#a dead comic about broken children finally making friends and dying over and over

[creepy-bi-day]

I saw that equis mention. You dirty homestuck.

I—

I have no idea what you talking about—

You’re the dirty Homestuck here, anon. 😤

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 287: Family Reunion

Previously on BnHA: The Tomura For One VS Deku And Pals clusterfuck reached new levels of clustfuckery as AFO possessed Tomura’s body and stabbed Kacchan and Endeavor. Shouto was all “good thing I leveled up offscreen so as to be able to fly around whilst carrying 400lbs worth of people”, and did just that and it was like, damn, son. Meanwhile Deku’s rage went Mach 100, and he kicked Tomura’s ass for almost two whole seconds, but in the process he apparently forgot that IF TOMURA TOUCHES HIM THAT IS VERY BAD, and so he stupidly let Tomura touch him and Tomura was all “GAME, SET.” Fortunately for Deku, his quirk plays by its own rules, and so the chapter ended with us cutting to the METAPHYSICAL OFA/AFO PARANORMAL DREAMSCAPE OF MYSTICAL BULLSHIT, where AFO!Vestige was all “lol Tomura y u mad”, and Nana!Vestige was all “SUP DEKU, YOU’RE JUST IN TIME, LOOKS LIKE IT’S ASSKICKING O’CLOCK.” I’m paraphrasing a bit, but that’s more or less the gist of it.

Today on BnHA: AFO is all “well if it isn’t Tomura’s grandmother who I murdered that one time”, and Deku is all “?”, and AFO is all “fucking vestiges, man, wild”, and Deku is all “??”, and AFO is all “ANYWAYS GETTIM TOMURA”, and OFA is all “NOT SO FAST”, and Deku is all “???”, and really, same. AFO then goes off on some wild tangent about how Deku is unworthy because he couldn’t protect everyone and needed help from OFA and got mad about his friends being stabbed, which is such a cold take it gave me hypothermia, but it ends up not mattering since Deku and Tomura both wake up seconds later with OFA still in the possession of its rightful owner, HOW ABOUT THAT. The chapter ends with the LoV approaching on Gigantomachia’s back with Dabi practically salivating at the mouth, and Toga trying to reignite an old fandom blood feud. Toga why would you do this to me. Toga.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS

[CROWD LOSING THEIR MINDS] FINALLY THE NANA HAS COME BACK TO BNHA!! IF YA SMELLLLL WHAT THE NANA IS COOKIN!!!!! [RINGSIDE BELL CHIMING WILDLY] [LOUD AIRHORN NOISES]

“chapter 287: mistake” omg. yeah I’ll say you made a mistake, AFO. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THESE FLEETING LAST MOMENTS OF YOUR SHITTY EVIL LIFE

(ETA: so in all seriousness this must be referring to AFO’s belief that All Might/OFA made a mistake in choosing Deku, right? “I can’t believe you went and chose this shounen manga protagonist as your champion, what were you thinking.” I’ll just put this out there: however many comic books AFO read as a child, it clearly was not enough.)

wow Deku how slow are you

yes you’re inside OFA you dimbulb, did you think your clothes suddenly vanished out of the blue and the ghost of Nana just randomly appeared in the real world by some freak coincidence?? can you believe this kid. breaks his arms a measly 10-15 times in a row and all of a sudden he can’t think straight, get it together Deku

but also brb having a moment at the fact that his thoughts immediately run back to Kacchan, even with all of this nonsense going on and Nana about to lay the beatdown on AFO’s potato-lookin’ ass. forget that noise, all he wants to know is whether or not Kacchan is all right. fuckin’ geez. AM I OVERREACTING HERE A BIT. probably

(ETA: ALSO!! the way he just trails off!! “Kacchan is...” and then he can’t bring himself to complete the thought. oh my god my heart.)

HOLY SHIT

okay,

damn but this man sure knows how to ruffle my feathers. as eminently detestable as ever!!

could it be any clearer here that AFO is not on Tomura’s side?? for a moment I thought he had actually grabbed him by the back of the head in order to get him to look. but nope, he’s just resting his pointing hand on top of his head instead while he’s all “HEY TOMURA LOL IT’S THE GHOST OF YOUR DEAD PATHETIC GRANDMA”

for those keeping track at home, this would be the first time that Deku has heard this information -- that Tomura is Nana’s grandson -- and possibly the first time Vestige!Nana has heard it as well. Nana died when Kotarou was still a child, so for all we know the Vestige!Nana didn’t even know she had a grandson, lol. TODAY ON “MAKESTE RANTS AT LENGTH ABOUT THINGS THAT WILL PROBABLY BE ADDRESSED WITHIN THE NEXT THREE PANELS”, anyway moving on

lmao for the record I fucking LOLed at this giant question mark immediately bubbling up over Deku’s head

no idea what AFO is about to ramble on about now, haven’t read that far yet. but let the record show that Deku’s immediate reaction to hearing “BTW NANA IS YOUR ARCHNEMESIS’S GRANDMA LULZ” is everything I could have hoped for

(ETA: fandom nailed the shit out of this one with the confused Mr. Krabs meme lmao.)

okay so now AFO is monologuing at length about how he would sometimes have “riveting dreams” about the previous owners of all the quirks he stole. but once he gave the quirks away they stopped bothering him?? holy moly let me just take all the notes

okay so he’s saying that Vestiges are created whenever someone has their quirk stolen by AFO. but if they then disappear when he gives the quirks away, does that also mean that whoever receives the quirks also gets the original owner’s Vestige bundled in every time?? that would be wild okay hold up let me read the rest of this

so he’s saying that the Vestiges are actually the “consciousnesses” of the original quirk owners, which have become embedded in their dna or something. SOUNDS INCREDIBLY DUBIOUS TO ME LOL but on the other hand this is a world where children can be born with airplane heads, so my disbelief can hardly afford to pick and choose what it’s gonna be suspended at! anyways though, how does he know he’s the only one who was able to converse with them? did you conduct detailed six-month follow-up interviews with everyone you gave quirks to or what

and if it really is the case that this ability was formerly exclusive to him, isn’t that more evidence than ever that OFA and AFO are actually THE EXACT SAME QUIRK oh whoops am I getting ahead of myself again, sorry

MEANWHILE TOMURA IS ALL, “GRANDMA?”

“WHY AM I HERE, WELL LET ME TELL YOU A STORY, GRANDSON. YOU SEE THAT MAN GROWING OUT OF YOUR RIBCAGE THERE? WELL IT’S JUST THE FUNNIEST THING, ACTUALLY”

WAIT SO IS HE SAYING THEY’RE SOULS OR NOT??

this makes it sound like they won’t ever get to rest, which sure sounds like a soul thing to me. well whatever, soul, consciousness, I guess it’s just semantics at the end of the day

anyways though, so this asshole is finally done talking (I’m sure that won’t last), so now we can finally have the heartwarming reunion we’ve all been waiting for

sigh

-- actually, no, not “sigh”!! you know what!! because Tomura says “whatever the reason”, but that’s only because he doesn’t actually have a fucking clue about the reason. like, I don’t know if the knowledge that AFO killed Nana would be enough to give him pause, but if he knew the whole story and knew that AFO was behind not only Nana’s death, but the rest of his family’s deaths as well... now that would be a whole different thing

anyway. but at least it’s becoming clearer now why AFO spent all that time raising Tomura up as his heir and brainwashing him even though he seems to have been planning this body takeover the whole time. it’s all because he loves making people miserable! yaaaaay

btw HAS NANA HAD THE EXACT SAME MOLE ON HER CHIN AS TOMURA THIS ENTIRE TIME WTF. am I just the least observant person who ever lived lmao

lol wtf

ground: [randomly starts exploding]

Deku: “ONE FOR ALL IS BEING ERODED!!!” LOL IS THAT WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE, OKAY THEN. I’ll take your word for it

y’all I cannot fucking get over this “AFO growing out of Tomura’s hip socket like a fucked-up ventriloquist dummy” shit though

you do realize that absolutely no one can take you seriously right now, right?? it’s important to me that you know this

WHAT’S THIS NOW

seems like SOMEONE has had it up to here with a certain SOMEONE ELSE’S bullshit lmaooo bye Felicia

I SAID GOOD DAY!!

you guys why is he not dying!!

-- OH DAMN

love how Deku is just lying there like “YOU KNOW THOSE DAYS WHERE YOU’RE LIKE, THIS MIGHT AS WELL HAPPEN.” poor Deku

(ETA: where in god’s name is OFA Prime standing. why are my thoughts fully consumed by this lmao.)

are Nana and OFA Prime even doing anything?? why are they sticking their arms out like that. wait hold up is this all a big metaphor for the back-and-forth going on between Tomura trying to steal OFA and OFA being all “actually no you can’t, please enter your password and click on all the boxes with bicycles in them to prove you’re a human first”?

OH SNAP OFA PRIME SAID NO THANKS

“SORRY BRO WE’VE ALREADY MADE OURSELVES AT HOME HERE”

I have only just noticed that metaphysical!Deku has the same scars as actual!Deku. and yet his arms are not currently broken! that doesn’t really seem consistent to me but whatever!! maybe he saved right before the boss battle, that would be smart of him

anyway, that’s great and all that OFA Prime is here helping out, but I really wanted to see Nana fight AFO in a one on one though so I’m a bit disappointed. also why is it only the two of them?? where are Banjou and the others. of all the times to be sleeping on the job

FOR FUCK’S SAKE, THIS MAN

WOULD YOU STOP. WOULD YOU JUST QUIT IT ALREADY

oh shit hold up

doesn’t this confirm that the reason he wanted to transfer his power to Tomura is because he believed it would make him strong enough to finally take OFA because of Quirk Singularity? jesus christ. and here he was so sure of himself. but it turns out he doesn’t actually know shit! you can’t just fucking take OFA like that ya dingdong that’s not how it works

(ETA: SO, A THOUGHT -- is there any sort of subtle hinting here in the way that he words this? “if your strength is combined with mine”, as opposed to “if my strength is combined with yours”? no idea if the admittedly-so-small-as-to-be-almost-inconsequential distinction between those two sentences exists in the original Japanese or not, but I find it very interesting that the English wording implies that he’s the one adding Tomura’s strength to his own, rather than vice versa.)

now he’s insulting Deku!!

excuse me sir WHO ASKED YOU anyway. and never mind that being consumed by an, AND I QUOTE, “unquenchable” rage is your protege’s whole THING, and that he also needed your help to avoid being burned to a crisp a short while ago. where do you get off I swear

(ETA: also just want to point out that in the panel before this one he says that he’s been “watching through Tomura”, which pretty much confirms that his consciousness or whatever is alive inside of him all the time. Tomura is definitely not getting rid of this guy any time soon.)

WOW

first he calls Kacchan useless, then he calls Deku a simpleton, and don’t even get me started with Nana. just, you guys. this man is just... a very, very rude man

NOW OFA IS ALL “THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT MAKES HIM SUCH A GOOD PROTAGNIST YOU BUTTMUNCH” AND OMG PREACH

“DESPITE HIS COMMON SENSE” sdfkllk my man he already has one brother roasting him, take it easy guy

AHH WHAT

IS THIS BACK IN THE REAL WORLD

YEP

hahaha nice try Tomura

so Deku’s all “I didn’t lose my power! BUT” and I assume the “but” is the part where his arms are still broken and shit, and meanwhile Tomura’s body is almost healed up now finally

they’re both wiped out and now AFO is again petitioning Tomura to let him take over goddammit

“you won’t lose your mind” yep, he sure won’t! scout’s honor!! pinky swear!!

meanwhile Deku is getting fucking desperate flkjl;k my baby. and Machia is going to show up any second now too, probably. what else can fucking go wrong at this point

oh shit I shouldn’t have asked

get ready to rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrruuuumble, probably

OH MY GOD

WELL AT LEAST SOMEONE HERE IS HAVING A GOOD TIME. jesus

so as soon as he heard Endeavor was there he got all, “TIME FOR THE BIG REVEAL”, is that right? WELL JOKE’S ON YOU TOUYA, YOUR DAD DOESN’T SEEM ALL THAT CONSCIOUS AT THE MOMENT, SO THAT’S GOING TO DRAIN A LOT OF THE TENSION FROM THE SCENE WHEN YOU GO ALL REVERSE DARTH VADER ON HIM AND HE’S ALL “ZZZZZZZZ”

meanwhile Toga is having unsettlingly quiet angst

jesus christ Toga this is all we need right now

“WAS JIN-KUN NOT A PERSON” sdkfjlk Horikoshi I swear. please have mercy on this fandom. this is the debate that refuses to die!!

but seriously ffs, the issue isn’t that Jin deserved to die, it’s that the countless people whom Jin would have either directly or indirectly killed didn’t deserve to die either. people don’t only become people when you attach names and faces to them! we all loved Jin because we’d gotten to know him, but that doesn’t mean his life was inherently worth more than the lives of all the people he would have killed. sometimes there’s just no good answer

like, it’s just crazy to me that because the heroes are all “we want to protect everyone!” but then aren’t always able to do so because that’s literally impossible, whereas the villains are all “we don’t care about anyone other than the select few people that we actually like!”, the villains somehow wind up getting the better PR. it just so happens that it’s infinitely easier to be loyal to the interests of a few people as opposed to ALL THE PEOPLE. like, no shit, it’s easier to stick to your moral code when you barely have a moral code. and so the villains can kill thousands and no one bats an eye, but if a hero fails to save even one person they’re hypocritical moral failures. like what the hell

BUT ANYWAY, sorry to go off on a tangent there lol, it’s not really a big deal. I’m just preemptively trying to stave off more discourse about it lol but who am I even kidding

anyways lol, but of course they won’t kill you unless they have no choice, Toga. but when it comes to catch-22 situations, it’s a bit much to infer that the heroes don’t consider the villains people just because they opt for the choice that spares more innocent lives. I sure as hell don’t want my babies out here killing people, but to say that they can’t no matter what or else they’re no different from the villains is just...

anyway so the chapter has now just ENDED, just like that!! on a shot of Ochako’s face!

