He was a collaborator with the Badoon when they conquered the Sol System IN THE FUTURE. But they caught him napping at work one day so they grafted his upper body to his work station because the Badoon are dicks.

So obviously he turned on them and started a plan to conquer the cosmos by trying to make Earth’s Sun go nova.

Aw dangit, Thanos, you trendsetter!

The Guardians plus Thor were able to thwart Korvac’s plan and minions but Korvac escaped by traveling back in time to the year this year.

They’re not sure what he’s planning but when a guy who tried to blow up the Sun goes back in time you just have to kind of assume its nothing good. For instance, Major Victory’s past self is currently a child on Earth. If Korvac kills young Vance Astro, then Major Victory never gets frozen like a space Captain America and never goes on to form the Guardians.

So they have to stop him. Except if its on Earth, Major Victory can’t get involved. Two Vance Astros on Earth would mess up the time stream.

(Beast you were right there for this conversation, why did you think bringing the original X-Men into the present from the past was a good idea??)

Meanwhile, on Earth, Janet Van Dyne makes her debut as a fashion designer.

I had been wondering where she and Hank (Pym) were. Sort of weird that they didn’t get paged about this though. There’s a giant thing in space and they buzz Thor and Wonder Man away from dinner but Jan doesn’t get called away from her fashion show.

Maybe she left her bleeper at home.

Anyway, also in the crowd is Kyle Richmond, aka Nighthawk, aka Not-Batman. He’s usually on the Defenders, being a jerk, but Yellowjacket is sometimes doing stuff with the Defenders so maybe that’s why he’s here.

He does comment to himself that it’s weird for him to sit through a fashion show.

Kyle Richmond also notices a weirdo sitting next to him in the crowd. Wearing a tux in this day and age and sitting like a statue. He doesn’t react to anything until a model named Carina Walters takes a turn down the catwalk in a sultry summer jumpsuit.

Kyle being the kind of person he is, sees that this weirdo stranger reacts to Carina and thinks “Forget it, pal! You’re not her type!”

You’re a gem, Kyle.

And then Porcupine busts in to rob the place.

Just his luck that he chose to rob a place where three superheroes were chilling. Porcupines are seriously unlucky.

Hank Pym and Janet waste no time shrinking down to shoot the robbers with tiny blasts.

Janet was also far-thinking enough to have her dress made from unstable molecule cloth so she wouldn’t have to fly around naked just in case a supervillain tried to rob her fashion show.

Its this kind of forethought that made her one of the better chairpeople that the Avengers ever had.

Just saying. Civil Wars don’t happen when Jan runs the show.

And while the rest of the audience panics and flees and screams, the mysterious tux weirdo continues to calmly sit in his seat.

Kyle Richmond managed to sneak off and change into his costume and I don’t even know where he managed to hide the wings because they would not fit under his civilian clothes.

But anyways, he helps punch people that dare ruin Jan’s big debut.

Including a guy that hesitates from shooting at Nighthawk because he doesn’t want to go up on a murder rap. Nighthawk makes the very valid argument that not making a decision is a way of making a decision and unnamed robber made the right decision.

What a weird segment. I hope no-shoot criminal turns his life around.

Anyway, the tuxedo weirdo shows up where Carina is tending to a fainted Mrs. Lichterdale. And he silently offers her a hand.

And without a word spoken she feels his desire but also his offer and without a word spoken she departs with him.

And they seem to teleport or something from the scene while the heroes are distracted shooting Porcupine with pink and yellow zaps until he finally falls down.

Only after the villains are all unconscious does Mrs. Licherterdale inform Jan that Carina is missing along with Jan’s sultry summer jumpsuit.

Hank is sure that she just got frightened and ran off somewhere. She’ll turn up!

Jan: “I hope! That was my favorite outfit!”

Oh Jan!

So here we go again. Once again we take our first step into a run defining story arc. It was only back in May that I started the Celestial Madonna Saga and now here we are once again on the front porch of a long saga I have mixed feelings about.

The Korvac Saga.

The Shooteriest part of Shooter’s run on Avengers.

At the least, we’re going to get some more time with the Guardians. The downside to not having a misunderstanding fight is that if you’re solely following Avengers, we haven’t really seen what they can do yet.

And they have some good batshit stuff that they get up to. Like the giant double Unicron station? Its called Drydock. It was a, well, drydock and training facility. When the Badoon invaded, the commander used its experimental warp drive to keep the station out of Badoon hands. But warp radiation killed the entire crew.

In an almost Red Dwarfian move, the computer needed people to give it orders. So it created a simulated crew to tell it what to do. Except the simulated commander went insane and captured the Guardians of the Galaxy to create a clone army of friends. So Charlie-27 had to run the gauntlet of the station’s security and shut down the computer.

That stuff right there? That’s amazing. And I don’t mind at all if the Guardians are hanging around bringing that kind of craziness to the Avengers.

Oh and also, I guess there’s the mystery of what Korvac is up to and whether the tuxedo weirdo is related. I already know the answer but what are you going to do? Google information?

Pssah.

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xmenthefanficseries · 7 years ago

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Sigyn MCU Headcanon - Part One

I have a MCU canon-compliant headcanon which explains where Sigyn has been and why she hasn’t appeared on screen. It’s a long story that I want to write as a fic, but I would never finish because it is so very long. It’s three seasons of an imagined Avengers Assembled tv series with Carter and Friends that starts in the 60s. Then at least one season of a Netflix Journey into Mystery tv series.

Per @pokemon-james-bond’s request, I am typing out the headcanon details which, are themselves, fairly long. (I’m sure I could condense it to five paragraphs but this is too vivid in my mind, I need to get it out somehow).

I will be posting it in parts, and there will be a TL;DR at the end.

Avengers Assembled Season One Episodes 1, 2, & 3

Episode One: The year is 1960-something (between 1962 and 1969) and SHIELD is doing its thing. Peggy is awesome. Stark is drunk. Jarvis is quietly judging. You know the drill.

Anyway, in the first episode everything is going great, but wait, there is a new bad buy, things are getting sketchy, must investigate! A potential threat is neutralized, but is the mystery really solved? All signs point to an otherworldly mastermind. Sousa, who never got the see the things Peggy did in the war (aka the Kree body), is all ‘yeah, but there is no such thing as aliens.’

Cue a final shot of the desert with the Bifrost etched symbols and a woman lying on the ground. She gets up, looks around, and starts walking towards the only source of light: Las Vegas.

Episode Two: The woman, who is Sigyn but the audience doesn’t know that yet, has walked into Las Vegas. She doesn’t look decked out like a typical Asgardian, looks almost homeless. She watches everything around her, seeing that food is given in exchanged for paper, and the tv’s in the window are showing Sara Lee ads.

Sigyn ends up walking down an alley and someone calls out to her, creeping on her. She flicks her wrist and nothing happens, to which sighs, “This is going to get annoying.”

