#and fuck the meta build whoever you like

[incorrectfatui]

not a quote but today is Razors birthday and I thought you should all know that

[our-hextech-dream]

i haven't seen anyone fully articulate what i personally felt disappointed by wrt viktor's s2 persona and ending so i guess i have to do it myself even tho i'm bad at talking!! can someone who is better at this just read my mind and say it fancier and more coherently?

agency, the loss of

i have seen people already mention the way disability came into play at the end and what a wild choice it was for jayce - born able-bodied and healthy - to be the one to tell viktor - trapped in a body that was actively killing him - that actually your disability is a part of you and made you who you are and you owe everything to it. ... huh? jayce (by which i mean the writers), do you think without his disability, viktor wouldn't have still been a genius? yes, viktor is disabled - that's not even remotely what makes him a compelling character and power player. it is his mind not his body that makes him who he is. the fact that he had to waste almost his whole life fighting against that body to achieve anything is the entire crux of his frustration - imagine what he could have dedicated his mind to if he weren't constantly struggling to find a way just to survive another year, another month, another week, one more day. have you thought about it? because he has. so yeah that whole conversation, trash. bruno mars just the way you are ass one direction that's what makes you beautiful ass argument. viktor was not going crazy over cosmetic surgery, he was trying not to die.

but it strikes me as just one more expression of an overarching theme for s2 viktor - that of the complete and total loss of his agency. (more on a meta level than in the show itself, but also in the show!) i said after act 1 that viktor had died in that explosion and jayce was going to be chasing that corpse until the end, and i was correct. viktor bounced from one mindset to another, never seeming to have any consistent ideology of his own that couldn't be changed as soon as the plot demanded it. at any given point he was just kinda... wandering around, doing some random shit with the powers that worked through him. gone was the viktor who used his own hands and mind to influence the world directly, to bend it to his will. i always always felt this and i stand by it - taking viktor's abilities as an inventor and scientist away and turning him into some arcane mage jesus figure was a mistake and a disservice to his character. arcane said no this boy wasn't smart or determined, his ability to build and invent and seek and learn don't matter and never mattered, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and as soon as the arcane got its goop on him he just became the most specialest magic pixie dream boy to ever live and his own goals, dreams, ideals, morals, talents, skills, and hard work ceased to matter in any meaningful way. he never had to work to master magic to be able to use it to further his goals, because he immediately stopped having goals.

viktor became a non-character. he became whatever ideological and technological threat level the show needed to challenge to heroes and never more. he ceased to have any control or understanding over what was happening to him, rather he just gave up and decided to use his magic indiscriminately for whoever made the most convincing argument, a choice that would have been completely antithetical to his character up to that point if he'd still been alive. 'fuck zaunites, sure i'll turn them into robots so a foreign power can use them to attack and take over piltover and zaun, who cares. it's not like these are the people i've spent 30 years of my life trying to protect and save.' <- something viktor would never ever ever have agreed to! ever! no matter what! they have played us for absolute fools.

ambiguity, the loss of

the thing i wanted the most and was expecting because of the way viktor's original lore was set up was that the series would end with viktor and jayce unreconciled and with mutually exclusive worldviews, both fully believing they were right and the other was misguided but not evil or irredeemable, setting them up for future conflict. this felt like what was being set up when arcane made it a plot point that jayce was being convinced to turn hextech into weapons while viktor started getting unethical and unhinged with the experimentation. they both had good reasons to do what they did - and i'm absolutely not going to insult jayce's intelligence by claiming he was just manipulated into it by anyone, give me a fucking break - but the point was that both of them were doing something the other thought was misguided and dangerous. and they also felt that if they could just make the other person see their completely logical and rational pov, they could fix the divide between them and make up and be best science buddies again.

but then at the end arcane completely gave up on viktor having any belief in his own ideals. it just turned into 'aw actually he was just lonely all along and none of that science stuff or difference in morals or worldviews mattered bc he's got a buddy now and he's completely unequivocally on jayce's side. :)'

it was like. insanely selfish. as in, self-centered, concerned *only* with the self. the viktor i liked, and the one i wanted to flourish and hoped arcane would canonize, was someone who was entirely dedicated to zaun, to righting the wrongs of piltover and helping the people in the way he thought best - no matter what jayce or piltover thought about it. an ambiguous villain, just like all the other really well-written ones in arcane.

accountability, the loss of

viktor killed people. not sky, who was an accident despite his fixation on her; i'm talking at least a hundred or more zaunites during his stint as the machine herald. he ripped their minds out and made them play house with him, then turned them into weapons of war for ambessa's siege, and all of those people - primarily sick, desperate zaunites - died. this was always the entire crux of the conflict between (league) viktor and jayce giopara. viktor was willing to destroy people and use their bodies for his own gain unapologetically because he thought what he was doing was a blessing and the people were better off under his control because they would never feel fear or anger again. agree, disagree, depends on your view of free will and human nature, but the fact is that everyone who came to viktor hoping for a chance to be healed so they could pursue their own dreams and lives had those dreams and lives ripped away from them and they never got justice or even a single scrap of acknowledgement from the narrative.

in arcane, the horror of viktor's actions just... fade away into the background. viktor and jayce waltz off into magicspace together, leaving viktor's dead, ruined victims for piltover and zaun to deal with. he doesn't return their minds or bodies, he doesn't even seem to remember or care about what he had just been doing to other sentient living human beings. he's not sorry, he doesn't feel regret, he got what he wanted (a friend) and fuck everybody else.

because the narrative just shrugs and handwaves and says no no forget all that it doesn't matter it was just the hexcore or whatever, viktor becomes a flat, uninteresting character. he loses the depth that villains like ambessa and silco had, villains who had their victims validated by the story, who faced challenges in their arcs specifically because of the people they had hurt despite thinking they were doing the right or noble or most important thing. and not just the villains! even the heroes had to wrestle with the people they stepped on on the way to their lofty goals. but not viktor. he just floats away scot free, completely blameless, having no affect on the world and the world having no affect on him.

on arcane's status as the new canon lore and the Implications™

reminder that arcane is somehow supposed to tie into the world of runeterra at large, but now viktor and jayce both have been seemingly entirely removed from it. if it only mattered that they knew the people we'd already seen them interact with, okay, i guess. but that isn't the case. they both have a ton of connections to other champions - from regions other than p&z even - that haven't been introduced and don't have any plausible explanation for how they could have met in the past, which means they should have been set up to meet somehow in the future. implying that jinx escaped and has gone traveling the world is the perfect way to incorporate her in-game relationships with people like lux - she could have met her while traveling! but jayce and viktor don't get that plausible continuation of their story and development of further relationships - they just disappear out of existence. (ambessa also has this problem because they killed her, but unlike jayce and viktor she does have a huge amount of unexplored backstory where she could have spoken to (for example) swain and hwei and shyvanna at some point.)

note 1 - jayce and viktor are so old that they don't have any voice lines in game when meeting other champions. but other champions who are either newer or who have had voiceover updates do talk to them, which is how (aside from the old lore) you can infer that they do have relationships with other champions including ones who weren't in arcane.

note 2 - maybe riot actually doesn't care and none of the champions are really supposed to know each other or be involved in each others' lives canonically, they just have random quippy voice lines that imply that. which would fucking suck. having the lore of the game have no impact on the game itself and vice versa would objectively suck. if the characters talk to each other on the rift and say something interesting, i want that to have meaning. i want to be able to extrapolate the state of the world and the relationships between the characters from the things they verbally say with their mouths. i'm not arguing about this. the voicelines should be seen as the most high irrefutable canon that there is for the game because it is the ONLY source of lore in the game itself.

anyways there's my bible i guess. i miss evil laser robot viktor i want him to perform unethical brain surgery on me (fixing my adhd but also turning me into his personal puppet attack dog) and then give a weapon to a child so they can kill their bullies.

[safe-without-railings]

I fuck with whoever started the Batman crossovers with Danny Phantom and Spiderman/Spiderverse

Black Bat/Orphan/Cassandra Cain x Peter Parker is my favorite It Couple™️. They're like little spookies that can telegraph their thoughts through their movements with dancing as their love language?!?!?!? My heart 💘💘 No words needed, but every word was said. This dynamic screams Bad Bitch pulling a little guy, picked him up from the trash heap and everything. Burritos him and gives him little trinkets for his nest as he gives her criminals as presents.

Also a big kiss on the brain for the undead alive couple Jason Todd x Danny Fenton. There is something so valuable about meeting someone not quite like you yet experienced a thing you live with that's just qcbqojbx1jpbqdpj 🤌✨️✨️ and every single time Danny is in that world he heals Jason and I'm just bawling from the tenderness of it all. No rewards, just,,,, helping waaaaaahhhh.

Soulmates, your honor, both platonic and romantic 💕💕💕

Also, I love how no matter the fandom, somehow Red Hood is having the adoption tendency. Like????? What's with these bright-eyed, naive, dimension hoppers landing in Crime Alley???? Your gonna get mugged or worse.

Become a vigilante (Jason and the BatFam always get blindsided that the are, in fact, vigilantes already)

Me on my way to hit Bruce and point fingers later on his emotional constipation, causing Meta endangerment in every fic

Look at these beansss. There is no source of bad vibes here, Detective. Just some guys trying to make ends meet in a random debilitated building that they finally got power to work in.

Sure, one feels comfortable hanging upside down and the other floating in the air to relax. If you had the ability, wouldn't you be the same???

[providencehq]

Power House AU: I've absolutely loved all the additions and directions people took this post where Danny is captured by the Justice League and I wanted to share my general thoughts on where it would go after that but I'm also lazy so it's just this since I'm tired and don't want to draw.

The JL attempts to interrogate him but fails as Phantom is unresponsive for the majority of the time.

They struggle trying to identify exactly why he isn't responsive considering he has either fully ran from members or quickly attempt to fight them if they try to interact with him.

Somehow, someway, when they're moving Phantom to a new location in the Watch Tower to get a medical check since they're getting worried that after a few days, he's remained the same.

Phantom proceeds to freak the fuck out in the nicest of terms when he's taken to their medical wing and manages to slip out from whoever was taking him.

He's in full panic mode now and he NEEDS to get out even with the suppression cuffs on him so he's dashing blindly in the watch tower.

