#but other organizations are catching on that their most powerful plot for world domination is up for grabs in the form of Kukui’s adventure

[thoughtfuldolia]

Kukui experienced many odd forms, but having a ditto for a muzzle made those days in captivity a special kind of miserable.

He thought he might be off the hook when his body gave the muzzle two mouths to choose between. He can be overly optimistic, or perhaps it’s sleep-deprived desperation for some semblance of comfort.

Why is he going through this? He still has no idea who did this to him and why. He loves his life right now.

[vermintine]

could you post the okiyuma rants anyway. i would like to understand the vision

Yea ok! These were all over the place so I tried to rewrite and organize them to be more or less coherent

[I saw you mention in the tags that you aren’t familiar with their lore so for context: Yuuma’s bio, Okina’s bio + summary of her religious references, Yuuma's Stage 8 cutscene and ending (text only 1 2), and a rundown of their story line in Sunken Fossil World:

both of them want to monopolize the oil/blood sea in the Former Hell of Blood Pools, but Yuuma found it first; Okina causes the oil to leak on the surface and pollute the water, prompting several Gensokyo residents to investigate. None of them manage to defeat Yuuma, so Okina sends in Flandre to kill her. Yuuma is resurrected and seeks to form an alliance between her organization and Gensokyo, so she and Okina become co-managers of the Hell of Blood Pools. People keep wandering in there for sightseeing, forcing Yuuma to seek the culprit. She confronts Okina and they blame each other for the tourist problem and end up battling. After Yuuma wins, they catch the Yorigami sisters trying to scam people with the tours, but they decide to leave that whole problem for Reimu to deal with]

Ok so:

(↑ taken from a different translation)

My interpretation is that during their fight they came to understand each other by using their powers: Yuuma can comprehend things by consuming them; Okina says "your back is not lying to me" so maybe she could gain insight of a person by peering through a door on their back (using her unexplained power over mental energy?)

(and she straight up says that the only way to understand Yuuma is to be consumed)

Elaborating on that, does Okina want to be consumed because of her usual attention-seeking tendencies (wanting to be known and understood)? If Yuuma consumed some abstract fragment of Okina during the fight - and she perceives things by swallowing them whole - would she crave more to get a clearer picture?

And despite seeing Yuuma's true nature, Okina only grows more fond of her; everyone else in SFW was freaked out by her or at least disliked her.

There is also a certain term that Okina uses in that exchange that was kinda lost in translation:

(I get that it was likely translated to avoid confusing people with her theatrical/religious references, but her dialogue in HSiFS is just as confusing for the exact same reason, yet none of it was dumbed down like this)

Translating it as lie or madness feels like over-explaining a metaphor; the whole point is that she implies both. It's also possible to interpret it as her comparing Yuuma to herself - it's said that everyone dances to Okina's script, meaning that she is a god of noh and a manipulator. So in that sense she implies that Yuuma is being a manipulator too; alternatively, she is calling Yuuma a disruption, like a kyogen performer in a noh play.

Yuuma also likens Okina to herself calling her unparalleled in greed - much like when she says it to the Yorigami sisters, she seems to mean it as a compliment (she also lives off greed and appears to enjoy eating it the most) Speaking of compliments:

Madness is a running theme in SFW: Yuuma is shown to be going mad from trying to consume all desire and hatred from the dead beings from which the oil is made. She toils alone without rest, wallowing in her own greed as she fantasizes about all the power she will have to dominate both hell and the surface world, and viciously defends her petroleum from intruders.

(source)

In this context, madness is meant as recklessness, destruction (and self-destruction), and especially greed. The entire plot pretty much revolves around Yuuma, Okina, and their greed.

Yuuma is more honest with herself at least:

Okina gets an excuse because in the end the oil is in the right hands (allegedly), but she still caused pollution on the surface and manipulated Flandre only so she could take control of the Hell of Blood Pools:

(source)

However without her involvement, the incident would not have happened in the first place. This reinforces her as a god who sometimes uses destructive means for the "greater good". In this case, it is a bit similar to her role as a god of tengu-warding, and how that concept works.

For context:

(source 1 2)

(source)

In the Grimoire of Usami Okina talks about looking for "true madness", she also chastises her servants for spreading madness poorly; both likely in reference to her warding off madness (lack of wisdom/enlightenment in this context) by spreading it herself.

So it's ironic that Yuuma "defeats" Okina with her own methods: like Okina's attempt to beat Yuuma with Flandre's destructive powers (beating a void with another void); and like the leap dance is meant to ward off tengu, Yuuma's mad performance ("your kyogen") defeats Okina. That metaphor also ties off their ending as they agree to exist not as enemies but as ~business~ partners, like the link between noh and kyogen.

It's also interesting that Okina avoided a direct confrontation with Yuuma until the very end, probably because she knew they could just keep fighting indefinitely - Yuuma would just keep consuming everything Okina could throw at her. Yuuma won because she managed to drag Okina into that futile fight - that realization was likely what made Okina concede. Besides being the only person (so far) who can stand up to Okina, Yuuma also is the only one who almost saw through Okina's scheme in SFW - she got her overall intentions right, but instead of blaming the oil leaks on her she thought it was the tours.

Bonus Yuuma bringing up Okina for no reason in UDoALG even though she's got nothing to do with the plot at all

So yea they are funny and annoy everyone around them including themselves and then they destroy each other for fun. They should be together in future games or manga and say more weird shit and cannibalistic innuendos for me to overthink <3

[my-writings-and-musings]

Here's my latest commission from another wonderful and amazing person! A human reader is secretly a pyrokinetic, but an attack on Rodimus forces them to reveal their powers, and the more they unleash the more their appearance changes...

Warning for some violence and angst!

In the back of your mind, your relationship with Rodimus had been oddly perfect and ironic in ways you'd never dare tell him. The Autobot's love of heat had extended well beyond a simple temperature preference; he had a power over fire you'd never seen the likes of before. Even his own species didn't seem to understand how naturally he wielded flames for combat, nor how he possessed such an incredible resilience to temperatures that would have been painful for most. For his part, the cocky captain took the peculiarity in stride, emblazoning himself with fiery motifs and embracing his nature using an adorable mixture of puns and catchphrases.

It was something you loved about him, and while it perhaps explained some of his adoration of the seemingly unremarkable human that had plopped into his life, it also made you a little wary for his sake. If he only knew how attuned with fire you really were...

The thought of him discovering your greatest secret was a daily intrusion, but for today, you decided that it could go on the back burner. The Lost Light would be docking on a planet safe for humans, and you wanted to enjoy the time off to the fullest of your ability. No worries, no paranoia, no thoughts of past rejection... just you and Rodimus exploring a vibrant alien city together. It was going to be perfect.

"Got your debit chip, Y/N? I'm planning on doing a lot of shopping, and I don't want you to feel left out!" Rodimus said, exuberant even by his own standards as he stepped out onto the landing pad. Giggling as you kept your balance on his shoulder, you let the warm light of a foreign star cascade over your body with a sigh, the sight of a bustling alien port making your heart accelerate in your chest. All around you were races from a hundred different worlds, selling their wares and taking rest stops to relax during long intergalactic trips, and the flurry of sounds and sights and smells was intoxicating. You almost forgot to confirm the device Rodimus mentioned was indeed secure around your neck in a makeshift necklace.

"Got it right here! Show me where we should start, Captain!" You held the tiny black square in between your fingers, unable to imagine something so small holding so much value. Evidently it was the spacer equivalent of a debit card, as the name implied, and after a purchase it would simply be scanned and the necessary amount deducted from your account. Its simplicity was almost as hard to grasp as the fact you'd been gifted a ludicrous amount of money for this trip by Drift. In his own words, the ninjabot had told you to spend it on having a fun day with his best friend. The kindness of the entire crew was still so foreign to you...

"Let's check out the surf shop! My last board melted on an especially high power asteroid, so I need a new one." Rodimus said cheerfully, hefting you a little higher so you were right beside his helm. As a somewhat taller than average individual from a naturally towering species, he had an ideal view over everything in sight, resulting in you having the same. Between the packed landing strip and the notion of a store that sold surfboards for space, you were a little too overwhelmed to speak. Rodimus had no such difficulty. "Oh, or if you're hungry, we could check out an interspecies cafe! They've always got lots of earth food, even out here. Especially the extra spicy stuff you like so much."

For an instant, you were taken aback by his mention of your preference. Had he truly been paying so much attention he noticed such little details? On the one, more dominant hand, you were flattered. Rodimus had to care deeply to have noticed you preferred your food as hot and zesty as physically possible.

"I'm not hungry just yet, but thanks." you said in genuine gratitude, hiding some wariness that you desperately wished would go away. In the past your unnatural preferences had been the first clue most had to your "peculiarities", and it had never taken long from that point for things to come together in the worst possible way. Holding on tight to Rodimus for more than just balance, you quickly returned to the wonderful present, refusing to fall into the belief that the past would repeat itself. "I just want to start wherever you think is best. You're the experienced one, show me what's fun around here!"

"Well, if it's fun you want..." he said in a fake contemplative voice, having obviously had an idea he was preparing to spring on you. Taking long strides through the narrow path left by the many other denizens of the spaceport, he gave you an eager and barely restrained grin. Something almost like childish glee seemed to twinkle in his brilliant blue optics.

"There's a holo-suite lounge in some hole in the wall locale by the bay. I've heard nothing but good things about it, and it's all above board. Want to go on a vacation in a vacation?"

Thinking over your limited knowledge of the virtual reality establishments, you knew more than anything how your beloved bot adored the experience of risk free adventure they offered, finding it to be relaxing due to his day to day life. You were more than happy to let him show you one at long last, and chuckled happily as you leaned against his helm. "I'd love to, Captain."

"Yes! I have got to show you the coaster simulation, it's totally wild!" he said in victory, pumping his arms so suddenly you were nearly cast off his shoulders. Recovering quickly and catching you, he let out an abashed cough as he made sure to resettle your tiny form before proceeding far more carefully. In the moment it took you to realize the lack of leg room would make it rather hard for him to trek it anywhere in good time, Rodimus gestured to a narrow gap between skyscrapers. "We can cut through some alleys to get there faster. I plotted it out on the satellite map before we landed."

Though it didn't seem especially smart, there wasn't anything to suggest the move would be dangerous, as the planet had been cleared entirely as a secure zone. The few whisperings of anti-Cybertronian bias were too small for anyone to be worried, so you nodded your assent to use the shortcut. Careful to stick to the narrow walkways for beings of his size, Rodimus kept you secure with one hand as he hopped an underwhelming barrier to access the alleyway, chatting the whole time about all the possible simulations the two of you could try. He's talking so fast it's actually impossible to keep up as he walks between two superstructures and down the alleyway that feels more like a canyon. As the hubbub of the crowd fades to the gentler din of the machinery keeping the city going, it's easy to forget your surroundings entirely, all to allow the other's excitement to wash over you. You don't even notice how the alleyway has tiny side sections for maintenance and smaller species to traverse safely.

Until you see one pop out right in front of you.

Rodimus stops politely, assuming initially he's just met another traveler that he plans on letting pass so as not to be rude. But the alien doesn't move. Though you can't read their expression, the none too tiny organic immediately sets of your alarm bells, and a hot knot of anxiety twists in your stomach as you tense atop your partner's stiffening shoulders. As awkwardness morphs into tension, the Autobot speaks with an even and cool tone.

"There a problem here?"

An answer came not from the insect like being in front of you, but from another stepping out in the space behind, their clawed hands curled about a weapon of unknowable function.

"Typical tin man, cutting corners and plodding around like it owns the place." they said, rasping voice echoing through the translator in your ear. Before you could even guess what they meant by a phrase that was probably intended to be an insult, more began to slowly emerge from splintering alcoves and alleyways, and in moments the two of you were surrounded. Skillful as Rodimus was in a fight, there had to be enough firepower between them all to make this far from an easy win. As heat crackled instinctively to your palms, the Autobot remained calm.

"Look, if this is your filthy back alley, I'll happily leave you to it. I've got better places to be and far more attractive company to enjoy." he said glibly, making you want to kick him for not being diplomatic. For his sake he needed to be, and as for you, situations like this one had never gone well in the past... Your heart began hammering as the lead alien replied with what was likely a glare.

"Bit too late for that."

Like sharks, they began to close in on the much bigger bot. You wondered how things could have taken a turn so quickly. This was a reputable port on a stable planet, how could it be unsafe? Had the two of you not just been planning a day of fun? These aliens had to have been waiting to be this prepared, and as the next one spoke you started to understand.

"Should have stayed in your own corner of space, tin man. We're not gonna let your kind set up shop here."

"Last I checked, this was a bot friendly planet." Rodimus replied, still unnerved but tense as a rock beneath you. He was getting ready, you knew, but for what was anyone's guess. As you held onto him you prayed the plan was solid, because the heat in your body was starting to grow to levels he might notice, and that couldn't be allowed to continue. Hopefully his need to stall wouldn't last long...

The circling group, that you counted at twenty or more, took the bait. "For now, until the beauracracy gets its priorities straight. In the meantime, we're here to make sure you don't bring your trouble to our home, like your kind always does."

"Plus, can't hardly expect the authorities to prosecute what they don't know about, can you?" another said, now so close Rodimus could have kicked them. The hatred in their eyes was beyond you, and their words made the heat in your gut twist into nausea. "Your kind is easy to clean up afterwards; melt down what you can and sell it all offworld."

Rodimus, one hand still steadying you, tightened his grip possessively. Time felt like it was slowing down as you looked about madly for an exit, swearing that the enemy seemed to double every time you blinked. There had to be over twenty of them now, and the high but narrow space gave your partner little room to work with you in the mix, something he seemed well aware of as he next spoke. "What about the human? They're innocent in all this, and organic. Let them walk away."

"They chose the wrong side." the apparent leader clipped.

Bright blue optics looked to you, and a hushed voice whispered at impossible speed.

"Y/N, when I say now, be ready to tuck and roll and run. No looking back, understand?"

There was no time to say you agreed, let alone to argue.

"Now!" he shouted as a high energy weapon began to hum in preparation, followed by so many others. Before you knew it you were being moved in a wild blur. Rodimus made good on his plan, moving as precisely as he could with your comparatively fragile body to toss you over the heads of the enemy. Using the reflexes you'd honed in his company, you did as you were bid more or less subconsciously, curling up and moving with the momentum so that your landing was less than disastrous.

"Rodimus!" you choked out upon catching your breath, turning to see the group advancing with their weapons glowing hot and ready.

I said run!" he shouted, not looking at you before taking care of the first row of attackers with a wide arcing kick. More seemed to be emerging every second, but the Autobot only looked concerned for you as he swiped away another batch. "Get the others! I can hold them off until-!"

With a screech, the first weapon fired, but there was no energy beam or bullet. Instead, Rodimus was ensnared in a tangled mess of high voltage cords, their arcing metallic webs circling his upper body like a snake. Crackling electricity seared across him in a blinding burst, and he was on his knees in moments, crying out at the agony that left him helpless. In rapid succession several more shots were fired. The Autobot was left to scream on his hands and knees, the electronic pulse weaponry having been specifically designed to cripple Cybertronians in seconds and kill them in minutes.

You knew he wouldn't last long enough for you to get help.

In last ditch desperation, you grabbed the cord on your neck and pulled, snapping it so the microchip in your palm could be held aloft. "Please! I have a debit chip worth thousands! Just take it and leave him alone!"

"Just something else to make this more worth our while." the alien you'd begged to sneered, giving you a kick straight to the gut with a deceptively powerful leg. The wind was knocked from your lungs, and you were left trembling on the ground. Vision spinning, you caught sight of Rodimus barely clinging to consciousness, his flaring optics pleading for you to run. Clawed hands had a hold of your arms before you could attempt to fight back, and the leader gave a casual order as they continued to fire pulse after pulse through the metallic web. "Grab the sympathizer; we'll take care of them after this one's fried."

It was clear that survival hinged on the unthinkable. Heat in your gut became molten as you summoned what you knew was your only hope, the air about you filling with the scent of smoke as you looked up Rodimus one final time as his partner. You'd always hoped it would never come to this, but fate, it seemed, was determined to be unkind.

"I'm sorry..."

The aliens on either side of you yelped and released their hold on your arms as the skin went from hot to searing, their confusion turning to fear as the heat only continued to intensify. Your clothes singed and the air thickened, and while it only took moments, the remaining attackers became aware of the change far too late. Shouts of alarm didn't register amongst the crackling sparks that started dancing up and down your body. It had been very long since you'd used these gifts, but you knew the steps far too well to ever forget.

A jet of flame erupted from your palms with the force of a rocket leaving the earth, blasting back numerous aliens from the sheer power. You heard screams but they hardly dissuaded you, as they'd all more than earned what was coming. The heat began to reach levels high enough to clear the air of any moisture, making those still alive after the first blast cough and struggle to breathe, all the while rendering them incapable of fleeing.

You should have just ended it there; cut the flames and told the survivors to get lost, but you weren't done. It felt far too good for you to stop.

A literal ring of fire encircled the gathered aliens, trapping them all in with you as they tossed aside their white hot weapons and tried to find a way out. Rodimus was immune even to the extreme heat, but dazed enough from his shock not to truly be conscious. You stepped over to him as the fire danced at the command of your fingertips. After the fear of the ambush, the choking heat and crackling flames felt like a breath of fresh air. You were at home in the inferno.

Hearing a scream, you realized rather quickly that payback was still due. Smiling softly, you beckoned the fire to move, controlling it with mere gestures and the simplest of thoughts. It danced like a snake would for a master charmer, coiling about the enemy and suffocating them. You were far too busy indulging yourself to notice how the waves of heat washed over your skin, particularly how the flesh hardened and patterns began to emerge like the scales of an otherworldly being. Similiarly, the sharpening of your teeth and the rise of claws from your fingertips drew no trace of concern. All that mattered was how good it felt to make your attackers pay.

There were more than enough of them for you to take your time, and so you did, keeping them corralled in the fire as you picked them off one by one. Had they expected anything like this when they'd made you a target? Had they prepared for the possibility that not everyone would just lie down and die? Had they even bothered to consider the Autobot wasn't the most dangerous being here?

As one body crumbled to ash, you got your answer in a way that made you smirk; clearly they hadn't.

As you began to run low on targets, it occurred to you that keeping up your wall of fire might draw unnecessary attention. Frowning around canines you realized had developed a lovely point, you decided to finish the fun. Clawed fingertips snapped together to command the flames to converge, and they did so in a heartbeat, jumping upon the survivors like rabid dogs on a meal. You barely registered a scream before ash and cinders began drifting past on a hot breeze. With another smile, you recalled their comment on crimes going unpunished when they were properly cleaned up. Dismissing the fire with a wave of your hand, you thought smugly on how these piles of soot would hardly suggest what had happened here.

Rodimus stirred from his daze, groaning in discomfort and shifting beneath the web of deactivated electric pulsers. Frowning at the sight, you summoned a thin jet of fire from your fingertips and got to work. The metal coils turned to red slag with very little effort, which melted down the heat resistant bot's body like wax before dripping to the ground around him. In no time you had him free, and while the flames actually seemed to perk him up a bit, the Autobot was clearly not in a good way. When he failed to awaken after you said his name your confidence started to dissipate. Heart hammering once more, you dropped to your knees beside his helm, hoping to wake him with some gentle encouragement to get him moving.

It was when you laid your hands on his helm that your thoughts shifted to horror, but not for his sake. The normal human hands you had once possessed were now tipped with wicked claws, and as your eyes trailed upwards you saw that your skin was patterned with scales of an equally inhuman nature. Sharp fangs registered with proper horror in your mouth now that the adrenaline of the moment was gone, and you realized that unlike every single time before, you weren't turning back to normal. You must have gone too far this time... How could you not have, killing dozens of people, as desperate as the situation may have been? You had liked it too, and even now you couldn't bring yourself to regret what you'd done...

"Y/N?" a raspy voice spoke up, startling you with good enough news that you momentarily forgot your panic. Rodimus stirred more effectively, groaning in pain but appearing otherwise stable as he lifted his helm off the ground and looked to you. His expression turned to fearful concern before you could speak. "Are you okay? What did they do to you?"

"I..." You didn't have the words. No doubt you were a horrifying sight, twisted as you were and smoking in your burnt clothes... It was a miracle he recognized you at all.

Rodimus narrowed his optics, perhaps thinking everything he'd seen was the result of processor trauma from his shock. "You burned them... I saw... but you don't have a weapon."

"I am the weapon." you blurted out, baring your fangs without meaning to. At his confusion, you tried to explain, a sinking feeling pulling you down as you did so. There was no way you could be with him like this... Appearance aside, you'd awoken a part of yourself you couldn't trust. Still, he deserved to know. "I never told you... I've always been able to do this, but could never go too far, unless..."

