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yeonchi · 2 years ago

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Doctor Who 10 for 10 Part 8/10: Series 8

After Series 5 and 6 established a status quo for the Matt Smith era, Series 7 saw it being shaken up in numerous ways. With Peter Capaldi becoming the new Doctor following Smith’s departure, Series 8 would establish a new status quo in a darker, yet down-to-earth series compared to previous ones as the production team prepared to ride the waves from the 50th Anniversary. While there was no split series like there was in Series 6 and 7, the series wouldn’t start until August. Since fans had gotten used to this autumn start thanks to the split series, they didn’t seem to mind that the usual Doctor Who schedule for the year had been broken. In addition, the definition of “13 episodes” was changed to mean “12 episodes and a Christmas Special”, not that it was much of a problem for fans including myself.

Although 2014 was the year I intended to wind down and focus on my high school studies, various circumstances, such as the aftermath of the 50th Anniversary year, led to me deciding to keep the fires burning for another year, and so I decided to keep Doctor Who going in my personal project for two more series, the latter of which would “premiere” at the same time as the premiere of the BBC Series 8. So let’s jump into the retrospective for Series 8 and relive the experience of riding the wave from the 50th Anniversary just as the production team and fandom did.

1. The World Tour and live events

Peter Capaldi was revealed to the world as the Twelfth Doctor in a live event special hosted by Zoe Ball on 4 August 2013. Matt Smith did not participate in the live event, but he was interviewed for it along with a few other special guests. This would later be followed up with another live event special on 23 November following the broadcast of The Day of the Doctor, which infamously featured a crossover with the boy band One Direction (more like Louis and Niall), who were also doing their own live event, 1D Day, in Los Angeles to promote their new album, and were having technical difficulties that impacted their crossover with the Doctor Who event, not to mention the fact that despite Zoe Ball’s claims, they hadn’t watched The Day of the Doctor, let alone the series, so their clearly prepared questions were apparently inappropriate to the occasion.

Said event also featured actors who played Doctors and companions in the classic series and their treatment was regarded as disrespectful, particularly the infamous moment when Rick Edwards accidentally sat on Katy Manning and crudely tried to cover it up, which would probably be considered sexual assault in the post-#MeToo era.

After completing their filming on the series in August 2014, before the premiere of Series 8, Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Steven Moffat embarked on a world tour to promote the upcoming series in Cardiff, London, Seoul, Sydney, New York, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. I don’t recall the Chibnall era doing anything like this; heck, even Jodie Whittaker’s reveal in 2017 was just a minute-long minisode with a teaser that was just as long, and it was broadcast during Wimbledon. This shows that the Moffat era did better with marketing and promotion compared to the Chibnall era (the RTD era fitting in between them).

2. Humble returns

As is obvious, Jenna Coleman would reprise her role as Clara Oswald for Series 8, her character now a teacher at Coal Hill School to commemorate the 50th Anniversary. Peter Capaldi’s first episode, Deep Breath, also featured the return of the Paternoster Gang for what would be their final on-screen appearance. The Clockwork Droids make a return following their debut eight years prior in Series 2’s The Girl in the Fireplace, being assigned as the crew of a sister ship to the one that appeared in said episode, though the Doctor doesn’t seem to remember them.

The episode starts off with a female dinosaur in the middle of the Thames during the 1890s. The dinosaur coughs up the TARDIS, which had been swallowed by her when it crashed in prehistoric Earth. The Doctor and Clara came out of the TARDIS and the former was taken back to the Paternoster Gang’s home when he collapsed due to his post-regenerative trauma. Later that night, the Doctor hears the dinosaur in pain and heads outside to promise that he will take her home, only to see her spontaneously combust. Both the Doctor and the Paternoster Gang rush to the Thames, where the Doctor points out that the point, in regards to what the important question is they should be asking, isn’t actually who could have done this, let alone how; the point is actually if there have been any similar murders. The Doctor jumps into the Thames as he takes up the case, which leads the Paternoster Gang to do so as well.

The next morning, the Doctor stumbles into an alley, wondering and ranting to a nearby tramp why he has the face he has. He then notices a newspaper with an article about spontaneous combustion and takes the tramp’s coat in exchange for his favourite watch. Meanwhile, Clara sees a notice addressed to the “Impossible Girl” in a newspaper and deduces that the Doctor wants to meet her at Mancini’s Family Restaurant. Clara heads there and is met by the Doctor, who had also noticed the notice, but didn’t place it himself. As they argue over who could have placed the notice, the Doctor and Clara were brought down to the Clockwork Droids’ ship, where they saw the Half-Face Man recharging itself; the Clockwork Droids had been harvesting the flesh and organs from humans as they rotted and combusted the bodies to hide the evidence of mutilation.

As the Doctor and Clara are separated, Clara gets the idea to hold her breath so that the Droids won’t notice her breathing, but she eventually passes out and is brought in front of the Half-Face Man. By using her experiences from her first days as a teacher, Clara manages to elicit information about the Droids’ intentions to reach the Promised Land before the Doctor rejoins her, having changed his clothes. The Doctor questions the Half-Face Man as to why he put the message in the newspaper to bring him and Clara to the restaurant, only to realise that he didn’t do it.

The Paternoster Gang are summoned to fight the Droids in the ship. The Half-Face Man heads back up to the restaurant, which is actually an escape pod, with the Doctor following. As the Doctor confronts the Half-Face Man, convincing him that there is no Promised Land and that he has replaced every single part of himself to the point where there is no trace of his original self. Down in the ship, the Paternoster Gang and Clara struggle against the other Droids until Clara tells them all to hold their breaths. Despite their best efforts (and Vastra sharing her oxygen with Jenny by way of a kiss), they are unable to hold on further when Vastra stops Strax from killing himself. It is then that all the Droids suddenly deactivate, the Half-Face Man being impaled on top of a clock tower. Whether the Doctor pushed him or the Half-Face Man jumped is open to interpretation, though if I had to say, I would have to say that the Doctor drove the Half-Face Man to jump, giving us a glimpse of the darker Doctor and darker storylines the Capaldi era had to offer.

Clara heads back to the present day with the Doctor, now with the mystery of the woman in the shop brought to the forefront from the notice in the newspaper as the Doctor surmises that there is a woman who is very keen that they stay together. Clara gets a call from the Eleventh Doctor, calling her from Trenzalore just before his regeneration finished, to tell her that his new incarnation will need her more than she can imagine.

Meanwhile, the Half-Face Man finds himself in a garden, where he is met by Missy, who tells him that he has made it to the Promised Land. More on her later.

Deep Breath is an extended episode that manages to bridge the Capaldi era with the Smith era while still giving fans a glimpse of the darker storyline to come. Matt Smith’s cameo was filmed towards the end of the filming for The Time of the Doctor, solidifying the episode’s status as a bridging episode between the two eras. Like The Day of the Doctor before it, Deep Breath also received a cinematic release, coupled with a Paternoster Gang prequel that was really Strax describing the previous Doctors; the Doctor Who Extra instalment for the episode (to replace Doctor Who Confidential); and for UK screenings on 23 August 2014, there was also a live Q&A hosted by Zoe Ball.

3. The Capaldi title sequence

The title sequence for the Capaldi era episodes was designed by Billy Hanshaw, aka billydakiduk on YouTube. He was scouted by Steven Moffat after seeing his original concept title sequence from September 2013 and decided to refine the idea for the new title sequence. The final product was a complete subversion of the usual Time Vortex sequence as the camera goes through some clockwork, a spiral of Roman clock face numbers and through some circling planets. Whatever “Time Vortex” was shown towards the end was not shown at any point in the Capaldi era - even the Time Vortex used in Twice Upon A Time was completely different. The titles also showed the Doctor’s eyes in a throwback to his debut cameo instead of his face as was done during Series 7 Part 2.

Some episodes saw variations to the opening sequence, such as Before the Flood having a rock version of the theme, Heaven Sent only having Peter Capaldi being credited, or the 2014 and 2015 Christmas Specials having Chrismassy flairs to them; this was omitted for the 2016 and 2017 Christmas Specials.

For some reason, the production team managed to screw up the consistency of the title sequence; at least 10 of the Capaldi era’s 40 episodes had titles that were out of sync with the theme music, most notoriously seen in Face the Raven that had the titles run five seconds ahead of the music. At the same time, fans also noticed inconsistencies in the formatting of the episode title and writer credits, which is honestly baffling as I wonder if no template was used or if no quality control was taken.

For the Series 8 and 9 of Doctor Who in my personal project, I opted to use two of NeonVisual’s title sequences from 2013 which were clearly inspired from the Series 7 Part 2 title sequence. Do you think they would have worked better had the BBC hired NeonVisual instead? Feel free to let me know.

4. A Good Dalek

Into the Dalek has the Doctor discover a Dalek that had turned good. In going inside the Dalek’s casing in an attempt to repair it, during which it was discovered that the Dalek turning good was caused by damage to his power source, the Doctor accidentally reverted Rusty, the name he gave the Dalek, to its original programming.

The Doctor is seemingly proven right that there can be no such thing as a good Dalek, but Clara convinces him that this isn’t what they learnt, and so the Doctor has Clara and the rest of the crew find the memory that made the Dalek turn good which he goes face-to-eye with Rusty. In doing so, Rusty managed to tap into the Doctor’s hatred for the Daleks, causing him to turn on the Daleks and unwittingly save the crew of the Aristotle. This disappoints the Doctor as this outcome was not what he was trying to get Rusty to see.

This episode starts a story arc where the Doctor begins to question whether he is a good man after everything he has been through following the Time War. It may seem a bit hard to tell given the Doctor’s abrasiveness throughout the series, but the Doctor manages to work it out for himself in the end.

5. The mysteries that befall us

Listen is a surreal episode that asks whether people are truly alone when they are alone while also setting up some mysteries that are left answered. After coming home from a disastrous date with Danny Pink (we’ll talk about him next), Clara is picked up by the Doctor, who immediately begins to explore his hypotheses with her, that at one point, everyone has dreamt about someone grabbing their ankle from under the bed while they are alone in their bedrooms. The Doctor connects Clara to the TARDIS telepathic circuits and tries to get her to focus on the time she had the dream, only to end up at a children’s home in mid-90’s Gloucester.

At the children’s home, eerie things happen to the night manager, which is revealed to have been the Doctor stealing his coffee, and Clara meets a boy named Rupert Pink, which she deduces is actually a younger Danny. During this encounter, a figure emerges under the blanket of Rupert’s bed and the Doctor gets the idea to have Rupert and Clara turn their backs to it, allowing it to leave without revealing itself to them. The Doctor poses a theory that it could have been one of Rupert’s friends playing a prank on him, or it actually isn’t. Some fans pose a theory that it was a Floof, a monster with uncanny hiding abilities that cause mischief, from one of Steven Moffat’s short stories written in 2006, but Moffat claims that he doesn’t remember writing it. I choose to believe there actually was a creature under there because for it to actually just be one of Rupert’s friends would be anti-climatic. After Clara puts some toy soldiers under Rupert’s bed to guard him, with one of the soldiers not having a gun which Rupert calls Dan the soldier man, the Doctor then wipes Rupert’s brain of the encounter, leaving him with a dream about him becoming Dan the soldier man.

Clara has the Doctor return her to her date with Danny, but is then called away by a spaceman, which leads Danny to leave. Clara follows the spaceman into the TARDIS and the spaceman is revealed to be Colonel Orson Pink from a hundred years in the future; strangely, Orson doesn’t have any old family photographs of Clara. The Doctor had activated the TARDIS telepathic circuits and it brought him to where Orson was at the end of the universe when he was only supposed to go a week into the future; he was stranded there for six months. When the Doctor travels back to the end of the universe, he and Clara discover that Orson was apparently being threatened by unknown creatures, given how he had to remind himself not to open the door to the capsule. Clara discovers that Orson has a toy of Dan the soldier man, with him saying that it is a family heirloom passed down for good luck.

The Doctor decides to wait for whatever is lurking outside the capsule at night; when strange things begin happening, the Doctor has Clara go back into the TARDIS while he uses his sonic screwdriver to unlock the door. When the air shell is breached, causing all the air to be sucked out and potentially the Doctor with it, Orson rescues the Doctor and brings him back to the TARDIS before Clara uses the telepathic circuits to leave.

The TARDIS lands in a barn and Clara heads out. She sees a crying child under a blanket in a bed, but is forced to hide under it when two people come into the barn. Through their conversation, Clara realises that she has gone back to Gallifrey during the Doctor’s childhood. Once the two people leave, the Doctor regains consciousness inside the TARDIS. The boy, the child Doctor, hears the Doctor and gets up, only for Clara to grab his ankle, resulting in her creating the nightmare the Doctor was investigating in the first place. Clara tells the child Doctor about how fear is a superpower and how he will return to the barn on a day when he will be very afraid, referring to the day when the War Doctor arrived at the barn to detonate the Moment. After leaving Dan the soldier man to stand guard under the child Doctor’s bed, Clara returns to the TARDIS and has the Doctor promise her to never find out where they just were before returning Orson back to his time and taking Clara home.

We’ve theorised who the monster was in Rupert’s bed, so who was the monster apparently terrorising Orson at the end of the universe? My theory for what the planet is, based on other people’s theories and what we would see later on, is that it is a dying Gallifrey at the end of everything. As for the monsters? A Big Finish audio speculates that it was River Song and Jack Harkness playing a prank on Orson and that the planet he was on was actually Gallifrey, but personally, it could be another Floof for all I care.

Listen may be an unsatisfying episode in terms of mystery, but it is still kind of satisfying in that it gives the Doctor good character development while also giving Clara another chance to be the Impossible Girl. The Doctor and Clara heading into Danny’s past as Rupert might have brought up some bad vibes I got from the Impossible Girl arc, but they only went to one point and the Doctor scrambled Rupert’s mind at the end, so it’s kind of okay where that’s concerned. Admittedly, the Doctor’s character development in this episode lost its poignancy when the Timeless Child revelation came out, but it’s still an alright episode nonetheless.

6. PE

This section is funnily ironic to me because at high school, I actually had a teacher (or two) who taught PE and maths.

Series 8 introduces a new love interest for Clara in the name of Danny Pink, played by Samuel Anderson, to divert Clara’s focus from the Doctor and to make the Twelfth Doctor less of a romantic compared to previous incarnations during the revived series. Danny was a soldier in the army who served as a sergeant in the Middle East before leaving after having a “bad day”. He became a maths teacher at Coal Hill School and set up the Coal Hill Cadets to teach students the disciplines and morals of a soldier. Danny was introduced to Clara and after some awkwardness and “family stuff”, they go on their first date in Listen, which goes about as well as you would expect. In trying to hide her travels with the Doctor, Danny got defensive and asked Clara to tell the truth before having enough and deciding to leave. However, Clara reconciles with Danny at the end of the episode.

Two episodes later in The Caretaker, Clara is shown struggling to balance her real life with her Doctor life and things go from bad to worse for her when the Doctor decides to go deep cover at Coal Hill as a caretaker in order to track down a Skovox Blitzer. When the Doctor is introduced to Danny, the Doctor immediately assumes he is a PE teacher based on his history as a soldier. The Doctor then sees Clara with another teacher named Adrian and is happy for her, assuming that Adrian is the boyfriend Clara has been talking about due to the resemblance to his previous incarnation.

That night, as the Doctor lays a trap for the Skovox Blitzer and prepares to lure it in, Danny sees the chronodyne generators placed around the school and moves them, resulting in the Skovox Blitzer being transported two days forward instead of billions of years. Danny discovers Clara’s familiarity with the Doctor and Clara tells him about her adventures with the Doctor.

On parents’ evening, Clara uses an invisibility watch to sneak Danny onto the TARDIS, but the Doctor is able to detect him, which results in the two having an argument during which Danny calls the Doctor an officer in contrast to him being a former soldier. Later, during the interviews, the Skovox Blitzer returns and the Doctor has Clara distract it while he gets a contingency plan ready. Clara manages to lure it to where the Doctor is; the Doctor impersonates its superior and tries to get it to shut itself down, but he forgot to enter the final input code and the Skovox Blitzer begins to self-destruct. It is then that Danny comes in, using the invisibility watch to buy the Doctor a few more seconds. The Doctor successfully gets the Skovox Blitzer to shut down before setting it adrift in space.

Looking back, I have mixed feelings about Danny. His demands for Clara to tell him the truth about her travels with the Doctor kind of seem controlling, particularly since they hadn’t been dating for long, but I kind of like how he calls out the soldier-officer dynamic with the Doctor, in that the officers push their soldiers and make them stronger until they find themselves doing things they never thought they would have to do. In the end, there really isn’t much to Danny other than he was a soldier who left on a bad day and the Doctor doesn’t respect him because he doesn’t respect soldiers. I really think Moffat could have done more with Danny because it felt like the only reason he was there was so we could have a “love triangle” of sorts.

On a side note, The Caretaker would be Gareth Roberts’ final work on the series. The transphobia thing wouldn’t come until three years later (so your opinions regarding it, whether you agree or disagree with him on the whole thing, are irrelevant to this paragraph), but apparently Roberts came into conflict with the production team on set, then made public comments denigrating Moffat and Capaldi, thus he was not rehired for future series. This probably might be a rumour so you don’t have to take it that seriously.

7. Coal Hill School

Following its return in The Day of the Doctor for the 50th Anniversary, Coal Hill School plays a significant role in Series 8, further showing that Capaldi’s first series as the Doctor is a more down-to-earth one. Clara is now a teacher at the school, where it and its students are shown prominently at various points throughout the series.

Coal Hill School was first shown in An Unearthly Child as the school where the Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan Foreman, attended and her teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, taught science and history respectively. The school would not return again until Remembrance of the Daleks in 1988 for the 25th Anniversary season. Sadly, Coal Hill School would only make a brief appearance at the start of Series 9 before it was never shown or mentioned again.

In October 2016, a spinoff named Class premiered on BBC Three (which had become a streaming-exclusive channel by then) which prominently featured Coal Hill School and was written by Patrick Ness. The school was shown to be renovated since its last appearance at the start of Series 9. The Doctor also made a short appearance in the spinoff’s first episode and there were rumours that the 2016 Christmas Special was to be a crossover, but it ultimately never eventuated and Class was never renewed for another series.

To restate my own words from my review of Village of the Angels, I felt that the series was okay, but if it wasn’t cancelled, I probably would have liked it more. Personally, the “renovation” of Coal Hill School was a waste of time given what transpired and there is no way a whole school can be rebuilt in under a year without significant interruptions. I’ve seen individual buildings being built during my time in school, but not every building. The finale also teased something epic involving the Weeping Angels, but we never get to see what happened due to the cancellation of the series. Frankly, it’d be better if we just pretended that the series never existed and Coal Hill School was never renovated.

I know Class premiered between Series 9 and 10, but I thought I’d talk about it now and get it over with so I don’t have to later.

8. Out of line?

Midway through the series, the Doctor and Clara have a falling out because of something the Doctor did. While I didn’t think much of it when I first watched it, I would have to argue that after rewatching it recently, the Doctor was being out of line.

Kill the Moon begins with Clara asking the Doctor to tell Courtney Woods that she is special after he told her that she wasn’t, which leads to the Doctor offering to make Courtney the first woman on the moon. The three of them head to the moon in 2049 where they find a hundred nuclear bombs in a recycled space shuttle. It is then that they realise that they are actually on their way to the moon and upon landing, they are met by a crew led by Captain Lundvik, who have come to destroy the moon as its increased mass is causing chaos on Earth with high tides everywhere at once and satellites being whacked out of orbit.

As the group investigates, the Doctor learns that the moon is actually an egg for some creature and that it is about to hatch, which is causing the moon to gain mass. Lundvik is intent on killing it, but Clara and Courtney are against killing it. It is at this point that the Doctor decides to leave and let the three remaining females make the decision that will decide the future of humanity, which angers Clara. When ground control makes contact with the three, Clara decides to make a broadcast to humanity, giving them 45 minutes to decide if they should kill the creature or let it live. Humanity votes to kill the creature, but just at the last moment, Clara defies public opinion and stops the detonation. It is then that the Doctor returns to pick them up and take them back to Earth, where they see the creature hatching and laying a new egg.

Once Lundvik and Courtney have left the TARDIS, Clara becomes angry at the Doctor because she had to make a pivotal decision for humanity’s future and the Doctor knew what would happen, yet still lied to her and left her to decide. And honestly, I kind of have to agree with Clara berating the Doctor at the end, because Earth might as well be his home if he spends so much time there and his actual home planet is destroyed. Also, as crass as he may be, it’s not in the Doctor’s nature to run away in a crisis involving an entire planet. Pompeii may be one city and its destruction a fixed point in time, but this is the future we are talking about and it’s not just one city, it’s an entire planet he spends a lot of time on, so the least the Doctor could do was be there for Clara and guide her to make the right decision.

