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kariachi · 4 years ago

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Okay y’all, it’s the big day. The latest of the Ben 10 movies, after which I will be fully caught up on the franchise and can unblacklist it finally because two days is too damn much already.

I’m going in with, pretty much no info? I’ve watched one trailer, don’t even know if there’s more, and gotten hints of spoilers. Enough to worry for my son but not enough to actually know anything. Which, given Kevin is about all I care about, tells you some of how I feel going into this. Am crossing my fingers and hoping this ends with him in a really good space and having nothing to do with Phil because I have been worrying about that since I learned he would be in this.

Don’t trust that man as far as my piddly arms could throw him and anyway I don’t want Kevin anywhere near any part of the Forever Dipshit unless he’s actively dismantling the fucker. Asshole deserves to get turned into a toaster. Haven’t heard any ‘oh your reaction is going to be fun’ sort’ve stuff from anybody, so fingers crossed.

But, we can’t know anything until we get into it, so, Ben 10 Versus The Universe.

An hour 12 minutes, yeah it looks like my initial estimate might be accurate. I will be here the entire damn day.

Ooo, it’s own intro, very nice.

Okay, 1) like that intro, very much in the style of the other series and I like that about it. 2) Spent it wondering if they were going to include Kevin in the rogue’s gallery runthrough and instead it literally ends with the Tennysons and Kevin in the Rustbucket, Kevin being his normal little shit self.

Maybe watching this when I was on the rag was a bad idea because y’all I am already in tears he’s enjoying himself so much. My precious son. Gods I love him.

Can I just sit on this frame for an hour, would that count? Can fill the time with telling you how much I love my son.

Ben 10 Versus The Universe: The Movie (The Game: The Gameshow: The TV Series)

They brought in fucking everybody for this. Kelly is at the bottom of the list but I am putting my trust in her. Seriously y’all I am so happy with her work on this show, I knew the reboot was going to be good as soon as I learned she was going to be working on it, she is a delight.

Okay, actual show, apparently we’re starting at what looks like a small base. I don’t know for what. it looks like they want me to think it’s military but also yeah no. The pool is throwing me off the most, I think. I mean wtf?

Oh look, Smythe shit. A steam-powered airship-zeppelin. And Ben as Heatblast handling the situation, as one does.

Ben is so tired. He needs a vacation from this vacation so damn bad. Somebody else handle the villains so he can get like, two weeks to actually relax.

Ah, it’s an industrial server farm. I don’t know enough about those or if it’s even a thing to give an opinion. Smythe wants it gone though, to the shock of nobody.

He wasn’t to wipe out telecommunications so we’re left with telephones as our most advanced mode of conversation.

Ben, meanwhile, is asleep. Can’t blame him.

Ben is bored. This shit is like clockwork, he could probably save the day in his sleep at this point. Especially from Smythe.

“I’m not even breaking a sweat, and I’m on fire!”

Ben saves the day, hardly even has to try (pretty much doesn’t) and in the end even Smythe has to agree this is getting repetitive.

Huh, Max and Gwen were in the doom-ball.

Max and Gwen are not impressed with Ben having been bored while they were under the threat of danger. Ben has the very valid point that they really weren’t at any risk, even if they were in a mine.

Max, while talking about staying ready for the unexpected, gets a phonecall.

Ben: “Bet you anything it’s Phil. He’s got some big emergency and we’ve gotta go somewhere and look at something.” Gwen: “You don’t have to be so smug. Not everything is a dire situation.” Max: “It’s Phil, we gotta go to his lab and look at something. He says it’s pretty dire.” Ben: “Like clockwork.”

Honestly I’d be bored too. This is why they needed to add Argit, something to mix things up, change up the style.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any ‘your reaction is gonna be so fun’ messages so I don’t think we’re getting Argit. But hopefully, given space and Kevin are involved, we will receive an opening for later Argitness.

Hello Phil. I still don’t trust you. You have been nothing but vaguely suspicious shit on top of vaguely suspicious shit every since the season 1 finale and with your history in the other series? Where you were a dipshit from the word go? I wouldn’t leave you alone with a beanbag chair.

Ben, not taking shit seriously, Gwen unimpressed, Phil stating that actually it may be the end of the world. Honestly fuck it save the children let it die. The reboot sequels can be Ben, Gwen, and Kevin traveling the galaxy trying to, ya know, survive and shit. They gather an Argit on the way who honestly is amazed these three didn’t die within a day and half. Tell me you wouldn’t watch that!

Do you even have a bedroom or anything, Phil, or is that building just all lab? Do you pull a Kevin and sleep on your tech?

I don’t trust this giant-computer room. It’s giving me FD vibes.

Anyway yadda yadda object heading straight for Earth, we continue

Ben is so excited to have something new going on

Phil thinks this is a massive meteorite. I’m going to guess warship because I’m fairly certain I remember Incurseans being involved somewhere and honestly.

Oh Ben

I’m like 3.5 minutes in

Ben: If I turn into Cannonbolt you guys can launch be at the meteor and the impact would make it go kablooey Gwen: You and the meteor would ricochet off each other sending you into deep space with no way back Ben: I’d never have homework again Gwen: Ben please

“After months of analyzing your Omnitrix-” I swear this show’s relationship with time will drive me to drink

Phil, do you really think you have time to try to properly prep the child for space? I mean you’ve got over an hour of movie but in-universe

...Phil, why do you have a g-force simulator? And where the fuck are you fitting it?

Okay, seriously, I am concerned at this point by the shit he has on hand. Also why are they focusing on FourArms, mix it up, there’s nine other aliens available

You guys realize you don’t have much choice but to send him anyway? I mean unless you intend to hunt down Kevin and sacrifice him instead which, honestly would be in line with his adult interactions so far and honestly space was good for him in the sequels so maybe it’ll be good for him here.

Ben is so excited and Gwen is so done.

Upgrades to the armor shit have been unlocked.

Problem being, the new armor makes Jetray look, very humanoid. I am not impressed.

Gotta hand it though, Boy can get some speed now. Holy crap. Hate to see XLR8 upgraded.

“We’ve only got one shot at this” Ben’s moving fast enough I think you’ve got a solid three or four

Gwen, Gwen are you having an existential crisis? He’s passed the moon, he’s not coming back down anytime soon.

Ben please

And Ben lost that game of chicken with the meteor, having swerved away at the last moment, presumably because the Omnitrix has the whole ‘you are not dying you fucker’ thing going on

And Ben has been flown right into a fucking vortex of some variety or another. Welp.

Thirty seconds until the meteor hits, nobody knows where Ben vanished too, Phil is resigned, Max is blank, and Gwen looks fucking haunted. Poor kid does not deserve this. She needs a vacation from this vacation too

Oh Gwen, baby

Welp, everyone is fairly certain Ben is dead. Good news is, you won’t outlast him by long the meteor should take out earth in about four seconds

Motherfuck- If you are going to just vanish can you not wait until one second before you’re supposed to hit a planet?!?! Fucking rude!!

Motherfucking Vilgax! I should’ve known! Only you would be so rude! Also how much shit was your little ramshackle pod encased in that it was mistaken for the largest meteor seen?

So, Vilgax is here on Earth and our only defense is Max, Gwen, and presumably Kevin. Either Kevin is going to tap into some pre-reboot murder instincts or shit is about to get bad.

Ben has been carried through the wormhole to, Kinet? I think that’s Kinet, give me a second- No! No it’s Petropia! Listen it’s been a while let me live. Why drop Ben here? wtf is going on?

Swimming through space because your ultra jetboots stopped working

Somebody is watching this child. Who? We know not.

Ben: *times out* Omnitrix: Fuck no *builds spacesuit*

Ben, worried he failed and doomed Earth. It’s okay, it was just Vilgax. Once you find your way back home it’ll all be good.

Sudden spaceship. Also is space just, purple? Is that what’s going on here?

Oh look, Incurseans. Hi.

Omnitrix takes a while to register an alien language and start translating, which makes sense that it would take a little bit for a translator like that to kick in, the tech trying to figure out what language is being spoken. Don’t think I’ve seen that before in a work, very nice. Also the language is literally Incursean so, that’s nice to know. Handy for someone like me.

...Ben is being arrested by the Incurseans for multiple violent crimes perpetrated across the universe. Did not expect that from them.

Also Azmuth, please explain to me what precisely you did with this watch before you threw it at Earth?

...How you could mistake Ben for Vilgax I do not know, but it’s nice to know it wasn’t Azmuth causing wanton destruction and chaos? I guess? This certainly explains how the bastard knew how the Omnitrix worked.

Takes Ben ten seconds of being amazed at and in love with the Omnitrix to register that they think he’s Vilgax.

The Incurseans know about Earth. I’m not sure if that’s a good, bad, or neutral thin in the reboot. The whole ‘arresting a fucker for crimes against the universe’ thing has thrown me off.

Ben plays along for a chance to escape, meanwhile you know Kevin would’ve snapped and argued and fought until they had to admit he couldn’t be Vilgax because Vilgax wouldn’t lower himself to biting.

(I mean it, look at that child and tell me he doesn’t bite)

Well, Ben almost escaped. Too bad Incurseans have those long-ass tongues

Humongasaur fighting an endless swarm of frogs

Ben just is having a day. Honestly it’s lucky Earth’s not going to get wrecked by a meteorite because otherwise he’d be fucked.

Team Tennysons is trying to track Ben down on Earth. Apparently Phil has found the Omnitrix’s signal and they’re tracking that. Three guesses who they’re about to find and the first two don’t count.

Phil: He crashed from space so he might be- Tennysons: Finish that sentence and die

Yeah, the red flashing doesn’t clue them in or anything

And the energy signature looks different. Gwen, darling, you are experienced enough to know exactly who you’re about to find in a cave in the middle of nowhere in the desert (because of-fucking-course, my goddamn disaster)

How is the red flashing not cluing you in? Ben is green, Kevin is red, and together they make one whole Christmas.

Kevin hauling ass, presumably either because something is wrong with his watch (my poor son) or because the Tennysons calling him Ben is freaking him out (my poor son) or both (my poor song)

Okay, Gwen, the tone wasn’t awful but still, was not nessecary to put that emphasis on ‘Kevin’ after the ‘it was just’. Alongside the almost aggravated look when you finally put the pieces together and realized it was him? I know you’re worried for Ben but come on. You hunted him down, he is innocent in everything.

Also can we talk about, something is clearly wrong? I guessed something was wrong with the watch, I think I was right- Kevin was groaning after timing out, holding his head, it’s not normal.

The first thing my son says is telling the Tennysons to get lost (quote “You heard him, hit the road” after Phil tells them to call him when they go back to their search), which isn’t surprising given the look on his face after Gwen’s ‘it was just Kevin’. Something is wrong and now he’s upset on top of that because, well, we know him and how he feels about not being appreciated.

