#because y’know… I work in the *fire* safety industry?

[zippityzap]

Just for fun I did a quick redesign of my sona with stronger theming

[a-student-out-of-time]

April Fools Special Review: Part 1

I had some ideas regarding this day. I initially was going to do a spoof review of a hypothetical Session 3 arc, but given that its looking that the Puppetmaster is gonna be a big wham arc, I think I’ll hold off because if I write say how Kana manages to deduce where Iroha’s family hideout is located and then she freaking dies, that kinda kills the joke. Then I was going to do a spoof review on why Oncoming Storm is the best arc ever, but then it would be too obvious that this was a joke. So instead, because I said I was going to do a new ‘style’ of reviewing, how about a test drive of that? After all reviews aren’t just about the Arcs overall, you can also do reviews on various characters.

So, this is going to be a non-jokey review on an individual character. This is just a test run to see what general reception of these character reviews are. If you guys like them, I have a few characters lined up for this to sprinkle in if the Mod feels like they want a break at some point. If not well…you just get a one-shot character review and that’s that. With that out of the way who is going to get the honours of getting the character review treatment?

Let’s start things off with a strong one. It’s widely accepted that the best Arc overall is the Concert Arc, so naturally the focus should be on one of the Otonokoji Twins and because Kanade looks like she is still got more to bring to the table, lets focus on who’s had the best character development by far, the would have been Ultimate Vocalist, and Death herself; Hibiki Otonokoji!

Important Note: This review is factually accurate up to Connections. As Puppetmaster, the current Arc is still in progress I’m not counting that so if something big relating to Hibiki occurs there it won’t be included in this.

Shattering the Bird Cage

Out of all the SDRA2 characters, the character who got robbed the most in terms of development was Hibiki. I’m not happy with Nikei’s ultimate fate or the fact that Iroha got zero character development but overall, I do feel satisfied with their character arcs, and can see what LINUJ was trying to do. Hibiki never got that chance as she died in Chapter 3, y’know that one chapter which has a notorious reputation for robbing characters of their character developments? *Taka, Hiyoko and Tenko coughs* I already had bad feelings that something was gonna happen to the twins because I seriously thought LINUJ was going to kill one off, and then the other would be a survivor. And it could have worked both ways, Hibiki being offed and Kanade learns to be more assertive of herself, or Kanade dies and Hibiki realises she needs to mature as an individual. As the game progresses though, you get the sense there’s something wrong with the twins. Kanade seemed too calm and too useful and as I mentioned in a previous arc review, I thought that Kanade was lying about her talent as that’s a common occurrence in Danganronpa. But Chapter 3 changed all that. After realising the previous two murders were indirectly caused by her immaturity and that she needs to take responsibility for her actions, Hibiki starts to go through some character development and becomes more useful to the group overall. But then the motive videos and her bitch of a sister slam-dunked that.

Point is, Hibiki couldn’t break away from her sister even if she tried. Heck, the Otonokoji Twins share their FTEs so you CANNOT do Hibiki and Kanade individually. As I pointed out to the Mod, I understood from a lore perspective why this was done, but I still found it very frustrating. But one of the main goals of ASOOT is that characters who got little to no character development or were done dirty, got their redeeming chance. And by heck did we get it. Nikei may have been the first Another character to make an appearance, but he wasn’t the first Another character mentioned, heck he was only the 4th character, as the Twins and Kanata came before him! When Hajime was searching information on people who would get caught up in the Tragedy during the Practical Exams arc when recovering from his ankle injury, he came across information that the Otonokoji Twins as part of their nationwide tour, were planning to visit Tokyo on July 5th. After hearing from the Anons how much of a bitch Kanade was, he made notes to do something about it but nothing much came from it. But as we know the Practical Exams had a heck of a fallout as Hajime revealed his superhero persona Kasugano for the first time to the general public, and the fallout of his exposing the teachers’ abuse meant that a third of the facility staff got fired, including the school’s guidance councillor. This meant Hope’s Peak brought in more people, mainly alumni from previous classes, and among them was Yoruko Kabuga, the former Ultimate Hostess. She requested to see Hajime which seemed very unusual. Sure, Hajime had a bit of a reputation in Hope’s Peak at that point as his preventing of Natsumi and Sato from killing themselves was extremely well known in the school and he has a few friends from the Main Course, but a newcomer like Yoruko wouldn’t have known that, it’s got to be more than that. And when talking to Yoruko, she accidently slipped and called Hajime ‘Kamakura’, but she shouldn’t have known about Hajime and Izuru being linked. Firstly, knowledge on the Project shouldn’t be known to her, and secondly Hajime cancelled his participation in said project. The only way that Yoruko could have known is if she is like Hajime and came from the future. A quick trip to the Physics building and a scan from Umeko confirmed that yes, Hajime isn’t the only time traveller around and Yoruko is another fellow resident from the OG Timeline.

Yoruko now being a fellow time traveller, obviously meant she threw her lot in with Hajime and joined the Quantum Crew. With that Hajime was able to get more details about the Void Killing Game from her, trying to persuade her that Void CAN be redeemed, and said they are no different from him and his friends, who did more fucked up shit then they did. Yoruko was relucent but she did relent in the end. And with Yoruko, Hajime was able to get precise details and after hearing how deprived Kanade truly was and that Hibiki was the biggest victim in all of this, he decided to go to the concert for two reasons. Firstly, to expose to the world Kanade’s true nature and get her arrested, and secondly to rescue Hibiki.

Naturally things didn’t go to plan at first as Kanade showed precisely WHY she gotten away from killing for so long as she tricked Hajime and Chiaki into eating poisoned chocolate and they died slowly and painfully. But little did Kanade or Hajime know is that he had a special power. When bathing with his girlfriends, yes plural, they noticed that Hajime had 9 glowing dots on his back and they are emitting concentrated Tachyonic energy that Umeko couldn’t figure out why this was going on. But when Kanade killed Hajime, he suddenly found himself outside of the hotel with Chiaki and the twins a few hours earlier. He hastily changed his plans and once back at the hotel he looked in the mirror and saw that his once 9 dots are now 8, implying he has up to nine lives, and he used one up. It’s a cool mechanic and it makes sense because whatever power bestowed Hajime with this ability also knows that Junko is a very tough opponent to defeat. It also gives Hajime a bit of a safety net so if things go really wrong, he can just reset and try again.

But eventually Hajime and co succeeded in nailing Kanade and getting her arrested, and Hibiki’s worldview just shatters. Imagine if you are Hibiki for a second. Throughout your entire life your parents have neglected you and all you had was your twin little sister. You did a lot of activities together and eventually discovered you two are really good at music, and thus decide to put a band together, and it became so good and popular that you decided to hit the idol industry. Your band, Melody Rhythm, topped the charts and your nationwide tour is a huge success. Sure, there is that annoying ‘curse’ rumours about how everyone close to you disappeared or committed suicide, but those are dumb rumours by haters, you don’t let that bother you. Then in Tokyo, you meet up with some students from Hope’s Peak Academy and they are looking to scout you and your sister for the prestigious school that graduation guarantees success for life. Hajime, the Ultimate Detective, said that those ‘curse rumours’ aren’t mere rumours, there is in fact a stalker that is after you and your sister and they are responsible for all the disappearances and suicides that have plagued your life. That’s…worrying but surely with the Ultimate Detective on the case, the stalker will be caught, those nasty curse rumours will disappear and you have new friends in Hope’s Peak Academy, right? And you get along really well with him and his girlfriend Chiaki, the Ultimate Gamer. Then one day you and Chiaki are shopping and meet up with some of Chiaki’s friends, who also seem like nice people. You are a bit worried where Kanade is but Chiaki said she’s with Hajime so they will join up with you two shortly. And then Chiaki goes to the bathroom and suddenly, the speakers in the shopping mall come to life. A conversation between Hajime and Kanade is broadcasted across the entire mall, and the truth comes out. All those disappearances…all those suicides…all those accidents…all of them were caused by the one person you trusted above all else, and worst of all, she did it because she had an incestuous lust over you and would kill anyone who gets close to you in order to degrade your mind into a subservient ‘puppet state’ where you do EVERYTHING she asks for. And just like that life as you knew it was OVER.

