#anyway still don't understand watchmen

[dyke-on]

Just accidentally watch an anti sjw film review, it came out in 2020💀

[james-stark-the-writer]

The Boys is the Undertale of superhero media

[meowcats734]

Meditating cross-legged on the simple wooden bed, Jiaola's husband opened his eyes. A ring of memorabilia—portraits, books, a wedding ring—surrounded him, empowering the spell he was casting. Orbs of witchlight hovered around his shoulders, illuminating the warded safe room. His eyes were tired as they met Jiaola's, then mine.

"I'm in a time loop," Sansen said, exhausted. His eyes were unfocused—a side effect of his oracular trance. "I keep trying to look into the future, to find a way out, but Odin... they kill us. In the future. Over and over, they kill. We can't stop them. We can't stop them we can't stop them we can't stop them—"

I shook my head. "It's okay, Sansen. You and your husband have done enough."

Jiaola squeezed his husband's hand. "Come on, Sansen. Don't run out of hope just yet. I've notified the city guard, and the Academy's on their way."

His idea of notifying the city guard was firing a pillar of light a hundred meters tall straight into the air, then browbeating the watchmen who'd come to find out what was going on until they sent the head of the watch over. I couldn't deny that it was effective, I suppose.

"You can't let them take you to the Academy," Sansen suddenly said, lurching out of the ritual circle to grab my wrist. The light of hope in his eyes had reignited, and by the glazed look in his eyes I could tell he was looking at a place and time far from now. "Odin is here. They're already here."

"Shh, shh, it's okay. You're in the future. It hasn't happened yet," Jiaola said, kissing Sansen. I blushed and looked away.

"No, you don't understand. They're—"

The wards of the safe room buzzed, and Jiaola stood. "I'll get it," he said. He gestured at the safe room wall, and a doorway folded into existence from nothing. I stayed with Sansen, trying to console the witch of hope.

A moment later, Jiaola stuck his head back into the saferoom. "It's a representative from the Academy."

Witch Aimes stepped into view of the safe room, giving the wards a disdainful look before casting a spell and crossing the threshold. The space around her body blurred as the wards pulsed once—then fell still. Jiaola gave Witch Aimes a shocked look as she scowled at the two other witches.

"What is this, a fourth-year's attempt at a warding scheme? A demon is coming for our students and this is the defense you put up?" Witch Aimes pointed at four spots in the wards where various trinkets and necklaces and even a stray feather had been placed. "I could take down this whole system if I struck the souls of those nodes. Who are you people, anyway? Flunkees from the Academy?"

"They're self-trained," I snapped, "which I'm sure you'd know, since you've been having your empaths stalk me for the past year."

Witch Aimes frowned. "Empaths... stalk you?"

"Yeah," I said. "The animal spies that keep following me around the city. The big black birds and stuff. They're... they're... yours, right?"

The safe room fell silent.

"Odin's already here," Sansen whispered again, clutching at the air. I suspected that getting repeatedly killed in futures that never were was... not exactly gentle on the old man. "They're coming to kill us all."

"Right, well, fuck that," I said. "Look, Odin wants me, I'll give them what they want. It's not worth letting you get hurt."

Witch Aimes gave me the condescending glare that I usually associated with failing a test or turning in an essay a week late. Today, I found it oddly reassuring. "Did you really think you were that special? Odin's not just after you. Reports have been rolling in from the whole student body—and what's worse, absences."

Oh. Well. Fuck that even harder. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

Witch Aimes slapped me. "You are a student of the Academy, Cienne." Jiaola's eyes narrowed, and he cast a spell, solidifying the air between Witch Aimes and I into solid stone—but once more, the space around Witch Aimes shifted, and suddenly we were both standing on the same side of the wall. "It was your duty to report activity such as this to us—and it is our duty to protect you from the people and ideas that would do you harm." She gave Jiaola and Sansen a dark look as she delivered that last line. "No matter. We're taking you—and the rest of the student body—to shelter. Real shelter, with competent guardians, not this riffraff."

"Don't you dare," Jiaola began, but Witch Aimes pointed and a flickering distortion charged at Jiaola. Before he could react, it swallowed him whole, and he vanished.

I flinched. "What did you—"

"Shifted him to my private dimension."

"The place you keep goblin corpses?"