Clara meets with Danny and she tells him what happened, but Danny tells her to finish things with the Doctor when she is no longer angry with him. The Doctor and Clara decide to have one last hurrah and we move onto Mummy on the Orient Express, a double-banked companion-lite episode produced alongside the Doctor-lite episode Flatline, which would premiere the following week.

Running off a throwaway line from the end of The Big Bang, the Doctor and Clara board a space train known as the Orient Express, or rather a replica of it. As some people are killed by a mummy that only they could see, giving them 66 seconds before they would die, the Doctor is separated from Clara, who is with a passenger named Maisie, and learns that the train is a front for an investigation into the mummy, known as the Foretold, led by an evil computer known as Gus. Several more people die as the Doctor tries to work out what the Foretold is, then when Maisie was the next person to be targeted, Clara reunites with the Doctor and he tells her that Gus had tried to lure him onto the TARDIS before, meaning that he lied to her again and that he made her lie to get Maisie to where the Doctor was.

The Foretold appears to Maisie and the Doctor uses some equipment to make himself the target instead. In the ensuing 66 seconds, the Doctor manages to deduce that the Foretold is actually an ancient soldier, wounded in battle and augmented with equipment that wouldn’t let him die until the war was over. At the end of the 66 seconds, the Doctor surrenders to the Foretold. Everyone is suddenly able to see it as it disintegrates into dust. With the mystery now solved, Gus removes the air from the train, but the Doctor uses the Foretold’s teleporter to teleport everyone away, however when he tried to hack Gus from the TARDIS to find out who was behind it, it triggered a failsafe that blew up the train.

In the end, Clara gains a better understanding of the Doctor and decides to lie to Danny about leaving him while also deciding to stay with the Doctor. This is the turning point where Clara is pushed to become more like the Doctor, with Flatline forcing Clara to essentially be him when the TARDIS gets shrunken with the Doctor still inside. It’s an okay resolution to their conflict, but I don’t think it should have happened in the first place.

9. What is death?

Teasers of Missy and the Nethersphere, also known as the Promised Land, are scattered throughout the series. When I started watching the series, I was expecting at least one character to die in every episode and be sent to the Neversphere, but I suppose doing that would give away the mystery.

In Dark Water, Clara calls Danny in an attempt to tell him the truth about her travels with the Doctor before he gets to her flat. While Clara complains about the way Danny says “I love you” to her, Danny is hit by a car or a milk float driven by Missy (according to extended media) and dies. Clara appears apathetic to Danny’s death, but in truth, she is absolutely distraught, which leads her to use a sleep patch on the Doctor. Landing the TARDIS next to a volcano, Clara tries to blackmail the Doctor into saving Danny by throwing a key away every time he says no to her. She then suddenly throws the rest of the keys away, leaving her with one of the seven keys left. After throwing the last key away, Clara is overcome by the impact of what she did when the Doctor reveals that they are still in the TARDIS, having worked out what Clara was doing and using the sleep patch back on her. The Doctor, having seen how far Clara would go to be with Danny, agrees to help find him and they are led to the 3W Institute.

Meanwhile, Danny is brought to the Nethersphere where he is greeted by Seb, an AI interface created by Missy. Upon arrival, there was a request to meet him from someone, namely a boy he accidentally killed during his time as a soldier in Afghanistan which led to him leaving the army. Danny meets the boy and tries to apologise, but he runs away. Soon, Danny gets a call from Clara, who was put into contact with him from the outside. Clara, on the Doctor’s advice, tries to make sure that the Danny she is speaking to is real by having him say something only he could say, but when he keeps telling her “I love you” in a manner unsatisfactory to Clara, she ends the call.

The Doctor discovers that the Nethersphere is actually a Gallifreyan matrix data slice, that 3W is actually a front for converting dead bodies into Cybermen, and that Missy is actually the Master in a new female incarnation. Danny is given the choice to delete his emotions, but the sight of the boy behind him leads him to refuse.

Continuing with Death in Heaven, 91 Cybermen are assembled outside St Paul’s Cathedral and people are taking pictures with them when Kate Stewart, Osgood and UNIT show up. Suddenly, the Cybermen fly into the sky and hover above a British city before self-destructing and spreading Cyber-pollen into the graveyards and morgues, converting the dead into Cybermen. The Doctor and Missy are brought onboard Boat One, where the Doctor is appointed President of Earth in accordance with incursion protocols. As the Doctor discusses what is happening with the UNIT forces, Missy kills Osgood and summons the Cybermen to Boat One. After revealing that she was the woman in the shop who brought the Doctor and Clara together, then kept them together by putting the notice in the newspaper, Missy sends Kate flying out of Boat One before teleporting away. The Doctor hangs on for dear life but he ends up falling out as well until he uses his TARDIS key to summon it to him.

Meanwhile, Clara poses as the Doctor in an attempt to evade the Cybermen, furthering her character development as a mirror of the Doctor. The episode also goes so far as to have the title sequence feature Jenna Coleman’s name before Peter Capaldi’s and also feature Clara’s eyes instead of the Doctor’s. However, the now-converted Danny manages to call out her lies and take her away. Clara is taken to a graveyard where Danny reveals his face to her and asks her to turn on the emotional inhibitor. After Clara fails to get the Doctor to come and help her, the Doctor arrives and tries to stop Clara. He then asks Danny if he can access the Cyber hive mind to find out what Missy’s plan is, but in an effort to prove his point about the Doctor being an officer, Danny explains that he can’t see much because he needs the emotional inhibitor on to do so. The Doctor gives the sonic screwdriver to Clara so she can do it and when she does, Danny tells the Doctor that Missy is planning to use the Cyber-pollen to convert all of humanity.

Missy arrives and tells the Doctor that the Cyberarmy she created is a gift for him. The Doctor tells Missy that he doesn’t need an army but she insists that he does. Recalling some of his past adventures, the Doctor begins to realise that he is not a good man, nor a bad man, a hero, a president or an officer, but an idiot with a box and a screwdriver. In addition, Danny’s love for Clara stopped him from hurting her after his emotional inhibitor was turned on. The Doctor lets Danny take control of the Cyberarmy and after a speech that to me, sounds a little off at the end due to the pitch of Danny’s voice, he and all the other Cybermen fly into the sky and self-destruct, destroying the Cyber-pollen.

A defeated Missy tells the Doctor the current location of Gallifrey, claiming that it has been restored to its original location. Clara prepares to shoot Missy, but the Doctor offers to do it himself to stop Clara from doing so. It is then that Missy is shot by a remaining Cyberman, who saved Kate from falling out of Boat One. The Doctor learns that that Cyberman was actually Kate’s father, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and he salutes the Cyberbrig before he flies into the sky.

Two weeks later, Clara hears Danny in the night and finds a portal to the Nethersphere in her hallway. With the Nethersphere collapsing and the portal only having enough power for one person to go through, Danny sends the boy from earlier through it, asking Clara to find his parents. Another two weeks later, the Doctor meets with Clara and deduces that Clara and Danny are back together when that was actually not the case. He then tells Clara that he found Gallifrey when he actually didn’t after going to the coordinates that Missy gave him. Clara decides to believe the lie about her and Danny as the Doctor decides to part ways with her.

The Series 8 finale was good, but I don’t think it and the whole series lived up to expectations. I thought the dead people who we saw in the Nethersphere scenes would return in the finale and that the finale would have something much deeper than dead people being converted into Cybermen. The return of the Master as Missy was another highlight of the story and it marked the first on-screen instance of a male Time Lord regenerating into a female incarnation, which meant that the next mystery was to find out how the Saxon Master regenerated into Missy. Paying tribute to the Brigadier by making him a Cyberman I found meh, but I can see why people didn’t like it. If you want an alternative, remember that Osgood wasn’t the only person in that room whose appearance got copied by a Zygon.

And speaking of Osgood, I’ve always contended that the Zygon Osgood was the one who Missy killed in this story. The Zygon two-parter in Series 9 would keep the answer ambiguous by purposefully obscuring it, with even Osgood’s actress, Ingrid Oliver, keeping her take on the question a secret. Then in 2019, a Big Finish audio confirmed that it was actually the Zygon Osgood who was killed by Missy, putting the question to bed in a manner that ended up being logical.

10. Every Christmas is Last Christmas

In the 2014 Christmas Special, Last Christmas, the Doctor reunites with Clara as they investigate a polar base in the North Pole. They encounter Shona trying to distract herself from the Sleepers before they are attacked by Dream Crabs. Following this, Santa and his elves came in to convince everyone that they are dying in a dream and that they need to wake up. The Doctor also deduces that the Dream Crabs can create dreams within dreams and so, he helps everyone get out of each layer until Santa comes back with his sleigh to take them out of the final layer when they are confronted by more Sleepers, which are actually the parts of their mind that have succumbed to the Dream Crabs.

When the Doctor wakes up, he hurries to save Clara from her Dream Crab, only to find that she is 62 years older than when they last parted. As they pull a Christmas cracker, just as they did before in The Time of the Doctor, Santa appears, meaning that this scene was another dream layer. The Doctor and Clara wake up for real and Clara is relieved to see that she is young. The Doctor invites Clara to travel with him again and she quickly accepts, ending the special. Apparently, Jenna Coleman intended to leave Doctor Who at the end of Series 8, but she enjoyed working with Capaldi so much that she decided to do the 2014 Christmas Special before leaving. During the World Tour, Capaldi (and Moffat) managed to convince Coleman to stay on for another year; she informed Steven Moffat of this following the readthrough of Last Christmas and plans on a replacement companion, possibly Shona, were abandoned and the ending was slightly changed thanks to Moffat preparing for such a scenario.

Last Christmas is an alright Christmas Special. It has the Doctor and Clara admit that they lied to each other on their final meeting before they get a second chance together on the TARDIS. Danny also returns as a construct of Clara’s dream to conclude his character arc and to admit that he only saved the world for Clara. The one thing I didn’t like was Nick Frost playing a sardonic Santa when the common stereotype is that he is supposed to be jolly (which is called out by the Doctor in the special). I think it would have worked better if Santa was played by Seth MacFarlane using his Carter Pewterschmidt voice.

Series 8, like the series before it, is another mixed bag. I came into each episode expecting this thing or that thing to happen, only for it to not happen or a completely different thing to happen altogether. The Doctor and Clara have deeper dynamics and character development than they did and the inclusion of Coal Hill School was an alright extension of the 50th Anniversary.

Up until the last instalment, I’ve used Clever Dick Films’ Doctor Who Review videos as one of my research references, but at the time of writing this instalment, he hasn’t done his retrospective on the Capaldi era and I don’t expect it to come out for some time, but I’m sure I have enough opinions or story summary fillers to make it through the last parts of this series. Stay tuned for Part 9 as we continue riding the wave from the 50th Anniversary with my 10 takes on Series 9.

#doctor who #doctor who 10 for 10 #doctor who series 8 #twelfth doctor #peter capaldi

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umbran6 · 3 years ago

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The Argument Against Caleo

Spoilers up to Blood of Olympus and beyond. Beware! (Or not, the book series has been out for a few years, get over it). I wrote this after seeing a user wondering why people didn’t like Caleo, or in some cases, hated it. Here, I want to explain the answer as much as possible while doling out my own points.

One of the main grievances I have as a fan of Leo Valdez would be the ship Caleo, or Leo x Calypso. It’s a complicated ship, to say the least, with multiple issues that make me question why people like the ship. And I admit it, they initially had some chemistry, but there’s multiple issues that Uncle Rick produced through making such a relationship that makes it extremely open to criticism, criticism which I will explain through this post.

One of my main points against them is that the ship was created on a very limited time scale. Although we aren’t given an exact date to date of when Leo and Calypso met to when they fell in love, we can safely estimate it to be a week at best. Such a limited amount of time from going through the multiple stages of a relationship already stresses the limits of the suspension of disbelief.

A counterexample would be Percabeth, or Percy x Annabeth. Throughout the series, we aren’t introduced to them being romantically involved until the Titan’s Curse, which was two years after they met. Specifically, this is brought up by Aphrodite, the goddess of love herself. Admittedly, Percy and Annabeth were twelve years old when they first met, when romance was definitely out of the picture, especially with a quest to get the Master Bolt.

However, from there we get to see multiple examples of their character depth, ranging from their respective fatal flaws to their ambitions, hopes and dreams, and their friendship. We get to see the slow build up of their chemistry, which was a really good writing move on Uncle Rick’s part. These characters took their sweet time to get to where they wanted to go, and despite the false romantic lead of Rachel, they still got together.

On the other hand, we don’t see enough of this between Leo and Calypso — we only see one book where they interacted with each other in The House of Hades, and that was only for a handful of chapters. While they are definitely older so they can jump straight to romance (some may say too old, but I’ll get to that) its still a pretty huge gap to jump through without making it stick. This makes it hard to root for a ship when it is built on a rather faulty foundation from the ‘they just met’ to ‘they get together’, especially when they don’t have a lot of events to show their chemistry.

Which brings me to Ogygia, which has raised a few red flags for me when looking at it from a retrospective point of view. Now, we know what the main issue of the island is that the hero who landed on said island can’t leave until Calypso falls in love with them. And we’ve seen this with Percy during the Battle of the Labyrinth, where he lands in the island and Calypso falls in love with him while tending to his wounds from, you know, being erupted from freaking Mt. St. Helens. Needless to say, this falling in love with each other montage happened quickly to the point of suspicion, which sets up the complication that Calypso and Leo might have fallen in love due to magical intervention.

And hear me out, because although this might be a pretty big pill to swallow, we have evidence for this through Percy. It only takes one chapter for Calypso and Percy to meet, and the next he’s willing to consider leaving Camp Half-Blood and Annabeth behind to live on the island when Hephaestus gives him the choice to leave Ogygia or stay. We don’t even get an explanation on why Percy considered giving it all up just so he can be with her. All we know is, girl meets boy, now they want to live on an isolated island forever. It’s especially absurd considering Percy’s hamartia (fatal flaw) is freaking loyalty to those he loves. Needless to say, It’s a huge YIKES, especially when we apply it to Leo and Calypso.

It also raises the possibility that the romantic relationship between them is doomed to failure. And if you guys want to fight me on this, let’s look at Jason and Piper, a couple whose relationship started with a similar foundation. Piper had romantic memories implanted into her brain by Hera through the use of the Mist, while Jason was reduced to a Tabula Rasa (a blank slate for those who lack culture) by said goddess. They broke up before the Trials of Apollo because it was clear that when the dust settled, Piper had been aware that their romance was a lie and that their intentions to stay together was a mix of delusion and pressure from freaking Aphrodite. Leo and Calypso get together under what is arguably a very similar set of conditions if Ogygia’s magic had any influence on their relationship, and that this magic could wear off if given enough time.

Third, and here’s a pretty big one for me, would be Calypso’s character, mainly because there are a lot of unfortunate implications attached to it. In The Blood of Olympus, she was turned into the divine equivalent of Princess Peach, with Leo being her Mario (except he saves her with a badass metal dragon). Its extremely unnecessary to make a character, especially as one such as Calypso, get turned into the typical reward of a B-Class action movie. It’s insulting and puts her up as a trophy, a narrative that is definitely not ok by any means necessary.

In another direction, Calypso is also really, really worrying when things don’t go get her way. First, let’s look at The Odyssey, the first myth she pops up. Calypso had imprisoned Odysseus for ten years on her island until Hermes said to let him go, and although it gives them plenty of time to fall in love, it also raises the implications of stockholm syndrome. Then we’ve got the fact that Calypso cursed Annabeth out of spite, implicitly saying that she wished the daughter of Athena would suffer the same isolation that she did, which came to reality when Percy and Annabeth met the Arai in Tartarus. And Annabeth wasn’t even aware that she was still in Ogygia, much less intentionally intervened in the matter. When Percy left Ogygia, rather than be angry at Percy, Calypso cursed Annabeth out of all people to suffer the same loneliness and misery she went through. That’s some Hera at her worst levels of spite.

Through such evidence we can see that Calypso is extremely wrathful towards those who break her heart even though they don’t want to. It certainly implies that Calypso isn’t in a good state of mind, and could easily repeat said actions if provoked. We could almost compare it to Medea and the original Jason, but at least in that case, Medea has every right to be pissed off at Jason and take her revenge. Calypso’s curse and how she handles things certainly implies a level of immaturity that would end in disaster if they broke up.

One issue that, I’ll admit is more from my personal point of view is that the ship took a lot of Leo’s character and threw it in the garbage in Blood of Olympus. Though we see him do a lot of stuff behind the scenes, the fact that its all for the goal of reaching Calypso just reduced him to someone who is more focused on love than, you know, fighting the evil goddess that was responsible for killing his mom and getting sweet sweet revenge. While the revenge plot can be cliched sometimes, it can be played well, while romance and the typical ‘always save the girl’ trope is just overdone. If Leo had been allowed to, you know, be more focused on other things rather than Calypso, we could have seen a lot more variety in his character.

For example as one of the possible character arcs he could’ve gone through, Leo has always been alone among the couples, often being isolated. Heck, Nemesis herself stated that he would always be the seventh wheel, and that he would never find a place among his brethren. Though some fellow tumblr users have taken this in multiple ways, either saying that he should learn to be happy by himself or that he is socially isolated in the Argo II because of these romantic relationships (I prefer a mix of both). Uncle Rick just giving him a girlfriend seems like taking the easy way out of solving such an issue and abandoning what could’ve been a rather interesting character arc. The relationship isn’t a bad thing if we remove some of the unfortunate implications, but it is a bad way to end what is a complex and realistic problem for a character and in some cases maybe possible in real life.

One more minor but still yikes worthy point is that there’s a huge age gap between them. We’re not talking about the ‘Hazel is 15 and Frank is 17 and in one year that’ll be a problem because then Hazel will be jailbait’ age gap. And even then, we can argue that Hazel is older since she is chronologically ninety-one years old. No, Calypso is older by millennia in terms of mindset and body due to the perks of being a goddess, while Leo is sixteen.

God-to-Mortal relationships are already complicated, even with emotionally and socially well-functioning adults. The fact that Leo is underage, inexperienced with romance (despite his flirting, Calypso was his first kiss), and has been through a freaking ton of trauma in his youth, does not make this okay. At best, they’re both mutually interested in each other but may have different expectations when it comes to a relationship. At worst, Calypso is taking advantage of a boy just so she can get out of Ogygia and possibly dumping him later on like the wrapping of a candy bar. Even though Calypso lost her immortality during The Trials of Apollo, that doesn’t even compensate for the immense age gap alongside Leo’s guilt at the possibility that he might’ve been responsible for her losing said immortality.

Oh, and about Leo... I’m a fan of him, but I can admit that he is in a bad spot both mentally and emotionally throughout the series. He’s lost his mom due to a mix of his own powers and Gaea’s trickery, and never had the chance to fully process that event and come to terms with it. The foster home system alongside his own trauma has forced him to hide his emotions through a façade of happiness and jokes when it’s quite clear to me he needs a therapist, stat. He's also run away from several foster homes, implying this means he was and still is being affected by the event. His mask is still on during The Blood of Olympus considering he hid a lot of things from Piper and Jason.

Speaking about them, not helping this matter is the fact that he’s rather isolated in terms of friendships since Jason and Piper, his supposed best friends are more interested in locking lip rather than, you know, actually hanging out with each other. He doesn’t have good friendships with the rest of the Seven, and the closest ones he does have is with Hazel and Frank. And even then they start off in the wrong spot since Frank is very insecure about possibly losing Hazel to him during Mark of Athena while Hazel in the meantime, is also dealing with the fact that he is the descendant of her possible boyfriend Sammy Valdez.

This could indirectly have made him desperate for affection since he has nobody else to confide in during the rest of the series, which is a bad mental state to be in when one lands on Ogygia, the island that we’ve seen could possibly force two people to fall in love with each other. A romantic relationship is not something that he needs or something that will help him in the future. He needs more than that, and having him in one that could end in disaster is the last thing he needs.

And that does not make him a bad person, much less a bad character. While some who are similarly emotionally and socially isolated may turn to violence or creepy behavior on those they want affection from, Leo does not do that to the other characters. It just means that he as a character needs more time to recover and develop before we go giving him romantic relationships, much less one with Calypso.

That’s not to say that they don’t have some things in common. Both are starved for love and affection, with Calypso being constantly rejected by heroes while Leo was rejected by foster homes and his own family. It’s a trait that they have in common, but it shouldn’t be the only thing that they have in common, especially since it is laced with a trauma that is clear they haven’t had help processing. They need to develop more as characters and as friends before they should be paired together.