He manages to make way to the Zeta tubes and somehow manages to make them function and he's teleported away (not Danny's intention, he was just running and it went off at the worst time.)

He doesn't know where he's at on Earth but he's immediately running either way to get away.

Certain members of the League Zeta'd right behind him and are now looking for him.

Danny gets the suppression cuffs and collar and transform right before they can catch him.

They let him leave as they're informed by Batman that they have enough information on him that with a lot of leg work, they may be able to find who he really is since they have now both seen his human and "meta" side of him. Batman does reveal that due to something with biology, they won't be able to find any DNA matches and much of the video recordings of him are difficult to make out even if they're from the Watch Tower.

Danny escapes back to Central City and tries his best to return to a normal college life. He's slightly upset since they managed to pull him away, leaving him little time to study for an upcoming exam.

A few more weeks pass and Batman with the help of Flash manage to find out who Phantom is. A young college student in Central City and is funnily enough working at S.T.A.R. Labs as an intern. Bright future ahead and seems like no one who would have a potential in being a hero/vigilante but digging enough into his past they believe that if anything, it seems like another case of how the Flash came to be except a whole different set of powers.

They decide the best way to get Phantom is to corner him as a civilian in public.

Bart Allen, Hal Jordan, and J'onn J'onzz go as a group of civilians to intervene with Danny as he's leaving one of his campuses buildings.

They make themselves known to Danny and that it would be a mighty bad time to try to fight back or get away as they're all so exposed in public (not really, they're talking alone between some buildings). They make it known that they only want to ask questions and they have concerns about whatever is going on with him (being Phantom, his rogues, fighting the League, clearly fighting alone, etc.)

Danny decides the risk is worth it and tries to make a run for it before even speaking a word to them. Clearly doesn't work out as they expect him to either run or fight them. Barry manages to get to him and place suppression cuffs and collar back on him fairly easily before Danny could transform thanks to super speed.

They're not happy clearly with Danny still not cooperating but it's expected. The three inform Danny that he is now being held by the League until they can determine the best next step.

For the first time, Danny speaks to them and says "You can't do that! Finals are in two weeks! What the fuck am I suppose to do that? It's literally my second final semester!"

It doesn't work and Danny finds himself taken back to the Watch Tower to be once again interrogated. It's back to square one with Danny/Phantom. He isn't responding to any of their questions but this time rather out of a sense of protection of his self and mind, it's out of pure spite. They're making him miss his finals, of course he's going to give them nothing in return.

The most they're able to get out of him at one point is that why should he trust them? Why should he trust heroes who only care about themselves and their image? Even if he's young and inexperienced, he does his job and does it quick and they need to leave him alone.

It's implied he doesn't trust the older heroes in any regard and this is true, they only want to learn how he got his powers, where his rouges are from, and why he fought and ran from the League. Nothing else, nothing more.

Danny/Phantom doesn't trust the League in any regard so why should he even attempt to cooperate?

And that's all I have :)

[isuggestwishcraft]

controversial opinion probably but it itches me the wrong way a little when in some fics (postcanon recovery fics to be specific) it is said, often from siffrins pov, that 'clocktower is better than dormonts house' because my knee-jerk reaction is always no it literally isnt what are you talking about???

to be clear: i am Not trying to tell anyone to do anything about it, nor am i saying that the house and clocktower are mutually exclusive good/evil or something along those line- gods no. in fact i low key like when some sort of Yikes moment like that happens via some sort of misconception/miscommunication/obliviousness/whatever cuz then it will mean that that fella is getting comforted about it wherever he likes it or not, but.

to say that clocktower- which does not change in any meaningful way that can help siffrin perceive that he is done with that shit for good- is Better than the almost entirely different house? as in, /gen and /srs????

what. no like. what?

the thing is- i Understand where this is coming from. i really do. but lets not confuse siffrins 'i know the layout of the cursed house that i can navigate it while sleeping' and loops 'i was stuck in this fucking building for so long i dont want to step a foot in it ever again' ok? those are two, separate and very different approaches to this goddamn building.

it isnt better in solace. but it also isnt worse than the night in which you know nothing will ever change.

...i think this one specific itch goes about the same way as the one with the dagger- which is, to paraphrase whoever said it, 'i understand that characters can make silly or rash decisions in stressful situations but this [confiscation of siffrins dagger and/or sharp objects] is not how you help him.' like, i fully, and i mean FULLY understand if the party is the ones making this decision because they do not know but to meta-present either places as 'better' or 'worse' than the other is. a little strange

[derelictlovefool]

❝​🇪​​🇲​​🇪​​🇷​​🇬​​🇪​​🇳​​🇨​​🇪​🇪​​🇽​​🇮​​🇹​​🇮​​🇺​​🇲​-⦂❝

— 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧.

Notes: Miniseries my ass—Don't forget to read Part One, Two and Three! Are you ready for Wade POV :) Typical Meta and fourth wall breaking ahead. Wade gets his action sequence and reader gets some mild trauma but they're cool about it.

Warning/s: Canon Typical violence, kidnapping, graphic depictions of violence, decapitation, blood and gore, unhealthy relationships, angst, explicit language, hospital mention

Words: 4k

Wade was like a gargoyle, the personal gargoyle of your shitty little apartment elevator. Stone still in the back with his arms crossed and head down—no one else daring to step into the cramped space with him anytime the doors opened. He'd been in there for the better half of the afternoon, going up and down the floors at the will of others button presses but not working up the guts to step onto your floor. Part of him hoped the doors would open and you'd be standing there, make the decision for him and pull him out of it or step in with him so you could both ride the hellevator of your relationship problems together.

The problems that he wasn't stupid enough to ignore were all his fault.

He was pissed, pissed at himself, pissed at the fuckers who got him into this mess and most of all pissed at the author for putting you two together and giving him a chance to fall so fuckin' badly in love with you. These guys never gave him a break in the love department and if he ever got his hands on them he'd shove their keyboards and pens right up their asses—It was the plot's fault that it hinged on the breakup trope, he and you the unwilling puppets strung along to amuse and entice whoever clicked on the title in their fanfic scroll.

The doors to the elevator opened and your building's security guard, Rich, stared back at him, nervous and tired as all hell. Any other day Wade would have been happy to see him. But right now he wanted to decapitate anyone who didn't have your simmering eyes, he just wanted to see you.

"Heya Wade, uh, people have been callin' the office about a thug in the elevator. Think you could uh," He gestured to the front door of the building and Wade would have tossed him out of it himself had he not soon followed up. with the fact you weren't even home. He froze, hand slapping on the closing doors and shoving them open as he barged out of the elevator.

"Where the fuck are they then?" He snapped, a sudden fear and fury overtaking him as he gripped the guard's uniform tightly. The one time he offered you some privacy and didn't follow you home of course something fucking happened, it was just his damn rotten luck. Rich trembled under his masked gaze and tried to lean back as far as humanly possible.

"I-I have no idea! Didn't come home last night, just assumed they were with you!" He yelped as Wade tossed him to the side, storming out of the building with homicidal intent rolling off of him in waves. A kidnap plot—his favourite. Note the sarcasm. He fumed as he hopped into the car he'd parked on the curb, not his, he didn't own one—he was borrowing this one. Indefinitely. He sped off, at first he was too blindsided by his anger to know where he was going but as it began to simmer realisation bit into the back of his skull like a sneaky bullet.

The fuckwads from the gig. The ones that said if he didn't behave like a good doggy they'd pop a cap in your pretty skull—He should have taken the risk and taken 'em all out Keanu style when he had the chance. But he got preoccupied by, well, you, and trying to get you as far away from him as possible. He was scared, plain and simple. Out of everyone he couldn't watch you get hurt because of him—ironic as he hurt you all the same. Maybe even worse.

After a hasty u-turn and aggressive tapping of coordinates into the shitty GPS Wade put his foot on the gas; his grip on the wheel tight enough to bend the metal beneath the silicone protection. All of this, all of the pain, the nights alone and the nights watching you cry while watching your comfort movies—all of it for nothing! The same song and dance he'd been avoiding was playing out all the same. He scowled, cursed the hostage-for macguffin-trope and promised himself he would not sit through any monologues or negotiations. He was getting you out of whatever crusty basement they had you in and taking you home and then when he had you back; he wasn't letting go.

You could hate him, throw things at him, the whole lot; but he wasn't leaving your side ever again.

He couldn't handle it even when it was self inflicted, fuck whatever your therapist said about it. Fuck whatever anyone else said about it. He needed you, more than he needed oxygen—and back in the day people called that romantic, not unhealthy or concerning.

A wire fence gave way as Wade swerved into the shady, abandoned apartment complex lot. The car sputtered in defiance as he drifted to a stop in front of the building. They knew he was coming, if they didn't they were idiots. He jumped out, heading to the front door, he wasn't going to give them a dime or a batted eyelash but he didn't have time to sneak in the back. He needed to see you were okay and if there was even a hair out of place every mother fucker in this building was going lights out for good.

The doors creaked open, his heavy steps reverberated off the walls and the prior chatter died into bated breaths. When he rounded the corner into a large open room his sights zeroed in on you immediately, tied to a chair and eyes burning with fury and panic. Blood dripped from your lips and anger flared within him before he noticed the guy beside you on the floor clutching the bloody place where his ear used to be. Oh shit. Said ear stared back at him from the puddle on the floor by your feet and he had to admit, he was impressed and dare he say, a little hard.

He wished he could've seen that.

Fuck you were awesome.

"Are you waiting for something?" You asked him, voice strained as you ignored everyone else in the room; eyes solely on Wade. You had no doubts he was getting you out of here and that made his chest swell with some emotion he couldn't quite place. Pride? Love? All of the above?

He titled his head up, noting the faded tune of 'Hit the Road Jack' coming from another room. Oh good, a backing track. He tapped his foot and nodded along for a moment as he lifted his hands, guns were on him—and you, and he chuckled. A low and dark rumble that left the room feeling colder than when he walked in. These chucklefucks had no idea how bad of an idea that was. But they would find out.

"Alrighty sluggers, you ready to dance like monkeys while I take you down in nasty ways for the author's lil action sequence?" Confused looks were shot his way and quickly dismissed as he grabbed his guns in a smooth motion. Shooting two of the guys closest to you, the bullets whizzing through the air and nailing them both in the same eye. Blood and viscera smattered the wall as their bodies went down and you winced as some of it got on you. Whoops.

