#everything is a manifestation of god actually. but some things are a little extra holy sometimes. not very quaker of me but it is what it i

[petoskeystones]

literally nothing better than when the sun gets a halo... not to be religious on main but thats literally a manifestation of god to me. like seeing a dove in the wild. its on the same level

[thanksjro]

Dark Cybertron Chapter 12: That’s the Power of Love, Babeyyyyy

Thank fucking god, it’s almost over.

Our issue opens up with Ironhide deadnaming Slug, like the out-of-touch grandpa that he is. Everything is going to shit, the whole city’s covered in lasers like the world’s worst rave, and someone thought it was a good idea to let Swerve have a gun.

As the Ammonites try to murder everyone in sight, Whirl and Arcee have a little chat about how Whirl’s seemingly caused every problem ever in the last four million years.

…Whirl, you have been keeping up with your appointments with Rung, right? Like, I know he’s not the best therapist around by any stretch of the imagination, but surely something would be better than nothing in this case.

On the Lost Light, Hound, Perceptor, and Mainframe are keeping track of how many Ammonites have been killed. Everyone is extra British in this bit. Perceptor basically calls Hound a fucking idiot, because even with all the guys who’ve been taken out, there are still literally BILLIONS of these suckers running around.

Which seems a little overkill to me, but what do I know? Warcrimes aren’t my specialty.

Meanwhile, in the Mystical City of Making Science Cry, Starscream apparently knows what cosplay is, and takes a potshot at Jhiaxus for stealing his look. Metalhawk explains how the Ammonites got here in the first place, which, y’know, is cool. Love me some technobabble exposition.

I don’t actually love it.

I’m sorry for lying.

I WOULD ALSO LIKE FOR METALHAWK TO PUT A STOP TO THIS

BUT WE’VE GOT ANOTHER 19 PAGES TO GO

SO I GUESS LIFE JUST ISN’T FUCKING FAIR RATTRAP

While Metalhawk contemplates ending the comic event early, Starscream is getting his ass kicked by an old man who spent the war sitting on his butt in the Dead Universe.

Over with Team -Imus, Brainstorm’s taking a breather after getting Robertsed at the end of last issue. Ultra Magnus makes a pun, I guess to cope with the fact that he doesn’t understand anything that’s going on. Cyclonus is still dying, but this isn’t about him. Nightbeat is also dying. Oh, and Kup. Turns out, being a part of the Dead Universe is sort of an issue when you’re out of it.

Even though Galvatron was fine. And Jhiaxus. And Nova Prime, for the little bit he was out of it.

I feel like this plot point kinda just shows up when it’s convenient.

Anyway.

Brainstorm has shit in his lab that can help them not die, but he and Skids are gonna need help to get all these undead morons back to the Lost Light, which means that only two folks would be going to face Shockwave in this final confrontation.

Speaking of Shockwave, he’s gone full Burning Justice with that time drive shoved into his chest, as he makes fun of Megatron for being a dumb stupid idiot who gave him everything he needed to end the universe. He reveals himself to be a nihilist, claiming that a Cybertron which only exists for existence’s sake- and without any form of life- is the ultimate in perfection. Also, he’s a communist now. A nihilistic communist.

Just… whatever, Shockwave.

Megatron’s annoyed by all this posturing- which, same- but enough about him, it’s time for Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime drop down from… somewhere… to kick some ass. Shockwave promptly shoots Magnus, and is about to do the same to Optimus, when this starts happening:

Huh. Wonder what all that’s about.

Shockwave snaps out of his stupor and proceeds to fire on Optimus, yelling about being the only thing that exists as he does.

Over with Rodimus and friends, Cyclonus is bitching about Rodimus not leaving him behind so he could go fight Shockwave. Nightbeat, who I guess just doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut, tells Cyclonus to quit it, because they all know that he just misses his boyfriend. Cyclonus, though blatantly annoyed, doesn’t actually refute this claim. Brainstorm wonders aloud just how this gaggle of assholes managed to escape the Dead Universe without murdering each other.

Rodimus explains that when they heard the singing at Swerve’s, it proved they could still get out of the Dead Universe, so they desecrated Nova Prime’s corpse to make a space bridge. Brainstorm became a doorway, because he’s very nearly dead, and oh yeah, he should probably fix that when they get back to the lab, and also reconsider his lab safety protocols.

The gang reaches the outside world, and Rodimus is given a chance to spout off his personal philosophies.

Fantastic, you funky little man.

Then everyone looks up in the sky and sees some real bullshit.

Hey, Cahill? I just wanna talk, man. Just wanna talk about this boobie Windblade you’ve cursed my eyes with.

Back over with Jhiaxus and Starscream, Jhiaxus just cannot shut up. He just keeps waxing poetic about how smart Shockwave’s plan is. I couldn’t even tell you what the guy’s saying- my eyes glaze over whenever he gets a speech bubble.

Metalhawk at this point has had quite enough of all this nonsense, and decides he’s gonna throw himself into the equation that allows the Dark Cybertron prophecy to manifest.

By killing himself.

He just fuckin’… tosses himself into some heavy machinery and explodes, and that throws all the ores out of wack, since he’s got the Resurrection Ore in him. Jhiaxus is distracted by a man just straight-up dying in the same room as him, and this give Starscream the opening he needs to stab Jhiaxus in the gut.

Then the background just straight up disappears, as Rattrap lets everyone know that it’s all still going to shit, but in the opposite direction.

Really not sure about this art direction, but whatever. I’m over it.

Back outside, all the Ammonites are exploding. All of them. Billions of the little suckers, just popping off like fire crackers. The environment’s going to be ruined at this rate. Metroplex is having a great fucking time. Happy for him.

The Lost Light calls the ladies inside Metroplex’s brain room, and lets them know that they’re gonna break up Monstructor like the mediocre boy-band he is, though not without Mainframe being difficult beforehand. The ladies jump out and enter the fray, admiring Arcee’s style as they do.

Back with Rodimus and pals, Nightbeat’s being fucking cryptic, and Brainstorm gets to work making it so folks aren’t dying from being in the wrong universe, after a little prodding to his ego.

Back in Shockwave’s Super Saiyan Energy Bubble of Pure Unadulterated Logic, Shockwave says that’s he’s fucking ripped, and Optimus couldn’t beat him in a fight. Clearly, this means we’ll have to use our words to resolve this, like adults. Optimus isn’t too sure about that option, however.

I mean, do I even have to- Optimus, that’s GAY.

I have the sneaking suspicion that Roberts wrote this portion of the script. Y’know, just given his track record.

Then Megatron blasts Shockwave with his fusion cannon, and makes fun of Optimus for being a sentimental fool.

The fact that “Dark Cybertron” is telling me this makes me so mad. Like, you don’t get to talk, Exposition Central.

It’s at this point that Megatron drops a bomb on everyone present- he’s done with being a Decepticon. He’s gonna be an Autobot now.

See, ol’ Megsy here has seen the error of his ways- that by fighting the Senate, he allowed them to change him into a murderous warlord. To prove how much of a nice guy he is, he’s ripped the Autobrand off of Bumblebee’s lifeless body and duct-taped it to his chest.

Which seems a tad disrespectful, but okay.

…Megatron, you do realize that, as the leader of the Decepticons, you could just tell everyone that they need to be nice, and that would more or less be the end of it, right? You could just say “not evil anymore, I want to be loved now”, and everyone would be all “sir yes sir.” This is going to be a PR nightmare, I can already tell. Shockwave certainly seems to agree with me.

I really like this panel structure. Want to say this is the only place it happens, too. It’s just too bad it lives in “Dark Cybertron”.

Shockwave’s not having a good time right now, and he’s convinced that Optimus and Megatron have teamed up just to make him upset so he loses control of the time drive. The two spout off a little Autobot propaganda, and then Shockwave Remembers™.

Shockwave, having had his shadowplay reverse violently and abruptly, is horrified to find what he’s become. Alas, it’s too late for him- the only way to stop the time drive is for Optimus to kill him. Optimus promises to remember who Shockwave was- a callback to the line Shockwave gave him back before his empurata- and then shoots the everloving fuck out of the guy. Megatron helps.

And that’s a series wrap on Shoc-

-holy fucking shit.

The gang high-tails it outta there, IDW Optimus once again proving to be the shittiest version of everyone’s space-dad, as he leaves Bumblebee’s body to be consumed by the Shockwave Singularity. It’s looking pretty hopeless, but luckily none of these bastards can die without fucking up Season 2 of MTMTE, so the Lost Light swoops in to save the day.

Down below, Soundwave and his gaggle of small children and animals watch as the Lost Light fucks off into the distance. Soundwave’s having a time and a half, as he realizes with his balls-to-the-wall senses that Megatron’s joined the Autobots. Galvatron shows up to try to work out a deal. We won’t be seeing where this goes, because that’ll be covered later on.

The Lost Light lands in front of Metroplex, and over to the left of that are Rattrap and Starscream, climbing over the wreckage of the city. Rattrap tries to warn Starscream that things are gonna be tough, now that the Dark Cybertron prophecy has come to pass, but Starscream isn’t really having it. He’s gotten very paranoid, likely due to stress, and tells Rattrap to not play this game, because he’s the best player who’s ever lived. Then the Lost Light gang shows up and we get this face:

Sure.

Later on, Megatron and Optimus are hanging out in the Sky Roller, not-talking, until Megatron tells Optimus to get on with it, since the issue’s about to end. Megatron was totally serious about becoming an Autobot. Optimus isn’t really sure what to do with that. I don’t think anyone’s really sure what to do with that, to be honest.

Megatron, in turn, asks Optimus if he really could look past all the bullshit Shockwave pulled in the last several million years, and he gets a non-answer, because addressing your feelings is for losers, clearly. The two exit the ship, and I guess everyone else was just… standing outside waiting for them to talk it out. Weird.

...And with THAT, I am finally released from Comic Event Hell!

If you hear any distant, triumphant screeching right now, that’s likely me.

[thatnamelessbutler]

(OoC: So, what's the AU thing about?)

((ooc: Okay so basically I got an idea form a song completely unrelated to the fandom and long story short, Bi n Bu are no longer able to escape from the Egg except through a very specific method, and then Karl comes back along and bippity boppity your body is now our property!

So, yeah. Body-swap AU except Karl kinda dies because to get the swap to work everyone's body had to die. Karl's gets healed afterwards through magical time shenanigans-

So Billiam and Rune(Bu's new name in this AU) wake up in the library, in our current DSMP present, in the weird body of this weird guy who's apparently a weird color-shapeshifter.(yeah, i'm going with the cryptid creature Karl for this one because. it's cool as heck and I never see this anywhere)

a little while after they wake up in the present, karl wakes up after being dormant because he literally died and it's like "HEY WAIT WHAT THE HECK YOU STOLE MY BODY" and everyone else goes "shit shit shit shit"

p.s if you're wondering where hubert is he's dead. the egg killed nearly everyone except billiam and butler because bi is its main caretaker and bu will never leave his side

(more under the cut please there's so much and i actually love this au so much)

Now I'm not a system but I imagine these four(yes, four; Billiam, Rune, Piam(Billiam's Piglin side), and Tune(Bu's Other) operate kind of like one. They have an innerworld and everything, they aren't just all constantly crammed into the front. That would get confusing, stressful and difficult to manage overall. Bu's usually the one fronting because no one else wants to; Billiam doesn't wanna do it because he doesn't wanna mingle with the "poor", Tune doesn't wanna do it because it always gets tripped up with literally everything about the body, it's not even dangerous enough to protect now, and Piam doesn't wanna do it because he's kind of scared of the Overworld someone that doesn't know how to be a Human Person

Oh yeah and I've also talked about all this and more with my bestie so here's a copy-paste of that conversation-

I think an encounter with Sapnap and/or Quackity would go terribly too, until they sit down and explain things as best they can wait no actually "So basically, we killed your fiancée so we could inhabit his body and escape from a really bad situation. sorry" Acid Sapanap would go feral and I can't even begin to conceive what extremely destructive thoughts Quackoty would start having Me MHM Sapnap probably pulls a sword on them and they automatically reach for their own before remembering "Oh shit, we don't have it. OH SHIT-" and then they just gotta r u n Butler's trying desperately to teleport but without a pearl, eeeeeh that's not gonna do anything buddy I'm not sure if Karl has armor in his inventory or not but either way they wouldn't have the time or coordination to equip it Acid they just immediately die it'd be so funny Me "NOT AGAIN, WE JUST GOT FREE- death" Now lets hope either Karl has some extra canon lives, or those lives Billiam bought carry over Acid PFFFFT, BILLIAM'S LIVES GET CARRIED WITH THEM AND IT'S JUST revives ok listen we don't gotta dies revives please let's just dies revives why do you do t dies revives this is just gonna last forever isn't it? dies rev- Me wheeze YEAH "GET OUT OF KARL'S BODY!" "We can't!! It's already been done!! dies" "WHY WON'T YOU DIE!!?" "We are!!??" ohhh, bonus angst points if every time they die, Butler goes a little more dormant- Butler was only meant to have one life, he never got any Totems and his soul cannot take this in the way Billiam's can After about 15 deaths, Billiam gets Sapnap to stop for about five seconds, and in those five seconds he realizes that he can no longer hear or feel Butler Acid oh god Me If he manages to get far enough away and find someplace to hide(perhaps the library again), he dips into the headspace and finds Butler just gone. He looks around for a while and finds them far away from where they were, collapsed on the ground, flickering slightly, and entirely unresponsive. And no matter how much he tries, they just won't wake up, and their Ender half has disappeared completely. He can't do anything except wait for them. Acid fjsjdj oh my god imagine Billiam just goes feral after that he's like "what did you do to m y B u t l e r" and just jumps on Sapnap with his bare hands Me Oh absolutely, he will Murder Sapnap without a second thought and he doesn't care how many deaths he has to go through to do it even though dying more will make it take longer for butler to wake up, and then afterwards he'll be pacing around random areas stress-stimming intensely and waiting for his child to wake up Acid yeap Me Somehow he finds his way to Kinoko Kingdom and is like "oh, this looks like a good place for a walk" and then spends the entire time not actually looking at anything and drowned in anxiety

AND THEN THESE WERE LAST NIGHT'S THOUGHTS, SOMEHOW LATER ON THEY END UP AT SAPNAP'S PLACE CAUSE THEY TECHNICALLY DON'T HAVE A PLACE TO STAY Unless you count the library but I don't think that would be very comfortable-

Anyway, Rune was fronting when they fell asleep and then their chronic nightmares came back. Sapnap wakes up(or was he ever really sleeping?) to some almost animalistic gasping in the other room and runs in to find Karl Karl's body curled on the bed, barely humanoid and random flashes of color spiking over him in waves and clawlike hands digging into his head

So he tries to wake him up, and when he does Bu's first reaction is to scramble away in pure terror because he's not fully out of the nightmare yet, there are even tears running down his face that just get absorbed back into the mass of color. Sapnap tries to calm him down, and eventually succeeds enough to ask him what the hell happened, and who's fronting once he remembers that that is a thing-

Thing is, Bu's gone nonverbal, but hey at least Karl was some sort of shapeshifter so they can just shift blobs of color into the air to answer Sapnap's questions

He very quickly learns only to ask yes/no ones because he can't read Galactic which is the only thing Bu can respond in, but that whole night ends on a pretty good note :3

Acid IS KARL IN THE SYSTEM CANON? HE'D BE THE MAIN FRONTER IF IT IS I THINK Me After that nightmare Rune finds himself trusting Sapnap a little more but also not as able to front, he's just so tired of it. No one else wants to front, he always has to stay there and he never gets a break. At least before, Tune had control during the night and he got to rest some. Now his sleep schedule is just as abhorred as before and no one else even comes near the front. He tries as long as he can, for everyone else's sake, but after weeks of fronting alone he just can't anymore. So he finally leaves the front and just collapses face-first into idk a patch of grass in the innerworld or something, and he's so exhausted of being a person that he can't even think straight, He doesn't want consolation, he doesn't want promises, he doesn't even want cuddles he just wants someone else to take over for a bit. Me OOH MAYBE He wakes up and wanders around the innerworld figuring out what the heck is going on and wondering why he can't see the outside anymore and oh god is he dead, are they all dead maybe they're all dead and none of them know it, and then Rune comes out of front and practically begs to not have to be a person anymore, he tells Karl "please i just want a break, just go out there or get someone else to go out there for a while please" and, well, Karl takes a chance and goes out to front and holy shit is this the real world, holy shit are those his fiancées, holy s h i t Acid THAT'S THE BESR OUTCOME ACTUALLY Me YESSSSSSSSS MASQUERADE SYSTEM + KARL THE MAN HIMSELF JACOBS Acid YESSS Me Karl and Rune are now host and co-host, because. no one else wants to front Acid Karl tricking Billiam into fronting.mp4 Me GSHDFGBSGDHFBSF Rune and Karl lock him into front and Rune proceeds to lean against the nearest flat surface, slide down and then dissociate for the next couple/several hours Karl makes sure no one disturbs him, even if Tune and Piam are Very Worried about their exhausted Human hybrid Acid them taking care of Rune (affectionate)

Acid OK WAIT I WAS THINKING AND IN SYSTEMS PEOPLE USUALLY MANIFEST SO I WAS THINKING HOW THAT'D WORK IN THE MASQUERADE SYS AND I REALIZED THAT EVERYONE IN THERE IS TECHNICALLY DEAD IN A WAY WHAT IF THAT'S THIS AU'S LIMBO? ONE DAY WILBUR POPS UP AND COMMITS MULTIPLE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY Me HOLY SHIT OH SHIT EVERYONE THAT PERMA-DIES JUST ENDS UP AS AN ALTER IN KARL'S WEIRD COLOR-SHAPESHIFTING BODY XDDD You can always tell who's fronting by the colors, as long as you actually know them enough to know their colors- Acid Wilbur: hello Quackity, I am BAC- Karl: oh my GOD Wilbur shut the FUCK UP we understand it you're gay now please get out of front I have a date in 10 minutes Acid OOOOO YES Me Like Rune is purple/pink(mainly pink) gray-red/dark purple/orange/green eyes(right/right/left/left, respectively), and then he has some other colors sifting through, like a dark indigo-blue and a yellow the color of Endstone Tune is all of that but some of it is darker(the pinks/purples and Endstone color), some of it's the same(the eyes, except they have a light pink shine over them) and some of it is inverted. Clouds will waft around the body when it's fronting and whenever you look through the clouds you'll see the colors inverted Billiam is solidly pale pink except for his eyes(maroon) and his hands and feet(gold, with veins streaking out and tapering off at about the elbow) Piam is a slightly redder pink, with spots of a Netherrack color here and there, and his gold is more orangey, like there's fire reflecting off of it karl is just. karl. Of course he's got the signature swirls in bright violent and teal but other than that he's just a smorgasbord of color, usually bright and neon. When he's near/thinking about Sapnap and/or Quackity, little hearts start popping off him

[psychosistr]

Chariot’s Companions

Summary: Taking place in the Eyes of Heaven universe, Jotaro and the crusaders get sent to the coliseum alongside Giorno and his gang. What they find there is a haunting reminder of Passione’s past and a startling realization about one of the crusaders’ future.

Notes: This is the first story for my 100 Follower Giveaway, written for my little sister who has always been my biggest fan and greatest supporter in everything I do. Love you, T, happy valentines day!

Extra Note: Warning, this is a long fic with canon-typical violence for JJBA xD

Edit: Decided to start tagging my sister on the stuff I mention her in ^^” Go check her out, she’s very sweet and really intelligent, often posting stuff about Transformers and comic books: @mark-xeen

Everything seemed calmed for once on the usually busy streets of Morioh, Japan. There were a few people walking around on the main street, but not too many as it was the middle of a weekday and most people were either at work or school at this time. One of the few people walking around was a tall teenager dressed in a dark school uniform with a torn black hat and a large golden chain on the front of his jacket.

The tall boy rounded a corner behind the local convenience store and glanced around once he was out of sight of the general public. He then reached into his jacket and pulled out something rather odd: A turtle. Specifically, a turtle with an odd key embedded in its back.

The boy set the turtle down in a shaded corner behind the building before reaching down and touching its back. He was quickly sucked into the red gem embedded in the turtle’s key.

Inside of the gem was what appeared to be a hotel room. It was fairly plain with only the most basic of furniture and no bathroom, but it was still a safe enough hideout for the time being. The only downside was that it was..well..rather crowded by this point..

The boy’s name was Jotaro Kujo. He had recently found himself caught up in a series of bizarre adventures starting with the appearance of what he at first thought to be a ghost haunting him turning out to be some sort of guardian spirit called a stand that was actually protecting him. He soon became part of a world-traveling adventure to save his mother’s life when an ancient evil vampire that was an enemy of his family from over a hundred years ago stole the body of his great-great-grandfather and received a stand of his own and, in turn, caused Jotaro, his mother, and his grandfather to all manifest their stands too. On his mission to defeat the vampire, Jotaro had teamed up with others like him and his grandfather who had stands and, at the tragic cost of half of their group’s lives, they succeeded in defeating the nearly immortal vampire. Just as they thought their journey was over, though, the remaining three members found themselves caught in an entirely new adventure that involved traveling through space and time itself to stop an alternate-universe god-version of the vampire they all fought so hard to defeat and were trying to prevent him from gathering the pieces of a “holy corpse” that came from an alternate timeline and provided guidance to Jotaro’s bloodline- the Joestar family.

Along the way they gathered more allies- friends and family and other members of the Joestar bloodline, and even some alternate reality counterparts to a couple of them. The turtle they currently found themselves residing in had come from the timeline of a boy in Jotaro’s family who had a bit of an odd connection to the others- Giorno Giovanna. He was the bastard son of the vampire they were fighting, DIO Brando, who had conceived him with a woman before he had fully integrated his DNA into the body of Jotaro’s great-great-grandfather, Jonathan Joestar, resulting in a son that was part Joestar and part Brando. He was turning out to be a strong ally with a sharp mind and powerful stand.

The only thing that bothered Jotaro about Giorno and his group was that they seemed to know something about him and his friends that they had all unanimously agreed to keep quiet about. Specifically, they seemed to know something about Jotaro’s friend Jean-Pierre Polnareff. When they first met him, the group had called him “the turtle man” then quickly tried to cover it up by calling it “Italian humor”. He would have been fine if that were it, but what really bothered him was that Giorno and the others seemed to keep a cautious, almost fearful eye on Polnareff. They all seemed especially jumpy whenever he called out his stand, Silver Chariot. Narancia and Bucciarati had both flinched the first time they’d seen it come out and Giorno himself had subconsciously tightened his hand into a fist as if he was preparing to fight before forcing himself to relax.

Jotaro had no idea why they were so cautious around Polnareff and his stand. Polnareff was loud and annoying, but he was still a good man with a good heart. He was so noble that, even while under the mind-control of one of DIO’s sinister flesh buds, he’d still shown respect and consideration for his opponent- another member of their group named Mohammed Abdul- and had formed a quick but close friendship with every member of their group. Polnareff had been the only one besides Jotaro and his grandfather, Joseph Joestar, to survive the fight against DIO and his minions. As such, the three had formed a strong bond from both the fight as well as their shared grieving of their dead friends. Polnareff had sworn to Jotaro and his grandfather that, if they ever needed him, he’d come running to help them from anywhere in the world, and Jotaro knew he meant every word of what he said.

So, with all that he knew about Polnareff, it made no sense to him why Giorno and his gang would be so distrusting of him, even though they acted friendly enough on the surface. Either Polnareff was unaware of the looks the Italian group gave him, or he was just choosing not to say anything- either way, it annoyed Jotaro to have one of his only friends treated like some sort of ticking time bomb.

As Jotaro weaved through the crowded hotel-like room of the turtle’s hiding space (which was actually the doing of a stand), he found his group hanging out around one corner of the couch. His grandfather was sitting on the couch himself as he told some story, likely about one of his adventures from his youth, as usual. Polnareff was sitting on the armrest nearby, laughing loudly every now and then at a particularly funny part of the old man’s tale. Abdul (the fortune-teller that first taught Jotaro and his grandfather about stands and was the one to fight Polnareff then realize he was being controlled by DIO) was leaning against the wall beside Polnareff, listening with the occasional nod and a calm smile. Sitting on the floor facing the others was a boy about Jotaro’s age with red hair and a green school uniform, his name was Kakyoin Noriaki and he had also been controlled by DIO but had become a loyal friend after Jotaro freed him from the vampire’s control. Lastly, sleeping on the backrest of the couch by Joseph was a small black and white dog- he was a stand user named Iggy who tended to be grouchy and violent, but was still clever and had been willing to sacrifice himself to save Polnareff’s life.

Jotaro hid a small smile behind the high collar of his coat as he watched them all talking freely. While this adventure was odd and stressful, it was proving to be worth it to have their group back together again.

DIO, in his attempts to take out Jotaro and the Joestar bloodline, had used his powers to resurrect and/or control many of his family’s allies. Quite a few of the people currently in that very room had died and been brought back to life under DIO’s control as weapons against their friends. Thankfully, after using the parts of the holy corpse that they’d gathered, they had managed to break DIO’s control and save their friends from his influence.