"Among other garbage, yes. He'll be fine; humans can handle a minute or so without oxygen." She strode out of the room, towing me along with her, then pointed as she left; Jiaola's unconscious form popped out of nothing and slumped onto the floor. I caught a glimpse of his soul—still firmly attached to his body, thank the rifts—as Witch Aimes took me outside. It seemed like she'd been busy collecting students from wherever they'd been scattered to over midyear break; a crowd of confused and nervous Academy students was already waiting in the streets outside. She led us into a nearby chapel before speaking.

“Attention, children!” Even the disciplined students of the Silent Academy were shaken up by the news of the upcoming conflict, and Aimes’ voice wasn’t up to cutting over that babble. So she made a pulling motion with one hand, and a miniature thunderclap formed over her palm, shocking everyone in the room into silence. Witch Aimes cleared her throat. “As you may know, a band of intruders, led by the demon known as Odin, has infiltrated the Silent City, with declared intent to do violence.”

“Is this where you mobilize the students to arms?” I asked.

Witch Aimes frowned. “What? Cienne, you are children. What kind of school would let its students go into battle? No, all of you will be headed to the concert hall. It is one of the few places large enough to safely contain this many witches, and the faculty are competent enough to protect the facility in the time it takes for the city guard to mobilize. I will be escorting you to your final destination.” Gee, thanks, Aimes, great phrasing. “Now, each of you find a friend and make sure nobody gets lost while I take roll…”

Enemy witches were converging on our location and Witch Aimes was taking roll. Yeah, we were all going to die.

“Hey.” A soft voice came from behind me. I brightened up. Lucet. “Wanna make sure I don’t get killed?”

I smiled. “Long as you do the same for me.”

Once everyone had stopped milling around, Witch Aimes held out a hand and—to my surprise—withdrew a spear from her private dimension. It looked more like a cherished heirloom than a functional weapon, but… in the hands of a witch, one could very much become the other. A complex and grim set of emotions flickered across her face as she held the spear. “In order to safely transit between here and the concert hall, we shall be taking a route through altered space. I will be inscribing a circle in the ground. Please stay within its boundaries until I have finished. Do not hold your breath; I will supply air once we are on the other side.”

Great. That didn’t sound ominous as hell or anything. I edged a little further away from the circle’s perimeter as searing heat outlined the edge of a wide circle before I heard someone snicker.

Of all the things I didn’t need right now, Iola was pretty close to the top of the list. He smirked at me, malevolent glee radiating off his hair like a halo, and said, “There’s the rat who stole my girlfriend.”

I started to speak, but to my surprise, Lucet had me covered. “I’m not your possession, Iola. I can spend time with a friend if I want.”

Iola balled his fists, anger leaping behind his eyes—then, worse, a glow of cruel joy. “You know what? I don’t have to listen to your shit.”

The circle finished closing. Witch Aimes said, “Please stay inside the circle as I complete the transition.”

Iola grinned as he turned to me. “Nobody has to listen to you anymore.”

Oh, crap.

I was moving before he even finished the sentence, but he was twice my weight and I was already on the edge.

Iola shoved me out of the circle as Witch Aimes whirled around, shocked.

Then the spell completed, tearing my only protector away and leaving me alone in the chapel.

That was when the screaming started.

Odin’s invasion had begun.

###

It was all too familiar, knowing nobody was going to save me while walking avatars of destruction roamed the earth. I was just one student, and a problematic one at that—the militia would be busy defending civilians and hunting down rogue witches, while the faculty would be making sure they protected the students they still had. I didn’t even blame them—if Witch Aimes, for instance, doubled back to get me, she’d risk the hundreds of students entrusted to her care getting stranded or killed while she was away.

It was right that I would be left behind. It was familiar. It was home.

And I hated it to my core.

I’d fallen back on age-old principles—if the enemies couldn’t find you, they couldn’t kill you. Of course, if someone flooded the chapel or just wiped it off the mountainside entirely, I’d be dead, but the shrinking spell I’d cast would make me pretty hard to find, even for a witch’s keen eyes. I couldn't get a good idea of the full scope of the invasion, but it was evident that Odin hadn't come alone. Twice already, I’d held my breath in terror as witches in Redland traditional riding clothes walked through the chapel, once laying down some kind of passive spell, the other time checking on it. Whatever it was didn’t seem to kill me, so I simply waited for the onslaught to be over—

Space warped in the chapel center, and Witch Aimes materialized, spear in her hands.

Immediately, the spell the Redlanders had left behind activated, letting out a piercing thunderclap. Witch Aimes cursed and started to retreat, but it was too late—a tall, barrel-chested person in Redlands furs had already entered the chapel.

“Odin,” Witch Aimes snapped. “You disgusting riftcrawler. Evict yourself from this mountain before I evict you myself.”

