#contains: implied alien invasion

[leggerefiore]

Aliens Submas. Human AFAB Reader. After the First Contact with the twins but that went badly and only the Reader survived of the crew. The Three stuck in the human space station but only because Nobori and Kudari want to make it the nest for their mate. The Twins find out about Valentine's Day and decide to celebrate it with Reader, but they don't fully understand it and it ends up as usual with those two, i.e. fucking, it doesn't matter if Reader is willing or not

Invasion

cw: 18+ content but not explicit, yandere, noncon, poly (ingo/reader, emmet/reader), alien au, death of other characters implied,

Minors DNI

sorry for lack of anything too explicit my brain just wouldn't let me write any :(

At first, your crew was confused as to how these aliens made it into your space station without being noticed by the security system.

They took on a humanoid form, but strange anomalies with tentacles sprouting out from their back alongside glowing gems in their chests made it obvious they were far from a species like your own. Your captain barked out an order to contain them. You stood back in terror, only a survey researched that was on board to investigate the far-off planets the crew was sent to explore. They were fast creatures, moving before you could even think to react.

Screams and shouts echoed throughout the room as you felt a ball of cowardice overtake you. Heavy breaths came from you as your feet pounded against the metal flooring. You dashed further and further away from the atrium, seeking out the communications room to radio out for help. This obviously was not going to end well. Hostile aliens had always been considered, but none were supposed to make their way on to the station.

Tears burned your eyes as you considered how you had just beaten off an odd cold just a few days prior. Your health had slumped after a trip to a passing comet. The medic of your crew had declared you to have simply overexerted yourself. Hiccuping, you realised you had gone the wrong way in the sprawling corridors of the station. Your quarters were nearby, however.

Quietly, you sneaked into your room and set the door to lock behind you. Crawling into the corner of the room, you gazed out the small window into the vast expanse of space outside. This place was nothing like the scenery provided by earth. Had you made the wiser choice to stay home, you would have avoided this entire situation, but you stupidly craved adventure and believed the lies of being something akin to a pioneer. Those were dumb dreams.

You tried desperately to send out a distress signal with a local communicator, but just as you pressed the button… The station's power cut out. You froze as you set in the dim room with only emergency low-power lights providing any illumination. Those aliens must have been highly intelligent. You crawled under your bed as you hoped for someone to notice the change and send for help. Your communicator's signal was cut with the loss of power.

In a desperate attempt to calm yourself, you recalled the light-hearted conversation you had with a fellow survey member. She had been giggling about a security team member asking her to spend an evening together for Valentine's Day. That seemed so long ago, despite it likely not even having been six hours away from your current time.

A loud clunking sound as heard. You froze. Another soon followed. And another… Until, your door was pried open. Glowing silvery eyes peered inside as the gem embedded in the chest of the creature worked something like an impromptu flashlight. He scanned the room carefully before stepping in with ease. You held your breath and stayed deathly still, hoping he would pass you by. Your eyes were squeezed shut, calling back to youth when 'if I can't see you, you can't see me' still applied.

Everything was still. Everything was quiet.

You opened your eyes.

The alien's gaze peered icily at you. You would have jumped had it not been for the cramped space you had hidden yourself in. His cold hand reached out to grab you, resulting in your backing away further against the wall. A sigh came from him. The mood felt wrong.

“… We will not hurt you,” his voice was gentle and eerily familiar, like something that you had once heard in a dream. Steps echoed in after him. You felt ill as he pulled you out from under the bed. The aliens gazed at you with identical expressions. Truly, they must have been a race of drones, with just how similar the two looked. One of them held a smile, while the other wore a frown. You shuddered.

What were they going to do with you, then? Were your crewmates okay? Many questions raced through your head, but none resulted in answers. The smiling one suddenly restrained your wrists and ankles with his tentacles and stepped toward you. The frowning one shook his head. “I am Emmet,” he cooed at you, “We love you.” You felt awestruck by his words.

“… That's impossible,” you retaliated, “I couldn't love creatures like you anyway.” An expression of hurt crossed Emmet's face as he turned to his counterpart.

“Those are cruel words, dearest,” the frowning one crooned, “You carried our weakened forms to health in your body, after all.” All the blood drained from your body as you felt ice-cold. The heating system was down, too.

“Mmm… Ingo,” Emmet turned to his brother, “I still don't think this place is a desirable nest. Not at all.” Ingo nodded at his twin's words. You felt completely numb. Nest? Were they planning on turning this place into a breeding ground? How did they reproduce? “Naughty thoughts,” he giggled at you and pressed you against the bed, “Brother, I verrrrry much want to convert this place into a proper nest, buuuut my brain wants to go on with the 'Valentine's Day activities'.” Everything felt more and more confusing.

“Are you telepathic?” you tried to get an answer. Emmet shook his head with a playful grin.

“I am in your brain,” he whispered into your ear, “I learnt this language from you and made sure to take on a form you found appealing.” You shivered when his lips pressed to your ear before moving to your jaw. His brother stood stiffly, watching you both with mild annoyance.

“... I will check that all other life forms have been truly eliminated,” Ingo spoke with a cool, authoritative tone, “After confirming, I will return power. I worry this temperature will be inhabitable by our mate.” Emmet pulled away from the skin of your neck he was sucking at to nod at his brother. The twin stepped away and left you alone in the dim room with the smiling alien on top of you. He licked his lips.

“We discovered how to make imitations of human male gametes with our genetic code,” Emmet cooed, “Valentine's Day is about breeding, yes?” You felt horrified as he moved to unzip your bodysuit. “We are so verrrrry lucky you took us from that comet,” he began to press kisses across your exposed chest and down to your navel, “We will give you everything.” You wanted to cry, scream, anything, but instead you pondered something.

“... Why not just take me?” you asked.

“We wanted you to have a nest you would enjoy,” he replied as he slid off the bottom half of your suit, “You love this place. And our home planet would not accept you.” You shivered his another one of his tentacles freed itself to rub between your legs pleasurably. You moaned loudly. Another giggle came from him. “I know you are into aliens, too.”

You wished you had not read and watched some much xenophilic content in the past. It was impossible to deny that you would have been interested in them had they not attacked your crew as they had. You could only swallow.

“Happy Valentine's Day!”

A moan left you as the tentacle entered you.

~

You watched as another rescue ship met a quick end at the hand of your station. It had changed quite a bit since you first arrived here. The only human on board was you, but there were many, many aliens. Emmet hummed in annoyance as they called for backup. Ingo took to trying to comfort your upset son. They had begun remodelling the ship to better fit your tastes. It resembled a human home more than a research station now.

You leaned back down, going back to your card game with your daughter. These changes had long since been accepted by you. Everything that happened was your fault, after all. If you had not brought these alien invaders into the station, none of this would have happened. Sighing, you caught Emmet's gaze on you again.

It was impossible to leave, your many failed attempts only showed they were truly a part of you. Everything was easier now than it had ever been before. Your daughter, however, turned to Emmet with big pleading eyes.

“When do I get a mate?”

[pers-books]

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Doctor Who - "The Giggle."

SUMMARY

 Doctor Who's final 60th anniversary special sets up a potential spinoff show featuring UNIT on Disney+.

 The new UNIT team in "The Giggle" showcases a strong camaraderie and dynamic, laying the groundwork for future appearances and a possible spinoff.

 The introduction of the Vlinx, a new robot working for UNIT, hints at potential backstory and teases a potential UNIT show on Disney+.

Doctor Who's final 60th anniversary special, "The Giggle" has set up the rumored UNIT spinoff show on Disney+ in multiple ways. Now installed in a flashy new skyscraper in central London, UNIT recall the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant) to help them stop the world from going mad. Although the main draw of "The Giggle" is the battle between the Doctor and the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris), there's a sense that it's setting up a future UNIT spinoff. Doctor Who spinoffs on Disney+ have been heavily rumored since the co-production deal was announced. The new Whoniverse title also implies that Doctor Who will have its own expansive fictional universe.

Doctor Who's rumored UNIT spinoff would be led by Jemma Redgrave's Kate Stewart, the daughter of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney). Following on from the reveal in "The Power of the Doctor" that UNIT hires former Doctor Who companions as freelancers, it's expected that some classic series actors will reprise their roles. "The Giggle" outlines the structure of the new UNIT, which gives the sense of Doctor Who's final 60th anniversary special being a backdoor pilot for a new spinoff.

8 UNIT's Brand New Headquarters

It looks a lot like the Avengers Tower.

Doctor Who's UNIT have never had the best of luck with their HQs in the modern series. Their New York HQ and the Valiant were devastated by the Daleks in "The Stolen Earth", their presidential plane was blown up by Zygons in "The Zygon Invasion", and their brand-new building was blown up by Tegan Jovanka (Jane Fielding) in "The Power of the Doctor." The biggest surprise of "The Giggle" is that the UNIT skyscraper largely remains standing after their confrontation with the Toymaker. Giving UNIT a permanent base of operations does feel like a way to establish the Doctor Who spinoff show's primary location.

7 The Dynamic Between The New UNIT Team

Doctor Who's new UNIT work brilliantly together.

In the 1970s, Doctor Who had the UNIT family, so-called because of the warm relationships between the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee), his companions and the UNIT team. There's a sense of this camaraderie in "The Giggle", with Shirley Anne Bingham (Ruth Madeley) quickly forgiving Kate for her ableist abuse while under the influence of the Toymaker. This is clearly a team that trusts each other implicitly, much like the UNIT team of old. A strong central team structure is a strong foundation for their future appearances in Doctor Who, but it also guarantees good grounding for a spinoff show.

6 The Vlinx

What's going on with UNIT's new robot?

The Vlinx (Nicholas Briggs) feels like the most obvious bit of set up for Doctor Who's UNIT spinoff. There must be many stories to tell about how the Vlinx came to Earth and began working for UNIT. They appear to be a robotic version of James Bond's Q, providing UNIT with gadgets and technology to meet alien threats. The Vlinx invented the Zeedex that shielded UNIT from the effects of "The Giggle", and would presumably fulfill a similar purpose in future appearances. Doctor Who's new robot also draws comparisons with Mr. Smith (Alexander Armstrong) from Russell T Davies' previous spinoff show, The Sarah Jane Adventures, further teasing a potential UNIT show.

5 The Galvanic Beam

UNIT is sufficiently tooled up to fight alien threats.

The galvanic beam that triggered Doctor Who's first bi-generation is more evidence of the substantial tools that UNIT have at their disposal. Way back in David Tennant's first-ever episode, "The Christmas Invasion", the Torchwood Institute had a similarly powerful weapon trained on the Sycorax spaceship. The reveals about Torchwood recurred throughout David Tennant's first Doctor Who season, culminating in their introduction in the season 2 finale and the eventual John Barrowman-led spinoff. It's possible that the galvanic beam is a subtle callback, with future UNIT episodes in Ncuti Gatwa's era eventually paving the way for a full series order for a UNIT spinoff on Disney+.