I SENSE ANOTHER THROWDOWN COMING. and it had better not be a total letdown like the last one! NANA BARELY DID ANYTHING HORIKOSHI, WHAT THE FUCK. I started out with such high hopes lol

but I will settle for Toga VS Ochako, and Deku VS Tomura: The Sequel: Shouto’s Revenge! SPEAKING OF HEROES WHO HAVE NO QUALMS ABOUT MURDERING PEOPLE lmao

[stina-is-a-punk-rocker]

my love-hate relationship with ‘stranger things 3’

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe. Inconsolable were the Harringroves; So beware the spoilers that come thine way. - Lewis Carrol, at some point

[Picture me holding up a ‘YOU SUCK/YOU RULE’ board. Chunks of my hair are missing.]

PROS:

· So much was going on at any given moment. It was a rollercoaster on an acid trip in the middle of a South Asian wedding after 2PM.

· It feels like the writers genuinely had fun with this season; the Big Bad was (ironically, considering its origins) fresh, the storylines went every direction imaginable- and beyond- and who the fuck cares about connecting all the threads when it’s so damn entertaining?

· Steve Harrington in a dorky sailor’s costume.

· Steve Harrington never changing out of said dorky sailor’s costume for the entire season.

· Robin Buckley in a dorky sailor’s costume.

· Robin Buckley in general.

· Steve Harrington and Robin Buckley in dorky sailor’s costumes, together.

· Straightbaiting.

· Steve finally getting a friend who doesn’t make him act like a douche / doesn’t dump him for a guy who creeped on them / has hit puberty.

· Male-female friendships that don’t end up in boning.

· Steve finally winning a fight.

· Dustin making a big deal out of this.

· Erica ‘You can’t spell America without Erica’ Sinclair.

· Hopper being El’s legal father.

· El breaking up with Mike.

· Female friendships that do not involve one being eaten alive by a monster from another dimension.

· Max giving El a makeover.

· Gratuitous references to the 80s.

· Will Byers.

· Me adopting Will Byers.

· On the subject of Will Byers- I know a lot of you headcanon gay Will, but consider: ace/aro Will.

· Nancy’s new haircut.

· Karen Wheeler being a decent mother to her daughter instead of hooking up with a boy the same age as her aforementioned daughter (the bar is literally so low for this woman, the only way to go is up).

· Heather Holloway, my girl in red.

· Carnivals.

· The Fourth of July.

· Carnivals on the Fourth of July.

· Billy’s mullet.

· Billy’s blue, blue eyes.

· Billy in a wifebeater and blue, blue jeans.

· Billy reminding me of multiple Taylor Swift songs.

· Billy getting possessed.

· Billy’s moral compass making a cameo.

· Billy dying right afterwards. (me, watching Billy’s childhood trauma: We saw this with Christian Grey, we saw it with Hardin Whoeverthefuck; they’re not gonna give him a redemption arc, are they? me, watching Billy get punctured like shishkebab: GIVE HIM THE GODDAMN REDEMPTION ARC.)

· Billy would not be amused with the existence of tentacle hentai.

· This dead meme that took me far too long to make that I’m far too proud of:

Graphic designing is my passion.

· Dustin and Suzie-not-Q’s duet trumping every Disney musical in existence.

· The dog. I don’t remember seeing it, but there must’ve been at least one.

CONS:

· The sheer secondhand embarrassment I got from the first episode alone. I had to leave my room multiple times to get a breather; it was an effort to convince myself to take the stairs instead of flinging myself off the goddamn balcony.

· Exploding into smithereens like one of those rats >>>>> seeing children making out.

· El and Mike not staying broken up.

· Evil Russians.

· Not being able to take a Russian course because I’m already falling behind on my Spanish and Italian and the Duolingo owl being a bitch about it.

· The US military getting later than my dad picking me up after school.

· The realization that Dad’s still going to be late as ever because I never fucking learned to drive.

· The pandemic that got in the way of my driving lessons.

· Billy’s Camaro- second to only the locker room for the most popular hookup spot in Harringrove fics- getting banged up.

· Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash not making an appearance.

· All the time I spent wondering which writer has a kink for seeing Joe Keery’s face in injury makeup because Steve Harrington gets the living daylights knocked out of him every season.

· ‘Injury makeup’ being something I made up on the spot because I don’t know what else to call it.

· The Coca-Cola product placements.

· Coca-Cola and Pepsi tasting the same to me.

· “I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.” Mike, you’re, like, 12.

· Erica Sinclair going from funny to insufferable every time I blink.

· Billy getting skewered in the middle of his character arc.

· El knowing way too much for a girl who didn’t know what a friend was in the first season.

· Steve being too much of a comic relief and not enough of a person.

· Hopper being whatever the hell he was for this entire season. He was so jarringly out of character that they should’ve just given him another name and made him Hopper’s psycho twin or something.

· I heard somewhere that Maya Hawke had to ask for her character to be queer… but they’re perfectly fine with having middle-aged, married women lust over a teenager??? I reiterate, the bar is so fucking low, yet somehow the gays are below even that???

· My perseverance about making shitty memes.

[gainaxvel3o]

Clark x Bruce for the imaginary love lives please! If you do this, thanks and I’m excited to read it :)

He heard the alarm and went as fast as he could.

Superman moved at the speed of sound. Bruce made it a general rule to the League that they stay out of Gotham. If he used the JLA Communicator for this that meant things were bad. Clark tried not to think of the various worst case scenarios as he reached the Acme Warehouse.

Upon his ears picked up a cough, Clark flew faster.

Smashing the wall with his bare hands, Superman surveyed the situation. Bruce, still in the Batman costume, was coughing while lying on the bed, an infusion pump dumping a yellow liquid into him. The Joker was on another bed next to his, smiling his ever sickly evil grin while he was tended to by Harley. She panicked. “Big blue’s in town! Shit!” Harley cheered. “Mistah J we need to run! I was expectin’ the birds or the kajillion Batgirls but not this!” “Oh quiet Harley,” Joker responded. “We already threw the gag out there, we might as well go all the way with it! Come on, welcome to the party!”

Superman didn’t waste any time. “What did you do to him?!? “Now settle down Boy Scout you shouldn’t be so angry until I explain everything.” Joker smiled. “Which I will! See, I was taking a stroll around town, borrowing the usual materials I use to bring all the laughs to the dour city when I happened to come across something interesting.”

The Joker pointed at the pump.

“A unique chemical compound that slowly drain the life out of the people. I’m not one to kill my favorite people, but I thought it would be funny if I shared it with your old pal Batman and see if anyone wants to try saving him.” “You diseased maniac!” Superman shouted. “Where’s the cure?” “The cure? Well…” Joker laughed, the same infuriating laugh that made Superman’s skin crawl. “There’s only one way to cure him. Catch!” He tossed a syringe to Superman, who looked at him confused.

“See, in addition to be a clever comedian I’m a brilliant scientist! I pumped the stuff inside of me to check how it works. Turns out my unique chemistry turned the chemical into antibodies. Only drawback is that if you take my blood, I die.”

“Don’t…” Bruce, trying desperately to remain conscious, begged. “Don’t do what he says… it’s a trick…” “You can’t be too sure of that Batsy!” Joker grinned harder. “So what will it be Supes? You want to save him, you’re gonna need kill me! Not save him and he dies while I live. Your code or your friend! Ohohohohoho what a lovely decision!”

Harley glanced back and forth between Superman and her Mistah J. Being his disciple (and girlfriend even if he won’t admit it) she was familiar with this kind of trap. Batsy’s only in a severe degree of pain but not actually dying. She wasn’t sure if Superman could detect it given the X-Ray vision and the hearing and the other powers in his arsenal. Harley was actually curious. What would Superman do? “Tick tock Superman,” Joker said. “Made a choice yet?” A laugh. It didn’t come the Joker, like one would expect. No… it came from Superman. He held the syringe steady. “Okay. You win.” He said. “I’ll draw your blood.” Harley had to check her ears for that. One she made sure there wasn’t any left over ear wax from this morning, she allowed her jaw to fall. “What…” Joker was also pretty gobsmacked. “I mean- what?” “Yeah. Raise your arm.” Superman smiled. It wasn’t out of joy, more a sneer. “I don’t like the situation, but if it means saving Batman I’ll do it.” For a second, Batman struggled against the bed, trying to say something, break out, but his body was too weak. Whatever he said, Superman didn’t register it. He didn’t need to. He knew what he was doing. “Whoah let’s not get crazy here!” Joker took a step back. “No objections or anything? No third option no nothing?!? You’re just giving up?!” “Why not?” Superman said. "Someone’s going to die either way. Better the mass murdering lunatic from Gotham than it’s favorite son.”

And his husband, though Superman left it unsaid. He didn’t want this monster to know anything. “Wow, the great Superman just gives up!” Joker laughed. “I wish I had a camera so I could record it! I won, you lose and snooze and-“ “Yeah yeah yeah, you’re playing five dimensional chess against me and this is somehow going all according to your master plan even though when the dust settles you’ll be dead, I won’t go crazy murdering everyone for no reason and you won’t get your ultimate final battle with Batman.” Harley had never seen the Joker’s eyes twitch so violently. His hands were shaking in bitter spiteful rage.

“Come on Joker,” Superman said. “You wouldn’t want to leave this Earth without pulling a great gag. This? Just pathetic really.” “Oh you want funny! I’ll give you fucking funny!”

The Joker punched Superman in the chest. He clutched his hand in pain, now realizing he had broken it.

“Okay thanks for that.” Superman grabbed Joker’s hand, readying the syringe. “Be ready!” “No… no wait I was kidding!” Joker’s eyes widened and his voice broke. “The chemicals won’t actually kill Batman! It’s temporary! Please don’t kill me!” 

“Mistah J!” Harley cried out. “I thought we were supposed to go all the way with a gag!” “Nuh uh, not me! I quit! Not going to lose to the big blue boy who can’t wear his undies in the right direction.” Superman smirked. “All edge, no bite… you really are a bad comedian Joker.” _____________________________________________________________________________________

After locking up Joker and Harley in Arkham, Superman took Bruce to the Bat Cave.

Alfred tended to his master, wiping the blood drawn from disconnecting the pump. Bruce looked over to Clark.

“Thanks Clark.” Bruce said. “It was an impressive bluff you made there.”

“Learned it from the best,” Clark smiled, kissing Bruce’s cheek. “Didn’t think you’d call me to be honest.” “The children were out on a mission. You were the only one that could get here fast enough.” “Love you too Bruce.” “Brrrrr. Using that word. Don’t repeat it.” “What? I love you?”

“There you again.” Clark laughed. Alfred rolled his eyes. “Well you’re clearly content in your lover’s quarrel,” Alfred walked up the stairs, “See you both in the morning.” They were left alone. Bruce searched his husband’s face and body, while Clark stood there and smiled.

“About that what happened Clark…” “Hm?"

“If the Joker hadn’t been lying…” Bruce said. “Would you really have let him die?” Clark sighed. “Bruce…” “Really Clark?!?” “If it was between you and him, I would have.” Clark decided to stand his ground. “You know I despise killing anyone as much as you do.” “Then why contemplate it at all?!” Bruce was shouting now. “No one deserves to die!” “No one does. But Bruce, it was between him or you. If it turned out killing him would save you… I’d feel horrible for the rest of my life, I would be ashamed, I would take anything you say afterwards… but I’d do it. What kind of hero would I be if I let a single innocent life die just so I could feel better about having unstained hands?” Clark looked away. “I only hope when the time comes you’d do the same.” Neither said a word. Bruce was no doubt furious, whether himself or Clark it didn’t matter. Superman sighed.

“I’m going to head to bed. Care to join me?” Bruce got out of the table. “In an hour. There’s things I need to check on the Bat-Computer.” Clark nodded. He didn’t want to admit it, not now, but he knew a rift had formed between them just now. He just hoped it would resolve itself sooner rather than later.