Odin tipped their head in acknowledgement. “I’ve heard of you, Witch of Warp and Weft. I’m just here to save the Redlands. I wish your students no harm—quite the opposite, in fact. Stand aside and lay down your weapon, and I will promise to do the same to y—”

“Like I’d trust the word of a demon.” Witch Aimes shifted stance, narrowing her eyes, and said, “Prepare for—”

She never got to finish her sentence. Odin flicked a hand, and three rays of mournful frost cracked the air in half, beams of witchcraft that turned water to ice and flesh to dust.

But Aimes, even taken off-guard, was still a witch of the Silent Academy, and the beams swerved around her body, as if she’d twisted space itself into her own personal suit of armor. She recovered quickly, planting her spear into the ground with an arrogant stance, and sent a half-dozen bullets of warped space at Odin, darting distortions that charged like hunting hounds.

Odin stepped back, hurling another one of those flash-quick beams of frost at a seemingly empty patch of space, and Witch Aimes cried out and clutched her forehead as something I couldn’t see shattered. Her attack spells went haywire, and Odin wasted no time in following up with a howling vacuum that threatened to suck my teacher into the void—but once again, her impenetrable armor bent the oppressive attack away from her.

“Your defenses are as impressive as I was told, Witch of Warp and Weft,” Odin mused, sealing the vacuum spell and stepping back warily. In a strictly mundane fight, the taunts would have been wasted breath, but a battle between witches was as much a mind game as it was a contest of might. If Odin could shake her emotional stability, her spells would unravel as well. “But you are as green as a leaf before fall. You’ve never faced a true peer in witchcraft before, have you? Only massacred the helpless who your leaders told you weren’t people?”

Witch Aimes leaned on her spear, glaring at Odin. “Fuck you,” she spat.

Great. This was my erstwhile defender. A schoolteacher whose idea of psychological manipulation was throwing crude insults at a veteran killer. Really boosting my confidence, Aimes.

“As I said,” Odin continued as if Aimes hadn’t spoken, “there needn’t be any further conflict between us. Retreat to wherever you’ve taken your students, and we won’t—”

“I left one behind,” Witch Aimes interrupted.

Odin paused. “I—”

“I left a child in a warzone,” she continued, snarling, getting to her feet. “A helpless, imbecilic child who it is my job to re-educate and protect from the Redlands. To protect from monsters like you, in body and idea.”

Said helpless, imbecilic child didn’t exactly appreciate being re-educated, but I’d take it over a freezing death. Odin took one look at Aimes’ eyes and must have decided that speaking further was beneficial in some way, because they said, “Are you so scared of us that you have to protect children from our very ideas? Frankly, I don’t think you’re in any state to protect yourself, much less—”

“SHUT UP.” There was no flash of light, no gesture, not even a fireball. The only warning Odin got was their skin suddenly burning as Aimes surged forwards. A cloak of cold extinguished the effect, but the Witch of Warp and Weft was already striking with a spear that was not a spear but a memory, a memory that was not a memory but a spell, and even though Odin shattered it with a snap of frost, its memory lived on to plunge towards their chest—

With a swing of their exhausted hand that left them teetering with wild energy, Odin slammed the ceiling down on Aimes, burying her and her spear seconds before they would have sliced them in two. A spear-shaped hole jutting through the stone stood testament to the cutting power of the spatial distortion that Aimes’ spear had become.

Without checking to see if she was dead, Odin fled. I didn’t blame them—those skin burns looked lethal. Before I could decide whether to come out of hiding or not, with a groan of shifting rock, Aimes stood up, the detritus of the crash sloughing into nowhere as she cast a spell. Something had, somehow, pierced her armor of twisted space, because her scalp was bleeding and her spear was snapped in two, but she still stood.

I broke out of hiding, ending the spell, and skidded to a stop. Witch Aimes glared at me, eddies of dust still following strange currents around the ruins of her armor.

“I can expla—”

“You,” Witch Aimes snapped, “are in so much fucking trouble, young man.”

A.N.

Soulmage is a serial written in response to writing prompts. Stick around for more episodes, or join my Discord to chat about it!

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[clay-cuttlefish]

This batch: bad timelines, crossovers, and all the miscellaneous non-canon stories that aren't long enough for their own dedicated readthrough.

Flashpoint: Batman - Knight of Vengeance #2

Renee's a bartender in this timeline. Not much of an appearance, but she goes for Thomas with a baseball bat, which is deserved.