So… yeah. The Caleo relationship is, in my eyes, doomed to failure, or at least heavily flawed after taking the above points into account. Uncle Rick, as if seemingly aware of these criticisms, has put the relationship in a rocky place by The Tower of Nero, giving them the possibility of overcoming the above criticisms and their own flaws, or giving fanfic writers an out and pairing Leo with another character or have him single, but happy. Either way, in my opinion Caleo is a bad ship when it comes to how it was created, alongside the flaws and unfortunate implications it has.

While I can see some of the chemistry the ship has, you can’t just use a couple of moments where they get along as evidence that they belong together, especially with the above reasons. That’s like using a band-aid to cover a bullet hole without removing the bullet, stopping the bleeding, and preventing infection. If both characters and their relationship had been given more time to develop, I would understand how they would get together.

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doorsclosingslowly · 4 years ago

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There’s someone waiting out there with a mouthful of surprises

The Jedi recovered the bisected Sith apprentice from Naboo and imprisoned him underneath the Jedi Temple. A young Anakin finds the way down to his cell.

Anakin is twelve when he declines one of Chancellor Palpatine’s invitations for the first time. The resulting devastation looks wrong on his kindly old face, and Anakin wants to take it back—besides, it’s just an opera and a glass of bubbly, where could be the harm?—but he remembers golden eyes pleading up at him and then a skull-patterned face scrunched up into a splotch with how hard it’s trying to hide utter desperation, and he repeats his invented excuse.

It doesn’t matter that this one-sided rivalry for Anakin’s attention that has developed between the mutilated imprisoned murderer Sith (slave) he has befriended and the Chancellor of the Republic is honestly deeply stupid, from Anakin’s point of view. It’s not like he couldn’t spent time with them both: his missions with Master Obi-Wan have increased in number recently, but still, he’s been talking to Palpatine once a month and he’s also managed to fit in the regular trips down below to the high security carcer. It’s ridiculous.

But Anakin understands loneliness—and fear and attachment and jealousy and all the other disturbances of the peace he shouldn’t feel—he didn’t have friends for years in the Temple, after all, and it makes sense, at least a little, that Maul is scared he’ll be forgotten down there when Anakin has any other option. Not a lot of sense, because really what he’s saying is that he thinks Anakin so disloyal he’ll just ditch the only real friend he made on Coruscant, and Anakin would get back at him for the insult if it wasn’t for an energy gate perpetually between them and the fact that it’s a just a little bit unfair to tussle with a guy crawling on the floor because he doesn’t have legs… The jealousy is still kriffing stupid, but if anyone knows stupid fears it’s Anakin.

So he declines, and he keeps declining, and two years later the invitations stop.

Anakin is eleven when he starts smuggling droid parts down into the top security oubliette underneath the oldest parts of the Jedi Temple. The first time is, in retrospect, a terrifying accident. He’s built a tiny moving starfighter that Master Obi-Wan just glanced at and said, “Well done,” nothing more, like Anakin didn’t need to use pincers to weld the tiniest engine parts together, like he didn’t cast the alloy all by himself. He sulks in his room, the ship buzzing at his head, and then remembers that there’s at least two more people who might like to see. Palpatine is probably busy, and that leaves…

The Sith prisoner is a far more appreciative audience than Anakin’s Master. His eyes glint and widen when he sees the presence next to Anakin’s head, and he even pulls himself off his berth: pulls himself off the edge and tumbles down head-first, and then panting and with his nails dug into the duracrete he drags his torso over to the energy trellis that separates him from Anakin.

He looks up at the droid in childlike wonder.

There’s a tenderness to his questions that he hasn’t shown Anakin up until now, and it’s not just the hoarse panting of exertion that takes away the last dregs of his usual intimidating mien. He wants to know everything, from the full-size model of the ship it was based on to the assembly process to details of every single one of Anakin’s new projects.

“I can—I could feel the movement of the droids I built, in the force,” the prisoner whispers reverently. “They were a constant presence when I was young.”

“Right? Right?” Anakin is excited. The Jedi have been trying to tell him that droids don’t have force presences, and he’s almost believed them by now, but if he’s not alone in feeling it then he was right. Master Obi-Wan was wrong. He knew it.

He brings down the next droid he builds—yes, two days after the first trip he did realize he brought something easily used as a weapon to the dangerous Sith prisoner, but all he did was talk mechanics with Anakin so clearly it’s harmless—and the next and next. He watches the prisoner drag himself across the floor. He sees the abrasions covering the prisoner head to abdomen—covering him on every inch of the body he still possesses—the injuries that he must be sustaining from his only mode of movement. He feels the shame radiate out from the prisoner down on the floor, painful, cloying. He watches him try to play it all down.

One day, Anakin brings down a ship that he designed himself to meet the exact dimensions and functionality of a short humanoid’s prosthetic thigh. He pushes it against the barrier. It moves through.

Anakin is almost ten years old, and he knows that down in the bowels of the Jedi Temple there lives a monster. The Sith is caged so deep below that no-one can hear his growls and mutters, his whimpers, his pleas, or so Master Obi-Wan promised Anakin yesterday when he’d worked up the courage to ask about the sounds he keeps hearing whenever he closes his eyes. He’s locked down so deep that the shivering of his despair and the gall of his hatred must be a hallucination. He’s been caged for months, first interrogated daily, then found useless and forgotten. But not by Anakin.

(He saw the monstrous enemy of the Jedi for the first time when he’d just turned nine. It pulled its black hood off its bright head and panicked Master Qui-Gon and Master Obi-Wan, and Anakin was sent away for safety that quickly turned into cosmic warfare. Before that moment, he knows, on Tatooine it tried to run Anakin over with its bike. After that moment, he’d seen the monster—or what remained of it—being carried out of the Naboo palace on Master Obi-Wan’s back, moaning and delirious with pain, but dangerous nonetheless. It had bitten Obi-Wan so hard he’d flung it reflexively to the ground.

Down there, it had begged. “Honor,” it had rasped. “Give me honor. Give me death.”

Master Obi-Wan had picked it up by its arm, and it had whimpered in protest, “I fought with honor!”

Obi-Wan had ignored it. Anakin would have, too; this thing had killed Master Qui-Gon, and whether it had done so with honor or not didn’t matter when Master Qui-Gon was dead. It had killed the Jedi who’d won him, who chose to train Anakin, who was the only guarantor of his future safety, and he didn’t know what would happen now, and he hated it.

It had grown more frantic then, terrified. “Kill me, Jedi, please, when my Master—”

And Anakin had swallowed a cry of shocked recognition.)

Anakin will be ten in two months, and today he’s gonna see the monster again. It’s not the force that calls him down staircase after staircase to the oubliette below the oldest parts of the Jedi Temple. He’d be able to explain if it was the force, if he got caught, he thinks, but that’s not what’s going on. It’s just homesickness, and loneliness, and it is that word.

The way he said it.

Anakin has met more Masters in the last year of his life than ever before, has uttered the word more often than on Tatooine, and he’s doing pretty well, he thinks. He doesn’t flinch with his body when he says it and not with his face either, and even the highest Masters—there it is again—they can’t feel the acid in his force presence anymore.

He greets Master Obi-Wan in the morning and he bows to Grandmaster Yoda whenever they meet.

He doesn’t talk about his childhood. He doesn’t talk much, nowadays, to anyone but Master Obi-Wan or his teachers. He knows he’s weird. He wasn’t on Tatooine, but here… He doesn’t know the things the other padawans do, and his reflexive associations, his interests, his memories shock them. There’s no point, Anakin has learned, in expecting people who can say Master without galling—who don’t need to pretend enjoy it—to listen to him. They’ll never wake up in cold sweat and feel for the bomb that was cut out of their neck, that was injected into it while they were awake and their mother cried, that had so often almost gone off. They don’t cry for their Mom. They’ll only shush him when he talks of his past.

When he talks of his fears.

Of himself.

They’ll never understand him. No-one will. No-one will let him be the Anakin he really is, without fussing over him and muttering and looking like he should know better by now. No-one wants anything beyond the parts of himself he can salvage that are untainted by his past. The parts that don’t remember his mother.

The only person who listens to all of him is Palpatine, and even he often doesn’t know what to say.

No-one will understand, possibly, but…

The monster that lives down below the Jedi Temple had forced out Master like the word tastes of fire and dread.

Like it heralds pain.

The monster is a fellow slave, Anakin is sure. He’s the only being on Coruscant who might understand; the only person who will let him be whole. He’s killed Master Qui-Gon, yes, but he didn’t have a choice, just like Anakin wasn’t allowed to disobey his Master and neither was Mom or Kitster or Beru or anybody else back home.

It was so obvious, the moment he said it.

The monster’s a slave.

Point: Anakin is so tired of having to pretend he never was a slave.

Point also: He just found a map of all the layers of the temple in a garbage chute, wedged in a decommissioned droid’s dataslit. A map that shows the oubliette for ancient evils.

Point also also: Master Obi-Wan’s fast asleep, and Anakin can’t get his thoughts to stop racing.

The monster’s a fellow slave.

Ergo: it’s time to sneak down and make a friend.

What must be hundreds of meters below the current Jedi Temple, at the bottom of the bottom-most staircase, smells faintly of sweat and boredom and despair. The only illumination Anakin can make out is a set of force trellises, and if the schematics he found were right then that’s exactly the spot that he’s looking for.

Pulling his hood down deeper just because it’s chilly and definitely not because he’s nervous and needs something to fidget, he sneaks closer.

Victory!

The Sith’s inside the cell. He looks just like the attacker Anakin remembers, with a red-and-black face and some horns and a scowl. He looks completely different, too: he’s naked, or at least his torso is. The lower half of his body is just missing. Did the Jedi—but no, Anakin can dimly remember Master Obi-Wan mention the way he beat him. That he’s still without prosthetics, even though his scars are well-healed… Anakin knew a woman who’d survived a bomb blowing off her leg, on Tatooine. She lived off of fellow slaves’ charity, for a few months. Her head wasn’t all there anymore from the pain, Mom told Anakin, and her Master had just let her leave. Why invest in a prosthetic when you’re not getting any use from its recipient?

The Sith is doing better than her, at least, even if he’s missing way more flesh. He’s doing pull-ups off the head piece of his callow berth. His yellow eyes gleam in the soft light of the force trellis when he looks over. When he notices Anakin. For a long moment, he looks stunned, and only then he remembers to snarl.

“Hi,” Anakin says.

The prisoner puffs up his defined arm muscles, as well as he can when he’s still hanging off the frame of his bed. He must have decided that dropping down onto his torso—and probably his face—would be even less dignified, though, because he stays put, sweaty and glowering out at Anakin from under his armpit, like he’s desperately trying to look threatening and tough in an unfamiliar situation where the other person has all the power.

It’s a scene Anakin has known intimately for most of his life.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” Anakin says.

A beat.

Right.

“The Jedi didn’t send me,” because in his situation that’s what Anakin would most like to know. The Jedi are not this guy’s slave masters, but they do have all the power over him right now.

“I was a slave too, before they took me here. You can trust me,” and at least that gets a reaction: the prisoner looks absolutely apoplectic and even opens his mouth. Finally! He’s angry, which isn’t ideal—Anakin should have remembered that some slaves don’t want to admit they are—but they’re talking!

But the Sith just closes his mouth again.

He keeps his sullen silence for what feels like hours while Anakin tries one conversational gambit after the other. He just can’t have blown his one chance at talking to someone whose mouth makes the right shape for Master. Anakin refuses to accept that.

But it grows later and later, and Master Obi-Wan will wake up at some point, and he doesn’t have to concede defeat for forever, after all, but maybe for today…

“Fine.” Anakin puffs out his chest. He should say something soothing that’ll buy him a foot in the door next time, but he’s been pleading and pleading, and it hurts. “I don’t even care if you don’t want to talk. I’ve got plenty of friends. Chancellor Palpatine asked me to come over for tea just yesterday!”

The voice is so threadbare that he almost misses it, but it’s there. The Sith clears his throat. He sounds more sure and velvety when he repeats his plea to Anakin. His golden eyes are so wide it looks painful.

“Wait! Repeat what you just said!”

Anakin is nineteen when he climbs down into the bowels of the Temple for the last time. He hasn’t slept for two days, barely even closed his eyes, because on the insides of his lids is his mother, writhing, pleading.

No-one up in the Temple can give him any help. All they have to offer is platitudes about Uncertain the future is and Let go of attachment you must, but it’s his Mom, and she’s being tortured! She’s dying! She can’t be dying! She’s Anakin’s Mom!

He’s pleaded to be sent to Tatooine on a mission, but Senator Amidala’s protection detail is more important Master Obi-Wan said, and he can’t just go against the will of his… He can’t go. His Mom’s dying every moment he closes his eyes and he can’t go.

Maul is his last hope.

No-one will even notice that Maul’s gone. He’s been locked up for a decade now, and only the meal droids and Anakin still climb down to his level. Anakin’s friends with the meal droids, too, and he can definitely talk them into keeping silent about the Sith prisoner’s disappearance.

Maul’s a fighter, and he was able to find them on Tatooine and follow them to Naboo so he must be able to find Anakin’s Mom, too, wherever she’s been dragged off to. He’ll be able to save her.

He’ll—

Anakin has already sliced the force trellis control panel and turned it off when the fear grabs him. He’s spilled all his nightmares of his mother’s death, has shared the only plan for her survival. He’s received the assent he was sure to get. Now, he’s helping Maul put on the smuggled prosthetics that have been hidden in the stuffing of Maul’s prison berth, kneeling down before him.

And suddenly, all he tastes in the air is raw hatred.

He flinches. The trellis must have functioned as a shield from Maul’s presence before, keeping Anakin from realizing the true depth of Maul’s anger, the extent of his strength.

He could kill Anakin right now. He could attack the temple, and it would all be Anakin’s fault.

The frailty and humiliations of the prisoner’s mutilated body have lulled Anakin into reacting with kindness. He’s seen a man who is weak, helpless, and of course he offered help.

The cadence of Maul’s voice has made him sound like a friend.

But he’s the Sith who slaughtered Master Qui-Gon.

He’s filled to the brim with hatred and jealousy and pain, the force around them screams, will never release them to meditation like Anakin has tried and tried to do; he’s everything the Jedi Council saw in Anakin that day a decade ago and that he’s tried so hard to bury. He’s a Sith.

He’s warm.

It’s not just the hand he rests on Anakin’s shoulder but the very air he expels. Anakin expected the dark side of the force to be frigid, the way his own loathing and terror have kept him shivering and cold, but this is a hearth: protection, purification, an almost magnetic pull. It wraps around them. He shudders again.

“Do not be afraid,” Maul says, and from the soft look in his eyes he has misunderstood completely. “I shall find your mother, apprentice. You will do admirably while I’m gone. Just remember everything I taught you.”

And then, the darkness curls around Anakin again, hot and possessive. “While I’m gone, don’t talk to Palpatine.”

Anakin is twenty-three when he decides to brutally murder the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. His wife is laying in the delivery room, holding the boy twin—holding their baby boy!—while he strokes her hair reverently, and there is his Mom beside him, holding the girl twin—holding their baby girl!—and next to the door, scowling, stands Maul.

“Do you want to hold her?” Mom asks Maul gently. She knows him best now, and if she decides Maul’s standoffishness towards the twins—his twins!—is shyness rather than dislike, then Anakin will forgive him for not cooing over the babies—his kids! His and Padmé’s kids!—like any rational person would.

“Even His patience runs out one day,” Maul whispers.

Anakin’s hairs curl in shocked recognition, and he doesn’t even need to hear the word, but—

“I told you, Shmi, he started talking to Anakin as soon as he arrived. Somehow I managed to keep them apart, to interfere with the attempts at molding him, but the very fact He showed interest must warn us… As soon as he learns of this birth, and His spies are everywhere…” Maul turns back towards the door, palms laid across it as if he could keep the gate shut. The force burns with shielding hatred. “My Master will come for your children. Soon. Palpatine likes them young.”

#anakin skywalker #darth maul #dimtraces makes things

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sanjisock · 3 years ago

Text

more than words

50 words; 50 sentences

ao3

#01 - Motion

A spinning kick, a swing of blade — the two meet and hit but don’t hurt, and Nami sighs exasperatedly at such a pathetic display of a mating dance.

#02 - Cool

Zoro stands his ground as his enemy — finally, finally — falls unceremoniously on his back, unconscious, and Sanji thinks for a moment that the sight of Zoro — wild and victorious and ready to take on the world — looks kind of, maybe, slightly cool.

#03 - Young

Brook sees the two — dying to die for each other, the weight of their friends’ lives pulling down their shoulders — and he thinks too many people forget how young they still are.

#04 - Last

The Cook is the last person Zoro would consider lending a hand in a fight — “who would want to work together with that dumbass anyway,” he lies whenever anyone asks, and doesn’t admit that it’s because he trusts Sanji’s ability to stand his ground, wholly and fully.

#05 - Wrong

Sanji knows Zoro, like him, understands better than most — that this nakama thing isn’t just something you’d die for, but something you’d kill for, too.

#06 - Gentle

Sanji manages to catch Kitetsu before it rolls off from the deck during a storm, and in that moment, Zoro knows, from the reverent way he regards the swords in his hands, that this isn’t the first time the Cook has wielded one.

#07 - One

“Calm down, Marimo,” Sanji says with a dismissive wave of his hand when Zoro asks about the sword a few days later, “I’m not about to take your place as the ship’s swordsman; a cook doesn’t use his hands to fight, and I had a terrible teacher anyways.”

#08 - Thousand

“I’m worth two thousand men,” Zoro grumpily says, almost sulking, and Nami can’t resist patting his head like she would to a little boy pulling the pigtail of a girl he has a crush on.

#09 - King

You’re like the prince of Dumbass Kingdom, Zoro says, and it takes Sanji everything in him not to blurt out, Dumbass Kingdom sounds about right; wait ‘till you see the fucking king.

#10 - Learn

Watching Sanji converse fluently with a couple of tourists in a Northern language, Zoro wonders when he will ever stop learning something new about Sanji — or if he ever will, at all.

#11 - Blur

When Zoro finally comes to, the wounds from Bartholomeow Kuma is muted by Chopper’s medicine, a dull throb at the back of his consciousness; but the sharp pain against his heart feels raw still, visceral and razor-sharp, tucked alongside the ache of Sanji’s sacrifice.

#12 - Wait

“Wait,” he manages to croak out before Sanji flees the room, the word spilling out unbidden; he isn’t quite sure why, but he knows that he wants the Cook to stay.

#13 - Change

“Have some fucking decency ,” Sanji yells, throwing a shirt at Zoro’s direction; the brute has been walking around the ship bare-chested like an eyesore ever since they entered the summer island, and Sanji is just trying to do everyone a favor — and definitely not because there’s a different kind of heat pooling at the pit of his stomach.

#14 - Command

Robin watches the two in amusement — Zoro could have easily refused to be Sanji’s pack mule, and she can hear him grumbling about it still; and yet, here they are, once again, together at the island’s marketplace.

#15 - Hold

Sanji is rough around the edges, bristling at the slightest touch; Zoro knows he needs to be gentle, but he doesn’t quite remember the last time he held something that isn’t a hilt of a sword, without meaning to hurt . It’s a learning curve.

#16 - Need

Sanji knows Zoro is a dumbass, but it takes a special kind of stupid to think he would never be good enough for Sanji, when he’s all that Sanji has ever needed.

#17 - Vision

Zoro never regrets losing his eye, but he wishes, sometimes, he could still take in the sight of Sanji with an unimpaired vision, just to see more of him.

#18 - Attention

“You’re starting a fight, Marimo?” Sanji growls, voice low and dangerous, and Zoro thinks, yes, yes, anything to get you to look at me.

#19 - Soul

He loves the kid like a brother, but sometimes Zoro hates how Luffy can easily see past his gruff words and feigned ignorance; the way Luffy only needs to take one look at him to guess, “you’re worried about Sanji, aren’t you?”

#20 - Picture

He carries around everyone’s bounty posters, Sanji tells himself, and tries not to think too hard about how the only one he kept in his breast pocket is Zoro’s, folded neatly against his heart.

#21 - Fool

“This is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done so far,” Sanji says when they part, lips still tingling from their earlier kiss, because Zoro’s love is fierce and consuming and Sanji knows, ever since he was just a kid with the iron mask, that he doesn’t deserve any of this.

#22 - Mad

“Don’t you ever say that kind of shit again,” Zoro snarls, slamming the wall beside Sanji’s head, his voice trembling with a kind of anger Sanji has never seen him with before — frustrated, desperate. “You’re important to me, Cook.”

#23 - Child

Grow up and cast your dreams away, Sanji tells himself every day, the voice ringing in his ears; you stopped being a child deserving of a dream the moment you chained Zeff down to the ground.