Kakyoin, Abdul, and Iggy were all prime examples of this. It was a shock to have their friends suddenly return from beyond the grave and call them enemies, but Jotaro and the others were relieved to have them back after so much strife. Now they were all together again, fighting alongside each other and telling stories just like before. It may have been a roundabout way for it to happen, but getting his friends back had been worth the hard work he’d put in to tracking DIO’s movements.

Now, though, Jotaro was tired and needed a break before continuing the search. It was exhausting being the main one to walk around while everyone else got to rest inside the turtle-room, damn it…

Polnareff looked up at Jotaro with a grin. “Oi! Jotaro!” He waved as Jotaro took a seat beside Kakyoin on the floor. When Jotaro’s only response was a grunt that vaguely resembled a greeting, Polnareff laughed at his friend’s usual cranky demeanor. “Getting tired again already?”

“I’ve been the only one walking around for days now.” Jotaro shot back while pulling his hat down to cover his eyes, leaning back to lay on the floor and get some rest. “If one of you wants to carry the damn turtle, be my guest or shut the hell up.”

Abdul shook his head with an amused chuckle. “While we sympathize with your plight, Jotaro, I don’t think it would do much good for one of us to carry this burden- after all, none of us have any holy corpse parts and would have no direction on where to go. Perhaps you could try asking one of your relatives to take over if you need a break?”

“I’ll think about it..” Jotaro replied while settling in for a decent rest. The rest proved short-lived, though, when he felt a familiar pulsing from within his jacket after only a few minutes on the floor. “You’ve gotta be kidding me..” He grumbled while sitting up. Reaching into his jacket, Jotaro pulled out the now familiar glowing holy corpse part that had been with him throughout this particular journey. Looking around to see Giorno also holding his corpse part in his hand but no one else doing the same, Jotaro rose to his feet. “Yare yare..” He jerked his head at Giorno, motioning for him to follow. “Lets go..”

“Right.” Giorno said while rising to his feet as well, giving a quick wave to the members of his group before joining Jotaro.

The two raised their hands and were teleported back outside of the turtle.

Giorno wasn’t really one for conversation unless it was necessary, which was fine with Jotaro since he wasn’t either. He was definitely the least annoying out of his relatives, even if he did share blood with DIO. All of that meant that he didn’t really mind being around the other boy and was okay looking for the next lead from the holy corpse with him for a while-

Actually, it turned out they didn’t have far to go at all, as there was a familiar golden fissure in the ground only a couple feet away from the turtle’s resting spot. The two boys approached the portal to who knew where, but were stopped when the corpse parts physically yanked them back.

Jotaro looked down at the corpse part in his hand with a scowl. “What now?” As if in answer, it tugged him back towards the turtle ever so slightly. He noticed Giorno’s doing the same. “Yare yare..make up your mind already..”

They re-entered the turtle to the surprise of the room’s occupants, earning a few confused stares from their comrades.

Polnareff was the first to speak up, calling over to him from his spot at the couch. “Wow, that was quick! Or did you just miss us that much?” He grinned at his own teasing, enjoying the glare that Jotaro shot him.

“Shut up, Polnareff..” He grumbled as he allowed the holy corpse part to guide him. It led him over to his group and, understanding its meaning, Jotaro looked them over with a flick of his eyes. “Looks like you guys are coming with us, so get up- I literally can’t go without you.”

Polnareff grinned and jumped up to his feet. “Alright! I was getting tired of just sitting around, anyway.”

Kakyoin and Joseph stood up too, Joseph grabbing Iggy off of the back of the couch despite the growl of protest. “You’re coming too, get over it.”

Iggy’s response was another growl and an attempt at biting Joseph’s metal hand, but he calmed down after Joseph gave him a stick of gum and reluctantly allowed himself to be held as they were all transported outside of the turtle.

They were soon joined by Giorno and his gang outside, Narancia looking them over curiously. “It wants ALL of us? Wooooww, this must be a big one!”

“That can’t be good..” Fugo muttered.

Giorno joined Jotaro at the opening. “I agree with them- this is a bit strange and likely dangerous.”

Jotaro looked at the fissure in front of them seriously. “Yeah..” He didn’t like the feeling he got from this at all. At most the holy corpse usually only sent out one or two of them, never this many at a time. It made him feel uneasy but he did his best not to let it show as he stepped into the light with the others.

For a few moments, everything around him was blinding gold and he had to close his eyes until it passed. When everything finally settled down, he found himself in a familiar location.

“The Coliseum?” Trish asked from somewhere behind him while he was looking around. “Why would it bring us back here?”

He looked back at Giorno and the others, but, after doing a quick glance over them, noticed that someone who was normally very hard to miss was, in fact, missing. “Where’s Polnareff?”

After he pointed it out, everyone looked around in search of the large Frenchman.

“How..?” Abdul looked confused and worried, as Jotaro noticed he often did when it came to Polnareff. “He was right beside me when we went through..”

“It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve gotten separated going through there.” Joseph said while crossing his arms with a contemplative expression. “That’s why we had to start using the turtle in the first place- it made sure everyone stayed together..”

Kakyoin nodded in agreement. “He shouldn’t be far, though. The portals usually deposit us where and when we’re meant to be.”

“That is reassuring..” Abdul replied, though he didn’t look any less worried for Polnareff’s safety. “Still, I hope he doesn’t get into too much trouble…”

“Knowing Polnareff, that’s a pretty real possibility.” Joseph uncrossed his arms. “We’ll have to keep an eye out for him while-” Joseph stopped when he heard what sounded like metal scraping against metal nearby. “Huh? What the hell was that?”

Jotaro scowled slightly as he headed towards it. “Whatever it is, it’s probably why we’re here in the first place. We’ll look for Polnareff after we deal with it.”

While everyone was still worried about the missing Frenchman, they had more pressing matters to attend to for now- namely, finding out what brought them there in the first place.

They all rushed towards the sounds, hearing the bang of an occasional gun shot as they drew closer. When they arrived to the source, which was in the center of the coliseum, they saw three people fighting in the ancient arena.

Two were immediately recognizable as DIO’s henchmen: The lovely but conniving Mariah, and the cunning but cautious Hol Horse. Though it was very obviously them physically, there was something off about the way they were acting.

“Damn it! I can’t get off a shot like this! How the hell do you run around with all this weight?!” Mariah said while gesturing to her own top. Strangely, she was holding Hol Horse’s Emperor gun in her hand as she tried to fire it at their opponent.

Hol Horse shot her a glare as he touched the ground nearby. “Stop complaining, my chest isn’t that bad!” An electrical outlet appeared beneath his fingertips on the ground, sparking with electricity.

Mariah tried firing off another round, but the bullets seemed to have a mind of their own and flew off in random directions instead of hitting their target. “I was talkin’ about all the damn metal you keep in here! Seriously, why the hell would you walk around like this?! It’s heavy and I can’t move without somethin’ stabbin’ me!”

“I said stop complaining!” Hol Horse snapped while touching the ground to leave another outlet, effectively setting up a line of them to act as a trap. “Lord DIO wants that arrow, no matter the cost! If we fail him just because of your whining, then I’ll make sure you never get any use out of your ‘second gun’ again!”

Mariah shuddered and backed away as their target got closer. “You’re one heartless witch, y’ know that?”

Jotaro and his group were beyond confused by the verbal exchange, as well as what they were witnessing from Hol Horse and Mariah.

“What in the world is going on?” Abdul was the first to say what was on all of their minds, a look of confusion clear on his face. “I have fought against both of them in the past, and they are acting completely out of character. Not only are they behaving differently, but their stands have also switched users. How is that possible?”

Bucciarati looked at him with a worried expression. “Wait- did you just say that their stands were switched?”

Abdul nodded as he pointed to Mariah holding Emperor. “That is Hol Horse’s stand, the Emperor.” He then pointed to the electrical outlets that Hol Horse was leaving on the ground. “And that is Mariah’s stand, Bastet.”

Bucciarati looked like he was about to say something else, but his attention, as with Giorno and the others in their group, was suddenly stolen by a soft “kah” sound coming from the direction of the battle before them.

Jotaro looked at the third figure that had previously been obscured because of Mariah and Hol Horse’s angle: It appeared to be a man dressed in black- no. Upon closer inspection, it would be more accurate to say this “man” was completely black, meaning he seemed to be made of shadows. Everything on him, from his skin to his clothes to his very being was like looking at a walking, three-dimensional shadow with the only other color on it being its hollow white eyes and mouth whenever it opened it to reveal a similar whiteness. In its hand it tightly clutched a golden arrow, but it made no move to attack with it in any way.

“No..No way..!” Narancia gasped while staring at the dark figure. “It can’t be! Y-You guys said you beat him, right?!” He looked between Giorno, Bucciarati, Trish, and Mista.

“We did!” Trish confirmed, looking equally as terrified as the rest of her group (minus Fugo, who seemed a bit lost on what was going on). “Bucciarati finished him off!”

“Yeah!” Mista nodded, not taking his eyes off of the shadowy being. “We saw it disappear with our own eyes!”

Giorno looked away from the figure, glancing around as if he was searching for something. “The one from our timeline was defeated..but..there is another possibility..”

His words hung heavy in the air between him and his gang. Narancia looked around too, trying to spot something. “Wait, Giorno..you don’t mean..”

“I do.” Giorno confirmed Narancia’s fears with a serious expression. “Use Aerosmith- see if you can spot Polnareff anywhere nearby.”

Narancia nodded and summoned Aerosmith, having his stand fly high up into the air and begin circling the coliseum in a sweeping motion as it searched high and low.

“What does Polnareff have to do with this?” Jotaro asked while taking a step so he was directly in front of Giorno and looking down at him. “What exactly is that thing?”

Giorno frowned slightly before regaining his calm demeanor. “That is Polnareff’s stand: Silver Chariot Requiem.”

Everyone in Jotaro’s group, Jotaro included, were shocked by this news.

“THAT’S Silver Chariot?” Kakyoin said with a shocked expression. “How..? We’ve seen his stand hundreds of times- it looks nothing like that.”

“Not to mention it’s a fairly short-range stand.” Joseph added while looking back at the stand in question. “At most I’d call it a mid-range stand, but even that’s being generous. Polnareff should still be close enough that we could see him if that was actually Chariot.”

Giorno shook his head with a solemn expression. “You are correct, but, as I said, that is not merely Silver Chariot- that is Silver Chariot Requiem. This is Silver Chariot after it has been empowered by the arrow in its hand. Unfortunately, Polnareff is unable to control his stand when it is like this and it becomes autonomous- moving with the singular goal of protecting the arrow.”

“You guys seem to know a lot about it.” Jotaro looked down at Giorno with growing suspicion. “You fought it, didn’t you?”

“We did.” Giorno admitted while looking Jotaro dead in the eyes. “We had no choice in the matter, unfortunately- it was out of control and we needed to get the arrow from it to defeat Diavolo.”

“And what happened to Polnareff when you defeated his stand?” His eyes narrowed dangerously, looking like he might resort to violence depending on Giorno’s answer. “You guys said that Bucciarati ‘finished him off’ and that you ‘saw him disappear with your own eyes’. So, answer me..” He was practically looming over Giorno at this point. “What happened to Polnareff?”

To his credit, Giorno did not look intimidated by Jotaro’s towering figure in the slightest. “We did not hurt Polnareff.” Giorno chose his words carefully. “He asked us to stop his stand, since he was unable to. He thanked us after it was over.”

He was leaving parts out, that much was obvious. If a stand is damaged or destroyed, then the user will suffer the same injuries or die too- that was a truth that they had all come to learn over the course of their journey. To say that they defeated Polnareff’s stand to the point of it disappearing without harming Polnareff was suspicious, to say the least.

Before he had a chance to call Giorno out on it, though, their attention was drawn back to the fight. A loud gunshot was heard followed by “Mariah’s” voice yelling in pain.

“God damn it!” They looked back and saw that she had a bullet wound in her leg. “It’s no good! Emperor’s turnin’ on me when I use it!”

They then saw “Hol Horse” barely managing to dodge a spark of electricity from a nearby outlet. “Bastet isn’t listening either! We’ll fall back for now and contact Diavolo!”

The two then retreated, “Hol Horse” having to carry “Mariah” since her body was injured and unable to run.

Once they were gone, Narancia’s Aerosmith returned to him and he looked back at Giorno. “Hey, Giorno! I checked everywhere, but I didn’t see Polnareff anywhere on Aerosmith’s radar.”

Giorno brought a hand to his chin as he thought the information over. “Hm..I see..this is still a strange turn of events, but he may simply be outside of the coliseum at the moment.” He looked back towards Chariot as it continued its slow pace forward. “At any rate, we should leave Chariot alone for the time being. Its main focus is protecting the arrow, so as long as we don’t try to touch it, we should be safe.”

“……” Jotaro looked back at Chariot. He didn’t like the idea of leaving it like this, but he was more concerned with making sure that Polnareff was okay and keeping the rest of his group safe. “Fine. We’ll leave it for now- at least until we know Polnareff’s okay.” He started to walk away, following Giorno’s group since they knew the coliseum better than his own group did. He was stopped after a few steps, however, by a firm grip on his arm. “..?” He looked back over his shoulder and saw that Star Platinum had materialized behind him and was holding onto his arm while looking at Silver Chariot. “Star Platinum? What-?”

He soon saw that Star Platinum was not alone. Magician’s Red, The Fool, and Hierophant Green had also materialized and were looking at Silver Chariot Requiem alongside Star Platinum.

Before he could get the attention of the other stands’ users, he watched in stunned silence as Star Platinum opened its mouth and let out a loud cry while still looking at Silver Chariot Requiem. “ORA!!”

Everyone turned to look at Jotaro and his stand in surprise. Abdul and the others noticed their own stands out as well, him and Iggy looking as confused as Jotaro when Magician’s Red started letting out its loud screeching bird calls and The Fool began howling.

“Magician’s Red?!” Abdul tried to call back his stand, but it didn’t seem keen on obeying its master. “What?! This..This has never happened before- Magician’s Red has always listened to me!”

Iggy was barking at his stand, apparently trying to do the same as Abdul, but with the same results.

“Giorno!” Jotaro turned his head to look at the blonde. “What the hell’s going on?!”

Giorno, for once, looked completely at a loss for an explanation. “Silver Chariot Requiem has the power to control souls, as well as stands, but we’ve only ever seen that happen when one of us attempted to attack it. This..This is completely new..”

“Guys, I think we have a problem!” Trish said while pointing to the other side of the coliseum.

They looked at Silver Chariot Requiem and saw that it had actually stopped walking and was now staring directly at them with its emotionless gaze. “……” It turned so that its body was now facing the group and began walking directly towards them.

“It changed direction?!” Mista asked in a worried tone. “It’s never done that before! It’s always walked in a straight line and only turned long enough to grab the arrow! What the hell did your stands do?!”

“Don’t ask us.” Kakyoin shot back while looking at his Hierophant Green with a confused frown. “This is all as new to us as it is to you.”

“We need to get out of here.” Bucciarati said while looking towards the exit. “Silver Chariot Requiem is too dangerous to fight- any damage you try to inflict on it will be reflected back onto you. Not to mention it can regenerate as well as control both souls and stands. There is a way to defeat it, but I don’t know if it would be wise until we know where your Polnareff is..”

“Agreed.” Giorno said while using Golden Experience to open the nearest gate. “For now, our best option is still to retreat.”

They found their exit blocked, however, by a combination of thorny purple vines and green tendrils. All eyes turned to Kakyoin and Joseph, the older of the two staring at his hands in confusion as the purple vines grew from them seemingly without his consent. “What the hell?! I swear, I’m not doing this!”

“Neither am I..” Kakyoin said while looking at Hierophant Green’s lower half that had detangled into its strand-form before weaving with Hermit Purple’s vines at the exit. “It would seem our stands don’t want us to leave.”

“Damn it!” Mista swore while grabbing his gun from his pants and taking aim. “Looks like we’ve got no choice but to fight it. I’ll try hitting the things around it instead of attacking it directly- hopefully that’ll be enough to slow it down without Sex Pistols going crazy again. Fugo! Narancia! Back me up!”

The other two boys called out their stands as well. “Right!”

As the three of them began firing at the ground and objects around Silver Chariot to trip it up, Giorno looked to Bucciarati. “Bucciarati, see if you can open up a doorway with Sticky Fingers.”

“Got it.” Bucciarati said while summoning his own stand. “Sticky Fingers!” The stand appeared and went to one of the walls, forming a zipper on it and attempting to open its portal to the other side. Unfortunately, before they could make use of it, a red string of flames suddenly shot out and wrapped around Sticky Fingers. “Ah!” Bucciarati gasped when he felt the bind tightening around his stand, as well as himself.

They looked to see Magician’s Red, its arm outstretched as it used its Red Bind to keep Sticky Fingers from moving and opening the portal out of the coliseum.

“Bucciarati!” Trish summoned Spice Girl and the pink stand attempted to strike Magician’s Red, but was intercepted by The Fool and a barrier of sand. Spice Girl tried to soften the sand, but, as it was already a loose and shifty material, it did not do much good. “Damn it!”

“I’m okay, Trish!” Bucciarati got her attention, looking frustrated but otherwise unharmed. “It’s only restraining me, so don’t worry. Try creating a soft spot in the wall for us to break through. Giorno, cover her!”

They both nodded and went to their assigned tasks. When Trish rushed to one of the walls and started to soften it using Spice Girl, The Fool attempted to pursue her. Giorno and Golden Experience stood in its way, however, and proved to be a much better opponent against the animal-like stand.

The Fool howled as it tried to knock them over with a small wave of sand, but it failed due to Golden Experience’s power: Sand is technically inorganic, so, when Golden Experience touched it with its ability, it was able to convert the sand into simple green leaves and flower petals that flew away harmlessly in the breeze.

It growled and continued trying to attack the pair to get to Trish and Spice Girl, ignoring Iggy’s annoyed barking at it.

Jotaro watched the chaos around him unfurl without being able to do anything about it. Nothing was making sense here! Their stands had turned on them, they couldn’t recall them or command them in any way, Polnareff was missing, and Silver Chariot Requiem was getting closer by the second. It had been a while since he felt so powerless and he was racking his brain in an attempt to find a way out of this situation, but nothing was coming to him.

“It’s getting closer!” Mista called while stepping closer to the group with Fugo and Narancia. He looked back at them with a serious expression. “Look, I know you guys may not like to hear this, but we’re running out of time here- we need to destroy Silver Chariot Requiem!”

Abdul, who had previously been preoccupied with attempting to regain control of his stand, turned his attention instead to Mista. “No! We still do not know where Polnareff is and what will happen to him if his stand is destroyed in this state!”

Mista held up one of his hands. “Look at yourselves!” The hand he held up had started to peel apart in certain spots, revealing some sort of secondary body growing beneath it. Startled by his exclamation, Jotaro and the others looked at themselves, as well as Giorno’s group, to see that they were all starting to show similar symptoms- as if something was attempting to grow from within their bodies. “This is what Silver Chariot Requiem is capable of! It may not be doing it on purpose, but if we don’t destroy it, then we’ll be completely switched with something from another world!” He glanced over his shoulder as if he was looking for something that no one else could see. “Bucciarati found Silver Chariot Requiem’s weakness before: There’s a light that’s casting a shadow behind it in a way that anyone looking at it will always see it facing away from them. The source of the light is attached to the soul, so, if you look behind you, you should see a ball of light. If you crush it, it’ll destroy Silver Chariot Requiem and undo all of the damage it’s done.” He grabbed something from behind his shoulder and tensed in preparation to break it.

“No!!!” Abdul shouted and ran up, tackling Mista and forcing the boy to release his grip on what he was holding. “I will not allow you to harm Silver Chariot until we know that Polnareff is safe!!”

Mista struggled against Abdul’s strong grip. “If Silver Chariot’s in its Requiem form, then Polnareff’s probably dead already!”

Abdul froze, eyes widening slightly. “What..? Polnareff is..?” He shook his head. “No! His stand is still here, so he must be alive somewhere!”

“Some stands can survive after their users die! We’ve seen it happen before!” Mista managed to take advantage of Abdul’s brief moment of worry over Polnareff’s life and worked a leg in between them, using it to shove Abdul off enough that he could free himself. “Sorry! But I’m not planning on dying or turning into whatever’s taking over our bodies!” He reached behind himself and attempted to grab what he’d gotten before.

“Magician’s Red!!” Abdul shouted with anger blazing in his eyes. To everyone’s surprise, his stand finally turned to him in recognition. “Red Bind!” Abdul called out his command while pointing at Mista.

The fiery bird stand actually obeyed him and raised its unoccupied hand, firing off a second binding rope of red flames that wrapped around Mista.

“What?!” Mista struggled against the ropes that had him trapped, Sex Pistols even trying to tug them off but the tiny stands weren’t strong enough. “How the hell-?!”

Abdul stood and stared down at him with a piercing gaze, Magician’s Red moving to stand behind him as it usually did. “I was willing to give my life to save Polnareff before- I will gladly do it again. That is still his stand- it is as much a part of him as Magician’s Red is a part of me! Neither of us will allow you to harm them!” Magician’s Red echoed its user’s words with a loud shrieking-birdlike cry, flames erupting behind the pair menacingly.

“Abdul..” Jotaro watched his friend’s reaction for a moment, confused and intrigued about how Abdul seemingly regained control of Magician’s Red if it was truly being controlled by Silver Chariot Requiem.

“Ah! Hey! Stop it!” Jotaro turned his head and saw that Iggy had stopped his barking at The Fool, and had instead moved over to where Trish and Spice Girl were still working on softening a hole in the wall- the work was taking a while as the stone was very old and one wrong move could make the entire wall collapse before it had time to soften. Iggy had bitten Trish’s skirt and was pulling it in an attempt to drag her away. “Let go!” She tried pulling her skirt back from the dog’s mouth, but he kept a firm grip with his teeth. “What’s gotten into you?!”

“Grrr!” Iggy growled, barking around the fabric in his mouth. “Rrrf! Rrr! Arrf!” (Translation: “He’s right! Polnareff’s around here somewhere, we can’t just leave him!”)

Once again, everyone was surprised when The Fool suddenly dissolved into sand before reappearing behind Iggy with a protective growl. It formed a shield of sand over the area that Trish and Spice Girl had been working so hard on, stopping them from further affecting the area.

“Iggy..” Jotaro looked between the dog and the Egyptian, feeling like all the pieces were suddenly coming together. He tuned out the arguing that had started between his group and Giorno’s about what to do next and instead looked up at his own stand. Star Platinum was still watching Silver Chariot Requiem and had a firm grip on Jotaro’s arm. Looking closer at its hand as he moved, though, Jotaro saw that Star Platinum was only preventing him from moving towards the exit, not when he moved towards Silver Chariot Requiem. He then looked up to his stand’s expression- it was serious as usual, but it also looked oddly..concerned..maybe even worried as it looked at the approaching dark figure that was once its friend- “…!” Jotaro blinked as the realization finally struck him. “Shut up..” He said once, but no one could hear him over their own shouting. “EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!” He yelled firmly above the roar of voices, everyone instantly doing just that as they turned to look at the teenager. Jotaro moved his arm out of Star Platinum’s hold, his stand allowing it as it read his intentions. “Our stands aren’t being controlled by Silver Chariot- they’re trying to help it.”

Kakyoin looked at his Hierophant Green with a tilt of his head. “Are you sure, Jotaro? I’ve never seen Hierophant Green behave like this before.”

Jotaro glanced over his shoulder at Kakyoin. “Have you ever argued with yourself about whether what you were doing was right or wrong? Or doubted yourself so much that you weren’t sure what you wanted?”

“Not particularly, no.” Kakyoin thought while tapping a finger to his chin. “I’m usually fairly certain of my own actions. Why?”

“Our stands are a manifestation of our will, right?” Jotaro looked back up at Star Platinum. “I didn’t always command Star Platinum- he used to move around on his own, but he still did whatever I wanted, even if I didn’t know what I wanted. He’s always done that because that’s what stands do: They move according to our will, not just our thoughts.” He looked back to Silver Chariot Requiem, the stand now only about 20 feet away. “Regardless of what it looks like, that’s still Silver Chariot. It’s still Polnareff’s stand and we don’t want to leave it or Polnareff behind..or let them get hurt.” He started to walk forward towards the stand, more layers of his skin peeling away to reveal eyes and muscles and other body parts forming underneath. “Our stands figured that out before we did- that’s why they wouldn’t let us leave.”

Joseph looked at Jotaro with a serious expression. “Jotaro…” He followed Jotaro’s lead, Hermit Purple retracting and allowing him to follow his grandson. “I hope you’re right about this.”

They were soon joined by Kakyoin, Abdul, and Iggy, each member of the group being followed by their respective stands. The closer they got, the more deformed they became, but they all ignored it in favor of reaching Silver Chariot Requiem.

