#and then everything happens. the crown. the portal. the war. the world ending. ice king. betty in ooo. and its all ruined again and she cant

[jaggeduar]

I feel so crazy about that last episode I knew literally in my soul that the lich would appear eventually and be named the last scholar of golb. Throws up everywherr

[elasticitymudflap]

you think your boy Simon is gonna come back for season 2 or is he all arced out?

LISTEN *GRIPS U* SORRY IM ALL CAPS IM JUST BEING VERY NORMAL RN

SEASON 1 WAS BASICALLY ABOUT GETTING HIM TO THE POINT WHERE HE WAS SIMPLY NO LONGER LOOKING FOR AN EXCUSE TO THROW HIS LIFE AWAY, AND RECOGNIZING/NOT ROMANTICIZING THE CONCEPT OF SACRIFICE IN HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH BETTY BECAUSE OF HOW DISPROPORTIONALLY SHE SACRIFICED HERSELF FOR HIM IN WAYS HE WASN'T COGNIZANT OF.

IMHO:

SEASON 1 BARELY TOUCHED UPON ADDRESSING OR WORKING THROUGH HIS ICE KING TRAUMA. THIS IS MY FIRST MAIN THING I NEED THEM TO TOUCH UPON.

IT CONCERNS ME THAT SIMON DIDN'T EVEN COMPLETELY CONNECT THE DOTS IN THAT ALL THE CRAP WORLDS THEY WENT TO WERE HINGING ON WHO HE IS AND THE IMPACT HIS LOVE AND SACRIFICE (OR THE LACK THEREOF) HAD ON THE WORLD (DID SORT OF FOR A MOMENT IN THE STAR BUT NOT NEARLY ENOUGH IMO)

HE'S OBVIOUSLY STILL PROCESSING HIS YEARS TAKING CARE OF MARCY IN THE APOCALYPSE???? THERE WAS NO FOLLOW-UP WITH HER PHONECALL EVEN IN THE FINAL MONTAGE???? WHAT HAPPENED IN OOO WHEN HE DISAPPEARED??? THESE TWO NEED TO FUCKING TALK FOR REAL

WHAT DOES SIMON'S LIFE LOOK LIKE WHEN HE'S NO LONGER AN EXHIBIT?? HOW THE HELL DID HE BECOME/CONSENT TO BECOMING AN EXHIBIT IN THE FIRST PLACE I MEAN WHAT THE FUCK?? HOW DID HIS LIFE CHANGE SO DRASTICALLY (OR DID IT NOT) FROM OBSIDIAN??

THE MORAL OF "MAYBE WE SHOULD HAVE GONE ON THAT TRIP TO AUSTRALIA INSTEAD / WHO KNOWS WHAT LIFE WOULD HAVE BEEN LIKE" IS SO BAD FOR HIM TO END CONCLUSIVELY ON AFTER EVERYTHING WE'VE SEEN BECAUSE THE WORLD STILL FUCKING ENDED??? MAYBE HE FOUND THE CROWN, MAYBE HE DIDN'T, BUT EITHER WAY FROM WHAT WE SAW IN THE ALT WORLDS IT WAS ALL GOING TO END IN TRAGEDY AND MAYBE THIS IS THE ONLY WORLD WHERE WE GET A BITTERSWEET END INSTEAD OF A HELL WORLD THANKS TO THEIR DESICIONS??? IDK!!!!!! I'D LIKE TO EXPLORE THAT CONCEPT I THINK

THE UNIVERSE IS OUT OF HIS NOODLE, BUT DOES SIMON'S HEAD-PORTAL STILL WORK?? CAN HE CONNECT TO FIONNA WORLD IF HE'S IN HIGHLY CHARGED MAGICAL ENVIRONMENTS??? ACTUALLY, WHAT THE HELL ARE THE LONG TERM EFFECTS OF A HUMAN HAVING A UNIVERSE IN HIS DANG HEAD

HE'S CONNECTING WITH ASTRID NOW AND SEEMS TO BE ON MUCH BETTER TERMS, IS SHE GOING TO INSPIRE HIM TO START WRITING FIONNA AND CAKE STORIES AGAIN TO COPE IN A HEALTHY WAY WITH HIS PAST THIS TIME??

SIMON'S RELATIONSHIP WITH ICE THING???

SIMON'S HUMAN PAST IN GENERAL: WHY IS THIS DUDE THE WAY HE IS??? WHY DID HE BELIEVE THE THINGS HE DID, STUDY THEM, MAKE THEM THE THINGS HE HINGED HIS LIFE AND CAREER ON???

ON THAT NOTE: FLASHBACKS. MOTHER FUCKING FLASHBACKS. MORE OF HIS ADVENTURES WITH BETTY. WE ACTUALLY SEE SO LITTLE OF WHAT THEY WERE LIKE TOGETHER WHEN ACTUALLY HAPPY, HUMAN, AND IN A RELATIONSHIP TOGETHER, IN THEIR ELEMENT, AND NOT STRICKEN WITH LIFE-OR-DEATH DESICION MAKING EXCEPT FOR HIS DUMB ASS GETTING BRAINED BY A CHERRY JAR

HIS YEARNING TO FIND BETTY AND APOLOGIZE TO HER WAS "TECHNICALLY" HANDLED IN THE SHOW, BUT YOU CAN NOT TELL ME THIS DUDE DOESN'T HAVE LASTING ISSUES AND TRAUMA AROUND THAT. ABOUT THE FIRST TIME HE PUT ON THE CROWN AND BETTY DISAPPEARING FOREVER. ABOUT THE GUILT AND FEAR ABOUT HER BEING DEAD DURING THE WAR. ABOUT LIVING NINE FUCKING HUMAN LIFETIMES IN A HAZE WHERE ALL HE KNEW WAS HE HURT THE PERSON HE LOVED MOST AND HE JUST NEEDED TO FIND HER. IT BECAME AN INTEGRAL PART OF ICE KING'S CHARACTER, HIS MOST DEFINING TRAIT STRIPPED TO THE STUDS. HE HELD ONTO THAT LAST PIECE OF SIMON PETRIKOV SOME HOW UNTIL SO MUCH TIME HAD PASSED HIS ONLY HOPE TO EVER FIND HER AGAIN WAS TO USE TIME TRAVEL. I'D LIKE SOME MORE OF THAT, IF YOU PLEASE.