#24 - Now

Grow up and cast your dreams away, Sanji wants to tell himself, but the voice stutters, drowned out by the sight of the kid bleeding on the deck of Baratie — he’s a swordsman, too, acknowledged by none other than Dracule Mihawk himself — but a kid still, throwing himself headfirst towards the case of his dreams, steps unweighted by regrets.

#25 - Shadow

Zoro doesn’t know which is worse — Sanji, forever running away from the shadow his brothers cast; or Zoro, chasing after someone who is no longer around to leave behind a shadow anymore.

#26 - Goodbye

After Whole Cake Island, there’s a period of time where Zoro would follow Sanji around the ship like a lost puppy, unwilling to let the Cook out of his sight; Usopp definitely didn’t expect Zoro to have such a cute side, and crouches over his new invention to hide his smile.

#27 - Hide

“We’re not doing that here,” Sanji hisses, and forces himself not to laugh at the pout on Zoro’s face; the galley might be secluded enough, but they’re still on the enemy ship’s galley.

#28 - Fortune

It is annoying, the way Sanji keeps reminding Zoro that he could have collected Mihawk’s bounty and lived the rest of his life in wealth; especially when Zoro would trade any riches in the world just to stay by the Cook’s side.

#29 - Safe

It catches Zoro off guard when Sanji starts talking about his mother; it’s a short anecdote, a single happy memory, but Zoro can tell by the way Sanji tells it — guarded and hesitant, like he wants to keep the words close and safe — that he has never shared it with anyone else before.

#30 - Ghost

Usopp starts shaking like a leaf as soon as they enter the abandoned, dilapidated house, and Sanji gently tells him, sometimes the worst ghost is the one you create yourself; Zoro feels the weight of Wado on his hip, and agrees.

#31 - Book

“I don’t need this,” Zoro grumbles with a blush, pushing the book back into Nami’s hands, trying hard to ignore Nami’s laughter and the words ROMANCE FOR DUMMIES emblazoned on the book’s jacket.

#32 - Eye

Shusui sinks into the man’s stomach, all the way to the hilt, and Zoro thinks of the way Sanji curled into himself as the man landed a lucky hit on the cook’s hand. An eye for an eye.

#33 - Never

“This is my first time,” Zoro whispers, head ducking away as he feels his face flush at the admission; but Sanji’s hand rests on his cheek, encouraging, and he can feel the curve of Sanji’s smile as their lips meet and Sanji replies, “it’s mine, too.”

#34 - Sing

Luffy cheers when Zoro and Sanji comes into view, and he lets them take on the next batch of enemies; a good fight is always fun, but watching Zoro and Sanji fight is even more so — like watching a dance that only those two know the melody to.

#35 - Sudden

“What, are we supposed to be surprised?” Nami says, barely looking up from the map she’s working on; Sanji sputters, face redder than the tomatoes he served during breakfast, and Nami feels almost bad for him.

#36 - Stop

“But we — Zoro and I — how did you know?” Sanji asks, and promptly stops asking questions when he realizes the rest of the crew aren’t surprised either; who could blame them, when his and Zoro’s sexual tension can be seen from a mile away.

#37 - Time

Sanji knows they have to break apart soon, just to breathe, but right now all he cares about is to taste as much of Zoro as possible — he has waited two years for this, and it has been two years too long.

#38 - Wash

They have their fair share of fighting — and how, considering the amount of repairs Usopp has to do for Merry just from their petty fights alone — but what the crew doesn’t know is that they also have this thing, this quiet thing, just him and the Cook and a stack of dirty plates between them.

#39 - Torn

“In retrospect,” Robin observes, “dressing up our dear cook in a maid uniform would not only lower the enemy’s firepower, but also ours, considering how distracted our swordsman has clearly become.”

#40 - History

“Why do you keep him around, mister?” The kid asks, pointing at the old swordsman with three swords and an eye scar by the peer; Sanji laughs, pats the kid on the head, and says, almost wistfully — “you can say we have some history.”

#41 - Power

Sanji tugs at Zoro’s sleeve, and Zoro follows suit despite his complaints — Sanji thinks, distantly, how much of an honor it is, to have so much control over such a powerful man.

#42 - Bother

“I didn’t have enough time to make this three-tier ice cream cake for our lovely Nami-san and Robin-chan because you distracted me!” Sanji says with a hard jab of a finger against Zoro’s chest, and Zoro thinks, good .

#43 - God

Zoro does not believe in gods, but there’s a hymn of a noise when Zoro presses his lips against the crook of Sanji’s neck, the hallelujah of the world breaking apart as their bodies move together, and he thinks, close enough .

#44 - Wall

Zoro slams his fist into the wall of Polar Tang, and is taken aback by the depth of his own frustration; he knows Luffy and the others will get Sanji back from Big Mom’s place, but it unsettles him still, the way Sanji hides himself under layers of pretenses when Zoro has bared so much of himself to the Cook in return.

#45 - Naked

“What the fuck was that for , Mosshead?!” Sanji shrieks, justifiably furious, leg raised and on fire after Zoro sliced his tray into two without preamble; Zoro can’t exactly tell the Cook he did it because he was too surprised at the sight of Sanji in a swimming trunk and nothing else.

#46 - Drive

Why Zoro , people sometimes ask, but the answer is easy to Sanji — nobody drives him crazy the way Zoro does, and is that not what true love feels like?

#47 - Harm

Zoro knows Sanji will be furious ; but as he faces Kuma, knowing at least the Cook is out of harm’s way, he knows he would do this a hundred times over, a thousand times over, a million times over.

#48 - Precious

Sanji is sitting by the corner of the infirmary, face pale with red-rimmed eyes, and Zoro thinks he’s never had that, before — people who would weep for him, knowing that he is more than dried scars and calloused skin.

#49 - Hunger

This thing we have is dangerous, Sanji tells him, but Zoro doesn’t care — he already has a craving, the same way he needs a booze when it’s been too long, except he thinks that this vice will surely kill him.

#50 - Believe

This isn’t faith; this is the truth, Zoro’s truth, the same way he knows he will become the Greatest — Sanji will find that elusive sea of his, and Zoro will stay with him until it is the last thing he can do.

#opfanfic #zosan #roronoa zoro #sanji #one piece

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whatisalifeihaveablog · 3 years ago

Text

Like Real People Do

Ship: Jiang Cheng/Wen Ning Rating: T Summary: This is an expansion upon/continuation of 'Warmth', a drabble I posted in June where Wen Ning and Jiang Wanyin have begun to spend their nights together. It isn't necessary to read that to understand this but it is only 100 words, so why not?

AO3 link

If Wen Ning had any circulation to be cut off, he's quite certain his arm would be asleep right now with the way Jiang Wanyin was sleeping on it. He squeezed his hand into a fist and opened it again as if it had and he needed to get the blood flowing. If he were being honest, this was not very comfortable. Wanyin had been laying on his chest before, that was comfortable, but then he had to roll over and pin Wen Ning's arm to the bed. He wanted to move. There was no real reason to move, it's not like staying like this was going to hurt him, so he looked over at the man causing the dilemma and sighed, deciding it wasn't worth potentially waking him.

It was nearly morning anyway so he wouldn't have to wait too long, there was no way this arrangement of theirs was going to be completely comfortable for him all of the time anyway. When it first happened nearly three months ago he never expected it to become a nightly routine. The two of them often found themselves in the same places and while they made a valiant attempt to ignore each other completely, they had too many shared connections in this world and those connections were determined to bring them together. The first time they talked, really had a conversation, was the night Wei Wuxian got married. Wanyin was feeling melancholic and happened to find the same spot in the Cloud Recesses Wen Ning always went to be alone. It didn't take long to figure out he was extremely drunk. In retrospect that was probably the only reason why the conversation happened, it probably didn't even matter who he was talking to, but Wen Ning felt honored to be trusted with the feelings Wanyin voiced that night.

That was also the first night they slept together. Or, Wanyin slept and Wen Ning held him. It was nice, Sandu Shengshou wanting to be held was a surprise and Wen Ning was sure he was going to be yelled at and kicked out in the morning, but Wanyin was warm and it felt nice to be with another person and to have a physical connection. On the other hand he was also filled with anxiety, fully expecting things to turn bad. But the morning came and Jiang Wanyin opened his eyes and though it was covered quickly Wen Ning was sure he saw something like relief in them.

"You're still here." Wanyin said in a groggy, still halfway asleep kind of voice.

It wasn't angry or an accusation like Wen Ning would have expected so he just nodded, gave an awkward smile and said "I'm still here."

A month after that Wen Ning accompanied Wei Wuxian to Lotus Pier and it happened again. Only this time Jiang Wanyin wasn't drunk, and Wen Ning stayed. His excuse was that he wanted to stay with Sizhui, who was staying with Jin Ling, who was here. But then a week passed and Sizhui left and he stayed and there were no more excuses. It was odd. It was sudden. And was still odd if he thought about it for too long. They never talked about that first night after it happened and they never talked about these nights here. It almost felt as if speaking about it would break the spell. All of the progress they have made interacting peacefully, or as peacefully as possible with someone like Jiang Wanyin, would shatter and he would be hated again and he would be forced to leave Lotus Pier. These nights of warmth would end.

So Wen Ning just seemed to be living here for the last two months and no one knew why and since the clan leader said nothing, neither did anyone else. There was one exception, Wei Wuxian knew why now. It was about a week ago when Wei Wuxian showed up suddenly to Yunmeng and decided on a whim to enter Lotus Pier in the middle of the night and surprise his brother by barging into his room to announce his arrival. He was most likely treating it like some sort of prank, expecting to be yelled at in a way he found entertaining. What he was not expecting was to find Wen Ning in his brother's bed. Wei Wuxian froze and stared for a moment, giving Wanyin enough time to wake up and process what just happened, and then burst out laughing.

"Shit, I'm so sorry" Wei Wuxian choked out in between laughs, "I shouldn't laugh, I shouldn't, sorry!"

Still laughing of course.

"GET OUT!" Jiang Wanyin looked ready to kill someone and might have acted on that if Wei Wuxian hadn't nodded and left, managing to hold what was left of his laughter in

Wanyin avoided the both of them the next day and Wen Ning was scared, more scared than he had been prepared to be, that it was over now. Wei Wuxian promised not to tell, but did want to talk to Wen Ning about it. That conversation was excruciating.

"Jiang Cheng can be intense and I know you're both lonely but I just want to make sure this isn't hurting you. Either of you" Wei Wuxian said, sincerity mostly replacing his amusement

Wen Ning was mortified, talking too quickly and stuttering as a result, "Wei-gongzi, please, this isn't what you're thinking!" He managed to get out, "It's just something that happened and it's just sleeping. Nothing else! It's just-"

"Just what?" Wei Wuxian asked.

Wen Ning didn't know how to answer. It was a good question. What the hell was this?

"I don't know what. I do know I don't want it to stop. I know we've been getting along much better-"

That made Wei Wuxian suddenly laugh again, "I would hope so! He's letting you in his bed with him every night, he definitely likes you now."

"I don't know about that" Wen Ning argued, "We argue, he yells all of the time."

"Jiang Cheng yells to express his affection" Wei Wuxian smiled.

"He yells to express everything."

That got another loud laugh before Wei Wuxian leaned forward, grabbed his hands, and when their eyes met he could still see some amusement there "Ah, Wen Ning, don't be stupid like me, okay?"

Wen Ning did not have the slightest idea what he meant by that but looking over at Wanyin sleeping soundly crushing his arm, he knew he couldn't bring himself to move. And it wasn't for convenience, it was because Wanyin slept so soundly. It was because he was the only person who ever got to see Wanyin like this and he wasn't going to give up a moment of it.

What were they doing?

What the hell were they doing?

What the hell was he doing?

A groan and some shifting next to him told him this night was over. Wanyin turned back toward him and sat up slowly. This was...different? Wanyin stared at him for far longer than was comfortable with a contemplative expression.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked, direct as ever even this early.

Wen Ning blinked, "What?"

"Don't 'what' me! You look like you're about to cry. What's wrong with you?" He shouted, brows furrowing as he became more frustrated.

Wen Ning took in a sharp breath. He hadn't realized he was letting his emotions show like that. He certainly did not want to have this talk right this second. He looked at Wanyin's face and thought about how immediately his features became much harder when he woke. He looked so much older this way. He looked angry but Wen Ning was slowly learning to see behind the anger. Once upon a time Wanyin's tone in his questioning would make Wen Ning shrink back and feel attacked but now he can hear the concern in it. Jiang Wanyin was worried about him. That realization hit him in a way he couldn't have seen coming and if he could cry he might have started.

"It's nothing." Wen Ning lied, "You've slept in some, get dressed and go have breakfast."

Wanyin stared at him for another agonizing second before deciding to let it go for the moment.

"Don't tell me what to do" He barked as he got up from the bed and began to get dressed.

Wen Ning smiled softly and only let it drop when Wanyin left the room. Not now. He couldn't have that conversation now. He couldn't risk breaking this.

"Don't be stupid like me, okay?"

Wen Ning groaned and let himself fall back on the bed as he suddenly realized what Wei Wuxian was talking about. He let himself fall in love without even realizing. He was so fucked. Their conversation implied Wei Wuxian believed Wanyin loved him back but there was no way he could know for sure. He wanted to call Wanyin back in and tell him everything he realized overnight. He wanted to run and hide and never see Wanyin again. He wanted to know how Wanyin felt. He absolutely did not want to know how Wanyin felt. He hated this. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before sitting back up and deciding to meditate. There was nothing he could do right now, so why was he panicking? Wanyin would be taking care of sect business most of the day and he would have time to collect his thoughts.

Despite his attempts not to worry, it started getting dark without Wen Ning realizing how much time had passed. He'd been hiding in Wanyin's room all day, knowing he wouldn't come back until dark, but now it was getting closer to the time he wouldn't be able to avoid. Talking to Wanyin. He looked around the room and took it all in just in case. Made sure he memorized every detail he could in case he was right all along and talking about it was going to ruin things. As prepared as he could be he stepped out of the room. It took some looking but he found Wanyin in a secluded area of Lotus Pier. A beautiful spot with a view of the water where they both sometimes went to enjoy the peace.

Not giving him a chance to turn back Wanyin looked over at him immediately, "Oh, so you're done avoiding me now?"

Wen Ning did flinch at that tone. He hadn't meant to hurt him but he remembered how it felt to be avoided the day Wei Wuxian found out and felt guilt set in.

"I'm sorry" Wen Ning started, "I've been thinking about things, we should talk"

Wanyin visibly steeled himself, "About what?"

Wen Ning took a deep breath, "Wanyin, what are we doing?"

Silence. Definitely not the worst answer he could have gotten but it did nothing to quell his anxieties. He took several steps closer so that they were standing face to face. From here he could see clearly he wasn't alone in that anxiety. He guessed Wanyin wanted to scream right now since that was how he usually dealt with things and Wen Ning felt grateful he wasn't doing that now.

"Wei Wuxian freaked you out, didn't he?" Wanyin was gritting his teeth, holding something in Wen Ning couldn't place, "No one is forcing you to be here. You can just go if you want."

"Do you want me to go?" Wen Ning said with a shaky breath, taking another step closer.

"Why would I care?"

But Wen Ning could see it. Behind the clenched jaw, and the frown, and the angry furrow of his brows, he was just as afraid as Wen Ning had been. Maybe he would never understand how this started, why Wanyin wanted him here, but he was here now and had no intention of leaving. Wanyin was fooling no one by saying he didn't care and it was time to call his bluff. Wen Ning let the silence go on as he built up his nerve and closed the distance between them, bringing their lips together softly at first to give Wanyin a chance to back out but kissing him fully when he did not. He cupped Wanyin's face in his hands and pulled him in deeper, smiling lightly when he felt Wanyin's hands flail a bit, not seeming to be able to decide where to land. He settled for holding on to Wen Ning's arms.

It was awkward and brief and the most thrilling experience Wen Ning had ever had. He had never kissed anyone before. When they pulled back his head was spinning and all he wanted was to go back for more.

"I'm staying right here."

They fell into bed that night still kissing and letting their hands explore. Wen Ning kissed from Wanyin's mouth to his jaw, and relished in the gasp Wanyin gave when he got to his neck. He was sure he could do this forever, the rest of their talk could wait. They eventually had to roll back over, Wanyin laying on his chest slowly falling asleep. Wen Ning held him firm and watched his breath even out, closing his eyes and letting his own breath sync with it and it almost felt like sleep. He could feel Wanyin's heartbeat on his chest, he could feel the ghost of Wanyins lips on his, and now more than ever, he felt warm.

#sarah writes #chengning #ningcheng #jiang cheng #wen ning #mo dao zu shi #i cannot begin to express how much anxiety posting this is giving me lmao

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thevindicativevordan · 3 years ago

Note

Any thoughts on Grant Morrison's Action Comics run? Beyond T shirt-and-jeans Superman being great.

That whole run reinvigorated my love of the character.

There have been numerous thoughtpieces about New 52 Superman, how he worked and how he didn't but these two entries really do a great job of summing up why Morrison's take on Superman was great. Morrison laid the foundation for a new generational Superman that DC completely fucked up and ran into the ground. I'll always be bitter about that, even if I had tapped out of reading the New 52 Superman books by the end due to how bad they got. Editorial and their idiotic mandates were what screwed over the potential of this take in my eyes.

Now I get that it wasn't to everyone's taste, but I cannot fathom how anyone could ever claim that Pre-Flashpoint Superman was better. If you liked Byrne's reboot better, your guy already got rebooted after Infinite Crisis. For someone like me who really enjoyed the Johns/Busiek era, that era's potential got spoiled after Johns & Busiek left, with New Krypton imploding and the awful Grounded taking it's place. When you get to the point where the best Superman book is the one starring Lex Luthor, it's time to reassess the franchise and figure out where the hell it went wrong.

Which is exactly what Morrison did. For this new Superman, Morrison mined all the best ideas of every Superman era to really give what I consider the ideal "base" for Superman. They also took pains to address common criticisms about Superman, working to correct his pop culture image. People have been complaining that Superman is "too perfect", "too unrelatable" for a long time, so Morrison addressed that. They gave Superman his balls back, and let him reacquire that Golden Age edge he had originally.

There are a lot of complaints you can make about Morrison's Superman, but I don't see how you could accuse this guy of being "flawless" or "bland". He definitely had a personality that you could describe, love him or hate him. Compassionate, but not a pushover. Clearly holding himself back, but unafraid to occasionally let loose. Flaws that were patently obvious, Clark had a temper here that could get him into trouble. There was a real showcase of anger here, of Superman being furious at the way people were treated by the rich and powerful, then doing something about it that I ate up.

I read this run just as I was coming into my teens and it hit perfectly for where I was in life. Did not want a Superman who would smile and tell me it gets better, I wanted a Superman who looked you in the eye and told you he felt that same anger, and then encouraged you to go out and do something about how you felt. That was what this run delivered in spades, and it expanded what I believed could be done with Superman.

While it totally blew my mind to see Superman acting this way the first time I read Morrison's Action Comics run, in retrospect it really isn't that different from how Superman has acted even under Byrne. One of the few traits I've seen carry across Superman incarnations in the comics is that he has a temper underneath that affable nature. "Don't tug on Superman's cape" as the old song goes. This run simply elevated that to the forefront of the character again, for the better in my eyes given I believe "Wrath" is Superman's Deadly Sin.

In fact, one of the strongest features of this run is that Superman gets actual character development over the course of the run, analogous to what Batman underwent in Morrison's Bat-Epic. While the Bat-Epic was merely Morrison re-canonizing Batman's entire history, and applying a retroactive character development storyline that culminated in Morrison's current Batman work, their Action Comics run had them attempt to craft something similar for Superman from scratch. What that meant was Morrison attempting to draw on the most important traits of every Superman era and incorporate those into this new take. So Superman had the Golden Age temper, compassion for the oppressed, and cockiness. The Silver Age supergenuis, proud scion of Krypton who cherished his Kryptonian nature, member of the Legion of Superheroes, and participant in stories that weren't afraid to get weird. Superman's wrestling with his place in the world, the importance of Clark Kent, and making journalism a key part of the character strike me as all being hallmarks of the Bronze Age. From Post-Crisis we got that Clark views himself as human and loves his adopted parents, considering them as equal to his birth ones.