Unsurprisely Hibiki does not take the news well, so badly she takes it she immediately turns into the ‘puppet state’ where in her catatonic state, Chiaki and Mikan had to carry her to Yoruko’s car, thankfully, Hibiki is a short and light girl so this task is a lot easier than it could have been. I mean if Iroha of all people was able to carry Kanade back to the Monocruise in SDRA2, then I’m sure the combined efforts of Chiaki and Mikan could cope. After Kanade is tied up having been beaten to near unconscious by Sonia, clearing up all evidence that Hajime was there, and Gundham having finished leaving the evidence behind for the police, everyone then heads back to Hope’s Peak, where Hibiki is brought before the psychologists of the school, Koroko and Miaya. Neither of them could make heads or tails of the ‘puppet state’ and for the first few days, Hibiki was stuck in the Puppet State, being fed IV drips to keep her alive. Despite all the best efforts of Koroko and Miaya, they couldn’t snap her out of it, or even figure out what it was. Yoruko though had an idea to restore Hibiki. According to Kanade, the Puppet State does wear off after a while but we don’t know what the time limit is at the moment, or if the shock of finding out her sister’s true nature regressed to into a permanent Puppet State. Yoruko then over the course of the next few days, went through various interviews that the Otonokoji Twins had and got some voice clips of Kanade together in order to digitally construct a command for Hibiki to wake up. Once she got it together, it worked and Hibiki was now awake, having been in the Puppet State for 3 days.

//And so it begins!

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #206: Fire in the Streets!

April, 1981

Fire in the streets? But what of the disco? What of the t-t-t-taco bellll?

This time: Human Torch guest stars. Everything is on fire.

Somehow?  It’s not Johnny Storm’s fault!

In fact, there’s another fire man setting on fire so logically we have Johnny Storm here to. Uh. Set things on fire more? Could... could we get a water person here instead? Is Crystal Inhumans doing anything? She’s basically the Avatar.

So who is Pyron the Thermal Man? And why is that name so fun to say? I can only answer one of these questions.

“This man is content. During hard times, he has found a good job at high pay. In the dead of night, he delivers destruction to his employer’s competitors. It is a job not without risks -- such as discovering he has been suddenly deemed expendable.

“This man is an industrial saboteur. In one last brilliant burst of awareness he realizes the peril he must have posed to his employers, and he understands why they chose to betray him. The dead, it is said, tell no tales to arson-investigating district attorneys.”

Man: “The thermite bomb has been preset to 12:10. BUT IT IS 12:10! GLEEARGHH!”

“As the fierce chemical inferno engulfs him, he swears that -- if he survives -- he will have his revenge.”

And then he explodes.

Later, at Avengers Mansion, Beast is getting his late night groove on listening to Chopin when to his absolute disgust, the music is interrupted for late-breaking news that absolutely everything is on fire.

Beast: “They interrupt a Chopin concert simulcast for this?! A news flash about some diddlysquat fire in New Jersey?!!”

But as the Human Torch is involved, Beast realizes that the situation is no ordinary one.

Y’know, I’m forever amazed that network news is a more reliable source of leads for the Avengers then their ties to the government or SHIELD or any crime computers or whatever.

Beast watches the news as Johnny attempts to fight fire with fire despite my mockery of the concept. As Beast muses, its theoretically sound similar to how oil-well fires are fought by using explosions to deprive the fire of oxygen. Johnny could briefly go nova to create a similar blast.

But oddly, the Human Torch’s fire seems to be siphoned away from him into the blaze, leaving him to retreat to collapse in the arms of firefighters.

And even more oddly, there appears to be a face formed of flames, “it’s jaws agape in an infernal laugh.”

Between the face and the fire draining the Torch, Beast decides this looks like a job... for the Avengers!

So the Avengers assemble... for tea, coffee, and donuts.

You try to fight weird fires on an empty stomach and uncaffeinated. You think you’re so cool over there saying you’d skip the donuts.

(I like Iron Man drinking a soda pop through a straw in his mouth slit.)

And then Beast puts the news of the New Jersey chemical fire on the Avengers’ weird four screened cube tv and tells them that he thinks the fire is alive!

Luckily backed up by Johnny Storm giving a timely interview when the Avengers start watching where he says its no natural fire. And also backed up the spooky face which everyone can see.

Cap decides that the Avengers should investigate this weird fire and Jarvis optimistically fetches a fire extinguisher saying he’s ready to do whatever he may to help.

I’m pretty sure they tell him its okay not to come though. I don’t think a fire extinguisher will help all that much.

But the thought definitely counts, Jarvis.

So the Avengers get into the Quinjet and fly across the Hudson into New Jersey, which must be an extremely short trip as the super jet flies.

From their overhead view of the fire, they realize that its heading right towards some storage tanks holding liquid natural gas. And if those ignite “the resultant explosion would surely rival the devastating destructive capacity of mankind’s most powerful nuclear weapons.”

And New Jersey is where Kamala Khan lives! Or will live!

So stakes are high. And possibly well done.

Captain America: “Let me get this straight, Iron Man. Are we talking about losing New Jersey if that fire’s not put out before it reaches those storage tanks?”

Iron Man: “Affirmative, Cap. In fact, the sheer heat of this inferno should have ignited the liquid natural gas already -- but the heat, like the fire itself, seems to be controlled... localized in the flaming factory areas, but not radiating outwards.”

Huh! I wonder if someone looked at the overhead picture of the fire and pointed out that heat goes beyond the bright part and Mantlo went ‘oh shit!’ and wrote in this exchange.

Alternatively, it could just be another weird aspect of these chemical fires and brief foreshadowing because the air around the Quinjet suddenly shoots up above 8500 degrees Fahrenheit.

The spike in heat knocks the Quinjet into a power dive with a dead stick and they’re going to crash for sure unless a guest star happens to save them.

Which is what happens. The Human Torch creates a column of hot air beneath the Quinjet, cushioning the fall. I dunno. Thermals. Lift. Something.

Look, his fire behaves only slightly more reasonably than that of the threat de jour!

The Avengers thank Johnny but Cap is curious. The news said that Johnny couldn’t flame on anymore. And Johnny clarifies that if he gets anywhere close to the inferno and he can’t, like it’s siphoning his flame powers away!

Which we already knew slash suspected.

Anyway, there were three Avengers flying outside the Quinjet. Iron Man, Vision, and Wonder Man.

Wonder Man just catches on fire.

Vision can go intangible and immune to the heat. Iron Man’s armor has cooling circuits that protect him. But Wonder Man, despite increased durability, apparently doesn’t have defense against fire.

So Iron Man tells him to fly up up and away from the fire.

Wonder Man: “No! I’m not turning chicken!”

Iron Man: “No one’s accusing you of cowardice -- but a dead Avenger’s no good to anyone, including himself! I said go, Simon! Now!”

And Iron Man repulsors Wonder Man which has the marvelous dual effect of extinguishing him and repulsing him away from danger.

Although Iron Man should think about stepping back from the blaze himself. Although his cooling circuits are working to compensate for the heat, he says he’s beginning to feel it.

Instead, he flies into the fire, hoping to discover the cause quickly. Vision heads in too. His intangibility means he’s safe to fly around in the fire but also restricts him from doing anything but observing.

Meanwhile, Wonder Man plummets out of the sky around where the other Avengers have parked their butts.

Some firemen try to catch him with a safety net. Beast tries to warn them its a waste of time but. Comedy, of sorts, ensues.

And it IS pretty funny.

After Wonder Man has plummeted through the net and cratered the ground:

Beast: “I told them trying to catch you was a waste of time, Wondy -- but they wouldn’t believe me.”

Wonder Man: “Thanks, Beast. You’re a true friend.”

When Iron Man and Vision don’t emerge from the fire, the Avengers make the decision to don asbestos suits and march into the fire to investigate for themselves.

Except for Wasp.

Wasp isn’t invited.

See, her only powers are shrinking and going pew pew and that’s not going to be helpful within an asbestos suit so she can’t come. I guess she’s considered just useless without her powers. Harsh.

And she’s not too happy about the snub but whatchoo gonna do?

Human Torch is like ‘same tho’ because he can’t go near the fire without having his powers sapped. But that doesn’t improve Wasp’s mood any.

The Avengers have a brief argument over whether being inside a hellish nightmarescape of fire is beautiful or not.

Jocasta and Captain America think it is. Incongruously so. But still.

Wanda disagrees.

Scarlet Witch: “It’s not beautiful -- it’s terribly, horribly, frighteningly unreal! Can my husband still be alive inside this living inferno?!”

And Jocasta answers ‘yeah he’s right over there’ because he’s right over there.

(Beast and Wonder Man do not express an opinion on the beauty or not of being inside a chemical fire)

Vision is perfectly fine because “the flames cannot destroy what they cannot touch.”

I don’t know anything about science. I was a liberal arts major. But. His intangibility works by going super diffuse, right? Just lowering his density to the point where he’s intangible? Why can’t a fire scatter his atoms? At this point they have the consistency of a mist.

Intangibility is weird. I guess its just a comic, I should really just relax.

So, yeah. Vision is fine. What about Iron Man? Vision says Iron Man went further into the fire and then had to take steps to insure his own survival. He offers to lead the others to Iron Man.

Iron Man is frozen in a big block of ice.

In the middle of a fire.

Its just a comic, I should really just relax.

Iron Man apparently managed to find the foe who created this fire but suffered defeat. The temperatures in the proximity of this foe were so severe that Iron Man’s cooling system apparently made the decision to drain his remaining power to freeze the suit.