When they finally reached it, their stands floated past them to gather around Silver Chariot Requiem. The Fool nudged at Chariot’s leg with its head in a typical gesture of animal affection. Hermit Purple began to very loosely wrap around Chariot’s legs as it walked, connecting with it but not hindering it in any way. Hierophant Green and Star Platinum each gave one of its shoulders a slight squeeze as it walked by them. Magician’s Red, being the last one that it passed, made a soft cooing noise and carefully grasped its free hand for a moment, nuzzling its head into Chariot’s shoulder. Chariot spared it a look that somehow felt softer than its usual blank gaze before Magician’s Red released its hand and allowed it to take the final step to Jotaro and the others.

“……” Silver Chariot Requiem stared at them with its empty white eyes for a while before raising the hand that clutched the arrow. It looked at Jotaro expectantly as it held its hand out and Jotaro understood its silent request. He held his own hand out underneath it and the stand carefully placed the arrow in his waiting palm. Once Jotaro curled his fingers around the arrow to hold onto it, the shadowy stand’s once expressionless face relaxed into a calm but tired smile. It opened its mouth and they heard a faint, raspy voice speak- it sounded like the voice they’d hear when Silver Chariot would shout “Hora hora hora!”, but breathier and without the metallic echo. “Mi..ssion..com..plete…”

It closed its eyes and its body began to dissolve into tiny sparks of white light, starting at its feet and slowly working its way up towards its head. As it disappeared, the tiny lights floated around Jotaro and the others and they all began to hear Polnareff’s voice like distant echoes through the small sparks.

“I..I’m done..I can’t go any further..”

“Chariot..you..have to complete my mission..”

“Please..this arrow..it’s..too dangerous..”

“You have to protect it..”

“Don’t let anyone else take it..”

“Jotaro..Mr.Joestar..my friends..please..get it to my friends..!”

“Get it to my friends..”

“Protect it..”

“Don’t let anyone take it..”

“My friends..”

Everyone’s bodies returned to normal as the last of the lights faded away into nothingness, the last thing they saw of Silver Chariot being its calm smile.

All of them were shocked by what they’d heard. Pain pierced them from the strength of Polnareff and Silver Chariots’ convictions. But, what shook them the most was the haunting thought of what those words really meant…

Jotaro’s head was tilted down as he led his group back over to Giorno’s gang on the sidelines, the shadow of his hat over his head obscuring his eyes and leaving only his mouth set in a hard line visible. “……” The other members of his group all had a similar look about them, their eyes hidden in shadow and faces tense with clenched fists at their sides. When they reached Giorno’s gang, Jotaro was the first one to speak. “Tell us the truth. Now.”

Giorno stepped forward for his group to speak on their behalf. “We already told you-” Giorno was suddenly knocked onto his back by Jotaro’s fist slamming into his cheek. “!!”

“Giorno!” Mista was quick to rush to Giorno’s side and check on him, kneeling down to help him sit up.

“H-Hey! What the hell was that for?!” Narancia tried to sound defensive and angry, but it came off as scared when speaking earned him a warning growl from Iggy.

“I’m tired of your bullshit.” Jotaro walked over to where he’d knocked Giorno over.

Mista tried shielding his friend with his body while looking up at Jotaro. “We didn’t lie about Polnareff! I swear!” Star Platinum grabbed Mista and held him away from Giorno while Jotaro leaned down and roughly picked the younger teen up by the front of his jacket. “Giorno!”

The other members of Giorno’s gang tried to get to him, but were blocked by Jotaro’s group, each one of them looking as angry as Jotaro about the situation.

Jotaro stood to his full height, easily lifting Giorno off the ground with one arm and scowling up at him. “You may not have lied, but you sure as hell didn’t tell the truth, either. Now..” He grit his teeth for a moment, his hand tightening in a white-knuckled grip on Giorno’s shirt before looking up at Giorno again with a hard glare. “You’re gonna tell us why we just heard what sounded like our friend’s dying thoughts!!” He gave Giorno a rough shake, his other hand clenched tightly around the arrow. “You said that you defeated Silver Chariot, but you never once said what happened to Polnareff. You know, though, don’t you? You’ve been hiding it since the first time you saw him, always looking at him like he was some sort of ticking time bomb about to go off..” He lowered Giorno just enough to barely stand on the ground- just enough that he’d be able to talk properly. “So, talk- was he your enemy?”

“No.” Giorno answered while meeting Jotaro’s hard gaze unflinchingly, even as a dark bruise began to form on his cheek from the punch he was given earlier. “It’s the opposite: Polnareff was an invaluable ally. He was the one that told us the true secret of the arrow’s power, as well as the one to finally figure out the truth about Diavolo’s identity. Without him, we never would have been able to defeat Diavolo. We were nervous about his stand because we knew how powerful and uncontrollable it could become, but we consider Polnareff our friend.”

“Then what happened to him?” Jotaro pressed on, knowing that Giorno was still withholding information. “What happened to him when Silver Chariot Requiem appeared?”

“……” Giorno glanced away, his calm expression faltering for a moment before he took in a deep breath, exhaled it slowly, then finally said the words they had all obviously been avoiding out loud. “He died.”

Magician’s Red began to spark up with flames swirling around it as Abdul narrowed his eyes at Giorno dangerously. “How?”

“Diavolo killed him for knowing the truth about his identity.” Giorno elaborated while glancing in Abdul’s direction, Jotaro’s grip preventing him from turning completely. “As a final act to prevent Diavolo from getting the arrow, he had Silver Chariot stab itself to unleash its full power. By that time, though, his body was already dead-”

“So..” Jotaro cut him off, his glare not softening at all. “What you’re telling me..is that you KNEW how Polnareff was going to die..and you didn’t bother warning him about it?”

Giorno looked as if he felt slightly guilty for half a second before he regained his calm expression. “We were concerned with how he would take the truth about what happened to him-”

Once again, Jotaro stopped Giorno with a firm punch to the cheek, managing not to stab him with the arrow in the process. “Bullshit! I told you to stop lying!!”

“Please, stop!” Trish pleaded with him. She tried moving closer, but was blocked by Kakyoin and Hierophant Green. She looked up at him beseechingly. “He’s telling the truth! We weren’t sure how he’d react to the truth, so we agreed to keep it a secret- that way he wouldn’t panic!”

Kakyoin gave her a cold glare as Hierophant Green loomed behind him like an imposing shadow. “Why don’t you just come out and say why you REALLY kept it a secret: You were afraid of what would happen to your timeline, weren’t you?” The way Trish froze up and was unable to reply right away was all the answer that they needed. “You were scared that if Polnareff knew the truth about how he died, then he wouldn’t come to Italy and you would all die instead when you lost.”

Bucciarati stepped out in front of Trish protectively, Sticky Fingers floating behind him as backup. “It was a reasonable fear to have. We lost much in our fight against Diavolo, and we stood to lose even more if we failed. The timeline as a whole could have been damaged by-”

“Get off your god-damn high-horse!” Joseph suddenly cut him off and stepped forward, jabbing a finger into Bucciarati’s chest and paying no mind to his stand at all. “The timeline’s been fucked up long before any of us even got involved! I’m going around interacting with a younger version of myself, I’ve met my grandfather and uncle when they were both younger than me, and events in my past happened weeks ahead of schedule! Hell, half the people here are supposed to be dead, just like you, but I don’t see you offing yourself to protect Jolyne’s timeline!” He glared at the young capo, his eyes showing no mercy or tolerance for Bucciarati’s words. “I stopped my best friend from running off and getting himself killed because I didn’t want my younger self to live through the same pain that I did. Yeah, sure, I was scared of how it would affect my time line- hell, if Caesar lived I may not have had the resolve needed to win against the Pillar Men and Jotaro may have never been born- but I still chose to save my friend’s life. If any one of you actually considered Polnareff a friend, you’d have done the same ages ago!”

“He’s right.” Jotaro said while glaring at Giorno. “For weeks you’ve all gotten to sit around, share a room, eat, talk, and laugh with Polnareff, all while thinking about how he’d die and not saying a damn thing about it. Now it might be too late and there’s a chance that our Polnareff is dead because you decided to keep your damn secrets and save your own asses. You might as well be accessories to his murder..” He tossed Giorno to the ground roughly before turning his back on him. “Guess you had more of your old man in you then I thought.”

Giorno had started to sit up after being tossed aside, but he froze when he heard Jotaro say those words. “……” He looked back down at the ground, saying nothing, but the way he hung his head spoke volumes to how deeply Jotaro’s words had cut him.

“Let’s go.” Jotaro said while heading towards the exit. “We’re gonna go find Polnareff. The rest of you can do whatever the hell you want, just stay out of our way.”

Kakyoin and the rest of his group followed Jotaro out of the coliseum, leaving behind Giorno’s gang to mull over what just happened.

“…” Abdul was the first to speak once they were outside of the old building. “Do you think that Polnareff..could he actually be..dead..?” He seemed uncomfortable with saying it out loud- hell, all of them were uncomfortable with the idea of it, but they all knew how close Abdul was to Polnareff and they understood his worry for the other man.

“He’ll be around here somewhere.” Jotaro replied after a minute. “One way or another, we’ll find him.” They didn’t come this far, go through all this hell to finally get their group back together, just to lose someone yet again. No matter the cost, they WOULD find Polnareff.

Iggy suddenly stopped and sniffed the air. “???” He walked away from them, sniffing along the ground. His ears perked up and he started barking. “Arf! Arf! Arf!” He looked back at the others before taking off towards the town. (Translation: “I smell something! This way!”)

Jotaro and the others trusted Iggy’s sense of smell and direction, so they followed the small dog into town. It didn’t take long for them to hear the sounds of a fight (things breaking, bodies being tossed about, etc.) coming from a vacant street.

They arrived to see a figure that Jotaro recognized from his fights alongside Giorno’s group: A man with pink hair in a mesh top by the name of Diavolo. This was the mob boss of Passione that Giorno and the others had worked so hard to defeat.

This was also the man they were told would one day kill Polnareff…

“You can’t hide forever!” Diavolo called while looking around, his back currently turned to Jotaro’s group and unaware of their presence yet. “I defeated your worthless stand when it was ten times stronger- this version is nothing against the power of my King Crimson!” He was suddenly blindsided by a wooden crate that was thrown at him from the side while he had his head turned in the opposite direction. “!!” He stumbled slightly but quickly righted himself and attempted to look at the alleyway the box came from, but it was already empty. “Come out already, you cowardly French rat!!”

“I think not, mon ami.” A familiar voice called tauntingly in a way that echoed around the area, making it impossible to pinpoint its exact location. “See, I’ve been warned about what your stand can do and what its range is, so I’m not taking any chances.” To accompany his words, a potted plant was suddenly thrown at Diavolo.

Unfortunately, Diavolo saw it coming that time and was suddenly in a different location than before, the plant now lying broken on the ground where he previously was. “Then your plan is to hide in the darkness and throw things like a child? Pathetic! At least when I fought you before, you had the decency to die like a man!”

“So sorry to disappoint you.” The voice called back. “But I’m not planning on dying today!” Jotaro and the others caught a glint of silver on a roof top before it ducked away again.

“That voice..” Abdul said quietly.

“Yeah..” Kakyoin nodded while looking around. “There’s no doubting it..”

“Looks like we got here just in time.” Jotaro started walking towards Diavolo. “Let’s lend him a hand.”

He gestured for Kakyoin to circle around and get in position at a close enough distance from Diavolo before nodding towards Polnareff’s voice while looking at his grandfather and Abdul, telling them to try finding him. They nodded and ran off quietly to their assigned positions. Meanwhile, Iggy jumped up onto Jotaro’s shoulder, already guessing what Jotaro would want from him and not complaining for once.

Once Kakyoin was in position, he called out his stand and tried using the Hierophant’s tendrils to bind Diavolo. He seemed to know what was about to happen, though, and he was up in the air above where he just was, looking as if he had disappeared and reappeared before they even had time to blink.

He looked at the trio with a scowl. “Damn it..more rats crawling out to cause trouble..”

Jotaro was the one to approach him with Iggy on his shoulder while Kakyoin stayed back, all of them glaring at Diavolo. “Normally I’d ignore something like that and give you an option to back off before using Star Platinum to beat the shit out of you.” He held up his hand that was still clutching the arrow. “But we just found out that you caused some trouble for one of our friends- so we’re gonna skip the warning and go straight to the part where you get your ass kicked!”

Iggy followed his lead perfectly and summoned The Fool behind Diavolo. The stand quickly transformed into a wall of sand that spread outward, blocking Diavolo’s main route for retreat.

Jotaro wasn’t 100% sure what Diavolo’s stand could do, but he had enough information for a vague idea: It was a powerful and close-range stand, meaning that it wouldn’t be able to touch him till he got within at least 5 meters, so he’d have to wait until the last possible moment to strike. It also seemed to have some sort of perception ability, since Diavolo was able to avoid Kakyoin’s binding attack even without being seen. His final bit of information came from what he’d heard about Diavolo’s fight with Giorno- his power was similar to DIO’s in that it affected time.

With all of that in mind, he charged forward with Star Platinum. The stand looked just as angry as its user, both clearly ready to beat the pink haired man to death for what he did to their friend. It let out a loud “ORA ORA ORA ORA!!” when it was close enough to fire off a barrage of punches.

Just as Jotaro predicted, however, the fists missed their target and the man was suddenly a few feet away. He scowled as his back hit the wall of sand behind him, his eyes searching for a way around the barrier but apparently finding none. “Damn it! I don’t have time for this!” He had his stand out now- an angry looking red spirit with a white face and an odd pink growth with a second face on its forehead. “It was a mistake coming here without Giovanna and his group- you left behind the only person ever able to defeat me.” Diavolo said with a sneer. “Without him, even five against one, you won’t be able to touch me!”

“Only five against one?” A voice called out from a distance behind the sand wall. “Wow, that crate must have hit you harder than I thought- you’ve forgotten how to count!”

Jotaro saw something silver begin to pierce through the barrier of sand right behind Diavolo. Diavolo seemed to be aware of it too and looked like he was preparing to dodge it.

Seeing his opportunity, Jotaro activated Star Platinum’s trump card. “Star Platinum: The World!!” There was that familiar, odd feeling of everything freezing around him. He didn’t take the time to dwell on it, though, since his window of opportunity was limited.

He and his stand moved quickly, closing the distance between himself and Diavolo. He grabbed onto Diavolo himself while punching him in one of the legs with Star Platinum.

Time resumed and Jotaro felt Diavolo try to move in his grasp. The silver thing was no longer piercing through the wall of sand, but was now embedded in Diavolo’s side- it was the blade from Silver Chariot’s rapier. Jotaro didn’t even see it move after he let time resume, so that meant that Diavolo must have used his stand’s own ability right after Jotaro did before he even had time to register what happened.

“!!” Diavolo looked at Jotaro, his stand, and the wound in his side with a shocked expression. “Impossible! How-?!”

Jotaro held tight while his stand prepared for a point-blank barrage. “I guess DIO didn’t tell you- he’s not the only one that can stop time.”

“ORA!!” Star Platinum cried while surging forward with a punch aimed right at Diavolo’s face.

“Jotaro! Behind you!” He heard Kakyoin call to him and saw something from the corner of his eye dodging through the tendrils of Kakyoin’s stand.

Before he had time to respond, someone tackled him from behind and grabbed him. “?!”

Surprised, he turned his head to see what looked to be an exact replica of himself grabbing him in the same way that he had grabbed Diavolo. The replica even had the same expression on its face..except..it seemed to have a digital timer on its forehead? What was going on?

The timer on the fake Jotaro’s forehead ran out and it changed shape with a clicking sound similar to a phone hanging up and a weird distorted effect around its body- like looking at the static from a TV set stuck between channels before settling on a proper signal. It revealed itself to be a stand. A humanoid one with a purple and white color scheme and eyes that reminded Jotaro of the speakers on a cassette player.

Taking advantage of Jotaro’s surprise and confusion, the stand in question used the hold it had on Jotaro to toss him away from Diavolo. “!!” The distance forced him to call back Star Platinum and release the wounded man.

“Jotaro!” Kakyoin caught him and Iggy using Hierophant Green and set them down on the ground, keeping his eyes on the duo in front of them and eyeing the new stand cautiously. “Anyone you know?”

“No.” Jotaro said while also eyeing the stand in question.

“Of course you wouldn’t recognize my Moody Blues- you haven’t been to Italy yet.” A voice said from somewhere above them.

“!!” Looking up at a nearby building, they saw someone watching them from the second floor balcony.

Seated casually on the railing and looking down at the fighters below was a man dressed in black with long white hair. He had a dark aura around him, similar to what Kakyoin and many of their other allies had while being controlled by DIO.

Diavolo glared up at the man above him while removing Silver Chariot’s rapier from his still bleeding wound. “You certainly took your time..”

“I do not work for you, Diavolo.” The man stated with a scowl on his painted lips. “The only one I answer to-” He tipped himself forward to fall off of the balcony, the purple stand- presumably his own- catching him and setting him down on the ground in front of it. “-is the one who will cleanse my past.”

“Great, one more headache to deal with..” Jotaro glared at the newcomer disdainfully.

“Jotaro!” They all heard Polnareff’s voice calling from somewhere above them. “Don’t hurt him- he’s with Bucciarati’s gang!”

Jotaro glanced up towards the other man’s voice, narrowing his eyes a bit when he couldn’t see the source up there. “How did he..?” He looked back over to Diavolo and his unwitting accomplice. “Guess it doesn’t matter right now. Think you can handle the new guy on your own?”

He didn’t need to say anything more for Kakyoin to know that Jotaro was talking to him. “His stand’s a bit odd, but nothing I can’t handle.”

“Good.” The taller teen adjusted his hat, his usual serious look on his face as he returned his focus to Diavolo. “Now, let’s try this again.”

In perfect sync, the trio of stand users went on the offensive. Kakyoin attacked the unknown stand user with Hierophant Green, attempting to wrap him up in his stand’s long limbs. With a wave of his hand, though, the stranger’s stand moved in front of him and transformed into a version of Star Platinum with a timer on its head- the imitation stand repeating the barrage of punches that the real one had attempted to use on Diavolo earlier and using the motions to knock away the green tendrils.

Meanwhile, Iggy summoned The Fool behind Diavolo again and created another wall of sand to block his possible exit. With his path blocked off, Jotaro called out Star Platinum and had him use his “Star Finger” attack in an attempt to keep some distance between them. Diavolo’s own stand appeared and, once again, he was able to dodge the attack with ease. He even avoided the spears made of sand that The Fool launched out from the wall behind him, proving too slippery for them to land a clean hit without getting closer.

Preparing himself to do just that, Jotaro noticed something out of the corner of his eye near one of the buildings, something metallic like gleaming silver- Ah.

“Yare yare daze..he always likes to put on a show, doesn’t he?” Jotaro tried to keep his face neutral, eyeing the rapier that had been tossed to the ground by Diavolo’s feet. “Oi, Iggy.” He nodded towards the abandoned blade once the dog was looking at it. “Fetch.”

“Grrrr..hmph..” The slight growl that Iggy gave, accompanied by the shift in his stance, seemed to say “I’m not your pet…but I guess I’ll play along this time.” With a bark, Iggy commanded The Fool to return to its usual form, the animal-like stand grabbing the rapier between its teeth and attempting to dash away with it.

“King Crimson!” Diavolo called his stand and the angry red faced being appeared instantly. It attempted to beat The Fool down with its speed and strength, but was surprised when its fists only broke away sand. “What?! The stand doesn’t just manipulate sand- it’s MADE of sand as well?!” Before he could do anything with his newfound revelation, The Fool moved outside of King Crimson’s range. “Damn it!” His attempts to follow it were impeded by purple vines that suddenly wrapped themselves around his feet. “?!!”

“Hey now, you weren’t thinking of leaving, were ya?” The voice of the vine-stand’s owner asked as he came into view. Joseph smirked at the crime lord, pointing back towards Jotaro. “You haven’t finished playing with my grandson yet!”

“Yare yare..” Jotaro approached Diavolo with Star Platinum at his side. “Jiji, don’t talk about this like I’m a little kid on a playdate.” In his peripheral vision, he could see Magician’s Red assisting Hierophant Green against the other stand user- the fire attacks of Abdul’s stand being much harder for Moody Blues to counter or copy and leaving it wide open for Hierophant Green to tie it up. “If we’re gonna treat it like anything, let’s make it a game.” Once he was within five meters, he had Star Platinum prepare his attack. “How about my stand’s favorite game?” The stand began to surge forward with a punch right on Jotaro’s next word. “TAG.”

“ORA!!” Star Platinum shouted as its fist swung right at Diavolo’s face.

“King Crimson!” As expected, Diavolo used his own stand’s abilities to dodge the attack and slip out of Hermit Purple’s vines. “Your attacks are useless against me! As long as I can see what’s about to happen, my King Crimson is invincible!”

“Oh yeah?” Polnareff’s voice called from above them. “I bet you won’t see THIS coming!”

“!!” Diavolo looked up towards the building, preparing for an attack from above. “You won’t hit me with that tw-”

“Star Platinum: The World!” Jotaro said quietly, activating his stand’s ability and freezing time once more. He moved quickly, getting everything in position before letting time resume.

“-ice!” Diavolo finished his sentence from earlier. As he prepared to dodge, though, he found a wall of sand quickly springing up in front of him again. “When did-?!”

“HORA HORA HORA HORA!!” A familiar cry to the crusaders sounded through the air as a silver rapier swiftly slashed and stabbed into Diavolo multiple times from behind.

“!!!!!” Diavolo gasped, soon coughing up blood from the assault. “Impossible- nothing can escape my Epitaph’s predictions!” He managed to turn his head enough to see Silver Chariot in all its gleaming glory standing behind him. “H..How..?!”

Jotaro pulled his hat down slightly as he explained everything. “Your stand lets you see into the future and jump ahead of it, right? That’s one scary ability..if it didn’t come with such a big weakness.” He looked down into Diavolo’s eyes as he said the other’s weakness aloud. “You can’t see what happens if time is paused. Your stand couldn’t predict it earlier when Star Platinum broke your leg, messing up whatever future you saw where you avoided Silver Chariot’s attack. Then, just now, you couldn’t see me bringing the others closer, throwing off whatever prediction you got before I stopped time.” Star Platinum grabbed Diavolo by his arm, the other too injured now to properly escape again. “Let this be a lesson to you and everyone else you work with..” He glared at Diavolo, looking him right in the eyes with a more intimidating energy than should have been possible for a teenager going up against a mob boss. “Don’t ever challenge us- past, present, or future.”

“ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!!” Star Platinum cried as he delivered a barrage of strikes against the pink haired man that nearly matched Silver Chariot’s earlier attack in speed and precision, all culminating in a fierce uppercut that sent Diavolo flying far into the distance and crashing through several buildings. “ORAAAA!!!!!”

“Très bien, Jotaro!” A voice laughed from behind Silver Chariot. The stand soon disappeared to reveal its owner, Jean-Pierre Polnareff, smiling at his comrades with one of his usual bright grins. “I knew you’d come up with something good in the end!”

Abdul’s face lit up with a smile nearly as bright as the Frenchman’s upon seeing him in the flesh. “Polnareff!” He ran towards the other man, leaving Kakyoin to watch with an understanding smile from where he stood beside his own stand (which had the unnamed and unconscious stand-user tied up securely).

“Abdul! Good to see you too, mon ami-” His greeting was halted when Polnareff found himself being firmly embraced by the Egyptian. “Huh? Abdul??” He looked to his companion in confusion- while he himself was undoubtedly a very physical person and had trouble understanding boundaries at times, Abdul wasn’t usually so forward unless the situation called for it (such as restraining one of them to prevent a violent altercation). “Abdul, what’s going on? I know I disappeared for a bit, but I couldn’t help it! The stupid portal spit me out over here and I tried to find you, but I couldn’t, and then that Diavolo bastard showed up, and-”

“You’re alive..” Abdul said quietly as he clutched to the tall-haired man like he might disappear if he relented his grip in any capacity. “You’re ALIVE…” He repeated, holding on just a little bit tighter.

“Eh?? Of course I’m alive.” Polnareff put one arm around his friend, leaning his head back enough to look him in the eyes. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“After we saw what happened to your stand at the coliseum, we thought something might’ve happened to you.” Joseph explained while walking closer to the rest of the group.

“My stand?” Polnareff still looked confused as he summoned said stand. “Silver Chariot’s fine, what are-?” He stopped and blinked, his eyes going wide as a thought seemingly struck him from out of the blue. “Ohhhh, I get it now!” He patted Abdul twice on the back to make him let go before running off towards one of the buildings. “I’ll be right back!”

“Yare yare, where is he going now?” Jotaro tried to sound annoyed, but, to the others who were familiar with his mannerisms by now, they could see from his posture and the slight upturn of his lips that just barely peeked out from behind his collar that he was just as relieved as the rest of them to find their missing member safe and sound. Turning his attention to Kakyoin and his knocked-out captive, Jotaro walked over to the pair. “So, what do we do with him?”

“Polnareff said he was with Giorno’s group, right?” Joseph joined his grandson in looking over their prisoner. “If that’s the case, he’s probably being controlled like the others were.”

“Which means you could fix him with your piece of the holy corpse.” Abdul suggested.

“True..” Kakyoin looked down at the man being held by his Hierophant with a mild look of disdain that wasn’t necessarily directed at their prisoner. “But it’s not like we owe them anything after what they’ve done.”

