#and he was being so emotional and wishing us all GL

[whispereons]

Oracle!Reader Part 12

Masterlist - Part 1, Part 11, Part 13

Putting this early so y'all got something to read while waiting for Fontaine. Gl on wishing/saving!

Warning! This is SAGAU which is yandere, plus my story is imposter au which makes things even worse. You can expect detailed descriptions of sensitive topics like blood in this chapter.

The water is still as Mountain Shaper relays your claim to the other adepti. The cutting gaze they have is deflected by that calm expression you wear.

"Then before we deal with them, let's wrap up the situation with the children." Ganyu speaks softly as her eyes move past your form with wariness. 

Xingqiu and Chongyun relax at the sight of Ganyu.With her around, the punishment from the adepti should be prevented.

"Thank you both for coming to save the children, and I'm sorry we weren't in time to help that poor boy. I'm afraid I'll have to burden you both with the task of bringing them back to the city. This would be quite a big deal, especially for you, Xingqiu, as the son of such a prestigious family."

Xingqiu freezes up at the mention of his family while Ganyu takes out a notepad. She writes something on it and hands it over to him.

"This is a brief report on what happened, your cover up is that I asked you to bring them back home. You and your friend will have to give a report to the Millelith and when I get back, I can finish the report. I can get the needed information from your... teammate."

The skepticism and slight disgust in her voice makes it perfectly clear what she thinks about you. She didn't even want to thank you for participating in saving the children.

Ganyu is an adepti, even if she is half human, and that is why she has some of that signature arrogance. She always did jump to conclusions; like how she attacked that Fatui skirmisher that was berry picking. Her arrogance only makes it harder for her to change her mind until it's nearly too late.

Xingqiu smiles politely but the twitch in his eyebrow as he accepts the note says it all. Chongyun's face visibly sours but he keeps quiet. They both turn to you, silently asking if it's okay for them to leave you here.

Your lips stretch into a cheery smile and you give them a thumbs up. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Just make sure Yiran gets to her father and that the mother of that poor boy gets his body."

They leave with the children clinging to them, the children still have remnants of tears in their eyes. You can only silently command Teyvat to make their journey back to the city as safe as possible.

"One knows not why this interloper is not already decaying at our feet. Surely any being that claims such a frivolous thing deserves to be sacrificed to the glorious Creator."

Rude as always, Cloud Retainer is the first to ignite the hatred for you. In Genshin she was always comedic relief after the Archon quest but it's different with your current position.

"Don't be so quick to see to my death, Cloud Retainer. Surely Mountain Shaper has already told you what secret information I know about you all." You smoothly comment. 

"The young herbalist is not impossible to hold information on, it's the scent of Teyvat on you that led me to not kick you off my mountain." Moon Carver interferes calmly. You get the sense that he's the most curious on who you are in contrast to the rest that just want you to die.

"Like I said, I'm an Oracle for the Creator themself. Surely you aren't going to doubt Teyvat in who it chooses to embrace."

"Mimicry is a common tactic among evildoers like yourself. Perhaps you're a demonic spirit from the old war hiding in human flesh. It would suffice as an explanation for the way you used that little girl to buy time for yourself." 

Mountain Shaper pushes the agenda of some evil lurking within you. Honestly, it's starting to annoy you but becoming emotional would only fuel them further.

"I only spoke to Yiran so rashly due to your stupid rules. Who focuses on intruders that you clearly saw came for the children instead of the terrified young girl? She was scared from the massacre and felt responsible for that boy's death. That same dead boy’s mother that you proceeded to insult."

"And why should we concern ourselves with the folly of humans?"

"I'm not asking you to. I'm saying that you should at least allow the other humans to help those children, yet you treat adults and children like they have the same mental capacity. Not surprising as adepti couldn't possibly understand the complexity of humanity but it’s still quite disappointing that you cannot even see the logic."

Your words earn you a sharp amber tearing into the skin of your left arm.  A low curse escapes you as you yank the injured arm away from the crimson painted amber. Examining the wound with a grimace, you apply pressure to slow the bleeding. The puncture wound lets your blood stain the clothing and drip off. 

It didn't go all the way through but in certain areas your vein and arteries can be seen. Not broken, just exposed and so very painful. Resisting the tears, you dig into your bag with your good hand for the medical kit.

As you clean and wrap up your wound, you can hear the adepti arguing.

"What are you doing you old coot? One was looking to expose their lies, not attack in such a haste. Now that filthy blood is staining my abode."

"Cloud Retainer is correct on this topic. As devoted worshippers of our caliber, having the ability to unravel the demonic lies is true proof of our strength."

It's so funny, you almost want to laugh in their faces. 'Filthy blood'? Your blood is the one that they worship like salvation. 'Demonic lies?' Isn't the Creator's word's law and truth no matter the message?

That haughtiness that leads them to try beating you at your own game will be their downfall. You'll enjoy this new act. After all...

They're only the stepping stones for the showdown between you and the Geo Archon.

With a bandaged arm that sends dull aches and electrifying pain at intervals, you smile and speak in a sweet tone.

"Finished conversing yet? If you're ready to try exposing my nonexistent lie then get rid of this amber cage and let me show you firsthand why I'm the Creator's Oracle."

Your serene smile is met with sharp glares, distrustful eyes and a timid gaze that speaks first.

"And what proof or action will you show us?"

"Well, I have multiple ways, but illuminated beings like yourself will not be satisfied with that. You'll see it as a trick, a prepared prop to convince you all. So instead, why don't you ask me to do something or relay something to the creator? Something that you're positive I can't complete."

Beisht's scale seems to make your bag heavier with the reminder of its existence. But it's not time for it yet. The adepti only see Beisht as an enemy, that gamble isn't one you're willing to risk just yet.

"One would never ask you to pray to the creator and sully their ears with your sinful voice. One has a better idea on what you can do as 'proof'. As much as One hates to let you get closer, it is necessary to enter my abode."

Mountain Shaper seems to grumble as the other adepti force him to release you. Chains made of Geo and Dendro wrap around your wrists and tug you forward. 

Were you truly that untrustworthy in their eyes? Four adepti against one human, the outcome is obvious, but you keep a leisurely pace behind them.

Cloud Retainer's domain-like door opens and once you all step inside, the door shuts with a loud bang. It's just like how you remembered it in the game.

An absolute confusing mess.

Ganyu and Cloud Retainer cross the barely hanging rock bridge with ease, Meanwhile Moon Carver and Mountain Shaper throw remarks at her.

"What is the meaning of such a mess? It's in even worse condition than when we visited 300 years ago."

"One's abode is not of your concern. It is normal for one to keep it in the environment that suits one's needs."

Cloud Retainer and Mountain Shaper continue to bicker back and forth as you are led through the turning platforms and transparent golden bridges. 

"Maybe if a certain mortal had just accepted death as their punishment, we wouldn't have to be going through this disorganization."

As adepti, they probably could have just flown to the top where Cloud Retainers' main ruins are but as you are clearly human, they had to take the long way. They don't bother to keep that fact quiet but Moon Carver constantly saying that only makes you walk slower in pettiness.

The main ruin finally comes into view and you remember the initial conversation with Cloud Retainer when you had to discuss Morax's fake death. The door behind that never let players in, is now open. 

Entering you are greeted with long hallways with inventions in different stages of creation littering it. Texts, and murals of different time periods cover the walls. Morax, Guizong, the Yaksha and even other adepti you don't recognize are there.

A left turn at a three way intersection goes to a large room decorated beautifully with feathers and gemstones alike. The image of you forming an egg that has brown scales and gold accents is the main centerpiece. 

This must be how they believe you created Morax. Then does that solve the question on whether the egg or the chicken comes first? 

Cloud Retainer stops in the middle of the room and spreads her wings to point at the sides of the room that are inscribed with text.

"Ever since One took residence in this abode, One has never been able to decipher the text, nor has any other being that got One's permission to enter this sacred room been able to decipher it. If you are truly the Oracle then surely you must be able to decode such scriptures."

"Then let's see just what message this scripture contains." Your proud words are all the bravado you need to walk past their eyes and approach the closest words on the left wall.

As you move to walk past Cloud Retainer's form, she brings her wing down to cover your path.

"Death is the only ending for you in One's eyes. If you fail to translate, then you'll die. If you tarnish or destroy it, then you'll die. And if you refuse, then death will claim you before you can even finish your words." 

"I understand full and well, Cloud Retainer. My life belongs to the Creator, no matter how difficult or painful."

Her wing cuts through your shackles with ease. Now free, you walk past with that confident posture you've held throughout this meeting. Your hands itch to run over the wall and pray that Teyvat will automatically translate it as it had done for everything else. Yet when you get close enough to make out the words, you smile widely. A sight so beautiful for your poor eyes.

'Elemental creatures of all kinds must continue to worship the maker of all things to maintain their loving and personal connection. Refusing or forgetting to do so is the same as rejecting or not caring for them. Consequences are dire and just like trust, it'll be much harder to restore.'

Your language is written on the wall in clear letters. Your luck seems to have turned around for now. You could do so much with this information.

"I can understand this perfectly. It's the language the Creator uses to communicate on the world they're resting in. The scripture describes elemental worship that is specific to only elemental beings."

You recite the first text with ease as the room goes quiet. Not a laugh, scoff nor grumble is heard in the room. Should you take this as a bad or good thing? 

Pushing onward you begin to translate the rest of the text on both sides of the room. It gives a detailed explanation on how to sacrifice body parts, energy, blood, and lifeforce. 

"Stop, we have heard enough." Moon Carver cuts in emotionlessly. You look back at them feigning a confused expression. Trouble is clear on their faces, the truth of your words is spreading guilt within them.

Inwardly your lips curve into a smile that seems to soothe the pain in your arm.

They aren't guilty from the approaching truth of your 'oracle' status being real. They're feeling guilt over the worship methods that they had forgotten.

But pompous beings like them will never accept their wrong-doings so easily.

"You speak of words that poison our minds and weigh our hearts with guilt. This may be but a sham that you wish to deceive us with. Us, illuminated beasts will not accept this method until it's been proven in our sights."

With a careless shrug and scoff, you speak to Mountain Shaper with an uncaring attitude. "I would happily do it to myself just to prove my words true, but I'm not an elemental being like you all were so happy to point out. It seems one of you will have to test it out or we'll never get anywhere."

"Or perhaps we can end this farce now and eliminate you from the beloved maker's gaze." His angry reaction has you covering your mouth in surprise.

"You would skip past the proper protocols in the case concerning the Creator? Where is your devotion? Your faith? Or are you just afraid to do so and see the honesty in my words? Maybe it's a mix of both..."

Mountain Shaper takes a clawed step forward that makes the ruins shake. Cloud Retainer blocks his path with her wing.

"One has had enough of this Shaper! Treat the eulogies and artwork of the creator with more respect."

"It is shameful that an illuminated being like yourself is being led by a mortal like that. Are we not the ones who survived this long despite the varying enemies and plots? Calm yourself before you sully the Creator's pride with your uncontrollable wrath."

Mountain Shaper looks pissed as his eyes glare at you with malice. The temptation to flip him off with a shit-eating grin is too strong and he turns away like a toddler at your crude actions.

"I can do the ritual for us to learn the truth on this matter." A timid voice steps in during the brief silence. All eyes turn to Ganyu as she keeps her hands close to her chest.

"All the work I do is for Liyue, Rex Lapis, and most importantly: the Creator. If this method is true then I can learn a more intimate way to worship them. And if not, then I can keep the creator's reputation pure by utterly destroying Y/N."

Her words are soft and gentle but turn dark near the end as she stares at you seriously. The adepti stay quiet seeming to respect her bold actions even if Cloud Retainer seems just a bit ruffled.

"You said that there are many different offerings to give, all with their own reward. Which one would give the best result?"

"The energy sacrifice would be the most convenient and easiest but it doesn't fit you well due to your lethargic nature. Your body is physically strong so a blood offering would be the best choice."

Ganyu's eyes seem to follow your form as you step closer to the section that contains the instructions for the blood offering. She's no doubt trying to figure out how you could know about that without considering the possibility of you being the Oracle true.

You read it out loud so that everyone is on the same page before looking back at them.

"So let's start with the main things. We'll need a clear area outside along with a ceremonial dagger and cup. I'll wait here and write down all the ritual instructions for future use."

In Genshin you always know a NPC is suspicious when they want to 'wait and write' something while you do the actual work. The distrustful looks they all send you feel the same way.

They leave Ganyu to watch over you while they all leave to prepare the ritual. Deciding to leave Ganyu alone, you go back to jotting down the text into your handbook.

It's quiet to the point of it being uncomfortable yet you diligently finish the notes and simply doodle on the free space. Ganyu's eyes never stop running down your body, you ask yourself if she's even blinking.

"Before I came here to visit, I heard of an incident at Liyue Harbor. About two geovishap hatchlings that went feral and caused a mess. The most interesting part was how the 'winner' displayed its trophy to a masked stranger."

Ah, Ganyu... 3,000 years old and counting half-qilin adeptus with a whole war as experience. Did you ever forget her knowledge? No, you just simply underestimated her resilience to erosion. 

"Is there something you want to ask me about that incident? If so, just spit it out. Communication is important, a secretary like yourself should know that much."

"I have no doubt that you are the person in the incident. I'm conflicted over how you came to your... position. Someone tricking the people is normal and still saddening. But someone trying to trick the adepti? Foolish and stupid. I will stop you either way but just know that I will not stand for your evil actions."

A laugh slips past your lips as your gaze falls onto her firm stance. Gentle and quiet are the words to describe qilin yet the conflict avoiding nature seemed to have skipped Ganyu's genes. 

"Then I hope you repent properly to the creator for refusing to believe their loyal servant for speaking the truth." You move to stand in front of her and stare deeply into her eyes with mirth. "It seems the adepti have already returned. Why don't we get going?"

Not a moment later, Cloud Retainer's voice rings out, calling for you both to come outside. Smiling cheerfully, you follow Ganyu out of Cloud Retainer's home.

The moon's glow tenderly caresses your skin and bandaged arm as the water laps at your legs. The adepti stand on the small patch of land as you and Ganyu trudge across the water. On the table is a clean dagger with intricate gold patterns and a gold chalice decorated with Noctilucous Jade.

Dagger and chalice in hand, you survey the area with a critical eye. Smiling, you point at an area of water.

"The water here is clean and clear so it fits the bill in what the ritual needs. Follow me Ganyu." Not bothering to look back you walk deeper into the water, even still the water only reaches above your knees.

"Words are not needed, only actions. Kneel and choose a place for me to cut you. Your blood has to fill the chalice to the brim."

She goes along with your words and kneels, letting the liquid soak her clothes without complaint. Grabbing ahold of her beautiful white sleeve, she pulls it off, exposing her arm.

"Cut my arm in a long shallow slit so it can be filled quickly without too much damage."

"Alright, let me go over the steps once more as your time is limited once it's filled." With practiced ease, you cut her arm and watch her blood flow into the chalice. Not even a peep escapes her from the pain.

"You'll hold the chalice with both hands raising it into the air to signify that you are offering. Keep your eyes closed and pray for what you wish to communicate to the creator. In this case, you want to pray for the creator to accept your blood offering as the first step to forgiveness. After that you'll just need to follow my lead."

Ganyu nods solemnly and you move the now filled chalice to her hands carefully to avoid spilling it. Her eyelids flutter shut as her hands hold the chalice high in the air. The air seems to still as her lips move to mouth a silent prayer.

The blood that drips down her arm and into the water seems hypnotizing. To think you’d really hurt someone to hide your lie. It's different then the case with Beisht; you hurt Beisht to prove your identity. What you have done to Ganyu is a line you may have to cross again in the future. What if you eventually kill someone to hide your lie? The thought seems ludicrous to you now but so did hurting someone before this moment...

Your thoughts seem to still when the blood dripping from her wound changes in color. No, not just color but in texture too. Those wine red drops shift to a mix of pink and blue. It solidifies into a small glittering object that clinks softly as it hits the water.  

It flashes for a moment before dissolving into water like it never existed. Was that truly what a primogem looked like in real life?

An indescribable feeling swells up in your chest, soft whispers lead your body closer to Ganyu without a fight. Shakily your hands cover hers as that intangible feeling urges you to speak.

'I accept your offering' is nearly spoken but even in this haze of dopamine and serotonin, your self control is firm.

"The Creator accepts your offering." Your words are shaky with unknown emotions. Is this Ganyu's feelings towards you as the creator? It's gentle and rests on your soul like a weighted blanket feebly trying to pull you into a deep sleep.

Reminding yourself of the ritual at hand, you begin to tilt the chalice toward the ground. The scripture never specified what would happen but the sight you receive is beyond what you could expect.

What pours out of the chalice is not scarlet liquid, but thousands of primogems that clink and clank as it hits the water. Just like earlier, it dissolves leaving bubbles that cloud the starry sky that was reflected on the surface.

When the last primogem hits the water, you release Ganyu's hands and step back. You look up at the night sky that begins to glow with color as your voice cuts through the tense silence.

"Open your eyes Ganyu, it's time to see your wish revitalized. The Creator accepted your offering after all."

Coral and lavender eyes open slowly and go wide at the sight of the sky. The chalice is gripped in tightly on her lap as the night blooms with blue and purple wishes.