Batwoman #6

Renee's the Commissioner in the evil Tim future. Haha wouldn't it be fucked up if she became the commissioner, glad that's in the dystopian timeline, what a bad idea.

Points for Katerenee old woman yuri.

Bat-Thing

Part of the DC/Marvel mashup universe.

None of the sources I can find say Christine Montoya is crossed with any particular Marvel character, so she's just an off-brand Renee doing off-brand cop things.

Tangent Comics: JLA

Tangent Comics was a weird imprint that took a bunch of heroes and created new characters based on the codenames alone.

This Question is an anti-metahuman assassin and the older brother of Vigilante.

It's not a particularly interesting take, since it's literally just some guy with the same codename. I like his ridiculous edgy jetpack costume, at least.

The Dark Knight Strikes Again

...I think Vic is one of the less godawful elements.

Him being written as a shitty libertarian pundit is bad, but pretty much every other character gets shafted in dramatically stupider ways, so at least the Objectivism is cursed in a somewhat understandable way.

Anyways fuck Frank Miller.

The Multiversity: Pax Americana

A very weird book. I don't think it works as a take on the Charlton characters, but it's not really trying to be, and it's less lazy than most of what DC's done with Watchmen?

I'm pretty sure it's successful at what it's doing but most of what it's doing is esotericism and unnecessary homage so ???

Definitely would not recommend it for Vic.

Future State: Shazam!

Of all the characters to be the Question in the bad future, Boston's an interesting choice. I can buy that he'd end up with the mantle somehow and choose to stick with it.

He doesn't get enough focus to be that interesting but the idea of him using the Question mask to pretend to be a single, living hero while still swapping between bodies is intriguing.

I'd be down for him and Vic or Renee to team up someday.

I'm still hung up on if "Drake" was meant to be anyone specific.

The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #10

The single speaking appearance of Renee as the Question in a spinoff comic is in Scooby-Doo and it kinda rules for her.

I mean, it's Scooby-Doo, it's not exactly high drama, but I'm easily charmed and it's nice that there's a silly low-stakes Question adventure.

[the-firebird69]

In the movie Men in Black the women's wearing a bracelet and agent KX her asks her if it's glowing and it is glowing and it is similar to the device that azum and Deus uses in the watchmen and to implicate people on television I guess that it's recording device and video and audio to gather evidence on him and also he's looking for something that has to do with the nozzles and I think that the ship is in is analogous to that and that blade runner happens prior to Osman day is leaving from Egypt and he is in the ship and Jason's people take over and free him from BG in Stargate and he ascends in the pyramid and when he's ascends in the pyramid he is possessed they say and yeah it looks like he is and he looks horrible and as if he's been eating insects and that's what Jason's people were mutated into.

Zues

There's more to it but that is the order of it and he goes up to Titan last and dies you can see his skull is empty okay the timing is not really that great and he goes to New Hampshire earlier than he does sleepy hollow and the skull comes from somewhere but he says starcraft and Warcraft and Warhammer don't happen until later and he thinks because it's after stars out because you can't stop the yamada and it destroys several of their ships and entire fleets of gamera ships and they're fighting for pseudo empire ships and other and it all is a big huge show it's not losing and they get the starcraft ships and this is after matrix series is it loses one of the last he believes it's one of the last movie series in starcraft and the reason is that Pennsylvania is a mess and it's near the capital and people actually believe that it's one of the final wars. So he thinks that anyways it is last

He's badly mutated with that process will begins with the lizard man

Hera

It's what it's all about people and Elizabeth says I can say it that's Olympus not Elizabeth that my life was turned into a nightmare and by a certain people those people having a war with each other and they're forcing me to be involved they are not doing very well and they need to learn and others too by example but it was hell okay just sitting there watching these people and still it is a nightmare circle around me saying dumb things and trying to ding me the whole time you have no idea what it's like for some reason you're what it's like for some reason and my family and means of support started slipping away and here you said making it worse everyday and expecting me to do all sorts of stuff you and people like Trump say doesn't need anything any sitting here ruining it while others say He's the bad guy will look good keep it going until we get rid of everybody else and the whole world is up on its ear because a lot of foreigners don't like it a lot of Max don't like it and my people all hate it yeah you guys don't want to change anything or any advice all of it is supposedly no good but so you go up there and I'm in New Hampshire and I'm with my family and you're harassing the s*** out of me it's my home country and you feel you can say and do whatever you want it's not true it's simply not true you think you can try and kidnap me for years and years and years and that nobody does anything and you're wrong they're going after the people are doing it it's idiotic okay and by the way I hate you Trump and your kid and your ass tonight brother the s*** has holding me in Castle you're losers they make a loser club cuz you're stupid and you're fighting the Max and they have horrible things happening to you but really you don't understand what you're doing and the max don't a lot of Max came out here Robert Duvall and the Hulk Hogan it said this is garbage and you people here are garbage and they don't mean to say it as an insult they mean to say it as a fact that what you're doing is asinine and you're completely vulgar and rude and the max are running it and they can be really awful but then you know the psychological effect is it's a lot different than you think I'm taking it the wrong way and who gives a s*** if the max tried to grab me a New Hampshire you know they usually wash it over try and make it better stop the ones out of control but you guys don't have any system like that at all

