#best guess is that the person who came up with the myth thought of 'personification of wildfire eats real fast' and wanted to incorporate it

[snakesandstone]

actually what was up with loki being able to eat fast? literally it was brought up for one myth and was never relevant or even mentioned again outside of that. was there like missing mythological context or could they just not think of something for her to do? because for thor and thjalfi strength and speed respectively are their entire thing, lokis contest was very much the odd one out here

[voodoogryffindor]

Wednesdays were her favorite.

The reveille rang loud for devotion. Definitive loud strikes of an iron rod on the rim of a car tyre by 5:30 every morning. The Christians amongst the girls had to fly out of bed and run out to the devotion ground for prayers. The matron, Mrs. Ajayi never missed the ringing of the reveille even by a minute and five minutes later, she would go around the dorm rooms waking with her switch those the reveille could not.

Ajoke was never a heavy sleeper. Most times, she woke up before the reveille sounded. She would say she was just wired that way but once or twice she had been awakened by the matron's switch.

Today, she was awake before the reveille sounded. She had had a nightmare. A hooded figure had tried to grab her. When it was time for devotion, she went out with the other light sleepers in her room to the devotion ground and sat on one of the pavements on the side of the ground before Mrs. Ajayi would come around with her switch. Her yawn was loud. She had not slept enough. Today was a Wednesday and she couldn't possibly go for Physical Education class feeling tired. She needed a cool bath.

Worship songs were led by two girls from SS2. Ajoke thought their singing was beautiful. Why not? They were both in the school choir. She sang along. Worship songs were the best thing about being a Christian in her opinion. She needed to pee. Her bladder was burning, but she could not bear to leave the singing behind.

The bathroom was dark and eerily quiet. The sound of her urine hitting the floor was like that of a broken tap. Ajoke kept looking downwards, her eyes following the trail of her urine flowing into the hole of the latrine. This kept the dream off her mind for a while. Strangely, she felt like eyes were focused on her neck. She looked up quickly. She saw the hem of a cloak float past the open door of the bathroom. She got up quickly to see whatever it was, but she saw nothing.

Back at the devotion ground, Ajoke was able to catch up with the last of the worship songs. Mrs. Ajayi then climbed the podium to pray. After the prayer, the reveille was struck again to signal that the few Muslim girls and those of other religions who would be through with their morning prayers, could join the others for announcements. All the girls would stand to face her to listen.

Mrs. Ajayi's announcement started with the usual "Girls of Imole Ayo Girls School, welcome to a new day. I hope you have all slept well? Today..."

The matron's voice became mute to Ajoke's ears. She had slapped a mosquito sucking blood from her calf and as she rose back up, she felt the urge to turn and look behind her. In the darkness, Ajoke saw a figure with a cloak that reached down to the ankles and a hood over its head, going into her dorm room. It looked very much like a human being, but she could not be sure.

Ajoke squeezed her way through the gathering and headed to her dorm room. "What could that be?" she said out loud to herself. "Is it the same thing I saw in the toilet?"

She entered the room, the pounding of her scared heart audibly echoing in it. Or was it just to her ears? The hooded figure was gone. Nowhere to be found.

She made the sign of the cross and began to pray. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. For thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me..." As she turned to go back to the gathering of the girls, she heard her name. She turned sharply like a springbuck taking a bend to escape a cheetah hunting it. No one was there but she could swear she had heard her name. It was like whoever or whatever had called her name had put it on a zephyr and pushed it past her ear.

"Ajoke". She heard her name again. This time around, it was louder than the first and she could swear the voice came from her corner of the room. She walked quickly towards her bed and saw a person seated on her bed. The cloak on the person seemed like it was floating and the hood was floating too but it covered the person's face completely.

"Excuse me please", She said with uncertainty in her voice. The figure turned to face her but there was no face under the hood. Where there was supposed to be a face, there was an empty pitch black space like a moonless midnight sky. It did not talk, it did not move anymore, the hooded cloak on it kept rippling on it's human shaped body like it had its own wind around it. From beneath the hood shone two bright lights the size of human eyeballs, in the place where eyes should have been.

Her roommates returned to the room noisily. Startled by their chatter, Ajoke turned to see her classmates come in. When she turned back to face her bed, the figure was gone. Where had it gone to? What was it? Had anyone else seen it? Why did it vanish when others came into the room?

* * * *

Ajoke wore her sport wear shirt while gyrating her hips and singing along to Angelique Kidjo's "Agolo" with her roommates on top of her voice. Her red and silver sport wear complemented her espresso brown skin perfectly. Her head was clear. Music was her best medicine.

She was always the last to leave the room. She was the room head and had the key in her possession so she had to leave last in order to lock the door.

At 7:25, she was the only remaining person in the room. Ajoke sat on one of the beds in the center of the room to tie the lace of her sneakers. As she bent to stretch her fingers to the laces, from thin air appeared ten mangled skeleton fingers which grabbed them before she could. She was jolted by the sudden appearance and when she looked up, it was the figure again.

"Let me help you with this" it said in a most terrible voice. It tied the laces into a knot and two loops, exactly the way Ajoke tied her laces into bows. She could not place its voice. It sounded like a man or a woman, more like both and then neither at once. It was terrifying.

Ajoke drew back with a loud exhale. The thing she had seen in her dream, the thing in the bathroom, the thing on her bed, there it was right in front of her.

She stood up and the figure straightened up from its bent position. It looked a little over seven feet tall and the cloak and hood it wore rippled around it gently. Its feet were not touching the floor, they were floating three inches above it and when Ajoke looked closely, she saw mangled skeleton feet where flesh was supposed to be. It still had the pitch black space under the hood and two bright dots she assumed were its eyes.

It hovered in front of her like an helicopter performing a drop off of soldiers. She tried to speak but the words seized in her chest, held up by invisible hands. Her mind was swirling and working as fast as it could to try to understand what was going on. "What is this thing? Why have I been seeing it?" she asked in her mind, which seemed like the only place at the moment where her voice could function. Her throat was dry and itchy and no matter how much she tried, no sound came forth from it.

"I get that most times" said the figure to her. Her face looked even more bewildered to hear the unplaceable voice once again. "Yes that look on your face, I always get that wherever I go. I guess the Creator made me like this to highlight the situation of my appearance". Ajoke's mystified face deepened and her eyes began to water from the effort to force her throat to create sound. "Oh! Your voice. I can handle that".

The figure raised its hand up making its cloak to drop to its elbow. Where there would have been an arm, she saw bones wearing oddly grey and badly decayed flesh which kept falling off from the bones. The skin however fell off but hovered close to the bones, then reattached itself back and continued the cycle. It stretched the decaying hand which surprisingly had no smell at all, towards her throat and gave a gentle wave.

Ajoke felt a rush of wind leave her chest through her throat, forcibly escaping through her open mouth. Her chest was hot and she felt steam flowing up through her throat. She coughed as though to test her vocality and sound finally came forth loud and clear.

"What are you?" she asked. It was the first question she could find after vigorously searching her brain.

"It is a question of what or who" it said, making one of the dots beneath its hood seem to go a little bit higher and grow slightly bigger than the other. She had the feeling that this thing, whatever it was, had raised its eyebrow to her - if it had any.

"Who are you?" she then asked.

"I am a personification. I am what people of your tribe call Iku. I am the personification of death."

Ajoke's eyes rolled furiously in their sockets. She felt like her brain was short circuiting at hearing such an incredulous claim. She had read myths and legends of various cultures and loved them all. From reading these myths, she had come across several mythical beings in whose existence she believed and marveled about. But why was a figure that matched the description of the creature that she had read of called the grim reaper - except that this one did not have a scythe, a face and smooth bare bones under its cloak - doing in her dorm room?

She drew back from the figure once more and this time, it did not bother to close the gap. She looked at it and saw that the place where a head would have been was slighty bent to the side like that of a person having deep thoughts. She tried to think of what this thing in her presence could possibly be thinking of - if it had a mind at all.

"Have a seat, Ajoke Ojokogun Oluwadamida" the figure said, gently and with the voice of a lover whispering entreaties to his lover. Ajoke sat on the bed closest to her and stared intently at the figure floating towards her. It floated closer and then bent to sit on the bed opposite hers. It however did not touch the bed, but appeared to be in a sitting position, still hovering.

Ajoke opened her mouth to speak, but "I know you have questions. It's almost time so now is the only opportunity you have to ask" the figure said before she could produce sound. Its voice was soft and friendly and had a great effect on Ajoke's tense body, making her to become calm even if she was unwilling.

She drew a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. "Tell me the truth of whom or what you are. Who are you?"

"I am death. The personification of the entire idea of death you humans hold in fearful sentiment. " It said in its still still voice, unmoved.

"But how? How are you that?"