So he’s stuck here.

And gosh, even if he is frozen in a block of ice, if it melts, he’s fucked. The suit is out of power. His cooling systems won’t be able to protect him after the last ditch effort they made.

Which is possibly why Vision makes the decision to remain as sentry over Iron Man. That and him not being able to do anything but watch in his intangible state and unable to increase his density without being destroyed.

But he does point the Avengers towards the foe Iron Man discovered.

And the Avengers find him, PYRON THE THERMAL MAN right at the liquid natural gas tanks. But still apparently holding the heat at bay to keep them from exploding... yet.

Pyron, the Thermal Man: “When I stopped Iron Man and the Vision in their tracks, I knew that the rest of the Avengers couldn’t be far behind! Come on, fools! I’m not afraid of you! I’m not afraid of nobody! Not anymore! AND PYRON WANTS AN AUDIENCE WHEN HE ACHIEVES HIS REVENGE!”

I guess unnamed arsonist now Pyron has had a long time while burning everything to think of a name but I still find it weird that this guy exploded, became a thermal man, started burning things, and at some point in the process of all that decided ‘y’know what, I need a kickass new name. If any superheroes ask who I am, I’m going to say ‘Pyron, the Thermal Man!’

I guess that’s the kind of thing you do if you’re a comic book character. But it feels weird for some reason.

Cap wonders aloud what Pyron is after by setting all these fires. Because as a comic book character, he has to say what he’s thinking out loud. Thought bubbles cost extra because of the waviness.

And since Cap did muse out loud, Pyron is happy to oblige him by monologuing because if there’s anything that comic book characters love more than saying their thoughts out loud, its doing it for an extended period of time with no interruptions.

That’s why they say ‘i can’t even hear myself think’ because thinking should be done verbally.

Pyron: “I already told you, Captain America -- I want revenge against the men who hired me to torch this chemical complex belonging to their competitors... and who then betrayed me!”

“They hoped I’d die in the thermal blast -- and, in a way, I did! But the chemicals reacted with the fire to give me new life -- as Pyron, the Thermal Man!”

“My erstwhile employers were the Liquigas Company, Captain America... and soon they’re going to see their profits go up in smoke!”

Captain America: “It’s hard to sympathize with a confessed arsonist, Pyron -- especially when his revenge endangers the entire state of New Jersey! TAKE HIM, AVENGERS!”

Captain America: ‘Cool motive, still murder’

But when Captain America throws his mighty shield, Pyron does not, in fact, yield! Doesn’t he know the song?? Instead he catches the shield and starts trying to melt it, just to see if he can.

Which is a bit of an error, maybe.

See, Beast says that Pyron is melting Cap’s shield. And that is what Pyron is explicitly trying to do. 

Beast: “Lieber gott, Wondy! Flameface is melting Cap’s shield!”

Wonder Man: “We can’t allow that, Beast! Captain America without his shield would be like Johnny Carson without Ed McMahon!”

Cap’s shield is supposed to be indestructible at this point. The narration even calls out that the shield is “impervious to the high temperatures within the factory” and Pyron says the shield is supposed to be “nearly indestructible.” And we don’t see the shield actually melt or be melted looking in future panels.

Apparently a lot of people wrote in about this and it had to be handwaved as ‘Beast was wrong.’

In fairness, it’s probably hard to see inside a fire. And he’s been a bit overexcited this whole story.

Melting or not, the idea that Pyron is trying to destroy an iconic thing like Cap’s shield gets Beast and Wonder Man to try to tackle Pyron. And even though the high-density asbestos suit can hold up to the high temperatures within the fire, Pyron is burning a lot hotter and he can burn through their suits.

So to save them, Jocasta OPTIC BLASTs through the face plate of her own suit, striking Pyron and actually hurting him.

But her proven effectiveness against hot guy is moot because she can’t stick around and keep doing it. With her face plate shattered, Jocasta is already starting to melt.

Wonder Man picks up Jocasta despite her protest and carries her away from the battle to save her becoming a puddle.

Wonder Man: “I know how you feel, ‘Casta. Less than an hour ago, Iron Man made me turn tail and run. I didn’t like it -- but now I see he was right. If I hadn’t gotten out then, I wouldn’t be alive to get you to safety now.”

And then the Avengers are down two more Avengers, leaving what Pyron calls the three weakest Avengers.

Pyron is a damn fool.

One of the three remaining is Scarlet Witch.

Aka, the Avenger’s win-button, some of the times.

And when Scarlet Witch casts her mighty hex, it leaves her foes quite perplexed. And also I wish it wasn’t called hex.

So with her mighty mutant-at-this-time-but-retroactively-will-not-be power, Wanda causes geysers of water to shoot up from the ground.

... I guess she made underground water mains burst? I’m hard pressed to think how else probability alteration would cause this.

Anyway, today is not Wanda’s day to be the win-button. And that’s fine. She’s very effective in aggregate.

Pyron sees her geysers of water and raises her SETTING THE WATER ON FIRE SOMEHOW

I’M EVEN MORE PERPLEXED WITH THIS THAN WHERE THE WATER CAME FROM

ALSO THE FLAMESPOUTS MOVE! THEY’VE CORNED THE AVENGERS

Meanwhile, Wonder Man and Jocasta leave the fire.

Wasp, who has been sitting on the sidelines the whole time, presumably tapping her foot impatiently and watching the page count, asks what the hell is going on.

Wonder Man recaps.

Wonder Man: “There’s a negative version of the Human Torch inside the factory complex, Wasp... setting everything on fire and then draining the flames to feed his own power. He plans to ignite those liquid natural gas tanks in his path.”

This is stuff we already know. I’m just enjoying the way that Wonder Man decided to say it. “Negative version of the Human Torch.” And the idea that he’s setting fires and then nomming the fires to get more powerful, I don’t think that’s based on anything. I think Wonder Man just said it. It’s something you COULD assume, based on what happened to Johnny. But she was there for that.

After his explanation though, a guy comes up and demands that the Avengers stop Pyron. Which, duh, don’t have to tell them twice. But also, new character, who dis?

Dis is the president of the Liquigas Company and whoops, you triggered more recapping.

Wonder Man recaps the other stuff, the stuff he heard from Pyron. The stuff that the villain was kind enough to rant about at length.

Wonder Man: “You can demand from now to doomsday, pal -- but all it’s gonna get you is a knuckle sandwich. Listen up, people. Pyron was an arsonist, in this man’s employ, sent out to torch the competition.”

“Only Mr. Clean here decided he didn’t want any embarrassing evidence surfacing after the fire, so he double-crossed his own hireling by presetting the timer on a thermite bomb.”

“What he didn’t count on was the thermite and the chemicals combining to transform his goon into a menace to half the population of New Jersey.”

That’s very thorough, Wonder Man.

Maybe too thorough! How did you know about presetting the timer? You could maybe deduce that from what Pyron said but he didn’t explicitly say it.

When did you become the world’s greatest detective, Simon Williams?!

Possibly this book needed another editing pass. It’s not objectionable but Pyron saying that he was an arsonist working for the Liquigas Company and that they tried to kill him off should be enough without getting into the specific specifics.

Anyway, based on Wonder Man’s accusation, the president is led away, presumably to be questioned.

Johnny decides that dammit, he’s a guest star, he’s gotta go out there and start performing but this isn’t his day in the spotlight either.

Y’see, during this nonsense, Wasp grabbed a foam capsule and an asbestos suit and ran into the fire.

The firefighters didn’t stop her presumably because she’s an Avenger and its just assumed that Avengers know what they’re doing? I don’t know!

Wasp runs through the fire, past Vision who urged her to turn back but couldn’t stop her what with the intangible thing, and keeps running to where the Avengers are pinned down by Pyron.

Cap tells Wasps to go away but Pyron says “the more the merrier!” He’s having a real good time on this vengeance thing, beating up superheroes who aren’t involved in the thing he wants vengeance for. He has perhaps suffered motive decay.

But Wasp says she has a way to defeat Pyron, hidden right in the palm of her hand.

And then she shrinks to wasp size, shreds the glove of the asbestos suit with her Wasp sting, and flies out of it carrying the foam capsule.

Wasp: “I’ve only got fractions of a second before my wings -- and the capsule I’m holding -- incinerate! But I’ve no choice! This was the only way to get them through the flames and close enough to Pyron to be of any use!”

And then she smashes the chemical foam capsule right in his dumb face.

Also, she thinks really fast! 

But to be fair, the fire wasn’t behaving like a normal fire. It was said that the liquid natural gas tanks should have ignited just from the heat of the fire and that’s before the fire engulfed them. Pyron was holding back the heat to prolong his vengeance. And since he was in a playful mood when Wasp shows up and surprised when a tiny woman flies up to him, you can argue that the environment was cool enough for Wasp to do what she needed to do before she caught on fire.

Also, it’s just a comic, I should really just relax.