A single gold star begins to travel through the air at high speeds. Noticing its course you step farther away from Ganyu as she stays kneeling in amazement at the sight.

Before anyone can speak, the gold shooting star hits Ganyu and engulfs her spot with a beam of light. It's harsh on your eyes but the game screen that automatically opens in front of you soothes it.

Ganyu's splash art is the only thing you see before you click it off with a triumphant smile. Skipping through all the other wishes and four star constellations, the game screen and gold light disappear at the same time.

A shocked and confused Ganyu could be expected. A quietly happy and thankful Ganyu was expected. But the half qilin adeptus silently bawling her eyes out as she stays kneeling in the water was what greeted you instead.

The other adepti don't hesitate to move to your area with inhuman speed from where they were watching. You expected Mountain Shaper to be the first one to attack you as Moon Carver stands protectively in front of Ganyu but it seems the adepti didn't like to respond logically.

Sharp talons wrapped around your neck as the weight of the crane pushes you back onto the water. The unexpected submersion has you coughing uncontrollably underwater as your body seems to be weighed down by something invisible.

Fingers dig into your throat as blurry yells make your heart pound with panic.

"It's all your fault!" 

"None of this would have happened if you didn't exist!"

"Should have just let me do what I want with you, you pathetic fuck!"

Sickle in hand your attacks are choppy as the electro sputters in and out of existence. The fingers turn into a bruising, clawed grip once more as your free hand grabs a fistful of feathers.

The crane is pulled away and by extension you're pulled out of the water too. The water droplets make your vision blur as you try to calm your hyperventilation into something less vulnerable.

Cloud Retainer is held back by all three adepti as she squawks with indignation. The ringing in your ears prevents you from hearing anything more than, "One has not seen Ganyu cry in such a way since she was a child!"

Ganyu seems more than embarrassed as she repeatedly tells Cloud Retainer something you can't be bothered to make out. Your nails dig into the blood and feathers in your hand as you stare at the missing patch of feathers on Cloud Retainers body.

You're cold, wet, hungry, and so very tired but that bald patch you left on the noisy crane makes you feel happy in a vengeful way. If you weren't still reeling from the near death experience you would have loved to comment on her new preen.

The situation seems to calm down as Ganyu and the rest explain something thoroughly to Cloud Retainer. It's obvious that she had gone on a rampage due to Ganyu's reaction without bothering to view the situation in full. A rare mistake for someone as meticulous as her.

With care and concern only for the present, you move to the edge of the mountain and stare out across the sky. The view of Liyue is muddled yet enhanced by the starry sky. The grass under your shoes is welcome in comparison to the pond that nearly swallowed you whole.

Your fingers mindlessly pick at the healing scabs and bruises from the treasure hoarder fiasco. The grimace on your face is not from the pain of the jostled arm but the uncomfortable feeling of wet bandages. Carefully, your fingers trace the new talon marks on your neck that you gained from Cloud Retainer. Should you get hurt by Moon Carver too, to collect wounds from all three?

The grass crunches behind you and you already know what is about to happen. Your eyebrows pinch in worry and your gaze rarely leaves the floor as the adepti stand face to face with them.

"I'm so sorry for my reaction earlier. I was so surprised and overjoyed that the sacrifice convinced the Creator to awaken me that I reacted in such a shameful way. It's due to my failure to keep my emotions in check that you got hurt. Please forgive me."

Your mind is blank but your body is well versed in what to do, what lies to say. Softening eyes are steady with Ganyu's as your fingers gingerly touch the claw marks.

"I understand Ganyu, the creator's grace is an amazing thing. Be sure to serve them properly from now on." With a near patronizing tone you speak to the adepti as a whole.

"Don't you see what damage you had done to me? The creator is love, peace, justice and truth. I hope you don't think they'll let Cloud Retainer and Mountain Shaper off easy for harming me who has taken on such a heavy and dangerous burden."

Facades are only good if you know how to upkeep and keep track of them. If you act like some soft pushover now, they'll be suspicious. You slide into the control seat of the spider web of lies you've created as easily as breathing. 

Rest? Mental breakdowns? Dissociative states? Hallucinations from past traumatic experiences? All of those things must be pushed into the crevice in your mind. The same crevice that seems to grow deeper and darker with each passing year since your birth. Those thoughts can consume you when you're safe, if that day ever comes.

They react exactly as you expected; haughty but thoroughly humbled with seeds of self doubt planted in their hearts. Breaking even a fraction of their pride in their fake-ass devotion brings a longing for them to crumble even more.

You go along with conversation while conserving as much energy as possible. Ganyu was the only one with enough sensibility to apologize to you so why should you care about the rest of them? If they had Ganyu carry and apologize in their stead then they should be just as fine with you only giving her actual attention.

Pointing out this fact seemed to stun them into a tense silence. Your body naturally goes on edge expecting some sort of attack but nothing comes. Instead they present you with a few apologies without using words.

"As a faithful servant of the Creator, you are welcomed anytime in Jueyun Karst, as well as any other areas that would be deemed off-limits within our authority."

"Why not stay in One's home for the night after the enlightening events that have occurred today? One is not a careless host and will be sure to provide all that you need during your stay."

It honestly wasn't a bad idea, your mind and body were not fit for teleporting to Liyue and setting up camp. You accepted the offer despite knowing that the sleep you will get will not be fulfilling.

The conversations they hold as you are fed and tended to flow in one ear and out the other. The most notable information you picked up was how they wanted to try the method themself and even spread it to Xiao in hopes of the creator lessening his karmic debt.

It's Ganyu that accompanies you to a guest room that Cloud Retainer somehow managed to not make messy. The other adepti seem to think that you like her in some way when little to their knowledge, you're simply fond of her.

Not in the way that you want to be near or interact with her. She apologized for being part of the reason you were attacked. She still hasn't apologized for all her previous rude actions. You liked her the same way as you did on Earth. Only as a character.

A voice whispers that it's better than how you refuse to associate with Ei in any way.

You lay down on a clean mattress in the comforting silence of the night. You're dry, warm, full, and comfortable yet still as on edge as before. The eyebags you wear are not from random all-nighters but from the never-ending cycle of lying for a living. Both on Earth and on Teyvat.

Sleep doesn't come easy, not with the constant fear of talons holding you down. Nor with the unease of amber cutting through your skin. Rest comes in spurts of deep sleep before hands are choking you again back into the waking world. 

Sometimes you wish you could forget who your family was too.

Your internal clock is all sorts of confused as you wake up for the 50th time. Judging by the lack of discomfort in your body, you couldn't have slept more than an hour. 

Pale green glows in the corner of your eyes making you speed into sitting position. You catch the faintest glimpse of a horned masked bearing large fangs and glowing teal eyes. 

You blink at the spot as your breath is harsh even to your own ears. Was it real? Was he here? Why would he be?

For what reason would he watch you sleep if not to investigate?

The cool mask calms your clammy skin. If he had looked under it, you wouldn't be here anyway. It's that morbid thought that brings you peace. 

How ironic.

Knowing that sleep will not come to you for a while, you get dressed and follow the vague memory of the path Ganyu took when bringing you to the guest room. 

It leads to the domain doors to the outside and the brush of your fingertips on the stone doors has it moving smoothly. The early morning sun warms the stone walkway as you exit into the free space.

The sight of the pond trudges up memories of yesterday. With a bright smile and light footsteps, you hurry down the staircase and jump over the water with ease.

"-yet how could we possibly forget such a vital ritual?" "One suspects larger factors are at play." "The records in our abodes should show-"

Catching the near ending of such a serious conversation, you slow down as they all turn to look at you.

"Awake already Y/N? Would you like a light breakfast?" Ganyu is the first to speak, the other adepti are surely still examining you. Now far more lucid than last night you are positive that having another meal with them would be a true nightmare.

"I'm not hungry when it's so early so I'll pass for now. There are many private duties that the creator asks of me and it would be best that I get straight to it. Yet there's a slight problem."

The adepti seem to tense up in unison, not that they are wrong for doing so. You've been a consistent thorn in their side since you met Mountain Shaper.

"You see, my body has not fully recovered from the injuries that I received from fighting the treasure hoarders. And with the how rough I was handled by you all, my injuries were reopened."

The wind ruffles your hair as if highlighting the bruise and talon marks. Your left hand is pressed against your chest making the sun shine on the bandaged arm. The parts of damaged exposed skin are the icing on the cake.

"Then what is it that you desire oracle of the beloved? Do you wish to check on the children that were saved?" Mountain Shaper's voice is like ice. Sharp when cold like yesterday but smooth when controlled correctly.

It was a good thing you slept, even if it was sucky. You almost missed out on such a great bargaining chip!

"That is one thing I plan to do when I head to the city but there's a few things before that. Since you're already offering to take me then it would be a great help if you can take me to this location."

Shamelessly you hold out the map in your handbook with the only commission location left.

Increasing Danger - Hilichurls are building towers in the circled area. Destroy these towers for the safety of the people.

Mountain Shaper sighs tiredly and is about to respond when you cut him off on purpose. 

"Oh and those ceremonial tools we used in the ritual yesterday? I need them. The creator is an all-loving deity that would never desire to push away the innocent and loyal beings in Teyvat unless they deserved it. The creator wishes to conduct more rituals if necessary."

Cloud Retainer seems to stare at you in shock at the forceful way you pushed for the items you desire. The dagger and chalice glint in the sunlight as she resists the urge to hide them from your greedy eyes.

"But before you drop me off for good at my commission site, I'll need you all to help me activate the teleport waypoints. There's no way I'm climbing those mountains again. Besides, the creator blessed you all with such power, how could you not use it to support a fellow devotee?"

Your smile widens to bare all your teeth as Moon Carver avoids looking directly at you. They may be reluctant but you always make sure to have your debts be paid with interest. The price for hurting, exhausting, and stressing you out is not one to sneeze at either.

Quite a few teleport waypoints were activated with the dagger and chalice safely in your bag. Adeptus powers really were useful in situations like these. Within half an hour you had activated enough to safely teleport around Jueyun Karst without fear of running into the adepti again.

As Mountain Shaper sets you down nearby the hilichurl camp and towers for your commission, his curiosity finally gets the best of him.

"For what reason did you discolor so many teleport waypoints?"

"I can teleport using them due to the creator's blessing. Now that I activated them, I can teleport to all of your mountains whenever I want to visit!"

Each word you say with a cheerful grin seems to send him deeper into agony. He nods tightlipped and flies away. The wind brings his muttered words to your words. 

"A vacation is in order. A vacation for as long as possible."

Messing with the adepti was really fun. You just hoped that they would go on vacation permanently, your job would be much easier that way.

All you have left is to finish this commission, teleport to the waypoint near the harbor's entrance and get your money. Simple as that. Opening the game window from your safe viewing spot of the hilichurl camp, you begin to review all the books on hilichurls.

First and foremost, thank you to the editor of this chapter @serpent-benediction! He was a huge help even if he terrorized me the whole time </3

It gives me more time to add some fun stuff like italics and bold. Stories pack more of a punch with flair, in my eyes at least. All the improvements to the chapter are his work like capitalizing Oracle and Creator. We did debate on whether adepti was species or title. So yall are free to give your opinion on which it is and whether it should be capitalized. I'm glad to see that (almost) all the build-up to the adepti part is finished. Well for the adepti at least. I was like dead tired after the choking part so that's why it may be a bit wonky. Now that I'm not pressed for time (yet. Sep is coming soon) I wanted to thank everyone for staying this long in the series! I love reading and responding to comments. I love reading the notes and/or tags from reblogs. I don't know if I should respond to reblogs like I do to comments. Cause I see some really in-depth reblogs that I wanna respond to but I end up not doing that thanks to my thoughts of-'Is that weird, strange or uncomfortable?' I just don't wanna scare anyone off. And for those that might wonder why Y/N was choking here but not with Beisht, it's due to Retainer. Retainer was using her adeptus power to pressure the water against Y/N which caused the drowning and bruises. I hope that clears it up a lil!

I'm a dumbass, I forgot the taglist. That's why it looked so short in my eyes. Everyone is allowed to yell at me for this (except for my editor) Taglist: @vvyeislazzy, @nikqi, @the-dumber-scaramouche, @etherisy, @yourlocalstranger123, @ra404, @iruiji, @goldenglow149, @haru-tofuu, @lsleepysimpl, @bebobeboben, @yuyuzi-ling, @amidst-the-tempest, @resident-cryptid, @mxd1zzy, @mochicurls21, @nervouseaglelover, @thedevioussmirk, @yumuramma, @kwqsla, @undecidingfate, @ehjane, @game-savvy, @akiramirae, @sielt, @fluffy-koalala, @formacoon, @sxftiebee, @khxii-i, @ursinaw, @chuuya-brainrot, @sweetbills, @kazuchaos, @snowfoxnix, @bluebelony, @conspicuous-mayonnaise, @pencil-of-ashes, @ghostlyintervention, @taiformaifoe, @sielt, @goaudduck, @carminerin, @maddysflowers, @zenith-of-all-zeniths, @crazydreamcat, @leafanonsforest, @grimreapersscythe, @leylanx, @undecidingfate, @sapphireknown, @help-whatdoimakemyusername, @zhonglisfruityass, @fluffy-koalala, @mer0n37, @victoria1676, @mochinessss, @sinnful-darling, @emilymikado

[absolutebl]

This week in BL - I am all over the place, But Laws of Attraction is Phenomenal af

July 2023 Wk 2

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Laws of Attraction (Thai Sat iQIYI) 1 of 8 - Icky picked it up but it’s not airing for me until Sundays so I held this post specifically to watch and talk about this show. Stars the pair from To Sir With Love with the same production team. IT’S SO GOOD Y’ALL. A morally corrupted trickster lawyer with a tragic past, sad eyes, and a beautiful smile that he uses like a weapon. Meets paladin martial arts instructor from other side of the tracks (who is out, at least to his baby sister). Corrupt police. Spoiled rich kid evil. Ambitious politician. Tragic death. Terrible subs.* This show is very like Manner of Death but so far it is a much better/tighter story. It’s NOT BL but it is fucking phenomenal. And you shoudl watch it. Not wait to binge it. WATCH IT. On a global scale this might be the best thing currently airing featuring gay romantic leads. Its really fucking good. It’s Lawless Lawyer but more complex character motivation and gay af. Fuck yes please and thank you. FINALLY. Triggers for violence, beatings, death & torture depicted on screen. Like MoD they are not holding back.  (* A lot of the familial names they are using are not gendered in Thai but translated as such, like “nephew”. This one is gonna go down a lot easier if you know some Thai.)

Step By Step (Tues WeTV & Gaga) ep 12fin - 2 years pass and no one’s hairstyle changes? Srs. Them meeting again = hella AWKWARD. Both still pining & hurt. NO SINGING. The reconciliation scene was great. I enjoyed that on the “do over relationship” they went with phi/pom (instead of the super formal khuns). So cute and so much more relaxed. Also lots of neck kisses! Charming final ep. It’s only flaw being they dropped the side couple, but I wasn’t really into them anyway. Ultimately? This is what Boss & Babe should have been and could we please have Up lead out another BL? I miss him and he only gets prettier. Full review below.

La Pluie (Sat iQIYI) ep 12fin - I adore the tiny little baby GL thread that we almost got. And I wish we had had more of it throughout the show. The side couple turned out to be good too. Emotional crying kisses are my favorite. Sunshine netted himself an earnest serious romantic boy, we likey. As for the main couple? Well... Tai’s search story arc was dull and dragging in a final ep and it felt bloated and slow as a result. It was a good confession reunion with Tai figuring all of his shit out, not surprising but fine. Kind of a a weak final ep. Full review below. 

Hidden Agenda (Thai Sun GMMTV YouTube) ep 1 of 12 - JoonDunk are back and we have all seen this a million times before, but Thailand never executed a successful formula it didn’t want to repeat a million times over, drunk bathroom and everything. Welcome (back) to Thai BL (and back and back and back). Basically they just added glasses, a new 1-shared-brain-cell friendship group, and different uni departments. Ah GMMTV, forever trying to recreate the magic of 2gether. But also I’m enjoying it. I’m a simple person. (Hi Jamie! Still in college since 2018 I see.) Anyone else notice that Chinese phrase that they did not translate for us? Mmm hum. Cute. Still... NO SINGING. 

Low Frequency (Sat iQIYI) ep 2 of 8 - Thames is in coma and getting slagged off on the socials. It’s moving a bit slowly but the premise is interesting despite the poor quality of the execution. 

Dinosaur Love (Sun iQIYI) ep 3 of 8 eps - Major trigger for self harm depicted on screen in part 2/4. I skipped it. Then there is assault and verbal abuse. I told you Ultimate Troop is NOT to be trusted. 

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki) ep 2 of 12 - Look, I don’t really mind this show but I also don’t like second hand embarrassment and I sense a metric butt ton incoming.

Be My Favorite (Fri YouTube) ep 8 of 12 - I was not best pleased with this episode. Ya’ll round the tumblr-sphere seem to be enjoying it but I have officially hit the wall on Kawi. There is not enough booze for me to cope with his shizz. I may be alone in this. But gotta say how I feel... Unlike him. Trash watch here.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Tokyo in April is... AKA Shigatsu no Tokyo wa (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 5 of 8 - Poor Ren, he feels compelled to take on the burden of protecting everyone from sexual assault because he blames himself. And he can’t even talk to his boyfriend about it. Oh fuck me the pair of shoes at the door. And neck kisses? TOO MUCH. Argh. Japan. Why must you hurt so good? 