"Ajoke why do I taste fear and a little disbelief in your voice? How have you believed the myths and legends of this world and now try hard to disbelief when the truth has appeared before you?"

"No. I just... But I..." she struggled to answer.

"You do not have to answer Ajoke. Your fear, your fight or flight response to try to disbelief, it is all part of your being human. You humans believe in the unbelievable to find escape, but when faced with the truth and you find the truth scary and hard, you try so hard to forget that you believe. I do not blame you Ajoke". It said in a reassuring voice, surprisingly even more gentle than how it had been speaking.

"I just can't bring myself to believe that you are real, that this, this is real. It's unnerving."

"I understand Ajoke, I do."

"What exactly are you even? A man? A woman? Just a soulless being?" She asked, feeling surprisingly freer as the minutes passed.

"I am without a soul, both a man and a woman and neither of both. Even I cannot explain how this works to you. Only the Creator can. He made me."

"So the Creator, when you say Creator do you mean God?"

"Yes! The Creator is the God and maker of this universe. He made me, you, and all things here, therein and without."

"So you are a being without a soul, made by the Creator and given form to what? Harvest souls? Announce date dates? Transport the dead to the hereafter?"

"Well, that sums it up when you say it like that."

She wiped her now sweating forehead with the back of her hand. This information she was getting was too much for her to take in. Why would death come to visit her now? She was just sixteen, she had not lived a life yet, she had had sex only about five times. Why now? Why this early? Life was not supposed to be this cruel. Was this why her mother named her Ojokogun; the day is not long?

"What are you thinking?" the figure's genteel voice spoke and snapped her from her thought.

"Let me ask you this straight. You are here to take me aren't you?" she asked in a voice that sounded calm but still showed obvious signs of terrible fear and disappointment.

"Yes."

"Is that why my family named me Ojokogun? They knew I wouldn't last long?"

"Yes. Ojokogun, meaning the day is not long. It was a very brave thing for your parents to do. At your birth there was a speculation that you would die when you are sixteen and they accepted their fate and gave you that name. Very brave people i tell you, even if they secretly hope that it won't stand."

"And you are here now for me?"

"Yes."

"But I could almost swear that you sound disappointed to take me. The way you talk about how brave my parents have been, your gentle disposition, do you really want to take me?"

"This is the hardest part of my being; taking the young. It's never easy taking a child's soul. They haven't had a life yet and their time is already up. I may be death in person but taking the life of children, children who haven't even lived life at all is hard."

Ajoke thought she heard pain in its voice. The heat in her chest cooled down almost immediately. It didn't mean to come for her. It wasn't its choice. It had come because it had to. Because fate, nature and the creator had made it so. She would die at sixteen, die without having lived a life, die a child.

There was no turning back. Except by some heavenly intervention, her time was up. She had to accept this. Had her parents not accepted her fate from the beginning? Nothing could be done. Not now. This was how it had been written that she'd go. Visited by death and told straight to her face 'you die now'. The only thing that could be done now was to accept. To go without resistance.

She drew a long deep breath and closed her eyes. "So, I die now. I die today. Will it at least be painless? Will it be quick?"

"Yours will be like a long long sleep. You would not even notice."

"I feel at peace. Am I already dead?"

"Not yet, but soon."

"Alright then."

* * * *

She was laid on a bed, white and soft like fresh bread from the oven. The window was slighty open and the curtain fluttered noiselessly on the wall. The sun had risen and a few rays fell on her face through the window. If this was the afterlife, it seemed peaceful enough. Dying was not too bad after all.

"How is she now Nurse Chisom?"

That was unmistakably Matron Ajayi's voice. What was she doing here too? Had she been visited by death and brought to the afterlife too? And did the afterlife need matrons to watch over the younger dead?

"She'll be fine. She has stopped muttering incoherently in her sleep for now at least. She should be up any moment from now. But we should give her time" She heard Nurse Chisom say and then heard feet leaving the room or wherever it was that she was.

What was happening? That was the school nurse, Nurse Chisom's voice. What was she also doing here? Dead too? How would the school handle three deaths in a single day? But she had heard Nurse Chisom say she was muttering in her sleep. Sleep? She can't have been sleeping. She was dead. Visited by death and...

Wait! What had happened after her conversation with Death? Everything went black and she didn't feel a thing. It had promised her that dying would be painless and she wouldn't even notice. But she truly didn't notice anything from the moment their conversation ended. It felt strange. The afterlife felt strange.

"Look she's stirring. I think she's awake." It was Nurse Chisom's voice still saying she was sleeping. Didn't she not know the difference between sleeping and death?

"Hello Ajoke, how are you? How are you feeling?" Nurse Chisom who now appeared beside her bed, asked gently.

Ajoke turned to look at the face speaking to her. It was Nurse Chisom's face she was looking at. Strange. Beyond the face was the exact replica of the school clinic; neatly laid beds, the smell of disinfectant, various charts on the walls, a cabinet that held medications, three chairs and a desk.

"Where am I? Is this the afterlife?" Ajoke asked dreamily.

"The afterlife? What are you talking about? This is the school clinic my love, not the afterlife. Why would you think it's the afterlife?" Nurse Chisom asked perplexed.

"How did I get here?"

"Your roommates rushed you here immediately after devotion this morning. Apparently you screamed words they couldn't understand just before you fell to the floor and fainted. On getting here you were very still, lifeless even. If it wasn't for a steady thumping of your heart in your chest, you could have passed for a dead person. Your skin later became hot like something on fire and you kept muttering incomprehensibly in your sleep. But you're fine now. I need to go and inform the matron, she has been very worried."

The nurse left the clinic and shut the door behind her. Ajoke was alone in the room. This all felt wrong. If the nurse was correct, she had fainted after seeing the figure on her bed and was interrupted by her returning roommates. But she had seen the figure again, talked to it even. It was real. It felt real without doubt. It had said she'd die today. But if this wasn't the afterlife what did it all mean?

She rose up to sit. As she straightened up and faced the opposite side of the bed, her heart almost failed her as shock engulfed her entire body, crippling her with fear where she sat. There it was, the figure was hovering by the bed opposite hers and the two bright dots under its hood stared at her intently. She knew it. She was dead and this was just a confirmation. The nurse was wrong.

"Hello again Ajoke."

"Hello. It is you again. Is this the afterlife?"

"No it isn't Ajoke. This is your school clinic and no place different."

"How is that possible?" she asked, forehead furrowed and truly confused. "We had a talk. You said I'd die, that my time was up. How come I am still here? Did I die?"

"You will die Ajoke, just not today anymore. A day will come inevitable and irrevocable when you will surely die but for today, you are not dead and will not die." It spoke in a reassuring voice.

"But you sounded sure about it before. You were sure you had come for me."

"Ajoke, the ways of the Creator is that of never ending surprises. He does what He wants, when He wants, because He can. And today, He doesn't want you to die no more. You will have a life and die at a different time. Just not today."

Ajoke's body relaxed. The fear was gone. She wasn't dead. The air she breathed in seemed to taste like pineapples at the back of her throat. Someone had increased the quality of her vision in that she saw everything around her more clearly, in higher resolution. She gripped the bed and her finger sunk into its softeness like a knife sliding into butter. Being alive was sweet and she was truly glad to be alive.

"So I was dreaming when we had that conversation?" she asked, breaking the silence.

"You were here and there; the in-between. You were not dreaming. You were in the space between here and the hereafter." it said matter-of-factly.

"So I get to live a life?"

"Yes, you do."

"I'd see you later then." She said in a thankful tone.

"Yes, we will see later."

It floated closer to her and stretched its hand towards her. The terrible motion of falling and reattaching dead skin on its bones was still happening but she wasn't scared this time. It put its hand on her head and ran its hand through her braids like one would do a child. Her eyes were closed while it ran its hand through her hair. It was soothing.

"I'll see you later Ajoke."

She felt its hand leave her head and when she opened her eyes, it was gone. She felt good. The world around her was brighter. She would die but not today. She had a chance to live a life. She would start it by changing that strange name her parents had given her. This day would be a long one. Her day would be long and full.

The rays of the sun were even more soothing now. She could hear the ringing of the bell for assembly from a distance. The smile on her face was as full as a clear star studded midnight sky. This life was her gift and she'd live it fully.

[callie-the-snarky-geek-blog]

RvB16 Episode 7 Review: It Just Winked At Me

Last time on Red vs Blue: O’Malley came back bitches. That’s it. That’s all you need to know. No need to go into how Grif is all alone with only a talking lens flare and all the potential angst that writers can dig up from that. Or that Atlus is a dork who obliterated Tucker and Sister into subatomic particles. None of that’s important at all. Only O’Malley matters.