"Sorry babe." He sang, receiving an unimpressed and somewhat disturbed glare from you. Yeah okay, not funny, he got it.

Wade moved on to the guys nearest to him, neither fast enough to dodge and one got a nice fat bullet to the lower jaw; ripping through skin and cracking through bone as it cut through him like a hot knife. His body fell into the guy behind him who shrugged him off with terror in his eyes. Wade loved it when they got all squirmy, made him all tingly and warm inside. It was fun—for him, anyway. The other guy got a lovely little bullet to the nose, the cartilage shattered and the middle of his face bloomed like a red rose, his body flying back until he landed on the floor looking like a Francisco Goya painting.

What was Wade if not an artist and his weapon's his tools?

Shots began to fire, none from his gun and Wade got started on the left side of the room, swerving past a baseball bat before kicking it into the air and smacking the butt of his gun into the guy's nose. Blood squirted all over the front of Wade and he didn't flinch, sheathing one gun to catch the bat and toss it across the room at one of the guys taking shots at him. It hit him square in the face, breaking his shades and it knocked him back far enough that he tripped over a chair. Wade turned back in time to knock away a punch from the guy now bleeding profusely from his bruising nose.

"You look like you just watched a naughty anime buddy, you should really be careful because the guys upstairs can see everything in your search history," He grinned at the utter despair and confusion on the other man's face, taking even greater pleasure in headbutting him and kicking him back into three of his buddies.

Two other guys ran at his side and he dodged and weaved, shooting one in the kneecap and pulling out one of his swords; decapitating the other guy in a swift motion. As his head rolled off of his body, blood and bone and muscle spilled over the floor and Wade shot the screaming man in front of him in the head. Brain matter coating his boots much to his chagrin, he pulled a face no one could see and tried to shake the shit off of him.

"Nameless bad guy number five got his brain goo all over my boot, gross."

"Wade!" Your voice cut through the pandemonium, followed by a cacophony of gunshots and Wade felt his body ripped open at multiple points. It hurt, it always did, feeling the shrapnel dig into his muscles and the bullet skid past his bones. The ones that hit his fun zone were always the worst and he made a show of bending over and groaning unhappily. His one good feature just got turned into swiss cheese. Again.

He looked up at you, making sure the fire show was reserved solely for him and there was something about the worry in your eyes that stirred something within him. You still cared, even if he wouldn't die you cared that he was getting hurt. That was something. More than enough.

He pushed himself back into action, sword swinging and cutting a guys arm off, gun lifting and blowing a guy's junk into oblivion—the howl of agony a nice backing track to the slowly fading in 'If I could Turn Back Time' by queen Cher herself. Maybe this was it, the big show that he was willing to go through hell to get back to you. Once he'd finished off these guys and untied you, you'd throw your arms around him and he'd get to whisk you off into the sunset. He smiled as he kebabified mister one arm and mister no junk in one go, their bodies tossed to the ground by inertia as he slid his sword back. He spun across the bloody pool of a floor, right into the path of a knife that twisted into his abdomen painfully—but he was too lost to his daydream to give a fuck.

He tucked his gun under the guys chin and blasted his brains out with a boyish glee, sheathing that gun as well to rip the knife out of his gut and toss it into the head of the guy who had the gall to leave the fight and start running toward you. It landed in his temple, slotting in like a perfect tetris piece and his body fell by your feet. You flinched and closed your eyes, rearing Wade back into reality somewhat. Now wasn't time to be playing, you absolutely weren't having fun so neither could he. Double time.

The last two guys went down with fierce efficiency and Wade cleaned off his sword in the crook of his elbow, sliding it back into its place as he rounded the back of your chair.

"Are you—"

"Just get me the fuck out of here Wade." Your words were sharp even though they were quiet—shaky. Wade shut his mouth with a clack of teeth. His jaw tensed as he cut the ropes on your wrists with his tactical knife and freed you from the chair. You didn't jump into his arms, more like fell limply against his chest in exhaustion as he picked you up. He could see scuffs on your skin, dried blood and scratches that made his blood boil. He'd come back and do some unspeakable performance art with these bozos corpses later, if only to make himself feel better for not being there to stop them getting you in the first place.

Having you back in his arms cemented a few things to him, cradling you to his chest and feeling the rise and fall of your own reminded him of so many nights where you were fast asleep next to him trusting your life in his hands. Something not one other person ever did, which was wise, really. But having your arm over his shoulder and knowing how you'd been so sure of him saving you; he needed that. In the world of people that saw him as a failure of a human being who was only good at killing and nothing else he needed you, who had always seen him as something more. Something that could be good, even when he did everything to prove you wrong.

He took you to the hospital despite your protests and stayed by you as they checked you over and patched you up, he threatened each and every one and you scowled and told him to shut it each and every time. It was almost like old times except you looked fatigued and sad and he was rougher and angry. When you were good to go Wade tossed around a few bills and walked out the front door hot on your heels, it was only when you started walking in the opposite direction of his car did he reach out to stop you.

"Wade—" You let him turn you around but you kept your feet planted in place and his heart twisted as your usual facade of anger had melted away into utter sadness and confusion.

"You just got kidnapped and you wanna take the bus?" He asked and you shook your head, but still didn't move. A beat of tense silence filled the space between you before you shrugged and laughed roughly, his hands hovered; wanting nothing more than to hold you again and ward off that blanket of hurt covering you.

"Were those the guys that shot you into a black hole?"

You didn't look at him as you asked and he slowly nodded.

"Yeah. I skimped on my end of the bargain and they thought they could get back at me, I'll take care of it, you'll be okay." He tried to sound reassuring, but his whole being was the opposite of that word. He would be making them all go away, that wasn't a question and he knew you wouldn't doubt that. As soon as someone went after the people he cared about, the list being very short and easy to find, they weren't destined to be in this plane of reality for much longer. They all joined the pile of the dead nameless characters only put in place to show off his wicked skills and mad devotion.

Of which he had entirely too much, he felt like he could burst at the seems from all the feelings inside him specifically labelled with your name. How could one person consume him so wholly? He had never figured it out and he doubted he ever would; despite the obvious inclination to wonder if it was the puppeteer playing him the feelings he felt were far too real and too deep to just be shrugged off as some shallow dialogue. You and him, right here and now, you were real and what you made him feel was real.

And right now he had a whole lot of fear.

You shook your head and turned away from him again, a humourless smile on your face that was hard to look at. Wade watched on carefully as you wrapped your arms around yourself and felt his arms fall to his side.

"I don't think I will be," you looked back at him, "I don't think we will be." That was the opposite of what Wade wanted to hear. He played through the scenario where he threw you over his shoulder and put you in the car, driving you home and ignoring everything you had to say about it. He tried to figure out if being with you and having you actively hate him and trying to get away from him was better than letting you go and getting the small moments of less than stellar small talk or worse; total silence.

Both sounded like garbage.

"I want to go home Wade."

"Then get in the car." He gestured back to the lacklustre scrap of metal and you shook your head, a small action that felt worse than the bullets that had ripped through him earlier. He felt his frustration boiling over, he wanted to rewind time and take back all of his stupid mistakes and all the angry words you'd thrown at each other the last few weeks. He just wanted you. He swore you still wanted him too.

"I can't."

For a moment Wade just stared at you, long and hard as you stepped away from him. He really felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place and definitely not in a good way. The worst way possible actually. He racked his brain for what to do and grovelling and being honest seemed the only way to move forward that didn't end in you running away from him for the rest of your life. As much as being stupid or aggressive would have been so much easier, he had enough brain left to realise that's how he ended up here in the first place.

"I can't lose you." He hated the way the words sounded so fragile in his mouth, he wanted to bite his tongue off as soon as he said it. You looked just as surprised as he was by him saying it and your mouth fell open as you failed to put together a reply. He watched as you pulled yourself together, the small physical cues he'd mesmerised showing him you were trying desperately to keep up the wall that had been slowly building up. But he wasn't gonna let you hide from him, not now.

"You already let me go, Wade."

He knew that, the reminder stung and he shook his head to rid himself of the flashes of your pained face, the tears he'd seen you shed when you thought you were alone.

"I fucked up, I'll wear that. I fuck up all the time and I'll keep fucking up but I," He sucked in a deep breath, holding his hands out to the side as he stepped forward, "I love you. You are the only good fuckin' thing in my life and I thought as long as you were okay and happy I could live without you, but I can't." He gritted out the words one after the other. God he hated this genre, he always ended up sounding like a wimp. But he wasn't lying, the only time he'd ever lied to you was when he told you to get lost on what had slowly become one of the worst days in his entire damn life.

He wished he had just told you the truth, he'd been getting pretty good at doing it before but something about seeing a reticle trained on you with a little red dot shook him hard to his core. He could disarm a guy in under a second but a drone with more than one controller was another matter and it had just wrecked him, his progress, his resolve; all of it. For that one second he'd lost you and then in the next he really did lose you. But it was in a far worse way as you were still walking around and breathing; just without him being able to be there breathing in that same air.

God this fucking sucked. Relationships always sucked, people were too complicated and he hated feeling how he felt right now. Utterly hopeless—the one guy in the world who could survive a nuclear bomb head-on couldn't handle a simple fucking relationship and like hell he knew how to salvage it in the wreckage he made. But he had no choice but to try and you weren't walking away. So he had to try, even when you didn't want him to.

"I'm always going to love you Wade," that was never a good start to a longer sentence, "I need time. I think we both do. Our relationship was never gonna be normal but there's a little unconventional and then there's our personal, hellish little train wreck that we got stuck in." You gestured between the both of you and Wade sucked in a breath through his teeth.

"Please don't make me keep going with the pathetic grovelling babe please, the author sucks at writing it," He whispered, a half assed attempt to skirt around the heaviness of the conversation. He wasn't good at this, he never had been. Class clown extraordinaire whose way of dealing with conflict was stabbing pencils into eye sockets struggled with relationship talk, go figure.

"Wade can you be fucking serious please, no bullshit." You stressed, stepping forward and he nodded quickly, matching your step with his own so you were only a foot apart.