“I get where you’re coming from,” Joseph sighed, scratching his head under his hat. “But it’s not like this guy was a part of it.”

Abdul folded his arms and looked to Jotaro. “In the end, the decision is not ours to make. What do you think, Jotaro?”

Jotaro looked down at the unconscious silver haired man as he mentally weighed his options. On the one hand, Kakyoin was right- after the way Giorno and his group had kept secrets from them about Polnareff’s fate and been so willing to potentially kill him earlier, they hadn’t exactly earned any favors from Jotaro. On the other hand, though, his grandfather was also right- whoever this guy was, he hadn’t been a part of any of that and it probably wasn’t fair to punish him for what his team did when he hadn’t even been there for it.

What finally motivated his decision, though, was glancing around to his friends- to Kakyoin, Abdul, and Iggy, who’d all been lost to them at one point and brought back as puppets against their will. In the end, NO ONE deserved that.

With that in mind, Jotaro reached into his jacket, pulled out his piece of the holy corpse, and held it out towards the unconscious man. “If we don’t deal with him now, he’ll just be another pain in the ass later.” Just like usual, the corpse piece glowed and its light dispelled the darkness surrounding the stand user.

“Nhh..” The man in question slowly opened his eyes and looked around in confusion, Kakyoin recalling his stand so the man could get to his feet. “Where am I? Wait…is this…Rome..? How did I..? Ah!” He gasped, his eyes going wide as he recalled something urgent. “That’s right! I have to find Bucciarati!”

“If you’re looking for him, he’s probably still at the coliseum with Giorno and the others.” Kakyoin gestured in the general direction of the aforementioned building.

“!!” The longer haired man finally took notice of the others around him and assumed a defensive position, his stand soon appearing to further protect him. “Who are you and how do you know about Bucciarati and Giorno?”

“We’re..” Jotaro almost said friends, but stopped himself. The title didn’t feel right anymore after what had happened earlier. “On the same side as them.” That answer seemed more accurate.

“And I’m just supposed to trust that you’re telling me the truth?” The man’s defensive stance did not waver even slightly.

“If I may?” Kakyoin cleared his throat to get the suspicious man’s attention before speaking again. “We’ve been forced to spend quite a bit of time with them in a fairly small location, so I’ve picked up a few things: Bucciarati’s favorite movie is ‘The Postman’. Mista has a superstition around the number four that boarders on a phobia. Narancia’s favorite drink is orange juice and he is terrible at basic math for his age. Fugo has stabbed Narancia in the face with a fork before and they both still argue about it. Giorno enjoys music by Jeff Beck-”

“Okay, that’s enough.” The man’s posture finally relaxed. “You convinced me the moment you mentioned Bucciarati’s favorite movie- he only admits that in friendly conversations.” He allowed his stand to disappear for the time being. “My name is Abbacchio. Now, you said Bucciarati and the others were back by the coliseum?”

“That is where we last saw them, yes.” Abdul replied with a shrug. “However, that was quite some time ago.”

“Well, I can just track their movements, even if they did leave.” Abbacchio started to walk in the indicated direction right as Polnareff returned.

The Frenchman ran up to the group, panting to catch his breath while holding something behind his back. “Sorry, I just didn’t want to leave this behind!” He grinned as he began to move his hands. “You’ll never guess what I found here!” He presented the group with something that surprised them all.

“Is that…the turtle?!” Joseph stared at the creature in question with a look of disbelief.

“I thought we left it behind back in Morioh?” Abdul was just as surprised as the others for a change, having no explanation for this bizarre turn of events.

Abbacchio turned back to them when he heard their exclamations, raising an eyebrow. “Coco Jumbo? What’s he doing here if the others are at the coliseum? They wouldn’t leave him behind..”

“Long story.” Polnareff waved off the others’ questions without a second thought before holding the turtle out towards his group expectantly. “You guys have to go inside. Trust me- there’s something you’ll DEFINITELY want to see in there!”

Jotaro eyed the smiling man suspiciously but, after seeing no signs of this being some sort of prank or joke, he reluctantly moved his hand to touch the key on the turtle’s back. “Fine…but call us out if there’s trouble.”

After receiving a nod and a thumbs up from their companion, everyone but Abbacchio and Polnareff moved to touch the turtle’s key (Iggy jumping up and perching on Jotaro’s shoulder so he could be taken inside as well).

The inside of the turtle’s stand was almost exactly as it had been when they left- minus all of the people from before and a slight rearrangement to the location of certain small pieces of furniture. At first, they thought the room was completely empty, and likely would have continued to think so if the sound of the refrigerator behind them opening hadn’t caught their attention.

“Let’s see if I still remember this..” A voice they knew all too well spoke from the same area.

“!!” They turned to look at the only other occupant of the room and they stared in shock at the figure currently pulling drinks out of the fridge.

“One regular cola for Mr.Joestar.” A glass bottle of cola was set down on the coffee table in the middle of the room.

“Hey now..I haven’t gotten so old that my eyes are playing tricks on me, right?!” Joseph rubbed at his eyes to make sure what he was seeing was real, but the image did not change.

“A cherry cola for Kakyoin.” A dark red can was set next to the bottle.

“It’s not your eyes, Mr.Joestar…unless we’re all getting too old…” Kakyoin didn’t take his eyes off of the person at the fridge.

“Small coffee-flavored milk for Iggy.” A carton of the flavored milk was opened and poured into a saucer before being placed on the ground by the table.

“Arroo..?” (Translation: “Who..?”) Iggy made a confused sound before moving closer to sniff the person curiously, his eyes widening as he recognized the scent. “!!” (Translation: “You’re-!!”)

“Iced Americano for Jotaro. You probably haven’t tried this yet, but trust me- you’ll be living off of this by your second year of college.” An iced coffee bottle with the described name was placed by the other drinks on the table.

“……” Jotaro watched the person carefully, torn somewhere between confused and concerned.

“And one green tea for Abdul- sorry it’s cold, I know you prefer it hot, but I don’t have a kettle or tea leaves in here.” A can of green tea joined the other drinks on the tabletop.

Abdul tried to voice the thought they all had on their minds, but it seemed hard for him to get the words out. “You…You’re-”

“Think I’ll stick with a bottle of Perrier this time- can’t beat a classic.” The man at the fridge stood to his full height, giving the others in the room their first complete look at him.

“-Polnareff?!” Abdul finished his exclamation right as the man turned to face them.

He grinned in response to their surprised expressions. “Good to know it really was impossible for you to forget me.”

The person they saw was indeed Jean-Pierre Polnareff, but he was quite different from the one they’d left outside of the turtle: For starters, he had dark bags under his eyes that spoke of many sleepless nights and years’ worth of hardships. One eye in particular looked worse than the other, though, bearing a long scar and a cloudiness that was still recognizable even under the sheer eyepatch he wore. The damage on his face (as well as the artificial fingers he still had like the version outside), was nothing compared to what had become of his legs that were apparently cut off mid-thigh and replaced with prosthetics that, logically, should not allow him to stand at all, let alone with the ease he was demonstrating.

Jotaro was the first one to recover from the shock of seeing Polnareff’s appearance. “You’re the Polnareff that worked with Giorno’s group, aren’t you?”

Polnareff took a seat on the couch while opening his sparkling water. “You’re as sharp as ever, Jotaro- or I guess I should say ‘you’re as sharp as I remember’, huh?” He gestured to the other seats around him after taking a quick swig of his beverage. “Go on, sit, we’ve got a lot to talk about.”

After a moment of unspoken deliberation, the group grabbed their drinks (minus Iggy who sat on the floor by his milk) and sat in the various chairs around the small room. Joseph took one of the armchairs directly across from Polnareff with Jotaro taking one closer to the opposite end of the couch. Kakyoin sat on the far end of the couch next to Jotaro while Abdul opted for the spot directly beside Polnareff.

“What happened to you?” Abdul gave the (now older) man beside him a concerned frown while looking him over from head to toe. “Was this Diavolo’s doing?”

“Ah, so you’ve already heard about all of that, huh? Younger-me was pretty surprised to see all of this, so I’m guessing you just found out about it pretty recently.” Polnareff’s smile faded slightly, giving him a more somber appearance as he began to speak of his own death. “Yeah…this was what happened after my original fight with Diavolo. I survived our first encounter, but he didn’t make it easy for me. After that I went into hiding before I found out about Bucciarati’s group and met them at the coliseum to give them the arrow.”

“You mean this?” Jotaro pulled the arrow they’d received from Silver Chariot Requiem out of his jacket and tossed it over to his older friend.

Polnareff caught the arrow easily with his good hand and looked it over with a melancholy smile. “You got it..I can’t believe it..I told Chariot to make sure you got it, but I didn’t think you’d actually…” He gripped the arrow tightly in his hand, looking down at his reflection in the metal. “I went through so much to keep this thing safe…I thought we’d finally succeeded after Giorno’s group managed to defeat Diavolo…but then I found myself here in this strange alternate version of the world and I could feel Silver Chariot Requiem moving around again, even though Bucciarati already defeated it..”

“Did you really ask them to destroy your stand?” Joseph popped the top off of his cola before continuing. “Weren’t you worried about what would happen to you?”

“My body was already dead by that point…as far as I was concerned, my life was over- I’d accepted it.” Polnareff sighed, waving off the question with his free hand and a shake of his head. “When Silver Chariot first changed into its Requiem form, it ended up switching the souls of everyone in the city- Giorno’s group swapped bodies and I ended up being swapped with this turtle. It’s a bit of a letdown, being stuck in this slow body all the time, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise since it kept me from dying.” He reclined back against the couch, looking up at the red ceiling that let them see the sky outside of the room. “This will probably take some getting used to, but at least I can stick around a bit longer and help Giorno, Mista, and Trish when this is all over.” After a moment of silence that felt awkward and tense, Polnareff looked back at the others and noticed that they all had pensive looks on their faces. “What? Was it something I said?”

Seeing after a moment that no one else was going to fess up, Kakyoin reluctantly bit the bullet and did so himself. “We…may have gotten into a fight with them because of you…”

“Quoi?!” Polnareff blinked twice while looking around the room. “You-You’re serious?”

“Mhm..” Abdul nodded slightly, resting his forehead on his hands with his elbows braced on his knees. “We used our stands on them…I tied up Mista with Magician’s red…Iggy bit Trish’s skirt…Mr.Joestar yelled at Bucciarati…Jotaro punched Giorno in the face…twice…”

“WhaaaaaaaAAAT?!” Polnareff nearly fell off of the couch with a startled sound. “Why would you DO that?! You guys are supposed to be on the same side, right?!”

Joseph cleared his throat, his fingers absentmindedly toying with the cap from his cola. “We thought you- well, the younger you- was dead and the Silver Chariot Requiem in the coliseum was his.”

“……” Polnareff stared at them for a few more minutes before he threw his head back in a hysterical fit of laughter. “Mon dieu! I can’t believe you actually did that!” He wiped away the tears of joy from his eyes, looking at the embarrassed expressions everyone had on their faces with a shit-eating grin. “I can understand Iggy and Jotaro..even Mr.Joestar…but Kakyoin and Abdul, too?!” He held his sides as another bout of laughter overtook him.

Jotaro scowled, pulling his hat down over his eyes to help hide his own embarrassment. “Yare yare…you’re too noisy..”

“Sorry, I’m sorry..” Polnareff gasped for breath, trying to reign in his laughter but keeping the grin on his face. “It’s just…I missed this so much! I missed how you guys would rush to defend each other and all of the bizarre, insane situations we’d find ourselves in. I mean, really: You guys got mad at a mafia group because they knew how I died in the future- which was THEIR past- and you thought that meant the past version of me was dead because my stand- which was already defeated before- showed up in its arrow-powered form…it doesn’t get any more bizarre than that! Who else would I hear a story like that from?” He looked at everyone, the joy in his voice changing to something more tender and caring. “It’s been so long since I got to be in the same room with everyone and laugh like this.” He smiled fondly at Joseph. “Mr.Joestar’s memory’s gotten so bad that he barely remembers who I am half the time…” He smirked at Jotaro. “I still get to see Jotaro pretty often, but Mr.Big-shot-working-dad is too busy between his career and Jolyne to take breaks for very long.” His smile softened as he looked to Abdul and Kakyoin. “And…well…it’s not like I had many other friends left to go to, you know…?” He wiped a few more tears from his eyes, though they didn’t seem like the same joyous ones from before.

“Polnareff..” Abdul gently placed one hand on Polnareff’s shoulder, offering him what small amount of solace and comfort he could.

A sound somewhere between a broken laugh and a sob left the Frenchman’s mouth as he tried to smile more despite the tears that continued to fall. “When younger-me found me…when he told me about what happened at the airport and about all of you coming back to life…I…well, I didn’t THINK I would lie to myself- not about something THAT important..it’s just…I couldn’t believe it…the idea of all of us sitting together, getting to talk, enjoying each other’s company one more time…I didn’t think it would be possible!” He attempted to scrub away his tears using his arm, leaving only the broken smile on his mouth visible. “I’m sorry…I’m happy, it’s just-!”

“Yare yare…” He heard Jotaro’s voice, suddenly sounding much closer than it was a moment ago. “Just shut up already.”

Suddenly, there were multiple hands on his arms and shoulders, along with a distinctive set of tiny dog-paws on his lap.

When he lowered his arm, Polnareff was surprised to see that it was not just Jotaro who had moved closer- everyone else had as well.

They were all holding him in an embrace similar to the one he had once shared with Jotaro and Joseph at the airport when they all said goodbye. Abdul was pressed against his side with one arm wrapped around his back. Kakyoin was beside Abdul with his hand on Polnareff’s forearm. On his other side, Joseph had an arm wrapped around Polnareff’s shoulders. Iggy was standing on his lap with his hind legs while his front legs steadied him against Polnareff’s torso so he could look him in the eyes easier. Lastly, Jotaro was beside his grandfather with one hand firmly gripping Polnareff’s arm.

“…!” Polnareff’s eyes widened at the feeling of the embrace before the tears started up again. He sobbed once, crumbling within the hold of friends he never thought he would see again. “Merci...Merci d'être mes amis.”

None of them needed to know French to know what those words meant, they each just gave Polnareff their usual smiles- however big or small- to let him know that they felt the same way about him.

They all stayed in the room with the future version of Polnareff for as long as they possibly could, knowing that it may very well be the last time he got to see any of them again. When they finally left, he gave them some parting words:

“Thank you…all of you…for both our time together now, as well as the time we spent together back then. I hope younger-me knows not to take the time he has with you for granted- and that he doesn’t make the same stupid mistakes I did when I was his age! He’d better tell you guys how much he cares about each and every one of you and how much he loves the time he’s spending with you because, for me, those months we spent together were the best days of my life. Oh, and TRY to go easy on Giorno and the others, okay? I know you’re mad at them for not saying anything about me, but they lost just as many people fighting Diavolo as we did fighting DIO…so..cut them some slack, okay? For my sake? I’d appreciate it…take care, everyone- of each other, and younger-me too. And…thank you…for being my friends.”

As they exited the turtle, they found themselves back at the entrance to the coliseum. Polnareff had been waiting by the turtle and, before the others could ask what they missed, he put a finger to his lips and gestured for them to follow him.

The Crusaders entered the coliseum together, arriving just in time to see a much needed reunion…

Giorno’s group had stayed in the coliseum, sitting down for a few minutes and taking care of any bruises or scrapes they’d received during their minor scuffles with Silver Chariot Requiem as well as Jotaro’s group.

“Hold still, Giorno.” Mista had improvised an ice-pack for the swelling bruise on Giorno’s face using some cold pieces of metal (softened by Trish and Spice Girl to avoid adding unnecessary pressure) and some spare cloth.

“Thanks, Mista…” Giorno’s eyebrows twitched slightly from the sting of the cooling pack touching his bruised face, but his gloomy expression remained otherwise unchanged as he stared at his hands where they rested on his lap.

“Seriously?” The word was accompanied by the clacking of heeled shoes over dirt and rock. “I rush over here to find you, and you’re all just sitting around licking your wounds?”

“!!!!” The eyes of everyone sitting within the coliseum suddenly snapped up to the figure who had just walked in.

“N…No way..!” Mista stared with wide eyes.

“He’s..!” Trish’s eyes began to mist over with tears, her hands going to her mouth as she gasped.

Fugo looked at the others with a frown. “Hey, didn’t you guys tell me he was-?”

“He was..” Giorno’s eyes remained locked on the new comer. “But…so were Narancia and Bucciarati…”

Bucciarati initially had the same surprised reaction as the others, but his look of shock quickly melted into a relieved, teary-eyed smile. “You’re-”

“ABBACCHIO!!!!!!” Narancia cried as he sprang to his feet, practically sprinting to cover the distance between himself and the older man so that he could throw his arms around him in a bone-crushing hug.

Abbacchio nearly fell over from the force of the tackle, digging his heels into the dirt to just barely remain standing. “Oof!” He began pulling on the back of the boy’s shirt, trying to dislodge him. “Hey, Narancia, you’d better not be wiping your snotty nose on me, you little sh-!”

“You-You-You were dea-ead! We were o-only gone for a few mi-inutes, and-and-a-and when we got back, you were..you were..!!” Narancia sobbed, refusing to let go as if he were afraid Abbacchio may disappear if he did so. “We-We h-ha-a-had to leave you beh-h-hi-ind! I didn’t want t-to, but-but Bucciarati said we h-had to-o-o!”

“……” Abbacchio’s annoyed glare softened slightly and the hand that had been trying to pull the boy away instead patted him on the back. “Alright, alright, I get it..it’s fine. Bucciarati made the right call- it was too dangerous for you to stay there.”

Bucciarati was the next one to walk over, giving the ex-cop a caring look and tender smile that said far more than his mouth did. “Welcome back..Leone.”

Abbacchio returned the look with a slightly softer (well, soft for him, at least) smile of his own. “Sorry I took so long..Bruno.”

The rest of the gang steadily made their way over to their newly revived comrade, happily welcoming him back…except for Giorno.

Giorno’s eyes drifted to the coliseum’s entrance where he saw Jotaro’s group silently observing them. He made his way over to them after quietly placing the make-shift icepack on the ground. “Thank you,” He said once he was close enough, looking up at Jotaro with an expression that was slightly more open than his usual looks. “For bringing him back to us.” He looked out to where his friends were celebrating Abbacchio’s return, a soft smile on his face as he watched the older man try once again to pull Narancia (who had stopped crying as much and begun to laugh while stubbornly clinging to the longer-haired man) off of him. “He was the first casualty in our fight against Diavolo..losing him..was one of the worst things that we went through..” He returned his attention to Jotaro’s group, looking up at Jotaro himself with a slight frown. “You were right about us…we were scared of changing our timeline…we lost Abbacchio, Narancia, Bucciarati, and even Polnareff, all so we could defeat Diavolo and keep him from getting the power of the arrow…each loss broke us more and more, but they all contributed something that ultimately led to Diavolo’s defeat…after everything we lost to get that far, the thought of changing something and having to go through all of that again- to lose everyone and risk losing EVERYTHING to Diavolo with all of our sacrifices meaning NOTHING…it was terrifying to think about.” He bowed his head, no longer meeting the taller teen’s gaze. “That doesn’t excuse what we did..what we hid from Polnareff and risked putting him through..and for that, I am sorry.” His fists clenched at his sides, a barely visible tremor going through his shoulders. “With time, I hope that you may see m- see us in a different light-”

“Yare yare daze..” Jotaro’s annoyed voice cut Giorno’s apology short. “Just shut up already.”

Giorno looked back up at Jotaro with an expression that bordered on pleading. “But, I-!”

“Don’t waste time saying things that don’t need to be said.” Jotaro’s hand came down to rest firmly on Giorno’s shoulder. “We all said things we didn’t need to already…so let’s just keep moving.”

“!!” Giorno understood the unspoken sentiment all too well, and it made the slightest of smiles return to his face. “You’re right…we have far too much to do to dwell on the past.”

“Exactly. Now come on, we’ve still got work to do.” Jotaro gave the shorter boy a slight smile of his own, letting go of his shoulder and heading inside the coliseum with the rest of his friends.

There was still a lot that needed to be done. Bridges to mend. Wounds to heal. But, in the end, if there was one thing that both sides could come to an understanding on, it was the hardship of losing cherished friends and comrades due to tragic and bizarre circumstances beyond their control.

Perhaps that understanding would be enough to bring them together- just as it always seemed to bring the Joestars and their allies together in the end.

End Notes: So, this idea was one that my sister and I came up while eating at a sushi buffet one day. I love the Eyes of Heaven game and have probably played through the story at least 5 times. While we were eating, we talked about how the different stages you could fight in were different in the story mode versus the regular modes and how they had more interactive elements outside of the story mode. On that topic, we talked about how the coliseum had both Silver Chariot Requiem and Polnareff’s soul in the turtle body present, and how messed up it would be if the stardust crusaders (among other characters) could react to that sort of thing- thus this premise was born!

I also decided to add Abbacchio because he does technically appear in the picture alongside the rest of Passione in their little “Happy Ending” universe picture, but he was tragically one of the characters that got cut from the game in its early stages because, according to my sister, they couldn’t figure out what to do with him mechanics-wise. Which is a shame because I would’ve loved to see the entire gang reunited, so I added him in here for that reason alone x3

[spacejew]

Doctor who spoilers, beware

Okay holy fuck that episode

also so so sorry for all the typos, not used to their keyboard and too sleepy to correct them all

Some quick comments (and then my THEORIES)

- first of all very fun episode I was SO INTRIGUED

- good ass vfx

- absolutely adore the gang and their irl consequences of doctor travels. Maybe this season they have to rethink their "easy" choice to travel with her?

- I was loving the mystery but. As soon as master reveal I'm now very worried that the explanation to these mysteries won't be as satisfying? I was so pumped for a brand new, totally original serious threat , and suddenly the master being involved kinda dampens that. You know? I hope it still ends up being super creative and cool and satisfying

- the last five minutes left me confused straight up. Where'd the Vor guy vanish to? The house ourside the plane? Did they like. Teleport? Was it like, evidence of a weird simulation type of thing? Just a little lost, I need to rewatch. (Edit: OH the house was flying, probs the Masters TARDIS then, got it)

- must reiterate, GREAT ACTING AND DIALOGUE, I love team TARDIS holy fuckkk my babes. Ready for some juicy juicy conflict.

Okay theory time bitches

- they are Inside the Masters TARDIS!! Too many references to our beloved TARDIS being insanely gigantic on the inside. Karaoke buses? Water slides? Rainforest?? Chibs is hitting the audience over the head with "the TARDIS contains multitudes". It would make sense as a reminder or foreshadowing that either the whole episode or some portion like the evil dimension being actually inside the Masters TARDIS, all part of a simulation of some sort. Hence weird happenings, and a dampened sonic, and things breaking into thirteens TARDIS. "Everything is a lie", so everything may or can be fake and simulated by the Masters TARDIS

- alternate universes, an obvious one based on that alien code decyohefing projection bit. Like, duh, multiple Earths means multiple Earths, doc.

- the master is either: from an alternate universe himself, or at least a master before Gomez . I loved Missy and her character development was a real emotional journey for me. I would hate it to be neglected or retconned. An earlier master would be interesting, and respect Missy's death.

- the Light Aliens exist in some kind of computery way. All that talk about Vor and data and technology? They say they blipped around those windows like lights on a server or visual code computations? That evil dimension Yaz was in being full of stuff that could either be DNA strands or Data cores or like giant neural pathways? With the light aliens manifesting as electrical pulses running through them? Very evocative of brains/computers. Either they're projections of code, or exist as energy and have a computer hivemind going on, I think it's their big "thing". Also lends well to the simulation bit.

- obviously parallels to The Army of Ghosts, Cybermen, alt universes, etc. But personally, really hoping it's completely unrelated aka definitely not Cybermen. Even though the shaped do fit? But A. Don't act like Cybermen B. Their head shapes are also reminiscent of that Raknos looking aliens from the trailer. So hey. Maybe it's those?

- when Yaz came back from the evil dimension, she was like downloaded to their computer thing, and when she was re-uploaded to our reality, she may be augmented with extra "code" -- just like The Vor ceo guy, she may not be 100% human. 7% not human can mean there's not totally rewritten dna, but just extra dna, from the aliens, full of code. Like a sleep agent almost?? As SPY?????? HMMMMM????? trust nobody!!!! Yaz could be a sleeper agent or unwitting spy with extra alien stuff in her now, is what I'm saying.

- going off of that, that's what happened to all the dead spies - the aliens were experimenting with getting their own spies onto earth via human spies, but they accidentally rewrote too much of their dna, totally killing them. They've perfected it now?

- aliens are obvs from a diff dimension entirely. Lie the Boneless were! I hope maybe they're relayed? Would be sick as hell I loved that episode

- here's a fuckin Longshot! Last seasons thirteen mentioned scary stories she was told as a child. Referring to the Frog Universe, what was it called? The Anti-verse or some shit? Y'all know what I mean. What matters is that my fav Chibnall episode, The Power of Three, set up another "scary story told to gallifreyan children" that the doctor couldn't believe was real, and seemed to be coming from like another dimension? The Tally!!! It was never followed up on even though I thought it was an amazing setup, so maybe The Tally is involved somehow. Or, god willing, they'll come back later this season in an unrelated plot.