Alright, so this episode has been hyped for awhile. Joe hyped it up. Kyle Taylor (the Machinima director) hyped it up. Even Gus hyped it up. Any of this can mean anything. So as we enter the shortest episode so far (only 7 minutes… I guess Joe couldn’t make the episodes longer unless he’s holding them back for later), what has all the talk been leading up to? Well… I can say it was like nothing I’ve seen before!

Overview

So good news, Tucker and Sister are alive! Yay… yeah I knew that was coming. There is no way that they’d kill a long-time character and a fan favorite character they finally made a main like that. Also it looks like the blast sobered them up. So there’s your lesson kids: if you are drunk off your ass, being blasted by God is how you sober back up! Atlus tries to kill them a couple more times before finally realizing that ‘his’ protection is making that impossible. Also we find out that Kalirama is his sister, which explains her being the Queen of the Cosmic Powers. So goign into some speculating, Kalirama mentioned being the Daughter of Time. My guess has been that the villain is Chronos, the Personification of Time. It can also refer to Cronus, the King of the Titans and father of Zeus. If Joe made Chronos and Cronus the same person who Atlus overthrew and he and Kalirama and his kids trying to keep him locked up… wow and I thought the Church and Grif families were fucked up.

Since Atlus can’t obliterate Tucker and Sister, he goes with the option of ‘let my mindless minions do it’. So he summons up a cyclopes… I am NOT joking. Some may find this too bizarre, but as someone who likes mythical shenanigans I do NOT give a shit! Plus it fits the myth theme since cyclopes’ are part of both Greek and Roman mythology. So the cyclopes obviously isn’t a Halo character, so what did they do? They… put Gus in a costume/a ton of makeup and made him do it. Yes, you read that right. The cyclopes was RvB’s very own Gustavo Sorola. It is also, I believe, RvB’s first implementation of live-action within the show, at least on this level. It’s pretty good! I mean the cyclopes is butt ugly, but I’m pretty sure that was the point… sorry Gus.

So Atlus sicks… Grugh, I think? Screw it, I’m calling him Gus. My blog, my rules. Atlus sicks Gus on the two Blues. They understandably, make a run for it. At least until Sister quips that Tucker could prove how great a fighter she is. Which she meant as sarcasm… but Tucker of course has to decide to be Mr. Macho and face Gus. The result? Both the time gun and the sword get knocked away from him. I should also point out that Gus is about 100X larger than Tucker. So he can easily crush him… yyyyeah… not your best plan Tucker.

Back in the 6th Century (not the 16th like I wrote last week, Past Callie is stupid), Huggins is trying to figure out what to do now that O’Malley has gotten away and both she and Grif are stranded. Grif is currently… I guess looking for mushrooms since he mentions eating them later. Guess since he can’t talk Italian, that’s the only way he can survive, I mean it worked on the moon! Anyways, Huggins contemplates her options. Now because she’s talking fast, it’s hard to make out everything and for whatever reason,t he RT site doesn’t have a subtitle option that I REALLY hope they fix soon. But anyways, Huggins comes u with three potential solutions:

Wait it out and let time move along until she’s back in present day. This is ruled out because it would take far too long. This one is declared a ‘maybe’.

MURDER! Kill Grif and prevent at least one dirty shisno from fucking everything up! This is also ruled out as it goes against Huggins’ code and it’s also forbidden. Oh, but Atlus can obliterate people? I sense abuse of power!

Talk to Grif and convince him to team up so that they can find a way out of the 6th Century. But if she does this, thee penalty is getting tortured int he Underworld for all eternity. But this is the only option that could work, so… ye, she risks it.

Alright, so reasoning! Huggins goes to Grif, who is pretty much refusing to believe anything that is happening. Huggins tries to convince him to help her since otherwise hey’re both gonna die. Grif doesn’t buy any of it, especially when Huggins reveals that the Gods sent her to spy on them. SO he just walks away and Huggins is probably re-considering the murder option now.

Alright, back to the moon! Tucker tries to shoot Gus… and of course fails. Stupid guns! Sister retrieves both the time gun and Tucker’s sword as Tucker himself ducks inside the base. He tries to think of what to do… and sees his old armor set, giving him an idea. Gus reaches in and grabs what looks like Tucker, eating his head. Eww, Gus! That’ll ruin your teeth!  Also is this an Attack on Titans reference? I’m positive that it’s an Attack on Titans reference. But of course it was really the empty armor which Tucker stuffed with grenades. Which go off, distracting Gus and Tucker drives in with the Warthog, driving it straight into hos face. It finally knocks Gus down and Tucker along with him.

So it looks like Tucker wins, right? Haha… yeah… about that. Sister points out that normally when you beat the boss, they come back twice as powerful. You’d think that Tucker, living in a video game, would know this but meh. SO yeah, Gus gets back up and he is not happy. Hey Tucker, tell him that they should go to Vegas! That’ll make him REALLY angry I bet! Tucker runs into the caves and seems safe since Gus’ hand is too big… until Tucker says he needs to do it one finger at a time. And Gus can understand English, so… yeah…

Fortunately before Tucker can get grabbed, Sister channels her inner Xena and attempts to use the sword, jump down form the cliffs, and stab Gus in the head. But Tucker informs her too late that the sword only works for him. SO she gets smacked away and when Tucker exits the cave to help, he gets knocked over to her. Sister points out that cyclopes’ have a fatal weakness, so Tucker goe sin and… attacks Gus’ groin. I… don’t think that’s what she meant Tucker… but it works as Gus finally hits the ground. Well… not the defeat I was expecting, but it was a defeat!

Unfortunately, Atlus decides to sick Gus’ wife on them who is rather peeved that due to this, they can’t do hanky panky and have kids. Having had enough, Tucker and Sister FINALLY do what they should have done before: open a time portal and get the fuck out of there. Where do they end up? Well remember the medieval scene from Episode 1? Well they FINALLY connected it to the main narrative as the two end up on the same tower as medieval Grif and Simmons. And the two get arrested… WELP.

Review

This episode has had a lot of mixed reception so far. I haven’t seen anyone hate it, but many were disappointing. It’s understandable why. After all the hype, it was really just about a dumb joke. A very well shot dumb joke, but a dumb joke. There’s still so little about he plot we know, nothing advanced any further here, the episode was incredibly short, and it’s still unclear what all of this is leading us to. We’re on Episode 7 and no progress has been made. I think so far Joe has the opposite problem he had last year. Last year, he rushed it because he only ha done season. This year he has more than one, but due to it he slowed down. A little too much maybe. This coming off the heels of last week’s O’Malley plot bomb and… yeah I don’t blame people in being disappointed and viewing this as completely pointless.

I didn’t know how to feel during the first viewing… but when watching ti again to write this review, I was laughing so much. I got a LOT more enjoyment out of it. To be fair, I am always like that. I always like stuff on the second watch than the first one since I knwo what’s coming and I can better process it. And watching ti again… I don’t think that this was pointless at ll. There’s no major progression with the plot, and I agree that it’s been long enough. But… I got a lot out of this episode, even form Grif’s brief scene. Not just with plot, but the work on this episode is truly impressive imo.

Before we talk about that, lets do Grif’s scene. It’s only about a minute long and the only machinimated scene. Yeah, 95% of the episode was CGI animated. But Grif’s scene, while brief, was good. I wish we saw a bit mroe follow-up on how he’s doing after O’Malley left him stranded, but him living off mushrooms I can buy. Him also goign into denial over everything I can also buy. So not as much as I was hoping for with him, but good stuff that matches his character.

The scene’s actual importance is mainly setup for what’ll happen later. It also FINALLY gave us some time with Huggins’ since Episode 1. And OMG, I absolutely love her. Her rapid fire dialogue is kind of hard to make out, but her actress did a good job at it. Huggins is cheerful, but serious about her job. She understands the importance of what’s coming, but has to resort to breaking law since she’s in a position where otherwise, everyone is doomed. She’s cute, but also sassy as evident with her response when Grif calls her Tinkerbell (is that gonna be his nickname for her when he warms up to her? I want it to be!) Seriously I am already loving the interactions between Grif and Huggins and I am really excited to see more of it! Now how they’ll get out of the 6th Century IDK, but we’ll just have to wait.

Okay, back to the res tof the episode. As I said, pretty much the entire episode is CGI animated. it’s the first major CGI fight in the season, and it was awesome. Okay it was mostly running, but it was fun to watch. Tucker plowing the Warthog into Gus was freakin’ badass. The voice acting was also on point. I have never laughed harder at Jason Saldana’s performance than I have today and Becca continues to crush it as Sister. Seriously, going all Xena with the ‘alalala!’ war-cry had me dying. An ProZD as Atus… OMG ProZD. He was fantastic in this episode and it added so much to Atlus as a character. Like he is just enjoying the show and is so unimpressed with Tucker and Sister even when they win. His animation where he’s just celebrating watching Gus winning was also so freakin’ fantastic and again, dds to the character. Seriously, I wasn’t sure what to think of Atlus before, but he has already become one of my fav RvB villain ever after this episode alone.