"I'm sorry, you know I ramble when I get nervous."

"Fucking hell," You groaned and covered your face with your hands, inhaling deeply before dropping your hands and seemingly giving up the fight for now. He was grateful because he wasn't really sure how much fight he had left in him. Well, for you he couldn't fight for eternity, fight with you even. But man it would wear him out.

"Okay just. You have a raw fucking moment with me here and I'll let you take me home, are you actually gonna do anything different or are you gonna sweep everything under the rug and hit me with the same shit in another two years?" Your question is valid and Wade mulled it over as he thought about what you might be looking for in terms of a change. His behaviour was never gonna get any better, neither was his potty mouth—but yours was no better so it wasn't that. He lifted a hand to hold the back of his neck, to think but also to pluck out the bullet that was starting to itch like hell.

"You want couples counselling or whatever I'll do it, I'm gonna be me about it but I'll sit the full hour. The quack might not make it but—" He waved his other hand in the air as he rattled off the one possibility he could think you'd like to hear and you were quick to follow up, a light full of hope flickering behind your tired eyes.

"And you'll talk to me? The next time shit hits the fan in a scary way you'll trust me enough to tell me instead of calling off our two year relationship with gross ass insults—which fucking hurt, by the way." You crossed your arms over your chest and Wade had never nodded so fast or so hard in his life. He jumped toward you like a man running from fire into the arms of a sexy fireman; except he was holding onto your arms and no one's feet were being whisked into the air—but still.

"I will—and i'm sorry. I didn't mean any of it, if that helps," The author didn't even write it so good luck getting him to remember what he even said. All he knew is that it was bad and left a terrible taste in his mouth, a mouldy taste that lingered and clogged up his throat. You didn't lurch away as his hands rested on your forearms but you didn't lean into him like you always used to, it was some uncomfortable thing in the middle that made his skin prickle uncomfortably.

"It doesn't…" You roll your lips into a thin line before sighing and moving your feet, slipping your arms out of his hands and each step lead you back to the shit box Wade drove you here in. A small win, one he'd gladly fucking take right now.

End notes: Some movie!Wade seeped through here, I cannot deny a good backing track for a fight sequence, writing it while listening to those songs was an absolute blast—let me know if it was as fun to read as it was to write! As always, see you in the next one!

[trashy-tries-writing]

Hiii its me again 🍄 anon! And i got more ideas for Ravine writing!

Ok so what if like we have a scenario where maybe Ravine gets caught off guard, like someone unexpectedly came up from behind him(I honestly doubt that would actually happen but just for the sake if the post lets just say it happens) and Ravine's first instinct/reaction is to grab whoever's behind him and throw them over his shoulder (WWE style-) then proceeds to almost blow there head off with whatever firearm on him at the time.

If it wasn't for whoever got bodied to snap Ravine out of it there would have been a blood soak floor. When said person gets up they ask him what that was about and as per usual, Ravine says nothing but just stares at them before walking away.

I just think it would be funny seeing people like Ghost and Price get bodied/thrown around like it was nothing. And honestly seeing König get decommissioned in seconds would be hilarious! He's probably so used to being feared by everyone/being build like a fuckin truck that having someone casually just flip him would probably throw him for a loop.

Anyways thanks for listening to my dumb rambling again! Ravine always makes me feel better! This is 🍄 anon and ill see you next time!

Also Ravine could do that to me and i would fuckin thank him-

Watching Young Justice League- (or the crash course bc I can’t find full ep.) and realizing they skipped so much stuff. Maybe I should’ve started with comics instead of a TV series. Anyone have recommendations for someone who’s just getting into DC? (I already have like- a character that turns from a normal boy into a meta-human into the moon- I meAN WHAT- Too much fun with angst. I swear I try to write fluff, I swear I am. XD)

Also Spiderman??? So much angst on top of angst on top of angst- Like "Spider-man: No Way Home- WHAT DO YOU MEAN?? PETER MY CHILD OMG 😭 Fuck that I'm gonna make a character where the magic didn't work on him. Fuck u Marvel for making every Spider-man sad 😭 (Anyone wanna read that? 👀👀)

Hi hi 🍄 Anon👋, thank you so much for sharing this because I had so much fun! XD And it's not dumb I love your rambles! Let's just say that it was on a day where Ravine was thinking of the past. Problem solved😌 I hope you enjoy this and see you around 🍄 Anon👋💕 Omg same– WHAT WHO SAID THAT! Also merry christmas everybody! Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday! 💕

He didn’t mean to, he really didn’t. But that didn’t stop his reflexes from working faster than his brain. Ravine should’ve known to stay inside if he was going to be taken over with his thoughts.

Simon Ghost Riley

Ghost had been walking around the base for too long, just trying to find the giant of a man. How is it possible to not know where someone that big was? It’s not like he can hide with his size.

Or can he?

He has a feeling that Ravine can do so much more than he has already shown TF 141, and Ghost was eager to know when that would be.

Ghost blinks when he sees Ravine’s slouched body leaving the weapon room, a box under his arm with mechanical parts sticking out if and his attention stuck to the papers in his other hand.

Of course he would be working on something.

When was he not?

But Ravine was so deeply rooted inside his head, he wasn’t reading the documents or even looking at it correctly when he felt it.

Someone was behind him.

Someone-

Ravine feels his skin crawl, his mind playing tricks on him and-

Ghost feels gravity leaving him as Ravine yanks him over his shoulder. With his vision upside down, a silent gasp leaves his mouth. The air gets knocked out of his lungs as he lays on the cold ground with his hand in Ravine’s tight grip, his eyes swimming.

“Argh! Ravine, it's me!”

CRASH

Ravine drops everything as he falls to his knee, hands now softly brushing over Ghost as he sits up. He groans as he leans back on Ravine’s bent knee. Ravine twitches at the contact before lightly placing his hand on his hurt shoulder.

Ghost tilts his head towards Ravine’s chest, he can almost hear his heart beating out of his ribcage from guilt as he tries to catch his breath from being thrown around.

Despite the situation and the physical ache, Ghost finds Ravine’s reactions hilarious. (Don’t tell anyone that.)

Ravine doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t know where to put his other hand as it lingers around Ghost who’s clenching and unclenching his fist, testing if it’s sprained or not by the firm grip Ravine had it a few seconds ago.

Ravine wants to leave, walk away as if he didn’t just hurt his teammate because of his wild instincts.

"What was that-"

Ghost’s shoulder aches and he blinks at the hand mark slowly forming on his wrist.

“-Bloody hell…”

Ravine tenses.

Ravine lifts Ghost up with ease, a little too much ease to the latter's taste as he hurries through the mess of fallen mechanical parts and loose documents.

He calmly walks through the base, getting Gaz and Soap’s attention as they pass the lounge. Gaz’s eyes widen while the water leaks out from Soap’s gaping mouth onto his shirt.

“What- Was that- Did…???”

“Ravine carrying Ghost? Yep definitely was them.”

Price could only stare as Ravine barges into his office with Ghost looking a little too comfortable in his arms as if he could take a nap right there and then.

The captain pulls his lips into a thin line, slowly slurping from his coffee mug as he squints his eyes at them.

“Let me guess…”

“Yes.”

“Oh boy.”

Ravine looks down at Ghost who’s leaning his head further into his chest, secretly enjoying the situation and then at Price who stares as if it’s a normal Tuesday.

Later they get told by the doctor that Ghost’s shoulder is injured due to being almost pulled out of his sockets and his wrist was now branded with Ravine’s hand for who knows how many days- weeks even.

Ravine couldn’t face Ghost for weeks- months if it wasn’t for Ghost and Price cornering him like they did the day Ghost met Ravine for the first time.

Ghost has a sense of déjà-vu.

(Sometimes brushes his hand over the purple-bluish bruise and compares his hand size with Ravines.)

John Price

It happened while they were still getting to know each other in the early days when Price found him inside that… room.

He knew he had to tread carefully with the burning man. He was like a wounded animal, cornered with nowhere to escape with his fangs bared at anything that breathed too loudly or at all.

But Price believed they had crossed over that line as Ravine didn’t react when he had to sit down in a room full of people or inside the tiny car he had to fit in to go on missions. (Price voiced out how too soon it was to send Ravine anywhere. But orders were orders.)

Ravine didn’t react to anything at all anymore. A perfect weap- soldier as Shepard liked to call him.

And so when they arrived back to base after another successful mission with Ravine making it so much easier with his fast killing and stealth, Price had only wanted to praise him for his good work.

But maybe, just maybe it wasn’t a smart idea to suddenly come up from behind him right after a tense operation-

Since Price found himself on the ground, his body having been flipped into the air like he weighed nothing as he landed with a loud ‘BANG’ echoing off the walls and on the ground.

Laswell gasped in surprise, jumping from her seat as Ravine took a step back as if realizing now what he had just done.

The gun that he had pulled out from his holster was now lowered instantly. Ravine’s body was tense, freezing still in his spot.

Price gets back on his feet, leaning slightly onto Laswell as he groans, trying to downplay the situation for Ravine.

“Shiiiiiit… You sure know how to use that strength of yours., don't you?"

Silence takes over the room before Ravine vanishes from his sight, quickly marching away from them with nothing to say. It makes Price sigh loudly.

Laswell chuckles underneath her breath. “Well that was a sight.”

“Will not happen again, so enjoy it while it lasts.” Price breathes out, hands on his hips as he bends his back forward with pain. “Damn it, I need to see the medic…I think I broke something.”

He ends up with bruised skin on his back, even fractured bones that puts him out of commission.

Price eyes the doctor, “...Well I’ll be damned.”

Price never thought that he would end up getting slammed into the ground like the enemies Ravine sometimes threw over his shoulder. Luckily for him Ravine didn’t use as much force as he did with them as they were directly knocked out of their consciousness...and then shot to death.

‘Now where is…’

It took a few months for him to finally get a real conversation with Ravine.

König

He shouldn’t be feeling like this, he really shouldn’t. But König continues to scream into his head, cheeks flared up with his thoughts stuck from the earlier occurrences.

König leaves the training facility, a towel draped over his shoulders as he makes his way to the showers to relax his muscles from the workout. Soon enough his stomach rumbles and he changes his mind of going back to his room to relax.