Zues you're really a bunch of assholes Hera

I can't believe I'm saying this but it's true there's so out of line all damn day you can't talk to any of them they don't really speak to people it's really observed place I mean this is they're kind of like primates a lot and we missed it and a lot of people still are they don't have a place here and you know they're in primate bodies and they're not like complaining it's like going about their business it's a horrifying fact that this is what they're like it is a damn nightmare living here with you people I can't stand it in Florida Miami is much more tolerable with foreigners who are sending armies after us I mean what the hell does that say

Robert Duvall

That's been about 35 minutes a day here in punta Gorda and I'm praying to get out of here the whole time what you saying to people you idiots is horrifyingly bad and you are so arrogant You're such swine I can't stand it he's trying to tell you to be quiet the whole time you just the nasty f****** losers driving around him up and down the road we're going to put in a real report this is terrible

I'm from that movie where I hatched the guy in the head and that's Trump and here he comes back in like 20 minutes that's a different character it's not these guys it's going to threatening everybody to be the living Dead idiot

I have to tell you I've never been so sick in my life every stupid aspect of his life is screwing around with he's like I grew up with you guys it's not much different and it's hell I can't stand it here at all we're not spoiled we have lives but you're taking the kids life away and he's going to murder all of you he said you're all dead and I see all of you dying and all your people are dying are we going to plan to use you and stuff now it's over you got to go you have to leave here and we're going to force you out too I can't stand anymore nothing's working at all we're not going to have water or anything

Hulk Hogan is pseudo empire they're not much better they want to sit here and fight you and see it's their job the kid is tired exhausted you don't do a damn thing for him it wouldn't take much and you just won't do s***

We're trying and we got caught by them and they're like monkeys and they're terrible and I don't see you have to learn but mac daddy is helping and he can see it and we're trying our best but really these people keep coming in and you'll see it if this is horrible

Michael too

Is a huge number of Us coming down check out what's going on these people are so miserable there's such assholes we have to figure out why that they're like sexy s*** sex of s*** and you got this Tommy F ship and you keep saying that's part of it a big part of it and he's a nutcase he goes around making people say stuff same things you had pissing people off and sure it's a plan of ours but wow it's just sitting there sucking the oxygen out this sucks

Hulk Hogan

It's about time what a pain in the ass I mean what are ridiculous annoying scenario he's fighting for his life he needs to get this s*** head off and and he won't we're going to use Force

Thor Freya

We're going to two this guy here next door is going to try for it for the steer that are bigger good

Mac daddy

Olympus

People are together on this globally and you're all committing suicide by saying all the dumb s*** and you don't have it why don't you check and see what's really going on

Hulk Hogan

We check and see we tell them and they don't listen they're delusional they think they have the AI and Dave did a number on them and we're in trouble

Alicia

So we have two huge problems people under the influence of Dave and or the clans or just the computers and number two is this idiot Tommy F his clones in the ships and our friend says that the ships are out the clones turn into human beings cuz they have to I agree with that

Hulk Hogan

[iztarshi]

fanfic writer ask meme! L, M, N, R, Y?

L:  Which of your fanfics was the most emotionally challenging to write?

Overlapping Spaces (Thor fandom) although that's more to do with the place I was in at the time and the specific way I was at odds with the fandom. The fandom tended to side with Loki a whole lot and write the other characters off as terrible jerks that had Driven Him To It (not sure how later movies support or contradict this narrative, I didn't watch them) and I disagreed and was angry about it and kind of a jerk about expressing it.

Which is background for this fic, where I was kind of writing fantasy mental health care focused heavily on stuff I wished I could be given and diving into some of my own symptoms (Loki's problems in this fic aren't mine, but panic attacks and meltdowns are heavily drawn on), while reviewers were sometimes saying how awful Loki's family were to put him through that treatment. It felt like trying to write Loki's family as any kind of understanding was always going to be undermined by people coming in primed to see them as the bad guys, sometimes.