Also holy shit the framing, with Kevin on top of a tall rock in an empty cave, with his back to the Tennysons, making up just a small part of the shot. Really emphasizing just how alone he is.

(Dear reboot give him his rat and prison-dad for fuck’s sake)

(Nobody sent me any ‘your response is gonna be fun’ messages, so I’m assuming I don’t get Kwarrel either, damnit. I can only hope for openings for later Kwarrel in the franchise)

Oh. Oh my son. Oh something has gone very wrong and he is shifting uncontrollably. He has isolated himself so nobody sees him like this. My baby. My precious little perfect child

Notice that he is shifting uncontrollably and he has still not taken off the watch, which would be the obvious answer to the dilemma. So why? Was he too busy freaking out to think of it? Or does on or off not matter anymore?

Tennysons: Why don’t you come along and let us help you? Kevin: Fuck you and your talking car too

“I built this. I should be able to control it.” Oh Kevin...

“And that’s amazing!” And Kevin has no fucking response (except to be a crushing wreck but, I’m deducting the half point and moving on). Praise? For his work? Is that legal?

My son. My heart.

“I didn’t do it all on my own. There was kinda this weird dream.” Said while he’s making his way down to the Tennysons because in the end all he needs is for someone to call him amazing, give him praise, notice him, appreciate him, acknowledge his worth.

The Tennysons recommend letting Phil help because he helped Ben and Kevin’s response is, quote “I’m. Not. Ben! And this isn’t the Omnitrix, it’s the Antitrix*.”

*First time Kevin’s watch has been referred to by that name in the show. Prior to this it was always called a watch or an Omnitrix.

There is so much fucking going on in Kevin tell me we’re learning some of it here I’m begging, give me the inner workings of my son

...pause a second, I don’t wanna look it up because I’m worried about spoilers, but does Kevin’s watch look different? The strap system is different, I’d swear it. Or maybe I’m wrong, it’s been a few days since a Kev episode...

Kevin pointing out that he’s not a Tennyson, denying ever doing anything to help them, wondering what their deal is, claiming they should hate him (my fucking son! someone get this child a dad and a rat, a blanket, some cocoa, and some fucking love and affection!)

By the way, I’m almost 20 minutes in and it’s been over two hours. Kevin is here now, things are probably gonna start going slower.

The Tennysons letting Kevin know they don’t hate him. Max straight up saying he doesn’t seem like a bad kid, just a lost one. Which honestly is very true, he is a good child he just doesn’t really... he’s a mess and there is so much in him and so much of it sour and just- He needs love. Proper, healthy love and guidance by someone who’ll look out for him, put his needs first. It’s why I want Kwarrel back- he, Gar, and reboot!Max have treated Kevin the best, been the most healthy adult interactions he’s had, through the franchise. Kwarrel could be the adult figure he needs in his life, but he got the one episode and nothing and just- I just want the best for Kevin.

“If you trust us, we’ll trust you.” And then Kevin agreeing to come along as long as his watch gets fixed.

Oh gods the smile as he follows them! Like, a moment of happiness for the child!

Vilgax set a city on fire. I take it he’s in a mood.

Yep. Definitely in a mood. Also how the fuck did you get out of the Null Void?

Oh look, we’re back with Ben. Honestly the least interesting part of this movie right now, though I love him.

Although I gotta admit, I never would’ve guessed the Omnitrix being used for a mistaken identity plot like this.

...okay unless he was thrown in the Null Void before you can’t charge him with that he was thrown in unlawfully. Or at least one would hope so. This is space so, the laws have been pretty fucked up in earlier series.

Y’all so not know the joy when you see “How do you plead” and go ‘he pleads not fucking Vilgax’ and then you hit play and Ben’s plea is “not Vilgax”.

Ben is fucking tired of people treating him like he’s Vilgax and you can’t rightly blame him.

Oh, look, Walkatrout. Hi guys! Nice to see you!

Oooo, hello spider-like babies! One second guys I gotta get you a screenshot!

I love them.

Also check out these fuckers!

Seems everybody and their mother is here to see this shit go down

Hi Tetrax. Care to tell us why you are here as a witness for the prosecution?

Welp, can’t see this going well

Tetrax, you lying shit, what is your angle? You have got to have something to gain from this.

Tetrax, describing Ben: “It’s like- It’s like a squishy little sack of organs held together with hair. And it’s head is enormous.”

Ben’s making another break for it

“-these are not the actions of the hero you claim to be-” Hmmmmmmmmmmm

Don’t sentence him to the Null Void you already know Vilgax can get out!

I’m impressed by how much these people believe in Vilgax’s acting skills. Like the fact that he’s acting nothing like himself and in fact 100% like the small child he appears to be only proves that he’s a good actor and not that, ya know, maybe they should check and see if they actually did grab somebody’s kid by accident. I mean it’s not like shapechanging watches are a one-and-done deal, a fucking 11-yo made one

And Ben gets dropped through a portal to, somewhere. It certainly doesn’t look like the Null Void.

Poor crying baby

“You don’t deserve to wield the Omnitrix, it belongs with it’s creator- me.” Oh fuck off, Azmuth. You let a squid have it for fuck’s sake.

Phil studying the Antitrix. Apparently the energy signature is very sporadic, but seems familiar.

Solar, Polar, please, we’ve got shit going on. Important Antitrix information. Could you not take a vacation? Take your mother to Disney World or something?

They’re at the fucking house because Phil has the most powerful radio tower in the country. Of course.

The Tennysons sent Kevin outside to handle them and he’s just standing in the yard watching them and eating chips. Telling them to shove off so his shit can get fixed. How is he not the most popular character in this franchise? Has he not earned a fucking spin-off?

Fucking Dark Matter running through the twins like tissue paper

Gwen, a firm believer in the art of ‘Kevin needs to fucking chill’.

My son sees cops and bolts. Nobody is surprised, given his everything. Honestly it’s probably the safest bet he’s got in anything in life- avoid cops.

“Whoever you saw on those security cameras it wasn’t me!” Kevin what did you do?

Is shocked to find the cops aren’t there for him, my poor son.

Kevin: *is just barely compared to Ben* This cannot be allowed to stand

“Proud? Of me?” Y’all the look on his face! My son!

Like he’s not entirely sure if this is legal but he’s not about to look it in the face! My baby!

Vilgax! Hello! I knew you and my son were both going to be here so I saved you a spot in the pit! Reserved seating, as it were

Fuck off, squid-boy, the kid built the watch fair and square!

Oh gods, tell me the ‘Vilgax was involved in the dream situation’ theory isn’t being proven here

Also the look on Kevin’s face when he’s noting having seen Vilgax before, somewhere between ‘wait a minute’ and ‘you, you are the one I must kill’

He was in the dream and my boy is freaked.

“Used you as a vessel to finally complete my own design” Vilgax you gave the child a dream with a blueprint in it. There is only so much credit you can give yourself. How did you even do that? Is this some new Chimera Sui Generis thing? Superstrength, tentacles, laser eyes, and fucking dreamwalking?

Is the Freddy Kruger of squid

As I said designing the piece means nothing if you go handing out the design to whoever. You can still patent the shit, maybe, but you can’t claim that whatever people made with said pretty-much-opensource design is your property.

Vilgax: It’s my design, give it to me Kevin: Fight me bitch

Kevin ‘Fight Me’ Levin

Ya know, I always though FD would be Kevin’s first kill but honestly it might be Vilgax.

I love him so much you guys. He is the most precious thing ever.

Kicks Vilgax’s arm as he’s going tor the watch, backflips away, perfect landing and out to kick ass

Vilgax if you wanted a kid who would just hand the watch over when you showed up maybe you shouldn’t have handed the design off to the most obstinate, anti-authoritarian, ‘you don’t tell me what to do’ child on the face of the planet Earth. You’d have probably had an easier time getting shit from Looma.

Poor gay couple who just got a car through the roof of their new house

Vilgax can talk shit all he likes, but Kevin is putting up a good fight. That’s another thing he maybe should’ve kept in mind, maybe don’t choose the kid who was doing perfect backflips presumably before he even got the stupid dream.

Okay, Ben is in the Null Void. They’ve tidied the place up since the OG series

Hello, species whose name I can’t remember off the top of my head. Good advice for the child thank you

Oh look, a Loboan, hello

There’s a whole mess of peeps. Including an Ectonurite, Vulpimancer, and Pisciss Volann

Dudes you already know Vilgax wants the watch why do you want to get his attention by getting it your own damn selves? It’s more trouble than it’s worth honestly.

These guys need to chill.

Yeeeep, deeefinitely need to chill

Ya know, Azmuth, if you wanted to show up and take your watch back? Now would be a good time? There’s a whole load of people here vying for it, earn the damn thing.

Hmmmm

Azmuth. Darling. Why are you in the Null Void? Why are you so firmly in the Null Void that fuckers know you and bend to your commands? The fuck did you do?

Everybody is talking shit about Ben today. He’s ten, let the child live!

Ben, out to kick Azmuth’s ass because he thinks he works for Vilgax because let’s be real, he’s had a fucking day and is also literally ten

Azmuth, just a rampaging dick wherever you find him

Also he has the Omnitrix back now

Jesus fuck, I just really want somebody to come step on Azmuth. Like, Vilgax is a dick but that’s his job, Azmuth is just, a fucking dick.

Azmuth you cannot talk about Ben being an infant and then turn around and say he should’ve known to kill Vilgax. He is a child.

Le gasp. Vilgax was Azmuth’s student. I’m going to assume you got thrown in here for not killing him your own damn self?

Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, annoying Azmuth into telling him the story of wtf happened with him and Vilgax

Young-Azmuth here is just, an image I never needed in my life. Give me Blukic and Driba back

Young Vilgax with goggles

And, shocker, Vilgax went ‘science is great but I can do you one better- universal domination’

Wow, Azmuth. Ya know if you’d had any braincells sufficiently developed you’d have known to kill him.

Azmuth. If you could have maybe one manner. A single etiquette.

Also, really? Sending the Omnitrix to Earth was the only option? You couldn’t destroy it now that it’s true destructive potential was known? Recode the damn thing to stricter parameters in a new coding language? Nothing else? Greatest mind in the universe and you couldn’t think of something, anything, besides sending it to a planet that would’ve been completely helpless if Vilgax had managed to get his hands back on it?

Ben: Okay, fuck you and your watch then, I’ll just go beat Vilgax myself Azmuth: Wait what?

Azmuth has set Ben a trial. You know the one, the ‘reach me within this time frame’ shit. If he passes he gets to keep the Omnitrix.

Attempt 1: No shapeshifting Attempt 2: Rath into Humongasaur

Attempt 3 starts with him having managed to end up outside of the trail area entirely

Azmuth is just a fucking dick. Ben points out that his entire goal is to save his planet from Vilgax, Azmuth blows it off because the fact Ben has his life’s work is more important. Gods just, being reminded how big a dick Azmuth is...