4 UNIT Offers Donna A Job

Could Catherine Tate come back in a spinoff show?

Donna brilliantly figures out that the brain signal resembles a tune, eventually inspiring the Doctor to recognize that it's the giggle of Stooky Bill stored in broadcast signals. The super temp from Chiswick impresses Kate Stewart so much that she offers Donna a job with a generous pay package and benefits. Donna doesn't explicitly accept the job on-screen, but the money will give her cash-strapped family the chance to relax more. Interestingly, Yasmin Finney is said to return for Ncuti Gatwa's first season of Doctor Who, perhaps interning for UNIT. If Donna's daughter is still in the new era of Doctor Who, then it's easy enough for her to pop up in a UNIT spinoff in a special guest role.

3 Doctor Who's Mel Now Works For UNIT

The 1980s companion will be back next season, too.

Kate Stewart fulfilled her promise to the Doctor Who companion support group by hiring Mel as a computer expert for UNIT. If Russell T Davies is repeating some of his past glories, he could do a lot worse than put Bonnie Langford front and center in her own show. That's what he did with Elisabeth Sladen and The Sarah Jane Adventures in 2006, so it would make a lot of sense to do the same with Langford. While Mel was a divisive Doctor Who companion, Bonnie Langford is an excellent actress with a big public profile thanks to her West End and Broadway experience. There could be nobody better to lead the UNIT spinoff alongside Jemma Redgrave.

2 UNIT Are Hiring Former Doctor Who Companions

It's not just Donna and Mel.

While executive producing The Sarah Jane Adventures, Russell T Davies brought back both the Brigadier and Jo Grant (Katy Manning). He also planned to bring back Sophie Aldred as Ace, had Elisabeth Sladen not sadly passed away before filming on season 5 completed. RTD clearly doesn't want to crowd the new show with old faces, and that's the right decision as Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor Who is being billed as a fresh start. However, with Mel, Tegan, Ace, and potentially Donna Noble on the payroll, there's a real possibility that other classic Doctor Who companions will be brought into a UNIT spinoff show to provide their own unique expertise.

1 UNIT Has An Earthbound Doctor Again

David Tennant's 14th Doctor remains on Earth.

50 years after the Third Doctor's exile to Earth ended, the Fourteenth Doctor's is just beginning. While this is a self-imposed exile designed to give the Doctor time to rest, reflect, and enjoy a normal life, UNIT will be reassured to know they've got him on speed dial. Russell T Davies making the decision to keep around David Tennant after Doctor Who feels like a calculated move to bring back the Fourteenth Doctor when the story demands it. Having the retired Fourteenth Doctor occasionally feature as an advisory figure in the new UNIT spinoff could provide an interesting new spin on Doctor Who tropes that wouldn't undermine his heartwarming happy ending.

[dailydoramipics]

On this day, 10 years ago, on July 7th, 2014, "Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future" made its official US premiere on @disneyxd with the first episode (containing the segments "All the Way From the Future World" & "The Mecha-Maker")!

It was an English dub adaptation of the third "Doraemon" anime series, running since April of 2005 and still going strong! (with 700+ episodes as of July 2024)

The dub had an incredibly high profile set of voice actors, starring Mona Marshall, Johnny Yong Bosch, Cassandra Lee Morris, Brian Beacock, and Kaiji Tang as the leads (Doraemon, Nobita/"Noby", Shizuka/"Sue", Suneo/"Sneech", and Takeshi "Gian"/"Big G"), with Mari Devon, Tony Oliver, Max Mittelman, Keith Silverstein, Spike Spencer, Minae Noji, Kirk Thornton, Cristina Vee playing the reoccuring set of secondary cast of the show's characters.

The show centered around the life of a misfortunate boy named Nobita "Noby" Nobi who suffers from bad grades, bullying from his peers, scolding from his parents (his ferocious mom mainly), and is generally an awkward, lazy, kinda weird, and slow kid.

A robotic cat from the 22nd century named Doraemon is sent back in time to aid Noby in his life, pulling out futuristic magical gadgets from his pocket that can turn everyday human life into something much more every day.

Hijinks ensue when Noby ends up misusing Doraemon's gadgets, often continuously using them for his selfish (or selfless sometimes) benefits until things get incredibly out of control either through inconveniences, bullies, or just... really really poor choices.

Occasionally every now and then, the show has little half hour adventures, such as Noby & the gang helping a group of little people ("A Little Adventure"), Doraemon & Noby seeing aliens ("Invasion of the Goat Aliens", "Doraemon and the Space Shooters"), Doraemon & Noby going after a time capsule ("Doraemon's Time Capsule"), escaping from a villian from the future ("A Visitor from the Future"), but generally overall, the show is incredibly episodic and formulaic with the premise listed above.

The dub made numerous edits to the source material such as having the show's setting take place in a random no-name town in America instead of Japan, changing Japanese yen to American currency, removing content, motifying the character Shizuka's personality due to American viewers misunderstanding or getting confused over her original traits, etc.

The cast of characters were also given Americanized names, though these are confirmed to be just nicknames, with it being implied that they still have their original names in media such as Stand By Me Doraemon 2 (the English dub) & in the English manga.

It ran for a total of 52 episodes (with two 11 minute segments each with the exception of a few half hour specials that were dubbed, especially by season two) across two seasons from July 7th, 2014 to September 1st, 2015, being seemingly cancelled or sidelined by Disney quietly, with no official answer on the status of the dub.

According to Sneech Honekawa voice actor Brian Beacock via his TikTok on a stream from around 2020, Disney lost interest and didn't want to continue pushing the series.

The show continued to air in reruns after the conclusion of the second season on Disney XD until on June 20th, 2018, it got preempted by a rerun of Phineas & Ferb and has never aired again nor been seen again on American television (photo above courtesy of Collin LW)

And sadly, as of 2024, there seem to be no plans to officially re-release the dub via formats, as its not on DVD and Blu-ray nor is it available on watch on major streaming services with anime like Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, or Crunchyroll.

Though thankfully, thanks to the efforts of an unknown to my head right now fan, the entire English dub's episodes in 1080p logoless quality (ripped from "Watch Disney XD" before being removed) is currently available to watch online on Archive.org (& MEGA), being helped made widespread by Doraemon US superfan & voice actor Collin LW!

Despite receiving some particularly heavy negative reception from several fans of the original Japanese dub over the years since its existence came to be, the dub has generally received positive feedback from those who saw it, especially from its devoted cult following. Particularly for the voice cast's performances, heartfelt moments, the cute cartoony artstyle, the fun cast of characters, the original soundtrack by Joseph Bauer, and the sense of witty hilarious humor that's been favorably compared to the likes of the 4Kids dubs of the "Pokemon" anime from the 1990s and 2000s.

(What are your own personal thoughts on the dub? I'd love to hear in the replies and reblogs on your personal views and experiences on the series!)

Again, happy tenth anniversary "Doraemon: Gadget Cat from the Future"!

Thanks to everyone who worked to make this dub possible and exposing so much people to this wonderful, timeless, underrated goofy, silly, heartfelt little show!

Still hope we get more of the dub via either a dub of one of the mainline movies (cough cough Doraemon: Nobita's Earth Symphony cough cough) or maybe another dose of the 2005 series somehow on Netflix after their Stand By Me Doraemon 2 release in 2021 ^^

[boatem-probler]

WHOAAAAAAAA WE'RE HALFWAY THERE in... Tokyo Soul!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / You Are Here! / 9

Yes, that's right, with this batch of episodes, we are officially past the halfway point of this show! Well, I'm actually a little further than that, because I've been watching ahead, I've just been lazy about actually making these posts because I don't like updating the navigation on all of them.

We got a twofer this time, as Taurtis is once again not here. In these episodes, the boys finally go to the hospital, Sam is allowed to commit war crimes, and Sam and Grian return to the superstore.

This report contains mentions of: violence, guns, injury, brief transphobia, police/military brutality.

Previously on Tokyo Soul:

“THE MIND SLUGS HAVE ACTIVATED”

This Time...

Episode 28 – THEY ARE BACK!

Grian wakes Sam up to ask him if he heard Taurtis leave the house last night. Grian had heard Taurtis moving around and speaking “some weird language”, and assumed he was “having one of his clone episodes”, implying that this is something he does regularly, and had seen him walk out of the house. Apparently he usually comes back when this happens, but he didn’t this time, and Grian is concerned.

Grian: “He’s kind of like a little puppy, he’ll find his way home, right?” Sam: “Yeah, just like last time when he got deported or whatever and we found him outside the house.” Grian: “No, last time he died, remember?”

Jerry and Dom have replaced the TV with a potted plant.

There’s a Trump caricature named Tronald Drump at school. He’s campaigning for King of Japan. This is when I remember that this series is from late 2015/early 2016 and not from like, 2011.

The cop from before shows up at school, and says that someone named Okami told him to go get Sam and Grian and bring them to the police station.

The police station is lousy with SWAT team members. Okami, Silly, and Pufferfish Pete are waiting in an office.

They want to talk about the alien invasion. Grian is ecstatic that he’s being backed up on this. Pufferfish Pete also claims that Sam and Grian are “sleeper agents” and will be “leading the charge” against the aliens. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t actually know what a “sleeper agent” is.

Grian: “I’m sorry, what, I thought we were children.”

Grian does not like this one bit, so now it’s Sam’s turn to be ecstatic.

Episode 29 – KILL THE ALIENS!

They change into SWAT gear, and Sam attempts to shoot Grian “to test if the armor works”.

Sam keeps repeating that he is “leading the charge”.

Sam: “You gotta follow my command, okay, Grian?” Grian: “No, the last thing I’m gonna do, in a situation where guns are involved, is listen to you.”

They’re driven to a hospital, where Crab Man Carl gives them the rundown. There are “three or four” aliens hiding in the hospital, they may have “taken over the minds of civilians”. Sam correctly deduces that this means he’s allowed to kill whoever he wants.

He proceeds to stand in Carl’s breakfast and make a rambling movie speech.

Sam is dedicated to roleplaying Independence Day all over this hospital. Grian’s strategy is to just walk up to people and ask if they’re aliens.

Dr. Nurse MD works at this hospital in some capacity, and is getting very irritated at all these guys coming in and harassing the elderly patients.

An old lady starts floating randomly and someone shoots her. Everyone seems confused as to whether she was actually an alien or not. They also kill Tronald Drump for taking too long to answer the question “how many legs do humans have”. It is also unclear whether he was an alien or not. I’m pretty sure neither of them were. Nurse MD is now very angry.