Meanwhile, creepy dude is fast approaching, but then gets body tackled by another guy and taken down. New guy is an army vet, you can tell by his coat, we’ll call him Cleo. He warns Sigyn that this isn’t a good place for young ladies, but he realizes she’s probably newly homeless, and invites her to an encampment. She sees said coat and asks him if he’s a warrior, and Cleo’s like “I guess you can call me that.”

As a good Asgardian, she trusts the warrior and follows Cleo to a homeless encampment. They are very nice to her, offer her food and a blanket, just being nice people who understand what it’s like to have nothing. Many are Korean War vets. Sigyn is confused as to why they aren’t being cared for, they are warriors after all, had seen battle, they should want for nothing.

When they ask Sigyn her name, she hesitates because she doesn’t know how much of Midgard knows/remembers about Asgard. She says her name is Sara (yes, I did that on purpose). They ask her where she is from and one guy says “It’s obvious she’s English.” Another says “No, I served with the English in (something). Obviously she’s Australian, right?” Sigyn is more than happy not to correct him. So yeah, sure, she’s Sara… of Australia, whatever that is.

Meanwhile, Sousa is on a different case for SHIELD (homeless have been going missing) and heads to Las Vegas. (He actually showed up earlier, yay integrated scene edits.) But he was asking questions he shouldn’t and gets himself kidnapped that night.

Next day, everything is going fine. Sigyn subtly moves something heavy for the encampment (a visual cue to show she still has strength, just not magic). But then the camp is attacked. Cleo tells her to hide, he’ll draw away the attackers (who are using tranc guns). He goes down. A little clever editing and the attackers are like “you missed one” and pick up another sleeping body, aka Sigyn.

At the secret lair of the kidnappers, Sigyn, who was never actually tranc’d, “wakes up” and makes a fuss, like a very panicky fuss, so they take her into the main room to be processed first to just get rid of her. Once she’s established that this is the extent of this particular operation (homeless are being grabbed to be sold as test subjects for subplot you don’t need to know about), Sigyn says “Okay, good, that’s all I needed to know.” Then proceeds to knock everyone the fuck out.

It’s clear she’s not a trained fighter. She basically bats people around because she’s stronger than them and they can’t hurt her. Sousa is in a room, being interrogated, when shouts are heard. His interrogator goes outside only to get thrown back into the room. Sigyn sticks her head in.

Sigyn: “I should untie you.” Sousa: "Yes, please, I work for SHIELD.” Sigyn: “Is that some kind of military detachment?”

Sousa has no idea who is the woman is, she’s supper strong and bit strange. He followers her back into the main room. He comments that she’s only knocked people out, she hasn’t killed anyone (not that he’s complaining, it’s just set up for what happens next). Sigyn explains that most of these men are just hired fighters and while they should be punished for their impropriety they should not also be punished for the sins of those who would direct them to do such things in the first place.

Then one of them slams a chair into her back as he yells bitch. This does little more than make her rock on her feet.

Sigyn: “Of course, there are always exceptions.”

Cut scene to said guy being thrown out the window. (Yay, character building moment!)

Sousa is completely ‘I can’t even’ right now. Sigyn grabs two duffle bags which holds lots and lots of that paper she saw earlier. She goes to the holding pens now that the bad guys have been neutralized and the trancs have worn off. Getting everyone out, she stops Cleo and hands him one of the duffels. She thanks him for being a noble person, for sharing with a stranger when he had little of his own (nod to mythology when gods did stuff for people who were nice to them when they didn’t know they were gods).

Sigyn takes the second duffle and bids her farewell, disappearing outside behind convenient set pieces. Sousa askes Cleo, who was that? Cleo, who has just looked in the bag and seen the stacks of cash, can only go wide eyed and say “Sara, of Australia.”

Sousa goes back to SHIELD explaining that while his case of the missing homeless is solved, now there is some super soldier, from Australia, running around. They didn’t even know Australia had a super soldier program!

End scene is Sigyn standing in a boutique playing with a pair of sunglasses, “Are Midgardian eyes so sensitive? Oh well, as they say, when in Vanaheim.” She walks out, she’s in LA (or somewhere thereabouts), dressed in fashionable blue with gold accent clothing, carrying shopping bags, and basically looking like someone who has their shit together.

Episode Three: Introduces Janet but you only want the Sigyn bits of this series and OMG I’ve already topped 1k words I hope this counts for NaNo.

#Sigyn #Sigyn MCU Headcanon

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pikapegasus · 8 years ago

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Ohh 044 seems like a fun one with starmora please do one with them

“If you use up all the hot water one more time, I’m going to ban you to the couch for a month.”

who wants some starmora hurt/comfort????? specifically, peter taking care of a battle-worn (and very grumpy and sleepy) gamora :))))

Being a Guardian of the Galaxy isn’t exactly painless, butPeter’s proud to usually report that his team suffers only minor injuries afterjobs. It’s partly due to the skills each of them have from their experiencesprior joining to the team, so they each know their way through a fight. Moreimportantly—to Peter, at least, because he’s just sappy like thatsometimes—it’s because of how long they’ve spent fighting side-by-side now,adjusting their fighting styles to complement each other and decrease thechances of major injuries during battle.

That being said, they don’t always come out unscathed. Theirmost recent job involved a run-in with some not-so-friendly Kree dudes, giventhe fact that the Guardians had kind of, uh, totally obliterated Ronan, and though they’d pulled through the fightvictoriously, it wasn’t without some injuries.

Despite being only six people, Peter loses track of theGuardians during fights sometimes, and one moment, Gamora had been by his side,kicking ass flawlessly per usual (no,her being flawless is simply fact,definitely not his opinion), only tothen reappear at the end of the battle with more gashes and bruises than anyoneelse because she just had to be thebest out of all of them, per usual (read: she’d helped Mantis, whose skilllevel isn’t quite up to par with fighting angry Kree soldiers yet, out of abind). She even had a frickin’ blasterhole in her shoulder!

Being the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy?

Very hard, because they’re all such self-sacrificialassholes, but not impossible.

Being the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy and Gamora’s boyfriend?

On a scale of one to ten, with one being the easiest and tenbeing the hardest, Peter has found the above to be a ten billion on the scale.

She’s fearless and proud and stubborn, he gets it (maybebecause he is, too, sometimes). But the moment they return to the Quadrant, Petergently lays his fingers on Gamora’s less injured arm, which is folded upagainst her chest as she presses a hand to her still very-much-bleeding wound,and he’s ready.

“Gamora—“

“I won’t run away,” she mutters, rolling her eyes, becausethe number of times he’s had to practically tackleher with the med kit is a little redundant. “But I’m fine.”

“Gamora, if you ever died in battle, I’m expectin’ you toresurrect yourself in the moment just to yell at us about how frickin’ fine you are,” Rocket teases over hisshoulder, just as he’s leaving the room.