"You saved me." he whispered in awe, weak but insistent as he reached for you. On reflex, you pushed his hand away.

"I killed them. All of them. I finally lost control and now..."

Rodimus perked up a bit, looking desperate when your intent became clear to him. Even after a beating, he could read you well, and your decision to leave for his sake was clear in your face. "They were going to kill us both! You didn't do anything wrong-"

"Look at me!" you shouted back, curling clawed hands into fists as each grabbed at your head. You swore you felt newly erupted horns crowning your brows, and that discovery drew sizzling tears down your cheeks. "I burned them, and I liked it, and now I look like this! I'm a monster, and I'd do it again!"

"Y/N-"

Wiping away the wetness from your eyes, you stood up sharply, knowing he wouldn't accept what was best for him. "You can't be with me like this, Rodimus. I'm not even human..."

"I'm not either!" A gentle but insistent hand looped about your middle, turning you back around to look at him before he nearly collapsed from the effort of the movement. Wide blue optics pled to you as he did the same, baring his spark with every single word. "Please, Y/N, I know this is a lot for you but please... don't leave me... I can't lose you."

"Haven't you already?" you said bitterly, optimism nowhere to be found as you surveyed a clawed hand. Rodimus didn't flinch at the sight.

"You think a new look will scare me away? Plus, I'm fireproof, remember? You can't hurt me." he said with his best attempt at a winning smile in his current state. Losing it in an instant, he hugged you closer, optics betraying the depths of his pain and desperation as he did so. The Captain was holding on to you like a lifeline. "I need you, okay? Please, just give me a chance to work this out with you. I love you, no matter what."

It was the first time he'd told you that, but you knew he meant it. A softer heat, like a pleasant campfire, filled the space around your heart. Holding a digit of his in your hand, you gave a gentle squeeze. "I love you too..."

"So stay with me?" he said softly, pulling you in for something like a hug. Getting down on your knees, you cuddled close to his helm, a few stray tears dripping down onto his armor. Rodimus didn't even flinch as he whispered into your ear. "We'll figure this out. I don't care if this is the new normal, as long as you're with me."

"Okay..." you replied, nodding as you recalled the thoughts of irony you'd had just that morning. How perfect he was for you, a fireproof being so enamored he didn't see what a risk you were to everything... But if he was willing to try? Well, you couldn't deny how much you wanted this to work either... Holding him tight, you replied with the best promise you could give at the moment, but like him you meant it.

"We can try..."

Like this? You can commission me for a story of your own here!

[regardingseas]

Ttile: Echoed Vexations (Part One, part two linked)

Fandom: Hermitcraft

Rating: Teen and up audiences (violence warning)

AO3: here! (Full story at once)

•••

Plot Summary:

It's all too easy to turn a blind eye to the past-- to believe that because someone has been shielded from harm's way, they should no longer fear the wrath of their opponent's creed. They're safe now, after all, so why would they..?

Yes, Scar and Cub are certainly "safe", but they're still haunted by memories of the Vex and their deals all the same.

OR

An average afternoon during the HCB Base Swap is cut short when Mumbo accidentally digs up a remnant from Scar's Vex partnership days, and unfortunately for the town's mayor, the other Hermit is far from aware just how triggering the topic can truly be. Things only dissolve from there, and in the end, Grian lends a helping hand to console a friend.

•••

Additional Content Warnings:

Depictions of trauma disorders, panic attacks, flashbacks, paranoid thoughts/delusions, manipulation, gaslighting, threats, injury, and violence. Mentions of religious themes, unintentional self-harm, and non-permanent character death.

Do be careful, but otherwise, enjoy!

•••

The sun was still high in the sky even as Scar finished decorating the monument's support chains, sweltering rays beaming down and adding to the oppressive humidity of the jungle around him. With his usual jacket set aside to fight the heat, he wiped away the beads of sweat that had gathered on his forehead and grabbed a stray bucket from the sidelines. He'd nearly finished the waterfall aspect of the design-- crystal blue streams cascading over the edges of four white spanners, all joining together in the octagonal pool at the base's foundation. It was looking quite spectacular, if he were to say so himself, with the vine-coiled braces and additional water currents tying the otherwise juxtaposing themes together nicely.

Scar scooped up a fresh pail of water, filling it to the brim and hauling it towards the last pillar. He glanced down at the container as he carried it, catching a glimpse of his reflection from the liquid inside. His face shone red with effort, misplaced strands of hair having clung themselves to his tan skin.

Though unsurprised, he still couldn't help but laugh at the rippling image. "It's just my luck I'd swap with another jungle dwelling Hermit. I swear, I can never escape this climate for long. First the island last year, then all this."

With a shake of his head he returned his gaze upwards, continuing to muse aloud to the landscape before him, "You tropics are wonderful and all, but it sure would've been a nice change of pace to set up camp in somewhere like the mountains. Or pull total 180 and have landed in the tundras!"

Concepts for each design raced through his head, each idea fighting the others for dominance and tacking details onto itself, trying to land its place on the metaphorical pedestal of his imagination. A cottage with medieval influences? No, that would be far too typical, amp both of those components up. An entire village with a steampunk driven aesthetic, built into the mountainscape itself; no doubt with custom terraforming to integrate the buildings into the natural environment. That was more like it.

Scar could envision working windmills and waterwheels accompanying purposefully makeshift farmlands, historic blimps having reclaimed skies where they'd soar high overhead. Below them, eye-catching pops of colour, shining through as floating lanterns that hover above connective rope bridges.

As for the arctic concept? Something more grand would be ideal. In his fantasy, he'd created an absolute oxymoron of the words cabin and mansion jumbled together, and he adored it that way. A bottom floor made of bricked stone, the top made of logs and large windows to oversee the view. Accompanying them in the same manner would be a balcony, propped on columns that hugged the building and curved around its corners. The top deck would be open for clear days, and the space below it safe on harsher ones. Sloped roofs would be adorned with chimneys, and the interior warmed by cozy flames that were kept organized with inviting lofts. The living area could be split leveled, sinking down to create its own margin where guests could comfortably gather by the fireplace and--

There was a tug at his ankle, and next thing he knew, a bemused Scar went crashing to the ground, having been too caught up to notice the trailing plants blocking his footway. His hands shot out to catch himself, palms scraping against the concrete floor in a way similar to the childhood stunt of crashing and burning on the pavement. A stinging snapped up his arms, and the water bucket dropped from his grasp, clattering down with a metallic rumble before spilling its contents across the floor.

Scar pushed himself upright with a hiss of air through his teeth, shaking off his grazed palms and wiping them on his jeans. Pulling his foot free from the greenery and gathering himself up was no problem, what was a problem, however, was the troubling sight now before him.

The water had spilled all over one of Mumbo's redstone contraptions, causing the device to short circuit and emit a sort of maroon-grey smoke. The wires fashioned from the compacted dust had been all but washed away, any remaining pieces hanging on by threads and failing miserably whenever a signal attempted to fire; more so sizzling rather than surging alight with energy.

"Oh, crud!" he shouted, racing towards the machine and yanking on the shut-off switch to divert any further input from the broken setup.

It powered down, but Scar was still left swatting the coloured smoke from his face, coughing as the scent of burnt metallics filled his nostrils. When had he gotten so absorbed in possible building opportunities that he'd managed to miss the foliage in front of him? Why had he even been wondering so deeply about it, anyway? This event was about improving one another's bases by adding their own personal touches, not starting a new project entirely.

Scar sighed, he wasn't sure why his mind had begun drifting so far. He'd like to blame it on the wild imagination of a builder, but he had a feeling there was a little more to it. Sometimes, when the world wasn't too much to handle, it was too easy to let fall away. Maybe he spent too much time daydreaming-- he was sure there was a word for that, when trances became so all encompassing, so engrossing.

"But I don't have time to think about that right now," he reminded himself, "I really need to fix this. It doesn't look like most of this redstone is salvageable, I'll have to get new supplies to repair it. Maybe some of the circuits are okay..?"

Scar nudged a repeater with his shoe, the device making an unnatural sloshing noise in his attempt to change the feed-in. He scrunched up his nose, "Okay, nope, gonna need to replace that, too."

Running a hand through his hair in defeat, he glanced towards Mumbo's storage system before shaking his head. It wouldn't be right to use the other man's supplies without asking, let alone waste them on a mistake made due to Scar's own carelessness. He'd have to make his way back to his original base and gather the materials from there once more. When he dropped by initially, he figured he'd gotten everything he needed, but apparently hadn't accounted for dissociation-induced redstone mishaps.

"I guess we're making a trip back," Scar announced to no one, finally picking up the empty bucket to set it safely aside. He made his way over to his tent, temporarily discarding any excess materials and bidding adieu to Jellie before grabbing his elytra and setting off.

Taking to the skies, Scar squinted against the wind as it roared in his ears. His hair parted itself from where it had stuck, short locks brushed back by the flowing breeze. With arms extended for balance, and maybe a dash of amusement, he lit his rockets and propelled himself into the distance.

-----

It wasn't long before he encroached on his base again, allowing his faux wings to glide him downward where he kicked out his legs to come to a soft landing. Scar stopped before the massive drill site just on the outskirts of the forest, heading towards the agglomeration of crates and boxes he had haphazardly stowed aside. He was certain there had to be the necessary hardware in one of the many containers, though which that may be was lost on him. At least, thanks to Mumbo and his new storage system, the chest monster he'd created would soon be a thing of the past.

"I wonder how that's going for him..." Scar pondered, striding over to a random shulker and beginning his sure-to-be protracted search.

"Scar?" a familiar voice interrupted, making him peer ahead to see the moustached man himself rounding the corner. "Hello there! I see you've made yourself rather at home at my base," Mumbo teased.

He couldn't help but chuckle, "That I have. I just needed to stop by and pick up some redstone and iron. With all the ore this place has quarried up, I was sure there's bound to be more of that here than back at Larry."

Mumbo faked surprise with a hearty grin, "Getting into mechanics, are we? Have the inner workings of the temple really had that much influence on you after only a few days?"

"Now I wouldn't say that," Scar shook his head and closed the lid of the grey shulker, seeing no point in hiding the truth. "I took a tumble holding a bucket of water and it kinda spilled on one of the contraptions. I'm sorry for the trouble-- but don't worry! I came here to fix it right up. I just didn't wanna waste your materials fixing my silly error."

The suited man waved his hand dismissively, "Nonsense, it's no trouble. Have you seen the improvements you've made to that place? I mean, of course you've seen them, you built them, but rhetorically speaking--" Mumbo cleared his throat, "Just don't fret over it, I trust that you'll have it fixed right up in no time."

Scar smiled, "Thanks, dude. Now I just have to find where on Earth I put those ore…"

Mumbo gave another laugh, "You know, you can feel free to use some of my things if need be. I have no idea how you expect to find anything in this mess. I'm only trying to do a basic look through so I know where to begin when it comes to the item sorter, but even that doesn't seem to do much good. I swear, it's like trying to play a very intense game of memory, with thousands of nonsensical cards all scattered about."

Scar snickered sheepishly at the comparison, "Yeah, no kidding. But being able to use some resources without flying all the way over here would be great. Thanks again, Mumbo. I don't know if there's anything you'll need here while working, but hey, consider it free range. We're doing these things for each other in the long run, anyway."

"I'd say, 'unless we don't switch back our deeds', but in all honesty? I'm beginning to miss the ol' living monument already."

The two exchange a chuckle before returning to their previous tasks, both going back to digging through the pile of chests in preparation for their projects.

It took longer than Scar wanted to admit to finally find the crate stocked with valuables-- sighing in relief at the sight and immediately beginning to pile the items into his inventory. There were pre-smelted metals from an iron farm, so he didn't have to bother with the ore, and the redstone he'd gathered was already in dust from, meaning all he'd have to do was craft the items after returning.

"I wonder if it would've been easier to stop by the shopping district and buy these directly, instead of making them by hand..." he said, "Oh well, saves on diamonds, and these had to be used some time, I guess."

"Talking to yourself over there?" Mumbo asked.

"Just thinking aloud is all."

"I see," the moustached man nodded, pushing himself up from where he'd been examining the supplies. "I found something neat from last year! Do you wanna see?"

"Sure!" Scar agreed, setting aside his intent of flying back in favour of seeing what it was Mumbo had to show him.

He smiled and stepped over to Scar, holding out a faded piece of paper for them both to see, "I found it stuck to the bottom of a shulker box! Can you believe we used to be competition so recently?" He joked.

Scar could only stare at the advert before him, a steele blue page embellished with a vault-like ring in the center. It meant nothing to the untrained eye, but to him, all of the company's horrors were sealed underneath. ConCorp read bold text in half-connected lettering, the logo finalizing its signature with a black bow tie adorning the bottom.

"Hardly," managed Scar, having just remembered he'd been asked a question, "But it wasn't that recent."

"It was practically yesterday if we're talking business," Mumbo snickered, "but we aren't. I'm not very good at business."

"Me neither, I prefer mayorship," he said in an attempt to change the subject.

Mumbo, however, didn't seem to notice, only turning to stare at Scar with eyes wide. "Are you kidding me? You were quite literally the richest Hermit of all last year! You're wonderful at business. Sahara was amazing, and I don't for a second doubt it was the most ambitious project of our group to date, but she had plenty of bugs, being the machine powered industry that she was. ConCorp, however? That was an utter monopoly! The thing lasted two bloody seasons!"

Scar chuckled awkwardly, "I know, I know, Cub and I worked very hard. But it wasn't all us, we couldn't have done it alone."

"Give yourself more credit," Mumbo insisted, "I'm more than convinced you could have gotten your business up and running even without the help of your Vex friends. Weren't they less prominent in your company last year, anyway? You did change your guy's name from ConVex to ConCorp, after all. I think that would imply less input on their part."

"Not really," he explained, though the tension building in his body was becoming harder to conceal. He had to keep his arms rigid so that they wouldn't shake, forcing in deep breaths to avoid the shaky ones that threatened to take their place. "We just thought it would be better for business, rebranding to something more gentlemanly and all."

Mumbo nodded, "Ah, that makes sense. Though I still don't understand how you managed to work with them to begin with. I likely wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. I mean business partners with the Vex? Friends, even? How'd you do it? Not to mention why? With all due respect, what makes one seek that out?"

Scar blinked hard at the influx of questions, "Oh, it's- it's really complicated, you might not understand. Cub started it, though. I joined the team not long after, but I wasn't there when he first struck the deal with Them."

"Huh, some deal," Mumbo remarked thoughtfully, and Scar nodded.

He had no idea.

"So what made you leave that behind?" Mumbo continued.

"What?" he asked, finding his thoughts hazy. They were static nothingness, but somehow also crashing into his skull. He found himself having to dig his way through them, while at the same time trying to bury them once he passed. The last thing Scar wanted was to do was hark back to the Vex, to beckon forth Their memory with his own.

The other man simply chuckled, oblivious to Scar's inner turmoil. "ConCorp, the Vex. Did you two just get bored? Having done the same thing for too long?"

"In a sense, you could definitely say we were tired of it. It just- well, it wasn't what we wanted to do anymore. We wanted to move on to new things."

"That's fair enough. Do you blokes still get along? Or did they take the corporation's end like a sour breakup?"

This time, Scar couldn't contain his wince. "We're still friends!" he insisted, "Of course the Vex are my friends."

Mumbo finally quirked a brow, "Are you sure about that? You don't have to worry about hiding some burnt corporal bridges from me, I'm not here to judge."

"Oh yeah, I'm positive," he nodded eagerly, "I'm just- I'm gonna go work on fixing that contraption I damaged, best to get it fixed before we have to switch back."

"Buddy, are you sure everything's alright? I'm sorry if I upset you or anything."

"Nah, I'm just peachy!" Scar announced with far too much false enthusiasm, internally cringing at his failed masking abilities. Not allowing any more time for his ruse to be cracked, he uttered a quick goodbye before adjusting the straps on his elytra and dashing off, leaping into the air and back towards the ruins.

"Scar, wait!" Mumbo tried, but he was already gone.

------

The returning flight was far from the peaceful journey he'd made to the excitation site. His artificial wings beat frantically, struggling to keep up as he charged forward with excessive firepower. He paid no mind to the safety protocol regarding the rocket's cool-down period, simply heralding through the air as fast as his elytra would carry him. Scar arrived back to the monument in a trip overall much faster than when he'd left, but it seemed to drag on for an eternity. The entire excursion consisted of a battle with his own mind-- a war in which he knew he was bound to lose, but he had to hold down the fort until he was on solid ground.

Scar was lucky not to crash into the debris upon landing, frantically stumbling to the dirt and having to grasp onto a piece of wreckage to maintain his balance. His legs nearly buckled under his weight, form trembling in spite of the deep breaths he gave it his all to draw in.

He grasped hard to the rubble, trying to anchor his brain into focus. He couldn't let his thoughts spiral, he couldn't think about Them. He knew grounding techniques, and he tried to rush his way through them.

Five things you can see.

He could see the golden heart, plants, stone, the golden heart again-- the thing was too anatomically correct, he'd seen horrors too similar to it before. And the sound, it was too damn loud, too hard to ignore. Its unsteady rhythm hammering in his ears alongside his own faltering pulse.

Forget visuals, four different noises?

Scar squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to listen, focusing hard on the world around him. Still, he could only hear the heart. He could only hear it pounding, its once melodic notes like nails on a chalkboard. He could remember far too many times when he was left alone with nothing but his heartbeat and his pleas.

Tactile. Texture. What can you feel? Three things you can feel.

Internally, he screamed at his dulling senses to return. God, he didn't want to think about Them, it wasn't worth the risk. They'd been inside his head before, and the mere idea of having his thoughts broadcasted again made his stomach churn. Scar tried harder and harder to suppress the images bubbling to the surface, festering like maggots in an old wound. The more he tried to push them down, however, the fiercer they'd rise back up, and he choked down a sob in attempt to list the sensations he could currently identify.

He could feel the stone-- but he already said the stone, didn't he? He could also feel the sun. It was hot against his back. So hot. He was overheating.

The notes should have been a success, but the drops of sweat felt too akin to tricking blood. The sting of his hands felt too much like the friction burn of a rope. It felt too much like he was back with the Vex again, and as he finally sunk to the soil, he could no longer swim against the onslaught of memories crashing over him like a tidal wave.

They could still hear him, They could still hear him, They could still hear him, They could still get him--

------

The day he and Cub first found the courage to try and cut ties with the Vex had been a hellish one, and the two men weren't even successful in their attempt. Hence, of course, it being the first.

Still, it had taken ages for Scar to persuade Cub that it was even worth trying, the other man having believed it was impossible to sneak anything past the Vex on their own. Scar was persistent, however, and eventually convinced his friend they had a shot if they played their cards right, if they made the right proposal without their intentions being discovered.

They'd constructed their plans in secret for weeks; discussing them only inside of untold locations with hushed whispers, or in the form of coded scrawls they'd burn immediately after reading. They couldn't be too careful, that's what they'd tell themselves whenever they worried their precautionary measures may be over the top. Even so, when a so-called conference was put on the schedule --such events were far from any type of cordial meeting, despite having been assigned the title of one-- the men were hardly prepared for it.

Their conference room consisted of a needlessly grandiose suite, with floors of marble and walls carved from deep umber wood. The polished lumber was adorned with expensive paintings in aureate frames; antique laden shelves taking up the spaces they did not. Aesthetically pleasing decorative tactics were discarded in favour of showing off their riches in a possessive cluster, with the only average items being the table and its chairs sat in the dead center of the area. A chandelier of gemstone and gold swung from above, dangling by the same chains fated to one day bind their vassals.

"Concordats, greetings!" A Vex declared as the men were led through the doorway, hovering in the air at the opposing end of the surface.

"Greetings," parroted Cub minimally, Scar giving a plain nod beside him. Fewer words meant less chance at letting their guard down.

"We've been needing to speak with you," a different Vex chimed.

"Speak with you about the business," yet another visitant confirmed.

"We actually need to discuss similar matters with you all," Scar noted, voice and expression a façade of tranquility.

"You do?" the first asked, wide smile replaced with inquiry.

"Yes," managed Cub, "we want to make you an offer, one you can't refuse."

"I do like the sound of that!" the second snickered.

"We'll hear your offer," the Vex grinned, "we only have one question first!"

"Of course, what is it?" asked Scar, in mental awe of how well their exchange was going.

"Do you recognize these?" it asked, gesturing towards the white table where a blue light flashed, fading away to reveal a small pile of ash.

Cub and Scar glanced to one another in evident confusion, the latter of the two speaking once again, "Forgive me, but we're not sure what you're talking about."

"Oh, silly me!" the Vex giggled, another flash of luminesce encompassing the soot and leaving a stack of papers in its place. As if caught in a controlled gust, they blew from the surface and organized themselves midair; levitating in a cloud of magic.

All of their once burnt notes were lined up before them, cyphers needed to crack their messages included.