Anyway, the chemical fire retardant foam apparently seeps into Pyron’s pores, completely extinguishing him and most of the fire in the area.

Even so, Wasp collapses from the unbearable heat. The others rush to her, congratulating her for beating Pyron.

Scarlet Witch: “It is truly ironic. He was felled by the smallest among us.”

What is this, War of the Worlds?

Don’t underestimate Wasp. Last issue and this show that growing small is actually very useful.

And since we’re out of pages, the wrap up happens in the very last two panels. Off-screen, Pyron/unnamed arsonist has said he’s going to testify against Liquigas.

And Wasp gets the last word, seemingly intentionally angling for an everybody laughing end.

Captain America: “What’s wrong, Wasp? You look troubled.”

Wasp: “It -- it’s the ‘heatburn’ I got attacking Pyron, Cap! How am I going to explain to Hank where I got a tan... in December?!”

That or some sad trombones.

Does... does a bad burn from being in a fire for fractions of a second resemble a tan??

Oh, whatever. She can be vain if she likes, this is her ‘I’m effectual!’ story.

Which I’m basing on a letters column letter, infrequently included in Marvel Unlimited comics but included this time.

There’s a letter from a fan saying “We feel that the Wasp has long been denied the chance to fulfill her true potential, as have Susan Richards, Sif, and Clea. We feel that she has been portrayed as lacking in intelligence and power for too long. We feel that she has been depicted as subordinate to the other Avengers in all respects. Thus we request, nay, demand, that she be given the chance to reach her true potential, that she be allowed to use her wits and strength, that she be put on an equal footing with the other Avengers.”

Which got the reply basically saying ‘okay how’s this?’ and promising that her character would be developing in interesting and unexpected ways in issues to come.

So this is definitely an issue that shows that Wasp is as good as the rest of the Avengers.

And as one? Uh. Its fine. Definitely squished her involvement to the very back half so if this was all she got, that wouldn’t be the best.

Although, the Marvel wiki having the note “For once, the Wasp saves the day and proves she's a competent hero” for the issue is very rude.

Putting aside the intended Wasp yay thing and this is a pretty good story. Or at least a very unique one. I don’t know many stories where the superheroes are put in such a hostile environment that hampers their abilities so much.

They have to spend the entire fight in fire-resistant suits and Jocasta can’t even use her lasers without putting herself in danger.

The Avengers have been to space and they’ve fought under the ocean and neither has felt as hazardous as this one-off issue.

The fire and shadows make for a very striking looking issue.

Weirdly it doesn’t seem like Pyron is ever used again. He gets this one story and an appearance in a Fantastic Four encyclopedia. Pyron would have made a decent Human Torch counter for the Frightful Four or something. But the one-off fillerish nature of this issue probably means that Pyron didn’t make much of an impact.

As a Human Torch guest star thing, its not too great. Its not quite ‘appears in one panel’ bad but I expect more if its going to be advertised on the cover. Geez.

But this issue is significant in one other way. This is the last issue Avengers issue collected in the last Essential Avengers trade. The very namesake of this liveblog.

From here on, I am in comics I haven’t already read. Untrod waters.

Should be fun.

Follow @essential-avengers. Or like or reblog or tell me I’m doing a good job. I think Wasp is neat.

[fuck-customers]

Big Bird Deli, Part 3

Continued from https://fuck-customers.tumblr.com/post/185625162330/continuation-of-the-big-bird-deli-story-found

Now, I know you all want me to say I got a new job and rubbed it in my store manager’s face. Sadly, reality is often disappointing. My top choices so far sent back general rejection emails and I’m looking into different industries to branch into. Now, it's not all bad news, but in order to get into the good news, I need to tell you all a story about one co-worker; our constant call off, whom I’ll refer to as CCO. Buckle up for a long story.

CCO was transferred to our store from the one about five minutes down the road a little under three years ago now. I was still in my first year when she transferred in. As I worked with her, she seemed like a good co-worker. Knowledgeable, dependable, she even taught a bunch of tricks to make the job easier. Then, some things started to bubble to the surface.

At first, the only bad thing about her is that she took a long time in the bathroom, 10-15 minutes, pretty much a break without clocking out for one. CCO’s explanation for this was biological, but she couldn’t identify her condition. Skeptical, but ok. Then, she’d also take a long time to get a drink (Non-alcoholic). Managers caught sipping a drink in the break room, and even the training room (Small room with computers for basic training/OSHA/Food Safety) and told her multiple times, she could only do that on breaks. She’d also do stuff that led to numerous signs in our back hall. She’d try store dry food there, take drinks back there, and she’d be on her cell phone on her shift way too much (Mostly showing her cats, making notes, not talking or playing games).

Then, she began to talk constantly. She’d talk with customers even after their orders were done. I constantly saw customers get that “I need to get going but I don’t see my chance to leave yet” expression, and she’d keep blabbering on for a few more minutes as the customer slowly tried to inch away. But it wasn’t just customers, CCO would do the same to co-workers. She’d blabber on while doing nothing or only very small tasks. Sometimes her conversations sucked you in, even though the topics were things from youth, church, or constant updates about her cats (she and husband got up to FIVE cats, and yes, introductions to them included pictures.) I had the highest tolerance for these stories, not sure why.

Now, I can handle those things above. But it got worse. So. Much. Worse. After our store got remodeled just before CCO came in, tasks were updated to include not only sweeping the department floor every night but also washing and squeegeeing the floor. CCO made excuses so she wouldn’t be the one doing it. She’d do anything she could to pass it off on that night’s co-worker. She made excuses that it hurt her back, but refused time and time again to get a doctor’s note to excuse her from the task. She also made excuses that it was tiring, but she stopped those excuses after only a couple weeks. This, coupled with many closers forgetting some tasks, provoked our Deli Manager to make daily task sheets starting this past summer, mostly focused on the closing staff. I, personally, am ok with the sheets, as I view it as a tool to acclimate new employees to the department tasks.

But here’s the big one. She ‘began’ to get migraines within six months of her transfer. She’d slow and become less useful during work, taking long treks to get water and basic medicine that seemed to do the trick at first. The kicker is that she began to call off once every two weeks. Now, you may think that’s not so bad and it’ll count against her. Wrong. She applied for FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) for her migraines. She could spend a TON of hours towards it, and she could reapply when she ran out. I started out sympathetic, as I have family members with migraines, but they have methods to curb it so they can work. CCO started calling off once a week. Twice a week. This year, it went up to three times a week. And it was almost always on the same co-worker, Nice Coworker (NC). NC became stressed, she didn’t even want to be scheduled with CCO because of it, but sometimes had no choice. I saw NC break down in tears multiple times. She threatened management to not call her if CCO called off on Sundays, cuz she wouldn’t come in at all. Our deli manager retaliated by trying to schedule CCO less. CCO retaliated by complaining about her hours and claiming hours of other co-workers due to seniority!!! She’d just take their shifts and call-off anyway! So not only was she causing hours to drop, she was basically stealing money from people who actually show up for work.

This all caused morale and productivity to plummet. We were stressed, aggravated even. All the while management still wanted everything perfect while not addressing the problem. And since we’re union, management has to give CCO chance after chance before she’s finally fired or CCO will just run and cry to the union about ‘unfair termination’. We also got wind from people in the store down the street (Sometimes people over here have to cover over there and vice versa) that this behavior happened down there, but not to the extent it got down here, and was the reason CCO transferred. We also learned that she’s had this behavior at all the past jobs she told anyone about. This woman is ten years older than me and hasn’t learned any lessons about her behavior.

Oh, but the cherry on top of this comes in the form of gaslighting and manipulation. CCO dared to call NC her friend while she was claiming NC’s hours and calling off on her! CCO would apologize and say that she “was a shitty person,” and that we “must hate her”. Insincere apologies, self-bashing designed to make you say “No, you’re not a piece of garbage!”(even though she was). CCO also spread rumors about a friend who’s like a brother to me (from another department) when he briefly got in deep trouble. She did this because she thought she could get his full-time position once he was fired (A position that took him being there 12 years and his manager begging multiple times on his behalf to get). Needless to say, I heard through the grapevine and began to truly hate her.

Oh, and remember those call-offs? CCO’d often do those on the weekend, y’know, the busy times. Especially Sundays. Since she was a “Good Christian™”, she’d want to go to church on Sundays. Ok. Reasonable. Then, she called off on Sunday evenings, a shift that’s hell to close alone. Again, on NC mostly. She’d do this repeatedly until our Deli Manager decided to not schedule her on Sunday, two weeks in a row. CCO smirked and told NC that “Her plan had worked!” and that she won’t work Sundays (She didn’t put them off on her availability because it was discouraged, and sometimes even rejected, to not work weekends). To say that, and say that to the person she called off on constantly, is just despicable. Many of us told our deli manager as soon as possible. If she didn’t schedule CCO on Sundays, she’d work on Sundays in any department she had experience in (she’s cross-trained in the Hot foods and meat departments).