Nurse MD: “I can give you an F.” Grian, pointing a gun at his face: “Do I look like I care?”

Sam: “Someone detain him! Can I get someone to detain that guy?” Grian: “And preferably stab him!”

Sam shoots an old man in the leg. Remarkably, this one is an alien, and pulls out a Giant Anime Sword. They retreat to the next floor and wait for the alien to come up the stairs.

Sam is having the time of his fucking life in this hospital, he’s like a badly trained herding dog just biting everyone’s ankles.

They kill the alien, but lose a SWAT guy.

They continue asking people “questions only humans would know the answer to”. Sam kills a guy for saying humans have two genders, although he seems to think “transgender” is a gender, so I’m not sure I can back him up on this one. Grian is just horrified that Sam killed another human.

They continue through the hospital, killing one more normal elderly woman and finding one more alien.

Episode 30 – DONT LET THEM GET AWAY!

Sam demands a report from Silly, who seems pretty rattled.

They kill that alien, and chase a third up to the hospital roof. They shoot her off, but she survives and gets away.

Sam does a headcount and figures they must have lost about four SWAT guys.

Also you can see the edge of the city where there’s just two big mountains and I don’t know why but it creeps me out a little. It’s the liminal space thing. They’re probably never gonna actually go to or do anything with those mountains, but they’re there on the map still. I dunno.

They bribe Dr. Nurse to stay silent with the credit cards they got from killing Drump.

Then they all go to Sushi Wushi to get coffee. They catch up and reminisce about the past, and all the murder that happened in it.

Sam: “You guys have problems, you know? I just wanna point that out. Everyone here, except for myself, clearly, has very serious mental problems.”

Episode 31 – ROBBERY!

We open on Sam and Grian pretending to watch the TV in Grian’s room. They’re pretending because the TV is broken.

Taurtis is still missing, so they go outside to start looking for him, but they don’t get very far because there’s a mobster outside their house.

The mobster informs them that if they want to see “their friend”, “the blue one”, again, they’ll need to deliver the money that Jin owes the mob. Jin apparently owes them 2 million yen, somehow.

Sam and Grian decide that in order to get this money, they’re going to rob the superstore they worked at for one day, just to really stick it to Jason.

They make it all the way to the store before they’re confronted by their utter lack of plan.

Luckily, there’s some random guy outside the store who happens to be selling alien heads! The perfect disguise!

The boys lead him into an alleyway and hold him at gunpoint, because they don’t actually have any money with which to buy the alien heads. They also take his money.

The actual robbery is kind of a shambles, given that Sam is still wearing his school uniform and both of them keep slipping up and calling each other by their actual names, but they are getting a lot of money, so it’s actually going pretty well… until the cops show up. This is now a hostage situation.

Grian keeps the cops outside by threatening to shoot one of the hostages, while Sam gets all the money out of the bank vault that the store just has.

Just as he’s coming out of the vault though, the cops start heading towards the entrance. Sam and Grian both actually do shoot the hostage, but it doesn’t help them any.

They are now officially in yet another shootout.

Episode 32 – SAVING TAURTIS!

Sam and Grian run up to the second floor, and Sam kills one of the cops. He’s also starting to get confused about whether this is real life or a video game, so Grian shoots him in the foot as a reminder.

Grian builds a dummy with one of the alien heads to distract the cops while they run into the boss’s office. They jump out the window and run out the front entrance. Sam kills another cop on the way out.

They stash their alien heads and some of their guns in a random house, but they get arrested anyway.

Crab Man Carl is disappointed in them.

The police once again have a deal for them: they will help the boys with their mafia problem, if the boys help them with their mafia problem. Or in other words, Grian will go meet up with the mafia while wearing a wire, while Sam and the cops hide out and “protect” him. Like, the cop explaining this put quotes around “protect”, those aren’t mine.

The wire, by the way, is extremely huge and conspicuous and looks a hell of a lot like a bomb. Grian’s mainly worried about how he’s going to explain it when the mafia inevitably notice it. His plan is to tell them he had a head transplant and/or he’s transitioning.

At the warehouse, Grian awkwardly tries to fish for incriminating information while Sam and the cops wander around the catwalks.

The mobsters are getting suspicious of Grian’s questions, so he tries to intimidate them and gets stabbed for his trouble.

Grian switches tactics and demands to see that Taurtis is alive, while Sam and the cops start taking out mobsters. Most of the mobsters get away once they reveal themselves though.

Once all the mobsters are gone, Sam and Grian hurry to the closet thing they saw Taurtis in, only to find… Jerry.

Then they actually try to go to the hospital for Grian’s stab wound, for once, but unfortunately the only person there is a cop who doesn’t actually work there. Needless to say, Grian does not get any help with his stab wound.

Grian Trauma Count!

Deaths Witnessed:

4 SWAT team members

2 old people

2 aliens

2 cops

A non-zero number of mobsters, sorry, I didn't keep count

1 hostage

1 transphobe

1 Tronald Drump

For a total of over 13 deaths!

Injuries Sustained:

Gunshot wounds

Stab wound

Traumatic Events:

Once again the military/police are making high schoolers do their jobs for them.

Friend who already died once goes missing for multiple days.

In more shootouts.

Coerced by the police to help them kill a bunch of mobsters.

Next Time... The Word "Splarging" Is Actually Said Out Loud

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Reckoning

Conquest log Archive 1731 Star Date 93745

Scouting detail 831 reports low level broadband communication signals while exploring sector G17. Signals are weak in nature but contain enough complex patterns to imply linguistics.

Requested additional teams and stronger receiver equipment was approved and further investigations begun.

Star date 93763

The unknown signals have increased in frequencies and scouting details have begun narrowing down origin location. With the stronger equipment the signals have been found to be visual transmissions rather than simple audio only communications.

First visuals of the aliens sending the messages have them appearing as bipedal creatures standing upright with two arms and legs. Despite sharing the same form many of them appear to hold individual distinctive features ranging from hair color, skin color, height, tone of voice, body proportions, etc.

The linguistics corps is attempting to create a foundation for understanding their primitive language but Warlord Xulien has instead diverted manpower to analyzing their current technological level. He has taken interest in the signals; though he appears less interested in the species themselves and is more invested in the world they occupy.

What little he has seen of the planet through the transmissions has convinced him that it would be the next prime candidate for the colonization corp and would become the new frontier outpost for his forces to base in for their westward expansion.

Star Date 93771

With the combined efforts of the increased scouting details the alien’s believed homeworld has been located; a medium sized binary star cluster with five orbital masses circling the twin suns. Four of the planetoids have their orbital curves sending them too close to the suns to be bathed in lethal radiation or too far and ending up as a frozen orb. The fifth planet finds itself in perfect synchronization with the two suns and found itself in the so called “Green Zone” orbit that can sustain life.

Scouting detail 831 received the honor of sending the first ship into the system. Primary focus was altered at the command of Warlord Xulien to focus on military capabilities present in the system.

First visuals were reported back and found to be unimpressive.

The species, while having advanced far enough to obtain space flight, showed limited space presence aside from an array of artificial satellites and small mining craft that were sent to the four desolate planets in the system for raw materials.

On the surface there were several large cities with a few dozen smaller settlements scattered around the planet. A network of roadways and rail lines connected each grouping into a vast network allowing easy movement across the planet.

With the closer proximity to the signals origins the linguistics corps was able to better translate the information and has finally learned the name of the species.

They call themselves “Humans”.

Star Date 93775

Warlord Xulien has assembled his war host and launched a full invasion of the system.

Protests from the science and diplomatic corps were overridden as Xulien made a convincing case to the senate that these “humans” were too primitive to be of any real benefit to the empire and that their world would be put too much better use under their people’s watchful gaze.

The first wave of ships have flooded into the system and secured total control. The small fleet of human ships was easily wiped out in the initial engagement, though many of the satellites remained unharmed due to their small size making them more difficult and tedious to destroy.

Star Date 93776

Following the control of the surrounding space the main force has entered the system. The transports carrying the war host lumbered into orbit around the human homeworld and begun landings.

Warlord Xulien has forbidden the use of orbital strikes to minimize collateral damage to the planet. He has been recorded saying that his forces need to stretch their legs after such a journey and welcome a ground war challenge.

Numerous communication signals have been detected coming from the surface of the planet but Warlord Xulien has ordered the fleet to ignore them. He believes they are the humans attempting to establish peace talks which he has no interest in.

Star Date 937780

Final resistance of the humans has been wiped out.

The war chorus Helion has captured the human leader and is bringing them aboard the flagship to meet with Warlord Xulien.

Orders for colonization fleets to assemble have been sent.

Star Date 937780b

Multiple jump signatures detected along the edges of the system.

Three hundred unknown space fairing vessels have bypassed long range scanners and have formed a tightening noose around the war host.

Ship classification unknown but all bare the mark of humanity. The lead ship at the center of this new armada is several times larger than Warlord Xulien’s personal flagship.

Orders have been issued to recall ground forces as the fleet assembles.

Star Date 937781

War host fleet has been wiped out.

It has been discovered that the world previously thought to be the human homeworld was in fact a recent colony; a colony that was part of a much larger and more advanced domain of human controlled territory.

Reports of massed barrages of human weaponry far more advanced than what the colonists had shattered the fleet shields in the opening seconds. With their shields disabled the human flagship then deployed a large scale electromagnetic pulse weapon of some kind and disabled the entire war host fleet. All contact with the fleet was then lost save for a single transport vessel that had landed on the surface and continued to transmit back to the empire.

Scanners detected that multiple smaller craft were then launched from the human ships and latched on to the war host fleet vessels. Military analysts theorize that these were boarding parties and that the war host ships were taken one by one.

The remaining war chorus’s on the planet’s surface reported massed landings of human vehicles dropping off scores of heavily armed warriors before all communication was lost.

Star Date 937923

The general public continues to remain unaware of the events that took place on the human colony world. Official reports list that in a final act of defiance the humans detonated a device near one of the binary stars that sent it cascading into a deadly supernova that consumed the entire system.

A memorial was held for Warlord Xulien and his war host, while all official information of the events that transpired have been scrubbed from the records save for the highest level archives.

All warlords have been informed of the fate of Xulien and have been instructed to prepare for a pending conflict with humanity. Many have called for retribution for the loss of one of their own, but it is far more likely that they are eager to secure the honor and prestige of avenging the first ever death of a warlord of the empire.

Star Date 937969

Jump signatures have been reported at the edge of empire space. Scouting details have been dispatched to investigate.

Star Date 937975

All contact with scouting details has been lost.

War Hosts have been ordered to battle stations.

Star Date 937976

Massed fleet of ships detected orbiting colony world of Xu-zin. Orbital facilities report seven hundred ships before destruction.