- trust nobody! Everything you know is a lie, says the master. Maybe Yaz was replaced entirely? Who else is a fake? Alternate universes? So many ways things could be totally faked. No concrete theory here but, I'm going into the next episode literally not trusting shit. All a simulation? Simulated time travel? Who knows.

- Masters TARDIS is one of the cool sets we saw in the trailer that was tardis-like

- Vor ceo guy is actually a good person trying his damn best to help stop the aliens and assist the doctor, but cannot let anyone know he's actually helping. So he just lets them get away with snooping, investigating, but really needs to keep his distance. Also he probs thinks he's helping with some technology trade with the aliens? Y'know, in a capitalist way lol.

- oh yeah duh, the aliens could all literally be made up by the master as part of a totally unrelated plot to take over earth, as he does. Killing spies is just part of the misdirection and to draw in the doctor. I'd be a little bummed by this tho

----

Im honestly nervous it may be a let down, but, I'm really hoping everything that was set up this episode was important and relevant and will pay off with a really cool villain, new concepts to play with, and the master being a real good threat and an enjoyable version of himself. (I'm not sold and I'm a little sad after seeing him play it so.. cringey? It's like a Simm impersonation but a little hokey idk. But we only had five minutes of him so I'm excited to see how it goes!!! Maybe I'm legit just salty that it's not Missy or a lady or something. I'll give him a chance!!! I'm hoping for the best. I WAS legit totally surprised, even tho I knew something had to be off about O... Good reveal!)

Hopefully I get time off work this weekend to see Part 2 in theaters and have a grand ol time. Legit very pleased and hooked by this premiere. So fun

[ts-2020-olympics]

EPISODE 1 - “My Legs Were Not Qwoperating” - Kathy (Part 1)

One world ! 24 other players ! I 

I'm too old to be here but... it's happening! I made it on Tumblr Survivor mom! Determined to not be first boot!

Also I'm aligning with Jordan Pines because I love chaos and these newbies won't know what hit them

Well this is certainly something. I'm going to try out seeing who pms me without me saying anything. I'll pick up the activity tomorrow, so it doesn't really affect me, let's see if anyone takes the initiative so I don't have to. If I get dragged into a majority alliance then that's cool. I don't think that this group is great in terms of teamwork as of yet, but we'll see. There's so many tribes our chances of going to tribal are pretty slim, even if we suck. We're kindof underdogs, so sucking might not be excusable. 

First day of surviving the Survivor survivorship...survivor. These forms are going to take some time to get used to, but I'll manage. Got conversations from Beck and Sammy so far - might scope the field, see what's out there. Or, I can lay low and do what I need to do for my team until merge hits. 

i actually really like the people on my tribe and i'm excited because i have hopes for us. i've also made some nice friends so far and i'm hoping that pays off later but even if it doesn't i'm glad my first day in a skype survivor org has been positive! woo!

Fuck this complicated ass first challenge 

Hello! Guess whose back? It me! Anyway, it’s been a fun first night. Things are going okay. I am worried a little bit about the One World mess, I don’t want to come off too social right now but at the same time I need to secure a good place. So here is the breakdown analysis of my tribe: Chris Stoner: hello ???? I didn’t know they let stoners into the Olympics, didn’t we drug test? I haven’t spoken to him much but we did play Crossroads together although not really together. Anyway, fun to see him. Don’t know if I’d work with him but I guess that’s to be determined. Karen: KARENNNNN! I wasn’t expecting to see them here but now that it’s happening I am very glad to have someone who I have worked with before around, and a solid foundation of working together. Right away I felt like I had someone who had my back and I hope I’m not misreading that, because Karen and I always seem to work together until a certain point. Hopefully we can work together longer than usual this time! Kevin: uhhh soooooo love Kevin but we don’t have the best track record? He was in Circle with me we had a little fight where I may have called him a racist for being mad at Asya anyway it SEEMS as though that’s not an issue anymore and I think we might be able to work something out. I don’t wanna have to vote Kevin out before Stoner or Tommy. Tommy: ok no offense to this man but he is so hard to talk to so far. Every conversation feels flat and even though we are talking about subjects I could go on about for a while, it feels like the convos are going nowhere. I feel like there’s a sort of slight bond between Karen, Kevin and I but then Tommy and Stoner are kind of...hopefully who they’d want to kill off first, I’m probably wildly misreading every situation rn. Outside of my tribe I’ve talked to Juls who I am going to take under my wing as my daughter and she will win this season if I don’t get to! I love her so much she reminds me of my old school Skype babies and I feel like a cool mom when I talk to her I’ve also talked to beck briefly, KING love him bc he’s dating Asya and I don’t necessarily want to bond based on that. I also know beck is a good as game player bc I’ve watched him play so......I’m gonna be nice and observant and maybe we can establish a threat/threat symbiotic relationship. I also talked to Jacob C. who I love so much and he and I have been comparing some notes. He’s already told me Sammy has an idol that he can only use for three rounds so heh heh heh. OH SPEAKING OF SAMMY I love that man he’s such a doll and I really hope we can work together if I get far. At this point I love this cast but I really feel like I am not gonna vibe with the newbies, they’re like very....quiet in the PM’s but loud in the one world chat? I find that backwards. I’m hoping the newbies I do like will be able to  get rid of the newbies I don’t like so that when we merge the newbies I do like will help me get rid of the returnees I don’t wanna work with. That’s what we are manifesting, 2020 vision yeehaw. 

Showmance, eh? I might play dumb, surprise them all later? I could play the role of disposable pawn while possibly orchestrating things behind the shadows. Could be a long, long shot, but it could work. 

AAAAHHHHH IM HERE HI MOM IM ON TV IM SO EXCITED AND I CANT WAIT FOR EVERYTHING IM ALSO SCARED AS FUCK CUS EVERYONE KNOWS HOW THESE THINGS WORK AND I DONT 

omg okay this is all so crazy i love it i can’t stop shaking AAAAHHH dhdkshHSJDHEVSJbokayOKAY so like i LOOOVE my tribe we’re the fuckin best tribe here cus we’re all so cool like we’re the FRIENDSHIP tribe and being able to make friends is a useful skill in this game like no offense but being the “dominant” tribe or “champions” tribe or whatever tbh it’s pretty unskinny bc that’s a target on you forever whereas my tribe we’re all friendly and trusting!! 💖💞 xoxo lets hold hands all the way to finale and have fun! 🌈✨

okay i forgot to talk about strategy lol anyways yeah I looOOOVve everyone on my tribe and that’s great but also sucks because there’s only 5 of us, it just takes 3 votes to send you out so I wish there was some oblivious cocky dick on our tribe we all could hate so we’d have an easy first vote like that guy Billy.. why is he on the respect tribe¿? anyways i love everyone but I think Will and I are becoming the closest we talked for a lil while last night yknow things got a little steamy 🥰😩 (you’ll have to pay for ts all access for that footage 😘) we bonded really well and I think for this first vote if we lose, Will and I are definitely gonna be voting together.

Alright, so here we are at the 2020 Olympics.   I came in as a last minute replacement, so I feel like I have to prove myself more than some others who applied weeks before hand and made the cut.   As well, got some past players, and past winners, which makes the competition stakes that much greater this season.   Then, to top it all off, at the One World style camp, so can talk to everyone which is definitely a nice touch.   Now, regards to my tribe, I honestly like the people on my tribe, and find that we're going to be a solid crew.   Here is my actual impressions on my tribe mates thus far though: Beck - Probably one I recognize most, just due to being in a discord org vl with her, definitely seems like a friendly gal, and when time is right, I feel she could end up being my closest ally on the tribe Ben - Probably one so far who I have talked the most too, and I feel like we're connecting alright thus far, so going to keep building up a bond with him and his route could end up being as my first ally of these Olympics. Kathy - Haven't spoken one on one with her yet, just in the tribe chat somewhat and main chat, which she definitely seems like a cool person, and hoping to get to know her a bit better, but terms of this game, hard to say if we'll be on same side or not. Bailey - Speaking with her a little, but kind of same lines as Kathy currently with her, just not sure if Bailey will end up being an ally who will be with me, or someone who will be against me. Overall, time will tell how this game goes, but hopefully it goes well for me and I come out with at least something worth while.

HOLY SHIT I FOUND AN ADVANTAGE OH MY GOD!!!!! I GOT AN ADVANTAGE ON DAY FUCKIN TWO OF MY FIRST SURVIVOR EVERR HOLY SHIT!!!! okay so it says i can get an extra vote IF at the next tribal i decide to NOT vote and save that vote for later so i’d have an extra vote. Now the hard part is making my first tribal an easy vote so i can save my own.. hopefully i’ll be able to do this! i’m so scared ohmygod

okay i’m in a serious predicament... so I may not vote at the next tribal meaning there’s only 4 votes. While looking at the cast reveal i discovered something.. Nik is a drag queen, Eve also does drag as well... what if they applied together from some drag community or are bonding because of that. That’s 2 votes together already on a tribe of five.. that’s dangerous especially when I’m not allied with either of them! If they vote together and i don’t vote... they’d have half the votes already and may get rid of my ally Will! I’m hoping to god they don’t know each other but if they are aligned then Will or I could be out! I want this advantage but i don’t know if i can take it.... fuuUUUUCK

I’m really enjoying my tribe and I think that the people in this game are super awesome! However with that being said, I can definitely see who could potentially be an issue down the line and I’m keeping my eyes peeled for them!

whoa. this game is a lot. I managed to message everyone on day one because I just rely on my social abilities. I tried to be as relatable as possible to everyone but literally some people were dead fish. Some newbies have asked me for advice already and they said returners are intimidating so I said "I mean only the returners that won" hahah and they were like "oh yeah so true" sorry I threw y'all under the bus. But ummm kathy is playing and we are from the same hometown so I am hoping we end up on same tribe sometime soon. I love juls too!! OH AND JACOB IS MY RIDE OR DIE. we had a tribe call and I was so uncomfortable because I felt like I had nothing to add to the conversation. my fav 2 on my tribe are Jacob and Caeleb tho! umm okay last thing I searched for the idol....AND BIH ON DA FIRST TRY I GOT ONE BLSFSI only good for next three tribals I attend tho. I told Jacob. it was in a yellow condom. okay sorry this was very choppy I just wanted to get it all out.

This tribe seems to be working fine together, while I'm still terrified of losing, I think we stand a fighting shot. This cool little band of misfits would be a cool sight. I've kept my quiet for the first day, time to ramp things up just a tad. I've talked to Landen and I feel pretty alright about him, and given this tribe is as small as my will to life after playing QWOP, we only need one more! Landen's probably talking to everyone, so I just need to seal the deal with him. I think my challenge performance will suffice for being enough to keep me around, but I need a bit of a backup just in case. If we go to tribal, there's not a "stay UTR" option. It's either I'm in an alliance and I'm calling some shots, or I'm being (in)directly blindsided. But, I picked my strong suit in flash games for a reason fellas. The one world chat has quite a bit of activity. I'm quite and that's fine, if we swap I can readjust. If we go to tribal I'm sure I'll become just a tad more popular along with the other 9 that go. tldr:I'm winning duh

Ayo, tribe energy looking DOPE AS HELL BAY BAY! We all seem to be getting along pretty well, seeing as our communication during this challenge is pretty dope! No bad personalities in sight. I gotta wonder though, how nervous do I have to be? I know for a damn fact if I start talking more to these people they gon' be fallin' as hard as underage kids seeing the hottest girl in school enter their club. Thing is though, I'm fresh meat coming into this, so any pre existing relationships in this game are like dust mites to me. Can't see em' but GOD DAMN they annoy me. Nonetheless, I gotta work my magic in case we go to Tribal. I ain't letting anybody take out a rookie, especially a rookie who has somethin' to prove, and someone who at his best is the damn king of the world. See me work bay bay!

[prettyfunkyunorganized]

Sugar Daddy Hanzo part 10

Good evening everyone! Or whatever time of day it is where you are. I’ve got another chapter for you today, but first a few announcement-y things:

1. Just moved and started grad school so I’m busy AF, so if chapters continue to be a bit shorter than they were at the beginning, that’s why.

2. I am starting up a new tag on my blog that will be side info about this story - stuff written from Hanzo’s POV, fun facts, ideas I’m considering, and questions for you! You can always submit questions too via the ask feature on Tumblr or you can use the tag #sugardaddyhanzoextras (sugar daddy hanzo extras). That is the tag I will be using for all this type of content and if you would like to be tagged, feel free to let me know!

3. I love you. 

So yeah, that’s it! Here are 2,800ish words of mush essentially. 

BTW, this whole business world AU is based on my bud @watch-your-grammer‘s post here. She’s glorious and so is her work.

The rest of the story: pt one, pt two, pt three, pt four, pt five, pt six, pt seven, part eight, part nine

Waking up had never been so difficult. Your eyelids dragged, almost impossibly heavy, but not nearly as stiff as your arms. Every shallow, tentative breath was a struggle, and your chest ached with each inhale. Each exhale. You looked around the brightly lit room and frowned. “Guess we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” you grumbled to yourself, “or maybe I’m the witch – certainly feel like I’ve been hit with a house.”

By some odd circumstance, it looked like you had the room to yourself, the bed to your right was folded up tight with precise corners as starkly white as the walls and ceiling above you. Everything was so . . . sterile, as if you had been transported to your very own dimension, removed from the rest of Earth. It was unsettling.

And sad.

Your chest tightened in a familiar way that had nothing to do with your injury, it was a painful manifestation of your growing disappointment and loneliness.

“You’d think the gals would at least come by to see me,” you whispered as tears welled in your eyes, “and if getting shot isn’t enough to get Mom and Dad to come visit me, what is?”

In a burst of realization, you remembered what had happened and put a hand over your breast, a powerful tenderness warning you to be gentle.

“Holy fuck I got shot,” you gulped looking for the nurse call button and slamming it while trying to tame your breathing.

After a brief pause that seemed to last ages, a nurse swung open your door and scuttled in, but not before you saw what looked like a dark suit a dark expressing in the hallway.

“Well, hello there,” the tall man in scrubs said with a smile. The bright corgi pattern on his shirt relaxed you for some reason, maybe it was because that was the first bit of color you had seen since you awoke.

“Hi,” you said softly.

“You look scared,” he murmured kindly, “don’t be. We got you all patched up, and you’re going to be fine.”

“Oh thank goodness,” you sighed, running your hands over your face. Of course you knew that you were alive, but hearing a nurse say ‘you’re not dying’ still made you feel a thousand times better.

“Do you remember what happened,” he asked. You nodded. “Good. And how are you feeling?”

“Uh,” you hesitated, “pretty shitty? But not dead so, I could be worse?”

He chuckled, “Very true. Feeling sore in your chest, right?”

“Oh yeah,” you groaned.

“We will get you something to help with that and check over your bandages here in a sec, I just want to tell you what we’ve done on our end if you’re feeling up to that.”

“Sure,” you nodded, trying to glance out the window so you could figure out if what you had seen was what you were desperately hoping to see. Then again, it was a hospital, and there were likely hundreds of patients here with worried family.

And Hanzo wasn’t family.

And he hadn’t taken you back.

And the nurse in all his corgi covered glory was in your way.

“Alright,” he said looking at the digital display on his arm, “you were brought in with a bullet wound in the chest, it went right through you, but went through your lung.”

“My lung,” you gaped in horror.

“Yes,” he confirmed, “that is what caused you so much trouble, but medicine has come a long way, and we were able to have your stem cells from your baby teeth flown in and have started growing you some new lung tissue. We had to do one surgery to keep you alive, so your left lung is currently dormant, and your right is doing all the work, which is probably why you’re likely feeling a little like you’ve been running a lot and haven’t quite caught your breath. Once your new tissue is ready, we will get you into the OR again have you feeling right as rain before you know it.”

“Wait,” you said reeling at what he’d just said. You knew your baby teeth could provide stem cells for fancy medical stuff, but patching up your lung? “So . . . you’re going to be able to just cover up the holes in my lung?”

“Yes, ma’am, just like a punctured tire.”

“Ew,” you grimaced at his analogy.

He laughed, “Yeah, sorry. The other nurses say I’ve got a way with words, but I’m not sure if they mean that as a compliment.”

“I mean, it helped me understand,” you shrugged, “but is my lung still going to be able to function normally with a patch? Am I not going to live as long or something because of this?”

“Actually, the procedure has been tested very thoroughly on patients with lung cancer, and there is very little if any loss of functionality. Patients with renewed lungs climb Everest, run marathons, and live long healthy lives – so long as they take care of themselves, that is. If you eat fast food every day or do drugs and die young, you can’t blame that on the new tissue.”

“Of course,” you nodded. “That’s pretty god-damned amazing.”

“It sure is,” he beamed, “the biggest inconvenience is the post-op checkups and drugs to help encourage faster healing, but all that will be finished up in a few months.”

“Good to know,” you sighed, a thin smile forming on your lips.

“Anything else you need right now, or should I start taking a look at you?”

“I – well, actually,” you fumbled, try to lean over and see the window, but you cringed at the pain, “could you just tell me if I have anyone out there waiting to see me? I – I thought I recognized someone.”

“You sure do,” the nurse said with a playful shake of his head, “you’ve had lots of people come in and out to see you, but it’s late at night right now, so the only one here at the moment is the older gentleman in the suit who basically never leaves. Man’s practically a part of the furniture now.”

You grinned so wide your chapped lips hurt, but you couldn’t stop. “Is his name Hanzo? Is he still out there? Will you tell him not to leave yet?”

“Calm down, calm down,” he laughed, backing toward the door, “I’m sure he’s still here, and I’d be happy to tell him you want to speak with him.”

“Thanks,” you said, blushing at your girlish excited outburst.

Without entirely closing the door behind him, the nurse spoke quietly with Hanzo, who had been waiting with an impatient look on his face. The instant you saw him you were relieved. In all honesty, you would have been happy to see anyone you knew out there, but knowing it was him was almost too good to be true.

The nurse came back in and asked you a few more questions while surveying your condition and giving you a bit of pain medication, but ‘not enough to make you all loopy,’ as per your request. Pain meds had always given you the creeps. It was awkward to have a man you’d never met poking your bandaged up boob while the other one laid out in all its glory, but thankfully as soon as you wrapped your hospital gown back up, Hanzo was waved in.

“Hey,” you said as he closed the door behind him. You did your best not to look like a giddy schoolchild, but you were far too happy to be in the same room as him again. Part of your uncontrolled emotion was definitely the drugs, but not all of it. You didn’t care if you shouldn’t be so enraptured to see him, at least not now. You had been shot, you could feel however the fuck you wanted.

“Good evening,” he responded lowly. The distant tone in his voice made you face fall flat, and the physical distance he kept between you made you pull your knees closer to your chest sadly.

“I was, um, well I was kind of surprised to see you here,” you admitted sheepishly.

Hanzo sighed and looked away. “Yes, I probably should not have come, but I felt I had to. That, and I could not find the will or focus to do anything other than sit here and wait for news on your condition.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” you said softly, “extremely so.”

His lips pursed as his gaze landed on something next to your head. “You are the only one who has been happy to see me here.”

You twisted around as far as you could until your chest muscles griped at you to stop. There was a tiny speaker clipped to the bed frame with a note attached to it. “That sweetie,” you chuckled as you read Lucio’s message:

‘Sorry I couldn’t stick around ‘til you woke up! If I missed another tour date, the bosses were going to have some fried frog legs at their next meeting. Call me THE SECOND you wake up and know that I’m thinking of you. Lots of hugs, your best-est client.’

“He’s always so good to me,” you said shaking your head and the sad frog sketch Lucio had done on the other side of the card.

“I am glad you have found someone that has made you happy,” Hanzo said almost inaudibly, his eyes turned to the ground, bangs in his face as if trying to hide the sour look on his features.

Was he . . . jealous? Clearly you were feeling a little better because the devious part of your mind was suddenly much more awake. No, you shouldn’t be happy that Hanzo was feeling all put out at the fact that you had someone new if your life, but shit! How many people got to see the illustrious Hanzo Shimada practically dripping in envy?

Plus, it meant that maybe – just maybe – you had a chance to have him back.

Maybe it took almost dying to realize that you were willing to give Hanzo another chance, or maybe that bullet had torn right through your resolve, but you knew what you wanted now, and you were ready to admit it. More than that, you were ready to fight for it.

If Hanzo really wanted you to find love with someone else, fine, you understood, but you weren’t going to just walk away. Not again.

“Perhaps I should go,” Hanzo said abruptly, “the nurse assured me that you will be fine and now that I have seen you for myself I believe I am feeling much more assured. Goodbye, and I hope you – ”

“Woah, woah, woah,” you shouted, sitting up and groaning at the way your body protested. You were shot in the chest, so why did your back feel like agony, too?

Hanzo turned back you, looking very unsure of himself. “What is it?”

“You know Lucio is just a friend, right,” you asked.

He scoffed and glowered at the door. “That is not what the tabloids say.”

“Since when do you put stock in the tabloids,” you said giving him a skeptical look.

“There are photos,” he said grimly, crossing his arms and keeping his gaze off you.

“Of what? Me and my friend walking into a party together? We may have been ‘arm in arm’ and all that, but people do that all the time. He’s just a public figure, so everything gets blown out of proportion,” you said matter-of-factly.

“The pictures of him covered in your blood and sobbing as they brought you to the hospital are quite . . . telling,” he insisted.

“Hanzo! I had just been shot! And he’s one of my friends! One of my best friends, in fact. If Gabe were to be gunned down in front of you wouldn’t you be looking a little disheveled?”

His head bobbed as an admittance that you had a point.

“Come here,” you demanded, holding a hand out to him. His body went rigid, and he didn’t move. “Please,” you pouted, beckoning him again.

This time he slowly made his way to you, stopping far enough away that you had to lunge forward a bit to grab his hand and yank him closer. His eyes were wide with surprise, or maybe concern, but fingers curled automatically around yours. You brought his knuckles to your lips and place a gentle kiss on them, the tension in Hanzo’s shoulders floating away, letting his perfect posture slip into a more relaxed stance. You were glad you still had that effect on him. Big oaf needed to pull that stick out of his ass every now and again.

“Lucio means a lot to me, but not the way you do,” you told him in the most earnest tone you could muster. “You’re the only person I want to be with, you’re the one that I wanted with me more than anyone else when I thought I was dying, and you’re the person I most wanted to see when I opened up my eyes in this place.”

“You know,” Hanzo said with a small smile, “you make it very hard to stay away from you.”

He leaned against the rail of your bed and set his palm on your cheek gingerly, you leaned into its warmth. “I guess getting shot has its silver lining.”

“I vehemently disagree,” he barked firmly, “it should not have taken a gunshot to bring us back together. A conversation would have done just as well.”

“Hey, for the record, I tried that,” you retaliated. “That night in your brother’s big fancy bathroom I wanted to talk about it but you – ”

Hanzo silenced you by placing his thumb over your lips, and you giggled, kissing the pad of his finger in delight. Having him this close again was everything you had hoped it would be. “I am sorry for that night,” he said tenderly, “I was only trying to – ”

“Trying to do the right thing,” you finished for him, nodding understandingly. “I know, and I was, too. But I don’t care about what’s ‘right’ anymore. I don’t want to give up on what we could have together, and I know you’re on the way to changing. I’m tired of chasing the ideal of what should happen. I just want to be happy, and you make me happy.”

“My beauty,” he cooed, placing a long kiss on each of your temples, “you make me happy, too.”

“Does that mean you’ll be with me again,” you asked, wriggling closer to him.

“How could I say no,” he chuckled, dancing his fingers along your exposed arm until you shivered, making him grin.

The two of you basked in each other’s presence, but no matter how hard you tried to keep from overthinking things, you had to ask him something.

“Hanzo?”

“Yes?”

“Will I be your sugar baby again or . . . ?”

“I – well – ” he stammered, clearing his throat to buy him time to find an answer.

“The full-fledged relationship idea still freaks you out, doesn’t it,” you asked worriedly.

“Yes,” he huffed frustratedly, “though I do not know why. I know I want to be with you, and I know that I want more than that sort of arrangement with you, but there is something about that word, that step that just . . . fills me with a dread I do not understand.” Hanzo looked down to you, an ashamed expression on. “I am sorry.”

“Don’t be,” you said stroking his jawbone, “I don’t mind being your sugar baby again, but I’d like to set down a new set of rules and whatnot.”

“Of course,” he said, sounding relieved, “I believe that would be necessary.”

“But you are still going to your therapist, right?”

“Yes,” he said with a strong nod, “and this is something we have discussed lightly, but, as you know, there is much about me that needs to be . . . dealt with.”

“We’re all a work in progress,” you assured Hanzo, pulling him down so you could kiss him on the nose. The token of affection made his face go a little red, and you burst out laughing. “Good god I missed you and the way you blush, handsome.”

“I am quite convinced that you are the only one who can make me blush,” he grumbled, smirking just a tinge.

“Oh I bet Genji could tell me some fun stories that would make you all flustered,” you teased.