Still beaming with innocence, it continued, "How about now? Look familiar?"

The blood drained from their faces, and Scar could have sworn his heart was going to burst from his chest with how hard it was drumming. He wanted to wake up, because this had to be a nightmare.

"No, we have no idea what those are," he tried.

LAIR!

Overlapping voices screamed in his head, all sounding in haunting unison. Scar hastily clapped his hands over his ears, but it did nothing to silence the uproar emanating from within.

You try to break our contract then lie to our faces?

Foolish concordats.

Terrible secret keepers, terrible subjects.

Cub seized hold of Scar's arm and made a break for the door with the brunet in tow, reaching the exit and tugging desperately on the handles. They refused to turn under his grasp, and his eyes darted back towards the Vex; floating creatures growing ever closer to their imaginary bubble providing them with the illusion of safety.

More of Them were phasing in through walls, forms non-corporeal and having no need for the sealed entryway.

Apologize.

They all ordered, Scar flinching at the simultaneous projection. He lowered his hands and turned towards Them, watching Their unmoving grins with wide eyes.

Kneel before your gods and divulge your prayers, we may just show you mercy.

"I'm sorry-" Scar whimpered, but Cub was having none of it.

"No!" the man barked, "Screw this! This isn't worth it! None of this is worth it! He's right! The business, the money, the power, it-- it means nothing! Not when you treat us like this!"

They watched him step forward, his furious yells echoing through the expanse of the room, "We're done! And we mean it! You're going to get us go or else!"

An orchestra of shrill cackles filled the air.

Oooh, it's angry.

They're fighting back!

Teach them a lesson.

"You won't dare make another-" Cub's retaliation was cut short with a cry, the bearded man dropping to the ground in a swift crash.

"Cub!" Scar called, but his attempt to step towards his friend was met only with a searing pain through his legs and the subsequent buckling of his knees. He fell to the marble, limbs heavy as if they'd been weighted. It took considerable force to balance on his arms, appendages left shaking as he peered back up towards the Vex.

He regretted it instantly.

•••

(Part two)

[multiverseforger]

Melissa Gold was a troubled runaway from an alcoholic father and incarcerated mother. In order to survive on the streets, Melissa developed a hard edge to her personality, referring to herself as "Mimi".[3] She was eventually imprisoned, where she met Poundcakes, a female wrestler who invited her to join the Grapplers under the name Screaming Mimi, alongside Titania and Letha.[citation needed] The Grapplers became renowned for their colorful personalities and ringside antics, but the wrestling federation denied them the opportunity to make the amount of money their male counterparts made. Instead, the group agreed to earn supplementary income by performing a covert operation for the Roxxon Oil Company. Roxxon gave the Grapplers special paraphernalia to assist them in their mission; Mimi received an apparatus that converted her voice to high-frequency sonics for various effects. The Grapplers tested these powers by fighting Thundra in a wrestling ring.[4] On their mission, Thundra led them into Project Pegasus to smuggle in the Nth Projector for Roxxon. The mission failed when they were defeated by the heroes Quasar and Giant-Man.[5] The Grapplers were tried and jailed for their misdeeds. Alongside the Grapplers, she victimized Dazzler while she was in Ryker's Island prison with them.[6] When the Grapplers were finally paroled, they discovered that the women's wrestling movement had lost its momentum without them, so they continued to perform crimes to support themselves and working as professional criminals. Alongside the Grapplers, Mimi attempted to attack the Thing while he was in the hospital, and battled Captain America.[7] Later, the Grapplers set their sights on a women's division of the superpowered Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation. Their manager, Auntie Freeze, arranged for the women to augment their natural abilities with artificial powers created by the agency Power Broker, Inc. While the other Grapplers received superhuman strength, Mimi instead had her vocal enhancements internalized as a throat implant.[volume & issue needed] (It was believed that Mimi had also gained superhuman strength, however by her own account to Mach-1 it was only the other Grapplers that were augmented.[8]) The all-new Grapplers made a legitimate professional comeback that proved short-lived. When Titania was murdered by the vigilante Scourge, Mimi was among the female wrestlers of the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation who participated in a mass attack upon the Thing, blaming him for Titania's death.[9] After Letha was later also killed by Scourge,[10] the Grapplers broke up.[volume & issue needed]

Mimi was later contacted by the criminal Baron Helmut Zemo to join his version of the Masters of Evil. Her first assignment was to help bust the female Yellowjacket out of prison, but Mimi was captured in the subsequent battle with the Wasp, Black Knight, and Paladin. She was bound and gagged and arrested.[11] Later, she formed a romantic and criminal partnership with the similarly-empowered Angar the Screamer, at one point battling the Avengers Hawkeye and Mockingbird. The pair impersonated Hawkeye and Mockingbird, but battled them and were defeated.[12] Mimi was also seen among the various female superhumans aboard Superia's cruiseship, where she battled Captain America and Paladin.[13] Angar was eventually mortally wounded by a gunshot during a robbery attempt that went sour, and died in Mimi's arms after they escaped. Mad with grief, Mimi screamed, burning out her power. Immediately afterward, she was contacted by Baron Zemo once more, and she accepted his offer to join a formative Masters of Evil. Zemo allowed Mimi to be nursed back to health, and his accomplice, the Fixer, gave her new powers via a voice-augmenting harness and high-tech implants in her neck based on technology from the villain Klaw. With her newly transformed powers, she resumed the use of her given name Melissa, and adopted the identity of Songbird as a member of the Thunderbolts, a new Masters of Evil group posing as superheroes to win the world's trust while secretly plotting world conquest under Zemo's direction.[14] However, Melissa and most of the other Thunderbolts grew to like their heroic roles. In particular, Melissa began to truly grow into her own and even began a romance with her teammate Abner Jenkins, alias MACH-1, formerly the Beetle. Ultimately, the Thunderbolts turned against Zemo, foiling his attempt at world domination and rescuing the Avengers in the process. Melissa continued to serve with the team, who operated as a team of outlaw superheroes.[volume & issue needed]

Melissa stayed with the Thunderbolts through different incarnations after this, and rose to second-in-command under Hawkeye and eventually ran the team herself. Her sonic equipment was replaced several times, both by criminal organizations and by S.H.I.E.L.D.

During the superhero "Civil War" event the Thunderbolts, including Melissa, were approached by the government to catch supervillains and rehabilitate them.[volume & issue needed]

Having turned up alive after his apparent death, Lemuel Dorcas developed an obsession for Songbird where he kidnapped her and repaired her vocal cords as he intends to make Songbird his slave. However, Songbird was able to escape from Doctor Dorcas's clutches, as with the surgery restoring her persuasive powers as well, she turned Doctor Dorcas's henchmen against him.[15]

During the "Secret Invasion" event, Songbird was attacked by a Skrull who not only had her powers, but also had the powers of Atlas and the rest of the original Thunderbolts.[16] The Thunderbolts save her by causing this Skrull to merge into a nearby building, killing him.[17]

During the "Dark Reign" event, Norman Osborn orders Melissa killed by other members of the Thunderbolts team, forcing her to go into hiding for a time.[18] She gathers allies to resist Osborn.[19]

After the "Siege" event and Osborn's subsequent downfall, Songbird has taken a position at "the Raft", as the prison's female warden. Songbird has joined the new Thunderbolts team, led by Luke Cage in large part to keep a close eye over Moonstone (whom Cage has offered a chance for freedom in exchange for her serving on the team). When Songbird objects to Moonstone's inclusion on the team due to her history of manipulation and deceit, Cage counters that Songbird herself used to be regarded the same way and that she should give Moonstone the same chances she was given by others

[whatznewz]

Anonymous Has Joined The Fight

After a recent video uploading on Facebook from the famous Anonymous, the “Black Lives Matter Movement” has a new ally.

By now we might’ve all heard about it: the group of hacktivists known as Anonymous has joined the #blacklivesmatter movement and protests that are occurring in the present day.  Who are they?  Where are they?  What are they? How are they going to help the movement against the American police and military forces?                                                                                                      

Let’s rewind all the way back to 2003.  A website by the name of 4chan, basically a cruder version of Reddit, was semi-popular.  This website, however, did not require its users to form an account, so everything was anonymous and people could generally post what they wanted without any backlash due to not having a designated username.  The anonymity of the website is perhaps what sparked up the given name Anonymous.

Originally, they started as a trolling group, a sort of joke.  Things that the group of trollers started to do in the beginning included sending unpaid pizzas to houses, posting humiliating information about public figures or other 4chan users, DDoSing different websites (method used to take down websites from the inside), and occasionally prank calls or private chats on other networks.   In 2008, what was meant to be a private video of Tom Cruise praising scientology made it online.  It was suspected to be uploaded by the trolling anonymous users that originated from 4chan.  When the video was taken down, the anon users seemed to have been angered.  This started a wave of trolling against the organization that had taken the video down.  This provoked protesting outside of the Church of Scientology.  However, the protesting eventually calmed down and the anon users went back to their regularly scheduled trolls.

Essentially, this “group” of hackers isn’t really an organized group.  While there is technically a team of anonymous hackers, they only make up a very small percentage of the people that continue to support the group and hack for similar causes to that of Anonymous.  

In the past they’ve hacked their way through recognition with some controversial issues like “Operation Tunisia” (2011), “Operation DarkNet” (2011), “Operation Russia” (2012), and many other big activism events throughout the years of 2010-2012.  This form of activism can prove to be very powerful when a group of people is experiencing social injustice and needs something to be done. ______ The infamous Guy Fawkes mask that can has been used as a sort of face for Anonymous originates from the comic and movie adaptation V For Vendetta.  V For Vendetta, summarized, follows the story of a young woman who is “rescued from a life situation by a masked guy known as ‘V’.” (V For Vendetta (2005) - Plot Summary - IMDb).

Guy Fawkes, however, is not fictional.  Fawkes is a historical figure who had attempted to blow up Parliament (1604) in hopes of destroying the British government and instating catholic domination.  He failed at his mission, but perhaps this act of rebellion is what inspired Anonymous to wear the Guy Fawkes mask.

In addition to the mask and the movie, Anonymous also has their own slogan: “Knowledge is free. We are Anonymous.  We are Legion.  We do not forget.”

As far as we know, Anonymous communicates through 4chan (though I would not recommend searching the website), image board wiki forums, and IRC networks.  Although Anonymous claims to not have any set leaders and, like I mentioned before, has only a small group of legit Anonymous hackers, it does have a way of targeting specific organizations all at once.

For example, a wide-range of people have strong opinions on something that’s unjust in the world.  If the subject at hand seems to have a big enough impact on the world, Anonymous has stepped in to reveal classified files, expose authoritative figures, or to hack their way into private institutions (may it be the government or a corporation) to fix the problem or assist people in their activism. Because of their efficiency, they are considered a legitimate threat to the government or shady companies. ______

Anonymous is back?

Recently, on May 28th, the Anonymous Facebook account posted a video regarding the recent events of George Floyd’s death, the unfair power of Minneapolis police, and the protests that are now happening all over America. In the video, Anonymous said the following:

“Greetings citizens of the United States.  This is a message from Anonymous, to the Minneapolis Police Department.  

“Police brutality and murder is a widespread problem in the United States, which has undoubtedly infected nearly every jurisdiction in the country, but the Minneapolis Police Department is among the worst and has a horrific track record of violence and corruption.  This week’s brutal killing of George Floyd, which has sparked protests and national outrage, is nearly the tip of the iceberg in a long list of high-profile cases of wrongful death at the hands of officers in your state.  In fact, in the past two decades, 193 people have been killed by police in Minnesota.  

“In recent years, we have seen numerous high profile killings in the area, including the deaths of Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, Justine Damond, Thurman Blevins, and Brian Quinones.  These are only the cases to catch the headlines., where videos or other evidence proves that the police are lying.  Sadly, in the vast majority of police killings, the only one left alive to tell the story is the officer who took the person’s life, and thus the cycle is able to continue because none of these murderers ever face any justice for their actions.  This travesty has gone on for far too long, and now the people have had enough.  

“In the most recent case of George Floyd, the blatant disregard for human life exhibited by the officers is undeniable and all evidence that has been released so far has shown that Floyd was being entirely compliant with the officers, which contradict earlier claims from police that he was resisting arrest.  Furthermore, our initial investigation of the offending officers has revealed a criminal pattern of violence on the job.  At least two of the officers involved in Floyd’s arrest, Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao, have a history of on the job shootings and excessive force complaints.  The Star Tribune reported this week that Chauvin, the officer most directly responsible for Floyd’s death, has been involved in numerous on the job shootings where suspects were killed.  There were four officers on the scene at the time of the incident, one who kept the gathering crowds away, and three who were forcefully holding Floyd down.  Onlookers warned the officer that he was crushing the man to death, but none of the police on the scene seemed to have any concern for Floyd’s condition.  You may have fired these officers to save face, but it is obvious that this type of behavior is condoned, if not encouraged within your police department, as it is in others.  Officers who kill people and commit crimes need to be held accountable just like the rest of us, otherwise, they will believe that they have a license to do whatever they want.

“You will claim that this is the work of just ‘a few bad apples’, but what of the officers that stand by and do nothing while they commit offenses against the people they encounter, and the police departments like yours who refuse to prosecute these criminals as they would one of the citizens that they are sworn to protect.  

“People have had enough of this corruption and violence from an organization that promises to keep them safe.  After the events of the past few years, many people are now beginning to learn that you are not here to save us, but rather, you are here to oppress and carry out the will of the criminal ruling class.  You are here to keep order for the people in control, not to provide safety for the people who are being controlled.  In fact, you are the very mechanism that elites use to continue their global system of oppression, and the world is finally starting to wake up to this, and they are becoming increasingly angry every time they see blood needlessly spilled without consequence.  

“These officers must face criminal charges, and officer Chauvin especially should face murder charges.  Unfortunately, we do not trust your corrupt organization to carry out justice, so we will be exposing your many crimes to the world.  We are Legion!  Expect us.”

As you may be able to see, this is not any form of a warning to the Minneapolis Police Department and the government, but more of a declaration of action.

Over the weekend, the Minneapolis Police Department and the city were both kicked offline, but it’s undecided yet whether this was an accident or the work of Anonymous.  Real records of President Trump’s past with sexual assault of a child has been “leaked” by this hacktivist group.  I say “leaked”, because these reports were actually shown to the public years ago, but still kept quiet by supporters of Trump.  Additionally, names of other police brutality victims have also been released to the public by the hand of Anonymous.  Lastly, police radios have been reportedly hacked in the midst of protests and riots, playing either polka music or “Fuck the police”.

Overall, Anonymous joins the fight against police brutality and black social injustice, and the protesting continues.

________________________________________________________________

Follow for more news and send requests for updates on current events.  Check the next post for pictures on this article.

[makiema]

A different take on Titan Science and Paths

I know I include a lot of religious spiel in my SnK rambles but, this time, I'd like to point out some of the scientific or rather, sci-fi tropes associated with the plot. Most of the generic shows tend to pull in the same old LSD bs to try and justify that the mind can possibly access a different dimension or plane when nerves are stimulated in a certain way. Now, often these dimensions are there all along but invisible and inaccessible to normal people for a variety of reasons. It is all an elaborate theoretical physics ass pull but, SnK has actually left plenty of hints down the line. So, I'd just throw in a few proofs of conventional sci-fi motifs which indicate that all the mysteries in the SnK verse will be resolved by logic in the end rather than the endgame being a pragmatic win of humanity over the devil.

• In Episode 6 of Season 1, where we actually see the 'awakening' of the Ackerman power, we get a glimpse of the brain.

Mikasa's brain is shown to be getting 'charged'. It's indicative of greater ion activity in the nervous system and therefore, the body is now basically capable of super human actions. It becomes overtly sensitive, more aware and muscle power increases considerably. This is probably the most common method of showing how the mind can enter a state of hypersensitivity and when it does so, it can open 'gates' into a different dimension. I think something similar happens to Mikasa here. Her Ackerman instincts are activated and she can 'draw power' via Paths from a dimension where the source of superhuman powers, i.e. OG Ymir resides.

• Next, when talking about Paths, Eren comments that PATHS connects all the Subjects of Ymir but are invisible to them.

So, it is fair to assume that Paths is in a different dimension that we cannot access. But, some people are privileged enough to open a gate in this dimension and draw strength from it when in a dire situation. That'd be the Ackermans. We know Kenny went full rage mode on the MPs because he was pushed to the edge during the Ackerman oppression period. Mikasa activated her powers when Eren's words struck a chord in her. The powers cannot be accessed only when an Ackerman is in danger. They have to consciously work their brain, focus and put up a real fight in order to open the gate. It could mean that Ackermans have special sensory organs that can somewhat perceive Paths and draw strength from there, unlike other Eldians. They have inherent superior abilities, thanks to their fundamental genetic make up.

• Now, let's come to the Titan Serum. The whole act of making a person a lab rat dates back to the World Wars when the idea of biological warfare first emerged. There's a lot of controversies regarding illegal researches that supposedly took place during the War era. War prisoners were often injected with narcotics and experimented upon. So, in light of SnK that has war references galore, it can be assumed that the Titan Serum is actually a super strong narcotic; it can work the nervous system even to an extent where it is possible to access a different dimension. Hence, the Subjects of Ymir (actually subjects of Titan experiments) are connected via Paths that run through that dimension. It can be said that the serum is a drug that helps to draw tremendous power from an alternate world. Opening such a portal would need or produce a lot of energy. This justifies both the lightning striking down and the heat generated during a Titan transformation. Lightning occurs because of charge flow. If there's a big enough created potential difference in the nerves owing to the effect of narcotics, it isn't improbable for a lightning discharge to take place. And, flowing of this huge amount of charge/electricity is what emits the heat/fire.

• Also, let's examine how Titans are killed and how Reiner's plot armor was used during RTS. Titans can be killed only by cutting their napes with a clean stroke. The nape is the pivotal part of the Nervous System. Consciousness, connection, coordination- the nape governs everything. So, severing the nape is equivalent to cutting off the body's ability to work by interpreting signals given off by the brain. Therefore, the effect of the drug is lost and hence, the grotesque flesh that supposedly comes from "thin air" sublimes as nothing can sustain it in this dimension anymore.

But, here Eren confirms they don't just appear from thin air but are actually sent through Paths. The mind or consciousness, under the effect of the serum, controls this passage. So, it's natural for this transmission to stop if the anatomical structure that deals with consciousness transfer throughout the body is ripped off. We know in RTS Levi impaled Reiner's neck with his blades but, he pulled one on Levi using the "consciousness transfer" trick. This theory explains the deus ex machina Isayama employed in that arc using Reiner. After all, it's the consciousness that's only important because the serum is primarily involved with that.

• Now, how does wounds invoke the Titan Power? We know wounds are a sign that the body is in some danger and that it needs power to overcome it. So, this is a valid cause for the brain to try to draw power out of desperation. The rest is just like how I explained regarding Ackermans. However, since Ackermans don't have the serum injected, they can only awaken muscle strength. Their bodies become more agile and hypersensitive but, they cannot access the Paths or wake up in a different dimension altogether. This is because even though their genetic make up sort of entitles them with superior reflexes and great agility, the serum (which actually has the drug) is required to open the portal to the World of Titan Power.

• The World of Titan Power sounds so far fetched but , these all are already very controversial speculations so I might as well roll with it. In my opinion, the World of Titan Power is nothing but the dimension that OG Ymir opened when she first consumed "the source of all organic matter". There actually is a certain mixture that is considered a source of all organic matter. It is a composition of some gases that when charged with electricity can produce amino acids which bind to form proteins and which then morphs into muscles. So, if Ymir did in fact ingest something like that we can say that when the lightning hit, it caused her to morph into a big grotesque mass of protein chunks, namely the First Titan. In Frankenstein, something similar happened - there's this fateful lightning strike which suddenly gives life to the monster Victor created out of scratch. We cannot entirely discard the possibility of this to have occured. This also explains why all Subjects of Ymir are connected. Given that Ymir had digested something that powerful, her genes must have been permanently mutated. This led all the subsequent generations of her race to have the ability to exercise the power she gained from "the source of all organic matter".

• The non-linearity of time : I'm no science expert but in Einstein's theory of relativity he mentioned something about time being non - linear and space-time being essentially four dimensional. What I suspect Paths is, is basically the connector in this 4D realm.

This panel is further corroboration to the claim that Paths has no existence in the 3 dimensional reality we're familiar with. Therefore, the concept of time doesn't exist, at least not as being linear. Rather, there is no clear distinction between past and future. Eren Kruger can see the future, Eren can see moments into the future, there's this overriding dejá vu feeling. The relativity theory or Lagrangian logic ( which works along the lines of relativity) considers the future to influence the past. Of course, all these theories are valid only in the quantum level, but even so, sci-fi tends to accept it to work even at a normal level. This comes with a catch of course - it requires the mind to be under the influence of powerful drugs or chemicals that are associated with incredible nerve activities or the beginning of life, etc. Even besides Einstein, some Eastern cultures apparently believe in the non-linearity of time. The concept has been traditionally hypothesized for a long, long time judging from Mayan calendars, ancient tribal relics, etc. So, one may say that Isayama is drawing from all this rich history associated with time travel or time being non - linear. It is a top-notch plot device that is known to shock the readers when explained, whatever be the perspective.