Anyway, it was a lot, although it was also carthartic to write and often fun (as writing with persephone_kore always was). And then I got into Girl Genius because I really needed to leave Thor fandom but still wanted to share a fandom with PK and she recommended it :D

M: What’s the weirdest AU scenario you’ve ever come up with?  Did it turn into a story?

Watchmen/Watership Down fusion AU. Wait, no, that was for the kinkmeme so it wasn't something I came up with. (It also wasn't kinky, for the record).

Either Girl Genius/My Little Pony fusion AU or Murderbot/Toy Story fusion AU.

N: Any fic ideas brewing that you’d care to share?

I keep brewing them and then not finding the motivation to do anything with them ^^;;

Like a lot of people on finishing tgcf my mind started turning over scenarios where Mu Qing and Feng Xin find out the full extent of what happened to Xie Lian. But it's really hard to write that while keeping it in character - they weren't good at dealing with it then, they're not good at dealing with it now, and they'd rather interact in disguise forever than try to talk about things. Even with things improving by the end they just. Don't want to talk about it. (Mu Qing had to almost die and Xie Lian wouldn't talk about these things even if he was almost dying.)

I've toyed around with sillier Xianle Trio ideas like centaurworld crossovers, pokemon crossovers, and "alphas share a school project" but none of them come together.

R: Which writers (fanfic or otherwise) do you consider the biggest influence on you and your writing?

Diana Wynne Jones and Neil Gaiman probably, although obviously I'm not on their level. But the way they write is similar enough to how I naturally approach things for me to learn from unlike, say, Terry Pratchett, where I adore his writing but can't imitate it even poorly.

Y: What are your thoughts on your personal satisfaction with something you’ve written vs. the popularity of your stories?  Do you tend to be most satisfied with your most popular stories?

I don't know, really. I tend to be most focused on new stuff, and my satisfaction with that is usually heavily tied up in popularity - if no one likes it I just kind of go "oh, guess it sucked". Older stuff I disconnect from more, so it's great to get comments but I'm more likely to judge the fic outside of whether people liked it.

I am more likely to be satisfied with popular stories though, because I'm trying to communicate things here, so if no one picked up what I was putting down I haven't really accomplished anything!

Haha, that's a lot of words.

[fairfowl]

Lie There and Breathe pt 2: A Poor Choice of Watchmen

A horde clone oc story (part one here)

Tw: mild gore, cult indoctrination

The next time that the clone awoke it was to a feeling of coldness. The bandages that were wrapped around his head had become soaked. 

The clone reached a hand up to touch the wet cloth over his face, wondering if someone had poured water over him while he slept, but as consciousness returned to him he realized that it was more likely blood. The wetness had dampened the bandages, and then dripped down onto the thin pillow under his head. It was very unpleasant. 

The emptiness in his mind seemed to amplify the pain from his wounds, leaving the frantic signaling from his nervous system to echo around inside his skull rather than travel outward into the hivemind as intended. He missed feeling his brothers, and being felt. He missed the comforting thought of Horde Prime Feeling him and Knowing him as an extension of his own glorious self. 

It was no wonder, the clone thought, that other species were so desperate and primitive. How could one be anything but when left trapped within their own mind?

He was already tired of being alone.

The clone took a slow breath, and listened for his brother The Breather beside him. He quickly isolated the familiar rasping sound from the chaos surrounding them. The wheezing sound was quieter than it had been, and the clone reached out, hoping that his companion had not been moved further away. His talons at first met empty air.

The clone strained further, partially lifting himself off the cot as he reached blindly across the void.

Eventually he found what he sought.

The soft strong skin of a fellow clone. 

It appeared that while the clone had slept someone had come and propped The Breather up in a half sitting position. The clone noticed that his companion's breaths seemed to come easier from the change and wondered at the improvement as he traced The Breather's arm from wrist to shoulder. 

He scooted as closely to the edge of the cot as he could manage, still too weak to sit up on his own, and rested a hand on his companion's arm.

"You should wake up Brother." He said softly, his voice rough from disuse. "I don't know what's happening but with two of us we will stand a better chance than one." 

The Breather slept on, each breath long and slow. For his part the clone found that he didn't mind.

"That is fine." He said aloud, feeling silly and slightly hysterical. "I will keep watch for both of us, I-" 

The clone stopped abruptly, as the tide of panic lapped at his mind once again. For all that he had been blind since first awakening the darkness seemed to become more menacing the more that he thought about it. The clone shuddered but soldiered on, continuing his one-sided conversation.