HOW IS HE ACTUALLY COPING POST-SEASON 1? WHAT ARE HIS THOUGHTS ON ALL THE WORLDS THEY VISITED, THE THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO HIM, THE IMPLICATIONS, HIS INTERPRETATIONS? HE MAY BE IN THERAPY BUT HE'S STILL DRINKING.

ANYWAY

[feral-bunny31]

Ok ok ok ok so I’ve been reading a few fics/prompts of Danny Phantom having to declare war on the living (he’s ghost king ofc) and I’ve had an idea slowing forming in my head with each one I’ve read and it’s just how I’d envision that scene happening and I need to get it out so here goes (putting it below the cut bc idk how much I’m going to write) how it leads up to this, your choice if you see this and decide to write more/around it. Ok here goes:

They had 13 hours left of the 3 days King Phantom, High King of the Dead, Defeater of the Dark, Son of Time, The In-between, The Balance, The All Star, had given them. 13 hours. 13. The number of the dead, ironic really that that was the amount left.

He gave them 3 days to dismantle the Ghost Investigation Ward, to release their prisoners, his people. 13 hours left and they couldn’t get them to yield their ways. To give up and break up and release the dead they had tortured. King Phantom, no older than 18, gave them a warning and they were failing. War was coming and King Phantom warned them he and his infinite army of the lost souls of this plane and the in betweens were going to march.

It was his final choice to be made in his existence. His last option. His espoir perdu. He didn’t want to do this, he hated doing this but he had to and everyone saw it as his warning was broadcasted onto every possible screen in the United States.

2 hours. They had 2 hours left and they were giving up. Trying to get as many people to safety and shelter as they could. They needed to get the civilians to hide. Gods, there was only an hour left.

And as they watched the sky above Illinois- of all places- shatter and breaks like glass they saw the King emerge as the final seconds ended.

He was stone faced, no one behind him as he stood, floating in the shattered rift of the realms, the portal green. So so green. Swirling like hypnosis. Black armor draped over his body, a sword held tight, white knuckled at his side, a crown of burning ice drifting close to his head. His face was set, cold to those that see him that don’t know him. Expression hard except for the minute furrow of his brow, seen only by those that know him, that see who he is, white hair whipping softly around his face, casting shadows over his green eyes. Oh his eyes. They were the only thing able to show what was going through his mind. They held so much.

Years of experience, of pain, of loss, of suffering and sadness. Of struggling to be heard, to fight for his people and those of this earth. To keep the peace but save what he can in this destructive world. His eyes held so much words didn’t exist to tell what all they showed.

Calmly, slowly, deathly, his sword arm rose. Rose high above his head and fell. Fell until it was straight out, a signal that the war had begun.

Thousands of souls poured out of the portal, though they spared the citizens around not a single glance. They were vaguely human, some just skeletons, some races long since extinct. They only had eyes for the buildings that were beginning to scream. The voices of their prisoners rising until every single one of the Ghost Investigation Ward’s buildings rang with the rage and hurt and pain of those souls.

The army, still pouring from the crack between realms, only targeted those buildings. Flooding the United States searching for those buildings. Men in white suits poured out of the buildings. Raising weapons to the army and unloading everything they had, uncaring of the civilians they hit and the homes and jobs they destroyed, killed.

Then they noticed it, Phantom on the front lines, defending and protecting the civilians as he tore his way through the men in white, Agents they called themselves. Giant frozen Yetis came with him, tending to the wounded he had protected. They creates shelters and barriers of ice to take the wounded and heal them. Bandage them and cover the dead with soft sheets.

The army avoided and even blocked their enemies fire from hitting those shelters, from hitting the homes and jobs as best they could while still fighting. They were angry, rage filled that the Agent cared so little about civilians, all in the name of “getting rid of those ecto scum”

King Phantom and his army fought for 3 days, wiping out any Agent and their buildings that ever existed. Freed his people and made sure they returned safely to the realm of the dead, the Infinite Realms, before he and his army slowly worked on restoring the damaged buildings of the civilians. He gave the dead proper care, tending to the souls that had come back, sending them the portal after they said goodbye to their family.

And when all was said and done, he collapsed, beaten and bloody, into the arms of a god, a being that shifted ages, a clock shoved into his chest, was his chest, and sobbed. Sobbed for all the lives taken, even of the Agents. He didn’t want this, he didn’t want this death and destruction. He wanted peace, for his people and for the living. He was Balance! Why couldn’t he have brought balance peacefully? Why couldn’t he stop this from happening? He tried! Tried so hard to keep this from being a choice. He hated that he had to make this decision.

When everything was restored the best they could and wounded were healed and dead buried, King Phantom gathered his people, entered the rift between realms, and closed it. The one vision of the sky shattering like glass reversing and piecing itself back together, and the army of souls was gone.

Ok how’d I do? Thoughts? Comments? Concerns? Please let me know! I love the feedback

[dumborangecat]

i take your idea of a villainous Simon and raise you: a simon who caused the horrific end of the human world and the Great Mushroom War, or an equivalent magical disaster, ON PURPOSE. Maybe he decided that humanity was just too much and it was time to wipe the board clean, or this was a Simon just a smidge more vindictive and bitter than usual, but either way he ended humanity on purpose?

