#but this world is so grim and I don't want new human beings to suffer

[nananarc]

When i think about, only if i work for ~ 200 years diligently without stop, to afford buying a decent house....

[elaemae]

The premium version of human is here to wreck house, mfs.

[Twst x Obey Me!AFAB!reader]

CHP. 4

PREVIOUS CHP.: PROLOGUE 3

Thank you guys for the likes, reblogs and comments.

Also, to the people who became my followers, I'll be forever grateful for that😊

CW: When MC gets mistaken as a guy, they get referred to as he/him, but the problem is that there's too many males around the MC.

So, I've decided to color the pronouns blue when it's MC that's being addressed. Just to avoid confusion.

CLARIFICATION: The headmaster, and MC knows that Yuu is from another world, so MC decided to play along and pretend that they're from the same world as Yuu. (The human world where MC came from is mostly similar to the human world that Yuu describes. i.e. landmarks, cultural, knowledge, current trends, anime and manga are all mostly the same.)

REMEMBER: Read this before the chapter.

Experience changes people.

If you see MC doing something you think you won't do and you decide to complain about it, remember this:

• You act the way you do because of the things that you've gone through in your life.

• MC is the same.

• They experienced a lot of traumatic events and almost lost their lives a fuck-ton of times.

• Because of that, they've changed. They've diverged from being you into the MC that they are now.

• The life you're living now shall be treated as the MC's canonical past.

• Also, because The Obey Me!cast feels bad from all the times you suffered and almost died because of them, they tend to overcompensate you.

• You get dressed in the finest of fabrics, most luxurious jewels, as well as housed and fed with the best things that the three realms have to offer.

• You don't take them for granted, but years of living with that lifestyle had raised your standards to new heights and changed the way that you act towards certain things.

• You're free to make up your own head canons if you don't like mine, also y'all can give me feedback if you want so I can improve my work.

• This story will be set a few years after the canon of the Obey Me games.

• • • • •

Who would've thought that it would be a bad idea to try to trick someone who literally reeks of luxury to live in an old, bout-to-fall-apart dormitory?

Well, certainly not Crowley.

That fact became known when 'The shady looking dorm leader™' and also, the tablet decided to tag along with you, Yuu and Crowley, but then had to help Yuu in holding you back so that you wouldn't beat the ever living crap out of the headmaster the moment he dared to bring y'all in front of this rustic establishment and say "It had charm". (Too many You's)

Oh really? really?? Oh you'll see real charm when I beat you straight into the afterlife you greasy son of a bitc–

*Ehem*

It did not end well.

So instead of that, the headmaster had to temporarily put you and your fellow stranded-in-dis-school-human into the infirmary as your temporary abode and promised to fix the shoddy dorm so that it can safely house people in it. (Grim will appear in the future, dw)

*Que Azul tryna make you stay in Octavinelle and you vehemently declining that offer.*

Also, you're starting to get creeped-out by the floating tablet that keeps following you around and won't stop with taking pictures. there's also the small maniacal giggles coming out of the device.

• • • • • •

So there you two are, two people that've been kidnapped by this school's fuckin carriage are now bonding in the infirmary and distracting each other by venting about problems back home. (You two are too wary to be able to sleep properly.)

Like, yes Yuu, I'm in a polyamorous with more than a dozen problematic individuals.

Yes, it works out. somehow

Damn, three assignments due tomorrow all from the same subject? Have you ever tried cheating off of your classmates?

Oh— wait what?! a classmate from biology was caught fucking with a professor in a classroom!? Seriously??

No, I unfortunately no longer have a grasp on the concept of private space and poverty.

Yes, maintaining a relationship with a lot of people at the same time can be hard.

A lot of them are rich.

Wait, a seatmate of yours really gave two free expensive sketch pads just because you asked?? Where can I find that person??

Yes they all act like my sugar daddies and my man-children in one way or another.

No, don't you dare pimp yourself out, okay? There may be a lot of people in my life but the important thing is that we all love each other.

We support, comfort, protect, and guide each other to the best we can.

No— that didn't happen in a day, I had to bend over backwards and almost die a shit-ton of times before I managed to wiggle myself firmly into the hearts of those fuckers.

...Q- Questions about our sex life will be automatically ignored.

Just.. be nice to others, even if it's seemingly stupid.

Unless they are absolute scum then just maintain distance.

You just gotta eyeball it to figure out when to stop being nice to someone.

Never and I mean NEVER treat anyone badly unless they did something unforgivable to you.

Don't call me kind. It's easier to have a grasp on other people if you're nice.

Pft— You once saw a book called "How to be a sugar baby 101" in the school library?! And you saw your principal reading it?!

Sure-sure, I'll help you with your math homework— wait a second.. Seriously?? We've been kidnapped, I ain't allowing you to do math. Where the hell did you even hide that thick-as-fuck test sheet anyways?? Up your ass?!

• • • •

You sigh for the third time this hour, looking at Yuu who's making a "Mom.. I threw up in the carpet... I'm sowwy🥺" expression as they stand beside your bed.

"What happened?"

Yuu winced, feeling embarrassed as they hear you talk to them like a disappointed parent, they had failed to appeal to Crowley about becoming a temporary student of this school and now had to be a janitor/errand kid.

"The headmaster said that I'll be the handy-man of the campus while he searches for a way to get us home..."

You feel a vein in your head throb and your eye start to twitch by of the sheer audacity being shown in front of your face.

You are now feeling the immense urge to hex that bird-bitch.

Satan sat straight in his seat, speaking out to the others in the meeting table.

"I can feel irritation and the urge to curse someone again." He said.

It would've been funny if this was another situation.

"That's definitely from MC, isn't it? You mentioned being half-asleep and feeling MC get agitated through your pact mark, right?" Diavolo asked.

"Yes, at least our pacts are still intact..." Satan nodded.

"Great, we can use this to monitor MC even if they're far away." Lucifer stated.

Countless search-parties and interrogations have already been conducted, but they're still clueless on where you can be or who could've taken you.

Even Barbatos couldn't see what had happened.

They're starting to get agitated, MC..

• • • • •

Jade watched as Azul frantically drafts and redrafts a new plan of his.

It seems that something caught the eye of their housewarden in the ceremony today.

"What could be so eye-catching that you're in such a hurry to obtain it, Azul?" Jade couldn't contain his curiosity and asked.

"It's a new student, Jade." Azul started.

"He possesses such a large amount of magical artifacts in his hands, It's unbelievable! They were all high quality too!"

Jade blinks.

"Don't you have enough magical artifacts around?"

Jade is confusion.

"You don't know it because you weren't there." Azul narrowed his eyes at Jade.

"I first thought those jewelry of his were similar to the ones that you can buy with enough money in annual auctions, but then I realized that it's very likely that those jewelry are customized."

"...How so?"

"So I decided to try and take a closer look, but when I actually got closer and almost touched one of them, I felt a strong thrum of magic that I haven't felt before!"

Oh?

Now that got Jade's attention.

Azul has been exposed to a lot of strong, powerful people and magical artifacts over the years that he and his twin were following this dormleader of theirs and yet there was actually an artifact so strong that he can feel strong waves of magic by just almost touching it?

How curious..... If the magic of the artifact was so strong, why didn't Azul sense it up until he literally almost held it in his hands?

Seems like this year won't be boring, after all..

• • • • •

BONUS: Someone has a crush.

"Brother, Your package has arrived— What are you... Are you making fan art of Mr. [L/n]...?"

Idia screams like a dumb girl in a horror movie as he tries to block the screen with his body.

"O-ORTHO?! WH-WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT KNOCKING FIRST??!"

"And... what's with the pose?"

Ortho tilts head innocently, confused on why his brother is drawing a new student in a pose that can often be seen on videos that are called "Thirst traps". he's still confused about why they're called that way.