Rounding the corner, he sees Ravine staring through the window, his arms crossed over his chest, making his back muscle tense.

Feeling a little confident to try talking to the soldier who was just as tall as him, sticking out like a sore thumb in the team with… shorter people, König approaches the quiet man with a small smile.

“Hey Ravine.”

Surprised that the man didn’t react like he usually would when called, König tilts his head as he reaches a hand out.

“Rav-?”

A startled yelp escapes his lips, the world tilts and he finds himself staring at the swinging lights hanging from the ceiling. His body twitches uncomfortable and aches in pain as confusion swims in his eyes.

With his breath knocked out of him, shock taking over mentally and physically as Ravine slowly releases his steel grip, König tries to choke out something but he could only gasp. 

“…W-Was..?” -…W-What..?

Pain radiates through his left side but as König sees Ravine’s body loom over him, pressure withdrawn from his stomach and arms, and the realization that he had been so easily decommissioned in seconds, has left a new kind of warmth rushing through him.

König slowly rises to his feet, hand shooting up to rub his shoulder. The man stares confused when Ravine is now checking him over with what he guesses is worry, since there isn’t much to find out with his face covered and the silence in his throat.

“I-I’m fine, you just took me by surprise.”

Ravine brushes his fingers over the bruise forming on König’s wrist and König doesn’t know why he suddenly felt he should leave.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine. I er- I’m going to eat now. Yeah…now.”

However, with his food sitting in front of him, fork in hand, König stares silently in front of him, confusing his teammates in the dining hall and creeping others with his unblinking eyes. And just as quietly as he came he robotically goes back to his room.

That’s when he flops down on his bed, face pushed into his pillow, his face reddening when the situation with Ravine finally hits him.

Ravine had swung him over his shoulder like nothing and had pressed his knee down on his stomach, keeping him in place with his arms over his head with a grip that left handprints on him that were bruising.

König was used to being feared and manhandling others- others as in targets to eliminate- but being tossed around like a toy by someone else is-

‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-’

Both were evading the other’s presence without the other’s knowledge until they were put back together for a mission.

-----------------------------------------------

@livinglifebesticanlol @jackiebluh @cumbermovels @agspgrwasb

I hope you enjoyed this! If anyone has any other imagine, scenarios, headcanon, etc. Feel free to send it to me, I love reading what you guys have in mind ❤️

[swiggity-swexual-i-am-asexual]

Danny Phantom (and technically optional crossover) Prompt

Imagine, if you will, a not-aging Danny Fenton. There’s about a dozen ways to do this, but in this case—Danny still has a human lifespan, he just looks human (though, I won’t argue against any immortal Dannys). As Fenton, he’s just stuck at fourteen. Phantom, being a ghost whose appearance is based on what he sees himself as, does look older. By this point, he’s probably retired from superheroics—I just find unphased and jaded 18 year old Danny to be hilarious. So, he’s just like ‘I wanna go to college’.

So he does. He just. Always looks 14. His hair grows, he can build muscle, and he can definitely have dark eyes—but otherwise? Short ass 14 year old. He constantly has to prove that yes, he’s the real Danny Fenton, and no, this is not a scam. He eventually has to get meta-specific paperwork filled out—no need for the genetic test if the power is fairly obvious. (Of course, it’s possible to do this AU as not crossover, but then you’ll have to do the legwork of making it less odd that someone has superpowers, and whether that means everyone knows he’s Phantom, which might change some of the issues. It also doesn’t have to be DC, for instance, you could use Marvel or even My Hero Academia—ultimately, up to the writer.)

Anyways, he gets his degree(s), enters the workforce, and by the Ancients is it hard to be taken seriously. Even people who see his paperwork and know for a fact he’s a full fledged adult are just like, aw, poor kid, can’t even reach the top cabinets without stretching or climbing. So, while he could just keep being the most qualified 14-looking-adult, he’s quickly getting sick of it. He can’t even be a school teacher, none of his students will take him seriously! Not even the younger ones, cause even the other teachers aren’t respecting him.

There are about… three options available to him, up to whoever wants to pick up this sort of prompt.

1-he gets into acting or modeling. Or perhaps, stunt acting. And everyone is just a bit unnerved about how absolutely none of the nonsense seems to get to him, and he’s just… a little *too* bendy sometimes. He’d make a great scare actor, if he wasn’t terrible at scaring people.

2-he goes into the work force as Phantom in a cheap wig and terrible contacts. Half the time, he forgets at least one contact. Cue mystery of who the hell this guy is, because, for ONCE, someone actually paid attention to the paperwork and knows that he DOESN’T look like THAT.

3-he tries to get work in a slightly more remote position, where his colleagues are few to none. Of course, that is, until some hero or another such professional has to meet him in person, and gets one hell of a shock about who their expert on the computer has been all this time.

There’s of course the undercurrent of Danny’s experiences as a teen hero, so sometimes absolutely wild situations show up, and his stories are like, super weird. He thinks at least SOME of his experiences must be universal, and they’re… really, really not. The outlandish stories don’t help the whole ‘not taken serious’ thing, but then they turn out to be true. Bonus points to rogues or ghosts showing up to say hi and everyone is like WAS THAT A FUCKING DRAGON?! And Danny’s just like ‘yeah she was a beauty pageant coordinator in my hometown, we kept in touch. I helped put her brother in jail’. As if that did NOT just raise more questions than before.

Of course, use or don’t use what you want (such as, he does keep a public-ish position, or he just goes full villain to prove a point, or even somehow starts working undercover at schools and summer camps for xyz reasons, whether or not the Justice League finds him, what his degree(s) weee even in, etc etc), I just think that Forever Teen Danny stories are interesting.

Basically… it’s reverse Shazam, haha.

[silvernyxchariot]

Like I said before, I don't gatekeep and I made it my mission to represent Kavetham teams. It's not just for the ✨️gays✨️, I'm here for the 🌈Gaymers🌈. So, have my Kaveh's bloom build, Basic Bitch build*, and Battery build ideas for viewing. And Alhaitham's here.

Yes, I legitimately have a team specifically to carry Kaveh's different outfits labeled, "Kaveh's Wardrobe."** Leave me be.

Bloom

Generic, but I love his bloom kit. He's a 4 star tank that gets the highest score in Abyss for "Most Damage Taken" 🥺 each and every time. Since I don't have Mailed Flower, I want Makhaira Aquamarine and that's all I'm missing for this outfit.

Basic Bitch*/DPS (wip)

I now have Redhorn Stonethresher, Itto's weapon, and I'm trying to get more refinements. So, I will switch to that when I can. I chose Deepwood Forest for his DPS outfit for the Dendro res shredding. I also considered Vermillion Hereafter and the traditional Gladiator's Finale set for ATK boosts.

Xingqiu normally wields Deepwood for the team, but if Kaveh and Alhaitham change their outifts, then Xingqiu might be switched out of the team entirely.

Battery (wip)

This one is simple. Focus on ER and collecting particles. Chongyun is holding the seconday battery set, Sacrificial Greatsword + Noblesse Oblige; I didn't care enough to add that to Enka network because it's like 4:30 am and I haven't slept. Mix and match to your liking. So, Kaveh technically has 4 outfits. 💕

Alhaitham: Basic Bitch* & Battery Build

Loser husband. Only wears sweats or a bland as fuck black suit & tie to formal events. Overall, he's still a DPS but I gave some attention to ER. Will occasionally switch out Harbinger of Dawn with my R3 Blacksword from battlepass because I like its little healing passive for him. Shinobu can only keep you alive for so long, Alhaitham, and she might not even be on the team at all times. It's a little bit of a WIP because I changed out his sands and circlet.

Supports are also important. The final two slots can be whoever you wish, of course, but it does need to make some sense. For example, if I'm using my Kaveh DPS build, Alhaitham will lean into his battery build, and their supports could be Yun Jin, Bennett, or Rosaria. Basically, characters that buff the on-field DPS, i.e. Kaveh. As mentioned before, I normally have Xingqiu on the team, Hydro subDPS with Dendro resistance shredding thanks to the Deepwood set, but he can be switched around when I don't use the Bloom outfit.

For my Kavetham comrades, please feel free to gain inspiration from my builds. I would love to see your ideas ♡ too. If people are making DPS Freminent, Amber, Heizou, and even Pyro Yao Yao, there's no excuse to building your favs into little monsters. Send them to the Abyss to serve cunt. 💃 To everyone else, I don't tolerate any hate, harassment, or unwarranted "help/advice." Yes, we know what the meta is. No, we clearly don't care. Keep it to yourself.

* I say the phrase "Basic Bitch" for DPS builds because they're generally the same for any character: Flower (HP), Feather (ATK), [scaling stat ATK%/DEF%/HP%/EM] Sands, Elemental/Physical dmg Goblet, and Crit dmg/rate circlet.

** "Outfits" refer to artifacts and weapon pairings.

[rayshippouuchiha]

I just had a dark BNHA fic idea that I will probably not do anything with. So I want to share with you and anyone who might want to adopt this plunny.

So Inko's Quirk is Small Object Attraction. It would be so easy to kill people with this. By either "natural causes" or "accidents".

She can pull on the blood vessels or arteries. She can pull on nerves, the brain stem, and she might be able to target portions of organs or the brain. She would be able to kill or cause severe medical problems easily.

I like to think that Inko learned how to control how her pulled objects come near her, so she should be able to pull things in a spiral. So she can unscrew things, like important support structures, car parts, parts of pulley systems. Maybe even trash that just so happens to make someone fall off a building or into traffic.

I can see this happening primarily in 2 time frames. Pre-Canon as an anti-hero or Post-Quirk Diagnosis when Inko is out of fucks to give. Maybe both.

Anti-hero Inko killing off or crippling assholes that get around the law, like... I was going to give a couple of examples, but Endeavor kept coming to mind. Child abuse, spousal abuse, probably marital rape, excessive injuries to villains and bystanders, excessive property damage. Whether it's because she sees that whoever is too scared or unable to leave, she can make it so the abuser can't physically do anything. Regardless of whether they are heroes, villains or everyday assholes who never get caught. I like to think she has a few political cases, too. Like if someone kept trying to implement horrible and disgusting laws or remove protections. Maybe she starts off small and makes it so they can't attend rallies or votes. If they work around it, I think she'd lose her tolerance for them and they may get their life privileges revoked.