"Although I am a poor choice of watchmen at the moment." 

He needed to remain calm. If he kept his wits and didn't panic he and The Breather would still have a chance. 

If he stayed calm then they might survive. 

He did not stop to wonder when he had become they. All the clone knew that he wanted both of them to make it through this, although for the first time he did not know what the future held. It had all seemed so simple before, he would have served Prime for the length of his existence, whether he perished in battle or simply reached the end of his useful life. Now Prime was gone and the clone was still shocked by his own urge to continue living.

On an impulse, the clone stretched further across the void to hold his companion's shoulder bracingly, craving the grounding physical contact-

And promptly toppled to the ground as his cot overbalanced, the wooden frame falling on top of him with a crash.

For a moment all he knew was pain. His head rung like a struck bell, and warmth bloomed upon this wounded face, mingling with the now cold fluids that already soaked his bandages. Smaller sharp pains pulled and stung across his body. The clone was surprised to find that he had yet more injuries, he had been so distracted by the persistent pain from his eye and face that he simply hadn't noticed. Not until he moved.

Still the discovery of his collection of cuts and scrapes was immediately overshadowed by the new bruises that he had surely just gained.

The cot was heavy, pressing hard onto his back and legs, and the chaotic noise of the tent had fallen to a hush.

"Are you okay?" Someone was beside him, kneeling down to his level. The clone briefly considered yelling but decided that it wouldn't help. Instead he simply scoffed and tried to lift himself from the ground. 

After a few moments of futile struggling the clone felt two arms grab him beneath the arms, hoisting him up and righting the cot with a set of practiced movements. His head spun. 

He listened through the relative silence for The Breather and concentrated again on the repetitive rasping noise as he was set down on the cot in a seated position, his legs dangling as counterbalance while the stranger supported his shoulders.

The new person was talking to him, but he did not hear them. The clone was too focused on breathing in time with his companion, slowing his heart rate as his head continued to spin. Eventually he regained control of himself, and tuned head towards the person beside him.

"Hi" they said, their voice low and soft, as though they were speaking to a frightened animal. The clone had already guessed that the person interacting with him was Etherian but now he was sure. They smelled like grass. 

"Hello" He responded, feeling out of his depth. Was this one of his new masters? Did they know the extent of his damage? Maybe they were also someone conquered by the Etherian Princesses and the She-Ra. 

“Hey,” they greeted again, the clone did not understand why but said nothing “You took a pretty bad fall there, do you think you reopened any injuries?” 

Now the voice was hesitant, as though the speaker was afraid of him. Before the fall of Prime the clone would have thought them correct to be afraid, but now he lacked the will to lash out. Truly without Prime he was a pathetic creature. 

“I- I think my face is bleeding again…” Indeed the warmth that had bloomed against his cheek felt as though it was dripping downward, mixing with the fluids that already soaked his bandages. 

“Yeah, yeah those definitely need to be changed.” The Etherian said, a hand still holding the clone’s shoulder to steady him. “What do you think, Master?” 

“I think they should have been changed a few hours ago.” The clone startled as a wry voice chimed in from a few feet away, not far from where The Breather continued to sleep. “This one’s been shuffled off to the corner, but his head wounds will get infected if we don’t clean that up. They might be infected already.” 

“Okay, I’ll rewrap them.” The first voice replied. The clone felt a new hand grip his shoulder, larger and less gentle than the first, as the Etherian on his side hopped up and walked away, their footsteps vanishing into the noise of the tent. 

"Master…" He said slowly, concentrating on The Breather's quiet rasp as his heartbeat quickened. Fear coursed through him but he refused to relinquish control. "Are you to rule over us now that Horde Prime is dead?"

The very words felt blasphemous, but after so many hours of lying blind and helpless with no idea what was happening The Clone found that he had to know. 

"Oh! No!" The person beside him replied, his hand tightening against the clone's sore shoulder. "No no, not until you're no longer my patient at least."

The gruff voice chuckled. 

"I am a Master Healer of Mystacor, you may call me Master Mendus, or just Mendus if you’d prefer.” The clone nodded, unsure of the meaning of most of the words he’d just heard but doing his best to absorb them anyway. “Dawn, the one who helped you up, is one of my apprentices. I’ve assigned you to her care.”

As if on cue the footsteps returned, and the soft voice with them.