Stay By My Side (Taiwan Fri Gaga) 3 of 10 eps - It’s a very cute show. All the tropes and archetypes with no fuss or attempts to be clever, just executing them (sometimes over and over again). Even hiccoughs as a result of flirting! I haven’t seen that one in ages. The show feels old fashioned as a result. Nostalgic. I’m good with that. 

Tie The Not (Pinoy YouTube) ep 6 of 8 - Sad boys still sad now drunk. (Noooooo shoes on bed! Argh.) Finally kisses! Also good ones for a large portion of this ep. Plus hair pulling. And verse rep! And after sex convo. Then side dishes have a whole proper gay ax covo about top/bottom. Everyone say thank you Philippines! get down with your queer selves! 

Stupid Genius (Vietnam Fri YouTube) ep 6fin - I believe this was the final episode. It was cute. This is a standard sort of semi-crappy VBL high school drama. Enjoyable in its floppy friendliness, weirdly like a queer after school special promoting education. Dead fish kisses but fine for what it is. 7/10 

Minato's Laundromat Season 2 AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga) 2 of 12 eps - Activate cohabitation trope. They okay bfs. Minato not as frustrating this week, but still frustrating for me and Shin. Next week = cute outfits and dumb miscommunication yay!

Vian the series (Vietnam YouTube ) ep 11 of 12 - again it didn’t show up on my dash in time for this. I’ll pop it into next week. 

It’s airing but ...

House of Stars (Thai Mon iQIYI) 12 eps - I bounced at ep 3. Will binge if told it is worth it at end.

Stay (Pinoy YouTube) 7 eps - It’s mostly English & set in LA (shudder) so I’m not bothering.

Stay With Me ... NO I WILL NOT! And you can’t make me.

Ended This Week

Step By Step Series Review  

This was Thailand’s answer to The New Employee, and everything I loved about that show I loved about this one. This was an office romance between stern boss and sweet subordinate that felt more authentic to an office environment than previous Thai BLs of this ilk. And that authenticity added tension to the narrative and character development (how novel). Now that might be because it has western source material, or it might be because it is actually kind of old-fashioned (it’s been years since I worked as an office grunt). I also really enjoyed the brothers’ relationship, and kinda wished they hadn’t attempted (and failed) to give said brother his own side BL. That one flaw made it a 9/10 for me. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

La Pluie Series Review

This BL takes to task the fated mates trope and what it means to have love chained intimately to predestination. It’s about how faith in destiny before choice diminishes the authenticity of emotion, relationships, and connection. This is a high concept to examine through the lens of a BL. By activating + examining the soulmates trope this show is challenging a foundation of romance: the idea that there is one person meant to be your one romantic partner all your life. This means that we, as viewers, spend much of the show worried about it having a happy ending, and that’s the source of both its brilliance and tension: would the narrative have the strength to truly challenge its own romantic core? But, ultimately, all this elevated complexity was executed in a somewhat shaky manner with the narrative derailing into some serious pacing issues and characters manipulated by miscommunication. However, with good chemistry and decent acting all around, plus some excellent high heat and representation of consent and a few other rare tropes, this one has to (like it’s sibling show My Ride) earn a 9/10. I enjoyed it even as it made me think, so despite its flaws: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting:  

7/19 Wedding Plan (Thai Wed YouTube & iQIYI)  - It's Mame and she's coming for our GL. She's such a misogynist IMAGINE what we will get with a GL side dish? It's going to be absolute carnage. To crane your neck as you drive by the car wreck or not? That is the question. Me? I'm wallowing in the guts. Trying to decide to trash watch or not... 

7/20 Jun & Jun (Korea Thu Viki) - From 2022 I CAN’T FUCKING WAIT! So excited for this one. 

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

FYI roselle juice is made from hibiscus (a flower) so technically neither a tea nor a juice. (Hidden Agenda)

Tie the Not = all the verse rep this ep. I love this for them. 

The giggling was SO DAMN CUTE (Step by Step, na?) 

We all guessed it but it was still fun. (Stupid Genius) Also miracles of miracles, two actors who actually look like they could be brothers play brothers. 

First time I’ve seen faen translated as significant other. (Laws of Attraction)

THE PAIN! (Tokyo) 

(Last week.)

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week ?

Superman #10 - Wish the Old West story had gone longer and Terra-Man’s showing wasn’t as good as I hoped, but Redondo’s art still made this an enjoyable issue. Ending confirms Lena II is not the person wearing the Lexcorp power armor. Betting it's her aunt, Lena I (Lex's sister), last we saw of her she was imprisoned under Lexcorp tower by Lex during his SuperLex phase. Guess where the Revenge Squad breaks into during their assault on Lexcorp Tower? With Lex's extended family becoming more prominent, she's the only one left who hasn't shown up and is still alive.

Superman: Lost #10 - Final issue is out and it’s… interesting. On one hand the science of it all kinda makes sense and I can sorta follow along with how Priest managed to cut the proverbial Gordian knot he tied for himself. It all ends up being a fakeout of course, Hope’s baby isn’t Clark’s at all, it’s the kid of the guy she killed. Clark yanks a version of himself from earlier in the timeline and sends him back to Lois so she can get her husband back rather than the stranger he’s become. It’s an interesting approach in line with Priest’s love of messing with the timeline. Emotionally though… I dunno I don’t like how Priest ended up doing fake outs at every turn. Given this ends with there being two Supermen, one who is still the “classic” version and the other who has changed so much in 20 years, I don’t get why he didn’t just do the same story except Clark actually did cheat and had a kid with Hope. Ending would have been the same, he yanks an "unspoiled" version of himself from earlier in the timeline to be with Lois while white suit Superman accepts he’s changed too much to return to his old life. That would have been more satisfying to me personally, and taken more advantage of this being an Elseworld. Enjoyed the story all the same.

World’s Finest #23 - Gog's motive here reminds me of the motivation for the Big Bad of Arcaneum. Stories where the afterlife is a real thing raise interesting moral questions that I enjoy seeing explored. What Gog is doing is monstrous, but his plan to kill Darkseid via a suicide mission that will also guarantee all the heroes who die undertaking it get into Heaven/Valhalla is super fucked up because it does make a twisted sort of sense. If you know Valhalla is real and you know how to get there, is it a terrible thing to ensure that a bunch of people go there even if you use reprehensible means? They get to live forever in bliss after all. Of course the Supermen aptly demonstrate my feelings regarding that this issue. Looks like Darkseid is going to thin out the heroic ranks regardless unfortunately, maybe Gog will get what he wants after all.

GL: WJ #5 - I can't decide if John continuing to use a construct of his sister to set his mom at ease is wholesome or fucked up. Can something be both at the same time? I feel like it will end badly. Totally get why he does it, had a similar experience with my grandma. There's no happy ending where dementia is concerned. It does call attention to how both Stewart and the Queen are using the dead for their own purposes. Stewart is obviously morally better, he’s not enslaving his sister’s soul and all he wants is to help his mom, but it is a point of overlap between the two. Another great moment is where he tells Shepherd that heroes are as fragile as the people they protect, and flashes to his mom was so good. This series has done a great job showing John's emotional core beneath his stoic exterior.

JLvGvK #4 - Aquaman unleashing a Kraken to beat back the Monsterverse Kaijus is the kind of dumb fun I’m here for.

Hellblazer #1 - Team doesn’t miss a beat from where they left off, great start. For a second I was hoping to see Levi Kramel show up instead of Holland, but the swamp being turned into a golf course is the first acknowledgement I’ve seen of how the South has become more “business friendly” since the 80s when Moore wrote about the area.

Wonder Woman #5 - As a "Circe is Wonder Woman's archnemesis" believer, it made me happy that Sovereign was nervous about recruiting her and conceded she might possibly use him to her advantage rather than the other way around. Turning Steel into a pig before accepting the offer made me cackle too. Also as someone who thinks Grail doesn't have to suck, Sovereign respecting her enough to recruit her in person was a nice touch. Grail being the evil dominatrix certainly is one way to build her up as a foil for Diana. Glad King is not having all of the Wondy villains meekly follow Sovereign's lead, they all show that they're not lackies like Steel is by bullying him when he tries to recruit him. What the hell is going on with Angle Man though, I'm intrigued. Yara sounded off but I do think King mostly understood what drives each of the Girls. Yara's a hothead who cares underneath all her bravado, Cassie is the tomboy who became more comfortable with herself after meeting Diana, and Donna is Diana's little sister and thus the most like her. Donna challenging Diana to playing video games actually made me smile, do I like Donna now? I don’t know if I want to connect with that character given her convoluted nature, but King is winning me over. And yeah I loved how they decided fuck their oaths actually, they were going to help Diana like it or not.

Fantastic Four #16 - Lovely issue featuring the kids, I’m a sucker for whenever it’s shown that while she might be smarter than her dad, Val is still just a kid and makes mistakes. I also like how Franklin is portrayed as a capable pilot, something he has in common with his Uncle Johnny.

[koppiki]

gah, I HATE how long chapter 30 is taking to get out, and I also hate that my ability to translate more chapters is directly tied to my sureness that it will actually COME OUT at any point, given how things are going, it's not really anyone's fault, but when stuff takes so long I start feeling like it'll never happen again y'know?

doesn't help that my cleaner has gone what I would charitably call "minimum contact," so I got NO fuckin' clue what the progress/situation is on ANY of that, I would get more cleaners but I have known this man for like SEVEN YEARS (since high school) so like... I feel like I can't do that

oh also still looking for a typesetter for Q, What is Love, not that anyone here would necessarily interface because of that, but I figure may as well say it anywhere that I can

especially since it seems I can't actually make a damn CHAPTER ANNOUNCEMENT when the chapter ain't gonna be OUT

thankfully takeshino works pretty quick (and is communicative) so at least once the cleans are done (as they are now) I get some gosh-darn EMOTIONAL SECURITY for once, feeling like it'll actually get done

I also just feel bad for leaving people on cliffhangers, I guess- chapter 29 is a real cliffhanger, after all. Chapter 30 is not. On account of being... the last chapter of the volume. Those don't tend to be quite so cliffhangery. Except in romcoms. Which this is not. It is a com, though. Solidly a com.

OH I also read a gl that I thought was quite good called "Throw Away the Suit Together." With the period and everything, in the romanized title. I really liked it. The art was great, and was used to good effect in expressing the emotions and whatnot. Good stuff. I also just tend to like any gl that isn't just... schoolgirls. Since, y'know, over-saturated, and not relatable, and tends to have all those issues of like... implying that bein' a lesbian is just a phase, or some weird pure thing to be put on a pedestal, or anything like that. This doesn't have that. It does have explicit imagery though, so don't read it if you don't like that sort of thing. If you don't mind it, though, this is expressly a recommendation to go and check it out.

my sleep schedule has been slipping. I need to get up at 8 now, which means I need to go to bed before 12, and I am not doing that now. I was doing it for a while. Today and yesterday, not so. Probably still fine. I'll get used to it.

Oh, I also started reading the Kamonohashi Ron mango that my dear mutual headinabox posted about, since it looked interesting, and it certainly is! Deeply fun manga. Really enjoying it so far.

I ALSO read Futari Escape (very good), My Solo Exchange Diary (excellent, and I didn't know it existed until just recently), Mizuno and Chayama (quite good, if disjointed- the artistry made up for it though), Hello, Melanchoic! (fun one)... and started and dropped some other stuff that wasn't so good.

When I read My Solo Exchange Diary, I read it in math class. This would've been a bad call if the math teacher was good, because it meant I would've missed out on Crucial Learning, but (un)fortunately he is a very not-so-good teacher (who I have had the misfortune of having before) so... is good. But it was also STILL not a good call, because that mango made me cry, and crying is not really what I want to be doing in Discrete Math. Usually. Really good, though. Sorta wish I had read it at home so I didn't have to tamper my emotional responses.

Also back to the ron mango, I read that one in modern physics. Which was actually a bad call, as that class calls for pretty active participation, so I got in a little bit of trouble. I blame the mango, for being too enjoyable. How dare it distract me (I guess). Ha.

I wanna talk more about mangoes with people. I don't get a ton of opportunities to do it? I mean, I do get opportunities. I got the fishcord, and that has discussion aplenty should the situation arise. I guess I just meant... vocally. In person. That sort of thing. Don't know a lot of in-person folks that share my hobbies, or at least that aspect of them. I got folks I play games with, certainly, and they know me well enough now (and are comfortable enough with their sexuality) for me to talk about that sort of thing, but the mangoes (especially translation, and any gls and bls) remain pretty solidly outside of their zone. Not that that's a problem. I'm content on my own, in this specific case. Mostly. Though I guess half the reason I read these things is to fill that on-my-own-edness, so... sort of a... catch-22? I want to talk about the things I read, but I read the things I read because I don't have so many folks to talk to. Not really an exact cyclical relationship (cuts out a lot of middlemen) but it sorta is? If you squint?

Oversimplification is a bad thing to do, but sometimes it's all you can do.

Anyways, if you actually read all this, hello. How are you? I hope all is well. Enjoy your day, and all that. Reading my solo exchange diary kinda made my brain go funky (in a good way, I think? somewhat?) with respect to conceptualizations of relationships and interpersonal reactions generally. Makes me both... want to try talking to people, and more okay with the fact that I don't talk to as many. Though she is certainly right that it's important to have a variety of people to spread the load amongst, as it were. Can't get all my social interaction (even though I don't necessarily need a ton) from just the same one guy. I imagine it's bothersome, somewhat. Much like this would be if I actually said it to someone. That's why typing is a magical thing. I don't need to say it, and there's no obligation to read it. It just is, and if someone reads it, that's on them. It's not like it's addressed to anyone, it's not like there's social expectation... though I guess on the other side of things, it makes it all that less likely to actually be heard or responded to.

Which, I think, is sort of half the point of saying anything in the first place. So, whatever.

[babycactus]

another TA, another love interest 🥴

[ragingbookdragon]

Barry’s eyes were like sapphires dazzling in the bright summer sun. Like the glittering ocean that lined the shore of Coast City. Like frozen, arctic ice along a hundred-mile lake. Like burning-hot, cobalt-blue supergiant’s, a mixture of sky blue, azure, and midnight navy. Barry’s eyes were a blue so human and yet so different from the average color that it blew Hal away every time he saw them. Sometimes he had momentary lapses when the Speedster looked at him, gazed into his eyes with those baby blues of his, always filled with a wondrous curiosity and kindness. It made Hal’s heart bubble in his chest, butterflies gliding up his ribcage, affection warming every part of his body.

And now, Barry was covered in blue. The Hope Ring settled securely on his left ring finger, body glowing an effervescent cerulean. Hal had only ever seen Barry in red, never in blue like this, but seeing him now? He thought Barry had never looked so good—and he’d seen Barry in his tight little black boxers more times than he could count.

“Blue Lantern, huh?” Hal asked, trying to break the ice somehow.

Barry laughed and looked at himself. “I think I look a little too blue.”

“You look perfect.” Hal realized what he’d said when Barry’s head cocked towards him, blue eyes wide and cheeks starting to flame a bit. “I mean, for designing a suit for the first time.” He nudged Barry in the ribs, “C’mon, we’ve got a galaxy to save.”

He started rising when he heard, “You don’t think it’s weird? Me being a Blue Lantern?”

Hal paused and looked back down at Barry, holding his hand out to the man; Barry carefully laid his hand in Hal’s—it felt so warm. “Bar, of all the Corps that make us GLs come alive the best, it’s the Blues.” He smiled, hoping to convey the emotion he was so afraid of all his life to his best friend. “There’s no one I’d rather trust to be my Blue Lantern than you.”

Barry’s cheeks were tinted pink, and he felt his body lighten as he floated up with Hal; quietly, he confessed, “There’s no Green Lantern I’d rather be with than you, Hal.”

And Barry’s blue eyes? They shone with love and hope like Hal had never seen before in his life.

He wished it were for his brown eyes to see only.

One day, it would be.

[gffa]

I’m having a really bad evening, so please talk about something in Star Wars that you’re passionate about and doesn’t come up as often as you’d like it to!