Ahhhhh! I love this idea! I spent a while trying to come up with motives or reasons Simon (or canon Simon atleast) would do something like that and the best one i could think of was maybe something to do with Betty, Such as Betty leaving simon (through the time portal, or maybe just running away) causing the Crown’s ‘craziness’ to happen way faster and Simon getting super mad (or sad) about her leaving coupled with his deteriorating mental state causes him to use his ice powers in order to like freeze a massive area around him, like the entire country, or maybe even the entire earth and causing another ice age

Or if it was maybe a more calculated/thought out move, possibly during the mushroom war, before the bomb hit (but close to it) Simon could tell this would only get worse, and the war would destroy not only most of humanity but also have massive ecological effects, and overall just be a horrible thing, and because of this he decides to stop everything ,before it can get any worse, by just freezing everyone.

I think the idea of Simon intentionally (or even accidentally) freezing earths entire population (or most of it atleast) would be super interesting, and the effect it would have on ice king (once he reaches that state) could also be neat to think about. Because by freezing everyone, he’d have doomed himself to pretty much live on earth, alone, for basically all of eternity. He’d have no marceline to take care of, or empress to keep him company (and brainwash him but still) or even princesses to kidnap. He’d be entirely alone. This would obviously affect ice king as a large part of his character and problems is how lonely he is, it’s (part of) why he kidnaps princesses and it’s later ‘solved’ when Finn, Jake, and the gang start actually hanging out with him. But seeing an ice king who can’t even remember what it’s like to not be lonely, who has no memories of having even 1 person or thing to talk to (even if their unwilling) would be interesting. Depending on what the freezing of earth did to the environment he might not even have gunter, or any of his penguins.

A good question with this though is when did he freeze/otherwise doom (but considering his ice powers probably freeze) everyone? Was it just after he got the crown and Betty ‘abandoned’ him, leaving him alone and unable to properly process his feelings? was it later on during the war when all of humanity was fighting eachother? or was it even later then that, once the mushroom bomb had gone off, maybe even once he was travelling with marcy? How would she react to seeing that (if she survives, but she’s a demon she maybe would)? What’s either of them supposed to do now that everyone and everyone thing else is (presumably) dead?

Also does Ooo still somehow emerge after this? If it does how is it different? Obviously Finn won’t be there, and since Dogs may have been wiped out by the freeze Jake might not either, but does the Mother gum still exist? (depending on when the freeze happens) Does maceline survive? would she just die at the end of her mortal lifespan if there’s no vampires (unless they still emerge due to idk plot reasons or something) or would she end up like farmworld marcy, all old and withered? Are there still all of the other princesses? What about Prismo? he seems to be just a normal human when you see his sleeping body, would he be created some other way? or just cease to exist?

How does being alone in the wasteland affect Simon? especially with him knowing it’s his fault, does he feel guilty about what he’s done? Maybe he does feel guilty, but also believes it was for the best, a necessary sacrifice. If he’s a more bitter ‘evil’ Simon that normal does he not care that he’s killed litterally everyone? Maybe he does care, but not because ‘oh no, i just murdered thousands of people’ but instead ‘oh no, i just doomed myself to centuries of isolation’, maybe he’s forced to deal with the fact that (atleast until he becomes ice king snd probably forgets everything) that his current misery and loneliness is entirely his fault. Does all this maybe lead to a staright up evil ice king?

(If such a universe were to appear in fionna and cake) how would Canon Simon react to seeing this more evil but also tormented version of him, how would Simon who’s presumably been alone for centuries with nothing but his own thoughts and festering guilt, react to seeing not just people again, but a version of himself who (in comparison) is living his dream life?

Sorry for rambling, I just loved your idea, it has so much potential for different scenarios/ways to play out and how it affects things and people in the future, namely Simon/ice king.

[redrobin-detective]

Ok, I’ve tried and tried and tried to write this fic because I see it so clearly in my mind but it’s just not going no matter what I do. But I don’t want the idea to die with me. The closest this came to being written was exile which was an attempt to bleed out some of the energy of this au.

Anyway, so it starts off vaguely similar to canon only more aggressive. There had been underlying tension between ghosts and humans for a while, the dead jealous/angry at the living for disrespecting them. The successful creation of the Fenton ghost portal (and another halfa) was considered an act of war and so the ghosts responded in kind. So basically all of S1 occurs fairly close to canon except ghost attacks are more violent and have increasingly more consequences as time passes. Also the attacks aren’t just in Amity Park with ghosts becoming a worldwide issue but Amity is a focal point. Regular people know the ghosts hate them though they don’t know why. Phantom is very much a controversial figure as he is a ghost but also clearly is fighting off the more violent ghosts. 

One day, not long after the events of Control Freaks, Amity Park wakes up to find three of their own are gone. Danny Fenton, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley are nowhere to be found. There’s a massive manhunt, the parents go on TV and beg for information but they cannot be found. Curiously enough, town hero Phantom was also missing. There’s some evidence they left of their own volition so the Mansons and Foleys eventually relent that the kids fled on their own. The Fentons are 100% certain the kids were stolen/killed by ghosts as a statement. And the fact that Phantom went missing around the same time means he was the one who killed them. Jazz knows Danny was Phantom but had no idea what was going on and knew her parents wouldn’t listen she just, kept quiet and privately tried to piece together what happened. 

Three years pass and finally it looks like the Ecto War is coming to a close. Young, naive ghosts attempted to raise Pariah Dark in a bid to win. It went disastrously but Phantom (who was periodically spotted around the world, deep in the worst battles of the war) and group of loyal allies subdued the king. By the law of ghosts, Phantom was named heir apparent and he declared that the fighting would stop. Humans and ghosts would have to negotiate and co-exist in peace. But he’s not king yet, no he needs to be crowned at the place where it began, Amity Park’s Fenton portal (”where it all began” has a double meaning of the beginning of the war but also symbolically where Phantom began as Kings assume the crown where their living life ended to show their abandonment of their first life and the commitment to their second). Amity is NOT happy to hear that their former hero is coming home.