“Just who’s side are you on,” he said with a scowl.

“Mine,” you said brightly, “a girl’s got to put herself first, you know, and that’s what I do.”

“And I adore you for it,” Hanzo hummed, meshing his fingers into yours.

“Don’t worry,” you said, giving him a gentle squeeze, “I’ll always be in your corner, though.”

“A fact that makes me infinitely stronger.”

“I’m glad you realize that,” you said, beaming at his progress, “a couple of months ago I pegged you for the ‘I don’t need anyone’ type.”

“I have since learned a few things, met a few people who have shown me otherwise,” Hanzo said, holding your clasped hands to his heart.

@collinssie @watch-your-grammer @zarcake-writes @yesthisisbae @eebbapanda1@deercapitate @missbumblina @skyrina @justjaaaay@thewetbones@skyelentnight @ilovebva @punk-dork @cbrokeherboobs@sobanoodledragon@sydniesamm @honeyburger @knightofsexyness @queenoflabyrinths@speakingishard @iknowimcutethanks @ninevast @ivymarquis @sydniesamm@barbie-the-centrist @tumblertrash @angle0fthegourd@shaybae1997 @lillypet95 @rusty-potato @tt-nikithakppr

** please let me know if you would like to be tagged or removed from the tags in future updates and sorry if I missed anyone, I feel like tumblr is deleting my shit**

[lavenderek]

When and how did Stiles realise he wasn't straight?

I imagine he always assumed everybody knew a few dudes they’d kiss. You know? Like you’re straight because you want to be with a woman. Because that’s what you do. And as he got older he obviously began to realize that’s not exactly the case. For everyone. It was for him, because any attraction he did experience to dudes was superficial and passing. He doesn’t know anybody he could experiment with, and even if he did, he fell in love with any woman who insults him, actually, so he didn’t have a lot of bandwidth to focus on whether or not he theoretically liked theoretical dudes.

And finally at some point in college, he meets a dude he’d kiss, and the dude he’d kiss indicates a willingness to kiss him back. This situation is a lot less theoretical than Stiles is comfortable with. He can’t come up with a reason not to. He’s young, he’s single, he’s wearing a tight black t-shirt and he’s a little bit buzzed, and it’s not like it’ll mean anything, right? Like he’s a guy. It’s not, like, a thing, he’s not gay, so it’s not - but it does. And it is. And he can and he does and the next day everything seems a little different, a little more interesting and new, a little more fragile.

After the second dude he hooks up with, he has to face that this is real, and he has to tell his friends, and a couple are pretty supportive, one of them stops talking to him, and the rest think he’s just… being Stiles. You know how Stiles is. He’s a little flighty. He wants attention, he aches for affection and romantic approval. It’s sad. Let him have his bicurious phase. He dates a dude and after five or six months the dude dumps him, and he gets drunk about it and tells his friends that realizing he’s into everybody just means anybody can break his heart. Everybody just nods placatingly and buys him another sparkling apple sangria. What a yahoo.

I just think he’s bad at dating. I think he struggles with how often to text people and when to start talking about the future. I think he misreads intentions and asks for too much too soon, or too little too late, or not enough now, and he gets his hopes up and he assumes he’s not wanted somewhere he is, or assumes he’s wanted somewhere he’s not. He’s a poor communicator, he can’t read body language, and he’s needy. The only things he knows he’s good at are kissing, oral sex, and hugs, and even those are touch and go sometimes. I think he was hoping it would be easier with a dude, at least. It isn’t really. They’ll go distant on him or get manipulative, too. Just in different ways. Or it seems different because of Stiles’ preconceptions. But it’s not different at all. No matter what gender, they always tell Stiles they’re “sorry for getting his hopes up.”

Stiles can take a breakup really well now, very calm and respectful; and then as soon as he walks in the door of his apartment he fucking teleports into the bathtub and physically manifests a cranberry rum fizz in his hand like he’s Doctor Strange. He is a sad drunk and takes sadness baths and if you can’t accept him as he is, then you can’t have him. (No one seems to accept him as he is, and yet, they still manage to have him.)

He works through it, literally. He finishes college and skips the ceremony because his grandma can’t come and she’s the only reason he’d walk for it anyhow. He’s applying for desk jobs, anything that pays better and has him on his feet less, but nothing’s panning out so he’s still working at the bar, trying to figure out where to go from here. He’s down somewhere in SoCal for his step-uncle’s wedding when he runs into Derek for the first time in a few years. He turns around in the Mexican restaurant he’s standing in line at and sees Derek backlit by the vivid afternoon sun. Maybe it’s just the passage of time or Stiles having learned more about himself and the world, but he’s surprised by how the sight of Derek just… wow, just makes him just as angry as it did when he was sixteen. He asks Derek why he’s here.

Derek asks him where. Stiles says here. Derek says Jabanero’s? It’s a business. He’s a patron. He’s patronizing the business. God, Stiles hates him. What a fucking dick. It’s so weird that Stiles thinks he looks so good, though. Look at his arms, holy shit.

Obviously Derek’s always been attractive. Stiles does not need that explained to him. He just gets to consider it in a new light, is all. He gets to look at it in that afternoon sun, inside the Jabanero’s. Maybe it’s kind of refreshing to encounter somebody who’s an asshole but knows he’s an asshole. Who’s an asshole in the same ways Stiles is an asshole. Stiles is pretty self aware these days: these things no longer escape him. And maybe it’s interesting to be able to consider these things about Derek.

Not that it matters. He tells Derek where he can stick his grapes and he collects his enchiladas with extra verde sauce and he returns to his hotel room where he sees that his ex is “in a relationship” with a beautiful ginger woman named Rebecca, and you can’t reach Stiles for the next several hours because he’s just rented Pacific Rim on iTunes and he’s going to watch it on his laptop, in the bathtub, while he eats his enchiladas. He loves big robots and space ships. He loves people with long hair and soft tits and people with chest hair and big dicks.

He wishes he had one.

A space ship.

Anyway, Stiles never manages to get that desk job, so he quits at the bar and moves down to LA, decides to go to grad school. There’s another Jabanero’s here, but Stiles doesn’t run into Derek at it. He runs into Derek at his new job, a bar and grille. It’s a step up, he explains a little facetiously to Derek as he takes the order of two very annoyed customers. He used to wait tables at a bar. Now he waits tables at a bar and grille. It’s the grille, with the E on the end, Stiles’ life is looking up. Derek doesn’t like beer a whole lot, but he orders a beer so he can stay and talk to Stiles until the end of his shift, at which point they go to the Jabanero’s so he can continue to talk to Stiles, and after Jabanero’s they go and stand under a street light so they can recommence their really draining conversation about some semantic bullshit on a hill that Stiles seems to expect Derek to be willing to die on, and it’s right at the point where Stiles is about to tell Derek that nope, he still hates him that Stiles realizes nope, he also wants him.

Not that it matters. Only it does. Because Derek is a werewolf - I know, you forgot! It’s because it’s stupid! - and he notices it too, about a minute after Stiles does. He tells Stiles to come back to his apartment with him. And Stiles says no. He has class in the morning. Does Derek think Stiles doesn’t do anything but be a waiter and then blip out of existence as soon as Derek’s not looking? He has a life. Holy cow. But Sunday’s his day off, and so he sleeps with Derek on Saturday night. He only makes one Bay City Rollers joke and Derek isn’t nearly impressed enough for it, Stiles thinks.

But here he is, all the same, in bed with Derek-The-Werewolf, who has a big dick and insults him, and he feel pretty lucky, actually, that he can be here now and reflect on being a misguided teenager with way too much on his plate and a confused college student with homophobic friends who bullied him and a hardened grad student with a lot of potential. It’s difficult to read Derek a lot of the time. He just has that kind of face, that kind of demeanor. So Stiles is mostly sure this isn’t a romance thing, probably just a sexual intrigue thing. He tries to imagine a forever-partner for Derek and that partner is nothing like Stiles. But Derek’s different in bed, softer somehow, and if Stiles pictures a forever-partner for himself, it’s getting harder to not picture somebody like Derek.

Which is really just obnoxious. He’d thought he was over this bullshit, this thing he does where he gets his hopes up right out the gate. He has to do two things: he has to get Derek to leave before he can get attached, and he has to physically show himself why it can’t work out with Derek. So he decides to abandon all his hard-earned skills at dating and be Extra. He decides to be one hundred percent selfish in this relationship. It’s very freeing. He insists on getting spooned, day one. He describes his ideal living situation, from location to architecture to decor to expected home behavior, day two. He grills Derek about whether or not he wants kids someday, day three. He demands to be brought lunch at work, day four. He only texts Derek when he has something to say, and he always texts Derek when he has something to say, and he studiously does not keep track of how reciprocated his texts are. He invites Derek to his coworker’s roommate’s birthday party at a karaoke bar and makes him watch his and his coworker’s extremely inebriated performance of ABBA’s “Take A Chance On Me.” Then he forces Derek to bring him Pedialyte and toast the next day. He lets himself into Derek’s apartment to make him a birthday cake that January. It’s a terrible cake. Derek tells him it’s a terrible cake. Stiles knows it’s a terrible cake. It’s a terrible fucking cake!

And he’s completely confused because he looks up one day and it’s a week from their fucking anniversary and his fucking hopes are still up!

He freaks out about it actually. Because when he goes and explains it note for note to Scott and Lydia, they just stare blankly. From their end it just sounds like he’s describing dating somebody. For a year, in fact. Stiles realizes that he wasn’t trying to be unbearable, he was just being as authentic as he could possibly be. He skipped over the careful, tentative part and leapt feet first into where he’d never had the opportunity to get before. And that’s why it’s been a year and his hopes are still up. Because maybe his hopes aren’t up. Maybe that’s not what having your hopes up feels like. Maybe that’s just what it feels like when you have feelings for somebody. It’s been a year and he’s still here. So he’s in love with Derek, which actually just makes this entire plan all the more miserable. It backfired. A lot.

He drives to Derek’s apartment, barges in, slams the door shut, and announces that he wants them to move in together. Derek looks up at him from the couch, and Stiles continues his announcement as he pulls his shoes off and chucks them in various directions. He does not want to keep his own apartment because it sucks. And he does not want to keep Derek’s apartment because it sucks less than Stiles’ but it still sucks. And he wants to do it as soon as his lease is up in May. And he wants green sheets. And a blue fucking rug. And a cat. And Derek just says okay. To all of it, to every item he says okay. He makes a face at the blue rug and the cat, but he says okay. And Stiles loses his mind. He wants to know: Why??? Why do you just let me do this! Why do you just accept my demands like this! I never do anything for you! I don’t know what your fucking game is!

To which Derek answers that he has no idea what Stiles is talking about. Stiles invites him places and remembers things about him. Stiles texts him, but he doesn’t text him on a weird schedule, like one day he’ll send Derek a single text letting him know when he gets out of work, and the next day he’ll send a ten-text rant about some weird comment someone made when he was trying to buy nail polish remover, because he wasn’t buying it because he paints his nails, but so what if he was? Stiles made him a fucking birthday cake. The sex is really good and Stiles likes to be the little spoon. The things Stiles wants jive with the things Derek wants. And Derek likes knowing what Stiles wants. Stiles is a heart-on-his-sleeve type, which isn’t charming so much as refreshing and comforting. He also smells good and gives really good head. Derek has plenty of complaining, but no real complaints.

Stiles can’t believe this. Derek likes being the big spoon? He likes hearing from Stiles? He likes hearing from Stiles at the exact rate at which he hears from Stiles? He doesn’t mind going the places Stiles wants him to go? He also wants big windows?

And he knows Derek’s just like him, likes girls, which just leads to more questions.

He also pictures a future with Stiles? You can be like this and still be with someone forever? This isn’t just some misguided, childish dream Stiles hasn’t been able to shake?

Stiles’ campaign of being Too Much just ended up being the most honest relationship he’s ever been in, and he’s pretty peeved to have fallen in love without noticing. He demands to be taken to bed and fucked.

And your question was answered a ridiculously long time ago, but I extended my answer to here because this is when he finished rounding the bases, the gay bases, the gayses, thank you, sorry, bye.

[holliekae]

good things come eventually

i didn't know it at the time, but while i was writing my last post, the universe was putting together something incredible for me. a lot of things have happened since that last post. a lot of terribly stressful things and an astounding amount of amazing things and i'd like to share them all with you.

lets start with the extra fun and stressful things shall we? first and foremost, i got put on probation for a DUI i got in november of 2020. probation on its own is shitty, yes but i definitely got the ~lighter~ version of what is actually probation. its technically called DUI diversion, which basically means if i complete everything on this lovely checklist, the charge gets taken off my permanent record. so that's cool. also super cool? fucking color code. my color is scarlet. so until may of 2022, at any random time, monday-friday, my color can get called to come and take a drug and alcohol piss test lmao. oh and all of this is INCREDIBLY expensive, which is super cool for an adult that has actual bills and shit to pay. nevertheless, i've absolutely learned my lesson about committing crimes. its all fun and games at the time but the repercussions are god awful, especially for a 25yr old baddie am i right??

don't drink and drive kids.

now onto the absolutely wonderful things. i am in love as fuck. like mad, stupid, crazy in LOVE. something that i never imagined that i'd get to experience, i literally talked about it in my previous post. did i really manifest my own love story?? i sure tf did bc i'm really out here living it with the man of my fkn dreams and i couldn't be happier. he is the most amazing person i've ever gotten the chance to meet and i feel so lucky to know him. little secret, he's the one that told me about these blog posts heheh. our story is rather different from most, but its 2021 and dating just isn't what it used to be. he's 1 year and 4 days younger than me, we went to rival high schools and he graduated the year after i did. we knew a lot of the same people around that time so i'd like to think that maybe we crossed paths in another lifetime that led us to be where we are now. i absolutely believe in divine intervention and things happen for a reason and i truly believe that people are supposed to meet at certain times in their lives and i think him and i are perfect example of that. i live in huntsville and he lives in atlanta so its about a 4 hour distance between us so i didn't think anything would ever come from him and i talking or being friends. i just knew that he was a total babe and i was going to do whatever scheming i could to get my hands on his fine ass. so after we texted back and forth for a few weeks, i pretty much told him that i was coming to atlanta for a weekend, i just wanted to see what would happen, or if the vibes were there or anything. i had nothing to lose, i was going to court for my DUI the following week so i said fuck it and drove my happy ass to a whole different city, to stay in a strangers house, with the stranger himself. as it turned out, going to atlanta would be the best decision i've ever made. after the initial anxiety wore off and the awkward vibes dissipated, i was alarmingly comfortable around him. his whole presence made me feel safe, it was the weirdest thing i've ever felt, especially in what would normally be a painfully uncomfortable situation for me. obviously i liked him and that's why i went to atlanta in the first place, but it wasn't until after that weekend that i knew i was growing actual real feelings for this guy. he was all i could think about, i told all of my coworkers about him, he was literally the only topic of conversation for at least a week lol. i couldn't wait to see him again. it took everything i had not to get my hopes up about him. nothing with any other guy ever worked out, i was stuck in a revolving door of talking stages and i didn't think that this time would be any different. i definitely had hope though, i was hoping that maybe this time, things will finally work in my favor bc he was everything i ever dreamed of and then some, i didn't even know him then but something told me that he would be worth it and boyyyy i was right.

it was a couple weeks later and we had continued texting back and forth, getting to know each other and what not. he mentioned that his dad and brother were going to be in town for the braves game and obviously a lightbulb went off in my head like uhhh please for the love of god invite me to this freaking baseball game. well, he did and we all had an absolute TIME. i'll never forget that day.

June 5th, 2021. it was after the game, we had been rained on, we were both sweaty and intoxicated and there were hundreds of people wandering around us. we found a bench and sat down for a minute and he'll say that i hit him with the "what are we?' question but i remember every detail from that day except that specific one so we cant confirm or deny those allegations. anyways, we were sitting there and this man really asked me to be his girlfriend.. when i tell you that not only did i die a little bit, but everything around me, the people, the noise, the music, it all stopped in that moment. of course it was the easiest yes ever. to this day, even as i'm sitting here reminiscing, he still gives me butterflies the same way he did the day i met him, the day he asked me the question of all questions, and every day that i get to love him.

all of that being said, the universe knew i needed someone and it sent me more than i could ever ask for. i got a boyfriend, a best friend, the love of my life and a soulmate all wrapped into one and i just cant believe that this incredible man chose me to fall in love with. i cant imagine a life without him in it and i hope i never have to. its very cliché but as the saying goes "when you know, you know" its 100% true. i knew the day that i met him that he was going to be very important to me, and i was right. it wasn't long before i realized that i was falling in love with him. it wasn't long after that before i realized like holy shit i'm real life, wholeheartedly in love with this man.

as i lay here tonight, typing this out, with my heart just fluttering at the fact that i'm so happily in love with the man of my wildest dreams, all i can say is that i'm thankful. thankful to be alive, thankful for the universe, thankful for the trouble i'm in because without it, i would've never gone to atlanta in the first place.

i had nothing to lose, remember?

now its everything.

[anotherler]

The motherheckin onceler

Strap in, folks. This is gonna be a heckingspectacle.

Why I like them: Uh. Everything about them. Okaylet me go into more detail about that. Their personality is just dripping withlikeability. He feels really human and really real like someone you could meetirl and personally, he was the EXACT kind of guys I got crushes on back in2012. Charismatic, tall, slender, theatrical and talented. His outfits?? ONPOINT. They informed my stylistic choices back then and still inspire me. He’sthe most well developed character in the entire movie and Ed Helm’s performancereally brings him to life. He’s layered, conflicted and a character with greymorality. He’s fun to think about and easy to sympathise with. He made me thinkharder about human nature itself and the initial book.

ALSO HE’S FUCKING ANGELIC?? HE’S GORGEOUS!!!! LOOK AT HIM!!!

I have more I could say but this would turn into an essay if I did so I’ll just...cut it here.

Why I don’t: While the writing takes him in avery good direction at times he’s made out to be too sympathetic and I don’tlike that. I wanted him to make his own choices when he decided to chop downthe tress. That would have been so much deeper and you would have seen suchevident confliction. I don’t like how it makes him really easy to misinterpret bypeople who don’t look any deeper. SECONDLY…Idespise….corporate greed and capitalism. I despise entitlement. I hateEVERYTHING about it and I’ve been railing on it and the kind of people the Once-leris for YEARS. HOW DARE HE AND THISMOVIE MAKE ME HAVE A CRUSH ON THIS KIND OF PERSON!!! IM STILL LIVID!!!

Favorite episode (scene if movie):That’s TOUGHcause he has so many good scenes. My first and second watches of the movie werespent watching and adoring his every move. The scene where the Lorax leaves himis just breathtakingly beautiful and heartwrenching. I love when he’s justdancing around the valley like he owns the place. I love his improv singingwhile he’s on his way to the valley. The scene that shook me the most was thevery end of the How Bad Can I Be sequence where he’s YELLING and he just grinnnnsreally maliciously and curls his fingers??? Holy shit was that wild as fuck.

Favorite season/movie: His incarnation in the 1972 TVspecial is likely my favorite and since I haven’t spoken much about him I willdo so here because he’s ALSO the Once-ler. Honestly he’s so SASSY and theressomething about him that purposefully irks you but it’s become strangelyendearing. You just look at him and you’re like “Christ, I can’t believe youjust did that you absolute buffoon” but he’s got that same sort of charismawhich is really evident when he’s surveying his little party bellow and smokinghis cigar. I love how he talks and my favorite scene with him is when he talksto himself because it makes me cry laughing about how he just AGREES withhimself because of one point he makes at the end after literally beingpersonally attacked. He’s amazing.

Favorite line: 1971: “You poor stupid guy! Younever do know what people will buy.” 1972:“Very Heartwarming!” 2012: “Nothing unmanly about knitting. No sir.”

Favorite outfit: 100% that GREEEN suit. Especiallysince he has the green gloves because that is a LOOK. I also just love thesymbolism associated with the suit and the really unique and extra design ofit. It’s just a marvel of costume design in general.

OTP: Once-ler and himself. LMAO Notnescesairily Oncest I just don’t ship him with anyone because he was reallybusy (married to his company if you will) and a huge narcissist who likely didn’tcare for anyone but himself. And…lets be real folks there is no other physicalmanifestation of himself nor do I think he spoke to an actual apparition ofhimself canonically. So in AUs I could see that…and on the subject of AUs…..IshiphimwithCliveDovemorenewsatEleven

Brotp: I think Once-ler and Granny Normawould have a great friendship after the events of the film. They’re a couple ofspunky old people. It just works. Once-ler also would continue to be good palswith Ted and he and the Lorax would have reconciled and settled into a goofylittle friendship as well.

Head Canon: Once-ler talks to himself a lot.He usually masks it by talking to animals or objects but he’s actually justworking out things with himself out loud. He is very likely to complimenthimself as well and give himself support he needs. He’s been doing this sincehis was a kid because nobody really payed attention to him.

Unpopular opinion This is an unpopular opinionoutside of the fandom only but The Once-ler is really just more than eye candyand he has a lot of depth.

A wish: I really want Once-ler to attonefor what he did in the past in his old age. I want him to become an activistand understand the merits of nature again and pass on his knowledge to ayounger generation and to anyone who will listen. I want him to actually takeaction and put in the work to be his very best. I also want him to be in goodcompany with people who really truly care about him.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen:I don’twant people to excuse his actions and tell him it wasn’t his fault becausegoddamnit it’s not true!!! I especially don’t want HIM to be convinced he neverdid anything wrong because that doesn’t solve anything. He needs to own hismistakes but not be defined by them.

5 words to best describe them: Gruvvulous, Ecentric, Symbolic,Human, Charismatic

My nickname for them: Again, it’s hard to shorten hisname and I don’t like calling him Oncie :’ ) Some nicknames are: Just-Arms,Symbol of Corporate Greed, Filthy Capitalist, How Bad Me Be, LEGS

[agent-absinthe]

Don’t Touch Me Pt. 2

Holy shit y’all CAME FOR ME because of the last one lmao I almost feel bad for writing it!  I got a few requests for a sequel so here it is.  Just as angsty and awful as the first one! - Part 1-  I recommend Habits by Tove Lo and idfc by Blackbear 

Absinthe was bracing herself against the sink of a shitty little restroom in a seedy bar that Tequila had brought her to.  She looked up into the mirror and rubbed a hand under her eye to try and even out the smudged make up, mascara tear streaks running down her cheeks.  Fuck she couldn’t keep doing this every week, but she couldn’t stop.  It was one of the only things she could look forward to and Tequila was more than happy to have someone to have fun with, especially when she took whatever he gave her without much care for what it was.  God, what the fuck was she doing?  

“Hey!  Ya ok in there?  Come on we gotta go!“ 

“Ya, I’m fine just give me a second.“ 

Tequila opened the door anyway and pulled her out by the arm, everything was blurry and slow as he led her out the door.  The cold air hit her hard and she held onto him as they moved.

“Wanna head home or brave another bar?“  

“Bar, club, anything.  Just not home yet.“  Her tongue felt too heavy as she spoke.

“Mmm, ya ok?  Hey, look at me-“ Tequila stopped and grabbed her chin, shaking her a bit.

“No, yer goin’ home.  What the fuck did you take?“

“I dont know.  Whatever, you gave me-“

“I didnt give you anything!“  Why did he sound so mad?  Chill out.

Oh ya, it hadn’t been Tequila, it had been that stripper that looked a little like him.  Fuck, what was his name again?  

“Whoa, whoa you need to stay with me, Elise.  Come on, girl don’t fucking pass out on me.”

His voice was getting so distant now, the sound of her labored breathing the only thing her ears seemed to register, like she was under water.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

~

The taste in her mouth was the first thing Elise noticed when she woke up, eyes crusty with day old eyeliner and mascara, a painful pimple already developing from the left on foundation.  Wait.  This wasn’t her bed.  And who’s fucking shirt did she have on?

“Thank fucking god yer awake!” 

“Where am I?  What happened?“  

Tequila looked like he was about to cry before getting furious.

“Ya fuckin’ took some shit from a stripper and ran off!  Yer lucky I found ya in the bathroom when i did because you passed out on me.  Fuckin’ had to get Ginger to come over and pump your stomach so we wouldn’t have to take you in.“

“Oh my god.“  Elise covered her face and fell back to the bed.

“Ya, Elise look I ain’t got no business tellin’ you what to do but you gotta get yer shit together.  I know you’re still hurtin’ but fuck darlin’ it’s been a few months and honestly ya starting to look like shit.“

She started to laugh at that because it was true and it hurt to admit that she hadn’t been taking care of herself.  It was hard right now to do anything except drown out her feelings in whatever she could find.

“Come on, get up.  We gotta a plane to catch.“  He tossed her a button down and her skinny jeans from last night.

It felt good to get all of the crusted make up off, Tequila’s face wash was actually decent and luckily he had an extra toothbrush lying around, god she would have to cook for him soon as thanks for all this.  She still looked like shit but at least her breath didn’t smell like it.  When Champ told Absinthe he was promoting her to head of the Psych department she didn’t know what to say, she was 25 and getting a promotion like that was unheard of.  Until he added that it would be at the Kingsman location and that their Psych Department consisted of 5 other agents.  