“I can help ease the pain,” Mantis offers. She’s wringingher hands together as she looks at them with wide, glossy eyes. “Since this ismy fault.”

“It’s not your fault,” Peter says in sync with Gamora. He’spretty sure Rocket barks out a laugh with a huff of “Mom and Dad!” from the other room.

“I’ll be alright, Mantis,” Gamora says, offering Mantis asmall smile. “You should go be with the others and see if they need any help.They can also help you if you need anything.”

Mantis’ eyes flit over to Peter’s briefly and he just nodsalong to Gamora’s words.

“Okay,” she finally says quietly, ducking her head as sheturns and leaves the room.

Gamora sighs, opening her mouth to speak, but apparentlyeven just that movement is enough to jostle something that shouldn’t bejostled, because her face screws up ever so slightlyfor just a moment and Peter’s glad hedidn’t choose that second to blink.

“Alright, come on, let’s go,” he says, moving his hand onher uninjured shoulder to lead her to their room, where they (of course) keep the med kit.

Several pouty faces and stitches and bandages later,Gamora’s wounds are taken care of. She’s sitting on their bed without a shirton—not for that reason, mind you—andPeter can’t help the sympathetic sound that comes out of his mouth at the sightof all the wounds he’s dressed across her torso.

She just huffs. “I told you I was fine.”

“Babe, you alwayslook fine,” he teases with a wink. The corners of her lips tilt upward ever soslightly. “Fine as in hot. Not necessarily fine as in health.”

“Well, you look dirty,” she comments, crinkling her nose.She hides a yawn behind her hand. “You should shower.”

“Uh…don’t you want to shower first?” She’s covered in just as much battle shit as he is,easily. “Not that I don’t love seeing you half-clothed in our bed, of course,but you also look like you’re about to keel over at any second.”

“You helped me,” she says softly, her features softening.“You can shower first. I’ll be fine.”

“Debatable, again,” he says, shaking his head, but sometimesit’s best not to argue with aninjured Gamora, lest you want to be injured as well. (Okay, maybe not seriously, but injured Gamora is muchless patient than healthy Gamora, so Peter’s learned to pick his battles.) Heturns to his drawers, then offers her one of his random sleep shirts. “I’ll bequick.”

She nods, unfolding the shirt and carefully pulling it overher head and arms. He resists the urge to help her out, considering herinjuries and everything, but she somehow manages to get all limbs through theproper holes.

Once he’s sure she’s settled with a shirt on and all woundstaken care of, he enters their small bathroom and closes the door behind him.As he turns on the water and sets his things out, he hears her call to him over the sound of the shower—

“Peter?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t use up all the hot water for once, please.”

“I don’t always use up all the hot water!”

“Yes, you do.”

“You don’t have any evidence! I’m innocent until proven guilty!”

He can practically hear her rolling her eyes. “If you use up all the hot water one more time, I’m going to ban you to the couch for a month.”

“I won’t,” he calls back out to her as he’s sliding out of his clothes.

Peter does takeher words to heart, though, and showers in what he’d argue to be record time.Warm water running over his skin after a particularly gruesome battle is apretty kickass sensation, he has to say, so he’d rather she get more of it thanhimself. He dries off in even quicker record time, looking at himself in themirror for a moment. He sighs at the sight, his skin clear of all the dirt andblood and grime that he’d accumulated throughout the day.

Wrapping the towel around his waist, he opens the door, onlyto find Gamora slumping slightly in the same spot he’d left her, her eyesheavy. She yawns again in greeting.

“That was uncharacteristically fast of you,” she teases,smiling a little. It’s a little dopey-looking, to be honest, probably becauseof her exhaustion and injuries and maybe even some of the pain medication he’dgoaded her into taking. “Why don’t you shower that quickly every time?”

“I don’t like being banished to the couch,” he says, pullingsome pajamas out of his drawers on his way over to the bed. He drops the towelto the floor as he dresses.

“I haven’t had a warm shower in ages,” she says, eyeing him. “Since someone likes to use up all the hot water.”

“Well, let’s fix that now,” he says, fully dressed. He picksup his towel and tosses it onto the bed, then holds his hand out to her. “Yourwarm water awaits. Shall I escort you?”

She rolls her eyes, pushing herself up from the bed withouthis assistance. “I just want to shower.”

He retracts his hand then, watching her shuffle toward thebathroom. It’s…an interesting sight, because he’s not sure assassins aretypically described as adorable inthe way they grumpily pout while walking, rubbing exhaustion from their eyes asthey half-heartedly push the door open.

But the warm feelings blossoming in his chest at her littledisplay fade quickly as she stumbles over her own feet for a moment, holdingonto the door frame for support. He gapes at her back for a moment, trying tofigure out how in the hell someonelike Gamora could do something as mortal as trip,then rushes to her before she can close the door.

“Hey, on second thought, how about I help you with thatshower?” he offers as lightly as he can.

“Not tonight, Peter,” she mumbles out through another yawn,still holding onto the door. She rests her head against it, her eyes flutteringfor a moment. “Maybe another night.”

“No, no, not in thatway,” he says, somehow containing the laughter that bubbled up inside at herwords. “You just seem really…tired. Come on, I’ll help you wash your hair andstuff, so you don’t have to use your bad arm.”

She tries to glare up at him—or, at least, he’s assuming it’s supposed to be a glare,but it’s hard to make it out through her drooping eyelids—but he gently pushespast her into the bathroom. He reaches into the shower for Gamora’s things,setting them on the floor within reach for him before turning the water on.

“I can do it myself,” she says, turning to him with arms asclose to crossed as she can manage with her injury (like, one arm crossedproperly over her chest while the other just hangs at her side). “I don’t needhelp.”

“I want to help,”he says, reaching around her to close the bathroom door. “Come on, it’ll makeme really happy. Please?”

He offers her a pout of his own now, and whether it’s theexhaustion or her own weakness to his pouting (he’s pretty sure it’s become amutual weakness of theirs now), she just lets it go. She nods her head oncewith a small huff, stepping closer to him.

“Alright, arms up as much as you can,” he instructs, helpingher out of her clothes. He maneuvers his shirt over her head and arms withoutcompletely disrupting her shoulder somehow. Her pants and underwear come offmore easily, since she wasn’t injured there.

Once she’s out of her clothes, he holds her hand to steadyher as she steps over the small step into the shower. She’s able to wash mostof her body herself, just taking advantage of him to hand her soap, but hestays true to his promise with her hair, leaning precariously into the showerso he can spread the shampoo through her long waves. He massages her scalpgently under the water (and, to be honest, she’s kind of totally melting into his touch, her eyes closed and corners of herlips curved upwards, success) beforeswitching to conditioner.