One of the big frustrations for me with the endless origin stories for Superman, is that so many of them follow a predictable and stale formula where Clark puts on the suit and is essentially ready to go. Doesn't interfere with human affairs, is modest and humble, restrained in usage of his powers, it's like Clark has meta knowledge of what he "should" be, despite that he shouldn't have any foreknowledge of what a "superhero" should look like. He operates the same way at the start as he does in the modern day, and that's really boring to me. This Superman, because of the difference in powers and attitude, operated extremely different from his "present day" incarnation. Dangling Glenmorgan over the edge of a building isn't something a fully powered and mature Superman should do, but it works great to make his early days different and exciting to read about, it makes returning to that era something you can do different storytelling with. This run is the only time where I really cared that Superman is "supposed" to be the first superhero, because figuring out what that means here is a big part of how he develops.

We all know the common complaint that Superman is "too powerful" and that "nothing can hurt him" (funny how Thor never gets hit with those accusations), so Morrison made sure to show that this take on Superman could be beaten even if he could never be defeated. Events conspired to force Clark to use his brains as well as his powers to overcome the challenges in front of him.

Examples include him using his heat vision to fry Lex's equipment and escape the military, using his rocket ship to defeat Brainiac, and rallying the population of Metropolis to banish Vyndktvx. Not to say that Clark never used his brains before to win, but this run was very upfront and in your face about how important Clark's intellect is to triumphing over his foes. Can't take seriously the complaint that Superman is too overpowered when Morrison constantly showcased how even a very powerful Superman could get his shit wrecked by his Rogues.

Another example of Morrison addressing criticisms is Kryptonite. A lot of people poke fun at how convenient it is that pieces of Superman's homeworld follow him all the way to Earth. Isn't that a bit of an asspull? So Morrison made Kryptonite the power source of Superman's rocket, giving it a perfectly natural and believable reason both for it to end up on Earth, and for Lex & the military to get a hold of it since Pa Kent gave the military the rocket. That's still my preferred explanation for how Kryptonite ended up on Earth.

It also provides a better explanation for all the different Kryptonite variants. DC can handwave away the different types as a result of Lex experimenting or the different "forces" on Earth such as magic or the Speed Force or whatever creating the different variants. That to me is much more believable than Kryptonite travelling all across the galaxy yet still ending up on Earth somehow.

There have also been a lot of complaints about Superman's villains, and Morrison diligently set about reworking them. By far one of my favorite aspects of the run, was the villain revamps. Nimrod felt like a clean revamp of Terra-Man, making him into Superman's Kraven the Hunter struck me as a patently obvious route to go, wild no one has followed up on that or used him since. Metallo felt like a good synthesis of Johns take of him as an Anti-Superman weapon, and the sympathetic aspects of Corben's origin that are always there, I liked that Morrison didn't make him a total bastard before his transformation like Johns did. Brainiac got some sympathy added to him in that the collected worlds that were already marked for damnation, thus he was "saving" them in a fashion. Clay Ramses embodied toxicity as a wife-beater even before becoming Kryptonite Man, and I thought his backstory was a great way for Clark to still deal with "real" issues via a manner he could punch. Ramses is still the best take on Kryptonite Man. Vyndktvx felt like the greatest realization of the threat Mr. Mxyzptlk could pose should he decide to get serious since Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, plus I'm a sucker for stories where superheroes fight the Devil. Drekken and Superdoom took the only interesting aspects of Doomsday (his ability to evolve and that he can kill Superman respectively), and were much more interesting characters.

And oh my God, speaking of Superdoom, that part of Morrison's Action run has aged like fine wine. I don't know if they caught wind of DC's plans for the character, or if they were just prescient, but everything that Superdoom is playing on is still sadly all too present. What Superdoom is as a character is a condemnation of what DC keeps doing with Superman: killing him off or making him evil.

When you realize what Superdoom (demand for a more violent and "realistic" Superman) and Vyn (WB/DC) stand in for, it makes the frustration Morrison is channeling much more palpable. Those two plotlines are all DC can think of to do with the character, returning to those again and again. Endlessly attempting to recapture the high of Batman and Doomsday beating the shit out of Supes in The Dark Knight Returns and Death of Superman. Overcoming these two obstacles is Superman's greatest challenge as conceived by Morrison, because both are out to corrupt and ruin the very idea of him. It's not just a physical death he faces, but a metaphysical one as well. Sadly it's a threat Superman just can't seem to lick in the real world, with more and more takes on "Evil Superman" coming.

Lois and Jimmy are great here, because Morrison actually made the investigative journalism aspect of Superman important. Lois is an active participant in the story, trying to break in to the base where Clark is being held by her father, competing with Clark for stories (I love how Morrison writes the banter between the two of them), and generally being classic Lois. Jimmy though benefitted from being positioned as a peer rather than as a kid in comparison to the two, something I wish the comics had carried forward. It looks like My Adventures With Superman is going with that interpretation at least, so I hope others do as well. Jimmy being Clark's roommate really adds to their bond, and I wish we had gotten more stories with that status quo.

Investigative reporter Clark Kent was so actively used here that it feels jarring reading other Superman runs where they tend to downplay and ignore it. Following Clark as he travels to different areas of Metropolis and actually interacts with people, instead of hovering above them as Superman, makes him feel human. Watching Clark actively pursue stories aimed at bettering peoples livelihoods, and seeing how those stories crossed with the superheroics, was one of my favorite aspects of the run. It's one unfortunately few other writers seem all that interested in, especially the New 52 writers who followed Morrison (I know editorial probably bears a lot of blame for that though).

Besides all that, this run was a lot of fun! The Legion of Superheroes showed up, their connection to Clark restored, and they got to play a big role in Clark's adventures! Krypto the Superdog! Martian colonies! Memorizing all of medicine, Superman performs a lifesaving operation! Lex using a "bullet train" to knock Clark out! 5-D imps! Rampaging robots from beyond! A Phantom Zone Halloween story! John Henry Irons suits up as Steel and kicks ass alongside Clark! Every Superman Rogue teams up to try to kill him, but Lex Luthor saves his life because that's a privilege he reserves for himself! Showcasing their trademark love for the Supermythos, Morrison took us on a tour of Superlore that demonstrated the depth and width of what could be done with Superman. Meanwhile the backups by Sholly Fisch excelled at giving us smaller, more human stories about Superman (the one where Clark meets Pa again via time travel "after" Pa has died always gives me a lump in my throat to read).

Ultimately this didn't get to be the foundation for the next generation of Superman stories as it deserved. Johns made New 52 Superman the scapegoat in Doomsday Clock for a lot of storytelling choices he did over in Justice League, something that pisses me off to no end. You want to tell me that this guy "didn't relate" to people, didn't inspire "hope"?

Like hell he didn't. This guy was Superman in every way that mattered and he deserved better than to be framed as the scapegoat for all the stupid decisions DC made about what to do with him. Greg Pak was able to do some great work with this version after Morrison, and just like how Gene Yang got a redemption work starring Superman, I hope to one day see Pak return to the character. Would love to read a Black Label Superman story by Pak that follows his take on young Superman.

All wasn't lost however. Against all odds, and Rebirth trying it's damndest to sweep everything under the rug, it looks like parts of this era have actually survived to the current Infinite Frontier era. With Morrison being heavily involved no less, both as an ideas guy and as an actual writer.

Superman & the Authority is explicitly Superman coming full circle back to the attitude displayed by his young counterpart under Morrison. Janin has outright said that the costume Clark wears here is reminiscent of the t-shirt and jeans era of Superman, and this book so far feels saturated with an energy level from Morrison I haven't seen in their work for hire since they left Action. Reaching old age and realizing he never really delivered on the high ideals of his beginnings, it's Superman putting together a team to hopefully succeed where he couldn't alone. Scathing in how it criticizes the superhero status quo, this has been extremely entertaining to read. Wish Morrison was writing 12 issues with this team, and that ultimately it will be up to PKJ to deliver on the potential is a drawback (although I've loved PKJ's Action run so far), but I'm glad to see DC finally treating Morrison and their ideas with more respect than was shown during Rebirth.

Jon meanwhile feels like an even more explicit attempt at redoing New 52 Superman. There's the updated new suit, designed to appeal to a new generation with it's streamlined look. Positioning Jon as a Superman who wants to tackle the "real" issues, with Taylor explicitly comparing him to Golden Age Superman which as I mentioned was an era Morrison tried to reincorporate into their reboot. There's the Legion of Superheroes connection which played an important role in Morrison's reboot. The rumors about Jon's sexuality are interesting, hinting that DC is willing to go outside the box with him in a way they never would with Clark. I'm excited to see what kind of Superman Jon ends up becoming, if he can deliver on the promise of the New 52 Superman all the better.

This run deserves to be remembered and to have the lessons it tried to teach respected. Probably my favorite mainline run on Superman, I hope more people come around to liking it as time goes on.

#superman #grant morrison #action comics #new 52

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whatiwillsay · 4 years ago

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off topic - let’s talk about gaylena 👀

selena gomez is one of taylor’s oldest and bestest friends and given that she is in the 22 liner notes, a huge part of taylor’s life, and maybe fruity herself it seems like possibly we don’t talk about her here at the blog enough!

i don’t want to do a timeline of selena and taylor’s friendship - you can read more about that here, but they met back in the day when they were both dating jonas brothers and to me this idea of finding a real friendship in the midst of these contrived promances is pretty adorable.

ofc most of y’all think taylor is a fruit basket but i think there’s a good chance that selena is too! i’m not saying she is for sure but y’all know me. i’’m here to make a compelling case that everyone and their dog is gay so let’s gooooo!

Part I - At least one fake rs!

Selena “dated” Taylor Lautner in 2009 and he’s definitely gay. Of course, that doesn’t mean she is, it could just be PR, but y’all know I gotta note everything! We stan our fruity bffs dating the same gays 😍

Part II - Selena x cara delevingne

i feel like there’s a chance they met through taylor but everyone in that squad adjacent circle knows one another. cara dated michelle rodriguez for the first half of 2014 and then got with annie clark in March 2015 but it feels like it’s possible something has gone on between her and Selena from summer 2014 - early 2015? ...maybe something casual on and off a bit?

August 2014 - Steamy pics surface in Saint-Tropez, France

Selena and and a freshly single Cara vacation together in part to celebrate Selena’s 22nd birthday.

They party together and look cozy!

Pictures such as this surface and spark rumors around the two:

Selena apparently loves the rumors and gushes about being shipped with Cara.

Quote:

You say Selena drag queens were the true measure of success for you. But isn’t it true that you’re not truly famous until you’ve been the subject of a gay rumor? And last year, the tabloids had a field day with photos of you and Cara Delevingne. I’ve made it!

How did you react to those rumors? Honestly, I loved it. I didn’t mind it. Especially because they weren’t talking about other people in my life for once, which was wonderful. Honestly, though, she’s incredible and very open and she just makes me open. She’s so fun and she’s just extremely adventurous, and sometimes I just want that in my life, so I didn’t mind it. I loved it.

Notice she doesn’t deny them? Now of course she could just be being cool, if she freaked out about it that might be even weirder but hey, it’s still kind of interesting.

Then she admits to questioning her sexuality???

Have you ever questioned your sexuality? Oh, I think everybody does, no matter who they are. I do, yeah, of course. Absolutely. I think it’s healthy to gain a perspective on who you are deep down, question yourself and challenge yourself; it’s important to do that.

(Selena btw, this is cool and all, but not everybody questions their sexuality, maybe you’re just gay 👀)

November 1 - LACMA Art + Film Gala

they even left the event together 👀

and they hung out earlier that day as well:

They were seen the next day partying for Kendall Jenner’s bday singing to her:

a few weeks later Cara tweets Selena’s lyrics!

In December 2014 they are travelling together in texas:

in january 2015 they get cozy at the golden globes together!

and they leave together again:

January 19th/20th a bunch of gay nonsense happens

They post this gay shit with matching shoes and linked fingers:

then they say this to one another:

Enty says they were hooking up!

then we don’t get any more content that i can find for about six months! perhaps they had a fling from summer 2014-jan 2015 and then it ends, Cara gets with Annie in March? Then after half a year apart Selena and Cara resume a friendly relationship? Perhaps! Selena is seen with Justin a bit off and on during this time but this was in their Style/Heat Death Era imo (tbh i probably shouldn’t give a hetty pairing including Justin that designation 🤢but y’all get what I’m saying - it’s fully possible Selena was hooking up with both of them!

Now I’m not super familiar with Selena’s discography so y’all lmk if I’m missing anything major - lyric wise that point to her not being straight.

Selena’s album Revival that comes out after this relationship has a few songs with some vibes, even though I get the feeling a lot of it is probably about Justin, allow me to reach. The title track could be translated as someone coming to terms with their sexuality (among other things):

I feel like I've awakened lately The chains around me are finally breaking I've been under self-restoration I've become my own salvation Showing up, no more hiding, hiding The light inside me is bursting, shining It's my, my, my time to butterfly

Good for you, imo, is too sexy to be about a man even if it’s not super queer lyrically it’s a vibe ok?

Me & My Girls might be a bestie anthem a la 22 (oh wait, no 22 was gay too) but I mean...could be about a girl gang of lesbians too!

And if we want it, we take it If we need money, we make it Nobody knows if we fake it You like to watch while we shake it I know we're making you thirsty You want us all in the worst way But you don't understand I don't need a man

Quinn Fabray indeed!

Nobody feels probably like a retrospective on Justin 🙄but...there is a hint of sapphic craving in there! Saying this particular lover loves them differently than everyone is a bit 👀 plus this stanza:

No oxygen, can barely breathe My darkest sin, you've raised release And it's all because of you, all because of you And I don't know what it is, but you've pulled me in No one compares, could ever begin To love me like you do And I wouldn't want them to

Is Perfect about some bitch Justin started dating? Probably but bear with me here this song is actually pretty fucking gay. Gay enough that I’m gonna add it to one of my gay playlists. Could this song actually be about Cara moving on to Annie?

Ooh, and I bet she has it all Bet she's beautiful like you, like you And I bet she's got that touch Makes you fall in love, like you, like you

I can taste her lipstick and see her laying across your chest I can feel the distance every time you remember her fingertips Maybe I should be more like her Maybe I should be more like her I can taste her lipstick, it's like I'm kissing her, too And she's perfect And she's perfect

Part III - Selena x Julia Michaels

Julia Michaels is a singer/songwriter known for her song Issues. I don’t know her sexuality but she at the least has gay vibes! It seems they met around this time perhaps because Julia wrote on Revival.

They have a friendly enough friendship for a few years, liking one another’s posts on IG from time to time, posing for a photo a time or two and then they seem to get swept up into this very intense friendship in 2019. They write some music together and Julia goes whole hog in promoting the shoe brand Selena is hawking this time 😭

2019 - The Superior Sapphic Jelena Timeline:

It starts, for some reason with a lot of shoe promotion:

chill, chill

more shoes

but more gayness?

this homo shit

ok...

Then we go into the REALLY GAY NOVEMBER OF 2019:

Then they perform together:

And...actually kiss...on the mouth on stage???

Sure it’s just a peck but still...if that were a guy people would say they were dating.

Somehow kissing on the mouth isn’t the gayest thing these girls do over this period because these fucking dykes got matching tattoos. I’ve read enough Larry blogs to know this actually means they’re secretly married. All jokes aside this is fruity behavior.

From their IG stories:

Selena gets Julia a very nice christmas gift:

Covid sets in and content drops off but god damn! It’s possible they just had an intense friendship but if a man and a woman collabed on music together, kissed in public, and got matching tattoos everyone would say they were dating!

Selena, as far as I can find, didn’t have any public boyfriends around this time so who are some of these love songs about?

Rare comes out in January 2020 and perhaps has some gayish songs?

Don’t tell me why but boyfriend lowkey, has a gay vibe. Don’t ask me to explain it but it’s just the musicality of it.

Crowded Room could be a love song for Julia? (or by Julia for Selena, since they’re collaborators?)

Baby, it's just me and you Baby, it's just me and you Just us two Even in a crowded room Baby, it's just me and you, yeah

These are general gay vibes, our secret moments in a crowded room tease

It started polite, out on thin ice 'Til you came over to break it I threw you a line and you were mine

It would have started out polite between them, since they worked together for years before whatever 2019 was happened. And throwing someone a line first of all makes Selena sound like the aggressor but also “throwing someone a line” could be a reference to writing songs together.

Yeah, I was afraid, but you made it safe I guess that is our combination Said you feel lost, well, so do I So won't you call me in the morning? I think that you should call me in the morning If you feel the same, 'cause

Lots of people are afraid at the beginning of a gay rs. Treacherous tease 👀

In summation!

Selena does gay stuff like fantasizing ab kissing other women in her music, getting very touchy with famous dykes on vacay, hangs out with Taylor Swift, has chronic mental health issues, dated a jonas brother and a twilight gay, has admitted to questioning her sexuality, and loves being shipped with women. Is she gay? I don’t know! But all she’s missing from her celesbian bingo card is a suspiciously intense friendship with a Glee Cast member! What do you guys think? Selena fruity or just weird?

Edit to add: so apparently I missed an entire ship and Selena supposedly acted really gay all the time with her backup dancer Charity Baroni. Exposing SMG has posted a lot about all that.

Also Selena has been cast in a gay role! edit to add: @bisluthq went and found this for me - julia is indeed a fruit queen

#selena gomez #gaylena #taylena #gossip #cara delevingne #julia michaels #lesbian #sapphic #of interest #taylor's fruity friends

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wardenrainwall · 3 years ago

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Writing Tag Game

Tagged by @morganlefaye79 Thanks! This was a lot of fun!!

I shall tag... crap, uhm... @illusivesoul and @inky-does-art ? if you want and anyone else who wants to do this.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

63! Lots of one-shots.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

776,150

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Mercy

The Sarebaas and the Templar

Little Explosions of Hope

Mending All Things Broken

Secrets Kept

4. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Almost always! I am super appreciative of every comment I get, and usually I’ll go through and reply when I’m posting a new chapter (or if it is a 1 shot, I’ll do it within a day or so) but occasionally I just forget, then I feel guilty.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Now, this is a toss-up. I have written two fics with super tragic, angsty endings. One is Cadash/Blackwall An Abrupt End in which Rija Cadash dies after the final battle with Corypheus. Then the other is probably A Moment - A Lifetime which is Lavellan and Cullen and their happily ever after, except Cullen’s mind is going from the years of Lyrium use.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Hmm, happiest, I do usually try to end with good happy endings, so mostly that is what they are, but as for the best? I would say either Mercy or Little Explosions of Hope

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Nope, I never have :(

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I mean, that depends on the definition of hate. I’ve received some comments regarding my ability to write. Some comments about characters that were particularly nasty, that I felt was unjustified. (except when it was about Disaster!Evie, I wrote her intentionally to be loathed)

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Hell yes I do. Or at least, I used to. … The smutty kind? Lol. Graphic, filthy encounters, and sometimes soft and sweet and romantic ones.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that i know of!

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, I’m a sad basic american who only knows english, and no one has ever asked otherwise.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope, I’m terrible at that sort of thing. I can barely write my own fics, worrying about writing one with someone just stresses me out.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

That is a cruel, cruel question. Maybe a bit of a cop-out, but Blackwall x Anyone.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Probably With Her Lionheart, or Sal’Shiral Din’anshiral. I desperately want to finish them, but I dunno if it’ll ever happen.

15. What are your writing strengths?

First chapters and dialogue.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions and actions.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it adds to the story

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Heh heh heh uhm… Well, wrote but never shared with anyone, was a little General Hospital fic, but as far as stuff that I posted, that still exists out in the internets somewhere, would be Roswell.

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I’d say, either Breathe (Aella Adaar/Blackwall series) because it was the first fic that I ever wrote for DA, and rereading that series didn’t make me cringe, lol. Or, Little Explosions of Hope, that one is just so long, and I was really happy with how it turned out. I really enjoyed writing Wren, my angry, disabled, elven sex-worker who Cullen fell absolutely head over heels in love with. Sure there are plenty of flaws in the story, and stuff that I’m not so happy with in retrospect, but overall I really loved the slow build of the relationships and shifts and growing as characters.

#tagged #writer meme #about the writer #about the fics

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waterbearwaltz · 4 years ago

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Together, Apart

For @kataang-week‘s Kataang Valentine’s Bash 2021.

I swear I tried to write something happy for this, but tbh after this last year all that’s left in me is sadness and pornography. So that’s what I’ve got for you.

Prompt pair: Together and Apart

Summary: Katara and Aang deal with an outbreak of illness in the Earth Kingdom.

Rating: Explicit. | Word Count: ~10k | Ao3

Katara held her hands over the young girl’s chest, focusing the water’s energy into a living swirl of light. She felt chi swell where she held the water, and the skin flushed as blood followed suit. Shae breathed a bit faster, but didn’t stir. She was used to this now, they’d been at it for months. Slowly, Katara felt something like a well filling beneath her fingers, and a sudden rush as the energy began to flow again on its own, unimpeded by tissue that had been dying just an hour earlier.