Idia: "O- ORTHO THIS ISN'T ANYTHING BAD I SWEARAHGJSI—"

*Starts to fuckin steam*

"brOTHER YOU'RE BURNING THE CHAIR!"

"AH CRAP!"

← Pr.3 | Chapter List | Pr. 5 →

Don't forget to like, comment and reblog guys, It's a big help :3

What do y'all think of the chapter? pls respond, I need feedback🥺

I woke up today and decided to kick canon's ass.

Elae: Thanks for reading this far.☺️

See y'all next time~

Next chapter: Prologue 5

@f0urleafedcl0ver

@a-traveling-void-human

@speckle-meow-meow

@leviathans-tail-scales

@citrus-cinnamon

@prefesro

[imnotgrimimjustagrumpyreaper]

Dukeceit (because I have to be real, that's all that's on this list) Fanfic recs.

This is Grim's favorite Dukeceit fic ,to ring in the new year. A disclaimer, I am well aware that all of these are WILDLY popular, and don't need my help, but you know what? I love them, and I wanna talk about them. One thing you're gonna learn about me REAL quick is that I love a silly little AU lol.

For All the Sacred Selfless Days. 

A university AU with Remus and Janus as professors. Remus’s coworkers keep trying to set him up on blind dates, and seeing as how he’s demi-romantic, he’s really not down for that. So, he asks his long suffering best friend, Janus, to help him out. To fake date him, at least until the big party to welcome all the newly tenured professors…Only problem is, Janus, actually is, just a bit in love with his best friend. 

(For All the Sacred Selfless Days is LEGIT probably in my top three fics of all time for any fandom, all the fics in this series are great, but this is the one that really sticks with me. I can honestly say it's been a HUGE inspiration in my own writing intentionally and unintentionally.) 

Persistent Ghosts (Sing of Home).

Based on Steven King’s “Misery,” Janus is kidnapped. In this deeply sad and grounded depiction of grief and all the forms it takes, everyone thinks he’s dead, and struggles with moving on from him being dead. He’s not dead, he comes home, and in the next chapter…Everyone struggles to move on from him being “Dead.”

(I honest to god forget this one exists, sometimes because I’m careful not to over read it, so that when I do go back and reread it, I can experience it like new. This is one of those extremely well crafted fics that makes you question your life, your sanity. It never fails to make me cry. I love this fic so fucking much, it’s just so well written, man. Side note, just re-read this. THIS is the reason why there is a reference to Misery in TMDORG. This is why Janus wants to be an author, this is the reason -I- realized I want to be an author FUCKKIN HELL MANNN). 

Punch Drunk (On Your Human Touch).

Set in a soulmate-verse turned cyberpunk dystopia where there’s an upper city, and a lower one, you follow Janus, who runs his business by knowing things about people in both. He’s been caught, and brought to a bar by someone who he knows nothing about: The Duke, a crime lord. “So, tell me, snakes and wires, what makes you human?” 

(THEY HAVE TEETH IN THIS ONE. I love a good soft fic where characters are soft as much as the next guy but WHOOOO BOY. I LOVE IT WHEN THEY HAVE TEETH AND SHARP EDGES. The world building in this is INSANE. The amount that’s introduced and how it all weaves together makes my head spin. I think about it constantly.)

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. Grim's favorite dukeceit fics, because I'm back on my bullshit. Read them, if you haven't, and here's to all the new fics of the new year!

[ziracona]

I just want to say though thank you for writing ILM and all your other DBD fics. I don't think i can truly articulate just how spectacular the writing is and the impact they've had on me and countless others. My friends and i joke that ILM changed our brain chemistry, and the truth is that they're right.

The way you write about human emotions and experience even in an uncontested hellscape is unparalleled. The way the fear of pain and death never truly goes away, the knowledge that you know you're going to suffer but still hoping that maybe this time will be different - it is entirely what people are made up of. Of hope and determination and courage.

The moments of levity in a world made to cause the utmost of despair. The care and love, and how persistence can win out.

I also adore how you unabashedly show the killers how they are. They're human - the good ones still have their flaws. Susie is bratty, Joey indecisive, Philip self loathing. On the flip side horrible people can have desirable/good traits. The doctor is genius, the trapper unrelenting, the nightmare (fuck you freddy) creative.

The way the core facets of their personality stay the same no matter what is something so many people (myself included) can struggle with - you may want a character to act a certain way for the plot, but that is not how the character would act. The balancing act of telling a story that you want to portray vs the reality of characters being utmost true to themselves is a harsh one, but one you seamlessly pull off.

How you do things - the prose, the plot, the insights.. it really is like a movie. The emotional high and lows, dealing with such fantastical elements yet remaining so realistic, entrenching your reader so it feels like they are almost living in the characters skin, experiencing what they are. It's incredible dude. It's really, really fucking incredible.

I've only recently gotten back into playing DBD after like a 3 year break from the game, but i still use ILM as canon in my head. I think about how the new characters would fit in there, the dynamics, the jokes - Leon clinging to Tapp as a Familiar Figure (Older Cop), Vittorio depending on Adam to translate for him because while traversing the fog has taught him many things it has not granted him modern language proficiency and Adam is the only one who knows Latin, Feng getting to have a Jane Romero moment with Yun-Jin and Trickster (imagine Justin Timberblake killing you).

Or alternatively their grim faces at the news of certain peoples disappearance knowing that statistically it'll probably be okay - but fuck man, what if it's not? (Felix, Haddie, Mikaela, Zarina, and Nicolas Goddamn Cage would definitely be reported missing. I think the joke 'Nicolas Cage got taken by the entity' conspiracy theory unknowingly being 100% right is hilarious.)

This fic lives in my head rent free and has done so for years, and i cannot thank you enough for writing it. Sorry this is so long, i just really, really appreciate everything you've written and done.

So so extraordinarily sweet of you to say! I don’t know how to respond, except to say it means so much to me you feel that way and joke about it with your friends.

I’m deeply proud of that fic and my others and how they turned out, and that people found them meaningful. I’m a writer, so it’s always good to hear the works was, well, good. Well done. But it means even more to know they meant something to someone.

Also, ‘imagine Justin Timberlake killing you’ shot me like a lame horse absolutely losing it at the metaphor. 🤣 The survivors getting the experience Legion got running into Jane the first time (or, the ones from late enough to know him. Imagine being killed by Justin Timberlake while your best friend goes ‘Who?!??? That guy’s famous???’)

[hetalia-reacts]

So it's been 2 weeks has passed and the darling hasn't reacted to the punishments the Allies has been giving them, and if anything has been ignoring them ( basically any punishment the boys throw at them has no effect ). Another 2 weeks has passed, but to the boys surprise this seems to get a new reaction out of the darling. With every passing day the boys goes out an kills innocent people( y'know to pile more work on the darling ); and the more people they kill the more panicky, agitated, worried, and scared the darling becomes. The darling keeps pleading them to stop and let them do their job, warning them if they don't stop they'll regret it. The boys doesn't listen, if anything they'll relish in the feeling. One of world most powerful creature is finally submitting to them. How delicious, yet pathetic. It's been 4 days since then, and darling still pleads and begs them to stop and let them go. Around this time the boys are just getting home and is about to go check on their darling. But then they stop when they heard some muffled voices in the darling's room. Did the darling somehow contact someone to help her escape!!! And to think they was about to let her off of punishment! Well I guess that won't be happening any time soon. When to boys got to the room; the darling was on their knees and it looked like they were praying, and on in the center of the room was a very bright light and. The boys couldn't believe it, it was.... God. The darling was constantly apologizing about how they could let all of this happen and how the regretting meeting the boys in the first place. God has forgiven the darling and said it wasn't their fault. God has broken their remaining bounds the darling had around their hands and feet. The darling wasted no time running out of the room and unleashing their beautiful black and white wings. But before they full ran out of the room, the darling gives them a pity yet angry glance. " I tried to warn you. I just hope when Grimmy ( it's the nickname for the grim reaper. The darling works very close with them and is extremely close with them ) get here, they'll go easy on you. " Then the darling flies away. Now that's left in room was the boys and God. God tells them what they did was unacceptable and that it doesn't matter that they love the darling to much, and that they darling plays a huge role between life, death, and the afterlife; and that they could of messed up something. And all the lives they took and the sins they've committed, He'll have to punish them. After when God said that, the boys help a uncomfortable chill ran down their spine. Then the room has gotten darker all of a sudden. Out of the corner of the boys eye they saw a skeleton hand reach into the corner of the door. Then the light flickered off for a second. The hand wasn't there anymore. But then the boys felt a presence behind them. Turning around they saw a 9 foot ( almost 10 foot ) tall skeleton looming over them, they were wearing a pitch black cloak in. It was the.Grim.Reaper. After that nothing can prepare them for what they boys went through, it was worse than literal hell. Let's just say the boys regret killing all those people and they did to the darling. ( This part 2 the Angle of Death ask ) Also this is what the darling looks like.