After she’s clean, he turns off the water and helps her stepout, meeting her with open arms and a large towel. He’s practically hugging heras he dries her off, and she’s given up protesting by this point, simplywatching him run the towel up and down her body.

Minutes later, she’s ready for bed, wearing some of his pajamas (per a sleepily mumbledrequest, oddly enough), when she perks up.

“I have to brush my hair,” she recalls, but he waves heroff.

“Got it covered.” He brings her brush and a hair tie over tothe bed, sitting down on the bed behind her. “Then after this, bed.”

She sighs softly. “Thank you, Peter. For helping…witheverything. You didn’t have to.”

He drags the brush through her hair gently, carefullyworking out the tangles and knots from battle. He smiles, though she’s unableto see it. “I told you, I wanted to do this. I like taking care of you.”

Several moments of silence pass between them before sheadmits, “I like that, too. No one’s ever done that for me before.”

While he’s sure she had people many years ago who did, heunderstands where she’s coming from. He works out a particularly large knot,sticking his tongue out thoughtfully. “It feels…kinda nice to take care ofsomeone, for a change. Haven’t really had someone to do that for before,y’know? Having people to take care of means you have people; you’re notcompletely alone.”

“Yeah,” she says distantly.

They resume a comfortable silence then, filled only with thesounds of the brush running through her hair. After he gets a handle on all theknots, he starts parting her hair from the top to do a quick French braid.

By the time he’s weaving the last of her hair together, shesuddenly slumps back against him, her head falling back into his arms. He jumps a little bit, looking down at her tosee what’s up, but—

She’s asleep, soft snores spilling from her parted lips. Alltraces of her previous irritation and grumpiness in her face are gone, insteadreplaced with a softness that makes Peter’s heart melt a little bit.

“I knew you were too tired,” he murmurs with this dumb smile, simply watching her for a few moments.

Carefully, he turns her head just enough to finish herbraid, tying it off with the elastic band. He leans toward their pillows topull the covers back before slowly looping his arms under her back and legs.

It’s tedious, but he manages somehow, maneuvering her fromher position horizontal to the bed to her usual spot (though, given hersometimes erratic sleeping habits, he won’t be surprised to wake up to hercompletely horizontal, because what thefuck, Gamora). He slides under the covers beside her, pulling them up tocover her properly. She manages to stay asleep during it all—effective painmeds, for once—only moving to press herself more closely to him once they’resettled in.

Of course, it’s not perfect; the lights are still on both intheir room and the bathroom, their towels are definitely not hanging to dry, shit from the med kit is scattered all over theplace, and he forgot to close his fucking drawers because he’s got this talentfor being a disorganized disaster,but, whatever. He wraps his arms around Gamora and rests his head against hers,deciding to ignore all of it until the morning, because, hey, they both managedto survive another dangerous job, so they deserve a night to just relax, foronce in their crazy lives.

(This definitely beats sleeping on a couch.)

#starmora #gamora #peter quill #star lord #guardians of the galaxy #mcu #fanfiction #tumblr exclusive #fun fact: this all came from the idea of gamora being so tired she falls asleep while peter brushes her hair #LMAO #then it turned into a complete like after battle care oneshot #Anonymous

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woozletania · 7 years ago

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Sanctuary, part 9 (RR/Lylla)

Lylla has an operation to tune up her cybernetics, and Rocket meets both an old friend and a new enemy.

*****

"Ah, Rocket and the otter Uplift," said the Kree man sitting behind the desk. "Doctor Foster is expecting you."

An inarticulate growl came from Rocket as his lips drew back to expose his fangs, and Peter instinctively put his hand on the raccoon's shoulder as Rocket's ears went back as well. "Please don't shoot him, Rock," Peter said, for though Rocket didn't have the usual huge weapon clipped to his back it was safest to assume he was always armed.

"What are you doing here, Zek," the raccoon snarled.

The Kree was unfazed. "Working," he said, and stuck his foot out from behind the desk so they could see the monitor anklet. "It was this or a cell and I picked this."

Lylla had shrunk against Rocket when Dek appeared, but she recovered quickly. "Rocket, Doctor Dek-Karr wasn't as bad as some of them. It's OK."

"It had better be," Rocket growled, and then the green light came on over the inner door and Paul Foster came out. "Rocket! And you must be Lylla. I've heard so much about you." Just as Dey had done he knelt to put himself at her level and politely waited for her to nod before petting her. This time Rocket didn't snap. It was Doc Foster, after all. But it still bothered him, though he couldn't say why.

"Doc, I think I know what that layer under her fur is. Active camouflage, right? Photoactive engineered fur controlled by a computational substrate. And I bet whisker-sensors growing out with the fur read the surroundings so the camouflage can be adjusted."

"You must have run into Blackjack," Paul said with a grin. "He does love to sneak up on people. He's our invisible bunny. It's part of the Sharptooth package, for stealth and assassination."

"Sharptooth can do that too?" It was Gamora. "I was already impressed by him."

"Sharptooth is an Uplifted, enlarged sable," Doc Foster said. "Carnivorous, like you, and a distant relative of yours, Lylla. From the same species family on Earth."

"Terra," Rocket said. "And the others?"

"I'm afraid so, Rocket. Every Uplift in this new batch is a modified Terran animal. We don't know why, but the other outfit Nova is investigating is using Terran species too."

Rocket chewed on that as the Guardians made their way into the medical theater. Dey excused himself and left as Lylla, aided by a set of steps sized for Uplifts, clambered up onto an examining table.

"Rocket sent detailed scans and notes ahead of time," Paul Foster said as he held up a probe. "Lylla, I'm going to start by accessing your central data hub, if I may."

"Of course, doctor. Rocket did that too." She didn't flinch as he removed the cap from a port on her back and clicked the probe hilt-deep into it. The doctor looked up as holographic screens sprang to life.

"What Rocket didn't have is a software system designed to work with your cybernetics," he said. "I do, thanks to recovered computers and help from Zek. Among other things, there are digital files stored in there that...Ah, here," he touched a bar graph. "This graph in the developer notes represents, in simplified form, your 'design parameters.'. What they wanted you to do. See, linguistics, semantic and body language interpretation - all diplomatic skills - and at the other end, part of the Sharptooth package. That means close combat programming, poison glands and active camouflage for assassination or escape. They meant you to be a diplomat who could kill at need."

"I know," Lylla chirped. "But none of that's working right now, right?"

"They must not have gotten to the training portion where it was needed," Paul guessed. She nodded. "It can all be turned on easily. Let's start with the camouflage. Blackjack, I need your goggles."

The bunny reappeared in the midst of the Guardians, much to Gamora's unease and sporting a wide smile as he took off the goggles. "Can't see without 'em," he said. "Eyes are invisible too you know."