Well, since I’m trying to distract myself while waiting for TBB premiere, I’m gonna yell about how I wish there was more talk about what the Force means on an emotional and mental level, as shown through the source material and word of god commentary. Sort of inspired by the ask earlier tonight about how the dark side is cold, how Darth Vader apparently does walk around feeling like someone shoved an icicle up his ass 24/7, I love that kind of stuff. And I especially love it when it connects to how the Force seems to be a metaphor for how non-psychic people deal with their feelings as well.  What I mean is--the whole “joy vs pleasure” thing that GL talks about is something that I’ve seen in books completely not related to Star Wars at all, that echo the sentiments almost word for word. That, yes, the worldbuilding for the Force is neat on a storytelling level, but that it’s also strongly grounded in how people in our world work.  That the Force is a metaphor for a lot of things for us, including how to discipline ourselves away from letting anger and hate consume us.  That it’s not that we’re not allowed to experience these things, but that getting lost into them is actually really an awful place to be.  I say this as someone who was so angry for so long that I lost myself to it and I had to work really hard to dig myself out of that pit, so when I came to Star Wars years later, all of that just hit me like a brick, because, oh, I had experienced that. I love talking about how the Force is about selflessness vs selfishness, I love talking about how it requires solid mental health to use the Force without getting sucked into a downward spiral, I love talking about how the dark side is cold, I love talking about how thoughts, feelings, and actions linger inside of the things that Force-sensitives touch, the walls, their lightsabers, the chairs they sit on, all that stuff absorbs the feelings put out into the Force. I love talking about the Force as not so much a superpower, but one that’s an entire mindset, that lifting rocks is cool and all, but even cooler is the sense of balance you have when you learn to let go of the things you fear and choose the light instead. I love speculating about why it seems like it’s harder for Jedi to lift/move living creatures with the Force, that it may be connected to how they’re not just mindlessly moving things around, but they’re connecting to that living creature. I love speculating about how I don’t think the Jedi Code is about the Jedi, but about he Force itself.  That it’s a literal description of what you get when you connect to that endless energy field. I love the idea that being a Force-user is akin to driving a vehicle on the road and the bigger the vehicle the more damage you can do if you’re driving drunk on your feelings. Or how I don’t think time in Star Wars is linear and that opens up incredible possibilities with the Force, if you’re connected to other parts of your lifetime, already feeling your feelings from the past and the future in the present. There is SO MUCH TO EXPLORE about the Force based on these things, especially in the light of how we can understand ourselves even more through the lens of the Force and How It Works.

[echo-three-one]

Chapter 24

I should really put effort on summaries, right? Anyways... Enjoy! ❤️

Table of Contents

Going Dark - Part 3

Gary "Roach" Sanderson

MacTavish Residence, Glasgow, Scotland

Roach never would have guessed that MacTavish was a big time. Their 'old' house was already a mansion, complete with guest rooms, extravagant furniture and even an outdoor pool. Roach could stay here forever.

He was laying on a queen sized bed relaxing after a tiring chase earlier when Ghost knocked on his door and let himself in.

"What's wrong mate?" he asked, lifting only his head. Ghost leaned by the door and crossed his arms.

"You know how I got into a little argument with France back in Brazil right? Well, I still regret it ever happening…" he frowned, as shown by the way the fabric of his mask twitched.

"You regret which part? The fighting or the telling her what you feel?" Gary asked, cornering the ever vague Simon. He always does that when it comes to asking for advice.

Ghost ran a hand across his face and groaned.

"Bloody Hell, mate. Why do you have to ask those kinds of things?" he complained.

"So I could be clear as to which one I should recommend you to do." He replied quickly. He was very willing to help, but if Simon refuses to cooperate, then maybe he could handle it on his own.

"There's still one thing… I've been meeting with Alexandra not just for intel… " the tone of his voice was hesitant but he took a sharp inhale and continued.

"... we've also been sleeping together. No strings attached. For her it eases her tension from all the work while I try to forget about my feelings for Francine."

Gary didn't know what to say. Simon wasn't the kind of person to give up easily, and he fully understood the reasons for his latest actions.

"Well, it looks like Francine already made her choice, right?" Gary asked, trying to confirm from Simon that he already lost the battle.

"I'm not quite sure. Everytime I see her, she's physically distancing herself from Soap but later that night, they actually slept beside each other. She's making me confused and it still makes my heart beat for her…" Ghost admitted. As tough as he is on the battlefield, so was his admiration toward Francine. Gary pondered on how to help out his friend in this love triangle situation he caught himself in, but every direction he thought of would result in Ghost actually ending up sad.

The discussion was interrupted when a plane was heard from the distance, as it approached the nearby open area. It looked like the girls made it home.

"Looks like they're here." Roach sounded excited while Ghost looked worried.

~

It was impressive how they managed to bring most of their stuff from Brazil here in Scotland. It wasn't that much but the idea of packing things for six people in a hurry made Roach impressed.

"How did you bring most of this stuff?" Roach curiously asked Maxine as he helped her carry her stuff.

"Well, Samantha asked for help from his Dad and they immediately flew to Brazil." Maxine replied cheerfully, Roach loved how she managed to see the bright side of everything amidst the panic.

"So will Samantha-"

"No. They had a long talk with his Dad and she felt much safer back here with us. Her Dad wanted to offer help now that the New York Attack was over, but Samantha insisted, especially now that they're out hiding."

"Doesn't he have the power to like, pardon us for being wanted? That would make life much more easier for us."

"I thought of that too… but they're seeing Shepherd differently now. He's gone mad. And they want to corner him. Any action involving him may result in a global cripple. And I just heard all this on the plane ride here." Maxine frowned.

"Then that makes our job of locating him all worth it." Roach smiled giving hope to Maxine.

Maxine just nodded, her face was full of fear and doubt. She just wished all of this was over.

With Soap probably asleep, Roach had the liberty of touring the girls around the house, it was huge and spacious that each of them could occupy a room with about two more rooms to spare.

"Man, I could stay here forever." Roach mused as they walked the halls of the second floor. These four rooms are already occupied, most of the empty rooms are over there…" Gary pointed to the other end of the hall. Maxine looked at France and nodded as they both agreed to stay in one room.

"What about you, Miss Samantha?" Gary asked with sophistication, imitating a butler. Samantha giggled and blushed.

"I'll actually be sleeping with Alex, thanks Mr. Sanderson." she replied, playing along with Roach's role play. For a short moment, Roach felt relaxed. He hasn't felt like this for a while and it was too overwhelming. But while the enemies hid in the shadows, he was sure the team would be up for a tough fight anytime soon.

Despite being tired, Roach couldn't sleep. He felt that there was something or someone else he needed to consult. So, he decided to get up and get himself a glass of water down the kitchen. While he could hear himself gulping down a glass of water, he could also hear faint thumping from the basement. With high alert, he began descending down the stairs to investigate the source of the sound.

It was Simon. He was still up and doing sparring rounds with a red punching bag, each of his punches sent the bag swinging violently.

"You okay?" Gary finally asked, alerting Simon of his presence.

"Can't sleep." he said nonchalantly, giving the punching bag another mighty punch. Roach took a minute to admire the huge gym Soap had, each piece of equipment probably spent a fortune. He slowly paced to the small area filled with equipment and grabbed himself some boxing mitts and a protective helmet.

"So, why don't we resume our little talk?" Gary called as he presented himself to Simon on full boxing coach gear. Simon immediately positioned himself and Gary did the same as they began training with the intention of talking it out.

Simon's punches were heavy, Roach could feel a little emotion on each hit he made and it was starting to make him unstable.

"So, anything you'd want to discuss?" Roach initiated, his hands carefully met his punches as they circled around the area.

"I've been trying to ignore her, Gary. You see me try right? But the more I don't think of her, the more excited I get when I accidentally see her. It's frustrating." He explained in between his punches. There it was, the thing bothering him the most.

"What did she say back in Brazil? She probably said something that kept you from moving on. I can't think of anything else that might cause you to feel this way, unless you're lying." Roach tilted his head so he could see Simon's reaction. His punches stopped coming and he just stood there, his hands dropped to his sides.

"She… she didn't say anything… but she distances herself to John while I'm around."

"John MacTavish or John Price?" Gary interrupted, in an attempt to brighten up the mood, but instead all he got was Simon's 'are-you-kidding-me-right-now?' look.

"But when I'm not around, she finds time to see him…" Simon continued. Gary took off his gloves and tapped his shoulder.

"She… she was being considerate." Simon concluded. It looked like Gary did his job. He could feel Simon's shoulders relax upon realizing what was actually going on.

"Despite all that… she sacrificed a little just to not hurt you." Gary added, he had no intention of making Simon guilty but now that he realized it, he was making an impact toward the relationship that was blooming between Soap and France.

"Thanks, Gary. For being a great friend…" Ghost took off his gloves and walked out of the gym.

"... and the worst therapist." He joked with a grin as he walked up the stairs and left Gary in the gym.

"I hope you find your peace, Simon." Gary muttered.

The following morning, the team was already busy walking around the house. Soap was on the phone with a long list of things the girls ordered for their restock. It was planned that for the time being, the team was to stay in the MacTavish residence while Nero and Shepherd were off the grid.

Price and Jack started their own little command center inside Soap's father's office just by the living room. They began creating connections to their closest contacts to track activity from their enemies. Ghost seemed to be not around at the moment and Gary guessed he's still asleep.

Soap nodded a greeting to Roach as he walked by him on his way to the kitchen. Maxine and France were out opening drawers and anything in the pantry to clear up space for supplies. From the kitchen window, Gary spotted Samantha, Alex and Nikolai in front of a truck. Gary overheard that Nikolai wanted to go back home and he guessed today was the day he'd do so.

"I didn't know what kind of sugar you needed so I kinda ordered a bunch of em." Soap announced to the sisters and they laughed.

"The clerk kept asking me of brown, white, confectioners and some other and honestly I don't know which." he shrugged and scratched his head.

"Hey man, I was just wondering… why did you choose the risky life? When you had everything you ever needed here?" Gary asked the question that has been bothering him since he got here.

"I dunno Roach. It's just that I knew it was calling out to me… You also sound like my Mum when I told her I'm joining the force." he chuckled. Gary just nodded but still didn't understand his logic. But he dismissed the thought as soon as Maxine and France asked for his help reaching something by the cabinets.

The rest of the day was busy. Once supplies arrived, everyone else was preoccupied. Lifting boxes, arranging items, looking for intel. It was like they made their own 141 base inside the house.

By the time they're almost free, Roach and Maxine were already in the kitchen preparing for dinner.

"So, any new dreams lately?" Roach initiated as he sliced through the vegetables they're cooking.

"Piece by piece. Last night I remembered having gum stuck on my hair on picture day. I cried a lot." she giggled. Roach smiled, he was glad she's getting her memories back which made him remember of Samantha's case.

"Ow!" Gary winced as he accidentally cut a short scrape on his thumb. He was so busy staring at Maxine that he forgot he was chopping.

"Don't worry. It's just a small wound." Gary assured as Maxine pulled his thumb close to her mouth and blew air through it, just like when you're a kid and you do that to ease the pain.

Gary couldn't help but smile at her immediate action. She also looked concerned and worried about his welfare.

"Hey Max." he whispered, making the girl turn to him, her face was so beautiful in Gary's eyes.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing… It's just that…"

"What is it? You're making me worried"

"I really really like you, Maxine Winters."

Maxine looked at him in the eye, the eye contact they were doing was starting to make the world fade behind them.

"Guys! I have bad news." Soap interrupted, causing everyone to form a small circle by the living room.

"Ghost left. With a note saying he'll try to gather more information on Shadow Company with Alexandra's help. He says thanks and that he'll see us all soon." Soap summarized the note. The room fell silent.

Next Chapter : Off the Grid

Notification Squad my Beloved

@samatedeansbroccoli @enderio @smokeywhalee @whimsywispsblog @beemybee @ricinbach

[bigskydreaming]

hood-ex

i was like well he could just date some random dude who's an artist or something and then i was like oh wait. kyle. lmao. did dick and kyle ever have interactions when donna wasn't around? i mean i know dick found kyle's.. spirit? or whatever in jla. but any other major moments between them aren't coming to my brain

LOL, nope, Dick and Kyle have barely ever interacted ever. Just at Hal’s memorial and then the Obsidian Age, which was well after Kyle and Donna split......they never hung out with Dick when they were together, as he was....busy in Bludhaven. Like Donna and Kyle were together during that period when Roy was running the Titans and they had that weird lineup with Terra the Second and Impulse and Fake Supergirl and just....yeah. But point being like, that was basically right after Dick left the team and Kory left to return to Tamaran, so Dick was kinda deliberately avoiding most of the Titans at that time, as far as I’ve always viewed it.

But yeah honestly all my Dick/Kyle thoughts pretty much stem just from their very brief Obsidian Age interactions and then me going like, huh. I could see it. Its more based on just their characters in general, and the fact that I think they have such similar priorities and mindsets as to be more alike than different, but without being so similar that they’re in any way derivative of each other or like....immediate analogues. Like you think of either Dick or Kyle, you don’t immediately jump to the other because they don’t particular stand out as being interchangeable or anything, but when you dig a little into their characters you’re like, oh wow, they have a lot in common actually.

In particular I’ve always keyed into the slightly lonely nature of Kyle’s position as Torchbearer in the GL Corps. A nod to his time as the only GL left, and the fact that he resurrected the Guardians and restarted the Corps, essentially.....so he’s always stood a little apart from the rest of the GLs, even Hal and John and Guy who were still around in some way or another back when he was the solo GL. Its not that he’s not close with them, its just that he has a very unique experience among the GLs where for most of the Corps, they always had the support of the Corps behind them as they became more experienced as Green Lanterns. And the weight of what they all did as Green Lanterns and what people looked to them for, it was always spread among like....the whole Corps, whereas when Kyle was Green Lantern during his solo tenure, like, it all rested on him, there was no one else to look at or look to....all eyes were just on him. 

That pressure, that absence of anyone who can fully relate, its always made him stand slightly apart from the rest of the Lanterns, even now that the Corps is back, and its only been heightened by the fact that he continues to have very unique experiences. Like how he was the only one to ever master the full emotional spectrum on his own, without external additives, the unique way in which he became the White Lantern, the fact that he has such a different relationship with the Ion entity than even those others who’ve hosted it, etc. Also the fact that like, despite his reputation among the Lanterns and others, despite how highly he’s regarded by them, that doesn’t always translate into the camaraderie and support you’d think it would, and most of his most intense adventures or most emotional storylines still happen when he’s off completely by himself with no lifelines. Because as much as he matters to the Corps and is valued by them, there’s always this kinda disconnect that frequently translates into a lot of distance between them and him, both physical and emotional.

And I’ve always thought there are a lot of parallels to the way Dick often feels like he’s alone even when in a crowd. That unique kind of pressure that comes from being the FIRST Robin, the original leader of the Titans, the guy who so often has acted as a trailblazer that others followed but without fully being able to relate to that experience of being first, of not having anyone TO follow, to have to make it up entirely as he went and hope that he wasn’t screwing up too much because it wasn’t like he had any precedent to look to or others to compare himself, his triumphs and his failures to. The way so often the buck stops with him and there’s no one really to pass it off to even when its not actually his fault, its more just.....people feel a need, a want to blame someone, and there’s not really anyone else to look at in his stead there. The similarities in how he also has such a positive reputation overall, and is seemingly so valued and respected by his various communities, and yet despite this it doesn’t always translate into direct and tangible support, leaving him often actually being cut-off and isolated during some of his most emotionally intensive storylines.

I think they have a lot of insight they could lend each other stemming from their respective experiences with the weight of legacy, which parallels without being the same....because the angle, the perspective is different with them. Kyle struggled with the weight of having to carry the entire legacy of the Green Lantern Corps by himself and feeling the responsibility of not wanting to let his predecessors down. Dick struggles with the weight of having his legacy carried by so many others and feeling responsible for what they go through as a result of that. And then at the same time Dick also struggled with the weight of carrying Bruce’s legacy as Batman at different times, such as Knightfall/Prodigal and then when he was lost in time, and now Kyle struggles with the weight of his legacy as Ion being carried on by others and the legacy his existence as the Torchbearer is creating for after he’s gone.

Additionally, they both have abundant experience with feeling under a microscope, like their every action is being scrutinized and they’re constantly being compared to the larger than life figure they’re most directly linked to. For Dick its Batman, for Kyle its Hal. That thing where they’re simultaneously expected to BE the equal to Bruce or Hal, or even better than them, but also at the same time being not exactly blamed for Bruce’s and Hal’s mistakes, but treated as even though they had nothing to do with their actions, they might as well have, kinda? Constantly compared to Bruce and Hal and with people saying they would have done this or that instead, but also with people quick to act like Bruce and Hal are their personal cautionary tales and tell them how dangerously close they are to becoming them whenever they do something that even slightly parallels the older two. 

Also, they have this distance between themselves and Bruce and Hal....Dick because of the chasm between them during the early years of Nightwing and Kyle because Hal was basically a villain and then dead during his early years as Green Lantern.....but without anyone ever really factoring in that they’re not as joined at the hip to Bruce and Hal as people act like and they not only have nothing to do with the worst of their mistakes, but the older two weren’t always as involved in the younger two’s successes as people credit them as being. And that very niche feeling that only they can really relate to, where Dick and Kyle so often end up being Bruce and Hal’s biggest defenders, and how often this overwrites or gets in the way of Dick and Kyle ever getting to fully express valid resentments they have of how Bruce and Hal’s own actions and choices and reputations impact Dick and Kyle’s lives and actions and choices.

Plus I think they’d just be good for each other - Kyle actually does have the ability to relax and unwind with his art and other hobbies in ways Dick could definitely learn from and benefit from applying to his own life, and Dick has the gravitas and weight of history and experience that means he can really address in actionable ways that Kyle can truly internalize, like the longing Kyle has always had, despite his many accomplishments, to really feel like he isn’t just a hero by happenstance or mistake, that he really belongs among their number. Kyle was a diehard superhero fanboy before he ever got the ring, and you can’t tell me he didn’t have a crush on the first Robin when he debuted back when Kyle was probably in middle school (they’re actually pretty close in age, with everything lending itself to the idea that Kyle’s of a similar age with Dick and the original Titans). Likewise, you can’t tell me Dick has anything but respect for someone who manages to establish himself and his own reputation despite how easy it’d be to be overshadowed by his predecessors and their actions.