This is my OC. So minus the hair, eyes, face, body. I'll just leave it to the other readers imagination

I was unsure if this was an ask, like a part two for me to write, or simply just you explaining what happens next and what the reader is supposed to look like. So I'll do their reactions to getting punished and what their punishments are. Also, I summed up what you wrote in a more story-like format instead, I hope you don't mind! If you do let me know either through messages or through another ask and I'll delete what I wrote and simply leave your ask posted! Everything is below the cut due to length~

2 entire weeks have passed since the initial punishment. 2 weeks of no souls being taken care of. But that's okay, it doesn't affect you yet. You can handle this, you won't give them what they want: a reaction. They come down every day, bloodied with an innocent person's blood, but you won't say anything, won't react. This angers them. Another agonizing 2 weeks pass. They were getting tired of you not doing anything other than taking the food and water they gave to you. Today is different though. You're fidgety, feisty, and overall look terrified. They assume the punishment is working. They can't help but feel pride at watching you beg and cry for them to stop killing people, to let you at the very least reap their souls and come back. It's exhilarating, delectable. The power they feel bringing you, an Angel of Death, to such a state is a rush they could get addicted to. Your pathetic attempts to threaten them saying "something bad will happen if you don't stop this," were enjoyable to some degree as well. How sad their little caged Angel had become. 4 days later they come home, your voice seems to echo from where they left them. What happened? Who were you talking to? How did you contact someone? Regrettable that this happened, you were acting so good before this and he was honestly considering letting you out early for good behavior. He barges into the room where his darling is. You were praying to a bright light, a bright light that was near the center of the room. It appeared to be some entity. No, it wasn't just some entity, it was God himself. His darling was apologizing to him, saying you didn't mean to let this happen, sorry for not being strong enough to stop him, and the biggest stab to his heart, you were apologizing for even getting to know them in the first place. He watched as the chains released their holds on your ankles and wrists and you wasted no time in stretching out your gorgeous wings and walking towards an exit to the outside. You only turned to look at them for a second, deep sorrow and intense anger in your eyes. "I tried to warn you (___). I just hope Grimmy is able to show you some mercy when he gets here." You then flew away after that, leaving him alone with God. He looks disappointed, explaining that love won't be a good enough excuse to save him from his very own punishment. He had disrupted the work of Heaven and Hell, killed innocents simply out of spite, and he must atone for those crimes. God leaves in a flash of bright white, leaving him in a now dark room, a chill traveling up his spine as he soon feels a presence in the room. He catches the boney hand of something out of the corner of his eye. As he turns to see it clearly, he sees a giant skeleton draped in a black robe reach out a boney hand to take him. He has never been through a worse hell than this.

2p America (Allen)

Allen is regretful while he is taken to his punishment. He knows he deserves it, he went a little crazy from the power he had over you. And now that your gone, never to return to him, he feels like this is a just end to his empty life. His punishment is among the worst. The Grim Reaper makes Allen live out what he did to those innocent souls as well as suffer the same punishments he had ever given to you. He will eventually go mad, and if you were to spare him and see him, it would simply make him go deeper into insanity and depression.

2p Canada (Matt)

Out of all of them, he feels like he is the least deserving of this. He hadn't made you suffer, or kept you locked away. He may not have let you go far without him, but he didn't completely stop you from doing your job. I can see Matt being regretful, but not for long. Only for as long as he feels he really deserved. His punishment is by far the least painful. The Grim Reaper makes him suffer in a more creative way, he was to watch what could've been. As someone who was usually always gentle with you, it pains him to watch what his life could've been if he had just stayed patient and lenient.

2p England (Oliver)

Oliver is a tough one to crack in this case. He's already insane for the most part so nothing really scares him while he is being taken to his punishment. Oliver also really can't see what he's done wrong. He isn't regretful for what he did, at least not to those people. His punishment is hard to decide. In the end, Oliver is tortured by leaving him alone. He will wait for eternity alone, no one to speak to, nothing to do, he will rot away forever until even his facade of sanity is no longer there to keep him company.

2p France (Francois)

Francois has no complaints. He figures this is just another bad thing to add to his miserable existence. He's partially regretful for what he did to you. He knows he shouldn't have snapped at the end of the day and that getting a power trip wasn't like him and he should've caved sooner. However, in the end, he's still selfish and he figures you should've been careful, he did warn you about his dislikes after all. Francois's punishment is to take away his peace. He will be driven insane by noise. He's the only one to be let back out into the human world again. Francois is now constantly plagued by noise, and any vice or sin he commits (drinking, smoking, killing) the noise will only get louder.

2p Russia (Viktor)

Viktor is not at all regretful. He doesn't care at all. Viktor is one that would actively try to fight against The Grim Reaper. Of course, he fails at this. Viktor's punishment is similar to what he did to you. He is left alone with other punished souls in a type of confinement. Viktor will be subjected to years of push and pull tactics. He will come to fully rely on The Grim Reaper or whoever is watching over the souls, flushing his pride and intelligent mind down the drain.

2p China (Zao)

Zao is deeply regretful to some degree. He feels he disrespected you, your job, and your boss. This is something he never wanted to do as he honors respect deeply. On the other hand, he isn't regretful for punishing you, he still believes wholeheartedly that you deserved it, just maybe not to the degree he took it. Zao's punishment is similar to Viktor's. Zao has a deep sense of honor, of pride, and he is punished by spending eternity being taunted, teased, beaten, and spit on. This is another one where he would go absolutely insane and become a whole other person. If you ever took the time to see him you would not recognize the man in front of you, and he wouldn't recognize you either.

[elenajohansenreads]

Books I Read in 2021

#83 - Shadowmarch, by Tad Williams

Mount TBR: 69/100

Beat the Backlist Bingo: Cover features your favorite color prominently

Rating: 1/5 stars

Well, that was a slog.

So I have a history with this piece of intellectual property. I was introduced to Williams as an author in college (1998) because several of the friends I made my first year were big fantasy nerds--no surprise there--and I was perfectly ready to move on from my high-school-era love of less sophisticated fantasy authors. I borrowed The Dragonbone Chair from one of those friends and off I went.

So in 2001 when news about Williams writing an online serial went around, and I saw the $15 price tag...well, I was a perpetually almost-broke college student still, and sure I spent money on books, but that was a high gateway, because a) I didn't own my own computer yet, I was borrowing friends' or using the computer lab to write papers and such; and b) sure, a chunky fantasy novel might be $7 or $8 in paperback, but it was portable, easy to reread whenever, and nobody had tablets or smartphones or e-readers yet, so an online serial publication was definitely not portable. Even fifteen dollars seemed like too much for the inconvenience of a book I could only read sitting at a computer, and couldn't read all of at once.

I was genuinely angry about this shift away from the paradigm, and much like Williams vowing this serial was online only and would never be published traditionally (which I distinctly remember but don't actually have a source for) I too vowed that I would never read it.