Azmuth, please keep in mind that the child is in fact a child

Ben and Kevin need to make friends so Kev can teach him some moves, he’d have kicked this Ectonurite in the head by now

Ben Tennyson, professional Good Child, saves the fucker that’s been giving him shit.

Ben figuring out new ways to use the Omnitrix and unlocking Goop!

Gods, Azmuth, now you gotta shittalk Goop too? Now you’re just being a speciest dick.

Ben saves a fucker, a fucker who’s been nothign but a shit to him, just barely fails the trial, and breaks down over not managing to beat it and save Earth. He’s so good you guys.

“Color me surprised that altruism still exists in this reality” you don’t get to make comments like that when you’ve been nothing but a dick the entire time you’ve been on screen

Azmuth has given Ben more time and a way out of the Null Void. Because it’s Azmuth, of course he’d rather stay there and wallow in his own bullshit that actually go out into the universe and do something about the problems he started.

Don’t waste your breath on him, Ben, he doesn’t deserve it

Dude he saved is now a Ben fan.

And Ben takes a sidetrip to save the Incurseans from a giant Null Void portal

And back on Earth Kevin is still putting a fight. He’s not winning, but he’s still fighting because he is a precious disaster.

The Tennysons trying to get it through his obstinate, broken little brain that he can accept help (and also that just because Ben does it doesn’t mean he has to refuse just to keep himself distinct from him (I am wording this badly but, I can’t word it right just now...))

It doesn’t work.

My son. Vilgax ain’t even tired and Kevin is but he’s still holding his own.

Holy shit Phil has a living room

And Gwen has become a hostage. Good job drawing attention to yourself kiddo.

Yes Gwen, bite the squid! It’s not doing anything but I appreciate the enthusiasm and the fighting back!

She hardly even counts as a hostage, Kevin went to straight punch Vilgax and the dude just threw her away. At least use her as a fucking shield!

“You must be under the impression that you are special, when in reality you were only good for one thing.” 1) Yeah, building what you couldn’t. 2) Kevin is a brilliant artist and engineer, good at athletics, with a natural talent for magic, all on top of a good sense of humor and a smile like the fucking sun, HE IS WORTH TEN OF YOU

Also, so far the movie has given me no reason to believe that he was given any parts or tools with which to build this watch so, on top of all that, all my earlier points still stand so far as far as Kevin being better than fucking Tony Stark with machinery. Is that why you threw the design at this foul-tempered, stubborn little thing, Vilgax? Not because you’re an idiot and he could build it, but because he’s the only one who could? I’ve seen no proof against it yet.

Okay giving us that, that fucking view of him after being tossed, fucking skipping over the asphalt, was not nessecary!!!

My son...

My son....

You did great sweetie! You were amazing!

My son.... My poor, battered, exhausted, son....

Also the fact that he straight up says he’ll try again later, which is just- I don’t doubt it. I don’t doubt he will wake up and immediately upon realizing his watch is gone head out to fight Vilgax again.

The fucking K on the antitrix turning into a V is aggravating for pit-related reason but also very thematically appropriate

Vilgax fucking chimerized himself. Fuck off, that’s Kevin’s thing. Just all about stealing from children

Vilgax steals his chimerism shtick and Kevin immediately starts regaining consciousness. My child

Extra toothy mouths too?! Fucking chill, squid-boy!

Kevin is up and moving and everyone is fleeing a pissed Vilgax in the Rustbucket. He is now on the hunt for Ben

Vilgax is, really putting them through the wringer and Kevin is not happy.

And Kevin, once they’re at Vilgax’s mercy, runs off to start shit once again with the fucker. Because my child is perfect.

He has hijacked fucking Glitch! Of course he has! My child! Harness the fucking Glitch!

He and Glitch, luring Vilgax away with ease because this man handles disrespect worse than Kev does.

The Rustbucket is scrap, but Phil might have an option.

And we’re back to Ben. When last we left him he’d worn himself out saving the Incurseans, straight passing out, and now, now we’re back to him.

The Incurseans saved him, and are apologizing for starting shit. Which is better than they were in past iterations so honestly I’m happy with them.

Incursean leader: You have legal permission to apprehend Vilgax Ben: I don’t know how to get home IL: We’ll take you Incursean Otherdude: We can’t enter warpdrive Ben: What about that wormhole I took before? IO: ...that would work IL: Great, let’s go!

They are going to scour the ship for Tetrax so they can bring him in for falsely accusing a 10-yo hero of being Vilgax

Back to the Best Boy and Glitch fucking psychoanalysing my child as someone who uses an abrasive attitude to ward of people who may hurt him but at heart is a good person

“Listen, if there’s anything I know, it’s how to adapt and survive. If anyone can deal with being alone with Captain Calamari out here, it’s me.” My son!!

And they’re caught. Somebody give Kevin a crowbar or something.

Holy shit Glitch sacrificed himself to give Kevin a shot! Fucking hell! That, I think that may earn back the half point lost for the Gwevin. Sacrificing yourself to save my son earns a lot.

Oh you did not just call my son sniveling and pathetic. You didn’t. You get the special pit with FD.

My boy is crying. My boy is crying. A squid is going to die. Thou shalt not suffer a Vilgax to live.

The first person to get me a picture of Vilgax being torn apart by Kevin 11k gets a drabble.

Glitch! Giving my boy the aid and encouragement he needs in this moment! You definitely get the half point!

Kevin, like Ben, is having A Day.

Did, did Glitch and Kevin just fucking biomerge? Taking my son up a notch? Oh yesss

Glitch has been working on becoming armor for Ben but, well, Kevin needs it right now and it did need a testrun. Kevin is so happy to get to use it first. Seriously I don’t know what happened in their backstory but, damn

My boy

Welp

Back to Ben and Tetrax really should’ve been ready to bail, taking so long is just unprofessional.

Azmuth paid Tetrax to lie in court. Raise your hand if you’re surprised. Nobody. I’m shocked.

Ben is letting Tetrax go because he’s like 60% certain he helped in the long run

*snort* Okay, like that fourth wall break.

Kevin and Glitch, still fighting Vilgax, to the surprise of nobody given Kevin does not cannot will not stop fighting

They work well together, they really do. Glitch is more entertaining when he’s actually working off somebody rather than trying to just, be his own thing.

Ben cannot catch a break today

The Tennysons in an actual car plus Kevin and Glitch, all fighting Vilgax together because fuck it, better than going it alone right now

There’s still another twelve minutes.

My son. My Son. “A pity you didn’t stand down while you still had the chance.” “I’d rather go all-in and end up squashed than stand around and let some slab of squid jerky like you stand around and take over the planet.”

Ben is back on Earth and ready to join the fray. Sorry Squiddly but there is no chance in hell you can handle Kevin and Ben at the same time. Actually I’m fairly certain Kevin’s not gonna end up a Tennyson half because of this fucking obsession with Gwevin and half because Kevin and Ben as family would end the universe all on it’s own.

The fact Kevin then proceeded to call him Squidly just makes this day better.

A lot has happened since you left, Ben. Everyone has been having A Time.

And Vilgax smacks Kevin away, doing that final bit of damage to take Glitch out of the fight. Which means Kevin is out of the fight, or at least will be in a minute because honestly I’ll be surprised if nobody sits on him after that last stunt he pulled.

We’ve got nine minutes, let’s see if Vilgax can stand up against Ben, especially after all the fighting he’s already been doing. Neither of them is fresh, but Ben is fresher.

Vilgax is kicking ass so far. C’mon Ben, use Goop!

My son! Acting like he’s not worth saving because he can’t be useful. I am going to hunt down his father and the FD and destroy them both.

Glitch can drain the car and start repairs. The Tennysons are being helpful and Good.

My baby! He is just, confidence has plummeted. Kevin, baby, you are the best thing on this show! You are amazing!

Max, pointing out that Kevin managed to hold off Vilgax on his own, and that he and Ben together can kick his ass. Phil backing it up with a ‘the world needs you right now’.

Yesss, support for my son, this is all I want in this world

“Stand back, I’m going after my watch.” What did I tell you. He’s getting that fucking watch back if he has to eat Vilgax to do it. He worked hard on that thing!

Glitch is falling the fuck apart, Ben is down, Vilgax is about to win, and Kevin is not looking like he’s about to stop anytime soon.

MY BOY!!!!! MY FUCKING SON!!!! THE PERFECT BEING!!!!!!

He dove at Vilgax as he was about to use the Omnitrix’s key to unlock more power for the Antitrix and managed to snatch it back from the bastard! Because! He! Is! Perfect!

Vilgax has still gotten what so far seems to be a net positive effect, but at least he doesn’t have the watch

He thinks he’s Jafar

Vilgax standing there monologuing about his own greatness and Kevin just calls him a doofus and launches at him as Bashmouth

Then straight to CrystalFist when caught to make vilgax let him go, he’s amazing.

Ben catches him as he plummets, fully armored up, it’s time for these boys to wreck some squid shit.

Vilgax just keeps fucking growing. We’ve only got like five minutes left in the movie, just stop.

Kevin just, no hesitation. He is going to fight a giant squid so help him god

Welp. They managed to land some blows.

The boys have been taken out, Team Tennyson is at Ben’s side. “Glitch is- is gone.” “What about Kevin?” “I don’t know, Vilgax hit him pretty hard.“

Phil. Phil what the fuck are you hiding? You are hiding something and so help me if it could’ve helped my boy earlier I will-

Kevin and Azmuth need to meet because Kevin needs to punt him.

Oh look, the frog-bitch is out of the Null Void and bothering the Incurseans. They don’t deserve this, they’re good people.

Oh look, Ben has unlocked Waybig. Fitting, I suppose.

It’s gonna be a curbstomp fight, there’s only a few minutes left and we still need to wrap this movie up. Hopefully confirm my son is alive.

I was right. Good fight, still very quick. And now we gotta deal with fucking Azmuth again.

And, shocker, Ben gets to keep the watch.

Okay, we have confirmation Kevin at least limped away. He was alive as of the end of this film.

11/11 thanks to quality Kevin content and Glitch finally earning my respect. I’m still serious about the Vilgax thing though- first person, a reboot drabble of their choosing.

#achi liveblogs #ben 10 2.os #ben 10 #ben 10 versus the universe

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aggressivelyclueless · 6 years ago

Text

Revelation of a Ghost Gazer

prompted by @duckapus "Reveal- Jack starts to question why ghost hunting equipment malfunctions around Danny. Exclusively around Danny." Words: 6083 Warning: mildly feelsy i guess?