At the start of this year. Everyone in the department hated her. Some would be catty or strictly business with her. I opted to pretend to not want to rip her face off, otherwise, I risked forwarding that bile to customers, and I have cried on CCO’s shoulder in the past due to previous work-related bullshit (not the story above). But, we finally had some news from the grapevine; CCO’s doctor AND corporate had picked up on her FMLA abuse. It was flagged as abuse because during times her FMLA expired and needed to be redone her migraines had ‘mysteriously’ disappeared. No call-offs until after FMLA was reinstated. Her doctor told her that he wouldn’t approve more and even if he did, it wouldn’t be approved by the company. By our calculations, she’d run out at the end of May. She ran out mid-May. All we had to do was wait.

And this past week, the good news! Turns out CCO didn’t help NC much the Saturday of my paid vacation. NC went to Store Manager on Wednesday, on her day off, to report CCO. Store Manager told NC that CCO, and potentially all of the deli, was going to get pulled into the office soon one by one. Details couldn’t be said due to confidentiality but NC said that shit was about to go down, we all just didn’t know what. On Friday, now mid-June, our Union Steward (A worker to represents the union while not working for the union directly) came and got CCO and pulled her into the office with Store Manager. Ten minutes later, CCO was escorted out of the store by Loss Prevention. The scales finally tipped when the customer complaints stacked up, and that she got into a verbal argument with a co-worker (Not me or NC) with a manager as a witness. Said co-worker was at the store on her day off, shopping and chatting with us briefly. While CCO passed by, CCO called her a bitch, in earshot of Loss Prevention. But that was the last we’ve seen of CCO.

Slight dancing was had, and upper management reminded us that this is an opportunity to turn the deli around. We got a new person who started during my vacation. She’s absolutely amazing and gets along with everyone. It’s only been a few days, but already other departments are commenting that the deli seems happier and that a great weight has been lifted. I always joked about giving CCO this big speech in a dark, even tone and saying she needs to go on disability or welfare if her work ethic or migraines are that bad. But, I decided against doing a big Facebook drama thing. Instead, I blocked her on social media and her phone number. I’m glad to finally cut her out of my life permanently.

As for me? I’m still at Big Bird. Now that the main problem is gone, I can take my time finding a good job and not go for the first one that gives me an interview. I still want to leave because of upper management, and I haven’t received confirmation that my write up was overturned. Things are looking up, and I’m glad we now have a solid, competent team as we get ready for the 4th of July sales.

Last word: I was going to post this as is, but today, I heard something amazing. A co-worker had to work a split shift, beginning down the road then coming up to our store. Turns out, CCO didn’t tell her husband that she got fired! She told him she was on vacation! And he works down the street! I busted up laughing, imagining scenarios when he finds out she lied. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall for that confrontation. :3

TL;DR

Not much has happened other than a co-worker getting fired and absolutely deserving it after putting the deli under so much stress.

[chalabrun]

*casually takes you up on this* how about Life Foundation [or insert any other scientific organization here] decided they weren't through with Venom, and as a result a very pissed off Eddie Brock has to break out of one of their cells all on his own, and sets half the building on fire, before he gets to open the container and lets his almost unresponsive alien seep back into the safety of his body, all while fighting off half the personnel of said organization? Pretty please? ^.^

Sorry for the late, but I hope you likey! 8)

Warning(s): G, someviolence

He’d been staying on a straight path in the months followingthe Life Foundation’s collapse. Granted, even after the expose on the Foundationhad gone through the wringer with the freelance editors he’d hired, newsstations across the Seaborg had been vying for the right to publish that story,offering him exclusive rights and a whole host of excesses he didn’t want.

No, the Eddie Brock Report would hold full culpability ofits own intellectual property, thank you.

That didn’t mean the fallout that followed wasn’t immense.Hell, it could be called nuclear.

Eddie had prepared himself for it, his own role and thebarrage of phone calls and e-mails that followed, these same networks mewlingat him for interviews and debates and a whole host of things a recluse such ashimself didn’t care to indulge in. If they wanted their panels and experts totear him down word for word, that was on them.

No, he had bigger fish to fry.

As his own, unaffiliated diggings had concluded, StarkIndustries had recently acquired a new asset that was unprecedented. Or rather,assets. One that had been rumored to be slithering through the exhaust vents ofthe sewage system had been recently captured and neutralized, the docket he’dhacked into had claimed. Hook, line, and sinker.

He felt its presence when it’d been captured, the agony.While his story on the Life Foundation distracted both the public and privateentities, he had to act.

Eddie had to somehow alleviate the terrible sense ofloneliness that had pervaded his mind for months.

Being a journalist like him meant you had to know how to becrafty and resourceful. Setting up an interview was easy, and the next logicalstep in this arc involving the Life Foundation’s downfall. As Stark Industrieshad bought and repossessed its assets, it seemed like the next move. He couldbe generic enough, asking sanitized questions and ensuring any articlepublished would only be good PR. While, internally, it would be to scope outthe place and make a plan of attack to free the symbiote that mattered the mostto him.

Tony Stark was as infamous as he was insufferable, Eddie ableto hide his disdain while they say within the executive’s spacious andcontemporary study, bleeding white as if it hid the grime at the feet of StarkTower. And of course that was the case. It always was.

Dressed expensively in Armani and leaning back in his chair,the initial parts of the interview were cut and dry. Routine, completely standard.Even though it went against his code of ethics to do anything but report thebald truth, this had been his ticket in. And there might be other stints in thefuture. Kissing ass was sour work, but sometimes, it had to be done.

“So, uh—Mr. Stark. While this has all been real illuminatin’and all, I think my readers are goin’ be to askin’: where’d all the symbiotesgo? Y’know, the whole reason the Life Foundation had been taken out in thefirst place.”

“Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t ask that first thing,Brock,” Tony said over distractedly tapping at the screen of his smartphone,which seemed superfluous considering the technologies at his disposal. Asidefrom being haughty and rude, that was. He tapped an earpiece in the shell ofhis ear. “Hey, Maria, you mind giving the paparazzi a tour of the labs? I’mgoing to be busy.”

Figured. Men like Stark seemed to seldom do the dirty workunless there was an iota of glory involved, hence the Avengers.

Maria Hill’s heels clicked on the floor as she appeared inher asymmetrical pantsuit, probably much smarter in appearance than mostpersonnel within the building. Stark didn’t bothered even saying some form offarewell before Eddie took her offered hand. “Maria Hill. I’ve heard a lotabout you, Mr. Brock. Why don’t you come with me and we can get you squaredaway?”

“Say, y’mind if I record this? Nothin’ real confidential,but I figured if you’re talkin’ t’me y’wouldn’t be revealin’ a whole lotanyhow.”

Maria combed an errant lock of hair behind her ear. “Surething. Just as long as you follow lab protocol, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

They seemed in agreement as they headed towards the elevatorat the far end of the office, away from a distracted Stark soon setting off onsome other important endeavor. Whatever it was grotesquely rich corporatistsdid in their free time.

Once inside, Maria scanned her thumbprint on a keypad andselected the corresponding floor. “Now, did I hear right that you were actuallythe host of the symbiote, Mr. Brock?”

Eddie felt his blood curdle in his veins at the mention. Didthey know? Was she on to his true intention? “Hm? Oh, yeah. Wide ride fromstart t’finish, but we put the bad guys away and I haven’t seen Venom since.Guessing he’s in alien heaven or wherever his type go off to.”

For the remainder of their descent to the subterranean labs,he felt jittery and clammy. Did he give any indication of feeling like anaddict going through withdrawal? Of how his body had craved and craved Venom’spresence until it’d driven him mad at night, until he made himself into afucking Trojan horse just to get it back?

His Other. His darling.

Speaking with Maria Hill was lulling her into a false senseof security, because if she suspected any foul play, she gave no indication ofit. When the elevatored pinged at the arrival to their destination, immediatelyhe was swarmed with a frenzy to find Venom, a feral want and need that almostmade him lunge madly into the fray of lab coats and sterile hazmat suits behindplanes of reinforced glass.

Then, there they were.

Eddie feigned a scholarly, pedestrian interest in them:taking pictures of the vividly colored symbiotes, taking scribbly notes with astylus to his smartphone until he almost cracked the screen, complexion lookingwaxy and pale in his desperation beneath the florescent lighting. White, snowwhite. All before he felt like his knees would buckle at the first sight ofsomething black.

Venom lay listlessly in its capsule, a bevy of scientiststaking notes and preparing what looked like experiments the Life Foundation hadtried conducting months before with gradual introductions of organisms to bondwith. Except, Venom never responded.

Eddie felt his palms sweat and shake, smartphone ready toslip from sweaty palms. “It’s okay, baby, I’m here,” he murmured under hisbreath, Maria glancing at him oddly.