I held out much longer than he did, if my memory of that claim is even true. But I'm wishing now that I hadn't bothered.

This is bad. Not even close to the level of quality I expect from Williams, based on the earlier Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, as well as War of the Flowers--which was weird but I enjoyed it--and the Otherland series, which was even weirder and not always good, but yeah, I still enjoyed that too, for the most part.

Who am I supposed to care about in this book? I'm no stranger to multiple protagonists, but there are simply too many here, meaning none of them get the development time they would need to be interesting. I'm trying to wean myself from the complaint that protagonists need to be "likable," because a character can be a jerk and still be interesting, but few of these protagonists are particularly likable either!

1. Barrick is a whiny jerk who folds under pressure and abdicates responsibility to his sister, and then makes a spectacularly bad decision for no reason other than to set up some tension at the end, and his future arc. If it's because he's "mad," bad plot reason, and if it's because he's affected by the more general shadow-madness, well, I guess he could be vulnerable to it like anyone else, but that's pretty flimsy too. 2. Briony is a fairly standard "if only I weren't a woman, people would take me seriously" princess who doesn't fold as much under pressure but is dealt a really raw deal. I'll give her credit, she does legitimately try her best to rule her lands, but she's also kind of a whiny jerk like her brother, too. 3. Quinnitan is...pointless. Sure, I see how the end of her arc in this book echoes those of the Eddon twins, but there is no direct connection between her plot and anyone else's. And I mean that literally, if there's anything that ties her story to any other single part of the book, I simply do not see it, it's buried in lore or foreshadowing that was lost on me amid the sheer weight of nearly 800 pages of plodding narrative. I read all of her scenes constantly wondering why I should care, and the fact that her arc is a very basic harem plot, "I don't want to be a token wife but really what choice do I have?" sort of thing, doesn't help, because on its own it's incredibly unoriginal. 4. Chert is marginally likable, because he's arguably got the most defined personality and most personal growth in the book, as a person of a "little" race who is distinctly not human--I get a mix of gnome and dwarf, with a faint whiff of Podling from The Dark Crystal--and who deals with an unexpected foundling by taking him into his family and trying to make it work, even when that foundling is really a big blank space in the story who still manages to get into trouble. 5. Captain Vansen gets points from me for being the guardsman deep in unrequited love, which is a trope I would absolutely eat up with a spoon. The problem is, the object of that love is a protagonist I don't care for (Briony,) leading me to question what the eff he's thinking that he can even admire her from a distance, let alone be in infatuation/love. And his plot arc is mostly "something goes wrong that's not really has fault but everyone blames him anyway." Which got dull.

Chert and Vansen are most of the reason this book gets a second star*, honestly. Chert's scenes with the Rooftoppers are generally pretty excellent, even if they're mostly tied to a plot arc that I don't care for.

The other thing that's getting me about this is that it feels like a deliberately grim-dark retread of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. You've got a castle that's the seat of current government but used to belong to the enemy--the enemy that no one is sure even exists anymore, that lives in a land far enough away to feel distant but also somehow close enough to be threatening, once people believe in them again. That castle is perched upon magically important ruins/caverns, and that enemy has forms of magic/communication that affect humans and can cause or appear symptomatic of madness. There's a race of small likable people who aren't quite dwarves or any other "standard" fantasy race, but are still somehow cute/appealing. There's a crippled prince who's not really well-liked. One of the primary female protagonists is a young woman who laments the limitations of her womanhood under the patriarchal feudal system of the world.

And to someone who's never read either of these series, that list of similarities could mostly read like fairly common fantasy tropes, and I forgive anyone who reads this review and thinks that. But I've read MSaT probably ten times all the way through in the twenty-plus years since I was introduced to it, and I feel like I've just been handed the same story again, with a thick coat of gray paint slathered on it and a few details changed--and those changes are basically always for the worse. No one in this story can be said to be a direct equivalent to Simon, who gets a very clear hero's journey, but if I'm supposed to slot Barrick in as a Simon/Josua mashup (that crippled prince problem) then it takes the entire book to get Barrick out of his comfort zone and on his journey, where Simon got booted from the castle at the end of the first act of the first book.

And that gets at the underlying problem that is at least partially fueling all other problems--this book is clearly just the first act of the larger story, and yes i know! that is what first books do! but this also doesn't have a lot of forward motion on its own, and it doesn't resolve anything aside from the mystery of a single murder at that happens near the beginning. Seriously, all other plot threads get kicked down the road with the "and now they're exiles" theme that the ending has assigned to most of the protagonists. Chert doesn't suffer that fate, but the ending of his story line--also the end of the book itself--is the foundling reasserting that he doesn't know who he is, which is not new information. We've literally not known who he is the whole time, except that we do find out who his mother is, but don't find out how he was taken or why he apparently hasn't aged as much as he should have or what the Qar intended by sending him back "home." The identity of his mother is basically the least important question surrounding him.

I truly feel like I just read a 750-page prologue, and that is not a good feeling.

*Yeah, I told myself this was a two-star book, but by the time I wrote the whole review, it's not and I can't pretend I still believe that. This is a one-star book. This is so bad I don't want to go on with the series, even though it almost has to get better, now that most of our protagonists are out on their journeys. And because it could hardly get worse, right? But this already took up so much of my time (I had to take a week-long break in the middle to binge some romances, as a relief from all this grimdark toil) and even though I've managed to collect secondhand copies of the rest of the series, and they've been sitting on my shelves for a few years waiting for me to invest my energy into them...I'm giving up. Not worth it.

[heir-of-talon]

So I have commissioned these busts of the characters. I will post a bust of the person whose POV the chapter is written in ❤ Some may be spoilery but hey! It's just fanfiction 😉

HEIR OF TALON 2

Warnings: explicit/underage/violence

Summary:

After slaying Elder Wyrm and becoming CEO of Talon Ember works very hard. Slowly changes are creeping in, that threaten her relationships with Garret and Riley, her sense of self and her sanity.

Life at the top

Ember

I woke up with a yelp. The bed sheets and my shirt were rumpled and soaked through with sweat. I reached for a glass of water on the night stand and drank trying to wash away tightness in my throat tasting salt of my tears mingling with contents of the glass. It was just another nightmare I tried to calm myself, but at this point I had little doubt that these were true. As was ensuing weeks of captivity, when Gerard found more and more horrid ways to torment Ember after he learned, that she could heal quickly from injuries that would have killed anybody else. His lord and his men, formed a group around her, torturing her and slowly learning her secrets... Bloodlettings so they could bathe in her blood and become resistant to harm and disease. She has suffered it all without even feeling tempted to shift, because there inside her... a spire, only remaining reality of her happiness, of their destiny. No, she could still salvage him, she would endure and once he was out of her body she would shift and fly them both away to safety, to another world if need be, there was nothing she would not do for him, her little Dante. Her love though betrayed so cruelly have found new anchor and she would preserve.

And then... birth of their child, ten men with swords and kludges awaiting, hitting her, bleeding her and Gerard... he tossed his son into flames right after he nearly ripped him from her body amid her agonizing cries.

Hatred. All consuming, all destroying all mighty. She shifted and ripped them apart limb for limb, the men, the women, the children, anyone within the vicinity of the estate. She had nothing left for humans, the vile, cruel, mindless creatures...

These dreams always filled me with grief and despair. But I was not her. Or was I? Sometimes I was not sure anymore. I would better get up, it was going to be another long day.

Vipers were resisting my changes to the organisation and demanded to be allowed to form their own organization apart from Talon, my bare ass! I tossed my shirt aside and hurried to bathroom where I laid down in the bathtub and turned the water on. As warm water crept higher and higher covering my body I relaxed and garish details of the nightmare started to fade. My thoughts were sharp and clear again. No way I was going to relinquish control of Vipers, I will sooner get them all killed. But how do you do this exactly? The only way is to get them to kill one another and then maybe set the last one up to a surprise date with the Order? This would require some serious diversion though, to make sure they accept the orders and don't figure out the game too soon... Hmm maybe later, as the last instance, for now I would rather regain their obedience. Hot water have filled the tub to the brim and I ceased to think giving up to the utter delight of being submerged in relaxing warmth.