Author’s Notes:

I had a surprisingly good time writing this. It’s a bit of a fix fic for Action Comics #719 where Joker similarly infects Lois with a poison and Superman IS ABOUT TO LET HER DIE instead of killing him. It was such a bad display of Superman’s no kill rule that I decided to call a do over. No I don't want Superman to be going around snapping necks constantly but there’s ways to portray the no kill code that don’t involve making your heroes look like self righteous assholes and that comic ain’t it!

As for Batman… well, I don’t have a lot of positive feelings about him these days but writing his interactions with Clark felt natural and the idea of them having a conflict over the no kill code was an interesting idea. I liked doing it. That’s all I’ll say. 

[blue-eyed-korra]

Is Dylan really Kieran? A Theory Dissection:

So I’ve taken the time to process everything that’s happened in the amazing season finale of Purple Hyacinth because I didn’t want to rush into posting about it and I really wanted to let my thoughts about it simmer for a bit. I also decided to reread the entire season over the course of a couple days to get the best idea of how it worked as a whole. Once again if you haven’t read this yet please do yourself a favour and check it out it’s really phenomenal.

I’ll probably make a few posts about PH over the next couple weeks as we wait for season 2. However I won’t post an analysis of the finale mainly because Lanxyuu already did an amazing job of that already. Check it out if you’ve got the time, it’s 10000 words of pure analytical gold. Writing about any of that would be redundant. That being said the first thing I’m gonna talk about is the whole ‘Is Kieran actually Dylan’ theory that’s the new hot thing in the fandom, mainly because I’ve received a lot of requests to discuss it and also because I feel like I can add my own points to the debate.

So let’s just get it out of the way: do I think Kieran is Dylan? As of right now the answer is no. I just don’t think we have enough evidence to prove it, and what’s there is more circumstantial. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy theorizing about it. I’ve found that discussing and sharing theories and ideas is one of my favourite ways to interact with a fandom. So I’m gonna put all of the evidence that I’ve observed in the entire first season both in favour of and against this theory and show why I think we can’t say that Kieran is Dylan. I’m not telling you to not believe it. Believe what you want! Like I said it’s fun to do this. I’ve just been specifically asked my opinion and I want to be able to justify it through what I’ve seen in the comic itself. 

For more of my posts about Purple Hyacinth check out my ‘ph posts’ tag!

So with all of that out of the way, let’s get started!

Evidence in favour of Kieran being Dylan:

One of the things I think most of us can agree on is that Dylan probably isn’t really dead. In general if I’m not shown a body, I don’t believe they’re dead. I’ve seen far too many movies and TV shows and have read far too many novels to be fooled by that. As of right now, in my head, Dylan is alive, or at least wasn’t killed in the bombing. So obviously if he isn’t dead then that frees him up to show up in the plot at some point or maybe he was there all along...?

This kind of ties into my next point: what happened to him then? His hat was found at the scene, so he must have lost it at some point before the explosion. This is all speculative, but he could have been snatched up by Tim and the driver in Lauren’s parents car. We heard Tim mention that children were in the car so it’s somewhat plausible that Dylan could have been kidnapped. Maybe he saw something suspicious and snooped around a bit which lead to him being snatched up or something. From there he’s tortured and broken and made into an assassin for the PS. Only he isn’t broken. He steels his resolve and does as he’s told because he’s now set on biding his time and getting revenge on those who robbed him of his life and humanity. It makes for a pretty compelling character arc.

The tragedy of his character arc could also be supplemented by the fact that when he was young, he wanted to be a doctor and save lives, but they made him into an assassin who takes lives. Brutally. Violently. Painfully. All of this would emphasize why he views himself as such a monster. The person he is now goes against everything the person he once was values. It’s this dichotomy that reinforces his ‘monster’ persona and allows him to justify this view of himself.

Another point is that this could explain why Kieran hesitated when he could have killed Lauren way back in episode 3. Of course he would hesitate to kill someone who was his close friend. Most of his murders were of people he either didn’t know or didn’t know very well. If he’d had a close friendship with her in childhood, it would obviously make him stop for a moment when he realizes who she is, just like he does in that episode. We even see Lauren say that if she knew why he hesitated then ‘everything would be different’. Obviously if she found out that he was her-long-lost-thought-to-be-dead friend, the person who symbolized her guilt for not stopping the bombing, the plot would be waaaaaay different. Just like the line about being the most blind of all in the prologue, the implications of this line are going to play a major role in the story, and this theory could explain that.

Then there’s those god damned purple hyacinths. Obviously Dylan’s knowledge of these flowers, both in their cultivation and meaning, are things that Kieran must know too. We pretty much know that they’re his signature for both their royal symbolism and their use in mourning, and that Kieran must have a stash of them growing somewhere. There’s also the fact that Lauren, who we know is very intelligent and well educated even at 12, doesn’t know the meaning of purple hyacinths other than their use as a symbol by the royal family. This tells me that their symbolism outshines their meaning in the traditional sense within the pop culture. Honestly, I didn’t even know the meanings of most flowers except for roses until I started reading this Webtoon. I’m not saying that people don’t know the meaning at all, I’m just saying it may not be common knowledge.

The final point I wanna talk about in favour of this theory is their appearances, since that will bleed nicely into the points against it for obvious reasons. So many people, myself included, have noticed that if you switch Dylan’s hair and eye colouring for Kieran’s, he’d basically look like little Kieran, and yes, I see it too. You could say that he could be dying his hair, it’s not crazy to believe hair dye exists in this world. How else does Belladonna have pink hair if they didn’t have access to dye? Unless it’s just stains from the blood of her victims… Actually that could be a theory lol but that’s not the point. Point is Kieran could theoretically have his hair dyed black, but it’s a bit of a stretch, as I explain in...

Evidence against Kieran being Dylan:

While he maaaaay be able to change his hair colour from light blond to black, there’s no way for him to change his eye colour from grey to blue. If rectangular glasses don’t even exist in this world yet (thank you Soph for this justification for why you gave him Harry Potter glasses), there’s no way that they’d have access to contact lenses yet. The other argument is that his eye colour changed with age but that feels a bit too... convenient for my taste. Odds are our boy Kieran is sporting the look he was born with.  Additionally, with everything going on in his life and his priorities, when would he have the time to constntly maintain this look, and why would he feel the need to disguise himself in the first place? He already operates in the shadows of the night and none of the authorities, other than Lauren, were able to get close enough to describe his appearance. There would simply be no need for all of that extra disguising.

Speaking of his appearance, we’ve seen one of his victims recognize him before he murders them. He says something interesting: ‘You were that boy’. Now this whole thing is one of my favourite mysteries of the series, so you best believe I am jumping on this shit the second we get more info about it. But for now, I want to use it to show that this aristocrat, who were loyal to the crown and presumably hadn’t seen him in years, took one look at Kieran’s face and immediately recognized him from when he was a child. If this man knew he had these same features as a boy, then it’s safe to assume that he’s always looked like this. This also links him to the aristocracy, since there’s no reason why this man of high status in opposition the PS would know anything about him unless he knew him before he entered the PS. Dylan, on the other hand, was the son of a gardener. He was friends with Lauren sure, but he clearly was of a lower station in society than someone like Lauren or the other aristocratic families. It’s doubtful that he’d leave such an impression on this high society man.

On top of all of that, if he were really Dylan and this man really did see through his change in appearance, why wouldn’t Lauren see through it too? She was one of his best friends and thinks about him constantly. If this man was able to recognize him in a single moment but she still doesn’t recognize him after months, then odds are he just isn’t Dylan.

There’s also the fact that Kieran doesn’t lie when he tells Lauren his name. It’s the same name that people like Belladonna know him by and it’s the name he uses when he becomes the archivist in Lauren’s precinct. Like he said before: there’s no need for him to hide his identity. He’s protected by his reputation and the PS itself. I can see an argument where he could have ‘renounced’ his old name because the person he once was is dead and only the monster remains, which is again a cool theory , or you could say it’s to keep people from knowing that he’s actually alive. But there would be no real need for him to change his name. He could have two names just like the hyacinths have two meanings. I will say that this theory about ‘Kieran White’ not being his true name could also work in favour for him not being Dylan too as, if he was an aristocrat, the PS could have changed his name to hide him from his family as well, but that’s neither here nor there, just something to consider. For now we know that he really is Kieran White and there’s no evidence to disprove that (yet).

Finally, many of the points listed in favour of the theory; the motive, the character arc, the knowledge of flowers, it’s all circumstantial. For all we know, Kieran could be Dylan Rosenthal, or he could be some boy connected to the aristocracy or even the royal family. He could be Dylan Rosenthal, or he could be his own character with his own arc yet to be fully revealed who’s connected to Lauren somehow. The meaning of purple hyacinths could come from Dylan’s prior knowledge, or they could common knowledge and Kieran just bought ‘Gardening for Dummies’ or some shit to make sure he didn’t kill them. Any number of different things could really be at play that we simply don’t know yet. But we do know that a man recognized him at a glance while Lauren, Dylan’s best friend, didn’t recognize him whatsoever. We do know that there’s no proof that hair and especially eye colour can be changed in this world. We do know that we still have quite a ways to go in this story and that the answers aren’t what we expect.

Eph and Soph have done an amazing job of revealing the story to us in disjointed pieces so that when we finally get that one piece that fits, may of them fall into place too. How many of us realized it was her parents’ car in the picture before it was revealed in episode 49? Or thought that Harvey was a spy all along? I don’t think we know nearly enough about him to prove he’s Dylan, but what we do have at this moment is enough to disprove it. What we have now is primarily speculation versus hard physical evidence. We need to accept that we don’t have all the pieces to the puzzle yet and that we’ll only receive new ones little by little.

So, until we learn more about Kieran’s past or until we see ‘changing-eye-colour’ join ‘lie-detecting’ as a new supernatural ability, I’m afraid that I can’t fully get behind this theory. Again, this doesn’t mean I’m telling you not to believe it. Thinking about all the implications of Kieran being Dylan is a lot of fun, just like thinking about Kieran’s backstory and motives is fun. And I could be wrong about all of this, who knows? Writing this just got me really excited to see where his arc will lead us and even more excited for season 2!

Thanks again to everyone who wanted me to discuss this! I had a lot of fun writing it and would love to hear feedback from you guys about any thing you may want to contribute that I may not have mentioned. This post was born of a sleepless night into morning and a need to get all my thoughts out of my brain so it could finally turn off and let me sleep. I already have an idea about what I’m gonna write next so stay tuned and thanks again for all the support!!

[ellana-ravenwood]

The New Trinity - Damian Wayne x Reader (xplatonic!Jon Kent)

Well, here it is. Damian is a bit older than he is currently in the comics (seventeen instead of fourteen) by the way. Hope you’ll like it :-) : 

You can find my masterlist here : @ella-ravenwood-archives

__________________________________________________

The New Trinity.

That’s how everyone started to call you guys.

“You guys”. Damian, Jon and you. The Bat’s son, The Superman’s son and...You, the mighty Wonder Woman’s daughter. 

The New Trinity. 

It made sense really, because of who your parents were. The actual Trinity. Three of the mightiest hero in the World, forming the perfect team. And you were their children. Three. 

The New Trinity. 

That’s how everyone started to call you guys, as your friendship grew.

And it royally pissed you off.

Ever since you were born, everyone (and by everyone you meant your mom’s friends of course, the others...the others couldn’t know) always constantly compared you to your mother. All. The freaking. TIME !

And sure, you loved her to death, and she was the coolest and most badass woman you ever met...but you were you.

Your own being.

You weren’t all like her. Sure, you had her eyes, and sometimes, her mannerisms. And her powers. But your personality wasn’t the same (except for the part of you that was stubborn and that had to help those in need).

Besides, it annoyed you that everyone always compared you to the great “Wonder Woman” and never to your father, who was a goddamn war hero !

Of course...you never met him.

None of them ever met him.

Steve Trevor was dead long ago.

************

Before he died, almost a hundred years ago now, your mother and your father had plenty of times to get to know each other, to become best friends, to learn about each other’s culture...To fall helplessly in love.

One night of passion. Of pure bliss and love.

It’s all it took for you to exist. One night of passion, finally, after a long time playing a game of cat and mouth together...And it had to be the day before your father’s death.

Before he sacrificed himself to save many. Before your mother lost him forever...

And here you were.

But your mom’s pain wasn’t ending there.

You were born with a heart defect, and the technology of the time in the Human World couldn’t save you. The amazons couldn’t do much either...

You were dying, and that would have been the end but...Your grandmother couldn’t bear to see her precious daughter in such pain, and as Diana, panicked, arrived with you back to her homeland desperate for help...Your grandma did something she wasn’t suppose to do.

She used ancient Greek powers that the gods left behind after they disappeared, allowing her to freeze you in time, to stop you from growing a second older, hoping that one day, someone could fix your disease...Hoping that someday, she could unfreeze you and someone would be able to save you. 

How ironic, really, that you were born with this particular part of your body being deficient. Right after your father’s death...almost as if to symbolize your mom’s pain ! A literal broken heart...

It took long agonizing years for the technology in the Men’s World to finally be able to save you. And so your mother brought you with her, a little baby, a little bundle that knew already too much what pain was...Bruce Wayne is the one that paid for the very expensive surgery, and you were safe. 