They both have extremely parallel storylines even in their particulars......both have been briefly killed then presumed dead and then isolated from their loved ones for a period for a ‘solo mission’ and then blamed for that upon their return, even though Dick wanted nothing to do with that mission and was forced into it by Bruce just like the same is true of Kyle who was backed into his by the Guardians. Both have struggled with suicidal ideation in the past, most notably in the aftermath of Blockbuster and then with Kyle, his subconscious literally created a nemesis for him named Oblivion, who wanted nothing other than his death, because Oblivion was literally Kyle’s own death wish made flesh and blood by Kyle’s willpower and leftover Ion energy. 

Both have nightmares of being hijacked by someone else’s will and used as their puppets, with Dick and his many times being brainwashed and Kyle and his time possessed by Parallax. Both have extremely complicated feelings about children that were never truly theirs, both have been the scapegoat for crimes they didn’t commit, both are wracked with guilt for things they choose to take responsibility for but only because nobody ever told them it wasn’t actually their fault. Both are rape survivors whose rapes were never taken seriously or treated like they matter, and both are desperate for the approval of loved ones and mentors who actually do approve of them very much, but just often struggle to show them that in the ways they really need in order to BELIEVE it.

I could go on, lol, but like, you get it. Don’t worry, you’re not forgetting about some super significant story between Dick and Kyle, it really was just me latching on to that one story from twenty years ago where Kyle’s like if we get out of this alive, I want a hug, and Dick’s like deal, and I was like SOLD. And then my brain manufactured all these other reasons why clearly they are soulmates, and thus you have the Good Ship Dick/Kyle, which I shall sail forever more, no matter if I am only ever a crew of one.

afsbjkfabhjkfaghjkfalhkfla

[empatheticagent]

Things seemed to be slipping further and further downhill since New Year’s. It may have seemed it because of the timing, but the slip had little to do with Clay being back and more to do with Ray’s nightmares, which were becoming more frequent. He hadn’t brought up the actual topic of them, besides the fact Bancroft was involved.

Instead, Ray continued to withdraw.

He continued trying to work out where Bancroft could be hiding and had even tried to volunteer his skills to help the official investigation, but was turned down because of his personal ties to the case. He just went on working on it between work hours. His job in the Comms department only stressed him out, but Ray stubbornly kept it up. He hated simply doing data entry, but he could hardly do the actual Comms work he used to when most days he barely said more than a few words.

He kept his distance from Germaine, keeping up friendly conversation but avoiding the physical contact he really wanted and had become used to having. It was true that he didn’t want to make Clay feel more lonely or jealous (Ray had picked up a few brief moments of it every now and then), but mostly Ray was just scared to let himself get too close to Germaine, especially with the nightmares involving Bancroft hurting Germaine.

All the distance was doing though was creating tension and pushing Ray further into the self-destructive spiral.

Ray had gotten himself into trouble with a few agents now, including the Black Widow herself and JJ. He wasn’t sleeping much, trying to avoid the nightmares, keeping himself working until he crashed and passed out most nights, then going to work on minimal sleep. He’d been quietly lowering the frequency of when he took his medication too to stop himself feeling so drowsy and because he knew his powers were less active when he was closer to one of his catatonic states, when he was more disconnected from things. When he did speak, it was usually in the flat, disinterested tone he’d had before he’d ended up in medical for months.

And then Germaine had returned from his work on the Providence Raid.

Ray had already fallen asleep by the time Germaine had gotten back and hadn’t stopped to ask about it the next morning either. He could see Germaine wasn’t himself and it worried Ray, but still he’d left it until they’d ended up awkwardly sitting on the couch late one evening, Ray curled up at the far end from Germaine.

He couldn’t recall how they had reached the topic, but Germaine had ended up mentioning he didn’t think he was loveable and Ray had found himself responding before he’d even really stopped to think about what he was doing.

“Lies,” Ray huffed.

Clearly, Germaine had heard the quiet response. “It’s like loving your broom. Or your DVD player. It's not the same as loving a person,” he said. “I'm not the right kind of thing to be loved.”

“...those don't look, or behave human.”

“I'm not human, Ray. I won't ever be.”

“I... I'm aware of that,” Ray replied, shifting nervously in his seat.

“Please. Ray. I don't deserve it.”

Of course, Ray protested this, but Germaine simply turned away from him in response. Ray frowned. Germaine wasn’t normally like this, even with the tension that had been between them. He hadn’t been the same since the work on that Base. Worried, Ray reached out with one hand, but stopped just short of actually touching Germaine’s arm, his hand hovering nervously beside it instead. He could see the tears in the corners of Germaine’s eyes. He could see that Germaine was frustrated and hurting about something, even without being able to read the android.  

“I'm a machine... I don't.. I can't feel things... like you... It’s all ones and zeros. Programming. It's all a clever lie and you don't deserve that. I'm not real.”

Ray stared at him for a moment, struggling briefly to think of a response. “That...can be a good thing. I mean, feeling what I feel includes what others around me feel and it... it gets too much. With you though, I don't have to worry about that.”

“What if I hurt you? What if I can't love you back?”

Ray could feel panic quickly rise within him. “I never said I...” Shit, he hadn’t, had he? Yes, he’d debated that Germaine wasn’t loveable, but he hadn’t ever openly stated any sort of feelings towards Germaine, even when he’d kissed him. Ray slowly lowered his hand. He didn’t finish denying the emotion. “...I don't know. I doubt you'd intentionally hurt me though.”

“But I could! What if the emotions just stop working? Or I...” Germaine paused nervously.  “... I turn? What if they're right... If I'm rotten from the inside...?”

Ray’s eyes widened in alarm. Was this something that had happened during the mission? Was this why Germaine had been acting... off?

“You’re not!” He quickly tried to reassure Germaine. “If you were like that you wouldn't have bothered to help me at all.”

Germaine slowly shook his head. “But what if they're right..? what if they're right... they built me. They built me and they know.”

They? Oh, he meant Hydra. “But they checked you. SHIELD’s already checked-”

“But what if they missed something? I thought I was safe, but then those messages came though... and they came through during the mission... they can get to me. No matter how many times I've been checked out.. .they can get to me... and I don't want to hurt you.”

He wasn’t used to Germaine speaking so negatively. He knew the android had doubts and concerns of his own, but Ray hadn’t really heard them voiced much before. It was upsetting to see and hear him in such a state.

“SHIELD can fix you!” Ray blurted out. “They have access too and they can-”

“But they can’t fix YOU.”

Ray sat there, staring at Germaine in stunned silence. When he finally found words, they were quiet, defeated. “Well, no...” He mumbled, looking away from the android.

Germaine rose to his feet then and gathered up a coat he didn’t even need. “I'm g-going for a walk.”  

Oh shit, was Germaine crying? What was he supposed to do? Why exactly was Germaine even crying? Ray desperately wished he could read him and quickly reached out, grabbing his arm. Of course, he read nothing, but it stopped Germaine at least, though Ray knew he could easily be pushed aside if Germaine decided to do so.

“...you’re good Germaine,” Ray finally said, his voice little more than a whisper.

“I wish I-I could believe you.”

Ray took in a deep breath through his nose, trying hard not to break down and unconsciously tightened his grip on Germaine’s arm, desperately wanting the familiar contact that he usually sought when he was upset. He couldn’t. He couldn’t break down. Not now. He wanted to help... somehow. He needed to help. “...you are.”

“...I am t-t-todd-day.”

“Not just today! If you hadn’t helped me at all, I’d likely still be stuck in medical.”

Germaine looked like he wanted to pull away, reminding Ray of a trapped animal. He was torn between the guilt he felt for keeping Germaine there (even though he really wasn’t considering the android’s strength) and his selfish need for comfort and desperation to help.

“...I'm scared Ray,” Germaine admitted. “I'm gl-lad you can't f-ffeel it b-because I'm so... scared...”

“So am I,” Ray admitted in return, hesitating before quietly adding “...those nightmares I've been having... Most of them are Bancroft hurting you, like he did to Clay...”

“Why...?” Germaine asked, straining just a little at Ray's tight grip.

Ray let out a sigh. “Because I- Because I care about you.”

Germaine suddenly started sobbing, looking as if he was struggling to stop himself from just sinking to the floor. “You- you shouldn’t!”

Ray shrugged a shoulder, biting his lip to stop himself pulling Germaine into a hug. “I can’t help that.”

“That’s n-n-nnot tr-rue. If anyone c-c-could...” Germaine started. Clearly though, he recognises that it’s a hurtful thing to say and his face shows his apology the moment the words are out of his mouth.

Ray missed the expression though, gaze dropping from Germaine as he quickly released the android’s arm.

“I'm s-sorry. I’m sorry...”

Germaine kept apologising, but the words sounded distant to Ray. He didn’t respond to any of the apologies, instead wrapping his arms around himself. It felt like the whole ‘I love you’ mess with Clay again. He kept his arms tight around himself, head turned away from Germaine, eyes in the floor as he fought back tears. He was vaguely aware of the door opening and closing as Germaine left the apartment.

Ray felt like dropping to the floor and sobbing himself, but at the same time he could feel anger rising. That horrible, destructive anger that made him want to smash things. But most of the things in the apartment weren’t his own and he wasn’t spiteful enough to break anything of Germaine’s. He took a few, deep breaths as he tried to force down the destructive anger then numbly moved to sink back onto the couch.

Breathe. Calm...

Nope. Wasn’t going to work. He needed a distraction before he did end up turning his anger on the apartment. He suspected if he did that, he wouldn’t be welcome to stay much longer and he definitely didn’t want that. Instead, Ray pulled out his phone, dialling the number for the new psych he’d been seeing recently.

The conversation helped calm him a little. At least enough to distract him from the immediate urge to break something. It was still there, but currently covered by a thin layer of calm. It likely wouldn’t take much to break through, but it was a start. Ray got up and retrieved his digital camera, rather than the one Germaine had gifted him film for as he continued the phone conversation, seemingly taking his psych’s advice to go and do something more active as a distraction. Sure, it was late at night, but it wouldn’t be the first time Ray had given night photography a go. Besides, the walks usually did him good.

He grabbed his own coat and gloves, hanging his camera around his neck and shoving his phone and wallet into a pocket before leaving.

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week?

Superman: Lost #8 - Priest writes a good Metallo, wish he had used more of the Rogues in the story. Metallo went through a traumatic experience that fucked him up like Supes has, but the difference is Clark still has his loved ones to reach out to if he tries. Metallo has nobody and is all alone, so it was relatable to see him berate Clark for indulging in melancholy. Made for a funny moment whn Kara showed up and beat the hell out of him because she doesn't care about his pain, she just wants to protect her baby cousin. Managed to work in Adam Strange and Black Adam without it feeling like too much of a stretch, does make sense that both Adams are probably the only ones who could relate to Superman's state of mind. I'm really looking forward to the confrontation with Lex, despite starting him off as the businessman Priest's take on him reminds me of Waid's in that Lex at heart is a super villain and that's what he really enjoys doing.

Batman & Robin #3 - DiMeo's art lacks a flow to it that makes it an eyesore to read. It's just a bunch of static pictures pasted together that doesn't transition you from one scene to the next.

Green Lantern #5 - Adams finally kicked things into gear! Climax with Hal sending two constructs across the world to stop two missiles, and that speech he gave earlier felt like the climax to the GL movie I always wanted but still haven't gotten. Felt Top Gun in a way. Sinestro going red because Hal pissed him off that much was hilarious, but I wonder if he's actually bending light the way Hal is able to do with his new ring? The tease about the Emotional Spectrum has me cautious, I don't want another story about the ES "dying" or "running out", but it does intrigue me.

Detective Comics #1077 - An actual good Batman story featuring Catwoman, what a pleasant change of pace from how she's been used in the post King era.

Danger Street #11 - Damn. Despite this being King's bleakest issue yet, it's weirdly the funniest at the same time? The sheer escalation that occurs as things go from bad to worse and the bodies start pilling up made me want to laugh, then made me ashamed for that want. One more issue to go!

Vigil #6 - Ram V writing the best non-Wildstorm Wildstorm title. Giving the Vigil their own Carrier is certainly an upgrade, and the promise that more is coming is one I'll hold him and DC too.

Immortal Thor #4 - The Minotaur's back! Christ he looks terrible but that ending has me hyped. Ewing is certainly in a mood isn't he? Reads as if he's fallen somewhat out of love with corporate comics based on how he positions Dario as a stand-in for Marvel (and he's not subtle about it).

Blade #5 - My only complaint is that I wanted to actually see the fight! Still, Blade training with Dracula has potential.

Fantastic Four #13 - It was nice to get a story where Thing saves the day with his brains, and I do love dinosaurs.

The Deviant #1 - I am going to look quite the fool if Tynion doesn't finish all these series he's starting. Yet I enjoy every single one with this being no exception, sue me.

[milstrim]

The Falcon, the Winter Solider, and the Spider

Field Surgery

The small green car rumbled on the lonely, two-lane highway, bumping violently with every crack and jostling the occupants in the vehicle. Sam had originally swore at every dip that rattled the small space, but now his curses had petered out at the frequency of the potholes. Bucky usually sent a teasing smirk over to Sam every time they hit a particularly deep crack in the road. Penny had no reaction to anything around her, her hands placed carefully in her lap, EDITH heavy in her pocket, as she stared out the window, nothing but the occasional hum of prompted agreement leaving her lips.

It had been a week since Beck had revealed Penny as Spider-Woman and accused her of his own death to the rest of the world, and somehow she was still in shock. Maybe it was less shock of being outed and more the loss of seeing her family. She hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to May. Or Ned. The most Penny had been able to give her probably very anxious family, was a panicked "Stay safe!" shot MJ's way as she'd fled the street.

The terrified teenager had gotten a call from Happy, she'd hopped in a Stark Industries car that drove itself, where it had taken her to some deserted location. There, the Falcon and the Winter Solider had picked her up. They'd assured her that it wouldn't be long before she was back with her family, that she wouldn't be on the run for long, and that all of this was just a precaution.

She didn't believe them. Not really. When they weren't looking, she'd snatch a newspaper or watch the news playing in a gas station or cheap motel room, usually fiddling with whatever scraps she could find with every possible painful situation that popped up in her head. There were protests--both for and against her--as well as multiple calls for her to be arrested. General Ross had released a statement for the White House. Director Hayward of SWORD. The CIA and the FBI. All against her. The only ones who had vouched for her were SHIELD and President Sanders. Both influential--but she knew that just them alone wouldn't be enough. She was pretty much screwed.

"You doing okay back there, kid?"

Penny glanced up at Sam's question, nodding glumly. She hadn't said anything other than a quick "Hello" and "Thank you" to them since they'd picked her up. She felt rude not saying anything, but the words just wouldn't come, and she wished she knew why.

"Glad to hear it," he joked, "Can you grab me one of those sandwiches from the back, please? I'm hungry."

"It's two o'clock. You just ate," Bucky scolded, rolling his eyes. Still, he threw back at her, "Grab me one too, kid."

"Hypocrite," Sam accused, pointing a finger at him.

"One of us as super metabolism." Buck glanced back at her. "Two. Sorry. But you're not one of them, Sam."

"At least I said please."

"Oh, please, I know you had an ulterior motive."

"What possible ulterior motive?"

"To get a sandwich."

"I will pull this car over just to kick your ass. Don't test me Barnes."

Bucky made an exaggerated face of feigned hurt. She passed over the sandwiches and the car went back to its earlier silence, though the worried glances that Sam and Bucky sent each other were deafening. Clearly they had been looking for a reaction or something from her. But she had nothing to give.

They drove for another two hours, a few more conversations and half-assed attempts to get her involved, before Sam let out an annoyed tut. He clicked the blinker, and the car began towards the nearest exit. She looked up in slight interest--they usually did their best to avoid stopping while driving--her brows furrowing. She didn't know for sure if it actually was interest. It felt more like fear.

Penny glanced down at her arm where hairs had begun to stand up on desperate alert. She swallowed as the car curved around the road, staring out the window anxiously. She was sure she should say something about the possible danger, but something was holding her back. A few somethings.

The most blaring was the fact that words hadn't come for an entire week. She swallowed, attempting, but not even a croak left her lips. It was as though she didn't exist. She didn't always feel like she did.

The next was that, well, who was to really say they were in danger? Her spidey sense--while improving--was still devastatingly confusing and useful for little other that the heat of battle. She still wasn't sure if Beck was actually dead, and the mere memory of the illusions she'd been trapped in, confusing and making her head split with confusion, made her doubt her powers all over again.

The door up front slammed shut, and Penny blinked, looking up as Sam knocked on her door. She rolled the window down, staring up at the Avenger expectantly.

"I'm going in the station to go to the bathroom--and get some snacks too--you wanna come?" he asked, a friendly smile on his face. Penny knew this wasn't just an invitation to use the restroom, but rather an invitation to just try and become a normal part of the group. Sam was stupidly friendly--pretty different from when she'd first met him--and she wanted to say yes.