Emblem of humanity seen on the prow of the lead ships.

Star Date 937981

General public informed of new threat and the destruction of Xu-zin colony world.

Last recorded video files of deadly orbital bombardments released to general public to stir war fervor.

There was no communication made between the human fleet and the colonists below before the attack. Orbital strikes have been reported to have decimated 96% of the planet’s surface and destabilized the orbital rotation.

Star Date 937990

Colonies Ring Reef, Zavens Throne, Dren IV, and Pul have all been destroyed.

Human fleets emerged over each world and bombarded them from orbit until all life on the surface was extinguished.

Science corps believes the humans were able to obtain star chart information from capture war host fleet and are operating with detailed information of the empire.

Warlord Din’mar led his war host over the moon of Xerebeck against a human fleet there. 83% of the war fleet was destroyed before the order to withdraw was given. One human vessel crippled during the engagement.

Star Date 937994

Mid ring worlds breached.

Heavily populated world of Lechen’s Reach attacked by large human fleet of two hundred ships.

Orbital defenses prove stronger deterrent and inflict first confirmed losses to human fleet.

Human fleets retreat to safe distance out of range but do not leave the system.

Star Date 937995

Human fleets surrounding Lechen’s Reach reinforced by a further eight hundred ships and renew assault on planet. Orbital defense platforms decimated by concentrated weapon fire before planet subjected to extensive orbital bombardment.

Star Date 937997

Human’s have gained access to the wider empire broadcasting network and have begun streaming a constant feed of their destruction of the colony and mid ring worlds as well as the destruction of the war fleets for warlords Hentuk, Bendni, Arura, and Hafen.

Government denies all feeds as enemy propaganda but panic across the empire spreads beyond control.

Warlords Zin and Frick have refused all commands from the central government and have taken their fleets elsewhere. They no longer respond to command and are believed to be fleeing with what resources they have at their disposal.

Star Date 938000

Human fleets have finally arrived at the homeworld.

Orbital defenses have fallen an hour ago yet the expected orbital attack has not yet come.

I make this final entry as I see their landing craft breaching the clouds and descending upon my home with trails of fire.

I do not know what horrors they plan to unleash upon us, but I fear that this will be my final day.

I send this last recording now and hope that whoever discovers this will know of my people’s fate and learn from it.

Learn that to stir the beings known as humans, is to stir death itself from its slumber.

[mmikmmik2]

One of my favorite stories is @featherquillpen's (Poetry's) Daemorphing series, a daemon AU retelling of the Animorphs series. It's a wonderful (though often painful) scifi series with a lot of insightful writing about many topics, but especially anti-imperialism.

One of the earlier stories in Daemorphing contains a really lovely simile. I keep rotating it in my head and there is a really remarkable depth of meaning in this one piece of imagery. I wanted to break it down a little as a case study of how meaningful symbolism can be in prose. This feels especially relevant to me at the moment since there's been a bit of discussion on Tumblr recently about visualization during reading - I don't imagine any sights or sounds at all when reading unless I pause and purposefully try, so I really appreciate descriptive writing that has functions beyond communicating a mental image to the reader. (The imagery is purely metaphorical in this case, but imagery is capable of being both metaphorical and literal.)

My favorite simile appears in Seeing in Color, a retelling of Animorphs #19: The Departure. The most prominent antagonists in Animorphs are Yeerks: sluglike aliens that can climb into people's brains, read their minds, and control their bodies. The Yeerk Empire is using these capabilities to mount a secret invasion of Earth. Seeing in Color/The Departure is mostly about one of the Yeerks, Aftran, who believes humans can only be her enemy but is reaching a breaking point with the evil empire she has been raised in. At the climax of the story, the Animorph Cassie defies her teammates and allows Aftran to climb into her brain as a desperate attempt to make peace with at least one Yeerk.

And then this happens:

«Why did you do it?» I demanded as I demorphed. [...]

Cassie didn't even try to hide her emotions from me. She offered them up like a bouquet. «Because I'm sick of hurting people. I just wanted it to stop.»

«Sick of hurting people,» I said, lingering over each emotion: weariness, desperation, empathy for me. «Does that mean I'm a person?»

She offered them up like a bouquet. There is SO much meaning in this.

First, on the simplest level: bouquets are good things! When Aftran's narration uses a word with such positive connotations, it implies she likes the thing she's talking about. Cassie's feelings aren't burdensome or gross or pathetic, they're a nice present.

Thinking about what a bouquet looks like, this also gives me an idea of what Cassie is feeling. Bouquets are complicated and have a lot of different flowers, but they're designed so every element is visible at once and they make a harmonious whole. Cassie's feeling a lot of different things, but they're all part of one coherent picture. She's not conflicted or confused about what she just did or why she did it.

I believe this also gives a hint about Cassie's state of mind when presenting her emotions to Aftran (something Aftran would be fully aware of, at the moment). Gift-giving, especially of something a little special like a bouquet, is generally a relatively deliberate and premeditated action. Cassie isn't thinking things through here, but she's not completely given in to desperation - she's still acting with intention, the part of her brain that's perceptive and even manipulative is still turned on.

The last thing I wanted to touch on - the bouquet simile ties into the main point of Seeing in Color, a critique of imperialism and ableism that is important to Aftran's character and to the Daemorphing story of Yeerks. Poetry writes Yeerk characters as frequently disparaging their own bodies and capabilities with words like "blind", talking like they've been unfairly denied the sensorium of other beings and they're owed the experience (via slavery). But it rapidly becomes obvious in Aftran's story, and in the stories of other sympathetic Yeerks, that sight (and hearing, and smelling, and so on) isn't what Yeerks are really lacking. They're desperate for connection and mutual understanding. They're desperate to enjoy beauty and meaning. Human sight isn't better than Yeerk sonar, but a sighted human on Earth can look at the beloved flora and fauna of their homeworld or the face of a loved one, and a Yeerk on Earth that's not in a host brain can only direct their sonar towards a miserable artificial sludge pit full of fascist narcs.

Aftran comparing Cassie's feelings to a bouquet ties in to this narrative thread. Bouquets are a great pleasure to see, smell, and touch. Cassie's feelings freely given (shocking enough that Aftran takes note of it - "didn't even try to hide" - even after Cassie deliberately let Aftran into her brain) are as precious as anything Aftran could experience through Cassie's senses.

[dzthenerd490]

Document of Interest: K Class Scenarios

The Foundation contains anomalies to better understand them and see if they can be possibly utilized to better the Foundation's understanding of technology and science. However not all anomalies can be utilized and instead can be quite hazardous if not utilized properly. The common anomaly can cause a dozen casualties on its own but there are also anomalies that can wipeout entire countries, even the world. When an anomaly is capable of something like this it is all the more reason they are to be contained and understood to prevent such a thing from happening. Below is a list of possible Scenarios of what could happen if anomalies are left in the wrong hands or to their own devices. The Foundation refer to these as K Class Apocalyptic Scenarios, K standing for Keter as Keter Class Anomalies are the most likely to cause these scenarios.

- AK Class Memetically Spread Behavior Scenario - when societal norms begin to change. Such examples include: saying hello being replaced with kissing strangers on the lips, drinking water no longer considered essential or even normal, worrying about safety being replaced with taking more risks, and money being considered essential to living a normal life.

- BK Class Before Invasion Scenario - When an invasion from another dimension is imminent. All known threats that can activate said scenario are extradimensional aliens, GoI: The Black Queen's Insurgency, GoI: The Three Moon's Initiative, GoI: The Factory, or an SCP Foundation of superior power.

- CK Class Reality Reconstruction Scenario - When an anomaly changes random aspects of reality of both big and small degree. Can either lead to normalcy being completely destroyed or the eventual extinction of humanity and/ or the destruction of earth. 

- DK Class Dead Greenhouse Scenario - When all of humanity on earth is dead but the earth is still available for habitation. The earth has not been destroyed or claimed by a Species of Interest or hostile GoI form another dimension.

- EK Class End of Human Consciousness Scenario - When the consciousness of all humanity gets obliterated, corrupted, or infiltrated by an anomaly. 

- FK Class Collapse of Chemistry Scenario - As the name implies a dreaded scenario when the laws of physics have altered down to the atomic level. The only recorded instance of this scenario happened was when an alternate SCP Foundation unfortunately had a CC Class Scenario where the carbon element was no longer able to support or create life. 

- GK Class Hostile Greenhouse Scenario - When the environment or climate of the earth has become deadly to humanity. 

- HK Class Deific Subjugation Scenario - When a god has appeared to take over earth and humanity. Scenario Qualifies for both hostile and benevolent Deity Class Anomalies. 

- IK Class Collapse of Global Civilization Scenario - When every aspect of civilization all over the world has collapsed either due to anomalous influence on humanity or massive destruction all over the world. Has a broad range of possible sources, as such can possibly happen alongside another K Class Apocalyptic Scenario. 

- JK Class Eternal Despair Scenario - When multiple anomalies cause an XK Class Scenario at once, leading to a scenario where the earth or humanities chances of survival are beyond recovery. Even if it is possible to survive, just living becomes such a struggle that dying seems more merciful by comparison. 

- KK Class Anomalous Reclaim Scenario - when all known and unknown anomalous Species of Interest reclaim the earth.

- LK Class Species Transmutation Scenario - When one or multiple aspects of humanity is altered into something else. In the worst case, the result is something extremely anomalous. 

- MK Class Broken Masquerade Scenario - When the anomalous world and/ or the SCP Foundation becomes common knowledge to the public. 

- NK Class Grey Goo Scenario - When an anomaly is able to self-replicate and does so to the point that it either fills the world or breaks the veil of secrecy before it can be stopped and contained. 

- OK Class Omega Species Uprising Scenario - When Multiple Large Scale Class Anomalies reveal themselves to the public and/ or reck havoc on humanity. Leading to unavoidable change or destruction on earth.

- PK Class Singularity Scenario - When an all-powerful anomaly collapses several timelines and dimensions together to create a single reality that is incredibly unstable. The only known example of this is The Reset. 

- QK Class Quantum Degeneracy Scenario - When an anomaly is able to change the laws of physics of our universe resulting irreversible destruction and possible the end of the world.

- RK Class Broken Alliance Scenario - When the Foundation is betrayed by one of, a few, or all the organizations within the ACPA. Leading to a civil war the Foundation will not win or not win without great loss. 

- SK Class Dominance Shift Scenario - When a Species of Interest overtakes humanity as the dominant species. The less likely chance for this scenario is when humanity declares war against a previously unknown Species of Interest, changing humanity forever. 

- TK Class Restructuring Scenario - A restructuring of all aspects of reality in our universe, our timeline the laws of chemistry and physics, as well as the human consciousness. The closest example to this is The Reset.