There was another fire in the lab downstairs. The portal had sealed itself shut as a precautionary measure against the blaze, but most of the other equipment was at serious risk. The soldering iron had melted through the plastic casing on which it had been left, and fused several important wiring components together before the works had gone up in flames. The lab's smoke alarm had been dismantled long ago, not because of this incident but because of the toaster on the other work-table that had a terrible tendency to go unnoticed until it had all but incinerated its contents. This meant that, although the lab wasn't uninhabited, the fire itself went unchecked and unattended. Jack Fenton was at it again. He stood at the opposite end of the lab, a miniaturized ecto-shield generator in one hand and a screwdriver in the other. The fire behind him crawled slowly across the tabletop, hoping to grab onto the more sizable machinery at the other end, and inched upwards, strengthened by the stack of loose papers that had been left out. It chewed them up in seconds, sending a dark plume of smoke rising up and crawling across the ceiling. After a moment, the smoke alarm in the kitchen went off. This Jack noticed. He turned, jumping in surprise at the growing flames before him, and made a dive for the fire extinguisher in the corner. He doused most of the lab with it, waited for the smoke to settle, and doused it again just to make sure. "Jack?" his wife's voice floated down to him from upstairs, "Is that the smoke alarm again? What's going on down there?" "Nothing, honey!" he called back, a little too quickly. He could hear her footsteps coming down the stairs, and held the extinguisher behind his back in the hopes that she wouldn't notice that he'd just used it to make a mess of the lab around him. Maddie paused at the landing, crossing her arms. "Jack. What did you do this time?" "Me? I didn't do anything!" Jack exclaimed, jerking one thumb at the portal behind him, which reopened now that it wasn't in danger of shorting out. "You should have seen the ghost that just came through, though - I got him good this time!" Maddie sighed. "With the Fenton fire extinguisher? Really, dear? You know how many times I've told you to be more careful." Jack slumped. "Yeah, I know. But it was an accident, and I took care of it - !" "Yes, I'm sure you did," said Maddie, sliding a glance to the ruined equipment on the worktable across the room, "Jack, why don't you take a break for the afternoon? I'm sure this will all still be here tomorrow." "But - " Jack protested, "I was this close to fixing the interference on the ghost gazer - !" Maddie threw a hand up. "Look, Jack, I'm not going to argue with you - but you've been at it every day this week, and I think it's starting to get to you." "Maybe it is," Jack admitted, shoulders slumping. He glanced over at the malfunctioning thing; ever since he'd finished constructing it last week, it had pointed him directly upwards, as if a ghost was floating over his head and he didn't know it. Yeah, right, like I wouldn't notice if there was a ghost right on top of me! He'd tried at least three separate methods of fixing it; this was, perhaps, the most meticulous he'd ever been in a project this small, but Maddie was right about it bothering him. One day, he thought he'd had it. The malfunctioning blip had disappeared - at least, until the kids got home from school that afternoon. He'd come up to tell them how excited he'd been that he'd finally gotten it to work, and as if on cue it had malfunctioned again. It was almost as if it didn't want anyone other than him to see it. Stupid ghost-gazer. It should know better than to mess with Jack Fenton! I'll show that piece of junk who's boss! Unfortunately, he hadn't actually done that. He tromped upstairs anyway, defective machine in hand, and sat at the kitchen table instead. He couldn't seem to put the thing down, even though he was tired of it. The blip, he noticed, was honed in on something upstairs. "That's strange," he muttered to himself. He remembered the last time that a ghost had gotten into the house - he'd fired up the ecto-foamer to take care of it, and instead of locking onto the actual ghost, it had locked instead onto the door to Danny's room. He'd come close to blowing a hole in the house that night, and he was glad that Maddie hadn't been around to see the mess. Danny certainly hadn't forgiven him - can't you go and screw things up somewhere else? he'd snapped, and if Jack was honest it still stung - and he was increasingly certain that something upstairs was causing the interference. He knew it wasn't either of the kids' mobiles; he'd had Maddie run a handful of tests with hers, and there hadn't been any problems. Maybe there was something glitchy in the wiring of the house? That would certainly explain why it was always coming from upstairs, and why some of the other sensors were picking it up. He realized that, no, the kids' rooms weren't wired in with the rest of the house. He'd suggested a few months ago that they should consider having a few security measures put in, but Jazzypants had been adamantly against it. She'd argued tooth and nail about it until Jack had dropped the subject two weeks later. Even Danny had scoffed, although he was less civil about it. At least Jazz had the decency not to accuse him outright of wanting to spy in on her life. That was almost the first thing out of Danny's mouth when he'd heard about it. That said, the ecto-foamer incident had been a week prior, and Jack supposed that might have had something to do with his hostility. He recalibrated the device for the eighteenth time. Maybe, if he was standing in the kitchen this time, it might recognize that it was being stupid. It didn't, and Jack sighed. He'd refused to let his wife touch it this far - he wanted to solve this little problem for himself! - but he reluctantly handed the thing to her. "Maddie," he said glumly, "I hate to ask, but did you want to take a look at it?" Maddie took it, doing another quick recalibration to no avail. "Well," she said reluctantly, "I suppose you could always scrap it and start over, if it's giving you this much trouble - " "Start over?" Jack exclaimed, "Just because of a little blip that won't go away? You think I'm going to give up that easily? Me - Jack Fenton? Give up?" Maddie gave him a flat look. "Well, don't, then. I just think you should put it down and come back to it tomorrow - or next week. You might have better luck if you find something else to work on in the meantime." Jack finally set the device down. "Maybe you're right. Maybe this is getting further under my skin that I realized. Well! Guess I'm done worrying about that for now!" He picked up the device, tossing it down the stairs and slamming the lab door behind him. "Guess it's time for pity fudge!"

He was not done worrying about it. The kids had gone to bed an hour ago, and Maddie had fallen asleep on the couch with a good book. Jack was back downstairs, ghost-gazer half taken apart on the work-table. He'd checked the wiring at least twice from top to bottom, and even run it through the spectral scanner to see if it had been overtaken by a mischievous little haunt itself. It hadn't, and even the spectral scanner was overcome with the interference. Jack wondered if it was some kind of ghost virus. Computers got viruses, after all - who's to say they couldn't get ghost viruses? He thought it was entirely possible. He gave both of the faulty machines a once-over with the Fenton Creep Cleanser. That, finally, seemed to do the trick. The mysterious blip disappeared from both devices at once. Jack was stunned. He'd almost run out of ideas, and hadn't fully expected something like that to even work in the first place. He stood over the devices in a moment of disbelief; how could it have been that easy, and he hadn't thought of it until just now? He decided that it didn't matter. He'd figured it out, and he hadn't even needed Maddie to double-check anything for him. He held up both machines in triumph, nearly knocking the spirit-smasher off the side of the work-table, and ran upstairs. "Maddie - Maddie, I figured it out!" Maddie started, blinking a few times in confusion. "Jack? What's - ?" "I got it!" he beamed, "I finally figured it out! Ghost malware!" "Ghost malware," Maddie echoed, not really believing it but relieved that at least Jack had solved his little problem, "I'm sure you can tell me all about it in the morning - " "I'm sure I can tell you all about it right now!" Jack interrupted, oblivious to the fact that it was just after ten, and also oblivious to the fact that his son had just disappeared out the window for the nightly patrols.

Jack couldn't believe it. It had been less than twenty-four hours, and the infuriating blips had returned. He'd thought, at first, that the malware ghost was just persistent, but a second dose of Fenton Creep Cleanser had been all but ineffective. He'd hit it again, in case it was just unresponsive the first time, but had spiraled immediately back down into obsession. It had been working just fine last night - he'd even showed it to Maddie and everything! - what could possibly have happened between then and now that could cause it to malfunction again? He muttered to himself as he tore the thing apart yet again. He'd been in a foul mood since he'd discovered the interference, and had half a mind to go upstairs and track down the source for himself. Clearly, the thing was picking up something it wasn't supposed to be. Maybe I'll just find whatever it is and get rid of it, he thought to himself. He was, sometimes, a great fan of getting rid of things. Finally, he decided that was what he was going to do. He stomped upstairs, ghost-gazer in hand, and paused outside Danny's room. The door was very clearly marked Keep Out and Space Stuff Only! with hand-drawn posters; a tertiary sign hung under the rest: The Astronaut is *in* which could also be flipped to The Astronaut is *out* in case Danny wasn't home. Currently, he was in. "Danny?" Jack opened the door and poked his head inside. Danny scrambled, quickly shoving a handful of loose papers into his backpack. "Dad? What do you want? Ever heard of knocking?" "Well, I wanted to ask you something, actually," said Jack, completely ignoring Danny's sarcasm. He let himself in (Danny groaned with a thick cover of distaste) and turned his gaze downward to the ghost-gazer. "Son," he said, "I think there's something in here that's making all the sensors downstairs go screwy." "Didn't we have this conversation like two weeks ago when you built the thing in the first place?" Danny crossed his arms, "Remember how you said it must be broken?" Jack frowned. "Well, I did say that. Then I ran a bunch of tests, and took it apart, and hit it with three doses of Fenton Creep Cleanser. I'm starting to think that there isn't anything wrong with it." Danny hesitated. "Wait, where are you going with this - ?" "Well, where I'm going is apparently up here," Jack said, still a bit puzzled, "If there's something up here that's causing the interference, I want to get rid of it." Danny sucked in his breath. "Dad," he said finally, after careful consideration of the best way to phrase this, "Get out." "But - !" "Out!" Danny snapped, "You really wanna go through all my stuff and probably break half of it until you find whatever it is that you think is making your stupid machine broken? I guarantee you're not gonna like it! Now get out of my room!" Jack was silent. He knew that he and Danny had had a little bit of a rough patch lately, but somehow he hadn't expected him to be so hostile. He turned his eyes sheepishly downwards. "Well, if that's how you feel about it - then I guess I'll go back downstairs and make another stupid broken machine." He turned, without another word, and went back to the lab. He wanted to toss the thing and start over. Maddie had been right. Maybe it was beyond fixing. He wished that Danny hadn't been so aggressive, though - he thought he'd made it up to him after that time he'd almost gotten him with the Fenton Ghost Blaster - come to think of it, that one was probably malfunctioning, too. He remembered it had been during a ghost drill at home - he and Maddie had run through their basic routine, and he'd found what he'd thought was an actual ghost in the house's readings. He'd shot first and thought later, and he realized he'd put a hole in Danny's floor. Despite the fact that he'd had it fixed, and put a rug over it to hide the discolored floorboards, he had a feeling that he still hadn't been forgiven for it. He was beginning to think that maybe he hadn't made it up to him after all. He'd say he would, but then something else would happen that would put him back at square one. He'd always thought of himself as fun-loving, and only a bit clumsy, but he was beginning to realize that, perhaps, Maddie was the only one who forgave him. Jazzypants did, at least sometimes. Other times she'd go entirely off the rails, and he wouldn't know whether she would or not until it happened. Maddie, on the other hand, could always predict how she'd react. She'd never been wrong, either - at least, not that he could remember. He wondered if he was even still redeemable. He loved the kids - with all his heart, and he'd say it as often as he felt like! - but somehow he still felt inadequate. Loving them wasn't enough, if he got in the way as much as he did. Was there a way to fix it? Could he come to be more careful? He'd sometimes think that he could, and usually right after that he'd get carried away with something, and probably put a hole in something else. Maybe he wasn't any good. Maybe he had failed them already, and it was too late to take anything back. The blip had moved. He didn't realize it at first, since he'd come this close to scrapping it for parts, but he paused. Had it really - oh, yes, it most definitely had moved. Jack frowned. Whatever kind of interference it was - it was in the kitchen now, and he knew better than to wait for it to relocate. Danny was upstairs, so he wouldn't be bothered about it. Maybe this thing would quit bugging him for real this time. Or maybe Danny was right, and it really was irreparable. Jack ran upstairs, following the blip on the ghost-gazer's screen. He thundered up to the kitchen, but froze up at once. The fridge was hanging open; halfway inside the thing stood Danny. He had at least a dozen assorted snacks stacked precariously in one arm, the corners of three frozen waffles sticking out of his mouth, and two entire jars of peanut butter in the other hand. Seeing Jack he froze, like a raccoon caught going through someone's trash, and frowned. Through the waffles in his mouth: "Whaffoo want?" Jack paused, but then deflated. "Oh, nothing. I just thought - maybe this thing wasn't as broken as I said it was. I guess it is." Danny said nothing but rolled his eyes to convey his displeasure. He kicked the fridge closed behind him, grabbed the jelly and bread he'd left out on the counter, turned, and skulked upstairs. Jack watched him go. He knew he had to make it up to Danny, at the very least - if he kept bumbling things away like he'd been doing, he'd never be able to break even. That said, Danny wasn't making this easy for him. He sat back at the kitchen table again; the ghost-gazer's mysterious blip had returned to its normal spot upstairs. Jack nearly broke the thing in half then and there, if just to be rid of it. Upstairs, downstairs, the thing's clearly useless! Almost as useless as me, he thought dismally. At least a machine could be scrapped. Every try scrapping a person? Can't do it. Too gross and messy. For the first time that day, a new idea occurred to Jack Fenton. The idea was this: what if it really was picking up an ecto-signature? What if it wasn't just interference from something, but an actual, bonafide ghost? His mind turned slowly - which was the only way it really knew how to turn - but steadily, and he thought about it. If there really was a ghost loose in the house - it would have been spending an awful lot of time in Danny's room. That meant Danny was in danger - or, perhaps, he was the one that knew about it. Had Jack Fenton's son become a ghost smuggler? What if it wasn't just one ghost, but a whole lot of them? What would a kid like Danny be doing smuggling ghosts, anyway? Was that why he'd become so secluded? Well, it was either that or because he was a teenager. Maybe both. Yeah, Jack thought, probably both. Now, what was he going to do about it? The thought still wasn't sitting right in his mind - Danny Fenton, ghost smuggler. Jack frowned. If he hadn't made a mess of anything already that day, he'd have considered just going upstairs and confronting him about it. But, said the small part of Jack Fenton's mind that was capable of thinking ahead, what if you're wrong? What if you're wrong, and he doesn't forgive you this time? This made Jack pause, and was the reason that he and Danny didn't speak to each other for the rest of the night.