So onto Gus… I have no idea how Joe talked him into this. I mean he’s done worst and IDT anything will be as bad as when he did the Baby Gus RT Short. That short man… anyways! I think Gus did really well! It felt like he was truly interacting with the environment. He didn’t have to do much acting aside form grunting and going around wildly, but it felt like he was playing a monstrous cyclopes. Credit also to Joe and his directing. I don’t knwo what inspired him to do this, but OMG I am so glad he did. I mean it looks weird and it’s ridiculous.., but it’s RvB. It’s always been weird and ridiculous. Plus using live action again sells the effect that the cyclopes is a monster compared to what we’re used to with the machinima. It sold the effect really well. So kudos to Joe and to Gus because shooting this and then editing it in had to be a nightmare.

It’s why I don’t think the episode was at all pointless. I mean we DO have some minor things. We find out that Kalirama is Atlus’ sister, the villain si indeed a locked up time God, get a taste of how powerful the Cosmic Powers forces are, have some characterization for Atlus, setup for Grif and Huggins’ plot, an actual fight scene after so long, and it FINALLY ties in the medieval scene. It’s also huge on a cinematic scale, which is probably why it’s only 7 minutes. I mena Joe and his team had to fully animate the episode, shoot Gus’ scenes where he’s pretty much just interacting with air, combined the footage together, likely do re-shoots if the live action was even slightly off, edit it all together with the machinima, and… yeah. This was likely a huge pain it he ass to do for everyone involved. But I appreciate that they did. Joe is going above and beyond what he has to do. he could just do solely machinima and it would be fine. But he’s trying new things, implementing more CGI, and taking the show to the next level. Is it a hit? That’s for one to decide on their own. I think it worked here, but I don’t think they should regularly implement live action as they did. Special occasions are fine though. But I still appreciate Joe trying things and putting in the effort when he doesn’t have to. He wants to make the show as good as he can, and I can absolutely respect that.

Final Thoughts

Did they hype this one too much? Maybe a little. It was not what I was expecting at all. But I don’t thin that’s a bad thing. Again, I appreciate them going out of their way to do this. Plus the animation, dialogue, and voice acting were really good. Can I understand why people don’t like this episode and are getting weary of the season? Absolutely yes. I do hoe that Joe starts to speed up the plot soon. But I still had a fun time watching the episode, and in the end that’s what matters: having a good time. It was weird and ridiculous and I wouldn’t have it nay other way.

[calliecat93]

RvB16 Episode 7 Review: It Just Winked At Me

Last time on Red vs Blue: O’Malley came back bitches. That’s it. That's all you need to know. No need to go into how Grif is all alone with only a talking lens flare and all the potential angst that writers can dig up from that. Or that Atlus is a dork who obliterated Tucker and Sister into subatomic particles. None of that’s important at all. Only O’Malley matters.

Alright, so this episode has been hyped for awhile. Joe hyped it up. Kyle Taylor (the Machinima director) hyped it up. Even Gus hyped it up. Any of this can mean anything. So as we enter the shortest episode so far (only 7 minutes... I guess Joe couldn't make the episodes longer unless he’s holding them back for later), what has all the talk been leading up to? Well... I can say it was like nothing I’ve seen before!

Overview

So good news, Tucker and Sister are alive! Yay... yeah I knew that was coming. There is no way that they’d kill a long-time character and a fan favorite character they finally made a main like that. Also it looks like the blast sobered them up. So there’s your lesson kids: if you are drunk off your ass, being blasted by God is how you sober back up! Atlus tries to kill them a couple more times before finally realizing that ‘his’ protection is making that impossible. Also we find out that Kalirama is his sister, which explains her being the Queen of the Cosmic Powers. So... I made a post a few days ago about Kalirama’s titles and she mentioned being the Daughter of Time. My guess has been that the villain is Chronos, the Personification of Time. It can also refer to Cronus, the King of the Titans and father of Zeus. If Joe made Chronos and Cronus the same person who Atlus overthrew and he and Kalirama and his kids trying to keep him locked up... wow and I thought the Church and Grif families were fucked up.

Since Atlus can’t obliterate Tucker and Sister, he goes with the option of ‘let my mindless minions do it’. So he summons up a cyclopes... I am NOT joking. Some may find this too bizarre, but as someone who likes mythical shenanigans I do NOT give a shit! Plus it fits the myth theme since cyclopes’ are part of both Greek and Roman mythology. So the cyclopes obviously isn’t a Halo character, so what did they do? They... put Gus in a costume/a ton of makeup and made him do it. Yes, you read that right. The cyclopes was RvB’s very own Gustavo Sorola. It is also, I believe, RvB’s first implementation of live-action within the show, at least on this level. It’s pretty good! I mean the cyclopes is butt ugly, but I’m pretty sure that was the point... sorry Gus.

So Atlus sicks... Grugh, I think? Screw it, I’m calling him Gus. My blog, my rules. Atlus sicks Gus on the two Blues. They understandably, make a run for it. At least until Sister quips that Tucker could prove how great a fighter she is. Which she meant as sarcasm... but Tucker, of course, has to decide to be Mr. Macho and face Gus. The result? Both the time gun and the sword get knocked away from him. I should also point out that Gus is about 100X larger than Tucker. So he can easily crush him... yyyyeah... not your best plan Tucker.

Back in the 6th Century (not the 16th like I wrote last week, Past Callie is stupid), Huggins is trying to figure out what to do now that O’Malley has gotten away and both she and Grif are stranded. Grif is currently... I guess looking for mushrooms since he mentions eating them later. Guess since he can't talk Italian, that’s the only way he can survive, I mean it worked on the moon! Anyways, Huggins contemplates her options. Now because she’s talking fast, it’s hard to make out everything and for whatever reason,t he RT site doesn't have a subtitle option that I REALLY hope they fix soon. But anyways, Huggins comes u with three potential solutions:

Wait it out and let time move along until she’s back in present day. This is ruled out because the Reds and Blues will still be time traveling, evil time God goes free, and the universe dies. This one is declared a ‘maybe’.

MURDER! Kill Grif and prevent at least one dirty shisno from fucking everything up! This is also ruled out as it goes against Huggins’ code and it’s also forbidden. Oh, but Atlus can obliterate people? I sense abuse of power!

Talk to Grif and convince him to team up so that they can find a way out of the 6th Century. But if she does this, thee penalty is getting tortured int he Underworld for all eternity. But this is the only option that could work, so... ye, she risks it.

Alright, so reasoning! Huggins goes to Grif, who is pretty much refusing to believe anything that is happening. Huggins tries to convince him to help her since otherwise they're both gonna die. Grif doesn't buy any of it, especially when Huggins reveals that the Gods sent her to spy on them. SO he just walks away and Huggins is probably re-considering the murder option now.

Alright, back to the moon! Tucker tries to shoot Gus... and of course, fails. Stupid guns! Sister retrieves both the time gun and Tucker’s sword as Tucker himself ducks inside the base. He tries to think of what to do... and sees his old armor set, giving him an idea. Gus reaches in and grabs what looks like Tucker, eating his head. Eww, Gus! That’ll ruin your teeth!  Also is this an Attack on Titans reference? I’m positive that it’s an Attack on Titans reference. But of course, it was really the empty armor which Tucker stuffed with grenades. Which go off, distracting Gus and Tucker drives in with the Warthog, driving it straight into his face. It finally knocks Gus down and Tucker along with him.

So it looks like Tucker wins, right? Haha... yeah... about that. Sister points out that normally when you beat the boss, they come back twice as powerful. You’d think that Tucker, living in a video game, would know this but meh. SO yeah, Gus gets back up and he is not happy. Hey Tucker, tell him that they should go to Vegas! That’ll make him REALLY angry I bet! Tucker runs into the caves and seems safe since Gus’ hand is too big... until Tucker says he needs to do it one finger at a time. And Gus can understand English, so... yeah...

Fortunately, before Tucker can get grabbed, Sister channels her inner Xena and attempts to use the sword, jump down from the cliffs, and stab Gus in the head. But Tucker informs her too late that the sword only works for him. SO she gets smacked away and when Tucker exits the cave to help, he gets knocked over to her. Sister points out that cyclopes’ have a fatal weakness, so Tucker goe sin and... attacks Gus’ groin. I... don’t think that’s what she meant Tucker... but it works as Gus finally hits the ground. Well... not the defeat I was expecting, but it was a defeat! 