This was so different from the healing she’d done during the war. Broken bones, burned skin, injuries that she could see and touch and understand. When she’d worked on Sokka’s broken leg, it was like the fragments of bone ached to join back together, they just needed a little push. It seemed so much easier, in retrospect. Then again, maybe those injuries had just been more spread out in time.

Katara sat back on her heels and let out a breath, slipping the water back into the bowl beside her. The sun was just dipping below the tree line, filling the makeshift hospital tent with warm orange light. Her eyes moved over the empty beds, it was the most deserted she’d seen the place since she arrived. An exhausted smile pulled at her lips. “I think that’s enough for today, Shae.”

The girl opened her eyes and shot Katara a mischievous grin. “Can I show you something, Yisheng?” she asked, using the colloquial term for healer in this part of the Earth Kingdom.

“Sure,” Katara replied with the same tired smile. Shae rolled off the mat and onto her feet, slipping out of the tent into the gathering night. Katara stood in the doorway and watched her young patient rock back on one foot and launch into a set of cartwheels with a breathless little shriek.

“Are you watching? Are you watching?”

Katara laughed. “I’m watching, Shae. Be careful though, you’ll tire yourself out!”

“No I won’t I’m completely--” Shae’s argument was cut off by a sharp fit of coughs, and she grasped her knees to steady herself. Katara rushed forward and slipped a steady arm around her.

“Come on, let’s get you home, your mom will be worried.”

Shae leaned on her as they walked, and when she spoke again her voice was breathy but excited. “You know what would help her worry less? if you tell her how much better I’m doing. I mean, if I can do six whole cartwheels I’m definitely healed enough to play with Sonna and Jai tomorrow, right?”

“I’ll talk to her meimei, but we still have a ways to go before you’re better.”

When they’d first arrived in Dei Shung, it was to help fly healers in from the north and distribute aid from the Fire Nation. The reports of illness and unrest in the town hadn’t prepared them for the devastation they found when they got there. Katara and Sokka got the healers set up while Aang and Toph met with the mayor about alleviating the panic that had gripped the town. They broke up frenzied mobs, bent makeshift shelters to replace buildings that had been destroyed, anything they could think of that might help restore order. Toph and a couple of her metal bending students got to work chasing off the bandits who were circling the town like vultures, picking off the weak as they fled.

Sokka was the first to take ill, just a few days after they arrived. For him it was fever, with a blotchy red rash creeping up from under the collar of his tunic. Katara caught it fast, thank the spirits, and sent him away along with anyone else who wasn’t essential. This wasn’t the manageable illness they’d been expecting to find, and it was just too dangerous to have anyone exposed to who didn’t need to be. She tried to send Aang with them, but it was pointless.

“If I was staying, would you leave?” he asked. They both knew the answer to that. His expression was soft, but Katara had learned the subtle signs of his resolve. The slightly furrowed brow, the edge of intensity to his gaze, his grip on her hand just a little bit tighter than it needed to be, as though she might try to physically force him onto the airship. For all the airbender in him, he’d learned to be immovable when he needed to be. So they stood together as the ship left the dock, ferrying their friends back to safety along with anyone healthy enough to pack up their lives and flee.

The next few weeks were a blur. Katara spent all day in the healing tents raking water along body after body, feeling like she was trying to keep an entire town from drowning. Sometimes she wondered if she was making any difference at all. At night Aang would settle behind her in their room, and they’d talk quietly about their days while he worked the knots out of her neck. The first time she lost a patient, she cried the whole night. The next day, she lost three more.

“Remember when you told me about the night Avatar Roku died?” she whispered into his neck one night after she was too exhausted to cry anymore. He pulled away just enough to look at her. Their bed was pushed up to the window and the night was clear and bright and she saw the glint of unshed tears in his eyes. He nodded, brushing hair from her damp face, brow tense with concern.

“This feels like that. Like fighting...I don’t know, a force of nature. It just keeps coming, Aang. I don’t know if I’m strong enough to stop it.”

“No one’s expecting you to stop it alone.” He kissed her forehead and fell quiet for a moment, considering. ”Do you want to leave? It’s ok if you do. I can stay behind or come with you, back to Ba Sing Se, or wherever you want to go.” Another pause, and then, more quietly, “I’m worried about what this is doing to you, Katara.”

She was deeply ashamed that this thought had already crossed her mind, a few days ago at the bedside of a young man about her age. He had broad shoulders and a deep laugh, and spent the first day cracking jokes with the healers and offering his help with the older patients. Then, all at once, it just ripped through him. By the time Katara got to him, there was nothing she could do. Her eyes began to sting again but she set her jaw and shook her head. “I can’t leave these people. Even if I can’t stop this, I have to try. They need every healer they can get.”

He pulled her against him, one arm tight around her back and the other cradling the back of her head. “I love you. And I’m here for you, whatever you need. We’ll get through this, I promise.”

“I love you too.”

About a month after they arrived, Amka, one of the older healers, got sick. They took turns caring for her amidst all the other patients. Her daughter, Nukka, worked on her the most. It was always fastest with the elderly. A quick funeral behind the hospital was all they could manage. Katara asked Nukka if she wanted to say a few words, but she was beyond speech. In the end, they all stood quietly around the grave before breaking off, a few at a time, to return to work. Katara stayed the longest, one hand rubbing Nukka’s back as she sobbed, the other gripping Aang’s so tight it hurt.

The next day she woke up to Aang shivering next to her in bed.

“No” a hoarse whisper tore out of her mouth. She could feel her heart pounding in every part of her body as she ripped the blankets off him and rolled him onto his back. He moaned groggily, fighting to wake up. Her breath quickened. He was usually up with the sun.

There were pins and needles in her hands as she ran them over his chest, arms, neck, checking for the telltale rash. She pushed him onto his side to check his back. Nothing.

“Katara, what are you doing?” his voice thick with sleep.

“This is not happening” she muttered, more to herself than him. One hand pulled the water from her satchel across the room while the other yanked him down the bed so she could straddle him more easily. It started in the lungs, if she could kill it there they’d have a chance.

“Katara!” He caught her wrists and the spirit water dropped, soaking them both. Her eyes snapped to his. He was wide awake now, alert and pale and a little panicked. Her heart was beating so hard it made her head spin and her skin feel raw.

“Fever,” she choked out, suddenly aware she was crying. “You have a fever, I have to--” she shook his hands off hers and pulled the water off the bed and out of their clothing, coaxing it back to a gentle glow.

“Katara, it’s ok, I feel fine. This might not even be--”

“I know exactly what it is” she spat, feeling the familiar blocked energies in his chest, the fluid pooling in his lungs. She couldn’t believe how stupid she’d been, she should have insisted he leave with Sokka and the others. She should have forced him, begged him, tricked him, anything to get him on that ship. Her vision blurred and she impatiently blinked away tears, struggling to keep her concentration. A barking sob came from somewhere, maybe her, and his hands were on hers again, bending the water into a bowl on the nightstand and gathering her toward him.

“No, Aang I have to--”

“I know Sweetie, just take a minute, please.” His voice was thin and had a pleading edge to it that just unnerved her more.

“There’s no time, I need to start before it spreads!” She had to stop to suck in air between words. She felt like she was fighting a battle and losing, struggling just to keep feet underneath her.

“We have a minute. Please Katara, you’re scaring me. Just breath. Please. For me.”

Katara wanted to argue but couldn’t find the air to get the words out. She tried to pull back but her limbs felt thick and numb and her muscles weren’t responding. Another of those barking sobs scraped out of her chest and he lifted himself against the headboard, tucking her against him and stroking her back, her hair, her arms.

“Try to breathe with me ok? In and out. Just match my breath. That’s it. Nice and slow.” Her cheek was pressed against his chest and she rose and fell with him as he breathed. No matter how much air she sucked in it felt like she was suffocating. She breathed anyway, matching his rhythm as well as she could manage. Bit by bit, feeling returned to her limbs, and the vice around her chest began to dissolve. His heart beat against her ear and she turned her face into it, trying to breath in his skin, tasting the sweat on his chest.

“I can’t lose you too,” she whispered into him. He kissed the top of her head.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he rumbled beneath her. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m the avatar. It’s pretty hard to kill me. Plus, the best healer in the world is totally in love with me, so I think I’m pretty safe.”

She heard the smile in his voice and felt a hot surge of anger. She pushed herself up enough to see his face.

“I couldn’t save Amka or Aia, or Sammi, or Lee’s twins, or--” she broke off, the dead stretching out before her. She didn’t even know all their names anymore. The anger left as quickly as it had come. She let her head drop back against his chest, as tired as she could ever remember being.

“I know. I know. This is a terrible tragedy. But you’re not a god, Sweetie. No one expects you to save every person who gets sick. But think of everyone you did save. Katara, how many people are alive right now because of you?”

They were quiet for a few minutes, breathing together on the bed. Finally, she reached up and kissed him softly. His face was hot under her hands. “Please. I need to start working on you now.”

“I know. Just take care of yourself too, ok? I’m going to be fine. I’m in good hands.” The way he looked at her with total trust twisted something in her chest. Her throat felt tight and she cleared it to push back the tears.

“Lay down.”

She worked through the day and well into the night. He slept fitfully for most of it as the fever crested and she fought to keep it at bay, to keep the sickness from settling deeper into him. She’d caught it early, she thought. He was muddled, but not incoherent. He couldn’t have been running a temperature for more than a few hours.

Moving over his prone form like this reminded Katara far too much of the weeks after Ba Sing Se fell, and she did her best to seal that thought tightly in the back of her mind. Coming undone again would only hurt him, he needed her calm, focused, and attentive.

He was larger than her now, more difficult to maneuver, but the ebb and flow of his energies felt the same. There was an intimacy here that never occurred to her with her other patients. She was reaching inside him, guiding the most basic systems in his body. Under different circumstances it might have been beautiful.

A day passed, maybe two. Katara grew more and more tired until she passed through tiredness altogether. Being immersed in the rhythms of someone else’s body for so long, it was easy to forget her own. Like after Ba Sing Se fell. No, not that. Here. This. Him.

Finally, when she’d done everything she could think of twice over, she paused, blinking blearily out the window at the rising sun. There was a cold bowl of soup on the nightstand. Someone must have brought it to her, but she couldn’t remember when. She checked Aang one last time and collapsed next to him, grateful for the darkness that swallowed her.

----

Continue on Ao3

#kataangvb #kataangtag #kataang #rating: nc17 #my fic #atla fanfic

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viola-ophelia · 4 years ago

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every song from taylor swift’s evermore as silmarillion ships, because i felt like this was something the world needed:

willow: this song, to me, sounds like nerdanel reminiscing about how naive and carefree she was at the beginning of her relationship with feanor-- and how, in a different world, things might have stayed that way for them. she’s speaking directly to feanor with lines like “life is a willow and it bent right to your wind.” the “wherever you stray, i’ll follow” refrain is very bittersweet because that’s definitely what nerdanel thought she’d do, but she ended up letting him go instead, and now she’s sitting here wondering how that could have happened and why she didn’t see it coming.

champagne problems: this one hurts, but to me, it feels like an interaction between maglor and someone he was dating (maybe a musician from tirion?) right before the feanorians leave for beleriand. his boyfriend has been planning this proposal out for a long time, but maglor has to say no because of the oath and the path he knows he’s going to go down. the “she would have made such a lovely bride, what a shame shes fucked in the head” line esp reminds me of that: he truly loves this person, but he knows he can never be who he deserves, and so he rejects him even though it breaks his heart.

gold rush: this is absolutely curufin/finrod. the gold/glitter/jewels symbolism and emphasis on material beauty immediately made me think of finrod, especially “what must it be like to grow up this beautiful” and “everybody wants you, everybody wonders what it would be like to love you.” he’s such an attention seeker and has this image of himself as a hero and the main character, & curufin is both irritated and entranced by how that makes him feel. the denial in this song is so emblematic of this ship for me-- especially “i don’t dare to dream about you anymore.”

tis the damn season: this is russingon, but it’s a mix of russingon before they admit theyre in love and are dancing around each other, & retrospective russingon wishing they could go back to that time bc it was so much simpler. the whole ‘going back to my hometown’ vibe definitely symbolizes that longing to return to valinor, before everything became so grim and serious and dangerous, back when their biggest problem was trying not to let their families find out about their love. i can imagine that fingon is talking to maedhros in the line “the only soul who can tell which smiles i’m faking.”

tolerate it: this reminds me so strongly of celegorm and curufin’s unhealthily codependent partnership before the second kinslaying, especially on celegorm’s end. the song is all about feeling like an unwanted shadow of someone you love, but celegorm can’t pull away despite recognizing how toxic that is, because he cares so much about curufin. the child vs. parent theme — “wait by the door like i’m just a kid, use my best colors for your portrait”— really reminds me of how curufin makes celegorm feel like the younger one even though he’s actually older. and the bridge, talking about how if celegorm wanted to, he could “break free and leave us in ruins, take this dagger in me and remove it,” is so heartbreaking because he ultimately can’t bring himself to do it. they’re gonna die together just like they lived together.

no body, no crime: this, to me, is a very celegorm/aredhel song and situation, but the catch is that it’s describing a fantasy of celegorm’s that never happens outside of his own mind. this is by far the most upbeat and aggressive song on the album, and i think that mirrors celegorm’s state of mind after he learns aredhel is dead: he’s slipping, battling the urge to track eol down and kill him, dealing with his grief by envisioning it as this dramatic whodunit murder story where he’s the victim and eol is the villain. and the “i ain’t letting up until the day i die” refrain is a reminder of how unstable his mental state is at this point, because he’s coming closer and closer to his own death. he knows deep down that killing eol won’t bring aredhel back, so it’s not eol who he really wants to die, it’s himself.

happiness: hear me out: this song is actually about THE OATH itself. the singer could be any of the feanorians making peace with the fact that the oath was never the path to happiness, but that they can still find redemption in the way forward. “past the blood and bruise, past the curses and cries, beyond the terror in the nightfall, haunted by the look in my eyes,” just reminds me so much of the psychological effects of the oath, making them feel like it’s their only choice, compelling them to do these awful things and then live with the consequences. but the “glorious sunrise” in the future is a reminder that they can still repent-- it all depends on their willingness to reach for the “green light of forgiveness.”

dorothea: this is finarfin in valinor, thinking about what he’d say to his family in beleriand if he got the chance. there’s a note of desperation in this song, where he pleads “it’s never too late to come back to my side” and wonders if they’re still the same souls he knew, but he ultimately knows he’s powerless to actually bring them back. he can’t do anything but watch from a distance, but he chose that fate and now has to live with it.

coney island: i could see this being halenthir. there’s this whole theme of not being able to stop time in this song, with the ambiance of just sitting there at a festival watching the merry-go-round turn and people rush by, and that reminds me a lot of how, obviously, there’s no preventing haleth from getting older and dying. you can feel caranthir’s guilt at not being able to be the ideal person for haleth: “will you forgive my soul when you’re too wise to trust me and too old to care?”

ivy: if tis the damn season is fingon talking about maedhros, this is maedhros talking about fingon-- except fingon is already dead. this is definitely a post-nirnaeth song— “the old widow goes to the stone every day, but i don’t, i just sit here and wait, grieving for the living.” i think the theme of a hidden affair in this song represents how russingon felt like they could never be open with their relationship until it was much too late. and there’s that desperate, angry bridge, both cursing the lost love and begging them to come back and heal things: “so yeah, it’s a war, it’s the goddamn fight of my life, and you started it.”

cowboy like me: this song gives me huge aro vibes, so obviously i’m gonna say it’s celegorm/aredhel. it’s about 2 people who didn’t want to be looking for love, people who are independent and fine on their own and thought they’d be okay with just wandering around doing their own thing, until they meet someone else who’s their same type of person. “eyes full of stars, hustling for the good life, never thought i’d meet you here” just makes me think about how their relationship, if it ever happened in canon, would totally be up to chance and luck, but it would have saved them both.

long story short: fourth age russingon! this is a cute song with a kind of bubbly tempo, but the lyrics are actually quite meaningful. “long story short, it was a bad time” definitely sums up the events of the silm in a, uh, concise way lol, but now maedhros is back to fingon & the fight is over, and that’s what matters. “no more keeping score, now i just keep you warm” is very reminiscent of new beginnings and coming home.

marjorie: this song really reminds me of curufin’s idolization of feanor. you can almost imagine that the lyrics are curufin imagining feanor giving him advice in his head as his mental health takes a turn prior to the second kinslaying. “if i didn’t know better, i’d think you were still around—“ he’s remembering all of feanor’s catchphrases and trying so hard to mold himself into the perfect image of his father, but he inherited all the bad parts of feanor as well as the good parts-- “all your closets of backlogged dreams and how you left them all to me.” there’s this delusional element to the song with the repetition of “what died didn’t stay dead,” almost hinting that curufin thinks feanor is still alive and living viscerally through him.

closure: feanerd again, in an au where feanor tries to reconcile with nerdanel after his time in the void and she turns him down. “guilty, guilty, reaching out across the sea that you put between you and me—“ he literally sailed across the sea away from her, leaving her alone for thousands of years, and she simply can’t forgive that. “it’s been a long time and seeing the shape of your name still spells out pain, it wasn’t right the way it all went down, looks like you know that now...” nerdanel acknowledges that feanor has repented, but she doesn’t need his closure.

evermore: and finally.... this is maglor wandering the shores in the third age. “i was catching my breath, barefoot in the wildest winter” and “i had a feeling that this pain would be for evermore” remind me of his hopeless mentality at this stage. he knows he can’t die and is cursed to live with his loss and guilt forever. there’s this circular, trapped feeling of depression in this song that really reminds me of just how perfectly cruel this punishment was for maglor.

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imnotoverlyobsessive · 4 years ago

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Mabel’s All-in-One Guide to Being a Shooting Star: How to Avoid Being Caught and Other Tips You Should Know

Chapter Three: Not Dipper

A big ol thank you to @edward-or-ford and @pacific-ship!

He’s so tall and handsome as hell; he’s so bad but he does it so well. I can see the end as it begins.- Taylor Swift, Wildest Dreams

Warmth.

Warmth and safety.

Those were the first things Mabel noticed when she woke up for those few brief seconds, the first things she could recall feeling. She was too tired to open her eyes, and her head was freaking killing her, but there was warmth seeping into her skin like melted butter into bread, and something smelled remarkably good.

It wasn’t a familiar smell, not by any means, but she found she liked it quite a lot. She turned her face towards the warm, smooth fabric the scent was coming from, nuzzling it happily with a small smile.

It didn’t help her killer headache, of course, but her bed or whatever it was, it smelled goooooood, and she was all for it.

She felt as if nothing could touch her, there in that little bubble of delicious-smelling warmth, and she wondered idly if Dipper was around, because she only ever felt so happy and safe when she was with him.

When had she seen him last, again? Mabel couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember anything, really.

Oh well. Whatever. She was warm. She was safe. She was comfortable. She was happy. She smiled again, just a little bit, as her thoughts faded when she lost consciousness again.

She would not be so content when she woke the second time.

———————————————————————

There was a throbbing in her skull. An intense kind, particularly in her temples and behind her eyes. It hurt worse when she opened her eyes, and it took them several rapid blinks to adjust to lights that were actually quite dim, but with her concussion headache, they seemed ridiculously bright against the blue ceiling.

“Yeesh,” she muttered, sitting up on the… was that a chaise? Yup, okay, that was definitely a chaise. She’d never even seen one in person; those things were for fancy people. Mabel had always been many things, but fancy most certainly wasn’t one of them.

Anyway, she was sitting up on the super-duper fancy chaise, her hands supporting her. “My head, what in the…” Dammit, her wrists and arms hurt, too, those were, ugh, were those rope marks? They sure looked like rope marks.

There was a sound nearby when she spoke loud enough to be heard, but Mabel’s head was throbbing so loudly in her ears that she couldn’t hear much of anything. She massaged the skin on her wrists, trying to get the soreness to dissipate. It didn’t.

And then the whole thing came rushing back.

Shit. Was she married to the gnomes now? Was that gonna be her life? No, no, it was fine, gnome marriage wasn’t legally binding, she didn’t think, and even if it was, it wasn’t legal for somebody to marry a whole bunch of people at once, and it definitely wasn’t legal for that somebody to be an unwilling participant. Therefore, any marriage contracts they may or may not have drawn up were null and void, legally speaking. Which meant she needed to escape. Which meant she needed to figure out where she was.

Wait, what about the blood-gnome? What was up with that? Or, shit, the floating glow-dude! What the heckity hecking heckfire was going on with that shiz?