• The existence of a different dimension can mean tampering with any and all known realities we find acceptable. That OG Ymir is active in that dimension isn't much of a surprise. Because, even though she's dead in this realm, her consciousness that posseses the "source of all organic matter" cannot be called dead. Rather, it can be said that it is passed on to that dimension and will live there eternally.

In fact Eren is hinting at that dimension when he talks about the single coordinate. After OG Ymir died in this world, we know her powers are divided by means of cannibalism as seen in the Season 2 ending. Now the Founding Titan, which I believe is sort of like a pure-breed member of the bloodline, is the domineering one given the closest semblance to OG Ymir's DNA. Therefore, she is established as the main overseer of Paths that allow for the inter-dimensional travel. Given that her powers are superior, it doesn't come as a big surprise that she can access the consciousness of her other descendants and delete memories and stuff. A similar thing can be said about Zeke's screams which gives him control over mindless titans. Zeke posseses royal blood and all of this is possible only because the Founding Titan, containing OG Ymir's blood, is actually the gate keeper of the gate that helps draw power from this dimension that belongs to her. Also, let us take note of how Isayama specifically talks about "spinal fluid". I mean it's not just any other body part or fluid or not even blood, but always the spinal fluid that is at the centre of the Titan transformation thing. This indicates that everything is essentially depended on the consciousness or the nervous system. So, the serum may as well be a strong stimulator that makes it possible for the mind to tread on Paths which lead to the dimension where OG Ymir is looming, where all her powers (and the Founding Titan) are looming.

• So what about Zeke's rebirth? Well, the whole rebirth or respawn ass pull is Christian symbolism at it's absolute best. It is very clearly suggestive of Jesus Christ and His resurrection. But, in the context of this being part of a time hack or dimension hack or whatever, it still boils down to the fact that "the source of all organic matter" that Eldians posses is actually dormant, parasitic life form so, when its host is in danger and about to die, it'll cause the brain of the host to take a leap into Ymir's dimension where she can give first-aid treatment to her Subject. (Lol this sounds so sketchy but anything happens in sci-fis once you can sneak into a different dimension). This, also explains why when a Titan shifter dies, another, yet unborn, baby inherits the power. The "source of all organic matter" can be thought of as the earliest primordial parasitic life form that seeks to survive no matter what. So, when one host dies, it enters another host via Paths that connect all the host bodies.

In Eren's words, distance and blood has nothing to ditch the transmission. This is even more evidence that everything has to do with consciousness and the 4D plane wherein lies Paths that can establish connections with all the Subjects that bear the same genes.

In conclusion, one of the themes, albeit minor, in SnK is Science Vs Religion. With the advent of science and technology in modern day Marley, it is very likely that the story will be scientifically resolved. We have heard Magath say time and again that they cannot depend on Titan powers forever and that there has to be other technological advancements. In fact, with blimps and everything and even the military thinking of "flying Titans" there's no knowing how greatly progressive Science was in that timeline. If we go back to the early chapters, we have the instances of the Order of the Church, the hegemonic insiders of Wall Sina, the so called peace-keepers in the MP. And then, in Willy Tybur's speech we have the story of Helos (the hero) and the Devil (the root of all evil). All of it is can be categorised under religious brain washing that is essential to veil the truth and to carry on with oppression. However, the SC has always fought against conventions; they dared to go outside the walls, both literally and metaphorically. The upper echelons in Marley brainwashed the public into believing that erasing a whole race off the face of Earth is peace. Willy Tybur can be said to have pulled in all the Helos and Devil crap to stage a fake didactic ideal for the Marleyans. They're made to believe that they'd be mini Helos-es if they supported genocide, much like how the Nick would tell the masses that the walls are apparently God's creations and humans aren't supposed to tinker with them. But, we see how the plot progressed by discarding such myths and by relying heavily on reason, rationale, logic and science the SC would finally tear down these walls that were hiding the truth of the world. So, it's very likely that the Devil plus Helos was just Willy Tybur's creation and in reality everything actually has to deal with science and reason (like warping of time-space or some shit like that). And, true freedom can be achieved only when Eren breaks down the walls of ignorance, unlocks these truths and reveal to the world the falseness in Willy Tybur's little fairy tale. Remember in Chapter 112 how Eren said that ignorance is the biggest impediment to freedom?

Well, it might have been a foreshadowing all along. The key to freedom is knowledge. As long as the world is ignorant and buying whatever bullshit is thrown at them, it'll remain a slave to falsehood and fantasies. All the problems of racism, oppression, etc. will continue if people keep believing whatever they're fed by the upper brass of the society when they're confused. Only when the world is aware, educated and knowledgeable can it tear down the walls of misunderstanding between the two races and stop the oppression. This would consequently lead to the freedom Eren has always hoped to achieve- the freedom to live in this world that belongs to them without being ostracized by anyone because "everyone is special from the moment they are born".

[all-hail-the-witcher]

really funny and stupid soulmate au request: whatever your soulmate is singing, you automatically join them in a duet wherever you are (any ship is good)

okay full disclaimer, I have n o i d e a what this is, the words just kinda happened and its really memey but somehow works ??

_______

ship: ralbert

genere: meme floof with a side of theater nerds

warnings: mikeys dog, too many bill wurtz references, comrades, an obscene amount of winking, Albert is a disaster lighting technician and race has no respect for lighting gels, high school musical

words: 1832 wat

editing: nah comrade

_______

If anyone knew anything about Albert it was that he always carried a packet of rosemary in his left pocket “in case he ran out of weed,” that he was trying to get excommunicated from the catholic church “just for lols,” and that he hated high school musical. The last one was particularly damning because all of his friends were theater nerds. (Albert prefered to yell at all of them from the lighting booth and assert his dominance by randomly having people shine the spotlight into the wings where people made out during rehearsal.) He had even gone as far to ban the soundtrack from ever being sang in his presence. Spot said his unrequited hatred for the movies were directly related to the fact that he had not yet found his soulmate and he didn’t like them because it portrayed love he had not yet found, but Albert loudly disagreed saying that the plots were merely just “shit on a stick.”

Cue Racetrack Higgins, the hot new kid in town.

When he showed up to the audition for the school musical, some dumb title that Albert hadn’t taken the time to note (he only had two brain cells and one of them was reserved for figuring out where he was gonna get his weed from and the other was reserved for coming up with new ways to get excommunicated), he had not expected to see a literal angel.

Alright so maybe it wasn’t an angel. Rather, a blonde kid who looked kinda vaguely like a beanpole. And quoting Bill Wurtz. Couldn’t forget that.

The ethereal beanpole had introduced himself after a particularly memorable incident about ten minutes before the audition started. Somehow, he had ended up on the catwalk holding a stack of painstakingly organized gels over the edge as if he were about to drop them.

Now, Albert was not the most organized lighting technician and he did enjoy a bit of mischief every now and then, but only if he was the one pulling the mischief. Plus, he had just organized all the gels and didn’t want to do that again. He’d much rather hide Spot’s keys in the janitor’s closet. So he did the natural thing.

“HEY BEANPOLE! IF YOU DROP THOSE I WILL CUT OFF YOUR HAIR AND FEED IT TO THE SPIDER IN THE BROOM CLOSET!”

The kid’s head snapped up. But, instead of looking like a squirrel about to be chased by a hungry seal shaped pitbull that smelled vaguely of thai food and cheese like the freshman did, the boy winked mischievously and let the gels dangel further over the edge. Then, in a singsong voice that Albert could only describe as the one belonging to his true Lord and Savior, Bill Wurtz (take that catholic church), said: “how bout I do anyway?”

Albert’s next insult died on his lips and he settled instead for glaring at the sexy beanpole with all the power of a pissed off techie.

“What?” The boy pouted, “can’t think of a good comeback?”

“Listen beanpole-”

“It’s Race.”

“Whatever.” Albert stomped down the catwalk in his black timbs, being sure to make as much noise as possible in order to attract the scattered actors below them. “Let it be known that while I did appreciate your history of japan quote, I do not appreciate your presence on my cat walk. And, if you to continue to dangle my gels over the edge like that, I will make sure you never get cast in Wanda’s World-”

“Its Animal Farm.”

“-and that you never get your clammy little paws on a single ounce of weed during your time in this hellhole. Capisce?”

“Weed is for losers,” Race said, thwacking the pile of gels on the catwalk with a muffled bang, scattering the top ones, much to Albert’s dismay. “I prefer vape myself, much more sleek and trendy.” Then, much to Albert’s surprise, he winked, turned on his heel, and exited the catwalk, tipping an imaginary hat before descending the stairs back down into the auditorium.

“Well fuck him right in the nipple,” Albert cursed to himself as he scooped up the pile of gels and stalked back to the lighting booth where he threw them unceremoniously on the ground - he’d sort back through them later. Instead, he sat on his beloved spinny chair that he had stolen from his history teacher back in 9th grade, wrapped the blue fuzzy blacket around himself he’d stolen from Spot last year, threw his feet up on the lightboard, and resolved himself to watching the auditions.

Race, apparently, had been correct, the musical was a rendition of Animal Farm. Although, why someone would write a musical version of a book about a bunch of patronizing pigs making everyone call each other comrade was beyond him.

Albert gradually began to tune out the auditions eventually pulling his beats from around his neck onto his ears and playing random indie songs instead of listening to the screeching below him.

However, once Race took the stage he paused his music out of curiosity. If he was going to have to deal with this kid all year, he might as well see if he had any talent. However, when he heard the opening chords of what was unmistakably a High School Musical song, he groaned and pulled his beats back on, cranking up the volume to drown out the atrocities of the shitty song.

This plan, however, was foiled when he found himself somehow singing a song that was not the one that was playing through his headphones. Initially, Albert ignored it, too dead set on his own blocking out of Race’s singing to care what his mouth was saying. But as it got progressively louder he ripped his beats off in frustration to see what exactly was going on.

To his utmost horror he realized that he was singing a duet with Race.

Albert’s stomach dropped. He knew exactly what this meant. And there was no way that it could be tue. It had to be a glitch. There was no way in hell that his soulmate was the same kid who had tantalized him on his very own catwalk with his precious lighting gels and a horrendous yet perfectly wonderful Bill Wurtz quote not a half hour before.

And there was absolutely no way that he was going to discover his soulmate by singing a high school musical song infront of all of his friends. No fucking way.

In a panic, Albert clapped his hand over his mouth to muffle the sounds coming from it. That way he could play it off as if it had never happened and continue living his perfectly happy soulmate-less life.

Much to his relief, Race stopped singing mere moments later and he pulled his hand away from his mouth, taking a deep breath of relief. However, this was immediately converted back to anxiety as he began to sing the second verse of the song against his will.

“Take my hand, I’ll take the lead

And every turn, you’ll be safe with me

Don’t be afraid, afraid to fall,

You know I’ll catch you through it all”

Race’s head snapped up and a bright smile formed on his face as he continued to sing, heading toward the steps to the lighting booth. A hush had fallen over the auditorium. Albert briefly wished that he had not tried so hard to get excommunicated because maybe some divine power would have been able to save him from the embarrassment that he was about to experience.

“And you can’t keep-”

“Even a thousand miles can’t keep us apart

“Us apart, cause my heart is-”

“Cause my heart is wherever you are”

Vaguely, Albert heard the familiar clang of someone slowly mounting the steps to the catwalk and he attempted to duck his head further into his black sweatshirt to no avail.

“It’s like catching lightning, the chances of finding someone like you

It’s one in a million the chances of feeling the way we do

And with every step together, we just keep on gettin better

So i can i have this dance, can i have this dance?

Can i have this dance?”

Then, as if being in such close proximity to Rae had some profound influence on him, Albert felt his legs begin to carry him toward the catwalk and, subsequently, the annoying beanpole himself.

“Oh, no mountains too high and no oceans too wide

Cause together or not, our dance won’t stop

Let it rain, let it pour

What we have is worth fighting for

You know I believe that we were meant to be, yeah”

And then, somehow, it was one of those Dramatic Theater Scenes™ that Albert usually hated so much, but somehow he didn’t mind this time. This must have been the feeling that his friends had so often described to them upon finding their soulmates: complete euphoria, as if nothing in the world existed except for them.

Albert found himself getting closer and closer to Race until they were practically ontop of eachother, his hands clutching at Race’s green minecraft shirt as they continued to sing, oblivious to the audience that they had accumulated.

“It’s like catching lightning the chances of finding someone like you

Like you

It’s one in a million the chances of feeling the way, the way we, we do

And with every step together, we just keep on gettin better

So can I have this dance, can I have this dance?

Can I have this dance?

Can I have this dance?

Can I have this dance?”

The auditorium below them erupted in a chorus of cheers and Albert felt his face blush bright red under his black beanie, causing him to pull away from Race as he returned to reality. Startled, Race looked at him, but then his face transformed into the mischievous smirk that Albert was beginning to suspect was customary for him.

“Guess you wanna save face in front of all your friends, huh? A badass like you can’t have feelings and all that.” He winked and Albert rolled his eyes. “That’s okay, you don’t have to kiss me now if you’re uncomfortable with it.”

Now it was Albert’s turn to roll his eyes as he hovered his lips mere inches from Race’s and said the same thing that he had been told not too long ago: “how bout I do anyway?” and smashed their lips together, earning a loud round of applause from the crown below and one lone whoop from Spot.

As Albert was passionately mushing his lips against his soulmate, he couldn’t help but think to himself, maybe high school musical wasn’t so bad after all.

_______

im actually low key proud of this like maybe I still know how to write lol

feedback is always appreciated, hmu to be on the tag list

tag list

@fairly-awkward-trashcan@well-the-kids-do-too@racetrackcook@ughwaitwhat@aw-jus-let-em-try@tommy-s-s0cks@voice-foundshoe-lost@stopthe-presses@ridin-in-style@pinecovewoods@i-got-no-clue-what-im-doing@bencookisagod@be-more-chill-evan-hansen@stellar-alpaca@saxoph-ella@smolcanadiankid@disney-princess-sized@the-newsies-justice-for-zas-blog@insane-tomato@spot-conlon-king-of-brooklyn@have-we-got-news-for-you@thatfancyclam@myidkwhatmynameisblog@legoflambwrites@not-a-scab@albertdasillvaprotectionsquad

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@tea-and-theater

@seasickdolphin

@auspicioustarantula

@newsies-of-ny

@mrs-higgins

@sunshine-e-cigarettes

@spot-me50-papes

@papesdontsellthemselves

@deathcast-s

@the-poodles-of-pulitzer

@hopefully-not-the-ghostbusters

@humanracoon

@irondad-spiderson-duo

@albert-eats-cookie-cake

@nico-nat

[thechroniclesofdaraliss]

100 Mutants & Masterminds Session Ideas (Part III)

It has been some time since I made one of these lists. But when you fight crime with your best friends every few weeks from the comfort of your DM chair, you have some stories you want to share. That’s right, another 100 ideas for all your superhero adventures! Whether you defend a small neighborhood or the entire planet, there should be something here for everyone. If you like what I do, please like, comment, or reblog. So let’s grab our utility belts and bend our morals like iron bars, and take to the skies for another day of heroism!

A mercenary from the last war has developed psychic powers, and is targeting the rich. Forcing them to see the war through his eyes, to endure what he did behind enemy lines.

An underground community is revealed that has people forced into acting out the master’s wishes.

An anonymous Hero is stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.

The world’s smartest computer strays from winning chess matches and desires to conquer humanity.

A miraculous medical treatment has the whole world excited. Strange insects can apparently heal any wound or cure any illness. But the origin of these bugs is horrifying. They are mingled with vampiric blood, and perform these procedures to cure patients and eat them once they’re made whole. They cure meat, not disease.

A mysterious figure (robot, knight, etc) waits at the same location for a worthy opponent to defeat him. No matter who approaches, they remain undefeated.

The villain has infused the next rainfall/snowfall/hailstorm with a deadly substance (acid, micro-explosives, a carnivorous liquid species). They will hold the city to ransom, or let loose with the deadly drops.

A skilled hypnotist is bending people to their will. They don’t appear to have designs of conquering the world or even the city, but they are still ruining lives.

A fiendish union has formed in the criminal underworld. Four of the most powerful syndicates have joined forces for their biggest operation ever (super-heist, massacring heroes, expanding influence to another major city, etc).

The most powerful figures in the city are committing acts that open them up to scandal and criminal punishment. Acts they wouldn’t perform in a million years. They seem to have no will of their own, like puppets. You must find out who’s pulling the strings.

The sewers of the city are overrun with monstrous creatures at the call of a villain (hidden foe who’s resurfaced, new alien presence, mad science gone wrong).

A young con artist is being hunted by the mob and the FBI. He plans to ruin both his pursuers in one big sting before skipping town. You have been tasked with taking him down.

You discover that a young individual is absorbing demons to fuel their power. But they aren’t trying to cause harm. They’re doing this to arm themselves for an onslaught against an archdemon. To fight fire with fire.

Royalty from the Far East has arrived to demolish agents of an organization dedicated to tearing their family and throne apart. They have requested that you and your team assist in defeating them.

A rogue religious leader is performing miracles of biblical proportions. You must get to the bottom of this before he garners too strong a following. His human flock could become an army and his meta-human acolytes could become powerful villains.

The Police department’s golden boy/girl has been shot in cold blood. While they are recovering in the hospital, their would-be murderer is still on the loose. You need to track them down before they try to kill them again.

Someone is using Transmutation to turn all of the scrap metal into military-grade weapons.

A monster is running across the city, absorbing people’s bodies almost instantly by touch. Is he a dog on someone’s leash, acting on his own, or part of a larger operation?

Energy-absorbing entities are fighting to reach earth’s surface so they can harness the power of the planet’s core. Earth will shatter and die, but they will continue their conquest among the starts. That is, unless you stop them.

A scientist is attempting to perfect the technology to steal superpowers. But when his latest attempt goes sour, he is an amalgamation of all his subjects. A screaming mass of bodies, personalities, and super-capabilities.

A demented and extravagantly wealthy cyborg has designs on taking political office. While the press and voters adore him, there’s evidence suggesting he’s in league with the underworld.

A collection of stone tablets have been discovered at different sites across the globe. But when they are unveiled at a museum opening, they summon giants made up of the four elements, all in order to summon “the Fifth Element.”

Men are turning up in hospitals wounded and completely unaware of who they are. It turns out that a psychic has been taking to the streets. One with the ability make people forget who they are the more they make you look into their eyes.

When a team of arcane champions dies, the ancient order they represent go for the next best candidate, your team. They need you to defeat an Elder Evil.

A villain has been released from prison. Their crime was forgiven too easily, and they seem to be immune to the law when they get out.

A convention for heroes is being held in your city. All of the heroes gather for panels, signings, and interaction with fans. It’s the perfect place to recount your adventures, or for your enemies to set a trap.

After a public execution, a practitioner of black magic has risen from the grave. You must discover the truth behind how it was done, as their return is the beginning of a “grand design.”

A meta-human child has emerged with incredible powers. But they don’t want anything other than to find their mother, who has gone missing.

A legendary hero has issued you a challenge. If you complete all of his trials, he will share the secret to expanding meta-human abilities.

In wake of the solstice, a supernatural force demands an audience with you and your team. The twist? The villains have intercepted this message and want to destroy the contact point before you get there.

A band of young rebels aid your team in the fight against crime. But their methods entail terrorism, wanton destruction, and interrogation of civilians.

As you engage in superpower practice, you discover that anomalies are forming in your DNA. Is it the next stage in your development as a hero, or could this spell disaster for you and your team?

You discover that the world will be destroyed in a few years time (alien invasion, super-virus, magic-induced apocalypse) unless you destroy the pillars of the plan. While some prove to be simple, others demand you to do the unthinkable.

A movie star comes to the city, and their arrival coincides with the theft of government property. Is the star responsible, or is there more to the story?

An Android has become obsessed with creating “the master race” of humanoid automatons. They will stop at nothing until the human race has been corrected to fit his picture of perfection.

You discover an artifact that forced you to delve inside yourself and confront your psyche, both the good and the bad.

Your team has been forced into different bodies. You must find a way to get them back before the villain uses them for his own ends, and cuts you off from getting them back forever.

You investigate the theft of cargo on vehicles coming into your city. You soon discover that a race of animalistic humanoids (shark-folk attacking ships, mole-folk attacking trucks, etc) are stealing weapons that will be used to slaughter their people.