***

"Autumn and Cobalt are here to see you ma'am" my assistant's Rose voice sounded through intercom. "Let them in" I grunted, not at all happy. After momentary relief in the bath I have developed a nasty headache and painkillers did not really work on dragons. I was not sure if dragons should have headaches, I have not been sick one hour of my entire life before I have become CEO of Talon.

"Hello Firebrand, you look positively awful, what the hell happened to you?" Riley strode to my office and unceremoniously sat on a chair in front of my enormous desk pulling another chair closer and indicating for Autumn to sit next to him. This irritated me, I was the CEO, this was my office and he come without notice and behaved as he owned everything here. "I had a hard night" I said slowly "so this better be important" I gave them a tight smile.

"It's about my egg" Autumn said. "It's in hatchery now, and I don't want my baby to hatch there. I want him to be born free, not to spend his childhood in an isolated facility being drilled by Talon like we did." She talked calmly and was obviously at ease, while her ridiculous request literally made me seething inside. I waited till she was finished and replied. "How do you imagine to hatch a dragon egg and then rear a hatchling, unable to shift for two years and to stay reliably shifted for another ten in the middle of human society?" I asked calmly. "How are you going to feed it until it can shift? How are you going to avoid it being seen?". Autumn stared at me surprised by coldness in my voice.

"Easy Firebrand, this is why we came here. To find alternative solutions for these... challenges" Riley's voice was calm but he was now watching me with slightly narrowed eyes and I could hear him thinking hard. But I could not let Autumn take that egg away. These four eggs was all the organization had left. We've sustained substantial loses when the laboratory exploded, every dragon counted for survival of our race. "We were thinking about it for quite a while actually. There's four eggs that need to be reared. There probably won't be any new for some time now, as Talon's members will no longer be forced to mate and dragons breed extremely rarely on their own volition, being immortal, territorial and such. So we just need to provide these four hatchlings with a place to be in two years. It should not be that difficult..." "Oh you've got it all figured out, don't you!?" I cut him off. I was furious at his shortsighted sentimentality. "And who is going to provide these hatchlings with education and training? Their mothers, who's never set their foot outside of the breeding facility?!" Autumn looked as if I've hit her, but I didn't care. These hatchlings were important for the organization, now that the vessel program was abandoned. If they were raised outside of the organization will any of them wish to serve it? Will they even be suitable for our purposes? "What are you talking about?" Riley was furious now. "They will be instructed and influenced by our entire community. Just because you won't have total control over every moment of their lives, doesn't mean they will not turn out just fine". He took stunned Autumn by her hand and rose to his feet. "Come, we've must have caught ma'am CEO on a bad day." And then to me. "Do not think that you've heard the last of it Firebrand. This is important, this is the freedom we've been fighting for all this time. And I will not relent, just because you get to be the boss now!" He left with scared Autumn in tow leaving me to my headache and grim thoughts.

I pressed intercom button. "Rose? I am taking off the rest of the day. Tell the Archivist to schedule new date for meeting with Vipers" "Yes, ma'am." I dragged myself out of the office and staggered when the heat and sunshine of the day outside hit me. I could not remember being out in a middle of a day. Ruling Talon was consuming all my time and energy and throughout last few months I begun to see the point of the control and discipline within the organization, as dealing with Riley's rouges, Jade and other free spirits was clearly the most annoying part of my new situation. I could not remember the drive home. To a vast top floor apartment furnished by Rose to impress an empress as she has phrased it. I had no time to interfere and only added piles of discarded clothes to the setting. And these were cleared every day by a maid. So I entered my lavish suite kicked off my ballerinas, flopped on white leather sofa and closed my eyes.

***

I woke up with a start that made it clear, that my headache was still there. It was evening and someone was knocking on my door. I insisted on no Gilas in the building I lived in, just as I insisted on living among normal, if wealthy people, rather than in a fancy all Talon apartment complex few blocks from the HQ. Now I was suddenly reluctant to open the doors. "Ember?! Are you in there?" Garret. I sighed and dragged myself to the doors. "Hello commander" I tried to smile. "Come in and fix this shitty day". He did not smile just stepped over the threshold taking in my surely messy hair, crumpled suit and tired face. "What is wrong?" He asked dropping his duffel bag at the doors and pulling me into strong embrace. I closed my eyes breathing him in and feeling my headache and confusion melting away. But after a way too brief moment he pushed himself away to arms length and looked into my eyes. "What is going on Ember? You look so tired. And you missed the meeting today, the Archivist would not tell us anything, but Rose told me you went home feeling unwell so I come to check up on you."He said. "Wait a minute. What meeting?!" I felt an ugly suspicion rising. "Meeting with Vipers." He looked surprised and worried that I would ask. "The Archivist spoke in your name and got them in line, no worries. They are allowed to leave the organization under a long list of conditions, that shortly sums up to not killing, assaulting or terrorizing anyone ever and attending monthly meetings with their rehabilitation supervisors, new units consisting of one Talon employee and one Order's employee. Of course the agreement is only valid after you've approved it. From the looks on their faces no one is leaving for some time." He smiled to his thoughts.

I had plans for Vipers and this was not exactly what I would have gone for. I should be furious about Archivist bypassing me like that. But somehow it did not matter much. No, when Garret was here I was just relieved and thankful that things were taken care of. Suddenly I could breath freely and I thought that if only I could stay in his arms long enough I would heal and become whole again, the way I was before leaving Talon and the violent time that followed. I leaned in to kiss him and he answered crushing me to his chest. Then he lifted his head again and asked "Have you eaten?" Seemingly abandoning the topic of my bad looks. "No, I slept since noon. " Suddenly I could feel how hungry I was but at the same time I did not want to release him. "How about we order some tapas and eat here?" I pointed to the couch. He peered down at me and truly smiled for the first time since he saw me and I had a hard time trying to stay focused. There was my Garret, this intoxicating mixture of desire and disbelief in his gray eyes. "Give me a second to change, make yourself at home commander. Maybe order food, I want wine boiled chorizo, meat balls with tomato sauce and bacon wrapped dates big pile of each."

I winked at him and rushed to my bedroom and beyond to the walk in closet the size of an average apartment on Manhattan, as the real estate agent described it. There I quickly shed my office clothes and changed into oversized multicolor sweatpants and a knitted crop top. I turned and felt sudden apprehension about going back to the living room. My headache was on its way back and I just wanted to run as far away from Garret as possible, I sat on a chaise long in the middle of the closet. The boy was a nuisance putting it mildly, making me reckless and weak. The thoughts popped in and out of my head along with a passing stab of migraine until I heard his voice coming from somewhere close.

"Ember?" I exited the closet and found him standing at the doorstep to my bedroom. He quickly stepped outside, when he saw me, and I rushed to grab his hand. He sent me that worried look again. "Are you all right?" "Yes, was just changing." He looked me over doubtfully. "Food is here." He said. "Wow, that was fast." I chuckled slightly confused.

We ate talking about things we've been doing since we've last seen each other almost a month before. Garret got in touch with Order's Academy and tried to persuade them to provide much needed reinforcements sooner, than they meant it was possible. More and more survivors of Night of Fang and Fire surfaced all around the world and it was difficult to maintain his position as their leader. I sat buried neck-deep in documentation on Talon, that the Archivist deemed best suited to give me insight and understanding of Talon. I was also struggling to establish satisfactory level of authority. In other words both our lives sucked badly and we could not see the end of it. Afterwards I turned on some music and we went to the couch. Garret sat down in one corner and I nestled between his legs leaning sideways against his chest. I wanted to touch him, kiss him talk some more.