“Mr. Brock…?”

“I’m real sorry for this,” he murmured apologetically beforeswiftly dashing Maria’s skull into the glass and knocking her out upon impact,the woman crumpling to the ground as the scientists scattered. Heedless ofwhatever airborne toxins could be present, Eddie wormed his way onto the labfloor and sprinted towards Venom’s holding chamber, grunting as he capsized itwithout preemptive warning and the symbiote uttered a low whine at theinterruption, but immediately relented when it realized who it was.

Eddie brought his foot down repeatedly until he crackedthrough the casing, enough for Venom to seep through and creep up his leg. Theblond grinned in elation, heart throbbing gladly when he felt Venom mergingwith his person, whooping joyfully as they bonded together once more.

“Been too long, darlin’,” he murmured affectionately beforesirens began blaring and security stormed the floor, amorphous limbs engulfinghis own and whipping outwards in a whiplash that pinned several to a wall topart while Eddie ran through freely.

Another attempted to stun him through, but Venom hissed andsnapped at them, lobbing back the capsules of tear gas launched into the room.

The windows, Eddie!

“Mask?” he asked aloud, grinning.

Copy!

Eddie broke into a headlong sprint before leaping, tuckinghis legs towards his chest as they broke through reinforced glass, shatteringlike shards of ice as the gulf of sky and the cityscape of Manhattan yawned cavernouslybefore them and they plunged into the world below, knowing the hell that wouldinevitably follow.

He didn’t care.

He had his Other back and felt like he could take on thewhole damn world.

[stefciastark]

12 Hours Left to Live ~ Webpril Day 18

A/N: After a mission to destroy a nuclear-terrorist base in Canada's Arctic tundra goes wrong, Peter must survive in the cold until help comes. I had loads of fun writing in this format. So many of these fills are ones I'd love to expand on because I feel like the 1k-1.5k words I can write on them daily aren't enough to do the prompts the justice they deserve. Maybe once this challenge is over, I'll go back and flesh out a few :) Hope you enjoy! x If you have any prompts or suggestions, please send an ask to my inbox ❤️

~Read it on AO3

~Read it on FFN

6:42pm

He was still uncomfortably and ridiculously wet. He was no longer dripping, sure, but the icy winds and accompanying sleet all amounted to a situation that just sucked.

Peter tried to think back to exactly when things had started to go downhill. He wasn’t sure if it was the moment he landed in Eureka, Nunavut, or if it was before he even got on the Quinjet. Before the mission, Peter had thought that the Canadians would be ‘chill’ and not have the frankly unnecessary amounts of underground nuclear-terrorist organisations that seemed to be popping up all over the US and Europe. He was proven wrong.

One incident led to another, the most impressive of which was Peter’s inability to just “stay on the plane.” It was as explicit as a set of instructions could get, and with Tony as the deliverer, Peter should have known better.

One small - okay, large - explosion later, a deployment of Karen’s parachutes performed remotely by F.R.I.D.A.Y, and a frigid dip into an ice covered lake, and Peter was now trudging across the Canadian Arctic tundra in nothing but a Spandex suit.

Great.

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

7:55pm

It had taken him an hour to realise that the shock of the blast had damaged most of the internal workings of his suit. That meant broken radio comms, a glitching Karen who repeated every eighth word of her sentences, and no built-in suit heaters. The last one was going to be a real problem.

Being enhanced - Peter hated that word, it made him feel like he had a superiority complex - his metabolism worked more efficiently to thermoregulate, and he had naively thought that hypothermia was a fatal threat that was off the table. He was proven wrong for the second time that day.

Minutes later the shivering set in.

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

9:02pm

“H-hey Karen, how long does it normally take for hypothermia to set in?”

“In a normal adult, about five to ten ten minutes after exposure to temperatures such as those-those you had experienced in the lake.”

Peter swallowed and nodded. He wagered five minutes would be far more likely for the average person.

“What ab-bout y’know...d-death?” He winced as he said the words. At this point it was just morbid curiosity. He’d be back in civilisation long before it would become an issue.

“For the average adult, hypothermia can lead to-to death in about one hour.”

“T-thanks Karen.”

Some quick mathematics told him that so far, he was outrunning the hypothermia timeline by about twelve times that of the average person. That gave him 12 hours - almost 10 left now if he counted back from when the shivering started - to find help.

“You’re welcome, Peter.”

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

11:53pm

Why the hell did he start walking in the first place? He had no idea where he was going. He had no navigation, and no way of contacting Mr Stark. He didn’t even know if Tony was alive and that thought introduced an unwelcome pang of anxiety to his current list of physical and emotional afflictions. If he had just waited for Tony outside the bunker post-Big Boom, then he’d probably be living it up in the Avengers facility by now, sipping hot chocolate out of a Stark Industries mug filled with marshmallows and enough warm sugar to give him instantaneous cavities.

Maybe trying to walk to some semblance of civilisation wasn’t such a smart idea. Tony really had no way of finding him.

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

12:26am

Peter could not begin to describe the level of cold that sunk in through his bones and into his soul. He was the cold now. He may as well change his alias from Spiderman to Jack Frost. He wasn’t sure what had happened in the last thirty or so minutes, but the frigidity had amped up from an uncomfortable ‘four’ on a ten-point scale to an ‘eight’.

Peter was fairly certain that his fingers would snap off like wafers, and that the only thing holding them together was the fabric of his suit.

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

1:41am

Scratch his previous complaints. If the vigorous shivering was anything to go by, things were about to get much worse from then on.

“It appears your internal body temperature has fallen-fallen to 33.8 degrees Celsius. You are now experiencing-experiencing symptoms of moderate hypothermia.”

“T-there is n-nothing mod-moderate about t-this.”

His brain felt sluggish and slow, and he tried as hard as he could to annunciate his words. For whose benefit, he didn’t really know. He could swear he was slurring.

“W-wait...w-why are you using C-Celsius?”

“We are in Canada, Peter.”

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

3:09am

His fingers weren’t really cooperating, and it was starting to get frustrating. His brain didn’t really feel like cooperating either. Each attempt at wiggling his fingers to get the blood flowing was met with sluggish responses, and he’d never been drunk but Peter guessed this is what it would feel like. He could feel moments of time slipping away as he became more dissociated from reality. He couldn’t really tell how far he’d made it anyways. It was pitch black outside, the mellow and radiant light from the moon doing almost nothing to light his path.

There was nothing to do but to keep walking.

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

4:11am

He was burning. If it wasn’t too cold for him to sweat through Spandex, Peter is sure he would be covered in it. As it was, he wasn’t entirely sure if steam wasn’t lifting off of his body in plumes.

He needed some air. Cold air. On his skin. Right now.

Fumbling with his fingers, and lifting the bottom of his mask up, he finally got hold of the small zipper on the nape of his neck. Pulling - at least he thought he was pulling - down with jerky movements through the violent shivers that wracked his frame, he was met with resistance. What Peter was sure about was that undressing was never this difficult.

“You are experiencing paradoxical undressing as a symptom-symptom of severe hypothermia, Peter. I have locked the-the suit’s fastener for your protection.”

“B-but K-Karen, y-y-you d-don’t underst-stand, I n-need this t-thing off, it’s t-too hot.”

“It is for your safety.”

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

5:59am

“Christ, Peter, what the hell have you done?”

Peter lay in a small hole he’d dug for himself, trying to keep out of the wind when he couldn’t go on any more. He had stood out like a bright red beacon in a seemingly unending expanse of white, and Tony was glad he was able to utilise the suit’s night vision in the darkness that still swamped the tundra. Tony’s heart broke for the kid. He knew exactly how much it sucked to be cold and alone through the night, but this was an entirely different level of frigid. It was borderline glacial.

Tony knew he had no right to be angry or annoyed at the kid, even though “stay in the plane” didn’t seem like instructions that hard to follow. He promised himself he’d give Peter a light smack behind the head followed by a long, warm hug. Peter survived, that’s all that mattered. Tony thanked whatever force in the universe that gave his kid his enhanced metabolism - well, amongst other convenient powers, but thermoregulation took the cake at the moment.

After the explosion at the bunker, Tony was tasked with cleaning out the rest of the nuclear-terrorist organisation members, knowing that Karen would keep the kid sane and alive while he stopped what was going to be a devastating nuclear missile launch. Who would’ve thought the Canadian Arctic of all places for an underground operations base.

Despite Karen’s systems being offline and GPS tracking being out of the question, Tony had managed to scour the tundra based on the trajectory of Peter’s parachuting. Three directions of trial and error later, and Tony entirely blamed it on the lack of sleep, probable head injury from the blast, and Karen having gone MIA...or was it KIA, Tony wasn’t sure on the intricacies of downed A.I terminology. He decided on MIA.