You were finally able to live your life. Your mother decided that it would be more fit for you to grow up in your father’s world, and though it was totally different from when he was still alive...Diana could finally see an exit to all her pain. 

Especially since she had just made new friends. Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne. And they were building a team together, to protect the World...Diana Prince was done hiding. Diana Prince was done trying to forget. 

It was over. Just like you, she wasn’t frozen in time anymore, she needed to move on. And so a new life began for her, and your life finally started, years after your actual birth. 

************

Your mom told you all about your father, and though you never met him and never would, you greatly admired him. For so many reasons...and it actually really bothered you that no one ever compared you to him. 

You were brave, you were courageous...And sure your mom was too, but your dad was even more ! He sacrificed himself !! An he...

-What are you brooding about (Y/N) ? 

You were in the Justice League Watchtower, sitting on a couch in one of the common room, thinking about how it was unfair that everyone always forgot about your dad, when Jon sat in front of you and Damian next to you and took your mind off of it all. 

You smile at Jon (not noticing how Damian’s eyebrows furrow). That boy’s always been great to take your mind off of things, with his good nature and jokes. And Damian...Well, Damian...He was Damian. Jon was two years younger than you (technically, you were almost 90 years older than him but, since you only grew old afterward...you were his age). Damian was your age (a few months older...well, if we ignored the actual year you were born in). 

-I was just thinking about what Flash said earlier. 

You answer. Damian sightly smirks but says nothing, as Jon smiles at you some more and, putting his hand under his chin, takes a thoughtful expression and says : 

-Which things ? Because like, Flash talks a lot. Both Flashes talks a lot. Was it Uncle Barry or Cousin Wally ? 

You smile slightly at the “uncle” and “cousin” thing, realizing that...yes, all those people are your family. Truly. 

-Uncle Barry. And about how we are the...new “Trinity”. 

Jon’s smile widens even more, and you instantly knows he doesn’t feel like you on that matter. You turn your gaze a bit away from him (and he doesn’t even realize it), and your eyes cross Damian’s. Oh. Him. Him he understands. He always does and...Jon’s voice, once more, takes you away from your daydreaming : 

-I know right ? It’s great ! We’ve entered the great hero pantheon ! 

You can’t help but chuckle at your best friend’s words, and how cute it is that he’s trying to put some greek words in there (you taught him what “pantheon” was a few weeks ago). 

Not wanting to ruin his good mood, you decide to not talk about how annoyed you are at this name. The New Trinity. You wanted to be the new...your own thing. Damian, Jon and (Y/N). Your own selves ! But something was telling you that Jon wouldn’t understand. 

Sure, he was your best friend, but he couldn’t...He was so proud to be like his father. Maybe because everyone was telling him that he was very much like his mother mentally ? Like he took more after her than him ? So he was happy to feel connected to him in that way ? 

Yes. That’s something you could understand. And so, instead of saying what you really think, and though you hate to lie to him, you say : 

-Yeah, it’s pretty cool right ? 

Jon nods and his attention is suddenly caught by a sound neither you nor Damian can hear. He stands up and after a “be right back”, leaves the two of you for some unknown location. 

Damian grumbles something and shakes his head, which makes you smile. 

-I knew I wasn’t the only broody one. 

You say, a mischievous look on your face. You know it’s going to annoy him. A bit like you, he dislikes being constantly compared to his father (even more to his mother, for obvious reasons), and just the word “broody” is sensitive with him, as it’s the word everyone uses to qualify his dad’s daily mood. 

But your smile...The way your eyes squeezes because of it, and your nose wrinkles...He can’t help but smile back at you. 

You’ve always had that effect on him. 

You guys met years ago, before you even met Jon. 

Ever since you were a child, you spend a lot of time at the Wayne household as it seems like your mother and Damian’s father just really got along, and needed each others often for emotional support. There wasn’t any ambiguity between them, they really were just friends, very closed ones. 

You spend a lot of time there, bonding with Dick, Jason and Tim...The day Damian arrived, you remembered as if it was yesterday, even though it was over seven years ago. 

You could have hated him, because he really was a disrespectful brat at the time...And yet, yet you never did. 

He was awful to you at first, but unlike everyone around him, instead of getting mad and such...you talked back, you stood your ground, or sometimes, downright ignored him. 

You never hated him though, no matter how harsh he was with you. And just like that...You were the first one that ever broke his shell. The first one to ever see the true Damian, the insecure and full of self-doubts little boy who just really wanted his father’s approval. 

This is probably what attracted him to you irrevocably. What made him want to be with you all the time. Of course, at the time, you two were merely children, and there were no romance there, only a very strong friendship. But as the years passed...his feelings changed. He’d never admit it though, as he was pretty sure you had a crush on Jon, not him. And oh, how wrong he was. 

But that wasn’t the story right now. Nop’. Right now wasn’t about how he felt about you, or rather, wether he liked you that way or not..But about what bothered you in that instant. 

He could see you weren’t happy. He hated to see you like that...And so, casually, as if he was just starting yet another conversation, he smiles slightly at your remark on him being broody (knowing perfectly that you were trying to annoy him so you guys wouldn’t talk about yourself) and say :

-I know what you’re doing. 

You give him a half-smile and plunge your (E/C) eyes into his green ones. 

His heart skips a beat..

-Oh yeah ? And what am I doing then, Robin ? 

He’s overly aware of how close you are from him right now, as you leaned towards him, your lips so. Damn. Close. His heart skips another beat, and to his own amazement, when he speaks again, his voice doesn’t even falters or shakes : 

-You’re trying to make fun of me, to annoy me, so that we don’t talk about why you’re bothered that everyone calls us the “new Trinity”. You know, I’m not ten anymore, those old tricks don’t work. 

Your smile disappear and he feels his heart tightens this time. He hates thinking it’d be his fault if you...But your smile is back in an instant, as you regain countenance over yourself. You look at him intently and say, suddenly looking away : 

-You know why it bothers me. 

For a second, you’re afraid he’ll make you say it out loud. 

He’ve already done it before, forcing you to open up to him, knowing it’ll make you feel better. But this time...This time you really don’t wanna talk about it. Because it’ll make you talk about your father and you can never talk about him without wanting to cry... 

Damian tries to decipher the expression of your face, and...He thinks he understands. And he truly does. 

-Yes. I do know why it bothers you. 

You’re wrong, to worry about him forcing you to talk today. He understands that it’s not the time. And so, instead, with gentle movements, he takes your hand in his and squeezes it slightly. 

You’re startled by his sudden touch, but don’t pull away. You smile weakly at him and...yes. Yes he understands why you’re bothered about being called “the New Trinity”. 

He lets you put your head on his shoulder, and you stay like that for a moment. It’s comfortable. It’s nice. It’s what friendship looks like, two people always being there for each others. But it’s also...Something more ? 

From the corner of the room, Jon, who came back after checking something out, looks at you, an enigmatic smile on his face. 

He knew it. He knew that that damn stubborn Damian felt something for you too ! Or he would have never let him touch you like that. It was common knowledge he wasn’t such a fan of public display of affection like that, and yet, in front of all the heroes present in the common room...He let you put your head on his shoulder. 

************

It was oh so frustrating, to know that your best friends were in love with each others, but that they were both too proud and stubborn to ever say it out loud.

It was oh so frustrating, to see your best friends get jealous whenever the other one would talk to a girl/boy, or even go on dates, and yet doing nothing. 

It was oh so frustrating, and heart breaking, to see your best friends sad and getting sick over the other one dating someone else, but still not admitting their feelings...

Jon have had enough. 

Enough of seeing you and Damian turning around each other without ever doing anything. Enough of seeing your almost kisses and soft touches in the midst of battles. Enough of seeing you hurt to see the other ones with others. Enough of seeing you two fight for no reasons, trying to avoid talking about your feelings for each others ! 

Jon had to do something. But what ? 

************

Making them go on a date without their knowledge worked brilliantly. 

It also was an easy plan to make really. He just had to tell you guys to meet him at Gotham county Fair and not show up. At the last minute, he said he couldn’t come, and you and Damian spend the day together at the fair. 

Jon, a bit creepily, stalked you guys. 

He almost screamed out in frustration when, in the haunted mansion, a monster startled you and you jumped in Damian’s arms, your face so close to his, your lips getting closer and...the monster coming back to scare you ruining the moment. 

When he passed after you and Damian (as he followed you guys discreetly), he tripped over the actor in the monster suit. He felt a bit bad about it, but damn, almost kiss again ! 

You two were so made for each other, he knew it. After all, he was your best friend ! He could see all the looks you gave each others, all the laughs and smiles you shared. 

Only you could make him laugh so hard. 

Only him could make you smile so sweetly.  

And looking at you, going around the fun fair like that, he was just more and more sure that you were made for each other. 

You took silly pictures in the Photo Booth, you went on the ferris wheel, making the wagon you were in rock dangerously, laughing your ass off (you got banned from the ferris wheel after that..), you went to the haunted mansion and went out fingers tangled...only to realize you were holding each others hands and awkwardly apologizing and letting go (grrrroooooaaaaah !!! Jon screamed in his head). He won a teddy bear at darts for you, you won a stuffed animal (a dog of course) for him. You joked around. You talked, about anything and everything, about nothing too. 

It almost seemed like you were both just regular teenagers dating. Even though you were far from normal teenagers...That’s why Jon knew you guys were made for each other. 

You made the other one feel normal. Feel like the World wasn’t too fucked up...

************

Jon jinxed himself. He knew it. By thinking that making you guys go on an unknown-date things were going to move forward, he was oh so wrong. 

Things didn’t move at all. Not one bit. 

You guys acted like the great day you had spend together was just another friendship thing. Like you didn’t almost kiss a few times. Like, when the man to whom Damian bought a candy apple for you said : “Oh gentleman, buying things for his girlfriend ! Youngsters this days don’t do that anymore...” neither you nor Damian corrected him and said that you weren’t his girlfriend...never happened. 

It has been like that for YEARS !! Bot h of you acting as if you were “just very good friends”. 

No. 

You were more than that. 

You were good friends with Jon. You’d hug Jon, but never put your head on his shoulder. Damian would always have a good time with Jon, but he’d never laugh so full heartedly with him than he did with you. You’d smile at Jon, but you’d never give him that sweet little tender smile. Jon would tease you sometimes, but instead of blushing like you did with Damian, you’d laugh and talk back. And whenever you’d do that, Damian would literally smell like “jealousy”...

You were friends with Jon. Best friends. You’d die for him, and he would for the both of you. A strong bond linked you all, the fact that people called you the “new Trinity” wasn’t just because you were similar to your parents and such. It was also because of how strong your friendship was, how you always were there for each other etc etc...But the link that was between you and Damian was different. 

Jon noticed it from day one. The first time he met you two, you were twelve and him ten. His father had kept him away from any superhero stuffs for a while but, after realizing that his son was also a super, he just brought him in too...and that’s when he met you two. 

Already there, Jon noticed how different Damian would be around you. How softer his voice would be when talking to you. How guilty he felt whenever he was acting like a douche towards you. And you...You would be less sassy with him than with other people. 

Already there, Jon noticed that there was something special between the two of you. And he just knew he was right !! 

But his little trick, making you guys going on a “date”, made him realize something...you two were two damn stubborn to ever admit your true feelings to each other ! He had to take another offensive.

************

It was a disaster. 

For the past three months, Jon very obviously stated multiple times that you liked each other, and instead of denying it, both of you would just plainly ignore him ! Treat him like a child ! He hated that ! 

He went to sleep over at Wayne Manor once, to see how Gotham’s street were...He downright told Damian that you liked him, and Damian just turned towards him, stunned, said :

-Don’t be silly Jon, she can’t like me. 

And continued his damn patrol !! Hell even Damian’s father was surprised when only Jon was there, and not you ! So used to always see you guys together more than with anyone else ! 

When Jon told the Batman that he was sure that you and Damian liked each other, Bruce slightly smiled and said : 

-Of course they do. Don’t fret Jon, they’ll realize it one day...

Jon stopped himself from saying something about how it took years to Bruce to “realize” that he was really in love with Selina Kyle and wanted to marry her...Wasted years ! 

He couldn’t let his friends waste that much time when it was obvious you were so into each others...

When he told you Damian liked you, you had the same reaction than him, that’s how much alike you were ! How PERFECT you’d be together !! 

And when he asked both of you why you thought the other one couldn’t like you, you said the same thing again : 

-Because you idiot, he/she’s too good for me ! 

...Jon didn’t understand. He just couldn’t. 

************

You always thought that Damian was the smartest and bravest man you’ve ever met. 

He always thought you were the smartest and bravest woman he ever met. 

It was always like that, and it drove Jon crazy. You both loved (he was now sure it was not just a teenage infatuation) each other for the same reason, and yet were blind to see that the other one did too ! It baffled him, how smart and yet so daft you both could be. 

Jon tried everything he could. He tried to set you up on other “dates”, it ended up every time the same way. Just...”we’re friends”. 

He tried to tell you outright, you wouldn’t believe him. He tried to confront you with it with both of you in the same room, but you’d just turn everything into ridicule and mock him. Act as if he was going crazy. Jon knew this was some sort of...self-defence mechanism you both had...And yet. 