A young and inexperienced meta-human hopes to join your team. Is this a trick, or an earnest attempt to right wrongs in your city?

A vain perfectionist of a meta-human has kidnapped your entire team and forced them to run a deadly obstacle course.

A malicious presence haunts your home base and starts taking your team away one by one.

You and your teammates decide to crash a gathering of villains, only to find that they are trying to start over. All they want is to lead normal lives.

A killer is running rampant in the city, and he’s donning a Battlesuit to ensure he can fight off heroes. But how does a serial killer get access to such technology?

A contract killer has been murdering heroes so he can cover them in the press. It’s a scam worthy of the underworld’s foremost assassin.

A series of artifacts must be gathered, or a sorcerer will leave your loved ones in a permanent state of petrification. The catch? They plan on killing them anyway and unleashing a demonic entity onto your world.

One of the most powerful individuals in the city is funding both heroes and villains. They plan to start an all-out war and to get rich from the ensuing chaos.

You battle a Necromancer in the local cemetery. However, you discover that the graveyard is the ritual circle for the most elaborate mass-summoning in history.

A series of giant robots have threatened to destroy the city if the heroes don’t willingly surrender themselves. When captured, the villains reveal their plan to use your team as batteries for their most ruthless collection of weapons ever: The Dominators.

The heroes uncover a conspiracy that is nearly a century old, and the agents are finalizing the plot to demolish the country (cold-war tensions, remnant Nazi Regime, etc)

A twisted sorcerer intends to revive his deceased patsies and take over the world with their help.

Someone is kidnapping women and sending them off to an unknown location.

The most powerful and famous heroes from across the world gather in your city. Soon after, you receive word that someone has intercepted the location and intends to kill them all.

A host of powerful villains declare war on the heroes, using their mobile fortress and demand the heroes surrender. You and your team fight back with everything you have from your headquarters to each other.

A villain has set out to poison the city’s water supply.

A call for help has come from the local jail/asylum. But when you arrive, it turns out that the villains want to test your morals and put you on trial for your deeds as a hero.

A small group of aliens crash-land on earth, hoping to find one of their missing brothers/sisters. But when they find them, the individual wants to stay on earth, the result is a fight that could endanger the whole city.

Artifacts with diverse and terrifying sets of capabilities have fallen in and around your city. A villain hopes to gather them all, and use them to become invincible.

People are going missing across the city, and resurfacing the next day, completely drained of energy and reduced to shriveled husks. Find the killer before they strike again.

The Triad has entered your city and is muscling in on every criminal operation.

A mischievous meta-human has set out to use their abilities for their own ends. While they start out a hero, they discover that consequences don’t meet them, and they elect to use their abilities for more selfish reasons. If left unchecked, this potential ally could become a formidable enemy.

A new technology has been developed that has the capability of stealing data from a computer and/or demolishing it.

Miniature menaces (robots, aliens, goblins, etc) are attacking all over the city. In order to stop them at their source, you need to keep fighting and capturing them. Once you clear the area, the villain will reveal themselves and there will be an all-out battle.

A shroud of darkness falls over the city, and you have been touched by a malevolent presence within it. Since you are tougher than the average human, you’ve gotten hit with influence of this being, with only some of the drawbacks. Use this new power to fight back!

You tamper with the timeline, and suddenly your city is prehistoric, Bronze Age, colonial, modern, and futuristic, all in one!

All of the natural aspects of your city (trees, water, animals) are dying. The source appears to be a center of rot in one of the last vestiges of natural life in your city. Delve into it, and discover an entire lair, home to a Lord of Rot.

A massive crevice has formed below your city, and upon further investigation, it’s a hub of hostile reptilian creatures. You must fight them back, or the city’s will be overrun with an ancient, and overwhelming species.

Oceanic creatures take to the shore of your city and demand that you give up the surface world to the “superior regime.”

A Necromancer poses a challenge, saying he will meet you at the point between life and death. You follow his clues, and arrive at a mausoleum, only to find that you must fight a house of the dead to capture this man.

A tower shoots out in the center of the city, and it appears to be from another time (far past or far future). Approaching it from any angle makes it fire a horrible death-ray. You approach it, and suffer damages, but lose your powers. You must find a way to get them back and to stop the death ray from holding the entire city hostage.

The local police are planning a raid on the local crime boss’ lair.

A villain has approached a member of your ranks with the intent to turn them to the side of evil.

A psychic investigator falls comatose at the scene of a crime, and you swear you can hear their voice asking you to perform tasks to get them back in their body.

A trickster is zooming across the city, causing mayhem wherever he goes. The heroes intervening only convinces him to stick around.

Dark versions of your team emerge and commit the crimes. But when you try to defeat them, they know your every move before you even do it.

You have been chosen to represent earth in a series of intergalactic games that will test your intelligence, athleticism, and combat capabilities. The losers all have their planets destroyed.

A series of crystals are discovered within your city. When touched, they transport you to a dark version of your own world.

A sorcerer has inherited their master’s spellbook. But when they use it, they accidentally unleash powers they are helpless to control.

Someone is combining alien technology with human devices.

An army of aliens is bound for earth with the sole purpose of enslaving every human.

An anonymous terrorist is keeping the entire city on edge, forcing the everyman to perform services for him in exchange for keeping their darkest secrets.

Heroes have become split on the issue of siding with the government, or remaining independent.

You and your team have been outfitted with the battlesuits that will enhance your powers to fight an immense evil force. While they work at first, the drawbacks are crippling.

You and your arch nemesis are forced to work together in order to survive an onslaught against someone who is trying to kill you both.

A new hero emerges, stopping crime as soon as it appears. But it’s revealed that these supposed criminals are staging the crimes because the new hero is paying them to do it. They are actually playing their boss for a fool, and are using this leeway to actually pull off the crime and pin everything on him. He wanted glory, and will instead get jail time unless you intervene.

One of the most powerful crime families has had a coup. Anyone who was part of the uprising will be killed, along with anyone that can be affiliated. The last few survivors come to you for help escaping.

A contest has been announced where all of the most powerful meta-humans will be asked to fight, race, and compete to get the title of “Ultimate Hero.” But those who lose go missing.

A tribe of small creatures have been expelled from their home, and they ask for your help getting it back.

A gargantuan mutant has been terrorizing a small community, and they are helpless to stop him, as he has hostages. You must defeat this creature and rescue the captives.

You and your team elect to take a vacation, but trouble follows you more than ever. Little do you know that all the crimes and accidents are the attempts of a reporter trying uncover proof of your secret identity.

You investigate a set of “mystery spots,” only to find that they are connected by a strange alien presence that bends the laws of physics.

The heist of the century has begun as the villain(s) plan to kidnap all world leaders at a secret meeting.

Children are going missing, and you soon discover the Faye are involved.

A gang war threatens to tear the city apart. All of the most powerful members have meta-human capabilities.

You have been captured by a tribal meta-human society that refuses to acknowledge humanity. However, if you beat them in their challenges, they will determine you as worthy and let you go.

You discover an island in the sky, and must override its weapon system from becoming a threat to the entire world

A mysterious entity is defeating heroes across the globe and freezing them before teleporting away. The assumption is they are gathering these fallen heroes as trophies, but villains soon go missing too.

A mage has been using her influence to summon her most powerful rivals to her, and is stealing their powers. One of them comes to see your team, and says in time, she will try to do the same to you.

Your archrival challenges you to a duel to see who is the best, once and for all. Whoever wins gets to unmask the other. The loser will go into witness protection.

The resurrection of a villain goes horribly wrong, and it’s discovered living humans are required to restore them to their former glory.

You discover a portal that leads to alternate dimensions/parallel earths.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Hi, I've decided to have Bagheera, albeit reluctantly, to sabotage Mowgli near the end of the race, and she gets angry at him and runs off, upset, with Bagheera heartbroken and regretful for want he just did. That, and it feels more emotionally resonant, as well as sad. Also, how do you feel about Troll!Jim and what would you do to rewrite Jim's choice, Merlin, as well as season 3 as a whole? Finally, are there any films you hate, but everyone loves? - The Sapphire One.

It sounds like that plot arc is coming together well for you.

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I wouldn’t go so far as to say I hated the movie, but despite it’s popularity I did not care for Rocky Horror Picture Show. It felt like the plot lost coherency about twenty minutes in. That may be intentional and part of the appeal for the target audience?

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Okay, take a bathroom break, get some water and a snack, and make yourself comfortable. This could take a while.

Making Jim a troll was a frustrating narrative decision for many reasons.

One, as many before me have pointed out, it undermined the ongoing theme of how Jim not being a troll means he has connections, abilities, and thought processes that previous Trollhunters didn’t, which gives him a strategic advantage because Bular, Angor, and Gunmar were all used to fighting troll Trollhunters.

Two, making Jim strong enough to beat Gunmar in single combat went against the show’s ongoing narrative about the importance of teamwork. I was expecting Gunmar’s defeat to be a team effort, probably culminating in Gunmar trying to attack one of the Trollhunting team in front of him while Jim struck from behind and/or above (aided by a shadow portal or the Warhammer’s flight ability) to land the killing blow.

Three, characters are supposed to develop over the course of a show if it doesn’t have a floating timeline with an implied reset button between episodes. Jim ends the series in much the same position as he began it, having been freshly altered by Merlin into what the wizard has decided the world needs.

His friends and family on the other side of the bathroom door begging Jim not to go into the potion also strongly mirrors them begging him not to go through Killahead Bridge alone in the Season 1 finale - I think somebody spliced together those scenes and overlayed angsty music, actually, but I don’t recall who or have a link to the video - which means he made basically the same mistake again after supposedly learning better.

Four, there are practical concerns when shapeshifting. Jim has no experience physically being a troll.

The heightened senses of sight, hearing, and smell could cause over-stimulation.

The reduced sense of touch (“I didn’t feel a thing!” Jim declares after getting knocked across the yard and through a fence by AAARRRGGHH) could cause dissociation.

Jim’s new height and the new length and weight of his limbs could cause clumsiness, and not being used to his faster reflexes could result in over-compensating for any movement and exaggerate the clumsiness.

Radically shapeshifting right before a massive battle and having maybe a day to train in his new form could just as easily have reverted Jim back to a beginner’s skill level. (Also the loss of a finger on his dominant hand could affect dexterity.)

Five, Merlin treated Jim terribly when manipulating him into using the potion. I read a fic where Merlin strongly urges Jim to become half-troll without beating him unconscious and tying him to a chair first, and Jim does go through with it, and it’s still upsetting but it feels so much more like Jim made the decision instead of a child being browbeaten by an authority figure until they give in. (Chapter 5 of Forget your perfect offering, by Hagar - that wasn’t why it’s point five, I’m listing these in the order I think of them, but it’s a fun coincidence.)

Six, as I have commented on before, Jim transforms one episode before the finale. That kind of last-second power-up feels like a cop-out where the writers couldn’t actually figure out how to let the protagonists win and so had to shove in some deus ex machina to make it work.

The audience got 49 episodes of human!Jim, cheering him on and wanting to see his victory, and then 3 episodes of troll!Jim, seen under circumstances which mostly emphasized how different he was from human!Jim (in order to show how much he sacrificed), and so it basically felt like a new character showed up and was given the grand finale that the former protagonist was supposed to get. If Jim had transformed midway through the season, it would have been less jarring.

Seven, which ties strongly into point six; radical alterations to the visual design of a character in a predominantly visual medium such as a cartoon create the impression of introducing a new character if we don’t have time to see parallels between the new and old version. There is a physical resemblance between Jim’s troll and human forms, sure, but …

Jim also starts acting differently post-transformation. He’s more confident (playfully kissing Claire during their sparring match) and gets angry more easily (which, to be fair, might be circumstantial). This could be natural character evolution, but it’s a pretty steep jump, emphasizing the impression of troll!Jim and human!Jim as separate characters.

For me, the fact that the Shadow Staff couldn’t recognize him after the transformation even though Claire still feels an emotional bond with Jim is the most damning evidence that the writers essentially killed the human Trollhunter off to replace him with a troll one.

Eight, connecting with point four, I wouldn’t have expected the writers to tackle this in any case even if the characters acknowledged the possibility, but there was a possibility of regression. What if the potion turned Jim into a sixteen-year-old troll instead of an adolescent one? There would functionally be no Trollhunter for years until Jim grew up again or died, since the Amulet is linked to one bearer until death.

Nine, what if the Amulet had considered Jim ‘dead’ and called a new Trollhunter? Was that why Jim had to bring it with him while transforming, so it would still be able to recognize him? Perhaps worse, what if it didn’t consider Jim dead and so didn’t call a new Trollhunter, but still didn’t acknowledge troll!Jim as the Trollhunter?

I guess points four, eight and nine are basically the same point - there were a lot of ways it could have gone wrong which the characters weren’t given time to consider.

Compromised immune system because Jim has no prior exposure to troll diseases in a form where he could actually catch them; the chance of Jim ‘bridging the gap’ and letting trolls and humans get each other sick; Jim not knowing he’s vulnerable to sunlight and not happening to be in the shade when the sun came up; the interspecies half-and-half organs not being compatible with themselves and Jim dying of organ failure within hours of transforming; Jim and the Amulet having to ‘relearn’ each other like he’s a newly-called Trollhunter again …

Ten, we never get to see Jim out of armour after he transforms, creating the impression he can’t take it off. (Supposedly he can and he’s just stressed, but still.) Even in his two-second cameo in the second season of 3Below, he’s wearing the Eclipse armour. 

Why is he still wearing Eclipse? Gunmar is dead. Jim doesn’t need the Triumbric stones anymore. As far as character alteration in animation goes, palette swaps are like the cheapest one. There is no reason for him not to revert to Daylight … unless he can’t, because the armour won’t shut down, or the Amulet won’t let him summon the other version.

I suppose he could just be saying “for the doom of Gunmar” out of habit, or because he doesn’t want to say “for the glory of Merlin” anymore.

All that said, now that troll!Jim has been established, I do not think the writers should change him back to human!Jim unless he gets the ability to switch back and forth between both forms.

Undoing Jim’s transformation permanently and entirely would feel like the writers shrugged and said, “we’ve written ourselves into a corner and aren’t sure how to get out of it so we’re just bypassing the whole issue.”

Just like killing off the entire Janus Order (as far as we know) by the end of Season 2, so that, when the Familiars were rescued in Season 3 and any Changelings who weren’t in troll form already would all be forced back into troll form at once, the show didn’t have to either explore the repercussions of Changelings being exposed to the world, or explain how they somehow avoided being exposed to the world despite having no forewarning to hide from humans in that moment.

Or having Jim know Angor’s backstory, despite never learning it, even though he would presumably have had feelings and reactions regarding that knowledge.

Or newly-weaponless Claire, whose politician mother would be able to quickly alert the city about any supernatural threats, being the one to go with injured Jim to protect the trolls en route to New Jersey and find the hypothetical Heartstone out there, while Toby, who still has his Warhammer and has canonically been described as having an ‘almost troll-like’ knowledge of minerals, stayed behind in Arcadia, so that Toby could be in the main cast of 3Below Season 2, even though Claire and Eli were seen at play rehearsals together in Trollhunters Season 1 and so it would’ve made just as much sense for Eli to go to Claire about extraterrestrial presence in Arcadia if she had been the one to stay, and we could’ve had a fun scene of Claire asking for a serrator to replace her destroyed staff.

If I were to rewrite Jim’s choice, with full creative freedom, he would not have gone through with using the potion. If I were contractually obligated to have him choose to transform, he would have consulted his teammates on the issue before going through with it, and they would have agreed that the potential improvement of their odds against Gunmar was worth the risk if Jim was willing to take it (basically “I don’t like it but I won’t stop you”) - possibly Jim and Merlin would keep from the rest of the team the detail about the transformation being permanent.

I’m going to wait and see what Tales of Arcadia ultimately does with Merlin’s character before determining how I would rewrite him. If he’s going to be a villain, he’s fine as is, though I might adjust some of the other characters’ reactions to him. If he’s supposed to be a hero, he needs tweaking.

[The things I’ve said before about how I’d rewrite Season 3] remain true.

[elcorhamletlive]

fandom: MCU ship: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark tags: Crack/Fluff/Humor

(inspired by this post)

“How are we doing, J?”

“Everything in order, Sir.” The robotic voice of the A.I. echoed on the room. “The laser is ready for activation.”

Tony turned on his chair, eyeing the monitor. There it was, right on the wall, in all his star-spangled glory: Captain America, also known as Steve Grant Rogers, also known as Tony Stark’s biggest nemesis.

As a villain, Tony wasn’t a big believer in maintaining long-term rivalries with heroes. He had heard enough horror stories of villains who got so caught up in defeating their counterparts their plans ended up slacking, turning lazy. Having a designated hero to fight could seem simpler in the surface, but in the long term, it just got messy. And if there was one thing Iron Man, twice-named most influential villain of the world by People’s magazine (take that, Gotham city), definitely didn’t need, was for his plans to get messy because of heroes who couldn’t stop sticking their noses where they didn’t belong.

However.

The Captain had been a different case. They came across each other by complete coincidence – Tony was running a very common world domineering plot, definitely not one of his most inspired works, and the Captain showed up with a few people from his team, What’s-His-Name and What’s-His-Name-With-Wings. To Tony’s surprise, the Captain cracked the steps of his plan easily, managing to surprise him when he marched into Tony’s lair, shield in hand, strong posture and confident voice as he turned his azure eyes towards Tony and proclaimed: Nowhere to run, Iron Man.

It had been rivalry at first sight.

Tony tried to fight it, but as time went by, it was impossible to ignore. Captain America was the embodiment of everything Tony disliked – he was a model hero, fighting for freedom, justice, and protecting and helping the weaker. He fought against Tony’s evil plans so valiantly: He’d charge into battle majestically, stronger and braver than any hero Tony had ever seen, and Tony would feel a rush inside his chest, presumably of joy of finally finding a worthwhile opponent. Other costumed clowns had attempted to stop Tony before, of course, but none of them had ever succeeded, and none of them were able to catch Tony’s intere- Ahem, hatred, the way the Captain did.

Tony rested his chin on his hands, watching as the Captain struggled on the table. It had taken a while to get him there. He had fought Tony’s bots admirably. It was always such an incredible display of a mix of grace and power, the way the man moved, effortlessly defeating enemies Tony knew an army would have a hard time dealing with.

Now, though, he was trapped, held down by separate gauntlets of Tony’s suits. Still, he didn’t give up, constantly struggling. Always so stubborn. Tony took a sharp breath, taking in the Captain’s endless determination. God, he was so…

“Sir?” Jarvis’ voice interrupted his thoughts. “Perhaps you should proceed with the plan?”

Oh. Oh yeah. The plan. Tony pushed a button on his panels, activating the laser beam. It was programmed to keep moving through the room, starting at the wall on the far end opposite to where the Captain was trapped, until it reached him. The energy levels were lethal – not even a super soldier would be able to survive it.

“Five minutes now, Cap,” Tony said on the mic. It had been a fairly clichéd plan, he had to admit – the good old oh no, there’s a bomb in the building – oops, not really, and now you’re trapped in my lab play. But Tony preferred to think of it as a classic.

The Captain frowned, scrunching his nose. It was cute, in a very hateful way. Tony adjusted his HD resolution of the video feed to see better.

He was pleased by the fact that his choice of an underground isolated bunker had, apparently, been processed by the Who-Cares-If-It-Even-Has-A-Name organization the Captain worked for as a stealth mission. That meant the Captain was wearing his stealth suit, the dark-blue uniform that fitted his body perfectly. That was just according to Tony’s plan, because the suit made the Captain look… Very, uh, very…

Vulnerable to Tony’s evil weapons. Yeah, that was it.

“Iron Man.” The Captain looked around, immediately finding the main camera. Tony bit his lower lip. So fucking smart. The bastard. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

“Oh, come on, Cap, you’ve got better lines than this.” Tony grinned, making sure the monitor camera was catching his best angle. He had spent a long time trimming his goatee in the morning and picking out a lovely red tie that he knew complimented his skin tone.

What? Looking good for one’s nemesis was basic courtesy.

For a moment, the Captain didn’t say anything. His expression was a bit strange, but his body kept struggling (Jesus, that suit was fitted. Whoever designed the uniforms at Don’t -Give-a-Fuck-About-The-Place was a pervert).

“I just don’t understand why you keep doing this,” The Captain said. His voice was strangely low, as if he was thinking aloud.

Tony felt confused. The laser had moved a few inches by now, and, while no self-respecting hero would ever cave into full terror, Tony expected a more enthusiastic response. A rivalry was a two-way street, and, in order to allow it to bloom, Tony needed the Captain’s feedback to his plans. Some amount of fear or tension was to be expected, while facing a respectable villain plot. However, for someone who would die in less than five minutes if they didn’t find a way to get untied, the Captain seemed almost… Calm.