“So...you gonna be ok?”  Tequila asked quietly as they took off.

“I guess.  Champ said if I didn’t clean up my act I’d be put on leave until further notice.  I just- I don’t want to see him.  I still feel like shit-.”

“Hey, hey sweetpea no, that ain’t your fault, ok?  That shit is on him, we all know that if ya had known it wouldnta happened.”  He wrapped his arm around her, prepared for the tears.

~

“Mhmm, oh yes.  Of course I’ll show you where all the good cafes are!  I made sure to get you assigned to a good room, much better than the one you had a Statesman.“  

Merlin walked into the meeting room and was surprised to see Harry on his personal phone as the other agents waited impatiently.

“I’ve taken it upon myself to have a gift basket made as well.  And I’ve already gotten your schedule cleared up for when we go see Elton.  Just a moment dear someone’s glaring at me-”  Harry covered the phone, “it’s Elise, they landed a few moments ago.”

“Yes, yes Eggsy and Roxy are very excited to see you.  No, no you aren’t interrupting anything.“

Merlin’s heart sank at her name.  The guilt that had subsided over the past few months now opened up like a fresh wound.  They hadn’t spoken since she told him to get out; their departments were on opposite sides of the distillery so they would have limited contact, if any.  Still, just knowing she would be this close to him resurfaced everything he had felt in Kentucky and those feelings also brought nauseating shame.  His marriage with Sophia had flourished since he got back, now that their HQ was in Scotland he got to spend much more time at home.

“I’m on my way to the landing strip now.“

“Arthur, sir, we need to do a debrief.“ 

“Do it without me, Merlin.  I’m sure it’ll be fine.“

Merlin almost screamed...

~

Absinthe was fucking FLOURISHING; the others in the department respected her, she hadn’t gone out and gotten drunk in weeks, and knowing Merlin was in the same building barely even crossed her mind anymore.  The smile on her face seemed permanent as she made her way through the distillery, god they had to make this place so confusing didn’t they?

“Pardon me, dear!”  A light,Scottish voice called from behind her.

A tall, redhead holding a clipboard and a lunch bag was jogging up to her with a bashful smile.  She was older, maybe mid 40′s but holy shit was she gorgeous, even in jeans and a simple jumper the woman looked STUN-NING.  

“Hi, can I help you?”

“I’m looking for the front desk, seemed to have gotten turned about.”  

“I’m heading that way actually!  And this place is like a maze, still haven’t gotten used to it.  What brings you to the distillery?”

“My husband, lord help me, forgot his clipboard and lunch at home.  Made me come all the way up here for a clipboard.“ 

“They’re hopeless aren’t they?“  She tsked.  

The women shared an understanding laugh together and continued down the hall making small talk and giggling comfortably. 

“You’re American, right?”

“I’m from the U.S sister location.  I actually just got transferred here a month or so ago.”

The woman smiled at her, “And what bring’s ya to Scotland, love?  How do you like it so far?”

“God, it’s gorgeous and I was appointed to head of... H.R.”

“What?  Good lord, ya cannot be older than what, 26?”

“25.”

“You’re just a babe still, a child really.  So young, my goodness it must be exciting!”

“Oh, come on you’re what, 32?”

She tossed her head with a deep laugh, ”Aw, you’re so cheeky.  Child, I’m 46.”

“Well, you look great.”  Was Elise flirting?  Probably not? 

The redhead slapped her shoulder playfully as they finally arrived at the front desk.  The poor worker looked so relieved to finally see other human beings.

“Sorry, love I didn’t catch your name.”

“It’s Elise, so good to meet you!”  She held out her hand.

“Sophia.  I’m sure I’ll see y’again, ya know we should do lunch sometime!  I can introduce ye to some locals, I know a bar back at the village spot  that would love to make yer acquaintance.”  

More warm laughter.  

“I would actually really like that.”  Elise felt her heart get even lighter knowing she had just made a friend.

“Fantastic.  Let me get your number-”  Sophia handed off the clipboard and bag to the front desk assistant.

“Oh thank goodness you brought this.  He’s been calling down every five minutes seeing if it’s been dropped off.”  The assistant mumbled punching in the tech department’s extension.

“Fantastic, I’ll shoot ya a text later this week!  Oh, I better stay and say hi to him I guess, men can be so sensitive can’t they?”

“I know right.  Oh, who’s your husband?  I don’t think I asked.”

“Hamish.  He works in the tech department.”

No.  Oh no.  Oh god, no.  

“You alright, darlin’?”  The poor kid suddenly looked mortified.

“Um, ya.  It was so great to meet you but I just remembered I have a meeting to get to.  Have a good day!” 

Elise was able to make it back down the hall and into a bathroom stall before the first sob broke through her mouth.  She bit down on her fist to keep the cries from echoing in the empty room and pressed herself against the stall.  Why?  Why had this happened?  Everything was going so well, she was doing so well.  As the secondhand guilt came back tenfold another thought manifested itself screaming, 'there's no way he could have cared for you if he has her!  God, he must have really lowered those standards for you!’  

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.“  She chanted elbowing the stall until she bled..

As her breakdown slowly subsided her phone began to ring, Tequila, probably wondering where she was.

“Hey.“

“Where the hell are ya?  We need- wait, are ya ok?  Yer voice sounds thick.“

A sniff, “Ya, ya I’m fine.  Hey, can we go out tonight?”

“Darlin’ it’s Wednesday.“

“So?  Come on we haven’t done anything crazy since we left the states.“

There was a short silence before he laughed, “dammit girl, alright.  You better hurry that ass up though cause I cain’t keep this meeting stalled for long.”

Elise now braced herself against the sink, staring into the mirror and trying to salvage any makeup that was able to stay on her skin.  The promise of a drunk, destructive night soothing her nerves for now.

Looks like it was back to square one.  

~

Roxy and several other younger agents had tagged along, the London club scene apparently hot and heavy even during the middle of the week.  Tequila was being a butthead and refusing to let Absinthe out of his sight, this was so stupid.  He kept handing her drinks though, so that made up for it, for now.  

She was on the dance floor?  When had she gotten here?  Where was Roxy, she was just dancing with her.  A couple pulled her into their circle.  They were warm so she stayed.

It was cold outside, snow crunching underneath her shoes.  Trying to read her phone while her fingers trembled.  She sent Roxy and Tequila a text to stop their obnoxious and worried calls.  “I’m fine.  See u in the morning.”  She spilled into a cab along with the couple from the night club.  

It was still dark out when Elise opened her eyes.  The alarm clock on the nightstand she didn’t recognize let her know that it was 5 a.m and the two bodies tangled on either side of her were still breathing deeply.  With as much grace as she could muster half drunk Absinthe slipped off the bed, thankful that all her clothes were in a pile at the foot of the bed and her phone was dead but still in her coat pocket.  The morning was cold and snowy, cheeks burning from the frost as she waited for a Kingsman cab, it wouldn’t take her long to get back to the distillery after she made it to the hyper express at the shop.  

 At 6 Absinthe was in the break room making coffee to help sober her up when the door opened and Merlin walked in.  He paused, unsure if he should just leave or alert her to his presence.

“Elise...How, are you?“  

Her body went taut at his voice, but she didn’t turn around, determined to finish making herself a cup before she darted out of the room.

“I’m doing great.  How are you?“

“It’s good to see you.“  He said softly, walking closer to her

She didn’t respond to that and continued to stir in her sugar.  Elise could feel him just standing there behind her, staring at her.  Nerves on end she turned to go keeping her head down to avoid his gaze because she had gone this long without seeing him and dammit she wasn’t gonna ruin her streak now.

“Wait.“  He stepped in front of her, “look at me, please.  I jus’ want to make sure we’re on good terms.  Please, Elise.“

That was a mistake because she looked awful.  The hollowness in her eyes let him know that whatever was going on with her most likely had something to do with him.  

“Sure, Hamish.  We’re on ok terms.“

He frowned at that and raised a hand towards her face as if to cup it, his thumb brushing against a bit of old mascara on her cheek before pulling back.  The silence was heavy and he opted for a hand on her shoulder instead, he just needed to touch her.

“Can I go now?”  It wasn’t a sharp question like it should have been.  It was small and weak.

“Ya, ya sorry.“  

The door clicked shut behind her and Merlin looked down at his hand, wondering why he couldn’t just leave her alone. 

[rockofeye]

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. Rev 3:20

I have written this post at least five different times and thrown out each version because it misses what I want to write about. At the same time, I don’t know if what I want to communicate is actually able to be written about. How do you put into words the exact moment something drastic shifted as a result of the smallest, most gentle interaction from the most unexpected place? Does translating experience and thought into something that is read take away it’s importance and meaning and leave it impotent? I have no idea, to any of that.

What I do know is that this maryaj of mine has brought about a lot of big changes, little insidious changes, and shaken a lot of shit loose. In some ways, it has done bigger and more expansive things for me internally than kanzo did, because it has flipped my relationships with my spirits upside down and inside out and backwards/forwards/sideways, all in the best of ways and all in ways I couldn’t predict prior to having them put a ring on it. I knew going in that this was significant for me and it’s own sort of initiation, but even then I knew that, like all initiations of all sorts, I couldn’t see or touch those mysteries until I was on the other side and, even once I was, had a little time to really digest what had happened and how I felt about it. A lot of seemingly unrelated stuff got pulled in, and it has started manifesting in ways that continue to undo me and lay me bare. Initiation isn’t finished once the ceremonies are over, it continues on forever and evolves as we evolve.

The catalyst of all of this was not the maryaj ceremony itself, though that was a huge hinge and flashpoint. Instead, it was something that happened after and just before I left Haiti. It was something I asked for, but didn’t expect delivered, and it turned out to be one of the most meaningful experiences of my vodou ‘career’ so far.

One of my husbands did not attend our maryaj ceremony, for a bunch of reasons. It was a hard thing and I was in my feelings about it for a minute, but it ultimately changed nothing--spirit marriage in vodou does not require each spirit to be present, as the presiding priest does the same work whether or not they are there. The ring is blessed and empowered, I am blessed and empowered as a spouse of this spirit, and the marriage certificate/contract is endorsed as complete and valid. For me, it was that this particular divine joining was a bigger leap of faith for me than any of the other marriages because I had never met this spirit embodied. Kriminel had showed himself to me in dreams repeatedly, making known his presence until I (and anyone else I told the dreams to) was quite sure it was him. He pressed himself upon me until the last moment when I asked my spirits if there was anything else that needed to be done for the ceremony, and there was a dream where I was told that I couldn’t have the ceremony without two extra rings, one of which was for him. Overlaying that dream was his laughter--just the sound of his uncontrollable, I-am-crazy-I-don’t-care laughter ringing in my ears--and I was told that they (all my to-be husbands) had me now and were never going to let me go.

Kriminel’s relative insanity is why I hadn’t met him before. He is a spirit heavily involved in the lineage I am a part of, but he is a rough ride and difficult to manage, at the best of times. A mild Kriminel disfigures his chwal by pushing pins and needles through his cheeks/tongue, a more feisty Kriminel slashes his chwal with a blade, eats glass, stabs his chwal (the first dream that I could definitively say it was Kriminel was when he walked up to me laughing, stared at me with blood red eyes, and laughed and laughed while he stabbed himself repeatedly in the stomach), and vomits blood .He is not saluted or called into possession often, and so him asking/demanding that I marry him was really me looking a psychopathic serial killer in the face with stacks of bodies around him on our first meeting and effectively saying ‘marry you? Sure!’. I could have said no, but, for whatever reason, I took that big leap of faith and logic and agreed, sight really and truly unseen. There was nothing really say that he wasn’t just going to show up and try to kill me, but, you know, living on the edge and all.

Curiousity hadn’t and hasn’t killed me yet, and as the wedding drew closer and passed without him being embodied, I found him more and more compelling. Once I managed my feelings post-maryaj ceremony, I prayed and asked him for a wedding gift: I wanted to see him embodied before I left Haiti. There weren’t a lot of opportunities for that to happen--there was one ceremony happening two nights before I was to fly back home where he MIGHT be allowed to come, but he otherwise was not going to be a presence that would be sought out.

He did come, though, to fet Dantor, and he delivered my requested gift. I watched a Kriminel that, the second he was seated in the chwal, I knew without a doubt was my husband. I watched him throw himself around the peristyle and go through a complicated exchange where he was allowed to drink from a bottle but not hold it. I watched him run full force into a group of priests who were blocking him from accessing the altar, where there were a variety of daggers and machetes. I watched him do work on people that sent them to the ground howling and crying. I watched him snatch up an errant bottle of rum, smash it to pieces over the poto mitan, and chew on the broken glass before he was stopped. I watched his chwal bleed from cuts inflicted as part of the bottle breaking and I watched Kriminel slowly bubble out blood from his mouth, in a way that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

When he was hustled into the badji/back room to have the cuts and blood attended to and to be offered the feast that had been prepared for him, I had a long moment of staring at the closed badji door. It was entirely possible that this was going to be the only chance I was going to get to see him embodied for quite awhile. If I invited myself back there, I could be inviting myself to an unpleasant party (think a group of velociraptors all turning their heads to look at you at once) of the several Kriminels who had arrived and were eating, or it could be an opportunity to observe my husband in his ‘natural habitat’. I really had a moment of indecision before I had a moment of Fuck It. I burned down my life last year and lived to tell the tale, and came back this year to get married, and I wasn’t going to be scared of any spirit I was married to (or any spirit in general--I did not come all this way in my life to be afraid.). So, I handed my friend my camera, asked her to wish me luck, and headed for the badji.

My expectation was that I would find a corner and occupy it quietly while watching my husband and the other Kriminels eat. I am one small and relatively unimportant person, and I make it a habit not to force interactions with spirits. However, my expectations are often broken because I am painfully human.

When I opened the door and stepped into the back room, the Kriminel I recognized looked up and everything changed. His eyes lit up, he threw his arms opens in a ‘YOU’RE HERE OH MY GOD’ sort of way, and gestured insistently that I should come sit by him. I swear to all that is holy that you could smell the smoke of my brain short circuiting in that moment. Was this not the same spirit who had assaulted a rum bottle and seen fit to harm his horse minutes ago? Is he not the same spirit who prefers blood to water and wants to burn down the world? It was, but it was also my husband and my heart recognized him. All I could do was hang my head and grin like a fool. The serial killer set about to straightening out the sheet-covered banana mat so that I could sit on it with him and not be on the floor.

His gentleness was overwhelming and disarming, and it was honestly all I could do not to cry like a 12-year-old meeting his favorite rock star. Yes, he had been extremely present in my dreams for months, but having him physically next to me and being joyful about me was something that I had not expected or planned for, really. He pulled me close to him, put his arm around me, kissed me repeatedly, and blessed the ring I wear for him over and over, with repeated kisses to it and the finger it was on.

He was excited to feed me and kept pushing pork and bannann and pòmdetè at me until it was almost force-feeding. Food received from a spirit, and doubly so from a husband, is a blessing, and he was intent that I would have his blessings to the point where I had to ask him to slow down and gesticulate wildly for some water while I gagged on the sheer volume of food that he was trying to shove down my throat. I fed him, too, and we both accepted food from the other Kriminels, meant as blessing and recognition in it’s own way. He was excited and happy and insistent that I not move one inch from him, and it was time-out-of-time while I was next to him. I have no idea how long he was there holding me to him, but it was truly a perfect moment and an unimaginable blessing

It’s hard to explain the significance of this. It looks so bland on the page. I can’t put into words what unfolded right then, but it was a moment that I truly understood how my spirits love me and it broke my heart open in new ways. To see the throat-slitter, the basin de san, the husband who can never be given a blade, and the one who I must say ‘no’ to when he goes to eat the bottle he is given to drink out of while we enjoy what amounts to a wedding feast choose to see through his madness to embrace me and what I mean to him and he means to me was astounding, undoing, and awesome in the truest sense of the world.

This was moment when the mystery of maryaj lwa began to really began to unfold itself for me. I find myself understanding why I have continually come back to mystical marriage as it plays out in the Catholic church. There are pieces of the initiation-ceremony that marries a nun to Christ or a monk to the Church that talk about preparing a table for the bridegroom and the bridegroom preparing a table for his spouse, and that slammed on my head in a big way after Kriminel drew me to him. He--and all my husbands--literally set a table for me and I for them. The table for my maryaj was filled with the foods the spirits eat, and each of them fed me from it and I fed them. Kriminel insisted I, his husband, eat what was made for him which is a sacrifice, since he himself will not eat it. They strengthen me by giving me what was made for them, in a gift of survival and sacrifice in a religion and culture where food is literally a life and death subject.

The liturgy of divine marriage in the Church also speaks of the monastic--usually a nun--creating and tending a temple in their heart for their divine spouse, and that suddenly made sense. My lwa have spent years now worming their way into my head, heart, and soul, but the act of maryaj lwa really cemented how that manifests for me. In maryaj, the spirits ask for things that purposefully set us aside for them, in specific ways, and create space to grow a relationship in a different direction. Having the first physical interaction with a spirit I married come after that put down roots in a brand new way--I have never known Kriminel in any other way besides the suitor and husband, and this basically ripped a space open in my heart and shoved a temple in there. With that in mind, he is dizzying and compelling and PRESENT.

I understand more of what mystics mean when they talk about the presence of their divine spouses. My husbands--even the ones I have known for years--are much closer now than they were previously. I don’t even have to reach out to find them, they are just there. They speak more clearly now, since they essentially have a pulpit in my heart, and they show themselves to me more and more.

My orientation towards the world finds my spirits everywhere, from the homeless man on the street to the bus rumbling down the highway to the hurricane that destroys and floods, but I find them even more specifically now. One is the basin of fresh, cool water, another is in the belt that goes around my waist. Kriminel, for some reason, is in the needle and testosterone that gives me ease of living. It took me awhile to ascertain why he asked me for maryaj, but as I continue to grow in my understanding of him I understand on a bone-deep level why and how. It’s in this deeply personal expression that I hear his laughter. I have known you since before you knew my name. I have watched.

At the same time, he embodies a profound reminder: don’t forget who I am. No matter how much love he shows me, I can only expect him to be himself which includes all of his self. Kriminel-the-husband cannot be separated from Kriminel-the-murderer, Kriminel-the-embodiment-of-insanity, Kriminal-the-executioner, Kriminel-basin-de-san, Kriminel-who-roars-thunder. As much as he presents me with love, he also presents me with those things and reminds me that, if I am to love him truly, I have to accept all of that. Kriminel, like all spirits, is a package deal.

And, should I betray my husband, I will find myself with his dagger in my heart, between my shoulder blades, slitting my throat. He will kill me, because he can and because it will make the most sense to him. The hand that holds is the hand that dismembers. Don’t forget who I am. Don’t run, I’ll find you anywhere.

Here I am, blessed beyond all conception and previous belief. Who am I to be so lucky? I am just a broken human, a tiny priest, and they give me more than I possibly deserve with no requirement but that I love them in return and uphold the promises between us. I have done nothing to earn this, but they deliver themselves and their hope for me to my door, without pretense. What can I do but do what they ask?

There are more things that tie in here, and that have shown themselves to be just as unexpected as this particular blessing, but this is long and word-y, and so there will be another post soon!

May you be as blessed as I have been.

[dfroza]

we may be wronged while in this world

but Love promises to restore, to protect our eternal heart and to make things right, eventually. there will be pure Justice done.

A point seen clear in Today’s reading of the Psalms and Proverbs for Tuesday, October 29:

[Psalm 37]

A Song of Wisdom

Poetic praise, by King David

Don’t follow after the wicked ones or be jealous of their wealth.

Don’t think for a moment they’re better off than you.

They and their short-lived success

will soon shrivel up and quickly fade away

like grass clippings in the hot sun.

Keep trusting in the Lord and do what is right in his eyes.

Fix your heart on the promises of God and you will be secure,

feasting on his faithfulness.

Make God the utmost delight and pleasure of your life,

and he will provide for you what you desire the most.

Give God the right to direct your life,

and as you trust him along the way

you’ll find he pulled it off perfectly!

He will appear as your righteousness,

as sure as the dawning of a new day.

He will manifest as your justice,

as sure and strong as the noonday sun.

Quiet your heart in his presence and pray;

keep hope alive as you long for God to come through for you.

And don’t think for a moment that the wicked in their prosperity

are better off than you.

Stay away from anger and revenge.

Keep envy far from you, for it only leads you into lies.

For one day the wicked will be destroyed,

but those who trust in the Lord

will live safe and sound with blessings overflowing.

Just a little while longer and the ungodly will vanish;

you will look for them in vain.

But the humble of heart will inherit every promise

and enjoy abundant peace.

Let the wicked keep plotting against the godly

with all their sneers and arrogant jeers.

God doesn’t lose any sleep over them

and he knows their day is coming!

Evil ones take aim on the poor and helpless;

they are ready to slaughter those who do right.

But the Lord will

turn all their weapons of wickedness back on themselves,

piercing their pride-filled hearts until they are the helpless.

It is much better to have little

combined with much of God

than to have the fabulous wealth of the wicked and nothing else.

For the Lord takes care of all his forgiven ones

while the strength of the evil will surely slip away.

Day by day the Lord watches the good deeds of the godly

and he prepares for them his forever-reward.

Even in a time of disaster he will watch over them,

and they will always have more than enough

no matter what happens.

All the enemies of God will perish.

For the wicked have only a momentary value, a fading glory.

Then one day they vanish! Here today, gone tomorrow.

They break their promises, borrowing money

but never paying it back.

The good man returns what he owes with some extra besides.

The Lord’s blessed ones receive it all in the end,

but the cursed ones will be cut off

with nothing to show for themselves.

The steps of the God-pursuing ones

follow firmly in the footsteps of the Lord,

and God delights in every step they take to follow him.

If they stumble badly they will still survive,

for the Lord lifts them up with his hands.

I was once young, but now I’m old.

Not once have I found a lover of God forsaken by him,

nor have any of their children gone hungry.

Instead, I’ve found the godly ones

to be the generous ones who give freely to others.

Their children are blessed and become a blessing.

If you truly want to dwell forever in God’s presence,

forsake evil and do what is right in his eyes.

The Lord loves it when he sees us walking in his justice.

He will never desert his devoted lovers;

they will be kept forever in his faithful care.

But the descendants of the wicked will be banished.

The faithful lovers of God will inherit the earth

and enjoy every promise of God’s care,

dwelling in peace forever.

God-lovers make the best counselors.

Their words possess wisdom and are right and trustworthy.

The ways of God are in their hearts

and they won’t swerve from the paths of steadfast righteousness.

Evil ones spy on the godly ones, stalking them

to find something they could use to accuse them.

They’re out for the kill!

But God will foil all their plots.

The godly will not stand condemned when brought to trial.

So don’t be impatient for the Lord to act;

keep moving forward steadily in his ways,

and he will exalt you at the right time.

And when he does, you will possess every promise,

including your full inheritance.

You’ll watch with your own eyes

and see the wicked lose everything.

I’ve already seen this happen.

Once I saw a wicked and violent man

overpower all who were around him,

a domineering tyrant with his pride and oppressive ways.

Then he died and was forgotten.

Now no one cares that he is gone forever.

But you can tell who are the blameless and spiritually mature.

What a different story with them!

The godly ones will have a peaceful, prosperous future

with a happy ending.

Every evil sinner will be destroyed, obliterated.

They’ll be utter failures with no future!

But the Lord will be the Savior of all who love him.

Even in their time of trouble God will live in them as strength.

Because of their faith in him, their daily portion will be

a Father’s help and deliverance from evil.

This is true for all who turn to hide themselves in him!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 37 (The Passion Translation)

[Psalm 2]

The Coronation of the King

Act I – The Nations Speak

How dare the nations plan a rebellion.

Their foolish plots are futile!

Look at how the power brokers of the world

rise up to hold their summit

as the rulers scheme and confer together

against Yahweh and his Anointed King, saying:

“Let’s come together and break away from the Creator.

Once and for all let’s cast off these controlling chains

of God and his Christ!”

Act II – God Speaks

God-Enthroned merely laughs at them;

the Sovereign One mocks their madness!

Then with the fierceness of his fiery anger

he settles the issue and terrifies them to death with these words:

“I myself have poured out my King on Zion, my holy mountain.

Act III – The Son Speaks

“I will reveal the eternal purpose of God.

For he has decreed over me, ‘You are my favored Son.

And as your Father I have crowned you as my King Eternal.

Today I became your Father.

Ask me to give you the nations and I will do it,

and they shall become your legacy.

Your domain will stretch to the ends of the earth.

And you will shepherd them with unlimited authority,

crushing their rebellion as an iron rod smashes jars of clay!’ ”

Act IV – The Holy Spirit Speaks

Listen to me, all you rebel-kings

and all you upstart judges of the earth.

Learn your lesson while there’s still time.

Serve and worship the awe-inspiring God.

Recognize his greatness and bow before him,

trembling with reverence in his presence.

Fall facedown before him and kiss the Son

before his anger is roused against you.

Remember that his wrath can be quickly kindled!