Jon tried everything. And he was tired. He decided to give up...at least for now. 

************

-I understand my little one. 

You sigh in relief, as your mother ruffle your hair lovingly, as she used to do when you were a child. 

You had just told her everything, about how bothered you were by this “new Trinity” thing, and about how you wished people would recognize your father more. You were afraid to hurt her feelings...Bringing your father up was never really a good idea. And telling your mother that you were tired to be compared to her ? Maybe it wasn’t the most delicate thing to do but you couldn’t lie anymore...

You smile weakly at her, and she shakes her head. She grabs your face between her hands and say : 

-(Y/N), my dearest one, please, don’t ever feel like you can’t tell me something alright ? I couldn’t always talk to my mother when I was young and...I just want you to know that I’ll always be there for you, not matter how...delicate a topic is. Ok ? 

You nod shyly, which was stupid, because this was your mom ! Why were you shy with her ? A soothing kiss from her on your forehead makes you forget all your worry and, just like when you were a child, you close your eyes and dive into her arms as she opens them for you. 

Her hugs were always the best. She holds you tight against her heart, and starts to sing one of those Greek lullaby you like so much...and oh you decide it’s magic, because just like that, she makes you blurt out : 

-I really like Damian and I have no idea how to deal with those feelings !

You can’t see her face, but you know your mom is smiling slightly above you. 

************

-You don’t know what to do with those feelings uh ? Have you ever told her ? 

-God no ! What if she doesn’t like me back ? 

-What if she does ?

It’s very rare, that Damian would speak so openly with his father. He wanted to talk to Dick, but his brother wasn’t around that day and...The way his dad asked him what was the matter just made him want to talk to him. 

And for one of those rare time, he did. He told his dad everything about how he felt and such. He told him his doubts, how his heart beat so much around you etc etc. 

-I don’t know father, I don’t know. 

Bruce can’t help but smile sweetly at his son. It makes his heart swell, to talk about such trivial matters with him. As if they were a normal father and son, and not just...Them. 

-Damian, my boy...What’s the worst that could happen ? 

He could loose you. That’s what the worst that could happen. He could loose you and your friendship forever. By not telling he loved you, he ensured the fact that you’d always be friend, that him telling you how he felt and you not reciprocating wouldn’t make things awkward ! By acting as if you were just friends, he would make sure you’d always be around...And even if one day, you fall in love with someone else, at least he’ll still have your friendship ! 

-Damian, you guys have been friends since forever. Let’s imagine she doesn’t feel the same way for you...It will indeed be weird for a while, but in time, things will get back to normal. It won’t...It won’t change your friendship. 

Something in his dad’s voice makes Damian flinch : 

-Are you...are you talking by experience? 

Bruce nods. 

-Way before your birth. I thought I loved Diana. Hell, I probably really did love her, though now the feelings I have for Selina makes me realize that maybe it wasn’t love with a big “L”. What I mean by that is...I told her. And you know what ? She didn’t feel the same. Her heart was still not over Steve Trevor. And she rejected me...Are we not friends anymore ? 

-...No. 

-So, Damian, my boy, tell me, knowing that this won’t destroy your friendship...If you tell her how you really feel, what’s the worst that could happen ? 

************

Loosing you. 

That’s the worst that could happen. 

Loosing you for good. 

“The New Trinity” was called for what was suppose to be an easy mission...that quickly turned into a disaster. 

Jon, you and Damian were fighting for your lives, waiting for the cavalry to arrive...

A trap. It was a trap. 

Apokolips’ troops were waiting for you. A large amount of them. Too many to be able to fight them all, even if you were “the new Trinity”. 

You were back to back, making sure you’d all protect each others’ blind side. 

Back to back. 

Protecting each others, being there for each others, as you always were. 

But that day, Bruce’s words were floating around in Damian’s head, and the advise your mom gave you were also in yours. And you weren’t focused enough for that, you weren’t ready enough ! 

This was just suppose to be a reckon mission ! 

Jon sees it. But he can’t do anything about it. 

He also sees the spear lunging towards Damian...but even though he’s fast and strong, he’s busy with his own ennemies and know he won’t be there in time to save his friend ! 

But you’re there...In the way...The spear hits you right in the heart. 

At the same time, your parents arrive, as well as the rest of the League. 

It takes a few minutes for them to annihilate Apokolips’ troop. Your mother doesn’t see you, in Damian’s arms, a spear in your heart...

Damian feels himself crying. His vision is blurry with tears, and as he looks up to Jon, he says : 

-She’ll pull through right ? Right Jon ? Tell me she’ll pull through ! 

But Jon can’t say it. He can’t say anything. A lump is stuck in this throat. He falls down on his knees, and takes his head in his hands, not able to stop himself from sobbing...He just witnessed his best friend dying, and he wasn’t able to do anything about it ! Jon took your hand and...did you just squeeze it back ? 

Damian could feel his heart slowly tearing apart, as he held your lifeless body in his arms...And all of the sudden, the words blurt out : 

-No. No. No come back please, come back (Y/N). I can’t live without you. You’re my best friend. You’re my...You’re my everything. Please come back...Come back. I’ve got so much to tell you...Please...Come back. Come back. I love you (Y/N), I love you so much...I lied, I dont’ think you’re just my friend, you’re more than that to me...You’re...you’re my everything...please...

The raging battle around you all comes to an end. 

Damian, face riddled with tears, looks up and is faced with your mother...

How could he ? How could he tell her that you died, sacrificing yourself to save him ? How could he ? 

But your mom...She...smiles ? 

-Well, if people don’t start comparing you with your father now, I don’t know when they will. 

You groan. Wait...You groan ? And you move in Damian’s arms. Laboriously. It’s difficult. You cough a bit, but not blood. 

Wait. Come to think of it, there’s no blood anywhere. What ? 

You open one eye, then the other. Your mom smiles down at you, as well as the rest of the League. They saw how you jumped in front of your friend to save him. You can see how Bruce thanks you in silence. 

And you can see Damian’s face. Tears. His confused expression, him not registering you’re not dead. A shit-eating grin spread on your face as you say : 

-I’m your everything uh ? You love me uh ? 

Your mom shakes her head, and say : 

-Oh that’s also definitely your father. Damn that man and his sometimes a bit cruel teasing, his stupid sense of humor. 

Jon looks at you and, suddenly understanding what’s going on says : 

-Oh no you didn’t just do that ! I can’t believe it ! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT (Y/N) !! 

You smile at him and winks, which makes you wince a bit...Sure, you were wearing your impossible to pierce armor that your grandmother gave you (a bit like Mithril in the Lord of the Rings you told her...she didn’t understand), and so the spear didn’t do any permanent damage but...man it was going to bruise ! 

That spear was launched with force ! 

Jon is on his feet already, and, throwing his arms in the air, he gives you his best : “WHAT THE FUCK ?!” facial expression. Your mother can’t help but laugh, and pat him on the back, an understanding look on her face. 

Damian is still stunned. What was going on ? 

And suddenly. It hits him too. Yes. The armor that can’t be pierced. It’s as if someone shot you and you were wearing a bulletproof vest. Bruised but not dead. 

He ignores your teasing, the way you said : “so you love me uh ?” and takes you in his arms, holding you tight in his arms. 

-Don’t ever do that to me again you idiot, don’t you dare do that again...

He says. You smile and hug him back, saying : 

-Becauuuuuse...You love me ? 

He doesn’t even care you’re not saying it back, as he says again : 

-Yes. I love you. 

You smile and answer : 

-Good. Cause I love you too. 

The kiss you share is a bit clumsy and shy, but it’s a good one. And when he lifts you up in his arms and helps you up on the league’s ship, you feel happier than ever. 

Jon too, is happy. And oh so finally relief. It took him months for that to finally happen ! If only he knew that the only thing that would make you guys admit to each other that you were in love was a life endangering situation, he would have found a way BEFORE that...

Your mom and Damian’s father smile at each other. They couldn’t dream of a better person for their children that those two eh ? 

In the ship, bundled against Damian, you realize that...Yeah, it wasn’t actually that difficult to say it. Because you love him. For real. You just love him. 

As simple as that. 

And he loves you and...The worst didn’t happen. He hoped the worst would never happen...He would make sure it would never happen. 

Another clumsy kiss, and...yes. As simple as that. 

___________________

This is the fucking worst. I wrote this annoyed at something and couldn’t focus totally on it. Besides, there were a lot of people talking around me and such and...yeah I really couldn’t focus. I’m still posting it though, because I know myself, I won’t ever re-write it and it’ll be lost in my drafts forever, like other finished stories are (finished stories I really hate)...So I figured, since I promised a Damian story, I’ll just post it and so be it. Anyway. The End. 

PS : Let’s be honest for a second, this might be erased because I feel really self-conscious about how bad it is. Like way more than usual. UH.

[shadow-light19]

Traveling Home Chapter 8: The Ruins

Summary: I probably won't update again for a while. I have more midterms coming up and finals are coming up as well. Panchito will vary between calling Donald his real name, Donal', and Donaldo as he and José have called him all these before in the comics.

Notes: Donald attempts to escape the temple. Scrooge and the others begin to talk about funeral plans. Panchito and Perrosá finally reach the ruins.

Previous Chapter: https://shadow-light19.tumblr.com/post/173408138832/traveling-home-chapter-7-the-news

Next Chapter: https://shadow-light19.tumblr.com/post/175429927832/traveling-home-chapter-9-the-ruins-part-2

Donald couldn’t stop pacing.

The Ahuizotl knows I’m trying to escape. That’s why it’s destroying the stairways. It wants to trap me here.

He slid the bag off his shoulders.

Is there anything in here I can use?

He tossed aside supplies, garbage wrappers from the small number of snacks he had eaten, and an empty water bottle. At the very bottom of his bag, was a long coil of rope.

That’s right! When Scrooge and I were stuck in the quicksand, we used HIS rope! I can escape with this!

He chucked everything back into his bag and slung it over his shoulders again. He walked back to the last stairway he was at. When he entered the wrecked room and couldn’t hear the Ahuizotl, Donald got right to work. He tied a lasso and picked his way across the room to the hole in the ceiling where the stairway was. Donald scanned the room above for anything he could snag the rope onto.

It took a while but he found a broken support pillar that was still attached to the floor. Donald threw the rope several times and smiled when it hooked. As he hoisted himself onto the rope, he heard a thunderous roar from the Ahuizotl.

Oh, great! He figured it out!

Donald started climbing as quickly as he could but just as he was almost to the top, the Ahuizotl burst into the room.

“Oh, come on!” He shrieked.

The Ahuizotl turned its attention to him. It lunged and Donald barely managed to swing the rope out of the way fast enough to dodge it. However, he had forgotten about the hand for a tail. As the Ahuizotl lunged past, the hand dug its nails tightly into Donald’s leg.

“Augghh!”

His grip slipped and he slid a few inches on the rope. He was supporting his weight and the weight of the Ahuizotl hanging from his leg. Donald kicked out at the hand with his other foot. He landed several hits but it didn’t seem to deter the Ahuiztol’s grip at all. It made Donald slide down another few inches on the rope.

“I’m not dying today, so LET GO!” He swung himself on the rope.

The Ahuizotl swung into the wall and as it weakened its grip in pain, Donald kicked at the hand as fiercely as he could. The nails ripped through his leg but it gave a shriek as it released its grip and slammed into the ground. Donald wasted no time climbing the last few inches up and heaved himself over the edge. He hobbled away from the hole towards the entrance to the ruins and didn’t stop until he was standing at the border between the marshes and the ruins.

“F-Finally. I m-made it.” He slid to the ground next to a chunk of stone.

Donald looked down at his leg as shouldered the bag off. It was bathed in red but he couldn’t tell if it was from the sunset or the blood from the gashes in his leg. He grabbed his phone and the bandages from the bag. As he cleaned and wrapped his leg, he noted it would probably need another dressing as the bandages were quickly turning red. He then grabbed the phone and turned it on. Or tried to.

“Come o-on. S-Stupid phone! Please t-turn on!”

He tried again but it didn’t work. It was dead. Donald slumped against the stone.

“H-Ha, ha, ha, h-ha. W-Who gets s-stuck with all the b-bad luck? No-one b-but Donald D-Duck.”

Day 4 Evening

“Thank you all for coming at such short notice. I know this is a hard time for everyone but I appreciate the fact that you put aside your busy lives to come. Even though your all staying at the mansion, I called this meeting to discuss the funeral arrangement for Donald.” Scrooge addressed everyone around him.

He noted all of Donald’s friends were seated together on the couch, except for Panchito and José. Panchito hadn’t replied to the letter they had sent but José promised that he would arrive in 3 days. He was planning to see if he could find Panchito first before he caught a plane to Duckburg. Feathry and Gladstone had sat together on the armchair. Grandma Duck was sitting with Daisy on the loveseat. The two were holding the other’s hand and tearfully listening along to Scrooge. All the children were somewhere in the mansion.