Suddenly, out of nowhere (or perhaps not truly nowhere; she just hadn’t examined where she was just yet, as she hadn’t looked up), a pair of arms wrapped around her, and her head was squished against a very masculine, yummy-smelling (the same smell as before, actually! What a lovely coincidence!) chest. Mr. Hugglebus reached up and threaded his fingers through Mabel’s hair, holding her head against him.

“Mabel,” a voice whispered, like its owner couldn’t believe he was getting to say her name. It was familiar, but also very much not, and Mabel was, like, off-the-charts levels of confuzzled. “Mabel,” the voice said again. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

It was hard to think with the pounding in her ears, but she did her best to ignore it.

She had bigger things to deal with than a headache, no matter how nasty it was.

“Wh- whoa there, friend,” Mabel said shakily, putting her hand on his chest and pushing away from him lightly. Mr. Hugglebus pulled back enough for Mabel to get a proper look at him, and…

Wait.

What?

“Dipper?” she gasped. He said nothing. “What is up with your hair, man?” she laughed. “Or- or your getup, like! What? You goin’ to a fancy party or something? No, no, wait!” she was giggling, and it hurt her head, but it was just so goddamn good to see him she didn’t care. “Okay okay, I know! You’re doing, like, a knock-off impersonation of Gideon, right?” He furrowed his brow, annoyance filling his ice blue eyes.

But… wait. Ice blue eyes? Dipper has brown eyes. They were identical to hers. She knew this. She’d stared into those stupid-beautiful eyes of his a bazillion and one times. She knew her bro bro’s eyes, aight? She knew those suckers. This guy, though. This guy was different. Like. Different different.

“Are you… are you Dipper? ‘Cause like. The Dipster I know won’t even wear color contacts for cosplay purposes, and those eyes ain’t blue naturally, so…”

It was several moments before he finally spoke. He was gazing at her with this weirdly intense look in his eyes (holy crap, those eyes, they were so pretty, nobody’s eyes should be allowed to be that freakin’ blue) she’d never seen on anyone before.

“I’m not… your Dipper,” his emphasis the ‘your’ was strange, condescending, as if he loathed saying it.

She scooted away, her back hitting the arm of the chaise.

All she could think about was a gnome drenched in blood, babbling in terror before exploding violently.

”Then who are you?” she whispered, eyes wide.

He smiled, and not unkindly, either. It was… strange. It was a kind smile from someone who didn’t look like such things came to them naturally. It was nothing like her twin’s smile.

Nothing like it at all.

It did something to her insides. Something she didn’t understand. Something she didn’t know how to interpret or name.

“Don’t worry,” he murmured, keeping his distance, his legs twitching as if he wanted to get closer to her. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Okay,” she said, not believing him in the slightest. ‘Cause. Like. The blood-gnome. Had that been him? Had he done that? She hadn’t seen it, but in retrospect, it totally made sense for him to have done that somehow. “But who are you?” she asked again.

“I’m something of an… alternate version of the Dipper you know.” The more he spoke, the more she found his voice to be different and strange. Plus, he looked so similar to Dipper, but Mabel only ever saw her bro’s birthmark once in a blue moon. This guy had it front and center, and his hair was slicked back, and she lowkey wanted to touch it, just to see what it felt like. His voice was deeper than Dipper’s. More monotone, too. It was bizarre.

It was… it was attractive, is what it was. His look and attitude, the whole shebang, it was just insanely attractive. Wait, no, no! Mabel thought to herself. It’s cool, Mabel girl, you’re all good, everything’s a-okay, it’s just that he looks like your bro, alright? No big deal. Well, okay, you shouldn’t be having those kinds of thoughts about your bro, either, but we’re well past that.

“Alternate… version…?” Wait. Shit. Maybe he was… “Are you the anti-Dipper?” She whispered frantically, trying to back away more as if her back wasn’t already firmly pressed against the armrest. “There’s tons of different versions of me, I know that, but I’ve never seen another version of Dipper, and you look just freakin’ like him except for your whole… style and general demeanor, I guess, so-“ she was trying to get up, but holy hot pockets, that was some serious dizziness right there.

Moreover, was there another Mabel in this universe? She hadn’t seen another Mabel in years. It’d be… interesting to see one again. Wait, shit, if he was the anti-Dipper, there was the anti-Mabel somewhere around there, and Mabel was not at all confident she could currently best the anti-Mabel in a fight. And something told her the anti-Mabel wasn’t exactly one for fighting fair and waiting till she was ready. She wasn’t the meme-worth Inigo Montoya, and this wasn’t The Princess Bride.

Dammit.

Wait, he’d said he’d never expected to see her again. And she’d definitely never met him before, she would’ve remembered a fancy, older version of her bro, which could only mean he was talking about the other Mabel. Had something happened to her? Had she left, maybe?

“I’m not,” he cut in quickly, moving towards her slowly, like she was a feral cat ready to book it at any moment. “I’m not the… anti-Dipper, or whatever it was you said.”

She looked around. They appeared to be in some sort of dressing room. No, wait, it was Gideon’s dressing room! Except it wasn’t, because Not-Dipper was there, lounging on the ultra-fancy chaise as if he owned it, which he might very well have done, because Not-Dipper didn’t exactly look like he was a broke college student.

He looked like he used hundred dollar bills as tissues like Woody Harrelson in Zombieland.

Still very much fighting the urge to attempt to GTFO, as the kids say, Mabel turned back to him. “What are you, then?” He blinked for a moment, as if he were surprised, and then she belted out more questions. “What’s your name? How old are you? You don’t look like you’re the same age as me, which is weird if we’re kinda-sorta-pseudo-twins. Why am I here? Where even is here? How-“

“Okay, let’s do this properly, shall we?” He tilted his head when he spoke, the corners of his lips curling upwards in another one of those strange smiles that did something to Mabel’s insides. “One question at a time,” he said, holding up a long, slender finger. “You can ask me anything you want, and I promise to answer truthfully. However,” he crossed one leg over the other, his foot dangling off his knee, the arm closest to her draping casually over the back of the chaise, “for every question I answer, I get to ask one of you in return. You don’t have to answer me, of course, but if you choose not to, that’ll be the end of our little game,” he paused for a moment. “For the time being, at least. Sound fair?”

She nodded hesitantly. She could stop at any time, right?

“Go ahead, then,” he waved the hand that dangled haphazardly over the chaise.

“What’s your name?”

“Mason William Gleeful, but I’ve always been called Dipper,” he said easily, as if he’d been fully expecting that very question.

“Because of the birthmark, I assume,” Mabel was very careful not to phrase it as a question, not to raise the pitch in her voice at the end of her sentence. She didn’t know how he’d react if she asked two questions in a row.

“A fair assumption,” he agreed with a slight nod and another one of those smiles. Ugh. Could ya not, man? Like, for real, Mabel thought. His smile was most definitely not helping her nausea. “And your name? Your full name, if you would.”

“Oh, um,” was she seriously forgetting her own name? Jeez, Mabel, get it together, he’s not Dipper, get over it! “M- Mabel Caroline Pines,” she managed to stutter out.

“Pines, hm? Interesting. Alright then. Shall I go along with your other questions from before, as well?”

She shook her head. “Actually, I was wondering about your last name,” he raised his eyebrows at her and motioned for her to continue. “There’s a sort of… psychic, I guess is what you’d call him, in my universe, and he has that last name. Is that… I mean… we are in what looks like his dressing room, so…”

“I did shows here,” he said quietly, a strange look in his eye, as if he wasn’t seeing her despite looking right at her. “Once upon a time.”

“Oh. I see,” she squeaked out.

His gaze sharpened on her again, and he was moving closer to her, and Mabel tried to back up further, her sneakers scrambling against the fabric of the chaise. Eeek way too close way too close back the fudge up, man, what are you even-

“Why were you in his dressing room?” He was right in front of her face by that point, like waaaaaaay too close, ‘cause their noses were almost brushing and she could see each individual eyelash, and god his eyes were even more startlingly beautiful up close, and she wanted to reach up and touch-

No no no no, bad, bad Mabel, he’s not your Dipper, this is a different version! she told herself firmly. No touchy!

“We gave each other makeovers,” she said, trying very hard to keep her voice even. When he raised his eyebrows at her, she got mildly defensive. “I was twelve! He was… I dunno, ten or eleven! Jeez!” He chuckled at that, then leaned away from her, satisfied with her answer, she supposed, and resumed his previous position as if he’d never moved from it at all.

As if he hadn’t just sent a chill down her spine that was… not altogether unpleasant, which was significantly more concerning than it would’ve been if she’d hated every second he’d been near her.

She pursed her lips and put it from her mind. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-five,” he said easily. “And you?”

“Nineteen,” she told him quietly, surprised at his age. She glanced at the foot he’d balanced on his knee.

His shoes were fancy, too. Everything about him seemed to be. “Not what you were expecting, I see,” he observed from her expressions. Damn her and her expressive face!

“Well, it makes sense, because you certainly look older than… than my Dipper.” Her voice shook on the word ‘my’.

His hand clenched into a fist.

She didn’t know what to think of it. Was he angry, or did it mean nothing?

“But it also doesn’t make sense, because if it’s a parallel universe, we should be the same age, I would think.”

“Well, not necessarily,” Not-Dipper reasoned. “In some universes, time moves at different rates, from what I’ve gathered. In our case, it’s the same, but it seems I was born earlier. I was born in 1993, whereas you were born in…” he thought for a moment, tilting his head to the side. “1999.”

“Oh.” She’d never noticed that when interacting with other Mabels. Perhaps it was simply because she was too preoccupied with not dying. It had seemed rather urgent at the time.

“Indeed,” he nodded. “So, your questions,” he reminded her after a few seconds of silence.

“Right.” What had they been again? He kept looking at her, she had to get him to stop doing that. It was distracting. His eyes were distracting. She couldn’t think when they were in her, dammit. Oh! That was it! “Where are we?”

“My universe. I found you with and brought you here through a portal,” he stuck a hand in his pocket. “If you meant the locale, however, as I said before, this was our-“ he cut himself off, took a breath. “My dressing room until several years ago, when I stopped performing.”

“I… see,” she said slowly. So where was the other Mabel, then? Shouldn’t there be a fancy, blue-eyed, properly Adult™ version of herself somewhere? She looked around the dressing room (holy crapinoli, she didn’t think she’d ever seen so much blue in one room), but there were no signs of a woman anywhere. There were no perfume bottles or makeup on the vanity, no dresses on the clothing rack, nothing.

How strange.

“Why were you in Gravity Falls?” He asked.

“To get away.” Helooked at her questioningly. Did it count if it was an unspoken question? She wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t risking it. “I needed an escape. College can be… stressful.”

That wasn’t the full reason, of course, but she wasn’t lying, either.

“Interesting.” He tapped his fingers on his leg. How could a person’s fingers be pleasant to look at?

“Why did you bring me here?”

“You needed help,” he said simply, shrugging a shoulder. He winced slightly when he did, but just a bit; the change in expression so minor she wasn’t sure she’d seen it at all. “However did you find yourself kidnapped by gnomes, of all things? Gnomes who wanted you for their queen, no less.”

She looked away. It’d been a long time since she had fought against anything but class schedules and exams she wasn’t prepared for.

“They… caught me off guard,” she told him quietly. “They tried something similar when I was a kid, but they lost. It never occurred to me that they might try again.”

“Gnomes are persistent little things,” he mused. “They dislike losing, and they are quite stubborn. It stands to reason that they’d try again if you’d beaten them before.”

“What… what did you do?” Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper. “To the gnomes, I mean. Unless, of course, I’m misremembering, because there is every chance I am, what with the concussion I very likely have and all, so if I am just say the word, but it seemed pretty dang clear that-“

“I killed them,” he said bluntly. His face was bored, disinterested. Apathetic, even. It didn’t even seem to be bothering him. How could it not be bothering him? Unless…

Unless he’d killed before.

The human brain could get used to just about anything if given enough time.

“You- you killed them,” her voice was horrified, she knew. She could hear it in her tone. Yeah, she’d wanted to get away from them, she’d wanted them to leave her alone, and maybe she’d even wanted to give them a good whack, but she hadn’t wanted them dead.

“Of course I did,” he sounded surprised at her reaction. “They hurt you. They were going to hurt you far worse.”

“I know that,” she whispered. “I know that. But that doesn’t give you the right to just… you can’t be someone’s judge, jury, and executioner. That’s not right.”

“I only did it to save you, Mabel.” She had only heard Not-Dipper say her name once before.

It was different than when Dipper said it. Maybe it was because Not-Dipper’s voice was a little deeper, a little smoother-sounding?

“You weren’t safe. Not in your universe.” His eyes were burning, which was strange since they were the color of ice. “I can keep you safe. I will keep you safe.”

“Ummm… that’s cool and all, but that’s pretty freakin’ unsettling, to have somebody just, like. ‘Splode a bunch of gnomes for you,” she eyed him warily, still trying to figure out how to get away from the dude without crawling. Would he get angry with her for not being appreciative? She didn’t want to see him angry. Would he hurt her?

“I don’t want you to be scared of me,” he told her quietly, his voice a little sad.

She almost lied and told him she wasn’t scared of him, that everything was hunky-dorey, and that he should smile.

She didn’t.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have, I dunno, made people explode in front of me?” She was being sarcastic, she knew, and that was probably a bad idea, but sometimes she just couldn’t help herself.

“Gnomes aren’t people, technically,” he reminded her.

“Semantics,” she waved his argument away. “They’re living creatures. Or they were, anyway, before you decided to go and massacre them.”

Not-Dipper had a look on his face that suggested he wasn’t opposed to killing living creatures, whether they were human or not.

Maybe he already had.

Mabel hoped he hadn’t, but something in the way he held himself gave her a sneaking suspicion that he had.

“I’m sorry if that… bothers you, or if it scares you. I don’t want to make you feel those things,” he sighed. “That said, I think it’d be best if I were up front with you: if put in the same situation again -if you were in danger again, that is to say- I’d do the same thing.”

She crossed her arms, pursed her lips, and glared at him. “Take me home, please.”

There was panic in his eyes. “I- I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“The portal… it doesn’t work like that. I’ll have to find another way to get you back,” he explained. She was still glaring at him when he continued. “But for the time being, you can stay with me. If you want,” he turned his body to face her for the first time since he’d hugged her.

“Well. I suppose that’ll have to- WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT?” She was pointing, horrified, to his shoulder, where one arrow, perhaps about a foot long, was embedded in his shoulder. Another was in his side, the one that had been facing away from her. Blood had seeped through to pool around the entry wounds, though the bleeding seemed to have stopped. His eyes followed her shaking finger.

“Oh, right. I got shot with a couple of arrows. Just gnome ones, though, so they’re quite small,” she dropped her hand back to the soft fabric of the chaise.

“Okay, so you saved me, and you got hurt doing it,” she was saying this to herself, staring at her knees and speaking as if he couldn’t hear her when he could absolutely hear her. “Okay. Okay. This is fine, this is fine, Mabel girl.” She looked back up at him. “Okay, let’s go… wherever we need to go for you to treat those… yeah…”

“Very well,” he agreed. “I’ll take you there.”

He helped her to her feet, and she still found herself a bit dizzy, wobbling a bit.

“Would you like me to carry you?” he offered, steadying her with a hand on her arm.

“Carry m- say what now?”

“I don’t mind, particularly if you’re having difficulty walking still.” As if that explanation was adequate! Why was homeboy cool with it at all, though? She’d gotten a hella nasty gash on her leg once in PE, can ya guess how many people offered to freakin’ carry her to the nurse? Zero, is the answer. Zero.

What a weird dude. And Mabel was in love with her gay twin brother, so if she, of all people, thinks you’re weird, then you are weird.

“Nope!” she squeaked out way too quickly to sound even remotely close to being normal. “I’m good on the carrying front, thanks! Got it covered!”

“Suit yourself.” Ugh why, why was he smiling that smile again, it reminded her of Dipper and also not, and it made her nervous as all hell. “This way.” And with that, he promptly strolled out of his dressing room, clearly expecting her to follow.

#gravity falls #gravity falls fanfiction #gf fanfiction #pinecest #mabel pines #dipper gleeful #reverse dipper #reverse falls #fanfiction #my wriitng #Mabel’s all-in-one guide to being a shooting star #fucking hell RD is so hot

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canyouhearthelight · 4 years ago

Text

The Miys, Ch. 120

Time for some of the more technical stuff! These chapters take the longest to write, without fail, largely because I made the dumb (in retrospect) decision early on to choose and actual known-exoplanet (Kepler 442b) to base Von on *facepalm*. Which means an inordinate amount of fact checking and maths when I get to the chapters like this one.

Thanks for this chapter to go @baelpenrose and @charlylimph-blog for beta-reading, and @nasa for the phenomenal amount of information that is publicly available for me to use when writing chapters like this.

Xiomara leaned back in her seat and propped her feet on the table in my office, ignoring the scowl Alistair shot in her direction. With a sigh, she folded her hands behind her head. “The next gravity adjustment is soon, now that Miys has medically cleared everyone from the last one.”

I nodded. “Grey and Antoine’s recommendation of increasing cardio seems to have made a huge difference in the adjustment period for most people. I definitely recovered faster.”

“And after this one, the lighting changes will start phasing in?”

“Once we can come to an agreement on how far we plan to institute the adjustments,” I pointed out. “I don’t understand any need to replicate outdoor light cycles when humanity literally experienced a cultural revolution after we developed a safe method of artificial indoor lighting.”

“That same cultural revolution also led the way for the events that brought us here,” she rebutted without looking away from the ceiling. Raising one hand and twirling it lazily, she repeated the arguments we had listened to for nearly a year. “Adhering more closely to Von’s natural light cycles will minimize ecological impacts.”

“Except that we are using sustainable light sources.” I flicked my finger at one of the wall emitters nearby. “Grey’s team made some pretty strong improvements on the microalgae lamps that were used Before.” While we still used more conventional forms of light for things like our databands and the desk emitters, ambient light in the Terran areas of the Ark was largely provided by what were - essentially - terrariums of algae, fungi, and dinoflagellates. Thanks to Miys’ assistance and a lengthy explanation of why our sight developed to work better in certain wavelengths, the light was closer to a yellow than a blue or green that was more common to Terran bioluminescence. “We literally grow our light now, don’t we?”

Xiomara tilted her head and cracked one eye at me. “They have a point, you know.”

“Make it make sense to me,” I invited her.

“Bear in mind, I don’t remember all the fancy science terms -” I snorted, but allowed it. She continued. “But in basic terms, night on Von lasts pretty close to two Terran months. Yes, we would have roughly the same amount of time to charge solar batteries, but it would require a lot of them to make it two months, especially with how cold the nights are. By extending the interior light cycle as far as we can, we use less of the power we’ve saved up.”

“And just making more batteries has environmental impacts,” I ventured slowly.

“The planet isn’t terribly metal rich,” she pointed out. “Any resources we have for making batteries should be reserved for replacing or repairing, not allocated to making as many as possible. We’re getting a boost from the planet already, since we’ll have ready access to geothermal heat.”

Frowning, I flicked my wrist and brought up my datapad. “Von is tectonically stable, isn’t it?”

She flashed a quick thumbs-up. “No shifting plates, but there is still a molten core and geothermal activity. In this case, most of the bodies of water are hot springs, and there are no oceans.”

“That’s going to be weird,” I mused. “Rivers, lakes, and a sea or two, but no oceans…”

“I take it you haven’t had time to check out the topography scans,” she laughed. “There aren’t really any mountains, either. Not the kind we’re used to - no tectonic shifting, no huge mountains. Any geological features are from erosion instead.”

I tried to imagine it before shaking my head to bring myself back to the original topic. “Day cycles. We were talking about adjustments to the lighting cycles.”

“Yep,” she agreed. “We’ve already extended them out to thirty hours so far.”

“But Grey wants to go as far as mimicking the sixty Terran day cycles that Von naturally has,” I sighed. “There has to be a compromise. Your explanation makes sense, but it still doesn’t quite justify pushing it out that far.”

“Compromise is your thing. Arguing is mine.”

I scowled at her again. “That’s unfair.”

“And yet you aren’t saying I’m wrong.” I could hear her smile even without seeing her face. “If you figure out the compromise, I’ll argue it for you.”

“Seriously?”

She waved her hand at me lazily. “Hey, just because I see the logic behind Grey’s idea, it doesn’t mean I agree with setting the day/night cycle for the whole Ark to match the one for the planet. Your argument about the Industrial Revolution has merit, too. Just… leave out the Industrial Revolution part.”

Fair point. Xio had eviscerated that argument right off the bat, so surely Grey would see the same point. “Then I need a new angle.” I tapped my chin thoughtfully. Thinking out loud, I started rambling. “Invention of the light bulb led to the Industrial Revolution because employees could work later into the night with safer light to see by inside factories. Inside…” Something about that was nagging me.