"Not actually invisible," the doctor said. "But close enough. If you're not in bright light (since you'll still cast a shadow) and especially if you move slowly you're damn hard to spot. In areas of irregular light like a forest you might as well be truly invisible. It's not so unnerving when you only use it to spy on the lady's showers," he said, shooting a glance at the rabbit, "More so when you consider the intended function. There."

He typed briefly on a data pad. "Lylla, that's all it took. They had everything done except the activation."

Blackjack faded out with a disturbing cackle and made his way out of the room blind, assuming he told the truth about that. Or maybe he was lurking in a corner somewhere. There was too much ambient noise from the medical equipment to be sure where he was and Rocket elected to ignore the peeping bunny. He had other concerns.

"Try it, Lylla," he said, and passed her the goggles." She nodded and put them on, taking a moment to adjust the strap.

"Be advised that active camouflage burns a lot of calories," Doctor Foster said. "You'll need to eat more if you use it a lot."

Lylla giggled. "I don't think anyone will notice. I already eat a lot." She got the goggles adjusted just as Foster spoke again.

"You should instinctively know how to -" and just like that she was gone, fading so completely into the background that Rocket had trouble seeing where she was though he'd been looking right at her. Then she slipped sideways and he lost her entirely.

"Man, they did a good job on that," he said, unable to disguise his admiration despite hating the men who'd done it. "It really seems like you can see through her."

"Like I see through you," she breathed into his ear, and followed with a nip that made him jump. She always went to that same spot, where her bite had nearly killed him, but gently, almost like a kiss.

He realized she'd slipped out of her harness to disappear and that she was slinking around the room naked. Otherwise her clothing would be floating there unsupported. "I'll have to work on your stuff so it disappears too."

"If you'll get back on the table, Lylla," said Doc Foster, and then she was there, fading back in as she donned her harness. "Activating your poison glands is a little more complicated."

She shrank away from him, the smile falling from her face. "I don't, I don't want that."

"Now don't decide so soon." Gently, and waiting for permission as he had before, he reached out and stroked her from ears down over the nape of her neck. When she had relaxed he went on.

"Those glands are sophisticated. You'll have conscious control, and 'venom' is an oversimplification. You'll have about six doses of it available per day and if you can get a sample of the target beforehand, with a kiss or a lick, you'll be able to make custom drugs that only work on that one. It's a useful skill. Even without that you can make knockout or paralysis drugs instead of killing poison. Think of it as a six-shot pistol, with each of those 'shots' tailored ahead of time according to your wishes. You could have all knockout bites if that's what you want or just never dispense any at all."

"And you could remove them later if I change my mind?"

"Of course. Or right now, if you want."

"All right." The other Guardians were polite enough not to smile when she reached out to take Rocket's hand. The doctor went on.

"Lylla, to activate the glands, and to work on your cybernetics to fix the problems the scans found, you know it's going to take surgery. Please tell me you won't be an idiot like him," he inclined his head good-naturedly towards Rocket, "And that you'll let me put you under."

"Well of course, doctor," she said, sounding genuinely puzzled. "Why wouldn't I?"

Doctor Foster sighed. "Some will and some won't. It's a trust issue," he said. "And I understand perfectly why it's there. Rocket, this shouldn't take too long, and the nurse can monitor her vitals, but would you like to stay and assist? I could use another good eye and you may need the info on her cybernetics we'll get doing this."

And the unspoken part: Because even though I am your friend and you trust me as you trust no other doctor, you aren't leaving her side, are you?

"Sure, Doc," said Rocket as lightly as possible. Paul Foster was right. Though he couldn't have said why, nothing short of death would take him from Lylla's side now. Not when she was going to be under the knife. Drax and Gamora, knowing from experience that the doctor could be trusted, left to talk to some of the other Uplifts but Groot was as inseparable from Rocket as always and Peter was there too, reading magazines at a table as Rocket passed the doctor tool after tool.

Watching Lylla be cut open was more painful even than he'd imagined. He'd rather be there on the table himself, once again conscious as he was operated on. Between the nurse replacing her blood and fluids as fast as they drained out and advanced drugs keeping her stable, though, she was never in any real danger. Thankfully the procedure took little more than an hour.

He had been on the table for ten, but much of that was fixing years of degradation caused by a justified fear of doctors. Lylla's cybernetics were new and only a few teething problems were causing her pain. The deep scans Rocket sent told Paul right where to go and what to do. In less than two hours the otter was conscious again, showered, and back in her outfit.

"Feeling better?" Rocket asked, and the she-otter smiled and hugged him. It was that simple. The operation they'd both feared had come and gone in an afternoon.

"I can feel the glands now," she said wonderingly as she touched her cheek. "It really is like a six-shot gun. I can feel the empty 'chambers' as though they were missing teeth and I know how to fill them with poison or drugs."

"Well, don't unless you want to," Rocket said. "Just because someone gives you a weapon doesn't mean you have to use it."

"We're done," Doctor Foster said, and for the second time refused payment. Nova Corps had co-opted him as the authority on Uplift cybernetics and he was being well paid for his time, he assured them. In effect he'd been conscripted. Luckily it was work he would have happily done anyway.

"Dinner's in two hours," he went on. "You can spend your time as you like until then, but I'd appreciate it if you attended and spoke to the other Uplifts. They've been looking forward to meeting the Guardians and especially you, Rocket."

Just then Rocket's data pad beeped, and he showed the message to Lylla. We should talk, it said, and it was from Doctor Zek.

#Rocket Raccoon #lylla otter #Guardians of the Galaxy

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ravager-life-for-me · 8 years ago

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Summary:

The Kree planet doesn't have the same atmosphere as Peter's used to. So they need to fix him up with something if he's going to be able to breathe while getting to the vault. Kraglin has just the thing.

Chapter 2: Every Breath You Take

The Eclector seemed to be abuzz with new life. Everyone was doing whatever it was they did as their little pre-steal ritual, whether it was important stuff like checking gear, resupplying their ammo packs, checking in with the Tailor to make sure their Ravager jackets were up to snuff, or really weird stuff like grooming each other’s hair or fighting over what looked like a balled up sock. Peter swam through the crowd per his usual route. It was under feet, away from elbows, and ducking out of reach of an errant claw or knife. Lots of blades were flashed in the galley. Almost had a “that’s not a knife, this is a knife” moment between Hyvar and R’x. Peter saw a blade slice right in front of his face before he stumbled back into the solid mass of a familiar pink-skinned Ravager.

“Hey! I was just lookin’ fer ya!” said Oblo and flashed a grin with a staple of Ravager metal teeth. “Look at you! Not scrubbin’ no decks today, right?”

“Yeah,” said Peter, who sounded more put-out than how he really felt, which was just on the edge of terrified. It was better this way. Sometimes they liked to cheer him up when he was pouting. Sometimes they knocked him on his back and told him to suck it up, but Oblo usually didn’t, so, it was how Peter decided to play it. He scrubbed the back of his head and shrugged a shoulder.