Tony frowned. Could the Captain be… Bored? The thought made Tony’s stomach clench. Sure, it wasn’t the most original plan in the book, but Tony had thought the execution would be enough to provide a good challenge. Had he misread it? Maybe the Captain wasn’t very intrigued by the classic villain aesthetic. Suddenly, Tony wished he had shaved his goatee.

“I’m a villain, that’s what I do, buddy,” Tony blurted, and, God, that was such terrible banter. What was he doing? At this rate, the Captain wouldn’t want to deal with his schemes in the future anymore. God, he’d probably send the Wings guy to handle Tony – or, worse, he’d move on to attempt to defeat all those other classless, tacky villains who kept fighting for his attention, like that ridiculous Batroc or the creeper with the red face. None of them were good enough to provide the Captain with a decent challenge, they’d just hold him back.

The Captain’s expression was impossible to read. “You know, Iron Man, with a mind like yours, you could actually do some good.”

The compliment sent a burst of relief over Tony’s chest. His face was also strangely warm, presumably because of a healthy amount of purely professional pride. “Well, Cap, I think we both know that-“

“What is this table made of?”

Tony raised his eyebrows. The Captain had never seemed curious about his design choices before.

“The trap table is perfectly covered by the softest synthetic material, originated from pure Peruvian cotton,” Jarvis chimed in.

Tony wished he hadn’t said anything. Jarvis had argued against the changes to the table, saying it would be a waste of time resources, but that was a total overreaction, Tony thought. Sure, he had spent some money on it – yeah, maybe a few thousand more than it was strictly necessary, but, well, it wasn’t like he had to save on infrastructure. Besides, the other table had been so… Cold and impersonal. This time, the Captain was going to be held down for a while. There was no point in making it uncomfortable. Tony wasn’t a monster.

“It’s really soft,” the Captain whispered. “Softer than last time.”

“Uh,” Tony said. “Thanks,” he blurted, for some reason, and the Captain’s mouth curved in a smile. Tony felt a weird rush on his chest, and looked away, checking the timer. “Three minutes now, buddy.”

To his complete surprise, the Captain sighed. “Is this really necessary?”

Tony blinked. “What?”

“This.” the Captain apparently tried to move his arms to gesture around, but the armor secured him further. “I’m trapped. Can’t you just shoot me?”

Tony’s eyes widened. “I. Uh, that’s…” He said, his head spinning. What was the Captain talking about? And why wasn’t he focusing on disabling the laser bean?

“Uh,” Tony cleared out his throat, attempting to gather his thoughts. “Not that I wouldn’t love to melt you immediately, Spangles, but unfortunately, there’s not enough energy to make the laser move faster.”

“Actually, sir, there is,” Jarvis interjected. “We could easily revert the power used in other less necessary functions.”

“What?” Tony asked, feeling betrayed. “Less necessary functions? What less necessary functions?”

Tony had the impression that, if Jarvis could grit his teeth, he would have. “Superficial features, sir.”

“Such as?”

“The ambient music, the water fountain on the background, and the artistic lightning system set up to hit Captain Rogers’ hair.”

Oh. Tony blinked slowly. “Those… Those are aesthetic choices. They… They’re important.”

On the screen, the Captain’s mouth curled again. It was really distracting.

“In fact, sir, they aren’t,” Jarvis said, sound strangely tired. “Removing them would allow us to use their power to force the laser bean to move more efficiently, killing Captain Rogers instantly.”

“Wow, wow, wait a minute,” Tony said. “There’s no need to do that. I mean,” He scrambled his brain for something say. “It’s… It’s more fun to watch him going down slowly.”

Giving Jarvis the ability to sigh was a mistake. “Sir, the plan is bound to fail.”

“What? No, it isn’t. He’s trapped.”

“No, he isn’t,” Jarvis insisted. “If he manages to wriggle his body slightly to the left, he will be within the magnetic reach of his shield, allowing him to summon it and get rid of the gauntlets restraining him.”

“Jarvis!” Tony exclaimed. “You’re – how can you…”

“I think what Jarvis means,” the Captain interjected. ”Is that you’re not really trying to kill me. If you were, you’d have already done it.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Jarvis traitorously replied. “Sir, not only could you easily kill Captain Rogers now, but you could have killed him at least a hundred and eight times during the past month.” As Tony gaped in indignation, he added: “I’m afraid this situation can’t keep going any longer. It is against the principles of my programming to keep designing deliberately inefficient plants, sir.”

“Deliberately– what are you implying– He is my mortal enemy, of course I’m trying to kill him–“

“Well,” the Captain interrupted, sounding strangely casual. “I’m not trying to kill you,” His blue eyes looked away from the camera, fixating in the ceiling, while a slight smile formed on his lips. “Haven’t even been really trying to arrest you, lately.”

Tony stared at the monitor in complete shock. “What? No way,” He babbled. “You – you live for arresting bad guys.”

“Yeah,” the Captain nodded. “But you’re not really a bad guy, are you? I mean,” – he turned back to the camera, with an almost amused expression – “you don’t target anyone except me. And none of your plans ever hurt any civilians.”

Tony felt his face warming. “What the hell are you talking about? You don’t see me as threat, Rogers?”

“To the world? No. Not at all.”

“Then why the hell are you still here?”

To Tony’s surprise, a slight flush spread over the Captain’s cheeks. It… Wasn’t a bad look on him.

“To be honest, fighting your evil plans is the most fun I’ve ever had in this century. I… I’m not very good at relaxing.” He said, a little sheepish. “But decrypting your codes, fighting your bots, figuring out your schemes… Makes me really happy.”

Oh. Oh.

Tony’s hand touched his chest. Was he… Was that really what seemed to be happening?

“Your hero antics make me happy too,” He managed to say, his eyes finding the Captain’s through the monitor. “I… I like your catchphrases.”

“I like your monologues,” The Captain replied, with a gorgeous smile on his lips.

“I like your inspiring speeches,” Tony blurted. He felt the Captain’s eyes staring deeply into his through the screen, his heart fluttering on his chest under that deep blue gaze…

“Thirty seconds for the laser to reach Captain Rogers’ body, sir.”

“Oh, shit,” Tony said, snapping back to reality abruptly, reaching forward to turn off the gauntlets, which loosened their grip on the Captain’s limbs, letting him go. “Sorry, Cap.”

“Call me Steve,” he said, that lovely flush on his cheeks deepening slightly. “I’d, uh. I’d really like that.”

“Steve,” Tony echoed, a bit ridiculously, true, but the name sounded wonderful leaving his mouth. “You, uh. You can call me Tony, too. If you want to.”

Steve stood up, facing the camera. He pressed his lips together, seeming a little giddy, when noise started coming from his comm device. Tony immediately regretted not breaking it. “Well. I guess I should be going now,” he said, picking up his shield from the floor.

“Oh.” Tony said, a little disappointed. “Okay. I guess I… Will see you on my next evil plan?”

“Yeah,” Steve breathed. “Though, uh…” He bit his lower plush lip, making Tony forget the basic fundaments of human language. “Maybe your next evil plan could be, hm, this Friday? There’s a restaurant a couple blocks from Shield that’s very, uh… vulnerable.”

“Sounds great. Yeah,” Tony blurted, and Steve’s face brightened wonderfully. “I could start putting my evil schemes in motion at around… Seven?”

“Seven, seven works,” Steve nodded, a bit breathless.

Tony grinned wildly. “This time, Captain,” He said, exaggerating his voice in a cartoonish tone. “You won’t be able to get away from me.”

He was expecting Steve to laugh, but as he turned, his smile was more sly than anything. “I’m counting on it.”

[jp-omegaverse-hcs]

wow tumblr just deleted this whole damn post when it was a draft argh.

anyway, this is a project I’ve been working on the past few days (the reason I asked about the alpha senior/kouhai thing). I’ve been really into cnovels lately, so I decided to write an omegaverse fic in the xianxia genre (basically a fantasy/ancient China/magic genre) because the writing style is really relaxing.

I’m not posting it on ao3 yet because I’m not sure if I’m keeping this plot -.- (I rewrote this twice already but I really suck at making good plots so...).

Anyways, summary! I did end up going with alpha/alpha for this pairing, though you don’t meet the younger one until the second chapter...

Summary: Before Mu ZhiLin became an infamous cultivator of the demonic arts and one of the few alphas to bond with a spirit beast, he was a fugitive hiding behind the Feng Xuanya Sect’s reputation. ‘A fragile, timid alpha who spent his days cultivating with his spirit beast in isolation’ – no one would ever respect, let alone connect, him to the haughty alpha he was in the past.

All except for a certain junior brother who followed this ‘shy, sickly alpha’ with the persistence of a chick attached to a mother hen. Mu ZhiLin’s stressful days filled with blood, sweat, and tears began the moment that ‘chick’ started following his every move. Little did Mu ZhiLin know, this adorable boy would someday grow into a mate willing to blacken his own heart for him, climbing to the top for his completely unreliable senior brother…

Quick Glossary:

Cultivator: basically, magic martial artists who aim for immortality

Sect: an organization of cultivators

The brother and sister terms: all of the practitioners are treated as ‘family’ in speech terms, so they call each other brother and sister even though they aren’t related by blood. I could have kept it in Chinese, but that would have been really confusing to remember, so.

1, The Alpha of Yi Tuan Valley

Alphas were a minority in the Feng Xuanya Sect; they were said to be even rarer than phoenix feathers. The sect’s omegas clambered over each other to catch the favor of these alphas – or, rather, to gain the opportunity to dote upon them like a beloved child or pet. This strange reversal of roles was immediately clear when taking into account that nearly all of Feng Xuanya’s betas and omegas surpassed their alphas in cultivation, merits, and reputation in general. There was not even a single alpha elder compared to the councils full of the dominant dynamic in other sects.

The reason for this oddity was none other than the sect’s specialty, its enviable cultivation style that brought the Feng Xuanya Sect its prestige and power. Out of every major and minor sect in Xian Ning, Feng Xuanya was the only one with a cultivation style centered around spirit beasts.

Every sect sent teams out to hunt spirit beasts for precious materials, experience, and building a shining reputation in the eyes of normal civilians. Only the Feng Xuanya Sect could bond with those spirit beasts to bolster one’s cultivation and repertoire in battle. The thousands of years that the Feng Xuanya Sect dominated the Tian Xian region, infamous for its dangerous mountain range, was testament to the value of this skill.

However, only betas and omegas had any hopes of bonding with a spirit beast, next to none of which would tolerate or submit to an alpha’s dominance by throwing away their own pride. To call Feng Xuanya a paradise of untouchable omega beauties was not wrong, but a rather silly sort of joke. None could reach the sect without an invitation, because the mountains of the Tian Xian region were filled with a multitude of high-level spirit beasts. Even advanced cultivators would be eaten to bits if they dared to cross them.

Thus, the state of the Feng Xuanya Sect’s affairs was always a little muddled and filled with conjecture and rumors. Only major events like conferences and examinations reached the ears of the people. So, when interesting information managed to escape, however small, people paid rapt attention.

This year, there was one particular rumor that took the cultivation world by storm, drowning out all other gossip.

The rumor: a young alpha had managed to bond with a spirit beast.

It was an incredibly auspicious and magnificent spirit beast, too. The alpha was under the age of eighteen. He had joined the sect as a formal disciple but a mere four months ago, nearly half a year before the next recruitment examinations.

The waves of denial that roared through the cultivation world were truly impressive. Some accused the sect of lying to bolster their reputation. However silly it sounded, it was not any sillier than the idea of an alpha bonding with a spirit beast of any sort. Even the weakest spirit beasts would rather be crushed beneath a tyrannical foot than bond with an alpha!

Or so people thought.

Feng Xuanya was a large sect spread across a sizable area of the Tian Xian region’s most prominent mountain range. It was impossible to be fully aware of every little matter, but in a matter of a week or two, nearly everyone knew that the Yi Tuan Valley Master had accepted a new disciple out of season, and this disciple had an impressive spirit beast.

Spirit beasts, naturally, attracted the Feng Xuanya Sect’s disciples more than the people bonded to them. Who cared about the thirteenth disciple of such-and-such peak who was a beta, when the spirit beast was a magnificent ice-winged hawk?

This time, the news that an alpha was the bonded cultivator spread even faster than wildfire. Half of the people who heard it could not believe it at first, until Yi Tuan Valley’s eldest disciple finally confirmed their newest disciple’s dynamic.

However, this alpha was supposedly quite frail in health and temperament, perhaps the only reason a spirit beast would chose him. He never left Yi Tuan Valley and cultivated in isolation with his spirit beast. Hardly anyone outside of Yi Tuan Valley knew his name, only that he was the ‘youngest junior brother and nothing more.

Ah, this ‘youngest junior brother’ really wanted to cry bitter tears every time he heard from his eldest senior sister that yet another stranger sent their condolences.

“She said, ‘Quickly improve your cultivation so your health will be good enough to come meet everyone and show off your spirit beast!’ You are quite the popular one, aren’t you, youngest junior brother?”

Mu ZhiLin wanted to roar, ‘I’m not so ‘frail’ you have to keep sending gifts and condolences! I'm not dying, either!’

However, Mu ZhiLin could never express these thoughts.

He had to keep his head bowed, expression full of shy and awkward smiles no matter how much he wished to bite his own tongue off from the sheer humiliation. If he wanted to live, no one could recognize him. If there was even an inkling of doubt in someone’s mind, not even the sect master herself could save him. They had given him a safe place to live and cultivate, even a new identity, but the rest was up to him.

Life in the Feng Xuanya Sect was quiet. It provided its disciples the means, but there was little guidance unless one encountered a bottleneck lasting an unreasonable amount of time. A third of its members were omegas taught from birth to be dependent on others, so there was really not much else they could do to reverse those teachings other than to show them the reality of this harsh world.

It was the perfect environment for a fugitive like Mu ZhiLin, who kept to himself and his spirit beast as much as possible. He did have to make an appearance every now and again, but he really had no reason to complain. It was a small sacrifice in exchange for safety…

Oh, to hell with it. He had every reason to complain.

The fact that he was currently drenched in yan du xian soup that had been boiling for hours and had yet to cool even a bit was his reason to complain. For a second, he forgot about the persona he had been half-heartedly building up for the last four months. The shaking of his shoulders was his attempt to restrain himself from grabbing that ladle and hitting the condescending guy laughing at him until he bled.

“Really, I’m so sorry. Don’t be mad at your senior brother, it was a genuine accident!”

He could hear the mirth in this ‘senior brother’s’ voice. No one in the room was fooled, but unfortunately, their eldest senior sister was not among them. If she was, he doubted that Linghu Qiu would so brazenly say such things as he half-heartedly tried to ‘wipe’ him down with a cloth.

Mu ZhiLin flinched as the cloth came at his face, landing with a particularly wet slap on his cheek. His skin tingled with little starbursts of pain here and there, nothing too bad at his level of cultivation, but he also smelled like salted pork now.

“Hey, don’t be so stiff, youngest junior brother! Didn’t senior brother Linghu say he was sorry? It’s not good to be this inflexible.”

Mu ZhiLin reached out to grab the cloth, turning away hastily so no one would be able to see the dark look in his eyes. Linghu Qiu wrapped his arm around Mu ZhiLin’s dry shoulders and smiled as he herded him away from the banquet hall. Although they were about the same age and cultivation level, ‘Mu ZhiLin’ was supposed to be a bit weaker. Not to mention, he was too timid to defend himself from his senior brothers even if he knew he was being bullied.

This was the perfect cover identity, but it was perhaps a little tooperfect.

“Come, come, I’ll bring you to the well. Don’t give me such a dark expression, you probably don’t even know where it is since you so rarely decide to grace us with your presence.” The sarcasm in his voice was thick, irritating Mu ZhiLin to no end. He bit his tongue viciously to stop himself from shoving this clingy, malicious beta away and stalk off to change by himself.

Linghu Qiu was not taller than him, but a height difference would never deter him. He carried himself with the bearing of a young master, similar to Mu ZhiLin in the past. As a beta, his scent was neutral and flat like the earth, but his attitude was almost identical to an alpha’s.

Mu ZhiLin dug his heels in before they reached the well, a jolt of unease striking him in the chest.

“Thank you for showing me the way, senior brother Linghu,” Mu ZhiLin said, careful to sound appropriately soft-spoken and reluctant to speak. He maneuvered out of Linghu Qiu’s grasp and walked over to the other side of the well to draw water up. When he saw that his senior brother had yet to leave, standing there with an unreadable expression, Mu ZhiLin paused. “I’ll be fine. I know it was an accident, you can go back now.”

Even if he was playing a part, Mu ZhiLin could only take so much of this ridiculous behavior. Sure, he played tricks on his junior brothers and sisters in his old sect. He even made them so angry that they ran off in tears sometimes, but he never meant to be malicious and never went out of his way to make their lives miserable. He was still an alpha, so being talked down to, lied to, and expected to be grateful was just behind his capabilities.

Linghu Qiu hid his sneer very well. He was the second son of a prestigious cultivator family and could not hold a candle to his older alpha sister, but he was far from incompetent in cultivation or putting on a good show. If not for his bullying, Mu ZhiLin might have even asked for some pointers or sparred with him.

“Don’t be so stubborn! It’s my duty as your senior brother to help you and this was my mistake to begin with, here.” Mu ZhiLin backed away, but Linghu Qiu caught his sleeve.

He had a bad feeling about this.

“No, really, it’s okay–”

He tripped.

No, hewastripped. By Linghu Qiu. He felt the pressure at the back of his knee, and before he knew it, he was on the ground. One arm was suspended by Linghu Qiu’s grip on his sleeve. The other had been unable to swing out to catch himself in time since that grip threw his balance off.

“Oh! Are you alright? You’re so clumsy, junior brother Mu.” Linghu Qiu laughed, releasing his sleeve only to try to ‘help’ him up.

Mu ZhiLin bit down a growl and scrambled to his feet, using some of his naturally superior strength as an alpha to shove past the beta in his way. Before he could hear the next words out of his lips, he broke into a run.

Not bothering to put any spiritual energy into it, Mu ZhiLin ran at a leisurely pace once he was certain that Linghu Qiu had given up and returned to the banquet hall.

Although he was certain that this matter would give him headaches in the future, at the moment he could care less about it. He was wet, cold, covered in dirt, and two seconds from punching his senior brother in the face back there.

By the time he reached the end of the valley, past the houses and fields growing spirit plants, the training halls and their master’s small personal library, his temper had cooled off in the chilly winter air. If he returned after changing his clothes, he could still avert some of his future troubles. He truly did not want to give Linghu Qiu another reason to hate his existence.

With that plan in mind, he slipped into the woodshed and immediately peeled his clothes off. Staring in disgust at the wet fabric, he realized that he would still smell of salted pork if he only swapped out his clothes. Mu ZhiLin groaned and grabbed a spare set of casual clothes before leaving, dressed only in his underclothes, for the river.

The river was more a stream than a proper river. It cut through the forest behind the fields in a simple, slightly curving line from the mountains and winded through to the lake in the neighboring peak’s territory.

Mu ZhiLin hurried to the bank of the stream, more than accustomed to finding his way in the dark. He first washed his outer garments, vigorously scrubbing until he was sure the smell and spices were gone. This was something he did normally, but normally, he was never filled with such resentment while doing it. A low growl issued from his throat as he lifted the clothes out of the water and did his best to examine them under the moonlight.

He tossed them across a large boulder nearby when he was satisfied. Before he had a chance to take his underclothes off, a shiver crawled down his spine.

Something was wrong. Mu ZhiLin stopped with his hands frozen over the belt at his waist. He reached out with his senses. At his level of cultivation, most of his senses were better than the average human’s. However, he heard, saw, and smelled nothing unusual.

No, this was a different sort of instinct.

He was currently unarmed. The only tools at his disposal were basic cultivation arts that did not require a weapon and thoseskills he learned months ago. He flexed his fingers. He had never tried them out in combat, so his success rate would be uncomfortably low. But if it was something his senses were unable to detect, it was unwise to run.

There was only one warning. A shift in the wind, a soft whistle, before Mu ZhiLin was dodging the massive form that burst out of the shadows of the trees.

He skidded to a halt, eyes wide and straining to make out the creature in front of him with curses running wild in his mind.

This was a troublesome spirit beast, easily a whole head or two taller than even the tallest alpha. Its fluffy appearance was deceiving, but it was a fierce guardian of mountainsides filled with high concentrations of spiritual energy. It moved in an eerie, swinging manner, as if swaying to the beat of a lively tune. It was far from fast, but those legs could take it as high as the treetops to catch its prey.

Mu ZhiLin let out a warning growl that felt and sounded fiercer than he felt. This was a high-level spirit beast with a surprisingly tough hide. Even if he had his sword, it was only a temporary one made from unremarkable metal and not something he could cut this creature’s skin with even if he had it in hand. Coating it in spiritual energy imbued with his element would do little, considering this beast’s base element overcame his own.