It was after lunch when Jack noticed that the blip had gone. This time, he wasn't quite so surprised, and his ghost-smuggler theory from the previous afternoon came back to him. If Maddie had been home, he'd have asked her what she'd thought about it, but she and Jazzypants had disappeared for the afternoon, and wouldn't be back until later. He remembered this only because Maddie had told him she'd pick up supplies for Fenton steaks on her way home, and they'd have them for dinner tomorrow. So Jack Fenton had the house to himself until Danny got home later. He knew he really should talk to Danny about it - he'd swear up and down not to tell Maddie if he thought it would make Danny even a bit less bristly, but he knew he had to have more cards in his hand in order to get Danny to open up to him. Now that he was thinking about it, though - all those times when he'd almost hit Danny with this, or blown a hole in that, or lit all those on fire - it had been because Danny had registered on the ecto-scanners. Was he even keeping ghosts hidden around in his room, or had the ghost-gazer been locked on him instead? He did spend an awful lot of time up there, Jack realized. Was he keeping ghosts upon his person? At all times? Was he being controlled by one? By several? Did he need saving? Had he figured out how to control them instead? Did he have ghost bodyguards? Was that even a thing that could happen? Jack Fenton didn't know. All he knew was that he would have to have a serious talk with Danny about it the second he got home, before he'd inevitably disappear back into his room. Danny, he'd say, I have to ask you something very serious. Be honest with your dad. Are you falling in with gangs of ghosts? No, he realized, that was stupid. Maybe it'd be, are you being controlled by ghosts? No, that was stupid too - the ghosts controlling him would just make him say that he wasn't, and that would get him nowhere. Jack thought very hard about it, and finally came up with a solution. He'd have to get the jump on them somehow - and without Danny finding out, either. He'd have to make sure that absolutely no one except for him - Jack Fenton - knew what was going on.