“What’s the matter then?” asked Oblo.

“Oh, I dunno.” Peter scuffed his foot on the ground. He was absolutely milking in. “Just thought it was gonna be something really cool, y’know? But it’s just crawling through vents. I do that, like, all the time.”

“Oh it’s gonna be great. Yer probably gonna have to dodge lasers and kill some guards once yer down there.”

“What?” Peter’s throat started to constrict before Oblo struck him on the back.

“Nah!” he said and doubled over with laughter. “By the stars, could you imagine? That’s ridiculous! You’re just going through the vents!”

“Yeah!” Peter answered, defensive. “I know! Don’t make it sound like, I dunno, like a death sentence.”

“It’s not. Like you said, you do it all the time. Yeah, cause yer the best at cleaning them,” said Oblo and laughed again, barely able to compose himself. “You know what we used to do?”

“What?”

“We used to take Kraglin, right, when he was fresh, and we—”

“Pete!”

“Hey hey, we was just talkin’ about you!” said Oblo as Kraglin waltzed through the galley, finishing up whatever drink he’d managed to steal off the nearest table. It had to be sour because he was fighting with his tongue, his face starting to pinch and squinted down into the cup before he tossed it back towards the table. Kraglin came up to them and Oblo thumped him on the chest. “Remember when we put you in the vents?”

“Yeah,” said Kraglin absently. “Seemed y’all was keen on repeating it today, too.”

“Woulda been funny,” said Oblo, tempting Kraglin to sock him in the jaw.

“Well…” said Kraglin and waffled his hand before he pointed down at Peter. “Hey. Need ya for a second. Got somethin’ important fer the mission.”

“Important?” Peter was excited. Genuinely excited. It was a treat to get something, especially if it was important, and he couldn’t help but wonder what this gift might be. But he was quick to squash that down and give Kraglin a skeptical eye. He had learned early, act aloof and just a little callous and make it a joke in order to save yourself. “What’s so important, huh?”

“You come with me and you’ll prob’ly find out,” said Kraglin and hooked his hand over his shoulder as a wave to follow before he went back the way he came.

Peter checked with Oblo, who was thrusting another thumbs up at him, wagging the tips of his thumbs near his cheeks before he laughed. His face was flushed as he slumped down at a table and picked up the oily-looking drink he’d been enjoying before Peter found him. The Ravager next to him knocked shoulders and they both clanked their mugs together, shouting something at the ceiling and then chugging their drinks.

“Well he’s gonna have a headache,” Kraglin was muttering as Peter caught up to him. They went down towards the medic bay and stopped off in a supply closet. Kraglin opened one of the panels in the wall and started rummaging around in a crate. “Gonna hafta put him on a cannon if he’s gonna…hey, Pete! Good, come ‘ere.”

“I am here,” said Peter. “What’s this yer giving me?”

“Somethin’ important, like I said. Got it rigged up to yer ‘sensitive Terran system.’”

Kraglin said this in a fluty voice, wagging his head back and forth like it was a whole ordeal to recalibrate something so Peter could use it. Like he was the only Terran ever in space, which he discovered wasn’t even true! Just, y’know, not exactly as common as Xandarians, sure, maybe even rare, but Kraglin didn’t have to be a dick about it, is all. He crossed his arms and stood back.

“What?” Kraglin asked without looking over his shoulder.

“Nothin’,” said Peter.

“Then don’t pout.”

“I’m not!”

“Ya are.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yeah, ya are.”

“Oh my god, Kraglin, just—”

“Ah, found it.”

Kraglin thrusted his fist out and capped Peter’s comeback, which wasn’t much of a comeback at all, really. It was just a roundabout conversation that would drift in and out at the same point each time he and Kraglin managed to talk to each other for more than five minutes.

Peter tried to stand on his tip toes and see what Kraglin had, but it was wrapped up tight in his fist. He even crouched down to Peter’s level and gently grabbed his shoulder. He was about to reach up to the side of his head and plug something in when Peter braced his neck and jerked out of Kraglin’s grip.

“No, what is that,” said Peter, holding himself.

He’d had lots of things stabbed into him, the translator being the first and foremost. There was a biometric system implanted by the Doc, an alien set of handcuffs, a syringe with a tracking bug on it from a guild of thieves who thought they could use Peter to get to Yondu, and two different sets of teeth from bat-like creatures that made him throw up this green and purple sludge for what felt like forever.

“Listen, I know ya don’t rightly know what them fuckin’ Kree folks are,” said Kraglin, forcing the words “fuckin’ Kree” out between his teeth, “but planets that they inhabit have lots of nitrogen so’s they can breathe.”

“Yeah?” asked Peter. “So?”

“So.” Kraglin motioned vaguely at the ship around them. “So, we got a pretty even mix here. Mostly anyone who can breathe what we need is good.” Peter felt himself intimately aware of his need to breathe then, and consciously pumped his lungs full of air. “Yep. Like, say you went with us down to Xandar, right? Fine fer you. Fine fer me. Fine fer the Captain even, and he don’t even look like us, right? But Tullika’s gonna be a sight more poisonous than yer used to.”

“Poisonous?” Peter quaked and Kraglin squinted his eyes as he watched the kid go paler than usual. But Peter swallowed and rolled his eyes, if only to stop himself from crying. His tongue felt a little thick, so he cleared his throat. “I mean. More and more you guys talk about it…sounds like it’s gonna be, like…dangerous.”

“Some,” said Kraglin with a shrug. He finally held his palm out flat and showed Peter what he’d fetched from the supply crate. “But this’ll help.”

The contraption didn’t look to be more than an inch or two long and about as thick as Peter’s pinky. The dull silvery metal curved slightly, ending in two small red buttons. Kraglin waited for Peter to poke it once before he offered to plug it in again. Peter jerked his head back out of habit before he finally relented, shoulders tense but still as Kraglin fitted the device just behind Peter’s ear. It fit snuggly against the hinge of his jaw. It didn’t sting, so it seemed that nothing had actually penetrated his skin. Peter wondered briefly how it was staying in place. It hummed just a little, just the edge of recognition, and it felt warmer than he was expecting.

“Right, that should do it,” said Kraglin, nodding once. He fondled the piece again to be sure it was absolutely snug before tapping once on the button closest to Peter’s earlobe. “Ya feel that?”

“U-huh,” Peter answered.

“Good.”

Kraglin pressed it and suddenly the world disappeared as something metal materialized in front of his face. The mask seemed to build in pixels wrapping around his head, leaping up over his eyes and forming two perfectly circular red caps of glass. Peter whipped backwards to get away from it, his throat constricting again as the mask completely encased his head except for his neck and the top of his skull, leaving a tuft of hair. In his panic he started prying at the sides, grappling with anything he might get his fingers under to free himself. The air was hot, almost burning in his nostrils and chest.