The kid had almost stumbled his way back into Manitoba. Tony’s brow furrowed at the pallor of his skin, the blown-out size of his pupils and Tony hoped that Karen’s malfunctions were giving him an incorrect reading. Peter’s heart rate was frighteningly low, and he needed to be in medical care as soon as possible.

Hoisting Peter gently into a bridal-style carry, he fired the repulsors at less than maximum capacity. Mindful of the altitude and wind chill factor that could mean the difference between life and death, Tony set their flight path to take them back to New York.

[retrauxpunk]

tagged by @sardoniyx THANK U HUN XX 

when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk?: I categorically Do Not have cereal. ...but it’s pretty much been milk in the past because i like the cereal much more than the milk.

do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day?: i mean i think i did sometimes when cold weather was a novelty rather than the five-year-long winter that this current winter in london feels like 

how do you take your coffee/tea?: coffee with a shitload of sugar and milk and sometimes flavourings ... tea with milk and one sugar.

do you keep plants?: nah

what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings?: writing (poetic prose/poetry if it’s a particular brand of romantic/romance-adjacent feeling) ... sometimes drawing

do you like singing/humming to yourself?: yeeeees

what’s something that made you smile today?: oh man. i haven’t had a good day. but something that made me INTERNALLY SMILE was this excellent message @cheapskate-bleeding-queer sent me :)

what’s your favorite pasta dish?: spaghetti/penne with GARLIC and CHEESE and sometimes CHILLI and (usually but not a necessity) a meat like chicken or cured meats, in a cream/egg sauce UGHHH GOD. also bolognese is pretty Rad. with heaps of herbs/spices. unghhhhhh

what’s your favorite eye color?: i don’t know if i have one? my first fave as a kid was green. i used to not think very highly of dark brown eyes (which i have) bc it’s basically never lauded in popular media etc but then i got crushes on a series of guys with dark eyes and now i see they’re PRETTY RAD TOO

what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor?: peppermint/spearmint

what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks: SOCKS ARE FUN AND NICE AND WARM. I LIKE SOCKS WITH FUNKY/CUTE DESIGNS. wearing mismatched socks is FUN. socks that fit poorly are deeply bad. i don’t sleep with socks. i used to when i was a kid.

what’s your fave pastry?: anything with cheese and bacon. at work they have these cheese and bacon turnovers which are kind of puff pastry and they are the most fucking delicious thing ever every time i eat one i’m like jesus fucking christ how can something taset this good oh man

tell us about your pet peeves!: when people put their bags on seats on public transport and DON’T MOVE THEM when others approach to sit! when people sit on the outer seat of a two-seater on a bus/train and DON’T MOVE IN OR GET UP WHEN SOMEONE WANTS TO SIT! When someone is playing music through SPEAKERS in a PUBLIC PLACE and they are not some kind of busker/paid musician and especially if it’s shit music! people who roar down busy/populated/suburban/urban areas in EXTREMELY LOUD CARS AND MOTORCYCLES WHY? is this necessary? if it isn’t -- DO YOU FEEL REALLY SECURE ABOUT YOUR EGO? IS YOUR JUNK MONUMENTOUS? IS YOUR DICK SO BIG YOU CAN SWING IT ROUND LIKE A FIRE HOSE? also, fuckwits who open conversations with me by asking “excuse me, what part of china are you from”. if anyone presumes my ethnicity again (i don’t care if they’re correct) i’m going to make up some bullshit like “i am white, with a rare strain of jaundice” or just speak german to them and pretend i don’t know english at all.

think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you?: a gold/enamel pendant that’s a disc with a hole in the middle that looks like a segmented colour wheel. i bought it in the Exploratorium gift shop in San Francisco, I was not having a great time and bought it to cheer myself up a bit? and i turned it into a symbol of overcoming unpleasant thought spirals or something like that, in my head.

do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it!: i like the tom n toms chain in sydney. i go to the one in central or the one in town hall and i’ve been there so many times with so many people and have basically always had a great time, drinking the peppermint hot chocolate. many hours of bitching/moaning about my love life has been spent there. it’s been great. i was even there with an ex once but the place CANNOT BE RUINED because i’ve also been there with like all of my best friends. and it’s always a stellar experience. yum. also, brainwave cafe which was right near the design building at my uni. a cute aesthetic, nice food, and i love the proximity to my alma mater, and i had nice experiences at uni overall, therefore GOOD ASSOCIATIONS, etc.

do you trust your instincts a lot?: i did, but lately they seem to have gone on a leave of absence so ........... like ........... yeah i dunno.

what food do you think should be banned from the universe?: anything that necessitates inhumane/cruel slaughter or treatment of animals e.g. foie gras, lobster that had to be boiled alive, whales killed by being dragged through the sea by harpoons, those sadistic dishes from asia (don’t google if you don’t want to learn about actually graphic/disturbing mistreatment of animals)

do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought?: records yes because i have a record player and kind of want to be a Vinyl Person because aesthetic and i hate having money apparently HAHAH. the last one i bought was Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life by The Wombats -- I preordered it -- there were a series of fiascos about the delivery but I think I’ll have it in my hands by the end of the week FINALLY 

think of a person. what song do you associate with them?: literally anything by the killers (you know who you are). Waiting For The End by Linkin Park reminds me of my first bf (though not in a bad way). 

do you like poetry? what are some of your faves?: yes, but i have very specific taste. i like Kelsey Rakes and a bunch of others whom I found on deviantART back when that was my life. 

what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever received?: a couple times i was regifted the gifts that i got those people in the first place HAHAH not a hug deal though

what’s winter like where you live?: currently london. from the perspective of a sydneysider, it is ....... ......... GREY. you wake up and if you have a commitment like work, you just push through. if you don’t and you’re in the house, you open the curtains and see how the light level inside basically doesn’t change and you think WHAT IS THE POINT OF BEING ALIVE. also in the middle of winter the sun literally sets BEFORE FOUR P.M. WHAT THE EVERLOVING FUCK. the cold isn’t too bad, but the lack of sunlight is depressing. on the other hand, mulled wine is nice.

what are your favorite board games?: INNOVATION, HANDS DOWN. i also really like Monikers.

is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t?: i don’t think so ... sleeping, maybe?

are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?: in isolation they’re pretty cute and in movie context they’re funny but oversaturation/inappropriate usage makes them a little tiresome. also i read a tweet of minion smut and it was hilarious and i loved it.

are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones?: i have one tattoo which is one half of a super dumb in joke/relationship meme that i came up with .......... so i want to get the second half at some point. it’ll be a couple inches square, on my right leg. i also want to get a big one on my upper arm of some kind of bird, in a bit of an industrial style.

are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy?: i rather enjoy dadaism as a concept ... man there’s one i think is on the tip of my brain but i... can’t think of it ...? i like luminism. i like warhol and lichtenstein’s pop art. roccoco is fun. 

talk about your one of you favorite cities: y’know, i do like london. i love the shit-ton of theatres, the fact that musicians/performers ACTUALLY COME HERE, the WONDERFUL ABUNDANCE OF LIVE COMEDY, the fact i can go see studio recordings of TV shows, the PROXIMITY TO THE REST OF EUROPE OMG, the general aesthetic/vibe, the pleasant accents, the general feeling of safety/cleanliness. also you know what? SYDNEY. SYDNEY FUCKING ROCKS. the weather is beautiful, every fucking sydneysider who complains about sydney weather honestly doesn’t know shit. the harbour/seaside is GORGEOUS. there is a GREAT foodie/hipster cafe scene. it’s relatively clean and safe. it’s wonderfully multicultural. it’s lively but not too busy/crowded. (oh man the weather!!) ....yeah both are also crazy fucking expensive and i seem to hate living in affordable places haha kill me

where do you plan on traveling this year?: i don’t want to go anywhere. i know my family wants me to go to china but considering how my last trip went, i am Not Really Keen? but i probably should, to see the rellies

myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house?: either INFP or INFJ i think? depending on the test, aries, ravenclaw/gryffindor

oh yeah tagging: @cheapskate-bleeding-queer @dandelionwyne @soapbubblepopper @whyteraven91 @watching-the-fire-dance @monkiponken @themythicalgarden + anyone who wants to do this ^_^

[hissingaspinthegrass]

Because this verse is amazing and @scorofthemanor has been so great lately <3

She’s in a whirl winded state; the past thirty hours have been nothing she could ever imagine, and win or lose,  she still, they still won. Raging Fire has won their first Grammy, and those who’ve called them sellouts, are probably burning their vinyl from the roof tops.

They get invited to talk shows, get invited to people who normally wouldn’t even look at them, get invited to the high snobbery world of Hollywood. But when she’s set to do a one-on-one talk show with a prestigious talk show host, her mind starts racing and she’s so out of her element it’s awkward, she feels.

In the past four days they’ve been to all types of talking events, but this time, it’s just her, and she feels her heart swell, rise and fall, and she nervously rakes her hand through her carefully styled locks.