“I got the supplies. Master, can you hold him up while I unwrap his face?” The second Etherian—Mendus—said nothing, but the clone felt him shift, and the air moved as Dawn stood directly before him.

Slightly overwhelmed by the sudden attention of two alien beings the clone felt himself stiffen up, holding himself as straight as he could manage although still relying on Mendus’s hands to keep upright. Panic still hovered at the edges of his consciousness like a threat, but he held himself together to the best of his ability. 

If he lost control now he could be punished or taken away, and The Breather would be left alone. He would not leave his helpless brother to the mercies of their captors. 

Dawn’s gentle hands reached up to his face and the clone suppressed a flinch as he felt her slowly begin to unwrap his bandages. Throughout his entire stay within the healing tent he had seen only darkness, swathed in bandages and blood, but as they were peeled away light shone through his right eyelid, green and dim but present nonetheless. 

His heartbeat quickened, and the clone felt his claws scrape wood as he gripped the edge of his cot. 

Layer by layer the bandages unwound. They stuck over his left eye, but each time they did Dawn sprayed them with a cool liquid that wet them enough to come apart without pain. Eventually cool dry air touched his face and scalp for the first time, and the clone found that the only thing covering his eyes and wound was a gauze pad that stuck there, held by the gore beneath it.

“This might hurt.” Dawn warned, spraying more of the fluid directly onto his face. The liquid penetrated the bandage and stung as it entered the wounds on his left side, he could feel fresh blood welling up and dripping down his cheek. The clone could also feel himself beginning to shake as the gauze pad was carefully peeled away, exposing the wreck of his face to the open air.

And for the first time since Horde Prime’s defeat the clone opened his eye.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for tuning in to the continued adventures of Chamomile and Calamine the clones (AKA the clone and The Breather)

This time Chamomile actually speaks although he hasn’t much to say, we also meet two new characters

Master Mendus is exactly what he says he is, a healer from Mystacor who has taken responsibility for the hospital tent where our heroes currently reside. He’s a good man...or a good fawn as it were...

Dawn is one of several of Mendus’s apprentices and is currently responsible for both Chamomile and Calamine, she’s a dutiful gentle young doe. She will be Chamomile’s first real link to the Etherians and will help him and Calamine as they go on. Despite her sweet nature she is isolated from her family and seeking out connections

[three-masked-ducks-chugging-hj7]

Hi, I'm fulfilling the statement in the tag of my last reblog.

TLDR for those who don't want to read paragraphs of fanatic rambling: There were a number of changes in the movie that just don't make sense to me, either because they didn't add anything or because I just don't think that's how things would work.

So, there are some changes that are made in the Watchmen movie that I don't fully understand. One of the more joke-y ones being about Veidt being a twink?? Like, why did they do that?

To more serious ones, I don't really understand why, unlike in the comic, Dan is the one who visits Veidt to warn him about the possibility of someone going after ex-heroes. I would understand if they kept Dan's extreme refusal to believe that Veidt could have been the one behind everything, and they thought establishing a friendship between the two would justify it. But that doesn't hold up because, in the movie, Dan has that one line being like "He's a vegetarian, and he's never killed anyone", but beyond that he doesn't really seem to have any doubts. Meanwhile, in the comic, Dan can't bring himself to belive that Veidt could have done all of those things even after Veidt had confessed! So, it's a change that didn't add anything, and that's why I don't know why it was made.

Another big one is Veidt's plan itself. In the comic, his plan is to create what looks like an alien attack so the world would be united against that threat. Then, his plan in the movie is to make it appear as though Dr. Manhattan destroyed half of New York. Like, it might just be me, but that doesn't seem as likely to create unity as does a possible alien attack. I guess the thought is 'He was on America's side. So if he did that to them, imagine what he'd do to us.' It still just seems more plausible to me that enemies on Earth would put aside their differences to defend the planet from an extraterrestrial threat. But, I'd definitely like to know other fans' thoughts on this change in particular; maybe there's just something I'm not considering.

To end this little rant, I guess I'll mention a change that I'm completely fine with, which would be Dan being present when Rorschach was killed. While it made complete sense for Dan, staying true to his character, to not go after Rorschach and just be with Laurie, it was a bit more self-indulgently satisfying to see that he went out after Rorschach. Also, it always feels great watching Dan then go back into the base and go off on Veidt. (On that note: I have to mention how much worse Dan beat up the dude with the knot in the bar in the movie compared to the comic. And that's something completely missed if you don't watch the extended cut!)

Anyway, thanks for coming to my tedtalk, and all that.