Danny had had a long day. Dash had picked on him almost nonstop; he was certain he'd just flunked his algebra test; he'd overheard some things during lunch that were definitely about him, and it mattered less whether or not they were true than whether they were really embarrassing; he'd been whacked upside the head by at least two hackysacks that he had a suspicion weren't filled with bean pellets but rocks; on top of everything, he was exhausted because he'd had almost zero sleep the previous night. At least he didn't have anything planned for tonight, he thought to himself as he trudged up the street to his house. Sam and Tucker were still with him, but he'd tuned them out long ago. Neither of them seemed to mind - they'd just turned to chatting with each other instead - and he was glad for it. Maybe he'd get caught up on sleep tonight, he hoped. He paused on the steps, turning back to Sam and Tucker. "I'll catch you guys later, okay?" "Yeah, dude," said Tucker, "You've been super drained all day. Get some sleep, man. We'll catch you in the morning." Danny sighed. "Thanks, Tuck. You guys are the best." He watched them head further down the street toward Sam's house. The dull thumping from where the second hackysack had hit him was finally starting to calm down - maybe he'd be able to sleep on that side later, and with any luck he wouldn't bruise too badly. He'd think of a way to get even with Dash, too. He hadn't actually seen him throw either of the hackysacks, but he knew it had been because of him; whether he or one of his ridiculous football buddies threw them was irrelevant. Maybe Danny'd overshadow him and have him sprain his ankle or something. Nothing broken - just enough to keep him off the team for a couple of weeks. Besides, he thought, surely one sprained ankle was worth the same as two enormous bruising welts? It'd probably hurt the same. He knew he really shouldn't, though. If even Sam or Tucker found out it was him, they'd both probably be unhappy about it. He thought, somewhat sourly, that they might be on his side if they ever got whacked with a hackysack full of rocks. Oh, well. A kid could dream, right? The front door to FentonWorks was unlocked, and Danny let himself in. The living room was empty, which meant that his mother wasn't home. He remembered, vaguely, that she'd told him she and Jazz would be out for the afternoon. Great, he thought, maybe I can get some friggin' sleep. He dropped his backpack by the door; whatever homework he had could wait until tomorrow, and he contemplated whether or not he should even eat before going upstairs. Usually, he did; sustaining a human, especially a growing one, was difficult. Sustaining a growing human and a ghost? Near-impossible. He remembered yesterday, when Jack had caught him raiding the fridge. He'd gone through everything he'd taken upstairs - how many PB&Js even was that, anyhow? - and by the following morning he'd been hungry again. At least he didn't have any of the weird cravings. He supposed it could be worse. What did regular ghosts eat, he wondered. Whatever it was, it must have had the same nutritional value as human food, or at least one that was very similar. Screw it. He'd raid the fridge again. The good thing about having someone like Jack Fenton for a father was that most of the things that went missing would be blamed on him, and most of the times he didn't remember anything specific enough to dispute it. Between him and Danny, groceries were lucky to last more than a day or two. He had an entire cantaloupe tucked under his arm when he spotted his father across the kitchen. Instantly, he was on-edge. He turned. "Dad," he said, as neutrally as he could manage. He hadn't forgotten what had happened the previous afternoon, and he wasn't about to forgive it right away either. Jack Fenton stepped forward. "Son," he said in turn. He almost forgot what came after that - you practiced it and everything! - but at the last second before it became awkward he remembered. "Son, I have something to show you. It's downstairs." Danny paused. Something didn't quite feel right, but he couldn't place why. He gave his father a suspicious glance, but then asked, mostly so that it wouldn't be silent: "Is it about ghosts?" "Actually, yes," said Jack, straightening somewhat, "I'd really like for you to see it." "Pass," said Danny, deciding that the cantaloupe would have to do for now and swinging the fridge shut. He wasn't entirely certain what Jack might have been up to - but if it had something to do with ghosts, Danny didn't want any part of it. He turned, the fruit still tucked under one arm, and headed up the stairs. "Danny, wait!" Jack exclaimed, taking a half-step after him. "It's about ghosts - and it's about you." Danny froze partway up the stairs. His grip on the cantaloupe tightened as his hands instinctively wanted to curl up into fists. He could feel his face turn white. His mouth ran dry. Where in the hell did that just come from? Slowly, he turned and gave his father a wide-eyed stare. "What?" Jack stood at the landing, one hand on the banister. "Danny, I want to talk to you. It's very important." Danny's voice was quiet. "Why?" "Because," said Jack, "Because your mother and your sister aren't home. It's just the two of us. We could have a father-to-son chat." "Is it about yesterday?" Danny asked slowly, suddenly aware of any missteps he might make. Somehow, Jack seemed off. Maybe it was because he was never this quiet; maybe it was because he was never this serious. That was it, Danny realized. Jack nodded. "Yes, that's right." "I don't want to talk about it," said Danny. He really didn't. It was beyond having to listen to whatever inane thing Jack might ramble on about; he realized he was actually dreading this conversation, not in the way that it might be about having to listen to him talk about ghosts but in the way that it might be about his grades, or about the fact that he'd been sneaking out of his room at night, or about the thermos that had mysteriously disappeared from the lab the other day after he'd misplaced his usual one. Jack blinked. "Danny," he said finally, "I need to ask you something. If it wasn't important, I'd be talking to myself about it. Come down to the lab with me." Danny hesitated. His gut told him everything about this was wrong; what could he have possibly said that would have tipped Jack off to anything? Nothing immediately came to mind, and that somehow made it worse. Unable to stand it, he found himself nodding anyway. He set the cantaloupe down at the top of the steps, and followed Jack down through the kitchen. The closer he got to the lab, the more the lump in his stomach hardened. Whatever this was about - he knew it wasn't going to be good. Part of him just said to turn and go up to his room, but he squashed it down. Jack held the door for him, and followed him down to the lab. It was almost completely empty; all of the work-tables had been cleared off, spare boxes of parts and components had been sorted and put away, and even the locked case of Fenton weapons had been relocated to a high shelf. Danny felt small. "Dad. What's this about? What did you want to ask me - and how come it has to be down here?" "Well, son," said Jack, "It's because it's about ghosts. I've been hunting ghosts for most of my life, you know. I can tell when they're near. I can smell 'em." Danny took a step back, heart pounding. "Dad - where are you going with this?" "Where I'm going," said Jack, "is I know there's ghosts around whenever you're around. I figured out what's been causing that interference in the ghost-gazer." Danny's mind raced. "What? I thought - I thought it was broken - you said it was - " "Well, maybe I was wrong," said Jack. His gaze dropped from Danny's, and focused instead on the black boots of his jumpsuit. "I think I've been wrong about a lot of things, Danny - but, no matter what happens, know one thing. You're my son, and I love you." He met Danny's eyes again. "No matter what." "Wait," said Danny, his eyes darting for a split second to the stairs behind Jack. Even if he was quick, he knew he wouldn't be able to make a run for it. "What do you mean no matter what?" Jack just nodded once. "No matter what. Now, there's something I have to ask you. I know you might want to lie about it, but please don't." "What? Why would I - ?" He knew very well why he would. "I think it's because you didn't trust me," said Jack, "That hurts - but I need you to be completely and entirely honest. Promise me you can do that." Danny was silent. Jack took a deep breath. "Danny - I found out you've been causing the interference with the ghost-gazer, and a fair amount of the other equipment as well. I need to know why." "Why?" Danny echoed. He kept his hands behind his back so that Jack wouldn't see them shaking. "Well, I - " Jack's face was serious. "Is it because you're a ghost, Danny?" Danny's heart skipped a beat. "What? Why would I be - ?" "Son, please," said Jack, "I need you to be honest. It's very important." Danny could barely breathe. He tore his eyes from Jack's, and he wanted nothing more than to disappear. He could feel his face reddening. He couldn't stand it. Finally, hanging his head, he buckled. "Yeah. I can be." "And that's the honest truth?" Danny nodded. It took all he had to keep from tears. He'd had nightmares about a confrontation like this for months after the incident - now here he stood, heartbeat slamming in his ears, red-eyed and shaking. There was a long pause. Jack knelt down in an effort to level his massive frame with Danny. He set one hand on Danny's shoulder. "Do you know what this means?" Danny didn't. "It means I was right!" Jack cried, the serious expression dissolving immediately into a triumphant grin. "Me! Jack Fenton! It means that ghost-gazer isn't broken! Ha! I'm a genius! Take a look at this!" He grabbed the ghost-gazer off the work-table and shoved into Danny's hands. "That's how I figured it out, you know! I thought it was malfunctioning at first! But then I got to thinking, and - " Danny stared down at the thing in his hands, but it hardly registered. He turned a second later back up at Jack, still very much upset but now also confused. "You're not mad? But - I kept hiding it - Dad, I'm a ghost - !" "Ghost, shmost!" Jack exclaimed, throwing both hands up in the air, "You're a Fenton! You think I hate ghosts more than I love my own son? C'mere!" He pulled Danny into a massive two-armed hug, now beaming. "I'm proud of you, Danny, and I always will be!" The lump in Danny's stomach was slowly beginning to melt away. Telling him had been awful - but the blind acceptance was reassuring. He returned his father's hug, taking a deep breath. "Look - I know I probably should have told you and Mom about it, but - " "Are you kidding?" said Jack, "With all the stuff we've designed specifically to obliterate ghosts? No wonder you kept your mouth shut! I would have too, if I were you! But you know what?" "What?" "It means now I'm the one that gets to listen to you yammer on about ghosts! You're a certified expert now! Just think about it - a boy who's a ghost, living with a family of ghost hunters! How's that for irony!" Danny couldn't help but smile a little. "Well, half-ghost, actually - " "Half?" Jack asked. "Yeah." Jack frowned, and the more he thought about it the more his eyebrows tried to meet in the center of his forehead. "How can you be half?" "Dad," said Danny, "Sit down for a sec. This is gonna blow your mind." Jack did. Danny set the ghost-gazer down, and transformed. He still hesitated out of instinct, but reminded himself that it didn't matter anymore. He watched Jack's eyes widen, and took a little bit of satisfaction in it; he turned himself about once so that Jack could get a decent up-close look at him. "Half. I can go back and forth." "That's awesome!" Jack cried, jumping back up to his feet again, "I bet you're the one that keeps setting off all the stuff down here too! Look at me go! I'm figuring out all sorts of things today!" Danny nodded. "Yeah, and I'm the one that borrowed the spare thermos last week - " "Hey, I was wondering where that thing went," said Jack, "Wait, does that mean you've been going out and hunting ghosts? Even after you always told us you never wanted to do that ever at all in your life?" "Dad," Danny cringed, "Please don't make this lame - " "Ghost hunting isn't lame, son!" Jack declared, giving Danny a hearty slap on the back and making him stagger forward, "I've never been more proud of you in my life! You're the best son a dad could hope for! Just wait 'til I tell your mother!" Danny sucked in his breath. "Well, I - " "Well, what?" said Jack, turning down to him. "I'm not actually sure if I want her to know just yet," said Danny carefully. Between his parents, his mother was usually the one to take things more seriously, and just because Jack was excited didn't mean that Maddie would be. "Well!" said Jack brightly, throwing an arm around Danny's shoulders, "I won't tell her if you won't! We'll keep this between just us two!" "Dad. Sam and Tucker know about this too. They were there when it happened. Also I think Jazz might have figured it out, but she hasn't said anything to me about it yet. That's mostly why I have them over so much. It's all ghost stuff." "That's gotta be a lot of ghost stuff!" said Jack, "I'm gonna go grab us some snacks, and we're gonna lock Maddie and Jazzypants out of the basement for the next ten hours, and you're gonna ramble on about all the stuff I don't know about ghosts!" Danny thought that was alright. He was still a little surprised that his father had been the one to figure this out - but he'd taken it almost in stride. Well, as much of a stride in anything as you have when you're my dad. But at least I don't have to keep hiding this from him, and he seems pretty happy. I guess I'm pretty happy about it too. He said he was proud of me.

#danny phantom #phic phight #phic phight 19 #team ghost

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willowlark369 · 7 years ago

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Down

I apparently didn’t post this here like I thought I had. So here’s a belated fic from March. You can read it on AO3 [here] and FFN [here]. If you like it, remember to reblog it. If you really like it, feel free to visit my Ko-fi [here]. This piece also references events occurring in another work of mine [Iron Jizz].

Important points from that fic (for this one):

James Rhodes met Tony Stark the previous September in the bathroom of a frat house during a party.

Edwin Jarvis died of kidney disease the previous March (during Spring Break).

Rhodey took Tony home with him in the break between Spring & Summer terms.

Tony is less than two weeks out from his fifteenth birthday.

Warnings: The standard host of issues for Tony-centric pieces in the MIT era, so references to child abuse, underage drinking, underage sex, exploitation of a child.

Jenny managed to not look up from her book as their houseguest barreled into her room. She wished she could say that three days had been plenty of time to allow her to acclimate to unexpected intrusions of her personal space, that this was something as utterly unique as Tony himself, but brothers were bothers. Jamie may have outgrown the habit of just walking in after his first stint through basic, but Joey was still a little brat with no respect. Therein lay the difference between her normal annoyances and the newest one collapsing dramatically across her bed, barely missing her legs.

Joey was nearly a full year younger than Tony, but there were things Joey understood and elected to ignore while it was clear that Tony just didn’t quite understand. For all that the kid was a genius, in a lot of ways, he was also an absolute idiot. Not that she would ever say that to him like that as she would Jamie in the same situation.

Jamie didn’t crumple under criticism before pushing forward to prove the critic wrong or overreact to being shown common decency.

Jenny could see why Jamie had latched onto the kid. It was the same reason that the idiot would always be her hero, even if she disagreed with his choices in role models. Jamie was always the boy scout helping out where he could and working constantly to expand that category. James just wasn’t happy without someone to help. He wasn’t the stray-collector type, usually, because well, they simply couldn’t afford to feed and care for a menagerie, but there were plenty of opportunities to help out in their South Philly neighborhood. Tony may not need someone to fix his roof or carry his shopping, but there was no doubt in Jenny’s mind that he needed Jamie.

Case in point: her room being invaded because Tony was clearly going stir-crazy despite the fact he had only been without company for a half hour.

At least he wasn’t dismantling the toaster again.

Or the vacuum.

“Jen-ny, Jen-Jen, Jen-ny,” he chanted. Mature seventeen-year-old that she was, she poked his side with her toes while still refusing to look up from her book. She hadn’t read a single word since he came in, but he was less likely to try and retreat if she didn’t turn her full attention to him at once. “Ow, Jenny. That’s rude. I was just trying to get your attention. When is Rhodey and Mama coming back? They’ve been gone for-ev-er.”

“They have not, squirt,” she corrected as she closed her book around the playing card she was using as a marker. Tony was rubbing his side absently while watching her warily. She sighed before wiggling her toes under his hand to lend a gentler pressure to the comfort. With care that he typically only showed Jamie, Tony wrapped his fingers around her ankle, just under the cuff of her pajama pants.

“They have, too. Rhodey doesn’t do this—” He made an encompassing circle with his other hand. She bit the inside of her cheek to stifle a smile at him. Instead, she flexed her toes to momentarily clench his shirt. “He likes to sleep in on Sundays. Then we have waffles. But he didn’t sleep in, Jenny, and there’s no waffles or coffee.”

“He’ll be back, Tony,” Jenny said. “They just went to church. They’ll be home in another hour or so. We could make waffles.”

“It’s not the same. Rhodey is supposed to make the waffles on Sunday. Those are the rules for Sundays: sleep in; waffles; coffee. Rhodey made the rules, Jenny. If he made the rules, he’s supposed to follow them. Right?”

He was very obviously trying to keep his voice nonchalant and his body was loose for the most part. Only the clench and unclench of his fingers on her ankle betrayed how anxious he was. Carefully so as to not dislodge that hold, she leaned forward and rubbed his stomach like she would a cat. His eyes took on a glitter she suspected was tears. The sight broke her heart a bit. The realization that he would likely deflect any actual comfort broke it even further.

Jamie, you goddamn idiot. Why didn’t you explain this before leaving?

“Well, he is supposed to follow them, but it’s also a rule that he goes to church when he’s home on a Sunday, and Mama made that rule.” She thought quickly about mentioning the threats of punishment Mama occasionally used to get the boys to conform to that rule. Immediately, she decided against saying anything along those lines. Jamie wouldn’t have jumped down Joey’s throat for trying to roughhouse with Tony without a damn good reason. Combined with Tony’s other habits, it was probably not far off to think Tony might have a rather severe reaction to the idea of Jamie being hurt by a parent or some other authority figure. She had already seen Tony jump into a couple situations to deflect negative attention away from Jamie and onto himself.