***

"Ember, better go to bed it's past eleven." Garret was shaking my arm lightly. Have I fallen asleep? Again!? "Don't leave me!" I blurted. "Stay with me Garret". He shifted under me. "My leg is sleeping. " He said and tried to stretch. "Let's go to bed then." I rose and he followed collecting his bag from the floor by the doors. I pointed him to guest bathroom and hurried to my own to brush my teeth. Then I slipped into the closet to change into shorts and oversized t-shirt with Toothless serving as pajamas. As soon as I slipped them on I rushed out and waited for Garret in the hall. He come out soon wearing only black boxer shorts, he was lean and tan, his hair bleached by the sun.

I felt my stomach twist with longing and dread, at the sight of him. I wanted him so much, yet I did not feel fit for passionate lovemaking. I was tired and haunted, Talon required things of me, that I doubted, he would accept. Going on like this was a torment for both of us, but we could not see any alternatives right now and I would not accept ending the relationship either. Garret was the only ray of sun in my existence, he loved me and I needed him, completely and desperately. Around him I was myself, battered and wan but myself, when he was gone I did not know who I was anymore.

I strode to him and hugged him tightly, which he returned with a purr. Then I caught his eyes and said solemnly "Garret I love you and I want to be close, but I have not been feeling well lately... And I know, that we don't see each other much, but I can't go all the way tonight. Actually I... might not want to do anything tonight" I felt lame, but he brushed hair off my temple, his expression soft. "It's okay. We are not obliged to do anything Ember. Let's get you to bed." He lifted me up and carried me to my bed, that was neatly made with fresh linens. He put me on the floor and lifted the comforter for me to crawl in. I laid down obediently and patted the pillow next to me. Garret slid under the covers beside me and the warmth of his body engulfed me as he put his arm around me and turned the bed lamp off. In the relative darkness of my bedroom with Garret so close all worries and problems seemed insubstantial, only his heartbeat was real, only the scent of his body and the warmth of his skin mattered. For the first time in weeks I fell into deep dreamless sleep.

[ymiwritesstuff]

Hey, I was wondering if you could do a Gyro x female reader who, because of her roguh past, has questionable morals? Like she has those "dark determination" moments like Johnny does and Gyro has to stop her from killing someone. Thank you so much for this. Don't forget you're a talented writer!

This was super super fun to write and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you so so much for the amazing request once again! I love writing for you!

Trials of Fate

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run

Gyro Zeppeli x Reader

Summary: For as long as you can remember you have been put under cruel tests by life itself and these trials have formed you into a cold, merciless individual who desires to conquer fate.

Notes: Angst, Fluff

Life was cruel. It had always been. From the moment you came to this world, life had been a constant game of survival, filled with hunger, poverty and struggling. It was as if life itself was testing you, each time forcing you to take part in its twisted trials just to stay alive. The horrible things you had to do in order to stay afloat in the sea of troubles haunted you and made you question everything. Was it truly worth it to kill someone or offer your body to someone in exchange for just a few coins? 

The constant fear of being betrayed by fate and put under a set of unforgiving trials of life caused you to desperately cling to those small amount of things you occasionally owned. You would guard your possessions with your life and put an end to anyone who tried to take anything from you. But of course, fate evaded your efforts to protect your belongings and had allowed your precious items and food to be stolen all too many times.

You saw Steel Ball Run as an opportunity for a change. A change you so desperately needed. If you could win the prize money perhaps it would all be better. You could buy a new house, you wouldn’t have to worry about staying alive and maybe, just maybe, the shadow of cruel fate would finally fade away. That one, tiny possibility gave you hope and you were determined to surpass the cruelty of life.

Still, even though life had treated you exceptionally well ever since the start of the race, allowing you to travel with two very capable and tolerable males, you couldn’t allow yourself to relax. The journey was far from over and you were sure that fate was planning to throw more misfortune your way if you allowed yourself to feel at ease too much. You had to stay sharp, eliminate all threats without hesitation and then, and only then you could hopefully live in peace.

Staring at the starry night sky above you had an odd effect on you. Despite the darkness some might consider sinister, you found strange comfort in the sight of millions of stars upon the sky, looking down at you. From the corner of your eye you see the sleeping forms of Johnny and Gyro, both of whom were most likely exhausted. It was understandable and you would be lying to yourself if you said you weren’t tired from the constant riding and enemy stand attacks as well, but the usual fear you held towards fate treating you poorly kept you awake, preventing you from traveling to the world of dreams. 

And due to that fear, your senses immediately caught an unfamiliar presence, followed by a sound of something -or rather, someone-, digging through your belongings. Your bag was located a good distance away from you and you immediately cursed yourself for not placing it closer. The familiar anxiety you had grown accustomed to over the years plants itself within you and you immediately get up, trying to stay as quiet as possible. The darkness surrounding the camp prevents you from seeing the thief fully, but there’s no mistake about his intentions. He’s greedily digging through your property, trying to find something worth taking. And it doesn’t sit well with you.

You silently grab a hold of your trusty handgun, the anger slowly building up. This was exactly what you were fearing and there was no way in hell you’d let this pathetic thief steal from you. Fate was testing you far too much and you were at your limit. You would not let anything get in your way again. Your (E/C) fill with burning flames of rage, a strange feeling of determination washes over you and everything around you falls under a dark veil. The only thing your mind is desiring, is the sight of this insect’s dead corpse on the hard ground, punished by you.

The man stops dead in his track when he hears a gun click behind him, followed by its muzzle pressed against the back of his head. Your merciless gaze shoots through him like a shotgun and his blood runs cold as he feels your cunning presence behind him. “Up.” You order, the man immediately doing as you say, holding his hands up as a sign of submission. Your eyes briefly glance at the ground, noticing all your belongings in tact. Fortunate for him, as you would’ve pierced him with a bullet had he actually taken something. 

“P-please.. I don-” The thief’s miserable pleas are cut off as you harshly press the gun to the back of his skull and grab him by the shoulder, turning him so he’s facing away from the camp. “Walk.” Your voice is dark and quiet, ringing in his ears like a shout that makes every bone in his body tremble. He takes a step forward, terrified of you. He hasn’t even seen you as you remain behind him, but the sheer power that radiates from your voice and presence alone make him regret trying to steal from you in the first place.

As for you, this feels good. Life was trying to make you suffer yet again and you were punishing it. The endless misfortune and agony built you into the woman you are now, so to an extent you should have been grateful. You were strong, determined to end your suffering and it would all start with this. Nothing would get in your way and there was only one way to ensure the success you have been craving for years.

Once you’re satisfied with the distance between you and the camp, you kick the thief to the ground, still pointing your gun at him. Your hand is steady and shows no signs of fear or hesitation and your eyes are filled with dark determination that desires to spill the man’s blood. The sight of the man, trembling and looking at you in terror only fuels said determination. “You’re pathetic.” Had life not been treating you so poorly, you would have probably felt sorry for the man. But in this state you’re in now, you feel nothing, hear nothing but your steady heartbeat and see nothing but the cowering man before you, begging for his life.

“This is another test, isn’t it? Fate is testing me yet again, trying to make me crumble. Isn’t that right?!” Your victim flinches at the volume of your voice and falls to the ground, shielding his head. The rage bubbling within you desires to be let out and heard by everyone. And because you can’t keep it in you any longer, that’s exactly what you do:

“I will not fall! I will conquer fate and make it regret trying to ruin my life! Do you see this?!” Your eyes lock onto the sky above you as you try to voice your determination to some higher power you’re not sure even exists. But it doesn’t matter if no one heard you as this was a moment you so desperately needed. Life has been punishing you from the very day you first opened your eyes and now, you lust for revenge. You felt powerful, invincible and the whimpering man in front of you only increases those feelings. Life was beginning to submit under your determination.