Unfortunately, Atlus decides to sick Gus’ wife on them who is rather peeved that due to this, they can't do hanky panky and have kids. Having had enough, Tucker and Sister FINALLY do what they should have done before: open a time portal and get the fuck out of there. Where do they end up? Remember the medieval scene from Episode 1? Well, they FINALLY connected it to the main narrative as the two end up on the same tower as medieval Grif and Simmons. And the two get arrested... WELP.

Review

This episode has had a lot of mixed reception so far. I haven’t seen anyone hate it, but many were disappointing. It’s understandable why. After all the hype, it was really just about a dumb joke. A very well shot dumb joke, but a dumb joke. There’s still so little about the plot we know, nothing advanced any further here, the episode was incredibly short, and it’s still unclear what all of this is leading us to. We’re on Episode 7 and no progress has been made. I think so far Joe has the opposite problem he had last year. Last year, he rushed it because he only has done season. This year he has more than one, but due to it he slowed down. A little too much maybe. This coming off the heels of last week’s O’Malley plot bomb and... yeah I don’t blame people in being disappointed and viewing this as completely pointless.

I didn’t know how to feel during the first viewing... but when watching ti again to write this review, I was laughing so much. I got a LOT more enjoyment out of it. To be fair, I am always like that. I always like stuff on the second watch than the first one since I know what’s coming and I can better process it. And watching ti again... I don’t think that this was pointless at ll. There’s no major progression with the plot, and I agree that it’s been long enough. But... I got a lot out of this episode, even form Grif’s brief scene. Not just with the plot, but the work on this episode is truly impressive imo.

Before we talk about that, let's do Grif’s scene. It’s only about a minute long and the only machinimated scene. Yeah, 95% of the episode was CGI animated. But Grif’s scene, while brief, was good. I wish we saw a bit more follow-up on how he’s doing after O’Malley left him stranded, but him living off mushrooms I can buy. Him also going into denial over everything I can also buy. So not as much as I was hoping for with him, but good stuff that matches his character.

The scene’s actual importance is mainly setup for what’ll happen later. It also FINALLY gave us some time with Huggins’ since Episode 1. And OMG, I absolutely love her. Her rapid-fire dialogue is kind of hard to make out, but her actress did a good job at it. Huggins is cheerful, but serious about her job. She understands the importance of what’s coming but has to resort to breaking law since she’s in a position where otherwise, everyone is doomed. She’s cute, but also sassy as evident with her response when Grif calls her Tinkerbell (is that gonna be his nickname for her when he warms up to her? I want it to be!) Seriously I am already loving the interactions between Grif and Huggins and I am really excited to see more of it! Now how they’ll get out of the 6th Century IDK, but we’ll just have to wait.

Okay, back to the res tof the episode. As I said, pretty much the entire episode is CGI animated. it’s the first major CGI fight in the season, and it was awesome. Okay it was mostly running, but it was fun to watch. Tucker plowing the Warthog into Gus was freakin’ badass. The voice acting was also on point. I have never laughed harder at Jason Saldana’s performance than I have today and Becca continues to crush it as Sister. Seriously, going all Xena with the ‘alalala!’ war-cry had me dying. An ProZD as Atus... OMG ProZD. He was fantastic in this episode and it added so much to Atlus as a character. Like he is just enjoying the show and is so unimpressed with Tucker and Sister even when they win. His animation where he’s just celebrating watching Gus winning was also so freakin’ fantastic and again, dds to the character. Seriously, I wasn’t sure what to think of Atlus before, but he has already become one of my fav RvB villain ever after this episode alone.

So onto Gus... I have no idea how Joe talked him into this. I mean he’s done worst and IDT anything will be as bad as when he did the Baby Gus RT Short. That short man... anyways! I think Gus did really well! It felt like he was truly interacting with the environment. He didn’t have to do much acting aside form grunting and going around wildly, but it felt like he was playing a monstrous cyclops. Credit also to Joe and his directing. I don’t know what inspired him to do this, but OMG I am so glad he did. I mean it looks weird and it’s ridiculous.., but it’s RvB. It’s always been weird and ridiculous. Plus using live action again sells the effect that the cyclops is a monster compared to what we’re used to with the machinima. It sold the effect really well. So kudos to Joe and to Gus because shooting this and then editing it in had to be a nightmare. 

It’s why I don’t think the episode was at all pointless. I mean we DO have some minor things. We find out that Kalirama is Atlus’ sister, the villain is indeed a locked up time God, get a taste of how powerful the Cosmic Powers forces are, have some characterization for Atlus, setup for Grif and Huggins’ plot, an actual fight scene after so long, and it FINALLY ties in the medieval scene. It’s also huge on a cinematic scale, which is probably why it’s only 7 minutes. I mean Joe and his team had to fully animate the episode, shoot Gus’ scenes where he’s pretty much just interacting with air, combined the footage together, likely do re-shoots if the live action was even slightly off, edit it all together with the machinima, and... yeah. This was likely a huge pain in the ass to do for everyone involved. But I appreciate that they did. Joe is going above and beyond what he has to do. he could just do solely machinima and it would be fine. But he’s trying new things, implementing more CGI, and taking the show to the next level. Is it a hit? That's for one to decide on their own. I think it worked here, but I don’t think they should regularly implement live action as they did. Special occasions are fine though. But I still appreciate Joe trying things and putting in the effort when he doesn't have to. He wants to make the show as good as he can, and I can absolutely respect that.

Final Thoughts

Did they hype this one too much? Maybe a little. It was not what I was expecting at all. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Again, I appreciate them going out of their way to do this. Plus the animation, dialogue, and voice acting were really good. Can I understand why people don’t like this episode and are getting weary of the season? Absolutely yes. I do hope that Joe starts to speed up the plot soon. But I still had a fun time watching the episode, and in the end, that’s what matters: having a good time. It was weird and ridiculous and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

[theseadagiodays]

April 20, 2020

No more muzzling my words

OK, so I’m just going to say it.  There are times when this really stinks.  And it actually feels good to give myself permission to admit that.  

One of my favorite novelists, Anne Patchett, author of Bel Canto, also wrote a memoir called Truth & Beauty about her lifelong best friendship with someone who struggled with cancer since childhood.  What I remember most is her friend’s very unusual way of enduring horrific hardships that included having her jaw surgically removed, (no less in the middle of self-conscious adolescence).  To feel better about her own situation, she would regularly re-read The Diary of Anne Frank in a sort of schadenfreude effort to remember that there were people who’d had it far worse than herself.    However, these contrived gestures only took her so far.

I guess the truth is, there is only so much glass-half-full thinking any of us can exercise.  Realizing this, I was relieved to hear Brene Brown’s recent podcast about Comparitive Suffering,

https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-on-comparative-suffering-the-50-50-myth-and-settling-the-ball/  

Here, she recognizes that while the daily news barrages us with crises much greater than our own (lost jobs, health, and even loved ones), many of us feel guilty for bemoaning our own losses at this time, because we think we should be grateful for what we have.  Certainly, this universal suffering has allowed us to gain some clearer perspective on our lives and our blessings.  And the fact that the entire world is experiencing some similar aspects of this reality has enabled us to build real global empathy.  However, it is also true that each micro-loss deserves its own relative mouring period.  So, I am going to give myself a little license to acknowledge what I am grieving at this time.  But I wanted to find a creative way to do this.  So, I am going to write a love letter to the time before COVID, identifying the things I truly miss. This idea came out of an exercise we led with my non-profit’s Women Rock group.  They are co-writing songs to express the myriad of feelings they are having during this period. In one song, they plan to write about the solace that nature brings them right now.  But they also want a vehicle to communicate their challenges.  In other words, they want somewhere to “deposit the negative,” because this can actually be very healing: to name what’s wrong, genuinely feel the impact of it in your life, and then let it go.  The etymological root of the word de-posit means to put (poner), away (-de).   Ironically, this is similar to the origin of the word positive, which is to formally lay down (or to state absolutely).   So, perhaps by absoluting stating what we feel bad about, we leave room to feel good about what’s left.

But in case this is just a little too sad for some people to read, try imagining the theme song to Jimmy Fallon’s regular Thank You Notes segment, for a bit of comic relief while you read.  Here he is in his At-Home Edition, writing some with his daughters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6x2UgPVYJs

Vancouver Mural Festival on Main St 

Dear pre-COVID days,

I remember how good it felt to walk down Main St and hug everyone from my neighbor, to my colleague, to the barista.  You were so open in the way you invited human touch on a daily basis.

I was so grateful that you allowed me the opportunity to interact with people from all different walks of life.  You let me work in so many different environments, from elementary schools, to prisons, to seniors centres, where I was privileged to hear people’s stories as they found their own creative voices.  

I loved being free to spend time with my family even though they live far away. You made it possible to see my parents in Arizona, and my brother in NY, and my uncle in Colorado, and my in-laws in Ontario, every year, despite the distance.