“You didn’t go,” Tony countered. She drummed her fingers lightly against his stomach, not bothering to hide her smile this time. Tony relaxed under the rhythmic tapping.

“That ‘cause the boys’ only excuse for not going is laziness while mine is a difference in belief, kind of like why she didn’t insist on you going.” Jenny dug her fingers in a little like she was going to tickle him. Tony squirmed like he was trying to sink deeper into her mattress rather than trying to escape. Pleased with the nonverbal confirmation of his trust, she continued. “But just a head’s up, I know Mama made inquiries with Mr. Katz across the street about letting you tag along to synagogue next Saturday. So you might want to come up with a better excuse than wanting to sleep in if you don’t want to go.”

“But I’m not Jewish,” he replied, genuinely confused. She cocked her head to the side, careful to keep her gaze focused on his ear rather than trying to force eye contact. She had noticed that made him extra wiggly. He seemed to be thinking really fast about something. “It’s the way I eat, isn’t it? I like the rules that Ana and Jarvis used for making things. It’s nice to be close to them, especially…well, especially now. Ana was Jewish. I didn’t think about there being a word for the rules she had about food. I just thought that it was like Rhodey’s rules about waffles on Sundays and pizza on Tuesday.”

“Oh, Tony,” she said, “yeah, Mama was thinking you were Jewish because she recognized your weird rules as the kosher diet. There’s nothing wrong with eating kosher if that’s what makes you feel closer to someone you obviously cared about very much. If you aren’t Jewish, though, what are you?”

“I’m a genius,” Tony answered without hesitation. It was like the answer was so habitual that he didn’t have to think before giving it. That spoke of someone setting up the ritual of it and long enough ago that the cue was deep set enough that the context didn’t override the habitual response. Anger flashed through her veins as everything she knew from her introductory classes on psychology rushed forward to provide possible scenarios that might require that particular set of affirmations. Who the hell would have tried to convince Tony that he was anything less than one of the smartest people alive? Who would have dared?

More importantly, did Jamie know about this?

God, brothers were such a bother. They were always making messes for her to clean up. Good thing the kid was adorkable.

“Well, that’s the truth, even if it doesn’t answer my question.” Jenny gave the kid three pats in quick succession before moving to get off her bed. “How about this? We can put together a full brunch and have it waiting when they get back. Jamie mentioned that you have intense feelings about eggs?”

“Yup,” Tony confirmed with extra emphasis on the ‘p’ at the end. He was already jumping up to follow her from the room. “I absolutely hate ‘em. They’re grosser than Rhodey’s running socks.”

“Of course,” Jenny agreed, because nothing was ever going to be easy when Tony was involved. She ruffled his hair, enjoying the silky fur-like texture of it. He leaned into the touch, once again reminiscent of a cat. Suddenly, Tony clapped his hands and hopped forward to take the lead. She corrected her assessment from cat to bird. She huffed a laugh as she heard Tony singing Iron Man as he invaded the kitchen.

It wasn’t exactly a tune without words, but she did hope that it never stopped at all.

#MCU #Magi's Fics #Fem Power Challenge 2018 #Jenny Rhodes #Tony Stark #Autistic Tony Stark #fanfiction #MIT Era #Tony Stark Friendly

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nautiscarader · 7 years ago

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Kim possible - season 2 overview

So, continuing my Kim Possible marathon, again thanks to @fereality-indy. I’ve already talked about the heroes and how I like the whole idea for the show, so let’s stick to the highlights of the season. Let’s get ready for ramblings!

Kim shows quite a few more disadvantages towards Ron, including the ridiculous cooking episode

she is also quite mad that Ron can be better at something

Shego teaches the senior senior junior and actually makes him a competent villian

Shego manages to trick a scientist who invented thinking toaster into fixing army of killer robots with a simple “I bet you can’t do it”. Then I guess he goes drinking with Drakken because that’s how it looked like afterwards

Ron teaches us that it’s ok to bribe people that are already insanely rich and that dog contests are fake

Judges at dog contest are stupid

Or maybe it’s the depression since 5$ bribe actually made Ron got into the dog competition with a rat

some episodes have still slightly too predictable plots. Like there is one where Drakken and Shego steal a weather machine (because you can apparently just... buy them), which looks like a vacuum cleaner, and then KP accidentally becomes an apprentice of a janitor who uses exactly the same kind of vacuum cleaner. Like, who wouldn’t predict that she will need to use the reluctantly gained knowledge to dismantle the machine, and that the janitor is actually a Canadian secret agent that was sent to teach her that?

Okay, I didn’t see the last part coming, but

Ron finally gets a few moments to shine and save the day, though he is still mostly accidentally competent, other than actually competent. Then again, it’s not his shoSCRATCH THAT HE IS BATMAN AND NINJA AND JAMES BOND AND HE ACED AS THOSE

There is a hilariously clever Area 51 half-episode and another one with sentient Snowmen that actually makes more sense that one of previous Doctor Who Christmas episode.

Speaking of lengths of episodes, this one seems to be a bit too lon-WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE’S A MOVIE

allright that deserves a whole new section

Okay, so there is a movie now. And god dammit, that is a near-perfect cartoon movie if I have ever seen one. Most movies based on cartoons have a major issue: they cannot stretch a 10- or 20-minute episode into a fully engaging hour-long movie. But this one does it, by a very simple trick:

IT’S THREE ARC-FORMING EPISODES IN ONE

Thus, every segment has a proper construction, as well as an entire arc. Boom, done. And what a wholesome story it is

Ron parents gets send to Norway and he has to move

Kim tells him he call me beep me if you wanna reach me and my heart just explodes cos THEY DID THAT

And then we got not one

not two

but three villains (and one sidekick) trying to steal mystical time-travelling monkey !

I said monkey, not ape. And it’s a statue.

Lord Britishmonkey, The Angry Golfer, Evil Brainy Smurf and And the Mean Green lady

And they get meta telling that these ancient ruins have silly puzzles

AND RON TRAVELS ALL THE WAY TO THE AMERICA TO THE MUSEUM, THEN TO AFRICA AND THEN TO AUSTRALIA TO HELP KIM

and he calls Kim to say that he loves cabbage soup so she doesn’t have to worry even though he hates it #relationshipgoals

And the villains plans is actually kinda smart - to travel back in time to turn young Kim Possible into a wuss

Why didn’t they just kill her parents before she was born? This is Disney, killing parents is fine

Also there is time-travelling Rufus’ terminator child who gives Kim a time-travellinator so she can defeat the supreme evil bad guy from future.

And we get Kim’s backstory, and that her website was mistaken for some crack-team of agents and that’s how she got famous, and god damn that’s funny

And then story gets a bit Doc Brown-y with Lord Monkeyteaandcrumpets travelling to get another huge monkey (WHY IS EVERYTHING MONKEY-BASED?) and Shego travelling to warn herself

And then young Kim & Ron meets old Kim & Ron, and they learn that they will be awesome by watching their older versions being awesome. It’s all like Harry making that patronus in Prisoner of Azkaban.

And all this time I’ve been thinking “hey, wouldn’t it be funny if the whole premise with splitting Kim and Ron was made by Shego” AND GUESS WHAT I WAS RIGHT

And that is one brilliant move, once again showing that Shego is a hundred times more competent than any other villain in the show

So in the future Shego rules the w..world? not sure, we only see the town that seems to be a centre of whole world, Angel Grove. I mean Middleton.

Also refugees live on Moon and there is a brilliant joke there about kim and Ron’s parents I won’t even repeat, it’s so good.

And Everyone is buffed in the future

also Bonnie is supervising your standard Orwellian mind-control classes, proving that she is truly a bitch prime.

And all hell breaks loose with Kim, Ron, tweebs, Wade, Monique and A WHOLE ARMY OF RUFUS’ CHILDREN LIKE HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE storming Shego’s castle (more monkeys as well)

and Ron saves the day when he learns that Shego was behind all of it. Not the dystopian future, not destryoing buenons nachos, it’s separating her from Kim what makes him defeat Shego. Though again, more accidentally, by destroying the monkey.

Now, one may ask: are there any continuity problems arising from it? Potential ramifications of time-travel and multiple timelines? Well, even if so, destroying the monkey heals the time stream, everything goes to the same point, blah, blah, blah, status quo restored. And for once, I’m completely fine with that ending.

Awesome, wholesome movie.

And you know what’s even better? The christmas episode. This does show a very, very unique parallel between Kim and Ron and Shego and Draken, to the point where the two form a hilarious truce.

Me: you know what would be nice? A shego backstory

next ep: Shego’s backstory

That is an amazing Teen Titans parody, and we finally learn how Shego can use her zappy magic and that she has a whole family of superheroes she detests.

And Draken is in love with the geneticist lady who in turn made Lord Monkeyfist monkey and is in love with him. Oh snap!

there is even more hilarious episode where Kim gets sick and then makes every villian sick, so they need to hire evil sidekicks.

I groaned where I saw that there was an episode with a kid in a wheelchair, cos I could already smell the painful morals about treating people with disabilities being hammered in our heads, but it turns out that the creators put a spin on that as well: Kim turns out to be the one acting “not normal”, because she can’t for the life of hers treat the wheelchair guy as a regular person, though by all means accidentally, and learn that you don’t have to do any special things. You just talk to people, because they are people. That is a pretty nice lesson to learn!

Kim Possible, a dummy: what could Five-Five-Five mean?

Me, and intellectual:

And finally we get another time travel episode that uses the godawful cliche that people’s ancestors all looked like the modern counterparts and lived in the same place except they don’t because it’s a dream, or maybe it’s not. Or maybe it is.

So, in conclusion, if you couldn’t read it from my eloquent in-depth analysis above, Season 2 offered us everything we could have asked for: more great stories, more ass-kicking, more unique characters. But most importantly, it gave us relationships, especially between the villians and the heroes. And a rather interesting and three-dimensional ones. The villains are still cartoonish and grotesque, but they do gain a new level of personality, and I haven’t seen that since, again, Phineas and Ferb, except there we only had Heinz and his complex relationship with Vanessa and his ex-wife. Here, we have much much more, and I think it will only get better in season 3.

More of the same please!

#kim possible

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my-house-of-fashion · 5 years ago

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Nicholas Baker and the fascination of the mundane

https://designwanted.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Nicholas-Baker-4-3-1236x1600.jpg

How Nicholas Baker dismantles objects and experiences, distills them, and reconstructs them, inventing beautiful solutions along the way.

In the effort of creating more unique and meaningful experiences, most of Nicholas Baker’s objects emerge from reflection upon an object’s familiar user experience and its integration into a novel and incongruous object and interaction.

Nicholas Baker is also known on Instagram for designing in virtual reality as well as for his playful and inquiring relationship with everyday objects.