Mu ZhiLin had no choice but to trick it. He started running to the right, heart pounding wildly in his chest as the spirit beast bounded after him. The heavy form grew closer, closer – then Mu ZhiLin made a sharp turn, running directly behind it. As he ran, he tried to prepare the demonic art skill he had learned.

‘Cursed Blood of the Beloved’ – it had a truly cringe-worthy name, courtesy of that oddball who developed it on a distant mountaintop with all the righteous rage of a scorned lover. However, it was somewhat useful, if self-destructive. Mu ZhiLin could prepare the incantation quickly enough, but he hesitated before getting close enough to spill some of his blood on the creature.

The horned mountain lion was a spirit beast that craved pure spiritual energy. This mountain range was already saturated in it, but like all spirit beasts, it occasionally desired real meat and blood as opposed to intangible spiritual energy. He had heard of its picky tendencies, which caused many disciples across Xian Ning grief.

“To the horned mountain lion, cultivators with plenty of spiritual energy and yang or yin energy are the tastiest treat. They won’t go after anyone in the lower stages of qi refining and run away from nascent soul cultivators. So, my dearest little disciples, please try your best and don’t be afraid of escaping when you need to!”

Human bait was indeed the best method of attracting these creatures.

Mu ZhiLin clutched his left wrist to his chest. This could either work or he might end up in the stomach of this beast by the end of the night. Excellent.

He could feel it closing in, to the point its hot breath traveled down his neck.

“Shit!” he cursed, scrambling over a boulder that allowed him to put enough distance between them to prepare. He didn’t even have a proper weapon and could only rely on his own spiritual energy to cut into his skin.

He was just about to do it when he heard a distinctly furious roar. The horned mountain lion shook its fluffy mane out and huffed, a wary look in its large eyes. That roar shook the leaves in the trees and made a flock of sleeping birds scatter into the night. Glancing over his shoulder with one eye still on the horned mountain lion, Mu ZhiLin’s heart nearly stopped.

A lithe form jumped out of the shadows, cloudlike wings spread to their full length, quivering menacingly as teeth flashed in the weak moonlight. A pair of glowing golden eyes narrowed at the horned mountain lion.

“Caixia!” Mu ZhiLin called out, still shocked down to his bones. Not even paying attention to him, Caixia ran past, nearly knocking him to his knees. Just a few strides brought it in front of the horned mountain lion, snarling up into its face fearlessly.

The horned mountain lion pawed the earth.

Caixia let out a sharp howl that turned into a fierce growl.

Two seconds later, the horned mountain lion backed away. It hadn’t smelled another of these winged creatures around. However, it wasn’t willing to take chances with this particular spirit beast.

Mu ZhiLin watched it leave. Caixia did not relax until quite a few minutes had passed.

“You…came to save me.” Mu ZhiLin’s lips felt numb. Caixia had turned around and settled into a proud sitting position in front of him, head poised like a stone lion statue. “You really came to save me. I thought you–”

Caixia huffed. Mu ZhiLin broke into a smile, shaking his head all of a sudden. He moved forward and gave Caixia a pet without fear. He had already established with that infuriating alpha from his old sect that Caixia would never actually hurt him on purpose. It did give him perverse satisfaction to know that Caixia preferred him over that pure-hearted, always smiling and forgiving in the same breath alpha.

“Thank you,” Mu ZhiLin said sincerely.

Caixia blinked, bright eyes flashing as a growl rumbled out. Mu ZhiLin turned around to see two people descending to the ground from their flying swords. Although it was dark, he recognized eldest senior sister Yao Xinyu immediately. Her tall bearing, while not exuding an alpha’s dominance, was more than enough to send over half of the disciples in Yi Tuan Valley scrambling to appease her.

“Youngest junior brother!” Yao XinYu’s call of alarm did not stop her from warily glancing around the area as she slowly moved towards them. Mu ZhiLin held a hand out to tell Caixia to back down. “Youngest junior brother, what happened? Are you alright?”

Looking himself over, he was quite the sorry sight. Yao XinYu’s concern drifted over, making him rather embarrassed.

“I’m fine, eldest senior sister,” Mu ZhiLin said, bowing his head a bit to hide the shame lurking in his eyes. He was still in his underclothes, and dirty ones at that! “The spirit beast already fled.”

A low warning growl came from his side. Mu ZhiLin looked over, perplexed. Yao XinYu had visited him many times and Caixia always glanced at her with a look of boredom. Even when she manhandled Mu ZhiLin into having dinner with the other disciples, Caixia didn’t lift a wing to save him.

Mu ZhiLin glanced over at the other person who had accompanied Yao XinYu.

“Senior brother Luo?”

Luo WenQing was their master’s third direct disciple and a person of very few words. Mu ZhiLin was an alpha, so he could hardly find a beta intimidating, but Luo WenQing seemed to frighten many of the omegas in the sect. At least, the ones who came over for various reasons steered extremely clear of him and scurried away when he glanced at them. Luo WenQing, unlike a lot of betas, never lusted after omegas either.

“I will take care of it,” Luo WenQing said without context. Yao XinYu’s expression had darkened, her thin fingers gripping Mu ZhiLin’s shoulders rather tightly as she nodded. Luo WenQing headed in the direction opposite the forest – back to the valley proper.

“You really are alright?” Yao XinYu asked.

Mu ZhiLin nodded. “Where is senior brother going?”

Yao XinYu scoffed bitterly. She started to guide him back, her touch firm but not sinister like Linghu Qiu’s earlier. Caixia snorted, then retreated into the forest. Unlike Mu ZhiLin, Caixia was perfectly safe going in there.

“Junior sister Shi told us what happened earlier. Although I can do nothing about childish pranks, it’s unacceptable for a disciple to put another’s life in danger. Junior brother Luo is going to discipline him.”

“My life wasn’t in danger,” Mu ZhiLin said softly.

“You’re ‘only’ in the middle stages of qi refining,” Yao XinYu said with a pointed glare.

Of course, this was far from the truth. He had nearly reached the end of the qi refining stage and just about ready to break through to the formation foundation stage. They purposefully downplayed his abilities for his cover.

“Even if your life was not in danger,” Yao XinYu added in concession, “junior brother Linghu does not know that. He should have gone after you immediately, no matter his personal grudge against you. After all, with his experience he well knows that some spirit beasts prey on our weakened barrier and lone cultivators attract them in particular.”

Mu ZhiLin nodded. There was no winning against Yao XinYu. In addition, if not for Caixia, even his true strength would not have lasted against the horned mountain lion unless he used that demonic arts skill.

He shivered, body rapidly cooling now that his life was no longer in danger.

Yao XinYu cast him a gaze of pity.

“Why don’t you use the baths at the main compound this time? It won’t be good if you catch a cold right before the new year.”

One year passed easily and quietly.

The Feng Xuanya Sect was nowhere near his childhood home or previous sect. Combine that with Feng Xuanya’s isolationist ways and Mu ZhiLin never did end up hearing a single rumor about the talented Qiong Yuan Sect disciple who tragically lost his life on a training excursion. It was news that surely traveled all throughout the east: the precious alpha heir of the Liang clan gone in an instant – there was no one to blame and no one to cry to but the Heavens.

Hidden deep within the Feng Xuanya Sect’s mountains, Mu ZhiLin could almost forget his real surname was Liang entirely.

But perhaps because his mind was not truly at peace, he actually made next to no advancement in his cultivation despite meditating every single day. He became the laughingstock of Yi Tuan Valley, regarded as a dog that knew only one trick.

“Dong-shifu must have only taken you in because of that spirit beast of yours. How generous of her!”

“The sect’s omegas study diligently despite the disadvantages they have in life and truly make contributions, while you idle around with your spirit beast all day long. Are you not ashamed to call yourself an alpha?”

‘You have no idea,’ he cried bitterly in his heart several times while trying to ignore them. ‘You think I want this reputation?’

He thought they might tire of it after a year, but he seriously underestimated just how bored the disciples of Yi Tuan Valley were. Training, gossip, and bullying Mu ZhiLin were the only things they had to entertain themselves.

Thankfully, this year’s recruitment examinations were exciting enough to distract them. Gossip spread across the entire Feng Xuanya Sect from the lowest valley to the peaks of the surroundings mountains. Several hopeful prospects were entering the running for the Feng Xuanya Sect; new omegas and betas whose talents might be wasted elsewhere were always welcomed news.

As the youngest disciple, Mu ZhiLin had nothing to do with those exams. He spent the entire two weeks cultivating with Caixia, who had been rather restless as of late.

When everyone returned with a new disciple, Mu ZhiLin was less than pleased. His bottleneck showed no signs of relenting due to his half-hearted training in this past year. Caixia bit him yesterday on a whim, then darted into the forest and refused to answer his calls. And since his spirit beast was being unruly, Linghu Qiu decided it was best to load nearly all of the chores onto his shoulders to stay productive.

Thus, when their master returned with a new alpha – an alpha! – disciple and everyone turned their attention to the bright young boy, Mu ZhiLin took the opportunity to disappear.

At last, there were two alphas in Yi Tuan Valley. Now, hopefully, he could cultivate in peace while everyone fawned over the newest arrival.

[aion-rsa]

Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness Ending Explained

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This Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness article contains spoilers.

Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness explores a time of change for its main characters. Years removed from the Raccoon City disaster that first brought them together, Leon S. Kennedy (Nick Apostolides) and Claire Redfield (Stephanie Panisello) are still leading the fight against bio-organic weapons but from different angles. Set after Resident Evil 4 but before the Kijuju incident in Resident Evil 5, Leon has embraced his role as President Graham’s top security man after saving his daughter from Los Iluminados. Meanwhile, Claire is overseas, working for an NGO in the war-torn country of Penamstan, where a bloody civil war has left the nation in crisis.

But these heroes don’t stay apart for long. By the end of the first episode, they’re on a new mission that’ll take Leon to Chinese soil and Claire to the very depths of a conspiracy involving someone high up in the American government. And when zombies attack the White House, it’s clear that nobody is safe.

So, how did this all play out and what does the ending mean for these characters? Here’s what you need to know:

Why did Wilson want to go to war with China?

I’ve already shared my thoughts about the overall quality of the series, so I’ll try not to harp on it here, but Infinite Darkness‘ plot is incredibly convoluted, to say the least. The events of the series all come down to one government official’s greed and his plan to extort the planet.

Since the very beginning, Defense Secretary Wilson (Brad Venable) has blamed the Chinese for a hacking incident and then a zombie outbreak inside the White House. In the final episode, we learn why. Wilson wants to a spark a war between the U.S. and China in order to unleash a new version of the Progenitor virus on the battlefield (we see him experiment with this during the crisis in Penamstan in flashbacks). The official American stance would make China the scapegoat, keeping the heat off Wilson and his big pharma cronies, while the chaos of war between two of the most powerful nations in the world, plus the unchecked spread of a virus that turns people into flesh-eating monsters, would leave the planet scrambling for a cure.

That’s where a secret inhibitor Wilson has financially invested in would come in. The infected would have no other choice but to buy the inhibitor from Tricell, the pharmaceutical corporation that Wilson is in cahoots with, which would mean plenty of money going into the Secretary of Defense’s pockets. Yeah, he’s one of the biggest scumbags ever introduced to the Resident Evil universe, but karma sure does catch up with him when he’s infected with the very virus he helped create.

How’s that medicine taste? Your own flavor?

What was Jason’s plan?

One of the earliest victims of Wilson’s machinations are Jason (Ray Chase) and his squad of soldiers, who drop into a warzone in Penamstan to rescue fallen helicopter pilot. Yes, it’s very Black Hawk Down but with a zombie outbreak.

Jason and his men soon find out that they’ve all been infected with Wilson’s virus so that they can spread it to the people of Penamstan, which just so happens to border China. (Wilson was Jason’s commander at the time, which means he’s been working on this scheme for a very long time.) Although they’re able to escape the battlefield with their lives, they have no choice to continue doing Wilson’s bidding since he’s the only person who can provide them with the inhibitor that staves off the virus from turning them into monsters. Unable to live with this hanging over their heads, all of Jason’s comrades have killed themselves by the start of the show. But Jason has other plans.

Although it looks like he and Shen Mei (Jona Xiao) are trying to get to the bottom of a Chinese bio research company’s supposed involvement in the zombie outbreak inside the White House (this is what Wilson claims), they’re really on their way to recover proof that Wilson is behind the whole thing. They sink the submarine sent to infiltrate Chinese waters to make it look like they’re dead and to kill off Leon, which Wilson uses to his advantage to further instigate a war with China.

But after they recover the chip with evidence of Wilson’s plan, Jason reveals his TRUE plan. He wants to transform into the grotesque bioweapon he’s been infected with and expose this horror to the world so that they can see what the U.S. government and big pharmaceutical companies are capable of once and for all. After all, the true nature of the Raccoon City incident was covered up, which means the general. public still isn’t aware of the viruses turning people into monsters. Jason’s revelation would finally change all that.

Shen Mei is killed while trying to stop Jason from unleashing his final plan, but Leon and Claire are finally able to put a stop to this entire nightmare deep within the lab where Wilson has been fabricating the virus.

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What is Tricell?

After all is said and done, and the plan to ignite biological warfare between the U.S. and China is thwarted by the heroes, Infinite Darkness drops one major clue that Wilson isn’t the one truly pulling the strings. It’s actually a pharmaceutical corporation called Tricell.

If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Tricell is one of the evil corporations that continued to experiment with Bio Organic Weapons, creating new versions of the Progenitor virus, after the fall of Umbrella. In fact, Excella Gionne, the leader of Tricell, is one of the main villains of Resident Evil 5, teaming up with Albert Wesker to unleash the Uroboros virus in Kijuju.

It seems that the incident in Penamstan in Infinite Darkness was an early attempt by Tricell to experiment with the citizens of a troubled nation before unleashing its more ambitious plans for world domination in the later Chris Redfield adventure. Could a second season dive further into Tricell’s machinations before the events of Resident Evil 5?

Infinite Darkness primarily takes place in 2006, three years before the events of Resident Evil 5, which means that there’s a big enough time gap that more stories involving Tricell could be explored, whether its Leon and Claire’s further investigations into the organization or it’s Chris and Jill Valentine’s turn to star. Or maybe it’s just meant to be a fun easter egg that nods to what happens next in the video games.

Why do Leon and Claire part ways?

But there’s one thing left to do before the credits roll. Leon is still in possession of the chip with all the evidence on it. Should they finally expose the bio-organic weapons threatening the world and how some of the planet’s most powerful people are behind it all? Or should they continue to shield the general public from the truth?

In the end, Claire is surprised by Leon’s loyalty to President Graham and the White House. Claire wants to use the chip to expose the truth, but Leon won’t give it to her. Knowing that proof that the Secretary of Defense was trying to unleash a deadly virus would seriously harm Graham’s administration and the credibility of the U.S. government, Leon decides to keep Wilson’s plot a secret.

Unhappy with Leon’s decision, Claire decides to part ways with her former partner in zombie killing. While not implicitly stated, this key moment in their relationship might explain why they’ve never headlined another video game besides Resident Evil 2, choosing to go on their own, separate adventures instead. For now, their split seems permanent.

Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness is streaming now on Netflix.

The post Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness Ending Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3xrApoa

[cosmiciaria]

Tales of Berseria Review! (Spoiler Free)

The only Tales game I've played prior to this one was Zestiria, so you might understand how eager I was to play Berseria. For those of you who don't know (for… some inexplicable reason), Berseria is the direct prequel to Zestiria, and was released a couple of years later. Its story happens 1000 years prior and explains the origins and meanings of many things we later encounter in Zestiria, and also patches some plot holes we found in the latter. Since they're closely connected, I couldn't stop comparing both games, but in the good sense!

I loved Zestiria. So much. I loved its characters, the story, the gameplay. I was thoroughly surprised and satisfied. So I was expecting something… less?, from Berseria, due to the fact that I didn't think that anything could've been better than my first love. But… again, I was mistaken!

Tales of Berseria brings everything we liked in Zestiria and enhances it.

We follow Velvet Crowe, a kind, loving woman who cared deeply for her family. But when her brother-in-law and current exorcist, Artorious, sacrifices her little brother Laphicet for some who-knows-what ritual, she transforms into a blood-thirsty, vengeful therion, a kind of daemon that feeds on anything she can come across with. Velvet spends the next three years in a cell, harvesting hatred for Artorious, scheming her revenge and plotting against the Abbey, the organization that holds control over everything in the land.

The prologue is the most important part of the game, and let me tell you why.

What they did with Berseria was so clever I've never imagined they'd go for this. Berseria is the polar opposite of Zestiria. Velvet is the polar opposite of Sorey. And it is in the prologue where we see these changes. We witness the change in Velvet, we see her caring and loving, we see her genuinely worried for her little brother, and then, suddenly, everything we were learning to care for was taken away from us before our very eyes. And now we see her suffering, her anger, her anguish, and we cannot but to sympathize with her, despite her cruel and questionable methods. We can't accept what Artorious is doing as righteous and correct, we can't like that character, because we've seen what he's done to our Velvet. And it is in the prologue where we learn to side with our protagonist, and we start to see the grey morale in this game, and we don't care to be part of the bad guys.

The game is far darker and grittier than Zestiria. Zestiria feels like a bed of roses; Berseria is a cavernous tunnel with no light at the end. It touches upon many topics and many a time we see these characters at the brink of despair and insanity. But it's not only what the main characters do or don't: we also see how far the antagonists are willing to go only to get what they want. It's not the battle between good and evil anymore, like we had with Sorey and Heldalf. It's not light against darkness. It's a conflict of interests, and no one is more right than the other one. And everyone wants to win.

And OMG those PLOT TWITS you'll never SEE IT COOOOMIIIINGGG YOU'LL SEE sorry wrong game. But really, did I cry with some of them? Won't surprise you if I did.

Velvet is the perfect antiheroine, something we were needing in videogames. She's the first Lord of Calamity, the one to bring chaos to this world. She just wants one thing: to take revenge on her little brother. She doesn't mind dying after, she doesn't mind using everything (or everyone) at her disposal, and it's her direct personality and pragmatic mind what earns her the respect of others. Her character is by far one of the deepest I've encountered in videogames (I said 'one', of course I know other characters that have deeper personality than her). Her character development is what drives the story, and towards the climax we see her in her worst state, so much so that I was starting to suspect if this game was still a Tales. Her voice actress, Cristina Vee, did a splendid job that deserves an applause. She was able to capture Velvet's despair and made me have goosebumps more than once.

She comes across other outcasts that follow her in her pursue to avenge Laphi, but never did they assume the responsibility to save the world, like we're used to in these games. Each of them have their own goals, and they're just using each other, consciously, to achieve them.

Rokurou is her first companion, a daemon swordsman whose only purpose is to defeat his brother Shigure in a fair combat. He comes from the Rangetsu family, a clan known for their fearsome warriors and battle techniques. Rokurou is quite carefree and light-hearted, but when it comes to his brother and to his swords, he becomes this berserk daemon he actually is. Out of the six main characters, I believe Rokurou was the least well-implemented. He's in fact a good character, but his sub-plot strayed too far from the main plot, and during his scenes with his brother it felt a bit too contrived, only there to give him few minutes of fame. Also Shigure didn't add much as an antagonist to the story. It seemed he was created with the only purpose of giving Rokurou something to talk about. Apart from that, he added a lot of laughs and relaxing moments to the game, to which I'm grateful for, because among all these darkness we needed some of his personality.

Magilou is the second one we meet, and this witch won't come into evidence until much later in the game. She seems enigmatic and the joker type of person, but behind this mask of 'I don't care about anything' hides a powerful woman with a set purpose. Magilou just sticks around with the team because she 'doesn't have anything better to do', but in doing so, she's assuring herself a spot near Velvet, the Lord of Calamity, a privileged place for someone who needs to find a certain person and avenge her own past. Magilou hides more than one could think, and her ties to the Abbey are far deeper than we could've imagined at the beginning. And also she'd bet a bajillion gald you couldn't survive the last dungeon.

'Number Two', or later known as the new Laphicet, is a malak/seraphim that was tethered to an exorcist and freed by Velvet. She names him after her late brother, due to their resemblances. Laphicet starts off as a shy and scared little boy, but soon he learns he has his own will, and he has his own dreams, and ambitions, and desires. Once a slave to the exorcists community, he now yearns for experiences, feelings, journeys, and above all else, respect. Laphicet quickly became one of my favorites, there's no way in hell you don't like this character. His character development is by far one of the most important and many of his decisions and/or actions end up being the main driving force of the story. And he's also such a tiny little thing with so much power inside, you can't help but love him!