She shook her head.

The smile didn't completely drop from his face, but it wavered for just a moment. "Okay, kid. Just yell or come in if you want anything."

Penny did yell, but not willingly, and definitely not for a pack of the sour gummy worms she wanted.

  Sam pushed through the door of the gas station, bags of candy (for the much-too-glum kid in his car of course), prepackaged foods, and water bottles rustling in plastic bags as the door let out a broken chime behind him. He knocked the glasses higher up on his face, glad that the station was so deserted. The employee hadn't even bothered to look up as he'd gathered enough food to feed a small army.

He didn't think they'd been noticed so far.

The Avenger trotted towards the car, spotting Bucky leaning on the side of the car while Penny still sat inside, ramrod straight and staring out the window, eyes glued to the road. He didn't think she'd relaxed once since Happy had delivered the girl to him and Bucky. She certainly hadn't talked. Not even a smile once.

He didn't want to sound unreasonable--he knew the girl had lost a lot the past year--but nothing seemed to draw a note of emotion from her. Nothing but fear and anxious copper eyes. He glanced at Bucky, who tilted his head towards the backseat of the car, and he knew his friend was thinking the same thing.

And then there was no time to think.

Sam had only been able to take one more step before there was a wave of heat and a rustling boom. Or maybe the rustling boom came first. It happened to fast to tell. All he knew was that one moment he and Bucky were making silent conversation and the next he was strewn heavily against the ground, panting for breath in the sweltering heat and running smoke.

Sam groaned, blinking his eyes back open--he hadn't realized they were closed--and pushing himself up shakily. He groaned again, rolling onto his knees and propping himself up with the palm of his hand, coughing as he looked up, squinting through the dizziness and the smoke. His ears rang, but he could make out the screeching of tires against rough pavement.

"Penny!?" he called, gritting through the pain and forcing himself to his feet. He only swayed for a moment before rushing in the direction of the foggy figure of the car. "Buck!? What's--"

A figure dove through the fog, knocking him to the ground. He held out a defensive arm, but was unable to stop the figure, as dazed and confused as he was. He struggled for a moment, before he recognized the body that had knocked him down, stilling.

"Kid, what--"

She slapped a hand over his mouth, her eyes widening in fearful enunciation. Despite her lack of words, he understood her meaning, and he promptly shut up, nodding in agreement.

Penny let him up.

Sam sat himself up onto his knees, glaring around the area, confused at the smoke still sitting heavily in the air. The bomb had gone off minutes ago, and clearly hadn't been that powerful--the lack of destruction around him told him so--so why was the world still gray? He doubted this was regular smoke and he immediately felt tainted inhaling it. He glanced at Penny again, grimacing at how her eyes were turning a pinkish-red, the girl already blinking rapidly to try and dispel the discomfort.

He grabbed her hand, still crouched beside her, and whispered so soft only she could hear, "Get back to the car. Bucky has the keys, but if we can't find him, you need to hotwire it and get away. Can you do that?"

Penny stared at him for a shocked moment before shaking her head vigorously. Sam glared at her.

"Is this 'can't' or 'won't?'" She held up two fingers, signifying the latter. "Well that's too bad. Get over there and hotwire the car. Me and Bucky will catch up."

Sam stood up, pushing her slightly in the direction. She gave him a stupidly-sacrificial glare once more, but huddled along.

The world was eerie. Hot and fry and filled with the same strange, rolling gray smoke that still had yet to do much but irritate his eyes and drag tickled coughs from his throat. It still hid Bucky from the two, until there was a cool hand on his shoulder.

Sam whirled around immediately, his hand held up defensively, but relaxing when he saw it was a familiar old man. "Your haircut threw me for a loop. I was about to throw you to the ground."

"Sure you were," Bucky responded.

"Where the hell were you?"

"I went into the store to find you, but I guess I walked past you."

"Get some better eyes."

"How about you get a better attitude and we get the hell out of here?" Bucky retorted, silent steps making their way towards the hidden green car. They only made it a few steps before both Sam and Bucky stopped, a piece of their puzzle missing. The two turned simultaneously, dismayed and confused to see Penny staring back at where the gas station would be if they could see it, her body frozen as though rigor mortis had already set in.

Sam glanced at the man next to him in confusion. He took a step forward.

A shot came out of the darkness, but not a bullet or a missile or a pulse of weaponized electricity. Instead, a swirly green blast burst from the smoke, leaving a fizzing trail behind it.

It headed straight for Penny, who didn't move. Sam slammed forward, knocking her out of the way and to the ground. The two grunted as the smacked against the cement, followed by a barreling explosion that flashed green even through his eyes squeezed shut.

"Aw, you ruin all the fun, Wilson," a voice boomed from the darkness. Sam shot up back to his feet at the voice, glancing between Penny and the smoke around them for answers. Neither gave one.

Penny shot up at the sound of the voice as well, her eyes widening and her mouth dropping in shock. Yet still no noise. Sam pushed down the bitter thought for now, gesturing for the three to take up a defensive circle. He flicked the gun on his hip out, Bucky doing the same, and held it aloft in front of him.

"What fun?" he snapped at the smoke, "I think seeing whoever the hell you are would be more fun."

"I'm sure the Little Miss over there would disagree," the voice said, a tease in his tone, "Besides, it's not just me here. Why have all the fun when an old friend of yours had so much to offer?"

"You better start making sense," Bucky ordered, cocking his gun, "I think you know what we three can do."

"But you don't know what I can do."

"Yeah? Why don't you give us a nice little show," Sam dared.

"I think I will. Are you ready, Penny?"

Penny's shoulder froze against his.

The smoke was gone. Sam blinked harshly at the sudden disappearance of the oppressive darkness and the reappearance of the hot summer sun. Even through the dazing light, he could make out one recognizable figure and one familiar.

The first was tall, a plume of dark hair shining atop his head and a five o'clock shadow. He had a charming smile and crazed blue eyes. The other was shorter, less confident held in his posture. He had no smile, and his stare was dead and slightly hidden by loose hair.

Mysterio and Zemo. What a pair.

"Shitty supervillain plans called, they want their best members back," Sam snapped, re-aiming his gun. Mysterio smiled in amusement.

"We both succeeded, in case you were too dull to notice. I got the recognition I wanted, and everyone hates you, kid."

Penny had frozen when the two had appeared, and she had yet to come back to her senses. Sam fought the urge to stand completely in front of her, instead forcing down the protective call and planting his feet firmly into the ground.

"Not as much as they'll hate you when we prove your horseshit," Buck said.

"That will not happen," Zemo finally spoke up. He gestured behind him, "Your military is not far behind, and with this BARF tech, we will get all we need across for all three of you to be taken down. The last Avengers."

Sam furrowed his brows, "We're not the last, buddy."

"SWORD is taking care of Wanda, if that's who you mean," Beck said. His grip tightened.

"So what's your plan? Kill us? Make it look like we killed you? You're already dead and no one likes him."

"I guess you'll find out."

  "I guess you'll find out."

The chaos started.

The smoke returned, green this time, and Penny pressed herself farther into the protective circle the three had made. Her legs trembled as the smoke curled and furled around them, a mantra in her mind.

It's not real. It's not real. It's not real!!!

Even if it wasn't--which she knew--it still had the capacity to hurt.

A tendril of smoke reached out, and instead of just passing over her, harmless and weightless, it pressed against her ankle. The green shot out, and with a strange show of strength, it gripped around her ankle and yanked. Penny let out an unwilling scream, reaching out for Sam and Bucky, but they were already gone.

The smoke dragged her until she found the sense to stick out her hand and grip the ground. The tendril tugged, but nothing it did could break her from the spot she'd stuck to, not that it needed to do much more.

Beck stood over her, a leering grin. He kneeled down and, frozen in her shock--he was supposed to bed dead, why couldn't he just be dead--she couldn't do anything as a real-looking and real-feeling hand gripped her chin, another slipped into her pocket. EDITH was held in his hand. She was forced to look up at him, her heart racing erratically and sputtering in protest.

"Just because you left Stark for these two soldiers, doesn't mean they'll protect you." Still, no sound of protest or denial or even fear escaped her. Words refused to form. They probably never would again. He hummed in amusement, "Guess I did a number on you, huh? Well, you won't have to live with it for long. Ross will make sure of that."

What--

Sound escaped. Pained and screeched, mixing with the bang of a bullet. Beck smiled, and he disappeared, turning to green smoke. Of course, he'd been an illusion. He'd never show up himself, not to face three Avengers. He was just as much a coward as she was.

A pained groan dripped in time with the blood from her lips, falling onto the ground as she dug her palms into the bumpy road, trying for a solid grip. Her head swam, bile rising in her throat. Where the bullet had gone through was both the most painful and agonizingly numb. Adrenaline felt like it was racing towards the area, trying to nullify the burn. Not that it could.

Penny crawled onto her knees, propped up by her elbows. She reached out one shaky arm and balanced on an outstretched leg, pushing herself up and--

The teenager clamped back on the ground, an agonized yet cut-short croak escaping. It felt like it should be a scream--this was painful. Burning and skewering and aching and numb and God how could she escape the pain?

Through lidded eyes--had her eyes closed? She felt light-headed all of the sudden--she thought she saw Mr. Stark. Strangely, he wore a three-piece suit, sharp as his his smile. He kneeled down.

Mr. Stark? Was she safe?

He flashed, a green and purple glitch. This time the scream escaped at his burned face, rotting skin, and patchy hair that fell.

She blinked and he was completely gone. She sobbed.

"Penny? Penny!?" Sam called. She tried to pick her head up, but it didn't move more than an inch before resting back on where the ground was becoming blood-soaked underneath her. Had she bled that much? "Penny we need to go!! Drones are on their way! We can't stay here!!"

"Penny!?" Bucky joined. Footsteps and then, "Sam!! I found her!!!"

More footsteps, a low curse, and then gentle arms. There was a sickening drip as she was lifted from the pool of scarlet.

"What the hell--"

Her hair raised dully, she tensed in warning, and then bullets were raining down. Bucky and Sam both let out yells or fear and anger, shots responding and feet skidding on the road, but she couldn't react. She couldn't even find it in herself to care. Why did she have to be here? Why hadn't Tony just left her? At least he'd be alive.

Crystal tears and blood drops merged and floated down her cheeks in a seamless river.

"Get in the car!! Get in the car!!" Bucky cried. Sam yelled back something, and despite being in his arms, she couldn't comprehend a word he said. The world was blurring at the edges.

More bullets. Revving. The slam of a car door. No, the revving after the car door. Frustrated and terrified yells. More bullets.

Pain.

Penny screamed as she felt something poured onto her wound, stinging her all the way to Hell. There was a hand in her hair, shushing, and the world focused into clearer words.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, kid. I know it hurts, but stick it out for me? Just for a little bit?" The girl managed to focus her caramel brown eyes onto his liquid ebony eyes. She swallowed, nodding in understanding. He pat her head before setting back to her stomach, focusing on the wound. Was the bullet still in there? "Good, kid. Just stay still. Bucky'll get us out of here."

"H-how?"

"We'll try and run them--" Sam broke off, glancing over at her in shock. She'd spoken, and her words didn't even matter. He continued, his words less sure than before, "We'll try and loose them, get another car and get over a few states. There's a safe house half a day from here. If we can get there, we can figure everything out from there. Got it?"

She nodded, but she didn't. His words faded in and out, their meanings flitting across her mind as though there were gaps in his sentences. She didn't think it mattered anyway. She couldn't do anything. Nothing but lie there and flinch as her wound was cleaned. Nothing but...apologize.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"Nothing to be sorry for, kid. Everyone gets hurt in the field now and then."

"I'm sorry I haven't been talking," she continued, her words gasping, as though they had all piled up and were finally breaking through the gate of her teeth, "And that Beck came here and--and that I haven't been helping or--or--"

"Shh, shh," Sam shushed. A hand was on her cheek, "It's okay, it's okay. Everything's fine. You're gonna be fine, okay? We'll deal with Beck, and Zemo, together. Got it?"

Shakily, she nodded. "How are we going to get away? And don't--don't say we'll loose them. You kno--know that we won't."

"EDITH?"

"Beck took her."

"Shit. Then--"

"Hand--hand me--there's a thing. A thing in the cup holder," she gulped, extending a hand in the direction of the object she was talking about. Hesitantly, Sam reached for the cupholder, grabbing hold of the small device and handing it towards her.

"What the hell is that?" Bucky asked from up front, his voice harsh. The car swerved. She suddenly noticed a racing army van coming up next to them.

Penny fumbled with the device in her hand, muttering, "I've been making things. I thought--I thought if someone managed to spot us this could help."

"How, Penny?" Sam asked. Penny broke the device into five parts, sitting up painfully. She felt like she was going to throw up. 

The teenager passed two to him, "One needs to go on each corner of the car. They should turn us invisible for fifteen minutes. After that we're on our own."

Sam glanced down at the device, "We're gonna discuss how the hell you made these out of scraps later. For now, just sit there. I'll get this."

He reached out for her own parts, but she shook her head, "I can do it."

"Penny--"

"I can do it."

He paused. "You don't have to prove anything."

"I'm not--I'm not trying to."

He squinted, hesitant as he warned, "Be careful."

Penny nodded. She rolled down the window, sticking her head out. The world in front of her disappeared in a wave of pained dizziness. She shook her head, pushing it aside. Army vehicles road in the grass beside the highway, rumbling along. There were shouts at the sight of her, waving for someone to see. A man with white hair and a matching walrus mustache appeared in a window, staring at her in obvious contempt. General Ross.

In a show of stupidity, she stuck her tongue out at them and moved to place the devices.

The first was easy. The back of the car was short, short enough that as she reached out--hanging out the window--she could place the device the tips of her fingers. It clicked, beeped and lit up red. She retreated, the window stained red. She grimaced.

"One," she reported.

"Two," Sam said. The both turned towards the front. "Give me yours, kid. You activate it."

Hesitantly, she nodded, and passed her her last marker, keeping the small activator in her hand. Sam crawled up front, landing messily in the seat next to Bucky, handing one device to the super soldier. The windows rolled out the window, the army crept closer with angered shouts and warning fires. Bucky placed his device. Sam placed his. She clicked the button.

The car stopped, turned, and fled. A confused militia was left behind.

Penny collapsed onto her seat, laying down once more, letting all the pain flood back. Bucky and Sam let out cheerful whoops, both turning back to look at her. Their faces fell.

She'd already blacked out.

Sam jumped back over to her, regrabbing the med kit and getting back to work. There was a lot to do, and he wasn't willing to let her go.

[dorizardthewizard]

Did the Parallax retcon let Hal get off scot-free?

So sometimes I’ve been hearing people saying that retconning Hal as being possessed by a yellow space bug takes away from his character development as Parallax, which is fair enough, but did it really erase all responsibility and consequences of his phase as a villain? Long post under the readmore lol

The Significance of Emerald Twilight

First of all, what good things did Hal becoming Parallax bring to the table? What I like about ET is that is showcased how his biggest strength can also be his biggest weakness – how too much willpower can be extremely damaging. After Coast City was destroyed, Hal couldn’t accept it – until then he always felt that with the most powerful weapon in the universe on his side, with enough willpower he could achieve anything. However, that just leads to him being ten times harder on himself when he makes mistakes. There was no way to reverse Coast City’s destruction, but he still tried to will the whole place back into existence, trying to fix what cannot be undone (hold that thought for later).

When the Guardians reprimanded him for using the ring for personal gain (which is kinda dumb considering what we’ve seen the rings be used for before), it all came crashing down and he was overcome with grief and fear that he’ll fail again, as well as anger at the Guardians for letting this happen. He became obsessed with becoming as powerful as possible to make things right, so that he’ll never fail again, no matter the cost.

Looking back on it, we could argue that it’s a story with great potential but was rushed and really only came into existence to try and shake up sales through shock factor. It would have been much better if they had previously written more hints towards Hal being burnt out, putting too much pressure on himself, growing disillusioned with the Guardians and questioning whether the GLC has made enough of a difference. Instead it just felt like they wanted to send him off as quick as possible, which feels like a great disservice to the character who was the star of GL comics for so many years. Plus, to be honest I don’t really like how he ended up like a cliché villain in stories like Zero Hour. But hey, that’s just me, and we did get Kyle out of it all. Either way, everything changed when the fire nation attacked GL Rebirth happened.

Was Hal released from all responsibility?

I really like the early Geoff Johns era before all the end-of-the-universe events, because it had these stories about Hal trying to rebuild his life and make up for what he’d done. For a start, Johns didn’t just sweep the whole Parallax thing under the rug as if it never happened; Hal wasn’t completely absolved of the blame and responsibility. It took a while for his fellow Lanterns to accept him again, and for him to make peace with his past.

I think this could have been done better though – Johns made it seem like Parallax had been affecting Hal since way before Emerald Twilight, so any moments of self-doubt or reflection before that weren’t truly him. I guess this was to push forward the confident flyboy persona, but we could have had something like Parallax only being able to affect him once he’d had his breakdown. Still, Hal gets some blame put on him since Parallax managed to get hold of him precisely because he did the one thing a Green Lantern should never do: let fear and anger overwhelm him.