I enjoyed all of the opportunities you gave me to experience live art.  You animated my world and made it technicolor, with concerts, dance clubs, galleries, theatre performances, and different arts festivals every week.

I loved how healthy I felt running around the tennis courts at Queen Elizabeth Park.  You made it so easy to exercise my lungs, my legs, my arms, my focus, my flexibility and my stamina all at the same time.  

I felt so much passion for the adventures that you brought me to.  You generously satisfied my infinite curiosities with music projects in Zambia, and holidays in Hawaii, and cultural immersions in Guatemala.  

I miss all of the the ways you let me love and live and work and play freely.  And I long for the day you return,

Laura

April 21, 2020

Neighborhood Art

There are so many signs that we are all missing connection and stimulation during quarantine. But the human spirit is extremely buoyant.  So, we’ve found remarkable ways to share artistic moments through the walls of COVID.  

In Rome, locals are projecting classic films against their apartment building facades: https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/lockdown-rome-lights-up-with-cinema-by-night.html

In Berlin, neighbors are displaying art installations from their balconies:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/berlin-artists-turn-their-balconies-mini-galleries-180974677/

An art installation by Raul Walch, created for the “Life, art, pandemic and proximity” project

In Ohio, kids play cello duets for an elderly neighbor:

And right here in Vancouver, people lead streetside Zumba classes as seniors home residents dance along:

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1716406851557

April 22, 2020

Earth Day in Isolation

I am hardly the first to note that while this virus has taken so much from mankind, it has also given Mother Earth the long-awaited rest she so deserves.  There have been plenty of photos of Himalayan mountain tops viewed from Indian cities for the first time in decades, or Orcas returning to Vancouver’s shores to prove this.    

In another gift to our planet, appropriately on Earth Day here in BC, where it has oddly not rained for 30 days, it appears that Gaia is being showered with much needed rain for her day of celebration.  And even a sun-worshipper like me has been doing rain dances lately, to ensure that our city will not be shrouded in smoke from a fire-ravaged province, as we have been for the past two summers.

On a different note, a more distorted personification of nature has been touted by many a cynical observer in recent weeks, citing Covid as retribution against humans from a vengeful Mother Earth. I do not subscribe to such punitive thinking.  But I do believe there are environmental lessons to be learned from this crisis if we listen closely enough.

Writer Kristin Flyntz makes this point more beautifully than I ever could, in her Greatful Web post: https://www.gratefulweb.com/articles/imagined-letter-covid-19-humans  Here, instead of a love letter to pre-Covid days, she has imagined the letter that Covid might write to humans.  The tone is intentional and generous but also insistent.   It is spoken as if from a friend not an enemy.  And it proposes that we ask the hard questions:  “As the health of a tree, a river, the sky tells you about the quality of your own health, what might the quality of your health tell you about the health of the rivers, the trees, the sky, and all of us who share this planet with you?”

Another letter, falsely attributed to Bill Gates, whose proven himself to be a true leader of responsiveness in this critical time, also had similar things to say.  The anonymous writer claims that this time: “is reminding us that this Earth is sick. It is reminding us that we need to look at the rate of deforestation just as urgently as we look at the speed at which toilet rolls are disappearing off of shelves. We are sick because our home is sick.”

And as usual, artists are responding too.  The NY-based NGO, Earth Celebrations has postponed their Virtual Earth Day Pageant for May 9th in the interest of garnering more public participation, with a callout for anyone who wants to craft a costume, mask, puppet, etc.  All are welcome.  And more details can be found here: https://earthcelebrations.com/?fbclid=IwAR30nj7NtS52E-RLjpvz739L-3fcp-DtnJ1YeVE8Roln4vJXPC7bzBLxew0

April 23

Virtual Festivals

If you’re looking for an alternative to Netflix and chillin’, there are endless arts festivals that have moved content online, for your streaming pleasure.   So, I thought I’d recommend a few interesting ones here.  

If it’s efficiency you’re after, when browsing thru infinite entertainment options, the Social Distancing Festival does all the work for you, by scouring the globe to curate the best livestreamed events they can find.  Links include everything from modern dance to virtual gallery tours to musical theatre:

https://www.socialdistancingfestival.com

Myseum of Toronto’s Art in the Time of Covid - work by Evgeni Tcherkassk

For some lighter fare, this Edmonton Series hosts nightly cabaret, music, and comedy acts performed by local artists from their homes.

https://www.citadeltheatre.com/2019-2020/stuckinthehouse?utm_source=Citadel+Theatre&utm_campaign=67600c620f-Stuck-in-the-House&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_482a5c3fca-67600c620f-80741247

And if you’re looking for a bit more sophistication, Toronto’s Festival of Literary Diversity has managed to move online, and it starts next Thursday. Their line-up features many of Canada’s finest emerging and established voices.  My personal favorite, Mona Awad will be reading from her new novel, Bunny, which was the funniest read I’ve had in ages.  In this high art version of Mean Girls, she nails the pretentious banter of grad school writing cliques with a dash of magical realism.   https://thefoldcanada.org

April 23

Creative Gratitude

Florida police thank-you

Our shared appreciation for front line workers has become a true muse for collective community creativity.

Clockwise: Navajo muralist Ivan Lee; local Vancouver sidewalk; Long Island artist, Kara Hoblin

But this one takes the cake for audacity!

https://gfycat.com/magnificentabsolutegosling-health-workers-coronavirus-thank-you-meme

[3ndoftheline]

Savior

Bucky x OFC

Summary: Story time is always necessary once you’ve broken the rules.

Warnings: i don’t think i swore in this but knowing me i probably did so i’m going to put up the language warning anway

Author’s Note: woohoo, part six (i think?) of Savior and i’m excited for this part since one of my favorite stories of greek mythology is going to be told. i hope you all enjoy and feedback is encouraged :)

Sophia vs Solitude

Avengers Facility: Upstate New York

I didn’t go to interrogations for a whole week. Nobody came down to see me, not even the guards. Food and water were supplied by a robot.

All of a sudden I wasn’t the main attraction. I wasn’t the fire-breathing lion or the trapeze elephant. I was the clown, the lonely monkey that everyone laughed at. I was hard to look at. I was a joke.

Which I guessed was fine. I mean, it was better than being tortured or something. But isolation sucked. Being stuck with just your thoughts…it gets to people; I’ve seen it drive people to absolute madness. It turned some people into mania, insanity spirits. When the person has long since died but the soul remains, wreaked into an absolute manic state and it controls the body. It destroys not only the soul, but the people around them.

Luckily, I was so close to insanity anyway I’m pretty sure my soul was saying Come on, I dare you to get any worse. Instead, I wasted my days away making my cell into various forms of the jungle. That was entertaining for a solid six minutes. Then I tried to make the largest flower crown but then I sliced myself on a thorn and got so mad I ripped the whole thing to shreds. Again, lasted about ten minutes. So sixteen out of the 10,080 minutes I was isolated in my cell were occupied with something only slightly productive. Awesome.

I knew things could’ve been a lot worse. Like, catastrophically worse. At least I wasn’t with Hydra anymore. Gods that place had been the worse. And the food there? Completely subpar. I had no idea who their chef was but he needed to be fired ASAP.

On the seventh day of complete silence, the door cracked open. I attuned my senses and could tell immediately that whoever was tromping down those steps like a fucking elephant was human. I turned my head and was surprised that it was Natasha. I always pinned her as a light walker.

“You’re awake,” her voice held a hint of surprise. I wondered what time it was. “I brought you breakfast.” Ah so it was morning. A little space opened up in the electromagnetic wall and she placed a plated on the tray. Even from here, I could tell the omelet had potatoes in it and they had home fries on the side. It was like these people only survived off of starch, eggs and meat.

She sat down on the metal chair that looked so uncomfortable. She crossed her legs and eyed me like I was a new toy in a shop window. I ignored her, something I had mastered, and continued drawing patterns on my jeans. “Sam is okay,” she said. “He’s in therapy since he needs to regain muscle function but he’s walking and functioning. Just as you said.” I didn’t look at her. Her words sent a cold relief through me, even though I knew he’d be fine. Apollo’s medicine never failed, unless the Fates planned it differently. I shuddered at the thought. The Fates were pretty much the personification of the idea of fate itself. They planned a person’s life according to how they wanted it to play out. And you didn’t mess with their plans. What they said went. Whether you liked it or not. But they were easily the creepiest old ladies I had ever met in my life, and I’ve been to the Underworld.