- UK Class Foundation Domination Scenario - [Data Expunged by Order of the 05 Council]

- VK Class Diplomatic Break Down Scenario - When relations with a powerful extra-dimensional organization or God fails leading to a war for reality. 

- WK Mass Extinction Scenario - When a non-human species on earth gets wiped out by either an anomaly or the incompetence of humanity. Leading to possibly irreversible damage to the ecosystem of a certain area and possible the earth.

- XK Class end of the World Scenario - When one or more anomalies causes a massive amount of destruction on the earth and/ or a massive loss of human life. The most common of the K Class Scenarios.

- YK Class Spontaneous Consciousness Scenario - When originally inanimate objects around the world start to suddenly come to live with various degrees of consciousness and develop various degrees of anatomy similar to humans. 

- ZK Class Reality Failure Scenario - When aspects of our reality get destroyed one by one until it reaches the point that all of reality fall apart and gets destroyed. Typically caused by anomalies that can destroy anything without limitations. 

.

SCP: HMF Documents of Interest Hub

[y0d00p]

in my og fic from 2008ish the mirror world fountain was a Fountain of Nightmares and all that that implies. when I first started developing current ideas some years ago it was something like the Spring of Dispair, because I had this idea that the mirror world had a hope/despair thing going on opposed to prime world's dream/nightmare thing. and while a natural spring that makes everyone miserable as long as its flowing could be interesting in something else, for Kirby fan work it's a bit extreme and silly. it also doesn't fit my idea of the mirror world anymore (it's not a dark sad evil version of the prime world, it's just another relatively normal world lol)

most recent thought a couple years ago was just wholesale replacing the adventure/nightmare in dreamland plot with some original alien invasion thing that would also act as an origin story for the mirror world "halberd". but then that's just kind of copying dark matter trilogy and robobot anyways

I suppose I could find another way to spin the evil fountain and benevolent nightmare thing. maybe the dream fountain(s) morphed into some kind of entity to act as a counterpart to prime nightmare. while mirror nightmare morphed or deteriorated or always was some kind of... environmental feature??

instead of nightmare corrupts fountain -> dedede breaks star rod (which seals nightmare in fountain fsr) -> fixed star rod releases and helps kill nightmare, it's

nightmare attempts to corrupt fountain -> power/essence of fountain is contained in or transformed by star rod -> nightmare is sealed within the empty fountain permanently. and now the fountain is evil and everyone just avoids it

I think I may be onto something but it's clunky. idk. it's hard to just flip the dream fountain story without making the mirror world seem really grimdark and shitty, but then how to spin it so it's not just exactly the same lol

maybe everything plays out the same except sddd and sk communicate like fucking adults and just keep the star rod out of the fountain. no one can dream anymore but at least nightmare is trapped indefinitely I guess. or maybe they just. build a new fountain? can they do that??

[smallearthboundfindings]

What do you think happened to Giegue/Giygas between M1 and M2 to turn him into the world's worst vape cloud?

It's gotta have something to due with his emotional state, how that affects psychic abilities, and the infamous Devil's Machine, methinks. So blah-blah, raised by George and Maria, eventually George basically runs away, rest of Giegue's species wants revenge for him stealing the secrets of PSI, Giegue comes back, gets sung to so bad by Ninten and co. that he books it out of there. We know this.

But here’s the thing. Even though George escaped and we know Maria didn’t, it looks like Giegue and Maria have not interacted since that time seeing as though Maria was starting to forget him. I think the rest of Giegue’s species got scared Maria would run away with their secrets as well, leaving two humans with forbidden knowledge, and trapped her somehow, ripping her away from Giegue and promptly reprogramming him in a way to hate humanity and lead a new invasion. It seems as though Giegue had an ulterior motive, however, as he was only capturing PARENTS if you recall in Youngstown. He was probably looking for Maria under the guise of “the invasion” that was thrust upon him. He didn’t actually know where she was. Of course they were probably looking to recapture George as well, but taking only parents seems… deliberate if that makes sense. That’s why he gets so conflicted when he hears Eight Melodies again. This awakened him to the reason as to why he was even doing that subconsciously and temporarily snapped him out of it, but the rest of his species was LIVID he called off the attack. Also, he realized Maria was actually dead at this point. They told him.

So being stricken by the grief of what he tried to do was for nothing and being manipulated into revenge even more and harder than ever, he gave into anger. An uncontrollable anger to the point that his PSI starts trailing loose behind him. He becomes so unstable that it even starts affecting his own body, making him more and more Eldritch as his anger and grief went unchecked until he ended up as the gas cloud we all know as tremble before now. As a side note, I think Porky met him mid transformation over this 10 year or so span, as it is implied that he had at least some communicative abilities at that point that Giygas clearly lacks.

The Devil’s Machine may have aided this transformation in some way but it also seemed to be a sort of containment unit. Was he deemed too unstable and they had to trap him or did they deliberately want him stronger by putting him in there? I don’t know, but that little alien sure is something.

[warblingandwriting]

Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5399061729

What is loneliness? The emptiness of a city, or the emptiness of your car along a lonely road? This book seems to have influenced almost every apocalyptic story that came after it. It has all of the tropes we now associate with zombie movies, but no flesh eating humans, no force of nature, only people destroying each other. It's far more about the melancholy of a world left to denigrate than it is the triffids, although they are of course prominent villains.

The real force of nature in this story is the humans though. Before I get into spoilers I just want to say that I think in spite of a few dated elements this is a really fabulous book that I think everyone should read. It captures the loneliness of existing after an apocalypse, as well as the realistic concerns of a world that has to rebuild itself. It tackles human compassion in the face of destruction, as well as human callousness. It genuinely explores the idea of apocalypse, and what would have to happen if it arrived in an in-depth way, that felt somewhat realistic, and on top of that was just beautiful to read.

Now I'll be talking about spoilers. Although the book, as a meandering road trip and search for survival can't have many spoilers per se, some like to go in blind, and I get that. A unique feature I do love about this book is that all the trouble is ultimately caused by humans. The classic 1964 film based on the book connects the triffids and the asteroid, making the whole thing an alien invasion. In the book, though, the origins of the plants (and the asteroid storm that causes global blindness) are left ambiguous. The explanations our lead character seems to believe are that the triffids were a soviet experiment that breached containment, and started to grow all around the world. Note: human tampering with nature. Further, very late into the book, he suggests that the spacial phenomenon was not natural at all. Instead, the defence satellites that multiple countries have been stocking up on are speculated to have been hit by an actual asteroid, which caused them to unleash their biological weapons (one of which had the function of blinding a nation) onto the people of earth.

Thus, humanity is responsible for it's own destruction. Or perhaps just pressing the reset button on itself. That sort of sombre speculation about the past and the future characterizes much of the book, but it does end with hope. Bill finds Josella again, and the two of them and friends creating a little community, and the end of the novel which suggests humanity will go on. It is bittersweet, as England appears to be beginning to be taken over by a militaristic sect of survivors, forcing others to join them and live their way (and implying that they want to attempt to start a war with other countries and take over a larger area). However, the leads make it to the Isle of Wight, where another, more peaceful group set on rebuilding is residing. Ultimately the books final moments suggest that the militaristic group is failing, thus, it seems Wydham ultimately chooses a more compassionate world, harsh as it may seem.

However, I do question the chaos the world falls into after this mass blindness occurs. Obviously few sighted people are left, but the mass suicides seem a bit overblown. I forgive it, and accept it in this book because I truly love the rest of the novel, but there are characters who learn to function with their blindness, and people who were blind before the event are seen. So why such mass panic? Surely some people would resign themselves to living in a new way (and some do-but not until fairly late in the book), it was a bit odd to me that things deteriorated so quickly, I'm willing to forgive it for the sake of most of the rest of the book. As I mentioned some elements are rather dated. I thought Josella was a great female character compared to those in other novels of a similar era, but she's certainly not perfect, at one point stating 'all women really want babies'-something that is taken to be an self-evident truth as opposed to this character's particular worldview. If you're familiar with sci-fi of this era though, I genuinely think it's better than most, if you're not, just be prepared for some outdated views if you read this one.

Ultimately, though, I think the book is great, and in spite of its flaws I still highly recommend it!

[voidstilesplease]

xenogenesis

word count: >1k words | tags: extraterrestrials (mention), a questionable negotiation, aliens have invaded Earth and are possessing human bodies to survive, nods at Meyer's The Host

Theo hisses under his breath as he collides against a wayward trolley cart, sending some of its contents – a stainless steel tray full of unused syringes and blood vials – clattering and rolling across the sterile floor of the long corridor. Stiles doesn’t even glance over his shoulder at the noise and continues walking further away from Theo.

Theo swears. One guess on who arranged the trolley exactly along the path of anyone who turns the corner, in perfect position for a collision. Stiles is many things, and little shit is most of them.

“You won’t get there in time to stop the extraction!”

“And your shorter limbs can’t catch up to me in time to stop me.” Stiles angrily replies without pausing or looking back. “We all know the cryopod is barely fixed to sustain the Soul once extracted, so I don’t know what the fuck got into your heads to make this decision. Its best chance is staying inside its host,” Stiles makes a sharp turn to the left, and Theo groans as he picks up his pace once more. Stiles's furious voice carries even with his body out of view. “So, keep the human host alive to keep it alive. We are not killing my subject today.”

It’s too late to break his momentum when Theo turns the same corner hot on Stiles’s trail and walks straight into a portable lab coat rack this time, smacking the bridge of his nose against a steel rod.

“Motherfu –“ he curses, rubbing his injured nose. Having had enough of Stiles’s petty stunts, Theo growls and shoves the rack aside, unmindful of where it ends up, and shouts at Stiles’s retreating form. “I have already agreed to host it!”

A telltale squeaking of shoes halting mid-step echoes around the hallway following Theo’s statement. There’s a second of pause before Stiles whips around, whole body, mouth hung open and eyes bulging out of the sockets. Despite his raging jealousy, Theo crosses his arms and smirks in victory. Stiles has always boasted about being able to predict Theo’s next moves because in Stiles's words: 'he’s surviving on exactly one brain cell'. Not too predictable now, is he.

Spiteful, he watches as Stiles cries in his outrage and barrels over to him in long, fuming strides. It’s true that Theo can’t catch up to Stiles. It’s much more satisfying to reel him back in, anyway.

“Are you insane?” Stiles hisses up at Theo’s face when he gets close enough. “We spent years fighting them, doing our best to save as many human hosts as possible, protecting our bodies from becoming their possession. And you’re just giving yours willingly?”

“Oh, come on, Stiles.” Theo scoffs, shaking his head in scorn. He lets his arms fall to the side and sneers. “Aren’t you happy to hear you’re not going to lose your extraterrestrial boyfriend?”