It’s also worth mentioning that unlike Kyle’s possession by Parallax in Sinestro Corps War, Hal seemed to be more in control the whole time. Whether because Parallax decided to lay low to take advantage of the fact Hal didn’t know of his existence, or because Hal’s willpower was that strong, I can’t really imagine a yellow space bug wanting to do some of the things Hal did as Parallax. You could see it as Hal’s fear and anger being entirely his, but Parallax warping them to the point of destroying the corps and turning against all his friends. I’m just saying, we could have had a bit more of a compromise between making him redeemable and keeping some of his development from ET, but oh well.

Either way, Hal claimed responsibility for his actions and it wasn’t an easy journey moving on from that. Step one – getting over the guilt.

The consequences: Character progression post-Parallax

You know it’s rough when Guy Gardner is giving Hal Jordan a pep talk. This is a turning point though, where he’s starting to regain his willpower and use it to try and fix what he’s done. Here, it’s rescuing the Lost Lanterns, who he left for dead as Parallax. Luckily he saves almost all of them from Cyborg Superman, but he isn’t forgiven yet for getting them in that situation in the first place.

Much like during ET, he’s still trying to fix everything and make things right, but in order to truly move on he’ll need to do what he couldn’t when Coast City got destroyed – accept that not everything can be reversed.

You can see him progressing towards this in his Earth-based stories. In his adventure with Green Arrow, his tangle with Mongul and his Black Mercies ends with him realising how he needs to focus not on what he’s lost, but on the friends and family he still has.

He starts looking to the future – he reconciles with Batman, becoming a hero again in the eyes of the most skeptical, he reconnects with his family and becomes an inspiration to them for overcoming fear. We see him take his life back again, piece by piece.

It’s subtle, but by Blackest Night, he’s regained his willpower again.

This is actually really refreshing, to see a character who’s been through some shit manage to overcome it and not let others use their past against them. Like what Guy said earlier, he now knows there’s no way to erase his mistakes, so there’s no point in constantly beating himself up over it. All he can do is use his willpower to do more good than bad, and make sure something like Coast City never happens again. It’s honestly inspiring, seeing him fight his way to redemption and come back stronger than before.

His development due to Parallax is not just in how he deals with the aftermath, but also in how he approaches being a Green Lantern at all. Previously, Hal was known intergalactically for being fearless, doing everything he could to live up to his father’s bravery. It wasn’t until Parallax that he truly understood that being a Green Lantern isn’t about ignoring fear, but acknowledging it, and overcoming it. He couldn’t deal with his fears last time and let them overwhelm him, but now he’s learnt to be more in touch with those emotions so no one can use them against him again.

However, there’s still a ways for his character to go.

Future progression

It’s only natural that something like Parallax will have long-term consequences, even if they are more subtle. Hal did well in learning from his experience, but since becoming his willful self again it’s like he takes on too much responsibility. When Earth becomes the setting for Krona to capture the emotional entities, he allies himself with characters like Atrocitus and Larfleeze to look for them, instead of asking the Justice League for help, or at least alerting them on what’s going on. Naturally they weren’t very happy about that.

To be fair, it would be the opposite of helpful if someone like Superman got possessed by Parallax, and Barry actually does briefly in the same issue. Still, letting people like Atrocitus and Sinestro roam around when you’re unable to keep an eye on them all the time isn’t the best idea. Having the JL on call would have been helpful, and if they’d been around to help even sooner, they could have helped locate the entities. It’s too late though – Krona shows up with some entities already in tow and Hal gets his butt kicked so bad he ends up on the Watchtower infirmary, but he still won’t accept their help.

Insisting on flying solo is already a pretty core trait of his, which only gets worse at moments like this. He tries to handle as much as he can on his own so no one else gets hurt because of him again, but all this does is wear him out and push away those who want to help. I kinda wish we could have focused on the consequences of this a bit more so he’d learn something from it, but Johns didn’t really touch on it again before Venditti took over. This theme does actually carry over into his time as corps leader though, but maybe that’s a post for another time – this one is long enough as it is :’P

TL;DR 

The Parallax retcon may have made Hal redeemable, but he still had to work for it. Parallax was developed throughout Johns’s run rather than shoved aside and forgotten, and some of the best Green Lantern stories came from this.

[mageyewoqirife]

Fixing a Broken Heart

Read on AO3

Inspired by this post by gale-of-the-nomads

Chapter 1

“She's just so perfect…” With a dreamy sigh and far off look in his green eyes, Adrien sat back against the cafe seat. His friends watched him with wide eyes, unsure of how to react to this new bit of information. Nino just stared at his best friend who supposedly had a crush on some beauty that he mentioned through the years on occasion, but for some reason today he seemed overcome with his love for the mysterious girl. All they can get out of him is that they met through work and have known each other for two years during which they have done their best to see each other at least once a week.

Alya's eyes swept over to Marinette who was looking down at the ground, the smallest of frowns on her lips. Heart breaking for her best friend while the boys remain oblivious, Alya opens her mouth to comfort Marinette, but gets cut off instead by a too cheerful voice.

“You should tell her! I mean - Any girl would be lucky to seen you, Adrien. I mean, to be seeing you. I mean, be Seen by you!” She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before trying again. “You deserved to be happy with the one you love.”

Alya looks startled at Marinette encouraging Adrien to pursue another girl and makes a note to have a very interesting conversation with her later. Nino just seems confused, but goes with the flow. After all, his best friend is pretty awesome and he wants his friend to be happy. If dating this mystery girl makes him so content, then he should give it a go.

Adrien seems blissfully unaware of the check age in Marinette's emotional state or Alya glaring at him. He gives Marinette a dazzling smile that makes her heart pick up speed and thanks her. His eyes sparkle as he agrees and says he will bring it up next time they meet.

Lunch period came to a close and they began their truck back to school. Nino and Adrien took the lead, holding the doors open for the girls before sinking into a comfortable conversation that didn't interest their companions. In fact, Alya only had one topic on her mind.

“What are you playing at, girl! The last thing you should be doing if you want to be with Adrien is telling him to ask someone else out! What were you thinking?!” Concern mixed with curiosity in Alya's voice as she questioned her best friend. For two years Marinette had been crazy over Adrien so why was she backing off now.

“Alya, I want him to be happy. Yes, I love him, but he has been clear that we are just friends. As his friend, the most loving thing I can do is encourage him to be happy. He made his choice and I want to support it.” Marinette felt like this was a sign she was starting to mature and finally find a little bit of stability in the emotions that controlled her instead of blindly following her hormone driven feelings. Being Ladybug forced her to grow up and make difficult decisions. Time to make another. “I'm Adrien's good friend. Nothing more.”

Recognizing that her best friend had made up her mind, Alya simply let the subject drop for now. She would talk to the others in the class and maybe come up with a plan. Marinette was not good at following her own advice at all. She deserved to be happy too, but her sweet friend was willing to sacrifice her own happiness to give Adrien his own.

Every girl in their class wanted to help get them together. They make a plan to hang out that weekend at Juleka's place and invite Marinette to hopefully talk some sense in the girl. Rose starts planning, her romantic nature taking charge as she maps out Adrien and Marinette’ future relationship.

That weekend, most of the girls in their class find themselves tucked away on Juleka's house boat, giggling and having a blast ignoring their cares. The room is filled with carefree laughter and playful bantering when Marinette arrives, late as usual. Alya waves her over to sit on the floor between her and Rose who is chatting happily about the latest celebrity romance she noticed and how positively sweet it was seeing them together and so in love!

Marinette rolled her eyes and slid down to the floor, gently resting her purse holding Tikki beside her and rolls her eyes as the conversation shifts to the most popular (not) relationship in Paris: Ladybug and Chat Noir.

No matter how many times she denies it as Ladybug, people love to speculate about her and her silly kitty together. Seriously, the only way she could think that she could ever get out of it was to show up with a ring on her finger and Adr-... A random, non existent man on her arm. For so long, that man had soft golden locks and curious green eyes with a smile that made her swoon. Now, her future was tall and faceless standing next to her. A twinge of sadness made her lip twitch downward, but she squashed the flicker of emotion down and forced a smile. The future was simply unwritten and one day, she would meet her perfect match. One day.

“They have to have at least kissed or something. I mean, they have been partners for two years, both of them chase each other the city in skin tight suits and Chat Noir isn't exactly shy about what he wants.” Alix never did let anything hold her back from saying what was on her mind.

Alya shakes her head with a knowing smile on her face. “Don't we all wish. I'm all for Ladybug and Chat Noir getting together, but Ladybug still denies it. Best we can do is hope for the future. Trust me, if it happens, it will be all over my Ladyblog!” Marinette knows Alya was a fan in an out of the mask. As Rena Rouge, she tries her hand at matchmaking between the two super heros just like she does with Marinette and Adrien. If only she knew she was trying to set up her best friend with two different guys. Every time Rena Rouge gets Ladybug alone for a minute, she makes a quick joke or a suggestive comment, but the answer never changs.

Marinette grins at her own private knowledge of the whole situation and proud that her best friend chooses truth over gossip. Rose notices her grin and calls her out “Marinette, don't you think they would be sooooo cute together?” Hearts swim in Rose's eyes, imagining what she sees as the ultimate super romance.

Marinette just brushes it off, used to it by now. After all, Nadja Chamack has been trying to catch them together since that first live interview and rumors are harder to kill than cockroaches. “I think Ladybug and Chat Noir have enough going on without adding a relationship.” No one needed to know just how aware she was that neither hero had never had a serious relationship.

The conversation melts into a comfortable chatter or relationships and innocent gossip until Alix speaks up with a new suggestion: “Let's play Marry-Kiss-Kill!”

All the girls look around at each other before nodding at the simple game. They have played it before, but the combinations were endless so it never got old and several times it got one of them to admit a crush that no one knew about. “I'll start,” Alex said. “Gimme my names.”

“Max, Kim, Nathaniel”

“Easy, keep that order. Marry Max because those brains are bound to get him a good job, kiss Kim because his face would be hilarious and sorry Nathaniel. Bye bye. Rose, Juleka, your turn! Rose, Sabrina and Marinette.”

Juleka always blushes when given Rose, but she played along. “Marry Rose, kiss Marinette and kill Sabrina. Sorry.” Rose beam, happy with the answer and Marinette was simply happy she lived through the round. Now it was Juleka's turn to assign names. She always gives easy ones. “Mylene: Ivan, Nino and Adrien.”

“Marry Ivan of course,” Mylene doesn't hesitate about marrying her boyfriend of two years, but the others take a second to choose. “Kiss Adrien and kill Nino. Sorry Marinette and Alya.” She grins wide, tapping her chin with a finger until she points at Rose. “Alya, Chloe and Juleka”

“Well, Juleka is already marrying me. I'd rather kiss Alya, so kill Chloe” Beaming, she takes her pick, looking at the Ladyblogger and shifts the game from classmates to a whole new genre. “Alya, get to choose Rena Rouge, Carapace and Queen Bee!” Everybody waits eagerly for Alya's answer, but they didn't expect her to laugh.

“Easy. Carapace gets to marry me.” Alya wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, knowing full well who is behind the mask. “Rena Rogue gets the kiss because she is a foxy lady and I guess Queen Bee takes the fall.” Marinette grins, laughing quietly that Alya would rather kiss herself than Chloe.

“Marinette: Ladybug, Rena Rouge and Chat Noir.” Marinette's laugh died on her lips and frowned. She didn't want to kill any of them. Then again, she didn't want to kiss or marry herself or Alya, but her friends didn't know her personal connections. It gets quiet and Marinette realizes they are all waiting on her to answer, but this just wasn't fair. How could she chose between herself and her two best friends on either side of the mask!?

“I guess marry Rena Rouge.” Marinette did catch her best friend beam as soon as she spoke. “Can't I just kiss them both? I don't want to kill either of them.” This game was no longer fun. The other encouraged her to just pick, unaware of the war inside her. Deciding on who she would rather survive, Marinette answered honestly.

“Kiss Chat Noir, kill Ladybug.” Everyone froze. After a beat, they all spoke at once.

“You would kill Ladybug!?”

“But she can do her Miraculous Recovery magic thing and fix anything”

“You like Chat Noir enough to kiss him?”

“Ladybug…” “Chat…” “Marinette!”

Marinette flushed red, knowing none of them could understand and she couldn't possibly explain properly, but she did try the best she could. “I just think that's the way Ladybug would want it to happen. She would rather let her partner live even if it means she has to go.” The others forgot the game and started deliberating the three themselves. Some chose to kill Rena Rouge. Some chose to kill Chat Noir. No one else chose Ladybug.

Marinette decided she needed to walk about and get some fresh air and maybe a glass of water. Her thoughts followed her as she walked out, barely noticed by the others in their new heated conversation. The sixteen year old girl made her way to the kitchen and filled a glass with water before walking out on the desk and closing her eyes to the feel of a fresh breeze.

The cool air helped clear her mind along with a sweet melody playing from some unknown place. The music surrounds her and she lets her mind go blank, simply feeling each note and letting it wash over her.

“Hello, Ma-Ma-Marinette.”

[themyskira]

Wonder Woman Annual #2

Previously in FUCKITY FUCK FUCK I FORGOT THERE WAS AN ANNUAL AS WELL: Diana prepared to face down her most terrifying foes yet: the Dark Gods.

Who or what are the Dark Gods? Dunno.

What do they want? No clue.

What is this awesome and terrible power that they wield? So far, mostly just the ability to shoot lasers out of their eyes and incite people to deliver badly-written villainous monologues.

Why are we supposed to be so pants-pissingly afraid of them? Because James Robinson told us so.

Last issue ended with the Dark Gods manifesting over Washington DC, at which point it was revealed that they are… giant floating statues, I guess? But, like, scary floating statues. With lasers. So scary.

And then moments later, a couple of Star Sapphires arrived to whisk Diana away so she could appear in this shitty annual.

Diana is teleported to the Star Sapphires’ home planet of Zamaron, which is heavily battle-damaged.

The two Sapphires who brought her here are called Miss Bloss and Miri Riam, who are apparently pre-established minor Green Lantern characters — something I had to figure out on my own, because Robinson just assumes we all known them, and that Diana does too (I’m reasonably sure they’ve never met). The one time his overexplaining might have actually been useful, and he couldn’t be arsed taking a panel or two to make introductions.

Diana yells at them that she’s too busy to help with whatever their deal is, and launches into a recap of last issue. But, you know, that was all of two weeks ago, so by all means, spend a page getting us up to speed.

She’s also still throwing around ‘crazy’ and ‘insane’ like they’re going out of style. 

“…and although I’m not certain — the woman who told me was insane at the time--“

How about ‘possessed’, ‘out of control’, ‘somewhat incoherent’ or ‘compromised’? Any of these would be more accurate in this context, as well as not equating mental illness with dangerous and violent behaviour.

But anyway, essentially Diana says ‘my world is being attacked by the Dark Gods and it’s my fault’, and Miss Bloss is like, ‘well, if that was your fault, then our thing must be your fault, too’, and points up at the giant floating Dark God statue thing that Diana has somehow failed to notice until this exact moment.

Oh, goody.

Diana starts questioning them about what happened.  Honestly, that’s really all she does these days.  If she’s not delivering plot recaps herself, she’s setting up allies for flashback-exposition or allowing villains to monologue at her. Oh, sure, occasionally she fights somebody, but mostly she’s just a vessel for tedious exposition.

Miss Bloss describes the Dark God’s attack:

“Even to recall it now, it feels like a dream or vision from another world. Almost like we were looking at ourselves from outside of it all.”

The first time I read this, I took it to be a figure of speech. I interpreted it as an expression of Miss Bloss’s deep level of shock at the devastation she’d experienced, that it still felt unreal, as though it had happened to somebody else.

I was giving Robinson too much credit: he meant it literally.

As we’ll learn in a few pages’ time, one of the Dark Gods has some kind of power over people’s perceptions, enabling him to induce in others a sense of unreality and dreamlike detachment. We’ll learn that the Dark Gods have deliberately used this ability in order to confuse enemies and limit their ability to respond to or even comprehend attacks.

Frazer Irving — who illustrates the flashback, along with a couple of other scenes in this issue — plays into this well.  His stylised art and colour work lends a somewhat eerie dreamlike quality to his pages, creating a sense of altered reality.

Unfortunately, Robinson can’t write dreamlike.

So what in theory should be an eerie, confusing, unreal flashback instead just turns into Miss Bloss telling us that her memories of the attack are eerie and unreal and hazy… aaaaand then proceeding to describe the attack, the enemy, his name, the concept he embodies, his powers and the precise reason why he was able to kill so many Star Sapphires, all in exacting detail. 

The Dark God who attacked the Sapphires is called Karnell and he calls himself the god of love, but the love he embodies is dark and gritty and edgy and corrupted. He can sense any ‘impurities’ or ‘flaws’ in a person’s love and rub it in their faces. When he does this to Star Sapphires, something something their rings freak out and they spontaneously combust.

Diana asks, ‘yeah okay, but you didn’t know that this was my fault when you dragged me here, so what gives?’, and Bloss and Miri are like, ‘welp, our leaders are all dead, Carol Ferris is busy in another comic, we all frankly suck, and you were a Star Sapphire once in that Blackest Night crossover event.’