“You saved his life,” she stated but her tone didn’t sound extremely thankful. She said it more like I had dunked him into a vat of poison. “How did you get out of the handcuffs? Those were designed to keep people like you contained.” Maybe because I’m not an Asgardian psychopath, I wanted to bite out, but I kept my jaw screwed tightly shut. Suddenly she sighed and I realized where this interrogation was going. “I want to get you out of here, you know. I don’t like keeping you locked in here, especially after what you did for Sam. But you’re not helping your case. You staying silent don’t make any of us trust you any more than we do.”

I wanted to gag. It sounded like something straight from some shitty cop show where the good cop tries to reason with the bad guy while the bad cop smokes a cigar in the corner.

Natasha leaned forward and a hard look settled over her eyes. “You are powerful. We’ve deduced that pretty quickly. We don’t know to what extent, and that’s the problem. A man comes in claiming he’s Hades, someone who doesn’t exist – a myth – but apparently does. We’re cut off from the interrogation room and even Bucky couldn’t get through the door, no matter how hard he tried. Then, when we can get in, you’re unscathed and Hades is gone. Without a trace. He doesn’t even appear on our security cameras, nothing. Then you sing a few words and bring Sam back from the dead yet you claim that he was alive the whole time even though Helen said that nobody could survive those injuries. All I want to know is who you are. That’s it.”

I stopped tracing the pattern on my legs. She was good. She made herself sound sympathetic, like she was just trying to do the right thing. So heroic. The problem was that I hated heroes. So I turned my head to her and smiled, just because I knew it would piss her off. And I was right. Her entire body stiffened as she slowly rose and walked to the wall. Or at least as close as the wall would let her.

“I think you’re powerful, but I think you’re afraid,” she stared down at me. Her body shook with anger and her eyes danced with a vicious fire. I tilted my head; she had never reacted like this before. Suddenly, it clicked. Hades. Whatever had had shown her, whatever that fear had done to her, it had changed her. She was afraid. He had incapacitated her in a hot second and that scared her, and pissed her off. She couldn’t take it out on him, so I was her next best thing. “You’re afraid of what we can do to you. You’re afraid of our power. Because I think if you were as powerful as Tony claims you to be, you would’ve escaped long ago. You would’ve beaten us long before. Maybe you aren’t as powerful as everyone here thinks you are.”

Something ticked inside of me. Perhaps Hades had gotten to me too, who knew. But if there was one thing I hated more than anything else, it was superiority. People who saw themselves as above another, who looked down on others and saw themselves on a fucking pedestal.

And I was tired. I was tired of being patient and listening to her questions. I was tired of her running herself dead trying to get me to do something. I was tired of listening to the same damn thing every day. And I was tired of people trying to tear me down. First it was Hades and his stupid skeletons, I was not about to let Natasha gain the upper hand. Not this time, not ever.

I stood up slowly. My eyes leveled her gaze as anger coursed through me. I held it back as I walked towards the wall. It hummed with energy, like a river rolling through a mountainside. She didn’t back down and from the triumphant flash in her eyes I knew she thought she had me. She wanted me to break, she wanted me to explode, she wanted me to prove her right. She wanted me to show how dangerous I truly was. Just like Hades did.

Instead, I straightened my shoulders and smiled at her. I raised my hand and pushed against the electric barrier and watched as my hand passed through with ease. There was a little tickle, like the electricity was giggling. I opened my palm and focused on the center of my hand. Immediately, the energy pushed outwards and flew into the palm of my hand until a medium sized ball crackled against my skin while the barrier that had caged me in fell away. I looked up and saw Natasha’s eyes widen and she struggled to keep a neutral expression but I could tell she was feeling anything but neutral inside.

“You’re right,” I said, my voice soft yet held a dangerous edge to it. “I could’ve escaped a long time ago. I could’ve made this entire place disappear and none of you would’ve known. I could’ve killed every single one of you in a single second and no one could’ve stopped me. But I didn’t. Because I don’t need to. I am not afraid of you. I have no reason to be. You have given me no reason to fear you.” I wiggled my fingers and the bright energy swirled between my fingers like golden ribbon. I smiled slightly as I watched the light sparkle and twist against my skin as if it were saying thank you. I looked up again and my smile was gone. I lifted my head and stepped forward until I was standing right in front of her. My voice changed to a tone that I hadn’t used in hundreds of years. “But, do not taunt me, Natasha Romanoff. Or I will prove to you just how powerful I can truly be.” And with a flick of my wrist, the electricity shot backwards and wrapped around my cell again, returning back to the crackling wall behind me.

Natasha’s expression hadn’t changed but I noticed the muscles in her neck work as she tried to swallow or how her stare wavered when she stared at me. I had gotten my point across. That was all I needed. With a final steely look her ways I turned around and strolled through the electric wall and back to my bed.

When I turned my head again, she was gone.

*       *       *

After Natasha’s little two second vacation, my cell went from the Sahara Desert to Grand Central Station within the hour.

First it was Tony who stormed down the steps and began demanding answers to questions he couldn’t even formulate properly. He hated me. He truly, honestly, hated me. Which was fine, I wasn’t really looking for his love or affection anyways. He spent about two hours rattling off equations and theories all the while asking me how I got the energy to bend like that, how I was immune to the electricity when the mere touch of it to my skin should’ve killed me, and why the hell all of his tests were coming back either normal or inconclusive.

Next was Helen Cho (I finally figured out her last name) and it was just a quick update on Sam. She asked me about the incantation I had sung and what healing abilities I possessed. I didn’t answer her, same with Tony, but I smiled at her at least. Gave her something. I felt bad for her. She was honestly curious but if I gave her the answer she wanted, about 5,000 more questions would follow and Gods I hated questions.

Steve followed not long after Helen with my lunch. He sat down and didn’t say a word (a bit creepy) and then he began rambling on about ice and airplanes and intergalactic stones (not so creepy, but very weird). He then realized pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to talk and he wasn’t making any sense. He mumbled an apology and glanced at my full plate (steak and, of course, potatoes) but didn’t seem very surprised. He then walked away with a stuttered out apology before the door slammed shut behind him.

After that I dozed off for about a glorious ten minutes before the door opened again. I knew someone was coming down the stairs but I chose not to open my eyes. Hopefully they’d leave me alone.

“You sure know how to create quite a disruption, hm?” The smooth voice caused my eyes to snap open as I turned quickly to find Bucky resting his hip against the back of the metal chair as he regarded me with an amused expression.

My heart did not stutter painfully in my chest. It did not.

I shrugged but didn’t respond. Steve, Tony and Helen had all been bugged (they did such an awful job of hiding it) so I wouldn’t be totally surprised if they had Bucky bugged too.

“S’alright, I’m not bugged,” he said as if he could read my mind. He had a nice voice, deep and rough from years of not using it and sometimes his Brooklyn accent would peek through. “Jus’ wanted to see how you are.”

I shrugged again as I sat up this time. “I’m fine. I liked it better when no one came down here though.”

Bucky forced out a chuckle but something dark crossed over his face. “Do you want me to leave? I understand if you want some alone time.”

My knee-jerk reaction was to say yes. Because honestly, most of the time I liked being alone. But since we’re on the path of honesty, I also really enjoyed Bucky’s company. He was like a breath a fresh air and he was probably the only person within the facility that wasn’t either absolutely terrified or loathed me. “No, I don’t mind having you around,” I said without even thinking, and immediately wanted to dive into the Earth and never come back.

Bucky leaned back and I saw the ghost of a smile flicker over his lips. That meant he was either over the moon, or just really didn’t care for what I said. I was still busy figuring him out. Absentmindedly I traced the moss that covered my bed. Right now, my cell was transformed into the forest. Moss and bright green ferns were nestled in the shadows from thick oak and pine trees. The sunlight (or in this case, the incandescent light bulbs) flitted through the branches of the trees and created dancing sunspots across the soft floor. Wild flowers grew in speckled bunches and turned the air sweet and fresh. It reminded me of home, and my heart ached for it.

Bucky made a noise which sounded oddly like a grunt and I looked up to see his eyes narrowed at the back wall of my cell which was wrapped in vines and moss. “I’m sorry,” he suddenly said and I jerked my head back in surprise.

“What?” I answered oh so eloquently.

“For this,” he waved to my cell which sent me spiraling into a deeper sense of confusion. “No one should have to live like this.” I stared at him, wondering what the hell he was going on about, until it clicked for me.

The Fog.

The Fog was like a mist that wrapped around mortal minds (i.e. people not like me) and obscured the truth of my world. So if a ten foot tall monster was charging down the interstate and a bunch of heroes dressed in battle armor were chasing after it, mortals saw it as an eighteen-wheeler barreling away from a bunch of cop cars. It was our way to keep people safe and keep them from asking questions.

“What do you see?” I asked. Bucky flashed me a look as if to say are you crazy. I probably was but that was beside the point. While I had a forest inside of my cell, he could’ve been seeing the exact opposite.