“Hey, hey, hold on,” said Kraglin, trying to grab Peter as he thrashed about.

“Get it off!” Peter screamed, yanking at the edge under his chin. “Kraglin! Get it off! Get it off get it off get it off!”

“Hold on,” said Kraglin. He finally had Peter’s wrists and held on so he wouldn’t toss himself back into a wall or beam himself on anything in the supply closet and knock his brains loose. “Hey, I’m right here, Pete. Y’hear me?”

Peter was panting hard, his chest rising and falling fast. He felt himself getting dizzy and nearly buckled if not for Kraglin having a tight hold on him. His eyes stung and he couldn’t tell if his vision was blurry because of sweat, condensation, or tears, but he stared wide-eyed through the red lenses until he saw Kraglin’s face. The Xandarian looked calm as ever. He didn’t have words yet, just raspy gasps of air, but it was good to find Kraglin. It was good that he was holding his wrists. Peter told himself this over and over until his heart wasn’t beating at the back of his throat.

“There we go,” said Kraglin, taking big slow breaths as he encouraged Peter to do the same. “You go anywhere that don’t got any air or it ain’t got the right air? You press that button, like I did. That’s gonna save yer life.” Peter sniffled inside the mask, his whole body trembling. “You good, Pete?”

Peter nodded.

“Ya want me to show you how you take it off?”

He nodded again.

There was another button that appeared on the outside of the helmet once it was activated. It was larger and harder to depress, making it easy to find but safe in a fight. Wasn’t gonna just disappear on accident if someone clubbed him. Kraglin took Peter’s hand and ran his finger over it, showing him where to press. The mask disintegrated much in the same fashion that it appeared. The air was much cooler in the Eclector and Peter took giant, grateful breaths before he collapsed against Kraglin, sobbing angrily into his chest.

“Okay,” said Kraglin, and patted his back. “None too pleasant.” When Peter started picking at the device to get it off his head, Kraglin held his hand again. “Keep it there, Pete. Like I said, it’ll save yer life.”

Instead of saying how much he didn’t want to go anywhere he would need it, or how he didn’t want to have to go through with the vault job and how he wasn’t sure he was ready for it, how he was scared, he cried until he felt wrung out. Kraglin, for what it was worth, let him.

After a while, Peter calmed down. He slipped out of Kraglin’s arms, standing awkwardly near the wall as he wiped his face with the back of his hands. Kraglin peaked down at his uniform, which weren’t worse for wear. If anything, Peter’s face was now streaked with dirt except for the lines down the sides of his cheeks. Kraglin dusted his hands and stood.

“Come on, then,” said Kraglin with an eye roll. “Let’s go get you cleaned up ‘fore anyone sees ya.”

He put his hands in his pockets and started off towards the washroom. Didn’t even mind that Peter had hooked his hand into the crease of his elbow and was holding on like he was being escorted.

“So,” said Peter, and sniffed again. “This thing.” He gestured vaguely at the device still there under his ear. “It’s special then, huh?”

“Yep,” Kraglin answered.

“You went and got me something special?”

“I just said, didn’t I?”

“You think I’m special?” asked Peter and there was that old impish grin again.

“I think yer a special case of ‘pain in the ass,’ sure,” said Kraglin.

“Tsk.” Peter wrapped his arm around Kraglin’s skinny waist. “You think I’m special.”

“No I don’t,” Kraglin shot back, trying to wriggle out of Peter’s hug.

“You do.”

“I do not!”

“You do!”

“No!” He broke away from Peter with a shove, not unkindly of course, before he stomped ahead. Peter was right on his heels, taunting back up at him, “You do, you do, guys, Kraglin thinks I’m special!”

“I’ll toss you out the airlock, Pete,” said Kraglin with a scowl, but he let the kid stay close by and walked with him all the way to the washroom, even when he had plenty of other tasks to see to before they were set to head off on the job. Weren’t nothing but his own sort’ve pre-steal ritual, seeing after the man who would get them into the vault. Well, not man. Boy. Brat, actually. But the brat would be able to breathe, so that set up his chances for survival to a higher percentage, and Kraglin felt better about it.

#gotg fanfic #kraglin obfonteri #peter quill #Ravagers #crew is family

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rinabrunoblog · 6 years ago

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MSF 2.4 Update – “The end of the Brotherhood Reign”

On Thursday, February 21, MSF 2.4 Update became available for all platforms. This long-expected update brought us everything we wanted except the main thing – Alliance War is postponed once again. I don’t know about you but I slowly began to think that I will not see Alliance War during my life and I am very unhappy because of that. Nevertheless, 2.4 Update fulfilled some promises FoxNext gave us – we got 2 incredible new Heroes and Ronan along with the rest of the Kree is finally worth our time. As a matter of fact, the Kree team is probably the strongest team at the moment and this team should easily beat the Brotherhood of Mutants in PvP. In order to prove my statement, I must first talk about new Heroes introduced in this update.

Seven days ago, when BlueMoonGame announced 2.4 Update, I informed you about Minn-Erva and her skills. She is a Kree Support who can steal Health from enemies and redistribute it to allies while inflicting Bleed to all enemies and applying Regeneration to allies. She can also revive fallen allies and heal her team whenever an enemy dies. Like all Kree, she can generate additional ability energy for Kree allies allowing Ronan to use his passive and heal them. She should replace Kree Oracle in Kree Raid team and with her, you will have a team capable to slice through nods without using healing packs. It is true that Minn-Erva’s influence in PvP will not be great but she could be very useful for Blitz as well. Kree Commandos Event Campaign (where you will be able to obtain Minn-Erva’s shards) starts on February 26, and I strongly suggest that you do everything in your power to open her.

Captain Marvel is the second Hero FoxNext presented us in this update. Captain Marvel is simply amazing and she fulfills all criteria to be a God Tier Hero. She has insane damage, she can clear both buffs and debuffs, she is one of the fastest Heroes in the game, she can heal herself and above all that she has the ability to strike all opponents at the end of turn while she is in Binary Form. Binary Form increases Captain Marvel damage, armor, focus and resistance for a significant amount. With Captain Marvel, FoxNext also introduced a new trait – Military. Currently aside from Captain Marvel, there are 3 more heroes with the Military trait – Captain America, War Machine and Winter Soldier. It is important to say that Captain Marvel gains 1 charge per Military Hero and that means that her Binary Form can last 4 turns at the beginning of combat if she is in a team with other Military Heroes, which is incredible. That also means that Captain Marvel is not usable only with the rest of the Kree but you can combine her with other heroes gaining almost the same advantage.