At which point I went, ‘wait huh what??? but that was before the New 52 reboot!’, before remembering that Geoff Johns’ entire preboot GL run survived the reboot for no other reason than because Geoff Johns gets whatever he wants.

Diana agrees to lead the Sapphires against Krakoom (I’m sorry, I’m not going to bother to learn his name, he’s not worth that kind of time), and the Sapphires respond by giving her the Nazi salute due to an unfortunate artistic miscalculation.

Diana: And if I am going to stand among you — fight alongside you — let me look the part. Sapphires: As you wish it, so do we, Wonder Woman… be a Star Sapphire once more.

And with that, they give Diana a makeover.

It’s not a bad costume, especially when you compare it to her Blackest Night design. That one tried to ape Carol Ferris’ hideous then-costume, which featured hip cut-outs and a plummeting neckline that ended around the crotch area, by giving Diana a bathing suit with hip-holes and a bared midriff. This design retains many familiar Star Sapphire costume elements — the stiff pointed white collar, the combination tiara/mask, the starburst symbol, the long gloves and high boots — without going into creepy male-gazey territory.

buuuuut it also looks like Diana is wearing a pink apron over her usual costume, and that is something I cannot get past. It also varies wildly across the issue, depending on which of the four credited artists is drawing it.

By the way, I say ‘makeover’ because despite violet blaze on her right ring finger, it took me several times flicking back and forth before I was certain that Diana had been deputised into the Corps as opposed to just being given a new costume in order to “look the part”, as she put it. I know this sounds like it should have been self-evident, but Robinson gives absolutely no indication of any deeper change in her. Not even lip service to the fact that Diana is connected, through the power ring, to the emotional spectrum and the violet energies of love.

Contrast this with Diana in Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #3:

“Extraordinary. All of them, in their way, have tried to explain it to me before. Hal, John, Kyle… even Guy, may Ares watch and aid him. But it defies all attempts. There is no way to describe it. What it is to wear a power ring, and feel emotion made manifest. To wear fear on anger or will or hope on one’s hand… To wear love. Too beautiful for words…”

There’s a lot about Wondy’s Blackest Night tie-in that’s flawed and frustrating and flat-out bad, but this page gets it right. If you’re going to make Diana a Star Sapphire — going to give one of the most loving hearts of the DCU the power to channel her love into tangible power — then you need to acknowledge the weight of that.

In this comic, it’s as insubstantial as a costume change.

Flying up to confront Kratakoa, Diana wonders if she could really have summoned the Dark Gods. Supergirl said she brought them into this plane with a careless wish, and… oh, come to think of it, she did inadvertently make a wish during the recent Dark Nights: Metal crossover, while coincidentally handling some magical wishing metal. But nah, that couldn’t possibly have done it!

She reaches the big floaty statue and a bloke with spiky wings emerges from it. It’s Klangalang, and he’s got his monologue cued up and ready to go!

He opens with a fairly standard ‘ahaha, I’ve been expecting you, hero!’, and the implications fly straight over Diana’s head.

Kibble: You came, Amazon! Sooner than I expected, too! Good… I’m going to love this! Diana: You’re some kind of seer, too? You expected me?

Let’s review: The villains Diana supposedly summoned, the villains who have been trying to kill or neutralise Diana before she can interfere in their plans, have attacked the Star Sapphires in advance of their invasion of Earth. Despite not knowing about Diana’s connection to their attacker, the Sapphires reached out to her for help, teleporting her away at almost the exact moment that the villains launched their opening assault. Now the one villain who hasn’t joined the invading force is cackling that he’s been expecting Diana.

Even a half-competent hero should be able to join the dots and realise they’ve been deliberately lured away. Not so Robinson’s Diana, who gazes at him wide-eyed and demands, ‘omg, u expected me? are u psychic or sumthin???’

After a couple more rounds of obscenely dense questions from Diana (along with another out-of-character ’crazy’ slur), Klunk ends up having to straight-up spell it out for her. He also explains how she summoned the Dark Gods.

Krunch: You wished for the gods’ return. Well, here we are. Here I am! Diana: Like a dream, but yes, of course. But I meant the Greek pantheon, not— Krump: Gods! That’s all you said.

Small nitpick: Diana would not think of her gods the “Greek pantheon”. She’d be more likely to call them “the Patrons”, “my gods”, “the gods of my people”, “the gods of Themyscira”, “the gods of Olympus”, “the Olympians” — she knew them as all of these things long before she knew Greece, or any world outside her island home, existed. The only reason she might refer to them as “Greek” is for the benefit of people in Man’s World, as a point of reference.

More importantly, are you friggin kidding me, the friggin layers of incompetence here from our supposed hero

accidentally makes a wish while wielding a weapon of magical wishing metal

manages to make the vaguest wish possible, opening a loophole for THE WORST GODS to infiltrate reality

immediately forgets she ever wished it

why would she even wish for that?! her gods haven’t gone anywhere!

To be somewhat fair, the reason she doesn’t really remember it is that “the God With No Name” (YES REALLY) made it all feel like a dream so that she wouldn’t realise she’d made an irresponsible wish and needed to immediately rally everybody together to resist the Dark Gods.

Except… that in itself doesn’t make any sense.

There are two possibilities here: the Horse With No Name could have clouded Diana’s memory of making the wish after the Dark Gods were pulled into this reality — in which case, why? How would she even land on the conclusion that she’d accidentally summoned some evil gods that she’d never heard of, when her intent was to call on her own gods and she’d had no indication that it had even worked?

Alternatively, he clouded her mind in the moment of the wish, to render her thoughts vague and imprecise and open the door for the Dark Gods’ invasion. Which doesn’t work either, because it turns out that the Dark Gods are pretty pissed off at being pulled out of their awesome reality.

King Koopa: War was declared the moment you dragged us from our home… our beautiful world — which you regard as the ‘Dark Multiverse’ — we see as a paradise… where we were more than even gods to our worshippers… we were everything!”

So basically their plan is to turn Earth into a desolate hellscape just like their home.

Diana, who has already been told that Kraig is a god of corrupted love, conveniently forgets this fact just so that Robinson can tell it to us again.

Diana: You call yourself a god of love. What kind of love wants to be feared? Love is unconditional. KHAAAAAN: Spoken like the addled naive romantic I expected. Love always comes with conditions. Sometimes, I confess, I question… am I god of that love, of those conditions behind it? But then I realise… I don’t care.

Cool story. Glad we can agree on one thing, at least.

He monologues for a couple of pages about how he’s going to open her eyes to the truth of how horrible and selfish and corrupt love is, then draws Diana into his mind so that he can monologue some more.

We learn that the world of the Dark Gods was forged by a group of divinities called Titans, “much like the reality of your own Greek pantheon” (incorrect, you’re thinking of the Protogenoi; the Titans were the second generation of gods). But because these Titans were hardcore, they did it by smashing five other realities together. And into this terrifyingly dark edgy metalscape came… +~teh D4rK g0dz~+

Robinson then undermines the super-extra-double-dark feel he’s going for with another embarrassing name and an accidental rhyme.

“We Dark Gods followed, as gods do. King Best and then the rest.”

KING. BEST.

But wait, we haven’t even gotten to Kalamazoo’s dark edgy totally original backstory!

In fact, this is so dark and edgy and original that I’ll throw in a quick content warning here for descriptions of domestic violence and shittiness towards sex workers.

“You’ll meet a boy — his mother broken by a wanton father who forced her to cheapen herself further with wraiths and under-beings. The mother died — beaten to death. When he saw her blood still dripping from the fists of his father, the boy ran, fearing the same fate. The boy loved his mother, but hated his father and the world. Both emotions — love and hate — burned so brightly that even from within the darkness of our world, their glow caught the eye of mighty King Best.”

Domestic violence! Sexism! Slut shaming! Fridging! It’s like a game of grimdark bingo!

After three goddamn pages of this, Diana suddenly twigs what we all figured out eleven pages ago, ‘oh now waaaaaait a minute, you didn’t lure me here so that your buddies could invade Earth while I’m distracted, did you?’

Klinger responds by almost murdering Diana, and is only stopped by the intervention of the Star Sapphires.  They all retreat, and Diana proposes a new plan: all the Sapphires will channel their energy into her, something something, true love wins the day.

So Diana flies up to Kimberley, sword held aloft and blazing with violet energy, and announces, ‘boy did you make a mistake when you told me that you used to be a sad boy child! now I have only love in my heart for you!’

Karma Khameleon is like, ‘oh no, love! my one true weakness!’, and I’m like, “d… didn’t we just have this story?”

Then Diana straight-up stabs him with her love sword, and Korgo fades away with an ‘I’ll beat you next time, Captain Planet! Next tiiiiiime…’

Diana farewells the Star Sapphires, and Robinson shoehorns in this bit of virtue signalling:

Miri: Please… Diana, think of us as your sisters, too, for all time. Diana: Or “brother,” I notice. Miss Bloss: Love is love, no matter who bears the heart.

This is a welcome and needed change to the Star Sapphires. The fact that they have been portrayed up until this point as an all-women corps (with the exception of a few briefly deputised blokes) is bound up in ugly gendered ideas, exemplified by Geoff Johns’ comment in 2009 that “anyone can join, but most men are not worthy”.

But there’s something gratingly self-congratulatory in the execution of this course correction.  Robinson’s doing the absolute bare minimum here — including one or two male background characters in a handful of panels — and flagging it as progress with a phrase associated with the LGBTI community.  We haven’t even seen a single named male Sapphire, let alone one with a speaking part; I think it’s a little premature to be looking for kudos. And either Miri or Miss Bloss could very easily have been replaced in this story by a new male character.

The Sapphires teleport Diana back to Earth, where she finds DC a smoking ruin. And as the air clears, she sees—

—wait for it—

—this is truly shocking and terrifying—

THE DARK GODS MADE A MEGAZORD

THEY MADE A FUCKING MEGAZORD WITH THEIR DUMBASS FLYING STATUES

A GODDAMN MEGAZORD WHO WHAT HOW WHY.

Diana’s face does this:

[cashtonwoah-blog]

Calum Hood Series// Rescued

Part 4

P1 // Part 2 // Part 3 //

Note: This will be the final part of this series! Had a few messages asking when this would be written, apologies I haven’t been very well :(

Warning: Swearing, discussion of abuse.

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

Y/N P.O.V

You walked hand in hand with Calum, walking up the steep court building steps to the main entrance. You physically and emotionally felt sick. Today was the day you would finally confront Brent over the fight. For months you had been battling in and out of court, trying to prove what Brent had done. He had stuck by his story the whole time, claiming you hit yourself for attention and that he never placed a finger on you. Sadly it had to go trial due to lack of evidence, as no one witnessed the attack apart from yourself and him. 

You felt the grip around your hands tighten, Calum giving you a reassuring squeeze. You lightly pushed through the media who were outside the court house, asking you hundreds of questions. 

“What’s the plan Y/N?”

“Calum, any comment on your best friend?”

“Y/N lets see the bruises!” you groaned at this comment.

“Y/N what do you want to come from today?”. You stopped in your tracks at this point, thinking whether to answer or not. Calum dipped his head from under his sunglasses, giving you a reassuring smile and nod. You turned to the camera man and spoke. 

“All I want is justice. I want justice and I want a horrible person treated the way he should be” you said sternly. You turned back, facing the court building. The press continued hounding you with questions, but you ignored them. You just wanted this day to be over with. 

“Well done baby”. Calum smiled at you, giving you a gentle kiss on your hand. You and Calum had been quietly seeing each other for the past few weeks. Even though you both agreed to not become official boyfriend and girlfriend, you were practically dating. Calum had been spending all of his time at your house. He’d treated you like a princess, being such a supportive person. You'd spend a lot of time with the other 5SOS boys too, going on days out to the zoo and chilled nights in. You wanted to distract yourself from the mess that was going on in ‘the real world’. The fans even had been amazing. They often sent gift baskets and supportive letters to your house, which you found incredibly sweet. When you felt a little confident, you would go for a run with Ashton, and often fans would come up to you and give you hugs and wished you luck with everything. You were so grateful for the support. 

“In here Miss Y/N” a court worker called to you. You were taken to the main court room alone, in which you sat on the chair, facing the court. You could see Luke, Michael, Ashton and most importantly Calum sat on your left, smiling at you. In the middle, you could see the court, lawyers and barristers. Some were on your side, and some were not. You turned to your right, and could see Brent sat in front of two police officers. He smirked at you, you stared at him, trying to remain calm. 

“Court to order” the judge said from behind you. You sat nervously, waiting for the questions. Your lawyer approached you, ready to help you win your case, and bring about the truth.

“Y/N, tell me about the attack.”

“It was at a party, Brent had been drinking a lot. I confronted him, after I saw him flirting and touching another girl. He got mad and accused me of overreacting”.

“Then what happened?”

“I then ran outside as I was upset, and he followed, grabbing my hand and pushing me outside the house into the front garden. I tried to reason with him, saying my opinion, but before I could finish, he punched me here” I said, pointing to my cheek and eye area. 

“I present to the jury pictures of the bruising and scars. Physical ones that is” your lawyer said, handing out the pictures. Y/N, the jury can't see the emotional scars of the attack. How did it make you feel?”

You sighed and took a deep breath. “Scared. I was petrified to leave my house after. I never thought in a million years he would do something like this“. 

“That's all, your honour” your lawyer said to the judge sitting down. Now it was Brent’s team to question you. 

“So, Y/N, the night you claim the attack happened, how much did you have to drink?” the lawyer asked. 

“The night the attack ACTUALLY happened I had maybe one or two beers”.

“Right, so you could have been drunk?”

Youlaughed slightly. “Well, no”.

“No? Because my client says that you would get drunk very easily. And if you were drunk on the night in question, you might have said something that made my client upset. He didn’t hit you Y/N did he? You clearly forgot and made it up to gain more fame from his best friend, Calum from the band, isn't that right?”

“Wha-no-no of course not” you raised your voice at the lawyer. You could see Calum becoming angry from the side.

“And who’s to say the pictures you submitted were real? You could have hit yourself, made it look like my client was guilty. You had issues with my client in the past, hadn't you Y/N? Heated arguments, marks on your body that people asked you about you laughed them off. You did them yourself didn’t you?”

“NO!” you screamed, started to cry.

“STOP SHE’S USPET!” you heard Calum shout from the left. He stood up looking at you. “YOU DID THIS YOU ASSHOLE” he screamed, shouting at Brent. Brent smirked. 

“ORDER! ORDER IN MY COURT!” the judge screamed. As soon as she said this, everyone settled down. “IF I HEAR ONE MORE PERSON TALK THAT SHOULDN’T MR HOOD I WILL ARREST YOU” she screamed. Calum sat back in his seat after this, putting his hands and head in his lap, sobbing. You didn't realise up until now how much this was affecting Calum. He was torn, a wreck, and all you wanted to do was hug him. But you had to answer more questions from both sides, plus listen to other pieces of evidence from other people, including the bitch that you saw Brent flirting with, as well as Calum, who heard part of the fight. 

*4 Hours later*

“I’m so sorry” Calum said, running up to you and giving you a hug. You finally felt safe, wrapped up in his arms. The court case was finally over, and you now had to wait for the jury to deliver their verdict.

“Don't apologise, i’m-i’m just gl-glad yo’re here now” you said between sobs.

“Come on, elts go and get some food to distract us” Calum said. “We’ve got a long wait”. 

*1 Hour later* 

The verdict was ready. It only took the jury to come to their decision within an hour. You were shocked, scared that it was going to be not guilty. 

You walked back into the court room, and sat by your lawyer. She squeezed your hand. As the judge walked back in and took her seat, Brent walked back into the room in handcuffs still. He looked over at you, however the smirk has disappeared. His mouth pouted at you, as he mouthed the word “Sorry”. You rolled your eyes at him, focusing your attention back on the judge. The jury were welcomed back into the room to read the verdict. 

“Now, before this is read out, I want everyone in this court to act in an appropriate manner. No outbursts, no violence, or you WILL be arrested.” she said. “Will the lead juror stand please”. You saw a young man stand up, looking just as nervous as you were. 

“Lead juror, how do you find the client?”

“We, the jury find the client, guilty of all charges, including ABA”. he read out. 

You screamed out “YES” in a whisper, punching your fist in the air. You did it. You were free. You looked over at Calum and the boys, who were all hugging each other. Calum looked over at you, grinning massively as he mouthed “you're safe now baby”. As the guards took Brent away, you stuck your middle finger up at him. Finally, you could relax. 

As you walked out of court, you proudly held Calum’s hand as you were greeted by the media. You prepared a statement with your lawyer to read.

“Today, justice was finally met. After weeks and months of torture, a jury finally saw and believed my story, I strongly want to highlight the fact of seeking support if you are dealing with a violent relationship. Seek help, don't let it be too late. I want to thank my lawyer, my family, friends, and mot importantly, my boyfriend, who I will forever be grateful for”. You said, giving Calum a hug. He appeared shocked but happy that you announced this. “Thank you to everyone for the support. My justice was met today, I now request that myself and my family and friends now have some privacy to deal with the matter privately, thank you” you finished your statement, walking away from the court house. 

“So, this is what feeling free feels like?” you whispered to yourself. 

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