“Mold. And dirty and grime and filth.” He pointed specifically to the back wall where most of the vines were. I almost laughed as a picture began to form in my mind. It was funny how The Fog worked sometimes.

“Do you want to know a secret?” Bucky furrowed his brow and I knew I was treading on dangerous territory. Manipulating The Fog was already dangerous enough for mortals, but erasing it for a moment? It could cause them to spontaneously combust, or send them into total madness. But Bucky wasn’t really mortal. He was enhanced, and due to the serum, he could withstand so much more than regular mortals. “That’s not how my cell looks.”

Bucky stared at me like I had three heads. “What do you mean?” His voice was soft and my heart stuttered in my chest as I stood slowly. Steeling my nerves, I walked forward and open my palm. The electromagnetic cage collapsed into the palm of my hand again and I raised my hand up. The crackling ball of energy floated at the center of the ceiling, throwing off dancing yellow beams of light. I looked at Bucky and his eyes danced in the light but he didn’t seem scared. Curious, confused, but not scared.

“Do you trust me?” I whispered my voice so quiet. Bucky stood up and I tried to swallow but my throat was too dry.

“You saved Sam’s life.” Bucky took a step towards me. He didn’t answer my question, but at the same time, he did.

I nodded and squared my shoulders before I lifted my hand. Bucky watched me carefully and I flashed him an encouraging smile before I snapped my fingers sharply.

The sound reverberated throughout the room as the air shimmered and curled around Bucky’s head. The burst of air that left my fingers pushed against his forehead until he closed his eyes. When he opened them, he looked the same except for the tiny glimmer that laced through his hair. A halo. It made him look even more angelic than he already did. Not that I thought he looked like an angel, or heavenly, or anything.

Bucky searched my face, most likely to see if he noticed a difference but I knew he wouldn’t. Plus I was too worried about how fucking sweaty my palms were to really focus on anything else. His brow furrowed and his mouth opened – probably to ask me what I did until he looked behind me and his mouth actually dropped open. Finally, he saw what I saw.

“Holy…” he let the sentence hang in the air as he cautiously stepped forward. He eyed the crackling ball of energy that shimmered as if to say we won’t drop on you, not yet anyways. He skirted around the electric ball before he cautiously set foot on the thick grass. The wild flowers waved gently at him as the sun beams chased each other across the patches of moss. “How…I don’t–”

“It’s called The Fog,” I explained gently as I let him explore. “It obscures reality, so that mine can remain secret.”

Bucky was quiet for a while as he ran his hands over the wall of vines that he originally thought was scum. His blue eyes were like kaleidoscopes as they shimmered with facets of light. The shadows played against his sharp and thick features. It made him seem more mysterious, yet softer at the same time. “So, this whole time, this has been–” Bucky shook his hand over to the oak trees that he still couldn’t seem to understand.

I shrugged. “Most of the time. It depends on my mood, what I miss, what I want to see.”

“What you miss…” he murmured as he stared at me with a mixture of awe and excitement. It made me breathless.

“Yeah.” I walked closer as the flowers bent towards me. I let their petals tickle my palm. “Today, I missed the forest. Yesterday it was the beach. The day before that was McDonalds.”

Bucky tipped his head back and laughed and I swore the flowers sighed. So did I. “McDonalds?”

“I miss their cheeseburgers, don’t judge,” I admitted playfully. Bucky shook his head, still in disbelief as he did a full 360.

“So this can be…whatever you want it to be?”

“Within reason.” I saw a flash of longing in his eyes and I took a cautious step forward. “What do you want to see?”

Bucky frowned. “I – I don’t know.” He paused as he seemed to weigh his options. “Coney Island. Y’know, back when it was really Coney Island. With the lights and the dancing and the cotton candy.”

I smiled and waved my hand over the cell. The forest fell away as across the floor, the ocean rolled in and sand spilled over our feet. A warm summer breeze mixed with sugar and sea salt whisked past our shoulders. Bucky’s eyes widened as he whirled behind him, only to see a wall of black.

“Sorry,” I murmured. “This is the best I can do. I’m still limited, to a certain extent.”

Bucky shook his head and walked forward. “S’perfect,” he mumbled as he breathed in deeply. And for a brief moment, he was a sixteen year old kid amazed with life. Cheeks flushed from the carnival and smile as sweet as the cotton candy that peppered the sides of his mouth.

I knew I was staring so I forced my gaze away and watched the waves roll inky black over the bone white sand. Seagulls cried in the distance though I knew none were nearby. The air held a sense of serenity to it that seemed to be lost nowadays, that blanket of peace that none of us felt anymore.

Bucky came and stood beside me. The air buzzed around me as if charged with electricity, until I realized that it wasn’t electricity at all. It was fireflies, dancing and dipping behind and above our heads.

“Fireflies,” Bucky whispered in the softest, loveliest voice you could ever imagine. “Steve and I used to catch these all the time as kids.” His eyes flickered like the lightning bugs. He looked young and happy.

“Do you know what Pleiades is?” I asked him as I watched the fireflies dance in the summer breeze. It was random and totally not relevant in the slightest but I saw the stars and sort of just…blurted it out. Plus, I was nervous as all hell so the fact that I was even able to formulate a full sentence was staggering.

“Yeah, it’s a cluster of stars that are seen around winter time, right?” Bucky furrowed his brow as if he were answering a question on Jeopardy. Gods he was cute. But that too was totally irrelevant. To the story, anyways.

“They weren’t always stars,” I murmured as I gazed up at the night sky. I looked for Orion and found him, his bow strung as his stars twinkled in the sky. He seemed tense and domineering, even in the sky.

“What do you mean?” Bucky seemed genuinely curious, so I sat down and dug my feet into the sand.

“Pleiades were originally seven sisters from Greek mythology. Their name originally meant ‘daughters of Pleione’ but that got too long to say so they became collectively known as Pleiades. They were nymphs – spirits of nature, in this case water – and they were associated with rain and Artemis, Goddess of the Moon.” I sat down and soon found the cluster, six gleaming stars that formed a little half-moon. “Their father was the titan Atlas. The titans ruled the Earth for years before the gods came into power. But once they did, Zeus punished the titans and forced Atlas to carry the weight of the heavens. Once this occurred, Orion,” I pointed to his constellation and Bucky nodded silently for me to continue. He didn’t seem too lost or incredulous which was a bit of a relief, “He was the greatest hunter in the entirety of Greece. Before he joined the Hunt of Artemis, he pursued the Pleiades. In their fear of Orion, they begged Zeus to help. Since Zeus felt a bit guilty for punishing their father, he turned them into doves so they could escape. But, since Orion was such an experienced hunter, it wasn’t long before he would shoot them down. So, Zeus immortalized them into stars and created the cluster Pleiades.” I pointed out the cluster to Bucky, whose eyes narrowed, then widened, then narrowed again.

“But there are only six stars.”

I nodded. “Merope, the youngest daughter, she shamed her sisters by falling in love with a mortal man. A king, but mortal. The sisters cast her away and thus, her star disappeared from the constellation.”

Bucky frowned slightly. “They punished her for love?”

I shrugged. “Honestly, she got it good. The seven stars became six, and that was it. They could’ve tortured her or her husband, or made their lives miserable. Really, she got off easy.” I tried to hide the envious tinge in my voice but Bucky picked up on it instantly.

“You sound like you’ve met her.” Bucky eyed me carefully and I swallowed the lump in my throat. I shrugged nonchalantly but didn’t answer. He didn’t press on, which I was grateful for.

“Humans studied the sky for centuries and fell in love with the story of Pleiades and Orion. You know, mortals love the whole stalker storyline. In a poem, one mortal described the constellation Pleiades: Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the mellow shade, glitter like a swarm of fireflies in a silver braid. Zeus became a huge fan of the poem and he always had a soft spot for the Pleiades so he made the firefly their calling card. So when the fireflies were out, it meant that the Pleiades would begin to show.”

“But Pleiades is already in the sky,” Bucky glanced at the fireflies. “Why are there fireflies?”

I smiled softly. “Because, Bucky. This is what you wanted to see.”

He stared at me and I couldn’t allow myself to look away. His eyes were now sea foam green that flickered with a myriad of emotions. Then he smiled. An honest, full smile that lit up his whole face. I hoped to the gods that he couldn’t see my pulse slamming erratically at the base of my jaw.

Bucky joined me on the sand and his shoulder brushed against mine. His gaze was transfixed on the sea and I tried not to focus on the electric sparks that twisted down my spine.

“Thank you, Sophia.” His voice was low and velvet rich and sparked something so deep inside of me I almost forgot that part of me existed. But instead on focusing on what was going inside of me, I decided to focus on the sea and the breeze and the faint scent of Bucky’s aftershave. Because for once, everything was fine.

And I doubted we’d get a moment like this again.