This brings us to my earlier statement that the Kree team will end Brotherhood of Mutants domination in the Arena. After careful consideration, I came to the conclusion that the team made of Ronan, Kree Royal Guard, Kree Cyborg, Kree Noble, and Captain Marvel will be able to regularly beat Brotherhood of Mutants team. This still can’t be proved in practice but in theory, a fight should look like this: After initial mass blind from Magneto, Captain Marvel uses her ultimate to clear Blind and to assassinate Pyro. She will make 800% of her base damage (640% base damage+25% overall damage) on him and if that doesn’t kill Pyro immediately, he will be killed at the end of turn by her AOE. After that Mystique will cast her ultimate. Possible and logic targets are Ronan, Kree Noble, and Kree Royal Guard. After that Kree Royal Guard uses his Taunt and applies Defense Up on all his allies. Then play Pyro (if alive) and Sabretooth and they apply 3 Bleeds on the entire Kree team. Keep in mind that at this point entire Kree team has highly increased resistance. In the worst scenario before Ronan’s turn, everybody on the Kree team will have at least 3 negative effects. Ronan will cleanse 1 Bleed and Blind and summon 2 Kree allies. Kree Noble has two solutions – to finish off Pyro or to target Magneto. Kree Noble will be assisted by Kree Cyborg or Captain Marvel. The damage potential of Kree Noble Special is incredible so she should target Magneto in order that Kree Cyborg finishes him after that. If everything happens in the way I predicted at the beginning of the second turn on the battlefield we will have the entire Kree team with one badly injured character and with 1 Bleed. On the other side, there will be just 3 members of Brotherhood with almost full health. At this point, Brotherhood can’t do anything except to lose the battle. This is only the prediction since I can’t use Captain Marvel yet but I am pretty sure that I am not wrong. Anyway, if all this is just a bad predicament and if I failed to foresee the real outcome of the battle between Kree and Brotherhood one thing is certain – the Kree team will be irreplaceable for raids in any case so you should collect them as soon as possible. All Kree members are easy to farm and if you don’t have them yet you should start to farm them immediately.

In the end, I should mention that Magneto also got some minor changes to his passive ability and that new Ultimus 7 Raid is about to be released. The release date of Alliance War is still a mystery but at the loading screen, we can see 2 Helicarriers shooting at each other which is promising if you ask me.

BlueMoonGame will release MSF Tier Lists and MSF Best Team Tier list in a few days because we want to make those lists as much accurate as possible considering all changes in this update. The special post will be written for that occasion and you will be informed immediately upon release.

All changes on Kree minions, Ronan, and Magneto you can find on our MSF Heroes and Minions page.

Everything you need to know about Minn-Erva can be found HERE.

Everything you need to know about Captain Marvel can be found HERE.

MSF 2.4 Update – “The end of the Brotherhood Reign” syndicated from https://lucystrickland.wordpress.com/

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spynotebook · 8 years ago

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Salutations, my self-adhesive envelopes. Sorry “Postal Apocalypse” is a day late; I’d explain why, but I, uh... swore an oath to a wizard. Or something. Look, it’s been a long week. A long week that ends with answers: How Marvel could have connected its movies and TV series way better! Who’s worse at time travel than the Flash! And I’m forced to say something nice about The Phantom Menace!

A Poor Joke

Jim:

Dear Postman of the Apocalypse,

This last weekend a fellow comic book fan and I had a heated dispute over the Killing Joke. He proclaimed it as one of the best stories ever told and I criticized it for its deep flaws - most egregiously the dismal treatment of Barbara Gordon. As a long time fan of Oracle and the role she would later play in Birds of Prey and the greater DC universe I do not take issue with Barbara being paralyzed by the Joker but rather how it was done.

As I recall there was even an issue of Booster Gold where he went back in time over and over trying to prevent this tragedy only to be told that it was essentially time-locked.

Since DC has been so generous with rewriting large swaths of its continuity over the years - why has this one storyline never been altered?

It’s never officially been retconned because The Killing Joke is one of the most popular and continually best-selling DC graphic novels of all time. It is probably the best known in continuity DC story of all time, even more than Crisis on Infinite Earths. It is, arguably, just too big to be retconned without a huge group of people—bigger than your average group of irate comics fans—freaking out about delegitimizing a “masterpiece.”

It can, however, be unofficially retconned, which is what happened when DC brought back Barbara Gordon as Batgirl in the New 52. Now she’s still been paralyzed (and brutalized) by the Joker, but she, uh, got better. The Killing Joke is mainly a Batman/Joker story, but nothing lasting happened in it… for them. Barbara was the only one changed (and purely as motivation to make Batman extra mad at Joker that one specific time, which is why it was so bad). The New 52 changed her back to Batgirl, meaning DC has effectively swept The Killing Joke under the rug for the character, while still selling thousands of copies of the comic.

There’s another problem with wiping The Killing Joke out of existence, although I’m not sure DC is self-aware enough to realize the issue: Doing so would wipe Oracle out of existence (as opposed to just leaving her in the past, as per the current status quo). Barbara’s time as Oracle was beloved, and rightly so; by returning to fight the hell out of crime despite her injuries, she reclaimed her life from the Joker’s attack, and became a powerful representation of surviving abuse, and seizing power and agency despite the horrible things she endured. Barbara never gave up, and because one of DC’s most effective and useful heroes regardless of her physical limitations. About 99 percent of superheroes can punch people. Oracle took care of just about anything else.

Oracle was a hero in a unique, important way that resonated even more powerfully because of her origins as Batgirl. There’s a reason there was a fan outcry when the New 52 put Barbara back in the cowl. It’s not because people didn’t love the character, it’s because they loved her as Oracle. Making Barbara Batgirl probably made sense from a business and brand recognition aspect, but DC lost something very special in the process.

Which is why DC shouldn’t retcon it. The Killing Joke made a gross, horrible narrative decision (made in a less aware time), but various writers and artists—especially Kim Yale and John Ostrander, who created her Oracle persona, and later Gail Simone—used that trauma to do and make something very special. Retconning it so that Barbara was hit by a bus would ultimately take away from her struggle, journey, and triumph. This legacy is key. As for what instigated it, all DC needs to do is not celebrate The Killing Joke as if it didn’t have one of the most problematic scenes in comics. It’s really that simple.

Everyone Stop Calling It “The Incident”

Mr. Marvel CU Fan:

Dear Mr. Postman,

Let’s suppose someone at Marvel Studios used Dr. Doom’s time machine to bring you back to our present as an “independent nerd culture consultant.” Your remit is two-fold: 1. Offer fresh ideas on ways of telling super-hero origin stories to general audiences (e.g. Avoiding the “Dr. Strange” problem); 2. Offer advice on better tying together of the movies and TV series. What would be your advice?

1) If we can agree that Marvel had a pretty good run up through introducing the Guardians of the Galaxy—and I bet we can—then the two problem areas are Ant-Man and Doctor Strange. Without getting into the diversity issue, and focusing solely on doing their origin stories better and more interestingly, the answer is shockingly obvious—put them in other movies.