Amity has been through the wringer, ghost attacks got pretty bad. The Fenton’s throw themselves into their work to cancel out the grief, they create a group of ghost hunters nicknamed the Reds (for their red blood, ghosts are nicknamed Greens) to control the threat. Valerie heads the young adult division and is considered one of the best, she drops out of school to devote herself to it full time. Oh also her dad is now the Mayor as most have died or didn’t want the job. There are still people who like Phantom and see him as a hero (a lot of Casper Kids) but it’s generally an unpopular opinion in town. Maddie and Jack are ready to obliterate the ghost that took their son’s life the moment he’s within city limits. It’s a powder keg ready to blow. It all comes to a head when Phantom and his entourage arrive.

First off, Phantom looks very different, much less human looking than when he left. He’s clearly aged like a normal teen but his eyes look much, much older.  His skin is dead white with a blue tinge to it from his ice core and his aura is super cold. His hair is longer and is very misty that kind of swirls around him and his has fangs and claws. When he’s deep in battle or his obsession, his sclera turn black and he looks scary af. His entourage is ghosts who have sworn loyalty to him, who he picked up along the way after battling beside them for 3 years. Fright Knight, Skulker and Frostbite are recognizable allies. They are not happy that their future King is back in Amity (secretly fearing they’ll lose him once more to his human life). J&M have a shot and are going for the kill when they see something that shocks them; Sam and Tucker are in Phantom’s entourage.

There had been whispers that Phantom interacted with humans, that humans were in his inner circle but this is something else together. And so are Sam and Tucker. Sam is Phantom’s General, she is talented and collected and half feral. She used to be a pacifist but the trials of war and understanding that peace sometimes needs to be fought for made her compromise. She’s covered in scars and an extremely talented fighter. She’s missing her right hand up to her forearm, she can form a ‘phantom limb’ (basically borrowing ectoplasm from her future ghost) to do some things with some powers. Tucker is the support, he uses human and ghost tech to organize, weaponize and generally keep things running. He’s covered in homemade tech (shields and weapons and computers) and he rarely removes. Both he and Sam have kinda forgotten how to interact with and really BE human after so long among the dead. They had attempted to conceal themselves but they had forgotten how strong parental love and recognition is. J&M want to know about Danny, the teens don’t know how to respond but assure them he’s alive. Phantom can’t bring himself to look at them.

This is where I start to lose track of things but there will be parallels of Valerie/Maddie vs Sam as female warriors on opposite sides who are willing to go behind, possibly compromising the things important to them, for victory. Tucker will be contrasted against Jack/Jazz as the one making weapons but also generally keeping the human parts of the team mentally/physically afloat. *Severe* PTSD for all three of them. They’re also unnaturally codependent on each other, get super anxious when one of the trio is out of sight and sleep in a big cuddle pile. They will fucking Kill You if you look at one of them wrong. Vlad will be involved, he had been jailed for war crimes but convinced Walker to stage a coup to overthrow Danny and take the crown before he’s actually declared King and is too powerful. Vlad is more unhinged here, more ghost than human (a hint on what could happen to Danny if he’s not careful). He is eventually defeated but he sacrifices his life for ghost power which, in the end, is what makes him able to be beaten.

 There’s lots of ideas on what it means to be live or dead and where the divide really is, is it a heartbeat or it is how you choose to use your existence. On how duty shouldn’t mean you need to give up everything. Because Jack and Maddie believe that Phantom killed their son and, in a way, they’re right. Before they left, the ghost war had gotten so bad and the rumors of Dark being resurrected were going around. Amity attacks were at an all time high, people in their school were being killed just because Danny went there. He realized he had to choose between Fenton or Phantom and he chose to protect the world. He abandoned his human identity and went off to fight in war. Tried to convince Sam and Tucker to stay but they followed him through hell and back. Because Danny spends so much time as Phantom, Fenton is severely neglected. His long hair is cool and floaty as Phantom but is unkempt and stringy, hanging in his face as Fenton. He’s wan and underweight and looks like a walking corpse. He knows his human half will give out soon if he doesn’t give it more attention but he just can’t there’s too much to do, too many people to save.

It would end with Danny being outed to the town, not the world, just the town. Jack and Maddie need to recon with the fact that their boy DID leave of his own choice but only because their failure to protect him (from both the portal and ghosts) made him feel he had to take all this responsibility on his shoulders. Danny also has to recognize that he (and Sam/Tuck) can’t do all this on their own and they can trust and rely on the people around him. Phantom is crowned King but he decides Amity will be his base. The trio eat more, sleep some, catches up on school all the while continuing their duties as King and court. The ghosts also see that Phantom’s humanity isn’t a weakness but a strength and will bring peace to the Earth/Zone so they also take some of the burdens off his shoulder. 

Basically I load up heavily with angst at the beginning and end with all the love and comfort imaginable. I just can’t fucking figure out the middle and my motivation will not let me write this shit out. But I can’t let this AU die bc it fucking keeps me up at night.

[kuno-chan]

The Book of War - Ch. 18, Korra and Nuka: Of Wicked Mind

   Rating: T

   Summary:The New Earth States are unstable. Avatar Korra must conquer the war within her and the one on the rise after the instability of the New Earth States turn into tragedy and the Southern Air Temple is attacked by a legacy of the late Earth Queen. Peace is fragile, but Korra is determined to protect the future of her children and the children of her friends and their families as well.

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–

   Korra and Nuka: Of Wicked Mind

--

Nuka could barely breathe.

Not necessarily because he was running, but rather at the constant memory of the earth crumbling at his back. Of Osina trapping herself under rock so he could escape. It’d happened so fast. All of it so fast that he was barely still able to believe that it’d even been necessary, but he couldn’t think of another solution. Another way they could have gotten out of there without somebody dying. And at that idea… it occurred to him that Osina felt like he was worth saving far more than her. For some reason.

It was hard for him to see how.

With a tight feeling in his belly, he tried to recall the path Osina told them to take when they started their trek. Thankfully, he had a good memory and a decent sense of direction because at least that wouldn’t make him feel like he’d wasted the chance Sila’s mother was giving him.

He refused to believe she was gone.

She could still survive and he wasn’t going to give up on that until he absolutely had to.