Leaning forward, I smacked my hands flat on the table, startling Xiomara into flailing to keep her balance. “Inside. You mentioned you don’t agree with the day/night cycle for the whole Ark. I’ve been looking at this all wrong.” I shook my head. “We don’t have to worry about all of the Ark. I keep thinking about the Ark as all one building, but it isn’t. It’s like its own city… Which means we have an ‘indoors’ and an ‘outdoors’!”

Xiomara kicked her legs off the table and sat up. “What are you talking about? Technically, the whole ship is ‘indoors’, isn’t it?”

I made a vague gesture at her with my left hand. “Only in super literal terms. But if you look at it from this perspective…” I pulled up a ship schematic and flicked it to the emitter. Tapping BioLab 2, the corridors, and a few other areas of the ship, I highlighted them bright yellow. “These public areas could be considered ‘outdoors’. Streets and sidewalks, a park, et cetera, you see?”

Tilting her head thoughtfully, she started drumming her fingers. Tapping eating areas, the Council offices, and a few quarters, she made them light up pink. “And these would be ‘indoors’, right? Offices, restaurants, apartments, those kinds of things?”

“Exactly,” I confirmed. “We can start by agreeing to start extending the day/night cycles in areas considered ‘outdoors’ to match Von’s cycle. Nothing to really argue with there - we will have to adjust to it eventually, and doing it in increments over the next eight years will be easier on us than doing it suddenly when we get to the planet. Just like what we’re doing with the gravity.”

“That leaves us with deciding a cycle for the indoor areas.”

“And we can work on figuring that out. We’ll have more weight in negotiating there, since we’re absolutely conceding with the outdoor areas,” I pointed out.

She nodded thoughtfully. “We almost have a blank check there, I would think. As long as you could defend the energy needed, they really wouldn’t be able to argue.”

“I may have to take that up with Grey, directly. I don’t think it would be a good idea to go beyond thirty-six hours, and that would be with two rest periods, not just one like Before.”

Xiomara shook her head, locs flying. “Most cultures didn’t do that, you know that, right? Mid-day naps were the norm all over the world, even when we were toe-to-toe with FTL emigration.”

“Even better,” I smiled. “I mean, who is going to argue with a mid-day nap? Not this girl.”

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#the miys #humans are weird #original science fiction #aliens #science fiction #exoplanet #nasa is amazing #humans are amazing #humans in space #hfy #humans are space orcs #humans are space fae

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stardustryewriting · 4 years ago

Text

It’s weird

Synopsis: Drunk Zoro and mildly drunk Sanji have a conversation, that sober Sanji can’t seem to shake from his mind. It’s all weird, after all.

Also on A03: here

Sanji would say, he wasn’t sure what caused this. But that would a lie. He knew what caused this, he just didn’t think that that little thing - that happened two years ago by now - would still be relevant at this point. And okay, maybe calling it a ‚little thing‘ was a bit of an understatement, considering Kuma was a warlord but still. No need to bring it up again, really.

And to be fair to Zoro, he didn’t exactly bring it up, per se. He just had drank too much. And then admitted that he was worried sick about Sanji while he was in the hands of Big Mom. Which he wasn’t, he was in the hands of Judge and the Germa, thank you very much. But also, Zoro had used his name and not Cook, or some other insult. (Not that Sanji considered ‚Cook’ an insult, Zoro just had a very insulting way of saying it.) So Sanji was willing to take it as a compliment, instead of as the start of an argument like he usually did. He reassured Zoro that he was fine, and wouldn’t leave the crew again and that should have been it. But it was’t.

„You don’t get it“, Zoro had slurred and in retrospect, the slurring should have been a sign to end the conversation before it got out of hand. Zoro always drank so much, that slurring indicated he consumed an insane amount of whatever alcohol they had. (Sake, it was usually Sake.) And if it went to his head that much already, maybe having a conversation was a bad idea. But Sanji had some alcohol too - not as much as Zoro or he would be dead - so he did the stupid thing instead.

„What don’t I get?“, he inquired, and that was really the beginning of the end.

„I care about you. I wouldn’t fight with you all the time if I didn’t. You’re important to the crew, too. A great cook, food always tastes good. Shouldn’t have left in the first place. Would’ve kicked Big Mom’s ass, for sure.“

Rambling proved to be an even greater red flag than slurring. Zoro never rambled, Sanji should’ve been skeptical. Just as he never said nice things about Sanji. Or used his name. This whole evening was very surreal. And if Sanji had been the master of his senses, he would have stood up and went to bed, before it escalated. Maybe he could have poked fun at Zoro the next morning, and they could have fought it out, like they always did. That would’ve been funnier, at least.

„I care about you, too“, he said instead. It wasn’t a lie even though he always thought he would die before he said it out loud. (He did almost die at Whole Cake Island, but he willingly chose to ignore that.) But then he thought hell would open up and take Zoro down, before the swordsman would admit he cared for Sanji, and that didn’t happen either. Alcohol made their heart to heart somewhat more honest and way more uncomfortable. At least from a sober perspective.

„Nah, not like that“, Zoro disagreed. Thinking back on it sober - not that Sanji was even nearly as hammered as Zoro had been - this was where everything went down the drain. And he would love to blame it on Zoro exclusively but he couldn’t. Zoro might have opened Pandora’s Box, but Sanji was stupid enough to look inside, instead of slamming it shut, like he should have.

„Sure I do“, he argued, „I care about you same I care about Luffy and any other crewmate. I wouldn’t regularly stock up on Sake if I didn’t.“

And that was it for Sanji. But it wasn’t it for Zoro.

„You don’t care like you care about Nami and Robin“, he mumbled. Zoro had actually mumbled. And that was so much more out of character than the slurring or the rambling that at first, the meaning of the sentence didn’t fully hit Sanji.

But when it hit, it hit hard. Hard enough to make him choke.

And then, because maybe he really was the weak, sentimental fool Judge always thought he was, he said: „But I do. I would’ve died to protect you from Kuma. I don’t think I ever worried about someone more than I worried about you that day.“

Which wasn’t a lie. At least that was good. Or maybe it would have been better if it was a lie. Maybe then Sanji wouldn’t have been as confused and Zoro could have made a joke about it the next day. And then Sanji would have made a joke back and they would have fought and everything would have been normal.

Or maybe it would have been better if they had the chance to talk it out that night. But Luffy had immaculate timing as always and when the captain asked Zoro to eat with him, of course the swordsman agreed. And then, Luffy had realized that the food for their feast was almost out and made his way to the kitchen - Sanji’s kitchen - and Sanji went to defend their provisions from the captain, which effectively ended his talk with Zoro for the night. And for the next couple days. Which was very uncomfortable.

The Thousand Sunny was a great ship and it had a decent size for the Strawhats. But it was too small to avoid each other. Especially considering that Sanji’s workplace was also the place where the entire crew ate. And Luffy insisted on them eating together. Zoro did his very best to avoid Sanji during the day, probably in the crow’s nest if Sanji had to guess, and Sanji did his very best to spend as much time as possible in the kitchen, but they couldn’t evade each other completely. The bathroom was shared, as were the sleeping arrangements. It made not seeing each other effectively impossible.

Not to mention that the others caught wind, too. Which was to be expected, because usually their fights were regular, happened in the very least once a day, but they have been quiet for a few days now and no one knew why. Which might be not true, considering Robin had been throwing some knowing smiles his way for days now and as beautiful as Robin’s smiles usually were, this one unnerved him. He would take Chopper innocently asking if him and Zoro had a real fight this time over that any day.

Sanji sighed, looking at the last potato he had to cut before he would go to bed. Not matter how hard he would think about it, it wouldn’t change anything. He said what he said, as did Zoro, and neither of the two knew how to handle it. At least they had something in common.

A humorless laugh left him, as he began peeling the potato. And then he let it fell out of his hand when someone cleared their throat behind him. He quickly grabbed to again before he turned around to face Zoro. And then he fiddled with it, giving his hands something to do, while he waited for Zoro to speak. He’s seen someone look both as uncomfortable and as determined as Zoro did right now.

„Look, I’m sorry“, Zoro said and Sanji almost lost his grip on the potato again. He wasn’t sure what he expected exactly, but an apology wasn’t even on his radar. What was Zoro apologizing for, anyway?

„I - what?“, was his eloquent response and he stopped peeling now. For good measure, no need to cut himself, after all.

„It’s clear you didn’t understand what I meant that night. And that you very clearly understood the next morning. And that you’re uncomfortable now. I’m sorry I said that. Should’ve taken it with me to the grave like planned.“

Laughing probably wasn’t a good response to that. Sanji knew he would be deeply insulted if someone laughed at him, after he showed vulnerability like that. But he couldn’t help it. After days of nothing, of Zoro not even looking at him, that was what he got? It was comical.

But apparently Zoro, much like Sanji, was deeply insulted. Not that Sanji could blame him for that.

„Yeah, ha ha. Ain’t it funny Zoro has feelings? I got it, Cook.“

„No, wait please“, Sanji pleaded, still laughing, but trying his best to keep it in, „that was just really unexpected, please just give me a second.“

Zoro crossed his arms before his chest and huffed annoyed. But he wasn’t leaving, so Sanji did his best to reign in his laugh and calm down. The situation was serious, Zoro was serious and Sanji should be serious, too. So he took a deep breath, straightened his back and looked Zoro in the eye. Which normally would be the start of a fight. Now it just made this situation weirder.

„Sorry, this is just really different from our constant arguing“, Sanji tried to explain. Zoro raised an eyebrow but remained silent. What did it say about Sanji that he knew exactly what this raised eyebrow meant? He really knew Zoro all too well.

„It’s weird“, he said and Zoro hummed in agreement, which was a beginning, „and it’s probably even weirder that I don’t hate it. Talking to you that night was nice, I meant what I said. Which, I never thought about it, not like that, not as intense, but I definitely meant it when I said it. I care for you, which is not that weird, I care for everyone in the crew. But I care for you really deeply, more than usual and that might be the weirdest revelation I had in years. “

Zoro shifted his weight from one foot to the other and Sanji really wished he still had the potato in his hands. Anything to stop them from fidgeting. He didn’t really know what to say now, he said his piece but Zoro seemed to wait for something. Or maybe Zoro was thinking, too. Which was unusual, Zoro might not wear his heart on his sleeve like Luffy did, but he never shied away from saying his piece either. Sanji considered his potato once more, just to have something to do for his hands. And to not have to look Zoro in the eye.

„It is strange“, Zoro agreed eventually, „but I don’t hate it.“

And then he dropped his hands from in front of his chest and took a step towards Sanji. Just one, like he was scared Sanji would shy away. Which he wouldn’t, but he could appreciate Zoro’s concern. Which would have been insulting in another setting, but this was way different from any other setting the two had ever found themselves in. So he could appreciate it, and silence the little voice in his head, insisting that Zoro just implied he was weak. He knew for sure, that Zoro didn’t think of him as weak, after all.

And Sanji supposed he could meet him in the middle, so he took a step towards Zoro, too. And cupped the man’s head in his palm. And leaned in to kiss him. Which Zoro somehow managed to make into a competition for dominance. And then, when Zoro won and they parted for a quick catch of breath, he smirked triumphantly at Sanji.

That Asshole.

#zosan #one piece #zoro #op zoro #roronoa zoro #sanji #vinsmoke sanji #i hate tagging sanji as a vinsmoke getting together drunk talks

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ceealaina · 4 years ago

Text

Title: What's New Pussycat? Collaborator Name: ceealaina Card: 4008 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K1 - Image: Uh, Kitties Ship: IronHusbands Rating: Teen Major Tags: Romantic Fluff, Domestic Summary: After crashing through a wall at the Bad Guy Lair of the Week, Tony finds cats. A lot of cats. And entire roomful of cats. Apparently Avengers Tower is now a shelter for cats as well as superheroes... Word Count: 1829

So maybe -- maybe -- Tony had just very slightly overestimated his abilities in handling this fight without backup. Or maybe he’d underestimated the number of bad guys. But either way it was okay. It was fine, he was fine, everything was fine. He had it all totally under control.

And he totally believed that. Right up until, in taking out what he really hoped was the last bad guy, he’d found himself thrown through a wall, because of course he had.

For a minute Tony just let his eyes fall shut beneath the faceplate, waiting for JARVIS to run scans and make sure there wasn’t somebody waiting to whallop him with a bulldozer, or something else stupid. It had been a long day and a longer fight, and while there were no serious injuries, he ached in places he hadn’t even known he’d had. All he wanted right now was to go home, have a drink, and then take a long, hot bath with the jets on extra strong, and then maybe sucker one of the various supersoldiers he had running around his house into giving him a backrub and --

“Uh, sir?”

JARVIS interrupted the very nice daydream Tony was developing with a tentative tone that had Tony groaning.

“What is it, J? Another five hundred of them in the basement?”

“Not exactly, sir.”

But before JARVIS could explain, Tony heard the sound for himself, faint little squeaking noises filtering through the speakers of the armour. He looked up and his eyes went wide as he took in what he was looking at.

“Uh, kitties?”

“It appears so.”

Lots and lots of kitties, in fact, perched in little cubbies lining the walls of the room he’d crashed into -- thankfully it didn’t seem any had been injured with his abrupt entrance, so there was that, at least. They were viewing him with various degrees of curiosity, and as Tony was still trying to get his bearings, one of them hopped down. He lifted his hand on instinct, and the cat wound her little body around him, rubbing her chin on his fingers. Tony blew out a breath.

“Oh boy.”

***

“Okay, so Honeybear, don’t be mad.”

Tony met Rhodey at the door with an extra-large coffee and his flirtiest smile; in retrospect probably not his best first move, because nothing was going to make Rhodey more suspicious.

Rhodey hesitated before stepping inside, eyes narrowed at Tony. “What did you do?”

“Seriously! Steve already yelled at me once today, which is just ridiculous really because I actually didn’t even do anything wrong this time, and it’s not like he still has allergies or anything. Really, if anyone’s the injured party here, it’s me.”

“I didn’t yell at you, Tony!” Steve called from somewhere near the kitchen. “We just had a serious conversation about making executive decisions without consulting the rest of the team.”

Tony waved an arm like that was the same thing. “Who pays the rent, Steven?” he shot back.

Rhodey just pinched the bridge of his nose and drew in a deep breath. “Tony,” he said, trying to get him to refocus on the actual issue at hand. “What. Did you. Do?”

Tony gave him a guilty smile in lieu of actually answering, and then started to lead him down the hall. “I just want you to know that I didn’t have a lot of other options. There was nowhere else to take them, Rhodey. I couldn’t just dump them all on the street. And they were doing weird things to them, Honeybear. Cloning them and god knows what else, and sure I took out the bad guys, but what if it was the shell of a larger company, huh? I wasn’t going to leave them there!”

Tony could tell that Rhodey was bracing himself for the worst, so rather than trying to explain further he just led Rhodey into the room he’d converted for his purposes. It was supposed to have been a gym, initially, but then he’d realized the extent of Steve’s abilities and he’d repurposed an entire floor for the gym instead, leaving this space empty. It had been mostly used for storage since, so it hadn’t been too hard to convert it into--

“Holy shit,” Rhodey muttered as he opened the door, revealing all the kitties, some of the playing, some of them eating, some of them snuggled up for a good, long nap, or perched on the window watching the day go by. “Tony, did you start a cat shelter?”

“Uh…” Tony couldn’t tell if Rhodey was impressed or horrified, which wasn’t a great start. He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Not exactly?”

Rhodey arched an eyebrow, but Tony was pretty sure he could see a slight smile twitching at the corner of his lips. “So what, exactly, is it?”

“I told you, I couldn’t just leave them there! And do you know how overcrowded the shelters are in this city? Nobody could take this kind of influx, not even if I spread it around. I could have covered the costs -- would have covered the costs -- but they still wouldn’t have the space. So… Easier to just keep them here, right?” He gave Rhodey his best smile. “Just think of it like a foster home, just until we find them all permanent homes.”

“We?”

“They!” Tony corrected quickly. “I’ve got a contact at the shelter. They’re working on it, but you know, there’s kinda a lot so it might take a bit. Come on Honeybear, it’s not like I’m going to keep them. You know me, I’m much better with electronic babies than real ones.”

Rhodey rolled his eyes, but he was fully grinning now, and when one of the cats came to wind herself around his ankles, he immediately reached down to give her neck scratches, setting off a loud barrage of purrs. “You’re such a doofus,” he told Tony, but his voice was all affection.

“Yeah,” Tony sighed, grinning back at him. “That’s what Steve said too.”

***

The thing was, while he never made a big deal about, Tony knew that Rhodey had always loved animals. He’d seen the monthly donations on Rhodey’s credit card bill (and had tripled them anonymously), he’d seen the way he’d choked up over the abandoned animals commercials on television, and he’d been in the car that time he’d nearly killed them while successfully avoiding a squirrel. (Rhodey swore that it hadn’t been that close, but Tony knew the truth.)

So it wasn’t exactly surprising when Rhodey “accidentally” got well and truly invested in taking care of all the cats, making sure they were fed and watered, that the bot Tony had designed kept their litter boxes cleaned, and that they had lots of play and snuggle time. Neither of them had ever had pets before -- it hadn’t really been conducive to their lifestyles -- but Tony loved watching Rhodey interact with them. He was already soft as hell for the man, falling more in love with him practically every time he looked at him, but something about watching Rhodey interact with the clowder of cats made Tony fall even that much harder.

He also wasn’t oblivious to the way Rhodey’s face would fall a little each time one of kitties left for their new home, the way he’d cuddle the remaining cats just a little closer the next time he was visiting them. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy for them, of course he was. And of course deep down he’d know that they wouldn't all be able to stay. But Tony knew his husband, knew how little it took for him to adopt someone -- that was, after all, how they’d ended up together in the first place. So it wasn’t surprising that Rhodey had mentally adopted every single one of the cats.

They were down to only seven cats left when Tony snuck into the room one day, intending to ask Rhodey something that had seemed important at the time, only to find him sitting in an armchair, facing out over the city with his favourite kitty snuggled into his arms (not that he’d ever admit to having favourites, but Tony knew). He was talking away to her, telling her how beautiful she was, how they’d be sure to find her the best home, somewhere really special, and Tony felt his heart melt. He snuck right back out again, waiting until he was safely out of earshot before speaking up.

“JARVIS? I need you to order some supplies.”

***

It wasn’t too much longer before the rest of the cats had been adopted, all except for the one that definitely wasn’t Rhodey’s favourite, even though he kept turning down adopters for her, and had already named her Einstein. Tony loved Rhodey, but he was such a dumbass sometimes. (Yeah, yeah, pot, kettle, shut up JARVIS.)

Tony had waited until Rhodey had some meetings that he couldn’t put off, pretended he was on a lab binge, and then the second that Rhodey was gone he’d rushed down to the cat room to get everything ready. It didn’t take much to close everything up, sneak Einstein out -- she really was a sweet little thing -- and then plunk himself on the couch in time for Rhodey to get back.

As predicted, Rhodey headed for the cat room almost immediately upon his return, barely even offering Tony a wave on his way by. If Tony hadn’t known his husband so well, he might have been offended. Almost immediately Rhodey was sliding back out of the room, eyes wide.

“Tones? Have you seen Einstein?”

Tony feigned a neutral expression, but he knew he was doing a terrible job of hiding his dumbass smile, stupidly pleased with himself. “Oh, uh… She was adopted. While you were gone.”

Rhodey, apparently, had missed his smile altogether. “What? When? By who?? I’m supposed to have veto privileges. I didn’t even meet them, Tones!” o

“Oh my god,” Tony groaned, rolling his eyes. “You ruin everything.” He was still grinning through, and he got up to reach behind the couch, picking up the little cat pet that Einstein was snoozing in, all dressed up with a red and yellow ribbon. “She was adopted by you, dipshit. Surprise.”

Rhodey stopped dead. “Oh,” he managed. And then he broke out into a wide smile, moving to take Einstein, now blinking at him sleepily. “Wait, really? She’s ours?”

“Ye-es…” Tony narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously. “You’re in charge of her litter box, though. I’m not doing that.”

Rhodey just burst out laughing, bright and happy, and Tony couldn’t help beaming at the sound of it. “God, I love you.”

“Yeah, yeah, love you too.” Tony stuck his tongue out at him. “You’re lucky you’re cute though, cause god, you’re dumb.”

Rhodey didn’t even protest, just reached out and hauled Tony in for a tight hug, holding him close until Einstein gave an indignant meow of protest from between them.

@tonystarkbingo

#tonystarkbingomiv #tsbmiv #ironhusbands #tony stark #james rhodes #fluff #romance #domestic #fic #my fic

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