But many blessings are waiting for all

who turn aside to hide themselves in him!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 2 (The Passion Translation)

to be continued with wisdom from chapter 29 of the book of Proverbs for October 29:

A godly leader who values justice

is a great strength and example to the people.

But the one who sells his influence for money

tears down what is right.

Flattery can often be used as a trap to hide ulterior motives

and take advantage of you.

The wicked always have a trap laid for others,

but the lovers of God escape as they sing and shout

in joyous triumph!

[You Can’t Argue with a Fool]

Arrogant cynics love to pick fights,

but the humble and wise love to pursue peace.

There’s no use arguing with a fool,

for his ranting and raving prevent you from making a case

and settling the argument in a calm way.

Violent men hate those with integrity,

but the lovers of God esteem those who are holy.

You can recognize fools by the way

they give full vent to their rage

and let their words fly!

But the wise bite their tongue and hold back all they could say.

When leaders listen to false accusations,

their associates become scoundrels.

When there is no clear prophetic vision,

people quickly wander astray.

But when you follow the revelation of the word,

heaven’s bliss fills your soul.

There’s only one kind of person who is worse than a fool:

the impetuous one who speaks without thinking first.

The source of strife is found in an angry heart,

for sin surrounds the life of a furious man.

Lift yourself up with pride and you will soon be brought low,

but a meek and humble spirit will add to your honor.

You are your own worst enemy when you partner with a thief,

for a curse of guilt will come upon you

when you fail to report a crime.

Fear and intimidation is a trap that holds you back.

But when you place your confidence in the Lord,

you will be seated in the high place.

Everyone curries favor with leaders.

But God is the judge, and

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 29:4–6, 8-12, 18, 20, 22-26 (The Passion Translation)

and to close out with a sign of rebirth (of resurrection) and restoration from chapter 37 of Ezekiel:

The Eternal had a hold on me, and I couldn’t escape it. The divine wind of the Eternal One picked me up and set me down in the middle of the valley, but this time it was full of bones. God led me through the bones. There were piles of bones everywhere in the valley—dry bones left unburied.

Eternal One (to Ezekiel): Son of man, do you think these bones can live?

Ezekiel: Eternal Lord, certainly You know the answer better than I do.

Eternal One: Actually, I do. Prophesy to these bones. Tell them to listen to what the Eternal Lord says to them: “Dry bones, I will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive. I will attach muscles and tendons to you, cause flesh to grow over them, and cover you with skin. I will breathe breath into you, and you will come alive. After this happens, you will know that I am the Eternal.”

So I did what God told me to do: I prophesied to the bones. As I was speaking, I heard a loud noise—a rattling sound—and all the bones began to come together and form complete skeletons. I watched and saw muscles and tendons attach to the bones, flesh grow over them, and skin wrap itself around the reforming bodies. But there was still no breath in them.

Eternal One: Prophesy to the breath. Speak, son of man, and tell them what the Eternal Lord has to say: “O sweet breath, come from the four winds and breathe into these who have been killed. Make these corpses come alive.”

So I did what God told me to do: I prophesied to the breath. As I was speaking, breath invaded the lifeless. The bodies came alive and stood on their feet. I realized then I was looking at a great army.

Eternal One: Son of man, these bones are the entire community of Israel. They keep saying, “Our bones are dry now, picked clean by scavengers. All hope is gone. Our nation is lost.”

He told me to prophesy and tell them what He said.

Eternal One: Pay attention, My people! I am going to open your graves and bring you back to life! I will carry you straight back to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Eternal One. I will breathe My Spirit into you, and you will be alive once again. I will place you back in your own land. After that you will know I, the Eternal, have done what I said I would do.

So said the Eternal One.

The Book of Ezekiel, Chapter 37:1-14 (The Voice)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for October 29, the 37th day of Autumn and day 302 of the year:

[dreamtimesovereign]

Grand Order Dialogue For Natalie

Is done. That took way too long to finish. And I still need to do it for Natalya, Persephone, Hannibelle, and John. Why do I make these poor life choices? Anyway, the link for the page will be right here, as well as the content of the page under a read more. I hope you enjoy the fruits of my insanity!

https://dreamtimesovereign.tumblr.com/slashdialogue

Class: Ruler

True Name: Unpronounceable. She goes by Natalie Slash.

Max HP: 20,000

Max Attack: 16,000

Attribute: Beast

Traits: Weak to Enuma Elish, Sovereign, Nightmare, Dream, Cosmic Horror, Female

Card Line-up: QAABB

Active Skills:

True Name Discernment: B

Greatly decrease the NP power of enemy Servants for one turn.

Rejection of Boredom: A

Applies Invincible to self for one turn.

Midsummer Night’s Dream: Ex

Applies Madness to all enemies for three turns. Enemies with Madness act randomly and are unable to plan their actions.

God’s Resolution: A (Sealed.)

This skill is sealed off by Natalie herself.

Passive Skills:

Independent Manifestation: Ex

Increase Critical Strength by 15%. Increase Death Resist by 15%. Increase Mental Debuff Resist by 15%.

Magic Resistance: C

Increase Debuff Resist by 15%.

Noble Phantasm:

The Great Distortion: Reality Crumbles

Rank: Ex

Classification: Anti-Sanity Noble Phantasm (Arts)

Effect: Deals damage to all enemies, applied Madness to all enemies.

Overcharge Effect: Increases the duration of Madness.

Biography

Default:

A being of unknown origin and unknown species. From what one can gather she identifies as female and claims to be a sentient mass hallucination. Although, could something like this possibly be true?

Bond 1:

Height: Unknown

Source: Unknown

Origin: Unknown

Gender: Female

The fact that so much of her basic information is unknown is something which even Natalie herself is disturbed by.

Bond 2:

Although she is aligned with the Chaotic Neutral alignment, this is based off of observations of her actions. She advises against attempts to read her mind because “Not only is it a violation of privacy, but your sanity points would drop to zero in a fraction of a second.”

It is possible for her to perform great miracles of mercy as well as horrific acts of cruelty. To Natalie, both are fundamentally equal. She sees no problem with saving somebody and then immediately murdering another for her amusement. Both satiate her boredom, which seems to matter to her quite a bit…

Bond 3:

Natalie makes it no secret that she wishes for a physical body. This is because of the issues which she has with her own existence. Because she lacks physical matter, she can be considered by some to not be real. So Natalie is a self-aware existence which must constantly question whether or not she actually does exist. For her, it is absolute torture.

She may be an exceptionally powerful being, but she is also deeply flawed and just as vulnerable to horrible thoughts as the rest of us if not more so. She just wants to prove beyond a doubts that she is real. The very reason why she tries to avoid boredom at all cost is so that she won’t have to question her very existence. At her heart, she just wants to be happy, but even Natalie herself may not even understand that.

An eldritch horror that paradoxically desires to be like the beings inferior to her.

Natalie Slash.

Bond 4:

True Name Discernment: B

Even if Natalie was not summoned as a Ruler, she would still have access to this Skill through her ability to read the minds of others. As she is the ruler of the Dreamlands, she is always present, although in the background, in the minds of all of sentient life. This makes it simple to decipher the identities of those she must do battle with.

Rejection of Boredom: A

Natalie is adamant in her desire to avoid boredom. So much so that she will refuse to accept a conclusion which is unsatisfying. Having her fun cut short would be much too boring after all right?

Midsummer Night’s Dream: Ex

Natalie is an expert at driving mortal minds insane. It is one of her most treasured pastimes and an easy way for her to avoid boredom. She has absolutely mastered the art of breaking the mortal mind. A skill more befitting of a Cosmic Horror rather than a Heroic Spirit, as Natalie can be considered a Cosmic Horror, and because of its’ use within her legends, she has access to this ability.

God’s Resolution: A (Sealed.)

This skill is sealed off by Natalie herself. She believes that this is much too broken, and would make things boring way too fast if she could just use Command Spells on every Servant which she came across. And so to limit herself, she sealed away this ability. It can be reactivated by the use of a Command Spell, but doing so would most certainly earn the scorn of the Cosmic Horror.

Bond 5:

The Great Distortion: Reality Crumbles

A Noble Phantasm befitting of a Beast or a Cosmic Horror. When active, all of the hallucinations which it produces make it impossible to tell what is and is not real anymore. Nobody knows if this Noble Phantasm truly even has an ending. It may be perpetual.

Natalie uses the deepest fears and insecurities of whoever she is fighting to cripple her opponent and drive them to madness. Because she is technically already in their mind, the information which she learns is from her victim themselves. However, if they believe false information about themselves, this is what Natalie will take as fact. If she was summoned at her full potential, this limitation would be completely ignored.

Dialogue

Summoned: The Ruler of your dreams arrives. Pleasure to meet you. This can only go well, so long as you keep me entertained that is…

Level Up: Your sacrifice is accepted.

Ascension 1: Yes, let’s give the cosmic horror even MORE power! Why that sounds like a WONDERFUL idea!

Ascension 2: W-wait, you’re still doing this? You do realize this is just going to make me even more of a liability right?

Ascension 3: You do realize that I could kill you at any moment right? That at any time I could just simply make your heart stop. And yet, you still continue to give me more and more power. D-do you really trust me that much?

Ascension 4: I can’t believe that you actually trust me. The amount of those who are so little… H-hey, can we please be together forever? N-no I’m not crying!

Battle

Battle Start 1: Level one, start.

Battle Start 2: Time to cut loose.

Skill 1: I think, therefore you cry.

Skill 2: Let’s make things more interesting shall we?

Attack Card 1: It’s zappy time.

Attack Card 2: Yo check this shit out.

Attack Card 3: Let’s play a game.

NP Card 1: And the Abyss stares back.

NP Card 2: I’m real… I’M REAL!!!!

Attack 1: Have some of this!

Attack 2: Fight me!

Attack 3: How about no?

Extra Attack: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

Noble Phantasm: What is really reality? What is truly fantasy? What does any of it matter anymore?

Good night.

THE GREAT DISTORTION!!!!!!!!

NP Damage: HOW?!?!

Normal Damage: Tch!

Defeated 1: I’ll be back… You can count on that…

Defeated 2: I’ll see you in your nightmares…

Battle Finish 1: As expected.

Battle Finish 2: Did you see that?! That was hilarious!!!!

My Room

Dialogue 1: My origin? Not even I know that. It’s a bit of a touchy subject though, so can we please talk about something else?

Dialogue 2: Hey! What kind of things do you like? Tell me! I can make you have the sweetest dream if you just let me know!

Dialogue 3: Oh Master~! If you feel like joining the fight yourself I have just the thing! It’s my grimoire, the Tome of Slash! Reading it will grant you untold magical power! The only price is your sanity, but you summoned me so that isn’t an issue to you right?

Dialogue 4 (if you have Kiara): You know… I could be summoned as a Beast too… WaNt To SeE tHaT mAsTeR?

Dialogue 5 (if you have Dantes): …Just so you know I would wear the shit out of the Count’s outfit if I had the chance. When I get my body he better watch out because I’m raiding his wardrobe and never giving it back.

Something you like: Oh I like anything that’s interesting. Things like, music, animals, watching the life fade out of a man’s eyes, helping overthrow corrupt governments are all pretty fun and entertaining. You know what I mean?

Something you hate: Boredom… When my mind wanders I… Master, say something. Anything. I can’t stay on this topic for long. Please!

About the Holy Grail: I want a physical body. I currently only have two senses, sight and hearing. But I want to feel the world, smell the world, taste the world like you do Master. I just want to be more like you.

Then nobody could say that I’m not real anymore.

Event: So then, how are we going to win this contest? Or do you want me to plan it? I promise it won’t involve genocide. … At least this time…

Birthday: I don’t understand the cause of celebration. This day is just a reminder of your own mortality is it not? Even so, happy birthday. I may not get it, but if it makes you happy then it’s fine regardless.

Bond Dialogue

Bond 1: Please don’t try to understand me too much. That’s hard. If you just accept me the way I am things will go a lot smoother.

Bond 2: All this time and you haven’t tried to banish me? I respect your openness to beings outside of your mortal understanding Master. Perhaps we can be friends?

Bond 3: Hey, friend. I just want you to know how much I appreciate you taking me to these far-away places. It’s really entertaining!

Bond 4: You’ve done so much for me friend. It’s honestly heartwarming… H-hey… Do you believe in me?

Bond 5: If I believe in you, and you believe in me, then that means I believe in myself right? If that’s the case, then I really am real! Master… No, my best friend, thank you for everything that you’ve done for me. I’m actually crying with how much this means to me. Let’s be together forever bestie!

[an-anaemic-pen]

Project Phoenix Chapter 13

The Week Without A God of Mischief

The Manifestation || The Power Play || The Green-Eyed Fly || The Middle of The Night || The Alternative || The Attic || The House || The God of Mischief || The Kill || The Night || The Collar || The Training

Summary: Kate’s a normal teenage Midgardian girl; except there’s a Loki in her attic, and now S.H.I.E.L.D.’s after her, and also, she has powers. Apparently, she’s meant to save the world.

She just wanted to finish school and maybe fall in love—at least she’s accomplishing one of those.

Relationships: Gen, F/M (Loki/Original Female Character)

Rating: M (Graphic Depictions of Violence, Underage if you squint bit—nothing occurs while characters are underage, Sexual Content)

Mood: My Freedom, Miracles

SUNDAY, JUNE 10TH

Today was... *interesting.* Church was normal, singing, a sermon, then I sat in the car for a little while—the usual. Except, Loki (I think he might just be who he says he is), decided to tag along. He put, I’ll be totally honest, a collar on me. Yes, a collar (I’m underlining cause it’s just that dang important).

I pretended to lose my voice—it’s ironic that I was lying to people at church—so I didn’t have to talk or sing to people. I did that because Loki decided it would be hilarious to make the collar shock me whenever I spoke. He showed me more mind tricks today and also thought it would be hilarious to sit on my lap. Might I mention how heavy Asgardian/Frost Giants are? Like *dang,* they’re HEAVY. It's probably some sort of cell density thingy that I'm too lazy to think of at the moment. I can't ask him about it either, because he left while I was sleeping like some sort of thief in the night.

Anyway, he sat in my lap and wouldn’t get himself off, even after he actually broke my legs, until I somehow cast a spell or something. Thankfully, he fixed my legs.

Turns out I have powers. I mean, cool cool and all, but then he just ghosted me. He showed me how to use my apparent ice powers, but I can’t do it without him helping me with *his* powers. His magic feels weird, and I’ll leave it at that because the rest of the sentence I was about to write sounded wrong.

I’m still mad he actually killed a dude over me, but my heart rate has stopped spiking when my phone goes off, so that’s good. I don’t think I forgot anything else, so I’ll leave it there.

MONDAY, JUNE 11TH

The countdown until the last day of school is so aggravating. I swear, sophomore-itis is a thing. A couple of my teachers are just letting us chill out as long as we’re quiet while Mr. Machley is doing everything in his power to squeeze the life out our few surviving brain cells.

I had a dream about Loki last night. He was the weird-real Loki from mythology. Which, lemme say, that’s a religious breakdown. I spent most of 3rd period staring out the window at the rain and figuring that out. I won’t go into detail because this journal’s on its last page and I don’t think I have enough space, but long-story-short, internal screaming.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure the dream was the memory he showed me. Except, I was in my point of view. I’m not sure whether that’s dormant memories waking up or something, or just my brain being too uncreative to think of something original—most likely the latter.

Leanna said she’s gonna be coming back from Virginia soon, so we’ll get to hang out with her for a little while before she starts the fall semester. I can’t believe she’s already a junior and she’s got a boyfriend who’s pretty serious, too. I may-or-may-not ship them a little too hard. From what she’s told me, he’s great.

I’m not sure whether or not I’m gonna at least allude to Loki or not in conversation. He said he was gonna be back on Saturday, so I’m half counting the days down, half dreading it. He’s a piece of work and he’s got the upper hand with the stupid collar trick-thingy. Either way, Leanna would be a huge help with figuring out my Norse god problem, but, ya know, *Norse god.* That doesn’t exactly sit in reality.

TUESDAY, JUNE 12TH

Ayyyyy, new journal!

Also, proof Mr. Machley is trying to murder us via stress-induced brain aneurysms: the man gave us an “extra credit” assignment that was an essay, so I had to stay up after I got home from work and do that. I had to stay pretty late at the salon because someone came in late, too, so it’s currently the “wee hours of the morning” now and I’m up on caffeine and stress. While I was working, Max came to me with another nightmare. He hasn’t needed someone to comfort him from a nightmare in months, now twice in less than a week. I’d be a little worried if it wasn’t normal for 8-year-olds.

I’ve been trying to get these powers of my mine to work since Loki left the barrier-thingy up. So far, nothing, so that’s slightly annoying. Jake’s been curling up closer to me, which is nice. Oh, on the topic of powers:

My hair is changing color.

That’s unnerving. I noticed a nice, solid, paper-thin line of my roots growing in stark white. I don’t know what I’m going to do with that, probably try to hide it with an enchantment, because I can do Jedi mind tricks without Loki here.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13TH

So, I tried to fix my hair.

Long-story-short, it didn’t work, and now all my hair is white.

Loki’s gonna kill me.

I was able to lie my way out of it by saying I’d gotten it done at the salon after my shift (thank the Lord Almighty I worked yesterday) and paid for it out of my paycheck, which I also happened to get that night.

Besides that, today was the second-to-last day of school. Calvin decided he was going to ask me out during 3rd period, so he did. If I didn’t have a God of Mischief most likely watching over my every move and probably planning to claim me as his wife once I turn 18, I’d be chill.

But, ya know, I *do* have a God of Mischief most likely watching over my every move and probably planning to claim me as his wife once I turn 18. Holy crap that’s something to digest.

THURSDAY, JUNE 14TH

Hallelujia, I’m officially a rising junior! I also told Calvin I’m on the fence about going on a date. Hopefully, that’ll be enough to hold the dude off. He gave me his number and told me to text him when I make my decision. Most classes either let us hang out or had a movie on. Mr. Machley had us hand in the essay. He apparently changed his mind and it was a required assignment, and he apparently sent out an email about it (no, he didn’t), so thank God I did it.

School let out early, so I got home before lunch and passed out on the couch for a few hours. Napping is wonderful.

Also, I started working out. Might I say, running a mile is tiring? I’m pretty sure I sweat out most of my body’s water weight—not that I have all that much, I don’t really drink enough water.

Max had another nightmare. At some point, he snuck in my room. I found him curled up with Jake at my feet. Either the kid’s a ninja, or I was just *sound* asleep.

We had the neighbors over for a celebratory dinner, so I got to know the daughter, Sarah, a bit better. She’s really nice, although isn’t everyone when you invite them over for dinner? She really liked my hair and ended up doing a really intricate design that I still have up. It’s like braids, but also twists and she somehow got a few dandelions from outside weaved in. I wonder if Loki sees women with hair like this?

It’s a little longer than before I *enchanted* it, and so far, nobody has noticed the giant chunks of hair in my bedroom trashcan (they’re well-covered by crumpled paper and tissues). I’d imagine it’s about the same length as Asgardian women’s if what survives of Viking culture on the internet is anything to go off of.

FRIDAY, JUNE 15TH

I didn’t really do all that much today. Max and I played more LEGO Star Wars and then I fell asleep with Mars on my chest. I actually wanted to get up, but she was so adorable I couldn’t, so I just fell asleep instead.

Running is getting a little easier. My legs still feel a little weak, but I’ll adjust.

I haven’t tried any magic since my last attempt, which is probably for the best. All I’ve done so far was test my limits on how far I can cast my mind. When sitting out in the backyard, I can feel most of it. Around the fenceline is a little fuzzy, but I can feel all the bugs and little critters in the trees.

They all have varying minds. When I cough, I could feel a primal spike of fear in the birds, but the bees don’t seem to care about my existence. Hopefully, I can get over my fear of them knowing this. I might go to the zoo at some point soon. It would be so cool feeling all the animals around me.The Manifestation || The Power Play || The Green-Eyed Fly || The Middle of The Night || The Alternative || The Attic || The House || The God of Mischief || The Kill  || The Night || The Collar || The TrainingThe Manifestation || The Power Play || The Green-Eyed Fly || The Middle of The Night || The Alternative || The Attic || The House || The God of Mischief || The Kill  || The Night || The Collar || The Training

[pixelgrotto]

Animated bloody tears 

Through some unforeseen miracle of black magic, we now have a Castlevania animated series on Netflix. It debuted three days ago, and despite getting less promotion than I would’ve liked, Castlevania is finally once again getting some much-deserved mainstream attention in this day and age. 

I’m the biggest Castlevania nerd I know. I designed a whole series of Hero Forge minis based off of the Belmonts and their buddies and I even credit the franchise with helping me get over my childhood fear of vampires. So even though I barely watch new TV shows, as a former kid who used to visit Mr. P’s Castlevania Realm and The Castlevania Dungeon on a daily basis, I had to check this out. And happily enough, I thought it was great. Most of all, I’m astounded that this finally got made at all, because the original script, by comic book dude Warren Ellis (he's written some good Iron Man stuff) is a relic that was originally supposed to be for a live-action film and got stuck in development hell ten years ago. Just look at this Bleeding Cool article revealing one of Ellis’ production blogs from 2007, complete with ancient concept art. 

Usually scripts are trapped in dev hell for a reason, and I can recall reading a leaked version of the “goat fucking” dialogue referenced in that Bleeding Cool piece back when I was in high school. The whole thing made me think, “Jeez, it’s probably for the best that Castlevania never becomes a movie.” But wouldn’t ya know, over a decade later, they decided to subvert my predictions by resisting the urge to churn out another crappy video game film adaptation. Instead, they made a cartoon, and will wonders never cease - the goat fucking bit is still there, right at the end of episode one, and it’s actually funny.

So yeah, Castlevania the series ended up exceeding my expectations, largely due to a few smart choices. First of all, the animation, while occasionally stiff (which is par the course for most digital animation these days), reminds me of 1980s anime, and considering that the 1985 Vampire Hunter D movie was an inspiration for the entire Castlevania series, I feel like we’ve gone full circle. Secondly, the show retells the plot of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, which had a stunning four playable characters and a ton of storytelling potential that couldn’t be fully communicated due to the limitations of the NES. This meant that Warren Ellis had some room for creativity in retelling the tale of Trevor Belmont, and he does a fine job of making the dude into a sarcastic, weary undead-killing exile. But Ellis and the show’s other creators were also smart enough to know that Symphony of the Night is everyone’s favorite Castlevania, and so we’ve got some lore cherry-picked from there as well. This includes backstory on Lisa, one of the few human women that Dracula’s loved, as well as characterization for fan-favorite dhampir son Alucard, who looks just like his Symphony design, minus the cape.  Speaking of Alucard’s design, the series really does a nice job of pulling the fanservice card with these little touches that make it seem like the folks in charge were actual Castlevania fans, which often isn’t the case with video game adaptations. It begins with Dracula literally crying bloody tears in the first episode (God, I loved that), goes on to Trevor’s usage of his in-game arsenal of whip, dagger, axe and holy water, and ends with a fight between two characters that I won’t spoil but is rad, because it’s exactly what anyone who played Castlevania III or Symphony of the Night might’ve imagined. 

Of course, not everything’s perfect, and the biggest issue I have is that the whole “season” is only four episodes. That ain’t a season, that’s a teaser, and when thinking back to the fact that Warren Ellis’ original script was for a feature-length film, its obvious that this was made as one big movie and then chopped into four bite-sized bits, probably because the bastards at Netflix (who cancelled season 2 of The Get Down, argh) didn’t wanna commit. But hey, they’ve since ordered eight new episodes, and hopefully in the next batch we’ll see more varied monster designs. (Sadly, if that Bleeding Cool article is any indication, it seems like we won’t see Grant DaNasty, the other playable character of Castlevania III. Seems like he’s going to remain absent in lieu of more focus on Sypha Belnades and Alucard, which is understandable but still kinda sucks.) 

Finally, the show’s music is forgettable as hell, which is a shame when Castlevania is a series known for its superb tunes. Castlevania III in particular had an astounding playlist, especially in the Japanese version, which utilized a special sound chip to create extra channels and manifest some truly badass chiptune tracks. I’m not expecting a major musical change in season two, but hey...I’d love to hear at least some hint of “Vampire Killer” in the soundtrack. These are minor complaints in the grand scheme of things, though. For now, I’m just happy that we have a solid adaptation of Castlevania that takes the source material seriously, and I’m looking forward to watching more. You should check it out, even if you haven’t played any of the games. And you should also steer clear of the people on message boards who are whining about how the show is bad because there’s too much cussing and violence, as well as the bozos who are out in full force claiming that the Japanese dub is better. I suppose I can understand the violence, since not everyone wants to see Trevor whipping a guy’s eye out. But the language thing is some pure weaboo bullshit, because even though the Japanese dub is fine, this was produced in English first and features a great performance by Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont.  Argh, I seriously cannot stand people on anime message boards. I’m so glad I’m past the middle school stage of my life when all I did was argue with them. Now I’m more mature, and argue with people on video game forums instead. Yeaaaah. 

Images from the show taken from the Netflix site and screencapped by yours truly! Castlevania III screenshots from Gamefaqs and Legends of Localization.