He quickly made his way through Osina’s path with a mental map in mind, turning corners and going through large caverns where there was several tunnels, but he took a deep breath each time he saw those and tried to remember which path was the right one.

He didn’t know whether it was luck or misfortune that he found his destination so quickly, an entrance way hidden in ice that led up a flight of stairs and into what looked like some kind of control room. Lucky for all these people that he found them without delay. Those soldiers knew how to get down here now and who knew before somebody sent more?

He saw his father speaking with a man that looked to be in charge: a man with blue eyes and braids. Then, he saw Sila. That tight feeling in his belly became almost unbearable when he strode over to him, her brows furrowed. Spirits, she already knew something was wrong. Of course, how could she not when he showed up alone--

“Nuka… You took a while. We we’re getting worried.” she began, quiet and slow. Her brows remained knitted. “Why are you… where’s my mother?”

Nuka was at a loss for words. He didn’t know what to say. What to do. If he dared. But he had to. How could he not tell her that her mother was possibly--

He looked in those eyes. Eyes that were fully trusting of him. Ever since she’d met back up with him on this trip she had never shown him a thread of distrust.

He couldn’t lie to her.

And, that meant, he couldn’t lie to himself. Everything he told himself earlier suddenly couldn’t stand. Sila’s mother was lying underneath that rubble and there was a good chance.... a damn good chance that she wasn’t walking out of there. His eyes much have gone glossy because he blinked away the wet feeling as his father also came over, opening his mouth to say something, but pausing at the apparent look on Nuka’s face.

Sila stepped forward. “Nuka, where’s my mom?”

“I…” He couldn’t. He couldn’t do this, but spirits he had to. He shook his head at her. “There were… there were soldiers down here. Men who must have followed us from earlier. They weren’t going to let us pass and your mom, she…” Nuka swallowed as Sila’s eyes went slightly wide. “She made sure that I did to warn you all. She… she made sure the tunnel collapsed.”

Mercifully, Nuka’s father didn’t say anything. In fact, he took a step away. Sila, on the other hand, just stared at Nuka.

It was only in that moment that he realized most of the room was staring at him.

He let her die. That was what he felt like they were thinking. How could he just let someone die like that? So easily.

There was that crushing weight in his chest as he tried to speak. “I’m…” he tried. “Sila, I’m so sorry. I should have--”

He felt her hand on his arm. A firm grip that didn’t waver. To steady him. To steady her. He didn’t know. Looking at her again, there was a pain in her eyes, but she shifted into that warrior he knew. The girl as sturdy as the shield she carried. He didn’t know what to say when she told him, “Don’t do that to yourself.”

“I’m sorry,” he said again, something in him breaking as the words escaped him. Spirits forgive him, he let her mother die. He let another human being just… die.

“So am I,” she croaked, pausing as she turned to face the room, giving him one last squeeze of the arm. She faced a large man standing next to Nuka’s father now and talked to him directly. “Soldiers know there are tunnels down here now. It will only be a matter of time before they bring more and find this place. I think we need to move.”

The man, clearly in charge by his stance, regarded her with an evaluating gaze. He looked over Nuka with that same look. “You’re sure these were enemy soldiers?”

Nuka nodded miserably. “Positive. They wore the uniform.”

“Then Osina bought us precious time,” he said, his voice growing into a loud boom. “And we will not let it be in vain. Everybody pack up! Gather all important files and information you can carry and get to the exit in an organized fashion! We’re moving out of here in fifteen minutes tops!”

The man turned away from them to begin grabbing things. Nuka, on the other hand, could barely move.

“Sila--”

Sila looked at him, her face calm but tempered by something somber. “Nuka, I don’t blame you,” she said point blank. “But right now we need to move.”

Nuka shook his head, moreso at himself than at her, “I’m sorry.”

She sighed. “I know you are. But right now is the time to focus. My mother would want you to--” Her voice broke. “ To focus. Please.”

A plea. Her eyes were brighter than normal and she was stiller than usual. As if inside and out she was struggling to function, but her mind was forcing her into some kind of action. Any.

“...alright,” he said quietly. She didn’t even nod at him and turned away. Some part of him sinked into the hollow place that had formed in his belly.

It had all happened so fast.

-:-:-:-

Korra

-:-:-:-

Korra was a smart woman.

For all the things that she was, an idiot was not one of them. But she sure did feel like she was making a stupid move by climbing up the ladder of this blimp. It’d fallen from the blimp for her -- a clear invitation. Just climb right into the enemy clutches. She supposed Mako had a reason to worry about her so often.

Still, if Hanyo was still Hanyo then that was her saving grace. This way of coming back into public eye sure was him -- out in the open, dramatic and utterly time wasting. He liked his entrances. She wasn’t even remotely surprised when she climbed up the opening and into a room with nothing but a radio on a table against the wall facing her. She looked up, nobody even among the inner workings of the blimp for her to see.

Typical. After all these years, he clearly hadn’t changed much. If anything, the only thing he seemed was crazier if all these attacks were to go off of.

She approached the radio and snatched the end of it to her mouth. “I see you’re still the same,” she said, pressing the button. “You haven’t changed.”

The radio took a moment, then spurred to life. “I see you haven’t either, Avatar Korra.” His voice was still creepy as ever. That polite monotone. A pleasant something there that just wasn’t right with the world. “You were always a gracious guest.”

“Cut it,” Korra snapped. “You were the one behind the Air Temple Island attack. And the attempted assassination on the Beifongs in Zaofu… why?”

She still couldn’t believe she hadn’t saw it. Hadn’t thought of it. Her hope was that he had wasted away somewhere where he couldn’t hurt anybody else. Apparently she was wrong.

“But my dear, Korra, why not?”

Korra frowned, resisting the urge to crush the radio speaker in her hand. “I can play twenty questions just the same. Why are you here in the North Pole?”

When he didn’t answer, her grip on the radio tightened. Always playing games. Games that he never cared involved people’s lives. How many people had died because he thought the world was one giant pai sho game?