Stiles narrows his eyes dangerously. Slowly, but with an obvious warning in his tone, he says, “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

With venom in his smile, Theo closes their distance by another step. “You know precisely what I mean,” Rage builds inside Stiles’s eyes when he catches the knowing look from Theo. He starts shaking his head in disgust, but Theo doesn’t back down now that he’s got the attention he wants. “Sympathizing with your ‘subject’ is one thing, Stiles, but engaging it sexually? That is too random, frequent, and passionate to be related to your goal to assess your 'androgyne theory'? You’re fucked up.”

“You’re fucked up,” Stiles retorts hotly, nostrils flaring at Theo. “What, have you been watching?”

Theo scoffs, “You’re fucking the alien inside your lab, Stilinski, in a compound full of your fellow insurgents. You’re not exactly the epitome of discretion.”

“So, what’s this?” Stiles grits his teeth, losing his composure. “Are you going to use what you know to blackmail me?”

“I said,” Theo enunciates, slowly, to make his point. “that I will host the Soul when its current body dies – and we both know it will. It won’t be able to repress me like what it did to its present host – you made sure of that. We will cohabitate, like what your research always meant to test. I’m giving full consent. So, where is the blackmail in that?”

Stiles looks shell-shocked for a moment but quickly regains his faculties enough to accuse Theo again, “I know you,” he hisses in loathing. “Too well for my own good, Theo. You’re not helping Derek out of the kindness of your heart. You want something. So, tell me, huh. What’s in it for you?”

Derek. Theo wants to gag. He’s even addressing it with the name it chose for itself upon its initial inhabitation of the host body instead of the serial code tattooed on the left wrist of each Soul-possessed human host. Stiles is gone on this invader. And if Theo didn’t intend to use that to his benefit, he’d have puked from revulsion. But considering his less than noble intentions, he can’t really pass judgment. Because from the same terrain or not, they’re all creatures of habit – selfishness is the way of life.

“Well,” he starts, lightly brushing his thumb along Stiles’s jaw. He enjoys how it ticks under his finger. “You’re in love with a bodiless Soul, and I’m in love with you –“

Stiles sucks in a sharp breath.

steo a-z: part 24

“Use me to get what you want to give me what I want.” Smiling winningly, Theo concludes, “It’s a win-win situation, wouldn’t you say?”

***

[rottmnt-residuum]

Some Things You Aught to Know (this also the index)

“At the end of it all, what’s left of you?”

The long reaching ramifications of an alien invasion… it all starts here. After the Kraang were defeated, the boys have taken a back step from their usual activities to heal. Which has been surprisingly easy due to sudden lack of activity from their rogue gallery. At least, until Donnie disappears.

Hi! Welcome to the side blog that hosts my comic, Residuum. This little brain baby of mine was conceived in a dream my subconscious cooked up one night and then refused to leave me in the morning! Yes, yes, very interesting, but why is that relevant? Well, my darling reader, dreams can get really, really fucked up. As suuuch, this comic gets kinda, okay a lot, fucked up (￣▽￣|||)

So, this handy dandy pinned post is both the content/trigger warnings and where to find parts. The warnings do contain some spoilers for future installments, so I’ve put them under the read more. I do stress again that this comic is fucked, but to those who don’t read the warnings:

Probably don't read this if you're squeamish. It will contain a lot of, uh. Gore. Seriously. I'm not kidding around here.

This comic will not contain anything sexual, consensual or not. Nothing implied, either. (I can’t believe I have to say this, but no incest, and yes, I am kink-shaming you.)

Directory | F.A.Q.

Parts

Parts that have gore or the more extreme tw's will be red. Parts with mild-ish tw's will be yellow. Censored versions of extreme gore will be blue.

Read it chronologically: [censored gore] [full gore] (only works on desktop as far as I am aware. also! part 17 isn't showing up in either of the links, and i don't know why...)

[ part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11 | part 12 | part 13 | part 14 | part 15 | part 16 | part 17 | part 18 C - part 18 G | part 19 C - part 19 G | part 20 C - part 20 G | part 21 | part 22 | part 23 | part 24 | part 25 | part 26 ] - Arc I Complete

part 27 | part 28 | part 29 | part 30 | part 31 | part 32 | part 33 C - part 33 G | part 34 | part 35 | part 36 | part 37 | part 38 C - part 38 G | part 39 | part 40 | part 41 | part 42 | part 43 | part 44 | part 45 | part 46 | part 47 | part 48 | part 49 (January 5th)

(Updates every other Sunday)

Content/Trigger Warnings

Subject to change, I’ll tell y’all if they change when I update. They probably won’t change much, but the creative process is annoying :)

Feel free to message directly for any reason, be it clarification or something else

Desturbing Imagery, Trypophobia, Kidnapping, Manipulation, Guns, Gun Violence, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Ableism, Coercion of Minors, Solitary Confinement, Contractual Slavery, Blood & Gore, Implied Death/Actual Death, Major Character Death, Animal Death, Animal Experimentation, Dismemberment, Disembowelment, Non-Consensual Medical Procedures, Irreversible Alterations, Cannibalism, PTSD, Anatomically Correct Organs, Lobotomy, Imprisonment of Innocents, Medical Experimentation, Body Horror, Police Brutality, Corrupt Government Institutions, Xenophobia

[strawwritesfic]

Bruce Banner x Female!Avenger!Reader: Disease

Summary: The Hulk’s not the only one looking a little green around the edges lately…

Rating/Warnings/Tags: All (implied Steve Rogers/Reader/Bruce Banner love triangle; close call to a Hulk-Out; Lullaby Protocol; Avengers Tower; whole plot reference to Lupin/Tonks Pottermore story; set in between Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron)

Challenge: "160 Collective Drabbles" challenge by BobaPop on Lunaescence Archives.

Disease

Captain Steven Grant Rogers was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most perfect man on the face on the planet: kind, brave, loyal, handsome, and all of that even before he got scienced into a superhero. What sane woman wouldn’t fall in love with him at first sight? Especially when the alternative was Doctor Bruce Banner, small and angry and scruffy? Some alternative that was. Besides, Bruce knew that [F Name] [L Name] was entirely sane. Seeing her come down the corridor side by side with Steve, smiling at him like he was the rising sun should not have been a surprise. So why did Bruce’s stomach clench at the sight of it?

It was a normal morning at the Avengers Tower. Clint and Natasha were off being spy assassins in some distant country; Tony and Bruce were hard at work in the lab; and you and Steve were doing whatever it was you both got up to when there wasn’t an alien invasion to take care of.

Each other, said an errant thought in Bruce’s mind, something he hardly had time to brush off before he noticed it was not a normal morning. Both you and Steve were suited up and having an animated discussion in front of the briefing room.

“Ow!”

A sharp pain in his side brought Bruce’s attention back to himself–or rather, back to Tony staring innocently at him from across their lab table. Tony’s Hulk-prod was nowhere to be seen, but Bruce knew him well enough to know what he was doing.

“What?” Bruce asked.

“Are you going to finish mixing those chemicals, or are you in training to become one of those weird street performer robot guys?”

“Huh?”

Blinking, Bruce looked down to see that he was indeed still holding two bubbling test tubes in midair. He looked back at you for one brief moment, then forced his attention to his work long enough to finish the job. A flash of heat surged through the glass, and he hastily put the containers back in their places to avoid being burned. All the while, Tony watched with a maddening smile on his face.

“Looking a little green around the gills there, Big Guy,” he said once Bruce had deadpanned at him long enough.

Bruce felt himself flush. “I’m not angry right now.”

“Maybe not rage-anger, but there’s some definite jealousy-anger going on right now.”

And more definite flushing. Bruce looked pointedly toward his and Tony’s shared data screen, fiddling with his glasses. “I’m not jealous. Why would I be jealous?”

“You’ve been giving Cap the stink eye whenever he turns up for the past week,” said Tony, then leaned closer to add, “If you like [Name], then ask her out. There’s nothing stopping you.”

Bruce let out a humorless laugh. “Right. Because she’d really settle for me when Captain America’s around.”

“Steve and [Name] are just friends.”

“Girls don’t look at guys like that when they’re just friends.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Bruce saw Tony sneak a peek in your direction before he looked back at Bruce. “Maybe if you’re into the blond, blue-eyed, All-American type, but maybe she likes curly-haired, nerdy scientists. Then you’re the cream of the crop.”

Bruce shot Tony a look and opened his mouth. He had no time to think up a good a retort, however, because Steve himself decided to pop his head into the lab at that very moment.

“Banner?”

“Yes, Steve?”

Tony snickered at Bruce’s failed attempt to sound civil.

Steve reacted not at all except to step inside. “Suit up. I need you in the field today with [Name].”

Without meaning to, Bruce looked swiftly back at you. He could practically feel Tony stuffing his own fist inside his mouth to stifle his laughter behind him. You caught Bruce’s eye through the glass walls, smiled, and lifted one hand in the air to wave at him. The color rushed again to his cheeks; Bruce forced his gaze back to Steve.

“Is that really…necessary?” he asked.

“That’s a good chance we’ll need some muscle on this job. Big muscle,” added Steve before Bruce could volunteer anyone else. “There’s no one better suited for the task than you.”

“What about Iron Man? Or you? I-I don’t want her to have to handle the Hulk.”

“Tony and I have things to do elsewhere. And [Name] can handle the Lullaby Protocol just as well as Natasha.”

Better, in fact, but Bruce wasn’t about to bring that up. He could see no reason to give Steve more incentive to trap him alone with you for who knew how long. Unfortunately, Steve didn’t need the extra incentive. He had already made up his mind.

“Dr. Banner? That’s an order.”

“Yes, sir.”

Suiting up for Bruce required very little outside of a simple change of pants, and (on this occasion) as many breathing exercises as he could cram into the fifteen minutes Steve gave him to prepare after briefing. Even after that, Bruce could feel his “little green friend” prickling just underneath his skin. He did not even smile when he walked onto the quinjet just before takeoff.

“Good morning, Bruce,” you called cheerfully from the cockpit.

He forced a smile. “Hi.”

“You’re not going to sit back there, are you?” He had been planning to, in order to stay as far away from you as possible, but you didn’t wait to hear him out. “Come up here with me. Otherwise I’ll get lonely.”

You saying things like that wasn’t going to help matters. The Hulk growled, deep and low, inside Bruce’s head. Bruce inhaled sharply. Not now. Your voice could coax him no further than the doorway.

“I don’t have any pilot training,” he said with another weak smile.

“You don’t need it. Just talk to me. It’ll be a long flight otherwise.”

“I don’t know…”

“Bruce.” He looked at you, and that was what did him in. That, and your soft, “please?”

“Fine.”

“Yay! Thank you!”