“Now, I plan to cover the costs of everything but I wanted your opinion on the service and the date. Since everyone is already here, I believe that setting the funeral for four days from now will give us time to prepare everything.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Then that is settled. I wanted to get input from you guys for…”

The kids were all huddled together in Huey’s room.

“It’s hard to believe that he’s dead.” Huey whispered.

Louie nodded. “I kept waking up in the middle of the night to see if he’s checked on us or fixed the bed.”

Dewey sighed. “Remember how he used warble in his sleep whenever one of us started having a nightmare?”

“Yeah… It always calmed us down really quick.” Louie chuckled.

“Or how he would dull sharpened pencils so we couldn’t prick ourselves with them?” Dewey chimed in.

The three chuckled at the memories.

“I keep thinking this is all a bad dream and we’re just gonna wake up and he’ll be there spazzing in worry.” Louie’s voice cracked.

Webby frowned sadly at them. She looked at the door and then back to the boys.

“Do you think you should talk to Scrooge soon?” Webby questioned.

The boys had turned the cold shoulder to him ever since they got the news.

Huey sighed.

“Yeah. We should apologize. I lost my temper and he didn’t deserve that.”

Louie and Dewey turned to Huey.

“He totally deserved it!” Louie started.

“No, he didn’t. It was an accident and we pushed all the blame on him. He’s hurting too and we are only making it worse.”

The two looked at the ground.

“…You’re right. We’ll talk to him after their meeting.”

Louie turned to Dewey.

“Seriously, Dewy? You’re going to agree with him?”

Dewey put a wing on Louie’s shoulder.

“Family helps family, Louie. I know Uncle Donald had a grudge with Uncle Scrooge, but he wouldn’t want us to have one.”

Louie couldn’t hide the pained whimper that sounded from him. Webby and his brothers hugged him. Louie took a deep breath.

“Alright. We’ll talk after the meeting.” They all nodded.

After that everyone devolved into awkward silence. Max looked around the room and saw the tv and game station in the corner. Max cleared his throat.

“When my mom passed away, Dad and I spent time together in order to cheer each other up. Maybe we could play games now and then after you guys talk with Scrooge, we can go hang out with everyone. It’s been a long time since we’ve had so many friends and family in the same place.”

The others smiled at him. Leave it to a Goof to cheer everyone up.

Day 4 Night

Panchito and Perrosá walked through the mountains as quickly as they could. When night fell, they slept until the moment the sun broke the sky and it was light enough to see. By the end of the 2nd day, the two had reached the base of the mountain.

“Should we wait for morning to reach the temple? It can be dangerous maneuvering through the marshes.” Perrosá questioned.

“If you are still up for continuing then I would like to do so. Donald might be in trouble and I know if our situations were reversed, he wouldn’t stop unless he needed to.” Panchito strode forward.

He pulled the stick from his back and starting forward, poking ahead of him as he went. Perrosá shrugged and followed along. The moon, although not full, was still bright enough that the two could see relatively well. They walked for several minutes when Panchito noticed something odd sticking out of the mud.

“Aye! A hiking stick! This must’ve been Donald’s. We are close my friend.” Panchito grabbed the stick and placed it in the basket on his back.

“Are you sure you two are not hermanos? You’re enthusiasm knows no bounds amigo and I feel like only familia would know how to deal with it for as long as you’ve known each other.” She teased.

Panchito laughed heartily.

“Sí, Perrosá! José, Donaldo, and I are hermanos honorarios. The Three Caballeros! We write letters all the time and every now and then, we’ll get together. I don’t know what I’d do if I he was gone.”

The mood turned somber.

Perrosá let out a soft sigh. She patted his shoulder and they continued onwards.

Compared to their trip through the mountains, getting through the marshes wasn’t as long, but it was much more dangerous. Multiple times, the two had almost walked into quicksand. Eventually, they were finally approaching the ruins.

“I think we should rest once we reach the ruins. Going through the marshes was stressful and You and I need to be ready in case we encounter the Ahuizotl while looking for Donald.” Perrosá advised.

Panchito sighed. He looked up from the ground and scanned the ruins.

“I think there’s a good spot over there. There’s a slab of stone that- “Panchito’s eyes widened.

There, slumped against the stone, was Donald Duck. He was unconscious.

“Donal’!”  

Translations

“Hermano(s)” – Brother(s)

“Amigo” – Friend

“Familia” – Family

“Honorarios” – Honorary

“Caballeros” - Gentlemen

[poetsdieadolescents]

Songs to Survive the Summer by Robert Hass

These are the dog days, unvaried except by accident,

mist rising from soaked lawns, gone world, everything rises and dissolves in air, 

whatever it is would clear the air dissolves in air and the knot

of days unties invisibly like a shoelace. The gray-eyed child 

who said to my child: “Let’s play in my yard. It’ OK, my mother’s dead.”

* 

Under the loquat tree. It’s almost a song, the echo of a song:

on the bat’s back I fly merrily toward summer or at high noon

in the outfield clover guzzling Orange Crush, time endless, examining

a wooden coin I’d carried all through summer without knowing it.

The coin was grandpa’s joke, carved from live oak, Indian side and buffalo side.

His eyes lustered with a mirth so deep and rich he never laughed, as if it were a cosmic

secret that we shared. I never understood; it married in my mind with summer. Don’t

take any wooden nickels, kid, and gave me one under the loquat tree.

*

The squalor of mind is formlessness, informis,

the Romans said of ugliness, it has no form, a man’s misery, bleached skies,

the war between desire and dailiness. I thought this morning of Wallace Stevens

walking equably to work and of a morning two Julys ago on Chestnut Ridge, wandering

down the hill when one rusty elm leaf, earth- skin peeling, wafted

by me on the wind. My body groaned toward fall and preternaturally

a heron lifted from the pond. I even thought I heard the ruffle of the wings

three hundred yards below me rising from the reeds. Death is the mother of beauty

and that clean-shaven man smelling of lotion, lint-free, walking

toward his work, a pure exclusive music in his mind.

*

The mother of the neighbor child was thirty-one, died, at Sunday breakfast,

of a swelling in the throat. On a toy loom she taught my daughter

how to weave. My daughter was her friend and now she cannot sleep

for nighttime sirens, sure that every wail is someone dead.

Should I whisper in her ear, death is the mother of beauty? Wooden

nickels, kid? It’s all in shapeliness, give your fears a shape?

*

In fact, we hide together in her books. Prairie farms, the heron

knows the way, old country songs, herbal magic, recipes for soup,

tales of spindly orphan girls who find the golden key, the

darkness at the center of the leafy wood. And when she finally sleeps

I try out Chekhov’s tenderness to see what it can save.

*

Maryushka the beekeeper’s widow, though three years mad,

writes daily letters to her son. Semyon tran- scribes them. The pages

are smudged by his hands, stained with the dregs of tea:

“My dearest Vanushka, Sofia Agrippina’s ill again. The master

asks for you. Wood is dear. The cold is early. Poor

Sofia Agrippina! The foreign doctor gave her salts

but Semyon says her icon candle guttered St. John’s eve. I am afraid,

Vanya. When she’s ill, the master likes to have your sister flogged.

She means no harm. The rye is gray this time of year.

When it is bad, Vanya, I go into the night and the night eats me.”

*

The haiku comes in threes with the virtues of brevity:

           What a strange thing!            To be alive            beneath plum blossoms.

The black-headed Steller’s jay is squawking in our plum.

Thief! Thief! A hard, indifferent bird, he’d snatch your life.

*

The love of books is for children who glimpse in them

a life to come, but I have come to that life and

feel uneasy with the love of books. This is my life,

time islanded in poems of dwindled time. There is no other world.

*

But I have seen it twice. In the Palo Alto marsh sea bird rose is early light

and took me with them. Another time, dreaming, river birds lifted me,

swans, small angelic terns, and an old woman in a shawl dying by a dying lake

whose life raised men from the dead in another country.

*

Thick nights, and nothing lets us rest. In the heat of mid-July our lust

is nothing. We swell and thicken. Slippery, purgatorial, our sexes

will not give us up. Exhausted after hours and not undone,

we crave cold marrow from the tiny bones that moonlight scatters

on our skin. Always morning arrives, the stunned days,

faceless, droning in the juice of rotten quince, the flies, the heat.

*

Tears, silence. The edified generations eat me, Maryushka.

I tell them pain is form and almost persuade

myself. They are not listening. Why should they? Who

cannot save me any more than I, weeping over Great Russian Short

Stories in summer, under the fattened figs, saved you. Besides

it is winter there. They are trying out a new recipe for onion soup.

*

Use a heavy-bottomed three- or four-quart pan. Thinly slice six large

yellow onions and sauté in olive oil and butter until limp. Pour in

beef broth. Simmer thirty minutes, add red port and bake

for half an hour. Then sprinkle half a cup of diced Gruyère and cover

with an even layer of toasted bread and shredded Samsoe. Dribble

melted butter on the top and bake until the cheese has bubbled gold.

Surround yourself with friends. Huddle in a warm place. Ladle. Eat.

*

Weave and cry. Child, every other siren is a death;

the rest are for speeding. Look how comically the jay’s black head emerges

from a swath of copper leaves. Half the terror is the fact that,

in our time, speed saves us, a whine we’ve traded for the hopeless patience

of the village bell which tolled in threes: weave and cry and weave.

*

Wilhelm Steller, form’s hero, made a healing broth.

He sailed with Bering and the crew despised him, a mean impatient man

born low enough to hate the lower class. For two years

he’d connived to join the expedition and put his name to all the beasts

and flowers of the north. Now Bering sick, the crew half-mad with scurvy,

no one would let him go ashore. Panic, the maps were useless,

the summer weather almost gone. He said, there are herbs that can cure you,

I can save you all, He didn’t give a damn about them and they knew it. For two years

he’d prepared. Bering listened. Asleep in his bunk, he’s seen death writing in the log.

On the island while the sailors searched for water Steller gathered herbs

and looking up he saw the blue, black-crested bird, shrilling in a pine.

His mind flipped to Berlin, the library, a glimpse he’d had at Audubon,

a blue-gray crested bird exactly like the one that squawked at him, a

Carolina jay, unlike any European bird; he knew then where they were,

America, we’re saved. No one believed him or, sick for home, he didn’t care

what wilderness it was. They set sail west. Bering died.

Steller’s jay, by which I found Alaska. He wrote it in his book.

*

Saved no one. Still, walking in the redwoods I hear the cry

thief, thief and think of Wilhelm Steller; in my dream we

are all saved. Camping on a clement shore in early fall, a strange land.

We feast most delicately. The swans are stuffed with grapes, the turkey with walnut

and chestnut and wild plum. The river is our music: unalaska (to make bread from acorns

we leach the tannic acid out– this music, child, and more, much more!)

*

When I was just your age, the war was over and we moved.

An Okie family lived next door to our new country house. That summer

Quincy Phipps was saved. The next his house became an unofficial Pentecostal church.

Summer nights: hidden in the garden I ate figs, watched where the knobby limbs

rose up and flicked against the windows where they were. O Je-sus.

Kissed and put to bed, I slipped from the window to the eaves and nestled

by the loquat tree. The fruit was yellow-brown in daylight; under the moon

pale clusters hung like other moons, O Je-sus, and I picked them;

the fat juices dribbling down my chin, I sucked and listened.

Men groaned. The women sobbed and moaned, a long unsteady belly-deep

bewildering sound, half pleasure and half pain that ended sometimes

in a croon, a broken song: O Je-sus, Je-sus.

*

That is what I have to give you, child, stories, songs, loquat seeds,

curiously shaped; they are the frailest stay against our fears. Death

in the sweetness, in the bitter and the sour, death in the salt, your tears,

this summer ripe and overripe. It is a taste in the mouth, child. We are the song

death takes its own time singing. It calls us as I call you child

to calm myself. It is every thing touched casually, lovers, the images

of saviors, books, the coin I carried in my pocket till it shone, it is

all things lustered by the steady thoughtlessness of human use.