And this man wanted to be a king?

Never. Korra would never allow it as long as she was breathing.

“The North Pole,” Hanyo’s voice finally came out of the radio again. “Is a wealth of what I need.”

Korra frowned. A wealth of what he needed? And what exactly was that?

And then the world stopped when it struck her:

The spirit portal.

It hit her light lightning. Her eyes widened and she looked back through the window, at the spirit portal a pillar of light in the sky. The vines. Everything about the attack on Air Temple Island had been about the spirit vines. All of it a distraction so that she wouldn't feel the spirit vines in distress while she was distressed about her friends and family being in peril.

Despite it’s age, the Northern Water Tribe capitol was still smaller than Republic City. On top of it all, it’s government was built like a monarchy. If you had the chiefs then you had the keys to the city.

“You want the portal.”

“Correction, Avatar. I need that portal. It’s going to deliver me my crown. One you stole from me after you helped tarnish my country with this so called democracy.” She could almost hear him smiling like nothing but a man bemused by a simple joke. “How might that be coming by the way? I’ve heard terrible things over the decade. The war never did end for you, did it? For my beloved country?”

“Beloved.” Korra scoffed, but her jaw tightened. “Don’t make me laugh. You killed anyone in your way. Even people who weren’t. You were there when you slaughtered the airbenders and air acolytes at the Southern Air Temple. You killed them for no reason at all.”

Hanyo sighed. “Always incorrect. I didn’t kill them for no reason.” He chuckled. It made Korra’s blood run cold. “I killed them because it made you finally listen.”

It took all of Korra’s strength not to outright break the radio even as she heard it crack in her hand. Hanyo was the same. Slimy, apathetic and above all, a coward.

“And where are you now?” she said coldly, bracing on hand on the table. “Hiding? I know you’re not on this blimp. You only show your face when you know you’re going to win. Or when there’s carnage that’s extra satisfying to you. Don’t think anybody’s fooled by you. You’re just a sadist. And you listen to me and listen good: You will never be king. I will never let you. Even if they crown you, I will come for you and I will end you in your sleep. I swear it on my honor as an Avatar. Hanyo of the Hou-Ting dynasty, you will never wear that crown physically or in formality so long as you shall live.”

Silence. Utter silence over that radio. It was too long for him to have just shrugged off her words. She wondered if he was just staring at the device in front of him or if he was smashing something in his wake. Knowing him, he was probably doing the former and would do the other later.

The radio fizzed to life again. “Such empty promises. You promised to bring balance to the world and, yet, war has ravaged my people for a decade because of you. You promised to protect your child and, yet again, you failed and she left you. A failed Avatar and a poor mother.” Korra’s stomach lurched. “Worry not. It’s all going to be over soon. Today, I wonder, if I will decide that you die. Or would it be much more interesting to see you resist me before I crush you? Perhaps Tikaani would like to see that?”

“You leave my daughter out of this!” Korra felt the radio cracking in her hand. “What do you know about her?”

“I know she left you. As does the whole world.”

It was Korra’s turn to take too long to answer. Finally, she replied, “You sure do love hearing yourself talk, don’t you?”

“As I said, Avatar… soon. Soon this will all be over for you.”

Korra shook her head and… and she smiled. A wicked smile when she realized one thing. “Oh, it will be over for me. And for you. You’re so confident when you talk that I can just hear the spoiled royalty in you. I bet you’re somewhere just drinking tea and waiting for someone to come tell you that you’ve won. You don’t even know what’s going on, do you?”

That undiluted silence.

She went on. “Well, to give you an idea, you should at least know enough that you’re well aware your forces only have so much time for your attack. It’s very time sensitive with that United Republic military base not too far from here.” She snorted. “You didn’t know about the second wall, did you? It’s such a new thing, why would you? You’re little pincer attack to trap the chiefs isn’t going to work here if you’re men can’t storm the palace. And if my calculations are correct, the United Republic air support should be here any minute. You’re just about out of time.”

“And you’ve always been such a gracious guest. I’m sure you won’t mind helping with that.”

Metal chains exploded from the ceiling, reaching down like vines right toward her. She rolled back and out of the way, diving for the exit on the floor that was closing for her. Her leg caught, the metal chain reeling her in as the floor completely closed up on her. She crunched her body up, commandeering one of the chains for herself and adding a little bit of firebending behind it to free herself. Landing on her back, she jumped right back up, coming face to face with more of those black clad fighters she’d encountered on Air Temple Island.

“Sorry. I have another appointment I have to get to,” she growled and spun, a wheel of fire dancing from her hands and onto the floor. The fighters moved and raised their arms to shield themselves. Turning her attention to the metal door on the floor, she ripped it and open and leapt through, airbending guiding her safely to the ground. On the way down, she looked up. The blimp began to move away, back toward the ocean.

She snorted. “He never was a good general.”

Hanyo, if anything, always reminded her of a bad mob boss with too many people under his command that were probably much smarter than him.

Of course, all of what she had said to him was mild conjecture. Did she think the United Republic Airforce was coming? Probably. Did she know? No. If anything, she was expecting him to let her know that he had them in his claws too. She wouldn’t have been surprised. If there was anything Hanyo had under his belt it was influence. His name and money always were his biggest strengths. They were his driving forces.

That was what the Monarchists had clung to at his height almost a decade ago. That had been what was on its way to bring a nation to it’s knees. She went over it in her head sometimes. What Hanyo had at his disposal at the time. A nation in borderline anarchy -- pure anarchy in some cases -- a verified name and bloodline that legitimized and enough people who thought that was enough to make a king. Not to mention the desperate people. The people who were desperate for anybody who would end their suffering.

She understood what that felt like.

-:-:-:-

“What do you mean we’re retreating?”

Namada revealed the blinker in his palm, red light pulsing. “It’s the signal, sis. We’ve got to go. Mission aborted.”

“But we’re so close!” Gurana punched the cavern wall. “What’s wrong? Why do we have to go? Look, we’ll stay and--”

“And be trapped behind enemy lines.” Tikaani said frankly. “We don’t have enough time, apparently.”