She’s never quite sure if this is an opportunity to ask about her music career, or rather, a chance to jab at her dating life. Butneverthekess, her breathing pauses, and she finds herself being told five minutes.

She looks down at her phone as it dings:

Between sets, you’ll do great Alana <3

She smiles, then looks down at another text, this time a swarm of them.

Don’t worry Laney, you’ll do great hey ask if shes single or no of hot single ladies wanting to interview me if u no what i mean ;) snag me those craft table food things. Scors had these things with little chocolate chips and it was heaven.

She snorts, then takes a breath.

“Two minutes Miss Potter.”

Its funny now how she’s a wanted guest, she’s suddenly considered Miss Potter and prior it was nothing of the sort. Instead, sometimes she was referred to as her dead name, or just “hey band” or anything of the sort. But now with a Grammy, suddenly they were considered with class. Of course, to the mainstream that is,

She smooths at her dress, picking at the stray hairs that had popped out of her delicate done braid.

The audience roars when she walks on stage, but she knows very well it’s because they have signs that say applause and silent. She can’t tell if the people in attendance are her fans, or Scor’s fans, or even just mums who love the show.

Taking a seat, Allie gives a smile, and reaches out to shake hands of the host.

“Is it Allie or Alana?” The host starts out.”Because I’ve seen both. Some credits say Allie, some Alana, and some--” Allie winces. She knows what could be dug up through their old youtube videos. While she transitioned early into the band days,there’s always a few who like to remind her about the band’s very early videos.

“Allie,” she replies. “I go by Allie. Scorpius-” Allie pauses when there’s some cheers and giggles. “Calls me Alana, the band prefers Laney for some bizarre reason, but I go by Allie.”

“Allie, right.Allie, how does it feel to have your bands first Grammy? Or well, three I should say.”

“Good.It’s really good.” Allie laughs awkwardly. “It’s crazy. We’ve been doing this band thing for years, and the lads--the others in the band- and I always work so hard. It’s good to to have something to show. Like hey, Mum, yeah, see, I told you it would all work out.” Allie laughs again. “You kind of get to prove to your third year english teacher that yeah, see, told you people like my writing. My poetry doesn’t suck that much.”

“Your poetry was bad?”

“My english teacher didn’t like my writing. But then, she didn’t like me. I was a bit of a troublesome child.”

“Did your--” The host gestures to her appearance. “Have anything to do with it?”

“My self expression? Well, maybe. But I started going by Allie when I was seven. By the time I was nine I was dressing how I dress, aside from school, and I transitioned by fifteen. We started doing covers on youtube and local shows at fourteen, so there’s very few videos of me actually using my dead name. And that was only because of legal reasons.”

There’s a silence in the crowd, and then a “Does Scorpius know?”

“Yes. Of course he knows.”

The host shifts herself, and then nods, trying to get back to topic. “So, while we’re on the topic, you and Scorpius--?” Allie waits for the words.  While talking about her state of being was not unusual on these shows, she did get tired of it. And the band will groan when they see the video. However, talking about Scorpius wasn’t unusual either. “You and Scorpius looked absolutely ravishing the other night.” She waits for the but, but it doesn’t come, and her smile grows bigger.

“Really? Thanks. Thank you.” She’s beaming, now. “Ry’s dad--the drummer-- he’s the owner of the label, well brand. And I know I wear a lot of black on stage,” Allie chuckles. “But pink’s my favourite colour. It always has been. We were both so excited and it was his idea to match his bowtie to my dress."

Allie waits, and then the topic of her boyfriend comes up again.

“I think we all want to know, the Grammy award winning song of the year, and best rock song, Bonnie and Clyde, it’ about Scorpius isn’t it? And that blue boy in the wig in the music video is him, isn’t it?”

“Well, I write about what’s true. We as a band, write about our experiences, and our emotions, and for there not to be songs about important people in our life would be preposterous. But yes, Bonnie and Clyde is about us. I grew up in this punk world or freedom of expression and sticking it to the man, and here’s this squeaky clean looking boy, who is amazingly talented but has yet to leave that safety of his bubble. It was so rejuvenating to see someone enter this community I’d come to know and love. And the song is about our adventures into these new worlds together. Having fun, breaking rules, and doing it together.”

“Well I can say it’s safe to assume after that music video, we all want a relationship like that.”

“As a couple in an industry that’s crossing over, we try our hardest to just enjoy whatever time we have. He has his filming thing, I have tour. It makes Bonnie and Clyde moments all more special.”

“Is that why you were recording this album in California?”

“Well, we recorded our first album in a tiny flat in London. Ry’s sister and her roommate let us stay there while we walked to the studio every day for weeks. We had only had enough money for two weeks recording time from Ry’s dad and no real record label. So a much of our stuff on our first record was about slumming about in London and y’know, anarchy of living on your own and all the rebelling we did, still do, and believe in. Despite many of us, Dyl excluded, coming from wealthy backgrounds, we did not get that lavish handout when it came to our music career. Ry’s dad was the only one who gave us money for the recording studio, on the condition that his clothes be featured on the album and he gets credit. We were like, done, deal, yeah, and then we went to live in the flat of his sister and her roommate who were great, but I’m sure she was glad when we left. We’re kind of a mess. After that, I think everyone was hoping we’d get the band thing out of our system but then we just kind of took off and somehow I made enough problems to get on tabloids because we did riots and those sort of things. We grabbed attention, and then kind of opened for large bands and ended up getting signed right before the TCA’s.”

“And thats how you met Scorpius, correct?”

“Yeah, we had been to LA before, but just work stuff really. And we did a few other award shows, so I knew who he was, but that was our first time interacting. It was a few months after that we started to record, and right before that our management rented out a mansion in LA for a few months for us to work out of. It was really cool. So it was more for work reasons, but being close to Disney wasn’t so horrible.” Allie blushes.”I mean, the four of us prior had never been to LA for long periods of time, so this was really neat. I got to surf which I love, and we did the sights and it was the best thing. The experience was just so much more relaxed and we got to have fun. We had fun the first time, but this, it was like a large party. Organized chaos. We weren’t in little bunks so I could have my closet and  we could just go out and come back. We had jam sessions and honestly we documented so much of it on instagram it’s just amazing. Of course, when you have a house that large suddenly you accumulate people. For the most part, it was just us, some sound recording people, and occasionally someone from management making sure we get our shit done.Scor, too, sometimes. But in the middle of our second month my dad calls and says that he’s got some time off and they’re going to California for vacation and so we had to entertain my family while working.”

“Isn’t that when the rumors started?”

“Huh, oh!” Allie shakes her head. She’s learned to ignore some of the rumors about cheating. “The blue haired boy? My brother--god brother--.The other boy was my older brother, Jamie. My family met Scorpius, too, and my sister watches his show so she was very excited. And well, honestly, my family visit was just a typical family vacation thing. It’s no different from when we went on trips together,” she laughs.

“Did they like Scorpius?”

“Yeah. “

“I heard you tried acting recently, how was that?”

Alana’s face is bright red. “I can’t reveal too much, but Scorpius had managed to get the band on the show for an episode. We’re not like, a big part, but he got us on the show. We do a performance, and I have like one scene with him and we couldn’t stop laughing. They’ll probably cut it out. But i got to get my hair and makeup done, and I never get that so it was really fun. We’re all so used to life on a tour bus and days where we get pampered are just so amusing to me. They’re not really into that sort of thing so having to get hair and makeup done was so funny to watch. Actually, the morning before the Grammys the band and I went to one of those really fancy salons and spas as insisted by our management and got treatment and that in its self should be documented forever.”

“Was Scorpius with you?”

“No, it was a band only. Scorpius and I got ready elsewhere.”

The host looks at the audience, then at Allie, taking a sip of her coffee mug. “Has Scorpius been on tour? You’ve mentioned how messy it is?”

“He flies out to some shows and he’s done the bus thing a few times. We’ve got a large couch in the back of the bus in our chillout zone and anyone with a guest gets banished back there. Except parents, they get banished to a hotel and we usually go with them.  Mums especially. They really like to try and clean everything, and my Gran rearranged everything and cut everyone’s hair once when she visited the bus so we’ve agreed no parents.“

The host chuckled.”Well Allie dear, we’re almost out of time. Your band did fantastic and you and Scorpius looked absolutely dashing. As for all of you--” The host calls out,” you’ve all got a copy of the album with the Grammy award winning song of the year, Bonnie and Clyde and Raging Fire starts their headlinging US tour this summer, tickets go on sale Friday.” The crowd cheers as Allie tugs at her braid. The music dies down and Allie sees the host give her a smile.”You did wonderful. And I hope we werent too pressing.”

“No, I just normally have others with me.Thank you,” Allie says, grabbing her bottle of water.

“And please tell your drummer to stop atting me on twitter.”

Allie laughs, “Thank you. And I will.”

She looks down and smiles once more with relief.