DesignWanted interviewed Nicholas Baker to find out more about him. Let’s take a closer look.

Strap Chair – No screws, no bolts, no glue, just phat straps

Who is Nicholas Baker? What got you into design in the first place?

Nicholas Baker: “I’m an industrial designer based out of Brooklyn, New York. Currently, I run a small studio and design for a range of clients. I’ve designed pet products, neural interface tech, houseware, and am currently working on furniture and medical products.

I grew up always drawing and making things. I remember being a kid and visiting my grandfather who was an architect. He’d take me into his woodshop and we would sketch out a car or a plane and build it together. I discovered industrial design later on in high school and have been hooked ever since.“

Wait Weight – part kitchen timer, part paperweight

What other designers, styles, fields, and inputs outside of the design world are you inspired or influenced by?

Nicholas Baker: “I’m always fascinated by the mundane interactions of everyday life, whether that’s turning a doorknob or pushing down the lever on a toaster. There’s something so familiar and natural about those interactions.

I really enjoy the work of Naoto Fukasawa and Jasper Morrison. Both of them touch on this idea of celebrating the mundane, as well as rethinking how these interactions can be combined in other circumstances.”

From conceptualization to sketching, to prototyping, do you have a favorite part of the design process?

Nicholas Baker: “I have two favorite parts. I love the idea phase. It’s so satisfying to come up with a clever idea. You get that burst of energy to jump right into the project.

The other part I love is the final execution, whether that’s building a polished prototype or getting a sample from a factory. Getting to hold a physical thing that was once a concept in your head is a magical experience.“

Flyer Birdhouse – inspired by parasitic flyers on utility poles

When did you start VR sketching and why can it be a great tool for designers?

Nicholas Baker: “I’ve been exploring VR in my design process for around 3 years now. It’s an incredible tool. One of the most valuable areas I’ve found is the ability to iterate on ideas.

Creating forms in VR is significantly faster than with pen and paper, and the output is a 3D model that can be evaluated from any angle or rendered in realistic materials.

I’ve also started to experiment with presenting concepts to my clients in VR. It’s a rapidly evolving technology and I’m excited to see where it goes.“

In 2017 you launched “almost object”, focusing on experience. What is the main idea behind every “almost object” experiment?

Nicholas Baker: “I started “almost object” as a way to produce designs that were too experimental for most houseware brands. It’s about riding that fine line between questioning what an object could be while also staying functional and economical.

There are plenty of brands that create beautiful objects, and there are plenty of designers that create conceptual designs. But, It’s rare to see experimental and conceptual products that are accessible to the consumer. Currently I self fund and ship the products myself, but I would love to expand and collaborate with other designers in the future.”

Could you elaborate on your awareness of the design and objects all around us?

Nicholas Baker: “I think the idea stems from my inspiration of the mundane interactions of life. Posting on Instagram is a great way to catalog those little compositions of everyday life that often go unnoticed.

I think all designers have this constant curiosity to question why something is the way it is. I often find it a fun exercise to zoom in on small details that I find while walking around the city.

It’s fun to discover a new form by looking at the corner of a railing or find a new mechanism by looking at a door hinge.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Stefano Perego (@stepegphotography) on Oct 24, 2019 at 11:43pm PDT

Which are the main values, core concepts or style inclinations that, above all, will always represent yourself?

Nicholas Baker: “I always strive to add just a hint of value in every design I do. I think that great designs balance a perfectly executed product with just a touch of thoughtfulness or cleverness.

It doesn’t take much, and it’s very easy to cross the line of cleverness into kitsch. I’ve been practicing restraint in my designs lately, really trying to distill down a design to its essence.

At the end of the day, as long as I can bring a smile to the user, I count it as a success.“

Bend Mirror – ships flat, bend to use

Unlimited budget, unlimited resources: what is the project that you would develop? What would it look like?

Nicholas Baker: “Oh, this is a tough question. My first thought is to redesign a transportation system. It would be amazing to have such a great impact on a large population.

But I also have a fun answer, a dream project of mine would be to design a mini-golf course. I would love to design 18 holes with all kinds of clever and crazy mechanisms. Most mini golf courses are themed, but I think I would design mine to be really clean and modern.“

milled steel block pencil sharpener

The post Nicholas Baker and the fascination of the mundane appeared first on DesignWanted.

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from http://www.houseoffashion.co.za/nicholas-baker-and-the-fascination-of-the-mundane/

#Stylish Homes

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themikewheelers · 8 years ago

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Revenge of the Nerds

Thanks so much to Val for giving me this prompt @elevenknope I loved writing this!

“What about something with how a ball can be thrown with the greatest velocity?”

“Dustin, seriously?! None of us can even throw a ball, how would we test that out?”

It was the first day of April, which meant only one thing to four goofy boys, the Roane County Science Fair was coming up. Dustin, Lucas, and Will had been pacing in Mike’s basement for hours now, desperately trying to find some idea that could defeat the damned Neil and Jeff Platz.

The Platz brothers were, as Lucas referred to them, their worst enemies. They'd never forget that spring in 1983, when they had lost the science fair for the first time against the Platz brothers and their cursed experiment on acid rain.

It was now almost time for their second science fair since then. The Platz brothers dropped out unexpectedly the year before, so while the boys were proud of their clear win, victory wasn't so sweet without defeating those who had stolen that first-prize trophy from them once before.

Now the four boys were ready to take on Neil and Jeff, the science fair was a month away and they insisted they weren't going to leave the basement until they at least had an idea. El had decided to stay with them too, she knew she wouldn't be the biggest contributor to the project, having only started science classes herself a few months ago, but she wanted to help her friends in any way she could.

“I heard Miss Gorsh is gonna be a judge,” Lucas piped up, “She's a health teacher, she'd love if we did something with nutrition or whatever.”

“But that's so boring!” Dustin whined.

Will nodded, “Yeah, and I heard Neil and Jeff are doing an experiment on how video games affect your brain. Teachers are gonna love that! We need something better.”

“Well then how about a potato clock?”

“Everyone does that!”

“Well we did a volcano two years ago and that's what everyone does!”

“That was the year we lost!”

Mike leaned into the back of his seat, starting to tune out his friends’ bickering. He was unusually quiet today. Normally he was the bossiest, and according to Dustin, the most unbearable of all the boys to work with for the project, but things were different this year. Mike didn't want to admit it, but he knew exactly why things were so different. This was the first year where El was with them for the science fair.

Right then, Mike would much rather go sit besides El on the couch and explain to her all the scientific concepts from their old projects than go join the debate about potato clocks or nutrition or whatever the other boys were bickering about.

Mike stood up and walked over towards El, who was currently staring at the floor, drowned out in her own thoughts.

“Hey El.” Her head snapped up upon hearing her name, “Eggo run?”

She nodded her head, giving her signature small smile that made Mike’s heart beat just a slight bit faster. She pushed herself off the couch and the two began to race up the steps.

Apparently it was heading upstairs that finally got the boys’ attention that Mike had left the table.

“Dude!” Lucas yelled, “What are you doing?”

“We’re just getting some waffles,” Mike shrugged.

“We said no one leaves the basement until we have an idea!”

Mike rolled his eyes in response, “We’re just getting food, we’ll be back faster than baking soda reacts with vinegar.”

And with that, he grabbed El’s hand and they continued their ascent up the stairs. When they entered the kitchen, El plopped herself into one of the seats by the table, while Mike grabbed two Eggos from the freezer and pushed them into the toaster. When he finished he sat down by El, taking the seat right across from her.

“I'm sorry we’re being so boring today,” He confessed, “We just really need to come up with an idea.”

El looked at him, smiling reassuringly, “You're not boring. Are you sure you don't have any ideas?”

Mike let out a deep sigh, of course he had ideas. They'd been doing the science fair for years now, he had even started to keep a journal filled with all the ideas he would get at random points throughout the years. But none of that mattered, because none of his ideas were good enough to beat the Platz brothers, and now his mind was empty of any more ideas.

Before he could respond, a loud ding echoed through the kitchen, signally the Eggos were ready. Mike looked over at the toaster, hesitating to walk over to it. Instead all the gears inside his brain began to turn, a rough idea slowly forming.

“Mike? Mike!”

El snapped her fingers in front of his face, pulling him from his trance.

“Are you okay?”

Mike looked over at her as a grin overtook his entire face, “I know what to do.”

---------------

The day of the science fair had arrived, and kids from all across the county had prepared their projects, ready to compete.

The boys were confident in their project though, they'd been working on it after school for weeks now. All it took was a little bit of brainstorming, a lot of hard work, and of course, just a few phone calls to Mr. Clarke, because even though he technically wasn't allowed to help them, he could never say no to his favorite students.

The judges were walking from table to table, with their pens and clipboards ready to find the new winner. Neil and Jeff Platz were proud of their project, with their large poster board filled with all their observations and research. However the boys, accompanied by El, were still confident in their own work.

When the judges finally came around to their table, the kids were practically jumping with anticipation.

“El, you wanna announce it?” Mike nudged her arm, and slowly she nodded her head, taking in a big breath.

“We’d like to present to you, the Eggo-Maker 2000!”

Lucas started to turn some dials on their invention, while Dustin pulled out the box of Eggos they'd kept hidden under the table.

For the past month, the kids had been working nonstop on their invention. It all started with dismantling the Wheeler’s toaster, which Karen would lecture them for later. Then they got some advice from Mr. Clarke and went off to work. They weren't the handiest of kids, but Will had access to his family's tools, and Dustin, to their surprise, wasn't too bad with a screwdriver. Before they knew it, that old toaster had morphed into something new.

Will plopped the Eggo into the toaster and turned it on. The judges watched skeptically for a minute, wondering how toasting a frozen waffle was an experiment. But then when the bell dinged to signal that the Eggos were ready, instead of popping out the top as usual, the front of the toaster opened itself like a mailbox.

When it opened, it revealed a secret spot hidden on the inside of the toaster. A small plate was placed into the back of the the opening, and the cooked Eggos rested on top of it. Then when it seemed like it was finished, a small fountain of syrup began to rain from a hidden compartment inside, covering the the waffles with the perfect amount of syrup before closing itself up.

When it was finished, Mike lifted the plate up and gave the Eggos to two of the judges, who were astounded at the invention. It wasn't a world-changing project, no, but they couldn't believe five eighth-graders were able to put this together.

They gave a small round of applause for the kids, who all laughed, proud of their invention, and silently grateful that it had worked, and hadn't gone terribly wrong as it had in Mike’s nightmare the night before.

In the end, they were the clear winners of the science fair. The judges announced it at the end of the day, commending them for their innovation, creativity, and engineering.

The sweet, sweet victory against the Platz brothers that they had worked so long for was finally theirs, but by the end of the day, they only really cared about their celebration of even sweeter Eggos.

#stranger things #mileven #mike wheeler #el hopper #lucas sinclair #will byers #dustin henderson

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