“Shut up.” Gurana growled viciously at a stony Tikaani. “This is your fault! You stopped to have that little reunion with your stupid brother and now we’re behind!”

Tikaani raised a brow. “None of us even knew the entrance into the caverns. That was part of the entire plan--”

“Making it all time sensitive--”

“And the girl he was with--” Tikaani went on, ignoring Gurana’s fuming. “Knew the entrance to the catacombs intimately well. It was the shortest route.”

And still not enough time.

All of this, in reality, had been a waste of their time. So much effort and so many resources poured into half hearted attacks that achieved little. A showboat. A peacock eagle’s dance to the world.

All a waste of time.

Gurana glowered at her, eyes flashing with that lack of something. Lack of a few things, really. And all sparks in her mind. “If you had anything to do with this failure,” she seethed. “I swear to the spirits, I’ll--”

“I happen to be on this mission with you. If you hadn’t noticed,” Tikaani interrupted. “And, now, if you’re done we can go before we get left behind. I doubt you would want Lord Hanyo to do that.”

All that fire and spark in Gurana died and she went white. “He would never--”

“She’s right,” Namada put a hand on Gurana’s shoulder. “We need to go before somebody finds us down here and we get put in some prison.”

Gurana, apparently taking all of that into consideration as she stared hard at the ground, clenched her fists. The earth beneath her feet cracked a little. She glared up at Tikaani. “Fine.” she said through gritted teeth. “But if Lord Hanyo asks, this is your fault.”

Tikaani turned on her heel and began to walk back the way they came.

An absolute waste of her damned time.

--

I am so sorry it's taken almost a year to update. And it's not even a long update, but next chapter should be the last chapter in this arc (if not this one then the one after that) and we can move on to the next part in this story. The highlight of this chapter is definitely Korra and Hanyo talking. Setting up that dynamic, for me, is really important because this is the guy who was the bane of Korra's existence back in the day. He's unlike any of Korra's former villains in that any composure he has is fake and apathetic and it's just such a veil to Korra. She sees right through him and that helps pan out their dynamic going forward.

Once again, I'm so sorry. If you're reading this then thank you! I really appreciate it and I'm so grateful! As always, guys you know that I love those reviews! It really keeps me motivated and keeps me writing and that's something this story definitely needs! Thank you for reading! Tune in for next chapter!

[animation-recaps-by-sean]

Adventure Time- Elements Hero Heart/Skyhooks II Recap

The fate of Ooo is left in Lumpy Space princess’ hands. Spoilers below. 

The episode begins with the fire people attacking the candy people with started out funny. They where just so happy they didn’t care but it got old before the episode was over. Finn attacks Princess Bubblegum, but LSP slaps him with PB’s hair. This reminds him of his failed romance of hair, the misunderstanding of the hair gift, the deaging, but soon he remembers hanging out with her, and being friends, and Finn calm down and he turns to normal. he gets PB’s jewel. 

PB decides to turn everyone she in Ooo into a candy person and sends out a wave  because she can just do that. Patience freezes herself like she did back before the mushroom war. 

Betty and Ice King fly in on a magic carpet. Finn climbs on gives her the jewels but she pushes him off.

Finn finally realizes that LSP isn’t effected by the elements, deducing that she’s some kind of anti-elemental as Lumpiness.  

 Meanwhile Betty uses the three jewels along with Ice King’s crown to open a portal into the past so she can stop Simon from finding the crown and stop the mushroom war from happening. She would be effectively leaving everyone in this timeline for dead. It couldn’t do it. Ice King was like “a fun house” version of Simon. So like the date earlier, she’s flipping the table, but this time she’s flipping he entire universe. Betty No! I bieleved in you. Why? I wanted you to work things out with Ice King!

To be fair, from her perspective, Ooo is an awful apocalyptic wasteland. Normally we wouldn’t be shouting, “Oh no she’s going back in time to stop the nuclear war that wiped out most of humanity!” But that doesn’t matter because Ice King knocks his crown out of the way, causing Betty to teleport herself to Mars, were she mets the man who drove her mad, Normal Man. 

LSP returns everyone to normal, although she my have done a too good job on Jake as he now looks like the creature that bit his father all though years ago. Plot point picked up two and half years later. 

This was kind of a disappointment, it’s like the producers and writers either had two ideas that the couldn’t fit one in two episodes or they couldn’t pick one and tried to use both. The effect is less than stellar. The last two episodes lacked focus. Which is a shame because the start of this mini-series started so strong.

Another key problem was it laid everything on the table in the third episode of the eight episode mini-series. And we never learned anything new about the world. We’ve already learned all about the elementals in previous episodes. And it didn’t even have an ending. We never learned what happen to Patience. Is she still frozen? Did LSP anti elemental effect her or is she still giant? We don’t know.

This miniseries had some great moments, but it’s parts where greater than there sums. 

I give “Hero Heart” and “Skyhooks II” two elementals out of four. 

[elasticitymudflap]