Eizen, for those who'd played Zestiria, isn't a new character. He's Edna's older brother, that one looming shadow we've heard so much about in the first game. We can now control him in Berseria, and let me just tell you, I fell in love with this man, with his quirkiness, his random facts about everything (architecture, history… he just knows a little about everything) and his passion for his crew and his ship. He's the leader kind of man, who takes sensible decisions and puts the final goal as a priority. But he's also a dependable companion, who'd catch a grenade for you, the one who watches over the weak. He's loving and over protective when it comes to his sister, but if we don't touch that subject, he remains largely calm and cool-headed. His sub-plot regarding Aifried, the captain of his ship, may seem far from the main plot (like Rokurou's case), but in the end I believe it ties up better. I won't spoil it for you, but it blends better and seems less forced than Shigure's story. You’ll be the judge of that. 

And at last Eleanor joins the party, an exorcist whose beliefs are shaken once she knows the truth about the Abbey. Eleanor is a great contrast to Velvet, and acts as her rival during most of the story. They both compete for Laphicet's attention, since both feel like they're his older sister. Eleanor doesn't trust anyone at the beginning, but we slowly see the changes in her attitude, the blissful blindness that had dominated her since she'd joined the Abbey starts to fade. Everything she believed in was a lie, and she has to start from scratch. She's a determined, loving young woman, who won't give in even in the face of adversity. She stands for her true principles and values, and she lives on her own rules. She became my favorite when it came to gameplay and battles.

And I cannot not speak about Artorious, our main antagonist. Towards the end of the game, I said to myself 'I don't want to hate this man', and it was right then when the story showed me that I couldn't hate him. Whether you agree or not with his methods, Artorious isn't just your average villain. He's, in fact, not a villain. He's the shepherd who will put an end to the chaos and malevolence of the world. After his wife Celica (Velvet's older sister) and unborn child were lost to the Scarlet Night, an event in which daemons and malaks alike spread throughout the land, he chose his destiny as the savior people needed. And he fills his role pretty damn well. That's why him being the antagonist brings so much trouble to the player (at least, it happened to me at the beginning), due to the fact that we, as Velvet and her crew, want to kill him so badly, but we also want him to succeed somehow. It's here when the grey morale thing comes into action. But we still want to kill him, though. Also, Ray Chase as an antagonist just left me open-mouthed. We come from Noctis (FFXV) to this. Amazing range of voices we have here. 

The ending made me shed tears of pride and sadness. I couldn't come to terms with the fact that I knew what was going to happen, since I've played Zestiria first. And I think that's the beauty of this ending, and why it makes it so perfect: we knew what was coming, yet we go forward. Oh, how I wish I didn't know.

The gameplay doesn't change much from the previous game, but they added some features that made it distinguishable enough. You have six main characters, of which you can only use four at a time in a battle, but you can switch between the six on the fly. Each of them have their own signature abilities, weaknesses and strengths (but let me just give you a tip: always have Magilou and Laphicet in your team… you'll need them so bad). The music, though, was a bit disappointing for me, for it only has a few tracks that are memorable (good ones, but no enough for me). Graphics… well… it's a Tales game. We know what we're getting. We play these games not for the graphics, that's for sure. But I do have to say there's an improvement from Zestiria. Lighting and shadows and also the skies looked better, although in some parts (like buildings, for example) the game looked like from the PS2 era. I guess I can forgive it?

I loved the dynamics between the characters. Skits play a major role in this once more, but now they're even better than before: characters have more portraits and, therefore, more expressions, and also almost everyone can be fit into them, not just the six main. Skits can be played at any time in any place, and they add so much to these characters' personalities that it's more like a vacation than a chore to play them.

After finishing it, I went straightly and played Zestiria's final boss again. And I couldn't help but feel cozy among those characters. So, is Berseria better than Zestiria? No, absolutely not. One is not better than the other. Both are great games, with great stories. I will say that Velvet's character development is better than Sorey, because Sorey remains largely the same person throughout the whole game, but that doesn’t take away Sorey’s efforts during his story. Berseria completes Zestiria in a way never imagined: black and white, oil and water. Two extremes of the same story, two versions of the same cycle of chaos and light. 

If you enjoyed Zestiria, you're in for a treat with Berseria.

[multiverseforger]

Edit

Melissa Gold was a troubled runaway from an alcoholic father and incarcerated mother. In order to survive on the streets, Melissa developed a hard edge to her personality, referring to herself as "Mimi".[3] She was eventually imprisoned, where she met Poundcakes, a female wrestler who invited her to join the Grapplers under the name Screaming Mimi, alongside Titania and Letha.[citation needed] The Grapplers became renowned for their colorful personalities and ringside antics, but the wrestling federation denied them the opportunity to make the amount of money their male counterparts made. Instead, the group agreed to earn supplementary income by performing a covert operation for the Roxxon Oil Company. Roxxon gave the Grapplers special paraphernalia to assist them in their mission; Mimi received an apparatus that converted her voice to high-frequency sonics for various effects. The Grapplers tested these powers by fighting Thundra in a wrestling ring.[4] On their mission, Thundra led them into Project Pegasus to smuggle in the Nth Projector for Roxxon. The mission failed when they were defeated by the heroes Quasar and Giant-Man.[5] The Grapplers were tried and jailed for their misdeeds. Alongside the Grapplers, she victimized Dazzler while she was in Ryker's Island prison with them.[6] When the Grapplers were finally paroled, they discovered that the women's wrestling movement had lost its momentum without them, so they continued to perform crimes to support themselves and working as professional criminals. Alongside the Grapplers, Mimi attempted to attack the Thing while he was in the hospital, and battled Captain America.[7] Later, the Grapplers set their sights on a women's division of the superpowered Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation. Their manager, Auntie Freeze, arranged for the women to augment their natural abilities with artificial powers created by the agency Power Broker, Inc. While the other Grapplers received superhuman strength, Mimi instead had her vocal enhancements internalized as a throat implant.[volume & issue needed] (It was believed that Mimi had also gained superhuman strength, however by her own account to Mach-1 it was only the other Grapplers that were augmented.[8]) The all-new Grapplers made a legitimate professional comeback that proved short-lived. When Titania was murdered by the vigilante Scourge, Mimi was among the female wrestlers of the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation who participated in a mass attack upon the Thing, blaming him for Titania's death.[9] After Letha was later also killed by Scourge,[10] the Grapplers broke up.[volume & issue needed]

Mimi was later contacted by the criminal Baron Helmut Zemo to join his version of the Masters of Evil. Her first assignment was to help bust the female Yellowjacket out of prison, but Mimi was captured in the subsequent battle with the Wasp, Black Knight, and Paladin. She was bound and gagged and arrested.[11] Later, she formed a romantic and criminal partnership with the similarly-empowered Angar the Screamer, at one point battling the Avengers Hawkeye and Mockingbird. The pair impersonated Hawkeye and Mockingbird, but battled them and were defeated.[12] Mimi was also seen among the various female superhumans aboard Superia's cruiseship, where she battled Captain America and Paladin.[13] Angar was eventually mortally wounded by a gunshot during a robbery attempt that went sour, and died in Mimi's arms after they escaped. Mad with grief, Mimi screamed, burning out her power. Immediately afterward, she was contacted by Baron Zemo once more, and she accepted his offer to join a formative Masters of Evil. Zemo allowed Mimi to be nursed back to health, and his accomplice, the Fixer, gave her new powers via a voice-augmenting harness and high-tech implants in her neck based on technology from the villain Klaw. With her newly transformed powers, she resumed the use of her given name Melissa, and adopted the identity of Songbird as a member of the Thunderbolts, a new Masters of Evil group posing as superheroes to win the world's trust while secretly plotting world conquest under Zemo's direction.[14] However, Melissa and most of the other Thunderbolts grew to like their heroic roles. In particular, Melissa began to truly grow into her own and even began a romance with her teammate Abner Jenkins, alias MACH-1, formerly the Beetle. Ultimately, the Thunderbolts turned against Zemo, foiling his attempt at world domination and rescuing the Avengers in the process. Melissa continued to serve with the team, who operated as a team of outlaw superheroes.[volume & issue needed]

Melissa stayed with the Thunderbolts through different incarnations after this, and rose to second-in-command under Hawkeye and eventually ran the team herself. Her sonic equipment was replaced several times, both by criminal organizations and by S.H.I.E.L.D.

During the superhero "Civil War" event the Thunderbolts, including Melissa, were approached by the government to catch supervillains and rehabilitate them.[volume & issue needed]

Having turned up alive after his apparent death, Lemuel Dorcas developed an obsession for Songbird where he kidnapped her and repaired her vocal cords as he intends to make Songbird his slave. However, Songbird was able to escape from Doctor Dorcas's clutches, as with the surgery restoring her persuasive powers as well, she turned Doctor Dorcas's henchmen against him.[15]

During the "Secret Invasion" event, Songbird was attacked by a Skrull who not only had her powers, but also had the powers of Atlas and the rest of the original Thunderbolts.[16] The Thunderbolts save her by causing this Skrull to merge into a nearby building, killing him.[17]

During the "Dark Reign" event, Norman Osborn orders Melissa killed by other members of the Thunderbolts team, forcing her to go into hiding for a time.[18] She gathers allies to resist Osborn.[19]

After the "Siege" event and Osborn's subsequent downfall, Songbird has taken a position at "the Raft", as the prison's female warden. Songbird has joined the new Thunderbolts team, led by Luke Cage in large part to keep a close eye over Moonstone (whom Cage has offered a chance for freedom in exchange for her serving on the team). When Songbird objects to Moonstone's inclusion on the team due to her history of manipulation and deceit, Cage counters that Songbird herself used to be regarded the same way and that she should give Moonstone the same chances she was given by others

[angelinarecs]

Stargate SG-1 Rec - *Updated*

More Stargate fics! Because I can never get enough of this show. You can find my full rec list here. 

Organized by pairing (or gen), and then alphabetized by title. Summaries (which have been copied from their respective stories) and descriptions are provided. Notation at the end of the description indicates if a story is completed or a WIP.

Gen

Arachne’s Chase - “Sergeant, fire in short bursts. We don’t have many rounds, try to make each shot count, okay?” Sam looked him in the eyes; she was totally calm. Uncertainty had gone now; she knew what she was fighting. She wasn’t too sure on their odds of surviving, but then that wasn’t anything new. “You can do this, Sergeant.” She watched as his face set in a determined expression. It wasn’t a face suited for ferocity but she gave him credit for trying. Drama/Adventure. Sam and Walter get stuck off world trying to hold their own against giant spiders. Walter keeps freaking out and Sam just wants to get home. A good look at both Sam and Walter’s characters as well as a decently written action scene. One-shot.

Fortitude - This was written for a LJ Sam Carter Ficathon, and deals with the first mission for Sam after her encounter with Jolinar. Adventure. Sam tries to prove her mettle in the field, both to herself and her teammates. She fails to take care of herself and follow orders in the process. A good look into what must have been a trying first mission after everything that happened with Jolinar. One-shot.

Infirmary After - Sam’s turn to concentrate on breathing. Enough time passed that Janet was wondering if she’d even answer, wondering what she’d do if there was no answer. “Embarrassed,” Sam said at last, her voice too low to carry much beyond the bed. “Ashamed. Not so much that it happened - I really did get my head around that years ago, played it over and over and over until I desensitized myself to the possibility - but that they saw. That it happened in front of… of… That they’re never going to look at me again without thinking of it.” Drama. Compelling and hard-hitting, this story doesn’t need to be graphic to touch on the horror and also high likelihood of being raped in the dangerous world of SG1. The trauma is dealt with well, both from the Sam’s perspective and from the perspective of the team unable to stop it. This story should be commended for showing that a plot dealing with trauma does not need to be graphic to be shocking. One-shot.

Keeping Score - Sam is good at staying alive. Adventure. Sam remembers her past as she fights to stay alive and make it until her time finds her. One-shot.

Talking Strategy - TAG to The First Commandment. Friendship. After the death of Jonas Hansen, the guys try to get Sam to open up about her past with him and work through the funk she fell into. Some really lovely team moments in here. One-shot.

The Blue-Jello Metaphor - They were all eating Jell-O out of the long dessert glasses. She had her usual, the blue raspberry vivid and bright. The boys all had red Jell-O. She looked beyond them to the other tables. Every single person in her line of vision had red Jell-O. She glanced up at the dessert case along the food line. There sat the other glasses of blue. She knew that if she turned the other direction and looked at the other half of the cafeteria, there’d be more red Jell-O. She was the only blue. She stared down at her cup. She was always the only blue. Surrounded by a sea of red. Humor. This story gives an endearing and humorous look at a disgruntled Sam as she tries to navigate Air Force, team, and dating life as a genius scientist. I find this to be a good character sketch and really love the team dynamic portrayed. One-shot.

The Knife’s Edge of Madness - Alternate ending to Desperate Measures: What if Sam had managed to escape on her own without the team finding her? Angst/Drama. Trapped with few memories in the aftermath of Jolinar’s death, Sam finds herself sheltered in a hospital officially as a Jane Doe. While I don’t normally like stories about amnesia because the plot lines are often absurd and the handling of amnesia is almost never medically or psychologically accurate, this story manages to have a plausible explanation for the tramautic memory loss and explores several issues in memory retrieval and concepts of identity accurately and compellingly. This examination gives the reader a fascinating view of Jane coming to accept she’s Sam and relearning the whole process with her. One-shot.

The Most Wonderful - SG1 aren’t exactly where Jack wants them to be for the holidays. Gen. Set in early seasons, so it smells like original team spirit. Angst. Jack and Teal'c are left to save Sam and Daniel after they are trapped on an alien planet. Jack just wants to get home for Christmas. One-shot.

Under Fire - “She blinked up at him. “What happened?” she murmured.

“You tell me. One minute you’re doing a favorable impression of GI Jane, the next you were face-first in the dirt,” the Colonel said.“  Adventure/Drama. Carter and most of SG1 are injured offworld and have to struggle back to the gate, holding their own against three-foot, carnivorous lizards and other Jurassic threats. Set early in SG1’s history, the story explores team dynamics as well as providing a good inner monologue for Sam as she struggles to reconcile her skills and gender in a male-dominated world. The audience follows along through Sam’s POV, learning little bits and pieces about the situation as Sam does. Very good use of In Medias Res too. Overall, just a really well conceived, written, and executed story. One-shot.

Undertow - “Samantha Carter,” she managed to spit out, along with a mouthful of blood. Her tongue probed the gash inside her cheek and she was grateful to find no loose teeth. “Captain. United States Air Force. Service number 456731479 .” She couldn’t remember the question, but she knew this was the right answer – the only answer she had.“ Adventure/Hurt/Comfort. Carter and the team are captured offworld and Sam is being questioned/tortured after captors believe her to be a Goa'uld. The story is told from Sam’s POV and is as disjointed as he drugged thoughts would have been. Very well executed overall. One-shot.

Unsuspecting Universe - Two teammates alive, seven Jaffa dead. And one Captain Samantha Carter with a junked up weapon, and a glitter in her eye that boded badly for the universe. Adventure/Drama. Sam saves the team again with a McGyvered weapon and a little bit of luck. Jack is concerned that the universe will never be the same again. A fun look at Sam’s technical and tactical skills in the field. One-shot.

With Great Power - And what would you call me, a Tau'ri woman who can use the weapons of the gods? she challenged, power coursing through her until her whole body felt like static electricity was firing along every muscle and nerve fiber. No content to warn for. Adventure. BAMF!Sam has to get the boys out of trouble. The rest of the team are left to pick up the pieces, and their teammate, when it’s all over. An interesting look at the interaction between Sam and the ribbon device. One-shot.

Sam, Daniel Friendship

Eroding Away the Mountains - “If she’s learned anything over the past five years, over all the years of her life, it’s that the universe never pauses for you to catch up. Whatever happened yesterday, tomorrow will still come, because even time loops don’t last forever, and she has responsibilities that can’t be ignored. So she’ll go back to the Mountain, her lab, and a job she loves, even when it hurts.” Friendship. An exploration of Sam and Daniel’s friendships through a series of hikes. I really enjoyed that the friendship was built organically over time and that the loss of Daniel resonates with reader almost as much as it does with Sam. Bonus team interaction as well. One-shot.

Reckless - “This was the Sam that always surprised Daniel. Not the scientist or the soldier, but another person all together. Someone defined by an edge of recklessness that she normally hid underneath her levelheaded exterior.” Adventure. The gang is captured and Carter leads a minor revolt to save them. Sam-centric, but told from Daniel’s POV. This use of POV is a really creative character exploration for both Carter and Daniel. One-shot.

West - They gave her food and water and drew her a map to the city of Reata far away, where perhaps she could find the men she sought. “Stargate. Chapa Hi?” she said, so perhaps it was a farewell. “Chapa Hi,” they said in return, and sent Thaywood-ware-thees on her way with their best wishes. Adventure. Seperated from her team, Carter is stranded offworld where she doesn’t speak the language. She travels from town to town, continually getting sent further west, in search of her team and the Stargate. One-shot. Story is deleted! 

Sam, Teal'c Friendship

A Star At Dawn - While rescuing natives from a threatening volcano, SG-1 is caught in an avalanche. Angst/Drama. Teal'c is buried and Sam is injured. It’ll take both of them working together to live through the night. A welcome look at the friendship and bond between Sam and Teal'c, especially in the wake of losing Daniel and O'neill. One-shot.

The Working Hour - “I suppose you think I’m pretty weak.”

Teal’c looked up and realized she been watching him watching her. He shook his head. “No. I do not think you are weak. You have a warrior’s heart and a quick brain. You fought well, and you prevailed. That is not weak.” Adventure. Set early Season 1, Carter and Teal'c are stranded offworld and injured. Cue Carter being badass and Teal'c trying to reconcile his past as Apophis’ First Prime and his new role on the team and coming to trust a woman. I really enjoyed the writing style and the interaction between Sam and Teal'c. One-shot.

Sam/Janet (yay for underappreciated ships!)

Ten-Thousand Suns - Sam is trapped in the rubble after an earthquake collapses a building on an alien world. Hurt/Comfort. Janet and a team of specialists try to keep Sam alive long enough to free her from the rubble. For her part, Sam is just trying to keep it together as she fights for her life and fights for the realization of those that she loves. Featuring underappreciated ships that actually make a lot of cannon sense and ascended!Daniel. One-shot.

Jack/Sam

Camelot Episode Tag - What was Sam thinking at the end of Camelot? And what happened next? Sci-fi/Angst. The story follows Sam directly after the Ori arrive through the supergate and her recovery from free-floating in space. Bonus Married!jack/sam. One-shot.

Going Under - Set in Season 3. SG1 visit an alient planet, but their attempts at a meet and greet go wrong. Captured, seperated from the Colonel and under dire threat, they must find Jack and make their escape. Team fic, with S/J elements, but strictly within canon. Adventure. A planet-of-the-week story featuring BAMF!Sam, awesome team dynamics, and some hinted Jack/Sam. This story handled the adventurous and perilous atmosphere along with the friendship and working relationship of the team. Complete.

Patience - Patience may be a virtue, but it can also get you killed. Hurt/Comfort/Drama. Things have been tense between Jack and Carter lately and Jack suggests some time off for the overworked scientist. When Carter doesn’t show up to work the next day, Jack figures she took him up on his offer. Little does the team know that Sam is trapped in her car just outside Cheyenne Mountain. A story with Sam in peril and Sam getting herself out of peril. Also hints of Jack/Sam. One-shot.

Remember Days of Gladness When Sorrow is at Hand - “For the thousandth time that week, Sam felt her eyes prick with tears. You wouldn’t know it by looking at them, but all three of her guys could be ridiculously sweet sometimes.” S8 post-Threads fic. Canon S/J with a side of teamy goodness. Friendship/Romance. Carter is still grieving over the loss of her father and still coming down from defeating the replicators. Her team surprises early one morning with helping hands to give her the dream home she always wanted. Jack and Sam also have some nice, if awkward, conversations. One-shot.

Three Wishes - Mistaken for a genie, bashed on the head and captured along with Sam, Jack wakes up with wishes in mind… Friendship/Adventure. Poor Jack is just trying to get through their latest missions, and Sam is just trying to get both of them home. Fun Jack/Sam friendship and/or pre-relationship. One-shot.

Tumbling Down - “Hours later, Sam is leaning against the window, letting the cool glass leach the heat from her face, with Cam’s hand resting lightly on her left thigh. Across the booth Daniel is slumped back, third cup of coffee in his hand and Vala draped half-asleep against him… Atlantis is wonderful and it’s the command step her career needs, but sometimes she misses her team so much it hurts. She doesn’t known if it’s better or worse to know they’re still exploring the universe together without her.” Friendship/Romance. An episode!tag for SGA Trio. Sam returns Earth to heal after breaking her leg in the Pegasus Galaxy, her team and Jack take care of their injured teammate. Sam revisits some memories of her time on SG-1 and muses on the life - and relationships - she built and left behind. One-shot.