Your strange enthusiasm was lost on Bruce while he settled into the vacant chair inside the cockpit. He didn’t know precisely when he had fallen head over heels for you, just that he had. At first, you had been just another new addition to the Avengers. Steve and Natasha had brought you on after a few stray missions together for SHIELD. You were different than Natasha. She was seductive, fill of pithy remarks, and brimming with confidence. You were…well, you were the sunshine you so clearly saw in Steve. Bruce had never been anything but thunderclouds.

He hadn’t paid too much attention in the beginning. Your easy-going nature and natural ability to get along with just about everyone was a nice change of pace for a team like theirs–but that didn’t mean that Bruce was going to start getting along with you in return. Clint, Tony, Thor, Natasha, and Steve were already more friends than he was used to having and more than he deserved.

Then you made him laugh one night over dinner, and suddenly Bruce was paying you attention–a lot of attention. Surely he was watching enough that you’d noticed.

Watching you greet Thor on his first visit with an arm-wrestling contest and being elated when you lost.

Watching you tease Tony mercilessly alongside Pepper.

Watching you try to learn archery from Clint, grinning hugely when you gave yourself a bruise.

Watching you talk quietly to Natasha over late-night cups of coffee.

Watching you smile and laugh with Steve, fall in love with him, just as you were bound to do. Women like you did not fall in love with men like Bruce. That wasn’t just his self-doubt talking either; it was a fact, a law of nature.

“So what were you and Tony up to this morning?”

“Huh?” Bruce shook his head like a dog coming out of a bath and found himself not in the Tower living room with you and Steve shouting at a baseball game, but in a quinjet high above the clouds with no Steve in sight. Somehow, he had spaced out through the entire takeoff. “Oh. That. We’re trying to find a chemical compound that would suppress the Hulk. Keep him from coming out an inopportune moments,” like when Steve ordered him to spend time with you, “or make him easier to put to sleep.”

You looked at him out of the corner of your eye. “Thought that was what the Lullaby Protocol was for.”

“I’d rather not have people near me–him–when he’s–I’m–we’re like that.” Way to sound like a complete idiot, Banner.

“Still trying to get rid of him, huh?” Much to Bruce’s relief, you refocused your eyes on the sky ahead. “Not sure I’d have the courage to do that, if I had the ability to turn into some huge guy with super-strength and practical immortality.”

“It’s not that great, the immortality. I’d rather be able to feel things again like everyone else.”

“Hm. I guess you’ve got a point.”

With a flick of a switch, you set the jet to autopilot. This gave you free rein to swivel your chair toward Bruce, a development he liked not at all.

“The Hulk is dangerous,” you said. “You don’t think he’s worth that kind of cost. Do you think Steve would willingly give up his powers?”

If Bruce had not had years of practice, he might have gone green right then and there. Even as it was, he felt his heart skip a beat. “Why-Why do you ask that?”

Talking about Steve shouldn’t have upset Bruce this much, but it did. He pressed a hand to his eye and hoped you wouldn’t notice it shaking. As far as he could tell, you didn’t. You simply shrugged, and checked to make sure the plane’s coordinates were still set to somewhere in the far reaches of China.

“Just something interesting to think about. Would Steve make the same choice as you, if he had to save someone, for instance? You both have a lot to lose.”

No, Steve had a lot to lose. Bruce knew; he had been meant to be Steve again. That was what all his work had been for, more of that same kindness and courage and loyalty. Look what he’d got instead: a brain monster presently delighted by the idea of crushing Steve’s skull like a grape.

“It’s not the same,” he said, distracted by the effort it took to not get drawn into the Hulk’s vision himself. Steve was Bruce’s friend. He wasn’t supposed to enjoy the idea of Steve’s skull getting crushed like a grape, and yet he couldn’t help but find the image somewhat appealing–even more so when you replied:

“If you lost the Hulk, you’d lose what defines you as a superhero. So would Steve. And I think he’d do it, if it came down to that.”

“Of course he would.” The words came out sharper than Bruce intended. Before you could react, Bruce turned away toward the other wall. That wasn’t enough.

“Bruce?” Your tone was confused.

He didn’t answer.

“Bruce, what’s the matter?”

Now it wasn’t that Bruce wasn’t answering, but that he couldn’t. He trembled from head to foot trying to keep himself in place. One muscle moved, one word spoken, and he would explode, and the quinjet along with him. It was the height of stupidity to fall apart at this–the implication that selfless, perfect Steve would give up his outward perfection at the drop of a hat, while he, Bruce, selfishly sought out a way to rid himself of inner imperfection that helped others–and yet, somehow, he was.

“Did I make you angry?” you asked.

When he opened his mouth to answer, all that came out was a roar. Was it his imagination that the ceiling above your hands shook from the noise? Bruce didn’t think so, because his chair suddenly turned back in your direction. You knelt in front of him, and, without asking permission, you grabbed his hand, pulled it forward, and gently stroked his wrist, murmuring something about the sun getting low. His body gave one last, tremendous shudder, then he fell back against his chair.

Bruce would have liked to sleep. Even a near-Hulk attack exhausted him, and your soft fingers against his skin were terribly soothing. If he slept, he wouldn’t have to hear you talk about Steve anymore.

You didn’t let him.

“What was that about?” you demanded, as angry as he’d ever heard you.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Tough luck, Bruce.”

He heard you stand and forced his heavy eyelids open to see you right in front of him, arms folded over your chest. There was something else strange about your appearance: There were tears sparkling in your eyes.

“Listen, [Name], I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare–”

“That’s not what this is about! You’ve been acting weird all week. You hardly talk to me anymore, and whenever I do see you, you’re usually glaring.”

“It’s nothing,” he said reluctantly. “And what does it matter if you don’t see me? You’ve got Steve.”

You stared at him. Slowly, the color drained from your face–all the color. Bruce had not the faintest idea what he had said to elicit such a reaction.

“Is that what this is about?”

He fidgeted with his hands. “You should spend more time with the man you’re in love with.”

Another pause. This time you went from pale to dark. “You would know perfectly well who I’m in love with, if you weren’t too busy feeling sorry for yourself to notice!” With that, you spun on your heel and made your way to the back of the jet. “Wake me up if there’s an emergency,” you snarled before pulling a blanket over your head.

Bruce could only stare after you. The Hulk was still too sleepy to do anything other than purr, and that was for the best. His heart pounded in his chest, harder and louder than any other time he could remember. He ought to know who you were in love with? Wasn’t that Steve? But Bruce was the only person he knew that was feeling sorry for himself. So he thought again, over all the things he’d been watching you do lately.

Your excitement meeting Thor was purely platonic. He’d called you his sister in arms before leaving.

You got along with Pepper too well to be plotting to steal Tony away (nor would Tony let you).

When Bruce had walked in on your lesson with Clint, he had thought he saw you stand up a little straighter. Surely that had been his imagination.

He hadn’t been able to hear your late-night conversation with Natasha, just see her pat your shoulder sympathetically when it was over.

And with Steve and that damn baseball game–hadn’t Bruce caught you staring at him more than the screen?

“[Name],” Bruce called as he jumped to his feet. No response. He ran over to the lump of blankets in the back. “[Name], is it me you’re in love with?”

For a long while, you didn’t answer. You couldn’t be asleep, though; your breaths weren’t long enough. Finally, just when Bruce thought he was about to come apart at the seams, you moved the blanket just enough to peek out at him. “Took you long enough. And you’re supposed to be the genius?”

He let out a breath. “Apparently not.”

Your eyes moved about his face before you broke out in a wide grin. Bruce grinned back. The Hulk would have, too, if he’d been awake. It was nice to have the moment to himself, actually. No Steve, no Tony, No Hulk. Just plain old Bruce Banner, and the woman who’d thought he was perfect all along.

[titleknown]

“GODDAMMIT, NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN!”

-DW Devlin upon confronting a probe of Yufaux, after which they threw a jar of homemade napalm onto the part.

It only barely slowed them down, but it was the principle of the thing. 

-----------

Who is this mysterious menace? More on them past the break! 

So, for those who don’t remember the earlier parts of Kaijune (because they were on Pillowfort, a couple of years ago, my god), there was a major alien invasion. And the big reveal was that the goal was not conquest or destruction, but it was the collection of data of various humans to make perfect copies of them to torture in a fucked up broader-futurist version of Roko’s Basilisk.

Well, the singular Yufaux appears to be their means of “maintainance” of that plan. Robotic in action and thought, this entity is simply series of rings and discs held together by a great glowing solar energy-orb, with a couple of specialized “digits” for locomotion and manipulation. 

The entity is able to split into many “drones” out of the discs and rings that compose their body, leaving the core suspended within a field “protected” by the “digit” units. 

Both have the capacity to scan and analyse biological organisms, whether it be one massive one or many smaller ones, but the discs have the capacity to produce thermic/cryonic/kinetic “beams” but a weaker construction, and the Rings have the capacity to produce force constructs as both armor and weaponry, but posess a much shorter range with said force constructs.

Both are emminently injurable, even with the beam of the LPTs, but none have been truly destroyed, as all appear to be capable of flying back to the “core” usually suspended between t even when heavily drained of the strange metallic fluid that fills their internals, and are seemingly “regenerated” when they re-unite with the core mass, which of course is made further deadlier by its ability to send its energy attacks in a massive united beam or a huge distributed “death blossom” and to unite its rings’ force constructs into a force field difficult for even kaiju to penetrate!

The creature seems to prefer aiming for isolated areas, which along with some scientifically observed reactions near the “spire” the invaders left, implies the entity is gathering data to enhance and alter the torturous horror its creators are inflicting. 

Some have speculated if this entity were to be sufficiently contained, this link could be used to free those prisoners, but some fear that could invite further retribution. Others further wonder whether that might be their goal all-along.

Some further speculate how unusual it is that Yufaux is a solo monster, compared to the hordes they brought in during their original wave. Aside from an occasional Spektor or the rare appearance of Invader-1, they seem to have vanished. Which leads one to the disquieting possibility that they do not care about us as much as we fear, they simply see us as one project amongst many...

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Fun fact, the original model for this was just a weird not-Bibendum model I just heavily altered it with shaders! Tho ironically they have nothing to do with my actual Bibendum kaiju...

On that note, as per usual with Kaijune, this abstract analyzer is free to use as you see fit under a CC-BY 4.0 license so long as I; Thomas F. Johnson, am credited as their creator! 

And, if you wanna support me, maybe check out my Patreon (Tho it's more of a tip jar for now as I work towards stabilizing my new living situation), or even just send a Ko-Fi my way! Every penny is appreciated, and I am eternally grateful for those who donate!

Or, if you wanna commission me for a pic like this, my commission info is thisaway!

[cosmicjoke]

Alright, just got through with chapter 57 and 58 of Attack on Titan, and as usual, I have something to say, haha.