And one of these brings her, or her deeds, to AfO's attention. If you like DfO, this could be what makes him think She's the One.

P.S. this actually came from a fic who's name I can't remember. Basically, Izu and AM are on the run from HPSC who thinks Izu is controlling AM. They have a mental connection that's kinda 1 brain 2 bodies with ghosts and classmates stuck in Izu's head for a while. Inko is visiting that Quirk Dr that said Izu was Quirkless since he's an acquaintance of her husband's for something important when this happens. The doc then learns that AfO's wife is terrifying and obeys her orders when Inko learns what's happening with Izu. Shigaraki is duly impressed.

If it's Post-Diagnosis, then maybe she starts off just giving the assholes bullying her baby bad luck then escalating for the adults who don't learn better.

Just thought of a BNHA KHR idea, too. Inko's Quirk can be agreed that gravity is involved, yes? I see tons of Sky Flame Izuku, but what about Earth Flames?

Earth Flames = Gravity Control. Enma and Tsuna looked so badass using Earth Flames. (It still makes me scream that Tsuna was able to use Enma's ring. Either for shipping purposes or for meta implications.) (Btw, Earth Flames and the Shimon Famiglia are from the manga.) Because if he got his "Quirk" when the Sludge villain attacked him, it could feasibly come in then. Since Flames require someone to defy death to accomplish a goal, this could work. Maybe Inko is aware of Flames and she and Izu can bond. Maybe she isn't but can still pass on her tricks when it comes to pulling things.

Anyways, Izu increasing gravity when Bakugo tries to attack him. Decreasing his own weight to move faster. Doing Moon jumps to get to places. Making things weigh less to free trapped people. Crushing things into diamonds. Making BLACK HOLES (This is Canon in KHR).

Izu and Ochako bonding over their powers. Izu and 13 bonding.

I'm running out of ideas at this point. Anyways, I've never seen Earth Flames Izuku before!

Oh all of this is fantastic and I swear I know that fic you're talking about

[traceofexistence]

here's some Karlach meta that is about Karlach and not her abusers.

What we know lore wise, is that Karlach is very big in size (210cm tall) that is like a tall basketball player in human terms, and teiflings are like humans in size (as they were humans themselves once)

so she's big for a tiefling.

Karlach lost her parents in a young age, the assumption is that she was a teen. (a very crucial age to have guidance and support)

she's not the smartest cookie in the jar, and there is a line she says that indicates she didn't finish school (whatever level of education there is in fearun). her actor Sam even suggests that she dropped out school the moment her father died(her mom died before her dad)

we know also that she's an immature person, we can see that based on her reactions and wording, and kiddo enthusiasm at times, and also in terms of romance.

what immaturity mean in her case:

prone to be manipulated

prone to affiliate with the wrong crowds

prone to use substances (soul coins) without thinking of the consequences

emotionally vulnerable

a kid without guidance is more likely to be taken advantage off

there is also something that Sam said that puts in perspective the point about her size, and I think it is an extremely valid point.

Sam has a friend who was a very big build when he was young, and while as kid he was a good kid, with well meaning parents overall. because of his body type he was clocked by gangs for recruitment. and his parents had to do extra work to protect him from something that had nothing to do with their parenting, or his character but his body type. because as Sam pointed out when you are 14 and look like 20 and even big for that age, gangs want muscles, and a 14 year old doesn't have the maturity to see the red flags and flee. Sam said that story specifically to put Karlach in perspective for us, they also of course told us that their friend is a whole grown up now with family of his own, and he managed to avoid the wrong crowds as his parents did the utmost to protect him. Karlach did not have that, because her parents were dead at the time she needed them most.

see for example the orphaned tiefling kids in act 1, they do petty crimes all around because there are no adults around who care to guide them.

Karlach probably started in the same way in her teens, because of her huge body she got into protection/intimidation (her friend Fytz asked her if she's still in the business of intimidation, so we know that was something she was doing)

and when she was old enough and deep enough to not have an alternative, G got her, a slaver, an abuser, and a master manipulator. Karlach was in need of a decent job, he gave her that. it was what she could do, it paid well, and it gave her a lot of freedom too, being the bodyguard of someone like him certainly opened doors for her way easier.

on top of that in terms of her romantic life, she never loved, and she was never loved, as she says herself whatever walked on two legs she would climb aboard, no strings attached. her first fantasy out of the hells is for her to fuck her way through baldur's gates, two at a time. the way she can not manage her own feelings when she meets us and falls in love for the first time. all those things are indications of her immaturity.

she also trusts very easily, whoever will help her. G was someone who helped her so she trusted him, protected him, did his bidding. she was fully aware he was one of those shady fucks who had his tentacles everywhere, she says so when we ask her. but in her naivety she thought he cared enough for her to keep her around.

instead he manipulated her quite easily to do the job until he didn't need her anymore, or more precisely she was more valuable sold to a devil and experimented on, to him, than being his bodyguard. he could find plenty of muscle if he wanted to. but someone who could go through mutilation and survive enough time to get his prototype?

she trusted him so much that if he was to tell her his plan, she would probably agree to do it, get an engine for a heart and all. but no he betrayed her he didn't even inform her what will happen to her, he just made a deal without her, he treated her like a thing, like a tool.

and lets not forget that when we meet Fytz, she tells us that he told everyone that Karlach just left, he LIED about what he did. blamed Karlach made everyone believe she just abandoned everyone without a goodbye.

he sold her to slavery, and then assassinated her character, so nobody would look for her.

she was the perfect victim, she didnt have anyone who would look for her, and she was completely in the dark of what he had planned to do.

Karlach was not a bad person, she was just loyal to a horrible disgusting abuser.

she tells Jaheira, that she wished she had met her before G, that way she would put her talents in good cause instead of doing what she had to do.

she never wanted that life, she never chose that life, she had ambitions, and she had heroes she looked up to.

I dont think the game through Karlach really puts in perspective the amount of torment Karlach suffered in hells.

they way she mourned her heart that her mama gave her, it is the only concrete enough indication of how torturous and sadistic the process of the engine installment was.

there is not reference that her heart is kept somewhere, and she can go and retrieve it. from the mourning what I personally get is that her heart was extracted and then mutilated, and thrown to the imps to eat. and Karlach was conscious during the entire process so she could feel all the pain. physical and mental

zariel made karlach her possession, all the tattoos and burns scars, the carving on her horn. she was marked, so everyone could know who her slaver was.

and then she made her an addict as well (soul coins)

Karlach managed to survive slavery, and escape, but the impact that had on her is unimaginable.

so yes she tries to live, she tries to leave the past behind her, Faerun is like a child's play in comparison to what she had to do to survive in the hells.

so she becomes loyal to the first people she meets. the first people who showed her compassion.

but she also is being upfront, she doesnt hide who she is, who she was, what she has done to survive. when we asked her about the asshole she tells us all about what her life was like.

when we ask her as tav what she thinks she would be doing in not for the tadpole, and she asks us back, and if we choose the adventurer answer, she's thrilled about us doing all kinds of shit, and wants to join us.

she's the type of "wherever life takes me" as long as it's not the hells, but even that, we can convinces her to go so a little while until we find a way to fix her.

final verdict is that

Karlach is best girl, with a past, and also a victim of abuse and slavery. and all the blame goes to the abusers and slavers and nobody else, especially not her.

[sparrowsgarden]

"i would do this project if i knew how to x" you don't need anyone's permission to learn a skill.

like i don't know how to say this to some people but you will need to learn new things, regularly, for your whole life. there is not some age at which you just know how to do shit, so one of the best things you can do is to get comfortable with the process of learning. knowledge is not going to magically descend upon you and also, hopefully, you are not going to subsist forever on what you happened to learn as a kid. so you'll need to learn the meta-skill of learning.

like 90% of my work is "nobody else has done this in a way that i like so i guess i'm going to", and that basically always means learning new skills! i learned plenty of things from school, but most of the stuff that i actually use regularly is self-taught to some degree.

let's make this actionable. here are some tips you can use if you want to learn art, or coding, or how to use a software, etc etc.

1. find somebody who knows how to do the thing and ask them how they learned/if they have useful resources.

there are some things which you have to actually go take a class for, but most things i see people vaguely wishing they could do are not those. however, it is worth asking someone who knows what they're doing which resources are actually helpful for beginners. the pros to asking self-taught people are they also had to learn from whatever stuff they could scrape together. the cons are they're more likely to have very weird ideas of how to do things. either should be fine for pointing you to stuff, though.

you can ask for tips too, that's always fine. but what you really want is to know which sources to trust when you need to look up how to do like a million specific little things.

also, if you're looking for beginner-level art stuff that is not for kids, it'll be to your advantage to find someone who has at the least gone through instruction targeted toward that level (such as, someone who's been in a college-level intro course that isn't specific to art students). it is super easy to get overwhelmed with art stuff if you aren't fairly careful and targeted about what you work on at first, especially if you're truly starting from scratch.

2. being confused is ok.

absolutely nobody opens up a program for the first time, without having done anything similar before, and understands how to use it. being confused when you start something new is not indicative of an inability to learn, it is a necessary step of the process. occasionally it also means that whoever designed the software did a bad job. either way, consider this part of the learning meta-skill.

3. fuck around. troubleshoot.

if the skill of troubleshooting problems is not one you're already good at, then you're getting a meta-skill two for one. don't be afraid to ask people for help if you get really stuck, but most of this is looking shit up. having that list of trusted resources to start your search will be a huge help.

4. don't do everything at once.

start simple and work your way up with mini-projects, no matter what you're doing. this is the advantage of having access to instruction, it's paced out to force you to practice regularly before moving on. depending on the size of the project you have in mind you can disregard this if it keeps you more motivated to see immediate progress, but beware!

5. resist the urge to redo.

at some point you will, presumably, get to actually doing that thing you want to do. when you get the urge to scrap everything and start over because you're not happy with your original approach, stick with it for just a bit longer. honestly, sometimes starting over is the right answer, but it's usually worth some extra consideration. if new stuff doesn't build on old stuff, you're probably better off moving on forward rather than getting trapped in the cycle of endless redos. if it does, at least really take the time to consider whether a redo would be helpful.

i would also say something like "make it a habit" but i have the type of intractible adhd where that's damn near impossible so like. do your best. anything that's worth doing is worth your persistence!