“I refuse to suffer any longer.” Your gaze returns to the unfortunate thief and you raise your gun, ready to eliminate your obstacle. You would finally get revenge on life and fate. “I will not suffer.” Your finger slowly presses the trigger, your eyes once again filled with that dark determination and lust for blood. This test wouldn’t be yet another failure.

“(Name)!” You gasp at the sudden noise and turn your head over your shoulder, only to see Gyro running at you with a terrified expression on his face. The thief takes this opportunity to scramble away from you, immediately making you shoot at him, the loud gunshot filling the air around you. Due to your hasty movements the bullet misses and your eyes fill with desperation. No! This can’t be happening!

Before you have time to fire another shot, you’re tackled to the ground by Gyro who has no idea what’s going on, but refuses to let you kill a helpless human being. The gun slips from your hand and you immediately begin struggling against your lover's grip. “What the hell are you doing?!” He shouts, grabbing your hands that try to push him away. Your mind loses all determination and instead fills with desperation, your eyes filling with tears. “Let go of me! Please! I don’t want suffer anymore!” Utter confusion makes its way onto Gyro’s features as he holds you in place, refusing to let you do anything you might regret later.

“(Name), stop it! Nothing is going to hurt you!” He tries to calm you down despite the uncertainty clouding his vision. He absolutely hates seeing you like this and wants to know exactly why you were about to shoot a defenseless man. You continue thrashing around, that fear of being betrayed by fate returning. “N-no! This was a test! And I failed! I failed again! How can I-” Your words come to a halt when you feel Gyro’s hands on each side of your face, his emerald green eyes looking into yours with increasing concern.

“Look at me, love.” His voice soothes you and for a moment, you forget everything and only focus on the man before you. “You’re fine. Nothing is going to hurt you, I promise.” A single tear runs down from the corner of your eye and the Italian gently wipes it off. Your lip quivers as you wrap your arms around Gyro. You felt stupid. So very stupid. You had failed to realize how fortunate you had been for once in your life, as Gyro had been able to bring happiness and joy into your grim and horribly unlucky life.

“I-I’m.. S-sorry..” You say as Gyro allows you to sit up, still holding his arms around your sobbing form. He’s not sure what has been going on in your mind and he doesn’t dare to ask right away. For now, he knows you need him, and he’ll be there for you as long as you need. “It’s alright, love..” He gently runs his hand along your back, bringing you an endless amount of calm and silencing your lust for revenge.

You start to think back at the way fate had decided to test you tonight, and in this very moment can’t help but to wonder if the purpose of this particular trial was to make you realize just how enjoyable your sad, pathetic life had become thanks to Gyro Zeppeli.

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of December 4th, 2019

Best of this Week: Doctor Doom #3 - Christopher Cantwell, Salvador Larroca, Guru-eFX and Cory Petit

Doom is a very complex man.

He wants to be humanity’s savior, the one to see us lift ourselves up by our bootstraps and accomplish everything that he believes us capable of. At the same time, he wants to rule over it all as the supreme being over everything. His motivations are kinda good, but his methodology and lust for power will always be his downfall. For a man of immense intelligence and power, the only thing that trips him up is himself and it will always be that way, no matter how good he tries to be.

This issue starts off with Doctor Doom having a vision of the future. He sees a world made better by his own inentions, ideas that he might have hatched sometime after his accusation of terrorism from the first issue of this series if he had admitted himself to prison. Surprisingly, his face isn’t disfigured and he’s actually cordial with the crowd that’s allowed him to speak of solar skyscrapers and clean fuel. He seems like a calm, down to Earth, Victor Von Doom. However, amongst those in the crowd is current Doom himself, or what remains of him after being shot in the head in the last issue.

Salvador Larroca then switches from this bright, serene scene, to one of abject Heavy Metal terror as Doom climbs his way up from a sea of skulls in HELL. I cannot stress enough just how badass this art is. Larroca has always been good at visceral art and great backgrounds, but this scene alone is epic. There’s one wide, pulled out shot of a mound of maybe dinosaur bones and lightning crackling into the lava. The next pulls in to a pile of skulls placed against a mass of indeterminate flesh and organs. The next panel shows Doom’s hand breaking free of the pile and the last shows him crawling his way free of the skulls and flesh.

We then get one amazing shot of Doom in a badass set of armor surrounded by the flames, lava, skulls and lightning. Guru-eFX colors this in such a way that you feel the heat and intensity of the flames with hot oranges, the lightning is vibrant and dynamic and Doom stands above it all. His armor looks like something of a combination between a Dream Theater and Disturbed album cover. The use of shadows and lighting emphasize every detail and makes him look like the new biggest threat in Hell and he just strides through like a big dick G.

Eventually he comes upon Mephisto, former Ruler of Hell, and gloats that he finally has Doctor Doom’s soul for eternity. Doom is having none of this and punches Mephisto to the ground before picking him up by the throat, claiming that he was meant to save all of mankind and that he doesn’t belong in hell. Mephisto mocks him by saying that Doom did save his mother from the demon once upon a time (Doctor Doom & Doctor Strange: Triumph and Torment, 1989), but he then also sacrificed the love of his life for more power (Fantastic Four #67, 2003). He then snaps her soul into view of Doom to distract him.

Meanwhile, in Latveria, the political situation is the region is not getting any better as Symkaria is launching an assault with forces, tanks and artillery while NATO and the UN aren’t doing anything to stop it. Victorious is monitoring it all and notes that they plan to “stabilize” Latveria in Doom’s absence and retires to her quarters to clear her head. I do love stories of political intrigue and it’s clear to see how badly the moon base explosion is affecting Doom’s country with his people suffering because of the actions he’s accused of. It’s also interesting to see how Victorious is dealing with her newfound leadership. She gets angry and her generals listen to her, but even she has to relax after everything.

When she goes to her room, Larroca draws an intimate scene where she removes her armor and works out her stress. It shows a level of dedication to her own personal strength and alertness as she success out an assassin in her window. She tries to blast the assassin away, but misses, only for them to enter the room and put up a short fight with Victorious. The fight is dynamic and allows Victorious to show off her hand to hand skills in a small space. Both of these scenes are colored with the backgrounds a nice blue hue to contrast the frenetic action and sees Victorious winning the battle.

Though it pains me to say, Latveria is in a state of disarray because it doesn’t have Doom there to lead it. No one ever tried to send assassins to kill Doom, nor did they try to send forces to stabilize the region when he was around. Though Doom is the very pinnacle of tyranny in the Marvel Universe, every time he is away from his throne, the country goes into shambles. It happened under Lucia von Bardas, it happened when Doom disappeared following Secret Wars (2015) and it happened after Riri Williams seized control from a returning von Bardas and her insurgent force and tried to turn the country into a democracy (Iron Man, 2018).

For all the good that Victorious is doing and the order she’s trying to maintain, Latveria needs Doom.

Shortly after the assassination attempt, we cut back to Doom who is being tempted by the form of his former lover’s soul in hell. She calls him a monster and tries to persuade him to stay in hell with her, but when he refuses because of the visions he’s seen of a future where he saves humanity, it is revealed to be a trick by Mephisto. He rages at Doom for thinking that he will ever be free because of some “visions” that he had and Doom proceeds to beat his ass. Doom punches the Demon, stabs him in the neck with a bone and plunges both of them off of a cliff, into another ocean of skulls.

The fight could have gone on forever with these two, but is soon stopped by Mistress Death. Death usually only appears when mass deaths are incoming and she allows Doom to return to life. Mephisto kneels to her and protests that Doom should be his forever, but she replies that he will actually her greatest servant of all. In light of Thanos being dead and Deadpool not talking to her much anymore, this is a grim portent for Doom and the Universe at large. 