[helloarmchairphilosopher]

Writer's works in progress

I saw that someone else had written up their wip-s, so maybe writing up mine will make me GET ON WITH IT and help me write more on one (or more) of them. 1) 1938 Brooklyn Murder mystery: in which a Ripper (any killer with a knife is always dubbed a Ripper by the press, it's a thing) stalks the young men of the queer/gay community of Brooklyn. One by one young men die and the cops either can't or won't do anything about a few dead [slur]; the mob doesn't care either; war looms in Europe; the Mayor is trying to clean up the city before the World's Fair; the dynamics of the queer community itself is changing as men and women who previously might not have considered themselves part of it are thrown in with it, with new laws meant to manage a moral society; and two men, in exactly that predicament, are watching their friends dying at the hands of the Ripper and hoping they're not next, while dealing with feelings for each other. (The historian in me has run amok.) 2) The Sweater Curse: (Bagginshield) In which hobbits consider it bad luck to make crocheted or knitted garments for themselves (a sign that one has no kin) because sweaters are made and given between first and second degree blood relatives (parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews). Other kinds of garments are given freely. If a sweater is given to an unrelated person it is considered a proposal. In which dwarves make their own crocheted or knitted garments for themselves (a sign of their craft-skill and self-sufficiency). Other kinds of garments are bought and sold freely. If a sweater is offered as a gift to another person it is befuddling at best and an insult at worst. The Sweater Curse in our world says that if a person, usually a woman, starts to make a sweater for their significant other, usually a man, before they are married, the relationship will end. The fic I'd imagined had a happy ending - with Thorin thinking that Bilbo had been making the sweater for himself. "You loveable dunce, did you never notice I'd keep borrowing Kíli to size it correctly for you? I'd be swimming in it!" 3) transman Phil Coulson fic. I'm not trans, so I'd have to tread carefully here. My real aim is feminism and femininity. A male Coulson has leeway in a manner that a female Coulson would not. A male Coulson is not told that he is missing out on the essential manly quality of being a father and a husband; he is not automatically assumed, on walking into a room, to be the secretary or the assistant. Women always have to be twice as good to be perceived as half as competent, and then (often) they're told not to be a b*tch about it. But all this from the point of Clint Barton, who is kind of clueless, and who really loves Phil (I kind of love this ship and like the rest of the fandom I'm not really sure why), means that he just sees grade-A badass Phil Coulson. Full stop. No edits. No matter what is, or isn't, in his past, in his pants, in his medical file, or what his parents used to call him. 4) Werewolf romance novel Tall dark and handsome (TM) is the antagonist who is stalking and eating people. He's a creep who plays into rape culture and preys on young women who think that his bad boy vibe cover up anything other than a black heart. The protagonist is a smart and kick-ass young woman with a shiny degree and huge student loans working below her talents, as a barman, which is how she knows of the antagonist and his creepiness. She has a friend, her landlady's daughter, who is close to her age. (Yay for passing the Bechdel test? I'd better, after actually meeting Alison Bechdel.) The love interest is this sandy blonde dorky guy, a drifter who works construction and throws darts at the bar. When people start getting chewed up he's the prime suspect, and even our protagonist doesn't know what to think - but only until our antagonist tries to take a bite out of her, and he intervenes, as a werewolf. And from there it's your usual. I got sick of the werewolf books with creepy rape culture overtones and not passing the Bechdel test and thought, I could do better. 5) a Clint Barton/Darcy Lewis fanfic, in which she helps patch him up after Loki's mind control. In the comics, Clint had a pretty messed up childhood. Circus, dad who beat him, taught to shoot by a man who beat him and then used him first as a thief and then as a killer (or so I loosely understand; and I'd be using a variation on that in the fic, anyway). He would have had to have therapy for it at SHIELD just to be functional as an agent around people. But Loki's mind control messed with all that, breaking the locks and self-management he'd had for so long. He'd have major depressive episodes and PTSD following it. And Darcy, being a civilian, might not be the best person to bring him out, but she was there for Thor and the Destroyer. She saw some shit. And who knows what she had in her childhood. (I do, because I created it, but I'm the author and I can do what I like.) What was done by Loki cannot be undone, but what was done before Loki could, just maybe, be done over again, more painstakingly and with greater care, like walking around the glass shards of a broken vase. 6) a Fíli/fem!Bilbo fic: in which a pregnant Bilbo runs from the Mountain. (Thorin died of his wounds, but Fíli and Kíli survived.) Bilbo, in whatever feminized spelling of one's choosing, won't, can't, stay. The memories of battle, of being shaken like a rat over the gates of Erebor, are too fresh and too raw. The halls reek of dragon and she hears Smaug's eerie deep voice creeping in the shadows. No, she cannot stay. She must go somewhere green. A month, a year, five years, forever, she must go somewhere clean and cleansed. And Fíli, her One, can't go. She knows this. And she, even though she's his One, can't stay. Magic lover's nonsense and whatever, there's reality you have to deal with, and sometimes reality means PTSD and dragon stink. So they argue, the night after his coronation. She is due to leave the next day with Gandalf and it'll be the last time - it's emotionally fraught. He's mad and she's mad, because they both *want* it to be different. In my mind's eye I saw the argument, in the indirect result: his name was Frerin. And, of course, that can't be let alone, since as the eldest son of a king, half-hobbit or no, he is heir apparent to a throne, and a birthright. Tolkien wrote that dwarf populations at the end of the end of the Third Age and into the Fourth dwindled until the race itself failed - meaning that there were too few women having too few children. This is obvious enough from what we see in the appendices. A king having a son hidden from him and raised by a non-dwarf woman, even if she is his mother? A scandal, the fanon assumes, and I presume with it. 7) a Bucky Barnes in slightly more efficient and effective hiding fic. There's that photo going around of Sebastian Stan from the set of his latest movie and he has this big mustache, and jeez if Bucky looked like that, some people commented, and not all 90s Grunge, he might have escaped a lot better, since the photo Zemo circulated assumed that Bucky looked like a hobo. Personally I don't see Bucky growing that mustache (looking like Howard Stark, who he assassinated, would give him a heart attack). Nor do I see him as a teacher, of math or otherwise, as the original post suggested; he'd never pass the background check. But there's another picture of Sebastian Stan I saw that was also relatively recent (but before any of the photos from the set of I, Tonya) with a full beard, and if he'd grown that out, if Bucky had grown that out, maybe he might have looked like Norm Abram back when he was younger. So, maybe a carpenter. It's a sin to hide that beautiful jawline, but effective. Bucky would get away from HYDRA and SHIELD both, just by staying off the radar and not looking like what they expect. He could even use his real name - there are 4,207 other James Barnes-es in the US, what would make him special? There are only 27 Clint Bartons. One borrowed social security number, one rented house, anywhere would do but I was thinking Santa Fe (because I've been there and can describe it, it's cool enough in part of the year he can wear long sleeves outside and the rest of the year there's air conditioning and he can wear long sleeves inside to cover the arm, and because it's a tourist town, people with money to spend on his carpentry work). From my notes, in particular: He checks in at the spots the Smithsonian mentioned. Red Hook, Dumbo, Coney Island. Those spots in Brooklyn that are supposed to have had that towheaded little captain America to be and his sidekick to become running amok in the 1920s. Some pieces fit. Bits of bitty Steve fit in, here and here, slotting back into Bucky's memory. Steve is a huge, pun intended, part of who he once was. To have made Bucky forget Steve, no wonder he forgot himself - - or was it the other way around, that Bucky forgot himself because he forgot Steve? 8) nonfiction, Torah commentary, starting with Genesis (Bereshit). 9) nonfiction, the history (I've been working on for five years) of the Hasidic movement during the Holocaust. Various dynasties and their rebbes, and the rebbes' successors, and the survival of the Hasidim and the Hasidut - how it worked, where it happened, how it happened; but from there, which members of the rabbinical families did not survive? Why? What attempts were made to save them? When attempts were made, who was given first preference and what stated reason, if any, was given? These are questions that have not yet been answered. And I have limited access to Hasidim, by language and by culture. These are not questions anyone would ever give me a straight answer to, of course. I have strong suspicions. Nothing more. The demographics of death - these are records we do have - say a lot. And the final chapters of the book, or the last volume, or the next book, also needs to be written: the rise to power of the other Hasidic dynasties, the massive shift in power away from Poilisher-Yidish culture elsewhere due to the near destruction of that community. Lubavitch, Bobov, Satmar, Belz, and Ger - only the last is Poilisher-Yidish. Before the war the largest Hasidic dynasties were to be found in Poland: Ger, Aleksandr, and Radomsk. There's a lot here no one else has done. I suppose it falls to me. So, I have many things to work on. I have lots to choose from. If only my brain would ACTUALLY LET ME DO IT, DAMMIT.

[cloud8andahalf]

 This is just something I may only do for this story, or maybe I’ll do it for multiple but I’m liking the idea of looking back at my stories like this. So bear with me I guess? Story Title: Embers Year created: 2009 Status: Unfinished Current Plot: The year is 2667. Nuclear Winter has wiped out nearly all life on earth. What's left of humanity now resides within a large city called Avalon. For centuries mankind has survived within the great walls of the last safe city following the laws of the Lord of Avalon. Those who don't follow these laws are numbered and sent to Sector Zero, the prison district. However, after generations of prisoners, Sector Zero has become a mixture of numbered and non-numbered people. Those born there aren't considered actual citizens of Avalon and receive no rights. Growing up with riots, Underground businesses, diseases, and every sort of criminal; Shiloh, Rose, and Sen are looking for a bit nicer hand in life for them and their friends. The only problem is what risks will they take in order to achieve that life and how far are they willing to go? Evolution of Story under cut

July/August 2009: Story idea was created based off a weird ass dream I had around this time. There were five friends involved in the initial dream that involved me and my friends Connor and Marty breaking into this high tech building and stealing information from a computer. (Like it just straight up started there it was weird) My friends Courtney and Chelsea were driving a get-away car. And then Alex was there and his role was weird? Idk how to explain what he was doing. Either way my friends and I were in a big city, it was dark, and we were stealing shit. That’s the basics of what I remember. So basic plot was based off that dream. Then I was also playing a lot of Jak II at the time so the setting was based off of that. August 2009: On the way to band camp that year I made the characters for the story. Story was originally slightly a joke because I used to make comics where my friend Marty would die in various ways (there’s a lot behind that and it was mutually funny). So I was making all the characters based off my friends so that it would all just lead up to Marty’s character dying because I didn’t feel like drawing a comic on a moving bus that year. Characters created on that bus ride were: Shiloh, Rose, Sen, James, Celia, Felix, Cole, Aubrey, Lanie, Xavier, Renny, Cat, and Brona. November 2009: Wanted to try Nanowrimo so I treated the story idea a little more seriously and started to write what was the first draft. I got very close to actually finishing nanowrimo since i got to 42522 words. Original draft plot actually took place in 2354 and the city was called Salvatio. The members of the Safe House then called the base (main home of the main characters) were Shiloh, Rose, Sen, James, Celia, Felix, Cole, Aubrey, Lanie, and Xavier along with multiple unnamed kids who came and went from the house. Prologue introduced characters Ed and Spencer as minor characters who were quickly killed off. Characters: Hatch, Leola, Keemi, Cassie, and Brian were also introduced. Sector Zero was called slums more often than Sector Zero. There was a rule that once you were sixteen you could leave the sector during the day and characters easily were able to come and go out of Sector Zero. There was something called a count for plot reasons I don’t remember. Mines in Sector Zero were coal mines that Cole, Felix, Xavier, and Sen worked in. Shiloh and James infiltrated Lord’s tower to meet Renny and Cat. Rose, Aubrey, and Lanie worked in factories in Sector One. James was only character who was supposed to die after hacking into a computer he wasn’t supposed to and book was meant to end shortly after group attacks Lord’s tower. Antagonist was Lord Tobius and he was a huge dick. 2010-2013: Multiple changes were made. Characters added: Aggie, Tal, Lionel, Elmira, Sam, Terry, David, Sarah, Vance, Maruxa, Mabel, and Aaron. Salvatio changed to Avalon. Safe House became the new name for the base. Placement and looks of Safe House changed to current placements: Along edge of Sector Zero against the wall of Avalon, large two-story beat up wooden house with attic. Based off one of the houses in Jak II in the water part of the poorer sectors there. I could point out the exact house it’s based off of in that game. Residents of Safe House change as well. Ed and Spencer are added as actual characters and not just prologue characters. Safe House residents now include: Ed, Sarah, Terry, Vance, Spencer, Shiloh, Sen, Rose, Celia, Mabel, Felix, Cole, Elmira, Sam, and Aaron. Aggie and David are added as former members of the Safe House who died before the story began. James, Xavier, Aubrey, and Lanie are moved out of Safe House and placed in other areas of Sector Zero. Elmira and Sam are added as the younger siblings of Hatch and Leola. Keemi is now the younger sister of Ed. Maruxa was added after a girl on my ski team asked to be added into the story. Since many of the characters were still based off my friends I agreed and she chose her own name as Maruxa. Maruxa was officially added after I extended the length of the story to include characters leaving Avalon and heading into the wastelands. I was originally going to make that the ending but I decided not to do a ‘oh no what happens?’ ending there and just actually say what happens. Maruxa lives in a town called Haven in a non-dead part of the world that is starting to regrow after the nuclear winter. She was my way of bringing in a whole new half to this story that would involve Rose and Sen discovering that there was life beyond Avalon and Shiloh still in Avalon fighting for a better life in a rebellion they started. Maruxa’s addition also brought characters of A.J. and Soren in being. Brian and James are officially changed to be gay and bi. (this is where I start changing the characters to not be based off solely my friends and be their own beings because the friend that Brian is based off of is not gay). Celia, Sam,  Vance, and Tal are added to characters that die. Sen, Rose, Felix, Cole, Elmira, Shiloh, and Xavier are the original cast who leave the city. Shiloh’s reason for turning back changes from deliberate to accidental in multiple rewrites and Xavier joins her in final draft decision. Spencer is added to group later on as well. Exits from Sector Zero changes from crumbling wall/just walking out of the gates to a broken grate in a sewer pipe that they sneak out of into the city. The name Embers changes from just the book title to signify the lights that Shiloh, Sen, and Rose light through the city to a name they would call themselves as kids when they were playing games and wanted some sort of cool super hero group name. Entire plot point of Brian, James, and Shiloh setting up lights all over the city is completely scrapped. Guard counts also scrapped. Safe House having children that come in and out every day is scrapped. Anyone under the age of eighteen in the story working is scrapped so now Ed, Terry, Vance are the only workers in the mines and Sarah works with Cassie in the textile factory.  Terry later taken out of workers due to an injury that caused him to lose his right hand. With added rebellion Shiloh’s leg injury and voice morphing mask are added into story. 2nd draft of story was attempted in 2013 but only got to 1000 some words before I went back to just writing scenes. Character of Brona cut out of story and character of Tobius slowly starts to become less of an asshole. 2014-2020: Smaller changes made. Far more background is given for the characters. Background stories are mapped out entirely for all protagonists in the Safe House. David’s name is changed to Davie for whatever reason. Hatch’s name is given an explanation cause it’s the wildest name I’ve ever used. Xavier, Aubrey, and Lanie are added to characters that later die. Multiple endings are written and scrapped and current ending is still going to possibly be scrapped. Multiple beginnings are written and scrapped and current beginning may be scrapped if ending is scrapped (they’re incredibly reliant on one another). Shiloh’s leg injury becomes a leg amputation. Character of Ludgio is added. Lanie and Aubrey’s roles grow increasingly smaller. Cassie’s role becomes larger after backstory is introduced with her and she now has three children and a husband added. Shiloh is given clear burn scars on left side of face and arm. Rose, Sen, and other characters also given more in depth character development. Diversity slowly added (remember these characters were based off friends and unfortunately I could count on my hand the number of kids who weren’t white in our band). Characters become fictional characters and not amalgamation of fictional and real people. Sub-point/joke about Sen’s pants are added. Characters are changed from being less serious all the time to talking and acting more like teenagers and having fun. I wanted their rash decision making to make a little more sense. Possible sub-plot of romance between Brian and James has been thrown about, but due to James death I’m nervous to actually add it. Brian is added to people who leave Avalon. Overall 2nd half of the book with the revolution is changed and rewritten many times to the point where there still isn’t a clear line of events until climax of story. However the events of Haven are pretty clear leading up to the climax. 1st half plot points are only clear on Shiloh story line. Multiple sub-plots have been added to Sen and Rose story lines. Antagonists have changed. Lord Tobius is still considered a minor antagonists but is no longer a complete ass. He is just some twenty-something Lord who wasn’t ready to lead and actually is being used to by his uncle for his Uncle’s own plans. The name Brona is brought back, but as a completely different character who is now the cousin to the Lord. Her role is still...iffy on whether or not it’ll be scrapped. Currently on 3rd draft (if you can call it that and not draft 4000) and have written possible prologue again. Changed year to 2667 and may change it to later than that because I’m dealing with nuclear winter here. Mines were also changed from coal mines to a new element created through nuclear reactions that is used as energy in Avalon. Avalon is given more explanation to how it survived all these years through radiation and such and weird futuristic, but not, setting is given to the book. Initial date I gave to the nuclear war that started this book was 2037 btw. Which is...not ideal, but we can see that my outlook in high school was as grim as it is now.