[miiilowo]

Not a very simple ask so feel free to not respond but

Since the mimic thing is so incredibly dumb and the alternative is also dumb. And the entire "WOAG afton is back!!!" thing is dumb.

What do you think would've been a better direction for the story? Like as a way to continue from pizzeria sim? Bonus points if you figure out a satisfying plot thread that still involves the pizzaplex.

I personally think it would've been interesting if the game went more in the direction of exploring more varied horror settings, all within the world of FNAF and using the underpinning of agony and remnant as a way to introduce new creepy crawlies. Possibly going along with the "cult of Afton" thing. A buncha internet peeps get fascinated by the mysterious deaths surrounding Fazbear's and it's founders, so they do some searching around in Afton's stuff, y'know casual B&E. They find some scattered notes on remnant (and agony maybe?) in his old house, which was abandoned a while ago and is in significant disrepair. Proceed with delusions of grandeur and hopes of immortality, and boom! You have a death murder cult!

So the spirit of Charlie is roused from its peace and begins softly manipulating random strangers into stumbling upon the machinations of the Macheivellian Murder Immortality Cult and putting a stop to their nonsense.

First thing that comes to mind is a building that someone was tortured in and subsequently had their body cut up and strewn across the building, and their remnant placed in the rebar, that kinda shit :3

While I do really like those ideas, I think i would try to keep it a bit more contained and maybe expand into some of the stuff you've brought up as time goes on

I would forego any lore relevance that help wanted/fnaf vr has, first off, and i mean completely forego it. it might drop some hints for upcoming games, but making it an in-universe meta thing has always rubbed me the wrong way. non-canon in every sense. just a collection of games, like we thought it was going to be ! ! ! ! !

I've never liked glitchtrap, and I have also always believed that Vanny should be a copycat killer, who has absolutely no direct affiliation with afton, because he is dead. forever. and ever. never to return. him "always coming back" should be more of a 'he always comes back to haunt you' situation or a 'his actions will affect people for the rest of time' thing rather than a literal resurrection

Instead of it being a network of people, I kinda just want Vanny to be a true crime freak who got a little too invested in Afton and his business and it eventually spiraled into her doing what you something akin to what you described. I have a whole AU for this, though no content has been created beyond designs. If agony & remnant work with all living things and not just people, I think maybe she killed some small animals before, saw a glimpse of how possession worked as an experiment, and immediately bought into (and spun more) conspiracy theories surrounding freddy's and the animatronics. I don't want her to be some dark, sad, motivated villain like Afton sort of became, but instead just literally being fucked up for the sake of it. Murdering kids for fun, because she wants to be like her idol. I think this arguably makes her more frightening than William, because at least he had motivations for a bit, right? He had a reason to be doing what he was doing. She doesn't.

Of course, that would be where the pizzaplex comes in. Assuming Henrys whole fazbear-entrepreneur-package wasnt ONLY dished out to Michael, that would be why it exists. Probably built by someone who already had way too much money, but I digress. Vanessa gets a job at the Pizzaplex. It's the perfect opportunity, afterall, and she probably needs the cash anyway.

The Glamrocks would be a threat because theyre trying to return Gregory to Vanessa, as per their night mode where they try to locate any lost patrons (or ones hiding out after dark) and bring them to whoevers working the night shift. I would definitely make them less sentient than they are, with any lines being more like glamrock chica's specifically (since they actually feel like something an animatronic thats programmed to round up kids after hours and get them back home WOULD SAY)

I think in order for this to work out with security breach still sort of being security breach, we'd have to rewrite the introduction to the game. There's a few big issues here, but the main one is figuring out why he's in the pizzaplex after dark. Since William is not involved anymore, having glamrock freddy faint on stage doesn't make sense, so we would have to get rid of that--At least, not in the way he does, for the reasons he does.

One thing I would've enjoyed about security breach were the content not cut, is that the player wouldn't have a reason to believe Gregory about Vanessa. Not fully. He never explains why we shouldn't trust her, and its very likely that there was supposed to be a bit where she "turns into" vanny, which would reveal her as a threat to the player; Beforehand, it just seemed like she was trying to genuinely help us out of the pizzaplex. It makes her go from someone we can possibly trust (even if gregory doesnt) to an explicit threat. I think trying to achieve that in some way again would be cool.

We could still keep the thread that Gregory is homeless, and he just snuck in during the day and stayed after hours to try and seek shelter-And what kid wouldn't want to stay at a fucking amusement park overnight? Naturally, he would want out once the animatronics start being aggressive with him, but I think we can take another route with this too:

Start out with Vanessa being nice! She's clearly the only guard at the pizzaplex (for some reason? despite it being so massive). She offers to help, to not only get Gregory out of the pizzaplex because he shouldnt be there, but because she finds out he's homeless and he needs a place to stay. Lure the player into a false sense of security. She brings him to a back office where she says he can stay while she gets things sorted, then comes back to kill him wearing her funny little rabbit suit. Before she does, maybe she cuts the power, so none of the security cameras capture what happened. (maybe in the vanny hideout that already exists in security breach?) Once she tries, though (or maybe once he smells the decay of other dead children in the room) Gregory manages to escape through a vent, and from there it would be a game of cat and mouse as she chases him around the pizzaplex. in the dark.

Having glamrock freddy be this all-protective saint wouldnt really mesh well with this, but I do think him being on our side could be incorporated. No stomach hatch mechanic, first off, and if it ever is included, it needs to be nervewracking and evoke the same sort of feeling as the minireena springlock night in sister location. As for why glamfred doesnt just try to gank him like the other animatronics do, we could say he never entered the proper night mode like the other glamrocks did because of his mishap earlier sort of resetting his shit. I still dont want him, or any of them, to be sentient, so at most any intelligent responses could be chalked up to AI. That way, we could have some offputting, not-quite-human, inconvenient interactions with him that (at most) are a response to something gregory does or says. We could keep an element of humor that FNAF has always had that way, too.

As for why glamfred would be trying to PROTECT Gregory, we could go back to what fnaf 2 was doing with its facial recognition system: they help protect kids. if a child tells him that hes in danger, he will try to help that child. all that being said, i would want to bring the shattered freddy story beat back where the other glamrocks rip him the fuck apart and turn him into a threat like halfway through the game. Instead of him being literally destroyed (since again. vanny would have commanded them to do that and it doesnt make sense if shes the killer and theres no afton) it could be that vanny got him working in his proper night mode and so now hes in the "find child and return it to the proper authorities" mindset like everyone else is. make the player feel hopeless. and so on

im going um. way off the rails here. and im gonna continue. but i dont think the animatronics should be possessed yet for the sake of motivations and trying to keep them as lifeless as possible. I mentioned it earlier, but I think it would be good if she hasnt stuffed the kids into the glamrocks yet because she hasn't killed enough, and is keeping their bodies in her little hideout--Gregory would be the final piece of her puzzle before she can enact her plan how she wants to.

Alongside the pizzaplex being In The Fucking Dark Now, I always thought having Vanny be visible around corners and on railings due to her eyes and then vanishing once you see her would be neat. Always being watched, sorta like a g-man situation. The type of killer who likes to toy with her prey, which would eventually lead to Gregory actually escaping, her becoming a suspect, and then managing to get away at the last second and continue her antics in true afton copycat fashion.

i have more to say but im going to stop myself and summarize:

canonicity of help wanted would be done for

vanny/vanessa is obsessed with william afton and the murders

decides to emulate his crimes

pizzaplex exists due to the entrepreneur thing henry set up in FFPS

she gets a job there

gregory is there because hes seeking shelter as a homeless kid

she lures him into a false sense of security but he realizes whats going on before it happens and escapes

glamrocks have a night mode which makes them try to locate kids and return them to the nightguard so they dont camp out overnight (because lets be real, more than one person has tried to do this for their youtube channel)

glamrock freddy is kind of useless and gets turned against the player either about halfway or a third of the way thru the game

becomes a game of trying to wait it out til 6 am evading various threats

i do want to fully rewrite security breach one day for my copycat killer au (CCKAU), but heres something to chew on for now

[bthump]

saw this comment on Reddit about the latest chapter and thought it was interesting:

“The shot of Rickert kneeling down over Guts lying face down on his stomach saying “Guts, is that really you?” parallels the scene of Guts finding Griffith in the dungeon, also lying face down. Just swap the names and they essentially say the same thing.

Personally, I do think the behelit will activate for Guts sometime before the story is over. Or at the very least, it will start reacting, seeming like it wants to activate.

Thematically, I just can’t see it belonging to anyone else. It’s our Chekhov’s gun.

I see only one of two things happening:

The behelit activates for Guts, and obviously he will refuse.

Or

He finds a way to infuse it into the dragonslayer to make it have the same potential as SK’s sword of actuation.

I’m leaning towards the former.

Though, there is one more possibility that I’m just now starting to consider: that the behelit belong’s to Rickert.

It seems like Rickert might become a major player for the final act. I think they might be building him up to be Griffith’s true foil. He evens looks a lot like a young Griffith with his new hairstyle. I’ve always felt like Rickert is the story’s moral center. He might not have directly suffered as much as Guts and Casca, but he still lost all of his friends — all of his family — and was betrayed by the man he once looked up to above all others. However, unlike Guts, instead of running off to seek revenge, or spiraling out into self-destructiveness, he faced the pain of his losses, honored the memories of his fallen friends, and turned his focus towards those precious few he had left in his life. The kid has been through a fucking lot, but he hasn’t let his pain harden his heart or crush his soul. Now, just like Griffith, he went from being a total nobody to an incredible leader at a very young age. But unlike Griffith, his reasons are not vain, selfish ones.”

Obviously there are elements in the comment that I know you will disagree with like the Griffith being selfish and the part where they say guts would never sacrifice. but I think the thing about the parallel with Griffith and also the stuff about Rickert is a thing I haven’t seen people consider yet. Sorry if you don’t like other peoples comments being posted here, I know you don’t like what happened with the metas but my intention isn’t to criticise this comment I just found it interesting and I kept them anonymous

Yeah no, I personally don't see anything wrong with discussing comments made publically, and yeah nothing about your vibe comes across as malicious or anything. I don't want to encourage these kinds of asks because they obviously do bother some people, but I'm not gonna turn them down either unless I get bad faith vibes from the asker, or whoever originally posted it makes it clear they don't want others discussing their takes.