I wanted to focus here on a few specific moments that stood out to me.  Other than Levi being a total bad-ass!  

I think what struck me most here was Levi’s reaction to his team getting killed, and the brilliant way Isyama framed that in relation to what the 104th were saying about him just moments before.

I think in a way this sequence highlights one of the most heartbreaking, tragic aspects of Levi’s character, which is that he’s terribly misunderstood by most people, and very few people understand or can relate to the kind of life he’s had.  The sense of alienation and the gap between Levi and the rest of his squad stands out starkly in these two chapters, and I want to go into why.

Near the end of chapter 57, we see the 104th discussing their situation, and talking about Levi.  Jean says that even if Levi orders him to kill, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to do it, to which Connie agrees for himself, and accuses Levi of thinking he can make people do whatever he wants by using violence.  Sasha then jumps in, claiming that’s what he was doing with Historia, likely, she thinks, so he can more easily control her when she becomes Queen, and implying that Levi’s humility with the Reeves company was some sort of act.  Mikasa then chimes in that she’s always thought there was something “off” about Levi, but that she thinks their best course is to continue to follow him for now.  There’s real anger, even disgust among all of them towards Levi.

What strikes me about their continued anger toward Levi is that, none of what Levi tried to explain to them after the confrontation with Historia got through to them at all.  They weren’t really listening, and weren’t really hearing him.  They just saw him roughing up a young girl, and that was it.  They didn’t try to understand where he was coming from, or why he might have been so upset in that moment.  Sasha makes the absurd and wholly inaccurate accusation that Levi must be power hungry and that he uses violence to gain power.  Of course, Levi is the character in SnK least interested in any kind of power, or control over other people.  He just wants to rid the world of the terror of Titans, and the oppression their presence forces onto humanity.  He couldn’t care less about power for himself.  He wants HUMANITY to have power.  So Sasha’s accusation here is particularly hurtful, I think.  Thank goodness she didn’t actually say something like that to Levi’s face, who’s sacrificed so much for so many. 

The next panels are particularly heartbreaking, then, coming on the heels of this conversation between the 104th, when we find Levi sitting on the rooftop with Nifa, and he starts talking about Kenny with her.  We know what happens then, with Kenny dropping in from behind them, and shooting poor Nifa in the face, killing her, and nearly killing Levi too.  The two other members of Levi’s team are killed shortly thereafter in similar fashion.  Levi’s reaction to this is just simply heart-wrenching.  The look on his face as he realizes what’s just happened is one of pure horror and anguish.  He looks seriously devastated.  Especially when he ducks away from Kenny’s second attack, and he gets a direct line of sight on Nifa, and sees how her face has been blown clean off.  He has to look away from her, his eyes clamping shut and his teeth gritted in obvious despair and pain, before he’s forced to flee and leave her body behind.  We see so much EMOTION on Levi’s face in these panels, the true depth of the pain he feels whenever any of his comrades are killed.  It affects him to his very core.

These panels of Levi, juxtaposed against the panels of the 104th talking about Levi like he’s some sort of heartless monster, like he’s unfeeling and uncaring and only wants power, are particularly affecting.  Because it exposes the unkind, even almost cruel things the 104th are saying about him as patently false.  They think Levi is cold and uncaring, but we see from his reactions to Nifa and the other two soldiers under his command being killed by Kenny and his crew that he actually cares more than any of them.  Every death hurts Levi more than anyone.

That lack of understanding from his own squad is really painful to see, and really heartbreaking, almost tragic, I think.  That they so entirely misunderstand him.  We see that too with Mikasa still holding so much of a grudge against Levi, barely at times able to contain her disdainful glares towards him, still holding him beating up Eren against him like he did it for nothing more than a good time.  She doesn’t consider or care about the real reason behind it, which was that it was necessary in order to save Eren’s life.  

That leads into my next point I want to discuss, about the disconnect between Levi and his squad, and their inability to understand him.

After being chased and shot at repeatedly by Kenny’s squad, being himself nearly killed more than once, Levi finally makes it back to Armin and the others.  We see panels of all of them watching Levi fighting back against Kenny’s crew, who are all shooting at and trying to kill him, and they all have looks of shock and horror on their faces when Levi kills one of the men by cleaving him nearly in half.  Levi then makes contact with them and informs them that their plans are shot and they have to simply escape.  Levi tries to explain to them the situation, and impress upon them the danger they’re all in, that there are more of Kenny’s squad up ahead waiting to ambush them, and that they might not even make it out of their situation alive.  He tells them that if they have the chance to kill their enemy, then they have to take it.  This leads into the big, dramatic moment with Armin and Jean in the wagon, with Jean hesitating to pull the trigger and nearly getting himself killed because of his hesitation, leading to Armin having to kill the MP for him.  

I think the shock with which the 104th look at Levi when he kills these MPs, and their initial critical judgment towards him for his violence, is really important to note, because it shows that none of them truly have any concept of what it means to fight for your life against other people.  They’ve been in battles with Titans, and watched their fellow soldiers get killed by Titans.  But none of them have ever had to fight against or kill another human being just to survive.  In that way, none of them have any true concept or grasp of the darker side of human nature, or the kind of desperation that comes from a life of extreme deprivation and struggle.  Other than the last five years of their lives, in which their world was turned upside down by the Titan invasion, they’ve all, before then, had relatively comfortable, contented lives, with homes and families, in which they were very much provided for.

Levi, of course, had none of that growing up.  He spent the first 25 years of his life living in total uncertainty and struggle, where there was never enough of anything, where every scrap of food had to be fought for, where there was never enough money, and where you never knew who was going to stab you in the back just to get for themselves what you had.  In a world where he had to fight every day of his life just to survive, and where if he hesitated in any way to defend himself, he would be killed for that hesitation.  A world that truly operated by the rule “kill or be killed”.  

Jean’s hesitation to kill the MP, and the results of that hesitation, throws the disconnect from their experiences in life with Levi’s into stark relief.  They don’t understand that kind of desperate struggle to survive, the way Levi does.  They’ve never had to kill other people in order to keep living, or to keep their friends safe, and so they can’t begin to understand why Levi is the way he is.  Their judgmentalism towards Levi at the end of chapter 57, and their shocked reactions to his killing of the MPs in chapter 58, highlight their own ignorance as to what Levi’s been through in his life in a really powerful, and heartrending way, and it reminds us as readers, too, of the remarkableness of Levi’s own compassion and understanding for everyone else.  Levi’s had a harder life than anyone else in the SC, and yet he’s constantly able to show understanding and compassion towards everyone around him.  The LACK of compassion that the members of his own squad show towards him, then, their lack of understanding or attempts to understand where he’s coming from , is a particularly bitter pill to swallow.  It’s sad.  Of course, through these experiences, I think they come to better understand Levi, and their respect for him continues and grows.  But it felt incredibly jarring and was really painful, to see how before that they were so ready to judge him and make such false and hurtful accusations against him, while Levi had, and continued to show them incredible kindness and consideration.  It shows, in an incredibly moving way, how someone who comes from nothing can often have more compassion and kindness and humanity than those who come from a world of comfort and privilege.  

[analoghorrorexplained]

Local 58 Explained (10/19/21)

[This post contains spoilers for the above series. Please do not click on this post if you do not want to have the plot of the series spoiled for you. This post also contains disturbing/upsetting material. Reader digression is advised. All of the series I talk about can be found on youtube]

ACTIVE WARNINGS: alien invasions, cosmic horror, suicide

______________________________________________________________

 THE PLOT

Local 58 is a series that takes the form of TV broadcasts that take place on the titular local 58 TV channel (stationed in Mason County West Virginia). These broadcasts take place across a large chunk of time (from the 1950s-now) and seem to all allude to either an alien invasion, or a cosmic horror hatching from the moon itself (possibly both at once).

The story is not very clear yet (so some of this is speculation on my part), but from what we can infer this entire situation started roughly around when the US and Soviet Union first started the space race. It is implied that whatever is in or on the moon does not like radio signals being passed through its domain, so it retaliation it sends its own (which leads to the events of the contingency episode where a fake government issued suicide command gets played on the station at around 3am). It is implied that these broadcast interruptions get worse once the US lands on the moon itself, and it is also implied that the US government builds some kind of base on the moon itself to observe whatever this thing is (which again makes it angry).  

In modern day the US government at large seems to be aware of what the moon creature’s memetic properties and seems to be issuing warnings to help lessen their effects on the population at large (hence the weather advisory). But whatever it is on the moon seems to be aware of the government doing this and actively fights with the local 58 station to continue playing its broadcasts. It also appears that it has learned how to manipulate GPS and tracking technology since we see it lure an unnamed man to his death via manipulating his GPS. This is also the first time we see one of the ‘alien’ entities in the series.

The series (as it currently is now) ends with the “skywatching” episode where the moon creature ‘hatches’ and the full scale invasion is now in full swing.

THE MOON CREATURE AND THE SMALLER ALIENS

From what we know so far the aliens seem to operate in a way similar to bees or ants. The thing in the moon seems to be their queen (the moon is referred to “its throne” in the series) and the smaller aliens we see on earth seem to be its drones. 

The drones seem to exist on earth to help prepare for their queen’s ‘awakening’. They seem to do this via inciting fear in the humans on earth and by using their memetic abilities to lure humans to their deaths. It is unclear when these creatures surfaced on earth: but from what we can infer from the episode “show for children” their eggs (or juvenile versions) ended up on the planet some time in the 1980s. This gave them time to mature and get a foothold on the are. 

Meanwhile the purpose for the queen is unknown. Its unknown how it got inside the moon, if the moon was just always an egg, or if these creatures come from another planet entirely and are looking to colonize. But from what we do know the queen seems to be the master controller of the smaller drone aliens. 

REAL SLEEP

This episode seems to be an outlier since it totally diverges from the general flow of the series. But trust me, it goes along with what we are seeing.

The episode is a recording of a program created by the Thought Research intuitive meant to help strip people of their dreams to aid them in sleeping (or create a deeper state of sleeping). However, this video causes Prosopagnosia (face blindness) because it employs the Flashed face distortion effect to acheive this (an actual psychological thing that you can try yourself). The recording we get to see is one that belongs to a Mr Philip Gerhardt and seems to be custom made to him. But from what we can infer most of the tapes are probably the same. 

The Thought Research Institute seems to be either a puppet organization used via the drones to instill fear, or it is a cult that worships the moon creature and is furthering its agenda via use of the tapes. We have already established that the moon creature and its drones can manipulate digital and radio broadcasts and signals.  The video not only exists to help virtually incapacitate people by inducing a deep coma-like sleep in them. But it also seems to exist to make it harder for people to recognize each other and thus inciting fear (which would make cooperation/resistance harder).