tragically, no :( lincoln and grob gob glob grod accidentally executed jake when magic man swapped their bodies to get out of the death penalty and lincoln sacrificed his immortality to bring him back from the 37th dead world. not long after simon was temporarily restored to human form and created a time portal that betty jumped through so she could try and find a way to cure the ice crown's curse and stop his death because his human body was like 1000+ years old at that point, she went around studying magic users in ooo and got in cahoots with magic man who was attempting a transmutation spell to turn him into the new king of mars using the discarded helmet of grob gob glob grod, his 4-headed brother, who became the next king of mars after lincoln died but he exploded from flying into finn's recently escaped from time jail dad's spaceship that he mistook for the sentient catalyst comet that crashes into earth/ooo every 1000 years and kills everything; which is ironically the reason why the ice crown was created in the first place back in dinosaur times. anyway so magic man turned finn and jake into soup and an egg and they got themselves baked into bread and fucked up the transmutation spell in such a way that all of magic man's magic madness and sadness was transferred entirely into betty, who went on to be a chaotic sexy wizard doing things like kidnapping gunter (who is actually a giant evil umbrella alien called "orgalorg" that wants to eat the catalyst comet) so she can fuck around unsuccessfully with the crown's programming. eventually this thing happens where the entire world is turned into elemental zombies and magic betty steals an alternate universe copy of the enchiridion from finn, which he secretly stole during this whole thing where prismo (a pink shadow on a wall of a guy's dream in a room outside time and space that basically grants "monkey's paw" wishes and died once by the lich but is back using an alternate jake's body) is like "hey remember that alternate universe you created where the lich never existed after he came here wearing the corpse of billy and wished for everything everywhere to die, but then he did exist in that universe and now your alternate self is posessed by the ice crown and doing the lich's bidding and i need you to kill his ass because he's back on his bullshit" and also because the original enchiridion was destroyed making the portal to his time room the first time. she basically is like "yeah im gonna fix ooo" but actually uses it to try and create a time portal using herself as a magic battery and ice king as an "item from the past lovingly tended to throughout the ages" with the intent to stop simon from ever coming in contact with the crown and possibly even averting the mushroom war, which scares the fuck out of prismo and the cosmic owl who are just chilling in a hot tub 5 feet apart cause they're not gay (well prismo definitely is for jake anyway) because the mushroom war is unfortunately extremely important to that timeline and what brought magic back too earth/turned it into "ooo". but this ends up not happening because ice king fucks up her spell because of course he does and she explodes and wakes up on mars being scolded by "king man", formerly magic man/normal man who became the new king of mars after redeeming himself in the eyes of the martians and the severed heads of grob gob glob grod floating around in space.

and i mean, shit goes off the rails from there: king man tries to "cure" betty of her obsession with trying to save simon by putting her through various trials and exercises intended to convince her of the hopelessness of her situation, like filling a bigass hole with sand one grain at a time with a pair of tweezers, and then putting her, finn, and jermaine through a "space telemetry capsule" which was pitched as a way to teleport jake who was lost in space back to mars but it was really more of a dungeon with more puzzles aimed at convincing betty of her hopeless situation. i actually still have no idea if king man was just fucking with them because the puzzles had jack shit to do with him, but jake did actually end up being teleported to mars after being left to die in space by his alien bio dad (by the way yeah in case you didnt know jake's dog dad got impregnated in the skull by a shapeshifting alien and he gave head-birth to him which is why jake can do the magic stretch thing and his brother jermaine can't) and king man's plan to "fix" betty made her much worse. betty manages to convince king man to help her summon golb, the most powerful being in the universe and the embodiment of chaos who also seems to have beef with mars, so she can harness his power to save simon and for king man to free his wife, margles, from "golb's maw"—which is incidentally the reason he's been such a dick all this time. so in the series finale they do the ritual to get to golb but king man realizes pretty quick that they fucked up big time and golb is teleported to ooo, triggering the apocalypse, and finn, betty, and ice king get vored by golb and digested down to their essential human forms. jake manages to drill a hole in golb's guts by weaponizing bmo's heartwrenching song "Time Adventure", but betty forces simon and finn to escape without her so she can use the now-reset ice crown to make a wish and save ooo, but since the wish has to resonate with the wearer's deepest desire, she wishes for "the power to keep simon safe" and fuses with golb, teleporting their fusion back to the golb dimension and saving ooo, and unfortuantely golb's force is so powerful that neither him nor magic man could wish either betty or margles back from prismo's time room, so betty's basically been "doomed forever" to the golb dimension as the new sexy fucked up god of chaos.

basically the whole thing of losing her and being directly responsible for her sacrifice deeply fucked up simon and 12 years later he's slumped into a major depression and in a fit of desperation tried to portal himself to the golb dimension to see betty, electrocuting grimdark choose goose in the process, but instead of portaling to her the literal fionna and cake, you know the characters from that ""genderbend"" fanfiction episode ice king wrote, jump out of the back of his skull. so it turns out that fionna and cake's universe was real this whole time, prismo made it and he hid it inside ice king's mind so he wouldn't get caught making an unauthorized universe, and ice king had been writing fanfictions stemming from this universe that prismo literally uploaded into his skull without simon's knowledge or consent. but he's honestly too fucked up from failing his wife-summoning rituals and being forced to watch her "die" again on prismo's big screen tv as he chews him out for trying to save her and explains that fionna and cake's universe "lost" its magic after simon was cured by betty while he's chugging like 7 piping hot australian ipas because he's literally traumatized by ice and they all take cheap shots at him not being worth the sacrifice she made and that ice king was better. and now there's a "god auditor" on their asses trying to destroy their universe, so fionna cake and simon are dimension-hopping to find a copy of the ice crown (because ooo's ice crown fused with gunther/orgalorg to make "ice thing" who married turtle princess) so simon can become ice king again to protect fionna and cake and "bring magic back to their universe", which is basically an act of suicide at this point that everyone, save for finn and marceline, is pushing him towards because he feels completely isolated in the world and misses feeling 'useful' and basically unaware of how fucked up his life was. this is all despite how it would destroy marceline and betty, golb rest her soul, and simon even confided in betty that he'd literally rather die than be ice king again when the opportunity for him to die presented itself, which tragically only encouraged her further in her goal of saving him and led to the predicament they are in now. so the trio has just teleported to the resulting universe from finn's anti-lich wish that ooo-finn stole the alternate enchiridion from and that simon doesn't know prismo "cured" this alternate finn of his crown curse by removing it from the timeline and placing it back on alternate universe simon's corpse being crushed under a giant nuclear bomb in the funniest fucking way to address an animation error ever, but prismo's also kind of been a bit of a bitch these days too since jake died.

also simon's whole bare naked ass was out multiple times in the last episode for no reason and it was pretty cool

if simon finds out prismo literally saved farmworld finn from the crown by fucking with time and putting it back where he found it i think he might actually kill his ass