So yeah my thoughts on the subject:

Basically I see their point about Rickert being the moral centre of Berserk - idk if he's a prominent enough character for me to describe him that way, but he's definitely meant to be a foil to Guts in how he handles the Eclipse and losing all his friends, and to illustrate a much healthier method of coping, forging new relationships and goals.

I think it's a stretch to suggest he's meant to be a foil to Griffith, a better version of Griffith in any sense. Like there's no indication that he's leading the troops here first of all, he's just one of them. I wouldn't describe him as a leader, certainly not without further information.

And I doubt the behelit is Rickert's, for the same reason I doubt it's anyone's except Casca's, possibly Guts', or mmmmaybe Serpico's: there's no foreshadowing of a despair condition or sacrifice material. It's possible Miura was just gonna cram it all in at the end, like surprise! lol, but idk, that feels cheap to me. It'd be disappointing if so, imo.

Also I do think there are Griffith in the dungeon parallels right now with Guts falling apart lol, so maybe that's purposeful? But I think Guts' despair is more likely to lead to the armour taking over than the behelit opening. Mainly because Guts doesn't need two separate ways to give in to his inner darkness lol, and now that he has the armour the behelit is both redundant and probably too permanent for a protagonist. The armour is perfect in that he can succumb and then be pulled back to himself after crossing a moral event horizon. The behelit is a little too conclusive whether he says no or yes to monsterism. Also the armour is just Guts' style. Passively make an agreement to become a monster? No, but lose his shit and start ripping people apart? Absolutely.

[abeautifulblog]

What was the verdict? What did you think? Is blood origin worth watching?

Yesssssss, question mark?

[My thoughts/opinions on Blood Origin, accompanied by screencaps from the groupchat liveblog -- spoiler-free, actually!]

Blood Origin has a more interesting story than TWN S2 (it's the story of how the Conjunction of the Spheres happened, and how the first witcher came to be, eyyy! :D), and the actors do a better job convincing the audience that their characters actually care about the other people onscreen.

In fact, coffee-mage said, "Honestly, Blood Origin is rekindling my enjoyment for Witcher more than S2 did, just because this is such an interesting universe"

The scenery is quite beautiful, and so are a lot of the costumes. The empress's costumes in particular have that gorgeous, hedonistic opulence reminiscent of Queen Amidala's outfits, stunning and original, legitimate works of art in their own right -- although they are offset by a lot of pleather armor with no coherent aesthetic, and wigs that are worse than what you'd find at Party City.

I didn't even hate the het romance, because it was a friendship first and a romance second, and it was built on a foundation of earned mutual trust and respect. (And it's enemies-[to-friends]-to-lovers, if that sweetens the pot for anyone.) It was a bit zero-to-sixty when they make the shift from being friends to making cow eyes at each other, but a lot of things in the show were, which brings us to Blood Origin's two main failings:

1) That the story was too rushed. This show had kind of the opposite problem from TWN S2 -- that instead of fucking around and wasting time in order to make a thin amount of plot stretch to cover eight episodes, Blood Origin was frantically trying to cram a complex, multi-layered story with a large cast (like, 8+ primary characters?) and all their backstories and motivations and character arcs into four episodes.

2) That the writing is just. not. good.

I'll be blunt with you guys -- whoever's writing for TWN is simply not smart enough to tell a grown-up story, not on an individual level, and not a world-building level. Blood Origin is supposed to involve a lot of complicated political maneuvering, but these writers' idea of what makes up the mechanisms of power is childishly, cartoonishly simplistic, and it could not be more clear that they have no idea how empires are administrated, how diplomacy and soft power work, what kind of time scale these things run on.

Which isn't even touching on the nonstop abuse of As You Know, Bob dialogue, and how, thanks to the time constraints, almost everyone's backstory is told-not-shown. "AS YOU KNOW, I WAS A FOUNDLING AND YOUR PARENTS TOOK ME IN, AND THUS I GREW UP TO REGARD YOU AS MY OWN SISTER--"

Like, guys. GUYS. This is the kind of shit I wrote in middle school.

It's better than TWN insofar as they remembered that they needed to actually introduce us to these characters, tell/show us what they're like as people, what their relationships and conflicts are, but MAN the dialogue is clumsy as fuck. Character interactions are as basic as can be, and any nuance or complexity there is coming from the actors, not the writing.

The premise of the show -- the story, the characters -- is not fundamantelly flawed. It had the potential to be very good, but it's not, because the execution was hot dogshit.

Joey is a delight as always, but his role in this show is so tiny and SOOOO pasted-on, just a sliver of framing narrative at the beginning of the first episode and the end of the last, so if that's what you're coming here for, you're going to be disappointed. I truck with the theory that they shoehorned him in at the last minute to try to draw in Jaskier fans and keep Blood Origin from being a total flop, because he's not integral to the story at all -- you could remove the framing narrative without a single hiccup.

(Although from a meta perspective, a lot of the plot holes make so much more sense if you interpret it as Jaskier making shit up. Something unbelievable happens and you're just like, LOL, OH LOOK, THERE'S JASKIER BACK ON HIS BULLSHIT. XD)

Michelle Yeoh is also a treat, though god only knows how they roped her into this trashfire. To be sure, her role is so thin that she's basically doing nothing but serving stage presence, but by god she's serving it in spades.

Anyway, tl;dr --

C+

High production value, and a concept with a lot of interesting potential, but foiled yet again by the holistic incompetence of TWN's writing team.

(Seriously, just -- HIRE. BETTER. WRITERS. It blows my mind that they pour all this money into these shows, but then don't think it's worth their time to find people who know how to tell a story?? Like they don't seem to think that part MATTERS? When to my mind, it's the only part that matters??)

So, is Blood Origin worth watching? I can't say, that is a question you will have to answer for yourself. *I* had a great time, but that was more about the day-drinking and getting to share the experience with friends.

So yeah, I guess that's my recommendation -- watch it with friends.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[tlacehualli]

Meta + physical pain

Meta + emotional/mental pain

physical pain

Sombra can take it on the chin pretty well. She was a street kid for a long time, and then she was in a gang for the rest of her teen years, and then she joined Talon. She's taken a lot of punches, especially when she was younger and hadn't quite gotten to the point of technological savvy to be able to avoid physical altercations altogether. Her defiance is something unusual in the grand scheme of things. She can't really throw a punch to save her life, but she will take one and tell you that you hit like her sister.

That being said, she absolutely hates physical pain. Even if she can take it, she would rather just not experience any discomfort at all. If she doesn't have to, if her own life or the life of someone she cares about isn't on the line, she will do her utmost to avoid it. Other than the ache that comes with her running (she does do a lot of running, since getting way from people requires it and getting shot or punched or whatever hurts a lot worse for a lot longer), of course. A necessary evil.

Does someone need her help lifting something? Absolutely the fuck not (unless it would be absolutely impossible but rare is the case where her little noodly IT expert arms are that useful). Does she have to go into a dangerous area where her safety by virtue of invisibility and translocation isn't guaranteed? Then, no. Unless there is a lot of money on the line. When she's come down with some sort of sickness that causes discomfort or body pains, she's an absolute terror and will make her misery everyone else's problem,even if it isn't a big deal. The type of person to lay on the couch like they're on their deathbed and making miserable whining noises even though it is the mildest of allergic reactions.

Other than just not enjoying physical discomfort, there is a reason for that, though. She's never loved it but after joining Talon and getting to know exactly what kind of person Moira is, Sombra's developed something of a neurosis about having to be in her care. Frankly, Moira is terrifying - what she's done to Widow, to Reaper, that could possibly be done to her without her consent is something that has caused more than a few nightmares. Avoiding physical damage that she can't take care of herself is high priority. The more something hurts, the more the likelihood of her ending up in Moira's 'care' increases.

It's not like she can just go to any old hospital, being wanted by the law and having very distinct bodily modifications, after all.

emotional pain

Whoever said that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger lied.

It's just been a lot. She was orphaned at a very young age and that was awful. Not unusual in the grand scheme of things, especially in Mexico with La Medianoche, but the Omnic Crisis caused a lot of pain and death and loneliness all over the world. It's a particular agony that a lot of people share, and it's something she still carries with her - even though she's much older now, and she's grown around it and made connections with people since. There's just no replacing that, really. You build on top of it.

The events leading up to her leaving Los Muertos and having to isolate herself from her community are another old wound she continues to carry. After all, it's the fact that she discovered The Conspiracy - and worse, that it discovered her - that caused such an abrupt shift in what her path in life was supposed to be after she'd come to build something for herself in her youth. Not only was the rest of her family dead, but now she had to die too, after a fashion. Her identity, the last real connection she had with them, where they were from. It isn't really gone, she still is that person - she just can't acknowledge it in any public way. She's been on the run for over a decade and being isolated from your own history, your own culture, like that - it remains painful.

Moira's betrayal came about half a decade after that, and like everything else, it weighs on her. Moira was someone she really looked up to at first when she'd joined Talon. Another woman, and intelligent, and seemingly willing to engage with her, to push her. To find out that she was just being used in the end honestly broke something in her - especially with the cruelty with which she went about it. It wasn't difficult for Moira to ascertain how sick Sombra felt for her part in Widow's creation. The guilt's been eating away at her for years and part of her wonders if that was the point maybe. Being with Talon isn't exactly ideal for her, the resources are nice and she'd been desperate to keep away from The Conspiracy, but she could be elsewhere. Maybe. Other than the fact that her guilt ties her to them. She just can't imagine leaving the Widow there alone without her.

It's tough getting a therapist when you're wanted by multiple governments; kind of comes part and parcel with being a terrorist. Inspiring terror and all that. Her crimes don't really include murder but she's caused enough financial damage, spread enough secrets, dug up too much sensitive information, for it to be really feasible for her to just go tell someone everything. So her coping mechanism is kind of shit - she'll just get drunk once in a while and explode emotionally and then she's fine again. For a while. It's better now than when she was younger though - she'd been something of a pharmacy.