I absolutely loved this issue of Doctor Doom. With the history the villain has in Hell, seeing how he might fare there alone is actually metal as hell to see. His armor was badass and made him look like a steampunk knight and the way he held his own without it when he fought Mephisto showed just how much he believed in his vision. Seeing the political crisis that Latveria is facing is intriguing now that we see how they’re dealing with things internally. Christopher Cantwell manages to give Victorious some dimension that was only slightly explored in her first appearance in Fantastic Four earlier this year and makes her a compelling character in this book

Salvador Larroca and Guru-eFX absolutely slayed on the art. Larroca continues to stun with his visceral and detailed art, even managing to make a hoodie clad Doom look strong. His designs, action and pacing make this so much more appealing than I originally thought it would be. Guru-eFX's coloring only accentuates that feeling by eliciting strong emotions based on the hues used. I could feel just how hot and awful hell was through the oranges and I could feel the uncertainty of Victorious through the blues.

Overall, this issue of Doctor Doom and the series thus far is well deserving of a read. Because if you don't, Doom will find you.

[vardasvapors]

Do you have any Lindon headcanons, if so please throw ALL of them at me because I have zero and it's terrible. This was more Elrond-centric bc I've been trying to fill in that thousand-year gap between Elros and war but then I realised how LITTLE I can actually picture of... the biggest Elven kingdom in Middle-earth... Galadriel's off collecting fairie court campsites, and Celebrimbor's kickstarting a magic object Renaissance, and what's every other elf doing this millennium? I just don't know!

omg i’ve lazily on-and-off thought about making a wip list of vague Lindon headcanons before so this is the perfect excuse. hope you don’t mind me limiting this to just the timeframe you mentioned, or this post would be WAY too long, instead of just regularly too long:

First: observe, my Lindon tag! It’s not very long, but

This and especially this are some of my favorite headcanon visuals for Second Age Mithlond as a capital city. Starting as a giant camp for everyone who escaped from Beleriand, lots of flux, more like a RL city than most Tolkien cities: gorgeous, but very disorganized, patchwork, built up ad-hoc, happenstance and convenience slowly rising into districts. All the people stopping in it or passing through it, either east or west, leave another layer of their presence there. um….I still haven’t read invisible cities despite buying it because of bamboocounting like….months ago. Anyway it’s 90% turned to dust by LOTR.

With abruptly going from lush inland forested river-filled Ossiriand to this newly-formed bluff-edged shoreland with a huge new saltwater gulf splitting it down the middle, I headcanon it being a pretty big mess for decades. Before Galadriel took a lot of them to Eregion, I picture all the characters you mention spending a lot of time on fixing up – collecting and reuniting scattered people, building houses, establishing diplomatic ties and supply chains, etc.

eg: there is very little formality or ingrained institutions and no palaces full of comforts let alone luxuries for at LEAST a century, thanks

BUT, the fixing-up period being mostly a very happy time! Like, I think there was certainly a ton of hardship and stress with trying to keep people fed and housed in this chaotic near-post-apocalyptic situation while new villages and stuff were built, and fighting stray dark creatures who had also escaped, but still a lot of general relief and feelings of being insanely fortunate and curious exploration, finally free from being under constant overwhelming threat again even if this peace is quite a different kind from the peace before Morgoth returned, going hand-in-hand with the work, and building together as a conduit for bonding and feasting etc – and celebration and joy as deliberate defiance against the loss and grief and war they suffered. I think this real-world thing would fit it well.

Not a very big population at first, since not a lot survived at all, and most of the elves went to Eressea and most of the humans went to Numenor, and most of the Sindar who remained went east. I headcanon the early “kingdom” as more…scattered villages along the shore with a large but transient population concentration around the Havens because most of those were just looking for their friends and relatives and waiting for seats to open up on the constant flood of ships heading west, and when the passengers finally dwindle down this distribution has taken root and multiplied, but not a really powerful force until post-The Mariner’s Wife.

After the establishment period, now that it FINALLY isn’t a time of war, after centuries of it, elves start having babies all over the fucking place, and all the accoutrements that go with it. Dozens of new and half-forgotten festival days that are literally just giant bacchanalias, zillions of weddings, society shifting to be very oriented towards sex and romance and children and child-rearing, rather than warfare, etc. With this showing up a lot in their songs, and art, and lifestyle, etc.

One of the most delightful Lindon-adjacent nuggets in the Histories of Middle Earth I think is that elves of Lindon spent at least 50 years, if not more, ferrying the Edain to Numenor. I won’t repeat the tag ramble I appended to that passage here, but just… *blows kisses off fingers* it’s so absurd and fitting….I think of this as a big post-war self-image thing, the cataclysm and Morgoth’s defeat just so utterly scrambling their view of the world and their role in it. >_o

Speaking of that, not a lot of cultural continuity between the Noldor of the First Age and the Noldor of Lindon. The people of Cirdan and therefore at first for Gil-galad were the Falathrim, so I hc that especially after lots of Noldor left for Tol Eressea and Eregion the dominant culture of Lindon was a blendy Falathrim twist.

But that’s mostly just dominant as a plurality – the real “main culture” of Lindon is the hodge-podge mixture itself. Exiles who stayed because they wanted to, exiles who stayed because they are ex-Feanorians or otherwise can’t face going back or aren’t allowed. Descendants of exiles, mixed Noldor/Sindar elves who weren’t even born during the early Silm. Noldor who feel totally alienated from everything, Noldor who feel more connected to their fellow people of Sirion than to the Noldor generally. Survivors of Gondolin, survivors of Nargothrond, Sindar who didn’t want to go east, Edain who didn’t go to Numenor, Edain who are just waiting around to go to Numenor, Dwarves who had to leave the Blue Mountains due to them being broken up in the war, other peoples of all kinds, who all scrambled convergently to Lindon to flee the incoming war and water like ants. The areas of Lindon, and the districts of Mithlond, array themselves as reflections of, or deliberate eschewings of, the weird headlong rush into intertwining and splitting apart and morphing into new things that characterizes late Silm-era dynamics and groups.

In addition to pre-existing Falathrim attitudes about the sea, a major cultural/religious/etc tradition would spring up in Lindon in relation to the sea – the destructive, overwhelming, healing, saving, unfathomable, un-tameable, enticing, perilous sea that broke the earth, yet cleansed it, destroyed both enemies and homes, the place that now holds everything that Beleriand was in its depths, the place that deliverance came from. Kind of a less cynical but still very terrified version of Voronwë’s complete lack of chill about it. Sea-longing and going to sea and either never coming back or not coming back the same carves out a major place in their understanding of the world. One of the Standard Identities available to a segment of the popular in Lindon is like, “oh, he’s Waiting For A Ship,” An overlap of understanding grows between them and the Numenoreans over this. Ahem. Feel free.

eg: great Implied Significance for the new shoreline and the gulf of Lhûn as the place where Beleriand broke off and sank. References to these places as idioms to refer to being just past the furthest reach of a calamity, or a now-innocuous reminder of past calamity, or the duality of homecoming and escape

also eg: “lmao X is as unpredictable as the Lhûn amirite #microclimates”

the Numenoreans love them, but are sort of boggled by them. They have the same strange varied mixture and mood swings of cheer and gloom and Issues as the ex-Exiles and ex-Sindar of Tol Eressea, but the Numenoreans don’t entirely understand why they stuck with Middle Earth, for after a few generations have passed, the Numenoreans can only really guess, from their own lore, what having life experiences that were once concurrent with the long-distant sufferings of their Edain ancestors might be like. The Tol Eressean elves, on their island of release, are easier to understand, they’re sort of like us! But what of these weirdos back east – and that way lies the peril of like…you know. Everything wild, that Numenor is not

ETA: Later, when they realize the shadow has returned, this slow kind of infuriated disillusioned backslide…like, really? really? again? and the buildup back to war being really grim and depressing, though a minority of them always knew something like this would happen again. And rising conflict short of outright hostility with Eregion. People relearning to be soldiers again…or generals…