[a-nerds-ponderings-blog]

This Week in Review

April 23 – May 7

 FANTASY

Once Upon a Time

Season 6: Episode 18 – Where Bluebirds Fly

In flashback, Zelena befriends a young woodcutter who has been cursed and turns to her for help finding a new heart. Zelena is forced to choose between keeping her powers and her friendship with him. Meanwhile, in Storybrooke, Zelena decides to take on the Black Fairy and put a stop to her, once and for all, against Regina's wishes, and the Charmings disagree over Emma and Hook's wedding plans.

So this was more of a Zelena proving herself episode. She keeps trying to do the “right” thing and ends up messing it up even more. She tried taking on the Black Fairy, and yet made it worse and made her more powerful. The backstory of her with the tin man was mostly exposition to get the heart she needed. When she completely screwed up, it seemed like she would actually go back to Oz. But then she decided against it and sacrificed something she cared about dearly in order to save everyone. It would have been a fitting ending for Zelena, as it feels like the writers have had little to do with her character lately. But her giving up her magic seemed to help with the heroes’ plan. Now… if only they can figure out how to get the heart back from the Black Fairy.

Season 6: Episode 19 – The Black Fairy

In flashback, after Rumple’s mother, Fiona, learns from his fairy godmother that his destiny is prophesized, she does everything in her power to keep it from happening. Ultimately, Fiona will have to make a decision that will change the course of both their lives forever. Meanwhile in Storybrooke, Rumple faces a similar dilemma.

So we get the backstory to Rumple’s mother. And of course she’s a misunderstood character. Can’t we ever get a character that is just inherently bad and doesn’t have connections to everyone? I suppose that wouldn’t make for good drama. The prophecy about the evil being born the same winter as her son… I think it is safe to say it was not a shock when we discovered it was her. This episode would have been better placed earlier in the season. Giving us a bit of backstory before we saw the evil of the Black Fairy. It would have allowed the audience to sympathise with her a little bit more. The final scene with Gold was both intriguing and heartbreaking at the same time. We love Rumple as a villain, but at the same time, don’t we love him as one of the heroes? With the final battle approaching, it will be interesting to see who will be on whose side.

NEXT WEEK

Season 6: Episode 20 – The Song in Your Heart

In flashback, Snow and Charming make a special wish that Emma will be protected. The result of their wish has the whole kingdom bursting into song which infuriates the Evil Queen. Meanwhile in Storybrooke, the Black Fairy announces her plans to unleash another curse on the town while Emma and Hook prepare for their wedding.

  PARANORMAL

Lucifer

Season 2: Episode 14 – Candy Morningstar

Two weeks after Chloe’s near death, Lucifer has gone off the grid, cutting off all contact from his family and the police department. He materializes just in time to help solve an up-and-coming guitarist’s murder and introduces the department to a ditzy stripper named Candy, a mysterious new woman in his life. While Lucifer’s mom desperately tries to contact her son, Chloe tries to push him away. Lucifer must find a way to prove himself in order to be invited back onto the team.

Welcome back Lucifer. And Mrs. Morningstar. It was interesting to see Chloe jealous, but uncertain why she felt this way. The arrival of Candy was Lucifer’s way to deal with the fact that his father was the one who put Chloe in his path to begin with. But it was all too good to be true. Of course it was not as it seemed. Watching the family and the department run around in circles trying to figure out what Lucifer had planned was almost as good as Candy discovering different things during the murder investigation. It was entertaining to watch this episode, and the little bits of comic relief were perfectly placed.

NEXT WEEK

Season 2: Episode 15 – Deceptive Little Parasite

When it is discovered that the flaming sword is the only hope for the family returning home safely, the pressure is on for Lucifer to control what he has never been able to control before – his emotions – in order to ignite it. Meanwhile, Chloe wants to air some emotions of her own, but when a therapist and head of admissions at a prestigious private school turns up dead, the team must get to the bottom of it

 IZombie

Season 3: Episode 4 – Wag the Tongue Slowly

Clive’s patience is tested when Liv consumes the brain of a murder victim who had the reputation of being the ultimate office gossip. Meanwhile, Blaine and Peyton continue to grow closer as they wait to see if Ravi is able to reverse the effects of the cure. Lastly, Major is one step away from fulfilling a promise.

Sadly this is the episode where we see the serum for the cure not working. Blaine does not regain his memories, which for him is a good thing, but for Major it is a bad thing. Major is dying due to the cure, and his only chance is to take the serum. And if he does, he’ll forget everything. Peyton is put in the middle of the dilemma, because she really likes the new version of Blaine, and would be able to forgive his past deeds. But in doing so, without the memories coming back, a friend of hers could die.

Season 3: Episode 5 – Spanking the Zombie

When Liv consumes the brains of a dominatrix, her bossy and controlling personality makes everyone a little uncomfortable, especially Clive. Meanwhile, Blaine and Peyton have a heart-to-heart.

You have to love dominatrix Liv; she took on that role very well. It was a bit difficult for Clive to keep her in line, but luckily he now knows that she is a zombie, and can just explain the kind of brain she had eaten. And fair warning, the final scene with Liv and Major certainly kicked me in the feels, and made me hope that he keeps his memories. They seem like the couple that could never get together properly, but the one we all want to see end up happily ever after. But, because it is television, we’ll have to wait for a very long time, or never, to get it.

NEXT WEEK

Season 3: Episode 6 – Some Like it Hot Mess

To help Clive solve the murder of an irresponsible narcissist, Liv consumes her brain and literally becomes a hot mess. Meanwhile, Peyton learns some shocking news. Lastly, Ravi experiences a major setback.

 Supernatural

Season 12: Episode 19 – The Future

Sam comes up with a way to stop Lucifer’s baby but Castiel has something else in mind for Kelly. Dean is furious when he finds out someone stole the colt. Kelly makes a bold choice about the baby’s future.

Poor Castiel, always trying to do the right thing, but in the wrong ways, and always getting crap from Dean about it. But this seemed different. Castiel wanted to take the baby to heaven to kill it, Sam and Dean wanted to try something to take away the baby’s powers given to him by Lucifer, and Kelly wants to have her baby with all his powers. It seems that the baby was already beginning to protect Kelly from certain dangers, and so protecting himself. It is certain that Kelly will die in giving birth to her new son, but she is aware of this. By the end, Castiel makes yet another decision that leaves us with dropped jaws, and he swears to protect Kelly and her unborn child, to be born with all his powers. But, thanks to the fight with the prince of hell, the Colt is now broken and they have no way of fighting the next battle.

Season 12: Episode 20 – Twigs and Twine and Tasha Banes

Alicia Banes calls Mary for help after her mother, Tasha, goes missing. Sam answers Mary’s phone and he and Dean head out to help Alicia and her twin brother, Max, find their mother who was hunting a powerful witch. Meanwhile, Mary starts to have some doubts about the British Men of Letters.

The case with Alicia and her brother was interesting enough; it is always interesting when old characters make reappearance on a show. We also learn how Sam and Dean don’t allow others to do what they have done. They have sacrificed and broken the rules for each other so many times it’s almost comical when they die, but they will not allow others to do that for the ones they love. It could be viewed as a holier than thou situation, or they could be doing it to protect others. They know the consequences if something goes wrong, and they seek to protect everyone. But while all of this is going, it’s hitting the fan with the British Men of Letters. Mary starts digging into the truth and this episode really starts to kick off and set up for the next few episodes of the season.

NEXT WEEK

Season 12: Episode 21 – There’s Something About Mary

Sam and Dean are alarmed when they learn hunters are being killed by suspicious “accidents” all over the country. They decide it is best to find Mary and make sure she’s safe. Meanwhile, Toni is back in the states and she and Mary face off.

 SCI-FI

Doctor Who

Season 10: Episode 3 – Thin Ice

The Doctor and Bill visit London during the last of the River Thames frost fairs in February 1814. They soon discover that there is something under the ice which is causing people to disappear.

Bill really shines in this episode as she sows her humanity towards the children on the ice. She shows her compassion and her generosity and helps the Doctor to see it as well. How many of you were expecting to see another version of the Doctor and River Song when he took her to the Frost Fairs in 1814. This episode must have occurred after that event because of the thaw. So, River Song’s birthday must be in January. It would have been interesting to see a glimpse of River’s hair or perhaps they walk past another TARDIS, just as a shout out to the viewers. But alas, this was a Doctor and Bill episode. This companion is really starting to grow on me.

Season 10: Episode 4 – Knock Knock

Bill is moving in with some friends and they’ve found the perfect house – so what if it’s strangely cheap to rent, and the landlord is a little creepy? The wind blows, the floorboards creak, and the Doctor thinks something is very wrong. What lurks in the strange tower at the heart of the building – and why can’t they find any way to enter it?

Things with Bill seem a little different from other companions. With the others, the transition between their personal life and their life with the Doctor seemed more narrated. But with Bill, it seems like we just jump into the thick of it. This works for this character. It worked when she was introduced, her character, her interests, and now this situation. The house was creepy up until the point we discovered what exactly it was. The idea that the house was eating people was really fun; it reminded me of a movie I saw once. The twist at the end seemed to be given away far sooner than the characters caught onto it, about who the woman was. In the final few moments when the Doctor enters the vault, it is uncertain who is inside, playing the piano. But given the tune they were playing, it is highly possible that it would have been the Master or Missy, depending on the regeneration that the character is in. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this subject.

NEXT WEEK

Season 10: Episode 5 – Oxygen

The Doctor, Bill and Nardole answer a distress call in deep space, and find themselves trapped on board space station Chasm Forge. All but four of the crew have been murdered – and the dead are still walking! In a future where oxygen is sold by the breath, and space suits are valued more highly than their occupants, the TARDIS crew battle for survival against the darkest evil of all…

 Please be advised that the comic book shows will have their own weekly post this season, just changing things up a bit. Please keep an eye out for the Superhero Low-Down

If there are any shows that you think we should check out or that we have missed, please send us a private message or leave a comment below.